The server as it stands is in a good state technically speaking. In relation to the lag we have in the first three years, today seems like a long lost dream. The players may feel the server is laggy and possibly they are right compared to AAA games but for this server it is great as it stands at the time of this post. The bugs on the server are 100% less than the original game at the time it shut down. Most classes feel better with the ROR changes and am referring to the skill alone.. The damage outputs and gear changes feel wrong.
The RVR changes are fair, ending up with the current setting after a few years of several ideas to improve the experience had been tested both on test server and live version. The server still has over 2,500 open tickets on the bug tracker, some are just not closed, but still a huge number for a small team of volunteers to tackle.
The private server has been running for almost 8 years now and for the most part those years were good. As any private server and community we also had our Dark Ages as well with developers and GM making changes to the classes they played with no regard for balance and fairness. Gm’s that protected their friends and banned people that reported their friends or took action against one faction with no warning causing massive outrage resulting in public apologies and server drama.
In those 8 years we had ups and downs, we had people come and go, good and bad ones, from devs, Gm’s players, artists etc. Some were a blessing to leave and some a sad event.
Nevertheless this huge dream and tremendous endeavour that has lasted those waves is still standing… strong? That is a question I have and surely some of you as well. I have taken a small break from the game to clear my head (6 months) but I kept looking into forums and streams to keep myself updated, and I was also logging in a few minutes to a few hours when I had time to see things firsthand.
A few days ago I started to play on a daily basis to try and come back to the game, but I was met with disappointment. I was not shocked by that but DAMN. Nothing had changed for the better unfortunately. The same problems are still enduring along with the same bickering on both sides. Same toxicity in the forums and trolling. Worst PVP / RVR behaviours from the players and massively up punished abuse of known skills from players that even when reported no action was taken.
A shift has happened in the RVR behaviour of players with the latest changes in the classes where the dev team buffed with skills and number most melee classes and left the ranged classes in a weaker state. I personally consider this to be an indirect nerf to ranged classes. Who played most ranged classes Order does and of course destruction more melee. Automatically a buff of that side. This is not a destruction bias statement, it is a fact supported by statistics. However this is not a thing that the faction can’t handle. This is something that the solo / casual player base cant handle. This has resulted in ~45% reduction in Engineers, ~50% reduction in DPS Archmages, ~60% Bright Wizards reduction. And we saw an increase in Shadow Warriors, White Lions and Slayer as well as some healers (mainly AM) and some tanks.
One could say that this is great now both sides have more melee and we can skip the whole debate, an argument we don’t have, or we don’t have enough range to fight etc. There are two problems here. The ones that only played one class like me.. Stopped playing or tried other classes and reduced the time they play as the game is not as fun without your favourite class. Second problem is that blobbing got worse because melee needed tanks. Now we live in a RVR world where massive blobs are fighting. BUT hold on that’s what the devs wanted since day one? NO?
According to devs statements they wanted massive RVR fights and you can’t have that with many ranged in play simply because ranged don’t or can’t do Open RVR due to long casting time and mobility issues. The devs made it happen not by nerfing ranged but super charging melee with damage and utility packages to make them more attractive while making ranged not so viable.
o the thing with blobs is this… the bigger one wins. God forbids there is an organised blob. After this long introduction we come to the conclusion.
ORDER:
- If they don’t have an organised Warband(s) they stay at the War Camp waitting.
- If there are not a lot of people on, they stay at the War Camp waiting.
- If they wiped they spent a lot of time at the War Camp.
- If there is a number disadvantage and they feel a siege is coming they go to the keep and wait there.
If they have a warband or numbers they roam happily. We exclude the soloers running around being pounded to a pulp by warbands.
DESTRUCTION:
- If there is an organised Warband on order they PVE
- If they are under siege ( due to melee – I guess) they don’t defend, they roam mainly gangking war camps leaving the keep undefended for the most part.
- If they have numbers they blob up to 3-4 Warbands moving together gaining a 100% win rate.
- If they wiped they spent a lot of time at the War Camp.
BOTH:
- Both change sides after a massive wipe
- Both avoiding combat if not 80% ++ chance to win
- Both Exploit broken skills to win
- Both Logoff with alt-F4 to avoid dying
- Both side blame the other been OP on forums
- Both do bannable things like pull from barriers, abuse skills and get people stuck to get free kills, log in the opposing faction to get intel, stream snipe to get kills and more.
This player behaviour was not the norm when I started on this server many years ago. I honestly don’t know how we ended up with people afraid to fight and die in a PVP game. How we got to people abusing broken skills instead of reporting them to be fixed. How we got to be afraid to report someone to the GM not to get yourself banned just in case he/she is a friend of the GM . How we ended up feeling that reporting wrong things will result in no action. However we have.
We used to have people that cared to make the game better even if that was at their expense, we used to have people that enjoyed to fight and die, we used to have people that were paying for the game, for the fighting not for the rewards, we used to have people that wanted to play with others and not solo all day long. There is nothing wrong with solo play but even they are afraid to engage and help groups just in case they die, or they let you fight and if you die and the enemy is at 10% then they engage to kill them or if not they walk away.
This has also led to people not carrying since they don’t see any action taken even when they follow the rules of the server. They see no one doing anything to have fun if not gaining something.. Fun is something to be gained by playing a game. I would say leave the rewards for the real world’s work and get some fun in the games.
The ROR team is degrading as well. I believe there are the least amount of team members since launch. Which I also believe are either tired or simply lazy. They don’t care to try and pull this community together by giving out 2-3 day bans to people proven to abuse skills allowing them to keep causing frustration to the community. A slap on the wrist if you will would definitely make people think twice to abuse skills until they are fixed. But No.
Advertising / promoting the game in various social media with only one sided posts and comments show the bias tensions of the team. Where in my opinion they should be making neutral posts / advertising of the game or at least a mixed posting one for ORDER, one for Destruction. Here are some examples of what I mean.
This does happened in both sides.. promotion wise why only Witch Hunters?
Anyone for a gang squad? showing a group of Witch Hunters.. like they are using OP classes to kill enemies… i wonder why there was not post for Witch Elfs?
Feeling majestic while killing Order? The post said..
Where is Order equivalent?
Destro wining fort or keep…. Order always loses?
No more studies in the lakes the post said.. poor bored Orc…
Don’t look behind you, but I’m pretty sure there’s some order scum hiding in that bush..
My point is that most advertising in one sided… no wonder there is population issue.. when one side is depicted as awesome and the other scums…
There are some other posted in between the ones i posted above.
Wednesday’s be like.
Thats the best one i could find for Order…LOL!
I hope i got my point across here.
Still a good game to play and spend time.. but not to invest in it with the current state of player communities and dev team….. I am sad because I have no other warhammer game to play … which makes this game for me and many others. I believe a game of necessity until something better comes along or a game of convenience since we already know this game and who has the time to learn a new one or new people.
This alone also leads to another problem. People log in and will only chat, or craft showing population on the server but not in the pvp areas. This also makes people not care. Care if you help others to survive or if you die? Why care if you will log off in 5 min or when the population is one sided. Why care when you want help and the forums are trolling you?
I hope that the community will change again to something better, the ever dreamer that I am, not to what it was before but to something a bit better to allow the game to grow again.
Finally, I hope that they will start making some better choices because the last couple of years have been bad… The arena of Quah, the Ranked SC, and the class changes, promotion material etc. They really need to check the motives of those joining the team or making suggestions.
I really want this game to stay around and be enjoyable to play, not to just be around. Let’s hope for a better future soonTM
We will be revisiting Return of Reckoning together when the time is given to stream again….