Ahead of the release World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic edition GameMAG.ru got the opportunity to ask a few questions to developers from Blizzard Entertainment… Responded by World of Warcraft Executive Producer John Hight and senior software engineer Brian Birmingham…
How did you come to split World of Warcraft Classic and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic into two parts?
Brian Birmingham: It was important for us to make sure that the players have a choice. When we first launched World of Warcraft Classic, users asked us to leave the game in its original state, as it existed before any expansion was released. We do not want to deprive the audience of this opportunity. Accordingly, when it came to releasing extensions, we decided to offer an alternative – to allow players to stay where they feel most comfortable. This is an important part of our commitment to the fan community.
How do you feel about the fact that some of the users at the start of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic will have a significant advantage, transferring the accumulated progress and characters from World of Warcraft Classic?
Brian Birmingham: This, in a sense, is part of our idea. Users who have invested their time in the development of heroes in the vastness of World of Warcraft Classic can now transfer these characters to the Burning Crusade Classic, feel their successes and merits. But at the same time, we must not forget that the Burning Crusade expansion is known for the fact that already in the very early stages you can get hold of very good equipment. Back in 2007, there was a joke about green being the new purple when it came to grading subjects.
Gradually, any difference between users will be smoothed out, but those who previously collected characters for pumping and going to raids will be able to use this as a certain advantage at the beginning of the game. Then, of course, everything will be averaged, and the players will pass the content on equal terms.
Are there any significant balance changes in World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic from the original release? What are they dictated by?
Brian Birmingham: Definitely. We are trying to match the 2.4.3 patch as closely as possible, but nevertheless, we still decided to make minor changes and improvements to the balance. Especially in those aspects of the game where the final implementation was very different from the original idea. But even such adjustments are made very carefully so as not to spoil the original spirit of the gameplay.
Perhaps the biggest example is the balance between the forces of the Horde and the Alliance. To differentiate the two factions in the Burning Crusade, they each received one spell. For the Horde – the Seal of Blood, and for the Alliance – the Seal of Vengeance. The idea was that both Seals should have rather a nominal difference, and remain approximately identical in strength. But looking back today, almost fifteen years later, it is safe to say that the Seal of Blood was more powerful, much, much more powerful. And it was not a secret to anyone, so the players made certain decisions based on this feature.
In an attempt to address this moment, while remaining true to the original balance, we made it so that now at level 70 the Horde gains access to the Seal of Corruption, which is equivalent to the Seal of Vengeance, and the Alliance, in turn, can use the Seal of the Martyr, which is similar to the Seal of Blood. This is how we approach working with the finer points of balance, and this is how we try to match it in Burning Crusade Classic.
What exactly will World of Warcraft Classic players bring to World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic? Perhaps there are some restrictions on items or currency?
Brian Birmingham: Almost anything can be migrated by users. Formally, we are updating the existing World of Warcraft Classic servers for the realities of Burning Crusade Classic. Therefore, everything that you have managed to accumulate over the last months of the game can be freely used in the expansion. In addition, user progress has also been cloned onto standalone World of Warcraft Classic servers. The only thing that didn’t move there was the guild link. But everything else – inventory, pets, their names, all this remains in place, thanks to which you can freely continue to play on two servers at once without losing progress.
Tell us about any fun situations that arose during the development of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic, or interesting production challenges?
Brian Birmingham: There are many bugs in the production of games, many of which are expressed in funny effects. We showed one of these at BlizzCon Online, where item textures were not displayed correctly. Even after using the equipment, the character models still remained without clothes, despite the geometry changes. Or there were situations during testing when we eagerly ran to the Dark Portal in anticipation, and then suddenly realized that nothing was happening, because the movement triggers were broken. We remembered that we had not fixed all the bugs, and sat down to work. In general, there are moments.
The biggest challenge was our desire to realize all the internal architecture in its true splendor. The foundation on which the game works is constantly changing. This includes cloud solutions, the login system, network security algorithms, we are closely following all of this. But it was also difficult for the team to work on creating classic gameplay using the most modern technologies. But it’s a pleasure to work anyway, as we work hard to ensure that a project with such a dedicated fan base has the most fruitful and long life possible.
John Hight: The tech department went to great lengths to adapt the code. In general, merging code is one of the first steps we have taken. Thanks to this, World of Warcraft Classic and Burning Crusade Classic now fully comply with the modern network standards of the current versions of World of Warcraft.
One area that we initially underestimated and which we then devoted to multiple tests was the character cloning system mentioned above. Thanks to it, users have the opportunity to save their hero on the servers of World of Warcraft Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, or both there and there. We tried very hard while working on this feature. The individual character-based databases alone consist of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of lines of code. An error even in one variable can cost the player a valuable item, for the extraction of which he spent a lot of effort and energy. Tests and checks can seem like an easy task, it would seem – you run it and everything works. But the development process was full of unexpected difficulties and interesting challenges.
The start of World of Warcraft Classic was remembered by many fans with long queues and difficulties when connecting to game servers. Did you take into account the same mistakes in preparing for the premiere of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic? Perhaps you have somehow changed the features of your network infrastructure?
John Hight: Our state-of-the-art architecture supports four times as many players as we did back in 2007 at the initial launch of Burning Crusade. Problems begin when the user base focuses its presence on one taken World – certain limits still exist. We solve such situations by transferring to other Worlds, we urge users in advance and prudently to agree on where they want to play. But there are those types of gamers who enjoy spending time on the busiest worlds, where a lot of people gather at the same time. And in such situations, queues cannot be avoided. However, queues usually subside very quickly. So we turn on the servers, a great excitement is born, everyone rushes to the Dark Portal, but gradually the audience is still systematically distributed. The work also involves multilayer algorithms that are active within the same World and maintain its stability even at peak times.
But in general, we handle the load on the servers much better today than in the distant past. Frankly, there is a big important event ahead, and many users will certainly want to become a part of it.
It’s probably too early to talk about this, but do you have any plans for launching servers with other classic extensions? Should we wait for the conditional Wrath of the Lich King Classic?
Brian Birmingham: We always listen to the requests of our fans and never stop thinking about future steps, but we cannot announce anything right now. All focus is on the successful launch of Burning Crusade Classic.
What would you like to say to Russian fans?
Brian Birmingham: I’m thrilled that you can join us on this amazing adventure to return the classic World of Warcraft, and there’s a very exciting chapter ahead of us!
John Hight: Yes, we really appreciate the players from Russia, you continue to provide tremendous support for World of Warcraft. This is a very diligent and attentive audience who consistently share their impressions and reviews about the game. We thank you for being a part of the World of Warcraft community.
Premiere World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic scheduled for June 2…
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