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WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_future_of_PvP_in_WoW_Notes_from_the_WWI_08_dev_panel'; Here at WoW Insider, we pride ourselves on bringing you the latest, greatest news about the World of Warcraft we all know and love. (You haven't all gone off to play Diablo, have you?) What this means is that we crawled out of bed at what our watch says was three in the morning, even though by local Paris time it was already mid-morning under a sunny sky. We've fought our ways through crowds at the Worldwide Invitational to bring you a front-row seat to today's PvP panel, starting shortly. For the latest updates on the game's PvP system -- right from the developers! -- keep reading for live updates from the panel.
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 3
1:55: Time to talk Arenas. Design ideals for these are: Keep it simple Still leave room to innovate (keep it simple, but add some new twists) Dynamic points of interest (read: moving objects) Unique starting areas/events. Might put starting teams close to each other. Room to grow: we need to be able to make quest adjustments during beta 1:57: Stockton takes center stage again to talk about the two new arenas in Wrath: Dalaran and Orgrimmar.Dalaran Arena: Located in the sewers of Dalaran city. When Dalaran came over to Northrend, it took a large chunk of rock out of the ground with it, including the sewers.This environment seemed like a great fit for the arena. Dynamic line of sight: we can move objects in arenas and have the line of sight move with them. Think about the pillar in the Nagrand... and think if that pillar could move. We could make these move randomly or based on a specific timer. This can mix up the gameplay. Simple layout Mounts will not be usable. It's a small arena and wanted to let people get right into gameplay. There's a pipe in the center of the arena that water will occasionally pour out of. While the water is falling, it will block line of sight. It's a simple layout, but a few dynamic elements that will mix it up. There's a pipe on either side of the arena where each team will start, and a blast of water will push people out of the pipe early on.It's currently in playtesting.Orgrimmar Arena: There's been an arena in Orgrimmar for a long time in the Valley of Heroes, but Blizz has never done anything with it. Elevating pillars will create line of sight (on set timers -- there will be little wheels and gears on the side of the arena that will spin before the pillars move) Triggered objects that damage players (thinking as the pillars go down, a wall of spikes may come up -- you can get across them but you'll take some damage) Extremely close starting areas: players start on elevators that rise out of the ground ten yards apart from each other. The elevators will be surrounded by spikes that will drop a couple of seconds after the elevator reaches the top -- so you'll have a couple of seconds. Mounts will be allowed inside -- this arena is a bit larger than Dalaran. Thought this was the perfect place to get NPC spectators who cheer, etc. These dynamic elements will make each arena feel different. Not testing yet. NEXT: Northrend Battleground and Q&A ===>
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 4
2:09: Chilton comes up to talk about Northrend's new battleground Tital isle located off the southern coast of Dragonblight Attack/Defend gameplay, but a bit different since it's instanced. You play half the game on defense and half the game on offense, switching mid-fight. This battleground will have siege vehicles and destructible buildings Based on the Titan lore. A lot of Northrend circulates around Titan lore. 2:11: Stockton explains the layout. Attackers will come in on boats and assault the city. Siege vehicles will need to be used to break through the city's walls and break in. The further you get, you'll capture points allowing access to more siege weapons. They're currently planning it to be 10v10 or 15v15. They BG is currently being play-tested. Q&A2:17: Q: Now we have one source of honor, Alterac Valley, and everything else is a source of marks. Some people lose on purpose to get marks quicker. Is there anything being done to solve this problem?Chilton: It's a very very difficult problem to solve. We find that if we give no rewards for losing a battleground, it's very punishing. That's why we have systems to report players for not participating and we've lowered the number of players who need to report someone. (There is a certain point where the system can't determine how hard you're trying.2:19: Q: Do you have plans to implement a spectator mode?Chilton: Definitely on our list of things we want to do. To add to that, we also have the idea of using that spectator mode to extend to other things, in raids for exampleQ: Unique (racial) combat moves?Chilton: We don't plan to add any more racials.2:24: Q: My girlfriend and I love PvP, but since the Burning Crusade, we feel like we're forced into arenasChilton: We do plan to keep a pretty similar sort of reward items.Q: For the frost mage, some crowd control talents seem to be PvP-oriented, don't you think this could cause unbalance?Chilton: It's always going to feel that way because bosses tend to be immune to crowd control, but we're trying to open it up.Q: What do you plan to fix Warlock pet scaling?A: Right now we're pretty happy with pet scaling. It should be a viable tactic to spend some time attacking the pets. A player has to make a choice. We feel like if that scales very well, it's going to be a viable tactic to just focus on one.2:34: That's all she wrote, folks! The Invitational's final World of Warcraft panel has come to a close.%Gallery-26320% WoW Insider is on the ground in Paris at the Blizzard Invitational bringing you the big announcements and latest Wrath news as it happens. Check out our latest coverage!
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 2
1:46: Siege vehicles! Chilton covers five different types, all usable for both factions: The Demolisher: baseline vehicle. Has both short and long-range attacks and a ram attack. Can carry a driver and three passengers. (The passengers are exposed, can be targeted and attacked -- but it also means you can fight back!) Drive-by shootings. The driver is also the gunner. Forsaken Catapult: much quicker than The Demolisher (says Chilton: more agile). Not as long range as The Demolisher, doesn't do quite as much damage, doesn't carry any passengers, has a flame attack. Lowest cost vehicle. The Siege Engine: hardest-hitting and longest range vehicle. Carries a driver, gunner, and passengers (but not exposed -- which means they can't attack). Flying Machine: a flying vehicle that's very quick but fragile. Vulnerable to anti-air weaponry. Carries a pilot and a gunner. Goblin Shredder: an anti-air vehicle that fires rockets and can rocket boost yourself into the air to reach air vehicles (or jump over walls!). Essentially a personal armor suit -- if the suit is destroyed, you can jump out and keep fighting. Close-range melee attack. Vulnerable to siege vehicles. They're still considering how to obtain the vehicles, but they want the process to be fast-paced and fun. NEXT: Arena Design in Wrath ===>
WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel part 2
11:01 AM: Lessons from TBC. A big project, heroics were an interesting tuning problem, hard enough to be a challenge but easy enough that people just starting out could do them. Were a great success. But too hard, want to make them more accessible. Don't want e.g. lacking a prot spec tank, holy priest, etc to bar people from doing heroics. Should be available to more players, open up to different classes and groups.Some dungeons were too long. Took longer than they planned. Like to keep dungeons to ~1 hour long. Not their intention to have players stuck in dungeon in 3 hours. Going to really check length before releasing new dungeons.Quests did not feel as connected as they should (kill end boss/kill 10 creatures). Really trying to allow dungeon quests to have interesting goals. Gundrak is cumulation of a long questline encompassing the whole zone. You know why you're killing the endboss, and what the outcome will be, connects players to dungeons beyond killing bosses for loot. More of an impact on the world.Summoning changes worked out great. Stones/warlocks summoning into instance (audience applauds). Main reason was to remove barrier to entry to dungeons that were annoying to get to. Wanted to make it convenient.Patch order. Has an impact on what players have available to do, have to make sure things feel right when releasing patch. They wanted to get Black Temple out asap so Zul'Aman ended up being released later, probably would have been better to deliver ZA first since most players weren't ready for BT but keen for 10-man content. Learned that lesson with WotLK. Arthas is final endgame boss so delivering content in the order they thinks works best for the players, whether that's a new 5-man, raid etc. 11:07 AM: Naxxramas... Again? Audience cheers; 'that's about the same way we feel about Naxxramas'. Huge labour of love. Always felt it was a dungeon that WoW needed. Most players never got to experience it because of the release timing. Loot was still really great but TBC superceded it. Made sense to come back to it and give everyone a chance to experience it. 10-man accessible. Extremely proud, want everyone to play it.Lore-wise Naxx fits in perfectly, with Arthas/Northrend, history behind Naxx lends itself well to being a part of WotLK and something players can get into really early. Chance to retune it and make it even better. Huge dungeon with a ton of bosses, over 15 bosses in one raid dungeon, non-linear (wings) giving players a lot of choice.11:10 AM: Itemisation. PvP gear will be available through PvE as well as PvP. Spirit shard system. Players that want to get started in arenas who love dungeons can get started through PvE. Won't be the best gear, but will give you a chance. More items per boss kill in 25 player raids. More items desired by more classes, big project. Trying to remove unnecessary stats because there are too many different types of loot, what if a ret paladin item drops and you don't have one? Merge some of the stats so that items will work across a group of ~3 different classes. Players can get loot that's more useful and accessible, killing a boss feels better.11:12 AM: Recipe drops, pretty rare right now. Specific plans only drop off one boss at really low drop rate. Doesn't mean they won't put unique plans on hard to reach bosses but want most plans to be accessible, earlier bosses, easier dungeons. Might not feel like such a grind to get that one rare pattern. NEXT: Reducing the faction grind and a sneak peek at The Occulus ===>
WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Wrath_revelations_from_WWI_08_Dungeons_and_Raids_panel'; At the Worldwide Invitational, the Dungeons and Raids panel is about to begin. We'll be bringing you updates on the anatomy of dungeons and raids straight from Blizzard's mouths, and of course any tidbits of information about dungeons and raids to come, all after the jump. Stay tuned!
WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel part 4
11:31 AM: CoT: The Culling of Stratholme. Player response to CoT was overwhelming, allowing players to play through story rather than just read it. CoT: Stratholme located in CoT, Tanaris. Removing faction requirement on CoT teleport. Level 80 instance. Scripted experience, similar to Old Hillsbrad. Experience "The Culling" mission from Warcraft 3 in the WoW universe. Fight alongside Arthas (before he falls to the Lich King) to see how Stratholme fell, what exactly went on with Arthas to get him where he is today. Really want players to get to see more of Arthas. Timed encounters, some completely new things. Non-linear. You're actually in Stratholme, used a good portion of the original Strat dungeon, looks and feels as you would expect and tried to stick as close to lore as humanly possible. Using original voiceover acting from Warcraft 3. 11:35 AM: Infinite Dragonflight storyline from TBC will be continued in Stratholme, popular storyline, this was the perfect place to do it. 11:37 AM: Entrance in CoT similar to other dungeons, entrance reflects Lordaeron art and Strat style buildings. Plaguewood transformed. Really wanted city to feel alive, on the brink of something bad but feeling that the city was fully functioning, player arrives at a crucial moment. 11:39 AM: Player Q&A. Will there be a change in legendary drops? Atiesh-style or random drops? A: For the most part they like the Atiesh style. Sometimes they have to deliver content and don't have time to implement quests like that hence simplified drop system. Case-by-case basis. Q: Attunements lifted in TBC. Any in WotLK, or just gear checks? A: Plan to reduce any complexity on attunements, don't plan to add new attunements to dungeons/heroics and entry level Naxxramas, will still have an attunement path once you get into raiding that takes you to the end but goal to make sure it's simple to understand and not as complicated as the attunements TBC shipped with. Q: Wipe management - will there be closer graveyards, shorter run times through dungeons? A: Yes, definitely something we constantly think about. We play all the dungeons too. If we feel like something's too far we'd move it. In most cases the distance of graveyard is based on difficulty, want to make sure there's some price for death, but not too annoying. Q: Being a hardcore raider, you could see content that not a lot of people can see. With 10-man dungeons being the same as 25, will you reward hardcore raiders beyond just loot? A: Want to make sure 25-mans feel like the pinnacle of raiding, hence the one tier loot separation, so you know for sure someone's done that raid, they'll wear different gear. Titles is something we're looking into working more with, titles from kills, title just from being able to get into one specific area. Definitely aren't trying to merge the two, like the first kills, videos etc. Want to keep that feeling, if you get that first kill it feels great for you. Q: Will there be an expansion of the token system or will loot be randomly determined? A: Don't plan to move away from token system but some of the randomness can be alleviated by simply dropping more loot. Q: With all this talk of heroics, there are some people who can't even manage normal dungeons, is there any idea of bringing in new dungeons for them? A: I don't think you're alone. There are a lot of players who find that first 5-man a barrier to entry, it's something we've been talking about a lot. We're not going to make everything easier but we do want to make things more accessible. It might not mean a creature is easier to kill but easier to understand, easier for new players to learn advanced techniques. That's the end of the panel, some interesting developments in the pipeline for all levels of raiding. Keep checking back for more invitational live coverage throughout the day! %Gallery-26320% %Gallery-5525% WoW Insider is on the ground in Paris at the Blizzard Invitational bringing you the big announcements and latest Wrath news as it happens. Check out our latest coverage!
WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel part 3
11:13 AM: Faction. Want to make it not feel like a grind. Championing -- Earn faction outside of your current dungeon. Choose a specific faction to earn rep with, system will use tabards, put tabard on in any heroic and every kill will give rep towards the faction whose tabard you're wearing as well as dungeon faction. Small bonus if you wear the tabard of the dungeon faction too. Details not final but this is the direction. Don't want you to feel you have to grind certain dungeons mindlessly. 11:15 AM: Remove faction requirements for heroics. Don't want people to feel like there are so many barriers. 11:16 AM: PvP rewards will show up in faction too. Similar to current lowlevel pvp faction sets. Will continue this trend. Greater variety of faction rewards full stop. Only a certain amount of items they can make in the time they have. Items that fit different specs and classes. More recipe plans, something done in TBC but not all trade skills were represented in factions. More rewards in general from faction. 11:17 AM: How does the Death Knight fit in? Will be able to tank both raids and dungeons. Not intended to be 'the new tank' but is a unique tank and want to make sure they can tank raids and 5-mans, heroics, as well as DPS. Just going to do it in a different way, keeping classes unique. Looked at what players need -- people always need a tank. More tanks = more dungeon runs. 11:19 AM: Sneak Peek: The Occulus. Level 80 dungeon located in Borean Tundra (Coldarra). Unique; first dungeon players can fly in. Get a drake partway through the dungeon and do mounted combat as if it were a vehicle, individual spells on different drakes. Tank drakes, heal drakes etc. Nonlinear; started as a high fantasy pitch and has become a high concept design. Occulus is a series of rings floating in the sky, can pick and choose bosses. Concept art shows circular and frozen themes. Dungeon design shown, they design on paper and try to feel how big the space is, is it big enough to fight the boss, the trash. Layouts turn into concept art and 'blockout' phase, turning 2D image into 3D so they can run around it in 3D. Dungeon is complete, internal playtesting at the moment. 11:24 AM: Halls of Stone. Part of Ulduar, located in Storm Peaks. Tied to Titan lore. Level 77-79. Will need a flying mount to access. Nonlinear. Want to make you feel like you're infiltrating Titan area, feel like it's something new even though scope is very different. Epic scale. Level 80 dungeon in Ulduar (Halls of Lightning) and raid dungeon too, but Halls of Stone is first dungeon players will experience Wanted the scale to be big but not annoying (to the level of wanting a mount to travel through it). Showed blockout, walked 5 players through game to see if there's basic things like enough room to pull mobs, enough room for cameras etc. Platinum Discs quests from Uldaman -- this is the next evolution, continuing the story. Location where we can read the discs and maybe find out information about how Azeroth was created, deliver lore to players. NEXT: A new CoT instance and Q&A ===>
All World of Warcraft classes dissected at WWI 2008
You can't escape World of Warcraft at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational. Between class-specific panels and the giant WoW dev panel. Here's a look into the future of each of the classes, including a ton of information on the upcoming Death Knight class: Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Turpster's WWI Day 1 Video Roundup: Who says Gnomes can't dance?
Day 1 of the Worldwide Invitational is behind us, with Day 2 already underway in Paris, but that doesn't mean we can't wax nostalgic anyway. Everyone's favorite star of (internet) radio and (internet) television, the Turpster, has thrown together a short and sweet retrospective on day 1 at the Invitational. Peppered among all the excitement are a few shots of Death Knight gameplay and the costume contest, topped off with some commentary on the dance contest that closed off the night, Turpster style. Be sure to give it a watch, and check out Turpster's other WWI Videos as well, as he runs amok in Paris and gets to know the people in the queue.
