Loose Lips Sink Syps

A couple days ago I asked y’all to spill your secrets — what little surprises, unlocks, titles and whatnot have you discovered in your initial week or so of exploring Warhammer? After all, this is a game that prides itself on turning the game world into a massive scavenger hunt, where mini-dungeons (lairs) are tucked away and potential Tome treasures reward the diligent explorer. Sure, in a year (or, hey, month) this might all be commonplace, but if you’re anything like me, you’re eager to read about a few good little juicy secrets to add to your character’s achievements.

WAAAGH! readers heeded the call and left the following to share:

• There’s a pretty neat tome unlock in the Destruction(ftw) area of Troll Country. There’s a bridge with a bridge troll under it. Kill the bridge troll and you unlock a crock of stinky food that you can carry in your pocket. I think the unlock is titled It Takes a Toll, but I could be misremembering. (Risset)
• In Dark Elf Chapter 2, there’s a hill with some wolves on it. If you walk along the edge of the cliff behind them you’ll unlock The Howler title. (Risset)
• At Battlefield Objectives, you can click on the Sergeant for buffs. (Werit)
• Title Unlock: The DawnBringer. Found from clicking on a tomb in Marsh of Madness (NW of an NPC called Lamprecht, he’s located in the SE part of the zone S of Oathhold). (Mitch)
• AHHHHHHHHHHHH title unlock. Kill yourself 25 times from fall damage. (Mitch)
• I picked up the title “Doom Bringer” last night, which I think is a pretty cool title. However, I just checked hammerwiki and it looks like it’s already there (although it says it’s a Destruction only title and I’m a runepriest). I was running around some cliffs in Barak Varr when I noticed a huge dwarven iron ship in a bay below. Took me a few minutes to find my way down (without dying) and I found 4 or 5 tome unlocks in and around the ship. One of them being the title and another being a great story of how these dwarven “Pirates” came to be. Was tons of fun. So far I’m loving the easter eggs in this game. (Sc0rp10n)
• I stumbled upon a plunger in Dwarf Tier 1 Chapter 1 at the bottom of the valley that you cross over after you leave the Dwarf Mountain you start in. (Illian)
• I’ve found a couple of lairs: 1. Blighted Isle RvR area, right in the middle up north, and 2. just outside the Chaos T1 RvR area, through the tunnel at the back of the objective in the cave. (Thor)
• Got a title and tome unlock for opening a bag of dog food in Nordland. The tome unlock is for discovering what the hounds eat. The title is related to hounds or hunting (can’t remember exactly what).  The bag was near a camp of huntsmen with hounds. It was along the mountains on the right hand side of the map, north of smuggler’s tunnel entrance to Salzemund. (Leper)
• I can’t remember the exact area…I believe it was at the top of a hill near the Dark Elf chapter 2 quest hub. You go to this hill a few times to kill shadow warriors and a named Lieutenant or something. Anyways, if you go up past the 3man camp near the named mob, you can hop around a rock to keep climbing the hill. At the very top will be a lone Pink Horror. I had to use my one ranged ability to knock it down from it’s perch, and then I killed it. Not till much later did I realize I had gotten a tome unlock for it, and I was able to get a reward from a Librarian in the Inevitable City. My reward? Morphing Ooze that does nothing but sit in my pocket. Statistically worthless, but I’m proud nonetheless. (Tigaj)
• I found a few lairs, but one that isn’t listed in the atlas, Gutslime I think it was, in the Orc starting land. But it has a level 40 inside of it. (ScytheNoire)
• I got the title The Lumberjack from clicking on a dryad corpse in Dark Elf, Tier 1. (JRW)
• In the Human Ch1 starting area, there is an area with Chaos human mobs, and at the back of it is a tiny portal. You can climb the hill behind this portal and get to an area of the map that is not really done in terms of terrain and stuff. If you go to the coast from there and travel north I believe, you eventually find a lair full of lvl 40 wolves in it. Some cool wolf is at the end I’m sure. (Lucivar)
• Click on yourself naked 1,000 times and you get “Egomaniac” (Sc0rp10n).
• On a pool of water east of the PQ “Empire Chapter 4: Pit of the Forsaken”, a Lord type boss will appear if you kill a series of increasingly difficult monsters. (Lord is higher than Hero) (Hirebrand)

Awesome tips, thanks all!  I have a few to add from yesterday’s journeys, which culminated in a group tour around some of the fun little secrets of the Blighted Isle, courtesy of one of our leaders, Tirin.

• I got the “Denier of Disease” title from clicking on a corpse in Barak Varr at 54231,49971.
• Another title, “The Crusher”, was give for clicking on an Ogre at 49152,57917 in Barak Varr.
• If you find the Sea Anvil — a large dwarf ironclad in Barak Varr — be sure to speak to the captain for a “Man” Tome Tactic: 11059,44728.
• Heading over to the Blighted Isle, you can get the title “The Peculiar” (how cool is that?) by clicking on a rock at 48742,48415, which then squashes a cowering snotling.
• There are some tainted crystals (with unlocks) and a lair on the BI at 35881,16466.
• Get the title “The Scorpion Squisher” by killing Bone Claw at 2867,62751.
• I have coordinates for two of the unlocks mentioned earlier: The Howler (5161,49316) and the Horror/Pocket Ooze guy (20726,35799).

If you know of any others, let us know!

I’m Sending An SOS To The World (of Warhammer)

First of all — half a mil players! Not a bad first week, not bad at all!

Like many of you, when I slip into Warhammer, I usually boot up a second program: Ventrillo. Maybe for you it’s Teamspeak or another third-party voice chat program. Personally, I can’t imagine playing without having the option to talk to friends, guildies and groupies (er, I mean people I’m grouped with, not the scary naked-High-Elf-stalker girl who keeps following me around in game asking for a piece of clothing to remember me by).

Voice chat in MMOs offers so much, doesn’t it? It’s quick, easy communication that doesn’t require you to stop whatever you’re doing. It offers on-the-fly group coordination during battles, which is invaluable when you don’t have time to type “HEAL ME FOR THE LOVE OF SIGMAR IT BURRRRRRRNS!” Instead, you can just scream it into the ear of a wincing healer who will never, ever toss you a heal for as long as they are partially deaf.

More than just ease of grouping and coordination, I find that voice chat really aids bonding and relationship forming in guilds.  You link a voice to the avatar in the game, you start to get a feel for their personality and bizarre natures, and they’re always there no matter where you are in the game.  I don’t ever feel like I’m “soloing”, even when I’m off alone in the game world, if a friendly voice is right at the end of my headset.  We crack jokes, share victories, discuss weighty social issues, and sling good-natured insults to each other in that age-old ritual of putting down people to show that you like them.

Funny thing was, I used to be dead-set against voice chat.  That probably came from habit — voice chat wasn’t really possible over a dial-up line while you were trying to play a MMO, and even after the internet got faster and cheaper, I wasn’t involved in a guild that talked outside of text chat.  I got used to text chat and appreciated it; still do, actually.  For all that I now love voice chat, I wonder if we’re starting to lose some of the unique fun of communicating through typing.

Text chat is easier to sort out when multiple people are trying to talk, for one.  And you never have to wonder who is saying what, as is often the case when you’re not completely familiar with whose-voice-is-that situations on vent.  In some games, text chat lets you quickly link items, skills, and even quests, which help to overcome frequently asked questions.   Not to mention that wordplay and wit are sometimes cherished more over text chat than voice.

Our guild uses both, although we’re more tied to Vent for the most part.  It’s nice to have text to fall back on, particularly if someone is dominating the conversation in vent or trying to explain something — that way, you’re not trying to interrupt them, but you can still pass along a thought or two.

So what about you guys — are you in a guild that is hooked on voice chat, or are you pretty much text monkeys?

I is 16

Some (like, two people) have asked to see the Tracker armor set, so here goes:

I dyed it brown to go with a leather theme (gee golly willikers, dyes are fun!).  I definitely like the main armor piece a lot better than the corsets/frilly barmaid outfits that I got almost exclusively for the first 12 levels.

Also notice: double-barreled shotgun.  Huzzah!

Keep Trying

Miracle Max: Bye bye boys! Have fun stormin’ da castle!

Valerie: Think it’ll work?

Miracle Max: It would take a miracle. Bye bye!

After a long hard day at work, it’s a twisted thing to come home and immediately enlist in a grueling, bloody campaign to conquer a near-impenetrable fortress. “We’re storming the castle, Syp!” my guildies said. “Come! We need a battering ram!”

“I don’t have a…” I paused. “Is this because my helmet is made out of steel?”

I was thrilled. All a-quiver. Neck hairs standing up — finally, I would be able to partake in some down-and-dirty keep sieging for the first time (my previous experience was more of a mass battle at the side of a keep, but we never entered it) — I joined a warband and made my way down to Ostland/Troll Country, where two keeps and a slew of Battlefield Objectives, or “BO’s”, awaited.

Yes, it was an unfortunate acronym: “Hey, get a load of that BO!” “This BO feels right at home.” “I can’t wait until we’re done with this BO.”

I forget the name of the keep we first attacked, but it was a gorgeous-looking castle squatting in the twilight, and prime for plucking, as no serious Destruction defense was present. We charged in through the front doors, screaming like banshees, and then stumbled back to avoid picking up aggro from the NPC defenders. “MEDIC!” someone screamed. Another person merely sobbed for their mama as the battle heated up.

I discovered that, as you may have noticed, it’s somewhat of a futile exercise to take screenshots of people fighting in a keep battle. Sure, it seems all dramatic and Braveheartish, but it’s like you’re thrown into a rave full of highly armored dancers who have giant neon signs above their head announcing who they are and what their nickname is. Being a dwarf, most of my view was kneecaps anyway, so I tried to stay out of the way, lay down turrets, and blindly toss grenades onto whatever red name I’d targeted.

Soon enough we had the keep under our command, but since our guild is only rank 11, we couldn’t claim it as our own and start throwing futons down everywhere.  We did manage to get a few screenies of our victory:

All high on success, we linked hands and skipped merrily to our next conquest, another keep in the area that was home to all manner of dirty elves and crusty chaoses and gross greenies.  The attack this time around was more brutal — as we set up a battering ram, the defenders rained down death, insults and a very tasty pudding that I like to describe as “vanilla strawberry” upon our heads.  I quickly learned that ranged attackers and defenders are important to this stage in a siege — the defenders, because they can obviously try to whittle our ranks down somewhat, and for us attackers, because it keeps the bad guys at bay.  I couldn’t count the number of times I fired a couple rounds into an enemy on the parapet, only to have them duck away quickly.  Hey, anything that keeps them from attacking us is a plus sign in my book.

Once inside, our luck quickly turned.  Defenders obviously have the advantage, with powerful NPCs aiding them in the fight.  It’s hard to decide where to allocate attention — do you take out the NPCs first, letting the enemy players have a free hand in slapping you around, or do you take your punishment from the NPCs while you push back the baddies, or do you try to deal with both?  Mass panic and confusion were the order of the night, after two failed attempts to surge in and reach the second floor, we resigned ourselves to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen with the numbers at our command.  So off to more BOs and yummy renown we went!

Da Bloody Twenty – September 25

Da Bloody Twenty is a weekly countdown of the 20 most interesting, well-written or weirdest Warhammer Online articles and posts… to me.

Twenty…

Welcome to the Community: WAR Journal, Tome of Knowledge, Kiss My Bolter, Stylish Corpse, Oathbearers, Rune of Blogging!

Nineteen…

“Realm Balance” @ Kill Ten Rats – Comical Observation: I killed ten rats in Altdorf. I am the Rat King now.

Eighteen…

“I’m Just A Little Black Rain Cloud” @ Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog – Flying away in his beautiful, beautiful balloooooon!

Seventeen…

“First Players to Hit 40″ @ The Book of Grudges – Great. So can we call off the race now?

Sixteen…

“WAR’s Cut Content Will Be Added Free Later” @ 1UP – In other obvious news, the sky is blue and I have a “y” in my screen name!

Fifteen…

“Warhammer Online: Age of Scratchening” @ Gamespy – So wrong… yet so so right. ahh. That’s the spot.

Fourteen…

“WAR Gear = Epic Win” @ NecroRogIcon – I concur heartily! I loves me some trophies.

Thirteen…

“Super Release Spectacular” @ The Greenskin – Squig Squigginton just rules, dude.

Twelve…

“More Freaks Than Elves” @ Hardcore Casual – The biggest threat to the WAR: an incredibly popular faction.

Eleven…

“Nude Tome Unlocks” @ The Order of Destruction – I find your lack of clothes disturbing.

Ten…

“Secret Diaries of a Goblin Squig Herder: Day One” @ The Greenskin – Eesh, and I thought *I* was wordy!

Nine…

“First, Do No Harm” @ Book of Grudges – Can I be a DPS who doesn’t DPS? Heh. Just joshin’ you.

Eight…

“A Game’s Quest for Online Success” @ The Washington Post – WAR makes it to the big(ger) leagues!

Seven…

“The Lesser of Two Evils” @ Tome of Knowledge – Wow, this guy’s art blows me away!

Six…

“Launch Day” @ The Herald – Videos and coverage of WAR’s awesome launch day!

Five…

“How Many Miles to Babylon?” @ The Book of Grudges – Walking is good for you, apparently.

Four…

“Adventure Log – Lair of the Bandit Queen” @ Archmagery – The secret is out! We will pwn BQ forever!

Three…

“A Banning We Will Go” @ Mark Jacobs’ blog – Ban baby ban!

Two…

“Cultivation Guide” @ Enric Darkstone – Want to get the “dirt” on this great crafting career? Be a “green thumb” and learn from the best!

One…

“Preparing for WAR” @ Gamasutra – A *must read* interview on the launch and beyond. Awesome info!

One Week In

One Week In: Spill Your Secrets!

So it’s just about been a full week since retail launch of WAR, more than enough time for thousands upon thousands of players to comb the game looking for juicy little secrets. And like you, I am completely hungry for them — so why not share?

Have you found any of the plungers of the world? Tome unlocks that reward items? Obscure titles? Lairs?

Then spill, sister (or brother)! Leave a comment with the secret you found and where you found it, and after a couple of days I’ll compile them (attributing you, of course) and re-post them for the rest of the world’s enjoyment.

Of course, you may want to keep those secrets to yourself… I won’t blame you, but would a cookie tempt you to change your mind?

Blizzard, you had me at “wipe all my hard work away”!

Sorry to keep throwing WoW snippets into this blog, but as a former player, sometimes I can’t help myself, particularly when Blizz throws out a boneheaded move like today.  Their great plan to get me to come back to the game is: triggering a complete reset on PvP honor and marks.

I… I do not have the words.  To be cynical, it’s just another move designed to punish players who invest more into the game than others — a kind of communist notion, if you ask me.  But if nothing else, at least that’s one less reason for me to ever return to WoW, considering that whatever honor and marks I’d saved up are void because Blizz can’t roll out an expansion without wetting themselves in fear of imbalance.

Wacky Wednesday

A few quickies for ya:

1. I’ve reorganized the blogroll somewhat to provide clearer categories.
2. We have a new page for you to check out: WAAAGH! Greatest Hits.
3. I don’t care if you agree or disagree with my posts and comment as such, but name-calling and general rudeness has no place on this blog. This is my blog and it will be a civil one.

If Wishes Were Horses

One of the small unexpected surprises of the Collector’s Edition was getting to flip through the concept art book and discover that the devs jotted down a few “behind the scenes” explanations of why such-and-such looks a particular way, or how they came to a specific look and feel for a class. For me, knowing the process of how things were decided and made can often be just as exciting as the end product.

If I could click my black-heeled sneakers together and make a wish today, it would be for an option to toggle a special section of the Tome of Knowledge that would be a developer commentary. You run into a new area, and on top of the normal world story, you’d get a blurb about the behind the scenes “making of” the zone. Obviously, it would need to be a toggle to keep from upsetting players who would cringe at fourth wall-breaking talk like that, but man, I would absolutely love it. I know devs in some computer games have created a developer commentary as a bonus feature — The Orange Box (Half-Life, Portal) stands out in my mind. Anyone with me?

Update: I guess Mark is — supasweet!  Great to have you reading the blog, man.