10 Days of WAR: Day Three

For Day Three of my 10-day return to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, I ventured back into tier 1 to see how the new limitless trial was working out.  I rolled the one Order class I haven't played: the dwarf slayer.  Instead of starting in the dwarf lands, I was transplanted in the Empire starting area of Nordland.  This is meant to make sure that new players are concentrated into a single zone, allowing for the key features of WAR to shine (PQs, RvR, lairs).

I took a screenshot of a new item, the Rune of Transport, that describes exactly what it is all about:

Not only does it highlight the new combined starting area, it also makes a statement about the way the player density in WAR has been heading: down. However, the new starting area is good for WAR and it helps tremendously to hide the player density issues of the later tiers.

Playing at 11 PM on a Saturday night, I was shocked that so much was happening in Nordland.  New players were everywhere and most public quests were hopping.  Also, the RvR lake was packed and scenarios were starting on a regular basis.  Asking around, I found that A LOT of the "new" players were on the limitless trial and after some observation it was apparent.


Players were not behaving as I had expected.  Many were willing to repeat the PQs well after maxing their influence bars.  Others showed no interest in progressing at any reasonable speed. Some even explored the far reaches of the zone!  It was obvious that rank 10 (the max in the trial) was the end game and it was only a stones throw away.  There was no need to rush.  This spurred my optimism as I am now seriously considering playing the limitless trial after my 10 days are up.

Tier 1 has always been my favorite experience in WAR.  This is the tier of content that sold me on the game in beta and the weekend previews.  This was the tier of content that every beta tester agreed was "polished" and all Mythic needed to do was copy it four times over for a successful game.  It was all false hope as Mythic did not copy it and the current state of the game stands as evidence.  I would be curious to see how many veterans would rather spend time in tier 1 compared to tier 4.  I know I would!

Even with my love for tier 1 flowing, I still despise the RvR lake setups.  Tier 1 is worse off than tier 4 as there are no keeps or mounts for fast transport.  Fortunately, Nordland has the best of the tier 1 RvR lakes and is the only RvR lake in the game where I agree with the warcamps being close together.  It's tier 1 and players NEED to be put close together to spur action.  The Dwarf and High Elf starting RvR lakes are terrible in comparison.  Mythic chose the right zone for the new "new player experience".

Still, there is almost NOTHING outside of the battlefield objectives and zerg warfare in the tier 1 RvR lake.  No PQs, no quests, and little PvE content.  There is a lair to complete, but its out of the way and requires a solid group of coordinating players.  Its a stupid design, a waste of resources, and a missed opportunity.

Over three days, it is apparent what one of my major gripes with WAR is.  I truly thought that Mythic was going to incorporate all aspects of WAR into awesome end-game RvR zones that would attract both the PvP and PvE players.  This blend of play styles was going to put in place a varied platform for future growth.  I was fooled into thinking that RvR was something more than just PvP, but in WAR it is not.

What will I do for day four?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

10 Days of WAR: Day Two

Day two of my journey back into Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning landed me in the Land of the Dead.

After checking out the map of the zone I noticed that the Public Quest (PQ) markers showed how many players were present and participating. The PQ nearest the starting area was one short of the recommended group size, so I joined in the fun. The first monster I attacked, a giant condor, didn't fall over dead as I had expected. Instead it took flight with me in it's claws and headed up to the mountainside to deposit me in it's nest! I was shocked: MMOG monsters are supposed to die and give me loot, not try and feed me to their children!

Completing this PQ reminded me why I had such high hopes for WAR. PQs are brilliant and fun when enough players are present. Unfortunately since Order just unlocked access to the LotD zone, only the PQ nearest the warcamp had any players participating.

Referencing back to Day One, there are no PQs in any of the tier 4 RvR lakes, which is a damn shame considering that is where Mythic encourages players to spend their time.  Again, it frustrates me that NOTHING has been done to the RvR lakes to encourage players to visit outside of a zerg keep or objective fight.  Also, to highlight the poor design decisions, keeps and battlefield objectives reward increased experience/influence gain in zones where there is NO FUCKING CONTENT! 

I refuse to use the term zone for the RvR areas, as they are one-dimensional lakes.  Players returning to WAR to jump into the tier 4 RvR action are going to find the same sub-par game they left in the first place.  Anyways, back to LotD.

After a few runs of the PQ, I decided to see the rest of the zone. What I found next, blew my fucking mind:

Its fairly obvious that I am not a fan of zerg vs zerg PvP.  I enjoy smaller conflicts where each and every player matters and the action lasts minutes, not seconds.  Larger conflicts are welcome, but not when they are the majority.  There needs to be incentives for players to spread out.  WAR could accomplish this by  filling out the tier 4 RvR lakes with PQs, quests, and other PvE content.   A keep siege should be a significant event, not an hourly occurrence and certainly not the ONLY attraction to the RvR lakes.

That is why the above situation blew my mind.  The content in LotD spreads the players out across the multiple PQs, lairs, and instances.  There is no single point with a flashing timer or a zone-wide broadcast that signals every player in the area to come rushing over.  Players form small groups and head out to their content destination of choice which can lead to...

...dare I say it...

small-scale RvR!  I spent the next 30 minutes chasing down Destruction players with a couple random Order players.  I even succeeded in finding and winning a 1vs1 fight with a Shaman, something I only dreamed of originally. 

I spent about an hour in LotD and I'm convinced it is a model for the rest of the game.  It features a well designed zone that combines all aspects of WAR: RvR, PQs, PvE quests, instances, and lairs.  Outside of the gating mechanic, which I don't fully understand, LotD gave me hope that WAR might make it as a niche game.  Mythic needs to transplant the combination of features that LotD offers to the rest of the tier 4 RvR lakes.

For day three, I am going to look at the tier 1 situation and the effect the limitless free trial has had.

10 Days of WAR: Day One

I started my holiday-inspired return to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning by logging into my level 40/ RR 35 Ironbreaker on Badlands. The first order of business was restoring my UI. WAR's default UI serves its purpose, but there are a few things my minimalist gamer brain needs: clean unit frames, consolidated info bars, and easily customized hotbars.

Rebuilding a lost UI can be aggravating, but for WAR, there is a great tool available from Curse for management and automatic updates/installs of most UI elements. I highly recommend the Curse Client.

For clean unit frames, I settled with Pure. Hotbars are managed via Vertigo. Info bars are kept organized with Warboard. The rest: Phantom, Squared, and MOTH.

 

After thirty minutes of  UI customization, I was ready to helicopter on out to the Tier 4 RvR lakes.

The first and immediate change noted upon logging into WAR is the new RvR summary page.  Upon login, it details all of the current RvR hotspots and offers a quick teleport to the warcamp nearest the action.  The teleport is only usable once every 8 hours, somewhat lowering the convenience of the tool, but keeping the game balance in check.

The action was in Eataine and once on the ground, I headed out.  It wasn't long (about 30 seconds out of the warcamp) before I was eating dirt thanks to a full on zerg of Destruction players.  My second run out was more fruitful as I skirted down the river and entered the RvR lake well outside the view of the enemy.  However, this brought me back to a reason I quit WAR the first time around.   The damn warcamps are too close together. 

If a player is smart, like me, and runs around the immediate action, they are greeted with  boredom as almost no one ventures out to the corners of the RvR lakes unless an objective is being contested and they have a zerg in tow.  Its absolutely frustrating that Mythic has done nothing to encourage players to enter the tier 4 RvR lakes for anything more than mindless zerging back and forth between the warcamps.

This really soured my attitude and I ended up logging for the day.  Day Two will see my first adventure into the Land of the Dead.

10 Days of WAR

I've run the gambit of thoughts on WAR, my final verdict after months of play was that WAR had pockets of greatness, but the overall design was poor. Also, some technical and stability issues arose directly related to poor design that really aggravated me. However, since quitting, I've wanted to go back. So, I've decided to take advantage of the re-enlistment campaign for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

With that will come the following list of nifty gifts:

I have no honest plans to resubscribe because I lack the time to make $14.95 a month a justifiable expense.  However, stranger things have happened.

Welcome to the new Heartlessgamer.com

Enjoy!

Update:  Lost some bottom padding under posts, but cant figure out how to fix it :P Ah well, nothing major. That tricksy padding was trumped by some margin-top with a new class :P

Team Fortress 2 - Crafting

The upcoming Team Fortress 2 update is getting more interesting by the day.  A new crafting webpage has appeared as part of the update, with a promising opening:

For years you have been able to create weapons with your bare hands, using raw steel, in real life. What if we were to tell you there’s now a way to SIMULATE that in-game?

Apparently this will run off of blueprints where various items can be combined to create the item you want. A screen shot of the crafting screen is below:

Valve never ceases to amaze me with the updates for TF2.

Update: Also found http://www.teamfortress.com/war/saxtonhale/poopyjoe.htm

The Economy of FREE

FREE, 29 holiday song downloads on Amazon. You clicked.  I know you did.  It's ok, I'll wait for you to get Silent Night playing in the background before you come back to read this post.  FREE is hard to resist, especially with no strings attached.  FREE is also worth money, because out of the hundreds of people that download a FREE song, some will end up buying one.

Gamasutra has some hard numbers: 58% Of PlaySpan Users Buy Goods From Free-To-Play Games

And not only did free-to-play games see the highest purchase penetration among users, they also generated the most money on a per-user basis. The average user's expenditure on publisher-sold free-to-play digital goods over the course of 12 months was $75, compared to $60 for MMOs, and $50 for social network games.

F2P games, with micro transactions, serve all levels of investment from players. There is no barrier to entry because its free to play, increasing the potential audience. Those willing to spend very little, can still access the game, earning money from a market segment that the subscription model misses. Those willing to pay more are allowed to do so and are not capped at their monthly subscription cost. Both end up supporting the ability for free riders to hitch on at no cost.  A free rider being just another sales opportunity.

World of Warcraft has forever cemented the subscription model as valid. F2P games are quickly validating micro-transactions.  This is not an argument that F2P is better than the subscription model. It shows that the F2P model is working and that those people screaming about $10 horses are falling behind the times. Also, it shows that advertising can be done with the product, not flashy Mr T commercials (as epic as they are).  That's a win for the customer as we get a free game to play, no strings attached.