2010 Video Feedback podcast!

BIND ON PICKUP:

When did this become standard in the MMO world? Back in the day of great MMOs you didn’t have BOP.It was either you can use it, pass it, or it was Bind on Equip. And with BOE it was understandable. It was reasonable. There was no reason why one toon should tweak the heck out of another that has not worked for that same item.

Warhammer uses the BOP as one of the greatest insults to the player base. Not only do you spend 5 hours of your life grinding away at some elite 6 man dungeon. But chances of one of the epic armor pieces dropping for one of the classes actually in group are slim. Sure the armor piece itse;f is a guaranteed drop, which is great, it’s just not a guaranteed drop for anyone in you group to use. Which is bad.

We come out of the dungeon 5 hours older with nothing to show for it, but a few grey hairs and a new hatred for the PvE content in the game.

What could be done to make this less frustrating? So that the game is not just about giving away gear to everyone, but actually rewarding the players that complete the games content properly? Well it’s sort of simple really.. the game already has gear sets coded with the same idea that requires a player to work and earn the right the equip the gear before they can use it. RvR gear has this rule set already applied. Where as player can own an invader chest, but can’t equip it until they are the proper renown rank.

We accept this rule, we like this rule. It makes sense.. the ends justifies the means.

So why not apply this same rule to PvE gear? Remove the Bind on Pickup aspect on everything, and simply tie in equipping the armor to killing the EPIC boss mob that drops it.

So not only are players no longer frustrated with the fact that they didn’t get the gear drop, but they are now able to sell the piece they acquired to help in creating some form of economy in game. Everyone wins!

EPIC ENCOUNTERS AND YOU: RESURRECTION

RvR, PvP, Scenarios, public quest, basic PvE, nearly everything in this game allows the player to recover, to get back into the fight, that if the player dies, he can be brough back to life and recover in the battle. It’s part of the skill of a healer to be able to keep the heals going, and bring a fallen party member back into action.

Mistakes happen, either on the players end, or on the games coding end, it’s a video game it should be about players enjoyment, and the challenge of the encounter. Creating a system that requires the players to perform the encounter perfectly without fault or error just widens the frustration and hatred the player base has for these Epic Encounters.

Allow players to to Resurrect during this encounters once again, allow us to enjoy the game.

MASSIVELY SINGLE-PLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME:

Never have I felt so alone in a MMO. From level 1 until 40, not a single group formed to do the public quest, or to do any low end dungeons with. It’s not that the game isn’t designed to easily acquire or join those groups. it’s not because solo play is more rewarding then group play. Although it may seem that may be the case. It’s actually because group play is not rewarding at all, but instead a punishment to the player. The diminishing returns on XP/RP/COIN the moment you enter into a party hinders your characters advancement.

Allow the XP/RP/Coint hit once in a group to be to be adjusted to a mere -5% per party member added to the group. So a full party would have a -25% xp reduction rewarded.

Battle Field Objectives Tier 4 Design:

What happened here? Lack of recourses? Not enough staff? No time? The games design progression within the RvR lakes went from simplistic (as it should) to an offensive open battle design in t2, then to a tactical defensive design in t3, then to a flaming bag of cow poop simplistic design in t4. Where combat was no longer about tactical positioning or strategic thinking. It was mass or be massed. Zerg or be Zerged.

All the critical thinking from tier 3 tossed out the window, and the small group was no longer viable in the open field RvR. This is the problem with t4, this is why players are so disappointed with the t4 RvR.

Go to High Pass in the empire pairing, look at the battle field objectives. The Tavern, the Manor, the Tower.. all objectives that if defended can actually be defended with smaller numbers. That each battle at this objectives are design to be epic battles.

Now on the other side of the spectrum look at the T4 BO designs. Where the tactical option is to simply stand in the open.

The t4 design is not a hybrid of what we learned from t2 and t3.. it’s simply and purely mindless Mass on Mass battles.

But don’t just take a BO and stick a tower in it. Rethink this objectives, and multi choke points instead of just 1. If there is anything we learned from the keep redesign, it’s that 1 choke point is bad..3 choke points is good. Make the game more of a balance between defense and offense.

SIEGE? WHAT SIEGE?

Why is is so useless? Why does it not seem as effective as it did in t2? Or t3? Why is siege so easily ignored? Why do players not use anything other then Rams?

There once was a time when some of these siege weaponry did matter When Oil was still a devastating defensive weapon of war. When the renown abilities would actually work on all siege, allowing players to figure out new tactical possibilities in order to slow down the progression of overwhelming odds. Increase the damage, increase the rate of fire just an overall improvement for the defenders.

While we are on the subject of siege, why must they all share the same basic look? Why should a normal siege engine look exactly the same as a bulky siege engine, or even a exceptional siege engine?

Lets get creative, lets have fun with our siege. Lets change the graphic for the exceptional siege to something designed for each race. For example, the greenskins could have a giant or a cave troll for the ram graphic. Empire could have the steam tank, dwarf could have a huge iron golum. Etc etc, it just adds to the war, to let the players know that the keep is being hit heavy.

While we are on it, lets also change the readout on keep doors, lets show the damage on the keep doors every 25%.

Victory Points & Zone Domination

Fix VP, get rid of ZD. Have keeps and BO generate Victory points over time, boom, done. Only allow zones to lock if all 4 BOs and both keeps are under one realms control.

WASTED CONTENT! IMPROVE CONTENT!

FORTS:

The removal of forts was possibly one of the biggest mistakes mythic has ever brought upon the game. And it continues to plague the game, causing end game content to be trivial.

Bring back forts, but just not the forts we had to deal with. Add a 2nd ramp to the lord room so the fort gains the same improvements as the keeps. Reduce the constant respawn on champ guards and make the respawn rate tie more in lines with the respawn rate on guards in a keep.

Allow players to be rezed in the fort lord battle once again, following the same ruleset as the epic encounter section.

And finally, tie in the forts with the UD system. So that is a realm has +1UD points, they get to defend 1 fort, if they have +2 UD points, they get to defend 2 forts before the opposing realm can access to the city. It’s simple, it makes sense.

ORC AND DWARF CAPITAL CITIES:

No, I don’t want more useless capital cities, aldorf and IC already fill that need. What I do want is more epic end game content design for more then 6 players at a time. Dungeons such as Gunbad, and basitan stairs were great, you can go into them with a warband or 2 of players, and have a great time as a guild. (of course it sucked having to do the bosses with only 6 men). So that’s what I want to see, 2 epic dungeons, each one which can be invaded. Each one that are as fun as hunters vale, but designed for a warband of players to enter. Having custom PQ style quest, and rewards that match the challenge.

To much of this game epic content is focused around the elite 6 man team. We need to do away with this idea if we want to bring forth a stronger games community. Allow warbands into the 6 man instances, don’t increase the loot count, just increase our fun. Let us play this game together. Instead of just 6 of us at a time.

GET CREATIVE:

Land of the dead did something cool.. it added a world boss for us to gasp at. This same kind of thing should be added to each pairing. A large random lord spawn that happens anywhere within the pairing, at anytime. It could spawn at the outer walls of a keep during a keep siege. Or it could just spawn on a bridge just in Dragon wake. Waiting to take players lives. Lets start having some epic content in the open field for your player base mythic, let us want to love this game.