6.2 Mamytwink Interview: Hellfire Citadel Planned as Last Warlords Raid, and More

envoyé 02/07/2015 à 08:44 par perculia

MamytwinkCoffre au trésor de la flotte de FerSceau du destin inévitableComing back to Patch 6.2 and Hellfire Citadel, apparently it is the last raid of the expansion. Perhaps you will confirm this or not. How do you plan to bring content before the next expansion. Will there be a patch 6.3? How will you not have a long gap like before, because players didn't feel really happy to wait more than one year for new content in the game.

Yeah, we're not happy to have players wait for new content. It's not something we want to do, but we found ourselves in those situations where we're working on the new expansion, and as Blizzard devs, we're not going to release it until its at the quality level where it's going to be right.

Does that mean it's right to have a year gap? No, there's no excuse for that. But it's a definitely been a situation where we've been in, where we feel like we have to make sure it's right, it's good. It's better for the expansion to take a little bit longer and have it be great, than come out two months earlier with tons of issues.

So, that's something we're actively trying to avoid, we're working as hard as we can so the gap is smaller. In regards to future content patches, we've announced we're doing a 6.2.x patch that has flying in Draenor, the Pathfinder achievement, and that will offer flying to people.

That's our next announced specific patch that we'll be doing--introducing flying and a bunch of fixes to ensure that flying works correctly in Draenor for everyone. Outside of that, I don't have any specific info I can give you on future patches, what we would do between now and what our next thing is. Part of that comes down to how Patch 6.2 plays out on servers--we watch things closely, check and see how far players are along, how are they doing on raids, reputations--and we'll get a feel with how long that content will last. We're pretty reactive to that stuff, we're doing everything we can to make the gap smaller.

So is Hellfire Citadel the last raid of the expansion?
It's currently planned and that's the way we look at it--the wrap-up. It's hard to beat someone like Archimonde for a boss, as players know. He's a pretty amazing guy to fight. It's clear to people who have played the storyline--they saw Tanaan Jungle at the start of their experience and now they're wrapping around to it again. We see it as that pinnacle of where players are getting to.

For the future, are you planning on two raid patches for expansion?
Good question. We've gone back and forth. Sometimes we've had 4 patches, sometimes we've had 3. Here we're looking at 2 big patches with 6.1 and 6.2. If we hit the goal of patches getting shorter, an obvious impact is that there are less-large patches. Building big patches takes a lot of time. As you see that shrink, you see the number of patches shrink. But I can't give you an exact number, it's like a feel. It's like "Do we need a patch right now? Does it feel we need a patch in the next few months to give players something they want? ...because the raid takes a little bit longer, but we need something in the middle." So we'll come up with something that feels good with a patch, and we also try to have a plan for the story. Just like our community, the game is always changing--feedback, we play it ourselves, feel something has to be different. Have to keep up with the pulse.

At BlizzCon, you mentioned Faralhon, a zone that would have been introduced in WoD. Did you completely push it off, or do we have some hope to see it?

Faralhon was a very cool idea, something we were excited to deliver on. It didn't really fit into the story we were telling, how we expected it to play out. Things change over a course of an expansion, and there's a number of things we talked about that ended up different. At that BlizzCon, you could choose where your Garrison would be, another thing we realized wouldn't work. Things change, it doesn't mean Faralhon isn't an awesome cool place, it was on thh map originally because we thought there was cool story we could tell there--concept art, Netherstorm lore--but it didn't play into the expansion.

Does that mean we'll never do it? Totally not. When we have a cool idea, we latch onto it. We try to do those ideas later. Lots of things didn't make into TBC or Wrath, that we get in later down the line. Tol Barad didn't make it until Cataclysm, and we were talking about it all through Lich King, and it just didn't fit the Wrath story.

You announced from the beginning that Grommash was the end boss of the expansion. How did you change your mind during the flow of the expansion?

That changed when we were designing the raid, Hellfire Citadel. We felt like we wanted to do something that felt a little more, encompassed more of the story outside of Draenor. We positioned Grommash at that villian and he plays a big role. but Pulling Archimonde into it with the Dark Portal, everything feels like a grander scale. that's just a decision we made, it felt stronger. It doesn't mean that Grommash is any less of a character, if anything, it lets you know that the story of what's happening here is big, and it could affect the story in the future. It's making sure we end on a very epic note.

Commentaires

Connectez-vous pour laisser un commentaire 168 commentaires

12 3 ... 9

Suiv. › Dernière »

Commentaire de bdonskiSo is the new expansion to be announced at blizcon then? I have a gut feeling that this is what's going to happen. The wait begins.Commentaire de NymrohdPatch 6.1 was a big patch? That must be a joke right?Commentaire de stymAh, Mumper playing coy with planned patches.
How was 6.1 "a big patch"?

Anyway, assuming an expansion announced at BlizzCon or even a tiny bit earlier, and assuming it's pretty much ready for beta testing at that point in time (assuming a LOT), that puts the next expansion near the end of Q2 2016 at best. That's still a year of killing Archimonde right there.

They better come up with something cool in between or I can see the subs dropping below 5 million by then.Commentaire de impulzSounds like the next expansion will be announced at BlizzCon with lots of promises that the development is much further ahead than for previous expensions at that point (dejavu?) however because they are so keen on providing the best experience possible for players the release unfortunately gets pushed back again. Even if they target a late spring release (which will be tough I guess), thats another 10-12 months of HFC. *sigh* Looking forward to Ruby Sanctum 2.0.. not.Commentaire de perculiaI agree I'm puzzled about the 6.1 comment, in a past interview, Ion said that 6.1 wasn't really a major patch.Commentaire de rinkworksI just want to see a 6.3 that has Raiding With Leashes IV.Commentaire de remmelasReal shame about Faralhon. Would have been a good alternative zone to Quest in along side Tanaan Jungle IMO.Spread the content out a bit as well. Onto the next expansion!Commentaire de DunantInternal communications are not good at Blizzard these days. Cory botched it saying 6.1 was a big patch.

I think it is safe to say that Blizzcon will be the xpac reveal, with beta in January (it is so far along in development!) and then release in June ... just in time for the movie.

12 months of HFC is a go.Commentaire de DezirexI call bull#$%^Commentaire de AdoxeSo is the new expansion to be announced at blizcon then? I have a gut feeling that this is what's going to happen. The wait begins.Commentaire de mco148Had a feeling that this was the last raid and probably the last part of the DULL and BORING expansion...So later on they will put out a out a mini patch to give us flying and that is suppose to tie us over until the next expansion comes out. LAMECommentaire de mobhunterNo one who doesn't work at Blizzard could consider 6.1 a big patch. Do they really think we are blind?

Nothing seems to have changed. If you think the next expansion will be released in the next year, you are crazy. The expansion cost went up for WoD and it has been by far -- by far! -- the least content we've ever had in an expansion. Again, do they really think that we are blind?

I hope you really, really, really like Tanaan because that is what you are doing for at least the next year. Well, at least for those who stick around. I look forward to the next several earnings calls for Blizzard. They won't be any prettier than the last.Commentaire de ladilocki think this will be my last xpac for WoW. WoD was such a letdown after Cata and Mop. Time to look for a new game to play :)Commentaire de TorpedoesSo they doubled the size of the WoW team and produced half the content. They charged us ten dollars more and released ONE patch (6.2) - the patch that finished a zone that was suppose to be in at launch. Sorry but this is unacceptable. I honestly expected better from Blizzard.Commentaire de tellos0Well, if this is indeed the final raid and final big patch, I have to say that, barring the rest of the weekly garrison quests, this whole storyline was handled terribly.Commentaire de VaskitoI prefer to put it like this:

This expansion's endgame failed eveyone's expectations (including theirs). I think that they're maybe trying to move on from WoD sooner rather than later, 'cause honestly I don't think there's much they can do to improve without releasing a new xpack. I do believe the new expansion will be announced at Blizzcon (which was already expected as they annouce xpacks every two years), and I think it will be released until June and somehow in a new form of expansion (different than what we're used to, like the 10 new levels, etc..).

Just my 2 cents.Commentaire de Bluntpower6.1 big patch LMAO, this is just another proof they're full of #$%^ :DCommentaire de Carnicerawe're not going to release it until its at the quality level where it's going to be right.Commentaire de smokiiso another year to wait for the next expansion - awesome -.-

guess i'll be waiting for a free week to log in, buy a wow token with gold, play for a free month using ingame currency, complete all current content in LFR, then quit again.

not good blizz, 7.0 needs to be epic amazeballsCommentaire de GrayGooGirlWhat the hell happened to Blizzard... I've been playing this game for nearly the whole 10 year stretch, and I'm honestly considering unsubbing. It's absurd to charge full price for half an xpacks worth of content.

Let's recap the entire story from start to finish.

Khadgar brings you to Dreanor, you help the indigenous people fight against the iron horde.
Green Jesus (Thrall) kills Garrosh in what has to be the most absurd way possible.
You decide to kill a bunch of Ogres for... reasons.
You destroy the iron horde foundry.
And you destroy Guldan's stronghold without killing either Guldan or Grommash.
The End?

Why the hell did we even go if destroying the dark portal was as easy a firing a tank shell at it?

This whole xpack has been a cluster-!@#$ of bad writing, poor execution, and pandering to the lowest common denominator, and frankly I'm tired of it.

12 3 ... 9

Suiv. › Dernière »

« Message suivant

Message précédent »

6.2 Mamytwink Interview: Hellfire Citadel Planned as Last Warlords Raid, and More

Articles liés

Commentaires

Poster un commentaire