On Game Design, Blizzard and MC
Oct. 22nd, 2008 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddogBeing the media geek I am, I tend to look at things in an odd way. Yesterday evening, I had the chance to run most of Molten Core on World of Warcraft, to the point that we could run it. This was mostly done as a curiousity - Molten Core was the first attempt at designing a massive raid. It was originally tuned for 40 people. To compare, the new raids coming out soon are going to have two versions, one for 10 players and another for 25 players. The scale is much different.
Plotwise, there's not much of a storyline to discuss. It boils down to "Some dwarfs accidently-on-purpose summoned an elemental and now you get to raid his clubhouse!" The less said about this, the better.
The design is much more interesting to look at.
For one, it's pretty cheap. My first time raiding was in Karazhan, which is a highly detailed tower that you fight your way up, interacting with monsters and NPCs along the way. There's a strong attempt both include new characters and ones from earlier canon. There's even an non-combat event where you can play a game of chess. Dozens of rooms aren't even used for gameplay and you can explore and discover oddities.
Molten Core, on the other hand, is a big hole in the ground. It's a cave system that, while unique in layout, doesn't really offer anything. There's rocks, some more rocks.... a lava pit, but the rocks were kinda red anyway.
Likewise, the monsters are seriously ALL the same models used over and over again. You're either fighting a core hound, a fire elemental, a lava elemental, a giant or a flamewaker. Even the bosses pull from the same models. It's a bit dangerous, because sometimes you'll pull a boss and not realize thats' what it is! We did that with Lucifron and Baron.
The placement of the bosses is dumb too. There's no build up or "rooms". They're tucked away in corners. The only thing that's notable is the names, some of which have obscure references.
With how unbalanced the game is at the moment, the bosses are cake. Their quirks aren't very noticable for the most part.
Lucifron - Lucifron's Curse is annoying, but we pulled him with a pack of core hounds. Even without mana, it wasn't THAT hard.
Magmadar - The fear is annoying, but doesn't do damage. Otherwise, he's now a tank-and-spank.
Gehennas - I don't remember. I think we AoEed (Area of Effect spells) him down.
Garr - The debuffs aren't really an issue. AoEed down.
Baron Geddon - Living Bomb is still a problem. It CAN be healed through - we only lost 5 players and bombs weren't running away.
Shazzrah - Nothing notable. All I remember is "He's a mage!" "He's going down anyway!"
Sulfuron Harbinger - He and the guards can be AoEed easily. Not an issue.
Golemagg - We attempted to kill the core hounds first, but then discovered that they healed themselves. They're not trouble to deal with.
Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros - We didn't have the water, so no-go on them.
Molten Core doesn't hold up well, even in the context of the pre-TBC raids. I haven't seen the Ahn'Qiraj raids (as a friend put it, it's "STARSHIP TROOPERS! WITH SWORDS!"), but Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub and Naxxramas overshadow it. In the context of the TBC raids, Molten Core reminds me too much of Gruul's Lair, which I hated. But, yeah, the "Hallowed Core" is now nothing more than a chance to burn down monsters as fast as possible.
Plotwise, there's not much of a storyline to discuss. It boils down to "Some dwarfs accidently-on-purpose summoned an elemental and now you get to raid his clubhouse!" The less said about this, the better.
The design is much more interesting to look at.
For one, it's pretty cheap. My first time raiding was in Karazhan, which is a highly detailed tower that you fight your way up, interacting with monsters and NPCs along the way. There's a strong attempt both include new characters and ones from earlier canon. There's even an non-combat event where you can play a game of chess. Dozens of rooms aren't even used for gameplay and you can explore and discover oddities.
Molten Core, on the other hand, is a big hole in the ground. It's a cave system that, while unique in layout, doesn't really offer anything. There's rocks, some more rocks.... a lava pit, but the rocks were kinda red anyway.
Likewise, the monsters are seriously ALL the same models used over and over again. You're either fighting a core hound, a fire elemental, a lava elemental, a giant or a flamewaker. Even the bosses pull from the same models. It's a bit dangerous, because sometimes you'll pull a boss and not realize thats' what it is! We did that with Lucifron and Baron.
The placement of the bosses is dumb too. There's no build up or "rooms". They're tucked away in corners. The only thing that's notable is the names, some of which have obscure references.
With how unbalanced the game is at the moment, the bosses are cake. Their quirks aren't very noticable for the most part.
Lucifron - Lucifron's Curse is annoying, but we pulled him with a pack of core hounds. Even without mana, it wasn't THAT hard.
Magmadar - The fear is annoying, but doesn't do damage. Otherwise, he's now a tank-and-spank.
Gehennas - I don't remember. I think we AoEed (Area of Effect spells) him down.
Garr - The debuffs aren't really an issue. AoEed down.
Baron Geddon - Living Bomb is still a problem. It CAN be healed through - we only lost 5 players and bombs weren't running away.
Shazzrah - Nothing notable. All I remember is "He's a mage!" "He's going down anyway!"
Sulfuron Harbinger - He and the guards can be AoEed easily. Not an issue.
Golemagg - We attempted to kill the core hounds first, but then discovered that they healed themselves. They're not trouble to deal with.
Majordomo Executus and Ragnaros - We didn't have the water, so no-go on them.
Molten Core doesn't hold up well, even in the context of the pre-TBC raids. I haven't seen the Ahn'Qiraj raids (as a friend put it, it's "STARSHIP TROOPERS! WITH SWORDS!"), but Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub and Naxxramas overshadow it. In the context of the TBC raids, Molten Core reminds me too much of Gruul's Lair, which I hated. But, yeah, the "Hallowed Core" is now nothing more than a chance to burn down monsters as fast as possible.
