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Warlords of Draenor: Garrisons much more than player housing
Garrisons seem to be shaping up to be the centerpiece of Warlords content -- not in the sometimes soul-crushing manner of the daily quest grind in Mists, but as an entertaining and engaging diversion for players to do at max level in between dungeons, raids, scenarios, and whatever else happens to pop up. We have yet to get a proper introduction to the feature, but we've been told and shown in glimpses here and there that it's going to be big. Much, much bigger than our farms. Wowhead has been busily datamining everything under the sun from the Warlords alpha client, and some of that information directly involves the new feature. While there's not a clear picture of how exactly garrisons are going to work, the datamining does point out some fascinating details and perks. It's become incredibly clear that while garrisons have been referred to as WoW's version of player housing, in fact they're likely going to be much, much more than that.
The Queue: Alphas, garrisons, pre-orders, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. How about that alpha news, eh? DespicableBrad asked: With Blizzard changing the data format from MPQ to the new CASC format, will things like WoW Model Viewer still work, or will those programs need a funamental update in order to read the new data files? Given the amount of data mining happening, I'm guessing the formats are interchangeable...? If not, I'm curious: how are the data miners viewing the files and extracting graphics from it?
Warlords of Draenor: Garrison to have its own fishing hole
Cory Stockton has teased us yet again with news on the upcoming Garrisons for Warlords of Draenor. This time, he's working on fishing. @MatthewWRossi Alliance and Horde both have fishing spots built in. Planning to let players unlock a fishing building as well. - Mumper (@mumper) April 3, 2014 What is becoming ever more clear with each successive tweet (many of which we've covered) is that the Garrison is more expansive and a lot more content than anything like the Farm we've gotten before. Cory confirmed this in a followup tweet, promising some new blogs on the feature and what to expect from it in the near future. Honestly, I'm starting to get the sense that I need to pay a lot more attention to the Garrison and that it's going to be a big new part of how we play WoW in this expansion. We've seen that they'll have portals to major cities, be a place where you can display achievements, work on professions, there's a follower style minigame planned, pets and mounts displayed via stables, and I find myself wondering just how big the Garrison is intended to be. Very interested in those promised blogs.
The Daily Grind: Should WoW's garrisons count as 'housing'?
Every time we cover World of Warcraft's upcoming garrison feature -- the one that will grant an upgradeable town to every WoW player -- someone scoffs that it's not housing and shouldn't be considered such. And to the extent that it isn't a house or a zone that you can customize tile by tile or object by object like some of the more epic housing systems in MMOland, I'd agree. Even WoW Insider's Matt Rossi wrote that the garrison system seemed more like "bringing the RTS [genre's] whole 'construct a base, generate resources, use them for battle' gameplay into the MMO" than like the game's farms, let alone like traditional houses where you can stash your loot. Still, I have to wonder how that's so different from a housing system like WildStar's, which also attempts to create a private and mechanically useful space for players rather than offer a purely creative, mercantile, or social space. What do you think: Should WoW's garrisons count as MMO housing, or are they just upjumped farms? 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!
Warlords of Draenor: Garrisons will not require gold
While we haven't exactly had an influx of news regarding WoW's next expansion, one good piece of information was recently mentioned on Twitter. Garrisons, a major feature in Warlords, will not require gold to build. Instead, they'll have their own resource system -- although what that resource happens to be, or how it works, has yet to be revealed. Garrisons are WoW's answer to a plea for player housing that has been asked for as far back as vanilla WoW. However, rather than a traditional view of player housing, garrisons have already been shown to be a far more interactive experience, one that your character can use to their advantage by gathering followers, sending them on missions, and even use as a method of boosting professions. While we've seen screenshots of garrisons, and seen a post on the art and design elements behind the feature, we haven't really heard a lot about the actual mechanics other than little tidbits released via Twitter or mentioned in interviews. Here's hoping that waiting for the "soon" mentioned in Senior Game Designer Jeremy Feasel's tweet will be a pretty brief experience. And even though we haven't got much in the way of details, it's nice to know that garrisons won't be breaking anyone's bank.
Warlords of Draenor: New Garrisons screenshot
It seems that Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi isn't the only one tweeting images from Draenor. On the heels of some perfectly lovely screenshots of Talador and Gorgrond, another screenshot has surfaced. Game Designer Jeremy Feasel has stepped in the fray, having joined the Twitter crew yesterday under the moniker @Muffinus. Feasel designs Pet Battles, was the mastermind behind the Timeless Isle, and is now currently working on Garrison content. After a short introduction, he didn't waste any time, posting a new screenshot of a garrison in progress. #Garrisons Just chilling out after building my Town Hall, Inn and Barracks, heading out to find some merchants! pic.twitter.com/Ers3D2uMk1- Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) March 7, 2014 I didn't really think it was possible to get any more excited about garrisons than I already am, but the screenshot certainly managed to make it happen. I love the fountain detail in the center and the clock tower in the back. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind parking any of my characters there for a while.
Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka interviewed in Korea
Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka was interviewed in Seoul, Korea, as part of the Press Event that's taking place worldwide this week. The video is above, but some of the key points covered are below. These are in chronological order so it's easy for you to find more information on the video, rather than arranging them by topic: Blizzard is not yet ready to talk timelines with Warlords beta, or release, but are happy with how things are progressing. It's on schedule. The changes to PvP in Mists and Warlords have all been focused on improving PvP participation One of the main reasons why Holinka is so active on Twitter is to be a point of contact for PvPers. There will be a tutorial zone, as discussed at BlizzCon that is to provide a starter experience for all players going into Draenor. The option to use this as more of a tutorial will exist. Garrisons will offer a lot of playability, and are continuing in development beyond 6.0 with potential new features. Garrison PvP is a potential example.
The Queue: No auto-play zone
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Sorry about that auto-play video yesterday, everyone. We thought we'd fixed it earlier in the day, but apparently not! mattprendo asked: I don't remember seeing an answer... what happens to garrisons in the next expansion? I know it's at least 2 years off but isn't it a waste to spend all this time building up a garrison then wow 7.0 comes out and poof they are useless. I understand gear being outdated, buff items... but garrisons aren't an item per say but an extension of our tools and utilities. Was it mentioned anywhere that we will be able to call u-haul or something and move these around?
The Queue: Smithing, garrisons, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Best weapon ever? Yes. Very yes. BapoThe-Paladin asked: Anyone else hope they bring back specializations for blacksmithing? I'm leveling another alliance toon, and the Jinyu town has a waterforge, and I really wish they brought back specializations :(
Warlords of Draenor: Details on the art of garrisons
Senior Art Director Chris Robinson has been keeping us on tenterhooks awaiting the next Artcraft installment, dealing with Garrisons, and it's here! It's a fascinating post, giving way more than just art, an insight into the design process and the "gameplay first" approach the designers have taken. We also hear from Wendy Vetter, the Dungeon Team's lead artist, who walks players through the process of making the new old, and the old new, as they borrow and adapt older textures and assets while still bringing them up to date with the new systems and graphical quality. There's also input from the props team, giving information on the elements they've added into the mix, the storytelling side of design, creating a whole with items and their use. They're the team working on decoration and filling the space in the buildings. It's another great installment in the series and a fascinating read!
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.
Ready Check interviews Brian Holinka and Ion Hazzikostas
This past week the hosts of EU-based podcast Ready Check were lucky enough to go visit Blizzard's offices in Versailles, where they met up with Brian Holinka and Ion Hazzikostas for a lively round of Q&A. The podcast--with attendant full transcript, don't you worry, folks who can't play the podcast--covers a very broad range of topics, and PvPers should be particularly interested in the broad discussion about arenas. Gothiques and Athene bring up some wonderful points about arena queuing, and matching, and the little ways in which the system often results in unexpectedly wasted time, as well as the ways in which not-entirely-honest players can manipulate that system in their favor. Both Holinka and Hazzikostas have insights to offer on these problems, and there's some good back-and-forth about potential solutions and improvements to the existing arena systems. In addition to the excellent PvP discussions, the interview features some talk of Warlords of Draenor and the future--some of which we've already heard about, but I am so excited for garrisons and a toys tab that I could listen to this stuff all day long. Do you know how many bag spaces I'm going to get back once that toys tab goes live? In the words of the Diablo Templar companion, it will be glorious! There's also some really fun discussion on the philosophy and practice of encounter and mechanics design, and how the WoW team goes about building raids and bosses. This was perhaps my favorite part of the interview, because I am a hopeless PvPer and am much more at home among WoW's raid bosses. In any case, no matter what part of the game you enjoy, there's something in this interview for you. You can check out the full transcript and podcast episode at Ready Check's own website, so make sure to click on over to the whole thing!
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.
Breakfast Topic: What are you most looking forward to with your garrison?
At Gamescom 2010, Tom Chilton famously declared that "housing will be introduced to World of Warcraft some time right after 'never'." Funny how things can go from "never" to what we're getting in Warlords of Draenor. To be fair, he was probably referring to the idea of a simple house with no gameplay attached to it. Player housing couldn't happen in WoW until Blizzard worked out what the gameplay aspects would be. Your faction leader will be sending you on a mission to establish a forward base and gather followers for the cause. You could be staking out your plot of land on day one of the expansion. The follower aspect is what I'm most interested in -- collecting them, naming them, leveling them up, and sending them off to do my bidding. You can check out WoW Insider's post about garrisons to learn more about the types of follower missions and a list of the 25 building types (all that's missing is a zoo for hunter pets). What excites you most about this feature? %Poll-85736%
Officers' Quarters: Officers of Draenor
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. BlizzCon 2013 gave us a glimpse into WoW's future. As officers, it's never too early to plan and adjust for the evolution of the game. Let's take a look at the some of the issues that could affect your guild next year. No new perks It appears that guilds will remain capped at level 25, which also means no new perks. In the systems panel, Blizzard said that they don't see the point of piling on perks. They said, "The system accomplished what we wanted it to accomplish." That's good news, in a way, for smaller guilds or people who plan to start new guilds in the future. For those of us who hoped for more, it's a bit disappointing.
Warlords of Draenor: Everything we know about Garrisons
During the World of Warcraft Raids, Gameplay, Questing, and More panel, Garrisons were explained in detail. All garrisons will come with four starting buildings: Town Hall: where you interact with your followers and conduct business in your garrison Mine Farm Fishing shack Garrisons start off with some plots into which other buildings can be placed. There are small, medium and large plots. Once all of the plots are filled, the next tier of plots will open up to be built upon up to three tiers.
Garrisons: Player housing in Warlords of Draenor
People have wanted it forever and now, it's finally here: World of Warcraft is implementing its own unique form of player housing, the Garrison feature. Quite frankly, if you ever played really old school Dungeons and Dragons, the Garrison feels a lot like the old dominions that players could get in the Companion rules. Based on the way building a settlement felt in the original Warcraft RTS games, building your Garrison gives you benefits including epic gear, access to professions you don't normally have in a limited fashion, and customize the buildings in the Garrison for specific customizable benefits. The Garrison system includes NPC followers who can go on missions for you while you're offline for various benefits as well. This ends up nearly being a complete minigame - my first impression is that you can almost play an entirely new RTS minigame while playing WoW.
BlizzCon 2013: Moving into Warlords of Draenor's garrisons
Arguably one of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's biggest selling points is its just-announced garrison system. A panel at BlizzCon and the official FAQ have details as to what this version of player housing will look like. Garrisons will be phased outposts that players will establish in any zone on Draenor and use as headquarters for their adventures there. A garrison is basically a small town that can be upgraded and customized, but it has a functional aspect as well. Players meet NPCs during questing that will go back to the garrison where they can be put to work doing missions whether you're logged in or not. The garrison is integrated into the game world and can be visited by one's friends. Different buildings in the garrison bestow different bonuses, such as an infirmary healing followers and inns allowing for greater recruiting. Buildings can be upgraded three times with a specialization choice at the end, and they can be decorated with monuments and trophies from achievement rewards (among other sources). Crafting, even in professions that you haven't trained, will be available, and Blizzard is promising that epic-quality gear can be made through this system.
BlizzCon 2013: Dance Studio in the new Garrisons?
The above graphic was shown during the What's Next? panel without comment. Listed as one of the buildings that can be added to garrisons is Dance Studio. Is this a joke? Are they trolling us? Or is Blizzard finally delivering on the Dance Studio promise? It most likely is just a fun addition to the UI mock-up. But it's fun to speculate. Update: Yup! Just trolling us. A+ trolling Blizzard, please troll again. J. Allen Brack said on the live stream interview: "We talked about and developed a whole bunch of different animations and different technology that we could use. We didn't really come up with a really great game system behind it. It is something that we talked about. It is something that we wanna do at some point. But it's not something we're currently working on."
