Mar 4 Hotfixes, Level 100 Neutral Pandaren, Hearthstone at GDC, Blue Tweets, NerfNow

Changes to Vanilla Sets, PTR Legendary Buff Off, Fire or Ice DH

Hearthstone UI Design, Mobile Start Screens, Deck Spotlight: Spark's Deadly Tactics

Closed Beta Test Friend Invites Incoming, Upcoming Mount Changes

Patch 6.1 Hotfixes - March 4
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Darkmoon Faire
  • Tonk Challenge
    • Players are no longer able to destroy other players' Tonk Targets.
    • Increased the number of Tonk Targets spawned at the start of a Tonk Challenge session to 9 (up from 7). This should make the Ace Tonk Commander achievement more obtainable.

Classes

Raids and Dungeons
  • Blackrock Foundry
    • The Blast Furnace
      • Phase 1: Security Guard's Defense ability now reduces damage taken by most allies by 90% (down from 99%).
  • Grimrail Depot
    • Skylord Tovra: Fixed an issue where Rakun may not placing pools of Diffused Energy correctly while flying overhead.
  • Legacy
    • Icecrown Citadel: Players should now be able to change between Normal and Heroic difficulty after defeating Valithria Dreamwalker.

Pet Battle
  • Battle Pet Abilities
    • Sandstorm should now correctly reduce damage dealt to all pets.

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a graphical issue that could occur by using Reflecting Prism on a character that's transformed and riding a mount.
  • Fixed an error in calculating the shortest flight path from Ironforge to the Isle of Quel'Danas.

Doubleagent - Level 100 Neutral Pandaren
Doubleagent has finally hit level 100!



Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Character / Items
6.1 and Monk transmog set from the salvage yard is still broken. Gloves and shoulders can't be used for transmog. Frustrating.
This is the intended functionality for those items as they are "invisible". (WarcraftDevs)

Seriously, , why change the way the coffee and mining picks worked? Now I'm getting 0 picks, have coffee coming out of my ears
You can obtain a permanent mining speed bonus from a treasure in Spires, and the coffee buff now stacks! (WarcraftDevs)

Can't use my Chauffeured Chopper on my brand new Panda Monk the tool tip says "you are not the right faction for this mount"
Mounts (code-wise) don't support a non-faction, and these mounts are also visually faction-specific. Unlikely to be changed. (WarcraftDevs)

PvP
why make it so wins in the main event in ashran don't give conquest? alliance can't win side events so now it's impossible
The two factions were avoiding each other in Ashran. We are altering rewards to encourage competition. (WarcraftDevs)
how about making a continent wide buff to encourage PvP in ashran
thanks we're on it (holinka)

Please make a post and explain your intentions in hunter/feral buffs in an pvp environment.The burst is just crazy.
We're monitoring how recent damage increases are affecting PvP and we'll make any adjustments accordingly. (WarcraftDevs)

GDC 2015 - How Blizzard's Warcraft Brought Hearthstone to Life
Gamespot has a nice video of the talk Blizzard gave about creating the Hearthstone UI. Some of the highlights are below:

Early Concepts
  • The initial game that got approved was Warcraft Legends, with a build called Fire and Ice.
  • One concept had players traveling across the world doing single player quests and content.
  • The game was initially created entirely in Flash.
  • The pre-alpha board was complicated and looked boring.
  • Other ideas that came up were an Adventure Book, 3D Cards, Hologram Cards, a board that was a tree stump
  • The initial matchmaking screen had an over the top hero selection animation with sound effects, hero voice emotes, and ending with a "Fight" sound.
  • The next itteration had a box that opened to a map of the world. You then selected your hero, the map ripped in half to reveal a Google Earth like video of Azeorth, zooming in while showing names of players battling. Once your match was found, both player names were displayed and the somewhat familiar Hearthstone board appeared.
  • The box still exists in a more polished form in the live game. Treys and keys are used in the UI to go along with the box theme.
  • The box had to sit somewhere, so the team decided it was sitting on a table in a tavern, which you can see in different loading and other screens.
  • The same idea was fully realized for Blizzcon, with a very nice Hearthstone tavern stage set.

Physical UI
  • The UI started with a flat parchment style UI, then they decided it should be more 3D. Next they made it more physical, added magic, added some charm, and then made it feel valuable and constructed.
  • The current trend is building flat UIs, which didn't fit Hearthstone. The team went for a more physical UI, as it fit the game better.
  • The physical UI made things like keys, card backs, and card packs feel more valuable.
  • Opening a pack of cards is an important part of the experience. The team tried to replicate the physical experience of opening a card pack with the game's sounds and visuals.
  • Many parts of the UI bounce or rotate, giving them a more physical feel.
  • The physical UI worked out well when the team decided to bring the game to mobile devices. The UI already had a lot of nice elements for touch, such as the cards tilting when you moved them around and clicking the board causing dust to fly up.
  • The game has a lot of over the shoulder appeal, which is important for a collectable card game. Someone walking by and seeing you play it will be interested.
  • The physical UI is hard to expand. Currently the screen has nine hero slots, but how can it be rearranged for more.
  • It took a long time and a lot of tries to get the UI right, but it was important because that is a huge part of the game.
  • The physical UI also is designed for flavor over efficiency, to a certain extent.

UI Importance
  • Some games come up with mechanics and gameplay and then treat the UI as an afterthought. The Hearthstone team realized that the UI design was as important as the game design.
  • If the UI was too complicated, it was a signal to design that things may be too complicated.
  • The board could only fit 7 minions as designed, so rather than scaling them down the team capped it at 7.
  • Decks were initially 60 cards, with the list on the right scrolling down over three pages. It was too much for new players to keep in their head.
  • An older concept allowed for chains, where your opponent could play a card, you could play a card in response to that card, and so on. This was a mess visually and complicated to design and play, so it was removed.
  • The team starts with a feature by some simple wireframing, then iterates on it in 2D until it feels right, and then brings in 3D to make sure it will work.

Q&A
  • There are no plans to allow modification of Hearthstone like addons allow in WoW.
  • There is a UI group that meets and the other teams are taking note of how the physical UI worked well.
  • No effects are sacrificed for the mobile versions of Hearthstone, they just optimize them so performance is acceptable.
  • Hearthstone on phones is pretty far along and looks awesome, so expect to hear more in the next couple of months.
  • The need for more deck slots is a known issue that is under discussion.



NerfNow #1503 - Token
NerfNow #1503 takes a look at the impact of the WoW Token.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Mar 4 Hotfixes, Level 100 Neutral Pandaren, Hearthstone at GDC, Blue Tweets, NerfNow started by chaud View original post
Published on 2015-03-05 06:54 AM
39 Comments
Comments 39 Comments
  1. aeuhe4yxzhds's Avatar
    I did not know that statistics are account wide, still does not answer why his statistics are weird
  1. goldwarmachine's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by aeuhe4yxzhds View Post
    I did not know that statistics are account wide, still does not answer why his statistics are weird
    What part of his statistics are weird to you?
  1. Somarlane's Avatar
    * No effects are sacrificed for the mobile versions of Hearthstone, they just optimize them so performance is acceptable.
    Honestly, I wish they would. It would be nice to actually be playable on the Kindle Fire. (Check the reviews for the Hearthstone app on Amazon.) I don't need all the whizzes and bangs. I'm no stranger to text-based games (like MUDs) so I don't see a reason to not make a version of Hearthstone like that - beyond not having the "Blizzard" style. I suppose that's enough of a reason itself if you're looking to attract people in the mobile app eco-system who have never heard of Blizzard Entertainment or don't have experience with Blizzard's properties.

    But I'm already a long-time customer, it'd be nice to have the option. If I'm on my desktop computer, I'm either working or playing WoW or spending an inordinate amount of time cooing at pictures of cats and kittens on the world wide web... not playing Hearthstone. Hearthstone is something I'd really only play on one of my mobile devices, but I can't since there's such a resource load from all the bells and whistles.

    I guess Blizzard is okay with that because they're already making loads of money from Hearthstone. They won't miss me.
  1. mmoc442be69514's Avatar


    Male 3D Artist face... priceless!
  1. caninepawprints's Avatar
    Item levels are not account-wide. His item level is 381 (59 equipped). This means he has higher level items in his inventory. Try to figure out how he managed that without accessing higher level zones or a neutral AH.
  1. Samurai's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by caninepawprints View Post
    Item levels are not account-wide. His item level is 381 (59 equipped). This means he has higher level items in his inventory. Try to figure out how he managed that without accessing higher level zones or a neutral AH.
    He might have the level 100 version of the BoA gear, or something similar to that.
    Those items are ilvl 600 (or above for weaposn)
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Scorpio9 View Post


    Male 3D Artist face... priceless!
    Sausage party...explains everything...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by thebdc View Post
    The primary purpose of the sets is transmogging. They look like the sets from the character creation screen, which are otherwise unobtainable (for most classes). And they weren't 610 in the beginning, but only 483. So yeah, introducting transmog sets that can't be used for transmog is rather stupid (even though I understand the reasoning).
    It's beyond idiotic. It's a waste of development time and effort, so someone with severe OCD on the dev team can relax. "Completion" is a fucking idiotic reason to award things that can't be used, take up space for no reason, and have literally no purpose in the game. It's decisions like this that make me hold contempt for whoever is in charge of things over there - the lead dev over this should have said "No, that's fucking stupid, make it useable, or don't bother."

    That it didn't happen is mind-boggling.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by pankind View Post
    That Holinka tweet, he just doesn't give a shit anymore. Also, he's still picking out the worst tweets to reply to, purposely, to make himself look like he's dealing with unreasonable people.
    I've taken heat for saying it, but I've felt it from day one, when he started communicating with the players - Holinka is a dick. Hate on me all you want, but he comes off as a holier and smarter-than-thou dick. I've yet to see him make a comment that proves that wrong.
  1. WernerCD's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by caninepawprints View Post
    Item levels are not account-wide. His item level is 381 (59 equipped). This means he has higher level items in his inventory. Try to figure out how he managed that without accessing higher level zones or a neutral AH.
    Tons of Bind-To-Account/Bnet items are available - not just Heirlooms.

    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...=0:0;gb=3#drop
    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...:0;gb=3#vendor
    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...0;gb=3#unknown
    http://www.wowhead.com/items=4?filte...rv=0;gb=3;eb=1 - Armor
    http://www.wowhead.com/items=2?filte...rv=0;gb=3;eb=1 - Weapons
    http://wow.gamepedia.com/Treasures_of_Pandaria
  1. davidcryix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gadzooks View Post
    It's decisions like this that make me hold contempt for whoever is in charge of things over there
    Quote Originally Posted by Gadzooks View Post
    Holinka is a dick. Hate on me all you want, but he comes off as a holier and smarter-than-thou dick.
    Pot meet kettle?
  1. Tenjen's Avatar
    Congrats to double agent!
  1. Hey There Guys its Metro's Avatar
    That comic is so obvious and short.
    Don't understand why that's on the main page.
  1. Voxxel's Avatar
    The original Legends concept is way more lovely and attracting than the final outcome... so sad.
  1. syiforce's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by WernerCD View Post
    Tons of Bind-To-Account/Bnet items are available - not just Heirlooms.
    You do realize he can't get the Timeless Isle items, since he hasn't left the Panda Starting zone. Which excludes a lot of your other links..
  1. Eleveneleven's Avatar
    How neutral is this panda really considering he got help from either horde or alliance to get those heirlooms?
  1. Koloss's Avatar
    I didn't mean to question doubleagent, i was just curious how he had done it, maybe new stuff since WoD, i know how he did until 90. I would more likely to question armory, as it shows 0 statistics from other characters in Classic, BC, Cata, Panda raids/dungeons, but shows a loads of WotLK achievemnts and statistics, i guess it's just screwed.
  1. Janin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by WernerCD View Post
    Tons of Bind-To-Account/Bnet items are available - not just Heirlooms.

    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...=0:0;gb=3#drop
    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...:0;gb=3#vendor
    http://www.wowhead.com/items?filter=...0;gb=3#unknown
    http://www.wowhead.com/items=4?filte...rv=0;gb=3;eb=1 - Armor
    http://www.wowhead.com/items=2?filte...rv=0;gb=3;eb=1 - Weapons
    http://wow.gamepedia.com/Treasures_of_Pandaria
    No mailbox on panda island though is there? I can't remember since I only did it once to get the panda pet
  1. caninepawprints's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by WernerCD View Post
    Tons of Bind-To-Account/Bnet items are available - not just Heirlooms.
    Did Blizzard change the way sending mail works? It was my understanding you can't send mail to a neutral character. If that's still the case, Doubleagent could not have gotten the non-heirloom BOAs to boost his item level.

    It clearly states he isn't Horde or Alliance, so obviously he's still neutral. I'm just curious about how he got his item level higher than the items available on the island. And if he has the higher item level BOAs, why isn't he using them?
  1. AetherMcLoud's Avatar
    So they spent all that time and money on getting the UI right but they can't get their shit together and release a working android version? Shame on them.
  1. Samurai's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Janin View Post
    No mailbox on panda island though is there?
    You don't need mailboxes to get Heirloom gear anymore. There is a tab like there is for pets and mounts now.
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