Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Is Jaina going to keep the peace?
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 3rd 2011 at 11:00AM
Let's just get down to business today, where I get to present my own tinfoil hat look at lore.
Yous95 asked:
With the incoming destruction of Theramore by the Horde, can we no longer expect Jaina to remain the honest peace broker that she has been thus far?
My feeling is that Jaina is going to realize that the current Horde are not the ones she has supported in the past and that it's time for some heavy-handed diplomacy. Of course, there's no telling what Blizzard might do. Maybe Jaina will end up a prisoner of war ... Think about how much that would push the storyline through in MoP, especially if Thrall comes back and openly opposes Garrosh over her imprisonment.
Aftermathmatical asked:
So I know we dont get Tauren rogues, they are just too big and heavy to sneak around in the shadows unseen and since there is no other race that big-
Wait. Big. Fat. Rogue. Pandas. What??
The Pandarens might be big and fat, but they are stealthy and quiet. That's a much more important quality than the size of their stomach. Remember, it's what's on the inside that counts.
The more you know.
David asked:
Do you think, with MoP, we'll see the towns/cities ruined by Deathwing restored? For instance, Booty Bay, Menethil Harbor, the park of Stormwind, etc. I know it didn't make sense to devote dev hours to incrementally fixing all this while Cataclysm was in progress, but in the virtual world of Warcraft, we do see repairs taking place.
Blizzard said a while ago that it's looking at eventually fixing up the damage caused by Deathwing. And yes, I wouldn't be surprised to see some progress happen in Azeroth in patch 5.0 (we already know this will be the "content" patch, as we've seen in previous expansions). I also think if it happens, we're going to see a selected distribution of resources, particularly on the Alliance side. There's only so much lumber to go around, after all.
That being said, we have seen no official work yet on this.
OUFanInKansas asked:
So, what is your pick for the new feature in the Mists of Pandaria trailer most likely to get cut (like Path of the Titans got axed from Cataclysm) prior to release?
Nothing. There really isn't a grab bag of features here, and there's not any one thing Blizzard could really cut. Each feature is clearly part of an overall long term strategy. For instance, Challenge Modes look to be the new hardcore I'm better than you thing; Pet Battles are the answer to Why have non-combat pets? Everything fits and creates a great holistic system, and I just don't see any avenue for cuts.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider 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: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 17)
Kadzeroth Nov 3rd 2011 11:31AM
Except the likelihood of the war they want in Mists happening with anyone other than Garrosh behind the Horde is unlikely. I'm banking on Jaina going nuclear.
Shinae Nov 3rd 2011 11:40AM
I agree with Kadzeroth. While Thrall will likely return to the Horde to more actively advise Garrosh, Garrosh will remain Warchief.
I can't help thinking of all those below-60 quests that reference Garrosh as the Warchief, and how they'd be invalidated if Thrall returned as Warchief. Don't we have enough outdated quests in Outland and Northrend?
The Dewd Nov 3rd 2011 11:55AM
Don't agree with Kadzeroth - I'll have to put up with his inflated ego on vent for weeks. ;)
I concur, though. I think the event in ICC could have easily destroyed the last bits of reservation that Jaina used to keep herself in check. She's spent the last, what, 7-10 years or so hoping that her lost love would return. If you really watch what she does in the ICC 5-mans, she goes from trying to get Arthas back to being REALLY pissed off at the Lich King.
If she goes nuclear, it's also possible that she'll just flat out KILL Garrosh and Thrall'll (wow, that's a weird contraction) have to come back to fill the vacuum before Gallywix shows up. Or maybe they'll just give in and have Mida kill HIM and take over control of the Horde while Thrall's off with Aggra.
Dennis Nov 3rd 2011 1:04PM
I think that if Garrosh does that, he'll become the final boss of MoP.
Valorum Nov 3rd 2011 1:36PM
Jaina is killed in the assault and is resurrected as forsaken and is the upcoming replacement for Sylvannas when she loses the last few of her lives.
Welldead Nov 3rd 2011 2:42PM
Are you being serious or you're just trolling?i would never accept Jaina as a forsaken, i like her the way she is now.
Mackgyver Nov 3rd 2011 11:09AM
If anything were to get cut, or delayed, it would be the pet battles. It's the most nonessential thing announced.
RS Nov 3rd 2011 11:18AM
and one of the most complicated.
loop_not_defined Nov 3rd 2011 11:18AM
As much as I'd hate to see it happen, Pet Battles do seem like the most likely candidate for the guillotine. Challenges don't seem too far behind, though, since it will mostly reward xmog gear.
(cutaia) Nov 3rd 2011 11:28AM
If you ask me, Scenarios are the thing most likely to get cut. They seemed to be the least realized feature at Blizzcon, having about as much thought put into it as Path did.
Plus, it has the most upkeep required down the road. Pet battles -- once implemented -- just requires new-ish abilities for any new pets down the road. And they're always adding pets anyway, so that's not a concern. With challenges, once they've figured out the gear-scaling, it's all about adding a timer to each dungeon in the future. Not a big deal.
Scenario's, though, adds a whole new piece of content -- aside from question, dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, etc. -- that people will expect to see expanded upon in the future. Probably people will want more scenarios in each content patch in order for it to seem like a fully functional feature. Otherwise, it would just be a series of group quests for one expansion.
Kinjamani Nov 3rd 2011 11:37AM
Pet Battles are hardly the most complex of the three newly proposed features. It's true that they have some database work to support them and a lot of UI work to do, but they don't seem all that concerned about that. From a programming standpoint, the fact that the battles are turn-based makes things pretty simplistic.
On the other hand are Challenge runs, since having something be timed almost requires a constant ping-back from the client to the server asking how much time is left. They could just put a Debuff on you that represents the time allowed (as was done in Stratholme), but they seem to want something a bit more integrated than that. The ladder system they suggest alone probably is more complex than the coding and back-end work for Pet Battles.
Most complex is probably Scenarios. Scenarios almost seem like they might be using some sort of new dynamic instancing of the world, which would be some pretty intense technology. Throw in a multitude of Scenario Objectives (to keep them all from being Kill 10 Kobolds, Collect 5 Boxes, Kill 1 Boss) and you have something that's got a lot of back-end work, a bit of UI work, and some pretty stiff coding requirements for both server and client side.
loop_not_defined Nov 3rd 2011 11:35AM
Heh, completely forgot about Scenarios....yeah, I'd like to change my vote.
WrecklessMEDIC Nov 3rd 2011 11:59AM
Oh good lord. Please cut out the Pokemon Pet Battles. That's easily the dumbest part of MoP. It's even worse than the Pandas. And that's saying a lot. ;)
matt Nov 3rd 2011 12:02PM
not sure what technology needs to be added to support scenarios, instancing has been in since launch and has been further refined in phasing since 3.0. Quest objectives are extremely flexible and have been since launch; collect, kill, explore, escort, etc. what part of this requires new development? Scenarios are an exercise in building content, one that they may decide is not worth it, but there is no new technology being built into the engine to support it.
challange modes will require the gear normalization (already on the 4.3 PTR) and the timing mechanism which should not be much different than the other timed events in game (think CoS).
Pet battles cannot leverage any existing tech in the game, the whole turn based mechanic must be built from the ground up, any animations will have to be individually drawn (they have at this point made no indication that these fights will be animated). Not sure how the existing ability generation system will tie into the turn based system but I am sure they can leverage some of it.
RS Nov 3rd 2011 12:07PM
Really think about pet battles...
Art, animations, leveling, turnbased inside the realtime game...it's more complicated than you think.
Plus adding new pets throughout the world, and the mechanics to make that work.
xvkarbear Nov 3rd 2011 12:36PM
@RS
They can use animations from the various big versions of pets throughout the games. Especially since so many of them already have the same idle animations. So all the cat and dog pets can just borrow the animations from the felines and wolves in game.
Same with animation of spell effects. They can borrow a lot from class animations.
Derek Nov 3rd 2011 1:46PM
I tend to agree that Pet Battles sounds the most extraneous; although, if they implement them, it will be the most awesome mini-game ever. :-)
Honestly, though, I don't think that comparing *anything* in MoP to Path of the Titans is really justified. Am I the only one who never got the point of Path of the Titans? The day it was announced, I said to myself, "An alternative method to advance your character besides levels and talents using items that you collect. . . that sounds remarkably like an alternative way of filling the *exact same* niche as the Glyph System. Why?" Then, a few months later when Blizz made their announcement, "We've decided that since Path of the Titans isn't very far along, and the glyph system needed reworking anyway, we're going to do that instead," I said, "Obviously!"
Heck, even everyone else's favorite cancelled project, the Dance Studio, served a more defined niche than Path of the Titans would have. Am I alone on this?
Kinjamani Nov 3rd 2011 2:03PM
@Derek
Agreed. I really feel that the new Talent system is derivative of the goals they had for Path of the Titans. It seems to me that in looking for a way to give players meaningful decisions that differentiate their characters from those of the same Race+Class+Specialization someone must have asked the question "why are we making a new system to add value to a system that doesn't work? Why don't we just do this?"
Personally, I'm a lot more excited for Pet Battles than I ever was for the Dance Studio. I'm sure, just like the Barber Shop I would have used it once to get the achievement and see how it worked, and that would have been it; Pet Battles have a lot more depth and draw to keep me coming back.
icepyro Nov 3rd 2011 3:47PM
Really? My money was on the talent system as they find out that 6 actual choices suck worse than 41 false choices.
Noyou Nov 3rd 2011 9:23PM
I can see the talents reverting back to something like we had the last 2 expacs. I think the way they want to do it is good going forward, I just don't think it will work out how they want to - either that or it will cause them to delay putting out the game until next Nov./Dec.