A new Q&A for us to review and learn. But what did we learn? I have to admit that after watching this Q& A i am more confused than I ever have been in this game. I don’t consider myself particularly smart or smarter than the average Jo, but some things just don’t make any sense in the answers given in this Q&A.
Let’s start with the question first. The Question this time seems a bit more spread out in all the in game areas, PVE, PVP, Scenarios etc. which is a good thing. As always we have small reveals and hinds on future content. Nevertheless I personally have failed to understand what we are trying to do here, what direction we are going.
General Topics
Let us start with some of the easy things that were mentioned. X-Realming. Apparently there is no X-realming happening or if it does, it is very low, according to the data. Mostly the balance change we notice in some occasions is due to people logging in to do (play) specific content when notified by others in game through Discord and thus the imbalance. This can and possibly is very true since most discord servers in many guilds including my discord have bots that announce what map is open, if a fort is coming or a city. This would account for the majority of the numbers but there are some that change for that reason only. The 90 min is not enough especially when a final zone cna take more than 90 min to lock, assuming there is no “throw” and thus “bypassing” the lock out. Longer times are needed in my opinion but apparently the community is split on this issue. I would say to the X-realming professionals and the non X-realming group. Please note that X-realmign is when a player changes sides to gain a benefit, and not when a player plays both sides on different days.
People request more languages in the game. This is hard to do without the original databases but there are people trying to help. Here is a link to the available languages in the game. Here is a link to what I had in 2020 https://fixxertv.live/languages/ there might be an updated version in the forums https://www.returnofreckoning.com/forum/
As we all expected the nerfed button topic came up and was gone in 30 sec. Very quick answer on that one. Personally I don’t see why we ever discuss this. It was removed because we had the tools now. Simple. However some were worried about the population drop and tried and linked it to this change. Definitely some left due to nerfed buttons being blocked but also we need to see the time of the year. Summer, corona restrictions are lifted , some, and people go out. A change like that will not kill the server. People said that the change on the GTTC will kill the choppa population, nothing happened. The same said for Black Orc with the recent change, nothing happened. People that love to play the game and not just one button, one shot and stomp all day, will always play and adapt. Personally I think some over ract and do silly things like boycotting RVR and such. Well the other side thank you for free Renown and easy wins. Well done. Play the game to have fun and leave the politics.. my 2 cents.
Also as said by the dev Nerfed buttons are now 100% blocked. And anyone claiming otherwise is trolling…. maybe… I personally don’t know. However there was a little window left open to anyone that has a suspicion that someone is using a nerfed button version that might work to report it with evidence for them to look into it. With that last statement that 100% just became 90% in my eyes..
New cosmetics will be added in events and not just for the sake of adding cosmetics.OK!
Twitch drops will be happening again but when? I am not an expert nor do I claim to be, however it was mentioned that they want to make it so that if a streamer wins a scenario to give a reward to the viewers etc. I don’t know the technicalities around that but I know that minion masters have been doing this for years. So I am not sure if this is a twitch problem, an in game problem or they just haven’t looked into it enough.. OR I did not understand what they said they wanted to do. Maybe on minion masters it works due to the twitch extension they have.. maybe we need one too?
PVE
So for those that do PVE in this game, which unfortunately are not enough more stuff coming soon… we some nice thing such as:
- More dungeons…
- Blacksmithy with craftable weapons… in a few years.
- More events mixed most likely like do this pve thing then kill that many players.
- Dungeon maps for all dungeons.
- More Dungeon related weapons.
- New chapter 22 equivalent content.
- More farming into dungeons.. materials for crafting for Blacksmithy in the future.?
Regarding the dungeons they aim to get them to the level that mythic intended. Ambitious project. I am 100% sure they will, given the time. It is nice to see that they are looking into all the aspects of the game, not just one, like most people want.
Land of the Dead is not in the PVE plans yet.
PVP | RVR
And now for something completely different. So far and all the above topics i was doing so well… Now let’s get confused together.. Starting off with the mention of new fort weapons… I hope they mean weapons that they did not add before like some one handed versions etc. Since there is meant to be nothing stronger than sovereign I see no point in adding more intermediate weapons. On the other hand they said that we are far from the release of sovereign weapons. So we are getting multiple weapons in between sovereign and everything else but not sovereign.
So I ask when 90% of the server has at least 2 40/80+ what is the point of those weapons? For posterity? Sovereign weapons have been announced since sovereign sets…and so far we have gotten more in between gear and weapons than ever. It makes no sense to me. The only thing I can think is that they are coming out with these to have something to put in dungeons and possibly a lure for the new players that have a WOW mentality. Still no sovereign weapons but we get ranked weapons soon? eh? so we are funneled into ranked?
At the same time the current strong player base gets bored. As you know i believe that this game is about playing with friends and killing not collecting gear but still being at end game and being given lower stuff it just makes you sometimes feel meeeh!
Speaking of the end game. Ranked. SO this is the end game. E-sports. This topic is the most confusing for me. So let me break down my confusion here.
“We aim for an MMORPG that has massive battles with a lot of players, sieges and more”.
This is what I knew.. then Solo Ranked came along. Emphasis on the world SOLO.. no massive battles. Max population playing consistently ranked in Season 1 40-48 people. So from massive to solo…OK .
Then we have perfect balanced Solo Ranked scenarios with 48 people and 20-30 min que time and people still queue and wait for it. Nevertheless with 1200 people online playing normal scenarios we don’t have enough population to make them balanced like ranked? 2-2-2? I am confused how does that work? Even at season 2 the number went up but I still see on peak times 8 matches that means 96 people and that the beginning of course people are still sampling the ranked scene.
Since we are in the event area let’s have a look at a player based event. In this Q&A they said they will support more player based events. Cool, I like that.. two pug bowl were made by players since the arena was created. Both had to change location and do it the old fashion way in a RVR area with imaginary boundaries etc. What was the point of the arena if we can use it? Resource management? Prove a point? Not sure.
“Had other plans for the arena, now not a priority”
I personally would like to see the arena fixed and used both for player based events and in game dev events. The arena has huge potential that we are not utilizing so far. I feel that if they spent the amount of time they spent on the ranked on the arena to create guild vs guild options, wb vs wb options and queuing systems that people might have used that. At this point we have a guild organising sparring matches in empty zones instead of the arena.
At least if they were in the arena with a scheduling option and announcements people could go watch and see some good 24 vs 24 match and get inspired being a part of that and join guilds rather than give them SOLO ranked in MMO games. The ranked scenario itself feels totally in the opposite direction of what they’ve been advertising for so long. Not to mention that according to devs games are balanced on the 24vs24 scale not 6vs6 which makes some classes not viable for that and inherently unbalanced as game mode. SO yeah I am confused. Are we going for massive fights or solo play? Not to mention that in my opinion watching a stream with a player sitting in a city for 20 min not moving then playing 5 mins.. kinda boring for me and if not.. at least is not giving the game justice or its content since more will go watch the top channels that usually are 90% ranked content.
Siege weapons mentioned again, nothing definitive. I will remind you all that we have seen and used orcapelts and they work. Waiting to see if we get more than that and when..
Also the fort winning situation for destro was addressed briefly. Destro claims they don’t win forts due to broadhead arrow and other order skills and was shot down by the dev indicating lack of organisation and leadership. The same thing I was saying for months on my stream and people blindly were saying is the skill.. First it was Solar flare to blame, then KOTBS reflect internal cooldown, then napalm, then BHA then something else. I will not deny that some skill might need a look at but blaming the entire realm failure on one skill it’s silly. That’s been also proven by the big and well organised guilds on the destruction side that they push forts and win in 1-2 pushes, due to organisation and gear. People should really look at all the variables.
More to RVR things, mentioned that we will get changes in the campaign and possible new mechanisms! ETA, unknown. Content, unknown. Mechanisms, unknown.
And this brings us to the topic that many are interested in class balances. This also got me confused.
“We don’t want to have strict times for the class changes”.
I was under the impression that this was the reason we introduced the Realm Champions. To work on balance changes, test them, refine them and then bring them online after 13 weeks at the end of each ranked season. According to the last Q&A 11 weeks but stated 13 to have some breathing room. So how is this not a strict time for making changes? We are keeping Realm champions which also as stated, the selection process will change, but we are not keeping the time frame we set on the last Q&A? Am I losing it here or are we contradicting ourselves a bit?
To another question about paths in some classes not used by players or at all the answer was:
- People will play the meta only thus one path.
- Some paths are utility (some yes)
- Paths are for different play styles – in reference with 6 man, city, wb play etc.
I am sure that the question was from a choppa or a slayer player referring to the two-handed specs. Those specs are not used in any form since they produce 20-30 less dps. According to my slayer /choppas viewers. I will say that the % might be off but all agree that they produce less dps.. so why use a less dps path in a dps race in a pvp game? I agree some classes have a utility path like the engineer some others don’t, maybe that is a thing to look at? meaning that its not the meta, or the gaming scene you are in but the sheer fact that it produces less dps thus not selected by players? Again for some classes.Just saying!
Maybe I am clinging to words too much but honestly I feel lost after this Q&A.Not sure how you guys feel. i mean :
- Focusing on RVR but we introduce Solo Ranked ( not very groupy thing)
- Focusing on RVR but we bring you new sets via PVE to use in RVR.
- End content City (massive fights) – New end game Solo Ranked.
- Focusing balance in 24 Vs 24 – Join Solo Ranked 6 vs 6 where half the classes can’t play efficiently due to balance issues.
This is what I got from this Q&A. Some might see this as toxicity. Don’t care. I am genuinely confused on this matter of direction and what we as a community are trying to achieve here. I hope that some understand my point of view to see what I am talking about here and maybe identify something that might need changes. I still play, I still love the game with the good and the bad. BUT i will call them as i see them as i did since day one.