I’m going to leave the taxonomy for now. I had a rough evening and morning (had my identity stolen and dealing with banks and such, but oops, banks are closed) so I’m going to be self-indulgent today.
My Warhammer account has a week left before I have to take a break. The downside to the break is, well, not playing. The upside is lots of shiny goodies when I return, I hope. So what are these goodies? I dunno, but I know what I *wish* they’d be. So here’s my list of desired Warhammer changes.
This is a list born of selfishness and I’m sure lots of people will take strong exception to it. I get that, and if I ruled the world, I still might not make these changes because I don’t want to break the game for others. I’ve also not let practicality get in the way of my dreams, as you’ll see.
1) More social mobs. I’m sick of (at low tiers at least) being able to pick off enemies one by one, while their friends stand there and watch them die. I want to (sometimes) face crowds of weaker enemies. Y’know what game does this really well? NCSoft’s freebie, Dungeon Runners. You’re always disappearing under a mass of enemies in that game, only to eventually emerge victorious. Instead of a single even level skeleton, send 6 or 7 of them a couple levels lower, and let me go crazy and send bodies flying in every which way. THAT feels powerful. Similarly, there are very few “skill pulls” in the solo PvE stuff. I’d like to have to rely on my smarts now and then when I need to attack baddies.
2) Shuffle the world!! Twenty-four zones sounds like plenty, right? But to me at least, it feels small, and I think it feels small because we have three nice neat corridors, with an entrance at one end of each zone and an exit at the other. Connections between tiers via teleport (essentially) makes it all seem very disconnected. Let’s change things up, make the world messier and more chaotic.
3) Eliminate scenarios. *ducks and runs away*
4) More “fluff”. Non-combat pets, housing, social gear (take the trophies and make them more obvious, maybe?). Just stuff to futz around with when you don’t feel like fighting but do feel like being in-game to hang out with your guild.
5) More PvE Quests. There’s enough now, but barely. Some Epic PvE quests would be fun…long term collection stuff, maybe. Put some of the objectives in the RvR Lakes, to get people out there now and then. Some “lever” quests (I just made up that term). What’s a lever quest? It’s a quest where one step “pulls a lever” to set something in motion that will impact other players. DAoC had some quests that caused mobs to attack a town. Everyone would have to stop their buying and selling and fight off the attack. WoW has stuff like Stitches. Actions that indirectly involve other players remind us all that we *aren’t* in a single player game. Beating back these attacks tend to bind players together. Common cause and all that.
6) More open RvR at all levels. Right now you can totally skip the RvR Lakes. My assumption is that the game is built that way so that PvE players can play and not engage in Open RvR. But really, as a PvE Only game Warhammer isn’t incredibly compelling. I do think that it needs better PvE for long-term success, but until then, RvR is the big hook that makes Warhammer stand out. So dammit, force people to cross those RvR Lakes now and then. Have the Lakes stretch clear across a zone, with a few chokepoints where players will naturally congregate. Put moving quest rewards out there (static rewards would get camped by the enemy, probably). Do something to get people (including me, frankly… I haven’t done any RvR since before Witching Night) out there.
7) More bag space, please. If we have to pay for it, that’s fine. But as someone who hates to leave corpses laying around causing lag (that’s old school, huh?) I get really sick and tired of spending as much time futzing with inventory as I do playing the game. If not more bag space, then fewer types of crafting resources.
8) Add a third realm. Hey, I don’t ask for much, do I? LOL
9) Give me a Lifetime Membership option
10) Reader’s choice!
Yeah, I’m not coming up with a #10, so I’ll leave it to others to add to the list. I told you it was selfish. I get 9 and you get 1.
I think you covered everything I would. Oh, except
10. Faster run speed.
There seems to be a school of dev though that sounds something like this: “Oh, I bet players will LOVE being really slow, and they will LOVE never having enough bag space. I know I would. — Scuse me a sec while I teleport around the world and give myself infinite inventory. RHIP.”
It’s pervasive now, where minor irritations are supposed to be seen as “immersion enhancers” — in whose book? I’m absolutely certain the people who put them in never have to suffer them…
I need to shut up. I’m nominally having a non-negative week — I’m not, actually, it’s turning out pretty bad, but I can at least not whine about it in public. 😉
I’m also going to go back to Wizard 101, whose uncomplicated fluffiness and ease are just what the anti-grim doctor ordered.
Hmm, is a wish list a negative thing? I don’t think so. We can enjoy something and still wish for it to be even better!!
And yeah, Faster Run Speed is a good #10!
You’re really tempting me to try Wizard 101, btw!!
I tried wizard 101 its cute. Not for me, but cute. Umm sorry bout the identity theft btw, it seems to happening a lot lately to people so people extra careful shred your mail and don’t give info to sites/people you don’t trust.
Better transportation options is definitely my #10. Run speed is a part of it, but more flight paths are needed too. A lot of PQs are dead because no one wants to run further than the one closest to the camp. Also, I know there have been plenty of times I’ve ignored the call to arms (RvR) because the nearest flight master was miles and miles away and I could grind three Scenarios in the time it would take to get wherever I was going to go.
Nonono, the wish list isn’t negative. *I* am negative this week, and even more aware of it since I made a virtuous post about how I wasn’t going to be. Ahem.
Less servers for number 10.
More open world PVE and PVP goals.
Music and animations STILL need work ( to this day I can toss an axe and still not see it at all)
Cut the amount of servers in half! Cram those players in! I don’t want to cross an RvR lake without some order player getting in my hair trying to ruin my day 🙂
Run speed! It is a bit better with a mount, but you can’t always ride.
The animations do need a little work, but my Witch Hunters did surprise me the other night when she threw in a spinning roundhouse kick when I was out of AP. That was cool!!
Oooohhhh yea FIX the dang female voice emotes! It sounds like my WH is getting brutalized when she is DOING damage. At least let me turn off the ones I don’t like. Still love the “bugger” and “bastard” ones
Big BUMP to the “make trophies more obvious” I know they are there, but even with a 22″ screen they are hard to see, even on my own toon.