What will magic be like in Warhammer Online?

Matt: Wow this is a big question, but here goes…

Magic in the Warhammer World works in a very different way to other fantasy game settings and we've tried very hard to keep that feel as well as simulating some of the more unique aspects.

All magic in the world stems from Chaos itself. Magical energy enters the world from the shattered Warp gates at the planets' poles, and streams across the landscape altering and affecting everything it comes into contact with. It's this magical energy that causes Chaos monsters and other dark horrors to exist and it's also this energy that spell casters tap into to cast their spells.

Wizards in the Warhammer world cast spells by channeling magical energy directly from their surroundings. This means that magic-using characters and creatures do not have an inherent pool of "mana" to draw from but they instead tap into these Winds of Magic and channel the ambient power through themselves to work it into the spell they are trying to cast. Once that magical energy has been tapped by a wizard it is gone from the pool and it will need to be replenished with the passage of time.

In terms of Warhammer Online we keep track of many different values to help us simulate these Winds of magic. For any given area of the game world we know both the maximum possible magical field strength as well as the current rate at which the field is refilling. By varying those numbers we can create a wide variety of effects and have areas where the magic is strong but refills slowly or where the magic field is very small but refreshes very quickly, or any other combination we like.

In addition to the Winds of Magic various other things have an effect on the magical field strengths. Standing stones help focus the magical energies and will add to the rate at which an area refills, the moons of the Warhammer world have a large effect on the size of the magical fields themselves as well as the fill rates, which means that magic in the world will vary with each lunar cycle. The good news is that characters with WitchSight will be able to see these field strengths and use that knowledge to their advantage.

Spells themselves require a set amount of magical energy to cast and any specific spell will always cost the same amount of power, whether a novice or a master is casting it. The difference comes in the amount of time a spell caster takes to actually cast that spell. Let me give you an example. If a fireball spell requires 100 power to cast and a novice wizard can channel and focus 1 point of power per second, it's going to take him 100 seconds to cast. If a master wizard can channel 10 points of power per second then that same spell will only take him 10 seconds to cast it.

However channeling this power has it's price. Spell casters take damage every second the magical energies are passing through them. Going back to my previous example the novice wizard is going to get badly hurt casting that fireball spell as it takes him a long time to focus the energy. The master wizard probably won't even think twice, although casting that fireball over and over again is really going to take it out of him. This also means that there's nothing stopping a novice wizard from trying to cast a very powerful spell, as long as he can find some way to survive the experience.

Oh and there's one more thing that any potential mage should bear in mind. Generally this focusing and channeling of magical energy is not 100 per cent efficient. The higher your skill the better you are but it's never totally perfect. What this means is that when a character attempts to cast that fireball he has actually drawn more than 100 points of power from the environment, he's just used 100 to power his spell. This extra magic, or wild magic as we're calling it, doesn't just disappear. It gets tracked and once it builds up to certain levels unpredictable and usually dangerous things occur. Demons are drawn to this build up of power and when the wild magic reaches a certain level there's a good chance that one will draw on that wild magic pool and manifest itself. Random spells will be triggered and cast using the Wild magic as a power source. Basically magic in the Warhammer world is a dangerous thing to mess around with but as long as you're prepared for the risks the rewards and great.

There are a lot more aspects to the magic system that I could go into such as:

·- The Winds of Magic are actually divided into eight colours of magic and wizards can learn to draw from one colour specifically…

- Drawing the magical energy from an area is actually a good tactic when facing a magic using monster…

- Several magic users can join together and use rituals to help channel the magical energies faster…

- Scattered throughout the world are pieces of Warpstone. This material is essentially raw magic condensed into solid form and foolhardy wizards can use it to power their own magics…

-· Channeling magic all over the place is generally not something that the populous of Warhammer approve of and is likely to get you burnt at the stake if you're not careful…

Hopefully that should help explain roughly what we're trying to do with the magic system and why I'm very pleased with what we've come up with.

What sorts of treasures and items can players look forward to discovering?

Matt: The short answer to this is lots and lots… At the moment the design team are working on defining well over 5000 items for initial placement within the game world. Everything from mundane items right up to chaos and soul bound weapons. Obviously as this is Warhammer, not everything you find is going to be entirely safe to use…

Are there plans to expand upon the areas currently available in Warhammer Online? What regions, if any, are being looked at next? Are areas such as Mordheim being considered for inclusion?

Matt: Absolutely. We are developing a good solid set of tools right now, which will also let us easily add new content at a later date. That said we're already committed to creating a huge area of the Warhammer World so I want to get that finished and get people playing the game before promising any specific extras.


Also we've been very careful about the setting of our game world and the timeline. This means that you won't be able to explore Mordheim as the destruction of that city happened over 500 years ago. However there's nothing stopping us from creating a similar situation and giving the players a chance to explore.

Mind you Rick and Robin did seem a little nervous when I asked about hitting Altdorf with a comet so maybe not.

Robin: The only answer I can give is yes…but...! The big but is that right now we've got a game to deliver and a million and one things to think about. Every time we sit down and talk, read through the forums, chat to fans at conventions we all go, "wouldn't it be cool if…"

In Rick's phrase "games are made by what's left after you've thrown the rubbish away!" We think we've left our players with an exciting, entertaining and sociable online gaming space and we've made the online game that we always wanted to play.

Lets hope that our fans agree…