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08-07-07, 02:24 PM   #1
Beladona
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Blizzcon 2007 Wrapup

Many of us from the UI Community went to this year's Blizzcon. I can't remember the last time I had that much fun, and it was absolutely wonderful to meet many of the people I have gotten to know through the years in IRC and in the forums. As you can imagine, there was a lot of information given to us during the panels and various activities at Blizzcon. The following is a schedule of the activities we participates in or took notes on while at the 'con. Click on a heading to visit a specific entry , or click here to read the entire report from Blizzcon.

I kept this thread focused mostly on Blizzcon and what was said during the panels and various announcements. Cairenn has a thread dedicated more to the personal side of the trip focused more on what we did as a group and how much fun we had. I encourage you to read her thread here as well. While I enjoyed Blizzcon greatly, I don't think it would have been nearly as enjoyable without all of the people that shared the time with us.

Day 1 (August 3rd)
  • Opening Ceremony: The president and co-founder of Blizzard spoke to us about the success of Blizzcon and World of Warcraft. As expected he also announced the next expansion to Word of Warcraft, known as Wrath of the Lich King. This announcement met with huge applause and included a intro video and brief footage of the expansion.
  • World of Warcraft Panel: The primary focus of the discussion was on what the designers intended for World of Warcraft and where it was headed with the next expansion. More details were provided on what we can expect to see in Wrath of the Lich King.
  • WoW Class Discussion Panel: Challenges of balancing classes in both PVE and PVP as well as a rundown of what each class is meant to be in World of Warcraft. We also discussed the Death Knight and Hero Classes will mean for us.
  • WoW Dungeons & Raids Panel: We discussed the focus of development when creating new dungeons and raids, what progression means to these parts of the game, and what we can expect to see in the upcoming expansion.
  • WoW UI & Mods Panel: They went over the basics of creating an add-on, as well as what we can expect to see in the default UI. They unveiled the new Frame Inspector now available on the official website, as well as the new Combat Log and various other features associated with it.

Day 2 (August 4th)
  • WoW Professions & Items Panel: They talked professions, the focus of each, and how they are designed to support each other in some cases. They also discussed how items are designed and how itemization works in World of Warcraft.
  • Legendary Pictures (Warcraft Movie): They discussed the early ideas on what the film would be, and what time period it would be set in. They are very early in production so very little details could be given other than that it will be live action and that we can expect to see some familiar names in it.
  • World of Warcraft PVP: Discussed early PVP and how it has grown to what you see now. Also discussed the challenges of balancing and keeping content interesting to players, as well as what we can expect to see from the expansion in terms of PVP content.
  • WoW Lore & Quests Panel: Very interesting discussion on what we will see in terms of lore in the expansion. Some basic information was covered on what lore means to the quests and stories you encounter in the game, but the major focus was on the storyline present in Wrath of the Lich King. This was one of the more interesting Panels in my opinion.
  • Arena Concert: We listened to famous comedian Jay Mohr, as well as music from 'Games Live' and 'Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain'. We had a lot of fun at this event and I was very glad we were able to go. Games Live said that of all the music they perform they get the most applause when the Blizzard logo is displayed for the first time on the big screens.

Last edited by Beladona : 08-12-07 at 03:39 PM.
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08-08-07, 12:10 PM   #2
Beladona
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Day 1: Opening Ceremony

We began our day by heading into the convention center early. Iriel and I met at the front of the entrance to the main hall so that we could procure spots for the rest of our party. We spent some time chatting together as well as with a couple of people in line with us. We were joined shortly by Esamyn and MentalPower.

Once the doors opened it was a mad rush to the booths and surrounding attractions. Massive lines formed at the two demo spots for Starcraft 2 and the next World of Warcraft Expansion. I slipped into the multiplayer line at the Starcraft 2 demo first while others of our groups went to various other areas.

The opening ceremony introduced the president and co-founder of Blizzard who shared with us the success of Blizzcon and their gratitude for our participation in the games and communities that have formed around their games. Since the first Blizzcon they have seen the population of ‘World of Warcraft’ double to 9 million active subscribers. South Park dedicated an entire episode to the game and has since been nominated for an Emmy award for that episode. Their first expansion broke the record for the fastest selling PC Game of all time, selling 2.4 million copies in the first 24 hours. This is more than most games sell in a month. And this Blizzcon saw tickets being sold out in 3 days.

Obviously as most of you well know by now, the biggest announcement to come during the opening ceremony was the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Oriented around the continent of Northrend and the story of Arthas becoming the new Lich King, this news was met with HUGE applause from the audience. Features include:
  • Level cap will be raised to 80
  • New customizations for your character such as changing hairstyles
  • More 10 and 25 man raid instances
  • New "Inscriptions" profession that can attach bonuses to your skills and spells
  • New Hero Class, the "Death Knight"
  • More content and areas then the Burning Crusade

Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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Last edited by Beladona : 08-08-07 at 03:31 PM.
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08-08-07, 12:16 PM   #3
Beladona
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Day 1: World of Warcraft Panel

This discussion was primarily about the upcoming expansion and what we can expect to see from it. They discussed the basic look and feel of Northrend as well as what types of inhabitants we will probably see there. Having learned from the previous expansion they have decided to add two points of entry into Northrend so as to lessen the number of players coming into a single area. Some of the points of interest are as follows:
  • Howling Fjord: – point of entry and home to giant Viking-like beings.
  • Borean Tundra: – point of entry and home to Walrusmen.
  • Grizzly Hills: Home to Firbolg and Ancient Dwarves.
  • Dragonblight: Location of the entrance to Azhol-Nerub and home of the Dragonflights.
  • Dalaran: will be transported magically to Northrend and be a capital for players

Death knights were discussed in some detail. They will be a plate wearing dps class with the ability to fill some tanking roles as well. They can use two handed and dual wielding weapons but cannot equip shields. Rather than having mana or rage to deal with they will use a new system of carved runes that go on their weapon and determine what powers and level of skills they can use. They will focus on the powers of Blood, Frost, and Unholy abilities and will resemble the old Warcraft versions fairly closely. Expect to see undead summoning and Unholy area affect attacks being their bread and butter. Using a skill will activate a rune of that type and an associated cooldown. The more runes you have of a given power the more of that power you can use before waiting for cooldowns. Some more powerful skills will use multiple runes while others may use a combination of rune types.

Hero classes will be a way for Blizzard to introduce new classes slowly and as part of a larger story. It also allows them to bring many of the classes they originally wanted to see in the game such as Blademasters and Demon Hunters. Heroes will also be able to be created at a higher level so as to allow veteran players the ability to start new characters without going through the low level grind currently associated with new characters. These hero classes will be unlocked with high level quest chains only accessible to players who have leveled their current characters up to the maximum level.

Some of the other features discussed were the inclusion of destructible buildings and siege weapons into the PVP game. This will allow for much more dynamic game play in PVP scenarios, and may even open up PVE encounters that make use of siege weaponry. World zones will also be added that make use of siege weapons and PVP objectives similar to Halaa in Nagrand, but on a larger scale.

After the presentation the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions. Some of these are outlined below:
  • They will be adding ways to speed up leveling for alts and existing players. They felt as though the level grind could be faster for those players.
  • With a level cap raise there will obviously be new skills and talents bringing the talent trees up to date much like the level 70 cap did for Burning Crusade.
  • There will be changes coming to get us more interested in the old world again. Expect to see another Caverns of Time instance, as well as possible revamps for various old-world dungeons. Another area briefly mentioned was Grim Batol which should be familiar to most of us who know much about Warcraft Lore.
  • Existing players will not become Death Knights. The class will be unlocked by your existing character, but will require you to make a new character of that class once it is unlocked. This new character will start at a higher level than other classes so as to allow you to skip the associated level grind. Exact level you start as is yet to be determined, but you can expect it to be somewhere between 50 and 70.
  • Item progression and itemization will be similar to the way it is in BC. Players were fairly happy with the speed at which we acquired new items and upgrades for old gear in the expansion, and they expect to follow the same model with Wrath of the Lich King.
  • When asked if more raids would be added before the expansion, they alluded to another 25 man that will be beyond Black Temple in progression but before the expansion. They also mentioned Zul’Aman coming in a content patch very soon as a 10 man just beyond Karazhan.
  • When asked if there would be another mount we would have to buy or upgrade to like the current epic flying mount they said there would not be another “riding skill” to attain but that there WOULD be more mounts added both flying and non-flying. They also briefly mentioned that Flying Mounts WILL be usable in Northrend.
  • When asked if Death Knights will supplant rogues in the dps category it was suggested that the role of the Death Knight will be different enough that guilds would see a reason to have both present.
  • When asked about the level progression from 70 to 80, they said that it should feel about the same as it did when going from 60 to 70.
  • They said they would be focusing more on making outdoor questing more soloable while dungeons and raids encounters will be where groups and raids are required. This should promote more content for the casual gamers while still allowing plenty of content for the large guildsand groups.
  • When asked about what factions or races the Death Knight will be, they said the current plan was to allow it on both Horde and Alliance side for any race. The race thing may change as they near completion, but for now it was being pushed as any race.
  • When asked if Death Knights will be able to summon minions like in previous Warcraft games they said that they were not planning to make it a pet class, and were focusing more on summoned minions as part of spells and effects, much like the tree summons on a druid.
  • When asked if we would be seeing more character slots they said there were no immediate plans to add any more slots.
  • When asked if there would be a limit on the number of hero classes you could make they said there is currently no plan to place such a limitation on us, and we should be able to make as many Hero characters as there are slots.
  • When asked if they planned to make the old raid areas accessible and usable again for end-game raiding they said that there were no real plans to do so. Where it makes sense like in the case of AQ they may add content or versions of it that fit into the Northrend story arc, since AQ would be a huge part of the Nerubian story. But for the most part they design raid areas with the understanding that they will probably go away and not get used at some point.
  • When asked how Death Knight’t tanking ability will compare to Feral Druids, Protection Warriors, and Protection Paladins they said that the same rules apply as it does for DPS classes. They do not wish to take anything away from the other classes ability to tank, and merely intend this class to be one more choice for tanking. It will do that role differently than the other 3 just as they do it differently from each other.

Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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Last edited by Beladona : 08-08-07 at 02:28 PM.
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08-08-07, 12:26 PM   #4
Beladona
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Day 1: Class Discussion

Class discussion opened with an introduction of what a hero class means to World of Warcraft. When the original game was being designed they had planned on having hero classes, but they got cut in order to make things simpler for players and for balancing purposes. Many classes were originally planned such as Blademasters and other hero character types from previous Warcraft games, and even other RPG games. They instead opted for fewer classes with more customization and deviation via talents. More classes are not always better for the game.

The first thing looked at when working with classes is Balance. Ever class should be able to solo from level 1 all the way to maximum level if they wish to do so. Every class should also have a role and be viable for 5 man encounters, in raids, and in PVP. Finally, every class should be enjoyable and fun to play for most players. Talents are also very important for the class structure of the game. The original talent system was inspired by and designed with Diablo 2 in mind. They wanted to have a limited pool of points with a large number of skills to allow players to differentiate themselves from others of the same class. The majority of skills should be passive, with few active skills available in each tree.

Balancing each spec against another in a given class is another issue looked at when evaluating classes. It is important to them that they make sure each spec has proper itemization in order to support that spec. They also try to make sure that hybrid specs are still viable. New spells or skills should be more effective than their earlier counterparts in all situations. This hasn’t always been perfect and things are still being looked at, such as making certain classes more viable in pvp such as protection warriors. They have to be careful no matter what they do as major changes could be a shock to the system, the players, or both.
  • Druids were designed to be healers, with the ability to fill other roles when necessary. Bear form was designed to fill the void left by warriors when one wasn’t present, with cat form filling the void of rogues. Moonkin was introduced to help fill the void left by mages when one wasn’t available. The focus however has always been to make a druid primarily a healer first, even going as far as to make healing available to them regardless of which spec they choose.
  • Hunters were designed to be masters of ranged combat. For a long time this was all they had, and with the introduction of Misdirect they were given more utility. They also discovered that feign was being overused so they changed it to make it more conditional and useful for certain situations, without being overpowered and necessary for a majority of actions. They also introduced pet scaling to make pets more able to keep up with the hunter in later levels of the game.
  • Mages were designed to be the DPS king with Area effect skills. This allows them to excel on multiple targets without overshadowing other classes in the single target race. They gave them the Water Elemental talent to make them more like the original Warcraft variants as well as to better identify mages who specced into that tree. Spell steal was given to break the mold a little while giving them something useful in terms of utility.
  • Paladins are another hybrid that can fill multiple roles. Designed to be mana efficient and effective in healing while being able to take more punishment than other healing classes. Can still fill the roles of DPS and Tanking when necessary without taking those roles away from the pure class versions. Future changes should see Retribution getting a buff in DPS output as well as solving the itemization issue.
  • Priests are designed to be the best healer in the game when played right. Most powerful healers in the game while still having the ability to provide other utility and roles. Shadow was buffed for PVE to make that spec more viable for 5 man and raids. Future changes should see improvements in Light well, Circle of Healing, and Improved Death.
  • Shaman were designed to be the Horde’s answer to the Paladin, but was later provided to both sides in Burning Crusade. Designed to be masters of utility and providing enhancements to any group. Future changes should see better scaling for totems and gear.
  • Rogues were designed to be the best single target melee dps in the game. Utility was provided by adding Improved Sap as a trainable skill to all rogues. Focus has always been on making sure all of the weapon specs were balanced with one another without making them the same. Stunlocks used to be an issue in PVP and was fixed when health was increased across the board for all players. Most characters can now live through a stunlock long enough to give them a chance to retaliate.
  • Warlocks are effective at damage over time and control of demons. Issues in the past included too much reliance on fear, and has since been evaluated and fixed by reducing the length of time fear can stay on a PVP target. This class should be the best dueling class in the game one-on-one.
  • Warriors are the best tanks in the game. This class was designed the same way you see most warriors in other games designed. Focused on heavy armor and protection skills while still providing dps as an alternate means of speccing if desired. Rage was an issue for a while especially with the buff to druids, so warriors were given more rage to offset this. Warriors should be the best at tanking while being comparable to rogues in dps as long as they spec into it.

The future of classes for this game will most likely be Hero Classes. As we go forward more hero classes can be introduced using the unlocking mechanism. Other things we can expect to see for classes include more talents from 70-80, and the new inscription profession that will provide enhancements for your skills and spells, much like enchants provide enhancements to armor and weapons. Think of things like adding a knockback effect to your Mage Fireball…

With very little time left, the floor was opened up for the audience to ask questions:
  • When asked if we can expect to see more cc for other classes such as shamans, they replied saying that it is a possibility but they have to be careful when adding CC to any class as it changes the balance of PVP so greatly.
  • When asked if druids can expect to see limitations imposed on them in things like Tree form removed, they replied that they will be looking at reducing the limitations to make tree form more viable to druids without forcing them to get out of tree form to sue their more powerful skills.
  • When asked if Holy priests can expect to see improvements to make them better able to keep up in raids, they replied that some of the weaker talents will probably be buffed soon to make them more usable in raids versus Paladins.
  • When asked if we can expect to see more skills being carried over from old games such as Warcraft 3, they replied that they always look at existing skills from older games when designing new skills and spells for expansions. The lore is very important to what they want to do with each class.
  • When asked if they plan to fix the issue with hybrids losing some of their viability when speccing into a single tree, they replied that this is something they always look at when balancing classes but that speccing into a single tree is meant to force you more into a single role over the others a hybrid might have access to.

Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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Last edited by Beladona : 08-08-07 at 02:44 PM.
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08-08-07, 01:07 PM   #5
Beladona
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Day 1: WoW Dungeons & Raids Panel

The panel was started by covering what goes into designing dungeons and raids for World of Warcraft. Many factors are part of the development process, and deungeons or raids would be created for various reasons.
  • Lore & Storylines: Many dungeons are created for this purpose, such as Deadmines and Karazhan. These are locations that are steeped in rish story and lore from around the warcraft universe.
  • Level Progression Gaps: These are locations added to fill gaps in the progression of levels, such as Mauradon or Ragefire Chasm.
  • Raid Progression Gaps: These include areas that might be added to fill gaps in the progression from one raid to another. Zul'Aman would be an example of a raid being added to fill the gap from 10 man Karazhan to 25 man Gruuls and beyond.
  • Geographical Purposes: These might be areas added to draw attention to locations that would otherwise be devoid of any areas of interest. This allows the developers to get players to visit areas that they might not normally bother visiting. Examples of this might be Zul'Gurub.

When designing raids and dungeons they always plan more than they can build. This is a philosophy they use almost everywhere with the understanding that there will be changes and reductions in what they can put in before the content goes live. It is better to have more planned than what they can actually get into the game, that way they never run out of content to put in a particular location. They also plan dungeons and raids around the idea that it needs to be balanced for both the level of the players going in, the gear that those players would have when going, and the difficulty of the encounters in that location.

At this point the floor was opened up for questions:
  • When asked about the current trend in which certain classes are stacked for certain bosses and if there were plans to better balance that, they replied that strategy is always a part of encounters and how they are designed, and whenever possible they try to make sure that the classes that need to be there are the same classes that will benefit from being there. They do try to make encounters doable with most classes but some will always have requirements to be successful or easier.
  • When asked if there were any plans to make content more accessible to semi-casual gamers, they replied they have already begun looking at this and trying to fix any issues by removing attunement requirements for many raid areas, adding more 10 man encounters, and making some of the older raid encounters playable again.
  • When asked what plans if any will there be for adding more raid instances before the next expansion, they replied that there will be another 25 man added before the expansion but after Black Temple in terms of progression. There will also be Zul'Aman for 10 mans just after Karazhan, and possibly another 5 man.
  • When asked if there were plans to add more outdoor raid bosses, they replied saying that there were no current plans to do so, but you may see some with the expansion pack. It is too early to tell at this time.
  • When asked about itemizations for dps classes such as dps warriors and ret paladins, they replied that it has been evaluated and we should see new gear being placed on justice badge vendors for those classes. It is hard to add more raid loot for them because any more they add dillutes the drop rates of existing gear.
  • When asked if we will see more world based PvP, they replied that the expansion will add the ability to siege and destroy buildings as part of greater world based pvp objectives. We may see this element added as part of PvE as well.
  • When asked if older dungeons might be revamped or given heroic version, they replied that there are no definite plans to do so, but we could see a few revamped to scale with the playerbase as we approach level 80 in the expansion.

During the questions they got onto the topic of features that we might see included in the game to help us during raids and dungeons. Some of the things hinted at were itemrack functionality in the default UI, as well as threat meters, cooldown timers across raids, and consolidated bag space. These could be subject to change, but it sounds interesting to say the least.

Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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Last edited by Beladona : 08-08-07 at 03:03 PM.
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08-08-07, 03:19 PM   #6
Beladona
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Day 1: WoW UI & Mods Panel

I was looking forward to this panel quite a bit for obvious reasons. By the end of the discussion I felt as though I was not dissapointed. The discussion began with a tutorial on how to write an addon, based on the ShowMeTheMoney tutorial included with the UI Extraction tool. Most of us had the background already from writing addons ourselves, but we felt as thought it was a ncie touch to lead any new people in the audience into the process involved in making a simple addon.

After the tutorial they began talking about things we will be seeing in upcoming patches. This started with the introduction of an addon authors dream, the Frame Inspector. This tool is an addon that can be used to inspect frames for theri existing parent, and attachment points, as well as other information about that frame. Think of it as a task manager for UI Frames. You can find it here.

They also introduced the new Combat Log that will be added to the game soon. This will replace the existing system of verbose chat messages with an in-depth and responsive combat log. The data provided by this log will then be queryable with various flags, such as filtering data for only things happening to you, your group, your raid, or those in your sphere of influence. Think of it as an advanced statistical analysis tool for combat. Obviously this will be something that can be expanded upon and used by addons such as CombatStats and others that analyze combat data.

The audience was allowed to ask questions, and some of the questions posed were as follows:
  • When asked if the new combat log will differentiate between targets rather than the current method of only knowing a target by name, they answered by saying that the new api associated with the combat log will expose unique identifiers for each target in your sphere of influence. This will allow you to identify each target individually, even if all have the same name. This system will also allow other details be exposed, although specific data that would be available is yet to be revealed.
  • When asked if any features currently associated with addons might be integrated into the default UI, as hinted by the raid discussion panel, they responded saying that they are currently looking at implementing certain features such as a simple threat management function that might show your threat relative to others in your party or something similar. They do not plan to actually replace full blown threat meters, but merely provide simpler functionality by default.
Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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Last edited by Cairenn : 08-11-07 at 11:15 AM.
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08-08-07, 03:54 PM   #7
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Day 2: WoW Professions & Items Panel

They started by talking about the design process that goes into the creation of recipes for professions. They are adding a lot more recipes for the next expansion, at least as many as were introduced for Burning Crusade. They are very careful to balance materials and complexity on the quality of an item created from each recipe. They have worked hard to improve certain mechanics such as discovery rates for recipes and the number of mats you are able to procure for harder recipes.

Discussed in some length was the new profession knows as Inscription. This is not enchanting or alchemy. It is designed to provide a way to customize and improve your spells and abilities much like enchants do for items and armor now. Things you may see are more crits for backstab, or fireballs with knockback. They are also going to be able to do soemthing with items, but they weren't able to tell us much about it due to it being too early in the design process.

They discussed some changes and new additions being added or changed for the game both before and after the expansion. Some of these are as follows:
  • Profession daily quests. You may see recipes obtained through these that are random and only available via daily quests.
  • They plan to add more crafter-only items and gear. Things like jewelrycrafting gems that only a jewelrycrafter can make and use.
  • They are planning to smooth out progression in many professions to eliminate sticking points in the mid 200-300 range.
  • New enchantcalled Executioner that will be an armor penetration proc. They expect to have a visual graphic as cool as Mongoose.

Item discussion began with an idea of how itemization is being handled going forward. They mentioned that they will have something like twice the number of current epics when the expansion comes out. Something they are also working on is making PvP players not feel like they need to raid and being able to focus on what they enjoy doing. PvP gear and Raid gear will be equal but separate in terms of progression. They are also trying to better evaluate stat distribution on items for specific class and talent builds. They mentioned how the new token system came to be and why they put multiple classes on a single token while still having multiple tokens. This allowed more choices on a single token while not making some classes feel like they would never get that item. They also addressed the problem of classes having multiple roles and needing to have multiple choices on gear.

They moved on to things to come for the game.
  • Free Spell Damage for healers. This allows healers to be able to go kill things when not healing, but not necessarily be as effective as a damage dealer.
  • Hunters should be getting a legendary ranged weapon.
  • New items in Zul'Aman that should give players gear that can handle 25 man raids.

The audience was allowed to ask questions, and some of the questions posed were as follows:
  • When asked why enchanting doesn't have items that can be auctioned they mentioned that they had originally designed it to be more of a player interactive profession. They have been talking about going to an item based enchanting system though to allow for auctioning.
  • When asked why JC, BS, and Engineering all have to compete for ore they said that they like to try to share materials because it keeps the demand high. They don't have any plans to alleviate mining except maybe more mining nodes or faster respawns.
  • When asked if inscriptionists would be able to inscribe other player's spells/skills they mentioned it would be an item based like a scroll you read that would let other players improve their spells or skills with your inscription.
  • When asked if they plan to allow for dying or armor they mentioned that identification of armor is currently part of being able to identify a player and their skillset, so there are no current plans to allow that form of customization.
  • When asked if they plan to add shield patterns for higher level blacksmiths they said yes, but they don't know how soon.
  • When asked if Leatherworking will be getting better craftable epics to better match those for Blacksmiths and Tailors they said that they don't plan to make those items top-end highest quality items. It was meant to be a gap filler between quested gear and end-game gear.
  • When asked if there were plans to upgrade legendaries that are already in the game they said that they do not plan to do this. They were intended to be long-lasting items that took longer to replace, but not meant to be ultimate weapons that everyone wants.
  • When asked if some tier sets would see additional sets added like some of the other classes do, they do not plan to add more sets, but they will be balancing tokens to be more organized so that each token has more desire for those tokens.
  • When asked if spirit would ever become more worthwhile to casters, they said they are looking at improving it somehow to make it a more desirable stat.

Link to the YouTube video can be found here.
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08-08-07, 03:56 PM   #8
Beladona
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Day 2: Legendary Pictures (Warcraft Movie)

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08-08-07, 04:05 PM   #9
Beladona
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Day 2: World of Warcraft PvP Panel

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08-08-07, 04:16 PM   #10
Beladona
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Day 2: WoW Lore & Quests Panel

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08-08-07, 04:22 PM   #11
Beladona
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Day 2: Arena Concert

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08-08-07, 04:46 PM   #12
Beladona
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Attendees from the AddOn Community

I had the pleasure to met a lot of people from the community at this years BlizzCon. These are people that I have had contact with in the forums or in IRC throughout the past 2 or 3 years while we all worked on AddOns either together or individually. I have grown to respect and care about these people like extended family, and I am so glad I was able to meet them in person and get to know them.

I have attached one of the rare photographs of all of us together as a group. There were a few people missing from this photograph unfortunately. Namely Qzot, and family members of those pictured here. There were numerous people we met along the way as well that I simply haven't had time to thank and credit in these posts. We later met other authors and long-time IRC members at dinners and other placed at the 'con. I encourage all of you who went to Blizzcon to and have photographs to post them in this thread for others to see.

I will post more photographs and further information on stuff we did as a group outside of Blizzcon, as many of us stayed several days in addition to the convention itself. We had a great time and spent a lot of time together at dinners and at Disneyland, as well as out and about in Anaheim. I am already looking forward to the next Blizzcon so I can see all of you guys again!
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08-08-07, 05:02 PM   #13
Dreadlorde
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look at the picture
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08-10-07, 08:14 AM   #14
Beladona
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I think that was Kaydeethree. He wasn't with us for a good portion of the trip and I had forgotten his nick. Sorry for that.

Also not shown in the picture is Qzot. I am not sure why he didn't sit in there with us, but he was there for a lot of stuff.

Last edited by Beladona : 08-10-07 at 08:18 AM.
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08-10-07, 08:52 AM   #15
Tenson
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I would like to know more about the hero class, if anyone can provide some details (if known).

1. Would the hero class be played alongside main? Or has to be played as alts (in other words, when it is logged in, no other classes can be played?)

2. Would the hero class be so desirable that instances/raids would be filled with them instead of regular classes? What would be some advantage/disadvantage for an instance group of 5 Death Knights?

3. Would there be PvP/Battleground dedicated to only hero classes? Or would it be mixed? What about outdoor PvP? Would the hero class be overpowered against other Level 80 classes?

4. This is more of an expansion question: will there be new abilities (and/or talent abilities) for players from 70-80? Or just more talent points?

5. Another expansion question: what is the outlook on release date for WoLK (Wrath of the Lich King)?

Thanks!
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08-10-07, 09:50 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by Tenson
I would like to know more about the hero class, if anyone can provide some details (if known).

< snip >

5. Another expansion question: what is the outlook on release date for WoLK (Wrath of the Lich King)?

Thanks!
I'm just about to catch my flight home (the reason no one has heard from me yet, I had an extended visit), but I can answer this one quick and easy:

When it's ready™.
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08-10-07, 12:19 PM   #17
Dreadlorde
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Originally Posted by Cairenn
When it's ready™.
Working as intended. lol.
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08-10-07, 03:08 PM   #18
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Hmmm....Cairenn actually does look a bit like her avatar. *winks cornily at Cairenn*
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08-12-07, 12:27 AM   #19
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NOTE: THESE RESPONSES ARE MY VIEWS ONLY BASED ON INFORMATION GATHERED FROM BLIZZCON.
Originally Posted by Tenson
I would like to know more about the hero class, if anyone can provide some details (if known).

1. Would the hero class be played alongside main? Or has to be played as alts (in other words, when it is logged in, no other classes can be played?)
The hero class would be another character in your character list. S/he would be another alt with the exception that you do not have to go all the way from lvl 1 with it. It will start off as a higher level character, exact level TBD.

Originally Posted by Tenson
2. Would the hero class be so desirable that instances/raids would be filled with them instead of regular classes? What would be some advantage/disadvantage for an instance group of 5 Death Knights?
There will obviously be some surge in Death Knights in the months following WotLK's release, but I don't think there will be 5 death knights in a group (since I don't think death knights will have any major healing abilities to speak of)

Originally Posted by Tenson
3. Would there be PvP/Battleground dedicated to only hero classes? Or would it be mixed? What about outdoor PvP? Would the hero class be overpowered against other Level 80 classes?
I don't think we'll see hero class only PvP/Battlegrounds, as far as the Death Knight being overpowered compared to other classes I don't think that will be the case either, I believe that they will be balanced just as all the current classes are balanced against each other.

Originally Posted by Tenson
4. This is more of an expansion question: will there be new abilities (and/or talent abilities) for players from 70-80? Or just more talent points?
Yes, there will be new talents and spells/abilities just like when Burning Crusade was released.

Originally Posted by Tenson
5. Another expansion question: what is the outlook on release date for WoLK (Wrath of the Lich King)?

Thanks!
When it's done™.
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08-12-07, 12:16 PM   #20
Tenson
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Thanks for the reply, MentalPower.

I think I'm going to sign up for next year's BlizzCon. It looks so cool with all the set up and displays, not to mention first hand experience with all the great things that Blizzard has to offer!
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