Official Gaiscíoch Warhammer Online Suggestion Notes: V.1

Ok, So Smartguy nuked the forum before capturing this post. So Lets try this again. Now that there are official forums I will collect your feedback and submit it to mythic at the end of every month. Please List your suggestions as such:

Problem/Issue:
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Suggested Fix:
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Notes:
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Keep in mind that telling someone they have a problem is easy, however giving suggestions on how to fix the problem so that it doesn't cause more problems is the challenge. We will recommend many solutions but only a few will be heard.

Foghladha

Suggestions for improvement: 1. Make “Need on Use” the default setting for all groups/warbands, with the option to turn it off. 2. Increase (double or more) the number of characters allowed for feedback, bug reports, etc. Especially in the case of bug reports, it’s hard to supply enough meaningful details to reproduce the bug. Same with feedback. For instance, this tiny paragraph does not currently fit. 3. Fix macro issues to make them easier to use, such as variables only appending to the end of a text stream. If you’re worried someone’s going to find a way to hack the game or something, at least provide a few simple macros like in DAoC. 4. A few quests have been broken since launch. The two I can name off the top of my head are: Engine Number 9 (Dwarf Chap 2 PQ) and Balance (High Elf chap 4 quest). I’ve put in several bug reports, but see issue #2 on why they may not have been descriptive enough. 5. Please increase the spawn frequency of Lair mobs. I haven’t seen the Tier 1 Empire lair mob since Open Beta, and I visited that lair at least once a day for almost two weeks straight. 6. Fix Keep LoS for defenders. Currently, the way Line of Sight is drawn, it’s difficult to get line of sight to the ground from the keep without standing near the edges of the walls and exposing yourself to the entire enemy army. This makes it very difficult to defend a keep until the door is down and the enemy is already inside, where at least the line of sight problems caused by pillars, small rocks, depressions in the floor, etc. are shared equally by attacker and defender. Fixing LoS to allow attackers to “see” what they’re actually able to see would allow players to actually defend the keep without instantly dying to the entire enemy army. Basically, if they can target me, I should be able to target them. 7. Add the ability to “mount” a banner inside a keep, allowing the banner’s effects to affect all guild members within the Keep (no cap on number affected). 8. Add keep-specific tactics for guild banners that can only be used if the banner is “mounted” on the keep… things like “increase range of all non-melee abilities by 5%” or “increase hitpoints of all siege weapons by 5%”… stuff like that. 9. Add more environmental interaction roleplaying support! Especially since I play on a roleplaying server, the lack of ability to do simple things like sit in chairs gets annoying. I realize that this doesn’t specifically tie into all the fighting, but it does help increase immersion, and a lot of us came to this game for more than just RvR, but also to “live” in the Warhammer world. 10. Add more crafting! I have three friends currently playing WoW. The *only* reason they are is because they love crafting, and while they dislike WoW’s crafting, some is better than practically none. Add weapon/armor crafting… maybe even siege crafting! For Weapons and Armor, I realize that you want this to be essentially a drop-based game, but even just adding some base craftable weapon/armor items with no stat bumps and a few talisman slots would be ok for most people. 11. Add crafting animations. Standing around the craft merchants isn’t nearly as exciting as having your character mixing two vials together, or inscribing some mystical runes onto a curio. Something visual that lets others know you’re crafting would be nice.

Hrmm... apparently I fail at reading comprehension... I'll fix it in a sec :)

Fixed: Suggestions for improvement: Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Need on Use is designed to prevent people from rolling “need” on items they can’t use. Most group leaders forget this setting isn’t on until it costs someone an item they could have used, because someone else rolled “need” even though they couldn’t use it. This is especially problematic when that item is a rare, bind on pickup item such as the RvR chest armor. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Make “Need on Use” the default setting for all groups/warbands, with the option to turn it off. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- The feedback/bug report system does not currently allow for enough characters to submit detailed information on the problem at hand. Additional information could lead to speedier bug fixes, as more data on how to reduce the problem would then be made available. Many of us who play Warhammer Online are also IT or CS professionals, and not only take the time to perform additional testing, but get frustrated when the fruits of our efforts cannot be relayed to those who can do something with it. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Increase (double or more) the number of characters allowed for feedback, bug reports, etc. Especially in the case of bug reports, it’s hard to supply enough meaningful details to reproduce the bug. Same with feedback. For instance, this tiny paragraph does not currently fit. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- This one’s a pet peeve of mine. The current limit has not only thwarted repeated attempts to detail the steps required to reproduce the problems I’m encountering, but often don’t even provide enough space for me to detail the problem in the first place. It really does need to be fixed. Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- The current system of Macros is difficult to understand conceptually for those who do not have a scripting background. For those that DO have a scripting background, the particulars of the macro system often don’t work the way it would seem like they’re supposed to. To further inflate the problem, there’s no in-game (or out of game, from what I can tell) official documentation on the API, how to use it, and its limitations. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Add simple macros for more complex , commonly used things, like inserting the race, name, level, etc. of a target into text. Provide in-game documentation through the game manual to explain the API system and how It works. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Lair mobs are powerful creatures that require several well-tuned groups to kill. As such, the time of those several well-tuned groups is wasted every time they go to the lair and find the lair mob is not up. This seems to be far more often the case than not, as the lair mobs are apparently on 12 hour spawn cycles. This means that most characters often pass through an entire tier (especially tier 1) without even having the option to take on a Lair. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Increase the spawn rate of lair mobs, especially in Tier 1. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Seriously, it’s that bad. I’ve run 14 of my characters through Tier 1 since Open Beta, which was the last time I saw the Empire Tier 1 lair mob. I’m not an exceptionally fast leveler, but I’m also on Mountain time, which means I’m often a few hours too late. Not getting to experience a part of the game simply because I’m in the wrong time zone doesn’t seem very fair to me. Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Line of sight is apparently drawn from some low part of a person’s body to the same part of the enemy’s body. The net result is that it is easier to look up than down. This has a serious impact on keep defenses, where it’s possible to shoot defenders when they’re standing in a position where the defender can’t “see” the target that just hit them. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Raise the line of sight origination point up a few feet on the character model. If it doesn’t already, allow it to draw to any point on the target, rather than a specific point. This may put line of sight above the heads of some races, but would make keep battles more fair, and allow defenders to actually defend more effectively while the enemy is outside the castle, rather than waiting for them to come inside. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Keep defense is often abandoned because it’s easier to let the attacker have the keep and take it back later than it is to defend the keep. Part of this is due to line of sight, but part of this is also because Defenders lack any of the classic advantages that being in a fortified structure would normally incur (cover, additional range, etc). Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Allow guild banners “mounted” on a keep when the guild claims it to provide its bonuses to all within the keep (or, as a minimum, all guild members within the keep) as opposed to limiting its effect to 36 people. This would allow claimed keeps to provide a tangible advantage to all the defenders, perhaps even exceeding the cumulative advantages provided by individual banners on the ground. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Adding additional keep-specific tactics for guild banners would be the next logical step after this change is implemented. Keep specific tactics could do things such as increase range or damage of non-melee attacks, or increase hitpoints or damage of siege weapons mounted on the keep Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- While Warhammer Online succeeds at being a good RvR game, it needs more roleplay support to truly be an “MMORPG”. Simple things like sitting down in chairs would be nice. Crafting animations (like mixing vials or scribing runes on a curio) would also be good. The game seems to be missing a lot of little touches that would make it more immersive, and thus, more roleplay friendly. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Add more roleplay specific stuff to the game. I gave a few examples above, but other than that… be creative! You guys have done a great job thus far, but increasing the ways we can interact with the world would go a long way to making it seem less static. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Warhammer Online’s crafting seems very lacking, like an afterthought. The crafting systems that are currently in place work well, but most of the items produced by them are barely noticeable in effect, and the cost far exceeds the benefit. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Decrease the cost of tradeskill materials to better reflect the value of the items produced, or increase the effects of the items produced to better reflect the cost of creating them. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- Problem/Issue: --------------------------------------------------------- Other games incorporate staple tradeskills such as Blacksmithing to varying degrees, but almost always to a point that it becomes a useful skill despite the value of the drops in the world. The conspicuous absence of any sort of armor, weapon, or jewelry crafting in Warhammer Online is an oft-cited reason for why many of my friends are still playing World of Warcraft. Suggested Fix: --------------------------------------------------------- Add Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, and Jewelcrafting as tradeskills. At a minimum, allow them to create blank (statless) weapons of average/good/high/best quality, to match the base armor/damage stats of white, green, blue, and purple quality weapons, armor, and jewelry, with talisman slots based on quality to allow players to craft their own items. These items would not necessarily compete with set items, nor would they necessarily be better or worse than drops… they’d simply be different. Notes: --------------------------------------------------------- It seems odd that in a world where so much emphasis is placed on crafting, with Dwarf runic items, enchanted Elf items, ruinous chaos artifacts, experimental Empire gadgets, etc, that crafting is so underdeveloped.