Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews, April 14 Hotfixes, Blue Tweets, Wowcraft

[tss]

Oh, great. So they're actually considering doing scaling dungeons. /facepalm

Is nothing sacred anymore?

What? Why is that a problem? It would, like... re-sacred them. Doing lower level dungeons scaled at max level would be a dream come true.

[Moradim]

proving grounds is a bad choice for requirements since some specs scale like crap at 463.

it's far easier/harder depending on the spec you play. not that silver is difficult to get, but still.

[Deleted]

It means you know your rotation.

It means you know how to get out of crap.

It means you know more than your average LFRer.

wow, three lines and you managed to show what a tool you are, well done.

But you know, many I learned how to do that whilst levelling......perhaps? if not you may as well just give free level 100s out and delete the previous content.

[Deleted]

"In a patch after release, Proving Grounds will be made to do a better job of telling you what you are doing wrong, rather than just being a test."

Are they seeing players as mentally retarded? I mean clearly if u dont pass proving grounds u should already know why that is.

[Kryos]

People - if you saw the PAX Alpha Stream you would know that Blizzard just copied the Bonus Objective system from Star Wars: The Old Republic. You get a normal quest with text and reason to kill 10 Ogre Slayers and when you aggro and kill a Ogre Mage when you are in that Ogre area you get a "bonus quest: kill 15 Ogre Mages" without extra quest text popping up.

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"In a patch after release, Proving Grounds will be made to do a better job of telling you what you are doing wrong, rather than just being a test."

Are they seeing players as mentally retarded? I mean clearly if u dont pass proving grounds u should already know why that is.

You have not played with many random people, have you? The number of WoW players that are borderline retarded or have ZERO clue how to play their class is mind boggling. Play random normal mode dungeons or old content LFR and then think again about your statement how smart average players are

[Deleted]

Yeah, no, i've had my full of shitty expansions after Catafail and Mists of Kindergarten.
Now they will deliver us a redone Warcraft III (because they think they can score on a succesfull game from the past again) and remove enjoyable flavory side-quest texts because the writers cant be arsed anymore, probably because they themselves have given up on the lore in this game.

Jump ship while you can, or set yourself up for a third-strike-why-am-i-even-playing-this-anymore while they force a crappy feauture down your throat, sprinkled with a retarded overall storyline and attunements 2.0.

[Toppy]

proving grounds is a bad choice for requirements since some specs scale like crap at 463.

it's far easier/harder depending on the spec you play. not that silver is difficult to get, but still.

They are changing them for WoD. Nor is silver hard for any spec.

wow, three lines and you managed to show what a tool you are, well done.

But you know, many I learned how to do that whilst levelling......perhaps? if not you may as well just give free level 100s out and delete the previous content.

Thats my point. Some people DONT learn these things. This isn't a difficult concept. If you know them, you spend all of ten minutes in the PV to show you know your class. If you don't know how to play your class, you won't pass the PV. When I did proving grounds, I marched in as a fury spec and had finished silver with zero difficulty because I actually knew how to play my class. On the other hand, people in my guild were struggling with it, and sure enough, they were the sorts who push half as much DPS as they should be in their gear.

[jellmoo]

Do you think there will be a drastic difference between the story quests that benefit the garrison and any other quests that you did to lvl to 90? the fact that you are so against garrisons that you don't even want them to be included as part of the main story at no loss to yourself is downright idiotic . What would you lose if a few quests in draenor benefit a garrison? Once you are done you can move on? Plenty of people like this feature stop crying about something that's probably gonna be one or two quests probably just like the other quests. Plus you are judging a feature you haven't even used

Yes? I'm not sure what you are getting at here... The closest in game comparison I can think of is the Farm. It was completely skipable. There was absolutely no need to do anything with it if that was your choice. Everything about Garrisons as described seems to indicate that this isn't the case. You are being forced to engage in it, and then it appears that you will be brought back to continue your Garrisoning as you level.

How is this idiotic. How is my preference idiotic? How is wanting a feature that I have no desire to engage in not be mandatory idiotic?

Yes. Plenty of people like this feature. That's wonderful! I am happy for them, and unlike some, not calling people that have different views idiotic... Some people like Pet Battles. Great! I don't, but great for them. Some people loved the Farm. Not me, but hurray for people who did! The difference is that these are optional. Completely. The main story did not drive you through these. IF you so desired, you need not touch either one. At all. Can you say the same of garrisons?

I have no idea why you are hostile about people stating what they do and do not want to see. If you want to enjoy Garrisons, go right ahead! I'm not trying to stop you. But. They. Are. Not. For. Me.

[r1dik]

You have not played with many random people, have you? The number of WoW players that are borderline retarded or have ZERO clue how to play their class is mind boggling. Play random normal mode dungeons or old content LFR and then think again about your statement how smart average players are

Yeah, people in leveling dungeons I think are actually retarded. Most the time if i'm not a dps leveling I wont even do them.

[Toppy]

Yes? I'm not sure what you are getting at here... The closest in game comparison I can think of is the Farm. It was completely skipable. There was absolutely no need to do anything with it if that was your choice. Everything about Garrisons as described seems to indicate that this isn't the case. You are being forced to engage in it, and then it appears that you will be brought back to continue your Garrisoning as you level.

How is this idiotic. How is my preference idiotic? How is wanting a feature that I have no desire to engage in not be mandatory idiotic?

Yes. Plenty of people like this feature. That's wonderful! I am happy for them, and unlike some, not calling people that have different views idiotic... Some people like Pet Battles. Great! I don't, but great for them. Some people loved the Farm. Not me, but hurray for people who did! The difference is that these are optional. Completely. The main story did not drive you through these. IF you so desired, you need not touch either one. At all. Can you say the same of garrisons?

I have no idea why you are hostile about people stating what they do and do not want to see. If you want to enjoy Garrisons, go right ahead! I'm not trying to stop you. But. They. Are. Not. For. Me.

It only leads you there during leveling. Since its part of leveling, you won't need to take part in it past the leveling experience. It's about as "required" as doing questlines, and certainly wont be required at all for PvP, PvE, or really anything else but questing.

Think of it as a "Go to X, get quest" quest. Since that is pretty much exactly what it is. You may as well get mad about Jade Forest being "mandatory", since that is essentially what you're doing.

[jellmoo]

It only leads you there during leveling. Since its part of leveling, you won't need to take part in it past the leveling experience. It's about as "required" as doing questlines, and certainly wont be required at all for PvP, PvE, or really anything else but questing.

Think of it as a "Go to X, get quest" quest. Since that is pretty much exactly what it is. You may as well get mad about Jade Forest being "mandatory", since that is essentially what you're doing.

But it isn't that, not at least from the info I've gleaned. Sure when leveling you hit the Jade Forest and completed quests. Same as always. That's par for the course.

But Garrisons take out of the realm of pure questing, and put you into something of a mini RTS. Suddenly you need to recruit followers, gather resources, "level" buildings, handle attacks and counter attacks. This is less about a hero questing in a new world and finding glory, and more like playing a game of base commander.

Again, my argument is a simple one: If you like the concept, awesome! Enjoy! But some of us (and hey, maybe I'm in the absolute minority, I have no idea) just don't want to play this game within a game. It's the fact that you seem to have no choice that bugs me. I'm sorry if you don't understand that, but the reality is that this is the first time Blizzard has implemented a feature in this manner, and I'm not a fan.

[Toppy]

But it isn't that, not at least from the info I've gleaned. Sure when leveling you hit the Jade Forest and completed quests. Same as always. That's par for the course.

But Garrisons take out of the realm of pure questing, and put you into something of a mini RTS. Suddenly you need to recruit followers, gather resources, "level" buildings, handle attacks and counter attacks. This is less about a hero questing in a new world and finding glory, and more like playing a game of base commander.

Again, my argument is a simple one: If you like the concept, awesome! Enjoy! But some of us (and hey, maybe I'm in the absolute minority, I have no idea) just don't want to play this game within a game. It's the fact that you seem to have no choice that bugs me. I'm sorry if you don't understand that, but the reality is that this is the first time Blizzard has implemented a feature in this manner, and I'm not a fan.

I don't think you need to actually take part in those aspects of the Garrison. If you did, that would mean you would need to reach a certain point in your Garrison's progress before you could progress through questing. That is to say, its not going to be like "Level a stable to 3 or else you can't continue", or "Find X person to continue", they won't have those aside from being framed as a quest. That is to say, the recruitment garrison quest will be "Find the important person", which is no different from a normal quest.

[longxia]

Oh look! Furor is back as head developer, and even Heroic Dungeons have attunement now (an achievement being required).

Yep, he's gonna kill WoW. Tigole and Furor need to be kept FAR AWAY from WoW since they turn it into their own dream MMO where only the people they think are "hardcore" get to play.

Silver proving grounds is hardly hardcore mate, I think silver is a bit low tbh, anyone who cant reach such a low standard is going to inflict pain on their group and needs to spend at least a few minutes learning what the buttons do.

[videotape]

Re the poll - I hate questing because it's so monotonous, and I rarely read quest text.

Occasionally I do take the time to get into it and read the text though, and invariably I find it more enjoyable than mechanical questing. Unfortunately it's also much more time-consuming, and there are conflicting goals at work: Getting to 90 as quickly as possible, and Not hating life in the process. It's a balance.

[longxia]

On a side note, after scoring the Gold Damage I still have no doubt whatsoever about PG experience having anything to do with any actual group content. The two are completely separate and no level of skill in doing PG implies anything about handling any actual group content, especially challenging group content.

There is one and one function only they might really serve: give some extra epeen to pathetic creatures who suck horribly at Life but can optimize their way of playing a video game in a manner not perceived as worthwhile by most others and not really useful outside a very local context. That's some elite indeed, lol.

Thats plainly not true. Anyone who fails silver proving grounds cant play that class yet. No biggie, doesnt mean theyre a bad person. Does mean they need to make some kind of effort to learn before going into a dungeon and learning while wiping.

Skill in PG obviously carries over to group content, and the converse, to say otherwise is just saying white is black...

Also your random insulting judgements on people you have never met make you exactly the sort of toxic asshole that keeps a lot of good people from playing WoW.

[cptaylor38]

How is this lazy? If, anything, it varies the questing experience. I see some potential - IF blizzard implements this way.

Eg. You go into a field of bears to kill some bears and 1 big bear. You could get 1 or 2 of these random quests

Bonus quest: Collect 10 Bear asses

Bonus quest 2: Kill 10 bears in 1 minute

Bonus quest 3: Collect 1 trap and use it to trap a bear and escort it to NPC

Bonus quest 4 a1: Save gnome from being eaten up by big bear

Bonus quest 4 a2: recruit saved gnome for garrison

Bonus quest 4 b: Watch gnome being eaten by big bear and see what happens next

Bonus quest 5 [PVP]: Kill 1 Opposing faction player who is also probably looking for bear asses

Bonus quest 6 [Skinning]: Skin 5 bears for your Garrison

Bonus quest 7: [Random spawned quest item] Bring this tainted bear ass to some npc.

So i dont see all quest needing text.

Some of these quests could be dailies as well, when you zone into the area. It makes content more dynamic.

[Am a tad lazy but you can copy/paste this on US/EU forms or pass it to the wow devs if you want :P]

Their whole argument for removing flying is that they don't want to destroy immersion.

So they remove quest text from even minor quests that are the only way of creating anykind of immersion for them? "We don't want you to skip by every mob from here to your objective. So we're going to remove flying and put in completely optional quests telling you to kill a certain number of each of the mobs you would normally fly over, that are still optional. But don't worry about why you're killing them or collecting more fecal matter from the wildlife, or why you need a dozen random fangs. It's not important. I just want you to do it for an extra opportunity to gain some experience.

Wasn't one of their complaints about Mists that quests were way too linear? As they were in Cata as well? So they're going to make one major quest line as the only one that has anykind of text and then just throw in random grind quests and side quests here and there with no text? I mean that's the only thing they could be without quest text, right? Grind quests? Unless all the quest info is spoken in-game dialogue by the npc.

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Translation:
Fixing what we devastated in Cata would take actual programming and design skills, not to mention time we could use writing even more spiteful Aprils Fools "notes".
You're getting garrison NPCs able to dance with you instead and of course, you can always pay us extra money for never getting actual fixes to what we've broken. You will keep paying us anyway, so suck it up.

Yes, Blizzard! Please take my money! I was about to dump it down a random drain, but I can spend it on you instead.

LOL. I'm so stoked about being able to dance with the NPCs in my garrison. Maybe for like, holiday events and stuff... like the Christmas event and Valentine's event, I can get some special npc's that will come to my garrison that I can /emote and they will respond back to me. It would be amazing. And completely revolutionary. And if when I'm walking and they move out of my way, they WAVE at me. How cool would that be?

It will make garrisons feel really lively while I'm instanced by myself in the middle of a pre-planned grindfest of a feature city collecting my Garrison/Farmville/SimCity resources and sending my garrison npcs on little side missions I control from a menu and will never actually see.

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"•After rescuing members of the Frostwolf Clan in the Warlords intro quest experience, Durotan will give you a plot of land. This is where you start building your garrison.


•Garrisons offer lots of hard choices that give you nice rewards, such as the buildings you choose for your limited plots. Buildings and followers aren't a permanent choice though, so if you change your mind you can change things out."

Right, so we get a predetermined piece of land with limited plots. Sounds like a blast.

[Toppy]

Right, so we get a predetermined piece of land with limited plots. Sounds like a blast.

We've known that since blizzcon.

[cptaylor38]

We've known that since blizzcon.

And?

I'm reemphasizing it. Most of the info that keeps getting brought up seems to just be recaps of stuff we've known since Blizzcon.

[Laylriana]

•After rescuing members of the Frostwolf Clan in the Warlords intro quest experience, Durotan will give you a plot of land. This is where you start building your garrison.

So the Alliance players will start the game fighting alongside Thrall and Durotan to get garrison plots? Seems odd that Durotan would be handing out garrison plots in the part of Draenor under Draenei control. I guess there will be some book published to explain this to us?

[Toppy]

•After rescuing members of the Frostwolf Clan in the Warlords intro quest experience, Durotan will give you a plot of land. This is where you start building your garrison.

So the Alliance players will start the game fighting alongside Thrall and Durotan to get garrison plots? Seems odd that Durotan would be handing out garrison plots in the part of Draenor under Draenei control. I guess there will be some book published to explain this to us?

I suppose it was talking about the Horde one. Alliance likely gets a plot from Draenei.