The Best Cities for Cross Faction Guilds

Since the announcement of cross-faction guilds in 10.1, I’ve seen a lot of people request the ability to hang out in the opposite faction’s capital cities. There are some practical quality-of-life benefits that allowing cross faction characters to hang out in each other cities would allow, and the game is always in need for more role-play features. On top of that, the term “World Revamp” has been tossed around a lot lately, and most capital cities are showing their age. Going from Valdrakken to Stormwind is quite a contrast.

Let’s assume some cities get updated; if one Alliance, then also one Horde. Which cities would work best for incorporating cross-faction guilds?

Orgrimmar and Stormwind
(but, no not really)

Orgrimmar was updated in Cataclysm, and I really like the aesthetic they went with. I like it more than the “Flintstones” vibe the old city had. Stormwind has not been as lucky, except that some updates that really feel shoehorned in.

I think these are the worst possible picks for allowing cross faction characters to hang out. They are iconic to their faction and should stay that way. Capital city PvP raids should still be possible, and they would be too easy if you could congregate in the city before they start. These two do not get my vote.

Dalaran
(for the last time)

Dalaran already exists as what we’re going for. It would be good for Dalaran to get tied down geographically. Make it an evergreen place. The city has strong Sigil from Forgotten Realms vibes. The “City of Portals” idea could really be leaned in to. The portal rooms in each of the capital cities could send you to Dalaran, then you could portal to anywhere else from there. If the portals were scattered around the city we would see players running every which way all the time. It would be a city that always felt full and alive. It could function as a permanent secondary hub for each expansion.

Darnassus and Undercity
(or whatever ends up replacing them)

There are a lot of racial capital cities that are occupied by hostile forces or destroyed entirely. There is a lot of demand for these capitals to return. It’s easy to see Blizzard moving these two up the list to bring back.

Given the events that destroyed each of these cities, I don’t see them as being very tolerant of having the other faction just hanging out.

Theramoore
(rebuilt with purpose)

With the new shift towards peace, the Horde could make a good will gesture by rebuilding Theramore, and ‘gifting’ it back to the Alliance. While in reality, it would like what Theramore was like once upon a time for Jaina and Thrall. It could be the place to go for Alliance/Horde relations. It would be even more meaningful now. Theramore could represent the peace between the factions surviving in spite of individuals that want to rip them apart.

Ironforge and Thunder Bluff
(new purpose for forgotten cities)

I don’t think there is much room, or need to update these cities. They feel very ‘remote’ and out of the way. Thunder Bluff especially would feel strange packed full of people. Ironforge was designed to be the central city of the Alliance, and while it needs some aesthetic touch-ups, it’s really fine.

These seem like the most boring choices to me.

The Crossroads and Menethil Harbor
(central hubs)

These cities are both geographically central to their continents. They are both small now, but with plenty of room to be built in to anything. These would also have strong Horde/Alliance flare, without being a single races’ capital. If single faction flavor doesn’t work, Night elf and Draenei buildings could be added to the peripheral of Crossroads and Menethil Harbor could get some Undercity and Quel’thalas architecture. Both cities could probably use new names though. Rename the Crossroads after Cairne and Menethil Harbor after Lothar.

The Echo Isles and Gnomeregan (real cities at last)

Echo Isles and Gnomeregan
(real cities at last)

These cities are voids. Both were updated in Cataclysm, but they are still just starting zones. Gnomes and trolls are on the chill side of things with faction conflict. The Darkspear lost their home to Naga, and the Reganic gnomes lost their home to internal conflicts. Neither has had their home or civilization decimated by the other faction.

They offer radically different aesthetics. If they are set-up to be cross faction friendly, guilds could hang out in whichever one suited them best. Echo Isle obviously has plenty of coastline to expand to, and new islands could be added to increase the size. Gnomeregan is… sort of on the coast as. The mountain it’s under is on the coast, they just is not an opening to the sea that we know of). A new entrance on the west side of the mountain would open right on the coastline. Maybe we could get submarines to ferry us around!

Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetzan, and Winterspring
(so many options)

These are all well established cities that are already neutral in game. Right now they are small town quest hubs, but they could be expanded into so much more.

Booty Bay – If only two of these cities were updated, Booty Bay has to be one of them simply because it’s the only one in the Eastern Kingdoms. The topography around Booty Bay does not leave much room for expansion… on land, but imagine the bay packed with boats representing every faction, race, class, profession, and service crammed in so tightly that you can walk from boat to boat with no issue.

Ratchet – The direct shipping lane from Booty Bay makes Ratchet a natural choice to complement a Booty Bay upgrade. The two cities could function as one mega-city. The boats back and forth would always be full! There is a lot of room in the barrens for expansion. Gazlowe founded Ratchet, and is the new Trade Price of the Bilgewater Cartel. I could see him using his new expanded resource base to invest in the infrastructure of the city he build. Come to think of it, that’s a strong argument for making Ratchet a Horde city. Maybe make Rachet the Goblin Capital and do something else with Bildgewater Harbor…

Gadgetzan – The fan favorite. Ever since the “Mean Streets of Gadgetzan” Hearthstone expansion, players have been fantasizing about what that would look like in WoW. This city already feels the most neutral. There is a ton of room in the Tarnaris desert for it to expand into. Honestly, if everything else in Tarnaris was removed and the city was expanded to fill the entire zone nothing of value would be lost. (The Bronze Dragonflight would need a respectful buffer, and the city could subsume Zul’Farrak)

Winterspring – This city just doesn’t have much going for it right now, but that might work in it’s favor if we’re looking to do a big update. The most interesting thing around are the Furbolgs, which could be very interesting now that we can learn to speak the Furbolg language (Ursine). This city would work especially well if Furbolgs became an allied race.

Bildgewater Harbor and Gilneas
(nice, but underutilized)

Not really on even footing. Bildgewater is already a functioning city, and Gilneas is not. I honestly don’t like Bildgewater Harbor. It’s too close to Orgrimmar and just feel like it’s part of that city. If it expanded at all, they would end up merging in to one super city, which could be cool. With Gazlowe as Trade Prince, I would rather see him expand Ratchet, and this can just become Orgrimmar’s harbor.

Gilneas is done. The whole city is there and it looks great! It needs a scenario where we retake it, and then it needs to actually be re-took (ಠ_ಠ Gnomeregan). Gilneas is another city I see having too much animosity to the Horde to allow them to wander around casually.

Dark Portal and Nordrassil
(significance)

These places are the scenes of two of the most formative events in Azeroth’s history. Putting large settlements around them makes a lot of sense from an out of character perspective more than anything. Narratively, it would work to center our adventures around these monuments that are the impetus for many of those adventures.

No to Netherguard Keep though. I would not want to see the existing settlements in the area upgraded. A new settlement with the object as a center piece (not literally ‘center’. please no more circle cities) is what I would like to see.

Silvermoon and Exodar
(but mostly Silvermoon)

Exodar because it needs to be added to the old world and Draenei are forgiving. Done. Next.

Let’s be real, Silvermoon is THE BEST choice. Honestly It would be alone on this list, but one faction “losing” a city would not be well received.

First, Silvermoon is huge and has a ton of viable unused space. There are ruins next to it that could be repaired and the entire coast north of the city is empty. The size of Silvermoon could be doubled, tripled, quadrupled possibly more without removing anything needed for the Blood Elf starting experience.

Second, the players have spoken, and high elves are back. The variety of elves would give the redesigned city a multitude of styles, and a complex political climate. Visually distinct districts for Blood Elves, and High Elves, and Nighborne, and Silver Covenant, _and Illidari, ^AND Shen’dralar are all possible. Of course, we can’t forget the Dark Rangers, Banshees, Darkfallen, & San’layn. They would open up an excellent opportunity to incorporate forsaken/scourge/nerubian style in to the city. Despite the TEN groups I just named, elves branch out even further into strange and obscure ways. Area’s could be set aside for wretched and withered on the outskirts of the city, or in a magic hospital/rehabilitation facility. Felblood and Felborne could be found hiding themselves in the warlock district. The city could even sport a dungeon with satyrs, naga, fal’dorei, and who know what else like the Stockades or Ragefire Chasm.

There are so many splinter factions of elves with a recent shared history and Blizzard should take full advantage.

Hear Me Out: Race Squish

The character creation screen is getting a little crowded.

The allied races were something that I personally wanted for a long time. What we ended up getting was not exactly what I had hoped for. To me, the dark ranger customizations are perfect. I like the story quests to explain the new options, and I like that the customizations can be applied to existing characters.

I am starting to hope that we might see a ‘race squish’ someday where allied race are rolled in to their parent race as extra customizations options. They can still be locked behind achievements, but let us apply the fun new things we’ve unlocked to our existing characters.

There would be some complications. Kul Tiran Humans are very different than Stormwind Humans, but now that we have body type as an option instead of gender, they should be no problem. A race squish would make racial abilities a little complicated. I do not think that dumping all the existing racial abilities on the the combined race makes sense, but I think that with Dragonflight, we are getting rid of a system that could be recycled as a good solution. The talent structure that is going away is very limited in how many options you have, and how many you can have active. Those limitations would fit racial abilities very well. Existing abilities could be moved in to columns that could be selected either at character creation, or through leveling. Most races will need abilities added. Filling out their lists of abilities opens up the opportunity to give more direct parity of racial abilities across factions.

For example, Gnomes and Mechagnomes are combined to one race. They would have a column of abilities to select from based on Gnomeregan Gnomes, and a column of traits to pick based on Mechagon Mechagnomes. To round out the selections, we pull the racial traits of a Horde group that has abilities of a similar theme to gnomes, like Bilgewater Cartel Goblins. This would give people more freedom to pick a race based on aesthetic. No need to worry about which racial abilities feel required.

It adds more RP flavor to each individual character. You could have a character that had lived in several different places that picked up cultural traditions from all of them, or stick to the one background, or if you don’t care about any of that, pick the ones that best match your class and playstyle.

The largest hurdle I see is Vulpera. They are not a subset of an existing race, they are a whole new group all to themselves. Balancing that out would mean either adding one new race to the Alliance, or having a Horde race become truly neutral. Either of those are likely to cause a lot of discontent with the player base.

Please try not to focus on which trait I put at which level, or how I filled in the holes where gnomes have less abilities than goblins. I was trying not make sure there were enough tiers that no race would lose any abilities, so there were some placeholder abilities I threw in. Not all the abilities would need to be location themed. Orcs, would probably get Blackrock, Warsong, and Mag’har as their options. Gilneans could have something like Worgen Curse, Touch of Undeath, and Purified.

Reorganizing these existing abilities creates a ton of RP flavor and makes balancing race/faction abilities practically automatic.

My Take Away from Warcraft Classic

Full Disclosure: I have not played Warcraft Classic, but I have been listening attentively to those playing it, trying to understand why they like about it.  It sound like there are two things about it that really get people excited, community, and difficulty.

Difficulty:  Leveling in Warcraft Classic requires you to be more alert, and talent points make levels feel more impactful.  The raids are much easier, because 15 years of honing players against ever increasing bosses has led to a situation where a group of not even level 60 characters in green armor can clear Molten Core in less than a week.

Everyone knows that leveling in World of Warcraft has gotten onerous and wonky. I’m excited to see how the Devs take the information gained from Classic and use it in the impending level squish.

A while ago, I posted this about incorporating the Ironman Challenge as a feature that would be selected at character creation, or built into a special class, but now having a custom challenge server seems like the obvious solution.  “Extremophile” servers where things like, permanent death, disabled quests, NPC damage and health are increased, could be done.  It would have the advantage of putting everyone together in the same boat.  Right now if you are running the Ironman Challenge, most likely no one around you is, but if it’s a dedicated server, literally every other character would be playing by the same rules.

Warmode was a great addition to Normal Servers, but it seems to have taken something away from PvP servers.  I think removing the PvP flag from those servers was a step in the wrong direction.  Even if nothing mechanically was changed at this point, those servers have a strong cultural difference from normal servers that should be acknowledged.

Community: “With the LFG and LFR tools removed, people have to talk to each other.” is what I keep hearing about what makes the Classic community better, but what seems to really excite people are drive by buffs.  Getting Powerword: Fortitude, and Mark of The Wild cast on you as someone runs by is genuinely a great feel I remember back from Vanilla WoW.  I would not be surprised if weak “handshake” buffs were added for each class in the next expansion, so that walking past another PC means getting a little buff to say “Hi”.

Like the difficulty issues, these community issues could be addressed with specialty servers.  Removing the servers from CRZ and the disabling the LFG/LFR would be easy.  What else could be done to promote community at the server level?  What if “Lone Wolf” servers were created, a server where the character max is 1.  If you can only have one character on the server, and the barbershop is disabled, everyone will quickly become recognizable.  This would mean that you only have 2 professions on that server, so no making an alt for each profession and mailing yourself materials.  No bank alts would mean that the cities would not be full of low level characters standing around ignoring everyone.

What would all this lead to?  I don’t think I’m too far outside the realm of possibility when I suggest Private Servers.  Not the illicit pirate servers that people create, but a monthly fee to Blizzard for a server that people can join by invite only.  This is how Minecraft has operated for years.  When you’re paying for the server, you could set any number of options, disable features, set character limits, permanent death, or whatever settings are deemed acceptable by Blizzard.  If Private Servers happened, I imagine they would mostly be used by streamers to create servers for just their fans, and very VERY large guilds. These servers would probably not contribute to account wide collections either.

What do you think?  What kinds of challenges would you like to see added to retail?  Would you be turned off if Private Servers became an option?  What are the best parts of classic that could be brought to retail?

Dreaming of Gnome Druids

With Dragonflight, the Blizzard Developers have stated they would like to open all classes up to all races.  While some classes have been added already, they’ve held back on others because they feel like they do not make sense without a story to explain why or how some races have picked up practices that are traditionally far removed from their native cultures.  I think this is a fantastic idea.  I always love more creative options, and the the fact they are working on story to support new combinations is exciting.  It will mean a lot of identity development for both races and classes.

Gnomes currently can not be paladins, shamans, or druids.  Paladins will be the easiest by far.  When gnomes were given access to priests, it was almost strange that they did NOT get paladins.  Gnome shamans will be a little more of an oddity, but elemental magic seems like a practice gnomes would be inherently attracted to.  Personally, I would love to see sand-gnomes or pygmies brough in to the fold of gnome civilization to introduce shamanism.  Adding these long lost gnomes would be a great opportunity to expand gnome lore using established canon.

Of the three gnome druids will be the most difficult to write.  The guardian of nature aspect of druids is the polar opposite of the industrial machinations of gnomes.  There is part of me that fears we will get a “gArDeN gNoMeS” joke and little to know meaningful explanation.  Blizzard normally takes the lore of the druid class very seriously, so I am sure whatever they add will have substance.

With all that said, I have a blue sky hope for gnome druids, that they will be based (loosely) on “The Dreamfinder” Blarion Mercurial from Disney World’s EPCOT park.  The Dreamfinder character is a bearded man that rides around in his “Dream Mobile”, a zeppelin like craft with a heavy steampunk aesthetic.  He collects dream energy and uses it to manifest creations of raw imagination.

I think using the Emerald Dream to connect gnomes to druids would be a novel choice.  It gives an excellent opportunity to play off of the gnome racial trait “Expansive Mind”.  The Emerald Dream is related to the Titans like gnomes are.  It also might give a new perspective to what the Emerald Dream is.  It also helps get around the fact that gnomes simply are not protectors of nature.  We’ve seen that the environmental damage they do is on par with goblins.  Gnomes are high minded, big thinkers, so bringing them in to the druid mindset by starting with the extradimensional plane and astral powers makes the most sense.

I know I’m already working on backstories for gnome druid characters.

• Stuck with “Inventor’s Block” a gnome seeks out a source of pure inspiration.
• Plagued by nightmares a gnome builds a dream catcher that works a little too well.
• A gnome with a slime that used to be a beloved family member.  They have taken it to every group of magic users they know of.  The Cenarion Circle, is the first group that shows any promise.
• A teleporter accident leaves a gnome stranded in the Emerald Dream for a really, REALLY long time.  (Think Robin Williams from Jumaji.)
• Upon being told the Emerald Dream is an “unspoiled copy” of Azeroth, a gnome seeks to “reset” Gnomeregan.

Another Reason to Get Hyped for BlizzCon

I really hope they announce Warcraft 3: Remastered at BlizzCon.  I’ve got a collectors edition of Warcraft 3 at home and have a ton of fond memories of playing it.

I’m hoping we hear something about it soon, and extra hope that Warcraft 1 and 2 missions and lore are incorporated (and updated). *Fingers Crossed*

Should Casters Use Their Weapons in Casting Animations?

Back at Gamescom2017, Ion Hazzikostas, @WatcherDev was answering questions on twitter. One of which was, “Isn’t now the best chance to add animations using the staves for caster classes (at least optionally)? That would be so great.” -@AlexCC94

The answer from Ion was, “Spells in Warcraft have historically been conjured, not channeled through weapons.”

Spells in Warcraft have historically been conjured, not channeled through weapons. #AskWoWDevs #gamescom2017 pic.twitter.com/1PbevDZaCV

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) August 25, 2017

I’m going to show my age and point out that weapons were used for caster animation in Warcraft 3 and they looked cool.

 

 

Uhhh… ok, maybe not that troll one in the middle… but the others look good!  Most of them are even just weapon swings with a particle effect.  It would seem like something like that might be easy to accomplish with cosmetic glyphs or transmog options.

Weapons could be used to denote a difference in what is happening, such as casting a spell vs channeling a spell.  You could make any number of arguments for when weapons would and would not be best utilized in casting animations, but I think all it boils down to casters wanting to see their weapons used in any kind of way other than a stat stick that never moves from their back/hip.

No matter how epic and awesome looking your weapon is, it is diminished if you literally never use it.

 

Heroes of the Storm – Hero Announcements

Disclaimer:  This is not about Mekkatorque*.

Garrosh is imminent!  Back when he was announced, there were grumblings on Twitter from people saying “Oh no, not another orc.  Enough orcs already!”  It is something that I myself was guilty of.  There were also other voices, people who had been waiting on Garrosh for a LONG time.

The list below is from a video that was put up in 2011.  Now, if you are a player that is really excited about any of the names circled in red, you’ve been waiting for 6 years for the hero they teased to be released.  That sucks.  It would have been far better if none of these heroes had been teased.  Each one being a complete surprise.

Every hero announcement, no matter how cool it is, is immediately deflated by the fact that it’s not the one hero you wanted.  And while that’s a natural part of the cycle for Heroes of the Storm.  It extra sucks when they’ve teased the hero you want and they never seem to come.

It’s weird because when a hero from a franchise I don’t play get’s announced I’m indifferent, but when a hero from ‘my’ game gets released, that is when I get disappointed.  I know it’s a game, and more heroes are always coming.  I love HotS and enjoy playing it with the characters that are there, (Leper Chromie FTW).

Oh well, the genie is out of the bottle now.  I need to go update the list now.  Put a Check mark on Garrosh and I guess on Ghost Kerrigan as well?

*Mekkatorque is in the category of heroes I am discussing, but the reasoning applies to all of them.

What Gnomes Want

I put up this poll the other day.  I am afraid I phrased it very poorly due to the limitations of Twitter.

Q for Gnome Fans: What would you rather read?
History of the race?
Current state of Gnomeregan?
Gnome adventures all over Azeroth?#Warcraft

— Sicco Thermaplugg (@SiccoThermaplug) July 26, 2017

History of the race was clear enough.  We have deep history stories about elves and dwarves, but not much about gnomes.

When I say Gnomeregan’s Status, I feel like that was a lot more narrow than what it could have been.  What gnomes really want to see is a normal functioning gnome society.  All the gnome outposts, including New Tinkertown are places that have been throw together in a hurry by refugees.  We want to see what gnomes look like at their best, when they’ve had time to apply themselves and build a stable society.

Gnome adventures means gnome heroes.  We need more gnomes that gnome player can comfortably emulate.  An example of what a paragon of gnomish-ness looks like when filter through the lens of class, spec, or any profession OTHER THAN engineering.  Gnomes that remind us that even though we don’t have a city, we do still fit in on Azeroth.

Jastor Gallywix for Heroes of the Storm*

Goblin Alchemy in Warcraft is somewhat underdeveloped.  This is strange because from the very beginning goblins were alchemist.  In Warcraft 2 when goblins were introduced, their units were produced at, or dependant on, the Goblin Alchemist building.  This tradition was continued in Warcraft 3 with the Goblin Alchemist hero. Goblins even get a bonus to alchemy in World of Warcraft from their racial trait, Better Living Through Chemistry.  So where are the goblin alchemist characters and heroes?

Gallywix could offer an opportunity to take goblins back to these roots. There are many firmly established goblin engineers, most notably Gazlowe. Having a strong goblin alchemist hero would diversify the gobin kit and differentiate them from gnomes more. Putting the Bildgewater Cartel and Undercitry in competition could create some interesting tension in the Horde as the two faction both try to corner the market. Expanding into this industry would even be the natural next step and goblins. They already hold a strong monopoly on engineering, but that market is split between Bildgewater and Steamweedle.  Gallywix knows enough to diversify his portfolio of investments.

First things first, Gallywix needs to ditch the gnome spidertank.  If he is going to be cast as an alchemist, he should have a mount created through alchemy, such as a hobgoblin.  The entire hobgoblin race is created by chemical alteration and would be a good first step in taking his character that direction.  Seeing Jastor being carried around in a sedan chair by a hobgoblin would really set him apart visually and emphasize the tone for his character. There is also a goblin that rides a hobgoblin in World of Warcraft, Helix Gearbreaker.  Helix would be a great source of inspiration for Gallywix’s move set, especially the jumping on heads bit.  He would be like a reverse Abathur, jump onto enemies from head to head leaving debuffs and explosives in his wake.  It’s mentioned that Jastor used to be a street fighter when he was younger, and he’s even seen doing the head jumping move in the short story, “The Blank Scroll“.

I there is a lot of room in the alchemist kit for healing, buffs, debuffs, splash damage and more.  having Trade Prince Gallywix come to the Nexus in the form of a goblin alchemist would be a welcome addition.

*As soon as he gets his s#!+ together in World of Warcraft.

 

Should the Ironman Challenge Become an Option in WoW?

Iron Man Challenged is so popular, I hope Blizzard adds it as an official option when rolling a character one day.  It seems like it would be an easy thing to add, just tick a box and you can’t equip uncommon armor, enter instances or BG or learn professions…  Oh and when you die your character is dead forever.  Official integration would lead to a few ‘convenience’ features, like an official leader-board, and the ability to mail all your gold from your dead character to one of your living toons.  Heck, it could be as simple as having the title “Iron <name>” on all new toons that is then lost the first time you die or equip an uncommon/rare/epic item.

The best time to have added a leveling challenge would have been right after Cataclysm.  New leveling content and an incentive to run it in a new way.  Perhaps if they rework the level content again (unlikely) they will add it.  I think they are close to making boosting level at the beginning of an expansion so cheap and easy as to make leveling in the old world irrelevant.

I was checking out the leader boards they have at wowchallenges.com. Their other challenges are really interesting too.  Along with variable levels of the Ironman (such as Tinman) They have a Pacifist and Blood Thirsty challenges.

Pacifist has gotten a lot of attention from Polygon’s series “World of Peacecraft” staring the gnome rogue Raandyy, and before that the extreme efforts of the pandaren shaman Doubleagent.  In the past, I’ve said that Pacifist should be a separate ‘class’.  I say that because I think it’s the easiest way to make a character that does not have the ability to attack.  As a class they could get a low level sprint and some kind of aggro reducing ability.  Lorewise they could be cast as Merchants, leading to them being unfriendly/neutral with the opposing faction.

Blood Thirsty is challenging (all grinding mobs, no quests), but it feels like it’s missing something.  If Blizzard added something akin to Blood Thirsty, I think they would have to amp it up. They could make it starkly the opposite of pacifist and put you are at war with BOTH Alliance and Horde.  Those characters would need to have their own starting zone.  Story wise, they could lump all those characters together, like remnants of the Twilight’s Hammer, or make them unique per race, like Leper Gnomes and Grimtotem Tauren.  Something that puts them on the outside of society story wise.  There are certain places that tweaks would need to be made so that these characters could get around the world, like up to Northrend.

The biggest challenge I see with making these philosophically, is that they can not join groups or guilds.  Not being able to party up puts some of these characters at odds with the social nature of the MMO.  That being said, I don’t think anyone would play a challenge mode as their main.  I would love to see some new ways to play baked in as an official option.

WoW Challenges can be found on their website at wowchallenges.com and on Twitter: @WoWChallenges