Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

[Better]

Anyone who's asking what modern features there should be can shut up now.

Well we already know it will have Bnet integration. As well as current anti-cheat methods in use. Both of these are modern features.

[Gadzooks]

Post 1.10 - so we don't get the real Alterec Valley. This makes me sad, although it's not the end of the world I guess.

Nobody would play it properly, anyway. They didn't back in vanilla, which is why they changed it. I'm glad i got to experience it pre-1.12. It was awesome. It's completely wasted on players these days, as they have no interest in playing content like that.

[Kendros]

Whoever thinks classic was amazing clearly have never played it. Enjoy questing, farming, and doing (1:30hrs) 5 man dungeons forever cause you can forget making 40 ppl to show up for raid.

Not to mention the 1 hr queue for bgs.

[Tharkkun]

Well we already know it will have Bnet integration. As well as current anti-cheat methods in use. Both of these are modern features.

Those aren't gameplay features. They are social and anti-cheat functionality.

[Gadzooks]

Well to be fair, most people at my office think that old files are no longer available after they deleted them or replaced them with newer versions.
When in fact those files are most likely still present in backups. Recent files can be restored easily, but very old files (1 year or older) are on backup tapes and it takes more effort to restore them.

And lets not forget that WoW is like 14 years old or something. In those 14 years, the backup system was probably changed 2 or 3 times. And the people who were operating them at the time are likely no longer working there.

I think it was Chilton who said that their record keeping was crap back then, and they were over-writing the database and not saving the original values - so if they changed a variable on fireball, they have no record of where it started at. Considering the endless revisions that probably exist, and how many variables have to be recreated, is why this is a large job. For the client, yeah, they have dev backups, but don't forget that the heart of the game was live databases, which didn't get backed up, or only partially, and they didn't long-term archive everything.

But they're "lying", lol. They have no reason to lie about it. They had shit records and workflow back then. This stubborness of the usual suspects to accuse them of lying all the time is hilarious, it's like they did it on purpose, that Chilton sat there in his office and twirled his Snively Whiplash mustache and gloated "They'll never play classic again! Muahahahahahahah!"

It's so fucking childish, and pointless. They lost a bunch of numbers, get over it already. But nooooooo, you can't be glad they're making the effort, they're LYING. Because I don't get what I want RIGHT NOW. Or something.

[Sithalos]

Glad they're putting so much effort into something that people will play, and quit after a week.

[SilenceRedo]

So much wasted effort. Put more people on content for Battle for Azeroth.

[Santoryu]

Well we already know it will have Bnet integration. As well as current anti-cheat methods in use. Both of these are modern features.

You know damn well what I meant.

[Phuongvi]

My bet is this - it will be popular at release, because nostalgia, and it's something new.

I'm giving it 6 to 8 months for the servers to be ghosttowns.

Players today won't play vanilla like it was played. Everything is "go go go go go go" now, completely datamined, botted, and nobody is going to take 4-5 hours to crawl through UBRS, and deal with the final boss, and getting a hunter who can kite the dragonoid. They're gonna bum rush all the content, expecting to chain pull, and wipe their asses off, and ragequit. A bunch of tryhards will game their way through AQ and just sit in capital cities and sneer at everyone. Nobody is gonna grind Hydraxian rep to deal with Onyxia, or grind fire resist. Chat is going to be 1000000 more of shitshow than it is now, and who the fuck wants to sit in a city chat for 4 hours looking for tanks for Dire Maul? Or take the HOURS it takes to clear old school dungeons, let alone raids. Scholomance is longer than most raids - and in parts, were harder, as raids back then were mostly just DPS pressure with simple tactics.

The current day WoW players don't play that game. They play the current wow, which doesn't support the old game play, either. It's going to be brutal. I'm gonna laugh my balls off as the wheels come off this. But hey, you wanted it, you're getting it. And, you get to pay to do it.

The first graveyard run on the first Molten Core wipe is gonna be fucking hilarious. "ARGHIFUCKINGQUITHOWDAREYOUMAKEMERUNFROMTHEGRAVEYARD!"

I'll be honest, it would be great to see the original Alterac Valley again, or the Onyxia event in Stormwind. But overall...nobody is gonna like it. None of the quality of life improvements, all of the suck.

Yeah, it's totally gonna kill retail. Kill it with the sniveling and complaining, more likely.

6 to 8 months. Tops.

Seriously now, I don't think it will litterally kill retail. But I expetect a slow down in Retail.
Let's just say, I am not really confident with BaF success.
Blizzard will be carefull upon the release of Classic (IMO), for exemple, at end of the expansion and even wait before releasing another expansion.
Some people will stick to it, like they stick on private server, some will play for the nostalgia and after the first walk in the capital city, they will log out.

[Gadzooks]

Whoever thinks classic was amazing clearly have never played it. Enjoy questing, farming, and doing (1:30hrs) 5 man dungeons forever cause you can forget making 40 ppl to show up for raid.

Not to mention the 1 hr queue for bgs.

1:30 dungeons? Maybe Ragefire, or that prison one in Stormwind. Most, if not all of the rest of them could take all night to clear. Zul Farrack, Uldaman, LBRS, UBRS, all of them took a decent amount of time to work through. Remember, this is 1.12 - no heirlooms, no boosting, just found gear on 1.12 era content, and shit took forever to die, even trash, in lower level content. You had to actually take your time and pull carefully. You died, fast. Wipes happened, a lot. Plus, graveyard runs eat up a lot of time. High end stuff, like BRD, Scholo, Strat - one wing was easily more than 1.5 hours.

1 hr for BGs...later on, sure. I remember signing up for pre-1.12 Alterac Valley, and playing for hours, and not getting in. People would just go to the Crossroads or Tarran Mill because it was easier than waiting for a BG. They didn't really get efficient queus for BGs until TBC, from what I remember.

Crossroads, before HK was even a thing, now THAT was fun. Nothing to win, or lose, just good old beat the brat with the ball fun. Just seeing how far into Tarran Mill you could get as Alliance before getting dogpiled was a blast.

- - - Updated - - -

Seriously now, I don't think it will litterally kill retail. But I expetect a slow down in Retail.
Let's just say, I am not really confident with BaF success.
Blizzard will be carefull upon the release of Classic (IMO), for exemple, at end of the expansion and even wait before releasing another expansion.
Some people will stick to it, like they stick on private server, some will play for the nostalgia and after the first walk in the capital city, they will log out.

I don't expect this to release before the end of BfA. But even if it does, it will barely make a dent in current Wow. 6 to 8 months, that's my bet, and I'm sticking to it.

[Kendros]

1:30 dungeons? Maybe Ragefire, or that prison one in Stormwind. Most, if not all of the rest of them could take all night to clear. Zul Farrack, Uldaman, LBRS, UBRS, all of them took a decent amount of time to work through. Remember, this is 1.12 - no heirlooms, no boosting, just found gear on 1.12 era content, and shit took forever to die, even trash, in lower level content. You had to actually take your time and pull carefully. You died, fast. Wipes happened, a lot. Plus, graveyard runs eat up a lot of time. High end stuff, like BRD, Scholo, Strat - one wing was easily more than 1.5 hours.

1 hr for BGs...later on, sure. I remember signing up for pre-1.12 Alterac Valley, and playing for hours, and not getting in. People would just go to the Crossroads or Tarran Mill because it was easier than waiting for a BG. They didn't really get efficient queus for BGs until TBC, from what I remember.

Crossroads, before HK was even a thing, now THAT was fun. Nothing to win, or lose, just good old beat the brat with the ball fun. Just seeing how far into Tarran Mill you could get as Alliance before getting dogpiled was a blast.

- - - Updated - - -



I don't expect this to release before the end of BfA. But even if it does, it will barely make a dent in current Wow. 6 to 8 months, that's my bet, and I'm sticking to it.

Well i remenber doing those maraudon runs while lvling taking 1 to 1:30 hrs with a good group, and over 2 hrs with bad groups. And i remenber ppl going to Ironfroge to gank on those places that had no guards while waiting on those endless bg queues.

[The Stormbringer]

I just hope they keep the player models. Using the new ones would literally ruin the whole Classic feel, imo.

I personally want a toggle, so people who want old models can have them, and people who want new models can use those.

[davidcryix]

hey didn't really get efficient queus for BGs until TBC, from what I remember.

cross realm bg queues were added in 1.12 but i can't imagine there being enough population for it to truly matter.

[Kendros]

cross realm bg queues were added in 1.12 but i can't imagine there being enough population for it to truly matter.

Are you crazy? Xrealm wwas added only in WOTLK before that you had to wait ppl on you own server to do content. And before TBC you had to spam in trade chat do find ppl to do stuff, while on TBC they added the dungeon group finder tool but only with ppl from your own server.

[Gorsameth]

Are crazy? Xrealm wwas added only in WOTLK before that you had to wait ppl on you own server to do content. And before TBC you had to spam in trade chat do find ppl to do stuff, while on TBC they added the dungeon group finder tool but only with ppl from your own server.

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Battlegroup
Battlegroups were introduced in Patch 1.12.

xrealm bg's were added LONG before the pve side of the game went xrealm.

[The Anax]

Honestly, the only part that appealed to me was getting the things I had or could get BEFORE Cata changed it all. But the number one thin, the thing that I have lost sleep over some nights, was my mottled red raptor. I am sure it is my autism, but it haunts me! If we could get our stuff again (I deleted a warrior once that had the plate armor from ZG- including the helmet I could never get again) AND still use them for transmog/mounts and such, Blizz might get more people to go to the classic to grind and fight and work to get them. It will still take the same amount of effort it once did, so I don't see the problem with it. Without it, though, not that anyone cares, but I for one won't bother going back to do all that again if the hard work just stays on that server.

[Gadzooks]

cross realm bg queues were added in 1.12 but i can't imagine there being enough population for it to truly matter.

I don't remember what 1.12 added, I'm gonna go take a look. I swear I remember cross realm didn't happen until TBC.

[Escepticus]

Whoever thinks classic was amazing clearly have never played it. Enjoy questing, farming, and doing (1:30hrs) 5 man dungeons forever cause you can forget making 40 ppl to show up for raid.

"Whoever thinks classic was amazing clearly have never played it".

I played it. And yes, I think WAS amazing, fking amazing!

[Gadzooks]

Well i remenber doing those maraudon runs while lvling taking 1 to 1:30 hrs with a good group, and over 2 hrs with bad groups. And i remenber ppl going to Ironfroge to gank on those places that had no guards while waiting on those endless bg queues.

Maybe one wing of Mauradon. And even then, it took a while. I don't remember doing the whole place in one run, because it took so long. Getting to the Princess was the point.

I didn't run the live side of Strat until nearly the end of vanilla, because nobody wanted to run it, because it took too long, and the drops weren't that good.

[Nathiest]

Great now put it all onto my phone!

I wonder if there will be a beta for this?