WoW Classic + Burning Crusade

[Kaver]

Time-warp? Why not just be able to make of copy of your Classic character on the BC server so you still have your Classic character when you need it.

[Qstall]

it is not going to be 50/50, most players will jump to BC

even with 10 or less classic vanilla servers, you can maintain a healthy community as long as they are populated. If not, just reduce numbers of realms

[Tonkaden]

it is not going to be 50/50, most players will jump to BC

even with 10 or less classic vanilla servers, you can maintain a healthy community as long as they are populated. If not, just reduce numbers of realms

Ding ding ding. People are high if they think this is going any other than :

The current servers will roll to tbc and classic players will have the option to transfer their character to a fresh classic server (will be 4 total, 1 PvE/PvP in each time zone) or they will do fresh servers where you start at 1.

It would be sheer idiocy to have the majority (yes it will be an overwhelming majority) of players to move to totally brand new TBC servers and leave every server pretty much dead with a result of having to merge everything down. Pure idiocy.

[Hctaz]

That is not what the Vanilla Classic people wan't, they will have new TBC servers and they can merge classic servers that have low populations.

Says who? lol

[Unholyground]

Says who? lol

Logic, they are not going to spend time and resources to do anything beyond new servers and transfers/copies.

[Hctaz]

Logic, they are not going to spend time and resources to do anything beyond new servers and transfers/copies.

How do those two things go hand in hand at all?

"That isn't what the Vanilla people want because of logic that they won't do anything other than new servers."

That's really flawed logic.

I know they won't do it, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't. It's absolutely the best option in terms of keeping the population of Classic healthy, growing, and happy. Not everybody wants TBC servers, and TBC servers will most likely kill off Classic entirely. It's a bad idea, but the only option Activision will allow im sure.

[Unholyground]

How do those two things go hand in hand at all?

"That isn't what the Vanilla people want because of logic that they won't do anything other than new servers."

That's really flawed logic.

I know they won't do it, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't. It's absolutely the best option in terms of keeping the population of Classic healthy, growing, and happy. Not everybody wants TBC servers, and TBC servers will most likely kill off Classic entirely. It's a bad idea, but the only option Activision will allow im sure.

If they die they die, they can always put in bots you can hire so you can solo dungeons like in other MMO's if they get really desprate but I have played in the past on private classic servers and only with about a 3k population we never had issues doing stuff so only time will tell.

I just know the original intent of classic was to preserve and enjoy the first iteration of the game with the fewest bugs possible. I hope they have the same mindset with TBC.

Don't get me wrong I understand what you are saying and it isn't a terrible way to do it but I think creating pockets of people who prefer specific versions of the game isn't a terrible thing and I doubt any one version of classic is going to hold people's attentions for overly long anyways.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

How do those two things go hand in hand at all?

"That isn't what the Vanilla people want because of logic that they won't do anything other than new servers."

That's really flawed logic.

I know they won't do it, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't. It's absolutely the best option in terms of keeping the population of Classic healthy, growing, and happy. Not everybody wants TBC servers, and TBC servers will most likely kill off Classic entirely. It's a bad idea, but the only option Activision will allow im sure.

If BC is enough to kill Classic outright, then maybe Classic wasn't actually as good as people's nostalgia said it was.

Guaranteed they'll have to do outright mergers (since CRZ is off the table by default) once BC launches, but I think they can still probably have 10 functional servers (in NA) for Classic.

[Jazzhands]

Classic + / Burning Crusade & Classic WoW

Recently, a survey has circulated regarding Classic WoW players and what they thought of a Burning Crusade Expansion and 4 ways to implement it. I'll keep this short as possible. Firstly, I'm happy to be playing WoW Classic. From the world PVP, bumping into players doing the same quest as you, even just the community itself. Wether it's helping randoms players or trying to buff every player you pass or the kind help of a total stranger because he's simply nearby and can help you with a quest he or she may have already completed. WoW Classic has revived that feeling once again. Moving on...

I am a game developer, and still study Game Design when not playing WoW. The idea of Burning Crusade would be great. In fact, I would like to see WOTLK classic in the future. Here's a few ways I can see it working without having to split the fan base up again. That should and always be the focus point from here on out when it comes to handling the future of Classic Wow is, community. WoW have already split the game into Retail and Classic. It would be unwise to continue seperating the game into its corresponding expansions and restricting player interaction onto different servers. Here is what I suggest

Firstly

FORCE CURRENT SERVERS TO BURNING CRUSADE CAPABILITIES

Yes absolutely, do this. Keep the audience you have already and build on it. As mentioned before why seperate WoW into three categories is just pointless and you will have servers with minimal players as and if future expansions such as WOTLK are to come. Don't force players to chose between the two. This is critical.

CHOICE

In the Retail Version of WoW players would be familiar with the window that comes up once you load into game. A new area, new quests or something new to do in game. Apply the same method that will give players an option to decide how they want to participate in the exisiting world without slicing the population in half.

WHAT CHOICE?

It's Simple, STAY AT 60 or VENTURE TO THE OUTLANDS

Now there are lot's to consider here so lets just run through some of the main concerns people may havethat would arise with this feature. I will ellaborate in detail. Give players the choice, they can stay at 60 or proceed to 70 if they wish to do so. Also if you stay at 60, it's not permanent. You can always access the future content without missing out on Classic WoW and here is what needs to be implemented.

CLASSIC RAIDS USING 61+ CHARACTERS TO DEFEAT BOSSES

Lets keep it fair. If you're classic raid group has a level 61 or higher, you cannot access any Classic Raid. In fact if you shouldn't be able to invite the player until the Burning Crusade player uses a feature discussed below "Time - Warp"

BURNING CRUSADE PLAYERS SOLOING CLASSIC RAIDS

Sure, you can however, you don't get Loot. Just coins. Yep. I'll explain why later because this will conflict with the Wardrobe System I will speak about shortly.
and here it is....

BURNING CRUSADE PLAYERS TIME-WARP FEATURE

You can probably guess where this is going. Time-Warp Feature, that can be accessed by Burning Crusade Players will have the option of reverting back to 60. Why on earth would they do this? Well here is something to think about.
Did you're friends or Guild stay in Classic? Worry not, you can go back to Classic 60 and do the classic content with them at anytime. Battlegrounds, Arena, Raids!!! or just plain ol Ganking in Classic World PVP if that is your thing.
This option can be reversed obviously and when done so the Burning Crusade Player returns to their Burning Crusade Level where they left off and can continue on in the Outlands as normal.
(This gives players a chance to interact with those that wish to stay in Classic and do classic stuff without having to splice your game into 2 again.)

World PVP

Now... This will implement the same Time-Warp Feature but in an automatic fashion.
When a Burning Crusade player enters Classic Areas a total of three triggers will take place that will change the experience for the BC Player.

Trigger 1 - The Level 60 Wardrobe

The Wardrobe is a feature for players that HAVE selected to proceed in the Burning Crusade content. All items from level 50-60 can be placed into the Wardrobe at no cost. The item is saved in the wardrobe forever and all the goods from Classic Raids will save up some of that Bank space for Burning Crusade Players as they are dealing with more mats and items to deal with.

Only character worn items (between level 50-60) can be placed into the Level 60 Wardrobe. No food bandages mats etc etc.

From here the player can select a preset outfit that he or she would use if the character reverts to 60. This should also be customisable whilst the player is in Burning Crusade content.
Similar to the saved outfits feature in retail.

No item from Burning Crusade can be stored into the Level 60 Wardrobe.

A preset outfit is what you will wear automatically when entering any Classic Content or Area.

As mention before Burning Crusade Players soloing or grouping with players above level 61 in Classic Raids will not be able to access loot. So you cannot use a higher level character to obtain pieces from classic to use should you revert back to 60!

The Wardrobe is not a cosmetic function and should not carry over the transmog system from retail. This is a storage system that is for the sole purpose of re-using gear unlocked from classic once a Burning Crusade Player reverts to Classic 60.

Trigger 2 - Display Action Bar Settings

Self-explanatory. The settings of your 60 play style might be different to your life in the Outlands. To get around that, this is an option that is provided to accomodate and alternate between both a level 60 and Burning Crusade play-style. This should be done automatically when a player decides to Time-Warp their character.

Trigger 3 - Stats, Talents and Spells

You will have the same base stats as you would if you were in classic. Spells/Talents added in the Burning Crusade will be removed for use. It would be like you never left Classic Wow.

Burning Crusade Player Auto Time-Warp + The Level 60 Wardrobe

Auto Time-Warp would refer to a Burning Crusade Player that enters any area that is Classic and the Player is adjusted to Classic WoW paramaters.
The Burning Crusade items worn by the Player will be moved into an additional unique bag slot.

This additional bag slot will ONLY contain Burning Crusade items the player was wearing before the player uses Time-Warp or is automatically forced to Time-Warp for instance; Entering a Classic Zone.

When a Burning Crusade Player re-enters Burning Crusade content the items stored in this additional bag are then placed back onto the player along with Display Action Bar Settings and Stats Talents and Spells.

Burning Crusade Player Manual Time-Warp

A manual Time-Warp is for when players knowingly want to queue or join groups for raids, battlegrounds or arena in the Classic 60 phase.

Note that a Burning Crusade Player cannot join a classic group or raid until he or she manually reverts the character to 60.

This will allow the player to swap items easier as if he or she was playing classic as it is today rather then relying on auto adjusting items to the area.

Note that the Auto Time-Warp is essentially used for when a Burning Crusade Player enters Classic Content should he or she forget to Time-Warp manually.
Also a notification should prompt informing a Player that the Character has been reverted to 60.

CONCLUSION

Thank you for your time. I understand this would take alot more planning and coding but, given the success of WoW Classic this is not an unacheivable feature. There is NO IMPACT on World PVP with Classic vs Burning Crusade as Classic can only access Classic areas and Burning Crusade Players are reverted back to the 60 status upon entering a WoW Classic Zone. Guilds and friends won't have to part ways with each other, as playing with Classic Players still has incentive to do the Classic Raids and PVP to get gear to play amongst friends that have decided to stay in Classic WoW content. There are so many benefits to having this and this could also create alternative and NEW game modes and pvp arenas or battlegrounds.

I have to reinforce the main objective here is DON'T SPLIT YOUR GAME UP AGAIN.
I thank you for your time. I may not have thought of every scenario or problems that can be faced with this idea but if there is anything you feel that would need further explaining I am happy to collaborate or come up with ways to get around issues with those who are interested. Pass This Around.

Kind Regards
Reilly

Yeah, no. I don't get why people do this shit, unless it's just for fun but this has a very serious tone attached to it. Blizzard doesn't want to put the effort into Classic/TBC/WoTLK+ type shit. And the community is also already "divided", each expansion had a dedicated Pserver following. Most of the TBC/WoTLK servers are still active, until Blizzard releases them. Will Classic lose some players when TBC hits, and TBC when WoTLK? Sure. But each expansion has a huge following behind it, and they will all be fine. You don't need 10+ servers of thousands of players, it's fine if even only one has a decent population.

[Hctaz]

If BC is enough to kill Classic outright, then maybe Classic wasn't actually as good as people's nostalgia said it was.

Guaranteed they'll have to do outright mergers (since CRZ is off the table by default) once BC launches, but I think they can still probably have 10 functional servers (in NA) for Classic.

You're suggesting server mergers though which is also bad. The whole point is to NOT split up servers. We've developed server communities at this point. Merging them together and then having to figure out who is still around and who is now only playing BC would suck. And like what do you do when 30 of your 40 man raid just peaces out to BC and you're suddenly guildless?

It's not that BC specifically will kill off Classic because it's better, but it will kill off Classic because the community is going to fracture and implode in on itself. That's a massive turn off in itself. People straight up quit in retail because of the loss of server identity and community.

The whole point of keeping one server that you can play in both pockets is to keep the server communities together.

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Don't get me wrong I understand what you are saying and it isn't a terrible way to do it but I think creating pockets of people who prefer specific versions of the game isn't a terrible thing and I doubt any one version of classic is going to hold people's attentions for overly long anyways.

That's the reason why you should be able to swap back and forth between the versions of the game at will on the same server with the same character. That's the whole point of Classic +

People are less likely to play Classic if they have to log in to a separate client on a separate server on a separate character. If I can just be like, "Hey guys, let's go back and do Naxx," and we can just walk to Naxx and raid it as level 60 then that's a success in my opinion.

[Puthred]

The most absurd idea is being able to create a level 58 character out of nowhere. The two choices should be:
1- Level up on Classic and transfer to TBC whenever you want. (Or even clone it)
2- Create a level 1 character directly on a TBC server.

[czarek]

TBH classic+ idea and some other shit will never gonna happen. TBC will go live and i bet this will be just new servers with option to copy one of ur 60 to TBC server. Copy next will be option from blizz shop i am almost sure in 99%

[Unholyground]

You're suggesting server mergers though which is also bad. The whole point is to NOT split up servers. We've developed server communities at this point. Merging them together and then having to figure out who is still around and who is now only playing BC would suck. And like what do you do when 30 of your 40 man raid just peaces out to BC and you're suddenly guildless?

It's not that BC specifically will kill off Classic because it's better, but it will kill off Classic because the community is going to fracture and implode in on itself. That's a massive turn off in itself. People straight up quit in retail because of the loss of server identity and community.

The whole point of keeping one server that you can play in both pockets is to keep the server communities together.

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That's the reason why you should be able to swap back and forth between the versions of the game at will on the same server with the same character. That's the whole point of Classic +

People are less likely to play Classic if they have to log in to a separate client on a separate server on a separate character. If I can just be like, "Hey guys, let's go back and do Naxx," and we can just walk to Naxx and raid it as level 60 then that's a success in my opinion.

What you are describing is what I wanted time walking to be but they were too lazy to design a swapped in talent tree of old while timwalking, it would have made the experience more fun but this is Blizzard lol.

[valax]

They could just do this way : Same servers , opt in method to start TBC, with the same technology of Warmode separate TBC/ classic players and AHs.

But what about ganking the lowbies ? They opt in early too if they want to play TBC or Classic , choice is reversible until lvl 50 or so and not done via UI ( think an npc like zidormi) , full inventories become soulbound each time you swap though.

Some impractical things : Talents / resource costs and abilities , you'd need to incorporate both version to the client and put limitations to avoid free talent reset abuse.


Honor ranks / Honor points.. would reset every time you swap game mode.
Dungeon mobs behaviour and numbers ( uncertain if they changed something between vanilla and xpansion)


Why would this benefit classic servers? Simple , you'd avoid desertification of vanilla servers , you'd still have all your alts and they 'could' give players a one time option to clone their main (automatically separated from the original) to start TBC while keeping a copy on the other side.

Why this will never happen ? Because there is work to do , far easier to repurpose the servers they already have and copy paste 2.4 code and DB.

[Evolixe]

Everybody in this thread is missing the point entirely: Releasing separate BC servers will have a direct impact/kill off Classic WoW.

No, it won't. People have been saying wow is dying since 2008, not one single part of it is dead.
People that really want classic will be playing just that. People that want TBC will be playing TBC.
Theres more than enough people to support the both of them separately. And looking at the official poll blizzard sent out that's been going around the internet, that looks like exactly the thing they plan to do. Thankfully.

[Hctaz]

What you are describing is what I wanted time walking to be but they were too lazy to design a swapped in talent tree of old while timwalking, it would have made the experience more fun but this is Blizzard lol.

Oh yeah I mean 100%. That's the minimum I would want them to do essentially. There's a LOT more than just that one thing that I think should happen, but I think that should be the bare minimum to prevent there from being separate servers for different versions of the game splitting up the playerbase of Classic style lovers. Some people are going to prefer TBC and some will prefer Vanilla, but we should just be able to do both with the same character. It would be way better.

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No, it won't. People have been saying wow is dying since 2008, not one single part of it is dead.
People that really want classic will be playing just that. People that want TBC will be playing TBC.
Theres more than enough people to support the both of them separately. And looking at the official poll blizzard sent out that's been going around the internet, that looks like exactly the thing they plan to do. Thankfully.

There 100% will not be enough players to play both. Please tell me how many people from Faerlina will still be on Faerlina when TBC comes out. It's going to literally destroy every community at once lol. Guilds will probably lose half of their members immediately and server mergers will be basically mandatory. But then what happens when the players who went to BC want to come back to Classic??? The servers won't be able to hold all of them lol. It's a bad idea all around.

Communities fall apart, guilds get fucked, and the servers will be a ghost town/shut down entirely and merged which will cause issues for any returning players. I don't understand how nobody seems to realize this. There might be enough Classic players to support a few servers, but not the same number we have now. Nobody wants server mergers and to have to find new guilds lol

[StillMcfuu]

You can't mix vanilla and tbc because of the balance changes/ debuff increase. It's either one or the other.

[Synical123]

The funniest part about these posts is that these people tend to be really anti p server and then present these crazy stupid ideas that other p servers have tried.

Force servers to tbc, with the option to transfer your characters (for free) to a classic forever server.