BlizzCon 2015: Entrevista a Cory Stockton

Me parece interesante resaltar esta entrevista que le hicieron las chicas de Wowhead a Cory Stockton, uno de los Game Designer en WoW: Legion. Aclara bastantes cosas de las ya anunciadas y deja entrever alguna que se ampliará más durante los siguientes paneles de WoW en lo que queda de BlizzCon.

A destacar:

-Podremos guardar sets de transmog a los que podremos cambiar con solo pulsar un botón. Los items usados en la transmog no serán necesarios "físicamente" para futuras combinaciones (como pasa en el DIII).
-Habrá nueva tech en cuanto al escalado de los items.
-Nuevas pasivas para todas las clases que permitirán centrarte en una rotación de movimientos.
-Las misiones del Hall de clase stackean, por lo que puedes hacer muchas despues de una temporada sin hacer ninguna o ir haciéndolas todas según van saliendo.
-El nivel de las keystone para los CMs y sus recompensas serán proporcionales a la dificultad y lo capaz que hayas sido en completarlos.

Y aquí la entrevista entera (en inglés):

Classes
We started out with our favorite class, rogues! What's the scoop with the Outlaw rogue?

-Outlaw is a completely new spec, and probably the biggest change next to petless hunters . Outlaw replaces combat, we feel it fits fantasy more.

-These changes were controversial for the team and we are excited.

-Other talents are getting more streamlined, we definitely want you right in the action

We wanted to know how will you keep long time players interested in Legion?

-We think there will be a lot of engagement for players through their artifact weapons and the traits associated with them.

-The decisions are spaced out over a long period of time, which will keep people invested.

-Filling out artifact tree isn't a month or two months and it also changes your playstyle.

How are talents changing?

-Changes to talents are, for example, no longer the same thing in one row i.e. a "cc" row. This means the concept of player agency is more important now, since the decisions will be more difficult.

-We don't necessarily like that there's "the right choice" all the time.

-"We always take this one or you're dumb" we really want it to be about what you want to do, not there being a wrong choice. In addition: Across all the trees is a passive talent - in Legion we have more passive talents added.

-For a player who doesn't want to add a huge amount of complexity with 5 new buttons they don't have to, they can always take the passives in order to focus on the core rotation.

-People don't always want the new thing. It's about options.

Outdoor Scaling
How are you going to guarantee a cohesive story if everyone is doing the different zones at once?

-We are keeping it together by making EACH ZONE have it's own story within it, a strong story line that is completely contained.

-For example, Valsharah -you will meet druids and figure out the corrupted world tree situation.

-In all the zones: we do have the over arching story of the legion invasion - there is a pillar of creation in each zone to get so you can do them in any order but you'll have to find them all to complete the story.

-You won't take anything away from the story experience by doing what you want to do first

Can we ever be moose tauren!?

-We're thinking about doing racial looks like that, we always want more customization, we're talking about it for sure.

What rewards will we get from outdoor scaling?

-The most important thing here is choice that rewards player agency immediately.

-For example, in Wrath most people never made it to Icecrown, you were already 80! Now you don't have to skip the stuff you think is the coolest - you can do it first.

-With scaling, the zone will always feel challenging, through level 100 to max level. Those little max level areas are gone (such as Ogri'la) and now we can use the whole world.

-This is a huge win on the amount of content that can be generated at max level.

Endgame Outdoor Activities
Are you worried that people will feel overwhelmed by choice when they open up their map? Will there be guidelines?

-Yes! These are called world quests, although they won't clog up your quest log or anything, they pop up when you enter the area. There will be 5-6 choices in any zone, but you can choose any of those that you want.

-At your class order hall, you'll have emissaries - once a day one from each zone. This is a bonus to doing your outdoor quests - if you do what they ask, you get more reward.

-There will be a new emissary every day, or you can just do your objectives at your leisure without doing the bonus.

-Emissaries will stack up, like Hearthstone quests; if you don't log in for 3 days you can do all 3 on that third day.

How are you going to get people out in the world?

-Not actually quests in the quest log, world quests are more of a bonus objective; enter the area and it shows up.

-The content is different stuff all over - Mini games, boss kills, collects, combat quests, disguise, sneaking, get something, etc., - they are unique based on area.

-Each individual world quest will have variance. For example, if there are 3 objectives in a Naga area, one day it could be kill 2 bosses and collect 5 tridents. The next day could be kill 1 boss and collect 10 tridents and kill a named mob. The objectives can change from day to day; same space but different objectives in that space.

-This will push the shelf life of endgame in Legion.

How else will you keep people interested in this content throughout Legion?

-Artifact will keep lots of people playing - lots of space to add content there as well.

-Class order missions is also a big change that is very flexible and can be added to.

-The key is the rewards, we want them to feel worth it.

-Scaling reward concept comes in here; there is a base of items that most people will get but there is a small chance to get a higher level reward based on what you're doing.

-We are trying to make it so you can get the same item of gear from various sources but, for example, there would be a higher chance in a dungeon vs world questing.

Items
Any news on items? Was not discussed much on the panels today.

-Items are still being worked on, we're still in the thick of it.

-Item scaling is by far the biggest new tech we've been working on.

-A single item can fit a lot of uses for any one player. The scaling allows changes of power and affixes - we'll have fewer total items but they will be way more interesting to a larger number of players. This means more choice!

-Items are still being iterated.

We wanted to know more about the expansion of the Warforged system (hinted at gamescom)?

-You could ostensibly get a warforged item from a world quest daily, just a very rare chance. 

• It's not completely random, due to reward chances in the various activities.

  -We want you to have a choice in what you want to do but still be able to get a good reward from what you want to do.

  -There are multiple ways of getting equivalent items - missions, rewards, new CMs w/ dungeon keys, raiding, heroics, factions, pvp.

  -The goal is no matter what you do, you can get something you've never seen before.

  -The goal is "spreading the wealth" across the game.

Dungeons

What is the incentive to do dungeons while leveling other than the story?

-The difference here is the scaling rewards so you might get an item higher than a quest reward at the same level.

-We know they will get through leveling dungeons fast, so that's why we're putting a lot into endgame dungeons

Can you tell us about the new keystone system for dungeons?

-Inspired by Diablo 3 Rifts, and we were looking to CM evolution.

-We want to make CMs a little different - less intimidating but also harder for those who are REALLY good at it.

-Now, you can always get faster but in Legion it can always be a more difficult dungeon.

-Keystones still being hugely figured out .

Are you trying to make keystone-type CMs an equal path to raiding?

-We are still working on this, we haven't tested this or gotten a feel for it. This is the goal.

-This equivalence really does depend on your skill level, it effects the level of the loot you get.

-We'd love to have people say "Why don't we run this one more time" to have a chance at a better item.

-Of course, there is a fine line to avoid total RNG; this is what the harder CM levels are for.

Transmog
Can you tell us anything more about the new transmog system?

-Transmog system is all about customization.

-You can find a look and the look is stored without using bank/storage.

-You can just apply the looks to your character (you could even hotkey a look!)

-You can save versions of a look that you can just put on and take off.

-For example, you can have a nice outfit just for town, raiding, etc at the touch of a button.

-We will have a search system for transmog.

-This system is in progress! We are working on getting the UI done right, defintely want it to be strong upon its release.

Fuente:
http://www.wowhead.com/news=249806/blizzcon-2015-wowhead-interview-with-cory-mumper-stockton