Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[rda]

Somewhat OT, but related to the island AI, game AI in general and innovation.

Here is a session on an upcoming event (GDC) on how Valve are using deep learning to combat cheating in CS:GO:

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/s...fensive/855023

This is an example of innovation I'd like to have in WoW. Not specifically fighting cheaters, but, say, making an actually smart set of mobs that would roam the continents, be interesting to fight and hard to defeat not because of their humongous stats, but because they simply are more coordinated and use what's available to them (buffs / debuffs / can add much more) better than players do. Imagine an old god faction rising up and pwning the Horde and the Alliance for real. Not by stats, but rather by making good decisions. And imagine that not being temporary - with each realm having to actually take cities or hubs from that AI army and having plenty of potential to lose what has been gained.

That's how big things look like, not this bleak "okay, we are going to move talents from one-item artifact to a three-item artifact".

[Reman]

Somewhat OT, but related to the island AI, game AI in general and innovation.

Here is a session on an upcoming event (GDC) on how Valve are using deep learning to combat cheating in CS:GO:

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/s...fensive/855023

This is an example of innovation I'd like to have in WoW. Not specifically fighting cheaters, but, say, making an actually smart set of mobs that would roam the continents, be interesting to fight and hard to defeat not because of their humongous stats, but because they simply are more coordinated and use what's available to them (buffs / debuffs / can add much more) better than players do. Imagine an old god faction rising up and pwning the Horde and the Alliance for real. Not by stats, but rather by making good decisions. And imagine that not being temporary - with each realm having to actually take cities or hubs from that AI army and having plenty of potential to lose what has been gained.

That's how big things look like, not this bleak "okay, we are going to move talents from one-item artifact to a three-item artifact".

Likely to happen, Blizz is working with Deepmind (Google AI) for the island AI (can't disclose source).

[rda]

Likely to happen, Blizz is working with Deepmind (Google AI) for the island AI (can't disclose source).

That's good. Thanks.

[Deleted]

Likely to happen, Blizz is working with Deepmind (Google AI) for the island AI (can't disclose source).

Is your super secret source last year's Blizzcon?

[Makorus]

Note how there are several "AITest" maps in BfA, and they are all battlegrounds.

[3vyan]

So the Q&A is today, the rumour said allied races would come on the 30th of January due to preorders.
Why does everyone keep hoping they come tomorrow? Why tomorrow and not today ?

[rda]

So the Q&A is today, the rumour said allied races would come on the 30th of January due to preorders.
Why does everyone keep hoping they come tomorrow? Why tomorrow and not today ?

Perhaps the posters are from the EU - the weekly patch day is tomorrow for the EU.

[Ilir]

So the Q&A is today, the rumour said allied races would come on the 30th of January due to preorders.
Why does everyone keep hoping they come tomorrow? Why tomorrow and not today ?

because timezones and or you're reading posts from yesterday

[MrDragon]

Perhaps the posters are from the EU - the weekly patch day is tomorrow for the EU.

fake-salt/
This is also why us EU guys are salty the US always snatches the first few Mythic World-Firsts of any new raid tier cus they have a 24hour headstart.
/fake-salt

But yes this is also why we see the US as the "To-be-hotfixed" region. Often we get the new patch with the day1 hotfixes already in place.
Still we do jealously eye all the US coverage of new patch features during that 1 day gap.

[Deleted]

because timezones and or you're reading posts from yesterday

Because it's Tuesday 11:50 for me and patch day is Wednesday

[ercarp]

fake-salt/
This is also why us EU guys are salty the US always snatches the first few Mythic World-Firsts of any new raid tier cus they have a 24hour headstart.
/fake-salt

Yet somehow EU always wins the race even when US gets a 24-hour headstart. HMM. Even now, looking at R.IO, the majority of world-first kills on Antorus go to EU. And of course Method was the first to kill Mythic Argus.

[rda]

Yet somehow EU always wins the race even when US gets a 24-hour headstart. HMM. Even now, looking at R.IO, the majority of world-first kills on Antorus go to EU. And of course Method was the first to kill Mythic Argus.

Look at the "fake-salt" brackets.

[3vyan]

I was under the impression that the allied races didn't need an additional patch.
So that confirms no allied races today for EU.

All right, I can visit my friends in peace without having to look for an excuse to run off home and play my nightborne/lightforged/void elf :O
(high mountain rep is still needed)

[Ilir]

I was under the impression that the allied races didn't need an additional patch.
So that confirms no allied races today for EU.

All right, I can visit my friends in peace without having to look for an excuse to run off home and play my nightborne/lightforged/void elf :O
(high mountain rep is still needed)

Nothing confirms no allied races today and nothing confirms that they will be out today.

But if the allied races do come with preorders... i think they'll be live for everyone at the same time... but we will know soon enough anyway

[Khrux]

I was under the impression that the allied races didn't need an additional patch.
So that confirms no allied races today for EU.

The assumption is that all relevant data for allied races is already ingame, so Blizzard just need to "flip the switch" to enable them. This could be a live change in the background with no patching/downtime, it could be via server restarts or it could be with a hotfix patch.

Either way, I don't think EU would be getting them today as they would most likely tie it in with the weekly maintenance. We know we're only getting server restarts this week so potentially if they announce preorders at the end of the QnA today, they could turn on the races with the restarts for each region (Tues for NA, Wed for EU)

I'm still convinced we'll get preorder today, but I don't expect allied races to happen this week at all.

[ercarp]

Look at the "fake-salt" brackets.

I did, I was just correcting him. If you're gonna be fake-salty about something, at least be factual so it works.

[Valysar]

So I was watching the exploration video for the zone Nazmir, and at some point, when the person is at that Northrend looking Titan bridge, I saw some mountains in the far distance? Is that some sort of island or just my imagination?



It is at around 4.23

https://newmaps.marlam.in/Zandalar/148/6/-18.930/39.688 Nothing here, maybe Kul'tiras ?

[Brannax]

So I was watching the exploration video for the zone Nazmir, and at some point, when the person is at that Northrend looking Titan bridge, I saw some mountains in the far distance? Is that some sort of island or just my imagination?



It is at around 4.23

Pretty sure it's a testing area. Got some low detailed objects and strange placements. Either a testing area or a new island they might add in a future patch. I can get a screenshot up of it in a sec.

Here is an album with a few images of it.

[Draedarr]

https://newmaps.marlam.in/Zandalar/148/6/-18.930/39.688 Nothing here, maybe Kul'tiras ?

From the point of view i think it's the white area with a little Italy feel in the upper level

[Fahrad Wagner]

well, Waycrest manor is spooky as hell



Very much a classic 'haunted house' vibe

We need a Hallow's end event there. Preferably an Agatha Christie-like murderer-guessing scenario.