Disclaimer - my memory may be too foggy to remember similar systems in the past, let alone at this scale. So corrections or other examples welcome.
Something I’ve especially noticed with TWW is Blizzard showing, and should continue to show, the supposed/relative the strength and rarity of various enemies through in game content and play rather than them just telling us, adding a little more immersion to our play throughs.
What do I exactly mean by this? Throughout TWW questing we’ve had a greater variety in the archetypes of enemies we face. The ‘new’ one I’ve noticed typically path between other generic mobs or are placed precariously between them adding another level of danger. Their health and damage pools are larger, and typically have more dangerous abilities. Pulling one, if unprepared or too overconfident, can mean a wipe. They’re not rares, not elites, not explicit quest objectives, just plain NPCs with slightly higher pools of everything. To me, this is a great example of story telling within with this medium. It showcases a level of relative strength, prestige, and rarity of the enemies you encounter, it also tells you a bit about a factions hierarchy. It adds flavor.
What is an example of this? How this translates into narrative? In what got me noticing the most was Azj-Kahet. Three instances here:
- City of Threads - more obvious, and very similar to Suramar, are the elite/leader ascended looking to sniff you out. Elites are elites of course, but there are non-elite pathing ascended in The Transformatory who still pack a punch and getting a bit too close can be a slip up. These specific enemies still only make up a minority, fitting them into this category.
- Siegehold - Very similar to the above, little more needs to be said.
- Rak-Zakaz - Kaheti Overseers, 4 legged, 4 armed, tall, leader like nerubians, pacing between the skirmishers and other enemies. These are the ones that really got me thinking. While not particularly dangerous, still a nice flavored touch.
It shows diversity, it shows strength, you experience danger, you are humbled in a way from being the world saving hero you are now, to an everyday* schmuck who has to watch their surrounds. You can’t just pull everything and, blow some CDs, and win. Obviously this changes as we progress, but bare with me here/focus on launch.
This can/should be extended to the rest of the enemies and factions we come into contact with using a mix of general lore and some old RTS designs. We shouldnt be running into mass quest fodder mobs of Blood Knights, tauren braves, 7th Legion, etc. That tauren brave (or really any tauren) in the middle of peons and orc grunts should give you pause. Mr. Beef has 3x the health pool and hits like a brick with an AOE stun. We can replace grunts with footmen and Mr Beef with a paladin blue side. We should see 3 footman (generic full on enemy units, not tiny swarm ones) trying to take on one brave, and still possibly losing. Every 7th Legion unit should have elite status because they are, supposedly, Stormwind/the Alliances elite. Lets showcase the difference between the Deathguard (Forsaken’s generic soldier) and the Dreadguard (the Forsaken’s elite soldier). The list can go on.
This also requires selectively and properly using a lot of the above mentions. The 7th Legion should not be everywhere, nor should the Dreadguard. We know Blizzard does not care about numbers, but there should not be entire armies of Blood Knights or dreanei Vindicators that just get wiped out by murder hobos. There is hardly a handful of either left, they’re not out there dime a dozen. Blood Knights too only allowed a finite amount of members, requiring killing a member to gain their insignia (though it is stated they no longer practice this, I’ve found no direct source on it). Just to say, probably shouldnt see a legion of them getting mowed down every other patch.
Of course all this requires some delicate balancing of numbers to get that feeling of danger and prestige, but changing a 1 to a 2, or adding a 0, is far easier than rewriting the whole script.
These of course aren’t hard and fast rules, but examples as to how they can, and should, continue to showcase story telling through game play.