One thing that I’m absolutely baffled by is the lack of open world PvP in Warhammer Online.  In beta, one of the constant complaints I remember seeing was that of Open world “gate camping” - where one side would crush the other so badly that the aformentioned would turtle up inside their own gates for long periods of time.

In the actual live game, there seems to be little to no open PvP at all.  In fact, RvR lakes are some of the safest places to be.  Seems kinda backwards, when everyone stays inside scenarios and away from actual objectives.

The crux of this whole issue lies in the fact that the game was built and designed around the Core ruleset, with the Open-RvR ruleset getting little to no testing the entire span of beta - it was added in about a month before the game went live.

Open RvR servers need love, plain and simple.  To the playerbase that is disgusted with other main stream MMO PvP systems, WAR appears to be a bastion of hope - a beacon of light in the dark Blizzard shadow that is the current MMORPG industry.  The Open-RvR ruleset appeals to these individuals, but it does not (yet) deliver.

Along the same lines as my “What I would Improve in WAR“, writeup, this is my “What I would Improve in Open-RvR” writeup.

More Rewards, more fixes for Open-RvR

Instead of rewarding players huge amounts of EXP and Renown in Scenarios (which is nice), reward said players EVEN MORE through Open world RvR.

Queues - There needs to be a reason to go into the RvR lakes, reward wise.  As it stands right now, it’s much simpler for me to queue up for a scenario, stand around, and turn in the PvP quest afterwards.

Scenarios are fun, but they promote the kind of structured and rigid sheep-herding PvP that I personally despise so much.  PvP (player vs player) should be on said player’s terms - if I want to kill someone, they should be trying to kill me - not have more interest in PvE.

This is the same exact thing “PvP” was in WoW.

A quick fix to this would be to put the scenario quest givers inside of Keeps, or around battlefield objectives.  Get people out and fighting over objectives.  The Inevitable City has at least one Renown trainer, and a bunch of renown merchants, so there really is no reason to hold a Keep - other than the increase in Guild EXP gain while holding it.

Cooldown on each Scenario - stop people from playing one single scenario over and over again!  Mythic has made a bunch of awesome scenarios per tier, and usually only one gets played.  Increase the overall EXP from each scenario, or make a minimum/maximum amount of EXP you can get from a single scenario game.  A cooldown on each scenario would do wonders as well.  Or maybe make a “playlist” scenario function - After one scenario is finished, you play another, and so on - not unlike Battlefield or Team Fortress 2.

Unlock Tier 1+ Scenarios for higher ranks - Nordenwatch is a fantastic scenario.  It’s a damn shame I won’t be playing it again any time soon.  Give higher players the ability to queue for these older scenarios as well.  Overhaul the queue system and allow for this type of thing - you’d certainly get more people playing a variety of scenarios (not to mention you’re reducing the amount of playable content by restricting content).  By the way, I know this is possible, because in Beta, we ended up testing different level scenarios at different levels.

Tweak or balance EXP/Renown rewards in Scenarios - either reduce the amount of EXP gained from a Scenario, or boost the amount of EXP and Renown gained for taking objectives and Keeps.

Playing a game of Tor Anroc in Tier 3 takes about ten minutes, and I get an average of 10k EXP on my Marauder after doing so, in addition to whatever thousand renown I earn.

Why is it, then, that taking a Keep - which is much more difficult, yields less EXP and less Renown?

Maybe tweak the RvR lakes to increase experience gained within the RvR lake to be something like +25% more?  This would allow players to still skirmish PvP when desired, but put more of a focus on the RvR lakes.  Why stop there?  Why not increase the percentage of item drops when in the RvR lake?  Or add RvR Lake only drops, such as trophies, items, and pocket items?

More incentives for a guild to hold and take Keeps - right now, a Keep takes a lot of gold, and doesn’t provide much strategic importance for the owner of the Keep.

Guild wide Renown increase buffs, EXP buffs, increased loot drops in RvR for the guild, or quick travel to a Keep could all increases the viability for guilds holding a Keep - and also make them a more desirable target for guilds attacking the Keep.

Bring back viable PvP gear - In beta, it was possible to level from 1-12, 12-23, and so forth through PvP.  At certain ranks, you’d be granted access to a new set of PvP gear, which was usually far superior to that of a comparable PQ.

In the live game, PQ and PvE gear usually eclipses RvR gear, which is a shame.

I should be shooting for a decent mix of the two - and I shouldn’t be limited to a couple of items per renown rank.  Give me multiple types of items, and more items.  Not all Marauders want Strength and Weaponskill, and so on.

More stuff to do in RvR lakes

Right now, there is only so much to do in the RvR lakes - take keeps, or take Objectives (or just ignore them).  Make Warcamps siegable - if my enemy is too busy crowded around the PvP quest giver, let me siege their Warcamp, and kill all the NPCs there - not unlike a mini City siege.

Actually, put the damn NPC in the Keeps.  But let me siege warcamps anyway.

Make Battlefield Objectives and Keeps Spawn Points - other than just holding them, they should have some tactical meaning.  Make them spawn points, like the Battlefield 2/2142 spawn system - if you own one, after death, you have the choice of spawning at one.  Probably should limit this to just Battlefield Objectives, as Keeps tend to cater more to the Defender than the Attacker already.  This would make Battlefield Objectives more tactical, give a reason to defend them, and give a reason to take them.

Add Passive PQs to the RvR Lakes - something small, but have a Lake-wide PQ going for each zone - maybe something like “Collect 200 player heads”, which spawns a Lord level raid mob, or something along those lines.  It’s a bummer that these huge RvR lakes have no content at all other than just killing - something that seems to be missing as of late.

And finally…

Fix the Chicken Debuff on Open-RvR! Maybe it doesn’t seem broken, but just changing the chicken to apply ONLY if a player attacks or casts a spell on a player in that tier.  And then make the debuff last twenty minutes.  This would allow higher level players to complete Tome unlocks that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.

Related posts:

1. Keen and Graev writeup on the Chicken in Open-RvR Servers For WAR’s release, at least. From this article: Now if...
2. Mark Jacobs Addresses some Open-RvR Concerns The man himself has been quite busy over at the...
3. What happened between Beta and Live? One month in. Pictured:  Late Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning beta shot...
4. Open-RvR server for WAR decided on Going to be playing on the Wulfenburg Open-RvR server.  Chegg...
5. What I would improve in WAR WAR had a pretty good launch.  Aside from server queues...