Witching Night

[Brogarn]

I know it's supposed to be all doom and gloom in here, but I actually still enjoy the game and see some real potential for playing it long term.

In the meantime, tomorrow night begins Witching Night! For once, one of these event type thingies has actually piqued my interest as they're going to be in ORvR zones. Nice!

http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=405

[Mrbloodworth]

This is the best part:

Four new Public Quests will be added to the game, spread across all tiers and pairings. Unlike the game's current public quests, these will be set inside of the Open RvR areas, allowing players to compete directly against each other to earn influence that will earn them rewards offered by one of the new Herald NPCs we'll be adding to the capital cities.

Courage has its Rewards

The wearing of masks has long been the custom of Witching Night, and WAR will offer four such costume masks that players can obtain by participating in the event. These masks will be difficult to obtain: one is an Elite-level influence reward and the others are very rare drops on enemy players and the witches and ghosts who will inhabit the land for only this event. All four masks can be worn by each of the game's playable races.

Link to full description.

[NiX]

They'll make you catass for anything these days.

[Mrbloodworth]

They'll make you catass for anything these days.

I took it as they are using the entire event as a way to get the RvR ball rolling. (one of may ways i hope).

[Nebu]

These masks will be difficult to obtain...

I think this is the part that the comment was directed toward.

[BitWarrior]

It's definitely the right direction to take. Had this been just another generic PvE PQ, the complaints here would have abounded about an RvR game being too PvE centric.

If anything, I'm looking forward to seeing them merge their PQ and RvR concepts even more, and even eventually coming out with PQs that end with giving your RvR group a bit of a bonus (like mounted NPC soliders charging the front lines, etc). Combine this with some good RvR kill influence rewards and RvR zone based kill/rescue quests with highly desirable loot and you're going to see RvR start to take off.

[Ard]

There's some very epic fail here.

This:

Also, because of the special nature of these Public Quests and the rewards that players can earn by participating in them, the quests will reset less frequently than you might be used to. Expect a few hours to pass after a Witching Night Public Quest is completed before you'll be able to try it again.

plus this:

one is an Elite-level influence reward

How many PQ's on average do you have to grind to hit Elite again, usually?  And if you're having to pvp to hold the event to get the influence, what do you think the odds are ANYONE is actually going to get that mask, with a few hours in between respawn?  It's almost like Mythic doesn't want anyone actually having fun in this event.

[waffel]

Interesting idea. However, Mythic seems to think they can just throw some random items out in the oRvR pools and people will suddenly go out there. It'll probably work, but christ.

Here is a fucking novel idea, make keep lords drop the masks? Do something with BOs? Maybe have hostel enemy mobs spawn and charge a BO as soon as its taken?

This just stinks of shitty design. "lets just put some PQs out in the open rvr pools with long respawn times with the rewards being some random masks, that's sure to get the RvR players out!"

[Righ]

hostel enemy mobs

I have mental images of orcs dancing to YMCA.

[Brogarn]

hostel enemy mobs

I have mental images of orcs dancing to YMCA.

I was thinking the Techno Twins

[Geki]

Here is a fucking novel idea, make keep lords drop the masks? Do something with BOs? Maybe have hostel enemy mobs spawn and charge a BO as soon as its taken?

Truthfully, the reason they don't do this (and imo the reason they aren't pimping open rvr/keep sieges) is because right now the engine flat out can't handle large scale rvr.  The client performs poorly in a 50v50 fight even on a bleeding edge gaming machine let alone an average gaming machine.  You think people are pissed now, wait until they start doing sieges regularly and start seeing war turn into a powerpoint presentation. 

[Brogarn]

The bash Mythic threads are here, here, here and here.

Can't we have one single positive one? 

[Geki]

You're right and I thought about it as soon as I threw that post out... couldn't delete it though.  Sorry about that.

[ghost]

The bash Mythic threads are here, here, here and here.

Can't we have one single positive one? 

I agree.  I'm actually enjoying the game more now.  New server and guild has helped. 

I'll be damned if I'm gonna grind PQs for some damned mask though.

[Gurney]

The bash Mythic threads are here, here, here and here.

Can't we have one single positive one? 

Didn't you know?  War is everywhere ...

[Sparky]

I'm more interested in the other 1.0.4 goodies.  XP boost and maybe some class balancing please.

[Maegril]

I'm more interested in the other 1.0.4 goodies.  XP boost and maybe some class balancing please.

I think most of the class balancing is still a ways off, the only things likely to change are the egregious bits like the chaotic rift stuff.  (Speaking of which, can someone tell me why they're focusing on chaotic rift and not electromagnet?  Don't they both function the same way?)

[ghost]

I'm more interested in the other 1.0.4 goodies.  XP boost and maybe some class balancing please.

I think most of the class balancing is still a ways off, the only things likely to change are the egregious bits like the chaotic rift stuff.  (Speaking of which, can someone tell me why they're focusing on chaotic rift and not electromagnet?  Don't they both function the same way?)

1.  Nerf destro first as their numbers are much higher.
2.  Wait til hordes of people switch to order
3.  Nerf order
4.  Balance achieved

 

[Erdrick]

I think most of the class balancing is still a ways off, the only things likely to change are the egregious bits like the chaotic rift stuff.  (Speaking of which, can someone tell me why they're focusing on chaotic rift and not electromagnet?  Don't they both function the same way?)

Supposedly electromagnet was working the way rift is now working. I've heard reports that what James says in the post below is wrong but I haven't seen it for myself so here is the link.

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2349187#post2349187

[khaine]

My god I want to like and keep playing this game , I enjoy events like this ,

But for fuck sake why put in the "HOURS between PQ's"

WTF , so if you login for a few hours each night you MIGHT be able to catch ONE of these ?

Who in the hell comes up with such stupid ideas as that ?

[Nebu]

1.  Nerf destro first as their numbers are much higher.
2.  Wait til hordes of people switch to order
3.  Nerf order
4.  Balance achieved
 

This is pretty similar to Mythic's behavior in DAoC

1) Buff a class with new abilities until it becomes overpowered. 
2) This class becomes the flavor of the month and everyone starts playing one as their new main
3) Allow enough of the new class to become involved in the endgame that it causes a stir in the playerbase
4) Buff a new class
5) Go to point 2)

[Brogarn]

Fuck it. I give up.

[Mrbloodworth]

Fuck it. I give up.

Yeah. I thought it was a good move on mythic part , and sounded kinda fun too. The ghosts thing intrigues me too, i hear you can get the loot from them as well.

[Slayerik]

Fuck it. I give up.

Just stop reading all forums if you want to enjoy a game :)

[McSteak]

Fuck it. I give up.

I still got love for the game. If not for the masks and junk this will be a good excuse to get some people out in the lakes. I for one am excited.

[trias_e]

Yeah, this should be interesting at least.  I'll even hop on my archmage and see if ulthuan can manage to get together some people in an rvr lake for a change.

At the least, T1 should be kicking on skull throne.

[Grumlic]

It's definitely the right direction to take. Had this been just another generic PvE PQ, the complaints here would have abounded about an RvR game being too PvE centric.

If anything, I'm looking forward to seeing them merge their PQ and RvR concepts even more, and even eventually coming out with PQs that end with giving your RvR group a bit of a bonus (like mounted NPC soliders charging the front lines, etc). Combine this with some good RvR kill influence rewards and RvR zone based kill/rescue quests with highly desirable loot and you're going to see RvR start to take off.

Would have to agree. Perhaps this event is being used to test if it is viable to get people into the RvR lakes more? After the event ends, it wouldn't surprise me to see them replace it with a similar concept if it is successful, and perhaps tie it in to the VP reward system to help lock down a zone. Gonna go and check it out, see if I can grab a mask.

[Nebu]

It's so fucking easy... if you want people playing in RvR, just have enemy players drop the best available gear as loot.  xp and reknown won't even matter if players know that they can gear up to a competitive level just by participating in RvR.  Given current itemization, maybe this isn't so easy...

[Slyfeind]

On top of that...the big pretty button that wisks you away to scenarios, make it wisk you away to oRVR areas. When I have half an hour and want some PvP action, I press that button and go where it takes me.

[Sjofn]

Here is a fucking novel idea, make keep lords drop the masks? Do something with BOs? Maybe have hostel enemy mobs spawn and charge a BO as soon as its taken?

Or have that in addition to the PQs! People need something to do while waiting for that long-ass respawn! 

[rk47]

Yep I see no point in giving timers to it. I mean, fuck there was this Bastion Stairs boss that drop set gear. But it hardly drops the right classes. We can farm it easy in 15 mins, but why put 24 hour lockout ? I don't see the point at all in lock out timers. Of all the ideas from WoW they copied, they had to copy this shit.

[UnSub]

Fuck it. I give up.

Come back and tell us how it plays when you have to wait hours between Witch Nite PQs.

Off the top of my head, here is what will happen:

 - smart players will set their rally point to the warcamp closest to the Witch Night PQ RvR area; also, this might see the areas the PQ is located in experience more RvR than usual before time because they'll make the PQ a bit easier for that side

 - some players will come to the zones to see if the PQ has popped / will pop; there might be a bit of RvR, but I think more players will skirt around the edges

 - the PQ pops; calls go out across the zones; players crash the zone to take part - let's hope WAR's technical issues when large groups of players gather has been overstated

 - the PQ kicks off and each stage, depending on its objectives, probably doesn't take too long to complete due to the number of players; of course, if stage 1 is "kill 500 ghosts", that might take a while

 - the side with the fewer people is going to lose hard, because the opposing side can afford to send skirmishers to disrupt them AND keep doing the PQ, or even wipe their opponents off the map to make it easier for the larger side

 - players who just want the items are out of luck due to 1) RvR combat and 2) the large number of players taking part in the event won't match well with a PQ random loot bag system (hopefully everyone gets something for taking part in the Witching Night PQ, but I won't hold my breath on this)

 - the second the PQ ends, a lot of players will head out of RvR territory because there is no point hanging around for a few random hours for it to pop again; alternatively they die in RvR and use that as quick travel out of RvR

 - the PQ won't take as long to do as Mythic thinks it will; expect to see the length of time between Witching Night PQs reduced

[UnSub]

Here is a fucking novel idea, make keep lords drop the masks? Do something with BOs? Maybe have hostel enemy mobs spawn and charge a BO as soon as its taken?

Truthfully, the reason they don't do this (and imo the reason they aren't pimping open rvr/keep sieges) is because right now the engine flat out can't handle large scale rvr.  The client performs poorly in a 50v50 fight even on a bleeding edge gaming machine let alone an average gaming machine.  You think people are pissed now, wait until they start doing sieges regularly and start seeing war turn into a powerpoint presentation. 

So how does Mythic think a rarely occurring event where you can get rare loot in a centralised location is going to go in terms of player numbers in one area?

[Geki]

So how does Mythic think a rarely occurring event where you can get rare loot in a centralised location is going to go in terms of player numbers in one area?

At this point there's only five fucking people online in primetime on most servers anyway.  What's the risk?

[tolakram]

Now come on.

I'll be there on Ironfist tomorrow night and I expect it will be fun. The timer is brain dead 2003 stupid, but I think the quest will bring out people to orvr, at least focus them on a zone, and should make for some fun skirmishes.

I was in a 2 hour skirmish 2 nights ago in Troll Country that was a blast, and all because destruction wanted to take an objective.  We beat them back finally.  Of course the sad fact is how little xp and renown I earned for 2 hours of constant healing and rezzing.