Thursday, April 9, 2009

Is Warhammer Still in Beta?

Been thinking a lot about this lately. Love the game and it has kept me for a long time so they definitely did a lot of things right. But there are a ton of little things (some bigger than others) that makes me and my friends often wonder, are we paying to play beta still? Here are some issues in no particular order:

Mailboxes

What is up with the mail system? Takes forever to send/delete/take any items out of there. Very frustrating when you do any sort of mailing between AH guys or alts. Or even just to friends. 20 seconds or more sometimes to take an item, then when you delete it gives you this message like you haven’t even read the mail yet, its all pretty crazy. AND to top it off until recently it was much much worse, could only send/receive one item at a time. They’ve improved it but its still pretty terrible, one can live with it since it isn’t core to the game play, but it sure does seem weird that it performs so poorly.

Crashes

This one is a real big issue and seems to span multiple players and hardware types. The game still crashes to desktop a ton. At least once per night I play. Sometimes it doesn’t let you right back in either. Friends have reported the same, and it seems so random. Happens at different times. And when you get back in others didn’t crash you wonder why is that? Then they will crash at a completely different part. Its all very weird and annoying.

Lag

This is hard to pinpoint as well since so many people have so many different hardware configurations. But I think its safe to say even on the best rigs the game lags way too much in Orvr which is the supposed end game. I don’t know a lot about how to fix it but its definitely there. They have got to figure out a way to optimize this better since the game is supposed to be a huge open field of war driving back and forth, but when you are out there the game stutters like crazy.

Rewards System

Randomizing keep contribution THEN random rolling is a terrible way to distribute gear. You have to get lucky twice! Then to top it off you might actually get the lucky double roll, only to get the same gear piece you have! That system has to go like immediately. Influence system was a nice add but it was way after the fact and only some of the items are useful, still I’m happy they at least put that in. Pve instances could also use a much better system, especially since they have lockout timers so you can’t run them every day. I have read about their new token system, it should be a step in the right direction. However the game has been out quite a while now, it should have been obvious this gear system was terrible from the beginning, ESPECIALLY since you have a gear requirement system in place to force you to get certain pieces before you can progress to the next dungeon.

Scenario System

A great system IMO and seems to work well in tiers 1-3. In tier 4 with zones locking and scens getting locked out it seems to need more work. There needs to be a MUCH better way to get the sides more even possibly not starting them till the proper teams get in. Over my tier 4 experience I’ve noticed my side either crushes the enemy, or gets crushed, 90% of the time. That’s pretty boring. A lot of people ask for more Orvr and get rid of scens, I like the scens and wish that I could play them more often, and have them more balanced. They are a much fairer fight most of the time, and allow for more small skirmishes which can be some of the most fun battles to me.

Added from emails with a friend of mine, Cliff the Chum (my comments in parenthesis) –

Character pictures

Why are these images randomized when the group is first formed?? Instead of just showing their face? I’d rather not see anything if it’s not going to be the people I’m actually in a group with. (Its silly to me when I see a weird mask or face on a teammates picture then all of a sudden later its actually them. Doesn’t bother me too much but is kind of dumb it does that, doesn’t seem like that hard to fix that. Where is it getting those other pictures from lol.)

Zone tracking

This is usually way off the mark. Several times I’ve been in the SAME zone with my friend (lets say Eataine) and it tracks me in Kadrin Valley and him in Altdorf. (This is very true and super annoying. I’ll often run to where my team is supposed to be in a scenario or in Orvr only to find that no one is actually there. The tracking is way off and it really throws off your choices of where to strategically go sometimes. Also knowing what zones your friends are in is beneficial, its stupid to fly somewhere only to find they aren’t even there.)

NPC lag

After a scenario or a flight path trip or death in RVR, it takes the game almost 10 seconds before it displays the NPCs in the area. I notice this the most when looking for a healer after I die. (I agree with this too, how bout just make the loading screen take an extra few seconds, why have me show up but then I’m in a world with no people in it for a while. Seems odd).

General Game Responsiveness

General game responsiveness is subpar. When I have a morale ability up and ready and NOT on global cooldown, it should work WHEN I press it, not 2 seconds later like it currently does. This is not on the client end, this is completely on the server end. I notice this with all my abilities but particularly noticeable when using CC moves like Roots and Knockdowns and especially morale moves. (This is a big game issue as well. They have done a lot of work on this as it used to be even worse, but as a SwordMaster there is still a long way to go. Having balances I have to work through its extremely annoying to hit an ability, have my balance move, but then not be able to use the next balance and have to do it over again. In laggy situations this becomes even worse, but sometimes it happens even without lag.)

That’s it for now, anything I missed?

5 comments:

Nazgum said...

nice list; warhammer definitely has some bizarre bugs and issues considering its been live for more than half a year now..

I think what amazes me most is the total lack of polish in the game; simple things like as a shaman clicking on an ability tooltip to see what that evil sword master just hit me with, and it showing the ability "Nature's Blade" as a Path of Mork ability (Shaman first tree) rather then a path of Khaine ability (SM first tree); and that's providing the item tooltip even works, half the time its just blank..

There is a thousand instances like that example throughout the game, which would take just mere seconds for someone to look over and correct; but instead just linger.

The big issues are important true, but its all the little extras which start to add up and make you feel like the game just isn't up to par

Anonymous said...

Its a great list and its only the tip of the iceberg. There is:

- The constant "target out of range" messages you get in ORvsR when your target is standing toe to toe with you.

- WE and WH constantly being dropped out of their stealth for no reason.

- Abilities that require stealth not firing even though you are in stealth and your stealth never breaks afterwards. I've run up to a target while I'm in stealth, not had an ability fire because "it requires incongito", ran away still stealthed, came back to the target and then successfully executed the stealth attack.

- The "Mythic seconds" bug that actually makes casting spells take alot longer than it should.

- People still window drag like mad.

- Many of the basic mechanics of the classes are still being changed. (Classes will always be edited in an MMO but changing their basic mechanics means they weren't a finished class at release).

- The way "contribution" is figured in keep/PQ raids is ridiculous.

- Combat animations still lock up or don't display even though the ability continues to fire.

- Things like combustion/grudge/accusations will often be displayed incorrectly.

- Often times when appealing someone for whatever reason it will say that person does not exist yet you can turn right around and type it identically and it will work the 2nd time.

- The ORvsR influence takes so long that by the time you get it you already have the better set items and such. (especially by the time you can make use of the items from all 3 regions).

That being said I was such a Mythic fanboi from DAoC. And there is a part of me that still is I guess but I just can't force myself to get invested into Warhammer because I see the same nightmare management of the game that I saw in DAoC. DAoC was the first MMO I stuck with (spent years playing that game) and I just don't want to have to go through the same circus with another Mythic game.

Alot of people give Funcom hell for the way AoC flopped, and while its true at least Funcom can say it flopped at release. One my say they "guessed" wrong with their game. However DAoC is now a flop because of the way Mythic managed that game and IMHO killing a game after it was successful for years is much worse than simply falling short on at release. At the 4-5 year mark you should have had enough time to listen to your customers and know your game inside and out. But Mythic has a tendency to do neither. Or if they are listening to customers they aren't listening to any of the ones I play with or post with in the forums.

Tom said...

I think it is a game that could have done with a lot more time in BETA, plenty of these issues should have been sorted before launch.

Oh well, still it is fun which is the main thing - a bit more Polish would have been nice.

***All Things Rob Wild*** said...

Great additions! I'm still playing it and having fun, but there is so many little things it really is amazing. I guess I'm more suprised than anything, 90% or so of the play time is enough to make me still enjoy it, but the other 10 are creeping up on me, especially after playing for 6 months or so now.

Will said...

Anyone else playing this monstrosity of a patch tonight? Now before I piss off any "fanbois" I have been playing MMOs since UO (and just about everything that has come out in NA since UO) and I do of course realize that patches have bugs.

But the way the release and patches have gone with Warhammer are a whole other issue. The kinds of problems and the scope of the problems that come out with each new patch are not the "normal" problems that an experienced MMO player should expect.

I don't know what happened to Mythic between DAoC and Warhammer. DAoC had a superb launch and most of the patches through the years did far more good than harm. Warhammer is the opposite. IMHO the game is less playable now that it was at release. In fact my beta experience with Warhammer was better than the current state of the game.

I am such a Mythic whore, I loved DAoC and it frustrates me so much to see what is going on with Warhammer and what happened with DAoC in the last couple of years. (which killed it in my opinion).

For those of you who did not play DAoC, those of us who did can vouche for Mythics past, DAoC was a great game (even though not perfect) and the patches and such for DAoC were far more constructive than the destructive travesties that have plagued Warhammer.

As a Mythic whore I honestly don't know what to say. I have no idea what has gotten in to these people the past couple of years but there was clearly a big change starting around the Cats exp with DAoC and its all been downhill from there.

Perhaps this is all a result of the EA (I hate EA, rot in hell you monopoly pig fu(ker) buy out, I don't know.