[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Hi Everyone and welcome to the chat with the Mythic team! We are SO very lucky to have them with us today, so why don't we have them introduce themselves and they'll start taking your questions!
denrightea: Dan Enright, Senior Game Designer
mythicgersh: Afternoon Folks, Adam Gershowitz, Player Systems Producer
joshdrescher: Josh Drescher, Man from the Internet.
joshdrescher: And Associate Producer.
mythicgersh: Question: |=(Man!c)=| Samos (samos123): How long will it take to lvl a character to the maximum level ? Average ?
Answer: Leveling time really depends on how you play. Ball park we've designed the game to offer around 200 solid hours of core gameplay before most people reach max level. Keep in mind that can go much longer for completionist who like to mess around with the Tome or complete all the quests. It's only the tip of the iceberg as well b/c there is alot of endgame content to play through especially in RvR
joshdrescher: Question: Haki (lapad1234567890lapad12345): What is the hardest thing while you're working on the game?
Answer: Probably deciding what NOT to use from the IP - at least initially. There's so much to pull from in the Warhammer world and so many of us are huge fans from way back that there was always a temptation to "add just a bit more" - one more race, one more class, one more special character, etc. But it took 25 years to build that IP and it would've taken us at least that long to put it all in our game, so we had to make tough choices early on about what was going in and what would be reserved for later on.
joshdrescher: Question: Jake the Great (magicswordz): What is your favorite part of the game now that it is done?
Answer: RvR, hands down. I understand that some people LOOOOOVE questing and PvE, but DAoC was the MMO I first got into way back when and I came to rely heavily on the RvR experience when it came to enjoying myself in a virtual world. The RvR we've got in WAR worked out so well that I'm really, really happy - both as a dev and a player. I LOVE leveling in RvR. My main (a Rank 17 Iron Breaker) currently has three times as many player kills as NPC kills. >:)
joshdrescher: Question: 5ronin| ïmķřǻžịә (imkrazie): Do you plan on having special events that coincide with warhammer AND real world holidays?
Answer: It's the Warhammer world, so expect Warhammer holidays!
joshdrescher: Real World holidays... not so much.
mythicgersh: Question: CymTyr (cymtyr): I know it's early in the game's life, but how soon would we expect to see content updates as well as expansions?
Answer: Right now we are really concentrating on the main game, responding to player feedback and ensuring the core game is fun and entertaining (not to mention stable)
That being said we're commited to giving players all sorts of intresting new things to experience in the game and hopefully we'll be able to share our plans for that with the community sooner rather then later
denrightea: Question: SPC Burris [3rd ID] (ltnightmare): What were you focusing on when you created Warhammer Online? The Player versus Player combat or Player versus Enviroment?
Answer: We actually have a lot of our design philosophies for the game up on big sticky notes all over the walls and halls here. One of the early ones explains that we are an RvR game that is complimented by PvE
joshdrescher: Question: Varking (ageofarkane): Has there been any new discussions for or against having an RvR style dungeon in Warhammer from the Mythic team? I know that in the past there was a big batch of players on forums who were really pushing for something like this.
Answer: It's too early to discuss expansions (free, retail or otherwise) in any great detail, but those of us who've been around at Mythic for years and years know just how much things like Darkness Falls meant to the success of DAoC. Everything is on the table.
mythicgersh: Question: Termi™ (termi): I can imagine a lot of time and resources being put into this game. Was there a particular part of the production that went wrong? Not enough time, wrong kind of animation ect. ?
Answer: I don't think anything in particular went "Wrong" we did find out thats supporting 20 unqiue careers both visual and gameplay was a great deal of work and a unique challange. Hence why we made the very hard decision to cut back that scope before release. That way we offered the best experience and greatest diversity we could do at a high level of polish
mythicgersh: Question: ChristopherKenji (kenjithirteen): How do you plan on opening up WAR to a wider audience? (for instance, people who aren't very in the know about the lore)
Answer: Honestly in the gameplay and social aspects we've worked so hard to promote. WAR is all about group play in an exciting setting. Thats our main hook, thats how we attract new players. From there we're very lucky b/c the Tome of Knowladge is full of lore for people who really want to emmerse themselves in learning about Warhammer
denrightea: Question: Gate28 (gate28): Your new chat system is amazing, but it has a single drawback. Will we be able to share items though links in chat sometime in the future?
Answer: That is definitely a feature that we feel would be a positive addition to the game.
joshdrescher: Question: Yas (herrakivatyyppi): Are you prepared with enough endgame content that will make the players stay even after reaching maximum level/rank?
Answer: We've always said that we're building a hobby experience, instead of a game that's measured by "hours of on-the-rails" content available. Playing WAR is a lot like being a fan of football - it's something you return to, again and again, because the FUNDAMENTALS are enjoyable. You root for your side, you boo the opposing team, you hope to get to the Super Bowl and - if you win - you certainly don't say "well, I guess I never need to watch football again." Our campaign system is intended to evoke THAT sort of response. Which, I suppose, makes City Siege the Superbowl of violence.
mythicgersh: Question: Gig (giggersback): I know it takes a lot of effort to create a good game. About how long did Warhammer take, from the drawing board to now?
Answer: Quite a while I personally have been with WAR for about 3 and a half years. Before that there was a solid 6 months to a year of brainstorming and pre-production between our senior creative leadership (like Mark) and the folks over GW to lay the groundwork for the game
joshdrescher: Question: roger. (hroger23): How hectic was Mythic Studios the week of release? Were you losing sleep? Anxious to see how WAR was accepted?
Answer: Hahahaha! It was pretty intense, but in a good way. The whole team was on-call, but things went very smoothly, overall. We were confident in the game itself, but there's always that fear of the "unknown" that comes with Launch Day that kept us all on our toes. Everyone from the executives on down were there to "flip the switch" at 12:01 AM on the official launch day. The team did a great job, so most of the excitement was of the "champagne and hand-shakes" kind.
mythicgersh: Question: rod|ukihar (roodi): WAR's RvR is really massive with many players on the screen, how did you balance AoE classes and single-target classes?
Answer: Thats another loaded question, and one we're constantly working on. Generally spealking AoE is potent but if you don't have supporting characters to back you up you will get dropped fast. In addition there are general saftey caps in place to make sure AoE doesn't go crazy, we limit the number of people that can be hit by focusing on Cone, Line and Point blank skills more then just target a guy and blast everything around them. In addition we limit the number of targets hit by a single spell to 9 or less generally
denrightea: Question: Loco/Thell (2ndcsmloco): What was the deciding factor in choosing the White Lion for the high elf melee dps over the other possibilities that are in the warhammer IP?
Answer: We tossed around a lot of ideas and GW and Mythic agreed that the White Lion, despite deviating from existing official canon, would make a great pet class for the Realm of Order.
joshdrescher: Question: [J5]Star-crossed (starxed): Were all the models created from scratch or were any of the Warhammer miniatures digitally scanned in any way?
Answer: Every model was developed from concept to final implementation by our own team. While we certainly looked to the miniatures from guidance and inspiration, every asset in the game needed to be developed "from scratch", as you say.
mythicgersh: Question: (magicswordz): The collectors edition came with a pretty comic book. Will you guys be making anymore of those? (I know that The BlackLibrary makes comics, but I want to know if there will be anymore WAR ones)
Answer: To be honest I don't know , but I'm hoping we will b/c I crave collecting that type of stuff myself. So much that I went out and bought additional copies in retail just to make sure I got them all =P
joshdrescher: Question: Whitey - Yoshi's OP (whiteysah): Where did your unoffical slogon WAAAGH come from?
Answer: We shamelessly stole it from the Warhammer IP. To over-simplify it, it's the battle cry and mob mentality of the Greenskins. Which, if you've ever seen us at a show, pretty much encapsulates our team and our fans perfectly.
mythicgersh: Question: Termi™ (termi): As far as the character animation and texturing goes, you guys did an awesome job! Was there certain aspects of the character creation that you guys had to put more time into than others? Are you proud of what you have accomplished with the available characters so far, and will future characters of the game look even better - if possible?
Answer: First of all thanks for the complement, I started in character art myself so I'm glad you enjoy the art. I'd say the biggest hurdle in character creation was getting the Dye systems set up. Orginally we didn't plan to release this to players but when we saw how flexibile it was we knew we had to do it. However that meant alot of artwork needed to be retouched to look good. Even to this day we're eyballing Dyes and armor customization and coming up with about a dozen and a half diffrent ways we can add more colors or make it look better
joshdrescher: Question: Msmith (atrer): Do you guys plan on keeping it on PC only and not going cross platform?
Answer: PC only, until otherwise noted.
denrightea: Question: Gate28 (gate28): I play a balck orc and i find the boar a disappointing mount. Any chance we can see a wider array of mounts in the futurE?
Answer: We will likely expand upon the mounts feature over time but any additional visual variety we add has to remain within the boundaries of the ip.
joshdrescher: Question: [War]Elfix (elfixx): how often do you expect to be making major content updates to the game?
Answer: Again, it's too soon for anything concrete, but we'll likely stick to something close to how we updated DAoC - major updates, alternating between free and retail. Roughly once a year or so.
mythicgersh: Question: [War]Elfix (elfixx): Shall the numbers of spells increase as the age of the game?
Answer: I'm not going to say 100% yes, but its a very strong possibility. As BETA players may remember we're more then happy to add skills to careers that need them. Not to mention we definately plan to have all the character stick around for years to come. So naturally that means we'll be expanding their skills and abilities over time as well
mythicgersh: Question: Oakenshield (aodairbird666): Are there plans to optimize the graphics engine and add additional optimization features to help make the game run smoother for lower end computers?
Answer: Since we are a competive RvR game performance is King so to speak. We have a good number of people dedicated to improving performance across the board on all systems.
joshdrescher: Question: ロクガル (smdhell): With the so called "decline of PC gaming" do you think MMO's are the future of PC gaming, do to the fact they aren't pirated easily?
Answer: I love that question. PC gaming has been "dying" since I was in middle school and the NES got huge. I mean, sure, it's grown exponentially in scope, popularity and profitability non-stop ever since, but somehow it's always "dying". ;)
That said, I think that MMOs represent an evolutionary change for video gaming across the board that's taking place. More and more players are no longer content to spend ten hours alone in their basements playing through a game that's solo-focused with only the game itself as an "opponent". Nothing else we do as humans when we "play" behaves that way. Board games, school yard games, sports - all of those are cooperative and social, but also COMPETITIVE. You play them WITH other people and AGAINST other
mythicgersh: Question: The Chosen One (tconl): As you mentioned a few times some things are priorities and some are not. Which are your top 5 priorities right now?
Answer: My personal priorities are pretty biased seeing how I'm in charge of the player characters and their systems. However my teams constant #1 priority is game balance and watching the careers and making the appropriate adjustments to keep them playing well. We're also very concerned with keeping an eye on the itemization and insuring players are getting meaningful rewards in both PvE and RvR. Aside from that Performance is always a high priority as is usability
joshdrescher: people.
MMOs satisfy that desire nicely and are becoming more and more popular as a result.
joshdrescher: oooh... chat buffer limit!
joshdrescher: Question: cactuscat222: For jobs on the WAR game, what were you looking for in employees, if anything in particular?
Answer: We have all openings posted on http://www.eajobs.com. ;)
mythicgersh: Question: Komah (dami): During development, what was your guys' favorite zone/teir to design and why?
Answer: I didn't design any zones but I personally dig both Black Fire Pass quite a bit.. Inevitable city is also quite awsome especially under siege
joshdrescher: Question: Tierjar (lordmoriar01): How indepth was GW during the making of WAR, did you have to present to them everything that you folks thought should be in the game?
Answer: GW was with us every step of the way - from design to final implementation. Every piece of art, every bit of text, every scrap of dialog, every note of music was approved by GW directly. We WANTED to know that the game we were making was truly adhering to the spirit and soul of the IP and GW did a great job of working with us to make sure we accomplished just that.
mythicgersh: Question: Termi™ (termi): The Podcasts for Warhammer Online was a great idea. Why did you decide to use this kind of marketing/advertisement, what did you expect to gain from using Podcasts?
Answer: Basically imagine your working and this Crazy Brit you've never seen just walks in a films somthing on his phone your working on b/c it looks cool. Well that was paul, he had this habit of walking around the office filming whatever fit his fancy so he could look at it later. (Usually with commentary) As you know Paul is naturally humorous so you can imagine what happened once we started passing videos around the office, the next step was naturally podcasts =P
joshdrescher: In addition, we really believed that you need to build a community and establish a relationship with them early on in order to make a great MMO. If we hadn't had the kind of passion and dedication from our fans that we did, we would've been in trouble when things like Beta came around and we needed critical, knowledgable people with a vested interest in the project to tell us what was (and more importantly what WASN'T) working.
The podcasts were a great way to get detailed information to players in a way that they could quickly understand, but that ALSO made it easy for them to link to friends, repost on blogs, show to new, interested parties, etc.
Also, we're all terribly, terribly vain and wanted to see our faces on The Internet.
Also, to reassure people, we'll continue to do podcasts now that the game has launched.
mythicgersh: Question: Chommpers (chommpers): Will we some low level dungeons to do instead of just the public quest?
Answer: There are already a number of lower level dungeons in the game, head on over to your capitol city and check them out!
mythicgersh: Question: {NinjaSquad} Drewsipher (punkrawker4455): Who did the story writing? As a writer I love knowing that, and I'd love to do that in the future
Answer: It wasn't one person but rather the sweat and toil of an entire team of people we *ahem* locked into a room and summarily whipped for the Glory of the Chaos Gods.. err I mean WAR. No really we had a number of very dedicated Warhammer junkies that were also skilled writers from other projects (like camelot) it was only natural to let them lead the charge after Mark laid down the inital groundwork
denrightea: Question: Msmith (atrer): In the future do you guys plan on expanding on the rvr or story/pve content primarily?
Answer: RvR is the beating heart of WAR so we would be expanding on both RvR and PvE in portions similar to the existing game.
joshdrescher: Question: #βčŞ* Şmόkёy* (smok3y720): Do you guys enjoy playing any other games on different platforms such as halo, rock band, or the guitar hero series?
Answer: In and around the office, Rock Band, definitely. We take it to big staff meetings, we play it at parties, we have rooms on every floor dedicated to it. We are crazy for some Rock Band.
Personally, I'm currently in the middle of Lego Batman, which I'm enjoying a lot. MGS 4 was great, but there may be too many cut scenes for most players. I finally got around to playing Overlord a few weeks ago, which is stupid and fun.
In terms of board/card games, check out "Fluxx" by Looney Labs. It's a great, quick card game for Smart Fun People.
mythicgersh: Question: R*.WO1.Megagold5 (megagold5): Will you improve the need system so that you can only need on items for your class?
Answer: Making sure people have a fair stab at getting the right loot and not griefing people is a high priority for us. Especially since we encourage things such as open parties. As such its definately one of those items we're looking into
Question: Whitey - Yoshi's OP (whiteysah): Is there any part of the game now that you think the development team should work on alot more than they are?
joshdrescher: Answer: Edible Halflings, definitely. Currently, we can't decide between "Hickory Smoked" and "Mootling Tartare."
mythicgersh: Answer: Well as a whole I think we need to work a little less =P we are rather fanatical so much that they have to physically remove us from the office after launch.
joshdrescher: Question: rod|ukihar (roodi): When creating the game areas, did you look on real world locations or is it based entirely on the IP?
Answer: Disclaimer: I am not an artist. I can barely draw a circle.
The Warhammer world is a mix of history and fantasy, in a lot of ways. Obviously, things like the Inevitable City are spawned from the fevered brains of Madmen and Geniuses, but lots of things are drawm directly from things like medieval history. An example - the "Mastiff's End" in Altdorf isn't just a juvenile dog-butt joke from us, it's actually a style of gargoyle that was actually used in medieval Germany. You'd put the Devil's face on an animal's backside to strip him of his power.
mythicgersh: Question: CymTyr (cymtyr): How do you feel about class balance currently?
Answer: Overall we're pretty satisfied... Is it perfect? Not by a long shot, and thats somthing we're constantly working on. Very few MMO's to date have launched with as stable of balance as we have. That being said we're also not intrested in resting on our laurels. We're actively out there watching and playing and scheming on who's going to get the bolster and who gets the BAT!
mythicgersh: Question: Whitey - Yoshi's OP (whiteysah): Createing a game sounds realy fun and fufilling am i right?
Answer: It is a really satisfying feeling to finally get a game like WAR out the door. Working with the talented group of Devs we have here is always been an intresting experience =P That being said just like every other job it has its ups and downs. Not to mention late nights!
joshdrescher: Question: Gig (giggersback): How difficult did you intend Warhammer to be to play? Did you want it to be something people need to practice at, or something anyone can pick up and casually play?
Answer: Easy to learn, challenging to get good at, hard to master. We definitely want player skill to be a deciding factor in situations where two opponents are truly, evenly matched, for example. To return to the example of sports, you can play catch in your back yard easily, you can join an office softball team if you're more dedicated, but getting to be an elite player takes skill, commitment and a LOT of practice.
joshdrescher: Question: Chommpers (chommpers): Do any of the dev's play the tabletop RPG of Warhammer?
Answer: Oh, yeah. We have a lot of REEEEALLY nice armies in the office. Adam's team actually has a full table set up all the time in the common area between their cubes!
joshdrescher: Question: '`|v|~dawnn (spaznos2000): Will you guys ever be running any type of RvR Tournys?
Answer: As always, nothing's impossible, but we have no plans for that currently. We're not trying to create some sort of secondary "Professional Warhammer Online League".
denrightea: Question: [J5]Star-crossed (starxed): Are there thresholds in place to monitor the population of servers to ensure RvR content doesn't primarily remain in the hands of one side for too long?
Answer: Yes, each realm has the same population threshold on a server that must be reached before characters of that realm are put into the login queue. We are also looking at ways to encourage more even population breakdowns on the low and mid population servers.
mythicgersh: Question: Jake the Great (magicswordz): What is the class that you most wanted to have in the game, but didn't make it
Answer: I particularly liked Ye Old Empire Rat Seller concept we had.. We made some class pitches as a joke but I mean it would be awsome to be festooned with dead rat sasuages! Think of the posibilities
joshdrescher: Question: Matt (blakeclypse): Will we ever see more "evolved" music in various areas in the game, besides the thunder of cannons and the scream of the dying? I love the music in the cinematic and what plays when you're at the character selection screen. Will that ever make it into WAR?
Answer: There's a fair bit of music in WAR (90 minutes of full tracks, plus a couple of hours worth of remixed themes, fanfares, etc.), but we wanted it to act as "punctuation" more than anything else. When you build a background soundtrack into a game like this, players quickly grow tired and turn it off, meaning you can't use it at all later on in many ways. We generally take a "less is more" attitude in this regard.
mythicgersh: Question: Gate28 (gate28): I remember hearing that as a player levels, they would physcially change. Is that in the game or will it ever be?
Answer: Thats another one of those things we cut back on b/c we wanted to make sure we offered as much flexibility and choice in what we had in game instead of going really broad and really shallow. That being said will it ever come back? That answer is no diffrent they any other.. Its an awsome concept and if we feel we can give it the time to do it justice I'm sure we'll look into it again
joshdrescher: Question: CymTyr (cymtyr): When it comes to developing new dungeons, would you say you'd be interested in developing more open dungeons or would you focus on private instances?
Answer: As before, everything is on the table. We're looking to add things we're missing, fix things that are broken and expand things people love.
mythicgersh: Question: Whitey - Yoshi's OP (whiteysah): WAR is full of nougats of jokes. Is there any jokes that you had in the office that you ended up putting in the game for a laugh?
Answer: Well there is a Marauder head and hair that looked suspiciously like one of our Designers. Of course once we saw that little mistake we had to correct it... Suffice to say it looks exactly like him now.. Just angrier
joshdrescher: gersh - I found (content lead) Gabe on a boat in Altdrof earlier today.
joshdrescher: Question: #βčŞ* Şmόkёy* (smok3y720): Will we ever be able to meet the developers in person in a convention of some sort?
Answer: Yep. We go to most major shows in the US and we try to get to as many major events abroad as we can. Check out the WAR Herald for schedules (though, the 2008 "Show Season" is basically over, so don't expect many appearances until next year).
denrightea: Question: Kutu- Karad Orrud (kutu): What chance do smaller guilds have at end game content? will they be able to compete within it without being forced into larger guild alliances?
Answer: We've designed our RvR systems in a way that doesn't prohibit small guilds, or even individual non-guilded players, from participating in and contributing to the RvR campaign and end-game content like city sieges.
mythicgersh: Question: Whitey - Yoshi's OP (whiteysah): I love the way healers can hold it out in pvp! why did the WAR team decide to give this new concept to healers?
Answer: Mainly b/c in every other game out there Healers are speedbumps... I mean everyone LOVES to drive over them real fast, but did you ever stop to think... How does the speedbump feel?
mythicgersh: Plus we didn't want any particular career to be boring or need to rely on others to get the job done. We want to promote team play but not force it
mythicgersh: what good are you if you can heal a thousand friends if you can't kill a rat after all
mythicgersh: Question: Eon The Wolf (kaireg): Did you ever think of yourselves as 'The WoW killers' or 'A WoW killer' or were you just trying to make War an MMO of it's own right, without worrying about others?
Answer: We set out with WAR to make a really fun social, and competive RVR game. Nothing more nothing less. If people want to tout us as a WoW killer so be it, that just means we've hit our main goal. Which was keeping the game fast, fun and addictive..
joshdrescher: Question: Eon The Wolf (kaireg): How accurate to the IP would you say the game currently is, and how much less or more you plan to make it?
Answer: Very accurate. As I mentioned before, GW approves everything we do and, since it's their IP, everything in WAR is "accurate" in terms of the sensibilities, attitudes and aesthetics of the IP. We deliberately avoided setting the game in a canonical portion of the Warhammer narrative because we wanted to be able to draw from all parts of the IP, but in terms of the fundamentals of Warhammer, I think we hit them all.
joshdrescher: Hands... cramping....
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Alright Everyone! I think we've broken the mythic team now!
denrightea: Question: cactuscat222: The economy is very precious to a MMORPG, and as such, it seems to be doing well. When you started out, how did you decide on how the economy would function?
Answer: We never intended WAR to have an emphasis on economic simulation. Practically everything you can spend in-game currency on is already gated through other metrics such as character rank and renown, guild rank, etc. The in-game currency is more or less there as an aesthetic element.
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): They're going to wrap up their last questions!
joshdrescher: gersh has the Strongest Hands of All.
mythicgersh: Question: [J5]Star-crossed (starxed): the crafting skills seemed setup in a way to foster a nice player-based marketplace. can we expect to see more than just the auction house (ie. guild shops) to continue with that theme?
Answer: Crafting is one of those things we want to continue to grow and really tune around player choice and customization. Right now like with many of the features we're generating new ideas on crafting.
mythicgersh: HANDS OF STEEL
joshdrescher: Thanks, everyone!
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Alright!
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Time for Prizes!
joshdrescher: Hopefully, we answered a few things you were interested in.
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 5 Winners will win an Xfire Tshirt. and 5 Winners will win a prize pack that includes the Game and a Warhammer Tshirt!
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): If you are a winner PM me for instructions on how to claim your prize.
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Xfire Tshirts:
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 1. Frank Castle
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 2. Oakenshield
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 3. SFI Divine
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 4. Penpen
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 5. War Elfix
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Warhammer Prize Packs!
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 1. CymTyr
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 2. Drakahl
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 3. Whitey-Yoshi
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 4. Eon the Wolf
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): 5. Komah
[Xfire] Matteox (matteox): Alright Everyone! That's it. Have a good night!