Guess this is a good place as any to give feedback:
TLDR:
QUEUE
- the queue system was a bit wonky, as anyone can tell. I liked the fact that it specified your position in the queue a lot, but I wonder if this might cause more bugs atm; before i got into LotD i went from position 5 to 29, then i got reservation pop at 22.
- not sure yet about the expedition resources, especially since they seem so arbitrary to get. I've played multiple nights the week before LotD opened up, but didn't get a single one. Somehow still managed to get in. But then you hear stories of people who had 160 expedition resources.
- due to how buggy it is now, i also don't think it's wise to have the expedition resources get removed from the player's inventory now, with the issues to queue and teleport regarding the zone. I had group mates with resources that got taken the moment they queued, but no indication if they still mattered when they queued again for the 5th/6th time due to the bugs. Perhaps it might be safer to remove them once the player is physically located in LotD, for now at least.
OBJECTIVES
- really like the objective based approach of the map. Personally I would prefer if kills gave very little or no victory points and everything was focused around the objectives; the reason behind this is that it would strongly discourage zerging for kills. Right now kills give RP, currencies and objective points. There is a big incentive to go where a big battle is and fight in it. And I believe LotD has very strong potential to break the general zerg we have in the lakes and be more smallscale oriented;
- i know there are sub-objectives throughout the maps. Chests and boons that give the player an advantage; but it's very difficult right now to say what does what and is useful for what. The UI at the top is a bit confusing; I understand this is probably a temporary issue, and that once people play enough they will know the ins and outs, but i strongly recommend doing some youtube How-To videos on the LotD specific features (i know the team really likes wikis; but when you are trying to spread information would you not choose the most popular platform?)
- the idea of hitting the enemy backline for objectives and slowing down their progress is great and really incentivises going all Commando; it would be very fun if smaller teams would also have a way to cross the river without getting killed by crocs. A team buff that would act as a "boat" and give the party the option to cross unhurt would probably make incursions even more common and would give a reason for defending parties to patrol the river. As is, while some groups can make it behind the west pass, i imagine it will become meta to guard and fight there mostly at all times very soon, to stop enemies from capping your backline
MAP
- the far-west crossing where the ruined city is is
f*cking awesome! multiple funnels, great LoS opportunities and the close spawn of Tomb Kings warbands makes it a pleasure to fight in. I especially liked it when, during fights there, TK warbands spawned out of the blue, really throwing a spanner into the generally straightforward funnel strategy. It's great!
- saw a few cheeky dwarfs getting on hard-to-reach rooftops. Due to how the collision works, it's almost impossible to get to them. I like the idea of rooftop fighting, but as it is now it's a bit cheesy, edging on the usage of game mechanics to stop players from getting to your ranged. Not sure how this would be solved; perhaps a ramp? But i doubt that's easy to do.
TOMB KINGS
- TKs are awesome. I love the PvEvP feature and think it really makes the game feel like a Massive Open World.
- Patrols are fun imo, but I do question on how strong they should be; Against a 24-man warband (even a pug one) they pose very little threat due to how generic PvE mechanics work (tank aggro, mobs hit tank, healer heal, call it a day). But are they meant to be a threat? As a 6-man I imagine you will be much ore inclined to avoid them, but if they take away a BO you can just follow them and recap. Would be perhaps more interesting if patrols would stop at BOs and hold them, making it necessary for a stronger force to go back and backcap.
- I would like to see stronger TK groups (perhaps named
Warband?). How to make mob encounters more exciting though? I would have two suggestions:
* make it so that mobs reset aggro often (5/10s cooldown)
* give a few mobs special heavy attacks with random timers that, basically, do morale drops. 1200 aoe unmitigated. This makes them deadly for everyone nearby, whether they are fighting the TK or not.
- I really liked the giant skeleton mobs that spawned at random locations, I think they could be very good for a special unit.
- I think, besides the objectives, TK might offer the biggest solution to solving the zergy habbits of players. But it might require a lot of work. For example: if players are zerging in a spot, that could be set as the next destination for two Patrol spawns. But the problem is this is a dynamic waypoint setter for the mobs, not easy to do (maybe use the functions that are used for map battle icons, but again careful consideration has to be used so as to not add unnecessary checks for all battle icons even in normal rvr lakes). And after all that trouble, if they spawn from the current spawn points, you run the risk of having them come too late to the party (no TK mounts, /sad)
- perhaps a solution to this:
Nehekhara Skirmishers
Hidden beneath the desert sands, the Nehekhara warriors await to be beckoned by their king and strike when their enemies are most distracted.
This TK unit would only spawn
very close to a large battle, and would have an extended aggro range (so as to not miss the baddies). Again AoE damage and aggro reset, to make it a powerful thorn in any zerg's rear.
Whatever happens, I really hope the TKs get fleshed (HAH) out more, as they are very fun to have on the battlefield. By comparison, the regular RvR lakes now feel static and empty. Perhaps in time we can see more PvEvP added to those as well. One can only hope.
GENERAL NOTES
- the 3rd lotd took roughly 1 hour to finish. I understood that this was already changed based on feedback. Personally I think it could easily last 2 hours for a zone that opens once every X days, but this can be tweaked at any time in the future i guess, and it also depends greatly on how often we will get lotd when it releases (one hour every week sounds a bit ehh).
- the map is awesome to explore, but due to the relative short battle time, it's almost impossible to do so. I hope that, in the future, the faction that gets it unlocked also gets to go there. The issue with this though is that it would mean it's a PvE zone, and the incentive should be strong enough for players to choose it over RvR lakes/forts, but weak enough so as to not make said lakes/forts redundant. Hard balancing act. Perhaps have it open for only 24 hours after victory, for players to make PQs/things
- with new zones comes new gear and that's great; a lot of players here are old timers that use sov boots to drink their tea out of, but i really think we should not be ignoring potential new players. I actually meet quite a few "newish" people in my adventures, who have no idea what is what and how to get gear. Once they get an idea, the basic grind to get from Anni to Invader puts many off, especially since it's not particularly fun, due to the power imbalance. The point I am trying to make here is that I hope lotD will also provide a good catch-up mechanic for new players. These days, even vanquisher is a kind of weak. A player needs invader to be considered competitive. Invader is not that easy to get, imo (especially with the weapons).
Perhaps the solution is not in LotD at all, but RvR lake/reward tweaking, but that's a conversation for another thread.
Overall a very solid and fun addition to the game that needs just a bit more tweaking. I'd rate it an 8/10 in it's current state.
