World of Warcraft devs reflect on Dragon Riding collision as players “just hit trees”, admitting “that didn’t feel good”

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft Undermined update is now out, giving players access to a brand-new zone with some awesome storylines and a brand-new D.R.I.V.E system that allows players to engage in breakneck speed racing across the Goblin capital city.

Speaking to VideoGamer before launch, World of Warcraft senior software engineer Emily Berger explained that the new D.R.I.V.E system is an expansion of the same dynamic movement system that powers Dragon Riding. However, the team wanted to make sure that they didn’t make the same mistakes as they did with that mechanic.

World of Warcraft Dragon Riding made some mistakes

In the pre-launch interview, Berger explained that the collision issues with Dragon Riding was a key area to avoid for D.R.I.V.E. While the two features do use the same underlying movement engines, they are very different, but the problems with riding dragons in the MMORPG were key for the design process of the new mechanic.

“So we have the player movement system, we have mount movement system, and for dragon flight we built a kind of a dynamic movement system for the mount systems,” Berger explained. “So technically, yes, it is a part of the dynamic movement system, but I think some of the really cool things that we were able to do here we weren’t able to do before.

“For dragon riding, most of our collision, you would just hit trees, right? And that didn’t feel good. You would just kind of hit trees, stop and fall and something that we explored for this dynamic system was kind of the feel that you get when when bouncing off of walls.”

With the sheer density of Undermine in the new World of Warcraft zone, the team wanted driving to feel incredibly chaotic. Players should be bouncing off walls, pinging off the environment and not just stop when you slam into an object.

“Something that the drive team worked really hard with was kind of that feel of how does it feel moving around quickly but also not having that experience where you just hit walls and you stop,” they continued. “So we wanted to kind of go real physics, real velocity, but at the same time, like, you know, that doesn’t feel very good. So there was a lot of playback, iterations, a lot of play testing on the team to get that kind of nice bouncy feeling, so you’re drifting around a corner, you accidentally run into something and it kind of bounces you off and then you can kind of keep going.”

The team behind World of Warcraft won’t stop iterating on the D.R.I.V.E system just because it’s now out and playable. As the game continues to gain new content, adjustments for the game’s driving mechanics will undoubtedly arrive, and iteration is key to keeping the MMO fun.

For more WoW coverage, read about how the team has “no limits” to what designers can do, or read about the team’s thoughts on why Blizzard’s MMO has managed to outlast its competitors.

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Lewis White

Lewis White is a veteran games journalist with a decade of experience writing news, reviews, features and investigative pieces about game development with a focus on Halo and Xbox.