Just a heads up, the big Warhammer city patch might be tomorrow. From Andy Belford, hot off the Twitter presses:

Here is a link to the patch notes for 1.3.5 from the test server. The devs also saw fit to nerf the Bright Wizard spell Scorched Earth and the Sorc equivalent. IMO this only makes it harder for scrub BWs. The really good ones (such as the ones formerly in FOTF) never depended solely on Scorched Earth, although if a Destro jumps in the middle of three BWs while I’m taking a screenshot, I can’t take responsibility for what happens.

This doesn’t change my need for a break. This weekend was incredibly relaxing. I am playing a bit of Guild Wars, but it’s really low key.

I’m about 100 pages into a book I’m reading about human psychology and recovery from traumatic episodes (i.e. post traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans). No connection to the game of course, it’s just an interesting topic because I have a lot of family members who have seen combat.

By 1.3.6 players will have the capability to play as both Order and Destruction on the same server.  We did this in Camelot, because we wanted to give players more choices about where they wanted to play and who they wanted to play with. We’re aware of the possible downsides (such as cross-realming) and we’re aware that people have a lot of realm pride, which we believe is very important, so we’re going to be introducing a significant lockout timer to switch between realms.

I have mixed feelings on this. I will not lie: there have been many a time when I’ve been tempted to roll Destro on Gorfang simply because Order has been outnumbered and all I want is a good fight where I am vastly outnumbered (most people want to be on the other side). Carrie admits that there’s a potential for cross realming, which is very real. I also think that some players will exploit whatever they can to gain a better advantage. A good example of this is the recent free-to-play trial. I know of a guild on Gorfang that rolled all new T1 toons and then proceeded to summon them (with summon stones before the ability to do so was removed) to several different zones to get tactics, gear, etc.

For me the main question is “What is the definition of significant (referring to the lockout timer)? This question may have already been answered somewhere, but I do have a life and work and a husband to spend time with. If someone knows the answer please post.

Shadow-WAR has a timer I could get behind: Six days.

The biggest trick of this entire deal is going to be the lockout timer.

If it’s too short, it won’t matter, people can hop from side to side at a whim, with no impact on their play. If Destro suddenly decides to come out and play today, they can hop over and zerg-surf to 80 and full sovereign in empty city instances, and do the same tomorrow if Order does it. If it’s too long, people won’t make use of it. So, the crux of the entire problem lies in timing.

The answer to the problem: 144 hours. That’s six days.

The reason? The final lockout for sovereign gear is 68 hours, just shy of 3 days. This lockout timer is short enough, that you can do it multiple times per billing cycle (5 times), and long enough, that you’ll think about it seriously before using it. It also ensures that you’ll most likely see at least two city siege attempts where you can gain loot.

Over at Backseatdev, Tyanon writes that people who want to cross realm are already doing it, and “paying for two accounts to do it.”

His other good points:

• Obviously one of the biggest problems with the city siege being participation-based is you need to rely on realm pride to be greater then the desire to just roll over and let the enemy take your lands if you are locked out on offensive city timer and can get loot for defensive city timer.
• It is going to hurt some guilds that have members jump to the other side with their main account, then be locked out of their current guild. (My comment: This leads to a degradation of community which is a bad thing for player retention. Players stay in a game longer than they normally would because of their guild.)

Healeroftru on Gorfang thinks this is going to be a huge detriment to the server and the game in general:

Mythic wants the player opinion?

Me: Good idea, maybe.
Gaentin: Stupid
Dominateme: Looks like 1.3.6 is the end for me.
Uthrax: Junk
Yel: Life will go on
Laudine: Proof the game is failing
Ravashack: …one more step towards the slippery slope of death.

Does the player base have a say in whether this happens or not? Hard to say. Most things that Mythic announces tends to come to fruition simply because they want to be trusted and don’t announce things that are iffy anyway. My opinion? I am not sure, but leaning toward no. I have no desire to play two realms. (My Destro character has only been logged in on Badlands to create a guild and maintain leadership.) I only want a good, fair fight. I am not sure that will happen if we have people switching factions all the time.

But you can’t go full bore and please the only guilds because then casual players would get left out of the mix. Guilds make people want to log in and play when there are other things they can be doing.

I know this from personal experience and from what other people tell me about Fight on the Flag. When Warhammer first came out we formed a single-group guild and did scenarios all the time. But as we got to know more people, our ranks grew to the point where we could field two groups.

ORVR was awesome with everyone in Ventrilo and assisting our MA. We would only do scenarios when RVR was slow. At the very least, don’t hurt guilds on purpose, and that’s almost what the recent changes feel like.

Earning insignias via RVR was a great idea, but the only viable way to earn them was via scenarios. That simple change to the game has changed the way players view ORVR and I think that’s bad news for guilds, especially those like mine.

Most of the players in FOTF when I asked them this week have said scenarios are actually less fun.

Why?

1. Collecting scenario currency has made scenarios more of a grind and less fun.
2. The fact that it does not matter if you win or lose the scenario encourages AFK players, which in turn demoralizes the rest of us who care.
3. Queueing solo means you can get more crests per hour than if you queue as a group. There is a disincentive for grouping with a friend or friends.
4. Because of the grind, people do not want to ORVR anymore, and those who love ORVR are sad pandas We love ORVR if you couldn’t tell.

I think the situation can be fixed, if they would only make the insignias obtained from scenarios drop in ORVR as well (possibly at a 1:5 ratio to crests).

In previous games we tried to be optimistic in the past when PVP changes would not allow our guild to run together. In Warcraft after a patch required premades to only queue against other premades (and subsequently made queue time skyrocket) we tried to make the best of a bad situation. Pirate Day was a ton of fun, and I still cherish those memories. But eventually FOTF succumbed to the apathetic attitude that Warcraft had toward PVP players.

Just like in Warcraft, I think the next few patches could be the tipping point for many guilds.

Quotes for former guildies commenting on the aforementioned Warcraft changes that prevented us from PVPing together as a guild:

Cancelled my wow accounts. I was real close to canceling them a few months ago, but then I found FOTF. … Since the death of premades and with several people from the guild cancelling their accounts, I have once again lost interest in the game and am not going to play anymore for now. I will probably return for the expansion, but that remains to be seen.

And, after leaving Gorfang and then returning after Aion:

I will say, since my time with FotF, no game has held any interest for me. It is amazing to me what a great guild can do to ones experience with an MMO. I am gameless right now and going fraking crazy.

This trend is very hard for me to ignore when I hear players are logging in less, are obviously frustrated or and are actively looking for another game.

EDIT: One final note: Read WASDstomp’s post about why city changes are not friendly to guilds either:

I just find it very stupid that guilds, or premades will be split up among several instances. It is basically defeating the whole reason of belonging to a guild, and working together.

How much fun is it going to be to spend several hours flipping zones together as a guild, and get split into four different city siege instances? All your hard work could go completely down the drain if you get in an instance with idiots.

Ugh! I hate that! Fortunately any fight dodgers will get punished in the upcoming city changes by receiving a full complement of lockout timers for stages 1-3.

Unfortunately, CTDers are caught in the crossfire:

From Gaarawarr’s recent post regarding the new city instance:

GG - So one of our fellow WAR players would like to know if there’s going to be some way around strong groups.  Like leaving and rejoining as in scenarios.

Mike - This is the one where my gut reaction was to just penalize the crap out of people for doing that…

GG - ~whispers~ Go with your gut!

Mike - …but then it screws the people who went link-dead and came back or crashed, whatever the case may be.

GG - No one crashes in WAR…

Mykiel - Get better Internet…

Mike - Yeah…call your net provider, flush your DNS cache…

~all laughing~

• GG: Gaarawarr, a blogger
• Mike = Mike Wyatt (a developer)
• Mykiel = another blogger

In a Twitter conversation, Gaarawarr assured me it was a lighthearted conversation so don’t read too much into the text.

Currently as the city stands, if you CTD (crash to desktop) you are booted outside and have to requeue. I understand why they want to do this. (I would be a fan except I would be more likely to leave an instance to FIND a fight not to leave one.)

I really, really hope they can give the CTD player a break, maybe a 5-minute grace period, before they are permanently booted from the city and given lockout timers.

If you wanted to read the massive dev thread, go here.

All will be revealed in time and I suppose there’s no use fretting about what will eventually happen. I am planning a few posts for the coming week or two:

1. Commentary on the new city mechanic
2. Why game designers should cater to guilds and players, not the player or the guild alone
3. Our reward-centered gaming culture and why it should change

I realize no game will ever be perfect, although DAOC before Trials of Atlantis and New Frontiers came awfully close.

Read the answers to some of the questions (more will be posted later by the authors):

• MykielWAR: Mythic, Dev Round Table, and a Magical tour
• ShadowWAR: Mogwai, don’t feed them after midnight
• Werit: Mythic Day 1
• Gaarawarr: Mythic Answers Your Twitter Questions!

I plan to write an analysis of the full Q&A after it is posted. It sounds like MykielWAR might post the audio later and I will listen to it all if he does.

Perle is also on Twitter if you are interested in following. I am trying to cultivate all of the Warhammer tweeters I can into one list for ease of following:

Here is my list of Warhammer Online tweeters (mostly found via searches during the Twitter Q&A)

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:

Here is a pic at Chokethorn Bramble BO. That is just the front of the vast Destro zerg. (Click pic to embiggen)

FotF ran with our good friends in Obliteration. Since both guilds are fans of using assist, getting in vent and working together, we  wiped the Destro nearly every time we faced them.

We also ran scenarios together, although some people had trouble with Queue Queuer:

On another note, the 1.3.4 patch notes are here. There is a pretty long discussion on the Gorfang forums lamenting the loss of such scenarios as Serpent’s Passage, Caledor Woods and Logrin’s Forge. Really Mythic? This makes me a sad panda Why are these scenarios unpopular? I saw Serpents pop way more than Dragon’s Bane.

Here is the list of scenario offerings:

* The following Scenarios now make up the regularly-offered list: Nordenwatch, Gates of Ekrund, Mourkain Temple, Phoenix Gate, Highpass Cemetery and Battle for Praag. The breakdown of when these Scenarios are offered is as follows:

* Tier 1

- Nordenwatch

- Gates of Ekrund

* Tier 2

- Nordenwatch

- Gates of Ekrund

- Mourkain Temple

* Tier 3

- Nordenwatch

- Gates of Ekrund

- Mourkain Temple

- Phoenix Gate

- Highpass Cemetery

* Tier 4

- Nordenwatch

- Gates of Ekrund

- Mourkain Temple

- Phoenix Gate

- Highpass Cemetery

- Battle for Praag

With the possible exception of Phoenix Gate and Battle for Praag, your team can win every one of those scenarios by avoiding the fight. The scenarios that were removed seemed to favor single-point battles. The lower-tier scenarios that were removed were a rite of passage, as Mezirah stated on the Gorfang forums.

tor anroc was a rite of passage. isha introduced dynamic LOS pvp.

LOS pvp is incredibly important for strategic defenses and offenses. Why they removed Temple of Isha I will never know. It was one of my favorite scenarios leveling up, along with Tor Anroc. It is a shame they are removing these scenarios. (Here is a link to one of FOTF’s early reports from Tor Anroc. Here is a screenshot of Temple of Isha.)

But at least we won’t have to do Thunder Valley anymore.

On a positive note they are adding weapons that you can buy with new scenario currency. So when we are bored out of our minds doing the same scenarios over and over at least we will have something to look forward to.

You know what this means? Destruction or Order is going to be sooo bored for an entire week while the other side frolics in LotD.

In any case, here are some links to get you moving:

A superb Live Event guide by Gaarawarr Gabs. This link includes a rundown of everything you must do to complete the live event, pictures to show you what airship parts look like, stuff about the Reikland Factory scenario that I didn’t know:

Also, when the scenario is won, you get the Desert Madness buff which increases your Renown and XP gains by 5% for 30 minutes.  Good times.

This guide will also include the location of an Easter Egg, but people haven’t found it yet.

Once we actually get inside Land of the Dead, here is a beastiary by Gaarawarr Gabs, which includes what mobs drop tome tactic fragments.

Warhammer Blog Times also has a guide for boss strats in Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

Sigil explanation guide, again by Gaarawarr Gabs (maybe Syven won’t have to keep telling us wtf it means). The meat of the post:

The Sigils and their Unlock Requirements

Each Ward has five fragments and each fragment has one or more ways to unlock it.  You do not have to do all of the tasks listed, just one.

Finally, I am suspicious of how this patch and content will affect RVR. I fear this will make RVR a constant RVE fest, because everyone will want to be in Land of the Dead.

Here are some concerns posted by Warhammer Alliance member Anglakhel. She (or he) went into the test server to try out the new content. The only problem was, nobody else was really there.

The PTS, however, was completely unequipped and unprepared to test out these two dimensions of the Expedition Resources Quest. Player Kills were almost impossible. Once one side had control of the Land of the Dead, they all abandoned the RvR lakes to explore the news lands. The consequence of this was that the faction without LotD control didn’t have any enemies to kill and the Expedition Resources Quest failed to advance in any meaningful way.

Without player kills, the Expedition Resource Quest depends upon zone capture to generate resources. However, the PTS didn’t have an established group of guilds with the Rank, Resources and Standard Bearers to claim Keeps and lock down zones.

So basically what we have is a live testing environment. Let’s try to bear with these changes. I still think Warhammer is the best PVP for me, but only because of the strength of our guild.

Here are the relevant notes for RVR:

• The successful capture of an enemy battlefield objective now rewards the capturing players with experience.
• In response to player feedback, the amount of renown earned from healing players has been increased slightly

Read the rest of the patch notes on the Warhammer Herald.

There is also more information about the two new classes, Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun. Apparently there is going to be a server-wide live event to introduce the two classes to the game starting November 17:

When the Heavy Metal live event (the event to introduce the Blackguard and KotBS) begins on November 17th, players who log into WAR will see a new tab in the Tome of Knowledge. Clicking on this tab will open the Live Events page, where each day we’ll place a new daily task. Completing these daily tasks earns influence, just like you’d earn in a public quest. There are rewards for Basic, Advanced and Elite influence, culminating in the ultimate prize: the chance to play WAR’s new classes a full week before they’re released to the public! This last reward won’t be easy to earn, and players who want to get to the Elite level will need to log in each day and complete on the daily event.

Hrm, and I bet they are PVE tasks. Let’s hope not all of them.

There’s also going to be an exclusive Tier 4 scenario during the time of the live event:

Participation in this scenario will give players an extra 10% bonus to their Renown point gain.