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  Q&A: Crusaders’ Coliseum and Isle of Conquest |
07/31/09 07:10:39 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: Joining us
today to answer some player-submitted questions about the Isle of
Conquest and Crusaders' Coliseum coming in patch 3.2, Call of
the Crusade, is Game Director Tom Chilton, Lead Encounter Designer
Scott Mercer, and Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi. Let's
begin with a collection of questions we've received from
players around the world about the Crusaders' Coliseum, the
latest 5-, 10-, and 25-player content coming to Wrath of the Lich
King.
Q: For clarification purposes, what are the official names for
each of the new dungeons coming in patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade,
and what is the style and format of each dungeon?
Development Team: Right, so the Crusaders' Coliseum is
the name given to all different versions of the dungeon. Trial of
the Champion is the name of the 5-player dungeon, both for normal
and Heroic difficulties. Trial of the Crusader is the name of the
10- and 25-player normal raid dungeon, and Trial of the Grand
Crusader is what we are calling the 10- and 25-player Heroic
version. For those familiar with the Ring of Blood and Amphitheatre
of Anguish, the format and layout of each Crusaders' Coliseum
dungeon are similar in feel. Each vile creature or group of
creatures will be introduced one at a time in a gladiator-style
format. Players must best each encounter before beginning the next
one. Of course, there are a few twists along the way to give a bit
more of an epic feel.
Q: How difficult do we expect the normal and Heroic versions of
Trial of the Champion to be compared to other 5-player dungeons;
and will the normal version have a lockout like that of a Heroic
dungeon?
Development Team: For the most part players will find that
the challenges of the two respective 5-player difficulty settings
are roughly on par with 5-player instances already available in
Wrath of the Lich King. The quality of gear players are wearing may
be a slight determining factor for difficulty when comparing Trial
of the Champion to other instances. There is no lockout on the
normal version of the dungeon and no daily dungeon quest associated
with it. The Heroic version will be included in the daily Heroic
dungeon quest rotation.
Q: Do we have plans for the Argent Warhorses in Trial of the
Champion to scale based on characters' gear (similar to the
Oculus and Ulduar vehicles)?
Development Team: No, there are no plans for this and
frankly, it's not really necessary. The jousting phase of the
first encounter in Trial of the Champion is very similar in
difficultly to jousting champions on the Argent Tournament
grounds.
Q: How will achievements work for Trial of the Crusader and
Trial of the Grand Crusader, and will there be four different types
of achievements to be completed?
Development Team: There aren't four different
categories of achievements where you'll have 10-player
normal, 10-player Heroic, 25-player normal and 25-player Heroic
achievement categories. There will be 10-player and 25-player
achievement categories, with achievements for normal and Heroic
modes in each of these categories. So, for instance you'll
have an achievement in the 25-player category to defeat a boss on
normal difficulty and an achievement in the same category to defeat
that boss on Heroic difficulty. There will also be your standard
fun achievements for defeating bosses under specific criteria which
will apply to normal or Heroic modes. Lastly, there will be some
special achievements for tribute runs that can be earned depending
on the raid's performance.
Q: Will there be any kind of reputation and titles associated
with the Coliseum and will there be a 310% mount meta-achievement
reward?
Development Team: As with other Wrath of the Lich King
dungeons, players are welcome to wear faction tabards to gain
reputation with factions of their choice. Champion's Seals
will also drop through the Heroic 5-, 10-, and 25-player versions
of the Crusaders' Coliseum. With that said, players will not
gain reputation simply for completing objectives in the coliseum,
whether on normal or Heroic difficulty. There will be no 310%-speed
mount offered through a meta-achievement reward, as the current
310%-speed mount offered will not be removed when path 3.2 is
released. Going back to achievements though, we will be offering
some great feat of strength rewards for those who truly master the
tribute run.
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07/31/09 07:12:15 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: There are
currently four separate modes of Coliseum raids: 10-player,
25-player, 10-player Heroic, and 25-player Heroic.
Q: What is the reasoning behind this raid setup?
Development Team: We love hard modes and we've seen
that they are a very popular addition to World of Warcraft. What
we're doing here is making the distinctions between the
different difficulties more clear, which also allows us a better
opportunity to balance encounters. Difficulty settings are still
relatively new to the game, particularly for the raiding scene, and
we're constantly looking for ways to improve and iterate upon
this system.
Q: Since, in the current Wrath of the Lich King raids, switching
to a Heroic mode means switching to 25-player mode, how will
players turn on the new Heroic modes?
Development Team: It will function very similarly to the way
in which dungeon difficulty is chosen for 5-player instances
currently. If you are in a raid group, the difficulty setting will
now have four options, one for each raid group size and
difficulty.
Q: What are the planned item levels for the gear that drops in
each of the new Coliseum instances and how will the gear
differentiate from one instance to another?
Development Team: Trial of the Champion will drop item level
200 and 213 items in the normal and Heroic modes respectively;
Trial of the Crusader (10-player) will drop item level 232 items;
Trial of the Grand Crusader (10-player) and Trial of the Crusader
(25-player) will drop item level 245 items; Trial of the Grand
Crusader (25-player) will drop item level 258 items. For those
working through a tribute run, there might also just be a surprise
or two in the chest at the end€¦ if you have
what it takes to master this run.
Q: What is the breakdown for emblem drops in each of the
Coliseum instances?
Development Team: Two Emblems of Triumph will be awarded for
each encounter in the raid dungeons, while one Champion's
Seal and one Emblem of Conquest will be awarded for each encounter
in Trial of the Champion (Heroic difficulty only).
Q: Since we've been discussing the tribute system a bit
here, can you go over how this new system for the 10-player and
25-player Heroic dungeons will work, including how to activate it
and what kind of extra rewards players can expect?
Development Team: Sure. Firstly, at least one player in the
raid group has to have cleared Trial of the Crusader to unlock
Trial of the Grand Crusader for the raid. Speaking to an NPC will
do this. Players working through Trial of the Grand Crusader will
automatically be working through a tribute run. A counter will be
displayed in the interface monitoring the raid's performance
by tracking unsuccessful attempts. A maximum of 50 unsuccessful
attempts will be allowed per week. If this number is reached the
encounters will no longer be accessible by the group until the
instance resets during scheduled weekly maintenance. If the
instance is cleared before hitting this limit, the raid will be
awarded according to their performance during the tribute run. The
items players can expect are good. That's really all there is
to it!
Q: Are there any particular ways in which the Coliseum
encounters will be new and unique compared to previous
encounters?
Development Team: Well, given that the tribute run system
and new ways of executing normal and Heroic difficulty settings
have been added, we expect players will see a very different
dynamic in the encounters. The tribute system provides for the
first time in raiding a way of awarding players, not simply based
on what bosses were killed, but how well the raid performed
attempting each boss.
We don't want to go too much into fight mechanics, but we
expect players will see quite a few interesting new challenges. To
give one example for those familiar with Magister's Terrace
back in The Burning Crusade, there will be an encounter similar to
the Priestess Delrissa fight. This time it will be on a raid scale
with many more foes against which players will square off. Oh, and
crowd-control effects will be subject to diminishing returns as
well, so you'll just have to manage your abilities
wisely!
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07/31/09 07:13:28 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: We've
seen a great deal of mixed feedback about the design of the tier-9
sets available with the release of the Crusaders'
Coliseum.
Q: What reasons led to the decision to develop PvE sets that
differ between the Horde and Alliance more so than they differ
between classes and gear types (i.e. cloth, leather, mail, plate);
and is this a new set design philosophy players should expect going
forward?
Development Team: We wanted to do things a little bit
differently this time around, though it's not entirely unlike
the way we approached designing set pieces for Sunwell or
Ahn'Qiraj, and not a fundamental change in artistic direction
we plan to stick with every time a new tier of gear is released. In
an ideal world every class for each faction would have their own
unique look and set design, but artistic tasks like that
aren't always feasible given our development schedule.
In the context of the Argent Tournament and impending struggle with
the Lich King, we felt it would be cool this time around to offer
unique looks for the Horde and Alliance. As we get closer to the
invasion of Icecrown Citadel, players are noticing that
there's more tension building between leaders of the Horde
and the Alliance. We want the gear the factions are wearing to
represent that as the Horde and Alliance struggle for domination
over the Lich King, and ultimately over the world. The Argent
Tournament and Crusaders' Coliseum feel like great avenues to
further distinguish the two factions. Right now both sides are
honing their skills through the Argent Crusade's tests.
Should they take the fight to the Lich King and succeed while
animosity between the Horde and Alliance continues to build,
there's no telling what lies in store for the denizens of
Azeroth.
Q: Finally -- and it's all too often asked -- how are
players really supposed to deal with not one, but TWO
Jormungars?!
Development Team: We can always hotfix one of them out if
things get too crazy for players. We've put in a special
achievement related to this as well, so hop to it!
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07/31/09 07:15:40 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: Let's
move onto our newest epic siege-style Battleground, Isle of
Conquest. We covered much of the basic objectives a while back in
our Battleground Q&A, so this time around we're going to
ask some follow-up questions players have submitted on our forums
around the world.
Q: Firstly, how has the testing of this Battleground been going
on the public test realms and what kinds of changes have been made
based on this testing?
A: Testing has been great so far. We continue to get a lot
of feedback about this new Battleground and have made a lot of
changes over the course of the testing process based on the
response from players. We've lowered the number of
reinforcements allotted each team, increased the health and damage
of the generals, increased the health of the keep walls, made keep
cannons repairable and changed the way bombs in the enemy's
keep spawn to lessen the severe advantage players originally had
for capturing the Gunship Hangar and parachuting into the
enemy's base, just to name a few changes that have been made
since the public test realms were first released.
Q: Given that average match lengths continue to fluctuate on the
test realms as adjustments are made to specific mechanics, what do
you feel would be a satisfactory length for the average Isle of
Conquest battle and why?
Development Team: We'd like the average match to last
around 20 minutes, with the occasional 30-minute match depending on
the level of skill of the competing teams. This is roughly the
length of time we'd like all of our Battleground matches to
last. We want to provide players with an epic feel without making
it feel as though they're getting stuck in a never-ending
match like the Alterac Valley days of old. We recognize that some
players like very drawn-out battles and even miss the old Alterac
Valley days, but a lot of players want the fun from Battlegrounds
to come from competing in several different battle types over the
course of a play session rather than feeling stuck in one match
that continues to drag out with little reward for the extra time
invested.
Community Team: Players active on the test realms report
that, due to the relatively short length of the overall battle and
losses rarely being due to reinforcement depletion, the Cobalt Mine
and Oil Derrick are not highly sought after.
Q: Has there been any consideration given to providing
additional advantages for controlling these strategic points on the
map?
Development Team: We will be changing these capture points
so that, in addition to the current advantages they offer,
controlling one of them will provide a 15% damage increase for all
vehicles operated by that faction. Controlling both points will
provide a 30% damage increase for vehicles.
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07/31/09 07:17:30 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: Similarly,
players are reporting that matches are largely decided by which
team controls the Siege Workshop and/or the Gunship Hangar. In
other words, the faction that's pushed back to a more
defensive position from the start of the match tends to have
difficulty ever recovering from the momentum of the opposing
team's attacks.
Q: Is this something you are witnessing on the test realms? If
so, is it a concern or a part of preventing matches from drawing
out too long?
Development Team: If one faction takes control of both the
Siege Workshop and Gunship Hangar, chances are they have what it
takes to win the battle anyhow. We do still see matches on the test
realms where a team is able to recover from a poor start with
coordination and skill. We don't want to see matches decided
from the very beginning, but as in any Battleground, the team that
has great offensive momentum right from the start by capturing
strategic points will likely ultimately find victory.
Q: Do you share the concern reported by some players that
"spawn killing" or "graveyard camping" is a
little too easy in Isle of Conquest?
Development Team: This is a potential concern, though we do
not see this type of activity occurring in a more severe manner
than in our other Battlegrounds -- Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and
Eye of the Storm in particular. If players are able to make it back
to their keeps they can always access the keep portals to elude the
enemy. If we do see this becoming more of a severe problem, we will
consider potentially offering graveyard portals allowing players
the option to resurrect at an alternate location.
Q: For the players who prefer not to focus on vehicle combat or
the race to have more vehicles than the enemy players, can you
provide a rough breakdown of the role vehicles will play in Isle of
Conquest versus standard ground combat when compared to Strand of
the Ancients or Wintergrasp, two different objective-based PvP game
types which are very vehicle-centric?
Development Team: There are still very important strategies
dependent upon ground combat to win a battle in Isle of Conquest.
This is even true for Strand of the Ancients when it comes to
stopping the vehicle advance of the invading force. As was
mentioned before, changes to the Oil Derrick and Cobalt Mine
provide ground forces with a very important role in capturing these
points. Ultimately, doing so will provide great advantages to the
whole team as well. With that being said, we understand that there
are players who want nothing to do with vehicle combat. Even though
ground combat will play a big part in securing a victory in Isle of
Conquest, these players will have to decide if this Battleground
has aspects of PvP they find enjoyable.
Q: Unlike the original three Battlegrounds, why are there no
reputations or faction awards associated with the Battlegrounds
we've released in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich
King?
Development Team: In the past we found that providing
reputation and rewards for Battlegrounds led to players focusing on
grinding one specific Battleground over and over again, which we do
not necessarily view as a good thing. To combat this, we
incentivized playing all Battlegrounds by providing players with
the Mark of Honor turn-in quests. There's always a chance
this may change as we reevaluate the Battleground system. However,
we're happy with the current functionality of Battlegrounds
and would prefer not to have reputations and Battleground-specific
rewards for each Battleground.
Q: Will Isle of Conquest Marks of Honor factor into the
Battleground marks turn-in quests, or provide any other use, and
are there any plans for reevaluating the Mark of Honor system as we
continue to add new Battlegrounds?
Development Team: Yes, Isle of Conquest Marks of Honor will
factor into the turn-in quests. The reward for completing these
quests will be increased proportionately to reflect the extra mark
requirement. While it's not out of the question, we do not
have any plans to share at this time with regard to revamping the
Mark of Honor system.
Q: Will players be able to join this Battleground as a group; if
so, how many players can queue together?
Development Team: Players should be able to join Isle of
Conquest with up to four other players, as is currently the case
with Alterac Valley.
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07/31/09 07:19:24 AM
Patch 3.1.3
Ancilorn |
Community Team: While this
question pertains more to the Battleground system as a whole, it is
brought up a lot.
Q: Are there any additional design plans to help combat the
issue of matches starting with an uneven number of players on each
side?
Development Team: We are experimenting with many different
ways of improving the Battleground queuing system so teams
aren't so lopsided when a game begins. This is something
we're working on at the moment and we look forward to sharing
additional details in the near future.
Community Team: This just about wraps it up. We thank you
gentlemen for your time. Our last question about both the Isle of
Conquest and Crusaders' Coliseum comes specifically from
Haerle on the U.S. realm Thunderlord and the guild Sweep The
Leg.
Q: What is the possibility of attaining a pony from either of
these valorous endeavours?
Development Team: No ponies, but there might just be an
Argent Warhorse out there somewhere€¦ good
luck!
Isle of Conquest -- http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p2/isleofconquest.xml
Crusaders' Coliseum -- http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p2/argent-crusaders-coliseum.html
Call of the Crusade -- http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/
Battleground Q&A -- http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p2/battleground-qna.html
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