WAR Beta report 1

So, yesterday they lifted portions of the NDA for the WAR Beta. Which means I can once again chatter about one of the things I like best right now, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

Ive been in the Beta for a few months now, and the first thing I wanted to get out about this Beta was how well it was run. In many betas Ive been in, you dont get the impression that your there as anything more than to get a preview of the game, even in "closed" betas. The Devs are unresponsive, suggested changes ignored, and key parts of the game are "reserved for live" and thus never tested before release by a wider audience.

Not so in this Beta. With a pool of three quarters of a million people to pick from, and a community management tradition started by the legendary Sanya Weathers, the WAR beta is intense, well organized, and boasts incredible interaction with the dev team. Granted, some of that comes about because those who deviate from the rules set forth are replaced from that staggering pool of people looking to beta test the game, but the rules themselves are not onerous, and the sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing (and seeing!) one of your suggestions get incorporated into the game makes up for any amount of rules.

And what a game! While the basic systems are tried and true, with only iterative polish rather than truly innovative changes, there are features in this game that I predict will become the new standard for MMOs to come.

The basics of the class system present "paired" classes between Destruction and Order, classes that share a mechanic and play style between them. Their are exceptions (largely because a number of classes where cut for the initial release), in general if there is a style of play you like in WAR, it is available to you on both sides of the RvR coin. The exceptions are the Chaos Chosen (Aura tanks), Dwarf Ironbreakers (Grudge building tanks), the High Elf Shadow Warrior (Skirmish RDPS), and Chaos Marauders (two weapon MDPS).

Classes get abilities to be used at various times and with various recharge times, as with most MMOs these days. Similar to DaoC, there is a Mastery system that lets a player focus his particular Tank or Mage to one aspect of the class or another, but the really interesting part of character development comes from Tactics. Tactics are various "switches" that can act as buffs to critical stats, can change the behavior of particular powers dramatically, or reward a particular play style with even further focus. For example, a tactic might take a power that only comes back once every 20 seconds (an eternity in player vs player combat, usable maybe once a combat) and reduce its recharge to 10 seconds. And it might do that to two related powers, meaning a player could change the entire sequence of actions for their character with just one tactic.

Fortunately, as you play through the level advancement, the options for your character are presented in manageable chunks, allowing you to develop your particular play style in the safety of the PvE environment and then test it in the fires of RvR long before you finish your development and enter the end game.

Much can and will be said of RvR in Warhammer. I find that Mythic's long experience with DaoC has distilled into one of the best PvP setups Ive ever had the pleasure to play in 10 years of MMO's. From subtle but far reaching design decisions like player collision and a longer time to kill, to obvious and welcome choices such as a distinct absence of that bane of PvP: Stuns/Mezzes, RvR is fast paced and exciting without being over so quick that you cannot react to changing circumstances (such as a new group of enemies joining the fray!). Realm vs Realm also puts a firm structure to what is generally a messy and often decidedly ugly and bullying form of online interaction. Because it is Realm vs Realm, you have a ready pool of allies wherever you go, without having to join a guild or know 30 other people who play the game when you do. Since this means the game is NOT a war of all vs all, but instead provides natural battle lines that players can relate to (pandering to the other great motivator (it seems) in online players, cliquishness. But it beats pandering to dominance games and bullying...), a casual player without a large guild can take part in RvR and not feel overwhelmed or excluded. Better yet, you can now join with all these allies and are presented with clear goals to try to accomplish, from beating the other side in instanced skirmishes or taking and holding a keep in the non-instanced world, all with visible and immediate effects on the world at large to give you a sense of accomplishment.

RvR is definitely the highlight of this game, but PvE has not been neglected. Im here to tell you that the Public Quest system is the one system I expect everyone to be copying as soon as they can figure out how to do it without getting sued. This one system, now being coupled with a "Public Group" system that makes finding a group truly simple, forms more bonds, and provides more direction to this MMO than any I have ever seen. And they do not hide the Public Quests away in unreachable areas reserved to guilds, oh no. You will run into a Public Quest within 10 minutes of starting out, and they are readily available through out your advancement in the PvE (and sometimes RvR!) game. And participating meaningfully is simplicity itself. As you enter the area of a Public Quest, clear instructions on what is needed to advance the quest are put up in your on screen quest tracker, and you can immediately begin to accomplish those goals, even if you havent helped with any earlier stages. Participate vigorously, and even a solo player stands a good chance of winning the roll for exceptional loot that occurs at the end of the linked set of events that forms a PQ's cycle. Even if you dont win on the PQ loot roll however (which happens automatically and has so far proven difficult for players to grief), you still gain "Area Influence" that unlocks guaranteed rewards just for participating.

The addictive pull Public Quests exert is hard to describe, but once the concept settles into players minds, Im sure we'll see them in other MMOs. The WAR devs deserve kudos for this system alone, but fortunately, its not the only place where WAR shines. More on that in my next post.