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WoW's garrisons aren't a guarantee in future expansions
It was open season for World of Warcraft fans yesterday as the development team opened up with an AMA session on Reddit. The eight-person team taking on player questions included director Tom Chilton and lead designers Ion Hazzikostas and Cory Stockton, meaning that fans got plenty of in-depth answers to almost everything. Whether or not you liked all of the answers is another story altogether, but there's a handy-dandy summary of answered questions and links to the full answers that should save a great deal of scrolling through comments. Chilton confirmed that there are currently no plans for queued scenarios in Warlords of Draenor, although they're not off the table for future expansions. He also stated that there may or may not be Garrison-like elements in future expansions and that there will be "a surprise" regarding the last boss of the expansion. Check out the full summary for more quick links; there's a lot of information in there.
BlizzCon 2014 interviews feature Cory Stockton, Alex Afrasiabi
Just in case you missed it in the madness of Warlords of Draenor's launch, WoW Insider had the opportunity to interview not one but two developers this year at BlizzCon 2014. Both interviews were posted earlier this week and are well worth the look -- and may have been missed in the flood of Warlords expansion announcements and updates. For those with more of a bent towards lore, the interview with World of Warcraft's Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi focused on the story behind the expansion, including discussion on alternate universes, some surprising stories about Garrosh Hellscream and the development of Warlords, and even an interesting tidbit about alternate Azeroth. For those with more of a technical bent and burning questions about Warlords of Draenor's features and content, check out our interview with Lead Game Designer Cory Stockton. In the interview, we take an in-depth look at garrisons and their development, the new look of Warcraft's professions, and some cool new things to look forward to with transmogrification, as well as a few other fun features of the latest expansion.
Garrisons, professions and more with Cory Stockton
Warlords of Draenor has arrived, with tons of new content, quests, dungeons, raids, zones, and of course garrisons! During BlizzCon 2014, we sat down with Lead Game Designer Cory Stockton to discuss the development and design behind the new feature, in addition to a closer look at the changes to professions and profession design in Warlords of Draenor. But what's a talk with Mumper without a little transmog talk thrown into the mix -- and it appears we've got more transmog changes on the distant horizon that we'd originally thought.
Warlords of Draenor: Faction hubs moved to outskirts of Ashran
Cory Stockton, Lead WoW Designer, dropped a big change on Twitter last night. The capital cities in Draenor, which were previously in Karabor and Bladespire, are now being moved to the outskirts of Ashran. Ashran is the new PvP zone that we'll be getting -- the one that Blizzard is putting a lot of effort into in an attempt to fix PvP and make it more attractive to a wider audience. This move is clearly designed to get people closer to one of the expansion's major draws, yet Stockton goes on to say that PvP will not be forced. I've bolded that because it's really important -- it means that you won't have to PvP just because you're near the zone, and it's not Blizzard's intention to make you PvP to get into your capital city. An interesting change for sure, and one that is putting PvP, forced or not, front-and-center in this expansion.
Mumper shares original design for the Tempest Keep dungeons
The Arcatraz, Mechanar and Botanica are some of my favorite dungeons from the Burning Crusade era, and so, when Cory "Mumper" Stockton decided to share the original design of those three dungeons, I knew I had to show y'all. Original layouts for all 3 of the TK dungeon wings. Was fun designing these as a group, such a great theme! #TBT pic.twitter.com/n6FsCrRc8T - Mumper (@mumper) May 9, 2014 What I really love about these little looks back into WoW's past (we've seen things like this first draft of Dalaran from Cory before) is how they inform current design, and also, how they make me wonder how things could have been different. The names in particular definitely needed work. It's just so cool to see these things, get a sense of how the game developed behind the scenes.
Shadowmoon Valley behind the scenes
If you guys have noticed, we like to feature the various throwback thursdays that developers have posted to twitter. Today we have another doozy from Cory Stockton. Previously he's shared really awesome looks back at places like Dalaran, today he gives us this look at Shadowmoon Valley in its conceptual stage. Looking it over you can see that things are still in the 'generic name' version, for instance 'Dwarf' and 'Broken Draenei Village' instead of names yet, but most of what we recognize as the Shadowmoon Valley of The Burning Crusade is on there. Considering we're going to be getting a look at an entirely new SMV as an Alliance starting zone, I find this look back very interesting.
Cory Stockton's first draft of Dalaran
We've seen quite a few of these behind the scenes peeks at Blizzard's design process, from Alex Afrasiabi's pictures of his Benediction design and the Rhok'delar pages, to these pages from Cory Stockton and Jonathan LeCraft including Death Knight and class designs. Now Cory Stockton's back with this, an early look at how Dalaran's layout was designed. My 1st pass layout of Dalaran for WotLK. Made a few changes along the way, but it came out pretty damn close. #TBT pic.twitter.com/EFwX0hJk5a- Mumper (@mumper) February 28, 2014 It's striking in how familiar it is, and yet places like the Dragon Embassy (later relocated to Wyrmrest Temple), the lack of clearly demarcated Horde and Alliance sections, and the presence of the Violet Citadel as a separate instance definitely set it apart from the Dalaran we ended up with. As always, interesting to see the game that might have been.
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.
Warlords of Draenor: More Garrison tidbits from Mumper
Over the weekend, Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton tweeted several exciting tidbits about Warlords' much-anticipated Garrisons feature. Wowhead rounds up the key tweets, which cover things like the focus of Garrisons, and some exciting hints at buildings. When we were talking last week about things that make your Garrison feel like home, one thing that cropped up was ways to show off achievements past. Mumper mentions that there will be Monuments that players can place, earned from achievements. However he does go on to clarify that Garrisons are not about placing furniture and decorating. This isn't The Sims in WoW, after all. Most exciting, though, he talks about one building, a Mage Tower spec called City Portals that opens ports to every major city. It seems from his later tweets that the tower will not be mage-specific, but will need to be specced and upgraded like any other building to get the portal setup. His response to another tweet confirms that the plans will be from drops, quest rewards and vendors, again implying the buildings will be available to all.
Cory Stockton on Garrisons
Cory "Mumper" Stockton has been tweeting up a storm about Garrisons, and since I'm fairly keen on this upcoming Warlords of Draenor feature, I figure it's worth collecting some of the juicier tweets for us all to savor. Among the ones I found the most interesting - .@thox6 Exactly. Both the stables and pet stable will let you display your favorite pet/mount for all to see. Starts with 5, upgrades to 10. - Mumper (@mumper) January 18, 2014 Garrisons will allow you to gather without having gathering professions depending on what you choose - 'All comes down to what you want to build on your plots.' There will be storehouses that will buff your ability to gather via your Garrison. They're considering having portals back to capital cities inside the Garrisons. With an Inn and a Flight Path already there, it would just be convenient. There will be monuments that let you display PvE and PvP achievements as well as the stables and pet stables for pets and mounts. Garrisons are really starting to sound pretty awesome. Now all they need is an armory to let me display all my transmog sets. And more storage space.
Diablo III transmogrification coming to WoW
Transmogrification is coming to Diablo III -- and a revamp may be on the way for World of Warcraft as well, according to a tweet made by Cory "Mumper" Stockton over the weekend at BlizzCon. The new transmogrification system unveiled for Diablo III has a few dramatic differences from the system currently implemented in WoW. For one thing, Diablo III players don't have to keep an armor item in their bags in order to use it for transmogrification -- it can be sold to a vendor once it has been discovered. For another, once an item is discovered, it can then be used for transmogrification by all characters on an account. @Shadesogrey Yes! We are working on something... - Cory Stockton (@mumper) November 10, 2013 Obviously this particular item didn't make it onto the list of major features and new content we'll be seeing in Warlords of Draenor. This likely means that we won't see this feature in place with the launch of Warlords -- given the amount and variety of armor currently in World of Warcraft, a project of this scope isn't something that can be completed overnight. But for those transmog-addicted players like myself that have been dreamily staring at the sleek and space-saving new Diablo III system, it looks like our fondest dreams will in fact come true at some point in the future.
What race needs new character models the most?
Over the weekend at Gamescom, Game Director Tom Chilton and Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton revealed that new character models for the older races are currently in development and are about 25% done. Chilton also added that he wasn't sure if all the new models would be launched at the same time, or if Blizzard would opt to release them over several patches as they are completed. I'm in favor of the latter myself, though I can see that resulting in an unbearable amount of QQ from players whose characters didn't initially receive model updates. The whole thing makes me wonder which races are likely to get updated first. It's possible the developers will go after the most popular races first (humans and blood elves) since that will appease the largest number of people. It's also just as possible they'll work in order of which races need new models the most. That raises the question though, which race is in the most dire need of a character model update? If I had to pick one I'd probably go with dwarf, specifically the female dwarf because so few people play it. Granted, I don't think female dwarves necessarily suffer from the worst looking model, but they're somehow still one of the least popular choices among players. That alone makes me feel like the model needs some time and attention to not only update it, but to broaden its appeal somewhat. Mind you, female dwarves don't need to have the same appeal as blood elves or humans, but they certainly should have more than they currently do. Which race do you think needs a character model update the most? Tell us why.
Item Squish extremely likely for WoW's next expansion
Gamescom is drawing to a close, and with it a flurry of developer interviews have been taking place. One which happened just a couple of hours ago was a raiding-specific round table with Game Director Tom Chilton and Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton. One of the questions asked related to the much-debated item squish, and whether we would see it in WoW 6.0. Tom and Cory responded as follows: TC: "If we don't do the item squish it's going to require a lot of re-engineering of our combat code to actually support bigger numbers. We're getting really close to the point where the code can't..." CS: "Yeah, the code can't compile the numbers" TC: "Yeah it can't compile the numbers, so we are testing the item squish internally with the expansion, and I think a good time to launch it would be right before the next expansion so people are already used to it by the time the expansion launches. So, that's the current plan, but we'll see how it works out. I hope we can." Of course that isn't a firm confirmation, there have been many changes, certainly ones of this magnitude, that have gone into internal testing and not ever made it live. This is no cast iron guarantee. But, the devs mention how their combat code is nearing the point where it can't actually handle the big numbers, and it seems that a full expansion of item level escalation would do nothing to help with this issue. So an item squish certainly seems extremely likely for the next expansion.
The ongoing mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
Earlier in patch 5.3's PTR cycle, developer Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed the Unborn Val'kyr, a new wild pet coming to Northrend. That very night, players began scouring the PTR for any trace of it -- to no avail. A few days later, Stockton asked users on Twitter whether or not they'd found it yet. They hadn't, but as it turns out, at the time of those tweets, the pet had not yet been activated on the PTR at all. Whoops! However, it has been active for quite some time now, and the community at large is still not entirely sure how it works. According to the information we've been given, the Unborn Val'kyr is not a pet that is randomly spawned, but rather only spawns under specific, unique conditions. The pet has now been found and caught, but the conditions under which it spawns to begin with are still unknown.
Live WoW Developer Q&A Thursday, April 25
Next week Thursday from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT, the World of Warcraft community team will be hosting a live Q&A session with Blizzard developers/designers Dave Kosak, Ion Hazzikostas, Brian Holinka, Cory Stockton, and Greg Street. The last time we saw one of these with a developer collective was back in October 2011. More recently, in December 2012, Blizzard Customer Support hosted a Q&A of their own. The full details and job description of each of the developers involved can be found below.
New raid pets, wild pets, and hit chance system coming to pet battles in patch 5.3
Earlier this afternoon, Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed a new wild battle pet coming in patch 5.3: the Unborn Val'kyr. If we can all ignore the creepy implications of its name, this will likely turn out to be an awesome addition to everyone's pet collections. Even if it turns out its battle abilities aren't very impressive (and we don't know yet either way), who doesn't want a tiny little val'kyr following them everywhere? In addition to the Unborn Val'kyr, patch 5.3 datamining has revealed the achievement Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition which will add pets to Burning Crusade-era raids, much like those added to classic WoW raids.
Blizzard developers discuss patch 5.2 and more
Last week was a flurry of preparation for patch 5.2's launch, including a whole host of developer interviews. WoW Insider had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak, but there were plenty more interviews to be had as the week progressed. And just in case you happened to miss any of that developer excitement, we've put together a roundup of all the fan site interviews in one handy spot. Battlecraft quizzes Cory Stockton on 5.2 content (Italian/English) Blizzplanet talks game development with Tom Chilton Epic Podcast chats 5.2 story and content with Dave Kosak and Cory Stockton Gamebreaker TV talks trailer lore with Dave Kosak Legendary digs into design with Greg Street and Ion Hazzikostas GuildOx talks raiding and group content with Ion Hazzikostas The Instance talks 5.2, Twitter and more with Greg Street JudgeHype chats with Tom Chilton about game development and 5.2 (French/English) Totemspot discusses class balance and more with Greg Street Twizzcast digs into running MMOs with Tom Chilton Vanion chats 5.2 content with Dave Kosak (German/English) WoW Insider discusses lore, dailies and more with Dave Kosak Warcraft Pets talks pet battles and more with Cory Stockton Wowhead chats about group content, encounters and 5.2 with Ion Hazzikostas While the same developers may have done multiple interviews, each interview offers a different look at what's in store for patch 5.2 and beyond. It's certainly nice to see the developers out and about in the community and talking content -- and one thing's for certain, everyone is pumped for patch 5.2's release. Be sure to check out all of the interviews for the most in-depth look at patch 5.2 you can get.
Blizzard developer interviews
After WoW Insider's Anne Stickney rounded off Blizzard's Developer Interview schedule with her chat to Cory Stockton and Dave Kosak, discussing patch 5.1, brawler's guild, lore, dailies, proving grounds, scenarios and player housing, WoW Insider thought we should bring together all the interviews in the recent set. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street: Legendary, GAMEBREAKER.tv Ghostcrawler discusses raiding, PvP, alts, reputation, dailies and cross realm zones with the Legendary hosts. All Things Azeroth Design, Cataclysm vs. Mists, patch 5.2 release schedule, classes, transmogrification changes. Wowjuju Brawler's guild, daily quests, transmogrification, 10man vs 25man, the gear grind, pet gear for battle pets? Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas Convert2Raid Scenarios, challenge modes, Brawler's Guild, dailies, and, of course, raids. Method Coming soon! Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton: Curse Coming soon! Warcraft Pets Pet design process, pets in future expansions, pet battles, potential for pet gender and breeding, pet model updates, "boss" pets Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak Darkmoon Herald Hidden quests, easter eggs, phasing, lore, future questing changes, interesting activities, tillers, dailies. Wowhead Patch 5.1 factions, brawlers' guild, scenarios and their lore involvement, dailies, alts, faction grinds, cooking changes. Lead Designer Tom Chilton ArenaJunkies Coming soon! Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Talking patch 5.1 with Dave Kosak & Cory Stockton
Patch 5.1 introduced a lot of new content, and a lot of new lore -- and who better to explain it all than Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton, and Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak? We sat down with both, along with Community Manager Zarhym to talk about some of the new features found in patch 5.1. Along with questions about the Brawler's Guild, both Kosak and Stockton addressed scenarios, daily quests, tweaking old content, that pesky matter of player housing, and what's to come in patch 5.2. Patch 5.1 was an incredibly fast patch. Is this going to be a trend with Mists? Cory Stockton: Yeah, for sure -- this has been our goal for a long time. We can't promise that we're going to have the exact same amount of content in the exact same amount of time, but it's definitely our intention to deliver patches in a time frame similar to this with a similar or larger amount of content. It just all comes down to each individual patch and the details of what we can do, but it's definitely our goal. Dave Kosak: We'll alternate between patches that have raid content and patches that don't have raid content as sort of required by what players are doing in the game and try and space it out. But our objective has always been faster content delivery, and we're hoping that players are seeing that we're trying to live up to that.
Are pet battles too inaccessible for new WoW players?
Recently there were some complaints on the official forums (shocking, right?) about how expensive pet battles are. The argument by many is that new players should have easier access to this feature. In the Pet Battle Q&A from about a week ago, Cory Stockton explained: Cory Stockton [ ... ] the 100g training cost is going to make it difficult for a new player to get caught up in Pet Battles super-early, and that's by design, because everyone should learn how to play World of Warcraft first. Having said that, a new alt that can get 100g from another character can start the Pet Battle system at level 5. source In answer to the more recent forum post, Zarhym reiterated: Zarhym The cost is there, in part, because pet battles are intended to be a fun mini-game, particularly for players who've been around a while and want some new ways to spend their time while logged in -- it's not a profession. The system isn't really targeted toward new players while they're focused on leveling and character progression. This is why there is a low level cap, but a buy-in barrier. It allows players with high-level characters and/or lots of alts easy access to the system, while reducing the risk of it being distracting or confusing for people just learning the core gameplay systems/mechanics. source More from Zarhym after the break.
