Hey Blizz, can we have a "water dungeon"?

#0 - July 31, 2009, 5:31 a.m.
Blizzard Post
I'd like to see a water dungeon in game. If Everquest can pull it off, I know WoW can. 360 degree battles, keeping a close eye on breath meters (oh and always bringing a warlock :P). It would be fun. There's nothing like that in game. A few big lakes, but no really full underwater instances. Can we have something like that? Also if you're reading this, 2 words: Heroic Deadmines. That is all.
#9 - July 31, 2009, 5:56 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Do you mind if I be really vague and non-committal for a moment?

We typically never throw anything completely off the drawing board when it comes to conceptualizing fun content. I think there would have to be a good opportunity for a water dungeon in the game first, but more importantly, we'd have to really make sure it would be done right and feel fun. Under water combat can be a little chaotic, especially when using any sort of ground-targeting spell. We wouldn't want to come out with such content were it to feel like the game play would suffer from the format of the setting.

In a way you could relate it to our decision to remove flying vehicles from Wintergrasp. It sounded awesome and was, in some cases, pretty fun. But it just didn't feel right or balanced with the way it was implemented, made the zone even more chaotic and really fell short of providing the player with the physical sensation of being in flight.
#12 - July 31, 2009, 6 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:
Don't forget to bring a towel.

And that leads to the core of the issue here. Have we the true capacity to develop and implement so functional a tool as the towel?
#27 - July 31, 2009, 6:14 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:


This reason I always hated. I mean am I honestly supposed to feel like I'm flying on my flying mount? Or that I'm really in a motorcycle?

Or likely the worst, as if I'm actually piloting a Steam Tank? Lack of player collision/Weak rear armor makes the experience horribly fake. It's cool, but I'm not piloting a tank by any measurable amount.

I see your point, but I think there's a distinction to be made between feeling like you're actually doing something in a virtual world versus being given the sensation of doing it. That sounds terribly contradictory so you'll just have to lay off on that one. :p

I'm mainly speaking about the physics of the game. There are games out there that simulate an experience like flight in amazing ways. It gives one the sensation that one is controlling the movement of a vehicle in a real physical space. Now, I'm not good with the whole flying thing... in real life that is. I never forget how irrational my anxieties are when I think about the whole ordeal of getting in an airplane, sitting back and relinquishing control to someone I've never met who will take me 35,000+ feet in the air, but I have difficulty controlling those anxieties. That said, those same alarm bells don't ring when playing flight simulators, even when it feels like the physics of the virtual space so closely resemble our physical world.
#28 - July 31, 2009, 6:19 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:
Please. Please. I beg you on hand and knee. Do not make an under water instance (or for that matter a zone). ....I know I'm going to get trolled for this but....

I have an unrational fear of sharks. The quests that involve the waters in Northren drive me insane. I am a 31 year old growen man with 2 children and I know it sounds nuts but, it is true. I have no idea why I have this phobia, but I have had it for as long as I can remember. Most poeple fear snakes or spiders but, for me its sharks.

Please Please No more sharks.

That's interesting. Unfortunately, my response to this will probably (again) sound completely contradictory to what I last said. Perhaps I just find myself in the state of mind where most aspects of life feel like contradictions.

Anyway, during my first leveling process it took quite some time before I felt comfortable spending a lot of time in the water in WoW. Swimming out into deep areas can feel a little freaky. I remember when I first got to the dark water and the fatigue bar. It scared the hell out of me as if I were going to be taken under by some deep sea creature and wouldn't see it coming.
#47 - July 31, 2009, 7:53 a.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:

Silly side question though. I died a while back to fatigue trying to cut some time off the trim from dragonblight to fjord. while going back to my body I found that you get fatigue even while ghosted. why would a ghost suffer from fatigue by traveling over deep water?

It's a way to prevent some of the more crafty players from trying to look for theoretical places out somewhere deep in the ocean. If your ghost didn't fatigue you could run endlessly out into the water. Some players used to think -- or maybe still think -- that doing so would allow them to discover secret developer islands where puppy laughter is the only currency and Frostmourne is used merely as a butter knife.
#51 - July 31, 2009, 8:06 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:


I'm still searching for it. Stop trying to cover it up.

Getting there is impossible without severely violating the Terms of Use. I've seen GM Island (for work-related purposes and not on any of my actual characters). Standing near a mailbox in any capital city is more interesting.

A developer island does not exist. There's little reason to ever test things on live realms.
#72 - July 31, 2009, 8:50 p.m.
Blizzard Post
I didn't realize so many people share WoW deep water phobia. We should start a support group.
#173 - July 31, 2009, 8:25 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Q u o t e:


I have a theory about this. The original Sonic the Hedgehog did it to us in our youth.

Remember that song it'd play when you started drowning?

Ever since then I've avoided water levels in any game like the plague. I think that's what screwed us up!

That's actually a really good theory. You just brought back lost memories of the stress involved when slowly drowning in Sonic.

Q u o t e:
Aren't you always Z?

It was intended to be self-deprecating humor. I figure I'll start preemptively criticizing my posts as I'm writing them to take the burden off of some of our more avid posters. :)