With the exciting changes of 1.3.5 drawing their head very near I think we must think about the future and think about what's to come in 1.3.6. We know that MYTHIC intends to look at ORvR in 1.3.6 and make it something worth doing. We know that it’s boring and dull, but why? What changes can be made to fix this big space with SO much potential? I would like for everyone to comment on this, bloggers especially, and leave some thoughts, add to it – tell me what you hate, love, would change. I’d like the blogging community to get behind the idea of change for ORvR and see what we can propose to MYTHIC – and maybe if we’re lucky they’ll listen.
First let’s think about what it is currently. ORvR lakes are a means of locking and owning zones in order to proceed to the city, as well as an area to introduce RvE to RvR as players enter the lakes to quests. Currently, they are only used to lock zones for “flips” and to proceed to the city siege. So how do we get persons in to the lakes, away from the mailbox and not in a scenario (by pure choice of course and not forced) – for reasons apart from this. What negatives do we know about ORvR? We know about “Doorhammer” – the long boring process of beating on the door until it’s destroyed – it is not only amazingly boring, RSI inducing and unrewarding but also anti-climactic.
So what absolutely MUST be adjusted to make ORvR more appealing? Definitely change the way Doors are approached. By getting rid of the “Doorhammer” stigma we can see something fresh and new – which is therefore appealing if it’s better than the previous system. Appealing is good and must be also backed up by rewarding in both that it will dish out decent renown and provide an experience unlike a Scenario. So how can we do this? It’s an absolute no brainer – the most boring and unrewarding part of ORvR are the bloody doors.
Sure MYTHIC COULD easily tack on a reward of renown for exploding a door but that won’t change the fact that those bloody doors are still there inducing RSI from your repeated rotation of the same 4 skills to bust down the door as fast and efficiently as possible as well as boring the player base to kingdom come in, what’s best known as, waithammer and doorhammer.
So let’s drop this current door mechanic that relies on everyone punching their fists against the wall. Let’s make it so it requires player effort to hold the door up, let’s have it so that the enemy realm must hold the door up by interacting with it instead of it having an unforgivably large amount of HP. It would much like the siege ram but for holding the door up instead of breaking it down – upon the destruction of the door everyone holding up the door would get knocked back away from the fresh new entrance.
Ok cool, we’ve got a pretty interesting premise here. So you’ve got two groups bashing against this door – one to hold it up, and one to bust it down. Let’s cut the door’s HP down in half or more so that way it still requires a bit of time to bash down or so that it may actually have an effect on the push and pull going on between the Door Defenders and the Door Attackers. Maybe the Door gets healed when it’s pushed by the defending team by a certain amount depending on how well they are doing what must be done to hold it up – let’s imagine it’s the same as siege ram battering mechanic. This system would also give a moderate defence vs zerg a fighting chance at holding the door up - until a variable comes in to play...
Remember in Tier 1 Greenskins back at launch, how you could leap from a Catapult in to the Dwarven Fortress for that quest? Yes, Orky Catapults. They however would ONLY fling Greenskins in. For Order only the Dwarves would be allowed to use a similar contraption. Why only one realm? The reasoning behind this would be to make it so that only a small amount of the warband would be able to enter and ruin their defence, it may not even be enough to do considerable damage but if a few well organized Greenskins went in there, they could rez others on to the top of the keep walls, even destroy the Door defence from behind. This allows for more variance in how the Invasion will occur and forces players to do more than stand around and wait for the door to break.
This will bring me to the importance of improving “Siege Weapons” in 1.3.6 and making them better – This system is currently not used at all because of how weak these weapons are. If done well Siege Weapons used in ORvR could be an experience players would love. Siege weapons don’t need to destroy everyone, they need to control the battle. What ORvR needs to be is rewarding, and exciting. It should take a leaf from the 1.3.5 City Siege changes. That’s what the players want MYTHIC, you’re doing a great job – just bring it over to all aspects of the game!
Discuss!
I also believe they need a new crafting area, to where you could build different siege stuff that could drive the economy with items needed. Sometimes I think I would love to be a developer and other times I'm glad that I'm not.
In any given moment, a keep could be under attack, it takes typically 5 - 10 minutes to destroy, sometimes 15 sometimes more if defense, but rarely does it take a long time in T4 without a good force of defense inside. Even then its just a stand off battle, and rarely is there a defining moment.
So why defend? If you are just going to lose the keep anyways, MORE THAN LIKELY, that is. In this current state of the game, there is essentially no reason to defend, other than to be a thorn in the other persons side. And realm pride, which is essentially lacking at this point.
Give defenders a reason to go out there, give us a reason to fight. Give us something we can do as a small group vs a zerg that would make it worthwhile to get out there and try. Simple things like recognizing defense. If a player participated in the defense of a certain objective from beginning to end, then when the zone flips, you also get a renown bonus as a defender. This would make coming out to try to stop those order more rewarding instead of solo running around because no one else is out there trying to find a straggler or two.
Give more renown to the defending force, so if I, as an attacker, would get 100% renown bonus, give defenders 150% percent renown bonus or 200%, whatever makes sense and isn't to overwhelming. How i think it should be is, any kill in open RvR warrants 50% more renown, any kill at an objective warrants an attacker 75% more renown, and defenders 100% more renown, and at a keep, 100% for the attackers, and 150% for the defenders. Because right now, attacking is a must, everyone does it, because they have to, and it will continue being done, what we need is more defenders and more of a reason to defend. And by giving rewards of extra renown for just defending when the zone flips, and extra renown for killing, it gives a reward to the people that try to play the game as needed. That way if I have the patience to sit there and defend a keep against a zerg by myself, It won't be a complete waste of my time. I like open RvR, I want to do more of it.
Make siege weapons more effective, I agree. Also take the points you have on a keep and make any part of the keep something that can be destroyed, open RvR in DAoC is the best example of what I think open RvR should be like in general. Wether its make siege weapons more useful in assault and defense, or making it where anything on a keep can be destroyed, add a tactical advantage to it, if 4 groups are there, let one group beat a postern down or make it inoperable or something like that. Make it where if no defenders are coming to defend the keep, the keep is more susceptible, and the doors hps are downgraded or the attackers are bolstered by confidence and do more damage as they realize the cowardice of their opposition.
Give the defenders something to do, make claiming a keep worthwhile as well. If a guild claims a keep they can upgrade the guards and blah blah, cool, thanks for more pve and really not making it that much worse for the opposing zerg. Let me dig ditches they have to build bridges over, or that their allies fall in and it forces them to have to find a way out. Let the battle objectives be more than just a static piece. If one realm controls a certain battle objective they get a certain buff, or a certain benefit. Even team it with "Ok defenders have the keep claimed and upgraded, if we control *XX* then a ram purchased from this BO is more powerful" or "from this BO an attacker can recruit forces to operate the ram" or something, it's completely up in the air and the possibilities are endless. Also give defenders a reason to take certain BO's back, wether its to make sure they don't get that benefit, or wether its "If you control this BO all postern doors are deadbolted, without needing an upgrade" which gives you a reason to control the BO. It also gives a potential of a tug of war with saying "ok there are 70 on this keep, we can't hold out, but if we get these BO's then we can make this last longer or even turn them back, however, if we don't move quickly and the keep is undefended, then they will get through quicker" making you have to choose what you want to do.
Also, make quests and PvE more rewarding, give players a reason to actually NOT just goto land of the dead. Don't mess up land of the dead as it is, but scale it so people are actually out in the lakes and have a reason to be there. Also make it where if something is under attack and you are questing or killing actively in there, you have 10 minutes of increased experience by 300% or something like that to encourage you to stop PvE'ing and go join the fight. Obviously the variables haven't been thought out, its the idea of it all. The point is right now there is NO reason to be a defender, and not much of a reason to be an attacker other than just flipping the zones or nothing better to do because you don't have LoTD or you are T2. Also increse the renown for a keep, maybe even BO's, but 600 renown for a keep? really? There is no reason to stand around for 10 - 15 minutes for 600 renown.
Lorska
40/55 Marauder
Volkmar