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Dance Studio and Abyssal Maw shelved, not cancelled
Ghostcrawler tweeted a bit of information in response to some of the angst over new models only being 25% done (people are not happy they're only that far along). In a series of tweets, Ghostcrawler says: Ghostcrawler Quote: The amount of QQ over "models are ~25% done" is hurting my brain. The good news is this is something actively being worked on, not a shelved project like dance studio or abyssal maw. Also, shelved does not mean cancelled. :) source Now the important thing to remember is that last sentence: "shelved does not mean cancelled." There is still every possibility these things are going to happen, just not anytime soon. Companies commonly shelve things when there are more important priorities for departments to work on. With a graphic / modeling heavy task like redoing all the character models for WoW, that takes a lot more priority than giving people new dances. So personally I welcome this news, I'm glad to see that Blizzard is putting things in this priority order.
WoW Archivist: Paths not taken
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Recently, Blizzard addressed rumors that their ultra-secret next MMO, codenamed Titan, had been "reset." Developers were indeed reassigned to other projects as the slimmed-down team made "some large design and technology changes to the game." Since we don't know anything about Titan for sure, despite some compelling leaks, we'll never know what features the game would have had as part of its original design. The WoW team, on the other hand, has backed away from many different announced features and content additions that didn't work out. This week's WoW Archivist will look at some of the more interesting and infamous canceled or delayed features. Homeless Believe it or not, player housing was briefly tested in alpha. Model viewers showed files going back to alpha in a folder called "playerhousing" (as shown below). Only human houses were ever designed. Blizzard also added a portal in Stormwind as an entrance to an instanced player housing area. An alpha blue poster named Katricia wrote, "Our current idea (which could change) is to extend the cities to have player housing neighborhoods. For example, in the canal area of Stormwind players can see a blue instance portal behind a large portcullis; this is the entrance to the player housing neighborhood in Stormwind."
WRUP: Whatever happened to Neptulon, anyway?
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! When last we left Neptulon the Tidehunter, the brave lord of elementals was assisting us in defeating the foul kraken Ozumat in the Throne of Tides 5-man instance. But, of course, Ozumat was not killed -- merely weakened. The beast disappeared into the deep, and Neptulon disappeared along with him! What happened? Well, we may not find out. Blizzard, defending its choice to not include an Abyssal Maw 5-man instance (or raid) in patch 4.2, said this past week that: We've decided for now that the Vashj'ir quest line along with the Throne of the Tides dungeon does a pretty good job of finishing the Neptulon story. source Those of us at WoW Insider respectfully disagree; there's more story here to be told. And since we all loathe untied ends, I decided to pose the question to our writers and editors this week: "Using your best predictive and story-telling abilities ... what happened to Ozumat and Neptulon?" %Gallery-124460%
Patch 4.1: What we know so far
Patch 4.1, the first major content patch of Cataclysm's life cycle, has been mentioned a few times lately here on WoW Insider, sparked by Alex Afrasiabi's commentary narrating a zone overview for G4. Since then, many players have asked the question: What is actually in patch 4.1? What do we know about it? Do we know anything? We don't know everything that will be contained in patch 4.1, but between BlizzCon and more recent information, Blizzard has already outlined a number of the major features from the patch. Let's take a look at those features, shall we?
BlizzCon 2010: Patch 4.1 Firelands raid and Abyssal Maw dungeon
The Dungeons and Raids panel is now in Q&A mode, and Cory Stockton (lead content designer) gave us a lot of new information concerning what to expect when patch 4.1 goes live. I've assembled everything we know below: Firelands raid This is the elemental plane of fire and an outdoor raid located in Mount Hyjal. You'll be able to mount up and run around. The final boss will be Ragnaros, and you'll fight him in a building called Sulfuron Keep. Sulfuron Keep looks very similar to the building you'll see when you fly into Hyjal for the first time (and may in fact be the same one). The Firelands raid will provide more backstory and lore on Ragnaros' presence in Azeroth. I thought I heard that he won't be moved out of Molten Core (he'll be in both raids simultaneously) but I'm not 100 percent sure. Expect 7 bosses. The Abyssal Maw The elemental plane of water. A new 5-man in Vashj'ir thematically similar to the 5-mans shipping with Cataclysm. "Oh, and it's nothing Oculus." Players will be moving around a lot in the dungeon and they're doing their best to avoid the "Oculus effect" of quirky mechanics being unintentionally annoying. The entire dungeon will be underwater. They've overhauled underwater combat and you can fight normally if you're on the floor. Most of these mechanics are already in place in the beta Vashj'ir zone, so some players will already be familiar with it. They're planning on four or five bosses. BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Know Your Lore: Hold any form, take any shape -- The elements, part four
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. We're up to water now in our survey of the elemental forces of the Warcraft setting. Having covered fire and earth previously, we now take a look at the forces of water led by Neptulon the Tidehunter. Unlike his rivals, Neptulon is devious enough to manipulate the other elemental lords into combat, crafty enough to gain a foothold on Outland with followers among the Naga and Twilight's Hammer (Neptulon's influence reaches far enough that he managed to have a powerful minion, Frost Lord Ahune, summoned to the Coilfang Slave Pens in an attempt to outflank Ragnaros), and of all elementals, those of water are even willing to work with mortals in an attempt to sabotage their enemies. What is known about Neptulon is that he fought alongside the other elemental lords in the war with the titans, that even as powerful as they were, the lords of the elements eventually fell and were banished. However, despite the defeat of the Old Gods and the imprisoning of the elementals on artificial planes created to house them, Neptulon found ways to affect the mortal world. The ancient troll empire of the Gurubashi eventually felt the wrath of the Tidehunter and his krakken servitors. The Third Troll Legend But the Krakken are old, very old. They remembered when the land was first born from the sea. They remembered when the Old Ones ruled and when the Travelers came and cast them down. They remembered when magic was new. They are old and they hold many secrets. And though Min'loth's spell was strong, it, like the troll, was mortal. And so it failed. source
Screenshot of the day revived for Cataclysm
Zarhym just hit the forums to announce that they'll be reviving the official community site's Screenshot of the Day feature. Every day they'll be releasing a new Cataclysm screenshot, and you can see today's at the top of this post or on the official site. Today's screenshot appears to be a sea goblin in what might be Vashj'ir or the Abyssal Maw. WoW.com will definitely have our eyes glued to these daily screenshots, as they're sure to include a lot of awesome visuals. Maybe even a female worgen! We can hope, right?
Submarines coming in Cataclysm
While we didn't get the full fledged Maelstrom expansion that some people were predicting, Cataclysm still promises to have some water-related content, such as the Abyssal Maw, the elemental plane of water. And where there's water, you need a boat. The recent Twitter developer chat revealed that we will, in fact, be using new transports to get to certain places in Cataclysm, and that these transport would be submarines, built by the gnomes and goblins for their respective factions.
WoW Insider Show Episode 108: Don't get your hopes up
We taped our podcast a little early this week, on Wednesday night, and rather than having you wait all the way until Monday for it (not to mention that Pirates' Day will gone by then), we figured we'd post it up for you today). Matt "Matticus" Low was kind enough to join us (he writes the Spiritual Guidance and Raid Rx columns), and while Turpster was on a business trip, he did end up making it to provide us with his usual sparkling insight. We talked about that wacky 2v2 team rating and what it means for Blizzard's Arena system, the Abyssal Maw and what else we've heard about Cataclysm's dungeons and raids, and whether being in a guild really can calm you down (Matt, our only guildleader on the show, says no).And as usual we answered your emails (including why Gamestop claims to know Cataclysm's release date) and chatted live with listeners, and you can listen to the show at any of the links below. Haven't subscribed to iTunes yet? Why not? Not only do you get the show automatically every week, but you can also leave us a rating and a review in iTunes, and we appreciate every single one. We'll be back a week from Saturday (on the 26th) at the usual time (and between you and me, we've got some nice guests planned for the next few shows, too!), so we'll see you then.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show live at a special time tonight
Because I'll be out of pocket this coming weekend (and by "out of pocket," I mean driving a Uhaul with all of my earthly possessions in it through the Rocky Mountains), our podcast is going live at a special time this evening -- we'll be on the air over on Ustream at 6pm Eastern time. I can't tell you exactly who'll be on with us, but it'll have all the things you've come to expect from the show: some silliness, your emails (email theshow@wow.com if you have something to tell us), and lots of insight about the latest news out of Azeroth. This week, we'll talk about shady Arena team ratings, the controversial change to Bestial Wrath, the Abyssal Maw and what we know of Cataclysm's dungeons, and if we have time, we'll talk about how being in a guild can actually make you calmer.Sounds like a packed show, no? That's because it is. And if you can't make it to listen live tonight (you can jump right after the break if you like for another embedded feed), then worry not, because as always, we'll have the show on the iTunes feed for your listening enjoyment. But if you are around, do stop by -- I'll guarantee it'll be a good time. See you this evening!
Abyssal Maw Cataclysm zone preview posted to the official site
We've all been waiting with bated breath since BlizzCon in hopes of getting more solid news about the expansion, and today, it seems like we've started getting it. Blizzard has updated the official Cataclysm site with some screen shots and lore information of one of the new areas of the expansion, the Abyssal Maw.The Abyssal Maw is the elemental plane of water, one of the four such planes created by the Titans to contain the elemental servants of the Old Gods so that their own creations could thrive on Azeroth. Deathwing's prison break will break the walls between the elemental planes and Azeroth, with the Abyssal Maw being no exception.
BlizzCon 2009: Cataclysm dungeons
Cory Stockton and Scott Mercer gave an in-depth look into the dungeons and raids available at the launch of WoW: Cataclysm during the Raids and Dungeons panel today at BlizzCon. We'll look at the dungeons first.OVERVIEW: At launch, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will ship with eight 5-man dungeons and two heroic versions of old-world dungeons.Grim Batol: One level 85 5-man.Skywall: One level 80-82 5-man.Abyssal Maw: Two 5-mans; level 80-83 and level 82-84.Deepholm: One level 80-83 5-man.Uldum: Two 5-mans; level 83-84 and level 85.Blackrock Caverns: One level 85 5-man.Shadowfang Keep: One level 85 heroic 5-man.The Deadmines: One level 85 heroic 5-man.Descriptions and info after the jump for dungeons that were covered in depth in the panel. %Gallery-70745%
