A Knight's Tale

Heavy Metal - (Day 5 + 6)

ahzeel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:20:22 GMT

I'm a day behind... So yesterday task was to "Find the Sand Castle in the Reikland Factory Scenario". Which after getting into the Scenario (which is becoming the only difficult part of the event...) the castle is slightly right of the spawn point (for Order) as the picture shows:-

Walk up to or near the castle and the task completes.

Today’s task... Visit a Capital City... so get to a flight point and fly to a city and task done... now easy tasks are one thing but this is getting stupid...

Tomorrow... Finally a possible challenge... Defeat 15 enemy players in open RvR!

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Heavy Metal - (Day 4)

ahzeel — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:32:45 GMT

So todays task was "Visit the Herald in a Capital City" and once completed if you had done all the previous tasks you had enough influence to claim the first reward. On the order side this was a nice belt trophy.

Next task... Find the Sand Castle in the Reikland Factory Scenario.

Heavy Metal - (Day 3)

ahzeel — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:18:08 GMT

So today those that had missed some of the daily tasks either through issues with the scenario not popping or due to their own schedule not allowing them to be on every day, received some good news from Mythic and GOA.

Quote from: James Nichols of Mythic (Source)

By popular request, players will now be able to complete previous daily tasks for the Heavy Metal event. A task will continue to unlock each day and remain open until the end of the event allowing players to complete all the tasks at their convenience. Please Note: If you notice an apparent loss of credit for any previous days you have already completed simply exit the game entirely and log back in to correct this issue.

So the first week's tasks will still be released every day as per the schedule in my previous post, however now you have up till the end of the event to complete them.

Now I have mixed feelings about this announcment, yes it is the right thing to do as some issues outside of the control of the players have made it difficult and in some cases impossible to complete the daily tasks. However I do feel it has now watered down the achievement of completing the event even more.

I guess my issue is not with this amendment but with the overall difficulty of the tasks and the type of tasks. There seems little imagination gone into the event, so far all tasks have taken less than about 20mins to complete (minus queue times). All tasks have been very simple just asking you to do things you would normally do in game anyway. The only place they have shown some imagination, is the new scenario. Yet again the tasks that involve the scenario seem very simple.

I think the problem or the reason why they have made the event like this is due to the fact that they want the event to be open to all levels and all players. This makes it very difficult to create tasks that are going to be challenging but still able to be completed by all types who play the game (read casual up to hardcore).

I do feel mythic need to maybe raise the bar a little. I by no means want tasks and events that are only for the hardcore however I would like some tasks that actually challenge me and that leave me with a feeling of accomplishment at the end.

Anyway back to the task in hand... Day 3 task was to "Complete the Scouting Quest that begins in Reikland Factory Scenario". This time it took me a lot longer to get into the scenario but when I did what I found was funny... The quest was to scout each objective point in the scenario. So everyone grabbed the quest and proceeded to ignore the destruction players and instead run to all four points so they could complete the quest... now I will admit I did the same thing.

However once you completed the quest you were able to take it again... so once again every one ran to all the points ignoring the enemy... handing the quest in a second time gave you a small xp bonus... however again it was repeatable... so in the Scenarios I played order decided just to do this quest over and over again and the destruction actually played the scenario. This resulted in 2 very one sided games. After this I stopped playing the scenario...

This quest really should have been a onetime quest... any way as long as you could get into the Scenario it was another easy one to tick off.

Today’s tasks... Visit the Herald in a Capital City... guess this won’t take long...

P.S. Article about the Knights of the Blazing Sun should be completed some time over the weekend so look out for it!

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Heavy Metal - (Day 2)

ahzeel — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:12:08 GMT

So today’s task was to complete in no time again. All you need to do is complete 3 stages of a public quest. Now I did a little bit of testing and this could be 3 stages of 1 public quest or 1 stage of 3 public quests or any combination. So basically if you found yourself alone and unable to get a party you could just complete the first stage of a public quest 3 times.

Tomorrow is back to the new Scenario Reikland Factory where we should be able to get a Scouting quest to complete.

Just a quick update today. I will post a longer update tomorrow with some feedback from the American public test server participants who have had the chance to try out the Knight of the Blazing Sun! Sometimes it sucks to be a European...

One final note you may have seen these, but Mythic have posted some Warhammer fiction on their site. There is one story for the Black Guard and one story for the Knights of the Blazing Sun! Be sure to check them out.

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Heavy Metal - (Day 1)

ahzeel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:57:17 GMT

So this morning the European Servers got the 1.05 patch and with it the Heavy Metal event! How cool is the live event tab? When you click the tab you get a little heavy metal music chime! That aside if you read my post yesterday you will not of been surprised that the first task was to play the new Reikland Factory scenario.

It took me on a medium population server about 5mins for the first scenario to pop, after that it seemed to take about a minute after coming out of one before another one started. So for me it took about 20mins to do the first task. I have seen reports that some servers and some tiers where having issues with the scenario starting but I haven't personally witnessed this.

So with the first task very easy to complete, I took a few screen shots of the new scenario and then got down to fighting the forces of destruction!

Overall I enjoyed the scenario, it was nice to have new content added so soon after launch and as I've rolled a lot of alt's it was nice to be able to play something other than Nordenwatch in tier 1.

If you haven't played it yet the Reikland Factory scenario features 4 capture points. 1 in the centre which is worth the most points over time. Then 3 other points in a triangle around the centre point, that a worth slightly less points over time. You can see what I mean below:-

You can then see from the map that both groups start at the bottom of the map on either side.

I've yet to see any side totally dominating due to their use of tactics on this map. Normally it’s the side with the highest levels wins unless they have a poor class balance or very poor skills.

Overall I've been very impressed with the scenario there are lots of routes between points, lots of hiding holes and places to explorer. It seems to me at least to be a very well designed and polished scenario. I'm looking forward to playing it over the next 2 weeks!

I've added a few other images of the scenario onto cursed so you may want to take a look at them. As for tomorrow well the next task is to "Complete 3 Stages of a Public Quest - 0/3" so should be another quick task and then back to some factory fighting!

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Heavy Metal - (Task List)

ahzeel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:06:14 GMT

We now know what all the Heavy Metal tasks will be. Here is the complete list with the corresponding dates. Thanks to Xaxas who posted the information on Warhammer Alliance. The information was taken from the public test realm. As believed all the tasks are fairly easy and should be able to be completed by any character at any level within a short period of time.

Week 1 - 7 Tasks to be completed on each specific day

Task 01 - Participate in the Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/1
18th of Novemeber for North America
19th of Novemeber for Europe

Task 02 - Complete 3 Stages of a Public Quest - 0/3
19th of Novemeber for North America
20th of Novemeber for Europe

Task 03 - Complete the Scouting Quest that begins in Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/1
20th of Novemeber for North America
21st of Novemeber for Europe

Task 04 - Visit the Herald in a Capital City - 0/1
21st of Novemeber for North America
22nd of Novemeber for Europe

Task 05 - Find the Sand Castle in the Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/1
22nd of Novemeber for North America
23rd of Novemeber for Europe

Task 06 - Visit a Capital City - 0/1
23rd of Novemeber for North America
24th of Novemeber for Europe

Task 07 - Defeat 15 enemy players in open RvR - 0/15
24th of Novemeber for North America
25th of Novemeber for Europe

Week 2 - 7 Tasks to be completed any time during the week
25th of Novemeber to the 1st of Decemebr for North America
26th of Novemeber to the 2nd of December for Europe

Task 08 - Kill 10 Factory Chickens in the Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/10

Task 09 - Kill 20 Undead - 0/20

Task 10 - Detonate the Steam Tank Ammo in the Reikland Factory Scenraio - 0/1

Task 11 - Complete 5 Quests - 0/5

Task 12 - Throw 5 Gaffer's Gravybombs at enemy players in the Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/5

Task 13 - Complete 3 Stages of a Public Quest - 0/3

Task 14 - Have your realm eat the Famous Factory Sandwich in the Reikland Factory Scenario - 0/1

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Heavy Metal - (Pre-Event)

ahzeel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:47:47 GMT

So as a European Warhammer Online Customer I need to wait till tomorrow (November 19th) before the live event will be available.

So while I wait I’ve decided to prepare for the event. I’ve decided I want to play my Knight of the Blazing Sun (KotBS) on an Open RvR server. I’ve made this decision for several reasons...

One. When playing my previous character (Goblin Shaman) on a core server I was always frustrated when I would see an order player in the normal quest area and I could not attack him. This seemed in exact opposition to the tag line, war is everywhere; on a core server war is not everywhere, war is confined to small RVR lakes...

Two. The people who roll on an Open RVR server do so because they like that aspect of the game. They like to do battle everywhere. So I’m hoping and assuming (which I know I shouldn’t do...) that this will mean more Open RVR.

Three. I like the fact that on Open RVR servers the RVR Lakes have a larger level range. (Tier 1 – Max Level 21, Tier 2 – Max Level 31, Tier 3 & 4 – Max Level 40). This means that you have more opportunity to do open RvR, more opportunity to do the quests and lairs that are in the Open RVR areas, more opportunity to do Open RVR with your guild members that are lower level than you.

Now I realise there are negatives to the Open RVR server rule set. The biggest being once you pass the max level of a tier you cannot go back to any location in that tier without becoming a chicken. However I have accepted these negatives and believe for me the positives out way the negatives.

Hmm getting side tracked on discussing Open RVR servers... back to the main focus of the article....

So after deciding I wanted to play on an Open RVR server I selected the European Server Eltharion. I selected this server for one reason only. It has the largest population. I’ve played on an under populated server before and new I didn’t want to do this again.

I’ve now created a couple of bank alts on the server and I’ve started to play a Warrior Priest that I will use to complete the live event daily tasks. My warrior priest is currently level 5 and I hope to get him to 9 this evening ready for tomorrow.

The final thing I’ve done in preparation is to customise my user interface. You can see my interface and all the mod’s I’m using here.

So until tomorrow I shall bid you fairwell!

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”

Introduction

ahzeel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:43:10 GMT

Welcome to my Warhammer Online Blog. This blog is going to be the place where I give all my views, opinions and rants about Warhammer Online and in particular about the Knight of the Blazing Sun.

The blog is going to start with a special series of posts devoted to the Heavy Metal event. For those who dont know (where have you been?) the Heavy Metal event is a live event running from the 19th of November to the 2nd of December (European Dates). Those completing all the daily tasks will then gain access to play a Knight of the Blazing Sun (KotBS) a week before they are officially released.

For more information on the event:-

North America

Europe

Once the Heavy Metal event is completed and the KotBS are available. I will then aim to update the blog twice a week, with all my views, opinions and rants.

I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and please leave any comments or questions you may have.

Ahzeel - Knight of the Blazing Sun - Eltharion (Open RvR)

“We are no longer the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitang-zoom-boing!”