How Kul Tiras could become a whole continent

[ro9ue]

If anything, it would likely be a case of disjointed zones, of which Kul Tiras is one, just like in Cataclysm where many of the zones were in far reaching places. The ones you mentioned above would be the most likely.

I'm not sure how armor could 'make' it a continent. Kul Tiras is literally a city. How can one of the smallest nations, literally a city on an island, be a 'continent' with an entire expansion's worth of stuff?

As far as we know know Kul Tiras is just a city, but if it's been lost in the timeline for a while I can easily see Blizzard saying the Kul Tiras army conquered an entire chain of islands and it expanded a bit.

[Cosmic Janitor]

According to the expansion leak, Blizzard is going to implement a "boat system" that allows you to sail freely and quickly between islands. Lorewise they are constructed by Goblins and Gnomes for their respective factions.

Each "Zone" would be a different island. That would make more sense than trying to force a variety of environments on Kul'Tiras. People would buy the idea of each island being zone sized. People wouldn't buy the notion that Kul'tiras has multiple zones of various environments.

For once I agree with you

[mitotic]

As far as we know know Kul Tiras is just a city, but if it's been lost in the timeline for a while I can easily see Blizzard saying the Kul Tiras army conquered an entire chain of islands and it expanded a bit.

I agree, I could totally see that being an explanation. Also Kul Tiras is technically a city state, which includes not only the capital city of Boralus but plenty of neighboring areas too. City states can be pretty large!

[Teri]

Quick travel via Boat-Paths instead of a continent would work better imo for a Southseas expansion, make Kul'Tiras the new main city hub or something, you never know if horde kept a base there anyway after the mission in WC3 where they killed Daelin Proudmoore.

Legion leveling was designed with choosing a zone every X levels, no reason a chain of varied islands could not work, for max level as well emmisaries etc.

And I don't mean slow moving boats like vanilla, more like a combination of a flight path that is a small boat that teleports you to the island destination with a short load screen. I don't think the Islands need to be part of 1 "continent" at all.

Hunters already have a combination of flight path + load screen if they go to their class hall via dalaran, it's basicly an elegantly disguised teleport but story wise you take an eagle, replace it by a boat, and you got it for Islands.

[Hitei]

And I don't mean slow moving boats like vanilla, more like a combination of a flight path that is a small boat that teleports you to the island destination with a short load screen. I don't think the Islands need to be part of 1 "continent" at all.

Hunters already have a combination of flight path + load screen if they go to their class hall via dalaran, it's basicly an elegantly disguised teleport but story wise you take an eagle, replace it by a boat, and you got it for Islands.

That sounds terrible.

I don't want to have to fly to a specific point and go through a short load screen every time I want to shit over to a different zone to mine/herb, or to do a world quest, or any other time I want to go from one zone to another. You are describing one of the worst parts of Cataclysm.

[Teri]

That sounds terrible.

I don't want to have to fly to a specific point and go through a short load screen every time I want to shit over to a different zone to mine/herb, or to do a world quest, or any other time I want to go from one zone to another. You are describing one of the worst parts of Cataclysm.

Problem with cataclysm was that travel between zones was still slow, you had to go to the hub with the portal to orgrimmar, stormwind, then take portal, then fly to the portal circle, then load screen again to the next zone.

This other method can have direct travel between islands with only 1 quick load screen. Or make it so you can like "call boat" when you are anywhere at the coast of an island, to travel to the next.


Kul'tiras , Zandalar can easily contain 2 zones each.

Kul'tiras could probably even be added to the Eastern Kingdoms if they wanted to, with more underwater zone north of vashjir.

Legion still has load multiple screens for class halls etc, only a few classes can teleport from anywhere, most other classes need to go to dalaran first, then take a second teleport. And even with the flightmaster whistle there was a bunch of travel time from like Azsuna to Stormheim etc.

Legion has like 1 fish type, 1 herb type per zone, and I don't see that being different for islands either.

[Hitei]

Problem with cataclysm was that travel between zones was still slow, you had to go to the hub with the portal to orgrimmar, stormwind, then take portal, then fly to the portal circle, then load screen again to the next zone.

This other method can have direct travel between islands with only 1 quick load screen. Or make it so you can like "call boat" when you are anywhere at the coast of an island, to travel to the next.


Kul'tiras , Zandalar can easily contain 2 zones each.

Kul'tiras could probably even be added to the Eastern Kingdoms if they wanted to, with more underwater zone north of vashjir.

Legion still has load multiple screens for class halls etc, only a few classes can teleport from anywhere, most other classes need to go to dalaran first, then take a second teleport. And even with the flightmaster whistle there was a bunch of travel time from like azsuna to Stormheim etc.

Yes, but I don't have to go to my class hall every time I want to switch zones, and a long flight path is much preferable for me than a short loading screen, because it's actually immersive and part of the world.

[Teri]

Yes, but I don't have to go to my class hall every time I want to switch zones, and a long flight path is much preferable for me than a short loading screen, because it's actually immersive and part of the world.

You want a 2 minute flight/boat ride between unrealisticly close islands? We know if they use iconic places like Zandalar or something, no way it could suddenly be right next to kul'tiras, that's less immersion then a "boat-teleport"

I don't see "cataclysm" as an excuse ,otherwise the goblin islands and zandalar or whatever would have been merged with kalimdor already.

Cataclysm destroyed stuff, but did not move anything, North Pandiara was still intact, South northrend was intact.

Shattering was ultimately far less powerful then the sundering of kalimdor.

[Teriz]

That sounds terrible.

I don't want to have to fly to a specific point and go through a short load screen every time I want to shit over to a different zone to mine/herb, or to do a world quest, or any other time I want to go from one zone to another. You are describing one of the worst parts of Cataclysm.

What if it works just like flight paths, or what if it worked where you could sail to each island in real-time? Additionally, while you're sailing, you have a chance to run into some pirates or monsters (ala old-school Final Fantasy style where you can't see the enemy coming) and you have to use the weapons on your boat to survive. As you level, you could purchase some better weapons for your ship, and some followers to help you fight off those encounters, and make sailing between islands easier.

While you're sailing, you could also discover islands that aren't on the map. You could choose to continue on your course, or you could explore these unknown islands and fight some exotic enemies and earn experience and treasure.

Don't see anything wrong with that.

Sounds cool to me.

[Masser]

Kul'Tiras is a small island and not a continent.

[Netherspark]

According to the expansion leak, Blizzard is going to implement a "boat system" that allows you to sail freely and quickly between islands. Lorewise they are constructed by Goblins and Gnomes for their respective factions..

And what "leak" is this?

[Hitei]

You want a 2 minute flight/boat ride between unrealisticly close islands? We know if they use iconic places like Zandalar or something, no way it could suddenly be right next to kul'tiras, that's less immersion then a "boat-teleport"

I don't see "cataclysm" as an excuse ,otherwise the goblin islands and zandalar or whatever would have been merged with kalimdor already.

Cataclysm destroyed stuff, but did not move anything, North Pandiara was still intact, South northrend was intact.

Shattering was ultimately far less powerful then the sundering of kalimdor.

Over World of Loadscreen-between-each-zoneCraft? Absolutely. One of the best parts of this game is that it actually has continents instead of zones connected by loading screens. I would much rather accept scaled down distances (something already inherent in the game) than completely disjointed zones.

What if it works just like flight paths, or what if it worked where you could sail to each island in real-time? Additionally, while you're sailing, you have a chance to run into some pirates or monsters (ala old-school Final Fantasy style where you can't see the enemy coming) and you have to use the weapons on your boat to survive. As you level, you could purchase some better weapons for your ship, and some followers to help you fight off those encounters, and make sailing between islands easier.

While you're sailing, you could also discover islands that aren't on the map. You could choose to continue on your course, or you could explore these unknown islands and fight some exotic enemies and earn experience and treasure.

Don't see anything wrong with that.

Sounds cool to me.

I don't have anything wrong with multiple islands (other than the fact that if its the Azshara/N'zoth expansion, it's a massive waste of those enemy groups to have the zones be a bunch of islands). The problem is that a load screen every time I want to enter or exit one zone into a different one makes every zone feel like an instance.

And what "leak" is this?

The dumb "Rise of Azshara" leak, which isn't a leak at all, it's just a compilation of stuff that is very likely to show up in an expansion about Azshara and the seas.

[Teriz]

I don't have anything wrong with multiple islands (other than the fact that if its the Azshara/N'zoth expansion, it's a massive waste of those enemy groups to have the zones be a bunch of islands). The problem is that a load screen every time I want to enter or exit one zone into a different one makes every zone feel like an instance.

What if there are no load times and the actual collection of islands is actually a continent separated by waterways? Like Blizzard "cheats" by simply separating a massive continent in-game with large bodies of water in between the zones?


Zero load times, and every zone feels like a zone.

The dumb "Rise of Azshara" leak, which isn't a leak at all, it's just a compilation of stuff that is very likely to show up in an expansion about Azshara and the seas.

It's been right so far.

[Edoll]

e.g.
[1][2]
[3][4]
[5][6]
[7][8]
I have to hope the Dev team would rather make full use of the ability to do crazy, interesting locations rather than force themselves through another expansion of regular forests and mountains and coasts and valleys.

Off-topic: Where did those pictures come from? I love them and would love to know the source to check out the artist(s)' other works!

[Chemical Ellis]

It really seems like a stretch to turn Kul Tiras into an entire expansion's worth of continent, but I could see it being broken down into two or three zones at the center of a larger "west of Eastern Kingdoms" expansion (since there's still a lot of stuff left over we haven't seen yet). If it comes alongside Crestfall, Balor, Zul'Dare, maybe even the Channel Islands, I think a wider expansion still labeled "Kul Tiras" could make sense.

[mitotic]

It really seems like a stretch to turn Kul Tiras into an entire expansion's worth of continent, but I could see it being broken down into two or three zones at the center of a larger "west of Eastern Kingdoms" expansion (since there's still a lot of stuff left over we haven't seen yet). If it comes alongside Crestfall, Balor, Zul'Dare, maybe even the Channel Islands, I think a wider expansion still labeled "Kul Tiras" could make sense.

I completely agree -- if the expansion includes Boralus, Crestfall, Balor, and Zul'Dare and Blizzard decides to jam these islands together into a continent called "Kul Tiras" or "Greater Kul Tiras," I won't mind much. But if the expansion is only Kul Tiras, split into 5 random zones we've never heard of, then I'll be a little disappointed. Although, to be fair, this is largely what happened to the Broken Isles, and that worked out okay.

[Hitei]

Off-topic: Where did those pictures come from? I love them and would love to know the source to check out the artist(s)' other works!

I just pulled them from google images using generic search terms and skimming through the results for examples of what I envision underground/underwater zones in a hypothetical N'zoth/Azshara expansion would look like. Things like "fantasy cave (city)", "fantasy ice cave", "bubble/underwater city", 5 specifically was "R'lyeh" (the sunken city Cthulhu sleeps in). You could probably find the actual sources with some reverse image searching.

- - - Updated - - -

What if there are no load times and the actual collection of islands is actually a continent separated by waterways? Like Blizzard "cheats" by simply separating a massive continent in-game with large bodies of water in between the zones?

So a single instanced continent, but as islands distant from each other? I suppose that works, but again, a waste of two big enemies.

It's been right so far.

It's not a leak though, so of course it's going to be right.

It would be like if back in BC I had said:

"Super secret leak,

The next expansion is 'Dawn of the Lich King'
Arthas has awoken from his slumber and now seeks to cover the entire world in the darkness of undeath! You must rise up and stop him, lest the entire world be destroyed and the scourge wash over everything!

Content:
New Continent, Northrend

New leveling zones:
Dragonblight
Borean Tundra
Howling Fjord
Sholazar Basin
The Storm Peaks
Icecrown Glacier
Coldara

New Class:
Death Knight

Bosses:
Arthas
Kel'thuzad

New Race:
Tuskarr
Furbolgs"

All of this is stuff everyone knew about prior to WotLK. Most of it is pulled from the Lands of Mystery book for the RPG which is not even canon. This is just like the Rise of the Naga leak. Zero actual details and just general facts that would be associated with a Naga expansion. Zones we already know about and know are either major islands not yet seen (Tel Abim, Kul Tiras, Zandalar) or major locations associated with the Maelstrom (drowned reaches, scintal reef, Gishan caverns, etc). Playable Naga, and Azshara and N'zoth as villains.

It is a list of what you would expect to see in any Naga expansion. Real leaks have actual details.

Look at this leak
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...e-Leak-SOLgate

And then look at these
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Reddit-source
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...han-and-reddit

Do you see how the first has actual, firm, specific story details involving specific characters and zones? And the second ones are just "villains are here and doing bad stuff and you have to work together to stop them!"

Even this
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Chinese-forum

While cryptic, points out very specific story elements: Sylvanas as wrchief, the Illidari demon hunters, Tyr, Tirion, the Silver hand, Anduin and Wrathion (who was originally disguised in the role of Ebonhorn) Gul'dan confronting that time is inescapable, Sargeras' death, the Naga, Maiev.

[Marston]

Quick travel via Boat-Paths instead of a continent would work better imo for a Southseas expansion, make Kul'Tiras the new main city hub or something, you never know if horde kept a base there anyway after the mission in WC3 where they killed Daelin Proudmoore.

That was Theramore, not Kul'Tiras. Daelin visited Jaina and took control of the city.

[InDecisive]

Since MoP I've fully expected to see Kezan and Zandalar get entire expansions dedicated to them, and Kul'Tiras getting the same treatment doesn't surprise me much either.

[Evangeliste]

How to waste Azsahra and N'zoth in order to give a crappy, irrelevant island the focus: The Expansion

Just to say, this won't be the last ever expansion... They have plenty of time and opportunity to bring that charade out.