It’s been a month or so since I wrote about the 1.3.2 patch, and it’s been almost two weeks since it went live. I’ve had some time to tinker around with the changes, and I’m pretty happy overall with Mythic’s decisions. There were a few things that definitely stuck out to me.
Advice Channel
I thought the advice channel sounded like a great idea, and it works as intended. Sort of.
When someone asks a question, they usually get an answer rather quickly. But the rest of the time the channel is filled up with miscellaneous chatter which used to be commonplace in Region chat. The advice channel eventually got so annoying that I switched it off, as did some other people I know.
A player on the official forums even started a thread in the New Player Discussion area on the topic, requesting moderation for the channel.
AP Regeneration
Action Point regeneration was addressed in a set of hot fix notes that went live five days after the patch. A few bugs in the system after 1.3.1 had been causing users, including myself, to have virtually unlimited AP.
Combat & Careers Team Lead Nate Levy also went over the fixes and explained that the regeneration is now working as intended at 25 AP per second.
I’m glad they fixed this, even though I’m back to seeing “Not Enough Action Points” flash across my screen. Kudos to the Combat & Careers team!
Fortresses
The removal of fortresses was meant to increase city sieges since players would only need to control two of the three pairings to access their enemies’ capital. I had never been to Altdorf, so I was pretty excited.
Unfortunately, multiple city sieges a day has definitely caused the excitement to quickly wear off.
Sure, Tier 4 Open RvR is really hopping on Volkmar, but city sieges are meant to be big things, and that awesomeness is drastically scaled down when a capital is attacked so often.
No joke, here’s what conversations have looked like in my guild:
Player 1: “Oh look, Altdorf is open again.”
Player 2: “Eh, really?”
Player 1: “Yeah. Want to go run a dungeon?”
Player 2: “Sure.”
Player 3: “Count me in too.”
We’re supposed to be pumped up to attack our enemies, but instead we’re just tired of seeing the same thing over and over.
Performance
WAR’s performance has been kicked up a notch with 1.3.2 and it is very noticeable. Technical Director Chad Robertson clarified what changes occurred in a Dev Diary published the day after the patch.
While my computer has handled the game amazingly (I had a copy of the system requirements on hand when I bought it), I used to experience lag in huge combat situations, which was understandable.
However, since the patch went live, I have seen no lag on my end whatsoever. It was smooth sailing even through an awesome battle to lock a zone. I took screenshots of the amount of Destruction that turned out to demonstrate what the game was handling:
So, while not all of patch 1.3.2 makes me want to shout with joy, I consider it a wonderful step forward for WAR. I’ve even noticed the number of my guild members on at the same time has increased, which my guild leader had us document at one point with a commemorative screenshot.
The Murder Junkies (I'm standing behind Schlarpy!)
WAR Bureau 