Scenarios in Warhammer Online are one of my favorite activities. Don't get me wrong, I like the open RvR too. It is just a nice refuge from the zergs and a great place to group with friends. Recently, Mythic has mentioned there will be some changes to scenarios. What could they be?
First, let's look at the evidence. In the December Producers Letter, Bruce says:
"We’ll have exciting new Live Events, new weapons and cloaks earned by spilling the blood of your enemies in RvR, a new Scenario structure,..."Andy, a community manager, also dropped a small teaser in an interview with the Vault.
"While those are some great suggestions, we’ve got some pretty aggressive and, I believe, awesome changes for the Scenario system coming in 1.3.4, including a new feature that players have been asking for."It certainly seems like we will see some change to how scenarios work in WAR. I think there are two likely possibilities.
Cross Server Queues. This system would allow you to fight against players on the other servers. WoW implements something similar. On the plus side, this would lead to less waiting for scenarios. It would also help pug players escape fighting premade groups (maybe).
I don't think that this is the change, at least I hope it isn't. There's not much waiting for scenarios to pop anymore. It was a problem when WAR had too many servers, but since the mergers scenarios pop very frequently.
A cross server system would also wreck the rivalry players have developed. Even though I may get stomped on by a Destruction premade, it is very satisfying to defeat those same players later on or in open RvR.
6 vs 6. This is the option that I am pulling for. Premade groups are very effective and fun in WAR. Fun for them but not their pug opponents. Scenario's that are made specifically for those groups would provide much better competition.
The rewards in these scenarios should be better than what the same group would get when dominating a normal scenario. There should also be some kind of leaderboard for bragging rights. This does sound a bit like an Arena system, but as long as they don't go too far down that path it should be ok.
Those are my two ideas about what could be coming down the line. The 6 vs 6 option would seem to be the simpler of the two to implement, so that is my official guess. Would this be something you would be interested in?
