Anyone else a bit tired of damaged, "war-torn" locations?

[Claymore]

Maybe this is just from spending time with other games lately, but coming back to WoW... I'm actually getting a bit tired of "war-torn", battle-ravaged locations. Landscapes, cities, whatever.

Great example; Karabor, in Warlords of Draenor. I'm still kind of pissed they scrapped it as a Capital (particularly in favor of "Ashran", which was a complete failure by every possible metric), but even when you visit it, there are constant signs that "This place was JUST attacked".

Same thing in Westfall; it's no longer the dreary, but familiar landscape it used to be, but instead, no matter where you are in the zone, you can see shattered earth and tornadoes created in the wake of the Cataclysm.

And now, we've got Stormheim... I'll be honest, when I first visited it during the Warrior's Artifact-weapon quest, I actually really liked the vibe of the place. However, once you actually venture out a bit, and you see all of the Forsaken Plague bullshit spread everywhere, it just feels way less interesting a zone.

Obviously, WoW is never going to have the same kind of serene, picturesque locales of something like Final Fantasy XIV (I'm still constantly surprised how well it runs, for as detailed as it seems to be), but when I think on my favorite zones in WoW, I always go back to areas that are just "nice". Outland's Nagrand, Grizzly Hills, Storm Peaks, the ORIGINAL Elwynn Forest -- those were all places I actually *WANTED TO BE*. I even have a place in my heart for Uldum.

I dunno, it's just something that dawned on me while running around New Dalaran, that the Fel-colored sky, and broken walls everywhere, it just kind of kills the ambiance.

But hey, maybe that's just me.

[dope_danny]

I think its symptomatic of WoW's increasingly tired trend of "no, now THIS years big bad is the actual world ending threat and we mean it this time, swear on me mum!". Wrath and Mists were not just fighting an enemy but exploring a land people had not explored and running into things folks have never heard of. Which was kind of why most folks picked the game up back in vanilla. You were in the world of Warcraft 3 but not limited to the areas on the rts maps so go and see whats out there.

When its all some form of corruption fetish in action it kind of feels less like adventuring and more looking for loot in a garbage dump.

[superninjapresident]

Couldn't agree more. How about some new shiny locations where things actually work? A pinnacle of civilization with magical/technological marvels.

It's like the world stopped developing hundreds of years ago and everyone just rumbles about in their old ruins. "That bridge over there is 800 years old, and it was broken 700 years ago, and we still haven't repaired it"

[hortrorog]

the ORIGINAL Elwynn Forest .

theres 0 difference between old elwynn and new elwynn besides northsire being a little burnt, which you cant even see. stop being so goddamn extra.

[mauserr]

I can't believe you deny the use of further deciding to even want to do look more like, when the rest of us have decided to need a want. Go ahead, go want to do look more like further than a half. It gets you nowhere, I can tell you that.

Sorry, but I disagree.

[Makorus]

Wow, it's almost like they are trying to create a different atmosphere.

"I dunno, it's just something that dawned on me while running around New Dalaran, that the Fel-colored sky, and broken walls everywhere, it just kind of kills the ambiance."

That's the whole point. There is supposed to be a juxtaposition. The "peaceful", idyllic city floating close to the gateway to hell that is threatening the entire planet.

We had "peaceful" locations in MoP.

We had non-"war-torn" locations in WoD.

[Packing an i5]

Pre cataclysm nostalgia it hits us all hard.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

I've never thought of it once but can barely bring myself to care. There are so many gorgeous vistas in Legion that trying to classify them as "war torn" or otherwise seems really nit-picky.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I think having some warn torn areas are necessary but our faction making an outpost or fortress area and being half built. It get annoying so I'm half with you I guess?

[Akka]

I think it's because the increasing switch from "worldbuilding" to "Hollywood".
Instead of creating a world and having stories happens within, giving a baseline of rather a stable situation, they are more and more creating "scenes"/"cinematics", giving a baseline of an instable and action-packed situation. Problem is, it works once when you see it first, but afterward it only enhance the artificiality of the situation - it just feels difficult to suspend believability when a town is in a never-ending situation of mayhem, like Westfall or Astranaar or New Telanaar.

And obviously if there is always fighting happening, it can't really give a "serene" ambiance.

[khazmodan]

if you want nice places to play your game in, go play sims. Seriously though it would be nice if we had more reconstruction through something like turn-ins. by the end of an expansion we could have some new building or something that the whole realm could feel like they are a part of.

[Selastan]

I agree. We suck as heroes, we used to stop the bads BEFORE they got lose to tear up shit. Pre cata we went into the Deadmines to stop the Defias from launching their warship and razing Stormwind. If they thought up the Defias plot after Cata the ship would already have tore up half of Westfall and the dungeon would be a heavily scripted fight before it gets to Stormwind.

[Soluna]

And this is why I LOVED Mists of Pandaria. Jade Forest, Krasarang Wilds, Valley of the four winds in particular, vale of eternal blossoms, such beautiful places that just encouraged you to explore with serene music. But of course people complained about 'BOOHOO PANDAS AND PEACE AND BURGERS' so blizzard just stuffed us up with war torn destroyed zones. People got what they wanted. I don't mind either way, but MoP is still my fav expansion (And was since its announcement).

[FelPlague]

idk having a placel ook in perfect condition in the middle of a war zone isnt very.... possible...

imagine going to stormwind and hearing "DEATHWING RAMPAGED THROUGH STORMWIND"

well idk everything looks pretty perfect... are you sure "YES HE DID OMFG THE WORLD IS GOING TO END" i mean everything looks pretty perfectly fine.. like are you sure hes a bad guy? like nothing is damaged...


its just... its allmost like in the middle of a war zone things get damaged and cant be taken care of as good as in places that are not in the very middle of a war zone?

those other games that have cities under constant seige but nothing is damaged (tera, ESO, and Swtor were very guilty of this as i remember) is rather bad....

[Deleted]

Horde should start hiring more of those goblins and put them to rework orgrimmar. Prefered the old one but thats me. And alliamce should fix westfall ye, totaly on board with that one.

[Tylaeus]

As someone who used to enjoy RPing with friends out in random zones, Cataclysm was awful. It would've been fine if they fixed at least some of the destruction, they don't have to totally remodel everything, but at least gloss over some of the crazy effects going on in some zones. Westfall is one of the worst. It feels so ridiculous to try and walk around Westfall in an RP environment and just see the massive floaty-rock tornado crater shit that's been there for 6 years now. You'd think with gnomish technology and powerful shamans/mages we could maybe fill some craters, drain some flooded canyons, and at least repair some holes in the walls.

[Claymore]

I think its symptomatic of WoW's increasingly tired trend of "no, now THIS years big bad is the actual world ending threat and we mean it this time, swear on me mum!". Wrath and Mists were not just fighting an enemy but exploring a land people had not explored and running into things folks have never heard of. Which was kind of why most folks picked the game up back in vanilla. You were in the world of Warcraft 3 but not limited to the areas on the rts maps so go and see whats out there.

When its all some form of corruption fetish in action it kind of feels less like adventuring and more looking for loot in a garbage dump.

I think that's part of it. I think another part, as someone else pointed out, is that we spend a LOT of time in nondescript "Horde and Alliance outposts", instead of places that feel organic to the world.

[Deleted]

A WoD bashing thread, mixed with a WoW bashing thread, mixed with a FF praise thread, and maybe a "Everthing was better before Cataclysm" thread.

Well done.

[TofuBandita]

Yes! Like when half of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms got turned into a big Sha infested dust bowl.

I wish mmo's had the tech, resources, innovation, whatever - to enable players to slowly rebuild or regenerate war-torn areas on their server.

[Jujudrood]

To be fair, it is World of WARcraft, so, I mean, wars and such are occurring all over at various levels, from your rambunctious little gnolls to the armed and militarized orc factons to twisted demons spawned from the nether.
It's not like a demon general is all like "go forth and destroy all life! except for this shrubbery because I like this shrubbery in particular".
No, it's more like "tear it all down" kinda mentality.

Hopefully the next xpac will have a more MoP-ish feel to it, toning down the whole "destruction of the entire planet by legions and legions of nearly immortal beings" stuff and maybe reeling it back down to something a bit more... I dunno... not as earth-shattering. But then again, our toons have elevated to the highest ranks of their respective orders, so I'm not sure where else we could go.