Game Director Letter - April 2013

[Azmith]

@Milk

There should be higher rewards for people who play unchained minies. Why? There people play with their skill (i hope) and not with gear. Most of players can "do" something in current AoC because of their gear and that is wrong. Without gear they are nothing.

Why should those kinda players get rewards who never increase their own personal skills in PvP. There should be double or triple rewards for those who have balls to fight without their precious gear



Those full geared PvP 10 characters which were farmed on Crom for year were fresh?

I could name many of them, which appeared suddenly

But then again, i was not part of (premade) battles against them.
Just pointing out fact so you do not lie

I wasn't there, couldn't be ass'd to. I just know what I heard. How you think NA players switch over to premade and then suddenly have pvp 10 characters is beyond me. I really didn't think there was enough time between them going over and the premades happening for them to even get pvp 10 and have all the gear that comes with it. Doesn't even matter really, since by that point I'm sure the players were C list at best, on both sides.

[Bibik]

Oh well, when can we expect TL update ? Last one was almost 3 month ago...

[Roargathor]

You say you understand it but your posts suggest otherwise. Pvp scenerios outside minis probably make up less than 10% of the total pvp that occurs in this game but the real point is this:

If you truly want a system that is purely based on skill then gear wouldn't be a motivating factor. I don't believe you are being honest. I think what it really comes down to is people don't like the fact that they have to go through progression to be competitive in which case, splitting minis is a much better solution to the problem.

Players in this game are some of the most illogical and overly-opinionated people I've come across. Most are dishonest in their posts and their main focus is usually themselves rather than the greater good of the game.

What they say: We want premades!
What they mean: We want to stack good players versus bad player or premade vs pug stomp people.
Evidence: Look no further than the empty tournament mode queues for evidence.

What they say: We want skill based pvp!
What they mean: We want skill based pvp that still awards progression gear thus circumventing the progression system but still progressing.
Watch and see on this one. Implement a purely skill based system that doesn't award gear and see how many people actually play it. It'll be a little more popular than tournament but I don't believe that skill based pvp can stand on its own. If you give gear to these type of minis then you are only proving that it was never about skill vs. gear but about obtaining gear more easily.

The solution is simple. Let PvErs have their progression. Take gear power out of PvP. PvPer's are FORCED to grind for gear to be competitive, because currently (since 1.05) Gear has a heavy influence on PvP. Which was never supposed to be the case. It seems a big waste to have such an awesome "skill based" combat system when that skill is drastically undermined by passive advantages from item stats. I say cap all PvP stats/bonuses from gear at a set amount dictated by player level. The gear stats can inflate all you want for PvE forever. I don't care. Just as long as the PvE stats don't carry over into PvP. Essentially items would have two sets of stats, just like players already do in the skills/atributes tab. Separate bonuses/resistances/damage for PvP and PvE.

You might be wielding a t3 sword of awesome that does 300-400 dps in PvE, but only does 200-300 against players. You friend has a t4 sword of awsome-er that does 450-550 dps against Npcs, but still only does 200-300 dps against PLAYERS.

What's the incentive to PvP then? For most pvpers, the thrill of battle, the fatalities, the recognition of being a skilled fighter. Tangible in-game rewards for PvP should be cosmetic. Vanity armors/weapons titles mounts... is more than enough for most (if not all) truly PvP minded players.

PvP is and always should be about fun/competition. As soon as you put vertical power progression into it, it's not fun (especially for fresh 80's). It becomes a grind. Leave the grind to PvE where it belongs. Take it out of PvP where it has NO business.

For the record. I am 2 bubbles shy of becoming PvP 8, which took me around 3 years to get from open world skirmishes, grinding hundreds of imbalanced mini-games and even some measure of bori farming (A last resort during off peak times when no minis would pop and nothing happening elsewhere). I have saved more than enough tokens to buy a full set of high level PvP gear. I'd happily trade all that "hard work" for a more skill based, level playing field. I know I'm not alone.

People like "Milkshakes" might like game how it is now. The "progression" required to compete in their MMO PvP, "they way it Should be", Blah, blah.. However, the empty servers tell a different story. I am not asking for a return of 1.04, and all problems that it had. The gems, the class imbalances... What I want is very clear, and very doable if FC put their focus in the right spot for a few months. There is more than one way to fix the problem, I just suggested one way.

Will the game loose subscribers if focus is shifted to PvP for a while? Definitely, but chances are that those subs were going to cancel anyway once newer MMO's release. All I know is that AOC is sure to gain much more back if PvP is revamped to be more skill based. It is also a sure bet that the game will continue to lose more subs than it gains if continues to focus on PvE as it has been for the last 4 years, given that the content will be even slower to come due to FC restructuring.

The PvP changes I mentioned would not require entirely new play-fields and raid encounters to code, balance and test. Art assets required would be minimal. They are already re-tooling the crafting system, so they could work in the PvP/pve stats since they have to re-itemize anyway. It really seems like a no brainer. Risk/vs reward. It's better for the game, and FC in general to try and get more money flowing into the game than to try and keep the shrinking PvE crowd happy with a shrunken team and further limited resources. If you disagree with my logic, please show me where I'm wrong.

[Prima]

For what it's worth, coming from someone with no PVP progression to give up at the moment, I agree. I think power progression (gear, etc.) and group recognition (guild cities, etc.) should be the province of PVE. PVP should be about vanity gear and individual honors: leaderboards, statues in OT (which was once an announced feature for the game...), etc. And the Unchained mode seems a nice step to at least test that direction. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

[Suctum]

You obviously don't believe what you preach because if it is really about skill then you'd have no reason to ever want to sign up for normal minis. Another guy that wants the have his cake and eat it.


Please tell me all about 2008 minis. You know, the time when barb cyclone could one shot anyone. Or when gemmed gear dominated the game and guardians were white hitting people to death in a few hits. Or perhaps you remember the charge bug where you could queue up 20+ charges and one shot most classes. Or remember when the original pvp gear was introduced and it gave people 35% magic and physical mitigation whereas all non pvp gear less than 5%? Then after adding the battlekeep buffs, players were at over 50% mitigation. Yea, those were the days. Tell me about more about 2008.

I could go on but what's the point? You have strong opinions but no real logic or evidence to back your points up with.

You forgot mage sheild stacking and pulsating gem suits too...why people think that this was AoC at it's best is just lolz.

Although it's not any better today with grind = winning, any effort to balance PvP through unchained is at least a sign they understand it's all screwed up right now the way it is currently.

And as a side note, most of the people who want premades only want to pug stomp. I can't remember how many times back before 2.0 that the two premades in the que would avoid each other for hours while talking trash like that it was anything else. Very few times did a premade actually sign up wanting to fight another premade.

I totally agree with you and anyone else who was playing since the start who does not remember all this is ignorant and didn't PvP then or somebody who enjoys having an edge in PvP against other players, which would make sense why they would not want a system that puts people more on equal footing.

[Roargathor]

I'm still waiting for someone to bring intelligent argument to my assertion. Milkshakes? Anyone? Were you all defeated by the wall of text, or is my logic really as impenetrable as I thought?

[Nuadh]

Loads of great stuff

Listen to this man and world MMO domination is within reach!

(no sarcasm, really, this man has some great points eventho he's not the first to mention them).

[Drest]

Since there is already a long and good discussion on Unchained vs. progression PvP here:

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=182476

I would direct you to continue the topic there as it is the proper section for it anyway. Further posts on that subject will be moved into that thread.

[EDIT] I have removed some posts about latency issues as a result of the move to US servers as there is already a thread on the subject here:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=182210

[Mondmeister]

Thanks for the unplayable Latency and that Funcom will merge Mitra with the other PVE-Servers, a beautiful game but bad decisions from Funcom like this.

The most german speaking player had some months ago vote that we did not want to be merged with Crom, but Funcom forget so quickly.

The Player base rises the last months, if the Players want to go to a international Server they can do this but they come to a german speaking Server, where they can speak her first language german with all Players there. All was well.

Who need one Server, this is a TSW-Technology, not a AOC-Technology.

AOC need more high-end-Content in shorter periods, new things like a new crafting system and a pvp-ranking-System not Server-Merges and no one Server-Technology made for a other game.

[Zatochi]

Well most germans want merge with crom, movbing servers to us is another story. but Mondmeister tend to believe what germans want. dont believe him..