Scenarios - To be or not to be
There’s been an argument raging for what seems like forever about Scenarios in Warhammer, the PvP instances. The side against Scenarios claims it takes players away from Open World Realm vs Realm (ORvR) which has a detrimental affect on it. The side for Scenarios argue that it’s easier to get into if you only have a limited amount of play time, and that it’s an effective way to earn XP and Renown points, which it is.
I agree with both camps. I think Scenarios are great for Tier 1, where players new to the game can experience some RvR and level both their Adventure level and Renown Rank quickly into the next Tier. Does it take players away from ORvR? Certainly. For the most part I prefer ORvR but you cannot deny that Scenarios are a much quicker and easier way of earning XP and Renown. While laying siege to a Keep in the RvR lake is fun, you can spend hours attempting to take a keep without success. And while you can take a poorly or undefended keep quite quickly, and capture objectives quickly, earning you nice Renown and XP; what if you already hold all the keeps and objectives? Unless the opposition wants to form a party to take them back, running around the RvR lake in a warband is a waste of time and will earn you nothing.
Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) didn’t have Scenarios. It had Battlegrounds that had a five level range starting at level 20, as well as the Open RvR areas (later they introduced lower level Battlegrounds). The level 20-24 battleground had only one keep and a couple of towers to capture, and this particular battleground was always busy (peak times), with the keep almost always under siege and towers swapping hands over and over again. The reason for this is that if you had a level 50 character (level cap) you could /level an alt straight to 20, making that particular battleground a highly populated place with alts being tested and new mains created. But the other Battlegrounds weren’t that busy, and it wasn’t until you got into the ORvR areas that you would see large scale battles. So what’s this have to do with Warhammer?
Taking Scenarios away won’t necessarily improve the lower Tier ORvR. It might make a difference in the Tier 4 area but I don’t think it would greatly change the ORvR in the other tiers. The removal of Scenarios, in my opinion, would improve the PvE aspects in those tiers however. But once you have captured all the keeps and objectives, what is there to do? And if one side has the numbers, the other side tends to shift to another zone in the hope of taking a few objectives unmolested, and it becomes a case of waiting for your allies to feed you information as to the movement of the enemy, then the warbands takes flight in pursuit.
Mythic needs to add more value to the Tier 2 and 3 lakes, either with additional keeps or Battlefield Objectives that actually matter. Perhaps the Tiers can be similar to capturing the city, in that you must take the Objectives first, then control a couple of towers, before being able to move onto the Keep itself. While there has been adequate ORvR action in Tier 3, I’m looking forward to hitting Tier 4 and getting a feel for how it all works there.
Comments
Comment from 
caliga
Time: November 24, 2008, 3:41 am
I agree that scenarios are fine. Hell, I do scenarios and like them. And I don’t have a problem finding people for ORvR. With the guild and our alliance, I can usually put together two parties and before you know it, fill a warband. But to do what? Run around an empty lake, where all keeps and objectives are already held by us? The Tier 2 and 3 RvR lakes need something else to encourage RvR. Perhaps loot that everyone gets for participating rather than just a select few, or some sort of defence bonus, similar to influence, where the longer you’re defending a keep the more points you earn, at which time you can go and cash it in for loot or coin.
Comment from Ainilome
Time: November 24, 2008, 4:58 am
I’d be really bored without scenerios. You will never see the sort of tactical, objective based gameplay in ORvR that you can (albit rarely with PUGs) see in a scenerio. ORvR bores me pretty easily, it’s usually just a case of who brings more people. Most ORvR I’ve done has been a destro zerg rampaging through the game and taking keeps undefended, or the reverse; Seeing a huge group of order taking our keeps while we sit on our thumbs.
I like both the clear objectives, the short time frame and the gameplay of scenerios. I like capture the flag, murder ball, point holding etc. I like scouting out all the nooks and cranies of the very well designed battle grounds for places to hide, ambush sites etc. A keep is a keep. Two or three stories, a few doors and a clear ramp that becomes a choke point as the offense meets defense. Teir 1 works exactly the same as t4 except for more doors and you spend more time chasing Order around as they dash from keep to keep.
If they could make ORvR as fun as scenerios can be, I’d do more of it.
My arguement for all the people campaigning for the removal of scenerios in hopes of bringing more ORvR, or pretty much any drastic change to the game to do is is: If ORvR is so much fun, why are we all trying to think of ways to weasel people into doing it? If it’s fun and works well, people will do it. If it isn’t, they won’t. And cutting content to force people to do ORvR via giving them nothing else to do is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.
They made a good move with the addition of gauranteed gold bags from keep claiming. But they need a lot more to make it worthwhile. There needs to be a PQ with rewards for defense just like there is for offense. They need to rebalance the XP/RP cut while in a warband, stick 24 people all together and you see crap for xp. Solo someone outside of party and you net 1400+ xp. The same kill if you’re in a WB would get you 70 xp. Perhaps had bonus xp/rp at the end of a successful claim/defend equal to the sort of reward you’d get from a scenerio run. Content within the RvR lakes as well, from PQs the quests to tome unlocks.
Add things, not remove them.
Comment from Kyrana
Time: November 24, 2008, 9:19 am
I think they should split the baby. Scenarios have their place because they provide pretty quick satisfaction of an urge to RvR. However, ORvR is great fun when there’s a battle to be had. Maybe I’m weird, but I’ve enjoyed those nights where I’ve spent 3 hours skirmishing over the same plot of land in Avelorn. I do get frustrated when all the objectives and keeps are either already under Destruction control, leaving nothing to “accomplish” or worse, when Order won’t stand and fight, but rather bunny hops around cherry-picking their locations and avoiding a conflict. I don’t mind being outnumbered as long as I can get a good fight out of it.
I think the solution is to increase the rewards for ORvR and take a close look at scenarios so that they don’t “favor” one side or another. I know I’ll never do Tor Anroc again because it’s boring as hell to spend the entire 15 minutes doing nothing but watching Order use their high-powered knockbacks to kick everyone into the lava. Come to think of it…just nerf knockback! *wink*
Comment from JoBildo
Time: November 24, 2008, 2:07 pm
I think what needs added to O-RvR is simply a reason to be there outside of flipping keeps. Right now, that’s all people go there for.
The halloween event proved that people will flood the places if there’s a reason to be there and fight. Add PQs to the area, add dungeons that are easier to spot than the lairs, and add daily tasks to a certain pairing in each Tier.
I have a feeling that this is something they’re working on, I’d just like to hear it from them before I get my hopes up.
Comment from Melf_Himself
Time: November 24, 2008, 1:56 am
I think they should fairly much leave scenarios as is. To promote open RvR, they need an incredibly simple LFG system to bring people together for open RvR.