IRC Developer Chat (May 15) Ruined by hired peons

Docjowles · 05/08/07, 1:20 PM

I just saw this crop up on the official forums:

Originally Posted by Nethaera

Come join us Tuesday, May 15, at 3:00 p.m. PDT in the #StraticsHoC channel. Players will be able to submit questions ahead of time for World of Warcraft Lead Designers Tom Chilton [Kalgan] and Jeffrey Kaplan [Tigole], who will be in attendance.

Stratics question takers will be collecting your questions up to 48 hours before the chat. Please note that no questions will be taken during the chat. Attendees will also be able to talk with each other in a separate channel before, during, and after the chat in the #worldofwarcraft IRC room.

For more information about Stratics IRC, please visit WoW Stratics (http://wow.stratics.com/index.php). We look forward to seeing you there!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...02781337&sid=1

I will be very interested to see what sort of questions they are addressing, and where they will keep mum. I'd love to know the series of discussions that led up to the tailoring nerf/un-nerf/buff everything fiasco. Also, whether the raid game that went live in January was how they originally envisioned, or whether they knew all along a patch 2.1 of epic proportions would be required due to schedule constraints.

What other burning questions does the EJ community have for everyone's favorite designers?

Axen · 05/08/07, 1:23 PM

I'd like to know why my elixirs stack to 20 and potions don't. Little changes that apply to a variety of items but aren't distributed evenly annoy me. But, on a more serious note, I'm curious to know what motivated them to upgrade the current epic items. I was quite surprised at the changes, they're pretty significant. I assume their reasoning falls in line with expected raid progression and is related to the Alchemy changes, but a definitive answer would be nice.

Should be an interesting discussion overall.

Quigon · 05/08/07, 1:24 PM

I'm actually interested if Elitist Jerks has an IRC channel (hopefully on gamesurge?). And if not, perhaps we should make one?

Netherblade · 05/08/07, 1:28 PM

Can somebody please ask him this

"How is it possible that the game has to be changed so much with the upcoming patch , to simply be made 'fun' and rewarding to players with regards to raiding, consumables, itemisation, trash, risk vs reward ? After 2 years of learning since vanilla wow's release, how could the development team make so many glaring oversights/mistakes to let the situation in TBC get so bad?"

Charsi · 05/08/07, 1:30 PM

Oh I have a bunch of stuff i'd love to ask them about 'equally interesting' mobs and what their goals are for the Paladin class (among other things).

Quigon · 05/08/07, 1:31 PM

Originally Posted by Netherblade

"How is it possible that the game has to be changed so much, 3 months after releast to be made more 'fun' and rewarding to players. What mistakes did you make in 2+ years of vanilla wow to let the current issues happen for TBC"

I don't get the point of this question. You have this one chance to actually talk to people who can make a change. I mean chit-chat is fun and all, but I'd expect we all want the answers that affect our playtime - rather than a grilling of why it happened.

The most important question right now is probably:
What are you going to do about Superior Mana Pots (et al.)?

A few others might be...
What is your tuned casual and hardcore guild timeline?
And perhaps: Where do you see WoW raiding in 9 months?

• Navaash · 05/08/07, 1:32 PM

Originally Posted by Axen

I'd like to know why my elixirs stack to 20 and potions don't.

I already have the answer: to give utility to the Engineering tradeskill :kaubel:

Better question: are they going to put new class skill books in Zul'Aman ala AQ20? Hell, do they remember Zul'Aman?

The Iron Colonel · 05/08/07, 1:33 PM

I'm curious why they appear to wax and wane regarding the opinions of the playerbase. Someone touched on the tailoring nerfs as indicative of this: How is it that some problems can persist in the game for so long and be well documented and thoroughly discussed by players, but relativley minor changes to itemization can become a hot button issue virtually overnight, leading to rapid response? It seems as though their priorities may be placed in the wrong areas (or am I reading too much into this?).

• Andeh · 05/08/07, 1:34 PM

This is one of the things that I really missed from Asheron's Call 1. Having semi-regular IRC devchats seemed to greatly facilitate feedback from players on changes and the state of the game.

I'd really like to ask why the only epic offhand swords available are Blacksmithing or Gladiator.

Teleyn · 05/08/07, 1:41 PM

Overall question:
I am wondering if, with these current item changes on the PTR, they have expanded their ilevel inflation allowance for difficulty settings and if they plan on continuing this method in future expansions. That is to say, in order to allow items to have the proper increases, they have to exponentially increase the ilevel gap each difficulty bracket to continue to allow 'real' upgrades to exist.

As for a greedy/personal question:
Would it be possible to have the Vindication talent (15% from target str/agility, Bosses are Immune) be changed to something that would incline a raiding guild to use a retribution paladin. Also, along the same lines, with the new stacking Vengeance it would seem that the door has been opened to allowing it to effect the *group* (not the paladin himself) via the stacks. Say 1% to group damage per stack of vengeance on the paladin. This would also provide another benefit of a paladin meleeing non-stop on the target and, when combined with the new improved sanctity aura, give a substantial damage boost to the surrounding group members.

Netherblade · 05/08/07, 1:43 PM

Notice also that the Chat day correponds close to a maintenance day, which could be a good indication the patch is out next week? What better way to drum up general interest and excitement in the game again than having big interviews from these developers spilling some new exciting gossip - splashed over gaming websites the day before the monster 'fun' patch comes out.

Netherblade · 05/08/07, 1:45 PM

I don't get the point of this question. You have this one chance to actually talk to people who can make a change

I disagree, id much rather have an answer to that question than something like 'Why do elixirs stack to 20 when potions don't?" or "What are you going to do about Superior Mana Pots?". Sure, both would be very interesting to get answered - but some peoplle are more interested in the mentality behind the game designers, not asking little questions about trivial stuff. (Superior mana pots and their current over-excessive requirements+usage comes under the designer mentality for what makes raiding 'fun' too, so its a similar themed question)

The developers are making a game I plan to play for years - their mentality on how to create it and design it as 'fun' is very important to me and whether Id like to keep playing in future.

The Iron Colonel · 05/08/07, 1:47 PM

Originally Posted by Netherblade

Notice also that the Chat day correponds close to a maintenance day, which could be a good indication the patch is out next week? What better way to drum up general interest and excitement in the game again than having big interviews from these developers spilling some new exciting gossip - splashed over gaming websites the day before the monster 'fun' patch comes out.

Also notice that Blizzard has their BIG MYSTERY ANNOUNCEMENT on May 16th (which is the following day). Possibly a coincidence, possibly not.

• Zoid · 05/08/07, 1:49 PM

Originally Posted by Quigon

I'm actually interested if Elitist Jerks has an IRC channel (hopefully on gamesurge?). And if not, perhaps we should make one?

I registered #elitistjerks on Gamesurge. It's not widely used however.

Friedrich · 05/08/07, 1:51 PM

Q1. Do you plan to ever make more craftable items available that are as desirable as the Tailoring Sets or the Blacksmithing Weapons? Do you regard those items as mistakes/aberrations? For example, would you consider making a plan for a leatherworking set similar to Ebon Netherscale, but with the stats like those on Windstrike Gloves?

Q2. Are you happy with the state of Enhancement Shaman for raiding post WF-change? In your view, what is the function of an Enhancement Shaman in a 25-man raid? If it's exclusively or largely DPS, why is a comparatively large portion of our item budget spent on stats (int/mp5) that have only very marginal DPS utility? If we're there for buffs, why don't our buffs scale with gear a la Shadow Priests? If you intend us to spend a significant portion of our time healing, why don't we have some more talents/mechanics (a la Nurturing Instincts or Improved Leader of the Pack) that make it easier for us to fulfill that role?

Q3. Are you OK with some specs not being pvp-viable? Is there any plan to improve these specs (non-Holy Paladin, Enhancement Shaman, Prot Warrior, etc) in this regard? If not, would you consider lowering respec costs so that players who choose this playstyle in PvE have more of a chance to participate fully in PvP as well?