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The Sad Fate of Warhammer Online
UnleadedRev
Member UncommonPosts: 568
As you know, I am a big Warhammer and Warhammer 40K fan.
I first played Warhammer Online in 2009, and since then, sometimes subscribe for 1 month or 3 months at a time about once or twice a year since then. I have a ton of characters, most of which are Rank 30-40, including two 40's.
This game even now, still has one of the most mature, helpful, and friendly game communities EVER, both in and out of the game. Griefers are very very rare, and even the opposing team does not taunt or insult..they are grateful just to have players to fight.
I just resubbed for 1 month about 2 weeks ago, and what remained of the game shocked me both in its official website and in the game proper. First off, for those who don't know Electronic Arts the usurper of this game from Mythic, had massive layoffs for all its games. The effect on Warhammer Online was first that whatever LITTLE communication we had received from the Devs of this game over the years has now ground to a halt. NOTHING...It would not surprise me if there is only one person who watches the servers for this game and does occassional maintenance. Other than that there is a strong armed community manager who will flame and delete anyone and anything said in a negative context...thus, those are probably the only two people who work for this game.
There is some good news...the PvP is still the BEST in the MMO world, BUT....from the start this game was designed to be 100% dependant on player population. Thus, if player population drops, down goes the game, because the PvE aspect of this game albiet with unique at the time "Public Quests" and "Scenario Challenges" is still extremely WEAK...always has and still is.
So that leaves player dependent PvP....when there are players it is fun, but when there are not enough players its bad.
EVEN WORSE, not all the issues are due to player population, but the players themselves! It was noted about 2 years ago maybe 3, that for some odd reason Destro always outnumbered order...but even worse, for some odd reason Order players never ever seemed organized like the Destro players. For example, you could always count on Destro player formed Warbands...but more often than not Order players did not form warbands...and even when they did form one, the strategy was to just stand there and fight with limited thought given to taking Objectives. Thus, Destro would just grab objectives and flip the zone and milking precious Renown points over and over and over.
I guess, very conservative players were drawn to Order with no thought to strategy..unlike Destro.
However, if that was bad in the past its even worse now...using T1 and T4 as examples...in T1 Order for the most part just stands on the slope to their warcamp, and is content to allow Destro to take the Docks and harvest Shrine. Sometimes, Order will take Fetz...but...not often and when they do they are in a very bad pattern of advance, take, then retreat for no apparent reason. In T4 its even WORSE!
For example, in Praag...Order is content to take Martyrs Square and chase Destro almost to their Warcamp...but then stops and retreats....huh? Why not make a stand and hole them up in their warcamp the same way Destro does to Order?
NOPE...Order takes the square, advances, stops, and then RUNS away as the Destro players look on dumbfounded, but yet having other Destro players take Objectives while Order just takes and then runs away from Martyrs Square. It makes no sense.
The Chaos Wastes are even worse! Order just stand outside their Warcamp with half fighting and the other half standing on the ridge doing nothing...meanwhile Destro takes all the Objectives and the Renown Rank farming and disparity continues.
Now for the WORST part...Population is soooo LOW...you might find one Warband....usually Destro will form a nice fat Warband, but Order even with enough players seems to have a bunch of players who dont join Warbands. This makes healing and coordination harder...no wonder Order does not take objectives...BUT it gets worse.....
On average in T1, I see only 5 players on average in an Order Warband and maybe....maybe another 5 order players not in any Warband...Destro usually has on average 10-12 players.
So yes...with such low population and EA just being lazy for years with this game, and now with EA layoffs, it makes you wonder how long this game will exist with just a niche playerbase of hardcore Warhammer fans ($15 a month) and a bunch of trial membership players (free).
Free to Play would have helped this game and even made money for expansions and fixes...but no EA seems to have this game on auto pilot...just treading water until they kill it.
Sad....very very sad....
Comments
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
I don't know what their intent was Mtibbs....but, you are right...they killed this game. It would have been better for both Warhammer Online and Wrath of Hero's to have its code released to people who care and not damn EA.
And what was the deal with Wrath of Heroes? To take resources away from Warhammer Online? I recall Wrath of Hero's claiming "its Warhammer Online without all the BORING STUFF"! And that was an official message...talk about shooting Warhammer Online in the foot. Then, only to shut down Wrath of Heros unexpectidly?
EA must be run by a bunch of mutants...thats the only conclusion I can come to.
I really loved WAR. The PvE quests were just hilarious 9I'm speaking specifically of the Greenskin area. "Oi find out why these dwarves are showing up on our shore lodged in barrels" a bit later, "Oi stuff them there stunties guarding this dam into these barrels an shove em off!"
The RvR was really well done, when it worked, and as the OP said, it ws population dependent. which for the most part killed the game. f2p would have definitely saved this game ages ago, however now I think that EA is only running it due to their agreement with GW
--> http://www.swtor.com/r/nBndbs <--
Several Unlocks and a few days game time to make the F2P considerably easier
I played War for a year as a dwarf Ironbreaker as my main and I agree that this game is very population and population balance dependent,It's PvE while actually quite good and challenging is anemic and purposely so coz RvR is the meat of the game.
But for me personally and all my guild it wasn't the reason we left and I'd assume others left.For us it was :
The game's terrible engine.
Constant bad patches that fixed little and somehow broke everything else unrelated.
Wild class balance swings.
Broken Fortress and City siege mechanics
Clear lack of vision and direction in which direction to take the game.
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This saddened me and many others because the game had a load of potential which will never be realized
This is a reoccurring pattern at EA, theyre getting good at it.
All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care.
Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes
If I recall correctly the Warhammer devs were called in by Games Workshop. I'm hoping GM told them, frankly, use the IP or lose it. Hopefully they lose it, and we can get a new game.
Ummm, no, no I didn't know. But thank you for sharing
OMG....go to Games Workshops website for all their tabletop games, which started in the 1980s.
Then the books, pcgames, and even a MOVIE!
umm you need cash shop to progress outside of the personal story in swtor so no its no just fluff.
As for Warhammer, i would definitely play it if it had a decent f2p model. Definitelly more decent than swtor. But its EA so... not gonna happen.
I was eagerly waiting for this game when it launched.It was just so sad that there were so many bug's and botched public quest's.I had fun for a couple week's,but could see the population going quick.Once that happened it was apparent that the pq system just wouldn't appeal to people with a much lower pop.
Was sad to see the fate of the game so quickly,had high hope's for it.
Some day I'm going to put a sword through your eye and out the back of your skull!
Arya Stark
Not fixing bugs killed this game for most people.
I was also a big fan of this game and everyone I knew (including guild mates) had high expectations. This game certainly could've lasted longer but it wasn't managed very well at all.
EA has a habit of killing everything.
I was very excited about this game when I first learned about it years ago and when it finally released I started playing it immediately. The RvR was definetly fun but the game was lacking in many other area's and it seemed very buggy. I also did not like the engine and class balance was terrible, which is why I left.
The reason for me not going back anymore these days is first and foremost, population issue's as described by the OP, but another reason is that I am quite tired of all the themepark games. Yes, there are some on the horizon which I will still play, but they will not be my new home. I will keep waiting (dreaming?) of the 'perfect' sandbox.
I fail to see how after writing this post you can still consider this game the best pvp, or the best anything for that matter.
Honestly, it still saddens me how a lot of players who don't really have an alternative in terms of a good RvR game diss this game and create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I know that you can find faults with WAR where ever you look, but what is the alternative?
I have now started to play DaoC on Uthgard again, and yes, it brings back the good old times, but lets be honest, DaoC is god awfully clunky.
So I challenge you: Name an open world RvR/large scale PvP game that is better then WAR
I've been playing games since the early 80's as my main hobby (barring my military years) and to this day I still say Warhammer Online was one of the best games I've ever played and a lot of that was the community. I can definitely say that I have not had near as much fun in any game since and considering I'm a now Disabled Veteran that plays at least 8 to 12 hours everyday of something, that's a powerful statement. The IP was perfect and probably my favorite fantasy realm of all time but it was just always exciting with so many possibilities, iconic characters, locations and the battles of enormous proportions that were electrifying. I still get excited thinking about some of the early keep, fortress and city sieges. I would spend days online all at once running from keep to keep for loot rolls. Even the scenarios were great fun, something I've never been able to really get into in any other game to date.
I'm sorry to see what it's become but Warhammer Online will always be important to me.. I made a lot of friends that i still speak with in that game. I'll certainly miss it.
I won't argue against you at all Ulo,
but I think what it may be coming down to is people just don't care about large scale pvp anymore.I loved Shaowbane and if they could've fixed the sb exe. crash bug early on,it may have been much more successful.I do think though that gamers today want that instant win/gratification as opposed to help the team win.
Some day I'm going to put a sword through your eye and out the back of your skull!
Arya Stark
But that's cause nothing else did rvr.
Now planetside 2 is out, I see no reaso to give ea your hard earned cash.