It's odd, but for me, the killer feature of Mists is your farm at Halfhill.
I've played games which had player housing, and similar cosmetic structures, and I've never really done anything with them. I've bought the land or house, maybe added one decoration, and then never bothered with it again.
So why is Farmer Yoon's farm so different?
I think it's because the farm is useful.
I like logging in and harvesting vegetables to level cooking. Or planting crops for various quests. Or planting crops to get raw materials for professions or even Motes of Harmony.
It's like you don't need to farm mats anymore, you can just "farm" them. Very zen.
I like upgrading the farm, and making it more useful. I like that there's a "rhythm" to the farm. Log in, harvest today's crops, plant tomorrow's crops. Simple, and yet feels just right.
I even like getting the cosmetic features like the dog. It's like player housing, but making it actually useful instead of just cosmetic was the element that put it over the top.
Excellent work on the farm and the Tillers, Blizzard.
I hope the next expansion sees an expanded farm system, maybe near Stormwind, that is more integrated into the game as an evergreen feature, rather than just an expansion-only feature.
I agree, I never thought I would like the Farmville thing, but I am enjoing it immensely, which is surprising.
ReplyDeleteBut of course there is the gambling addictive aspect in it for me too as I hope every day for a Terrible Turnip...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the success of Halfhill means that Blizzard might have to review their stance on player housing. I don't know anyone who doesn't love the Tillers, and I love decorating my farm, and wish there were more options for it.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure people would be happy to have their homes at the farm, with more decoration options, and still be out in the world. I know that the latter point was always quoted as one of their main reasons for not having player housing. As if everyone just hanging out in Orgrimmar/Stormwind in Cata's World of Queuecraft was any better.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteThe Tillers is the first reputation I have raised to exalted. Even if I mostly farm spirits of harmony, it's a relaxing change of pace from killkillkillkill.
The Tillers dailies tend also to be better than the others.
At the same time, I will soon celebrate 1 year of playing the settlers online, so it's probably not a suprise that I liked the farm :P
Companion crafting was one of the things that I really did like about SW:ToR. Combine that with the farm concept and I think you can do interesting things.
ReplyDeleteNot something that could be done in WoW, the economy and craft system is wrong, but it would be more engaging rework of the basic craft trades. Want minerals? Go find a mine (of the correct type), do a lot of questing to clear it out and get things started. Need to refine the minerals? Same thing, but you need to find a suitable foundry. Do the same for the finishing trades. A lot of details would need to be worked but it would still feel better than "my Death Knight, the Blacksmith".
YES.
ReplyDeleteEverything about the Tillers is awesome. I actually cared about helping them out and expanding my farm. Blizzard knocked it out of the park with that one. Hopefully it will inspire them to do similar things elsewhere in the game.
My wife said the other day that she wished that we could farm stuff from the animals on the farm. Her example was with Shaggy the Yak (he's an awesome yak). We should be able to sheer him and make yak wool to make other stuff. There are lots of possibilities.
The only problem I have with Halfhill is the market and how there's always some ahole covering up a quest giver or vendor on purpose.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/09/24/interact-with-target-keybind-gets-you-past-players-atop-npcs/
ReplyDeleteThe game has an "Interact with target" option to keybind. Set that to something, type /tar "name of vendor" and press the keybind to get around the D-bags. Usually just the first few letters of the vendor's name is enough, so you don't have to type the whole name out.
Sounds dumb, but I can't stop clicking on Shaggy. He's got about 6 different sounds, all vaguely flatulent. I love my yak.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree, I've found the farm very useful, and often made >1000g a day even at honored in the initial rush for people to level cooking. Still pulling in >600g a day with Spirit farming.
ReplyDelete