Articles intéressants et leur source

Salut.

Je créer ce sujet pour inclure des articles provenant de d'autres sites webs que vous trouverez et voiudrez partager.

SVP, inclure la source.

Merci.

Simon

Guild Preview with Josh Drescher and Christian Bales
By Garrett Fuller

Source : http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29501

Guilds have become a major part of MMO game play. Players have organized guilds that now span across different games and game genres. There are hardcore guilds who try to dominate game content as well as casual guilds who enjoy having fun and exploring an MMO with much less intensity. Warhammer Online is prepared to help both types of guilds in their game. As MMOs grow more sophisticated we have learned what works and what does not work for guilds. WAR plans to take what works expand on it and help guild leaders and players organize a well running guild so the game can remain fun. Josh and Christian were on hand to show us some of the features in WAR’s guild system.

Players will be able to customize the UI in the guild section to best fit the look and style of their guild. We did not get to see the full impact of this feature because it was not finished yet in the game. What we did get to see was a good look at guild heraldry. Players will be able to customize the look and feel of their guilds using banners which appear in the guild UI. Christian explained to us that there will be tons of options for guilds to choose from when creating their symbols. She also explained that there will be loads of colors and designs for banners. The best part of these designs is that when you take a keep in RvR your banners will fly from the towers!

It will take six players to start a guild in the game. Josh explained that there will be some cost involved. Six players is also the standard single group in the game. Josh fully admitted to being a solo styled MMO player; however he explained how WAR is trying to encourage players to be part of guilds in the game. The social aspect of MMOs is very important to the way these games are played and Warhammer hopes to make that experience the best for everyone involved. While we all may like to do some quests on our own, it makes sense in a game expecting massive RvR battles to be part of a group.

Guilds can gain their own amount of experience in the game. Do not worry, once you reach top tier you won’t have to go out and level your guild. This will happen naturally as you progress in the game and gain experience yourself. Guilds will eventually have tactics they can use and place on their banners. Josh and Christian both explained that running a guild in an MMO should not feel like a full time job. Guild leaders will have plenty of tools at their disposal to support their guilds along the way. WAR wants to give guild leaders the tools to schedule events, give rewards to strong members, and make life as easy as possible.

The guild UI has several options that go with it. The first is a guild profile page which allows members and new members a chance to get a feel for the guild’s overall approach to the game. There is a section for guild news about events and achievements among the members. There is also a guild roster which allows for players to manage the number of members. Guilds also can form alliances with other guilds in the game. These Alliances make up what Josh called “super guilds.” Here players can share resources and work with a cooperative membership to make life easy. They also hope to have rewards if a player joins a guild. They want to encourage guilds to give back to the player base.

While Warhammer Online continues to drive changes in the MMO market there has become a lot of standard expectations among players for guilds. Players will not only have the standard tools and options to run their guild, but WAR wants to add things into the game that take guild management one step further. Many players know there are times when guilds can become very tough to run, Warhammer hopes to make it easier for players and guild leaders alike.

Trophies:

Are you the type that likes to get recognition for your achievements? Maybe you want a new accoutrement for the uniform? Well, since you're gonna be killing stuff anyways, you might as well get something for it and that's where Trophies come into play. Justin Webb takes us into the game to show us how the trophy system works. How they change, where they go, how many you can have at what time, he answers all the question you could have about trophies... and even gives a sentence or two an a possible tradeskill in the process. So join Justin as he takes you inside the world of trophies.

Source : http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29396 (Video Included!)

Tome of Knowledge!!! (Tres interessant!)

It's one of the most talked about parts of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and also hailed as one of the more unique aspects of the game. It's the Tome of Knowledge, literally a history of your character's life. Whatever you do, it's going to track it, but don't take my word for it. During Ten Ton Hammer's recent visit to EA Mythic, we were lucky enough to be shown many of the different aspects of the Tome's many, many features by none other than the creator of the Tome of Knowledge herself, Carrie Gouskos. From giving you history and background on the game's story and your life to tracking how many different things you killed and more, the Tome of Knowledge is sure to be a big hit with the players. Come take a look as Carrie explains it all to you.

Source: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29517 (Full KewL Video inside!)

Vraiment bon ton site Simon!

Une visite de Altdorf
par Ten Ton Hammer

The city of Altdorf is home to Warhammer Online's Empire, the race of humans who might not be as strong or quick as their counterparts but just as powerful. EA Mythic Development Manager Mike Stone lead Ten Ton Hammer on a video tour of this majestic city identifying the different areas including taverns, dungeons, and raid objectives the enemy will assault. If you've wondered what this city will look what better way to find out than a first hand look guided by one of it's creators?

Are you a Ten Ton Hammer Premium Member? We've got an extended cut video just for you right here showing even more of Altdorf. Want to learn more about becoming a Premium Member? Head over to our store for details!

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29404

Note : Woow halluciant, il va y avoir une statue pour les dix meilleurs joueurs pvp du serveur et une statue gigantesque pour le best of the best, le mofo des mofos. Dommage que ca va être toujours moi qui va être là....

Warhammer Online Delayed: Our Interview with Mark Jacobs
par Dana Massey, 27 Mar 2008 9:23 am
http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/3064-Warhammer-Online-Delayed-Our-Interview-with-Mark-Jacobs

In the hoopla around the announcement of their Collector's Edition and a slew of previews of Realm vs. Realm, EA Mythic also revealed that they had decided to delay the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning from Q2 until the fall of this year. General Manager Mark Jacobs took some time to talk to WarCry about the delay, the reason for it and what it means to the future of WAR.

"At each stage we look at what's good what's bad what's not so great," explained Jacobs. "Luckily all our key drivers, all have gone over extremely well."

Jacobs explained that during the Beta, while nothing was perfect, there were no features that simply had to be tossed out, completely rethought or rebuilt. Many areas need work, but he feels that the test process has validated the game's core design. "On the not so plus side, everything is taking a bit longer than we had hoped," he added.

So if the systems were all holding up to the scrutiny of players, why then did they opt to delay?

"If we had tried to force the game out in the 2nd Quarter, as we had originally planned to release it," said Jacobs. "We could have but it would have meant pretty much no time for polishing the game. The decision was to continue to iterate and reserve polish time."

The main area that requires further attention, according to Jacobs, is class balance. He explained how the classes of Warhammer Online do not necessarily fall into specific boxes as they do in many MMOs. Most classes are multi-faceted hybrids of several traditional RPG classes and this means they need to rethink some of the conventions of MMO balance. "If you don't release it right from the beginning with classes at least pretty much balanced, where they're all fun, you're not going to be in good shape in an [Realm vs. Realm] game."
image

Realm vs. Realm (RvR) is the other reason that this process is so vital. WAR is competitive and players won't have fun unless they're on a even playing field. With their experience in Dark Age of Camelot, the only other major RvR game - a term they have literally trademarked - they of all people should be aware of the precarious nature of competitive MMO balance.

Jacobs insists that the delay is purely about polish, balance and fun and not stability. He admits the game's client could be more stable and is - as yet - not heavily optimized. However, he believes that the core servers behind the game are definitely well on their way.

"It's not as stable as Camelot it is, but it isn't that far behind," he said.

This is their advantage, having chosen to build on the platform of their previous MMO. Jacobs noted that they will pour more resources into client optimization over the next few months and then again heavily just prior to release, as was always the plan.

This is not the first delay for Warhammer Online and given the checkered history of Electronic Arts with MMOs, one wonders whether their owners were growing impatient.

"EA's behind us and not being us with pitch forks, thank god," Jacobs said. He explained how he believes that Mythic and EA as a whole have had a good open line of communication throughout the process. They have been sure to have EA people in the Beta so they can see the progress and know that when Jacobs asks for a delay, he's doing it because the game really needs it.

Jacobs also noted that since the change in hierarchy over at EA, new CEO John Riccitiello has been a huge proponent of increased polish on all their games, or "raising the Metacritic", as Jacobs called it. As such, when a game says they need time to achieve that polish, they have been supportive.
image

"They're not happy, we're not happy, no one here is happy that we're not going to make our initial date, but they understand why."

Cynically, one could argue that the game's delay is actually more of a marketing decision. Fall is industry code for Christmas and Q2 is code for just before summer, when most people go on vacation. Jacobs admitted that could help them, but said that was just the way the months fell and not part of any nefarious plan to ship more units.

"On the plus side, you do have a fall where people are going to be looking for new games and we're going to spend money," he said. "On the other hand, there's more competition. We cannot get really caught up [in marketing release dates]."

He pointed out that while they had previously been scheduled to launch along side Funcom's Age of Conan, the delay might put them right up against Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft. Ultimately, they can only worry about their own dates and let the rest take care of itself.

"I don't believe anyone's release date until the game goes gold," he added. "Dates for any MMO are set in mud, never stone." He doesn't believe a release date - not even his own, he admitted - until he hears the words "gold master" and even then he cited a game (not an MMO) that managed to delay even after that fateful press release.

So, if release dates are so hard to predict for MMOs, why even announce a new one and should anyone in the community believe him?

"I told them not to believe it last time," he laughed. "I always laugh when a developer says we're absolutely going to make it; not unless you're running out of money and cannot go on."

In a few months time, they'll come to the same crossroads they just arrived at. They'll look at the Beta, they're tracking, their feedback and the stability of the game. Then, they'll decide whether or not its ready for retail. If it is, WAR will be waged. If it isn't, they'll delay again. It's as simple as that for Jacobs.

"You're going to find out things from your Beta that you cannot possibly imagine from your Beta. Anyone who says differently is either on crack or lying," he added with his usual blunt style.

Over the next few months, EA Mythic plans to concentrate primarily on class balance and fun, then with a few months to go before launch, if they decide they're ready, they'll move on to a period of polish and iteration to make sure that the game is completely ready to stand up and achieve Jacobs' long stated goal of becoming the second largest MMO, behind only WoW, on the market.
image

The delay does not mean players should expect them to pack in a round of glamorous new features. He said they do hope to put in more touches, especially art and other tweaks, but he doesn't anticipate any big things.

"We might be able to pull one or two things in that are small that we were not planning to, but don't count on it," he said.

The changes to expect are things like new armor sets, additional effects and some additional cycles dedicated to the expansion of their crafting system.

Over the next few months, they plan to continue their Beta test and gather feedback through their community and robust tracking tools - Jacobs was especially proud of how they have been able to find and eliminate choke points in content through increased use of tracking and metrics - to smooth out the rough edges and hopefully make their fall launch target.

Le Crafting
Par Wild_Bunny , le 28/03/2008
http://war.mondespersistants.com/?article=368&page_art=9

Le Crafting
Avec ce Press Tour, le Crafting fait enfin son apparition dans WAR, et il commençait vraiment à se faire désirer celui-là.
Et parce que je vous aime bien, j'me suis décidé à vous présenter le crafting dans Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Le tout en vidéo, parce que c'est plus simple pour comprendre. Et avec mes commentaires à moi pour vous expliquer tout celà en live, parce que forcément on voit pas toujours très bien. Avec un disque dur externe je vous aurait fait çà sous FRAPS, mais là c'était pas le cas en fait...

Quelques précisions cependant. A l'heure actuelle du crafting dans WAR, il faut distinguer 2 catégories.
Les métiers de ramassage, qui sont au nombre de 3:

Butchering (Boucherie): Qui vous permet de récupérer des ingrédients sur les monstres et animaux, et non pas faire des biftecks avec de la viande elfe.
Scavenging: Qui vous permet de dépouiller les cadavres pour récupérer des objets précieux.
Culture: Qui vous permet de faire pousser des plantes, mais pas des fleurs, des choux ou des carottes, n'allez pas me faire dire ce que je n'ai pas dit.

Les métiers de fabrication, qui est tout seul pour l'instant:

Apothicaire: Métier qui permet de fabriquer des potions!

Voilà donc les différentes parties du Crafting dans WAR, mais je n'ai pas pu tout tester, alors j'ai fait avec les moyens du bord: à savoir Apothicaire et Boucherie.

Dans la pratique, il n'y a pas grand chose qui change d'un artisanat classique. Du moins, à première vue. En effet, on tue des monstres, on récupère des ingrédients, et ensuite il faut fabriquer des objets. En l'occurence des potions. Cependant, pour fabriquer un objet vous n'avez pas de recette avec la liste des ingrédients à réunir pour fabriquer les objets. A vous de les trouver donc! De plus chez les vendeurs vous pouvez acheter des composants qui vont modifier et altérer la fabrication en rendant la composition plus stable, en allogeant sa durée, ou en augmentant le nombre d'objets fabriqués par exemple.

Attention aussi, le crafting dans WAR, ca marche pas à tous les coups, des fois ca rate. Un peu comme Bonaldi ou Léonard en somme...

Bref, expérimentations et tests en tout genre sont au programme du crafting de WAR. Et pour une fois, vous serez pas des assistés!

(VOIR LE lien pour le vidéo )

Disciple of Khaine
Par Ten Ton Hammer , le 01/04/2008

Disciple of Khaine :

Part healer, part savage warrior the Disciple is a class to be feared in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. This brand new class is not currently part of the Warhammer lore, but promises to bring dark power to those willing to play it. Ten Ton Hammer recently visited EA Mythic's studios and got a great video demo of the Disciple and what it's capable of. Lead Character Artist Adam Gershowitz and Associate Producer Josh Drescher walk us through how this class came about and what role it has in the Warhammer Online world. Who better to explain than the folks who created it right?

Lien: http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29631

Tome of Knowledge
par Oli Welsh
source : http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=129923&page=2

As central as realm warfare is, Mythic has not neglected to pump some fresh ideas into the more conventional adventuring side of Warhammer Online. The public quests are a particularly engaging change from the fetch-and-carry-and-kill norm. These rolling scenarios take place in a set area of the open game world, and require a series of conditions to be met - soloable at first then requiring ever more players, usually culminating in a boss fight. Anyone can join in and be rewarded just by entering the area, without needing to group first: it's a painless, immediate and dynamically exciting way to experience some of the thrill of a more co-ordinated dungeon raid.

If we had to lay bets on one of Warhammer Online's features becoming an industry standard, however, it would be the Tome of Knowledge. This in-game quest log, encyclopaedia and achievement system - with a slick book interface - is in many ways an extension of the deeds and titles introduced in Lord of the Rings Online.

As you play, it collates the story of the world and your character's adventures within it, and rewards certain "tome unlocks" - kill a thousand of these, discover a rare thing, die a hundred thousand times - with jokey titles and themed stat boosts and abilities, called "tactics". Some unlocks are listed, others will have to be uncovered in what Mythic calls a "meta game" that will encourage exhaustive exploration. One example: follow a man who only appears at a certain time each day, eavesdrop on his conversation, steal his key and use it to access a secret area, and kill a wizard for the unlock.

The Tome is guaranteed to enslave obsessive-compulsive players and provide a variety of variously grind-heavy or diverting ways to waste your time in Warhammer's world, beyond the main campaign. But aside from the unlocks, its potential as an information centre for the game - something all MMOs need, as complex as they are, but so few have - is huge, if limited in its current form. Pending announcement of out-of-game website support (still unconfirmed), and the integration of the kind of database features discussed in our interview with producer Jeff Hickman, the Tome could change the way players relate to online worlds dramatically.

If WOW's armour sets are all about the shoulders, WAR's are all about the helmets. I mean, look at them.
There is an end to Mythic's innovation, however, and it's a sudden cliff-drop of an end. Character progression and combat in Warhammer Online are, for the most part, deeply conventional. Having gone back on its original decision to do away with levels, Mythic has also been forced to concede defeat on its flexible character customisation system. Although you can still respec your character at will and on the fly - by equipping and unequpping the "tactics" buffs you have earned - a more conventional and more permanent Mastery system has been added since early beta. It's identical to WOW's talent trees in almost every respect.

The character classes (or "careers" - WAR has an acute case of that MMO disease of needing to rebrand every convention, with levels becoming ranks, battlegrounds becoming scenarios, PVP becoming RVR and so on) are a strange mix of diversity and restriction. Since each race has a unique selection of four careers, there are a huge number to choose from: but they all slot neatly into the archetypes of healer, tank (damage-soaking warrior), ranged damage and melee damage.

There are some interesting mechanics in there, such as the risk-reward of the volatile dark elf Sorceress, but also a sense that hybridisation and personality have been limited by the push-and-pull need to create so many careers while fulfilling the four basic functions in each race. The Witch Elf, in particular, seems an absolutely by-the-numbers rogue.

Crucially - and very worryingly - when you're sat in front of Warhammer Online, excitement at all those big and clever idea starts to ebb. Whether questing or playing realm-versus-realm scenarios, combat feels sluggish, vague, and painfully lacking in tactile reward: the sound, particularly, is poor, devoid of both impact and information.

Wonder if he got his nails done as well.
The skills are cleverly designed, but far from intuitive; of the three careers we played, only the mage-style Sorceress fell into a natural rhythm. Many classes seem to reward a risky, fast-paced chaining of enemies, which is welcome, but in the circumstances it only mitigates the stodginess of the combat. The almost complete absence of a death penalty is refreshing, though.

Even more worrying is the feeling that, unless you're a Warhammer fan steeped in the lore, WAR's world isn't really somewhere you'll want to be. The graphics are sharp and well-finished, but the artwork is quite plain and characterless, and the animation isn't fluid enough. There's nothing to surprise and delight in the visual cues, and the effects are weak.

There's definitely a sense of humour present, but it doesn't seem to have seeped into the detail and atmosphere of the world, and Mythic will end up ruing the day it decided to exclude dancing from the range of emotes. It's as if someone has taken WOW's world and drained half the colour, atmosphere and liveliness from it.

If Warhammer Online is lacking one thing, it's "feel". Improving that "feel" is exactly what Hickman says the recent delay of the game's release to the end of 2008 is about. We'd say Mythic, EA and GOA made absolutely the right decision, Lich King or no Lich King. Warhammer Online deserves that extra level of polish and as clever as it is, the game needs it. Until then, those big ideas are enough - just - to make it worth keeping the faith.

Note : J'ai hâte de pouvoir lire mon Tome of Knowledge au travail, au lieu d'être obligé de me le tapper durant mon temps de jeu. Tsé un tank comme moi avec autant de talent se doit d'être au front, je laisse la lecture des livres de magie au érudit!

Pending announcement of out-of-game website support (still unconfirmed), and the integration of the kind of database features discussed in our interview with producer Jeff Hickman, the Tome could change the way players relate to online worlds dramatically.

Vidéos "juteux"
par Anonyme
source : ben là , vous êtes curieux pas mal !

Bon, ce genre de vidéo ne se jase pas ouvertement sur le forum. Par juteux, je parle de vidéo qui ne devrait pas se retrouver at large, ya know what i means? Je totalise 800 megs de vidéos couvrant le Disciple of Khaine en haute résolution, faisant des quêtes et des battelgrounds, d'un survol de tous les skills de la Witch Elf, d'un chosen masacrant tout ce qui bouge en pve avec sa grosse hache de la mort et quelques autres vidéos low-rez d'elfes noires aléatoire qui font du crafting.

Pour y avoir accès, procurez-vous MSN Messenger et je vous les transférerai.

Capital Cities
sur youtube

Pas seulement un survol sur le contenu des capitals tel que déja vu auparavant, mais cette fois-ci en profondeur. Par exemple, le Temple de Sigmar va être réservé seulement pour les gens appartenant aux guilde avec des vendeurs spéciaux. Au fur et à mesure que la ville va monté en stature ( en niveau??? ), des voleurs vont apparaître et attaquer cette même banque! On ve vas pas juste trucider Karl Franz le chef de la race humain là, on va aussi sacager les magasins, faire couler les navires du port et brûler tout sur notre passage !

Moi j'appelle ca de l'immersion, gang!

Partie 1 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpGzgdl9KPY&feature=related
Partie 2 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnEgzXzpTzs&feature=related
Partie 3 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ACoI-JVCg&feature=related
Partie 4 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj2fPFcG1W8&feature=related
Partie 5 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1GnFlz_1XQ&feature=related

Warhammer Online Progress Report
sur IGN
Source : http://pc.ign.com/articles/873/873681p1.html

May 13, 2008 - Set to release this fall, EA Mythic's anticipated Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMORPG was on display at Monday's EA Spring Break event in San Francisco, Calif. Trying to play a massive game like this for preview within a limited time as other publications cycle through doesn't exactly make it easy to write an informative preview. So instead we just asked a few questions of Destin Bales, content director at EA Mythic, regarding how the game's beta testing is going and what to expect in Warhammer's end-game content.

In case you're not familiar with it, the game is based in the Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy universe and centers around what's known as realm-versus-realm (RvR) combat. In this setup, players pick either the side of Order (Dwarfs, Empire, High Elves) or Destruction (Greenskins, Chaos, Dark Elves), work their way up a level curve to the 40 cap, and eventually try to take over the territory of their opposing faction and conquer their capital city. For a detailed account of how the gameplay works, check out our previous coverage.



Territory is taken over in numerous ways, from open world combat to instanced battles with set player limits. Eventually you'll get to the siege gameplay, something that Mythic is currently working on. "We just got siege hooked up," Bales said. "We've got siege cannons. We've actually got a targeting reticule and you can zoom in and fire on people. We've got rams; you can have six people band together and ram the door." Once you've smashed your way to the enemy gates, you'll find various PvE opportunities open up. In Altdorf there's an instanced assault on the king, for example, which can yield king armor for groups that successfully overcome the challenge.

As for plans going forward, Mythic is "probably not going to do open, open beta where you just have the entire game open to everybody all at once," Bales said. "We like to do more targeted strikes in beta where we can actually get people in and say, 'Test out tier one, test out tier four, try and invade this keep,' and that way we actually get feedback that will help us actually improve the game on a more targeted level."

Those who aren't able to get in and play before the beta ends should still expect to hop in this fall when the game is set to officially launch. "Fall is our target," Bales said. "It's a target we really want to hit. It's not something we take lightly but if the game's not great we're not going to launch it until it is."

Pour ceux qui ne l'ont pas deja vu ^^ Un podcast tres interessant qui parle des guildes:

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/herald/flash/pp_2008-04_guilds.html