Why is Ulduar taking so long?

#0 - Feb. 17, 2009, 6:07 p.m.

I could understand the large gaps in time between new raid instances in BC, but in WotlK only one raid instance is being released at a time.

Shouldn't this mean that the raid instances should come out faster? BC even launched with more available raid instances, and WotLK is getting pretty boring having only naxx to do. Sarth and Maly are short encounters, like Gruul and Mag (except you know, a thousand times easier).

Naxx is pretty much the Kara of WotLK. When will we get the SSC, TK, BT, and Hyjal of WotLK? Or are you only planning to release like 3 raid instances since each one has a new and exciting 10 man mode along with the 25 man?

Bornakk

#10 - Feb. 18, 2009, 1:31 a.m.

Every single thing that comes out always takes too long and the previous patch/iteration was always done better. This is how it has worked since launched.

Bornakk

#81 - Feb. 18, 2009, 5:35 p.m.

To add to this, some of you are dismissing the initial raid content as taking no time at all. Not only does each encounter need to be tested in a 10person and 25person environment, the hard modes on Sartharion needed the extra designing/testing too. While they were entry level raids and therefore easy to blow through by a lot of people, that was fairly intended and we aim to make Ulduar more challenging.

That said, Ulduar is a pretty big place with a lot of encounters and a lot of hard modes, so yes, it takes time and we'll work on it until we feel it's ready to be released.

Bornakk

#84 - Feb. 18, 2009, 5:46 p.m.

Q u o t e:

I was always in the mindset that the largest holdup for Raids was the huge amount of Art required, I believe Blizzard stated this as one reasons for the 10/25 man raid zones.

While the world of WoTLK is beautiful and cannot really be slated, the raid instances have had very little put into them artistically (Naxx has a couple of model swaps is it), The Obsidian Sanctum appears to have less effort put into it than Onyxias Lair and Malygos? well we have one of the floating discs enlarged to a 500% scale and a skybox..

So really we are told Art makes things slower and WoTLK is changing this, but next to no significant resources seem to have been used for Raid instances that we have so far...

Ulduar is big, lots of art, epic art, epic environment, time goes by fast.

Bornakk

#89 - Feb. 18, 2009, 6:19 p.m.

Q u o t e:
So, since I know a Blue is reading, you wanna fill us in on if a new Dragon Sanctum is going to be added in 3.1 as well?

:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))

We don't have any information to share at this point, so this is NOT a reason Ulduar is taking so long (gotta phrase these things right).

:(((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Bornakk

#96 - Feb. 18, 2009, 6:59 p.m.

Q u o t e:

While that is true, it is hardly an entirely new style of art because we have the majority of a whole zone (Storm Peaks), aspects in another zone (S'Basin) and two instances which should share near "similar" art.
While the actual designing of the layout and setup of the instance is not modified by this it does mean that the basics towards the art is already in existence.

Naturally as we cannot see the instance and you presumably can we have to defer to your judgement right now on this :P

I wonder however that the effort used to make the new style of Azjol'Nerub graphics and architecture seems to of been quite high as they are truely different and unique. One would conspire to assume that this new style of art would be used in the future because "wasting" such great art on only two dungeons and a few small amount of zone areas...

It may not be a new "style" of art, but there is a ton of new art in Ulduar, period, end of story.

Q u o t e:
T_T

Should definitly add another wham bam thank you mam boss encounter into the 3.1 patch imo.

I am so not touching a comment like that beyond linking Kalgan's post from a couple weeks ago: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14910422788&sid=1&pageNo=7#132

Q u o t e:

It's been four months. Are we going to have to wait a half year for each "new and exciting" instance that we'll have throttled in a week or two for the remainder of WOLK?

Remember it is not just one instance in a content patch.

Bornakk

#102 - Feb. 18, 2009, 7:37 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Quoting myself since it seems to have been missed by most.

Bornakk - Can you talk to us a bit about how much GM involvement there will be in testing?

I can't say for sure as I am not a direct tester, the post by Daelo has the most information on this right now - we want to do focused testing that our developers can observe to make the proper changes as quickly and efficiently as possible. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15198911211&sid=1

What kind of GM involvement are you asking about?

Bornakk

#109 - Feb. 18, 2009, 7:44 p.m.

Q u o t e:

You're technically correct, Bornakk. However, it is, indeed, the only new instanced content in four to six months. Will this be the norm? Or will the ever elongating deadlines keep increasing? There was a time when Blizzard stated they wanted "new content" out every month or two. Then it became three months. Then four. We're approaching five months now, with only a few recycled holiday breaks in between.

So, the question stands: is the new and shiny content players actually equate with "content" going to be six or more months between releases? I know you're still "balancing" the new expansion, but that's something players actually expect to have occurred prior to release.

Content comes when it is ready. The big content patches have regularly been a fair distance apart as they do take time to complete and balance and whatnot. There is no exact time frame for when future patches will be released as it always comes back to "when it's ready". I would refer you to patch content patch releases for the most accurate time between releases, but obviously this doesn't have a direct impact on what we are working on right now.

And you say that class balance should come prior to release but I know you're just pulling chains with something like that. /toot toot your horn if you like though. :)

Bornakk

#112 - Feb. 18, 2009, 7:49 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Hey Bornakk what did you have for lunch today?

It's not lunch time yet, but now you made me hungry.

Q u o t e:
Also I think hes talking about GMs droping repair bots for people trying the new content. I remember back when my guild was doing Muru on the PTR and we had a GM rezing us and buffing us after each wipe.

I can't guarantee any involvement really, that will be up to the people watching the encounters. You can see in Daelo's post that not even Jillian McWeaksauce is a guarantee, so keep an eye out for more information on the testing and be ready to rock, if extra help comes that's extra help, but be ready to handle everything on your own.

Q u o t e:

I assume he's getting at GMs porting raids to specifici bosses. Death Touching bosses to allow guilds to move on, etc.

If you look at Daelo's post you can see how the testing is being focused so only certain ones are up at a given time. With this I would expect not a lot of Death Touching/porting to be needed.