General Discussion

Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs has posted an informative overview of upcoming improvements to Warhammer Online's Open RvR system with the addition of an RvR Influence system, changes to the map system, new RvR incentives for players and guilds, and more.

Over the last few months I’ve spoken about our continued focus on improving our open RvR systems. While we have taken some major steps in the last month, we believe that there is much more we can do to encourage people to take part in oRvR throughout the entire evolution of their character(s). Over the next few months we have some very exciting changes and additions taking place. Please note that as always, this does not represent everything that either we are doing or thinking about doing, just what we, as of now, plan on adding to WAR.

We have a number of major initiatives planned for oRvR in WAR. Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months.

First, we have created an RvR Influence system. This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR. This will be a complimentary system to our PQ Influence system. This system is already implemented in 1.1 and is scheduled to go LIVE along with that version in December.

Read more here.

 Sounds great, i guess. Might re-activate my account after the holidays. One thing that bothers me though, the amount of times the word "easy" was used. Sounds like he's turning into a Blizzard employee. =(

THIS WAS SAID: First, we have created an RvR Influence system. This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR. This will be a complimentary system to our PQ Influence system. This system is already implemented in 1.1 and is scheduled to go LIVE along with that version in December.
 

MY THOUGHTS: PQ's will now be completely useless and a waste of time. I don't know why they even put PvE in the game, it should be entirely RvR, because there is nothing worthwhile to be doing in PvE that will receive better rewards and xp - or even on par -  than RvR.

While I am a fan of WAR I must say that things have taken a definite turn for the worse since launch.  The huge ORVR battles that were the norm throughout beta are a rarity in live.  What ORVR there is quickly turns into a very boring and unappealing game of keep tag.  The game was closer to balance a month before release and some of the decisions at mythic to turn the game into a loot grind akin to wow have really turned me off and im really not sure that I am going to be able to justify my paying to play this for too much longer. 

I think there are plenty of wonderful PVE rewards in the game , as there should be. You should be able to choose what you want to do , not be force into PVP or PVE. There should be great rewards for both and rewards that you can only get by either doing PVP or PVE. Personally, I think the announced additions sound great.

I agree that these ideas sound like a great idea. However, I still want more to do in the game. You don't ALWAYS want to fight the opposite faction. In order to make the game totally immersive, I would say that it needs some other side-games and such. Every game has some variety and while the focus is to be fun oRvR, they should still give the choice of doing something else.

It's good that more is going to be done to encourage RvR. I have a lvl 30 zealot and a lvl 20 squig herder and have only ever managed to join a warband for a keep siege battle three times in the whole time I've been playing. There are clearly insufficient incentives for people to bother at the moment. Unless someone takes it upon themselves to organise a warband and to keep spamming regional chat to get others to join, it just doesn't happen.

Having said that, I can't understand people who are anti PvE and scenarios. To my mind, it's the variety of the game that makes it fun to play. Better RvR would be good but not at the expense of fun PvE and scenarios. Everything has its place and it's great to have choices.

Not that any of this matters much to me at the moment . I'm back playing LotRO for the first time in a year and had forgotten just how much there is to do there compared with the other games I've played since. My new Rune Keeper is likely to keep me busy for the next couple of months so I may drop WAR for now. It's definitely likely to be one of the few games where I've dropped my subscription and gone back to it later though.

Mythic has such a huge disconnect from the pvp/rvr scene its unbelievable.

HELLO, its not the fame thats the problem, its the whole design of rvr offered in Warhammer, Its pathetic.

Its liner and static. Static siege pads, knock on the door kill the keep lord wash rince and repeat. Its boring and repetitive.

The keep will always be there, you cant destroy one or build anything on the keep except siege engines that are poorly implemented, and most times have blocked view from its perspective overlooking the field. The dmg is pathetic on them.

Siege once and thats how it is for the rest. boring.

There is no WAR in Warhammer. Unless you change the core design of the rvr in Warhammer, nothing you do is going to work. The foundation is built poorly.

It doesnt matter what i type, they wont listen... Its like a deaf and a blind person trying to play i spy...

Thank god Darkfall is so close to release.. There will be war there for sure. And no stupid lvling system..

I think they pretty much addressed everything about RvR without actually addressing the problem.  The problem isn't that there's not enough rewards and goodies for doing RvR.  There's RvR gear sets with some good blues (some are better than others..). You don't need to have tangible rewards in a faction-based game that's supposed to be about PvP and crushing the opposition.  You were going to do PvP anyway because this is at its heart a PvP game; the real fun is there and everyone knows it.

The root of the problem with oRvR is that there's no reason to defend anything.  You get a measly 100 renown every so often for defending a keep.  Aside from tangible rewards, taking a keep doesn't do anything really in the global context.  In DAoC, taking keeps was how you ended up taking relics from the opposing faction.  Relics were powerful and worth taking or defending.  In tier 4, you'll see more defense going on than other tiers as the opposition moves into striking distance because nobody wants their city to get taken, nobody wants the enemy to push the front and gain an advantage.  It's a battle for pride.  Making all keep takes matter in a global or tier-based context towards some sort of goal would go a long way towards making oRvR more vibrant at all levels.  Only when losing a keep actually hurts or matters at all levels will people consistently want to defend them.  Adding more rewards in is a band-aid at best, and a reason for someone to participate for a while.. mostly to sit around and get rewards.

WAR has frequently designed its systems to be about spontaneous community.  These design changes are in keeping with what they've done previously, but they don't provide the reason to care that people really want.  oRvR will be just a big PQ, experience giveaway and loot jamboree.  What my friends and others in my guild would really like is for there to be a reason beyond sheer pride or loot for taking or defending something -- something that builds community and is so important that when someone IMs you and says "ORDER IS ON THE LAST KEEP IN PRAAG!" you drop whatever you were doing and join the WAR.