Month: October 2008

Mourkain Temple is a Tier 2 Scenario (12v12) in Warhammer Online using the murderball mechanic – where one item is held for points but increasingly damages the player holding the item.  Mourkain seems to get a bit of flak, but I really like the fast pace of the map (especially compared to the other slower paced Tier 2 Scenarios) and the focused game mechanic. The map and game mechanic is most interesting in that it truly allows a better team to rub it in the loser’s face. I’ll explain.

A basic match goes like this: (a) players rush the murderball, (b) one team gets the ball and goes defensive, while the other team tries to kill the ball holder and his support on the offensive, (c) the ball gets dropped and someone else picks it up.  Points are made for picking up the ball, holding the ball, killing the player with the ball, and killing other players.  It’s a pretty simple concept.  In most games, the team with the murderball will fall back so as to get closer to their resurrection point. This has quite a few benefits because your healers don’t have to worry about rez’ing as much when you are standing next to your rez point, your newly rez’d players can jump right back in the fray, enemy players that rez at their point have to run for ~30 seconds to get back in the fray, and your ranged players can stand on top of a ridge gaining immunity from melee enemies. Seems like a good plan to fall back.

Going back to the psychological gamesmanship, it is quite a defeat when one team can “hedgehog” so as to impenetrably defend the murderball the entire match. I saw this tactic when I started playing Mourkain’s. Now, I am seeing a different “tactic” where a heavy tank (Black Orc or Ironbreaker) will pick up the murderball and push forward.  When I first saw this (and I am a Zealot healer, so it was all the worse) I could not believe the stupidity of the Black Orc I was following. “We have the ball, fall back, and make them come to us!” However, I kept dutifully healing, and my teammates did their jobs effectively. We then handedly defeated Order with the ball in our control on their turf.

It is an interesting strategy because it shakes up the “set” tactics an armchair general might bring to the table. The team without the ball should be on the offensive, but if they are getting pushed back things get muddled. Then the DPS are unsure of who to target, and get cut under in the confusion. Healers have to spread their healing around more.  And of greatest effect of all, in my humble opinion, is the psychological one where the losing team is told “you are getting beaten so bad, we won’t even let you go on the offensive like you should.” I cannot think of another MMO PvP map/mechanic where a similar effect could take place – where you can rub their noses in their loss through gamesmanship and skill.  That, or players could just be bored with hedgehogging and turtling tactics.
–Ravious

Ardwulf claims to be for Order, but can we trust a man who lives a double life? Where was he when the forces of Chaos stormed Stonetroll Keep? Where was he when our Dwarf allies were routed at the Mourkain Temple? He was at Mount Bloodhorn, playing at being a Greenskin. When the call to war comes, will it be a Bright Wizard that answers, or a Black Orc?

Ardwulf is a friend to orcs. Is he a friend to the Emperor?

Paid for by Sigmarites for a Purer Ostland

: Zubon

I badgered a few friends to run back to some skipped Public Quests in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning last weekend, and we decided to try out the more difficult Public Quest for Chapter 4: Chaos called Salzenmund, aptly named for the walled town that the Raven Host is corrupting from within.  The Public Quest deals with the actual direct attack of the Raven Host on the town.
 
The Public Quest Salzenmund starts out with the objective to steal the supplies from the city, which requires players to dispatch one or two simple guards and then interact with a box of supplies (50 times).  At the second stage, you have to take out two of the city’s leaders who are both Champion level mobs.  The surrounding city becomes filled with fighting as Raven Host warriors rush in to contend with the remaining Empire defenders.  It feels like the whole area’s conflict escalated from the tunnel entrance of the city where one or two NPC battles occur to the whole town.  The (anti-)heroes are of course rushing to deal with the enemies that the lesser of the Host cannot deal with.
 
Once you defeat the Champions, a Hero Bright Wizard boss appears.  As he appears the entire city erupts in an inferno, and it truly feels like the war for Salzemund has erupted to another level.  Buildings are burning.  Raven Host NPCs are running around sacking everything.  And in the middle of the chaotic inferno you go toe to toe with a huge flame mage.  When the triumphant Chaos players win, the city continues to burn until the Public Quest resets.
 
I felt in this Public Quest that Mythic’s developers truly took the reigns to use their unique play mechanic as a story-driving device -  a simple epic story.  Quite a few Public Quests are rather boring escalations with no true story except ‘your killing ten rats has angered a bigger wolf/boar/rat/man-thing.’  However, there are some true gems like Salzemund.  Another thing to note is that this epic-feeling event takes place around level 10-12 (out of 40), so players do not have to go through to the so-called “end game” to feel like a hero… or killer of one in the Destruction sense.
 
Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online both have similar story telling devices (missions and instanced epic quests), but in neither instance did I feel the story was as world changing as some of Warhammer Online’s Public Quests. Only in Guild War’s case did I feel that the mission was readily available to do again.  Mythic has created a persistent, game-driven storytelling device, and I cannot wait to explore the Public Quests at the higher tiers of play.  I hope that there will be quite a few more that have me saying “cool” outloud.

The game is shaky on it, particularly with respect to floors and ceilings. If you use an area-effect attack in a cave, everything on tunnels above and below you might come running for you. That is if you are lucky: they also might start hitting you through the ceiling. This is a fun way to discover when a building has a basement or a hill has a cave: attack enemies on the surface and see if invisible monsters start eating your ankles.

Did I mention that I have an AE-specialized character? Good times.

: Zubon