Warhammer: Age of Reckoning - Page 3

Spulat · 08-19-2008, 05:07 PM

Folks,

As of now, the Non Disclosure portions of our North American Beta Testing Agreement is now officially lifted. From this point on players may now freely talk about their experiences in the game as well as post screenshots, videos, etc. We will be sending an email out to all our current players with full details about the lift over the next 24 hours. Players with access to our forums can also see the letter there. Players may not talk about nor reprint posts from our forums and our Test Servers (currently Deathsword) are still fully covered by the confidentiality portions of our Beta Testing Agreement. So, other than that, free feel to talk about and share your experiences in WAR.

My thanks go out to everyone who has beta tested and continues to beta test WAR. It has been with your help and feedback that WAR is where it is today. We really appreciate your effort.

WAR is almost upon us!

Mark Jacobs
VP, GM Mythic Entertainment

Cid · 08-19-2008, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spulat

Cid - that's really great that you'll have a guild going for this, though I would hope the guild is TG-based like the AoC ones are. As it stands I know that the IHS can only be created, and joined to, by Supporting Members and I think that may also extend to TG-sponsored guilds? I don't know.

While the squad feature is inspired by TG it is in no way sponsored by TG or a "TG guild." I just thought I would give you guys a heads up since I know everyone here is exceptional and the guild fits the theme of tactical gaming.

Spulat · 08-19-2008, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cid

While the squad feature is inspired by TG it is in no way sponsored by TG or a "TG guild." I just thought I would give you guys a heads up since I know everyone here is exceptional and the guild fits the theme of tactical gaming.

Understood

**Mixa** · 08-20-2008, 10:22 AM

New war wepsite with MUCH info about classes/armors/etc. just opened, really not much use until game comes out, but if you like to check how armor pieces look etc.

wardb.com

Spulat · 08-22-2008, 02:08 PM

**UnDeaD77** · 08-22-2008, 08:45 PM

I want to try it, but not sure if I could get past those graphics.

Spulat · 08-22-2008, 09:02 PM

There DO seem to be some performance issues, and one review I read on someone who was in the Beta basically said "the game's pretty good, but I hope they get performance issues ironed out before release because there's no way the minimum system can even run this game when my halfway-decent system still slows to a crawl sometimes".

I have an Athlon X2 2.8GHz with 3GB of DDR2-800, two SATA300 drives in a RAID 0, and a new ATi Radeon 4850 512 card (previously an Nvidia 8600 GTS 512). The game runs reasonably well, but not as quickly as it should, and I get some stutter from time to time. Also, on character creation, I had a little artifacting on the facial overlay; the mouth layer was transparent and somewhat flickering so I could see the entire jaw and teeth. I thought those kinds of issues were ironed out years ago

The graphics DO look better than that, though, in-game. You can't really judge it off of one screen shot

**UnDeaD77** · 08-22-2008, 09:16 PM

No, I mean the graphic design in general. Its to much like crappy WoW. Age of Conan has the look I enjoy, but not much of the gameplay/content anymore. So if Warhammer offers more content, I may play it.

Gambit7 · 08-22-2008, 09:38 PM

I'm playing the preview weekend right now and offer my 2 cents on Monday. Those of us who've played AoC should have interesting perspectives.

I will say this initially. WoW, AoC, and WAR are completely different games. And I will also say, WAR is not polished yet... they've got a ways to go. In that department obviously WoW and AoC have an advantage.

Note: AoC performance-wise is extremely improved and right now I struggle to find any performance flaws aside from running shader 3.0 in various zones. Plus, it's far and away the fastest game of the 3. WAR is even slower gameplay than WoW, I kid you not.

The basis behind WAR is gear and min-maxing of buyable and earnable feats, gears, and abilities. Dont expect a tactical game. It's more of a predetermined whack-a-mole strat.

**L10N** · 08-22-2008, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gambit7

I'm playing the preview weekend right now and offer my 2 cents on Monday. Those of us who've played AoC should have interesting perspectives.

I will say this initially. WoW, AoC, and WAR are completely different games. And I will also say, WAR is not polished yet... they've got a ways to go. In that department obviously WoW and AoC have an advantage.

Note: AoC performance-wise is extremely improved and right now I struggle to find any performance flaws aside from running shader 3.0 in various zones. Plus, it's far and away the fastest game of the 3. WAR is even slower gameplay than WoW, I kid you not.

The basis behind WAR is gear and min-maxing of buyable and earnable feats, gears, and abilities. Dont expect a tactical game. It's more of a predetermined whack-a-mole strat.

War may not be extremely tactical but aoc is about as far away from tactical as you can possibly get. It consists of a group with two healers and then the rest a mix of sins, guards, and conqs. Two groups come at each other all hidden and however screws up by being revealed first loses. The pvp is a one shot, chain cc, and aoe spamfest.

I would say if you want pvp war wins hands down by a long shot on every level. If you want pve go to wow. If you want both war or aoc will do you well. With the ease of getting into beta everyone who is at all interested should just play because everyone is looking for something different and people dealing in broad spectrum absolutist views are going to make almost anything sound bad.

Gambit7 · 08-23-2008, 02:42 AM

Oh for sure... I definitely agree everyone should give WAR a shot. Heck, it's free and it's a AAA title well worth the effort. I definitely LIKE the game, but it's not the savior of mmo-land either. Granted, it's really early to tell and I have a feeling the sept. 8th beta client will be very different from this weekend's closed beta client.

So far the best element of WAR by far is the Public Quest system. That was shear genius.

Spulat · 08-23-2008, 03:22 AM

It's going to be very difficult for upcoming MMORPGs to ever match and raise the bar from, what Everquest and WoW have set....

**TheFatKidDeath** · 08-23-2008, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L10N

War may not be extremely tactical but aoc is about as far away from tactical as you can possibly get. It consists of a group with two healers and then the rest a mix of sins, guards, and conqs. Two groups come at each other all hidden and however screws up by being revealed first loses. The pvp is a one shot, chain cc, and aoe spamfest.

I would say if you want pvp war wins hands down by a long shot on every level. If you want pve go to wow. If you want both war or aoc will do you well. With the ease of getting into beta everyone who is at all interested should just play because everyone is looking for something different and people dealing in broad spectrum absolutist views are going to make almost anything sound bad.

?? I find AOC to be very tactical: use of surrounding environment for attacks, coordinating attacks based on patrol movements, determing either to hit casters or archers first, pulling of opponents, deciding on which combos to use, list goes on. Same can be said of PVP play. I haven't played War to any extent or than at Comic Con so I can't say if it's a tactical game or even has those features but AOC I find alot of tactics are in use.

The bit I did play of WAR I did not like the auto-attack nor graphics. I prefer AOC's combat system. I think it's the future of MMO's. Plus, I've stated more than any one would like to read but I can't play an MMO with dwarfs, elves or lack of female nipples.

Though, this is not the AOC thread. War sounds like it has some cool features. Everyone has different tastes in MMO's that's all.

**L10N** · 08-23-2008, 04:00 PM

When you get to 70+ pvp it becomes stupid per the way I described, pre 70 it can be ok. That's just how it is unless you find a group from one of the smaller guilds that don't know how to pvp. Pve is tactical but pvp is meh.

Gambit7 · 08-24-2008, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by L10N

When you get to 70+ pvp it becomes stupid per the way I described, pre 70 it can be ok. That's just how it is unless you find a group from one of the smaller guilds that don't know how to pvp. Pve is tactical but pvp is meh.

PvP in Conan isnt meant to be 1v1. It's designed for large siege battles, so players typically can hurt other players pretty gravely if they make the right attacks or the opponent makes a mistake or has a borked build. It's a much more deadly game than WAR.
Smart players learn to pick their battles. (just as one would in Hyboria) It's also designed to be build specific. PvP gear is very different from PvE, and the feat specs are the same way.

After playing more WAR today, it's pretty apparent it's a more "strategic" game as opposed to AoCs tactical goodness. Any combat in WAR is slow and methodical, giving time to think and look at every tick of dmg. Very plodding. This is good and bad since there's more time to "smell the roses" but play isnt as deep. RvR PvP doesnt really reward smart, tactical play in WAR. It's mostly based on gear, level, and force of numbers. If you dont have the advantage in these areas - then you must retreat. In AoC, a good player can give up 10 lvls and be outnumbered and still come away victorious. (with a lil luck, skill, and the right opponent) I've actually been in battles with people and realized to myself "Hey, this guy is good..." and had to retreat. WAR is definitely a multitasking sort of game; go ahead and grind away while writing a book report on your 2nd monitor - no problem.

I also foresee a problem with the Realm balance in this game. Unless they institute caps on realm sizes it becomes grossly apparent that one side will never win if they have less numbers. Not only that, but many of the PQs also require large groups (they'd be empty most of the time), so it's a slippery slope.. the Realms with more numbers will lvl faster, have better gear overall, and always win the RvR. PQs also will suck after the 1st month of release, when there's no one in the newbie zones. It's basically just a "release mechanic" and will probably be altered or taken out down the road.

More quips I have is the lack of particle and sound effects. Doing anything in WAR is pretty blah. I expected a bit more shinay and thump when I blast someone in the face. The animations are also pretty weak. The mob AI is also substandard; nay, they're just plain dumb. (AoC's AI is one of the best I've ever seen... only one close is Tabula Rasa).

<sigh>
I will say this. If your system wont run AoC, then WAR is a good alternative. It's a very system-friendly game and the play is more "relaxing" than most out there. You can easily sit there like a zombie for hours and hours. (this is something harder to do in AoC, because it requires a LOT of attention). WAR is also easy to just log into and play since there's such a large variety of things to do quickly... from questing, grinding, lore-finding (building up your compendium), PQing, RvR, and battlegrounds. It has a lot of interesting game mechanics, but the specific gamePLAY can be "ho-hum" like I've said... kinda like LotRO but w/o the epic-story-driven group-related endgame. Endgame as I know it is basically just RvR... period. AoC is an endgame Raid focused game (whether siege or dungeon), whereas WAR is RvR specific. The ultimate goal is to outgear and outnumber your opponents so you pwn them in battle. Kind of like WW2O.

The "niche" of this game will be folks that want more comical, relaxed gameplay who have lesser systems and want something different from WoW but with similar combat mechanics (only even slower)... or a diversion until WotLK comes out. WAR has the benefit of leeching WoW-players because once WotLK is about to release people will leave, since their gear will be automatically obsolete (everyone quits WoW about 2 months before an expansion).

Is it better than AoC? IMO, nope... and AoC is only getting better and better every week. But, AoC is a hardcore RPG. WAR and WoW arent. It takes a lot more perseverence to work through system tweaks and the myriad of choices in AoC - both in and out of combat. Yes, AoC requires less of a time commitment than WoW - but the thought processes can be draining. Many people dont have the patience for this. Those people I'd recommend to play WAR.

p.s.
Since I started this thread, I reserve the right to bash and compare WAR to other games at will.