Development Manager Mike Wyatt published a developer's diary entry today that explains the reasoning behind the upcoming scenario changes in Warhammer Online. A lot of Scenarios were removed from the queues to ensure that the remaining ones "are worth the same amount of time and effort." Also, maintaining fewer scenarios allows Mythic to better focus on balancing and other issues.

The scenarios that have been removed will return in the form of Weekend Warfronts. You can read all the details in the diary entry after the jump.

We track a lot of data – there’s almost nothing that we don’t know about the ebb and flow of what’s going on within Warhammer Online by staring at endless spreadsheets filled with all sorts of numbers. What may be the truth on one server isn’t necessarily the truth on another. While these spreadsheets do provide us with factual data, we also evaluate information from the community team based on feedback from the players that metrics simply cannot acquire. By analyzing both of these sources, we are able to ensure the decisions we make are for the betterment of the game across all servers. This is all a precursor to my next paragraph – brace yourself!

From an RvR perspective, since the release of Warhammer Online, we’ve wrestled quite a bit over balancing the desire to participate in Open RvR and Scenarios. As you may recall, when the game first launched the rewards for participating in Open RvR were substantially less than that of Scenarios. This led to the introduction of OpenRvR currency, influence, experience and renown additions or modifications. So in our continued pursuit of balance, we decided to come up with all new rewards for Scenario participation purchasable by currency, earned for completing Scenarios. However, this in turn required a scrutinizing look at Scenarios in general. On to the metrics!

We’ve removed a lot of Scenarios from the queues. We anticipated that this would be a welcome change for some, not so welcome for others, and then there’s the group who doesn’t mind it either way so long as they get to continue to beat enemy players’ faces in with huge swords and searing magic.  Before anyone goes out and purchases a pitchfork to storm the Mythic Entertainment studio (too late?), we have sound reasons for this change! The most important reason is, based upon metrics, Scenarios were chosen for their time to complete, ending scores of both Realms, rule sets and popularity. Identifying Scenarios that fit into these criteria ensures that, in general, all Scenarios are worth the same amount of time and effort. Another important reason is that maintaining fewer Scenarios allows us to better focus our attention on making balance adjustments, game play adjustments, and fixing exploits as needed.
 
Another consideration is that for the new RvR currency to be a successful addition, it’s imperative that Scenario X isn’t the only Scenario that players do because it’s the easiest and fastest to accumulate wealth in. Because the fact of the matter is, even for players who love variety, it’s hard to resist the temptation of the few scenarios that allow them to progress faster, and to acquire more money. Don’t get me wrong, we love money just as much as the next person – but being paid $500 an hour shelling pistachios would be awesome for all of two weeks. Whether it’s work or play, mixing it up a bit is never a bad thing!  It’s our job to ensure that the time and effort put forth in Scenario A is roughly equivalent to that of Scenarios B, C, D, E, and so on. With fewer Scenarios to work with, we can focus more on making them interchangeable as far as time/effort spent and value gained, thus providing more actual variety.
 
We will continue to have Tier-specific Scenarios but will now be introducing some old favorites from the earlier tiers into Tier 4, so that players will be able to play them at any level! The new Scenario lineup going forward is as follows

Tier 1

Unique

• Gates of Ekrund

Repeating

• Nordenwatch

Tier 2

Unique

• Mourkain Temple

Repeating

• Nordenwatch
• Reikland Factory

Tier 3

Unique

• Tor Anroc

Repeating

• Nordenwatch
• Reikland Factory
• Lost Temple of Isha

Tier 4

Unique

• Battle for Praag
• Serpent’s Passage
• Caledor Woods

Repeating

• Nordenwatch
• Reikland Factory
• Lost Temple of Isha

With the new lineup, this also means that available Scenarios are no longer tied to zone contention and are open for queuing almost all the time! As is the case currently, Tier 4 players will not be able to queue for any Scenario if Altdorf or The Inevitable City are in a contested state, however with 1.3.4, the campaign (and thusly all Scenarios) will be reopening when a city goes into Captured state, or stage 2.  Participating in any Scenario will also reward Victory Points to all pairings within a Tier.

While all other Scenarios have been removed from the lineup – they are, by no means, removed from the game. We have exciting plans in the form of Weekend Warfronts to utilize the removed Scenarios, giving them their own due focus and will result in rewards much greater than a unique title. Some may feel a little melancholy for the loss of your favorite Scenario, others may be ecstatic for a permanent Tier 4 Nordenwatch, and some just want to give it a whirl to start earning the currency. Whichever your outlook – we’re always looking forward to any feedback you have and thank you for coming out to the Public Test Server to give the new changes a try!