1.3.1 PTS Has Begun! Invasion is Nigh!

[News Herald]

Testing time is once again upon us!

The Public Test Server (Warpstone) is now open, and with it comes two developer lead events. Be amongst the first to experience the revamped City Invasion PQ's and the redesigned Keeps in what is an exciting list of Realm vs. Realm changes!

Join the Mythic Dev Team tomorrow night, 8/7/2009, as the armies of Order storm the gates of The Inevitable City. Join us as we test the new City Invasion experience that is promising to put the fight back into City RvR.

The following night, Saturday 8/8/2009, will see the armies of Destruction striking back at the home of the forces of Order as they bring the WAR to Altdorf.

So be sure to check out how to access the Public Test Server (http://forums.warhammeronline.com/warhammer/board/message?board.id=pts_announcements&thread.id=23&jump=true) and join in on the excitement. Also, don't forget to participate in the 1.3.1 Focus Discussion on the official forums starting tomorrow!

Don't have a Rank 40 Character? Not to worry as we will be providing character templates for this City testing only. Simply create a new character and select the template in the top right corner or the character creation screen prior to hitting "Create". Please note, these templates will be made available prior to tomorrow evenings testing. So come and support your realm and see all of the exciting new City Invasion changes!

Be sure to check out the 1.3.1 PTS Patch Notes here (http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2009_1-3-1). (http://herald.warhammeronline.com/patchnotes/index.php?id=2009_1-3-1%20)

KNOWN ISSUE FOR 1.3.1 PUBLIC TEST:


Warbands/Grouping UI - Players may occasionally appear offline in the Warband or Party UI. This is a known issue that we are currently investigating a fix for.
Monster NPC's may warp randomly when entering the flee state or tethering.

We'll see you on the PTS!

WAAAGH!



Full Herald Post (http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=880)

[Vasan]

Zealot

Bug Fixes:
* Breath of Tzeentch: This ability will no longer gray out when the player has the Immovable effect.


Haha, not my problem anymore, but man, they really don't have any interest in real bug fixes for unsupported classes do they?

[Athelstaine]

I know that the City invasions suck. It seems to me that the new changes really favor whatever faction has the most population on a server. bright side looks like Marauders finally got some attention.

[Vasan]

I tried not to be negative, but yeah the larger population is going to rock the lower one now.

The counter point is the defending faction can throw out the winning one pretty quickly, really making everyone unhappy.

[Chowskin]

The counter point is the defending faction can throw out the winning one pretty quickly, really making everyone unhappy.


Not exactly. I did the math out and assuming it stays a 15 hour lockout timer, and that 5 instances are running, it will still take the defenders around 2.5 hours to kick out the attackers, leaving plenty of time for both sides to gear up (defenders doing the Invader PQ and attackers doing the Warlord PQ).

If there are less instances running, then the time does go up, but I think it only goes up to like 7-8 hours for 1 instance to kick out all attackers. (my spreadsheet is at home)

In other words, allowing the defenders a chance to lower the lockout time AND farm for invader gear is a HUGE boost for the underdog realm since before once a city was locked it was ONLY the attackers farming Warlord gear.

[Chowskin]

I know that the City invasions suck. It seems to me that the new changes really favor whatever faction has the most population on a server.

I don't see how this is. Remember, city attacks are instanced, so you get a fair 48v48 fight. Sure, there will be instances where the attacker will be alone. However, if you are alone in an instance, it will take 1 side almost 17 minutes to flip the PQ to stage 2. Realistically, that means empty instances will only be able to complete the PQ about 5 times.

I may be missing something, but I don't see how that favors the bigger realm. I suppose it all boils down to if they fixed the contribution from the city scenarios or not.

[Vasan]

Not exactly. I did the math out and assuming it stays a 15 hour lockout timer, and that 5 instances are running, it will still take the defenders around 2.5 hours to kick out the attackers, leaving plenty of time for both sides to gear up (defenders doing the Invader PQ and attackers doing the Warlord PQ).

If there are less instances running, then the time does go up, but I think it only goes up to like 7-8 hours for 1 instance to kick out all attackers. (my spreadsheet is at home)

In other words, allowing the defenders a chance to lower the lockout time AND farm for invader gear is a HUGE boost for the underdog realm since before once a city was locked it was ONLY the attackers farming Warlord gear.

Wait, what?

You get two hours to capture the city, then another hour or two to pillage it.

Understanding it usually will take quite some time to capture the city, and if the attackers don't defend the main PQ over many instances, the defenders will start to flip the pq's pretty quickly and your stay in the city will be a short one. Each defender run PQ is a half hour less for the attackers so you just need to run a few to kick out the attackers.

Are you saying on test now, once the city attack begins you are given 15 hours until you are locked out? If so, well that sounds like a nightmare. Are you given four hours total now for the whole deal? Back to six hours?

Oh and it favors the larger side by allowing them to fan out, and farm many instances for bos points. It favors the more organized side by allowing them to farm pugs/instance surfers as well. No really objection to that, how else would it work? It will just feed into larger numbers farming IC without some sort of counter balance like the scenarios.

At any rate, I am glad improvements are being made, just wish they had happened like eight to six months ago. And they need to work on something to happen with population imbalances instead telling us the pop imbalances are't there. Much like they tell us classes are well balanced and the realms are as well.

[Chowskin]

Wait, what?

You get two hours to capture the city, then another hour or two to pillage it.

Understanding it usually will take quite some time to capture the city, and if the attackers don't defend the main PQ over many instances, the defenders will start to flip the pq's pretty quickly and your stay in the city will be a short one. Each defender run PQ is a half hour less for the attackers so you just need to run a few to kick out the attackers.

Are you saying on test now, once the city attack begins you are given 15 hours until you are locked out? If so, well that sounds like a nightmare. Are you given four hours total now for the whole deal? Back to six hours?



No, you still get TWO HOURS to move the city from "contested" to "captured". "Captured" will act like stage 3 did in the past, and "Contested" will act like stage 1. Effectively, they are removing the old "pillaging" phase that only lasted an hour.

There are only 3 types of cities now: Contested, Captured, and Rebuilding.

Contested = Invader PQ open. Will run just like the old stage 1, attackers have 2 hours to lock down the city.

Captured = if the invaders lock down the city, the warlord pqs now become available along with the invader pqs. I am assuming that it will be 15 hours like the old stage 3 was, only that the defenders can fight and make that timer much, much lower. It would NOT make any sense to only have the defenders do the invader pq 2 times to kick out all the attackers.

Remember also that BOs points are instance specific, so I don't get how a more populous realm will crush the other in city sieges, it has always been and always be that lop-sided instances give less VPs to those farming it.

[Vasan]

Huh. A few stalemate instances, then a lot more full of order with token destruction players does seem to favor the larger side in my view, so I will just leave it at that. I don't quite see how this new system offers any aid to the out numbered realm honestly, or just doesn't allow the larger size to amass points via larger forces. But we can agree to disagree.

Allowing 15 hours in the city, if true, is maddness. I can only hope they alter the time period to something approaching sanity.

And honestly, Chowskin, since when have the devs every changed or done anything that has made any sense. Large across the boards ae nurfs to underpowered classes? I don't see why anyone would have faith in their ability to get things right at this point, after a year of ineptness. I mean the city invasion scenario impact has been broken since launch, they never bothered to look into it during all this time.

At any rate I still believe they will need to alter the system abit to allow attackers enough time to do the pq's once they win, but also allowing defenders to have a meaningful impact on reducing the timers. And using your numbers, I don't feel making the defenders do the city PQ about 30 times while order is in pve city instances is a step in the right direction for game play.