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MMOSite interview with Josh Drescher
Impyriel
Member UncommonPosts: 711
http://news.mmosite.com/content/2008-01-13/20080113220811912,1.shtml
As an Associate Producer with EA Mythic, Josh Drescher is hard at work on EA Mythic's upcoming next-gen MMORPG- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, based on Games Workshops' tabletop fantasy war game, and one of the most-anticipated PC games of 2008.
Now we have an opportunity to interview with Josh Drescher. He tells us more information about the game. Also he brings us his picture.
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: DARK ELF doesn't have a class which can revive. We heard that a new class will be announced in the upcoming newsletter. Will it be a revivable class?
Josh Drescher: The Dark Elf healer/support class is the Disciple of Khaine and they do have the ability to both heal and resurrect allied players. Check out our December '07 newsletter for tons of pictures and info!
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: Will you ban gold farmers?
Josh Drescher: Anyone violating the terms of the EULA will receive the full brunt of Sigmar's mighty Banhammer.
MMOsite: As we know, Warhammer will be launched in the first quarter of 2008. 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.
Comments
Sweet thanks for the article posting Imp!!!
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
great interview, thanks for posting imp.
some nice info there, which will keep us salivating for a few weeks to come
What a bad interviewer... he didn't even really know the game.
MMOSite doesn't seem to be really focused on western style mmos. I'm guessing his/her/their questions were not well thought out or researched in advance.
There's a couple nice snippets in there. Other than that, indeed some failed questions.
Just a thought:
I am hoping that the Marketing people will offer some goodies for either pre-order or Collector's/Limited Edition along the lines of "special" mounts for players.
Don't have to be uber -- just maybe something "nice."
Maybe something like each character you create gets to have this special mount or pet or special item.
Still too early to speculate, but since it's 2008 now, my thoughts are turning toward the eventual release of this information.
~ Ancient Membership ~
There's a quote somewhere to the EPICness the CE will be. It's a vague statement but I would assume the CE contents will not be anything skimpy. As far as getting a special in-game pet or mount I'm all for it.
Then again I've always been a sucker to fluff.
Thanks for the link! I wonder how long they're going to keep up the facade of not announcing the final HE class lol
I suppose someone might have really messed up on that GOA poster but the zone description went into such detail about the white lions, it's not like it's a secret anymore.