On a whim, I decided to check out the website. I was able to get a 14-day free re-up to the game (No credit card required.)
I forgot how good I looked.It's a lot better, at least, and the population isn't as tanked as one would think. It's not the same zerg madness it used to be, but there's at least a keep battle or two worth of fighting to be spread around the world.
It turns out I picked an interesting time to look into the game. There's a whole bunch of rebuilding-from-the-ground-up changes coming to Open RVR:
http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/flash/WAR_games_day_10.htmlThe TLDW version of it is essentially that they are changing the current push-and-pull of ORVR to a resource based per-zone system. The goal is the same (to capture the enemy keep) but the method for doing it has completely changed. Resources spawn at Battle Objectives and have to be escorted to the keep in order to upgrade your keep. They start as NPCs on foot, but as the keep ranks up they become armored and mounted. You can also steal resources from the enemy resource carriers.
They are also adding some Skaven that will be deployed for both sides in a limited manner to change the flow of battle. Four different classes of skaven, each with a different style of play.
All in all, I'm actually excited to see the direction of the game. There's also a lot of posts on
the developer round table forums in regards to upcoming changes too. Magus/Engineer changes, Tank armor changes, renown changes, rank changes..