Exploring the Dwarfen and Greenskin Realms

As mentioned before in my post about the Border Princes, one of the forms of the Warhammer fantasy world that has great appeal to me is that of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game (WHF:RPG henceforth) books. I had never played pencil-and-paper role-playing games before, but my fondness for the lore and atmosphere of the Warhammer Fantasy universe drew me into this style of gaming. Why? Because this is the one medium of gaming that allows for you to create your own story, your own adventure. Tabletop gaming feels like it is more about the battle and strategy to overcome the opposing units (the same applies for the Total War games), and other video games have a static story to be told, whereas the roleplaying games provide a rich background for you to create a character to explore the world with your friends. One of the things that I quickly noticed about the WHF:RPG books is that they heavily focus on the Empire. While I appreciate the depth of the setting, I have always been drawn to the other realms of the world whose stories were less developed, and perhaps none more so than the dwarfs of the Old World.

A mighty kingdom that stretched the mountains of the world, with magnificent feats of architecture, torn asunder and left struggling for survival against the filthy tide of the greenskins. The WHF:RPG books only barely scratch the surface of the dwarfen world and its culture. Sure we know the tale of Karak Eight Peaks in great depth, but what of the other fallen holds? I long for a game (video or pen-and-paper) where I can descend into a fallen dwarf hold and explore it! How did such a mighty hold filled with stubborn warriors fall? What was its story? As someone who has been the GM (Game master) for some WHF:RPG sessions, I have the unique opportunity to form these environments for my players to explore – however the choice of exploration is theirs and I can’t force upon them the enthusiasm which I have. I’ve decided to share some of my own crafted lore for these factions in case someone else wants to one day explore the world of the dwarfs and their nasty rivals, the greenskins (yes, I understand the skaven are also nasty rivals, but they have their own heraldry book released by Games Workshop.)

I am fortunate enough to know a few artists who were willing to help me create banners for these different factions because an additional quirk of mine is that I love flags and what they symbolize. While some of the logos for the banners were taken from official Games Workshop material, many (if not most) are not official and it was with great joy that I worked with the artists to create something new. In making these new dwarf hold logos, I tried to stay true to the style created by Mark Gibbons, as seen in the image below. In some cases dwarf holds have colors associated with them, but in many cases I did not find any official designation of colors. However, because I feel that in battle it is important for the different holds to differentiate themselves, I did select different color schemes for the Holds. Likewise, not all of the characters or the lore I present is official, but much of it is supplemented by my own thoughts.

Once again, I am not presenting anything as ‘official’, simply my creative contribution. Due to the fact that Warhammer Online has a large influence on my Warhammer fandom, some of that may seep into what lies ahead. I feel inclined to start with the greenskin tribes, as the WHF:RPG books touch upon them the least. As there are scores of greenskin tribes, and my friends’ willingness to draw banners has its limits, I made a select few that served my needs. After the greenskins I shall move on to the wonderful world of the dwarfs! Perhaps one day my kithband warrior will explore the depths of Karak Varn or find the ruins of Karak Vlag (where he shall be free of the racist persecution of the Empire!)

Something’s a brewin’

Tentative date of the start of “1.9” set for December 12th.

Here’s a sneak-peak of where I’m heading.

Until then!

Status Update

Greetings fellow readers far and wide! I see that despite not existing for 4 months the droves keep checking my blog and waiting for something fresh from the Hypothetical world. Unfortunately after tallying up 1,700+ kilometers on foot in the past months, I am not done yet. That being said my internet access is… shall we say limited.

I’d guess that at this point most people check this blog not actually dreaming of great things for Warhammer Online (seeing how that child was orphaned in favor of Wrath of Heroes), but instead people simply come here to get a taste of the Warhammer world and IP. Warhammer Online was a game I dearly loved despite its short-comings, and through WO:AoR I was introduced to the Warhammer IP and grew rather fond of all that it is. I do not know the current fate of the game (though I have my suspicions…) though I will always miss the epic battles of yore.

With these facts on the table I did the unthinkable and set up a twitter account so that that one day when I can sit down and post the remainder of my ideas, those who wish to ‘follow’ that account can do so more easily. Or you can continue checking this blog weekly. Any long lost friends can also try to email me at my shadow warriors name at hotmail. One day I shall return and finish what I set out to do (when I get the art and the time =P). Until then… remember the blood of our fallen commrades in WAR!

Fare-Thee-Well

Greetings friends! Today I come to you with my official ‘unofficial’ leave of absence from the blogging world. I actually quit WAR just before the Christmas holidays and coincidentally quit blogging at the same time just because family obligations caught up with me. After not playing for a few months I found it hard to come back both to the game and to blogging. However recently after seeing all the people who continued to visit my blog after four months of silence from me, I felt compelled to finish my 1.8 patch cycle for the sake of closure.

My 1.8 patch cycle was part of a larger project to show how WAR could grow with new content built around old content. But by no means was 1.8 ever meant to be the end of my project – in fact it was only the middle – but I am departing oversees to the old country and frankly do not know if I shall have internet access or when I shall return home. So if you would like to keep following my crazy ideas, do not expect much for the summer months.

To my readers, I greatly thank you for motivating me to write on. WordPress is neat enough to show me from what country my readers hail from, and it is with a bit of pride that I can say that my blog touched all 6 populated continents – virtually every country in Europe, and even Iran =P However, the statistic that gives me the biggest smile is that the second largest following on my blog was from my fellow Poles, only following my American readers. For all my readers for whom English was a second language – I applaud you.

Once again I thank you all for the years of support, and I hope to return one day and finish my future patches (which went on from 1.9-2.2). Until next time!

Artistic Process

You may have noticed recently a small gap in my ‘daily’ posts. Well, the simple fact is that the wonderful art drawn for my blog takes lots of time to do! Much of the art is drawn in advance allowing me to post, but unfortunately with the busy time of the year, my friend has gotten caught up with other tasks. Here’s a link to his site so you can see some other great work he’s done. And below is a small sample of the different steps it takes for a picture to come to life – this example being the most recent Kossar vs. Pleasure Cultist fight. Enjoy!

A Return to the Hypothetical Patches

Greetings! Tomorrow, November 1st, I hope to restart up my Hypothetical patch cycle resuming at 1.8.x Hopefully I can resume posting my ideas at a regular interval. Other than that, I hope everyone has/had a safe and happy Halloween!

Update

Good tidings one and all. Just wanted to pop in to give an update because I’ve gotten some inquiries regarding my absence. No I have not gone anywhere/quit (sorry Mythic), just taking a blogging break (and to some degree a gaming-break). I’m giving my friend who does the artwork for me some time to catch up and I assure you once he’s ready to get back into action, I shall launch into further hypothetical patches. Trust me, I have a lot more planned, just takes time to creative art for them. I could always just post my ideas in solid walls of text, but I’m inclined to believe my readers don’t like walls of text. So be patient, and soon enough 1.8.x shall be ready to launch in the hypothetical world =)

Quoted for Posterity

Mythic PR at it’s best from my friend Sakurra, who helped film the Escalation of WAR series, and is also the author of the The History of WAR.

The time has come for Mythic to be called out for some of their 1.4 memorable quotes. I can only let so much slide past me before I get upset, and the recent 1.4 Booster-Pets tipped me over the edge. So lets look at some quotes brought to us by our Mythic staff in various media and bring them out into the light.

A Year of Great Expectations
First up hailing from January of 2011, after the launch of 1.4 and the disappearance of then-writer of the Producer’s Letters Ms. Carrie, we had our first Producer’s Letter written by James Casey. One particular portion I’d like to pull out of this letter is –

We have eight Live Events planned for this year. Some of these are returning favorites (like the recently completed Keg End) and the forthcoming Night of Murder in February. Others are new ones we have planned to fill in some of the calendar gaps.

Now I was gifted with eight fingers (that’s four more than my nemesis Fourfingers) and I can count up to eight. If you take the annual Keg End, Night of Murder, Wild Hunt, and Daemon Moon into account, you’ve still got room for 4 new live events. Sigmartide was one. Where are the other three? There’s still time for 3 more, but its going to be a tight crunch to fit them in the remaining 3 months of the year with the Daemon Moon and Keg End taking up spots in October and December. Plans much have changed quite a bit for 75% of the new live events to disappear.

It’s in the Animations
This time I’m turning my lazy-eye at Mr. Steven Engle. During the Blogger visit on July 6th of this year we had a chance to talk with the Devs about several points, this discussion was transcribed by Gaarawarr. At one point career balance was brought up, in particular RDPS. I brought up removing stance restrictions from some Shadow Warrior abilities, such as Acid Arrow, to bring our flexibility more in line with the Squig Herder; the response –

That, again, depends on the animations with the cast time…it just depends on the what kind of cast time and animation it’s using. It’s on a point-by-point basis on whether or not we can change it.

Now I don’t know the complexities of the game-code of Warhammer (apparently doing things like changing mail-box graphics breaks ToVL so I’m not alone), but this excuse of animations didn’t sit well with me. The animation wouldn’t change by removing the stance restriction, it would remain the same; and if the animation is tied to the stance… well Acid Arrow works in Scout and Assault, so why not Skirmish? Acid Arrow takes 1.5s to cast in Scout, Assault, and Skirmish… wheres the change in cast time? No where. Mainly what got under my skin with this excuse was that 1.4.3 was launched a week before our visit, and in this lovely act of class balance, the Witch Elf was given ranged finishers, but the animations weren’t changed… So now a WE flails her daggers in front of her and… Bob dies 30 feet away. Boomerang Daggers.

Boring Crap
This one really got the community riled up. Our dearly beloved Paul Barnett, head creative designer for Mythic, is pretty much the guy who was the face of WAR before launch. He then got shoved into a closet and re-emerged recently with the beta-launch of WoH. In a panel-discussion for WoH at the 11 minute mark Mr. Barnett said,

I think basically we went, ‘You know what, you can play the MMO, you can get all this equipment as you adventure, and you know its a neat thing to do… let’s just get rid of the boring crap.’

Wow… so you’re the guy who was in charge of designing WAR, and in part responsible for said ‘boring crap’ and now you’re taking pot-shots at WAR to promote WoH? How exactly are you still employed? O.o I’ll admit no one does the PvE anymore, but damn… unacceptable.

Milking the Player-Base
Taking a step back into the days preceding 1.4, I want to bring into the light the biggest thing that gets under my skin. In the video pod-cast about 1.4, Ms. Carrie Gouskos said –

Account Entitlements – these are items we’re making available to all players on the EA Store, but they have no impact on game balance.

You don’t say! Yet 1.4 brought out the Snotling Herald which gave players a 3% speed boost. So if you didn’t buy the Snotling Herald, you couldn’t outrun your enemy who had one. And speaking of 1.4, that brought about RR81-100 – you’re going to tell someone who doesn’t buy the Progression Pack and is stuck at rr80 fighting RR100s that there is no impact on game balance? You go roll an RR80 and fight rr100s – enjoy your game balance. It would be one thing if RR90+ was separated into its own bracket, but its not.

These things most people let slide… and then the Stat Booster Pets came out… again those who have no qualms spending more on this game buy those and reap the rewards, and they tell you ‘5% is nothing, stop your crying’. Since Mythic doesn’t take surveys of the crap they release, we turn to the lovely Charlotte of Warhammer Alliance to do Mythic’s work for them with this poll. As someone who researches and studies the psychological and sociological steps that lead to the dehumanization which allows for genocides to occur, it is easy for me to draw a correlation between the two psychological processes. Abridged version – the powers-that-be take baby steps in pushing forward their agenda and psychologically winning over the population. ‘Ah its only a 3% speed boost. Ah its only a 5% stat boost.’ ‘Ah its only name calling. Ah its only segregation. Ah its only politically approved violence.’ Slippery slope, and I don’t like slippery slopes. We let Mythic get away with selling little things like this, which apparently “have no impact on game balance,” and they’ll just keep milking the player-base for all the money they can get introducing more powerful items players need to buy to keep up with the curve.

Oh and Carrie, the High Elves know you don’t like them; that’s why they named a weed after you in Eataine. From Wikipedia –

A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings… More specifically, the term is often used to describe any plants that grow and reproduce aggressively.Generally, a weed is a plant in an undesired place.

1.4.4 & A Patch-History of WAR

Back in June I did a little segment called “A Patch-History of WAR”, which consisted of the Golden Age, The Age of the Tortoise’s Progress, The Age of Many Ages, and finally the Age of Aratmetic.  With 1.4.3 going live on June 21, 2011 (the the launch of the Sigmartide Live Event), the WAR community had to wait quite some time for the next patch. The typical 2-month-cycle was offset with 1.4.4 which launched September 13, 2011. Hopefully this will not be a new trend, and 1.4.5 will come out soon enough (my guess is it will launch with the Demon Moon Rising Live Event).

1.4.4 September 13, 2011
Return of the Wild Hunt Live Event
Scenario Shake-up
Numerous PvE/Tome bug fixes
Introduction of Keep Defensive ‘wins’
Career balance for Shadow Warriors, Engineers, Squig Herders, and Magi
New stat-booster pets

Like 1.4.3, 1.4.4 doesn’t really fit the Age of Aratmetic, but because they are such small patches, its hard to find a new title for them. In general it seems like these patches are focusing more on C&C and ORvR, yet at a much smaller scale than patches like 1.2 or others with grand changes for C&C. 1.4.3 however seemed to take a backwards step at addressing Witch Elves finishers. While the changes to the Magus, Engi, and Squig Herder made sense, the range finisher extension for the Witch Elves just made no sense. If you don’t want to take it from me, then go ahead and read it on Taransula’s blog. If one of the best Witch Elves on Gorfang says these changes are ‘OP’ then there’s a lot of weight behind those words.

1.4.4 however took a more balanced approach to addressing the physical rangeDPS classes. Most importantly however, 1.4.4 gave the defenders of keeps a chance to ‘win’, which at least on Gorfang has done a bit to revitalize ORvR and motivate people to defend keeps.

1.4.5 has quite a bit slated for it with forts, Grovod Cavern’s return, and possibly the new T7 armor (with forts?), so that’ll be exciting, but even then unless there are other changes made to C&C, it wont fit with 1.4.3 and 1.4.4 Oh the woes of a historian… Perhaps 1.4.3 has begun the age of Tiny Patches with big implications…

WAR’s Population – Then & Now

As Warhammer Online turns the page in the third chapter of its existence, we can take a step back to see where the game has been thus far. The chief measure people use to gauge the success of an MMO is generally population, which in turn equals revenue; by this measure it has certainly been a bumpy road for WAR. How many people can proudly claim the badge of having been subbed [and playing] WAR for 3 years? How many people can proudly boast of having been on the same server since launch? The list of people who have been with WAR and been ‘actively’ playing since launch seems rather meager. What’s WAR left with? The ‘hardcores’, as we’ve been christened.