Hello to you Kronos, I posted a similar thread over at Nostalrius and as I've been learning about these server projects I have become very interested to see the developers thoughts on topics like these.
I've been wanting to play the same game that I played back in '05-06 for a while now, unfortunately the game is ever-changing whether one likes it or not and for me this game ended up as something completely different from what I signed up for.
After having invested an substantial amount of time looking into private servers trying to emulate the classic version I found one recurring problem: most of the content is 1.12.1. The developers are always sane enough to limit the available dungeons and raids but the rest of the content is still 1.12.1. We're stuck in this awkward transition period between classic and Burning Crusade, where you are meant to explore Naxxramas and giddy up for new adventures in the new expansion(TBC).
With all that said, I think it would have been interesting to see more of the early mechanics and content, because that's how it was during a significant part of vanilla, here are some of my suggestions:
Proposed Solution: Change the cap back to 10, re-implement the wipe penalty and buff the inhabiting creatures that were nerfed throughout the various patches. The goal is allow players to re-experience the classic dungeons how they worked throughout most of the game(prior to new expansions).
At last I would like to bring up one problem that is harder to address; throughout classic there dozens of major revamps of all the classes and their talent trees, so goes for for a lot of the endgame items early on. While I understand that you may never be able to address all of these changes and for some of them, such as the class revamps, it might have been for the better.
The problem is that it trivializes the difficulty greatly, comparing the damage output from a Molten Core raid on a 1.12 private server to a raid group from retail back in 1.4 or 1.5 is quite staggering. People will probably brush their shoulders and say that they're simply much better players, but looking at the raw output from the players it's quite clear that their output is drastically different from what it was back then. I don't know how you can perfectly offset this except from averaging the disproportion between 1.4 and 1.12 and then compensate by modifying creature statistics to add up for it, but I'm sure that would offend certain players as well.
Not sure why I'm so worked up over this, since I didn't have any plans to play hardcore, but I guess I speak for more than myself when I say that I want to experience vanilla how it was meant to be played and I hope some of you developers behind this project will be able to address some of the major concerns. Cheers.
I've been wanting to play the same game that I played back in '05-06 for a while now, unfortunately the game is ever-changing whether one likes it or not and for me this game ended up as something completely different from what I signed up for.
After having invested an substantial amount of time looking into private servers trying to emulate the classic version I found one recurring problem: most of the content is 1.12.1. The developers are always sane enough to limit the available dungeons and raids but the rest of the content is still 1.12.1. We're stuck in this awkward transition period between classic and Burning Crusade, where you are meant to explore Naxxramas and giddy up for new adventures in the new expansion(TBC).
With all that said, I think it would have been interesting to see more of the early mechanics and content, because that's how it was during a significant part of vanilla, here are some of my suggestions:
- Revert the dungeon nerf
Patch 1.10: Along with the new Armor Sets, the high-level 5-10 man dungeons have received some changes regarding loot. Many items have been improved in quality and use. In addition, several epic items, such as Headmaster's Charge and the Runeblade of Baron Rivendare, have had their drop rates significantly increased. In order to preserve the challenge of these dungeons, they have had their instance caps lowered. Stratholme, Scholomance, and Blackrock Depths now allow a maximum of five players inside, and Blackrock Spire allows a maximum of ten.
Proposed Solution: Change the cap back to 10, re-implement the wipe penalty and buff the inhabiting creatures that were nerfed throughout the various patches. The goal is allow players to re-experience the classic dungeons how they worked throughout most of the game(prior to new expansions).
- Reverting various item buffs
Patch 1.4: +Spell damage and +Healing effects have been increased in effectiveness to make them more attractive to players. Effects that increased damage and healing done by all magical spells received the largest increase, especially if the previous amount was small. We also fixed a couple bugs relating to these effects.Patch 1.10: The following item sets have had their statistics, effects, and set bonuses updated:
Arcanist, Netherwind, Prophecy, Transcendence, Felheart, Nemesis, Cenarion, Stormrage Raiment, Nightslayer, Bloodfang, Giantstalker, Dragonstalker, Earthfury, Ten Storms, Might, Wrath, Lawbringer, JudgementPatch 1.10: Many items in Blackrock Depths, Stratholme, Scholomance, and Blackrock Spire have been re-evaluated and adjusted to make them more appealing. In addition several new items have been added to all of these instances.
- Reverting raid dungeon nerfs
Proposed Solution: Lift most non-bug-related change, so the content could be experienced as it was on retail, for better or worse.Patch 1.8:
- Reduced the damage of the Mad Servant's fireball
- Reduced the number of Mad Voidwalkers that are summoned from the death of a Mad Servant from three to two.
- High Priestess Mar'li will now despawn her summoned spiders when she returns from combat.
- Slowed the rate at which High Priestess Arlokk's panthers spawn
At last I would like to bring up one problem that is harder to address; throughout classic there dozens of major revamps of all the classes and their talent trees, so goes for for a lot of the endgame items early on. While I understand that you may never be able to address all of these changes and for some of them, such as the class revamps, it might have been for the better.
The problem is that it trivializes the difficulty greatly, comparing the damage output from a Molten Core raid on a 1.12 private server to a raid group from retail back in 1.4 or 1.5 is quite staggering. People will probably brush their shoulders and say that they're simply much better players, but looking at the raw output from the players it's quite clear that their output is drastically different from what it was back then. I don't know how you can perfectly offset this except from averaging the disproportion between 1.4 and 1.12 and then compensate by modifying creature statistics to add up for it, but I'm sure that would offend certain players as well.
Not sure why I'm so worked up over this, since I didn't have any plans to play hardcore, but I guess I speak for more than myself when I say that I want to experience vanilla how it was meant to be played and I hope some of you developers behind this project will be able to address some of the major concerns. Cheers.