This post by Aspendawn got me thinking about travel times in MMOs. There is a definite trade-off between world immersion, which realistic (i.e., long) travel times tend to enhance, and excitement. When it takes ages to get someplace, it makes the world feel larger and more "real." However, the downside is that time spent travelling is time spent doing essentially nothing.
MMOs have always had mechanisms to cut down on travel time. Even launch EQ had a "return to home" ability as I recall. Dark Age of Camelot was the first MMO to introduce horse routes, which have now become fairly standard (e.g., flight routes in WoW). Lord of the Rings Online improves over this basic model a bit by making some horse routes instant travel, and by essentially giving every character four different "return to home" abilities. One is the normal bind-point ability that's been around since launch EQ. Each race also has the ability to learn how to return to their racial capital. Three of the racial capitols have instant travel available between them for one silver, making the racial travel abilities very handy. In addition to these, when you buy a home you get the ability to instantly travel to that neighborhood. And finally, when you join a Kinship (i.e., guild) you gain the ability to instantly travel to the neighborhood the KS house is in (if your KS owns one), which is awesome or useless depending on whether your personal house is in the same area. However, when you get right down to it LoTRO is only a modest improvement over WoW or DAoC.
Everquest Online Adventures pioneered a system that I have yet to see used anywhere else. Like most MMOs, before you can use a particular stable route hub you have to run to it and talk to the stable master. However, once a stable route is learned, it becomes instant travel. In this way you can instantly (or in two or three hops) get back to any zone that you have been. Quests sometimes teleport you to distant locations that would be very hard to reach on foot, and then back home. Getting one of these distant stable routes for free is as much of a reward as the XP from the quests.
You might imagine that being able to teleport everywhere would hurt your immersion. However, in my experience it really doesn't. The fact that you have to "earn" stable master hubs by running to them or getting a quest for them helps a lot. In addition, to cross a continent you need to go through three or four hubs, so you still have a sense of scale. And honestly, how much is your immersion really enhanced by doing a given travel route for the tenth or hundredth time? When I play WoW or LoTRO, I usually go afk rather than sit there and stare at my character when I'm travelling. My immersion is exactly zero if I'm AFK making a sandwich. I honestly believe the system in EQOA should be used by more MMOs.
As a bit of an aside, EQOA is an MMO that has a lot of very good ideas buried in a mediocre, grindy game. However, I'll leave it at that because I'm sensing a future blog post on it.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
High end crafting in LoTRO is borked
From level 1-50 (the first five tiers of crafting), the crafting in LoTRO is more fun and usefull than it has ever been. Crafting guilds are a brilliant addition.
Unfortunately, as it currently stands, the crafting pretty much falls on it's face in tier 6. As an example, I'm going to focus on tailoring. In tailoring, tier 6 is gear isn't as good as gear from 6 man content for two reasons. One that can't easily be fixed (and I accept) and another that certainly should:
1. High end armor sets tailored to specific classes are available at 60. Tailored armor has always been a hit or miss proposition, as it is "one size fits all" for every class that uses it. For example, Burgs, Wardens, Hunters, and Minsterals can all use leather. There is no way one set of recipes is going to serve all of those classes equally well. For this reason it's inevitable that (for example) a level 60 hunter set is going to be a bit better for a hunter than what a tailor can make. I accept that, and can live with it.
2. The stat allocation on the crafted level 58 armor stinks. The level 50 one shot recipes had logical stat allocation for a generic armor set. Each piece added to two primary stats, and then had a big morale or power bonus. That makes sense, and is about as good as you are going to do with generic recipes. However, the level 58 recipes have for the most part replaced the morale and power bonuses with random ones I can't imagine anyone wanting. For example one piece has large amounts of poison resistance (!?). Even if you can't just cure poison outright (i.e., hunter), poison cures are cheap and available in unlimited quantities from vendors.
When you stack up a set that has points wasted on a lot of funky resistances against a set that is easy to get and tailored to your class, the crafted gear doesn't just seem "not quite as good." The crafted gear starts to look pretty stupid in comparison. So far, it looks as if I will be wearing a crafted cloak at 60, and the rest of my gear will be quest rewards.
It's not just tailors, most of the production proffessions have serious issues in tier 6. For example metalworkers are pretty much reduced to making crafting tools in tier 6, and weaponsmiths have been relegated to offhand-weapon crafters due to the new legendary items.
To readers not familiar with LoTRO, that might not seem like a big deal. However, it is a big deal because it's not the LoTRO I've been playing for nearly two years. One of the best things about LoTRO has always been that you could get gear that is roughly on par doing whatever you like:
-crafting
-six man party content
-PvP
-raiding
You pick!
That freedom is one of the big reasons that I've been happy as a clam in LoTRO since it launched. I am never railroaded into doing one thing. Unlike some games ("cough" WoW "cough"), the designers decided at the outset to support a variety of playstyles in their end game. Unfortunately, the gear from 6 man party content currently makes the gear you can get doing anything else look pretty stupid. That's not what I signed up for.
Unfortunately, as it currently stands, the crafting pretty much falls on it's face in tier 6. As an example, I'm going to focus on tailoring. In tailoring, tier 6 is gear isn't as good as gear from 6 man content for two reasons. One that can't easily be fixed (and I accept) and another that certainly should:
1. High end armor sets tailored to specific classes are available at 60. Tailored armor has always been a hit or miss proposition, as it is "one size fits all" for every class that uses it. For example, Burgs, Wardens, Hunters, and Minsterals can all use leather. There is no way one set of recipes is going to serve all of those classes equally well. For this reason it's inevitable that (for example) a level 60 hunter set is going to be a bit better for a hunter than what a tailor can make. I accept that, and can live with it.
2. The stat allocation on the crafted level 58 armor stinks. The level 50 one shot recipes had logical stat allocation for a generic armor set. Each piece added to two primary stats, and then had a big morale or power bonus. That makes sense, and is about as good as you are going to do with generic recipes. However, the level 58 recipes have for the most part replaced the morale and power bonuses with random ones I can't imagine anyone wanting. For example one piece has large amounts of poison resistance (!?). Even if you can't just cure poison outright (i.e., hunter), poison cures are cheap and available in unlimited quantities from vendors.
When you stack up a set that has points wasted on a lot of funky resistances against a set that is easy to get and tailored to your class, the crafted gear doesn't just seem "not quite as good." The crafted gear starts to look pretty stupid in comparison. So far, it looks as if I will be wearing a crafted cloak at 60, and the rest of my gear will be quest rewards.
It's not just tailors, most of the production proffessions have serious issues in tier 6. For example metalworkers are pretty much reduced to making crafting tools in tier 6, and weaponsmiths have been relegated to offhand-weapon crafters due to the new legendary items.
To readers not familiar with LoTRO, that might not seem like a big deal. However, it is a big deal because it's not the LoTRO I've been playing for nearly two years. One of the best things about LoTRO has always been that you could get gear that is roughly on par doing whatever you like:
-crafting
-six man party content
-PvP
-raiding
You pick!
That freedom is one of the big reasons that I've been happy as a clam in LoTRO since it launched. I am never railroaded into doing one thing. Unlike some games ("cough" WoW "cough"), the designers decided at the outset to support a variety of playstyles in their end game. Unfortunately, the gear from 6 man party content currently makes the gear you can get doing anything else look pretty stupid. That's not what I signed up for.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Is Mark Jacobs the Devil?
Much of the MMO blogosphere has been put off by the recent announcement that WAR is getting two new "free" classes in the next major update. The issue seems to be not so much with the message, but how it was delivered. Mark Jacobs, in typical MJ style, has been tooting his horn pretty hard. He's even bragging that WAR is the first sub based MMO in history to add new classes for free post launch. Regardless of whether MJ is fudging the truth, I find the reaction of some commentators to be a bit silly for several reasons.
1. What happens in closed beta stays in closed beta.
Some that have been following the game for a long time feel that the new classes, Slayer and Choppa, don't count as "new" because they were pulled during the closed beta. That is just silly. Stuff changes during development all the time. If something that had to be abandoned during development gets polished up and added post launch, it's still new post launch content. For example, the Shores of Evindim zone was actually in development pre-LoTRO launch, but no-one got their panties in a wad when Turbine called it free new content. In fact, the lack of the zone left a big hole in the solo options for that level range in launch LoTRO. Yet somehow Turbine is a hero and Mythic is the devil for adding items their game desperately needs post launch.
2. No-one cares if WAR is "really" the first sub based MMO to add new classes post launch for free.
Ok, yeah. CoH has added tons of power sets, and even a few archetypes over the years. EQOA added lycanthrope, were-hunter, and recently vampire subclasses to the game all 100% for free. I'm sure I could think of others. But that's not really the point. John Q. Public neither knows nor cares whether other MMOs have added classes for free. And MJ is reaching out to JQP with these announcements, not grizzled MMO vets. We are such a small portion of the market that we may as well not exist. Sad but true.
3. The real deal.
The lead developer of an MMO is in some ways a politician for their game. The purpose of any major announcement is to build some positive hype for a game in the gaming press. The more overblown the announcement, the more likely that it will get noticed. In the case of MJ's statements, they did just what they were supposed to do.
Is Mark Jacobs being a bit weasily? Sure. But is he a giant screaming hypocrite that puts every other MMO developer to shame? Not by a mile. When it comes to interactions with the community, lead devs are politicians first and foremost. Particularly in sucessful MMOs.
Don't get pissed at a duck every time it quacks.
Edit: for clarity let me reiterate....
PR is not the same thing as journalism (much less scholarship). When MJ opens his mouth and speaks to the public, it is mostly as a PR guy. It seems that some commentators were expecting something different, which I find boggling. Anyone that takes the word of someone speaking for a multi-million dollar MMO at face value is pretty naive.
Should we accept that? Who can say. However, that is a different debate, focused on deeper issues than whether MJ is The Devil. An inane semantic debate over whether the new classes in WAR are "really new" or not and whether WAR is "really the first" PtP MMO to offer free new classes does nothing to advance that discussion.
1. What happens in closed beta stays in closed beta.
Some that have been following the game for a long time feel that the new classes, Slayer and Choppa, don't count as "new" because they were pulled during the closed beta. That is just silly. Stuff changes during development all the time. If something that had to be abandoned during development gets polished up and added post launch, it's still new post launch content. For example, the Shores of Evindim zone was actually in development pre-LoTRO launch, but no-one got their panties in a wad when Turbine called it free new content. In fact, the lack of the zone left a big hole in the solo options for that level range in launch LoTRO. Yet somehow Turbine is a hero and Mythic is the devil for adding items their game desperately needs post launch.
2. No-one cares if WAR is "really" the first sub based MMO to add new classes post launch for free.
Ok, yeah. CoH has added tons of power sets, and even a few archetypes over the years. EQOA added lycanthrope, were-hunter, and recently vampire subclasses to the game all 100% for free. I'm sure I could think of others. But that's not really the point. John Q. Public neither knows nor cares whether other MMOs have added classes for free. And MJ is reaching out to JQP with these announcements, not grizzled MMO vets. We are such a small portion of the market that we may as well not exist. Sad but true.
3. The real deal.
The lead developer of an MMO is in some ways a politician for their game. The purpose of any major announcement is to build some positive hype for a game in the gaming press. The more overblown the announcement, the more likely that it will get noticed. In the case of MJ's statements, they did just what they were supposed to do.
Is Mark Jacobs being a bit weasily? Sure. But is he a giant screaming hypocrite that puts every other MMO developer to shame? Not by a mile. When it comes to interactions with the community, lead devs are politicians first and foremost. Particularly in sucessful MMOs.
Don't get pissed at a duck every time it quacks.
Edit: for clarity let me reiterate....
PR is not the same thing as journalism (much less scholarship). When MJ opens his mouth and speaks to the public, it is mostly as a PR guy. It seems that some commentators were expecting something different, which I find boggling. Anyone that takes the word of someone speaking for a multi-million dollar MMO at face value is pretty naive.
Should we accept that? Who can say. However, that is a different debate, focused on deeper issues than whether MJ is The Devil. An inane semantic debate over whether the new classes in WAR are "really new" or not and whether WAR is "really the first" PtP MMO to offer free new classes does nothing to advance that discussion.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Litmus test for LoTRO
Lord of the Rings Online very much seems to be a love it or hate it type of MMO. Some players find the game to be incredibly immersive and engaging, while some don't don't seem to "get it" at all, and wonder what the fuss is all about. Some even come to despise LoTRO with a hatred that borders on irrational (they shall remain unlinked here). LoTRO, like most things in life, is not for everyone.
To help you decide which of these categories you might fall into, I have decided to put up a short self quiz for a new player. The quiz is based on things you will experience in your first ten levels. The idea is to help you get a sense for whether you should keep playing. If you have played through at least two racial starting areas you should be able to answer most of these:
1. When you encountered the story instances in the first six levels of play, did you think:
A. Wow, neat, it's like I'm playing though a scene from a movie!
B. Holy crap, what is with all these stupid instances taking me out of the world. This is boning my immersion.
2. When you noticed that the armor that you were getting from newbies quests tended to make you look like you were dressed by a blind rodeo clown, did you think:
A. I have got to figure out how to get some better looking gear. I wonder if there is a dye or appearance slot system?
B. Holy crap, this armor sucks ass. This game is supposed to be pretty, what the hell?
3. When you did the quests to deliver mail in the Shire did you think:
A. Wow, neat. A challenging quest chain that doesn't involve any killing at all. Also fits the lore of the shire nicely.
B. God damn you nosey f-ing hobbits. Christ, why can't they just send me to kill something?
4. When you were sent to run errands for a female hobbit in Staddle to help another hobbit (that had a crush on her) catch her attention, did you think:
A. Awww..how sweet. Sure I'll help you little hobbit. Consider me your personal romance specialist!
B. Godamn, what the hell is up with all these fetch quests? Now I'm weeding!?! What is this, Lord of the Godamn Errands?
5. When you were asked to run back and forth delivering messages to the two elven brothers in Celondim and Duliond, did you think:
A. Wow, this is a neat little story. Evokes the wistful majesty of Tolkiens elves perfectly.
B. What the hell is up with all this running? Don't they use the mailboxes?
6. When you stepped into the old forest, got lost, and then got your ass handed to you by an elite tree or spiders [Edit: pre-old forest map revemp, newer players might not know what I'm talking about], did you think:
A. Wow, this place is scary. Just like it should be from the books. Neat!
B. What the fucking hell!?! I can't find shit in here. Screw this area, I'm going to Bree.
7. When you discovered that many quests could only be completed in groups, did you think:
A. Ahh, cool. Plenty of solo quests but a lot of group only content too. Nice split.
B. Why the hell can't I get any PUGs? I've been spamming for five minutes, I should have one by now. And what the hell is up with locking off content from solo players anyway?
8. When you discovered that PvP was limited to one zone, did you think:
A. Well that makes sense with the lore, can't have trolls rampaging though the Shire if it didn't happen in the books. The PvMP looks like a fun side game anyway. Maybe I'll mess around with it when I get some more levels under my belt.
B. What the hell? I though the books were all about a war between light and darkness? Where is the War of the Ring? I wanted a game like Helm's Deep in the movies. Why won't it let me roll an orc so that I can go to the Shire and eat Hobbit babies? This game is total weaksauce compared to EVE/ Shadowbane/ Pre-Trammel UO!
Results:
If you answered B to more than four questions: Continue to play LoTRO at your own risk. Don't stick it out for 20 more levels hoping it will "get good." It won't. You will be lucky if you aren't totally burned out on it by the mid 30s. You will bitterly regret the time you wasted playing it. You may go on to make a series of blog posts bashing the game, or even spend a solid f-ing year on a LoTRO message board antagonizing fans of the game. At the very least, you will be amazed at the number of brainwashed sheep that find enjoyment in such utter tedium.
If you answered A to more than four questions: LoTRO might be the game for you long term. As good as it is now, the game will only get better as you get into Goblin Town, Foreschel, the final Book quests, and the Mines of Moria. Welcome home!
To help you decide which of these categories you might fall into, I have decided to put up a short self quiz for a new player. The quiz is based on things you will experience in your first ten levels. The idea is to help you get a sense for whether you should keep playing. If you have played through at least two racial starting areas you should be able to answer most of these:
1. When you encountered the story instances in the first six levels of play, did you think:
A. Wow, neat, it's like I'm playing though a scene from a movie!
B. Holy crap, what is with all these stupid instances taking me out of the world. This is boning my immersion.
2. When you noticed that the armor that you were getting from newbies quests tended to make you look like you were dressed by a blind rodeo clown, did you think:
A. I have got to figure out how to get some better looking gear. I wonder if there is a dye or appearance slot system?
B. Holy crap, this armor sucks ass. This game is supposed to be pretty, what the hell?
3. When you did the quests to deliver mail in the Shire did you think:
A. Wow, neat. A challenging quest chain that doesn't involve any killing at all. Also fits the lore of the shire nicely.
B. God damn you nosey f-ing hobbits. Christ, why can't they just send me to kill something?
4. When you were sent to run errands for a female hobbit in Staddle to help another hobbit (that had a crush on her) catch her attention, did you think:
A. Awww..how sweet. Sure I'll help you little hobbit. Consider me your personal romance specialist!
B. Godamn, what the hell is up with all these fetch quests? Now I'm weeding!?! What is this, Lord of the Godamn Errands?
5. When you were asked to run back and forth delivering messages to the two elven brothers in Celondim and Duliond, did you think:
A. Wow, this is a neat little story. Evokes the wistful majesty of Tolkiens elves perfectly.
B. What the hell is up with all this running? Don't they use the mailboxes?
6. When you stepped into the old forest, got lost, and then got your ass handed to you by an elite tree or spiders [Edit: pre-old forest map revemp, newer players might not know what I'm talking about], did you think:
A. Wow, this place is scary. Just like it should be from the books. Neat!
B. What the fucking hell!?! I can't find shit in here. Screw this area, I'm going to Bree.
7. When you discovered that many quests could only be completed in groups, did you think:
A. Ahh, cool. Plenty of solo quests but a lot of group only content too. Nice split.
B. Why the hell can't I get any PUGs? I've been spamming for five minutes, I should have one by now. And what the hell is up with locking off content from solo players anyway?
8. When you discovered that PvP was limited to one zone, did you think:
A. Well that makes sense with the lore, can't have trolls rampaging though the Shire if it didn't happen in the books. The PvMP looks like a fun side game anyway. Maybe I'll mess around with it when I get some more levels under my belt.
B. What the hell? I though the books were all about a war between light and darkness? Where is the War of the Ring? I wanted a game like Helm's Deep in the movies. Why won't it let me roll an orc so that I can go to the Shire and eat Hobbit babies? This game is total weaksauce compared to EVE/ Shadowbane/ Pre-Trammel UO!
Results:
If you answered B to more than four questions: Continue to play LoTRO at your own risk. Don't stick it out for 20 more levels hoping it will "get good." It won't. You will be lucky if you aren't totally burned out on it by the mid 30s. You will bitterly regret the time you wasted playing it. You may go on to make a series of blog posts bashing the game, or even spend a solid f-ing year on a LoTRO message board antagonizing fans of the game. At the very least, you will be amazed at the number of brainwashed sheep that find enjoyment in such utter tedium.
If you answered A to more than four questions: LoTRO might be the game for you long term. As good as it is now, the game will only get better as you get into Goblin Town, Foreschel, the final Book quests, and the Mines of Moria. Welcome home!
WAR: give me decent PvE or give me a different MMO
As fun as the PvP in Warhammer Online is, I found that the sub-par PvE eventually killed the game for me. After having had some time to reflect, here are the three biggest issues I had and what I believe could be done to address them.
No sense of "place" (immersion)
The PvE zones provide very little sense of "place." They seem designed mainly with utility in mind rather than to immerse you in a virtual world. The fact that you can quest by running from red blob to red blob on your map, reading nary a bit of quest text, further reinforces this impression. The zones are laid out as a means to an end, and that end is guiding you through quest grinds so that you can level and get back to the PvP. Zones are simply a means of guiding your progression in nearly any MMO. However, this is masked much more poorly in WAR than in an average MMO.
How to fix it: Unfortunately, the zones are in place and it's really too late to fix this. A few things could help. One simple change would be to further encourage exploration. There are a lot of little secrets in each zone that exist for no other reason than unlock entries in your Book of Knowledge. Perhaps this system could be incentivised? Giving users the option to turn off the "quest blobs" might also help some players with immersion. Of course, the quests would have to be clear enough that you could find objectives based on the text for this to work (see below).
Mob density and respawn rates are too high
It is a serious pain in the butt to get anywhere in the PvE areas. When you are sent into an enemy area for a quest objective, you will be killing something nearly every step of the way. And when you get there, everything will have respawned behind you. If your swift travel isn't up or is set at a useless place, prepare to kill everything again. It makes the entire experience of questing incredibly tedious. This more than anything killed the PvE for me.
How to fix it: Lower respawn rates in areas outside of public quest zones. Lower the mob density to the point that you can expect to fight 2 or 3 adds getting to an objective (like most MMOs) rather than dozens.
Quest text is sub-par
I am a huge fan of lore in MMOs. I am one of those anal types that will hold up a party so I can read every bit of quest text in a chained group quest. Not so in Warhammer online. Save for the Greenskin quests most of the quests in WAR read like "bla, bla, bla...go kill some lizards" (or whatever). This is odd because the writing in the BoK is excellent. About the only part of the PvE I consistently enjoyed was unlocking new entries. The prose in many of the Greenskin quests is also excellent. There are obviously some good writers at Mythic.
Unfortunately, most of the quest text reads like a first or second draft. The prose is tends to be inefficient, and conveys little sense of the personality of the quest giver. The quest instructions are also generally vague. Without the red blobs on my map I doubt I could have found most quest objectives.
How to fix it: Pay whoever wrote the entries in the BoK to go through each zone streamlining and clarifying the quest text. Decide on what mood to convey in each zone, and make certain that every quest contributes to that goal. Either by reinforcing the mood, or by providing notable (and infrequent) exceptions to it. Rule of Thumb: any quest text much over two short paragraphs better be conveying one hell of a story, or you will lose your reader.
You may have noticed I said nothing about the PQ system. Mythic does seem to be aware of the current issues with them, and so I don't think much more needs to be said on the subject. And when you have enough players to get through a PQ, they are arguably brilliant.
No sense of "place" (immersion)
The PvE zones provide very little sense of "place." They seem designed mainly with utility in mind rather than to immerse you in a virtual world. The fact that you can quest by running from red blob to red blob on your map, reading nary a bit of quest text, further reinforces this impression. The zones are laid out as a means to an end, and that end is guiding you through quest grinds so that you can level and get back to the PvP. Zones are simply a means of guiding your progression in nearly any MMO. However, this is masked much more poorly in WAR than in an average MMO.
How to fix it: Unfortunately, the zones are in place and it's really too late to fix this. A few things could help. One simple change would be to further encourage exploration. There are a lot of little secrets in each zone that exist for no other reason than unlock entries in your Book of Knowledge. Perhaps this system could be incentivised? Giving users the option to turn off the "quest blobs" might also help some players with immersion. Of course, the quests would have to be clear enough that you could find objectives based on the text for this to work (see below).
Mob density and respawn rates are too high
It is a serious pain in the butt to get anywhere in the PvE areas. When you are sent into an enemy area for a quest objective, you will be killing something nearly every step of the way. And when you get there, everything will have respawned behind you. If your swift travel isn't up or is set at a useless place, prepare to kill everything again. It makes the entire experience of questing incredibly tedious. This more than anything killed the PvE for me.
How to fix it: Lower respawn rates in areas outside of public quest zones. Lower the mob density to the point that you can expect to fight 2 or 3 adds getting to an objective (like most MMOs) rather than dozens.
Quest text is sub-par
I am a huge fan of lore in MMOs. I am one of those anal types that will hold up a party so I can read every bit of quest text in a chained group quest. Not so in Warhammer online. Save for the Greenskin quests most of the quests in WAR read like "bla, bla, bla...go kill some lizards" (or whatever). This is odd because the writing in the BoK is excellent. About the only part of the PvE I consistently enjoyed was unlocking new entries. The prose in many of the Greenskin quests is also excellent. There are obviously some good writers at Mythic.
Unfortunately, most of the quest text reads like a first or second draft. The prose is tends to be inefficient, and conveys little sense of the personality of the quest giver. The quest instructions are also generally vague. Without the red blobs on my map I doubt I could have found most quest objectives.
How to fix it: Pay whoever wrote the entries in the BoK to go through each zone streamlining and clarifying the quest text. Decide on what mood to convey in each zone, and make certain that every quest contributes to that goal. Either by reinforcing the mood, or by providing notable (and infrequent) exceptions to it. Rule of Thumb: any quest text much over two short paragraphs better be conveying one hell of a story, or you will lose your reader.
You may have noticed I said nothing about the PQ system. Mythic does seem to be aware of the current issues with them, and so I don't think much more needs to be said on the subject. And when you have enough players to get through a PQ, they are arguably brilliant.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Update on WAR: 1.06
The PvE still slightly bites. However the PvP has become even more fun. And WAR had pretty damn good PvP to begin with. The new system for forcing all three scenarios in a tier to pop seems to be working really well. Running all three tier I scenarios is a lot more fun than doing Nordenwatch over and over again.
Tons of Order players are also rolling the new tank class. Speaking from a pure Destruction viewpoint, scenarios are much more balanced and fun than I am used to. I'm used to handing Order their asses practically as if they were AFK. They are putting up a good fight now. Scenarios were roughly 50/50 in the tier ones I joined tonight. And two of them ended in stalemates because players were actively defending objectives. Boggling!! 1.06 has improved the game more than I was willing to hope for, I'm very impressed.
Tons of Order players are also rolling the new tank class. Speaking from a pure Destruction viewpoint, scenarios are much more balanced and fun than I am used to. I'm used to handing Order their asses practically as if they were AFK. They are putting up a good fight now. Scenarios were roughly 50/50 in the tier ones I joined tonight. And two of them ended in stalemates because players were actively defending objectives. Boggling!! 1.06 has improved the game more than I was willing to hope for, I'm very impressed.
WAR on it's last legs for me
My WAR subscription is on it's last legs. I will very likely cancel at the end of the month. There are two main issues that I'm having with it.
1. Order sucks on most servers.
My favorite toon so far is easilly my Order Engineer. And he isn't any fun to play in PvP because Destruction is simply kicking our asses on his server. If you look at the top ten realm point earners per week on most servers, apart from the odd Runekeeper or Bright Wizard the top ten spots are nearly always destruction players. On the two servers I'm active on the top ten was 70% and 90% destruction the last time I checked. In scenarios I have yet to play on a server where Order wins more than maybe 1/3 of the time, regardless of which side I'm playing. And on the server that my Engineer is on, Order very rarely has even a single teir II keep.
Unfortunately, the server that he is on isn't low pop, so I can't transfer him off of it. I got up to level 17 near launch, got very frustrated and re-rolled destruction on a different server. That was fun for a while, but I have yet to find a class I enjoy as much as the Engineer (and yes, I've tried a Magus). I suppose I could find a server where Alliance is doing better and start over again, from scratch. However, at this point I'm pretty burned out on the teir I content. I've been through it at least six times on each side trying different classes.
I'm hoping that the introduction of the new tank classes will help out a bit with this. If things get even enough that I can start playing my engineer again without have my ass handed to me constantly, I'll likely keep playing regardless of the next issue. However if the real problem is that skilled players are more often attracted to Destruction than Order (this ceretainly seemed to be true of the Horde in WoW based on my experiences both in PuGs and Battle Grounds), I don't think it will help much.
2. PvE in WAR slightly bites.
There are several problems with the PvE in WAR that I don't think will ever be fixed. The mob density is too high in most zones, and the respawn rates are too high. This means that any character that can't handle mutiple mobs in melee range has a very tough time soloing. Good luck solo questing on a Sorceress, for example. It also means that to get anywhere you will have to kill dozens of mobs on the way, which gets to be very tedious. It makes the zones feel "crowded" and somewhat spoils the sense of immersion. What the hell sense does it make for a tiny forest patch that's jammed up with 100 hostiles to be 30 feet away from a quest hub?
This is compounded by the fact that the zones themsleves are somewhat small, and tend to be laid out linearly. I always feel like I'm in a ravine with invisible walls. More than any MMO I've ever played, the PvE zones in WAR are very obviously laid out with function in mind rather than to evoke a sense of being in a real place. The PVE in WAR is something you tolerate in betwen bouts of PvP, rather than something that is fun in it's own right.
WAR does have some of the most fun PvP around, but among the popular fantasy MMOs (EQ II, LoTRO, WoW, ect.) I'd also argue that it has the least engaging PvE. Public Quests are great fun if you can get a party together to do them. However, my experienc has been that no-one is running the PQs any more in most teirs. Even at launch, some off the beaten path PQs pretty much never got done. Now, even the ones that used to be popular are ghost towns. What we are left with is a system that lets a solo player grind through the first stage three or four times for an item. And it's tedious as hell. I'd rather just suit up in the PvP gear I earn in scenarious than mess around with that, even if some of the items you can earn are better than the PvP gear.
I'll be watching WAR until the end of the month. I'm hoping that things will change for the better with the X.06 and X.1 patches. However, I don't see how anything that's been talked about will make Order players suck less (in general) or the PvE improve drastically.
1. Order sucks on most servers.
My favorite toon so far is easilly my Order Engineer. And he isn't any fun to play in PvP because Destruction is simply kicking our asses on his server. If you look at the top ten realm point earners per week on most servers, apart from the odd Runekeeper or Bright Wizard the top ten spots are nearly always destruction players. On the two servers I'm active on the top ten was 70% and 90% destruction the last time I checked. In scenarios I have yet to play on a server where Order wins more than maybe 1/3 of the time, regardless of which side I'm playing. And on the server that my Engineer is on, Order very rarely has even a single teir II keep.
Unfortunately, the server that he is on isn't low pop, so I can't transfer him off of it. I got up to level 17 near launch, got very frustrated and re-rolled destruction on a different server. That was fun for a while, but I have yet to find a class I enjoy as much as the Engineer (and yes, I've tried a Magus). I suppose I could find a server where Alliance is doing better and start over again, from scratch. However, at this point I'm pretty burned out on the teir I content. I've been through it at least six times on each side trying different classes.
I'm hoping that the introduction of the new tank classes will help out a bit with this. If things get even enough that I can start playing my engineer again without have my ass handed to me constantly, I'll likely keep playing regardless of the next issue. However if the real problem is that skilled players are more often attracted to Destruction than Order (this ceretainly seemed to be true of the Horde in WoW based on my experiences both in PuGs and Battle Grounds), I don't think it will help much.
2. PvE in WAR slightly bites.
There are several problems with the PvE in WAR that I don't think will ever be fixed. The mob density is too high in most zones, and the respawn rates are too high. This means that any character that can't handle mutiple mobs in melee range has a very tough time soloing. Good luck solo questing on a Sorceress, for example. It also means that to get anywhere you will have to kill dozens of mobs on the way, which gets to be very tedious. It makes the zones feel "crowded" and somewhat spoils the sense of immersion. What the hell sense does it make for a tiny forest patch that's jammed up with 100 hostiles to be 30 feet away from a quest hub?
This is compounded by the fact that the zones themsleves are somewhat small, and tend to be laid out linearly. I always feel like I'm in a ravine with invisible walls. More than any MMO I've ever played, the PvE zones in WAR are very obviously laid out with function in mind rather than to evoke a sense of being in a real place. The PVE in WAR is something you tolerate in betwen bouts of PvP, rather than something that is fun in it's own right.
WAR does have some of the most fun PvP around, but among the popular fantasy MMOs (EQ II, LoTRO, WoW, ect.) I'd also argue that it has the least engaging PvE. Public Quests are great fun if you can get a party together to do them. However, my experienc has been that no-one is running the PQs any more in most teirs. Even at launch, some off the beaten path PQs pretty much never got done. Now, even the ones that used to be popular are ghost towns. What we are left with is a system that lets a solo player grind through the first stage three or four times for an item. And it's tedious as hell. I'd rather just suit up in the PvP gear I earn in scenarious than mess around with that, even if some of the items you can earn are better than the PvP gear.
I'll be watching WAR until the end of the month. I'm hoping that things will change for the better with the X.06 and X.1 patches. However, I don't see how anything that's been talked about will make Order players suck less (in general) or the PvE improve drastically.
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