The WarhammerAlliance team has posted a recent interview that was conducted with Adam Gershowitz and Jeff Skalski, Producers at EA Mythic.

Here's a snippet from the 1.3.2 Warhammer Interview:

Just before the 1.3.2 patch, we dropped in on Mythic Entertainment Producers Adam Gershowitz and Jeff Skalski to answer some questions about the latest update to WAR, what's changed, what can players expect, and other queries. Thanks to Adam and Jeff for taking the time out to talk with us!

Given the context of the overall strategy you've been taking with your patch cycles, how would you describe 1.3.2 in general?

Adam: Game update 1.3.2 is a really solid example of how we’re working to address our top three player concerns in each patch.

• Career balance saw some significant adjustments in the form of a hard look at crowd control abilities. Many abilities were significantly adjusted or even outright removed in order to ensure that crowd control remains a viable but not overwhelming tool on the battlefield.

• For RvR, we’ve worked to make the campaign more accessible and less frustrating by eliminating the Fortresses as a requirement to reach the capital cities. In addition, we’ve improved the accessibility of some of the best RvR gear in the game, and improved many of the rewards for both attackers and defenders in difficult Keep sieges.

• On the performance front, we’ve seen some significant gains in both client and server performance with the introduction of a better texture manager and multiple improvements to how our server communicates with the client.

Up and beyond this, we continue to work on bugs and issues as well as improve the overall quality of Warhammer as a whole. For example, in 1.3.2 we returned to our new user experience in order to streamline it, re-invigorate low-level RvR, and allow friends to play together via our Apprentice system. We’ve also made numerous improvements to our Daemon Moon Rising event from last year (The Witching Night), and we’re really looking forward to seeing the player reaction to that as well.

To read the rest of this article visit the 1.3.2 Warhammer Interview on WarhammerAlliance.com.

EA and Mythic Entertainment have officially announced that Warhammer Online for Mac computers will be released on October 28^th.  WAR which will be available via digital download on the 28^th for Mac, will run seamlessly on severs so that Mac players can play side by side with PC users.

 Current Warhammer Online subscribers can access WAR on Mac with the beta version which is available now.  New players on Macs will be able to play the beta version of WAR on Mac with the 10-day trial.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring Warhammer Online and its enthralling Realm vs. Realm combat to the Mac community,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “Come October 28th, the sides of Order and Destruction will be bolsters by a fresh recruit of Mac gamers experiencing for the first time exactly what we mean when we say that ‘WAR is everywhere!’” 

 The Mac version of WAR is currently being offered for beta testing and allows existing players to download the beta client to their Mac computers and play with their live game accounts. Players who do not have an existing live account, but are interested in playing WAR on the Mac, are able to participate in the beta by downloading a 10-day Mac beta trial.  Players who participate in the WAR Mac beta test will receive an exclusive title and trophy reward for their characters within the game.

 To download the beta version of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning for Mac or the 10-day beta trial, please visit: www.warhammeronline.com/mac.

The WarhammerAlliance.com has posted two new videos showing Senior Designer Gabe Amatangelo demonstrating how to properly play a Shaman while giving a walkthrough of the end encounters in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

If you don't want to see how to beat these encounters, you may not want to watch the footage. That's your only Spoiler Warning.

Here's a look at the Shaman powering through Tomb of the Vulture Lord:

Let us know what you think of the footage.

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent interview from PAX 2009 with the Warhammer team!

Here's a look at the PAX 2009 Warhammer Interview:

During PAX Nattfodd and Anglakhel were able to interview Senior Designer Gabe Amatangelo about his role at Mythic, the recent changes to RvR and the Land of the Dead. The interview was done on the convention floor with no pre-written questions or answers. Due to the conversational nature of this interview, some things are a bit awkward grammatically. Please let us know if any detail is unclear.


Interview Gabe Amatangelo

Anglakhel: We're speaking with Gabe now. Gabe, do you want to give us your full name with proper pronunciation and title?

Gabe: Gabe Amatangelo, and it's Senior Designer.

Anglakhel: As a senior designer, what's your job description, job role right now and in the last few months?

Gabe: Right now it's sort of in-line with the initiative of the studio, which is taking a look at... As you know there have been management shifts at the studio and we're able to re-examine a lot of the current systems and just figure out where to go in the future with them. So right now a lot of my time is occupied with that. Just going system by system and sort of proposing and shooning and whatnot.

Nattfodd: What's your favorite class?

Gabe: What do I play right? Right now I'm playing a Marauder, before that I was playing a Zealot, before that I was playing a Swordmaster.

Anglakhel: You were one of the heavy, face time devs for the land of the dead project. Were you sort of the lead man for the designers for that project?

To read the rest of the interview visit the PAX 2009 Warhammer Interview on Warhammer Alliance!

Today Mythic pushed out a round of hot fixes for Warhammer Online. Check out the notes below.

Quote from: Mythic (Source)

Greetings!

Below are today's round of Hot Fix notes.

Please note: There are several fixes pertaining to the Wild Hunt Live Event that we identified as a result of player feedback. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback both in game and on the Official Forums.

Wild Hunt Live Event

General

• The Stag of Kurnous will now grant tome credit upon death.
• Adjusted the difficulty in the Tiers 1 and 2 Hunter’s Vale instance to be more appropriate to their target level.
• Spirit of Kurnous will now remain spawned indefinitely during the Wild Hunt event, instead of despawning upon public quest completion.

Public Quests

• Hunter’s Vale: Shaman and Squig Herder rewards have been corrected for this Public Quest.
• The Curse of Kurnous: This Public Quest will now be available immediately after reset of a successful completion.

Quests

• Render Unto Kurnous: The tier one, tier two and tier three versions of this quest now properly direct players where to go.

Combat and Careers

Chosen

• All Auras: Auras will no longer persist while under the effects of the Coward’s Reward debuff.

Knight of the Blazing Sun

• All Commands: Commands will no longer persist while under the effects of the Coward’s Reward debuff.

Warrior Priest

• Judgment: This ability will once again build Righteous Fury.

Land of the Dead

Tomb of the Vulture Lord

Public Quests

• Temple of Ualatp: Corrected an issue preventing the ground symbols in the this Public Quest from being visible.

Realm vs. Realm

Campaign / Open RvR

• Coward’s Reward: This ability will now correctly override other shape changing abilities.
• Shining Way: Fixed an issue that was preventing the siege ram pads from spawning in the correct location.

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent interview with Jeff Skalski about the progression of WAR over the last year and things coming in 1.3.2 patch.

Here's a look at the recent Jeff Skalski Interview from WarhammerAlliance.com:

As WAR's one-year anniversary rolls around, there's a lot about the game that has gone well, a lot that has not gone as planned, and a lot to come in the future. Warhammer Alliance caught up with Producer Jeff Skalski to talk turkey about WAR over the past year, as well as get some tidbits and teases about what's coming in the 1.3.2 patch.

Tell us a little bit about how specifically RvR has changed over the year since WAR came out. What do you think were the best changes and adjustments made to the system? What are the current issues you're observing in RvR besides what's already been mentioned/addressed (City Siege and Keep Taking)?

Since our launch in Sept ’08, we’ve revisited our RvR mechanic every patch by improving the experience, expanding it, and really just reacting to our players’ concerns along the way. For me, some of the RvR feature improvements we’ve added that I feel very positive about are the RvR token system, RvR Ward rewards, Land of the Dead Purge mechanic, recent city siege improvements along with how city instances get populated, the second Keep ramps, RvR status updates (icons, timers and zone control detail bar) and finally being able to queue for Scenarios from anywhere. Now, we couldn’t do everything, but we still have several more cool ideas to spice up the RvR playing field. As we finesse and introduce new things to the RvR experience, our main goal is to make sure we are encouraging players to magnetize towards each other and fight. Those are the fun moments we want players to never forget.

To read more visit the the recent Jeff Skalski Interview thread!

Mythic Entertainment and EA sent over a press release to Curse today outlining their plans for their one-year anniversary celebration. There are a ton of details below, including a new Live Event, rewards for veteran players, and tons of limited-time items. Check it out below:

WAR WAGES ON AS WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING

CELEBRATES ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Players Celebrate with Wild Hunt Live Event, Weekend Scenarios,

Veteran Rewards, Experience/Renown Bonus and More 

FAIRFAX, Virginia – August 19^th, 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced the celebratory activities planned for the upcoming one year anniversary of the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR). The celebration kicks-off on August 31^st with the introduction of a special new live event – The Wild Hunt, and continues all September with special weekend-only scenarios, a month-long 20% Experience/Renown bonus, special in-game items for all players, veteran rewards, and much more.

“This anniversary marks a major milestone for WAR, the Mythic development team, and our fantastic community of players,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “We could think of no better way of marking this occasion than by celebrating our success with our fans for the entire month of September. We’ve got new content to share with the Wild Hunt live event, special versions of popular scenarios, and a 20% experience and renowned bonus, plus, players can get special rare drops, veteran rewards, fireworks, Halfling pies, and exploding stout! Now that is a party Warhammer style!”

The Wild Hunt live event, taking place from August 31 – September 7, 2009, pits the forces of Order and Destruction against the ultimate quarry in the new instanced dungeon, The Hunter’s Vale.  For more information about the Wild Hunt live event, visit:http://herald.warhammeronline.com/liveevents/2009WildHunt.php.

Following the Wild Hunt live event, special weekend-only events are planned with special versions of the Mourkain Temple (September 11-14), Gates of Ekrund (September 18-21) and Temple of Isha (September 25-28) scenarios.

Throughout September’s celebration, exclusive anniversary items, including Halfling Pies and the Jubilee Cloak, will be delivered via in-game mail to all players. Fans that have waged non-stop war for the past year will be rewarded with a special veteran’s reward, the WAR Aegis, and unique title, Weapon of WAR.  In addition to all players receiving a 20% experience and renown bonus throughout September, enemies defeated in RvR combat will drop fireworks, exploding stout and other unique limited edition anniversary items.

Based on the popular tabletop war game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ conflict that will provide players with an engaging battleground for years to come. Available now for PC and rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB, WAR will be available for the Mac in the fall of 2009. For more information or to download the 10-day free trial, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.

# # #

About Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®

Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the new MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot™. Enter a grim fantasy world of perpetual conflict to fight for the Realms of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) or Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos). Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests™. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the infinite secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. So sharpen your blade and unleash your inner mutation. The Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA^TM, EA SPORTS^TM, EA Mobile ^TM and POGO^TM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.  

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, Dark Age of Camelot, Mythic Entertainment, Public Quests, and Realm vs. Realm are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Games Workshop, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, ™ and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2009. Used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective licensors.

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a notice about the beginning of the 1.3.1 PTS! The Dev Team will be on hand as Order makes their first attack on The Inevitable City, which happens today! Destruction will get their chance to strike back tommorow, 8.8.09, at the heart of Altdorf! Warhammmer Online and Mythic staffers are confident this new city invasion experience should really put the fight back into city RvR!

Here's a look at the 1.3.1 PTS update for Warhammer:

From the Community News category we have: 1.3.1 PTS Has Begun! Invasion is Nigh!

Testing time is once again upon us!

The Public Test Server (Warpstone) is now open, and with it comes two developer lead events. Be amongst the first to experience the revamped City Invasion PQ's and the redesigned Keeps in what is an exciting list of Realm vs. Realm changes!

Join the Mythic Dev Team tomorrow night, 8/7/2009, as the armies of Order storm the gates of The Inevitable City. Join us as we test the new City Invasion experience that is promising to put the fight back into City RvR.

The following night, Saturday 8/8/2009, will see the armies of Destruction striking back at the home of the forces of Order as they bring the WAR to Altdorf.

So be sure to check out how to access the Public Test Server and join in on the excitement. Also, don't forget to participate in the 1.3.1 Focus Discussion on the official forums starting tomorrow!

Don't have a Rank 40 Character? Not to worry as we will be providing character templates for this City testing only. Simply create a new character and select the template in the top right corner or the character creation screen prior to hitting "Create". Please note, these templates will be made available prior to tomorrow evenings testing. So come and support your realm and see all of the exciting new City Invasion changes!

Be sure to check out the 1.3.1 PTS Patch Notes here.

At Games Day Chicago, Warhammer Alliance had a chance to catch up Martin Smith from Mythic! Martin is a developer for the dungeons and Encounters team and has been a driving force in developing some of the key features behind several popular dungeons and of course the new content from Land of the Dead.

Here's a look a the first few questions from the interview with Mythic's Martin Smith:

We thought it would be a good idea to catch Martin on his thoughts about the game from his perspective and some of the challenges associated with his work at Mythic. Thanks Martin for the informative interview!

Q. First, tell the community out there a little bit about yourself and your role at Mythic.

A. Hi everyone! My name is Martin Smith, and I am a developer for the Dungeons and Encounters team—the team that designs and develops most of the end-game PvE content in the game. I’ve worked on Land of the Dead, Lost Vale, Sigmar’s Crypts, Bloodwrought Enclave, and the King Fights.

Q. I hear you were a player before you were part of the development team. How does that perspective help when designing boss encounters?

A. I was a long-time Dark Age of Camelot player before I applied at Mythic. I was a VNboards forum warrior, and at the time I was highly critical of Mythic and posted much to that effect. On a dare, I came down to the Mythic studio to take some pictures and ended up getting a tour and some swag. So, I decided to apply and got a job in Customer Service, working my way up to where I am now. It was really interesting being on the other side of the fence, especially being in Customer Service shortly after the launch of Trials of Atlantis. People can say a lot of nasty stuff over the internet, but I’ve grown a thick skin and learned how to handle criticism. In all honesty, if my stuff is broken, or not fun or whatever, that’s my responsibility and I need to be able to take the criticism and fix it or make it better. I can’t crawl up into a ball and cry about how a player is complaining about something I did.

To read more from this interview and hear community feedback visit the Warhammer Alliance Martin Smith Interview!

Warhammer Online has announced they are giving players a 10-day Beta Trial of the new Mac version of Warhammer! The Mac version of WAR is scheduled for official release in the fall of 2009, when players on both platforms will be able to battle and quest together on the same servers.

Here's the official announcement from Warhammer about supporting Mac players:

FAIRFAX, Virginia – July 30, 2009 – Mythic Entertainment™, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced that the critically acclaimed MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning® (WAR), is being developed for the Mac® computer platform and is currently being offered in beta version. The Mac version of WAR is scheduled for official release in the fall of 2009, when players on both platforms will be able to battle and quest together on the same servers.

 The beta of the Mac version of Warhammer Online will allow current players to download a client to their Mac computers and play with their live game accounts. Players who do not have an existing live account, but are interested in playing WAR on the Mac, will be able to participate in the beta version of WAR on Mac by downloading a 10-day beta trial account.  As part of the WAR Mac beta event, players who participate will receive an exclusive title and trophy reward for their characters within the game.

 “The MMORPG audience continues to expand, and that means gamers eager to experience WAR aren’t all playing on a PC,” said Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. “We want as many players as possible to experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm combat, and bringing WAR to the Mac makes this an exciting reality.”

 WAR for the Mac is made possible using the Cider^TM Portability Engine from TransGaming (TSX-V: TNG) that acts as a "wrapper" around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs.  TransGaming’s Cider technology allows Mythic Entertainment to rapidly enable and deploy WAR for the Mac, providing a new high quality gaming experience to the ever-growing Mac gaming community.

 “The availability of WAR on Mac is an outstanding example of the caliber of games being deployed for the Mac gaming community,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of TransGaming. “Mythic Entertainment has created an incredible game and TransGaming is thrilled they have chosen our advanced Cider technology to launch WAR for the Mac.”

 To download the beta version of WAR for Mac or the 10-day beta trial, please visit: www.warhammeronline.com/Mac.

WarhammerAlliance.com spent the weekend at Games Day Chicago working hard to get information for the Warhammer community! They did manage to extract some new video footage of the Destruction's Sovereign sets! The new sets look incredibly detailed and took a great deal of effort. Thanks to the Warhammer Alliance team for picking up this new information!

Head over to the original Warhammer Alliance Destruction's Sovereign Sets post to discuss the new armor, and checkout the video and introduction below:

There isn't as much coverage for Games Day Chicago as we had for Games Day Baltimore, since Mythic's folks were divided between places, but we managed to get someone from Mythic to help rectify an error on my part from the Baltimore footage. You see, I considered the video I took of Order's Sovereign sets to be a bonus - I didn't think it would turn out to be the most viewed video of all my coverage of the event. If I had known that, I would have taken the Destruction sets as well.

Well, Destruction players are in for a treat. Here's a video taken on the show floor of all the Destruction Sovereign sets:

Thanks again to Ari at Mythic for helping us out!

Warhammer Alliance managed to secure a couple interviews as well - but you'll see those in the coming week.

Warhammer Alliance has posted an update about balacing the Archetypes and how the 1.3.0b patch will affect gameplay. The author of the article discusses how certain classes might be detrimental to game play and suggests possible changes for fixing these classes. Don't forget to weigh in with your thoughts about balancing Warhammer Archetypes!

Here's a look at a portion of the original post:

This week marks the release of Mythic's latest patch to balance combat in WAR, patch 1.3.0b. The patch has been heralded as a major rebalancing of WAR in two primary areas most complained about: AoE and CC. Mythic has also emphasized time and again that this patch is merely the first step in a new journey to address the issues and concerns many players have with WAR. The big question on a lot of player's minds though is: "Will this patch actually balance Bright Wizards and Sorceresses?"

Some of you may initially dismiss this claim, but I think there is more truth there than most of us are comfortable or happy with. While AoE and CC are often cited as the main problem areas in the game, chances are when you noticed how much they were disrupting your sense of enjoyment with the game, there was a Bright Wizard or Sorceresses gleefully nuking you and your warband into oblivion.

The patch we have been given attempts to solve the issues with AoE and CC in broad strokes. Many concerns have been raised about the specifics of the most recent patch, but I don't think we're going to see the real impact of the patch until we've had it on the live servers for a week or two. We're not going to see if the patch has brought the Bright Wizards and Sorceresses back down to earth with the rest of us, or if they continue to make the most dominant impression upon every conflict they enter.

To read more and voice your opinion visit the Warhammer Alliance website!

You might recognize Jeff Skalski's name from the Land of the Dead post-release interview, conducted by Curse Network community site Warhammer Alliance. What you may not realize is that Jeff Skalski is the Producer for Warhammer Online. Today he shares his first Producer's Letter, picking up where Jeff Hickman left off last time.

Hey Everyone,

My name is Jeff Skalski and I’m the WAR Producer here at Mythic Entertainment.  Some of you may know me from various Mythic podcasts and interviews I’ve done over the years on RvR and Land of the Dead, but today I get to share with you my first Producer's Letter.  I hope you enjoy the read and if you actually like it, I might write more of these in the future. ;)

Continuing where my boss Jeff Hickman left off, I want to provide more details on items you can expect with our upcoming 1.3.0b patch, and a little bit of a sneak peek into 1.3.1.  Just one small disclaimer -- I don’t want to cause anyone anger or emotional distress if something I discuss slips to a later patch.  In this professional field, anything can happen at a moment’s notice, especially that which is unplanned. Besides, being rather excited for what we have planned and currently in production, I’d rather not hold back too much. Consider this an insider look into what we’re working on. ;)  Our plan is to continue to be more open with our community, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from me and others over the coming months and years.

So with that said, let’s chat about the soon, *cough*this month*cough*, to be released 1.3.0b patch.  It’s a letter patch, but don’t let that make you a sad panda.  We’ve got quite a few good improvements from our Player Systems team to start addressing your concerns related to crowd control and area-of-effect abilities.  Besides that, the long overdue look at the Archmage and Shaman has been completed and, last but not least, the guys managed to squeeze in the stacking enhancements for Runes and Marks.

So what are some actual examples of what we are doing that are ability and career related?

AoE balance fixes:

• All AoE abilities are moving to standardized ranges and coverage, based on their type (Melee "Cleave", Conical AoE, Line AoE, PBAoE, or Targeted AoE).

Crowd control changes:

• All Immunities Persist Through Death: Pretty simple one here, no more Stun -> Dead -> Rez -> Stun -> Dead.
• Increased Duration of Disable Immunities: Immunities for the disable family of CC (knockdown, stun, disarm, and silence) will have their immunity timers increased from 6 times the effect duration to 10 times the effect duration. In other words, if you are stunned for three seconds, in 1.3 you would have an 18-second immunity. With this change, that same immunity would be 30 seconds.
• Root Immunity and Knockback/Pull Immunity Combined: We're rolling root immunity and knockback/pull immunity together into a single "movement immunity" effect.  This immunity will remain for 30 seconds, and will prevent you from things such as being pulled in, then immediately rooted in place, making it a much more tactical decision about whether it's better to stop an enemy in place or move them around.
• New Renown Purchase Ability: We are releasing a new Renown Point purchasable ability at Renown Rank 40 that will be a "CC immunity" that players can trigger for temporary CC immunity. This should help break up the "I get CC'd at the beginning of a fight and there is nothing I can do about it" issues.

Archmage and Shaman revamp:

We'll also be rolling out the next phase of our Archmage and Shaman changes, moving their abilities around to create more cohesive Mastery paths, and re-adding some new abilities and Tactics.  These will include the new and improved Path of Da Green and Path of Vaul layouts that you knew and loved on the Public Test server, the new Energy of Vaul and Fury of Da Green abilities, and a handful of new and improved Tactics!  Archmages and Shamans everywhere, rejoice!

Rune and Mark stacking changes:

Runepriests and Zealots will be thrilled to hear that we'll be re-introducing the ability for your Oath Runes and Marks of Chaos to stack on your allies!  Just as before on the Public Test server, all players will be able to have one of each type of Mark or Rune on them at a time, and higher-effectiveness versions will simply overwrite lower-effectiveness ones.  This will make your Marks and Runes much easier to use, and a more effective tool in your toolbox.

One other area we are focused on for 1.3.0b is to better incentivizing open-field RvR.  We want players to hunt each other, and that’s what RvR is all about -- crushing and out-thinking your enemies.  With that in mind, we are literally multiplying your XP and RP gain when fighting enemy players around Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. The Field of Glory buff currently grants a 100% experience bonus in RvR Lakes when killing players. Players will now receive an additional 50% bonus to experience and a 150% bonus to renown when killing players near Battlefield Objectives or Keeps.

Among all that, a whole grab bag of bug fixes coupled with continued improvements to our server and client performance are underway.  Now, I read the boards and know some people will point out that Mythic sounds like a repeating record in this department, but the team really is improving server stability almost daily, and working hard to find even more ways to optimize our client just a little more.  Some of you may not notice a change, while others will.  There is no uber solution, just a whole bunch of little things we can do that will, in time, add up to something bigger.  Rest assured, the team will continue to address bugs as they surface and work those fixes into their schedules, too.  We can’t catch everything right away, and I know we have some that have been lingering for a while, but we prioritize them against others and do our best.

Here’s a few of our favorite bug fixes this round.

• Archmage: Blessing of Isha - Ability is set back too frequently.
• Juggernaut is not properly removing Takedown, Cleave Limb, and No Escape.
• Marauder:  Mutating Release - Does not grant immunity to snares while already active.

Finally, what about 1.3.1? 

On the RvR front, we’ll finally have the second ramps in for the Keeps.  I wish they were going up in with the 1.3.0b patch, but a few hiccups happened right at the end and we had to hold them back one more patch to allow for adequate testing.  Regardless, they look great and we’ll be posting more information about them on the Herald over the coming weeks so you can get a look at the adjusted layouts. 

We’ll continue to look at improving the RvR campaign by better incentivizing Keeps that are defended and upgraded.  The plan is to base the value of rewards handed out on how many enemy players are present, and by the upgraded Rank of the Keep.  Players will receive a boost for both XP and RP, plus additional gold bags handed out for a successful attack or defense.  Now you’ll have even more reason to seek out your enemies for the most rewarding experience.

Another big ticket item for the RvR team in 1.3.1 is the work we’re doing on the city sieges.  The goal is to make them RvR-centric from beginning to end, and this is just the first phase of our plans.  I’ll save the details for my next letter, but I will share this: In the redone capital city PQs, defenders are never kicked out of their city, and they can now win the main city PQ during the capture phase to reset the campaign even quicker than the current 18-hour timer.

What about the Fortresses? Next letter. ;)  Sorry, I’d rather say that than nothing.  I don’t want anyone thinking we forgot about them. 

Jumping from the RvR team over to our Live Events crew, get ready for a Live Event unlike any other we’ve done thus far.  The Wild Hunt will be upon us to help bring in our one-year anniversary, along with the first phase of some of our social networking tools and items to help in-game players stay connected. 

Before I head out, I just want to make a brief comment on the server merges we just announced.  I know these kinds of changes can cause headaches for some of our players, but in the end please understand that this needs to be done to ensure the most enjoyable game experience for all of our players.  After analyzing our player population across all the servers, this is the clearest plan we can move forward with.  I hope all of you will take notice of the more active population as we’ve raised the bar for our population expectation on any given server now.  Look at it this way, more players means more friends to adventure with and more targets to kill!

Lastly, 1.3.0b will be up on PTS this week. Along with that, our patch notes will hit the official forums.  I strongly encourage all of you to check out the patch notes and jump on PTS to play around for a bit.  Let us know what you think! 

My guild’s Keep is getting attacked -- I’ve gotta run!

Jeff Skalski
WAR Producer, Mythic Entertainment
Twitter @Jeff_Skalski

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent reflection on everything Mark Jacobs. He is officially no longer working on Warhammer or for Mythic and the author of this article reflects on some of the things he did for Warhammer, time he spent with the community, and a brief history of his accomplishments across other games.

Here's a look at the first portion of the article:

If you've ever watched a magic act at work, there are always a few elements that you can count on. You can always count on the fact that the magic itself is a spectacle, very public and very visible. You can always bet on a mixture of precision, finesse, and risk, too - the execution is something that requires a certain agility, but one that must be done correctly, lest the act's secrets be exposed unwillingly, or worse yet, that people may come to harm. Lastly, you can always see that the magician is themselves a personality, whether they are willing to perform crazy endurance feats like a David Blaine, or create spectacles seemingly impossible, like a David Copperfield.

Mark Jacobs was, for many years, Mythic's magician. Building Mythic with Rob Denton from practically nothing, Mark may have seemed at times to be the man who could make planes disappear, levitate off the ground, and escape the flying blade of a saw. Dark Age of Camelot saw success that was unprecedented for Mark's family of a company, and even though the development of Imperator ultimately did not go anywhere, Mark's role in securing Games Workshop, navigating the EA seas, and eventually helming the release of WAR proved that as an executive, he had aces up his sleeve. Mark's accomplishments were perhaps dwarfed only by his personality, a bombastic, emotional , driven, presence that would probably rival the magicians of today.

This time, however, the magician didn't escape.

To read more visit the Mark Jacobs Disappearing Act article at WarhammerAlliance.com!

WarhammerAlliance.com has released their latest podcast with special guest Gaarawarr from the Gaarawarr Gabs blog! This week on the podcast the Alliance crew takes a good look at recent community polls, the recent Mythic/Bioware news, and the  Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo interview.

Here's the official Warhammer Podcast update from WarhammerAlliance.com:

Those holidays have a pesky way of interfering with podcast recording and releases! Sorry guys!

Your hosts for this podcast are: Frank, Martin, Kristen, and Gaarawarr from blog Gaarawarr Gabs.

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Intros via poll question: "If you could visit any one place in the world, where would it be?", featuring the Library of Congress.
• New host introduction

Community Hot Topic (25 minutes)

• Featuring the new Mythic/Bioware group and Executive Producer's Letter, Part 3

Community Poll Pingback (5 minutes)

• Featuring the Community Poll on Mythic's WAR Priorities

Dev Post Blender (5 minutes)

• Featuring: Interview with Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo on Land of the Dead, Post-Release

Total length: 43:33 minutes

Podcast Home
GCast Subscription XML Link
Direct MP3 download
iTunes URL

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted the latest news updates for everything in the WAAGH!!! Not much from Mythic this week as they're on vacation for the fourth, but there's been some chatter around the net about LotD impressions and Tufmudda winning the special mount on his server!

Here's the latest Warhammer News from WarahmmerAlliance.com:

Warhammer Alliance News

Tome Tuesdays: Quoting Shcolar Timothy Ehrlichmann, Aeternis talks about some Land of the Dead bugs. No, not those kinds of bugs! We are talking about Giant Scarabs, Khepra beetles and Tomb Swarms.

Forum Fanatics. vbGuild is a vBulletin plugin for guilds to help organize their forumites. Unmoderated Info gives you the lowdown.

News From The Herald

All's quiet on the home front, with Mythic taking a vacation this week. Play on, my friends! May you be relaxed and refreshed when you return.

Around the 'Net
 

One Shard. Gotrek and Felix book review, plus some LotD impressions.

Tufmudda. Congrats to Tufmudda, who won one of the special mounts on his server, as well as his coverage of LotD.

CoTCast. Circle of Trust as a guild disbanded, but their podcast has one final tale to tell.

WarhammerAlliance.com has recently posted a new video spotlight on the Tomb of the Vulture Lord! This is part of the most recent Land of the Dead expansion which brought new PvE content to the world of WAAAGH!!!

Here's a look at the Spotlight On: Tomb of the Vulture Lord:

Werit(WCPI) has posted some fantastic footage of the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, a new RVR/PVE dungeon in the Land of the Dead which features two major boss fights within the a chilling environment full of heiroglyphed walls and skittering bugs.

In addition to minions slain and treasures found, the tomb features phased boss encounters, traps, and an element of suprise - the other faction can enter to wipe your party, so beware!

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a daily news re-cap for all the important topics related to WAAAGH!!! The most recent hot fix cleaned up a few bugs in Land of the Dead and Gamasutra posted a new interview with Ray Muzyka about the Mythic/BioWare collaberation.

Here are the stories from the Warhammer News Re-cap:

Warhammer Alliance News
The latest happenings from your favorite WAR fansite!

WAR Community Promotion Initiative - Mythic/Bioware Reaction
WCPI #21 focuses in on the reaction to the Mythic/Bioware new grouping, as well as some other reaction throughout the 'Net.

News From The Herald
News from the Herald compiles Herald posts from the day.

Hot Fixes - 6/27/09
Land of the Dead had a few bugs to stomp, as well as some minor RvR and item-related things which were dealt with in this hotfix set.

Around the 'Net
WAR News and Interviews from the intertubes.

Gamasutra Interviews Bioware Co-Founder Ray Muzyka on the Mythic/Bioware Group
The new head of EA's MMO group talks about what the results of the new Mythic-Bioware collaboration will bring to WAR and to SW:TOR.

WarhammerAlliance.com has completed a recent Interview with Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo on Land of the Dead, Post-Release! The questions cover the recent 1.3 patch and the new content released with the Land of the Dead expansion!

Here's the Land of the Dead Interview from WarhammerAlliance.com:

Warhammer Alliance managed to catch up with Producer Jeff Skalski and Encounters Strike Team Lead Gabe Amatangelo, two of the minds behind WAR's new Land of the Dead, to hear about their thoughts on the new zone, dungeon, and RvR mechanics, just days after it's gone live. It's been a veritable whirlwind - dare we say, sandstorm - of activity following its release, and we greatly appreciated Gabe and Jeff taking time out to answer the detailed questions we were looking for! Enjoy!

Interview with Jeff Skalski and Gabe Amatangelo on Land of the Dead, Post-Release

We've heard about some of the traps in Land of the Dead. If you had some general tips for adventurers to avoid the various repeated deaths that will happen when navigating them, what would they be and why?

Jeff. Be careful what you click on. Some of my favorite traps lie in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord. My one point of advice is don’t rush through them. Stop and watch. Once you find the patterns you’ll be by-passing those traps in no time, that is until your enemies reactivate them while you're traversing down a quiet hall.


Many players or potential returners to the game are no doubt watching what 1.3 will bring to the WAR world. We've heard about the brand new content, with its action RPG elements, 6v6 invasion mechanic, and dynamic boss encounters. We've heard about fixes to existing systems like wards, lockouts, and loot rolls. At its core, how or why do you think these things will make people want to play WAR, keep their sub, or want to re-sub?

Jeff. The fixes we’ve done to opening up our ward system by unshackling it from armors, easing up on our lockout requirements and now allowing loot rolls to be passed on are some of the features our community has been crying out for quite some time. And we have many other enhancements and improvements in the work today. This is our way of letting the players know we are not just focused on new content, but making sure the core mechanics in our game today are even better. Our Executive Producer, Jeff Hickman has recently been posting his letters about the game and I highly recommend reading them. We have a lot of exciting things in the works right now directly targeting the top concerns of our players such as our RvR endgame in the cities and fortress assaults to name just two. If only I could show you what’s on my whiteboard.


At the time of this interview, we will have seen, for a few days, the fruits of your labor as 1.3 goes live. There is sure to be a slew of feedback that is currently streaming into your inboxes, threatening to overflow and bury you in a sea of text, printouts, and sometimes even ranting. Tell us what are the major things you have learned about already just from the first few days of this patch going live.

Jeff. You never can be over prepared and ready. =P The realm wide events we do in our game and the dynamic way our RvR campaign moves back and forth is some of the most complex systems we’ve worked on to date. Anytime you add or modify these systems it can be rather challenging and with the Land of the Dead we had no fear. With the great support we got on PTS and with our patient core testers we were able to address and resolve a lot of issues early on. Now we are watching the forums, playing with our players, listening and reacting as needed.


The community has talked about how the main RvR campaign might possibly be negatively impacted by the massive interest in Land of the Dead. Let's be honest - a Live release is the only real way to see if this is true, so what are the things you are anticipating or observing about Land of the Dead's affect on the main game to make adjustments?

Jeff. One thing we are anticipating to happen is for the underdog realm to get breathing room and able to quickly capture the pairings and crack open their enemies city while their opposition is enjoying the Land of the Dead. We also expect to see a lot of excitement around purging your enemies as soon as you gain access to the land. One item we’ll be closely monitoring is the pace at which control of the Land of the Dead flips. We don’t want more than a day to span across any server, but we also don’t want it flipping every hour. At the same time we’ll be listening to our players and making adjustments as needed.


Tell us a little bit about the design philosophy for Land of the Dead. Why depart a little from the traditional MMO formula for encounters and dungeons, and craft something that is more "action" based? What drove this direction, and how concerned are you that it may deviate a little too much from what players are used to in WAR?

Gabe. Well, I don’t feel that we departed from the traditional. We enhanced it. All of the parts players know and love about the MMO dungeon crawl experience are present in the Land of the Dead. Group cooperative play, challenging encounters, rewards, etc. We just added several elements we gamers are guilty of daydreaming about when participating in other MMO dungeon crawls. I speak of the wishes tucked away in our id born from vicarious imaginings. Moments of glory, suspense, action, etc. seen in movies, read about in books or imagined in table top games. That was the design philosophy. Dig deep, channel it, sort out the systems to make it a reality, then temper it with scope and mass appeal. It resulted in traps, action packed boss fights, open flow dungeon crawl (glyph system) and the option to invade enemy instances.


The four new Lairs in Land of the Dead require special Glyphs, earned by completing specific PQs. These Glyphs are expended when a player slays the associated "Boss" of the Lair. Are Glyphs also associated with the Tomb of the Vulture Lord? Will players need to repeat PQs for Glyphs over and over again each time they want to regain access to the Tomb of the Vulture Lord?

Gabe. No. The acquisition of glyphs are essentially the sub bosses before the final boss fights (Lair bosses) in the open flow dungeon crawl system that is the Necropolis of Zandri. The Tomb of the Vulture Lord is a separate linear flow dungeon crawl with its own unique elements.


During one of the podcasts, you mentioned lockouts in the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, so we have an example. Suppose an instance is purged by the attackers and the original group is wiped out after they have killed some, but not all bosses. The attackers then proceed to kill the rest of the mobs and bosses in the instance. Will the original group later get a chance to continue the instance ID at the point where they were killed, or will the bosses killed by the attacking group count towards the original group's ID, rendering them unable to kill these bosses during their lockout timer?

Gabe. The attackers, or invaders, of an instance do not ‘own’ that instance. Kills made by players that do not own an instance will not save to that instance. Those monsters will respawn. Additionally, invaders will not receive loot or lockouts for those kills. The next time the ‘original group’ zones into the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, their instance will pick back up right after the last boss monster they killed and received loot for, regardless of what the invaders might have done during a purge or in the few minutes they have before getting kicked after a purge is complete.


During testing for Land of the Dead, you no doubt uncovered many things that required you to take second looks or in some cases, like the expedition resource adjustment, make changes. Give us a couple of interesting, specific examples where your Core Testers or Public Testers revealed things your internal testing did not, and how you decided that feedback was worthy of a change in your content for 1.3.

Gabe. There were several. All of the Core and Public testing was extremely helpful, and an integral part in the iterative process. Here are a few specific examples:

• The Quay of Seftu boss fight originally involved a sort of undead pirate captain. Everyone commented on how they enjoyed the Screaming Skull Ballista aspect of stage 2 and requested that it become part of the boss fight. So we changed the boss to a large, overpowered Tomb Scorpion that would require use of the screaming skull ballista for six players to manage.
• The Assault of Nekh Akeht and Amsu PQs originally advanced all the way to the player camps where they engaged in perpetual combat. After mass testing the camp purging we decided to move those roaming PQs end points to another area in order to better facilitate the RvR experience at the camp.
• There were originally guards throughout Usirian’s Vault treasury that you had to deal with when attempting to pillage the room before the boss came to life. After seeing player reactions, I felt that they detracted from the ‘avaricious treasure collecting frenzy’ experience, not to mention tanks usually got shafted as they would have to round up all the mobs and wouldn’t be able to loot. So I had them removed and altered the stage a bit.

You've stated that tome unlocks and elite titles await those who achieve the RvR-themed goals of Land of the Dead. Now, we've seen in the RvR system proper that sometimes, some players will take the path of least resistance rather than engage in RvR, avoiding the core concept of your design. What do you think about concerns that this will happen in Land of the Dead, that faced with the choice of "phat PvE lewtz" or engaging players in a dynamic RvR encounter of traps and bosses, that most will choose the former because it is may appear more rewarding?

Gabe. Sometimes? You are too kind. Most players are going to participate in PvE here. There is no doubt about that. The core design of the Land of the Dead is a fun, engaging PvE experience bolstered by the threat of RvR. Sure, when dungeon control flips there might be floods of players clashing at the expedition camps or a PQ, but after a bit since only one realm has respawn rights, the dungeon and all of its parts will only have pocket RvR experiences. As such, many of the PvE elements found throughout the dungeon were designed with that in mind – to enhance that pocket RvR experience (i.e. 6v6 instance purging, bragging rights tome unlocks you mentioned, etc.). That being said, successful purging is the path of least resistance for earning tokens which are used to purchase pieces of sets you cannot get from boss drops, crafting items, wholly unique items, etc.


Give us three great adjectives to describe Land of the Dead.

Gabe. Haha. I seem to remember this question being asked of me at a convention some time ago. Was that you? Thrilling, Engaging and Unique.

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted the latest news from Warhammer Online, including topics like Mark Jacobs leaves Mythic, Tomb of the Vulture Lord Goes Live, and a "Merger" Clarification about the recent BioWare/Mythic moves. Look to WarhammerAlliance.com for the latest news and information for Warhammer and be sure to vote in the latest Warhammer Poll!

Here's a look at the latest Warhammer Online News:

Thanks to WarhammerAlliance.com for picking this information up! It looks like BioWare and Mythic are working together to form a new group within EA that will focus on MMORPG game! The  group will be headed by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, two legends in the gaming world!

Here's the official update about Mythic and BioWare Working Together:

From the General News category we have: Mythic and BioWare Form New RPG/MMO Group:

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, current General Manager of Mythic will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

Source

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted a recent update detailing recent hot fixes, a Land of the Dead update, Friday's Faithful Advice, and some in depth discussion about RvR from PhoenixRed! Warhammer is undergoing several changes this month with the release of massive new content with the Land of the Dead expansion, all kinds of hot fixes, and the viral marketing campaign where bones were sent to several top sites. Follow WarhammerAlliance.com for the latest information on these and future developments for Warhammer.

Here's a look at the most recent WAAAGH!!! news update:

Warhammer Alliance News
We report, you bash hide.

Follow the White Rabbit
In this episode of the WAH, PhoenixRed bites into that juicy vegetable product: the carrot of content. With his friend Binky the Rabbit, he goes on a quest to dig up the roots of this tasty root.

Friday's Faithful Advice No.2 !
Here we are again with Warhammer's two Oliphants of Opinion: Saleeya and Rev. Barrows! This week, they deal with a gender confused goblin and lunchbreak trips to the afterlife. Will the victim live past the endless yo-yo of death and ressurections? Will the goblin find true identity? The Answers Await!

News From The Herald

Hot Fixes
These fixes are hot off the presses! Included are some career changes and bug fixes. These updates go hot today, 6/22/09.

Game Update: Land of the Dead - Tue. 6/23/09
The Land of the Dead will be opening to the winning realms on Tuesday! Make sure you bring your sunscreen and a bag lunch, because it'll be a long haul across the desert.

Call to arms: Land of the Dead is being released this week it seemed like a good idea to re-cap the expansion and point out some useful guides to prepare you for what's coming! WarhammerAlliance.com has put together several useful articles listed below, and the official Warhammer Online website has also posted a Land of the Dead overview and an official Land of the Dead Trailer!

Here are the Land of the Dead Guides from WarhammerAlliance.com:

WarhammerAlliance.com has once again taken the time to update us with their daily WAAAGH!!! update! Hot topics include a recent joint WAR Community Poll with the WAR Vault, discussion and coverage of Hotfixes from the 16th and 17th, and a Hotplate Response from Andy Belford who defends the PTS. “To say that this round of PTS testing was ineffective is doing a grave injustice to the players who were actively participating in this round of testing.”

Here's the official Warhammer news update:

WarhammerAlliance.com has posted an update about the PTS server and some of the happenings there for Patch 1.3. Mythic has often scheduled testing events for the PTS to try to generate the best feedback possible. "The Sands Run Red" is merely the latest PTS event in course of WAR's release. There is, however, a slight problem pointed out by the author of the article.

Here's a snippet from the post, be sure and visit the Warhammer PTS Discussion for the full article:

Lately, the Public Test Server, or PTS, has been getting a lot of publicity. Testing has been open for Patch 1.3, featuring the Land of the Dead, for several weeks and just closed earlier today in anticipation of tomorrow's release of the patch to the live servers.

We have been told many times by Mythic that the PTS is one of the best ways to share feedback with Mythic and the development team. Lately, Mythic has been hard at work trying to encourage use of the PTS and is even offering incentives, such as special ingame items, to players that spend time on the PTS and supply constructive feedback. Still, it can often feel like time spent on the PTS has no positive impact on what we see on the live servers. Testers find themselves wondering if their time spent on the PTS is meaningful, relevant and helpful.

We can look back over the course of WAR's release and even into Beta to see how Mythic has responded to the feedback of their testers, but we have several excellent examples from the testing of Patch 1.3 on the PTS. Just days ago, Mythic announced that due to player feedback from the PTS, they would be adjusting the Realm Resource Quest that will determine who controls the Land of the Dead. According to the announcement, they will be dropping the required resources to gain control of LotD from 10,000 to 5,000. Apparently, this feedback followed several PTS Events advertised on the Herald, including “The Sands Run Red” on the 9th and 10th, which was intended to test out the Land of the Dead content and gather specific data on the Resource Expedition Quest.

Mythic has often scheduled testing events for the PTS to try to generate the best feedback possible. "The Sands Run Red" is merely the latest PTS event in course of WAR's release. However, Mythic included the following note in the Herald post about the PTS event that I find extremely interesting:

Immediately, we see that Mythic seems to be attempting to gather data about how the Resource Expedition Quest will run on live servers. They want to be "hands-off" so that they can "observ the natural progression of the mechanics." After the test was complete and they started evaluating feedback, it became apparent that the Resource Expedition Quest was too slow and needed to be more responsive to player actions. So, Mythic used the PTS feedback to alter the system and cut the needed resources in half. At first glance, this all looks very encouraging. We see Mythic engaging with their players and testers and taking the initiative to make system changes to improve the game.

Except for one glaring problem....Read More at WarhammerAlliance.com!