(WoW) Cataclysmic Log, part 3
A few days in, I have to hand it to Blizzard this time around. This has been the cleanest MMO/expansion launch I've seen. Not flawless, but I've not been stuck waiting in queues. I haven't seen any major delays. I haven't read about servers crashing. Granted, Blizzard has a lot of experience and a huge infrastructural lead on anyone else, but this is how you release new content and make a good impression.
Guild Limits and Advancement
Let's see... total rep from 0 to Exalted is 42,000. The official weekly limit is 3500 rep (3849 for a human character). So based on math alone, it looks like a 12-week journey to be Exalted with your guild, assuming you can continue to maximize that (which may not be accurate if you run out of quests after a week or two). Or just under 11 weeks for humans.
I'm not sure what I think of that. On one hand, a three-month period of "getting into" a guild seems sort of reasonable. On the other hand, for those of us who have been in a particular guild for years, it's almost painful. And if we can finish out new zone quests for a character in a week, then there's a lot less to gain reputation from.
Addendum: I've done a little reading and I see why I'm now at 2807 (or close to that)/6000 into friendly when I should, theoretically, but at 849/6000. The daily quests I turned in right at launch time counted as the "previous" week before the server flipped over to the "current" week at 3 am.
Hmm. Yeah, I don't think I like how that's working. I have read something about a 5-times increase in the cap during the beta testing, but that may have been done simply to see the end results in the testing time frame. Though it looks like most of the rep-based regards require specific achievements or level of the guild, too.
We're still capping guild XP daily, too, even before I get on in the morning. We've hit level 2, unlocking a 5% bonus to members' individual XP gains. But... assuming we continue to cap the gain, it looks like level 10 takes a little over a month, level 20 a bit over three months, and the maximum level 25 over four months (137 days).
Oy. I guess it's not so bad if you consider both the reputation and XP stuff for guilds are new and not necessarily essential, just nice perks. It certainly will encourage people to stay with established guilds, though.
Ore-gasm!
Heh. I didn't coin the term, but it was appropriate. I've always loved the gathering/crafting process on WoW, it was actually a selling point to me. So when I hit Deepholm, I fell in love with the place. As I was questing, elementium ore was showing up left and right (often literally). I went to ascend to an airship, but it took half a dozen attempts for me to get there because I'd keep seeing ore down below and dive to get it. Plus there are lots of mineable mobs - "If it doesn't more, I can mine it. If it does move, I can probably kill it and mine it."
I think some of this was caused by population at the time. I know there's technology in place to increase spawns of mobs as there are more players in a zone, and I think that applies to resources, too. But with how much it was happening, I knew it couldn't last. I was hoping to get another day or two out of it, but no. Thursday-morning hotfixes appear to have cut down the number of nods for ore (and herbs) in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands due to there simply being too many. Still, I did walk out of the night while still accomplishing quests with some 340+ ore, which is a heck of a haul.
Between that and some obsidium hunting, my blacksmithing is clearing 490 and I've made a couple things I may be keeping for a while.
Slowing Pace and Professionalism
So I've spent some time mining up resources rather than plowing through quests. I'm not sure if that's the only reason I'm sitting at level 83 (and almost a half), or if the advancement is slowing a bit. I have found a few fights in Deepholm that were reasonably tough to solo, but I still haven't really been in danger of dying.
And while the ore has helped my smithing, and the masses of mobs have been good for skinners/leatherworkers, I feel for tailors. One and a half zones and I think I've gathered less than three stacks of cloth.
Guild Limits and Advancement
Let's see... total rep from 0 to Exalted is 42,000. The official weekly limit is 3500 rep (3849 for a human character). So based on math alone, it looks like a 12-week journey to be Exalted with your guild, assuming you can continue to maximize that (which may not be accurate if you run out of quests after a week or two). Or just under 11 weeks for humans.
I'm not sure what I think of that. On one hand, a three-month period of "getting into" a guild seems sort of reasonable. On the other hand, for those of us who have been in a particular guild for years, it's almost painful. And if we can finish out new zone quests for a character in a week, then there's a lot less to gain reputation from.
Addendum: I've done a little reading and I see why I'm now at 2807 (or close to that)/6000 into friendly when I should, theoretically, but at 849/6000. The daily quests I turned in right at launch time counted as the "previous" week before the server flipped over to the "current" week at 3 am.
Hmm. Yeah, I don't think I like how that's working. I have read something about a 5-times increase in the cap during the beta testing, but that may have been done simply to see the end results in the testing time frame. Though it looks like most of the rep-based regards require specific achievements or level of the guild, too.
We're still capping guild XP daily, too, even before I get on in the morning. We've hit level 2, unlocking a 5% bonus to members' individual XP gains. But... assuming we continue to cap the gain, it looks like level 10 takes a little over a month, level 20 a bit over three months, and the maximum level 25 over four months (137 days).
Oy. I guess it's not so bad if you consider both the reputation and XP stuff for guilds are new and not necessarily essential, just nice perks. It certainly will encourage people to stay with established guilds, though.
Ore-gasm!
Heh. I didn't coin the term, but it was appropriate. I've always loved the gathering/crafting process on WoW, it was actually a selling point to me. So when I hit Deepholm, I fell in love with the place. As I was questing, elementium ore was showing up left and right (often literally). I went to ascend to an airship, but it took half a dozen attempts for me to get there because I'd keep seeing ore down below and dive to get it. Plus there are lots of mineable mobs - "If it doesn't more, I can mine it. If it does move, I can probably kill it and mine it."
I think some of this was caused by population at the time. I know there's technology in place to increase spawns of mobs as there are more players in a zone, and I think that applies to resources, too. But with how much it was happening, I knew it couldn't last. I was hoping to get another day or two out of it, but no. Thursday-morning hotfixes appear to have cut down the number of nods for ore (and herbs) in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands due to there simply being too many. Still, I did walk out of the night while still accomplishing quests with some 340+ ore, which is a heck of a haul.
Between that and some obsidium hunting, my blacksmithing is clearing 490 and I've made a couple things I may be keeping for a while.
Slowing Pace and Professionalism
So I've spent some time mining up resources rather than plowing through quests. I'm not sure if that's the only reason I'm sitting at level 83 (and almost a half), or if the advancement is slowing a bit. I have found a few fights in Deepholm that were reasonably tough to solo, but I still haven't really been in danger of dying.
And while the ore has helped my smithing, and the masses of mobs have been good for skinners/leatherworkers, I feel for tailors. One and a half zones and I think I've gathered less than three stacks of cloth.
I'm not sure how I feel about the guild reputation system. I suppose it is a balance of having a nice way to offer something to guilds who do stuff together and if someone joins in, they can't just ninja the guild vault's contents and the like and jump ship. Guild "level" gives the guild as a whole perks and things to buy, and guild "rep" determines a form of restriction on who can obtain what in a semi non-artisan way (Instead of any form of player choice to increase or decrease someone's ranking within a guild.) As for the mining? Mmm.. reminders of the Burning Crusade launch I'm sure. As a tailor, I have been restricted to the amount of cloth wrangled, this is true. However as someone who can disenchant magical items, I have been at no end of supplies based on unwanted quest rewards... though I do have more essence than dust.. by nearly a 10:1 ratio :P
ReplyDeleteI got a good several weeks out of the fel iron around the dark portal. >.> Alas, they "fixed" ore much faster this time. At least I benefitted some?
ReplyDelete