"Brewfest Can't Be Hotfixed"?

Q u o t e:


What part of "I think they are lying" do *you* not understand?

To the undead Warlock above - Okay, maybe a small client side patch, server side this only requires a database insert. But still most definitely hotfixable. My gripe remains that this is an easy fix (which you conceded) and we are being told, "Sorry we would love to help you all out.. but there is just no way we could do this!" I would much rather hear, "No, we could fix it, but don't want to."

And I still think they screwed up the holiday. It was fun last year. And I am not crying, I got my mount last year. I just think this is 1) stupid and 2) Blizzard is being dishonest about this. There is an important difference between "we can't fix this" and "we refuse to fix this."

One last time, for as much clarification as I can give:

We aren't going to change it. I have qualified most of my statements regarding the hotfixable state of this given change with "if we wanted to," you'll note. The mounts are going to remain a drop off the boss.

However, that does not mean that I am lying when I state it isn't hotfixable -- it is not hotfixable. You will note, as others have quoted, that the Wolpertinger is on the vendor for a silver cost rather than a ticket cost. If we were able to hotfix the Wolpertinger item to have a ticket cost, we would have, but it was not feasible with the way these vendors are set up. This same issue can, then, logically be extended to the mounts. It is not hotfixable, and in another thread I already broke down why a small client patch is also not feasible for Brewfest at this time.

I am not disrespecting your knowledge, Fizzpop, but I hope you can concede that I am a bit more familiar with the way World of Warcraft in particular functions internally than you are, and thus am somewhat more informed when I make this call.

Q u o t e:


perhaps you can redirect me to a post where (and if) you addressed this but,

When you announced that there would be a brewfest kodo but only for the horde, there was an explosion of alliance QQ about it. Most people were against this (myself included). And this was months before brewfest.

The point i'm getting at is with all that time, why didn't you fix it then?

You realize that we changed that recently, I hope, and that Alliance can get the kodo now.

It was a series of discussions. The discussions happened when we initially put in the change, they happened when the PTR was live, and they happened again when Brewfest proper began. I've gone over the reasons in the past why the decision was initially made to keep them separate, but in the end, we ruled that with the change from vendor to boss drop that the mount would be uncommon enough to invalidate the main concern for keeping them separate, in terms of common racial identity and silhouette.

Because the mount is a boss drop, and because the mount isn't common, both Kodo and Ram are available to all factions.

EDIT: Also, the music's there in Durotar, at least on the realms I've checked.

Q u o t e:


Fair enough, but i can only hope hope you listen to your customers earlier the next time you and your team decide to screw up another holiday.

To clarify though, adding an "uncommon" mount drop from a boss is fine. But changing a perfectly fine system of acquiring a holiday reward from hard work to random chance is not fine.

I realize it's not a popular decision, but while we did listen to the feedback given, there isn't an obligation to agree. The mount was too easy to obtain last year, essentially. While I completely understand that changing something to be harder to get is not something you'd prefer, we felt it was necessary considering the larger picture.

Q u o t e:


quit trying to play up the "unknown" angle of all the "mysterious" coding..... those who know..simply know is all, its NOT that difficult for a company such as blizz which the resources they have at their disposal...i realize much of these resources are tied up for the xpansion but that DOES NOT in any way justify ignoring issues that people are obviously unhappy about currently.

This has nothing to do with resources for the expansion and everything to do with the way the game in particular is set up. I am not discounting your knowledge of general programming; I ask you not to discount my knowledge of what is feasible with World of Warcraft in particular.

We haven't been ignoring the feedback; we've been reading it. I would think my presence alone would indicate that much.

Q u o t e:


i know you are obviously watching these posts, im not discounting that fact at all, heres the thing tho, it cannot be that closed end, there has to be a solution that blizzard is willing to impliment if like u say they have not been ignoring the feedback.... there multiple ways to compromise on this......how about this tho....even if they could change it with a click would they? or do they see no problem with the way it is? these are important questions too imo b/c it gives us a better understanding of the direction were going in this game.

I hope you understand that I am not a community manager, but a designer, and on the team who made Brewfest -- both the initial event and the changes. I have already stated that even if we could change it with a hotfix we have no plans to do so. We've read the feedback, but we have no plans to change the event right now.

Arbol: I've stated in other threads why a patch isn't feasible either if we wanted to change it. As to the web discrepancy, that sounds like something the Web Team should be alerted to; that's a mistaken holdover from the past event rather than a lie. You and I both know that, so let's not argue semantics.

Q u o t e:


What about the meta achievement? The Children's Week one was removed because it was excessive, so why not this one?

I don't have an answer for you on that. I'll bring it up, but I will remind you that there are other achievements based on random rolls, as it were.

Q u o t e:


It was more than just an unpopular decision. It was a mistake. I don't know why you all have to turn the fun events that used to exist into more of the same random boss camp. It's not fun.

If you want to make it more difficult to obtain, fine. But random numbers are NOT the way to go. Increase the number of tickets then. Or make it so you have to have tickets AND a certain number of "tokens" from the boss. Or any other number of possible solutions. Not totally screw over those in your playerbase who look forward to events AS THEY WERE.

Make it a reward that we have to EARN, not a reward to have to be LUCKY to get. Period. I just hope you've learned from this event and don't ruin the Halloween event in the same way.

While I realize you disagree with the decision, we felt that the method of acquisition itself was one of the primary issues concerning the ease.

Like I said, it's never a popular decision to make something harder from an easier state of being, and we weren't really expecting any other reaction.

Q u o t e:


Because, for some reason they can't
why we don't know
but, WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW

is it some type of scripting issue or something?

I've never once said that we can't increase the drop rate; please, do remember the context of the relative discussions. We can increase the drop rates, but we have no plans to do so.

It will remain a daily quest.

Arbol, misrepresentation implies deliberate tactics. There was no malice here; it was a forgotten artifact, plain and simple, and I am telling this to you as straight as I can.

Q u o t e:
There are so many other issues that need attention, and so please stop wasting time beating this dead horse anymore.

Don't worry; I've been fixing bugs and the like while I've been responding. ;)

Q u o t e:


I think you should tell the web team that the horse left the barn of current a long time ago.


And as for your next post, why if WoW has declared its intentions to move away from RNG, would you forcefully insert it into a holiday that everyone enjoyed? And I say forcefully, because it seems an awful lot of Brewfest broke this year.

To make this perfectly clear: the two quests being missing has absolutely nothing to do with the additions made. It was a last minute content issue; we had about a week before the start of the holiday itself, hence their disappearance.

I've already explained the rest and will not repeat myself further.

Dvergr, while I respect the fact that you're trying to move the conversation in a different direction, this is a Brewfest thread, not a Hallow's End thread. I'm responding to Brewfest concerns. It's excellent that you've read what I've had to say already, but apparently some people are unclear, so I'm clarifying. No antagonism is present here.

Q u o t e:
I honestly believe they cant hotfix it. Blizzard doesn't have the same class of coders they used to.

When one pally reckon bombed doom lord kazzak, it was hotfixed immediatly, both the boss and an entire class, IMMEDIATLY.

They just don't have a coding team with that skill anymore.

It's the same group of people.

The numbers you're talking about are easily hotfixed. If the same thing happened today, it would be changed just as quickly.

The vendors in question are a different story. We could put the mounts on the vendors for gold, most certainly, but not for tokens due to the nature of how that system in particular functions. This has absolutely nothing to do with budget and everything to do with what's feasible with our systems and the client.

The argument is moot, however, because we have no plans to change the functionality as it stands.

I'm not going into the details of our code.

I explained the whys earlier, but in brief: it was determined the mount was too easy to get last year and the method of distribution allowed for the mount to be more common than planned, so that method was changed. Because of this change, the concerns about racially defining mounts were negligible due to the mount now being uncommon, so both Rams and Kodos became available to both factions.

We've read the feedback and we're not ignoring it, but feedback on the forums is not the only place from which we draw our feedback. Players voice feedback primarily when they feel there's something to be improved. We've been keeping tabs on the holiday in game as well, and it's doing better than the boards would have one expect among the playerbase at large.

Q u o t e:


FYI, just because people are trying for the mount doesn't mean they enjoy the process to get it. I'm guessing if you asked them, they would prefer to hang around outside Org and enjoy the festivities instead of doing the boss fight.

When I speak of in-game participation, I'm not just talking about what players are actually doing. I'm talking about what they're saying as well.

Q u o t e:


Sig worthy.

Translation: The board is full of nothing but miserable players.

Hardly. Let me put it this way: people voice feedback primarily when they feel there's something to be improved. That's not bad; it's appreciated, in fact.

Q u o t e:
No offense to the developers, GMs, however you prefer to address the blue posters - but you've posted more in this thread defending the Brewfest mechanics more than many of the beta threads that actually need your attention.

I'm a world designer; I haven't just been posting. I've been fixing bugs for that expansion we have coming out. I'm posting on a subject that applies to my area of design, that's all. I'm not a class designer. ;)

Q u o t e:
I didn't realize they got nerfed.

That would be because the drop rates weren't changed.