Powershell 4 transcription broken
Hi, after installing KB2919355 for Windows Server 2012R2 (or Windows 8.1) the transcription functionality of Powershell seems to be broken.
Input:
PS C:\Windows\system32> start-transcript c:\test.log
Transcript started, output file is c:\test.log
PS C:\Windows\system32> write-host "testing write-host"
testing write-host
PS C:\Windows\system32> "testing out-host" | out-host
testing out-host
PS C:\Windows\system32> stop-transcript
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\test.log
PS C:\Windows\system32>
Output:
Windows PowerShell transcript start
Start time: 20150428205107
Username: HHO\Henk
RunAs User: HHO\Henk
Machine: HHO (Microsoft Windows NT 6.3.9600.0)
Host Application: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Process ID: 4508
Transcript started, output file is c:\test.log
PS C:\Windows\system32> write-host "testing write-host"
PS C:\Windows\system32> "testing out-host" | out-host
testing out-host
PS C:\Windows\system32> stop-transcript
Windows PowerShell transcript end
End time: 20150428205143
It was already asked in this thread: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/cecc4f32-28c8-4bdc-be63-49ce3d396625/powershell-4-starttranscript-does-not-log-writehost?forum=winserverpowershell
But the last response from microsoft is that they are working on it, in februari, and it has been very silent since then.
I'd like to see a response from MSFT about this!
Kind Regards, Henk Hofs | http://www.IThastobecool.com
I agree with jrv. It's rather unlikely that you'll get a response from a member of the PowerShell team (or anyone from MSFT who has any relevant information) here. You'll get a response from a MSFT CSG, sure, but they're not members of the product teams.
To be perfectly honest, I was extremely surprised that the original thread got a MSFT response in the first place.
Connect is probably your best bet for an online response.
Don't retire TechNet! -
(Don't give up yet - 13,225+ strong and growing)
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CheersHi Anna,
Thanks for the response. Can you make sense of the info below? Transcription appears completely broken
on the build on my machine, which I have not installed any PS CTP on. I am worried a hotfix such as KB3000850 which has also caused me the grief here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/eaa4a532-5ff5-4a2f-89ce-7e72c71a8fb7/powershell-30-stuck-in-infinite-loop-resolving-members-internally-is-this-a-ps-bug?forum=winserverpowershell
https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/1045858/add-member-cmdlet-invokes-scriptproperty-members-when-adding-new-member
...has been installed via Windows Update. I am running Windows 8.1 and all latest updates applied as at 23 April.
My $PSVersionTable is the same as yours except for "BuildVersion" 6.3.9600.17400. I can also call Start-Transcript continually and it will keep creating sessions. Once I do this all sessions receive data once I
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NOTE: In addition to this, the data being fed into the transcription file is NOT the same format as the standard transcription format. The transcription file contains different data and
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CurrentMatchIndex ReplacementIndex ReplacementLength CompletionMatches
-1
0 8 {System.Management.Automat...
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"PS>TerminatingError(Invoke-Expression): xxxxxxx" and
"PS>TerminatingError(): "The pipeline has been stopped.""
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<#
.SYNOPSIS
Notifies users that their password is about to expire.
.DESCRIPTION
Let's users know their password will soon expire. Details the steps needed to change their password, and advises on what the password policy requires. Accounts for both standard Default Domain Policy based password policy and the fine grain
password policy available in 2008 domains.
.NOTES
Version : v2.6 - See changelog at
http://www.ehloworld.com/596
Wish list : Better detection of Exchange server
: Set $DaysToWarn automatically based on Default Domain GPO setting
: Description for scheduled task
: Verify it's running on R2, as apparently only R2 has the AD commands?
: Determine password policy settings for FGPP users
: better logging
Rights Required : local admin on server it's running on
Sched Task Req'd : Yes - install mode will automatically create scheduled task
Lync Version : N/A
Exchange Version : 2007 or later
Author : M. Ali (original AD query), Pat Richard, Exchange MVP
Email/Blog/Twitter :
[email protected] http://www.ehloworld.com @patrichard
Dedicated Post :
http://www.ehloworld.com/318
Disclaimer : You running this script means you won't blame me if this breaks your stuff.
Info Stolen from : (original)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adpowershell/archive/2010/02/26/find-out-when-your-password-expires.aspx
: (date)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730960.aspx
: (calculating time)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2007/02/24/time-till-we-land.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverpowershell/thread/23fc5ffb-7cff-4c09-bf3e-2f94e2061f29/
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adpowershell/archive/2010/02/26/find-out-when-your-password-expires.aspx
: (password decryption)
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverpowershell/thread/f90bed75-475e-4f5f-94eb-60197efda6c6/
: (determine per user fine grained password settings)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617255.aspx
.LINK
http://www.ehloworld.com/318
.INPUTS
None. You cannot pipe objects to this script
.PARAMETER Demo
Runs the script in demo mode. No emails are sent to the user(s), and onscreen output includes those who are expiring soon.
.PARAMETER Preview
Sends a sample email to the user specified. Usefull for testing how the reminder email looks.
.PARAMETER PreviewUser
User name of user to send the preview email message to.
.PARAMETER Install
Create the scheduled task to run the script daily. It does NOT create the required Exchange receive connector.
.EXAMPLE
.\New-PasswordReminder.ps1
Description
Searches Active Directory for users who have passwords expiring soon, and emails them a reminder with instructions on how to change their password.
.EXAMPLE
.\New-PasswordReminder.ps1 -demo
Description
Searches Active Directory for users who have passwords expiring soon, and lists those users on the screen, along with days till expiration and policy setting
.EXAMPLE
.\New-PasswordReminder.ps1 -Preview -PreviewUser [username]
Description
Sends the HTML formatted email of the user specified via -PreviewUser. This is used to see what the HTML email will look like to the users.
.EXAMPLE
.\New-PasswordReminder.ps1 -install
Description
Creates the scheduled task for the script to run everyday at 6am. It will prompt for the password for the currently logged on user. It does NOT create the required Exchange receive connector.
#>
#Requires -Version 2.0
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
param(
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Mandatory = $false)]
[switch]$Demo,
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Mandatory = $false)]
[switch]$Preview,
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Mandatory = $false)]
[switch]$Install,
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $false, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Mandatory = $false)]
[string]$PreviewUser
Write-Verbose "Setting variables"
[string]$Company = "Contoso Ltd"
[string]$OwaUrl = "https://mail.contoso.com"
[string]$PSEmailServer = "10.9.0.11"
[string]$EmailFrom = "Help Desk <[email protected]>"
[string]$HelpDeskPhone = "(586) 555-1010"
[string]$HelpDeskURL = "https://intranet.contoso.com/"
[string]$TranscriptFilename = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name + " " + $env:ComputerName + " {0:yyyy-MM-dd hh-mmtt}.log" -f (Get-Date)
[int]$global:UsersNotified = 0
[int]$DaysToWarn = 14
[string]$ImagePath = "http://www.contoso.com/images/new-passwordreminder.ps1"
[string]$ScriptName = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Name
[string]$ScriptPathAndName = $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
[string]$ou
[string]$DateFormat = "d"
if ($PreviewUser){
$Preview = $true
Write-Verbose "Defining functions"
function Set-ModuleStatus {
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
param (
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline = $true, ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName = $true, Mandatory = $true, HelpMessage = "No module name specified!")]
[string]$name
if(!(Get-Module -name "$name")) {
if(Get-Module -ListAvailable | ? {$_.name -eq "$name"}) {
Import-Module -Name "$name"
# module was imported
return $true
} else {
# module was not available (Windows feature isn't installed)
return $false
}else {
# module was already imported
return $true
} # end function Set-ModuleStatus
function Remove-ScriptVariables {
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
param($path)
$result = Get-Content $path |
ForEach { if ( $_ -match '(\$.*?)\s*=') {
$matches[1] | ? { $_ -notlike '*.*' -and $_ -notmatch 'result' -and $_ -notmatch 'env:'}
ForEach ($v in ($result | Sort-Object | Get-Unique)){
Remove-Variable ($v.replace("$","")) -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
} # end function Get-ScriptVariables
function Install {
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
param()
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725744(WS.10).aspx
$error.clear()
Write-Host "Creating scheduled task `"$ScriptName`"..."
$TaskPassword = Read-Host "Please enter the password for $env:UserDomain\$env:UserName" -AsSecureString
$TaskPassword = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($TaskPassword))
# need to fix the issue with spaces in the path
schtasks /create /tn $ScriptName /tr "$env:windir\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -psconsolefile '$env:ExchangeInstallPath\Bin\exshell.psc1' -command $ScriptPathAndName" /sc Daily /st 06:00 /ru $env:UserDomain\$env:UserName /rp
$TaskPassword | Out-Null
if (!($error)){
Write-Host "done!" -ForegroundColor green
}else{
Write-Host "failed!" -ForegroundColor red
exit
} # end function Install
function Get-ADUserPasswordExpirationDate {
[cmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
Param (
[Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0, ValueFromPipeline = $true, HelpMessage = "Identity of the Account")]
[Object]$accountIdentity
PROCESS {
Write-Verbose "Getting the user info for $accountIdentity"
$accountObj = Get-ADUser $accountIdentity -properties PasswordExpired, PasswordNeverExpires, PasswordLastSet, name, mail
# Make sure the password is not expired, and the account is not set to never expire
Write-Verbose "verifying that the password is not expired, and the user is not set to PasswordNeverExpires"
if (((!($accountObj.PasswordExpired)) -and (!($accountObj.PasswordNeverExpires))) -or ($PreviewUser)) {
Write-Verbose "Verifying if the date the password was last set is available"
$passwordSetDate = $accountObj.PasswordLastSet
if ($passwordSetDate -ne $null) {
$maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan = $null
# see if we're at Windows2008 domain functional level, which supports granular password policies
Write-Verbose "Determining domain functional level"
if ($global:dfl -ge 4) { # 2008 Domain functional level
$accountFGPP = Get-ADUserResultantPasswordPolicy $accountObj
if ($accountFGPP -ne $null) {
$maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan = $accountFGPP.MaxPasswordAge
} else {
$maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan = (Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy).MaxPasswordAge
} else { # 2003 or ealier Domain Functional Level
$maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan = (Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy).MaxPasswordAge
if ($maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan -eq $null -or $maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan.TotalMilliseconds -ne 0) {
$DaysTillExpire = [math]::round(((New-TimeSpan -Start (Get-Date) -End ($passwordSetDate + $maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan)).TotalDays),0)
if ($preview){$DaysTillExpire = 1}
if ($DaysTillExpire -le $DaysToWarn){
Write-Verbose "User should receive email"
$PolicyDays = [math]::round((($maxPasswordAgeTimeSpan).TotalDays),0)
if ($demo) {Write-Host ("{0,-25}{1,-8}{2,-12}" -f $accountObj.Name, $DaysTillExpire, $PolicyDays)}
# start assembling email to user here
$EmailName = $accountObj.Name
$DateofExpiration = (Get-Date).AddDays($DaysTillExpire)
$DateofExpiration = (Get-Date($DateofExpiration) -f $DateFormat)
Write-Verbose "Assembling email message"
[string]$emailbody = @"
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<table id="email" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="655" align="center">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer.gif" width="46" height="28" align="absMiddle">
if ($HelpDeskURL){
$emailbody += @"
<font style="font-size: 10px; color: #000000; line-height: 16px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If this e-mail does not appear properly, please <a href="$HelpDeskURL" style="font-weight:
bold; font-size: 10px; color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: underline">click here</a>.</font>
$emailbody += @"
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
if ($HelpDeskURL){
$emailbody += @"
<td height="121" align="left" valign="bottom"><a href="$HelpDeskURL"><img src="$ImagePath/header.gif" border="0" alt="Description: $ImagePath/header.gif"
width="655" height="121"></a></td>
}else{
$emailbody += @"
<td height="121" align="left" valign="bottom"><img src="$ImagePath/header.gif" border="0" alt="Description: $ImagePath/header.gif" width="655" height="121"></td>
$emailbody += @"
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table id="body" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="1" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#a8a9ad"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer50.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer50.gif" width="1"
height="50"></td>
<td><img src="$ImagePath/spacer.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer.gif" width="46" height="106"></td>
<td id="text" width="572" align="left" valign="top" style="font-size: 12px; color: #000000; line-height: 17px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
if ($DaysTillExpire -le 1){
$emailbody += @"
<div align='center'>
<table border='0' cellspacing='0' cellpadding='0' style='width:510px; background-color: white; border: 0px;'>
<tr>
<td align='right'><img width='36' height='28' src='$ImagePath/image001b.gif' alt='Description: $ImagePath/image001b.gif'></td>
<td style="font-family: verdana; background: #E12C10; text-align: center; padding: 0px; font-size: 9.0pt; color: white">ALERT: You must change your password today or you will be locked out!</td>
<td align='left'><img border='0' width='14' height='28' src='$ImagePath/image005b.gif' alt='Description: $ImagePath/image005b.gif'></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
$emailbody += @"
<p style="font-weight: bold">Hello, $EmailName,</p>
<p>It's change time again! Your $company password expires in <span style="background-color: red; color: white; font-weight: bold;"> $DaysTillExpire </span> day(s), on $DateofExpiration.</p>
<p>Please use one of the methods below to update your password:</p>
<ol>
<li>$company office computers and Terminal Server users: You may update your password on your computer by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete and selecting 'Change Password' from the available options. If you use a $company laptop in addition
to a desktop PC, be sure and read #3 below.</li>
<li>Remote Outlook Client, Mac, and/or Outlook Web App users: If you only access our email system, please use the following method to easily change your password:</li>
<ul>
<li>Log into <a href="$owaurl">Outlook Web App</a> using Internet Explorer (PC) or Safari or Firefox (Mac).</li>
<li>Click on the Options button in the upper right corner of the page.</li>
<li>Select the "Change Password" link to change your password.</li>
<li>Enter your current password, then your new password twice, and click Save</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold">NOTE:</span> You will now need to use your new password when logging into Outlook Web App, Outlook 2010, SharePoint, Windows Mobile (ActiveSync) devices, etc. Blackberry
Enterprise Users (BES) will not need to update their password. Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) users will be required to use their new password on their device.</li>
</ul>
<li>$company issued laptops: If you have been issued a $company laptop, you must be in a corporate office and directly connected to the company network to change your password. If you also use a desktop PC in the office, you must
remember to always update your domain password on the laptop first. Your desktop will automatically use the new password.</li>
<ul>
<li>Log in on laptop</li>
<li>Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select 'Change Password' from the available options.</li>
<li>Make sure your workstation (if you have one) has been logged off any previous sessions so as to not cause conflict with your new password.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<p>Think you've got a complex password? Run it through the <a href="The">http://www.passwordmeter.com/">The Password Meter</a></p>
<p>Think your password couldn't easily be hacked? See how long it would take: <a href="How">http://howsecureismypassword.net/">How Secure Is My Password</a></p>
<p>Remember, if you do not change your password before it expires on $DateofExpiration, you will be locked out of all $company Computer Systems until an Administrator unlocks your account.</p>
<p>If you are traveling or will not be able to bring your laptop into the office before your password expires, please call the number below for additional instructions.</p>
<p>You will continue to receive these emails daily until the password is changed or expires.</p>
<p>Thank you,<br />
The $company Help Desk<br />
$HelpDeskPhone</p>
if ($accountFGPP -eq $null){
$emailbody += @"
<table style="background-color: #dedede; border: 1px solid black">
<tr>
<td style="font-size: 12px; color: #000000; line-height: 17px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>$company Password Policy</b>
<ul>
<li>Your password must have a minimum of a $MinPasswordLength characters.</li>
<li>You may not use a previous password.</li>
<li>Your password must not contain parts of your first, last, or logon name.</li>
<li>Your password must be changed every $PolicyDays days.</li>
if ($PasswordComplexity){
Write-Verbose "Password complexity"
$emailbody += @"
<li>Your password requires a minimum of two of the following three categories:</li>
<ul>
<li>1 upper case character (A-Z)</li>
<li>1 lower case character (a-z)</li>
<li>1 numeric character (0-9)</li>
</ul>
$emailbody += @"
<li>You may not reuse any of your last $PasswordHistory passwords</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
$emailbody += @"
</td>
<td width="49" align="left" valign="top"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer50.gif" alt="" width="49" height="50"></td>
<td width="1" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#a8a9ad"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer50.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer50.gif" width="1"
height="50"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table id="footer" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="655">
<tr>
<td><img src="$ImagePath/footer.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/footer.gif" width="655" height="81"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="655" align="center">
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer.gif" width="36" height="1"></td>
<td align="middle" valign="top"><font face="Verdana" size="1" color="#000000"><p>This email was sent by an automated process.
if ($HelpDeskURL){
$emailbody += @"
If you would like to comment on it, please visit <a href="$HelpDeskURL"><font color="#ff0000"><u>click here</u></font></a>
$emailbody += @"
</p><p style="color: #009900;"><font face="Webdings" size="4">P</font> Please consider the environment before printing this email.</p></font>
</td>
<td align="left" valign="top"><img src="$ImagePath/spacer.gif" alt="Description: $ImagePath/spacer.gif" width="36" height="1"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
if (!($demo)){
$emailto = $accountObj.mail
if ($emailto){
Write-Verbose "Sending demo message to $emailto"
Send-MailMessage -To $emailto -Subject "Your password expires in $DaysTillExpire day(s)" -Body $emailbody -From $EmailFrom -Priority High -BodyAsHtml
$global:UsersNotified++
}else{
Write-Verbose "Can not email this user. Email address is blank"
} # end function Get-ADUserPasswordExpirationDate
if ($install){
Write-Verbose "Install mode"
Install
Write-Verbose "Checking for ActiveDirectory module"
if ((Set-ModuleStatus ActiveDirectory) -eq $false){
$error.clear()
Write-Host "Installing the Active Directory module..." -ForegroundColor yellow
Set-ModuleStatus ServerManager
Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-AD-PowerShell
if ($error){
Write-Host "Active Directory module could not be installed. Exiting..." -ForegroundColor red;
if ($transcript){Stop-Transcript}
exit
Write-Verbose "Getting Domain functional level"
$global:dfl = (Get-AdDomain).DomainMode
# Get-ADUser -filter * -properties PasswordLastSet,EmailAddress,GivenName -SearchBase "OU=Users,DC=domain,DC=test" |foreach {
if (!($PreviewUser)){
if ($ou){
Write-Verbose "Filtering users to $ou"
$users = Get-AdUser -filter * -SearchScope subtree -SearchBase $ou -ResultSetSize $null
}else{
$users = Get-AdUser -filter * -ResultSetSize $null
}else{
Write-Verbose "Preview mode"
$users = Get-AdUser $PreviewUser
if ($demo){
Write-Verbose "Demo mode"
# $WhatIfPreference = $true
Write-Host "`n"
Write-Host ("{0,-25}{1,-8}{2,-12}" -f "User", "Expires", "Policy") -ForegroundColor cyan
Write-Host ("{0,-25}{1,-8}{2,-12}" -f "========================", "=======", "===========") -ForegroundColor cyan
Write-Verbose "Setting event log configuration"
$evt = new-object System.Diagnostics.EventLog("Application")
$evt.Source = $ScriptName
$infoevent = [System.Diagnostics.EventLogEntryType]::Information
$EventLogText = "Beginning processing"
$evt.WriteEntry($EventLogText,$infoevent,70)
Write-Verbose "Getting password policy configuration"
$DefaultDomainPasswordPolicy = Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy
[int]$MinPasswordLength = $DefaultDomainPasswordPolicy.MinPasswordLength
# this needs to look for FGPP, and then default to this if it doesn't exist
[bool]$PasswordComplexity = $DefaultDomainPasswordPolicy.ComplexityEnabled
[int]$PasswordHistory = $DefaultDomainPasswordPolicy.PasswordHistoryCount
ForEach ($user in $users){
Get-ADUserPasswordExpirationDate $user.samaccountname
Write-Verbose "Writing summary event log entry"
$EventLogText = "Finished processing $global:UsersNotified account(s). `n`nFor more information about this script, run Get-Help .\$ScriptName. See the blog post at
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Remove-ScriptVariables -path $ScriptPathAndNameHi petro_jemes,
Just a little claritification, you need to add the value to the variable "[string]$ou", and also change the language in the variable "$emailbody" in the function "Get-ADUserPasswordExpirationDate".
I hope this helps. -
Live Chat Transcript: Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley) from NBC's Community
Transcript for Chat: 'Live Chat: Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley) from NBC's Community', Thu May 17 21:24:22 CDT 2012
9:19 PM YvetteNBrown: Hey Guys! Welcome to the chat! Let's get to some questions!!!
9:20 PM Guest-13: Yvette! This is fantastic! I just watched all 3 episodes (central time) and also chatted with Gillian! Who is the hardest to do scense with due to so much laughter??
9:20 PM YvetteNBrown: To Guest-13 Donald Glover is NOTORIOUSLY hard to be in scenes with he cracks us up!
9:21 PM Guest-27: What has been your favourite episodes to shoot and also to watch?
9:21 PM YvetteNBrown: The Law and order is my fav to watch. Flashback favorite to shoot
9:21 PM Guest-8: How did you first find out about Community (like how did you first find out about auditions for it?)! Aso you are the best...and so is Community!
9:22 PM YvetteNBrown: My agent sent me an audition notice and I went in THREE times before I was cast!
9:22 PM Guest-66: So... how about Joel in that rock magician costume...? ;D
9:23 PM YvetteNBrown: I loved Joel in that mascara and eyeliner… I told him it was sexy! Apologies to his wife!
9:23 PM Guest-89: You're my absolute favourite in the show! What were your first thoughts on the whole concept when you first heard/saw it?
9:23 PM YvetteNBrown: Thank you! I thought it was really a great script and was hoping and praying I'd get to be a part!
9:24 PM Guest-87: Yvette, do you know what the plan for next semester is?
9:24 PM YvetteNBrown: We don't know yet. We won't find out until late July when we get that script!
9:24 PM Guest-28: How much time did it take to film season 3?
9:24 PM YvetteNBrown: We filmed season three from late July until late February. 80 hour weeks… yikers!
9:24 PM Guest-105: Who's your favorite cast member?
9:25 PM YvetteNBrown: No matter who you ask this question to in the cast the answer will undoubtedly be Danny Pudi! He's the BEST
9:26 PM Guest-18: Totally loving the shows right now!!!!! Love hearing you sing. Do you guys ever randomly sing when waiting to shoot?
9:25 PM YvetteNBrown: To Guest-18 We sing all the time! We make up songs that only make us laugh. If you heard them you would find us all very strange!
9:26 PM Guest-127: i love you ms, Shirley u the best
9:26 PM YvetteNBrown: To Guest-127 I love you back! And you can call me Yvette. It's okay!
9:26 PM Guest-42: If you could be any other character in the show, who would you be?
9:26 PM YvetteNBrown: I think I would be Senor Chang or Dean Pelton. They seem to have the most fun!
9:27 PM Guest-132: Since its community college and thats usually over in 2 years. Will you guys ever graduate?
9:28 PM YvetteNBrown: I now folks who go to community college long after two years so we could be at Greendale FOREVER! Leonard and Pierce surely have been
9:28 PM Guest-19: After watching the finale, it seems as if the finale was meant to act as a series finale if the show was not renewed. What were the emotions like on set while filming that episode?
9:28 PM YvetteNBrown: It was a bit bittersweet. We had faith we'd be back but we were gratified in knowing that even if we weren't Dan and the writers had given us a fitting finale.
9:29 PM Guest-122: Hey Yvette, @GREENDALE_LOVE from Twitter here. Thank you so much for your amazingness to us fans. How the heck do you ever manage your Twitter account??? We're always bugging you
9:29 PM YvetteNBrown: LOL! You guys are great! For all of your loveliness there's only one or two bad apples and as you now if you follow my feed, they're politely reprimanded and blocked and kindness is restored!
9:29 PM Guest-112: I heard you once had a contract w/Motown. Do you ever think about going back to singing?
9:30 PM YvetteNBrown: I think about it sometimes. But my motown/Biv 10 days were back when I was a teenager. If the right opportunity came about I'd sing a little ditty or two. Until then singing as SHirley is enough for me!
9:30 PM Guest-69: How excited are you about the 13 episodes NBC ordered for the fall?? When I found it was like a really early Christmas gift!
9:31 PM YvetteNBrown: We were OVERJOYED! It was Christmas for us too! And we're really excited about the move to Friday's. It's a more relaxing time slot over there! LOL!
9:31 PM Guest-79: Hi Yvette!! I own Season 1&2 on DVD and all the commentary and special features are hilarious. I love that you guys include that stuff. When does Season 3 come out??
9:32 PM YvetteNBrown: Thanks! We have a great time doing the commentaries! Season 3 will be out later this summer! And you can pre-order it on BestBuy.com…the wording may be weird but the link works! Also seasons 1 & 2 are on sale right now! Gotta love Best Buy!!!
9:33 PM Jason-BBY: You can preorder Season 3 now at http://bit.ly/CommunitySeason3
9:33 PM Guest-149: I've always thought Shirley was just a great character, but in season 3 she has been especially awesome! Are there any Shirley moments or episodes that you would classify as your favorite? Lame question, I know, but it's what I thought of. Thanks for being so awesome and you and all the cast are definitely role models to me! Keep being great.
9:34 PM YvetteNBrown: Not lame at all! I love EVERY opportunity to work with Malcolm-Jamal Warner and also working with Joel McHale! I also enjoy delving into Shirley's darker side. She's fiesty… and SCARY!
9:34 PM Guest-94: Thanks for taking the time to do this, Yvette! We're all really excited that Community has been renewed for a fourth season, but are you at all worried that it won't get a back 9 episodes?
9:36 PM YvetteNBrown: Guest -94… stay in the moment! 13 episodes is great! let's rejoice in that. If the back 9 is meant to be, it will be. Lots of viewers and high ratings will assure it, though… so Communies/Human Beings… tell two friends about the move to Friday at 8:30 in the fall, will ya?
9:35 PM Guest-42: I find that I keep saying "That's nice!" like Shirley -- have you picked up any of your character's mannerisms/sayings?
9:35 PM YvetteNBrown: LOL! "That's Nice" is actually a Yvette saying. I ad-libbed it in the pilot as Shirley and it sorta stuck. So I'd say yes… sorta? To that question.
9:36 PM Guest-30: Who's the wildest on set?
9:37 PM YvetteNBrown: Donald Glover, HANDS DOWN!!!
9:37 PM Guest-132: I love bestbuy! How often do you go to bestbuy & What's your favorite section to browse in Best Buy?
9:37 PM YvetteNBrown: I go to Best Buy all the time! I just bought a fridge and TV there… on triple points weekend! SCORE!!!
9:37 PM Guest-124: Community is now known worldwide. How do you feel about that? (kisses from Brazil, by the way)
9:38 PM YvetteNBrown: Kisses TO Brazil! I think it's awesome! I hope to visit some of the other countries "Community" is playing in someday!
9:38 PM Guest-102: Hi Yvette, thanks so much for what you do! That finale was excellent. What other projects are you working on right now? Anything in the works for the future with Dan Harmon or the other cast members of Community?
9:39 PM YvetteNBrown: Thanks so much! I just finished working on the "Percy Jackson" sequel! Which was Awesome! And I still do a voice on the "Pound Puppies" Cartoon on the Hub network! Listing everyone else's projects would be TOO lengthy! They're all even more busy than me! Talented folks!!
9:39 PM Guest-63: Yvette, how do you get into character? Do you do anything in particular?
9:40 PM YvetteNBrown: I think of my mom and Miss Piggy because those are the two folks I patterned Shirley's voice and/or mannerisms after. I think I owe them both money now!
Guest-205: Hello, you were so amazing in tonight's episodes! The last one brought tears to my eyes! I was wondering, with which member of the cast do you have the most fun working in scenes?
YvetteNBrown: I love them all for different reasons. Gillian (Stink) because she's SO present. She's a very generous actor. Ali because she's just so good at everything. Danny because he's pure love. Donald, Ken & Jim because they're pure fun and Joel because of our awesome sexual chemistry! LOL! Oh, and Chevy because he's a legend.
Guest-146: Does the cast improv any lines? If so who's do you like the most? Great job this season! Season 3 is my favorite.
YvetteNBrown: We all improv from time to time. But Donald's make it in the show most often… followed by maybe Jim's.
Guest-196: The show does many parodies of famous movies and TV shows. What favorite movie/TV would you like to parody next season?
YvetteNBrown: I'd LOVE a muppets parody!
Guest-180: Do you know when you start filming season 4? I love the show! And Shirley!
YvetteNBrown: If things are the same as the previous three seasons, we should go back to begin season four the last week of July.
Guest-122: What has been your favorite episode of Community so far?
YvetteNBrown: Law and Order
renanwho: Hey Yvette! You're doing an amazing job on Community. I also loved you on Drake & Josh! Do you listen to Childish Gambino? If you do, what's your favorite song? Love from Brazil.
YvetteNBrown: Of course! Be Alone and any other song where Donald sings in falsetto. It's dreamy!
Guest-13: I just want to say thanks for following a journey that led you to be part of such a brilliant piece of work Community brings so much laughter into my life. You are amazing. Shirley is such a great character, and you bring so much lovely spirit to her. (We chatted a tiny bit previously about the group I started on Facebook "Keep Community on NBC") LOVE you guys! You are Streets Ahead in my book. -Korrie
YvetteNBrown: Thanks Korrie! xoxo
Guest-87: Yvette, how do you feel about those Jeff/Shirey shippers?
YvetteNBrown: I think it's hilarious and never going to happen! LOL!
YvetteNBrown: Although that Joel is super cute and charming.
Guest-70: Why do you think it was important to do a Musical for this season's Christmas episode? What was it like to work on it?
YvetteNBrown: I think it was just something fun to do and Christmas was the best time. I think it was the goal of the writers to do "Glee" type episode at some point and season 3 was it! And we all had a ball filming it! everything was so festive
Guest-205: If you could be on any other TV show, currently airing or long gone, which would you pick?
YvetteNBrown: That's easy… Cosby Show!
Guest-276: Hey Yvette you are a Christian woman like Shirley
YvetteNBrown: Yes, i am! Hopefully a bit less judgmental, though.
Guest-132: To piggyback off of Guest 42's question. Have you picked up on any of your costars mannerisms/sayings? If so who & what?
YvetteNBrown: I've started using chapstick and that's Danny's FAVORITE thing in the world next to his family.
Guest-146: I have to ask...do the ladies in the cast enjoy it when joel takes off his shirt? Or is it just me?
YvetteNBrown: Yes, we ladies enjoy it. And some of the guys do too, I suspect!
Guest-258: Do you have any awesome plans for the off season?
YvetteNBrown: I'm an awesome sleeper! So I look forward to sleeping a LOT!
Guest-253: I'm sorry for not joining the chat earlier, I've been crying a lot thanks to the finale. How was shooting it, Yvette? Was it as emotional to you as it was for us? Hugs from Venezuela!
YvetteNBrown: Hello to Venezuela! I hope those were happy tears! Yes, the last day of every season has been emotional to some extent, but we always know that we'll see each other over hiatus…or when the show ultimately ends so it's not truly sad, sad. Just "See ya soon" sad.
Guest-124: How was it being such a badass in the pillow fight?
YvetteNBrown: I love when Shirley gets to show her RAGE! I don't know what that says about me. LOL!
Guest-312: who thought of the video game episode? that was GENIUS and so unlike anything else out there right now! love Community!!
YvetteNBrown: Dan Harmon was the genius behind that!
Guest-228: Any advice you could give to an aspiring actor such as myself? Garrett again.
YvetteNBrown: I wrote a long blog about breaking into the business on my website www.yvettenicolebrown.com and on facebook. Hope it helps!
Guest-27: If you could write an episode, what would you like to see the characters, especially Shirley, do?
YvetteNBrown: I'd write an episode where the girls get the work together. I miss the capers we used to get into in the first season.
Guest-307: I watch Community just because I want to see you acting, I love yoy since Drake & Josh! Helen (l) Hugs from Argentina!
YvetteNBrown: Hugs TO Argentina! Thank you, Sweetie! I had a blast working on Drake & Josh. I'm so glad you enjoyed our silliness. Those guys (cast/crew/staff) are family to me just like the Community gang!
Guest-102: Do know the tv show Twin Peaks from the 90s? I think Community could do a great parody/reference to that show. I'm sure Abed knows all about it. ;D
YvetteNBrown: Great Idea! I've heard fans have started figuring out which of us should play who. That'd be great!
Guest-82: As a Christian, I love how Community shows both the bad and good sides of learning to live out our faith. How do you think Shirley has grown as a Christian over the course of the show?
YvetteNBrown: I like that too. Lord knows Christians aren't perfect. I'd hate to play one that thought she was. LOL! Shirley has softened these past few seasons and learned how to love unconditionally the way God encourages.
Guest-63: When I went to Paramount Studios for a tour, you were nice enough to say hi to me and my friends! I want to thank you for that, definitely made my day! Love you as Shirly, you are absolutely hilarious!
YvetteNBrown: Aww, pumpkin! Thanks for that kind message! It was my pleasure! Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Guest-84: Yvette, I have to say, I always think you look great and snappy in your clothes, whether on the show or from your Twitter. It makes me feel better knowing larger ladies can rock the looks and that I shouldn't be afraid to either. The world needs more beautiful celebs like you. :'D
YvetteNBrown: LOL! Larger lady for the WIN!!! I'm literally chuckling at that description. Thank you. Sincerely!
xmen4ever8290: Do you know why the last episode of this season seemed like the series finale? It breaks my heart thinking that my favorite show is going to end! Would you ever do a Community movie?
YvetteNBrown: Basically we didn't know what the future held for the show. Dan and the writers wanted to make sure you guys had a satisfying end if it was the end. But happily….blessedly… it wasn't the end! YAY! And sure I'd do a community movie!
Guest-87: Yvette, who would be your ideal guest star for next season?
YvetteNBrown: I've been hoping for Sandra Bullock. But after Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Betty White I don't wanna be greedy.
Guest-269: Hey Yvette! Follow you on Twitter and you seem like a genuinely nice person. Love you in Community and loved you in Drake and Josh! Do you ever see either of them anymore?
YvetteNBrown: I see the Drake & Josh gang all the time. A lot of them are working on iCarly and Victorious. And I visit those sets all the time.
Guest-316: Greetings from the UK! What has been your favourite musical scene in the show thus far? I loved the "Finally Be Fine" number from the start of season 3. - Ash
YvetteNBrown: I loved "Sensible Night" from season one! I thought the lyrics Dan Harmon wrote were hilarious!
Guest-243: Hi Yvette, it's Taylah here! . You know I was a big defender of the Jeff and Shirley "evil friendship of awesome", and I was SO HAPPY to see it making a comeback this year! It feels like this season rather than being evil together they kinda bring the best out of each other and understand each other a lot (beautiful scene between the two of them in this season finale!) Have you liked this shift on their relationship or do you prefer when they're a bit meaner together?
YvetteNBrown: Hey Taylah!!! I love the shift because it means we get to play together more often… it took this long for us to have more episodes together because we were so TOXIC before! LOL!
YvetteNBrown: NEWSFLASH! Joel just tweeted taht "Six Seasons And A Movie" is trending worldwide! Thanks to those of you who made that happen!!!
YvetteNBrown: Further newsflash… sorry for typos!
Guest-122: Did you ever dream that Community would be such a big thing?
YvetteNBrown: I hope that folks would love to watch our shenanigans but I never dreamed we would be blessed with so many folks that would don felt goatees, sing in country-wide flash mobs and vote in online polls until their fingers bled. That's a blessing I never could have imagined and I'm so grateful for each and every one of you guys! Communies ROCK!!!
Guest-374: Yvette, you are amazing. i truly love you and your character and you have an amazing voice. everything youve done for to show is truly inspiring. Community will be remebered as the greatest, most ambitious show in TV history. you wont believe the amount of fans the show have here in Israel. now, if i may ask, do you think the show appeal to a certain crowd? and besides, what is next for you? thank you for everything.
YvetteNBrown: Thanks for all of that and HELLO to Israel! I don't think the show appeal to a certain crowd. I think every type of person and group is loved and made fun of on community. That makes it a show for EVERYONE! When everyone's a misfit, no one is!
Guest-146: I love what the ladies wear on the show! Any chance at getting a clothing sponsor...who wouldn't run out and buy britta's leather jacket!...ok well I would, I'd run.
YvetteNBrown: Be forewarned, Britta wears a lot of Prada! LOL! Most of my clothes are from anthropologie, Rachel Pally or Macy's. Alison wears a lot of Urban Outfitters on the show. Happy shopping!
avadakedalek: Hey! I love your work, Yvette! You are so beautiful inside and out! I am so glad that I get this chance to talk to you! It is such an honor! I'm so glad to know that you still hang out with the Drake and Josh cast! I was wondering how your faith is affected with fame?
YvetteNBrown: Thanks! Nice to talk to you too! My faith guides my career. Every decision is filtered through that lens. I want to make good decisions and be a part of work that uplifts and makes folks happy.
Guest-299: What's been your favorite of the deens crazy costumes?
YvetteNBrown: I love the "Can-can-cancelled" outfit! He looked lovely!
Guest-285: Any pranks you've pulled or been a victim of on set? I love you!!
YvetteNBrown: Donald has been the biggest prankster. The season 2 DVD outtakes show him doing an entire take of a scene with his bum exposed. Everyone knew except me. And they were all waiting for me… Prudy McPrude…to notice.
Guest-294: Yvette, you're awesome and I love you and everyone on Community! Who's your favorite couple pairing on the show?
YvetteNBrown: The Dean and Jeff for sure!
Guest-149: As sort of an addition to the question on religion, I just wanna say Shirley as a character, and you (based on stuff I've seen on Twitter) are very inspirational to someone who struggles with faith and how to reconcile it to my personal beliefs and stuff like that. So thanks for that. Any advice to someone who struggles with the occasional crisis of faith? -Tyler
YvetteNBrown: Just be still and know. That's biblical. I've known God to always be peace. Chase peace above all things and you will always find God.
YvetteNBrown: God bless you, Tyler!
Guest-269: As a fellow former Midwesterner, do you get back to Ohio very often?
YvetteNBrown: I do! I try to get back to Cleveland at least two times a year. I was just back last week speaking to the kids at my old high school, Warrensville Heights High! I had a blast!!!
avadakedalek: Oh. my brother told me to ask you if you would marry him? He's loved you since Drake & Josh. Oh boy.
YvetteNBrown: Sure. As long as he's over 30.
Guest-27: All the way from Australia, Were you surprised at the cult status Community has reached around the world?
YvetteNBrown: Hi TO Australia! Yes, I continue to be SHOCKED by it! Sidebar: I hope to visit Australia someday… it's one of my big dreams.
Guest-358: What was your favorite part of these last three episodes of community?
YvetteNBrown: I don't wanna be spoiler-rific… because some folks in the chat haven't seen all three episodes yet. But the 'heist" episode was a favorite to shoot.
Guest-122: What are your favorite shows to watch other than the ones you've been on? Haha
YvetteNBrown: I love Scandal, Revenge, Blue Bloods, Veep, Girls, Once Upon A Time, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, Hot in Cleveland… I could go on and on...
Guest-110: Hey Yvette. What has been your biggest moment since you've been in Hollywood? I'm sure there's many, but what comes to mind right away? <3 Mia M P.S. I'm loving all this love you're getting from all over the world! AWESOME
YvetteNBrown: I think going home to talk to the kids at my old school because it meant I had accomplished something big enough for them to have me back and for the kids to listen. Going back to speak was something I dreamed about when I was still in school. What an honor to be able to share your journey with the next generation. There's nothing like it.
Guest-30: Are you tired?
YvetteNBrown: Right now? Or in general. Right now I'm good. Thanks for asking! When we're filming 16 hour days 5 days a week… YES!
Guest-124: Okay, I need to know this: I know you all are amazing actors, but HOW can you keep a straight face when Donald/Troy is crying/freaking out? I wouldn't be able to do it, so congratulations on that lol (and on everything, really)
YvetteNBrown: Who says we do? Often the take that makes it on the air isn't the best take, it's just the one they could use. And not just Donald. Jim Rash and Ken Jeong have been known to crack us up too. The tag where the dean is singing to Troy and Abed they had to cut away from each of us before we laughed when they edited it. I'm still almost lasting in my take.
Guest-13: Do agree with Gillian that it is almost impossible to keep a straight face when Jim Rash is delivering his lines??
YvetteNBrown: Yep! Jim studied with the Groundlings he is comedy GENIUS! No telling what he will say or do.
Guest-294: Who is your favorite musical artist? And, on a random note, how do celebrities feel about dating fans?
YvetteNBrown: Are you asking me out? Are you over 30? tee hee… favorite musical artist of all time? That's hard. SO many Gladys Knight, Ledisi, Switch, New Edition, The O'jays, Jason Mraz, Lauryn Hill, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Cece Winans, Donna Summer… who we just lost today (may she rest in peace). So many!
Guest-269: I see from IMDB that you have had a lot of guest starring roles on television shows. Any role in particular your favorite or is there one that stands out to you?
YvetteNBrown: The one I'm playing now: Shirley!
Guest-146: what was it like on set after Jim won the oscar? And how do you feel about the show being shut out at the emmy's?
YvetteNBrown: I was overjoyed for Jim! So well deserved. And I think everything happens for a reason. I'd love for the show to be recognized in some way by the awards system… but with the fans we have, asking for awards on top of that love seems a bit greedy.
Guest-335: will there be more andre?
YvetteNBrown: I hope so! But Malcolm has his own show on BET, that's why we only had him for one episode this year. If possible, I hope we can have him back next season. I love when he's on set!
Guest-412: Yvette, I remember hearing you say that everyone know's its "#sixseasonsandamovie" But you wanted it to be "Four Seasons & A Graduation" Why is that?
YvetteNBrown: I didn't say I wanted that, I said I'd be happy with that. Danny and I were filming a "please save our show" video for USA Today and that's just something silly we came up with as a consolation prize. Like "C'mon! At least let us graduate!" LOL! It was seriously said. Either way, whatever is meant to be, will be.
avadakedalek: Are you feeling any better? I know you had a crazy day with twitter today... I was worried! Don't let anyone bring you down! God bless you, beautiful You are such an inspiration, and I know I said this already but a great role model to women like me!
YvetteNBrown: Aww, thanks! I am much better. And please know that no matter what I tweet I'm always okay. It's just twitter. I just don't understand rudeness… especially from strangers. It's just easier to be nice. My tweets are meant to just remind folks of that. And it's my goal to always be kind when I get them TOLD! Lol!
Guest-180: I remember seeing you in "The Office". What was it like to work with Rainn Wilson? Sidebar: Community is the best TV show I've ever seen.
YvetteNBrown: Rainn was such a generous actor. He's super funny but his gift is that he's not selfish. He wants everyone else to get as many laughs as he does. And that's not always the case with super funny folks. I loved working with him and Steve Carrell good folks!
Guest-405: Greetings from the Philippines! I love you. I love the show. We're still on season 1 and 2 here though. 1st season in the morning, and at night. Believe it or not, I find myself saying "Thats nice" almost everyday. What was the most difficult thing you did in the entire series and why? - @jasonreyes00
YvetteNBrown: Hello TO the Philippines! Thank you! The most difficult thing to do is to keep a straight face when my cast mates are SO hilarious. I have ruined MANY takes with giggling!
Guest-319: Your singing voice in the holiday episode a few years back was extraordinary. Any chance we will get to hear an album from you?
YvetteNBrown: Aww, Thanks! I really only sing now in the shower, in my car and in the pew at church unless an acting role calls for it. So though I'd never say never, it'd have to be a word from God that got me behind a mic professionally again. LOL!
Guest-122: What is something random about you that not many people know?
YvetteNBrown: I love puzzles. They are so relaxing! Whenever I get a few days of uninterrupted freem time I'm doing a puzzle. Corny, I know! LOL!
Guest-349: Hey Yvette! love Shirley and the show. Malcolm-Jamal Warner was very cool in the episode he did for this season. Question. What is your all-time favorite episode of the Cosby Show?
YvetteNBrown: The one with Gordon Gartrelle shirt! Denise tells Theo to tuck it in and he says thru clenched teeth "It's tucked into my SOCKS!" Comedy GOLD!
Guest-400: Loved Shirley in facial hair. Again. Are you afraid the writers might find reasons to put Shirley in a beard the same way they put Jim Rash in bizarre costumes. And how about a Best Buy kiosk at Greendale.
YvetteNBrown: I think I make a fine looking man just as Jim makes a pretty woman. That's the reasoning behind it… I think? LOL! And a Best Buy kiosk at Greendale would be awesome as long as I got to use all the goods they sold for free! LOL!
bricatfree: Love you and love the show! (Side note: Could you tell Donald that I'm in love with him?! Hahaha) Do you think Annie and Jeff should be together (eventually)?
YvetteNBrown: Consider it done! LOL! And I think Greendale is more about the relationship of the whole study group with each other. Aside from that any pairing is in the hands and minds of Dan and the writers. I have no preference.
Guest-14: First, thank you for representing the BBW out in the world. I'd marry you if I could. Second, any hopes on Malcolm Jamal Warner returning next season?
YvetteNBrown: Are you over 30? Seriously, thanks! And I hope Malcolm will be back. We'll see!
Guest-124: I would like to thank you for being so sweet to your fans! It's amazing that you're taking your time to answer our questions, I wish every celebrity were like you! Lots of sucess to you and the show, because you both deserve it.
YvetteNBrown: Aww, shucks! That was sweet! It's the least I can do for all you guys have given to us! It's not a small thing that you love and support us as you do! We're all so grateful. A Q&A is nothing compared to THAT! God Bless!
Guest-334: Any hidden talents you have?
YvetteNBrown: I can curl my tongue like 3 or 4 different ways. And my left wrist was broken so I can bend my left thumb in directions it really shouldn't go. How's that?
Guest-233: What's your favorite costume you've had on? also what's your favorite that a castmate wore? Thanks for a wonderful season!
YvetteNBrown: My favorite is "Sam Jackson/Jules" from Pulp Fiction. Of the others… Gillian's (Stink's) squirrel costume from halloween season one is pretty stinkin' cute… see what I did there? Stinkin' cute!
Guest-79: If you had to go back to college and could only bring one member of the cast with you, who would it be?
YvetteNBrown: Danny. Because he's cuddly. And he'd sing songs and dance for me when I was stressed out by classes. He's like a toy!
Guest-319: What's one assumption people make about you that you wish they wouldn't?
YvetteNBrown: That because I'm kind that I'm dumb, weak or foolish. I promise I'm NONE of those things.
Guest-30: Did you have dinner yet? Anyway, love to you, the show, and every contributor to the show, and I hope you have a good night.
YvetteNBrown: Mom, is that you? tee hee. Yes, I had dinner before I started the chat. I was well fed and well rested before I started the chat. LOL! Thanks for the message and I hope you have a good night, too!
Guest-269: When you mentioned puzzles earlier, did you mean like crosswords ones or jigsaw ones?
YvetteNBrown: Jigsaw, baby! Thought Crosswords and Suduku are fun too. But Jigsaw puzzles are my thing!
Guest-294: Yvette, I just want to thank you so much for doing this. You seem like such a genuinely nice person and the fact that you are taking time out of your day to talk to fans is awesome. Thank you <3
YvetteNBrown: My pleasure, darlin!
Guest-371: Love Community and You! Do you know what's going on the outtakes this season? i really love seening how you guys interacting and play with each other
YvetteNBrown: Aww, love you back! And we never know what the cameras have caught until we see the bloopers on the DVD when you guys do… unless it's something that needs our approval…like Donald's bum being out. They sent that to me in advance to make sure I was okay with that being on DVD.
Guest-79: Who messes up their lines the most while shooting?
YvetteNBrown: we all are guilty of that. But Ken Jeong probably makes himself laugh the most, thus messing up his own lines. LOL!
Guest-319: If Shirley was given her own spinoff, what would you want that to look like?
YvetteNBrown: Shirley and Andre raising their kids. I bet that household is dysfunctional! LOL!
Guest-16: Do you think you guys could pull off a live episode with all of the off-camera shenanigans from Ken, Donald, Jim, and the rest of the goofball cast?
YvetteNBrown: We would never survive it! We all laugh TOO much at each other as it is. A live episode would be 22 minutes of all of going "Sorry. Okay. Pull it together. Here we go. We can DO this! Focus. And a one two three…" it would NEVER work! But that said, I'd be game to try and mess up LIVE repeatedly for all you guys to see! LOL!
Guest-400: When I watch episodes for the 2nd or 3rd time I look for things the cast does in the background. There's usually a funny action or something bizarre going on. Is that written in the script or is it something the cast and the director work out on set.
YvetteNBrown: It's usually something we're doing to make someone else who's on camera laugh. Like "Chang tongue" that Ken does. He does that in the background of numerous scenes just to see if we'll notice. It's on full display in the courtroom in the Law and Order episode.
Guest-363: Hi, Hey, what's up, who's you're favourite character on the show outside of the study group? I love Garrett & Vaughn was great as well.
YvetteNBrown: I really like Vicki, played by my buddy Danielle. She's fiesty and unpredictable. And she's a perfect example of how our show works. If you're on once you're almost sure to return. Greendale is like that. Danielle had one line in the election episode and has done like 10 episodes since. I also love Leonard. That Richard Erdman is a national treasure! Charley Koontz who plays Fat Neil is a favorite too. We've been blessed with our guest stars and co-stars! Ooh and Luke Youngblood as Magnitude… i could go on and on! Wait, I did! LOL!
Guest-334: Which place would you most want to go for a dream vacation, and who would you take with you?
YvetteNBrown: I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, Paris or Australia. And I'd probably take my mom especially if it was out of the country because she has a passport that's stamp-less right now and that HAS to be fixed!
Guest-418: Which is you favorite Halloween episode?
YvetteNBrown: I really loved the ghost stories from this season. It was a lot of fun shooting all the vignettes and we got to hear "Daybreak" by Michael Haggis for the first time. And Heaven knows that's been the gift that keeps on giving!
Guest-390: Hi Yvette! I love Community! What is a typical day on the set like?
YvetteNBrown: Starts at 5;30am for the girls on Monday and goes for about 16 hours with lots of laughs and foolishness in between! That's the short version.
Guest-196: If you could make a Shirley sandwich. What would be on it? Thanks again for doing this!!!! Six seasons and a movie!!!!
YvetteNBrown: Pepper or Jerk turkey by boarshead. spicy hummus on potato bread. Simple.
Guest-233: Thinking of doing a squirrel costume like Gillian's. Any advice?
YvetteNBrown: Get a wonderful costume designer like our fabulous Sabrina to get it made for you!
Guest-412: What's your favorite Shirley moment on the show. And what do you think is the best thing about Shirley's personality?
YvetteNBrown: Any moment with Andre. And I love that Shirley is so loving and forgiving. She's truly a good egg… flaws and all.
Guest-426: Has being Shirley ruined "that's nice" for you?
YvetteNBrown: Not at all. I actually just said it while I was driving the other day when someone let someone else merge
Guest-319: Love you, Yvette! What's your favorite food?
YvetteNBrown: Bacon!
Guest-149: I know it's not a question, but I'm probably going to have to leave soon, so I just wanted to send my gratitude =) Jumping on the bandwagon here a little bit to thank you for everything. For your time here today, and for all the awesome stuff on the show, and just for being awesome! #sixseasonsandamovie
YvetteNBrown: Thanks for chatting!
Guest-180: Are your fellow cast members still making fun of you during the DVD commentaries? Have you heard if there will be Blu-ray releases? Thanks so much for talking to us!
YvetteNBrown: Always! And we don't know about a blu-ray release yet. Fingers crossed!
Guest-269: The fact you said jigsaw puzzles makes me love you even more! Are you a 1000 piece gal, or more or less pieces?
YvetteNBrown: I do 1000 pieces if I've really got time to focus. But 750 is my usual.
Guest-416: Why do you call Gillian Jacobs stink?
YvetteNBrown: I'll never tell!
Guest-196: What is the one food you CANNOT live without?
YvetteNBrown: potatoes
Guest-370: If you could be another character on the show (man or woman), who would you want to play and why?
YvetteNBrown: Probably Troy. He has a beautiful mind!
avadakedalek: I love how Community is so relatable! I am a weird combination of Shirley and Annie for sure, but I know that everyone can find a little bit of themselves in all of the characters. I saw in a clip that you know about the fan art and fiction from the fans? Do you have a favorite piece that you have seen?
YvetteNBrown: I know about the fan fic, but I don't read it. I'm saving all that for when the show ends and I miss the Greendale gang. As for the fan art, it is AMAZING! I see it all and I try to retweet as much of it as I can!
Guest-319: What lasting legacy do you want to leave as a person?
YvetteNBrown: Kindness, joy and faith. If folks thought of me as a person who did her best to embody those three things I would feel like my life was well spent.
Guest-387: Howdy, it's Chels725 from Twitter. Just wanted so say the eps were great tonight & brought me to tears! Congrats on a wonderful season.
YvetteNBrown: Thanks, Chels!
Guest-294: How did the whole "Daybreak" thing start?
YvetteNBrown: I think they just looked for a smooth jazz kinda song for the scene and "Daybreak" won out. That it's been featured over and over is a testament to how much we, the cast, love it. Every other time you've heard it, I don't think it's been scripted.
Guest-82: Favorite animal?
YvetteNBrown: I was born in August, so I've gotta go with lions.
Guest-335: will you and troy have an arc together?
YvetteNBrown: Gosh, I hope so. I've been begging for that for three seasons. The only time Troy and Shirley have spoken to each other away from the group is in the first season paintball battle. How crazy is that?!
Guest-244: Congratulations on another wonderful season Yvette. Any idea if we'll see a season 3 soundtrack? I'd love to hear full versions of the songs from the Christmas/Glee episode.
YvetteNBrown: Good question. I don't actually know. But that would be great! I'm rooting for it!
Guest-376: What's your ideal ending for Shirley? Love the show!
YvetteNBrown: A degree she's proud of and a loving family life.
Guest-334: What do you like to do in your free time? So cool chatting with you. Coolcoolcool!
YvetteNBrown: Nap! And spend time with family and friends. The simple things!
Guest-79: Who do you think was the funniest guest star this season?
YvetteNBrown: Way too many to name. But John Hodgmand sticks out as a favorite!
Guest-418: Loving your tweeter feeds. How was the dialogue like during you Dungeon & Dragons episode, did you make stuff up?
YvetteNBrown: No, it was all scripted! But we did have fun acting out what they wrote!
Guest-449: which character from the show could the world most use more people like?
YvetteNBrown: I'd say Shirley, of course. She's very loving and wants what's fair for everybody.
YvetteNBrown: But I'm biased… lol!
bricatfree: Thank you so much for doing this, Yvette!
YvetteNBrown: No, thank YOU guys!
Guest-435: my name is yvette brown
YvetteNBrown: Hi, Yvette Brown!
YvetteNBrown: Guys, this has been a blast! Thanks for taking time from finale night to hang out with me! Please remember that Best Buy has got some great deals on season one and season two of the show and you can pre-order season three and be the first to have it when it comes out later this summer! Thanks to Best Buy and Sony Pictures Entertainment for setting this up! Have a great night guys! I'm off to watch the THREE new episodes from tonight!!! Can't Wait! GOD BLESS! xoxo YvetteHere ya go!
http://bit.ly/CommChat
If not try this link. -
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Developer Chat Transcript
Transcript for Chat: 'Live Chat: WoW Mists of Pandaria', Tue Sep 18 18:04:25 CDT 2012
Zarhym: Hello, all, and welcome to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Developer Chat, presented by Best Buy! Blizzard community manager Crithto and I will be helping facilitate the discussion today and filter as many of your questions as possible for our developers to answer.
Crithto: That’s right! Thank you, Zarhym, and welcome everyone. On the panel to answer your questions today we have World of Warcraft lead designers Greg Street, Cory Stockton, Dave Kosak, and Ion Hazzikostas. Questions are pouring in and our developers are preparing their initial responses, so let’s get started!
Guest-47: Is the second son of DeathWing going to be the Second Prince? The achitvment two Princs says that Wration and another 'Prince' will settle something important, is that true?
DaveKosak: To Guest-47 "Two Princes" is a placeholder name that may or may not reflect the final achievements in later patches. Suffice it to say, Wrathion's story will continue!
Guest-101: What was the idea with Monk healing? what mix of elements inspired it and defined it?
GregStreet: To Guest-101 Mostly we wanted it to feel different from existing healers, so there is an emphasis on a channeled spell as the main heal. We also wanted to emphasize movement and damage-dealing to heal, because those were core to the monk class.
Guest-51: Do you feel the way of nerfing Dragon Soul, by nerfing the bosses. Was more successful than the Icecrown Citadel version, by buffing the players health and damage?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-51 Yes, one of the awkward things about the Icecrown Citadel buff was that, over time, it caused players to feel weaker when they were doing anything other than raiding Icecrown. It also had some potentially distorting effects, benefiting some specs and roles more than others. Weakening the enemies instead, as we've done in Dragon Soul, is more in keeping with how we've traditionally handled our tuning adjustments, going all the way back to Vanilla raids.
Guest-43: Where is N'Zoth? He was mentioned at Blizzcon, then was talked about in Dragon Soul. What is going on with him?!
DaveKosak: To Guest-43 N'zoth is still lurking. The Titans couldn't defeat it... maybe someday we'll get our chance? Don't expect to hear anything about him in Pandaria, though!
drwuky: Hello. If someone from a CRZ hits Level 90 as first player on my realm, will he get the Realm First! Level 90 achievement for my realm or for his realm?
IonHazzikostas: To drwuky His realm
parrjj01: It seems like PVP never gets much attention from the devlopers during these type of events. As a hardcore lover of PVP and the many people that are in my guild, we have really gotten frustrated, bored, etc with how PVP is handled. Will you guys ever be implanting anything like how LFR system works. Were there will be healers on each side, for a better chance of your team succeeding? I don't know about anyone else but I really hate being on my side with 0 healers and the horde have 4 in E...
GregStreet: To parrjj01 Our BG queueing system was built a long time ago. Since that time we've engineered the much more powerful system that we use for Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder. We'd now like to reengineer that system to work for BG queues as well, which would give us the ability to better balance healers, item levels, and perhaps even premade vs. PUG. No promises, but it's something we're working on.
Guest-46: The Theramore event was a little... Underwhelming. Developers have previously stated they spent more time on the content in Pandaria than the Theramore event. Will we see more diversity and excitement in the scenarios in Pandaria?
DaveKosak: To Guest-46 There's a LOT of diversity in the scenarios. For example. there's a monkey pirate island where you're running around fetching up brew and fighting randomized bosses, and other insanity. We really tried to experiement with some different mechanics, and we got bolder as development continued.
Gehn: Any chance we will ever see attunements or rep based dungeons again or is that strictly a in-the-past type thing?
IonHazzikostas: To Gehn There's something a bit like a traditional attunement in the 5.0 raids: Players must defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in the Heart of Fear raid before they may begin the Terrace of Endless Spring raid. It's definitely something we're open to exploring further in the future.
Guest-30: Hi. I've had a lot of concerns regarding hit / expertise with tanks. Currently in MoP it seems tanks would reforge most their defensive stats into hit / expertise. It's extremely annoying design
GregStreet: To Guest-30 We felt like previously tanks could just ignore even hitting targets because threat was easy to maintain and survivability was based entirely around cooldowns. Now you'll need to hit the target, but you'll gain resources for doing so, so we hope the experience is more engaging to tanks. More *fighting* less standing there.
Guest-98: Will the ability to obtain legendary mats on LFR mode make it required for raiders, at least until they complete the quest?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-98 "Required" is one of those tricky words. We understand that for many players anything that gives even an incremental power gain is seen as mandatory. Progress on one portion of the early steps of the legendary questline may be made in LFR mode, so players who want to obtain their gem from Wrathion as quickly as possible will likely benefit from doing LFR alongside their Normal or Heroic raiding. LFR wings will unlock incrementally, after Normal mode, so when someone in a top progression guild is defeating up to 16 bosses when Heart of Fear and Terrace open, doing LFR will only add 6 to that total (from Mogu'shan Vaults LFR). While in the long run, we'd like to minimize players' obligation to run LFR if they are part of progression raiding guilds, that's challenging at the start of an expansion when everyone is using the same dungeon blues. We hope it'll be different for future tiers. Finally, the true power of Wrathion's gem lies in the combined effect of the weapon and the gem itself; an LFR player's Sha-touched weapon will be significantly less powerful than a Heroic raider's.
Guest-28: As the Cataclysm Expansion is now over. As a team what were your take aways both good and bad?
DaveKosak: To Guest-28 From a quest perspective, we thought that the storytelling in Cataclysm was very strong, but that the zones were very linear. For Pandaria, we wanted to swing the pendulum the other way and open up the game more, rewarding exploration. I think we found a much better balance. Kun-lai Summit, for example, is pretty open-ended, even though it's got some great stories in there. That's just one example - we're always learning from expansions. The other big takeaway was that we wanted more things for players to do, depending on what sort of challenges they want. Challenge Modes, Pet battles, and the new Daily Quest structure all appeal to different people, hoepfully with the goal of giving everyone more content no matter what your playstyle!
Guest-124: How much game time do you think will we get in exploration of the continent of pandaria?
CoryStockton: To Guest-124 We really packed in the content with Mists, that being said the amount of time it takes you is really going to depend on your playstyle. We have so many different things for players to do. Quests, reputations, dailys, sceanrios, pet battles.... The idea is to let players make progress doing whatever kind of activity they like best.
Amd11394: Prior to patch 5.0.4, When we still had the cataclysm 'revised' talent trees, Elemental shamans gained an addition to one of their talents entailing that when flame shock was dispelled we gained a temporary buff entitled 'Lave Flows' This most recent patch, with the new Mists 'revised' Talent trees highlighted the removal of the cataclysm talent system, and with it went Lava Flows, what is your reasoning for removing this valuable ability?
IonHazzikostas: To Amd11394 Defensive dispels are significantly more limited in 5.0 than they were previously. Passives like Lava Flows were designed as an answer to an environment in which defensive dispel magic was spammed constantly, and it was nearly impossible to get a buffed Lava Burst off against an attentive dispeller who could remove your Flame Shock while you were casting the spell. With an 8-second cooldown on dispels now, a healer who dispels a Flame Shock may find that they are unable to dispel the Fear or Polymorph that targets another teammate immediately thereafter. We'll keep an eye on the evolving PvP metagame in light of the new dispel changes, and consider re-adding something like Lava Flows if it proves necessary.
drwuky: Will the storyline of the Sha continue with Patch 5.1 or later patches?
DaveKosak: To drwuky For the most part, the Sha issues will be tackled by players in 5.0. BUT... not everyone wants to let sleeping Sha lie. Someone might start stirring up trouble beginning with the patches...
samich: Can we expect mailboxes on the wandering isle on release? was the removal of the one that was there for quest testing purposes?
DaveKosak: To samich Pandaren Neutrality caused a lot of design issues we had to solve. Mail ended up being a headache. What was easiest -- for us AND for our users -- was to remove mail entirely until you choose a faction. That's nice and clean and prevents a lot of issues people saw on the beta. So, no mailboxes on the Wandering Isle - sorry!
Guest-114: I know you guys recently changed the LFR loot (weapons) from the last boss in a LFR instance, are you guys going to do any other changes to LFR to make heroic raiders not feel as they have to raid 2 formats a week to be competitive?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-114 As I mentioned in reply to an earlier question, it's a goal of ours but it's a tough one to realize in a world where everyone is starting out in dungeon blues and looking to get their hands on any and all epics. It's our expectation that by the time Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring LFR unlock, most heroic raiders will have replaced their dungeon gear and have less to gain from also running LFR mode. In future raid tiers, people who are already in Heroic gear from the prior raid zone should not find the next tier's LFR gear to be an improvement over what they have.
Guest-260: Will there be an appearance of the Burning Legion in the end of MoP?
DaveKosak: To Guest-260 The threat of the Burning Legion is still out there, and it's very much a threat to Azeroth. The mortal races are mostly focused on the current war, but not everyone has forgotten about what's out there and the challenges to come... Wrathion, in particular, is already trying to look ahead.
Guest-271: Would say that the new challenge mode dungeon gold times are going to be the "Gladiator" equivalent of PVE?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-271 That would be our hope. Seeing someone sporting a set of challenge mode armor in town should be akin to seeing someone on a Gladiator mount -- you know they did something extremely skillful to earn it, and it's not the sort of reward you can outgear and obtain later on.
CoryStockton: To Guest-271 That's probably a pretty close comparison. Beyond gold times we will have server and guild leaderboards too. That's probably where the highest level of competition will be.
Guest-160: Christie Golden mentioned in an interview that she worked closely with the quest team when she wrote Tides of War to make sure everything was very close. However, there are some notable differences between the book and the scenario during the Alliance side of it. Did the storyline of the scenario change late into the book's writing?
DaveKosak: To Guest-160 We worked hard to sync with Golden during development. The Alliance side of the scenario went through LOTS of iterations, including when it happend (before the attack? During the attack? After the attack?) Ultimately we went with the one that gave us the greatest gameplay. We want the events of the book and game to match as closely as possible, but we want the best book possible and the best game possible, so they won't be word-for-word identical. This can create some fun arguments. "Well, according to this book..." "YEAH, but I WAS THERE, MAN!" We work hard to make sure the discrepancies are minor, but we definitely don't struggle for perfection.
Guest-292: Will we ever see cross-server mail or non-boa cross faction mailing phiesibly within the 5.0 content?--Gorebane of Eonar (P.S. Wa
CoryStockton: To Guest-292 It's on our list and something we really want to do. It's really just a matter of the engineering time it takes us to get it in.
im_a_rockstar: WoW has always been a mostly raid or die game. The changes in MoP to Justice Points, the item level difference on gear obtained outside of raid, are kind of steps backwards away from alternatives, pushing us back to having our only choice to be a raid. Are there any plans to give the non-raiders / people with random avaiabilities any form of meaningful character progression in terms of player power, besides only raids?
IonHazzikostas: To im_a_rockstar We have a number of gear acquisition routes that do not involve raiding. We've broadened the avenues for acquiring Valor Points, which can now be earned by doing dungeons, daily quests, scenarios, and so forth. That gear will be at least item level 489 (compared to 476 from LFR). There's also crafted gear. And of course future content updates will continue to provide upgrades outside of raiding. All of that said, I'd encourage you to check out the new raids as well -- the addition of the LFR system makes them more accessible than ever.
NinjaFox: To Dave Kosak: The reddit AMA gave some teasers that Sylvanas, Vol'jin, and Thrall (specifically in 5.1) would be integral parts to the story. Rexxar and Koltira were also mentioned. On the Alliance side, other than Varian, Anduin and Jaina are there any notable leaders/lore figures we can expect to see active through the Pandaria storyline?
DaveKosak: To NinjaFox Great question! Many of the Alliance leaders will come into play. Tyrande has a couple of moments in 5.1. We also want to do more with the dwarven storyline (we're still kicking around ideas of how best to do that.) The trick is making sure those characters have meaningful moments. We'll definitely spend a lot of time with Jaina and King Wrynn.
DeathFish1: With the creation of the farms at Halfhill, the base structure for player and guild housing has subsequently been created as well. Is this the direction you have chosen to go with for player housing or was this even considered as an option. One very good point about this option is that multiple locations for housing can be placed thoughout the game world, preventing the issue of removing players from the world.
CoryStockton: To DeathFish1 It's certainly a baby step in that direction. We are really excited to see how players react to it in Mists. We already have lots of ideas on how we can expand this kind of content in the future too!
DaveKosak: Regarding DeathFish's question (Love the name, Deathfish!) when we think about things like player-housing, we really want to look at how this can contribute to gameplay. The farm is awesome because it ties into a lot of systems, it creates some fun crafting opportunities, it impacts the economy, etc. It's a great experiment for us because if it's popular, it gives us a lot of data into how to create this type of content in the future.
Gosu: What is the design philosophy behind PvP balance and how satisfied are you with PvP balance in Mists of Pandaria?
GhostCrawler: To Gosu One of the main ones was to allow more cross-over of gear at the lower end but not the upper end of content. (In 4.0 it was more of the opposite.) It's not fun to die in PvP over and over until you get decent gear.
Guest-134: How come with this expansion you choose to go with Pandas and not something that was already in the game, such as The Emerald Dream, maybe going into the Dragonflights, or even something more with The Demonic legion.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-134 The pandaren are a race we've been looking to introduce into the WoW universe for some time now, since their introduction as a neutral hero back in the Warcraft 3 expansion. They were originally a top contender for the Alliance race back in Burning Crusade, but we ended up going with the draenei at the time because they better fit the Outland-focused story we were trying to tell, and because it didn't feel right forcing a historically neutral race like the pandaren into one specific faction. When we were looking to make an expansion centered around themes of exploration and discovery against a backdrop of Alliance-Horde conflict, the pandaren just seemed like the right fit: Noble and enigmatic race caught in the middle of the war between the Alliance and Horde as it spirals out of control, forced to choose sides as the outside world descends upon their homeland.
Guest-179: ogue's shadow blades visual effect is lacking, and needs more of a pop. Paladins get ashbringer; could rogues get something equally cool looking?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-179 We agree that some rogue visuals (Shadow Blades, Shadow Walk, etc.) could use some more love. That's something we'd like to do in a future patch.
bocasha: In Pandaria will we see another 9 month period where we will have no new stuff coming out?
CoryStockton: To bocasha We are doing everything within our power to avoid this. We all feel that 9 months without content is pretty much unacceptable to our players. A glimmer of hope: we are already knee deep into both patch 5.1 and 5.2. Our plan is to deliver these much faster than anyone is expecting.
Guest-432: When will we see Sargeras, it's one of the reasons I've stuck around for so long...
DaveKosak: To Guest-432 Sargeras would be one monstrous raid boss! He's one of the most iconic, key villains of the franchise. Believe me, when he comes to Azeroth, you're going to feel it LONG before he even gets there.
khalanil: Have you thought about implementing zones or battlegrounds where players are normalized by level, similar to the gear level normalization in the upcoming challenge mode dungeons? This could allow players to quest or PVP with lower-level friends, and it could be fun to see a trio of level 20s take down a level 90.
DaveKosak: To khalanil This is a tremendous question, because it's something we've been talking about and exploring. With Challenge Modes, we now have tech to scale your item level, so that we can guarantee the right level of difficulty. Having this tech opens lots of doors for us down the line. We don't have anything to announce, but it's a step toward a lot of the features you're describing.
parrjj01: I really love the real ID system, which has helped me communicate with my cousin who lives in Hawaii. The only downfall is, he's horde. Neither of us want to change fractions but we'd love to run toghther doing something. Will you guys ever considor letting us 'group' toghther and duke it out in battlegrounds, but disabling chat (even in real ID terms) so the no communcation rules still apply?
GhostCrawler: To parrjj01 We don't have huge design problems with letting you play with friends from other factions. The biggest challenge is the game was never designed with the concept of letting you be allied with the opposing faction, so it would be a tremendous amount of work. I won't give up hope for it though! (We always joke about a tauren having the Hallow's End 2D gnome mask when you're grouped with him.)
Guest-184: Can one stand anywhere in Orgrimmar(including right next to the questgiver that sends you to the gunship) when MoP is activated or do we have to be outside the Garrosh building? Good to know for us who are rushing as fast as we can!
GhostCrawler: To Guest-184 If you are online, you should get the quest pushed to you no matter where you are. We don't want to over-promise though. This is technically challenging stuff and it might be the case that we need everyone to relog. /crosses fingers
Guest-37: The story of Tides of War is really interesting. I don't think players can get engaged if they have no idea what's happening, the bomb dropping is really anticlimactic. I felt a bit disappointed so little got included in the scenario. Was this because of lack of time, of developers or because you rather keep all that info in the novels.
DaveKosak: To Guest-37 I've been watching the Theramore feedback closely, and this comment seems pretty universal. We tried to keep everything all in the scenario, to make it really self-contained, but not burden it with lots of story that you have to slog through every time you played the scenario. It's pretty clear from the feedback that people wanted more story. We should've surrounded the scenarios with more quests or explanations to help round out the story for the people who wanted to know what exactly was happening. Lesson learned!
Dude7198: Will there be a Realm First achievement that involves Pet Battles?
CoryStockton: To Dude7198 We did not make any realm first achievements for pet battles. Our intention for the feature is that its more of a casual activity and a realm first just did not feel like a good fit.
Guest-261: Nobody I know is impressed with the promise of an extra piece of loot for normal 25 mans. What we would be impressed with is separate realm first achievements for each raid format. Any chance of seeing something like this?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-261 Possibly. On several servers that have one top 25-player guild that's far above the rest of the server in progression, that might turn into incentivizing them to split up the week after their 25-player Realm First to snag the 10-player one. Not sure that's great gameplay for anyone. That said, we recognize that there's interest in making it a bit easier to distinguish between 10-player and 25-player kills in statistics or achievements.
Guest-257: Were the stained glass windows in Ulduar forshadowing of the Sha? They look very similar to the Sha.
DaveKosak: To Guest-257 I'd like to say we planned that. [Long pause] But I would be lying. I think it's just a happy coincidence that fits wonderfully into our lore.
Guest-174: When will transmog rules be loosened up a little. Main hand/one hand weapons, for instance.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-174 If I had to guess, we will loosen them at some point. We would probably wait until some time after the MoP launch when players will appreciate it more. It's easy for smaller features to get lost when there is so much new content. The designers will discuss it soon (tm).
Guest-88: We saw some of the animations on the challenge mode gear, will the druid set animations be visible when the druid is shapeshifted?
CoryStockton: To Guest-88 The custom effects are based on the armor itself so they will only be visible when you are in caster form.
Guest-306: Will content come at a faster rate in MoP? It seems that we might be pushing thought content at a much faster rate.
DaveKosak: To Guest-306 That is definitely our goal! As we speak the quest team is simultaneously working on patches 5.1 and 5.2. Our hope is to keep the story and content rolling forward. It's definitely a focus for the team - I can't make any promises, but I guarantee we're trying and I hope you'll notice the results!
CoryStockton: To Guest-306 I know we sound like a broken record on this but we are really pushing hard to deliver content to you guys faster than ever with the Mists patch cycle. As Dave mentioned, we are already making awesome progress on the first set of patches.
Zawani: Hey, I had a question regarding arms warrior pve rotation. It feels like there is to much rng involved with the rotation very rarely do I get more than 2 stacks of taste for blood and sometimes I can use overpower 5 or 6 times without a single proc of it, which then will leave me rage starved and without buttons to press, I was wondering if you could lower the damage bonus of the buff or damage of OP while also increasing the proc chance as well.
GhostCrawler: To Zawani Think of getting a high stack for Taste for Blood as a random bonus, much like getting enraged from a bunch of crits in a row. You shouldn't hold your whole rotation waiting for a 4 or 5 stack, because it won't happen that often. If you're at risk of rage capping, try to Slam. If you don't have the GCD to Slam then it's probably worth just using the Heroic Strike unless you think you'll be able to Colossus Smash really soon.
Guest-43: Will we ever see Magni Bronzebeard return from being frozen under Ironforge?
DaveKosak: To Guest-43 Magni is like the definition of BLING. If we continue his story, we'll make sure to handle it in-game. I wouldn't count on seeing him return during the Pandaren story arc, though.
Guest-313: Greg just said on twitter that the 25s versus 10s situation was handled in the AMA a lot, but nothing came from that apart from an understanding that 25s do have it harder now and could use some more compensation, Don't you have concrete plans for that, more than the tiny bit of extra loot 25s will have? The issue will only get even more pronounced the next weeks during progression.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-313 It's something we discuss frequently internally. We don't have anything final to announce just yet, but we love 25-player raiding and intend to do what we can to preserve it.
Guest-6: Windwalkers have been very upset with a couple things in particular with their spec. The first is Fists of Fury, we don't like being rooted and channeling an attack when our kit is supposed to be mobile. Can we please get this mechanic revisited? As well, we don't have literally any useful raid utility. Zen meditation is very weak. Will this be addressed at all post-launch?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-6 "Mobile" doesn't mean "never, ever stops moving." Like many specs, Windwalkers will do more damage when stationary but can still do some damage when moving. Deciding when you should FoF and when you can't is one of the decision points that separates good monks from great ones. We're not inclined to change it at this time. As far as raid utility goes, we're really reluctant to hand more "must have" buffs. We don't want Windwalkers to be mandatory, especially for smaller, 10-player raid groups. If they are never taken at all, we'll take some kind of action, but I'd be very surprised if that's the case.
Guest-531: Are there plans on fixing the broken Engineering Flying Machine that has been broken since patch 4.1?
CoryStockton: To Guest-531 We will look into this and make sure we get it fixed.
Guest-413: Is there a chance we might see class specific factions developed more? Kirin Tor, Ebon Blade, Argent Bros, Ravenholdt...Could we see something similar arise for Warriors, Hunters etc?
DaveKosak: To Guest-413 We're cooking up some cool Warlock stuff we can hopefully announce soon. In a more general sense, we LOVE class-specific content, but to do it right takes development time (believe me, I have to somehow schedule all this stuff.). When it came down to deciding between more zones of content and more faction content OR class-specific stuff, we opted to create more content for everyone. But, again, we love class-specific content, we'll try to squeeze in some cool challenges for the various challenges in the patches to come...
Guest-74: Are we going to get more story-telling in scenarios? The Theramore scenario was lackluster compared to the book, key story elements haven't even been address in-game yet.(Kirin Tor leader)
DaveKosak: To Guest-74 I addressed this earlier, but keep in mind that we want scenarios to be replayable. We definitely didn't want to burden them with tons of story that you have to wade through every time you play it. As I said for Theramore, people obviously wanted more context, which probably was best served by some one-time quests on either end of the scenario. That's a lesson we're pulling forward.
Guest-335: Will Wintergrasp ever be added as a max level battleground?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-335 Potentially, if there is enough demand for it. We would introduce it as you suggest as a true Battleground to avoid faction imbalance issues.
Guest-28: Beside the lifting on the mist with the clock strikes midnight on the 25th. We have come to expect events to complement the expansion. They have been fascinating and very fun. Should we expect events over the next 6 days? Or was the Scenario it?
CoryStockton: To Guest-28 The Theramore scenario is intended to be a preview of what players can expect from scenarios in Mists. It is by no means a launch event and thats intentional. We made a call early on to put that time into developing more content for Mists that will last and not be over in a week.
Guest-33: I loved the "Visions of the Past" quest-line in Vashj'ir. Will we see anything similar in upcoming content?
DaveKosak: To Guest-33 This is the "Battle-Maiden" questline, where you got to play as a naga badass for a while. I think these are a great break from the standard gameplay if they're well-designed, but we would want to use them sparingly. (After all, it's not WoW if you're not playing your class and kicking butt!) That said, there's a couple fun moments in Pandaria that have similar gameplay. In the Valley of Four Winds, you get to play as Chen Stormstout for a little bit. After kicking around a lot of ideas, we ultimately decided to give you a single 'Chen-Fu' button that makes him randomly do awesome kung-fu moves. It's a short sequence, but it's fun for storytelling and gives you a chance to Chen it up.
Gehn: Any updates on future guild leveling past 25?
CoryStockton: To Gehn We are totally open to increasing guild levels and the associated rewards but only when the game feels like it needs more of that content. A large number of guilds are still nowhere near level 25 so Mists did not feel like a good fit to add more guild levels.
Guest-214: Mists of Pandaria features an ambitious number of 18 raid bosses and I'm very excited about that. Im curious though as to how many bosses we can expect to see in future tiers? Firelands and Dragon Soul felt like small tiers with only 7 or 8 encounters in the tier.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-214 We like big raid tiers too, and will do our best to continue delivering them. We're planning for the next tier after Heart of Fear/Terrace to be a fair bit larger than Firelands or Dragon Soul were.
Guest-197: Whats would your answer be to the players who feel that by making multiple classes bring similar buffs and abilities, that the classes are losing their 'uniqueness'? Introducing combo points to ShadowPriests/Ret Paladins for example
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-197 Ultimately, there are only so many distinct resource mechanisms, and many of them are not great from a gameplay perspective. We'd rather differentiate our classes and specs on the basis of their overall feel and unique capabilities such as Death Grip for Death Knights or shaman' totems. I don't think many people are likely to mistake a shadow priest for a rogue just because they build up a resource and then consume it to deal damage.
Guest-395: Will the gear in Theramore's Fall 85 version be available in the 90 version?
CoryStockton: To Guest-395 The gear and the rewards for the 85 version are only available now. The 90 version has standard scenario rewards (Valor and a chance at a dungeon blue)
Lansuer: Where do you see races that are neutral leaning like the Blood Elves going within the Horde? They seem rather separate from the Horde story since Cata's launch.
DaveKosak: To Lansuer Stick around for patch 5.1 - we pick up the Blood Elves' story and propel it forward. Finally, a chance to interact with Lor'themar! Most players don't even know who he is.
Guest-121: What are your thoughts on healing classes in MoP? Are you seeing the type of balance you want in the new expansion between all classes/specs? I ask because we are seeing a lot of blending of healers into one unit, instead of variety. All healers can do everything now to state it plainly which is making certain classes stronger choices than others for non-healing reasons. Sure some do slightly better in certain situations, but the classic archetypes are no longer as valid. It removes the need fo...
GhostCrawler: To Guest-121 We strive for harmony with the healer design. If healer niches are too well-defined, then you are encouraged to stack Resto druids for one fight and then Holy paladins for the next fight. We'd rather see a diversity of healers. As far as healer balance is currently, we're pretty happy with it at 90. We still need to see Disc priests really figure out all of the nuances of Spirit Shell and we want to make sure all of the healers are really strong for Challenge Mode gold runs.
drwuky: Will you guys decrease the experience needed from 88-89 and 89-90 or increase the experience gained in Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes before release? At the moment you can NOT hit Level 89 if you start with Level 88 and 0% experience in Townlong Steppes (~10% experience missing) and also Level 90 is impossible with Dread Wastes quests only (~5% experience missing). These are datas with the 10% experience guild perk and yes, I've got both zone completed achievements.
CoryStockton: To drwuky We are still actively tuning the XP. We will look into it.
Velenor1: Question for Dave Kosak. I have always wondered why the Alliance has continuously frowned upon the Scarlet Crusade. Their main purpose was to simply eradicate the undead. With their return in MoP, we are tasked with eliminating them -again- with the aid of Lillian Voss. Why is it that we have turned their organization down for so long when we more or less have the same goals in mind?
DaveKosak: To Velenor1 The complexities really aren't in the game, but the Scarlet Crusade was very much a rogue organization. Great priests and warriors who would've otherwise served the Alliance disappear into the crusade, who serves its own ends. (In Northrend, it was clear their leadership had succumbed to demonic influence. It's hard to make up for that.) To be honest, the main reason to revisit the Crusade in 5.1 was a gameplay reason and not a story reason - it was a favorite dungeon that we really wanted to revisit with new mechanics. We didn't think a lot of story was needed.
Guest-553: Question from Munich, Germany. As the Octoberfest here and Brewfest in WoW are coming up, I wondered whether anyone at Blizzard did "field research" for designing Brewfest at the real Octoberfest ? The costumes and music are done really well.
CoryStockton: To Guest-553 We do field research on Brewfest every Friday.
DaveKosak: Sorry - meant to say 5.0 in that last question
Guest-235: Why is the theramore event so boring? Its way too easy and if you didn't read the book then you have no idea what's going on, you also wouldn't know why jaina isn't dead and why azeroth isn't completely destroyed. Do you think it would've been smarter to put more lore in the scenario and would've made it more fun?
Zarhym: To Guest-235 Dave already spoke to the story part of your question (if you missed it Best Buy will be providing a full transcript after the chat). To address your concern of difficulty, we agree it was too easy on release. We pushed a hotfix recently that increased the HP of all enemies in Theramore's Fall. The fact is that Scenarios in Mists will be more tailored for players in quest gear and dungeon blues. But players at level 85 were steamrolling through it in Dragon Soul gear, and the hotfix was to compensate for this a little.
Guest-494: Do all designers use the same in-house editor? Or do you have different tools for different jobs? How do you handle collisions in your edits?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-494 We all use a massive proprietary tool called WoWEdit, which has been showcased a couple of times at Blizzcons in the past. We all use this tool to create and edit everything from creatures to spells to quests, and our level designers use it to actually shape the terrain of the outdoor world. At the end of the day, there are countless columns and rows in tables that define the properties of the game world and the players and monsters that inhabit it. We're only able to do the work that we do because of our amazing Tools team, a dedicated group that is constantly refining and updating our editor to enable us to create content more quickly and with fewer bugs.
Guest-186: On the World of Warcraft website, it lists tradeskill patterns, plans, etc. that the player is missing. Some of those items are no longer in game. Are there any plans to reincorporate those missing plans back into the game so the players have an opportunity to try to get all of their missing tradeskill plans?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-186 I'd hate to add back plans with no real game purpose just for sake of completeness. To be honest, I'd rather get rid of more of the older recipes that don't have a strong purpose.
Guest-160: Compared to designing dungeons, how difficult is it to design scenarios? Does it take more or less resources to make scenarios?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-160 The biggest challenge for us was just figuring out what scenarios should be. How long should they last? Should they be hard? How much variability should they have from run to run? Now that we've gone through that process, they should take much less time to design than dungeons. The biggest time expenditure on dungeons is the amazing art that goes into them.
Amd11394: Considering Dispels remove ALL magic effects, even if they dispelled Fear the Flame shock would go with it, regardless of if they intended to dispel it or not. Would this not constitute it's reinstatement?
IonHazzikostas: To Amd11394 Guessing this is a follow-up to my earlier reply. I meant that if you dispel Flame Shock off yourself, or off Teammate A, maybe you can't dispel Teammate B's Fear or Polymorph a few seconds later, and now they're stuck in CC for its full duration. In general, we expect that players have to be much more careful about how and when they use their magic dispels.
Guest-399: Rogues are famous for using daggers, and that's all that we seem to be able to use, but I like to play Combat Spec, and it's described as being a swashbuckler spec. As such, I'd like to use 1handed swords along with daggers, but there are next to no 1handed rogue compatible swords, will we ever get to use swords as part of a rogue's arsenal? Afterall, there is no longer a block on what weapons a rogue can use on their abilties.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-399 It's less of a design concern and more about how many different items we can drop. Things like e.g. Intellect axes don't have a lot of customers, so we just don't make them very often. This might be the kind of thing that transmog can eventually help address too.
basketballer259: I assume I ask this question on behalf of thousands of vanilla WoW fans: Do you ever plan on bringing back "Server-wide" Events? An example would be the Opening of AQ, which allowed the entire server to collaborate their efforts. An event of the same theory would be an incredible experience for all players to witness. It was incredibly rewarding when the whole server gathered enough materials for the opening ceremony!
DaveKosak: To basketballer259 From the standpoint of, "Everyone gather at the same place at the same time to see a big event and if you miss it its gone forever assuming you all don't crash the server," then no, no more events like that. BUT, we love the feeling of server progression, similar to the Isle of Quel'denas. Is there a way to build that progression into the game such that players who come in a couple months later don't miss out on all the fun? We think there is. And we're planning something that we'd like to try in the 5.0 patch cycle... so stay tuned! [No guarantees here, but we're actively tinkering with something.]
Shnitzel: With the pet battle system, pets which you can acquire multiples of, have lost the 'Already Known' tag. This is pretty annoying when shopping for pets for example, as you constantly have to search through your journal ("Do I have the red tickbird or the white one?"). Will this be changed? perhaps add an 'Already Known' tag in a different color?
CoryStockton: To Shnitzel Sorry for the inconvenience on that, we have already redesigned the tooltips to fix this in patch 5.1.0. Tooltips will display if you already own the pet in addition to how many.
Guest-892: Have you thought of introducing titles to reward realm 1st times for the new challenge mode dungeons. Something similar to how the PvP titles work now.
CoryStockton: To Guest-892 We actually have! The idea was that you would only have the title for as long as you held the top time. Main issue we ran into was that the title could be changing hands so fast that you might only have it for a few seconds. It's an awesome idea though and we want to explore it more.
Guest-489: Can we have a rough timeframe on when we can expect the Trials of the High King questline to be implimented? Are we taking around patch 5.1 or something closer to the Siege of Orgrimmar patch?
DaveKosak: To Guest-489 Varian Wrynn's first trial will happen in 5.1. But to set expectations, the development of Varian's character happens across the entire patch cycle and beyond - it doesn't all happen in one event or one scenario. His trials are many.
Guest-776: Transmog has become a very important part of my gaming fun. Will we be able to farm Dragon Soul LFR recolor gear at level 90, since the LFR tool won't work for it at that level ? This goes for future expansions and MoP content, of course.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-776 We aren't going to support Raid Finder for content that is much lower level than your character, but we are going to allow you to enter old raids solo without being in a raid in a future patch (ideally the next major one, but standard no promises). That should facilitiate a lot of transmog farming.
Guest-727: The Reliquary is an interesting faction (at least in my opinion), but it hasn't been really visible in Cataclysm. Any chance we'll see them in Pandaria, as a counterpart to Brann ? Or at least some way to get their tabard ?
DaveKosak: To Guest-727 No plan for a tabard, but starting in 5.1 they're going to start poking around Pandaria for relics...
Guest-763: Were Orges ever thought of as a playalbe race, at one time? (Greg marry me /kiss) Irth
GhostCrawler: To Guest-763 Yep. We considered them for Cataclysm instead of goblins. Figuring out the females and the two-headed mages would be (fun!) challenges. Maybe someday.
Zarhym: Way to ignore that marriage proposal follow-up, GC. ;p
Cueball: First: Hi guys, including Zarhym (didn't know you'd be here). Anyway, is there anything to Jaina's words that it is "time to bring Dalaran down" to the land and that she is still in support of fighting against the Horde?
DaveKosak: To Cueball Jaina's story will continue starting in patch 5.1. We'll try to catch players up with where she is at the end of the book, and then move on from there.
Guest-571: With the introduction of Pet Battles, do you think we can see pets dropping in raids again? There hasn't been a pet drop in a raid since Karazhan IIRC so a prime example in today's standing could be Ragnaros dropping Mini Ragnaros instead of it being on the store.
CoryStockton: To Guest-571 I don't see why not! We just need to make sure it's a good fit with the content.
Guest-736: Is there any plans to allow players to have more then one Death Knight per server?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-736 We agree that it feels like an antiquated rule at this point. We'll see how hard it is to remove that restriction.
sdk: I am wondering about the incentives to 25 man. This game is a social game so why does it seem that 25 man guilds are dieing off and they are going to 10 mans. Paragon recently posted that they were going to 10 man. Is there any other way to fix it so that people are drawn to do 25 mans because they want to raid with friends and get the good gear?
IonHazzikostas: To sdk In Paragon's specific case, I suspect they'd find no lack of capable people more than willing to raid with them, but maintaining a Finnish-speaking roster is a core part of their guild culture, and they've made what was no doubt a very difficult decision to scale down to 10-player raiding rather than compromise that culture. As I noted in the Reddit AMA, ultimately there are heavier logistical burdens, particularly placed on the officers and raid leaders, in sustaining a 25-player roster versus only needing 10 players. We're actively discussing ways of ensuring that 25-player raiders feel properly incentivized and rewarded without necessarily elevating one raid size over the other. We definitely welcome ongoing community discussion and feedback on that topic.
Alablaster: As Developers, what was your biggest hurdle in building the new features we will see in Mists and how did you overcome them? Also I want to send kudos out to the art team - the beta was visually stunning!
CoryStockton: To Alablaster Our biggest issue with new features is adding more complexity to the game. It's somethign we struggle with every expansion. I will pass your kind words on to the art team too!
Wamogri: Will the baby shark pet ever get added back into the game?
CoryStockton: To Wamogri Yes! That's what those sweet new water bubbles are for!
Guest-525: Recently in Twitter Ghostcrawler mentioned the possibility of making subraces such as Maghar orcs and Wildhammer dwarfs available with the player character model updates, how high chance is there that this would also allow us to play as Broken or Taunka?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-525 If we ever opened up more races, I suspect we'd be pretty liberal about it, but to be clear, that feature is no more than a twinkle in some designer's eye at this stage.
artimadours: Are there any plans to allow for heirloom items to be sent cross realm?
CoryStockton: To artimadours We want this as bad as you guys do. It's on the list and we are looking into it.
Nize: You mentioned in a previous Q&A that legendary weapon components would be done in a manner to lessen drama within in a guild. One step was the implementation of components achievable through LFR. My question is how will components from normal and heroic raids be distributed. Will it be distributed similarly to how Deathwing's essences or new LFR are, or will the raid leaders still choose who to give those components to?
GhostCrawler: To Nize In 5.0 it's not a competitive issue at all. In Raid Finder, it's a random drop for some players. In Normal and Heroic there is a chance of a drop, at which point it is multi-lootable and every player on the quest will get it.
Guest-787: There has been some speculation as to whether Turalyon and Alleria might make a triumphant comeback in Mists of Pandaria. Any comments on this, or are they saved for a later expansion pack? The Alliance sure could use something to turn the tide of war.
DaveKosak: To Guest-787 ...and also, I think the Alliance can take this!
DaveKosak: To Guest-787 There's no plan to continue their story in Pandaria.
DaveKosak: (Reverse the order of those replies.
Guest-212: Are we going to have the ability to remove players who dc or log off from scenario groups and add in new players from the queue?
CoryStockton: To Guest-212 Not at launch but we hope to have it in for the 5.1 patch. We understand the concern.
lilm123: Do you guys plan on giving out title for challgenge modes, like how you do for PvP (0.0% - 0.5%: Gladiator 0.5% - 3%: Duelist 3% - 10%: Rival 10% - 35%: Challenger)
IonHazzikostas: To lilm123 If and when we move on to future challenge mode "seasons", titles to recognize players' past accomplishments are definitely something we'll consider.
Guest-913: With all these new changes to get players out into the world (great idea), is it a goal of the development team to possibly bring back World-PvP? Coming from someone who plays on a PvP Realm, I would love to relive the old days of huge scale open world PvP battles. I'm sure many others feel the same way.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-913 We are trying to encourage it. Spots like the Black Market and the shrines (the faction "cities" in the Vale) will probably have a lot of PvP on PvP servers. Remember, guards are much weaker on PvP servers now and there are no sanctuaries in Pandaria.
Guest-883: At the end of the Klaxxi questline, the mantid mentioned that at one point in time, they worshipped Y'shaarj, an old god. However, he was slain by the Titans and was split into "shadows of his former self". Is he, in some way, in relations with the Sha and will we see Y'shaarj in future content patches?
DaveKosak: To Guest-883 Y'shaarj breathed love and exhaled hate, inhaled peace and breathed violence... Plus, his name was y'SHAarj. It's pretty safe to connect the dots. But Y'shaarj itself is very, very, very dead.
Guest-728: WIll we see a Heroic Version of Ragefire Chasm?
CoryStockton: To Guest-728 Certainly not out of the question. Heroic versions of classic dungeons have been some of our most popular content. We will keep doing them as long as people keem playing em'.
Guest-508: What exaclty (If you can answer without spoiling the story line!) has turned Garrosh Hellscream into the monster we all hate now?
DaveKosak: To Guest-508 Garrosh is not a monster. He has a very clear vision of the Horde, and the future of the orcs, and he gives very little thought to anyone who stands between him and that future. As he gets more powerful, and gets away with more, his vision becomes clearer. This has put him in conflict in the Alliance, and ultimately will cause problems within the Horde.
Ünseen: I love the little mana bomb received from the Theramoore scenario, but the cooldown is making it really hard to have fun with. Any chance this will be reduced to allow a bit more spammability? Maybe like a 30 second cd?
CoryStockton: To Ünseen Glad you liked the reward! Unfortunately, that kind of mana power takes a long time to recharge!
Guest-749: The new LFR system you have in WoW now seems like a great way for people who dont have alot of time to donate to raiding guild environments a chance to see content that was most of the time closed to them, however im not a big fan of 25man raids. Is there any plans to add a 10man choice to the LFR system?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-749 We think 25 works better for Raid Finder. The ratios of DPS to non DPS more matches the player population and there is less risk of getting an unviable group. In 25s you can afford to have a few deaths and you can even pull if you're backfilling a few players. Both really make you stop in your tracks on 10s. In 25, it's easier to fade back into the group if you're still not 100% confident in what you're doing. In 10s, it's harder to be a wallflower.
Guest-986: "Turalyon and Alleria" is it possible in anyway to know if there are any plans to continue their story? I had HUGE hopes to see them in game when BC came out and their SON poped out of nowhere saying they where alive. anything would do!... plz!?
DaveKosak: To Guest-986 Oh, their story will continue!!
Guest-51: How are group compositions gonna work into Challenge Modes? Surely every group would want to have a Bloodlust. And atleast a kings buff.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-51 Realistically, if you're aiming for Gold, you're going to want a shaman or a mage or a hunter in your group, though Gold is absolutely possible without using Heroism/Bloodlust or equivalent effects. Realistically that probably saves you 15-20 seconds at best, and we've seen groups beat some Gold times by more than that. When constructing a 5-player dungeon group, you're inevitably going to have some strengths and some weaknesses in your composition, and players may find that the sorts of abilities they find invaluable are not the ones they're used to viewing in that light. (Pop quiz -- Which is likely to help you more in an 18-minute challenge mode run: Bloodlust, or an AoE stun that you can a couple of times a minute?)
Vaengence: Ok, I am going to be the one to ask the dreaded question, mainly because my guild members know that I continue to fight for them and have asked me to still chase this question. 25 mans - GC you have said it would be a good topic for a Watercooler, which is good, and recent tweets say not enough is being done for them.The only change we know about is the loot change and that is onl 1 item different for Normals from the majority of Cata which, excuse the sentiment here, seems a little underwhelmin...
GhostCrawler: To Vaengence Sadly, we don't have any details to announce yet, but we have a couple of ideas that should make the 25 players happy. We'll talk about them when we're confident that they are good ideas. Remember, the result can't be that all the 10 players stampede back to 25.
DeathFish1: Any chance we will see the option to upgrade out current legendary to be maybe not the equal to the current ilvl but maybe raid finder ilvl or just a little below so that they are not just taking up space in out banks, or bags in the case of dragonwrath.
GhostCrawler: To DeathFish1 Not sure we would let you upgrade a legendary, but we could potentially allow you to transmog them. Our reluctance has always been that Thunderfuy feels less special when you see 30 of them running around AV.
Guest-924: If some gamers are thinking about coming back to WoW to exp Mist of Pandaria content, is there any special program "come back" that will launch with the release?
CoryStockton: To Guest-924 Scroll of Resurrection is awesome for returning players!
Bolting: Have you changed your design philosophy of the quest flow in mists of pandaria? In previous expansions, moving to a new zone as soon as you are eligble left enough experience to cause no issues. Do you intend for all zones to be finished from beginning to end in order, and if so why did you feel the need to add breadcrumbs to the next zone prior to being able to go without issues further down the road?
DaveKosak: To Bolting Pandaria is like a huge novel that you can read in any order. You can skip ahead to other chapters as soon as you're eligible. It's worth it to stick through a full zone to wrap up the storylines and maybe get some blue quest rewards, but you're welcome to play through however you want. We definitely put in the effort to make this expansion much more open and non-linear.
Crithto: That about wraps things up, everyone. Thank you so much for joining the Best Buy Dev Chat, sending us really great questions, and for your patience. On behalf of Greg, Cory, Ion, Dave, and Zarhym, we truly appreciate your time and passion for World of Warcraft. Have a GREAT rest of the week, and we'll see you in Pandaria next Tuesday!
DaveKosak: This was a lot of fun. Thank you everyone! Only days to go... Pandaria awaits!
CoryStockton: Tons of great questions guys, that was a lot of fun! Can't wait to see everyone in Pandaria in just a few days!
GhostCrawler: We can't wait for you guys to see all of the new Mists content. We are really proud of what we've been able to deliver with this expansion. It's going to be good. Hugs, GC.
Dorothy-BBY: Thanks guys!
Zarhym: Thank you, everyone! For those who got here late or weren't able to follow along for the whole chat, Best Buy will be providing a full transcript here momentarily: http://bbyurl.us/MistsofPandariaChat
Kyle-BBY: Great chat everyone! Thank you everyone for joining us and Blizzard for totally rocking!
Sean|Senior Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
Private MessageTranscript for Chat: 'Live Chat: WoW Mists of Pandaria', Tue Sep 18 18:04:25 CDT 2012
Zarhym: Hello, all, and welcome to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Developer Chat, presented by Best Buy! Blizzard community manager Crithto and I will be helping facilitate the discussion today and filter as many of your questions as possible for our developers to answer.
Crithto: That’s right! Thank you, Zarhym, and welcome everyone. On the panel to answer your questions today we have World of Warcraft lead designers Greg Street, Cory Stockton, Dave Kosak, and Ion Hazzikostas. Questions are pouring in and our developers are preparing their initial responses, so let’s get started!
Guest-47: Is the second son of DeathWing going to be the Second Prince? The achitvment two Princs says that Wration and another 'Prince' will settle something important, is that true?
DaveKosak: To Guest-47 "Two Princes" is a placeholder name that may or may not reflect the final achievements in later patches. Suffice it to say, Wrathion's story will continue!
Guest-101: What was the idea with Monk healing? what mix of elements inspired it and defined it?
GregStreet: To Guest-101 Mostly we wanted it to feel different from existing healers, so there is an emphasis on a channeled spell as the main heal. We also wanted to emphasize movement and damage-dealing to heal, because those were core to the monk class.
Guest-51: Do you feel the way of nerfing Dragon Soul, by nerfing the bosses. Was more successful than the Icecrown Citadel version, by buffing the players health and damage?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-51 Yes, one of the awkward things about the Icecrown Citadel buff was that, over time, it caused players to feel weaker when they were doing anything other than raiding Icecrown. It also had some potentially distorting effects, benefiting some specs and roles more than others. Weakening the enemies instead, as we've done in Dragon Soul, is more in keeping with how we've traditionally handled our tuning adjustments, going all the way back to Vanilla raids.
Guest-43: Where is N'Zoth? He was mentioned at Blizzcon, then was talked about in Dragon Soul. What is going on with him?!
DaveKosak: To Guest-43 N'zoth is still lurking. The Titans couldn't defeat it... maybe someday we'll get our chance? Don't expect to hear anything about him in Pandaria, though!
drwuky: Hello. If someone from a CRZ hits Level 90 as first player on my realm, will he get the Realm First! Level 90 achievement for my realm or for his realm?
IonHazzikostas: To drwuky His realm
parrjj01: It seems like PVP never gets much attention from the devlopers during these type of events. As a hardcore lover of PVP and the many people that are in my guild, we have really gotten frustrated, bored, etc with how PVP is handled. Will you guys ever be implanting anything like how LFR system works. Were there will be healers on each side, for a better chance of your team succeeding? I don't know about anyone else but I really hate being on my side with 0 healers and the horde have 4 in E...
GregStreet: To parrjj01 Our BG queueing system was built a long time ago. Since that time we've engineered the much more powerful system that we use for Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder. We'd now like to reengineer that system to work for BG queues as well, which would give us the ability to better balance healers, item levels, and perhaps even premade vs. PUG. No promises, but it's something we're working on.
Guest-46: The Theramore event was a little... Underwhelming. Developers have previously stated they spent more time on the content in Pandaria than the Theramore event. Will we see more diversity and excitement in the scenarios in Pandaria?
DaveKosak: To Guest-46 There's a LOT of diversity in the scenarios. For example. there's a monkey pirate island where you're running around fetching up brew and fighting randomized bosses, and other insanity. We really tried to experiement with some different mechanics, and we got bolder as development continued.
Gehn: Any chance we will ever see attunements or rep based dungeons again or is that strictly a in-the-past type thing?
IonHazzikostas: To Gehn There's something a bit like a traditional attunement in the 5.0 raids: Players must defeat Grand Empress Shek'zeer in the Heart of Fear raid before they may begin the Terrace of Endless Spring raid. It's definitely something we're open to exploring further in the future.
Guest-30: Hi. I've had a lot of concerns regarding hit / expertise with tanks. Currently in MoP it seems tanks would reforge most their defensive stats into hit / expertise. It's extremely annoying design
GregStreet: To Guest-30 We felt like previously tanks could just ignore even hitting targets because threat was easy to maintain and survivability was based entirely around cooldowns. Now you'll need to hit the target, but you'll gain resources for doing so, so we hope the experience is more engaging to tanks. More *fighting* less standing there.
Guest-98: Will the ability to obtain legendary mats on LFR mode make it required for raiders, at least until they complete the quest?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-98 "Required" is one of those tricky words. We understand that for many players anything that gives even an incremental power gain is seen as mandatory. Progress on one portion of the early steps of the legendary questline may be made in LFR mode, so players who want to obtain their gem from Wrathion as quickly as possible will likely benefit from doing LFR alongside their Normal or Heroic raiding. LFR wings will unlock incrementally, after Normal mode, so when someone in a top progression guild is defeating up to 16 bosses when Heart of Fear and Terrace open, doing LFR will only add 6 to that total (from Mogu'shan Vaults LFR). While in the long run, we'd like to minimize players' obligation to run LFR if they are part of progression raiding guilds, that's challenging at the start of an expansion when everyone is using the same dungeon blues. We hope it'll be different for future tiers. Finally, the true power of Wrathion's gem lies in the combined effect of the weapon and the gem itself; an LFR player's Sha-touched weapon will be significantly less powerful than a Heroic raider's.
Guest-28: As the Cataclysm Expansion is now over. As a team what were your take aways both good and bad?
DaveKosak: To Guest-28 From a quest perspective, we thought that the storytelling in Cataclysm was very strong, but that the zones were very linear. For Pandaria, we wanted to swing the pendulum the other way and open up the game more, rewarding exploration. I think we found a much better balance. Kun-lai Summit, for example, is pretty open-ended, even though it's got some great stories in there. That's just one example - we're always learning from expansions. The other big takeaway was that we wanted more things for players to do, depending on what sort of challenges they want. Challenge Modes, Pet battles, and the new Daily Quest structure all appeal to different people, hoepfully with the goal of giving everyone more content no matter what your playstyle!
Guest-124: How much game time do you think will we get in exploration of the continent of pandaria?
CoryStockton: To Guest-124 We really packed in the content with Mists, that being said the amount of time it takes you is really going to depend on your playstyle. We have so many different things for players to do. Quests, reputations, dailys, sceanrios, pet battles.... The idea is to let players make progress doing whatever kind of activity they like best.
Amd11394: Prior to patch 5.0.4, When we still had the cataclysm 'revised' talent trees, Elemental shamans gained an addition to one of their talents entailing that when flame shock was dispelled we gained a temporary buff entitled 'Lave Flows' This most recent patch, with the new Mists 'revised' Talent trees highlighted the removal of the cataclysm talent system, and with it went Lava Flows, what is your reasoning for removing this valuable ability?
IonHazzikostas: To Amd11394 Defensive dispels are significantly more limited in 5.0 than they were previously. Passives like Lava Flows were designed as an answer to an environment in which defensive dispel magic was spammed constantly, and it was nearly impossible to get a buffed Lava Burst off against an attentive dispeller who could remove your Flame Shock while you were casting the spell. With an 8-second cooldown on dispels now, a healer who dispels a Flame Shock may find that they are unable to dispel the Fear or Polymorph that targets another teammate immediately thereafter. We'll keep an eye on the evolving PvP metagame in light of the new dispel changes, and consider re-adding something like Lava Flows if it proves necessary.
drwuky: Will the storyline of the Sha continue with Patch 5.1 or later patches?
DaveKosak: To drwuky For the most part, the Sha issues will be tackled by players in 5.0. BUT... not everyone wants to let sleeping Sha lie. Someone might start stirring up trouble beginning with the patches...
samich: Can we expect mailboxes on the wandering isle on release? was the removal of the one that was there for quest testing purposes?
DaveKosak: To samich Pandaren Neutrality caused a lot of design issues we had to solve. Mail ended up being a headache. What was easiest -- for us AND for our users -- was to remove mail entirely until you choose a faction. That's nice and clean and prevents a lot of issues people saw on the beta. So, no mailboxes on the Wandering Isle - sorry!
Guest-114: I know you guys recently changed the LFR loot (weapons) from the last boss in a LFR instance, are you guys going to do any other changes to LFR to make heroic raiders not feel as they have to raid 2 formats a week to be competitive?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-114 As I mentioned in reply to an earlier question, it's a goal of ours but it's a tough one to realize in a world where everyone is starting out in dungeon blues and looking to get their hands on any and all epics. It's our expectation that by the time Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring LFR unlock, most heroic raiders will have replaced their dungeon gear and have less to gain from also running LFR mode. In future raid tiers, people who are already in Heroic gear from the prior raid zone should not find the next tier's LFR gear to be an improvement over what they have.
Guest-260: Will there be an appearance of the Burning Legion in the end of MoP?
DaveKosak: To Guest-260 The threat of the Burning Legion is still out there, and it's very much a threat to Azeroth. The mortal races are mostly focused on the current war, but not everyone has forgotten about what's out there and the challenges to come... Wrathion, in particular, is already trying to look ahead.
Guest-271: Would say that the new challenge mode dungeon gold times are going to be the "Gladiator" equivalent of PVE?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-271 That would be our hope. Seeing someone sporting a set of challenge mode armor in town should be akin to seeing someone on a Gladiator mount -- you know they did something extremely skillful to earn it, and it's not the sort of reward you can outgear and obtain later on.
CoryStockton: To Guest-271 That's probably a pretty close comparison. Beyond gold times we will have server and guild leaderboards too. That's probably where the highest level of competition will be.
Guest-160: Christie Golden mentioned in an interview that she worked closely with the quest team when she wrote Tides of War to make sure everything was very close. However, there are some notable differences between the book and the scenario during the Alliance side of it. Did the storyline of the scenario change late into the book's writing?
DaveKosak: To Guest-160 We worked hard to sync with Golden during development. The Alliance side of the scenario went through LOTS of iterations, including when it happend (before the attack? During the attack? After the attack?) Ultimately we went with the one that gave us the greatest gameplay. We want the events of the book and game to match as closely as possible, but we want the best book possible and the best game possible, so they won't be word-for-word identical. This can create some fun arguments. "Well, according to this book..." "YEAH, but I WAS THERE, MAN!" We work hard to make sure the discrepancies are minor, but we definitely don't struggle for perfection.
Guest-292: Will we ever see cross-server mail or non-boa cross faction mailing phiesibly within the 5.0 content?--Gorebane of Eonar (P.S. Wa
CoryStockton: To Guest-292 It's on our list and something we really want to do. It's really just a matter of the engineering time it takes us to get it in.
im_a_rockstar: WoW has always been a mostly raid or die game. The changes in MoP to Justice Points, the item level difference on gear obtained outside of raid, are kind of steps backwards away from alternatives, pushing us back to having our only choice to be a raid. Are there any plans to give the non-raiders / people with random avaiabilities any form of meaningful character progression in terms of player power, besides only raids?
IonHazzikostas: To im_a_rockstar We have a number of gear acquisition routes that do not involve raiding. We've broadened the avenues for acquiring Valor Points, which can now be earned by doing dungeons, daily quests, scenarios, and so forth. That gear will be at least item level 489 (compared to 476 from LFR). There's also crafted gear. And of course future content updates will continue to provide upgrades outside of raiding. All of that said, I'd encourage you to check out the new raids as well -- the addition of the LFR system makes them more accessible than ever.
NinjaFox: To Dave Kosak: The reddit AMA gave some teasers that Sylvanas, Vol'jin, and Thrall (specifically in 5.1) would be integral parts to the story. Rexxar and Koltira were also mentioned. On the Alliance side, other than Varian, Anduin and Jaina are there any notable leaders/lore figures we can expect to see active through the Pandaria storyline?
DaveKosak: To NinjaFox Great question! Many of the Alliance leaders will come into play. Tyrande has a couple of moments in 5.1. We also want to do more with the dwarven storyline (we're still kicking around ideas of how best to do that.) The trick is making sure those characters have meaningful moments. We'll definitely spend a lot of time with Jaina and King Wrynn.
DeathFish1: With the creation of the farms at Halfhill, the base structure for player and guild housing has subsequently been created as well. Is this the direction you have chosen to go with for player housing or was this even considered as an option. One very good point about this option is that multiple locations for housing can be placed thoughout the game world, preventing the issue of removing players from the world.
CoryStockton: To DeathFish1 It's certainly a baby step in that direction. We are really excited to see how players react to it in Mists. We already have lots of ideas on how we can expand this kind of content in the future too!
DaveKosak: Regarding DeathFish's question (Love the name, Deathfish!) when we think about things like player-housing, we really want to look at how this can contribute to gameplay. The farm is awesome because it ties into a lot of systems, it creates some fun crafting opportunities, it impacts the economy, etc. It's a great experiment for us because if it's popular, it gives us a lot of data into how to create this type of content in the future.
Gosu: What is the design philosophy behind PvP balance and how satisfied are you with PvP balance in Mists of Pandaria?
GhostCrawler: To Gosu One of the main ones was to allow more cross-over of gear at the lower end but not the upper end of content. (In 4.0 it was more of the opposite.) It's not fun to die in PvP over and over until you get decent gear.
Guest-134: How come with this expansion you choose to go with Pandas and not something that was already in the game, such as The Emerald Dream, maybe going into the Dragonflights, or even something more with The Demonic legion.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-134 The pandaren are a race we've been looking to introduce into the WoW universe for some time now, since their introduction as a neutral hero back in the Warcraft 3 expansion. They were originally a top contender for the Alliance race back in Burning Crusade, but we ended up going with the draenei at the time because they better fit the Outland-focused story we were trying to tell, and because it didn't feel right forcing a historically neutral race like the pandaren into one specific faction. When we were looking to make an expansion centered around themes of exploration and discovery against a backdrop of Alliance-Horde conflict, the pandaren just seemed like the right fit: Noble and enigmatic race caught in the middle of the war between the Alliance and Horde as it spirals out of control, forced to choose sides as the outside world descends upon their homeland.
Guest-179: ogue's shadow blades visual effect is lacking, and needs more of a pop. Paladins get ashbringer; could rogues get something equally cool looking?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-179 We agree that some rogue visuals (Shadow Blades, Shadow Walk, etc.) could use some more love. That's something we'd like to do in a future patch.
bocasha: In Pandaria will we see another 9 month period where we will have no new stuff coming out?
CoryStockton: To bocasha We are doing everything within our power to avoid this. We all feel that 9 months without content is pretty much unacceptable to our players. A glimmer of hope: we are already knee deep into both patch 5.1 and 5.2. Our plan is to deliver these much faster than anyone is expecting.
Guest-432: When will we see Sargeras, it's one of the reasons I've stuck around for so long...
DaveKosak: To Guest-432 Sargeras would be one monstrous raid boss! He's one of the most iconic, key villains of the franchise. Believe me, when he comes to Azeroth, you're going to feel it LONG before he even gets there.
khalanil: Have you thought about implementing zones or battlegrounds where players are normalized by level, similar to the gear level normalization in the upcoming challenge mode dungeons? This could allow players to quest or PVP with lower-level friends, and it could be fun to see a trio of level 20s take down a level 90.
DaveKosak: To khalanil This is a tremendous question, because it's something we've been talking about and exploring. With Challenge Modes, we now have tech to scale your item level, so that we can guarantee the right level of difficulty. Having this tech opens lots of doors for us down the line. We don't have anything to announce, but it's a step toward a lot of the features you're describing.
parrjj01: I really love the real ID system, which has helped me communicate with my cousin who lives in Hawaii. The only downfall is, he's horde. Neither of us want to change fractions but we'd love to run toghther doing something. Will you guys ever considor letting us 'group' toghther and duke it out in battlegrounds, but disabling chat (even in real ID terms) so the no communcation rules still apply?
GhostCrawler: To parrjj01 We don't have huge design problems with letting you play with friends from other factions. The biggest challenge is the game was never designed with the concept of letting you be allied with the opposing faction, so it would be a tremendous amount of work. I won't give up hope for it though! (We always joke about a tauren having the Hallow's End 2D gnome mask when you're grouped with him.)
Guest-184: Can one stand anywhere in Orgrimmar(including right next to the questgiver that sends you to the gunship) when MoP is activated or do we have to be outside the Garrosh building? Good to know for us who are rushing as fast as we can!
GhostCrawler: To Guest-184 If you are online, you should get the quest pushed to you no matter where you are. We don't want to over-promise though. This is technically challenging stuff and it might be the case that we need everyone to relog. /crosses fingers
Guest-37: The story of Tides of War is really interesting. I don't think players can get engaged if they have no idea what's happening, the bomb dropping is really anticlimactic. I felt a bit disappointed so little got included in the scenario. Was this because of lack of time, of developers or because you rather keep all that info in the novels.
DaveKosak: To Guest-37 I've been watching the Theramore feedback closely, and this comment seems pretty universal. We tried to keep everything all in the scenario, to make it really self-contained, but not burden it with lots of story that you have to slog through every time you played the scenario. It's pretty clear from the feedback that people wanted more story. We should've surrounded the scenarios with more quests or explanations to help round out the story for the people who wanted to know what exactly was happening. Lesson learned!
Dude7198: Will there be a Realm First achievement that involves Pet Battles?
CoryStockton: To Dude7198 We did not make any realm first achievements for pet battles. Our intention for the feature is that its more of a casual activity and a realm first just did not feel like a good fit.
Guest-261: Nobody I know is impressed with the promise of an extra piece of loot for normal 25 mans. What we would be impressed with is separate realm first achievements for each raid format. Any chance of seeing something like this?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-261 Possibly. On several servers that have one top 25-player guild that's far above the rest of the server in progression, that might turn into incentivizing them to split up the week after their 25-player Realm First to snag the 10-player one. Not sure that's great gameplay for anyone. That said, we recognize that there's interest in making it a bit easier to distinguish between 10-player and 25-player kills in statistics or achievements.
Guest-257: Were the stained glass windows in Ulduar forshadowing of the Sha? They look very similar to the Sha.
DaveKosak: To Guest-257 I'd like to say we planned that. [Long pause] But I would be lying. I think it's just a happy coincidence that fits wonderfully into our lore.
Guest-174: When will transmog rules be loosened up a little. Main hand/one hand weapons, for instance.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-174 If I had to guess, we will loosen them at some point. We would probably wait until some time after the MoP launch when players will appreciate it more. It's easy for smaller features to get lost when there is so much new content. The designers will discuss it soon (tm).
Guest-88: We saw some of the animations on the challenge mode gear, will the druid set animations be visible when the druid is shapeshifted?
CoryStockton: To Guest-88 The custom effects are based on the armor itself so they will only be visible when you are in caster form.
Guest-306: Will content come at a faster rate in MoP? It seems that we might be pushing thought content at a much faster rate.
DaveKosak: To Guest-306 That is definitely our goal! As we speak the quest team is simultaneously working on patches 5.1 and 5.2. Our hope is to keep the story and content rolling forward. It's definitely a focus for the team - I can't make any promises, but I guarantee we're trying and I hope you'll notice the results!
CoryStockton: To Guest-306 I know we sound like a broken record on this but we are really pushing hard to deliver content to you guys faster than ever with the Mists patch cycle. As Dave mentioned, we are already making awesome progress on the first set of patches.
Zawani: Hey, I had a question regarding arms warrior pve rotation. It feels like there is to much rng involved with the rotation very rarely do I get more than 2 stacks of taste for blood and sometimes I can use overpower 5 or 6 times without a single proc of it, which then will leave me rage starved and without buttons to press, I was wondering if you could lower the damage bonus of the buff or damage of OP while also increasing the proc chance as well.
GhostCrawler: To Zawani Think of getting a high stack for Taste for Blood as a random bonus, much like getting enraged from a bunch of crits in a row. You shouldn't hold your whole rotation waiting for a 4 or 5 stack, because it won't happen that often. If you're at risk of rage capping, try to Slam. If you don't have the GCD to Slam then it's probably worth just using the Heroic Strike unless you think you'll be able to Colossus Smash really soon.
Guest-43: Will we ever see Magni Bronzebeard return from being frozen under Ironforge?
DaveKosak: To Guest-43 Magni is like the definition of BLING. If we continue his story, we'll make sure to handle it in-game. I wouldn't count on seeing him return during the Pandaren story arc, though.
Guest-313: Greg just said on twitter that the 25s versus 10s situation was handled in the AMA a lot, but nothing came from that apart from an understanding that 25s do have it harder now and could use some more compensation, Don't you have concrete plans for that, more than the tiny bit of extra loot 25s will have? The issue will only get even more pronounced the next weeks during progression.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-313 It's something we discuss frequently internally. We don't have anything final to announce just yet, but we love 25-player raiding and intend to do what we can to preserve it.
Guest-6: Windwalkers have been very upset with a couple things in particular with their spec. The first is Fists of Fury, we don't like being rooted and channeling an attack when our kit is supposed to be mobile. Can we please get this mechanic revisited? As well, we don't have literally any useful raid utility. Zen meditation is very weak. Will this be addressed at all post-launch?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-6 "Mobile" doesn't mean "never, ever stops moving." Like many specs, Windwalkers will do more damage when stationary but can still do some damage when moving. Deciding when you should FoF and when you can't is one of the decision points that separates good monks from great ones. We're not inclined to change it at this time. As far as raid utility goes, we're really reluctant to hand more "must have" buffs. We don't want Windwalkers to be mandatory, especially for smaller, 10-player raid groups. If they are never taken at all, we'll take some kind of action, but I'd be very surprised if that's the case.
Guest-531: Are there plans on fixing the broken Engineering Flying Machine that has been broken since patch 4.1?
CoryStockton: To Guest-531 We will look into this and make sure we get it fixed.
Guest-413: Is there a chance we might see class specific factions developed more? Kirin Tor, Ebon Blade, Argent Bros, Ravenholdt...Could we see something similar arise for Warriors, Hunters etc?
DaveKosak: To Guest-413 We're cooking up some cool Warlock stuff we can hopefully announce soon. In a more general sense, we LOVE class-specific content, but to do it right takes development time (believe me, I have to somehow schedule all this stuff.). When it came down to deciding between more zones of content and more faction content OR class-specific stuff, we opted to create more content for everyone. But, again, we love class-specific content, we'll try to squeeze in some cool challenges for the various challenges in the patches to come...
Guest-74: Are we going to get more story-telling in scenarios? The Theramore scenario was lackluster compared to the book, key story elements haven't even been address in-game yet.(Kirin Tor leader)
DaveKosak: To Guest-74 I addressed this earlier, but keep in mind that we want scenarios to be replayable. We definitely didn't want to burden them with tons of story that you have to wade through every time you play it. As I said for Theramore, people obviously wanted more context, which probably was best served by some one-time quests on either end of the scenario. That's a lesson we're pulling forward.
Guest-335: Will Wintergrasp ever be added as a max level battleground?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-335 Potentially, if there is enough demand for it. We would introduce it as you suggest as a true Battleground to avoid faction imbalance issues.
Guest-28: Beside the lifting on the mist with the clock strikes midnight on the 25th. We have come to expect events to complement the expansion. They have been fascinating and very fun. Should we expect events over the next 6 days? Or was the Scenario it?
CoryStockton: To Guest-28 The Theramore scenario is intended to be a preview of what players can expect from scenarios in Mists. It is by no means a launch event and thats intentional. We made a call early on to put that time into developing more content for Mists that will last and not be over in a week.
Guest-33: I loved the "Visions of the Past" quest-line in Vashj'ir. Will we see anything similar in upcoming content?
DaveKosak: To Guest-33 This is the "Battle-Maiden" questline, where you got to play as a naga badass for a while. I think these are a great break from the standard gameplay if they're well-designed, but we would want to use them sparingly. (After all, it's not WoW if you're not playing your class and kicking butt!) That said, there's a couple fun moments in Pandaria that have similar gameplay. In the Valley of Four Winds, you get to play as Chen Stormstout for a little bit. After kicking around a lot of ideas, we ultimately decided to give you a single 'Chen-Fu' button that makes him randomly do awesome kung-fu moves. It's a short sequence, but it's fun for storytelling and gives you a chance to Chen it up.
Gehn: Any updates on future guild leveling past 25?
CoryStockton: To Gehn We are totally open to increasing guild levels and the associated rewards but only when the game feels like it needs more of that content. A large number of guilds are still nowhere near level 25 so Mists did not feel like a good fit to add more guild levels.
Guest-214: Mists of Pandaria features an ambitious number of 18 raid bosses and I'm very excited about that. Im curious though as to how many bosses we can expect to see in future tiers? Firelands and Dragon Soul felt like small tiers with only 7 or 8 encounters in the tier.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-214 We like big raid tiers too, and will do our best to continue delivering them. We're planning for the next tier after Heart of Fear/Terrace to be a fair bit larger than Firelands or Dragon Soul were.
Guest-197: Whats would your answer be to the players who feel that by making multiple classes bring similar buffs and abilities, that the classes are losing their 'uniqueness'? Introducing combo points to ShadowPriests/Ret Paladins for example
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-197 Ultimately, there are only so many distinct resource mechanisms, and many of them are not great from a gameplay perspective. We'd rather differentiate our classes and specs on the basis of their overall feel and unique capabilities such as Death Grip for Death Knights or shaman' totems. I don't think many people are likely to mistake a shadow priest for a rogue just because they build up a resource and then consume it to deal damage.
Guest-395: Will the gear in Theramore's Fall 85 version be available in the 90 version?
CoryStockton: To Guest-395 The gear and the rewards for the 85 version are only available now. The 90 version has standard scenario rewards (Valor and a chance at a dungeon blue)
Lansuer: Where do you see races that are neutral leaning like the Blood Elves going within the Horde? They seem rather separate from the Horde story since Cata's launch.
DaveKosak: To Lansuer Stick around for patch 5.1 - we pick up the Blood Elves' story and propel it forward. Finally, a chance to interact with Lor'themar! Most players don't even know who he is.
Guest-121: What are your thoughts on healing classes in MoP? Are you seeing the type of balance you want in the new expansion between all classes/specs? I ask because we are seeing a lot of blending of healers into one unit, instead of variety. All healers can do everything now to state it plainly which is making certain classes stronger choices than others for non-healing reasons. Sure some do slightly better in certain situations, but the classic archetypes are no longer as valid. It removes the need fo...
GhostCrawler: To Guest-121 We strive for harmony with the healer design. If healer niches are too well-defined, then you are encouraged to stack Resto druids for one fight and then Holy paladins for the next fight. We'd rather see a diversity of healers. As far as healer balance is currently, we're pretty happy with it at 90. We still need to see Disc priests really figure out all of the nuances of Spirit Shell and we want to make sure all of the healers are really strong for Challenge Mode gold runs.
drwuky: Will you guys decrease the experience needed from 88-89 and 89-90 or increase the experience gained in Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes before release? At the moment you can NOT hit Level 89 if you start with Level 88 and 0% experience in Townlong Steppes (~10% experience missing) and also Level 90 is impossible with Dread Wastes quests only (~5% experience missing). These are datas with the 10% experience guild perk and yes, I've got both zone completed achievements.
CoryStockton: To drwuky We are still actively tuning the XP. We will look into it.
Velenor1: Question for Dave Kosak. I have always wondered why the Alliance has continuously frowned upon the Scarlet Crusade. Their main purpose was to simply eradicate the undead. With their return in MoP, we are tasked with eliminating them -again- with the aid of Lillian Voss. Why is it that we have turned their organization down for so long when we more or less have the same goals in mind?
DaveKosak: To Velenor1 The complexities really aren't in the game, but the Scarlet Crusade was very much a rogue organization. Great priests and warriors who would've otherwise served the Alliance disappear into the crusade, who serves its own ends. (In Northrend, it was clear their leadership had succumbed to demonic influence. It's hard to make up for that.) To be honest, the main reason to revisit the Crusade in 5.1 was a gameplay reason and not a story reason - it was a favorite dungeon that we really wanted to revisit with new mechanics. We didn't think a lot of story was needed.
Guest-553: Question from Munich, Germany. As the Octoberfest here and Brewfest in WoW are coming up, I wondered whether anyone at Blizzard did "field research" for designing Brewfest at the real Octoberfest ? The costumes and music are done really well.
CoryStockton: To Guest-553 We do field research on Brewfest every Friday.
DaveKosak: Sorry - meant to say 5.0 in that last question
Guest-235: Why is the theramore event so boring? Its way too easy and if you didn't read the book then you have no idea what's going on, you also wouldn't know why jaina isn't dead and why azeroth isn't completely destroyed. Do you think it would've been smarter to put more lore in the scenario and would've made it more fun?
Zarhym: To Guest-235 Dave already spoke to the story part of your question (if you missed it Best Buy will be providing a full transcript after the chat). To address your concern of difficulty, we agree it was too easy on release. We pushed a hotfix recently that increased the HP of all enemies in Theramore's Fall. The fact is that Scenarios in Mists will be more tailored for players in quest gear and dungeon blues. But players at level 85 were steamrolling through it in Dragon Soul gear, and the hotfix was to compensate for this a little.
Guest-494: Do all designers use the same in-house editor? Or do you have different tools for different jobs? How do you handle collisions in your edits?
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-494 We all use a massive proprietary tool called WoWEdit, which has been showcased a couple of times at Blizzcons in the past. We all use this tool to create and edit everything from creatures to spells to quests, and our level designers use it to actually shape the terrain of the outdoor world. At the end of the day, there are countless columns and rows in tables that define the properties of the game world and the players and monsters that inhabit it. We're only able to do the work that we do because of our amazing Tools team, a dedicated group that is constantly refining and updating our editor to enable us to create content more quickly and with fewer bugs.
Guest-186: On the World of Warcraft website, it lists tradeskill patterns, plans, etc. that the player is missing. Some of those items are no longer in game. Are there any plans to reincorporate those missing plans back into the game so the players have an opportunity to try to get all of their missing tradeskill plans?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-186 I'd hate to add back plans with no real game purpose just for sake of completeness. To be honest, I'd rather get rid of more of the older recipes that don't have a strong purpose.
Guest-160: Compared to designing dungeons, how difficult is it to design scenarios? Does it take more or less resources to make scenarios?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-160 The biggest challenge for us was just figuring out what scenarios should be. How long should they last? Should they be hard? How much variability should they have from run to run? Now that we've gone through that process, they should take much less time to design than dungeons. The biggest time expenditure on dungeons is the amazing art that goes into them.
Amd11394: Considering Dispels remove ALL magic effects, even if they dispelled Fear the Flame shock would go with it, regardless of if they intended to dispel it or not. Would this not constitute it's reinstatement?
IonHazzikostas: To Amd11394 Guessing this is a follow-up to my earlier reply. I meant that if you dispel Flame Shock off yourself, or off Teammate A, maybe you can't dispel Teammate B's Fear or Polymorph a few seconds later, and now they're stuck in CC for its full duration. In general, we expect that players have to be much more careful about how and when they use their magic dispels.
Guest-399: Rogues are famous for using daggers, and that's all that we seem to be able to use, but I like to play Combat Spec, and it's described as being a swashbuckler spec. As such, I'd like to use 1handed swords along with daggers, but there are next to no 1handed rogue compatible swords, will we ever get to use swords as part of a rogue's arsenal? Afterall, there is no longer a block on what weapons a rogue can use on their abilties.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-399 It's less of a design concern and more about how many different items we can drop. Things like e.g. Intellect axes don't have a lot of customers, so we just don't make them very often. This might be the kind of thing that transmog can eventually help address too.
basketballer259: I assume I ask this question on behalf of thousands of vanilla WoW fans: Do you ever plan on bringing back "Server-wide" Events? An example would be the Opening of AQ, which allowed the entire server to collaborate their efforts. An event of the same theory would be an incredible experience for all players to witness. It was incredibly rewarding when the whole server gathered enough materials for the opening ceremony!
DaveKosak: To basketballer259 From the standpoint of, "Everyone gather at the same place at the same time to see a big event and if you miss it its gone forever assuming you all don't crash the server," then no, no more events like that. BUT, we love the feeling of server progression, similar to the Isle of Quel'denas. Is there a way to build that progression into the game such that players who come in a couple months later don't miss out on all the fun? We think there is. And we're planning something that we'd like to try in the 5.0 patch cycle... so stay tuned! [No guarantees here, but we're actively tinkering with something.]
Shnitzel: With the pet battle system, pets which you can acquire multiples of, have lost the 'Already Known' tag. This is pretty annoying when shopping for pets for example, as you constantly have to search through your journal ("Do I have the red tickbird or the white one?"). Will this be changed? perhaps add an 'Already Known' tag in a different color?
CoryStockton: To Shnitzel Sorry for the inconvenience on that, we have already redesigned the tooltips to fix this in patch 5.1.0. Tooltips will display if you already own the pet in addition to how many.
Guest-892: Have you thought of introducing titles to reward realm 1st times for the new challenge mode dungeons. Something similar to how the PvP titles work now.
CoryStockton: To Guest-892 We actually have! The idea was that you would only have the title for as long as you held the top time. Main issue we ran into was that the title could be changing hands so fast that you might only have it for a few seconds. It's an awesome idea though and we want to explore it more.
Guest-489: Can we have a rough timeframe on when we can expect the Trials of the High King questline to be implimented? Are we taking around patch 5.1 or something closer to the Siege of Orgrimmar patch?
DaveKosak: To Guest-489 Varian Wrynn's first trial will happen in 5.1. But to set expectations, the development of Varian's character happens across the entire patch cycle and beyond - it doesn't all happen in one event or one scenario. His trials are many.
Guest-776: Transmog has become a very important part of my gaming fun. Will we be able to farm Dragon Soul LFR recolor gear at level 90, since the LFR tool won't work for it at that level ? This goes for future expansions and MoP content, of course.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-776 We aren't going to support Raid Finder for content that is much lower level than your character, but we are going to allow you to enter old raids solo without being in a raid in a future patch (ideally the next major one, but standard no promises). That should facilitiate a lot of transmog farming.
Guest-727: The Reliquary is an interesting faction (at least in my opinion), but it hasn't been really visible in Cataclysm. Any chance we'll see them in Pandaria, as a counterpart to Brann ? Or at least some way to get their tabard ?
DaveKosak: To Guest-727 No plan for a tabard, but starting in 5.1 they're going to start poking around Pandaria for relics...
Guest-763: Were Orges ever thought of as a playalbe race, at one time? (Greg marry me /kiss) Irth
GhostCrawler: To Guest-763 Yep. We considered them for Cataclysm instead of goblins. Figuring out the females and the two-headed mages would be (fun!) challenges. Maybe someday.
Zarhym: Way to ignore that marriage proposal follow-up, GC. ;p
Cueball: First: Hi guys, including Zarhym (didn't know you'd be here). Anyway, is there anything to Jaina's words that it is "time to bring Dalaran down" to the land and that she is still in support of fighting against the Horde?
DaveKosak: To Cueball Jaina's story will continue starting in patch 5.1. We'll try to catch players up with where she is at the end of the book, and then move on from there.
Guest-571: With the introduction of Pet Battles, do you think we can see pets dropping in raids again? There hasn't been a pet drop in a raid since Karazhan IIRC so a prime example in today's standing could be Ragnaros dropping Mini Ragnaros instead of it being on the store.
CoryStockton: To Guest-571 I don't see why not! We just need to make sure it's a good fit with the content.
Guest-736: Is there any plans to allow players to have more then one Death Knight per server?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-736 We agree that it feels like an antiquated rule at this point. We'll see how hard it is to remove that restriction.
sdk: I am wondering about the incentives to 25 man. This game is a social game so why does it seem that 25 man guilds are dieing off and they are going to 10 mans. Paragon recently posted that they were going to 10 man. Is there any other way to fix it so that people are drawn to do 25 mans because they want to raid with friends and get the good gear?
IonHazzikostas: To sdk In Paragon's specific case, I suspect they'd find no lack of capable people more than willing to raid with them, but maintaining a Finnish-speaking roster is a core part of their guild culture, and they've made what was no doubt a very difficult decision to scale down to 10-player raiding rather than compromise that culture. As I noted in the Reddit AMA, ultimately there are heavier logistical burdens, particularly placed on the officers and raid leaders, in sustaining a 25-player roster versus only needing 10 players. We're actively discussing ways of ensuring that 25-player raiders feel properly incentivized and rewarded without necessarily elevating one raid size over the other. We definitely welcome ongoing community discussion and feedback on that topic.
Alablaster: As Developers, what was your biggest hurdle in building the new features we will see in Mists and how did you overcome them? Also I want to send kudos out to the art team - the beta was visually stunning!
CoryStockton: To Alablaster Our biggest issue with new features is adding more complexity to the game. It's somethign we struggle with every expansion. I will pass your kind words on to the art team too!
Wamogri: Will the baby shark pet ever get added back into the game?
CoryStockton: To Wamogri Yes! That's what those sweet new water bubbles are for!
Guest-525: Recently in Twitter Ghostcrawler mentioned the possibility of making subraces such as Maghar orcs and Wildhammer dwarfs available with the player character model updates, how high chance is there that this would also allow us to play as Broken or Taunka?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-525 If we ever opened up more races, I suspect we'd be pretty liberal about it, but to be clear, that feature is no more than a twinkle in some designer's eye at this stage.
artimadours: Are there any plans to allow for heirloom items to be sent cross realm?
CoryStockton: To artimadours We want this as bad as you guys do. It's on the list and we are looking into it.
Nize: You mentioned in a previous Q&A that legendary weapon components would be done in a manner to lessen drama within in a guild. One step was the implementation of components achievable through LFR. My question is how will components from normal and heroic raids be distributed. Will it be distributed similarly to how Deathwing's essences or new LFR are, or will the raid leaders still choose who to give those components to?
GhostCrawler: To Nize In 5.0 it's not a competitive issue at all. In Raid Finder, it's a random drop for some players. In Normal and Heroic there is a chance of a drop, at which point it is multi-lootable and every player on the quest will get it.
Guest-787: There has been some speculation as to whether Turalyon and Alleria might make a triumphant comeback in Mists of Pandaria. Any comments on this, or are they saved for a later expansion pack? The Alliance sure could use something to turn the tide of war.
DaveKosak: To Guest-787 ...and also, I think the Alliance can take this!
DaveKosak: To Guest-787 There's no plan to continue their story in Pandaria.
DaveKosak: (Reverse the order of those replies.
Guest-212: Are we going to have the ability to remove players who dc or log off from scenario groups and add in new players from the queue?
CoryStockton: To Guest-212 Not at launch but we hope to have it in for the 5.1 patch. We understand the concern.
lilm123: Do you guys plan on giving out title for challgenge modes, like how you do for PvP (0.0% - 0.5%: Gladiator 0.5% - 3%: Duelist 3% - 10%: Rival 10% - 35%: Challenger)
IonHazzikostas: To lilm123 If and when we move on to future challenge mode "seasons", titles to recognize players' past accomplishments are definitely something we'll consider.
Guest-913: With all these new changes to get players out into the world (great idea), is it a goal of the development team to possibly bring back World-PvP? Coming from someone who plays on a PvP Realm, I would love to relive the old days of huge scale open world PvP battles. I'm sure many others feel the same way.
GhostCrawler: To Guest-913 We are trying to encourage it. Spots like the Black Market and the shrines (the faction "cities" in the Vale) will probably have a lot of PvP on PvP servers. Remember, guards are much weaker on PvP servers now and there are no sanctuaries in Pandaria.
Guest-883: At the end of the Klaxxi questline, the mantid mentioned that at one point in time, they worshipped Y'shaarj, an old god. However, he was slain by the Titans and was split into "shadows of his former self". Is he, in some way, in relations with the Sha and will we see Y'shaarj in future content patches?
DaveKosak: To Guest-883 Y'shaarj breathed love and exhaled hate, inhaled peace and breathed violence... Plus, his name was y'SHAarj. It's pretty safe to connect the dots. But Y'shaarj itself is very, very, very dead.
Guest-728: WIll we see a Heroic Version of Ragefire Chasm?
CoryStockton: To Guest-728 Certainly not out of the question. Heroic versions of classic dungeons have been some of our most popular content. We will keep doing them as long as people keem playing em'.
Guest-508: What exaclty (If you can answer without spoiling the story line!) has turned Garrosh Hellscream into the monster we all hate now?
DaveKosak: To Guest-508 Garrosh is not a monster. He has a very clear vision of the Horde, and the future of the orcs, and he gives very little thought to anyone who stands between him and that future. As he gets more powerful, and gets away with more, his vision becomes clearer. This has put him in conflict in the Alliance, and ultimately will cause problems within the Horde.
Ünseen: I love the little mana bomb received from the Theramoore scenario, but the cooldown is making it really hard to have fun with. Any chance this will be reduced to allow a bit more spammability? Maybe like a 30 second cd?
CoryStockton: To Ünseen Glad you liked the reward! Unfortunately, that kind of mana power takes a long time to recharge!
Guest-749: The new LFR system you have in WoW now seems like a great way for people who dont have alot of time to donate to raiding guild environments a chance to see content that was most of the time closed to them, however im not a big fan of 25man raids. Is there any plans to add a 10man choice to the LFR system?
GhostCrawler: To Guest-749 We think 25 works better for Raid Finder. The ratios of DPS to non DPS more matches the player population and there is less risk of getting an unviable group. In 25s you can afford to have a few deaths and you can even pull if you're backfilling a few players. Both really make you stop in your tracks on 10s. In 25, it's easier to fade back into the group if you're still not 100% confident in what you're doing. In 10s, it's harder to be a wallflower.
Guest-986: "Turalyon and Alleria" is it possible in anyway to know if there are any plans to continue their story? I had HUGE hopes to see them in game when BC came out and their SON poped out of nowhere saying they where alive. anything would do!... plz!?
DaveKosak: To Guest-986 Oh, their story will continue!!
Guest-51: How are group compositions gonna work into Challenge Modes? Surely every group would want to have a Bloodlust. And atleast a kings buff.
IonHazzikostas: To Guest-51 Realistically, if you're aiming for Gold, you're going to want a shaman or a mage or a hunter in your group, though Gold is absolutely possible without using Heroism/Bloodlust or equivalent effects. Realistically that probably saves you 15-20 seconds at best, and we've seen groups beat some Gold times by more than that. When constructing a 5-player dungeon group, you're inevitably going to have some strengths and some weaknesses in your composition, and players may find that the sorts of abilities they find invaluable are not the ones they're used to viewing in that light. (Pop quiz -- Which is likely to help you more in an 18-minute challenge mode run: Bloodlust, or an AoE stun that you can a couple of times a minute?)
Vaengence: Ok, I am going to be the one to ask the dreaded question, mainly because my guild members know that I continue to fight for them and have asked me to still chase this question. 25 mans - GC you have said it would be a good topic for a Watercooler, which is good, and recent tweets say not enough is being done for them.The only change we know about is the loot change and that is onl 1 item different for Normals from the majority of Cata which, excuse the sentiment here, seems a little underwhelmin...
GhostCrawler: To Vaengence Sadly, we don't have any details to announce yet, but we have a couple of ideas that should make the 25 players happy. We'll talk about them when we're confident that they are good ideas. Remember, the result can't be that all the 10 players stampede back to 25.
DeathFish1: Any chance we will see the option to upgrade out current legendary to be maybe not the equal to the current ilvl but maybe raid finder ilvl or just a little below so that they are not just taking up space in out banks, or bags in the case of dragonwrath.
GhostCrawler: To DeathFish1 Not sure we would let you upgrade a legendary, but we could potentially allow you to transmog them. Our reluctance has always been that Thunderfuy feels less special when you see 30 of them running around AV.
Guest-924: If some gamers are thinking about coming back to WoW to exp Mist of Pandaria content, is there any special program "come back" that will launch with the release?
CoryStockton: To Guest-924 Scroll of Resurrection is awesome for returning players!
Bolting: Have you changed your design philosophy of the quest flow in mists of pandaria? In previous expansions, moving to a new zone as soon as you are eligble left enough experience to cause no issues. Do you intend for all zones to be finished from beginning to end in order, and if so why did you feel the need to add breadcrumbs to the next zone prior to being able to go without issues further down the road?
DaveKosak: To Bolting Pandaria is like a huge novel that you can read in any order. You can skip ahead to other chapters as soon as you're eligible. It's worth it to stick through a full zone to wrap up the storylines and maybe get some blue quest rewards, but you're welcome to play through however you want. We definitely put in the effort to make this expansion much more open and non-linear.
Crithto: That about wraps things up, everyone. Thank you so much for joining the Best Buy Dev Chat, sending us really great questions, and for your patience. On behalf of Greg, Cory, Ion, Dave, and Zarhym, we truly appreciate your time and passion for World of Warcraft. Have a GREAT rest of the week, and we'll see you in Pandaria next Tuesday!
DaveKosak: This was a lot of fun. Thank you everyone! Only days to go... Pandaria awaits!
CoryStockton: Tons of great questions guys, that was a lot of fun! Can't wait to see everyone in Pandaria in just a few days!
GhostCrawler: We can't wait for you guys to see all of the new Mists content. We are really proud of what we've been able to deliver with this expansion. It's going to be good. Hugs, GC.
Dorothy-BBY: Thanks guys!
Zarhym: Thank you, everyone! For those who got here late or weren't able to follow along for the whole chat, Best Buy will be providing a full transcript here momentarily: http://bbyurl.us/MistsofPandariaChat
Kyle-BBY: Great chat everyone! Thank you everyone for joining us and Blizzard for totally rocking!
Sean|Senior Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
Private Message -
PowerShell 1.0 fails to start, wants some missing snap-in
I get the following error when I attempt to start PowerShell 1.0:
Windows PowerShell terminated with the following error:
Cannot load Windows PowerShell snap-in Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics because
of the following error: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Windows\Sys
tem32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Diagnostics.dll' or o
ne of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Indeed, the file is not present on my system, but it is also not present on other Windows 7 machines I have.
How do I fix this error so I could use PowerShell? How/where can I remove that snap-in so it would stop asking for it?
I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Thanks in Advance!Hi,
I think the fastest way of troubleshooting is installing the most current version of PowerShell, which would be version 4.0.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried installing 4.0, but it fails:
Some updates were not installed
The following updates were not installed:
Update for Windows (KB2819745)
I think the installer requires execution of PowerShell scripts, so if existing PowerShell is broken, the new one will fail to install.
Also, are versions other than 1.0 compatible with Visual Studio 2013? Visual Studio uses PowerShell internally for a number of things, such as adding modules when creating a project.
I think the right approach would be to fix PowerShell 1.0 instead of trying to cover it with something else.
Suggestions are appreciated. -
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Live Chat Session - Transcript
Transcript for "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Developer Chat", Thurs July 15 2010 (Part I)
Aaron-GS: Good evening and welcome to our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty developer chat!
Aaron-GS: Chris Sigaty from Blizzard Entertainment is currently online with us and he's here to answer your questions about the game! Dustin Browder will be joining us shortly.
ChrisSi: Hello everyone!
Aaron-GS: This chat is queued and moderated, so please allow the developers some time to review and respond to your questions.
Aaron-GS: Please also refrain from asking complex, multi-part questions to be fair to other participants.
Aaron-GS: The queue is now open, so ask away!
sillyup20: Regarding future balance changes, will you guys continue to patch SC2 after release to ensure balance of all 3 races?
ChrisSi: Yes, it's definitely important to us to ensure that the game remains balanced after launch. We will make patches as needed to address balance issues after launch
Guest-16: For the Campaign experience, will there be variation for future play throughs?
ChrisSi: Yes, one of the things we're really excited about with the campaign of Wings of Liberty is that players can make choices as to which missions to do next, what technologies they want to upgrade their army with, and so on. We think there's a lot of replayability in this huge campaign (29 missions) and players will get a ton of play time just with the campaign and some replayability
Guest-46: What is the devs' relationship with the Battle.net 2.0 team?
ChrisSi: We work very closely and we're in constant contact with the Battle.net team. The launch of StarCraft II and Battle.net is very much a team effort at Blizzard.
Guest-81: Will Kerrigan have a large role in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty?
Lamonte: How many 1v1 multiplayer maps will be available for launch? And how will user created maps get put into the 1v1 map pool?
ChrisSi: yes she definitely plays a large role in the story. but how exactly that plays out, you'll have to play to see
DustinB: I think it's about 10 maps in the 1v1 queue. As we see great community maps we will take them internally, fix them up to match our map making standards (if necessary) and add them to the pool.
Guest-19: Will you be doing an overhaul of some of the SC2 sounds, in particular, the siege tank and the hydra death and the marine death sound? Many of the fans are concerned that the audio side of Starcraft 2 will not be up-to-date and on-par with the graphics, animations and multiplayer experience
Aaron-GS: The queue has been temporarily closed to allow Chris and Dustin some time to answer questions that have already been submitted.
Aaron-GS: Thank you for your patience.
DustinB: The sounds you hear in the beta are largely final. We will continue to update sounds in patches and of course in our two expansion products, Heart of the Swarm and Wings of Liberty.
Guest-73: Will you please stop nerfing Protoss? Much love from Aiur.
DustinB: The Protoss are now only slightly ahead of the other two races according to our numbers. But I think the nerfs for the Protoss are done for now. However the community continues to learn and we will buff and nerf as needed.=)
pureWasted: Do you have any plans to make units such as Reapers and Zerglings more viable in the late game?
DustinB: We continue to watch the balance in the game. Zerglings and Reapers do have some uses in the late game in some match ups, and we are waiting to see if they have more use once the community learns more about the game or if they fall off user build orders all together. We will not be doing any more patches in beta and we will be waiting at least several weeks after launch before we do any additional balance patch work (unless we see something really broken). In many ways the balance is in the hands of the community now for a while. We will see what kinds of strategies people come up with, what they learn to do with what they have and we will make decisions only after we learn a lot more about how the game plays with ALL of our fans playing.=)
Guest-64: Could you go into more detail on the Zerg campaign for Heart of the Swarm? What new features can we expect?
Guest-82: Hello, do you plan any new changes with the mothership? Alot of people feel that it's price is not worth it. Also, how about the ultralisk? I think the ultralisk should be able to at least walk over the zerglings. Thoughts?
DustinB: We are not going to any changes on the Mothership in the near future. Internal debate rages about this unit, I have been told by several people both inside and outside of blizzard that the unit is far too powerful. The Ultralisk needs a lot more testing before we know how good he is or is not in his current state. I have heard complaints both ways on this unit, that he is way too powerful (mostly against Protoss) and way too weak (mostly against Terrans). But we shall have to wait and see.
Guest-93: Will there be any significant changes between phase 2 beta and the launched version?
DustinB: We are not going to make major changes to game balance bewteen beta and launch. We will be fixing bugs and improving game perfomance and stability.
Guest-29: With certain maps being biased to certain races, are you planning on remaking the maps or just releasing other maps to play ladder matches that are balanced?
DustinB: There are always going to be maps that favor one race over another. We try to strike a good balance between these maps. If there is a map that is VERY unbalanced we will pull it from the match making pool (like Incineration Zone in Beta 1). If a map needs small fixes to make it better we will make those, though in most cases I think we would just put new maps into the mix.
Guest-89: QXC wants to know if you have plans to tweak Reapers and Battlecruisers so that we see them more in competitive play
DustinB: We do not have plans on Reapers or Battlecruisers at the moment. That may change after the game goes live and as the community gets more time with the game. I think Battlecruisers are fundamentally vulnerable in PvT and TvT (Void Rays and Vikings) though they could be tweaked to have use in TvZ.
Guest-104: Dustin, is this really you?! http://beta-us.battle.net/sc2/en/media/artwork#/portrait_goliath_mercenary ^^
Guest-80: With respect to Battle.Net, will there be automated tournaments a la Warcraft 3 and if so will they have rewards such as portraits or decals?
ChrisSi: that is a mysterious resemblance, Guest 104!
DustinB: We do have plans for automated tournaments, but they are a little ways off. Look for these in the future. We are pretty geeked up about getting to put them in (and play them ourselves). =)
Guest-85: What classic/new units will we play with in the campaign that didnt make the cut in the Multiplayer game? Eg; firebat, medic, what others?
DustinB: I don't know that I remember the full list. Here is what comes to mind.=) Medic, Firebat, Vulture, Wraith, Science Vessel, Goliath.
Guest-70: regarding balance changes, how are you basing your balance changes? do you look at the diamond league statistics in a certain region, base them off tournament play, or what? do you guys at blizzard follow the competative tournament scene and base some balance changes of tham?
Guest-88: Do you plan to add any new units in future expansions that would be available to use online/multilayer?
DustinB: We look at stats on all regions and all leagues. We emphasize the importance of balance in the Diamond League as well as pulling stats from our top 1% of players. These are the numbers that need to be as close to 50/50 as we can get them. We do try to make sure that Bronze players don't get much worse than 55/45 in any matchup. In addition we look at tournament play and study those games to see what we can learn about how people are playing the game now as well as how they may play it in the future. David Kim and Matt Cooper (our balance designers) spend pretty much their entire day playing games and watching others play games.=)
Guest-122: Cross realm play.. Why did you not include it? There has virtually been no lag.
DustinB: That's something we want to get to in the future. There are some technical and business challenges for us. We do offer our players different ways to buy and play StarCraft 2 in different areas of the world and we need to work out cross realm play so it is fair to all of our fans around the world.
sillyup20: Will future expansions of SC2 lead to new units in the Mutliplayer?
DustinB: Yes.=) We will add more units. How we will deal with the games growing complexity is the really interesting challenge that we don't yet have the great answer for. We don't want to have 15+ units per race in the game, so we need to think of something clever that will allow us to add new strategies to the game without making the game too complicated.
Denthar: are the stats on the units in the campaign going to have the same stats as those in muliplayer?
DustinB: Mostly yes, but there are some exceptions. We do have some of the units that start weaker in the campaign and get stronger as you buy upgrades for them or gain additional abilities through researching alien organisms and artefacts. In general though there are so many new and crazy units in the campaign that you will find it a very different experience from multiplayer combat.
Guest-151: Are there any features where you won't need a persistent internet connection such as editors or campaign?
Guest-41: Do you feel there is room for new units to come (or come back) in the future ?
ChrisSi: There is an offline mode where you can play the campaign, skirmish against AI or challenge mode w/o needing to be connected to Battle.net (Guest 151)
DustinB: Yes, we will be dealing with the issue of new units in the expansions. I doubt we will add new units or bring back old units in patches, but anything is possible.
Guest-166: Can we expect significant changes for each "episode" gameplay wise? (I.E. radical new unit functions, gametypes or innovative maps?)
DustinB: We are going to do more in the expansions to add new strategies for the fans. I don't know what those will be yet.=)
Lamonte: You said your map making standards, what are blizzards map making standards?
DustinB: It is a long and complicated list. In many cases it comes down to simple bugs. In user made maps there are often many small mistakes like areas of the map where units can get easily stuck or trapped, or mistakes in mineral and gas placement, that sort of thing. Generally when we put a map into the matchmaking pool we clean up a few of these bugs before publishing it to Battle.Net
Guest-124: Can we expect new Blizzard maps as well as user-submitted (turned official) maps? If you could ballpark it, how long should we expect new features & additions from Blizzard for SC2?
DustinB: yes, we will add user made maps. I expect we will be adding features and custom maps in many of our patches between expansions and obviously we will be adding lots of stuff in the expansions themselves.
Guest-70: as you may know, there are no 1 supply units in the zerg race at the moment and the zerg is lacking their "swarm" aspect. what are you guys looking into to bring the "swarm" back to the zerg?
DustinB: Well the Zerglings are .5 supply.=) I know many of our Zerg players were annoyed that we made Roaches 2 supply. We just couldn't justify a 1 supply Roach when we took a look at his stats and we watched and played a ton of Beta games. It was not balanced. We really think the "swarm" aspect of the Zerg comes not from the supply cost of some of their units but from the vast amount of resources they often have at their disposal because they find it so easy to expand. In addition with Spawn Larva the Zerg can easily save up a large amount of production, allowing Zerg forces to attack with a large army, lose that army and then rebuild it very quickly and attack again with a similar force. It feels very "swarmy."
Guest-172: Can you give us any info about Blizzards plan for E-Sports in the west?
Guest-190: Will there be a snow tileset in the campaign?
DustinB: No. We will be doing snow in the future. Sorry. =(
Scytone: What is your take on EMP? Do you feel it is to strong? are there any plans to change it?
ChrisSi: esports is very important to us at Blizzard and especially for SC2.We do plan on releasing a patch in the months after launch to address the needs of pro tournaments and eSports, so as we get closer to that we'll have more news to share about our plans for eSports overall (Guest 172)
DustinB: EMP is necessary for Terrans right to defend against Protoss. I also think it might have more use that we are currently seeing against Zerg (but I could be wrong about that). We have nerfed its radius in the past and we can do so again if necessary. We don't believe (currently) that it is a problem.
Guest-48: Concerning the ladder promotions system, what further clarity can you provide to us on exactly how this works? I've heard that it works based on some sort of interval system, if so, what sort of intervals? I think many people feel left in the dark on how this works and might like a 'progress bar' for promotions or something similar.
DustinB: The Battle.Net team has been hard at work on this system throughout Beta-1 and Beta-2. It does currently check every so often to see that you are in the right league. I don't know what the current times are that it checks. I know they are talking about doing some updates to those checks so that they happen more often.
Guest-215: WIth the new expansions, will current units change in any way?
DustinB: Current units will change if we think of ways to make them more fun and they will change if we need to alter the balance to deal with anything new we add to those expansions.
Guest-93: Send: Some phase 2 patches took away some of the social features on battle net. Such as being able to join a friends game simply by right clicking and 'joining game'. Or being ablbe to see other peoples friends through your current friends. Making it easier to connect with friends is really important. Do you plan on brining back these features along with others (chat channels?)
Guest-81: Are you happy with the Ultralisk? Do you see it as a end game unit that the zerg can use effectively? Compared to the other races end-game units, does the big bug need another buff? Or do they neeed a super bug that's bigger?
DustinB: I have only had a few great Ultralisk experiences myself. I have seen some truly amazing Ultralisk games and I have seen some total disasters. We are going to "wait and see" on him and see how he does in the coming weeks before we do anything else to him. Remember that in many cases the players find lots of clever ways to use units that don't seem at all obvious to us inside the studio.
ChrisSi: We're goign to be watching closely how players use the social functionality in Battle.net and continue to refine the system and make it easier and more intuitive to do things like invite players to games and so on. As for chat channels, there'll be a post-launch patch that will include the ability to have private chat channels. Battle.net is very much a living service so you can expect that we'll constantly be making feature additions and improvements to meet the needs of players (Guest 93)
Guest-149: Do you anticipate further tweaking terran mech or the build time of barracks and gateways?
DustinB: If necessary. We don't have any plans today.
Guest-177: Do you plan to rotate the map pool for the ladder, if so will user made maps have a chance to be put in the ladder map pool?
DustinB: Yes.=) This is a popular question. We will add user maps as we become aware of them.
Guest-200: There are rumors that there is a LAN enabled professional edition available for professional tournaments to reduce latency... Is this true and will it be available for pro-teams to practice?
Guest-197: Will there be anymore Zerg soundscape changes before retail? – Wankey
DustinB: I don't believe there are any changes planned before we go live. Sorry. =(
Guest-102: Are there still plans to implement an invite only "pro" leauge above the diamond league after launch?
DustinB: Yes. I don't have all the details, but we do plan on having a "Pro League" that works a little differently from our regular leagues.
ChrisSi: any rumors you've heard about a "pro edition" are just rumors. We've made no official announcements about that. We will address the needs of pro tournaments and eSports in a patch in the months after the release of SC2. (Guest 200)
AVBenedetto: Zerg player here. I will gladly trade Roaches for Lurkers in multiplayer, any chance of seeing Lurkers before the expansions?
DustinB: Not likely, though anything is possible. It's not a Roach trade though. It's a Roach+Baneling trade. When we were testing the game with Lurkers we found that their splash and Baneling splash overlapped quite a bit. For sometime the Lurker was Tier 3 as a result (and siege range) but in that position he was easily spotted by detection (since it is so common in Tier 3) and he wasn't really a "Lurker." Also remember that without Dark Swarm, Lurkers don't have quite the same level of use that they did in SC1.
Guest-136: Do you believe that StarCraft 2 will be able to reach a similar eSports scene success in the US and/or Europe as Brood War has had in South Korea, including multiple multimillion dollar teams and games broadcasted live on tv daily?
DustinB: No idea. I hope so.=) It certainly is a fun game to watch (as I'm sure most of you know). What nations and communities will embrace it is largely up to our players and fans. We didn't create esports, our fans did that. =)
spychi: how many new units have been done for campaign only?
DustinB: I'm not sure on the exact number. I believe it's about a dozen?
Guest-153: With updated Terms of Use for new Bnet, it was mentioned you needed Blizzard permission for any type of Esports activity. This of course makes sense, but when I personally contacted support to get the needed paper complete through email or fax. I was told they had no information on this and was given Blizzards Corp. mailing address. Can you save people who are doing Esports Livestream / Ustream showmatches the trouble and let us know how to contact to get this permission Please?
Guest-275: Will there ever be a toggle function for Unit life bars?? Or a way to make Unit life bars smaller??
DustinB: There is a toggle for unit life bars. We don't have a way to make them smaller. That sounds like a good suggestion.
ChrisSi: If you're interested in setting up a tournament and getting appropriate licensing for SC2, contact [email protected]
Aaron|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
Private MessageTranscript for "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Developer Chat", Thurs July 15 2010 (Part III)
Guest-393: Do you have plans to change the custom game list? I ask this because sometimes I search for a game I like, but its not that popular. Therefore its on the bottom of the list and no one joins the game.
ChrisSi: I can't speak to that issue specifically but if there is a major problem there we will address it in due time. As you know we are committed to patching even older games like SC and Diablo when necessary. At the moment a lot of attention is focused on this launch, so pelase be patient =) (Guest 334)
DustinB: Again, this is an area that we will be working on in the coming months.=)
Guest-340: Would it be plausible to see a "StarCraft HD" in the next five years? We'd all love to see the original game "digitally remastered" along the same lines as timeless movies like "Gone with the Wind", "Cassablanca" or the "Wizard of Oz". We don't enjoy them' films on ol' projector reels these days, no sir! -- We've got VCR's now! *spits*.
DustinB: That would be pretty cool. Currently we have no plans for such a project. =(
Guest-281: Recently, StarCraft Legacy wrote a really great article regarding the community's concerns with the new Battle.net and we know that Battle.net is going to evolve - but what is the reason for some of the stuff the community thinks was so basic not being included in release? What's the best way to give you guys feedback? We the hardcore, are a highly underused resource!
DustinB: Oh, we are hearing you guys, don't worry about that.=) We are going to keep working on it as fast as we can. Stuff that isn't in there is stuff we just didn't get to. Keep sending your feedback though, and we'll try to address it as fast as we can.
Guest-294: Will there be seasonal SC2 ladder resets, similar to WC3 and WoW arena?
DustinB: That's the plan. Though I don't know yet when the first season is going to end.
Guest-400: Do you plan on including good and balanced fan made maps (if made) in some of the future ladder map pools?
DustinB: Yes. =) Also, I answered this one like ten times already.=)
DustinB: To Guest-156 That's the plan. I don't know exaxtly what new sorting methods will be used in the future, but it's an area we can work on.
Guest-337: Is Terrible Terrible Damage going to be a cheat code?
DustinB: Wait and see.=)
Guest-73: What is your favourite unit and race, and who would win in a 1v1 match between you two (directed to both)?
DustinB: As the Game Director I don't have the luxury of having a favorite. I play Random unless I am testing something specific. Chris Sigaty doesn't get quite the play time I do. I would totally pwn that noob.
ChrisSi: oh I think Dustin would have an advantage over me.
Guest-156: Do you have any information for us on the custom game selection menu? Will new ways to sort through games be made available Soon^TM? The popularity system has its drawbacks.
DustinB: That's the plan. I don't know exactly what new sorting methods will be used in the future, but it's an area we can work on.
Guest-389: How exactly does the current Galaxy Editor differ from the version at launch?
DustinB: We have made some UI improvements as well as stability improvements. More importantly you will have access to all the art in the campaign.=)
Guest-298: In multiplayer games, are there any plan to implement a counter that would show the supply and resources of your allies? This is something that the community has been asking for a while. It would be extremely useful when one of your ally leave. I remember reading an interview with Dustin that said that the team thought that such a counter would be used to flame your allies but have you considered the possibility of letting players chose if they want to show the counter or not (kinda like you can...
DustinB: It's certainly something we can talk about for a future patch. I do think there is going to be flaming no matter what we do, so maybe we can find a nice spot to put this info in the UI.
Guest-70: The Force Field spell seems to be an extremely strong spell and in the recent patch, they have been buffed by decreasing the amount of Force Fields needed to trap or block a unit. It is even possible to trap Roaches in between 2 Force Fields. What is the reasoning for this change?
Disease: Will the game ship with multiple languages on one DVD or at least with an option to switch the language?
DustinB: Yeah, that buff happened because we fixed a bug where Zerglings on creep could actually "run past" a line of Zealots that were blocking a choke point. We have a new fix that will come out in our first patch that will make Force Fields work like they did before AND zerglings will still not be able to run past Zealots. In other words, we didn't do it on purpose, it just happened when we fixed something else. Sorry. =(
Guest-284: Can we set difficulty of campaign? Or is there normal mode and then after we finish it we unlock other difficulties like Hard in WC3 if I remember correctly?
DustinB: You can change your difficulty on a per mission basis. So if you start on Casual and it seems to easy you can start the next mission on Normal or Hard. You can play any difficulty at any time without having to beat the campaign.
Guest-282: Will there be a way at release to customize your key binds, or at least move the F keys to a more convenient position?
DustinB: Yes, you can do some key rebinding.
Guest-346: I want to say a BIG "thank you" to you guys and everyone at Blizzard for making these games that millions and I want to play! And for a light-hearted question; What are we more likely to see first, the third expansion to Starcraft 2, or Diablo 3? =)
ChrisSi: Disease -- you should buy the language version and region that you want to play in. The ability to switch language and which language you want to switch to is going to vary from region to region.
Guest-419: Resend: Will you be conducting more chats like this one anytime soon, as it seems that direct, public communications between the devs and the community is sparse (reading our posts on the forums/fansites doesn't count, I'm referring to a two-way dialogue)
DustinB: Thanks dude.=) As far as the race between us and D3 goes who knows? If you are a fan of our games you know how we opperate. It will be done when it's done. Not the best answer for our fans, but the right answer for the games.
ChrisSi: Guest 419 - we do conduct Twitter chats with fans from time to time. Recommend you add yourself to the official StarCraft facebook and/or twitter accounts so you can be informed when the next one happens. Thanks!
Guest-29: What is the most popular race being played in the beta?
Guest-366: With regard to the Oceanic / Asia region, coming from the Philippines I am still contemplating which version to buy (right now I have better ping to LA servers). Has there been any update regarding the traceroutes on the forums, which version would Australian / Philippine players buy to experience better multiplayer experience (read: less lag). Thanks.
DustinB: Terran. That may be because they are the default race, or because they are the most "understandable" race (they look human) or it may be because people think they are the most powerful. Not sure why.=)
Guest-82: I really miss "20 minute No Rush" titles on custom games, with this new battle.net you can't do that, is there anyway we can impliment that? Also, any news on clan chat and general chat?
DustinB: yeah, I hear you on the "no rush" games. I don't have a solve for you in the current UI. No news on Clan or General chat, but it is on the list of big important things we have to do, that is for sure.
Guest-314: There appears to be a significant input delay when using keyboard commands in custom maps that is (probably) unrelated to latency that has remained since Warcraft 3. Trying to play games on battle.net using arrow keys to move for example, is impossible. Is your team aware of this issue and are there plans to fix it?
ChrisSi: Guest 366 -- we are always trying to work with local ISPs to improve routing to Battle.net servers. I'd strongly encourage you to play in the SEA region as our goal is to build up strong regional communities of players. By putting down servers in the region, we are committing to providing the best play experience for you there.
DustinB: We are very aware. Last I heard they were working on it but it was a hard problem. I don't know if a fix is incoming or possible. We shall have to wait and see what the engineers come up with.
Guest-211: Have you watched any SC2 beta tournaments? If so, who is your favorite player?
DustinB: I have watched many. I don't know if it would be right for me to say my favorite.=) I like players who have good manners, play creatively and try new stuff a lot.
Guest-470: Dustin, when i first read about the new AI, which Sc2 would introduce, I thought you would be more inventive. I would love to recommend your AI-team some readings on planning AI... I see that you already read up on steering behavior for the zerglings (which results in poor movements by ultralists, but that's another story). (Master in AI @ university of Copenhagen, Denmark)
DustinB: Sorry if you don't like our AI. I think it's pretty challenging and does a really good job of being aggresive and keeping you on your toes. Try Insane if you have mastered Very Hard.=)
Guest-397: Is there going to be a single-player demo like there was for the original shortly before or after release?
DustinB: We are working on something, but it is still a little bit in the future to know exactly when we will have it ready.
Guest-258: Will there be a way to view replays with my friends within battle.net? Currently the only way (that I know) to view them concurrently is to send him the file, and we both click start at the same time =\. Its sort of a hassle.
DustinB: One day yes, not for launch.=( It is a good feature and we are going to try to get it as soon as we can.
Guest-364: It seems to be that in terran vs anything. terran is called the favored match up in polls and in major tournaments. even pro players changing to terran because of the imbalance. does blizzard feel there is an imbalance?
DustinB: I haven't seen numbers that prove this to me yet. I have also had players tell me that Protoss are the most imbalanced. Polls we don't really respond to, we don't know who is in them or if they are accurate. If we start to see a large number of terran players dominating the high end tournaments we will certainly do something. Currently I don't feel there is an imbalance, but as always we are open to new data.
Guest-173: Considering the limitation of 1 account per purchase of SCII, it makes it very difficult for players to play their 'off' races competitively without losing their rank for their 'best' race. If having multiple accounts is not possible because of spam, and repeatedly playing against bronze-level to feel 'pro', etc, etc, Could it be possible to implement 4 different placement match sets of 5 for each individual race? (P T Z and Random?) So we can play all of them and improve our entire SC play, sti...
Guest-194: how come the US didnt get an open beta? I cant wait 11 more days =(
DustinB: Yeah. I know exactly how you feel. I don't know what the fix is yet for this issue. We'll try to think of a good fix that makes everyone happy.
Guest-347: You mentioned, in relation to the balance of TvZ, that although you feel Siege tanks might be too powerful vs. Zerg generally, the "stats" don't back that up because the win rate is close to 50/50. Taken to the extreme, isn't it possible that, say, Baneling busts are OP vs Terran early and Siege tanks are OP vz Zerg in the mid-to-late game? Therefore Zerg would win 50% of the time on Baneling busts, and Terran would win the other 50% of games that make it to the mid-game. Obviously this is an ex...
ChrisSi: Guest 194 -- Hang in there! Sorry you didn't make it into beta but it won't be long before you can play. Hope to see you soon on Battle.net!
Guest-53: You said the campaign will be available offline and that campaign progress is kept serverside. Will users be able to earn Achievements while playing offline? Are game saves going to be saved locally or on the server?
DustinB: Yes, that is possible. But we don't just use the stats. When we are playing, we find that experienced Zerg players are doing well in both tournaments and in high end play. And our testers and balance guys are crushing with zerg. As far as ZvT is concerned we are waiting for more data. I feel like there is a problem but we haven't seen the proof yet. We need to know what to do before we make a fix. So we are going to keep watching it.
Guest-86: 1 ghost emp could possibly whipe out VERY MANY archons , and of all of their life but a puny 10 hitpoints, also with giving up psistorm do you even see archons as a useful unit , PvT anyways ? *P.S. how longs the Q+A gonna last ?*
DustinB: EMP does not do 100% damage to shields. Archons have some shields remaining when they get hit.
ChrisSi: Guest 53: If you're not connected to Battle.net you can't earn achievements. And obviously if you want to access cloud file storage to save your campaign progress you'll need to be connected online to do that as well.
Guest-363: Are there any plans to standardize the in game time with the actual game speed we play on? IE give us correct APM for the fastest setting and in game time regaurding unit build times, and other references to time that arent on the speed that is played on.
DustinB: Yeah, this is an issue we have to address. I'm not sure what fix we decided for this off the top of my head. Sorry.=(
Guest-454: What do you guys plan on doing about the exceeding number of smurf accounts currently occupying the Bronze league, I messed up my placement matches and now it seems like theres no way out. :[
DustinB: We will promote you out of Bronze if you win games. It takes 30+ games in the current version of the system. Also, I highly suggest to players in Beta-2 to NOT intentionally throw their first 5 games. I now some players who have done this and then been frustrated that they can't just win their way out quickly. The system is conservative right now (though we are talking about some changes) and it will only promote you after it is pretty sure it knows where you belong.
Guest-73: It seems that the new and improved AI heavily favours ranged units and in mid to late game, melee units become weak against them. Do you feel that this is the case and tweaking needs to be done?
DustinB: that is not feedback that I have heard. But we can certainly look at it.
Guest-283: Any plans to get group replay watching out in the near future? The community would love this and it would be great for team players. What about things like drawing across the replay screen, etc?
Guest-473: Is StarCraft 2 going to be pay to play on Latin America?. Game voices are on Latin Spanish like WoW?
DustinB: Not in the near future, but as soon as we can. That would be a ton of fun.
Guest-340: Relic's RTS 'Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor' allows you to swap out specific units in a melee game, allowing for some greater variety in a matchup. Could we see this feature in future expansions? If not the complexity of mix & match armies, perhaps simply custom unit artwork (earned through tournaments or other promotional elements)?
DustinB: It's a cool idea. If it makes sense we could do something like that. The most important thing for StarCraft is always going to be the game balance. That will help determine what we are and are not willing to do in the expansions.
Guest-303: Do you feel the ladder placement system is successful? I went 4-1 in my placement matches and was placed in silver. Also, will the magic number of placement matches still be 5 after release?
ChrisSi: Our players in Latin America still ahve the option of purchasing an unlimited play client directly from us. We do have the ADDITIONAL option (for players who want it) to buy a lower-cost box that has limited play time. You can then buy additional play time if you like. So it's up to you which way you want to go. And yes the game will be fully voiced and localized in Latin American Spanish (not Castellano).
DustinB: We have found that 5 matches is enough to place most players somewhat close to their correct league. If we want to be more precise we have to wait until almost 35 matches to know for sure where you belong (and that's too long). So we are going to keep it at 5 and then promote as necessary. The current system is a little bit conservative with promotions. We are looking at possibly making it a little bit more aggresive with promotions for launch. But that may or may not happen depending on the work involved.
Guest-199: Do we have to expect to servers to be laggy on the first day of release or are you guys REALLY ready for launch?
DustinB: I hope we are ready. We have certainly put in the work to BE ready. I THINK we are ready. OK, now you are making me nervous with this question.
Guest-397: A year or two back, I believe it was mentioned that we could mix and match tilesets (say, you could use the dirt or grass from Agria or Bel'Shir, but could also include terrain from a tileset such as Korhal or Shakuras). From what I've heard, this was not possible in the Beta. Is this one of the UI improvements you mentioned? If not, why was it removed?
Guest-167: How is the sp campaign replayability wise? Are there incentives for doing the missions/campaign again aside from collecting achievements? Maybe branching mission paths or choices in the campaign that affect how the rest of the campaign will play out?
DustinB: I don't think this feature was removed. But I haven't used the editor in some time. If it's out it may be a mistake.
Guest-446: Forgive me if this has already been addressed, but will there be a SINGLE top league? I love having multiple Bronze->Platinum, but we NEED to know who is the best. Either Diamond or a new bracket above diamond should exist as single top 100 league. Please?
DustinB: Eventually we are planning on a "Pro League" that will include the best players only.
Guest-419: Why are the patch notes always incomplete? Why not disclose all the changes up front? Also, will you host any tournaments at BlizzCon with well known commentators in the community DJing?
DustinB: Because we are making patches too quickly and we screwed up and forgot to put some stuff in. Sorry. =(
AVBenedetto: Can Void Rays lose their charge when they change targets like they did ages ago? Pretty please with spidermines on top?
ChrisSi: Guest 167: There will be some different mission branches throughout the campaign that tell the sidestories of certain characters like Tosh or Dr. Hanson. There will also be a couple opportunities there for your choices to affect the fate of certain sidestories. Between the branching mission paths and the ability to customize your army through single-player only units and tech and mercenaries, we think there's a good amount of replayability built-in to the game.
DustinB: I think Void Rays are doing pretty well in the balance of the game right now. No plans for such a change (which is a pretty big nerf).
Guest-132: You mentioned that larger/"pro" maps are for pro players and tournaments. Does that mean we won't be seeing any more maps the size of Lost Temple in the 1v1 ladder map pool?
Guest-449: Are you planning on having the servers live for midnight launches in the US?
DustinB: No, Lost Temple will be in that pool. Desert Oasis is in there too (and is pretty big). Some of the pro maps from Broodwar could almost be 3v3 maps. And they are often very technical maps with all kinds of height differences and complex layouts. They are AWESOME for pro play, but can be a little intimidating for many.
Guest-280: What are your plans for the 1st expansion in terms of campaign and how will it be different to the hyperion stuff and how missions work in SC2 WOL
ChrisSi: Guest 449: Yes, if you go and buy your box at midnight in the US, we're planning on the servers being ready for you to install and play when you bring that box home
Aaron|Social Media Specialist | Best Buy® Corporate
Private Message -
On 3 machines now the Windows Store is broken. The Install and Back buttons don't work
Originally reported here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_store/on-3-machines-now-the-windows-store-is-broken-the/8bafdc7a-a708-4012-a4f1-b98ab8788c28
Advised to post here instead.
Hi there
On three separate Windows 8.1 Professional machines now, I've had an issue where the Store stops working properly for no apparent reason (no error messages or anything). The store opens, and I can browse apps, and view individual apps, but
once in the app view I cannot click on the Install button or the back buttons.
They "light up" as if being pressed, but they don't actually do anything.
I've tried all the various troubleshooting, including the Windows App troubleshooter, wsreset, re-registering the store files using powershell, and renaming the cache folder in my user profile. No effect.
If I sign into the PCs as another user, then I don't get the issue. As such something is getting corrupted in the profile.
We only have around 9 or 10 Windows 8.1 PCs deployed at our organisation for testing, and three of them have had this fault, which doesn't inspire confidence. As such, we cannot progress with further deployment until we have a fix in place that
doesn't involve wiping the user profile.
Any ideas please?Hi FangZhou CHEN
I've discovered the cause of this error after much searching.
Based on your suggestion, I checked the Event Viewer and found a string of "Application Error" entries similar to this:
Faulting application name: WSHost.exe, version: 6.3.9600.17093, time stamp: 0x534765e9
Faulting module name: sxwmon64.dll, version: 4.5.2608.0, time stamp: 0x52b2a853
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000000257ff
Faulting process id: 0xf40
Faulting application start time: 0x01cfeeb1cc6d035e
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\WinStore\WSHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\sxwmon64.dll
Report Id: 19ee9a1c-5aa5-11e4-8259-600292638f85
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Presumably the WSHost,exe process is critical to the Store and "Metro" apps?
The offending dll file causing this process to fail, sxwmon64.dll belongs to a peice of security software on our machines called Lumension Endpoint Security (we're running version 4.5 SR2). We use this to control removable media (USB) and CDRW access for
our employees.
If I rename that particular DLL file, the store and the calendar app which I was also having issues with (it was blank), spring back into life. -
How to change maintenance powershell script via GPO?
Per suggestion reposted from here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/6eece9d6-a524-48aa-8e64-7554f0ec9b31/how-to-change-maintenance-powershell-script-via-gpo?forum=winserverGP
Posted at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/desktop-shortcuts-to-items-on-network-drives/94eddb27-342b-40fc-9ad4-677ff4ee8ebe?page=9&tm=1403700614489 originally.
There is a very annoying "feature" in Windows 7 called BrokenShortcuts.ps1 which is being called out weekly via maintenance task and if it finds more than 4 "broken" network shortcuts it removes them all. So it means if a user at this
moment is disconnected from the network he will lose all links to shares, network applications sitting on his desktop. Funny that there was no such script on Vista and i don't see this on Win8. On the post i have attached one user suggested to edit this script
and change 4 to 500 or whatever high number. That's fine for one time fix. But i need to do this for 200+ users. This file cannot be simply replaced by a script, so i'm wondering is there any way to do it via GPO?
I have already tried various startup scripts, but i'm not sure which user to put into commands.
I need to run this on startup:
takeown /F C:\Windows\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1
icacls c:\windows\diagnostics\scheduled\maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 /grant "some user":F
copy \\share\folder$\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 C:\Windows\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance\ /YYou need to take time to study how Windows does these things. You can control them with GP which is what you asked. The article shows you how to disable elements of the tasks. Each task controls a script. If you disable the task the
script that deletes shortcuts will be stopped. Other maintenance tasks will continue to run.
Most of your problem is that you seem to want someone to provide a magical solution. In technology it is necessary to fully research your issues until you understand all aspects. After fully studying the issue you should understand the possible
solutions if they exist.
You claim to have deployed the patch that Microsoft released to fix the issue. You claim it didn't work. If that is the case then you need to call MS and \p[en a support incident. If Microsoft determines that you are right about the
patch not working you will not be charged for the call.
I know that learning how to support technology is hard and frustrating for newcomers. In time, by using these incidents to learn, you will become a seasoned technician and all of this will seem trivial. Until then we can only suggest that you
do things that most of us are familiar with. We cannot fix your network for you.
I think you haven't really posted in the GP forum but posted a question about GP in the server forum. Try posting in the GP forum.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?forum=winserverGP
Here is one answer from the GP forum:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?forum=winserverGP
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/600ca14f-8b1b-400c-b27f-a7f5733407ac/windows-scheduled-maintenance-task?forum=winserverGP
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -
Export or view the chat transcript between operators on the Cisco agent console
Hi All,
Is there a way I can export or view the chat transcript between operators on the Cisco agent console?
I have UCCX7 which would be migrated to 8.5 Soon.
Thank you,
HamedHi
Unfortunately not - they don' t make it in to the DB or any other central repository.
It would be possible to write a Windows or Powershell script to collect the files and place them on a central file share and then do with them as you wish, but this would be up to you to design and implement.
Regards
Aaron -
Hi All,
TotalVHDCapacity attribute is returning zero in "Get-SCVMTemplate | select Name, TotalVhdCapacity" powershell command though the template has Vhd capacity is 20 gb in size, vmm 2012 r2. I can create VM using this template too.
For other templates it is returning correct value though.
Can anyone help us understanding the root cause and the solution too.
Thanks in advance.
DebabrataI booted this drive from another computer (Asrock M3A770DE mobo) and works fine, speed with dd was ~100MB/s
I also update bios on my first computer with Intel D945GSEJT (there is selected AHCI mode) still the same transfers with dd (~10Mb/s)
I have no idea what to do with it now
EDIT:
More tests with other hdd (Samsung HD502IJ), dd on mounted NTFS partition:
Intel D945GSEJT booted from Archlinux iso:
hdparm: ~75 MB/s
dd: ~10 MB/s
Intel D945GSEJT booted from Archlinux iso, HDD connected to PCI SATA controller (Promise 378):
hdparm: ~60 MB/s
dd: ~10 MB/s
Asrock M3A770DE booted from Archlinux iso:
hdparm: ~87 MB/s
dd: ~76 MB/s
Asrock M3A770DE booted from Archlinux iso, HDD connected to PCI SATA controller (Promise 378):
hdparm: ~81MB/s
dd: ~76 MB/s
What is broken on D945GSEJT?
Last edited by miskoala (2012-03-30 13:47:23) -
Powershell script sends e-mail in ISE but not from powershell command line
I have created a script that generates a report of all users who do not have photos in Active Directory. The script runs and sends an e-mail to a distribution list. It runs fine in ISE, but I cannot run it from command line or as a scheduled task. Any suggestions
what I am doing wrong?
#Starts Powershell Snap-In
Start-Transcript -path c:\Scripts\StaffWithoutPhotos.txt
add-pssnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -erroraction silentlyContinue
$mailboxes = $null
$mailboxes = @(Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "Staff User Accounts" -ResultSize Unlimited | Where {$_.HasPicture -eq $False})
Write-Host $mailboxes
$report = @()
foreach ($mailbox in $mailboxes)
$mbObj = New-Object PSObject
$mbObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Display Name" -Value $mailbox.DisplayName
$report += $mbObj
Write-Host "Diagnostic Output"
Write-Host "Before Mailbox value check"
Write-Host $report
Write-Host "After Mailbox Value check"
if ($mailboxes -ne $null)
Write-Host $report
#Send the report generated to the e-mail list specified above
$style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "</style>"
#Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
$smtpserver = "MAIL.contoso.com"
$msg = new-object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$msg.From = "[email protected]"
$msg.To.Add("[email protected]")
#$msg.To.Add("[email protected]") #Used for testing
$msg.Subject = "Staff without Photos report"
$msg.Body = "This report contains the list of users who do not currently have photos."
$msg.Body += "<p>"
$msg.Body += "After photos are available for these users please submit a request to have their accounts updated or send an e-mail to <a href='mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Staff%20Photo%20Updates' target='_top'> [email protected]
</a> with <b>Staff Photo Updates</b> in the subject."
$msg.Body += "<p>"
$msg.Body += "This report runs on Fridays and will only send a message if we have Staff without Photos. For more information please contact your systems administrator."
$msg.Body += "<p>"
$msg.Body += $Report | ConvertTo-Html -Head $Style
$msg.IsBodyHTML = $true
$smtp.Send($msg)
Stop-TranscriptSo after researching further and not receiving any more replies I decided to rewrite the script and attempt to use the send-mailmessage function. I have been unable to determine the reason for the original not script not working. We use a very similar script
to my original code which works to generate a report and e-mail that report as an attachment and it works without any problems.
After re-writing the script and using the send-mailmessage function I was able to get this report to work as expected. This has now been set up as a scheduled task to run on a server once a week. Here is the final code:
Start-Transcript -path c:\Scripts\StaffWithoutPhotos.txt
#Starts Powershell Snap-In
add-pssnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.E2010 -erroraction silentlyContinue
$mailboxes = $null
$mailboxes = @(Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "contoso Staff User Accounts" -ResultSize Unlimited | Where {$_.HasPicture -eq $False})
Write-Host $mailboxes
$report = @()
foreach ($mailbox in $mailboxes)
$mbObj = New-Object PSObject
$mbObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Display Name" -Value $mailbox.DisplayName
$report += $mbObj
Write-Host "Diagnostic Output"
Write-Host "Before Mailbox value check"
Write-Host $report
Write-Host "After Mailbox Value check"
if ($mailboxes -ne $null)
Write-Host $report
#Send the report generated to the e-mail list specified above
$style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "</style>"
$smtpserver = "MAIL.contoso.com"
$smtpFrom = "[email protected]"
$smtpTo = "[email protected]"
$messageSubject = "Staff without Photos report"
$Body = "This report contains the list of users who do not currently have photos."
$Body += "<p>"
$Body += "After photos are available for these users please submit a request to the Help Desk to have their accounts updated or send an e-mail to <a href='mailto:[email protected]?Subject=Staff%20Photo%20Updates' target='_top'> [email protected]
</a> with <b><u>Staff Photo Updates</b></u> in the subject."
$Body += "<p>"
$Body += "This report runs on Fridays and will only send a message if we have Staff without Photos. For more information please contact your systems administrator."
$Body += "<p>"
$Body += $Report | ConvertTo-Html -Head $Style
#Send the report
send-mailmessage -from "$smtpFrom" -to "$smtpTo" -subject "$messageSubject" -body "$Body" -smtpServer "$smtpserver" -BodyAsHtml
Stop-Transcript -
Error message running powershell as admin, not running ISE as admin
I have a powershell script local on my dc. When I run the script from inside ISE (as admin) it works beautifully. When I run it just inside a powershell window (as admin) it gives me an error:
Register-ScheduledTask : Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Action', because PSTypeNames of the argument do
the PSTypeName required by the parameter: Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimInstance#MSFT_TaskAction.
Why would it be different running from ISE than from powershell window? I don't want to have to open ISE ever time to execute the script.
mpleafBack quotes and smart quotes from Web pasted code can create big headaches too.
If you want to see an example of this, take a look at the code here:
https://dthomo.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/disabling-activesync-by-default-on-exchange-2010/
Many moons ago, I copied that, pasted it into Notepad++, saved it as xml, and put it up on my Exchange servers.
Result = broken, very angry Exchange. The code is perfectly fine, but those quotes...
Now, one interesting thing I just noticed. I pasted that code above into Notepad++ and saw the smart quotes as expected. I then pasted it into the ISE, and the quotes appeared as normal straight quotes. I saved the file as test.xml to see if the
ISE was somehow smart enough to save me from these quotes. Opened it up in Notepad++. Smart quotes survived.
I think this could be kind of dangerous, as you'd never know that your quotes were bad by looking at the text in the ISE... Can either of you confirm this behavior?
EDIT: The text highlighting of the saved file in the ISE is apparently a good indicator of this though:
Don't retire TechNet! -
(Don't give up yet - 12,830+ strong and growing) -
Excel with powershell and this big problem of locale
Hi Folks, I'm getting C R A Z Y with this Excel/Powershell Stuff...
MY display language is EN
My input language is fr_CH
the following code :
function Invoke([object]$m, [string]$method, $parameters)
$m.PSBase.GetType().InvokeMember(
$method, [Reflection.BindingFlags]::InvokeMethod, $null, $m, $parameters,$ciUS)
$ciUS = [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]'fr-CH'
$objExcel = New-object -com Excel.Application
$objExcel.visible = $True
$ci = [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]'fr-CH'
$objWorkbook = Invoke $objExcel.Workbooks Add
$objWorksheet = $objWorkbook.Worksheets.Item(1)
$objWorksheet.Cells.Item(1,1).FormulaLocal = "A value in cell A1."
Invoke $objWorkbook SaveAs "C:ScriptsTest.xls" > $null
Invoke $objWorkbook Close 0 > $null
$objExcel.Quit()
throw me the error :
Exception calling "InvokeMember" with "6" argument(s): "Object does not match target type."
At line:3 char:1
+ $m.PSBase.GetType().InvokeMember(
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : TargetException
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:11 char:1
+ $objWorksheet = $objWorkbook.Worksheets.Item(1)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Basically this happend when you have english Excel with non english locale.
My OS is in english but my Keyboard is in French-Swiss.
Please help me I'm getting crazy...
MCITP Enterprise Administrator / Server AdministratorThis might be helpful.
http://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/powershell-help-broken-on-localized-versions-of-windows/
The problem seems to be that PowerShell v1 for Windows Vista and PowerShell v2 CTP for all systems are storing the language neutral (English) help system in the en-US subfolder of the PowerShell folder.
On a localized versions of Windows, PowerShell seems to be looking for a subfolder with its own locale (e.g. de-DE for Germany, ru-RU for Russia, and so on) and does not fail over to en-US if the folder is not found.
RESOLUTION
Apply the language pack for your language so your local version of help gets added to the system.
If the language pack is not available, copy or rename the en-US folder to match your Windows locale. To learn your locale run the following command in the PowerShell prompt:
[System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::CurrentUICulture
Thanks Azam When you see answers please Mark as Answer if Helpful..vote as helpful.
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