T1 is abysmal

[Disc0nnected1]

Imagine a snake that just ate a rat. The snake is skinny at both ends but fat in the middle. As the snake digest the rat the bulge (for lack of a better word) moves though the snake. The snake is the Warhammer Online environment and the rat is the current player population. As the gracious developers (blessings of peace be upon them) add content to the environment that is where the majority of the player population will be. And why not? It's new, fun, and exciting.

The concern arises when new players join the private server and enter the ghost town that is T1. I don't know what solution to offer. I just fear that as the game moves further forward the bulk of the population will be further separated new players. The longer it takes for a new player to reach the majority of the player population, the higher the chances are they might quit the game.

Just food for thought.

[feefy1]

That's why as a new player, you ask in advice to see if any guild is recruiting. This isn't a single player game and you should seek out help, specially when starting.

[Penril]

The concern arises when new players join the private server and enter the ghost town that is T1. I don't know what solution to offer.

With WoW last expansion, new and returning players got a free level 90 character (lvl cap is 95 i think?).

So maybe new accounts could be given a, let's say, lvl 15-18 hero of their choice?

[Coryphaus]

The concern arises when new players join the private server and enter the ghost town that is T1. I don't know what solution to offer.

With WoW last expansion, new and returning players got a free level 90 character (lvl cap is 95 i think?).

So maybe new accounts could be given a, let's say, lvl 15-18 hero of their choice?

no that's not the solution and reaching level 12 is not that difficult, let them work through it t1 one is not a full ghost town espically during peak hours

When say the population moves to t3 should we give new players free t2 toons?

[wargrimnir]

I am interested in solutions to this problem that don't involve an instant-leveling scheme. How would you go about fast tracking players into the populated tiers? How would you go about providing incentive to revisit past tiers, or reroll another alt?

In the past WAR had level-up scrolls, those were... okay. Hitting R40 with only a few renown levels was super painful however, gotta have some PvP. There was also xp-off so people could stay in T3 to get renown without being locked into T4, but that caused it's own problems and it still wasn't a solution for T1-T2.

Scaling XP/RR based on the end-game level-cap or some math that calculates the average level of the desirable segment of players and scaling it to that. Where you would have accelerated XP/RR gains provided you were beneath the 75-90th percentile of players. (excluding the top 10%'ers that have no life and play all day erryday.) This would make so anyone who isn't the same level as the top 25% of active players would be getting a boost relative to how far they are from that lowest rung of the competitive ladder (wherever that's determined to be).

A rotating RvR lake where bolster takes you to the level cap and players from higher tiers are not chickened. A few high-level incentives like gear or currency (ineligible if bolstered) so players have a reason to take the zones. I can't recall the last time I saw a couple warbands of players rolling through a T1 zone, probably at launch c2008.

"Deal with it", is not an acceptable answer for this topic. Think on the scale of T1-T4 RR80.

[Evildoor]

The problem of underpopulated lower tiers existed in WAR, exists in ROR and should be dealt with, and not with PVE farming. One thing that came to my mind is to introduce a "t1/t2/... day" event, when one day per week everyone gets double/triple/whatever XP, renown and other rewards for doing t1/t2/... RVR and scenarios, which will encourage players, both old and new, to gather in the mentioned tier during that day.

[feefy1]

So adopt a lobby more like the one implemented by gw2 where everyone is boosted to endgame. That way they can play with the "big dogs" and get a glimpse at what they will be working towards.

[Penril]

I am interested in solutions to this problem that don't involve an instant-leveling scheme. How would you go about fast tracking players into the populated tiers? How would you go about providing incentive to revisit past tiers, or reroll another alt?

I don't see why this is a problem. New players would only have ONE higher-level character for free (so they can immediately join a guild and start having fun, instead of grinding on empty zones). If the ever want to level another alt then they would have to do is the regular way, but they will have more experience with the game (and maybe even level together with a guildmate's alt).

WoW knows how hard it is to attract new/returning players if they are gonna be forced to level from lvl 1 to 95. That's why they gave away a free lvl 90. As for revisiting past tiers, they usually take a past instance and "heroic" it, making it appropiate for the current max level. WAR did something similar with the Stronghold saga (a reverse bolster where lvl 40s had quests in T1 Dorf zone, and they had lvl 10 stats).

tl;dr: If giving away a free high-level hero works for WoW, it probably works for WAR as well.

[Coryphaus]

Or you can do something to revitalize t1 population give people an incentive to be in t1 like special item gear with good and cool item appreances

Or you can just make it easier to powers level out of t1 but then you will have to do the same for t2 once the population move to t3

Penrils suggestion dosnt make any sense cause if you give away 1 free toon then people will just make multiple accs get one toon on each and this will not solve the "dead t1" situation

[wargrimnir]

I don't see why this is a problem. New players would only have ONE higher-level character for free (so they can immediately join a guild and start having fun, instead of grinding on empty zones). If the ever want to level another alt then they would have to do is the regular way, but they will have more experience with the game (and maybe even level together with a guildmate's alt).

WoW knows how hard it is to attract new/returning players if they are gonna be forced to level from lvl 1 to 95. That's why they gave away a free lvl 90. As for revisiting past tiers, they usually take a past instance and "heroic" it, making it appropiate for the current max level. WAR did something similar with the Stronghold saga (a reverse bolster where lvl 40s had quests in T1 Dorf zone, and they had lvl 10 stats).

tl;dr: If giving away a free high-level hero works for WoW, it probably works for WAR as well.

That's not a problem. I'm not interested in it. I think it's a pretty lazy band-aid that doesn't address any in-game method of further involving players and bringing some life back to these dead areas.