S2 It's triumphs and it's shortcomings.

[Rumbler X]

Take aways from season 2 as it stand.

First and foremost I'd like to thank each and every Developer for their time and effort into making Eden fun. You guys have done an excellent job making a 20 some year old game feel fresh and exciting. For that you should be applauded. There are however some glaring oversights that in my opinion MUST be addressed if you want your hardwork to continue being enjoyed by anyone other than the over-populated realm and/or Battlegroup Zergers.

1. Tower/Keep realm points has to be overhauled entirely. As it stands, the ability for any single player in a BG to be able reach an astounding 14 million realm points on nothing but Tower/keep siege is ridiculous. While at it's heart this is the design of the game we all love and enjoy playing it does little if anything to promote combat outside of mindless zerging of 100+ people. In fact it has had nothing but a detrimental effect on this server and it's player base outside of the realm/s that employ this strategy exclusively. There is a reason each season has lasted no more than 7-8 months each time, and this in my opinion is a HUGE factor in why that is.

2. Being able to change realms with absolutely no meaningful side effect. You(Devs) should have noticed this with each realm invasion. Midgard for instance was reaching 60-70 people on any given day for BG size. Once an invasion was announced that number would triple literally within an hour. Should players be able to choose which realm they fight for on a daily basis? Of course, but that choice should come at a cost of more than just a 4% loss of loyalty. Currently, loyalty bonuses have literally no meaningful impact and are dare I say laughable at best. Noone cares about 100% loyalty outside of realm hoppers who beg for powerleveling from those who do choose to remain loyal to a single realm.

3. Connection stability has also played an enormous role in who does and does not participate in events or RvR on a daily basis. Season 1 was by all counts successful in having little to no connectivity issues. This season(S2) the same cannot be said. When 2 BGs of 100+ people crash into each other the number of LD and disconnects is mind boggling. What happen between the 2 seasons that created such unreliable connections? I personally have received a multitude of answers to this question and RARELY are these answers the same. I've also received answers on how to "fix" the issue that just flat out do not work. If you want to play a game but are barred from it because of "Your ISP" they just won't play and will move on. If this excuse keeps getting forced down your player base throat as "fact" they will eventually see the pointlessness in it and just move on to another game/competing server that takes the issue a bit more serious.

4. Class balance. I know this is just beating a dead horse but it's an issue that really does need to be addressed. The excuse of "It's been this way on live for 20+ years" has run it's course. Live is dead partly because of this fact and EVERYONE who plays this game now knows which realm is the one with the best and strongest classes with the highest utility and ease of play. Ignoring that FACT is irresponsible and devastating to a game that RELIES on 3 realms to be successful. Not 1, not 2, but ALL 3 realms have to be balanced.

5. Lastly, the offerings of what you can do outside of Battlegroup RvR to enjoy PvP is very limited and boring. Perhaps I'm alone in this, but Living Frontiers has not been a fun experience at all. When it was announced I was excited to try it out, and now that I've had the chance to really dig in to it I find it to be very lack luster and in some cases it leaves a bad taste. 1st, limiting the zones to a 2/5/8 group size is terrible. Often you'll be in a duo just to run into an 8 man split into 4 duos to camp. I understand that's a player by player decision to be unsportsman, but it's also a Devs responsibility to make sure that kind of play style is known to be unwarranted and unacceptable. Secondly, with 2/5/8 decision this stops any sort of group play outside of those 3 specific group sizes unless you're employing the aforementioned unsportsman composition of multiple 2/5 man groups. If you're in too large of a group for one you're too small of a group for another to take part in the current offerings and have a chance to be successful. The addition of the LFF was a great idea, but sadly I do not think many know about it or care to use it. In the last month of trying to LFF each day I've been involved in 2 bouts.

All of this of course is just opinions, but I do not feel like I am the only one with these concerns. Aside from these issues, other things that have been done on this server have been VERY good. I am referring to the PvE side of the game now, and everything that I've taken part in has been extremely fun. Personally I can't wait for the finishing touches to Kobold Undercity(i.e. leader boards) and with any luck a revision to the beloved Sobekite Eternal.(I know for a fact I'm not the only one who thinks Sobekite is a pointless thing now)

In closing, I do want to express my gratitude for all of your hardwork in making a server that has by most accounts EXTREMELY fun to play. You're doing a fantastic job and look forward to see what new and exciting things are in store for S3.

Thank you for your time and understanding.
Poppatito.

[penteles]

Add KoTH to your lists of successes/shortcomings.

I count it as a shortcoming at the moment, because funnily enough its too succesful...

Its a huge RP farm those participating and it basically stops everything else going on in the realms (raids, rvr bg's, etc just die mostly).

Needs toning down somehow (i have no solution how)

[shieldladaoc]

I think they are doing well overall, but recently things have gone downhill. At this point I do weigh the question of will the number of future seasons run out before retail shuts down? Some random stuff:

KoTH was a nice option, but then it became a shortcoming when the moved it out of my playtime. I have not been able to participate in a single KOTH since the move. I did not always do KOTH, but I liked having the option. Now it's like it doesn't even exist anymore.

The Realm Invasions were supposed be good, but they only last a short time window. I have not gotten to do either of them yet due to this.

Realm Loyalty doesn't really have much meaning or value either. I have 100% loyalty, but that's because I just don't feel like starting over in another realm. The bonuses do not entice me.

Things seem pretty well balanced when people actually play and don't let getting killed in a 20+ year old video game get the better of them. All the realms have their gimmicks and things the other realms whine about. It works, and it's better than the retail action in 2024.

The intention of many of the zones such as duo and small gets lost as larger groups begin to patrol them. The zones are in strategically valuable areas, which gives larger groups some justification to always be there.

Timer bound buffs can become a menace due to the range restriction. For example if I cast a 20 minute good damage add on somebody, they will lose it when I go out of range as if it was a conc based buff. This means I do not buff anybody with my Realm buffs because I don't want to impede their self charge when they leave range.

[penteles]

Things seem pretty well balanced when people actually play and don't let getting killed in a 20+ year old video game get the better of them. All the realms have their gimmicks and things the other realms whine about. It works, and it's better than the retail action in 2024.

Yeah, i dont think balance is a huge issue in the game. I have my own pet peeves like friars inflating the alb economy for being competely broken in farming and charge which should end when you hit somebody after activating it. But overall, i think its fine...

Timer bound buffs can become a menace due to the range restriction. For example if I cast a 20 minute good damage add on somebody, they will lose it when I go out of range as if it was a conc based buff. This means I do not buff anybody with my Realm buffs because I don't want to impede their self charge when they leave range.

Ya, bit of an issue for me too... On recieving end for me. Some people like to spam aoe buffs in rvr entrance area. Those override realm enchantment buffs and drop when out of range..

[Ebenezer]

1. Static structure capture RPs need to change to a shared pool mechanism, where points drop off as more people participate.

2. Realm timer. Not necessary to extend, people just don't swap realms that often.

3. LD/Crash. They are working on the new client... Who knows if that will be for season 3 or season 33 of course, but that should at least help with the engine limitations with the largest BGs ever seen in DAoC fighting one another.
If they could get a secondary ISP to avoid the Hetzner routing problems, that would be great of course.

4. I'm going to disagree for the most part here. Oh you can quibble about fine tuning, but in general I think it's pretty good from a RvR standpoint.
At the top 1% skill tiers of 3-8 man Alb clearly pulls ahead, but that's a tiny fraction of the population. Not really sure how to fix it, but I think part of it is more pets than the other realms in the most common comps.

We only need small things. Fix/adjust the secondary and tertiary rising stats on some classes (change rising empathy to strength for bards, change quick to con on classic casters, etc). Make Reflex Attack not work while stunned, no class should be doing damage while stunned. The S2 heavy <> light tank stoicism swap still feels wrong, heavies need the mobility, lights already have it from Charge.

5. Partial disagreement.
Living Frontier is great. I think the group sizes should change though. 2 man should be 3 man a third of the spawns. 5 man should be a roughly equal 4/5/6 rotation. Running 7 in an 8 is acceptable, and at that point you can find a random to fill and have enough depth that even if they aren't a perfect match, it's close, so leave that one at 8. Maybe when we get the new Unreal client we can try something like 10-man groups and see how those work.

KotH timer needs to rotate slightly. Jigger the schedule so it uses a "day" with an odd number of hours (23, 25, 27), so the times shift a little each day, allowing everyone a chance to participate.
It could use a few couple new map areas. One should be the Irish Sea, for 3 dimensional fights.
Flag should sometimes be a giant invulnerable NPC who slowly walks around the battlefield, so groups have to shift around it constantly. Other times it should just spawn in a new location far more often - every 3 minutes.

[Ebenezer]

Ya, bit of an issue for me too... On recieving end for me. Some people like to spam aoe buffs in rvr entrance area. Those override realm enchantment buffs and drop when out of range..

Every timered buff should co-exist with it's non-timered equivalent. Blanket change. If the timered buff drops or goes out of range, your non-timered one should take back over.

[Professor Chaos]

#3 though. It really is unstable. I've dealt with hundreds of players in BG's on Phoenix and NEVER had this many disconnects. It's a huge turn off.

[Cotea]

Timer bound buffs can become a menace due to the range restriction. For example if I cast a 20 minute good damage add on somebody, they will lose it when I go out of range as if it was a conc based buff. This means I do not buff anybody with my Realm buffs because I don't want to impede their self charge when they leave range.

100% Make these co-exist, it sucks somehow getting buffed then when out of range basically having no buffs at all.