Tuesday, February 7, 2012

1.4.5a Planned Changes

Last week, we learned a bit more about what the future holds for WAR with 1.4.6.  That is not the next patch though, the team is currently working on Fortress/relic improvements which will be released in a few weeks.  there are some very interesting changes coming our way.

For a full list, head over to the forums.

Adding Insignia Clusters to the GvD Relic Bonus - When your realm holds both relics in GvD, in addition to the bonus to coin, there will be a small chance for player kills to drop Insignia Clusters. These Clusters have a 48 hour decay timer, at which point they turn into unusable hunks of metal. When used before they decay, you will be presented with a dialog box allowing you to choose one Fused Insignia of your choice (Conqueror, Invader, Warlord, Royal, Doomflayer, Warpforged). This Fused Insignia can then be used, as any other Fused Insignia, to gain 1-3 Insignias.

I'm pretty excited about this change.  Currently, the Dwarf vs Greenskin paring gives 200% gold, which is a bit lackluster.  This added bonus gives players a chance at scenario currency (Insignia's) when they kill a player.  It should be a good incentive to take the relic, as the only other way to obtain these is through scenarios.

Adding the Advanced Realm War (working title) UI element - This new UI element will show the status of Fortresses and Relic locations. This will make it easier to coordinate your realm's efforts to thwart would be relic thieves! This UI element will also display which Relic Bonuses are currently active for your Realm, if any.

Yay! Right now the whole relic system is lacking in feedback.  These UI elements should make the system much easier to use, and as a result cause more action.  I wish this was included in the last patch, but I can wait a few weeks.

Addition of Relic Barriers - Relic Guardians have been upgraded, and are now able to generate barriers, preventing access to any relics at their location. These barriers are constructs of their will, meaning you will be forced to dispatch the Guardians in order to bring these barriers down.

One issue, which not everyone agrees on, is that relics can be taken without killing the Guardian.  These barriers will force players to have to kill the big guy before they can obtain the relic.  I like the change, but I do understand players would like an alternative means of getting by the Guardian.