Forum:BlizzCon 2018 questions

Hey all,

I'm still trying to get penciled in for interview time at this year's BlizzCon. Assuming I can wrangle a slot, I'm going to try to ask some questions of the devs.

Please keep your questions short and to the point. Depending on who I'm interviewing I may not be able to ask detailed questions about the lore, so please keep that in mind. Consider looking at last year's questions as a guide.

Thanks! -- k_d3 19:09, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

Update: I've got interviews scheduled for the WoW team at 1-1:30 on Friday and with the WoW Classic team at 12:30-1 on Saturday. I've updated my coverage plans with those interview slots in mind. -- k_d3 18:12, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Questions go here

 * Why did you nerf my class? -- k_d3 19:09, 29 October 2018 (UTC)


 * What happened to the Worgen & Goblin model updates announced last BlizzCon (in the unlikely event that they don't announce them during the other WoW panels)
 * Any update on letting Worgen & Goblins become Monks


 * Plans to fix some of the existing allied races, for ex. making Nightborne models closer to the original Nightborne model, or fix upstraight orc's floating shoulders.


 * More customization options for the main races


 * Zandalari & Tirasian paladins


 * It was announced at last BlizzCon that Thrall would be one of the main characters of this expansion, alongside Anduin, Sylvanas and Jaina (and Vol'jin's urn). Yet, he has not appeared so far in Battle for Azeroth and he seems to have been replaced by the player and Talanji in Vol'jin's storyline. Scrapped? Future plans?-- MyMindWontQuiet 19:31, 29 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Will there be more choices in the future like the one with helping Zekhan or not?
 * A Plunder Isle map was datamined, will it ever be implemented?
 * What motivated the change from the Undermine to The MOTHERLODE!!? Undermine was fairly known as the goblin capital.
 * The Deaths of Chromie scenario was originally meant to herald a greater importance for dragons, was that abandoned? The Dragon Isles are just mentioned in the island expeditions.
 * Was the original version of Sergeant Bainbridge meant to indicate the possibilty of Kul Tiran paladins? Xporc (talk) 18:42, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

WoW Classic
Here's a quick writeup of the WoW Classic Q&A session. I voice-recorded it, so I'll be filling it out more later. -- k_d3 20:04, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * funniest comment in the source code?
 * mostly swearing


 * progression? rolling out burning crusade?
 * just focused on classic


 * progressive content in classic wow?
 * coming up in the main panel


 * sharding?
 * very contentious, understand that people are passionate about it. knowing about everyone else on the server. they're looking at options, lots of techs that go into bfa, like phasing, or cross-realm zones, that won't appear.


 * "you think you do, but you don't" so what's changed?
 * always the danger when having a nostalgic view of something of what happens when you bring it into the modern era, lots of conveniences that we have now that we didn't have then and that people may not find it very attractive. we're in a very special place where there's a game that's been evolving for 14 years and hopefully we'll continue to keep doing it and now we're able to go back to what started it all. what led us to do it is player passion


 * any members of nostalrius on the team?
 * no


 * back to sharding/phasing. real concern about people getting taken out of the world of warcraft.
 * just for the demo they wanted to show that they restored the original abilities, zones, quests, etc. other stuff, like /lfr, are still in just for the sake of time and not a real design decision.
 * also, they wanted to release the demo next summer, but what better way to tell about the progress than to actually show it. so, a few things got left in right now but they're going to do everything they can to get it as close to vanilla as possible
 * for instance, the lighting is off now, but it's already closer


 * what was the most frustrating part of having to roll back to 14 years ago?
 * certainly some challenges along the way, one example is some formatting in the terrain. had to make some changes to make it look correct, even though it's different in the code


 * network stack?
 * they're using modern netcode from now, so that is going to change from vanilla.


 * server population caps?
 * looking into that, trying to make sure they can do it. it's certainly possible to have more people online concurrently now


 * progressive content - itemization?
 * coming in the panel


 * is the demo an accurate demonstration of current progress internally?
 * yah


 * any issues with data loss for random npcs/quests/etc?
 * nah, they found the original code and were able to stand up a 1.12 server and used it to compare to what they're doing now


 * re itemization, class balance? ask the community if there's interest in rebalancing
 * no plans on making any changes to balance as it appeared in 1.12. the whole point is authentic recreation.


 * lots of random bugs in the demo?
 * bugs, intend to get fixed. they're releasing in summer 2019, not today.


 * how long did it take to get that build of 1.12 working?
 * no idea, it wasn't just a single person/team, lots of stuff done on the side, but it started roughly 2 years ago


 * wall jumping?
 * no, modern movement/exploits will prevent most of that


 * cash shop services?
 * some things were available in classic.
 * will not be transfers between live and classic, so things like transmog will not transfer
 * modern cross-game chat will work, but definitely not items


 * cross-faction collusion? it was against tos then, not so now
 * lots of internal discussions to maybe remove features like right-click to bnet friends for players on the opposing faction


 * 40-man raids?
 * yes, absolutely coming back


 * why the decision to work from the current code and go back and not start from square one?
 * it's easy to see the path from where they are now to where they're going back to, but going from the beginning forward? hard to catch exploits and stuff that got forgotten along the way


 * post-naxx?
 * no plans

Warcraft III Reforged
Here's my notes from the Warcraft III Reforged interview session. -- k_d3 22:16, 3 November 2018 (UTC)


 * war1/2 missions in wc3r?
 * no. focus is getting war3 content out first


 * changes to the world editor?
 * preserving compatibility to the old maps, editors familiar with the editor will be able to jump back in, and add features in the process. went out to the editing community and asked for feedback, updates, etc, even hired some prominent editors. lots of wishlisted features in the past 15 years, so they're aware of what to add


 * some interface limitations (unit selection limit) still exist. what's the plan?
 * first, don't break the game. now that it's public, they can ask the community for ideas. the UI field of view was a change. the old bars are still available if that's what you want. the default place is 'don't assume anything and that this is where the fun was at', but cautiously and judiciously make change


 * fun part of wc3 happy to come back to with wc3r?
 * it's nice looking at models with 100-200 polys and how do we make it look good for today? it's great being able to see arthas with frostmourne, or the orc with his axe.
 * rejoining the community back together. classic bnet and modern bnet got split around the wow days, and now they can merge them together


 * voice acting?
 * all new voice recordings across the board, including updating the story. lots of stuff from the novels and wow came out, and now we can add some of that into the game. background of jaina, for instance. goal is to help bridge some of the gap between wc3 and wow. it's still wc3 at a whole, but they're looking to add more connective tissue between the game. adding additional languages as well


 * challenges in updating the art?
 * game engine is fundamentally the same, art is built on top of it, so they can modern standards with lighting, rendering, etc. must stay compatible with the SD version, so if something took 20 frames in the original game it must take 20 frames in the new version. non-gameplay idle animations are more free to be played with. for instance an idle footman will lift up his visor, wipe his brow with his arm, then close it back down. gameplay-affecting animations are fixed


 * netcode? hosted or peer-to-peer?
 * there's some routing possibly involved, but the focus is p2p.


 * specific custom maps looking to see again?
 * nothing specific, just happy to get as many as possible to just work automagically. so many maps out there, hard work, but something they're looking forward to


 * the demo and rexxar campaigns?
 * yes, they're coming too, even if they're not getting recut


 * in SCR, they made SC1 effectiely free to play and you could upgrade to SCR. same model in WC3?
 * the ultimate goal is cross-compatibility, so even if you don't have reforged you can play with a reforged player. they're merging the sd and hd version into the same game, so you can play with no-neck models if you want


 * WC3 on switch?
 * no plans. RTS on consoles are hard


 * WC3 esports?
 * Already a tournament in china, happy to see that and sister tournaments for starcraft, hopefully to see more


 * newbie tips in-game?
 * games were harder back then. wc3 only had normal and hard, but wc3r will add easy mode for newcomers to RTSes. lots of talk internally. RTS controls are very different than WASD controls and that may take some adapting. but once they get into it they have a great time


 * wc3/wow audiences similar/overlapping?
 * hope so. but they're going into this making wc3. they want to make some connection between them. some wow players very invested in the lore and story and how the world came to be. wc3 helps answer some of those questions, gives backstory on jaina and arthas


 * balance updates?
 * yes, working with the pro players and figuring out why they do/don't do what they do. dedicated balance team still working on this.


 * will the original missions still be in or just the recut stuff?
 * in the new client, only the recut missions will be present. if you want the original missions and the zoo in stratholme, it's in the sd game


 * replays compatible?
 * yes


 * modern progression/ladder?
 * yes. still lots of discussions to be had