State of the Realms (A Community Discussion with the Devs)

[Esperflame]

First I just want to say thank you to the devs who are willing to spend the time and effort in bringing back to me what is the single best MMO I have played. So I wanted to spark up a conversation with the devs and the community about the current state of the game. I'm not going to talk about balance issues or even target bugs (though some of the things we discuss could be the result of bugs we are not aware of and bug discussion may come up.) This is mostly a discussion about issues as players we have with this game and would love to get a discussion going on between you, the developers and your community of players. I also want to express that the things I bring up as an "issue" may in fact just be opinion, but I feel these are opinions and ideas that would help this community grow and flourish.

Now, as a newer player who has recently joined this server as of August 5th, I currently have no characters in T4 as I do like to enjoy playing a variety of classes. I understand your development choices and direction are currently focused primarily on expanding and fixing issues in T4. As a player who's not there yet, I want to bring these issues to your attention as some of these problems may turn away many new people just joining this server. I only bring up these issues because while T4 is clearly were all the action is and T1 has enough action to keep it going in its current state, T2 and T3 are abysmal and you really end up just suffering through them.

Today I'm only going to bring up one issue that bothers some of us trying to get through T2-3 and that's the amount of EXP, INF and RR that is earned for taking BO's and taking the enemy keep which locks the zone. Currently I feel (I did say opinions) that you earn way too much experience for this. We all like the satisfaction of leveling but isn't that what PvE is for? I mean you gave us x3 EXP for turning in quests in T2-3 so if your concern is leveling, shouldn't you just do a ton of quests which not only award nice amounts of XP but is the best way in game to earn gold. My problem is I really want to max out my INF in each zone getting all those nice purple rewards. Sure in the end they don't really matter, but going into a higher tier with full INF purple rewards would probably be better than being forced to still wear some greens because you out leveled the tier. And sure there is debolster, but I personally don't like to use that. Since you guys recently released the last patch there also seems to be a bug with the Field of Glory buff. I'm getting tons of XP, but my renown rank has fallen behind my actual level and it's steadily falling further behind. Also I noticed while running around in T2 if you don't help in capturing a BO, once you cap the keep and lock the zone, you get no rewards at all. Some of us in the warband were confused as to why after putting in the time and effort for locking a zone we got 0 XP, INF and RR. This I'm assuming is a bug and it may have something to do with the return of the Field of Glory buff.

Also, since the patch where you turned the Arena enemies in IC into hero's IC is regularly causing everyone to crash. This crash bug is no longer exclusive to the Viper Pit.

So this is all I wanted to say this time around and I just wanted to try and open up a dialogue between the developers and the community in general. A place we can talk about things that the community might see differently than those who are deciding on how things should be. I know you guys are very busy with not only your real lives, but also getting this project up and running to your satisfaction. Just wanted to say some things and much like you guys, we also love this game very much which is why we play it with you guys.

[peterthepan3]

It's fairly logical:

* Most people who would have wanted to play RoR are doing so, and so will have characters/mains in T4 already;
* Most people making new toons are people who are already in T4 and want to level alts as fast as possible;
* The server itself has 700-900 people playing on it during peak times - the vast majority of these being in T4

Bearing in mind the aforementioned (smallish population + most people being in t4 already due to quick lvling time + any new chars being alts that are powerlvl'd to participate in t4 asap), there isn't really anything that can be done in regards to T2/T3 (I guess it's sort of like comparing WoW's population in zones such as Outland and Northrend to the new Legion zones/Draenor - people just skip through the early content to get to the endgame)

[nat3s]

The bug which prevents people getting rewards when a keep is taken is pretty painful. Love to see this fixed.

I personally have no problem with the focus being tier4, nor do I have any issues with tiers 2 and 3 (where I had a blast on both my shaman and warrior priest).

Ultimately tier4 is where most of the pop sits so it feels right to make this the main focus of development + the better / more polished the tier4 experience, the bigger the carrot being dangled in front of those of us in lower tiers to level up and hit "end game" i.e. it keeps us playing!

[Azarael]

Also, since the patch where you turned the Arena enemies in IC into hero's IC is regularly causing everyone to crash. This crash bug is no longer exclusive to the Viper Pit.

Probably some corrupt NPC.

To the people complaining that they're not getting any rewards for taking a keep: You didn't contribute. You cannot just zone in during the last 30 seconds of the keep take and expect to be rewarded for it any more, thank god.

I will make this very explicit in the next patch by displaying a message to players who have no contribution recorded.

It may not come as much of a surprise to people, but I don't think PvDoor and PvEing keeps in general to be worthy of great reward. The system will continue to be shaped to the detriment of players who PvE in RvR and who duck fights to cap empty zones, and to the benefit of those who put in actual effort, which involves PvP. Stay tuned for the next small patch!

[Arbich]

Maybe you could lower the required influence to obtain the rewards in T2/T3. Some influence rewards in T3 (empire/dwarfs) are still useful in T4 and at the moment it is almost impossible to get them.

[Esperflame]

Also, since the patch where you turned the Arena enemies in IC into hero's IC is regularly causing everyone to crash. This crash bug is no longer exclusive to the Viper Pit.

Probably some corrupt NPC.

To the people complaining that they're not getting any rewards for taking a keep: You didn't contribute. You cannot just zone in during the last 30 seconds of the keep take and expect to be rewarded for it any more, thank god.

Thats not whats happening. We ran in as all the BO's were capped. I beat on a door with the warband for a few good minutes. I then went and helped kill the lord. Myself and several others recieved no reward. No XP, No INF, and no RR. I would assume this is some sort of new bug thats creeped up and just wanted you to know the circumstances.

[wargrimnir]

Also, since the patch where you turned the Arena enemies in IC into hero's IC is regularly causing everyone to crash. This crash bug is no longer exclusive to the Viper Pit.

Probably some corrupt NPC.

To the people complaining that they're not getting any rewards for taking a keep: You didn't contribute. You cannot just zone in during the last 30 seconds of the keep take and expect to be rewarded for it any more, thank god.

Thats not whats happening. We ran in as all the BO's were capped. I beat on a door with the warband for a few good minutes. I then went and helped kill the lord. Myself and several others recieved no reward. No XP, No INF, and no RR. I would assume this is some sort of new bug thats creeped up and just wanted you to know the circumstances.

You hit a door and killed an NPC.

Did you fight players? Were there dozens of kills racked up at the keep? No PvP = no Renown = no rewards.

[Waaghaa]

Today I'm only going to bring up one issue that bothers some of us trying to get through T2-3 and that's the amount of EXP, INF and RR that is earned for taking BO's and taking the enemy keep which locks the zone. Currently I feel (I did say opinions) that you earn way too much experience for this. We all like the satisfaction of leveling but isn't that what PvE is for? I mean you gave us x3 EXP for turning in quests in T2-3 so if your concern is leveling, shouldn't you just do a ton of quests which not only award nice amounts of XP but is the best way in game to earn gold. My problem is I really want to max out my INF in each zone getting all those nice purple rewards. Sure in the end they don't really matter, but going into a higher tier with full INF purple rewards would probably be better than being forced to still wear some greens because you out leveled the tier.

I agree with you here matey, I myself has never been comfortable with x2 /x3 xp rates, maybe its cuz I moved from Everquest to Warhammer and back in the EQ days, hell level at 59 (when max lvl was 60) took weeks to reach, there was a satisfaction in reaching maximum lvl (especially in a game where when you died, you lost atleast 4% xp even if rezzed by a max lvl cleric)

Afaik, nothing in this game since it is in alpha is set in stone, maybe the devs will see it as you see and go back to how it was prior or maybe "invent" an on/off button for the extra xp.

[Uilamin]

It may not come as much of a surprise to people, but I don't think PvDoor and PvEing keeps in general to be worthy of great reward.

The problem with that logic is that keeps are designed so those things are the goals. The people who focus on the objectives to allow the keep siege to be successful get penalized or phrased in another way - the only way to get rewards is to do something either than push for objective completion. They don't need to be mutually exclusive though. Why not use the PvE contributions award the base 'contribution points' and the PvP contributions act as a multiplier? That way people are incentivized to do both and neglecting one will essentially eliminate you from being competitive.

[Luicetarro]

It may not come as much of a surprise to people, but I don't think PvDoor and PvEing keeps in general to be worthy of great reward.

The problem with that logic is that keeps are designed so those things are the goals. The people who focus on the objectives to allow the keep siege to be successful get penalized or phrased in another way - the only way to get rewards is to do something either than push for objective completion. They don't need to be mutually exclusive though. Why not use the PvE contributions award the base 'contribution points' and the PvP contributions act as a multiplier? That way people are incentivized to do both and neglecting one will essentially eliminate you from being competitive.

Still, the question is:
Was there a fight? Did ppl defend the keep? If not, there was no reward since there was no fight (exept a door and some NPCs). If I get it right, the rewards will be 'activated' as soon there is a defence, so ppl stop capping empty castles and actually search for a fight if they want a reward.