Warhammer combat and careers patches pushed back

by Tateru Nino Nov 17th 2008 at 7:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Warhammer Online

Mythic dev Mark Jacobs writes that the combat and careers patches for Warhammer Online will not be appearing in patch 1.0.5 as previously planned and are instead being rescheduled for patch 1.0.6. "Our plan was that no patch would make it through the [Public Test Servers] until we were sure that it was tested thoroughly and properly." writes Jacobs, "It was evident throughout the testing process that some of the changes needed to be reconsidered and some changed outright."

Patch 1.0.5 is going to deploy to live servers tomorrow (Tuesday, 18 November), with fixes/improvements to the Realm War system, and the "Heavy Metal" Live Event that sets the stage for the Knight of the Blazing Sun and Blackguard.

1.0.6 will subsequently deploy onto the Public Test Servers, with the two new careers and the combat and careers patches.

1.0.6 will include a revised version of the grudge mechanic for IronBreakers, which "will result in IBs having decay beginning at 15 seconds as well a much slower loss of grudge per second than originally planned," though this mechanic is still apparently subject to tuning.

Changes to healers HoTs are being reverted, but "big heals" are retaining a reduction in casting time, subject to further testing, and Sorcerors and Bright Wizards won't get their DoTs buffed until there's more of an impact assessment.

Much of the rest of patch 1.0.5 will be going ahead as written.

Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Tags: black-guard, breaking, event, heavy-metal, knight-of-the-blazing-sun, live-event, mark-jacobs, mythic, patch, war, war-patch-1.0.5, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Simons said on 8:04PM 11-17-2008

Wow - Mythic's actually listening to the hue and cry over the Ironbreaker and HoT changes? I'm duly impressed. Those were changes that sorely needed further consideration, particularly in the light of the other changes they were being bundled with. Kudos!

Also, just as interesting, those who read to the end of Jacobs' announcement found this little surprise:

"Additionally, 1.0.6 will also provide an opportunity for testers to get a sneak peek at those two new careers."

Early testing of the new careers on the PTR? The server's going to be packed! o_O

MrGutts said on 8:16PM 11-17-2008

Yeah I was one of the ones that left because of the IB changes, I don't like putting that much time into something and having them just screw it within 6 weeks of release. I would expect something like 4 or 5 months. EA doesn't give two shiats when people leave anyway.

You cancel and that is it, no exit poll on why you left, nothing really. They don't collect any data on the reason.

Tony said on 9:39PM 11-17-2008

That's actually not true. I think they've simply been busy, but they are sending out exit polls. I got one a couple of weeks ago, but I never subbed beyond the first month.

I imagine they're more concerned about other things, but they are getting around to it.

Ripper McGee said on 10:01PM 11-17-2008

You left the game over something that was on the test server? How about testing and giving feedback, since that's what the test server is for? If it had gone live, I could see being upset, but that's a bit extreme.

~Ripper

Simons said on 3:20PM 11-18-2008

Seconded to Mr. McGee. And in this case, it's not even some hypothetical "your input might have made a difference" speech. We can see right here, in this very article, that people who chose to try out the changes and register their complaints about them got Mythic to hold off on the IB changes and continue tweaking them. (I don't know if you even bothered to follow the PTR, but they already relaxed the restrictions a few times before deciding to push them back entirely.)

Of course, perhaps one should blame developers who ignore disastrous PTRs for conditioning people to assume that the PTR is more of a "free preview" than a "beta test" and that any changes that make it on the test server are going live, regardless of whether they work. I can only hope Mr. Gutts comes to realize this is clearly not the case with WAR.

Abriael said on 11:52PM 11-17-2008

It's really nice to see a software house that actually takes into account what happens in their test servers and is made of smart enough people to be able to say "ok, we were wrong".

I've seen so many developers go straight ahead with their "vision" without caring squat about feedback, about their test server, or anything else, that seeing such attitude is really refreshing. I'm not surprised, though, to see it coming from Mythic.

Nadril said on 2:39AM 11-18-2008

It certainly is refreshing, and gives me hope for the games future. It's good to know that a company knows when to say they were wrong.

eggmanjr said on 1:25AM 11-18-2008

I have canceled three times and never gotten a feedback email. The only email they have sent me is one letting me know my account was canceled. (I plan on throughout the year getting my five days back that they steal with their 30 day based subscriptions instead of monthly, so I do not let it auto renew)

Detritus said on 9:13AM 11-18-2008

Wait, seriously? You cancel and renew every month to "get back" at them for "stealing" five days? Again, SERIOUSLY? I picture Scrooge for some reason. I can sort of see your point, but for the $2.50 that roughly calculates out to you "saving"... I mean, for the amount of TIME it takes you to do all that, you clearly don't have much concept of how much your own time is worth...

eggmanjr said on 1:56AM 11-19-2008

Takes me all of about a whole minute, ya I have that kind of time.

Jack said on 10:50AM 11-18-2008

Warhammer need one big content upgrade before I pay beyond my free month! Playing Wotlk at the moment and its everything I did hope that Warhammer was...