Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsNo skipping the story in the Culling of Stratholme for now
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 20th 2009 at 4:00PM
Be honest, I know you do, too.
What has to be the most requested feature of this dungeon -- the ability to skip the long and repetitive story -- isn't coming anytime soon. When there was some discussion about this in the general forms earlier this week, Eyonix appeared and enlightened us as to Blizzard's thoughts on the matter:
So for the time being we'll have to live with this, but at least Blizzard is on the same page with us all. And if the Trial of the Champion and Halls of Reflection instances tells us anything, it's that Blizzard won't be building dungeons without the ability to skip the story in the future -- at least we hope so.We agree, but unfortunately with the current tech/flagging that exists in regards to this -- it's just not possible for the game to recognize this sort of thing and allow for a bypass. It's always a possibility for the future though.
Filed under: News items, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
Bittercold Dec 21st 2009 12:20AM
nothing, and i mean NOTHING is as bad as that giant skeleton in Halls of Reflection right after the first boss(es). the one that says something like 'you are not worthy to face the lich king.'
really crank your speakers next time you pull him and prepare to cringe. worst. voice acting. ever.
rkaliski Dec 20th 2009 10:27PM
There are some scenes in the instances that no matter how many time you go through them it's fun. Other times, like Kael in Tempest Keep which was a complex fight to learn, you got sick of hearing the same speech over and over and over.
Come on, who doesn't get a kick out of seeing the smirky little gnome get flattened in TOC. I almost want to give the demon some gold for it.
MikeMachine Dec 20th 2009 6:04PM
Nerf instance/raid dialogue!
alpha5099 Dec 20th 2009 6:13PM
You know, CoS is one of the only Heroics the Dungeon Finder hasn't put me in. Haven't gotten Nexus or AN either. It loves for me to do HoS though, I seem to do that practically everyday.
Hurgan Dec 20th 2009 6:17PM
Funny how there are hundreds of characters, PCs of 9 playable races, who speak Common as a second language and yet have reasonably natural diction.
Jeremiel Dec 20th 2009 6:18PM
I don't mind it in CoT, or in any 5-man to be honest, as you likely only have to listen to it once a day, at most.
I enjoy the lore, and I don't feel the need to be in /that/ much of a hurry.
However, there are places (those places you are likely to revisit several times an evening) where a skip button would be appreciated...
"We named him Dranosh..."
/snooze
Darksky Dec 20th 2009 6:18PM
So, one thing about the comments by Blizzard re: the reason they can't skip it confuses me just a little bit. Pardon the paraphrasing, but essentially they're saying they can't add a "skip" mechanism because it isn't built into the dungeon architecture to be able to flag the intro as "skippable" or not, like it is with Frozen Halls or ToC.
Well, that's where I'm stumped a bit: ToC didn't come with that ability out the gate either -- it was added via a patch. Before that, you had to go through the whole intro, every time.
So, that leads me to believe one of two things: either (a) ToC was meant to have that functionality from the get-go, it didn't work when 3.2 dropped, and they had to patch it into working, or (b) the flaggable/skipping functionality was an afterthought on ToC so they patched it into existence, and they're just not willing to put in the resources to patch it into existance for the CoT:CoS instance.
I'm not saying that I have a problem with that (b) alternative if that's the case -- after all, we're all focused on Icecrown now, and soon we won't even care about the CoS storyline because we'll all be fighting Deathwing, so why invest development resources for something that's not going to be front & center much longer -- I'm just saying that logically, it doesn't make sense that they could patch it for one dungeon and not another.
macster Dec 20th 2009 6:35PM
I think the differences are tricky to spot, but are pretty fundamental to the workings of the instance. Iirc, you can go out and wander into Stratholme, and interact with the locals while Arthas and Uther try to get over their repressed feelings for each other, while in ToC you use the Tournament Fella(?) to "trigger" the encounters...
wowmartyjohnson Dec 20th 2009 8:11PM
It started getting on my nerves a tad bit yesterday.. then I had another giant batch of HoR.. and I am getting that memorized as well...
When the line "Who could carry such a burden?" I randomly name political figures, movies stars from the 70's, and cartoon characters.. not once has anyone in the group laughed... but I think it's funny as hell.
wowmartyjohnson Dec 20th 2009 8:11PM
Or maybe they say ".. bear such a burden?"
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Dec 20th 2009 10:33PM
ROKKIT BARE CAN
Shykull Dec 21st 2009 3:33AM
["To the ends of the earth!" ]??? And I thought it was Azeroth.
Hoggersbud Dec 20th 2009 9:10PM
Thinking about it, it seems to me that the real problem is the cost of fixing it is non-trivial. However, it can be fixed.
So let's see if we can start a collection to fix it. If every WOW player contributed say a penny, that'd be over a million dollars.
Would the problem cost that much to fix? What if we got a nickel? A quarter? A whole dollar?
How much would it cost to get Blizzard to fix it?
MasterAsh Dec 20th 2009 10:30PM
Your irrational irritation and cynicism have no limits, do they?
Hoggersbud Dec 20th 2009 11:07PM
Really? I think that's the optimistic approach, and all the people raging over changing it are the pessimistic cynics.
See, when I talk about fixing a problem, I think of that as the hopeful way to go about it, and I find the objections here to be rather negative and obstructionist.
That's a pity.
eVEAN Dec 20th 2009 11:10PM
Am I the only one who thinks its very odd that he says "To the ends of the Earth!"? Arthas doesn't live on Earth. meh, semantics i 'spose. Only the beginning really needs to be sped up, imo, the rest is fine.
Hoggersbud Dec 20th 2009 11:16PM
No, you're not. Though that's one problem I'm not worried about getting it fixed.
fellina Dec 21st 2009 1:08AM
I like the monologue. It gives me plenty of time to get a drink, find the Cheetos, let the dog outside, stretch my button fingers, and ponder the meaning of virtual life.
SbE Dec 21st 2009 1:54AM
I call bullshit on Eyonix' claim that the technology can't recognize the condition. In Halls of Stone, you can skip the Tribunal of Ages exposition by talking to Brann. Is there some kind of time traveling magic preventing it from working in Stratholme?
Hoggersbud Dec 21st 2009 2:25AM
Nope. The only obstacle is a lack of the appropriate coding for it. This may range in difficulty, but it shouldn't be impossible, despite folks protests to the contrary.