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Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:21 pm :: silex
Posts: 873 • Guild: Pirate Ghost Cows • Class: Zealot • Joined: 17 Feb 2006
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Mr. 6 Billion has been busy:
TTH Interview
Ten Ton Hammer: You’ve just released the Sorceresses as the Dark Elf Ranged DPS class. Many people thought that they were going to be the healing class and now speculation is raging as to what the healing class could possibly be. Any idea when we could expect that revelation to come? Any small hints you could possibly give us to drive those board discussions beyond the fervor they have now?
Josh Drescher: The Disciple of Khaine, a melee healer, was just announced in this month's newsletter. Be sure to check it out!
Ten Ton Hammer: What made you decide to bend the IP a bit and allow for Sorcerers in the game? Was it a decision based solely on how they looked or was it also driven by not limiting players to a second all female class?
Josh Drescher: It was a combination of factors. In any situation where we’ve considered restricting the gender options for a career, we’ve used the same basic process:
Does the IP demand a restriction? In the case of things like Witch Elves, for example, there was no wiggle room. They HAD to be female-exclusive. In the case of Sorceresses/Sorcerers, however, GW made it clear that there was ample room for relaxing the standard “female-only” limitations.
If the IP doesn’t demand a restriction, does it make sense in terms of the aesthetic vision AND core visual vocabulary of the game to offer both genders? In cases like the Chosen and the Marauder, we felt that it would be inappropriate for our game to try and develop female versions of these careers. We needed them both to be physically terrifying, even at low levels without any armor on. The absurd bodily proportions necessary to achieve that can work on a male model, as it simply makes them look freakishly huge and intimidating. On a female model, however, they just looked awkward and unpleasant.
So when it came to male Sorcerers, it was a situation where we had GW’s approval that the IP didn’t demand the restriction AND we were confident we could implement them in a way that looked great and maintained the core look and feel of the career
Ten Ton Hammer: Dark elves are sure to be a popular character choice in the game. One of the things that make them so interesting is their lore. Will the Witch Elf’s Cauldron of Blood be making an appearance in the game? What about the Hag Queen Morathi?
Josh Drescher: Oh yes, the Cauldron of Blood will DEFINITELY be in. In fact, it will play a key role for some Dark Elf players as the Disciples of Khaine are actually survivors of the Cauldron. As infants, at the behest of Malekith, they were thrown into the Cauldron to fuel its dark power. Unlike most sacrifices of this sort, they survived the ordeal and were raised within the Temple of Khaine as a result. They are literally marked by the experience with bronze-colored eyes and a distinct affection for all things sanguine.
As for the Hag Queen, let’s just say folks shouldn’t be too surprised if she pops up eventually.
Ten Ton Hammer: With there being two rival factions in the Dark Elf camp, Uthorin and Arkaneth, will the Dark Elves still be working towards a similar goal or will there be faction issues in the Druchii camp?
Josh Drescher: Strictly speaking, we won’t be enforcing that type of rivalry onto players. From the standpoint of lore, the Age of Reckoning is a time of extraordinary danger to all sides and numerous concessions (such as Malekith’s tolerance of rogue covens of male Sorcerers) are made by the Dark Elves to help improve their chances of victory. This would certainly include the suspension of certain factional feuds as needed. References will be made in quests and dialogue that will flesh out the political machinations of Dark Elf society, but we’ll leave it up to players to decide whether or not they want to incorporate that level of role-playing into their experience.
TenTonHammer: What has been the most difficult part of bringing the Dark Elves to life in the virtual world? What was the easiest part? How popular are they among the WAR staff?
Josh Drescher: As with most races, the toughest challenge is choosing which of the Dark Elf careers we want to use. There are so many cool options that it’s always difficult to decide what elements are going to be excluded in the initial release. As for the easiest, that would DEFINITELY be getting folks excited about working on them. Mark Jacobs wisely (but also cruelly) made us do the Dark Elves last because he knew so many of us were ridiculously excited about them and he knew we’d be relentlessly motivated by the knowledge that we’d get to work on them eventually. The crazy stuff that comes out of the artists, the designers and the content developers is a testament to the energy and enthusiasm the whole staff has for the Dark Elves.
Personally, I know that I’ll be rolling a Disciple on launch day. |
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Last edited by silex on Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:27 pm :: silex
Posts: 873 • Guild: Pirate Ghost Cows • Class: Zealot • Joined: 17 Feb 2006
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#2:
http://news.mmosite.com/content/2008-01-13/20080113220811912,1.shtml
MMOsite: First, congratulations, you've got over 500,000 players signed up for Warhammer Online. Till now, how do players perform on the battlefield? Does it require NPCs to involve in the battle in order to keep balance?
Josh Drescher: Thanks! We've VERY excited about how the fans have responded and we can't wait to get the game into their hands so they can experience what we've been building.
Warhammer Online is all about huge armies of players fighting against one another forever and ever. Our goal has always been to make that the focus of RvR whenever and wherever possible. With that being said, we have found that adding NPCs to RvR areas is useful in some places.
For example, in the persistent (non-instanced) game world, we noticed in early beta testing that players had a hard time defending battlefield objectives effectively. This was mostly because, unless people stood next to those objectives 24 hour a day, people would just wait until no one was around and then take over the unguarded objectives. To address that problem, we've added NPC guards that will defend any battlefield objective that has been claimed by either side. They're not super-powerful, but they will guarantee that you have to work to take over an objective, no matter how many players are around.
MMOsite: When a new player joins Warhammer Online, he knows little or nothing about the game. How will you help them integrate into the game quickly? Any tutorials, guide quests, or veteran players offering help to the beginners, etc?
Josh Drescher: We do a number of things to help introduce new players to Warhammer Online. First and foremost, we make sure that the starting areas help players understand that they are in the middle of a war. We don't start you out in a green field full of flowers and bunny rabbits. We start you out in the thick of the fight.
From a more mechanical standpoint, we start players out with a very basic set of abilities to help guarantee that they aren't overwhelmed when creating a new character or playing the game for the first time. As they level up, they earn access to new and more complicated abilities, but only after they've had time to master their earlier skills.
The quest progression is also designed to quickly teach you about interacting with the world. NPCs are obviously labeled, the map auto-populates with critical information like quest target area, NPC locations and quest hubs.
Finally, we have a very intuitive UI system in place that helps give players the information they need when they encounter new elements of the game. Some on-screen notices draw their attention to detailed information housed in the Tome of Knowledge, others indicate that an important event is underway in the world.
MMOsite: There are rumors saying that the next class of High Elf will be White Lion. Can you clarify on this?
Josh Drescher: Nope, sorry. The folks in Marketing will punch me in the nose if I leak that information too soon.
MMOsite: Many players hope that melee classes can have a skill like "charge" which can help them get close to the enemy rapidly. Do you have any plan on adding such sort of skill for the melee classes?
Josh Drescher: All of our melee DPS careers have the ability to "run down" an opponent. This is essentially a second "sprint" ability that they have that allows them to catch up to someone who breaks away from a fight and tries to run away. This ability differs from standard "charge" abilities in a couple of major ways.
First of all, it's not a super-fast ability that moves you forward a large distant almost instantly. It makes you faster than your target, but it doesn't teleport you over to them.
Second, you control your character's movement the whole time. Because we have player collision in WAR, we needed the melee DPS player to have control over how they move through the world. Otherwise, they'd fire off that ability and either bounce off of an enemy nearby or jump past them accidentally.
MMOsite: I have watched many Warhammer Online videos and I noticed that most of them are about melee classes. Do you think melee classes are too powerful? Will you weaken the melee classes or enhance magic classes or other classes in the future?
Josh Drescher: One of the reasons we're having such a long beta testing phase is to make sure that we get the balance of careers, abilities, etc. just right. There have definitely been cases where we've changed the overall strength of some careers or made changes to specific abilities that were direct responses to feedback from players.
Obviously, you can never promise that once the game launches you're never, ever going to change how a career or ability works, but our goal is to as close to "perfect" as we can be before launch so that players can rely on their characters continuing to function in the same way over long periods of time.
MMOsite: Can players get some rare or even unique mounts in Warhammer Online?
Josh Drescher: Unfortunately, that's another one of those top-secret Marketing issues that I can't talk about just yet. I will say this: It's DEFINITELY our goal to offer unique and special content to players in a number of different ways throughout the game.
MMOsite: Is equipment important in WAR? Do players have to raid bosses again and again in order to get a better end in RVR?
Josh Drescher: Equipment is important, but it isn't the most important factor when it comes to success in RvR.
WAR is very much a game of strategy, skill and planning. Players who pay attention and learn how to use their characters will be rewarded with success in battle. The number one thing that will determine your success or failure will be how well you know your character and how well you utilize the tools and tactics available to them in different situations. Players won't be able to find one "uber" setup that is ideal for a career in every situation. You'll need different sets of tactics, morale abilities and equipment AS WELL as the understanding of when and where to use them in order to succeed.
As for where items will come from, there will be armor sets and so forth that can only be acquired by completely certain tasks, quests, etc. Some of those will be repeatable, but many will be one-time accomplishments. The absolute best stuff will come from taking part in city siege and capture.
MMOsite: How long do you expect Warhammer to stay in beta? Any brief ideas on the release date?
Josh Drescher: We've actually retargeted the launch for quarter two of 2008, as of a few months ago. Our intention will be to stay in beta more or less right up until the game launches. Even after the artwork and systems and coding are all finished, there are ALWAYS bugs to find and fix, things to test and tweak and balancing issues to address.
Our team will keep working right on up to the launch and then for years beyond that. |
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Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:40 pm :: phantom
Posts: 586 • Guild: Dominion • Class: Marauder • Joined: 12 Jul 2007
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| Good interview thanks for the post! |
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OD'd Hasselhoff
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:23 pm :: GoatEng
Posts: 91 • Guild: Scorn • Class: Zealot • Joined: 20 Nov 2007
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| I think Josh was cleaning out his inbox and finally sent those out. There were DE questions that were a bit old. |
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Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
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Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:50 am :: silex
Posts: 873 • Guild: Pirate Ghost Cows • Class: Zealot • Joined: 17 Feb 2006
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Hah, yea, I think so too.
I like the White Lion question - "The folks in Marketing will punch me in the nose if I leak that information too soon."
So, I'll take that as a confirmation then?  |
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Conjoined Fetus Hasselhoff
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Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:04 am :: elden
Posts: 13 • • • Joined: 17 Mar 2006
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| So will this new run-down ability drain ap while its activated like normal sprinting? Does it require you to have a target to use it? Depending on the re-use, melee classes could use this just to normally travel around faster. It would be extremely useful if there's no speed classes like they claim. |
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Hasselhoff with laser eye beams
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Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:12 am :: silex
Posts: 873 • Guild: Pirate Ghost Cows • Class: Zealot • Joined: 17 Feb 2006
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Not really sure. This is actually the first I've heard of the run-down abilities for tanks and melee DPS.
Sounds a lot like DAOC charge and not at all like WoW charge. |
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Firebreathing Hasselhoff
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Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:06 pm :: Regoril
Posts: 166 • • • Joined: 21 Jul 2007
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| I'm kinda glad for that, charge stuns and whatnot are annoying, I hope the melee rundown ability helps close the gap well without teleporting the char into battle. If it's as effective as regular sprint or less effective or if it drains ap so that when you catch up you can't do anything, that'd suck. |
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