Not to be outdone by their own push to show off their new performance and stability improvements, WAR released a brand new Producer’s Letter for 1.3.2 and Beyond, speaking about the current patch and teasing a couple of new details for future patches.
The letter is worth a read – not just for the usual trumpeting of the features of the latest patch (which hit today) but also for the overall theme of beyond it, which is to be, in part, a bugfixing and polish patch. Once again, I have to like the measured, cautious direction Mythic is taking with their patches – knowing that they have fundamental issues in various key areas and addressing them is perhaps the best strategy they can take while players are still mesmerized by the new shiny of other titles. Some secondary-ticket items will potentially make it into 1.3.3, including the ability to walk and sit, some graphical improvements (bloom and the like), and UI and patching fixes. It’s nice that they’ll be able to take care of these other minor annoyances while doing the usual on the big ticket items – RvR, the T4 campaign, and more.
Speaking of big things, perhaps the largest is the tentative detail given about a new Underdog system designed to help underpopulated or constantly beaten-down factions on servers. VP point reduction for the losing side and the ability to flex to fit the current RvR situation were the only concrete details given, but in lieu of solving population balance with more extreme measures that take time (like adding a third faction), this is potentially another way for Mythic to stabilize situations on their remaining servers where one faction has been dominating another to the point of demoralization.
All of this points to continued effort and work by WAR to fix their product, and from a conjecture and speculation standpoint, the work being done here points to business as usual and the train moving forward, and not the impending doom or shutdown of the game as some have feared. Is that still a possibility? Of course it is, as it is with most any title in this situation that’s released in the past two years – but the steps forward here, while seemingly small, provide needed polish and fixing that will position WAR in a better place in the long term.