 A blue post came out yesterday if hey everyone I'm foibles also known as Tom What does he have two zeros under him? This is like his first post ever also known as Tom I'm a senior producer on the world of Warcraft server and live ops team And I would like to share what we're preparing for the realms of the upcoming launch of season of discovery You may have noticed with a launch of classic hardcore that there weren't a lot of realms was hardcore's launch a small experience Heck no hardcore continues to be experienced by huge number of players and we have been thrilled to see so many players New and old join in to experience world of Warcraft classic in a new exciting way at the outset of any launch Our goal has always been to create healthy enduring realms and behind the scenes We deployed tech in patch 1.14.4 is the current patch the classic era is on that allowed us to Significantly increase the realm capacity of a single classic era realm with this higher realm capacity in fewer realms We avoided the need for disruptive character migration options as realm populations ebbed and flow For season of discovery we're going to repeat this process and we will launch a handful of realms that can support a lot of players So you can feel confident in your choice of realm Please note we will actively manage the realm sizes at launch So you might see sporadic cues as the population spread out So you might see sporadic cues as the population spread out We ensure realm sizes remain roughly equal if season of discovery proves hugely popular as we think it might We will of course be ready with additional realms if needed Please look forward to the announcement of launch realm names and types and type soon TM another topic that comes up each time We talk about realms as faction balance on PvP realms. We've received a lot of feedback on this since 2019 We hear you and with season of discovery. We're going to try something new This season's PvP realms have been designed to maintain faction balance as they grow Yes, this is actually happening However, there is a potential cost to this faction balance that we want to make sure you're aware of if one faction is Significantly more dominant on a PvP realm There is a very real likelihood that faction selection may be temporarily limited on that realm that said our overarching goal for season of discovery is for it to be fun and smooth experience and We are prepared to change course if necessary your request for faction balance have been loud and clear This is a new direction for us and one that we're excited to try again This feature will only be turned on for our season of discovery PvP realms You will always be able to roll either faction as you wish on PvE realms We encourage everyone who isn't committed to the challenges and difficulties of PvP to consider a non PvP realm for season of discovery as an old Wow veteran myself. I can tell you playing on a balanced faction PvP realm can be a double-edged sword They there are awesome and fun new challenges that await But there are also potential for there's also the potential for hindrances that you may not expect your favorite farming spots Might be a bit more spicy than you're used to and we think this season is gonna be a lot of fun And these changes will help ensure every realm enjoys a great experience for all season long And we're excited and looking forward to adding some extra seasoning to season of discoveries PvP realms So what does that mean? Pog W good stuff. Yes Basically, what this means is that they're going to go in and they're gonna faction lock the realms if they get out of hand We saw this a lot in classic It really snowballed out of control and burning crusade and then then you started having this max mass Exodus of like a bunch of horde servers fell apart So then they all transferred to fair lina and then a bunch of alliance servers fell out fall apart So then they all transferred to benediction. I say hoarding alliance servers like you know horde dominant servers alliance dominant servers This is a very very important thing is a very big deal The reason why this happened is because they would not faction lock It was actually really annoying like blizzard was like scared to do anything I feel like blizzard was scared to do anything in vanilla and as time went on they got more and more hands-on with like What to do with with classic so like burning crusade came out and they made more adjustments for burning crusade and then wrath came out They've done like a bunch of stuff since then. Yeah, the general idea behind season discovery is Okay, don't be scared Just throw every go as far as possible throw everything at the wall see what happens see what sticks and then one of our classic Plus, you know whenever it's all said and done come out with like a classic plus Fresh you kind of take what you learned and you go from there So I think I think that's pretty much what what's gonna happen. That's that's the general idea behind season discovery I think that Faction locking the servers whenever they get out of hand that the balance is getting too bad is a good idea now Here that here are the cons here's the bad part of that if you have a friend that is going to start playing the game If you have somebody new to the game Then what's gonna happen? Hey our server has too many alliance you can't you can't make an alliance character on this server Sorry, so now your friend can't join now your friend can't play it's kind of like the tough That this is like the tough love solution to faction balance But the idea is is if it's done the right way and they lock the factions and you're like no you you know You can't transfer you can't you can't create a new character. You can't do any of that stuff the idea is that It's going to basically brute force Faction balance on the servers you make your friend go horde and then you gank him and ruin the game for him true I personally think that this is this is probably a good change. This is this is something that is probably a good idea I think this is going to help the the Servers feel a lot more alive Because especially with something like season of discovery if if there ends up being like if this helps Against the idea of there being like this big shift towards Towards all the alliance on one server and all the horde on another server and then with season of discovery You need the world to be alive. You're leveling right the the level cap is 25 for phase one And if the level cap is 25 for phase one I mean the idea is is you want the the world to live and breathe and you want to you're not going to be Raid logging it ideally right you're going to be leveling characters You're going to be an ashram BLP being that it might not be a whole lot to do in the first phase because the cap is 25 but You want to have good faction balance because like vanilla was about the whole game from start to finish from level 1 to 60 So whenever you're looking at the game from 1 to 60 You need that world to be alive and if you have all the alliance on one server and all the horde on the server It's gonna be really really bad season of alts. Yeah true So in general the situation you mentioned will be a problem for us because none of us have friends Maybe maybe maybe but overall I actually do think this is a good change I think this is a big change that's coming to classic and it's one of those under the hood changes that I talk about a lot Which you're like they're not like super sexy actually to be fair This one's a little bit more than that. It's it's certainly not like a sexy change right like it's not like oh this thing is happening Oh, oh, oh, it's crazy. Oh, oh, it's not like that, right? It is something that I think is going to be good for the game And it's kind of like a brute force from what it sounds like it's kind of like a Brute force method to taking care of it taking care of faction balance, but I think it's gonna be good so November 30th guys November 30th is The day season of discovery is coming on November 30th, and I cannot wait So for YouTube, I hope you guys are as excited for season of discovery as I am. I'm very very excited It's gonna be incredible November 30th. I might even be doing a sub-a-thon for it I don't know. I've been thinking about it. I might even do a long like a one-week long sub-a-thon or something like that So I can't wait. It's gonna be incredible If you guys like this stuff make sure to like subscribe Do all the things YouTube Instagram discord reddit twitch Twitter Everything is s-fan TV subscribe turn on your notifications all that stuff And yeah, follow me on Twitter follow me on Instagram, please sub-a-thon tick-tock everything. Yeah, we'll see We'll see what happens. Yeah, it might be like a one week It might be a one week cap sub-a-thon if I do a sub-a-thon it would be capped at one weeks Or like it would be done in a way that would be like it intentionally It's like a soft cap like it'll end after like five to seven days. Anyway, November 30th I'll see you guys there Season of discovery. Wow is back, baby. Wow is back