Wow head had the opportunity to chat with Ion Hazzikostas last Tuesday around various topics: Hellfire Citadel, Garrison, Shipyard, Costumes for Pepe, Bug Fixes, Tanaan Jungle and Toys! Here is a summary, taken from the transcription proposed by Wow head.
- regardless of the new systems put in place, to compare 2 devices, the iLvl remains the main guide to follow.
- Hellfire Citadel on Heroic difficulty is intended for players with 690-705 gear. It is therefore difficult for the players in 685-690 but they have already made adjustments.
- it is not possible to change the personal loot mode of Citadel Trash. For organized groups, it is still possible to trade (or resell) items as they are linked when equipped.
- Gorefiend is his favorite encounter.
- the professions were very focused on the garrison as they wanted this garrison to be the focus of our experience in Draenor. It worked well but it negatively impacted the interdependence between artisans and harvesters. The current balance is going in the right direction and the course of Sylvechancre is good.
- jewelry has benefited from a major overhaul in 6.2, it's an experiment and they don't necessarily want to follow this same model for other professions.
- enchantment didn't get a lot of attention for this update. They have ideas but it was not possible for 6.2.
- the fiefdom is always where people log off (and therefore start their sessions).
- content and rewards invite players to explore the world.
- missions giving gold are less likely to appear if a character in the account has already obtained such a mission. The goal is to reduce the need for multiple fiefdoms as well as the amount of gold generated through fiefdoms so as not to unbalance the economy.
- the sorting center was too rewarding, hence the current lower efficiency.
- It is normal for Mages Tower missions to end shipyard missions.
- they placed the NPCs in the shipyard where there was room, this may not be optimal but it is also not expected to have to visit the shipyard very often after the main ones ships built.
- there are no plans to make the progress of the shipyard easier for the alternate characters.
- Pepe is top-secret, no communication on future costumes!
- they keep improving character models and it's not over yet.
- the T18 is based on the same model and different colors unlike the T17 due to production times. They didn't have as much time as for the T17.
- they're working on a transmog system like Diablo's. It will not be a simple system. More details will be given shortly.
- the Tanaan jungle benefited from the feedback and experience gained from Timeless Island: more content, more story, less sandbox. The content is more structured but they have retained the system of rarities, items and coins.
- toys are objects which must not be utilities or modify the player's power (speed, slowdown, flight, etc.).
- the next transmog system should free up space in bags as well as quest items that are no longer stored. But if 118 places are not enough on a daily basis, adding bags will not solve the problem. They do not plan to change the basic bag, nor to add bag locations.
- extending the number of quests does not seem very reasonable, players will no longer know where they are.
- the content initially created was designed on a principle of freedom, which did not go with the principle of daily quests and reputation. But the rewards weren't up to par so they added in the reputations which unfortunately ended up having to be mounted in the same place. They are not very proud of the result. The Pandaria quests might have been boring, but there was a good thing about the story side.
- there is a big bug which permanently deletes the equipment in the mailbox. This is their main priority right now, they don't want it to become a problem for the players, just a temporary inconvenience.
- the phase issue in the Tanaan jungle will be fixed soon. Now that the launch is over, people will be more distributed and they will be able to reduce the number of servers required, or even eliminate the servers altogether.
- it is necessary to go to the entrance of the dungeons in mythical difficulty. This encourages social cohesion, in particular making a potential replacement difficult. A fix will triple the chances of having the "war" team (705).
- the mini-patch to add the flight will arrive in a few weeks. It will soon be in test on the test server but there is still a little to do before.
