Project Lore

This is it folks, my last remaining coverage from this year's BlizzCon.  May I present to you the show in picture form - with captions!  Enjoy. The opening madness & SWAG. New and retuned leveling territories. Upcoming changes to The Barrens. Raid map, Uldum concept layout and art. Extended universe cases for Blizzard's titles. New racials and secondary profession's UI screen. New Rated BG queuing system & UI screen. Path of the Titan system and applicable changes to Glyph and talent trees. More raid layouts and planning. The first mocks up before they begin adding environmental art. Scripting, placement, pathing & spell tools.  Notice the Deep Breath possibility. Icecrown Citadel layout! Cataclysm raid layout, including The Firelands (Ragnaros) concept art. I beat Blizzard to announcing the secret guest - the company was not happy about that.  Apparently I type faster than whoever was manning the keyboard for them. Statues (Queen of Blades ftw) and a lot of computers! BlizzCon 2009's retro arcade.  Rock n' Roll Racing! Art, art and more art.  Sheep is dedicated to Treznor. So Long Anaheim!

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Note: The below information was covered as part of our Live Blogging & Tweeting during the show.  But the information is simply too important to be glossed over.  Here are the major class changes in one convenient, to the point package. Quick Synopsis Of The Upcoming System Guild progression was, without a shadow of a doubt, my favorite WoW announcement during BlizzCon 2009.  The crowd erupted when the snippet was splashed across the screen.  The bees nest was stirred further as the developers began detailing the progression tracks, rewards, and reward schemes.  The panelists had to stop speaking numerous times during the presentation as the crowd drowned them out with hoots, hollers and hoorays.  It seems that I wasn't the only player desperately seeking a reason to grow with a guild.  Prophetic vision placing that in the The Next Expansion column, rather than Wishful Thinking methinks. Cataclysm's Guild Progression basics:

• You're guild will earn experience by way of its most active members (top 20 guildmates contribute).  The "gate" is to limit the "grindiness", a reoccurring theme at this year's BlizzCon.  Limiting the amount of players who can contribute helps maintain a balance between massive guilds, and those with only a few dozen players.
• Guild contribution won't change your daily activity much.  You can contribute by doing the stuff you already do, be it dailies, professions, farming reputation, raiding, PvP (rated Arenas and BGs) or bum rushing Hogger.  Different acts will be weighed differently.
• The guild level cap currently discussed is level 20.  Guilds will receive talent points, much like the class talent points.  More on this below.
• Looking For Guild system being implemented.  The idea is to make it easy for a Raid Leader, Officer or GM to find exactly what a guild needs, or to post a casting call.
• Guild Achievement system is also incoming.  It'll act like today's system, but require that a certain percentage (75% discussed) of the attendees be a part of the guild.  Some current achievements will be recycled, but most challenges are to be new.
• A new paid service, guild transfer, was mentioned as a possibility.
• No, it's not going to happen.  There is still no guild housing plans.

Look At All Those Talents The current rewards for guild progression are too fluid, and numerous, to discuss in bullet form.  According to the Systems panel, guilds will have numerous rewards for sticking together, and not sucking.  First off is the guild Talent system.  Effectively a clone of the current class talents, but with convenience rewards.  The guild variety will offer no gameplay changing talents (no buffs or anything like that).  Instead it will focus on making things easier for a guild.  Bottom line, you're guild will never have to spec a certain way to beat a boss.  We'll be hit with tons of time saving abilities like grabbing extra money from mobs, mass resurrection, mass summoning, reduced durability loss and reduced repair bills!  Quite awesome right?  Sadly, I didn't call that last one correctly. On top of those guild wide buffs there will be a way to reward individuals a bit more, the vendor/currency system.  Users will gain guild currency as they earn XP for the guild.  They then can buy special items, including rare reagents (hello Frost Lotus), Heirloom gear, crafting plans, vanity items, guild standards, guild respects and guild bank slots.  The items are all bound to the guild, so if you leave the Totally Rad Guild, you lose access to the totally rad loot they have accumulated.  Leaving a guild is not as painful as it sounds.  If you join another guild, you get access to their perks right away. It remains to be seen exactly how easy guild leveling will be.  Those specifics were not detailed.  Numerous other titles, old and new, have had guild progression systems of varying success.  Some developers made it incredibly difficult to obtain.  Others tied the size of a guild to its success.  Yet others made it so easy and bland that the feature was lost, a common occurrence.  Worst of all, some demanded that a guild have certain attributes before they could continue advancing in content, disrupting the idea of choice. Hopefully Blizzard's track record of incredibly polished, not always innovative, design will prove to be successful once again. At least they are giving guilds yet another topic for drama, what to spec in!  I vote saving money spec.

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