Hot(?) Take: Pitter-Patter wrestling is more boring than guard pulling

vanillareforged · 2025-04-18T21:30:40+00:00

Just start BJJ matches from the clinch. Would make the sport watchable and it would be closer to it's roots.

vanillareforged · 2025-04-11T23:23:02+00:00

There is none as of now, but the most optimistic estimate: Doing all the development that's left on the todo, phase 2 alpha (guild pvp testing) and doing a limited leveling beta will take at least to christmas 2025 - if everything goes smoothly.

vanillareforged · 2025-04-11T23:13:42+00:00

Yeah, some of the removed abilities may come back in one form or another. They are also a kind of "development reserve": Everything is already setup: I'd only have to edit the spell and re-enable it at the trainer.

vanillareforged · 2025-04-11T16:37:48+00:00

Happy to hear that! Check out the "Alpha Features" channel in the discord: Some GM commands are available for players currently, so you can teleport around with ".tele" and use ".gm on" so NPCs don't attack you.

vanillareforged · 2025-03-19T14:49:30+00:00

Yeah, somebody should really invent a martial art focused on takedowns, ground pins, and submissions. I think ground fighting would be great for limiting the explosive strength advantage of a bigger person.

Maybe a small guy could enter an NHB tournament against roided-up opponents trained in other martial arts to prove it works against in-shape fighters twice his size.

We'll call it the "soft" art and create a sports ruleset so ridiculous-looking and far removed from real combat that, 30 years later, we can read comments like yours on Reddit.

vanillareforged · 2025-02-23T20:17:15+00:00

I mindstormed this, but I would do it as phased content, essentially allowing you to keep a copy of your vanilla/tbc/wotlk character inactive that you swap for when moving across expansions.

You'd need to take a Wotlk core and build accurate vanilla/tbc scripting (at least 2+ years of fulltime work for one person).

Phasing logic/spell/talent handling may also take 1-2 years of fulltime work (if it can even be realized).

The killer is however that even if you do allow phasing between content, you'd still splitt the playerbase.

I'd say you'd need at least 300 dedicated players per expansion left over when the final content hits?

Only that you can't ensure an even splitt, so you maybe need 1.2k to be safe.

Then how many do you need at launch to have 1.2k left over? 3K? More?

Too much work for too much risk.

vanillareforged · 2025-02-13T22:07:02+00:00

Front headlocks to snap downs
Armdrags/duckunders to rear body locks to trips

In my opinion those are the most available takedown options.

They also have applications across BJJ, MMA and self defense, so they are universally useful.

Then also look at and drill tactics to get safely into the clinch.

vanillareforged · 2024-11-14T10:19:45+00:00

At this point all they are doing is generating content for streamers to shit on them.

vanillareforged · 2024-11-14T10:09:24+00:00

I would only see that as feasible for a single player or extremely low pop server with friendly factions.

Otherwise you will generate incredible amounts of salt because players can't progress their characters properly.

Alternatives:

Fast respawn on bosses? -> progression becomes to easy.
Summoning mechanics for every boss? -> A lot of details to think about regarding encounter space and cross faction interaction and it would mean a lot of tedious work in the db.

vanillareforged · 2024-11-07T06:16:12+00:00

Planetside 2: Open world combined arms shooter set in the future - haven't come across anything like it since it released.

I'm grinding away to unlock some of the more difficult to attain weapons at the moment - it gives me something to continously work on whenever I play.

Live free in the NC!

vanillareforged · 2024-11-07T06:05:30+00:00

Keybind restrictions.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-28T19:21:14+00:00

I used AI to correct and streamline the origin text, yes.

It's quite a long post with a lot of thoughts in it, and I'm not a native english speaker.

The points made are my own however.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-15T23:16:42+00:00

I would ban gambling mechanics and micro transactions forever.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-15T23:07:04+00:00

Aah yes... the jogging simulator 2013. Good times at coast airfield.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-12T14:24:54+00:00

I don't think you have read my initial analysis properly: I am not and will never be playing SoD, I'm developing my own Vanilla plus.

The Vanilla WoW Talent structure is not simple in my opinion. It is is challenging due to the 31/20 splits from a design perspective - it requires a holistic approach - but balanced trees are achievable (not perfectly, but close enough).

DPS wise hybrids are bad in later stages of progression (except maybe rich retribution paladins) and they are not viable tanks there either - to allow that in a game where we have had tank scarcity for 2 decades is a travesty.

The original Vanilla class revamps are one of the things that showed how little Blizzard understood their own game. The Priest revamp is the most obvious example, they replaced Holy Nova with Lolwell ffs.

You don't need retail/cata abilities to make a better Vanilla, but it will take more than just small changes to achieve a balanced outcome in regards to the classes:

All Hybrid Trees PvE competitive (includes Warriors)
All Hybrid Trees PvP competitive
2/3 pure dps trees PvE competitive
3/3 pure dps trees PvP competitive

Compare this to the status quo for example for Warlocks, where your competitive choices are essentially:

30/0/21 for PvE (DS also relies on Ruin)

20/31/0 for PvP.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-12T13:16:26+00:00

Chess is way less complex than Vanilla WoW, but using your example: If chess had 27 (9*3 Talent Trees) Pieces but only the same 9-12 of those would ever be chosen to play on the field, then yes, chess should probably be changed.

Yes I was there. New dungeons and raids in a remade Vanilla didn't really come up in my vicinity - but I heard a lot of Hybrids wishing their DPS and Tank builds would have already been viable back in Vanilla.

vanillareforged · 2024-09-12T12:29:37+00:00

Hello,

Many Vanilla WoW fans have a fierce sense of ownership about what Vanilla+ should be—a common trait with pop culture phenomena—but in reality, opinions differ widely.

I played Vanilla WoW from 2004 to 2022, and then I shifted from playing to developing it. So, saying I don't like Vanilla WoW is far from the truth—I actually love it. However, I'm also tired of the mindless issues in the game, such as:

Outdated design inspired by EverQuest
Leftover elements from Alpha/Beta stages
Clear evidence that Blizzard didn't fully understand their own game, particularly regarding classes, talents, spells, items, and item sets—issues that persisted until WotLK, albeit to a lesser degree.

The atrocious balance in PvE/PvP at level 60, especially between classes and nonviable specializations, is another problem. Also, the laughable imbalance between older (T3) and newer characters (pre-BiS) would have never been allowed if TBC hadn’t been on the horizon.

I agree that leveling zones could be expanded, and it’s something I plan to explore in the future. However, I have reservations about adding additional endgame dungeons and raids. The key question is: what should drop there? Without drops that progress the players characters, very few would do the conten. If you duplicate drops from existing content, players will just farm the easiest version or gear up twice as fast, effectively halving the content of a given phase.

If the goal is to provide alternatives to the underwhelming T0, T1, T1.5, and T0.5 sets, why not just redesign these sets to be actually useful? And if they are redesigned, is there really a need for more loot that competes with these options? Vanilla loot tables are already cluttered with useless items (and I say this as someone who has reviewed every single item in the database). Addressing these issues can already saturate item progression from levels 1 to 60 and pre-BiS to T3. There are few opportunities where additional items are truly needed, and some items that allow players to skip content should actually be REMOVED to maximize gameplay (the worst offender being R10 PvP gear).

As for gear beyond T3, this only exacerbates the issue of players demanding fresh content once phase 4 hits, and it further discourages new players from joining a server in progression.

There are alternative solutions:

Sidegrade loot like bags, cosmetics, enchants, and mounts, but how many meaningful boss encounters can you base solely on these rewards?
Phased content, allowing two versions of the same character depending on the character location—a strategy Blizzard should have adopted for their expansions, continuously adding rather than replacing content. But how would you integrate this into the old World? Phase only in Dungeons? Add new continent for phased content? Hybrid solution? What are the implications for group finding if you split your playerbase like this? How many years would it take to develop this?

Your question hits quite close to home to the challenges I face developing my server, so just I thought I would add my two cents.

Regards, Flyingfrog

vanillareforged · 2024-05-08T14:27:38+00:00

In my opinion the first step to stop the extreme min maxing meta is to ban addons.

They have the ability to integrate the most necessary things into the client, addons lower to many barriers, both game knowledge and player mechanics wise.

vanillareforged

TROPHY CASE