Return of Reckoning

Heya! Thank you for the time to read my post, if you do indeed read it, haha.

Alrighty! So! I played Warhammer Online for a couple of years back when it was still live. Still, to this day, it was my favorite MMO, when it had a higher population. It was the only game I actually bothered download TS and participating in the conversations during battle. Story at the end of the post! What I mean is, I love this game! But! I had no idea a private server was being ran. What luck! But, I have a few questions before I download. I'll most likely download, regardless! Haha.

What does this server have, so far? I've skimmed the changelogs and was very happy to see it has received a recent update, so I'm assuming the fans working on this are still very much active! Woo! I couldn't find a place that lists the server's inclusions, though. Like, max level, races/classes, SCs, quests, ect. Is there a list of that?

How's the population? I've noticed the menu on the side, showing 190 online out of 250. So, the server hold 250 players, max? This seems fine and all, if you're twinking. So, I imagine most of the action is in T1? Is there a T2-4, and/or a population for it?

The top of the site says it's in pre alpha stage. i'm definitely down with testing, breaking, pushing, and WAAAGH'ing to the max. I'm just curious on how much testing is needed, and what the player feedback is. I would assume a lot. This has no negative impact on me downloading the game, or how long I will play. I'm simply curious.

Finally! What is the feedback from the group of people running this server? Like, how much interaction do the players/testers get this group of people? I would very much like to thank them. And, communication with the community has always been extremely important to me. If the servers go down, I want to know why. If there's an update coming up, I want to know when. Those kinds of things.

Thank you so much for opening a private server of this wonderful game! I hope I can convince one of my friends to play it. He was misfortune enough to not play this game when it was live. He is currently a developer and creating a game with a team he helps lead. So, he would be able to provide more technical feedback than I would! Haha.

---Totally Optional Story Time---

Story time! I remember, years ago when I played, certain oRVR battles. One of my favorites was a successful ambush! I can't remember the name of the map, but the one with the High Elves' theme. Anyways, we (Destro) has manage to get a decent sized warband up. We sent a scout (yes, a scout! Haha, it was awesome that it worked!) to find the enemy WB. Myself (Zealot), some kind that sounds like Master Chief (Mara), and another girl (Witch Elf), were the leaders of this WB, and on TS. The scout (still pumped that a scout worked in an MMO like this) told us that the enemy WB was coming down the road, towards our only keep. So, we set up an ambush! The road had hills on both sides. So, split the WB, and hid in the hills. I honestly have no idea how they didn't see us. So, the zerg is coming down the road, gets in between us, and we jump them. Each half of our WB flows over the side of the hills, and runs the battle starts. It was so awesome! We manage to completely wipe them out, losing only a few guys. It was literally the most epic moment of any MMO I played. It may not seem like much, but ambushes are hard! Haha. You can see their names, normally have those in your WB that run around sporadically (so surprised one didn't run over the hills, just because), health bars and abilities, reaction times are easier in a game, ect. I've never once seen or heard of another ambush being successful. It was just so glorious. TS was freaking out with people yelling (especially the ones "feelin' Orky"). I have other memories of epic moments in this game (such as an extremely long keep defense), but this is one of my favorites. I may post the keep defense, but it's been so long, my memory is a skewed. Actually... I may start a story thread... hm...

1. WELCOME! Great to have you back, mate, no matter which side you decide on (unfortunately [fortunately for some??] you can still play both sides). After 4 years of WoW ending in 2008, I came to WAR (now RoR) solely because of the decision required after downloading: Choose a side. There are guilds that are, by choice, either Destruction-, or Order-ONLY guilds, e.g., Legacy of Legends (LoL) on Destruction, and Sons of Divinity (SoD) on Order [humble apologies to Phantomdrakes & guild if I mispelled/mis-grammared the name], and there are plenty of folks who've committed to that ideal on both sides, even if they chose the opposition (to their last camp) this time 'round.

Whether Destruction, Order, or a bit of both is your taste, bottom line is RoR NEEDS MORE PLAYERS. Spread the word!

2. "Alpha Phase", imo, means above all else: BE PATIENT. I know, I know. This is not the game to play for those with a short fuse, especially if "patience" appears... any where. Our dedicated, devoted Developers are coding our home away from home from the ground up. There are bugs aplenty. Many trivial, some (far too many for most) are what would be coined 'game-breaking' to downright irritating but have no impact, afaik, on mechanics, e.g., Mara's #1 hotbar resets to 'no mutation' after each death, yet a mutation remains: no gift spells fire until another mutation is chosen (bit 'breaking' if not given attention, but not detrimental, imo); the Mara's appearance (face, scar, eye color, facial hair and color, tattoo) will change with each gift/mutation (this used to occurr all the time, now I experience it only in certain locations [IC, Nordenwatch, Nordland WC], even then with no consistency) is incredibly annoying to players like myself who take a bit of time to 'dress out' our avatar before entering into battle. Vanity mode ftw

There are other factors like heals stop landing on your target if healer does damage to assist target, which is remedied by targeting self, casting heal, re-targeting heal target. Not necessarily game-breaking, annoying at the least, but can lead to unnecessary wipes if one doesn't pay closer (than what we're used to in WAR) attention to these buggy details. Alpha Phase is viewed as an adventure by some, an abhorrence by others. If you decide to come aboard (and you should, especially if you've played WAR) our devs need ALL the input we can muster.

ATM, only Tier 1 (R10/RR20) is available, so yes, twinking is happening. There is a gear drop list in the forums. Quite extensive and many of us are finding more areas where gear is dropping. And, imo, the drop rate is phenomenal at this stage. The AH is working, while direct trade is not. That's easily taken care of by simply mailing loot to purchasers/alts. ===>Make sure to drag and drop items into the mailbox! Right-clicking items into mail seems, with great consistency, to make the items disappear!<=== And if you desire to see the coin you set as the price of your items, make sure it's reasonably priced as, at this point, once gear is on the AH, it either sells, or times out and disappears. AFAIK, you do NOT get unsold AH items back in the mail... yet.

3. Our devs, imo, have communicated more since July 2014 to date than all the devs that ever even looked at WAR code in the 5 years of its life combined. AND they're also incredibly patient and leagues more mature than devs I've dealt with in the past. They're all constantly and consistently hard at work (an play in-game) on bugs, big and small, and many of us feel there's no way to ever repay them for their monumental efforts, except to play the hell out of this game and notify them promptly regarding any and all bugs we encounter.

They're also a blast to battle with/against whether in SCs or on the field. Most of the battling takes place in SCs atm, due to a combination of factors, mostly because it's just easier/faster to get a fight this way atm. The RvR lakes are experiencing some bugs with area location and not 'auto-flagging' characters, thus making them un-attackable at times. Even then, they could be flagged but their name appears orange instead of red, etc. while some are able (and I don't recommend learning how, but rather reporting the player/issue when it occurs) to 'un-flag' themselves at will, totally defeating the purpose of the RvR lake and making it a pain to farm lair bosses (currently on a 2-3 hour random timer; was every 12 hrs in WAR) because one group cannot 'fight' for the lair boss amongst players but must endeavor to get the 'killing blow' to be able to loot, which sometimes will be loot for the opposition... which brings us back to PATIENCE.

Our devs are to RoR what Jesus was to Lazerus (forgive my Yankee take on the idea if it offends, I've got no better comparison to date). Will you and your mates be the 'Thirteenth Apostle'? Come break bread (or bones) with us and basque in the glory that is RoR.

The Return of Reckoning is upon us. It's time to choose a side, pick up arms, and wade hip-deep into the blood of our enemies. With sincere hopes of seeing you and your mates on the field, shoulder to shoulder, or toe to toe, WAAAGH!

Stop forcing me to plow through so much text at this hour. x.x

Thank you so much, Gnash! Read all of it.

The quest markers seem to be bugged, but thankfully I've done the starting zone enough to know what to do, anyways! Haha. Though, I'll likely level through PvP, mostly. This is literally the only game that I can PvP more than I PvE.

I kind of like T1 only, it'll consolidate the population for quicker SC pops. Which, I've noticed seem to be really quick! Woo! Twinking was kind of annoying in the Live game, but can definitely see how it's currently needed.

I think I'll play Order, for now. I really like Destro, especially Zealots. But, Order looks like they could use the numbers! So, I'll play around with them, for now! Haha. Try to help balance the server, some. Currently playing Engineer, but I feel the pull of Bright Wizard! I'll probably have several rank 10s within a few days, haha. Love it.

Only played like an hour so far. But, have enjoyed the experience! I missed the feel of WAR. I'll definitely try to get my more patient friends to download RoR. Great news about the Devs! I'm so happy to hear they're highly praised and passionate about the game.

Sorry, RyanMakara! Haha, I just love to type! Though... it is the hour of reckoning. :p

This topic summarizes what's working and what is not
http://www.returnofreckoning.com/forum/ ... f=8&t=1189

Most class mechanics and skills do work, but for some reason people tend to avoid rvr lakes, so all action is on scenes, which are almost non-stop and feel almost 100% like they were on live (exept for a few bugs)