DAoC rvr patch/expansion going live

[Kenrick]

This message was at the patch/login screen when I signed on last night:

Folks,

It’s the summertime, and contrary to the lyrics from the old ballad, the living is anything but easy here around Mythic Land. It’s been a busy year for everyone here and the summer has not been the time for us to kick back and enjoy our success. Rather, it is a time of hard work, effort and change for both DAoC and our company. This letter will detail, from my perspective, many of the things that are going on at Mythic and with DAoC. It will be followed by a letter from Matt Firor, who will go into great detail about some of the changes that I talk about in this letter. So, let’s start today’s letter off with some facts.

Our paid monthly subscriber base (as readers of my statements here and elsewhere know, we do not hide our subscriber count nor do we use “marketing-speak” to make things look better than they are in reality) in the US is, as of today, 5% higher than it was last year at this same time and Europe the growth is even higher. Not bad at all for a three-year old game that nobody thought would succeed eh?

During the last year Mythic delivered more content to its subscribers, at no additional charge, than any other MMORPG company that we are aware of in the world. With the release of Foundations and more recently, New Frontiers, Mythic has shown that it is committed to improving DAoC for as long as our players want us to do so. Additionally, New Frontiers represented a level of cooperation, communication and testing by and with an existing game’s fanbase than has ever been attempted in this industry to date. We are proud of the effort and we thank you, as always, for your support.

Mythic remains committed to doing what we believe is necessary to protect the company and the game against those who would harm it. As we closed a chapter with our lawsuit against Microsoft, we opened a new chapter with an aggressive campaign against those who cheat in our game.

Change is necessary; evolution is inevitable in life as in the gaming world.

So, what do these facts have to do with this letter? Plenty! First, let’s start with the bad news. No design and testing process for a game system as complicated as New Frontiers, let alone DAoC, can be completed without errors. After all, even with the heaviest and most exhaustive testing on Pendragon to date, there is nothing like a quarter of a million subscribers actually playing the game LIVE worldwide to find its flaws. Since the launch of NF, we have identified and fixed many of the problems that were discovered after the expansion’s release. We know that there are realm population issues plaguing some servers and the less-than-satisfying in-game experience for those people participating in RvR on those imbalanced servers. That’s the bad news.

Now, time for the good news! We have made some changes to the RvR systems to help balance things out and we will continue to make more over the next few weeks. However, we must tread cautiously for the last thing we want to do is make it impossible for those people who are playing in an over-populated realm to enjoy playing in NF. So, in order to improve the experience for those who are at a numerical disadvantage as well as avoiding hurting the experience for those whose realms are in-balance, here’s is what we are going to do. First, we will continue to make small changes to the game systems to make it easier for those people who are both playing in an under-populated realm as well as that find themselves heavily outnumbered and besieged, to hold back their attackers. However, we also will reward those brave defenders by giving them new bonuses for experience and gold gained, in addition to the realm point bonuses that they already get, for fighting under those conditions. The end result is that even if you are outgunned, outnumbered and out-of-luck, you will be rewarded by your Realm for defending it against its enemies. The end result will be that you will level faster, be able to buy stuff more quickly and enjoy the benefits that being the underdog will bring to you. We hope that this will make the experience of NF even more enjoyable and also help encourage more people to move to that realm and server.

Now, time for even better news! During the last year, Mythic has made DAoC an easier game to play than ever before. We have introduced a more group-friendly system and made it easier than ever before for new players as well as casual gamers to play and succeed in DAoC. However, we want to go even farther than that and we will do so over the next few weeks. As part of this we will introduce a number of initiatives, the biggest of which is the “Gift of the Realm” system. How this system works is quite simple. At certain time intervals (more on this later), players will be able to go to their trainer and receive special rewards for their character. These rewards will include a new experience level as well as gold on a weekly basis. These changes are designed to help the casual as well as the new player succeed more quickly in DAoC. Thus, players will be able to level their characters more quickly than ever before and in a way that rewards people of all play-styles (casual, hard-core) equally. When we first launched DAoC, we wanted it to be accessible to all kinds of play-styles and we will continue and expand in this tradition. We are also planning to add in-game maps (for non RvR areas) as well as new systems to make grouping even easier than before. We will also be adding things like in-game keyboard configuration as well as other things as part of this initiative, with lots more to come over the next six months.

However, the news gets even better here. In order to help encourage even more people to move to the under-populated servers and realms, the Gift of the Realm program will also be sped up on those Realms we determine to be under-populated. The intervals at which the gift is received will be shortened on those servers where the population and the realm are out-of-balance. Once again, this is a time-based award not one based on the number of things you kill, quests you solve, etc. but rather a bonus given to everyone with a realm/server combination that needs a bit of a boost. Also, this is a true bonus and the leveling time/cost/etc. for peoples’ characters, realms, servers, etc. are not being added to prior to this change or after this change (a favorite retail scam, first markup the prices then announce a BIG SALE!!!).

But wait, there’s more! Over the last few weeks we announced and followed through with a very active campaign against those who use hacking and cheating tools in DAoC. Not only has this campaign been successful to date, but we are stepping it up again. Mythic will do what is necessary to protect the long-term health of the game even if it costs us some subscribers and revenue in the short-term. We have seen a significant loss of subscribers due to the bannings and cancellations by people after they have been suspended for cheating. We expect to lose up to a couple of thousand people if we continue to follow through on this policy. And follow up on this we will do, no matter the cost. I have said before that Mythic is willing to sacrifice subscriber revenue in order to have a better game for the vast majority of players (percentage of cheaters among DAoC’s subscribers is very, very low) who don’t need nor want to cheat in order to succeed in DAoC and we have backed that up with our actions in the recent past and will continue to do so in the future.

As required by lawyers everywhere, the usual disclaimer that this letter is a guide as to what we hope to do during this period and not as a guarantee of any kind. I always hate saying this but that’s what lawyers are for, to make us say things that we hate.

As always we thank the community for its continued support and patronage of DAoC and I hope that you’ve had and continue to have a great summer!

Mark

Now basically we're not really going to know exactly what he's talking about until it's all actually implemented into the game.

I've only been playing for a month since coming back, but I've already come to the conclusion that my class (Alb Arsman) is almost completely worthless in RvR.  I can't get anywhere near close enough to any Hibs or Mids to even swing, much less hit, without getting mezzed for upwards of 10-15 seconds.  Oh wait, I don't even have the chance to be mezzed for that long because I'll be dead in under 5 seconds from all the 500 hit arrows and spells.

I was gonna go into all the changes I'd love to see and why, but I decided just to leave it at this:

Armsmen need love.
Mezzers and archers are way overpowered.

Fix this please then give me a stinkin state of the game.  kthx

[Soukyan]

That's another downfall. You'll only find level 50+ equipment for sale because it's not profitable to sell lower level wares. At least I never found anyone who really bothered with them. Find yourself a crafter and have them make the stuff for you though. On larger servers you can still find a fair amount of crafters. On smaller ones, like Palomides, most Legendary GM crafters are just guild bots, so you may need to talk to some of the guilds and see what you can find.

I'm really trying hard to play the game. I cannot hang around for a few hours to wait a tailor to do my armor and then spellcraft everything with 5 gold I gained in the PvP.

So I logged on my 50 toon on Merlin and tried every way possible to RvR. Nothing. Cannot find a group. If I do I finish with four peoples, each playing in a different zone.

I passed two years in this game and now I cannot play anymore. No matter how hard I try.

There can be a lot of guild-centric activity these days in DAoC. I have seen that at times it is very difficult to find groups and even groups that could use your class will often pass you by because they are "guild only". But it's not like that on every server and every realm.

Buffbots are still a big issue because it contributes to the increasingly "single player" mentality for PvE and sometimes even RvR.

Radar does not see stealthers unless they are unstealthed. It will show all non-stealth players and mobs along with levels, race and class. It is color-coded by realm to allow for quick enemy identification and works on approximately a 6000 unit radius (which is the entire dynamic loading bubble) from the user.

There is also a speed-hack for DAoC, but I don't believe that it is widespread. It does work and it allows for some ridiculous speeds with very little warping. This is because the server has to account for the fact that any player could move between the default run speed and the highest run buff at any given time (if grouped with a bard or whatever) and so the calculations are done between that range and acceptable. It does not check for a run speed buff in effect on the character. So, you might think that it isn't a huge deal, because most RvR groups have some run speed on anyhow, but the thing is... the speed hack doesn't drop when you enter combat. Being able to cruise around at speed 6 even if hit, is one hell of an advantage. Also, it can be used to speed up movement when stealthed. But again, you will probably encounter very little of that.

It's a shame that this kind of stuff exists for a damn game, but alas, that's what happens when you have a game with a scoreboard and people want to be number one at all costs. I'm not saying all the top people are cheaters either. Cheaters are the minority.

It's too bad you're having such a hard time of it, HRose. If it's any help, I found in my two years playing DAoC that I would run into hot and cold streaks when it came to RvR. Take a few days off and try it again and you may find it to be better.

[Anonymous]

The grouping problem is universal, across all servers and realms, near as I can tell.

Go out into RvR.  Join the main BG.

Type /bg status
Type /bg groups

It's a fair bet that 50% of the BG is running around solo.  There will probably be several "groups" comprised of 2-3 people.  No one will group, even if the BG leader tells people to form up groups.  I've watched a cleric beg for a group for half an hour before logging in disgust.  I've asked groups that obviously were not full, that were obviously in need of speed, if they wanted a theurgist.  The answer is generally, "No."  So I typically autofollow them anyway, just to see where they are running off to.  Most of the time, it's a swift death at the hands of a well built gank group.

As for the free levels, this will do nothing for population balance.  I'll see if I can explain.

Moving to a new server does not mean simply leveling to 50.  If anything, 50 is just the start of the grind to get to a point where you can be competitive in RvR.  You need a good group to run with.  This group needs to be very well formulated, particularly if you are playing in Albion.  You need artifacts.  You need Master Levels.  You need to spec out a template for resists, stats, ToA bonuses, etc.  Realm Rank 5 is pretty much a pre-req, most good groups would prefer you were RR8 though.  None of this is achieved in a vaccuum.

Getting the artifacts alone is enough to make me want to cancel.  Here's how a typical artifact raid works.

First, there's two types of raids.  Lotto, and claimed.  Lotto means people /rand on the artifacts at the end, claimed means people have stated if a certain artifact is gotten, they get it.  Many raids are a combination of the two.  As a side note, be very cautious of raids where pretty much everything is claimed.  It's probably a "raid" assembled to get a bunch of friends some artifacts.  You are best off going on raids you run yourself, or are run by your guild.

So, you assemble the raid.  Some encounters can be soloed, others require EQ plane raid sized groups.  Inevitably, people show up late.  Link Deaths are frequent.  One or more people get lost on the way there, and everyone needs to move back to get them.

Then there's the encounter itself.  The encounters are on respawn timers (of course.)  These vary from half an hour to days.  Generally, the artifact will always drop, although this isn't always the case.  So, the odds are the encounter for the artifact is not even up, or was scooped while you were waiting for the eighteenth person to get back from being LD.

It seems my particular realm has jettisoned "need before greed" when it comes to artifacts, and who can blame them.  Artifacts sell for plat, some up to seven plat or more.  Generally, pretty much the entire force rolls on an artifact, whether they need it or not, as they can sell it for mad cash later.  Or even give it to an alt.  Good luck rolling!

So, say you've managed to get an artifact.  Now, you have to find three specific scrolls.  They are rare drops, that only are dropped by specific mobs.  Many scrolls are dropped by blues and yellows, some are dropped by mobs that can only be killed with a well oiled PvE group.  It can take, on average, a lot of kills to obtain the third scroll (I've seen the number 140 tossed around for at least one scroll), the first two are generally a bit easier.

Ok, you've gotten the three scrolls.  Now combine the scrolls, and take the artifact and resulting book to the correct NPC.  Finished, right?

You wish.  Now, you have to level the artifact.  This ranges from spending 10 hours grimly pulling the same mob over and over again, to needing to build a well built PvE group multiple times in order to get into areas that are pretty much death traps.  Hope you've got friends!

Keep in mind that you still need to run Master Levels (probably 72+ hours of playtime to get done.)  You'll also need to finish that suit template, which will require a bit of time pouring over items, artifacts, quest drops, and what can be spell crafted, in order to build the "perfect" suit.  Spell crafting the suit will cost upwards of three plat.  Obtaining just one ring can cost three plat.  This is a hideously expensive process, as you can well imagine.

Moving to a new server will only help the new server if you can bring a good sized guild that can complete all of the above.  Individuals moving to a new server will accomplish nothing.  You won't be followed as a leader.  You won't get into the "good" groups.  You'll be lucky to group at all.

This latest effort to balance the server populations is going to fail just as badly as /level 30.

The only fix I can possibly imagine is an offer to move entire guilds to a new server, where they will get all their MLs, a free level 50, whatever tradeskills they need, pick of their artifacts, etc, so on and so forth.  Nothing else will compell people to move to a new server, certainly not the prospect of abandoning characters they've accumulated 100+ days of /play time on, just so they can do that all over again.

[Kenrick]

They just posted another big "future updates" article on the herald.  Here's one humorous snippet:

- We are implementing a system where all characters will now be granted a free level every seven days, assuming the character has attained a level by standard methods in that time. In other words, if you play regularly and attain at least one level in a seven day period, you'll be given a free one, as well as some coin. This means that even a very casual player can gain levels fast enough to get to the mid and high levels quickly.

[eldaec]

It's a fair bet that 50% of the BG is running around solo. There will probably be several "groups" comprised of 2-3 people. No one will group, even if the BG leader tells people to form up groups. I've watched a cleric beg for a group for half an hour before logging in disgust. I've asked groups that obviously were not full, that were obviously in need of speed, if they wanted a theurgist. The answer is generally, "No." So I typically autofollow them anyway, just to see where they are running off to. Most of the time, it's a swift death at the hands of a well built gank group.

You 100% need a decent guild to rvr, unless you are a stealther solo class (with buffbot), or just want to mooch about in keep defences.

It's fair to criticise the game for that design decision, but fact is the game is completely different with a proper guild group. I don't mean a ML10 artifact laden min maxed gank group. I just mean 8 lvl 50 people who respect each other and where some effort has been made to include speed, heals, and cc.

As for the free levels, this will do nothing for population balance. I'll see if I can explain.

I agree, espeicially with this...

The only fix I can possibly imagine is an offer to move entire guilds to a new server,

Spawn a one way portal in high population realms leading to low population servers for the same realm.

Have them up for a month at a time.

Walking in runs a character move.

Ideally you need to move guilds, and this method would allow for that by keeping the portal open for a predictable length of time.

But failing that, allowing one way moves of complete characters is feasible. Becuase a lvl 50 with a few realm levels, master levels, and artifacts, will generally be able to find a new guild on the new server.

Of course, this plan would also lead to thousands of CS tickets refering to how 'little brothers' had triggered a server move (much in the way so many little brothers keep using up respecs or giving away loot).