05-12-2004, 08:35 PM
Quote:As for being ready by November (of this year [smile.gif] ), I doubt it. The game isn't anywhere near complete, with talents, resistances, hunters, PvP servers, houses, mounts, and big bits of the map yet to be implemented. And even after most of that is in place, a fair bit of tweaking to make everything fun and balanced will need to take place.
I think that some of what you said relates to an earlier comment that we don't know what version of the game we're playing. It's clear even from the current version of the beta that they had some elements of mounts and hunters already developed, and that they disabled those features in the current beta release, because they weren't quite polished enough for general playtesting. I understand that the next push/patch will include hunters, mounts, and the first PvP servers, so it's clear that they're not just starting from scratch on these items. Also, it's obvious that they've given a lot of thought to the talent and resistance systems, so even though they weren't quite ready for this patch/push, I don't think it would take much time to implement them if the design has been nailed down. They will problably require quite a bit of tweeking along the way, but if they are included in the next push/patch as I expect, then there will be plenty of time to do that. Also, Blizzard has already announced that "housing" and other fetures like that will be part of an expansion or later implementation, so that isn't expected to be ready by release time anyway.
The one part that does concern me is how "big bits of the map are yet to be implemented." Some of that is to be expected, since Blizzard will want to hold some things back for release and will want to have room to add things later. However, so many areas and quests need to be developed that I do worry about whether the game world will be complete and well playtested prior to release. Again, however, there are hints that Blizzard has some more pieces designed than we see in our release. The Shimmering Flats racetrack, for example, isn't quite finished. Harvesters are standing in for racecars and one can't yet bet on the races, as examples, even though the appropriate vendors are there. However, the racetrack seems close to being finished, and I expect it to be by the next patch/push.
Also, on the flight from the Undercity to the Arathi Highlands and the Badlands, you can get a good look at the Western Plaguelands. I used to think that this area was undeveloped, because you'd pretty much die the instant you walked into the area (I recently tried it with my level 39 priestess and she still got instantly killed). However, flying over the area, I see some very detailed cities, landscapes, and even a diverse population of monsters. So, either this area is fully ready for level 50+ characters or it's an area that's almost done but wasn't quite ready for playtesting, yet.
Perhaps less well developed is the Hinterlands, which are guarded by Guardians of Blizzard in many areas. However, when the server started going haywire and removed all mobs for about 10 minutes, including the GoB's, I ran up into the Hinterlands to check out the scenery. Scenery-wise, the area looked well-developed with several towns, a city, and several cave complexes. When the mobs returned, I saw many "tribes" of mobs in some of the towns and some new beast mobs like gryphons. The humanoid mobs used Troll graphic stand-ins and were labeled "needs graphic," but again it was clear that they had given quite a lot of thought to the area and although it may not have been ready for playtesting (and the mobs were level mid-40's and above, so it would've been difficult for <lvl 39 characters to adventure there anyway), a lot of work has been done there.
So, even though there there is clearly a lot to be done on the game, it's also clear that there is a lot of stuff that Blizzard has already developed that we haven't seen. I think with the next patch/push, which will probably raise the level cap, add some new areas, and implement resistances, talents, and hunters, we'll get a much better idea of how far along Blizzard really is with WoW.