Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews, Feb 28 Hotfixes, Blue Tweets, Fan Art

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Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at interviews with Ion Hazzikostas from Yogscast.

Warlords of Draenor Starting Experience
  • Everyone will have a starting experience in Warlords of Draenor, which will take place before the gameplay in the recent videos.
  • The normal experience takes place at the Dark Portal, having you go through to stop the impending Iron Horde invasion. You aren't able to defeat the Iron Horde, but you do stop the imminent threat.
  • Characters that are boosted to Level 90 will have a slightly different experience, with most of the skills removed from their bars and then having abilities unlocked again as they play.

Garrisons
  • Garrisons should give you access to portions of other professions without making the people that actually have the profession useless.
  • The mounts in your garrison's stable will be mounts that you own, based on the ones that you use the most.
  • Garrisons have a new NPC AI system that allows NPCs to behave less like the scripted NPCs we have now.
    • For example, the Blacksmith could wake up and go to work, work at his forge and become thirsty, eventually taking a break and going to the tavern, and ten finally going back to the barracks to sleep.
    • This improved AI was made necessary when the team decided to allow players to select where they place buildings in their garrison, making it impossible to pre-script and pre-place all of the NPC interactions.
    • This system might be used with NPCs in cities and other places in the future.
  • The location of buildings in your garrison is mostly for personal choice, as the gameplay element of garrisons is selecting which buildings you want for your limited plots.
  • The team is aware of the problem with the farm in Mists of Pandaria and doesn't want players to feel the need to have garrisons on their alts just to funnel resources to their main.
  • Players will want to check in with their garrison once per play session, maybe when they log in or out. It won't be a place to idle like cities currently are, as there is no auction house or bank.

Raiding / Misc
  • There aren't any plans for Mythic only bosses in the Patch 6.0 raids, but there will be some Mythic only elements of the fights, similar to the extra phase on Heroic Garrosh. Mythic only bosses will continue to be added when they make sense.
  • Ra-den didn't work out as intended. The boss wasn't tested publicly to ensure it remained a surprise and Ion wasn't able to spend as much time as he would have liked watching the internal testing sessions. This resulted in some loopholes in the fight making it live and Ra-den being easier than intended.
  • The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development.


Patch 5.4.7 Hotfixes - February 28
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
  • Dancing Rune Weapon's summoned rune weapon should no longer incorrectly cause NPC guards to attack the target instead of the Death Knight that summoned it.

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
  • Zen Pilgrimage: Return is no longer automatically removed from Monks that leave the Peak of Serenity.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
  • Resolved a pathing issue with Intervene for Warriors with Glyph of the Watchful Eye equipped while in the Temple of Kotmogu.
  • Resolved a situation where players were able to retain the Readiness effect from trinkets without equipping them while in a Battleground.

Bug Fixes
  • Resolved a crash in the client that affected users running Windows XP: Service Pack 3.
  • Resolved a crash that could occur while loading into an area or instance.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
I can spec leeching&paralytic but only use 1, bad design or intended? (lock tal accounts for players taking link & sac)
We're OK with *occasionally* one talent making another talent a bad choice. (Celestalon)

Arcane Mages and Destruction Warlocks. Such mindless, spammy, 2-button specs. Really disheartening to watch, nevermind play.
If you think those specs are mindless 2-button rotations, you're not playing them even remotely to their fullest. (Celestalon)

Touch of the Grave doesn't act like other life steals in pvp, and mortal coil doesn't benefit from PVP power +healing. Intended?
Touch of the Grave I'm not sure; we'll be taking a close look at it following the racial changes.Mortal Coil sounds like a bug. (Celestalon)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
think all the hunter specs are very similar and only few skills change. What about making BM Melee ? BM God Rexxar had axes, too
We definitely agree that the hunter specs feel the same, and are taking steps to address that. Not melee BM though. (Celestalon)

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Do you consider boss spinning / mob-ball movement to grab Gift of Ox legit concern, or just intended part of mastering spec?
Intended part of mastering the spec. (Celestalon)
The penalty for a brewmaster moving to grab orbs is inflicted on melee/raid rather than the brewmaster tho...
No it's not. If your Brewmaster is moving the boss, or cleaving the raid/melee, he's moving more than he needs to be. (Celestalon)

Is there a Cooldown on Chi Explosion?
No. (Celestalon)
Does it replace Blackout Kick? Purify still has a purpose but BoK seems redundant with Chi Explosion.
We're still debating that. The reason not to is if you want to sometimes pool 1 chi for emergencies, so not spend all at once. (Celestalon)
Now that I think about it, will it function with the 5th chi from Ascension?
If you cast Chi Explosion with 5 Chi, your explosion hits the whole server....or you're just left with 1 Chi. One of the two. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Also! Speaking of, any word on Paladin changes/L100 abilities since Blizzcon?
We put Seal of Faith back on our Shelf of Ideas That Have Potential But Aren't Ready For Primetime Yet. (Celestalon)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
please tell me some of the upkeep is being rolled in for sub rogues. Between that and positioning, it drives me away!
Upkeep? The upkeep of keeping your poison up? o.O (Celestalon)
meaning both rupture and snd - I meant in general not related to the new talent.
Ohhhh, sorry, just assumed due to timing.Sub upkeep: That's the point of subtlety. Subtlety gameplay is defined by that. (Celestalon)
Interesting I feel like many players would say FW is sub's defining mechanic.
FW is just one of the things that Subtlety asks you to juggle. (Celestalon)

PvP
Horde pvp population: are you just going to let things continue to get worse? Tilting AV and IoC to favor Horde will not help.
We're very concerned about the imbalance and queue times. We have plans but expacs are often the time when people switch. (holinka)

FYI: 1. The ladder is used to calculate rating thresholds for granting titles. 2. We then give titles to people with appropriate rating. (holinka)
Step 1 didn't take low level characters into account. Step 2 accidentally gave titles to low level characters with correct rating. (holinka)
So removing rewards from low level characters doesn't mean more people will get rewards. (holinka)

Good thread about H:A map imbalance in Random Battlegrounds
Forgot to mention Twin Peaks is down hill when running the flag as Horde. Slowfall + speed boost.
pretty sure slow fall has a speed cap on it for just this reason (holinka)
Not in normals afaik.
RBG win rates are very close to 50/50 on all of these maps (no matter which faction plays Alliance or Horde). (holinka)
Thats not very telling? Your system is designed to adjust ratings until 50:50 is achieved.
No that just further proves the point. In RBGs, team skill is equal and map balance would be the only variable. (holinka)

Will PvE realms face PvP realms in Ashran since PvP realms are horde dominated and there won't be enough allies?
It's possible that this will happen in some cases. We'll try to minimize that crossover as much as possible. (holinka)

Fan Art Update
Blizzard has updated the art gallery to feature ten new pieces.


This article was originally published in forum thread: Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews, Feb 28 Hotfixes, Blue Tweets, Fan Art started by chaud View original post
Published on 2014-03-02 10:24 PM
41 Comments
Comments 41 Comments
  1. moveth's Avatar
    Im glad that new 90s have a "starting zone". Should remove a lot of the frustration that people have. (even if it's unnecessary for them to have it.)
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    The new Garrisons "smart" NPC AI sounds intriguing. Wouldn't mind seeing more of that at all.
  1. alexday14's Avatar
    this new ai business sounds sweet
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Garrisons should give you access to portions of other professions without making the people that actually have the profession useless.
    Just throwing a speculation on the low end would be allowing non-enchanters to DE, although that can have a notable influence on the market and long term expectation of such a feature. The farm did let players farm mats however and personally it largely replaced my dependance on buying mats from gathers. The only other thing I can think of is allowing access to lower crafted items and maybe even the outdated piece of gear after a new tier.

    Making a profession useless can be a fairly broad term making it an annoying teaser that could ether be bad, meh, or enjoyable. Engineering for example has generally been useless outside of personal flavor, mail and repair bot. Other crafting professions tend to craft things that tend to be mandatory in comparison. So what is "useless".
  1. Static's Avatar
    Really digging that Troll Hunter art. So awesome. : )
  1. Collected's Avatar
    "The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development."

    Hmm didn't stop them updating vanilla content while still developing Cataclysm. Perhaps the WoW team was bigger back then.
  1. arcaneshot's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Collected View Post
    "The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development."

    Hmm didn't stop them updating vanilla content while still developing Cataclysm. Perhaps the WoW team was bigger back then.
    Updating the old world was the point of Cataclysm. Selective reasoning won't win this argument for you.
  1. g0rg0n's Avatar
    All the information gathered about Garrisons makes me wonder how many resources are being directed at playing Barbie at the expense of genuine endgame content. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Garrisons, but developing a WHOLE NEW npc AI so that your blacksmith can go have a drink at the inn no matter where you place it? Seriously??
  1. Christhammer's Avatar
    Only 2 buttons for destro warlock? HAHA, someone has no idea how to play warlock, thats for sure
  1. Venziir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by g0rg0n View Post
    All the information gathered about Garrisons makes me wonder how many resources are being directed at playing Barbie at the expense of genuine endgame content. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Garrisons, but developing a WHOLE NEW npc AI so that your blacksmith can go have a drink at the inn no matter where you place it? Seriously??
    Pssssssssssst! It's an RPG, in case you forgot...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Collected View Post
    "The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development."

    Hmm didn't stop them updating vanilla content while still developing Cataclysm. Perhaps the WoW team was bigger back then.
    The WoW team is bigger now than it was during Cataclysm. Besides, they learned a thing or two from the thousands of whine-threads regarding Cataclysm and the time "wasted" updating everything.
  1. mmocbab59bb97c's Avatar
    The mounts in your garrison's stable will be mounts that you own, based on the ones that you use the most.

    But...I try to treat mine evenly! Can't I just pick my favourite ones or swap them daily like I do in my everyday questing life? :<

    Looking forward to knowing more about all this stuff though, very interested!
  1. g0rg0n's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Venziir View Post
    Pssssssssssst! It's an RPG, in case you forgot...
    No, Its an MMO where the RP is expected to be mainly between players. Even if you are a hardcore RPer, how much gameplay are you going to get out of a WHOLE NEW AI for garrison NPCs? Sitting around on your Garrison all by yourself RPing with your blacksmith? Sounds like a cry for help, not compelling gaming.
  1. Kathranis's Avatar
    I just wanted to point you that you guys have been consistently calling the WoW TCG artwork updates "fan art," even though it's explicitly official artwork commissioned and owned by Blizzard.
  1. Aeluron Lightsong's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by g0rg0n View Post
    No, Its an MMO where the RP is expected to be mainly between players. Even if you are a hardcore RPer, how much gameplay are you going to get out of a WHOLE NEW AI for garrison NPCs? Sitting around on your Garrison all by yourself RPing with your blacksmith? Sounds like a cry for help, not compelling gaming.
    And yet people whine about the lack of RPG. Yeah....
  1. Kathranis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by g0rg0n View Post
    No, Its an MMO where the RP is expected to be mainly between players. Even if you are a hardcore RPer, how much gameplay are you going to get out of a WHOLE NEW AI for garrison NPCs? Sitting around on your Garrison all by yourself RPing with your blacksmith? Sounds like a cry for help, not compelling gaming.
    I'm sure the guys designing new AI routines for NPC scripts are totally the same ones responsible for encounter design. It's not like they have different teams for different aspects of game design or anything, right?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Collected View Post
    "The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development."

    Hmm didn't stop them updating vanilla content while still developing Cataclysm. Perhaps the WoW team was bigger back then.
    They actually more than doubled the size of the WoW team over the course of Mists of Pandaria.

    They updated Classic content as part of Cataclysm because that was sorta the whole point of the expansion. They probably won't be doing it again with BC and Wrath content because of how players have reacted to Cataclysm, specifically the endgame content, which we all know came at the expense of the old world revamp.
  1. MoanaLisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by g0rg0n View Post
    All the information gathered about Garrisons makes me wonder how many resources are being directed at playing Barbie at the expense of genuine endgame content. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Garrisons, but developing a WHOLE NEW npc AI so that your blacksmith can go have a drink at the inn no matter where you place it? Seriously??
    Regardless, it's a potentially useful technology for a game that resembles an RPG. It can be applied across the game once it's fully worked out and will show up elsewhere.
  1. Dawnseven's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by nekobaka View Post
    The only other thing I can think of is allowing access to lower crafted items and maybe even the outdated piece of gear after a new tier.
    I'm going to pray (hard) that this isn't the case. I make quite a lot selling "outdated" gear. Not everyone raids, and many people have alts that very often are less geared than mains. An "upgrade" is something better than you currently have, regardless of whatever the current tier is.

    Quote Originally Posted by nekobaka View Post
    So what is "useless".
    This is a very good question. I would like to know myself. There's quite a range of possibilities there, and while I'm glad that all of my gatherers and crafters won't be "useless", I won't be particularly happy if they're greatly marginalized either.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    I bet the beta will come out when Rockstar finally puts in heists.
  1. g0rg0n's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kathranis View Post
    I'm sure the guys designing new AI routines for NPC scripts are totally the same ones responsible for encounter design. It's not like they have different teams for different aspects of game design or anything, right?
    We are constantly being reminded in blue posts that *everything* we want is at the cost of end game content and raid wings. Do you even read the blue trackers?
  1. Yig's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Collected View Post
    "The team is aware that the timeline in older content is a little bit inconsistent, but updating the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King content would take away from Warlords of Draenor development."

    Hmm didn't stop them updating vanilla content while still developing Cataclysm. Perhaps the WoW team was bigger back then.
    No, there's just a time and a place for when they decide to do what. This isn't universal physics. It's not absolute. They may always be inspired, find extra time, you never know. It's an organic process. You shouldn't view this as the excuse they will never do it, it's the reason they haven't done anything YET. And Cata presented a lot of issues as a result of dev resources allocated in places much of the player base never appreciated or made use of. This issue is nuanced and has a number of important circumstances to consider. Never say never.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Yig View Post
    No, there's just a time and a place for when they decide to do what. This isn't universal physics. It's not absolute. They may always be inspired, find extra time, you never know. It's an organic process. You shouldn't view this as the excuse they will never do it, it's the reason they haven't done anything YET. And Cata presented a lot of issues as a result of dev resources allocated in places much of the player base never appreciated or made use of. This issue is nuanced and has a number of important circumstances to consider. Never say never.
    And as of MOP, WOW's team was larger than ever in it's history, they now have 2 simultaneous teams working on major and minor content patches, mixed with miscellaneous projects and the 2 next expansions being developed at the same time.
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