Fight on the Flag

Hot off the hot fix presses at EAMythic, a new change to keep doors:

Realm vs. Realm

Keep doors will no longer respawn after being destroyed. Players must now use the “Wood” purchased from Door Repair merchants to rebuild a destroyed Keep door.

When I told my guildies of this change this afternoon, the response was a resounding “Awesome.” And it is clear that FOTF members are not alone in being happy with this change.

We all remember what keep takes and assaults in DAOC were like, and frantically repairing the door before another assault wave hit was part of the fun. I think about how we all carried various levels of wood with us (many times to the point of encumbrance), and another member had a spreadsheet that told us what kind or how much wood to use depending on the door’s level and state of repair.

All long-time DAOC fans will be able to appreciate this. I never had a strong opinion of the previous door situation, where doors automatically repaired after 15 minutes. I have to admit it was kind of frustrating to have the doors close behind us, but the added bonus was the epic gatehouse defenses we had when Destro thought they had pinned us down.

Unfortunately I’ve not had a chance to test this new feature. I have a lot of questions about how it will work (Can we repair in combat? How much wood does it take? Can you get super wood in game with ordinance? Because that would be cool!). Now the door repair merchants will have a use! I will be sure to stock up on stacks of wood to test it out soon!

And for old times’ sake, our Doorhammer video:

For the longest time FOTF has avoided doing TOVL. There are many reasons, one of which is that PVE content tends to be buggy and we are too lazy to figure out the strats. We decided to start doing TOVL last weekend because the gear is too good to pass up. Our theory is that,  in the time it takes us to do Lost Vale, we can get really nice other loot, including talismans, cartouches and warlord-equivalent stats gear.

Last weekend we downed the first two bosses fairly easily (not bad for the first time in several months). On the third boss we wiped and five of us released. We asked for the sixth to release and when he did, the gates remained closed as if the boss were still in combat. We sent in a stuck appeal and we got no response. Destro owned the zone so we couldn’t just reset. Frustrated, most of us logged for the day.

This morning, we planned to wake up early and do TOVL. We wiped on the first boss and five of us released. The sixth released and yet again the gate was closed (maybe this is a trend?).

(Perle is on the flag, there are six people. Notice the door is closed?)

Again I sent in a stuck appeal and again we got bored after waiting for 30 minutes and getting no response. Finally about 30 minutes after we left the dungeon we got an automated message that they were “looking at the problem.” Pshaw!

Both days the bug prevented us from progressing further. Both days our time was wasted and we become more disenchanted with the game.

Maybe the solution is to release at the same time so we don’t get the bug? I really don’t know. Once everyone is dead the doors should open and that should be that. If someone knows the answer to this please let me know.

I guess this goes to show we will never be done fighting doors.

After a long break, mostly due to work and creating the following content, I am now back with an exciting post for a new mini-game based on Mythic’s Warhammer came.

Now presenting: Doorhammer Online: Age of Carpentry!

Do you like to fall asleep due to the boredom of capturing keeps? Do you go AFK while you make your 5-year-old push the button for fireball over and over? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then check out Doorhammer Online!

Watch the exciting trailer for the newest chapter in Mythic’s epic adventure! If RVR contains too much excitement for your tastes, then you’ll love the excitement of Realm vs Door that Doorhammer Online affords your playstyle!

(Watch in HQ)

I realize on most populated servers, doors probably go down in less than five minutes. During one run at a keep, it took one warband of people only on the door (the other warband was guarding posterns) roughly 30 minutes to down the doors.

Andora says it best at about 39 seconds in: “It’s so boring!”

There have been many calls for Mythic to merge Gorfang to a more populated server. Blazeric, another Gorfang blogger, has also called for a server merge. Consider this another.