Experience Enhancements - Phase V

[Mrbloodworth]

It’s been a while since we’ve done a round of experience enhancements, but with the new year comes some good news for those players working their way through Tier 3 and eager to join their friends in Fortress raids and capital city sieges.

We are pleased to announce the fifth phase of our ongoing experience enhancements. In response to the valuable feedback of many players, we have reduced the required experience needed to attain ranks 20 through 33. As a result, it will now take you less time to advance through Tier 3 and the earliest ranks of Tier 4.

We hope you will enjoy the brisk new pace of advancement, as well the many challenges and rewards that await you in Tier 4!

Link


Fortresses...and a little more!

Folks,

   The first step in improving the oRvR experience of fortress taking went LIVE across all servers last night.  The good news is that there were lots of fortresses captured and defended.  The even better news is that there were no fortress-related crashes last night while these battles raged and were completed by the players.  Performance in these battles was also improved, but still not where we want it to be of course.  While this is a good start, continuing to improve the mechanisms behind these battles remains one of our top priorities now and going forward.  Over the next few weeks, we will be working on a number of initiatives that I can now talk about.

   First, the team will tweak the settings for the Fortress Lords to make sure that their power is in line with the current numbers of players expected to participate in the siege.  Second, the team will continue working on optimizing the code’s performance in large-scale battles so we can increase the population cap over the next few weeks.  Third, the team is looking at additional tweaking of the pop cap to ensure that it is where it needs to be in order to allow these battles to be as well-balanced (from a design perspective) as they can be.  In the end, it is up to the players to decide to defend and/or attack a fortress but it is our job to make sure that the pop cap is set properly to ensure that the maximum number of defenders/attackers that can *choose* to participate is set up so that if the population hits max cap (and assuming that both sides are equally powerful), neither side has an advantage over the other.  Most importantly, the team will also be looking at moving the fortress areas out to their own zones to allow an even a greater of number of players to participate, while also maintaining a high level of performance.  While they are doing that, they will also be looking at ways to enhance the fortress areas to take advantage of having their own dedicated zone.  This might also allow us to get slightly lower-level players into the action, either directly in the fortress sieges, and/or in supporting roles around the main action.  However, we won’t move the sieges into their own zones unless we are sure that we can get either some design and/or performance improvements by doing so.

  As always, we appreciate your feedback, suggestions, patience, and participation as we continue to work on these issues and initiatives.  What we’ve done so far is only the first step and we have a lot more coming in the next few weeks.

  Oh, and expect a major announcement from us at the end of the month regarding our plans for the next few months and beyond.  It’s going to get even more interesting around these parts soon. :)

Mark

For more information on Tier 4 Fortress changes, click here.

[tazelbain]

Posted in other threads.  It's like 10%, nothing to get worked up about.

EDIT: Patches 1.1a-d Have Arrived, Page 8

[Mrbloodworth]

Posted in other threads.  It's like 10%, nothing to get worked up about.

Really?    I looked too. My bad. I found it interesting, because well, it was one of the major complaints on this board.

[Threash]

Posted in other threads.  It's like 10%, nothing to get worked up about.

Really?    I looked too. My bad. I found it interesting, because well, it was one of the major complaints on this board.

It still is, the bonus needs to be a lot higher and mainly for tier 4.

[Hindenburg]

Mainly for T4? Hell no. It's needed from rank 15 and up.

[HaemishM]

I think you could get away with starting at rank 18, but really, a shorter experience curve from 20-33 is absolutely crucial. Of course, 10% is a slap in the face. It needs to be something like a 100% reduction, because those levels have shit for PVE content, the PQ's are brutally bad, and the scenarios will pop less as more people rank out of t3.

[Soulflame]

T3 was utter ass when I was playing, Tor Anroc was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.  Yea verily.  On top of that, 5 hours to go from 24-25?  Unacceptably slow, but typical of Mythic.

As Haemish already noted, T3 pops will continue to drop, there aren't enough quests to level through T3, and Tor Anroc, while it may be "fixed", is probably still utter ass.

[Jherad]

Yes, Tor Anroc is still ass - and that's playing as a knockbackalicious Engineer. That scenario needs to die horribly, and the Mythic people responsible for it need committing. At least it isn't the only scenario that pops now, but on the other hand, all scenarios pop much less frequently.

T3 is still grindy, and still requires you to hop through all three racial pairings in order to level out of it (or at least does on Volkmar, with the lack of scenario pops there).

[Bismallah]

Nice Avatar pic with GWAR!! (is that who it is?)

[Lantyssa]

I didn't mind Tor Anroc, but then I played it less than ten times and I was a Swordmaster.  Had some of my best games there, mainly because people still hadn't learned about killing the Dude with the Thing.  I only punished someone with Gust if they tried to knock me off first (not a map to have a Swordmaster gunning swording for you). 

[Mrbloodworth]

Nice Avatar pic with GWAR!! (is that who it is?)

Tom green.

[Jherad]

I didn't mind Tor Anroc, but then I played it less than ten times and I was a Swordmaster.  Had some of my best games there, mainly because people still hadn't learned about killing the Dude with the Thing.  I only punished someone with Gust if they tried to knock me off first (not a map to have a Swordmaster gunning swording for you). 

There is a distinct possibility that my loathing for Tor Anroc comes from my first character, a White Lion with no knockbacks. I must have run that scenario hundreds of times (it was frequently the only scenario that popped in T3), and it gives me the twitches now, even if I'm not getting knocked into the lava every couple of minutes.

Ugh. If it was easier to get out of the lava that would be *something*. Very very frustrating.

[Bismallah]

My WP was a prime target for pinball in there when I leveled through it.

I swore after that and the 100th Serpent's Passage I was never doing another Scenario again, it held true.

[Lantyssa]

100 of any scenario gets old.  Not having knockback as an option on that map would make it get old faster.

I fully understand why it's a bad map though, and were it not for playing it only a handful of times and having one of the easiest and most spammable knockbacks, I'd have quickly learned to hate it, too.

[Setanta]

I think you could get away with starting at rank 18, but really, a shorter experience curve from 20-33 is absolutely crucial.

Or they could get rid of the levels completely as they are unnecessary and a pointless waste of time. Level to 20 fast and compress the skills into these tiers and people would have as much if not more fun getting out into oRvR with the right tools. THEN get them to play oRvR to get reknown points to enhance their build. Not to mention FGS, get rid of the stupidly stupid AOE CC.

[HaemishM]

Now you're just talking crazy talk. 

FWIW, I'd love to get rid of the levels, but we know that won't fucking happen.

[Pringles]

There is a distinct possibility that my loathing for Tor Anroc comes from my first character, a White Lion with no knockbacks. I must have run that scenario hundreds of times (it was frequently the only scenario that popped in T3), and it gives me the twitches now, even if I'm not getting knocked into the lava every couple of minutes.

Ugh. If it was easier to get out of the lava that would be *something*. Very very frustrating.

What!?

Tor Anroc was my fav as a WL.

Course, I was in there when pounce was utterly broken, but even after, pounce still made the knock backs useless if you were quick to cast.
Of all the classes, its least frustrating for the WL.

[Kail]

Posted in other threads.  It's like 10%, nothing to get worked up about.

As far as I saw, it was about 10% at rank 22.  At rank 26 it was more like 25% or so (though my numbers are way rougher there).  Not that I expect that's really enough for most people, either.

[ashrik]

I liked TA as a Marauder.

Sprint, Flee, be first to get the bauble.

[Jherad]

What!?

Tor Anroc was my fav as a WL.

Course, I was in there when pounce was utterly broken, but even after, pounce still made the knock backs useless if you were quick to cast.
Of all the classes, its least frustrating for the WL.

Yeah. I was full Guardian. It was least frustrating for the WL *if* you'd specced for pounce (and more so when it didn't require a target).

So. Did someone say they're scrapping the levels? 

[waylander]

T3 to level 40 needs to be like 50% faster than it is. There's a reason why many people never make it to the end game, and its called BORING PVE.

I really don't get the folks at Mythic being so slow with changes. Its like OD'ing on pills, and the doctor wants to pump your stomach after its all dissolved and in your bloodstream. They just continuously make changes they know they need to make, but entirely too slow to save the population.

[Nebu]

I think the more apt analogy would be to give cpr to someone that has been dead for a month. 

There was a lot of potential wasted with this title and it all started with the use of a shitty pvp engine. 

[Mrbloodworth]

I think the more apt analogy would be to give cpr to someone that has been dead for a month. 

There was a lot of potential wasted with this title and it all started with the use of a shitty pvp engine. 

I don't think its the engine, i think its their application layer, and server code. I understand you were using engine as a catch all.

[Jherad]

I'm not sure they know what is wrong, so each and every change is a toe in the water to see how the playerbase reacts.

To be honest, I'm not convinced any of the people making high level design decisions actually play their own game. I don't mean that in a bitchy 'Mythic sucks' kind of way - I'm curious how some of the 'issues' that players take for granted, and have been complaining about since release (fortress crashes, contribution) have been greeted in some cases by surprise.

I'm probably being naive, and perhaps devs don't play their own games as a rule. If it is but a happy illusion, it is very thin in Warhammer though.

Edit: By 'play', I don't mean log on and knock out 5 levels every now and then. I mean play - like a customer. 1-40. Participate in everything the game has to offer, on a regular basis.

[veredus]

At level 30 I went from needing roughly 530,000 exp to roughly 450,000 exp to get to 31. So that's about a 15% decrease in experience needed. I know this is only my opinion but once they got people out doing actual rvr the leveling speed felt right since it actually became fun. Most of the time the the t3 w/b is looking for destro to fight and is willing to defend keeps. I only queue for scenarios if the w/b is being stupid and only keep swappng or if I can only log on for like 30 minutes or so.

[UnSub]

Edit: By 'play', I don't mean log on and knock out 5 levels every now and then. I mean play - like a customer. 1-40. Participate in everything the game has to offer, on a regular basis.

I think there would be a nasty habit for devs to auto-level their character to whatever point before they started to play. Some titles forbid devs doing that on live servers, some don't. But I think it helps explain a lot about why certain issues were missed and it fits with how they conducted the beta testing.

[Sheepherder]

I don't think its the engine, i think its their application layer, and server code. I understand you were using engine as a catch all.

Morrowind
Oblivion
DAOC
Warhammer
Civilization 4
Empire Earth II

High system requirements and a predisposition towards bugginess.  The SDK is probably fine as a tool until developers start dropping in third party libraries with minimal tweaking, but when you're selling a "highly modular" engine that shit just doesn't fly IMO.

[rk47]

Prediction:
Mythic will put the other 2 capitals for each faction back in.
This will result in reduction of Fortress requirement from 2 to just the respective zone fort to unlock the capital city siege.
Which would make more sense since people will have more options and cry less about 'population cap limit' for fortress raids.

[Nebu]

Prediction:
Mythic will put the other 2 capitals for each faction back in.
This will result in reduction of Fortress requirement from 2 to just the respective zone fort to unlock the capital city siege.
Which would make more sense since people will have more options and cry less about 'population cap limit' for fortress raids.

By then they will have about 50k subscribers and noone will care.  The hardcore will fight the hardcore and the mainstream will forget this title even existed. 

I had a little chuckle this morning when I had the thought that IF Darkfall actually manages to release, that WAR may lose a few players to it.  Even if it is in the short term, it still makes me giggle.