You want answers, you got answers

In case you missed it, there’s a Q&A thread going on at the official forums, where Andy is answering as much as he can about the new RvR Packs that are coming out. You post a question and Andy will answer it if able. There’s a lot he still can’t discuss, but some new info is coming out. I’m going to take the Herculean effort of posting all answered questions here, in one consolidated place. Keep in mind, there are (as of right now, this moment) eight (8) pages of this thread, sooooo… yeah. This’ll be fun!

Edit: Updated with Andy’s late-night answers. Gets some sleep man!

You miss me?

It looks delicious, but it's not!

I know you did. It’s okay, I missed you too.

After beating the game, I took the next day off from writing, and yesterday I was out-of-town for work. So you had to make due with mashing F5, praying I would bring you some enlightened reading material to help you whittle the hours away at the office. So, here you go: me, providing you, a fraction of your daily dose of time-wasting.

With the achievement of RR80 on my Knight, I have only a few minor goals left for him before he’s got all that I could possibly want. I have full Sovereign, and 3 out of 8 pieces for the second set. I also still need to get my royal weapons, and I’m currently around 100 insignia shy of my two-hander, and then I have my sword/shield to get. Or I may reverse that, I haven’t decided 100% yet, which way to go. In large part, I’m still unsure of what route to take because the vast majority of my guild decided to be trendy, go-alongs, and rerolled to Badlands.

I beat the game!

It only took about two years.

A quickie

Interivew!

Video!

Get me a cigarette…

I kid! Some stuff we kinda-sorta knew already, but futher iterations and refinement of details. Mythic knows how to tease.

From the bullpen

(left to right) Nate Levy, James Casey, Mike Wyatt, Steven Engle, James Nichols (thanks to GG for the photo)

As you are all aware, last week was GamesCom in Cologne, and there our much-loved Warhammer made some announcements and initial reviews. The weekend we just had Gamesday Baltimore, where more of the developers from Warhammer fielded questions from players and bloggers. There are incredibly mixed reactions all around from the community it seems, as expectations were higher on the meat of the delivered information (myself included). The variance I believe, comes in that, as players, we’re more used to hearing about an expansion being announced, and having some type of page to find all the details and information about it. That’s not as likely to happen with the upcoming “packs”. It reinforces in my mind, that these are being treated more like DLC items that supplement gameplay more than change gameplay. That’s not an entirely a bad thing, and some of the things that were said in various places really makes me pleased with the overall outlook the team has design wise.

So, with no further ado, I’m going to throw a bunch of links at you to read.

GamesCom – Friday

My WAAAGH! face.

You can go chat with them right now. Hopefully you can get it to work, so far, all I can do is read the action.

Edit: Over already. Far too quick, and technical difficulties robbed us of precious time. Such is life.

That said, what we got from it is the following:

• New armor sets above sovereign.
• New RvR zone available even if you don’t buy the pack (will be incorporated into campaign)
• Powergap is recognized and will be kept in mind going forward.
• The method of making the lower RR easier will probably be through bonuses.
• Removal of the VP system (thank GOD!)
• RA system (Realm abilities from DAoC)
• Concept art of underground tunnels

Beyond that, not much was said, pertaining to WAR. The internet is a fickle mistress, and is best treated gently. I’ll be continuing updates as more information comes out.

Edit: Woot! Pack will be here before Christmas.

Edit: Nobwaart has a great compilation of questions asked during the live chat, and a big thanks to Werit for pointing out this post at War-Welten.

For a bit of commentary, I really think that Skaven as a playable race is going to be possible. It won’t be done in the normal way, and I’m currently leaning towards something akin to monster play from LotRO. The underground tunnels will probably run parrallel to the Empire zones (at least) and be the warrens where the Skaven have made their home. I hope that they will be able to come out of those zones and wreck havoc on everyone around, maybe with cache’s of warpstone deposits in the lakes as incentive that can be used to power up some way. There are a lot of really interesting possibilities with Skaven as a third realm, and it can be implemented in a couple ways. Should be fun.

Edit: Final blurb of the day for me.

We have a video of Andy and Carrie talking about the upcoming RvR pack. Lots of good little tidbits in there, as well as Carrie being just a silly goose. Me thinks foreign countries, sleep, and the hustle and bustle has gone to the heads of our intrepid producer and community manager.

Also, as I’m sure you are all aware, this weekend is Gamesday Baltimore. You should be aware, because I told you about it. PAY ATTENTION! Good. More info will be coming out this weekend, and we have more bloggers doing more interviews of more people about more stuff. MORE. Anyway, everyone in Baltimore have fun. I’ll be soaking up double renown as much as I can, when I’m not tethered to my daughter and wife.

WAAAGH!

Quote of the Day

It’s the idea that the developers behind any given game are an idiots. According to commenters, they’re all blind, non-gamer morons, bumbling around in the dark without the slightest sense of what game mechanics are actually fun.

Why are these bumbling morons in the industry? Why don’t they listen to the endless array of golden ideas that pop up on game forums? Don’t they realize that these revolutionary ideas will turn every game into double-rainbow-crapping unicorns?

-Seraphina Brennan, on Massively.

The trail so far

Sadly, we don’t know a lot, and this path we’re wandering down is taking us places we don’t know about. Our only option is to enjoy the ride and see where it drops us.

We know that Andy and Carrie have been doing a stupid amount of interviews while in the land of Germany. They’ve obviously talked to onRpg.com, GoHa.Ru (Russian site), WAR-Welten (German), Gamereactor, @70MS (Meghan Rodberg from Turbine), and  Massively. What we know from those various sources is scant indeed.

As we found out yesterday, onRPG told us that the renown cap is increased to 100, Skaven will be introduced in some fashion (possible player controlled), and thanks to a friendly reader at Werit’s blog, we know that the blurb at GoHa.ru does indeed confirm a new zone of some sort.

Information is scant, but Andy Belford assured us via a forum post and a tweet, that we can expect a lot more detailed information this weekend. Also if you read any of the so-far interviewed articles/sites, they all are pretty much in lock-step at having more information forth-coming. My guess is from the need to actually, you know, write and edit things. They can’t all be free-wheeling, non-sensical bloggers like me!

Chill out!

We don’t really know anything yet.

Jesus Christ Almighty, a 237-word blurb about hints of what’s to come is throwing people into a tizzy. Chill out, and wait for all the news before getting those ropes and stakes ready.

Giant robots

Mechwarrior 4, FOR FREE!

I’ve said it before, I’m more of a sci-fi nerd than fantasy, and there is a very special corner of my heart for giant robots blowing each other up. So… yeah. Big time nostalgia there for me.

I’ll get you guys WAR news as soon as I hear some.