Wednesday 12 January 2011

One change to rule them all

If you could pick one thing to change in WAR, just one fairly focussed thing (so don’t say “everything” :P ) what would it be?

My first thought because of current issues was all the armour sets from Annihilator to Warlord and I’m still wavering on that being my choice. I really do think it would be of great benefit to the game to level the playing field a bit and encourage new players to stick around. It certainly would have helped that low RR White Lion we saw the other day with 48 deaths and zero kills over the couple of hours we were fighting in the same zone…

But that’s not what I’ve decided to go for, instead and probably fairly predictably for me as I often bang on about it, I’ve gone for expanding the RvR zones. It would just revolutionise the game and make it feel so much fresher, bordering on the way an expansion does. One of the main reasons I’m not playing my Chosen right now is because it’s the same grind, with less carrots and all in the same scenery. Yet if I had all that new scenery to fight in, then I believe it would provide a pretty damn major distraction and breathe new life into things.

So pretty and so wasted... reminds me of a lass I met in Luton once...

If you look at Praag for example we only fight in roughly 1/3 of the actual zone. So if it went full RvR (with more objectives, etc ofc) we are talking about tripling the size of the zone! That’s pretty immense. And the building blocks are all there, it’s just those objectives that need adding. Also remember we used to have full PvP servers, so it’s not that radical a thought really.

Yes it’s recycling old content, but then it’s content that we’ve rarely (if ever) visited. There are LOADS of the PvE areas that I have never been to and I know for sure I’m not alone there. Of course there’s also the concern that it could disperse the players too far, but then as the last changes have shown and the intensified zerg they brought, I would say it’s needed. Plus careful and considered placement and creation of Battle Objectives and Towers (DAoC players know what I mean here…) converted from the existing scenery will drive people into combat. I want this in WAR more than anything, even more than a third faction...

So what about you folks? What is the ONE thing for you?

12 comments:

  1. One thing I'd love to see, but know I'll never see is a Third Realm. You can alleviate so many issues by allow the population to auto-correct.

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  2. Full zone rvr lakes would be epic, but third realm is the "one" like Neo.

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  3. I think we can forget about third realm because it would cost them too much work and I dont guess they have needed devs (sometimes I wonder how many do they have, 10 or less?). I totaly agree that redisignig of existing content is the way. A lot of sometimes very beautiful places nobody goes to anymore. It would be real fun to make T4 open with new BO. I started on ORvR K8P server and open didnt work well to me because there was no reason to fight outside lakes but after some changes it could be awesome!

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  4. I want a rally master of my private island.

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  5. Better use of Warhammer IP. Since I'm currently unsubscribed I can go against the current players and say I'd like them to do this by more PvE mobs in the lakes. Specifically, do things like have a roving, contested encounter (similar to dwarf/greenskin PQs), where winner summons a zone-appropriate Lord mob. Things like lords of changes, steamtanks, lords on dragons, etc. that march up to the enemy keep (like city stage 2 boss) and bash in the door. Give them some periodic cleave/AoE attacks and a steady stream of lower intensity NPCs following them. Get more NPCs out fighting each other in bits of the lake (scaled up/down depending on how big the zergs are), have siege weapons and crews scattered about the hills and BOs firing. Replace the single rat camps with lots of small camps with different mobs (skaven, beastmen, cultists, ogres,...) in all the little unused corners of the lakes. Let them drop quality crafting items, bosses with chances for bestial or barber tokens, rare dyes, etc. And put in siege towers if they can't do destructible walls.

    Also:
    replace the lame current skaven implementation with proper careers that are orvr only. Revise zone lock mechanism so skaven can capture a zone as well, if they can capture two pairings they get to siege that city.

    Make dungeon sets, weapons purchasable with orvr currency (maybe after LV/TovL questlines are done for DP/Tyrant). Easiest step towards helping sub rr80 gear.

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  6. I agree with your points. I left WAR for the second time because of the lack of content (zones). But especielly cause the armor gap is too wide.

    I will continue to watch updates and someday hope that these changes will make WAR playable. Currently enjoying WOW. I miss the rvr though, but not that much in its current state.

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  7. Roving contested encounter for defo, like in the city sieges with Engra but around expanded rvr lakes. Linked to new BOs and stuff like that. Too much of the gameworld doesnt do anything cos nobody plays in WARs pve bits.

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  8. Sorry for mistake (so long ago). It was Dragonback Mountains server.

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  9. I don't agree.

    I played WAR as a PvP and a PvE game. I did explore all those areas and I've seen plenty of other players there as well. Not as many as there could be but enough. Opening up those players to be ganked by 80+ players of either realm for easy RR exp is not the solution. There have to be areas beside the cities that players can unwind a bit before jumping back into the PvP game. That isn't to say that I'm against expanding the PvP areas. Just not all of it.

    Gear disparity is the foremost problem in the game now. I stopped playing because of it.

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  10. Interesting, which server are you on? On mine the PvE zones are utterly devoid of players, at least everytime we've gone looking or have been screenshotting things, etc. I wonder if there's a more PvE interested community on other servers.

    Certainly there's no point in doing the PvE areas for character progression as all the gear is useless, all the PQ drops are barely worth equipping even when leveling. Of course that's with the exception of dungeons, but that's a totally different subject. So perhaps if the PvE PQs and so on gained more relevance to players of level 40 I could see their merit more.

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  11. I played on Badlands. I never used the drops I received in the PvE areas except as vendor trash. The game cash received for completing quests was never something to sniff at either.

    I basically did the PvE as a break from PvP and just to explore the game storyline. I saw many other players during my travels as well.

    The Dark Elf/High Elf questline ends in a cliffhanger. Which I'm sad thinking about how we'll never see the continuation of it.

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  12. if I could change only 1 thing I'd get rid of the static feeling in the various zones.

    after a shot at the Rift beta I remembered how hectic and involved you feel in a zone when you get rid of the if/then scripted events and encounters. the same was valid in Tabula Rasa, even though the game itself was rubbish, you felt like you were fighting for control in whateve zone you were in.

    so... I'd add in invasions of factions fitting the pairing, with a sprinkling of skaven ontop of that. both in the RvR and PvE areas. The invasions would pretty much be a copy of the rift mechanics seen in Rift, but with a Warhammer flavor. to make sure a zone was not overrun with invasions during periods of low activity (such as night times) I'd scale the frequency and power of the invasions to the number of active players in the zone.

    by making sure that there was a clear message and indicators on the map whenever an invasion started, players would be aware of the fighting going on all over the zone, and be able to jump in to defend or attack a staging area.

    add ontop of that the PQ mechanics to reward participants with rewards based on wether it was a PvP or PvE invasion.

    the end result should be a more engaging PvE experience, with oppertunities for PvP, both fun and rewarding.

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