Return of Reckoning

Highlights

Live Event: Seas of Slaughter




Click here to watch on YouTube

The air is heavy with the smell of plunder. Autumn harvests fill up port warehouses. Exotic goods sail into Old World ports before the winter storms come. The seas are full of vessels laden with goods, fortunes waiting to be claimed. So many opportunities for the Pirates of Sartosa to honor Jack o’ the Seas. Hoist the colors high!

South of Tilea, the isle of Sartosa serves as a nest of piracy. The isle is ruled by pirate lords, first among which is the Pirate Princess of Sartosa. The isle's location allows it to ruthlessly plunder trade routes across the Southern Sea, from the coast of Araby and Nehekara in the south to the Tilean Sea in the north, from the Black Gulf in the east to the shores of Estalia at the western end of the Old World. The dwarfs of Barak Varr do what they can to battle against the pirates of Sartosa, but they have greener problems on their horizon. Therefore, unchecked, the pirates of Sartosa cling to the shores of the Old World, looting and pillaging throughout Autumn. Rum flows as freely as blood in the Seas of Slaughter.

The end of Autumn marks the high season for piracy, as merchants race to reach safe harbors before the winter storms. The Seas of Slaughter marks the time of year when the Pirates of Sartosa reap their own bloody harvest. Alas, you too are caught up in the winds of piracy. Join the fray as the battle for the high seas rages.

The Seas of Slaughter will start on September 22nd at 12:00 Altdorf time and last until October 2nd 12:00 Altdorf time.

Rewards
Basic reward: [Cursed Clank], [Cursed Shimmy], [Cursed Karl], or [Cursed Guilder]- a pocket item looted during your pirate exploits. Though it bears a boon, it comes with a curse that will cost you.
Advanced reward: The Raider's Grog, a live-event slot item with a pilfer proc, because that's the pirate's way!
Elite reward: [Potion of Acclaim], or a Sartosan Doubloon - a special currency item which you can use to trade in for a pirate-themed cosmetic hat! Cosmetic hat previews are available here. (This gallery will be updated as new cosmetic hats are added)

All Live Event rewards are only available from the associated heralds: Sofia Mortebacio in the Altdorf Docks near the Blowhole Tavern, or Giulia Feroce in the Inevitable City Feast Hall.

Please note that cosmetic appearances are not yet equally distributed among races/classes. Our magical texture artist is hard at work texturing models that will not make it for launch, but will be added over time. Additionally, adding new armor is a difficult task that we have only begun to touch upon, thus adding each cosmetic hat requires some effort. To accommodate this inconvenience, the hat vendor will not go away anytime soon. The cosmetic hat vendor will not appear the first day the event launches due to all the boxes he has in tow, but he'll make his debut during the event.

The intention is for every class to have available to them this year a bandana that has no renown restriction, and RR85+ hats for those committed players. Hats that are modeled and working-on-being-imported are: Engi/RP RR 80+; IB/EN/RP RR 85+; Slayer RR 85+; Orc RR 85+; WP RR 85+; BW RR 85+; Chosen/Mara RR 85+. Elf hats, and assorted other hats, are awaiting texturing. Eventually we will expand downwards to include hats for RRs 80-84, and who knows what next year will bring...

Completing the Treasure Hunt Quests - One of the hidden quests contains a live event specific cloak. Cloak previews are available here.

We thank our artists for their continued help. Thanks to their dedication we have been able to add new item icons, new Live-Event ToK art, new cloaks, and dozens of themed pirate hats. Please note that the implementation of the hats is a work in progress and our texture artist is working hard to get more hats done for you. Secondly, the list of hats this year is not complete and we hope to expand our collection the next time this live event comes around. If you want more hats, don't hesitate to drop a loving word to our art team to keep them motivated!

Treasure Hunt Quests
Ah, the pirates life is one of booty and bounty. Fighting when the odds are in your favor, yes please! Fighting when the enemy bares their teeth? No thank you. Pirates flee from a fair fight, and as such work in great haste to bury their treasures around the world, and leave notes for themselves how to find those treasures. Located in all the ORvR lakes are dirtpiles which players can interact with to dig up a pirate's secret notes. Clicking on the dirtpile and not getting anything? That means someone beat you to the stash! Come back to it in a few minutes and try your luck... or look further!

Players who successfully unearth a box from a dirtpile will be able to open it and get a scroll tube to start a treasure hunt quest. Scroll tubes are tradeable, so be sure to read the description to see if you've already done the quest, as each quest can only be done once per character! Open your scroll tube and read the scroll to start your journey! There are a total of 24 Treasure Hunt Quests (ranging in difficulty) for you to enjoy... we hope!

Dyes
Twenty rare dyes are available only during this live event, for those who wish to expand their colorful horizons. Six dyes are specular dyes which will dye the specular area of armor pieces that have specular areas. Dye previews are available here, but please be aware that the colors may apply differently on different base armor colors. We hope to continue to introduce new dyes based on inspiration from the source material in the Live Events to come.

The Ironclad
During this live event we would like to test out the Ironclad scenario with the player cap increased to 9 players (from 6). We understand that this scenario has multiple issues facing it, and this solution may not solve them, but we would like to gauge the impact. This scenario has also been added to Discordant Skirmish during this event for some high jinks on the high seas.

Weekend Warfront: The Guns of Nordenwatch



Along the rain-scoured coast of Nordland, spring is not a blessing. For while the end of winter signals a return of the growing season, it also heralds the thawing of the Sea of Claws. Now all eyes turn to the white foamed waves, searching for the first sign of invaders. It doesn't take long.

A sharp shout goes up from the watchtower moments before a harsh bell begins to toll. Norse sails have been spotted on the horizon. War is coming, and the only hope that the people of Nordland have is that their defenders are well prepared.

This weekend The Struggle of Nordenwatch will be the weekend warfront from 12:00 on Friday to 12:00 on Monday Altdorf time. You get +50% XP and Renown in the Nordenwatch scenario, and extra rewards from completing the event tasks.

Highlights



Today marks 15 wonderful years of WAR. On the 18th September 2008, we entered into the Old World.

WAR NEVER ENDS

Twitch Drops

To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of Warhammer Online, get ready for special Twitch Drops Campaign! In honor of the game's original launch of September 18th, 2008, players can earn drops by watching and supporting our Twitch streamers for 5 days this week. Enjoy the x2 Renown, Influence, EXP and Crests throughout Monday to Friday! Happy WAAAAAGHing!

Rewards

Everyday, you will be able to claim up to 4 rewards by watching one or more streamers for a total of up to 3 Hours & 45 Minutes.

If you'd like to read more about Twitch Drops and how do they work, please checkout this thread.

The drop campaigns are scheduled for the following times:

Day One: Monday 18/09 - 12:00pm (CEST/Altdorf) to Tuesday 19/09 - 11:59am (CEST/Altdorf)
Day Two: Tuesday 19/09 - 12:00pm (CEST/Altdorf) to Wednesday 20/09 - 11:59am (CEST/Altdorf)
Day Three: Wednesday 20/09 - 12:00pm (CEST/Altdorf) to Thursday 21/09 - 11:59am (CEST/Altdorf)
Day Four: Thursday 21/09 - 12:00pm (CEST/Altdorf) to Friday 22/09 - 11:59am (CEST/Altdorf)
Day Five: Friday 22/09 - 12:00pm (CEST/Altdorf) to Saturday 23/09 - 11:59am (CEST/Altdorf)

Guaranteed Reward 1 - 15 minutes watchtime

This Reward will drop everyday.

- 20 Gold

Guaranteed Reward 2 - 30 minutes watchtime

This Reward will drop everyday

- 72h Renown potion

Guaranteed Reward 3 - 60 minutes watchtime

This Reward will drop everyday

- 1 Guild Coin (On 18/9, 20/9 & 22/9)

- 20 War Crests (on 19/9 and 21/9)

Guaranteed Reward 4 - 120 minutes watchtime

This reward will drop each specific day, previous rewards cannot be claimed if missed.

18/9 - 200 War Crests

19/9 - Exotic Mount Token

20/9 - Exotic Pet Token

21/9 - Warhammer Anniversary Cloak Box

22/9 - 30 Day Aegis

For the Exotic Mount Token, you will be able to claim 1 of 10 Mounts that last for 30 Days.

- Pig Mount

- Battle Ram

- Dark Pegasus for Destruction, Ellyrion Pegasus for Order

- Pale Zombie Horse

- Wyvern Mount

- Ursun Bear

- Enslaved Manticore

- Wild Griffon

- Festive Stag

- Stag of Kurnos

Don't worry Magus players, you will be able to choose 1 of 7 discs.

- Eastern Wyvern Disc

- Pale Zombified Disc

- Decaying Manticore Disc

- Daemonic Ram Disc

- Festive Disc

- Dark Pegasus Disc

- Chaotic Origins Disc

For the Exotic Pet Token, you will be able to choose 1 of 4 pets

- Brown Mannequin for Order

- Steel Armored Mite for Destruction

- Brown Empire Owl for Order

- Red Jester for Destruction

- Tomb King Scarb for Order

- Tomb King Scorpion for Destruction

- Imperial Hunting Hound for Order

- 2 Headed Hazy Hound for Destruction.

For the cloak box, you will receive 2 cloaks

- Birthday Cloak (for Destruction)

- Birthday Mantle (For Order)

- Cloak of Reckoning (Both Sides) [Order] [Destro]

To claim your rewards, please visit https://returnofreckoning.com/account/social/twitch.

(Just a small patch today as more prep goes into the Ability System and upcoming events!)

Highlights

New Ring Vendors

Twilight's Tide rings can now be traded and sold. We've added new temporary vendors for Annulus and Signet rings in both Altdorf and The Inevitable City, where you can exchange an existing bound Twilight's Tide ring for a tradable BoE ring.

These vendors are located next to where the event vendors were, in South Altdorf and Southwest I.C.

For players who wish to sell their rings to others, please note that you can only use this vendor once.

After the exchange, if you re-equip that ring, it will remain bound and cannot be traded back.


Quests:

Eight new Golden Heraldry shields have been added, four per faction, for both Swordmasters and Black Guards, and can be earned via quests. (To earn the Golden version of a shield, you must first earn the Silver variant, and then achieve a specific Renown Rank to unlock the next Quest.)

The new High Elf Golden shields are:

• Golden Pavise of Nagarythe

• Golden Pavise of the Phoenix Gate

• Golden Pavise of Isha

• Golden Pavise of Saphery

And the new Dark Elf Gold shields are:

• Gold Aspis of Karond Kar

• Gold Aspis of Har Ganeth

• Gold Aspis of The Cytharai

• Gold Aspis of Ghrond

Check out the RoR Wiki for more information on where to begin these quests and the tasks required to earn the shields.

Highlights
Hey all,

Alongside our latest Developer update over on YouTube we wanted to create a written version of the update for those who cannot access audio content and/or prefer to see things written down so they can refer back to points made. On August 25th 2023 we released a glimpse into some of the upcoming projects the team are working on, alongside some technical advancements we have made as well as elaborating further on the Ability System's progress. This thread will summarise the points made in the video.

Please note, as also explained in the video, these changes are not in their final form(s) and release dates will be made public closer to the date.


A few weeks ago, we shared a post outlining the ongoing rebuilding of our ability system. This post highlighted the steps we have taken, the tools we’ve engineered, and the current stage of development. and wanted to provide some additional context to this.

Several months ago, we conducted tests integrating our new ability system with Mythics 1.4.8 ability data —as a benchmark of our new systems functionality. The ability data on the current RoR build had a lot of problems, rendering it pretty much nonfunctional. We had to reimplement the Return of Reckonings changes on top of the good 1.4.8 data, which has taken a couple of months.

It's important to highlight that abilities tied to Monsters, Keep Lords, Fort Lords, Items, Dungeons, and other elements saw minimal attention during this period. Now, this has shifted, as our focus is now on addressing these components to ensure a release-ready system.

Our current phase includes testing of the ability system as a whole. For player abilities, we've asked our testers to partake in evaluating the system's performance on our test server, and progress is going well.

It's important to acknowledge that this is a dynamic testing phase. The noted changes are by no means set in stone; they're already evolving, with fixes actively being implemented. We will be posting an update to the patch notes possibly this week.

Our goal is to have a way to transition this rewrite to the live game server, wherein players can seamlessly log in, engage in RvR, participate in Scenarios, run Dungeons, and more. Presently, we find ourselves working across two workstreams, maintaining changes in both the old ability system and the new one.

It's important to note that while we've dedicated significant efforts to this project, comprehensive large-scale testing of combat remains a vital step. This testing phase is pivotal, as it will provide us with an assessment of each career. We will be able to see how they all perform in the new ability system balance wise. We can then use this information to inform us of any changes that need to be made and what direction we move with the career.

Our goal here is to bring a more streamlined development process for our internal team which in turn should result in faster changes, more bug fixes, more frequent balance changes and more reliable abilities in the long-term.

We have been seeing a number of frequently asked questions on the forums surrounding the ability changes, so we’ve pulled together a few to go through. So…

Is anything changing about how defensive stats work?
When will the rest of the balance changes occur?
What could we see for future balance changes?
When will these changes be going live?
What is the reasoning behind the engineer/magus changes?
What is the reasoning behind the White-Lion changes?
What is the reasoning behind the Shadow warrior changes?
What is the reasoning behind the Archmage Energy of Vaul and Shaman Fury of Da Green changes?
What is the reasoning behind the Marauder changes?
What is the reasoning behind the Squig-herder changes? Is anything changing about how offensive stats work?
Now I want to reiterate that this is the current state of the balance changes on our internal test server. Some changes from Return of Reckoning have been left out either because of limitations within Mythics framework, which we may find time to extend depending on the complexity, others we feel that in the new Ability System they will be balanced.

We haven't done any balance benchmarks of the new ability system in 6v6 or Warbands settings. We expect the new Ability System to change how things work on its own in small ways. We need to do some 6v6 or Warband testing so everyone can get a feel of how well careers perform in the new system.


In a recent update we shared a glimpse into our automated ability test system, and now we're excited to present a video that demonstrates its capabilities in action.

This system has proven to be a significant asset in our development journey. By watching this video, you can get a firsthand look at how it contributes to our mission of ensuring a bug-free experience when rolling out new content. Not only does it facilitate smoother content releases, but it also allows us to confidently make substantial code changes in the future, knowing that our testing procedures will prevent regressions.




We are working on a complete rewrite of the Scenario Queue system.

The current state of the scenario queue system has its problems as I am sure everyone is aware.

Scenarios being created with weird archetype combinations and people being able to join games in unfair ways.

The main problem we have is that testing the scenario queue system is really not possible.

Without going into too much technical detail the small scenario system which we had written years and years ago had been continuously built upon and it has become a very complicated bit of code with many moving parts.

One change could cause problems but we didn’t really have a way of tracing it down without doing all the calculations in your head.

The new system will allow us to apply fixes and changes without needing to restart the game server, meaning we can implement new features throughout the week.

The primary focus of this redesigned system will be on optimizing team formation.

We want to ensure that teams aren't repeatedly matched against opponents that are repeatedly winning without them standing a chance.

To achieve this, we're implementing a diverse set of metrics to prevent any attempts to exploit the system.

We are also hoping to improve the scenario grouping if for any reason a premade is put against a pick up group. Although we want to mainly not mix pugs and premades.

Our approach is dynamic, with the match criteria adapting to balance games and expanding the player pool for those who've been in the queue for an extended duration


We are going to be talking about a new scenario we are currently calling “The Underway”. This scenario is set within the tunnels that link the cities of Karaz-A-Karak and Karak-Eight-Peaks.

The mechanics of this scenario are still under design but it features a single hallway in which one realm must push the enemy realm to their respective spawn. We still have some finishing touches to do on the modeling of this map but we have in the game where we are planning mechanics.

We plan to release this along with a future live event.



Now, Scenarios are not the only element of PvP that will be seeing changes…

City Sieges are undergoing a fundamental transformation.

The goal here is to have a more immersive, strategic, and fiercely competitive environment whilst not ruining the experience for players who may be more casual. No longer will the progression carry over between stages; each stage stands as a distinct encounter. This means that facing a formidable enemy group in one stage won't deter you from engaging and conquering the next. Our inspiration draws from the original rendition of City Sieges in Warhammer Online.

The main feature will be the reshuffling process.

After each stage, instances will be restructured to ensure dynamic matchups. Imagine, for instance, the top-performing Order team from the initial stage facing off against the leading Destruction team in the subsequent round. This approach guarantees that each stage remains a challenging and unpredictable encounter, enhancing the overall excitement and balance for players of all skill.

With the release of the new Scenario Queue system we will be adding the ability to backfill players into a City Siege. The rest of the team isn’t impacted too hard if someone leaves or disconnects.



In addition to the changes to City Sieges, we do have some prospect plans for RvR.

We do not want to get too into this here as these are still in their infancy stage, but we have been hearing your requests for changes to RvR changes. With the new-found time across the development team after the release of the Abiltiy Ssytem we have more capacity to work on interesting changes to RvR. We have some smaller changes in the pipeline which you should hear about soon. We are looking at the longer term future to build a vision on how we would like RvR to evolve.



Moving away from PvP now we have some exciting news about Dungeons for the PvE folk.

We are going to be rebalancing some dungeons, especially in light of the ability rework. As part of the rework we have fixed a lot of mechanics which have broken over the years, as well as given a lot of monsters and bosses and a range of new abilities. It feels really nice to see all the monsters using all these abilities on you. Our primary motivation here is to deliver a consistent experience across all career runs and mirrored dungeons, including the City Dungeons.
The goal is to ensure that dungeon runs, regardless of career or realm, have a well-rounded sense of challenge and satisfaction.To achieve this, we're doing some data collection and analysis. The insights we gain will drive the subsequent changes. We plan for these changes to be implemented in the months following the ability system release.

Furthermore we are using all the things we’ve created and lessons learned into building out Lost Vale.
We are using this as an opportunity to create documentation for other developers to use and create dungeons in the future.



A quick note about Cosmetic Pets; They’re coming back!

Thanks to the new ability system, managing pets will be convenient, as they will reappear when exiting encounters or leaving RvR. A noteworthy distinction from the live version lies in that they are purely cosmetic. They won't have any statistical advantages. This means you can freely choose the pet that you want, without any obligation to select a specific one for a particular buff.

These may possibly appear in some Live Events or Quests in the future.



So we have also been working on a new Map Editor. This will enable us to modify the in-game world through terrain sculpting and terrain painting.

Here we have some images of the Map Editor being used taken a few months ago. As well as some of the changes appearing in the game.
This tool not only facilitates the creation of brand-new maps but also empowers us to tweak existing ones, including the RvR lakes.

As the tool progresses through its initial proof-of-concept stage, we're actively incorporating feedback from designers to integrate desired features they need to do cool things faster.



We are also working on an update to the Return of Reckoning Launcher. It is a complete overhaul of the patching process.

This update aims to make the patching process smoother and faster. You can expect quicker downloads, even during busy times, and the verification process will be faster as well.

Additionally the patch preparation and release on our side becomes much faster and more automated, saving us time.



On a last note we have also released a new bug tracker.

The existing GitHub bug tracker, which was initially intended as a temporary solution, has lasted for over 9 years. A lot of players were reluctant to create GitHub accounts for bug reporting. This caused us a lot of problems where bugs were not being reported or we would have to manage them in direct messages.

We've migrated all the existing issues into the new system.

It also features a convenient - one-click login mechanism. It will help us more easily manage bugs and address them faster. We will also allow people to vote for bugs that players feel are most important so we can easily prioritize issues.



That covers all of the upcoming plans for Return of Reckoning in this developer vlog.

We want to take some time just to thank each of you for your continued support and we hope to bring you more updates moving forward.

We are planning on doing more frequent updates similar to this in the future.

We’ll see you all soon!

Highlights

Weekend Warfront: Bane of Peace



The Dark Elf march through Dragonwake has not gone unchallenged. High Elves and their Order allies have rallied around key locations, determined to protect ancient ruins and dragon nesting sites.

This weekend Bane of Peace will be the weekend warfront from 12:00 on Friday to 12:00 on Monday Altdorf time. You get +50% XP and Renown in the Dragon's Bane scenario, and extra rewards from completing the event tasks.

Completing all tasks rewards the title "Orderbane" for destruction characters or "Destructionbane" for order characters.



Content

Chapter 22:

- Destruction's run up to the Reikland Chapter 22 has had some QoL improvements. Some mobs are now further removed from the road, some mobs have been removed entirely, and the aggro range of the Bowman has been reduced. Solo players traveling the road will still hit a couple enemies, but should be able to flee past these and survive without requiring others to come help them.


Quests:

- Four new Elven Heraldry shields have been added and can be earned via quests. The new shields are:

- Silver Pavise of the Unicorn Gate

- Silver Pavise of the Griffon Gate

- Silver Aspis of the Tower of Despair

- Silver Aspis of The Blood of Naggaroth


Additionally, the first two Golden Heraldry Shields have been added via new Quests. These are:

- Golden Pavise of the Dragon Gate

- Golden Aspis of the Chill Wind of Naggaroth


Check the RoR Wiki for info on where to earn these Heraldry Shields.


New Bloodlord Weapon Conversion:

Players are now able to convert their existing Bloodlord Weapons into any other Bloodlord option by trading in the old Weapon and 100 gold.

This trade works like the existing Sentinel Soul trade for City Dungeons, so first trade in your Weapon for a Soul, then trade both the Soul Currency and 100 gold to select any other Bloodlord option for your class.

The new Vendors for Bloodlord Weapon conversion are found next to their Sentinel equivalents in Altdorf's War Quarters and The Inevitable City's Undercroft, and are:


- Order: Shady Lady Lara (Bloodlord Souls)

- Order: Bloodlord Betty (Weapons)

-Destruction: Blurmp (Bloodlord Souls)

- Destruction: Bloodlord Bloomp (Weapons)

If you get an error when trading in your Bloodord Weapon for a Soul, scroll further down the list and look for another trade-in option of the same name. (Some items are named the same but have unique ID's, so just scroll down to find the same name and it should work.)


City Dungeon Weapon Conversion:

Previously, Sentinel Weapon trade-in vendors displayed all Weapons for both Order and Destruction, regardless of your faction, which made the lists quite large.

We've split these into two different vendors now to make this much easier to navigate. Order players will now only see Order options, and Destruction players will only see Destruction options.

World-building:

- Dark Elf PQ's in Shadowlands now include more defenders wearing Nagarythe shields.

- Dark Elf PQ's in Ellyrion now include more defenders wearing Ellyrion shields.

- Dark Elf PQ's in Avelorn now include more defenders wearing shields of Isha.

- More NPC's in Saphery now wear the newly added Shield of Saphery.


NPCs:

- The Practice Targets at the Dark Elf PQ "White Tower of Hoeth" in Saphery have been nerfed, and should no longer kill the Swordmasters training on them before then soloing nearby Sun Dragons.



User Interface

Addons

- Commands to the server can now use the ] prefix instead of a .

- Commands to the server with a . prefix will be deprecated and eventually removed so addon developers should update their addons. We will communicate a timeline closer to the time.



Bug Fixes


- All new High Elf and Dark Elf Heraldry Shield quests have been updated to properly stamp the return point on a player's map once complete.