Three Warhammer Online Announcements

d3moliti0n · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:22

Hey there

So today Mythic made three announcements regarding Warhammer Online:

1. They will be using PunkBuster as the anti-cheat software in the game.

2. They are cutting 4 classes from the game because apparently they aren't up to scratch. The classes are:

Choppa (Greenskin)
Hammerer (Dwarf)
Blackguard (Dark Elf)
Knight of the Blazing Sun (Empire)

3. There are only going to be two capital cities available upon launch.

This news kinda sucks to be honest. I understand that they don't want to delay the game any longer etc but removing 4 classes...WTF?!!

I'm going to give the open beta a try, then going to join early access and if I find the game is good enough I'll buy the collector's edition I pre-ordered. If not it's back to WoW and WotLK.

Teaf · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:23

Sauce?

Kezmo · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:26

Strange that there gonna use punkbuster.
How long have they been making this now, 2 years ?

Spektor · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:27

flibby said:
Sauce?

d3moliti0n · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:27

Longer than 2 years I think...and those 4 classes were well publicized when they were talking about the game and demonstrating it, so removing them now seems pretty random and stupid.

Kezmo · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:28

Must be under pressure to get it out the door, maybe they'll ad them at a later date.

Tombstone · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:30

I suspect they have been removed because those 4 were largely (and in some of their cases, totally) untested.

On the plus side, there are still 10 other classes per faction, so not too bad (especially for me as I wasnt going to play any of those ones anyway

)

Kezmo said:
Must be under pressure to get it out the door, maybe they'll ad them at a later date.

Indeed, they dont want to delay, thats clear and understandable...so they probably figured better off leaving these untested ones out for now rather than stick them in virtually untested, and add them later

scorza · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:32

Kezmo said:
Must be under pressure to get it out the door, maybe they'll ad them at a later date.

EA accountants getting twitchy no doubt. Still, chopping classes and cities is marginally preferable to skimping on content (probably).

d3moliti0n · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:37

Why promote those classes then really early on in the development of the game yet they don't even test them, then decide to announce they are removing them. That's stupid imo. Why announce you are putting classes in the game until you know you have enough time to develop them etc. Then you don't get people's hopes up.

Teaf · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:39

Well I really looking forward to playing the Choppa at launch, kinda glad I cancelled my pre-order now.

Tombstone · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:44

d3moliti0n said:
Why promote those classes then really early on in the development of the game yet they don't even test them, then decide to announce they are removing them. That's stupid imo. Why announce you are putting classes in the game until you know you have enough time to develop them etc. Then you don't get people's hopes up.

Beats me, 3 of those 4 were in testing at one point, but were riddled with issues and were removed from testing whilst they concentrated on the other classes. IMO they tried to go with too many classes from the start, 24 classes is a hell of a lot to try and balance.

Having said that, theres still 20 left in, so I am still a happy bunny

d3moliti0n · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:46

The hype has gone now for me. I'll still be trying the game out via the Open Beta and Early Access but I am not certain I will be buying it now.

Also, it's not as if they removing minor features. They are removing two integeral parts of the game, and only a few months from shipping.

Tombstone · 11 Jul 2008 at 17:50

I'll still be buying it, I am loving it as it is, so nothing has really changed for me

sc(+)pe · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:18

This to me seems like.

1. We are running scared of WoW
2. We are running scared of WoW
3. We are running scared of WoW

And I guess many others will believe the same.

Tombstone · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:20

sc(+)pe said:
This to me seems like.

1. We are running scared of WoW
2. We are running scared of WoW
3. We are running scared of WoW

And I guess many others will believe the same.

Well that makes sense, any MMO game which might end up trying to share shelf space with WoTLK would run scared. So it makes sense to try and not release alongside it. Better from a marketing standpoint to release prior or post WoTLK release.

saint_jw · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:28

Losing the 4 classes is dissapointing but there's always scope to add them back in. Reducing the game to 1 capital per faction is a smooth move imho. I was thinking that at launch having the player base split across 3 pairs of cities wasn't such a good idea, especially considering the role they play in the game.

Deleted User 234324 · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:39

Would like to know your source because there's no information on the beta forums about it.

Tombstone · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:42

MadMossy said:
Would like to know your source because there's no information on the beta forums about it.

About what?

If you mean the classes and cities, you cant miss it on the beta forums, theres a whacking 158 reply thread about it.

d3moliti0n · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:43

MMORPG.com. There's an interview with Mark Jacobs, which is where he tells us of the three announcements.

Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/239/feature/2041

Pranksterr · 11 Jul 2008 at 18:45

If they were that scared of WoW they would have never started a new mmo in the first place

. Less capitals sounds like a more focused gameplay experianced for new players on launch and the added time bonus that allows for testing in the various betas. I'd rather less and more polished classes than a bigger but flawed range.

The game is all about RvR anyways, if that is fun then the game will have a strong following. Its not trying or will it succed in toppling WoW.