.... probably been a fairly bad one.But it doesn't stop me making up random stuff that I wish I'd seen in my time in WAR. I fully understand that there is different priorities in MMO development than just adding new stuff or clicking fingers and suddenly all the bugs being fixed so it's not overly realistic.
1) Daily RvR Quests: Dump the scenario quests, the capture bo/keep quests etc. Instead replace them with a daily "Do a scenario", "Capture a BO", "Capture a keep" and a "Kill 50 players in ORvR or Scenarios". Reward would be some gold, XP and renown. This gives players who may not be able to put as much time in a quick way to get a little bit of renown without having to burn hours in a zerg. Can be repeated daily so gives folks a reason to log in even for 20 minutes each day.
2) Career and Mirror Patches: Every three months a patch would be primarily dedicated to a class and its mirror (BO/SM, WE/WH, WP/DoK etc). Solicit feedback from the forums and blogs over class concerns, not just core testers and be honest in communicating with the class, there was so many nerfs that were not given a reason for (still waiting for the reason for removal of the BOrc anti detaunt). Say this is why things are being removed, or why things aren't being changed, understand concerns and put together a list.. first 3 weeks or so can be getting feedback, a few weeks of dev work then a month of focus testing.. I'm sure those players who are interested in the career would put the effort in to help. Players would also know that they would get fixed, changes and attention.. I waited two and a half years for BOrc changes, all I got was no communication and nerfs about the class.
3) Survey System: Back in closed beta there were surveys that popped up regarding the game. Why not bring them back upon log in or in a window that you can opt in for surveys. Get instant feedback which can be controlled easier, can return information about class/gear/level etc much quicker and more reliable than sifting through forum posts. Not everyone reads forums, but every player plays the game...
4) A serious look at Land of the Dead: So much potential, just abandoned now due to game stopping bugs and other changes in the game. It's almost inconceivable that a fairly straight forward 8 boss dungeon can still be completely broken at various points 18 months after it was released. It doesn't look good and has left a bitter taste in a lot of players mouths, there should have been proper rewards for fighting in there, not measly scarabs or shit talismans, heck there could have even been an influence system built in but nope... It got launched, a few fixes and tweaks then dumped and forgotten about, left to rot under a swarm of bugs.
5) Expanding influence system: It wouldn't have taken much (I assume) but expanding the influence system and properly itemising a lot of the loot to generate new content would have been a fairly straight forward way to in effect give RvR content... In PvE raid games you simply repeat killing monsters to gain better loot, so why not keep finding ways to give more loot for killing? It didn't even need to be equipment, how about cosmetic items, mounts, titles etc? Lots of potential there rather than three bars of influence and the gear is pretty useless now anyway.
6) Lairs and Bastion Stair/Gunbad instances: Without a doubt it was much more fun doing warbands in an instance rather than a few people, make them scale depending on number of people in the instance. Not to mention Lairs were incredibly cool but completely neglected and the loot makes them not worth anything more than a potential unlock and certainly not worth the effort in trying to find things to activate them (only for it to bug out and not work anyway)
I could potentially go on for a while but I won't as I'm getting into the realms of a wish list rather than honest thoughts... It's things I'd like to see, all 6 would make me consider subbing back, but I also know that MMO development doesn't work this way.... Oh well.
It does still bug me that Lairs were never looked at once in the entirety of WAR's existence and they were bragged about so much in the promo stuff.
ReplyDeleteAlso Gunbad/Bastion Stair were awesome, they should have been loved, not neglected.
I did the Iron Tomb in RIFT and it was amazing how none of the bosses ran through a wall, had mobs glitch or refused to drop loot. Man WAR really lowers your PvE standard!
I wish Lairs had been more important as well. Great idea, but needed to be fleshed out more.
ReplyDeleteI'll only comment on number 1: God no. Daily quests are awful. I hate them. I hate games that have them. It's the lowest form of generating player content there is. I'd much rather see compelling game play and emergent player reasons for doing the things those quests would direct. People hate to hear it, but PvP games need PvE in it. It just needs to be intertwined.