Is Blizzard rushing BfA?

[styil]

I don't see how a quality expansion can be released given the timeline Blizzard has to work with.

There is at most a few months left till the Beta. By then:
- 36 specialisations have to be finalised
- 10 dungeons tested
- 6 zones tested
- raid testing starting

All this on top of the new systems coming with BfA:
- warfronts
- islands
- PvP overhaul
- stat squish
- AP 2.0: Azerite

How in the world is there enough time to fully flesh out these systems in a few months so they can be fine tuned for Beta? I think that Blizzard has once again bitten off more than they can chew and as a result BfA will be rushed out in order to meet thr September deadline they cornered themselves into.

[Castration]

no, they are not.

you seem to think that Blizzard is a new small start-up company that does not know what they're doing.

[Pickynerd]

pve/p

apexis

revamp of old models (some new)

new areas

removal or tier

...w/e I missed.

Seems pretty average pre-legion.

- - - Updated - - -

no, they are not.

you seem to think that Blizzard is a new small start-up company that does not know what they're doing.

They know people will buy shit and love it, they have before.

[OmniSkribe]

From one of interviews during WOD announcments:

"Mike also confirmed that Blizzard are already working on their next expansion, having only announced Warlords of Draenor last week."

So no, they had as much time as they needed, since we don't know for how long they've been working on BFA (maybe even during Legion beta already) stuff.

[Deleted]

no, they are not.

you seem to think that Blizzard is a new small start-up company that does not know what they're doing.

So funny...

I miss Gladiator Stance!

[Kyriexo]

I don't see how a quality expansion can be released given the timeline Blizzard has to work with.

There is at most a few months left till the Beta. By then:
- 36 specialisations have to be finalised
- 10 dungeons tested
- 6 zones tested
- raid testing starting

All this on top of the new systems coming with BfA:
- warfronts
- islands
- PvP overhaul
- stat squish
- AP 2.0: Azerite

How in the world is there enough time to fully flesh out these systems in a few months so they can be fine tuned for Beta? I think that Blizzard has once again bitten off more than they can chew and as a result BfA will be rushed out in order to meet thr September deadline they cornered themselves into.

Well i guess this can be said once we hit beta.
But i doubt they don't learn from mistakes. take wod for example, simple solution, CUT HALF THE CONTENT AND RELEASE THE XPANSION.

Also i believe they hired more people on wow.

[Deleted]

Seeing that the zones, dungeons and raid was already pretty much done during Blizzcon. and from here on out it is just tweaking stats etc. and making smaller adjustments. It will be more then enough time for them to work on it. Just because we don't see it in this Alpha does not mean it's not already done. These things goes live in waves for testing purposes.

[Wondercrab]

It's early days, but I have to admit I am a little concerned about the time frame. BfA looked pretty early in development at Blizzcon, and a late summer release seems like the earliest possible date they could push it out. What worries me more, however, is the precedent set in Legion for pushing patches out to hit deadlines rather than when they were properly finished. We got numerous buggy, unfinished, unpolished chunks of patch content this expansion, and I worry that the demand to put out a steady stream of content will amplify these problems significantly if it happens to a whole expansion launch.

I really don't want us to have another WoD scenario where major systems and features are rushed, lacking, and ultimately fail to engage players because they didn't get the time and attention they deserved. Warfronts and Islands seem like they have real potential to either be great or terrible based on how well they're designed. I hope Blizzard have a handle on everything internally and can get it all polished up to the level it deserves before release.

Seeing that the zones, dungeons and raid was already pretty much done during Blizzcon. and from here on out it is just tweaking stats etc. and making smaller adjustments. It will be more then enough time for them to work on it. Just because we don't see it in this Alpha does not mean it's not already done. These things goes live in waves for testing purposes.

Unfinished art isn't really anything to worry about though, since at worst that will just mean losing or postponing certain areas. They had a lot of the landscape art done at Blizzcon, but almost nothing to share in terms of gameplay systems beyond the initial concepts. This is the stuff that will really make or break the experience if they don't have time to design, implement, test, and iterate upon it. The primary reason WoD fell so short of its potential was because they completely screwed up the gameplay systems, something that could've been avoided (or at least mitigated) with more testing and iteration.

[corebit]

The developers already said they're not overhauling all the classes again this time, only a few ones that were clearly badly designed in Legion such as Survival and Demonology. So that's a lot of work saved.

[Redroniksre]

It's early days, but I have to admit I am a little concerned about the time frame. BfA looked pretty early in development at Blizzcon, and a late summer release seems like the earliest possible date they could push it out. What worries me more, however, is the precedent set in Legion for pushing patches out to hit deadlines rather than when they were properly finished. We got numerous buggy, unfinished, unpolished chunks of patch content this expansion, and I worry that the demand to put out a steady stream of content will amplify these problems significantly if it happens to a whole expansion launch.

I really don't want us to have another WoD scenario where major systems and features are rushed, lacking, and ultimately fail to engage players because they didn't get the time and attention they deserved. Warfronts and Islands seem like they have real potential to either be great or terrible based on how well they're designed. I hope Blizzard have a handle on everything internally and can get it all polished up to the level it deserves before release.



Unfinished art isn't really anything to worry about though, since at worst that will just mean losing or postponing certain areas. They had a lot of the landscape art done at Blizzcon, but almost nothing to share in terms of gameplay systems beyond the initial concepts. This is the stuff that will really make or break the experience if they don't have time to design, implement, test, and iterate upon it. The primary reason WoD fell so short of its potential was because they completely screwed up the gameplay systems, something that could've been avoided (or at least mitigated) with more testing and iteration.

So far to me it seems the only system that could get delayed/cut is war fronts. Islands mostly use existing tech other than new ai which they didn't show. At most they could be underwhelming . Warfronts however use garrison tech, but require more work and more user interface stuff. If you watch the video and look at the terrain you can see it was pushed out early based on the texture job

[Aggrophobic]

Probably, yes. They did the same with Legion though. That expansion is the least polished one since TBC.
Gone are the days of: It's done when it's done.

[Louz]

Probably, yes. They did the same with Legion though. That expansion is the least polished one since TBC.
Gone are the days of: It's done when it's done.

Because it's better to have some content than none.

Not all people experience the same bugs.

Not all content is available right away anyway, since people have to go through rep grinds and other time gates, so that leaves some space for polishing.

Needless to say, they've started hotfixing a lot of stuff more frequently. Calling Legion the least polished is just exaggeration.

[Wondercrab]

So far to me it seems the only system that could get delayed/cut is war fronts. Islands mostly use existing tech other than new ai which they didn't show. At most they could be underwhelming . Warfronts however use garrison tech, but require more work and more user interface stuff. If you watch the video and look at the terrain you can see it was pushed out early based on the texture job

Islands are what worry me most because it's really hard to design that kind of pseudo-randomised content in a way that's fun and not just tedious or gimmicky. That's what'll need a lot of tweaking and iteration on a game design design level if they want it to reach its potential. Adjusting what combinations of content can spawn together so that the experience is well paced, balanced, fun, and varied is tough to get right. Too little variation and it gets stale. Too much and it gets trickier to balance. Randomising content in general results in a less tightly designed experience than you'd get in a linear format, so the variety has to create fun situations and interactions to compensate for it. Then there's the PvP element and the opposing faction NPCs -- ones who're supposed to have very advanced AI compared to what we've seen in WoW before. That's another whole brand new, very complicated system to layer in on top of everything else.

Islands are going to have a lot of complex moving parts to them, and the more complex you get the more potential there is for something to go wrong, both on a design level and a technical one. Based on how they were described at Blizzcon they sound like one of the most ambitious features that's ever been implemented, and it's going to take a lot of work to get them right.

What worries me at the end of the day is not things being cut, it's things being shipped in a sub-par state. Because then you get Garrisons. No one wanted their player housing system turned into that, and it completely poisoned the well of what could've been an amazing idea.

[Aggrophobic]

Because it's better to have some content than none.

Not all people experience the same bugs.

Not all content is available right away anyway, since people have to go through rep grinds and other time gates, so that leaves some space for polishing.

Needless to say, they've started hotfixing a lot of stuff more frequently. Calling Legion the least polished is just exaggeration.

No it's not. There were just more bugs, rocks to get stuck on and issues like that than in most other expansion they've released. There might have been more content and with that comes more bugs but thats still more bugs and a less polished game. No way around that.

[socialmaker]

From my understanding BfA will:

Be almost identical in terms of class spec/fantasy and playstyle except Survival/Demonology maybe some tweaks here and there.
Artifact ability will be moved into a 100/110 talent tree for everyone
New beautiful zones, more accent on looks/immersion but will require better computer specs
Keep things that worked like M+, drop RNG from legendaries
Keep the hamster wheel elements like: titanforging, AP grind but under a new name this time.

so all in all it's like a new bigger Legion patch so not uber irlewjwlerjwlwtfyayo that you would expect from an expansion but I hope the new fronts or pvp or Mage tower challenges (if any) will have replayability since not everyone is interested in raiding non stop.

If you liked Legion you will find BfA playable too I guess but it's not like TBC coming from vanilla or WOTLK coming from TBC.

[Deleted]

No it's not. There were just more bugs, rocks to get stuck on and issues like that than in most other expansion they've released. There might have been more content and with that comes more bugs but thats still more bugs and a less polished game. No way around that.

You must have a pretty bad memory then if you think legion has so much more bugs than previous expansions...

[grexly75]

Well this early Alpha from BellularGaming he seems to like it..

[Ophenia]

There's not many things to rush though.

Warfronts will be glorified Garrisons (may you accept it or not, "build stuff, send troops to missions, blablabla is nothing more than Order Halls/Garrisons).
Islands are glorified MoP Scenarii
Stats Squish will be faster to put in place than the first time it was implemented (MoP), 1) because they know how to do it now, 2) because they're also squishing ilvl and all this time, so they'll be able to manage the curve more efficiently
Artifact/Azerite seems to be an unglorified Legion Artifact (less impactful talents, probably a bit fewer farm too)
PvP balance lel, nobody really cares anyway
36 Specs to finalize is a non-issue, as they will not revamp all of them, only a few. For most of them, that's tuning/small refinement at best.
New zones are probably 95% finished right now.

So, beyond the raids/dungeons (which will be time-gated as always anyway), there's nothing to be really afraid of in terms of development.

[Lochton]

From one of interviews during WOD announcments:

"Mike also confirmed that Blizzard are already working on their next expansion, having only announced Warlords of Draenor last week."

So no, they had as much time as they needed, since we don't know for how long they've been working on BFA (maybe even during Legion beta already) stuff.

This was confirmed even before. They have told that they've been working on future expansions up to two at a time.

[Splenda]

I don't think so, I just think they are getting better at being farther along with expansions by the time they are announced.