Patches 1.1a-d Have Arrived

[ashrik]

Quite a lot to quote, I'll post some of the bigger changes
Link

Highlights:
With 1.1a, we have been working hard and listening to player feedback to make the great game of WAR even better. We're proud to introduce to the game several exciting changes that you requested! These changes include the following:

* Two New Careers - The Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard have joined their allies and are now available to play for everyone!
* Open RvR Influence System – As part of our ongoing effort to encourage people to take part in oRvR, we are pleased to announce the release of an Influence system geared solely to oRvR. Players who participate in this part of WAR will now have additional incentives for fighting for their realm. As part of this patch we have also made quite a number of changes and fixes to oRvR places and NPCs as well.
* Easy Public Quests - PQs are great but sometimes it's hard to get enough people together to complete them, especially in the lower tiers. So, we are redesigning one PQ per chapter so that it can be completed by 1-3 people.
* Chat Hyperlinking - One of the most requested features by the community has been adding the ability to hyperlink items, abilities and quests in the chat window and now it has been added.
* Itemization Improvements – As part of our continuing support to improve item rewards in WAR we have released a number of new item improvements with 1.1. These improvements include re-vamped armor sets for all levels, new item drops for a number of harder dungeons, and improved drop rates of PQ rewards.
* Main Assist - RvR is exciting, chaotic and always challenging but this feature will make it just a little bit easier to help your group fight the good fight.
* Player Statue System - Nothing says "you've made it" more than having a statue with your name on it in the capital city of your realm.
* New Content - Whether it is new lairs, new quests and changes to items, this patch is full of lots of fun new content additions to the game.
* User Interface - Lots and lots of fixes, changes and new additions to our user interface and API functionality, new additions to the chat system and graphic options incorporating community requested features a channel flashing on activity, the ability to turn the chat bubbles on/off, a gamma slider and so much more.
* Player Responsiveness – We have added a number of additional features to improve the responsiveness of the game client. These changes include items that will lessen the "Pause" period in casting due to high lag, as well as fixes for a number of animation glitches and issues players experienced while rapidly activating abilities.
* AddOn Management - WAR now officially supports many great User Interface mods! You can now access your AddOn management window via the 'Customize UI' window. This window will allow you to view information about and enable/disable any AddOns you may have installed. This window also contains an ‘Advanced’ screen that gives UI mod developers access to some of the same development tools Mythic uses to create its UI. In coming versions we will continue to improve the UI Modding systems in-game and plan to launch a UI Mods specific section of the Warhammer Herald.
* Improved Performance and Stability - We have made additional improvements for both the client and the servers.

Just a few nice things, not quite interesting unless you're currently subbed

Armor Set Improvements:
This patch represents a pretty significant improvement to Armor Sets in all Tiers. We have made a number of adjustments across many sets to ensure that these items remain both highly competitive and desirable. Changes to these items will automatically take effect on existing items in the game.:

* Armor Sets are now represented with their own special item type represented by “Gold” Text
* We have looked carefully at all sets to ensure that their bonuses are attractive to the careers they are designed for.
* We have looked carefully at all sets to ensure that their bonuses are attractive to the careers they are designed for.
* The bonus on many individual set items have been increased in power to make them more competitive with other Rare and Very Rare drops at their level.
* Some set items have had their equip level decreased, allowing them to be used at an earlier level.
* Crafters will be able to salvage most set items. Only set items that are available for purchase from a merchant will be flagged as “No Salvage.”
* We have added an additional item to the following armor sets: Redeye, Devastator, and Keeper.
* Starting in 1.1 the following set items have been made bind-on-equip: Sentinel Belt, Conqueror Boots, Invader Boots, and Warlord Boots.

Encounter Ward System Adjustments
After continued testing, we have revised the way that the Ward System works. Encounters will now be slightly harder for players without wards; however, players will need less total ward items to become competitive, and will gain an extra benefit if they complete the entire ward set.
* Players without warded armor will continue take up to 200% additional damage from certain monsters. Each appropriate ward worn will continue to reduce that damage by 40% per item.
* Players without warded armor will now have 40% damage output against certain monsters. For each piece of appropriate ward armor worn, the player’s damage output against those monsters will increase by 15%.
* Players who wear all five pieces of warded armor will deal an additional 15% bonus damage to certain monsters.

Open RvR Influence:
One of the most recently requested items by our community has been incentives for open RvR. The open RvR system is the first of many new features and improvements we have slated to ensure that WAR is the best RvR experience on the market.

Influence can be earned both by killing players as well as capturing or defending Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. When a player participates in a pairing’s open RvR, they will earn Influence with that race in that Tier. The more Influence you earn, the better the rewards you can obtain by speaking with the Rallymaster located in that area’s warcamps. For more information on rewards please see the detailed notes below.

* Each open RvR Influence area offers basic, advanced, and elite rewards for a total of 9 rewards per Tier
* New "Rare" items are available as rewards for more casual RvR players.
* New "Very Rare" items are available as rewards for hardcore RvR players.
* Open RvR Influence introduces many new weapons and accessories that players can earn exclusively in RvR!

Plus a bunch more you'll find if you follow the link. Good stuff for people who are currently playing, sure, but do you think it's enough to get new or old subscribers in? Does it all boil down to whether servers merge or not? Are server merges moot if since they seem to just want to transfer everyone from the multitude of servers to a select few?

[Goreschach]

Nothing about XP, nothing about mergers.

[ashrik]

nope, nothing about XP buffs.

As for server mergers- don't those free SERIOUSLYGOTOABIGGERPLACE server transfers accomplish the same thing?

[ghost]

Craptacular

[Shatter]

I like the update and am looking forward to trying this out tonight unlike 99% of the whiners that camp this site who never have anything good to say

[Tarami]

I like the update and am looking forward to trying this out tonight unlike 99% of the whiners that camp this site who never have anything good to say

That's so alternative of you.

[ashrik]

I like the update and am looking forward to trying this out tonight unlike 99% of the whiners that camp this site who never have anything good to say

When you're not bitching about WAR, you're bitching about people bitching at WAR.

It's not our job to go to bat for Mythic. People are looking for things in the patch, and if they aren't in it- there's a problem. If you don't like a site, I've no clue why you wouldn't fuck off and leave it.

[ghost]

I like the update and am looking forward to trying this out tonight unlike 99% of the whiners that camp this site who never have anything good to say

The one thing that would have made this a success, particularly for people here? 

Increase PVP experience gain.

Did this happen?  Pretty sure it didn't. 

[Feverdream]

I'm getting a little desperate for a PvP game.

I don't think adding another influence bar is going to do it for me.

I'm really seriousy considering re-subbing to DAOC.  Jesus.

[Soulflame]

If Mythic would put together Origins already, I could see going back and playing on that server for a while.  I haven't played in quite a while now, but at least on Bossiney, RvR consisted of hanging around DC (whee hib) until we got bored enough to boat to Beno or Bled.  Which typically ended in complete disaster, as everyone hanging around those keeps would beeline for us after the first couple kills.

DAoC really needs about 2500 to feel alive out in the frontiers.  2000 is scraping by.  Anything less than that, and it's pretty dead.  Particularly since there's 15 (or 16?) zones to play in, and people are actually using only parts of 4 on any given night.  This doesn't count the Lab, which was yet another "We don't get it" moment from Mythic.  Seriously, minotaur relics?  That you have to go into a dungeon to get?  Which, while carrying, paints your location on the map, require a certain RP/hour to even keep, and grant dubious bonuses at best?  Unless you're willing to build a solid 4-8 in order to grab some of the top relics.  Except... that a certain number of relics (there were three tiers) from the first tier have to be in play before you can grab a second tier relic.  Same thing with tier 3, you need a certain number of tier 2 relics in play before those can be grabbed as well.  (Sound... familiar somehow?)  Not to mention the drawdown from RvR population the lab caused.

I know this doesn't have much to do with the topic, but I think it does illustrate that DAoC RvR could have been the result of a happy accident.  That Mythic spent the next six years trying to break RvR is also relevant.

[waffel]

Interesting patch. Some things that make you go "meh, that's kinda cool I guess" but nothing to bring back any players. I wonder how long they're going to beat around the bush before they sit down and actually try to improve RvR performance/rewards/incentives/FUN instead of saying "Fuck it bob, make up some shitty items the players can grind in RvR, players fucking love items!"

edit:

And I think you're right, DAoC RvR enjoyment, and DF, was a happy accident. I really think Mythic intended DF to be more about killing bosses and getting phat items, same with the dragon zones. Instead, people never used the dragon zones and people used DF for RvR and grinding seals. Looking back on it, Mythic has been trying to shove PvE on its players for over 8 fucking years. What is wrong with this company?

[fuser]

I don't think I'm going to resub, nothing fixed in the grind. I'm sorry I grinded hours away in EQ chasing AA's I'm not doing in in WAR to just get to the fight 

The cut the xp in WoW from 0-60 and with refer-a-friend I rerolled with some friends and got back to outlands quickly. Blizzard is totally on the ball to get new people up and going quick in WoW.

[ghost]

FYI, keep sieges still consist of about 40 people trying to stand on a set of stairs with this crappy collision control mechanic.  Toons still move like they are underwater. 

I am honestly flabbergasted that anybody enjoys this shit.  I have tried really hard to like it, but my god the combat mechanics are terrible.  Alright.  I guess back to something else.

[Zzulo]

Hey I enjoy it. I also think this patch is a good one.

[eldaec]

people never used the dragon zones

Are you kidding me?

Or are you talking about different dragon zones to the ones that contained a dragon that dropped dozens of respec stones which could be killed by less than twenty players in less than an hour?

[UnSub]

I like the update and am looking forward to trying this out tonight unlike 99% of the whiners that camp this site who never have anything good to say

Something good to say about Mythic:

Good work on getting another patch out for WAR. Keep this up and one day you might do something to bring the players back! 

[waffel]

people never used the dragon zones

Are you kidding me?

Or are you talking about different dragon zones to the ones that contained a dragon that dropped dozens of respec stones which could be killed by less than twenty players in less than an hour?

It wasn't until a few months before ToA that people finally figured out (or it was changed by Mythic) how to kill the Hib dragon (would AoE everyone down randomly for no reason) Other than that, only reason people used the zone (and the massive amount of mobs/named mobs) was simply to level up. Anyway, no point derailing the topic about something so trivial. However, I will say that the upgraded dragon zones in DAoC now are awesome, the quests are fun, grouping up to do them is fun, and the long series of epic quests are really awesome. Fuck I miss that game sometimes.

[Fordel]

It was just under a year on half the servers for the Hib Dragon, due to a bug that locked the dragon in invincible patrol mode, even when it was just sitting at it's den.

Mythic just assumed all those Hib servers sucked or something 

[ghost]

Hey I enjoy it. I also think this patch is a good one.

And this amazes me....................

[hal]

The latest orvr changes are most excellent. Just like a PQ great gear. Great fun. At least in my opinion.

[trias_e]

I was guessing it would help a bit.  Keep taking those baby steps mythic!

[Arthur_Parker]

four members of the WAR team ..speak with WarCry Editor

With Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's first major content update set to go live today, December 11th, four members of the WAR team - Associate Producers Josh Drescher and Spyke Alexander, Designer Brian Wheeler, and Combat & Careers Strike Team Lead Adam Gershowitz - found some time in their busy schedules to speak with WarCry Editor John Funk about Patch 1.1 and the goodies inside it - new live events, an overhauled RvR system, and of course the addition of two previously cut careers.
...
As Gershowitz explains it, "When it comes down to it, it was all about quality for us. When we were looking to launch the game, we were looking to launch a complete product. We stopped working on these careers in the first place because they simply weren't the quality we wanted for launch - they weren't bad concepts, they weren't bad ideas, the mechanics were fine, but they weren't the quality we were looking for."
...
Drescher echoed the statements, stressing that the Warhammer that launched in September was a "complete product, not deficient in any way." He compared it to a film, where for whatever reason, shots and scenes that sounded good on paper didn't work out for whatever reason and get left on the cutting room floor, but the film that releases is still a finished product anyway. "This is like a Director's Cut," he said, noting that Adam and their team had worked on the Black Guard and Knight for months to get them to a point where Mythic was satisfied with the quality. "They weren't 'must have' boxes on a checklist or anything." When asked if the other two classes - Hammerer and Choppa - would ever be released, Drescher further affirmed that approach, saying that "if the time ever comes when those two careers are on the same level as the others, absolutely - but it isn't a 'must have.'"
...
Another change coming in WAR 1.1 is the tweaking of some mid-range Public Quests, allowing one quest per chapter to be done either solo or with a small group. Drescher explained the rationale, noting that PQs were one of the most-talked-about features that WAR offered, and that they didn't want new players to be stuck. "As the game matures, as the population finds its way into the higher tiers, we wanted to make sure that you as a new player who may have heard about PQs, will be able to do them and not get stuck because you can't find a party ... they shouldn't be impossible tasks; we don't want it to be like raiding where only 25% of the population can ever do it. "

However, there weren't any plans to add further incentive to the quests. "We're not looking to provide incentive because they have incentive by design," he continued, and Gershowitz agreed. "Easy PQs are focused on giving the PQ experience to small groups ... the rewards are appropriate for that; we don't want to take away for the medium-difficulty or harder PQs."
...
Still, for all the attention paid to open RvR in the patch, we asked the team what they were going to do to curb the unfortunate phenomenon of "keep swapping," where large guilds on opposite factions would agree to take each others' keeps and switch on and off for large amounts of renown and other rewards. Wheeler said that they'd been looking through the data and had realized that the renown reward for actually defending a keep was far less than it should have been, meaning that there was little incentive to defend something once you'd taken it. In 1.1, he said, "defenders are going to get a lot more renown and influence in RvR by defending a keep. I think we'll see a more doggish mentality where you go out, take a keep, and dare others to attack it."

There were other things in the works that would work towards eliminating keep swapping, he said, though they couldn't discuss it yet. The big change, though, would be that there would hopefully be much more incentive to take a keep and work to hold it.
...
Josh Drescher was particularly eager to talk about his personal favorite addition in 1.1, what he described as a "little nugget of joy" - Chicken Run. It's a quest offered in the Greenskin and High Elf Tier 3 areas (for Destruction and Order, respectively) that sends high-level characters down to the first tier open RvR areas ... where they get immediately turned into a chicken, and are tasked with completing special chicken objectives. "Which is mainly," he elaborated, "like trying to get through as fast as possible without getting killed."

"Players were doing this sort of thing anyway," he joked, "so we made this a little gag that we could throw in and give them actual quest rewards. Also," Drescher added, "any rank 1 character that gets ahold of a high-level chicken and kills them is going to get a reward like they killed an actual high-level character - everybody wins!"

So, that covers 1.1 mostly... what about 1.2? Or beyond, even? "We can't tell you much!" Gershowitz laughed. "The things that players can look forward to, and be assured that we're listening to, are improvements to the heart and soul of our game, RvR. We are dead serious about being best PvP game on the market. The things that we've been getting back - feedback on the forums, on the Public Test - are all things we're taking to heart. So whatever comes in 1.2 is the same 'we're listening, we're improving this game' content that we've done in 1.1."

Add "Director's Cut" to the thread title? 

[schild]

More like "Delusional Cut" amirite?

/too lazy to get screencap of germans giving eachother props in beerfest

[Kail]

The one thing that would have made this a success, particularly for people here? 
Increase PVP experience gain.
Did this happen?  Pretty sure it didn't. 

In theory, more people PvPing = more PvP XP.  Doing something like buffing XP per kill would be a double whammy, in that if it brings more players to ORvR, players would be getting more kills and more XP per kill, thus obliterating the levelling curve.  In theory, anyway, I dunno.

So far, the patch seems okay.  Haven't got to see the new PvP stuff yet (no one's on at 2:00 am), but the UI changes are neat.  Noob cultivators start with two pots, so grinding out the first few levels is a lot faster.  New tome unlocks seem weird; some of them say they have titles attatched (e.g. "Victim of a Knight of the Burning Sun") but you don't get one when they unlock.

[Trippy]

Wheeler said that they'd been looking through the data and had realized that the renown reward for actually defending a keep was far less than it should have been, meaning that there was little incentive to defend something once you'd taken it. In 1.1, he said, "defenders are going to get a lot more renown and influence in RvR by defending a keep. I think we'll see a more doggish mentality where you go out, take a keep, and dare others to attack it."

Good to see that the designers are only, oh, 8 months or so behind their players in figuring out the problems with their game design (we told them repeatedly at least 8 months ago if not even earlier that there needed to be incentives to hold BOs).

[Setanta]

Pretty underwhelming overall. Some things patched that should have gone out in retail, some ideas that should have been in retail... and nothing to fix the onerous T3 grind that is absolutely pointless.

I wish they would listen to their playerbase. They lost the WOW players when people realised it was an unpolished, poor copy of WoW PvE without the promised "WAR is everywhere" PvP.

WoW is ripping all the good WAR ideas and building them into their game. Why isn't Mythic looking at Wintergrasp's current success (destructables, good design, incentives etc) and ripping those ideas to put into WAR?

[Tannhauser]

Does anyone at Mythic think anything thru?  When they buffed rp rewards for keep taking they didn't bother to buff keep defending?  No one looked at that?  No one said "Gee guys, they may wind up keep swapping, we better buff RP keep defending."?

LEARN2DEV

Some neat things in the patch but no xp buffs for T3 means I stay unsubbed.

[KallDrexx]

Good to see that the designers are only, oh, 8 months or so behind their players in figuring out the problems with their game design (we told them repeatedly at least 8 months ago if not even earlier that there needed to be incentives to hold BOs).

Lol, they must subscribe to the Adam Carpenter line of thinking, which is literally "Players don't know what they want".  A lot of designers literally believe this and use this logic to reason why they don't listen to player feedback.  And people wonder why our games today are so craptacular 

[Bismallah]

Well, it's an "ok" patch but it won't bring me back just yet, if ever. They are way behind on the power curve. They really need to address the population issue on both side of the coin; lack of players and Destruction > Order.

These seem like little fixes to hold folks until they can do a major ORvR rebuild...

I wish they would listen to their playerbase. They lost the WOW players when people realised it was an unpolished, poor copy of WoW PvE without the promised "WAR is everywhere" PvP.

WoW is ripping all the good WAR ideas and building them into their game. Why isn't Mythic looking at Wintergrasp's current success (destructables, good design, incentives etc) and ripping those ideas to put into WAR?

Very valid point. Until they fix that aspect of the game they can patch till the cows come home and they wont get their subs back. They can keep holding onto the kids that want to shank each other in Scenarios but for this to be considered a skill based PvP game is laughable. Eve has a much higher PvP learning curve with no forgiveness. You die, you lose your shit, period. In WoW, I knew walking in I was going to BG grind for my ghetto purples, I had no idea I was going to have to do the same in WAR... I love how folks tout WAR as some awesome PvP game, when I have seen far better PvP even in WoW arenas. <yawn>

And then the slap in the face are the keeps, retro keep takes ftl. Hell WoW has at least moveable siege that is fun and innovative, destructable walls, etc... why did WAR not use their own old design from DAOC is just beyond me.

They are reaping what they sow. This is why their subs have shit the bed hardcore. Fanboi or not, like the game or not, you cannot deny the fact that this game has hemorrhaged users over it's first quarter. That says something...

[waffel]

Lol, they must subscribe to the Adam Carpenter line of thinking, which is literally "Players don't know what they want".  A lot of designers literally believe this and use this logic to reason why they don't listen to player feedback.  And people wonder why our games today are so craptacular 

I've beta'd Mythic products for years (DAoC x-pacs, Warhammer since January) and you have no idea how right you are. They really, honestly, not joking, believe they know what is right for their customers and that the customer better recognize that shit, y0. They've always thought this way and they always will.

I mean what kind of dumbfuck group of people make a game, have beta testers on a private forum, and lock pretty much any and all threads containing feedback?

This would be a great patch if they were gaining customers, or their customer base was holding steady.

[Arthur_Parker]

I quoted an alleged dev post from the Mythic public test forums quoted from the SA forums here.

In the past some companies have invited selected players to give them private feedback, is this the first time a company has created two tiers of players with thousands invited to a private forum?  I'm not asking anyone to quote from that forum, I'll pick up anything I'm interested in from other places, but what's the policy on that private forum?  Is there some forum of nda, do the Mythic devs post there often and is the forum still open after the last patch?

[Vinadil]

No idea on the forum... but as for the patch, it is definitely a step in the right direction.  Time will tell if they can do enough in "time" whatever time means.  The interesting thing about WAR is that most of the people I talk to who left are still at least looking at it... unlike AoC or VG or some of the past releases that just got canned when they stopped playing.  And, from the WoW talk I have been hearing from guildies who went back they are already done with the "fun" of the new Xpack.

I would love to see some new sub numbers for WAR, but I wonder if they could push back up near 500k after the New Year if they can keep working positive changes into the game.  I suppose I have forgotten the T3 grind already since I have been T4 for so long and don't roll alts (never have in any game).  But, last night on Ostermark was by far the busiest and best open RVR night we have seen since launch.  On a server that normally sees 24 v 24 at best we had easily 80-100 players in the RVR zones last night for a good 3-4 hours (maybe more... I logged around 11pm EST).

At this point the main thing that is still frustrating most of the active T4 people is the Zone Control issue.  The system is so cloudy that it just seems nuts.  If anything will cause people to stop playing in RVR (on our server anyway) at this point I think Zone Control would be it.  When RVR objectives are pointless people will just move back to random PvP, which gets old for many because it is a lot of running with a little fighting every so often.

[Arthur_Parker]

linky

The reality is the best way to earn influence, renown, and xp is to battle against other players over keeps and objectives, the cumulative sum of rewards is generally greater.

Unfortunately the path of least resistance is also tempting, rest assured though we'll continue to improve RvR to make it so that conflict is a common occurrence as best we can, but players adjust to massive RvR may still have yet to learn that a lot of the fun of RvR has to do with what you make of it. We expect to see players naturally migrate towards conflict as the initial influence frenzy calms down :)

Game is fine, players need to be patched.

[Lantyssa]

I would love to see some new sub numbers for WAR, but I wonder if they could push back up near 500k after the New Year if they can keep working positive changes into the game.  I suppose I have forgotten the T3 grind already since I have been T4 for so long and don't roll alts (never have in any game).  But, last night on Ostermark was by far the busiest and best open RVR night we have seen since launch.  On a server that normally sees 24 v 24 at best we had easily 80-100 players in the RVR zones last night for a good 3-4 hours (maybe more... I logged around 11pm EST).

You're seeing this after the most hyped "this will save the game" patch.  If it stays that high, great, however the numbers will be more telling in three or four weeks.

[Shatter]

My server is crazy busy every night and had alot of fun yesterday with the new patch.  I filled about half a bar of RvR inf from keep takes and BO's.  Warhammer is holding its own currently and I know 3 people so far that left for WOW and are already 80 there and came back to Warhammer.  If they continue to address problems at the rate they are within 6 months Warhammer will be a solid RvR MMO.  Its better today then it was at launch and I expect that trend to continue.  My guild has a solid WB full + every night and we all have a great time rolling destruction