Fixing Thanquol's Incursion

Recently, WAR Dev Keaven started up a new thread to discuss a pesky bug with one of the bosses in Thanquol's Incursion.  Specifically, it has to do with the Cloud of Corruption.  It's an interesting bug, you can read all about it here if you want.

Inevitably the topic shifted to how to improve the RvR dungeon itself.  The original intention of TI was to have PvP fights with a few PvE obstacles, it just never worked out that way.  Instead players bail at the first sign of competition in the hopes of getting an empty instance.  Winning in these instances provide some of the best gear in the game.

Keaven did toss out one idea, which should be taken lightly as it was not a promise.  

I feel this fails as an RvR doungeon more becuase people instance hop intil they have no opposition, leaving anyone who *does* want to have an honest fight left with an empty instance as well. I'm currently thinking of limiting TI to just one, 48v48, instance. I dunno... we'll see. 

My opinion is that Thanquol's Incursion cannot be fixed.  Forcing players to fight, in anything longer than a scenario, just does not work.  Even in a scenario, if the players are outmatched they will just sit in their spawn.  I would much rather see the TI rewards be moved to Open RvR and the instance closed. 

As for Keaven's idea, I guess it is worth a shot.  I still would not go into TI though.  There are also some other possible problems.  If there is only a single instance, players may race to get to it.  It would also likely lead to realm strife based on who gets in.  It still might be an improvement over what we have now though.  

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Lane Pressure

I managed to get in a game of League of Legends yesterday, which turned out to be pretty interesting.  I, as usual, chose Soraka.  This was a blind pick game, and I was teamed with a Teemo, Viktor, Fiora and Maokai.  Teemo and I took the bottom lane.

Our opponents on the bottom lane were Maokai and Zilean.   This proved to be one of the most challenging lanes I have been in.  Maokai's Sapling Toss, combined with Zilean's Time Bomb proved very effective in pushing our lane.  Teemo did not help the cause much either.

An aside about Teemo.  What is the deal with people who play him?  It seems that every game I am paired with a Teemo, they AFK in the bottom bush for a couple of minutes.  It's not that they are working up an ambush.  They will eventually come running back to the tower, through both opponents while causing no actual damage.  It never fails.

Anyway, back to us huddling under the tower.  Trying to avoid the saplings and the aoe damage of the bomb means we just can't get anything going.  I've managed to keep us alive, but eventually I return to base.  I give notice and leave in view of Teemo.  he of course does not alter his play and dies immediately.

Have someone gank you say?  Sadly, Viktor who went middle has died a number of times to Ezreal... so there will be no help coming for us.  Oddly enough, we won the game.  Two of the opposing players went afk or disconnected.  I went 1/2/15 overall and reached level 25.

Even though it was a pretty bad game,  it was a good learning experience.  I'm not sure if I would have done anything different though, going heavy on potions early allowed me to stay in lane longer.  Sometimes you just need to hold on and hope for the best.

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Organic RPG

Don't worry, there will not be any spoilers in this post.  Most of my game time lately has been sunk into Mass Effect 3.  I think I am around the 12 hour mark and have been very impressed with the game.  One of the things I like to most is how organic (or natural) everything seems to flow.

One example of this organic feel would be when you overhear two parties talking and you can choose to support one or the other. They just become select-able when you get near them, and you choose the one you want to support.  You say some lines, then they do.  The entire event takes place without any screen change or other jarring methods.

Previous Mass Effect games have assigned you quests by just overhearing conversations and the third installment is no different.  There is no quest dialog boxes or things to click, just listen and you'll be notified that your journal was updated.  It's simple and immersive.

Another aspect I have been impressed with is the seamless transition between cut scenes and the action. It looks amazing, especially if you compare it to other BioWare efforts like Star Wars:  the Old Republic.  I understand why they can't do that in SWTOR (far less control), but it is still pretty neat in ME3.

They have really outdone themselves with removing some of the more obtrusive aspects of a RPG.  It does feel like a movie, but without losing the feeling of control.

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WAR's New Home

Something quite unexpected happened yesterday.  Mythic announced a website maintenance, and when the servers came up there was a brand new webpage for Warhammer Online.  We were told about the new webpage before, but it was a long time ago.  So it was pretty shocking to see it happen.

With the birth of its sibling, Wrath of Heroes, the main site of http://warhammeronline.com/ now points to both games.  WoH on the left and Age of Reckoning on the right.  You can find the WAR page at:  http://ageofreckoning.warhammeronline.com/

I like the website, it's simple and clean.  The best part about it is that the Mythic community team can now easily update it.  The old site was rarely ever updated due to what sounded like bureaucratic issues.  Much like the DAoC site, it should feel much more alive.

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1.4.5a Guide

As mentioned yesterday, the Advanced War Report is a new UI element included with Warhammer Online's 1.4.5 patch.  This nice window tells you about the status of all the relics and fortresses.  Now it is very easy to know who has what, and if it is claimed.  Let's take a look at 1.4.5a!

See the new medal icon above the WAR report?  Click that to bring up the Advanced WAR Report.

Here we have the new Fortress and Relic tracker.  As you can see, Destruction currently controls both pieces of the relic.  Their Fortress is claimed, but no one has taken over the sub-areas yet.

Check out the snazzy looking barriers at the top of the Fortress.  These will drop when the Relic Guardian is killed, allowing access to the relic.  There is also a Choppa corpse here, guess he was testing it out.

The Augment Alliance icon will show any buffs you are receiving from the Fortress being claimed.  In this example, we just have claimed the Fortress itself, giving us a Renown buff.  If subareas were claimed, it would list more.

If your realm is currently receiving a relic bonus, a medal will appear next to your portrait.  As you can see, Destruction currently has two relics and is reaping some benefits, including the sweet new Insignia bonus loot.

One thing I was not able to get a picture of was the fact that Hybrid (Blue) seeds now drop from the Relic Guardian!

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1.4.5a Arrives

Today, Mythic will push Warhammer Online's 1.4.5a patch to the live servers.  Even though this is considered a 'sub-patch', I am pretty excited about what it brings to the table.  Sadly, we did not get a chance to see it on the PTS.  So my coverage of what is in the patch will begin tomorrow.

You can see the full patch notes here.  What am I excited about?  I'm glad you aksed...

Fortress Tracker.  The Advanced War Report window will now show this expanded information in a convenient window.  This includes the current location of the Relic, Claim status for the Fortress and sub-areas, etc.

The Advanced War Report can be accessed via the /adwar command or via a new icon on the mini-map.

Right now, Fortresses and Relics are kind of out of sight, out of mind.  With the addition of the UI, I expect things to get a bit more heated.

A new ribbon icon will appear around Character Portraits to indicate currently active Relic Bonuses, if any.

"Augment Alliance" buff will now appear on players inside Fortress areas when they are part of the controlling alliance. This will identify which of the Fortress Buffs are active on you, and which control point they came from.

To go along with the above point, players will now get icons to see what bonuses they are receiving from captured relics.

There are now magical barriers up near the Fortress Guardian that will stay up until the guardian has been defeated.

No more relic ninja-ing.  The Relic Guardian now has a real purpose.  Kill him to get to the relic.

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SWTOR PvP Update

Yesterday was SWTOR's Guild Summit.  There were a number of sessions, one of which involved the game's PvP content.  I had to check this one out of course, but my expectations were pretty low.  I don't play SWTOR for PvP and probably never will.

For once, I wish a developer would just come out and say, "This is not that kind of game."  Instead they answer questions in a way to keep players on the hook even though they will probably never get what they truly want.  Feels like High School/College all over again.

Ilum.  They pretty much said they didn't like the state of Ilum and were going back to the drawing board.  Of course, they also had no information to give about how they were actually going to fix it. Doesn't look like much will change in the near future.

Ranked Warzones.  I have nothing against rated pvp, but these tend to be very team oriented .  I prefer more solo options since I just don't have the time to be a part of a team anymore.  Will solo be a viable and fun path?  We'll see.  These ranked warzones also give a new tier of gear, which I'm not sure how I feel about.

Medals.  Now on to something more positive.  I do like the medal system in SWTOR's warzones.  They provide a fine grained way to reward players as opposed to just kills or winning the match.  They will soon be adding 18 more medals which sounds great.

Several of the medals will be for finishing the scenario early.  get the medal for the earliest finish and you get all of the time based medals.  It should provide incentive to win instead of farm.  They are also adding a medal (Valor) cap, to go along with the idea of winning and not farming.

New Warzone.  There will be a new warzone coming up in 1.4, which should put the number up to 4. Still well behind WAR in terms of variety, but getting there.  It will suppost same faction battles.  In fact, they said all warzones will be made to support same faction fighting.

While I like that Huttball allowed for same faction fighting, making every warzone support that does not sit well.   You can justify it through the lore by making it a 'training simulation', but in the end it just waters down the 'us versus them' aspect of the game.

Overall, I was not too thrilled with this presentation. The Legacy presentation, on the other hand, was awesome. More on that later this week.

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SWTOR Monday

Ah Monday, the scourge of people everywhere.  Usually there is not too much to look forward to on this day of the week, especially with it not being Football season.  Today, however, there is!  BioWare is holding its first ever Guild Summit for Star Wars:  The Old Republic.

A large number of guild representatives have made their way to Austin to be a part of the summit.  Good for them, but what does that means for us saps who are at work today?  BioWare has decided to live stream pretty much the whole day.

You can check out the full schedule here:  http://www.swtor.com/guildsummit

The fun starts at 11am EST and wraps up sometime after 7.  That's a lot of streaming.

Even though I have not written much about SWTOR lately, I am still subscribed.  I've just been in a PvP mood lately and that means my time goes into WAR and League of Legends.  Lately though, I've been itching to get back into the game.  Of course, Mass Effect 3 comes out tomorrow so I don't know when I'll actually be able to play more.

No matter what the game, I love this kind of stuff about MMO's.

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WAR Rank Beta 2

I'm happy to say that one of my projects, WAR Rank, is ready to be tested by a larger group of people.  What is WAR Rank?  It is a scenario ranking and record keeping system for Warhammer Online.  Players use an add-on to save scenario results, then upload them to the website.

For ranking performance, an ELO system is used.  I've also added a bonus system which can give players and teams extra points if they perform particularly well.

To get started, head on over to http://www.arsenalofwar.com/warrank and sign in.  At that point, you should see a link to download the add-on.  Install and enable it as you would any other WAR add-on.  When you are finished playing go back to the WAR Rank website and upload the file, which is called ArsenalRank.log in your logs directory.

Notes:  When you start WAR, the log file will be cleared.  If you quit WAR by killing the process, or use the X button to quit (windowed mode) the file may also be cleared.

WAR rank is still in beta, so the database will eventually be wiped.  I will also be fiddling with it behind the scenes as the need arises.

Server stats:  http://www.arsenalofwar.com/warrank/Badlands
Player stats:  http://www.arsenalofwar.com/warrank/Badlands/Tirew (the stats may take a few seconds to load)

Please let me know of any problems you encounter or ideas you have.  Thanks!

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1.4.6 Detailed

With Warhammer Online's 1.4.5a patch due out next week, Mythic went ahead and posted their plan for the 1.4.6 patch.  If you remember, this patch will be focused on bug fixing.  While that may sound a bit boring, their plan shows some very important changes in the mix.

You can check out the full list here.  Here are a few of the changes which stand out to me...

Change Tier 4 lakes to bolster to 45

This one is a pretty big change.  The levels above 40 are considered hidden, in that only the combat formulas know about them.  By increasing the bolster, you will put all Tier 4 players on an even playing field as far as these levels are concerned.  Gear and renown points will still matter, but this should bring a closer balance.

Change scenarios to bracket by RR rather than CR

This is another interesting change.  By using RR to determine who fights who, it could bring a lot better balance to scenarios.  It's not clear how this will affect queue times yet, but it is definitely something worth looking in to.  

Player-damageable Keep/Fortress doors

This is always an interesting topic.  Before the RvR overhaul players did not really like whacking on the door.  Now that it is gone, a lot of them want it back.  I guess Cinderella was right (the band).

Change the way decay timers function on talismans

I was never a big fan of decay timers, but they do serve an important purpose when use on powerful items.  There are some bugs with LoTD talismans which this should address.

Change the way rams get repaired

The ram is an important part of RvR and has been known to get a little buggy when a lot of people are beating on it.  Personally, I don't like that the ram and siege equipment can repair itself (with player interaction).  I'd much rather see heals come from player abilities or consumables.

Remove flight animations when using Flight Masters

Turns out, these cut scenes are just fluff.  they never really bothered me, but I won't be sorry to see them go either.

This is just a small sample of what was in the list, so do go read the rest.

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