Dear Mark,
Good to hear that you and your team take this as serious as many believe it is. The game overall is good fun and well made, even so there is room for improvement, scenario queing is one thing coming to mind. But lets focus on your latest letter:
"Fourth, we want to encourage guilds to take and control keeps, and we will continue our work on adding better rewards for Guilds who own Keeps as well as the addition of a system of Keep upgrades. This system will be added to the game in several stages beginning in the late winter."
Claiming keeps is something that is not working imo, all it needs to bring it on paar with DAoC and allow any guild to claim a keep via interaction with the keep lord and we might see guilds taking interest in getting keep and more importantly defending them.
Over an above please make sure to come up with ways that promote the right behaviour, as the loot given from keep sieges leads imho to the behaviour of not caring about keep sieges, rather caring about keep farming. It makes no sense to defend, rather let the opposing faction get the keep and retake it later as that way you get some loot.
"Finally, we will begin work on a global oRvR “Fame” system that will be tied directly to the Tome of Knowledge which will provide more rewards, titles, experience, etc. for participating and being successful in oRvR. This system will provide even more incentives for people to participate in oRvR than the current systems and one that fits nicely both with the ToK’s concept as “This is your life” as well as an additional advancement and reward system."
That sounds good is that something we players in EU will get too? As we still not even have the same functionality the US community enjoys, we can not look anything up online, be cool if you use your might to deliver on the promise that EU players get the same treatment as US players, so far I regret to have been naive enough to play on EU servers.
Bad customer service, bad customer service interface ( you actually need several email addresses you never use as they messed it completely up and then demand a unique email address per account, pitty large families playing). We have a laughable flash webpage which still not gives us the same utility the US has. Even 3rd parties are able to provide worldwide info pages (www.curse.com Profiler) but not GOA.
"Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR."
You got a lot of final thoughts , but yes this is what should be supported, a game focusing on open world RvR should give the best incentives for that. And any focus on promoting that can only help the game.
But over and above this a few things you should focus on:
- Remove further bugs, still a few left to fix.
- Improve guild interface, the idea was right, but there should be more userfriendly functionality (ability to handle DKP, raid calendar that offers more then 10 events and more userfriendliness, reaccuring events etc.)
- Fluffy stuff vanity pets, more mounts, hobbies, etc (plays a major way in enjoyment for many)
- CRAFTING something that feels majorly like an afterthought in its current implementation, no I do not mean you went a different way, I mean there is not enough of it in game and it should be a way of getting the best items, crafting resource drops in oRvR, high end dungeons etc then crafted to best gear
Just to name a few areas the game would benefit from.
Finally, you got to address content that depends not on masses, PQs are fun but we see already starting areas with 1-2 players in, there is no way they can do any PQs etc. Is great that you put "TeamPlay" into the game, but what about those servers who have not the population for this. We desperately need ways to promote stable server population and non mass content!!!
Thanks for this letter good to know you working on making a good game even better.
Good to hear that you and your team take this as serious as many believe it is. The game overall is good fun and well made, even so there is room for improvement, scenario queing is one thing coming to mind. But lets focus on your latest letter:
"Fourth, we want to encourage guilds to take and control keeps, and we will continue our work on adding better rewards for Guilds who own Keeps as well as the addition of a system of Keep upgrades. This system will be added to the game in several stages beginning in the late winter."
Claiming keeps is something that is not working imo, all it needs to bring it on paar with DAoC and allow any guild to claim a keep via interaction with the keep lord and we might see guilds taking interest in getting keep and more importantly defending them.
Over an above please make sure to come up with ways that promote the right behaviour, as the loot given from keep sieges leads imho to the behaviour of not caring about keep sieges, rather caring about keep farming. It makes no sense to defend, rather let the opposing faction get the keep and retake it later as that way you get some loot.
"Finally, we will begin work on a global oRvR “Fame” system that will be tied directly to the Tome of Knowledge which will provide more rewards, titles, experience, etc. for participating and being successful in oRvR. This system will provide even more incentives for people to participate in oRvR than the current systems and one that fits nicely both with the ToK’s concept as “This is your life” as well as an additional advancement and reward system."
That sounds good is that something we players in EU will get too? As we still not even have the same functionality the US community enjoys, we can not look anything up online, be cool if you use your might to deliver on the promise that EU players get the same treatment as US players, so far I regret to have been naive enough to play on EU servers.
Bad customer service, bad customer service interface ( you actually need several email addresses you never use as they messed it completely up and then demand a unique email address per account, pitty large families playing). We have a laughable flash webpage which still not gives us the same utility the US has. Even 3rd parties are able to provide worldwide info pages (www.curse.com Profiler) but not GOA.
"Finally, I want to close this out with a brief explanation about the role that we believe that oRvR should play in WAR. It’s really as simple as this, oRvR should be a major focus for leveling, item gain, etc. in WAR."
You got a lot of final thoughts , but yes this is what should be supported, a game focusing on open world RvR should give the best incentives for that. And any focus on promoting that can only help the game.
But over and above this a few things you should focus on:
- Remove further bugs, still a few left to fix.
- Improve guild interface, the idea was right, but there should be more userfriendly functionality (ability to handle DKP, raid calendar that offers more then 10 events and more userfriendliness, reaccuring events etc.)
- Fluffy stuff vanity pets, more mounts, hobbies, etc (plays a major way in enjoyment for many)
- CRAFTING something that feels majorly like an afterthought in its current implementation, no I do not mean you went a different way, I mean there is not enough of it in game and it should be a way of getting the best items, crafting resource drops in oRvR, high end dungeons etc then crafted to best gear
Just to name a few areas the game would benefit from.
Finally, you got to address content that depends not on masses, PQs are fun but we see already starting areas with 1-2 players in, there is no way they can do any PQs etc. Is great that you put "TeamPlay" into the game, but what about those servers who have not the population for this. We desperately need ways to promote stable server population and non mass content!!!
Thanks for this letter good to know you working on making a good game even better.