It's been fairly quiet from the lads and lasses over in Virginia and you wonder what's going on behind closed doors. Paul Barnett is noticeably silent. Mark Jacobs pops up every now and then to say "This is coming soon! (tm)" and the odd dev makes an appearance on the Oboards to give a response of very little substance. No news is good news they say, but in an MMO it's concerning.
Class imbalances are worse than they were upon release. End game is still horribly broken and bugged. Lag has pretty much killed our servers evening game play, we can't even do LV these days since IC is constantly under siege and the lag from that gives us +6 second cast timers on everything. The campaign is now dictated by the side which has the most people that can play in off peak times due to the dominance system. Apathy has set in with many players, I checked the number of players defending IC last night.. Order 301, Destro 146. Tonight was Order 273, Destro 110.
Do Mythic have a plan, or are they currently scrabbling around thinking "WTF do we do?". They can't respond to issues quick enough and severely lack in communicating to the players what they will be doing to resolve the worries and problems the players have with WAR. Can Mythic afford to let the game break apart through not being able to react quick enough. With WoW's 3. 1 patch, a new raid instance and class re-evaluations coming in a week or two, can WAR still hold onto people who are starting to feel jaded with the game in its current state.
Mythic. You NEED to get out there and start saying "This is where we are, this is what we know is not working and THIS is how we aim to fix it".
I really enjoy so much of this game, but still so much makes me able to switch the game off without a good thought. I tend to log off now thinking "That's pi**ed me off" rather than "That was cool". I WANT to keep playing this game, you're not making it easy to enjoy it though Mythic.
Speak to us.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Monday, 23 March 2009
WAR Europes story contest
Over on the WAR Europe forums there's a contest to win a Skaven cloak for some fan fiction. You're given a paragraph from various pairings and you finish the story off. This is the opening paragraph for the Greenskin story...
"The strangely attired gang of Orcs bulled through the wood toward the lonely Dwarf tavern. Gragnak ‘Eadsplitter, greenest, meanest and biggest of the warband sniffed the air, listened to the rumbling chatter of the boyz to his back and snorted in disgust. He wasn’t just stronger, he was smarter too and much as he wanted a good dust up with the stunties this was a chance to prove his cunning to da Warboss.
“Oi!” He roared twisting to plant his Choppa into the forehead of the bemused Orc behind him. “Keep yer gobs shut, dem Stunties will know we be coming.”
Reaching up the unlucky Greenskin wrapped dirty stained fingers around the weapon embedded in his thick skull and with a quizzical raise of its beady eyes fell forward. Gragnak retrieved the cleaver with a brutal yank before he’d even hit the ground.
“Listen up! Dem stunties won’t know we be Orcy until we’re well inside. I ‘eard off Gagna, an ‘e ‘eard it off Bugrag dat we done dis trick wid Stunty beards right? Well dat worked so fink wot we’ll do wid dese.” The mammoth Greenskin strode out of the tree line and toward the Tavern door.
Stumbling forward in his unfamiliar garb Gragnak slammed the door open, adjusted his wig and stepped inside.
“Ahhh,” came a voice behind, “dats why we needed da skirts.”"
And this is how I finished the story... *Clicky*
"The strangely attired gang of Orcs bulled through the wood toward the lonely Dwarf tavern. Gragnak ‘Eadsplitter, greenest, meanest and biggest of the warband sniffed the air, listened to the rumbling chatter of the boyz to his back and snorted in disgust. He wasn’t just stronger, he was smarter too and much as he wanted a good dust up with the stunties this was a chance to prove his cunning to da Warboss.
“Oi!” He roared twisting to plant his Choppa into the forehead of the bemused Orc behind him. “Keep yer gobs shut, dem Stunties will know we be coming.”
Reaching up the unlucky Greenskin wrapped dirty stained fingers around the weapon embedded in his thick skull and with a quizzical raise of its beady eyes fell forward. Gragnak retrieved the cleaver with a brutal yank before he’d even hit the ground.
“Listen up! Dem stunties won’t know we be Orcy until we’re well inside. I ‘eard off Gagna, an ‘e ‘eard it off Bugrag dat we done dis trick wid Stunty beards right? Well dat worked so fink wot we’ll do wid dese.” The mammoth Greenskin strode out of the tree line and toward the Tavern door.
Stumbling forward in his unfamiliar garb Gragnak slammed the door open, adjusted his wig and stepped inside.
“Ahhh,” came a voice behind, “dats why we needed da skirts.”"
And this is how I finished the story... *Clicky*
On my command, unleash waaaaaghhh!
You know, I was trying to find a nice trailer or some sort of cinematic clip on YouTube with some siege warfare on a castle but really couldn't find anything, but never mind, all it takes is a bit of thinking to get in the mood.
So sieges or keeps and forts. Staring at the enemy as the ram goes up, oil boils and is poured onto the defenders as they burn and scream (well OK, burn). The cannons and ballistas are built up, ready to rain untold destruction on the defenders, except they don't. How pathetic are the siege weapons in WAR? Seriously, anytime a cannon hits me I might fall over and get a tickle from the 200 damage I take but that's it.
There's no fear in standing in the range of siege weapons other than the boiling oil over a keep door (and even that's not a huge worry), it's the bloody AoE stacking that defends keeps and forts. There's a lot of untapped potential in the siege weapons and possibly a few balance fixes at the same time. So lets look at the two main weak points for siege weaponry in WAR.
DAMAGE
It's crap. Honestly, absolutely pathetic. There is NO point in sitting with a catapult, flinging rocks at the enemy when the damage is so pointless it does nothing more than a scratch.
RANGE
Righto, so I have the inclination to setup some siege equipment since as a tank I'm pretty much limited in my siege taking abilities (apparently a ram isn't a siege weapon anymore either...). So out of boredom I set one up to tickle a few defenders on the walls. Except they're out of range.. Every single person on the walls is out of range of a giant bow and arrow, unless you happen to be standing on one corner of the walls, which is miles away from the action. Waste of time, money and effort.
So how would I go about making the art of siege more interesting, while at the same time discovering a cure for world poverty and possibly making some toast at the same time?
I'd leave the existing siege weapons as they are.
Wot? You gone off yer noggin dere Lokax?
Nearly, but not quite.
Instead we add a new trade skill to the game Siege craft (nicked the name from DAoC). Siege crafters would be able to make improved versions of the weapons which would increase the range, damage, give unique looks and also give special siege weapons for each faction.
Gathering profession
The skill would be linked to Cultivating and Salvaging. from cultivating you can grow trees that once harvested would provide wood, from Salvaging you would be able to refine items to get metal (in addition to your normal goodies). The higher types of siege weapons would require higher levels of wood and metal.
Using Siege craft on the field of battle
I don't think any profession should be chucked on an alt and left to rot while you send mats back and forth, I like the idea of each profession having a place on the battlefield. So what can you do to get people to take Siege craft on mains? One simple way, and one more complicated but involving. The first is to grant a straight range and damage bonus for a siege craft using a siege weapon. +5% damage and +10% range bonus (for rams, +2% damage bonus for each siege crafter using it). The second one would be to make Siege crafters the only ones to 'activate' the siege pads on the ground (keep the oil and ram pads active for anyone). A siege crafter would need to right click on the pad to activate it to allow people to build on them (imagine it as clearing away the ground and setting it ready for a siege engine). Add more pads to the area around keeps and even a few inside them (requires higher levels of skill to activate a pad in the higher tiers and forts)
Da weapons!
Now the fun bit. Each type of weapon you can buy from the Quartermaster would have an improved crafting version which as said, does significantly more damage and has a much larger range, one which will make any tower defenders think twice about showing face on the walls rather than standing there immune to everything. Of course, allow siege weapons to be used on the doors (though increase the damage that doors can take) . Rams can be upgraded to say 6 man versions, doing more damage and giving a buff to everyone who uses it mitigating incoming damage by 50% (a concerted effort should still break down people, but you're mean to to be hidden under the canopy really, even if your character is at the side on the screen). Of course, give oil a larger area of affect, longer lasting burns and possibly up the damage a bit. Make them meaner, siege weapons should make people scared when they see 10 cannons appear in front of the keep. Remember, siege weapons are on both sides, so no one side would have an advantage.
New weapons
OK, little fun idea. I LOVE the Troll boulder thrower it just feels so damned orcy it's great. So how would you be able to add this into the game on a permanent basis?
Simple really ('onest guv). Add a special BoP seed for cultivators (Troll Fungus - da trollz luv it), upon growing it, they can harvest it and give the fungus to a siege crafter. Adding this as a 'special ingredient' in the siege crafting window would turn the weapon into a Troll boulder thrower (in affect, you've promised the troll more nibbly bits if he lobs more rocks at da stunties). This theme can be repeated for the other races. For example, poison/acid throwers for the Dark Elves (special apothecary potion), Demon Forged cannons for Chaos (uses a special salvaged part). And the same for Order (Ogre mercenary with the cannon on his arm for Empire with shinies from salvaging) , special oil from apothecary for the Goblin hewers for Dwarves and you could give the high elves some sort branch from cultivating to make a nasty bolt thrower (I didn't think that idea through entirely did I....)
In game effects
OK, so how would this change the game as it stands? My immediate thought is that it would address the AoE for the initial taking of forts and keeps. You wouldn't have everyone stacked in one place (the door) for them to be obliterated by mass AoE stacking, no need to change aoe damage that way or the mechanic. You can have siege weapons spread out, blasting the door from a distance and trying to pop off dangerous targets on the wall. The defenders can take out other siege weapons and players to keep healers aware and players from going afk while attacking. It gives melee classes something to do other than stare at the wall while the siege is going on, they can easily handle the war machines and feel as if they are contributing.
It opens a new possibility of the defenders sallying forth to take out a few siege weapons before retreating while under the cover of there own siege weapons from the keep. Gives a reason to push the attackers rather than just waiting for the inevitable final assault on the lord. Get out there and break down some of the nice shiny weapons they have to give them something to curse you for.
It spreads the field of battle out, rather than being focused on one part (the door), hopefully giving rise to more tactics than AoE spam and zerging the door (seriously, huge iron door getting broken by witch elves with flimsy little daggers...)
Other random ideas...
You could expand the idea to defending BO's. Add pads to them which can be used for palisades, pit traps (imagine charging into a BO, only to find yourself snared or rooted as you 'fall' into a pit trap), or blown back as you stand on a mine. Caltrops could be used to cause damage to any attackers getting nearby as well. Gives something to the BO anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloody hell, that was a lot of writing, really not gone into too much detail since it's really only for fun and unless Mythic sends me an email I don't think I'll elaborate on it any further. It's all speculation on game balance etc as well, who knows what the true affect could be. I'm not a designer, nor will I ever claim to be but to me it's a fairly good idea though I am sure as with all ideas, the person who thinks it through doesn't always see each side.
So sieges or keeps and forts. Staring at the enemy as the ram goes up, oil boils and is poured onto the defenders as they burn and scream (well OK, burn). The cannons and ballistas are built up, ready to rain untold destruction on the defenders, except they don't. How pathetic are the siege weapons in WAR? Seriously, anytime a cannon hits me I might fall over and get a tickle from the 200 damage I take but that's it.
There's no fear in standing in the range of siege weapons other than the boiling oil over a keep door (and even that's not a huge worry), it's the bloody AoE stacking that defends keeps and forts. There's a lot of untapped potential in the siege weapons and possibly a few balance fixes at the same time. So lets look at the two main weak points for siege weaponry in WAR.
DAMAGE
It's crap. Honestly, absolutely pathetic. There is NO point in sitting with a catapult, flinging rocks at the enemy when the damage is so pointless it does nothing more than a scratch.
RANGE
Righto, so I have the inclination to setup some siege equipment since as a tank I'm pretty much limited in my siege taking abilities (apparently a ram isn't a siege weapon anymore either...). So out of boredom I set one up to tickle a few defenders on the walls. Except they're out of range.. Every single person on the walls is out of range of a giant bow and arrow, unless you happen to be standing on one corner of the walls, which is miles away from the action. Waste of time, money and effort.
So how would I go about making the art of siege more interesting, while at the same time discovering a cure for world poverty and possibly making some toast at the same time?
I'd leave the existing siege weapons as they are.
Wot? You gone off yer noggin dere Lokax?
Nearly, but not quite.
Instead we add a new trade skill to the game Siege craft (nicked the name from DAoC). Siege crafters would be able to make improved versions of the weapons which would increase the range, damage, give unique looks and also give special siege weapons for each faction.
Gathering profession
The skill would be linked to Cultivating and Salvaging. from cultivating you can grow trees that once harvested would provide wood, from Salvaging you would be able to refine items to get metal (in addition to your normal goodies). The higher types of siege weapons would require higher levels of wood and metal.
Using Siege craft on the field of battle
I don't think any profession should be chucked on an alt and left to rot while you send mats back and forth, I like the idea of each profession having a place on the battlefield. So what can you do to get people to take Siege craft on mains? One simple way, and one more complicated but involving. The first is to grant a straight range and damage bonus for a siege craft using a siege weapon. +5% damage and +10% range bonus (for rams, +2% damage bonus for each siege crafter using it). The second one would be to make Siege crafters the only ones to 'activate' the siege pads on the ground (keep the oil and ram pads active for anyone). A siege crafter would need to right click on the pad to activate it to allow people to build on them (imagine it as clearing away the ground and setting it ready for a siege engine). Add more pads to the area around keeps and even a few inside them (requires higher levels of skill to activate a pad in the higher tiers and forts)
Da weapons!
Now the fun bit. Each type of weapon you can buy from the Quartermaster would have an improved crafting version which as said, does significantly more damage and has a much larger range, one which will make any tower defenders think twice about showing face on the walls rather than standing there immune to everything. Of course, allow siege weapons to be used on the doors (though increase the damage that doors can take) . Rams can be upgraded to say 6 man versions, doing more damage and giving a buff to everyone who uses it mitigating incoming damage by 50% (a concerted effort should still break down people, but you're mean to to be hidden under the canopy really, even if your character is at the side on the screen). Of course, give oil a larger area of affect, longer lasting burns and possibly up the damage a bit. Make them meaner, siege weapons should make people scared when they see 10 cannons appear in front of the keep. Remember, siege weapons are on both sides, so no one side would have an advantage.
New weapons
OK, little fun idea. I LOVE the Troll boulder thrower it just feels so damned orcy it's great. So how would you be able to add this into the game on a permanent basis?
Simple really ('onest guv). Add a special BoP seed for cultivators (Troll Fungus - da trollz luv it), upon growing it, they can harvest it and give the fungus to a siege crafter. Adding this as a 'special ingredient' in the siege crafting window would turn the weapon into a Troll boulder thrower (in affect, you've promised the troll more nibbly bits if he lobs more rocks at da stunties). This theme can be repeated for the other races. For example, poison/acid throwers for the Dark Elves (special apothecary potion), Demon Forged cannons for Chaos (uses a special salvaged part). And the same for Order (Ogre mercenary with the cannon on his arm for Empire with shinies from salvaging) , special oil from apothecary for the Goblin hewers for Dwarves and you could give the high elves some sort branch from cultivating to make a nasty bolt thrower (I didn't think that idea through entirely did I....)
In game effects
OK, so how would this change the game as it stands? My immediate thought is that it would address the AoE for the initial taking of forts and keeps. You wouldn't have everyone stacked in one place (the door) for them to be obliterated by mass AoE stacking, no need to change aoe damage that way or the mechanic. You can have siege weapons spread out, blasting the door from a distance and trying to pop off dangerous targets on the wall. The defenders can take out other siege weapons and players to keep healers aware and players from going afk while attacking. It gives melee classes something to do other than stare at the wall while the siege is going on, they can easily handle the war machines and feel as if they are contributing.
It opens a new possibility of the defenders sallying forth to take out a few siege weapons before retreating while under the cover of there own siege weapons from the keep. Gives a reason to push the attackers rather than just waiting for the inevitable final assault on the lord. Get out there and break down some of the nice shiny weapons they have to give them something to curse you for.
It spreads the field of battle out, rather than being focused on one part (the door), hopefully giving rise to more tactics than AoE spam and zerging the door (seriously, huge iron door getting broken by witch elves with flimsy little daggers...)
Other random ideas...
You could expand the idea to defending BO's. Add pads to them which can be used for palisades, pit traps (imagine charging into a BO, only to find yourself snared or rooted as you 'fall' into a pit trap), or blown back as you stand on a mine. Caltrops could be used to cause damage to any attackers getting nearby as well. Gives something to the BO anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloody hell, that was a lot of writing, really not gone into too much detail since it's really only for fun and unless Mythic sends me an email I don't think I'll elaborate on it any further. It's all speculation on game balance etc as well, who knows what the true affect could be. I'm not a designer, nor will I ever claim to be but to me it's a fairly good idea though I am sure as with all ideas, the person who thinks it through doesn't always see each side.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
WCPI Blog o' da week.
A new addition to the Greenskin family (but not a new blog) is Cry Me a RvR (hur hur hur).
It's a great little read, lot of witty comments and enough to keep you entertained as you read through the scribbles :)
http://missvindaloo.blogspot.com/
It's a great little read, lot of witty comments and enough to keep you entertained as you read through the scribbles :)
http://missvindaloo.blogspot.com/
Friday, 20 March 2009
NNNNnnooooooooooooooooo.............
From the Grab Bag for this week.
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=706
Q. Why are Black Orcs not larger than Choppas?
A. Black Orcs and Choppas are intended to be the same size, just like every other race/career combo in WAR. That being said, while full-on Berserk Choppas are larger for game-play purposes, this is only to call them out as a very dangerous target that needs to be dealt with ASAP!
Lokax is offically a sad Orc now *grumbles and sulks*
http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=706
Q. Why are Black Orcs not larger than Choppas?
A. Black Orcs and Choppas are intended to be the same size, just like every other race/career combo in WAR. That being said, while full-on Berserk Choppas are larger for game-play purposes, this is only to call them out as a very dangerous target that needs to be dealt with ASAP!
Lokax is offically a sad Orc now *grumbles and sulks*
Digesting the Dev Chat (Om nom nom nom)
I went into the dev chat expecting it to be unspectacular, you can't goto a chat expecting a million and one answers for a million and one questions, not to mention sneak peaks and previews. It's not going to happen. I've been following dev chats since the good ol' days (tm) of the Stratics House of Commons chats for Ultima Online and I knew what to expect.
Instead of reviewing each question I'll look at the ones that contain substance and something to get into.
[19:25:53] <@warhammeronline> Thahitia asked: I know you might not talk about classes, but are there any plans to give range dps some kinda cc, so melee will not instant kill range dps if they get close.
[19:25:53] <@warhammeronline> Nate_Mythic answers: More CC on ranged careers is always "dangerous" because of kiting concerns. In general, we try to balance CC at higher levels (i.e. realm as a whole). That being said, CC is one of those aspects of player combat which we're always monitoring for balance issues.
Wait, someone want's MORE crowd control in the game? Bugger that! Kiting and chain roots, snares etc must be abolished, well you shouldn't be forced to spend the majority of a fight with some form of crowd control to prevent player actions. Take a look at your class. In a 2 minute 1v1 fight, would you be able to keep crowd control on an opponent for more than 50% of the battle? If so then crowd control is over the top.
[19:28:50] <@warhammeronline> [EC]Steve asked: Why does Divine Assault and Rend Soul not get affected by a healing debuff what so ever
[19:28:50] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Divine Assault and Rend Soul are lifetaps as such the amount of healing generated by them are proporitionate to the damage dealt. This means you can reduce their healing by reducing offense, Str/WS debuffs, Damage Debuffs, Taunt Etc are all effective ways of reducing damage and in turn also reducing the effectiveness of these heals
I had to look up what those were, but they do seem like very sick abilities for melee healers, especially in skirmishes and just general survival. 350% of your damage? That's pretty nuts, even with debuffs and taunts that's till grabbing a huge, huge increase. No wonder it seems that WP's and DoK's (I assume) are incredibly difficult to kill even with multiple people attacking them. Must stress though, it SEEMs that way though...
[19:31:15] <@warhammeronline> Beves asked: Faultfinder the ability that allows you do to 10% more damage to keep doors is pretty useless, are you going to improve it?
[19:31:15] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Faultfinder as well as many of the other RvR seige specific abilities will be getting updated around the same time that the RvR team releases many of their oRvR improvments in future patches
Updated eh? Hmm, nerfed or buffed... I really don't like the idea of buffing damage done to doors. They're big huge iron gates or solid oak, not pieces of soggy cardboard. They already go down quick enough with a concentrated assault. They should bump up the door hitpoints, but put the focus on siege weapons doing more damage to the doors, rams should do the most but the ballistas and catapults should be able to damage doors as well, makes them actually semi useful and gives the defenders a reason to try to sally out to take down the siege weapons rather than tipping oil, waiting for the inevitables *Tip-splosh.....*
[19:33:38] <@warhammeronline> TfG|FiFa asked: hello, is it true that every 2h and dual wielded weapons have a 10% less chance of getting blocked/parried by the opponent? thx
[19:33:38] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Greatweapons (2HD) are harder to block, Dual Weild (2x 1HD) get a parry bonus on incoming attacks
I never knew that. Does explain why Witch Hunters parry a bucket load of my attacks and I can't block for shit against Swordmasters and White Lions....
[19:34:15] <@warhammeronline> Zeiden asked: Do you plan on implementing new ways of capturing a keep such as for example Choppa throwing catapults or breaking the walls instead of only the door or maybe moving Siege weapons?
[19:34:15] <@warhammeronline> Josh_Mythic answers: Maybe. :)
If anything it will be the third option, can't see the walls being breakable sadly, nor being able to launch Orcs (as cool as it would be). Just not really practical to design I guess. Need more effort on looking at siege weaponry though (still need to write down my ideas for it)
[19:36:41] <@warhammeronline> Mendoras asked: PvE in Tomb Kings: you stated out that it will be a little above LV. Will we see more challanging and intelligent PvE Encounters? In ToA (DAoC) we had some tactical encounters like ML9 Phoenix ... thats somtheing I miss in WAR. Or are there plans for Warband Encounter or large Open World Encounters like tge Dragons in DAoC?
[19:36:41] <@warhammeronline> Destin_Mythic answers: Thanks, I implemented the Phoenix encounter! The Land of the Dead (our Tomb Kings dungeon) does indeed offer some incredible encounters like you describe. In fact, the team working on this dungeon is the same team that built The Lost Vale, so you can expect The Land of the Dead to represent the next level of gameplay.
For those who don't know what ML9 Phoenix is, check out the video, it's not the best to look at, or work out what's going on, but it was a fun fight. Well I'm actually looking forward to the PvE element of Tomb Kings as well, as odd as it may be, it's also the PvE content which will help this game, despite it being RvR focussed. If you can lure the PvE'rs in, get them hooked to the RvR. Oh to have things such as the Glacier Giant going through the zones... (link1) (link2) (link3)
[19:38:54] <@warhammeronline> Helird asked: I would like to know what reasons you had to implement the current Wards system when it is obviously not the best. It is based entirely on luck and can be completely frustrating when items drop for classes not even present in the instance (I have been doing Lost Vale for 6 months now and only received 3 drops on my Zealot)
[19:38:54] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: We are actively working on ways of improving the ward system so that it is less tied to loot and more through in game acheivments (beating content)
Attunement style would do me fine!
[19:45:38] <@warhammeronline> [F]Sauce asked: Hey, having seen that its not as simple as one might hope to achieve massive scale rvr, with server stability and class balance being some of the issues, do you plan on steering RvR to smaller skirmish fights or persisting with 'zerg vs zerg'?
[19:45:38] <@warhammeronline> JeffS_Mythic answers: We have a team of engineers constantly tweaking and optimizing our server and client code. We plan to cater to both smaller skirmishes (via scenarios and objective captures) while introducing new tactics for several warbands to work with to encourage them to spread around to capture zones. We'll be applying these ideas to the cities as well as we improve them.
Ah nice, I'm starting to appreciate small scale battles so much more now. Even running solo recently, but WHY does 95% of the enemy (and I am not being sarcastic) start running away the minute they are close to death. Just fight it out for Gorks sake, be an orc! But anyway, lets hope they can reduce the mass zergs this game is becoming.
[19:51:10] <@warhammeronline> Fed|Rhissa asked: AoE abilities currently seem to be a bit stronger than most players want them to be. Reading US boards it seems though only ground target AoEs (RoF, PoS) and associated tactics are going to be revamped. My personal experience is that also instant cast AoEs are to strong, yet they seem to be out of discussion. Are there any plans to change instant cast PB AoE spells along with GT AoE spells?
[19:51:10] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: AoE damage is a concern for us and we will continue to work on balance adjustments, our first focus is fixing GTAOE in a way that eases up the current choke point issues without over nerfing the careers that use them. After which we will continue to watch AoE damage in general
You know, i don't think people really mind about the actual damage AoE does, it's more the fact you can place the target where the camera can see a spot, but not where the character can. Just fix it. Seriously. 'You. Cannot. See. There.'
[19:51:13] <@warhammeronline> kynoko asked: are we ever going to see arenas in WAR ?
[19:51:13] <@warhammeronline> Josh_Mythic answers: Definitely possible.
Gork no... No arenas in the WoW style. If you want to add in 6v6 style fights (which I'm all for), then add a zone, that 6v6 teams can queue for, upon entering a fight it places you and your opponents in an instance themed on the zone (maybe an out lying farm, a village or inside a city under siege). Small bands fighting over control and resources of a town, grants tokens to spend on special items which can only be used in the zone. Have a map which shows the victory points for the individual instances and which side 'controls' more of the region. Must expand on that idea...
[19:52:15] <@warhammeronline> Wiggletphyre asked: Are you going to implement the city's of the other 4 races in the near future?
[19:52:15] <@warhammeronline> Destin_Mythic answers: Not in the near future, no. For now we are focused on bug fixing, improving RvR, improving performance and stability, and testing / refining the Call to Arms live expansion.
Argh! You dirty, dirty apes! Give us greenskins our 'omes back. I don't want to be sharing it with the pink humies that smell bad... Bah.. guess my little hope goes out the window and into the drops now *grumbles*
[20:01:02] <@warhammeronline> kynoko asked: even if 200 people go to a frortress, and u have 20 tanks healing the door. how u suggest to smack the doors down ? it's impossible for us.
[20:01:02] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: There is a hotfix due soon to help fix this issue it will only allow the door to be healed a certain number of times over a set duration by the Tank's Realm ability
Fanbloodytastic.. You can remove the ability for mass tanks to heal doors, but you can't remove the ability for mass AoE on a single spot, mass group healing, or mass shooting through the fecken walls. Oh bugger off, what are tanks supposed to add to a keep or fort now? We stand in the way and get the crap blown out of us. Last Fort fight I was in, I could have gone afk for all I done standing there just making myself an obstacle. Ah, but don't worry. They're looking to upgrade the keep abilites such as fault finding... But rest assured, they're nerfing the tank one.. Gee, thanks.
Well, that's all I'm going over for now, there was a lot more to it and a few things I haven't touched on, but they are mainly things I don't have a strong opinion on, well not enough to warrant spamming you with even more walls of text crits. So anything from the dev chat that you guys found good.. bad... or just.. meh?
Instead of reviewing each question I'll look at the ones that contain substance and something to get into.
[19:25:53] <@warhammeronline> Thahitia asked: I know you might not talk about classes, but are there any plans to give range dps some kinda cc, so melee will not instant kill range dps if they get close.
[19:25:53] <@warhammeronline> Nate_Mythic answers: More CC on ranged careers is always "dangerous" because of kiting concerns. In general, we try to balance CC at higher levels (i.e. realm as a whole). That being said, CC is one of those aspects of player combat which we're always monitoring for balance issues.
Wait, someone want's MORE crowd control in the game? Bugger that! Kiting and chain roots, snares etc must be abolished, well you shouldn't be forced to spend the majority of a fight with some form of crowd control to prevent player actions. Take a look at your class. In a 2 minute 1v1 fight, would you be able to keep crowd control on an opponent for more than 50% of the battle? If so then crowd control is over the top.
[19:28:50] <@warhammeronline> [EC]Steve asked: Why does Divine Assault and Rend Soul not get affected by a healing debuff what so ever
[19:28:50] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Divine Assault and Rend Soul are lifetaps as such the amount of healing generated by them are proporitionate to the damage dealt. This means you can reduce their healing by reducing offense, Str/WS debuffs, Damage Debuffs, Taunt Etc are all effective ways of reducing damage and in turn also reducing the effectiveness of these heals
I had to look up what those were, but they do seem like very sick abilities for melee healers, especially in skirmishes and just general survival. 350% of your damage? That's pretty nuts, even with debuffs and taunts that's till grabbing a huge, huge increase. No wonder it seems that WP's and DoK's (I assume) are incredibly difficult to kill even with multiple people attacking them. Must stress though, it SEEMs that way though...
[19:31:15] <@warhammeronline> Beves asked: Faultfinder the ability that allows you do to 10% more damage to keep doors is pretty useless, are you going to improve it?
[19:31:15] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Faultfinder as well as many of the other RvR seige specific abilities will be getting updated around the same time that the RvR team releases many of their oRvR improvments in future patches
Updated eh? Hmm, nerfed or buffed... I really don't like the idea of buffing damage done to doors. They're big huge iron gates or solid oak, not pieces of soggy cardboard. They already go down quick enough with a concentrated assault. They should bump up the door hitpoints, but put the focus on siege weapons doing more damage to the doors, rams should do the most but the ballistas and catapults should be able to damage doors as well, makes them actually semi useful and gives the defenders a reason to try to sally out to take down the siege weapons rather than tipping oil, waiting for the inevitables *Tip-splosh.....*
[19:33:38] <@warhammeronline> TfG|FiFa asked: hello, is it true that every 2h and dual wielded weapons have a 10% less chance of getting blocked/parried by the opponent? thx
[19:33:38] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: Greatweapons (2HD) are harder to block, Dual Weild (2x 1HD) get a parry bonus on incoming attacks
I never knew that. Does explain why Witch Hunters parry a bucket load of my attacks and I can't block for shit against Swordmasters and White Lions....
[19:34:15] <@warhammeronline> Zeiden asked: Do you plan on implementing new ways of capturing a keep such as for example Choppa throwing catapults or breaking the walls instead of only the door or maybe moving Siege weapons?
[19:34:15] <@warhammeronline> Josh_Mythic answers: Maybe. :)
If anything it will be the third option, can't see the walls being breakable sadly, nor being able to launch Orcs (as cool as it would be). Just not really practical to design I guess. Need more effort on looking at siege weaponry though (still need to write down my ideas for it)
[19:36:41] <@warhammeronline> Mendoras asked: PvE in Tomb Kings: you stated out that it will be a little above LV. Will we see more challanging and intelligent PvE Encounters? In ToA (DAoC) we had some tactical encounters like ML9 Phoenix ... thats somtheing I miss in WAR. Or are there plans for Warband Encounter or large Open World Encounters like tge Dragons in DAoC?
[19:36:41] <@warhammeronline> Destin_Mythic answers: Thanks, I implemented the Phoenix encounter! The Land of the Dead (our Tomb Kings dungeon) does indeed offer some incredible encounters like you describe. In fact, the team working on this dungeon is the same team that built The Lost Vale, so you can expect The Land of the Dead to represent the next level of gameplay.
For those who don't know what ML9 Phoenix is, check out the video, it's not the best to look at, or work out what's going on, but it was a fun fight. Well I'm actually looking forward to the PvE element of Tomb Kings as well, as odd as it may be, it's also the PvE content which will help this game, despite it being RvR focussed. If you can lure the PvE'rs in, get them hooked to the RvR. Oh to have things such as the Glacier Giant going through the zones... (link1) (link2) (link3)
[19:38:54] <@warhammeronline> Helird asked: I would like to know what reasons you had to implement the current Wards system when it is obviously not the best. It is based entirely on luck and can be completely frustrating when items drop for classes not even present in the instance (I have been doing Lost Vale for 6 months now and only received 3 drops on my Zealot)
[19:38:54] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: We are actively working on ways of improving the ward system so that it is less tied to loot and more through in game acheivments (beating content)
Attunement style would do me fine!
[19:45:38] <@warhammeronline> [F]Sauce asked: Hey, having seen that its not as simple as one might hope to achieve massive scale rvr, with server stability and class balance being some of the issues, do you plan on steering RvR to smaller skirmish fights or persisting with 'zerg vs zerg'?
[19:45:38] <@warhammeronline> JeffS_Mythic answers: We have a team of engineers constantly tweaking and optimizing our server and client code. We plan to cater to both smaller skirmishes (via scenarios and objective captures) while introducing new tactics for several warbands to work with to encourage them to spread around to capture zones. We'll be applying these ideas to the cities as well as we improve them.
Ah nice, I'm starting to appreciate small scale battles so much more now. Even running solo recently, but WHY does 95% of the enemy (and I am not being sarcastic) start running away the minute they are close to death. Just fight it out for Gorks sake, be an orc! But anyway, lets hope they can reduce the mass zergs this game is becoming.
[19:51:10] <@warhammeronline> Fed|Rhissa asked: AoE abilities currently seem to be a bit stronger than most players want them to be. Reading US boards it seems though only ground target AoEs (RoF, PoS) and associated tactics are going to be revamped. My personal experience is that also instant cast AoEs are to strong, yet they seem to be out of discussion. Are there any plans to change instant cast PB AoE spells along with GT AoE spells?
[19:51:10] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: AoE damage is a concern for us and we will continue to work on balance adjustments, our first focus is fixing GTAOE in a way that eases up the current choke point issues without over nerfing the careers that use them. After which we will continue to watch AoE damage in general
You know, i don't think people really mind about the actual damage AoE does, it's more the fact you can place the target where the camera can see a spot, but not where the character can. Just fix it. Seriously. 'You. Cannot. See. There.'
[19:51:13] <@warhammeronline> kynoko asked: are we ever going to see arenas in WAR ?
[19:51:13] <@warhammeronline> Josh_Mythic answers: Definitely possible.
Gork no... No arenas in the WoW style. If you want to add in 6v6 style fights (which I'm all for), then add a zone, that 6v6 teams can queue for, upon entering a fight it places you and your opponents in an instance themed on the zone (maybe an out lying farm, a village or inside a city under siege). Small bands fighting over control and resources of a town, grants tokens to spend on special items which can only be used in the zone. Have a map which shows the victory points for the individual instances and which side 'controls' more of the region. Must expand on that idea...
[19:52:15] <@warhammeronline> Wiggletphyre asked: Are you going to implement the city's of the other 4 races in the near future?
[19:52:15] <@warhammeronline> Destin_Mythic answers: Not in the near future, no. For now we are focused on bug fixing, improving RvR, improving performance and stability, and testing / refining the Call to Arms live expansion.
Argh! You dirty, dirty apes! Give us greenskins our 'omes back. I don't want to be sharing it with the pink humies that smell bad... Bah.. guess my little hope goes out the window and into the drops now *grumbles*
[20:01:02] <@warhammeronline> kynoko asked: even if 200 people go to a frortress, and u have 20 tanks healing the door. how u suggest to smack the doors down ? it's impossible for us.
[20:01:02] <@warhammeronline> Agershowitz_Myt answers: There is a hotfix due soon to help fix this issue it will only allow the door to be healed a certain number of times over a set duration by the Tank's Realm ability
Fanbloodytastic.. You can remove the ability for mass tanks to heal doors, but you can't remove the ability for mass AoE on a single spot, mass group healing, or mass shooting through the fecken walls. Oh bugger off, what are tanks supposed to add to a keep or fort now? We stand in the way and get the crap blown out of us. Last Fort fight I was in, I could have gone afk for all I done standing there just making myself an obstacle. Ah, but don't worry. They're looking to upgrade the keep abilites such as fault finding... But rest assured, they're nerfing the tank one.. Gee, thanks.
Well, that's all I'm going over for now, there was a lot more to it and a few things I haven't touched on, but they are mainly things I don't have a strong opinion on, well not enough to warrant spamming you with even more walls of text crits. So anything from the dev chat that you guys found good.. bad... or just.. meh?
Thursday, 19 March 2009
And with my bajillion gold pieces, I can buy Altdorf
OK, I'm a poor Orc I have to admit. Too much respeccing, flight paths and wipes and not enough actual earning money makes the bank balance look a little pale these days. I'm well enough off that I don't have to scrabble in the drops to find a shinie to sell to pay for a re spec (well not yet anyway) but if I don't actually occasionally grind then I find myself looking at a dipping balance.
But then apart from re specs and wipe bills what outgoing expenses do we need? Is there really a point in making money once you get your 15 gold to buy your mount at level 20? I know Mythic don't really want you worrying about gold when you can be out there smashing skulls and breaking bones but with the ever growing influx of gold into the economy (quite unlike real life really) any attempt in the future to at least balance the cash flow could be impossible.
Gold sink rewards are good (mmmmm) and gold sink punishments are bad (dat 'urtz!). Mythic wants to keep the game flowing without it being a grind so putting in a gold sink punishment such as repair bills is not really an option. So what do we have? Well naturally it leads to the gold sink rewards, but again you don't want it to become a grind to get better gear so a reward shouldn't give you an advantage over another player who is more casual or just spends his teef like a good Orc. So what could we spend our shinies on?
Weapon & Armour Models: Much as we can get rare heads in the dye slots, how about paying a bucket load of gold for very unique looking pieces of armour and weapons? Pay 150g for one, slap it in the special dye slot and it will change the model of your stick to a model of a a shiny, pointy stick. Keep the dyes unusable until rank 40 to avoid level 1's running around looking like the Emperor after a good buffing from, one of his little priests.
More mounts: Instead of a re-hue, how about an actual new model? Give Orcs a wolf or Cyboar, Dark Elves could get the dark mounts, High Elves unicorns and Dwarfs can get a donkey... Just something different to ride on would be nice, but I guess it helps the silhouette point that WAR had (you should be able to recognise the class from it's silhouette) if all classes generally have one mount.
Emotes: It might sound silly (and WAR is actually a silly game really, but good silly) but add a few more emotes but make you have to pay to learn them. Not just generic ones, but emotes that come with animation, sounds and.. uhmm. flashy lights and jingley bells. OK maybe not the lights and bells...
Bank Slots: Obvious one really, lets us buy, say six extra bank slots for a 100g or whatever, can never have enough crap taking up space in your bank.... Especially me..
Of course, there will always be the people who scream "ZOMG FIX XYZ CLASS THEY ARE OP AND I R NERFED!!!!!1111eleventyonezomgbbqlol", but a game cannot exist on fixing perceived imbalances and purely career changes. A successful game adds the little bits of content at the same time to give everyone something to benefit from (and after all WAR has a content team for live events etc).
Well that's me off to the WAR-Europe dev chat. Wonder how it will go... Determined to get my "Make black orcs da biggest again!" question in... Hur hur hur
But then apart from re specs and wipe bills what outgoing expenses do we need? Is there really a point in making money once you get your 15 gold to buy your mount at level 20? I know Mythic don't really want you worrying about gold when you can be out there smashing skulls and breaking bones but with the ever growing influx of gold into the economy (quite unlike real life really) any attempt in the future to at least balance the cash flow could be impossible.
Gold sink rewards are good (mmmmm) and gold sink punishments are bad (dat 'urtz!). Mythic wants to keep the game flowing without it being a grind so putting in a gold sink punishment such as repair bills is not really an option. So what do we have? Well naturally it leads to the gold sink rewards, but again you don't want it to become a grind to get better gear so a reward shouldn't give you an advantage over another player who is more casual or just spends his teef like a good Orc. So what could we spend our shinies on?
Weapon & Armour Models: Much as we can get rare heads in the dye slots, how about paying a bucket load of gold for very unique looking pieces of armour and weapons? Pay 150g for one, slap it in the special dye slot and it will change the model of your stick to a model of a a shiny, pointy stick. Keep the dyes unusable until rank 40 to avoid level 1's running around looking like the Emperor after a good buffing from, one of his little priests.
More mounts: Instead of a re-hue, how about an actual new model? Give Orcs a wolf or Cyboar, Dark Elves could get the dark mounts, High Elves unicorns and Dwarfs can get a donkey... Just something different to ride on would be nice, but I guess it helps the silhouette point that WAR had (you should be able to recognise the class from it's silhouette) if all classes generally have one mount.
Emotes: It might sound silly (and WAR is actually a silly game really, but good silly) but add a few more emotes but make you have to pay to learn them. Not just generic ones, but emotes that come with animation, sounds and.. uhmm. flashy lights and jingley bells. OK maybe not the lights and bells...
Bank Slots: Obvious one really, lets us buy, say six extra bank slots for a 100g or whatever, can never have enough crap taking up space in your bank.... Especially me..
Of course, there will always be the people who scream "ZOMG FIX XYZ CLASS THEY ARE OP AND I R NERFED!!!!!1111eleventyonezomgbbqlol", but a game cannot exist on fixing perceived imbalances and purely career changes. A successful game adds the little bits of content at the same time to give everyone something to benefit from (and after all WAR has a content team for live events etc).
Well that's me off to the WAR-Europe dev chat. Wonder how it will go... Determined to get my "Make black orcs da biggest again!" question in... Hur hur hur
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Cloaks - What a shame, what a waste
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!
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!
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...)
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