Population swings and long term gameplay

[Waimaori]

I know I am from a very different generation to a percentage of players online and here in RoR.
I neither reside in Europe or the Americas or Asia yet where I do live can observe very distinct patterns of player interaction from those areas.

I ask, how much fun can it honestly be to preload a zone just to get an @emblem@

Today ReikFort was abandoned on first push with a relocate onto ShiningFort where a whopping 20+ defenders where located....whoosh.....plus a noticeable swing from ReikFort as T4% swung from defenders (I think thats Xrealming?) or did they all just log off?

I can not fathom how much fun it must have been for the collecting faction....its actual appears boring and very lazy.

The unhealthy drive to accumulate emblems appears to be an addiction for many players.....must have, deserve, entitled....queue for city or else.

The quality of play and fun should be aimed towards, not items or zones or overpowering with walls of @Waagh@Pride@

Having returned to RoR only several months ago, the game appears to be in a better place but the negativity and item grab is becoming a symptom of issue.

Ending this evening with one faction rolling the zones.....its the slow or swift death of games when one faction ends up playing itself......
When a faction can hardly muster 2 war bands to counter the other, there is issue.

Food for thought or not.

[samanoVI]

The general consensus is that the population swings are "normal". I haven't playued since live so I can't confirm, but apparantly this happened several months back, with Order having the upper hand in oRVR for a good while. Judging from the comments from ingame chat over the past 2 weeks, the player base seems to have accepted that this is the way of things.

[empmoz]

I've been playing on this server for years, Destruction side only, and I'm honestly not sure what can be done about it. Xrealming is the obvious issue, but there is no way to limit that with free accounts. Even on Live with paid subscriptions there were players who would sabotage the enemy side by claiming keeps and not upgrading them (the old system on Live).

At the end of the day, it's all about the community/playersbase. Destruction has attracted a large number of players this year due to: strong leadership, roleplayers (its more fun!), good communication in region chats, and by simply winning a lot. I'm not sure what the Order playerbase is doing wrong to lose so many dedicated players, buts its up to the community to fix, not the Devs

[samanoVI]

I've been playing on this server for years, Destruction side only, and I'm honestly not sure what can be done about it. Xrealming is the obvious issue, but there is no way to limit that with free accounts. Even on Live with paid subscriptions there were players who would sabotage the enemy side by claiming keeps and not upgrading them (the old system on Live).

At the end of the day, it's all about the community/playersbase. Destruction has attracted a large number of players this year due to: strong leadership, roleplayers (its more fun!), good communication in region chats, and by simply winning a lot. I'm not sure what the Order playerbase is doing wrong to lose so many dedicated players, buts its up to the community to fix, not the Devs

I agree with you for the most part, apart from why Destruction has attracted a larger number of players; Order has plenty of good leadership I've experienced since my return to the server 2 weeks back. Leaders for example Miki, Taqindra, Gerett, Aillune (spelling), Tunnocks, to name a few of the warbands I've been part of. All of them are very well organised, and for the most part Order follows instruction. As for more fun? Theres plenty of Roelplayers on Order side also, from what i've seen. I've tried a bit of roleplay on Destruction side just for a daft laugh, only to be shut down by a GM in a public channel for being "weird". Make of that what you will.

After trawling through the past patch notes and lurking on these forums for a while, the attraction to destrction side seems to be related to slight overral class balance changes that favour certain setups in warbands (choppa train meat grinder, just as an example) that seems to be difficult for Order side to deal with. Winning a lot is obviously a big factor also, and certainly does look attractive to a returning player like myself. Could it be the gap in population size waxes and wanes as classes are buffed/nerfed, which then has a major effect on warband composition? Such things surely have a major contribution towards vicories in sieges.

[Martok]

...the game appears to be in a better place but the negativity and item grab is becoming a symptom of issue.

This wasn't the norm on RoR for the majority of its prior existence. However now it is, and I don't see it changing.