World of Warcraft rants

[myrdden]

If ya ask me, the honor system does all it can to prevent griefing. You don't get honor points for killing players way lower than you, so anyone that does that is just a jerk and would have done it anyway, honor system or no.

I think that is the point of the objections to the honour system. It provides no "dis-centive" to attack players much lower in level than the attacker. Sure you don't get any honour points - but you don't get any negative effect either. And from my experience ganking on my server was pretty rampant even before the honour system.

It's still early in its implementation and I do not think all the issues regarding the honour system have been revealed nor does anyone have enough experience with it to judge whether it is a benefit or detriment to the game. Everything so far is just theorycraft.

 

[WayneLigon]

I've never liked or understood the appeal of PVP, though most of my opinion was formed by reading about the early Ultima Online stuff where it was not unusual for gangs of people to wait outside the safe towns, kill any newbie that left by the gates, sell their stuff - wash, rinse, repeat. Most games have things in place to prevent that kind of thing, now.

I don't really like that people are going to get rewarded for participating in honor/PVP over and above what the normal player can get through quests.

 

[Dark Jezter]

1 - They can't leave the classes alone. Why the hell didn't hey get class balance straightened out in the BETA!?

So you wish the game to spend 3 years in the beta testing phase?

Balancing classes in CRPGs is a very complex and time consuming process. Just when you think that your latest patch has put all the classes on equal footing, clever players will discover new exploits and tactics that will reveal that some classes are a lot better/worse than others. Diablo II came out in 2000, and up until the 1.10 patch was released in 2004, Blizzard was still adjusting the classes.

Expect Blizzard to keep tweaking the classes as time goes on. Perfect class balance would be cool, but it's not something that's going to happen quickly or easily.

I've never liked or understood the appeal of PVP, though most of my opinion was formed by reading about the early Ultima Online stuff where it was not unusual for gangs of people to wait outside the safe towns, kill any newbie that left by the gates, sell their stuff - wash, rinse, repeat. Most games have things in place to prevent that kind of thing, now.

I don't really like that people are going to get rewarded for participating in honor/PVP over and above what the normal player can get through quests.

That's okay. Fans of PvP often don't understand why some players would shy away from the thrill of matching your skills against live human opponents and instead only playing against AI-controlled monsters. Those who shun PvP entirely have earned their own nickname in the MMORPG community: "Carebears."

Frankly, I love the new PvP honor system, and it'll get even cooler when PvP Battlefields are added.

(Also, PvP in WoW is by consent only, unless you're playing on a PvP server. But if you're on a PvP server, you should know what you're getting into and not act like a crybaby if a higher level character flattens you)

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

It's still early in its implementation and I do not think all the issues regarding the honour system have been revealed nor does anyone have enough experience with it to judge whether it is a benefit or detriment to the game. Everything so far is just theorycraft.

There are 2 things I feel qualified to comment on intelligently.

Thus far it has lent a certain new fun to PVP, if only because lower level people are actually participating. I count that as a positive.

However, PVP is apparently more taxing on the communication side of things than any other activity I've found, causing my higher population server (the one I use for my Alliance characters) to be slowed to a crawl at all times. Before Honor System: latency in the green with rare dips into the yellow. Post Honor System: I LIVE in the red latency with rare jaunts into the yellow outside peak hours.

This is a PROBLEM. Even in instances, I'm in a slideshow a lot of the time. They need to either optimize the system or pull it entirely. I haven't played much on my Horde server since the patch, but it doesn't seem to be affected to that degree. I suspect that there's a population point where the system just breaks down. Just my luck that 2 of my 3 favorite characters live in such a Realm.

 

[myrdden]

Thus far it has lent a certain new fun to PVP, if only because lower level people are actually participating. I count that as a positive.

NOw that I have had a bit more time experimenting with the new system (not a whole lot mind you) I have to agree with you. I don't know how many times I was jumped by one or two players who were green to me in hopes of eeking out some points. Had several Horde parties gang up on my questing party once and a while too. I have to laugh at the lowbies trying to snuff me - sure the warlock class has its problems but they are not THAT bad.

SOmetimes the PVP can be fun - sometimes it gets a bit much especially when I'm trying to level up (I've been stuck between lvl 35 and 38 for the longest time due to the large amount of PVP that has been going on in the zone I am in!).

However, PVP is apparently more taxing on the communication side of things than any other activity I've found, causing my higher population server (the one I use for my Alliance characters) to be slowed to a crawl at all times. Before Honor System: latency in the green with rare dips into the yellow. Post Honor System: I LIVE in the red latency with rare jaunts into the yellow outside peak hours.

Ouch...that is a problem. I must be lucky as I have has very, very few lag problems both before and after the patch.

 

[The_Universe]

I don't know if it's the honor system or what, but I'm also noticing much higher lags after the patch than before.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Never had any lag at all outside of Ironforge, pre-Honor System (barring right before a server crash once or twice). But it's pervasive now. Who lags in the middle of the Wetlands whilst killing Red Whelps? It's actually discouraging me from playing at this point.

 

[Spatula]

What realm are you on Canis?

I haven't noticed any problems since the honor system went live, except that people are more involved in PvP now and are less available for instances. But I'm with Angcuru in lamenting the lack of penalty to griefers.

How does it not penalize griefers? If anything, the way it is set up now is the only logical way of doing it. If you got dishonor for killing a player way lower than you, then lvl 60 pvp raids would bring a bunch of lvl 20s with them to grief the enemy. It would be similar to the Kazzak griefing that takes place now.
If ya ask me, the honor system does all it can to prevent griefing. You don't get honor points for killing players way lower than you, so anyone that does that is just a jerk and would have done it anyway, honor system or no.

Well, yes, those jerks would be the griefers. Doesn't matter much to me since I don't play on a PvP server, but it does insure that I will never play on one.

 

[The_Universe]

I'm on a medium-population RP server, and the lag has definitely gotten worse for me, after the patch. MUCH worse.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

What realm are you on Canis?

My primary Alliance characters are on Durotan (high pop Normal). That's where the problem lies.

My Horde server (also normal but medium pop) does not have overall increases in lag (barring in the middle of large PVP fights, of course) but it has an entirely different problem that I discovered last night chatting with some guildmates. Certain towns are perma-camped my Alliance now. You can't even turn in quests right now. PVP servers must be absolute hell for Horde right now.

My secondary Alliance server (which I started on before all my real life friends picked servers) has no problems, but it is also only medium pop.

I'm not a computer scientist, but I really think there is a population point at which the communication proves too much for the infrastructure. That's basically why they started offering server transfers. They've simply reset that population point significantly lower with the addition of the Honor System.