How to Expand PvP… Dwarf – Kadrin Valley

Heading down south in the Warhammer world, we enter the realm of the dwarves. In WAR if one was to take a poll, you would most certainly find that the DvG pairing is the least liked across all tiers. In tier 4 the reason is probably for the one reason we should like the DvG pairing – it isn’t very zerg/huge battle friendly. The Empire pairing in T4 is dominated by narrow maps with warcamps at the center of the map on opposite sides (east-to-west) of the lake. The DvG pairing on the other hand locates the warcamps on north-to-south opposites and the BOs aren’t placed in locations which entirely favor zergs or one dominating force. So for the longest time this pairing was largely neglected in T4 – especially in the days of forts. My hope is that by expanding the battle into the existing PvE lakes the DvG pairing in T4 will at least become somewhat more user friendly.

How to Expand PvP… Empire – Chaos Wastes

Last up for the Empire v. Chaos pairing are the Chaos Wastes, a desolate region located at the north pole of the world from whence demon spawn spill forth. The interesting thing about the Chaos Wastes is that the RvR lake is terribly bland, but you step into the PvE lake and it is crazy as shit. Fields of petrified warriors… a ship graveyard… twisted bramble… eerie neon-colored lakes… caves spewing forth wind and sand. I’m telling you CW beyond the ORvR lake is a bizarre world, a world which would be tons of fun to fight in! Lets explore just some of the exotic locations…

How to Expand PvP… Empire – Praag

Arguably one of the most highly rated zones in Warhammer. There is something about Praag which draws players to it, and fights here are never dull. I think it would be reasonable to assume that the nature of the ORvR lake is the main reason everyone loves it. You look at every single ORvR lake from T1 to T4 and they are primarily vast open fields with keeps jutting out here and there and BOs scattered in the corners. Then you look at Praag with its twisted streets, dead-end alleys, open squares, shattered buildings. Yes, this is the truest sense of WAR. Few zones are zerg busters, and Praag is one of them. While my original argument with expanding the RvR lakes was to incorporate artistic wonder left in the PvE lakes, that is not the case with Praag for all the artistic wonder lay within the RvR lake. This however does not mean that one cannot expand farther out. No sir, the borders of Praag go beyond the confines of the ORvR lake…

How to Expand PvP… Empire – Reikland

Yesterday I came up with an easy solution to a PvP expansion to WAR, at the expense of PvE. The solution: expand the RvR lakes into the PvE lakes and turn key PQs and Major landmarks into battlefield objectives. No new content is added, but the scale of ORvR doubles in some zones.

To me BOs always should have been something worth defending – key structures or choke-points. It always baffled me how so many BOs are just… open stretches of ground with some trees or a single building. Tactically speaking many BOs are seemingly pointless locations. The true art of the developers was instead poured into the PvE lakes, wasted talent since so few venture out into the PvE lakes. So now I present how I would expand the RvR lake a la my visual guide! Nothing fancy but hopefully it can illustrate  some cool locations.

How to Expand PvP…

Of recent I’ve been reading the forums and other blogs a lot more than I play in order to reap the harvest of new opinions and fresh ideas. While stumbling upon the multitude of opinions and thoughts three struck me –

• “Lag is generated by all the mobs respawning in the PvE lakes.”
• “This is a PvP game, give us a PvP expansion.”
• “There is no way to expand PvP without adding new archtypes/armies, ergo Mythic’s limited resources mean there will never be an expansion to PvP. Just do a solid PvE expansion instead and win back the hearts and minds of the WoW boyz.”

In order of the points my responses in my head are – 1)I oh so very highly doubt that anyone is killing the mobs in the T4 PvE lakes, ergo they never respawn. They are in fact overjoyed and blessed beyond reason when they see a toon. 2)A PvP expansion in the flavor players want (new armies, new zones, new scenarios) does seem out of the reach of Mythic, players need to aspire for something more reasonable. 3)Not necessarily true.

I then began to do what I do best – brainstorm. At this point in the game I have come upon the conclusion that most of the remaining players are here for the PvP and want an expansion which will expand upon the PvP either via new armies/zones/scenarios/forts/etc. I do not feel that a PvE expansion would strengthen the game. LotD certainly did not. Given this cluster of random information the brainstorm began to take shape.

Now we enter the realm of the impromptu poll – lets see a show of hands as to how many people have done and enjoy doing the T4 public quests. Ok, one… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten…eleven… fantastic! Three and a half people out of a room of 573. I’ve done all the PQs for Order and think the scenery is wonderful and a waste of creative design and while I would be the only one to shed a tear if they went away, I think it would be for the best.

Compiling the information that people want more room to fight, more creative ways to fight, and that people care little for the public quests in T4 as was shown in my scientifically endorsed poll(T1-T3 are a little different because the experience is at a good ratio) I dawn on one conclusion. What is the easiest way to expand the realm of ORvR without finding new developers and designer brains to concoct new zones? I present the solution – the realm of ORvR has just bled into the realm of PvE.

What do I mean by this? Well it’s simple, the ORvR boarders expand into the PvE lakes focusing around a handful of PQs which are now Battlefield Objectives. Over the next few days I’ll provide my new maps for T4 but the concept is simple – each zone gains 8 new Battlefield Objectives which use to be Major Landmarks of PQs. ORvR would be readjusted to accommodate the growing family and if Eka had a say in it, it would go like so –

• Each zone would contain two keeps and twelve Battlefield Objectives.
• Each Battlefield Objective would be guarded by guards
  • Existing BOs would be guarded by the standard Sergeant and four Champions
  • Places which use to be Major Landmarks would be guarded by the standard Sergeant and four Champions
  • Places which use to be Public Quests would operate in the manner of the Public Quest
    • Stage 1 of the Public Quest would be removed and by default all the trash mobs (since you no longer need to farm them) would be removed or flagged as neutral.
    • Stage 2 of the PQ (Champs or Heroes) would be the standard set up for the BO, in essence like the four Champions of a regular BO. You have to kill the mobs of the PQ’s 2nd stage to spawn the Hero.
    • Stage 3  would operate as the Sergeant of the BO. Killing the Hero generates a resource chest.
    • PQs that currently have a 4th (ie. Lord-stage) would have a Lord following the hero who would drop a much higher amount of resources.
    • In the case that the current mobs of the 2nd/3rd stage are friendly to one realm, a complementary set of hostile mobs (invaders/defenders) would be created so that Order players are not killing Order champions.
• BO heroes/lords would operate by the ‘win-o-meter’ that exists in Thanquol’s Incursion so that defending your lord could allow you to reap the rewards.
• Defeating the ‘Hero’ of the BO would generate a resource chest
  • Each resource chest would generate two types of resources: resources for the ranking of a keep OR expedition resources.
  • Resource carriers would no longer deliver the resources, the role would return to the players in a mechanic similar to the Demonball Rally or Serpents Passage.
  • Existing BOs would generate one chest with standard amount of resources.
  • Public quests and new landmark BOs would generate resources in accord to their current PQ rank and bag drop rate.
    • New BOs would have the a slightly higher value of resources than an existing BO but split over more bags.
    • New BOs would also have the option to redeem Ruin gear from the resource chest instead of Expedition or Keep Resources
• Resources would have to be escorted back to warcamps.
• Locking zones would require the control of 8 of 12 BOs in addition to both of the keeps.

In this fashion we would not only expand the realm of ORvR without introducing new material (although I’m willing to bet that for many these areas of the maps are in fact new) but would also re-emphasize the importance of guarding both BOs and resource carriers. What benefits? ORvR benefits and the zerg is truly split over a much larger area. What suffers? PvE suffers, although I doubt many would shed a tear over this.

Merry Christmas

Christmas during war is possible!

WAR’s 12 Days of Christmas – Day 12

Well it’s the last day of my wish-list and I hope Santa is reading. Tomorrow is Christmas and although I highly doubt anything monumental will happen then, I hope that at least we will get news of something monumental happening soon. I’ve asked for a variety of things over the past 12 days, some that could be implemented rather quickly (increasing drop rates of dungeon gear/lowering PQ mob-grind) and some which would take a little longer (class balance, real Skaven, etc.) but today I request one thing which shouldn’t need a patch and shouldn’t need any testing on the PTS.

Communication

WAR’s 12 Days of Christmas – Day 11

ORvR
Here’s another stab at 1.4. The new ORvR mechanic was suppose to freshen up ORvR – split up the zerg, slow down the city, make keep sieges fun. Well, it didn’t. Can we say hugest backfire yet? When you asked for feedback on the forums regarding the new mechanic we gave it to you and we told you it was boring as dirt. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with the forums, a very select percent of the population posts on them. Even more unfortunate is that those who posted said how much they loved the changes, a very select few voiced discontent, so Mythic was mistakenly lead to believe that that majority of the population would like the changes made to the ORvR. Well time has told the story better than I can. ORvR in the post 1.4 universe is a monster, by several accounts. I shall list my discontents which many share and try to provide constructive solutions.

WAR’s 12 Days of Christmas – Day 10

PvE Gear
Another horse I’m not quite done beating to death. But since it’s Christmas-time and I’m making my wish-list, I’m going to beat him some more and let Mythic save his life. I cannot possibly fathom why in a PvP-centered game Mythic would not concede to making the PvE gear easier to acquire. They literally want us to waste time grinding PvE encounters. Sure, no one said you need the PvE gear, but for some classes its pretty high up on the list of desirable/necessary. For example, for healers all their RvR sets (pre Sov) are dps oriented , while their dungeon sets are heal oriented – not 100% sure on WP/DoKs b/c I know WP Tyrant is dps; for tanks their RvR sets are dps oriented and PvE sets survivability oriented. I would think most players like their healers to heal, but unless they grind PvE dungeons (which everyone is doing less and less these days) then they can’t fulfill their role to maximum efficiency until they get sovereign gear.

Let me be clear hear, what I do not want is for Mythic to take their great axe of simplification and whack the diversity of Warlord, Invader, Conq, etc. down to a couple bland sets without variation for the archtypes. I didn’t think they should have done that for Sovereign or the new sets, and I don’t want them to do it to any other set. No, as I said above, the two sets already exist in the lower ward brackets, the only problem lay in the difficulty of acquiring the set that fulfills the role of the archtype.

Today, acquiring RvR sets is hundreds of times easier than it was at launch. Is this bad? No. But why is it still so damn hard to get PvE sets. I know Mythic wants you to work towards some achievements, but doing a dungeon 24+ times for one piece is crossing the line of ‘work’ into ‘grind’. Now I’ve pulled my friends by their uvulas into every dungeon so I know full well both how hard it is to acquire the gear facing the odds and hard it is to compose a group for a dungeon in an RvR game where the loss of precious purple numbers makes the heart bleed so. Come on Mythic, you’re giving away Warpforged gear to renown rank 20s but force RR80s to grind dungeons dozens of times just to get a single piece of gear?

I’ll go dungeon by dungeon to be a little more specific.

• T1: Hunter’s Vale – A T1 specific dungeon set would be neat. Leave the PQ gear to the tree boss and the hound/wolf/lion mothers, but you can easily implement new dungeon boots from the Cadathian Lion and the chest from Kurunos.
• T2: Aldorf Sewers/Sacellum – A permanent 2 drops per boss would be appreciated, why make the lower tiers suffer for the constant pushes in T4. (Not sure if this has been changed, haven’t run this since pre 1.3.6)
• T3: Mount Gunbad – Up the drop rate for the wing bosses to 2 pieces per boss.
• T4 Lesser Wards: Bastion Stair – Up the drop rate for all bosses to 2 pieces per boss, remove the influence requirement for wing instances, and remove the mandatory nature of the Brass Legion PQ in the middle wing.
• T4 Greater Wards – Warpblade Tunnels/Sigmar’s Crypts – Having done Destro’s versions which are half as long and twice as easy… I can only ask for some parity here. Again, having lower warded gear be affected by the city zerg-fest (which drops Sov+ gear) seems unfair. This dungeon’s city-rank sensitivity should be fixed.
• T4 Superior Wards –  Lost Vale – I’d ask you to fix the buggy as spider and N’kari but I’m afraid of the consequences…
• T4 ‘Excelsior Wards’ – Tomb of the Vulture Lord – Increase the drop rate of the repairable gear. Sure it’s repairable, but if it never drops it’s a moot point.
• T4 ‘Supreme Wards’ – Thanquol’s Incursion – Increase amount of Gold Bags
• Overall Request – make all gear repairable by archtype/race and a higher drop rate than exists for ToVL OR make class specific pieces but for classes present in the instance (if we have no engineers, we don’t want two engineer chests).

We shouldn’t have to grind PvE sets when we’re already grinding to RR100.

WAR’s 12 Days of Christmas – Day 9

Skaven
Ah the time has come to address this issue… 1.4 brought us Skaven… sort of. When most people asked for Skaven ages ago they wanted a playable army. The skaven bundle came in two flavors: Thanquol’s Incursion – a PvPvE dungeon I’ve already discussed; and 4 new ‘classes’. More precisely we got 4 rat skins with 6-8 abilities each. When you look at the average class which has about 25 abilities this is a rather slim comparison. In my opinion the skaven are nothing but a cheap gimmick. They hardly add to the RvR experience (both due to limited numbers and class utility) and are all in all pretty bland. Most people who subbed hearing ‘Skaven are coming!’ probably unsubbed already disappointed with the product. Those who have stayed are staying for reasons which are most likely not the skaven. I have little doubt in my mind that if the skaven in their current form were removed not many people would cry. That is in fact what I am asking for – get rid of the rat skins and give us a playable skaven army.

For those who think I’m jumping on my lore bandwagon again, I am not. Allow me to explain why the classes don’t really fit/work out so well.