WAR, open RvR and you - Our plans and goals over the next few months and beyond

Folks,

Over the last few months I’ve spoken about our continued focus on improving our open RvR systems. While we have taken some major steps in the last month, we believe that there is much more we can do to encourage people to take part in oRvR throughout the entire evolution of their character(s). Over the next few months we have some very exciting changes and additions taking place. Please note that as always, this does not represent everything that either we are doing or thinking about doing, just what we, as of now, plan on adding to WAR.

We have a number of major initiatives planned for oRvR in WAR. Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months.

First, we have created an RvR Influence system. This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR. This will be a complimentary system to our PQ Influence system. This system is already implemented in 1.1 and is scheduled to go LIVE along with that version in December.

Second, we want to improve the visibility that players have into oRvR and make it easier for players to get involved in the action quickly and easily. We have a number of wide-ranging changes going into our map and travel systems to allow players to better understand the state of oRvR in our game and also allow them to get to the action faster. We have already taken one step with putting a Rally Master in each Warcamp but we will also add the ability for people to have a second bind point to make it even easier for players to move around the maps. We will also make it easily for players to see where players from their Realm are engaging in oRvR, a Campaign HUD for all tiers and other improvements We will also improve Tier-wide messaging about what is going on in Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Other additions include changes to the UI, in-game manual improvements, map enhancements, and a few other changes.

Third, we want to provide greater incentives to players to participate in oRvR. In order to accomplish this we will be adding additional layers to the questing system of oRvR including the addition of Keep Quests, “Daily Event Quests”, Chained RvR Missions, improve the initial Tome Unlocks and other oRvR-oriented Events. We will also improve our BO itemization. Our goal is to provide players with even more incentive for participating in oRvR than we have already.

Fourth, we want to encourage guilds to take and control keeps, and we will continue our work on adding better rewards for Guilds who own Keeps as well as the addition of a system of Keep upgrades. This system will be added to the game in several stages beginning in the late winter.

Finally, we will begin work on a global oRvR “Fame” system that will be tied directly to the Tome of Knowledge which will provide more rewards, titles, experience, etc. for participating and being successful in oRvR. This system will provide even more incentives for people to participate in oRvR than the current systems and one that fits nicely both with the ToK’s concept as “This is your life” as well as an additional advancement and reward system.

Please keep in mind that these additions are subject to change and given the nature of these changes/improvements, they will not go LIVE until we have thoroughly tested them. However, these are crucial improvements to WAR and are being treated as such by the team.

Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR. Some of the systems are already in place and in Tier 4, oRvR is alive and well. On other Tiers, however, oRvR is not being engaged in as often as we had hoped when we launched WAR. Our goal is to ensure that oRvR is the place where players can level the fastest, get the best items and overall, have a great time while doing it. It is supposed to be riskier, more challenging but ultimately, more rewarding than any other place within WAR. What is outlined in this letter are some of the ways we plan on making this happen over the next few months and beyond.

As always, we thank you for your patronage and support. We won’t let you down.

Mark









I know everyone has a lot of questions and concerns regarding all aspects of the game. However, this thread's purpose is to solely discuss and address the content of Mark's post. Any posts that are found to be irrelevant to the subject at hand will be edited or removed.

 

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battlefield1228 posted:key words here are "over the next few months"

Well, I think adding a new Influence System for oRvR in December is a pretty good start.

Mark  

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acousticdank posted:I think we also need a tier wide messaging system.

Sucks to have to fly to each zone to see if anyone is actually defending or if it's just a single person aggroing.

I agree, already part of the plan.

Mark  

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Folks,

Hmmm, I thought when I talking about "Keep Quests" and encouraging guilds to hold keeps it was clear that we need to encourage/reward people for defending keeps. Of course that is part of the mix, without it the other keep stuff won't work as well. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough on that.

Mark  

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earwax6 posted:"That's why my letter wasn't a "State of the Game" and I never said it was.

Mark"

you got an A in pyschology didn't ya.

LOL, actually no, it was the lowest grade I ever got in college. That course and I didn't get along at all.

Mark  

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Folks,

Keep in mind that I was very clear in the letter that the stuff I've talked about there is only the major new stuff that we will be working on over the next few months. Things like a continued look at set pieces and other itemization, lag, issues with zone control are going to be continued to be worked on by the team during this time. I wanted my letter to deal with major changes and new initiatives that we are going to work on during this time and nothing more so we could keep the discussion focused. Also, as to details, more will be forthcoming as we get closer to release but everything in that letter is what we are working on and not "what we hope to work on, maybe" and if you look at everything in the letter, that's a lot of new stuff for the next few months along with all the other things that are going to be happening during that time and beyond.

FYI, I think some of you are underestimating the fame system that I talked about as well. This is not a minor addition to the game by any stretch of the imagination.

Mark  

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alexcey posted:My bad. I referred to it as a state of the game message because on the Herald website it says "Open RvR - State of the Game".

Nah, our bad. It's being corrected right now. It shouldn't have been called a State of the Game, State of the oRvR maybe but not State of the Game.

Mark  

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Folks,

So, let's be clear on a few things before proceeding:

1) I'm not going to answer any questions in this topic apart from what is contained in my letter. This topic is for discussion of the oRvR letter only. I'm not being rude, uncaring, etc. but everyone here knows that if I go off-topic just once, this thread will devolve into lots of "Look at my issue" posts and arguments about those posts and this thread will be rendered useless.

2) I've said multiple times that the letter only details some of the things that we are working on. It is very clear about that so I don't think that we need to see any more "Mythic needs to fix this/address this/etc." in this thread as per (1) and (2). Also, please keep in mind that the odds that we are already paying attention to your oRvR issue(s)is quite high as oRvR is the focus of a number of people at Mythic and not just me.

3) In regards to one slightly off-topic issue (crashes), the game is very stable and is not crashing a lot, so any statements saying the servers are crashing like crazy are simply not true. I'll post more on this when I get some additional information from the team but the fact is that the servers are still stable. The "server stability" message that people are talking about I'll explain in more detail once I get some more information from the team.

4) In terms of the whole "my letter is fluff stuff" well, that's simply not true. This thread is probably at least 50/50 in terms of "Give us more stuff in oRvR" posts so I doubt that those people think that it is fluff even if all that was in it was us adding some shiny new stuff to the game. However, considering that my letter makes it clear that the changes include everything from experience gain, renown gain, item game, keep upgrades, new systems and titles, I'm not sure how that stuff can be considered fluff. The whole point of these additions/changes is to make leveling through oRvR more rewarding and faster and not simply to give people a shiny new toy every 5 levels or so.

5) In terms of the fame system being a new grind, no, not at all. It is intended to be the oRvR equivalent of the ToK for PvE but geared to oRvR. It is meant to be a compliment to the other oRvR reward systems but like I said, kicked up a few notches.

6) In terms of "This is not what the player base wants", well, the player base, as usual in any MMO, wants a lot of different things. Some players want more gear, other players want titles, others want experience, etc. and some want everything and more. However, in one of those rare instances where almost the entire player base wants one thing, I believe it is simply that the player base wants more people to engage in oRvR. In order to do that, we will use a variety of systems, rewards, etc. to get people into oRvR. If want we are doing/planning on doing isn't enough, well, we'll keep trying and add more incentives. There is no singly "silver bullet" that will get more people into oRvR instantly that also doesn't mess things up more in the long term. We've already done a lot to get more people into oRvR and we'll continue to do a lot more over the next few months and beyond.

7) In terms of "If we don't do this tomorrow, we're out of business" stuff, well, sorry, that's not how these things work. No MMO developer designs, tests and deploys major system upgrades quickly. Sometimes they have them already in the works/developed before they talk about them but apart from that, adding systems as complicated as the ones we're adding can't happen overnight here and they don't happen anywhere else either. We're upgrading a lot of things over the next few months in oRvR as well as the rest of the game and no developer's resources are unlimited. No MMO ever sprung completely done from the developer's head and WAR is no exception. We're working a lot of things besides these oRvR additions and we'll keep churning out content as fast as we can. The entire team is still focused on the LIVE version of WAR so it's not like we are being distracted by anything else.

8) On the "Why is this stuff taking so long?" it's only two months since we've launched and we have two major patches already in testing. The first is 1.0.6 with a ton of C&C changes/fixes and 1.1 with new content, fixes, etc. 1.0.6 is nearing final and I hope that 1.1 will go LIVE more quickly than 1.0.6 did. However, we are going to test and iterate on our patches longer than we did at times with DAoC precisely because we don't want to repeat some of the mistakes we made then. Unlike in DAoC, the decisions we are making on a lot of these issues are not being made simply by one individual but rather being talked about and vetted from multiple people within Mythic. There are times when I do say "We must do this, period" but I prefer to get people's thoughts, ideas, feedback, etc. before we undertake any major changes. And in terms of other people on the team, they have to get buy-in and sign-off on anything big. Again, we are not going to repeat some of the mistakes that we made with DAoC. If this means it will take a little longer, so be it. We need to get it right as opposed to simply getting it now.

So, those are some of my thoughts and additional comments for now.

Mark


 

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Zaknarakh posted:Folks,

So, let's be clear on a few things before proceeding:

3) In regards to one slightly off-topic issue (crashes), the game is very stable and is not crashing a lot, so any statements saying the servers are crashing like crazy are simply not true. I'll post more on this when I get some additional information from the team but the fact is that the servers are still stable. The "server stability" message that people are talking about I'll explain in more detail once I get some more information from the team.


Mark, servers ALWAYS crash or lag to death when we attempt a Fortress-siege when zones are locked down. This happens on all servers, happend EVERY time we have attempted to. Happens everytime on other servers awell.
Happens mostly on EU servers, but US are experiencing it aswell.

1) When a faction locks down a zone; and go to the fortress either is gonna happen:

1a) After 1st door are smashed down, 50% on 2nd, server crashes. (Sometimes even campaign resets)

1b) After 1st door are smashed down, 50% on 2nd, everyone gets a minimum 10 second lag aswell as if you get knocked down you never get up, die from invisible rain of fires 500 yards away from Fortress etc.

1c) People finally leave the zones because its truly unplayable, for both sides, 4th time in a row for Karak Eight Peaks on EU now. First time server crashed and reset campaigns, 2,3,4th time we got the imbalag which made both sides quit because its impossible to take over a fortress with 10-30 seconds lag on both sides.

2) We have several realms posting this issue in several forums aswell as here and WHA, but we have got ONE reply of times when we have emailed all EA/GOA/Mythic representatives on the forums, that was MagnusGOA who actually read his mail and forwarded it to the techguys, but it has been silent since that. Why do you say the opposite, servers are stable, why do they crash or lag to death each time when we attempt a fortress? Worked fine just some month ago, its not our computers, its serverlag.

3) When are you gonna give us a real answer about this, since Fortresses and progressing to the capitalcities is the maingoal and purpose of the entire RvR-Campaign, and we can't simply do it now because all the servers are broken when it comes to this.

The community actually demands an answer about this, Ive seen threads about this popping up like mushrooms in a forest on the forums in a rapid haste now lately, and this is the disheartening spirit of oRvR, and the reason why more and more people on our server and many other servers quit do oRvR until its fixed.

Saying the servers are stable when they do this each time ppl attempt a fortress on all servers, its really not understandable for me or any other.

All I can say is what I have already said and that is based on the reports I have the servers have not been crashing regularly as you suggest. I'll get an updated report from GOA as well but based on what I've heard from the guys here, this is simply not the case in the US.

Mark  

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Pheace posted:From reading some of the dutch forums I know (well read anyway) that at least EU-Karak Hirn and EU-Karak eight peaks have had crashes during large battles/fortress sieges as well.

Edit" For maybe more specific answers from GOA if you're gonna ask them anyway

Thanks, I plan on doing that.

Mark  

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Pheace posted:

MarkJacobsEA posted:
All I can say is what I have already said and that is based on the reports I have the servers have not been crashing regularly as you suggest. I'll get an updated report from GOA as well but based on what I've heard from the guys here, this is simply not the case in the US.

Mark

Ow god.... that's gonna open a can of worms

LOL, maybe. However, since I just spoke to both the RvR and engineering teams and got the scoop from them, I know what I said is true. Have the servers crashed ever during the last week, yes. Have they crashed every time during a Fortress siege, no. We have fixes going up today to one of the problems and we hope to have fixes to another of the problems this week as well.

Mark  

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Suchey posted:

Pheace posted:

MarkJacobsEA posted:
All I can say is what I have already said and that is based on the reports I have the servers have not been crashing regularly as you suggest. I'll get an updated report from GOA as well but based on what I've heard from the guys here, this is simply not the case in the US.

Mark

Ow god.... that's gonna open a can of worms

No doubt.

Fortress sieges are not in a playable state at the times I have attended. I never experienced all out crashes, but I can say that the chat was full of complaints about lag and performance issues.

Keep sieges can get very bogged down performance wise when a decent amount of people show up.

I hope these statements aren't eluding to the fact that the devs think that the performance in these areas is currently at an acceptable level.

((edit after reading above post. Glad to see work continues on performance))

Keep in mind (no pun intended) that crashes and performance are two different things. We are constantly working to improve the client's performance and will continue to do so.

Mark  

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Pheace posted:

MarkJacobsEA posted:

Pheace posted:[quote=MarkJacobsEA]
All I can say is what I have already said and that is based on the reports I have the servers have not been crashing regularly as you suggest. I'll get an updated report from GOA as well but based on what I've heard from the guys here, this is simply not the case in the US.

Mark

Ow god.... that's gonna open a can of worms

LOL, maybe. However, since I just spoke to both the RvR and engineering teams and got the scoop from them, I know what I said is true. Have the servers crashed ever during the last week, yes. Have they crashed every time during a Fortress siege, no. We have fixes going up today to one of the problems and we hope to have fixes to another of the problems this week as well.

Mark

That's the stuff people want to hear ^^[/quote]

No doubt but I had to check with the team before I said anything about it.

Mark  

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Folks,

Here's a quick update on where things stand as of this evening:

1) Patch 1.0.6 is looking good for going LIVE tomorrow.

2) The fix I talked about last week that will improve overall client performance in RvR, especially in high traffic situations, *may* go LIVE tomorrow. It involved a major change to the client and we need to be 100% sure that that we don't make some things better but at the same time, make some things worse with this change.

3) We hope to have a fix to the major issue that is causing fortress crashing going either to the PTS this week and/or possibly rolled out to one or two commercial servers this week as well for testing this week as well. As above, this also involved a significant change (but this time to the server) so we need to be a little bit more careful than usual before it's rolled out to all the LIVE servers.

4) I hope to be able to post tomorrow going into a little bit more detail about the influence system that we hope will go LIVE with 1.1. FYI, 1.1 is still looking good for going LIVE this month. It can still be pushed back of course but it's still on track as of today.

And no, I don't ignore threads once they get to a certain point but I do tend to stop commenting in them unless I have something useful to say. There is no point in simply saying "it's coming soon" again and again.

Mark  

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Folks,

1.0.6 had a little "unannounced" improvement for the game that we wanted to hold off on announcing until we were sure that it was working well on the LIVE servers. This change will have a significant effect on client performance in RvR but especially in large-scale RVR encounters as well as on the overall amount of character flickering and ghosting. A note to this effect will be posted shortly on the Herald/patcher. And yes, this is the change we talked about last week.

Enjoy!

Mark  

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