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Dev Blog #1: Why Elysium & What’s Ahead
Greetings. This is the first blog post of many to come from me, Nano. For context, I previously helped lead Nostalrius by volunteering my time to help development of the server by leading the IsVV team. I will now volunteer my time to help the development of Elysium by leading the QA team. I first want to say a few words about why I decided to help Elysium in this new endeavor.
Why Elysium?
This is a pretty loaded question with a lot of implications. Nostalrius’s work was something I am very proud of and led to an unprecedented movement for legacy servers from Blizzard. Ultimately, this is still my goal: I want Blizzard to recreate World of Warcraft, as it was at the time it was available. The main reason why I believe Blizzard should create Legacy servers is that the game was built by them. The official servers would have amazing support and quality content. Private servers are, in the end, a cloudy reflection of the original.
However, currently there is no way for consumers to go back to the original game they bought in 2004. If you bought World of Warcraft in 2004, played it for a couple months and didn’t pick it up again until today, you couldn’t play the game you bought anymore. You’d have to go through a number of steps, including buying new content, just to get online, but even when you logged in, the game you originally played in 2004 is completely gone. MMOs are biggest genre of games where this mentality applies and is assumed normal. I can play Super Mario World, which I got in the early 90s, on my Super Nintendo right now. I can even go play the original Starcraft on battle.net right now, originally released in 1998. But that World of Warcraft game I bought in 2004? Tough luck, get with the new times or don’t play.
Don’t get me wrong, I have played retail a lot since Vanilla. Legion has a lot of quality gaming content available right now. The fight for Legacy Servers is not about which version of WoW is a better game. The fight for Legacy Servers is that the original World of Warcraft is an all-time great game that deserves preservation and access.
I believe the number one way to continue to push the Blizzard Legacy Server agenda is to continue to have private servers that are too big to ignore. Nostalrius began this trend and took the idea of legacy servers to heights never previously thought imaginable. I’m excited for the next leg of the race now that Elysium has been handed the baton.
What’s ahead?
This blog will highlight my work and schedule for the QA and development process. As we are continuing to work on the transition from the Elysium core to the Nostalrius core, I wanted to highlight a few of the areas of focus prior to server launch. I’m more aware than anyone else that Nostalrius isn’t without it’s issues. There are a number of issues that were long-time plagues (see: blade flurry, windfury) that are difficult to fix. There is future content to be scripted and existing content to be polished. There is a lot to do and the list will likely never end. That’s the nature of development, but our goal is to push the ball forward every day and let the quality speak for itself. Here are some goals for our team prior to launch:
* Complete the content for the Ahn’Qiraj patch for the Nostalrius PvP relaunch
* Prepare BWL for the Nostalrius PvE relaunch to ensure the issues faced on the PvP server do not repeat
* Clean up pre-nerf AV to make the battleground more accurate and enjoyable
* Fix common issues regarding spells and abilities
* Eliminate known exploits
* Implement improved Escort quest AI
* Create and merge known issues from Nostalrius onto a new bugtracker based on Elysium’s previous tracker
In the weeks ahead, as we continue to work and get the servers ready for players, I will be updating this blog with more specific details about the work being done and maybe share a video or two showing off some of our work for you to see. I can’t wait to step into this new era in World of Warcraft history.
Together, we will begin to build something special. Together, we will begin our legacy.
Why Elysium?
This is a pretty loaded question with a lot of implications. Nostalrius’s work was something I am very proud of and led to an unprecedented movement for legacy servers from Blizzard. Ultimately, this is still my goal: I want Blizzard to recreate World of Warcraft, as it was at the time it was available. The main reason why I believe Blizzard should create Legacy servers is that the game was built by them. The official servers would have amazing support and quality content. Private servers are, in the end, a cloudy reflection of the original.
However, currently there is no way for consumers to go back to the original game they bought in 2004. If you bought World of Warcraft in 2004, played it for a couple months and didn’t pick it up again until today, you couldn’t play the game you bought anymore. You’d have to go through a number of steps, including buying new content, just to get online, but even when you logged in, the game you originally played in 2004 is completely gone. MMOs are biggest genre of games where this mentality applies and is assumed normal. I can play Super Mario World, which I got in the early 90s, on my Super Nintendo right now. I can even go play the original Starcraft on battle.net right now, originally released in 1998. But that World of Warcraft game I bought in 2004? Tough luck, get with the new times or don’t play.
Don’t get me wrong, I have played retail a lot since Vanilla. Legion has a lot of quality gaming content available right now. The fight for Legacy Servers is not about which version of WoW is a better game. The fight for Legacy Servers is that the original World of Warcraft is an all-time great game that deserves preservation and access.
I believe the number one way to continue to push the Blizzard Legacy Server agenda is to continue to have private servers that are too big to ignore. Nostalrius began this trend and took the idea of legacy servers to heights never previously thought imaginable. I’m excited for the next leg of the race now that Elysium has been handed the baton.
What’s ahead?
This blog will highlight my work and schedule for the QA and development process. As we are continuing to work on the transition from the Elysium core to the Nostalrius core, I wanted to highlight a few of the areas of focus prior to server launch. I’m more aware than anyone else that Nostalrius isn’t without it’s issues. There are a number of issues that were long-time plagues (see: blade flurry, windfury) that are difficult to fix. There is future content to be scripted and existing content to be polished. There is a lot to do and the list will likely never end. That’s the nature of development, but our goal is to push the ball forward every day and let the quality speak for itself. Here are some goals for our team prior to launch:
* Complete the content for the Ahn’Qiraj patch for the Nostalrius PvP relaunch
* Prepare BWL for the Nostalrius PvE relaunch to ensure the issues faced on the PvP server do not repeat
* Clean up pre-nerf AV to make the battleground more accurate and enjoyable
* Fix common issues regarding spells and abilities
* Eliminate known exploits
* Implement improved Escort quest AI
* Create and merge known issues from Nostalrius onto a new bugtracker based on Elysium’s previous tracker
In the weeks ahead, as we continue to work and get the servers ready for players, I will be updating this blog with more specific details about the work being done and maybe share a video or two showing off some of our work for you to see. I can’t wait to step into this new era in World of Warcraft history.
Together, we will begin to build something special. Together, we will begin our legacy.