Warhammer Online: Exclusive Interview #9

In our latest set of questions and answers from EA Mythic's Warhammer Online development team, we learn about tactics, speed, storage, public quests and much more. As usual, the questions are answered by members of the WAR Community Team.

WarCry: In the recent combat podcast we were told that you can switch out Tactics between fights, and that you can have seven active at one time, how many will you have to switch between once you are level 40?

WAR Community Team: As a refresher:

You have seven Tactics slots. Four hold Tactics you earn through career advancement, two hold Tactics you earn via Renown (RvR) and one holds a Tactic you earn from quests (PvE).

For Career Tactics, the total available will vary by career, but is generally between 15 and 20 (out of 30 to 40 available). The other systems are still being tweaked, but the numbers will be comparable when scaled for the available slots.

WarCry: Are their any speed buff, or classes that increase speed like the Minstrel in DAOC?

WAR Community Team: All players have a default sprint ability which allows a short period of increased speed at the expense of your action points, in addition several classes also get an enhanced sprint which uses fewer action points and allows you to run faster than the standard sprint.

WarCry: What options will players have to store their excess equipment? Will we have bank boxes, extra back packs we can carry?

WAR Community Team: Vaults, banks, bags, etc. All of these mechanisms will all be available.

WarCry: We have been told that new Tactics open up at each new Tier. So at level 11, I will have access to Tactics I didn't have access to at level 5. Can I not buy any Tactics till level 11 then, or must you spend them when you get them?

WAR Community Team: Yes, you can save tactic points for later use.

WarCry: How can players complete a Public Quest if there aren't other players around to help? If a public quest gets progressively harder, how does it reset if no one is there to complete it?

WAR Community Team: Public Quests are intended to be completed by more than one player. Each stage is on a timer, if the players cannot complete a stage before the timer runs out the entire Public Quest will restart from stage one after a few minutes.

WarCry: Can you explain how stuns and mezzes will work in game? Are they AOE, single target, or ground target?

WAR Community Team: They're not limited to one application, so you'll see some of each of those. There is, however, a system of diminishing returns built into ANY movement-affecting abilities that leads to (short term) immunity to further stuns, roots or mezzes for a given target.

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I hope stuns and such wont be as terrible as they are in WoW

No they already said they will be short and diminishing returns pile up quickly. Also, they mentioned that there won't be any AoE spell that can effect HUGE groups. So unlike DAoC mez you won't be able to mez that whole large group guarding the control point.

/Thanks the merciful gods

I'm so happy that they aren't going the CC route that they went with DAoC and the way WoW did. The CC of WAR will mostly be stuns and roots from the looks of things, and it will be rather small-scale and short duration. So no 72 second mezz that can hit 40 people, and no chaining CC!

CC is a great mechanic in moderation. Stunlocking and giant AoE mezzes with not target cap make NO sense. How someone conjured that up as fun is beyond my imagination.

I'd rather be killed and camped then chain CC'd any day.

P.S. I never played DAoC endgame. 72 seconds, REALLY? Whoever thought that was a good idea should be shot. You could get mezzed, eat a sandwich, bio, and smoke in that time (with practice).

Well, the longest single target is 70 seconds, 65 for the AoE and 31 seconds for the AoE instant, and then there's stuns, 11 seconds for AoE and single target, and 10 seconds for the AoE instant. And as far as I know, the AoEs had no target cap.

no there were no target caps. Its how small groups could wipe out huge groups if planned well. Nothing worse than being mezzed for so long you just watch as your entire team gets wiped out one by one.

mattlow:
no there were no target caps. Its how small groups could wipe out huge groups if planned well. Nothing worse than being mezzed for so long you just watch as your entire team gets wiped out one by one.

I would just go get something to drink or whatever if my group got hit by a mezz. Unless you have some Warriors with Det5, you're screwed, and even then, you'd be lucky to get away alive.

Chi:

mattlow:
no there were no target caps. Its how small groups could wipe out huge groups if planned well. Nothing worse than being mezzed for so long you just watch as your entire team gets wiped out one by one.

I would just go get something to drink or whatever if my group got hit by a mezz. Unless you have some Warriors with Det5, you're screwed, and even then, you'd be lucky to get away alive.

Yeah it was pretty much drink break unless someone had Det5 or group purge. I am so glad they rethought all that out for WAR.

Atomics:

Chi:

mattlow:
no there were no target caps. Its how small groups could wipe out huge groups if planned well. Nothing worse than being mezzed for so long you just watch as your entire team gets wiped out one by one.

I would just go get something to drink or whatever if my group got hit by a mezz. Unless you have some Warriors with Det5, you're screwed, and even then, you'd be lucky to get away alive.

Yeah it was pretty much drink break unless someone had Det5 or group purge. I am so glad they rethought all that out for WAR.

I KNOW THIS GUY I PLAYED TF2 WITH HIM.

We pwnt btw

ALSO: Thats a terrible idea. What were they thinking?

I had a narsty couple rounds of TF2 last night as Pyro.

Even if you purged, chances are you'd get hit with a stun immediatly. I guess they felt large-scale battles needed some large-scale CC, as long as they learn from their experiances I'm happy.

Pyro is by far my favorite TF2 Class. I tried to join a game with you last night. But as soon as it finally got all loaded up it crashed right before I got started.

But yea. CC is just terrible if it plays too big of a role. WoW is nothing but big numbers and stunlocking/fearlocking/etc. It's retarded