Update June 2017 news

Dear Warsword fans

It has been a while since our last update and as we currently have no release date announcement in sight I would like to bring you all up to date on where we are and what can be looked forward to in the future.

Since the last patch we took our usual 6 months off and work restarted around the turn of the new year. The team has been much reduced again this year with our scener Jargon Darot and coder gsanders absent for all of 2017 so far. I do not know if Jargon Darot will return but gsanders has said he will return if his personal life gives him the chance and we wish him the best and hope to see him soon as he has given this mod much and I know there is much he wanted to finish for this update.

The trusty Polloio is still our community manager and we continue to be grateful for his presence on our forums and his sage like Warhammer wisdom and knowledge which is a great asset behind the scenes. He is also rewriting some of our character creation options to bring their flavour as close as possible to Warhammer lore.

In the modelling team Dankmar is still creating exciting new remodels of current factions and Hoedir has joined the team to bring new visions of the ogres and to work on new content which will be announced in the future. Last year Kraggrim produced an excellent demigryph model as well as some new skaven and dwarf models and he has recently agreed to make some more models for us which is excellent news.

Time is limited for those 3 and this is why we have recently asked for more modelling help. The timing of the next release date will very much depend on if any more help comes along and how much is done as we have a lot of models/retextures needed for this coming update which has the potential to be one of the biggest updates we have released.

There are a lot of new features which are in the design/testing stage both in terms of coding and modelling at the moment but I will leave those aside now for later announcements pending on how things go. Below I will talk about what has already been done so you can get an idea on the current status of the mod.

Bugs and fixes:

Many issues which have been reported over the last year have been fixed for the next update.

Town NPCs

Merchant sellers, tavern keepers, guild masters, arena masters and town seneschals are now the correct race/faction for the starting faction. They will not change when conquered but we felt this way around was better for immersion compared to what we have now.

Honour:

Honour does not exist in warsword anymore. Instead it has been changed to a character reputation system which similarly ranges from -99 to 99. -99 is the extreme of the evil side and 99 is the extreme of the good side. If you are one of the evil aligned factions such as chaos, skaven, dark elf, tomb kings, vampire counts, orcs and goblins you will no longer be penalised for acting evil. For example the negative reputation you get for acts like attacking neutrals and causing provocations will now be a desirable thing.

As you establish your character in the upper realms of your races disposition (-50 and below for evil, 50 and above for good) you will slowly start gaining right to rule (so long as you have a high enough renown) over time as your reputation grows and you become more inspirational to your peers in these times of fierce war.

Random events:

Currently there are 37 random events in the mod but by release there will be 50 – 60 random events which will fire on average once every 4 weeks. They have been put in to add some decision making and variation to each play through as well as a chance to add some more roleplay moments for your character. You can turn the events off but if you do you will miss out on the chance to get some unique quests, companions, rewards and an expanded narrative to your overall adventure.

New Keywords and abilities:

We plan to add a number of new troop abilities (some available for the player, some not) for the new update. These are the ones which are already in but many more are planned down the line.

Poisonous: If you are damaged by an enemy who has a poisonous attack (for example witch elves, dark elf and skaven assassins, wind globadiers, skink blowpipe, goblin spider rider archers) then you (as well as ai troops) will periodically lose small increments of health as the battle progresses and will also do so on the world map until the poison has cleared. Poison effects do not stack.

(undead and lizardmen are immune to poison)

Tomb rot:

Mummies now give off tomb rot which chokes the life out of nearby troops. At regular intervals the rot will emanate from the mummy and do very minor damage to any model within 2 metres of it. This damage will also affect allied troops.

(undead, lizardmen, daemons and clan Pestilens are immune to tomb rot)

Potions:

There are now a number of potions in the mod which if you are lucky enough to get during your playthrough can have various beneficial effects such as curing poison, enhancing stats or healing. They can mostly be acquired from events and tavern travelling merchants (they are not as rare as the wizards but not as common as ransom brokers).

Constitution:

This is a new strength based personal skill which will increase your recovery time from illness and infliction. You will also recover health on the world map faster. The higher your constitution there is a chance that potions will last longer and higher constitution will increase the positive and reduce negative effects of intoxication.

Intoxication:

We have decided to add this feature for those who would like the idea of piloting a drunken hero throughout the old world.

You can get drunk in taverns by talking to the tavernkeeper. When you get drunk you are dealt a positive and negative effect of your drunkenness. The higher your constitution and the more times you have been drunk the more chance of getting a better positive and a less harmful negative result. You will be drunk for 18 – 24 hours.

You go into battle with the effect changes from earlier and then every 30 seconds you get an in battle drunk effect. This will either be a positive effect, a negative effect or no current effect. All current effects will be reset before the next one is given (with the exception of the highest positive affect which will remain for the rest of the battle). The higher your constitution and the more times you have been drunk, the more chance of a positive and less chance of a negative effect.

Your early drinking days will be rough but you will get rewarded as time goes on. The cost of getting drunk and time it takes to get drunk increases the more you get drunk (also where you get drunk can have an affect).

(skeleton, vampire and saurus players cannot get drunk)

Current new models:

Demigryph, flagellants, Doombull, some new slayer models and hairs and a few new skaven items. Some new ogres and a wood elf stag and treekin. New herald and bloodletter model and a new model for Belakor.

This is where we are now but with much else going on in the background. There are a couple of major features being worked on right now but they will only be announced when fully finished and tested and if we can get them as we want them.

Thank you for your continued interest in warsword and as always your patience between updates. If you do have experience in modelling and texturing and you would like to assist the team please contact Polloio or myself via the moddb or taleworlds messaging service.

Many thanks

Nameless Warrior