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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: EVE
by Alex Ziebart 
Jul 19th 2010 at 11:00AM
I made an "oops" and missed out on this past weekend's edition of WRUP, so what better place is there to blather on about what I did this past weekend than The Queue? There is none, so here I go! I decided to check out EVE Online this past weekend and I was utterly shocked at how many other WoW players there were in the rookie areas of the game. Heck, they even had names like TheAshbringer and Kaelthas Starstrider. I'm really curious whether the overwhelming number of former WoW players is normal for EVE or if it's a recent thing. It's always interesting to see just how many WoW players there are in other MMOs.
Now with that out of the way, on with the show!
TAD asked:
"Have the level 20-60 quests in the newly-revamped Old World been updated with the newer mechanics brought in with BC and WotLK? Bombing missions, vehicles, etc. I know there's some of that in the new starting zones, but I wonder if it's been extended to the rest of the game up to Outland."
Those mechanics aren't used as heavily as they are in Northrend, but they most certainly are there in the old world. Every single zone has received some sort of attention in Cataclysm, and many zones have received complete rebuilds from the ground up. Every zone is much closer to being in line with Blizzard's quest design of 2010 rather than the design of 2004.
TAD also asked:
"What's the story impetus now for players to even bother going to Outland or WotLK?"
Outland and Northrend are in very strange places now that they've revamped the "old" world in Cataclysm. There's an immense disconnect in the story between levels 58 and 78 now. The quests you do in those areas technically take place in the past as far as the story goes, and you just have to roll with it and pretend it's perfectly normal. There's very little story impetus. None at all, really. It's just a victim of the fact that Blizzard is already rebuilding most of the world, they can't rebuild another at the same time. Maybe next expansion will see an Outland revamp that sets the story right. I won't lie, I loved Outland. Most people didn't, but I did. Zangarmarsh remains my favorite zone in the game even after seeing the Cataclysm beta. I'd love a reason to go back there.
tgrhawke asked:
"With Darkshore and Auberdine destroyed in Cataclysm, how do the draenei and the night elves get from their islands to Kalimdor?"
The night elves still have an encampment in Darkshore. After Auberdine's destruction, they moved further north. To actually answer your question though, you sail into Rut'Theran now, off the coast of Darnassus. Then you take a flight down to Darkshore.
Rezai asked:
"You know the thing where you complete a quest, and you can turn it in right there and get the next quest instead of going back to the quest giver? Does anyone know if that has been implemented for BC and Wrath content?"
I think people are misunderstanding this feature. Not every quest gets that treatment. Not every single quest completes automatically in the field and lets you pick up the new one in the middle of nowhere. This is only for specific quests and quest chains. The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King's content has been touched very little, so you most likely will not be seeing that in any quests in those areas. Only very specific parts of the new Cataclysm content have received it.
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: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 9)
Mike Jul 19th 2010 11:45AM
I can understand that for Kezen... but can't you go back and visit the Lost Isles after?
Cephas Jul 19th 2010 11:48AM
Trust me, if you level a Goblin through those two zones it will make sense to you why you can't go back to either one.
Mike Jul 19th 2010 11:51AM
Duly noted, and can't wait.
Munkiez Jul 19th 2010 11:17AM
With the new Joystiq iPhone app, when are we going to see the WoW.com app? The mobile site is fine, but the experience on the app is so much cleaner.
Warvanov Jul 19th 2010 11:21AM
I've read that when Cataclysm is released there will be a period of time when we will be unable to race change existing characters to the new worgen and goblin races. I'm wondering if this will apply to the new race/class combos as well. Specifically, I'm levelling a dranei shaman with the intention of changing him to a dwarf. Any idea if I will be able to do this when Cataclysm launches or will I have to wait?
N-train Jul 19th 2010 11:32AM
This kind of question gets asked a bunch of times, and sadly no one really knows.
I would guess that race changes will probably be locked down for a bit, but I don't think they're going to make you wait so long it'd be worth it to completely re-roll a Paladin just so you can be a Tauren (what everyone I know Hordeside will be doing hehe).
I don't think we're going to know until it drops, I'm afraid.
Cyrus Jul 19th 2010 12:19PM
I think the point of not allowing race changes to the new races is to preserve the Realm First! Feats of Strength for people who leveled those toons from 1 all the way up. If so, I would expect the same limitation to apply to changing to new race/class combinations. If so, then I would expect both limitations to remain for roughly a month or two, to make sure that all those FoS are claimed by people who leveled all the way, even on low-population servers and for unpopular race/class combinations. A week would be way too brief (yeah, sure, it might be possible to level from 1 to 85 in a week if you play 15 hours a day, have experience bonus heirlooms, and have people helping you) but three months would be pointlessly long; even with no bonuses and sane time use, anyone who's playing primarily on a new toon could get to 85 in that time.
Short answer: yes, I'd expect the same restriction period for changes to the new race/class combinations as for changes to the new races. But if it's only an alt you're talking about and you don't care about the leveling experience on the new toon, then it shouldn't affect you too much. I doubt it would be so long that your main would run out of stuff to do in the new endgame.
Chan Jul 19th 2010 11:21AM
Yay! Someone else who loves Zangarmarsh as much as I do! I couldn't get enough when I was questing through that zone and I still love it when a guildie asks me to make them a primal mooncloth bag because it gives me an excuse to go back. By far my favorite zone in the game.
penguinairsauce Jul 19th 2010 11:29AM
What's the news on cairne bloodhoof. I heard that garrosh was supposed to kill him, but that was ages ago and I'm not sure about this in the cat beta. I just wonder if he is still alive.
Cephas Jul 19th 2010 11:46AM
While leveling a new Tauren, you discover that Cairne was poisoned by the Grimtotem. Yes he's dead, no Garrosh didn't kill him.
RG Jul 19th 2010 11:24AM
It would be cool if the Gnomes or Goblins would develop the technology (tractor beams or big rockets) to recover other pieces of Draenor and bring it in to Outland. Perhaps even re-build the entire planet...'tho looking at their current level of rocket technology, probably not going to happen. Perhaps some other group? Or perhaps a mega-world event involving 400 death knights who would "snare" a piece and pull it in. :) Or better yet, transport outland onto the surface of one of the existing planets visible in the sky above Outland! And yes, I AM rambling...
Scott Jul 19th 2010 11:31AM
This would be one way to make Outland relevant in Cataclysm. Why? Who had a summer place on a cozy little island on Draenor? Oh yeah...Deathwing.
There could be a whole quest line and possibly a 5-man dungeon based around finding the remains of his lair floating around in the Twisting Nether. My money is on this lair being retconned out of existance, but it would be great to go back.
Bromide Jul 19th 2010 11:27AM
i've played (and still do now and again) eve since 2003 and seen most of its content.
compared to WoW it is unforgiving and if you want to achieve something i can very fast become a second full time job.
what took the fun out for me was so called blobbing in small scale fights (less than 200 players engaging each other in pvp) and "numbers win all" in real fleet fights (2000+ players fighting each other in a single fight, imagine dalaran an open pvp area without restrictions).
what i liked more or what made pvp meaningfull is that you lose whatever equip you brought into the fight and the winner can loot your wreck / corpse.
that said a quick illustration of the learning curve (seriously it has gotten a lot better):
http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/0901/LearningCurve.jpg
and Amarr Victor!
Orisi Jul 19th 2010 3:52PM
It's a nice curve, but the axis labels are incorrect, time should be on the x??? axis (bottom) not the y??? axis (side).
i have 1hr 28 minutes left to download EVE. i've been downloading for two hours now. This reminds me of when i installed WoW; reading fervently about everything i can, waiting and praying desperately for it to finish. I do like nostalgia.
Ylei Jul 19th 2010 7:47PM
@Bromide The wormholes introduced with the Apocrypha expansion helped with that, a lot of people have moved into wormhole space and you can't get the big blobs in there that you do in 0.0 space, so fights tend to be much smaller.
@orisi check out EVE University (http://www.eve-ivy.com/) when you get in, great way to learn the game.
Jenzrr Jul 19th 2010 11:32AM
I run an add-on that collects the data concerning the nodes that I come across in my various gathering professions (but also chests and the sorts) With the revamp of the 'Old World', do you think I will have to re-research all my data?
Cephas Jul 19th 2010 12:03PM
Probably. I haven't done any gathering in the Beta, but several zones are having their level ranges changed. Taking Azshara for example, it doesn't make sense to have nodes that require 230 Herbalism in a 10-20 zone. I would guess that there will be enough inconsistencies to make you want to just throw out all of your old data.
Grimm Jul 20th 2010 8:41AM
Yup. Trust me when I say it will be absolutely, completely, and utterly outdated.
BigBadGooz Jul 19th 2010 11:28AM
eve, you will never find a place more filled vile scum and villiany. stay away from lowsec unless you want to get poded by some ass in a t3 cruiser who thinks its fun to bitch slap your implants out of your head.
jgf Jul 19th 2010 11:32AM
What ever happened to Lesley Smith? She used to write for wow.com and be on the podcast.