Manacrew Interview with Morgan Day - Dragonflight Systems Futureproofed

Dragonflight Posted 2022/07/20 at 2:09 AM by Paryah

Their approach to Alpha testing is more in line with raid testing. They are focusing on specific content. They are also taking a different approach in terms of communication; they are releasing blogs previewing content, like the professions, so that everyone can give feedback even if they aren't in the Alpha resting.

A major theme of Dragonflight is the idea of awakening. They want to leverage that concept not only in the story, but in systems as well. They look at this as an opportunity for refurbishment and being able to revisit foundational systems in a way that makes them able to be expanded on in the future. The idea is to make them future-proof.

They are exploring the idea of keeping more content a surprise, like the Calia Menethil storyline and Sepulcher of the first ones. They want to explore having new secret stuff that hasn't been publicly tested so that it is a discovery for everyone.

Philosophically they want to give people options for leveling alts and skipping content like Threads of Fate, but there are no specifics yet.

They are looking at people who play multiple characters with a new lens. They want to remove friction and hurdles for playing multiple characters, and want to improve in this area.

Dragonflight Alpha

Features & Updates

Shadowlands Time Skip

Models & Customization

Class Changes

Comment by CryptariusGood good and good.Comment by NagisaStreamsAll positive stuff :) hoping they keep something similar to creation catalyst for alts!Comment by AntoniusPrimeAccount bound reputations and mailable currency (even if it’s not in a bag form, like how we can send gold. Example: Timeless Coins!) would be a great first step towards alts.

Some play for the variety, others for the versatility. More play for the change and don’t really concentrate on getting them end game / raid ready.

But I suspect most of us with alts fall in the middle. It would be amazing to have my alts the same power level as my main, but that’s a wish list item for sure!

But if we were easier able to send things needed to buy catch up items that need rep on our main to our alts it would be better as well.

And by easier I mean: hit the rep points on your main, be able to send excess currency to an alt who can directly buy the needed catch up tokens.

Of course, that’s an existing system that was used before but the balancing at the time was either the catch up stuff cost 4 in-game kidneys or you needed better luck than lottery winners.
Perhaps balance around excess, rather than scarcity…

More alts, more options, more people playing.Comment by Menes59Sending currencies is just tedious. If they can be mailed, simply make them account-wide. There is no point in adding extra steps as the result will be the same.
Every gold you earn / spend on a character is added / removed from a pool all characters have access to.
Not all currencies would work I suppose, but most of them? Why not?Comment by SaltyRistoI'm really happy with how much they're communicating through development time, it's such a breath of fresh air that they're making an effort to keep us up to date with what is happening, I like this a lot.Comment by justkbmtAwesome, hope to see it.Comment by xxhzI feel a big hurdle with account wide currencies is designing it so alts don't end up being mandatory to juice up your main (e.g. like in lost ark), something I feel wow devs have wanted to avoid since day 1. For example, with hard-capped currencies like valor, you might need to introduce things like per-character spending limits if you have an account-wide cap.

I'm all for it but its probably difficult to get the balance right. For uncapped currencies (e.g. current Soul Ash) its a no-brainer though.Comment by Kamuvery good :)Comment by Soeroah"They are looking at people who play multiple characters with a new lens. They want to remove friction and hurdles for playing multiple characters, and want to improve in this area."

Love to see it.p, at last.

Would be cool to see some more achievements/rewards for doing things on multiple characters, like if we could've unlocked a special mount for getting all the class mounts in Legion, etc.Comment by WillowwhispI feel a big hurdle with account wide currencies is designing it so alts don't end up being mandatory to juice up your main (e.g. like in lost ark), something I feel wow devs have wanted to avoid since day 1. For example, with hard-capped currencies like valor, you might need to introduce things like per-character spending limits if you have an account-wide cap.

I'm all for it but its probably difficult to get the balance right. For uncapped currencies (e.g. current Soul Ash) its a no-brainer though.Comment by NevcairielA major theme of Dragonflight is the idea of awakening. They want to leverage that concept not only in the story, but in systems as well. They look at this as an opportunity for refurbishment and being able to revisit foundational systems in a way that makes them able to be expanded on in the future. The idea is to make them future-proof.Comment by UnholyoneSPWhelp, I am indeed in "Alpha resting". But maybe I'll get acces to the Beta, so I don't have to be Beta resting as well.Comment by BravejohnEvery time i quit the game was for the same reason: i bored with my main, logged with alt and when i ve seen the mountain i had to climb... for example had to start again from +2-5 M+ and wait for the weekly chest gear... but even if i wanted to do that again, there were very very few people run 1-5 (i really wonder why they domt remove valor cap from the start.. that way there are groups in lower keya for alts...)Comment by LadyTsunade777They are looking at people who play multiple characters with a new lens. They want to remove friction and hurdles for playing multiple characters, and want to improve in this area.Comment by desburntAccount bound reputations and mailable currency (even if it’s not in a bag form, like how we can send gold. Example: Timeless Coins!) would be a great first step towards alts.

Some play for the variety, others for the versatility. More play for the change and don’t really concentrate on getting them end game / raid ready.

But I suspect most of us with alts fall in the middle. It would be amazing to have my alts the same power level as my main, but that’s a wish list item for sure!

But if we were easier able to send things needed to buy catch up items that need rep on our main to our alts it would be better as well.

And by easier I mean: hit the rep points on your main, be able to send excess currency to an alt who can directly buy the needed catch up tokens.

Of course, that’s an existing system that was used before but the balancing at the time was either the catch up stuff cost 4 in-game kidneys or you needed better luck than lottery winners.
Perhaps balance around excess, rather than scarcity…

More alts, more options, more people playing.Comment by desburntSending currencies is just tedious. If they can be mailed, simply make them account-wide. There is no point in adding extra steps as the result will be the same.
Every gold you earn / spend on a character is added / removed from a pool all characters have access to.
Not all currencies would work I suppose, but most of them? Why not?Comment by MowseBig yes to more surprises with content. I like reading about all of this stuff and getting hype, but it’s so much fun to find things in game, especially big story details. I always try to avoid wowhead story posts for that reason.Comment by Amricatt1118I absolutely agree with account wide currencies and make ALL currencies moved to the currency tab. Just because my main is all "juiced" up and my alts have access to it, I'm not going to feel like I need to take my alts through the same content. I barely take my "main" through the end game. It would be nice to be able to do bits and pieces that I enjoy and have all the currencies be in one place. If I do decide to do something more with the currency, then I can farm it on whichever flavor of character I'm feeling at that time.

I love the ideas being brought up in this interview. I'm so excited to have a refresh on WoW.Comment by DoomsterOne thing I've not seen covered and may have just missed is regarding crafting for alts.

Historically, we could craft a BOA or BOE and mail to our alts. With the new crafting system it looks like we might use the work order system or some form of in-person trade window to provide Soulbound components with the crafter supplying the rest and crafting the item. I miay have misunderstood how this works, which might make my question moot.

What I want to know, is given I cannot be logged into my crafter and an alt at the same time, and don't want to put in a work order... will I still be able to craft decent gear and supply it directly (i.e mail it) to my alt?Comment by Cannonlakewotlk pre patch ?