WAR was to have 250 classes

By Oli Welsh Published 7 August, 2008

Losing four doesn't seem so bad now.

He's off again. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning creative director Paul Barnett has confessed to Videogaming247 that the game was to have no fewer than 250 careers, or character classes, at launch.

Barnett was explaining that his job has been to restore focus and rein in over-ambition at the Mythic Entertainment development team.

"We went down a terrible path where we had too many careers," Barnett confessed. "We had 250-odd at one point, and we boiled it right back down to 20."

In fact, they cut it down to 24, and then a further four - the Choppa, Hammerer, Black Guard and Knight of the Blazing Sun - were dropped in the recently-announced feature cuts.

We're sure Mythic were just trying to do justice to the Games Workshop licence, but still, 250 careers is insane. Barnett is clearly not quite as mad as he looks.

WAR was confirmed for a September 18th release yesterday. We'll have more hands on impressions from the beta test for you soon.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • rudedudejude #1 4 years ago

    So are these set in stone 'you've chosen and class now stick to it' classes, or 'youve gone down a class route and can re-spec at a later date to try something different out' classes?

  • Erinan #2 4 years ago

    PR stunt.

  • the_dudefather #3 4 years ago

    There was going to be like a billion dungeons too, and a ZILLION mounts

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #4 4 years ago

    Adam_T - as the game stands, they're totally set in stone. They do have three "Mastery" paths each though, like WOW talent builds.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #5 4 years ago

    Actally the game originally was a sandbox MMO (read: like Eve), so basically you didn't level you trained skills, so really 250 classes in a sandboxed game is actally ok as you would have choped and changed a bit, now being level based and your 'stuck in' the class, yes 250 would have been quite mad :)

  • Lemming81 #6 4 years ago

    @Erinan:

    Not necessarily. It may have started out a little like SWG used to be. They'd say '32 classes' but they weren't all vastly different. You could mix them up though.

  • Hamflank #7 4 years ago

    @Adam_T

    As far as I know it's like WoW, you pick a class which is permanent and at a certain level you gain 'talent' points to spend within three different talent trees, which aren't permanent.

    Edit: Oli was a tad faster ;/
    Edited by Hamflank at 07/08/08 @ 10:34

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #8 4 years ago

    @Adam - it's a bit of both, you are the class that you've chosen but with the mastary system you can enhance a select number of skills to focus on one task better, for example a healer hybrid could be a master of healing so his healing skills are better then normal..

    That said the mastery system doesn't change the class' archtype (like in wow) you tank can't spec into a dps class, he still tanks, he just could be better at taking damage, holding aggro or doing a bit more damage then normal but still he's a tank thats his job.

  • Gurrah #9 4 years ago

    How could they pull a class called 'Hammerer', seriously, this could have been THE selling point for me.

  • spammage #10 4 years ago

    How on earth did they think they would balance 250 classes?

    Wow or WAR? Coke or Pepsi? Which kind of shampoo are you?

  • MrChuckles #11 4 years ago

    Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay had about 250 classes. It worked like a tree system where you'd start as a 'Rat catcher', and when levelled that to match, others would open up such as 'Poisoner' or 'Thief'. Was much more interesting than starting as a Paladin, you'd have to start as a squire, or stablehand instead. Wizards would be herbalists or field medics.

    Each profession would lead into 3 or 4 others, some of the later tiers could be reached by different earlier paths, and some could only be reached via specific more difficult routes.

    I'd see it working really well in a MMORPG tbh, as you keep the skills from your previous classes, but meaning you could have very different skill sets at various points in the game. Also, you actually had to practice what your career was about, herbalists had to pick plants and make salves, medics had to treat people, and well, rat catchers had to catch rats (They had good disease resistance though!).

  • Snidesworth #12 4 years ago

    I'd have been a happy man if I could play a dwarf rat catcher. Especially if they put the standard "small yet vicious dog" into the game.

  • Darkjinxter #13 4 years ago

    Good post there MrChuckles.
    A good explanation of what could've been had Mythic not gone down the route of the game that shall not be named.

    The Hammerer is still featured on the Warhammer website Gurrah, perhaps it's not pulled.

  • Jigglybean #14 4 years ago

    YAWN! WOW clone anyone?

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #15 4 years ago

    Dark - you do realise Warhammer Online (both Mythic's and the orginal) have been in production since before WoW? Plus Mythic's idea was to always model off DAoC (their orginal MMO, predating WoW) as it suited the IP? Mythic really never 'jumped on the bandwageon' due to WoW's sucess like most, it's only assumed that by many as Warcraft itself was influenced by Warhammer and WoW was influenced mainly by AO, EQ AND DAoC but many assume the reverse. (much like the post above this)

    Never the less WAR is a refinement of good ideas already (much like WoW was), isn't that generally a good thing as it shows MMOs are evolving and not peaked?
    Edited by Kremlik at 07/08/08 @ 12:38

  • berelain #16 4 years ago

    From my understanding, the 250 classes were based on the career paths from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which Warhammer Online was originally intending to resemble.

    I actually rather liked the idea. In the roleplay, its quite something to have your starting Rat Catcher ultimately join the ranks of the Knights Panther and fight for the Empire.

  • Erinan #17 4 years ago

    @MrChuckles: now, that sounded really good, they should have stuck with that :(

  • sneetch #18 4 years ago

    @MrChuckles
    Yep, I loved that system. The ability to go from Shepherd to Soldier to Mercenary to Mercenary Sergeant to Mercenary Captain was great. A lot of the basic careers were very similar as you'd imagine (like soldier, watchman, mercenary IIRC) but they always had something to recommend them.

  • Emth #19 4 years ago

    @MrChuckles

    That sounds great in theory, but you know how it is now. There would be an optimum few paths to take and these would be posted online and suddenly 90% of players would copy them because a surprisingly large number of players lack the ability to devise their own builds.

  • hiddenranbir #20 4 years ago

    I don't feel good about WAR.

    I'll do what I did with AoC. Wait a few months and see if it has retention power. :)

  • Nikalai88 #21 4 years ago

    As far as I know skill trees were first in Diablo 2, so arguing that Blizzard based this on other MMO's when this feature was first in their own game is kind of silly. Also many Korean MMO's have the leveling system where you change your class as you level, they don't have 200 classes nor is this system as amazing as people make it out.

    And just to clarify Mythic has been working on WAR for the past 3 1/2 years, Blizzard began work on WOW in 1999.
    Edited by Nikalai88 at 07/08/08 @ 22:25