Several World of Warcraft developer interviews happened over the weekend. Here are some recaps with notably new information regarding The War Within and Classic WoW.
The War Within - Dynamic Flying Twitter/X Developer Clarifications
Senior Gameplay Software Engineer Karazaa gave some relevant new information regarding dynamic flying, particularly involving Druids.
- Druid Flight Form will get Dynamic Flight in 11.0. - Source: Twitter/X
- Dracthyr's Soar ability will also become fully Dynamic Flying enabled in Patch 10.2.5. - Soruce: Twitter/X
- Must complete Forbidden Reach and have unlocked Dragonriding on your account.
- "A massive number of existing flying mounts will be Dynamic Flight capable in The War Within. You will be able to toggle between your preferred flight style easily." - Source: Twitter/X
- "You have to be on the ground to switch between Dynamic and Traditional, but you don't have to dismount. - Source: Twitter/X
BlizzCon 2023 - Icy Veins Interview with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas
Icy Veins conducted an interview with Ion Hazzikostas on future Dragonflight content and the upcoming expansion.
- Dragonflight will have a Season 4 with Fated Raids similar to Shadowlands final season.
- The team wants to continue using catch-up mechanisms to counteract RNG. Dinar system in Shadowlands Season 4 may have been "too generous."
- Ion clarified this statement later in a Reddit thread.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
- Ion clarified this statement later in a Reddit thread.
- The team is happy with how the new talent system has turned out.
- Class and specs will continue to get updates, including talent pruning and adding more interesting options.
- Hero Talents will predominately be passive, but some active abilities where it makes sense.
- Delves will have a seasonal currency.
- More lucrative Delve rewards will have some limitations on how often you can get them.
- Guild UI and Friends System will be improved in the future.
- Devs don't want to force players into content they don't prefer, such as PvP vs PvE.
- Feature developments involve the team and not directives.
- There are no plans for Classic Timewalking Dungeons as the community sees them as too simple.
- The team will review class distribution on tier tokens to make it more fair.
- The team is open to feedback surrounding the removal of Season Affixes in Mythic Plus.
- The legendary axe from Fyrakk in Patch 10.2 will have bad luck protection from the start of the raid opening.
- Patch 10.2 legendary comes from Fyrakk and is similar in acquisition to the Evoker 10.1 legendary, but not exactly the same.
- Community feedback will dictate the approach and implementation of future legendaries.
BlizzCon 2023 Group Interview with Maria Hamilton and Kristy Moret
Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton and Lead World Artist Kristy Moret discussed The War Within during a group interview.
- Early Access
- Early access to The War Within should be leisurely to enjoy the story.
- Seasonal content will not be available during early access.
- Early access shouldn't feel mandatory.
- Early access should not give an advantage.
- Cross-Region guilds have greater technical hurdles than cross-realm.
- The team hopes to continue adding more druid customization after Patch 10.2.
- Pace of The Worldsoul Saga Expansions
- The team wants to ensure The Worldsoul Saga is paced faster.
- They don't want players completing the saga in 2030.
- Teams have been restructured to be able to create the whole saga.
- Delves are completely repeatable with no lockout, but ways to get improved loot will be more limited.
- Warbands
- Your entire account is included in your Warband.
- However, not all will show on the new camp selection screen.
- Horde and Alliance are included together.
- The team is conscious of the previous expansion borrowed power systems and is taking it into account with Hero Talents and subsequent additional systems.
- Can't say whether Ethereals will feature in the Midnight expansion.
- Each expansion will be a full expansion with a full suite of activities and zones.
- Zones and story for Midnight are already underway.
- No new support spec announcements at this time.
- The team will continue to provide a yearly roadmap for content releases.
- Couldn't say for certain if any or what limitations are on cross-realm guild trading.
- The War Within will have more styles of outdoor content of various difficulty and group size.
- The team loved building and experimenting with The Secrets of Azeroth event.
- Group size will not be an issue in Delve.
- There are still a lot of surprises to reveal, even with a three-expansion announcement.
- The team is committed to keeping the content pace they have set in Dragonflight.
- Proletariat has integrated seamlessly with the team.
- AI has been used to refit helmets to all character races.
- They don't want to develop zones or replace creative work with AI.
- No third faction as of now.
- A goal with Warbands is to include currency and other shared progression if it makes sense.
- Converting old mounts to dynamic flying is a time-consuming process.
- Earthen was a chance to explore and expand on Azeroth's cultures.
- Old zones that are being revisited in the expansions will get a glow-up.
- These glow-ups will be directed at the specific areas related to the expansion and not content-wide.
- Old versions of these zones will not be completely removed. It will utilize Chromie Time.
- With Dragonflight as the new player experience, the team wants to make sure people are aware of core characters.
- Expansion zones are designed with Dynamic Flying in mind.
DigitalTrends Talks with John Hight
DigitalTrends talked with John Hight, who had some relevant information to share.
- The Worldsoul Saga is NOT the end of World of Warcraft. They will continue to do expansions beyond this story.
- The team wants to deliver content faster but is also finding a sweet spot between their ability, how much time is needed to develop, and when players are ready for new content drops.
WoWhead Interview with Anne Stickney and Tina Wang
WoWhead had an exclusive interview with Senior Narrative Director Anne Stickney and Associate Game Director Tina Wang on The War Within.
- The Arathi tribe in The War Within is a splintered tribe of the original Arathi Empire.
- This tribe received a vision about a falling star, and it took them to the place that is now Harrowfall.
- This tribe is completely devoted to the Light.
- We haven't seen much human-focused lore in a while.
- The team is excited for players to learn about their culture and animal companions.
- Holy Flame entirely powers their airships.
- Priory of the Secret Flame dungeon looks like a cathedral.
- The world soul is calling out to people for a reason. The sword is part of the saga.
- The crystal shining at the top of Harrowfall is NOT the tip of the sword.
- Magni will play a big part in the story.
- We will adventure with Moira's son Dagran, who has recently come of age and is no longer a baby.
- Anduin doesn't feel worthy of the Light. He is still traumatized by his actions in Shadowlands.
- The team still wants to keep the expansion releases at a responsible pace.
- The goal is not to have long content draughts like they have in the past.
- 10.2 is NOT the last patch of Dragonflight. There is so much more story to tell, and they are excited for fans to see it.
- Amirdrassil is the final new raid for Dragonflight.
- Silvermoon will be a part of Midnight's Quel'thalas glow-up.
- The Sunwell intrigues people who want to snuff out the light.
- There is no timer involved with Delves.
- Delves has difficulty levels.
- Hero Talents have visual cues to differentiate them from each other in combat.
- The team can't talk too much about professions yet.
- The team wants most, if not all, mounts that currently fly to be dynamic flying-ready by launch.
WoW Classic Group Interview
WoW Classic developers sat down at BlizzCon 2023 for a group interview.
- Community feedback will continue to set the course for the future of Classic servers and expansions.
- The team is open to lessons learned and changes in philosophy for Classic when it comes to adding accessibility from Modern WoW.
- The team wants Season of Discovery to be an epic moment of sharing information between the community.
- Hardcore could come to further expansions if fans demand it.
- Reforging is in Cataclysm Classic.
- Season of Discovery will have a mix of small and epic things to find.
- 4 Level Bands planned for Season of Mastery:
- Level 25
- Level 40
- Level 50
- Level 60
- There will be a boost to EXP for older bands when a new one is introduced.
- The team is considering new tier sets based on the new runes.
- Timeline for level bands will be faster than patches.
- Nothing to announce about cross-faction play in Classic at the moment.
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