Lead Producer Holly Longdale, Production Manager Patrick Dawson and Chief Software Engineer Brian Birmingham from the WoW Classic, thoroughly analyze Burning Crusade Classic at this BlizzConline roundtable.
Characteristics Burning Crusade Classic
As with any expansion, Burning Crusade Classic includes a wide range of content that players can explore. At launch and throughout future content updates, players will discover:
- New lands to explore: through the Dark Portal to Outland.
- Two new playable races: Fight for the Horde with the blood elves to find a new source of arcane power or join the ranks of the Alliance with the draenei to help them find a new home after their exile from Outland.
- Sands: Gather your allies and show what you are capable of in 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 encounters in arenas such as the Circle of Trials or the Ring of Blood.
- Flying mounts: Take flight in the chaotic skies of Netherstorm and soar over vile Shadowmoon Valley as the flying mounts arrive in Outland.
- Demanding Dungeons and Raids: Conquer the 5-player dungeons and heroic dungeons set in the crystalline fortress of Tempest Keep, or form a band of 10 players to roam the haunted corridors of Karazhan and slowly equip yourself for the ultimate showdown against Kil'jaeden in the Plateau of La Fuente del Sol for 25 players.
- Jewelry: Carve gems of power to insert into the players' equipment with the jewelry profession.
- Factions of the Aldor and Scryers: choose from the factions of the Aldor or the Scryers in Shattrath to qualify for its unique rewards.
- Create a paladin in the Horde or a shaman in the Alliance.
- Get up to level 70 and gain access to new class abilities, among other things.
Burning Crusade Classic comes alive
The same as WoW Classic, bring to the present an expansion from 13 years ago as The Burning Crusade it posed a lot of difficulties for us. One of the challenges was to move all the data from the expansion - content, game rules, enemy behavior, and more - into modern code, with all the underlying technical improvements, performance optimizations, and bug fixes we've applied to throughout these years.
This requires converting more than 750 rows of data from the 000 format to the one we use today. Luckily we have talented and committed engineers employing scripts that facilitate these conversions, although that does not mean that we can use only these automatic transformations. We ran the old client and looked at how things worked in The Burning Crusade original to compare it with the conversion made for Burning Crusade Classic and verify that everything works as it should.
We also wanted to make sure that when performing these conversions, we were preserving any bug fixes applied in the past to provide a consistent experience between WoW Classic y Burning Crusade Classic.
We've spent a lot of time going through the old reference code to make sure we get it right and preserve bug fixes. As 13 years have passed since the launch of The Burning CrusadeWe also have to stop to confirm that our memories coincide with how things really were. It is easy for time to change our perceptions: we could come across something and think that it is a mistake, but perhaps it is actually how it worked in The Burning Crusade. Having a reliable source to confirm this is a decisive factor.
Our modern code also provides more stability to the client. Servers used to be organized in silos before, but now you can take advantage of the benefits of cloud infrastructure. This allows us to avoid problems such as "room not found" errors when players try to access dungeons or raids.
Sometimes the transfer of this data has unforeseen consequences. In the initial tests we found things like that the male blood elf was naked even though the client believed that he was dressed. We soon noticed that the textures were not mapped correctly, even though the geometry of her clothing was apparent.
In the case of the draenei, at first they seemed too tall on the character creation screen, but the real problem was that they appeared on the Dun Morogh screen, which has a suitable camera height for dwarves and gnomes.
We also found that water appeared in Hellfire Peninsula, where it is not supposed to exist. Outland does not have oceans like Azeroth, but this was something we were able to correct.
Upcoming changes
Our basic principle for WoW Classic It was to be true to the original version as much as possible. In order to Burning Crusade Classic we also want to make sure we offer an experience close to The Burning Crusade, while maintaining the essential elements of the expansion that players expect. We have also implemented other changes to offer you good experiences when you arrive in Outland.
En WoW Classic we purposely recreated the "spell bundling" behavior from the original game. Although it was largely a technological antiquity, the idea of having it back in WoW Classic it appealed to players, and we felt like it was something we should include for authenticity reasons. However, spell bundling creates an inherent latency issue for players. We ended up getting bug reports from players on spells and abilities like Blink or Pyroblast when the underlying issue was actually latency causing them to not work as expected. In order to Burning Crusade Classic We're getting rid of spell bundling to improve the overall experience.
The band community now has a lot more experience as well, so we want to offer you the challenges you await when it comes to getting back to your favorite bands. To do this, we want to introduce more complex versions of the bosses of dungeons and raids, eliminating the changes that were applied to them in subsequent expansions. However, we may retain some modifications intended for when the original boss designs were more frustrating than interesting. As an example, M'uru initially had a high ability to reject spells, causing players to exclude casters from groups. We were quick to address this issue in due course, and we think it's something we'll keep when this boss becomes available on the Sunwell Plateau, though his health, which was lowered, will likely revert to original state. Players have asked us to take on early versions of bosses to see if the benefit of experience helps them defeat previously difficult bosses, and we want to give them that opportunity.
PvP and factions balance
We want to make sure we preserve the identity of the factions, but we also know that there is an imbalance between the paladin seals of the Horde and the Alliance, as Seal of Blood (Horde) is very powerful compared to Seal of Vengeance (Alliance). To address this issue, the Horde and Alliance will continue to earn their faction seals at level 64, but upon reaching 70, they will also receive the other faction's seal.
Another aspect that we're going to tweak is the way players complete their rosters for the arena. In the original release of the arena in The Burning Crusade, players could only have the same number of players as the branch they were in - if they participated in the 3v3 arena, they could only have three players on the roster. This caused that, if someone could not play for a while, the entire team was unable to do so. On Burning Crusade Classic we are going to allow the lists to contain twice as many players as those corresponding to the branch. Thus, teams will be able to substitute players if necessary to continue participating in arenas.
Additionally, we plan to use modern matchmaking algorithms to more quickly match players with opponents of the same skill level without losing qualification requirements for the purchase of Arena gear for later seasons.
Access to Blood Elves and Draenei
With the release of the preliminary patch for Burning Crusade Classic, players will have early access to the Blood Elf and Draenei races prior to the opening of the Dark Portal. This will allow them to level up early to join their friends in Outland later.
Content phases
To make it easier for players to stay up-to-date on recent content and to browse gear with their friends, we've put together a potential content release plan for Burning Crusade Classic divided into 5 phases. As is usually the case with early development, these plans may change at any time, and we'd like to hear your thoughts on this.
1 phase: Opening of the Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's Lair gangs
2 phase: Serpent Shrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, and Arena Season 1
3 phase: Hyjal, Black Temple and Arena Season 2
4 phase: Zul'Aman and Arena Season 3
5 phase: The Fountain of the Sun and season 4 of the arena
How to meet the diverse needs of players
We want to make sure we respond to the needs of the different players of WoW Classic. Our intention is to offer different possibilities when the preliminary patch of Burning Crusade Classic, both for those who decide to dive into the content of Burning Crusade Classic as those who choose to remain in WoW Classic in its current state.
Hereinafter, the current commercial servers of WoW Classic will become progressive servers with access to Burning Crusade Classic and its content updates. When the patch is rolled out, players will need to decide what they want to do with their characters - will they move on to the content of Burning Crusade Classic or they will continue with the experience of WoW Classic?
This decision will be independent for each character. Thus, players will have more freedom to choose the type of experiences they want to live: there will be those who prefer to explore the next expansion with a character of maximum level prepared to pass through the Dark Portal or create a new draenei or blood elf to discover the new areas. starting, but there will also be players with mid-level characters who prefer to stay in the Classic Era realm to continue progressing and playing there with their friends.
For those who have not had the opportunity to play WoW Classic or for enthusiasts The Burning Crusade who are eager to return to Outland now, we will also offer a way to climb to level 58. These raises will be limited to one per account, cannot be used in Classic Era realms, and cannot be applied to blood elves or blood elves. draenei. Characters benefiting from this level up will receive some basic blue dungeon items, the level 40 riding skill, and a mount. Characters created with this level up will not include any profession, while existing characters will retain their chosen profession.
If you decide to continue playing WoW Classic, you will be able to play in realms of Classic Era, which will be available with the release of the Preliminary Patch of Burning Crusade Classic.
We want to make sure that your decision has weight and we are aware that some players may want to play a certain character both in WoW Classic as in Burning Crusade Classic, so we will enable an optional paid service that will allow you to unlock a clone of your character in both clients and thus continue your adventures in both eras. You can read more information about it in our article Characters and kingdoms of World of Warcraft Classic y Burning Crusade Classic.
Burning Crusade Classic launches this year
We know that your desire for more burning is knowing when it will be released Burning Crusade Classic. Well, it will be this year, 2021. Soon we will organize a beta in which players will have the opportunity to return to Outland and give us their opinion on the feelings they have had. Our priority is that the duration of these tests is long enough to get the most out of your comments. In addition, we want to make sure that those who are still moving through Naxxramas or other content also have time.
In conclusion
The community has played an essential role in converting WoW Classic a success, so we can't wait for you to try the beta of Burning Crusade Classic and contribute once again to create the best possible product. We love working in WoW Classic And we want to thank you for helping us bring Azeroth to life. Stay tuned for the official site so you don't miss any information! In the meantime, see you at WoW Classic.