by Brokain on Oct 09, 2007
By Brock "Brokain" Ferguson
One of the great things about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is the diversity of things to do in the game. You have the Tome of Knowledge, a book that tracks your progress through the Warhammer world, opens new quests for you to do, and rewards you for finishing those quests with loot and titles. Public Quests, a quest type that brings together everyone from one side in order to work towards a common goal, but allows you the flexibilty to start and end when you please and also rewards you for whatever efforts you put forth. Being rewarded for taking the time to look around the world in what is jokingly refered to as "Xmas Quests", where rewards are scattered throughout the land encouraging you explore a little.
With all these different things to do one can not forget a major part of Warhammer Online, RvR. However, once again instead of just having a bunch of people beating on other people for loot or status, EA Mythic has added a little diversity to the time honored tradition of "pwnage". RvR will count for "points" towards your side taking over that tier zone and controlling it. So how do you get these points? There are 4 different types of RvR that you can undertake. Each style increases in difficulty and culminates in a massive battle for control of an opposing city. Sounds pretty cool, eh?
The first type of RvR is the Skirmish. Skirmeshes take place in an RvR zone out in the wide open areas and are all about you and another guy of the opposing side going toe to toe. Designed to introduce a player to the RvR playstyle, a skirmish can happen at anytime and may be the result of a quest you've picked up somewhere (there will be RvR quests as well). There will be regular PvE quests that will take you into the RvR zones as well. Sort of a gentle nudge out of the saftey of the PvE nest, so to speak. While not required, the objective is to let you experience RvR a few times. EA Mythic is pretty confident that once you get a taste, you'll be back for more.
You want a piece of this? DO YOU?! WAAAAAAAGH!The second type of RvR is called Frontier Battlefield Objectives. In these, there will control points scattered throughout the zone. The objective is for you to take these control points and hold onto them. If you can manage to grab and keep control of an objective point for at least three minutes, you'll gain control of it and be unattackable for five minutes. This will allow you to rest up and send out the call for reinforcments. It also allows the army attempting to take back the objective point to put the call out for more people to give them a better chance. Reminds me of playing King of the Hill when I was a kid... except with armies and swords and magic and stuff.
The third type of RvR is the one I'm most interested in. Focused Instances bring the Warhammer tabletop "scenario" to the game. These scenarios will count heavily towards the RvR points needed to gain control of that area. The scenario consists of a bunch of players entering an instance and fighting over predetermined objectives. I love the fact that once you registar for a scenario, you can then go off and do your own thing until the scenario starts. No need to wait around, once you get enough people to form a scenario, you'll be given notice that it's time to go. Now you may zone in to a scenario where the opposing force has more players than you. I see your eyes just widend in that Bill Paxton from Aliens way that says "Game over, man. GAME FREAKING OVER!!!" and normally, you'd be right. However, EA Mythic has fixed this problem by introducing The Dogs of War. The Dogs of War was a mercenary army in the tabletop game that consisted of warriors of all types who would fight for whoever would pay them the most. In Warhammer Online they work a little differently. If one side should enter a scenario with less people than the opposing side has, they are immediately populated with The Dogs of War, AI controlled NPC's who fight for your side, making it a even battle. Scenarios are points based battles. You fight over objectives in the instance, gaining points along the way. The first side to get to the pre determined amount of points wins the scenario. You'll still get RvR points if you lose, but the winner gets a hefty amount for his side.
You may be called upon to protect your city from being sacked.Finally, we come to the piece de resitance. Campaigns. Over the course of your levels, you've worked hard, been in scenario after scenario, skirmish after skirmish, all so you could win control of that tier's zone. Now is where all that hard work pays off. Once your side captures and controls all of the tier zones you can then march into enemy territory and make a play for their city. That's right, you can sack an actual player city in Warhammer Online. (Here's a towel, now wipe up that drool please. That much creates a saftey hazard.) EA Mythic has stated that this is the end game content right now so this is the equivelent to raiding. Sacking a city won't be easy, but if you manage to do it? Well, as the old saying goes, to the victor go the spoils. There's also talk of rewards based on how long you were able to hold the city, because you won't be able to do it permanently. As the opposing force stays inside the city, they'll be attacked by players attempting to get their city back and swarmed by NPC's that will become harder to fend off as time goes on. Eventually, you'll overwhelmed and booted out of the city. If your city is sacked and your armies manage to take it back there's talk of reward for that as well, so it sounds as if their will be incentives on both sides in these Campaigns.
By making it more than just the standard "I killed you, I get to loot you, and now I get to taunt you" scene, I think EA Mythic will succeed in managing to turn non PvP'ers onto the idea of a little PvP combat. Especially when RvR will hold such a big impact on the endgame of protecting your city or attempting to sack someone else's. It adds a sense of purpose to the fight beyond just getting a title or being the most uberest of uber. So, in the immortal words of Mills Lane, "Let's Get It ON!"