For Azeroth! Interview with Morgan Day and Stephen Cavallaro

Live Geposted 15.06.2023 um 13:24 von Archimtiros

For Azeroth PodcastRequirements, Narration, and Quest Content

The intent is for mega-dungeon to be available immediately upon release of Patch 10.1.5. There is prior questing content leading up to the dungeon, but those breadcrumb quests aren't strictly required in order to enter.

As far back as Legion, there was an old school "attunement" quest, but they've heard feedback from players who want to immediately log in and try the new content, so while those quests still exist in narrative form, they're entirely optional.

At some point, the story laid out in Dawn of the Infinites will continue in future content updates, but the team really wanted to ensure the bulk of the story being told is done so in the lead up quests and the dungeon itself, rather than spread out over several patches.

There are two main plotlines converging in Dragonflight right now - one of which is the Bronze Dragonflight arc with Chromie trying to protect Nozdormu from becoming Murozond. At the same time, the Primal Incarnate storyline is still ongoing, but the two overlap with Iridikron's plot in Fractures in Time. Dawn of the Infinite brings those two storylines together.

More quests will open up after completing the mega-dungeon as well, including "some encrypted things that players will have to wait until launch to see." No spoilers though!

Heroic and Mythic+ Coming Soon

Dawn of the Infinites will be split into two separately queueable heroic dungeons in Patch 10.1.7. This is much earlier than other mega-dungeons before it, but the team really wants everyone to be able to experience the content as soon as possible.

Season 3 will also feature the split version of Dawn of the Infinites as two new Mythic+ dungeons, so start practicing!

One of the things being done differently with Dawn of the Infinites is intentionally releasing it at a higher difficulty level, requiring coordination similar to raids, in response to requests for challenging content and meaningful rewards for smaller group sizes. Previous Hard Mode difficulty has just been baked in, but it's also why they're keen on getting the split Heroic versions out faster in Patch 10.1.7 instead of waiting for Season 3.

Timely Rewards

Gear from Dawn of the Infinites is aimed at end-of-heroic raid item level (so presumably 437-444), and they're trying new things with interesting effects tied thematically to time.

There's also plenty of non-power related gear and cosmetics to collect, including the Infinite scales dragonriding customizations and much more.

Creating Content for a Small Group Scale

It's always fun to fight new creatures, but particularly in long-form content, they want to continually look for ways to keep the experience fresh. One of the major parts of Dawn of the Infinites that has already been highlighted is the Infinite Dragonflight Gauntlet - it's a non-combat moment, but a fun twist on the normal gameplay.

Trying to interject moments like that helps the experience feel more immersive, more alive, and just different in a way that feels satisfying for players. The dungeon is meant to be an experience beyond just gameplay.

Similarly, when designing individual encounter mechanics like "find the fake Chromie" during Morchie's encounter, the team tries to come up with new ways for players to react to situations differently than familiar ones like "dodge the swirly." Taking into account accessibility and a reasonable timeframe to parse information is important, but also a part of tuning - someone might make a WeakAura for it, but for the developers its less about combating automatic WeakAuras and more about introducing different ways for players to make a decision based on what they're actually seeing on the screen.

Mega-Dungeons / Mini-Raids

When considering mega-dungeons specifically, they're kind of like mini-raids, both in presentation and required coordination. Whereas elsewhere they have a pretty clean line between the kinds of mechanics they want in dungeons versus raids, the mega-dungeon is thought of more like a mini-raid with things like longer boss encounters that allow for more phase changing than a typical dungeon would.

Given that it's a five player dungeon though, class accessibility is still important. They still want moments where specific classes can shine, but not to the point where they feel required, since the group size is so much more restrictive.

Philosophically, encounters are designed as puzzles for players to solve. Ideally, there are multiple approaches, rather than exact strategies or else it lacks agency and discovery. Instead, they want them to be solvable with any one of a number of tools that different classes and specs bring - the new talent system also plays into that, giving players a greater ability to fine tune their tools between attempts than in the past.

There are areas where the team looks at design options and tries to incorporate as much class utility as possible - afflicted is a good example, as there are many ways to solve that problem. On the other end of the spectrum, Quaking was removed for Season 2 after so many clips and videos of players getting stuck in impossible situations.

Time Will Tell

There are players that love dungeons and players that love raids, just as much as those who only stick to open world content, so the team enjoys trying to create content to satisfy as diverse and broad a range of players as possible. They typically focus on what makes sense for the story at the time, and what they think would be exciting for the playerbase, but community feedback is also tremendously valuable - so if you want more mega-dungeons, let them know!

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