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Blizzard held a "World of Warcraft: Battle for Hegemony Azeroth " press conference at Blizzard headquarters in the United States on April 3, US time, and Ion Hazzikostas introduced the content of the new expansion in detail. Ion Hazzikostas announced the launch date of the new expansion on the spot, and analyzed the game content in depth simultaneously.
After the press conference, Ion Hazzikostas and World of Warcraft game technical director Patrick Dawson and chief game designer Matt Goss also accepted questions from Bahamut GNN and other media. Where did the inspiration come from, did you use new technology, such as the engine or technology from Diablo 3?
Ion: Simply put, Island Crusade doesn't use the technology or engine of Diablo 3. What we want to do is a changeable environment. All the islands that you see are hand-painted, which is why the game world looks so beautiful. This is all drawn in one stroke by the level designer and art team.
There are many random combinations of monsters and events that appear in the island. There is no specific formula or way of appearing. Basically, what we design is what action will trigger what kind of event, or in what kind of event. What kind of monsters will appear in the environment, and what high-level NPCs will do are also unpredictable by players. The island expedition is designed so that players will not be able to immediately know what challenges or surprises the island will bring every time they set foot on the island. In the design of the island expedition, two main technologies are used. First, the new technology can make it easier to decide what kind of monster to generate in a certain area, and how to randomly generate different monsters. The technology of monsters is different. On the other hand, there are random events and high-level NPCs. Players will find that the high-level NPC AI of Island Expedition is different from ordinary NPCs. In the past 15 years, the actions of monsters in "World of Warcraft" are very simple, that is, they are close to players. , Attack the player, the NPCs encountered by the monsters of the island expedition are completely different from the past. The AI of these new NPCs is designed from scratch by us. We have given these AIs to complete tasks, formulate strategies, and follow the best strategy. It also allows these AIs to change their action goals and combat methods according to the situation. This is a new technology for us, and we hope to bring more changes to the new technology for players in the future.
Q: How many islands are there in the island expedition, and how many NPCs can you meet?
Ion: At present, six completely different islands are planned. In addition, there are various types of buildings and monsters on the island to combine. There will be a lot of random combinations. For enemy NPCs, each camp will have six different groups. Of course, there may be changes to the NPCs, and we are still testing ALPHA, so there may be changes in the future. We designed the island expedition to hope that players set foot on the island like a new island, but if the changes are too large, it may cause other problems, and players will not be able to learn from experience, so we hope to let players assume that they see a certain kind of The enemy combination can understand that its play style will be more aggressive or more passive, so that players can easily come up with coping methods or strategies, allowing players to have the opportunity to use their previous experience. If every time you set foot on the island, the environment and scene you will encounter are completely unpredictable, and if it is completely different each time, it will be impossible for the player to learn from experience, so it will be a problem if it is too random.
Q: Why is the island expedition set to be a three-person team? Will there be any impact on occupational composition?
Matt: The island expedition is set as a three-person team, mainly to hope that players will focus on exploration. If the team exceeds three people, the information that players can grasp will become more limited, and they cannot focus on exploration. In fact, there is no limit to the number of people in our system design. Perhaps in the future, large islands may also require large teams to explore.
Patrick: When setting the content of the island expedition, we don't want to have tanks or supplements. When the team has a large number of people, the role of the player will be more important, and the island expedition does not necessarily need tanks or supplements. For a three-person mission, you can makePlayers are freer to focus on exploration.
Q: Sylvanas plays an important role in the new expansion, but many Horde players are starting to worry that maybe before the expansion is over, the Horde will change the warchief?
Ion: Looking at Sylvanas' previous performance in the game, everyone knows that she has never been a pacifist. She is more active in her approach. Now that the war has started, she is a warchief, which can be seen from the animation film released. The members of the tribe believe in her. Both the tribe and the players of World of Warcraft trust the queen very much. Of course, the war will definitely have an impact on both sides.
Q: I just mentioned about the World Tree event and the Lordaeron battle, can you talk about the launch time of the two eve events?
Matt: These will be two separate events, but which one will happen first cannot be announced at the moment. When players start playing, they will know the angle of the event based on whether they are in the alliance or horde faction, and their thoughts on the event will also depend on the faction. There is a difference, and when Battle for Azeroth went live, those two events were already happening.
Q: Are there clear times when allied races can be used?
Ion: For allied races, players can use allied races Dark Iron Dwarf and Mahag Orcs, as for Zandalari and Kur Tiras race, basically they will join later. These two factions are the core story of "Battle for Azeroth". In "Battle for Azeroth", the two factions want to win their assistance. As the plot progresses, when the two factions fully join the Horde or Alliance camp, they become Players can use established characters.
As we said at BlizzCon, players have heated discussions about the newly added races. Players have given a lot of opinions on which race they want and which race they don't want. More races may be added in the future, but there is no specific Content can be shared.
asks: What news can you share about the classic server of World of Warcraft?
Ion: I can't say anything. We talked about this at BlizzCon and posted recruitment notices. Now these recruitment notices have been removed. You may have some guesses. We are looking forward to the new plan, but there is nothing It can be said.
Q: You announced the launch date of Battle for Azeroth, what about the BETA test time?
Ion: No timetable yet, but should be very fast. Regarding our approach this time, if players notice our habit of pushing new expansion packs in the past, they will find that our ALPHA testing phase is relatively long this time. To be honest, if we were doing the expansion pack for Warlords of Draenor, we should now It’s already in the BETA stage, and players are invited to experience the content, but we don’t want to bring it into the BETA stage so early this time. We hope to make the game more refined and then conduct the BETA test. Not every area has been opened yet, so we need to use it during the test. Teleporting or stealing steps to test different areas, so it's still in the ALPHA phase for us. In any case, the BETA start time should be fast, this week the ALPHA version of the game will be completed, the six explorable areas will be opened, and all outdoor missions will be unlocked.
asks: So can you roughly estimate when the BETA will start?
Ion: Probably a few weeks before the expansion. The actual BETA test opening time, based on past experience, is usually not known until a week or two before the BETA opening. It used to be four to six weeks before the actual market, but it's not an official announcement, it's just my prediction based on past experience.
Q: The new areas in "Battle for Azeroth" will be divided into Horde and Alliance. After the full level, will players often go to the enemy to do quests, or will they only need to go to specific quests?
Ion: Full-level players should often run back and forth between the two camps. Our design method is that in the new area, the main castles of both camps will have facilities in the battle center. As long as the opposite area is unlocked, you can talk to one of the captains through the intelligence center, and take a boat to any area of the three areas of the other faction. It used to be the same principle as using a bird point to teleport through a portal.. At present, we plan to have six factions, each of which has related envoys, three factions in the new area of their own camp, and two neutral forces including Magni Bronzebeard, etc., two neutral The faction's world missions are spread across the Zandalar and Kul Tiras regions.
In the hostile area, there will be war faction-related world missions there. I expect that players who have already capped will often run on both sides. Of course, if you go to the hostile area, there will be fewer friendly people and fewer bird spots. , and there will also be world quests and world bosses that can be played, and treasure chests can also be opened.
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