Mythic said themselves that the game was gaining subs, and i talked to some of the mods in the default noob guilds upon creating a new class character and they said the same. I'm sure you have your reasons for disliking the game. Fine, I'm not going to try to *convert* you back or anything, I'm just saying the game WAS broken upon release but Mythic really seems to be working on the game to make it more and more enjoyable. Even though SO many servers were shut down their not shutting the game down, Mythic stated "We wouldn't have shut down and merged so many servers if the game wasn't RvR based." and that's completely understandable, and no the servers are not full all the time, but get online in war and tell me you can't find a group for anything. There's obviously more subbers now, and the game is growing because in WARs darkest days when it was failing I couldn't find a group for anything in the higher tiers but now I can all of the time. Do you think these people just pop out of nowhere? obviously not....they HAVE to sub to get there in the first place.
Nothing you're telling me right now can't be explained away by the simple obvious fact that they just merged two more servers into the remaining four so yes of course they are more alive, not to mention those were already some of the more alive servers to begin with, which is why they are the last standing.
You speak of WAR's darkest days like every servers experience was the same yet there were plenty during *any* time in WAR that were speaking of their servers as very much alive, which they no doubt were. It's the overall population that shrank taking server after server with them at a time, not *all* at once. There have always been some good servers.
I never mentioned shutting down the game. Even if the game lost another half of their population I still don't think they'd shut it down, for the simple fact that I believe they wouldn't want that kind of bad reputation when they're about to launch *another* MMO. You don't want to have possible fans lose their faith like that. People play MMO's for the long run (or at least they hope to) and if they think EA might shut it down that'll lose them customers.
Where did Mythic state they were gaining subs by the way? (a meaningless statement if that's it exactly by the way since even shrinking games are gaining subs, it's about whether they gain more than they lose)
Mythic stated "We wouldn't have shut down and merged so many servers if the game wasn't RvR based."
Haha, yeah that's a good one isn't it. Almost makes it sound like it was inevitable rather than something they had control over. Maybe if they hadn't made such an obviously flawed design with a tug of war between 2 sides and then *not* to ANYTHING to control the two sides... yeah. Must have been because it was RvR ...
I loved the game too until I hit level 40. There was no end game content. The two sides stayed in different zones taking keeps to keep from real RvR. Pretty much to me it was hit 40(which was way to easy), then do a nascar type circuit around and around taking keeps to get Renown points. This game to me had great potential but failed to deliver end game content.
See now this is one of the ppl that creates problems in RvR, note the line "The two sides stayed in different zones taking keeps to keep from real RvR"
Now why on earth doesn't this person get off their bum and lead some ppl into the "Other zone" and start some real RvR rather than complaing that it's not happening.
The first thing to help resolve some of the RvR issues is to stop leaving it to "Others" to do the fighting for you, plain and simple, perhaps then ppl might have just a slither more fun.
When I played WAR I thoroughly enjoyed the RvR aspect of the game, heck I've enjoyed the PvP aspect of all the MMO's I've played because I got actively involved in the whole process.
Reason I no longer play WAR is because I like to move around alot and try new games, as such I don't keep more than 1 subscription open at a time.
Most of the information on here is obscenely outdated and quoted dissapointments with the release of the game and the first month afterwards. If you haven't played the game recently and through a decent chunk of its available content, you really don't have much facts to go on.
PvP lately is significantly improved from Tier 1 to Tier 3. Most PvP'ers spend their time in open realm vs. realm warfare, so much so it can be hard to get a "scenario" match going after Tier 1. (tiers are every 10 levels). Large warbands roam the RvR areas capturing points and keeps in the hopes of getting that elusive zone control reward for an extra boost. You're primarily after renown points and influence points (XP is easy to get). These net great rewards in gear, and defenders get bigger points than attackers so there is significant advantage to defending keeps now. You'll find PvP in the first 3 tiers on any given night of the week. As to the quality of it, that depends on the players at the time. I've been in some glorious epic battles defending and attacking keeps and I've been rolled and rolled others just as often, it's hit or miss.
I still find levels 1-10 the most enjoyable, the game is "simple" at those stages. However balance across t he board has gotten better, gone are the days of rampant crowd control. There are still balance issues, I see the game becoming tanks/healers heavily, there's starting to be little need for the melee dps'er. As with most such pvp games, the strength of your warband ultimately boils down to the capability of your healers (are they on the ball or not) and the knowledge your front line pushers hav about target prioritization.
End game PvP is still very rough around the edges. Tier 4 has over population issues, where HUGE numbers of people are running around and the zerg wins many battles, order/destruction have equal numbers on most servers but not necessarily in most time zones. This tends to result in only limited windows of direct confrontation in tier 4 as most other times it's pointless to fight directly when you're outnumbered 3 to 1. City sieges still have PvE components to them and this is loved by some and hated by others.
The Land of the Dead PvE dungeon is a reward to PvP victors, and nets great XP/Loot to the side currently winning the PvP war. Of course if you're in there getting loot, you can't be outside helping keep your sides victory, so LotD access vascilates wildly during the day.
In the end, Tier 1 through Tier 3 is really where this game shines. It gets a bit long in the tooth in Tier 4 where the rewards and PvP grind aren't bad, but the fighting gets a bit ridiculous.
For those interested, leveling up is very easy, especially if you're a PvE'er, as PvE is really kind of easy in the game. The player quest system is still in full force and hit or miss, some are fun, some are dull. XP is really easy to come by. However if you want to level up doing just PvP, that is very much possible. And highly recommended. The real rewards don't come from leveling up, they come from unlocking PvP gear with Renown Points and Influence. (Renown is a global PvP XP curve, Influence is an area based curve, i.e. each tier and pvp area has its own renown curve). Even in straight PvP you will level faster than your renown will go up. There are 40 levels in the game, 70 renown levels and an influence bar for all three areas of each tier. (1 area that matters in tier 1, 2 that matter in tier 4, 3 in tier 2 and tier 3). Plenty of goals to work towards.
Note: Going the PvP route to leveling will be slower than PvE but result in a much more balanced character between your level and your gear (PvP gear earned from influence or renown far outshines gear earned in PvE).
Technically the game engine has matured very well. The optimizations put in allow it to run very smoothly, the laggy UI is pretty much gone (that used to be my biggest pet peeve). The sheer number of UI mods out there make the game much more pleasant to play for those who like UI mods. It really is a different beast under the hood now. Art direction hasn't changed so if you didn't like the "look" of the game before, you won't now.
It is still, however, not Dark Age of Camelot 2. While a noble PvP realm game in its own right, in my opinion it doesn't reach the heights of RvR that DAOC did and that's probably the biggest mark against the company that defined the RvR niche genre in the first place. They should have been able to do better, but what they have is a competant and entertaining product.
Comments
Nothing you're telling me right now can't be explained away by the simple obvious fact that they just merged two more servers into the remaining four so yes of course they are more alive, not to mention those were already some of the more alive servers to begin with, which is why they are the last standing.
You speak of WAR's darkest days like every servers experience was the same yet there were plenty during *any* time in WAR that were speaking of their servers as very much alive, which they no doubt were. It's the overall population that shrank taking server after server with them at a time, not *all* at once. There have always been some good servers.
I never mentioned shutting down the game. Even if the game lost another half of their population I still don't think they'd shut it down, for the simple fact that I believe they wouldn't want that kind of bad reputation when they're about to launch *another* MMO. You don't want to have possible fans lose their faith like that. People play MMO's for the long run (or at least they hope to) and if they think EA might shut it down that'll lose them customers.
Where did Mythic state they were gaining subs by the way? (a meaningless statement if that's it exactly by the way since even shrinking games are gaining subs, it's about whether they gain more than they lose)
Mythic stated "We wouldn't have shut down and merged so many servers if the game wasn't RvR based."
Haha, yeah that's a good one isn't it. Almost makes it sound like it was inevitable rather than something they had control over. Maybe if they hadn't made such an obviously flawed design with a tug of war between 2 sides and then *not* to ANYTHING to control the two sides... yeah. Must have been because it was RvR ...
See now this is one of the ppl that creates problems in RvR, note the line "The two sides stayed in different zones taking keeps to keep from real RvR"
Now why on earth doesn't this person get off their bum and lead some ppl into the "Other zone" and start some real RvR rather than complaing that it's not happening.
The first thing to help resolve some of the RvR issues is to stop leaving it to "Others" to do the fighting for you, plain and simple, perhaps then ppl might have just a slither more fun.
When I played WAR I thoroughly enjoyed the RvR aspect of the game, heck I've enjoyed the PvP aspect of all the MMO's I've played because I got actively involved in the whole process.
Reason I no longer play WAR is because I like to move around alot and try new games, as such I don't keep more than 1 subscription open at a time.
Most of the information on here is obscenely outdated and quoted dissapointments with the release of the game and the first month afterwards. If you haven't played the game recently and through a decent chunk of its available content, you really don't have much facts to go on.
PvP lately is significantly improved from Tier 1 to Tier 3. Most PvP'ers spend their time in open realm vs. realm warfare, so much so it can be hard to get a "scenario" match going after Tier 1. (tiers are every 10 levels). Large warbands roam the RvR areas capturing points and keeps in the hopes of getting that elusive zone control reward for an extra boost. You're primarily after renown points and influence points (XP is easy to get). These net great rewards in gear, and defenders get bigger points than attackers so there is significant advantage to defending keeps now. You'll find PvP in the first 3 tiers on any given night of the week. As to the quality of it, that depends on the players at the time. I've been in some glorious epic battles defending and attacking keeps and I've been rolled and rolled others just as often, it's hit or miss.
I still find levels 1-10 the most enjoyable, the game is "simple" at those stages. However balance across t he board has gotten better, gone are the days of rampant crowd control. There are still balance issues, I see the game becoming tanks/healers heavily, there's starting to be little need for the melee dps'er. As with most such pvp games, the strength of your warband ultimately boils down to the capability of your healers (are they on the ball or not) and the knowledge your front line pushers hav about target prioritization.
End game PvP is still very rough around the edges. Tier 4 has over population issues, where HUGE numbers of people are running around and the zerg wins many battles, order/destruction have equal numbers on most servers but not necessarily in most time zones. This tends to result in only limited windows of direct confrontation in tier 4 as most other times it's pointless to fight directly when you're outnumbered 3 to 1. City sieges still have PvE components to them and this is loved by some and hated by others.
The Land of the Dead PvE dungeon is a reward to PvP victors, and nets great XP/Loot to the side currently winning the PvP war. Of course if you're in there getting loot, you can't be outside helping keep your sides victory, so LotD access vascilates wildly during the day.
In the end, Tier 1 through Tier 3 is really where this game shines. It gets a bit long in the tooth in Tier 4 where the rewards and PvP grind aren't bad, but the fighting gets a bit ridiculous.
For those interested, leveling up is very easy, especially if you're a PvE'er, as PvE is really kind of easy in the game. The player quest system is still in full force and hit or miss, some are fun, some are dull. XP is really easy to come by. However if you want to level up doing just PvP, that is very much possible. And highly recommended. The real rewards don't come from leveling up, they come from unlocking PvP gear with Renown Points and Influence. (Renown is a global PvP XP curve, Influence is an area based curve, i.e. each tier and pvp area has its own renown curve). Even in straight PvP you will level faster than your renown will go up. There are 40 levels in the game, 70 renown levels and an influence bar for all three areas of each tier. (1 area that matters in tier 1, 2 that matter in tier 4, 3 in tier 2 and tier 3). Plenty of goals to work towards.
Note: Going the PvP route to leveling will be slower than PvE but result in a much more balanced character between your level and your gear (PvP gear earned from influence or renown far outshines gear earned in PvE).
Technically the game engine has matured very well. The optimizations put in allow it to run very smoothly, the laggy UI is pretty much gone (that used to be my biggest pet peeve). The sheer number of UI mods out there make the game much more pleasant to play for those who like UI mods. It really is a different beast under the hood now. Art direction hasn't changed so if you didn't like the "look" of the game before, you won't now.
It is still, however, not Dark Age of Camelot 2. While a noble PvP realm game in its own right, in my opinion it doesn't reach the heights of RvR that DAOC did and that's probably the biggest mark against the company that defined the RvR niche genre in the first place. They should have been able to do better, but what they have is a competant and entertaining product.