Reikland Factory is a winner and 1.0.5 delivers nicely

The 1.0.5 patch came out yesterday and although it was gutted of all the major character and combat changes it still brought with it a few really neat additions to the game.  The first addition that I’ll quickly talk about is the new and very much improved Realm War page.

The realm war page before this update was pretty bad.  It didn’t have much of the information players wanted and it was really uninformative / hard to navigate.  The newer version gives a lot more information right at players fingertips.  I was able to click the realm war tab, navigate to Phoenix Throne and immediately see how the war is going.  When I clicked on the individual pairings such as Empire vs. Chaos then I was able to see the actual in-game victory point bars to see exactly how each realm was doing in each zone.  Click on specific zones further brings up a map (the in-game looking one) that will actually show who owns each of the keeps and objectives.  If this is done in real time then I think it’ll be very cool and useful to the players like myself who sometimes can’t log in but want to see what’s going on in-game.

While I was browsing the realm war page I decided to search the total kills this week for Ironbreakers and discovered that I was in the top 3.  *toots his horn*

The best addition in 1.0.5, and really what the entire patch came down to, was the kickoff for the Heavy Metal event.  This is the event where players can open their ToK and go to the Live Events tab and see daily objectives to complete.  When you complete an objective you are given a chunk of influence for your Live Event Influence Bar which determines what awards you can get.   I don’t remember what the first reward is but the second is a really neat looking cape and the Elite reward, which players can only unlock if they complete ALL the daily tasks, is the early unlocking of the new classes: KotBS and Blackguard.  I’m not sure what the next two weeks of events will include but I fully plan on completing all of them.   These live events add a special dimension to WAR that makes the game fun and actually draws me in to play.  [Note to Mythic: Duplicate this feeling in the rest of the game]

Reikland Factory
Reikland Factory

The first task yesterday was really simple: Play a game of the  Reikland Factory scenario.  I completed this objective and then proceeded to play Reikland Factory about two dozen more times.  I simply can’t get enough!  The scenario is designed as a capture and hold style similar to how Battlefield games or even Arathi Basin are designed.  The longer you hold points the more tickets you generate (500 for a win).  The key here is that certain capture areas give different values.  Taking the center (the steamtank factory) will give you a chunk of tickets immediately but taking and holding the other flags will generate you more tickets over time.  This type of design directly encourages strategy and team oriented thinking – something the rest of the scenarios severely lack.

Reikland Factory allows 18 players per team to play at a time (3 full groups).  There are also something like 4 flags to capture (maybe 5?).  This lends itself to all sorts of strategies.  Does your team stick together and move as one, perhaps leaving someone behind to defend the flags, or do you split up the groups and force the enemy to fight you on multiple fronts?  Every game of Reikland Factory has played out differently – some have gone horribly bad for my side and some incredibly good, but most of them have been extremely close matches that all boil down to which team works together the best.  If your team doesn’t work together and if players go off and focus on just killing eachother like they do in other scenarios then you will lose very quickly.

The layout, attention to detail, and overall quality of design are just so well down in this scenario.  It looks like whoever worked on making it spent a long time perfecting it and really caring about what they were doing.  This level of quality does not exist in the vast majority of the other scenarios.  In Reikland Factory there are underground tunnels under the steamtank factory, different pathways to out meneuver your enemy, spots clearly designed for ranged to sneakily hide and attack from above, etc.  The atmosphere is alive and again I can’t say enough good things about it.

One of the greatest parts about this place is that it doesn’t contribute to the realm war at all, instead it just gives bonus renown (which I have yet to notice because it’s either not that big of a bonus or I don’t care because i’m having so much fun).  This type of system should have been used on all the scenarios.  I noticed that scenarios are also contributing less overall to the realm war and Keeps/Bo’s are adding more – a very nice change.

The hardest thing for me to stomach of that after the event this scenario will supposedly disappear.  I implore Mythic to rethink this decision.  Let the scenario stay so that we can continue having this level of fun.  Part of me has a feeling that they’re going to let it stay but that could be wishful thinking.

The patch fixed a few more things and overall was a solid patch.  The 1.0.6 patch will contain the character and combat changes which are looking better every day.  Mythic reverted their HoT nerf, reverted the DoT buff, altered the adjustments to grudge gain/decay, improved long cast heals, and all sorts of things that I completely agree with so I can’t complain there.

Alrighty, time to log in and do today’s Live Event task!

  • Glad they seem to be finally listening intently to players (and acting appropriately). It’s unfortunate how many were driven away by early announcements that seem to have now been reversed.

    Personally I left WAR, went back to WoW, and probably will not be back. Had WAR have kept me in a hold from the get-go I probably would still be playing but as it stands I’m back in WoW enjoying myself. The new expansion has really kicked up the fun factor for me.

    At the end of the day as long as I’m having fun I’m happy.

    I wish WAR the best of luck and the player base good times. Enjoy the solid patch guys!

  • Good writeup, and I fully agree that the scenario is amazing. It actually feels kind of wrong just calling it a scenario because of how much better it plays compared to the others, and especially when compared to WoW BGs (Reikland or Arathi Basin, tough choice…)

    Don’t forget the improved collision detection. My buddies and I really noticed the change last night blocking Order in the tunnels. While before it was 50/50 to work, it seems much more ‘solid’ now, really adding to the strategy tanks use. Good stuff again.

  • I like the Italian Chicken Sandwich, but Burger King makes that ‘limited time only.’ Does that really have anything to do with WAR? Not really, but I want one 😉 I’m sure BK has other factors at work behind why they do that, as does Mythic.

  • 15 v 15? Really? So you have two full groups and a half group? It seems kind of odd to use those numbers.

  • Improve the website before the game. Sounds like a good plan just like PC vs Mac commercials. Advertising, Advertising, Advertising, Fix War. Not that I’m going back to War.

    Any reviews on the new Expansion of WoW? Not that I intend to go back to WoW either, but I appreciate reading your site Keen & Graev.

  • “Personally I left WAR, went back to WoW, and probably will not be back.” This is really it in a nutshell. The 1.05 patch is probably a nice update for those who are still IN the game but for those who have left, I think nothing short of a dramatic upgrade to Open RVR combat would pull them back. Maybe making keep combat as strategic and varied as the new Reikland Factory scenario would do that (which I’m assuming would require a redesign of keep layouts).

  • I have to disagree on the event (so far) being anything fun or adding much to the game environment. If anything, the “event” has been much hype over nothing much. It was supposed to begin on 17th, but no. It was supposed to begin on 18th, but no (in EU). On 19th, what was the spectacular live event? Oh, just another scenario to queue to. Of course, we don’t know how much fun it will eventually be, but to me the world looks and behaves exactly like before. There is no *event*.

    On the other hand, I fully support adding scenarios and supporting them. Currently, the scenarios are the only part of the game where game mechanics do not get in the way of doing group content. If only the rest of the group content was as easily accessible! But no, if you need to go anywhere from the zone you happen to be in, it is a slow, tedious journey (and similarly painful when coming back). And of course, you will not know where open groups are taking place, where people are actively doing PQs, and you need to constantly check the map when looking for open rvr.

    This game was made for large masses, and now that we don’t have them, it is simply preventing those who are still there from finding each other and the group action that would follow from it. And don’t say “guilds”, as the game doesn’t really help people in any way to find others (for forming a guild), guilds to recruit new members or players to find like-minded guilds.

    We’ve been spread out to 20+ zones, with very limited communications, painfully slow travel, and minimal incentives for leaving the zone. Only the scenarios have been keeping us sane. Of course, with added scenarios, there is the risk that we spread out to them as well, and then we will be alone there, too.

    No live event will fix the flaws, but it can try to bring the players together. Lets hope that there are other ways to that end, besides the already working scenario concept.

  • All this positive stuff about 1.0.5 is really making me sad. And I’m not alone in this, the crash to desktop error has been really bad since 1.0.5 came up. A couple of minutes into the game and back you go.

  • For those of you having the CTD error… I started having the same problem, and worse (entire system crashes, HDD corruption) until I ran the Windows memory test app and realized my RAM was bad. If I hadn’t been running WAR, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the problem. Swapped out my RAM and I haven’t crashed in over 3 weeks. Might be worth a shot if you’re out of options…

  • Yeah the Reikland factory looks good, but sadly on our server no-one got a go on it as it never activated even though i had selected for 2.5 hours (some had it for 6 hours).

    And i am not alone i am aware of 3 other servers in the same boat and all getting upset that they cant do the event and also been waiting for server transfer which seems to not going forward as this was supposed to be done middle of this week.

    GOA answer to me was to create new char on a high end server, that is just bad as that would just give me a char for the otherside ti beat up i dont send a lvl 1 char in RvR action until he is at least lvl 5.

    So at least you are the lucky ones where i am aware of at least 1000 players (more likely more) that have not had teh chance to join into the event & already lost out on day 1) – Real shame to GOA as they should have opened the server transfer b4 or on the same day as the event.

  • Well for one thing its very clear they launched with this huge fear of Qs, and they launched with way to many severs. Im lucky on Ostermark, we seem to have a nice pop. I feel for you guys that are on the low pop severs.

  • Mythic needs to forklift the Factory and put it into an open RvR zone, capture points and all. There’s a number of things they could then do to make it fit into the zone control/objective mechanic.

  • Me personally, cancelled my WAR account yesterday. Mostly to touch myself while playing Fallout 3. If i go back to an MMO it will be something new or back to wow.

  • I have always liked warhammer, not been into WoW and to be honest not interested as its more of only PvE and if i am going to do that then i might as well go for a normal pc game instead of buying something with a subscripton, also if im going to do a PvE MMO then i just do more of Guild Wars.

    But just doing PvE can get a bit boring.

  • @Horpse: I gave EVE a try and it wasn’t for me. However, Darkfall is looking promising. When (or rather IF at this rate) it gets closer to release then you’ll have your wish. 🙂

  • @Keen
    Glad u are enjoying the patch/heavy metal stuff. Its been a nightmare for me. I STILL cant get into a reikland que and I have tried different servers/toons. Spoke to someone the first night in game when I hit the help button. All they really said was they were sorry for any inconvenience!!
    My patience for the game is dwindling after that ><

    LJ

  • I did 4-5 Reikland Factories today in an hour’s time. It queues fairly consistently in the afternoons and evenings. I know what you’re going through though and it’s largely attributed to your servers. WAR needs a certain population to be good and even high pop isn’t a guarantee of a good experience if the community sucks.

  • Finally got Server transfer the guild moved to KARAK-IZOR last night with a proper time of playing did Reikland Factory 3 times and 1 other scenrio as 1 in 1.5 hours play and also did oRvR helping to defend a keep between each session of doing Reikland factory. Still going on after i left 1.5 hours later.

    Best fun i had on WAR since i started more players about and lot more fun, if this is how its going to be then more the better.