10 Features From Other MMOs I’d Love To See In WAR
September 2, 2008
Capturable/Trainable Pets (World of Warcraft’s Hunter class) – Despite technically having four pet classes in Warhammer Online, only the White Lion has a consistent pet that grows with you over the levels (and has to be one type of beast: a lion). One of the greatest strengths of WoW’s hunter classes was that you could tame one of a huge variety of beasts to be your lifelong companion, and even swap between them. It was a bit Pokémon, but it added a level of customization that made your character feel more unique compared to other hunters.- The Sidekick/Exemplar system (City of Heroes) – One of the casual player’s greatest fears is being left behind as friends and guildies level up far past their range. City of Heroes did a masterful job (as did some other MMOs) with letting low characters temporarily level up to group with a highbie, or letting a highbie artificially lower themselves to team up with lowbies. This way, no one felt compelled to level faster than they wanted to out of fear of not being able to play with their friends.
- Appearance Tab (Everquest 2) – Nobody likes looking like a fashion victim in MMOs; part of the joy of having a character is being able to eventually outfit him or her or it the way you feel they should appear. EQ2 (and others) let you choose an outfit for appearance only, while your “real” gear would stay on at the same time, for stat purposes. Warhammer Online might have qualms with this, as a person’s gear is a quick visual identifier as to their level and power.
- Non-Combat Pets (EQ, WoW, pretty much every MMO) – It may be deemed unnecessary “fluff” by WAR devs, but players bond with and resonate with their little non-combat companions. Plus, and this is important, these pets give a player another layer of visual customization.
- Player-Created Dungeons (City of Heroes) – Instead of player housing, what if you could gain control of an instanced dungeon that you could deck out with monsters, traps and treasures (via special loot that you’d have to collect) for other players to go through and enjoy? It might be hard to implement, but it’s win-win for devs and players — the devs gotta love unlimited player-generated content, and players would have unlimited dungeons to explore!
- Player Housing (SWG, Vanguard, et all) – It’s popular, it’s always requested, enough said.
- RvR Dungeons (Dark Age of Camelot) – Rumored to be in the works, DAoC’s Darkness Falls was a terrifically popular twist on dungeons. The realm with control of the most keeps would gain access to the dungeon, while the other realms were denied entrance — yet any remaining players of the opposing faction could remain inside to fight the new intruders. This might be a bit similar to the keeps/capital cities RvR struggle in WAR, but it’s sufficiently different to warrant a look.
- In Game MP3 Player (EVE Online) – Let’s face it, in game music gets old sooner or later, and it’s a pain to keep tabbing out to fiddle with Winamp or whatever music player you’re using. Why not incorporate it? Or even encourage players to compose their own WAR tunes to submit for a contest and an eventual inclusion in the game?
- Tutorial Instance (LOTRO) – WAR is a fairly intuitive game, especially if you’re a seasoned MMO gamer, but Mythic shouldn’t assume that everyone trying out their game is — and they should be making allowances for the newbies who could feel very overwhelmed at the start of the game. An option for an instanced tutorial zone could be a great answer to these things, especially if they include all of the lingo, features and options that us vets take for granted.
- Permadeath Servers – Just kidding!
Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog 
Well I will quickly say what I think about these options.
1. Not neccesary.I would guess it could fit a Wood Elves if they will be next Order race, but for other pet class well, it gets irritating for some 🙂
2. Nice
3. Cool (Seen it in Perfect World for first but it must be big enough to be good)
4. Nice but not must (deamon pet for Magus please ?)
5. Great Idea!
6. Not sure if it fits this game.
7. They said that there will be but we will wait
8. Yes YES YES YES! My precioussss…
9. Nice Idea
10. Absolutely right! I would play a WP there and enjoy it dies, and dies, and dies MUAHAHAHAHAHA 🙂
Cool writeup! But well you are always cool 😛
Personally I think the player housing as implemented in SWG absolutely sucks. There are only a very few well laid out towns. Everything else is just an eyesore.
Yes. Actually, yes x 10 (+kidding on 10).
I am a huge fan of “fluff” – the more fluff, the better. Maybe we’ll see some of this going on with WAR but (to be pessimistic) I doubt it. Won’t stop me playing though.
I guess I like the idea in theory, but honestly, what is the point of housing? The only thing I can think of is using it for role-playing or some lame crap like that. Other than that, whats the point?
The point is that it is “fun” to some players. What’s the point of investing time into a MMO when either the game or your interest in it has a finite lifespan? What’s the point of dyes or different models of armor? Why aren’t we just playing a text MUD spreadsheet instead of a 3D graphical MMO?
It’s the same line of player gratification and reward as the trophies — something a player can collect and display as a visible reminder of accomplishments and accumulation.
I never liked to RP, just wasn’t my thing, but personally enjoyed the housing in SWG. The game itself and the essential digital urban sprawl wasn’t exactly beautiful, but it was cool when some of my friends and I would mess with the posters and animals.
Maybe houses aren’t suited for WAR but some kind of “apartment” system could be developed within a main cities.
I thought the trophy system was suppose to be similar to an appearance type option. You gather up a few heads and other knickknacks and you place them over your armor so you’ll eventually look different than every other greenskin on the planet.
The only problem with player housing is now you have to find stuff to place around the rooms. Do some crafting for that special table or cabinet? Can you see a Black Orc running around making lamp shades or picture frames? Now if you could stuff Order players and mount them on the wall, then I’d like to have a house. lol
A number of these (1, 4, 6, 7, 9) were in DAoC in some form, and I wouldn’t object to them making a comeback at some point. 🙂
I have never understood the request for ingame mp3 players. Why not just run winamp/itunes/whatever in the background? That is what I do and it works great.
One feature from WoW I would like to see (might already be in I guess as I never got a mount) is multiple mounts. I “think” each race has a mount with the Magus having their unique disc mount. I’d be cool to have others one can get from quest rewards and the like. Now, unlike WoW, I don’t think they should requre sometimes hundreds of hours to grinding to get but instead be achievable fairly quickly to help define your character.
I thought that RvR Dungeons were a part of WAR already??
Agree that “fluff” can really give a bit of personality to a game, and that can translate to greater player attachment and longer interest. One of the things I’ve always liked best about WoW the sense of
1. Capturable/Trainable Pets (World of Warcraft’s Hunter class) – Very true and I think Blizz is smart to reinvigorate the sense of unique and custom pets with it’s Exotic pets and pet talent trees. I get the lore basis for Squig herders and White Lions though and accept that trying to shoehorn something like WoW hunter pets probably wouldn’t make sense.
2. The Sidekick/Exemplar system (City of Heroes) – Interesting idea but I feel less stressed about this than I would in something like WoW. Don’t know why. Probably being naive.
3. Appearance Tab (Everquest 2) – Like this idea, but agree WAR probably won’t do this because of identification issues.
4. Non-Combat Pets (EQ, WoW, pretty much every MMO) – Fluff is good. I guess trophies, dyes, etc. serve some of the same role in personalizing characters. But stuff that’s there just for the sake of being cool is fun too — you can’t maintain a grim determination to fight ALL the time 🙂 (Plus just look at how much WoW loot cards sell on EBay – people are willing to invest quite a bit for fluff — Mythic would be smart to capitalize in every sense on that).
5. Player-Created Dungeons (City of Heroes) – Neat idea, but I imagine hard to do well. Still I’m game.
6. Player Housing (SWG, Vanguard, et all) – I could live without it in exchange for really good ingame guild housing with trophy rooms and other ways to memorialize guild activities. I like the idea of common space to strengthen the sense of community, rather than individual housing.
7. RvR Dungeons (Dark Age of Camelot) – Neat idea.
8. In Game MP3 Player (EVE Online) – Background music player works fine for me.
9. Tutorial Instance (LOTRO) – Makes sense.
10. Permadeath Servers – Just kidding! — Ha, ha. Not 🙂
A lot of features would be fun for some players. Interactive sex would be a blast for the 2nd life set looking for a little pvp on the side. Doesn’t make it a good idea for the game.
Maybe I’m just picturing player housing like it would be done in WoW: you grind up 10,000 gold for some 2 bedroom with a pool. You sit around thinking about how cool it is for a couple of weeks, then you never go back, because if they let you use it as your hearth, que for BG’s and arenas, and/or do anything remotely useful from the house, the world at large would dry up as you and all your friends exist mostly in various instances. They only time you’d come out is to farm some cash and hop a grif to w/e raid you’re doing.
Maybe I’m just crazy.
#8 will come in the form of a mod soon enough. I’d like to see many of these in game also. Hopefully we see some in an expansion sooner or later.
No fluff… unless you can permakill it or burn it down.
1 no
2 no
3 no
4 no
5 no
6 no
7 yes
8 yes
9 no
10 no
I think the problem with player created content is that with great power comes great responsibility and players aren’t usually up to it.
But I really, really want player housing.
Player-created content is a double-edged sword. It sounds good on paper, but in practice will be subject to Sturgeon’s Law – the great majority of it will be trash. I’m interested in seeing CoH’s implementation, which will include some kind of rating system.
You’d think WoW would have hopped on the Housing bandwagon by now – most other games now have it. While it’s not something I myself would really get into, it’s something of a convenience if you can store stuff there, and some folks really get into decorating and such. It’s essentially a timesink, but it’s enjoyable to many and fairly easy to implement (or so it seems to me.)
my 2 cents (2 pennys) worth is that in Warhammer Mounts are a big thing.
Now if they could introduce a pet system where u could only get a pet at a certain level and have to complete a massive achievement then this might work.
I think the problem was with WoW is that it wasnt exclusive …. everyone had pets. It should be a challenge to get one.
Im just thinking like at lvl 40 u could get a dragon as mountable pet. Now that would rule! Beastlord Rakarth http://uk.games-workshop.com/darkelves/special-characters/2/
Grats Syp! you’ve been mentioned on Massively 😀
http://www.massively.com/2008/09/03/mmo-features-that-havent-made-it-into-warhammer-online/
I think they’re rolling out with a pretty impressively polished lineup of features. Some of these ideas fit with WAR and some don’t– the appearance tab that allows you to that allows the gear you wear to not necessarily be the gear that appears goes against what they’ve built here, but I do appreciate the idea that MMO makers are thinking in terms of making avatars more interesting and customizable.
1. Unnecessary fluff, you want to tame a pet, go play WoW.
2. Bolstering is already ingame and works fine.
3. This is Warhammer, not the freakin catwalk, this is totally useless idea.
4. Again useless kiddy-friendly fluff.
5. Why target Warhammer for this? it’s an rvr game not PvE wouldnt this be better suited to WoW? This article is just stupid.
6. DAoC had housing and I’m sure Warhammer will have housing eventually, DAoC did not have it in at launch, either.
7. Pretty sure there already is RvR dungeons and if there isnt then they will DEFINITELY put some in, they know how popular they are in DAoC, they arent stupid.
8. Useful: Yes Necessary: No
9. I’ll never forget first logging into DAoC and seeing the whole world span far and wide and other players running around going about their business, screw instances for first login, that would be such a killjoy.
Your post is just stupid, how old are you? About two of these points are worth implementing, and those are the two points that are already on Mythic’s drawing board, so you aren’t proposing anything new at all. You sir, Fail.
I feel all of those would make good additions, especially player housing, except for numbers one and three.
One isn’t a good idea because with Squid Herders and White Lions, there is lore basis (Well, White Lions kinda bend the lore to begin with, but let’s not get into that) for their pets. There is no reason to force trainable pets into the game just because it was neat in WoW. I have to agree with Kalebron above me. Pets of all varieties, combat (should they be introduced to classes besides the White Lion and Squig Herder) and noncombat need to be special achievements, not something everyone has.
Three isn’t necessary because as it stands, almost all of the class armor looks very good, and most of it looks quite similar anyway, and you can dye it so that the colors don’t make you look like a clown.
My $0.02.
#’s 4 and 6 will eventually be in the game as WAR’s predecessor had both. They may not be in at release, but they’ll definitely be in at some point.
#7 would be amazing. I honestly still think I have Mids camped in DF on Alb and Hib side waiting for Mid NOT to have entrance to DF to slaughter people. I have friends that have long left DAoC that still talk about how bad arse Darkness Falls was. I would be ecstatic if they included something like this, as none of the next-gen MMO’s seemed to pick up on it.
#’s 5 and 8 would be awesome to add. The fact that something like that WAS implemented into an MMO makes me want to try out CoX. It’s NWN on a massive scale.
@ #3 – Didn’t LotRO have something similar to this, where you could chose the armour model you wanted as long as you had the piece of armour that originally had that model type somewhere with you, i.e. inventory, bank, whatever? That sounded like an awesome concept to me. On a sided note, I do believe WAR does have dyes to colour armour pieces. This was a neat feature in DAoC and something I missed dearly in WoW after those first couple Outlands quests where you’d get the rewards and look like a complete clown.
I don’t especially agree with #2. It seems a bit condescending to the lowbee person and its unproductive for the higher person. Probably would just be easier to raise an alt.
#1, I don’t have much of an opinion.
And you can expect a #9-like system to be in the live version, as DAoC had something like that implemented about 2 years ago that’s been through constant changes. Mythic knows what to do and not to do with those at this point.
Some very vaild points all of which would make fora better game. Lets hope some of the Devs read your blog.
Just wanted to comment about the MP3 player.
Winamp has a function of “Global Hotkeys” that let you control lots of function using complex shortcut, even if another application is on full screen.
I personally have shortcuts for stuff like volume, play, stop, random etc.
So I put my big playlist before I start any game and can control the playlist without having to alt-tab or anything.
For sure an internal mp3 player would be better but so far this method saved me lots of headache (I was in the closed beta and it works perfectly with the War client so far)
Player housing? Why?
Seriously, what is the point?
An MP3 player? What’s wrong with WinAmp?
Player created dungeons would have to be checked by Mythic employees for suitability but yeah, interesting idea…
[…] Thanks for giving me a good chortle this morning, Sir Royale. […]
[…] no, new MMOs don’t have more to offer. I could point to Syp’s interesting list of features that WAR is going to launch without as an example. Rather, they seem fresh to the already jaded. I would make the case that while […]
1. No thanks
2. Yes, I saw that in City of Heroes, definitely an interesting system.
3. Yes
4. Bof.
5. Silly idea.
6. dont know
7. dont know
8. YES Definitely!
9. dont know
10. Ouch! not for me.
@ Royale and other naysayers
These are all things that could add to Warhammer. If you don’t want to use them, don’t. These things could bring more people in, that means keeping the game alive longer. I personally like fluff. It just adds a little more flavor to the game. The Tome is pretty much all fluff and unnecessary, but it is one of Warhammer’s big points.
Some good suggestions and some bad. I am all for housing for players in this game if it can be destroyed!!
Having played the other games what happens is they quit the game or forget to pay the rent and loose the housing.
I want a nice guild/clan house that displays the guilds accomplishments.
My biggest problem ? Devs cannot make a game that pleases everyone but gamers want the end all be all everything in it kind of game. I want good core mechanics and bug fixes not fluff.
Fluff can come later. I personally do not think a game will satisfy everyone. EVE is very successful and they cater to their base. I hope Mythic does the same.
We all want to compare games to WOW and having played most of them even Blizzard copied ideas and improved on them.
you sir fail! ha ha ha
#1 This doesn’t quite fit with what is being suggested, but, there is an elven class in the PnP (Pen & Paper) game called a Beastfriend that is just that, they gain an animal companion through a coming of age rite, and gain abilities from said animal, as well as the animal itself. Since there is at least 1 other class out of the same book that has been used, although the name is different (Wardancer, aka Swordmaster, I believe) who knows, it may be coming.
#2 I agree, completely as it makes a game a bit more casual player friendly, as well.
#3 I don’t know about this one, but what I would like to see is customization of the equipment that is worn. If I don’t want huge spikes on my breastplate, then I shouldn’t have to have them, in my opinion.
#4 Always a good thing, for all the reasons stated, also, how about combine this and #1 into a single option. Non-combat pets that, eventually, could become so loyal to you that they ARE willing to fight with you if needed, you know, to protect their friend /companion/master(mistress)/pack mate (depending on the type of animal in question)
#5 It sounds good “on paper” but I have never tried it so am not entirely sure how it would work.
#6 Always a good thing
#7 Same as #5, it sounds good, but… *shrug* In fact, it sounds like it could be possible to combine the 2 into one. Capture an area, then “remodel” so it is more difficult for anyone to regain.
#8 I don’t really care one way or another on this one
#9 Either an instance or something like it, or, perhaps, a tutorial area that also combines the “The Sidekick/Exemplar system” idea into it. Perhaps with higher level characters taking newer players “under their wing” and “showing them the ropes”
#10 Hmmm…
–Shaar
One thing I want to see… might already be in there, is mounted combat. Seems like it should be in there, as its a part of the Warhammer tabletop games.
Id like the sidekick system as well, so you can play with friends regardless of level, but … with loot playing such a big part, might be impossible.
10. Would work if they had something similar to the D&D -10hps rule
1) Capturable/Trainable Pets
No in war. There’s the IP to consider + it gives a lot of customisation to one class that others don’t have access too. If they could add equivalent customisation for other classes that would be good but no need to do it with pets.
2) The Sidekick/Exemplar system
Bolster partially covers this, combined with high levelling speed in WAR it’s not as useful as it would be in other *cough*WOW*cough* games.
3) Appearance Tab
You can dye your armour, but again more customisation can’t hurt…
4) Non-Combat Pets
I never really got these but sure if they fit in with the WAR theme. Useless fluff but some like it I guess (i don’t really care)
5) Player-Created Dungeons
With a good implementation, could be cool. Would be a major feature to add but sure.
6) Player Housing
I’d prefer a more in depth implementation of guild housing, build a community rather than a house you visit to stash gear (because noone else is around)
7) RVR Dungeon
Yes
8) In Game MP3 Player
No thanks, most people have media keys to change tracks on their mp3 players while in game, adding an mp3 player to the game would be unnecessary to begin with and almost certainly wouldn’t support the library features most people use to pick out tracks nowdays.
9) Tutorial Instance
Yep
10) Well actually if you made levelling a LOT faster it could be interesting to play occasionally, HARDCORE MODE, massive incentives to skill up…. but might just end up in huge gank groups – safety in numbers.
I agree with every single one we must be soulmates m8
❤
Guild Halls FTW!!!!!!