wow Vanion Community Interviews

[Stan 5,240]

German fansite Vanion had the chance talked to Calia Schie and Ion Hazzikostas about Classic WoW and other developers about Rise of Azshara and here's a summary of their interviews.

Classic WoW Interview

• Classic is different in terms of pace and accessibility. It's been fun to see how the game evolved over the last 15 years.
• It's easier for the team to communicate about Classic, because there are clear answers. In terms of Battle for Azeroth, many questions are not as clear-cut.
• They don't want to have many servers at launch, so that they're not underpopulated, they'd rather increase and open up new ones after launch.
• Anyone with an active WoW subscription will be able to play WoW Classic.
• Instead of sharding, they're going to use new technology called layering which was developed specifically for Classic.
  • Instead of copies of individual zones, they're going to run multiple copies of the entire world (single cohesive Eastern Kingdoms). Each copy will have a similar capacity to a Vanilla server back then.
  • A few weeks after launch, they are going to increase the capacity of players in one version of the world while also decreasing the amount of worlds required to host a server.
  • The system will only be there to ensure a smooth launch and will collapse a few weeks in after Classic launch.
• If you bought the Collector's Edition 15 years ago, you will be mailed the pets in Classic.
• They thought about adding new assets to the game, but it was inconsistent with their core philosophies of Classic.
• Cross-Realm transfers could be recreated if the community asks for it, but don't expect an in-game shop with pets and mounts.
• There will be realm forums, but they're not sure about Armory at this time.
• Closed Beta is currently capped at level 30. They may raise the level cap or offer focused templates for focused testing of specific content.
• As opposed to other betas, this one is going to be really small. They're only looking for feedback from the passionate core audience.
• Classic is about the journey and they have content pacing so that players don't feel like missing out on anything.

Patch 8.2 Interview

In this interview, the folks from Vanion talked to Jeremy Feasel, Kevin Martens, and Frank Kowalkowski.

• The 15th anniversary event is going to bring back bosses like Kael'thas and players will need to defeat them in LFR to claim their Deathwing (Worldbreaker) mount. The Lil' Nefarian pet is going to be rewarded for logging in during the anniversary.
• They don't want to talk about Mechagnomes as an Allied Race at this time.
• Mount Equipment should feel like a bonus, that's why there's only a single slot. Customizing hundreds of mounts would feel tedious.
• In Rise of Azshara, it's going to take the enemy team longer on Normal Island Expeditions to show up on the map, so you have an exploratory phase at the beginning of each expedition.
• Heroic Warfronts take 20+ minutes. There should be different ebbs and flows to combat as the Warfront goes on, sort of like playing an RTS mission. The enemy commander will take the field periodically.
• Mechagon and Nazjatar have been made with flying in mind.
• Flying requirements for Pathfinder, Part Two are Revered with two 8.2 factions and exploring the new zones.
• Rise of Azshara has a lot of optional content, if you don't like companions, it's fine to skip the new system.
• New Profession quests are coming in Patch 8.2.
  • Herbalists will find unique seeds that can be planted and they're going to be attacked by a mob who drops herbs.
  • There's going to be an item from Skinning which can be used in a Nazjatar cave to summon a bunch of eels that can be skinned.
• With Essences, they're making the final rank of Legendary quality to make them stand out, so that players have something unique to work on. They've done the same thing with Legion Artifact appearances.

[PatrickHenry 293]

4 hours ago, Stan said:

The 15th anniversary event is going to bring back bosses like Kael'thas and players will need to defeat them in LFR to claim their Deathwing (Worldbreaker) mount. The Lil' Nefarian pet is going to be rewarded for logging in during the anniversary.

There it is.  

My son's current reason for existing, and now he knows how.  That pet is beckoning him.

[t3ramos 19]

4 hours ago, PatrickHenry said:

There it is.  

My son's current reason for existing, and now he knows how.  That pet is beckoning him.

i think i will resub just for this event ? oldschool collection raid sounds simply awesome