Project Lore: Five dudes. Four cameras. One World of Warcraft.

The developer chat we told you about a few days ago has come and gone, and I bet you’re wondering: what undoubtedly delicious morsels of information do we have for you to consume? Well, I’m afraid it’s not quite the feast that we had hoped, with many of the questions asked having already been answered at BlizzCon 2009 or in community features posted since. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t learn anything, folks. Top designers Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack were on hand to provide a few highlights worth considering, and we present them before you now…

Deathwing's not exactly the type of guy to be bossed around.

First up are a couple of tid-bits for the lore-hounds out there:

Q: What’s Deathwing’s current relationship with the Old Gods?
A: In facebook terms, I’d list it as “It’s Complicated”. “Single” or “Married” are probably too extreme in this case.

We’ve long suspected that the Old Gods have had their hands (tentacles?) in the events reshaping Azeroth. Thus far, they’ve attempted to destroy the world with a swarm of overgrown bugs and corrupt the powerful race of ancient Titans who strive to protect the planet as it is. So it’s not too far fetched to assume that controlling one of the great Dragon Aspects is on their agenda. But Deathwing is a fearsome and powerful entity all his own, making us wonder just who is really in the driver’s seat here. I’m sure we’ll find out more as the story of Cataclysm continues, but we’ll take “It’s Complicated” on good faith that things won’t end up quite as we think they will.

Q: What are the plans for the current Goblin-run towns after Cataclysm is out?
A: Most Goblin-run towns will continue to operate as normal. In general, the existing Goblin cartels tend to be self-serving, and therefore aren’t taking sides.

See, our Alliance “friends?” You won’t have to worry about getting ganked just for setting foot in Booty Bay or Gadgetzan. As usual, most Goblins are in business for themselves, and as only one tribe of Trolls (Darkspear) is associated with Horde,  just a single, crestfallen cartel has sought refuge in Thrall’s camp. Of course, if they Alliance hadn’t attacked them in the first place, we probably wouldn’t need to have this conversation at all!

On a completely different note, you might recall that early Cataclysm rumors floated the idea that Thousand Needles would be consumed by the sea. We were quick to nix the canard after hearing nothing about it at BlizzCon, but it turns out that it was the truth all along:

Q: Thousand Needles is getting a big change in levels; how has the Cataclysm affected it?
A: As a result of the Cataclysm, Thousand Needles has been completely flooded with water!

Indeed, we did know that it was getting some sort of face-lift, after being raised to a Level 40-45 leveling zone, but this is still a pretty drastic change to deal with, and a good reminder that we only got to see some of the zone redesigns when Cataclysm will be revealed. If you ask me, TN is a wonderful zone for the treatment. I’m hard-pressed to find anyone who could call it their favorite. It’s long, not at all travel-friendly, and remains visually boring, aside from the towering pillars of rock. But should it be flooded, what will happen to the racetrack, you say? Blizzard is mum on the subject, but I’m secretly hoping the Goblins and Gnomes make the jump to powerboat racing!

Moving on from lore, several questions shed light on the way in which the new LFG system (currently being tested on the PTR) will function:

Q: For Cross-realm LFG if the group is composed by members of other realms do they have to go on foot or will they be teleported?
A: The current plan is for players using the LFG system to be automatically teleported into the instance, similar to how battleground queuing works today. This is active on the PTR now, and we plan to host a community event around this feature soon!

Q: Any chance to have LFG menu to show classes you’re looking for I.E just showing all tanks or healers currently qued in LFG.
A: The plan right now is to allow players to register for roles they are capable of filling, then have the queue system make the best decision possible for the player. This is to give all classes an equal chance at participation. We also have plans to diversify the class makeup in a future PTR update.

Q: May I create a group with 4 friends and then use the LFG interface to gain the random dungeon reward?
A: Yes. In fact, you can join it with a full group of 5 and still get the random dungeon reward. The reward is for doing a random dungeon, not necessarily for having random members.

If you’re not familiar, the LFG of the future more concisely defines characters by their roles in a group (so you can find precisely what you’re looking for), allows you to pull players from other servers to run a dungeon, and gives you rewards for successfully completing content using the new system. Rewards, as shown on the PTR, include badges and gold at the current time, though restrictions will no doubt remain in place to keep people from abusing the system (it’s likely that you’ll only be able to earn prizes once per day).

After that, we gained some more insight as to how Icecrown Citadel will be release:

Q: Any plans for a gated system in [ICC] like in Colliseum that prevents us from doing hardmodes from day 1?
A: We do have a system that unlocks bosses similar to how we handled TOC and Sunwell. We are restricting hard modes to raid leaders that have defeated Arthas in regular mode.

Some people had assumed that ICC would be unlocked in chunks, but that hasn’t been officially confirmed until now. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, and I suppose it depends on exactly how much content is available in each phase. In terms of the plot, it makes some sort of sense, as if the Ashen Verdict is pushing, slowly, deeper and deeper into the Lich King’s domain. It’s really a continuation of everything they’ve been doing since they entered Icecrown Glacier, and it should give the raid a longer life than it might have otherwise. After all, it’s going to have to keep end-game players busy until the expansion comes out.

Finally, to close out the Q&A, a telling (if inconclusive) development in one of World of Warcraft’s most famous questlines:

Q: What will happen to Mankrik’s Wife? Please don’t tell me she’s gobbled up by the lava?
A: You’ll have to wait and see. =]

If they get rid of her, what will newbies running through the Crossroads ask about now?! I suppose only time will tell…

If you’re interested in seeing the entire transcript of the developer chat, check out the associated thread on the official forums. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on both the highlights presented here and any of the other questions asked during the chat!

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