BlizzCon 2018 Recap
Diablo Immortal Interview With Wyatt Cheng And Joe Hsu
Hearthstone Patch - New Classic Cards, Free Packs, Rastakhan's Rumble Pre-Order
Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes - November 5, 2018
Mamytwink Interview with Jeremy Feasel and Tina Wang
The French site Mamytwink interviewed Jeremy Feasel and Tina Wang on some interesting Battle for Azeroth topics.
- Nazjatar Zone
- Nazjatar's detailed operations are still being worked on, but the team loves the rare spawn system from the Timeless Isle and the idea of meeting criteria to spawn a rare mob or having some that don't spawn often that causes players to come together for an unexpected moment. They want these moments to happen in Nazjatar.
- Nazjatar is a big landmass while Mechagon is smaller and focused around the mega dungeon.
- Nazjatar is a very unique environment with coral, kelp forests, and geysers.
- Nazjatar is really the first time people with see true Naga culture and architecture. in Vash'jir we mostly saw Night Elf ruins while Nazjatar has bioluminescent abyssal buildings.
- You will need to take a boat to reach Nazjatar as it is located far away at the edge of the Great Sea.
- The team has discussed having old school PvP objectives in Nazjatar similar to the world PvP areas in Burning Crusade (Auchindoun, Halaa, etc).
- Something that has been talked about are recurring events during which the Naga regain control of Nazjatar by seizing three towers. This causes terrible effects and you feel that Azshara's eyes are everywhere and that she is trying to regain control. Players would need to work together to regain control of these towers.
- In War Mode, these towers would also be able to be taken over by a specific faction in order to increase the rewards in Nazjatar much like the towers in Hellfire Peninsula.
- The team wants to grow upon the escort system and have new allies in Nazjatar accompany you into the world, level up, and have you discover their story through quests.
- Mechagon
- The team wanted to create another mega dungeon after all the positive feedback from Karazhan.
- The main lessons they learned from Karazhan was the timing to complete the dungeon and the level of loot drops that it offered.
- Mechagon will have unique loot and you will want to come back even after the next raid.
- The community appreciated that Karazhan was split into 2 wings in a later patch. They plan to do the same for Mechagon.
- Island Expedition AI
- When the team was developing the Island Expedition AI they implimented it into a bunch of areas, including sending teams of NPCs into Arathi Basin.
- It was during these tests that they realized that the AI should jump so that they felt more like players.
- Warfronts
- The team has seen players lose Warfronts already, specifically near the beginning of their introduction when low item level players were queing and couldn't handle the mobs.
- Heroic Warfronts will require more coordination and to play in groups to react to the enemy NPCs.
- Examples of this include having to escort troops that are summoned or having to retreat to defend your base from enemy units.
- PvP Warfronts are always being discussed internally, but there is nothing to announce about adding them at the moment.
- War Mode, Incursions, and PvP
- Wintergrasp is returning as an epic battleground soon.
- Incursions are meant to drive home the faction war.
- Each faction will have the chance to defend or attack based on the location of an Incursion. For example, if the Horde attack Tiragarde Sound, the Alliance Incursion quests will involve defending their lands while the Horde ones will be on the offensive.
- There are special abilities that are accessed during these quests that can be used on hostile NPCS but also player characters in War Mode.
- Things like ships exploding in the sky, cities on fire, and the Horde trying to blow up the Boralus gate with an iron star are used to really show the war aspect of the Incursions.
- The team hopes Incursions and the increased rewards will push more people into War Mode to create huge battles between the factions in the world.
- Lore and Story
- During the Crucible of Storms raid, the factions will learn that there is something dark under the sea and that a portion of N'Zoth is right under the Shrine of the Storm.
- The team has plans for the branching story between siding with Saurfang or Sylvanas.
- The team loves the idea of the Heritage Armor quests because it allows them to develop lore from the past for the races of Azeroth.
- Graphical Improvements
- Battle for Azeroth introduced many new graphical options such as dynamic weather and placing filters such as the fire used in Siege of Boralus. More recently they have greatly improved the management of the graphics processor.
The Lost Codex Interview with Alex Afrasiabi & Patrick Dawson
The Lost Codex sat down with Alex Afrasiabi & Patrick Dawson to discuss the story and systems of Battle for Azeroth.
- Vol'dun
- The Sethrakk did not evolve from trolls.
- The trolls abandoned Vol'dun after it became a desert.
- Mythrax was a general in the Aqir War mentioned in chronicle and the events of Vol'dun's past occurred during this war.
- Drust and the Death Realm
- There is a relation between the Drust and Vrykul. They came from seafaring Vrykul clans.
- The Death Realm is an offshoot of the Dream/Nightmare.
- Thros is an isolated part of a land of nightmare and death.
- Large Scale NPC Battles
- Creatures in the distance that can't be interacted with are not spawned server side. This allows the team to have many npcs on screen at once such as in the Lordaeron scenario and the battle in Dazar'alor seen during the Horde campaign.
- They first used this technology in the Siege of Orgrimmar.
- Allied Races
- There is no pattern to creating an Allied Race. They want races that are cool and contextually important.
- With that said, Allied Races need to have animation rigs, which is a limitation to some degree, but as with the case of Kul Tiran Humans, new animation rigs can be altered and created.
- Alex believes that Kul Tirans should be able to be mages, and says the team will discuss it further. He can't promise that it will happen, however.
- There is a chance that new customization options could be added to the Void Elves to fill the High Elf fantasy.
- There is a chance that there might be changes to the acquisition of Heritage Armor in the future.
- Lore, Story, and Feedback
- Loa who died during the Zandalar campaign are not necessarily dead forever.
- Collaboration is key when it comes to player feedback. They are always listening and talking about feedback even when they don't necessarily agree.
- The team knew adding a choice to the Sylvanas/Saurfang quest chain would mean that they have to deliver on creating a narrative choice with meaning that has consequences in the future, and thought that this moment was a good time to experiment with this idea.
- Choices like this are a test, but Blizzard wants to do them.
- People removing their shoulder pads as a movement to stand with Saurfang was a powerful moment for the team and is really what drove them to want to create this branching story choice.
- There is always a chance we could see Yrel and characters from alternate Draenor again.
Inside a Methodical AWC 2018 Championship
Hearthstone Reaches 100 Million Players
Blizzard announced today that Hearthstone has hit the 100 million players mark. To celebrate, there will be a special in-game event from November 7th through the 11th. During the event, players who log in to the game will receive a one-time reward of six free packs from the most recent expansion set, The Boomsday Project. In addition, players will be able to complete a series of “Celebrate the Players” event quests to earn up to 500 gold—which can be used to acquire card packs from any set in the game and participate in the Arena mode.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Dark Legacy Comics #654 - Shakedown
DLC #654 has been released!