What Next Hypothetical WAR?

As I always draw to the end of one of my projects, I always get the question “What will you write about next?” or “You’ve covered everything already, how do you keep coming up with stuff to talk about?” Well the future of a blog regarding a single topic, such as a game, depends on the growth of the product. Hypothetical WAR has the plus of not only being able to discuss the present and past features of Warhammer Online, but also the possibilities for the future – the blog is based off of theory crafting after all. Has my blog impacted the way Mythic and the Warhammer community thinks and acts? I can only hope. I like to think viewing my blog is a big taboo at Mythic =D “Hey Bob whatcha looking at? Oh my gosh is that Hypotehtical WAR?!” “No! Gosh no! I was just… browsing some… baby-seal-clubbing sites!” “Oh ok, that’s much better. Stay chipper, Bob.”

As for my future plans, or the questions I get “Do you have something else planned?” and “How much longer are you going to keep going at it?” the answer is twofold. First off, I do have another big salvo at Mythic planned; however, its still in the brain-factory so I’m not quite ready to start talking about it. Secondly, after this upcoming project we’ll see what the state of Warhammer is and if I can keep dreaming up unrealistic possibilities 😉

Regarding this project, I reach out to my readers and ask for anyone with artistic talent, time to share, and a love for Warhammer to contact me. I can write, I can think,  I can envision, but I can’t draw. While nothing may ever come of what I’ve thought up, perhaps we can show Mythic that the community still has passion, still has the will, and has an untapped reservoir of ingenuity. So once again, if you have artistic talent and want to contribute to a feasible possibility of WAR’s future let me know.

Where’s the love for the Alt-aholics?

Back in the Q&A pre-1.4 someone brought up the age old request (as in since November 2008 when the Black Guard and KotBS came out) that we be allowed to make 12 characters per server because… we would like to try out all 12 classes and not have to play 10 on one server and 2 on another. We asked, Carrie said ‘Oh I didn’t know people wanted that’ (probably because the only class she likes is the DoK) and she made a note in her phone or whatever to up the character amount to 12. Well… here’s my @Mythic – whats the status on those 12 character slots per server? I saw no mention of it in the Producer’s letter and that would at least be welcomed as progress in terms of Community-Mythic communications.

Wrap-up & A look Ahead

Today marks an end of my second mini project of expanding the RvR fight into the PvE lakes – this time I took on the approach of separating the high RR players from the little guys, with the intent of both giving newer players a fighting chance in T4 (and thus an incentive to play on) and to give high RR players the opportunity to fight in new locations. Population concerns were brought up regarding the viability of such thinned out tiers with the games population numbers so low. While I understand the concerns – I do not feel that we will be getting any more new players in T4 as time goes on because it sucks getting raped as a Anni-clad trooper by someone in Doomflayer or Warpforged. In my maps I tried to illustrate locations which had something of value either in terms of lore or defensibility. While it wasn’t something I delved into, a system could be implemented where the fight in T5 would influence the outcome of T4.

Moving past my T5 Parasite project we enter the present and future. Finally the annual Mythic Holiday of Thanksgiving-February has been broken.

‘Warpforged’ T5 – Elf T1

For the last leg of our T5 journey we go to the realm of the elves, the place where my journey began – the Blighted Isle and Chrace. These two maps differ significantly from the battle for one main reason – they are significantly larger. Where much of the Dwarf T1 maps are lost to mountains and the Empire T1 map lost to ocean and mountains, the Elf T1 zones have less terrain lost to undeveloped oceans/mountains. For this reason I have opted to increase the BO count in these zones from the typical 6 per map I used in the Empire and Dwarf maps to 8 per map. The change isn’t large, but opens up the arena into a larger battleground over more locations.

‘Warpforged’ T5 – Dwarf T1

Today we take the RR91+ journey to the land of the Dwarves, infested by the bloody Greenskins. We enter the realm of Mount Bloodhorn and Ekrund. In lore, Ekrund has already fallen; in WAR, Mythic has given Ekrund a second life! Despite the small size of these RvR lake, so much space is wasted in mountains and undeveloped portions of the map. For this reason it was very hard to choose locations to fight at, in particular the Greenskin storyline is terribly cramped in these zones and finding locations that were spread out was very difficult. Hopefully the result I produce spreads the fight out enough to not make the zone tight and cluttered.

‘Warpforged’ T5 – Empire T1

Time for the beginning of the last leg of this journey. Today we enter the realm of the Empire v. Chaos T1 pairing and reshape a portion of it for the purpose of a T5 battleground for players who are RR91+, and what better place to duke it out than where it all began. Because the maps in this tier are so small, I have reduced the amount of BOs down to 6 per map, but have kept the amount of chapter hubs at 2. In these small maps the battle will be smaller, more frequent, and more fierce. Let’s take a look at the sites.

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Elf T2

For the final installment of the ‘Doomflayer’ T5 we venture into the realm of the Elves. Oddly enough these are probably among the two most desolate zones in the game – the Shadowlands because everything is in ruins, and Ellyrion because its open rolling plains. That being said it was pretty difficult to find key locations of interest to fight over, the solution created very elongated maps – particularly in the Shadowlands. Going for 9 BOs per map and one chapter hub I had to opt for the 4/5 and 5/4 splits but that shouldn’t be to grave of an issue. Onto the locations!

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Dwarf T2

Today I take the Doomflayer battle to the realm of the Dwarves and the Greenskins. These maps posed the same problem I had in the Badlands and Black Fire Pass – the majority of the T2 Dwarf storyline is in the Marsh of Madness while the majority of the Greenskin storyline is in Barak Varr. The solution was to place all 9 of the MoM BOs in the Dwarf storyline and have both the chapter hubs taken from the Dwarf Storyline, while in BV all of the BOs are taken from the Greenskin storyline. For the Marsh of Madness the Destruction T5 players would operate out of the standard warcamp, while in Barak Varr the Order players base of operations would be the Chapter 7 town. On to the locations! Can you find all the hidden SamuelJacksons?

‘Doomflayer’ T5 – Empire T2

Today we begin the journey into the realm of the Doomflayer portion of T5, taken out of T2. This tier is open to players 81+, although these players may return to the Sovereign tier and see slightly diminishing returns in their renown. The BOs and Chapter hubs from this tier will drop Doomflayer crests. Also because the maps are getting slightly smaller I have reduced the amount of BOs per pairing down to 18 (instead of 20 like in T3). For a special contest, look for the guest appearance in the Troll Country screenshots! See if you can find SamuelJackson in all the pictures.

‘Sovereign’ T5 – High Elf T3

For the final installment of the Sovereign T5 series we take the battle to Ulthuan, and I actually approached this task with great excitement because taking the battle to the Destro half of Saphery has always been my dream. I want a say in the fate of the Tower of Hoeth damn it. As an addendum to the thoughts I’ve thus far thrown out for the T5 model I wanted to add the option for players to take a quest to a BO of their possession – much like the quest in the Dragon’s Bane scenario that would teleport you to the BOs you controlled. Of course this system could be subject to tweaking, but it would certainly make the embattled sites that much more contested. Anyway onto the sites!