WAR's Mark Jacobs on fixes and holiday experience bonuses

by James Egan Dec 19th 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Game mechanics, Patches, Warhammer Online, News items

Fans of Warhammer Online will have noted a great deal of patching over the past few weeks. In fact, even the patches needed some patching. Some major issues Mythic Entertainment has been working to fix are the frequent crashes-to-desktop and other lockups players have been reporting. The latest word from Mythic's Mark Jacobs is that the client crashes have been drastically reduced, down by 75% (in North America). In fact, client crashes are now at their lowest point ever, either in development or since Warhammer Online went live, Jacobs said.

But he wasn't writing to the Warhammer Online player base just to talk about patches and crash fixes. Jacobs also announced a holiday gift for all WAR players that doesn't involve dwarves and debauchery. Warhammer Online players now enjoy an experience bonus, as of December 18th. Jacobs stated Mythic decided to increase the rest experience multiplier bonus, while "...reducing the time that it takes you to earn rested xp while logged out of the game, especially in Tiers 3 and 4. This will result in players' time to level being approximately 10% faster in Tier 2 and 20% faster in Tiers 3 and 4." Jacobs didn't state how long this revved up leveling curve will last, but stated it would be for "a few weeks."

WAR has gone 1.1! Check out our full coverage of the 1.1a patch, along with our interviews exploring upcoming content and the open RvR changes. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!

Tags: breaking, crash-to-desktop, ctd, experience-bonus, experience-multiplier, fixes, holiday, holidays, mark-jacobs, mythic, mythic-entertainment, patch, patches, war, warhammer-online, xp-bonus

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Hardy said on 12:19PM 12-19-2008

Man I wish I had a better computer so I can go back to this awesome game... Or at least they finally make Mac support, since crossroads doesn't work and I'm not paying 200 bucks for the new OS to play 1 game. lol

Lethality said on 12:22PM 12-19-2008

It's funny how he talks like we're supposed to listen to him and believe his changes will help, when he's the bonehead whose ideas failed in the first place.

Give it up Mark, WAR is dead.

JP said on 1:23PM 12-19-2008

Dead? o.O
What game are you talking about?

The server merges and amount of people involved in T4 now is great. I’ll admit the PvE in the game is boring and non immersive. But, the T4 Orvr action is now non-stop. They fixed the stability, which was my one gripe. Now, all these extra rewards/incentives are great. Plus, the new classes are starting to show up in T4. This will certainly help them. The Orvr campaign on my server (Ungrim) is almost always in peril, with both sides taking the battle to the lakes.

Overall, WAR is doing great. It’s no where near dead. That’s just a blatantly ignorant accusation. The game is only improving, and more and more people that PL’d are coming back to a much more solid and involved PvP centric game.

But, if PvP isn’t your thing, this game has very very very little to offer you. Socialization and community are almost exclusively in the PvP areas. A dedicated PvE player will find the game extremely lonely.

It’s a shame too. PQs are really a lot of fun, and probably more immersive then the quests… but nobody does them.

Litany of Iron Rock said on 5:13PM 12-19-2008

Tell that to the 5 warbands in T4 on Iron Rock last night... and at least as much destro opposing them.

Tell that to the people on the warhammer forums that are doing the same thing on many other servers (pushing fortresses with 4-5 warbands in either faction).

I think the exp. bonus is great. As someone who is JUST ini T4, and a couple renown levels behind my exp level (32/29), this will be a boon to me.

thanks, Mythic!

Leshrac said on 12:57PM 12-19-2008

Instead of increasing experience gains, why not make the game more fun? It's almost like we're telling them that the drive across country is boring; Mark's response is 'well, we'll make the driver quicker!".

WrrLor said on 1:03PM 12-19-2008

Nice to see them do something to help make up for all the down time.

Very nice.

Leshrac said on 1:27PM 12-19-2008

@JP

LOL - you kind of said it yourself; server mergers = major red flag. PQs are dead? PVE is boring and extremely lonely? If that doesn't describe a poorly performing game, only a month of two after release, I'm not sure what does.

Where do you see this game in 1-3 years from now?

JP said on 1:55PM 12-19-2008

No, server merges do not equal a red flag. That's such a crock. They made a mistake and had way too many at launch. They're redeemed it by condensing the population. It’s a red flag for maybe a game that is 3-4 years out, or if the explanation wasn't right in front of everyone's face, but it's hardly a red flag. Or if people complained that servers were dead and they did nothing. Then it’s a red flag, but when they come out and say “Ya. We started w/ to many. We’re going to fix it” and they do it. FAST. It’s no red flag.

As far as everything else, I guess it's what you take it for. WAR doesn't have a lot of people that are interested in the "journey".

I think they'll have some choices to make in 3 years (when most people are level capped and T1-3 is dead). but I think they'll be able to come up w/ something quick (off the top of my head: make the VP value of the BOs and Keeps in T1-3 more valuable, and give players an "exemption" flag so they can compete once they've out leveled the tiers). But, right now, yea, no one is PvEing.

That doesn't quantify the game though. Since CoH has a small % of PvPers (who've been alienated w/ I13 and shrunk it's size even further still) does that make the game dead? No. It means that aspect of the game is lost on the players, or not exciting them in it's current state. But WAR is far from dead or dying. If you’re playing the game the way the majority of the population is playing it, you can see that. If you continue trying to stick a rsquare peg into a round hole, you’ll continue to not see it for what it is.

I've said it before: WAR is almost exclusively about PvP and if you're not itching to fight from log in to log out, WAR isn't going to give you much satisfaction. It's not so much about feeling individual and special. It's about being a soldier in an army.

So, no I don't think the dead PQs and PvE areas are very representative of the game.

John said on 1:40PM 12-19-2008

Why does Warhammer Online INSIST on giving more experience as some type of benefit. I am one of the few who play these games to enjoy them...not reach the highest level as fast as possible. Since launch Warhammer has given lots of bonus experience for various reasons. I didn't like it so I quit playing a few weeks ago. This is just more of the same. I did notice how they talk about making PQ's easier...I complained about that since launch and everyone playing shot me down over and over saying the difficulty was perfect...perfect if you always had 5 people...but often there would be 1,2 or 3 people and finishing the entire string was impossible. Good idea to lower the difficulty but a little too little...a little too late for me.

Hammer said on 2:02PM 12-19-2008

This game is centered around pvp. Why do you think DAoC is still played today even though its been out for 7+ years. PvP is the end game, its open ended, the faster you level up the faster you can get to it. PvE is just an alternative to leveling up, and to get you some different rewards. Mythic has always stated that this game is PvP first, everything else second.

Also server merges are needed because the initial rush of people playing the free trial is gone. Additional servers were need to accommodate them, now that the dust has settled the real players who love the game can get merged with others of the same mindset. The reason WoW did not have to merge any servers is because it is a PvE game, all npc's are existent on each server, as long as you have a guild, you have something to do. That will not work in a PvP centric environment.

craylon said on 2:43PM 12-19-2008

i disagree with the "fastes way to endgame" theory

one of the original and very good ideas was the tier system where people of the same level could pvp from day one.

why is there a tier system when they turbo-boost everyone to t4 in a week anyway?

Tab said on 6:09PM 12-19-2008

One of my biggest complaints about WAR is how empty the world seems. There's actually a lot of really nice PvE content in the game, but it doesn't seem like a lot of people are interested in exploring it. Increasing leveling speed is a very nice gesture from Mythic, but it also means people will spend even more time doing scenarios the next few weeks to maximize increased experience gain, and even less time out in the world where experience doesn't come as quickly.

:/

juan said on 8:17PM 12-19-2008

thanks mythic! keep up the good work!

Hades said on 11:18PM 12-19-2008

Warhammer is messed up right now because:

1.
Crowd Control is out of control. You are chain disabled, knocked down, and nuked to death most of the time in fights.

When that isn't happening, you are being chain pulled and rooted due to magus or engineer pulls. They pull you from the front line into the opponents back line, and you can pwn clusters of players at once while they can do virtually nothing.

2.
Healer classes aren't appealing, and at least on the Order side they are among the 4 least played classes across all server. No healer is like no win, and you can't sustain PVP drives.

3.
The leveling curve is simply not appealing. The game is barren in the lower levels, the exp grind gets extremely boring at level 22 and continues through level 40, and many players simply quit before making it to level 40. The game doesn't reward grouping at all, and it feels like a long boring PVE grind.

4.
No matter what Mythic says, there is a population imbalance. Its real, and its a big factor in a lot of RVR outcomes especially when you add in the fact that Destruction has AOE crowd control while Order generally doesn't. More POP+Mass AOE CC+Zerg = one sided fight.

5.
Zone locking mechanics are tedious and unfun. Most servers are Destruction dominated with Order on the run. If you own the keeps and the BFO's, you should own the zone...period. Fortress fights are still laggy, but have shown some improvement.

6.
To progress into the end game of RVR you have to get several levels of Ward Gear which are primarily gained via PVE. That PVE is on lockout timers which are days long, the dungeons are a snoozefest, and the loot drops are mostly unrewarding.

7.
Contribution is bad, and it rewards people who tag along and leech rewards from people or guilds who do most of the work. So in the end game you have all these small guilds running around who leech off of everyone else, who have no incentive to want to work with other guilds, and who do their own thing to the extent to where it is detrimental to the realm.

So Warhammer does need to improve its exp leveling curve, it does need to do something about crowd control, it needs to overhaul its gear requirements, it needs to make healing and support classes more attractive to play, it should reward grouping, and it needs to drastically overhaul its RVR systems.

I lead the #1 ranked guild on our server, and its one of the few servers where Order isn't being completely overrun by Destruction. I really want to see the game improve, but Mythic needs to take drastic action and stop with these half fixes.

Leshrac said on 1:50PM 12-22-2008

What server are you on because on Phoenix Throne Order gets ass raped 24x7. I'm a chronic MMO hopper, I went back to WAR and I am completely disgusted by the class imbalances, the pop imbalances and lack of healers on Order. Also, the T1 and T2 PQs are completely barren.

This game is majorly fugged - in less then a year T1-T3 will be a post apocalyptic wasteland, they made some bad design decisions and this game will suffer as a result; 80% of the game will be empty.

destroFTW said on 12:15AM 12-20-2008

Hades said... we order getting raped by destros wahhh wahh wahh blah blah blah... cry some more

Abott said on 1:52PM 12-25-2008

Ironclaw is awesome, I'm sorry you guys had a bad experience, and to be honest I did have my doubts for a while, BUT...

T4 RvR running with good order groups, holding back the Destro zerg... Man, MMOs just don't get any better than this...

Tonight, for example. T4, Destro totally overrunning everything. We are harassing them to keep them from flipping Eataine and getting access to our fortress (we were still holding 1 keep). We are outnumbered 2 to 1 but all HIDE behind a tower, dismount, and do no emotes (this is a 24 man warband), wait for them to rush a BO, and jack their backlines and totally destroy them. Probably my best MMO moment of all time. And I end up having fun fights like this ALL THE TIME on Ironclaw. Order is outnumbered but we have awesome commanders, making our victories so much sweeter.

So, oh well, if my favorite game is dead, so be it, I'll just keep having the best gaming experiences of my life playing it, enjoy your WoW. Ta!

PS I have alts in every Tier, and yeah, RvR is definitely happening everywhere all the time. 1.1 has really made this game fun again, like it was in the Beta.