Elder NDA

[Treize]

Originally Posted by 7Deaths

They should have lifted the NDA in all its entirety - why would they want to keep people from knowing about the end game ? Does not make sense to me and makes me a little nervous -

I think its more the reasoning they may change things on that server that will be for the worse but won't be seen in public patch releases. Just a thought, same with most betas...its there to test it. If people hear everything including some horrific event that they will never ever need to experience it will effects the mentality of the whole.

[Saidin]

Don't be nervous, the end game content is awesome, All I can say is when I first walked into Praag and realised it was a whole zone that was a 3 level city that was all RvR I was sold in all entirety for WAR. (Not that there was any question before that but you know)

The walkways, and bridges, and ramps to use knockback and send stunties flying over the stairs is tons of fun.

With preview weekend looking at how the servers are holding up it should be fun.

[Dac The Hork]

Originally Posted by Zaagazug

The CB people (as myself) have been through two phases of city sieges. Not as much as the Elder testers but still some. Just ask away.

Reread the NDA the stuff you are referring to is under NDA.

The stuff I can talk bout is T4 RvR in general. We never did the capital stuff but did do fortress sieges. Basically at least for fortress it takes place a zone away from a respawn point. So dying really sets you back. The other team has like 30 minutes to capture the fortress, at least for the empire side there where like 3 of the big doors to get into the outer wall. Inside is a pretty huge keep with multiple floors and chokepoints. Think T2 keep with about triple size + a huge outer wall.

I only did it defending as a Bright Wizard and basically spent most of it AOEing, but we didn't have many order inside and I died to rank 4 morales.

The overall RvR battle (tug of war) is pretty awesome. The main objectives are the keeps and taking one is a pretty big effort.

I ran a 6 man gank squad a few nights and basically we either cap undefended far way battle objectives while the zerg fights, or assist keep taking zergs by guarding the entrances. By guarding the entrances you stop the flow of new people to defend it, but it requires a snares/knockbacks and a decent sized group so you get to them before they can reinforce.

The area I spent a lot of time in was praag and the zone is really well done with atmosphere. Tier 1 RvR is a joke compared to how epic and crazy tier 4 is gonna get.

btw knockbacks are really fun in keep sieges when you get inside. You can get behind the front line enemies and knock them down into your zerg or off the side of the keep in some areas. I have been knocked off the keep in barack varr (tier 2) all the way into the water by a squigg herder when they where sieging the outer door and I was shooting down on them

[Zaagazug]

Originally Posted by Chazz

Alright, I actually do have a question. Everyone and his damn MOTHER seems to be whining about the city sieges being broken up into instances. But aren't the main *siege* encounters, the actual storming of the gates, large weapons, etc. etc. still massive public things, it's only once the gates fall and you storm the city itself the instance?

This is correct. The T4 fights are world PvP events, so are the city fortress fights.

Once Altdorf or Inevitable city becomes contested (through 2 T4 lockdowns including 2 city fortresses - all open world PvP) the city fight starts. This part is instanced: You are fighting the other side in the city streets and in scenarios and try to win the city - just like a normal zone.

I think it is good that the city fights are instanced. The alternative would be that everyone and their mother came and defended/attacked the city which most likely would be a pretty bad experience for everyone with ~1,000 players or so in the streets at the same time in one city.

If the attacker wins the city zone the attacker moves to the next stage which is the looting phase of the city. This part is also instanced to ensure that everyone gets a chance to fight the city's leaders and ultimately the 'king'.

Edit: The poster above claims this is NDA covered information. I get confused now since that is not the information I have received from GOA (I am not an Elder tester). If it still is I am happy to delete this post.

[Azhul]

Okay - here's a question:

Are siege weapons used in any way in a city siege?

[JonnyBigBoss]

I'm not sure we're allowed to say anything regarding it but you must understand what elder beta testing is. It's basically very specific testing for things they really want to test. They are subject to change and we test it TO give feedback and have it changed appropriately. I would NEVER expect such an NDA to come down, and even if it did it would have no impact. What do you want to know? What endgame is like? If you want to know what tier 4 is like, just watch a podcast about it. That's literally what it is. Oh, and since I know that won't satisfy you I'll give you a treat:

Is the tier 4 content good? Yes.

Happy?

[Azhul]

Originally Posted by JonnyBigBoss

I'm not sure we're allowed to say anything regarding it but you must understand what elder beta testing is. It's basically very specific testing for things they really want to test. They are subject to change and we test it TO give feedback and have it changed appropriately. I would NEVER expect such an NDA to come down, and even if it did it would have no impact. What do you want to know? What endgame is like? If you want to know what tier 4 is like, just watch a podcast about it. That's literally what it is. Oh, and since I know that won't satisfy you I'll give you a treat:

Is the tier 4 content good? Yes.

Happy?

Not in the least.

I want to know how the endgame works. Has the complete endgame (from capture of the second fortress) even been tested? That is a major issue.

Were the testers polled about the city and class cuts?

Is the version that elders are testing free of the major bugs which which so many are posting about?

[James_EAMythic]

Originally Posted by Azhul

Not in the least.

I want to know how the endgame works. Has the complete endgame (from capture of the second fortress) even been tested? That is a major issue.

Were the testers polled about the city and class cuts?

Is the version that elders are testing free of the major bugs which which so many are posting about?

To save our elders from breaking the NDA I'll say this.

End game content functions exactly as we have explained in the podcast.

You lock down 2 pairings by capturing the fortress at the end of each. At this time the city becomes contested and enemy players may storm the gates and begin a city wide public quest build on ransacking, pillaging, and killing their enemies. We have tested capturing 2 pairings and watched the city flip to contested. In addition to the public quests you also have a scenario of epic proportions. It encompasses multiple rulesets and requires a large amount of coordination in order to win.

Cities are broken up into instances of 48 on 48, which in the concentrated, urban environment is quite intense. Players must play a tug of war in the city wide public quest to attempt to beat the other side (one side is trying to put out the fires that the other is lighting) in addition to controlling battlefield objectives at key strategic areas. This PQ plus winning scenarios contributes victory points, and much like normal zone capture this is displayed in the victory points bar above the minimap.

At this point the defender will either win and oust the attacker or the attacker will capture the city. No defenders can enter the city at this time and the rest will be booted once they're dead (but they're still able to put up a fight!) If the defenders win the campaign resets and control goes back to the neutral tier 4 zones.

Once the city is captured 2 public quests unlock and players are able to explore the PvE dungeons within the city. (expanding the amount of PvE content available to the server.)

Once these two PQ's are defeated the king encounter unlocks for all city instances and warbands can now assault the palace and challenge the king.

All of this has been tested, in some cases multiple times.

I'm not sure what bug's you're referring to but bugs do appear on the Test Server. These are builds that come straight from our internal test servers and this is why we roll out versions to the Test Servers first and why it's still under NDA.

The game is in a changing state and players on these servers are experiencing cutting edge content. We want, to some degree, for this content to still be exciting and mysterious for our players while still being able to test it thouroughly and make changes based on feedback.

Thanks all, hope that clears that up

[Azhul]

What I am asking is whether the entire sequence has been run. I have heard about focused testing. Are the pieces (city capture, PQs, king fight) being tested separately?

About the Elder NDA - is it going to be lifted before launch (or ever)?

[Attilat]

So it's not 72 vs 72, but 48 vs 48?

[Atran]

Why is the NDA being dragged on so long.

[Pangscar]

Originally Posted by Atran

Why is the NDA being dragged on so long.

Its not.... The NDA is gone.

The only thing in place is a BTA(beta test agreement). Which prohibits talking about the private forums and the test servers that elder testers have access to.

[Malatov]

I wonder how the king encounters are going to be.

Hack and slash? Can warbands just go running in there and zerg them down?

Or will there actually be phases and some in-depth aspects to them...

Only time will tell I suppose.

[Dastion]

Originally Posted by Malatov

I wonder how the king encounters are going to be.

Hack and slash? Can warbands just go running in there and zerg them down?

Or will there actually be phases and some in-depth aspects to them...

Only time will tell I suppose.

Beta Testers can not answer those questions. The *only* things we can speak of are things that anyone on the normal "Preview Weekend" servers experience (even if we experience it on the Elder Server). Anything that we test on the Elder servers is under it's own mini-NDA for now, and we cannot post any information beyond what, essentially, James wrote.

We also cannot post patch notes, forum posts, ect. we got a post about the NDA being dropped just before you guys did, yet we couldn't post it. Just like a year ago when Mythic wrote a letter to the beta testers about the servers going down for 2 months and someone posted it here, even though it wasn't a big deal and was announced later on (though written differently) it was still technically covered and Mythic had them remove it simply because they couldn't pick and choose on something like that.

[Ashane]

You guys are so trying to get us in trouble!

Ask the EU testers... apparently they had a city siege, and I guess it wasnt covered by a second NDA (or BTA, whatever)....