What happened to big, immersive quest hub cities? Nowadays all we get is 2 tents

[Okacz]

Suramar =/= Suramar City.

Also people are mostly referring to the main hub of the zone, Shal'aran.

Well, Shal'aran doesn't really help the argument. It's a medium-sized cave with like 3 interactive people inside. In comparison to what was called a "quest hub" in a few expansions ago, it's pretty damn small.

[cparle87]

That's because there are no hubs anymore. Since WoD quests follow a continuous path with only little stopover points. I think this way is better for storytelling, but I really miss the days where the hub was safe and the rest was dangerous wilderness. But that's never coming back - immersion has been out the door in favour of convenience since late Wrath.

Yeah. I get what you're saying about the safe hub. Remember Crossroads? You had your guard tower, your cozy inn, your forge and flight master. And your walls protected you from dangerous wildlife, quillboar, and centaur patrols right outside. Felt homey.

[Mirishka]

Legion has IMO plenty of cool quest hubs.

[RobertMugabe]

OP's kinda right tho. The only proper town in the broken isles is Thunder Totem. All other places are either just small caves or 2-3 houses.

Though Suramar City itself is a great questing area.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Since Suramar was a thing for a month ...or maybe two

Suramar was the home of the raid. It was a thing for about 8 months and still is for many lesser reasons. Now we have an entire space ship we get quests from. Please quit this game.

[Deleted]

OP's kinda right tho. The only proper town in the broken isles is Thunder Totem. All other places are either just small caves or 2-3 houses.

Though Suramar City itself is a great questing area.

But again, what kind of town did you expect? Horde and Alliance, impossible, we are one of the first ally and horde to set foot on Broken Isle, not enough time to build foritfied outpost. Elves? You have them. Highmountain? You have it. Vrykul? You have them also a big neutral one in Suramar (even if most are hostile).

[Halyon]

Yet we actually have a very convenient and selfpropelled hub with the Vindicaar there. Armed, too.

True that. /10 chars.

[Deleted]

But again, what kind of town did you expect? Horde and Alliance, impossible, we are one of the first ally and horde to set foot on Broken Isle, not enough time to build foritfied outpost. Elves? You have them. Highmountain? You have it. Vrykul? You have them also a big neutral one in Suramar (even if most are hostile).

Now that you mention it, we got Bradensbrook. It's not very large, but it resembles a small town. And it's a quest hub.

[Wyrt]

Yeah...that immediately popped into my head. We have had "big immersive" cities since classic. Our race capitals...but then everybody decided to just hang out in Orgrimmar and Stormwind....

People didn't just decide that. Blizzard forced it on people by making Orgimmar and Stormwind the most convenient cities to be in.

[Fritters154]

Honestly, the presence of large quest hubs in TBC and WotLK was kind of weird.

In MoP, WoD, and Legion we were trusted to be part of the initial forces when venturing to a new place, in TBC and WotLK we apparently weren't.

This is primarily weird with WotLK where we are apparently arriving MONTHS after the initial assault given the locations and extent of the bases.

While hub cities have some nice attributes, if our expansion theme is traveling to and mounting an assault on a new place then I would rather the actual buildup components that we have seen with MoP, WoD, and Legion.

The one nice thing about Garrisons was the fact that we were actually involved in building the outposts.

[Camthur]

What's the point in having a sprawling base when most of the buildings contain jack squat?

[Grimo]

Yeah...that immediately popped into my head. We have had "big immersive" cities since classic. Our race capitals...but then everybody decided to just hang out in Orgrimmar and Stormwind....



Ok...so...Thunder Totem etc are just " 2 tents"?

Thunder Totem is probably the exception to the rule, because once you help out a tribe you return to it. But generally, since WoD, the game just sort of pushes you down a track, Stormheim being the worst offender. OP is talking about a time when a zone had a big town that you gathered quests from, quested out in the wild, then returned to. Wrath was kind of the last to do this in some aspects, and WoD, with its quest objectives that changed in the field, rather than after a hand-in, really pushed it into tunnel territory. FYI, I like this system for storytelling much better, but agree that the immersion is gone. But then, WoW really hasn't been that way for a very long time.

[FertsBlert]

Our quest hubs have always been tents in ruins or natively built structures unless it's a very militarily aggressive expansion with time to plan (Wrath and WoD, hell in WOD we BUILT the large quest hub in more than one zone) in which case we have been based out of fortified military camps.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

So far in this xpac we've gotten Shal'aran (the batcave!), Deliverance Point (with rotating buildings and buffs, plus customized NPCs and trappings based on your class), and the Vindicaar (an interdimensional space ship! or nether ship. Whatever, it's pretty cool).

To me, you honestly got it backwards. Your post should have been titled "Has everyone noticed that Legion has given us the coolest most creative quest hubs in the history of WoW?

[digichi]

I love myself some crossroads/camp taurajo type townies, and in a perfect world, I wish artists could have all the time in the world to smash out a bunch of Suramars. But yknow, resources/time is a thing... I for one support the idea of bringing back a few thrallmars for the next expansion if they can balance it

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

Those quest hubs were so big because they were usually the ONLY quest hub in the zone which meant you had to pick up a quest, run to the other end of the zone, do the quest and then run back to turn in said quest.

Nowadays, quest givers hang around near where they want you to go, which, in my opinion, is a far better option because it makes the quest givers feel like actual characters that are invested in the outcome of the quest, rather than omnicient, but impotent message boards. Naturally, with such a system, there isn't enough space in the world to facilitate towns like Honour Hold for every quest hub.

[Wyrt]

Yeah...IIRC they were the only cities with an AH at the start? And then habit takes over. I don't find Ironforge or Thunder Bluff inconvenient, but after a time getting more used to Orgrimmar and Stormwind during Classic, those just stuck

It started out because AHs were city specific, then it was proximity to raids, then access to Northrend, then portals to a buttload of zones, transmog, reforging(at the time), and a variety of other things only accessible in those 2 cities.

[huth]

OP's kinda right tho. The only proper town in the broken isles is Thunder Totem. All other places are either just small caves or 2-3 houses.

Though Suramar City itself is a great questing area.

Not really. He's just misrepresenting the past as having more big hubs than it really had. We still get them, and they're still the minority.

[TickTickTick]

Since you provided SS of old 'big hubs', please provide me the SS of 'two tents' in legion please. Alse your OP is skewed.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Suramar and Suramar City >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> those "hubs".

Also, Thunder Totem.
Also, Order Halls.
Also, Vindicaar
Also... Well, one can go on.

I remember Suramar City and what it felt like going through the first time now, a year after entering the zone. I don't remember ever going back to "big, immersive quest hub cities" like Thrallmar after questing through the first time.

- - - Updated - - -

Suramar was the home of the raid. It was a thing for about 8 months and still is for many lesser reasons. Now we have an entire space ship we get quests from. Please quit this game.

Quoted for the fucking truth.

Players overlooking the reality and magic of the present because they're too busy lamenting the days gone bye are just tiresome at this point. It's like the retard proclaiming how "WoW doesn't have beautiful vistas anymore!!!"...