Major changes are in the works for World of Warcraft’s expansive modding scene, as Blizzard previously announced that it’s incorporating — and possibly limiting — several features from popular addons into the game in order to “level the playing field.” To help prepare the community for the upcoming addon changes, the studio posted an open letter to modders with some clarification as to the scope, restriction, and timing of this move.

Blizzard acknowledged player “confusion” about these changes after the initial announcement and said it wanted to provide more clarity even as the project “is in heavy development” with many details still in flux such as a release date and when some of the older mods would be locked down for good.

“We are embarking on this project with the aim of leveling the playing field and making the game more approachable for all players,” the studio said. “Currently, addons are able to analyze and ‘solve’ combat and coordination mechanics perfectly, and faster than would be possible for an unassisted human player. While many players will naturally seek out any advantage, this also means that players who don’t use these addons are at a huge disadvantage. Many players end up feeling excluded from competitive content unless they install, set up, and maintain a number of addons. This is a significant barrier to entry, and we have heard growing feedback over the years from players who resent feeling like they need addons to play the game properly. This project is about doing everything we can to shrink that gap.”

Blizzard said that it will give “many months” of an advance notice before these changes go live and invite the whole community, including modders, into the process of testing them.

“Although we haven’t finalized a target release date for these changes, what we can say is that we’ll be giving many months of advance notice before we flip the switch. We want to allow addon devs as much time as possible to test the changes, report issues and provide feedback,” the studio said.