Earlier this year, BioWare and EA announced a new, MOBA-style title set in the iconic Warhammer fantasy universe and bearing a new, action-romp ethos. Being a ridiculous Warhammer fan and owner of a massive neckbeard, I immediately fired off some questions about Wrath of Heroes - and here come those answers now, courtesy of Carrie Gouskous, the game's producer at BioWare.

games.on.net: The screenshots we've seen show a new, almost cel-shaded look to the graphics with the addition of black outlines. What was the reason behind this decision?

Carrie: Wrath of Heroes plays much differently than Age of Reckoning, and our decision to make changes to the UI and art style is meant to be a reflection of how it plays. The look is faster, streamlined, and more saturated, just like the game is. As a testament to how quickly we’re iterating based on feedback though, we’ve made some major changes to the art since the first set of screenshots were released, which further refine the appearance and reflect the tone of the game.

games.on.net: Has there been any major graphical changes from the Age of Reckoning models beyond this cel-shading? Any new models being created specifically for this game?

Carrie: One of the key tenets of Wrath of Heroes is to share as many assets with Age of Reckoning as possible. This is of course beneficial to us for many reasons, but it’s also in service of our current subscribers. We want our Age of Reckoning players to see the benefits of development on Wrath of Heroes. That doesn’t mean that everything in Wrath of Heroes comes from Age of Reckoning however, and we’re going to be including new playable careers and models.

games.on.net: Is this the same engine used in Age of Reckoning? Have any tweaks been made to it?

Carrie: It is the same engine, however we’ve been improving on it constantly for the last three years. It’s far beyond tweaks and includes some very significant performance improvements and optimizations.

games.on.net: How long has Wrath of Heroes been in development and when can we expect the beta to begin?

Carrie: We began development on Wrath earlier this year, and are really pleased with the progress it’s made in such a short period of time. Closed beta is launching so soon that it will have begun by the time you read this. Please sign up at www.wrathofheroes.com!! :D

games.on.net: Are the game's heroes fundamentally identical to the classes from Age of Reckoning, with the same abilities and spells? Have any changes been made?

Carrie: The heroes are similar in that we’ve done our best to distil the fundamental aspects of the IP and showcase what defines each of them as fundamentally “a Shadow Warrior” or “a Vampire”. However, they play quite differently from their Age of Reckoning counterparts. With only five abilities, we needed to make sure each ability was supremely impactful and there was no room for letting people customize how their hero plays, only to perfect the way they play it.

games.on.net: How do the teams work - can all the sides mix and match or are they restricted thematically (one team Chaos, one team Orcs...)

Carrie: There are no team restrictions based on race. A player comes to each scenario as the owner of a number of heroes that they can choose to use or not (depending on whether or not they’ve unlocked them). In this way, it’s very much like adhoc tabletop games, though instead of theming armies, we’re letting players have a little more flexibility. This is a game conceit that we’ve worked through very closely with Games Workshop, and that we think adds a layer of strategy that is quite important. One of the best aspects of this feature is that players can swap heroes on death and aren’t limited to which ones they choose by any game mechanics.

games.on.net: Are the teams visually identifiable in some way through colour coding?

Carrie: Orange eagles, Blue skulls, and Green crossbones. They’re magically delicious!

games.on.net: How is the networking handled - will BioWare run servers, or will it be peer-hosted? If it will have dedicated servers, is there any plan for servers in the Oceanic region for us high-latency Australians to use?

Carrie: We will be hosting the servers. We are aware of the needs of Australian players, and it is our hope to localize both in language and in bandwidth optimization for as many regions as possible as fast as possible. We don’t have a current roadmap for Australia, but we’ve learned a lot from hosting of Ultima Online and our other live MMOs.

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games.on.net: What model will the game use to generate revenue - a microtransaction model? Are there any plans for an in-game store and how will BioWare handle balance concerns?

Carrie: As it’s free-to-play, we will rely on microtransactions to make our revenue. However, we believe there is a good model out there for F2P games that respects the player, allowing them to either earn items through time spent playing or spend money to save time. Items that have impact on power (like heroes) will be purchasable via either your time or your money.

games.on.net: Will Wrath of Heroes also feature a Mac version like Age of Reckoning?

Carrie: Currently we have only announced for the PC.

Thanks to Carrie for taking the time to chat with us!