Vacation in Altdorf

I'm so terrible about timely news. I was going to post this the day after it happened but my server was beset by "OMG Destro exploits!" drama after the keep lords bugged on us and leaped downstairs. Not willing to "gloat" while people were still hot under the collar I waited until Order took a fortress a few days ago and the lord bugged on -them-. I now do not feel bad.

So a day after Order hit the Inevitable City and I was shocked at the lack of fun of it all Destro dragged themselves out of inactivity and spent six teen hours pushing for Altdorf. And I got to see, for the very first time, what a truelly organized force can do in T4. Organization in ORvR is like the difference between a pick up group and a pre-made in scenerios. It was incredably fun. My warband was a bit of a "swing group", set to bounce between the southern BOs and keeps defending as needed. We managed to keep Order on a total lock down in Reikland for the hour and half the domination timers needed and it was pure fun.

So both forts fell and we got to contest Atldorf. I was ready for my PC to sieze up and die here since the only time I'd been to Altdorf on an alt I could hardly move. But pleasantly, it wasn't that bad. What was bad was  ... it was the same exact damn PQ that we did in the Inevitable City. I couldn't believe it. It was the same burn things/capture BOs/face a lord that no one can kill set up. It was a lot more fun from the offensive side though.

We were also once again beset by the same disconnect and que bugs as before. We started out in relativly balanced numbers but as people d/ced and no one was able to get back in things swung the other way and we ended up being spawn camped. We also weren't able to find these fabled PvE PQs so no one in my instance saw a single bag after all that work.

Needless to say, it all needs work. I was pleased and not too suprised to see that reworking of the city based endgame was mentioned in the State of the Game. It needs several things in my opinion to work better. In spandy list format!

• Smaller numbers. We only get half of the city to fight in and putting 80+ people there makes it very zergy. It's not really that much bigger than an average scenerio, less numbers would make it more fun ... as is almost always the case in my opinion. Perhaps 24 vs 24. 48 vs 48 is just too many in that small a space
• Rework the PQ so that it doesn't require superior wards to finish. The whole idea of throwing a lord mob that must be killed into the middle of 48 defenders with little to no way to set up any sort of defense to block them while we beat the NPC down seems silly.  
• Clear indication of what needs to be done to lock the city. As was the case in ORvR at the start, no one seems to have any idea what needs to be done to lock the zone. From my experience defending it seems very much to lean toward scenerios. Order rocked us in the scenerios with pre-mades and we lost the city. I have no idea why we didn't manage to lock the city ourselves.
• Make the ques work properly. Both times, defensive and offense, I was in a half empty instance with more than a warband waiting at the city gates wanted to get in and help. Both times I had members of my warband unable to get back into our instance even though count showed that we had empty room.
• Never remove defenders from the zone. Currently, once the city is locked all defenders remain inside the city until they die. Once they're all dead it's the offenders turn to PvE. While I'd enjoy the chance to roam around Altdorf and do PvE things there should always be at least a section of the city that has better rewards and a constant stream of players wanting to beat the crap out of you. Perhaps set gear should only come from the RvR area of the city while the rest remains for the fun "sack and loot" prize. 

PQ Pass Rolls

This is a recipe for frustration:

Five people gather together to help a friend get their hands on a piece of equipment that comes from a blue colored bag. The group does a PQ four times before seeing that ellusive blue bag. Only one person of the group of five wants the bag, the other four are more than happy to pass it on to their friend. The dice rolls click by, the bonuses are added and lo and behold, the guy who wants it with his 1 in 5 chance of getting it doesn't. Friend number three does and takes the coin for the achievement before going back to more grinding.

After spending hours today helping my boyfriend do a rarely done PQ over and over on his alt with backup from my sorceress just to finally have a yellow bag drop and ME win the darn roll he had a suggestion that I thougth made a lot of sense.

Ability to pass on bags in public quests. I don't know how many people end up helping friends/guild mates do PQs for specific colored bags but I do fairly often.  Just the option to back out of the roll if you choose, no forced need vs greed or any such, just a way for organized groups to get the ellusive gear to the people who want it. That purple bag that would make our DoK a happy elf might contained a belt with massive willpow and initative (read: crap.) for the sorcerer. Colored bags are rare enough, adding the fickle dice to the matter when only one or two people are actually after the loot is just torture. 

Also useful for the times I'm out doing ToK unlocks and stop to help with a lower level PQ that lacks a tank or healer but could be swayed by the DPS of a nukeynuker. I'm happy to help, especially if it clearly wouldn't have happened without me, but I hate it when I accidentally take a bag that I don't even want from someone who could use it. I'd totally pass if I could. 

On the subject of suggestions, Risset at The Inevitable City had a great suggestion today about The Inevitable City: The feature I wish we had The ability to use the many voiced lines that your character spout when right clicked on command. Like voice emotes. I thought it was a great one and I'll add it in tonight along with my daily plee for them to fix my legs so that I can sit and walk.