Void Storage Update, Transmogrification Clarification, Blue Posts, Comic

We've just added some new images to our Void Storage preview which show off the updated UI for Void Storage vaults, as well as the new bag search feature in action. Let us know what you think!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3342240#blog

Also, just to clear up a few points of confusion:

• Void Storage vaults will be per character, not per account. We're still very interested in providing a way for players to share BoA items cross-realm, but there are a number of technological milestones we need to reach before we can make that kind of service available.
• The prices for unlocking a Void Storage vault, depositing items, and withdrawing items are still under discussion. The values shown in the blog screenshots should not be considered final.
• You don't need to place an item in Void Storage in order to use it for Transmogrification. The systems are completely separate. They're designed to complement one another, but not require each other.
• Most tabards will be eligible for Void Storage (excluding a few which cannot become soulbound to a character).

Transmogrification
Transmogrification Details / Legendary Items
You will not be able to transmogrify using a legendary item as either the source or the recipient of a change. This system is going to launch with fairly conservative rules, so that we can get it up and running as soon as possible and make fun improvements down the road. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that we’ll eventually allow transmogrification to use the twill set or [insert your favorite item here], but probably not for the initial launch of the feature.

We would like to offer some alternative ways to get favorite items that are no longer available, such as perhaps the dungeon tier sets or the DK start gear. This is something we will expand over time – not every favorite item will be immediately available at launch. But we’ll keep a list of items that get requested by the players and work to get them in someday.

If you want to obtain the look of gear that you've deleted in the past, then yes, you'll need to farm that old gear back. Opening a petition for that old gear isn't likely to bear fruit unless the item was deleted quite recently (usually within a month or two). Please don't submit a petition as a shot in the dark, since that just bogs down the system for everyone.

Alts can hang onto cool looking quest items and drops that they get while leveling, to use with the feature. It won't be limited to tier items, but that does mean that if they want to sport a full set of tier 5, then yes, they'll need to acquire it, just as any other character would. We are interested in providing a means for players to purchase certain gear sets which aren't available for one reason or another, such as the dungeon sets or death knight starter set. Such a vendor would not provide access to all the gear a player has ever owned, though.

[...] What would determine what items each character had access to? An achievement? Having looked at a boss that one time? Walked into a particular zone, perhaps? Would all characters get access to all armor art every time a new item is introduced, forever? Perhaps all characters would just get access to all the art from prior to Transmogrification -- but what about new characters? Why should they get access to all that art? What meaning would there be to a character's appearance, at all, in such a system?

It's less short-sighted than you think, and it's hardly an unreasonable requirement. It's actually quite neat and tidy. In the short term, it's a bit frustrating for those that already had the gear at one time (I'm one of them). In the long term, we feel that it's the most elegant method of approaching the issue of restricting Transmogrification. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrify and Void Storage Requests
Part of this is due to technical limitations. One of the reasons we're able to offer so many more slots of storage to players now is because it's fairly simple data storage when we're talking item IDs. Throw in enchants, gems, and reforging though, and you have a lot more data that has to be stored. Void Storage is a means of deep storage. We don't want this system to be used as a secondary bank where you're constantly shuffling items in and out. If you have an abundance of items which are eligible for placing in Void Storage, the idea is you can store them "long-term" to free up bank space without having to delete them.

It's perfect for seasonal outfits, items you think look really cool, etc. It's the place to put the gear you just don't want to delete, but don't regularly use either. If we just gave you 80 more bank slots -- which is a monumental technical task as I said earlier -- we'd have to consider nominating you for "Hoarders: World of Warcraft Edition."

[...] Right now, we're looking at allowing tabards to be stored in Void Storage vaults. That may change as testing continues, of course, and depending on the feedback we receive from you guys (and gals).Void Storage vaults will be per-character and not per-account, so it won't be a way for players to trade BoA items cross-realm. While that's still something we want players to be able to do, we've several technological hurdles to overcome before we can make that type of service available.We're still discussing a lot of those details, so I can't really give you a "yes" or a "no" right now.

That said, the main requirement for an item to eligible for Void Storage is that it's soulbound. While Void Storage was primarily designed for gear that you plan to use for Transmogrification, that doesn't mean we won't allow other soulbound items -- even if they can't be equipped -- to be stored in Void Storage vaults, too. Such exceptions seem probable. It's unlikely that we'll allow profession items, tradeskill items, pets and mounts, or consumables to be placed in Void Storage, though. You don't need to place an item into Void Storage in order to use it for Transmogrification. The two systems are completely separate.

We're implementing Void Storage and Transmogrification at the same time because we know that, with Transmogrification, players are likely going to want and/or need more storage space, specifically for the long-term. And that’s the niche Void Storage fills. Just because one system (Void Storage) was designed to complement another (Transmogrification), that doesn't mean the two rely on each other functionally. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification Item Restrictions
Well, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but...

We have an obligation to players and to our hard working artists to keep the game from looking too silly. I know looking ridiculous is fun for some players, but World of Warcraft was established with a design that the game overall kept its silliness in check. That’s one of the reasons we resisted adding a feature like Transmogrification for so long.

So weapons that look like fish, for example, probably won't be available as source items for Transmogrification, even if one is technically a dagger and has stats. There are a handful other weapons with "silly" models (such as frying pans, brooms, etc.) that may or may not be allowed -- it's still under discussion. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Can you Transmogrify BoA items?
We likely won't allow heirlooms to be transmogrified. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification and new Models
We're still going to want to create awesome new high-end items.

It doesn't make sense to start 'skimping' because showing off that you're on the cutting edge is really one of the major draws to high end raiding, pumping up your stats and looking cool while you do it. But it also doesn't make sense to change our efforts because one day the armor sets we're making now are ones that people are going to want to use in the Transmogrification system.

One day four people are going to roll over Deathwing, farming the set so they can wear their favorite looking tier.

Obviously there's a lot of subjectivity to which set someone thinks is the best, or how people want their characters to look, and that's the point of Transmogrification. If someone wants to race to build a full T13 set and then transmog it to look like they're wearing an older tier, that's their choice, but our expectation is that the majority will want to show off their achievements while they're sexy, and that the sets we're making now will be someone's favorite in the future.

I do, however, fully expect that much like with every tier there will be many people who hate on them, and I fully expect Transmogrification will be used as a reason as to why they are the worst sets ever made. But, that's ok, we'll keep truckin'. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification and BoEs
Yes, they become soulbound. [...] If you Transmogrify a Bind on Equip item, it will become bound to you. Items used in Transmogrification will also become non-refundable and non-tradeable as well.

[...] The Void Storage is at least partially intended to complement Transmogrification, so that bank space is at slightly less of a premium. In short, if you've got enough bank space to keep those old pieces of gear around and still have enough room for your other stuff, then good on ya. If you're running out of room, then Void Storage is a good place to stash those old armor pieces that you'll only really drag out when it's time to 'mog something. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrifier and Death Knights
We're looking at possible ways for players to obtain particular items and sets that are no longer available, including the death knight starter set. If we do implement this, it may not be available immediately, but over time as we fine-tune the feature (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification Restrictions
Many players currently wear alternative items while hanging out in cities such as seasonal outfits, role-play gear etc. Other players, as Alicè pointed out, have gear that doesn't match and maybe doesn't look as cool as a full set could, so you're already exposed to a variety of looks on characters.

This feature will allow players to refine how their character looks, use nice-looking gear that may be sitting gathering dust in the bank perhaps. Of course, your idea of nice-looking may vary from other people's, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Seriously, though, if your main reason for disliking this feature is fear of a sudden influx of ridiculous outfits, please know that we plan to restrict transmogrification a little in regards to armor types. For instance, if a character is wearing plate, they won't be able to make it look like a cloth dress, and vice versa, armor types are locked. So you shouldn't see too many Warriors taking on a boss in a pink evening gown.

Over time, we'd like to add ways for players to obtain some special items that are no longer available—dungeon tier sets, for example. [...] You must own the item, have it in your possession and be able to wear or use it at the time of transmogrification. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Plans for Legacy Armor Vendor
If there are sets which are extremely popular with players and cannot be obtained in the game anymore through any means, we'll consider making them available elsewhere. I believe another Community Manager pointed out that the original vanilla dungeon sets and death knight starter area set are good examples of this.

It is, however, not extremely likely you'll see a lot of sets which are no longer possible to obtain be added back in for 4.3. We'll be expanding upon Transmogrification over time, in which case we'll absolutely consider adding highly coveted "out-of-stock" sets elsewhere.

Keep in mind though most of the original raid and PvP sets can still be obtained in the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification and Armor Art
I think there will always be players who want to roll in the latest set, and our artists take great pride in their work, so they will always try to make all the art for new gear as awesome as they can.

For players who are between full sets, Transmogrification offers a cool opportunity to sport a 'complete' look, and enjoy favorite gear art from the past. Few players will want to look the same all the time though, so I expect that new art and new tier sets will remain in demand.The question is a bit off topic for this thread, but yes. The item must be in your possession, and you have to be able to use (wear it), at the time of the Transmogrification. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Player vs. Player
Any new Battlegrounds for 4.3?
We don't have any plans right now to add a new Battleground in patch 4.3. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Evenin' PvP Enthusiasts
Q: Given that you are now implementing raid finder tool would you please please implementing similar tool for rated battlegrounds?
A: We can bring this up with the developers. It'd probably have to fundamentally function a bit differently from the Dungeon Finder and proposed Raid Finder though, otherwise a cross-realm random RBG Finder wouldn't differ that much from randomly queuing for a normal Battleground, aside from the fact your team can persist after a battle concludes.

Q: This has been asked many times but is there any status update BoA realm transfer?
A: We also spoke to GC about this again yesterday (we ping him about it a lot). He made it clear that there are no design issues or qualms about allowing this functionality. Instead, it's an issue of programmer bandwidth. Because of the way WoW was originally structured around accounts, followed by the introduction of Battle.net accounts, there's a technical limitation to allowing cross-realm BoAs which has to be overcome by our Battle.net team, not the WoW development team. At the moment that team is incredibly busy building out the Battle.net platform to expand its functionality for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, and get Diablo III going. We're adamant about making this happen. Unfortunately, I can't really give you a timeline and I know it's already felt too long.

Q: Affliction warlocks and shamans are the main classes doing well in high end and even low end PvP. These classes have far to much synergy and because of this any class combined with them does well, do you have guys have any intention to fix this?
A: Based on my recent conversation with GC, he did mention in particular that a Resto shaman tweak needs to be made. In particular, he's prepared to get his nasty claws on Windshear.

Q: Any chances of bringing back old AV? Seems like most PVPers support this idea.
A: I even ranted to Tom Chilton and Greg Street about this recently. For all the reasons it was wrong, I still loved losing all track of time while involved in an endless -- quite literally -- battle for AV. I loved doing constant suicide runs from SF graveyard on my gnome 'lock just to try and interrupt the Horde summons.

We haven't stopped talking about it. Part of the problem is Battlegrounds are incredibly scripted, to the point they're actually worked on quite a bit by our encounter design team. We need to keep working on new ways of developing Battlegrounds to improve their design.

But, to your point, it's doubtful AV 1.0 will be resurrected, and there's only so much tweaking we can do to try and improve the current one -- we'd be working on very old framework with AV. At this point, it'd probably be easier and produce better results if we started from scratch.

Q: Skirmishes, sir?
A: The last time we talked to the developers about it, they mentioned the possibility of these going back in to compliment War Games. But given they saw very little evidence to suggest coding for Skirmishes paid off for players, it seems a low priority. [..] When designing Cataclysm, we looked at the data and saw an extremely fractional percentage of the entire playerbase actively using Skirmishes. So with all of the other changes happening, along with BG War Games, we decided not to polish up Skirmishes and keep them in.

Q: What your thoughts are on the "Halaa" type zone suggested by other players?
A: Speaking personally, I think they have a good place in WoW and should come back. A place like Halaa doesn't take nearly as much design time as a place like Tol Barad or Wintergrasp, yet the payoff is relatively high. The Tol Barad style is a quite massive undertaking, and ultimately becomes a very contentious PvP content topic, especially when daily quests and raid bosses are at stake.

Q: Bring back world PvP!
A: All I can say for now is that we've driven people to SW/Org in this expansion too much and that's not cool. We want to fix that in the next go. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Miscellaneous
Faction Bias
Many games out there tend to have a "good/honorable" faction and an "evil/dark" faction. We've strayed from that formula after evolving the Horde and Alliance stories through Warcraft I-III and World of Warcraft.

The point is there is moral ambiguity on both sides, even while, at a glance, the Horde would appear more savage and the Alliance would appear as the more traditional good guys. We like having more character depth than that. We like fusing both factions with moral and political ambiguities. Both the Horde and Alliance have seen moments of triumph, as well as moments of disgrace.

Their destinies, however, are not written in stone. Only time will tell how the actions of their leaders will be judged. But one thing is certain, neither faction is one dimensional in terms of their actions, ambitions, and morals. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)