Alb to get fewer new classes in expansion - population control effort

[Arindra]

As most players of Dark Age of Camelot know, there is currently a disparate number of classes in the three Realms. The reasons for this go back into the shadows of Camelot's early design days, and even though it seems strange now, at the time we thought it was the right thing to do.

Now we are in a situation where Albion on almost all servers has a distinct advantage in simple terms of number of people playing characters in it. We've come up with some ways to alleviate this over the last few months, and today I'm going to tell you about another: in the upcoming Catacombs expansion, Albion will receive fewer new classes than the other Realms. In our current plan, Albion will receive one new class, Hibernia and Midgard will get two new classes each.

There are two reasons for doing this: the first is is to make up for the fact that Albion has one more class than Hibernia and two more than Midgard. Another reason is to motivate people to start new characters in Realms other than Albion to smooth out the population imbalances a little.

We'll start to release more specific information about the new classes in a few weeks, and of course we'll continue to look at population numbers and tester feedback about these plans and make changes where appropriate.

I actually think this is a rather sensible idea.

Discuss.

 

[Xplo]

usually they give 1 tank and 1 caster, mayb we get some gimpy in between class xD

 

[Exile]

I don't understand why the Albs are whining on VN about it.... can't imagine any of those people were planning on getting two unknown classes up to lvl50.

 

[Skaven]

They going to give alb classes more utility then instead of the shit we have now?

 

[Alithiel]

Personally I'd rather we didn't get any more classes in Albion.

And if they give us something with a bit more utility, it's bound to make some other existing class obsolete...

 

[Ilienwyn]

well, depends what class they give tbh


Give overpowered savages or something please

 

[Glottis]

well, depends what class they give tbh


Give overpowered savages or something please

I doubt the class Albion will get is anything close to overpoweredness.
It will be Albions version of a thane...
Regards, Glottis

 

[Theodoric]

So do any of you really think number of classes has anything to do with number of players per realm ?

 

[Methos]

So do any of you really think number of classes has anything to do with number of players per realm ?

In US it will make some difference since there's lots of servers to choose from to roll one of the new classes.

Here they will have to come up with another solution, although population imbalance is less here than it is in US.

 

[Filip]

So do any of you really think number of classes has anything to do with number of players per realm ?

yes....

i never belived in the BS ppl said about more ppl joing alb becuase of the name etc etc..

i think most ppl fell in love with some class they after that picked the realm that class belonged to ..

 

[Drav]

Maybe they'll give us an un-gimped pure melee heavy tank, seen as tho armsman dont seem to be going anywhere...

Then again though double spec fix is supposedly inc in 1.71 but I'll believe it when I see it.

Most likely the alb class will be a gimpzor and the mid/hib classes will be deh roxxor.... lets face it, they gotta swing the RvR balance back in favor of whinegard and their ilk, far too many "OMFG nerf alb" posts on VN for mythic not to do anything.

Silly way of controlling realm balance tbh, I find the whole topic completely stupid, look at it in realistic terms, you have a bigger force, your more likely to win, this isnt an excuse to nerf alb classes so that the smaller forces can win. The day we start seeing 3fga getting pwned by 1fg mid/hib of the same rr, skill lvl, etc etc will be the day I quit.... in the end of it all, it aint like Albs have had it easy the past 2 years, and we deserve a bit of fun for all our troubles.

Id rather see porting changed to your own frontier alone, therefore maybe seperating groups out and avoiding just one on mass zerg all the time, would maybe take the spotlight off keeptaking so much as well which would also be a welcome change for all us tanks.

 

[Arindra]

So do any of you really think number of classes has anything to do with number of players per realm ?

No but *new* classes probably do influence where people who play across multiple servers spend their time, and people who are considering a realm switch.

 

[Glottis]

Id rather see porting changed to your own frontier alone, therefore maybe seperating groups out and avoiding just one on mass zerg all the time, would maybe take the spotlight off keeptaking so much as well which would also be a welcome change for all us tanks.

Agree, instant porting around has to go really. It was stupid of Mythic to try to make fights so easy to get into (idea of Mythic was to be able to log on, check map where the fight is, and just port straight there).
Just drop this porting stuff, bringing back fg vs fg fights between keeps and watch Mids/Hibs wtfpwn Albs again, laughing their ass off.
It is actually disgusting that they even dare complain after 2 years of utter domination, but the baboons are so used to winning I guess.
But like assasins complaining about how unfair MoS is after archers suffered SH hell for 1.5 years... retards abound. Sadly, Mythic listens to them
Regards, Glottis

 

[Karatakus]

Hehehe They did fix double speccing Drav, but not in any good way for us.

(Bug Fix) Polearms and two handed weapons in Albion set to an elemental damage type will now make the correct secondary skill check. Previously these weapons were ignoring this check when determining damage, allowing unspecced players to use these weapons as effectively as specced players.

Back on topic. I personally believe that the extra classes to Mid/Hib will be a good thing. Finally, Mythic will be not be able to hide behind the excuse that the reason mid/hib classes has more utility than we do is because they have less classes to cover the roles needed. So, I reckon alb classes will have to get some serious loving soon after the catas introduction (either that or mids/hibs get a big nerf bat taken to them (something I wouldn't want to see cos I hate nerfing no matter who its on - unless its a savage or a chanter hehehe)), to bring our utility on par with the mids/hibs.

 

[Jaem-]

well, depends what class they give tbh


Give overpowered savages or something please

well, when savages were first released, zerkers were left on mpk yelling lfg alot more... don't think anyone would like that cause of some new addition being add to the game, being made obsolete is the word I believe.

 

[Elewyth(TLSOA)]

as ive said all along these new classes will be on par with Bd's and necros.. i.e pick up and play classes.. mythic want to attract the casual gamer and this is how theyll do that, if your being honest most of the so called powerlevel classes are 1 button classes lifetap/power drain/shroom button/ i can only see mythic making something similar in their battle to win the casual gamer away from theyre FPS's... although this is a VERY bad way to balance realm population... from the start Albion pretty much has the higher population simply cos the games called "Dark age of CAMELOT" kids wanna be in Camelot... still.. a realm population cap isnt such a bad idea..

 

[Arindra]

So, I reckon alb classes will have to get some serious loving soon after the catas introduction (either that or mids/hibs get a big nerf bat taken to them (something I wouldn't want to see cos I hate nerfing no matter who its on - unless its a savage or a chanter hehehe)), to bring our utility on par with the mids/hibs.

No way this is going to happen unless a population shift big enough to prevent alb domination of all servers occurs.

 

[Wabbit]

When is Mythic going to see that most of the people that are already in Albion wont /delete their 10 lvl 50's to play in another realm. If they really want albs to leave albion for midgard or hibernia implement this: allow people to "switch" their 50's...so delete 5 lvl 50's in Albion allows 5 /level 50 chars (no rp's, no items, no cash etc) in midgard or hibernia...that way a lot of people will start thinking of switching to another realm..

 

[macddon]

may sound really noobish, but if mythic really wants a levelling out of numbers maybe they should offer peeps the opportunity to move at least 50% of their characters over maintaining lvl, rr, gold, cratfs, ML etc. I mean if you have spent 1 year or more creating charcters in 1 realm, why would you want to give it all up to start wiht a lvl 20 in another?

 

[Skaven]

When is Mythic going to see that most of the people that are already in Albion wont /delete their 10 lvl 50's to play in another realm. If they really want albs to leave albion for midgard or hibernia implement this: allow people to "switch" their 50's...so delete 5 lvl 50's in Albion allows 5 /level 50 chars (no rp's, no items, no cash etc) in midgard or hibernia...that way a lot of people will start thinking of switching to another realm..

Spot on. Theres no way in hell im rerolling to hib or mid considering the 2+ years ive spent on these alts. For people on alb who have played daoc since day one the 1 class less is just a kick in the nads imo. If they gave the opportunity to switch realms so you can /lvl 50 on them I *may* think about it.
It's an intresting thought, but its not the way to go in solving the problem at hand.

 

[Ghaladriel]

Givf a healer class xD

 

[Drav]

Just drop this porting stuff, bringing back fg vs fg fights between keeps and watch Mids/Hibs wtfpwn Albs again, laughing their ass off.
It is actually disgusting that they even dare complain after 2 years of utter domination, but the baboons are so used to winning I guess.
But like assasins complaining about how unfair MoS is after archers suffered SH hell for 1.5 years... retards abound. Sadly, Mythic listens to them
Regards, Glottis

Glottis m8 this wouldnt really be the case, the case would be simple, if mids/hibs ever annoyed albs so bad between keep sieging and moving thru hib/mid frontier then Albs could... if they wished... form a zerg and WTFpwn them with greater numbers, which is right and fair, if your out numbered 3-1 by players of the same rr, skill etc, you should die, maybe taking some folk with you but death is guaranteed.

The point is it would give players a choice not to be part of the zerg, the way it sound on VN its alot like a) port to frontier, b) check realm war map, c) port to the nearest keep near the action, d) notice that every guy in the frontier is in this spot, e) join the zerg, f) get crappy rps while keep sieging.

Splitting down the groups on all sides via porting is a nice idea, it doesnt eliminate zerging of course, but zerging shouldnt be eliminated, its part of the game, it is infact a simple strategy, it would just give the realms a choice whether to zerg or not rather than having constant zergville, which besides in RR's I as an Alb arent looking forward to.... I prefer an even fight on both sides really, makes things interesting.

But population control wont work, say if catacombs throws the population advantage over to mid.... then mythic are still left with the same problem, except you'd have Albs on VN screaming "NERF MIDS!".... and Im sure Mids would be laughing themselves all the way to the bank because whinegards crybaby strategy paid off and mythic caved in to them.

 

[Ceryseth]

Yeah i dont really mind that much i guess as long as we are given an overpowered class

 

[Bracken]

Balancing pop will be excellent providing they also balance the classes...

 

[Honza]

Imho, if they want balanced realm, they should make exactly same equivalent for all classes, just different name and look. Then you can speak about 'balanced'. Otherwise you will never be able to balance realms properly.

 

[HTE]

Honza, this is not true.

Game design, albeit might be pretty complicated for a mmorpg can yield pretty much balanced state. Of course it needs constant supervising, but still there can be balance.

And I think new classes does not really influence population. Tho PLing gets more and more popular, still the majority levels on their own - so it takes pretty long and tedious to get an RvR capable char.

So I think the issue is not really about the population, but about the usefullness of RvR. For a successfull Alb fg you need a very specific set of chars. There are slight variations, but 80% is given - or your group will be seriously gimped. For the other realms it's pretty much around like 30-40% and the rest is just sugar on top. We can break it down to insta mezzes and stuff like that, but this is the overall issue. A random mid or hib group beats a random alb group anytime. Period.

Sum: Giving albs a screwed up mixed healing class won't solve anything.

 

[Honza]

Aye, it's hard when we need cleric+mins to do the same what one bard can

 

[Raven]

Aye, it's hard when we need cleric+mins to do the same what one bard can

what are you on about? i thought you albs used your clerics to heal rather than de-mez, mez, provide end, interupt, provide spd bard heals being crap. thats probably where you go wrong if you are trying to do that rather than heal

 

[Honza]

what are you on about? i thought you albs used your clerics to heal rather than de-mez, mez, provide end, interupt, provide spd bard heals being crap. thats probably where you go wrong if you are trying to do that rather than heal

You know what?
Try play alb for a while

 

[Clipse]

I wonder if we get insta aoe stun

To balance the population, I think Albion should be closed to new entrants, and fook the politics about it.