Breakfast Topic: How phasing could be used in-game
by Lesley Smith 
Aug 12th 2009 at 8:00AM
Phasing seems to be Blizzard's new favorite toy. It's being used be more and more as we progress through Wrath. From the Wrathgate to those annoying out of body/spirit quests in Zul'Drak, phasing is changing how we see Azeroth itself. But it strikes me there's once area where phasing should sometimes be used and isn't: bosses. Specifically I mean the big guys ... Kil'Jaeden, Illidan, Loken, Yoggy, Algalon and, of course, Arthas himself.The logic here is simple, these are bosses key to game lore and killing them not only takes an enormous amount of effort (or in the case of Kil'Jaeden, banishing him back to where ever he came from) but it also has an effect on the world itself. Think of the impacts the events of the Sunwell had - phasing was never implemented there, and definitely should have been once Wrath was released.
Now I know you will be thinking: "Why should we only kill a boss once?" I'm not suggesting that once you kill the Lich King, for example, you are locked out of killing him again. Rather that his death triggers a change in Azeroth - which is where the phasing comes in. Icecrown Citadel could collapse or be recycled by other NPCs, such as the Ebon Blade. Once this happens, you could then walk in, click on an NPC and 'relive' the fight in the form of a new raid. The same thing could be done with the Sunwell, for example, and it could open up a new quest chain and further the game's lore in new and fantastic ways.
We've already seen how phasing can change Northrend, just look at how it's used post-Wrathgate. How do you think it could be used (particularly considering that the new expansion is called Cataclysm) to change how we play, the bosses we kill, and how we raid?
Filed under: Patches, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Lore, NPCs, BlizzCon, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Boreddruid Aug 12th 2009 8:08AM
Now THAT sounds like a good idea.
strawberrymonkeyturd Aug 12th 2009 12:37PM
Only a good idea if you are able to manually change your phase in some way.
Content gating is bad. Phasing is content gating.
In the example of Icecrown, having new stuff appear after you slay Arthas is cool in concept. But then you start to realize that only about 5% of people will be slaying Arthas anytime soon after the release of 3.3 (or 3.4). And by anytime soon, I mean months. On my server alone there are only a handful of guilds who have downed Yogg. And even out of those guilds, not everyone has gotten the kill. So it would be a bad use of development time to implement an entire new phased world that only a small fraction of the players would ever get to see.
What about people who PvP instead of Raid? What about the people in your guild who haven't gotten the kill yet? What about your friends that aren't in a top-tier raiding guild?
There are a massive amount of obstacles that make this sort of implementation of phasing difficult. Not only that, but there are a substantial number of players that simply don't like phasing, at least not in its current implementation. Far too many times I have either needed help or have been trying to help other players quest in Icecrown. There are a number of group quests that can only be completed with players on the same phase and because you can't go back (or forward) you are completely at the mercy of just happening to run into someone on the same phase at the same time.
So, while I agree it would be "cool" to see these types of changes in the game world based on your personal progression through content, there is a definite reason that we haven't seen this in MMOs before - because it gates content and fractures your player base between the haves and have-nots. Blizzard has been doing everything possible to close this gap (emblem changes, no more attunements, easier content). Adding phasing to raid progression is the exact opposite of that design direction.
Kassey Aug 12th 2009 1:12PM
i agree with strawberry.
I love the idea of phasing. Wrathgate, or progressing through the story in icecrown are all wonderful uses of the technology, but they're small, and how they should stay. running out into elwynn from stormwind i should see the lower levels, not have all the mobs level 80 and seeing only the level 80s in the zone.
I hope we see more, isolated uses of the technology. phasing entire zones would be a huge undertaking and only fracture the population more.
MazokuRanma Aug 12th 2009 8:12PM
@strawberry
I think you've partially missed her point. She didn't necessarily say that there should be new content added for people who've completed Icecrown Citadel. She merely wants the landscape to change to reflect it.
If you've downed Arthas, you can now wander freely about Icecrown Citadel forever unless you manually initiate a sort of 'memory' fight. The only thing important about this is that you can still do the fight with people who are on the real encounter.
Additionally, this idea allows for a way to restore Gnomeregan as a city and still allow lower levels to run the instance. Somewhere in Gnomeregan you could as a gnome mage about retaking the city, and he could let you experience it. As for the Darkspear, since their island isn't an instance, I think it's about time to just say they took it back and just add some new quests in the starter zone. I wouldn't terribly mind it if the starter zones were redesigned anyway to be more in line with the awesome that was the blood elf and draenei starter zones.
Sur Aug 12th 2009 8:10AM
There's a lot of things you could do with phasing especially bosses. I was brainstorming with a friend and we thought about the actuality of winning and losing.
Both should change the world, or at the very least the zone, you're in. If you win, npcs and the world should notice it. But if you fail so many times within a lockout, the zone should phase to something bad, perhaps apocalyptic; the boss is loosed and can't be killed so he reeks havoc.
Obviously this would only be fir the duration of the lockout, but I believe it would give so much more flavor, personality and weight to the game.
Josin Aug 12th 2009 8:10AM
I think more phasing is always a plus, and love the idea proposed here for its use.
Anything that increases immersion in the game world is always welcome.
I truly hope that at some point, the entire old world would become phased, and we'd see progress. There's no reason that Westfall shouldn't be on the road to recovery following Van Cleef's demise. Sure, there can still be some pockets of Defias, but Moonbrook certainly should be reborn, and maybe some of the farmers get their land back from the harvesters?
Let some of the little folks have their happy endings!
Zombie3k Aug 12th 2009 8:11AM
They could phase you into a place where the words "Additional instances cannot be launched" don't exist.
In all seriousness I would like to see phasing used to enable us to go back into low level areas and kill higher level mobs there. Imagine stepping back into Westfall inside the Emerald Nightmare and finding it plagued with evil level 90 nightmare mobs. While still allowing all the newbies to level as normal. That would be impressive to me.
Mike Aug 12th 2009 8:18AM
I don't know whether to downvote for more QQ of the instance problems that Blizzard is working so hard to fix, or upvote because the idea of mobs being higher level for higher level players is a good one.
Jon Do Aug 12th 2009 8:36AM
"Additional instances cannot be launched"
If you are a server in one of these battlegroups, you're probably toast:
Ruin
Shadowburn
Vindication
Re-roll or transfer to a battlegroup that doesn't have this issue (personally I've never see that error on my server which is in a different battlegroup).
Six months is way past time for a critical error to persist. Blizz has no idea on this one, so you'd best move away from the problem.
oddworld Aug 12th 2009 10:00AM
@ Jon Do:
I'm in Ruin (Stormrage-US, one of the oldest and most active servers in the battlegroup) and I haven't had a ton of trouble with instances. Usually it's five minutes til you get in, tops. A few of my guildies have had trouble with lower-level instances especially (one spent 20 minutes trying to get into BRD) but by and large it hasn't been supremely obnoxious. We were able to raid last night with no issues.
Byronius Aug 12th 2009 8:17PM
I'm on Shadowburn, and I'd have to agree it isn't the worst problem ever. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes or so, and though some pugs get impatient and leave, more people are looking for heroics so they aren't hard to replace. It will be satisfying when I don't have to see that ever again though, lol.
Mike Aug 12th 2009 8:16AM
Not really related to phasing, but is to the idea that Sunwell should've been re-implemented with phasing. That's actually one of my biggest gripes with the game, is that they never backport features. pre-Borean leather scraps can only be used by Leatherworkers. Level 70 Heroics still require Honored rep and the corresponding key. Part of the reason I hate leveling alts is the vast majority of little things in game mechanics that were changed in TBC and WLK to make the game more enjoyable, but still work the old way pre-60 (and even things in WLK over TBC still work the TBC way pre-70).
RetadinMan Aug 12th 2009 8:16AM
The 4.0 opening event. Whatever it is, I wanna see it phased! Imagine Westfall under siege by Naga! Durotar overrun by Murlocs! Mulgore Flooded! The snow of Dun Morogh melting into Loch Modan, causing a flood destroying Thelsamar! The Exodar repaired! Thousand Needles a Thousand Islands!
tanek Aug 12th 2009 8:21AM
I would love to see phasing used for something like this. Or, as a previous poster said, used to "permanently" change the old world in some way as you progress.
Before they take a big step like that, though, I think Blizzard will have to come up with a way for you to go back to a previous phase so you can join up with people who have not gotten up to where you are.
Zythern Aug 12th 2009 9:30AM
I agree with Tanek, if whole zones are being phased, their needs to be a way to go back a phase to aid someone else. Icecrown was hard for this. I would be in x phase trying to help a friend in y phase. There were some instances that I could help, like tanking a whole bunch of mobs so he could blow the abomination up on me for easier kills, but when he was ganged up on by a couple of horde, I could not aid at all but watch his health drop.
A big part of this game is being able to do content with each other. If that gets limited more and more, it will be harder and harder to play with those that are not on the exact same page you are. I could only imagine trying to aid a friend in getting the pre VC quests completed and realizing that I can't find him because my Moonbrook is saved where he is dying in a defias owned Moonbrook.
I am all for zones being revisited, having Moonbrook revitalized would be awesome, but I would also want to be able to help my friends out where they need it, and not be restricted because I already completed that content.
awwjwah Aug 12th 2009 8:24AM
I like the idea however one thing that Blizzard needs to implement, imo, is the ability to either, unphase or have phasing based upon the quest progression of the group leader. Nothing in game has been more frustrating to me and my guildmates than being unable to help with a quest line because we were either to far ahead or to far behind the person needing help and sometimes, there just isn't anyone available to pug with.
So I am on board with the idea above as long as they take into consideration that we still want to be able to play with our friends.
Gennifurfur Aug 12th 2009 8:30AM
For someone like me, who will never kill the Lich King in this game, I would probably feel a little left out. Just a little, I wouldn't whine about it or anything. When I started playing this game I knew I'd be missing out on the highest end contend, and that's okay.
I still love what they've done with phasing in the questing process, and I hope that they continue to do more and more of it.
Samutz Aug 12th 2009 8:44AM
Gnomeregan! Finally brought back to gnomish glory!
I think if Blizzard wants to make sure people don't totally blow off the old world, this would be the way to do it. Let players progress past the old world events, rather than only letting them do them over again and again for giggles.
Since Burning Crusade's release, we haven't seen much change in the old world. A few zones were tacked on for Blood Elves, Draeni, and Death Knights, which will probably happen again for Worgen and Goblins. But I would love to see actual changes to the pre-existing zones, not just additions, that show how the old world's been affect as a result of clearing out Gnomeregan, wiping out the leaders of the Defias brotherhood, and destroying the dragons Onyxia and Blackwing.
Josin Aug 12th 2009 9:18AM
I'd love to see Gnomeregan restored, but its still an irradiated mess, even if you DO kill everything inside.
I'm still hoping we get a floating gnomish city in the sea. Or a submersible one, which would seem appropriately gnomish.
Nazgûl Aug 12th 2009 10:57AM
How to save Gnomeregan? Easy.
Put a lead enchant on your weapon, slice everything, then put a fresh layer of lead paint all over the walls.
What irradiation?