06-16-2004, 12:52 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-16-2004, 12:58 AM by MongoJerry.)
Pete, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think! :lol:
OK, easy everyone. Remember, we only have the patch notes to go on at this time, so complaining about missing changes is a little premature as there are sure to be many changes that weren't mentioned in the patch notes.
Yep, we'll see. Let's not get our blood boiling when we haven't even tried it, and let's not exaggerate to make our points. The PvE server will still not allow players to attack other players without their consent. The only thing they will be able to do is attack NPC's. Does that open the way for griefing? Of course. But how much griefing it opens up will depend on a lot of factors such as how powerful town guards are, what the respawn rate is on NPC's (Blizzard says it's fast), and whether players organize themselves to guard their cities and towns. To me, this seems like a fun idea. I personally like the idea of standing guard at towns and repelling invaders in my off hours -- and heck maybe kill off some opposing faction NPC's for the fun of it. Exploits and imbalances will be found, of course, but that's why we're testing the game.
It surprised me, but I'm not bothered by it. I doubt that the Scarlet Monastery exploitation in itself was that big of a deal to them, considering that once the level cap was raised, all of those items found in the SM will be considered "useless." My suspicion is that Blizzard probably wanted to change a lot of stats and properties of items, including removing some, so rather than figure out some kind of translation mechanism from the old items to the new ones, it was probably just easier to delete everything and hand people a chunk of gold. Doing the item and gold wipe does restore some balance in the economy, though, so even though it's a blunt instrument, it'll be effective. I'm not too concerned, though. Now that people know where the "good" items drop, it won't take long for people to reequip themselves with workable equipment. You and leme are right, though, that melee classes will be the ones most affected by the wipe, but the most critical thing for them is their weapon. So, if I played a warrior, I'd buy the best weapon I could and then go to the areas where I knew the best warrior items drop and farm them for a bit. With new higher level areas opened up, I really don't think it'll take more than a couple days to gather some decent equipment (not uber -- decent).
I agree with you here. This idea is kind of strange. Blizzard keeps saying that they want to be able to allow characters to differentiate themselves from one another and yet the changes always seem to point to making everyone the same. We'll have to see what they have planned for Talents and race abilities in the next push â¢.
I'm surprised that auction houses aren't implemented in this push. I thought that they were one of the critical pieces to be added. Of course, that's what I thought about Talents, too. I guess we'll have to keep using Cosmos for trading for the time being.
I think the whole tradeskills thing is something that we can't comment on until we see the new recipes and implementation for our own eyes. That "increased to level 50" comment confused a lot of people on the forums, but the best speculation for this comment I've seen is this one: There might be trade skills that allow you to make base level 50 items, which might have lower character lvl requirements if they're green or blue. Whoever wrote the patch notes was probably using internal Blizzard language to describe the changes and forgot to translate into language players use.
Yeah, from the patch notes, it does feel that way. Sure, there are three new areas and two new instances being opened up (and hopefully a lot of the open but unfinished areas will be finished, too), but overall it does sound like there are a whole lot fewer changes in this push than most players expected.
However, even Blizzard is calling this the "PvP push," so it looks like that's what they're focusing on for this push. *shrug*
Amen to that, brother!
OK, easy everyone. Remember, we only have the patch notes to go on at this time, so complaining about missing changes is a little premature as there are sure to be many changes that weren't mentioned in the patch notes.
Quote:Single biggest thing is the PvP additions. Looks like we have two choices, non-consensual PvP everywhere and non-consensual PvP almost everywhere. We'll see, I guess.
Yep, we'll see. Let's not get our blood boiling when we haven't even tried it, and let's not exaggerate to make our points. The PvE server will still not allow players to attack other players without their consent. The only thing they will be able to do is attack NPC's. Does that open the way for griefing? Of course. But how much griefing it opens up will depend on a lot of factors such as how powerful town guards are, what the respawn rate is on NPC's (Blizzard says it's fast), and whether players organize themselves to guard their cities and towns. To me, this seems like a fun idea. I personally like the idea of standing guard at towns and repelling invaders in my off hours -- and heck maybe kill off some opposing faction NPC's for the fun of it. Exploits and imbalances will be found, of course, but that's why we're testing the game.
Quote:I guess the item and gold wipe was pretty well expected by most. I guess this was Blizzard's way of "fixing" the SM (?) exploitation.
It surprised me, but I'm not bothered by it. I doubt that the Scarlet Monastery exploitation in itself was that big of a deal to them, considering that once the level cap was raised, all of those items found in the SM will be considered "useless." My suspicion is that Blizzard probably wanted to change a lot of stats and properties of items, including removing some, so rather than figure out some kind of translation mechanism from the old items to the new ones, it was probably just easier to delete everything and hand people a chunk of gold. Doing the item and gold wipe does restore some balance in the economy, though, so even though it's a blunt instrument, it'll be effective. I'm not too concerned, though. Now that people know where the "good" items drop, it won't take long for people to reequip themselves with workable equipment. You and leme are right, though, that melee classes will be the ones most affected by the wipe, but the most critical thing for them is their weapon. So, if I played a warrior, I'd buy the best weapon I could and then go to the areas where I knew the best warrior items drop and farm them for a bit. With new higher level areas opened up, I really don't think it'll take more than a couple days to gather some decent equipment (not uber -- decent).
Quote:The auto rise on the attributes takes one more option away from the players.
I agree with you here. This idea is kind of strange. Blizzard keeps saying that they want to be able to allow characters to differentiate themselves from one another and yet the changes always seem to point to making everyone the same. We'll have to see what they have planned for Talents and race abilities in the next push â¢.
Quote:Postal system sounds good. Now that a means has been generated to deliver and get payment for items, maybe the implementation of WoW-bay will make it possible to buy and sell without having to devote vast chunks of time to trading. Again, we'll see.
I'm surprised that auction houses aren't implemented in this push. I thought that they were one of the critical pieces to be added. Of course, that's what I thought about Talents, too. I guess we'll have to keep using Cosmos for trading for the time being.
Quote:Mixed batch of things on trade skills. I don't see that they've fixed many of the problems with them being trade skills in the first place (too many things are only usable by the maker of the item, enchantments are almost impossible to put on worthwhile items that others have, etc.). And what's "Alchemy has been increased to level 50" mean? The same for Blacksmithing and Leatherworking. Fifty skill points (the now *scarcer* skill points) to get them?
I think the whole tradeskills thing is something that we can't comment on until we see the new recipes and implementation for our own eyes. That "increased to level 50" comment confused a lot of people on the forums, but the best speculation for this comment I've seen is this one: There might be trade skills that allow you to make base level 50 items, which might have lower character lvl requirements if they're green or blue. Whoever wrote the patch notes was probably using internal Blizzard language to describe the changes and forgot to translate into language players use.
Quote:Basically, mounts is big and new, so is PvP, mail is small and new, pretty much everything else is just a tweak.
Yeah, from the patch notes, it does feel that way. Sure, there are three new areas and two new instances being opened up (and hopefully a lot of the open but unfinished areas will be finished, too), but overall it does sound like there are a whole lot fewer changes in this push than most players expected.
However, even Blizzard is calling this the "PvP push," so it looks like that's what they're focusing on for this push. *shrug*
Quote:Ah, well. We'll give it a test. After all, it is a beta.
Amen to that, brother!