Blizzcon 2014 - Evolving Reaper of Souls Panel - Live Updates
BlizzCon Heroes Developer Interview With Kaeo Milker, BlizzCon Panel Recaps
Blizzcon 2014 Recap
Update: 8:28 PM EDT: Added quote from Yong Woo on addition deck slots.
Update 1:16 PM EST: Added news about GvG card voting!
[Update] Goblins vs Gnomes Card Reveal Voting
Blizzard has pushed an update to the Goblins vs Gnomes website which allows us to vote on the cards we want to see revealed next! You get to choose between seeing a Goblin or a Gnome card. Explosions, or wacky inventions? It also looks like there is going to be an upcoming DeviantArt contest according to a banner at the bottom of the page.
Also included is the dates where they will be announcing new cards. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for the rest of November, we will get to see a new card!
Hearthstone Developer Interview
We had a chance to sit down with Hearthstone's Senior Game Designer, Mike Donais, and Production Director, Jayson Chayes at this year's BlizzCon, where we, and other fansites, asked about the new expansion, the features you want, and botting. We've got the interview summarized for you below.
Quote from BlizzardCards
- Roughly a third of the new cards are Mech.
- There is no Piloted 2-drop in the game. So you can't Piloted Sky Golem into Piloted Shredder into Piloted 2-drop into summon.
- No collectible neutral spells have been added in the expansion.
- No confirmed changes for Gadgetzan Auctioneer, yet. They know Spare Parts are 1 Mana Spells, it's a concern, they'll watch it.
- They might have a new card which can deal with Secrets. No word on it being neutral or class specific.
- Mechanical Dragonling, Harvest Golem, Alarm-o-Bot, Gelbin's Inventions, and Demolisher will all be Mechs when the expansion hits.
- Ogre Warmaul has been confirmed to be a new collectible weapon.
- Undertaker won't be receiving any changes. He's a large part of the meta right now, but Goblins vs Gnomes might shake it up enough so that he doesn't need to be changed.
- There's more ways to get Spare Parts than just Clockwork Gnome and Tinkertown Technician.
Games & System Design
- They don't want to add too many unobtainable rewards for the game, like getting gold when you reach certain ranks for the first time. Other rewards are on the table, but no news yet.
- No plans for Golden Heroes to come out of Arenas. They like it being tied to a constructed reward.
- Randomness is very important to Hearthstone. It gives you the potential for epic experiences.
- They're going to be careful about adding additional Silence cards to the game. Silence isn't a very fun mechanic when there's a lot of it.
- Arena will only reward you with the Goblins vs Gnomes packs.
- No catch-up mechanisms in place for new players to get up to speed.
- They do think that players will have a natural progression of Classic (Expert) set cards to Goblins vs Gnomes.
- Old quests which awarded Classic Packs will still reward them when the expansion hits.
- No plans on having public beta tests of new expansions, they like the element of surprise.
- The Do Not Disturb feature on Battle.net won't prevent friends from spectating your games, but you can disable match spectating with a checkbox.
Card Backs
- They're okay with players not being able to get all the card backs (like TeSPA). They'd like to do more things in the future where a card back isn't so broadly available.
- Being able to assign a card back to a deck would be an "awesome feature".
- More ways to see your own card backs is good, you don't really get to see them, only your opponent's card back.
- No confirmation that we'll see a Gnome card back for next month's ranked gameplay season. We'll have to wait and see, no spoiling surprises.
The Future
- Android devices will be required to meet a set of minimum system specifications, which will be announced in the future, to be able to play Hearthstone.
- An achievements system is something they could see being added to the game, but not for Goblins vs Gnomes.
- Chat channels aren't off the table, although they don't want you to have many ways to interact with your opponent. Spectator mode is an additional social tool for Hearthstone.
- Different cosmetic versions of Heroes is something the team has been talking about for a while. They're "excited" about the feature, but nothing ready to announce yet.
- No current plans for a different draft format for Hearthstone. They don't want you sitting around waiting for other people to draft with you.
- No plans to allow players to replay the tutorial yet, it's a cool idea though.
Botting
- Over 10,000 accounts were banned from the game for botting.
- Part of the reason why accounts were only temporarily banned for botting in the first ban wave has to do with all the new players of Blizzard games who might not be familiar with Blizzard's policies. Going forward though, zero tolerance; You bot, you're gone for good.
Build Your Own Goblins vs Gnomes Deck
Want to build and share your own Goblins vs Gnomes Deck? We've got all the cards previewed at BlizzCon in our very own deckbuilder.
Goblins vs Gnomes: New Cards
We've got all the cards previewed at BlizzCon available in our card database.
Yong Woo on Deck Slots
Yong Woo, Hearthstone's Senior Producer, was interviewed by PC Gamer at BlizzCon and had this to say about adding additional deck slots. The full interview can be watched below. At 15:35 you can hear the below statement.
Quote from Yong WooSo, this is something we've been talking about a lot as a team, its not that we're ignoring feedback, we've been debating a lot about it. In some ways its a little bit like bag space in role playing games where no matter how much you have, you're going to always want more. We're kind of in the same mindspace [as before], but we really understand people feel passionate about. It's definitely something we're actively talking about in the team, but its a tricky one. We just want players to understand we haven't made up our minds, but it's really not a straight forward answer. There's a lot to consider here.
No nerf to undertaker?!!?
1. WTF kinda awnser is that, he totally danced around the question,
2. Stop being lazy and program the UI allready blizzard..QQ moar
I agree with your first statement. "Bag Space" is the equivalent of the pages in your Collection. If the number of pages was actually capped and you had to pay/grind for more then you could use it as an argument. Creating a deck slot has no analog to the WoW game system. (aside from the multitude of combinations to respec and reequip your toon for different purposes)
Or 81. If they make the deckbuilder operate when the Class Card tab is selected at the top left, you can still have 9 decks on the right hand column. You'd just be denied more than 9 per class.
I hadn't even considered that Blizzard could limit the number of pages, but now that you bring it up, I think that's a terrifying idea.
How about having the DeckList On your screen and seeing what you draw and whats left in your deck. Simple.
I believe since there is already an Add-on that does it, Blizzard will eventually follow their foot steps and implement it. They have done it numerous times with WoW Add-ons.
A list of of cards you've drawn and the cards left in your deck? That sounds like it should be illegal. Doesn't really seem fun, and seems like it should not belong in a card game, digital or otherwise.
Can you give me link to that add-on?
You know theres an addon for that or you can keep a list of your deck and manually scratch the used card. Pretty ez.
Blizzard would make it alot more simple by making its own list.
If you want to manually keep a list for every game you play go for it. It shouldn't be supported by Blizzard, it's bad for the game.
I agree. I struggle to find 4-drops I want to use whenever I build a deck. Naxx gave us plenty of great 5-drops, so now we need the 4-slot filled.
At first I was a bit skeptical, looking at the cards themselves, but now that I read some more and examined them some more, I'm feeling pretty good about the expansion. I hope we see more interface and general game changes... what about expanded Player Profiles? At least Total # of games played, win %, best class, a few basics like that? Has anyone brought this up?
Doesn't that kinda eliminate a significant source of Classic (Expert) progression?
Also - just one more deck slot would be huge. One for each class plus a slot to mess around with without screwing up another one - reason I quit Heroic Naxx - had to keep messing with the decks I did dailies with. Should probably just net-deck it...
Agree. Considering theres just enough room for 1 of each . Your own suggestion seems the way to go . net-deck . Save-Em. :)
This is a long-winded way to say, "No Comment." This should not have ever made it to "News".
I disagree with bags space = deck slots. The difference between bag space and deck slots is that having additional bag space gives a player an advantage. Adding deck slots decreases the time it take to perform a tedious chore (deck building) and allows a player to use a variety of decks with less hinderance.
Another flaw in the design is that you aren't reminded of which cards are in the deck you're selecting from the play screen. This is a real problem for beginner and intermediate players who have trouble winning games because they aren't sure what to mulligan for without a deck list in front of them.
Given the amount of classes and the fact that there are multiple archetypes, it doesn't make sense to me that they would put such a low limit on the amount of decks you can have. Hell currently even if you only have one deck per class you still don't have a deckslot free to experiment with. If you want to put a limit on it, make it 18 or 27 so you can have multiple decks per class.
i want dr doom
Dr Doom i mean Boom looks awesome
I really hope that no changes come to Gadgetzan Auctioneer, then miracle will TRULY be dead...although I don't mind if the spare parts don't work for him.