Conquest of the Horde

Meet and Greet summary
Saturday, 14 August 2010


Prestige System

• As has been noted frequently on the forums, the prestige system is still undergoing review. There is no set date on when the staff will complete their assessment and when it will be open to applicants again.
  
  Under the proposed system, classes will be split between three categories with various difficulties of acquisition. Categories are assigned based on how powerful the prestige class is. The extremely powerful classes will most likely be obtained in a process very similar to our current system; others will be far easier to obtain.
  
  Players will be able to obtain titles on more than one character, but there will be limits. Variant classes will be available and there will be rules governing their acquisition and use.
  
  There was some discussion regarding unique features that may be accessible to players who complete their prestige title training. The staff will be accommodating for certain prestige classes, but will not determine what those are until the new prestige system is in place. Kretol expressed no qualms with teaching unique spells to those who achieve the higher category of prestige training, but he must first determine which spells can be used without being abused. Classes will not be able to equip armor that they cannot currently utilize (ie, rogues who become gladiators will not be granted the ability to suddenly wear plate).
  
  An announcement will be made on the staff concludes their assessment!

Silver Tokens

• The staff is watching to determine if tokens are needed, but it does not appear so -- thanks in large part to the success of the .addrpitem command. The general opinion between Kretol and Grakor is that they are happy that tokens are gone.
  
  Prior to the restart there was mention of utilizing other special tokens, such as Copper Tokens. These were replaced by the .addrpitem command. It is not likely that other kinds of tokens will exist.
  
  Concerning special items with use effects that may be beneficial for roleplay, the vast majority should be available in-game through conventional means. Others may periodically appear on the Auction House, so keep an eye open! For those others, players are S.O.L. The staff may consider giving them out on a per-case basis.
  
  A number of race-affiliated special mounts have already been added to the proper vendors; the Alliance mounts have yet to have been done. Once that is completed, Kretol will find a home for the vendor selling the other special, non-racial mounts.

Gold Obtained from Mobs

• A question was brought up regarding the absence of gold on undead in Northrend. Under the old emulator, gold was based on the health of the mob. On TrinityCore anything lacking a specific amount of gold as defined by the monster tables drops nothing. Kretol believes that is probably due to an attempt to avoid exploitation, but also explained that it may be due to the original coders just never adding it in.
  
  Hopefully this will be fixed in the future. However, quests are a very viable -- and encouraged -- alternative when attempting to obtain gold.

Portals to GM Island at Starting Locations

• The staff feels that it is generally east to get to capital cities. Kretol is also adamant that portals should not be placed in starting places. He wants to discourage over-laxness. Death knight cannot have portals in their starting area due to the requirement to complete the quest chain.

Custom Prestige Applications

• The staff has in the past accepted custom prestige applications, but this has been very rare. The application has to be fairly flawless in term of the Warcraft universe in order to go through.

Character Development and Restrictions

• It was mentioned prior to the restart that there may be gradual lessening of restrictions on character development. The staff has not discussed this particular topic in detail.
  
  Grakor believes that we have been moving towards allowing player characters to become more important. The changes being implemented to the prestige system indirectly relates to this by allowing them to become more accessible to players. However, the staff insists that they will still keep things realistic in terms of things like denying character profiles that claim to know lore characters because they have a tendency to lead to a big mess.
  
  It was also mentioned that characters are allowed to be heroic depending on the roleplay with which they end up and the events in which they participate.

Druids, druids, druids

• A question came up about the lore regarding aquatic form. Grakor's policy has always been that if a character can learn the spell in-game it can be used while in-character. The player may want to have a good reason explaining why his character possesses or knows how to use these abilities, but they are allowed. Players are encouraged to know when to use them because they should not be tossing around high-power abilities at whim.
  
  Totemic druids are allowed.

Profile Similarities?

• A member expressed a concern about having multiple profiles with similar events in their histories. This is fine unless the profiles are near-copies of one another. The staff will only be concerned if the characters seem identical or if a character is made to "replace" another.

Custom IDs and Playing Other Races

• This is still a work in progress. It is on the backburner right now due to the drive to get prestige classes available again. Kretol's decision is to let individuals get different models, but to not hand them out to the public just yet. The system does work, but the staff does not yet know how it will be done or when.
  
  Not every model or skin would be available to players. There are some morphs that exist for the basic races, but many others have preset armor with no equippable version. Skins for the current races will take a second seat to getting other new races out. The staff will return to it if and when other race skins are available to players.

Roleplay on the New Server

• A player expressed concern regarding how he feels that players are focusing less on roleplay in favor of the new features available through the switch to TrinityCore. That staff want "retail-like" options to be available, but most of the important features are available to players very easily in order to facilitate roleplay. They do not want to force people to play the game if they don't want to, but they also do not want people to be lazy by placing everything on the GMs.

Obtaining Protodrakes and Dragons

• The staff does not plan on allowing players to acquire protodrakes or dragons with proper stories and so on. They are considered exceedingly powerful, particularly for something like a mount.

IC Currency System

• The staff does not plan on bringing back an IC currency system. They consider it to be, in practice, a failed system. Only a small handful of people actually used it; it didn't work and the other idea that was originally considered was not feasible. Furthermore, will the higher value of gold currently, this may not be necessary.
  
  The staff clarified that there are no rules governing the use of game currency in-character.

Totem Vendor for Shaman

• Shamans will need to do their quests in order to obtain their totems. The vendor was provided on the old emulator only because the quests did not work. The staff will not be adding a totem vendor or class skill trainer to the server. The quests work; player will have to do them.

Plate and Mail Being Available to Low-Level Characters

• The staff may discuss allowing players to gain the ability to wear plate and mail earlier. The general consensus was that getting to level 20 is fairly easy, especially given the fast leveling speed. However, Kretol may consider dropping the level requirement down even further, since the experience gains from quests was dropped the match the rate of kill experience.

Scarlet Crusade Events and Roleplay

• The original Scarlet Crusade roleplay was handled by Cressy and Seraphim. They have expressed an interest in returning to this idea, but there are issues with accessing the cathedral in TrinityCore.

Remove or Improve Reputation Requirements

• More marks will be placed on the inconspicuous panda in the future for upgraded armor that would normally only be accessible by raiding. Kretol is considering reputation gain spells on items if they exist. Otherwise, he may remove the requirements altogether for those items and patterns that cannot be gained by other means.

ANSKI INTERJECTION: Azshara Crater

• Anksi has made a heartfelt plea asking players to use Azshara Crater. A lot of effort was placed into creating the zone. It is a neutral area that is accessible to the entire community. Also, Kretol has announced that a zeppelin will be running from Orgrimmar to Azshara in the future, providing in-character explanation for how Horde characters can reach the area with ease.

Rerolling Characters When New Classes are Available to Races in Cataclysm

• The staff would like this to be possible. They will discuss this and the possibility of allowing race changes from human to Forsaken or human to worgen as the release date to Cataclysm draws closer.

Roleplaying the Destruction and Chaos Occurring before Cataclysm

• It is not feasible how possible this will be; it is too soon to tell. This will depend on what information is available before the core updates to Cataclysm and what the staff can do with it.

Access to Weapons Not Allowed in Retail

• Kretol will see about changing the IDs on a number of items so that they can be added with the .addrpitem command. He may instead just place them on a vendor.
  
  He has no intention, however, of allowing players to use weapons prohibited by their classes. This was a bug in the previous core that wasn't well-liked. Furthermore, the ability to learn any weapon skill regardless of class led to ridiculous arguments in the past.

Difficulties Roleplaying in Zones as a Low-Leveled Character

• The staff will not be making mobs neutral. Grakor explained that being able to go into higher-leveled zones for roleplay is part of the perks available to players when they level their characters. Furthermore, most of these mobs would be hostile to players -- in-character, at least. This is considered a deterrent to people who may want to roleplay in places where they should not.

HAWK INTERJECTION: Players' Responses to GM Requests

• Hawk expressed a concern that the staff has noted an increase in rude or sarcastic responses from players, particularly in response to GM requests. It is important to keep in mind that not all people are as well informed as others and that responses do not requirement arguments or attitude.

Kretol, Kil'jaeden, and Sargeras

• A player asked if Kretol sits on Kil'jaeden's throne, brooding over how awesome Sargeras was. It was revealed that, no, they instead brood over how awesome he is.

Handling Insensitive People

• If players are engaged in a conversation which another player considers to be insensitive, he should kindly ask them to stop. If they do not comply, they should be reported to a staff member. Be certain to take screenshots. The staff reiterated that there are some topics that exists with which they have no tolerance. They also have reminded the community that failure to report these kinds of infractions potentially encourages more people to do the same.

Guilds Being Too Self-Absorbed

• A player made a self-proclaimed rants regarding how he feels that too many guilds on the server are focused on their own goals rather than taking the opportunity to roleplay outside of their ranks. It was noted that inter-guild conflict has typically led to drama in the past, which is why many guilds may be focused on their own drives. Furthermore, players may be concerned with losing their characters during these kinds of conflicts. It was noted, however, that many guilds encourage roleplay with those not in their roster.
  
  A suggestion was made regarding an out-of-character meeting in which representatives of all of the guilds could discuss becoming more involved with one another.

Character Warnings

• It was noted that the character warning system cannot be replaced or modified to be flawless. The rule is that if a character does something monumentally stupid, the player automatically accepts a character warning. The staff reiterates, however, that warnings should be issues before the conflict actually occurs and not immediately before the punishment is applied. Players should also consider being less hostile to one another (out-of-character, of course!) as a compromise can always be made, whether it be giving another player's character a chance to escape or something similar.

C is for Cookie

• Rigley loves Oreos!

Players Roleplaying as Guards

• Players should not ever roleplay as guards in response to other players' actions. The underlying problem, however, is not that players cannot play guards but that people are essentially being idiots in-character. Grakor has expressed that he is close to responding to these sorts of things by immediately and in-characterly killing the perpetrators. People cannot start fights in town and expect to suffer no repercussions -- or even live!
  
  The guards will not tolerate it. If there is an issue, players are strongly encouraged to PM a staff member.

Thanks so much for this Piroska, I had to leave literally two or three minutes before the Meet and Greet started, so it's nice to see what went down.

Very nice summary for the people who did not attend, I didn't realize Azshara Crater had been made accessible again.

Unfortunately, since I has work today, I was unable to attend based on the risk that I'd wake up too late and my boss would yell at me.

That said, it's good to know things went down okay! Looking forward to the new Prestige system, as I've admittedly been bugging Dilly about it for weeks with /pinches and /pokes. Hoorah!

Many thanks for this, Piroska. Glad to finally have that Sargeras and Kil'jaeden thing off my mind. Now I can focus on more important things, like figuring out how many Volkswagons Kretol eats for breakfast every day.

I just wanted to make a note, in regards to Scarlet RP: I would definitely like to start things up again, and give the Crusade an appropriate end before Cataclysm. However, as Pir said, there are issues with getting into the Monastery within this core. Suffice it to say, if there is another Scarlet event-chain, it won't take place in there.

If it is to happen, you guys will know much further in advance this time.

... That is all!

Thanks for putting this up, sucks I couldn't make it to the event.

Anyway, is the staff thinking about removing faction restrictions from gear?

Thanks a lot for putting this up. I literally forgot this was going on yesterday, and I'm quite angry at myself for not going. Fortunately though, none of these changes really affect me, being such a green player.

A good read, interesting things. I admittedly did not see much need for me to go there, for some reason it didn't spark any interest at all. But reading this, will probably make sure I'm there next time as it holds plenty of interesting info.

Quote:C is for Cookie

Couldn't resist.

I couldn't attend, so it's good to know what's happening.

On the guard subject though, when someone was being tortured IC in booty bay I was berated by not only the RPers involved for calling a guard, but by the GM who came to play the guard. I wouldn't have minded if the guard was angry for being called, but saying that we should be lucky to live at all when hardly any consequences ever get dished out (because the person in question did just get to leave) you shouldn't expect people to not do RP that often grabs attention of guards.