WarCry Exclusive PAX Interview With Warhammer!
While at PAX this year, I got the opportunity to sit down with some of the devs of Warhammer and attempt to pry precious information out of them. I want to thank them for taking a few minutes out of a very busy schedule to talk with me. The booth was packed constantly, and yet they still were nice enough to sneak off with me for a few minutes. Thanks again!
WarCry PAX Interview: Warhammer Online
Answers by Warhammer PAX Team
Questions by Matt Lowery
WarCry: Last we heard, you had the Greenskins and Dwarves playable in the beta, and that was it. Has that expanded yet?
Warhammer PAX: There is Empire and Chaos in now. A few playable classes from Empire and Chaos are in. We are putting things in as they are needed for testing, and that's determined by our beta team.
WarCry: We hear a lot about these great public quests. Is there only one per zone, or many in each area?
Warhammer PAX: The first chapter of the game there is one public quest, each chapter after that there are 3 public quests. So there are over three hundred public quests in the game. That equals quite a few per zone. You will find public quest pretty much everywhere as you go through. You will stumble upon them everywhere, and you can then choose to participate in the public quest, or choose not to. Its not one of those things that you have to do, but it's nice to be able to stumble upon them and decide, "ahh maybe ill kill one of these guys as I pass through", and that single contribution helps the group doing the quest. You can also reap the benefits by helping in any part of the public quests.
WarCry: Public quests are designed for a lot of players working together. Are the encounters dynamic or scalable? What happens in a few months when there aren't very many players in the newbie area? Can a player then still do a public quest?
Warhammer PAX: Each public quest has multiple stages. The design behind them is that the first stage you should be able to solo it. So a player by himself can do the first stage. As you get into later stages of the public quests it requires more and more people, because the encounter becomes more and more difficult and complex. So you will still be able to participate and gain influence in public quests if you are by yourself, even if you can't complete it by yourself.
WarCry: What kind of rewards are there for public quests? What's the point of doing them over normal quests?
Warhammer PAX: You gain influence for everything you do in public quests. There are NPC hubs at the chapters of the quests that sometimes they share influence over a few chapters, sometimes its influence just for that area. You can use that influence to get item rewards, potions, and as you get towards the highest end of the influence you can get the best items.
WarCry: Can you explain a bit about how exactly the Morale system works? How do you gain it and use it?
Warhammer PAX: Being in combat. With Morale, we actually just made a major change in Morale. It's one of those things that it's almost like a living being, it's still changing a lot. It use to be where you would actually spend your Morale at different levels. So what we are doing now is giving a lot more variety to Morale abilities at different ranks. So anytime you are in combat, your Morale will be building, and then you will be able to use those Morales in your power scale. So as you are in combat longer you can use more powerful Morale abilities. So lets say your Morale bar is at 80%, and you use your 80% morale ability, you don't lose the morale, instead there is a timer before you can use the ability again. So ofcourse the more powerful the ability the longer the timer before you can use it again. So that's the current state, I don't know what it will be exactly in the end, but that's how its being done now.
WarCry: So we have seen the Orcapult working in game now, are any other siege weapons in the game yet?
Warhammer PAX: We can't really talk about that yet. However we can say that that same type of functionality is used in atleast one scenario now. So it will be fun to watch people flinging themselves through the air.
If you look close at the pictures, you will see the infamous Chicken in there! There will also be some videos and more pictures from WAR at PAX that will be posted soon!
Permalink
WarCry Exclusive PAX Interview With Warhammer!
While at PAX this year, I got the opportunity to sit down with some of the devs of Warhammer and attempt to pry precious information out of them. I want to thank them for taking a few minutes out of a very busy schedule to talk with me. The booth was packed constantly, and yet they still were nice enough to sneak off with me for a few minutes. Thanks again!
Answers by Warhammer PAX Team
Questions by Matt Lowery
WarCry: Last we heard, you had the Greenskins and Dwarves playable in the beta, and that was it. Has that expanded yet?
Warhammer PAX: There is Empire and Chaos in now. A few playable classes from Empire and Chaos are in. We are putting things in as they are needed for testing, and that's determined by our beta team.
WarCry: We hear a lot about these great public quests. Is there only one per zone, or many in each area?
Warhammer PAX: The first chapter of the game there is one public quest, each chapter after that there are 3 public quests. So there are over three hundred public quests in the game. That equals quite a few per zone. You will find public quest pretty much everywhere as you go through. You will stumble upon them everywhere, and you can then choose to participate in the public quest, or choose not to. Its not one of those things that you have to do, but it's nice to be able to stumble upon them and decide, "ahh maybe ill kill one of these guys as I pass through", and that single contribution helps the group doing the quest. You can also reap the benefits by helping in any part of the public quests.
WarCry: Public quests are designed for a lot of players working together. Are the encounters dynamic or scalable? What happens in a few months when there aren't very many players in the newbie area? Can a player then still do a public quest?
Warhammer PAX: Each public quest has multiple stages. The design behind them is that the first stage you should be able to solo it. So a player by himself can do the first stage. As you get into later stages of the public quests it requires more and more people, because the encounter becomes more and more difficult and complex. So you will still be able to participate and gain influence in public quests if you are by yourself, even if you can't complete it by yourself.
WarCry: What kind of rewards are there for public quests? What's the point of doing them over normal quests?
Warhammer PAX: You gain influence for everything you do in public quests. There are NPC hubs at the chapters of the quests that sometimes they share influence over a few chapters, sometimes its influence just for that area. You can use that influence to get item rewards, potions, and as you get towards the highest end of the influence you can get the best items.
WarCry: Can you explain a bit about how exactly the Morale system works? How do you gain it and use it?
Warhammer PAX: Being in combat. With Morale, we actually just made a major change in Morale. It's one of those things that it's almost like a living being, it's still changing a lot. It use to be where you would actually spend your Morale at different levels. So what we are doing now is giving a lot more variety to Morale abilities at different ranks. So anytime you are in combat, your Morale will be building, and then you will be able to use those Morales in your power scale. So as you are in combat longer you can use more powerful Morale abilities. So lets say your Morale bar is at 80%, and you use your 80% morale ability, you don't lose the morale, instead there is a timer before you can use the ability again. So ofcourse the more powerful the ability the longer the timer before you can use it again. So that's the current state, I don't know what it will be exactly in the end, but that's how its being done now.
WarCry: So we have seen the Orcapult working in game now, are any other siege weapons in the game yet?
Warhammer PAX: We can't really talk about that yet. However we can say that that same type of functionality is used in atleast one scenario now. So it will be fun to watch people flinging themselves through the air.
If you look close at the pictures, you will see the infamous Chicken in there! There will also be some videos and more pictures from WAR at PAX that will be posted soon!
Permalink