A Brave New World: Phasing
Posted January 19, 2009 at 08:24 PM by Warpy
My character has been questing like crazy for almost 3 years now, and for most of it, I’ve had to accept that unlike most fictional heroes, he cannot change the world. How many of you others have dispatched some nasty mini-boss or thinned the numbers of worgen, helboar, Scourge, etc. only to have them back to full strength and ready to attack you the next time you cut through their zone? Anyone else bring Bolvar Fordragon the Head of Onyxia and see Lady Prestor (Ony in disguise) standing right next to him, the next time you cut through the throne room?
Warning: Wrath of the Lich King Spoilers Ahead!
Once per server, some amazing player (thanks to his equally amazing guild) would complete the quest to open the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and Silithus would change completely. It was also fun to watch the Isle of Quel’Danas being taken over by the Shattered Sun Offensive, but in both cases, my character could only be a minor player, contributing fish to the AQ War Effort for the first and killing a few Blood Elves for the second.
The first phased quests in the Wrath of the Lich King are part of the Wrathgate questline. I didn’t realize I was on it until after the fifth quest in the chain. I’d made it to Wintergarde Keep and decided to set my hearth there, but I couldn’t find the innkeeper! I asked in guild chat, and they assured me that the inn was full of NPC’s and to make sure and pick up the quest on the wanted poster. But I was standing right there and the inn was empty.
So I went off to get started on the quest I could find, to rescue villagers from Wintergarde Village with a gryphon. Fun, quick quest, and as soon as I turned it in, I checked the inn and lo and behold it was full of NPCs who looked exactly like the villagers that I had just rescued!
Normally, WoW servers load the same zone for all players, including NPCs, objects, etc. Depending on which quests you are doing or have done, you may or may not be able to get certain dialogs or reactions from NPCs or interact with certain objects. In an unphased area, NPCs can be set to be hostile to some players, or neutral or friendly to others, but they are present for all players. In a phased setting, however, the NPCs, objects, and even landscape that the server loads to your computer depend on what your character has done in the past (generally relating to quests). There’s more info available at wowwiki.
Warpy was still a minor player in the Wrathgate storyline, but more pivotal than in the Quel’Danas quests because the cast was smaller. However, by the time he got to Icecrown, there were many more phased quests and he got to be the principal actor in some of them. He got to single-handedly turn the tide of multiple major battles in the giant ground war between the Scourge and the Good Guys.
Once again, I didn’t work out what was happening until Warpy was done with his first major questline in Icecrown. Warpy’s old buddy Thassarian had sent him off to help another Ebon Blade death knight who was working undercover at the Scourge base at Shadow Hold. Quest turn-ins and pick-ups were a little dicey because of the number of Scourge mobs all over the place (cool quests, though). After he’d done a bunch, Warpy got sent to report back to Thassarian, who handed him yet another Shadow Hold quest to talk to yet another death knight. So Warpy flew back to the corner where the first quest giver had been hiding out and came face to face with… the Ebon Blade flight master. All those quests had set the Ebon Blade up to walk in to Shadow Hold, wipe out the resident Scourge, and to make it their new headquarters, complete with quartermaster, rune forge, etc. By the time Warpy was done with solo quests in Icecrown, he’d helped the Ebon Blade and Argent Dawn retake two more sites (Valley of Echoes and Crusader’s Pinnacle) and make visible progress on another front (the Fleshwerks).
Warning: the Valley of Echoes is a wonderful place for skinners to farm spideys! If you complete the questline, you will destroy your farming spot! There is another phased questline in the Storm Peaks that unlocks the Sons of Hodir as an ally (and sellers of shoulder enchants!) that will make a crystallized-fire farming spot, at the forge east of Dun Niffelem, much easier to harvest.
Phasing made some quests much easier (along with summonable named mobs) as it reduced quest camping. I understand Blizzard is “late to the party” with this technology, as Lord of the Rings Online incorporated it from the start (is it used in Warhammer Online?). It’s kind of a shame that Blizzard didn’t have time to incorporate phasing into every zone of Northrend, because it really makes sense for certain quests. One questline in the Borean Tundra had Warpy getting weapons for a bunch of farmers whose town (Farshire) was being overrun by Scourge. Every time he goes back, they’re still armed with pitchforks.
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The entire DK starter area is like that. It's also got multiple phases depending where you are in freeing yourself from the Lich King's grasp. I definetly feel that this was much needed improvement to the game itself.Posted January 20, 2009 at 12:03 PM by Mollytov
