WoW Announces Beta Race War Server

[Morfiend]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/realmtypes.shtml

Horde vs. Alliance Race War Server
The Horde vs. Alliance race war server will establish a straightforward method for the development team to test and balance the races and classes in a PvP environment. PvP concepts will be gradually introduced on this server. This means that the initial implementation of PvP is not how our final model will work once World of Warcraft is released. This patch includes the fundamental ideas of PvP in order to tune and refine the very foundation of our PvP model.

On the Horde vs. Alliance race war server, territories will be indicated whenever a player enters a new zone. The zone name will now include additional information to inform the player of the territories status. Additionally, the mini-map will be color coded to indicate who controls the zone:

Green = Friendly
Red = Enemy
Yellow = Contested
Players will be able to initiate player vs. player combat based on what territory they are in:
Players in friendly territories are safe unless they decide to engage an opposing faction player in combat.
Players in enemy territories will always be at risk and can be attacked by all players that belong in the territory.
All players can be attacked in neutral (contested) territories.
Actions that will enable a player for PvP status on the Horde vs. Alliance race war server will be:
Entering or being in an enemy territory
Entering or being in a contested territory
Attacking an NPC of the opposing faction
Attacking another player
Aiding a player engaged in PvP
Players will also be able to enable PvP on their own by using the /pvp command. Once PvP has been enabled for a player, no matter what the method, it will remain in effect for five minutes.

Yay. I cant wait for the push to start creating my pvp rogue.

From the way they have it set, there is no home invasion inless the home team starts the combat. Im not sure how I feel about that, but it IS a good way to start off having consentual PVP on a PVP server.

And this about the normal None-PVP servers.

Actions that will enable PvP on the standard player vs. environment server are:

attacking an NPC of the opposing faction
attacking a player who attacked an NPC,
aiding a player engaged in PvP. Players will also have the ability to enable
PvP on their own by using the /pvp command. Once PvP has been enabled by a player, no matter what the method, it will remain in effect for five minutes.

In time, all standard servers will include a consensual Player vs. Player system called Battlegrounds. Once Battlegrounds has been implemented, players will have the ability to attack other players to defend their cities and towns from invasion. We expect the Battlegrounds system to be available later during the beta test.

[HRose]

They really surprised me with this system. Now I need reasons and objectives to fight for.

If they are able to bring the FvF INSIDE the regular world they'll make my dreams come true.

[schild]

This almost makes me want to play. Almost. Need to see how it turns out.

[Sky]

Surprised you? This is a game based on a franchise that's all about race wars. I would have been surprised if they didn't offer it.

[schild]

I'm not surprised their offering it, I'm surprised it sounds good on paper. Let's see how the balance works out, given Blizzard I'd be surprised if it's more complicated than r/p/s.

[Riggswolfe]

Sounds like the Star Wars Galaxies TEF system. I'm afraid. Very afraid.

[Soukyan]

There will be exploits and they will be found quickly. Since it is a flag system, there will be a lot of "bait" tactics with "allied" guilds of opposing factions (a.k.a. people who know each other IRL and organize their grief) and with players who play multiple accounts. I certainly hope they can come up with a working system, but I have already devised several exploits just from reading that, so changes will need to be made... or not. If I can see the exploits, certainly the beta testers are going to find them, but maybe Blizzard is just banking on player justice and player policing. Har! Yeah... that'll work...

[Soukyan]

Sounds like the Star Wars Galaxies TEF system. I'm afraid. Very afraid.

As you should be. There's too much complexity to the WoW system already, and if they start making changes, it'll only get worse. It'll either grow too complex that people will not want to bother, or it will stay as is and Blizzard will just let the players work it out (i.e. grow complacent with the system) on their own.

[Signe]

Surprised you? This is a game based on a franchise that's all about race wars. I would have been surprised if they didn't offer it.

Wasn't Horizons supposed to be a game based on PvP between races, too?  Too bad they ditched the idea, however.  I don't know... it might have been enough to save the game.  

Thanks for that, Morphiend.  Your updating keeps me away from that horrible, horrible website!  This sounds like a lot of good fun, actually.  Although I may not be terribly excited YET... things like this confirm my decision to give the game a try when it's released.

[Murgos]

Surprised you? This is a game based on a franchise that's all about race wars. I would have been surprised if they didn't offer it.

Wasn't Horizons supposed to be a game based on PvP between races, too?  Too bad they ditched the idea, however.  I don't know... it might have been enough to save the game.  

With angels and devils and vampires that ate people and underwater races and etc...

Would have been a great game, if the actual process of creating it as originally imagined was actually, you know, physically possible.

[Sky]

It's still a level based game. Even if PvP was the core of the design, I wouldn't be on board. I hate level-based pvp, but then, I'm not a hardcore mmog player.

[Signe]

Yes, well... there was that whole being possible thing.  Even very clever developers are having trouble getting around that one.  Oh well.  Maybe we should talk about the interesting bits that Horizons has in it now?

...........................................
...........................................
...........................................
.............. oh well.

:(

[waylander]

Star Wars TEF system sucked nuts.  Hordes of people would stand around and wait for someone to TEF, and then mass gank the snot out of them.

[HRose]

the interesting bits that Horizons has in it now?

David Allen has managed to hide in the code naked pics of himself?

[Signe]

the interesting bits that Horizons has in it now?

David Allen has managed to hide in the code naked pics of himself?

hehe... you are a bad man, Mr. Rose!

[El Gallo]

I am not much of a PvPer, but I don't think that the system will result in too much SWG style TEF crappiness on the RvR as long as there are only a few green zones.  It sounds more like the standard "RvR is enabled everywhere except a coupld newbie zone" with the addendum that you can fight in newbie zones so long as the "defender" starts the fight.

Now the "you get a TEF if you attack a factioned NPC on a regular server" is an asstastic idea, unless that factioned NPCs are only found in cities or whatever.   People aren't going to be happy when they get TEF ganked when they are sent out by an NPC on some mission to kill some tauren mobs or whatever.

[Morfiend]

I am not much of a PvPer, but I don't think that the system will result in too much SWG style TEF crappiness on the RvR as long as there are only a few green zones.  It sounds more like the standard "RvR is enabled everywhere except a coupld newbie zone" with the addendum that you can fight in newbie zones so long as the "defender" starts the fight.

Now the "you get a TEF if you attack a factioned NPC on a regular server" is an asstastic idea, unless that factioned NPCs are only found in cities or whatever.   People aren't going to be happy when they get TEF ganked when they are sent out by an NPC on some mission to kill some tauren mobs or whatever.

As far as I have seen, the NPCs they are talking about ARE the town NPCS, they are also at little outposts and such also, AFAIK these are more like random towns folk, NOT the mobs people will be hunting for exp/quests.

[Morfiend]

Update on the upcoming patch.

The mail system.

Players can send and receive in-game mail through World of Warcraft's postal system. Every inn has a mailbox that players can right click in order to access mailbox functionality.

There are several types of mail:


Normal Mail: This is text only mail written on stationery. Normal mail may also include money.

Package: Players will receive a package when an item is sent to them. A package can also include a text message and money.

C.O.D: Players will receive a C.O.D. mail when an item has been sent to them that they still need to pay for. C.O.D. mail will need to be accepted and paid for, rejected, or postponed until its expiration date.
Normal Mail will arrive at its destination immediately while Packages and C.O.D items will take one hour to arrive.

Be sure to check mail regularly as it does expire after a certain period of time:

Normal mail: expires in 30 days, deleted when expired.
Package: expires in 30 days, returned to sender when expired.
C.O.D.: expires in 3 days, returned to sender when expired.
Mail can be sent to players by NPCs. Players on ignore lists will not be able to send mail to those ignoring them.

I really like this idea, and yes, you can mail stuff to other characters on the same account. No need to have a friend hang around when you want to transfer stuff.

Im not really excited about the COD mail taking an hour to arrive, but it sure takes some of the hassle out of trading, and getting scammed and such.

[geldonyetich]

It's been done, but is generally a good idea.

Regular mail with just plain text messages is a good feature to have, but often underutilized.   City of Heroes has it - most people don't bother to notice.

The package mail is in FFXI, and it's used constantly to relay things around.   It's tied into the auction house, in fact.

[HRose]

What I'd like to see are in-game boards. Like private, permanent boards for guilds and even public ones to discuss and organize things.

Im not really excited about the COD mail taking an hour to arrive, but it sure takes some of the hassle out of trading, and getting scammed and such.

I think this isn't so useful, all the trading will simply happens in the auction houses like in FFXI.

[HaemishM]

Regular mail with just plain text messages is a good feature to have, but often underutilized.   City of Heroes has it - most people don't bother to notice.

I think the biggest problem with CoH's in-game email is that there is no notification when you get a new message. Unless you check it regularly, you'll never know you got an email.

[Alluvian]

I think the system should add in notification that you received a message.  I don't think running to the mailboxes all the time if you are far from town is going to be very fun.  Maybe notification only for a COD.  I could live for that, the 30 days for the rest of the stuff is pretty long, but 3 days is a DAMN short amount of time.  Made more annoying by the 1 hour wait.  The short duration means that you pretty much have to tell the person it is coming in advance, and then the 1 hour wait could make them wait for it.  I don't really see any benefit to the 1 hour delay.

And I would personally like to be notified when I have a message.  A little immersive breaking, maybe, but I think it could eliminate the frustration that is feeling obligated to check email all the time.

The system looks nice, nothing ground breaking or new, but nice.  Ditch the 1 hour wait.

Oh, and EQ hasn't had problems with handing stuff off to an alt for a LONG time.  It was over a year ago that they added in shared bank slots that exist for all characters on an account.  I don't know if DAOC has any way of doing this yet or not.

[Sky]

I wonder if the delay is an anti-duping measure?

[Alluvian]

I can follow that, but why not 5 mins then?  1 hour is too extreme for me to believe it has anything to do with duping.  If the server is 5 minutes behind you have a lot more problems than duping on your hands.

[MrHat]

Re: Notification.

I was just thinking about that.  But to avoid the 'immersive' breakage, perhaps it could be an item.  You know, like they way they have the rest stones or whatever that allow you to teleport.  Maybe a grand L10 quest guaranteed reward is a Mail Mouse -- a magical mouse that lives in your backpack, it squeecks a message that only you can hear when you get an email, telling you who it is from and the subject, then it's up to you to go to your mailbox to retrieve the full mail?

Just a thought...

An attempt to add more depth to the post:

Just saw this at the b.net forums http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=79201#post79201:

For the initial implementation of the non-combative pets there are only a few choices available:

Cats

Parrots

Bunnies

Dragon Welplings

If players enjoy the feature, more pet choices will be added in future patches.

I think it's a fantastic idea, even better if you can dress them up a bit...name them and the such, maybe let your pet carry a little pouch around it's neck for extra items or something.  Really appeals to me in a hidden pokemon kind of sense.


EDIT: A magical mouse, what the living hell is wrong with me. -Kept the post as a warning to myself to not post right after work.[/url]

[Morfiend]

EDIT: A magical mouse, what the living hell is wrong with me. -Kept the post as a warning to myself to not post right after work.[/url]

Your avatar is Dave Chapelle. A magic mouse is the last of your problems.

[Romp]

A 'you cant attack me but I can attack you' system is dumb.  

If you want to make 'safe zones' then go ahead, but the stupidity of having a huge horde of orcs invading human territory and not being able to attack anyone...  And from a gameplay perspective you are going to have people running around waiting for someone to attack them so they can fight back.. then you have all the flagging exploits we saw in UO.

I'd rather see, low level safe zones near towns which have uber guards to protect your race or are just simply no go zones for enemy races.  Then all higher level zones, anywhere with good drops, boss mobs etc are all pvp+

I dont see whats wrong with the DAOC model really for racewars.

[HaemishM]

I dont see whats wrong with the DAOC model really for racewars.

I don't either, but WoW has to do SOMETHING different from the rest of the games out there, other than the skins.

As for pets, I'd have to make a pirate with a parrot pet just to walk around all day going "ARRRRRR! Shiver me timbers!"

[Mesozoic]

The DAoC ruleset earned them the DAoC playerbase.  I'll pass.  These are the people who insisted that housing was useless because it didn't confer any RvR advantage.  

People here asked for a fantasy Planetside once.  It exists, albeit with a mind-numbing, time-fucking preamble to 50, a few Master Levels, and then artifact hunting and leveling.

[Alkiera]

People here asked for a fantasy Planetside once.  It exists,

No, it doesn't.

albeit with a mind-numbing, time-fucking preamble to 50, a few Master Levels, and then artifact hunting and leveling.

And that is why it's not fantasy Planetside.

--
Alkiera

[Volm]

I think the system should add in notification that you received a message. I don't think running to the mailboxes all the time if you are far from town is going to be very fun.

You visit town a lot more in WoW than in most other MMO's. Whether it be to sell loot, do some tradeskilling, complete a quest, or (now that they added it) rest up a bit.

It's not a major hassle to return to town either. Long distance travel is made less tedious with the flight paths, and each character obtains a Hearth Stone (Teleportation to bind spot item which has a fair casting time, useable once an hour) whenever they check into an inn. There's at least one inn in each of the major cities and smaller outposts, and more have been added with this last build.

Not that I'm against a notification, just that you visit town so often that checking your mail won't be an isolated chore.

[Soukyan]

I think the system should add in notification that you received a message. I don't think running to the mailboxes all the time if you are far from town is going to be very fun.

You visit town a lot more in WoW than in most other MMO's. Whether it be to sell loot, do some tradeskilling, complete a quest, or (now that they added it) rest up a bit.

It's not a major hassle to return to town either. Long distance travel is made less tedious with the flight paths, and each character obtains a Hearth Stone (Teleportation to bind spot item which has a fair casting time, useable once an hour) whenever they check into an inn. There's at least one inn in each of the major cities and smaller outposts, and more have been added with this last build.

Not that I'm against a notification, just that you visit town so often that checking your mail won't be an isolated chore.

And how long does a typical from Spot X to Town Y trip take? I'd be interested to hear time spent traveling from random current location to town by each of the methods if you can guesstimate an average. Travel time is not bad if I'm seeing a new area, but after the 5th time, running back and forth, it becomes a chore and Yet Another Time Sink, YATS ™.

[Johnson101]

there are something like tps

[Signe]

there are something like tps

I prefer proper housing, myself.

[Morfiend]

there are something like tps

Huh?

I really hope this is some ones joke account.