Warhammer Online: Exclusive Interview #4

Today we come back with five more questions and answers from Warhammer Online Community Manager Richard Duffek. Within, we get answers from the EA Mythic employee on things like siege, instancing and playing together.

WarCry: Instancing is supposed to be quite limited in WAR. As more and more MMOs continue to add more instancing to their games, can you explain why WAR is going the other way?

Richard Duffek: While instancing can be very beneficial to a game if done the right way, overall it still takes away from what makes a game a MMO. The first word there is massive… There really isn’t anything all that massive about being in an instanced zone with five other people and some mobs. WAR is all about the war, being out there with the rest of your army, capturing zones, and beating down your hated enemy’s capital city gates.

Having said that, though, we’ll definitely use instancing where appropriate, especially with boss encounters and other areas where we want to focus on a single-player’s (or small group’s) action.

WarCry: With each race having its own starting lands, how easy will it be for me, as an Orc to team up with my friend who is playing Chaos?

Richard Duffek: Technically one of you could go to the other’s starting land almost immediately. If you know your way around the game, you can run through the starter areas to the first warcamp and travel from there to your capital city. From your capital city, you can travel to your friend’s warcamp and run down to his starting area. For the more patient types, by playing through the starter areas naturally, you should get there within about ten hours of gameplay.

WarCry: The Bloodthirster, which is the nastiest daemon in Warhammer, will be in the game. Can you tell us if we will get to fight any of the other big nasties from the other races?

Richard Duffek: Oh, yes. You’ll come across major beasties from all throughout the Warhammer world, as well as running into more than a few recognizable characters.

WarCry: In one of the screenshots released in the April Newsletter, there was an Orc riding a beast. Is that a class specific mount, or just an NPC; and what kind of mounts can we look forward to getting in WAR?

Richard Duffek: That was an NPC, the leader of the Greenskin camp where you begin the game. While there will indeed mounts, we’re not ready to get into the details just yet.

WarCry: We have now seen Dwarven cannons and Orc Catapults in game. Can you tell us what Empire and Chaos can look forward to as far as siege weapons?

Richard Duffek: As you play the game, you’ll run across Chaos Hell Cannons, Empire Great Cannons, Empire Steam Tanks, Chaos Siege Towers, Empire Hellblaster Volley Guns, and many more. And let’s not forget Greenskin Siege Towers and Dwarf Organ Guns!

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