General Suggestions

[Koopa]

Hey there Nostalrius, just a few general suggestions!

Forum Ideas:

I think it would be a really good idea to create Sub Forums for each individual class within the "Mechanics and Classes" section. I also feel as if an Off-Topic section for things such as Addons/Introductions/etc. could prove to be very useful. Someone already mentioned "stickying" threads to provide a bit more clarity and organization, and I feel as if this could go hand-in-hand with the creation of a few new sections.

Updates:

I've been asked a lot lately what tests still remain until the server is launched. I've now seen mention of a 48 hr Stress Session, and there has also been mention of a Hack and Cheat Session. Without going into too much detail or giving specific dates, would it be at all possible to get a "timeline" on what tests/phases that still remain prior to launch? With a bit more information on future tests, guilds would be able to more easily coordinate their efforts in advance, allowing for a better testing experience for players and staff alike.

Expectations:

What can we expect at launch?! I've read the thread where it was stated that the devs would be bringing items back to their pre-buffed state (prior to 1.10). While I am generally O.K. with this, I wonder how far this is going to extend into other areas of the game. For example, will you be nerfing the debuff slots from 16 down to 8? The gear is being reduced to it's pre 1.12 state, but the talents aren't. Once again, I'm okay with this decision but it begs the question, where will the line be drawn?

Thanks for taking the time to read and consider these suggestions!

[Askental]

Thank you, I was going to post about this as well. There is a need for a bit more communication from the staff and a more engaging forum. The issue with the forum is that we have all that is needed to argue, but nothing to "connect" with people and get to know everyone, etc. Off Topic, Introductions, etc. are mandatory to bring the community closer together.

[Hatson]

What can we expect at launch?! I've read the thread where it was stated that the devs would be bringing items back to their pre-buffed state (prior to 1.10). While I am generally O.K. with this, I wonder how far this is going to extend into other areas of the game. For example, will you be nerfing the debuff slots from 16 down to 8? The gear is being reduced to it's pre 1.12 state, but the talents aren't. Once again, I'm okay with this decision but it begs the question, where will the line be drawn?

While they just now announced the whole item reworks, this is very much relevant and good food for thought.
But personally I wouldn't mind talents staying in the 1.12.1 version.. We all know that it took Blizzard a long time to revamp all the classes and talents through Vanilla. Heck, Shamans didn't even get that until Naxxramas times, oof... The 1.12.1 version of the talents is definitely the most balanced one out of them, as far as "balance" goes in Vanilla times, at least.

[Youfie]

What can we expect at launch?! I've read the thread where it was stated that the devs would be bringing items back to their pre-buffed state (prior to 1.10). While I am generally O.K. with this, I wonder how far this is going to extend into other areas of the game. For example, will you be nerfing the debuff slots from 16 down to 8? The gear is being reduced to it's pre 1.12 state, but the talents aren't. Once again, I'm okay with this decision but it begs the question, where will the line be drawn?

While they just now announced the whole item reworks, this is very much relevant and good food for thought.
But personally I wouldn't mind talents staying in the 1.12.1 version.. We all know that it took Blizzard a long time to revamp all the classes and talents through Vanilla. Heck, Shamans didn't even get that until Naxxramas times, oof... The 1.12.1 version of the talents is definitely the most balanced one out of them, as far as "balance" goes in Vanilla times, at least.

Yep.
I haven't really given it a lot of thought, but I think having the debuff slots cap reduced to 8 until [whenever it was changed during retail / NR would release it] could actually be an excellent idea.
It would help increase the PvE difficulty. Not by THAT much, but you know, "every little helps".

And this kind of change is actually quite "healthy", as it's a mechanic that affects everyone (while putting back the talent trees and making them progressive would be quite unfair for instance, at some classes benefited from it far more than others, and because all the revamps happened at different times).

I'd like to hear the staff's opinion on this idea.
With Viper's post on the other thread stating they were going to give us extra information about the suggestion of slightly modifying some boss fights, just by increasing some numbers and the consequences of a player not doing what he should during a raid, I'm starting to think there are a few "intelligent" way to increase PvE difficulty in a "smart" way and without gimping a specific class.

More inputs from you guys are welcome, as well as a staff member's opinion !

[Koopa]

I'm with you all in that the talents should be the 1.12 version due to the functionality and balance it tried to bring to the game. I guess my question was more geared toward mechanic changes (specifically things such as the debuff limit). Unlike you though Youfie, I think this isn't such a great idea.

This will make micromanaging your debuffs (as a result of specs) much more tedious. It may also force guilds to put heavier restrictions than there already are on their raiders as to what they are and are not allowed to use in raids. From a leadership perspective, managing 8 debuffs sounds like either a nightmare or something you give up on altogether.

I like the idea of bringing the gear in line with the content that is available. This will (hopefully) add a new level of difficulty (both in preparation and execution), but I think changing core mechanics could potentially be detrimental. Like class changes, some of the features implemented in late vanilla are absolutely necessary throughout.

It is nice to see Nostalrius putting in the extra work to make it even more blizzlike while increasing the difficulty as a direct result. Things like this increase difficulty and lengthen progression periods without needing to add "custom" boss abilities/mechanics or inflate numbers such as other servers have or plan to do.

[Armilus]

I just have one quick note on talent changes.

The UI for displaying the talents is hard-coded into the game client. This means that in order to implement the old talent trees the dev's would not only have to make changes on the server, but everyone playing would have to install the correct old version of the game client. On top of that, there could be differences in the communication code on those older versions so they might have to re-write significant portions of the server code.

Basically, what I'm saying is, there is almost no chance at all that they will implement old talents.

[James Goblin]

+1, especially for class forums and addons / macros / UI & interface section. Additionally, when class forums ˝happen˝, we could move class specific topics that accumulated meantime in ˝Classes and Mechanics˝ section to appropriate places.

[Gelbin]

Ye, good post. Giving progress updates is also important. I must Nostalrius is already communicating pretty okay. Of course, any extra would be great for all us waiting-on-hot-stones people

Funny to think about it that corecraft is starting to lose their followers. They barely post any updates of what they're doing ^^