Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsGameplanet interviews Cory Stockton and Greg Street
by Allison Robert 
Jun 17th 2010 at 6:00PM
From the interview with Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton:
- Heroic Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines won't ship with Cataclysm. They're currently being planned for patch 4.1. Stratholme, Scholomance, and Dire Maul are high on the list of other instances they'd like to revamp.
- The "narrative flow" of a constantly-changing MMORPG is "always a problem" -- e.g., how do you send death knights to train under an Arthas who is now canonically dead? -- and they've talked a lot about how to balance the game's overall story with the smaller one each character experiences.
- The Cataclysm content patch will be the approximate size of Canada and will be delivered to your house via sherpa. OK, he didn't actually say that, but the patch will be huge, and they'll be breaking it up into several mini-patches for players' convenience.
- Expect a pre-Cataclysm event much bigger than the zombie invasion.
- There will be a new Caverns of Time instance or raid in a later patch.
- WoW's gotten complicated, and the game was initially designed with the expectation that it'd only be around for a few years.
- Removing Path of the Titans was a tough decision, but after a lot of work they asked themselves: "Why are we spending all this time on the Path system when what we really want to do is fix glyphs up?"
- There are other ideas similar to Path of the Titans (e.g. the dance studio) were a lot of work was poured into developing it and they still weren't satisfied with the result.
- They'd like to decrease players' dependence on third-party websites to get an understanding of how their class and spec works. (Speaking as an employee of one such third-party website -- hey!).
- Glyphs will be moving to a three-tier system: major, minor, and medium glyphs. Major and minor glyphs will continue to do pretty much what they do now, but "the new medium glyphs are some of the most interesting because they'll affect abilities that you don't use constantly but you do use, and they can be DPS or healing increases, but not necessarily straight-forward ones."
Filed under: News items, Interviews, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Drakkenfyre Jun 17th 2010 6:35PM
On a server which is Horde dominated Quel'Danas was a pain in the ass. For every 4 or 5 Horde there, there was 1 Alliance. So trying to get your dailies done meant you got ganked over, and over, and over, and over. I have a screenshot where I was pounced by three Rogues AT ONCE. You couldn't get all your dailies done without getting ganked a dozen times. The only thing you could do was wait until late at night, and do them when there weren't so many Horde on.
The idea of "Daily quests hub in a PVP area is exciting!" isn't exciting to me.
Transit Jun 17th 2010 6:45PM
I normally play Horde on a pvp server. In this past ptr cycle I rolled on a pve server. As I came out of Org I saw a human mage and a dwarf pallie dueling right outside. That felt really odd and just wrong. At once I knew I had to play on a pvp server (And why the worgen went to the alliance, having humans walk around org, doing business as normal would have felt wrong too.)
@Drakkenfyre The server I am on is dominated by horde and it was still painful to do dailies. Allies who see themselves as having no chance at doing the dailies themselves took the time to make sure the horde could not do them either.
One trick they had was to go around naked and attack someone's pet (if they were a pet class) pets are usually set to defensive and they would attack back. The guards would come kill both of you and the guy with gear on would take armor damage. Ah, good times..... Not really. >:-(
TR Jun 17th 2010 8:44PM
Yeah, I don't get that either, then again the devs/designers seem to listen to the PvP player base hence the PvE class nerfs because they imbalance PvP arena. This in itself seems to refute the belief on most WoW-related websites (and the official forums) that no one listens to Vocal Minorities so they should be ignored altogether.
At the very least I hope with all the individual phasing tech their touting they've at least resolved existing problems. The one at the ICC summon stone that prevents members of the same raid from seeing each other and helping to summon is the most glaring example. The quest Tirion's Gambit is example of where existing phasing tech should have been applied and still hasn't been even though it's in an area where a lot of it already exists. Once someone completes the quest on your realm, you have to wait for the daily quest reset to occur before you can do it and I've seen players camping the spot to get FIRST! dibs.
PvtDeth Jun 17th 2010 9:45PM
I would assume that someone on a PvP server would want to PvP. The biggest complaint I've ever heard about PvP is the decline and demise of world PvP. I, personally, like to be able to do a quest without getting ganked, hence my choice of PvE for a server. For people who want mass chaos, PvP server.
Iirdan Jun 17th 2010 10:14PM
I play on a PvE server. Yet a large portion of the Horde love to world PvP. We organized a massive event where the Horde seized and held every Alliance capital city at once for a full hour. Auctioneers, Innkeepers, Bankers - all dead, and killed right as they spawned. Alliance dying right when they return to their corpse. Great, great fun.
And yet, at the end of the day, you could still go up to the Argent Tournament and do your dailies peacefully if you so wished.
Transit Jun 17th 2010 11:17PM
@PvtDeth
Its not a matter of wanting to pvp or not. Its not like pvp servers never raid and pve servers never do battlegrounds. There are times and places for both. But good world pvp is not artificially forced, it happens naturally.
TMill vs. Southshore no dailies needed, no 5% buff to the winners, nothing. And while it did inconvenience the people in that area. There were alternatives of where they could go. And the people there, on both sides, WERE PREPARED to pvp. Its not like they were there for other reasons, at max lvl at least.
Making the dallie area a haven for people who like to give other people a hard time is NOT good world pvp, its just annoying. Like the scourge event in the cities was annoying. Good world pvp has the people at BOTH ends wanting to pvp, for the sake of pvp itself. Not one side going, "Dude, I just want to get this done so I can go eat."
Drakkenfyre Jun 17th 2010 11:54PM
There's a difference between being on a PVP server, and being on a PVP server where one faction greatly outbalances the other. Placing a daily hub in a zone where it literally might never change hands (except for the forced changing that will be implemented) is not a good idea.
Gendou Jun 17th 2010 6:47PM
So is that interview their roundabout way of telling us that the Dance Studios are never coming?
Drakkenfyre Jun 17th 2010 7:37PM
I think so.
Stop !@#$ing around about it. Either announce it cancelled or say it's still being worked on. By this point that's what's pissing off some players. Not that they just have delayed the hell out of it, but won't say one way or the other about it's status, so it's just "continue to wait until it's announced as either cancelled or pending." Those people can start getting over it if they would just announce it was cancelled.
Artificial Jun 18th 2010 12:04AM
"Either announce it cancelled or say it's still being worked on."
Even if both of these options are false?
They've explained the situation. If some people can't handle the truth, that's not a good excuse to give a simpler answer if that answer would be a lie.
Sun_Wyvern Jun 17th 2010 7:02PM
I think this deserves a highlight: "We’ve done a couple of things: Exodar has a direct port to Stormwind now so that you can get back and forth between the two. It’s something we feel we probably always should have had and it made sense to add it now. Darnassus is going to get a small Worgen district because Worgen are the new Druid-like race for the Alliance, so it makes perfect sense that they would have a spot there."
Transit Jun 17th 2010 7:13PM
Yeah, I thought that was pretty good too. Although the cynic in me noticed he avoided talking about silvermoon. lol
RogueJedi86 Jun 17th 2010 9:11PM
Worgen District of Darnassus=cool
Not linking Exodar to the Kalimdor flightpath network=not cool. I'd rather it be linked into the flightpath network rather than just throwing a random portal into Exodar and SW that connect them. SMC is connected to the rest of EK, why can't Exodar be connected to the rest of Kalimdor?!
Tapukimastra Jun 18th 2010 6:35AM
@Transit
Silvermoon is linked to UC flight paths and has a teleportation orb to get straight to UC as well.
traptinacivicsi Jun 18th 2010 11:18AM
That's funny when I read 'port' I imagined that the dock would be expanded for a boat to stormwind.
Meh, now I'm kind of sad.
Transit Jun 18th 2010 1:25PM
@Tapukimastra
I am not sure what you thought the question was that invoked this answer, but just in case it was; "Gameplanet: What steps – if any – have you taken to increase the relevance of the more remote cities in Kalimdor and Azeroth, for example Exodar and Silvermoon?"
My comment about them avoiding talking about silvermoon still stands, but seeing as they have not released any photos of that area, it is probably because they are still working on it at the moment. I am sure the arial of that city may well be the most complicated in the game. It's entirely possible that they have nothing formally to release at this time.
AMS Jun 17th 2010 7:50PM
ZOMG I think I just time traveled to last Sunday! *Checks article interview* YUP!
brian Jun 17th 2010 7:59PM
Honestly it's more wowhead than you guys that have more to lose with less reliance on third-party websites. It's the more factual stuff that the UI is getting.
After all, the new UI can tell me what spells I can get after I level, or show me quest locations on my map, but it can't make a jab at Warlocks after I ding like you guys can, they can't discuss talent builds in funny ways, or talk about fun achievements, or even squee over "OMG HOW AWESOME IS THIS EVERYTHING'S NEW!"
So yeah, as long as you guys are excited, I'll be excited, and I'll come back for your unique brand of humor and wit.
(I'll still go to Wowhead too, even with the changes. They're just making it so it's not practically required. I don't want to have to walk to my trainer to see when I learn spells, or go to the AH to see what glyphs there are. So, they're just putting more of that in-game. Wowhead has other stuff that's cool though, like the gear comparisons and tankspot videos. Lord knows I'll still use it to get information about mobs and bosses.)
Musterion Jun 17th 2010 8:49PM
"Stratholme, Scholomance, and Dire Maul are high on the list of other instances they'd like to revamp."
Crap! Better finish freeing knot and farming librams, farming skin of shadow (only 100 more to go!), and having a stab at Deathcharger's Reins while I can! :(
Iirdan Jun 17th 2010 10:11PM
I don't think GC was referring to news blogs such as this one, but rather to sites such as (if not specifically) Elitist Jerks.