Project Lore

Blizzard is known for pulling random, often unrequested, features out of the collective brain trust and adding them to an upcoming patch without warning.  Normally people cheer for additions to the default setup.  Some of the features just don't cut it, falling way short of the robustness offered by the many add-ons already available.  Other changes are entirely unobtainable outside of Blizzard's doing.  Case in point, the changes to Raid Info in Secrets of Ulduar.  The change in code enabled players to accept or deny a raid lockout for various reasons.  If something wasn't right, then we'd be able to abort that cleared instance or one that started ages ago unbeknownst to us.  Without a doubt a useful addition which has made everyone's instancing less cumbersome.

Following the same RaidID logic, Blizzard confirmed this week that Call of the Crusade will give players the ability to extend your raid lockout period.  No longer will you have to give up on an instance with just Kel'Thuzad up, or clear the beginning of Ulduar just to make further attempts on Yogg-Saron.  Instead members of a raid or party can chose, individually, to continue the instance at a later date by extending the lockout timer for another session (seven days for most raids, another day for heroics).  The lockout timer can be extended indefinitely.  Worried that you'll extend your lockout timer only to fail at completing your goal?  Fear not, Blizzard will allow players to drop the extended instance so long as nothing of substance was completed since its extension.

Why would Blizzard do this you ask?  Eyonix has your basic sure-to-upset-the-hardcore answer.  "This new option is being added as a means to allow parties and raids to progress through an instance at their chosen pace".

Initially I was annoyed with the announcement.  Not only did it seem to be a pointless waste of development time, but it removes one of the reasons for a lockout period to exist.  I got over those issues though.  The development time spent on the change is nothing in the long run, perhaps a week's worth of work for a programmer and some QA personal.  And the lockouts exist mainly to keep people from getting too much loot in a week, not as a race against the (long) clock.  In the end both casual and hardcore guilds will benefit from the change, and it is doubtful that the gear gap between the teams will shrink with the added feature.  Leave that up to the emblem changes.

Time well spent or is this going to be a rarely used feature like in-game voice chat?  Another win for casual raiders and a strike for the hardcore?  As an added, perhaps unintended, bonus we'll be able to gear up our alts by taking over older, partially cleared (all hard modes downed) instances and cleaning up any remaining easy bosses.  That can't be bad right?

For more details, check the latest official PTR notes.