The War Within is a solid expansion so far, and Blizzard is preparing for the first major patch, which will take players to the trade capital of the goblins. The goblins have been part of Warcraft’s history since the real-time strategy games, but we haven’t always had the time to delve into their history or culture. With the next patch, dropping today and focused entirely on goblins, their capital, and finally getting to fight longtime antagonist Jastor Gallywix, it’s an exciting respite from the greater cosmic war we’ve been waging on Azeroth so far.
Polygon sat down with two Blizzard developers to dive deep into the new patch, its major features, and what players can expect from Undermined, a patch built around exploring Undermine.
Polygon: I’m personally excited for Undermined, as I have a couple of goblins and Kezan is one of my favorite starting zones. That has to be my first question — back in Kezan, during Cataclysm all those years ago, Gallywix got one over on us. Now, we’re taking the fight to him. What was it like preparing for this patch with that sense of anticipation?
Jordan Powers, lead prop artist: We haven’t had a chance to dive into goblin society or culture since Kezan, so this was really a big opportunity for us. We’re very, very eager to dive in and see what that looks like, because we haven’t done it in so long. We wanted to make sure we made something vibrant, distinct, and with the big payoff players are expecting visually when they think of goblins. There was definitely that sense of nostalgia we wanted to hit in the art and visuals we were crafting in the space, but we really wanted to crank it to 11 as well, because that’s something I think players have come to expect when they think of goblins. They tend to be kooky, crazy, zany, leaning into the fun aspects of storytelling, and we definitely see that in Undermine and the Liberation of Undermine raid.
Sean McCann, senior game designer: Just to touch a little bit on the build-up there, I think you’ll notice we have some more hints that underline what’s going to happen in the basic expansion. There are goblins running around in certain parts of the Ringing Deeps, some lead-up in the Siren Isles of a goblin presence, so I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better at building the anticipation of events in-game. If you don’t read anything at all, when Undermined does release, you’re like, Oh, that makes sense. They were doing these things all over the place, and now we get to see what’s going on.
Some players love the goblins, but they’ve also drawn some criticism as being a comic relief faction, in the margins compared to the elves and humans. Now that they’re getting their time in the sun with this full patch, how did the team solidify the goblin fantasy and respond to that feedback from fans?
Powers: We definitely wanted to make sure we had a good balance of, Are these still the goblins that you know? I think if we suddenly had them all be very serious, people would be like, This isn’t the goblins I’ve done my goblin story experience with. But we have some examples, like a really great short story about Gazlowe that came out, that let us explore the humanity of these goblins without removing the zaniness and the inventiveness.
So we had to go, OK, what are the implications of Gallywix? What are the implications of Gazlowe, who wants to make some good gold but realizes that you do that with these various things that go into making society better? He’s still a goblin at heart, but we basically dive into fleshing out these kinds of quirks that make them less of a caricature and more of a fully formed character. I think we’ll see a lot of that with Undermined.
Something else we’re seeing brought forward from Kezan is the DRIVE system. In the goblin starting zone, you have your own car. It’s a little basic compared to the ones we get access to in Undermined, but when did the team decide to have cars be a central mechanic and a major part of the patch? Were there any things that were maybe a little too ridiculous and had to get cut?
McCann: It was a blast bringing the cars to life. We knew very early on that we wanted to explore the goblin connection, their affinity, their love for all things vehicular and mechanical. The more we started fleshing out the Undermine space with streets and alleyways, it felt like a natural inclusion, and it was something we really, really wanted to explore. This is the industrial trade capital of the goblin empire, so cars and vehicles felt like a very natural fit into this.
When we were playtesting this stuff, very early, there were some times the hot rods did go a little too fast. We had to tweak that and tune it to find the right balance of it still feeling fun to zip through the streets or do donuts outside the Gallagio, but not snap-your-neck-back in terms of the speed they can reach.
The cartels are a very interesting part of Undermined, where they offer different business philosophies and takes on things. What can players expect from these cartels and making the choice to work with one of them?
Powers: The cartels do have their own unique theme, color identity, and shape language. There’s also the Darkfuse faction, which players will experience as they dive deeper into the Liberation of Undermine raid. Many of these factions have cool, unique themes. Some of them will be familiar to players, like the Steamwheedle and Venture Company have both been in the game since the beginning, but this was a cool opportunity to dial up their visuals and story in a different light. For example, this is the first time we’ve worked alongside the Venture Company; they’ve exclusively been an enemy faction. With other factions, like the Bilgewater and Blackwater cartels, the players will have to see what happens as they dive into the story.
The Worldsoul Saga is just starting off, and we’re in the first expansion with The War Within. In a traditional expansion, I think people would expect we’re going to go after and confront Xal’atath and continue the “main story” in a very straightforward way. Does the current three-expansion arc give everything more room to breathe? Is there more time to stop and explore Undermine?
McCann: I think the benefit of this is, everyone kind of knows the trajectory of where we’re going with this, but we do have more freedom to explore Undermine. There’s excitement of, Oh, OK, how is [Xal’atath] going to fit in? How is this going to tie in to the main storyline? It’s cool, interesting, and different, and I think it gives us a lot of excitement to play with these things at a more casual pace. We get to focus more on how we get there through all the expansions, and less of getting there as fast as humanly possible.
Liberation of Undermine is the upcoming raid, and I’m curious what the team has learned from the past few expansions of competitive raiding, the race to world first, and the new story mode feature. What are you bringing forward into this new raid?
McCann: Story mode was us experimenting, because historically, solo players didn’t get to experience what happens at the end of the raid. We saw the reaction from the previous patch, and people liked it a lot. We wanted to make sure we carried that over and continued with story mode.
Powers: We took a lot of feedback from players about things feeling samey, or running the same raid over and over again. There’s a lot of visual uniqueness to each encounter throughout the Liberation of Undermine, not just in the enemies you face but the areas you visit as you venture forward. It’s an eight-boss raid, and each space is incredibly unique. There’s a lot of really, really cool visuals that players are going to see as they venture in, and a lot of cool ambient storytelling tidbits.
I have to ask, how many times will we get to fight someone in a giant mech? I do feel as though that’s been a big goblin thing, and I’m curious how many fights are designed around that fantasy.
Powers: I can’t speak to specifics; I’m not an encounter designer. I will say there are several enemies in mechs: a giant mecha T. rex that fights a giant gorilla — which is a sentence I did not expect to be uttering today — and there’s Rick Reverb, who’s in a hovering DJ mount. There’s a giant scrapyard boss as well.
Something else I’ve noticed from players on the test realm is that there are goblin-specific lines and encounters. What kind of goblin content and conversations can we expect?
McCann: We have a lot of things flavored around goblins, both in delves and with the goblin civilians in Undermine having fun reactions to what people do in the area. For instance, if you start dancing in Undermine, goblins will walk over and start dancing with you and you can start a big dance party. If you die and you lie there, and don’t release, they’ll run over and see what happened in the area. And if you’re a gnome, we know there’s a whole history of goblins and gnomes clashing, so you’ll see reactions while you’re walking around every now and then if you’re a gnome.
The goblins are known for their big personalities. What’s your favorite character who isn’t a major NPC, but a humble shopkeeper or quest giver?
McCann: In one of the Delves with an underwater theme we have a minor character that will try and sell you a water-breathing potion for a very high price. It’s meant to help the players understand that there are things you can do to get around water-breathing, but you can ask them, “Hey, this is a really high price,” and they’ll tell you “Well, I definitely didn’t go to the auction house and jack up the price.”
Powers: The goblin you talk to to customize your G-99 Breakneck. He’s my favorite NPC to talk to, because when we were playtesting over and over, I kept going back to him to tinker my ride, to try and perfect my drifting, to do donuts, or zip through the streets way too fast.
Customization on the vehicles sounds fun, and I imagine it as similar to the Dragonflight system of upgrading your dragon. Will players be able to trick out their DRIVE car to suit their particular play style?
Powers: The upgrades aren’t strictly cosmetic. There are several different colors you can unlock that my team was lucky enough to work on and help bring them to life, which are cool, but as far as kitting out your engine and fuel tanks, there’s no associated visuals.
Is there room for a lot of skill expression while driving? Will there perhaps be players who make clutch maneuvers to get new records? Or is it meant to be very accessible and players will be moving at a similar level?
McCann: I think we definitely are looking for the goal of a skill floor where a lot of people can get in and enjoy it. You want to make sure that the drive system isn’t a thing when you hop in and it’s something you have to watch a million tutorials to be able to enjoy. You should be able to hop in and understand it. But just like with dragonriding, you’ll start to kind of learn the ins and outs of things. So there will be a curve, but the goal is that right away, it should just feel fantastic to zoom around and drive in.
The world quest system has become a bit of a chore to some players, with feedback about the amount of steps they can take. When it comes to Undermined and the day-to-day of people playing in it as an endgame zone, what does that look like?
McCann: We learned a lot of lessons from all the experiences you’ve had with world quests. I’ve been there for the feedback of, ‘We don’t like world quests that are five steps long.’ I think some of the benefits for endgame is that we have world quests, we have working with the different cartels, we have the DRIVE system, we have improvements to delves, and so you can experience Undermined by having a nice breadth of things you can participate in if you’re focused on solo play. For group content, we have the raid, the new Mythic Plus dungeons coming out, and so the goal is to have a very nice breadth of things and take all the learnings we’ve had from our previous endgame activities, and punch it up a bunch for Undermined.
Delves have been a popular feature so far. Can you share anything as to what scenarios players can expect?
McCann: We learned a lot from the delves in season 1; there’s a lot of goblin-focused delves right now, like there are goblins in the Waterworks, and while there’s no more poison in the air, they made things worse because there’s poison spewing in other places. There’s also some off-the-wall ones, like, we did a Dark Iron Dwarf who is trying to get some treasure with a mole machine to attack your enemies in the area, because the goblins are also trying to get to that treasure. There’s another really fun one we have, with the shenanigans of goblins trying to snake into the Underkeep and get to a shady black market business in that area.
Something I’m really excited about in delves is Brann being able to tank, because we now have the full spectrum of heal, DPS, and tanks specs for him. I’m excited to get in there with my Holy Priest and heal Tank Brann, or my Retribution Paladin with Healer Brann. That’s one of the things I think we did a really great job with.
This is more silly, but we have a story for season 2, with a new nemesis called the Underpin who believes he bought the deed to all the delves from someone named “Gallywax” and so on, but one of his biggest crimes is that he stole Brann’s hat. We can’t have Brann go around hatless. He just can’t do that! That would be obscene! So we randomized, like, 15 different hats he could wear, and with the way our tech works is that if you wipe in a delve, Brann changes hats. I’m really excited about seeing people’s reactions to what you can do when he does get his hat back and you defeat the nemesis.
Powers: On the art side of things, Undermine is a massive, sprawling urban metropolis and the heart of the goblin trade empire. There’s so much that goes into making a city for World of Warcraft, an incredible amount of detail that the art team has put into Undermine, and I hope that players will stop and — well, smelling the roses isn’t the right thing to say. Smell the fake plants and trees.
Source：https://www.polygon.com/gaming/528545/world-warcraft-undermined-patch-dev-interview
