Tuesday 31 August 2010

Wild Hunt is up and off/Producer's Letter!

Welp Wild Hunt is back again, sprung up live while PUGing some Scenarios.

Double LEage!

Haven't really noticed anything different from last year as yet! Except the Hunter's Vale seem a lot easier then last time round. No idea if that's a change in my perception but I'm pretty sure last time round the Boss had a insta kill attack and I diddn't notice it this time round!

Wild Hunt Task


wOOt! While posting this up the Producer's Letter Augest has come online! Can be found here! I'm off to read through it!

Sunday 29 August 2010

I hates it. Part 2 - The explanation

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm along in this but I'm really not liking the new 6v6 EC scenario.

Why not? Well after doing it pretty much constantly all of yesterday, both solo queuing with PUGs, Dual queuing with a friendly Zealot and as a full guild pre-made I think I've come to it from pretty much every angle and it's just far to short and inconsequential. It also dosen't help that it's been the only damn thing that seems to pop.

God knows how the points are generated but it's crazy quick.

I've not been in one that took longer then 5 minutes start to finish, win, or lose it dosent matter. It's over in minutes and you just requeue again. I know it's a farmer paradise for your fused insignias but it's just far, FAR too throw away.

Just whenever it pops up I can't summon the energy to care how it ends up (except in a pre-made obviously). And the renown your gain from it seems to be rubbish compared to pretty much every other scenario in the game currently, lucky to hit 1.8k even with the 10% bonus and a 500 point lead (although I suppose the amount of bonus 600 RP win bonus adds up at the rate you can hammer through them)

If there seriously thinking about putting this in the rotation they need to take out all point scoring other then player kills or half it or something, TBH I'm not even sure how you get the points but even with 0 kills the losing side still seems to end up with 100-200 points!

So yeah, I love 6v6s but if there thinking about putting one in permently they should seriously just fix AOE/LoS issues with Iron Clad and put that back in. Much more fun and enjoyable IMHO.

Also this is one of the PUG line ups I ended up in while dual queuing with Skumgummi the Zealot. Kinda fixed the eternal question of is there such a think as too many Chosen?
Spoilt Broth
The answers a big fat YES.

Also annoyingly I ran afoul of the Quitter debuff ona T1 alt. Have been queuing while roaming the Empire/Chaos lake, get a pop while in combat. We finish off the Order in the area but I don't come out of Combat in time. The pop expires and I get hit with the Quitter debuff. Wth? Is that meant to happen? I'm guessing not and being locked out of scenario queues because the game wouldnt let me enter the bloody thing in the first place it not cool.

I hates it. Part 1

It being the new 6v6 scenario.

I've just logged off, after a couple of drinks and having complete the neww WE Warfront event line (So at least 15 Runs both as Pug/Premade)...and I don't like it.

In fact I would go as far as to say I dislike it immensely bordering on hating it.

I'll clarify this further tomorrow but right now all I have is.....apathy. I would have much preferred pretty much anything else.

But A) I'm fully aware everyone else including my guildies seem to *love* this and B) Kudos to Mythic for bringing forth something new. Ill go into further detail soon!

Wednesday 25 August 2010

I have a confession…Goodbye old faithful.

I've been playing WAR on an old 6+ year old comp on the "fastest graphics" and everything slashed down to minimum settings or turned off completely.

The only times I’ve been able to put things up to high is during Pve Raids (That’s specifically because standing around in AOE while Main Tanking is neither big nor clever.) but it’s turned off as soon as the raid’s done to stop my poor geriatric crashing in a storm of lag.

My PC’s huge hard drive (All 60Gbs of it) has finally filled up and I’ve run out of things to delete to make space and so I’ve been (happily) forced into upgrading to a new desktop. Frankly it’s well past time and I’m looking forward to being able to crank everything up to full and playing it as it was designed to be played. Aswell as hopefully making Orvr viable for me again without sildeshowing completely!

Upgrading from a old 1.8Ghz single core CPU to a Quad core 2.9Ghz and my old old graphics card upto a ATI Radeon 1GB HD 5770 and 1 gig or Ram upto 4, should mean I get huge inprovements across the board, but unfortunately it’ll mean finally letting XP go in favour Windows 7 but I’ll live with that one was or the other.

Gotta wait two weeks for it to be build and delivered but I honestly can’t freakin’ wait.

Saturday 21 August 2010

Setting up a twitter thingie

Diddn't catch much of the Video chat but what I heard wasn't exactly inspiring. I'm resigned for no solid news to follow for a while so....yeah I guess its back to waiting.....again...

Overhyped much?

In other news I'm setting up on twitter and can be found here: https://twitter.com/WarAura

Mainly for keeping tabs on news and random things rather then much else I think, guess I'll see how it goes never tried it before.

Double renown bonus could not have come at a worse time for me really. Kids staying over and trying to make up for not studying the last 2 years into a weekend craming does not make for a whole lotta play time!

Friday 20 August 2010

Pacified for the moment!

Well new news has been leaking over the last while.

Seems the RvR pack will be out before Christmas (here) and I'm more interested by the new plans then anything else right now.

Nobwaart has a transcript of the WAR related questions from the earlier Webchat (Which I missed, stupid work) up here.

Confirms a new zone is coming and will be available to everyone regardless of the Rvr Pack although some content within will be restricted to those with the pack (I'm guessing items etc)

Krossuss has put up some interesting ideas about what the 3P's (Power, Progression and Personality) could mean.

I like the idea of a Tiered unlock, especially if it can be upgraded at a later time once you've purchased a "lower" Tier like Skar suggests.

The only thought's I've had myself regarding what 3P's could mean are the announcement that RR81-100 is being brought in....and they have a expansion-like called Progression being introduced. RR81-100 unlocked by purchased the Progression pack for when you max out and want to keep going rather then re-rolling an alt? I don't see a issue with that myself but could be a bit to similar Pack X=Advantage Y over everyone else for some.

Any hoo colour me intrigued I'm looking forward to more roll outs of news after the initial apathy I was feeling on Wednesday!

Thursday 19 August 2010

Massively initial info from Gamescom up

Massively posted their post late yesterday and I missed it initially. Can be seen here.

No new content over yesterday's information day is still youngish I guess but other then a post from Andy on the Forum's expending (a tiny bit) on their reference to "personalise" game play experiences nothing else has been forthcoming.

Does seem like these posts are not the extent of the interviews that took place yesterday at least but otherwise still Mehing here.

Edited Title as I misled my self!

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Gamescom update: I'm 'a gonna wait it out!

Well spend most of my free time at work scanning for new news from Gamescom and to be honest it's been scant and fairly underwhelming so far. Theres a interview over at Onrpg you can check out here.

Brief highlights are RR cap being raised to 100, Skaven not being added as a normal race but "something different" and not wanting to follow the tradition path of releasing paid expansion every 2 years. And by brief highlights I mean thats pretty much it.

Well...TBH I'm not knocked over here but I'm making a concious effort and I'm going to wait it out and see what else appears before commenting nothing released so far really interests me.

*Possible Server transfer? Well maybe if my home server (Karak Azgal) dies suddenly that may be useful.
*Name changes? No not bothered by that at all.
*Skaven being something different, I'm guessing rules out a new Tier 1-4 pairing zone with a opposite number and could mean anything or nothing.
*RR to 100? Could well be a interesting incentive to maxed characters and I would imagine will mean new armour/weapon/item sets to follow at some point. Personally Im not bumping my head against that particular ceiling but I'm not self-absorbed enough to rule it out as a big issue for those up there. Just hope they don't over compensate with making the attempts to make progression through the lower RR ranks and make it a doddle to hit 80.
*Not going F2P? Pretty much already ruled out so not exactly news.

Andy stated over on his twitter that more detailed..details should follow. Hopefully about other bits being planned cos frankly the above....no.....NO....gonna stay positive till they pack up and head back to the states before ruling out anything more exciting being announced.
Edited: As Bootae point's out the above further information to follow will be from Baltimore Gamesday this weekend so that could be all she wrote for now. Boo & Hiss indeed!

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Patch notes up!

Check them out here!

More hopefully later once I've had a chance to go over them!

Edit: well server's been done all evening so I've not been able to scope out the changes. Looks like a pretty solid patch overwise and I'll see how it pans out when I finally get online later in the week. 'Course by then we should have the Big Announcement to chew on so....I know it's stupid but I'm actually excited to hear the news!

Friday 13 August 2010

1st Time Draws and Kislev's

Just a quick one today!

Had a strange Scenario fight out last night while running with a guild Premade. Normally there's 4 of us that run about together using various alts with the other two spots being who every else is online and fancies it. Last night due to a some odd playing times I ended up in a completely different group. We ended up with me, another S&B Chosen (who is a absolute DPS monster, I'm still not quite sure how he manages it!), a 2 hander chosen, 1 heal DOK, Zatos the Sorc and a SH, frankly we rocked, and it was great fun mixing up with different set ups for a while.

Tie!
Just before we settled into that group we had a slightly different line up when the Reikland Factory Sc we were plugging away at came to a abrupt (Seemed like: I dont tend to pay attention to the score/time if it seems to be going well!) end:










First time I'd come across this! Always fun!

Anyhoo I saw this master piece for the first time this week, I'm sure it's old hat for some but first time awesomness for me! :

Your Doom!


And that kinda got me thinking about the Kisliv's. For those that aren't up with there Warhammer IP, Kisliv is a hardy country situated somewhere between Nordland, Troll Country and the Chaos Wastes. Lead by a powerful Ice Queen and Praag had close linkes. There a ally of the Empire rather then a part of it as far as I'm aware but my lore years old! Think Cossacks, think Prussian/Russian medieval, think Mongolian style horse arches, think wind swept Siberia but mainly think BEAR CALVARY! Mythic you missed a trick here!

Bear king!
Images have been ridiculously hard to come by! Most of the models are discontinued etc. Diddn't want to start stealing them from random guys website so I'd point ya here for more Bear Riding Minature goodness! If you like minatures in general the sites got some pretty cool painted/converted goodness. Stumbled across it while trying to grab some offical pic but there all out of production!

Actually I'd settle for adding Cathay to the game!:

Tigers Calvary!
I've also learnt that google image searching for "Bear Cavalry" will never, EVER get old!

Tuesday 10 August 2010

No more (new/old) cities anymore

Well between the Q&A (Check Gaarawarr for a transcipt or Bruglir for a recording) and the Buffed.De interview Carrie has pretty much ruled out re-introducing the lost cities back into the game.

Which is kinda a shame. I wasn't around for the Beta so I've never seen them or had a chance to poke around in them. :-(

Personally I think they should meet some where in the middle, add them in as Instances only ala IC/Aldorf Siege and have them unlock when ever the relevant pairing locks down instead of the current system or Empire/Chaos + Elf = IC/Aldorf unlocking.

My thinking behind this is it would add some variety (never a bad think in my book) to the city sieges instead of it always being IC/Aldorf for the end game and hopefully spread out the Zerglings with the opposing force being able to split and counter attack for a different city across the pairings. It would also take advantage or the current system with Orvr opening up during the current city sieges giving multiple targets and something to aim at.

Sadly you'd probable need some kind of incentive to get people to defend threatened pairings rather then just pushing through a undefended zone....Perhaps increased rewards for defense in the outer zones in the form of either a generic Renown increase for the defensive side (So Order in Reikland/Kadrin Valley/Eataine and Destruction in Chaos Wastes/Caledor/Black Crag - combined with the Against all odds would be a pretty strong reward) or increased lock rewards for these end zones (Less keen on the last idea and as would probable led to increased Zergs concentrating in one area rather then spreading out)

So....was just something that I thought might have a impact/salvage the old cities/add some variety...kinda works in my head but what do other people think?

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Un-Constructive VL post! Now with added expansion thoughts

Bah after the amount of messing around last night, it went almost disappointing smoothly tonight and the Vulture Lord fell within a couple of tries.

Just goes to show what massed tiredness and frustration can do to a otherwise competent group!

Wasn't a bad run for the guild, our Off Tank Black Guard picked up the Tyrant chest piece, I finished off my full Glyph set (although disappointingly only 1 Tyrant piece in total still) and our healer DOK got his Glyph cloak and enough masks for another piece of his set.


Elsewhere, every one seems quiet - quiet at the moment, just settling in to wait for the big news which is fast approaching when I'm sure the scene will explode again.

Personally I'm still not sure what I'm expecting. Expansion announcement certainly. New races seems a given but I'm starting to lose hope in my preferred tag team of Skaven V Lizardmen duking it out in Lustria. As one of Bootae's comments reminded me in one of his post comments the recent flag backgrounds in podcasts and the like have had a huge "Bretonnia" scrawled across them. Honestly I've never been that enamoured with them, plus while different from a style and Lore perspective they are still at the end of the day more humans for order.

Of course from a IP perspective they could be released in tandem with Wood Elves for a kinda dual-race pairing. That would mean either cutting classes down to just two a piece or making the Skaven faction a deluxed sized affair. Skaven could certainly stretch to keeping 6-8 classes interesting and distinctive I just don't see it happening realistically unless they were also planning on adding some additional classes to the existing races and that just seems like a impossible amount of work for Mythic to do in one go regardless of how large/long away the expansion is likely to be.

You'll notice I'm taking Skaven as a given if new races are coming. I just can't, CAN'T, see anyone at Bioware-Mythic being...silly....enough to think:

"Hey you know what'll be funny? That's add another destruction race, hint all the way Skaven are likely to be involved and then put out Beastmen instead to keep people on their toes!"
*Enter angry mobs stage left*


On a more down beat note Wasdstomp had some disturbing thoughts regarding the "big announcement". I just really hope he's wrong!

Regardless interesting times ahead!

Scr*w you Vulture Lord!

Gnah. Its 4 in the morning, I'm meant to get up for work in a hour and I'm just logged from War after spending the last....8 hours trying and failing to take down the 8th boss.

And I mean just the 8th, our group had cleared up to there yesterday...

..Just...gnah nothing went right! Anything from weird things happening, occasional member errors, bad luck, some down right shoddy tanking (Hey im tired leave me alone!) and pretty much everything else.

Just too clarify everyone in the group has finished this before barring a couple of position swaps (Our healer DOK hadn't been primary healer for it before and I'd only off-tanked him previously)

Well enjoy your victory tonight Mr. so-called-King Amenemhetum, cos I'm coming back tomorrow and your in for it.

(Words cannot describe how singularly annoyed I am about tonights run!)

/end self-pity