Usa Forum - A week to go impressions . . .

Raymond E. Feist

11/30/2010 11:48:00 PM

Where to start?

First, the artwork. Even in the old areas there's an attention to
detail that I find wonderful. Old areas look fresh because they're
using better graphics.

Second, is it me, or are some areas bigger than before? In some places,
like Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood, there just seems to be a little
more room, slightly longer rides from place to place? Maybe it's my
memory playing tricks.

The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.

And I was delighted to find out Blizzard is smarter than I am. I was at
Bloodmyst with 59 of 65 quests to go, grinding my teeth because I could
only identify one I'd missed. I did that one and pop I get credit for
all sixty five, because there are five quest that are race specific that
only Dranai can get.

So far I'm having a hell of a good time and the game feels very fresh to
me. I'm only doing lower level stuff right now because I haven't run up
a new character for a while, so I haven't checked out any changes in
Northrend or Outlands.

Looking forward for the other shoe to drop next Tuesday.

BTW, if you blast through all the lower level new quests, you get to
half-way through honored with Gilias without breaking a sweat.

Best, R.E.F.

28 Answers

Nemesis Prime

12/1/2010 12:06:00 AM

On Nov 30, 6:47 pm, "Raymond E. Feist" <raym...@bittersea.com> wrote:
> Where to start?
>
> First, the artwork. Even in the old areas there's an attention to
> detail that I find wonderful. Old areas look fresh because they're
> using better graphics.
>
> Second, is it me, or are some areas bigger than before? In some places,
> like Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood, there just seems to be a little
> more room, slightly longer rides from place to place? Maybe it's my
> memory playing tricks.
>

I agree, some areas seem to have either gotten larger or were moved,
the end result being that some alts, for example left in
Stangletorn,Vale, end up being outside of the safe area you have left
them in.

> The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
> towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
> quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
> etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
> discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
> speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
> before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.
>

It seems that many quests have been either removed or changed. Quests
that you did before got changed in some way so you can do them again.
Several of my alts have their quest history empty for zones that they
had done quests in. I had an Orc rogue that I had created only a week
or 2 before the patch, and shes been able to do some quests again in
the starting zone, but those quests have been changed in some way.
Reputation points don't seem to have been changed, which means that
you can earn extra rep in areas you had earned rep in before. Granted
you can also get a taberd from a faction you want to earn rep with and
go into dungeons to earn rep.

> And I was delighted to find out Blizzard is smarter than I am. I was at
> Bloodmyst with 59 of 65 quests to go, grinding my teeth because I could
> only identify one I'd missed. I did that one and pop I get credit for
> all sixty five, because there are five quest that are race specific that
> only Dranai can get.
>
> So far I'm having a hell of a good time and the game feels very fresh to
> me. I'm only doing lower level stuff right now because I haven't run up
> a new character for a while, so I haven't checked out any changes in
> Northrend or Outlands.
>
> Looking forward for the other shoe to drop next Tuesday.
>
> BTW, if you blast through all the lower level new quests, you get to
> half-way through honored with Gilias without breaking a sweat.
>
> Best, R.E.F.

Nemesis Prime

12/1/2010 12:10:00 AM

On Nov 30, 7:06 pm, Nemesis <teh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 30, 6:47 pm, "Raymond E. Feist" <raym...@bittersea.com> wrote:
>
> > Where to start?
>
> > First, the artwork. Even in the old areas there's an attention to
> > detail that I find wonderful. Old areas look fresh because they're
> > using better graphics.
>
> > Second, is it me, or are some areas bigger than before? In some places,
> > like Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood, there just seems to be a little
> > more room, slightly longer rides from place to place? Maybe it's my
> > memory playing tricks.
>
> I agree, some areas seem to have either gotten larger or were moved,
> the end result being that some alts, for example left in
> Stangletorn,Vale, end up being outside of the safe area you have left
> them in.
>
> > The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
> > towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
> > quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
> > etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
> > discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
> > speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
> > before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.
>
> It seems that many quests have been either removed or changed. Quests
> that you did before got changed in some way so you can do them again.
> Several of my alts have their quest history empty for zones that they
> had done quests in. I had an Orc rogue that I had created only a week
> or 2 before the patch, and shes been able to do some quests again in
> the starting zone, but those quests have been changed in some way.
> Reputation points don't seem to have been changed, which means that
> you can earn extra rep in areas you had earned rep in before. Granted
> you can also get a taberd from a faction you want to earn rep with and
> go into dungeons to earn rep.
>
> > And I was delighted to find out Blizzard is smarter than I am. I was at
> > Bloodmyst with 59 of 65 quests to go, grinding my teeth because I could
> > only identify one I'd missed. I did that one and pop I get credit for
> > all sixty five, because there are five quest that are race specific that
> > only Dranai can get.
>
> > So far I'm having a hell of a good time and the game feels very fresh to
> > me. I'm only doing lower level stuff right now because I haven't run up
> > a new character for a while, so I haven't checked out any changes in
> > Northrend or Outlands.
>
> > Looking forward for the other shoe to drop next Tuesday.
>
> > BTW, if you blast through all the lower level new quests, you get to
> > half-way through honored with Gilias without breaking a sweat.
>
> > Best, R.E.F.

Hit the send button too soon, I had meant to end this pointing out
that there's been very few changes in those new zones if any at all.
I think the only planned change was to remove the Wraith Gate quest
line, but so far any alts that have quests from those 2 areas still
have them.

Catriona R

12/1/2010 8:40:00 AM

On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
<raymond@bittersea.com> wrote:

>Where to start?
>
>First, the artwork. Even in the old areas there's an attention to
>detail that I find wonderful. Old areas look fresh because they're
>using better graphics.

Totally agree, haven't explored everywhere but even just the new water
effects have freshened up a lot of the zones. Silverpine is amazing -
I always hated the looks of that place, dull and lifeless (made sense
with undead I guess), now it's still dark and menacing but the colours
are much richer, they've imported some trees from Howling Fjord, tons
for Forsaken architecture from Northrend... it's a new zone lookswise
and really looks good to me!

>Second, is it me, or are some areas bigger than before? In some places,
>like Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood, there just seems to be a little
>more room, slightly longer rides from place to place? Maybe it's my
>memory playing tricks.

It has felt like that at times, yes, might only be memeory tricks
though!

>The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
>towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
>quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
>etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
>discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
>speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
>before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.

Yep, I'm loving all the new quests, even zones with a lot of old
quests managed to make them less tedious/more interesting in various
ways.

>And I was delighted to find out Blizzard is smarter than I am. I was at
>Bloodmyst with 59 of 65 quests to go, grinding my teeth because I could
>only identify one I'd missed. I did that one and pop I get credit for
>all sixty five, because there are five quest that are race specific that
>only Dranai can get.
>
>So far I'm having a hell of a good time and the game feels very fresh to
>me. I'm only doing lower level stuff right now because I haven't run up
>a new character for a while, so I haven't checked out any changes in
>Northrend or Outlands.

I don't believe those have changed much, other than removing tricky
chains, mainly ones involving you going back to Azeroth. Wrathgate is
gone (try phasing the old Orgrimmar on top of the new one... headache
alert), as is "tell Thrall we've found the Mag'Har" (kinda makes
sense, given when you go back to Org you'll find a Mag'Har already in
charge!, guessing bringing Thrall to Nagrand is also gone, though I
haven't heard one way or the other, seems logical anyway.
--
EU-Draenor:
Sagart (80 Undead Priest)
Balgair (80 Human Rogue)
Tairbh (80 Tauren Druid)
Buinne (80 Troll Shaman)
Ruire (80 Blood Elf Paladin)
Eilnich (75 Blood Elf Warlock)

steve.kaye

12/1/2010 8:57:00 AM

On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:39:38 +0000, Catriona R
<catrionarNOSPAM@totalise.co.uk> wrote:

>
>On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
><raymond@bittersea.com> wrote:

>>So far I'm having a hell of a good time and the game feels very fresh to
>>me. I'm only doing lower level stuff right now because I haven't run up
>>a new character for a while, so I haven't checked out any changes in
>>Northrend or Outlands.
>
>I don't believe those have changed much, other than removing tricky
>chains, mainly ones involving you going back to Azeroth. Wrathgate is
>gone (try phasing the old Orgrimmar on top of the new one... headache
>alert),

There's no need to phase it. They could just instance it. I've never
tried to leave the area whilst on the Wrathgate event so I don't know
what happens but they'd have to do something to stop it if they use
instancing.

steve.kaye
--
Ravenholdt-EU (Horde)
Clokk, 80 Druid Jengu, 80 Death Knight Belugar, 76 Warrior
Jelan, 80 Priest Miho, 80 Rogue Mingan, 73 Shaman
Kibbs, 80 Paladin Jaille, 80 Warlock Yopp, 64 Hunter

Urbin

12/1/2010 9:53:00 AM

On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:39:38 +0000, Catriona R wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
> <raymond@bittersea.com> wrote:
>
> >The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
> >towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
> >quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
> >etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
> >discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
> >speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
> >before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.
>
> Yep, I'm loving all the new quests, even zones with a lot of old
> quests managed to make them less tedious/more interesting in various
> ways.

I agree to all of those. One thing I noticed though, is that I hardly got
more than 4 or 5 quests active at the same time. I remember in older times
I'd go through a zone to collect as many quests as possible and would then
quest until all of these were finished before handing them in. I used to do
this to minimize travel.

Having run Loch Modan, Wetlands, Arathi, Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows and
Blasted lands now it seems that I'd get a breadcrumb quest taking me to a
quest hub, get one quest there to open it up and then I'd get roughly 3
quests from that hub, do these, get the next three. Only rarely would I have
gotten a few more from a nearby quest giver in parallel.

Of course, I'm trying to follow the quest and story lines, so that probably
accounts for some of that. But I think that even if I went to collect all
quests available from all quest hubs in the zone, I'd rarely get above 10 or
so that were available at the same time.

Am I just misremembering the old days or has this changed? Some prime
examples would be Duskwood or Stranglethorn where I'd often have close to
twenty quests in my log at the same time (admittedly zones I haven't yet
been to on my quest to quest).

Cheers
Urbin

--
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE) | Juran (65), Druid
Urbin (80), Hunter | Surana (70), Mage | Greeta (62), Rogue
Mymule (80), Warlock | Kordosch (75), Deathknight | Gera (26), Paladin
Sunh (80), Priest | Taalas (73), Shaman | Vargal ( 0), Warrior

BombayMix

12/1/2010 10:13:00 AM

On Dec 1, 9:53 am, Urbin <ur...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:39:38 +0000, Catriona R wrote:
> > On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
> > <raym...@bittersea.com> wrote:
>
> > >The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
> > >towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
> > >quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
> > >etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
> > >discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
> > >speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
> > >before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.
>
> > Yep, I'm loving all the new quests, even zones with a lot of old
> > quests managed to make them less tedious/more interesting in various
> > ways.
>
> I agree to all of those. One thing I noticed though, is that I hardly got
> more than 4 or 5 quests active at the same time. I remember in older times
> I'd go through a zone to collect as many quests as possible and would then
> quest until all of these were finished before handing them in. I used to do
> this to minimize travel.
>
> Having run Loch Modan, Wetlands, Arathi, Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows and
> Blasted lands now it seems that I'd get a breadcrumb quest taking me to a
> quest hub, get one quest there to open it up and then I'd get roughly 3
> quests from that hub, do these, get the next three. Only rarely would I have
> gotten a few more from a nearby quest giver in parallel.
>
> Of course, I'm trying to follow the quest and story lines, so that probably
> accounts for some of that. But I think that even if I went to collect all
> quests available from all quest hubs in the zone, I'd rarely get above 10 or
> so that were available at the same time.
>
> Am I just misremembering the old days or has this changed? Some prime
> examples would be Duskwood or Stranglethorn where I'd often have close to
> twenty quests in my log at the same time (admittedly zones I haven't yet
> been to on my quest to quest).

No quest seem story driven now. I was going the South Barrens and
there is defiantly a trail driving you south from one small quest hub
to another. Not sure where it going to end up.

I seem to be out leveling Desolace. I really wanted to see that place
now. Hmm I was only planning to make one new Cata alt, a troll druid,
but given how much changed looks like more are in order! Probably
another three >.<

Could blast through it on a 80 but it's not the same one-shotting
every thing.

BombayMix

12/1/2010 10:16:00 AM

On Dec 1, 8:39 am, Catriona R <catrionarNOS...@totalise.co.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
>
> <raym...@bittersea.com> wrote:
> >Where to start?
>
> >First, the artwork. Even in the old areas there's an attention to
> >detail that I find wonderful. Old areas look fresh because they're
> >using better graphics.
>
> Totally agree, haven't explored everywhere but even just the new water
> effects have freshened up a lot of the zones. Silverpine is amazing -
> I always hated the looks of that place, dull and lifeless (made sense
> with undead I guess), now it's still dark and menacing but the colours
> are much richer, they've imported some trees from Howling Fjord, tons
> for Forsaken architecture from Northrend... it's a new zone lookswise
> and really looks good to me!
>
> >Second, is it me, or are some areas bigger than before? In some places,
> >like Westfall, Redridge, and Duskwood, there just seems to be a little
> >more room, slightly longer rides from place to place? Maybe it's my
> >memory playing tricks.
>
> It has felt like that at times, yes, might only be memeory tricks
> though!

Probably not, since the world now fly-able. There are bound to be
terrain changes to make that possible. The old world had lots of fake
vistas.

Catriona R

12/1/2010 10:18:00 AM

On 1 Dec 2010 09:53:16 GMT, Urbin <urbin@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:39:38 +0000, Catriona R wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
>> <raymond@bittersea.com> wrote:
>>
>> >The "do-overs:" I thought I'd hate it when I looked at my progress
>> >towards Loremaster and realized by 32 lvl hunter had not gotten any
>> >quests for certain areas I had cleaned out before (Duskwood, Darkshore,
>> >etc.). So back I went and decided to track. I was delighted to
>> >discover there are very few holdovers on old quests, relatively
>> >speaking, and lots of quests are follow up stories to quests you've done
>> >before; check out the new quests in Westfall and Deadmines.
>>
>> Yep, I'm loving all the new quests, even zones with a lot of old
>> quests managed to make them less tedious/more interesting in various
>> ways.
>
>I agree to all of those. One thing I noticed though, is that I hardly got
>more than 4 or 5 quests active at the same time. I remember in older times
>I'd go through a zone to collect as many quests as possible and would then
>quest until all of these were finished before handing them in. I used to do
>this to minimize travel.
>
>Having run Loch Modan, Wetlands, Arathi, Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows and
>Blasted lands now it seems that I'd get a breadcrumb quest taking me to a
>quest hub, get one quest there to open it up and then I'd get roughly 3
>quests from that hub, do these, get the next three. Only rarely would I have
>gotten a few more from a nearby quest giver in parallel.
>
>Of course, I'm trying to follow the quest and story lines, so that probably
>accounts for some of that. But I think that even if I went to collect all
>quests available from all quest hubs in the zone, I'd rarely get above 10 or
>so that were available at the same time.
>
>Am I just misremembering the old days or has this changed? Some prime
>examples would be Duskwood or Stranglethorn where I'd often have close to
>twenty quests in my log at the same time (admittedly zones I haven't yet
>been to on my quest to quest).

It has indeed changed that way, a lot of zones follow a definite
storyline now, and it also has the nice effect of (combined with the
autoquest feature, which I LOVE), meaning you don't do a bunch of
quests, hand them all in and oh, a followup sends me to that camp at
the other side of the zone which I just did 2 other quests in. Well,
that still happens in Dustwallow if you're not paying attention, since
they didn't change that zone much... when I hit that on beta it was a
HUGE lesson to me in how much they've improved questing; Dustwallow
used to be one of the better low lvl zones!
--
EU-Draenor:
Sagart (80 Undead Priest)
Balgair (80 Human Rogue)
Tairbh (80 Tauren Druid)
Buinne (80 Troll Shaman)
Ruire (80 Blood Elf Paladin)
Eilnich (75 Blood Elf Warlock)

Catriona R

12/1/2010 10:20:00 AM

On Wed, 1 Dec 2010 02:13:14 -0800 (PST), BombayMix
<bombaymix@altavista.co.uk> wrote:

>No quest seem story driven now. I was going the South Barrens and
>there is defiantly a trail driving you south from one small quest hub
>to another. Not sure where it going to end up.
>
>I seem to be out leveling Desolace. I really wanted to see that place
>now. Hmm I was only planning to make one new Cata alt, a troll druid,
>but given how much changed looks like more are in order! Probably
>another three >.<
>
>Could blast through it on a 80 but it's not the same one-shotting
>every thing.

Hehe and that's exactly why I made so many new alts ;-) I knew it'd be
far more fun questing on appropriate lvl characters, and that I'd want
to see *everything* so... lots of alts was required. I'm trying to
just stick to 2 of them atm but can't pick one over the other so one
day I play the hunter in eastern kingdoms, the next I play the druid
in Kalimdor!
--
EU-Draenor:
Sagart (80 Undead Priest)
Balgair (80 Human Rogue)
Tairbh (80 Tauren Druid)
Buinne (80 Troll Shaman)
Ruire (80 Blood Elf Paladin)
Eilnich (75 Blood Elf Warlock)

S U N risr

12/1/2010 12:38:00 PM

Urbin wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:39:38 +0000, Catriona R wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:47:46 -0800, "Raymond E. Feist"
>> <raymond@bittersea.com> wrote:

> I agree to all of those. One thing I noticed though, is that I hardly got
> more than 4 or 5 quests active at the same time. I remember in older times
> I'd go through a zone to collect as many quests as possible and would then
> quest until all of these were finished before handing them in. I used to do
> this to minimize travel.
>
>
> Cheers
> Urbin
>

Which is why they put out so many flight points now, as well as that
little feature (not sure what it's called) - the one where as you
complete a portion of a chain quest a little squawk box pops up under
your minimap area and lets you complete the quest and pick up the next
part. I first felt it was cheesy, but now realize it's not on all
quests, just certain ones that more or less would have had you complete
a collection quest, travel halfway across a zone turn it in, to find a
follow up exclamation quest just popped up and you have to go all the
back where you just were.

So while you can't gather all the quests like you were doing, they spoon
feed you the quests in dribs and drabs, but with that feature and the
additional flight points to support it, it seems to work decently.

I'm questing now in the Eastern Plaguelands, after taking the mages
quest in booty bay (when I completed all down there) you get ported to
the Western Plaguelands in Anderhol (sp?)...Strange to hear the dialoge
talking about "after the defeat of the Lich King..." while my main
raider is working on him tonight...Gee, if he's already dead, why bother
showing up for ICC tonight? lol

alt.games.warcraft

A week to go impressions . . .

Raymond E. Feist

Nemesis Prime

Nemesis Prime

Catriona R

steve.kaye

Urbin

BombayMix

BombayMix

Catriona R

Catriona R

S U N risr

x Login to ForumsZone