Warhammer Online, first impression: the play
The start:
Dark Elves, Chapter 1: Well, this is the first area I started in with my Disciple of Khaine and Sorceress, and while playing the classes was fun from the get-go, it was a confusing starting area. Granted, it was my first time in the game and I think one can sum up the getting us to new game’s layouts like switching from Windows XP to Vista - all of the commands you’re use to in a MMORPG are still there, just in different places. There is a lot of terrain that block the natural flow of getting-to-know-where-everything-is in the Dark Elf area (i.e. craggy hillsides, big rocks, cliffs (no guard rails and you do die falling off of them, found that out when I thought the cliff path continued where it didn’t) so there was getting use to that. Once bearings were gotten, it was pretty easy to figure out where to go from there (thank gawd - there is no Warhammer thotbott yet!). The public quest was an alien thing to me at first and considering the Dark Elves have no tanking class, it’s evil to pit our little squishy selves against a dragon the first few levels of our existence! I have to admit, the Chaos lands are more fun than the Dark Elf lands, and it’s really easy to get to your allies lands, so if you’re not playing a human, go to the lands of Chaos when you get a chance. Any trainer can train you, and you get quest loot pertaining to your character whether you’re in your lands or not.
The public quest (or PQ) is a FUN thing to do though, particularly in the human lands. If you know WoW, you know there are some creatures roaming around, like for example, Stitches, that are impossible to kill except with a group or at a higher level. They’re still awesome to kill though and half of the fun is the random grouping of a large group of people bent on one goal. That is what the public quest is like, except everyone in the public quest area can participate, get the XP, loot, and if you’re all successful, an awesome end-of-the-chapter thing called PQ loot. If you are all successful with the public quest, a golden chest will fall from the heavens and a board showing who contributed the most will pop up. It will then roll for the PQ loot, your roll being augmented depending on your contribution to the completion of the public quest. It doesn’t matter what stage of the public quest you come in on, if you helped end the chapter (each zone has a “chapter” - it’s all laid out in your Tome of Knowledge [another very fantastic new thing]), you get a roll on the PQ loot table (it just wouldn’t have the augmentation you might get as a higher contributor). If you get the five highest rolls, you get some PQ loot! It’s usually rockin’ armor, jewelry, or crafting stuff. You can do the public quest over and over again (the human one is very fun, the dark elven one not-as-much due to the fact dark elves gots no tanks and there’s a frickin’ fire-breathing dragon :P It’s still awesome). You can and will die a lot in the public quests, but you don’t have to do the ghost run of shame; you just pop up by the renown guy with full health, pay a few copper to the healer real quick to get rid of your death lethargy (or don’t, it only lasts about 10 minutes), and run right back to the PQ not too far away, no XP or renown loss.
In Warhammer, they’ve done a few things that are really cool: 1) they’ve gotten rid of the ghost run of shame. 2) You don’t have to eat and/or drink [Everquest 2 has this as a necessity for you WoWers out there], 3) There’s no stress to craft stuff, but the crafting and gathering stuff is there (more on that later) 4) Flight cut screens - while I like flying in WoW and EQ2, it gets really long. And boring. And long and boring after the ump-teenth time. Sure, it’s soda-and-bathroom time, but it interrupts gameplay. Not so with WAR - you click on the Flight Master, choose where you want to go (you needn’t have been there before!) and there’s a beautiful cutscreen of your character flying away on a dragon that lasts a few seconds and then you’re there. Ah… the simple beauty. 5) Titles - yes! You get titles for the greatest and stupidest things! For example, I got 10,000 influence points due to my good contributions to public quests, so I got the title “The Influential” that I can put under the name over my head, so other people see "MyCharacter'sName the Influential". When I defended a road in the Chaos area from some crazy Gors, I got the title ‘Road Warden”. I also clicked on myself to heal myself enough times that I got “Ow My Eye” and I died over 10 times in the public quests and got “Pin Cushion”. Just during account creation on the Warhammer website, I validated my e-mail and that gave my characters the title “the Validated”! It’s pretty hilarious. :) There’s more, I just can’t think of it all, it’s all very different, but in a good way than the games I’ve played before. Not the other games were bad, just different.
Oh! I was mentioning chapters. You have a Tome of Knowledge that writes everything in the form of a book as you play. It has everything, every quest, every kill, every title, every bit of renown you’ve acquired, it tells the story of the Age of Reckoning, the events that go on in the game, and the things and creatures you interact with as you play. But it’s even more than that. Go herefor more information and a place that sums it up better than I can! As one of the creators says on that page, “If we could find a way to get the Tome of Knowledge to begin spitting out cupcakes, it would probably be my favorite thing ever.”
So, PvP… I can’t say I’ve encountered it yet. I’ve been playing for two days and I’ve just quested and public quested, gaining ranks (what they call levels), renown, and cool stuff. I know there will be PvP, and I’ve gone through “contested” areas with no problems just getting my bearings (those “whoops! Ohcrapohcrapohcrap!” moments, y’know) and I’ve not had a single problem. I am a lady who hates WoW PvP and I can still you right now, this ain’t WoW PvP. I’ll edit this statement of course if I ever feel differently.
Oh, crafting. Crafting is a bit of a mystery to me in this game. When you get to the second “chapter” of any of your sides’ areas, the crafting trainers are there. From your first kill it seems you keep looting these seeds for “Craft - Cultivating” no matter what area you start in. I finally took Cultivating and Apocathary for my Sorceress to see what it’s all about. It’s a mini-game of sorts. When I first saw it I was like WTF? Who put Harvest Moon in my MMORPG? See, when you open your Cultivating skill, you have four little plots. Click on a plot, you can put a seed in it. If you put soil, water, and nutrients (all sold for some coppers or found on bodies) in the plot at the right times, you’ll grow a plant you can use in the Apocathary craft to make potions. Huh. I might have hit a snag with this, it seems a bit much since you can buy the stuff you grow for a cheaper price at the Apocathary trainer than buying the soil, water, and nutrients to make one plant. I’m having a feeling that you will not be able to buy the good stuff later on. I’m also having a feeling I’m going to switch out these crafting skills I took for gathering ones until later levels - Butchering and Scavenging. Salvaging sounds cool too.