Exclusive WAR State of the Game Interview with Mark Jacobs
The launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has arguably been one of the smoothest game releases in MMOG history. With its combination of compelling RvR combat and PvE innovations, WAR is on a solid pace to hit a million subscriptions within the first two months of release. To give gamers an idea of what the Mythic Entertainment team has been working on, GM/VP Mark Jacobs released a "State of the Game" report, where he discussed a number of upcoming elements for the game, including the release of two of the four cut classes - the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun - and a variety of improvements to Open RvR. As always, the Ten Ton Hammer staff quickly got on the phone with Mark about the changes and the details on what players really should expect from Mythic Entertainment.
Quote:
Ten Ton Hammer: Since WAR is so action-packed, do you think you could've released the game without a crafting system?
Mark: "Oh my god, they don't have a crafting system?! What were you doing with those three years?!"
That's what the reaction would have been. Again, you go back to what we've been doing over the last three years and talking to the players. They didn't want the game to be "Crafthammer". This game should be about war. We don't want what's in these other games. We want it to be different. So we tried to make it that way. I guarantee you that if we didn't have a crafting system, almost every reviewer would have marked us down.
I'm starting to realize that this game would be ALOT better if it wasnt for Mark Jacobs.. This guy manages to get defensive about all of the worst aspects of "his" game when he receives criticism, and this keeps the game from getting better...
Hey Mark, the reason people turned on you with crafting is because -Different- DOES NOT MEAN BETTER. Now, that is not to say different is bad, but you should start to consider that players are giving you good feedback here. We're not changing our story, and its not hard to understand. We're all for something "different" but not if its terrible. THE CRAFTING SYSTEM IN WAR IS CURRENTLY -TERRIBLE-. get past your bruised little girl ego and get to work fixing it. For a team making a game about WAR you guys really are a bunch of ninnies when you take some heat. ffs.
Another scary thing about this interview is Mark telling us that they'll just make the loot better until people decide to participate in world PvP.
This is a fundamentally fuxxor'd view of MMO game development, especially this MMO. World RvR/PvP was supposed to be an integral part of the game that contributes to the overall war effort, story, and game progression, and it was supposed to be FUN.
Mark does not address any of the expectations for what was supposed to be the backbone of this game, he simply says "we'll make the loot better until people want to do it"
sure, I'll do something I have no fun doing for some epic lewts. gg Mark. you're a real innovator.
btw, the reason this isnt fun is because of lag, bugs, TERRIBLE attack/defend balance, bad keep design (logistics, playability), guild cost, the fact that trying to do PvE (kill keep bosses) while PvP defenders are trying to make that difficult (feels like they are just pests, 'griefing' attackers more than 'defending a keep') is a pretty retarded game mechanic and not really that fun, and the fact that its mostly pointless to take or possess a keep.
Ehhh see the thing is, you seem like the kind of guy who reads a response as an absolute.
In this particular interview, alot of issues you feel they are overlooking were not mentioned. They were not mentioned because the interviewer wasn't asking about those things. Mark was responding to the questions in the same spirit they were asked. Just because he didn't bring up the lag issues and alot of other issues the team has said they are indeed aware of, it doesn't mean they aren't worried about them or working on them or aware that they are greatly responsible for alot of issues right now.
I don't think you are giving these guys enough credit when you assume that you know so much more than them about how their game is running.... especially when they've mentioned alot of these things before in other avenues of communication.
As far as the crafting system?
I don't understand most of the complaints...
I think Cultivation is one of the best craft professions i've ever played.
you just stick a seed in and go and fight things.... you can craft while doing anything else at all..... and all the other ingredients are totally optional... sure it takes some time if you want to use each phase... but there's no need to do that unless you are working with special seeds or trying for a particular "moment".
Alchemy? potion making whatever.... seems pretty fun to me. I don't like that cult is a gather and provides ingredients that scavenge and butching provide.... so my problems with alchemy come from it's dependence on other professions.... but as far as it's functionality... i think it's great...
Talisman making or hedge wizardry is the one big stink pile in the crafting system, but they've been making some changes and i still think the mechanic is pretty cool.... as is the idea of temporary socket buffs/enchants.... .
then again.... i've never been into crafting... so i like this system because i can get some use out of it without really having to work at it... i can just craft in between waiting on other things.... or while doing other things.
so maybe i do understand some of the complaints.... but only coming from a kind of playstyle i think doesn't mesh with the game well anyway.
oRvR?
I really don't think you read the State of the Game post or the interview correctly..... He didn't say they're just adding more loot.... yes they are increasing overall loot drops in RvR, but that's quite obviously necessary if you have ever tried to level purely through rvr for any period of time.
The biggest change to oRvR seems to be coming in the form of experience and renown rewards for taking part in lake battles (and possibly a form of INF). This is something that does indeed need to be done as even in good, solid oRvR fights people will still always join a Queue for Scenario when it pops because it yields better XP and RP.... things necessary to get to the all important "end game"... so until oRvR is worth sitting in to the exclusion of Scenario pops it will remain pretty dead and empty most times especially in lower tiers.
I do however agree that lag and playability are the biggest issues in oRvR right now..... and that if they don't fix these it is doomed....
but as far as i know they are aware of these issues as well and are trying very hard to iron them out... especially the whole issue with the collision system which is very very important to the game as a whole.
Here's hoping they iron it all out soon soon soon.
Your views on cultivation tell me you work for Mythic, as I dont know any 'real' players who find this crafting mechanic anything but torturous. :P However, yes, I agree that sourcing the main professions is what breaks the rest of crafting at the moment.
Your views on RvR seem defensive, and yet you pretty much concede every point I make.. yes, they are working on improving the overall suck of the game (lag, clipping, bugs, imbalance) but there's more to the brokenness than that, and LOOT WILL NOT FIX IT EITHER. my point is that making a crappy experience more vital by making it offer better in game rewards = serious game design /phail. They have no plan for making world RvR as intrinsic to the game experience as they, and we hoped.
as for my absolutism, we are talking about developers in motion here. We can only predict their course by evaluating their direction and their speed. Mark says they're marching towards stupid and not interested in doing an about face.
incidentally there's a really good thread going on here about what makes RvR succeed in DAoC, and explains some contrast with WAR's implementation.
Warhammer may not have the best crafting system, and Mark even said it's not...
I would propose adding a few more crafting classes, which I'm sure will be done in the future, but their main focus for this game was not crafting.. thank God.
As for RvR, its hella fun and the best PvP experience in any MMO. Sure, some things need to be worked out and some lower pop servers may not get to experience the all out War, but on my server at least, ORvR is almost every night and is extremely fun.
Do appreciate the fact that many people from WoW are so use to playing scenario type PvP and not RvR. These people need to grow some balls and start sieging keeps. Get out of Tor Anroc and play the game how it was meant to be played. In my opinion they should just take scenarios out of the game and force people to RvR.
One thing I think they dropped the ball on was the fact that they made way to many servers.. you can always add servers but you cant take em away. I am all about Mythic, but that was just a stupid mistake.
Oh and Worldeater151 what do you work for WoW or something? The game just came out and had the smoothest launch in the history of MMO's, so take the dildo our of your ass and relax. Mythic does listen and they will improve the game, they know what they ****ed up and what they got right and it will get better. So please, try not to be such a ****ing asshole.
I think Warhammer has tons of potential. If you want to play fanboi and act like everything Mythic does is holy, go right ahead. I didnt even mention their launch, which was far from flawless (ask europe?), but w/e.
Im going to tell them what I want in a game. if you're teh kind of girl who does what she's told and likes it I've got something better for you to play with than WAR.
NailGun,
I think RvR combat mechaincs are great. So far I've enjoyed RvRing on all the classes I've rolled. Class balance needs work, but isnt horrible. I think knockback could be toned down.. :P Honestly, I think its the best group PvP combat system I've ever played.
Im a critical person, by profession and personality, and Im not shy about pointing out flaws when I think they need to be pointed out. Like - Valheru's @$$ is going to be flawed when Im done wrecking it, and that sort of thing.
Last edited by Worldeater151; 10-21-2008 at 01:02 AM.
Frankly I dont see how the current system for Alchemy and Cultivating are much different than a recipe based system. I see the direction that this could be going but it feels more like a base for something that COULD be cool. For instance in alchemy. No matter what I put in a main ingrediant...I get that sort of potion. "WHAT about additives?" you say. Well there are really only 3 i've ever come across so far. Stabalizing, Increase number, Increase duration. There are so many other additives that could make this crafting system fun! but they just arnt there. There truely is no real customization in this crafting system. It IS a recipe based system. Maybe this is just due to the lack of content for crafting.
The same example goes for cultivating. There truely is no customization. As far as I understand it, you put a seed in...you have 3 things that come out. A crappy plant when you fail. The plant the seed was intended for or the plant the seed was intended for plus another seed and maybe something else. this critical success is awesome. It makes cultivating fun for me..but it would be even more fun if I use certain water it changes the plant I get. This would make this system alot more fun..but it would still be recipe based. I have no problem with recipe based.
Basically. I think the code for a BETTER crafting system is in place there just needs to be more "recipe" options..more ingrediants, more crazy chance things. Put stuff in there that doesnt make much sense at a glance but when you play around with it you find some cool combinations. as it stands...when I make potions, I say "I want healing potion..I'll get some elvish parsley" then I wait tll my 500th one is made and think. Exciting.
Exclusive WAR State of the Game Interview with Mark Jacobs
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