Mythic has been pulling out all stops lately in an effort to improve Warhammer Online. One of their latest changes was to remove fortresses from the RvR campaign equation because many players found them to be a laggy and boring hurdle to be overcome. Doing so, however, had a predictable result: Cities were sieged much more often. While Mythic was acutely aware this would happen, they didn't have measures in place to handle an "all city siege all the time" situation. Today, Andy Belford announced a suite of interim city fixes.
Check out the official forums for the complete run-down. A few notables include: The durations of stage 1 and 2 city siege have been cut in half, many parts of the city are no longer tied to city rank, city rank recovers much more quickly, and the Reikland Factory and Twisting Tower scenarios are making a comeback to provide those not engaged in city siege with something to do.
Many players and bloggers have pointed out that these fixes only address the symptoms and not the core issues related to WAR's RvR campaign. Andy was quick to mention that these are only initial changes and more will be coming (e.g., the Underdog system). Testing of these changes should begin next week so keep your eyes on the Herald.
Reader Comments (7)
Posted: Nov 5th 2009 7:49PM (Unverified) said
They really have no clue what they're doing do they?
Posted: Nov 5th 2009 9:00PM karnisov said
sounds like the game is one band-aid on top of another. glad i didn't spend money on this.
Posted: Nov 5th 2009 10:31PM (Unverified) said
Man, my feeling about WAR have been all over the place lately, changing from patch to patch. I was pretty happy with how thing were overall before 1.3.2 minus the fact that I was getting sick of the same ol' routine, and I really do like some of the changes that came with 1.3.2 (particularly the very noticeable performance improvements to server and engine) but the contant state of city sieging completely killed my enjoyment of the game.
I was trying to stick with it, but as of last week I gave up and unsubbed. Earlier that night I got into a city siege instance with zero Order and only 5 of us Destro. So, this meant we got to have the exhilarating experience of standing at the capture points for a very long time while we waited for the scenario to end. I couldn't take it after the first round and logged out in disgust.
But now it looks like they're taking steps to get things back on track...thank God! However, they really need to curb how often cities are being sieged rather than just reduce the duration. We used to almost never see city sieges which was no fun but to have them multiple times per day is not only boring, but makes it so that there's literally nothing rare and epic to shoot for in the RvR campaign.
Also, for the love of God make the sieges themselves more interesting. They are the worst part of the T4 RvR campaign by far imo. Finally, the keep sieges need to be more dynamic. They get old way too fast. Perhaps they shouldn't all have one of only three inner layouts. I realize that makes them easier to balance, but frankly each keep, at least in T4, deserves to have at least one significant thing about it that's unique.
Anyway, I think there's still hope for this game (though I can't imagine it'll ever get back to the numbers it saw near launch by a long shot), but removing the forts without compensating in any way has destroyed my already dwindling enjoyment of the game...for now. Mythic, please stop taking a step back with every step forward!
I was trying to stick with it, but as of last week I gave up and unsubbed. Earlier that night I got into a city siege instance with zero Order and only 5 of us Destro. So, this meant we got to have the exhilarating experience of standing at the capture points for a very long time while we waited for the scenario to end. I couldn't take it after the first round and logged out in disgust.
But now it looks like they're taking steps to get things back on track...thank God! However, they really need to curb how often cities are being sieged rather than just reduce the duration. We used to almost never see city sieges which was no fun but to have them multiple times per day is not only boring, but makes it so that there's literally nothing rare and epic to shoot for in the RvR campaign.
Also, for the love of God make the sieges themselves more interesting. They are the worst part of the T4 RvR campaign by far imo. Finally, the keep sieges need to be more dynamic. They get old way too fast. Perhaps they shouldn't all have one of only three inner layouts. I realize that makes them easier to balance, but frankly each keep, at least in T4, deserves to have at least one significant thing about it that's unique.
Anyway, I think there's still hope for this game (though I can't imagine it'll ever get back to the numbers it saw near launch by a long shot), but removing the forts without compensating in any way has destroyed my already dwindling enjoyment of the game...for now. Mythic, please stop taking a step back with every step forward!
Posted: Nov 6th 2009 6:04AM Jesspiper said
Was it so hard to make DAoC2 but with Empire vs Chaos vs Greenskins? Was it? WAS IT?
This game was supposed to be Dark Age of Warhammer, not the Dark Age of Warcafthammer shitstorm that it is now.
Games Workshop should just pull the IP rights.
Now.
This game was supposed to be Dark Age of Warhammer, not the Dark Age of Warcafthammer shitstorm that it is now.
Games Workshop should just pull the IP rights.
Now.
Posted: Nov 6th 2009 6:38AM (Unverified) said
I am absolutely crushed whenever I read about Warhammer Online at this point. It all seems far to little far too late which is a hard thing for me to own up to, having been looking forward to it's release since before it's first incarnation was cancelled.
I had been subscribed since day one, I was part of the beta and, as a fan of the tabletop game and the universe that it is set in, it's hard for me to accept the massive amount of wasted potential. WAR brought a lot of interesting new features and ideas to the MMO table, most of which mysteriously found their way into WoW in a patch shortly after WAR's release (Tome of Knowledge) and the subscriber numbers plummeted from there.
I had a lot of fun in WAR with my goblin shaman, but a game about massive PvP battles isn't much fun when there isn't enough people on your ENTIRE SERVER to make up a full raid.
I had been subscribed since day one, I was part of the beta and, as a fan of the tabletop game and the universe that it is set in, it's hard for me to accept the massive amount of wasted potential. WAR brought a lot of interesting new features and ideas to the MMO table, most of which mysteriously found their way into WoW in a patch shortly after WAR's release (Tome of Knowledge) and the subscriber numbers plummeted from there.
I had a lot of fun in WAR with my goblin shaman, but a game about massive PvP battles isn't much fun when there isn't enough people on your ENTIRE SERVER to make up a full raid.
Posted: Nov 6th 2009 7:04AM (Unverified) said
Key Phrase...
> Doing so, however, had a predictable result: Cities were sieged much more often.
> While Mythic was acutely aware this would happen, they didn't have measures in
> place to handle an "all city siege all the time" situation.
The should have known... there were enough people on the forums telling them this
would happen. 1.3.2 was yet another half-arsed patch that didn't address the real
problems, plastered over some symptoms and made other things worse.
Played WAR for a whole year, but Mythic's complete inability to understand even the
basic dynamics of their own game and unwillingness to listen to experienced players
on the forums who did finally drove me away. And this continuous trend to more RvE
is not enticing me back.
> Doing so, however, had a predictable result: Cities were sieged much more often.
> While Mythic was acutely aware this would happen, they didn't have measures in
> place to handle an "all city siege all the time" situation.
The should have known... there were enough people on the forums telling them this
would happen. 1.3.2 was yet another half-arsed patch that didn't address the real
problems, plastered over some symptoms and made other things worse.
Played WAR for a whole year, but Mythic's complete inability to understand even the
basic dynamics of their own game and unwillingness to listen to experienced players
on the forums who did finally drove me away. And this continuous trend to more RvE
is not enticing me back.









