Friday, August 7, 2009

From the head Developer's desk.

What I'm about to post has been smuggled out of Blizzard headquarters. Many Bothans died to bring us this information. It's in regards to the 10 man raid instance that's to bridge the gap between the Argent Coliseum and Icecrown.

And yes, it's a troll raid.

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Dear Dev Team:

It's time to make an executive decision on the direction that our raid for path 3.3 will be. We already know that patch 3.1 will be Ulduar, 3.2 will be the Coliseum, and Icecrown won't be ready for another few months after that. We will need something in between 3.2 and Icecrown to hold the players over. Something quick to whip up and without any real substance.

I think it's time for another troll raid. We already have all the textures; we'll simply recycle them from the other troll raids we've abused over the years. We'll put it where Gun'drak is, but call it something confusing. Like 'Zul'Gun', or 'Gun'Gurub'. Part of the time sink will be the players simply wondering which damned instance they're supposed to be heading towards. Genious!

Next we need a theme. The players are tired of the 'One badass boss siphoning the aspects of blah blah blah' shit that we've done in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman. Let's make it a little bit more low key... like, a Village or something. Maybe the Trolls are simply trying to rebuild their ancestral home and have a nice place to live. Let's go with that for a moment.

For bosses, we can have various worker types. For instance, 'Constable Troll' will be the head of security. You have to defeat him first so the rest of the trolls aren't alerted to your presence right away. Maybe this stops the patrols from ganking the raid while they try to make delicate pulls. 'Constable Troll' has a nightstick that he saps random raid members with.

Next, we can have 'Construction Troll'. He's over in the unfinished wing of the instance, where the trolls are trying to put up new walls or something. 'Construction Troll' can be a ranged fight, where he stands atop a brick wall and hurls materials down upon the raid. Melee have to beat their heads against a wall to bring him down. For shits and giggles, let's give the wall spikey bits to represent a damage reflection so that they kill themselves attacking it.

We can flesh out the other bosses later. I'm thinking ideas out loud now, something like 'Old Western Troll', 'Rides Around on a Motorcycle Troll', 'Casino Operator Troll', and 'Army General Troll.'

The final boss can be Mayor Troll. He needs to have a bullshit, goofy mechanic to piss off the raiders. I know! We'll divide his platform into four coloured areas. Well use similar colours, like... Yellow, Mauve, Crimson, and
Auburn. Four players will need to be dedicated to standing in a particular colour, and do some stupid emote when the boss enrages. Like, /dance. That'd be good. And they have to dance in a particular order!

Then, we'll have each dance do something special. Like, the person standing in the Yellow part will throw his arms up in the air. Auburn will make himself into a form of pyramid. Things like that.

So, that's where we're headed. Any questions?

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