When the July 4th holiday in the US falls on or adjacent to a weekend, you can count on two things:
- Lots of offline plans (e.g. painting our dining room, which is now yellow, while not painting the dog, who remains non-yellow despite her mischievous curiosity)
- Bonus experience in games like EQ2 and DDO
The difference between this and previous EQ2 bonuses is that this time, I'm actually at both the level and the trade cap on my main. Typically, I use this sort of time to grind away at tradeskills on my alts, but that seemed relatively pointless since my army covers all of the gear and spell-crafting trades up to levels that are substantially higher than my highest alt.
So, I decided instead to simply use the time "normally".
Regular activities, bonus rewards
I've never paid much attention to bonus AAXP, but this weekend convinces me that I should. Lyriana gained 8 AA, hitting 184 (significant because I can now respec without having to juggle trees to keep the TSO endlines) from some routine questing, a few misc dungeon runs with the guild, and a PUG that made it as far as the second named in DB (which was as far as I needed to go for the epic weapon questline update anyway).
I can start to see a bit of why long-time players, especially the more group oriented ones, are frustrated with the way that the EQ2 AA system works out. I've been 90 for a bit, and did most of my leveling via quests, and I'm still 66 AA from the maximum AA cap. Zippy bonus weekend gains are great, but they also call attention to the fact that I can expect a greatly diminished rate of advancement going forward as I chew through one-time bonuses for quests and the first pass through each dungeon.
Then again, the sad part is that I can see the remaining places to spend my points, and I don't see anything on the list that will really change the game. The 250 AA sound like a lot, but every tree has its useless branches. With a fair amount of room to go, I already have the most significant abilities. Each additional AA ding will take proportionally longer, while adding less and less power until I'm left with just about everything that I would actually want. It would be nice if the way you build your AA's had a greater effect on your character, but I'm guessing that they're having a hard enough time finding niches for 24 subclasses without giving each one two or more AA spec variations to play with.
World of Warcraft's forthcoming expansion was originally going to include a "Path of the Titans" alternate advancement system, which was axed before the beta to some degree of outcry. Seeing how this type of mechanic is playing out in EQ2 today, I'm not convinced that WoW is missing out.
Showing posts with label cataclysm preview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cataclysm preview. Show all posts
Very Public Cataclysm Brainstorming
It was late August 2009, and the stage was set. Ozzy Ozborne was in the house, and the new WoW expansion, albeit spoiled in advance was ready for its big unveil. With a room full of frenzied fans and journalists, what better place to hold a brainstorming session to discuss ideas that may or may not make the expansion?
Or at least, so it seems this past week with several announced features getting the axe in a pre-E3 press event. The Path of Titans, a somewhat nebulous alternate advancement mechanic that would have struggled to strike a balance between useless and mandatory, is gone. The new archaeology profession that was to unlock options for the Path will now be used to provide lore tidbits, similar to Warhammer's Book of Knowledge. Guild talents have been replaced with a more traditional "gain a level, get a perk" system, similar to what Warhammer has. The revamped heroic modes for iconic low level dungeons - the Deadmines and Shadowfang keep - have been punted to patch 4.1.
In some ways, it's refreshing to see Blizzard willing to talk publicly about what they're thinking about. At the time, patch 3.3 was still in the works and the expansion was over a year from launch, so they simply would not have had much to talk about if they hadn't been able to speculate. Players continue to cite features that were never delivered, such as the original vision of Hero Classes and the Dance Studio, and that might have created even more incentive to clam up.
Even so, it also feels a bit odd to see this level of what, in hindsight, appears to have been pure brainstorming speculation at a major media event. The issue with guild talents potentially forcing players to leave their guilds to find someone who was talenting to support their playstyle was an extremely obvious one - it was one of my earliest reactions to the proposed mechanic - and it seems odd for them to be pulling the system over that very valid concern a year later. Did they have some super-secret plan to address this issue that came up short, or did they literally throw it into a Powerpoint because it sounded cool and they figured they'd have a year to work on the details?
(Aside: In an amusing note, World of Raids learned that the new Guild Reputation, used to encourage players to contribute to their guild before gaining access to rewards,
On the plus side, the speculation is now over, and the ramped up info releases seem to point towards the expansion hitting beta in the next month or so. That said, it will be very interesting to see whether this affects the amount of information we get out of future Blizzcon-type events.
Or at least, so it seems this past week with several announced features getting the axe in a pre-E3 press event. The Path of Titans, a somewhat nebulous alternate advancement mechanic that would have struggled to strike a balance between useless and mandatory, is gone. The new archaeology profession that was to unlock options for the Path will now be used to provide lore tidbits, similar to Warhammer's Book of Knowledge. Guild talents have been replaced with a more traditional "gain a level, get a perk" system, similar to what Warhammer has. The revamped heroic modes for iconic low level dungeons - the Deadmines and Shadowfang keep - have been punted to patch 4.1.
In some ways, it's refreshing to see Blizzard willing to talk publicly about what they're thinking about. At the time, patch 3.3 was still in the works and the expansion was over a year from launch, so they simply would not have had much to talk about if they hadn't been able to speculate. Players continue to cite features that were never delivered, such as the original vision of Hero Classes and the Dance Studio, and that might have created even more incentive to clam up.
Even so, it also feels a bit odd to see this level of what, in hindsight, appears to have been pure brainstorming speculation at a major media event. The issue with guild talents potentially forcing players to leave their guilds to find someone who was talenting to support their playstyle was an extremely obvious one - it was one of my earliest reactions to the proposed mechanic - and it seems odd for them to be pulling the system over that very valid concern a year later. Did they have some super-secret plan to address this issue that came up short, or did they literally throw it into a Powerpoint because it sounded cool and they figured they'd have a year to work on the details?
(Aside: In an amusing note, World of Raids learned that the new Guild Reputation, used to encourage players to contribute to their guild before gaining access to rewards,
"is not wiped immediately upon leaving or being removed from the guild; this is to prevent losing all your progress in the guild due to someone jokingly kicking you."Ah, the joking /gkick, I guess they are playing the same game we are after all.)
On the plus side, the speculation is now over, and the ramped up info releases seem to point towards the expansion hitting beta in the next month or so. That said, it will be very interesting to see whether this affects the amount of information we get out of future Blizzcon-type events.
How Often Should The Level Cap Rise?
Tobold is once again complaining that Blizzard should produce annual WoW expansions instead of taking two years per expansion. I think he's a bit unduly fascinated by the $40 box with the coaster and the card that has a 20-digit alphanumeric key on it. The real question to ask is what benefit players can expect from more frequent expansions. In particular, Tobold assumes that the level cap would raise in each of the annual expansions. Does anyone actually want this?
Who wants a level cap bump?
At the risk of generalizing about a demographic that I'm not a part of, I never get the impression that raiders are super thrilled about a level cap increase. Tobold is arguing that the damage is already done by having mid-expansion gear resets, but we've been seeing those MORE than once a year, and I don't think anyone would raise the level cap that frequently.
Meanwhile, increasing the cap retires content just as surely as gear inflation does. If you're queueing up for a random 5-man dungeon, would you rather have the same list of 12-16 dungeons for two years, or a list of 8-10 that expired every single year? I've done this experiment on my Warrior, who only has access to half of the dungeons due to his level, and I'd vote strongly in favor of the broader list, even if it meant fewer dungeons overall. If you've only got half a dozen dungeons to choose from, you're almost always repeating one that you did just a day or two ago.
Finally, we come to solo content. This is the area where, as a non-raider, I should be the most solidly behind Tobold in support of the annual cap increase. Solo players got a moderate amount of repeatable daily content in patch 3.1 and 3.2, a year ago now, and have not seen anything since. However, like group content, solo content also thrives on variety. If you're pushing to produce annual expansions, whether they are five or ten levels, the trend is going to go towards producing just enough content for characters to make it to the new cap, so that you can declare victory and go work on the next expansion. This will ultimately hurt the quality of the solo experience as well.
Horizontal or diagonal expansion?
If you look at games that actually pull off approximately annual expansions, like EQ2, the trend is strongly in favor of mixing in horizontal expansions along with the vertical ones. This still retires some content - in general, players ran the content from the Kunark era (raised the cap to 80) once to complete quests and spent most of their time in the Shadow Odyssey (horizontal expansion, which kept the cap at 80 and added bunches of new dungeons) due to better loot. You would then want to add some sort of alternate advancement, but WoW already has talent trees and glyphs, and may (or may not) get yet another system in Cataclysm.
The other issue is that a horizontal expansion is generally not going to do so much for solo players. EQ2's TSO added a new leveling zone and some new reps, including a solo daily quest that dropped tokens for dungeon loot, but I didn't bother to do any of it until the next expansion arrived and increased the level cap. There wasn't really any reason for me to do so, as the previous expansion's content was enough to let me reach the level cap, and it's not like I would have been aiming to do something with the dungeon loot if I'd obtained it.
In some ways, Cataclysm may be Blizzard's attempt at a diagonal expansion - not entirely horizontal, but not entirely vertical either. There's less vertical movement, and Blizzard is using the time to polish up existing talent trees (only including five new points allows them to avoid adding a new tier) and holes in existing content experiences. That said, this expansion's longevity may be heavily dependent on players' willingness to re-roll to see how the world has been shaken up. If players tend to stick to blazing through the new stuff on an existing main, this model could also feature the worst of both worlds, leaving players done and ready for the next expansion even sooner than the previous editions.
Who wants a level cap bump?
At the risk of generalizing about a demographic that I'm not a part of, I never get the impression that raiders are super thrilled about a level cap increase. Tobold is arguing that the damage is already done by having mid-expansion gear resets, but we've been seeing those MORE than once a year, and I don't think anyone would raise the level cap that frequently.
Meanwhile, increasing the cap retires content just as surely as gear inflation does. If you're queueing up for a random 5-man dungeon, would you rather have the same list of 12-16 dungeons for two years, or a list of 8-10 that expired every single year? I've done this experiment on my Warrior, who only has access to half of the dungeons due to his level, and I'd vote strongly in favor of the broader list, even if it meant fewer dungeons overall. If you've only got half a dozen dungeons to choose from, you're almost always repeating one that you did just a day or two ago.
Finally, we come to solo content. This is the area where, as a non-raider, I should be the most solidly behind Tobold in support of the annual cap increase. Solo players got a moderate amount of repeatable daily content in patch 3.1 and 3.2, a year ago now, and have not seen anything since. However, like group content, solo content also thrives on variety. If you're pushing to produce annual expansions, whether they are five or ten levels, the trend is going to go towards producing just enough content for characters to make it to the new cap, so that you can declare victory and go work on the next expansion. This will ultimately hurt the quality of the solo experience as well.
Horizontal or diagonal expansion?
If you look at games that actually pull off approximately annual expansions, like EQ2, the trend is strongly in favor of mixing in horizontal expansions along with the vertical ones. This still retires some content - in general, players ran the content from the Kunark era (raised the cap to 80) once to complete quests and spent most of their time in the Shadow Odyssey (horizontal expansion, which kept the cap at 80 and added bunches of new dungeons) due to better loot. You would then want to add some sort of alternate advancement, but WoW already has talent trees and glyphs, and may (or may not) get yet another system in Cataclysm.
The other issue is that a horizontal expansion is generally not going to do so much for solo players. EQ2's TSO added a new leveling zone and some new reps, including a solo daily quest that dropped tokens for dungeon loot, but I didn't bother to do any of it until the next expansion arrived and increased the level cap. There wasn't really any reason for me to do so, as the previous expansion's content was enough to let me reach the level cap, and it's not like I would have been aiming to do something with the dungeon loot if I'd obtained it.
In some ways, Cataclysm may be Blizzard's attempt at a diagonal expansion - not entirely horizontal, but not entirely vertical either. There's less vertical movement, and Blizzard is using the time to polish up existing talent trees (only including five new points allows them to avoid adding a new tier) and holes in existing content experiences. That said, this expansion's longevity may be heavily dependent on players' willingness to re-roll to see how the world has been shaken up. If players tend to stick to blazing through the new stuff on an existing main, this model could also feature the worst of both worlds, leaving players done and ready for the next expansion even sooner than the previous editions.
Quel'Delar, The Cataclysm Preview?
As those of you who follow my twitter feed already know, I was fortunate enough to obtain a battered hilt drop in a random ICC-5 the other day. I debated whether to use it or sell it - the lowest buyout amongst the others on the Hyjal AH was sitting at 10K gold - but decided that there's nothing else I could do with the gold that would be more interesting than completing this relatively exclusive questline.
The story thus far...
Once you obtain the weapon's hilt, you can embark on an epic quest to reconstruct the High Elf blade. The reforged weapon must be purified in the reborn Sunwell, which means a trip to the old island of Quel'Danis, like most player have never seen it before.
Present Day Quel'Danis
Introduced with the Sunwell raid in patch 2.4 at the tail end of the Burning Crusade, the story unfolding on the island pits an alliance of Blood Elves and Draenei against the demons of the Burning Legion. Even after players permanently unlock the major quest hubs, portals and fel invaders remain to be battled on a daily basis. The Sunwell itself is occupied by the game's most challenging level 70 raid, which proved nigh unbeatable for many guilds that had cleared the other raid content. All of this is still in the game today for players who want to take a trip down memory lane.
This is now
Time, however, is advancing in Azeroth. Even though the old content remains, the lore says that the Blood Elves have finally pacified the island, and are rebuilding their civilization around the new Sunwell. And so, when I teleported over to Quel'Danis to continue the Quel'Delar quest, I was surprised to see a very different picture.
A more idyllic isle of the future
Gone were the demons and portals. In their place were craftsmen, rebuilding the remainder of the city. Eventually, I was granted access to the Sunwell itself, a location previously restricted to the very end of the high-difficulty raid. Inside, you find the leaders of the Blood Elves, including Lady Liadrin. Liadrin is head of the Blood Elf Paladins (and participant in a lore conversation in Shattrath City that continues on infinite loop to this day) teaching pilgrims about the new source of their power. All of this was accomplished through Wrath's phasing quest mechanic, and had reverted to its original state when I competed the quest, claiming my new weapon.
The future of Azeroth?
Though technically anyone can see this storyline with enough luck or gold, I was a bit surprised to see this much effort put into a storyline that many players will not see (if for no other reason than because people with access to raid gear can get better weapons and therefore might be better served selling the hilt if they obtain it). Then again, perhaps players will see, in 4-6 months or whenever the Cataclysm finally arrives.
Visiting an old stomping ground and seeing what has become of it over the last few years really was a unique experience compared to anything that typically happens in MMORPG's these days. If this is what it is going to be like to see the entire world when Cataclysm arrives, Blizzard's decision to invest in their quest revamp may pay off very well indeed.
[Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind], the cool-looking reward for my efforts
The story thus far...
Once you obtain the weapon's hilt, you can embark on an epic quest to reconstruct the High Elf blade. The reforged weapon must be purified in the reborn Sunwell, which means a trip to the old island of Quel'Danis, like most player have never seen it before.
Present Day Quel'Danis
Introduced with the Sunwell raid in patch 2.4 at the tail end of the Burning Crusade, the story unfolding on the island pits an alliance of Blood Elves and Draenei against the demons of the Burning Legion. Even after players permanently unlock the major quest hubs, portals and fel invaders remain to be battled on a daily basis. The Sunwell itself is occupied by the game's most challenging level 70 raid, which proved nigh unbeatable for many guilds that had cleared the other raid content. All of this is still in the game today for players who want to take a trip down memory lane.
This is now
Time, however, is advancing in Azeroth. Even though the old content remains, the lore says that the Blood Elves have finally pacified the island, and are rebuilding their civilization around the new Sunwell. And so, when I teleported over to Quel'Danis to continue the Quel'Delar quest, I was surprised to see a very different picture.
A more idyllic isle of the future
Gone were the demons and portals. In their place were craftsmen, rebuilding the remainder of the city. Eventually, I was granted access to the Sunwell itself, a location previously restricted to the very end of the high-difficulty raid. Inside, you find the leaders of the Blood Elves, including Lady Liadrin. Liadrin is head of the Blood Elf Paladins (and participant in a lore conversation in Shattrath City that continues on infinite loop to this day) teaching pilgrims about the new source of their power. All of this was accomplished through Wrath's phasing quest mechanic, and had reverted to its original state when I competed the quest, claiming my new weapon.
The future of Azeroth?
Though technically anyone can see this storyline with enough luck or gold, I was a bit surprised to see this much effort put into a storyline that many players will not see (if for no other reason than because people with access to raid gear can get better weapons and therefore might be better served selling the hilt if they obtain it). Then again, perhaps players will see, in 4-6 months or whenever the Cataclysm finally arrives.
Visiting an old stomping ground and seeing what has become of it over the last few years really was a unique experience compared to anything that typically happens in MMORPG's these days. If this is what it is going to be like to see the entire world when Cataclysm arrives, Blizzard's decision to invest in their quest revamp may pay off very well indeed.
[Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind], the cool-looking reward for my efforts
Earning Gear Offline
Age of Conan recently made headlines with a change that offers players free levels simply for having an active subscription. Not to be outdone, Blizzard handed me four major gear upgrades, just for signing back into the game.
Technically, the upgrades in question were more of a correct bet on the pace of gear inflation than a literal handout. Due to my Wintergrasp habit, I wrapped up the patch 3.2 era with 90 marks and 67K honor. Rather than spend them on items that offered minor upgrades, I opted to save them for the following arena season. Now I have cashed in these currencies for the ilvl 264 PVP bracers, ilvl 251 shoulders, and ilvl 245 neck and cloak - I had ilvl 200 or 213 items in these slots previously, so even the PVE->PVP swaps were major upgrades. The hardest part of this transaction was waiting for the apparently dispirited Hyjal Alliance to capture Wintergrasp for access to the vendor.
The irony is that I was actually willing to run a few dungeons for some gear. Prior to my shopping spree, there were a relatively large number of items in the ICC 5-mans that represented substantial upgrades. Also, the gear threshold on Heroic Halls of Reflection appears to have been increased since I beat it twice in random pugs on the week it came out - my gear was suddenly no longer good enough to guarantee an easy clear of the place until I cashed in those upgrades, and I otherwise might have had to grind out some upgrades to regain access to the game's toughest 5-man.
Looking ahead
Strangely, the previews for Cataclysm say that Blizzard is keeping this old system, in which players will be allowed to bank currencies that will be usable to purchase better items in subsequent "seasons". Moreover, the system is expanding from PVP (where it makes some sense - your opponents may be wearing the good stuff) to PVE content. The Wrath era has seen several rounds of emblem quality inflation for the same 5-man dungeons (which have gotten comparatively easier as players become more and more overgeared), but those changes have never been retroactive to currency earned in the PREVIOUS season in the way that PVP honor points are.
At the end of the day, I suppose the moral of the story is that players should do whatever they enjoy most and rest increasingly assured that Blizzard will somehow manage to award them with raid quality loot for doing it. Perhaps banking currency for the future is even necessary as a way to encourage players not to call it quits as the end of a season approaches if they don't have anything left to purchase. Even so, it just seems odd that, in this timesink heavy genre, the trend would move towards allowing players to skip a timesink by banking currencies for future tiers.
Technically, the upgrades in question were more of a correct bet on the pace of gear inflation than a literal handout. Due to my Wintergrasp habit, I wrapped up the patch 3.2 era with 90 marks and 67K honor. Rather than spend them on items that offered minor upgrades, I opted to save them for the following arena season. Now I have cashed in these currencies for the ilvl 264 PVP bracers, ilvl 251 shoulders, and ilvl 245 neck and cloak - I had ilvl 200 or 213 items in these slots previously, so even the PVE->PVP swaps were major upgrades. The hardest part of this transaction was waiting for the apparently dispirited Hyjal Alliance to capture Wintergrasp for access to the vendor.
The irony is that I was actually willing to run a few dungeons for some gear. Prior to my shopping spree, there were a relatively large number of items in the ICC 5-mans that represented substantial upgrades. Also, the gear threshold on Heroic Halls of Reflection appears to have been increased since I beat it twice in random pugs on the week it came out - my gear was suddenly no longer good enough to guarantee an easy clear of the place until I cashed in those upgrades, and I otherwise might have had to grind out some upgrades to regain access to the game's toughest 5-man.
Looking ahead
Strangely, the previews for Cataclysm say that Blizzard is keeping this old system, in which players will be allowed to bank currencies that will be usable to purchase better items in subsequent "seasons". Moreover, the system is expanding from PVP (where it makes some sense - your opponents may be wearing the good stuff) to PVE content. The Wrath era has seen several rounds of emblem quality inflation for the same 5-man dungeons (which have gotten comparatively easier as players become more and more overgeared), but those changes have never been retroactive to currency earned in the PREVIOUS season in the way that PVP honor points are.
At the end of the day, I suppose the moral of the story is that players should do whatever they enjoy most and rest increasingly assured that Blizzard will somehow manage to award them with raid quality loot for doing it. Perhaps banking currency for the future is even necessary as a way to encourage players not to call it quits as the end of a season approaches if they don't have anything left to purchase. Even so, it just seems odd that, in this timesink heavy genre, the trend would move towards allowing players to skip a timesink by banking currencies for future tiers.
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