What should RvR become?

[navis]

Hi guys, I was wondering where we are headed as far as RvR mechanics in T1 and T2 in the near to medium future?

I think that now these guys have been working on this for a while and have probably had some time to think about what they can and want to achieve with this emulation server. We all believe here that RvR could be made (fun) into something as good as the old servers and perhaps even better with some new ideas thrown in. I am sure they have a lot here.

I am really positive that currently the Tier 1 RvR is functioning with the BO Guards and Flags, but I think the number one topic right now is "Zone Control". What is going to happen in terms of getting a functioning Zone Control working better and what will happen as the "war" moves from Realm to Realm. Will we see some overall progress with these Realm War's??

So please, if there is any news or thoughts you want to share about this important part of WAR then lets hear it. Please I don't want to be bored when I play Warhammer - Age of Reckoning Online, I want to have epic Zone Control, Keep Defense and Zone Locks.

[eisenhans]

It's a good question. Iirc, didn't zone locking in the beginning include all kinds of things, like PQ completion, SC wins and stuff? In my opinion, during Warhammer's last months, the maps changed sides MUCH too fast and city sieges became a common occurence. Maybe introduce fortresses again?`We don't have so many players anymore, so the lag could maybe be avoided.

[drmordread]

I agree.... Fortresses would really make city runs that much more special. That said though, there will be many people who will not want them.

But.... more important;
Keep in mind that the people who are fixing the code and getting it ready for us to play are doing this on their spare time from school and or work.

Redesigning the game takes a lot of people and a lot of resources. I say, just bring back what we had, then as more people come back, we may get more people that know how to code and who will want to help. THEN..... We can start talking about major changes.

[navis]

It's a good question. Iirc, didn't zone locking in the beginning include all kinds of things, like PQ completion, SC wins and stuff? In my opinion, during Warhammer's last months, the maps changed sides MUCH too fast and city sieges became a common occurence. Maybe introduce fortresses again?`We don't have so many players anymore, so the lag could maybe be avoided.

Exactly, I was one who played right through 1.0 to the end (with a few breaks).. Each release changed a lot of those different "tasks" to lock down a zone, it was really a huge kerfuffle. I don't think Mythic had a clue of how to handle this aspect of WAR, yet to some of us it was quite clear what was/is needed.

Players can't be left to stand around, hit the same target (or scene) repeatedly. Can't be left with no scenarios (or only one) for extended periods of time. Keep trading and the cyclic "patterns" need to be halted, all zones should be utilized so not just a few locations are trampled on.

For now, it's pretty clear that ROR needs to focus on T1 and maybe T2 because of slower pace of the limited dev's time. I am super pumped that they already have the Flags working in RvR as well as the Guards.

Mythic took a mighty last stand with the implementation of the Dwarfs VS Greenskins RvR event which from what I remember was left running in that Zone(s) until the servers shut down. I think there was some really good things added to the game with that patch and that we need to consider what was done there. Another near-miss (IMHO) of some really superior gameplay style which added some "alternative" uses to the Battleground Objectives. The addition of the tasks to the BO's and the fact that those Quests were repeatable was a good combination.. I am trying to remember this event a little more but it is a little rusty.

Mythic tried previously to implement RvR "quests" at the Battlefield Objectives but IMHO really failed each time to make them something that was considered good content. All the ideas were pretty good but the implementation fell short. Quests to kill 20 player only rewarded a miniscule amount of Gold nor anything else good ..

Getting some players involved with the various methods to capture and "hold" the Objectives was pretty good and provided a good "climax" of play when the Zone become close to "locking down". Later, in Tier 4 you have the locking of all zones "pairing lock" but that is getting off topic for now.

Most players in just about every phase of the games various Patch variations was able to find good keep RvR in Tier 2. Those Tiers where known for good Keep Defense and Keep Takes. In my opinion the final RvR patch killed it for me in many ways but in another way they succeeded with the new Level Restrictions.

Level restriction / Brackets was something that was pretty important to the the success of RvR in each Tier because that was a major barrier to as what players were allowed to play in those Zones. They added some Book item which stopped you from gaining XP/RR (afaik) and that was awesome because it let players either just stay in a Bracket for a while, OR, it let them stay in a Bracket and also RR up by remaining on top of the "player foodchain" for a bit longer than usual - that was popular for sure. Now there is no need because everyone is same level, easy fixx!!

Some of the good rewards over the years of mention were: rare Seeds, Ordinance (when used to buy tactical siege pieces), RvR currency, Renown increases, Fort Bonuses at BO, Gold (at least 1 or 2 gold) etc..

There was some other special RvR events that occurred that were also pretty neat, all of which has some very cool things to do in the Zones that were active with those Events. As mentioned the Dwarfs Greenskin event was one that had the most potential to get the Objectives used in connection with some other "tasks" in order to generate a players interest.

The Chaos/Empire Event with the Chaos Hounds and the Vortex-like PQ was also quite awesome at times.. At other times it could have been much bigger and could have included the Objectives in RvR... It could have done something like given extra Keep Bonuses.

The use of "Monster Play" in RvR happened at the 1.3.6 patch (or 1.4 patch can't remember) and added Skaven and later some other things I think to let players play alternate Characters for a short time. There were mostly boring IMO and had not point to them although they had potential as more important players in RvR, it is also counter-intuitive to suggest that the player would want to leave is "main" character in favor of a more limited one, something I think nobody else really thought about. Using Skaven to scale Keep walls is a good idea. I think, though it was wise to limit the amount of these extra-character Monsters. They could be added again so that they will make more sense as to their use in RvR.

For one, make them into damned auto-door-matons. At a time manning the Ram is not particularly fun but I would still like to see a working Ram. Rams have always been important to Keep RvR and later they also underwent a huge change for no apparrant reason. Buying the extra Rams with RvR currency is a good idea. It can give the players a few simple extra items to buy and play with I think we should bring back some new kinds of Ram features and Idea - trust me it won't hurt any worse than it already did!!!!

Over the years there has been endless debates and suggestions on what to do with RvR. Mythic was close to getting a really good and organic game but they always fell a bit short. I am really wondering about how these new Keeps will be handled there is a lot of potential to have them usefully fun to play and not boring. Having both Keeps capturable gives these players more tactical options...

[eisenhans]

Hey navis, while I agree that many RvR Quests and extras WERE pretty awesome, the best RvR I had was in the first months of WAR. In my opinion, and for reasons I don't really understand, RvR became less fun the more they changed. It was boring towards the end of the servers, imo.

[Tesq]

If I not mistake they told project was focus on get at work all what ther was in 1.4.0 so all in the same way after war was shut down, but i think t4 lock, fortress way ect will be subject to poll but we are talking so much in future.
Personaly i prefered old war system both for renow, city lock and fortress, it was more hard arrive into city, the only issue was the first city step was truly a flag farm with no incentive to kill.
Would be cool have a mix: get back old rvr lock system (exept pve pq contribution)with the need to capture fortress, but having like city siege the new one from 1.3.6---1.4.8

[navis]

If I not mistake they told project was focus on get at work all what ther was in 1.4.0 so all in the same way after war was shut down, but i think t4 lock, fortress way ect will be subject to poll but we are talking so much in future.
Personaly i prefered old war system both for renow, city lock and fortress, it was more hard arrive into city, the only issue was the first city step was truly a flag farm with no incentive to kill.
Would be cool have a mix: get back old rvr lock system (exept pve pq contribution)with the need to capture fortress, but having like city siege the new one from 1.3.6---1.4.8

Hey, yes I agree that talk of city lock and fortress things are really much too far into the future to be of any help to anyone right now. For now the best we can hope for is to think, how will T1 and T2 work.