WAR - another newsletter - more RvR, less sport PvP

[Morfiend]

Also, I'm left wondering just HOW guilds level up.  Could a guild of only 8 people ever get their guild to the rank cap?  Won't huge uber guilds just fly to the guild rank cap?

EQ2 has guild levels, and I feel it is done pretty well, it doesnt seem to offer anything super overpowered, but as the same time, there is some nice stuff. I guess it really depends on unknowns, what needs to be done to level it up, and what the rewards are.

[Kirth]

Getting back to the Scenarios though, it seems to me that they're perhaps the biggest unknown in WAR's design.  Even Blizzard was seemingly unable to get them to work exactly as desired, but maybe because they're just a PART of WAR's overall PvP experience and not the be-all end-all, it'll be easier to overlook the flaws?  I've heard that Scenario matches are set to last only around 15 minutes, which will probably be a good thing if they're sticking to the ol' FPS stand-bys — CTF, point domination, etc.

It's easy to imagine where issues will arise though.  Under-population, balance, rewards.  It's gonna be messy!

I'd conjecture for this and some other reasons is why they did the beta shutdown last year and re-worked the contribution that the scenarios offered to the campaign as well as introducing keeps.

EDIT:  Oh yeah!  Something I wanted to mention about the guilds video... it mentions that guilds can level up, and, from this, there are practical stat bonuses that can be gained.  It sounds neat enough, but then at the same time, it's totally a positive feedback loop, where the strong just get stronger.  Typically not a good thing for competetive games. 

Also, I'm left wondering just HOW guilds level up.  Could a guild of only 8 people ever get their guild to the rank cap?  Won't huge uber guilds just fly to the guild rank cap?

Trying to find a quote, but I believe I read that guild member contribution will be calculated based on guild size so larger guilds don't have a huge advantage over smaller ones.

[HRose]

EDIT:  Oh yeah!  Something I wanted to mention about the guilds video... it mentions that guilds can level up, and, from this, there are practical stat bonuses that can be gained.  It sounds neat enough, but then at the same time, it's totally a positive feedback loop, where the strong just get stronger.  Typically not a good thing for competetive games. 

Also, I'm left wondering just HOW guilds level up.  Could a guild of only 8 people ever get their guild to the rank cap?  Won't huge uber guilds just fly to the guild rank cap?

This already all existed in DAoC and was decently executed.

The guild rewards shouldn't be another path to grind or even offer advantages over others. Either that or they broke again what in DAoC worked.

[Schazzwozzer]

This already all existed in DAoC and was decently executed.

The guild rewards shouldn't be another path to grind or even offer advantages over others. Either that or they broke again what in DAoC worked.

Ach, everything is either a lift from DAoC and thus has likely been discussed to death, or is under NDA and thus can't be discussed with a well-informed perspective.

It does seem that competetive MMOs, as a general rule, rarely offer enough negative feedback loops though — systems that allow the non-catass underdogs to remain competetive. 

I'd conjecture for this and some other reasons is why they did the beta shutdown last year and re-worked the contribution that the scenarios offered to the campaign as well as introducing keeps.

Yeah, you're probably right.  From what I've heard, it seems that testers were clamoring for keeps to come back, which makes sense if Scenarios weren't doing a good job of providing the large-scale RvR experience that lots of players want.

[Nebu]

This already all existed in DAoC and was decently executed.

The guild rewards shouldn't be another path to grind or even offer advantages over others. Either that or they broke again what in DAoC worked.

I don't remember anything like this in DAoC beyond the use of guild banners in RvR.  Are you thinking about EQ2 or something?

[KallDrexx]

I don't remember anything like this in DAoC beyond the use of guild banners in RvR.  Are you thinking about EQ2 or something?

A while back they added rvr experince for guilds iirc.  Guilds could then use this for bonuses such as faster xp gain and some other stuff. 

It's been too long for me to remember the specifics.

[shiznitz]

Also, I'm left wondering just HOW guilds level up.  Could a guild of only 8 people ever get their guild to the rank cap?  Won't huge uber guilds just fly to the guild rank cap?

EQ2 has guild levels, and I feel it is done pretty well, it doesnt seem to offer anything super overpowered, but as the same time, there is some nice stuff. I guess it really depends on unknowns, what needs to be done to level it up, and what the rewards are.

For those that don't know, EQ2's guild levels provide one useful perk: faster mounts. The rest is cosmetic stuff (heraldry for cloaks) that is nice to have but has no impact on gameplay. Guild exp is earned by doing adventure writs (kill X number  of Y) or tradeskilling writs (make X number of Y) primarily, but you do get status points for raid mobs and Heritage Quests. The way an individual player's status is added to guild status has changed 3 times since launch.  It was initially divided by number of guild members. Then an upper and lower cap was implemented. Then guild members was changed to unique accounts. Finally it was changed to a simple personal status earned / 12 = guild status.

[Nebu]

A while back they added rvr experince for guilds iirc.  Guilds could then use this for bonuses such as faster xp gain and some other stuff. 

It's been too long for me to remember the specifics.

I remember now.  You could buy guild buffs like an increase in pve xp, rvr xp, or crafting speed.  Pretty minor stuff.  Thanks for jogging my memory.