Population

[Oldschool]

Same to me, T4 is a grind fest and makes me feel wasting time without fun. Takes way tooo Long to get your items/medals/Stuff togehter.
Iam back after 1 year Absence and have to see that the Population is 50% less now.
iam not enjyoying T4 grind. Iam fine with T1-T3.
T3 RvR battels are fun to Play.

In my opinion it should be much more easier to get the high staff Equipment that more People have fun to Play just cause of the game and pvp, not of grinding PvE or hanging around BOs without Action for years....some have more time to Play, some not. Make it easy for the People who have not much time but want to have fun when they log in, not with grinding items or getting pots ready or talismans, with pvp!
It should be all about PvP and equal chances! Like a shooter, where you get same stuff like the others. Just log in and have fun.

[Nefarian78]

Same to me, T4 is a grind fest and makes me feel wasting time without fun. Takes way tooo Long to get your items/medals/Stuff togehter.
Iam back after 1 year Absence and have to see that the Population is 50% less now.
iam not enjyoying T4 grind. Iam fine with T1-T3.
T3 RvR battels are fun to Play.

In my opinion it should be much more easier to get the high staff Equipment that more People have fun to Play just cause of the game and pvp, not of grinding PvE or hanging around BOs without Action for years....some have more time to Play, some not. Make it easy for the People who have not much time but want to have fun when they log in, not with grinding items or getting pots ready or talismans, with pvp!
It should be all about PvP and equal chances! Like a shooter, where you get same stuff like the others. Just log in and have fun.

I agree with you on the fact that t4 is just boring right now and way too grindy. That's also the reason why i'm not playing, even if right now i could play for 14hrs straight if i wanted to. It's just boring for me and not worth my time.

But removing customization and depth from the game is never the right choice. WoW did exactly that, removed Sockets, Reforging, Gear and added Stat Templates in PvP. Removing sockets and reforging wasn't that big of a deal, because every class/spec mostly used the same gems and reforged their gear the same as everyone else.

Gearing and character progression are one (for many players it's also the main) pillar of the MMORPG genre, removing it is REALLY bad for the game health.

What you're looking for is a FPS or a MOBA, not a MMORPG game.

[scatterthewinds]

The old system had progression too but it was up to you how fast you solo grinded. Currently to get past t2/t3 you need to wait for scs or run around the lakes looking for someone to kill.

I dont understand people's dislike of t4. T4 is where the character you created can actually be used to the full capacity it was designed for. The medals and emblems are just the bonus, the gameplay itself is the reward. In the other tiers the gameplay is the chore and the exp is the reward. Its a night and day difference.

[Sulorie]

The old system had progression too but it was up to you how fast you solo grinded. Currently to get past t2/t3 you need to wait for scs or run around the lakes looking for someone to kill.

I dont understand people's dislike of t4. T4 is where the character you created can actually be used to the full capacity it was designed for. The medals and emblems are just the bonus, the gameplay itself is the reward. In the other tiers the gameplay is the chore and the exp is the reward. Its a night and day difference.

Then you play at odd times of day.

[Nefarian78]

I dont understand people's dislike of t4. T4 is where the character you created can actually be used to the full capacity it was designed for. The medals and emblems are just the bonus, the gameplay itself is the reward. In the other tiers the gameplay is the chore and the exp is the reward. Its a night and day difference.

People dislike t4 because in order to take a single piece of gear it takes ages and don't feel on par with everyone else.
The "gameplay itself is the reward" only starts after the gearing stage, when your character is at full gear and on the same level playing field as everyone else.

Currently the server is focusing only on the gearing stage of the game and not on the "the game itself is the reward", which leads to many quitting after a while they have all their BiS (which takes an insane amount of time) and many others quitting shortly after trying to get some gear, because the carrot is way too far for most players.

I think decreasing the gear prices and adding cosmetic gear/mounts/mini-pets/titles to buy with medals/emblems would help the server a lot. People invest a disgusting amount of time and effort to buy cosmetic items that makes their character look better, or just for the sake of collecting stuff. A good example of this is WoW arenas, where most players try to push their 2k rating not for the sake of the achievement or the rating itself, but simply for the elite gear set. Honor levels achieve the same thing too.

With these changes i think the server population will also rise, maybe not by a huge amount, but it's still something that might attract some new players and make old players that got bored because of the grind return.

[scatterthewinds]

If you're a good player with a group you can make up gaps of gear. This isn't WoW. Ruin is usually enough.

[Nefarian78]

If you're a good player with a group you can make up gaps of gear. This isn't WoW. Ruin is usually enough.

Good player or not i haven't found a single player that is satisfied going around with Ruin/Merc/Annhi. Every single one of them wants the BiS, and do not want to settle for entry level sets like Ruin (which also doesn't come with different stats for 2h tanks and there are many 2h tanks players)

The point i'm trying to make is that we're looking back too much, on the old-style MMO based too much on gearing your character. While progression and gear are pillars of MMOs and should never be removed, basing an entire game around it is also unhealthy for the game, and we're seeing it now.

Gearing a character (if the gearing pace isn't as slow as it is right now) is fun for the first time you farm the gear set, because it's new, you have something to keep you occupied and all that. And then? what about after you're finished gearing your main? you play a little, have fun for a while and then get bored because there's nothing to do. Some roll an alt or 2 (like me) and quit, others just quit the game directly because the game isn't that alt-friendly and maybe feel that even after rolling an alt, the same issue will still be there. Nothing to do after gearing them.

And those are the players that have the time/patience to farm the gear, many are so discouraged by the insane pricing that they quit the game shorty after because they have nothing to look forward to, and this has been seen by everyone by how the peak of players quickly disappeared shortly after at the release of Conq-Domi.

What i think happened (might be completely wrong) is that the Devs saw that many players quit after gearing their characters when Annhi-Merc was BiS and thought that a more distant carrot would keep the playerbase intact a longer time. While putting more distance between the player and their reward usually works, it went way way way too far, resulting in more players being scared away than actually staying a longer time before quitting again. The fact that the issue of not having anything to do after completing this insane grind is still present is also another issue. This was just a bandaid fix that solved nothing imo.


Off-topic comment You Mentioned WoW, Scatterthewinds, but WoW basically deleted gear from pvp. a freshly dinged character has only around a 5-6% stats disadvantage compared to a greatly geared characters. Ofc other forms of progression were added (Artifact and Honor Talents for pvp) but that doesn't have anything to do with gear itself.

[Martok]

People dislike t4 because in order to take a single piece of gear it takes ages and don't feel on par with everyone else. The "gameplay itself is the reward" only starts after the gearing stage, when your character is at full gear and on the same level playing field as everyone else.

Eh, I disagree to this extent. True, I have given up on trying to win any Conq gear, but I have a Dom/BL spec which keeps me competitive (for the most part). Good game play is its own reward, and most times I enjoy the game for what it is regardless of who has what gear. The gear gap I believe takes a back seat to the battle of the renown/mastery/tactic spec. Just my opinion.

[dansari]

Ultimately it's also alpha. It's really hard for a new player to enjoy this game if they aren't already aware of things.. i.e. they don't have some key add-ons, they aren't in organized play, they don't know how to gear their character, they feel like leveling takes too long. None of this is really anybody's fault; it's simply why (I believe) some new players don't make it into T4 or stay there very long. To combat this you'd need a roadmap for new players and you'd need veterans actively leading/assisting as much as they can.

[Martok]

To combat this you'd need a roadmap for new players and you'd need veterans actively leading/assisting as much as they can.

I agree, 100 percent. I try and help whenever someone ask because helping other players want to stay in game should be a concern, to one degree or another, for everyone.