Warhammer Online Herald Development Team News Feed

Jeff Skalski - WAR Producer's Letter

Jeff Skalski — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:38:19 EST

Hey Fellow Waaaghers,

Just wanted to drop a few lines to follow up where our fearless leader, Mr. Hickman, left off reaffirm that our support and dedication to making WAR the best RvR experience in the market has not changed. We're just a few weeks past the launch of 1.3.2 and heavily testing 1.3.3 as we speak to get it ready for PTS.

1.3.3 brings with it a focus on continued polish and bug fixes, enhancements to RvR as well as other features to improve the quality and enjoyment of your experience. We’ll be sprucing up graphics with improved lighting options and bloom to make the skies pop to life and create some spectacular sights, in addition over the course of 1.3.3 you’ll get to enjoy three live events including the return of the Battlebrew Backpack in Keg End and the much beloved Night of Murder event in addition to an all new event in the new year…yarrrr. We’re anything but bored as you can see and we can’t wait to open the gates on PTS to hear your feedback. Your feedback is vital to ensuring 1.3.3 is a hit so make sure you share it!

Till then, we are continuing to actively monitor how the RvR campaign is playing out across the servers and making adjustments as we develop the Underdog system which we look forward to sharing the details about with you soon.

In case you haven’t heard the news we’ve now made WAR more accessible than ever! We’ve brought RvR to the Mac for the first time ever so you don’t even need Boot Camp to play (It made me a Mac user!). Additionally your friends and family can play the intense, fast paced action of Tier 1 forever with the new Endless Trial and Windows users only need a quick 1GB download to get into the action while the rest of the game downloads as you play. PQ's are full, scenarios are popping and there are plenty of players scouring the RvR lakes looking for revenge – so why are you still reading?

See you on the battlefield,

Jeff Skalski

Jeff Hickman - Executive Producer's Letter

Jeff Hickman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:31:34 EST

Hello everyone,

With all that is going on within Mythic Entertainment and EA, I would like to take a moment to reinforce the studio’s dedication to both our games and our players. At Mythic, we remain committed to our games and the passionate people who play them – we’re going to continue to deliver the content and service that keeps you playing. We want to assure our community that we will maintain the same high level of customer support you’ve come to expect and continue to improve our games with an exciting schedule of patches, live events and new content.

Mass PTS Playtest! - 11/11/2009

Andy Belford — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:31:45 EST

Greetings!

The WAR Dev team will be hosting a mass playtest tomorrow night, 11/11/2009, starting at 8:00 PM EST on the Public Test Server, Warpstone. We will be testing the newly reduced city siege timers and the values associated with advancing the city into stage two.

As has been the case with previous mass playtests, some lucky players will win either an Enslaved Manticore or Imperial Griffon mount! So come on out and join in the fun.

We'll see you on the PTS!

WAAAGH!

Dev Diary - John Cox (Combating Hackers)

Jess Folsom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:13:40 EST

Well the topic of this developer diary is a naughty word—the H word—H ****** - er… hacking. It’s something we at Mythic don’t often talk about openly, but we do take very seriously. It’s a very interesting subject that I’d love to talk in-depth about; it has many challenges and curiosities that make for an interesting discussion. I get a sense of joy when I know we’ve ruined a hacker’s day. Unfortunately, “fighting the good fight” is very cloak-and-daggers stuff, going back and forth, with the hackers and cheaters—so, to talk about it in great detail also gives information to the very people we’re attempting to thwart. Here’s my best shot at showing you a glimpse behind the curtain about how we handle hacking and cheaters without giving away too many of our secrets!

Introducing the WAR Endless Trial!

Andy Belford — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:42:07 EST

Greetings!

We are pleased to announce the introduction of the WAR Endless Free Trial. The Endless Trial will replace the current 10-Day Trial. All players who are currently on their 10-Day Trial will be automatically converted to an Endless Trial account, so no need to create a new account if you're already a trial customer!

Not yet a Endless Trial Player? Head on over to the WAR Endless Trial page and sign up today! We've made jumping into WAR easier than ever with the introduction of our new Streaming Endless Trial client. After an initial download of just over 1GB, additional content streams in the background and as required while you're playing!

Be sure to check the FAQ for any questions about the Endless Trial.

Note: The Endless Trial will be available after we have completed our account maintenance today.

AP Regen and You!

Andy Belford — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:14:41 EST

"AP should be a pool, not an ocean." - Gett of Dark Crag

Action Points are something that effects everyone who plays WAR. Healers, Damage Dealers and Tanks all use Action Points, so it is only natural that when something changes about the way the system works, there is going to be concern, discussion and possibly confusion.

To help better explain what's going on with the current state of Action Points in WAR, the Community team reached out to the Combat & Careers Team Lead, Nate Levy, for insight into the recent bug fixes affecting AP Regeneration.

For more information, read on!

Dev Diary - Chad Robertson (Game Performance)

Jess Folsom — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:14:00 EST

Today, Chad Robertson, WAR's Technical Director, took a break from solving the world's greatest mysteries to tell us all about the efforts that have gone into improving game performance in WAR for the last year, and the recent triumphs they've made (now live in 1.3.2!). This is one of our most technical Dev Diaries to date (befitting of a Technical Director), but it's packed with great insight and details you won't want to miss out on. Read on!

Producer's Letter - 1.3.2 and Beyond

Jeff Skalski — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:16:39 EST

Hey Everyone,

It’s been one week too long for me pulling together this letter. The team has been pounding away at making sure our upcoming 1.3.2 patch is not only full of great features and improvements, but is set up to be one of our smoothest version deployments to live yet. By now you should have had a chance to check out the 1.3.2 patch notes for our Public Test Server. If not, check them out here. I’ll still be here when you get back!

Armor Set Redesign: Part 3

Jess Folsom — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:03:58 EST

Completing our three-part Armor Set Redesign article series, we now bring you the final eight careers. As with the first article, below you will find before and after shots for eight careers (four Order and four Destruction) in their Sentinel, Conqueror, Darkpromise, and Invader armor set.

Dev Diary - James Casey (New User Journey)

Jess Folsom — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:39:00 EST

Today James Casey, Associate Producer for the Features Team, is taking a little time away from working his magic (and killing small potted plants, much to Phillip Chan's dismay) to discuss the New User Journey being introduced in Game Update 1.3.2. Read on to learn all about the apprentice system, changes to Tier 1, improvements to the in-game tutorial system, and more!