Get Out Your Snow Shovels! Jeff Kaplan Talks About Patch 1.10
by Christopher Linton 
Jan 31st 2006 at 10:17AM
1UP.com has an exclusive interview with Jeff Kaplan where they talk about the 3
main changes in the new upcoming patch.The biggest change is the Priest talent reworking and reset, similar to the Paladin reset in the last patch. Also, a few of the exciting new armor sets are previewed. Hopefully Warriors will get an alternative to the current armor sets, if not in sheer power, at least in looks. Also, here's a quick preview on the quests involved in getting those sets.
The final big change is the addition of weather effects. Now, I'm not sure why these are being added at all. Thankfully for those of you on lower-end computers you will be able to turn them off. Latency is sometimes crippling on my mid-level box, especially in cities, and I can't help but be concerned about how this addition will affect that. Personally, I have never seen weather effects as something necessary, but apparently there is a vocal group of players who feel that it would enhance their experience.
Are you in favor of weather effects? What are your thoughts on the other upcoming changes?
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Goochoz Jan 31st 2006 10:56AM
RP servers will love it, that and the hardcore players that buy gold and can afford a hoss system. :P
Adam Sutherland Jan 31st 2006 10:59AM
I will always welcome additional eyecandy as long as my performance doesn't take a very noticeable hit. Weather effects would probably be the first thing to go if my framerate starts to drop.
CarLBanks Jan 31st 2006 11:06AM
I'm looking forward to this change.
Quantis Jan 31st 2006 11:08AM
I'd LOVE it. I went into the blasted lands for the first time last night and the thunder and lightning was awseome. It totally set the mood for the area.
Keep up the good work Bliz !
- Quantis
scottsh Jan 31st 2006 11:17AM
Luckily weather won't impact your latency (lag) because it will be a client-side feature. The server will just say 'make it snow' and the client will do the effect. It MIGHT affect your framerate though - luckily it will be easy to turn off.
I'm fan of increased graphic quality. If this helps with immersion I'm all for it.
PodMonkeys Jan 31st 2006 11:27AM
Definately have to have the weather effects, as long as it can be turned off for those who don't want it, or those who lack graphical power. I love games that put it details like snow, rain, etc. It really does help the feel of things. I'm one of those people who never liked the idea of buying a really expensive graphics card, then turning off all effects, just so that you could pwn people in PvP.
Brad Jan 31st 2006 12:56PM
Anyone with half a brain knows you can't have 1.10 its trailing zeros can't exsist. and 1.9 is higher than 1.11 what kind of bassackwards logic is blizzard using on this numbering scheme
Steve Jan 31st 2006 2:12PM
Versioning is not a decimal system. It has nothing to do with numeral place holders. Its just a way to separate minor revisions from major revisions. Its not uncommon in open source software to se 2.5.15.3a or something like that... just my two sense.
Bo Jan 31st 2006 3:05PM
I don't think the weather effects wil cause lag. I remember Diablo and Diablo II on my old crappy mac and pc's and when it decided to change weather mid play it didn't effect anything.
Mat Jan 31st 2006 3:52PM
Yeah, I'm lame, but I'm excited about the weather effects. Like everyone else said, the more immersion, the better.
Praetorius on Greymane Jan 31st 2006 3:53PM
I'm also one of the many here who can't wait for weather effects. Since day 1 i feel it's been something lacking, especially in the snow covered areas. If i'm not mistaken, Guild Wars has weather effects and their snow fall just looks gorgeous. With Blizzard's talent in the art dept, i think they can take the aesthetics to another level.
Bring on the precipitation!
Cort Jan 31st 2006 5:24PM
I'm looking forward to the weather effects, to an extent. When I played DAoC at launch, it had random rain that would come in periodically, but it wasn't really that big of a deal. I think it'd be cool if weather effects had actual effect on the environment (imagine snow in Elwynn, rain puddles Ashenvale, etc.). Or, that somehow the weather effects weren't just random, but had "systems" to them (e.g. a weather front starting in Northern Kalimdor and moving all the way through the continent).
It could be cool.
KSB Jan 31st 2006 6:42PM
Weather ingame feature is a totally must, it won't maybe have many effect on the gameplay, BUT give great fantasy adventure. In my mind after this feature, they should add winds, storms, orcans and stuff like that, and make it very random. Change the weather as day go by and even have local city weather forcasts haha.
but bottomline ingame weather really raises the ingame overall experience, makes it all much more realisitic and too drool over :p
boneyard Feb 1st 2006 6:27AM
[quote]Anyone with half a brain knows you can't have 1.10 its trailing zeros can't exsist.[/quote]
oh hell not again the stuff about the version number, why do you people keep whining about this. blizzard calls it 1.10, accept that or play eq2 or such :)
about time with those weather effects, it was silly they weren't there in the first place.
Mentock Feb 1st 2006 3:23PM
Its changes like these that make me happy to play on my duel-core G5. OoO baby. Now all we need in the next patch is for NPCs to break into song and dance every time you complete a quest.
/grin
sproket Feb 6th 2006 12:57AM
Your fears are unwarranted. You have no data whatsoever to back up your thoughts that this is going to cause lag. These effects are basic client side kid stuff, i'd be extremely suprised if they caused even so much as a change in one tenth of one FPS. Games that are 3 generations behind this one had weather effects with no slowdown. What planet is this article writer living on?
OH NOES the sky is falling... Literally.
I'm glad they are doing something to make this game more immersive. Just becuase you want to walk around in a drab and un-alive mmorog world doesn't mean the rest of us do too.
Mark my words.. there will be no lag or slowdowns, even on the slowest of systems.