I have seen a lot of posts asking the questions “Will there be a beta?”. To me I do not see blizzard hinting that wow classic will be an independent game from retail. I think that they will just add classic servers to the existing client like oceanic servers or even the arena tournament servers. I think the fact we have not been given a release date only supports this argument. They will likely pair it with a BFA patch. Patches have significantly shorter release notices than a standalone game. Now what questions I think this raises is will classic wow be available on the PTR? I see this as being much more likely rather than having them dish out beta access to only a few select people. Thoughts?
2 Likes
It has to be a standalone game from retail. We are going to have to download all the new data they put into the game, just like how you had to download the demo. This has nothing to do with whether or not there will be a beta though. Also, why would classic be on the ptr? What’s there to test out besides bugs? The only new stuff we are getting as time goes on is raids, and those raids mechanics aren’t crazy by any means and can be internally tested by blizzard.
2 Likes
I completely disagree. Every major patch introduced to World of Warcraft has been new data and has been tested on the ptr. Secondly if you go back to the announcement of classic wow he said himself “We will be introducing a classic server option.” meaning that it will be attached to the current game and not a standalone product. This is further supported by the fact that it will be lumped into the subscription of retail.
Whether you agree or not doesn’t really matter to what you are talking about. It can be a stand alone game or just a different server option, neither of which will effect what you think it will effect.
2 Likes
Starting to think we are getting too close to “summer” for them to bother. I think they should have done one by now. /shrug
Could have gotten a rough idea of how many live cyclical subs, resub during a content lull just to try the beta. Idk. Maybe that’s what we hear next.
2 Likes
“I am pleased, and also a little bit nervous, to announce the development of a CLASSIC SERVER OPTION for World of Warcraft.” ~J. Allen Brack, BlizzCon 2017
3 Likes
Exactly this. They would not have written that in his speech unless that was what they were intending. It maybe be released as its own patch as suggested during one of the content lulls and I think that would be smart on their end. But i wonder if they might put it on the ptr. They had people level in only the barrens and they themselves said they got tons of useful feedback. I think it would only help them to have the player base have another look and see where they are at before the official release.
Unless something has changed, Classic’s based on the Legion client, not BFA. I would expect a separate client download. Probably a completely different battle.net button.
I think maybe a short beta will be warranted to validate server config/ infrastructure.
3 Likes
Exactly the point I was making. This is running on a completely different version of the game, that has been altered entirely to emulate vanilla. I don’t even know how they would put two versions of one game, into the same game. That would cause sooooo many bugs on both ends, it’s silly to think that they would be on the same game.
1 Like
I’d never really thought about it before but you pose an interesting question.
Now I’m visualizing the server select screen in retail and seeing Classic-Normal, Classic-PVP, Classic-RP along with all the current server selections.
I’d always just pictured it being it’s own entity on BNet though so I really have no idea how’s it’s going to roll out.
As for a beta. I think Blizzard is going to want something to gauge potential starting populations and an open beta for anyone and everyone to try would give them the closest idea to that they could hope for. That would give them an idea of how many servers to start with, and play around with sharding if they limit the number of beta servers available.
1 Like
I want at least a demo or stress test that’s let you have free reign of the world.
Purely for the fact that alliance and Horde will try to get to eachother for a lowbie pvp brawl. It’s fun.
1 Like
No need really.
No need for a beta.
Also, the WoW application folder now has a folder called “retail”, so my guess (as it has always been) is that it will not be a separate game, it will be a Classic server option to World of Warcraft. Sort of like a PTR client thing. Same game, different information.
2 Likes
They might not have a direct need for technical limitations like stress testing or anything, I just think it would be good for them to let us in there so we can bring anything we find to their attention before it is released.
The Classic Client is a heavily modified version of Retail. It will contain different textures and models, different vector maps, and a host of other things, including a different Macro API.
Therefore it has to be a different logical client on disk.
However, the modern model allows different installs to share data, in the same way that the PTR client is only 480MB big, because it uses primarily WoW retail data files and substitutes what it needs to change.
Classic is likely to be another folder under the World of Warcraft directory like _ retail _ and _ ptr _ are, which will where possible steal resources from the retail client.
It will either be a separate icon in the Battle Net Launcher list, or a different section in the WoW Account list like the PTR accounts are. If there is a Classic Beta/PTR, its likely to be a fourth section, which is why I think its more likely to have its own icon.
That said, Beta/PTRs will be short and sweet, testing only that the changes they made work, not that the content is balanced or such. This isn’t retail where they’re making it up as they go along. They’re simply testing that they redeployed it correctly.
2 Likes
Classic was prototyped on the Legion client. They said that they would be using the same client delivery pathways as Retail, and had to make some modifications so that the changes to Classic didn’t hit the Retail client. That makes it sound more like the Classic client will continue to gain bugfixes and security patches in the same way that Retail does.
Otherwise the first major security flaw that Retail patches will be exploited forever on Classic.
And it’ll likely remain on the Legion client because unlike BFA, the Legion client still supports blob shadows. Blob shadows were the ONLY shadows back in Vanilla, and if Blizzard are bent on re-creating the original graphics options… well… I don’t see them upgrading to a client that gets rid of a key part of the original graphics.
They’re already heavily modifying the graphics to work in Classic. More likely than being stuck in an unpatchable frozen client, they’ll simply ensure that the graphics that support Blob shadows are reintroduced into the BfA client, if they were ever removed at all. It’s plausible, BfA just doesn’t allow you to use the simplified shadows, but the code for it is still there, since they knew they’d need it for Classic.
Considering the Legion client they’re using is just as capable of connecting to the modern server architecture as the BFA client, why would they waste time replicating all the work they already did, on the BFA client?
I think they’ll just patch both games when the architecture changes again.
Because modern software development dictates writing code once, not twice. They aren’t replicating the work they did on the BfA client, unless they have two copies of the client, and we already know that the Classic client will be integrated into their normal product CMS. They had to write specific changes to ensure that the changes they made to the Classic Client didn’t end up in Retail. That says they’re using the same changes from Retail in the Classic client too.
Otherwise they would have just forked the entire product and never the twain shall meet.
It makes more sense to keep the Classic client updated with the Retail security and bug fixes, to ensure that those same exploits can’t be used on a Classic client frozen at 7.3.5.