This Week in MMOs

[Vanguard]

Your welcome Nolgroth.

 

As for the codes, you don't gave to log unto the game to use them. You can access your account from the web and enter the codes there. I think there's a "redeem code" thingy.

 

That way, if you do decide to play again, you've got 'em

[Nolgroth]

Good point.

[Jagged]

I gave up on Neverwinter because it seemed like every time I got close to buying some nice bit of loot, the economy would change and the market would fall out of what I was working on.

 

Happens once, you think damn. Happens again and you realise areas of the game are limited to people who play all the time or spend loads of money.

[Greywind]

Actually, Jagged, that's where friends and guildmates come in handy.

[Nolgroth]

Guilds are another thing I need to consider. I don't have one and don't want one that requires more of me than the occasional resource dump into a special project. Know of any good ones?

[DasBroot]

I've played SWTOR for years but unless you like pvp or ops it's definitely a 'burst game' - where you can sub for a month every year or so, do all the non-end game content, and move on.

 

(I like the pvp but it has THE MOST TOXIC playerbase I've ever seen in an MMO, ever.  And I've played EVE.)

[Nolgroth]

EVE is a great high concept with a piss-poor implementation. I would never jump into playing such a game for many reasons. The absolute mandate for multiplayer gameplay ruins what would be an otherwise awesome experience.  I'm just not interested in making casual acquaintances from around the world simply to go blow up other players' stuff and ruin their day. I've heard about the real world costs of ONE of EVE's epic battles and I was truly aghast at the thought. I cannot even fathom that a game publisher would be party to the loss of so much real currency for something like that. In my mind, that is one step away from criminal. The only reason I don't take that step is because the idiot that devoted that amount of money, presumably with the full knowledge that he might lose it, deserves equal or worse scorn. That the hierarchical structure of EVE is pretty much a mandate makes it sickening.

 

Well not for me at any rate. I would have to win such an insanely big lottery that money literally became something trivial. 

[Pattern Ghost]

Blizzcon just started. I scraped up the gold to get a virtual ticket for the mounts, so watching the stream of the opening ceremony now.

 

So far, just a lot of talk about esports.

 

First announcement:

 

Starcraft II is going to be free starting November 14th. Wings of Liberty campaign will be free. If you already own it, then Heart of the Swarm will be free.

[Pattern Ghost]

WoW stuff starting.

 

Just announced Classic servers. Hmm.

[Pattern Ghost]

OK, opening ceremony concluded. I'm going to go ahead and put the WoW stuff first, though they left it for last. Opening ceremony is just one or two big bullet points for each product, then later panels go in depth. In about 14 mins, they start the WoW what's next panel, so I'll make another post after it.

 

Edit: Finished notes for other games. I may have missed a detail or two, b/c I only play WoW and a little Hearthstone so may have let stuff for the other games slip by me.  Fortunately, the opening ceremony is free for everyone, so if you're curious about those,  you can check it out.

 

World of Warcraft:

 

• WoW Classic servers announced. So long Wall of No, I guess. No real details on how or when yet.
• Shadow pet plushie announced. Proceeds going to disaster relief charities.
• New Expansion: Battle for Azeroth
  • Rekindling faction war.
• Features Trailer:
  • Kul Tiras
  • Zandalar
  • Level cap 120
  • Islands announced as feature. Can assume South Sea, not sure if islands are a game play feature. It's actually Great Sea, and 3 man scenarios.
  • Allied Races announced as feature. Showed all four leaked races plus a few.
• Cinematic: Massive battle of Alliance forces led by Anduin and Genn assaulting Undercity. Sylvanus busted out some wraith-like stuff that looks like a power up. Anduin pulled off a Velen level power up.

 

Starcraft II:

 

• Starting November 14th, the first SC II campaign, Wings of Liberty will be free to play.
• If you already own Wings of Liberty, then Heart of the Swarm will be free for you.
• If you already own Heart of the Swarm, guess you're SOL, b/c that's all they mentioned.

 

Heroes of the Storm:

 

• Hanzo and Alexstraza are going to be added to the roster.
• Working on performance-based matchmaking.
• Working on unspecified gameplay changes.

 

Hearthstone:

 

• New Expansion: Kobolds and Catacombs.
• Dungeon dive styled gameplay that I didn't really understand how it will work. Talked about choosing between two options after each part. Not sure how that mechanic will translate to player vs player.
• Login on Monday for a free card from new expansion. (For everyone, not just convention swag.)
• New solo play mode, Dungeon Run. Won't require you to have cards for it. (Looks like they'll provide a pool to build your deck from.) You face 8 bosses, restart whole thing if you fail one, compared to roguelikes.
• I *may* watch Heartstone What's Next Panel, but I really need to get lunch done.
• Legendary Weapons for each class.

 

Overwatch:

 

• Blizzard World Map. Based on a Blizzard-themed amusement park.
• New Character announced: Moira. Looks evil. Support and DPS character.

 

 

[Pattern Ghost]

World of Warcraft What's Next presentation notes:

 

• Battle for Lordaeron trailer
  • The trailer is now up on the Blizzard launcher
  • The battle is going to be the opening experience for the expansion, similar to Broken Shore scenario.
  • Did the Alliance attack Lordaeron first, or did the Horde burn down Teldrassil first?
  • Sets the tone for new state of warfare between Alliance and Horde.
• Horde will control Kalimdor completely and Alliance will control the Eastern Kingdoms, with the Great Sea in between.
• Both sides will try to make alliances with great navel powers: Kul Tiras for the Alliance and Zandalar for the Horde.
• No boats. Well, some boats.
• Will battle for land and resources.
• Fight for our faction's survival.
• Find allies to join our side.
• Each side has three zones, which each has problems the PCs must help them solve to get them to join their faction.

 

Kul Tiras

• Ancient Human kingdom.
• Powerful nautical empire.
• Ruled by 4 Houses.
• Three main territories (zones):
  • Tirgarde Sound
    • Capital of Kul Tiras located here (missed name of city)
    • Will be the main Alliance hub
    • Central location on map
    • Led by Katherine Proudmoore (Jaina's mom)(not a Dreadlord)
    • The Kul Tirans are monster hunters! Manly men! (shows human males of hulk-like proportions in screenshots: possible future Human subrace?) Mainly hunt sea monsters.
    • Trouble with Pirates
    • Video: Looks very Howling Fjord-esque. Looks like they have a lot of new art assets for the environment and a batch of new monster art.
  • Drustvar
    • Ruled by House Waycrest
    • Who are Missing!
    • Supply the arms and sausage for Kul Tiras
    • Drustvar is cursed
    • Video: Looks Duskwood-esque. Some less-spooky areas shown too.
  • Stormsong Valley
    • Ruled by House Stormsong
    • Led by Sea Priests who bless each ship before it's commissioned.
    • Provide ships to Kul Tiras
    • Dark Forces invading
    • and Quillboars!
    • Video: Looks open and green. LOTR-esque.

Zandalar

• Ancient Troll empire
• Powerful naval force, equal to or better than Kul Tiras
• Continent in turmoil
• Three main territories (zones)
  • Zuldazar
    • Capital
    • Horde hub
    • Ruled by King Rastakhan
    • Princess (something, didn't catch name) sounds like she'll be similar in role to Yrel in WoD, helping her solve Zandalar's problems.
    • Need to stop the Blood Troll invaders.
    • The Zandalari male trolls have good posture!
  • Nazmir
    • Festering Swampland, home to Blood Trolls
    • Players will enlist powerful Loa to help them.
      • There is a frog loa that is connected somehow to a frog mount.
    • Uncover Titan Secrets
  • Vol'dun
    • Foreboding Desert, was once lush jungle
    • Old God minions messed it up
    • Criminals are exiled here
    • Face off against the Sethrak (snake people, with long necks and cobra heads)
    • Befriend the Vulpera (cute little fox people)

Zone Flow

• 6 zones, 2 continents (as above)
• Level up in your faction's zones (3 each, as above)
• Rest of world opens up at 120 (not sure what that means, video glitch)
• Epic War Campaign (using some class hall/order hall mechanics, more of the same)
• World Quests and Emissaries at 120, they liked how those worked out in Legion and say they're here to stay.

Allied Races

• Allied Races will be unlocked through quest chains to get them to join your faction.
• Will have new racials and varied customization
• Can race change into them after they're unlocked
• There will be racial cosmetic armor sets that can be used cross-armor type (like WoD sets from garrison).
• Racial armor sets are unlocked by leveling the race to 110
• Allied Races start at level 20
• 6 Allied Races at launch with more planned
• Horde: Nightborne, Zandalari Trolls, Highmountain Tauren
• Alliance: Void Elves, Dark Iron Dwarves, Lightforged Draenei

Leveling Improvements

• Expanding Zone Scaling
• Zones will have a minimum and maximum level range
  • For example, Westfall could be level 10 to 60.
• Flexible Expansion Order:
  • Outland: 60-80
  • Wrath: 60-80
  • Cata: 80-90
  • MoP: 80-90
  • Lets you have some choice in which expansions to level through.
• Rewards and dungeons will also scale accordingly.
• These changes coming in 7.3.5

 

Heart of Azeroth

• Our artifacts are going bye-bye of course.
• Heart of Azeroth will be a medallion gifted to us by Azeroth
• It will use Azerite, which is the blood of Azeroth, which will be found in game, to level  up.
• As it levels up, it will allow us to empower pieces of our armor with traits.
• Currently looking at allowing three armor slots to be powered up by the medallion

 

Island Expeditions (PVE)

• Explore uncharted islands across the Great Sea
• Horde and Alliance are sending out scouts (us) to find new resources and lands
• These are three player cooperative scenarios in a race for resources against either an advanced AI team of opponents or optionally opposing players, to complete objectives
• These are dynamic content and will change each time. Same island will have different objectives and obstacles each time you visit it.

 

Warfronts (PVE)

• Large scale conflicts on the home front
• Fantasy anchored in Warcraft 3, RTS roots
• 20 player vs NPC armies
• Build structures, research upgrades, lead troops

 

Instanced PVP Updates

• Two new arenas, one in Kul Tiras, one in  Zandalar
• New Battleground: Seething Shore
  • In Silithus
  • Fighting over dynamic control points to control Azerite
  • Preview coming in 7.3.5

 

World PVP Updates

• PVP/PVE server distinction being removed.
• Instead, you will be able to toggle your ruleset to PVP or PVE
• Bonuses to offset inefficiencies of PVP mode play
• Seems like they're leveraging the CRZ tech to do this, but was unclear

 

There's a WoW Gameplay and Systems Deep Dive at 4pm PST, I'll make more notes then. If some of these notes seem more like powerpoint slide bullet points, that's because they are.

 

Edit: I had one more page of notes:

 

Dungeons

• 10 new dungeons
• 8 leveling dungeons, four per faction
• All dungeons open up to both sides at level 120
• Mythics are staying, making some mythic keystone updates

Raids

• First raid is Uldir: Halls of Control
  • Titan raid in old Titan quarantine facility where they were researching the Old Gods and things went terribly wrong
  • 8 bosses
  • Face off against the source of Zandalar's corruption
  • Old God theme
• Queen Azshara will be a raid boss in the expansion

[mrinku]

On 31/10/2017 at 6:54 AM, Nolgroth said:

EVE is a great high concept with a piss-poor implementation. I would never jump into playing such a game for many reasons. The absolute mandate for multiplayer gameplay ruins what would be an otherwise awesome experience. 

 

 

I beg to differ. I played EVE for over three years as my main game and just never bothered with all that sec space heavy PvP stuff. Stuck to Hisec, ran missions, chatted amiably on the Help channel and after about 10 months was keeping my sub up without paying real money because I could earn enough isk doing exploration and epics to fund a PLEX each month. The PvP aspect really comes down to "EVE has the absolute best threats to fight in any MMO". I treat pirate players like NPCs with exceptionally good AI.

 

And I really found the EVE community to be great. There's a limit to how rude you can be when the game actively encourages you to hunt down and ruin an annoying troll. Or hire someone to do it for you.

 

I swapped over to Elite Dangerous when that launched and haven't played much EVE since, but the upcoming shakeup to the free to play in December has me interested again.

 

I would ALWAYS encourage anyone to give EVE a shot. Just remember to only fly what you can afford to lose, don't get all precious about mere replaceable gear, and have fun.

 

And in relation to those "real world costs" from the big battles... no one actually buys those. It's all generated using the in-game economy. Just because you could buy a Titan for x amount of Dollars doesn't mean much - every part of that Titan had to actually be constructed from mining the minerals to building it in a special spacedock in game. 

[Pattern Ghost]

The new opening cinematic is now on the Blizzard Launcher.

[DasBroot]

I liked the missions in hisec for EVE as well... but the sheer amount of physical playtime I spent on them did me in.  It wasn't uncommon for my ship - tough enough to take the level... 3 and 4? - missions to take a half hour or so to clear one.  After that going back dropping a warp marker for myself and going to get my destroyer kitted out for salvage (salvagers and tractor beams galore) and cleaning every single wreck could take another 20 minutes or more.  

 

Add that each and every mission played the same and... yeah, it was a chatroom while things exploded sometimes.

 

Beautiful ships, though. I loved, loved, loved my Minmater ships.

[Cygnia]

Well, this may finally get me to drop WoW for good then.

[Pattern Ghost]

Updated WoW What's Next notes.

[Pattern Ghost]

34 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Well, this may finally get me to drop WoW for good then.

 

What is the "this" that you refer to?

[Cygnia]

The new expansion entirely.  I'm gonna finish up Antorus when it finally drops.  But afterwards, I'm pulling my subscription and quitting the game.  I hate this stupid faction divide and the fact they Blizzard seems eager to force PVP in some way ("flagged" or not) and cater to a toxic fanbase means it's not a game for me anymore.

[Pattern Ghost]

The faction divide is pretty central to the game.

 

As for forced PVP? Where are you getting that from?

[Christopher R Taylor]

There's no forced PVP but its strongly encouraged.  Lots of stuff that you can only get through PVP like some recipes for trades, appearances for artifact weapons, etc.

 

The next expansion seems to be focused on alliance vs horde.  Which I kinda get: its Warcraft (orcs vs humans) but still... kinda tired of it. 

[Pattern Ghost]

OK, I thought she was talking about the expansion. Legion does have some PVP-specific rewards as you say. I don't worry too much about those. I have collected some of the PVP currency through doing the Warden Tower quests (and usually use the auto complete tokens that some classes like Mage, Warrior and Pally have) to collect tokens for the cosmetic armor ensembles. Which is neat, b/c I can PVE for PVP armor appearances.

 

Since the only rewards I really care about are the armor ensembles and I don't have to PVP for them, I guess it never really bugged me much.

 

If anything, the expansion seems to be focused on making PVP more optional with the server rulesets going away and being replaced with an opt-in system.

 

 

[Pattern Ghost]

OK, from the Gameplay and Systems presentation:

 

On most things, they just showed some more screenshots or footage and didn't really convey much more info than the opening talk, so not much there. This will be much shorter.

 

Island Expeditions will have three PVE difficulty levels plus the PVP option counting as a fourth. They showed some examples of the dynamic generation of the scenarios, discussed things they claim the AI opponents will be capable of (I don't think they'll live up to the hype, but still seems interesting), and showed a couple of the maps.

 

Heart of Azeroth: I'm still not sure if this thing is going to take up a neck slot. It's just a new style artifact talent system/alternate advancement system. Some examples of abilities to unlock were either taking less damage with Astral Shift up or faster Ghost Wolf after taking damage as a 'standing in fire' tier for Shaman. So, more talents basically.

 

Warfronts look very strongly influenced by the RTS games, to the extent that they said they're closely following the WC 3 tech trees for developing your base. These are 20 player affairs, not sure if I'm that interested in the feature. They said you'll build your town hall/great hall, gather wood and iron, take territory and build up your base in a manner very similar to the RTS games, except you'll be personally leading your troops to the objective (take the enemy base and kill its commander).

 

Social Features were the only completely new topic covered. They're introducing Player Communities, which will be character-based memberships, have simplified role management (guild officers/leaders/etc.), have integrated voice chat from b.net (hope it's better than their earlier attempt at WoW integrated voice chat), have auto calendar invite features, and text chat logs. All the features added for Communities will apply to Guilds too. So, you could create Communities for different functions, almost like being in multiple guilds. They didn't mention if they had any feature like allied guilds (like allied supergroups from CoH/V.) or other ways to quickly create communities, or if you'd just have to schlep along and do individual invites.

 

The next thing I plan on trying to watch is the Q&A tomorrow at 4. I may or may not be at a function at that time tomorrow. If we have more snow tomorrow, I may catch it, otherwise may have to wait for it to go up on replay, whenever that is.

 

[Pattern Ghost]

Here's a PC Gamer article about the Classic Servers.

[Pattern Ghost]

No Worgen and Goblin model updates planned for the expansion:

 

 

[Pattern Ghost]

Just got done watching about half the WoW Q&A. Not too much of interest, because as usual they let people ask stupid questions that already had been answered by previous talks or website info. But I did hear a couple of interesting tidbits:

 

First, they say they are working on Goblin and Worgen models, but they won't be ready for 8.0. So, apparently they've been contradicting each other in interviews like the one above. Art guy says they're pretty happy with the appearances of the Goblins and the male Worgen, and plan on making the female Worgen look less like chihuahuas. 

 

Second, they say they plan on adding an upright posture option to PC Orcs. They're also going to add the option to the in game barber shop.

 

They also said they're going to increase the base backpack size, but it's going to be a reward for having an authenticator on the account. They'd said previously (long time back) that the last time they tried to increase the default backpack size, it broke a lot of unintended stuff. So, apparently they've figured it out. No timeframe given.

 

They confirmed they're going to add 6 character slots per server to accommodate allied race alts.