Return of Reckoning

Well, I'll tell you a little story about my experience playing this project. I played as a swashbuckler with a two-handed weapon, reached level 16 in 2 days and want to share my impressions. I'll start with something banal, but perhaps the most interesting - RvR (PvP) at level 1 (t1). This is the best thing that happened to me since I discovered the MMO genre.

I leveled up, gradually participated in battles, and, you know, it was really great. True, I would have weakened the healers a little, because one on one they are very difficult to kill, but closer to level 15 I started to succeed. However, that's not the point.

I want to tell you about the battle at Festenplatz Hill. Our group, after a difficult but successful battle at "Bloodhorn Mountain", moved to Nordland. I was level 14 then. At first we suffered setbacks, but then we took a strategic foothold, occupied the heights, and the situation became a stalemate. The enemy, under cover of siege weapons and next to their spawn in the lowland, did not dare to attack our height. A group of long-range fighters (RDD) and I stood on the hill and watched them regroup.

To my left was a huge orc tank, clad in iron. He hit his shield with his sword, encouraging us and igniting the thirst for battle. And then we see how the enemies begin to move in our direction. Of the close fighters, there were only me and this tank. Behind us was a point, healers and RDD - there was nowhere to retreat. And then the orc says: "Stay behind me and live." At that moment, he rushed into their ranks, and I, following him, carefully pulled the enemies one by one and we killed them. We began to give up our positions, but at that moment reinforcements came to us from another point. Thanks to this, we were able to hold the strategic height.

My friend and I called this battle "The Battle of Two Barns" - after the two houses behind us. After winning, I thought about what was happening and realized that this is exactly what I had been waiting for in an MMO for so long. That very feeling of a real battle. I will never forget it and will long use it as an example of an ideal PvP battle.

But here's the annoying thing: after this, I reached level 16, and in this location I turned into a "chicken". I understand that this is done for balance, and I fully support this approach. However, I spent several hours trying to find a way to stop the experience progress at level 15, so that I could create a new character, reach level 15 and stop to experience as many of these bright battles and emotions as possible. But, as I realized, this is impossible.

I tried to do RvR after level 15, but it turned out to be boring. Everything looked like in other MMOs: wall to wall, where it is impossible to kill each other because of a crowd of healers. I became very sad. I'm thinking of creating a couple of characters to go through this path again to level 16, but I feel sorry to abandon my favorite hero and start over every time.

That's why, dear creators of this project, you have done something incredible. You have given people so many emotions and done a great job. I bow before you. And yet I ask: give the ability to stop the character from gaining experience. T1 RvR is the best that can be. I want to go through this again and again, but changing characters like gloves after reaching level 16 is like death. I hope this gets through to you. Make a "Stop gaining experience" button.

Unfortunately an /xp off option leads to veteran players creating Tier 1 characters to farm incoming new players. (twinks)

If you wish to remain in T1 I would suggest deleting and re-rolling. Every time just add a roman numeral to the end of your name. We used to have /xp reduction scrolls, and it resulted in t2 premade stomps in scenarios. It great that you're having fun in Tier 1 though.

What you saw in t2/4 was just people that know what they're doing (far more so than t1).

Put those same people in t1 and you wouldn't think it was as fun.

That's true, back when it was Age of Reckoning, EA made it free to play, but only tier 1, and only Norsca / Nordland, with the cap at level 15. They were trying to drive subscriptions. but there were hundreds of players who just stayed at level 15, and farmed the RvR lake.
What I miss from the original game are the open RvR servers. The best battles I ever had were usually in the middle of Dwarves vs. Greenskins when fights would erupt because someone killed another player when they were both doing a 2 sided quest. There was nothing at stake, realm wise, and you could quite easily be killed by a random NPC while you were fighting an opposing player. It was a lot of fun, and some of those battles lasted longer than a capital siege.

monmit3 wrote: Fri Mar 07, 2025 5:19 am but there were hundreds of players who just stayed at level 15, and farmed the RvR lake.

level 11 it was, not 15

I understand that this can lead to the so-called twink pvp. I will give an example from another well-known game - World of Warcraft (WoW). There is an opportunity to artificially stop your progress, and there are many players who are into twink pvp. However, there are fewer of them compared to those who move further along the progress. This is due to the fact that, although twink pvp is interesting, it is not enough as self-sufficient content.
It seems to me that in RoR there is also a lot of interesting content in T2, and most players will not linger in T1. But the very opportunity to stop your progress, not chase the level and feel T1 would be simply wonderful. This would allow you to enjoy the unique atmosphere and balance of the early stages of the game, without losing the opportunity to move on to more complex and diverse content in the future.

festenplatz t1, all things considered, is literally the most fun ive had in this game. cherish these memories, or relive them as another character, because the game doesnt get better than this. unfortunately, the major part of the charm is huge majority of players who play disorganized. this way, everyone can have impact and get kills. wow style twinking is absolutely soulless and if implemented in ror would just drive new players away as they get relentlessly pummeled by organized players feeding their cr15 alts with purple talismans, potions and gear.

Do some scenarios, level up a bit, buy some gear, see what's up and then come back. It worked for me.

I disagree with you.
The game is excellent in every tier of the game t1, mid tiers, t4.
Don't be afraid to try leveling up further.
For me the fun really starts from mid tier scs and never ends
Give it a chance.
We gave it a chance once and stuck around for a dozen years.

SiriusBlek42 wrote: Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:09 pm I tried to do RvR after level 15, but it turned out to be boring. Everything looked like in other MMOs: wall to wall, where it is impossible to kill each other because of a crowd of healers. I became very sad. I'm thinking of creating a couple of characters to go through this path again to level 16, but I feel sorry to abandon my favorite hero and start over every time.

You can get the same experience by going to maps with only 0-9 characters and running boxes. You can get lots of 1:1 and small scale battles. Try to use T2 and T3 maps (Shadowlands, Avelorn, etc), they are much smaller. Maps with 10-24 players a side are also what you are looking for. You can view how many players are on each side with State of the Realm (SoR).

Try scenarios.

Stay out of the maps with 100+ players. Personally I also like large scale battles.

And what everyone else said.

And you're not alone, lots of people regularly create new characters to experience T1 again and again.

I wish the T1 elf area was smaller. Nordland was what really drew me into the game.