For the devs, what are your plans for the PvE content?

[Default137]

So obviously, BIG disclaimer here at the start of this post. No I'm not here for the WAR PvE content. Nobody should be. WAR is first and foremost an RvR game, and that's going to be the big draw that brings people back into the game/to this emulator.

With that said, I'm curious what the devs ultimately would like to do re: PvE.

Right now, just testing it for testing it's sake, a solid 2/6 quests in the starter Empire/Chaos zone just don't work, or don't work right. PQs don't work at all that I can see. And there is no turn in quest text, it's just the quest acceptance text reapplied to the new NPC with a "complete quest?" prompt over it.

The Orc and Elf zones are significantly worse, which makes sense as most of the development has been put into the Empire/Chaos zones.

Now, again. RvR is the biggest part of this game. As long as the RvR works fine, people will come and stay. But I feel ignoring the PvE is a bad example, and I want to see where the devs stand on this issue/what they plan to do as they finish fleshing out the emulated server/t3/t4.

First off is image. The first thing people do in an MMO is quest. Everyone I saw in both Empire and Chaos t1 questing zones were entirely new players. And the response was largely the same, that the quests barely worked, and they were basically just doing them to get high enough level to RvR. While once they get into the RvR they'll enjoy themselves, having such a large gap before they get to the "fun" content makes only the hardcore WAR fans stick around. Anybody who didn't originally play WAR, but wants to see what it's about will never get past the initial stages of the game, because those areas aren't fleshed out enough to funnel those people into the RvR lakes.

Secondly is the "cooloff". RvR is the best part about the game, but sometimes it's not in your favor. Sometimes you get wiped just a few too many times, or the zerg gets a bit big for your blood, and you want to do something else. Back when WAR was out, me and my friends would take this time to go grind out PQs, go get lore entires, or see where the WAR PvE storylines were going, as we thought the storytelling was honestly kind of neat, if poorly handled. On RoR, those experiences can't happen. If you want to cool off, you log off. This in turn takes players out of the game. If you are just **** around with a PQ to cool off, the zerg may die down in the 10 minutes it took to get there. A huge keep battle could erupt, or the tide could turn, drawing you back in. But if you logged off, you'd never see these events, and may go do something else for a few hours instead, not providing another RvRer. By giving the players reasons to stay in game, you give people something to cool off on when they get sick of RvR, but still in game, so they can potentially jump back into the fight when needed/they are done.

I'm mainly curious what the dev plan is in regards to the scripting for PvE stuff/getting that stuff all working, since I can't find anything said about it. Everything is ( rightfully ) focused on the RvR. Is the plan to get the game 100% in line with what it was at release? Get PQs/most lore entries/basic quests done based on player feedback? Ignore it because whatever, this game is about RvR? It'd be nice to get some sort of comment on it.

[brufgar1984]

I agree whole heartly.. I'm one of the few that actually liked the PvE content. Even in old WAR. I do miss the PQs.

[Silvertusk]

I completely agree with the op. Pve would definitely help the game to be more "newcomer friendly"
I my self am one of those few that enjoyed the pve content in this game, when I got bored or no friends to make a grp online used to farm some pq for a neat looking ruin gear for alternate ap. or try an epic quest for a cool looking weapon etc.

I remember when the rvr was dead we used to run BB-BE-LV, it was fun actually and made ppl in my guild back then (eltharion server) make some strong ties together having a more relaxed time in dungeons and generally as the op said staying more hours online!

-RvR and some class tweaking (BO/SMs AM/SH) is no1 priority but if the developers consider reviving the pve too that would mean only good news for this game and why not have some pve community too.

[dave2278]

What if the Devs if they have the time after they get the tiers out made custom dungeons if they could I mean

[Kacia]

Yes. While I Love rvr I also enjoyed the challenge of the blood and bile lv and tovl. I enjoyed doing these as a break from the rvr and still enjoying playing my toon. I loved getting all the gear sets and alternate appearances! I hope these return soon.

And I played solely destro back on live kinda wanna give them a go on my bw on order!

[Athane]

+1 to what Kacia said. While I love RvR, I'm really looking forward to re-collecting all the sets, both dungeon and rvr. While I don't think the set gear should be given away, I hope it will be available via drops and emblems/meds like it was in live.

[fraggl85]

+1
the pq mechanic is the one important thing i miss in this game atm .this give you a job beside the hard rvr and silly loop raids .you can try to collect some decent gear for the bigger jobs in rvr.and ofc it can maybe help to stop all this lags abit if the ppl spread out in the diffrent zones .the system will be important for all T-zones . i rly hope we ll see soon some work in this progress and im shure it will help all ppl enjoy this game more and more
(ps: sry for bad english ,-)

[wargrimnir]

We have commented on this several times. I'll give it another go.

Many broken issues in PvE require scripting in order for them to work properly. The core game system did not provide these functions, they were all server based. Since we do not have the live server portion of the game, we cannot effectively replicate every scripted event at this time. They all need to be re-written from scratch, as best as anyone can provide proof of, or as memory allows.

PQ's require scripting for every stage to flip. Lots of PQ's have special interactions outside of just killing mobs that require scripting. Any time an NPC is moving along a set coordinate, it requires scripting. Any time a mob does more than simply autoattack you, it requires scripting. Any time an object\creature is spawned for the next step of a quest, it requires scripting.

Everything that makes the game dynamic, EXCEPT for RvR, requires tons of work to get to that last playable state. Instead of trying to recreate all of that PvE, there's several things in RvR that have already been implemented as it affects the most gameplay for the amount of time put into it. Scenarios each have different functions and require similar time and effort to get working, but people do those all the time as well.

We have some tools that work well, others that need to be developed. We have lots of data that we know how it works, and then plenty of things that we do not understand. With RvR as a focus we can make sure the entire core gameplay of how your character functions is written from end to end, is working properly, and hopefully can one day be better balanced. We're not there yet, and until we get there, in T4 at RR80, with the RvR campaign in a good state, it doesn't make sense to pour the same time and effort into PvE which you can find better done in a dozen other MMO's right now for free.

All that being said, just because PvE is not our focus, does not exclude it from being worked on at all. As we discover more facets of RvR that can be applied to PvE functions, they may get implemented. There are a LOT of things that are possible at this state in the game, but they all take time and effort to work out, test, and bring live.

Keep in mind, Devs are volunteers. They love this game and have the unique skills to bring it back to life. There's a long road ahead of us before we get into developing PQ's. If you're not happy with the direction, come back a year from now and see what's changed. Plenty have done that in the past and came back very pleasantly surprised.