Tagged News: features

In the second half of our interview, we focused on Book 13. Yesterday, it was all about The Mines of Moria expansion pack. Today, we look at the next patch, in this transcription of Jeffrey Steefel's conversation with our own Jordan Deam.

WarCry: Going back to "biomes" for a bit, I understand in Book 13 you will be debuting a new zone [Forochel] which will be the first to feature open water. Will that be significant to the gameplay in this zone?

Jeffrey Steefel: It's extremely cold water; when you go into it, it's going to have a very bad effect on you very quickly. And so in terms of ... if your question is "are we going to be embarking on missions on ships in Forochel," the answer is "no." It's the first exposure of players to the edges of the continent and seeing that there are oceans out there, that there are opportunities in the future to venture out into them. But in the case of Forochel, it's really meant to be ... more aesthetic than anything. And obviously some of the creatures that reside there and some of the atmospheric effects happen to result from it being near ocean. But being in the water is not a major part of the gameplay in Forochel. Other than dying.

Read more after the jump.

Lord of the Rings Online will launch its first expansion pack in the coming months and they're starting big in the Mines of Moria. We spoke to Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel about this expansion in the first half of an epic interview, which we have now transcribed for your pleasure.

Check back tomorrow for Book 13 and general updates.

WarCry: Talking about the actual zone of Moria, how do you plan to differentiate sub-zones within the Mines to give players a sense of variety?

Jeffrey Steefel: This is where we get into that "we're still a long way away from launch," and we don't want to let all the cats out of the bag at the same time, so we're obviously going to be talking about all the different zones and how to differentiate them from each other. But what I can say is that you're spot on. We're creating a deep, giant, huge underground environment ... and one of the things we've talked about is how are [players] not going to feel like they've been treading through rock, you know, forever ... treading through dark passages and rock. As cool as Moria is, that would get kind of boring. And the truth is that Moria wasn't like that; Moria was an entire world underground, so there will be different biomes - "biome" is what we use to describe a type of environment in the world, so like "forest" is a biome, or "swamp" is a biome, or, you know, "snowy, icy" ... the Misty Mountains is a biome. There will be many biomes inside of Moria that are being being created as new that are very specific to Moria, and very distinct from each other.

Read it all after the leap.

Jim Moreno's RoleCraft is back. This bi-weekly column moves to Tuesdays and this week he calls it "Role-ing Solo" as he looks at roleplaying all by yourself, which sounds a lot worse than it is.

I was telling my RP friend Wendy a couple days ago about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and how I easily roleplay my characters therein. Oblivion is the best and most current game I can use as an example, even though the game was released in 2006. Oblivion is a huge game, with an incredibly large and open world, and is a great game for RP. Simply remove the massively-multiplayer and online aspects from an MMORPG, and you could have Oblivion. The game, that is. Aside from speech, if you ever want to give yourself a test to find out how much of a roleplayer you (think) you are, make Oblivion your testing ground. I think you'll be surprised at what you find out about yourself and your RP style.

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JR Sutich has one final report from his recent trip, we affectionately call "angry man goes to Washington". This time, it is a more general preview of Warhammer Online, largely based on what they showed and his own hands on experiences with the game. Topics include Capital Cities, Crafting, Realm vs. Realm and more.

Realm vs. realm conflict is an integral parts of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. During my visit, I was able to experience the ultimate goal of RvR and capture an opposing capital city. Defeating journalists from other websites in PvP combat was just a bonus.

The battle for the Order capital of Altdorf started in a military district of the city with players from both sides fighting over six control points. I played as a geared-up, leveled-up Chaos Chosen with a two-hand sword to maximize damage. When the battle started, I noticed a character with a name that had been used the day before during our play session, so I knew someone in the room was playing it. My suspicions were confirmed when I hit them for about a third of their health in one shot and the person to my immediate left exclaimed, "Oh my god!" Good times. While the rest of my team captured the control points, I managed to kill my hapless victim four more times.

Read it all after the leap.

In the second half of his two part article called "To Be A Hero" (Part One is here), Jonathan Steinhauer gives us more of his personal take on how MMORPGs and how players want to be the center of that universe.

Every other Monday, Steinhauer brings us his design related MMO thoughts in this column.

Achievement can be broken into two basic categories: fame and influence. As I considered the former, my time playing AC jumped quickly to mind. In the early days of AC, they introduced top ten lists. These were published about once a month and showed who had the highest rating in a particular stat by server. This had the benefit of instant recognition for those who were the most skilled in the world. Of course, the downside is that the achievement didn't necessarily speak to actual player ability. Gaining skill proficiency, like gaining levels, doesn't prove noteworthy competency. The advantage often goes to those who started playing the game sooner or those who've had more time to spend in game rather than those who truly are expert in a particular field.

Read more after the leap.

We're back! In a brand new developer journal, Darkfall Associate Producer Tasos Flambouras writes about "Full Freedom Gameplay and Substance". This is a lengthy one boys and girls, so buckle in.

On the topic on figurines: mounts which can be summoned using a crafted figurine which can be stored in your backpack. There are a hundred of pseudo-realistic ways to implement mounts in the game of which most are just a pain in the ass of gameplay. We believe that our way is the most gameplay, player, PvP, and crafter friendly approach. Other than that, the mounts are full service, you can do combat on them, move anywhere you like, they can be killed independently or from under you, they don't magically disappear when you dismount, they can be stolen, abandoned, and looted. Anyone can have a mount in Darkfall, and you don't need to fulfill a special set of conditions, reach a certain level, save gold for months, win a contest, or preorder the game to own one.

Read it all after the leap.

Warhammer Online has been delayed from Q2 of this year until the fall. We had a chance to interview EA Mythic General Manager Mark Jacobs about the delay, the reasons for it and what that means for the future of WAR.

"If we had tried to force the game out in the 2nd Quarter, as we had originally planned to release it," said Jacobs. "We could have but it would have meant pretty much no time for polishing the game. The decision was to continue to iterate and reserve polish time."

The main area that requires further attention, according to Jacobs, is class balance. He explained how the classes of Warhammer Online do not necessarily fall into specific boxes as they do in many MMOs. Most classes are multi-faceted hybrids of several traditional RPG classes and this means they need to rethink some of the conventions of MMO balance. "If you don't release it right from the beginning with classes at least pretty much balanced, where they're all fun, you're not going to be in good shape in an [Realm vs. Realm] game."

Read more after the jump.

JR Sutich offers us his impressions of keep and city siege in EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, which were demonstrated for him during a recent trip to their Fairfax, VA offices.

Today we will also have his preview of high level RvR, two exclusive screenshots (and a pile more) and an interview with Mark Jacobs on the company's decision to delay Warhammer Online until fall. Stay tuned!

In our demo, a ballista was built and when the character took control of the weapon the view changed into a first-person mode with large arrows representing a targeting reticule bordering the edges of the screen. Once a target was selected, the arrows began to slowly move towards the center with the intent that the closer the arrows got to each other, the more accurate the shot would be. Individuals can be targeted by a ballista but whenever you move your aim, the arrows reset to the outer edge and you will have a hard time hitting your target. Still, for the NPC that stood still long enough the ballista did a great deal of damage.

Read more after the leap.

During a trip up to DC, JR Sutich got hands on with the Warhammer Online Collector's Edition. As our resident and offers his impressions of what is in the box, in what is always an important announcement for the hardcore.

The Collector's Edition contents were decided upon by asking the question, "What are the quintessential elements of Warhammer?" One of the answers is of course, miniatures. But there are also great stories and great art.

Using White Box Technology�, EA Mythic showed that the box itself will be about 13"x10"x3" and will tip the scales at around 7 lbs. Much like everything about Warhammer, it could be used to crush a skull. The box art itself looked amazing and even if the box wasn't gigantic will be sure to make the CE stand out on store shelves.

For JR's preview, images of the CE and a fact sheet, click on.

Sean Bulger is back with a new column in his bi-weekly look at issues of community and MMOs. This column focuses on player made content: what's good, what's bad.

As strange as it may seem to some, there are plenty of people out there who enjoy creating things by using parts of the game they play, or by creating something for the game. Even more people like to enjoy those creations - more so the videos in this day of age. This is also something that developers could take advantage of when trying to build a strong community.

Read more after the leap.