Game Director Letter – August 2013

[Chillee]

or one random player inside playfield will be the boss and opposite team needs to destroy him

That would be awesome. Have one player randomly annointed or something to give him some huge buff that only lasts as long as he's in that zone.

[Sarcopthes]

could you change the name from 'hyborian race' to 'korean grind race' please?

and the winner is...... the person who spent 1234567890 hours playing aoc in last 3 months, GZ!

I couldnt believe we have such a creative team, such a innovation, such a great idea, brilliant event!


I got an idea for next event: everyone is supposed to get as much renown points as possible - first 10 no-lifers will get new shiny turtle mount, welcome to the brutal world of hyboria

[nikepilas]

Let's think about this strange "Hyborian Race" to be first toon reaching 80:

At the first stages of the race, those players with more free time to play will be ahead soon.

If someone manages to stay 48 hours playing continuously from start, and then leveling steadily to 80, will find barely any PvP opposition at all, due to no players of same or higher level.

I am not judging the ganker here, but if one player can interrupt the objectives of one full raid and in the end he turns victorious, having fun...while dozens others get annoyed and murderer...i guess something is wrong with the design.

The adjectives dangerous and unforgiving should be part of Hyboria. That's what guilds and alliances are for, to get the strength needed to overrun agressors. In this case if raid was coordinated and not a bunch of individual strangers the ganker would die soon enough.

MMO PvP games should focus in this social aspect of individual weakness and collective strength.

If there must be a PvP race in a fresh new Hyborian server it should reward guilds capable of defend their battlekeep or assault victoriously enemy's one.


.

[Ideadz89]

They are not the same thing, and setting up the race requires very little work compared to revamping the PvP systems in the game.

So instead of making good pvp system you are throwing at us some temporary content for no lifers to win....well you let me down Joel I thought you have bigger ambitions.

Why dont you simply take your time and make new good pvp system instead of wasting your time on content which is doomed....I said it 2 years ago that Blood and Glory will fail and it failed because there was still PVE side of the game and players grinded pve gear to be better in pvp. This new idea will fail again.

[Lerael]

Grind race is the worst idea ever since the bori content.

[Frezard]

I like that you answer in all honesty Joel, but I don't think you really taking into consideration about this race event you are planing. Sure it takes less time to develop, but is that people want?

I think more people would be more happy (MUCH happier) If you just merged, all the PvP servers into one and just called it Fury, rage or what ever. Now I don't play the game anymore, but AoC was one of the best MMO Iv ever played until patch 1,5 and Bori.

And I know what Funcom promised back in 2007 and 2008, and the good thing is you are not doing that mistake, but doing another.

Trying to start a race on lvling when the most players already have 3-7 80s. And remember you dont have a lot of new players in this game. What you need to focus on, is how do I draw the old players back into the game, because believe me if you manage to bring back an old player, then you would be able to draw more players then you expect. Thats why the best solution and the most players want to see is ONE pvp server and it have the hardcore ruleset.


Edit: And you should already realise that most people that are writing here, think race event is a bad idea, you should take that into consideration before you act on it, DON'T be a stubborn about this.

Best Regards Brogoma

[Sarcopthes]

So instead of making good pvp system you are throwing at us some temporary content for no lifers to win....well you let me down Joel I thought you have bigger ambitions.

Why dont you simply take your time and make new good pvp system instead of wasting your time on content which is doomed....I said it 2 years ago that Blood and Glory will fail and it failed because there was still PVE side of the game and players grinded pve gear to be better in pvp. This new idea will fail again.

thats old idea. thats sillirion idea which failed because pvp systems were broken. Its imba fail to copy bad ideas of the previous usuccessful game director and sell them as a new event. who is stupid here? I believe players if they will pay for it.

[Nusquam]

There are three points that I feel people are either missing in the letter or ignoring:

1. It isn't just a race to 80, PvP levels are also rewarded.
2. Instances are disabled = no easy dungeon loot grinding to be competitive in PvP.
3. For some reason the length of 3 months keeps showing up. The race will end when the results are in - I'd suspect a few weeks at best.

For those who are interested.

Edit: And you should already realise that most people that are writing here, think race event is a bad idea, you should take that into consideration before you act on it, DON'T be a stubborn about this.

Yes sure, I can cut it. It doesn't change anything in what we are working on otherwise. People are treating this as if we are neglecting something to work on this.

The question here is whether people want something or nothing?

People keep asking for "something else" as if it that is an option. But as I said earlier, our plans for PvP have been outlined a while ago. Once those are done, I will outline a new set of plans. The existence of the race does not change those plans in any way.

[Frezard]

There are three points that I feel people are either missing in the letter or ignoring:

1. It isn't just a race to 80, PvP levels are also rewarded.
2. Instances are disabled = no easy dungeon loot grinding to be competitive in PvP.
3. For some reason the length of 3 months keeps showing up. The race will end when the results are in - I'd suspect a few weeks at best.

For those who are interested.

PvP levels? Do you know the amount of grind you need to do to get those?

[Kurt2013]

There are three points that I feel people are either missing in the letter or ignoring:

1. It isn't just a race to 80, PvP levels are also rewarded.
2. Instances are disabled = no easy dungeon loot grinding to be competitive in PvP.
3. For some reason the length of 3 months keeps showing up. The race will end when the results are in - I'd suspect a few weeks at best.

For those who are interested.

Thanks for answering some questions.

1. If your breakpoint is lvl80, it is effectively a race to 80, especially if access to higher level gear and making friends will help with getting pvp levels.
2. This was not clear in your post. You said there would be restrictions...not the same as disabling them all. What about the item shop and premium AAs from levelling, will they be disabled, too?
3. Well, good luck with your race then! Seriously! No content for me though...

Quote: "People keep asking for "something else" as if it that is an option."

- fixing bugs (mini join bug, tournament queue) and doing quick balancing code changes (Bori, allowing lower signup numbers with friends for tournament) should ALWAYS be an option