One of the major changes for World of Warcraft Forever will be how layering changes will work. It’s going to be easier than ever to understand, and it will make life easier for not just the casual player, but the hardcore players too. With megaservers as vastly populated as they are going to be, Blizzard needed to find a way to make it clear when the world is going to reload, and this change makes a lot of sense.
According to Blizzard Entertainment developer Kris Zierhut, the change to layering was primarily done for the Hardcore mode players, but all WoW Forever players will be able to take advantage of this system that automatically warns players of impending layering.
World of Warcraft Forever’s layer changes will be far clearer
World of Warcraft Forever has a new layering system that, while not everyone is a fan of it, nobody has experienced yet, so we’re reserving judgment. The way it’s going to work is that, when it’s time to refresh the world and layer it, there will be a pop up that gives players a three-minute warning, and a button to click that they’re safe, and ready.
That way, players don’t get caught somewhere, such as in a deep cave, or in the middle of a castle, and suddenly the world respawns around them. I can think of a bunch of times in WoW Classic when suddenly, I was surrounded, and the next thing I knew, I was running back to my dead body.
At this time, we don’t know if players will be able to layer hop, by picking a channel, or through a command like /layer
What’s the point of pop-ups for layer changes in World of Warcraft?
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The whole point of this change to layering in World of Warcraft Forever, according to Kris Zierhut, is because of Hardcore players. There are so many times when someone’s deep in a zone or cave, and suddenly all the monsters that they just killed respawn around them.
Hardcore is the most unforgiving way to play, and there’s nothing worse than being killed due to server layering. It’s something the player has zero control over. With this change, everyone will have a notification when a major respawn/layering change is going to take place.
While Hardcore won’t be available at launch, it is something the developers are prepared for well in advance. As someone who has died many times in really unfortunate respawn situations in Hardcore Classic, I’m curious to see how this will look and feel for myself.
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Edited by Jason Parker
