I joined the creative team on Wizard101 this past year, and Polaris is the first world I’ve worked on. I wanted to hop on the forums to introduce myself and share a few thoughts. First, I should say how great it’s been to join this world-class team with some of the most creative people I’ve met in the game industry. I can tell you straight up that Wizard101 has a team of champions working every day to improve the game, to expand its systems, and to bring you exciting new adventures. Equally important, however, is the fact that it wouldn’t be possible without such a strong community. To see a game like this with such a dedicated following even after several years… it’s really something special, and it’s you guys who make it that way.
We’ve been working on Polaris for some time now, and we’re super-pleased that it’s up on the test realm now so you guys can check it out. We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the feedback. Rest assured, we read it, we discuss it, and we try to figure out ways to address it when possible. Some of you have commented that Polaris seems shorter than previous worlds, and though part of that is a matter of combat balancing (which is still in progress), part of it is also because we’ve adopted a slightly different approach to narrative and quest design, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today and invite you to weigh in.
For better or worse, we’ve tried to streamline the main quests to focus more tightly on the narrative. For those of you interested in the storyline, we wanted you to be able to play through the world without being sidetracked as often with the problems of minor characters. You’ll notice fewer times when you enter a new zone and are given a main quest to “kill 5 x and collect y”. Our intention is that there still will be side quests to “fill out” the experience in these areas and offer you the chance to engage in offbeat stories with offbeat characters (I highly recommend checking them out, in fact, because they’re really funny). Of course, we still want every quest to feel unique, meaningful, and worth your time. We hope this makes the story more immersive, and that the characters feel well-developed and like they're part of the world and not just there to give you a random task.
Ultimately though, we want to hear what you think. We can only make so many changes to Polaris at this point, but your feedback would definitely help influence our approach, if there was perhaps… another world coming at some undetermined day in the future. Perhaps. Maybe. No promises. About anything. Ever.
Look forward to hearing more from you guys and engaging in this grand adventure together.
I joined the creative team on Wizard101 this past year, and Polaris is the first world I’ve worked on. I wanted to hop on the forums to introduce myself and share a few thoughts. First, I should say how great it’s been to join this world-class team with some of the most creative people I’ve met in the game industry. I can tell you straight up that Wizard101 has a team of champions working every day to improve the game, to expand its systems, and to bring you exciting new adventures. Equally important, however, is the fact that it wouldn’t be possible without such a strong community. To see a game like this with such a dedicated following even after several years… it’s really something special, and it’s you guys who make it that way.
We’ve been working on Polaris for some time now, and we’re super-pleased that it’s up on the test realm now so you guys can check it out. We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the feedback. Rest assured, we read it, we discuss it, and we try to figure out ways to address it when possible. Some of you have commented that Polaris seems shorter than previous worlds, and though part of that is a matter of combat balancing (which is still in progress), part of it is also because we’ve adopted a slightly different approach to narrative and quest design, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today and invite you to weigh in.
For better or worse, we’ve tried to streamline the main quests to focus more tightly on the narrative. For those of you interested in the storyline, we wanted you to be able to play through the world without being sidetracked as often with the problems of minor characters. You’ll notice fewer times when you enter a new zone and are given a main quest to “kill 5 x and collect y”. Our intention is that there still will be side quests to “fill out” the experience in these areas and offer you the chance to engage in offbeat stories with offbeat characters (I highly recommend checking them out, in fact, because they’re really funny). Of course, we still want every quest to feel unique, meaningful, and worth your time. We hope this makes the story more immersive, and that the characters feel well-developed and like they're part of the world and not just there to give you a random task.
Ultimately though, we want to hear what you think. We can only make so many changes to Polaris at this point, but your feedback would definitely help influence our approach, if there was perhaps… another world coming at some undetermined day in the future. Perhaps. Maybe. No promises. About anything. Ever.
Look forward to hearing more from you guys and engaging in this grand adventure together.
Rob “Fitzhume” Chestney
Welcome! It's always nice to see new employees for out beloved KingsIsle! My opinion in the story is that it's......well...........PERFECT!!! However, the system needs major improvements. The new critical/block system does nothing but harm the game even more. The current system is much less random and reliable in PvE than the new one. The creatures (mostly only the bosses) need their health to be significantly increased, as when the critical is fixed, they can be defeated in 1 Round by a team of 4, and we don't want that. Spells, spells. This is only the second time I've seen such underwhelming and underpowered spells since Avalon (many of the spells were basically useless, but have been made useful, which I hope happens this time again). Furthermore, the graphics are more than amazing! I can tell P101's graphics made it to W101. Now for the best feature of this expansion, The Arcanum: Best. Place. Ever. I can't express how excited I am to study more in there, and I'm even more excited to visit the Astral and Shadow magic scholars! For the last note, I appreciate the nice critical boots and amazing decks that can help a lot in PvP, mainly for the sweet block percentage they provide. Thank you very much for those amazing additions to the game, and keep up the good work!!! (P.S. Please apply the spell and crit system changes as soon as you can, I'm so excited to try PvP in test!)
I joined the creative team on Wizard101 this past year, and Polaris is the first world I’ve worked on. I wanted to hop on the forums to introduce myself and share a few thoughts. First, I should say how great it’s been to join this world-class team with some of the most creative people I’ve met in the game industry. I can tell you straight up that Wizard101 has a team of champions working every day to improve the game, to expand its systems, and to bring you exciting new adventures. Equally important, however, is the fact that it wouldn’t be possible without such a strong community. To see a game like this with such a dedicated following even after several years… it’s really something special, and it’s you guys who make it that way.
We’ve been working on Polaris for some time now, and we’re super-pleased that it’s up on the test realm now so you guys can check it out. We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the feedback. Rest assured, we read it, we discuss it, and we try to figure out ways to address it when possible. Some of you have commented that Polaris seems shorter than previous worlds, and though part of that is a matter of combat balancing (which is still in progress), part of it is also because we’ve adopted a slightly different approach to narrative and quest design, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today and invite you to weigh in.
For better or worse, we’ve tried to streamline the main quests to focus more tightly on the narrative. For those of you interested in the storyline, we wanted you to be able to play through the world without being sidetracked as often with the problems of minor characters. You’ll notice fewer times when you enter a new zone and are given a main quest to “kill 5 x and collect y”. Our intention is that there still will be side quests to “fill out” the experience in these areas and offer you the chance to engage in offbeat stories with offbeat characters (I highly recommend checking them out, in fact, because they’re really funny). Of course, we still want every quest to feel unique, meaningful, and worth your time. We hope this makes the story more immersive, and that the characters feel well-developed and like they're part of the world and not just there to give you a random task.
Ultimately though, we want to hear what you think. We can only make so many changes to Polaris at this point, but your feedback would definitely help influence our approach, if there was perhaps… another world coming at some undetermined day in the future. Perhaps. Maybe. No promises. About anything. Ever.
Look forward to hearing more from you guys and engaging in this grand adventure together.
Rob “Fitzhume” Chestney
Greetings, Librarian Fitzhume, and I welcome you, to the forums & for being part of KI's MMO Live Team.
Thanks for sharing all this with us, even with the reason of why Polaris is being shorter than previous worlds, in terms of questing, of course, & you're totally right about that. That felt kinda good to focus on the narrative and story without being pulled away by minor characters with small random tasks, not like many in previous worlds, like Khrysalis with Taylor Coleridge's ghost crew. I also noticed the instance quests in Polaris being singular long quests & adventures instead of being divided into quest chains, & I like it. I can think that this may go for later instance quests to come.
My thoughts, in the next world, there should be more new Zones added, making it more longer than Polaris while retaining that different approach you mentioned & up the level cap by a few more levels than 10.
I even got the Rasputin Combat Theme scroll as a loot drop, & it's very amazing to have a combat theme for a specific boss enemy, though, it's been long since that occurred in Aquila, for some of it's bosses, anyway, but, I'm not going to play it until I've reached him, just to save the surprise.
I can hope that while the next world comes out, there may be some time for the team to go back & add in new boss combat themes to previous worlds' bosses(though, if more new boss combat themes for other bosses get added, too, I'm fine with it), & add in new special combat themes for Malistaire in DS(with a new duel against his final form added after his normal, too) & Morganthe in KH(with a new duel with her normal form added before the duel against all her forms, too), 'cause they're the End-of-Arc Villains, & they should have their own specific combat themes, even with going through many forms, especially their final forms.
Nevertheless, I look forward to more of what's to come for W101 & beyond!
BTW, I hope you get to see the Pirate side of the Spiral sometime soon.
I joined the creative team on Wizard101 this past year, and Polaris is the first world I’ve worked on. I wanted to hop on the forums to introduce myself and share a few thoughts. First, I should say how great it’s been to join this world-class team with some of the most creative people I’ve met in the game industry. I can tell you straight up that Wizard101 has a team of champions working every day to improve the game, to expand its systems, and to bring you exciting new adventures. Equally important, however, is the fact that it wouldn’t be possible without such a strong community. To see a game like this with such a dedicated following even after several years… it’s really something special, and it’s you guys who make it that way.
We’ve been working on Polaris for some time now, and we’re super-pleased that it’s up on the test realm now so you guys can check it out. We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the feedback. Rest assured, we read it, we discuss it, and we try to figure out ways to address it when possible. Some of you have commented that Polaris seems shorter than previous worlds, and though part of that is a matter of combat balancing (which is still in progress), part of it is also because we’ve adopted a slightly different approach to narrative and quest design, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today and invite you to weigh in.
For better or worse, we’ve tried to streamline the main quests to focus more tightly on the narrative. For those of you interested in the storyline, we wanted you to be able to play through the world without being sidetracked as often with the problems of minor characters. You’ll notice fewer times when you enter a new zone and are given a main quest to “kill 5 x and collect y”. Our intention is that there still will be side quests to “fill out” the experience in these areas and offer you the chance to engage in offbeat stories with offbeat characters (I highly recommend checking them out, in fact, because they’re really funny). Of course, we still want every quest to feel unique, meaningful, and worth your time. We hope this makes the story more immersive, and that the characters feel well-developed and like they're part of the world and not just there to give you a random task.
Ultimately though, we want to hear what you think. We can only make so many changes to Polaris at this point, but your feedback would definitely help influence our approach, if there was perhaps… another world coming at some undetermined day in the future. Perhaps. Maybe. No promises. About anything. Ever.
Look forward to hearing more from you guys and engaging in this grand adventure together.
Rob “Fitzhume” Chestney
Welcome Mr."Fitzhume". Glad to see that KI continues to add folks to their already excellent team. To say that I'm excited about Polaris would be an understatement. In fact, the glimmer of a new world in the immediate future has spurred me to finally get my highest ranked wizard through Khrysalis in order to be ready and waiting when Polaris goes on-line. I'm purposely not trying the test realm for this because I want to be totally surprised and hopefully amazed at Polaris. I can't help but read the forums though... one wouldn't want to get caught completely off guard for the new content. Bosses with pets, new cheats, new spells, evil penguins, bread crumbs, fishing tournaments... what more could a wizard ask for? I'm glad the focus of the story line has been narrowed for the sake of clarity. Makes perfect sense. I enjoy side quests a lot but it does cloud the story somewhat trying to sort everything out. And unfortunately the same old trick has been used time and time again... "the (insert bad guys here) stole my (insert item here), could you retrieve it for me"... it does get old but to make it any more complicated I suppose would even further muddle the story. But I'm rambling.... anyway, I need to go defeat some more bugs so I can head to the cold country when it's ready. Again, welcome aboard and get busy working on that even newer, un-promised potential new world that might, perhaps, one day maybe show up at some undetermined day in the future. Or not.
I did enjoy the storyline allot when I played through the world on test, and though this is probably not your area of expertise, I do have a question regarding the final boss of Polaris. Was the idea of giving the fight a time limit intended to be a part of the storyline? I assume that it was but still I want to get your thoughts on it right here.
With the new arc started, will this may address with the theft of Bartleby's Eye of History? I had some thoughts that the theft of his Eye of History leads to drastic consequences, & it would be up to us Wizards to get that Eye back before more consequences occur. It is important to him, after all, other than it was already stolen by Malistiare, though, I'm not sure what he did with it afterwards, yet, that could lead to a big scheme involving it someday...
Well, I hope this gets taken care of once and for all. That Eye cannot be left unchecked forever, you know.
BTW, when you said, "We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums...", does that also count to the Pirate101 forums, too? I hope you may take some time to read P101's forums there time to time. I've sent in some of my feedback & thoughts there, including my thoughts about Cool Ranch's quests & adventures. I know you'll like them once you read them, if you wish to.
I wonder how good you would look in pirate clothing in your profile portrait there... Professor Falmea's profile pic in there looked good. She knows how to get into the pirate spirit & retain her Pyromancy spirit.
I did enjoy the storyline allot when I played through the world on test, and though this is probably not your area of expertise, I do have a question regarding the final boss of Polaris. Was the idea of giving the fight a time limit intended to be a part of the storyline? I assume that it was but still I want to get your thoughts on it right here.
Indeed. Without referencing any spoilers, because of the nature of what's happening story-wise during that fight, it made sense that the player(s) would need to end it before something bad happened.
With the new arc started, will this may address with the theft of Bartleby's Eye of History? I had some thoughts that the theft of his Eye of History leads to drastic consequences, & it would be up to us Wizards to get that Eye back before more consequences occur. It is important to him, after all, other than it was already stolen by Malistiare, though, I'm not sure what he did with it afterwards, yet, that could lead to a big scheme involving it someday...
Well, I hope this gets taken care of once and for all. That Eye cannot be left unchecked forever, you know.
BTW, when you said, "We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums...", does that also count to the Pirate101 forums, too? I hope you may take some time to read P101's forums there time to time. I've sent in some of my feedback & thoughts there, including my thoughts about Cool Ranch's quests & adventures. I know you'll like them once you read them, if you wish to.
I wonder how good you would look in pirate clothing in your profile portrait there... Professor Falmea's profile pic in there looked good. She knows how to get into the pirate spirit & retain her Pyromancy spirit.
You know, I've been wondering what Malistaire did with it as well, and whether it would even be possible for someone to recover it. There might even be subtle hints to its relevance somewhere in Polaris, but as to whether or not we'll actually find out what happened to the Eye... well, only Time can tell.
Welcome! This is what I have to say on the subject of Polaris bosses & mobs.
The lowest bosses have 12,000 health. 12,000. Bosses in Avalon have 12,000 health, and that was back all the way at level 70. Are you kidding me? I understand this is a kids game and the game shouldn't be too hard, but I think 20k health and above is more fitting. The term "end-game" is and the term "max level" exist for a reason, and bosses with 12k health don't accurately reflect how the difficulty of this world SHOULD be. I want a challenge Kingsisle, not a joke. Sure, don't make it 30k (that would bring us back to the extreme Azteca days) and sure don't make it 12k, but strike the hardcore and laid-back players a middle ground and bump the health of bosses to around 20k or higher.
Hello I'm Going to keep this simple.. Double the health on all mobs and bosses in Polaris..(I feel like I'm in Avalon) It's too easy. where is crafting? and the transmute recipes? what about a new loremaster for new spells (5 B.O.X.E.S) and steel giant for balance etc. skeleton key bosses are a must for new drops and spells. and welcome to the Wizard101 Team.
You know, I've been wondering what Malistaire did with it as well, and whether it would even be possible for someone to recover it. There might even be subtle hints to its relevance somewhere in Polaris, but as to whether or not we'll actually find out what happened to the Eye... well, only Time can tell.
Well, I wish nothing more than the best of luck, to all of us! One thing is certain, it's still out there somewhere, & we intend to find it & bring it back to him. I'm sure Merle Ambrose would want that done, anyway, & he would be very proud if we did.
I spotted Mr. Gandry from P101 in the Inn of the Midnight Sun in Polaris. I'm guessing that during W101's events, P101's events occurred in-between, & he & Boochbeard, which his hat was there, 'cause he's around there somewhere doin' his usual pilfering & pirating for loot, by the way, were visiting there, likely some time after it's first story arc(still yet-to-be finished) & beyond, yes? I love P101. Still waiting for it's long overdue next story update there, though, but that's different & for another time.
I've loved the storyline, although we have a few loose ends I presume will be tied up later. Did I miss something or did we never diagnose & cure Bartleby?
I don't think I could have explained why, but I absolutely felt the gameplay was more immersive, more organic - to use a hippie dippie explanation. It has been many worlds sindlce the story and the playing coalesced this well for me. Bravo!
From a creative perspective, this is second only to Wizard City to me. Your team has done an excellent job.
The best compliment I can pay, that in spite of (now) completely understanding WHY Polaris is "short", I still want more.
Welcome! What a fantastic start! Polaris is a blast. Love the story, visual design, music, and the way it all fits together.
Gameplay needs work - dropping both our stats and creature difficulty must have seemed like a good idea to some one, but it's not the right way to 'extend' the game. I know that's being discussed in other threads, so I won't belabor it here.
I like the challenging boss fights though. Interesting stuff there.
Welcome! This is what I have to say on the subject of Polaris bosses & mobs.
The lowest bosses have 12,000 health. 12,000. Bosses in Avalon have 12,000 health, and that was back all the way at level 70. Are you kidding me? I understand this is a kids game and the game shouldn't be too hard, but I think 20k health and above is more fitting. The term "end-game" is and the term "max level" exist for a reason, and bosses with 12k health don't accurately reflect how the difficulty of this world SHOULD be. I want a challenge Kingsisle, not a joke. Sure, don't make it 30k (that would bring us back to the extreme Azteca days) and sure don't make it 12k, but strike the hardcore and laid-back players a middle ground and bump the health of bosses to around 20k or higher.
Thanks.
You know that if they do, they'll just add more health & damage value increases & other stat increases to new higher level gear in Polaris to balance that out.
Such greater threats must come with greater gear & greater powers to repel against them.
Hello I'm Going to keep this simple.. Double the health on all mobs and bosses in Polaris..(I feel like I'm in Avalon) It's too easy. where is crafting? and the transmute recipes? what about a new loremaster for new spells (5 B.O.X.E.S) and steel giant for balance etc. skeleton key bosses are a must for new drops and spells. and welcome to the Wizard101 Team.
You mean the KI MMO Live Team. There's not a separate team for W101 any longer. Only one team working on their MMO games, W101 & P101. Read Professor Falmea's recent Producer's Letters for W101 & P101 to learn more about that.
Welcome! What a fantastic start! Polaris is a blast. Love the story, visual design, music, and the way it all fits together.
Gameplay needs work - dropping both our stats and creature difficulty must have seemed like a good idea to some one, but it's not the right way to 'extend' the game. I know that's being discussed in other threads, so I won't belabor it here.
I like the challenging boss fights though. Interesting stuff there.
Nor would adding in quests with other minor characters in a few Zones in a new world the main storyline.
Maybe they should make & place in more Zones in the next world, more than any in the previous worlds while retaining that mentioned approach Fitzhume mentioned. I really like that approach. It kind of reflects P101's approach with their quest designing, only except in P101, their quests have many more goals than any previous quests' smaller goal amounts, even to W101's previous worlds' quests, too, some of which have us completing more than just one instance & their instance quests themselves at once, and I would like of KI to keep it that way, in W101, of course, & maybe bring it over to past worlds from the 1st & 2nd arcs.
The only thing about properly extending the game more is that while I like how Polaris' Zones are a bit larger in size, they should create & add more new Zones that should be a bit more larger & have some more sections in new later worlds, a couple more than before & up the level cap more than just 10 levels, to balance that out & satisfy many who still seek more adventures.
Wouldn't that be thrilling? Would be nice if W101 would go towards such a milestone like that, to have even more content than previous updates?
I recently finished the main quests of Polaris, and I have to say that I enjoyed them. Still due for some side questing, though! The pacing was nice, if a bit brisk at points. =P It was certainly enjoyable to see less filler quests. Memories of collecting teeth still haunt many of us to this day. One quest in particular even had us collect a wooden spoon from a bunch of gorillas. A wooden spoon!
I think the areas in the later half of Polaris became a little bit too fragmented, though. There were a bunch of spots where you'll have this tiny little area that leads into a dungeon. You come out of the dungeon into another tiny area and repeat this until the last of the main quests. That made it feel like it was going even faster than usual near the end. Maybe there could have been a little more to each area, or less dungeon choke points to make it feel a bit bigger.
I'm not as bothered by the enemies having lower health. They seem to have an increased amount of disruptive spells this time around. That said, it wouldn't hurt if they were a little meatier once you get past the 3v1 battles.
One neat little thing I think you could add is the ability to have a small chat with Mellori or Ivan after the quests in Polaris are done. They played a big role in our quests and it would be a small touch to help us feel a little more connected with the world.
Overall, the quests and environments in Polaris seemed pretty good. Would love to see more of this in the future. =)
1.) Please post often. As a Pirate101 player, I loved all the interaction that Blind Mew use to, and what Ratbeard still provides the fans over there. It would be really awesome if the "powers to be" allowed you to do the same here.
2.) I'm glad you all changed the main story quest setup. It is definitely more immersive without the all the collect/defeat quests as time sinks (but I still look forward to the "treats" in the side quests). As long as the main and side quests end up being the same in terms of total time played as previous worlds....it really doesn't matter in my opinion (since I do both anyways).
3.) I was definitely not expecting the introduction of Arcanum. The third arc is already starting off with a bang...keep it going.
Librarian Fitzhume, I have to say, I am extremely impressed with the Arcanum's wondrous design! It really makes one feel like they perfectly belong here with the celestial higher-ups & others. The one thing it would need is new dormitory rooms to really make those graduate Ravenwood Wizards feel completely right at home with these beings there, though they will probably miss their former professors in Wizard City, even Merle Ambrose, yet, we can still visit him at times.
Plus, I see that there are numerous doors that lead to numerous rooms beneath the Arcanum. I'm guessing the Arcanum will have many more new Zones & dungeons added as time goes on, right? I can presume that from the looks of it, the Arcanum is vastly expansive & complex in every direction through every path inside the celestial plane & the outer space itself. I'll bet the Arcanum is far, far larger than what I have seen by far. Even more. I sure can't wait to explore the many places the Arcanum has to offer, & many more adventures inside the Arcanum itself! Thanks for bringing in the Arcanum in with Polaris!
Welcome! This is what I have to say on the subject of Polaris bosses & mobs.
The lowest bosses have 12,000 health. 12,000. Bosses in Avalon have 12,000 health, and that was back all the way at level 70. Are you kidding me? I understand this is a kids game and the game shouldn't be too hard, but I think 20k health and above is more fitting. The term "end-game" is and the term "max level" exist for a reason, and bosses with 12k health don't accurately reflect how the difficulty of this world SHOULD be. I want a challenge Kingsisle, not a joke. Sure, don't make it 30k (that would bring us back to the extreme Azteca days) and sure don't make it 12k, but strike the hardcore and laid-back players a middle ground and bump the health of bosses to around 20k or higher.
Thanks.
Remember that while the bosses and mobs have AV health, the crit and block system has been changed/will change profoundly between AV and here.
That 12,000 looks small, but when you are getting crit on left right and center, by bosses and mobs alike, and NOT BLOCKING, it may well be 120,000. Because you will need to stop and heal, sometimes under doom, sometimes under -45% to -90% accuracy mantles.
Try soloing these guys and see what I mean. Clooso is "not your parents' fire miniboss." The storm bosses here aren't messing around. They will bugs, feeb, bugs, feeb. The ice guys will chain stun you and crit blizzard while you're passing. And those are just the little side bosses. The speed bumps on the way to Baba Yaga, as it were.
I am soloing the world on my storm as proof of concept. I want to experience the storyline at my own pace and look at the cheats, boss health, puzzles, and spell repertoires in depth before teaming for these areas. (They may change anyway - it's test right?) I've found some mob battles that are tougher than any single boss in all of AZ. I've found some minibosses that would put shane to shame for blade stacks. The docks are deceptively easy if you're spamming as part of a full team. Go by yourself and match wits with these "little guys".
Hi Librarian Fitzhume! that's great to see another KingsIsle team member fitting a new avatar to join the Wzard101 community! welcome! come closer, we rant and growl a lot but never bite, eh, eh, that's just tough love I guess
I didn't do the side quests anymore for a long time (too busy farming the last main bosses of each world) but this past year, with a another new account, I started again on all my new wizards and I can't wait to discover Polaris ones I'm still not sure if I should do them on Test Realm or wait Live Realm to avoid to spoil the surprises do some of them really need to be checked? like special side animations, etc that might glitch a little and where it would be nice to test before Live Realm?
also, about side quests, I really miss the early days of the 1st arc when they were leading to a final boss with unique drops (nothing much but a badge, a fancy housing item or a gear with a special look, no-auction, that makes us go back there to farm because it's the only place to find it) I still like to do the side quests for the fun stories and it can be handy for more XP (though, main quest is usually enough to get max now) but once done, there's no reason to go back there and it's a shame to waste all these side bosses eager to see our wizards more often may we see side quests giving special treats again?
oh and one more question, do you have any bored monkey siblings who would have fun joining our wizards as pets to discover the Spiral? eh, eh
I joined the creative team on Wizard101 this past year, and Polaris is the first world I’ve worked on. I wanted to hop on the forums to introduce myself and share a few thoughts. First, I should say how great it’s been to join this world-class team with some of the most creative people I’ve met in the game industry. I can tell you straight up that Wizard101 has a team of champions working every day to improve the game, to expand its systems, and to bring you exciting new adventures. Equally important, however, is the fact that it wouldn’t be possible without such a strong community. To see a game like this with such a dedicated following even after several years… it’s really something special, and it’s you guys who make it that way.
We’ve been working on Polaris for some time now, and we’re super-pleased that it’s up on the test realm now so you guys can check it out. We’ve been watching your videos and reading your comments here and on other forums, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the feedback. Rest assured, we read it, we discuss it, and we try to figure out ways to address it when possible. Some of you have commented that Polaris seems shorter than previous worlds, and though part of that is a matter of combat balancing (which is still in progress), part of it is also because we’ve adopted a slightly different approach to narrative and quest design, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today and invite you to weigh in.
For better or worse, we’ve tried to streamline the main quests to focus more tightly on the narrative. For those of you interested in the storyline, we wanted you to be able to play through the world without being sidetracked as often with the problems of minor characters. You’ll notice fewer times when you enter a new zone and are given a main quest to “kill 5 x and collect y”. Our intention is that there still will be side quests to “fill out” the experience in these areas and offer you the chance to engage in offbeat stories with offbeat characters (I highly recommend checking them out, in fact, because they’re really funny). Of course, we still want every quest to feel unique, meaningful, and worth your time. We hope this makes the story more immersive, and that the characters feel well-developed and like they're part of the world and not just there to give you a random task.
Ultimately though, we want to hear what you think. We can only make so many changes to Polaris at this point, but your feedback would definitely help influence our approach, if there was perhaps… another world coming at some undetermined day in the future. Perhaps. Maybe. No promises. About anything. Ever.
Look forward to hearing more from you guys and engaging in this grand adventure together.
I actually felt that the Penguin Revolution bit of the world was sufficient or even a bit too longer. It was after that when the quests seemed to progress rather quickly. I would like if the core narrative itself stretched a little further. If that's not possible, I'd say this: This is a perfect balance. We don't want to be collecting someone's missing shovel that was miraculously stolen by a street mob, but there are also a few moments where that'd be totally acceptable. One in particular in the sea lions in Urville Station, which we don't fight at all. It would have made sense in terms of the story to defeat them in the process of freeing the caged penguins. I like a rule used somewhat loosely in Avalon - we have one storyline quest dealing with any particular mob. So in Urville Station, there are guards and sea lions. There'd be no more and no fewer than one quest in the main story that required us to defeat so many of each.
As to the difficulty of Polaris, which is not necessarily the topic here but has been commented on multiple times, I found it extraordinarily refreshing. In fact, Polaris replaced Avalon as my all-time favorite world. Why? Because the Galleries were stressful. I have enough of that during the day. But fighting Rasputin and his guards was fun, which is why I started playing Wizard in the first place. That's not to say it was perfectly balanced in terms of difficulty, but I enjoyed it.
I have a question, can you tell us a rough estimate of when the next world will be out? I'm really hoping next spring! And my bet is that Mirage will be the next world.
Oh! I almost forgot one little thing, Librarian Fitzhume. It's from what I remember while I was recalling of how there are allies in the Council of Light in some worlds, both available & mentioned.
Before accepting the quest, "Light Shine Down", from Emperor Yoshihito in MooShu, before going to Avalon to get the Sword of Kings necessary to stop Morganthe & her Deck of Shadows, he mentions this, "The Council of Light has allies wherever there are those pure of heart: Avalon, Marleybone, Grizzleheim, Mirage... even Polaris." This led me to thinking, do we actually meet those mentioned Council of Light Allies in those worlds, especially Polaris? I didn't even see any allies from the Council anyway during the Morganthe storyline quests.
Perhaps we should have mentioned to some notable Polarians that the Wizards who graduated from Ravenwood & defeated Malistaire & Morganthe are also members of Merle Ambrose's Council of Light & perhaps recall some history with them in their days from long ago?
I don't know if that is mentioned in Polaris, but for right now, it would appear there are no mentions toward the Council of Light, nor of any mentioned allies there, during Polaris' main story quests. It's what I remembered while Avalon was the recent world at that time being.
Think this may be looked into one day? And will this be farther looked into the next world to come? I hope this may remind those who do or don't remember that. Just thought I should let you know.
My opinion in the story is that it's......well...........PERFECT!!! However, the system needs major improvements. The new critical/block system does nothing but harm the game even more. The current system is much less random and reliable in PvE than the new one.
