Recent Headlines
Faction Change System Coming
Breaking news out of the World of Warcraft forums . Blizzard is looking in to a way of adding the ability to change factions from Alliance to Horde and vice versa...
The deets:
We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we're developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There's still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we're pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.
As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We'll go into much more detail on all of this here at [url]http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com[/url] as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.
This type of decision is a big reason why I dislike World of Warcraft but I know others will LOVE this. So there it is.
Grab Bag #19 - Wild Card Edition
Grab bag #19 is here! Question answering abounds:
Q. Does destroying a ram pad actually increase the time it takes for the Keep doors to reset?
A. Nope! Destroying a ram pad does not increase the amount of time it takes for Keep doors to reset, but it does prevent a ram from being built for a short while.
Q. Now that the Land of the Dead is out, can we expect to see a reworking of the city siege mechanics? As it stands, the population caps on Fortresses make taking a fully defended Fort incredibly difficult. This makes city sieges happen less, and getting to Stage 2 of a siege simply doesn’t happen if the opposing Realm doesn't wish to participate. This is due to an inordinate amount of emphasis being put on the Rank 8-29 city Scenario. These issues result in Warlord gear being near impossible to gain, let alone Sovereign. Can we expect any changes to this system, moving forward?
A. Yes, we are intently focusing on the contested city content to ensure that they are both challenging and rewarding. Regarding the Rank 8-29 city siege Scenario—when we introduced this Scenario to the lower Ranks, we actually decreased the amount of impact it has on the success or failure of a city capture.
Q. When will Keep takes and city invasions resemble the intro movie? Meaning, when will assault towers and other means of breaching a Keep/Fortress/capital city come into the game?
A. We cannot provide an exact outline yet, but rest assured that the Keep, Fortress, and city siege content is always at the forefront of our minds. We are currently looking at changes to all three!
Q. Has anyone on the dev team looked to see that Keep/Fort designs are a main reason for CC and AoE issues? Meaning the choke-points to the lord as being the only way to get to the lord thus the focus of attacks are the stairs?
A. The C&C and RvR teams are both looking at the area-of-effect and crowd control abilities with Keep and Fortress design in mind. We are working on some exciting changes that will alleviate many of the choke-point issues. Stay tuned for more info!
Q. Will there ever be RvR objectives put in place that promote small-group/individual play?
A. The inherent design and nature of the open RvR lakes allows for uneven battles to occur, so there will always be some risk involved with running around solo, or in a small group; however, Battle Objectives and quests in the open RvR lakes are indeed designed for smaller groups and individuals.
Q. It was announced in part 2 of the Executive Producer’s Letter that Tier 4 RvR was going to be examined for improvements. Can you give any details, vague or specific, on what is the general idea of where you are heading with these changes?
A. We can’t give out any specific details quite yet, but we will say that we have an entire whiteboard filled with ideas to improve all aspects of open RvR (not just Tier 4!). Check out the Executive Producer's Letter - Part 3 for more info about the future of WAR!
Q. This is a question regarding Scenario scoring. I would like to know if, for example, I'm playing in Tor Anroc and I knock back an enemy player into the lava with my Ironbreaker, if they die in the lava, do we still score points or does it not count?
A. As long as you hit an enemy Realm character, if they die in lava, or even from falling damage, you will get credit for their death. It’s not how they die that matters—it’s if you played a role in their demise!
Q. Is there any chance of removing the "Prior Tier" bar, and perhaps moving a prior-Tier's contribution into an existing one...say, the Scenario bar, where T4 can still affect it without being excluded from it?
A. There’s always a chance we’ll do this at some point in the future, and it has been discussed, but we can’t promise anything at this time.
Q. For some reason, in Stage 1 of the city siege, player kills are subject to diminishing returns. This makes perfect sense in open RvR to keep cross-realm farming at a minimum, but why is this in a city siege where everyone is actually very focused on winning?
A. The diminishing returns on player kills are indeed in place to hinder cross-Realm farming. Cross-Realm farming is still something that can occur during a city siege, and can have a very detrimental impact on the city siege progression. We want to keep that at a minimum as much as possible.
Q. Simple question - crest conversion to higher valued crests, is there a chance it will ever be implemented or has it already been decided that this will never happen?
A. We don’t have any current plans to allow for crest conversion to higher value crests. The premise behind the crests are to reward players for participating in specific types of RvR content, and as such we do not want to promote hording of currency, or skipping content. In the future, we plan on adding more items for purchase for all crest and medallion levels so that players who have crests gathering dust in their bank have more meaningful items to purchase with them.
Q. When will a fix be going in for the Tome of Knowledge unlocks increasing load times?
A. We have a fix in the works for this issue that is currently being tested. We hope to push it live in July.
Q. Will there ever be optional warband displays that reduce the current need for squares mod for an effective healer and thus improve customization?
A. We love our mod community and evaluate all of the most popular WAR mods. We always try to implement the game features that the community is clamoring for. We also work with the mod community on a regular basis.
Q. Is there any chance that 'Party' members in a Scenario or warband can be a different color 'dot' on the Map to other people? I've asked about this a few times. I thought this was being addressed for 1.3, but the different colored names above characters, showing guild, alliance etc...is what we got. In a Scenario, there are dozens of red dots on the map...which is my group? How can I heal them if I follow the wrong dots to a different place? Some of the maps are quite big. The only time I know where my group is, is when I'm in a pre-made group with guildies on Vent. Please, please give us green dots for party members or something!
A. This is a feature we’re currently looking into and would love to add.
Q. When are the Dwarfs actually going to get a Guild Rank 37 mount that isn't simply a recolor of existing Dwarf mounts? I was highly, highly, HIGHLY disappointed at seeing ours versus the other ones. The horses look fantastic—ours are just hardly recognizable colors.
A. Our in-house Dwarf Engineers have been hard at work creating a new Dwarf Gyrocopter befitting of those who have earned a prestigious Guild Rank (37 or higher). We think you’ll really like how it looks. It will be comparable to the Guild Rank 37 mounts that the other races currently have. Below is a peek at what it looks like (please keep in mind there will be different colors).
Q. Will PvE dungeons be reworked to ensure a current level of difficulty despite ongoing C&C changes?
A. The C&C team works hand-in-hand to adjust and balance all PvE content, especially in the dungeons, so that it continues to be in-line with ongoing improvements and changes.
Q. Gunbad is being overhauled to make it more accessible and user friendly. Will Bastion Stair get similar treatment?
A. We are very excited about the recent changes we made to Gunbad and are currently gauging player reaction and interest. If the new Gunbad changes are very well received, we would love to move forward with more dungeon overhauls in a similar fashion. Please let us know what you think of the changes on the WAR Official Forums! Bastion Stair would be our next potential candidate.
Q. What is the purpose of the derelict dinghy in the Southeast corner of Ellyrion? Clicking on it causes a pack of Rank 1 Rift Rats to spawn, but nothing else happens. Just up the coast and across the river is an island. On the island are a shipwreck and a small, dilapidated shack. The island is surrounded by deep water and can't be reached (as the player immediately starts to drown). Presumably the dinghy was from the survivors of the ship but that doesn't explain what happened to them or why the dinghy is worthy of a click.
A. The derelict dinghy has not yet yielded up its mysteries....
Aion coming to US and EU in September
NCSoft finally slapped a release date on their upcoming fantasy MMO Aion; US players can strap their wings on September 22nd. EU players will follow a few days later, on the 25th.
NCSoft also announced that the game will be available digitally via Steam, Direct2Drive and directly from their website, in addition to retail shelves. No word yet on whether the Collector's Edition will be made available digitally.