Grab Bag 4 (WAR)  

In this issue of the Grab Bag, we'll have a sneak peek of the softer side of Heavy Metal, find out how to get that ever-elusive last name, and delve deep into the mysteries of zone control. Read on for the answers to all of your burning questions!

Edit 11/08/2008 10:30 AM: The Renown Title Charts have been replaced with more accurate charts.

Grab Bag Q&A

Q. I noticed that I don't receive influence when my group leader is not in the same zone as the Public Quest I am doing. Is this the way it should be?

A. Yes. Currently, in order to receive influence for Public Quests, your group leader needs to be in the same zone as you. This means if you're in Nordland, your group leader must also be in Nordland in order for you to properly receive influence. Based on player feedback, we're working to improve these mechanics soon!

Q. Will there be female versions for both of the new Careers being released soon? The concept art for the KoTBS looks as though there is a female option, but what about the Black Guard?

A. Fear not, fierce ladies! Both new careers will be available to both males and females, and here are the pics to prove it:

Q. Is the Heavy Metal task going to be open to everyone, or is it tier restricted?

A. This event is open to all tiers! Daily tasks are designed to be done solo, by any level, and to take less than an hour.

Q. I play on a Role Playing server, and I have noticed that in Regional chat many people are speaking out of character. Are the public channels on a role playing server supposed to be in character or out of character?

A. Public channels on role playing servers are officially considered out of character channels. As always, if you see inappropriate chat such as vulgarity or harassment in this channel, please send us an appeal with details via the appeal system.

Q. How does a Tier 4 zone become locked? When a zone locks, what should happen? When it unlocks, what should happen?

A. A zone can lock in Tier 4, meaning you can't fight over Keeps, Battlefield Objectives (BOs), or participate in Scenarios in that zone anymore until it's contested again. Once it is contested however, the status of all BOs and Keeps remain the same as they were when the Zone was locked.

Example: Praag has 4 BOs owned by Order and 2 Keeps owned when they take over the zone. Praag becomes locked, and Chaos Wastes becomes contested. Destruction manages to capture Chaos Wastes, and put Praag back into a Contested state. All BOs and Keeps are available to fight over again, but they're still in Order's hands when the zone becomes Contested again.

Q. I was in RvR and killed another player, but I only earned 1 Renown Point. Is this because of the other players Renown Rank? How can I tell what Renown Rank my opponent is?

A. Player Renown Rank is shown as a title. These cannot be turned off and are visible under the player's name. Titles are given every 10 Renown Ranks and broken down thusly:

Edit: The original charts posted here included extra Renown Ranks that are not currently in game. Those charts have been replaced with the following:

A player will never be worth 1 Renown point based on Renown Rank differences. Renown Rank difference does change the possible number of points you are able to earn, but that number will never be as low as one point due to Rank differences.

Players are only worth 1 Renown point if they've been killed within the diminishing returns period. Players are reduced by 25% of their worth each time they die, down to a minimum of 1 Renown point. The window for being worth less Renown in Open Field RvR is 10 minutes. This means that if you die, you will be worth 25% less Renown and XP for 10 minutes. If you die again, the timer resets and you will be worth 50% less. If you die again, you will be worth 75% less, etc. The timer for diminishing returns in Scenarios is much less (20 seconds).

Q. Reikland Factory looks like an amazing piece of work, but seems like a lot of work for temporary content. Is it really going to be temporary?

A. Like everything in MMOs, nothing is every truly temporary (or permanent, for that matter!), so it can safely be said that Reikland Factory will most likely find its way into a more permanent spot someday in the future. And thanks for the compliment!

Zone Control 101

Zone control is based on several pools, each of which is worth a percentage. Together, these pools tally up to 100%. Every time a player is killed, a quest is finished, or a scenario is completed (win or lose), this contributes points towards zone control. Battlefield objectives (BOs) and Keeps are binary. This means that once you own a BO or a keep, you have a chunk of zone control points that don't go away unless the enemy takes it from you.

Most everyone these days looks at the map, discovers that they own all the BOs and Keeps, and thinks that's all that's needed to capture a zone. This assumption is false! In order to control a zone, players also need to win Scenarios associated with that zone, do quests, and kill players in that zone. Zone Control is all about total dominance in everything involved with a Zone. You must push on all fronts!

Before anyone thinks they can get around giving the enemy points by not going to fight, we have a safeguard that grants points to the realm which is queuing, in case the other realm decides not to queue -- Defend By Not Defending is what we call it. It takes longer for those points to accumulate, but if one realm decides not to queue for a Scenario in contested zones, the other Realm will get points towards zone control. This is similar to the forfeit rule in sports. Also note that points earned from queuing only gives points if you have enough players to launch 1 Scenario, not 50. This means that if Destruction has 500 players queued for a Scenario that requires 18 players to launch, they're only getting credit for 18 players. This is to ensure that over populated Queues don't get anything extra for having 500 in the queue or just 18.

BO's and Keeps provide the same amount of control for both realms, in other words, if order owns a keep or BO, they get the same amount of control as Destruction does when they own them. Battlefield Objectives offer less control than Keeps. When a Keep is captured, the Zone Control bar will show much more movement than when a BO is captured.

Prior Zone control is a direct correlation to the points you get for the higher Tiers. For example, if Order owns 50% of Tier 3 in HE vs. DE, then 50% of that Prior Zone pool is carried over. If Order took over Tier 3 completely, they would not get 100% of the Prior Zone pool; they would simply get as many points as they have earned in that lower tier. The lower tiers don't cap out at 65% either. Players can keep pumping points into the lower Tiers to get up to 90%+ ownership, which results in owning 90%+ of the Prior Zone control pool for higher Tiers.

Finally, points degrade over time in all of the pools except for the points contributed by BO and Keeps ownership simply because they are either owned or not owned by a realm. The reason that points degrade is to ensure that a stalemate doesn't occur over long periods of point gains.

Now let's look at a few situations:

The Zone control bar is pretty even between Order and Destruction, but Destruction owns all the BOs and Keeps in a zone. This means that Order is doing very well in Scenarios. Destruction needs to step it up in Scenarios to flip the zone.|

The Zone control bar is empty on Destruction, about half way for Order, and Order owns all the Keeps and BOs in a zone. This means that no one is fighting in Scenarios in that zone. Order needs to queue up and fight or Destruction needs to queue up and take BOs/Keeps to flip the zone.

The Zone control bar is about ¼ full for both Order and Destruction and BOs and Keeps are split 50/50. Usually this means that no one is fighting in Scenarios in that zone, or killing anyone in that zone at all.

So the long and short of it all? Fight on all fronts! Take BOs and Keeps, fight in Scenarios, kill players in open field…it all counts!

Grab Bag Tip

At level 20, you can set your character's last name. If you call Order your home, visit Registrar Harlen in the Emperor's Palace courtyard in Altdorf. If Destruction is dear to your heart, then Saldis Stormrend outside the Eternal Citadel in The Inevitable City will help you.

Warhammer Online Wikibase™