zone-domination
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More incentive for guilds to claim keeps in Warhammer
Claiming and defending keeps in Warhammer Online can be a costly endeavour, but it just became a lot more rewarding. Guilds that own a T4 keep when the zone their keep is in is captured will now receive a gold bag containing Annihilator gear. They will receive another gold Annihilator bag for each successive zone that is captured. If the fortress falls in the pairing where you own a keep, you will recive a gold Conqueror bag. Guild masters can transfer these gold bags to anyone in the guild.Recently, Mythic added other incentives for keep claiming. In order to lock a zone with the new Zone Domination System, all keeps must be claimed. The most recent patch also included a keep upgrade system. Guilds who claim keeps can upgrade the the gate, guards, and add special merchants. The intrinsic incentive for claiming and defending a keep is of course guild pride. Wouldn't we all like to see our heraldry flying in the wind?
Zone locks double in WAR after release of new Zone Domination System
The primary RvR campaign goal in Warhammer Online is to capture and defend zones from your enemy. Up until recently, it was very difficult to capture zones and too easy to defend zones, which led to player frustration. Mythic introduced a new zone locking mechanic called the Zone Domination System (ZDS) in patch 1.2 to help address this issue. We heard early reports that the ZDS was working as intended, but had no hard numbers to back up the claims. Now we do. Nazgum, an avid MMO gamer and new WAR blogger, has been collecting zone capture data from the official Realm War site for the last 30 days and has come up with some interesting results.Zone captures have doubled across all servers with the new ZDS. Order and Destruction are roughly even in number of zone captures if you average them out across all servers as well. One concern players have with the new system is that zones can be more easily "ninja'd" during 5am raids. Nazgum's charts show that the majority of zone locks occur between 2 and 6am (in North America). Finally, he compares activity on the two role-play servers to address Ostermark's envy of Phoenix Throne.
Is Warhammer's new zone domination system working as intended?
The 1.2 patch went live for Warhammer Online last week and introduced many new things to the game. Among them was a new open RvR mechanic called the Zone Domination system, which supplements the original zone locking mechanic. In simple terms, the new ZD system allows realms to lock a zone by holding all of the keeps and battlefield objectives for at least two hours.The new mechanic has been live for a full week now and Syncaine of the Hardcore Casual blog reports that it is working as intended. Not only does it speed up the zone locking mechanic, it simplifies things as well. The objective timers allow for realms to more easily coordinate their efforts and make smart choices about where to attack and defend. It also splits up the zergs that dominated the previous system and gives smaller groups more impact in the battle.A cynical person might say the new ZD system is great but what's the point if city siege is not up to par? Mark Jacobs recently hinted that his new State of the Game announcement will touch upon this very topic. Could this issue be addressed in the 1.3 patch?
Warhammer Online opens public test server
Massively multiplayer online games are continually changing, from the time a game launches to the day the servers shut down. Sure, patch notes spell out most of those changes, but it's always good when an MMO developer opens up a test server for the players. It allows you to check out new game mechanics firsthand, risk-free, and see what works for you and what doesn't. More importantly, it lets the developer know what they need to improve. This is what Mythic Entertainment is doing for Warhammer Online players as of today (Tuesday, February 17th), letting them preview the changes coming to Realm vs. Realm combat as well as Career balance changes on the public test server. Mythic will be conducting a large scale Tier 4 Open Field Realm vs. Realm test on Wednesday, February 18th at 8pm EST. The dev announcement states: "Bring your friends to the PTS and be amongst the first to experience the new Zone Domination system in a focused player test. Be sure to log on early to join the premade guilds (points of contact for invites will be announced in game) for the night." Detailed info on how to access the public test server is found in the Warhammer Herald announcement as are the patch notes for the public test of Game Update 1.2. Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
WAR's new Zone Domination system in development
Without a doubt one of the liveliest people we know of in the MMO industry, Paul Barnett, put out a YouTube video this week in celebration of his birthday, and brought Warhammer Online devs Jeff Hickman and Colin Shannon in for some updates on the game. Perhaps the most interesting thing revealed is WAR's new Zone Domination system which is currently in the works. It's intended to supplement Warhammer Online's realm-vs.-realm system by providing more compelling ways to capture zones. Hickman says, "If you can capture everything in a zone and hold it, claiming the Keeps and dominate that zone, then you have a very good chance of capturing the zone." Or, as Barnett summarizes, Zone Domination will give players more reasons for defending and holding objectives.Colin Shannon also provides an update on the reduction of crashes in WAR, and there's (perhaps) a ray of hope mentioned at the end for having multiple items in the mail system. Check out the video embed below the cut for more on the state of the game, and what new features WAR players should be getting in a forthcoming patch.
