Battlegrounds Cosmetics & Features - Developer Interview By Ninaisnoob!
Today we've got the last part of the content made for the mini-set reveal schedule, but this one is a little bit different since it focuses on Battlegrounds instead of the actual mini-set. Let's look at what the Hearthstone developers have to say.
New Skins & Bundles
All of these new cosmetics will be separated into multiple bundles:
Live with the Patch 22.4 - February 15
- Jade Gardens Board
Live On February 22
- Algalon Bartender (top middle)
- Celestial Hero Skins (in the middle)
- Cosmic Study Board (top left)
- Astral Impact Finisher (bottom right - looks like a scroll)
Bob is back with another way to add flair and personalization to the Tavern: Battlegrounds Finishers! Battlegrounds Finishers are animations that replace the default Attack animation whenever your Hero wins a round of combat.* Bob’s first Finisher, Astral Impact, is a two-stage Finisher. That means that it shows a special animation whenever your Hero wins a round and then an even bigger animation when you deal 15 or more damage to your enemy! Keep a look out for more cool Battlegrounds Finishers in the future.
* Battlegrounds Finishers are equipped globally, so any Hero you use will use your equipped Finisher whenever you win a round of combat. Both players will be able to see the winning player’s Finisher at the end of any round of combat.
Design Process Behind The Battlegrounds Cosmetics
The process of making a new set of cosmetics
- It takes around 9 weeks just to find the perfect narrative for a set of skins (what heroes, what's the theme, what heroes will be available in that period of time in BGs,...)
- After a theme has been selected, they start working on other cosmetics or ideas that the team come up with
- Then it takes around 2 weeks to visualize how the most important parts of the animation will look like
- At the end, they start working on the VFX effects and cooperate with the art team to deliver the best quality of a product, this takes around 3-6 weeks
- In the last week, the QA team looks at the final product and evaluates if it meets the quality conditions set by the company
- The whole process can take up to 6 months
- They started working on the Celestial set in late May 2021
An idea for an Old Gods' skins
- Apparently, It's really hard to create skins for some heroes - for example Old Gods, because they don't fit with a lot of themes
- This was an idea they had a while ago, but unfortunately scraped off this idea - a Y'Shaarj with a saddle on the globe of Azeroth and riding it across the stars
What's their dream board?
- Puppies! What did you expect? This might be only a matter of time before we get a board with puppies.
- Alicia would also love to create a theme park board in the future.
- Chadd would like to explore more of the outside of tavern stuff with space, Nebula, stars, but he's happy with the Cosmic Study board for now.
The Cosmic Study board
- The theme is that you're one of the citizens of Dalaran that saved Azeroth, you have the power behind you and you look to the stars and you see the heroes of Battlegrounds be part of the magic.
- This board is Celestalon's favorite set of skins.
- They wanted to make sure that these celestial skins will attract people of all kinds - players that don't know about the lore and easter eggs behind this board but will love the theme and the art and also for the people that do know some background stuff around these skins.
Random board selecting feature
- They're thinking about it, but so far we don't have that many boards available, hence we won't see that in a near future, but apparently, we're slowly getting there.
Animated Portraits
- They hear the feedback, they have been thinking about it, but nothing to announce right now
They are so desperate for monetization.
Would you rather pay for the game? What is even your problem with optional cosmetic items?
I think, for me, the main issue is this: BG is free and started as free. People moved from constructed (paid) to something free because it is more interesting. Now Blizz is trying to monetize something that was free and it is yes desperate and sad, they should instead put resources to make what was paid better. The customization is ok, a normal feature for which I don't expect to pay. These things are normally included for free in order to make the games more appealing and less boring.
So, "BG is free and started as free" and "they should instead put resources to make what was paid better"? So the team that developes this separated free game should work for free, thats your idea?
In my case, nothing was paid, and I have a complete collection, for example. They monetizing in a way that they can earn they pay and still have a free game expanded upon, with new games (yes, I play Mercenary too) and more content every two months, without having a pay to win is the best of two words for me.
Before this, I played Elements Card Game, Legacy of Heroes, Clash of Dragons, and Magic Workstation. They all died. Here they are offering a free game and you only pay for it if you want and the ammount you want, and receibing visual upgrades in return. Stop whining.
Nobody whines and what you say is devoid of content.
Well if it only was much cheaper...
and ever worse, they are targeting kids. puppies, indeed.
ok Bobby.
If you're broke, just say that. Saves a lot more time, they don't force you to buy anything, they don't force you to play the game. People like you irritate me, you're the same people that complained when there were shop cosmetic items for WoW. They make the stuff for people who have the money and want to spend it, you don't have to buy a pass, you don't have to BUY anything, you can play the game standard. Will it take more time than Mr.Rich? Yes. Will you not get all the cool shiny things? Nope, you won't. Welcome to life and life isn't fair. You get what you pay for and you pay out of what you earn.
I think that you should enter more into life. Customers are not happy at all about Blizzard and Blizzard is going pretty bad. Look share values of Blizzard. It has been in a recent upturn because was going very bad and Microsoft bought it. People don't like companies too revenue-driven like Blizz, they don't like to turn around a see someone asking money for everything. It is a game not a fucking shopping centre. And even worst when you have to pay a lot and the service provided is not working. Welcome to life.
As someone playjng since beta, who consistently legends and grinds and has purchased multiple expansion bundles I still only have about 90% of a complete collection.
I honestly have trouble believing as a 100% ftp player that you do indeed have a copy of every card in the game in your collection. Unless you speak strictly of standard, in which case is still not a complete collection.
OT: I feel that monetizing through cosmetics is a great model. Let the whales fund the game for some pixels that look pretty and the rest of of us get a triple A game experience for free. It's a good deal. And I still get to see the game board in BGs anyways and I didn't pay!!!
I find this very sad