Comments on: Funneling WAR

By: Warhammer 1.1 | Kill Ten Rats

Warhammer 1.1 | Kill Ten Rats — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:30:32 +0000

[...] biggest change, I believe, are the beginnings of a better funneling system to get people to play the game for what it was made for: open RvR. The main change is the [...]

By: Because of Different Departments | Kill Ten Rats

Because of Different Departments | Kill Ten Rats — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:45:57 +0000

[...] Public Quests were a “duh” moment of pure genius… especially on paper. If the hyper-efficient population scattering mechanics were not at work, Warhammer Online could have been the premiere casual PvE game. The premise is [...]

By: Ravious

Ravious — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Funny enough, that's what this post was originally called "Armchair Developer #1." And, I really like potshot's idea too... in fact I suggested something nearly identical for Guild Wars quite a while ago (another game with over-efficient population spreading). Flurries link on the wiki

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:25:55 +0000

RAAAWR go arm chair developer! GOOO!

By: Bildo

Bildo — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:33:33 +0000

I liked Potshot’s idea, and in a way it would be taken from WoW…

Have each week be geared towards a certain racial pairing. Make bonuses for competing in PQs, or in RvR in these zones. The King of each city could announce it periodically in Altdorf/IC to get the word out: “The battle is waging in lands of the Dwarves! Go there and fight, and ye shall be rewarde!”

Upon entering the pairing’s zones, you’d get a significant bonus to XP, Influence, Renown, etc. It’d be a good way to herd people from pairing to pairing, the only downside would be that folks who WANT to play in another zone would be short-changed a bit.

But eff ‘em. :)

By: Graktar

Graktar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:09:54 +0000

The population issues in WAR display a surprising lack of foresight on the part of Mythic. They’re not amateurs, they’ve done this before. I’m in late T2, about to head into T3, and most evenings I rarely see more than one or two people in Ellyrion, and no open groups for 10 minutes+ in any direction. People are so dispersed over both the level range 1-40 and the mass numbers of redundant zones that the PvE world is a ghost town. Starting with a narrow focus and widening as you go on would have made more sense for the long term. The only time it would have been horrible is during the first week or two of the games release.

Oh well.

By: Ravious

Ravious — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:01:07 +0000

That’s good lateral thinking, Chris F. I didn’t think about the inherent problem with the possible overpopulation of Tier 4 coming in a month or two. But, all the more reason for WAR to not change much except maybe speed up T3 experience acquisition.

I would bet money that server merges are in the near future of WAR.

By: Thallian

Thallian — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:03:37 +0000

:P Well, maybe the next person who makes an MMO will learn from Mythic’s mistakes.. or not :P

By: Chris F

Chris F — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:41:18 +0000

I actually find the pairings refreshing. I hate getting funnelled into zones after a “starting area”. The problem is the server caps, and it is insurmountable. If they up them, eventually there will be too many people in the t4 zones making the game unplayable. If they keep them the same, there is too much spread. MAYBE when everyone is maxxed and t4 we won’t find it as much of a problem in that regard. The other problem is the “abandoned” old zones and new people solo-levelling up. Again. I know this because I am doing this now on a High/High server.

It’s a shame and I have a bad feeling in my stomach the problem is going to be compounded even worse come WOTLK.

I suppose in hindsight they could have done the game similar to what you suggested but use all the tiers somewhat. T1 – Starter zones as is. T2 – pick one of the four, T3, pick one of the 4, T4, pick one of the four. That way it would still be a battle accross all the “pairings” yet focused tier wise so players still get the sense it is a “world” battle, which each tier being a focus on one of the four different conflicts.

But yeah, too late now. Seems it always is! =)