Official Keeps Q&A Thread!

[IainC]

In December's newsletter we got our first glimpse of the new keeps and siege systems in WAR. We heard a bit more about them in this month's video podcast and of course there has been a lot of speculation and many questions on the various community sites ever since.

Well, speculate no more! If you have a question then post it below and I'll be sending all the questions off to EA Mythic for answers. The February grab bag will contain the most interesting questions and answers from all of these official Q&A threads.

The rules are pretty simple:

• Only questions on keeps and RvR, no off topic questions will be forwarded
• Don't repeat questions, read what others have already submitted before adding your own
• This isn't a feedback or discussion thread, keep it to questions only please
• make sure you check out the info in the podcasts first so you don't ask a question that's already answered

So with all that said, ask all those questions that have been tearing you up and check next month's newsletter for all the answers you've been waiting for!

 

[rynnor]

What checks and balances will be in place to prevent an overpopulated realm from completely dominating a less numerous realm in rvr?

 

[Gahn]

What kind of incentives there will be in to promote Keep Warfare?
There will be any kind of repair ala Daoc?
If so there will be any incentive in do so or it will be a boring and repetitive task that the usual bunch of good willing peeps will have to deal with?
There are plans to avoid the stand offs we had to deal with cause of the Siege Weaponry and Mage/Archers barrage like we did in Daoc?
Tanks will have a role apart being meat shields?

 

[Aesgir]

Do you gain any form of PVE bonus for controlling a keep in an area in contribution/xp rewards, as opposed to totally controlling an area?

In relation to loot off Keep Guards, will they drop items similar to other players in an rvr situation?

Is there a realm wide alert that a keep is under attack, with more details going to the guild that claims it to enable a realm wide alert?

(Example here using DAoC, '[Claimed Guilds name here] Caer Erasleigh is under attack ' in a broad message....and 'Caer Erasleigh is under attack with 62 enemies in the area' to the guild claiming it.)

Will all keeps stock parts for seige weapons as these have been said to be added?

Can the Guards/Lord be upgraded and equipped with crafted weapons/spare items, to boost them slightly?

Can Dogs of War be hired to guard a certain keep? A bit of a warhammer nut here, so there's nothing i'd like more than to hire the Slayer Pirates to help me defend a keep around Barak Varr

There's a few to be going on with

 

[Binky the Bomb]

Do you gain any form of PVE bonus for controlling a keep in an area in contribution/xp rewards, as opposed to totally controlling an area?

In relation to loot off Keep Guards, will they drop items similar to other players in an rvr situation?

Is there a realm wide alert that a keep is under attack, with more details going to the guild that claims it to enable a realm wide alert?

(Example here using DAoC, '[Claimed Guilds name here] Caer Erasleigh is under attack ' in a broad message....and 'Caer Erasleigh is under attack with 62 enemies in the area' to the guild claiming it.)

Will all keeps stock parts for seige weapons as these have been said to be added?

Can the Guards/Lord be upgraded and equipped with crafted weapons/spare items, to boost them slightly?

Can Dogs of War be hired to guard a certain keep? A bit of a warhammer nut here, so there's nothing i'd like more than to hire the Slayer Pirates to help me defend a keep around Barak Varr

There's a few to be going on with

Ad will there be different model sets for the dogs of war (Dwarf Slayer Pirates for dwarf area's, Tilean Pikemen for empire etc) or will it be random? Sorry but he got to all the good questions first.

Also, the forrestso fthe empire are littered (supposedly) with ancient elven ruins. Will they be PVE adventure zones? Or wont we have any?

 

[Spongey]

What sort of siege wepons are we looking at and how do we build them?
is there a limit to how many you can build?
how many does it take to build one?
how long does it take to build them?
will the orcs have diffrent types of siege wepons to say the dwarves?

Yours Forever Warhammer Online!

Spongey

P.S WAAAAAAGHHH!!

 

[jrb]

What about keep layout in the map / transport to keeps, all on foot, teleports or what?

Can we hire npcs to defend the keeps, and upgrade them etc? (with decent LOS this time )

 

[SonicBorg]

1. I understand there is "upgrades" on keeps/NPC guards. how long does it take for each level.

2. What sort of bonus do you get as a guild/player for holding keeps and structures. and are these spendable bonuses.

3. Does keep taking offer any kind of trophies. for guild members/leaders.

4. Will there be unique offerings/cut prices for purchases from NPC's at keeps you control?

5. Will AOE spells be able to effect "through"

6.walls/doors without LOS (Line Of Sight) being an issue (ala Ice wizards at keep doors in DAoC for a very long time!)

7. Will there be any +defence type of bonus for players defending keeps during attacks?

8. Is there any plans for including Guild/player housing which is RvR'able/Raidable ?

 

[Lexa]

1. Will a controlling guilds level have any bearing on the quality of their keeps defence/guards/size?

2. After achieving level 40 will we still be able to further expand our characters abilities via an RvR system similar to realm points/realm rank in DAoC?

3. Keep defence is very much in the realm of the ranged DPS arc-type, how do you plan to make it fun for those with limited or no offensive ranged abilities?

4. Is the incentive behind sacking the enemies capital purely loot based?

 

[MaiTijger]

* I saw on the podcast something about doing normal PvE quests which would also count towards further controlling a realm. Does that mean RvR will be an integral part of the game (for which you get exp, gear, skill that you need in order to advance further in the game) and will it partly substitute PvE or will it be an "on the side" thing that you can choose to participate in or ignore (as in for example WoW: you get gear, honor etc. for it, but you don't need to do it to get to the highest level or advance in the game)

* Something was mentioned about controlling areas. Will all areas be subject to this and, once controlled, what will be the downside for the other factions? Will they be forced to leave the area and quest somewhere else untill they can take it back or will it be something like controlling a village in the area with everything going around it still be able to.

These may be very newbie question as I'm totally new to RvR, but I'm curious about it. I've never seen much fun in PvP as in randomly stomping down other players. I prefer normal questing, but if normal PvE quests would be incorporated into RvR it would be interesting even to me.

 

[toshiro]

When many guilds attack the same keep, how is it determined which of the guilds that gets control over the keep?

 

[ToonarmY]

What amount of playtime (ballpark) would it take to get to the highest level in the game?


oh and can i be in the beta:england:

 

[Amelyn]

1: Will there be some sort of quicktravel in the fontier? As in DAoC you could use portalstones if your faction owned a keep and the surrounding towers.

2: Is it possible to get inside an enemy keep without having to crash the walls/gates?

3: Who can repair a damaged keep? Do you need a certain guildrank and/or have a certain craft?

4: How many people does it take to claim a keep?

5: If 3 guilds conquer an enemy keep, who gets to claim it? First come first serve?

6: Will the battlements have "hook-points" for NPCs, ballistas etc.


7: Will there be public quests involving keep sieges/defences?


8: How large is the max level keep?

 

[Aesis]

1. I dont know how the score system will work for RVR but how will you prevent RVR farmers? People who will go near the battle and just start walking circles (aka the keyboard coin trick).

2. How will the healer classes get points compared to the damage classes?

3. A little as mentioned above but how will you make it interested for realms that have very little people interested in participating in RVR. For example in WoW when battlegrounds weren't connected yet. There where PVP realms with full or medium population that never played in the battlegrounds because there werent even 40 people (on a near full pvp server) that where interested in participating.

4. How will the loosing realm get points for participating? If they will get any points if they loose that is.

 

[Lexa]

A few more

5. Will the elevation granted by keeps and hills increase the range of distance based attacks?

6. In regards to siege weapons, will we need to carry / drag them with us or can I simply chop down a nearby tree to use as a ram?

7. Will there we a real time 'War Map' showing locations / size of recent battles and current status of the keeps?

8. Is there any mechanism that will allow fallen and re-spawned characters to quickly return to the front?

9. Given the distinct silhouette each class has will there still be a large name above my head that my enemy can see giving away my position hidden behind a large rock?

10. Voice Comms is a big part of modern MMO's, especially in RvR situations, will WAR have an integrated comms system?

11. If a guild can claim and control a keep can an alliance do the same?

12. How do you propose to stop sweeping keep raids in the small hours of the morning when the player base is mostly asleep?

13. From a equal footing how long will it take to reach the enemy capital assuming a constant push and rolling victories across the victory point system. Will it be doable in one night if the enemy doesn't resist?

14. How many ways into a keep will there be for defenders? Can a besieging force simply camp the main door to prevent entry or will they have to contend with multiple ways in?

15. Will healing require line of sight?

16. Will tanks be able to effectively guard weaker allies beyond collision detection and taunts?

 

[SonicBorg]

Will the gods have any effect on RvR, IE help balancing etc.

 

[Zamiuz]

Race's fights alone?

Will the race's be able to fight together? Well i suppouse so but, i have seen in different sites that there will be zone fights. For example Dwarves Vs Greenskins.

Or is it so that you have to be in a higher level to be able to fight with other races?

 

[SonicBorg]

Scenarios..
Will you be able to happily form a Guild Group, or alliance/guild Raid group and enter a Scenario with just exclusively your guild/alliuance group only! as so not to get stuck with pubs. (pubs often just lead to leechers/ afkers and whiners. etc)

 

[shader]

Will RVR actually matter? I'm not flaming here, but I want to know that if I log out and go to bed and find out another faction has taken over an area, will it actually mean something to me when I next login? Am I going to feel the gorge rise and want to raise a banner and charge off to retake the captured lands?

Will there be roles within RVR, such as a lead Keep Defender per keep, or will it merely be group based or based upon the perception of others? A great system for this would be vote based, per faction. If Mr Blobby is shouting a lot and getting nothing done and yet Farnham the Wodgie is being vocal and actually doing a great job, those of us helping him ought to be able to nominate him to a position of temporary power. Also that would look good in his individual Tome of Knowledge; "Led the defence of Harildar Keep..."

 

[Oskorei]

I've seen alot of good questions so far. What's the ETA on the answers?

 

[Reno]

Oskorei read the first post the ETA for the answers is given there. Questions are for the februari grab bag of the warhammer newsletter

 

[Oskorei]

Whoops, my bad, sorry missed that (obviously).

 

[Amelyn]

another one popped up in my head after reading shaders post.

9: Will we see player "commander-skills" or similar?

example:
Cpt. Buckethead has gotten 3million renown points and is now able to draw an attackplan on his map that he can show to others to coordinate attacks?

 

[fhran]

Will certain classes be able to do special class based actions in the keeps , such as engineers having access to special engineer items for keep defending that no other class can do?

 

[Oskorei]

Will Orcs actually be able to be used as siege ammunition?

 

[Amelyn]

Will Orcs actually be able to be used as siege ammunition?

Not quite ammo, rather a way to quick-travel. Thats my guess anyway.

Check out the last third of this video:
2008-01_pp-PaulandJosh.swf

 

[Oskorei]

Ok, if this stays like it does in the podcast: Orcs flying to the top of the keep, occasionally crashing into the keeps walls, does this replace the wallclimbing?

Further: will other tanks beside the Black Orcs be able to do this?

 

[IainC]

Thanks all for the questions. These are now being bagged up and sent to EA Mythic.

Keep an eye out for the February newsletter which will feature answers to as many of your questions as possible.