Welcome to the Warhammer Online Grab Bag, where your friendly neighborhood community manager will answer the most popular, and most interesting, questions in a new regular feature. Many things aren't yet certain, so try to be patient with us. Trust me - we're as eager as you are to see the features finalized, so that we can hear what you've got to say.

Grab Bag #23

Q: Will siege weapons look different based on your race?

A: Siege weapons will have a race and realm specific feel to them, but they won't have unique abilities based on realm or race. A Chaos ram will function exactly the same as an Empire ram, and a Rock Lobber will function the same as a Dwarf mortar. We are looking at putting in a method of augmenting siege with different ammo and other treats, but that's not in the works right now.

Q: Will there be a mechanic in place to prevent other players from 'stealing' our siege weapons?

A: When you deploy a siege weapon, you are automatically the one who controls it. If another player tries to take it over they'll get a big fat "no not yours" message until you relinquish control of the weapon.

Q: What incentives, aside from bragging rights, are there for players to assault and capture a keep? Will there be Renown rewards for defending a keep successfully and preventing its capture?

A: Ah, the short answer which begged for more…capturing a keep or battlefield objective will give you Renown Points. Defending a keep or battlefield objective will also give you Renown Points. You will get a base amount of points for taking a keep or battlefield objective, in addition to the points gained from killing players in the area. Stay tuned for more on this subject.

Q: Do you gain any form of PvE bonus, in the form of contribution/XP rewards, for controlling a keep in an area, as opposed to totally controlling an area?

A: We grant XP and Renown Point bonuses across the entire zone for controlling battlefield objectives, but not keeps.

Q: Misfire effects of siege weapons are a lot of fun in tabletop games – especially the ones from Goblins or Skaven. Do you plan to implement a system similar to this (and similar to the mechanics of the sorceress) where your siege weapon will have a small chance to blow a hole into the ground right where it is, get destroyed and damage everyone around?

A: We’re looking into the possibility of misfires and other effects that echo the table-top game in spirit.

Q: Will the elevation granted by keeps and hills increase the range of distance based attacks?

A: Not in WAR, no.

Q: Can a keep be razed, like towers in DAOC?

A: We will not have towers or keeps that fall to the ground or have massive collision changes. This is a game about capturing keeps for your side, not destroying them. However, our keeps will show visual changes when one realm owns them versus another. Things like spiky bits and skulls may be added to an Empire keep when Destruction captures it and banners will switch from Order to Destruction or vice versa.

Q: Will there be something intrinsically different between keep defenses in various realms? For example - Dwarfs get turrets on their keeps, while elves' keeps are x3 taller than all other keeps, etc. And following this concept - will specific classes/races be required for specific siege operations or would anyone be able to do anything?

A: Keeps will have a similar structure across all pairings, but they will have different play styles for each race. A Chaos and Empire keep will look similar in terms of basic geometry, where as a High Elf or Dark Elf keep will have a different look and geometry to their structure. The siege weapons will be universally the same in function, but look different according to race as well. Where Orcs use orcapults, Dwarfs will use mortars. We will not be putting any restrictions on which races can capture different keeps. Anyone can siege or defend any keep.

Q: Will there be any diminishing returns on Renown Points for killing players multiple times in RvR?

A: Yes. Killing a player within a certain amount of time since their last resurrection will result in diminished Renown & XP gains. If you kill a player too fast after their recent return to life, they are worth nothing.

Q: I believe it has been mentioned before that Public Quests will affect RvR. Would it be possible for you to give an example of how?

A: Public Quests contribute to zone control as do standard quests. Every time a PQ or quest is completed, your realm is granted Victory Points. Those Victory Points are fed into a large pool that is shared with Scenarios, open world objectives (keeps and battlefield objectives) and skirmish kills. WAR is a Realm vs. Realm game, and PvE is a part of the war, so of course we include these aspects when determining zone control.

Q: Does siege engine damage scale with the level of the zone?

A: Siege damage will scale with the level of the zone and the player operating it. Only certain types of siege equipment will be deployable with certain zones. For example: You won’t be able to deploy a tier 4 ram on a tier 2 keep.

Q: Will Renown Points be constantly gathered like Realm Points, or gathered and spent like Bounty Points/Honor?

A: Renown will be gained constantly and you’ll get Renown Points for each rank you achieve that you can spend on abilities similar to DAOC.