The Queue: Nice Crown! edition
by Michael Sacco 
Jul 2nd 2009 at 8:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.
Queue, queue, queue. Everyone must be really excited for the eventual 3.3 patch, because we've got a ton of questions about Arthas and Icecrown today. What the heck, guys! BUT YEA, I SHALL ANSWER THINE PLEAS.
m_rydelis asked:
I have a question here, so as I remember from Warcraft TFT, Lich King was left to freeze on Frozen Throne, and in WotLK cinematic we see him on it, so did it just melt down, or something happend, because there is no such thing as Warcraft as Frozen throne now.
Icecrown Citadel was built over the Frozen Throne, and Arthas has apparently done a lot of construction on Icecrown Glacier since TFT and especially since the opening cinematic. The Frozen Throne likely still remains inside of the fully-constructed Icecrown Citadel, but we'll definitely see when 3.3 launches.
Cyrus asked:
Do we even know if there's going to be a 3.4? Has Blizzard announced it, or are people assuming it just based on the number of content patches in BC? Maybe progression will just go OS, Naxx, EoE, Ulduar, Argent Coliseum and Icecrown.
The plan is for there not to be a 3.4. Blizzard has stated time and time again that the plan is for Arthas to be the final boss of the Wrath cycle and for Icecrown Citadel to be the final content patch of the Wrath cycle. The next expansion should be approaching much sooner than the wait between vanilla and BC (and BC and Wrath) as well, so this timeline could work out fine provided that the 4.0 train keeps rolling as it should. Blizzcon should clue us in as to how things are progressing in that regard, so keep your eyes open.
Ayiano asked:
I just spent all day writing a reply on the US suggestion forum regarding Racial Weapons (under the toon of Ayiana, if you want to check it out). In other words, weapons limited to a single race. Obviously, the most common request is Tauren totems (not the Shaman totems, but the held, giant, telephone-pole-sized totems seen in War3 and the cinematic). I was just wondering if you guys had any cool, yet serious and feasible ideas for other racial items (not necessarily weapons)? And if so, do you think Blizzard would implement them?
It's extremely unlikely. Blizzard's already shown that producing even faction-specific weapons and armor is too hard for content patches -- I was excited when I heard that the Tier 9 sets were faction-specific, and crushed when I saw that they were shared between armor classes -- so I honestly don't think that race-specific items are even a remote possibility.
Beyond creating the art assets, it's also a matter of what the items would do. Are they cosmetic? Do they help in combat? Do they give some kind of perk? How will those perks be balanced not only between races, but classes?
It's a little too much work for flavor (flavor that would, admittedly, be pretty cool. I want huge totems). But a guy can dream, right?
Avrador asked:
Question: Why as a Gnome are all my mounts so huge. I understand why they're sized up for Tauren, but I just bought my lvl30 ram as a gnome, and not only is it much larger than the version Dwarves get, but it's larger even than the human horse, and almost as tall as a talbuk. And the gnome version of the Wrath bears are larger than the Draenei version of the same. Is Blizzard helping us Gnomes compensate for something?
I can't speak for Blizzard's artists, but I'm pretty sure that the idea is for you to look ridiculous. Even more ridiculous than just being a gnome in the first place, which is a feat!
Thereluctantwarlock asked:
Question: with the recent announcement of faction changes, wouldn't it then be possible to see, in the future an incredibly long and difficult quest chain with albiet serious consequences, that would allow you simply "defect" to the other faction? This seems like it would be a better solution than racial recustomization. Plus, it would be super cool.
I don't like to give absolutes when it comes to possible features, but I'm pretty comfortable saying "that will never happen" to this particular one. Like many game designers for team-based or multiplayer games, Blizzard believes (correctly) that silhouette is an important factor in telling friend from foe. At a glance, we should be able to determine if a person is dangerous, and that would be incredibly difficult when the only difference is an internal flag saying "Alliance" or "Horde".
It's also a matter of identity, where it's pretty unlikely that the opposite faction would (in lore) even let a member of the other faction defect to them. The races that belong to either faction are there for good reasons.
Burninate asked:
What will happen to the Emblem of Heroism rewards? Will they be purchasable with Emblems of Conquest instead? And, if so, what will happen with the tier pieces sold for Heroism/Valor?
Each reward maintains its current token type and cost on the PTR. The vendors will still exist and downgrading your tokens is still very possible. The prices haven't changed and no rewards have been removed.
Lokasenna asked:
Do we know of any reason why the "Additional instances cannot be launched" message would popping up with much more frequency lately?
Yes. Blizzard is currently throttling the total number of possible instances per realm, and a lot of people are playing nowadays. It's an attempt to prevent instance server stress from impacting gameplay for others. It's been successful at that, but the side effect is that less people total get to run instances at any given time.
There are big changes coming that should alleviate or completely remove both instance server stress and "additional instances" errors. Keep your eyes peeled.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Patches, Expansions, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Vidi Jul 2nd 2009 8:09PM
"that will never happen"
Last week, I would have said the same thing about factions transfers.
Ginby Jul 2nd 2009 8:15PM
Difference being, faction changing comes at a price, making it a quest or automatic dosen't affect how much money they get out of it.
Hivetyrant Jul 2nd 2009 9:10PM
Not only that, but as they have said "Defecting" is different from what Blizzard are implementing, you don't keep your character and change sides, you get a new character of that faction and then a "Similar as possible" stat and gear copy.
It would be stupid and imo very weird (not impossible, but in game terms weird) to have tauren on the alliance, etc.
nih Jul 3rd 2009 1:13AM
I have a feeling that the next expansion will be announced during Blizzcon as being a mid-2010 release. WoW has been around long enough and has an established enough playerbase that Blizzard will be looking to release things like SCII and D3 for Christmas.
Schadenfreude Jul 3rd 2009 1:50AM
"Like many game designers for team-based or multiplayer games, Blizzard believes (correctly) that silhouette is an important factor in telling friend from foe."
See, I don't really buy this. Yes, it's easy to tell a gnome from a tauren silhouette, but can any of you, at a glance, tell a female orc from a night elf from a blood elf from a human from an undead from a troll at a distance? In full armor? While running?
Personally, I look for the red name in PvP, but that may just be me.
That said, I might be okay with the idea of defectors--but they should never be able to raise their reputation with any of the alliance factions above neutral. You've deserted your home faction to join the other side-- well, great! But we'll never really trust you.
onetrueping Jul 3rd 2009 4:50AM
I can, actually. It's a matter of posture and general shape. With the exception of Blood Elves, most Horde races have a generally hunched posture. And while this doesn't stand for female orcs and trolls, the female orcs have builds similar to male humans (but curvy), while the trolls are tall and gangly. It doesn't take much to identify them, really.
That said, the whole "quest chain for faction change" appears to have been an idea that was kicking around since the First Beta (languages count as skills, after all), but was nixed for a variety of reasons. If they turned it down from the beginning, and are still making you change your race now, I doubt they will ever implement it in the future.
Avrador Jul 2nd 2009 8:17PM
"I can't speak for Blizzard's artists, but I'm pretty sure that the idea is for you to look ridiculous. Even more ridiculous than just being a gnome in the first place, which is a feat!"
Well, they're certainly succeeding. I'm considering grinding rep for a talbuk, but I'm worried when I do it'll end up being ten feet tall. :P
Avrador Jul 2nd 2009 8:19PM
And thanks for including my question!
Sedirex Jul 3rd 2009 1:08AM
The actual answer to this one is that it's a relic from before mounts could swim. Blizz didn't want to inconvenience gnomes by dismounting them in much shallower water than other races but also didn't want them to be fully underwater while still riding along, so they turned the mount scale way up so the overall height of mount and rider is the same as most other races (not taurens).
Avrador Jul 3rd 2009 1:22AM
Yeah, I figured his wasn't the real reason. :P Thanks for the answer though, makes sense, though it also make my Draenei look like he's riding a midget bear. Hopefully they'll fix it at some point, but I'm not holding my breath.
Seraph Jul 3rd 2009 8:22AM
Funny thing is, back during early BC, gnomes started discovering that Black Morass was equivalent to the ninth circle of Hell because they would get dismounted in the water there. IIRC, they made the water shallower to compensate for the poor gnome tanks who couldn't make it to the next portal at a reasonable pace.
SaintStryfe Jul 2nd 2009 8:19PM
It DOES come with crown as illustrated.
/most obscure joke ever.
Iamnotacarebear Jul 2nd 2009 8:20PM
The question i have is with this increase of running the heroics, is the red heroic drake going to be removed?
I would hate to see this happen, but i wouldn't be surprised.
Furlover Jul 2nd 2009 8:35PM
No 3.4? I wonder.... :P
Can Blizz go without adding a troll instance like putting a raid encounter in Gundrak or something? I've never been a fan of the Zul's but I do love my Armani War Bear all the same!
Sleutel Jul 2nd 2009 8:59PM
"I can't speak for Blizzard's artists, but I'm pretty sure that the idea is for you to look ridiculous."
It's my understanding that it's because Gnomes themselves were scaled up from the very original game design (pre-Vanilla release)--they were originally even smaller, and when they were scaled up, their mounts scaled with them.
BigBiker05 Jul 2nd 2009 10:46PM
You're right. During early beta gnomes were about 20% smaller. The devs felt this was too small and just scaled them up 20%. If you did some measurements on the mounts I'm sure they'd be around 20%. Can't say if 20% is the actual number though.
Redgek Jul 2nd 2009 10:56PM
I think its also related to the (now redundant) effects of dismounting in water. On smaller mounts, gnomes would have dismounted in much shallower water than the other races. The increased mount size made them more on par with the other races in order to be fair in that regard.
Bubsa Jul 2nd 2009 9:07PM
What do I have to do, or who do I have to kill, to get hair like John Galliano's?
pumpkin Jul 2nd 2009 9:15PM
I'm sure it takes a team of experts a week to infuse him with the pure essence of fabulousness.
/jealous
Icepuck Jul 2nd 2009 9:09PM
Question: Why as a Gnome are all my mounts so huge.
Answer: The mount on a toon scales with the size of the toon model. Gnomes were initially designed to be a lot smaller than they are now... due to reasons (prob things like targeting and aesthetics) there size was increased.
The side-effect of that model size scale increase is that all player effects on the Gnomes were increased by the same scale factor which is most obviously witnessed in mount size increase.
The opposite is for taurens, they were actually shrunk a tiny bit and were not actually designed to ride mounts in the games original design (they had a run racial called Plainstrider)... so when they shrunk a bit their player effects were shrunk (inc mounts)