Cross-server scenarios. As a game designer, I understand the hesitation to do it in the first place. This game is about PvP. It’s about controlling territory and winning the war. Scenarios contribute to the overall control of an area. And, players can get to know the faces of the enemies they’ll face in the overland battlefields within the world.

But, it’s all about fun. It is not fun to wait 30+ minutes to get into a scenario (sometimes even hours) even in primetime. It is not fun to wait even longer during the morning or early afternoon (read: I’ve never been in a scenario before about 4:00PM on Thorgrim). What is fun is to get into a scenario within 5-10 minutes and commence the beatdown.

As I mentioned, allowing players to queue up for all of their tier’s scenarios no matter which of the zones they’re in was a great step. I’ve seen a bit of a drop in queue times, so I’ve seen a bit of an increase in fun.

But I think they need to go further. What would I do?

I would make all servers of the same general type join the same pool of characters for scenario queues. That means all PvE-focused servers would be in one pool, and all PvP-focused servers would be in another. I might even go so far as to just put all servers into the same pool, regardless of their server type.

Why? So players can get to the fun faster! I know that scenarios contribute to the overall control of an area, and I wouldn’t change that. What I would do is change it to the following:

If an individual player wins, his side on his server gains a point in the region the scenario is part of. If an individual player loses, his side on his server loses a point in the region the scenario is part of.

The reason to make them lose a point for a loss is to essentially continue using win/loss percentage rather than just number of wins. Order would still, using my system, get into scenarios more frequently than destruction on an individual basis. There would also be more points gained/lost on certain servers.

Basically, you get something for winning, you lose something for losing. That’s how it is on servers right now, and I would want to preserve that.

I’m hoping they go in this direction if scenario queues don’t improve significantly over the next couple weeks. I would definitely try this before considering merging servers, which is something they may have to do depending on how the end game plays out on lower population servers.

Well, I’m off to WAR to hop into some scenario queues.

Announce your launch servers as early as you can.
Allow guilds, friends, and coworkers to plan out the server they will call home as soon as possible. Announce all of your servers that will be available at launch as soon as you can (a week of notice seems optimal to me) so your community can start with a solid foundation. There’s nothing more frustrating when you start a new MMO than finding out one or more groups of your friends started on another server and having to reroll.

Have a backup plan to help get friends together.
For example, give players free character transfers during their first 30 days. This way, even if you do unintentionally roll a character on a different server from friends, you can all get together. Plus, you don’t have to reroll and feel like you’ve wasted effort on your characters. And, make players aware of this backup plan before they start playing.

Give players a grace period before entering their keys.
If a player has a preorder code, let them play for a reasonable period of time after launch before entering their retail key. I would give them a grace period of a full week, so if launch is on a Thursday, don’t make them enter their keys until the Thursday of the next week. Players don’t deserve to be punished for choosing a slow shipping method or for their retailers being slow — let them play the game!

Everyone is singing the praises of Public Quests. They have to be in every traditional massively multiplayer game from now on. They are so much FUN! Well I’m not going to sing the praises of the system, I’m going to tear it limb from limb.

My hypothesis: Public Quests are antisocial.

And I have proof!

The fastest way to max out your Influence in a given Chapter is to find an empty Public Quest and kill things for 100 Influence a pop. This is easy because most Public Quests are, in fact, completely empty. It is boring and grindy if you allow yourself to do it, but it’s still the most efficient way to max your Influence out.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of taking part in a populated PQ, don’t relent. Sometimes you actually want to have fun doing one, or maybe you don’t know where to find one of the empty Public Quests in the area (clearly, they are empty, so nobody else has found them either). The best way to gain Influence when participating in a populated Public Quest is to actively screw other players.

If the current stage of the quest involves gathering something from a barrel that is guarded by a mob, wait for someone else to aggro the mob and steal the barrel from the player, because he can’t interact with it while being attacked. Don’t make the mistake of fighting the mob yourself, because you won’t gain Influence and you won’t get closer to Rank 1 in the PQ overall.

Oh, and this applies to people in your group, too. You don’t share Influence with party members when you gather any kind of node, so make sure you get your tank to go fight the mob while you pick up the object and gain more Influence. Suckers.

When a Champion mob comes out with a few solo guards and you attack it, ignore the adds if you’re the tank. Sure, they may go kill your healer, but you aren’t going to gain Influence by saving his life, so stick to the Champion and let the poor sod die. Especially because that poor healer will let you die in a heartbeat if it means more Influence for him, and it does.

When you get to the coveted Hero at the end, do everything in your power to get the tank killed (or if you are the tank, don’t make the mistake of taunting). That way, you can get more of the Influence yourself. And never, EVER, debuff the mob. If you reduce its armor level or resistances in any way, other people will be doing more damage to the mob, and you really don’t want that! Only use buffs and debuffs that affect you, and you alone.

Did I mention that there are quests that send players to the Public Quest area that involve killing mobs inside that same location? That’s an exercise in frustration for the person trying to do the quest, because everyone else will kill the mobs they’re after (they must not have read this handy guide, because they shouldn’t bother).

Did I also mention that nobody ever talks during a Public Quest? That’s because everyone is trying to screw each other as fast as possible to gain Influence and get the highest rank so they might possibly get a good loot bag in the end. And my rant about PQ rewards… that’s another post altogether.

So, in summary, I will give you the proof of my hypothesis that Public Quests are antisocial in simple bullet point fashion:

• The best way to grind Influence is in an empty PQ.
• But an empty PQ is incredibly boring.
• And most PQs are empty.
• If you find yourself in a populated PQ, you aren’t out of luck.
• Actively subvert the efforts of others.
• Even if they are your only healer.
• And only ever do anything that gains you Influence.
• Because everything else will handicap you.

This is my proof that Public Quests in WAR are antisocial. And, all this said, they are some of the most fun PvE game experiences I’ve had in an MMO in a very long time. They are, indeed, one of the greatest new ideas that Mythic brought to the table with Warhammer Online. Why am I criticizing them so much?

Because of their potential. It’s like when you know your kid is capable of getting straight As (or is it straight smiley faces these days?) or making the junior hockey team but they just aren’t quite reaching their full potential.

Public Quests can be better. They can be amazing. They are quite fixable. The only real problem with Public Quests is players. Players are a-holes, and they will game any system you put in place.

And, on a side note, Paul Barnett has officially surpassed Doctor Who as my favorite fictional British person, and I think I owe him a cupcake.

WAAAGH!