Phasing?

[Sheepherder]

I am hopeful that this is what lets them finally do the Emerald Dream, since it solves the big questions about how that could be implemented without making a whole 'nother Azeroth. So maybe we'll finally get the damned thing.   

Actually, it isn't a good way to implement the Emerald Dream.  Everything you see in the phased location which is different from the original in some way has to be flagged as being such, for phasing Azeroth to work you would have to modify the properties of almost every single NPC and doodad in Azeroth.  Comparatively speaking just copying it all and making the modifications is far easier.

[Typhon]

I am hopeful that this is what lets them finally do the Emerald Dream, since it solves the big questions about how that could be implemented without making a whole 'nother Azeroth. So maybe we'll finally get the damned thing.   

Actually, it isn't a good way to implement the Emerald Dream.  Everything you see in the phased location which is different from the original in some way has to be flagged as being such, for phasing Azeroth to work you would have to modify the properties of almost every single NPC and doodad in Azeroth.  Comparatively speaking just copying it all and making the modifications is far easier.

I don't see this at all.  The only things active in the Emerald Dream, are supernatural beings and folks who are asleep (see: druids).  Since no NPC in this game ever sleeps, you don't have to flag them.  Supernatural beings that are in the dream, don't often seem to have a presence in the waking world.  Again, I don't see the problem, or how this experience wouldn't be much more tough then the "I'm dead" experience.

[Sheepherder]

The flag is either positive or negative and either defaults to on or off.

Positive + on = everything flagged at the beginning, everything not wanted needs to be unflagged.
Positive + off = everything flagged at the beginning, everything wanted in the dream needs to be flagged.
Negative + on = nothing flagged at the beginning, everything wanted in the dream needs to be flagged.
Negative + off = nothing flagged at the beginning, everything not wanted needs to be unflagged.

All ways lead to a lot of goddamn work.  Because of the nature of this there is also a high chance that things that are not wanted in the dream will be included/excluded.  If Blizzard gets clever and attaches the flags to the parent objects then Blizzard will have to create a new set of objects which are excluded from the dream zone and remove the object references they do not want in the dream and replace them with the unflagged version.  Added to this is the fact that if the Blizzard editor cannot filter phasing flags it will be a royal pain in the ass to work with once they start adding content which will only be in one phase or the other.

"Where did you put that NPC Ted?"
"In the rock next to the inn."
"What the hell?"
"The rock doesn't actually appear in the dream."

[Lantyssa]

It would make more sense for any Emerald Dream realm of sizable magnitude to simply copy assets and be a 'separate' location.  Phasing could be used within it to mimic the fluid nature of dreams, but the designers wouldn't have to worry about weird overlappings with the real virtual world.

[Kail]

As far as I can recall, the Emerald Dream is supposed to be, like, a dream of a world unchanged by human habitation or something weird like that.  So, they'd have to remove every building, every town, every road, all the elevators and harbors, everything.  Also, I think it's supposed to be all one landmass, like what Kalimdor and The Eastern Miscellaneous Crap would have looked like if there was no sundering.  At that point, may as well just make it from scratch.

Assuming they don't re-write the lore again.

[Paelos]

Assuming they don't re-write the lore again.

 

"Guys, we said before that this was one big landmass with no buildings on it? How are we going to explain the gigantic city of leper gnomes inside the Emerald Dream?"
"Whose idea was it to put the Leper Gnome city there?"
"I think it was Jeff."
"Why haven't we fired him yet?"
"No idea, should we delete the city and start over?"
"No, no, we'll just say the Titans put it there. Titans solve everything."

[Lakov_Sanite]

There are going to be a LOT of nightmares in the emerald dream. Leper gnomes? Possibly.

[Typhon]

I see now.  I thought the "Dream" part meant everybodies dreams, not just "Dream's for tree huggers only!"... thus the "Emerald" part.

Oh, that's very different.  Nevermind.

[Fordel]

The Emerald Dream is where everyone goes to dream when they are asleep. It's just only the druids and their special friends were able to actually do anything tangible in there, or something.

[Chimpy]

I would love to see that line of lore from Uldaman continued. I was so frustrated after methodically working through all those quests and the story just fucking stopped!

I would like to see any memory of Uldaman erased from my skull.

Hate that place more than just about anywhere. I think even wailing caverns is more enjoyable to me.

[apocrypha]

If you'd said Maraudon I'd agree, but I did actually enjoy Uldaman. Of course my perspective is a bit twisted - I have never been a regular dungeon-runner in WoW, just done a few here and there, mostly in PUGs, but Uldaman was one of the ones I did with friends and thus it was a lot more fun.

Maraudon still made me want to stab my brain to death though.

[Gobbeldygook]

The last boss of uldaman was very overtuned for the target demographic; it had adds that had to be controlled, plus adds you had to kill and a boss that could have been high enough level to be landing crushing blows on the tank.  When they did the big pre-BC retune, his level (45) was brought into line with the rest of the instance.

Mara's really goddamn long.  That's about it, really.

---

The only phasing that really irritates me is in Icecrown.  I've been holding off on completing some of my group quests there because once I complete them I can't help my friends complete them anymore.  I would not want to unnecessarily inflict pug tanks on my friends.

[Koyasha]

I remember them specifically stating that phased quests were going to all be soloable.  They backed out on that, and don't provide any way to help your friends on group-required phased quests?  Ugh.

[Merusk]

I dunno about Icecrown as I've been backfilling other zones for the achievements, however, none of the phased quests I've encountered have been unsoloable.

[Morfiend]

After playing though 99% of quests in every zone (only 50% through Icecrown) I can say that Phasing is amazing, and Blikzzard did it REALLY well. This is the new thing. I am surprised we havent heard more about it.

Fantastic questing and leveling experience. Hats off to Blizzard.

[Gobbeldygook]

After playing though 99% of quests in every zone (only 50% through Icecrown) I can say that Phasing is amazing, and Blikzzard did it REALLY well. This is the new thing. I am surprised we havent heard more about it.

Fantastic questing and leveling experience. Hats off to Blizzard.

Your opinion will change once you are doing your hodir dailies and start having the goddamn out of phase scrap metal EAT YOUR FUCKING ELEMENTAL ICE.

[Xanthippe]

Eh, big deal, go kill another revenant and grab another piece of ice.

Phasing is awesome.  It's the best new thing out of an MMO in years.

Blizzard's raised the bar.

Again.

[Dren]

Eh, big deal, go kill another revenant and grab another piece of ice.

Phasing is awesome.  It's the best new thing out of an MMO in years.

Blizzard's raised the bar.

Again.

Agreed.  I finally got to the Hordir quests and they are amazing.  The use of phasing was literally confusing me because things were actually changing depending on where I was in the storyline.  Normally in anything non-MMO that would be standard.  I'm so hardwired as an MMO player to not expect it, I was taken aback.  I finally broke through my MMO-rut and really got into the lore.  For me, that is a pretty tough thing to do, so Blizzards new phasing system has accomplished a lot with me.

Also, grappling spear and hopping from drake to drake to kill warrior maidens while flying 1000 feet up around an ice mountain....  I just don't have words for how awesome that was.  Please tell me that is a daily!

[SurfD]

Eh, big deal, go kill another revenant and grab another piece of ice.

Phasing is awesome.  It's the best new thing out of an MMO in years.

Blizzard's raised the bar.

Again.

Agreed.  I finally got to the Hordir quests and they are amazing.  The use of phasing was literally confusing me because things were actually changing depending on where I was in the storyline.  Normally in anything non-MMO that would be standard.  I'm so hardwired as an MMO player to not expect it, I was taken aback.  I finally broke through my MMO-rut and really got into the lore.  For me, that is a pretty tough thing to do, so Blizzards new phasing system has accomplished a lot with me.

Also, grappling spear and hopping from drake to drake to kill warrior maidens while flying 1000 feet up around an ice mountain....  I just don't have words for how awesome that was.  Please tell me that is a daily!

Im not sure if you can repeat that one (it might be one of the random daily quests that you get from them).

The Sons of Hodir however, DO have a daily, accessable at honored, that has you hanging from the bottom of a dragon, stabbing it with a spear, dodging its claws when it attacks, only to finally have it grab you in its mouth and try to crush you as you pry its jaws open to and go for the down the throat kill shot!

[Merusk]

Also, grappling spear and hopping from drake to drake to kill warrior maidens while flying 1000 feet up around an ice mountain....  I just don't have words for how awesome that was.  Please tell me that is a daily!

I think it is.. but I haven't done any dailys since I hit 80 so I can't be certain.   Instead I've gone back and finished-out the few zones I didn't for the achievements and I'm now working on Icecrown.  If you thought SoH had some awesome phasing, Icecrown is even better so far. (About 25 quests completed in zone.)

[Dren]

You know this is the first time in an MMO that I've felt I HAVE to go back and do all of the quests past max level.  Between the simple fact of getting achievements to the excellent little jewels of quests talked about here, I've found questing to be a major reason I log on each night.  Then with the added enjoyment of group instances of all different kinds, I really can't complain.

Raised the bar indeed.

[Typhon]

It would be interesting to see them use phasing as a way to make PvP dying mean something, yet not force players that died to sit with their thumbs up their asses for an extended period of time.  I'm thinking in terms of adding the 'war of attrition' mechanic and defensive positions that were difficult to tak that DAOC had and bring them to WoW, without an arbitrary 15 min wait till you could get back in the action.

[Merusk]

I did an absolutely awesome quest in Icecrown yesterday where I was Arthas.  It involved Phasing only for the duration of the quest but it was fantastic.

[Lakov_Sanite]

btw that kids name is an anagram. 

[WindupAtheist]

This game in general is about a billion times better than it was at launch, and for once regarding an MMO there's no "but of course their launch was shit" attached to that.

[Ingmar]

This game in general is about a billion times better than it was at launch, and for once regarding an MMO there's no "but of course their launch was shit" attached to that.

Honestly this is pretty surprising to me. DAOC after 4 years felt practically like I was playing something on my Commodore 64 compared to the new games that were coming out. I don't get that feeling from WoW, and I figured by now I would have.

[Fordel]

This game in general is about a billion times better than it was at launch, and for once regarding an MMO there's no "but of course their launch was shit" attached to that.

Honestly this is pretty surprising to me. DAOC after 4 years felt practically like I was playing something on my Commodore 64 compared to the new games that were coming out. I don't get that feeling from WoW, and I figured by now I would have.

WoW is responsive is why. Walking in DaoC was more akin to skating half the time, and the interface lagged behind user input.

Visually, its the whole style vs realism thing that has been harped on for the jillionth time.


Someone spent a LOT of time with WoW, making sure that when you pressed a button, your character animates and preforms the skill instantaneously and in perfect sync. That shit matters, a lot.

[Lakov_Sanite]

This game in general is about a billion times better than it was at launch, and for once regarding an MMO there's no "but of course their launch was shit" attached to that.

Honestly this is pretty surprising to me. DAOC after 4 years felt practically like I was playing something on my Commodore 64 compared to the new games that were coming out. I don't get that feeling from WoW, and I figured by now I would have.

WoW is responsive is why. Walking in DaoC was more akin to skating half the time, and the interface lagged behind user input.

Visually, its the whole style vs realism thing that has been harped on for the jillionth time.


Someone spent a LOT of time with WoW, making sure that when you pressed a button, your character animates and preforms the skill instantaneously and in perfect sync. That shit matters, a lot.

Immersion doesn't come from quests or great storylines, it doesn't come from stunning bosses or dazzling weapons. It comes from this, the ability to have your character act and move in a way that feels natural, that lets you lose yourself in the experience.