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BlizzCon Keynote — New WoW Expansion, Diablo 3 Details
BlizzCon kicked off this morning with a keynote address that brought some major announcements for some of their games. First, World of Warcraft's third expansion, Cataclysm, was officially revealed. It differs from the previous expansions in that they will not be creating an entirely new continent for players to explore. Instead, the two huge continents from the original game will be going through a literal cataclysm, causing some zones to be destroyed, new ones to become available, and existing ones to be entirely revamped. Big news came for Diablo III as well, with the announcement of the Monk class and a trailer showing how it plays. More details for both games as well as StarCraft II will undoubtedly become available over the next few days, but read on for more about what we already know. If you have any questions, don't forget to post them here.
Cataclysm will also be different due to the fact that the new level cap is 85 — a five-level increase, as opposed to the ten-level increases from previous expansions. That's not to say there is less content, but the idea is that each individual level will be more meaningful. There will be two new playable races for this expansion: Goblins for the Horde and Worgen for the Alliance. The disaster apparently strikes the Goblins hard, forcing from their lands and into conflict with an "unknown enemy," which the Horde helps them with. Meanwhile, the Greymane Wall has broken open, revealing the kingdom of Gilneas, the residents of which were turned into the werewolf-like Worgen, but were able to keep their human minds.
The revamped Azeroth will include updated dungeons — heroic versions of Shadowfang Keep and the Deadmines — as well as entirely new dungeons for leveling and endgame. It's not yet clear whether the old version of the damaged zones will still be around in some form, but look for an explanation in the next few days. Players will be able to use their flying mounts in the new Azeroth. The dragon Deathwing is making a return, and will serve as a major villain. In addition to the damaged zones, some will change in other ways — Desolace, which is currently a barren wasteland, will find new life from the water of the tidal waves, turning the land green. The more damaged zones will feature lots of lava and broken terrain. There will be new Battlegrounds, new Race/Class combinations (we saw a Troll Druid, Tauren Paladin, and Gnome Priest), a new profession called Archaeology, a guild leveling system, tons of new monsters and quests, as well as a new "character progression" system called "Path of the Titans."
From the Diablo III Monk trailer, you can see that the class seems to have an area-of-effect swing of his weapon, a way to reflect spells, and an attack that sprints between a bunch of enemies, hitting each of them. The monk also seems to be able to make enemies explode quite easily. And messily.
The revamped Azeroth will include updated dungeons — heroic versions of Shadowfang Keep and the Deadmines — as well as entirely new dungeons for leveling and endgame. It's not yet clear whether the old version of the damaged zones will still be around in some form, but look for an explanation in the next few days. Players will be able to use their flying mounts in the new Azeroth. The dragon Deathwing is making a return, and will serve as a major villain. In addition to the damaged zones, some will change in other ways — Desolace, which is currently a barren wasteland, will find new life from the water of the tidal waves, turning the land green. The more damaged zones will feature lots of lava and broken terrain. There will be new Battlegrounds, new Race/Class combinations (we saw a Troll Druid, Tauren Paladin, and Gnome Priest), a new profession called Archaeology, a guild leveling system, tons of new monsters and quests, as well as a new "character progression" system called "Path of the Titans."
From the Diablo III Monk trailer, you can see that the class seems to have an area-of-effect swing of his weapon, a way to reflect spells, and an attack that sprints between a bunch of enemies, hitting each of them. The monk also seems to be able to make enemies explode quite easily. And messily.
"Cataclysm will also be different due to the fact that the new level cap is 85 -- a five-level increase, as opposed to the ten-level increases from previous expansions. That's not to say there is less content, but the idea is that each individual level will be more meaningful. "
What does that even mean?
I love WoW and always will (even if I don't play it now for 6 months), but the 3D engine is getting old. It doesn't matter if you have a new PC, it will still lag when too much players are in the same zone. I'd go back, but I need some new mind blowing sound and 3D experience, after all this is why we like PC games, always delivering top technology.
Good luck WoW.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I read elsewhere that the changes to old zones are likely to be done with their 'phasing' method used in some zones of the current expansion. It kind of splits the zone into parallel versions, and what a player sees (and what other players they see)will be different depending on what quests they've done. What they've done with it so far did a great job of giving the illusion that players were making a difference in their world.
It makes sense that they would do this with the old-world areas rather than just replace them; low-level characters still need places to hunt and quest.
What is means is that Blizzard recognizes that people don't like to wait to do end game content. While I expect the time requirement between levels to be higher I fully expect that they merely compressed eight to ten levels into five. It also is probably a method to bring back WOW from the rampant gear inflation it is suffering. Both expansions seriously ramped gear up to major importance over the previous. It is nearly monty hall in effect.
The level of 85 also makes it possible to increment levels between expansions. They can slowly add a level or two requiring play to reach newer raids and gear. Right now the problem is that all top end gear is level 80. This means each new raid just expands on level 80 gear making the game solely revolving around gear. The problem is that "why hate gear X at level 80 when gear Y is there as well?" It invalidates similarly level gear and the content that provides it. Will they do this? Who knows, but they have headroom to act should they choose.
Plus redoing the old world allows the overcome one major problem people had with it, no flying.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFGXKV_45HQ
Must be some new definition of the word "life" I'm not familiar with.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
... here!
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
No, I don't think that I have.
I've played an engineer in WoW since the first day I created my toon.
Engineering items fall into a few categories. (Note: I haven't played in a few months, so it is entirely possible that some of these -might- have been addressed... but I rather doubt it.)
Vanity: The Hog, and similar items. To be honest, I wouldn't trade my Hog for any other land mount out there, but it doesn't offer anything that other land mounts don't. Admittedly, I liked it better when I could fall from any distance on without anything happening... But hey.
Single user items: Aka, the teleporters. I used them all the time when I was in the appropriate areas / level range, but they don't make the profession, in and of itself, worthwhile.
Explosives: Largely bloody worthless.
Scopes: Useful, but so flooded on the market that you don't really have to worry about making one yourself; just hit up the AH.
Item "enchants": Never used. Seriously, there's no point to them, everyone would rather have a real enchant to their items rather than something with a short use, long cooldown, and questionable utility (especially in raid). Boots? Enchant. Cloak? Enchant. Belt? Put the belt buckle on there and socket a gem. Etc.
Helms: Most engineers would greatly prefer if they could make them for non-engineers. It would actually be a moneymaker.
The problems with engineering could be solved in a few ways:
1) Recycling: Let engineers turn gray/white items into metal scrap which functions similar to ore, but you can't get gems from it.
2) Let them make items for non-engineers: Engineering is the only profession where the majority of the actual items (not parts) can't be used by non-engineers.
3) Give engineers a bonus on mechanical mounts. Bonus speed / damage. It wouldn't even have to be much of a bonus. Say, skill/75 as a percentage.
4) Give engineers something that actually makes them useful on a raid... other than repair bots. Yes, I recognize that there are certain things that are useful with single bosses (the Shadow Reflector for Twin Emps was one), but I'm looking for something with the more constant utility that enchantment or alchemy (flasks) provides.
5) Lower the failure rate. Engineering doesn't work like that; it's actually genuinely reliable.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
See I quit WoW before WotLK because I knew it would mean that Burning Crusade Endgame would be pointless, much like Onyxia and MC and BWL and AQ and Naxx became pointless with the release of Burning Crusade. See I didn't have a problem with Vanilla Wow for that manner, you had to get attuned for Onyxia to get the gear good enough to go into Molten Core. You needed the Gear from Molten Core to progress to Black Wing Lair. So on and so forth (AQ could be argued though).
Anyways. So I was upset that all this really well generated Content was completely ditched with each new expansion, being that if you told someone about a 45 baron run and how pulling it off was the shiz, nowadays they'd either laugh at its easy sauce or just go "Whats a stratholme?"
And like mentioned in some other comments in other articles, their new leveling system makes it easier to level up, and actually bypass alot of the content along the way. If I can get my lvl 30 - lvl 40 sprint in 1 or 2 zones easily accessible to the alliance, why would I go to Desolace, why would I explore Mauradon or whatever?
So I quit Wow. It was TOO easy to progress to endgame, and everyone and their mother could epic themselves with little to no effort. Dropping the regular raid size from 40 to 25 made Raiding seem more casual, which it shouldn't have turned into. Make the raids 25 man accessible? Sure, but why drop 40 mans? Apparently they made a comeback in WotLK so I'll quit my bitching.
Anyways, so NOW they're re-introducing Azeroth, bringing it back. This is what I would want to see. Especially with Deathwing being prominent again, he's probably my favourite Warcraft Villain. For whatever Reason Arthas didn't seem all that badass to me because its really Ner'zhul controlling him.
So what do I do? Do I return to WoW, try to pick up all the complex and convoluted new additions, like new talent trees? Do I go back to WoW to see if they'll turn Gnomer into an actual city? (Prays). Do I Spend a good chunk just to get back into a subscription video game?
But what about the old stuff? If zones are changing, wouldn't that mean some of the old content is gone and lost forever? To live only in my memory? Will Black rock Depths be wiped out with a volcanic eruption?
I... I feel so torn...
Pre-rendered cinematics are nice, especially the ones made by Blizzard, and there will probably be some in the game, but I expect Diablo 3 to continue the trend that they used in WC3 to tell as much of the story with scripted cinematic events that make use of the game engine and don't have to break the contnuity of the game. And save money on production costs.
Tailors should be able to repair their own cloth gear.
Blacksmiths should be able to repair their own mail/plate gear.
Leatherworkers should be able to repair their own leather gear.
We shouldn't have to plunk down 15g per death in Ulduar to some stranger to fix a crafted item WE CREATED.
Sigh.
The wise Sir Moodemir was the first to join Thrall's Tauren Paladins, but other illustrious names were soon to follow:
Sir Mooselot the Brave; Sir Moolahad the Pure; and Sir Moobin the Not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Mooselot who had nearly fought the Dragon Onyxia, who had nearly stood up to the vicious Chicken of Felwood, and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of Hillsbrad; and the aptly named Sir Not-mooing-in-this-expansion. Together they formed a band whose names and deeds were to be retold throughout the forums, the Moos of the Round Stolen Table From Silvermoon.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~