Blizzard has partnered with podcast host Countdown to Classic to bring us the The WoW: Forever Podcast series! In this first episode, Countdown is joined by Senior Game Designer Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield, Lead Classic Designer Tim Jones, and special guest Xaryu.
Here, we’ll summarize all of the key topics of the podcast and give you the perspective of both the developers and players alike. If you’d like to watch the full episode, be sure to check out the video above.
Skyborne
While fans are split on whether the new Skyborne race belongs in a Classic setting, the team is focused on telling a compelling story that will develop over time.
Initially, the team planned on playing it safe and potentially including a race from one of the zones that they will be introducing in the future, such as Gilneas, Uldum, or Quel’Thalas. One reason the team decided to stick with the Skyborne race is that they want to save the expected content for later.
The Skyborne race was one of the first new assets that the WoW: Forever team created, and as a result of them not feeling “Classic enough”, the art team has improved their practices to make future assets more in line with the Classic world.
New Server Technology
During the WoW: Forever Beta, players have experienced several new elements of the game when it comes to layering and server stability. One of the most prominent features is the fact that hundreds of players can coexist on the same layer with minimal lag. This allows for epic-scale world PvP battles.
While there has been an issue with dropped frames, the amount of server lag has been improved dramatically from previous iterations of WoW.
Experience Changes
Players have noticed a significant difference in the amount of experience earned from enemies in dungeons, however, there has also been an enormous increase in experience gained from dungeon quest completion. While these two values are drastically different from the original Classic experience, the team has stated that this is their intended design philosophy and that the two changes actually balance each other out.
The intent of this change is to encourage players to level out in the open world more often, rather than staying in dungeons and grinding mobs endlessly. Finally, while some players have claimed that leveling speed in Forever is faster than Classic, the data suggests that the leveling pace between the two games is nearly identical.
