In particular, they discuss the Voidforge Bonus Roll issue causing players to receive duplicate items and subsequent refund, which was already the subject of a lengthy follow-up bluepost. In both the initial post and newest interview, the developers cite a difference in live databases compared to their test environments, but while this particular system wasn't ever actually testable by players on the PTR, many bugs which were identified on the PTR still weren't fixed before launch, which feels to be a growing trend with the fast-paced release schedule.
There was a case where the Voidforge was giving duplicate items. You were supposed to not be able to get the same items and this was a bug... with the way that we have our testing and PTR setup right now was actually sort of unfindable in QA and unfindable in PTR, because the way it works. There was just a bug in code. It happens sometimes. You know, humans write code.
There's a bug where the punch card which saves what you have gotten from a particular boss is being saved to a realm, as opposed to the entire realm list, the entire region. Our QA is one realm on one realm list. On live, it's many realms on a realm list. And so, this is sort of where that bug came from. We identified it pretty quickly and put a stop to it. But in the future what we need to make sure is like well it's not okay that that bug can't be found before we get to a live environment right, and so and this is the first case where we have had a bug in that sort of class of bugs. So this is the type of thing that we're looking at.
A Buggy Mess
Blizzard has heard loud and clear from players, there were more bugs than acceptable in this patch and it's something they're taking very seriously. Most of the large issues have already been dealt with, but they'll continue to squash the rest as soon as possible.
When these issues come up, the best thing they can do is fix them quickly and identify the potholes so that they don't reoccur again later. That's what the team is focused on right now, so that fewer bugs escape in the future.
The duplicate Voidforge bonus rolls issue was caused by a difference in Blizzard's test environment from live servers, which is something that they will be paying more attention to in the future.
A lot of players just use PTR as a sort of early access, but there are also a lot of great testers in the community who report on issues and help squash bugs, but something like the bonus roll issue wouldn't have appeared on the PTR anyway, due to the difference in setup from live servers.
Split Raid Content Pacing
The 12.0.5 patch is more like a third, rather than the halfway point of the season. Normally, it's our first check-in after the big story drops, though the split raid setup of Midnight has had continual storylines almost every week.
The team is really excited about the three raid execution. When the idea was first pitched, the encounter team thought they were crazy, but it's actually been really cool, especially as each one has felt distinct from the others.
Initial designs had March on Quel'Danas coming a week after we actually got it, with more storyline lead-up time, but they heard feedback that it would harm the pacing of progression, and so they ended up pushing it forward.
Nothing specific to announce at this point, but future split raid tiers are not off the table and the team is thinking about how they could do it even better in the future.
The environment changes were also an important aspect. Seeing the world change together as players progress through makes it feel like time is actually passing in game. It's a touchy subject, because players can be very sensitive about not having immediate access to content they know is otherwise ready to go, but being part of the story and spectacle helped rationalize it.
Gear progression has gone a little faster than Blizzard expected (though not a whole lot more). player at the highest end aren't really gearing much faster than they have in the past, but those in the middle and lower end are. Gearing up faster may open up more opportunities, but while players are hitting their item level goals a little faster, the team has also been keen on giving them other things to focus on with minigames and housing as well.
Decor Duels
Decor duels are a marriage of two different systems, sort of like Trial of Style, both born out of a desire to try cool things that aren't necessarily related to the ongoing narrative. A prop hunt makes sense in a world where they just added a ton of decor to the game, and they've seen players having a lot of fun with it.
They saw a lot of awesome player stories emerge out of housing quests. Encouraging other players to visit each others houses, even randomly through the group finder was great. They'd love to engineer more reasons for players to visit each other's houses in the future too.
Flexible Mythic Difficulty
The upcoming flexible Mythic raid difficulty for the Sporefall raid in Patch 12.0.7 is a test, an opportunity for AOTC groups who don't have the flexibility to reliably field 20 players. They want to see how players feel about it, whether it feels too easy or hard, and assuming players like it... who knows where they'll go from there.
Players have gotten better and better at knocking out Heroic raids and Blizzard has heard them asking for something a little harder, but not as restrictive as the current 20 player requirement, so that's what they're working on.
Story & Customization
The story being told in the campaign is pretty serial - a number of things happen in a particular order meant to show the major moves and shakes. There's the thread of the Voidstorm, the Darkwell, the elves overcoming their long-held prejudices. It can't get into all the nuance though, which is where local stories and interactions come into play.
Don't hold your breath for any detailed amani troll customization coming anytime soon, but the team will keep listening to feedback. It was a good opportunity to tie a cosmetic reward to a storyline, which isn't something they get to do very often, but they understand some players were hoping for a little bit more.
Keystone Myth
When it comes to mounts in particular, they're cautious about the double-edged sword of giving out unique mounts for difficult achievements, since they don't want to feel like it's too far out of reach for certain collectors. There are pros and cons to unique rewards, but in this case, it's an opportunity for players to get legacy rewards that were no longer accessible. This is the first time they've done a Keystone Myth, so they're not necessarily locked into the approach for future seasons though.
It's also a response to players hitting their goals. Not only did they gear up a little faster, they also started reaching Keystone Hero and Legends faster, so the team has given them something new to strive for.
Non-Disruptive Tuning
Brewmaster is a little bit ahead right now, and the team is still working on tuning. The beginning of a season typically has a pretty broad distribution of different tanks and healers, though a meta inevitably forms. It's arguably healthy for a social game, but while the meta for tanks and healers came a little earlier this season, they don't think that heavily nerfing Brewmaster down is necessarily the right decision. What's more likely is they make "light touches" to Brewmaster and the other tanks to bring them closer together instead, introducing as little disruption as possible.
Ultimately, they measure tuning success based on whether players are capable of reaching major goals in the game. If they can complete Myth+10, Keystone Legend, Myth, etc. As long as they're able to do that with all the tanks and healers, they're going to try to tune in a way that's as non-disruptive as possible.
