Warhammer Online General FAQ

Rampager · Site Admin Joined: 10 May 2004 Posts: 51

General introduction

Q. Who is Mythic Entertainment?
A. Founded in 1995, Mythic has been one of the leaders in developing pay-for-play online games and is currently one of the most successful developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games.

Q. What games has Mythic done prior to this?
A. Mythic has created over fifteen games and expansion packs. Our older titles include some of the most popular online-only games of their time including Spellbinder: The Nexus Conflict, Aliens Online, Starship Troopers: Battlespace, Silent Death Online, Rolemaster: Magestorm, Darkness Falls, Darkness Falls: The Crusade, Splatterball, Godzilla Online and Dragon's Gate. Their most famous product is Dark Age of Camelot which has been one of the leading MMORPGs in the world since its release in 2001.

Q. Who is Games Workshop?
A. Games Workshop is a UK based miniature wargame company, best known for its successful tabletop games: Warhammer, and it's sci-fi equivalent Warhammer 40,000. As well as these, Games Workshop produces Warcry, a collectible card game, the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, publishes fiction through the Black Library, and has a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system developed by Black Industries.

Q. What is a MMORPG?
A MMORPG is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game in which tens of thousands of people can adventure together or separately in worlds that are created by a game company. The most successful MMORPGs (including Dark Age of Camelot ) to date have several hundred thousand monthly subscribers. These type of games are created by teams that can range in size from forty developers to over a hundred developers. These games can cost over ten million to produce a AAA title and some games currently in development, are rumored to cost many times that.

Q. What makes a MMORPG different from a RPG?
Well, besides the fact that tens of thousands of people can play this type of game at the same time and interact with each other, the biggest difference is that MMORPGs can be constantly updated with new content and challenges for the player. In the case of Dark Age of Camelot , Mythic creates new content and improvements for the game on a monthly basis. We have provided more downloadable content to the player as part of their subscription fee, than any other MMORPG that we are aware of in this industry. Throw in three retail expansions as well as a fourth coming out late 2005, and you have a game that in the four years since its release has increased dramatically in size, scope and features. You can't get that kind of support from a non-MMORPG.

Q. Will there be a subscription fee to play this game?
A. Yes. Given the expense of creating tie game, maintaining the customer service system (in-game, phone and email) and creating new content, the only way for a company to justify these expenses is with a monthly subscription fee. However, when you look at the monthly fee (usually $10-$16USD) that a player pays to access the content almost 24x7, there are few entertainment values that can top that. Basically, for the price of one movie ticket in NYC, a small soda and a small cup of popcorn you have access to an ever-changing and growing world on demand (minus short downtimes for server or software upgrades).

Q. Will Mythic offer timecards or gamecards instead of credit cards for payment?
A. Mythic currently doesn't offer game cards for their existing games, however they are currently reconsidering offering them as an option. Whether or not this will come to reality has yet to be announced.

Q. Is this the same Warhammer MMORPG I have heard about in the past from another developer?
A. No. That game has ceased development and the developer has moved on to other projects. This will be a next-generation MMORPG that will serve as the standard bearer for both Mythic and Games Workshop.

Q. What rating will Warhammer Online be rated?
A. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be rated Teen.

Q. Which platforms will WAR be released on?
A. WAR will only be released for the PC at launch, but Mythic haven't ruled out developing WAR for other platforms in the future.

Q. Do I need to be familiar with the Warhammer Fantasy Battles or Fantasy Roleplay games in order to play the MMO?
While our game is set firmly in the Warhammer world, you do NOT need to be familiar with the existing games in order to enjoy the MMO. We will provide you with all of the background information you will need to comprehend the setting and storyline, and become familiar with the various races and characters in the game, If you are interested in learning more about Warhammer.

Q. Can you point me to the game's official forum?
Mythic does not run its own forums, but we strongly support the efforts of the community and their many forums and fan sites. We will regularly check-in with these sites to share news and information about the development process, and hear from the community regarding their hopes and desires for the game.

Q. When will this game be available to the public?
We are planning on a 2007 release of the game.

Q. How can I get into the beta test?
Check the Beta FAQ: http://www.warhammerforums.com/topic1719.html

World Setting & Theme

Q. Will WAR be based on the Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40,000 universe?
A. WAR will deal solely with the world of Warhammer Fantasy.

Q. How many sides are there?
A. There are two opposing sides: the Alliance of Order and the Alliance of Destruction. Each side consists of 3 separate armies; Imperial Humans, High Elfs and Dwarfs vs. Chaos Humans, Dark Elfs, and Greenskins. Each army has its own capital and starting location.

Q. Which geographical areas of the world will be included?
A. The game will take place in three main areas of conflict. Greenskins and Dwarfs will be fighting over the Badlands and the Worlds Edge Mountains, the Elven races will be fighting over the island of Ulthuan, and the Empire and the forces of Chaos will be fighting over the lands of the Empire. The exact extent of each area is unknown.

Q. How many zones will the game world be divided up into?
A. Each of the three areas of conflict will be divided into 11 zones (making 33 zones in total at launch), with four tiered levels. Each tier will have two zones, one per army, with a zone for each of the capital cities connected to the tier 4 zones. There will also be a central neutral zone shared between both sides, accessible from tier 3 and 4 zones.

Q. Will any Warhammer special characters appear in WAR?
A. Yes. So far the following characters are involved in the events surrounding the game: Emperor Karl Franz, the Phoenix King Finubar, High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer, Lord Malekith, Morathi, Tyrion and Teclis. The Greenskin army will be led by the previously unknown characters Gazbag (a Goblin shaman) and Grumlok (an Orc warboss). There is also a currently unnamed Champion of Tzeentch leading the Chaos army. Some, if not all, of these characters are likely to be encountered in the game at some point.

A. GOA has very successfully located the European servers for DAoC in one central data centre near Paris. We expect this to also deliver excellent performance for WAR to players across Europe.

Combat

Q. How will the combat system work?
A. Combat in Warhammer Online will be based around the concepts of Attacks, Tactics and Morale.

Q. What are Tactics?
A. Tactics are abilities and bonuses which are chosen before entering into a fight. Each character will have a Strategy bar with a certain amount of slots, into which the chosen Tactics are added. As characters advance they can increase the number of slots on their Strategy bar and gain new Tactics. Different tactics may use a different amount of slots in their strategy bar.

Q. Give an example of a Tactic?
A. For example, if you know you're going to be fighting Dwarfs you might prepare a tactic beforehand that gives you a little boost to damage versus stunties. If you know you're going to be fighting a huge, highly offensive Giant you might use a tactic that lessens the damage you take or raises your defense.

Q. What is Morale?
A. Morale skills are learned as characters advance according to their career. Once a fight has started a character's Morale meter starts to fill up if they are fighting well or if their group is fighting well. Morale can also decrease for losing fights. Morale skills have five ability levels, with each level providing an ability of increasing power. As the morale meter fills up, players can choose to use their lower level morale abilities (which resets the meter), or wait for the meter to increase further so that the more powerful abilities can be used.

Q. Will characters be able to take part in mounted combat?
A. Certain careers (e.g. Knights) may possibly gain the ability to fight from horseback. Very little is known on the subject at this time.

Q. How will Warhammer Online machines be used?
A. Warhammer Online machines (or siege weapons) will play more of an anti-personnel role, rather than being used to destroy city walls and fortifications.

Q. What Warhammer Online machines will be in WAR?
A. The Warhammer Online machines from Warhammer Fantasy Battle are likely to be represented in WAR. For example, the Dwarf army will have access to cannons, organ guns and flame cannons. It's unknown if characters will be able to control Warhammer Online machines directly.

RvR

Q. What is RvR?
A. RvR stands for Realm versus Realm, and describes gameplay that pits players from different realms against each other. In WAR, just about everything you do will have an effect on the outcome of the RvR contest, whether it be Player vs Player (PvP) fighting, Player vs Environment (PvE) adventuring, or crafting.

Q. What types of RvR combat will there be?
A. While the entire game will revolve around the overall RvR war, the core of RvR combat will be made up of four types of encounters: skirmishes, battlefields, scenarios, and campaigns.

Q. How much PvE content will be available in Warhammer Online compared to PvP?
A. For starting characters, there will be roughly 80% PvE content to PvP content, changing to 20% PvE and 80% PvP at the highest levels. It will be possible for Warhammer Online to be played exclusively through PvE or PvP, although it is expected that players will take part in both.

Q. Will players be required to participate in PvP combat to complete the game?
A. No, a player will be able to "complete" the game via PvE content if they choose to do so. However, they will be missing what may be considered to be some of the most enjoyable aspects of the game.

Q. Will players be able to solo in the game?
A. Yes, it is Mythic's goal to make a game that is accessible to people that wish to play solo.

Q. What are skirmishes?
A. Skirmishes are where two opposing characters or small groups or whatever stumble upon each other in the middle of a PvP zone and start fighting.

Q. What are battlefields?
A. Battlefields: these are basically hotspots in a PvP area to which players will naturally be drawn. For example, there'll be a ruined Dwarf village that may have some resources that are valuable to both sides. Players will be fighting to control these resources.

Q. What are scenarios?
A. Scenarios are instanced open RvR combat. The battles here are quick, repeatable, last about five or ten minutes, and will be objective-based, using many of the basic paradigms of CTF, Deathmatch, King of the Hill, et al. The results of scenarios will detrmine who gains control of the entire zone (Skirmishes and Battlefield victories will also come into play).

Q. What are campaigns?
A. Campaigns are at the heart of the game. In the fourth tier of zones lies a capital city for each front, and the objective of campaigns is to take over the opponent's capital and kill the leader and everyone else there. Only when the zones leading up to the capital have fallen, through a combination of quests and scenarios, will it be possible to attack the city directly and capture it. Afterward the victors will retain control for some arbitrary time, say 24 hours, during which they may pillage and plunder to their hearts' content, and players defending the city may try to drive them off. After that period of time, the game rebalances, forces the attackers out of the city, and resets ownership of all the different maps, and the battle begins anew.

Q. Will the forces of Order be able to talk with the forces of Destruction?
A. Unlikely. True inter-realm communication will not be possible.

Player Characters

Q. What penalties will there be for death?
A. When you die you lose Fate points. If you have run out of Fate points you will start to accrue Insanity points which will lead to random debilitating effects and penalties. Insanity points gained will slowly decrease over time, but you will be able to remove them faster through other means such as special quests.

Q. What are fate points?
A. Fate points are like lives. Saved up they allow you to regain the battle without skill penalty or lengthy downtime.

Q. If a player dies in PvP will they lose an item?
A. There will be no loss of items for the defeated player.

Q. Will there be long corpse runs?
A. There will be no long corpse runs, ever.

Q. How can I customise the look of my avatar?
A. As well as customizing the facial and body features during the character creation process, players can add trophies to their character to represent their prowess in battle.

Race & Armies

Q. What races can we play?
A. At launch, the Alliance of Order will have playable armies for the Empire (Humans), High Elves, and Dwarves. The Alliance of Destruction will be composed of Chaos (Humans), Dark Elves, and Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins).

Q. How will the armies be paired against each other?
A. Humans of the Empire will be pitted against the Chaos Humans, High Elves will be taking on Dark Elves, and Dwarfs will be fighting the combined forces of Orcs and Goblins in a struggle for supremacy.

Q. Can races on the same alliance group together?
A. Yes. Dwarfs, Elves and Imperial Humans will be able to party together in the very early stages of the game. Likewise Greenskins, Dark Elves and Chaos Humans will be able to group up and fight together as well.

Q. Will female Dwarves have beards?
A. No, female Dwarves will not have beards.

Q. Will there be female-looking Orcs or Goblins?
A. No, all Greenskins will appear to be male.

Q. Will there be other playable races added later?
A. Yes, other races will be added in the future through the release of expansions to the game.

Classes & Roles

Q. What classes are there for players to choose from?
A. There will not be a traditional class system. Each player character will begin as one of two archetypes, Fighter or Adept. Fighter represents the melee classes, and Adept is for the magical and academic classes. As your character progresses you may choose future career steps either in the same direction as your original choice, to create a "pure" character, or in the direction of a different career, creating what is known as a "hybrid".

Q. Can any race become any career?
A. No. Careers are specific to each army.

Q. How many careers will each army have?
A. Each army will have four careers to choose from. So far, only the Dwarf and Greenskin careers are known. Dwarfs can choose from Hammerer, Ironbreaker, Engineer or Runepriest career paths. The four Greenskin careers are split between Orcs and goblins; Orcs can choose from "Black Orc" and "Berzerker" while Goblins can choose from Shaman and Squig Herder.

Q. What is a Dwarf Hammerer?
A. A Hammerer is a Dwarf offensive fighter capable of attacking his foes with unbridled fury. This offensive fighter is a force to be reckoned with on the battle field.

NPCs

Q. Will there be NPC fighters in WAR?
A. Yes. "Dogs of War" NPC characters will be added to the least populated side in instanced scenarios to balance the numbers taking part.

11. Quests & Interaction[/size]

Q. What kind of quests will there be?
A. Public quests, branching quests, conflict quests and Christmas quests. All quest types will be available to all players as soon as they start playing the game.

Q. What are public quests?
A. Public quests are automatically assigned when you enter an appropriate area. Where public quests are offered, they are open to all players on the same side in a zone. Anyone can choose to take part in a public quest, which will involve a number of players trying to complete a task. If successfully completed, all those who contributed to the quest will receive experience.

Q. What are conflict quests?
A. Conflict quests take place in PvP zones and involve two groups of opposing players trying to complete conflicting objectives. For example, with a quest involving wounded Dwarfs, Order players will be trying to heal them while at the same time Destruction players will be trying to kill them to collect trophies.

Q. What are branching quests?
A. Branching quests give the player choices to determine the outcome of the quest. As a basic example, when asked to retrieve an old mans sword, you could choose to keep the sword for yourself instead. Branching quests are likely to have further consequences beyond the initial quest.

Q. What are Christmas quests?
A. These quests are usually far off the beaten path, they may require little to no effort and offer huge rewards. The goal is to encourage players to branch out and explore as much of the game world as possible.

Q. How will quests be classified?
A. Quests will have three classifications, depending on how much PvP or PvE action will be involved to complete them. Green quests will be purely PvE. Orange quests will be PvE, but will require you to enter or pass through PvP areas. Red quests will all about the PvP action.

Q. How will PvP areas be seperated from PvE areas?
A. PvP areas will be clearly identified by marker stations. When leaving a PvP area, you will be given a PvP flag on a short timer, which will allow you to be attacked in PvE areas for a few seconds. Likewise, when entering PvP areas, you will stay non-PvP for a short time.

Q. Can Warhammer Online be played solo without having to group with other characters?
A. Solo play will be possible, although to get the most out of the game it?[/b]s advised that you try out group play at some point.

12. Items & Crafting[/size]

Q. Will there be crafting system?
A. Yes. In fact, this is one of the systems Mythic is aiming to make 'revolutionary'. All major crafting skills are geared to the waging of battles both on the large and small scale.

Q. Will all races be able to craft?
A. Yes, there will be crafting systems in place for all races.

13. Property & Housing[/size]

Q. Will there be housing?
A. Currently housing is not slated for release but may be implimented at a later point.

Transportation

Q. How will travel times and methods vary!as characters progress?
A. Veteran players will likely have faster means of movement than new players. However any such movement advantages should not distort RvR. That said Warhammer Online will use a variety of travel methods depending on the situation, area, and career of the player.

Q. Will characters be able to use mounts for travel?
A. Yes. It's likely that each army will have access to their own type of mount to speed up journey times.

Q. How will players find their ways around in Warhammer?
A. In-game maps, with your location blinking and marked points of interest.

Alternative Ruleset Servers

Q. Will there be a role-play server?
A. Yes, Mythic will have RP servers.

Technology

Q. Will Warhammer Online support voice chat?
A. Warhammer Online will not support voice chat. However they will not prevent people from using clients such as Ventrilo or Teamspeak, if they wish.

Q. Will Warhammer Online have collision detection?
A. Myuhic are currently considering implementing collision detection for enemy characters.

Q. Will Warhammer Online support physics processor technology?
A. Yes, Warhammer Online will include support for the AGEIA physX processor, although it will not be necessary to have one to play the game.

Warhammer Online in Europe

Q. Will Warhammer Online be released in the US and Europe at the same time?
A. Yes, Warhammer Online will be released in both the US and Europe simultaneously. This also includes future releases and expansion packs.

Q. What languages are being targeted for initial release?
A. Initially the game will support English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Q. Will European players have access to the beta?
A. There will be several stages of beta and it has yet to be decided at what stage we will localize the beta. Otherwise yes, Mythic and GOA will ensure that players from Europe and the US have access to the beta before the game launches.

Q. Will the Beta be in English only?
A. No, the later stages of the Beta will be in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It is expected that beta will include languages other than English in early 2007.

Q. Will Europe and the US receive patches at the same time?
A. Not only will the game be released in the US and Europe simultaneously but patches and expansions will also reach both groups of players at the same time.

Q. How will the European support of the game compare to tie US?
A. GOA and Mythic have a contractual obligation to collaborate and share all tools and techniques that both companies have developed over the years to ensure the same high quality of support to all US and European players.

Q. Who will handle distribution in Europe?
A. A distribution partner has yet to be selected. Mythic and GOA are working to select the best possible partner in order to ensure that the game will be readily available in every country across the EU.

Q. Who is GOA?
A. GOA is the videogames department of France Telecom's "Content Division". They are the forerunner of this activity in Europe, its teams reconcile expertise with a passion for games and take advantage of France Telecom's technical platform to online games to European players.

Q. Where will European servers reside?
A. GOA has very successfully located the European servers for DAoC in one central data centre near Paris. We expect this to also deliver excellent performance for WAR to players across Europe.