At the end of every great videogame is a sinister villain which sets up an epic battle, and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning plans to be no different. A good boss fight can make or break a great story arc so building these encounters is almost an art form in today’s MMOG world. No one understands that better than Mythic Entertainment's Gabe Amatangelo. As a Game Designer he has worked closely with creating not only the city siege raid and dungeon encounters, but the hundreds of Public Quest bosses.

You don't often see people like Gabe given the opportunity to talk about their work so we we're extremely pleased at the opportunity to ask about his field of expertise. with over 400 public quests it has to be challenging to provide a unique experience in each one and he agrees. "There are various tactical packages so to speak, like a sorcerer with random Area of Effects or nukes. However when you get into the public quests in the dungeons, those are all unique."

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Scornlash

We had to ask for more detail on how the boss abilities work. Are they scripted? Do these "tactical packages" have any randomness to them? He clears it up quickly, "There are a lot of scripted boss fights within the dungeons and cities. There are some early Public Quests that have a boss with a whirlwind ability and some basic tactics. They do however have a higher density of scripting as you progress in the game." As he continued it sounded to us like the bosses have a known set of abilities but you can't be sure which they'll use and when.

Creating fights like these requires careful planning and research which Mythic Entertainment has almost made into a science. Discussing the Gunbad dungeon for Greenskins and Dwarves as an example Gabe explains more. "We have a need somewhere for content, so we research the literature and the IP to find out what could make an interesting area. Once we have a theme locked in we think about what is going to be populated there whether it's some monstrous Squigs or undead. After we get all that pulled together we start thinking about monsters which could be epic enough for boss monsters and what tactics or dynamics to have in the fight."

It sounds like enough work to keep any team busy, but this is just beginning. "We also think about the broad spectrum of tactics across the game," he continues, "and elevate them as time goes on. The Gunbad dungeon for instance is Tier 3 so what have we done in Tier 2? What have players become accustomed to and learned? What can we bring to the next level? There is also of course gear and power considerations." After all that brainstorming and discussion, Gabe and other developers can finally put their creation into the game where it's tested and tweaked as necessary.

With so many in the game though, we thought we'd give him a chance to talk about the ones he enjoyed the most. After some painful deliberation of which city boss was his favorite he begins, "That's a tough one. We have our main city bosses that you need to get through to effectively get to the king. There are two major ones and these are epic Public Quests that take 48 players to get through. I really hate to give it away but it's the last one in the coliseum of Inevitable city. You go through boss after boss and there are arena spectators and an announcer who creates a very story centric setting." If Russell Crowe taught us one thing besides having a temper can cause problems, it's that people love a coliseum battle.

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Sildaen

Gabe's enthusiasm about this last encounter continues in describing the epic battle, "Each boss there has a different dynamic and gimmick that trains the raid to cooperate and it all culminates with the final two. The second to last one is El Dezar and he's a Mindwarper and a Lord of Change who does these illusions that trick the player. The guy that comes after him is a major IP character which should surprise a lot of people and I don't think the community knows about yet." It sounds like hardcore raiders have some surprises in store for them when it comes to city sieges.

As we wrapped things up he discussed the future of boss fights and what he'd like to do. "Some of what we've done is environmental that play into the boss fight mechanics. It's been put in here and there but as time goes on we want to do more because I think players really react to it and have a lot of fun. For instance when you are fighting a boss, off in the terrain something could be changing or an object affecting the fight. An example is the Gunbad giant Squig, and it's a lot of fun because there is a balancing act. If you keep him near an artifact in the dungeon he becomes more corrupted and powerful using a crazy puke attack. If you pull him away then he'll be enraged so you have to go back and forth. So the environment plays in on the mechanics instead of just a cycle of abilities on him.

As you can see, developers like Gabe seem to have a passion for providing players excitement at the conclusion of dungeons, cities, and Public Quests. Whether it's a five headed beast charging across a bridge in Blighted Isle, or an epic battle in the middle of Inevitable City, quite a bit of work went into bringing that creature to life. His description set the bar pretty high so we look forward to some amazing fights in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.