On it one of the blue posted threads was one concerning some sort of exploit with Wintergrasp.

There are several things that are in play when discussing issues with Wintergrasp.  There is a mechanic where a side with tenacity needs few kills to gain rank.  There is also an issue where you can log out in Wintergrasp with rank 2 and when you log back into the game after a match has started and join the match you keep your rank.

Now the log out and log in issue should be fixable.  It is simple when joining Wintergrasp all rank is removed.  Yes it would suck for the few that get kicked out due to a connectivity issue in the middle of a match but the few effected by this versus the exploit getting fix it trivial.  A different possible solution would be to compare the time last logged in and the current time stamp if that time is under 5 minutes no loss of rank occurs.  I think the simple hard and fast rule of when joining Wintergrasp no matter what the reason you loose all rank is fair.  No quest requires any one person to have rank to turn in.  Someone in the raid must get rank to take down the towers but that is about it.

The blue post that caused me to write another post about this issue is quoted below.

While we are always on the lookout for exploits and fix them as quickly as possible, there are in-game mechanics that can cause this such as one faction winning multiple times in a row. The goal is to avoid either faction entirely monopolizing the Vault of Archavon from week to week.

The issue is they put these “fixes” in so that no faction can monopolize the resources for an extended period of time.  Well if there is going to be almost a deus ex machina “exploit” to help the under-populated faction on a server then maybe the design of the game is flawed such that you need to have one.

Put simply if you are worried about faction imbalanced servers then don’t put important features of the game that reward one faction or another based on actions where population can have be a major factor into the game.

This includes and is not limited to: Large amounts of daily quests only available to controlling faction, instances only available to the controlling faction, special drops only for controlling faction from instance bosses.

What the reward can be should not be limited to the following: bonus XP, extra drops of some resource to the controlling faction, increased drop rate of crafting materials from specialize spawn.  Essentially there should be bonuses to be gained, however they should not be exclusive rewards.

If the rewards or binary and exclusive then when the 30 player factions wins against 110 because of all the bonuses they get and are almost impossible to kill, makes their victory meaningless and pathetic.  YaY you win because you got a +200% damage, health, Regen and Healing bonus, yes you really are masters of the game.

Timing of the events.

On a separate note one other thing that I would like to add is enough is enough with the 2.5 hours from the end of one battle to the next.  Make one of the other rewards of a well played victory be more time with the bonus.  I.E. the event should run at set intervals.

The start times of the event should be regular from day to day such that there are 2 events per day that are in the prime time of the server based on Timezone of said server, much like how the STV Free for All pvp events are.

This topic is one of those subjects that I argue about with Lissanna and other people in my guild.  My opinion which is summed up by the title is one that I have come to over the past few months.  Because of it I am concerned about the guild changes coming in Cataclysm since Blizzard has stated that they do not plan to implement guild alliances.

There is a whole large ball of wax or an 800lbs Gorilla standing in the corner, depending upon your preferred imagery.  The issue resolves around one of the worst mechanics placed in the game.  That mechanic I am referring to is the RaidID system.  When the system was implemented we had large monolithic guilds that were running 40 man content.  Those days are over.  The Raid ID system however has not adapted.

The problem with Guilds, RaidIDs, HeroicIDs as they are is these are all things that divide us into segments rather than being a way to bring groups together.

Lets use real life gamers for example, I will dig into my past from several years ago.

I moved from one town to another when relocating for a job.

In my previous town I was in the following.

• Table Top group 1 for D&D (TT1)
• LARP group Camarilla for Larping (CAM1)
• Table Top group 2 for White Wolf games. (TT2)

While in my current town initially I was in something like the following.

• Table Top group 3 for D&D (TT3)
• LARP group troupe Vampire (LARP1)
• Table Top group 4 for misc games (TT4)
• Started Local Camarilla group (CAM2)
• College Gaming Group (CGG1)

Now the only thing preventing me from playing in any game was the size of the game/group and if there was a time conflict.  If for some reason TT1 and TT3 were running the same stuff I could do so.  The only restriction in the RPGA or at least use to be, any character could run any module once.  This was an artificial limit which sometimes sucked if you had already run all of the current modules you were in level for on a game day.

So what I am saying is that the model of: 1 Character | 1 Guild | 1 Raid ID is a bit limiting and was not a problem in current content because there was no risk/reward for being in one guild and raiding with a different.

With the guild leveling system this will no longer be true.  This will encourage the old monolithic guilds of the past not to mention making scheduling a nightmare again.

Some not so simple solutions.

One of the most contentious points that I argue with Lissanna is the RaidID limit.  I find it a stupid Nanny fix to prevent those that have no self control from just burning through content and themselves out.

As far as Raid ID go there needs to be some middle ground between the database concept of (1 to many) and (1 to 1).  We currently have a (1 to 1) relationship for Raid IDs per instance.  A better rule may be 1 character may have up to X where X is 2-3 Raid IDs per instance.  Then if they have friend in multiple groups they can run with each group as long as there is not a time conflict.  Does this mean that the same group could also run the same thing 2-3 times which would be the case in certain guilds, ya but oh well.  I do not nor will I ever care about world/server firsts.  The main reason is because they are a joke.  If some guild is on the PTR running the instance for weeks and learns the fights there how in the hell is that even a reasonable run for world first.  The true world first kills should only occur on the PTR for any boss available there.  Only the Algalon or the achievements of the guilds players that do not have access to the PTR should really be considered for world firsts for normal boss kills.

Another solution would be to allow characters to belong to multiple guilds, they either can choose the guild benefit set they receive while soloing and get the bonus from the predominate guild in the group they are in if they belong to that guild.

Another solution would be to move guilds from the character to account level.  Again this would really require a 1 player to many guild relationship which we only have now on a by character basis.  A more rounded method would be to have the player join a guild and that guild can see all characters on that server and faction in their listing.  You would then on the character sheet to select the guild tag you show from the list of those available to you.

Bottomline

To wrap this up one of the statements a friend made concerning EQ versus WoW.  The only reason they stay with WoW over EQ is in EQ you have to be in a guild to get anything end game done.  In WoW as the content is now with the guild set up we have now you can PuG almost anything and succeed to some extent.  I think this is another reason we saw such an exodus during the middle of TBC.  The content just was not PuGable until near the end when the badge system finally started to reward something worthwhile.

***** Edited to correct typos, this will happen a few more times. *****

I need to stop just publishing posts when I am done.

Tol Barad
We’re also adding a new zone that combines elements of Wintergrasp with the Isle of Quel’danas. During PvP battles, players will fight to take control points across the island. In between PvP battles, the zone serves as a daily quest hub for both factions, while the winning faction will have access to a raid area.

The previous paragraph was from Blizzard’s write up of the a panel at Blizzcon 2009 covering the initial concepts of the zone.

Concerns

• Tenacity
• Dailies and PvP

Tenacity

This image here sums up all of my concerns when the thought of Tenacity is added to the new PvP zone.

The BS Mechanic

My sub-title The BS Mechanic is in my opinion accurate.  Yes it would suck to be on the side that has fewer players however this is not the answer.  Essentially the Horde won last night when the alliance must have had either 70 or 110 people and the horde seemed to have about 30 or less than 1 raid.  It has been a while since I have seen that many stacks of Tenacity.

I have no problems with the total health increase.  It is everything else that is buffed that gets out of hand.

So a Players with 3K dps with this buff now does 11K dps, I thought we wanted to get the 1-shot and 2-shots out of PvP, nope sorry only if the numbers are about equal.

Here is the deal, now that faction changes are implemented it is time to have server faction population balancing drives.  No more of this 3-1 ratio on a server.  Offer free faction changes, usually from Alliance -> Horde on most servers until the  ratio hits 1-1.5/1.25.

I can see a maximum dps increase form Tenacity of about 100% or double your damage but anything else just makes pvp a joke.  It is ok for NPCs to hit that hard because there are these abilities that Tanks get that are called Taunt and they work.  When facing PCs these abilities do nothing and therefore it is a joke.  What this says is ok Side that wants to keep wintergrasp if you really want it don’t play.  Let your side get so much Tenacity that you are all walking raid bosses that can 1 shot everything and have fun.  Oh and all of your vehicles get your buff so you only really need  2-5 of them to take the keep.

Tenacity should be tied to the number of something you control in a zone.  So that if these mini-raid bosses want to keep being mini-raid bosses they have to defend their workshops.  The Horde won when we controlled everything but 1 work shop.  I am sorry but that is so much complete bloody bull shit that it really pisses me off.

The final reason that this mechanic has to be in the game is the worst one of all.  Because stone-keeper shared are one of the token currencies  in the game there needs to be a way for the population disadvantaged to get them some times.  Well this would not be a problem if it was not a binary option.  What I mean is that all bosses in dungeons should drop them all of the time.  You just get bonus ones if you control winter grasp.  Then the low population side can still progress and obtain them even if they don’t control and or always loose the event.  Additionally the vendors for the gear should also be in Dalaran so that they can spend then as well.

Dailies and PvP

Ok I play on PVE or RP servers for a reason.  I hate PvP at all times, except when I actually want to PvP.  I hate quests that make you flag for no reason.  The quests in Grizzly hills I am fine with.  Why because they tell you that you will be flagged.  I do not want to see the major hub for dailies in the next expansion be in a PvP only zone.  That is piss poor design and only caters to the bottom feeders out there.  Look if you are confused by what some of the ramifications of mandatory PvP can have on a mostly PvE game.  Read Bartle’s research on why people play and some of the results of game servers that went PvP.  The short answer is that those that became PvP games eventually died out.  Now I don’t think that this would kill WoW, but I think it would have a chilling effect on the dialy quest system in the expansion if the zone where almost all of the quests were held was a pvp only environment.

The panel mentioned that they heard that some people missed the impromtu PvP that would happen while questing on the Isle during Burning Crusade.  My question that for them would be, are the people that are reminicing about this from a PvP server or a PvE server.  If the former then it does not really matter as they picked to play on a PvP server.  I would also bet for every 1 person that actually likes that type of PvP there are many more who just get pissed off about it.  I would fall under this later category.  When I am playing and trying to get A,B,C done I do not what to have to deal with Dipshit 1,2, and 3 that are flagged and want to cause problems.  Hence why I am on a PvE server.

The best solution for Tol Borad if they want to capture the essence of Wintergrasp and IoQD would be to have it such that when the event is taking place it is a PvP zone.  When the event is over on a PvE server it is enforced neutrality like Shattrath for 10 minutes after every event.  Then the zone reverts to a normal PvE server zone until the next PvP event.  This leaves it open to those that do not want to PvP a viable option to go there get the non-pvp dailies done and leave.

The areas in Grizzly hills that have PvP quests in essence already respond this way, which works.

The phrase that I missed and I don’t remember seeing people mention from their coverage was the following comment.

“Here we have a goblin rogue, certain to be the enemy of many alliance players in battlegrounds.  By next Blizzcon we will probly hear a lot about how people hate them.”

So I am sure they are most likely referring to Beta, at least I hope they are referring to it.  Otherwise that would imply a release date of the next expansion earlier than I think most are currently estimating.  It would be a safe bet that from the time we start to hear about an expansion Alpha launching that it will be at least 6-8 months from that point before release.  So we at least have a good idea at that point.

So the next question is when will we start to hear rumors and leaks about an Alpha?  Given that there is still patch 3.3 to come and 3.2.2 is still on the PTR that would make it at least 2 months before I would expect them to even be able to think of any other releases.  I am not expecting 3.3 (Icecrown) before January.  I we are surprised by an earlier release cool but I don’t expect it.

Now this could also mean that there will not be a Blizzcon next year but I doubt that as well.

I will get into the details later in this post or a follow up.

My take on it which I have discussed with friends before when talking about the future of WoW, is that at some point they will need to do a complete remake of the game to keep the graphics up to date and make thing consistent across the board.   Now they have obviously learned from Sony’s EQ and EQ2 conflict of develoment issues so rather than create a new game they are remaking the game in an expansion pack.  This is how EVE-Online has actually run the past 6 years.

So this pushes the South Seas and Emerald Dream back an expansion or more.  But this overhaul of Azeroth has been desperately needed.

It should be exciting and fun either way.

I will not say specifically who I think is going to be the next Guardian.  All I will say is that I think it became almost a hereditary position.  Given some of the new lore they are creating with the various comic series.  Also if we defeat Arthas in 3.3 then the next old gods part will most likely come out in 3.4 to set the scene for 4.0.

I think it is unfortunate that WCRadio had their plans shafted within 2 weeks of the event.  They had made no secret what they wanted to do for months and it took until now for some legal group to shoot those plans down.

I don’t want to get into that topic much more, and yes there are only 2 reasons that we got the stream ourselves from DirectTV.  One and most importantly she wanted to blog about stuff as it happend and I wanted the damn pet.

Anyway this post is just to let everyone know that we will be dealing with news and info from blizzcon as it happens and I needed to test some twitter interaction.

***** Edit *****

Testing if twitter gets an update post.

***** Edit *****

New Edit to test a new Twitter Link.