PW+ Updates (Day 1)

September 5, 2008 – 11:13 pm

You can find the 4.1 patch notes in a million different places, so I’ll spare you the mass scrolling. Instead, here are some quick updates from my first few hours in PW+…

Server lag and FPS issues are almost non-existent
Pet pathing works pretty darn good, although my Squig still does funny things sometimes
Textures and environment are way better
Destruction is Full on many server, but only a few more servers where Order is also Full
Our server (Chrace) is showing Destruction Full (2-15 minute queues) and Order High pop
The Gates of Ekrund scenario queue is popping about once every 20 minutes for me
Open-world RvR in T1 Greenskin vs. Dwarf is absolutely dead atm
Almost everyone seems to be doing open world RvR in Empire vs. Chaos (/facepalm Mythic?)
There are still a few annoying bugs like mobs that are unattackable and the odd crash to desktop
I’ve decided to push my guild to roll Open-RvR…

Most of those stand on their own, but I’ll give a bit more detail on three:

First, population seems to be fairly balanced with Destruction having a slight lead. When I first logged into the game client, I was asked if I would like to join Server X as Order because they need more recruits. The realm queues seem to be working really well, in terms of hitting your realm caps, however, I’m not sure if they are enforcing any kind of balance yet. Then again, I haven’t seen any servers show one side Full and the other side Low, so maybe the enforced realm balance is working.

Second, in yet another beta phase, Empire vs. Chaos is scooping up all the people who want to do open-world RvR (on my server anyway). Mythic explicitly said that just because EvC had the only two capital cities at launch, they don’t think people will focus a higher proportion of their time in those zones. Well, the gamers are proving you wrong. It must be said that they have done the best they can to fix this by requiring you to control two of the three fortresses to unlock city siege, but there just doesn’t seem to be much incentive to do so in the earlier tiers, especially in the early phases of the game. Maybe there will be more incentive once the real servers launch and people are more invested in the ultimate goal… That’s what I’m hoping for anyway.

And third, I just got ganked. It was really lame. If I was on an Open-RvR ruleset server, it wouldn’t have happened… Here’s the story. Syp and I were running around the GvD tier 1 RvR lake and couldn’t find a soul in the entire region. We decided to loop back to the War camp though the PvE zones because it was a change of scenery (blame me, I was leading!). The mobs in this area were 3-4 levels higher than us. We fought a few of them without issue and then came upon a Dwarf Runepriest. We were level 5 (SH and BO) and he was level 8. He wasn’t flagged so we couldn’t touch him. We jumped a few times, gave a blank stare for a few moments, and then ran off. He followed. Right around the corner (curse me for not panning properly), we were jumped by three high level squig mobs. The RP waited for Syp to hit 50% health and then started nuking him. We both focused on him now that he was flagged for RvR but it was futile. He could heal any damage we dealt and we dropped very quickly with three highbie squigs on us. Tres cool, monsieur stunty. That pretty much seals the deal for me wanting to play Open-RvR.

According to the patch notes, the only drawback of Open-RvR servers is that you will be chickenized when entering a lower tier. This mainly prevents you from unlocking any missed tome unlocks or fully experiencing the the entire tier before you outlevel it, but those things matter about as much to me as a… let’s just say they don’t matter to me at all. I could not care less. The ToK is a metagame that I am only mildly interested in and I definitely won’t trade off bashing stupid ganking stunties for it, that’s for sure!

I feel bad for saying that knowing how much work has gone into the ToK, but I’m not really that much of an achiever. Don’t get me wrong, I love to achieve in a game… but the ToK is waaaaaaaaay overkill for me. I prefer da killinz.

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Post tags: beta, opinions, Warhammer Online

24 Responses to “PW+ Updates (Day 1)”
Dude, you were going to attack him 2 on 1 and he used sound tactics. That’s not ganking.

By Spinks on Sep 6, 2008
Is there a good summary of what the choice between Open RvR vs the alternative? I grabbed a preorder box from Target so I can be playing Sunday.

By NBarnes on Sep 6, 2008
So let me get this right. You two were flagged for PvP but not him, so he could attack you anytime, but you couldn’t do anything on PvE areas. It that correct?

I don’t agree with Spinks that waiting for someone get down on life is a “sound tactic” (it’s a pretty low shot for me), but still, if that is correct, you opened that door, he just took the chance.

I fail to see how having yourself ready to be ganked any time by people 7, 8 levels higher (I don’t know what is the limit before getting “chickened”) is any better than that.

I have absolutely no intention of rolling on a Open RvR server. WoW taught me that that is an exercise in frustration, when many times all you want is to get some things done without worrying about other players.

War is everywhere, but it doesn’t need to be everytime.

By Kemwer on Sep 6, 2008
You were on an open rvr server and could not attack him? why? I thought you could attack anyone there..

oh and, haha! we will mock you on vent all week for this, dying 2vs1 to a dwarf!

By Nazgum on Sep 6, 2008
Kemwer said:

I have absolutely no intention of rolling on a Open RvR server. WoW taught me that that is an exercise in frustration, when many times all you want is to get some things done without worrying about other players.

War is everywhere, but it doesn’t need to be everytime.

QFT! I wholeheartedly agree.

By Bowman on Sep 6, 2008
I’m going to have to concur with Kemwer and Bowman. As much as I love PvP/RvR, sometimes I just have to get up, stretch, grab a drink, or take a leak. I like being able to walk away from my keyboard without fear of getting ganked when that happens.

It does sound like Mythic has done a great job fixing many of the issues that were reported in the first preview weekend. My patch is at 83% downloaded … looking forward to checking out myself soon.

By Joey on Sep 6, 2008
“I could completely care less.”

That means that you actually care, because you COULD care less but you don’t. The correct expression is, “I could NOT care less.” As in, you care so little that you couldn’t care less about it because … you don’t care.

By Arianna on Sep 6, 2008
Nazgum:

All servers in PW+ are core rule set. He just decided to have himself flagged for RvR all of the time.

By Greg on Sep 6, 2008
The length of time it takes to get into Scenario’s bothers me. They need to fix this. How bad will it be when things get more spread out?
I also hope the server caps get a lot higher than they currently are.

By ScytheNoire on Sep 6, 2008
/presses his “Eek!” button!

Two level 5s vs. a level 8 uberhealer was pretty good odds in his favour imho. We were not bolstered in the PvE zone and he also had the advantage of better gear and more abilities to use.

You can call them tactics if you want, but I’ll call them lame tactics considering the odds were even or in his favour when we met the first time.

I don’t mind getting ganked on an Open RvR server because that’s what you expect on those kinds of servers. I played on a PvP server my entire career on WoW and rarely was I ever ganked. I actually found people to have a fair amount of honour on those servers. From what I heard about the regular/RP servers, people would just hide behind their non-flagged status until the opportunity was ripe and then gank you more often than not.

I think it’s way less cool that someone hides behind a game mechanic to strike you in RvR when it’s most convenient for them.

The funny part is that we were in the RvR lake for quite a while looking for a fight and couldn’t find jack. A few moments in PvE being RvR flagged we got jumped. Cool beans!

As for Arianna… right. Doh!

By Snafzg on Sep 6, 2008
I agree with Spinks.

By thade on Sep 6, 2008
Open RvR has more drawbacks then just chickening you if you enter a lower tier.

It also has no bolster buffs in open world rvr, which means all those low levels you had helping you before are going to be worthless now.

It also decentralizes RvR, you think the greenskin vs dwarf area is dead now? Wait till the rvr hotspots are your PQs and dungeon entrances.

By Bo on Sep 6, 2008
Guild alliance with the HFG? ehhh, ehhhhhhhhhh?

By Railith on Sep 6, 2008
But why would the capital cities affect *T1* open RVR? The capital cities aren’t in T1, so there’s equal benefit to RVRing in any zone.

I think EvC open RVR is most popular because of map design. It seems much more accessible. You run straight south from the T1 Chaos warcamp and there’s a major objective (town) to your left and the Empire warcamp to your right, slighty farther away. Whereas the HEvDE area is a mess of objectives at different elevations and the GvD… I don’t really know.

You should also mention that there are *lobbers* in the Gates of Ekrund scenario now. Go directly east from the spawn point and there are two lobbers on the other side of the map. Right click on a “Siege Git” and you get tossed randomly towards the gate (sometimes you’ll faceplant the wall!). In all of the scenarios I’ve been in I’m the only one who’s used the lobber, even when I announce in scenario chat that it’s there.

By Dan on Sep 6, 2008
FYI: Those of us who didn’t play the closed-beta and don’t have access to Preview Weekend+ hate you right now. Just thought you should know.

By Morane on Sep 6, 2008
still waiting for beta codes from &$@?!?$£!! Amazon!!!

By coppertopper on Sep 6, 2008
@coppertopper: Did you check your accounts media library on the Amazon site? Amazon is not emailing codes, they’re published in your media library.

I ordered (SE) from Amazon and my codes were online within an hour.

By Morane on Sep 6, 2008
A couple notes:

(1) Snaffy neglected to mention that once we were killed, the high level mobs then switched their focus to the dwarf and killed him too. So there’s a bit of karmic retribution there.

(2) It bugged him that this happened, but not me. Life isn’t always fair, not always balanced, and as long as you learn something for next time, then you come out ahead.

(3) Cutting off the content in 3 out of 4 tiers by the time you’re in the end game is a significant drawback to the open rvr ruleset, not just a “minor” deal. YMMV when it comes to whether this matters to your or not, but since a certain Greenskin was all up in arms when Mythic took out four capital cities’ worth of content, you’d think he’d be a bit more reluctant to fully endorse a move to cut out even more content.

By Syp on Sep 6, 2008
I wasn’t saying it shouldn’t matter to anyone else, but I don’t really care about dilly-dallying around in a tier I’ve out-leveled. If I want to explore it some more, I’ll roll an alt so I at least get a new character out of the deal.

The cities are on a way different scale than some tiers I’ve out-leveled imho. Cities are something I’d want access to from levels 1-40 and up to RR80. Being able to revisit chapter 1 of the game on my top rank character isn’t something I’d ever do, even if I could. I’m not that nostalgic.

I think the dwarf died to the squigs but I couldn’t tell because he left clipping range at about 10% life with three mobs on him. As a runepriest who can run and spam heal himself, he could have lived… I just wanted to believe we got revenge!

By Snafzg on Sep 6, 2008
@morane -
Thanks for the tip, but the only things in my media library were the actual war preorder, and a couple books I’ve ordered. So just 3 items total, which represents my entire purchase history on amazon. Checked the downloads section and nothing there. Can you let me know how your beta code was found?

By coppertopper on Sep 6, 2008
@Morena-
Ok forget above. Found several threads on my issue. When it comes down to it amazon just plain hasn’t issued me a beta code. I’ll take it up with cs.

By coppertopper on Sep 6, 2008
In the PW weekend, I had an 8 RP and a friend had a 7 Ironbreaker. Up until I got stabbed in the face we were making headway against a 20 Skaven.

I think the odds were balanced in your favour.

He just waited for a tactical opening. Personally if I saw someone eyeing me up like that, I’d break off from the squigs and leg it. Obviously no good will come from it.

By Ardua on Sep 7, 2008
i totaly agree with u. sadly i have used that tactic a few times and i lol for hours afterwards. it seems like i always find BW running arund by them selves with RvR status guess its an ego thing. anyway this BW was 4 lvls above me *11* and i wasnt sure if i could take him on my magus. as soon as i start to cast my pet 2 other D come out of the bushes and all 3 of us jumped this guy and smoked him into the ground. it was funny as hell as by the time he came back all of us were gone and we’d gotten our kicks from it alreay anyway. yes i can see its wrong i agree BUT it is VERY funny when u use that “tactic” on someone. as a pvp person myself i feel ur pain and i usually hate the pve servers but in general i feel the core servers are nice and ease everyone into pvp/rvr by the end as open is gunna be more ppl that just want to gank each other like said above. thats just my 2cents.
PS: i dont look for that it just happens that was only my second time using it in 4 months of play time

By XBloodBlade on Sep 7, 2008