Warhammer Online has gone through big changes recently, both in-game and out. Mythic recently released the title's 1.3.2 patch, which had some controversial changes, and this week we learned that staffers at the studio were let go as part of Electronic Arts' new business strategy.

In the midst of all this, Warhammer Online producer Jeff Skalski answered questions via e-mail to Massively.com about where the game is headed.

"Right now, our focus is on improving the RvR campaign, career balance, and game performance," Skalski said. "These are critical to our long term success. We also continue to fix bugs and work on overall game polish. These are the things we sit down and discuss every patch planning meeting we have."

Though we got a letter to the community from producer Jeff Hickman earlier, Skalski also addressed questions about appeasing both existing and new players, whether or not to merge servers again and the overall future of Warhammer Online in these troubled times.

It's funny how times change. Not so long ago the most disconcerting thing that players of Warhammer Online players had to deal with were the numerous changes introduced in patch 1.3.2. Now, however, the recent layoffs that have hit EA and Mythic are far more worrisome. Executive producer Jeff Hickman has taken the time to try and assuage the community fears with a recent letter to the community regarding the future of Mythic's franchises and the game's ensuing viability. Hickman doesn't address the layoffs directly, instead using the letter simply to try and reinforce the image that the game is going to continue and keep being improved upon.

The letter becomes a bit more unsettling when Hickman calls the response to the aforementioned patch 1.3.2 "great." It's quite likely nothing negative is going to happen to Warhammer Online, as it has been making an earnest effort to turn around a disappointing first year, but time hasn't yet healed the wound of "triple A and here to stay." Different companies and different games, but it's fresh in our collective memory, and only time will tell what the ultimate impact of recent events will be upon WAR.

Gamasutra is reporting that another 80 layoffs have hit Mythic Entertainment as well as several other Electronic Arts studios, although Mythic was the only MMO group to feel the sting of sudden unemployment. That would equate to 40% of the team, which would make for a brutal staff blow. Our best wishes go out to everyone finding themselves without a job and we sincerely hope they all find steady work as soon as possible.

What does this mean for Warhammer Online, exactly? In light of the new Endless Trial it seems like EA is doing everything it can to squeeze profit from the project, which began with a bang last year, but unfortunately fizzled out soon after Wrath of the Lich King hit. And now with Mythic assisting BioWare on Star Wars: The Old Republic, along with maintaining Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, you would be forgiven for seeing dark clouds collecting in the skies above.

Nevertheless, there should be people still working on new content for Warhammer Online, at least in theory. So hopefully we'll hear something soon, such as a boxed expansion, which would raise spirits quite significantly at this point.

[Edit: This is no longer a rumor as it has been confirmed]

Hackers, as everyone knows, were scheduled to be the mirror class to Choppas... wait, no, that's not right. We're not talking about one of the classes of Warhammer Online, we're talking about that scourge of the paying and fair-playing populace of every MMO. The most recent developer diary on the game's official site is with John Cox, development manager, discussing some of the ways and means that allows Mythic to fight against the scourge of hacking and try and keep the game on the level.

Cox discusses a number of techniques, starting with the most obvious: that several people working on fighting the hacks are part of hacking communities, observing silently and sometimes even testing them internally to develop a response. He also discusses why some of the progress on fighting illegal behavior is a bit slower than the community would like, and why it's not always as possible to shut things down straightaway on the server end. With a discussion of some of the holes in detection, which includes an explanation of why the game briefly had Vista users almost universally flagged as hackers, it's an interesting look behind the scenes at Warhammer Online's efforts to fight the good fight. (That is, the one not involving Order versus Destruction.)

The endless trial has arrived in the land of Warhammer Online, and it's quite the offer. Of course, we've reported on the actual trial before but as of today (post-maintenance) it's officially enacted within the game. So if you've been waiting to go back and check things out but didn't feel like re-subbing or somehow missed out on all the excitement of the game's launch last year, then now is the perfect time to get in and take a look. If you're not sure what the heck this whole "endless trial" thing is all about, here's a handy official FAQ to peruse.

We think it's a good if not bold concept, especially considering players only have to download 1gig of data before the game will dynamically stream the rest as they play. Hopefully it works out for Mythic, who've been putting much blood, sweat and tears in trying to improve perception since its heady launch days.

Mythic has been pulling out all stops lately in an effort to improve Warhammer Online. One of their latest changes was to remove fortresses from the RvR campaign equation because many players found them to be a laggy and boring hurdle to be overcome. Doing so, however, had a predictable result: Cities were sieged much more often. While Mythic was acutely aware this would happen, they didn't have measures in place to handle an "all city siege all the time" situation. Today, Andy Belford announced a suite of interim city fixes.

Check out the official forums for the complete run-down. A few notables include: The durations of stage 1 and 2 city siege have been cut in half, many parts of the city are no longer tied to city rank, city rank recovers much more quickly, and the Reikland Factory and Twisting Tower scenarios are making a comeback to provide those not engaged in city siege with something to do.

Many players and bloggers have pointed out that these fixes only address the symptoms and not the core issues related to WAR's RvR campaign. Andy was quick to mention that these are only initial changes and more will be coming (e.g., the Underdog system). Testing of these changes should begin next week so keep your eyes on the Herald.

When traveling alone in the woods, it's generally a good idea to remain on your guard. This is especially true in Warhammer Online, where the forces of Order and Destruction are locked in a never-ending battle for supremacy. Thankfully, this cautious lady happens to have an enormous feline companion at her side, just ready to chow down on anyone or anything interested in attacking her. Today's great Warhammer Online One Shots was sent in to us by Yavvy, who didn't explain what she seems to be defending against, only noting that this is a: Rank 8 White Lion, having just entered Hunter's Vale.

Do you have screenshots of your favorite game that you haven't sent in to us yet? If so, why are you holding back? You should gather those up and send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com. We can always use more screenshots to show off.

It's a kind of disconcerting time to be a Warhammer Online fan, let's face it. Patch 1.3.2 had a lot of people muttering quietly (or loudly on the comment threads of posts related to it) that the game is floundering for direction and trying to latch on to something to keep it afloat. This is one way to view things, but hardly the only way. Bio Break has an interesting take on it -- they're not floundering for direction, they're working hard to regain their footing. The game that was meant to go toe-to-toe with World of Warcraft didn't quite make it there, but Mythic hasn't been letting the game sink and falter.

The post is specifically addressing the contorversy that came around regarding the shift to unlimited free trials within tier one, the game's introductory content. It sounds a bit fishy, but as pointed out, the shift to "unlimited free trial" has done wonders for Dungeons and Dragons Online, boosting its revenue by a fair amount. While Warhammer Online hasn't yet gone down the same road, it's clear that they're continuing to push forward with the game and find new ways to expand the gameplay experience. If you are one of the many fans whose complaints about recent developments have been less than optimistic, you might want to think about this, as the game hasn't given up the ghost just yet.

Warhammer Online's October newsletter just arrived in our mailboxes and its full of frothy WAAAGH!. Predominantly featured are the 1.3.2 updates, which most of us already know about including the removal of fortresses, a new keep difficulty system, client performance improvements, and of course, the New User Journey. Check out the video podcast with producers Jeff Skalski and Josh Drescher for a full run down.

A couple interesting bits stuck out for us. First, as Werit points out, Mythic has removed the 10-day time limitation on their free trial. Players can now experience all of what tier one has to offer without worrying about a looming deadline. This should work out quite nicely with the New User Journey. We also noticed the release of a new Warhammer-themed living card game by Fantasy Flight Games called Warhammer Invasion. This should be of interest to those who just can't get enough order or destruction in their day.

Finally, you should come back in one hour for our exclusive GameX interview with Matt Shaw and James Casey as they discuss the free trial and explain their decisions behind the 1.3.2 changes.

In all the hype over the new games being released these days, one might think that older MMOs would fall by the wayside as players scramble to snap up the latest offering on the market. Not so, says Tim Cotten in a recent interview with Gamasutra. The lead designer of Ultima Online says the game is still going strong.

Ultima Online has "got a very core player base, and not a small one", says Cotten. A good MMO will earn player loyalty no matter how long it's around, and Ultima Online is still enjoying that player base after twelve years. They recently invited former players to return for a couple of free weeks, and new content is still a feature -- the eighth expansion was just released in September. Cotten hints at lots more to come too: "UO itself, if you want to go for a historical timeline, we're only around Ultima VI; we've got tons more of content left to play with."

It looks like there's definitely something to be said for old favorites. Keep it up, UO!

There have been some big changes in Warhammer Online of late -- that's undeniable. But the game is pressing steadily onward, making a major change that oddly hasn't altered a single element of the gameplay. No, this change is entirely targeted at the players, as the game has now launched the Macintosh version of its client. They've been hinting at it and talking about it for quite some time, but it has gone live and is available, complete with full support for the game's free trial for any Mac gamers still on the fence regarding whether or not they want to dive in.

Certainly there's been some discussion among the game's community about whether or not the Mac client has been necessary or even desirable, with the common statement being "well, everyone can just run Boot Camp for it." But there's no doubt that a native solution is better than a workaround, and it makes the game more appealing to people who would prefer not to fuss around with Boot Camp. Take a look at the official question-and-answer page to see the details about the new client, or if you'd rather be a malcontent, start demanding Warhammer Online for Linux next.

Mythic developers just fixed a major bug that has been in Warhammer Online since launch and it's having a big impact on players. Action points (AP) are the one-size-fits-all resource used to cast spells, perform damage attacks, and tank. Suffice to say, a change to the way AP works affects every class in the game. This bug fix makes it take a little longer for AP to regenerate as originally intended.

Many players claim that the time-to-kill in beta was much higher than it turned out at release, and while a dozen or more variables play a part in this (e.g., better gear, higher crit rates, newer strategies, etc.), AP regen can be counted among them. You see, after the game released game update 1.3.1 came out, players had a nearly limitless AP pool. In fact, AP regen potions were useless aside from getting a quick boost after sprinting. This led to many players getting in the habit of button-mashing their abilities without fearing a complete AP drain.

Now that the issue has been corrected, there's been a bit of an outcry from players who have become accustomed to playing WAR not as intended for over a year. Mythic stresses that this change is for the better but will continue to monitor the situation and adjust accordingly. Check out Nate Levy's developer diary for all the details.

Update: This bug was discovered in 1.3.1 but we are unsure of when it originally made its way into the game. We apologize for jumping to conclusions based on our own experiences.

Warhammer Online has turned once again to the community for their questions, and the result was -- unsurprisingly -- a number of questions about the game's now-live Halloween event, Daemon Moon Rising. That means that the most recent grab bag has slightly fewer questions that are relevant to the game as a whole, but far more that are relevant to the things that every player wants to know at the moment. Namely, how do you get your masks, where do you get them, and what do the masks do?

The downside (for those of us familiar with the setting) is that there will be no Skaven-themed masks this year. On the other hand, nearly everything else in here provides some solid information and a nice confirmation that the only thing recycled from last year's event are some of the masks. The iconic and much-coveted Leather Face Mask can be obtained by winning a Daemonball Rally match, an RvR holiday event similar in execution to football. The question grab bag also offers some teases of the ultimate event reward, which promises to be a notable (if temporary) buff for anyone who takes aim at it. Take a look at what's in the event, and then you might be well-served to log in and take part in the festivities.

It can be safely said that every Warhammer Online player was absolutely in love with the changes made in patch 1.3.2, for a given value of "every Warhammer Online player" or a very interesting definition of "absolutely in love." Okay, the patch might not have actually been as well-received as all that. There was some controversy, more so than the usual patch day wailing and gnashing of teeth. Love it or hate it, it's hard to claim that the community team is unaware of the fact that they made some large changes and debated choices, which is no doubt part of the reason that Jeff Skalski gave a short interview to MMORPG.com regarding the changes.

If you didn't like the changes, of course, it's unlikely that you'll like the general tone of the interview. Skalski outlines the reasons behind each change and why he feels they were the right choices for the game as a whole, even if they weren't all received warmly by the existing player base. He is, however, clearly very aware of the criticism and complaints that have been leveled for each change, and does his best to address them in turn with a calm attitude and a touch of humor. Take a look at the full interview for a bit more about the process and the rationale, even if you're still a little miffed about where your Shadow Warrior starts off these days.