Aradune Returns to EQ aka the EQ Nostalgia thread
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Cataclysm.
The expansion "tone" was supposed to be elemental, with the bosses of Air (Throne of 4 winds), Water (Abyssal Maw?), Fire (Firelands) and Earth (Neltharion aka Deathwing), thus 4 raid tiers like usual. Except they decided that 3 raid tiers were good anyway, and you didn't waste money on that since no one would quit over one raid missing, and lo and behold "it appears that we've already got a water-themed dungeon, so no raid".
Runnen
Vyemm Raider
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That's not exactly what happened. Blizzard had announced the Abyssal Maw raid at the pre-Cataclysm Blizzcon, and introduced the story for it in the Throne of Tides 5-man dungeon where Neptulon is abducted by Ozumat. However, they overestimated their own production pace and ended up spending too many ressources and too much time on designing Firelands and were left with too little to wrap up Abyssal Maw into something decent.
I remember Ghostcrawler (I believe) saying that the finished product would have been a very "meh" conclusion to the story of Neptulon and that the bosses would have had to be mostly recycled models so they decided to scrap it.
....
And then they released Dragon Soul with 8 bosses and only 2 new models.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Overestimate, my ass I'd say.
But the thing is, up until Cataclysm, they did 4 raiding tiers per expansion cycle.
Vanilla: MC, BWL, AQ, Naxx
BC: Karazhan/Gruul, SSC/TK, Hyjal/Temple, Sunwell
LK: Naxx 2, Ulduar, Coliseum, Citadel
LK is where they suddendly started to have problems managing their raid production. They started with a recycled zone, did a good job next, then had to use a single zone with almost zero original models again.
And in cata, they hit a wall. They had to scrap an entire raid. It's suddenly as if their producer doesn't know how to manage his resources anymore, and/or they've lost a significant chunk of their staff (the operating word here is "Titan", if I may venture a guess). And, of course, given the colossal amount of money they get every month (specially since they constantly state that most playerbase variation occurs in the asian market which bring less per head than US/EU subs), it's not something that is excusable. That's why I was sarcastic: it's clear they no longer invest much in the game, and that seems to be working for them, if the subs don't drop that much while they can slash their dev costs by 20-25%...
Oh, and this expansion will also have 3 tiers only. They already announced that we'd get the Orgrimmar raid in 5.4, and they seem to be on a raid/non-raid alternating patch cycle (to stretch a bit the lengthening interval between tier raids). And the Siege of orgrimmar was announced as the final raid a long time ago...
Xequecal
Trump's Staff
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This comes from being owned by someone else. Blizzard doesn't see one dime of their profits, they are allocated a budget that probably doesn't change much based on number of subscribers or sales.
Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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They're a subsidiary, not a studio. They are 100% owned by Activision Blizzard, but they are, financially, autonomous. In theory, at least. That means that Mike Morhaime theoretically sets the budget, and what remains in profit (i.e. lots) gets passed to the holding managed by Bobby K.
http://web.archive.org/web/199911271...foh.noows.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/200001252...s.com/?forum=3
Who was the guy that designed guk and sol dungeons? Last I heard he was working on Vanguard then disappeared.
Vanilla was 3 full tiers (1,2,3....2.5 is meh)
BC was 3 tiers (4, 5, 6)
The ONLY expansion where it was 4 tiers, was WotLK (7, 8, 9, 10)
Muligan
Trakanon Raider
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Too funny... just happened across this googling around downtime at work.
http://www.oocities.org/theroyalnorr...uard/rok1.html
Keep in mind, the post dates are Dec. 1999
http://www.oocities.org/theroyalnorr...uard/rok1.html
Keep in mind, the post dates are Dec. 1999
Not to dwell on something insignificant but I find this part hilarious, more so if it's actually true. Blizzard should know Blizzard production pace is slower than any developer out there, even as they churn out retreads (often for the worse) like Diablo 3. We'll all be playing Titan in about 5 to 6 years after the officially unveil it at 2014's Blizzcon.
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Oh God. I bet you also say the word Candyman in the mirror five times. Way to go Jait. We're fucked.
Itlan
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Despite PoP being somewhat retarded with all the books porting you all over the god damn world, I thought the raiding tiers were pretty cool. I did enjoy the 4 elemental planes and then going into PoTime.
The only raiding experience I recently truly enjoyed was probably Ulduar.
The only raiding experience I recently truly enjoyed was probably Ulduar.
Zehnpai
Molten Core Raider
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http://web.archive.org/web/200001252...sp?Article=468
GZ interview about Wizards from 1999. Can you imagine this line coming from a Blizzard Dev now?
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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FWIW, I think many/most MMOs are heading in this direction anyways. I'm sure I'm not the only one that can name raids within even the last few years that fit the bill perfectly. It's also part of the reason that I came to hate raiding (though far from the only reason).
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The Edge
Lord Nagafen Raider
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In that link above, someone back in 1999 was already starting a list of zones not in the game. Let's see what's changed:
"FAYDWER
Dragonscale Hills, Elizerain Lake, Wayunder Lake,Loping Plains, Ranthok's Ridge,Hills of Shade
ANTONICA (Tunaria)
Lifire River,Rujarkian Hills,Gulf of Gunthak, Broken Skull Rock,Greenblood River, Serpent's Spine, The Serpent (River), Winter's Deep, The Frigid Plane,The Nest, The Dead Hills,The Buried Sea, Unkempt Wood, The Hatchlands, The Northlands
ODUS
The Vasty Deep,The Barren Coast, The Gulf of Uzun,Stonebrunt Mountains, The Grand Plateau,Abysmal Sea"
The highlighted have been added since that post. Did I miss any?
"FAYDWER
Dragonscale Hills, Elizerain Lake, Wayunder Lake,Loping Plains, Ranthok's Ridge,Hills of Shade
ANTONICA (Tunaria)
Lifire River,Rujarkian Hills,Gulf of Gunthak, Broken Skull Rock,Greenblood River, Serpent's Spine, The Serpent (River), Winter's Deep, The Frigid Plane,The Nest, The Dead Hills,The Buried Sea, Unkempt Wood, The Hatchlands, The Northlands
ODUS
The Vasty Deep,The Barren Coast, The Gulf of Uzun,Stonebrunt Mountains, The Grand Plateau,Abysmal Sea"
The highlighted have been added since that post. Did I miss any?
Wait you are willing to call the stupid argent Colosseum a whole raid tier but AQ, a massive zone (maybe the biggest ever) with 20 man zone to boot, tons of lore and one of the coolest end bosses to date doesn't count? Oh and it has prolly the most epic opening event of any raid zone to date.
Also BC was Kharazan, magtheridon, gruul at 1 tier, then SSC, TK, then BT/Hyjal, then sunthrone.. i count 4.
Also lets not forget that ZG, ZA and AQ20 were unique zones that in wotlk and beyond would have been close to full on raid tiers by themselves based on the amount of unique art and boss mechanics that went into each zone./