class-design
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Submit your questions for the next WoW Source
Blizzard is getting ready to sit down with several lead designers to discuss class and PvP changes that will be happening in Warlords of Draenor. As part of that plan they want you to submit your questions over on their forums for the hosts. Personally, I'm going to ask what they plan to do about increasing participation in PvP. It's something that I've been wondering for awhile and can't come up with a good answer to. I get that making things more accessible and have a smaller barrier to entry is going to be part of it, but I'm wondering what else. Crithto's announcement of the question gathering is as follows. There is no date as to when the video will be released. Crithto Another WoW Source is on its way, and once again we're looking for your questions. This time around we're planning to feature Lead Class Designer Kris Zierhut, Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, and Senior Game Designer Brian Holinka, along with host Morgan Webb. This time the interview will be geared towards discussing class and PvP changes coming in Warlords of Draenor. Just like last time, post questions you have for the developers in this thread, and feel free to use the "thumbs-up" Like button to let us know if you'd like to see someone else's question answered. Your post may be featured on the next episode! source
Warlords of Draenor: Mages have 12 new talents
The twitter account of Chadd Nervig (better known as Celestalon) has become one of my favorites due to his willingness to talk about the various aspects of class design. One that he brought up recently was the difficulty of naming new abilities. His point about spell names needing to fill many different needs is pretty interesting, I think. While discussing this, a specific example popped up that seemed very worth mentioning here. .@talachit Mage talents have received significant revision. Currently: 12 brand new, 3 existing/old spells now talents, 4 w/ major changes. - Celestalon (@Celestalon) February 26, 2014 This sounds like a lot of new talents, not just to name, but in general. Twelve are entirely new, and another seven are either existing spells or old spells changed into talents or major revamps of talents. Frankly, I'm a little envious -- I wish Warriors were getting this kind of change. Edited to add: Celestalon mentioned in a tweet that there are 28 mage talents in all, not 21, because some are spec specific, so the number of 12 above ends up being not quite half.
The earliest beginnings of the death knight and other class abilities
Following Alex Afrasiabi's example, both Cory Stockton and Jonathan LeCraft have posted some of their earliest design brainstorming notes to Twitter. Stockton's notes focus on the death knight class and what you're looking at was originally penned back in 2006, before Burning Crusade was even launched. Now that's planning ahead! It's interesting to see what aspects of the class survived those initial thoughts scribbled down on paper, such as no shield for tanking and runes as a resource. LeCraft's notes (image after the break) date back even further to show the earliest workings of class abilities like Ice Lance, Snake Trap, and Spellsteal. Rogues and warlocks, you were once considered for that latter spell but it appears the mages won that round. The "jumpy heal" didn't end up in the druid's spellbook and instead went to priests as Prayer of Mending. It's a fascinating look into WoW's development process and makes one wonder what notes are being scribbled today for expansions we don't even know about.
Massively's hands-on with WildStar's Medic
My favorite classes in games are the ones that inspire spit-takes. The fact is that I don't really hate your bog-standard Warriors or Mages or whatever. But the classes that really get me interested are classes that demand that you explain what they do and how someone came up with that concept. Guild Wars has the Dervish, World of Warcraft has the Shaman, Final Fantasy XI has the Corsair -- they're flavorful, they're unique, and they're just plain neat. Combine that with my love of melee and WildStar's Medic had me from hello. I really like getting into the paint with things, I like the idea of a healer focused on getting up close and dancing, and I love the idea that medics balance between being doctors and technological shock troops. So jumping into the beta, I was happy to dive into the shoes of the doctor and start doing a whole lot of harm to anyone and everyone who opposed the Dominion.
Neverwinter dev blog dives deep into building the Hunter Ranger
Neverwinter's next expansion, Shadowmantle, will bring an all-new class to to game in the form of the Hunter Ranger. The Hunter Ranger will enable players to switch between melee and ranged combat on the fly, and possesses skills designed for mobility and destruction. Cryptic has posted a detailed dev blog about the development of the Hunter Ranger, authored by one of the folks who helped to piece the new class together. The post explains how the team went about building the Hunter Ranger's playstyle by quickly prototyping new abilities and testing them in-game, and walks through the decision-making process that led to the Hunter Ranger being given two full combat styles. Hunter Ranger abilities include Hawkeye, which buffs the Ranger's next attack, Marauder's Rush, which quickly charges and strikes a distant target, Hindering Shot, which roots the target, and Hawk Shot, which deals damage based on the distance from the target. The Hunter Ranger class goes live with Shadowmantle December 5th.
Firefall extrapolates on its new progression system
Hot on the heals of its blog post about dynamic events, Red 5 Studios now hopes to change up the whole progression system in its third-person shooter Firefall. The development team revamped the existing mostly linear advancement system to a more dynamic (there's that word again) skill-tree system. And now, Lead Class Designer Dave Williams has posted that the team that the team wanted to "increase the number of choices that were available to players within their progression." Williams explains that players generally pick a battleframe based on their individual playstyles. With the skill trees, a player can break that playstyle down even further. He gives the example of a Mammoth Dreadnaught vs. a Rhino Dreadnaught. The Mammoth builds heavier defenses, whereas the Rhino packs a heavier punch. MMOs and other online games are trending away from the linear progression style to a more horizontal progression style. Firefall is heading in that direction, too. Will this be enough push Firefall toward being the next great online shooter? Red 5 hopes so.
Lord of the Rings Online posts a new developer diary on Champions
The development staff behind Lord of the Rings Online has a chance to make several sweeping changes to the game with the upcoming Riders of Rohan expansion, starting with trimming up and improving the game's classes. A new developer diary outlines the changes coming to the Champion class concurrent with the new expansion. These updates are focused primarily upon threat management and survivability, but all facets of the class will see at least a little attention. A new skill has been added for Champions at level 77, providing AoE threat generation or threat reduction depending on the player's stance. Bracing Attack and Wild Attack have also had their effects boosted, with the former gaining a heal-over-time component and the latter offering a small buff after a critical hit. Certain skills and trait lines are also being adjusted, generally to improve the overall power of the class. While non-Champion players likely won't be too interested in what the diary has to offer, anyone who does play the class should take a look and see what the expansion will bring to the profession.
Encrypted Text: Ghostcrawler explains it all
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Greg Street, more commonly known as Ghostcrawler, is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. While we can never know exactly what his responsibilities are internally, we do know about his external presence: He is the authoritative voice concerning class design. Players flock to his increasingly rare blog and forum posts to read about the direction their classes are headed. There are a slew of developers working on WoW, but his words are the ones that seem to guide our fate. In a completely unprecedented event, Ghostcrawler has been replying to dozens of posts in a Mists of Pandaria beta rogue thread. His posts are so frequent on this thread that he even had time to reply to my comment personally. He's shared several pages of information with us about rogue design in Mists, Blizzard's concerns and design for the class, and class design in general.
Ghostcrawler discusses class design in Mists
You're going to want to read this post from the forums discussing the rogue class and the design process for classes in general. It is, in my opinion, one of the more interesting posts Ghostcrawler has made on the forums. There's a lot to discuss, so let's break down some bullet points before reproducing the whole thing. "Rogues are in a good place in Cataclysm in both PvE and PvP. We don't see a lot of huge, glaring problems that need to be fixed." The dev team understands that sometimes people want change simply to freshen up their playstyle, but the danger there is alienating players. Both the Cataclysm redesign of paladins and the Mists redesign of warlocks are offered as changes the dev team felt were necessary but that absolutely alienated some players. Rogues haven't seen a lot of change in part because the rogue has it pretty good and is potentially the best-designed class with the best resource system, strong class abilities and an easy-to-understand role in PvE and PvP. Even fixing broken mechanics risks turning off players because they have to relearn the class. We'll take a look at the whole post and then discuss it.
The Daily Grind: If you could design a class, what would it be?
"Hey you!" hisses a voice from a nearby dark alley. "How would you like to be a game designer for a day? It'll just cost you one kidney!" "Well golly, mister," you reply, stepping into the shadows. "I have two of those, and I've always wanted to try my hand at fixing everything that's wrong with the industry, starting with the snow zone in Mutant Hamsters Online. The pixel shading for the Blue Spruce trees has never been right..." "I'll let you make a class. Just one class," the voice interrupts. "And you get unlimited snack bar access." "Deal!" you exclaim. "Now where do you want this kidney?" Believe it or not, that could happen to you! But let's hope it doesn't and instead let's engage in hypothetical daydreaming: If you could design a class for your MMO, what would it be? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Soapbox: Evolution of a class
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. In 1974, the first roleplaying game was published under the name Dungeons & Dragons. Being the first of its field, it still had certain rough parts, which later designers would consider fundamental failures. Modern tabletop design looks at things like classes and levels as being relics in many ways -- elements that made sense as a crutch when the design of RPGs was one step removed from tactical wargames. Compare that to, well, pretty much every MMORPG on the market. While there are certainly games that don't follow the class/level model, they're outnumbered by games that embrace it wholeheartedly. As a result, it's easy to look at the way game development has gone and feel as if the design of online games has not only stagnated but actively slid backward, going from a more advanced system to a far less developed one.
Massively talks Mesmer: Our exclusive interview with Guild Wars 2 designer Eric Flannum
It's been days since we got the official Guild Wars 2 Mesmer reveal, but the excitement is still running strong through the fan community. Here at Massively, we're just as excited about it, so we took some time to sit down with game designer Eric Flannum and chat about some of the background and design details of the eighth and final Guild Wars 2 class. Follow along after the jump to see what he had to say!
Class design and balance Q&A session coming this Wednesday
Hot off the heels of its wildly successful Mists of Pandaria live Q&A, the WoW dev team plans to hold another online Q&A, this time on the subject of class design and balance. Community Manager Zarhym's just announced that it will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 9, from 10:45 a.m. to noon PST. The chat will be held on CoverItLive, hosted by Bashiok and Zarhym. Answering questions will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street along with Celestalon, Koraa, Watcher, Wradyx, and Xelnath. As with the last Q&A, the chat will use the CoverItLive system, so make sure you're signed up and familiar with it if you want to ask a question. Check after the break for the text of the announcement.
