Patch 1.0.5 Released (-combat and careers) no news on Europe patch day

• With 1.0.5 comes The Heavy Metal event! Fight and adventure for your chance to play the Knight of The Blazing Sun and The Blackguard before anyone else!
  
  
• Character collision in RvR has been improved. Players should no longer move sporadically when being blocked by another player.
  
  
• Players who go AFK while in Public Quest areas or during keep sieges will no longer receive contribution credit toward those encounters.

• There were some instances in which the reticule for ground-target-area-effect abilities was allowing these spells to be cast in areas which were not originally intended. This has been adjusted.
  
  
• Several issues have been addressed that previously allowed players to get to locations they were not supposed to be able to reach.
  
  
• Players will no longer appear mounted when they are not.

• Fixed several issues that caused the User Interface to display improper Zone Control information. Objectives and Keep icons as well as the Zone Control bar will now properly display the status of contested zones in Tier 4.
  
  
• Tier 4 Zones: Based on player feedback, we have reduced the number of Scenario Victory Points required for Zone Control. Also, Battlefield Objectives and Keeps are now worth more Victory Points, and capturing a T4 zone can be accomplished more quickly than before.

Mythic Quote on the upcoming 1.0.5 Patch:

"Folks,

Okay, here’s the first part of the 1.05 patch from us. The 1.05 patch is the anxiously awaited “Combat and Careers” patch. As I mentioned already, it is over 17 pages long and still growing and it includes, among other things, adjustments to every career in the game. Some careers got a special shot of extra-loving goodness and some careers also got some tough love as well as some goodness as well. We hope to post the full patch notes tomorrow morning but as we continue to conduct a final review of all the preliminary changes and the notes themselves, it might be held up a bit longer, but I certainly hope not. It is, by far, the largest WAR patch yet and is by its very nature, full of far-reaching and sweeping changes. Here are some of the highlights of the patch.

1) We are pleased to announce the official opening of our Public Test Server. Similar to our Pendragon sever for DAoC, this server will be both open to all players but players will be able to copy (not transfer, your original character remains on its server) their existing characters over to this server at anytime. This server will get the latest, but not final, version of the game and feedback from this server will be used in making any further adjustments to the version. We encourage all players who want to help in the development process to give it a shot. More information on the PTS will be posted on the Herald.

2) Rally masters have been put at every Warcamp to make moving around the world a bit easier and faster. This is only the first part of some improvements we are making to the transportation system to cut down on the time that players have had to spend simply running back and forth between places. The next step will be to allow players to have multiple bind points.

3) Players’ should be able to use the morale button abilities more effectively now. In other words, the darn thing should work every time.

4) Many of the issues with spell/abilities animations not firing off/ending properly have been corrected. Hopefully we got all of the issues but only time will tell.

5) An additional gold bag will be generated when a keep or fortress is taken.

6) Morale abilities will now display their cooldowns correctly at all times. This is just one of many UI fixes.

7) The "Ability Not Ready" message will no longer display when the remaining cooldown on an ability is less than or equal to the full global cooldown.

8) Corrected an issue with the cooldown timers on the action bar buttons that was causing them to count down improperly. The timers will now count down in half-second increments beginning at 3 seconds remaining. See, I said there was more than 1 other UI fix. happy

9) Another “warhammer to the head” to those that try to AFK in scenarios and PQs.

10) All classes have had some abilities buffed and some abilities have been debuffed a bit. For example, the Squig Herder has gotten 30+ adjustments to its abilities. Out of those 30+ adjustments, the phase “damage has been increased” shows up about 80% of the time. As part of this update, the team has looked at every career in the game and made adjustments. Things such as Electromagnet, Fire Cage and snares/roots in general have drawn particular attention from the team and have had numerous changes/fixes made to them. Of course, where major changes have occurred to the careers a free re-training has been offered. Tomorrow’s notes will detail all of the changes and considering that the career changes are about 14 out of those 17+ pages, I think you can say that we made a whole lot of changes.

So, hopefully qill tomorrow's 1.05 patch notes will put an end to the “Mythic doesn’t respond, doesn’t want to make changes” threads eh? Nah! happy

Again, 1.05 is primarily the C&C patch, expect more other big patches coming as well over the next month or so. When you see the contents of the patch, I hope most of you, if not all of you, will see why we have been taking "baby steps" with C&C changes up to now.

Mark "

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Edit: Patchnotes Released

A chill is in the air. The twin moons Morrslieb and Mannslieb wax full, bathing the land in an eerie, pale light. The furtive footfalls of creatures unknown crunch on dead leaves deep in the dark woods. Strange apparitions half-glimpsed between the skeletal limbs of trees wander in the shadowy hollows. The souls of men are filled with dread, for the Witching Night approaches!

We are pleased to announce the first live event for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The Witching Night will bring to life one of the Warhammer world's most mysterious and dangerous times of the year, when the veil that separates the realms of the living and the dead parts, and tormented souls wander the land in search of a peace they will never find. For some, it is a time to cower fearfully behind locked doors, praying to their gods for protection. For others, it is a rare opportunity to practice forbidden rites of dark power.

Read on for a summary of the special features we'll be adding to the game in this dark season.

New Conflicts

The constant warfare and the approach of the Witching Night have awakened ancient horrors from their slumber, daring brave warriors from the armies of Order and Destruction to conquer them in the name of glory!

Four new Public Quests will be added to the game, spread across all tiers and pairings. Unlike the game's current public quests, these will be set inside of the Open RvR areas, allowing players to compete directly against each other to earn influence that will earn them rewards offered by one of the new Herald NPCs we'll be adding to the capital cities.

These new public quests are different in two important ways. First, they're located in RvR lakes, rather than in PvE areas. In particular, the locations for the new public quests are as follows:

• The Tier 1 Public Quest will be located in Chrace


• The Tier 2 Public Quest will be located in Troll Country


• The Tier 3 Public Quest will be located in Black Fire Pass


• The Tier 4 Public Quest will be located in Caledor

Also, because of the special nature of these Public Quests and the rewards that players can earn by participating in them, the quests will reset less frequently than you might be used to. Expect a few hours to pass after a Witching Night Public Quest is completed before you'll be able to try it again.

The Ghosts of the Fallen

Keen-eyed players will spot the ghosts of fallen warriors roaming the battlefields of WAR. There one moment and gone the next, these fleeting apparitions are not hostile, but if caught and killed, they have a chance to offer one of the Witching Night's special rewards

Beware the Witches!

Witches and cultists long in hiding have come out to perform unholy rituals that capture the souls of the dead for some unknown, nefarious purpose. They gather around great cauldrons, chanting the names of blasphemous entities. Those who stumble across these secret cabals can free the trapped sprits of the dead and then claim their rewards for themselves.

Courage has its Rewards

The wearing of masks has long been the custom of Witching Night, and WAR will offer four such costume masks that players can obtain by participating in the event. These masks will be difficult to obtain: one is an Elite-level influence reward and the others are very rare drops on enemy players and the witches and ghosts who will inhabit the land for only this event. All four masks can be worn by each of the game's playable races.




Also, a special cloak with unique art will be offered during Witching Night, and players can also earn a unique title. In addition, there will be new potions and trinkets to claim. All rewards for the event can be used by players of any level.

The team here at Mythic has been busy this week making improvements and fixes based on your feedback to further enhance your gameplay experience. While these may change read on to check out the latest of these exciting updates coming to a server near you!

• The war against the gold spammers continues. We’ve added new code that will hinder the spammers as they seek to carry out their nefarious deeds! This is only the next step, not the final one, in our continued battle against them.


• We have added a 'Join All' button to the scenario window which now allows players to join all scenario queues in their current tier at once.


• In order to promote realm and population balance, some realms on some servers will now award their players with a +20% bonus to renown and experience. This is not a permanent bonus, but rather a temporary incentive to promote balance. Realms currently offering this bonus are marked on the server list with a colored icon; blue for Order and Red for Destruction - Check the Herald for the latest list!


• In response to player feedback, we have made several improvements to the behavior and responsiveness of the siege weapon interface. In addition we have fixed some issues with the control and release processes of siege weapons.


• In an ongoing effort to deter players from going AFK while in scenario starting areas, we have made the following changes:
  
  • First, players who join a scenario and remain in their realm's spawn area for two minutes will be automatically removed from that scenario.
  
  
  • Second, upon entering the spawn area of a scenario, players will receive a debuff that prevents them from earning renown and experience. This debuff will be removed when the player leaves the spawn area.
  
  


• The level range at which players are able to receive the “Bolster” buff while in RvR has been expanded. This buff will now be available starting three levels lower than it had been previously. Please note this change only applies to Scenarios on Open-RvR Ruleset Servers
  
  • In tier 2, the buff will apply from rank 8 to rank 17, and will raise players to Battle Rank 18.
  
  
  • In tier 3, the buff will apply from rank 18 to rank 27, and will raise players to Battle Rank 28.
  
  
  • In tier 4, the buff will apply from rank 28 to rank 35, and will raise players to Battle Rank 36.
  
  


• In response to player feedback, we’ve added RvR and NPC chat tabs for new players. These tabs filter scenario chat and NPC chat respectively. In order to minimize frustration to users who have already customized their chat window, we will not be overwriting any current settings, so this change will affect only new players. Players who wish to add these tabs may do so through the normal chat configuration options.


• While in scenarios, players will no longer be able to select "Need" in their loot windows unless their career or race can use the item being offered. Please note: players of a lower level than required by the item are still able to roll.


• We have fixed an issue that was causing claimed keeps to forget that they had been claimed after a server restart. Improvements have been made to how pets follow and they should now return to their owners more quickly.


• We continue to work on the issues with the pet window. We have identified and corrected another bug which was causing this window to disappear.
  Improvements have been made regarding an issue that was causing pets to teleport back to their owners after combat.


• Fixed a bug that prevented players from creating an alliance with more than two guilds. Now that this issue is resolved, alliances can grow to great numbers to crush their enemies!


• Fixed an issue that was causing the chat window to reset to its default position at logout.

Read the full patch notes here

Queues dragging you down or preventing you from playing or enjoying the game?

Look no further. Hybrids have decided to give Order some support on another EU server. Several members have joined up and are having good, queueless fun smashing Destruction in RvR!

Server name: [EU] Mount Silverspear

Hybrid Species Guild will be formed on this server probably within the early part of this week when Glen and the rest of us all convene at the same time, so be sure to get you alts up and running for when we are playing as Order!

Please Note this is just our ALT server, we haven't abandoned all hope on Eltharion just yet!

The patch from yesterday's news article has now been applied to the servers - you should expect a download when you log in today.

We will see if the changelog holds true; if it does, this could be a very nice first patch!

The first official patch of WAR has been pushed through QA and will be coming live shortly on the servers.

Unfortunately no such luck with respect to the queuing issues but it addresses many features which help to iron out the ingame mechanics, including (most importantly), the removal of the need to scroll through the End-User Licensing Agreement before being able to tick the box!

Read the full patch notes here

• Players no longer need to scroll down through the EUALA when logging into the game. The window now defaults to the bottom, and players need only check the Agreement box and click accept.


• The war against the gold sellers continues! We have made improvements to the Appeal system to allow players to report spam messages from gold sellers more quickly.


• TAB-targeting should now more consistently select the nearest enemy in the player's field of view.


• Corrected an issue that was preventing players from adding new friends to their friend list even while the number of existing friends was below the list's size limit.


• Fixed the issue that was causing players to sometimes get stuck in a particular animation state.


• Monsters which change velocity while moving in combat should no longer return “Target is Out of Range” sometimes when attacked by players.


• The /ignore command will now work more consistently.


• In response to player feedback, we have made improvements to player pet movement and behaviors.


• The Pet window should no longer disappear when its master is zoning or entering the game.


• We made many UI fixes including a new "autoloot" feature requested by many players.


• Guild cloaks will now display their heraldry properly.


• We have made several improvements to the chat window, and it should now be more intuitive to use and set up.  A number of chat window issues were resolved in the process. We are continuing to work on your requests about chat, with more improvements to come in the future.

Half a million users have registered to play Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, according to publisher Electronic Arts.

The figures come after only one week on sale, with EA claiming the title is the fastest-selling MMO of all time.

"In just one week we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG," offered Mark Jacobs, co-founder of Mythic Entertainment.

"We spent years working to provide players with the most stable, epic, and polished online world we could, but it is the players that have truly brought the Age of Reckoning to life."

The elusive fix to the queuing system that we hoped would help aide us in the age of the black screen and random crashing, giving us a little time to get back into game without joining the back of the line arrived yesterday, Woohooo! Waaaagh! and all that but… there's always a but!

A little story first;

"After a long… gruelling… life draining shift at work (It's the truth I tell thee!) I attempted to login at 5pm give or take 10 minutes, and was surprised to find myself in a 45 minute queue, as the queuing hasn't been too bad of late, I put it down to peak time, and off I went to keep myself busy whilst the queue ticked down.

Shortly after getting in game my craving for food took over and I logged out to forage for my next meal, about 40 minutes later (wild boar is hard to come by ‘nowadays!) I came back to the usual character screen, expecting to see another 45+ minute wait, I tentatively clicked play, and to my surprise I was straight into loading interface!"

The Major

Although this would seem like a good thing, this seems to be the problem that is pushing up the queues, the timeout period after a crash / afk seems to be pretty much infinite, meaning the queue does not go down if you leave yourself in game (I.e. not quitting the game entirely after being logged in), this has led to silly queue times even late into the night, with 700+ man queues and wait times in excess of 2 hours.



So the “fix”, as is often the case it seems with GOA, has become the problem, let's hope this doesn't turn into another farce and they simply do a rollback of the patch or change the way the queue “fix” works. Another job well and truly earning the title of “Shower of Shite”!

The server clones which were due to be implemented yesterday as far as I was aware, are now being created this morning, meaning our server will be down for the majority of the day. For those of you unsure of what the server cloning is, it's basically an exact copy of our current server onto a brand new server, leaving you the choice between the two, with your character existing on both. This is in the hope that it will thin out the High pop server between the two. This initially sounds a great idea, but it could mean that the newly created server is a ghost town with very few people moving over and the queue problem on the initial server still being problematic.

We've had a few passing conversations about how this will effect us and what our plans are going to be, and for the time being we are going to stick with Eltharion, at least to try out a weekend or two and see how the queues have been effected. Although we don't like the massive queues, the main problem seems to be that you can't switch characters or crash out without being put back into the queue due to there being no "grace period" i.e. a 5 minute window where you can get back into game without queuing so you can play alts or withstand a crash. As with any MMO there are a few stability problems which are harder to stomach when you have to queue for an hour each time the game decides it's had enough of you.

Let's just hope that a good number of destruction players do decide to take the plunge and move over to the new server, but for now it's just going to be a case of suck it and see. Official news post quoted below.

Today we are carrying out the cloning operation on the four busiest English servers. The affected servers and their new clones are as follows:

• Karak Eight Peaks will be cloned to Tor Anroc


• Karak Azgal will be cloned to Zhufbar


• Karak Hirn will be cloned to Yvresse


• Eltharion will be cloned to Tiranoc

You can read more about what cloning means and how it will affect you in our earlier news.

We expect that this operation will take most of the morning and that the servers, along with their new clones will return in the early afternoon. We will of course keep you updated with the progress of this.

14:20 CET The cloning process is now complete but the servers still need some testing before we can open them. We will keep you informed here.

Update at 15:10 CET - The cloning operation has been a success and all servers are now open once again. We hope that many of you will choose to make one of the new servers your home.