A first developer podcast promises fewer blue rewards
Blizzard has published the first episode of its weekly podcast about World of Warcraft: Forever. Two developers talk with streamer Xaryu about the beta. The next build hands out fewer blue quest rewards in dungeons, says Lead Classic Designer Tim Jones.
The episode lasts 63 minutes and appeared on 24 September on the official World of Warcraft channel. Josh Corbett of Countdown to Classic hosts. Next to Jones sits Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield, known as Aggrend. The podcast runs every week while the beta lasts.
Fewer blues from dungeon quests
Players on the beta say they get too many blue items too soon, and Jones agrees. The four quests of The Hall of Thanes can put a character in blues after a single run. That skips the step where a player collects greens and learns to value them.
The next beta build changes that, says Jones. Some quests will give only experience and gold, and on others the rewards are moved so that a dungeon hands out one blue instead of four. The yardstick is Classic: Wailing Caverns gave one blue from its quests, Maraudon perhaps two.
The intended path stays white gear until level 10, then greens, and the first blues around level 20. Jones calls it a graduation that has to feel the same as in Classic.
Levelling is not faster than in Era
The analytics team delivered a report on levelling speed on the day of the recording, says Greenfield. The average time from level 1 to 20 is 20.4 hours in Classic Era and 20.5 hours in Forever.
That speaks against a common impression on the beta. Xaryu compared two level 14 Gnome Mages at the same camp in Westfall and found 8 hours and 42 minutes of play against 8 hours and 47. Spell power now appears on low level gear, but the abilities were tuned to account for it, says Jones.
Experience in dungeons moved from kills to quests so that players go out into the world, says Greenfield. The team keeps an eye on the balance, but wants to see it at higher levels first before changing anything.
Layers and familiar faces
How many players fit on a layer is set per zone, says Greenfield. Size, location and the chance of a PvP flashpoint all count. Xaryu led a battle in Ashenvale with a few hundred players and calls it the least lag he has seen in WoW.
Layering also tries to put players with their own circle: people they grouped with, their guild and their friends list. Greenfield met the same player every few hours, from Zephras Isle to Westfall and Darkshire.
Two problems are known. A rare mob can vanish when two players group up in the same spot, because the world around them refreshes. And in world PvP an opponent can fade into another layer. Both are bugs that Blizzard wants to fix.
A drop in frame rate in the capitals also has a cause, says Greenfield. Players who switch many graphics settings on and off in a group can slow down the game for others.
The Skyborne
The divided reactions to the Skyborne were expected, says Greenfield, who compares them to the arrival of the Draenei in The Burning Crusade. Chris Metzen pushed the team not to play it safe with the new race, says Jones.
The Skyborne are a small part of the game. Their starting zone runs to about level 12, and nothing there asks for weekly farming. The split between the factions ties them to the Earthen Ring for the Horde, with a new area in Mulgore, and to the Kirin Tor for the Alliance, says Jones. Both factions get quests and reputation through that.
A Skyborne Priest is not planned, because the story makes the Skyborne distrust religion. Greenfield does not rule it out: “you never say never”. The feedback on the Druid forms is mainly about their shape, says Greenfield. There is nothing to announce yet.
The interface stays bronze
A switch to the Classic interface is not planned. The bronze, weathered look is meant to make Forever recognisable at a glance, says Jones, even in a familiar spot such as Elwynn Forest. Players who want something else can change it with addons, as always.
Blizzard does keep listening to feedback on it, says Greenfield. Xaryu mainly asks for unit frames and a cast bar in the same bronze style.
The next episode follows next week, with developers who talk about the classes.
Source: Blizzard Entertainment