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Kaowiec
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« on: August 01, 2011, 03:42:20 PM » |
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Q: You call this new stuff, its old stuff revamped, wheres the new contents at? The game is slowly dieing. We only got 400 people on each servers. 4 servers left. Badlands is dead. people are flocking over to gorfang. Why dont you add a new race, new map, you guys add new RVR accessories, LOTD is completely dead, no need for TOVL. (something mumbled, people laugh, i think he said "which is a good thing"). But im saying like, the game is dieing, it needs new content. And you guys are just bringing back old stuff.
A: We are bringing in old content that has new purposes to bring people there and give them stuff to do. We do have some new content we're putting in. And tbh with you, we dont have the resources to do things like whole new race or class which needs an entire 40lvls worth of stuff.
Q: So where do you see the life of the game heading then?
A: continue to play with the die hard people of the game, continue to cater towards PVP and ORVR, people that enjoy that. put more content in there, whether its old content with new purpose or new content with new stuff to do. We will continue to cater to the people that enjoy the game. If you havent played it yet, we got the endless trial so you can basically play the first quarter of our game for free. Games like this will continue to be supported as long as we have people to play it. We have UO which has been going 14 years now, still getting new content. DAOC on its 10th anniversary, still getting new content. And we will continue to do the same for this[WAR]. *Weird static* This is why we come out here to show we still support this game. We're not gonna be able to do thingsl ike people ask for *weird static* we cant put in whole brand new instances and careers like that. but we'll continue to put in stuff you will hopefully like and keep people playing and new people coming in.
Q: Im a retired player, I've played from the beginning. And for me the most compelling battles out in the field were out in the open, not in a fortress, but it was running around with my group fighting other bands in the middle of the field. When I got to 40 and the fights became Im standing in a keep for an hour. I mean, you guys made some changes I probably havent seen, but do you guys have other plans to get the battle--I mean, I like the relic thing, because you're pushing people back out into the field, which was the BEST PART. Do you have any other thoughts?
A: One of the reasons we did the ORVR changes was because there was a zerg mentality. Whether we fixed that is debatable because some people just like playing that way. But the idea behind that was we wanted to instead of being a big ole zerg thing, it just didnt come out to a good fight, we made the BOs kind of strategic and taking them out, we build up the keeps now and we use those resources now to attack another keep to take it over. So the battles are little more focused. The reason we're continuing to add more content that is RVR focused whethers its SCs or Forts is to do just that, we want to keep people engaged in those battles because thats what people like.
Q: (really muffled) Something about opening LOTD to ORVR and Sylvania(?) or something (sorry)
A: We actually did some work I know we had some assets that we were trying, thats what were trying to point towards, thats some new assets we want to get in. We do have some stuff for (Sylvania?) that we just need to just figure out how we can get it in there. We want to do two things: Dont wanna do content that only a few people will see or only do once. We want to do things that will be repeatable and enjoyable so we can come back and do it more than once. If we just do another LOTD that you had to progress and get your stuff through it, theres still some potential for that zone that we can still look at. That is actually one of the places alot of people have pointed out and we've looked at internally where we can take LOTD and take some of that content, make it fresh and make it part of the PVP/ORVR experience. Like the Library in LOTD would make a great SC of its own. Some of the areas in TOVL would make some great SC play. I know some people have hinted to that, Its like, what if we opened up the whole area at any time that type of thing. Thats some of the things we're trying to make content accessable at any time.
Q: On the matter of open world PVP, I played DAOC for 8 years and the objective was always not so much just to kill people but to capture the fortresses. And the one way they did that really well at end game was not having those jump in 20minutes before work battle grounds, like i always felt while those were great, when you can spend 10 min to get 1000 rp, vs you know an hour out in the field, MAYBE to get 1000 rp. Then that one becomes obviously superior one and drives people into it. And in a game like WAR which is totally focused around that, I always viewed it at heart as a successor to DAOC, I always felt like having those SCs at the end game, that quick easy 10min for a big return vs an hour out in the field for potentially nothing. *something* DAOC vs 6v6 in WAR, by adding this new 6v6 SC you proceed the hardcore the 6v6ers abandoning roamers, in an effort to get quicker returns and potentionally, yes it would beef up competition, at the same time..the last time i subscribed, I went out into the field with a bunch of my friends, we did have a bunch of excellent 200v200, but as far as that 1 group roaming, there was none. And I feel like with the addition of this, that occasional encounter will turn to nothing when people see the immediate advantage to this.
A: There was some definitely less of an emphasis of BGs in DAOC and I know that they didnt come in completely yet with some additionals yet as they come along because I work on DAOC as well. And there wasn't as much as an emphasis on the BGs, they were there, they were kinda fun, but I think the core element of the game was just the roaming around. And we'd like that to be the case in WAR and we try to gauge it, but there are enough people that like the idea of the "I just wanna get in for the 15min and have fun". Now what comes of this as part of what you were saying is the reward vs time type thing and that is something we're trying to tweak and trying to make sure is correct..if somebody really likes ORVR but they FEEL that the reward of doing something else is better, unfortunately we'll find they'll do the thing that is less enjoyable. Which is yanno seems kinda counter intuitive, but the reward becomes the big thing in their head. So trying to find a good balance of that is tough and we're trying to work on that. So if people have suggestions for that, its a great idea for a discussion on the forums. but things like that really really play, we see alot of things like that, that the idea that there is a reward out there that will make people play ALOT differently than you'd expect even from what they enjoy. The reward is apparently more enjoyable atleast in the long run. Followup?
Q: I have a couple.. For the follow up with the day 1 DAOC player thats played awhile. So one of the problems with instances in WAR, WOW, all the games since DAOC, DAOC instances or BGs were a single static instance. it wasnt a timed even that was team based, it was you go in there and it was miniature RVR, and that was what was great about it. While the timed instance, you have a specific goal, its not the same. Repition, you're in there, whack the mole, get your points, times up, go back in, whack the mole. It wasn't attack the keep, the middle, a personal preference thing. A bigger question (where did the first one go?), is mythic looking at any games in the future, developing anything else, or is it just warhammer and thats it? I've been to Mythic HQ, Ive done the personal player meets, met all the old people back in the day, such a great thing then, now its kind of *static*.
A: Now see..I dont think I can answer this without saying too much Im not supposed to say... We are gonna continue to support our legacy products. But that is not all what we're about. We are constantly looking towards the future. We have done some things in the past like, with Warhammer we did a for awhile. But, we're going to continue to look for ways we can embrace whats going on in the markets, whats fun, enjoyable, so yes you will see some more stuff eventually, I cant really give any details yet.
Q:But don't you think you're missing somebody though? Like those people that have nobody that have no idea you came to here, even just the little kids that walk by the booth, you're gonna boost people that play it just by having a guy at a table that has tshirts and stickers or stuff.
A: Its a good idea, we just found that as far as getting to the people that play or the people that have played, this works alot better. It also depends a bit on the event and the clientel, yes there are some people that havent heard about it even if its this event. When we've gone to some of the bigger conventions, we've sometimes had those, it depends on where we're going and what we can get out of people. We always found atleast at gamesday we've gotten alot of good feedback from these concentrated efforts. Infact they wanted us to do 2 sessions but then we start spreading people out and start giving people choices where to go, you never got quite as good as the interaction as we wanted.
Q: Kind of what he was going off, if you want to get new players.. T2 and T3 are dead. And alot of new players that play the endless trial get this sense of alot of action, because there is alot of action in the ORVR, and then NOTHING till you get to T4. And if its like a new player, it could be 2 weeks or longer of game play when they could lose interest completely. Any possibility of extending the endless trial to T2?
A: We've gone back and forth on several of ways to approach that. Theres 2 schools on that thought. One of the things that the endless trial we did for it, we concentrated everyone in the first tier in a single racial pairing and we kept everyone into one confined area, so there was always a good population and people didnt feel disconnected to the world. We didn't necessarily keep them from the rest of the world, we just concentrated them there because people have fun together. We looked at potentially doing similar things in T2 and T3 where we concentrate what the action is. We've also looked at potentially doing T2 and T3 as part of the endless trial or having ways you can go in there. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and both have problems with it. Much like we did the endless trial, we found that people were playing the endless trial, especially people that kept on playing it just became very powerful and we had to make some changes and tweak that (by making them exclusively powerful >.>). Same kinda thing if we open it up to T2 and T3, we dont wanna do it where people get to be the best of T2 and T3 and people just playing through and leveling up just get decimated by them (save that for T4). So theres alot of things that play in on that but we have looked at both. We havent made a decision what would be best in that regard, but did you guys have thoughts on that, which did you guys think would be better? Concentrated and keep it once go or playing the game into more populated areas (player talks over dev) I wouldnt know if theres enough of a population if you made the endless trial go through T2 if that would just half the population of people in T1 and then its not enough, but then if you just like just cap it at a low T3 level, the twinking wouldnt be possible, Im not sure about that but I dont know if the populations would allow for a spread out people, but atleast subscribers would have fun with their alts again. I mean people really just play in T1 or T4 (back to Dev) We've also toyed with the idea of keeping people that actually play the game to play within the tiers so they can actually play, some of the people say that some of their best fights were in some certain zones and they'd love to stay within T2 or T3 and play at certain keeps or certain zones.
Q: Couple questions, how long before *very muffled*, is there any possible plans in opening up the rest of the zones in T1 for endless trials, if you're not looking to have people goto other zones, rotating the zones?
A: We looked at rotating them as one of the possibilities when we first did it. Theres two problems in that we didn't want to have a bunch of people going into t1 and then having people shift over and these people become a lot less and then more over here. It felt much more natural if everyone had the same starting plot that was very familiar. We let people that are paying that visit that content. One particular problem in opening it up to anybody, is that we do spread out that population, especially trial users, we want to keep them together to get what the game is about. If we sent them off to who knows where in the greenskin area, the more chance they might not come back and have some fun.
Q: (follow up) You guys have any plans as far as advertising at all or its one of those banner ads or gaming ads?
A: We get this one every time too, unfortunately, atleast at our level, we don't get to decide this one. We get to suggest the same thing that you guys do, the more people we get out there, seeing the game. its one of the reasons we made the endless trial in the first place is that we could just get more people playing and have more chance of getting people in it. When we did the endless trial we made it a streaming client so that people could get into the client much faster so that it was a gig d/l instead of 6-8 before that. So we made alot of accessability things that we could do on our end. But unfortunately alot of the marketing budgets and that type of resources and advertising is above us. We'd love to say we could get more people in with advertising, but that is higher level decisions, sorry.
Q: Im one of the new subscribers, I did the endless trial and everything and I liked when I was able to go to the greenskin zone and elf zone, but alot of the PQs and alot of the quests had too high level of difficulty and the population in those zones are dead. Have you guys considered rebalancing the difficulty of those underpopulated areas so that someone that enjoys the single player content can succeed in it?
A: We've been credited because PQs are very popular features of the game and alot of games have done similar mechanics. But unfortunately one of the things that they require is population. And so over time, i know we have done two big pushes that I can think of where we took our existing PQs and shifted the difficulty down so they can be done by duos or trios and sometimes solo. So it was normally easy to medium, it could be solo. If it was hard, that took a group or 2 and brought it down to 2-3 people. So we have done alot of that and there still might be some that still seem really really tough. If there are specific ones, feel free to send some feedback on them and we'll take a look at it, we'd love to continue to make it as accessable as possible for people. We're not adverse to doing that.
Q: Im also a new subscriber. one of my favorite things in T1 was SCs. And I was sorta disappointed in T2 and T3 that they arent coming up at all. I spend 8 hours in a queue and they never pop up. I've talked to some people and it seems like the main reason for that is everyone is terrified of leveling out of the zone or the tier without high enough realm rank. Any thought in making the experience gain in SCs toggeable so people can turn it off if they dont want it?
A: We've been doing some talks about that internally and on the forums about this, we've been talking about what we can do on SCs not only to change them up and make them fun, but one of those has been that suggestion, either lowering the xp gain in general, or making the reward of not mean that I just mean I need to go just do this and go farm it farm it and farm it and grind, but I just wanna do it for the fun. not too much because I level out, because I just want the fun. Alternatives are there for that you could just stay there anyway and play, lowering the xp or just turn it off, or just playing without the rewards are all things we're all looking at. Maybe not those things specifically, but we are looking at it.
Q: that gentleman talked about how theres the lack of population sometimes *muffled*, do you think it would be feasible to do NPCs or anything like that to help a player out?
A: We've had similar stuff and one of the original reason that ORVR had guards and NPCs was to make sure that there was always that bit that was always there. thats one of the reasons that we could go back and see how we could tweak it to bring it back in. We don't wanna have it be that "Oh Im the lone guy" and make it doable. We looked at things we could do. But populations are always one of those sticky wickets and anything that we could do that you could suggestions you have on that we'd be glad to hear that.
Q: (Artie) Michael gave me a list of them, some of them were already asked. Any chance that we could get endless dyes or change to use dyes on the ordnance *something*.
A: We were actually looking at some of that. I know that ties into some of what we wanna do with crafting. Whether it would be endless dyes on a merger or something, I dont know, we wanna increase the amount of things you can do with alternate currencies, whether its ordnance or skulls of fallen, LOTD, we wanna put more things out there. The RVR accessories were just one more thing that we put out there and let you use stuff for. The more we can kind of let you use some of that alternate currency.
Q: Any chance of dying weapons and shields? or different designs, fiery weapons?
A: (art dev) I'd have to look at the fact that of doing weapons and things like that but its more or less the dev time on doing that art side is for each armor set we're doing a tint for every single item. Since every armor set is 5 or 7 pieces is a sheet is a print out sheet that is basically, dye this area A, dye this area B. We'd have to do this for every weapon or shield. Or restrict it to just one color. But the point is we have to go in for every single one. I think its more or less a point of time and what we want to apply it to. As james said, how we are, we have our resources and we have to use them as wisely as possible. Is it capable thing? It is something you could wrap your mind around. But could we do something more like editing content and helping to find what we can to bring more refreshing and entertaining content to you? That would be a better timeframe to use. (james) I think its feasible, I think if enough, if we wanted to look at it as a long term goal, thats something we could do, I just dont think dying weapons and shields would bring enough return on the investment or amount of resources it would take. ITs not as easy as say turning dyeing on or dye bit for weapons and shields, cause theres alot of back end stuff that goes into making that dye bit work. It was just never set up that way. (player) what about guild emblems on our shields? (dev) its another thing its a system that we'd have to put in to display it properly and make sure it works with all our shields.
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