Developer Log - December 2023

Team Update

While it's rare that a real life circumstance impacts Project Epoch however this month we hit essentially exactly that in a very simple form, a broken bone.

Earlier in December Kaytotes had a minor oopsie and broke their collar bone essentially writing off the concept of speedy typing and programming. Luckily this has been during a period of relative calm over the holidays however it will be a good few weeks before things are back to normality.

While this has had some impact in Beta 3 release estimates we consider our recently released roadmap (see below) to be up to date and accurate as it factored in this situation.

Roadmap

A couple of days ago we released our plans for the year ahead in the form of a roadmap. We have been blown away by just how many people have both seen and interacted with it and the impact it has had on bringing in new excited players. For those who have not seen it yet however we have included it below for you to enjoy.

Faction Identity and Grouping

As of today we have cemented how Cross Faction grouping will function in all areas of the game following much internal discussion. If you have not yet taken a look at that Let's Talk entry then please feel free to do so here.

Guess The Zone!

Last month we released a handful of teaser images intentionally taken to try and obfuscate their origin and lead to a small guessing game by the community. While it has been extremely fun watching you all try and figure out the where we can now be more upfront.

While the Blasted Lands houses the iconic Dark Portal and is a key part of Vanilla lore we felt that it simply didn't have enough to _do_ while you're on your journey to level 60. With that in mind the Blasted Lands has received an all new point of interest in the form of Felstone Fortress. With large usage of vertical space we've managed to jam pack a, relatively speaking, small area along the coast to serve as a formidable brand new Elite questing area.

Within this new Elite area you will find the Felstone twisting their dark machinations and scarring the very landscape itself into the Grombolar, a cursed and evil place that few have entered. Grab a group of your staunchest allies as you will be in for a tough adventure uncovering all that can be found here.

Smokywood Pastures

The Smoywood Pastures goblins have moved into Ratchet, offering adventurers a way to raise their reputation with this faction. Designed to be similar to the original Winterspring Frostsaber grind, players should expect long hours and hard work to reach exalted. Giving players a variety of ways to increase reputation on this grind is important, which is why there are three categories of quests: Solo, Group, and PvP. Each category is further divided into 5-6 quests, one of which will randomly be chosen to be available as a repeatable quest each day. Essentially, each day you will have 1 quest from each category, and every day the quests will change.

The reputation rewards for doing each quest are as follows:

Solo: 75
PvP: 75
Group: 150

Examples of each type of quest:

Solo: Collect 5 Nictia Colabrus mushrooms from the Fungal Vale in Eastern Plaguelands
PvP: Capture one of the towers in Eastern Plaguelands for Morrison Copperpinch in Ratchet
Group: Collect 4 Vials of Magical Residue from Baradin Hold.

Upon reaching exalted, there are three rewards: Baby Giraffe pet, Recipe: Deviate Feast, and a Swift Zhevra mount. We hope you enjoy this new grind designed to offer additional content at max level for players interested in cosmetic items.

Venomhide Ravasaur and Winterspring Frostsaber

Most players know about the infamous Winterspring Frostsaber, a difficult to obtain Alliance-only mount for serious collectors to farm for, but fewer know about the intended Horde counterpart, the Ravasaur. In the original release of World of Warcraft there was an NPC named Mor'vek in Un'goro Crater and he was a part of the Ravasaur Trainers faction. Unfortunately the faction was later removed, and then so was Mor'vek some time later. Then in Wrath of the Lich King Mor'vek was brought back with a new daily quest chain to obtain a Venomhide Ravasaur mount.

Here on Project Epoch we have brought the Venomhide Ravasaur to Classic as it should be, giving the Horde a counterpart to the Winterspring Frostsaber. But 20 days of daily quests doesn't feel like the same amount of effort as the Frostsaber. Due to this, both mounts have received changes to their acquisition to spice up the tedium of Winterspring Frostsaber along with adding parity to the Venomhide Ravasaur.

The original Winterspring Frostsaber quests have been kept, but now the available repeatable quest periodically changes. One day you might be killing furbolgs in Winterfall Village, and the next day you might be collecting Snow Cherries around Winterspring. As you progress your reputation, new quest options will be available to you. The reputation awarded by each quest varies based on the difficulty or the travel time as well.

While we hope that this makes Wintersaber Trainers and Ravasaur Trainers reputation more enjoyable to farm, expect this to still be an incredible grind that makes these mounts special and an item of value and prestige!

Fishing Fiesta!

A new, yet familiar, denizen has appeared at Blackmaw Village within Azshara; Old Man Barlo. His aim among the Furbolg is very simple; spread the good word of astonishing fish found all over Azeroth and in the process learn some of their more feral techniques.

Much like his The Burning Crusade incarnation Old Man Barlo will be providing a pool of random daily quests sending you out to zones across the world to fish up a variety of critters. However this comes with one key difference, volume. In The Burning Crusade Old Man Barlo only had a handful of zones he could send you to. Here on Project Epoch that pool has been radically expanded to more than 30 zones across the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.

Our hope is that this will strongly encourage max level players to return to locations they otherwise wouldn't such as the coasts of Hillsbrad and make the world feel more full in the process. Each day bringing a fresh opportunity to get cosy and collect some fish in iconic zones.

The rewards associated with Old Man Barlo's quests mirror those familiar from The Burning Crusade but have undergone retuning to fit within the Vanilla world. This includes:

Junk Items.
Recipes.
+Fishing Skill such as the Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat.
Elixirs.
Trade Goods.
Weather-Beaten Journal providing the ability to find fishing pools on your minimap.

Similar to The Burning Crusade within this larger pool of quests is a special one where the objective is to fish up an adorable Crocolisk baby within a faction capital. While more rare simply due to volume these will continue to exist here providing you a chance to get up to four adorable companions.

While this system is clearly design inspired by The Burning Crusade we have that this large expansion provides a wealth of cosy times along the waters for those who love fishing. For those who do dedicate the time to teaching the Furbolgs of Blackmaw Village you will find an all new fishing pole matching their aesthetic to enjoy.

Closing Statement

2023 has been an extremely busy yet fun time for all of us on the Project Epoch team working towards the vision laid out in our roadmap. It has been a challenge juggling bugs, betas, active development, post launch design and development and managing the community itself.

As ever we thank you for your patience and hope that posts such as this show that we're constantly churning forwards to bring you Project Epoch as soon as possible.