Warcraft III Fan Remake Update, Tweets, SWTOR Level Sync, Poll, New Wildstar Realms

[chaud]

Pig Sticker Inspired Knife, Bane of the Stricken Guide

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Warcraft III Fan Remake Update
It has been six months since their last video release, but the fan made WarCraft: Armies Of Azeroth mod for Starcraft II is still making progress!

Blue Tweets

Is this still a thing that will happen or is planned? http://t.co/qUYPAFlmIB
yes! That happened it's in game now - if you scroll through the different face choices you can see the pose and texture change (artofcgrobinson)

Ghostcrawler Tweets
Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.

Was removal of threat as an active mechanic in WoW a mistake?
I tanked for a long time and I always found it fun as a tank. I don't think it was as fun for everyone depending on the tank. (OccupyGStreet)

I absolutely love Vashj'ir, deep sea exploration that was breath taking, literally. Why the backlash?
IMO the zone was too big and we never quite solved the 3D disorientation and target selection. While realistic, it wasn't awesome. (OccupyGStreet)

SWTOR Level Sync
An announcement about combat changes in Knights of Fallen Empire was posted yesterday, with one of the more interesting features being Level Sync.

• Players will be scaled down to the target level of the planets they visit, having their stats, armor, and weapon damage reduced, but keeping all of their abilities.
• Players also will earn scaled experience, meaning they that if a player is level 60 and is killing level 30 mobs, they will gain experience appropriate for being a level 60.
• This means players can return to older content and play it closer to the intended experience, while still progressing their character.

Poll - Level Scaling
Would you like to have your character scale down to a zone's target level in WoW? What would you do with this feature if it was implemented?

New WildStar Realms
Wildstar had some very long queue times after going free to play this week, so Carbine announced they are temporarily adding more realms to handle the demand.

[Nerraw]

Vashj'ir was by far my favourite Cataclysm zone. I can see how some (or most?) people found it annoying, but thematically it was just perfection.

[PuppetShowJustice]

Vashj'ir also went absolutely nowhere plot wise which doesn't help its case any. It was a really cool concept though. I always kind of wondered if Abyssal Maw would have saved it and where the whole Neptulon thing was going.

[Tenjen]

been following the creation of the fan remake for quite a while. they are making steady progress

[Aeowrynn]

I loved Vashj'ir. I was into the quest chains but got to a point where they were broken and had given up on the zone before it was fixed. I've never gone back. Kind of ruined it for me. I hate questing but was enjoying that area until I couldn't do the quests.

[Collected]

Interesting SWTOR feature. I'm not sure it would suit WoW.. I think SWTOR is more story based so would encourage people to go check out old story content.. where as I can't really see the value in a level 102 WoW player going to the Eastern Plaguelands to quest. I think Blizzard would also feel that the new expansion content is there to be experienced.. not skipped by players who favour running old content..

[Muadiib]

I loved Vashj'ir as well, it was the only zone in Cata that felt fresh [insert joke about it being set in salt water here] and was stunning to boot.

I agree with that tweet about the character models not living up to the art craft except for the Orcs I suppose. They are all barely better and in some cases are actually worse (the human females still look like they are caught in the headlights or on drugs).

Regarding scaling your level to old content, it has to be optional, we all like to go back to older content to farm mounts and feel powerful. If you could scale yourself then there would need to be an end game benefit to doing so, like the timewalking dungeons.

[Kanegasi]

I would love zone scaling, but it has to be optional. Broader applications of scaling could lead to accidental or intentional removal of "outleveling". Scaling sounds fun, but I also love doing things like archaeology or old instances without being torn apart by the native mobs. If scaling was made game-wide and mandatory, essentially forcing every piece of content to be "relevant", it would be the first and only thing Blizzard has done to make me quit.

[Rakkit]

The zone scaling bit is a tad tricky. I think if people were to automatically scale down depending on the zone, you would see a lot more 'authentic' world pvp. You would also be able to scale down and level with a friend if you arent capped if theyre able to get the exp formula right.

On the other hand, it makes farming a lot less fun. One of the benefits to leveling is being able to go back and obliterate things that used to give you trouble in the past. It gives you that feeling of accomplishment.

I think the only solution to make just about everyone happy would be that if you are a legit person leveling in that zone, you can be phased only with people within that level bracket. If a high level opts to scale down, they too will be in that phase. Sure the world will look more stark to those who choose not to scale down. But youre likely only there mainly for two reasons- farming or ganking. Neither really adds much dynamic gamplay to those who are leveling in the zone.

[Amerissis]

I would love zone scaling, but it has to be optional. Broader applications of scaling could lead to accidental or intentional removal of "outleveling". Scaling sounds fun, but I also love doing things like archaeology or old instances without being torn apart by the native mobs. If scaling was made game-wide and mandatory, essentially forcing every piece of content to be "relevant", it would be the first and only thing Blizzard has done to make me quit.

Yeah, same for me. Sometimes I just like to go to old zones and massacre the bejeesus out of the mobs there, just for revenge. It would suck if everything would always scale for your level.

[Backjauer]

Vashj'ir was my favourite Cata zone. Very unique, visually awesome. Didn't really experience any of the "3D disorientation" some folks had.

Not sure about the zone scaling. As already noted it could make archaeology a bit of a pain... it might be theoretically fun to go back and "finish" some zones, but I can't really see myself doing that, though I guess others might. I'd be happy for it to be optional.

[Alopex]

As an optional addition. My character that has gone toe-to-toe with the leaders of demons and men should not be threatened by a level 10 kobold all the time.

[xact4]

Mother of... alright the rose-colored goggle crowd have officially stepped over the line into crazy. Older models being better... Vashj'ir being "amazing"... are some of you high?

Vashj'ir as a questing zone was awful. AWFUL. Vashj'ir as a place to visit sometimes was barely tolerable. Pacing was all over the place, setting grew stale quickly, targeting was beyond annoying. I never wanted to see another Naga again by the time I got out of that hell hole. I only sent one toon through it to completion just to say I had, and that goes for everyone I knew who played at the time.

[Stormykitten]

Yes, always zone scaling, as long as it's not a dungeon. I would love to visit any given zone and find meaningful stuff, or help a friend level through old stuff. you still have like, top of the line weapons to scale to, so you'd still have a slight edge.,

[scorpious1109]

It would be really fun imo to go back and complete Loremaster in old zones ala the Timewalking system, break out legendarys and proc items and actually have a bit of fun doing things, albeit OPTIONALLY only.

[Korru]

God damn it Blizzard give me Warcraft 3 HD, or hire these guys to do it.

Vashj'ir was by far my favourite Cataclysm zone. I can see how some (or most?) people found it annoying, but thematically it was just perfection.

This might not be a popular opinion, but I think Deepholm was the best zone, it was very different and awesome, and it was HUGE.

[guardian_titan]

If zone scaling isn't optional, then hell no. I'd rather talk to an NPC in the main zone town to turn on level scaling. If it was always on with no option to turn it off (like CRZ), I'd be done with WoW. One thing I like about outleveling things is that I can go back to old zones and one-shot everything. I could do things I couldn't do before in some cases such as solo farm Isle of Giants or Timeless Isle for Shao Hao rep. While I'm aware that WoW is an MMO and you should be playing with others, leveling scaling would give Blizzard an excuse to give us even LESS content than now. Why bother giving us anything really new when we have 110 levels of stuff we probably missed? Being forced to find other players to do things or being forced to fight with other players over things isn't my idea of fun. Given Blizzard's tuning of timewalking dungeons, they'd likely undertune us for zones to make them "challenging", but what they say is challenging I find frustrating and/or boring.

So bring it on if it's OPTIONAL. Required? Hell no. CRZ is bad enough and needs to go die in a fire. CRZ should have been optional, too.

I used to play SWTOR back when it first came out. Played for about a year before I quit. Not sure I'll ever return with the zone scaling now. I liked going back to the old planets and doing the dailies there when I outleveled them. I could go fast and pick up mods for alts. Now I'll either have to suck it up and find a group for them or bypass them entirely. Love to know how they scaled some planets that had bonus content after the level of the planet. Alderaan had content after the initial leveling experience as did Hoth that was like 5-10 levels above the initial leveling content. They'd have to do area scaling in that case or they reduced the level of the bonus areas.

As for Vashj'ir, I actually enjoyed the zone myself. I took all of my toons through it back in Cata (had like 8 level 85s back then) and cursed when Blizzard made Hyjal required for Molten Front. I had few issues with the zone outside of 1 or 2 bugs early on that Blizzard fixed pretty fast. I suppose the fact that we got a free underwater mount helped me want to do the zone although it sucked it was Vashj'ir only. I saw Posedius once and it was BEFORE they put the mount on his loot table. >_<

[Gadzooks]

Vashj'ir also went absolutely nowhere plot wise which doesn't help its case any. It was a really cool concept though. I always kind of wondered if Abyssal Maw would have saved it and where the whole Neptulon thing was going.

The plot in Vashj'ir was excellent, I don't know how you can say that. It was a great foundation for any eventual Azshara content. I love how everyone is demanding an Azshara expansion, when by all rights it will tie in Vashj'ir heavily. It's one of the better zones, lore wise, how it evolves from pure survival to being part of the main expansion story arc. The bugged sub quests were a shame, but worth waiting to get through.

I think a lot of WoW players just fear change. They want everything like a vanilla zone - predictable, able to blow through as fast as possible, story has to hit you over the head like a 2x4. It's not the first time they've pulled out all the stops designing a zone, and all they get is "That sucks".

[Whitehatter]

old raids and dungeons? yes... zones themselves? NO!

[Honeyprime]

Mother of... alright the rose-colored goggle crowd have officially stepped over the line into crazy. Older models being better... Vashj'ir being "amazing"... are some of you high?

Vashj'ir as a questing zone was awful. AWFUL. Vashj'ir as a place to visit sometimes was barely tolerable. Pacing was all over the place, setting grew stale quickly, targeting was beyond annoying. I never wanted to see another Naga again by the time I got out of that hell hole. I only sent one toon through it to completion just to say I had, and that goes for everyone I knew who played at the time.

I'm sorry, but you're the one that's high. Different people like different things, but I guess you would have never thought of that let alone respect it. My enjoyment of Vashj'ir has nothing to do with "rose-colored goggles". I take my alts through that zone to this day as I prefer it over Mt. Hyjal. Also, berating and insulting others because they don't feel the same way you do will never win you any friends.

As for the scaling, as long as they make it optional I'm okay with it. If they make it mandatory I wouldn't be okay with it...at.....all.

Personally, I prefer the new models over the old ones, but I can see and respect that others might not.