Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Power Divide

In most MMO's, expanding the game involves giving players better equipment.  Warhammer Online is no different, except that the impact new and improved gear has is much more pronounced.  The better the gear, the more easily players can kill those without it.  Mythic is well aware of this problems and has plans to address it in the upcoming 1.4 patch.

Yesterday, Andy posted about some of the ways Mythic will be addressing the power gap

Tier Changes.  The traditional tiers (1 - 11, 12 - 21, 22 - 31,32 - 40) will be a thing of the past.  They will now be: 1 - 15, 12 - 26, 22 - 39,  32 - 40.  The big difference is that the overlapping tiers give players a choice.  In the old system, they were forced to head off to Tier 4 at rank 32 to face RR80's.  In the new system, they can stay in Tier 3 longer if they so choose.

Personally, I will likely still head to Tier 4 at rank 32, just because that is where the real action is.  I will be glad to have the option to stay at lower tiers and fight people much closer to my own level.

Faster Progression.  As mentioned before, players who purchase the Progression Pack will receive a passive renown buff.   From this new post, we learn it is a scaling buff which can go as high as 300%.  I'm guessing we'll see the biggest speed increase around RR 40 and it will slow down as we approach 80.

There is a segment of players who are not too happy about players getting to 80 faster.  They feel it lessens their 'accomplishment.'  I don't agree with this attitude at all, but I'll let it go.  In WAR, it is important that players be kept in the same 'power window.' That includes new players and old.  In 1.4, that window is RR 80 - 100.  If not, it will be very difficult to attract new players.

Those sitting at RR80 now will likely be the first ones to RR100 too, while the rest of the playerbase works their way up. I don't know about you, but I prefer my enemies to be a challenge rather than pushovers.