Topic: Cataclysm Ultra-thread (Read 55228 times)

Shinra · « **Reply #640 on:** May 18, 2011, 01:13:57 PM »

So Blizzard announced yesterday that they were going to give us all the ability to party across realms with realid friends.

For an additional premium fee.

That's going over about as well as anyone could have expected. The apes are smearing so much shit all over the official forums that all of the blue posters are on overdrive locking threads and directing them to a 'continuation topic', the continuation of a thread that has apparently been maxed out 6 times and is quickly working on #7.

The question is, is a backpedal incoming or are they really going to stick with this horrifyingly bad idea?

Ziiro · « **Reply #641 on:** May 18, 2011, 01:27:31 PM »

My money is on that they'll stick with it. The closest comparison is the backpedaling from the RealID thing - but that had no financial impact. Activision won't back down on this because there is so much money to be made here. Or lost, if it goes for free. (why realm transfer if you can group for free?)

Shinra · « **Reply #642 on:** May 18, 2011, 01:51:31 PM »

I could see the premium service if there was cross real raiding and what have you but this seems just too much like a sharemless cash grab to me. It's really bad PR, besides. I know activision is ridiculous, but they've only gotten away with this silliness before on new games, not an existing product that's been running for 7 years without buyable features from a cash shop. (I'm talking about actual in game features, not maintainance extras like transfers or cash shop horseys.) I'll remain optimisitic.

Niku · « **Reply #643 on:** May 18, 2011, 04:55:38 PM »

honestly if they bundle this into the extra $3 a month or whatever for the mobile stuff, that package starts to look more and more worth it

if it's INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE WITH FRIENDS it's p. dumb

Rico · « **Reply #644 on:** May 18, 2011, 10:22:18 PM »

Last I heard it was also one person needed in the group, not all five.

Shinra · « **Reply #645 on:** May 19, 2011, 05:02:21 AM »

I hate to go with the slippery slope argument, but where does this really end?

How many steps are we away now from 'Patch 4.3 releases two new premium five man dungeons available in a map pack for only 9.99'? This is the first really tangible evidence of them pushing an actual in-game feature as a premium item. It just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, when you consider we're already paying a premium to play the game in the first place.

Niku · « **Reply #646 on:** May 19, 2011, 05:16:26 AM »

this is totally unlike the current way to play through dungeons with your friends, by rolling on a new server or paying money so that you can.

Pacobird · « **Reply #647 on:** June 10, 2011, 10:40:34 AM »

Looks like they're actually proposing a reasonable solution for PvP weapons, both preventing people from getting the new stuff too quickly without an arbitrary "we will only release these when we decide we want to" as well as a way for Little Dudes to get the previous season's weapon through momentous dedication to fighting on the roads in AB.

Only took, what, 5 years?

Doom · « **Reply #648 on:** August 01, 2011, 01:43:01 AM »

Salutations fellows it would appear that the guild I lead is now 7/7 and I feel rather dapper about it.

Niku · « **Reply #649 on:** August 01, 2011, 02:50:05 AM »

of course it would have been done three weeks ago if not for my work schedule but i guess we'll take what we can get

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #650 on:** August 16, 2011, 08:24:21 AM »

Blizzard no longer views threat-management as engaging gameplay and will be changing tanking specs to have their own versions of DKs' active mitigation gameplay. I didn't tank much while my subscription was active, but I'm very curious what you guys think about this.

Quote from: Shinra on May 18, 2011, 01:13:57 PM

So Blizzard announced yesterday that they were going to give us all the ability to party across realms with realid friends.

Also, this is now live and free for all players.

Rico · « **Reply #651 on:** August 16, 2011, 09:14:36 AM »

Haven't raided really at all in Cataclysm, but having raided at virtually every point in the Threat Matters continuum before now I really don't like this half approach of completely taking out something that's working fine now because something's getting changed at an indeterminate time later down the road. I can't say I really liked early vanilla's super-excessive threat management (except for fights like, uh, suppression room guy wassname), nor most of LK's perma-threat, but DPS classes having to ride the line when well-geared or very skilled was an interesting mechanic. It was fun to very carefully stay just at the pull cap. As a tank, it was nice feeling like your skill at threat generation mattered to downing an encounter on DPS/time sensitive fights.

This new system might end up being fun, but the old system was already fun, so why fuck with it so extensively?

Ziiro · « **Reply #652 on:** August 16, 2011, 10:21:45 AM »

Quote

(except for fights like, uh, suppression room guy wassname)

Broodlord Lashlayer

I've played across all three of the roles through enough of the content to realize: If they take out threat mechanics, it may allow for more engaging and interesting ideas because it frees up that much focus (For developers and players) to put to some other mechanic. I mean, Look at Ulduar's Mimiron - there's so much going on in that fight that you have to pay attention to. Yet Threat mechanics during the phases really isn't a big issue. This allowed them to create this totally crazy fight. If threat management was involved I think it would have broke my brain.

On the other side of the coin: I think the way it was used in the Broodlord Lashlayer's fight was interesting as a mechanic on its own - I'm going to miss some aspects of it.

Rico · « **Reply #653 on:** August 16, 2011, 11:34:29 AM »

Threat actually was an issue on Mimiron HM on phases 1 and 3. While downtime from the shockblast/mine combo and ranged having to move from fires mitigated it somewhat later in the phase, the DPS requirements to not get overwhelmed were pretty strict and you could fuck up shortly after the pull. Phase 3 also had the potential to get really ugly after a double grounding if a low mitigation ranged pulled aggro or even worse a melee which lead to pingpong.

While the new system doesn't preclude Broodlord-type fights with artificial threat mechanics, I don't agree with your main premise of freeing up focus for more/different mechanics. There's a net negative for tanks because A) it's pretty easy to threat now B) changing to an active mitigation system means ability use will have more of an ability to do it wrong and a higher failure cost. Healers will now have to compensate for tank fuckups so they're going to be as stressed as ever. The relatively simple DPS job gets simpler and things could be added there, but melee DPS is already having problems getting fucked relative to ranged DPS and it's difficult to design an interesting mechanic that can punish ranged DPS but not healers because of positioning.

Bal · « **Reply #654 on:** August 16, 2011, 12:01:33 PM »

There's also hasn't been a fight where tank switching was a meaningful mechanic since, what, AQ40? By meaningful, I mean the bosses were taunt immune but you had to switch tanks in a semi-precise manner. Of course, alliance players never considered this mechanic meaningful. I think the last time I had to worry about threat on a fight was Blood Queen Lanithel, and that was only because if I pulled third place and got bitten then people with higher baseline DPS wouldn't get the most benefit from her bite.

Pacobird · « **Reply #655 on:** August 16, 2011, 12:14:35 PM »

While I generally agree with rico, I would add the caveat that the problem with the Threat Game for a tank is that if I wanted to play a DPS I would be playing a DPS. Maximizing threat is cool and fun and whee and whatever but I always found playing hard to be much more satisfying in situations like early, low-gear Malchazaar or whatever his name was, where you knew the buttons you were pressing were keeping you alive. Just felt tankier.

At any rate, an immediate effect of this will be to make heroics zergier than they are currently (I honestly don't know how zergy they are these days), since more control over how difficult you are to kill at any given specific moment means you can handle more dangerous pulls that much more aggressively.

A² · « **Reply #656 on:** August 17, 2011, 01:00:31 PM »

Transmogrifier now officially stated to be "Wear any armor you want to look like." Banana Paladins are back.

Limited to: Actual armor you can wear (Mages can't look like they're wearing Dreadnaught), foggy on if you have to own the armor you want to look like first, but people seem to agree that this will be in.

Void Storage is an extra 100-150 slots of storage since people will want armor now. Items stored in it lose all gems/enchantments.

Raid Finder being implimented. Abyssal Maw gone, storyline was too stupid by Blizzard standards (insert about five thousand jokes here)

3 new 5-mans, Deathwing Raid (including riding on deathwing's back), New CoT 5-man for War of the Ancients, and a Darkmoon Faire Island called "Whack-a-Gnome"

As a gnome, I am already protesting this unfair discrimination.

Beat Bandit · « **Reply #657 on:** August 17, 2011, 01:52:09 PM »

Are they really getting rid of the awesome sub ride through the warzone? That was the only reason to go through Vash'jir.

Ziiro · « **Reply #658 on:** August 17, 2011, 01:58:13 PM »

Transmogrify doesn't work on legendaries.

fuck this

A² · « **Reply #659 on:** August 17, 2011, 03:41:13 PM »

Quote from: Beat Bandit on August 17, 2011, 01:52:09 PM

Are they really getting rid of the awesome sub ride through the warzone? That was the only reason to go through Vash'jir.

Clarification: An Abyssal Maw raid has been scrapped.

News:

Author Topic: Cataclysm Ultra-thread (Read 55228 times)