I’m played MMORPGs before so know the basics, and I followed the development of WAR as it looked interesting, but I’ve not been involved in R vs R combat before.
What are the top tips people would share? Things I should definitely check out? Things I should definitely avoid? Types of servers I should focus on? Oh, if anyone could give me a a quick precis of how the R vs R actually works in practical terms that would be good too.
The best advice I can think of is quit while you’re ahead. It’s player base is disintegrating, there are regular server consolidations, and PvE is still very problematic.
Really? I haven’t heard much about it lately, but it seemed to have a really strong launch and people were getting into it. It certainly sounded interesting to me when I looked into it briefly. What’s going wrong with it?
Maeglin is right; save your money.
What’s wrong with the game is that it sucks.
Illuminatus, I can’t even believe you’d need to start this thread, since the previous discussion about WHOAR was also your thread.
None of the issues in that thread were ever fixed, and as Maeglin says, the player base is all but gone. WHOAR will likely be gone by it’s 1 year anniversary.
Thanks, Bo.
Mythic has cut istself to the bone. Aside from the gameplay issues addressed elsewhere, the company’s own near future is less than certain.
YW, Maeglin.
Also from massively.com comes the news that WHOAR has 300k subscribers.
That’s not a whole lot of people. EQ is 10 years old and has about the same number, but at one time had many more, thus showing that they have a loyal fan base that can sustain them. WHOAR doesn’t have that loyal fan base.
Compare & contrast that with WoW’s 14 million accounts.
Warhammer’s also only been up for, what, five or six months? It takes time to build a base.
Still, the way things are looking, they’re on a downward spiral. Consolidating servers, especially so soon after launch, is never a good sign; it’s not only demoralizing to the playerbase, but it indicates that the company’s expectations exceeded reality and thus their decision-making probably isn’t the best.
The problem was, the WH base eroded by ~50% in the past five or six months. Between this disappointing number, mass layoffs by the developer, and the server consolidation, this paints a grim picture.
To be honest, I have never actually played the game. A few people from my LOTRO group jumped ship to check out WH for a few months, and to a man, they all came back with the same story of the game’s considerable deficiencies.
If you still want to join then my only advice is to join a heavily populated server. I took a break from my server and when I came back the place was deserted. The game, especially the lower tiers, is no fun when there aren’t a ton of people around.
I did enjoy the game but the playerbase is spread too thin and the lower tiers deserted. It’s the first MMOG where I really wanted to group up with random people but couldn’t.
Well, yes and no. Back in the day, success right at launch was not such a big deal. But the bigger MMORPG’s got, the tougher it was to succeed at them. Today there are a lot of niche MMORPG’s and a few big-boys, mostly WoW. And WoW is so bloody good that if you can’t find a niche, you probably won’t survive for long. I like a lot of the ideas of Warhammer, but maybe it’s just not distinct enough to stand on its own two legs.
If you’ll allow a little side question: Has WoW implemented a public quest system similar to the one in WAR?
Given that my thread was six months old I wanted to see if things had changed - I didn’t have an attack of amnesia or anything. Also the difference being that I actually have my copy of the game sitting in front of me, I’m not asking if I should be checking it out because I’m doing that anyway, I’m asking how best to enjoy it when I do. So saying “don’t” isn’t really helping here, but I acknowledge what you’re saying (particularly about the shrinking player base).
Could you (or anyone else) be more specific about how the game sucks? I know other people who’ve tried it and said it was great fun, hence why I’m trying to get a range of opinions.
Illuminatiprimus, I actually play the game and hope to give you an updated impression of it.
Yes, the population declined by more than 50% from day 1. For awhile it was spread too thin across many servers. This has been, for the most part, solved by reducing the number of servers.
Let me give you an example of a typical day in the game for me (I play on Monolith and Ironrock). After I log in I press the convenient “look for group” button that finds other players throughout the server to party or warband (a collection of 4 parties) with. I look for people that are in RvR and I join the first decent-sized warband. From here it is a cycle of competing with Order (I play Destro) to control the various zones in one of the 4 tiers. On Ironrock I play tier 4 (the highest) and on Monolith I’ve played tier 1 and tier 2. I have no trouble finding RvR at all.
If I am bored of RvR I start pressing the scenario button. These are the equivalent of PvP on a map in any multiplayer FPS game. Scenarios take a bit longer to get into, but once you do one it seems like you are locked in a cycle that allows you to join new ones quickly. I have no trouble with this element of the game either.
I don’t really care about PvE; seems to me that most MMORPG PvE is boring. I got hooked on the RvR element in Dark Age of Camelot and nothing can replace that for me in this type of game. That being said, the quests are typical and uninteresting for me, but I do the ones with decent XP if I don’t feel like joining a party.
My impression of SnowboarderBo’s review of the game in the previous thread is that he just didn’t like the game dynamics nor the environments. The game is not for him. It is a niche MMORPG as will all others be for as long as WoW exists. You already stated that you like the Warhammer setting and that is what got me into the game, so I do not feel you will have a problem with the environments. RvR has to be experienced in order to decide how you feel about it.
I think a 10-day trial is available or will soon be available, so take a look into that and then you can decide on how you feel without losing any cash.
Sorry if I came across as a dick. My point was only that the game (probably) hasn’t changed. All the things mentioned in the other thread re: game mechanics, graphics, PvP, quests, animations, etc. are all still going to be the same.
Inbred, you are close to correct about my impressions. It would be more accurate to say that I found absolutely nothing in the game to be fun, nor well done, nor well thought out, or worthwhile in any way. I’m just glad that my loss was only the $70 or whatever that I paid for the CE (which was packaged nicely, but did little to interest me in the Warhammer lore or the game itself).
I’m glad that you have found something you enjoy tho, and hope that Illuminatus does eventually as well.
Thanks for the additional input guys. Snowboarder Bo - I wouldnt’ say you’re being a dick about it, just that it’s clear you don’t like the game, but from what you said in the previous thread it seemed your biggest problem was that it wasn’t WOW. I’m not expecting the game to be WOW, and I like what the game is trying to do, so wanted to have a go and see for myself.
Anyway, you’ve decided it’s not for you and flagged up some issues to be wary of, and I’m grateful for that. I’ll report back when I’ve actually had a chance to play it this weekend.
A MMO which emphasizes PvP first and foremost would be appealing to a wargamer like me. On the surface trying to attack/infiltrate an enemy keep, where capturing it may make a semi-permanent difference, sounds very gnarly; how then is the implementation of RvR flawed? From what I’m reading (have read) RvR is all about battles between factions over what are essentially control points (a la the Battlefield series)-that seems different from the more random and pointless types of PvP seen in WoW and DaoC (correct me if I’m wrong). Yes I read the old thread, and the criticisms of RvR seem to boil down to “It’s just PvP with a new paint job” (seems more substantial a difference to me), “Hard-coded teams are a horrible idea” (worked well for Battlefield tho, but most BF servers had FF turned on), and “There’s an autobalancing feature to balance abilities of opposing players” (a necessary evil?). Perhaps the wargaming aspect is what turned you off, Snowboarder Bo?
Anyhoo, if anyone wants they can do a search for “Gods” and my name, which pretty much describes my dream MMORPG. But there’s so much in the way of sheer crap and tedium (speaking as someone who started playing D & D more than 25 years ago, as in hoary genre conventions bore me to death anymore) that you apparently have to go through that each time I think about signing up for one I always get 2nd thoughts and go play something else.
pours out a 40 for Planetside
Yeah, I’ve taken a look at Planetside, some of it is intriguing, but it like WHO seems to have suffered a serious hit in its subscriber base too. I posted #16 because I haven’t seen much discussion at all along the lines of “I was online last night and we had a real strong push-took 3 keeps and started assaulting the enemy home castle before they pushed us back-what a blast!”
Actually, the server consolidation is a good thing. And the thing you need to know is the proper UI plugins. I’ll tell you what I’m using when I get off work, so this is sort of a placeholder post.
It’s probably not dying.
It’s been a dead MMO walking for a couple of years now, but it was glorious in its heyday. RvR can be a lot of fun as long as the barrier to entry is decently low.