Podcast episode 5 looks back on the beta
The developers of World of Warcraft: Forever look back on the beta in episode 5 of their podcast. They explain why it stopped at level 30, how players of one language end up together and which raid bosses they enjoyed making most.
The episode lasts 101 minutes and appeared on 22 October on the World of Warcraft channel. Josh Corbett of Countdown to Classic hosts, with Meeix of the esports team of the modern game as guest. From Blizzard come Senior Game Designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield, Associate Production Director Clay Stone, Lead Software Engineer Ana Resendez and Lead Encounter Designer Michael Nuthals.
Why a beta, and why it ends now
Season of Discovery launched four weeks after its announcement, without a beta. Forever has to last much longer, says Clay Stone, so the foundation had to be tested first: the classes, camping and the servers. That is why the beta stopped at level 30, with four of the nine new dungeons and no raids.
The two weeks before launch are needed because the beta runs on other hardware than the live game. Everything moves to the real servers now, including the rulesets and Early Name Reservation. Blizzard calls it one of its biggest betas ever. The number of players hit limits that the Battle.net team thought nobody would reach, and anything that blocked progress was treated as if it were launch.
Hidden on purpose
Clay Stone warns about datamining: much of what turns up is not meant for Forever, because the versions of World of Warcraft share assets and code. Thousands of things stay hidden. Items only become visible once someone finds them, and dungeons and raids that are not open cannot even be loaded. The torch from Duskwood was switched off in the first week, then switched on to test the technology. It caused performance problems, which are fixed. It also gave the idea of guards in Stormwind, Ironforge and Orgrimmar who carry a torch only at night.
Grouped by language
Ana Resendez explains that the game does not keep a score of the players you meet. It mixes new faces with familiar ones on purpose. A setting chooses your preferred language, and the game tries to place you with players who speak it; that is no hard line, so friends with another language can still group. Servers still exist under the hood, for example in Australia for a better ping. The only hard line is the region: Europe and North America do not play together at launch, though “never say never”. A separate episode about the technology follows.
Players everywhere
Heat maps showed testers in zones they were not meant to reach yet, such as Hyjal. Blizzard let them explore. The number one killer of characters was other players. Campfires were used to kill others, so Blizzard looks again at how they damage players, without removing the flavour. Ana Resendez played the whole beta with a controller; the Diablo team helped build the gamepad support.
Three raid sizes for every patch
At launch there is a raid for 10 (Barrow Deeps), one for 20 (Hyjal Summit) and one for 40 (Onyxia’s Lair), see the three raids of 9 December. Blizzard commits to new content for 10 and 20 players in every patch, so groups of those sizes can plan ahead. The two new raids have more than 20 bosses together. The aim is “beer and pretzels”: come prepared with potions and a flask, and the raid should be doable. About Molten Core, Michael Nuthals says nothing yet beyond the word “revamped” from BlizzCon. The old dungeons stay largely as they were; the new ones should feel as if the team of 2004 could have made them.
Bosses teased
Michael Nuthals names a few favourites without names:
- Barrow Deeps: a boss with a buff that raises your damage at a cost, and a pair of spiders.
- Hyjal Summit: an undead creature like a crocolisk, a wild god possessed by a ghost. The raid fights the husk and the ghost in turns. Hyjal Summit also has a boss of the body horror kind.
He also teases the far future: homes and manors that players have found, and instance portals in hidden spots.
Quest items for the whole group
The host asks once more for quest items that drop for everyone in a group. Aggrend answers “never say never”. Blizzard already shares them out in turn, and grouping is less slow than players think, he says. More tuning later is possible.
Source: Blizzard Entertainment