Mark Jacobs saw fit to give out some more information about the exciting events of the next few months!

We’ve already seen a flurry of interviews and videos about what we are going to be working on over the next few months, so I won't go into excruciating detail now.  I will though focus on some of the main things that we are working on, including the "Call to Arms" expansion, over the next five months especially if those things do not fall into the CtA expansion itself.

A little self-contradictory, but information is always good!  See the full letter below the jump.

Folks,

   Well, the cat is out of the bag (or would that be the Liche High Priest out of the tomb?) but hey, that's what happens when there is a lot of excitement about a product.  We’ve already seen a flurry of interviews and videos about what we are going to be working on over the next few months, so I won't go into excruciating detail now.  I will though focus on some of the main things that we are working on, including the "Call to Arms" expansion, over the next five months especially if those things do not fall into the CtA expansion itself.



   First, as for the Live Expansion pack, we have always believed in giving our players a lot of subscription-based content for the game.  This "Call to Arms" expansion arc represents a large amount of content that will be spread out over a few months.  When you factor in all the content that will be added as part of this arc, it certainly makes it one of the largest subscription-based content upgrades/addons done by any MMO developer.  CtA  alone is pretty cool but it does not, in any way, represent everything that we are working on (or have been working on).

   Second, as for the new careers, what can I say but they are both very, very cool.  Players have asked us for a year whether we would put the Choppa back in and many have asked (especially here on the Vault) that we please add the Slayer.  The Slayer was never planned to be a part of the game but based on both player feedback and the support we got from GW on this character, we were able to create a very cool career.  When we first removed the four careers from the game during development, there was a lot of teeth gnashing and speculation that we would not put them back in until we did our first paid expansion pack.  As I said then, we would not do that and we have kept our word.  Once the Choppa/Slayer go LIVE, we will have added four careers to the game over the first 6 months of its life, and at no additional charge to our players.  No other subscription-based MMORPG that I am aware of has ever added 4 new careers to its game as part of a regular update/addon/free expansion.

   Third, as for the Live Events, our previous LEs have been quite successful, so we thought we would add some more over the next few months.  

  Fourth, as for the Tomb Kings and the RvR dungeon, I think it is very safe to say that DAoC's Darkness Falls was one of the most successful addons to the game.  Over the last few months we've gotten a ton of feedback and requests (once again, here on the Vault) asking us to create a next-generation DF, and we are in the process of doing just that.  So, if you liked DF, then this zone/dungeon we are creating is right up your alley.  It is truly the spiritual successor to DF and I expect that when you see where we're going with it, you'll like it a lot.

   Fifth, over this expansion arc, we will also be focusing many other areas of the game.  The list of changes and improvements that are happening over the next five months are rather lengthy but here are some of the highlights from the first of two major patches (1.2 and 1.3).  Some of the things that we hope will be part of the 1.2 cycle (1.20, 1.21, etc.):

1) Bug fixing - Correcting bugs, even little ones, is still a priority for us.  The list of bug fixes in the next couple of patches is lengthy and we will continue to hot fix bugs on an ongoing basis.  The team has been working on everything from small bugs (tooltips) to larger issues.  

2) RvR code fixes - Over the last two weeks, the number of Fortress crashes have shrunk down to a total of one per week total across all servers.  The number of Fortress takes/sieges has also increased every week and it is safe to say that things are better than ever in this aspect of the game so I can happily steal a line from The Princess Bride and say "Have fun storming the castle!" even now.  Work will continue until those crashes go down to zero.  Once that happens, we can look at increasing the hard cap.

3) RvR changes/improvements. - This is a rather lengthy list which includes a new scenario, changes to the Zone control system, lots of Keep Upgrades (this is only our first pass at it), oRvR events and additional rewards for Zone and Campaign captures.

4) Career balancing - Lots and lots of changes/fixes in this next patch across all careers.  As I mentioned in one of my posts, I was going through the preliminary bug fixes/balance changes patch notes and after reading through 15+ pages of them, it’s safe to say that the C&C team has been rather busy lately.  We know how important balancing the careers of an MMO is to the players and that’s why the team has put so much effort into it to date and will continue to do so going forward.  Every career has gotten some attention from the team in 1.2 whether it is fixing bugs or balancing their abilities.  The team has paid particular attention to crowd control abilities and will continue to do so with 1.3.

5) Changes to "quality of WAR" such as new armor and mount color diversity for high-level guilds, flight masters added to every zone that doesn't have one, ability to attach multiple items to mail system, improvements to the Guild and Warband UI, and improvements to our Guild Reward systems.

So, that's just some of the things that will be coming down the road over the next few months.  Again, this is just patch cycle 1.2, patch cycle 1.3 will see even more stuff coming from us in 1.3 and even 1.2.  These patches contain a tremendous amount of content, fixes, the introduction of new systems and balancing, and combined with the appearance of the Tomb Kings and their RvR dungeon, the new classes, etc. represent huge additions to the game.  Patch 1.3 is another big patch from us and we’ll start talking about it after 1.2 goes LIVE.  Expect that we will continue to focus on oRvR (some new systems, improvements to fortresses, etc.), careers, guilds, bugs, and a whole lot more.

In terms of 1.2, that is intended to go to the Public Test server in early February.   Normally I’d do a full “Sneak Peak” at the patch by the next week (and I still might) but as I’ve been saying over the last few weeks, I wanted to talk about some of the other highlights today.  There’s already a lot of coverage of the expansion around the web and if you haven’t been to some of the major sites that cover WAR, you might want to take a look at all the cool stuff that we are working on.

As always, we thank you for your patronage, support, and patience.  

Mark