Azel
24/02/2011, 01:11
Brazilan and Japanese locale added in 4.0.6 - Blizzard Slate confirmed?
Digging through the 4.0.6 files yields interesting results, it seems that two localizations have been added to the game: ptBR and jaJP.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/locales.jpg (http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/locales.jpg)
These locales are respectively the Portuguese-Brazil and the Japanese-Japan ones, they're actually used in other Blizzard games and I guess you can check SC2Mapster - Galaxy Editor (http://wiki.sc2mapster.com/galaxy/console/) if you need a confirmation of some sort.
Now you're probably going to ask me why you should care about that (unless you're Brazilian) and the answer is very simple! Remember the leaked Blizzard Product Slate (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2095-Blizzard-Product-Slate-Forum-Titles-Blizzcast-15-Blue-Posts) from a few months back? WoW Brazil was actually there, and the timing is near perfect.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/slate2.jpg (http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/slate2.jpg)
Things are starting to make sense and it might be safe to assume that Blizzard is still on schedule for the WoW changes, if everything works as planned we probably won't have to wait too much time before the next expansion is released and I guess the current plan is as follow:
Patch 4.1 - Firelands Raid + Abyssal Maw Dungeon (Blizzcon Preview (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2034-Blizzcon-2010-Raids-Dungeons-Panel-Press-Trailer))
Patch 4.2 - ??? (Caverns of Time: War of the Ancients (http://www.wowpedia.org/War_of_the_Ancients_%28instance%29)?)
Patch 4.3 - Deathwing Raid and death
Hopefully Patch 4.1 will hit the test realms very soon and I'll have plenty of stuff to report.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Class balance based on PTR Testing
The PTR does not exist solely for balance feedback. They provide crash reports, bug reports, having the patches simply live on a test environment with people actively playing helps us catch a great number of issues that no one would even need post about. Beyond that though the bug reports that are posted are extremely helpful, and overall the PTRs lead without a doubt to a more stable patch than it would have been were there no public test.
In direct answer to what you're referring, unless there's new content, the number of people on the PTR is really pretty low. Too low to pull reliable metrics to base balance changes on. Unless there's new content to drive people to the PTR there generally just isn't a sample size. Which is fine, because we can make changes after the PTR once the patch hits the live realms. Issuing hotfixes after a patch is by no means something new. We've used hotfixes for quite a long time, but since Cataclysm and the new community site, hotfix changes are front page news through the blogs. Which is awesome. Before we were throwing out pretty much the same amount of hotfixes we were after 4.0.6. Difference being we didn't have a great way to tell anyone about them. So now hotfixes are very visible and it makes it seem like we're going crazy with them, when really it's just increased transparency into the changes we're making.
Going back to your question, the PTR does many great things for the patches, and it should be expected that we're not going to make balance changes based on forum posts alone. The designers don't believe their own play experience is reason enough to make balance changes, although it can be one part of the puzzle, and the same goes for us reading about yours. (Source (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/159385/these-hotfixes-are-a-no-no))
The MMO Report
A monday without the MMO Report (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/tag/3321/The-MMO-Report.html) isn't a good monday!
Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #276 (http://www.darklegacycomics.com/276.html) and Teh Gladiators #212 (http://www.tehgladiators.com/?p=212) are out!
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/dl276.jpg (http://www.darklegacycomics.com/276.html) http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/tehglad212.jpg (http://www.tehgladiators.com/?p=212)
Fonte (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/855525-WoW-Brazil-Blizzard-Slate-Blue-Posts-MMO-Report-Comics?goto=newpost)
Digging through the 4.0.6 files yields interesting results, it seems that two localizations have been added to the game: ptBR and jaJP.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/locales.jpg (http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/locales.jpg)
These locales are respectively the Portuguese-Brazil and the Japanese-Japan ones, they're actually used in other Blizzard games and I guess you can check SC2Mapster - Galaxy Editor (http://wiki.sc2mapster.com/galaxy/console/) if you need a confirmation of some sort.
Now you're probably going to ask me why you should care about that (unless you're Brazilian) and the answer is very simple! Remember the leaked Blizzard Product Slate (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2095-Blizzard-Product-Slate-Forum-Titles-Blizzcast-15-Blue-Posts) from a few months back? WoW Brazil was actually there, and the timing is near perfect.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/slate2.jpg (http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/slate2.jpg)
Things are starting to make sense and it might be safe to assume that Blizzard is still on schedule for the WoW changes, if everything works as planned we probably won't have to wait too much time before the next expansion is released and I guess the current plan is as follow:
Patch 4.1 - Firelands Raid + Abyssal Maw Dungeon (Blizzcon Preview (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2034-Blizzcon-2010-Raids-Dungeons-Panel-Press-Trailer))
Patch 4.2 - ??? (Caverns of Time: War of the Ancients (http://www.wowpedia.org/War_of_the_Ancients_%28instance%29)?)
Patch 4.3 - Deathwing Raid and death
Hopefully Patch 4.1 will hit the test realms very soon and I'll have plenty of stuff to report.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Class balance based on PTR Testing
The PTR does not exist solely for balance feedback. They provide crash reports, bug reports, having the patches simply live on a test environment with people actively playing helps us catch a great number of issues that no one would even need post about. Beyond that though the bug reports that are posted are extremely helpful, and overall the PTRs lead without a doubt to a more stable patch than it would have been were there no public test.
In direct answer to what you're referring, unless there's new content, the number of people on the PTR is really pretty low. Too low to pull reliable metrics to base balance changes on. Unless there's new content to drive people to the PTR there generally just isn't a sample size. Which is fine, because we can make changes after the PTR once the patch hits the live realms. Issuing hotfixes after a patch is by no means something new. We've used hotfixes for quite a long time, but since Cataclysm and the new community site, hotfix changes are front page news through the blogs. Which is awesome. Before we were throwing out pretty much the same amount of hotfixes we were after 4.0.6. Difference being we didn't have a great way to tell anyone about them. So now hotfixes are very visible and it makes it seem like we're going crazy with them, when really it's just increased transparency into the changes we're making.
Going back to your question, the PTR does many great things for the patches, and it should be expected that we're not going to make balance changes based on forum posts alone. The designers don't believe their own play experience is reason enough to make balance changes, although it can be one part of the puzzle, and the same goes for us reading about yours. (Source (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/159385/these-hotfixes-are-a-no-no))
The MMO Report
A monday without the MMO Report (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/tag/3321/The-MMO-Report.html) isn't a good monday!
Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #276 (http://www.darklegacycomics.com/276.html) and Teh Gladiators #212 (http://www.tehgladiators.com/?p=212) are out!
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/dl276.jpg (http://www.darklegacycomics.com/276.html) http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2011/february/tehglad212.jpg (http://www.tehgladiators.com/?p=212)
Fonte (http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/855525-WoW-Brazil-Blizzard-Slate-Blue-Posts-MMO-Report-Comics?goto=newpost)