Where to start?
When writing these things, I always wonder where to start. And inevitably, I always start at the beginning. I'm predictable like that. So, let me begin by introducing myself. I am Stuart Zissu, the RvR Strike Team Lead. I have been in this position since shortly after launch, but I was actually a member of the RvR team dating all the way back to April of ‘08. Being the lead on a team like this means I find myself with the responsibility of nurturing one of the core features of our game. A big part of the nurturing process is listening to what you, the players, are saying and then balancing that with the design and direction of the system. I think we can all agree that RvR has had some big changes as of late, and many of those ideas have started as a seed, planted by some of you. In this article, I would like to talk about one of those seeds: The Main City PQ.
The Old Main City PQ
The original design of the Main City PQ served multiple purposes. First, it was to bring players together to fight against each other in the name of their city and their Realm. Second, it was a means to get city-level loot (Invader gear and whatnot). Lastly, it was to give the players the opportunity to burn and destroy the capital cities.
When we launched with this design, we noticed that it did all three of these things, but it did not do them as well as we hoped. It definitely brought players together, but since the General was the main focus of the final stage of the PQ, players became secondary to trying to bring down the behemoth. The PQ did allow for players to earn city-level loot, but if defeating the General was the sole way of successfully completing the PQ (and with enemies around, this goal was near impossible), then not enough of the rewards were finding their way into the players’ hands. And when it came to burning and destroying the capital cities, players felt this was good and all, but they just wanted to fight against each other. Go figure. ;-)
A Little Exercise
So the RvR Team looked at all the feedback, looked at the PQ, even jumped in and ran some city assaults on the live servers we play on, and realized that we had a few changes that needed to be made. The toughest part of creating the new PQ was not putting it all together; rather, the challenge was making sure it did what we wanted it to do within the confines of what was possible. To give you an idea of what we needed to keep in mind I give to you this exercise.
Players have made it clear that they want the capital city assault to be RvR. They RvR their way through the T4 campaign to get there, and RvR is what they like. So the easy solution is just to allow players to kill each other in the city and the more killing one side does, the more it pushes towards capturing or defending the city. This is great, it works, and it’s fun…when there are players to fight. What happens when you are in an instance with no enemies? There’s no one to fight, so there are no points to be gained, and therefore your instance doesn’t help in the city assault. On top of that, it’s just plain boring to sit around and do nothing.
Overcoming Obstacles
This exact situation was the reason we used the Generals in the old PQ structure. Whether there are enemies around or not, you can defeat the General and finish the PQ. But if you remember from before (or from experience), the Generals didn’t work so well. So, we came up with the idea of holding the BOs and killing enemies as the sole means to flip the PQ (no more killing NPCs, no more burning or breaking objects). Each kill gives points towards the PQ, and holding the BOs gives points over time toward the same goal. Even if there are no players to fight, you can still hold the BOs and eventually win the PQ.
This new system works with or without enemies, but the big question is, “Is it fun?” Well, sitting around a BO waiting for points to tick up is great when there is carnage and battle happening all around you. Sitting around a BO while the Choppa or Slayer next to you does needle point is not really what WAR is all about. So, we brought back the Generals in a smaller role. If there are no enemies around, everyone can go and beat on the General to flip the PQ quicker and get the loot. If there are enemies present, then what are you standing around for? Go fight!
The End Result
Just to recap, we had Burning/Breaking, Killing Guards, Killing the Generals, Player Kills, and BOs. After our changes we have Player Kills, BOs, and to a lesser degree Killing the Generals. Throughout our testing and play-testing, we have heard over and over again that the new PQ is head and shoulders above the old one: It is simple, straight forward, fast-paced, tactical, and engaging. Oh, and it’s fun too! Feedback like this is reassuring when you are making big changes, but in the end, it is you, the players, who can control how this all turns out.
If you like the changes, please let us know so we can continue to go down this path with other features of the capital cities. If you don’t like the changes, please let us know as well—constructive criticism goes a long way toward making this a better game for all. So that’s it for this round of the Main City PQ. Rest assured we are still looking at all aspects of the capital cities to make sure they are fun and engaging. So let us know what you think, and continue to look to the horizon for new end-game improvements coming to Warhammer Online!
