BlizzCon: The shape of raids to come

Blizzard Entertainment’s Jeff “Tigole” Kaplan walked BlizzCon attendees through the design process for raids in the World of Warcraft, starting some of the basic design philosophy.

“Players are only going to level up, and we want to have something for them to do.”

He also took issue with the belief that many players don’t raid.

On an average weeknight, he said, citing statistics collected by Blizzard software, 250 instances are running of Blackwing Lair, 700 instances are running of Zul’Gurub, 500 instances of Molten Core are running and 150 instances are running of Onyxia’s Lair. And given that all of those zones lock players out from visiting on consecutive days if they successfully kill a boss in the zone, the numbers of people using each is even higher.

Other things Blizzard designers take into account are what each class should expect to be doing on a raid to contribute — and it’s not always the same tasks: Druids were consciously given a chance to use their crowd control abilities in Zul’Gurub, for instance. Designers also like to design with a set duration for an average instance session in mind, which varies with each dungeon.

He also answered the common question of why non-player characters aren’t “smart” and behave like players, say, by killing characters who can heal others first.

“OK, we can kill you at any point we want,” Kaplan said. “That doesn’t make for a fun fight.”

How many healers would be interested in coming to fight Onyxia, he said, if the first thing the black dragon did was to target and pick them off?

Going back to results from Blizzard’s software, he ran through a list of the deadliest raid opponents in the game: Since the game went live, Vaelastrasz has killed more than 24,000 player characters, the Bloodlord had killed more than 11,000 and Firemaw has killed more than 10,000.

The software is used as part of an overall system of testing after content is released. In-house testing, he said, could never be as good as having players hammer on content, because despite having many highly skilled players on the team, a cohesive guild that raids together regularly will always be better at handling challenges than a group of competent people who rarely play together. (Quality Assurance has a new in-house raiding guild that is working their way up through the content, however, to help improve the testing of raid content.)

The panel also previewed the next raid content to be added to World of Warcraft: The Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj (an outdoor 20-person dungeon comparable to Zul’Gurub in difficulty) and The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (a mostly indoor 40-person dungeon slightly harder than Blackwing Lair).

The zone will open with a war between the Horde and the Alliance (and presumably the Cenarian Circle) and the returning Ahn’Qiraj menace. The war begins in Silithus, but takes place all over the world. Before the new dungeons are opened up, players of all levels will help fuel the war effort by gathering materials and achieving certain military objectives. Meanwhile, the uber guild types will be assembling a four-part scepter, which is used to ring the gong outside the Scarab Gate. And at which point, all hell breaks loose, and Silithus is consumed in a massive war. When the dust settles, two new dungeons are available on the server forever more.

The expectation is that most servers will accomplish the tasks within three weeks of the dungeons being patched in with the 1.9 patch later this year. On the off-chance the players on a given server have no particular interest in advancing the war effort, non-player characters will eventually get the job done on their own.

A brief run-down of the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj was given, including a glance at General Rajaxx, the first boss reachable in the dungeon. Players will fight him with the help of NPC allies, and the more allies that survive, the better the resulting loot will be, similar to how the tribute run in North Dire Maul works. (The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj will have a similar event.)

Even more so than Zul’Gurub, the ruins will be a non-linear dungeon, allowing raids to pick where they want to go and who they want to fight to a certain extent: “All roads lead to phat lewt.”

The peek at the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj showed obsidian destroyers, and the first boss, the Prophet Skeram. The dungeon is huge — the map of the Scarlet Monestary library wing was showed beside the temple layout to scale.

“Scarlet Monestary can, like, fit in the boss room” of the temple.

They also briefly talked about Naxxramas, Kel’Thuzad’s necropolis floating above the undead-controlled city of Stratholme. The final fight will include a massive frostwyrm and the necromancer Kel’Thuzad himself.

The tower of Medivh, Karazhan, which will be part of the Burning Crusade expansion, will be a 10-person raid zone, probably, and one of Blizzard’s biggest dungeons to date.

“It will definitely be bigger than Blackrock Spire, upper and lower combined.”

Among the highlights: A fight in an opera house within the tower, including a battle on stage with a boss.

Also in the Burning Crusade will be the Caverns of Time, a dungeon with four wings, including at least one five-person dungeon and a full-blown battleground.

The Outland fortress of Kael’Thas Sunstrider, Tempest Keep, will also be designed with wings, and include a Molten Core-sized raiding instance.

In contrast, Hellfire Citadel, the prison where Magtheradon is kept, will be similar to Onyxia’s Lair, where players only need to dispense with a few “trash” enemies before getting to the showdown with Magtheradon himself.

And, of course, Illidan Stormrage will be the ultimate goal in the Black Temple.

Look for smaller raids in future rather than larger.

“We feel that even a hardcore raiding guild enjoys a smaller raid zone,” Kaplan said.

There will also be a change in the raid lockout system in the 1.9 patch, changing to a calendar-based system, but the details of what that meant were not clear.

BlizzCon: Morhaime, Dabiri kick off Blizzard’s first fan convention

After a horrendously long registration line — next year, Blizzard Entertainment needs to just mail tickets to folks, and if they don’t, make sure to get your tickets the night before the show, no matter what — Blizzard President Mike Morhaime welcomed gamers to the company’s first-ever convention, BlizzCon.

“Eleven years ago, we created the first Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. It could be played by two humans over a modem, and we thought that was pretty good,” he said. “When Frank Allen and I started Blizzard, we just wanted to make great games.”

Almost 8,000 people were expected to attend BlizzCon over the weekend, he said.

“So, on behalf of everyone at Blizzard, we want to thank you.”

He also had two bits of news. The second — that Blood Elves would be playable in the first World of Warcraft expansion, the Burning Crusade — was already fairly well-known via leaks from the international media prior to the show.

But the first was greeted with applause and cheers: The zerg will be playable in multiplayer StarCraft: Ghost, the forthcoming console game.

Shane Dabiri, the lead producer for World of Warcraft, then took over the presentation, segueing into a presentation of the Burning Crusade.

Like Morhaime, Dabiri thanked the players in attendance for making it all possible, and reaffirmed the development team’s commitment to content updates for the current game. Among the forthcoming additions to World of Warcraft were the two dungeons of Al’Qiraj, Kel’Thuzad’s flying necropolis of Naxxramas, linked auction houses “in every city” (at which the audience predictably went crazy), weather (“I’m not talking about Southern California-type weather,” but sandstorms, blizzards, driving rain, fog and so on) and more.

As for the Burning Crusade, he covered what had been rumored in light detail:

“You’ll be able to play two new races, the first of which we’re debuting today: The Blood Elves of Quel’Thalas.”

Also included in the Burning Crusade will be Medivh’s Tower of Kharazan and the Caverns of Time, along with a chance to face off with Illidan Stormrage himself, the main villain of the expansion.

“You get to go to the Black Temple and kick his ass.”

Epic flying mounts will be available in Outland, the shattered remains of Draenor. And they’ll be needed, since there will be areas that cannot be reached except by flying.

The new profession of Jewelcrafting, which owes a lot to the Diablo II socketing system, will also be added in the expansion.

“There’s just too much. I’d rather just show you,” he said, signalling for the video to play. (The video is also available at the Burning Crusade official site.)

“Blood elves, huh? I guess that means more guys playing girls,” he grinned.

Motley Sue, 7/15/85 – 10/27/05

Motley Sue was put to sleep today. When a cat gets as old as she was — she was 20, and nine months away from being able to legally drink alcohol — it turns into a race as to which worn-out part will end up killing her. For a long time, it looked like kidney disease was going to win the race, but in the last few days, her colon, in a stunning come from behind upset, passed her failing kidneys. This morning, she spent more than 10 minutes in the litterbox, straining, her little back muscles rippling, trying to get the tissue paper of her intenstines to work, but only succeeded in sprinkling drops of blood on the litter. She moved throughout the house, trying over and over. In my study, she suddenly hissed loudly in pain and frustration. This is a cat who, in 20 years, has bitten three times total and probably hissed fewer than a dozen times. I’ve always said that when her age and infirmity became a burden to her — remarkably, she adapted to the blindness of these past six months quite well — I wouldn’t be selfish, and would do the right thing. The hissing told me: It was time. So, at a little after 3 today, our veterinarian, who’s always marveled at how healthy and down-right tough she was for a cat of her advanced years, gave her a strong sedative, followed by two super doses of tranquilizers that slowed her breathing, and then stopped it. In her 20 years, Motley had gone from Maryland to Virginia to California, back to Virginia, then to Wisconsin, right back around eight or nine weeks later, around Virginia, over to Egypt, back to Virginia and finally, back to California. She was my brother’s confidante when he was a high school freshman trying to readjust to America after five years overseas. She was my comfort when my first love dumped me, and then got engaged five months later to a guy she’d only met just as we broke up. At some point along the line, Motley decided I was hers, and she was mine, and would walk across roommates and family members, just to be with me. She lived alone for a month in a national forest, when she went walkabout, as all cats want to do at least once. She knew over a dozen words of English, and used to race up the stairs of the townhouse I shared in Springfield, Virginia, and leap four feet through the air to land on my bed when I called her at bed time. When I came down with a mystery illness earlier this year, she curled up against me, there when I fell asleep from my fatigue, and there when I woke up. At the end of her life, she nuzzled my hand, getting her cheeks a good scratching one last time. When I follow her into the dark one day, I expect to find her there waiting for me, waiting for me to pop open a cat of cat food already. She was a hell of a good cat.

Todd Turoci bows out of Assembly race

Tracie Troha, the new Hesperia/county reporter for the Daily Press, has the story:

Planning Commissioner Todd Turoci announced on Wednesday he is dropping out of the race for the 59th Assembly District.

Turoci, 43, who announced his candidacy in July, said he decided to withdrawal from the campaign after realizing he would not be able to balance being a single parent and representing his constituents as an assemblyman.

“If I won I would be away from my children, who range in age from 7 to 13 years, for six years,” Turoci said. “I realized I couldn’t do both jobs effectively.”

Turoci’s departure leaves Anthony Adams of Hesperia and three Los Angeles County candidates in the race for the Republican nomination for the seat in the June 2006 primary.

Look for the Hesperia Star’s take on it, which will be framed somewhat differently, in the November 1 edition of the paper.

Jordis Unga record deal announced

Rock Star: INXS contestant Jordis Unga has landed a record deal with Epic Records, according to published reports (including more here).

Although she ran out of emotional steam, she was one of the standout performers, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Jordis has up her sleeve.

(Source.)