Warhammer Online Beta Impressions - Public Quests
There are likely to be about nine hundred of these reports floating around the internet today, so instead of going bit by bit through the game, I think what I’m going to do is list things I like about the game, and the things I think need work.
We’ll start off with one of my favorite features, and then I’ll write more on others as the day progresses. This way I can cover specifically what I know about the game from experience, having only been in the beta for a week now. And of course, I’ll gladly answer any questions related to the game through comments if anyone has any. First up on my topics to cover? Possibly WAR’s greatest invention…
Public Quests
There is no reason for Public Quests to NOT be copied by every MMOG hereafter. They are one of those “Eureka!” features that come along in every so often. Things you feel immediately should have been instituted years ago, but only now by some sheer stroke of genius have they been unearthed. The distinct “Pick-Up Raid” mentality emboldened by WAR’s Public Quests is exactly why they succeed so forcefully. There’s no scheduling, no hard planning, no stringent requirements. You just walk into the area designated as a Public Quest and begin tackling the objectives, by yourself or more efficiently with a group or “Warband” (WAR’s raid parties).
My first time in one of these was in the Empire starting zone of Nordland, and with a PQ called Raven Host Vanguard. I stumbled upon it accidentally, on my way from one quest hub to another (make no bones about it, WAR is a traditional MMOG). I entered the designated area, or rather skirted around it, and was notified of the name of the PQ and the chapter in big letters in the middle of my screen. It was a farm, apparently overrun with Chaos Marauders. My fellow Empire folks were running around like mad, attacking all of these Chaos buggers with no remorse.
I joined in using the Open Party system (more on this later), and quickly began my own brand of slaughter. After we’d dropped 20 of these Chaos freaks, we moved onto stage two of this particular public quest… defending a Warrior Priest as hordes more Chaos charged in from the woods. We had to keep him alive for about 5 minutes while the Chaos charged us wave after wave. Eventually, that task was complete, but the work wasn’t over. Stage 3 began with a the snapping of timber and a loud thud as from the forest stalked a giant 20 men high. My companions and I made short work of him, and with his death rattle we’d completed the Raven Host Vanguard PQ.
Out of the many things I’ve done in this game in just one week, that was certainly one of the most memorable. Each successive PQ (and I’ve seen them all across all 6 of the Tier 1 zones) has been just as exciting as the last. At the end of each PQ, even if you joined in on the last stage, you’ll be included in the auto-roll for who gets to loot something out of the chest that pops upon a successful completion of a Public Quest. Depending on how long you were there and how much you helped with your class role, you’ll be given a bonus to your roll and thus have a better chance at looting something from the chest.
What’s even MORE about these PQs is that they’re divided by “Chapter”. The game, via the Tome of Knowledge, has a story for each Racial Pairing that follows the races from zone to zone. Tier 1 is pretty much Chapters 1 through 4, and each chapter has its own share of Public Quests tied to it. Bare with me now. For each chapter, you have an Influence bar, which is filled by participating in Public Quests. Like experience, Influence is given by killing mobs related to a specific PQ, and by completing PQ objectives. As you fill up your Influence bar in each chapter, you’ll gain access to specific rewards available from that Chapter’s “Rally Master” (essentially a bind point, in NPC form, a la an Inn in WoW). The first reward is almost always something trivial like a potion or consumable. The second reward is something more valuable like a white or green piece of armor or weaponry, and the final reward for each Chapter is almost always a green level or blue level item, worth the time and effort it took participating in PQs to get.
And not to go off on a tangent here, but the way the Itemization team at Mythic has things set up, you’ll never be getting a quest reward that your class doesn’t need. Even with PQs, the rewards you get from all quests are custom-tailored for your class. No going back to an NPC after a lengthy quest only to find that your tank is being rewarded with some cloth-wearer’s frilly robe. Mythic LOVES rewarding its players in many different ways. You’re always getting SOMETHING for everything you do in this game. If there’s one thing for sure that Mythic has learned from every MMOG before WAR, it’s how to incentivize play in Warhammer Online. It’s like Christmas every time I log in.
My only worry is that as people out level the lower tiered content, many of the early PQs will go untouched, and the world won’t seem as exciting. I’m hoping Mythic can somehow incentivize lower level play, so that these many epic moments don’t become forgotten as the game ages. Time will tell I suppose, but this worry is one reason I’ll be glad to play WAR from launch. I won’t miss out on that rush you get from seeing two full Warbands taking down a PQ boss. Rest assured however, that despite what happens to the game’s lower-level Public Quests, this is one feature that Mythic can wholly claim as their own and will likely see it copied blatantly by every game after WAR. They’re just… FUN, and that’s what matters most.
Later today, I’ll be talking more about the Tome of Knowledge and Mythic’s love affair with rewarding players for everything they do so check back soon!