In the SF-MMO WildStar, veteran dungeons proved to be detrimental to players’ morale. Randomly assembled groups would break up after the first mistake, as the sought-after gold reward was no longer attainable. Carbine is now working on this. Additionally, they are addressing the FPS issues faced by AMD users. Is a breakthrough on the horizon?
“Gold or Bust” Comes to an End
At Mein MMO, we apparently had the right instinct with our article about the toxic atmosphere in WildStar’s dungeons. The problem is that player groups must not make mistakes to complete a veteran dungeon with “gold.” When mistakes occur, players become frustrated and the group disbands. There’s no incentive for some to finish the instance now. This is because they’re after particularly strong items that are only available to gold winners: “Gold or Bust” – a do-or-die slogan.
This is where Carbine steps in. They want to maintain the difficulty of the instance and not lower the level of gold runs, while offering players an incentive to complete an instance even when gold is no longer attainable. They’re adjusting the crucial elements: the loot.
Epics for Everyone, But Is There a Little More for Gold Winners?
The current gold rewards that top items can bring will be decoupled from the gold rewards and linked to the final bosses or completion challenges of adventures and dungeons.
Each earned medal will grant players bonus rolls on the instance-wide loot and additionally provide gold (the currency this time) to the struggling adventurers’ coffers, as well as bonus EXP. For bronze, there’s one roll, for silver two, and for gold three additional rolls. The changes are expected to take effect soon, but only after the “Strain” drop, which is anticipated in early July.
Community Divided: Are Top Players Now at a Disadvantage?
The changes will make it more important to complete a dungeon at all rather than perfecting it. As noted in several statements, there was dissatisfaction among WildStar about the number of players who actually complete a veteran dungeon.
Proposed changes from the community included making “gold” or “medal” runs identifiable in the group finder or giving a group the option to “reset” the instance. In a poll on Mein MMO.de, nearly 70% of around 190 participants voted for a change to the system.
Currently, the details of the change remain unclear. Whether groups that complete a veteran dungeon on gold will receive a “guaranteed” item of higher quality or if their chances of receiving one will simply increase is not yet clear from Carbine’s previous statements. The community is divided over the announced change. While some players welcome it as the only right step, others view Carbine as heading towards “welfare epics,” which already ruined Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
Is an End to Performance Issues for AMD Users on the Horizon?
Aside from the issues with the overly elite end game, many WildStar players are grappling with performance problems. Especially players who swear by an AMD system have been battling issues and plummeting frame rates. For them, there is now a silver lining on the horizon. Carbine employee Virtue posted the following in the official forum:
I’ve got incredibly good news for you next week… One of our Engineers had a major breakthrough on AMD stuff this afternoon (it’s in testing right now) and affects AMD CPUs.
One of Carbine’s technicians seems to have solved the gordian knot surrounding AMD processors. This is currently in a testing phase and could be deployed as soon as next week.
