Here is a link to the GameSpy interview transcript.
To summarise:
Changes to raiding
Tom Chilton: The feedback we've been getting has been overwhelmingly positive, as far as people really liking the fact that we're supporting 10- and 25-person raids.
Status of the beta
Tom Chilton: Finishing and polishing is really where we're at. The level cap will be bumped up to 80 pretty soon... We'll have Naxxramas in the hands of the players very soon. Wintergrasp will be fully playable for the players very soon.
Changes to class dynamics and new skills being added
Tom Chilton: For the Warlock, there's the demon form which is totally exciting... Knockback mechanics on various classes are exciting, like Thunder on the Shaman. The Mage's Deep Freeze should be a pretty interesting mechanic. We're trying to flesh out Arcane so that it becomes a very viable tree on its own as well...
PvP and competitiveness
Tom Chilton: Obviously we're trying something new with Wintergrasp... We're not changing the philosophy of the game itself. PvE is a huge, huge part of the game, if not the biggest part of the game.
Vehicle combat and what allowing vehicles has opened up in terms of PvP and PvE
J. Allen Brack: The team has just gone berserk with using the vehicle tech in all kinds of crazy ways. There's one quest where you drive a shredder around a field of scourge that's mobilizing. You take out guys twenty at a time, and just emulsify them...
Continuation of humour
Tom Chilton: ...we can't suppress our own sense of humor.
Death Knights -- dark and gritty
J. Allen Brack: In the case of the Death Knight, you actually start out as an agent of the Lich King. You're an evil person, you're a bad guy... you're going to complete quests that might make you a little queasy.
Further development of Warcraft lore
Tom Chilton: It feels like there's more depth to the lore in Lich King... aided by the fact that the storyline is one that's been forming since Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne... it's very rooted in traditional fantasy.
Recruit-a-friend and zerging through old content to prepare for WotLK
Tom Chilton: With Wrath of the Lich King, we're speeding up 60-70... we feel like our quest content from 70-80 is a lot stronger. Even outside the experience standpoint, we'd rather get you to the better content more quickly.
Revising old content
Tom Chilton: We did something like that [revising old content] with Duskwallow Marsh, adding new content there. We plan to do more of that.
J. Allen Brack: Heroic Scarlet Monastery and Heroic Molten Core are two of our biggest requests. Heroic Deadmines would be good too.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
Showing posts with label pve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pve. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
An Interview and Some Lore
On Lore. The OP was asking about NPCs / structures and their movement around the place according to Warcraft lore. The blue post addresses the movement of Naxxramas and Dalaran, as well as how Alliance get more Ashbringer / Arthas type lore than Horde. He also mentions the Warcraft fiction, such as comic books and such that have been written with reference to the worlds and their lore.
Quote
"By the way, regarding Naxxramas, I just wanted to confirm that this would only be moved to Northrend and the level 60 version will not be available anymore. It's likely there won't be any achievements relating to the old Naxxramas, except there might be something related to Atiesh."
Tom Chilton (aka Kalgan, Lead Game Designer) and J. Allen Brack (Production Director) were interviewed at gamona.de:
Quote
How is the beta going ? Is everything alright?
T.C. - Things are definitely going very well, we've got a lot of very good feedbacks through the beta process. We've been making a lot of changes and improvements based on the feedback but overall it's coming along very well.
The beta servers have been very unstable in the last days, is there any improvement ?
J.A.B - We've got our server team who is looking into all problems, the point of our beta process is to actually figure out what problems we have and get them all fixed before we do the big release.
Is there any plan to open more beta realms ?
T.C. - We do actually have plans to start up a realm that has premade characters at level 80, the reason being that we're going to want to give players another opportunity to test some of the end game content without having to go through the leveling process. We can probably do that near the end of the beta process but it might be on a different server, this isn't decided for sure.
When do you plan to open more instances and rise the level cap to level 80 ?
T.C. - Each time we do another patch on the beta we try to open up new content for the players. [...] I don't know if we'll be able to patch this week while we're being here in Europe but that should be coming very soon.
J.A.B - For each patch we try to evaluate how much content do we have, is it time to give players the chance to open that up ? We're talking internally about when it is time to rise us up to level 80 but we're getting close.
Why didn't you separate PvE from PvP more?
T.C. - We made that decision because prior to The Burning Crusade, what we found as people increase their gear they die quicker because PvE gear is specialized gear. For DPS classes as an example it is designed to do the most damage as possible in the shortest time as possible and it does not have a lot of survivability. If that's the best gear players have available, then what happens is they take that into PvP is that they die very quickly and there's not much time for their strategies to evolve. What we've found is that in PvP we had to create gear with balanced offensive capability and survivability and because of that we had to create this separate set of gear with the new stat called resilience to make sure fights lasted long enough so that they are interesting and have depth. [...] Well, certainly something that we want to do for Litch king is better crossover so that when you're doing PvE you are actually able to accumulate some PvP gear in case you decide to try out some PvP you'll have a good starting point. The same would go in reverse, if you're doing a lot of PvP, you might have a couple of really good items that you could use into PvE and do pretty well.
What about the paladin, is there any plans to nerf the DPS Paladin's damage from what it is on beta servers now?
T.C. - We are just now beginning on going through the heavy tuning phase, we really don't do that until the end of the beta generally, where we start going through all of the classes and finding the things that are way out of balance and there's no doubt right now that the ret paladins are doing a lot more damage than what we would expect.
Are you satisfied with how the death knight is going?
T.C. - Yeah, the death knight has been coming along very well, we've been getting a lot of good feedback from it, people seem to like the class, they seem to enjoy the starting experience very much, we really kind of put our heart into the death knight class, hopefully that's going to pan out.
What talent tree do you prefer on the death knights?
T.C. - Personally, I really enjoy the frost talents, but I believe all three trees are very strong, they all definitely all have a strong role to play.
What else do you plan? Are there any more instances coming?
T.C. - Well, certainly, there are a lot more instances we plan to release, CoT: Strath instance, Ulduar, a handful that we are play testing internally that are pretty much ready for players to see, should be one of the patches that come out any time now [...] but it should be rolling out there very quickly.
All the instances were very well designed, however, I consider it unfortunate that say, Azjol-Nerub only has three bosses, its very short.
T.C. - Most players would consider that a fortunate thing, we've been getting a lot of feedback in the past that some of the instances were taking too long, so we're going for the middle ground here, we want to have some diversity between the instances too, there are a lot of players that miss the old big dungeon crawls, like BRD, etc. We want to find ways to deliver that too, but ultimately I think the core experience is that players should be able to get through an instance in less than an hour. Its something that we're trying to be very conscious about in Wrath, unlike in Burning Crusade when we had the heroic instances, those take a very long time to get through, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours depending on your quality of gear. We're trying to make sure when Litch King comes out that when you do the heroic instances, it doesn't take as much time going through it as you did before.
But, we need the epic feeling from the Blackrock Depths too.
T.C. - We're trying to capture that too as much as possible.
How do you plan to balance the 10 and 25 man raid instances? Are there any changes in boss design?
T.C. - There definitely are changes in boss design, for example, not only do we have to have changes in boss design even to get it down to 25 from the way Naxx used to work, certainly in the past at level 60, the four horseman boss took eight different tanks for instance. There definitely has been design change, but the integrity of the encounter remains the same, you still have the four horsemen, they all are still there. The mechanics of the fight are different, you will tank them in different ways, the horsemen will be tanked by different classes, even non tanking classes, kinda like what we have done in the past with warlocks tanking. We have some mechanics like that in place so that we can maintain the integrity of the encounters even though the actual mechanics will be different.
Will Naxx still be one instance?
T.C. - It is still a single instance, it still has that epic feel.
When will Wrath be released?
T.C. - When its ready. Specifically, the fifth of when it's ready.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
Quote
"By the way, regarding Naxxramas, I just wanted to confirm that this would only be moved to Northrend and the level 60 version will not be available anymore. It's likely there won't be any achievements relating to the old Naxxramas, except there might be something related to Atiesh."
Tom Chilton (aka Kalgan, Lead Game Designer) and J. Allen Brack (Production Director) were interviewed at gamona.de:
Quote
How is the beta going ? Is everything alright?
T.C. - Things are definitely going very well, we've got a lot of very good feedbacks through the beta process. We've been making a lot of changes and improvements based on the feedback but overall it's coming along very well.
The beta servers have been very unstable in the last days, is there any improvement ?
J.A.B - We've got our server team who is looking into all problems, the point of our beta process is to actually figure out what problems we have and get them all fixed before we do the big release.
Is there any plan to open more beta realms ?
T.C. - We do actually have plans to start up a realm that has premade characters at level 80, the reason being that we're going to want to give players another opportunity to test some of the end game content without having to go through the leveling process. We can probably do that near the end of the beta process but it might be on a different server, this isn't decided for sure.
When do you plan to open more instances and rise the level cap to level 80 ?
T.C. - Each time we do another patch on the beta we try to open up new content for the players. [...] I don't know if we'll be able to patch this week while we're being here in Europe but that should be coming very soon.
J.A.B - For each patch we try to evaluate how much content do we have, is it time to give players the chance to open that up ? We're talking internally about when it is time to rise us up to level 80 but we're getting close.
Why didn't you separate PvE from PvP more?
T.C. - We made that decision because prior to The Burning Crusade, what we found as people increase their gear they die quicker because PvE gear is specialized gear. For DPS classes as an example it is designed to do the most damage as possible in the shortest time as possible and it does not have a lot of survivability. If that's the best gear players have available, then what happens is they take that into PvP is that they die very quickly and there's not much time for their strategies to evolve. What we've found is that in PvP we had to create gear with balanced offensive capability and survivability and because of that we had to create this separate set of gear with the new stat called resilience to make sure fights lasted long enough so that they are interesting and have depth. [...] Well, certainly something that we want to do for Litch king is better crossover so that when you're doing PvE you are actually able to accumulate some PvP gear in case you decide to try out some PvP you'll have a good starting point. The same would go in reverse, if you're doing a lot of PvP, you might have a couple of really good items that you could use into PvE and do pretty well.
What about the paladin, is there any plans to nerf the DPS Paladin's damage from what it is on beta servers now?
T.C. - We are just now beginning on going through the heavy tuning phase, we really don't do that until the end of the beta generally, where we start going through all of the classes and finding the things that are way out of balance and there's no doubt right now that the ret paladins are doing a lot more damage than what we would expect.
Are you satisfied with how the death knight is going?
T.C. - Yeah, the death knight has been coming along very well, we've been getting a lot of good feedback from it, people seem to like the class, they seem to enjoy the starting experience very much, we really kind of put our heart into the death knight class, hopefully that's going to pan out.
What talent tree do you prefer on the death knights?
T.C. - Personally, I really enjoy the frost talents, but I believe all three trees are very strong, they all definitely all have a strong role to play.
What else do you plan? Are there any more instances coming?
T.C. - Well, certainly, there are a lot more instances we plan to release, CoT: Strath instance, Ulduar, a handful that we are play testing internally that are pretty much ready for players to see, should be one of the patches that come out any time now [...] but it should be rolling out there very quickly.
All the instances were very well designed, however, I consider it unfortunate that say, Azjol-Nerub only has three bosses, its very short.
T.C. - Most players would consider that a fortunate thing, we've been getting a lot of feedback in the past that some of the instances were taking too long, so we're going for the middle ground here, we want to have some diversity between the instances too, there are a lot of players that miss the old big dungeon crawls, like BRD, etc. We want to find ways to deliver that too, but ultimately I think the core experience is that players should be able to get through an instance in less than an hour. Its something that we're trying to be very conscious about in Wrath, unlike in Burning Crusade when we had the heroic instances, those take a very long time to get through, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours depending on your quality of gear. We're trying to make sure when Litch King comes out that when you do the heroic instances, it doesn't take as much time going through it as you did before.
But, we need the epic feeling from the Blackrock Depths too.
T.C. - We're trying to capture that too as much as possible.
How do you plan to balance the 10 and 25 man raid instances? Are there any changes in boss design?
T.C. - There definitely are changes in boss design, for example, not only do we have to have changes in boss design even to get it down to 25 from the way Naxx used to work, certainly in the past at level 60, the four horseman boss took eight different tanks for instance. There definitely has been design change, but the integrity of the encounter remains the same, you still have the four horsemen, they all are still there. The mechanics of the fight are different, you will tank them in different ways, the horsemen will be tanked by different classes, even non tanking classes, kinda like what we have done in the past with warlocks tanking. We have some mechanics like that in place so that we can maintain the integrity of the encounters even though the actual mechanics will be different.
Will Naxx still be one instance?
T.C. - It is still a single instance, it still has that epic feel.
When will Wrath be released?
T.C. - When its ready. Specifically, the fifth of when it's ready.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Sage Completed
Continued from A Mage, a Priest and a Rogue Walk into an Inn...:
Unknown was just starting on Blackwing Lair when the guild leader invited me in. As is usual with joining a new guild, I was under a trial period to prove my dedication and commitment to the guild and to their progression as a raiding body. I fit right in, having found a new home, and was able to attend most raids -- more than the minimum weekly requirement.
We spent the next few months learning the boss encounters and progressing through BWL, while also continuing to clear Molten Core on a weekly basis -- more of us still required gear (I started out with just blues and I think I eventually acquired my full Arcanist set). At the same time, I kept up my PvP as much as I could, achieving rank 7, Knight-Captain. It turned out to be my limit, because I was too dedicated to the PvE elements of the game.
I rolled a warrior at some point and levelled him to 60 throughout that year. I eventually brought him along to alternate runs of Molten Core and Onyxia and got him some Might pieces and his T2 Helm.
Unlike my time as a hunter with BoV, I was present for all boss kills but Chromaggus. My most memorable game moment would have to be when we first killed Nefarian, the final boss for Blackwing Lair, on 10 October 2006. Teamspeak -- our choice of voice communication -- erupted, as everyone cheered and whooped for a couple of mins. It was both exhilirating and relieving and I will never forget that moment. My mage won the roll for the Head of Nefarian, which I handed in for my Master Dragonslayer's Orb.
A week following our first Nefarian kill, I was promoted from regular member to Mage Officer. We had started on the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj -- I could go on about the opening of the gates, our experiences in the 20-man, my grind to exalted with Cenarion Circle to acquire the Blade of Vaulted Secrets, and everything surrounding this time. But I won't. If you want to read a lot more indepth about my 2006 year and my experiences in the game, read my old blog's 2006 entires, as they detail a lot of what happened during the peak of my oldschool gameplay. Warning: plenty of images and detailed World of Warcraft play experience!
Suffice to say, we only managed to get Skeram down, and no other bosses. And when it came to Naxxramas, it was just too close to Christmas and the holiday period before the release of the expansion, so we didn't get even one boss down in that instance. I am immensely looking forward to the Northrend Naxxramas experience!
I did, however, level a rogue to 60, faster than any previous character. It was seven days total playtime, as compared to nine for my warrior. Levelling my fourth 60 before the expansion was an indication that I enjoyed the act of levelling toons. Something about hitting that next level and unlocking skills just appeals to me.
Come the release of The Burning Crusade, I levelled my mage to 70 in eight days. I had run instances with some friends from Ruined and another guildy who was levelling at my own breakneck pace. He beat me to 70 because on the night before I hit that final level, the servers went down. I was two bubbles from levelling and waited for about two hours, but it got too late, so I simply went to bed. When I logged in, guess who had hit 70 overnight. Oh well, I was the first guild member to get my epic flying mount!
What came after the expansion is somewhat tragic. Some of us got impatient and decided to venture off on our own to begin raiding the new content. Infusion was born and we launched into Karazhan in February 2007. We recruited and advanced and made ok progression. We eventually got the numbers to raid Gruul's Lair, but soon after that, interest waned, often not enough members were present to even fill two Karazhan groups, and Infusion dwindled and died.
What I regret the most is our hastiness in going back to raiding. We destroyed Unknown for no good reason but selfishness and impatience. Who knows what might have happened had we waited for enough people to level to 70 and taken things easy for a while. After the fall of Infusion, my PvE raiding went on a downhill slide. My mage went from guild to guild, but everywhere I went, we eventually came up against that brick wall where not enough people would log in for raids. What is it with undedicated people and not wanting to wipe to new content in order to learn and proceed?
I guess this all changed my mindset. As 2008 rolled around, I had levelled six characters to 70. Earlier this year, I gave my 70 warrior to my brother so he could PvP with him. As you can see from my Character List, I enjoy levelling toons almost as much as I used to enjoy raiding. That's not to say that I no longer enjoy raiding -- I love PvE content; it is what drives me in this game. I wish that I was under playable circumstances, but my subscription expired almost two months ago.
When I am able to, I will play again. I will finish levelling my paladin, get my shaman's epic flying mount, try and acquire exalted status with a few more factions on my mage, and possibly even level another toon. I've done the PvP thing a bit, but I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best arena or battlegrounds player. It's fun and challenging as both healer and dps in PvP, but I am wired for PvE content.
I look forward to levelling in Wrath of the Lich King and enjoying these last few months before the expansion is released. I hope that I will be able to raid at level 80 and that circumstances will not prevent me from enjoying regular gaming and monster slaying in the lands of Azeroth, Outland and Northrend.
My World is Warcraft.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
Unknown was just starting on Blackwing Lair when the guild leader invited me in. As is usual with joining a new guild, I was under a trial period to prove my dedication and commitment to the guild and to their progression as a raiding body. I fit right in, having found a new home, and was able to attend most raids -- more than the minimum weekly requirement.
We spent the next few months learning the boss encounters and progressing through BWL, while also continuing to clear Molten Core on a weekly basis -- more of us still required gear (I started out with just blues and I think I eventually acquired my full Arcanist set). At the same time, I kept up my PvP as much as I could, achieving rank 7, Knight-Captain. It turned out to be my limit, because I was too dedicated to the PvE elements of the game.
I rolled a warrior at some point and levelled him to 60 throughout that year. I eventually brought him along to alternate runs of Molten Core and Onyxia and got him some Might pieces and his T2 Helm.
Unlike my time as a hunter with BoV, I was present for all boss kills but Chromaggus. My most memorable game moment would have to be when we first killed Nefarian, the final boss for Blackwing Lair, on 10 October 2006. Teamspeak -- our choice of voice communication -- erupted, as everyone cheered and whooped for a couple of mins. It was both exhilirating and relieving and I will never forget that moment. My mage won the roll for the Head of Nefarian, which I handed in for my Master Dragonslayer's Orb.
A week following our first Nefarian kill, I was promoted from regular member to Mage Officer. We had started on the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj -- I could go on about the opening of the gates, our experiences in the 20-man, my grind to exalted with Cenarion Circle to acquire the Blade of Vaulted Secrets, and everything surrounding this time. But I won't. If you want to read a lot more indepth about my 2006 year and my experiences in the game, read my old blog's 2006 entires, as they detail a lot of what happened during the peak of my oldschool gameplay. Warning: plenty of images and detailed World of Warcraft play experience!
Suffice to say, we only managed to get Skeram down, and no other bosses. And when it came to Naxxramas, it was just too close to Christmas and the holiday period before the release of the expansion, so we didn't get even one boss down in that instance. I am immensely looking forward to the Northrend Naxxramas experience!
I did, however, level a rogue to 60, faster than any previous character. It was seven days total playtime, as compared to nine for my warrior. Levelling my fourth 60 before the expansion was an indication that I enjoyed the act of levelling toons. Something about hitting that next level and unlocking skills just appeals to me.
Come the release of The Burning Crusade, I levelled my mage to 70 in eight days. I had run instances with some friends from Ruined and another guildy who was levelling at my own breakneck pace. He beat me to 70 because on the night before I hit that final level, the servers went down. I was two bubbles from levelling and waited for about two hours, but it got too late, so I simply went to bed. When I logged in, guess who had hit 70 overnight. Oh well, I was the first guild member to get my epic flying mount!
What came after the expansion is somewhat tragic. Some of us got impatient and decided to venture off on our own to begin raiding the new content. Infusion was born and we launched into Karazhan in February 2007. We recruited and advanced and made ok progression. We eventually got the numbers to raid Gruul's Lair, but soon after that, interest waned, often not enough members were present to even fill two Karazhan groups, and Infusion dwindled and died.
What I regret the most is our hastiness in going back to raiding. We destroyed Unknown for no good reason but selfishness and impatience. Who knows what might have happened had we waited for enough people to level to 70 and taken things easy for a while. After the fall of Infusion, my PvE raiding went on a downhill slide. My mage went from guild to guild, but everywhere I went, we eventually came up against that brick wall where not enough people would log in for raids. What is it with undedicated people and not wanting to wipe to new content in order to learn and proceed?
I guess this all changed my mindset. As 2008 rolled around, I had levelled six characters to 70. Earlier this year, I gave my 70 warrior to my brother so he could PvP with him. As you can see from my Character List, I enjoy levelling toons almost as much as I used to enjoy raiding. That's not to say that I no longer enjoy raiding -- I love PvE content; it is what drives me in this game. I wish that I was under playable circumstances, but my subscription expired almost two months ago.
When I am able to, I will play again. I will finish levelling my paladin, get my shaman's epic flying mount, try and acquire exalted status with a few more factions on my mage, and possibly even level another toon. I've done the PvP thing a bit, but I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best arena or battlegrounds player. It's fun and challenging as both healer and dps in PvP, but I am wired for PvE content.
I look forward to levelling in Wrath of the Lich King and enjoying these last few months before the expansion is released. I hope that I will be able to raid at level 80 and that circumstances will not prevent me from enjoying regular gaming and monster slaying in the lands of Azeroth, Outland and Northrend.
My World is Warcraft.
Gaiwyn of Proudmoore
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)