The obligatory look over the producers letter

Well almost obligatory as I had completely forgotten to actually write this... Eek... Anywhos, lets have a look at what Mr Bruce Maclean our new producer has to say (Gaarawarr had an interview with Bruce back in September so check it out). I'm going to be honest though and advise you well in advance I'm skipping everything apart from the last paragraph for no good reason other than it's a look over the last year and you can just read the archives for my views on it (meh.. laaaaaaaazy).

Looking back at past accomplishments is all well and good, but we’re not resting on our bloodied laurels here in the land of WAR! Next year is going to be an exciting one, and I am looking forward to sharing more of our plans during the frigid days and long winter nights of January. We’ll have exciting new Live Events, new weapons and cloaks earned by spilling the blood of your enemies in RvR, a new Scenario structure, economy and loot drop improvements, adjustments to the King and Warlord encounters to convert them to RvR-only battles, UI customization enhancements, Tier 4 RvR campaign improvements, daily quests and so much more - and that’s just our near term plans for 2010. Farther into the year we’ll see…oh but you’ve heard me ramble enough! It’s time for that drink, battle, and crying enemies!

I have to admit, there must be something in the water at Mythic's HQ as they seem to be able to just say enough to tease you into thinking "Oooh ok, lets just wait and see what they do". So lets go ahead and break it down:

new Live Events

Live events have always been a very strong part of WAR, very engaging and enjoyable and I'm sure Mythic use them to test bed new ideas as well (waiting on the spin offs from the Daemon Moon masks). Will this mean new ones? (Scurvy Dogs) or just repeats of the old ones (Night of Murder), either way, as the game matures so do the events.

new weapons and cloaks earned by spilling the blood of your enemies in RvR

Mmmmm gud! Would love to see an offensive shield for Black Orcs and some upgrades for my weapons (8th Warlord PQ and still no higher than a blue bag.. once) interestingly as I write this I've realise that outside the dungeon instances the two weapon upgrades are reliant on a PQ system, yay for lucky rollers :/ Either way though it's been a long time coming and a natural progression of the token and influence systems. Though I would still like to see more accessories.

new Scenario structure

6v6 scenarios plz. Nothing worse than facing off against a good team only to find that the other party you are working with are rank 29 tanks with no healers. Open more up from prior tiers to fight in each weekend and maybe include a scenario influence system.. Oooh that's an idea. Would also be nice and as horrible as it sounds to have rank 40 only scenarios so your team doesn't get gimped by having low rank players against full 4o.. The bolster system works to an extent and I've seen some excellent lower rank players (particularly healers) but the majority just can't compete against the much better geared players and rank 39/40 gear level.

economy

Don't see how the economy can be fixed in WAR, not enough gold sinks and it's far too easy to earn gold anyway, there needs to be a way to force all the gold out the game and people are sitting on 20k+ gold piles already

loot drop improvements

Yeah and the last loot drop improvements meant you nerfed my blog you gits :( Improved loot, or would that be itemisation? Hard to tell with a comment like this, it's very open to interpretation on what they will improve, more grey trash drops, more crappy greens, higher token drop rates, fancy shiny pants dropping off N'Kari... (if he.. she... it.. wears any) Who knows, so will reserve comment on this until we hear more.

Adjustments to the King and Warlord encounters to convert them to RvR-only battles

Well this WILL be very interesting, also very tricky to implement correctly, the current rumour is that the encounters will be"purgable" (is that even a word?) which would be a dreadful idea (24 people with PvE tactics, gear and spec vs. 24 people with RvR tactics, gear and spec... not gud), alternatively it might be a battle against other players to defeat the kings but you never get to fight the king... but then what about the off peak lockers (oh dear, what a shame) how do they kill the king when there's no-one to defend him at 3am? (again.. oh dear, what a shame). Looking at this with a sense of dread but intrigue at the same time, it's been a long time coming and lets be honest about it, Warcraft would be a bit dodgy with a capture the flag scenario against other players as it's end game, so why does an RvR game have a PvE encounter as its endgame?

UI customization enhancements

I'm a tinkerer.. not a week goes past where I don't mess around with my UI to some extent, I'm a minimalist but want all my information at my fingertips. With add on writers slowly disappearing having more ability to change my UI without having to rely on an add on is most welcome.

Tier 4 RvR campaign improvements

Improvements eh? Well not a lot to speculate on here but I get the feeling it will be about battlefield objectives and VP's... who really knows.. Though I've just come up with a possible idea to bring back forts, slow down the campaign but give a sense of attack and defence. Random thought really.. Instead of two pairings to lock to hit the city you need all three, however you can unlock an enemy captured pairing by taking down the fortress lord, doing this resets it back one step (so it'd go from the Maw back to Chaos Wastes). The upside to this is that smaller forces can still hold out but have to be on guard for huge numbers (drop the supply line limit or massively increase it to allow for larger scale sieges again) though any force which sends a zerg to a pairing or to take out a fort being held would risk a pairing they have locked being vulnerable to a counter attack... Possible idea... I dunno...

daily quests

Mmmmm, not convinced here, is this just a way to force people to hit one scenario, or capture one BO or keep each day? The rewards should be for fighting and earning your kills through battles and sieges, not from doing a single quest each day. WAR is everywhere is the tag line, not WAR is 5 daily quests each day. I remain to be convinced but I'll listen to the ideas they bring.

So that was my rather epic post which has taken me one hour, two keeps and a zone lock to write. Lets see what Mythic bring to the table in 2010...