Consider the difficulty of "proper" itemization when you think about assigning stats to monsters and having those stats determine their level. Having levels provide a built-in "scale factor" makes it much, much easier to balance things out so that a mob n levels above you will wipe the floor with you, and a mob n levels below you is no challenge at all.
...
Without that, the designers would have to do tons of individual testing—probably even more than is required to define appropriate stats for various levels of items. (And we all have experience with how difficult that is.)
Well, my argument to that is it currently looks like 0 testing went into anything pre-60, because there is either no challenge at all, or you simply can't do it because you are so low all your attacks glance or miss. Nothing is balanced currently, so I don't see how you can argue that the level system makes it easier to balance- it just prevents the need to balance anything, because it creates an artificial barrier for players that want to try something harder.
Some of the boss "hey you killed my friends" yells before the encounters are really quite ridiculous (Steamvault & Magister's Terrace). Why even have guards if you don't care about them and "know" that you're a lot better?
I haven't seen Soccothrates & Dalliah in Arcatraz mentioned yet. There's some excellent voice acting there.
I also remember Laj's room in Botanica; originally, there were a few blood elves who were supposed to try fighting off the trash creatures and fail at doing so. The event was too buggy (resulting in players getting aggro from unkillable mobs amongst others) and it was "fixed" this by removing it entirely.
I like the Arkatraz a lot. But the prison cells were missing until the very end. Some more details here and there to open up doors and stuff like that. I liked the bodies infested with bugs or the seemingly destroyed robots which attacked when coming close. A bit more details here and there and the instance could have really been very good.
Hildegard Sprigglespruxx - Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Pfuschkunde
On that same note I remember being immensely disappointed with the blood furnace my first few times through. I always felt that there should be well, more blood, some piping pumping it up from mag's chamber, some of those centrifuges from BWL and the like. The dull tones of the instance were always a shame, would of had a much more furnace-feel if they had used reds and oranges instead of the blues.
But seeing mag for the first time was almost breathtaking, and I'm sure almost everyone tried to hop that ledge to get down to him. That was very cool and well done.
Originally Posted by Relwin
If you need a shot macro to hold your hand then you are probably on the wrong forums.
A big immersion-breaker for me are hard enrage timers. A boss doesn't care much if he's about to die from 5/10/25 random adventurers, but if they fight lasts for more than X minutes, then he suddenly gets bored and goes nuts. If the boss is capable of such damage, why doesn't he do it when he's near death, as a last resort? The need for enrage timers is obvious, to prevent healer stacking, but it's not a very immersion-friendly way to do it.
There are some bosses that have more elegant enrage timers. Gruul is an example. No matter how many healers you stack, at some point he just becomes too deadly (and his cave-ins as well). Another one is Zul'jin in the last phase. Same idea, damage gradually ramps up until it becomes too much to handle. Or Vashj with the sporebats that cover more and more of the platform. Then there are bosses that periodically summon adds that have to be taken down before the next batch comes. Not enough DPS means no DPS for the boss and possibly piling up of adds.
I'd love to see more creative ways to impose DPS-requirements than just "Ok, time's up, mortals, DIE!", though i realize that it's probably quite tricky to come up with alot of different mechanics to do the same, because in the end having a 7th boss with a periodic "Grow"-mechanic will get a bit dull too.
DPS checks can be introduced in many different ways. There are many great examples how to do that. Kael'Thas has the weapons and the advisors, Kil'Jaeden shield orbs and mirrors and limited counters to certain abilities, Kaz'Rogal the mana, Vaelastrasz a buff that expires. There a ton of possibilities like unattackable adds that build up something that will kill the raid, the four horsemen have a brilliant mechanic. I think included DPS checks of some kind can replace a lot of the healer stacking concerns. The second boss in the Morast with his stacking healing reduction effect, Moroes or Malchezaar are other examples. Brutallus for example could set the whole place on fire and reduce the space over time until there is nowhere to move anymore.
Hildegard Sprigglespruxx - Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Pfuschkunde
I haven't seen Soccothrates & Dalliah in Arcatraz mentioned yet. There's some excellent voice acting there.
These two are just awesome. They hate each other and they won't hide that fact by taunting each other and not helping each other out. They know you are there but for some reason it seems like we are doing Soccothrates a big favor by killing Dalliah for him. It also adds some nice reply value since you can kill Soccothrates first for a different voice script. Give more of that please!
Originally Posted by PSGarak
I like how they did the beginning of Shattered Halls: the mobs run up and form a defensive line in response to your sieging their dungeon. There's still a leap of faith ("suspension of disbelief") as to why one line isn't providing supporting fire for the next, but at least the mobs are acting as if they know you're there, instead of just standing around. The warlock boss that mocks his trash while you kill it also provides some explanation as to why he just watches them die, unlike normal bosses which do so with no explanation.
Shattered Halls was mentioned but not often enough in my opinion. It is a great instance. From the moment you enter the mobs know you are there but they are too cocky to gank up on you all at once. Instead they taunt you and wait for you to come (I think the Legionnaire even does a proper /rude emote). They also don't spawn at once but wait for you to come close - which I am sure scared a few of us when they tried running down the hall before their sleeping rooms because it looked empty, when in fact you nearly ran into adds. Speaking of that room, it's also well done. If you don't kill the Legionnaire fast enough, he is going to yell for his usual reinforcements plus yelling for the sleeping mobs to wake up and join the battle. The Legionnaire also enrages when you kill one of his comrades, how is that about immersion? The game needs more "Legionnaire" type of mobs really.
Also, just before the first boss you get two choices: have someone lockpick the gate and enter easily or go via the Ooze path. That reminded me of DM North, another well done instance. You get multiple choices by bringing a Rogue or Engineer but they aren't required enough so that you are forced to bring one - they just add a nice little perk.
First boss was already discussed earlier so I'll skip to the second boss (or third, if you count the guy commanding the archers). He is my favorite boss in the instance: Not only is that guy funny as hell the first time you meet him because his heads keep arguing with each other, they are also unpredictable aggrowise. I mean, I doubt I have to explain the difference between an aggro wipe/reset caused by something as trivial as "Wing Buffet" when you see how these two guys. They choose a different target because they can; because one of the heads got bored and attacks another player randomly. One aggro reset/wipe is just plain boring and unimaginative while the other is plain awesome and in-character.
Originally Posted by Paprikka
Maybe have a walkway along the path where the boss walks along and tosses small insignificant attacks and taunts at you. Or another like Murmur, where he is just as opposed to the mobs as you, yet would kill you too given the chance. Giving bosses an appearance during a dungeon would also give a chance to make them more than just a hallway. Walking into the same room, but maybe on a different level, helps it feel more like you're exploring a dungeon.
I think Blizz handled that well with the Bear boss in ZA. You see him pretty much from the start but you have to chase after him while he sends wave after wave of his men to hold your progress until he is cornered and has to fight you. Malacrass also keeps taunting you whenever your timer is getting close to running out. Nice touch there.
There is also a boss similar to this one and Murmur in the spider instance in the Beta (I forgot the name, Azjol Nerub I think?):
← Click Here
I am talking about the second boss. It's another 3 way fight much alike to Murmur's room: Crypt spiders VS one huge boss spider VS you. The cool thing here is that you can see this big spider through the webs you stand in trying to crawl upwards while the crypt spiders run downwards to prevent him from doing exactly that. Obviously, running into where the spider boss is would be suicide since you would get demolished from two sides. The trick here is to kill those waves before they reach the boss so he can advance and reach the top where you can pick him off. Pretty nice idea design this because it makes you feel like you take part in stuff that is happening dynamically.
I always wanted NPCs who might acknowledge who I was - the fact that I'd killed C'Thun or Illidan for example.
Then we get to the Isle of Quel'Danas and the lame things the NPC's say when a player walks by - e.g., "I don't know what we would do if %T doesn't come back" or something like that - makes me cringe. Not exactly what I was looking for, it lacks sincerity. Imagine instead if the field commander in Quel'Danas recognizes if you've killed Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep for example and thanks you for your effort, explains something of the background as to why he's back, and sends you on your way to do it again. Not worth doing for every little quest you've completed but for a handful of major boss kills?
Valliance Keep has a nice touch in the beta when they usher you to the front of the recruits line because of what you've done in Outlands (although I imagine its the same reaction for any level 70 which takes some of the shine off of it).
I always wanted NPCs who might acknowledge who I was - the fact that I'd killed C'Thun or Illidan for example.
Then we get to the Isle of Quel'Danas and the lame things the NPC's say when a player walks by - e.g., "I don't know what we would do if %T doesn't come back" or something like that - makes me cringe. Not exactly what I was looking for, it lacks sincerity. Imagine instead if the field commander in Quel'Danas recognizes if you've killed Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep for example and thanks you for your effort, explains something of the background as to why he's back, and sends you on your way to do it again. Not worth doing for every little quest you've completed but for a handful of major boss kills?
Valliance Keep has a nice touch in the beta when they usher you to the front of the recruits line because of what you've done in Outlands (although I imagine its the same reaction for any level 70 which takes some of the shine off of it).
Saurfang in Warsong Hold specifically recognizes me as a Scarab Lord, fwiw, and references our past meeting at Ahn'Qiraj. For other players who've turned in Nef's head, he talks to them about that. It's a remarkably nice little touch.
Is this thread even an example of armchair designer? I don't see any actual discussion about design going on, just prattling about whats logical and what isn't. At what point is fighting a guy with a giant crystal sticking out of his chest logical?
I've always wondered why magical resistance has had such a limited impact in the general game, from players only using (needing) it for specific encounters, to the step wise 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% damage reduction units.
Why isn't it treated like armor is? If I have 50 resistance, why don't I resist 13.3% of all magical damage instead of generally doing nothing, and occasionaly doing a little and rarely doing a lot? To me it seems as an entire dimension from the game damage/mitigation mechanics has been put off to the side, only to be brought out for special occasions.
Is it because it could require additional gear? Is it too hard to balance around? I don't know, but I'm a bit perplexed by the situation.
Well, my argument to that is it currently looks like 0 testing went into anything pre-60, because there is either no challenge at all, or you simply can't do it because you are so low all your attacks glance or miss. Nothing is balanced currently, so I don't see how you can argue that the level system makes it easier to balance- it just prevents the need to balance anything, because it creates an artificial barrier for players that want to try something harder.
The pre-60 leveling instances were never intended to be any sort of challenge for a balanced group. Can you imagine the barrier to the concept of grouping that would be imposed on a server full people totally new to the concept of groups or MMO's.
You have a group of random classes all looking to try a totally new concept for the first time ever... fighting as a group.
Even if there is a healer in the group, he has probably never used his heal spells on other people.
Groups have enough of a challenge simply having to face 4 mobs at the same time. The mage learns that if he AE's all 4 at the same time, he may die. The healer learns that if he uses all his mana on nukes, he might run out before the fight is over.
They all need to be winnable without healers, tanks and experience. You don't want to scare 80% of the player base away from the concept of grouping simply so that wailing caverns or scarlet monastery can be a challenge to the few low level players who came into the game with the knowledge of group roles and tactics.
Is this thread even an example of armchair designer? I don't see any actual discussion about design going on, just prattling about whats logical and what isn't. At what point is fighting a guy with a giant crystal sticking out of his chest logical?
Yes I studied a lot Design and was working for two years with a well-known German Design professor. But going to deep into design theory wasn't my intention with this thread. Very interesting for any Designer is which distinctions the audience makes (is "making distinctions" good English ?). My professor explained me how he judged people, as well as design, based on the distinctions they make. A very interesting approach.
For those interested in details. The most important Design theories in Germany, which is considered one of the leading countries regarding design, bases on the thoughts of Niklas Luhmann, who was one of the inventors of the "Systemtheorie" or "Grand Theory". More details here: Niklas Luhmann - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hildegard Sprigglespruxx - Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Pfuschkunde
I always wanted NPCs who might acknowledge who I was - the fact that I'd killed C'Thun or Illidan for example.
Then we get to the Isle of Quel'Danas and the lame things the NPC's say when a player walks by - e.g., "I don't know what we would do if %T doesn't come back" or something like that - makes me cringe. Not exactly what I was looking for, it lacks sincerity. Imagine instead if the field commander in Quel'Danas recognizes if you've killed Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep for example and thanks you for your effort, explains something of the background as to why he's back, and sends you on your way to do it again. Not worth doing for every little quest you've completed but for a handful of major boss kills?
Valliance Keep has a nice touch in the beta when they usher you to the front of the recruits line because of what you've done in Outlands (although I imagine its the same reaction for any level 70 which takes some of the shine off of it).
I did appreciate getting saluted by the Cenarion Expedition guards - I felt it was a nice touch. Similarly, the Skyguard comments when you reach revered are entertaining. At first.
It's a shame it was dragged out a bit much and gets a bit repetitive (especially on a place like QD where you have loads of exalted people running around), but getting acknowledged by the NPCs is a nice touch - even if they could improve on this.
I loved Skyguard Khatie's progressive dialogue. ["Hi!" "Hey, wanna go out ?" "Aw, we didn't go out, must be me!" "I miss you!".] It certainly brought a smile to my face. Cro Threadstrong's progressing Apple War with Granny Smith is another excellent example.
With regards to line of sight and assistance though - at some point, you have to suspend reality for playability. Remember the Ogre camp in BEM with its patrols or the camp in Zangarmarsh over the mushroom stalk ? Why would a guard not run and get a bunch of its mates when he sees the dead corpses of his buddies (similar to ZA/SW scouts) ? Because, quite simply, it'd ruin solo play if you got a never ending stream of monsters.
In instances, the pulls would have to be designed that way or they'd become more than the average player can handle.
One thing I really want to complement Blizzard on is the fact that they introduce all the relevant and important Boss Mechanics in levels before you meet them as a Raid. (Just think of the Black Holes with the first boss in Arcatraz or even Bog Lords versus Gruul.)
A big immersion-breaker for me are hard enrage timers. A boss doesn't care much if he's about to die from 5/10/25 random adventurers, but if they fight lasts for more than X minutes, then he suddenly gets bored and goes nuts. If the boss is capable of such damage, why doesn't he do it when he's near death, as a last resort? The need for enrage timers is obvious, to prevent healer stacking, but it's not a very immersion-friendly way to do it.
There are some bosses that have more elegant enrage timers. Gruul is an example. No matter how many healers you stack, at some point he just becomes too deadly (and his cave-ins as well). Another one is Zul'jin in the last phase. Same idea, damage gradually ramps up until it becomes too much to handle. Or Vashj with the sporebats that cover more and more of the platform. Then there are bosses that periodically summon adds that have to be taken down before the next batch comes. Not enough DPS means no DPS for the boss and possibly piling up of adds.
I'd love to see more creative ways to impose DPS-requirements than just "Ok, time's up, mortals, DIE!", though i realize that it's probably quite tricky to come up with alot of different mechanics to do the same, because in the end having a 7th boss with a periodic "Grow"-mechanic will get a bit dull too.
I agree, in my opinion adds are still the best solution for soft enrage timer. Soft enrage timers is something they did very well in AQ. Huhuran, fankriss, Ouro, C'thun, Bug trio and viscidus. Sartura's and twins hard enrage weren't that good, but at least they weren't a dps race, the only reason why you would reach it would be because people fucked up and died.
In fact AQ was amazing. I probably enjoyed it even more than Naxx, it was a lot more refreshing at that time. The trash was new, had cool abilities and was challenging. The instance itself was enormous, looked awesome and the atmosphere and sound was amazing. The only downside was the amount of trash towards the end. C'thun stays my favorite boss by far ( only cleared naxx up to gothik though ), It had the perfect balance between control and dps, a few people dieing, a beam not being silenced or a tentacle not being tanked, bad communication between the stomache and outside could all lead to a wipe because eventually you wouldn't be able to keep up with the adds.
AQ just felt right.
Design is an interesting problem. I sometimes read one of those flame threads on the official forums that include "Blue/Blizz", and "we think that...". Someone will eventually reply that there is no "we", and that the original poster only speaks for himself. The truth is that design is hard enough that I suspect that most people (including myself) don't always know what they want for themselves. What I mean is that the true impact of many subtle design changes would be negative also for the people who suggest them. Since there are still gems to be found in the discussions they are still worth having though, especially in heavily moderated places like this forum.
One possibly relevant design question I've thought about is the new 10/25 heroic split. It seems logical considering where we come from but backwards on its own. I suspect that I would personally prefer the challenging content to be the one where you use fewer people, and then allow the less hardcore to trivialize the content by just using more. This would have the benefit of not having to design two quite different dungeons. Some changes may still be needed, but the less hardcore can at least feel like they're playing the same game as the hardcore. I'm not entirely sure about this though, it's a trade-off between the epic and convenience. As I see it, the main problem is to find a solid group of people on the same level (in terms of time, interest and skill), whatever that level may be. Requiring fewer would allow the content to be more challenging in terms of gameplay but it might not be as satisfactory because it's not grand enough.
Another subtle design problem is how they approach "online trading". You don't have to actually trade anything to be affected by this. My account was just permantly closed because I farmed reputation in Dire Maul for too long. Given my usage patterns and my consistent IP over the years I can't imagine there was anything manual about it. While the causual observer might agree that official gold selling is a bad idea it has had many unfortunate results. My ban type is probably not so common, but how many people haven't been trojaned because Warcraft accounts are so valuable (at least if you hack many)? In terms of gameplay design gold selling might be bad, but the non-gameplay consequences might be bad enough that the design should change anyway.
One possibly relevant design question I've thought about is the new 10/25 heroic split. It seems logical considering where we come from but backwards on its own. I suspect that I would personally prefer the challenging content to be the one where you use fewer people, and then allow the less hardcore to trivialize the content by just using more. This would have the benefit of not having to design two quite different dungeons.
Ironic. That's exactly what they did in 1.0, even if it was a pure accident that they later learned from. Remember the old Scholomance / Stratholme / Blackrock Spire?
I actually liked that design. 10-man raids still wiped in those places. You could still get loot in a raid. Intermingle that concept with quests given meaningful rewards that can only be completed in a 5-man... Gold. Maybe pointlessly redundant with the heroic instance model as it functions in live, though.
"Gordon, the planet has been conquered by malevolent aliens. Humanity is depending on you. Here's a goddamned crowbar."
Ravenholdt is another example of a potential they never used, catered to or took advantage of. A rogue castle up in the mountains supposedly home to secrets, intrigue and espionage and really anyone can just walk up into it and go top to bottom without any reaction whatsoever. You'd think a den of rogues would be more enclosed and secretive.
I'm thinking mostly of the havens of vampires and the secret guildhouses that exist in tabletop RPG's with not only hidden locations but special passwords, handshakes and the like to enter. There is alot more inclusion as long as you're "one of us" and a complete isolation from and denial of existence to all outsiders. It certainly adds alot of flavor to the experience when reactions are different based on what class or race you chose, as I see for example a coven of wizards escorting one of their own to the top of a tower to claim reward for a quest completion while they leave the plate clad brainless warrior downstairs to receive his reward from some minor official or servant. It would also be in flavor to perhaps make the quest reward slightly better statwise for certain classes because the faction or questgiver favors them.
A good example of all of this is the questline in BEM with the black dragon cultists that attack on sight when you get close to their cave. Once you get the requisite amount of scraps to create their costume you can walk amongst them as one of their own in disguise, buy things from their vendor and attend a meeting to get information on their activities before you're found out.
All in all they should do a better job of making illicit organizations illicit and fleshing out the varying differences in races/classes so that NPC's feel more alive and part of the world.
"A man is the less likely to become great the more he is dominated by reason. Few can achieve greatness-and none in art-unless they are dominated by illusion."
The pre-60 leveling instances were never intended to be any sort of challenge for a balanced group. Can you imagine the barrier to the concept of grouping that would be imposed on a server full people totally new to the concept of groups or MMO's.
You have a group of random classes all looking to try a totally new concept for the first time ever... fighting as a group.
Even if there is a healer in the group, he has probably never used his heal spells on other people.
Groups have enough of a challenge simply having to face 4 mobs at the same time. The mage learns that if he AE's all 4 at the same time, he may die. The healer learns that if he uses all his mana on nukes, he might run out before the fight is over.
They all need to be winnable without healers, tanks and experience. You don't want to scare 80% of the player base away from the concept of grouping simply so that wailing caverns or scarlet monastery can be a challenge to the few low level players who came into the game with the knowledge of group roles and tactics.
I'm not saying the instances need to be buffed up to make them a challenge. If they aren't supposed to be a challenge, then remove the arbitrary level-based hit mechanics and let me run them 10 levels below the recommended level to make them a challenge. That is the part I don't like.
The newbies could do the instances at the proper level, while the veterans who are leveling their 5th alt can smash the instance much earlier than the recommended level, and get a nice bit more xp for the trouble. But no, you can't do that. You can go earlier if you are a healer, because heals have no increased chance to "miss" on higher level players, but as a dps or tanking class you pretty much hit a hard limit at 5 levels below the mob's level, any further and you won't be able to hit and deal any worthwhile damage. This feels artificial, and makes it impossible to create a challenge by running instances significantly under-level.
I agree that this level based stuff is most likely only there because it's a working system which could be changend, but this would cause a lot of trouble.
Another thing that came to my mind is the way aggro and sight work. A lvl 6 Defias will attack an fully armored lvl70 player with no hesitation. I would find it much more immersive if they would actually back off once they see you. I can see why a wild animal or a ghoul would attack anything in range. It's not about logic it's about the enviroment reacting to character progression. Maybe it's too much work changing that, but I believe that next generation MMOs will work in many more of these things.
Also the towns in WoW feel most life less. Everyone is standing except for perhabs two guards that are patrolling around. Many single player games made this different. I remember watch someone play Gothic and that no shop was open during night (may be another game I don't remember it well) and that the NPCs were actually sleeping, eating walking around and having more than 2 different sentences to say. It would be awesome if during the night many NPCs were sleeping, doors were actually closed, guards sitting at a fire place and perhabs a beggar sleeping in a corner that would yell at you if you came too close and woke him up.
Instead a lot of time is spend to create vanity pets or holidays like Olympia that don't fit in the World of Warcraft at all. Why not create a Gnome in Shattrath or Ironforge which one could duell with steam tonks or similar ideas.
I know that drawing ressources from stuff like instances, balancing and stuff like that is no good idea but I believe Blizzard could spent the money to create a team specially working on the immersion stuff.
Hildegard Sprigglespruxx - Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Pfuschkunde
Also the towns in WoW feel most life less. Everyone is standing except for perhabs two guards that are patrolling around. Many single player games made this different. I remember watch someone play Gothic and that no shop was open during night (may be another game I don't remember it well) and that the NPCs were actually sleeping, eating walking around and having more than 2 different sentences to say. It would be awesome if during the night many NPCs were sleeping, doors were actually closed, guards sitting at a fire place and perhabs a beggar sleeping in a corner that would yell at you if you came too close and woke him up.
I don't think you'd find it awesome if you could only play at night because of schedule or time zone, but I understand what you mean. If these kinds of features are implemented I think they should only affect superficial things. When it comes to non-static NPCs I can't help but remember old Rexxar, and I didn't like his mobility very much even though it made sense.
Instead a lot of time is spend to create vanity pets or holidays like Olympia that don't fit in the World of Warcraft at all. Why not create a Gnome in Shattrath or Ironforge which one could duell with steam tonks or similar ideas.
I would have to disagree on that one. Sure, the Olympics "holiday" was rushed and not very well fleshed out.
But this kind of events strengthen your connection with the game. It may not be Warcraft, but it sure is World of Warcraft.
Most people know what Christmas is. During December you'll see all the Chiristamas fluff on the streets and whatnot. Having that change to the real world reflected on our virtual world brings them closer together in our minds, even if it's on a subconscious level. In the end, it makes for stronger immersion in the world as a whole.
Of course, some people couldn't care less about Christmas or St Patrick's Day or any of the other holidays, but rarely does an idea work for everyone.
Last edited by tmagalhaes : 08/26/08 at 11:40 AM.
Reason: Spelling
I don't think you'd find it awesome if you could only play at night because of schedule or time zone, but I understand what you mean. If these kinds of features are implemented I think they should only affect superficial things. When it comes to non-static NPCs I can't help but remember old Rexxar, and I didn't like his mobility very much even though it made sense.
I don't think the game environment would adhere to real time. It's more likely Hilde envisioned something like the Warcraft 3 elapsing of days/nights only perhaps not so swift in WoW. Having locked doors would ultimately prove a pain in the arse when it was inconvenient, but would also be an interesting way to get people to move around more. I'd say that it would just be too much of an impediment and would make the game less enjoyable in the long run. Damn, need reagents before the raid... wait... the store is closed?! We play games to have a world without the bull, right?
:-P
Slightly mobile npc's is a nice touch and breathes some life where there currently isn't much. You don't want a town npc to stray so far and wide as to make them hard to find, though.
Well the locked doors could be private houses. And on or two Goblins could sell at night for 5% higher prices a bit off the town center. This would add a flavour. I don't think that we will see a lot of this in WoW, but maybe in the next generation MMO that Blizzard is developing.
Some Holidays are nicely done no questions here, but something like Olympia is junk without any love. They should be careful not add too many things that don't fit in at all or at least develop them from inside the game and not just put something there to "have something about Olympia". From my point of view the marketing has too much influence in content creation and in the lack of quality. Any designer having to create stuff like this Olympia feature must feel a strong pain somewhere.
Hildegard Sprigglespruxx - Wissenschaftlerin am Institut für Pfuschkunde
On the topic of enrages, people keep talking about Gruul, or getting overwhelmed with adds, but I think they can make hard enrages that are still immersive.
You could have 5 orbs circling the room, every 2 minutes the boss casts a spell and an orb lights up, when they all are 'powered on' some sort of ultimate attack is unleashed. It's the exact same as a hard enrage but looks so much nicer than "I am angry, you die now!".
Or, every 3 minutes the boss threatens to enrage, and you can release a prisoner in a nearby cell that will prevent it. But there's only 3 cells, so you can only be saved 3 times. You can even tie it into the encounter by making 20 cells, but only 3 have prisoners, so you have to find them in time while fighting the boss.
There are plenty of ways to make time limits that make more sense than the arbitrary "10 minutes, you lose" thing we see now.
The one thing that has bugged me most with design in TBC has been the hallway instances. I know they represent a better use of developer's time than a BRD 2.0, but it becomes so dull after a few runs and makes all the instances seem to blend together. There's a middle ground between BRD and the hallway they need to find. A few mob groups you don't have to pull, a couple rooms you don't need to go in, it doesn't take that much to break up the hallway feeling. An extra hallway or set of rooms doesn't need to have a boss in it to be worthwhile. When I look at Stratholme, there are entire sections of the city that I never visited, places that don't have bosses or quests to finish. But just existing made the entire instance seem that much better.
If nothing else, more instances should follow the "Gordon Freeman" school of dungeon design. Paths that appear to be detours, even though they aren't, break up the monotony considerably. A collapsed wall that blocks one path but opens another route, a gate that needs to be bypassed, they've used these before, but not nearly enough. Imagine a citadel under siege that collapses as you progress through it, opening these paths. Or mobs deactivating a bridge when they see you approach. There's still only one path but it gives the illusion of a real place.
If they won't do that, at least put in some bookcases, chairs, and tables. Enemies that sit, read, talk and eat look a lot better than the mindless drones we encounter now.
08/25/08, 4:26 PM
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