I've got three tome cloaks. The spring shawl, some undead scraggly one and the one with the screamer on it but they remain in my tome unlock items, a real shame as they are very nice and distinctive items, possibly more so than the trophys.
Once you reach level 16 and start finding cloaks around the lands I'd be impressed to see anyone still using them for non role-playing or posing reasons. The reason is simple, they have no use. The loot cloaks you can get, while fairly standard and plain looking can get your heraldry put over them or dyed specific colours, but more importantly. They have stats and bonuses which make a difference in your day to day playing.
That's the problem, so here's my solution (I'm very much a player who will offer a solution rather than just bitching about it).
Use the dye mechanism you get for the special heads (collectors, limited edition slayer and choppa etc) where you put the head in the special dye slot and it will change the face for you. Add this fuctionallity to the tome unlock cloaks where you can buy a cloak pattern instead of the cloak itself. Goto your local dye merchant, pop the pattern in and it will replace the old cloak model with the unlock one allowing you to enjoy your hard discovered cloaks and show them off no matter where you are.
Sounds straight forward enough to me, but no idea if there would be coding issues with it at all.
Either way, gimme my cloak made from stunty beards!
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Monday, 16 March 2009
Urgh... 10% to go....
And I'll escape tier 4 for the joys of tier 1 again.
10% until I reach my renown rank target I set myself pre 1.2 and I'll hopefully get there tomorrow. Once that's done Lokax will be sticking with PvE and cultivation for a while I think.
You can only take so many zone crashes, suffer so much lag and watch yourself get rolled constantly by war bands as your tier 4 zones are captured during off peak hours leaving yourself staring at a screen of white (or black) coloured zones as "yet another fort is under attack". Fort defences lose its appeal and novelty factor because it happens so frequently now. Is the Dominance zone system to blame? Making it too easy to get to forts whereas before sides had to really work for a good day to push to a fort and couldn't send out the night shift to cap them all at 3am when the rest of the world sleeps. I'm hearing stories about servers that basically are all but empty in tier 4 for certain sides as the city gets destroyed daily as people can't defend the zones during the awkward hours.
Put it this way, I'll give it another MMO analogy. If you joined a guild with your max level character to raid instances and dungeons. Would you stay in them once you realised that every morning, while you were at work, they'd take there own level 40's out and do the instances themselves, leaving you with either going into the dungeon on your own to face overwhelming odds, or rolling a new character to join the lower instances. That's how it's starting to feel... Make an alt or just give up in sheer frustration at tier 4.
Or maybe everything is working as intended and I'm just needing to get used to being on the losing side for once in WAR?
10% to go....
10% until I reach my renown rank target I set myself pre 1.2 and I'll hopefully get there tomorrow. Once that's done Lokax will be sticking with PvE and cultivation for a while I think.
You can only take so many zone crashes, suffer so much lag and watch yourself get rolled constantly by war bands as your tier 4 zones are captured during off peak hours leaving yourself staring at a screen of white (or black) coloured zones as "yet another fort is under attack". Fort defences lose its appeal and novelty factor because it happens so frequently now. Is the Dominance zone system to blame? Making it too easy to get to forts whereas before sides had to really work for a good day to push to a fort and couldn't send out the night shift to cap them all at 3am when the rest of the world sleeps. I'm hearing stories about servers that basically are all but empty in tier 4 for certain sides as the city gets destroyed daily as people can't defend the zones during the awkward hours.
Put it this way, I'll give it another MMO analogy. If you joined a guild with your max level character to raid instances and dungeons. Would you stay in them once you realised that every morning, while you were at work, they'd take there own level 40's out and do the instances themselves, leaving you with either going into the dungeon on your own to face overwhelming odds, or rolling a new character to join the lower instances. That's how it's starting to feel... Make an alt or just give up in sheer frustration at tier 4.
Or maybe everything is working as intended and I'm just needing to get used to being on the losing side for once in WAR?
10% to go....
The Red Coats are comi... Hang on.. The Forums are coming!
Well for us Old Worlders it's about time we get our forums, and to go with it we get a little contest to win either the Skaven Cloak (rat on your back) or the Choppa/Slayer unique heads.
Directly from GOA on the European site... http://www.war-europe.com/
Now to think of either story or a guide... or Both.. Hmmmms.. Where's me thinking rock gone.. Also there's also the dev chat coming up on Thursday which I'll be sure to be joining.
Hope you all have a good week and what would you prefer if you had to choose? The heads or the cloak? Personally I'd really like the heads the cloak while very cool has one major drawback. It's a cloak, and my opinions about fancy cloaks will be revealed tomorrow (spoooky...)
Directly from GOA on the European site... http://www.war-europe.com/
Contests
But that’s not all! We have more news for you! We will hold two contests during the launch of the Official Forums and you will be able to win exclusive items: the Skaven Cloak and a unique for the Slayer and Choppa. There are two ways to enter these contests:
Fiction Contest - Check the Roleplay boards of our forum and write your story there.
Guide Contest - Write your own personal guide to the topic you prefer (careers, general game play, modding your UI) and post it on our forum to inform your fellow allies and enemies.
Now to think of either story or a guide... or Both.. Hmmmms.. Where's me thinking rock gone.. Also there's also the dev chat coming up on Thursday which I'll be sure to be joining.
Dev chat
Talking about discussions, we have an important announcement for you: To celebrate 6 months of WAR and the launch of our forum we’ll be hosting a European IRC chat with the Developers from Mythic on the evening of Thursday 19th March. More info on this in the upcoming days so stay tuned!
Hope you all have a good week and what would you prefer if you had to choose? The heads or the cloak? Personally I'd really like the heads the cloak while very cool has one major drawback. It's a cloak, and my opinions about fancy cloaks will be revealed tomorrow (spoooky...)
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Dat 'Urtz! - Review
And here we are Gud fans, it's time for another countdown of the five things that make Lokax go "Dat 'Urtz!" when he plays. There's been a few changes to this as I've been doing a bit more RvR this week, two items have dropped out, the LV Wipe runs (simply right now because N'kari was resettable for us finally) and terrain bugs (it'd be sixth) but it hasn't bothered me as much this week. This is now the aftermath of 1.2, so without further ado.. Why don't we take a look.
1) AOE Stacking
This has become a major focus point over the last week with small teams of engineers and primarily Bright Wizards (I'm assuming of course that Sorcs and Magi can do much the same) able to just obliterate warbands by stacking aoe on a single spot, most of the time without even being in sight of the enemy, simply hiding behind a wall and dropping it. I won't waste my time with a rant about it too much, I'll just advise you to check out the post over at Stunty Stomper regarding it. Thulf has said it better than I ever could.
2) Crowd Controlled out the game
I've actually taken to looking at my "Unstoppable" buff I get once I get CC'd (not when.. 'cause I will) and I think I've realised what one of the biggest issues with the crowd control system is. The Unstoppable buff takes affect the moment you are CC'd so if you are rooted for 10 seconds and it is not broken then you will only be 10 seconds away from another root or heavy CC. Now I might be wrong, I need to check it, but I think snaring a target is on a separate immunity timer (if it has one at all) so you could then be snared from a distance making it all but impossible for melee classes to get to you. It doesn't help we (black orcs) have one CC breaker in juggernaut which is on a 60 second cool down.
Solution: All classes CC immunity timers should start the second the crowd control is broken. Also Mythic, give us a proper counter to crowd control for ALL classes. At least there is a happy ending to the story, hopefully, according to the State Of The Game post: CC will be getting a look at "Our primary focus over the next few months will be the Crowd Control concerns and we will continue to investigate and fix issues we find with this type of ability. "
3) Being hurt through walls
Don't want to go over the same ground but it's probably worse now with AoE stacking through walls. Just fecken fix this crap Mythic, it's getting very close to the top of my list.
Solution: See last weeks Dat 'Urtz
4) (Please, no) More dots!
I'm all to familiar with DOTs being a former WoW Warlock, but the rate I seem to pickup DOTs in WAR is silly, I go near a couple of Bright Wizards or Engineers and I walk away with more DOT's on me than someone suffering from the measles. With weapon procs giving off dots and the nerf in resist effectiveness you can simply be dotted to death then knocked back/snared and there is absolutely bugger all you can do about it since there's very little way to remove any hex's debuffs or ailments that you are suffering from and those that do can only remove one on a long cool down.
Solution: Implement more core abilities for classes to remove DOTs, add a proper 'cure' potion for removing them or/and remove the dot affect from certain weapons so you you will not be covered in them. Though those classes that make use of DOTs the most MUST be given a buff in return for the nerf (probably direct damage).
5) The missing content
Still waiting on any news on our missing 2/3Rd's of our End Game. How long until a website or magazine picks up that 6 months down the line and WAR still hasn't added it's end game properly yet? C'mon guys, focus should be on adding the content that was removed before adding the stuff folks didn't ask for (not to say that Darkness Falls won't be good, but I'd rather have my cities there first)
Solution:Errr.. add them? Give us an update? There's at least some concept art of Eight Peaks floating around so they must have something still left of it before it was cut.
So that's my five thingies that are 'urting me right now in WAR. Wot's yours?
1) AOE Stacking
This has become a major focus point over the last week with small teams of engineers and primarily Bright Wizards (I'm assuming of course that Sorcs and Magi can do much the same) able to just obliterate warbands by stacking aoe on a single spot, most of the time without even being in sight of the enemy, simply hiding behind a wall and dropping it. I won't waste my time with a rant about it too much, I'll just advise you to check out the post over at Stunty Stomper regarding it. Thulf has said it better than I ever could.
2) Crowd Controlled out the game
I've actually taken to looking at my "Unstoppable" buff I get once I get CC'd (not when.. 'cause I will) and I think I've realised what one of the biggest issues with the crowd control system is. The Unstoppable buff takes affect the moment you are CC'd so if you are rooted for 10 seconds and it is not broken then you will only be 10 seconds away from another root or heavy CC. Now I might be wrong, I need to check it, but I think snaring a target is on a separate immunity timer (if it has one at all) so you could then be snared from a distance making it all but impossible for melee classes to get to you. It doesn't help we (black orcs) have one CC breaker in juggernaut which is on a 60 second cool down.
Solution: All classes CC immunity timers should start the second the crowd control is broken. Also Mythic, give us a proper counter to crowd control for ALL classes. At least there is a happy ending to the story, hopefully, according to the State Of The Game post: CC will be getting a look at "Our primary focus over the next few months will be the Crowd Control concerns and we will continue to investigate and fix issues we find with this type of ability. "
3) Being hurt through walls
Don't want to go over the same ground but it's probably worse now with AoE stacking through walls. Just fecken fix this crap Mythic, it's getting very close to the top of my list.
Solution: See last weeks Dat 'Urtz
4) (Please, no) More dots!
I'm all to familiar with DOTs being a former WoW Warlock, but the rate I seem to pickup DOTs in WAR is silly, I go near a couple of Bright Wizards or Engineers and I walk away with more DOT's on me than someone suffering from the measles. With weapon procs giving off dots and the nerf in resist effectiveness you can simply be dotted to death then knocked back/snared and there is absolutely bugger all you can do about it since there's very little way to remove any hex's debuffs or ailments that you are suffering from and those that do can only remove one on a long cool down.
Solution: Implement more core abilities for classes to remove DOTs, add a proper 'cure' potion for removing them or/and remove the dot affect from certain weapons so you you will not be covered in them. Though those classes that make use of DOTs the most MUST be given a buff in return for the nerf (probably direct damage).
5) The missing content
Still waiting on any news on our missing 2/3Rd's of our End Game. How long until a website or magazine picks up that 6 months down the line and WAR still hasn't added it's end game properly yet? C'mon guys, focus should be on adding the content that was removed before adding the stuff folks didn't ask for (not to say that Darkness Falls won't be good, but I'd rather have my cities there first)
Solution:Errr.. add them? Give us an update? There's at least some concept art of Eight Peaks floating around so they must have something still left of it before it was cut.
So that's my five thingies that are 'urting me right now in WAR. Wot's yours?
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Waits jus' a minute. Us Black Orcs are smaller than dem Choppas?
It's been rumbling for a while now, but with the visual aspect of the Choppa not being the biggest Orc in the game (defeating the whole lore aspect of black orcs being the biggest, darkest and toughest greenskin) it's starting to wear a bit at us Black Orcs. There's at least two threads out there which haven't even had a dev response about something that was meant to be in the game but quietly got cut. Now that we have the choppas increasing in size, it's time for all of us Black Orcs to stand up and be counted.
Show support for the cause, and when the European forums come up I'll be putting the same issue in, as well as putting a feedback request in today. Anyone that supports us, please post on your appropriate thread and drop (just one) feedback to Mythic asking for this feature to be put in now we're the smallest Orc.
Bioware Social Discussion
Warhammer Alliance Post
LET US GROW IN SIZE AND OUR SKIN GET DARKER AS WE GAIN RENOWN RANKS AS WAS ORIGINALLY PLANNED
Show support for the cause, and when the European forums come up I'll be putting the same issue in, as well as putting a feedback request in today. Anyone that supports us, please post on your appropriate thread and drop (just one) feedback to Mythic asking for this feature to be put in now we're the smallest Orc.
Bioware Social Discussion
Warhammer Alliance Post
WCPI Blog o' da week.
Recently discovered this blog Spearhead which is a very good read. Excellent layout, design and a lot of food for thought. Well writen and one I'll be reading for a long time.
Check it out:)
Check it out:)
Will WARs darkness fail?
So I'm starting to get some reservations for the Tomb Kings version of Darkness falls.... Will it help the WAR experience or will it hurt it in the long run?
WAR is supposed to be an Open RvR game. The focus of it is to engage the enemy on the field of battle to capture zones and get to the cities to engage in a bit of looting and pillaging. Now I understand that the land of the dead will be a zone for capturing, so there will be the initial burst of activity an warfare for the capturing of the zone and once it's captured, then what?
Will the winning side go to into the dungeon and look for the new rewards and items (to make it worth the time, the rewards have to be good otherwise people will not bother), clearing out the last remains of the previous occupants if there's any about with big zergy warbands? Will the losing side just uproot and bugger off back to tier 4 and take the unprotected BO's, keeps and possibly forts since they'll be locked out until another assault on the zone can be made? In effect making tier 4 a pretty dead area for one side..
I honestly don't know, but it's just a worry I have that it will split the sides more and become more of a RvE game once a side has the tomb captured.
Still, there's a long time to go and no doubt there will be mechanics in place to encourage the continual warfare... Well I hope there is....
WAR is supposed to be an Open RvR game. The focus of it is to engage the enemy on the field of battle to capture zones and get to the cities to engage in a bit of looting and pillaging. Now I understand that the land of the dead will be a zone for capturing, so there will be the initial burst of activity an warfare for the capturing of the zone and once it's captured, then what?
Will the winning side go to into the dungeon and look for the new rewards and items (to make it worth the time, the rewards have to be good otherwise people will not bother), clearing out the last remains of the previous occupants if there's any about with big zergy warbands? Will the losing side just uproot and bugger off back to tier 4 and take the unprotected BO's, keeps and possibly forts since they'll be locked out until another assault on the zone can be made? In effect making tier 4 a pretty dead area for one side..
I honestly don't know, but it's just a worry I have that it will split the sides more and become more of a RvE game once a side has the tomb captured.
Still, there's a long time to go and no doubt there will be mechanics in place to encourage the continual warfare... Well I hope there is....
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Picking flowers on the field of battle
So there I was on Monday morning. Charging through Dragonwake, yelling Waaaaaaaaaaagh! and with the intentions of slaughter and carnage, when I realised how quiet, serene and picturesque it was. So i stopped off my boar, let him snuffle about and decided to pick a small flower... Den i crushed it under me stompas!
Why are so many of the T4 RvR lakes (I don't run any alts right now so can't remember the others) designed in such a way that they look like tranquil landscapes and not war zones? Praag is actually the only one that feels as if there is a war going on with raging fire and burnt out shells of homes with the occasional NPC in battle with another NPC to give a sense of a warfare. You can be running with a warband through an empty, desolate zone and it feels very fake. Certainly not adding to the sense that you've entered into a battle zone.
So what do I feel could be done to make the RvR lakes more of a battleground?
In my opinion, the best place to feel like there's a war going on is actually all the way back in Mount Bloodhorn at the Kron Komar PQ and camps. The ambient sounds of warfare add so much to the zone, hearing cannons blast, Orcs shouting. To see explosions and enemies dying with two sides engaged in constant warfare. It feels like you're on the front line about to charge in. Now I don't expect Mythic to fill the lakes with NPC's and explosions due to lag reasons but surely it might be possible to add a few in, certain spots in the lakes where you can have two sides of NPC's locked in eternal combat (make them invulnerable to players to avoid them being farmed). Even better, and I have no idea if this would be possible, but have a system in place that plays louder and more frequent ambient warfare sounds (explosions, sounds of steel on steel, shouts and death cries etc) the more action there is in a lake, make it feel like you can hear the battle from a mile away. There's no need for it to get louder as you get closer, but make it feel as if you're stepping into a battle zone and not a landscape painting.
Scar the landscape some more with the marks of war. Sorry a keep with a bit bashed out the wall while the rest of the landscape around it looks like a summer field such as we have just now doesn't count. Craters with corpses, more ruined buildings and items around battlefield objectives (I always remember Nordenwatch at the Destruction starting flag with the fishing huts, being able to run around and feel as if you're in a small camp). The BO's still stick out like a sore thumb, something randomly placed. spice them up with war and blood!
Now I'm not saying that the whole zones must be littered with corpses and craters, or explosions and elves but a bit of world re-design would go long way to make it feel like WAR!
Why are so many of the T4 RvR lakes (I don't run any alts right now so can't remember the others) designed in such a way that they look like tranquil landscapes and not war zones? Praag is actually the only one that feels as if there is a war going on with raging fire and burnt out shells of homes with the occasional NPC in battle with another NPC to give a sense of a warfare. You can be running with a warband through an empty, desolate zone and it feels very fake. Certainly not adding to the sense that you've entered into a battle zone.
So what do I feel could be done to make the RvR lakes more of a battleground?
In my opinion, the best place to feel like there's a war going on is actually all the way back in Mount Bloodhorn at the Kron Komar PQ and camps. The ambient sounds of warfare add so much to the zone, hearing cannons blast, Orcs shouting. To see explosions and enemies dying with two sides engaged in constant warfare. It feels like you're on the front line about to charge in. Now I don't expect Mythic to fill the lakes with NPC's and explosions due to lag reasons but surely it might be possible to add a few in, certain spots in the lakes where you can have two sides of NPC's locked in eternal combat (make them invulnerable to players to avoid them being farmed). Even better, and I have no idea if this would be possible, but have a system in place that plays louder and more frequent ambient warfare sounds (explosions, sounds of steel on steel, shouts and death cries etc) the more action there is in a lake, make it feel like you can hear the battle from a mile away. There's no need for it to get louder as you get closer, but make it feel as if you're stepping into a battle zone and not a landscape painting.
Scar the landscape some more with the marks of war. Sorry a keep with a bit bashed out the wall while the rest of the landscape around it looks like a summer field such as we have just now doesn't count. Craters with corpses, more ruined buildings and items around battlefield objectives (I always remember Nordenwatch at the Destruction starting flag with the fishing huts, being able to run around and feel as if you're in a small camp). The BO's still stick out like a sore thumb, something randomly placed. spice them up with war and blood!
Now I'm not saying that the whole zones must be littered with corpses and craters, or explosions and elves but a bit of world re-design would go long way to make it feel like WAR!
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Mmmmm Gud - review
Well time to appraise what I've been enjoying in WAR this last week or so. Things won't always change, there will be certain aspects I always enjoy so will always remain in the list, but I'll try to put a fresh perspective on them so as to avoid it being a copy/paste job each week.
1) Cultivation
I'm really enjoying this now. Prior to 1.2 I had a lowbie alt with 200 Cultivation (levelled without any repeatable quest seeds) but once he got to 200 I pretty much stopped doing anything with it due to lacking the time to invest in making sense of all my seeds. Now with the system streamlined it's much more accessible, you glace at your bags to see what you get from a special moment (would be great to get more than dye and an improved seed though, maybe a one shot special seed or spore? to give you a random effect, doesn't have to be a bonus to stats or skills, maybe something to make you glow, change your appearance or whatever). I've just been spending time in the game planting away even though I'm at 200, just chatting and making posts for the blog. Mmmmmm gud!
2) More fixes in 1.2.1
Nothing mentioned yet over than another 400 fixes. Thumbs up, never say no to getting the game smoothed out!
3) Easy PQ's
OK, really enjoying this as well, go into a t4 area and just smash some stunties over and over with influence, the chance of seeds (see Cultivation above). Being able to feel like I can read a story, while putting the boot in AND getting rewarded for it, either on my own or with a great friend while chatting away over Vent or spamming each other. Great on your own, better with a mate! Think I'll list my T4 favourite easy PQ's and see how they compare to others.
4) Continual open RvR in the lakes
Only happened once this week but still enjoy seeing ranks battle each other, shame it's not happening as often as I'd like it. There needs to be more incentive for armies to meet each other on the battlefield and not just zone hop once they have finished a clash. Increasing the renown for a pitch battle over time instead of making it slow down to single points as people die. hmm, I sense another post idea coming up.... *thinkz*
5) Exploring!
This week I found one of the new lairs and discovered a couple more tome unlocks for history and lore. Do yourself a favour and just read some of them. One of my favourites will become a basis of another post at some point. Just take a wander through a zone you didn't spend much time in... Your Choppa or Slayer will still be there when you get back. There's no rush...
So that was my top five things I've been enjoying or am looking forward to in WAR this week. WAR's Darkness Falls (I always forget what it's called) has dropped out the list for a reason, again this will be the basis for a post. Is it really going to be a good addition to WAR?
What's your top five?
1) Cultivation
I'm really enjoying this now. Prior to 1.2 I had a lowbie alt with 200 Cultivation (levelled without any repeatable quest seeds) but once he got to 200 I pretty much stopped doing anything with it due to lacking the time to invest in making sense of all my seeds. Now with the system streamlined it's much more accessible, you glace at your bags to see what you get from a special moment (would be great to get more than dye and an improved seed though, maybe a one shot special seed or spore? to give you a random effect, doesn't have to be a bonus to stats or skills, maybe something to make you glow, change your appearance or whatever). I've just been spending time in the game planting away even though I'm at 200, just chatting and making posts for the blog. Mmmmmm gud!
2) More fixes in 1.2.1
Nothing mentioned yet over than another 400 fixes. Thumbs up, never say no to getting the game smoothed out!
3) Easy PQ's
OK, really enjoying this as well, go into a t4 area and just smash some stunties over and over with influence, the chance of seeds (see Cultivation above). Being able to feel like I can read a story, while putting the boot in AND getting rewarded for it, either on my own or with a great friend while chatting away over Vent or spamming each other. Great on your own, better with a mate! Think I'll list my T4 favourite easy PQ's and see how they compare to others.
4) Continual open RvR in the lakes
Only happened once this week but still enjoy seeing ranks battle each other, shame it's not happening as often as I'd like it. There needs to be more incentive for armies to meet each other on the battlefield and not just zone hop once they have finished a clash. Increasing the renown for a pitch battle over time instead of making it slow down to single points as people die. hmm, I sense another post idea coming up.... *thinkz*
5) Exploring!
This week I found one of the new lairs and discovered a couple more tome unlocks for history and lore. Do yourself a favour and just read some of them. One of my favourites will become a basis of another post at some point. Just take a wander through a zone you didn't spend much time in... Your Choppa or Slayer will still be there when you get back. There's no rush...
So that was my top five things I've been enjoying or am looking forward to in WAR this week. WAR's Darkness Falls (I always forget what it's called) has dropped out the list for a reason, again this will be the basis for a post. Is it really going to be a good addition to WAR?
What's your top five?
Da Choppaz are comin'
An' dey don't care who dey fites!
Love this CGI piece from the Warhammer RTS games.
Love this CGI piece from the Warhammer RTS games.
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