Mythic details WAR's Land of the Dead

Warhammer Online's executive producer Jeff Hickman and creative director Paul Barnett revealed plenty of new detail on the game's upcoming Land of the Dead zone in last night's live interview on Eurogamer.

The zone - part of the Call to Arms live expansion due in the coming months - will span content from level 25 to endgame raiding, feature a wide range of activities and ways to get loot, and be opened by a race for access between the Order and Destruction factions. Once inside, you will be permanently under threat from realm-versus-realm warfare, meaning you can be always be attacked by players of the other faction - even when in instances.

"Tomb Kings, or The Land of the Dead, is a massive zone which is broken up into two parts - The Necropolis and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord," explained Hickman.

"It is RVR-gated. In other words, each realm must fight for ownership and the dungeon is expected to change hands nightly. It is full of new and interesting Public Quests, new lairs, refreshing game mechanics, new rewards and loot and generally awesome new stuff."

"It is the ultimate sandbox zone!" added Barnett, comparing it to the Darkness Falls area from Mythic's previous game, Dark Age of Camelot. "Many of the great things from Darkness Falls will be built upon. Tokens, other loot methods, wide level range, and the thrill of your enemy always breathing down your back. Lots of opportunities for RVR within the dungeon itself."

"You can be attacked anywhere in the Land of the Dead," said Hickman. "There is a huge open-world area, but also some instanced areas. In any of these areas, your enemy can hunt you down and fight you (as long as they gain control of the dungeon while you are in it). Even the instances are not safe."

On the level range, Hickman said, "It is accessible from around levels 25 and up. The Tomb of the Vulture Lord is actually a super high level area designed to supplement our end game content after Lost Vale." There will be loot spanning the whole level range up to Lost Vale levels, although none of it would be better than what's available from city raids, he said.

Live producer Destin Bales said that there would be a series of live events in the game introducing the dungeon, with one of them offering exclusive early access to the zone for a limited period to one side.

"Our race for access... represents a race to first access (limited time exclusive access) to the dungeon. This will be an Order versus Destruction race for superiority," he said.

This event will take place in May, but will be preceded by another in April. Call to Arms kicks off with the introduction of two new careers - the Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer - next month.