Warhammer Problem

The 1.2 patch brought us many nice improvements. Zone Domination, better class balance and improved crafting were all welcomed additions. As with most things, some not so good things tagged along.

Ever since 1.2, stability has been awful. I'm not sure whether or not this is a widespread problem. I seem to get disconnected several times a hour. Prior to the patch, this was a very rare occurrence.

As I do most of my fighting in the RvR lakes, I tend to be in the vicinity of a battlefield objective. When you get disconnected here, you spawn back at the warcamp. In some zones, this is just a minor inconvenience. However, when your warband is at the south end of Dark Crag, it is extremely frustrating.

I am pretty forgiving with MMO problems, as they are living products. However, this courtesy does not extend to stability issues; especially ones that are newly introduced. I really hope to see some news on this being fixed, as it will lessen the amount of time I give to WAR.

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Werit the Speedbump

Another Monday is upon us, and I feel especially cranky this morning. WAR has not been helping my mood as of late. It has been rough times of Order on Badlands lately. For the past 3 or 4 weeks, Altdorf has come under siege every weekend. While it was interesting the first time, it is quickly losing its charm.

Not only is the city being sieged every weekend, we are starting to see fortresses being attacked during weekday afternoons. Most of the time, they do not even bother to attack the fort. When they do, it is just to try to lure defenders off the walls. We still have to defend it though, which can make for quite a boring hour. All the while they are pushing another zone.

Badlands used to be a 'balanced' server or so we thought. There was a time when Order actually pushed a fort a couple of times. However, even during this time, we never had the upper hand on the server. Since the patch which weakened fortress doors and stopped defenders from being rezzed near the keep lord, Destruction has been on a rampage. I'm sure the situation is reversed on some servers.

The Armchair Generals will be quick to say it is a tactics problem, especially when no one asked them. While tactics may play a part in some cases, the overall problem is numbers. On Badlands, Order just does not field enough people at any given time to put up a prolonged offensive. Stats site show that Destruction does have a character advantage, but not by a wide margin. What it does not show is how many are actually playing on average.

We do try an organize and go on the offensive. When we do, we are usually met with a larger force, which will change our tactics. All we can really do is go into speedbump mode to try and delay their capturing of zones. That is really doing just delaying the inevitable, because usually the side with greater numbers will win the war of attrition.

I am starting to get tired of always being on the defensive. Back before launch, I think I remember Mythic saying there would be some balancing mechanism that would make consecutive city sieges progressively harder. I may just be remembering incorrectly though. In any case, this is something that may be needed.

As it is now, the strong will just keep getting stronger. As someone who is constantly on the defense, that is not a prospect I want to think about as the game goes on. I have no desire to farm a PvE instance for hours on end in the city siege, just to watch the same folks take home bags. Even if the instance actually has destruction in it, I can only take a couple hours max. Last night, I could not even get into the city to help defend.

So what can be done? It seems Order is getting smaller every day. Tactics can only do so much when outnumbered by multiple warbands. The city battle is getting old fast. I'm not really in an alt mood either.

All that being said, I still do have some fun when I login. The battles on the small scale are enjoyable, just not the larger campaign.

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Travel Costs in WAR

Recently, I have started to notice that using the gyrocopter to travel to different tiers is actually pretty expensive. It costs 45 silver for the flight. I guess whatever they use to power that steam engine is quite expensive. Now you know the real reason why Slayers have a death wish.

The cost isn't really that high, but it has been hitting my wallet hard. There are kill quests in each tier that can net you about 1 gold and 59 silver. These are great, but there are many times that I am not able to complete this quest in a play session. When I log in again, the battle has moved. So I actually end up spending quite a bit on just getting to the fight.

This is one of the few money sinks for the game, and that is fine. We really do not have a choice about paying it, as there is no other way to get to our destination (other than our transport stone). In some other games, you do have the choice to ride to your destination, although it will take longer.

Right now there really isn't much to spend money on, so this really is not a big deal. In the future, who knows? Maybe we can get our beloved emperor to enact a stimulus package to help out with these fuel costs :)

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Leeches are abundant

I don't know whether it is the Badlands server or just Tier 4 in general, but XP/Renown leeches are much more common. These are the guys who go solo in the scenarios, so they don't have to share any XP or Renown with a group. It is usually two types of characters, DPS or a Healer. When their leeching is pointed out, they have two general responses:

DPS: I am doing all the damage, I deserve it. Just don't heal me then.

Healer: I am doing a lot of healing, I deserve it. Don't you want heals?

Both arguments don't really work or make any sense. Playing solo would only be legitimate if you could do as well if you were fighting the entire opposing team alone. Oh, you couldn't because everyone would be attacking you? Well I guess your teammates are doing something then aren't they?

By playing solo, you do not get any of the group buffs and healers in the parties will be less likely to heal you. This makes the entire team weaker. I know team is a hard concept to understand for some people. Losing the scenario gives the opposition Victory Points, weakening the realm. None of that really matters, so long as they get their renown or xp. Just another example of people who are not playing the game.

Mythic is to blame here as well. They have not said anything about changing the grouping in scenarios (Have they?). In fact, it seems like they planned this as a feature as there is a View Solo Players button. I am not sure why Mythic would want to encourage such behavior, as it is not good for the game.

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WAR Weekend Report plus Gripe

That's right, I am including a Monday Gripe with this edition of the WAR Weekend Report... at no extra charge! How's that for value?

Overall, my weekend was pretty good. Werit is now at BR 30/ RR 30. I got some prime-time WAR in on Friday Night with some guildies and alliance folks. Most of the time was spent in tier 3 with two keep defenses. We won both fights, but they were not easy. The 2nd keep defense they made it into the Keep Lords room. It could have gone either way.

And now for the gripe. I hate when players say, "let them take the keep, so we can re-take it and get bags." Forum goers will readily blame Mythic for this, and as usual, they are wrong. The problem is players playing the system, not the game. This has always been a problem and always will be. Here are the incentives I need:

• Fighting is fun.
• It is our keep and they want it.

That's it. Just play the game and not the system... you'll be happier in the end. Ok, end of Gripe.

Saturday I did not play too much. I ran some scenarios when I had free time, nothing too intense. Sunday I was planning on playing a bit, as Destruction threw down a gauntlet. Sadly the action did not really start until late afternoon and my time was limited. I went to Dragonwake to join the fight. We were beaten pretty easily there.

Then it was off to Praag where we had some successes. Then their reinforcements arrived and I think we were beaten there too. I had to log off, so I can't be sure. Destruction was definitely better organized than we were. They also had superior numbers, but it may not have mattered that day.

How much Fallout 3 did I play? Zero. I really meant too. Every time I get on the computer I think, "Let me just check to see if something is going on in WAR first." The next thing I know, I have run out of time to play Fallout 3. I apologize fallout 3, I will make time for you.

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Monday Gripe: Healer Whining

Yes, it is that time again. For some reason I am especially grouchy this morning. The Eagles and Phillies both won, so I should be happy. Yet here I am working, so I am not.

First let me say I love healers... most of them. We could not win without them. However, there is a small segment of healers that have been especially vocal on the forums since Mythic balanced out the renown that they get.

Now they are all quitting, worst decision ever made, blah, blah. You know the drill. No one wants to hear it, especially me. I play a defensive class, and guess what I end up playing defense! You know that guy guarding the objective or flag, that is me. Guess what I end up doing for a large part of the match, I'll give you a hint... not fighting.

So when the match ends, I get very little of anything. Does this bother me? Not really, because THIS IS A TEAM GAME. It isn't about how much XP or renown I got, it is whether we won or lost. I know this is a foreign concept to some.

Quit your whining and heal so our team can win. And to all the other healers out there, Thanks.

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Monday Gripe: Nerf-herders

The first recorded call for a nerf in a video game came in 1972, with the debut of Pong. After the game, the losing player wrote a letter, on his typewriter, to Atari. The letter demanded that Atari shorten Player 1's paddle, as it was giving Player 1 an unfair advantage.

Ok, I made that up. This weekend was WAR's preview weekend, which allowed at least 50,000 players to get a taste of the game. Soon after the the servers were brought up, the call for nerf's began.

It seems that at least half of the classes in the game have been called overpowered already. The majority of the classes mentioned have been on the Order side. One possibility for this is that many players have this impression: Order == WoW Alliance == kids & new players == less skilled. This tends to give some Destruction players (not all) a superiority complex.

When they (Order too) lose a battle, they can not fathom that they may have just been beaten by a better player, better strategy or just plain luck. So the call for nerf's go out, often times not even mentioning the classes mirror on their side (Order or Destruction). It is always the other side, not theirs.

All that being said, there are imbalances. Judging a classes power is not an easy thing to do though, especially in WAR. Some classes, like Engineer, have a power curve that only starts to get high in the later ranks. Classes like Bright Wizard have a power curve which starts getting higher earlier. The whole balance may shift in the subsequent ranks. WAR is also a team game. It is not and should not be balanced based on 1 vs 1 combat.

Be careful when crying nerf as it can have some unintended consequences. Star Wars: Galaxies, back before NGE, had all sorts of balancing issues. Players were constantly making pushes for nerfs and powering up of their own classes. This lead to a Flavor of the Month issue since the devs did try to appease the player base and eventually lead to NGE.* So please, keep in mind the overall health of the game before taking to the forums demanding a change.

*NOTE: I am not saying players are fully to blame for SWG, only partly. A better initial design would have gone a long way. NGE also had many other reasons ; class balance was just one contributing issue.

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Monday Gripe: Trash

Monday, we meet again. You are the bane of the working mans existence. A perfectly pleasant weekend, ended by your arrival. Much like onions in my cheesesteak, you are not welcome. You have inspired a new Werit segment, where I will complain and moan about certain topics.

Today's topic is trash. I am not talking about this kind of trash. I am speaking of the worthless, frustrating, crap enemies that game developers put in their dungeons prior to boss fights.

The reason I most often see for including these poor souls is for 'pacing'. What that really means is 'How can we waste your time even more?' I don't mind trash, the first time. When you make players run dungeons multiple times (raid treadmill) it ceases to become fun.

They don't drop anything useful usually, and if they do it will likely not be useful to anyone. They are not challenging beyond the first time. It adds nothing to the immersion, because they don't matter. The only reason we are doing them is to get to the bosses. If we could skip them, I am sure we would. Although, there are plenty of sadistic individuals who would want to kill them for the rep grind (which is likely the subject of another gripe).

I find it hard to believe that the developers can find that the trash adds fun to repeated dungeon runs. I know it has killed a lot of my interest in raiding. Boss fights are fun, trash fights are not. Please, share your hate of trash, misery loves company.

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