Once again Massively delivers a unique insight to the world of warfare in their series in which they talk about the dynamics of attacking keeps and fortresses in the upcoming MMO Warhammer Online. Some of the highlights of their coverage is the siege weapons themselves. There are four classes of siege weapons available for purchase as none of these can be crafted. Each weapon has it’s own look and feel depending on your realm choice and more importantly the use of each weapon comes with it’s own mini-game!
The first class of siege weapon is the Area of Effect (AoE) or splash damage weapons. These weapons are currently designed to be moderately accurate with accuracy effected by player aim and outside variables the player has to contend with such as wind direction. These weapons have the ability to damage up to 12 players at a time with the possibility of knocking down players closer to the center of the area of effect which will increase their time in the area for any damage over time to stack up. These weapons also have a mini-map targeting reticule which allows players to direct fire over walls and obstacles to do damage to dug in defenders.
The next class is the more accurate of siege weapon, the ballista class. This weapon is designed to be highly accurate to target enemy siege weapons or the players operating them. The mini-game for this weapon is a FPS style cross-hair reticule with the crosshairs getting closer together in the center as you focus in on a target. Once the crosshairs are at their minimum the ballista is extremely accurate. They say it isn’t really designed to his individual running players but also say it can be done.
The attacking team gets a siege weapon designed to penetrate the keeps outer defensive door, the battering ram. Once the door is assaulted a quest is begun to kill the lord of the keep. Players have one hour to attack and kill the keep lord to gain control over the keep for their faction. But this won’t be easy, even without players defending, the NPC defense will be strong and can be made even stronger by a guild owning a keep to bolster the guards abilities and levels.
The defending team also gets a siege weapon all to themselves, this one is designed to defend the door from the battering ram. Hot oil is available to be poured from the outer wall directly down onto the players operating the battering ram. Oil is going to be a big initial damage hit with additional damage over time effects if players do not move away from the ram.
Siege weapons are only placeable in certain pads around or in a keep, players can’t just set these things down anywhere they choose. This helps to keep the assault on a keep to a reasonable level, the lower level keeps will also have lower level guards and a lower level lord. Those keeps will have fewer siege weapon pads for use by the attackers or defenders. The lowest level keep doesn’t even have a outer wall and is probably going to be the keep exchanging hands the most often in the game.
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