Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

WarhammerAlliance Interviews Mythic Producers For 1.3.2!

DoranM — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:09:29 GMT

The WarhammerAlliance team has posted a recent interview that was conducted with Adam Gershowitz and Jeff Skalski, Producers at EA Mythic.

Here's a snippet from the 1.3.2 Warhammer Interview:

Just before the 1.3.2 patch, we dropped in on Mythic Entertainment Producers Adam Gershowitz and Jeff Skalski to answer some questions about the latest update to WAR, what's changed, what can players expect, and other queries. Thanks to Adam and Jeff for taking the time out to talk with us!

Given the context of the overall strategy you've been taking with your patch cycles, how would you describe 1.3.2 in general?

Adam: Game update 1.3.2 is a really solid example of how we’re working to address our top three player concerns in each patch.

Career balance saw some significant adjustments in the form of a hard look at crowd control abilities. Many abilities were significantly adjusted or even outright removed in order to ensure that crowd control remains a viable but not overwhelming tool on the battlefield.

For RvR, we’ve worked to make the campaign more accessible and less frustrating by eliminating the Fortresses as a requirement to reach the capital cities. In addition, we’ve improved the accessibility of some of the best RvR gear in the game, and improved many of the rewards for both attackers and defenders in difficult Keep sieges.

On the performance front, we’ve seen some significant gains in both client and server performance with the introduction of a better texture manager and multiple improvements to how our server communicates with the client.

Up and beyond this, we continue to work on bugs and issues as well as improve the overall quality of Warhammer as a whole. For example, in 1.3.2 we returned to our new user experience in order to streamline it, re-invigorate low-level RvR, and allow friends to play together via our Apprentice system. We’ve also made numerous improvements to our Daemon Moon Rising event from last year (The Witching Night), and we’re really looking forward to seeing the player reaction to that as well.

To read the rest of this article visit the 1.3.2 Warhammer Interview on WarhammerAlliance.com.

Warhammer Online Mac Version Being Released October 28th!

DoranM — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:37:53 GMT

EA and Mythic Entertainment have officially announced that Warhammer Online for Mac computers will be released on October 28^th. WAR which will be available via digital download on the 28^th for Mac, will run seamlessly on severs so that Mac players can play side by side with PC users.

Current Warhammer Online subscribers can access WAR on Mac with the beta version which is available now. New players on Macs will be able to play the beta version of WAR on Mac with the 10-day trial.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring Warhammer Online and its enthralling Realm vs. Realm combat to the Mac community,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “Come October 28th, the sides of Order and Destruction will be bolsters by a fresh recruit of Mac gamers experiencing for the first time exactly what we mean when we say that ‘WAR is everywhere!’”

The Mac version of WAR is currently being offered for beta testing and allows existing players to download the beta client to their Mac computers and play with their live game accounts. Players who do not have an existing live account, but are interested in playing WAR on the Mac, are able to participate in the beta by downloading a 10-day Mac beta trial. Players who participate in the WAR Mac beta test will receive an exclusive title and trophy reward for their characters within the game.

To download the beta version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for Mac or the 10-day beta trial, please visit: www.warhammeronline.com/mac.

Warhammer Developer Walkthrough of Tomb of the Vulture Lord End Encounters!

DoranM — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:23:55 GMT

The WarhammerAlliance.com has posted two new videos showing Senior Designer Gabe Amatangelo demonstrating how to properly play a Shaman while giving a walkthrough of the end encounters in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

If you don't want to see how to beat these encounters, you may not want to watch the footage. That's your only Spoiler Warning.

Here's a look at the Shaman powering through Tomb of the Vulture Lord:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Let us know what you think of the footage.

Warhammer Alliance Interviews Gabe Amatangelo at PAX 2009!

DoranM — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:17:45 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent interview from PAX 2009 with the Warhammer team!

Here's a look at the PAX 2009 Warhammer Interview:

During PAX Nattfodd and Anglakhel were able to interview Senior Designer Gabe Amatangelo about his role at Mythic, the recent changes to RvR and the Land of the Dead. The interview was done on the convention floor with no pre-written questions or answers. Due to the conversational nature of this interview, some things are a bit awkward grammatically. Please let us know if any detail is unclear.

Interview Gabe Amatangelo

Anglakhel: We're speaking with Gabe now. Gabe, do you want to give us your full name with proper pronunciation and title?

Gabe: Gabe Amatangelo, and it's Senior Designer.

Anglakhel: As a senior designer, what's your job description, job role right now and in the last few months?

Gabe: Right now it's sort of in-line with the initiative of the studio, which is taking a look at... As you know there have been management shifts at the studio and we're able to re-examine a lot of the current systems and just figure out where to go in the future with them. So right now a lot of my time is occupied with that. Just going system by system and sort of proposing and shooning and whatnot.

Nattfodd: What's your favorite class?

Gabe: What do I play right? Right now I'm playing a Marauder, before that I was playing a Zealot, before that I was playing a Swordmaster.

Anglakhel: You were one of the heavy, face time devs for the land of the dead project. Were you sort of the lead man for the designers for that project?

To read the rest of the interview visit the PAX 2009 Warhammer Interview on Warhammer Alliance!

Warhammer Online Hot Fix Notes - 9/3/2009

Kody — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:13:07 GMT

Today Mythic pushed out a round of hot fixes for Warhammer Online. Check out the notes below.

Quote from: Mythic (Source)

Greetings!

Below are today's round of Hot Fix notes.

Please note: There are several fixes pertaining to the Wild Hunt Live Event that we identified as a result of player feedback. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback both in game and on the Official Forums.

Wild Hunt Live Event

General

The Stag of Kurnous will now grant tome credit upon death.

Adjusted the difficulty in the Tiers 1 and 2 Hunter’s Vale instance to be more appropriate to their target level.

Spirit of Kurnous will now remain spawned indefinitely during the Wild Hunt event, instead of despawning upon public quest completion.

Public Quests

Hunter’s Vale: Shaman and Squig Herder rewards have been corrected for this Public Quest.

The Curse of Kurnous: This Public Quest will now be available immediately after reset of a successful completion.

Quests

Render Unto Kurnous: The tier one, tier two and tier three versions of this quest now properly direct players where to go.

Combat and Careers

Chosen

All Auras: Auras will no longer persist while under the effects of the Coward’s Reward debuff.

Knight of the Blazing Sun

All Commands: Commands will no longer persist while under the effects of the Coward’s Reward debuff.

Warrior Priest

Judgment: This ability will once again build Righteous Fury.

Land of the Dead

Tomb of the Vulture Lord

Public Quests

Temple of Ualatp: Corrected an issue preventing the ground symbols in the this Public Quest from being visible.

Realm vs. Realm

Campaign / Open RvR

Coward’s Reward: This ability will now correctly override other shape changing abilities.

Shining Way: Fixed an issue that was preventing the siege ram pads from spawning in the correct location.

Warhammer Alliance Interviews Jeff Skalski About 1.3.2!

DoranM — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:30:55 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent interview with Jeff Skalski about the progression of WAR over the last year and things coming in 1.3.2 patch.

Here's a look at the recent Jeff Skalski Interview from WarhammerAlliance.com:

As WAR's one-year anniversary rolls around, there's a lot about the game that has gone well, a lot that has not gone as planned, and a lot to come in the future. Warhammer Alliance caught up with Producer Jeff Skalski to talk turkey about WAR over the past year, as well as get some tidbits and teases about what's coming in the 1.3.2 patch.

Tell us a little bit about how specifically RvR has changed over the year since WAR came out. What do you think were the best changes and adjustments made to the system? What are the current issues you're observing in RvR besides what's already been mentioned/addressed (City Siege and Keep Taking)?

Since our launch in Sept ’08, we’ve revisited our RvR mechanic every patch by improving the experience, expanding it, and really just reacting to our players’ concerns along the way. For me, some of the RvR feature improvements we’ve added that I feel very positive about are the RvR token system, RvR Ward rewards, Land of the Dead Purge mechanic, recent city siege improvements along with how city instances get populated, the second Keep ramps, RvR status updates (icons, timers and zone control detail bar) and finally being able to queue for Scenarios from anywhere. Now, we couldn’t do everything, but we still have several more cool ideas to spice up the RvR playing field. As we finesse and introduce new things to the RvR experience, our main goal is to make sure we are encouraging players to magnetize towards each other and fight. Those are the fun moments we want players to never forget.

To read more visit the the recent Jeff Skalski Interview thread!

Warhammer Online Reveals One-Year Anniversary Plans

Browncoat — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:52:03 GMT

Mythic Entertainment and EA sent over a press release to Curse today outlining their plans for their one-year anniversary celebration. There are a ton of details below, including a new Live Event, rewards for veteran players, and tons of limited-time items. Check it out below:

WAR WAGES ON AS WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING

CELEBRATES ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Players Celebrate with Wild Hunt Live Event, Weekend Scenarios,

Veteran Rewards, Experience/Renown Bonus and More

FAIRFAX, Virginia – August 19^th, 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced the celebratory activities planned for the upcoming one year anniversary of the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR). The celebration kicks-off on August 31^st with the introduction of a special new live event – The Wild Hunt, and continues all September with special weekend-only scenarios, a month-long 20% Experience/Renown bonus, special in-game items for all players, veteran rewards, and much more.

“This anniversary marks a major milestone for WAR, the Mythic development team, and our fantastic community of players,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “We could think of no better way of marking this occasion than by celebrating our success with our fans for the entire month of September. We’ve got new content to share with the Wild Hunt live event, special versions of popular scenarios, and a 20% experience and renowned bonus, plus, players can get special rare drops, veteran rewards, fireworks, Halfling pies, and exploding stout! Now that is a party Warhammer style!”

The Wild Hunt live event, taking place from August 31 – September 7, 2009, pits the forces of Order and Destruction against the ultimate quarry in the new instanced dungeon, The Hunter’s Vale. For more information about the Wild Hunt live event, visit:http://herald.warhammeronline.com/liveevents/2009WildHunt.php.

Following the Wild Hunt live event, special weekend-only events are planned with special versions of the Mourkain Temple (September 11-14), Gates of Ekrund (September 18-21) and Temple of Isha (September 25-28) scenarios.

Throughout September’s celebration, exclusive anniversary items, including Halfling Pies and the Jubilee Cloak, will be delivered via in-game mail to all players. Fans that have waged non-stop war for the past year will be rewarded with a special veteran’s reward, the WAR Aegis, and unique title, Weapon of WAR. In addition to all players receiving a 20% experience and renown bonus throughout September, enemies defeated in RvR combat will drop fireworks, exploding stout and other unique limited edition anniversary items.

Based on the popular tabletop war game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ conflict that will provide players with an engaging battleground for years to come. Available now for PC and rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB, WAR will be available for the Mac in the fall of 2009. For more information or to download the 10-day free trial, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

# # #

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®

Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests™. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. So sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation. The Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA^TM, EA SPORTS^TM, EA Mobile ^TM and POGO^TM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic Entertainment, Public Quests, and Realm vs. Realm are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, ™ and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective licensors.

Warhammer 1.3.1 PTS - Bringing Back the FIGHT!

DoranM — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:18:36 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a notice about the beginning of the 1.3.1 PTS! The Dev Team will be on hand as Order makes their first attack on The Inevitable City, which happens today! Destruction will get their chance to strike back tommorow, 8.8.09, at the heart of Altdorf! Warhammmer Online and Mythic staffers are confident this new city invasion experience should really put the fight back into city RvR!

Here's a look at the 1.3.1 PTS update for Warhammer:

From the Community News category we have: 1.3.1 PTS Has Begun! Invasion is Nigh!

Testing time is once again upon us!

The Public Test Server (Warpstone) is now open, and with it comes two developer lead events. Be amongst the first to experience the revamped City Invasion PQ's and the redesigned Keeps in what is an exciting list of Realm vs. Realm changes!

Join the Mythic Dev Team tomorrow night, 8/7/2009, as the armies of Order storm the gates of The Inevitable City. Join us as we test the new City Invasion experience that is promising to put the fight back into City RvR.

The following night, Saturday 8/8/2009, will see the armies of Destruction striking back at the home of the forces of Order as they bring the WAR to Altdorf.

So be sure to check out how to access the Public Test Server and join in on the excitement. Also, don't forget to participate in the 1.3.1 Focus Discussion on the official forums starting tomorrow!

Don't have a Rank 40 Character? Not to worry as we will be providing character templates for this City testing only. Simply create a new character and select the template in the top right corner or the character creation screen prior to hitting "Create". Please note, these templates will be made available prior to tomorrow evenings testing. So come and support your realm and see all of the exciting new City Invasion changes!

Be sure to check out the 1.3.1 PTS Patch Notes here.

Interview with Martin Smith at Warhammer Online!

DoranM — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:26:12 GMT

At Games Day Chicago, Warhammer Alliance had a chance to catch up Martin Smith from Mythic! Martin is a developer for the dungeons and Encounters team and has been a driving force in developing some of the key features behind several popular dungeons and of course the new content from Land of the Dead.

Here's a look a the first few questions from the interview with Mythic's Martin Smith:

We thought it would be a good idea to catch Martin on his thoughts about the game from his perspective and some of the challenges associated with his work at Mythic. Thanks Martin for the informative interview!

Q. First, tell the community out there a little bit about yourself and your role at Mythic.

A. Hi everyone! My name is Martin Smith, and I am a developer for the Dungeons and Encounters team—the team that designs and develops most of the end-game PvE content in the game. I’ve worked on Land of the Dead, Lost Vale, Sigmar’s Crypts, Bloodwrought Enclave, and the King Fights.

Q. I hear you were a player before you were part of the development team. How does that perspective help when designing boss encounters?

A. I was a long-time Dark Age of Camelot player before I applied at Mythic. I was a VNboards forum warrior, and at the time I was highly critical of Mythic and posted much to that effect. On a dare, I came down to the Mythic studio to take some pictures and ended up getting a tour and some swag. So, I decided to apply and got a job in Customer Service, working my way up to where I am now. It was really interesting being on the other side of the fence, especially being in Customer Service shortly after the launch of Trials of Atlantis. People can say a lot of nasty stuff over the internet, but I’ve grown a thick skin and learned how to handle criticism. In all honesty, if my stuff is broken, or not fun or whatever, that’s my responsibility and I need to be able to take the criticism and fix it or make it better. I can’t crawl up into a ball and cry about how a player is complaining about something I did.

To read more from this interview and hear community feedback visit the Warhammer Alliance Martin Smith Interview!

Warhammer Announces 10-Day Beta Trial of Mac Client!

DoranM — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:23:16 GMT

Warhammer Online has announced they are giving players a 10-day Beta Trial of the new Mac version of Warhammer! The Mac version of WAR is scheduled for official release in the fall of 2009, when players on both platforms will be able to battle and quest together on the same servers.

Here's the official announcement from Warhammer about supporting Mac players:

FAIRFAX, Virginia – July 30, 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR), is being developed for the Mac® computer platform and is currently being offered in beta version. The Mac version of WAR is scheduled for official release in the fall of 2009, when players on both platforms will be able to battle and quest together on the same servers.

The beta of the Mac version of Warhammer Online will allow current players to download a client to their Mac computers and play with their live game accounts. Players who do not have an existing live account, but are interested in playing WAR on the Mac, will be able to participate in the beta version of WAR on Mac by downloading a 10-day beta trial account. As part of the WAR Mac beta event, players who participate will receive an exclusive title and trophy reward for their characters within the game.

“The MMORPG audience continues to expand, and that means gamers eager to experience WAR aren’t all playing on a PC,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “We want as many players as possible to experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm combat, and bringing WAR to the Mac makes this an exciting reality.”

WAR for the Mac is made possible using the Cider^TMPortability Engine from TransGaming (TSX-V: TNG) that acts as a "wrapper" around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. TransGaming’s Cider technology allows Mythic Entertainment to rapidly enable and deploy WAR for the Mac, providing a new high quality gaming experience to the ever-growing Mac gaming community.

“The availability of WAR on Mac is an outstanding example of the caliber of games being deployed for the Mac gaming community,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming. “Mythic Entertainment has created an incredible game and TransGaming is thrilled they have chosen our advanced Cider technology to launch WAR for the Mac.”

To download the beta version of WAR for Mac or the 10-day beta trial, please visit: www.warhammeronline.com/Mac.

Warhammer New Destruction Sovereign Sets Video From Chicago Games Day!

DoranM — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:12:15 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com spent the weekend at Games Day Chicago working hard to get information for the Warhammer community! They did manage to extract some new video footage of the Destruction's Sovereign sets! The new sets look incredibly detailed and took a great deal of effort. Thanks to the Warhammer Alliance team for picking up this new information!

Head over to the original Warhammer Alliance Destruction's Sovereign Sets post to discuss the new armor, and checkout the video and introduction below:

There isn't as much coverage for Games Day Chicago as we had for Games Day Baltimore, since Mythic's folks were divided between places, but we managed to get someone from Mythic to help rectify an error on my part from the Baltimore footage. You see, I considered the video I took of Order's Sovereign sets to be a bonus - I didn't think it would turn out to be the most viewed video of all my coverage of the event. If I had known that, I would have taken the Destruction sets as well.

Well, Destruction players are in for a treat. Here's a video taken on the show floor of all the Destruction Sovereign sets:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Thanks again to Ari at Mythic for helping us out!

Warhammer Alliance managed to secure a couple interviews as well - but you'll see those in the coming week.

Warhammer Alliance Commentary on the 1.3.0b Patch!

DoranM — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:20:06 GMT

Warhammer Alliance has posted an update about balacing the Archetypes and how the 1.3.0b patch will affect gameplay. The author of the article discusses how certain classes might be detrimental to game play and suggests possible changes for fixing these classes. Don't forget to weigh in with your thoughts about balancing Warhammer Archetypes!

Here's a look at a portion of the original post:

This week marks the release of Mythic's latest patch to balance combat in WAR, patch 1.3.0b. The patch has been heralded as a major rebalancing of WAR in two primary areas most complained about: AoE and CC. Mythic has also emphasized time and again that this patch is merely the first step in a new journey to address the issues and concerns many players have with WAR. The big question on a lot of player's minds though is: "Will this patch actually balance Bright Wizards and Sorceresses?"

Some of you may initially dismiss this claim, but I think there is more truth there than most of us are comfortable or happy with. While AoE and CC are often cited as the main problem areas in the game, chances are when you noticed how much they were disrupting your sense of enjoyment with the game, there was a Bright Wizard or Sorceresses gleefully nuking you and your warband into oblivion.

The patch we have been given attempts to solve the issues with AoE and CC in broad strokes. Many concerns have been raised about the specifics of the most recent patch, but I don't think we're going to see the real impact of the patch until we've had it on the live servers for a week or two. We're not going to see if the patch has brought the Bright Wizards and Sorceresses back down to earth with the rest of us, or if they continue to make the most dominant impression upon every conflict they enter.

To read more and voice your opinion visit the Warhammer Alliance website!

Warhammer Online Producer's Letter

Kody — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:25:11 GMT

You might recognize Jeff Skalski's name from the Land of the Dead post-release interview, conducted by Curse Network community site Warhammer Alliance. What you may not realize is that Jeff Skalski is the Producer for Warhammer Online. Today he shares his first Producer's Letter, picking up where Jeff Hickman left off last time.

Hey Everyone,

My name is Jeff Skalski and I’m the WAR Producer here at Mythic Entertainment. Some of you may know me from various Mythic podcasts and interviews I’ve done over the years on RvR and Land of the Dead, but today I get to share with you my first Producer's Letter. I hope you enjoy the read and if you actually like it, I might write more of these in the future. ;)

Continuing where my boss Jeff Hickman left off, I want to provide more details on items you can expect with our upcoming 1.3.0b patch, and a little bit of a sneak peek into 1.3.1. Just one small disclaimer -- I don’t want to cause anyone anger or emotional distress if something I discuss slips to a later patch. In this professional field, anything can happen at a moment’s notice, especially that which is unplanned. Besides, being rather excited for what we have planned and currently in production, I’d rather not hold back too much. Consider this an insider look into what we’re working on. ;) Our plan is to continue to be more open with our community, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me and others over the coming months and years.

So with that said, let’s chat about the soon, *cough*this month*cough*, to be released 1.3.0b patch. It’s a letter patch, but don’t let that make you a sad panda. We’ve got quite a few good improvements from our Player Systems team to start addressing your concerns related to crowd control and area-of-effect abilities. Besides that, the long overdue look at the Archmage and Shaman has been completed and, last but not least, the guys managed to squeeze in the stacking enhancements for Runes and Marks.

So what are some actual examples of what we are doing that are ability and career related?

AoE balance fixes:

All AoE abilities are moving to standardized ranges and coverage, based on their type (Melee "Cleave", Conical AoE, Line AoE, PBAoE, or Targeted AoE).

Crowd control changes:

All Immunities Persist Through Death: Pretty simple one here, no more Stun -> Dead -> Rez -> Stun -> Dead.

Increased Duration of Disable Immunities: Immunities for the disable family of CC (knockdown, stun, disarm, and silence) will have their immunity timers increased from 6 times the effect duration to 10 times the effect duration. In other words, if you are stunned for three seconds, in 1.3 you would have an 18-second immunity. With this change, that same immunity would be 30 seconds.

Root Immunity and Knockback/Pull Immunity Combined: We're rolling root immunity and knockback/pull immunity together into a single "movement immunity" effect. This immunity will remain for 30 seconds, and will prevent you from things such as being pulled in, then immediately rooted in place, making it a much more tactical decision about whether it's better to stop an enemy in place or move them around.

New Renown Purchase Ability: We are releasing a new Renown Point purchasable ability at Renown Rank 40 that will be a "CC immunity" that players can trigger for temporary CC immunity. This should help break up the "I get CC'd at the beginning of a fight and there is nothing I can do about it" issues.

Archmage and Shaman revamp:

We'll also be rolling out the next phase of our Archmage and Shaman changes, moving their abilities around to create more cohesive Mastery paths, and re-adding some new abilities and Tactics. These will include the new and improved Path of Da Green and Path of Vaul layouts that you knew and loved on the Public Test server, the new Energy of Vaul and Fury of Da Green abilities, and a handful of new and improved Tactics! Archmages and Shamans everywhere, rejoice!

Rune and Mark stacking changes:

Runepriests and Zealots will be thrilled to hear that we'll be re-introducing the ability for your Oath Runes and Marks of Chaos to stack on your allies! Just as before on the Public Test server, all players will be able to have one of each type of Mark or Rune on them at a time, and higher-effectiveness versions will simply overwrite lower-effectiveness ones. This will make your Marks and Runes much easier to use, and a more effective tool in your toolbox.

One other area we are focused on for 1.3.0b is to better incentivizing open-field RvR. We want players to hunt each other, and that’s what RvR is all about -- crushing and out-thinking your enemies. With that in mind, we are literally multiplying your XP and RP gain when fighting enemy players around Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. The Field of Glory buff currently grants a 100% experience bonus in RvR Lakes when killing players. Players will now receive an additional 50% bonus to experience and a 150% bonus to renown when killing players near Battlefield Objectives or Keeps.

Among all that, a whole grab bag of bug fixes coupled with continued improvements to our server and client performance are underway. Now, I read the boards and know some people will point out that Mythic sounds like a repeating record in this department, but the team really is improving server stability almost daily, and working hard to find even more ways to optimize our client just a little more. Some of you may not notice a change, while others will. There is no uber solution, just a whole bunch of little things we can do that will, in time, add up to something bigger. Rest assured, the team will continue to address bugs as they surface and work those fixes into their schedules, too. We can’t catch everything right away, and I know we have some that have been lingering for a while, but we prioritize them against others and do our best.

Here’s a few of our favorite bug fixes this round.

Archmage: Blessing of Isha - Ability is set back too frequently.

Juggernaut is not properly removing Takedown, Cleave Limb, and No Escape.

Marauder: Mutating Release - Does not grant immunity to snares while already active.

Finally, what about 1.3.1?

On the RvR front, we’ll finally have the second ramps in for the Keeps. I wish they were going up in with the 1.3.0b patch, but a few hiccups happened right at the end and we had to hold them back one more patch to allow for adequate testing. Regardless, they look great and we’ll be posting more information about them on the Herald over the coming weeks so you can get a look at the adjusted layouts.

We’ll continue to look at improving the RvR campaign by better incentivizing Keeps that are defended and upgraded. The plan is to base the value of rewards handed out on how many enemy players are present, and by the upgraded Rank of the Keep. Players will receive a boost for both XP and RP, plus additional gold bags handed out for a successful attack or defense. Now you’ll have even more reason to seek out your enemies for the most rewarding experience.

Another big ticket item for the RvR team in 1.3.1 is the work we’re doing on the city sieges. The goal is to make them RvR-centric from beginning to end, and this is just the first phase of our plans. I’ll save the details for my next letter, but I will share this: In the redone capital city PQs, defenders are never kicked out of their city, and they can now win the main city PQ during the capture phase to reset the campaign even quicker than the current 18-hour timer.

What about the Fortresses? Next letter. ;) Sorry, I’d rather say that than nothing. I don’t want anyone thinking we forgot about them.

Jumping from the RvR team over to our Live Events crew, get ready for a Live Event unlike any other we’ve done thus far. The Wild Hunt will be upon us to help bring in our one-year anniversary, along with the first phase of some of our social networking tools and items to help in-game players stay connected.

Before I head out, I just want to make a brief comment on the server merges we just announced. I know these kinds of changes can cause headaches for some of our players, but in the end please understand that this needs to be done to ensure the most enjoyable game experience for all of our players. After analyzing our player population across all the servers, this is the clearest plan we can move forward with. I hope all of you will take notice of the more active population as we’ve raised the bar for our population expectation on any given server now. Look at it this way, more players means more friends to adventure with and more targets to kill!

Lastly, 1.3.0b will be up on PTS this week. Along with that, our patch notes will hit the official forums. I strongly encourage all of you to check out the patch notes and jump on PTS to play around for a bit. Let us know what you think!

My guild’s Keep is getting attacked -- I’ve gotta run!

Jeff Skalski
WAR Producer, Mythic Entertainment
Twitter @Jeff_Skalski

Warhammer Alliance Reflects on Mark Jacobs' Time at Mythic

DoranM — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:42:21 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent reflection on everything Mark Jacobs. He is officially no longer working on Warhammer or for Mythic and the author of this article reflects on some of the things he did for Warhammer, time he spent with the community, and a brief history of his accomplishments across other games.

Here's a look at the first portion of the article:

If you've ever watched a magic act at work, there are always a few elements that you can count on. You can always count on the fact that the magic itself is a spectacle, very public and very visible. You can always bet on a mixture of precision, finesse, and risk, too - the execution is something that requires a certain agility, but one that must be done correctly, lest the act's secrets be exposed unwillingly, or worse yet, that people may come to harm. Lastly, you can always see that the magician is themselves a personality, whether they are willing to perform crazy endurance feats like a David Blaine, or create spectacles seemingly impossible, like a David Copperfield.

Mark Jacobs was, for many years, Mythic's magician. Building Mythic with Rob Denton from practically nothing, Mark may have seemed at times to be the man who could make planes disappear, levitate off the ground, and escape the flying blade of a saw. Dark Age of Camelot saw success that was unprecedented for Mark's family of a company, and even though the development of Imperator ultimately did not go anywhere, Mark's role in securing Games Workshop, navigating the EA seas, and eventually helming the release of WAR proved that as an executive, he had aces up his sleeve. Mark's accomplishments were perhaps dwarfed only by his personality, a bombastic, emotional , driven, presence that would probably rival the magicians of today.

This time, however, the magician didn't escape.

To read more visit the Mark Jacobs Disappearing Act article at WarhammerAlliance.com!

Warhammer Podcast Update From WarhammerAlliance.com

DoranM — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:09:17 GMT

WarhammerAlliance.com has released their latest podcast with special guest Gaarawarr from the Gaarawarr Gabs blog! This week on the podcast the Alliance crew takes a good look at recent community polls, the recent Mythic/Bioware news, and the Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo interview.

Here's the official Warhammer Podcast update from WarhammerAlliance.com:

Those holidays have a pesky way of interfering with podcast recording and releases! Sorry guys!

Your hosts for this podcast are: Frank, Martin, Kristen, and Gaarawarr from blog Gaarawarr Gabs.

Introduction (5 minutes)

Intros via poll question: "If you could visit any one place in the world, where would it be?", featuring the Library of Congress.

New host introduction

Community Hot Topic (25 minutes)

Featuring the new Mythic/Bioware group and Executive Producer's Letter, Part 3

Community Poll Pingback (5 minutes)

Featuring the Community Poll on Mythic's WAR Priorities

Dev Post Blender (5 minutes)

Featuring: Interview with Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo on Land of the Dead, Post-Release

Total length: 43:33 minutes

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