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The War Within Quest and Art Design Interview with LeystTV
The War Within
Опубликовано
18.05.2024 в 01:40
Archimtiros
In an interview with LeystTV, Lead Quest Designer Dani Merrithew and Associate Art Director Tina Wang discuss designing the zones, cultures, characters, and unique environments of The War Within!
Creating Seamless Underground Structure
Despite being varied locations underground, making the zones of The War Within feel connected was very important to the design team. Are they adjacent? Do they all stack on top of each other?
Isle of Dorn clearly needs to be on top, and features The Coreway - a huge titan corridor that leads to the center of Azeroth using the same airlock technology that players used to reach the Zaralek Caverns in Dragonflight. This brings players to the underground zones, built in a sort of spiral stagger so that players can see each of the individual zones on their map.
In terms of variety, underground zones are non-traditional spaces that create a lot of room for creativity - the ringing deeps features light shafts shining down through open caverns overhead, with pools of greenery and clouds to help create a sense of space and atmosphere. Hallowfall is quite open and feels like an outdoor area, despite being underground, with its own ocean and a crystalline ceiling lit by a giant crystal shifting between light and dark. Azj-Kahet is the deepest zone, the utter depths of the earth and full of nerubians.
They've been building extra things into the world to help players maintain vigor and have an easier time navigating the world, so you're not getting stuck halfway through the Coreway. There have been discussions about more teleportation options between the zones, but nothing appears to have been decided yet.
Arathi Airships
Conceptually, there's an idea of where the Arathi came from, how did they get into Khaz Algar and into Hallowfall itself. Some of these underground spaces extend beyond what we may necessarily traverse as players, suggesting other potential entrances and exits that the locals may have used to get there. The Arathi have also been building their own airships within the zone.
Inspiration and Designing Around Future Content
Isle of Dorn and Dornogal were inspired by Ironforge, in the sense that Ironforge would have been inspired by prior Earthen construction, with a similar a great forge and plenty of lava. The rural areas have more of a rustic feeling, a little more reminiscent of the Wildhammer clan.
Thinking about continuity between three expansions within the greater World Soul Saga has been a major influence on The War Within design, making sure the story threads make sense and can continue on. In addition to fleshing out old concepts like Earthen, Kobolds, and Nerubians, the team is laying the groundwork for what the future of World of Warcraft will be, with new characters continuing forward into future content as well.
A lot of the designers inspiration comes from outside the game. The general vision comes down from Chris Metzen and the rest of the team, while quest designers think about what little things they can pull from or expand upon to tie the quest structure in with the rest of the world - taking something that started as a small moment and building it into a more defining part of the game world. For example, Lake Meraldar of the Eastern Plaguelands, which the Chronicles revealed to be named for the Arathorian Empire general Lordaine's sister, who was one of the first humans to come into contact with the Light, and now has a sect of followers within Hallowfall.
While the main campaign is the larger overarching story, there's also a lot of little side stories that will take players on adventures learning about the Earthen culture, uncovering little bits of lore related to the Titans - familiar enough for older players to get excited, but presented in a way that new players can catch up on who all these people are.
Building a Dynamic World
The team is building a bunch of cool things to engage with around the zones, such as a multiplayer event in which players complete objectives to put on a play!
The giant sun-like Crystal in Hallowfall also affects the game world beyond cosmetic light. When it shifts to the darker void-like light, mobs become more aggressive to deal more damage, and the team is also discussing internally about building quests upon that experience.
Putting Players in Raids
Follower raids are an interesting idea, but there are no plans right now, while they're focused on refining the dungeon experience. That said, they hear players who express that they're uncomfortable doing group raids with other players, and it's something they'll continue to discuss internally.
While not a true raid experience, they are planning to bring players into the initial raid zone for a story experience.
Personal Character Growth in The War Within
There will be a lot of character development for Anduin and Alleria in particular, as well as new characters we'll meet.
Anduin's new appearance better reflects the toll of his experiences in the Shadowlands, aging him up a bit and dirtying him up a bit. Alleria's new look is reflective of a very long journey, traveling through different dimensions and a dealing with a struggle of who she is - they previously made a "dark" version of her, but here she's truly come to terms with the light and dark, a duality which is represented in her updated design.
Character Customization
Earthen are made of stone, but they wanted to make their skin feel unique beyond that, using runes and gemstones to make them feel distinct. Pieces can be turned on and off to fit with different armor appearances, and all Earthen can have beards!
No info about Troll beards right now.
Updated Pet Customization
Although they like the idea of further customizing Mage Water Elemental or Hunter pets, there's nothing to share right now. Some of the hero talents bear similarity to this, however, with Sunfury Mage conjuring a fiery arcane Phoenix and Diabolist Warlocks summoning pitlords.
Distinguishing Earthen from Dwarves
There are a lot of conflicting ideas between making the Earthen very traditional or more high fantasy, but some of this is represented by their various factions. The Unbound are more rural and traditional, the city-dwelling Oathsworn are more structured, and the Machine Speakers are dutiful despite breaking away from the Titan's teachings.
There are a lot of little details that set the Earthen apart from their Curse of Flesh cousins - they're made of stone, so they don't eat regular food, so its not laying around everywhere, but you'll find the Earthen taking baths in mineral pools, lounging on hot rocks, etc.
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