Breaking News: Change for the Winds of Change

[PhoenixRed]

Today on the Warhammer Online US Herald we have routine maintenance. Normally, this would not be such a big deal, except for this small tidbit about the recent testing of the Winds of Change mechanic on Dark Crag:

Today, 4/29/09, all North American and Oceanic servers will be brought offline at 9:00 AM EDT for an update. We anticipate all servers to be back online by 1:00 PM EDT. This update will improve City Instances and server stability; in addition the Winds of Change feature will be removed from Dark Crag during this downtime.

The Winds of Change feature was a mechanic Mythic was testing on Dark Crag in order to deal with recent server stability issues for the overall goal of providing the best ORvR experience. The mechanic ported groups or individuals matching certain criteria from the battlefield to the nearest warcamp or chapter hub. This feature has been indicated as a test, but that hasn't stopped the introduction of the mechanic from being a very polarizing issue to the community. While this may simply be an end to the test of the mechanic and does not guarantee that it will not be implemented, it is no doubt something which will certainly generate a lot of discussion and debate.

Thanks to Aiiane for letting us know!

Source

[PhoenixRed]

Look guys and gals, I get that this is a frustrating issue, but if you can't actually have a discussion that has productive points whether positive or negative then seriously, don't post. Smart-aleck one-liners are not welcome. Read the rules, please.

[BluepaiN]

I hope this indicates that they either dismis the whole winds of change idea, or upgrade the server hardware and optimizes the gameengine.

Winds of change is only a small bandaid, which doesnt solve anything - it will only create more trouble and frustration.
However, optimization may take a great deal longer, it pays off in the end.

[Azhul]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Smart-aleck one-liners are not welcome.

Why aren't they? Nothing wrong with some humour in amongst the gloom and doom. WHA is not well-served by exclusion of humour. It helps lighten the mood.

Anyway, 'Winds' is a move made to correct a game-breaking issue. I find it remarkable that many on the official boards claim to prefer server crashes to this mechanic. If you want to actually play the game, then a server crash has to be (short of having Mythic come to your house and smash your computer) a worst-case scenario.

I don't like the apparent sorting method for the exile process, myself. It should first be applied to the realm with more members present, then the lowest level participants.

[Malakim]

might be they only removed it to deal with the destro-being-ported-to-order-wc thing that seemed to pop up alot though...

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Azhul

Why aren't they? Nothing wrong with some humour in amongst the gloom and doom. WHA is not well-served by exclusion of humour. It helps lighten the mood.

There's a difference between humor and just plain being a jerk. Frankly, I don't like the fact that the change is being tested at all and it's a bandaid, but you don't see me going about making "HURHUR" comments like "Warhammer Online, almost an MMO, lollollolol" in an attempt to get what amounts to 15 seconds of lol-fame. It doesn't help the discussion, it doesn't help get things fixed, and it certainly doesn't make someone who is reading and who might be responsible for communicating or making decisions on these mechanics take us seriously.

Let me revise slightly - if you want to make "cute" comments, sure, that's fine, but you'd better well have a legitimate, productive, good criticism to offer to the discussion, too. Otherwise, you're just going to lead to mindless flames and "fanboi/hater" accusations, and we won't get any kind of good discussion out of things at all. One-liner nonsense and other such mindless ranting/complaining/defending only leads to people arguing and flaming each other instead of the issue at hand.

I'm all for having a sense of humor and having fun (listen to our podcast and you'll see that is the case), but there's a time and a place for it, and discussions about issues like these are not one of them. This isn't a foreign concept - we've enforced these policies since day one on things in the forums and we don't see ourselves reversing that any time soon.

[Dana]

. I find it remarkable that many on the official boards claim to prefer server crashes to this mechanic.

What will be next step ? Instancing fortresses completely ? Hell, we got instanced tiers, instanced city sieges, why not fortresses ? That would fix all problems wouldnt it ? You think it will be a temporary measure ? Think again, they cant even fix skill/cast lag or out of range issues.

Face it, the net code of this game is a rubbish.

[Moger]

Wow I hope this does not go live. Given that the population is shrinking and they closed alot of servers they should be able to beef up what is running the remaining servers so they don't have to deny people the ability to play the game. It is already bad enough that there are limits on the players in fortresses and the final city. This strikes me as poor design if they did not make servers capable of handling even this reduced population.

[Damnien]

if it could be implemeted so i worked fair - meaning that one side wasn't favored because e.g. they die less and therefore aren't ported as much - then i think its a fine solution for now. while i'd prefer if big sieges worked perfect i can live with some instanced action for now. One proposed that the ported players got ported somewhere together so they could continue to fight and that way still contribute to the sieges/defence. i thinks thats a great idea!

People have told me that DAoC also have terrible lag sometimes in the start but that it improved alot over time. as long as the same is the case for warhammer i am satisfied. maybe i'm a daft fanboy but there are so many other great things about this game that even if the big sieges takes some time to get right i can wait.

[Candesious]

Originally Posted by BluepaiN

I hope this indicates that they either dismis the whole winds of change idea, or upgrade the server hardware and optimizes the gameengine.

Winds of change is only a small bandaid, which doesnt solve anything - it will only create more trouble and frustration.
However, optimization may take a great deal longer, it pays off in the end.

Yep agree this is what needs to be done and I feel the should open a new Orvr Server with launch or pre launch of 1.3

[Jmonkeh]

Originally Posted by Azhul

Anyway, 'Winds' is a move made to correct a game-breaking issue. I find it remarkable that many on the official boards claim to prefer server crashes to this mechanic. If you want to actually play the game, then a server crash has to be (short of having Mythic come to your house and smash your computer) a worst-case scenario.

No, realistically, what Winds is programmed to do at this moment would be a worst case scenario. Players predicted, and from all accounts were correct, that it would cripple WBs by suddenly removing players who were in the middle of heavy action. Imagine pushing a fort and having your tank wall suddenly vanish, along with a decent portion of your healers. It also makes it even harder for the losing side to turn things around, as all their dead members have the potential to get TPed to a far off location before they can get rezzed. For most folks a server crash would be preferable. It's more Mythic failure, but at least it's even handed.

Edit: Also it sounds like half the time the Winds were sending players to the opposing side's WCs....>.>

[Qouravax]

For an issue to be polarizing would mean that there are two seperate factions diametrically opposed.

The winds of change was just inflammatory as in it infuriated/frustrated most everyone.

[Mutters]

In my opinion, spreading out the goals to achieve city siege would spread out the population. If races can only get gear in their battlefront, they would be more apt to fight in that battlefront. My only having one fortress at a time under attack, it puts the entire server population in one zone.

Release the other 4 capitals already.

[Bluucandi]

Wasn't the current Fortress siege cap supposed to be a "bandaid"?

My patience is wearing thin. If I didn't love other aspects of this game I'd cancel subscription now.

I'd rather they delay the upcoming expansion and redirect their resources to fixing server instability. Design and install a more robust system. Put the Forts on their own servers.

[Jmonkeh]

Originally Posted by Bluucandi

I'd rather they delay the upcoming expansion and redirect their resources to fixing server instability. Design and install a more robust system. Put the Forts on their own servers.

Well now you're just being silly. The obvious solution to their problems is to charge forward headlong into more, newer, BIGGER, MORE BROKEN CONTENT.

Damn the torpedos, RAMMING SPEED!!!1!