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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Okay, I have to admit. Those look cool. 
_________________
Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound=  |
Fri May 02, 2003 5:24 am |
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Roach
SBR Belfry Bat
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 3233
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Woho! More classes. Hunter and Druid |
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Sat May 03, 2003 10:06 pm |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
New WoW Info!
The German gaming site Krawall.de has once again had the chance to sit down with Blizzard's Bill Roper and ask a number of questions concerning World Of WarCraft.
They were able to get quite a lot of new information out of him which I have summarized below (since the original interview is in German naturally):
Server architecture: One World Server plus several Monster and Character Servers.
Bill Roper mentioned several possible methods to combat spawn camping:
1) Monsters dont respawn in the same place.
2) Blizzard identifies the most popular monsters and places several of them in different locations.
About 3000-500 players per server.
The server setup is very scalable (i.e. new servers and such are easily added if existing ones should be overcrowded).
Blizzard is trying to enable players to move from one server to another. Bill Roper stressed the fact that they really want this feature in.
There aren't going to be any PvP servers.
PvP is purely optional in nature. There are going to be designated areas for Player vs Player interaction but outside of these areas, no PKing is going to occur.
Some was said about instancing:
- The idea is to make the player feel more 'important/unique'.
- Example: Only the boss mob room of a given dungeon might be instanced.
All races have 'capitals' similar to Stormwind. Those also act as start locations for newly created characters.
There are going to be many different forms of transport - some player owned and some hired. However, an area will have to be explored by the player before speed travel to that area is going to be made available.
The only way to level is killing monsters.
The day/night cycle will probably not be real time.
There isn't going to be any support for voice communication software.
Different methods of payment (of the monthly fee) for different countries (ie not credit card only).
The European server might not be ready on release.
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Fri May 09, 2003 6:11 am |
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Hexy
High Emperor
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 621
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quote:
Originally posted by xSamhainx
The only way to level is killing monsters.
Huh? So you won't get exp from quests?!
Suddenly, my excitement sank... |
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Fri May 09, 2003 6:54 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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What were you expecting? It's Warcraft.
"They fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight. Fight fight fight, fight fight fight - the Itchy and Scratchy showwwwwww....."
I've never believed for a second that WoW was going to be "Prithee, good orc, hast thou seen a patch of wild elderberries so I can bake goods?" over "I roxxors! Mob spawn, lost isle! gg rm?"
It's a matter of fanbase. Some people will get into the spirit of things, of course... but for the most part I'm imagining younger players who will play it like the RTS it evolved from.
The game looks gorgeous, but I've spent hundreds of hours playing StarCraft and Diablo 2 on Battlenet. If that's the fanbase that's going to be populating a MMORPG... well...
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Fri May 09, 2003 1:58 pm |
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Hexy
High Emperor
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 621
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quote:
Originally posted by EverythingXen
What were you expecting? It's Warcraft.
"They fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight. Fight fight fight, fight fight fight - the Itchy and Scratchy showwwwwww....."
I've never believed for a second that WoW was going to be "Prithee, good orc, hast thou seen a patch of wild elderberries so I can bake goods?" over "I roxxors! Mob spawn, lost isle! gg rm?"
It's a matter of fanbase. Some people will get into the spirit of things, of course... but for the most part I'm imagining younger players who will play it like the RTS it evolved from.
The game looks gorgeous, but I've spent hundreds of hours playing StarCraft and Diablo 2 on Battlenet. If that's the fanbase that's going to be populating a MMORPG... well...
Uh... yeah.
Or MAYBE, just MAYBE, even Diablo 1&2 give you exp for a completed quest + the fact that Blizzard have stated that quests WILL be in (they've even "bragged" about their mysterious super quest creator thingamajug).
So I find it strange that the completed quests won't yield any exp.
Mmm... quest exp *drool*. |
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Fri May 09, 2003 2:26 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Time will tell. I'm hoping against hope that Blizzard pulls this off... all their games are top notch, so I'm sure it will be technically incredible. The game is truly beautiful and it would be a shame if it is nothing more than a leveling treadmill. I love hacking things apart as much as anyone... I couldn't be a 'peaceful' trader type if I tried... however, I do like an atmosphere conductive to roleplaying in an MMORPG.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Fri May 09, 2003 2:33 pm |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
Ive said it before, and Ill say it again. One word-
REVOLUTIONARY
This game may just bring about world peace! Maybe free WoW subscriptions for the Israelis and palestinians. Hell, make the entire Middle East free subscribers!
World of Warcraft Impressions
Preview
We got a look at Blizzard's upcoming massively multiplayer role-playing game, World of Warcraft, on the show floor at E3. As reported earlier, the game includes five races: dwarves, orcs, humans, tauren, and night elves. Three classes--the warrior, the mage, and the shaman--had also been reported on in the past, but three brand-new classes are being shown off at this year's E3: the hunter, the warlock, and the druid.
First off, we played around with a female night elf hunter. This particular character wielded a double-bladed sword, similar to the one used by the demon hunter in Warcraft III. She also carried a bow strapped to her back for ranged attacks. The hunter's most interesting specialty is the ability to take on pets, using a skill called beast taming. This allows you to pacify just about any animal in the game (provided your beast-taming skill level is high enough for the particular creature), though you can have only one pet at a time. The pet will remain with you as long as you like or until it dies. As you go through your adventures, your pet will gain levels and will take on new abilities just as you do. Since your creature improves with time, when you come across more impressive monsters in battle, you may have to make a decision to part with a longtime friend in order to take on a better pet that has more long-term potential. Hunters will also have a number of abilities that relate to keeping a pet, such as being able to heal them, and you can easily set their behavior disposition from a long list of options (aggressive, passive, and so on) by right-clicking on their icon underneath your own portrait in the top left corner of the screen.
In addition to being able to keep a familiar, hunters specialize in ranged attacks, with a number of passive skills, like personal true shot aura, that give them bonuses in ranged combat. You'll also have some active combat skills relating to ranged attack. Hunters aren't totally helpless when it comes to melee battle, though. We were able to deal a decent amount of damage in close combat using the twin-bladed sword.
We were also able to try out a warlock, another of the new classes being shown off at E3. Warlocks are spell casters, but their magic spells are focused in a few areas: draining life, fire-based magics, and disruptive spells, such as those relating to disease. The particular warlock we played with had the death coil ability, which, similar to the spell in the Warcraft RTS games, vampirically takes health from an enemy and adds it to your own. He also had the immolation spell, which is identical to the one used by Warcraft III's demon hunter. It engulfs you in flames for a period of time and damages any enemies in melee range.
The warlock's most unique feature is his ability to summon creatures. It's not quite the same as the hunter's beast-taming ability, since the warlock can summon a friend out of thin air, and they will have less permanence than the hunter's familiars. Some of the summoned creatures will be combat oriented, with powerful melee attacks and plenty of hit points, in order to keep pressure off the warlock who is weak in close-combat situations. Other summoned creatures will have spellcasting capability. The two summons we played around with were the voidwalker, a shadowlike fighting spirit, and the felhunter, a four-legged creature with long tentacle appendages on its head. Like with the hunter's familiars, you can set the behavior disposition of your summons, and they will follow you around as you explore the world. Many of your spells as a warlock will be closely linked to your summons, allowing you to enhance them or vice versa. For example, one spell, called soul tap, allows you to transfer hit points from your own pool of health to your summoned creature.
The third new class shown at E3 was the druid, whose primary ability is shape-shifting. Like the druid of the claw and the druid of the talon in Warcraft III, the druids in World of Warcraft can switch back and forth from humanoid to animal form. As you gain levels, you'll gain more and more different animal forms you can turn into. One of the first ones you'll get is the cat form. The cat is lithe and quick and packs a surprising amount of damage in its swipes, thanks to the passive beast attack upgrades you can get as you level up. Another animal form we tried at the show was the storm crow, a form that is primarily useful as a scout character since it can fly quickly. The storm crow might be a useful form to use in order to escape battles, to take shortcuts over bodies of water, or simply to scout around a new area. The last form we were able to shape-shift into at E3 was a bear. As you can imagine, the bear form is a powerful fighter, and it gives you a huge increase in armor and defensive capability.
Aside from the three new classes, we also extracted details about some of the crafting skills in the game. The warlock we tried had alchemy and physician skills. With alchemy, it is possible to gather up combinations of herbs, and using your learned recipes, whip them up into useful potions. The alchemy skill (as with the tailoring, cooking, and blacksmithing skills) brings up an intuitive interface that lets you select from your available recipes in a list. The ones for which you currently have all the ingredients show up as colored, while the ones with missing ingredients are grayed out. Click on any recipe, and you'll quickly see which herbs (and how many) you need to make that particular item and how many of each ingredient you have. If you're missing something, the ingredient is grayed out. Once you're ready to make a potion, click create, and you'll take a few seconds to put the ingredients together. The ready-made potion pops up in your inventory. Need to find herbs? Using your "find herbs" ability, you can quickly pinpoint spots on your minimap that have useful plants.
The physician skill allows you to make bandages out of any scrap cloth you pick up from dead monsters. The blacksmith skill lets you create weapons and armor from ore and other minerals you can mine from rocks. Tailoring lets you craft light armor, such as leather armor or robes out of hides and scraps. Cooking is a skill that lets you combine food items into tasty treats that can heal you. Though alchemy, physician, and cooking skills sound redundant, they allow Blizzard to give all races at least one way to heal themselves in a manner that makes logical sense (a warrior probably shouldn't know alchemy).
In order to learn recipes for the various crafting skills, you can find NPC trainers (like master blacksmiths or expert chefs) who will teach them to you for free, give them to you as a reward for a quest, or sell them to you for money. It's also possible to find recipes as loot from dead creatures or treasure chests. Obviously, the more difficult it is to acquire a recipe, the more valuable it is likely to be.
Graphically, World of Warcraft is as detailed and colorful as ever, with impressive attention given to the character models and the environments. As you equip and remove armor, the changes are of course reflected in the game, but what makes World of Warcraft stand apart is that adding armor and weapons actually changes model geometry and doesn't just slap a new skin on as in other games. With the addition of new content like the new classes, skills, and abilities, World of Warcraft is shaping up very nicely and looks to be on schedule for a beta test in the late summer or early fall. The game appears to have the same high level of polish and refinement we've come to expect from every Blizzard title, and it could turn out to be a major force in the massively multiplayer genre. We'll have more details on the game as they become available.
AWESOME SCREENSHOTS!
http://www.warcraftcentral.com/scripts/shotview.php?cat=screens&fileid=173&going=back
_________________
“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Thu May 15, 2003 8:29 pm |
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hoyp
High Emperor
Joined: 02 Oct 2002
Posts: 501
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I think that this game will suck so bad because it uses point and click combat ( as far as I know it's the only bad thing about this game but it practically ruined it because the combat will be worse than Dungeun siege's)
******* Hides under a table****************
Last edited by hoyp on Thu May 22, 2003 12:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Wed May 21, 2003 1:14 am |
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Hexy
High Emperor
Joined: 28 Jun 2002
Posts: 621
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quote:
Originally posted by hoyp
This game will suck so bad because it uses point and click combat ( as far as I know it's the only bad thing about this game but it practically ruined it because the combat will be worse than Dungeun siege's)
******* Hides under a table****************
Uh...
The same way Diablo, Baldur's Gate, IceWind Dale, Divinie Divinity, Arcanum, NWN, Fallout etc. etc. sucked so bad? How boring!
I hardly remember what combat Dungeon Siege had. I remember it was kind of like watching a movie, all I had to do was press the 'H' and 'M' buttons to keep it going. |
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Wed May 21, 2003 6:40 am |
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hoyp
High Emperor
Joined: 02 Oct 2002
Posts: 501
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I have no problem with turn-based point and click and pausable combat because it makes you think of strategies. I apologize cause i forgot to add "I think" in the beggining of my message. |
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Wed May 21, 2003 11:55 pm |
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Abbath
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 101
Location: Norway |
are there orcs in diablo 1? |
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Sun May 25, 2003 2:42 am |
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Darkshale
Village Dweller
Joined: 28 May 2003
Posts: 2
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What does WoW have that others dont? Well first off its made by Blizzard, thats got to count for something. They have quite a good record. But so does Verant(sortof).
So whats new
100 or more "micro-dungeons"
instanced encounters
Dynamic on the fly quests (What liar other games do this. Yeah but
blizzard will do it good and yes that would be different)
20+ big dungeons, Blackrock Spire is one of these (no other game has the
Black Spire)
Blood and Killing blows. When you kill it you really kill it
Blizzard is also including many of the greatest ideas other MMORPGs have tried to implement but have either failed to deliver on or have done a craptastic job (delayed untill a year after release) With a track record like the blizz you know all those things you have wanted to see done right will be done right. Trade skill exp, interdependant trade skills, harvesting materials for TS, the good old Dcrawl, full geometry equipment not just skins, PvP arenas with good loot on the line, dual skill based system, and just dungeons dungeons dungeons.
OH and Hey all nice to find a new post local.
_________________
Lord DarkShale The DorkLord
It has been said if you put lights on it, anything can look good" |
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Wed May 28, 2003 1:23 pm |
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