Some of my friends were wondering why the switch to this old game instead of World of Warcraft.  While I used to play WoW quite avidly, I just don’t have the desire to now.  It seems like they give away the end game content way to easy.  There’s no sense of reward anymore.  Granted I don’t really miss the second job like raiding that I used to do, however I do miss the sense of achievement after learning a hard encounter for the first time.

I’m sure some of you hard core mmorpg raiders know what I’m talking about.  The weekly raids with 20-40 people getting together to beat the other guilds on your server to a server first boss kill.  Especially when it meant something that your guild killed Onyxia, in Molten Core, fighting in Blackwing Lair, or fighting bosses in Naxxeramus.  Even prior to that there was people who got together to do planes raids in Everquest, which was an even harder thing to do back then.

What’s happened to the current MMORPGS nowadays?  There’s no real sense of accomplishment in getting to the end game.  We want that achievement, but games like World of Warcraft have really spoiled us in terms of how we should get there.  It seems like the standard is now to have an easy time getting to the end level, which is where the content starts.  Where as, before the fun was actually in leveling up or even the grind. Its something that I thought I would never miss after playing games like Lineage 1 and 2.  Or even Ragnarok Online.  However, I do admit once you got to your next level you did get that little bit of joy even though you’ve spend most of your day sitting at your computer neglecting your social life.

In a game like Warhammer Online, you play against other people in one of two factions.  Yet there was no stake in the game.  If you died you didn’t lose any items, exp or anything of value to you except time.  You had no stake in any of the keeps, or land that the opposing faction was trying to take over.  There became no real reason to defend said keeps/forts/even capitols.  Even Failcom’s Age of Conan got that part right, by forcing people to grind out their guild cities they emphasized a need for that guild to stay together, and make enemies/allies with caution.  You had a ’stake’ in what you put into the game, and to defend this you actually put in an honest effort since you didn’t want to lose your hard work.

Has it really come to this?  Have we as gamers who have always wanted to skip through content to see the end game now just complaining that we have it all too easy?  I kind of miss the grind, but I kind of don’t at the same time.  Is it just me that feels this way?

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New recruits will need to use the link in their invitation email to create their Recruit-A-Friend free ten (10) day trial.

It looks like now instead of 7 days, the free trial person will be able to play for 10 days, so three extra days for them.

Players may recruit new players or invite back former players that have been gone for more than sixty (60) days.

Also if I read this right if you have a friend who previously played this game before, and they haven’t played for more than 60 days then you can invite them back to play for a short while.  I wonder if they will put a limit on this or will I be able to constantly reinvite someone every 2 months?

In-Game rewards will be applied retroactively for all previous recruits.

Now this is a nice one, so which means if any of the people I recruited become paying players (pay for 1 month subcription after the first month).  I get to reap the benefits of the rewards.  Wait did I say rewards?  Yup heres whats in it for me, the recruiter, if I sign up a bunch of people to the game:

Free Game Time – For every recruit that becomes a paying subscriber, your account will be credited with 30 days of game time.

This already is a nice benefit, one free month for me.

Loyal Pet – Recruit two subscribers, and your King will present you with a loyal pet from his own kennels to join you on your journeys. *Begins March 5^th, 2009

Warhammer is finally introducing pets?  Sweet, and it looks like if I bring some recruits in I’ll get these pets first hand.  Now if only the recruits I signed up stay on longer than a month or two =).  Check out the size of these things though.  They aren’t the little wussy mini pets you get in World of Warcraft mind you.  They are the same size as those White Lion pets.  Check these two out for example:

Recruit a Friend Order Pet

This one looks like a giant bloodhound that could probably one shot an unlucky goblin player with a sit command. Geez what did they feed this thing.

Recruit a Friend Chaos Pet

And this mangy looking thing here is bigger than a dwarf, I think they fed him too one too many squigs. Now those are some Huge puppies!  I definitely want one of these.

Now if that’s not enough to get people to invite more players to the game check these in game items out:

The Rod of Service
This gift from Karl Franz himself grants a 5% bonus to group experience and renown. In addition, it grants the wielder the power of Apprenticeship, allowing him to temporarily raise a realm-mate’s level to within two of his own.

The Collar of Servitude
This gift from Tchar’zanek himself grants a 5% bonus to group experience and renown. In addition, it grants the wielder the power of Indenture, allowing him to temporarily raise a realm-mate’s level to within two of his own.

Looks like Warhammer Online will have an apprenticeship program as well.  Though I have to agree with Syp, and Rog about this feature being standardized for all players.  It shouldn’t be an item just for people who have recruited people into the game.  Even though this game does have a ‘bolster’ feature in rvr lakes, it would be pretty fun to get people up into T4 right out of the gate with this item.  I remember the fun my guildmates, and I, had in Age of Conan when we brought out level 20 players to the level 80 zones.  However from experience it is really nice to be able to bring people out to experience the end game right away without them having to grind out the low levels alone.

I for one am glad they are bringing in this type of feature into the game.  It keeps the friends who don’t have as much play time, able to play with you in the upper tiers.

Anyways now I need your help to get me some paying recruits.  If you haven’t played Warhammer Online in over 60 days (would be 12/31 as of this post date).  Let me reinvite you back in time for the Slayer/Choppa release.  The Bitter Rivals events starts March 3rd to be able to play the Slayer/Choppa classes a week early.  If you haven’t tried the game out yet, I should have a few recruit a friend e-mails left so leave a comment here, and I will try to get you one as soon as I am able to.

Also if you haven’t picked up a copy of the game you can pick one up from this link below:

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Portrait of Frankenstein

Well server merges from Azazel to Volkmar along with Sylvania looks like it was a good thing.  Its been a while since I’ve actually seen the whole RvR lake get filled up with active battle markers.  The zones are flipping constantly, and people are pushing to the forts as often as I saw it happen on Dark Crag.  Hence the the title, welcome to Volkcrag. 

Initially after the server transfers, many of the Order guilds jumped aboard onto Volkmar seeking active RvR.  While Destruction players were being careful as to which server they were going to choose so they didn’t immediately show up on the servers.  Soo it looks like what happened this past weekend was that the order players soo hungry for pvp and renown, pushed all the way into the Inevitable City two days in.

Of course the immediate push to the Destruction capital was greeted with doomsayers saying that the server is imbalanced etc.  The forums on WHA became flooded with the whines of Destruction players regarding population imbalance again much like the old forums of the Azazel server.  Of course the people playing then had a good reason to complain when the portal to the capital city looks like this:

Order zerging the Inevitable City on Volkmar

Then on Tuesday something else  happened to shut them all up.

Destro players showed up, organized, in force, and took a fort from Order in one clean push.  They even outnumbered the Order players at one point that night.  My how quickly one night can change the forums from the armageddon type of attitude to, “Our servers finally balanced” or “We’re having fun” etc.

Anyways that’s the update on the Volkmar server currently on Warhammer Online.  I have a feeling that if the Order players don’t hurry up, and get organized, the Destruction on the server of Volkmar (even being outnumbered by Order), will become the dominant faction.  As for me?  I’m finally getting to play my Engineer again, and finally got myself to renown rank 49 last night.  I hate waiting for BOs/undefended keeps, and so my renown ranks are mostly from scenario/skirmish only.  I think I’m ranking up at an alright rate.  What are everyone elses servers like on Warhammer?  Are any of the readers here from either Volkmar/Azazel/Sylvania as well?

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Anyways our server has the choices to go off to Volkmar, Gorfang, and Magnus.  However there was a pretty nice idea by the people over on the Sylvania server to have their server also transfer to Volkmar as well.   Now doesn’t this sound familiar?

Mythic realizes they made WAY too many servers still, and merges about 3 low pop servers together.

It was one of the things I wrote that I wish would happen.  Looks like we’ll get our chance to do so after weeks of boycotting the server to try and get Mythic’s attention.  Although as a result of the boycott on the server I now have a level 27 sorceress on Dark Crag that I’ll be putting on the back burner for a little bit. 

What to do what to do.  I just have to make sure once the transfer start tommorow to get everyone out of the mail so I don’t lose it.  Atleast in Warhammer when you do server transfers you can keep the guild experience, and renown so that you don’t have to start from scratch anymore.

That in itself is a big plus, but then there are always those just have to ruin the fun for a few people.  Yes, its a game, and people’s identities in game don’t mean much in real life, but if you worked hard to get your guild to the top only to have its recognition get taken away like that its pretty low.  For those of you who don’t want to go read the thread what happened was that since we are moving servers, someone from the opposing realm decided to go there, and create guild names/player characters of our servers notorious people.  Thankfully my name hasn’t been taken yet.

Anyways, I am eager to be playing my Engineer, and my Runepriest once the transfers go through.  Playing on a dead server in a pvp oriented game isn’t very fun, so I thank Mythic for ackownledging the problem.  Now, I just hope they fix the end game, and really hope these new zones is going to be enough to keep people playing for a few more months/years.  Hopefully this Land of the Dead becomes the new Darkness Falls.

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The workaround might take a little getting used to so I recommend doing it on some easy PQs.  What you’ll need:

A party that knows how to do this, and is willing to cooperate.

Auto-loot turned off.

Loot Threshhold set to all.

Master-looter assigned to person who wins the bag.

What happens is if a party completes a PQ or a keep.  The rolls go off, and winners determined.  The person who wins the gold bag(if they don’t need the loot), can be set to master looter.  Once this is done they can loot the chest, and click on the gold bag to assign it to someone else in the party or warband.  This way if someone already has everything they need they can effectively pass their winnings onto someone else.  Its not a new thing, and its been brought up before.  Hopefully Mythic implements something like a token system again in the future for people who have been extremely unlucky at winning things.

Anyways hope this helps out some people who have yet to get their set pieces still.  Good luck and happy hunting.

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To whom it may concern over at Mythic,

As current subscriber of Warhammer Online, an avid player, a big fan, a earnest mmorpger, and someone who really wants this game to succeed.  Please, for the love and future success of this game, merge the servers asap.  Judging from the server population ratios, that mythic posted a few weeks earlier regarding populations, I don’t think you took the numbers of active T4 Order/Destro during the server primetime.

On our server of Azazel for the past few months, we have been running an average med/med server.  In the more recent days Low destro/Med order or Low/Low.  The bulk of destro plays actively plays in lower tiers.  We’re pretty much the opposite of the most lopsided Monolith server as we have more Order than Destro.  In the recent weeks Order has pushed to The Inevitable City multiple times.  Combine that with our mass exodus of disgruntled Destruction players leaving the game/server our server has basically become a ghost server.

The number of people re-rolling to successful servers like Dark Crag is climbing.  Our server doesn’t need new characters, rather we need an option to either move to a more populated server or, have a few (not just 1 or 2) servers merged together to become an upper tier Medium population server.   According to the census mods that we’ve been using we’ve only had about at most 400ish people online at a time.  With only about 100-150 Order players on.  Destro tier 4 is about half of that currently active after them re-rolling or unsubscribing the game.  The successful servers such as Dark Crag have active primetime populations of 2,000 players per faction when using the same tools to check census populations.

Mark has mentioned this before as mentioned here:

A quick post and then I have to head out. This latest round of transfers is, in most cases, not an attempt to move low pop servers but rather an attempt to build higher pop servers from med/med pop servers. What we’re hoping will happen is that with these moves the oRvR opportunities on those servers will be even better and more plentiful than they currently have on those servers. The servers that people we are asking people to move from have the lowest population of their type.

As I’ve said before, we recognize the importance of oRvR to our game and this is just one of the steps we are taking to try to encourage more people to partake in it.

However in a more recent post by a WHA staff, who is hopefully wrong about it, they mentioned that paid transfers won’t be coming till late 2009.  If the later is true then I’m not sure how many players will be sticking around till then.  Order side has probably lost a good 25-33% of the player base this past month on our server alone, and Destro numbers are even worse off.  (they haven’t left the game mind you, they moved to a more active server).

There are plenty more on the server who love the game, but don’t want to lose all that they have invested into their characters and guilds.  So the only solution for us is to stick it out until our populations become low/low so we can move to a better server.  Or that Mythic realizes they made WAY too many servers still, and merges about 3 low pop servers together.

The people who play the game love it, and many people have come back to it.  However they don’t like 3 major things right now with it, and if they can get fixed.  You’ll have a gold mine.  The current free transfer system isn’t working anymore, and I’m not the only one who thinks WAR has problems with underpopulated servers.

1. Fix population imbalances – While the herald mentioned that populations aren’t imbalanced, if you break them down into Tiers and time that the factions are active you’ll notice quite a big difference.  Mythic needs to take a deeper look at this if they want their players to be happier on some servers.  IE: Merge Azazel (order dominated) with Monolith(destro dominated).
2. Too much crowd control abilities in Tier 4 – Reduce them, fix them, or flat out remove them, but DO something about it soon.  For a game that promoted itself as one without having much crowd control.  The end game is nothing but that.  Its aoe stun/disorient/root/knock down/knock back/silence galore.  Immunities need to be applied sooner, grouped together (ie have knockback/knockdown on same timer), remove the aoe aspect of them, or have them not all able to be chained one after another.  Testing on the test servers need to be on a larger scale for them to realize, hey when we introduce lag to something that is already somewhat broken, it makes it 10x worse.
3. Low Population servers – This game I think will go the distance.  It has its niche, its market, its playerbase.  However, it needs to take a look at how many people are leaving due to the not enough activity on the lower population servers.  Every day, someone else in the guild or alliance stops logging in to our server, or the game entirely.  People we recruit a friend we tell them to go roll on more active servers because they won’t have fun on ours.  Waiting an hour during primetime for a scenario to pop with NO open RvR just isn’t fun.

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Since it was a new encounter for us, and thinking that we were going to be need wards for it I took out my Runepriest Minimoses for the event.  I’ve been neglecting the the toon for quite a bit since I’ve been focusing on my engineer alot.  So it took me a little while to get used to my hot keys again.

Anyways, this here is a screenshot of order banging on The Inevitable Cities’s gates.  Only about a warband or so of Order was there at this time (I think the rest of Order was still out in the fortress they just took over).  Regardless, this lack of Destruction to defend would be the same trend for most of the night.  Someone counted up the populations here in the WHA forums, and it seems like Destruction just didn’t want to call up their friends to defend that night.

And here’s another shot of us in one of the instanced PQ zones right smack in the center of it all.  Most of the night we spent farming for gear, but I only got my Invader Vestments piece out of it.  Which since I’ve been on my engineer quite a bit, I doubt I’ll be able to wear for a while.  The instance we got zoned into had some destro in it at first, and then they just up and left.  Since it was new to us we didn’t really mind as we went exploring places etc.  I went off to the south of the city and destroyed all of Destruction’s weekly top renown statues.

To my dismay though, that was pretty much the only thing we were able to go in and destroy.  The rest of the zone was just npcs, and this whole event was basically a giant PQ farm fest for invader gear.  The PQ was definitely anticlimatic.  I mean you’re sieging this capitol city, and you’re blowing up crates?  Great.  Then the PQ hero mob comes out, and its not even hard.  (granted we had no opposition)  Anywho, atleast it was fast so we could redo the PQ over and over again.  Especially since the same PQ drops 4 pieces of the Invader set (Helm/Chest/Shoulders/Belt).

Once our group got enough gear though we figured out how to change instances, and joined into an instance that had 48 or so destro.  Apparently that one was a little more coordinated than the 12 people we brought in so we promptly got run over.  That PQ though is a little harder to accomplish when capturing and holding 2 bfos is part of the PQ.  They need those type of PQ in the open RvR zones.

The only scenario running was one called The Undercroft, which basically takes place in the south part of the city by the statues.  Its a capture and hold type with about 7 bfos.  Its a pretty massive scenario since it was a full warband vs warband scenario.  Only problem was that due to Order’s numbers we got mixed up with quite a few pugs, vs the Destro warband group which was a little more coordinated.  Due to them winning the scenarios I think was what caused us to not be able to capture the city and pillage it.

Anyways after that night I think Destruction on our server became a little demoralized.  Our Med/Med population dropped to a Med/Low population, and destruction wasn’t around much the day after.  I wonder if Mythic will transfer our server to a low Order/High Destruction population so that we can enjoy a little more PvP.  As it stands now, a one sided server isn’t so much fun.  They have the people, but for some reason they just don’t show up/help or coordinate I guess.

I was expecting more from the city siege event.  IMHO even clearing Lost Vale seemed like a better achievment than the PQ grindfest we encountered.  Hopefully more people show up to defend the city next time so we can have a little more fun.  I was expecting more of a Battle of Praag type of scenario where both sides try to push the opposing side out.  I was also expecting to be able to do more than just 1 PQ for the initial city siege.  (I know there’s more PQs that open up if we were successful in capturing the city) However after capturing 2 fortresses you would expect something better than just 1 PQ.  Hopefully Mythic adds more end game content, because after tonight there was quite a few people who no longer want to resubscribe.

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Now what’s in it for me?  If you try the 7 day Warhammer Online trial from me, and decide to buy the game I get a month free, and I can refer more people to the game.  Here’s the details from the herald post:

Recruit-A-Friend To Join the Armies of WAR

The Realm War continues to rage and the armies of Order and Destruction are always on the lookout for new recruits. Do you know a brave warrior that could bolster the ranks? You could earn 30 days of free game time when you recruit family and friends to join the battle in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning!

Here’s how it works:

• When you become a paying subscriber to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, you’ll receive 3 recruitment notices to share with friends or family. For each month you continue to subscribe, you’ll receive another recruitment notice (for a maximum of 6 at any time).
• Send a recruitment email to a friend or family member from the Account Center. This will allow your recruit to create a trial account for seven days of free play. Unused referrals expire after 30 days and will revert back to your pool of available referrals.
• When your recruit becomes a paying subscriber to WAR, you will receive a credit for 30 days of free game time. Stay tuned for more exciting recruitment rewards in the future!

Log into the Account Center for more details and begin recruiting today!

If you’re planning on picking up the game regardless of trial you can pick up a copy from Amazon.com here.  Either way, hope to see you all in game, and I’m currently on Azazel as Order either on my Runepriest – Minimoses or my Engineer – Xight.  I recommend going to a high or med pop server, as the low pop servers are not a good example of how good this game can be.

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Anyways the list of Tier 4 Warhammer Online Keeps that this Squig  Herder gets in is:

Karak Karag single wall *Thundermountain
Karaz Drengi both walls *Kadrin Valley
Kazad Dammaz single wall *Kadrin Valley
Stonewatch Keep both walls *fortress
Charon’s Keep single wall *Chaos waste
Zimmeron’s Hold both walls *Chaos waste
South Praag both walls *Praag
North Praag both walls *Praag
Moor’s Repose single wall *Reikland
Wilhelm’s Fist single wall *Reikland
Reikwald single wall *Fortress
Hatred’s Way single wall *Caledor
Wrath’s Resolve single wall *Caledor
Pillars of Remebrence single *Eatine
Arbor of Light single *Eatine
Covenant of Flame single *Dragonwake
Drakebreaker’s Scourge both *Dragonwake

Sneaky Goblin Tactics 4

YouTube [link]

Interesting enough, and while its probably not the last of it too. He’s missing the hole from the Black Crag north keep though which is pretty easy to find.

Anyways I’m off to go play my engineer alt again, which btw is level 34.  I feel like Syp has rubbed off on me as I really enjoy my engineer more than my runepriest nowadays.

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Here’s a list of all the new tactic names, along with their previous name counter parts for reference.  On what to kill/do to get them go read the tome tactic guide.

• Harrier – (Bestial) – Beast types
• Favour – (Chaotic) – Beastmen types like Gor
• Aethyric – (Daemonic) – Demon types
• Sky Titan – (Giant) – Giants, Trolls types
• Outmaneuver – (Fungal) – Greenskin
• Boon – (Manly) – Human, Dwarf, Elf Type
• Apotheosis – (Mythical) – Magical Beast Types
• Cunning – (Queek) – Skaven Types
• Benediction – (Undead) – Undead Types

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