The WoW: Forever Podcast: Episode 6 - All About Tech

The WoW Forever podcast's tech episode covers how the world is split by zone, how groups and guilds are kept together, and how each ruleset balances factions. Developers also said PvE and PvP rulesets stay apart at launch, and asked Oceanic players for feedback on day and night.

Highlights

• The world is split into partitions of one zone or a few zones, and Blizzard can change which zones share one
• Fixes at the end of the beta removed most players popping in and out at zone edges
• At launch, joining a group shows the world refresh prompt with a window to move, instead of moving you at once
• Each ruleset balances its own factions and may block new characters of a faction that is too far ahead
• PvE and PvP rulesets stay apart at launch: no shared groups or auction houses
• Oceanic players stay in the North American region; how their day and night should work is undecided

What this means for players

Nothing in the class or race guides moves. Players who group with friends or join a guild should expect a prompt with a window to move, not a sudden move, when the game brings them together.

Anyone choosing between the PvP and Roleplay-PvP rulesets should know that each balances its factions on its own, and may block new characters of a faction that is too far ahead. Oceanic players remain in the North American region.

Built on the modern game

Developers said on the podcast that WoW Forever is built from the current World of Warcraft code rather than the code Classic used, with its rules set by data, so it picks up the main game's performance, security and tooling work. Their example: designers can now reorder and move talents easily, which they could not do before.

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Zone partitions

The world is split into partitions, each a single zone or a small set of zones, and Blizzard can change which zones share a partition. Developers said the setup at launch, built for crowded starting zones such as Durotar, will likely look different a month later, and that the player cap for each zone can be tuned after launch. They also said the world will not be seamless at all times: zone edges and world refreshes will still happen.

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Players popping in and out

Fixes in the last days of the beta and the server slam largely removed players appearing and vanishing at zone edges, such as at the way out of Orgrimmar. A developer said players will not see that at launch, and that more fixes to the system are coming. For large battles, developers said launch will match how the beta ended.

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World refreshes

Early in the beta the game moved players between worlds far too often, and developers said that has been tuned down. At launch, joining a group shows the world refresh prompt rather than moving you at once, and you get a window to move when you choose. Being moved when only invited to a group was a bug, and it has been fixed.

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Your community

The game places you with the players it counts as your community, so you keep meeting the same people. Group members and friends are placed together first, and a guild member who is not in a group should share worlds with their guild. Your client's language sets where you start, and a setting can change it. Your community follows how you have played over the last few months and shifts slowly, so a player who joins years later should still find one of the same size. Putting someone on ignore does not take them out of your world.

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Rulesets

Developers said the PvE and PvP rulesets stay separate at launch, with no groups or shared auction houses between them. The team had discussed letting them group for dungeons and decided against it for now.

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Faction balance

Faction balance is worked out for each ruleset on its own, aiming for an even split, so the PvP and Roleplay-PvP rulesets do not affect each other. When one faction pulls too far ahead on a ruleset, new characters of that faction may be blocked there.

Said in the video

Oceanic players

Blizzard runs servers in Australia, but Oceanic players share a region with North America, and players who group are put in one world. Developers said they looked at giving Oceanic players their own time of day, but joining a group could then switch a player between day and night in seconds, and holiday event times raise the same question. Nothing is decided, and they asked Oceanic players for feedback.

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Events

Holiday events are much the same at launch, though some had to be rebuilt, and no new major world event arrives at launch. The system behind world events was overhauled after the layer problems that disrupted events in Season of Discovery.

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The next episode

There is no episode in launch week. The podcast returns two weeks later with the lore episode.

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