| PvP, Battlegrounds & Arenas One on one dueling to full blown raids, anything PvP! |
 |
February 02, 2005, 11:20 AM
|
#1 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
Clicky
__________________
http://www.images.wowmb.net/sig/Jubal3.jpg |
|
|
| Sponsored Links |
|
|
|
February 02, 2005, 11:34 AM
|
#2 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
Can we get a snippet posted for those of us who can't get most gaming sites due to a work firewall? Please?
__________________
Minichef------------------Deathchef <br />45 Gnome Warlock-----60 Undead Priest <br />Shadow Moon-----------Azgalor |
|
|
|
|
February 02, 2005, 11:38 AM
|
#3 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
WoW Battlegrounds Update We dig into the snowdrift and find hot nuggets! By Tom McNamara February 1, 2005 - There's no denying that World of Warcraft is the It Game right now. Breaking records and going strong two months after release, everyone seems to at least know someone who's playing it. Not really a surprise, being situated in the popular Warcraft universe and being a product of Blizzard. But it's also pretty gentle with those of us who could never get into MMOs before, who don't like spending hours in front of the computer to get any sense of in-game accomplishment, and enjoy a colorful environment over something somber and Important. With running on 88 servers located all over the nation, containing hundreds of thousands of players and providing thousands of quests, you need a lot of well-designed content to keep the masses happy. Blizzard is taking its reputation for post-release product support full-bore into WoW and has more than a few caves and monsters up its sleeves in the coming months. Sure, you've likely heard about Battlegrounds, the free PvP add-on we'll be seeing later this year, but since it's not just a simple arena, there's a lot to talk about. Even though they've written a lot about it already, there are always some new questions that will pop up. Instead of torturing ourselves with endless speculation, we asked them about a few things, and Tom Chilton, one of the designers, was kind enough to provide some answers. Of course, there are details they can't reveal yet because some things just haven't been finalized yet, but what can you do. I immediately wondered about how long Battlegrounds had been in development. Was it tacked on to compete with something else, to provide a gap that made WoW more enticing? Chilton tell us, "The Battleground concept is one that has evolved during the course of the game's overall development cycle. There have been a lot of ideas for Battlegrounds that would have been fairly different in direction (and potentially very fun in their own right), but as we refined our thinking on what we thought would be fun, yet still feel like a natural part of the overall game world, we kept moving towards the design we have now…While Alterac Valley will be the first battleground we introduce, there are several other Battlegrounds that are currently in various stages of development. For example, there is a Battleground located in Azshara Crater, and it isn't all that far behind Alterac Valley in its development." And of course, we all like our loot, and Battlegrounds has its fair share. I was particularly interested in the mounts. Prestige is cool, and traveling fast is even better, for both PvE and PvP. And it turns out that the Battlegrounds mounts are epic--the ones with the 100% movement speed bonus, rather than the 100g version with a 60% bonus: "The mounts are cosmetically different from the 1,000g versions available elsewhere. They can be used outside Alterac Valley, but they will require the player to maintain the minimum rank initially required to use the mount. It is important to note that since the difficulty in obtaining these mounts is in reaching the required rank, the cost of the mount will be nowhere near as high as that of the 1,000g mounts." Unfortunately, he didn't go into detail about the ranking system, but it sounds like they're saving that for their next installment on the official site. Speaking of loot, he also had some interesting things to say about what we could haul out of those elite caves we've been hearing about: "The elite gear in the caves will be equivalent in quality to those items found in the highest level dungeons. However, the equipment will be better geared toward the needs of PvP rather than the needs of raiding." Hmm… Does this mean that raid-specific gear is in the works for the high-level players? Or am I just torturing myself with endless speculation? Only time will tell. Well, and a few phone calls. And of course, there's concerns about the meat of the Battlegrounds gameplay mechanics. For one thing, as you've probably read by now, the bases will be defended to a certain extent by NPCs. Now, outside of Battlegrounds, creatures respawn based on the level of activity in the area. The more people, the faster they reappear, to reduce the frustration of competition. In Battlegrounds, however, Chilton says, "The respawn of NPCs is based upon the actions players take (such as capturing locations or completing quests that affect spawn rates for a time), rather than upon the number of players in the battleground. However, if a need arises to use this feature in Battlegrounds, then we'll implement it." And as we've discovered already, players will not be able to run into the Battlegrounds instance willy-nilly, but will be summoned as needed. In my professional opinion as an expert game designer, there's probably not a perfect way to make sure the population balance remains smooth. It's one of those things we just might know until Battlegrounds goes live. Since I a game journalist and needling developers about release dates is my stock in trade, I had to pop the question, to which he replies, "Along with the Honor System, Battlegrounds is our highest priority on being included in new feature/content development updates. As such, we're focusing on getting them ready as soon as possible." As every answer typically only leads to more questions, I'm sure you've already thought of some already, particularly about the ranking system. So stay tuned as I dig deeper into the snowdrift. |
|
|
|
|
February 02, 2005, 11:42 AM
|
#4 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
Much thanks to Namrak. /salute
__________________
Minichef------------------Deathchef <br />45 Gnome Warlock-----60 Undead Priest <br />Shadow Moon-----------Azgalor |
|
|
|
|
February 02, 2005, 03:14 PM
|
#5 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
Is there any word on "When" we might see Battlegrounds and the Honor system other than "Later This Year"?
__________________
Xypha :: Dragonmaw |
|
|
|
|
February 04, 2005, 09:37 PM
|
#6 (permalink) |
|
|
Battlegrounds Interview...
I'm just a bit confused. Will 'Battlegrounds" be available exclusivly on PVP servers? They didn't acctually specify, or I didn't find where they did, so I'm not sure. I don't think they would leave out the other 2/3 realms and only give this to those who went PVP all the way, but who knows!
__________________
Have you ever even HEARD of the Perenolde realm? |
|
|
|
|
| Bookmarks |
| Tags |
| Battlegrounds, interview |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
