Prior to the End Times having an ogre playable character made sense as there were some that were hired as mercenaries. During the End Times era though, it would make more sense to see them as enemies as the Kingdoms of the Great Maw in the East joined up with Chaos and Orc factions. I'd rather encounter Maneaters, Butchers, and Tyrants as possible foes. Nurgle was always my favourite Chaos God. He has a much more unique personality than the others who are just straight-forward evil. Definitely one of the good things that came out of the End Times saga was so many new Nurgle monsters and troop types.
I never used the ogre in WQ1 purely because I found it underwhelming and couldn't fit him in to a decent team. That might just be my play style though. I think he would be better as an enemy type but I also believe the more playable characters the better # even if I don't use them somebody will.... As for chaos gods, I only know of Khorne and Nurgle and only have experience with Khorne... would be nice to learn about others.
I used to have a Khorne Army when I was younger. Would just steamroll over everything! Always found painting Nurgle things a little too gross! Ok, seems like a mixed response to the Ogre. He was a bit of a specialised character, which didn't fit many playstyles in the end. Would need a huge revamp. He did have some cool shields though! @Pitta, those classic Chaos Warriors are indeed very awesome. Who knows what might happen further down the line! @Nullzone, the problem you outline here... ...is very much something we're fighting against (if you'll pardon the pun). The extended combat mechanics and way we approach combat itself means that you'll have to mix up your strategy if you want to be successful. @Nullzone, thanks, I might just take you up on that! Ok, my question for you lot today is item based. Which items (magic or otherwise) from Warhammer lore would you love to see in the game and why? Have cracking Wednesdays all!! - Ben
Honestly I found it a bit strange in WQ1 to find THE Hammer of Sigmar in a random dungeon. I would like to see various rune weapons with different effects though. In Gotrek and Felix and one point then find an ancient Warhammer that channels lightning for devestating damage, but harms the user in activating it. Weapons with powerful, but double edged activated abilities would certainly fit into the Warhammer world and could give that extra risk versus reward choice when desperate. In WQ1, I felt like there was a good range of weapons, but not nearly the variety with staves. I'd enjoy seeing more variety in caster gear that can perhaps alter their roles in a party. One thing that was added that I absolutely loved was the special ammo such as the silver bulkets and fire arrows. Perhaps we can see trinkets that can give elemental effects/status effects to melee attacks as well? Items aside, I hope we see more types of magic. There are 8 winds of magic in the Warhammer world and WQ1 only scratched the surface of the spells we could see. An amber wizard with shape-changing abilities would be a lot of fun, but really even the wizards we previously saw could return with a host of new spells and would be great. http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Winds_of_Magic
I am not well-versed enough in Warhammer lore to pull any interesting items (magical or not) out of my hat I do agree with Maelwolf that it's odd to find artifacts like The Hammer of Sigmar(TM) or Slaanesh's Exaggerated Codpiece - anywhere, not just in a random dungeon. But players (including yours truly) like getting interesting (and powerful) magic items, so I'd say anything below artifact level should be ok. Plus maybe a handful of unique special items below artifact: e.g. "Warlord Grmpft's Banner of Slaughter" is ok, "Gork's and Mork's Divine Battle Standards" not so much. Also, I think having one designated standard bearer in the group would be a nice touch. Everyone and their mom is running around with a big flag announcing who and how badass they are. So why not our heroes? They are a party/warband after all. And if you remove the slash, we can have a fun item like a discoball as banner too
Just to note I am totally blaming this thread as the reason I have re-installed WHQ on my iphone so that a) my battery life has gone to pieces and b) productivity has taken a tumble! Very excited to see a sequel be developed I think it all sounds great so far although I was wondering if there were any plans to add more varied missions into the game? One issue with WHQ is that it is always go to the dungeons, kill everything and find the thing some other missions would add welcome variability. For example how about an ambush/assassination mission (which would work well with the line of sight feature) your heros are paid to take down a high ranking Chaos leader and so can set up an ambush to strike and retreat before being overwhelmed. Or on a similar line a survival type game where the heros are swarmed by continuous large numbers of enemy and have to retreat off the edge of the map. Finally it may be too challenging to do, but to be part of a full on Warhammer battle would be amazing, perhaps again with just a single goal in mind but with the battle going on in and around the heros as they work their way to their goal/target with large numbers of enemies but also allies helping along the way Just a few thoughts!
Since the WQ2 announcement I've been playing WQ1 a lot. A few thoughts for the sequel: 1) While I understand the need for some generic tile sets, I really like that there were region-specific tile sets as well. This gives some varying flavour when travel around the map. I hope we see this with WQ2's world map. 2) I like to play all 11 heroes. How I tend to do this, is I take my 4 lowest XP heroes for each map. While I can make most combos work, the one thing I have to have is a Mage with healing. The simple fact is, if a dungeon takes a long time to finish it becomes a war of attrition and you need to be able to heal up. I don't necessarily have an issue with this, but I would like to see a bigger variety of healers, or even way to heal, so we are not stuck cycling a small sampling of heroes simply because they are the only heal bots. 3) I do not have a huge issue with the XP grind in WQ1. It's pretty much par for the course in this style of RPG. However, some characters gain XP far easier than others. I'd like to see all spells, support abilities, and item uses give at least some XP so that you don't have to play support character suboptimaly just to level them up. 4) I said before that I enjoyed the Undead expansion in WQ1, and I do. That said, I found they poped up a lot in random encounters with other creature types. Creature type crossovers should be rare occurrences. One thing that keeps things fresh is going into a dungeon and facing Orcs, then the next dungeon Skaven, then critters, etc. If all creatures appear in every dungeon it breaks the world immersion and reduces the feel of each dungeon being home to something a bit different. 5) In regards to tile sets, it would be great to see some that have interactive tiles. Tiles like lava, steam, spikes, healing springs, etc. that give negative/positive effects could add to movement strategies, especially if monsters and heroes get abilities to move/push other units. Overall, WQ1 is a really fun game. While I hope to see additions and improvements in WQ2, I hope it doesn't forget its roots and we see a lot of what made the original great in the first place.
Hello hello, diving in to answer some more questions! Ok, so... @Maelwolf, Yes, we're changing tilesets up to reflect where in the regions you are. Because of the way we're changing up the dungeon gameplay, any character now has the potential to be a healer. It means you won't be limited to having to drag certain characters along just because of the dungeon type. We'll take on board the XP grind comments. I agree, you should be getting XP for all sorts of tasks, not just killing things. I really can't wait to start talking about the "surfaces" we have in the game. There'll be a lot more choosing where to move in this one! Also, thanks for the kind words on Quest. It was one of my favourites to work on. @Stelph, we have plans to include different Quest objectives. Don't want to spoil anything, but we have your wave-based mechanic in there! The assassination plot sounds cool as well. We may steal that idea! @Nullzone, I love the standard bearer idea! @Maelwolf, yes, risk/reward plays a big part in the game. We really love the idea of items that make you powerful in one way, but deficient in another! Yes to trinkets affecting melee! Spells also play a much larger part in this one too. I think I mentioned before that your team composition will be much more important than before. Warriors teaming up tactically, (freeze then smash), will become necessary to take on the harder dungeons!
This all sounds awesome!! Every time I read a comment from Ben the game gets better and better lol. Love this bit: Warriors teaming up tactically, (freeze then smash), will become necessary to take on the harder dungeons! #####
Great news, on a side note there is a lot of talk about how older apps will no longer be supported with iOS 11 (no 32 bit support), although it will be sad to see the original WHQ go since I doubt it will be updated, it sounds like WHQ2 will be a huge improvement! Will it be a universal app? Obviously its made for playing on an ipad but personally I spend a lot of time playing on my iPhone when I am out and about so I would hope its supported on iPhone
Just wanted to answer a few of Bens questions and ask a few of my own, plus resurrect this thread from the third page. Nurgle is the chaos god I thought had the most personality. I'd agree with others that's the ogre wasn't my go to character in WQ, I always found them very hard to level because of the low attack number. I don't really know enough about magical items to give much input here but one or two you had to assemble from parts found over a few dungeons tickles my interest. Are rescue missions included? Having to find a few kids who wandered too deep into a dungeon with the rewards increasing by the number you saved might be cool. Any plans to have traps that can be found and disarmed? What about puzzles with blocks or some other mechanic you need to solve to reveal secret rooms? Actually I just had an idea for stone blocks a stronger character could pick up and move as a sort of mobile cover, but before this post turns into a stream of consciousness I'm going to hit reply.
Good morning all, apologies for not ducking in here. I've been Easter egging all over the place. Right, so, question time... @Stelph yes, it'll be a universal app. iCloud support is on the feature list too. @Deadpan. Assembling magic items would be cool, wouldn't it! I think a lot of people found that issue with the Ogre. You just want to DO more stuff with Warriors, rather than put all your proverbial eggs in one attack basket. Rescue missions. Like the ones in XCOM? Yes, that would be cool. I'll put it on the list! Probably won't make it in for launch, but we'll be supporting the game for (hopefully) a long while after. Traps are in the plan. We're currently figuring out how to make them play well, rather than "take one step, scan for traps. Take another step, scan again...". Any ideas of how you'd like to see them? Puzzles are always a bit tricky for a game like this. I feel like once you've seen a puzzle, it loses it's charm. We always try to create systems that are fun to play multiple times. Once again, if you lot have any ideas, feel free to share. Mobile cover is a grand idea. Maybe a "Pillar of Stone" type spell? We already have "smoke" in the design that blocks line of sight! Thanks for keeping the thread alive everyone! I'll be back to answering daily again now Stay frosty!
Traps and Puzzles can get annoying quite fast, indeed. Look at e.g. the Arcane Quest series: as much as I like the games, the traps are just a nuisance. And AQ uses only "search once per room / line of sight", not "search, step, search". Good trap effects aren't always easy to do either. In the above AQ, the real trap threat isn't the little damage, but that they end a unit's turn immediately when you step on them. Personally, I'd leave both traps and puzzles out of random dungeons, and focus on handcrafting some for story dungeons only. Mobile cover, random thoughts: Form a shieldwall of two or more units (would look great for cleaning out a corridor); summon your stonepillars to get static cover (or mobile even, if the summoner can move them around too); pavises: those can be really large (German version of the WP article cites up to 2m x 1m), and a great option to show off artwork as they often were painted & decorated ; mantlets: super-engineered dwarven models, Skaven ones with mini-doombells for decoration , etc.
Totally agree. Traps and puzzles and likely more effort than they are worth in a TBS game. I can see having tiles with static effects; lava, spikes, ice, etc. but I think beyond that it could just get annoying. That said, I could see having abilities to lay traps and runes that would go off when characters either are on top or adjacent. This could really influence movement and placement choices when trying to lure enemies in or avoiding those placed by monsters.
Some more thoughts as I play through WQ1 once again: 1. I actually liked the concept of the Ogres combat mechanic, although I don't think the Ogre itself works thematically as a playable character in the End Times. The problem wasn't the one attack mechanic, and in fact attacks like Brawl, Mighty Swing, and the big one hit attack were great. However, the Ogres weapons simply didn't scale with those of other fighters. Ogre weapons were about twice as powerful, sometime less than those of warriors with many attacks. This didn't make the risk of the one big attack worth it. Had Ogre weapons been 4 times or so stronger, it may have been a different story. 2. I'd like to see more status effects, and in turn, I'd also like to see ways to get rid of status effects, especially ones like web. I don't like having units taken out of play and then given no way to bring them back. This may work with effects like Crystal Maze, but most status effects should have a counter. Items that offer resistances to specific status effects would also be great. 3. I was thinking about my favourite threats in WQ1. I really like how Vampires appear far away during ambushes and then move up. It creates a bit of panic as they get closer and you try to deal with everything nearby before they reach you. Crystal Maze was one of the more interesting enemy spells and made Necromancers a potentially devestating encounter. I'm hoping we see more enemies with unique challenges, especially with late game content. I'd love to see spells or attacks with timers that give the player a chance to counter but with bigger effects if they are not stopped. 4. In regards to skills; I'd like to see the removal of skills that straight up give an attack or stat point. While good, these were a boring way to take up a skill slot in WQ1. Some of the once a dungeon activated skills truely offered the best opportunity for decision making in harder dungeons. The Marauder had some of the best once a dungeon skills with boosts to number of attacks for a turn, healing on attack, etc. The Waywatcher was an example of how this doesn't work though with a once a dungeon skill that offered 1 attack. This types of skills really need to be worth the skill slot and actually make the player think when to use them for maximum effect. 5. Are there any thoughts on set items, items that would give bonuses to a character equipping more than 1 piece of the set? WQ1 had a few interesting items like those that increased burn damage, or the Ogres scythe, or even the weapons that ignored toughness. It would be great to see more equipment that does more that just boost base stats and damage. I know the games release is still a ways off, but hopefully you can drop a new screenshot every month or so! I'm glad that we won't be without a mobile WQ game for long after the new iOS drops.
Gooood morning all. Lots to cover today, so let's jump right in... @Maelwolf, we've been doing a lot of work with the status effects and how they can be countered. There's a lot more to consider in combat this time. We're also doing work on different enemy types. The way they act within dungeons is paramount right now. For example, a dungeon full of lots of slow enemies that hit really hard when they get close will play very differently to a dungeon with few enemies that release area of effect attacks every few turns. The dungeons themselves also fit into this way of thinking. Some will be narrow (everyone go single file), while others will be huge caverns with limited cover. Agreed with the skills that go +1 to blar blarr. We'll talk more in depth about weapons and skills at some point. Rest assured, you won't be seeing any short sword +1 items. I'll see what I can do with the screenshots! P.S. Traps that go off when the enemy steps on them is a great idea! @Nullzone, yes, traps in games are generally a nuisance. We're still in the thinking stage. Hopefully there's something that's fun and not annoying. Cover already works very well in the game. Line of sight is drawn from character to character, so it's physically accurate. Means that you can put two Warriors with shields on the front line and then part them so your archers can attack. Just remember that the enemy can do the same thing though... Until tomorrow people!
Another thought from the Xcom mention - have you looked into adding height as a factor in the dungeons? By that I mean, perhaps having dungeons where rooms are two or more tiers high so like the decisions you have to make in the first game of potentially splitting the team up to cover more ground, you might have to make the decision of splitting the team so the long range heroes can hold the high ground and provide support but put them in risk of being cut off, or run the risk of keeping the team together and having the Chaos side having the advantage of the high ground against you
