Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nyel]

I am wondering why would we go on boats when we have the tech of the Vindicaar?
It doesn't make sense to me at all.

Why aren't we using space ships for intercontinental air traffic in real life?

[Deleted]

This logic makes no sense. That's like complaining "oh TBC is gonna be so boring, you can't base an expansion solely on a red wasteland with evil orcs, that is so boring, if you want to make it interesting you would have to add giant mushroom marshes and areas torn by arcane energies and lush grasslands with hairy kodos and deep forests with glowing acorns and a demonic wasteland and a spiky mountain range to make it interesting, and that is bad design because HFP is still homogenous and boring"

But Hitei is right, you know. Only thing that was brought to Outland, was us. All the interesting thing was already there since TFT. Northrend was interesting because we were looking forward to visiting Arthas. In Pandaria we explored a land we didn't know existed. One where every interesting stuff was in place since before the Sundering.

[OGXanos]

I am wondering why would we go on boats when we have the tech of the Vindicaar?
It doesn't make sense to me at all.

It is like inventing high speed and comfortable cars and after that going back to traveling on horse & wagon.
Taking into account, we're not going on a holiday but fight huge threat, it would not be the smartest thing to do.........

Not even with a stat-squish which reduces our Intelligence immensely!!!!!!

Because theres's only one, and it took YEARS to build. It's cool for a patch hub but a whole expansion? Faction shared? No way.

[Synstir]

Why aren't we using space ships for intercontinental air traffic in real life?

because we don't own them personnally!
The Vindicaar is controlled by our chars!

[Soulwind]

But Hitei is right, you know. Only thing that was brought to Outland, was us. All the interesting thing was already there since TFT. Northrend was interesting because we were looking forward to visiting Arthas. In Pandaria we explored a land we didn't know existed. One where every interesting stuff was in place since before the Sundering.

Zangarmarsh wasn't there since TFT. The draenei (eredar) weren't there since TFT. Nagrand wasn't there since TFT. Netherstorm wasn't there since TFT.

Ulduar wasn't there since TFT. The vrykul weren't there since TFT.

The point is, what we know of Kul Tiras is boring, but we only know it's a "kingdom of sailors". They could do anything with the history of that nation, not to mention the history of the island itself.

What did we know about the Broken Isles? They were a small archipielago where the only interesting thing was the Tomb of Sargeras. Look at what they've become in Legion.

Filling the gaps, and even creating new gaps to fill is what Blizzard has always done.

It doesn't matter if the next expansion takes place in Kul Tiras, Zandalar, Nazjatar, a bunch of islands, K'aresh, Nihilam or some new land on the other side of Azeroth, they'll make wherever we go look like it's always been there and has a story worth telling.

[Hitei]

Again, you don't know what happened in the last years. They can do EVERYTHING with Kul'Tiras. From flora to fauna from landscapes to citizens, it's a blank page in Warcraft history past Cataclysm. It could be a jungle and rain forest like island because XYZ happened to it, it could be a winter wonderland because ABC happened to it. Everything is possible.

That was my entire point. The only way to make Kul Tiras interesting is to throw away what Kul Tiras is and instead put a bunch of extra stuff that has nothing to do with Kul Tiras there.

This logic makes no sense. That's like complaining "oh TBC is gonna be so boring, you can't base an expansion solely on a red wasteland with evil orcs, that is so boring, if you want to make it interesting you would have to add giant mushroom marshes and areas torn by arcane energies and lush grasslands with hairy kodos and deep forests with glowing acorns and a demonic wasteland and a spiky mountain range to make it interesting, and that is bad design because HFP is still homogenous and boring"

A red wasteland with evil orcs is a fairly interesting jumping off point. The fact that Outland is the shattered remains of a another planet is kinda the selling point. Kul Tiras is a tiny island with a human city.

Do you see the difference? Without anything else, Outland could stand alone with that variety and amount of interest. Kul Tiras requires you bring things to it, or change it. So why bother using it as a setting and wasting interesting villains and concepts making that boring setting interesting, when you could instead base the expansion on those villains and concepts themselves.

Makes sense. So what place would you prefer? What would be interesting?

A lot of things.

An "island hopping" expansion isn't my number one idea, because I feel like we've seen a lot of those enviroments already, (the jungle, the tropical island, etc. ) but it's still a step up from just Kul Tiras, and I'm sure Zandalar would be neat, the Dragon Isles would have a lot of room for interesting content and Undermine would be cool.

Underwater expansions are fairly controversial because of Vashj'ir, but I think one would be fairly interesting, and could be done in a way where the swimming is a small part. It would be neat to see Nazjatar as a zone, and have the massive darkness of the rift just sitting there while you do stuff along its edges.

And as my sig and constantly bringing it up suggest, I think an Underdark/Darklands style expansion would be the most interesting. Caves+Magic means that Blizzard can go completely crazy, and even without the magic, plants and animals in caves gives a lot of room for things unlike what we've ever seen and things that would be bizarre on the surface. They can easily imitate any sort of surface terrain (sandy desert caves, frozen ice caves, your classic volcanic lair caves, Forest caves) and beyond that, such an expansion contains several interesting places of importance we've yet to go (Undermine, Azjol Nerub, potentially Nyalotha) as well as potential civilizations we've never seen or even heard of before. It's a chance for the dev team to just really go wild, and a more fitting place to fight the forces of N'zoth than a human island.

[Lahis]

Why aren't we using space ships for intercontinental air traffic in real life?

Well we soon might.

[killwithpwr]

Riiiiiiiight because wrathion watching over tauren for 10k years makes sense... /s

He didn't have to watch over the highmountain tauren for 10 k years to infiltrate their sociaty, nor will he have been the first black dragon to do so.
As allways you are massively immature in your comments...
Back to ignoring you i guess.

Current Ebonhorn is much better than what Wrathion could have been.

I find "I have been with this tribe since the Sundering" much better origin for the elder Spiritwalker than "Came here few months ago and mindcontrolled all of teh tauren to believe I have been here for generations", as it would have been if he were Wrathion.

Ebonehorn being in the tribe for 10k years undetected to be an anomaly is way harder for me to believe than Wrathion coming up with some black dragon mambo jambo and convincing them that they need his help.

Also, i would have much rathered having Wrathion back in a LEGION expansion (since that was his main thing back in MoP) and not get a new uncorrupted Black dragon we never heard of previously.

If wrathion does not show up in next expansion, it's a total waste of a heavily built up character and makes the whole Wrathion story line from Cata and MoP be very useless.

Also, i find Wrathion interesting.

[Grimfrost]

New race selection screen leaked.

https://i.imgur.com/nbXgoDR.jpg

I wish....

[Deleted]

Zangarmarsh wasn't there since TFT. The draenei (eredar) weren't there since TFT. Nagrand wasn't there since TFT. Netherstorm wasn't there since TFT.

Ulduar wasn't there since TFT. The vrykul weren't there since TFT.

The point is, what we know of Kul Tiras is boring, but we only know it's a "kingdom of sailors". They could do anything with the history of that nation, not to mention the history of the island itself.

What did we know about the Broken Isles? They were a small archipielago where the only interesting thing was the Tomb of Sargeras. Look at what they've become in Legion.

Filling the gaps, and even creating new gaps to fill is what Blizzard has always done.

It doesn't matter if the next expansion takes place in Kul Tiras, Zandalar, Nazjatar, a bunch of islands, K'aresh, Nihilam or some new land on the other side of Azeroth, they'll make wherever we go look like it's always been there and has a story worth telling.

When i said the interesting things were there since TFT I meant that's when Illidan, Kael'Thas and the Naga moved in. The rest, was already there. In universe anyway. The whole place was interesting. It wasn't just interesting things happening to the place.

[Hitei]

It doesn't matter if the next expansion takes place in Kul Tiras, Zandalar, Nazjatar, a bunch of islands, K'aresh, Nihilam or some new land on the other side of Azeroth, they'll make wherever we go look like it's always been there and has a story worth telling.

It does matter though. It matters a great, great deal.

Because Kul Tiras as your expansion continent means that, instead of Zandalar, the full length quest zone with dungeon(s) and first tier raid, you get Zandalar, the World Quest area with a raid and maybe a dungeon. Instead of Nazjatar the questing zone with dungeon and raid, you get just Nazjatar the raid. Instead of a zone where you find the remnants of the Black Empire and help a race of cave salamander people fight back against the Aqir, you get a swampy farmlands zone where you help farmers kill crocolisks.

[Deleted]

Look. On 6.2, we got remodels of many demons and HFC. Now in 7.3 we got Ethereal remodels. They are going to be relevant in 8.0, no way Blizzard is just going to waste all this art work for one patch.

[Paula Deen]

Look. On 6.2, we got remodels of many demons and HFC. Now in 7.3 we got Ethereal remodels. They are going to be relevant in 8.0, no way Blizzard is just going to waste all this art work for one patch.

We also got Trogg and Yeti Remodels

[Soulwind]

When i said the interesting things were there since TFT I meant that's when Illidan, Kael'Thas and the Naga moved in. The rest, was already there. In universe anyway. The whole place was interesting. It wasn't just interesting things happening to the place.

So who's to say Kul Tiras doesn't have a past? Titan facilities, remains of the Black Empire, troll settlements...

The Broken Isles weren't interesting until something happened on them, but now they've got two elven civilizations, a piece of the Emerald Dream, an ancient tauren population and a strong vrykul presence. None of that was there before Legion.

It does matter though. It matters a great, great deal.

Because Kul Tiras as your expansion continent means that, instead of Zandalar, the full length quest zone with dungeon(s) and first tier raid, you get Zandalar, the World Quest area with a raid and maybe a dungeon. Instead of Nazjatar the questing zone with dungeon and raid, you get just Nazjatar the raid. Instead of a zone where you find the remnants of the Black Empire and help a race of cave salamander people fight back against the Aqir, you get a swampy farmlands zone where you help farmers kill crocolisks.

Or... all of those things are left for their own expansions. It's not like they've got to fit all the things people speculate about in their "leaks" into the actual expansion. They could very well focus on one thing and leave the others for some other time.

[Nyel]

That was my entire point. The only way to make Kul Tiras interesting is to throw away what Kul Tiras is and instead put a bunch of extra stuff that has nothing to do with Kul Tiras there.

Why are we throwing away what KT once was when it fits into the new lore? That's called change.

[Deleted]

A lot of things.

An "island hopping" expansion isn't my number one idea, because I feel like we've seen a lot of those enviroments already, (the jungle, the tropical island, etc. ) but it's still a step up from just Kul Tiras, and I'm sure Zandalar would be neat, the Dragon Isles would have a lot of room for interesting content and Undermine would be cool.

The island hopping expansion is probably the best route to do. It has a chance to showcase lots of differnt environments while still making sense.

One of the new zones FFXIV got in Stormblood is called the Ruby Sea. It is essentially a chunk of the sea off the coast of a continent. It has normal islands, and Island with giant corals comming out, a volcanic island, an island with a huge rocky coastline that you can only access by flying over the rocks or through an underwater tunnel, and two underwater cities inside protective bubbles. And that's just one zone.

No. As far as we knew, Outland was a broken wasteland with nothing of note in it, a dead planet. All of the cool stuff has been invented for TBC specifically.

And yet people really wanted to enter the dark portal even in vanilla.

Continental Kul Tiras is not enough for a setting.

[Hitei]

So who's to say Kul Tiras doesn't have a past? Titan facilities, remains of the Black Empire, troll settlements...

The Broken Isles weren't interesting until something happened on them, but now they've got two elven civilizations, a piece of the Emerald Dream, an ancient tauren population and a strong vrykul presence. None of that was there before Legion.

Good joke. The Broken Isles were the sight of the Tomb of Sargeras. That alone makes them in a completely different league than Kul Tiras. Outland was the home of the Orcish Horde and under the control of demonic forces, that alone made it of interest. Northrend was the stronghold of the scourge, and a place of great importance to the Dragonflights, that made it noteworthy.

What is Kul Tiras? A human city-state.

Or... all of those things are left for their own expansions. It's not like they've got to fit all the things people speculate about in their "leaks" into the actual expansion. They could very well focus on one thing and leave the others for some other time.

It means one or multiple of those things are gone. Kul Tiras is a highly naval city-state. It being a continent dramatically drops the chance of any other small Islands being full zones in a future expansion. The datamined robes have clear N'zothian elements to them. So we already know that, at a minimum, if this is a continental Kul Tiras expansion, it is burning one of the two remaining big villains on Azeroth (probably both since Azshara and N'zoth are fairly linked and working together). Goodbye Nazjatar, Gishan Caverns, Mak'ara, Drowned Reaches and Ny'alotha questing zones.

Any other idea being moved to Kul Tiras to make it interesting is a waste.

[Fahrad Wagner]

8.0

level cap 120
Void elf, highbourne, new subrace for most races
partial azeroth revamp - mainly focused on north EK and southern kalimdor
most damage from the cataclysm repaired
anduin,jaina play huge role in lore
level scaling in the old world
updated timewalking system - all dungeons classic-present queuable and scaled to 120 when queued
interactive player ships,
6 new zones + separate horde/alliance faction hubs
artifact-style player progression system

Ding ding! We've got a winner! Seriously, if I had to bet on one, this would be the one.

[Deleted]

Ding ding! We've got a winner! Seriously, if I had to bet on one, this would be the one.

The only one I don't quite get. Does he imply Void elf and highbourne will be races and there will be subraces as well. Altough quite frankly highbourne makes it a suspect as Highbourne are just very pretty night elves with very strong magic.

[Hitei]

Why are we throwing away what KT once was when it fits into the new lore? That's called change.

Because what Kul Tiras is, is a tiny island human city-state that subsists largely on fishing and some farming with a bunch of minors and a large navy. If Kul Tiras is the home of the cult of N'zoth and covered in dark forests filled with horrors beyond belief, shorelines where the Naga have built up cities and temples and ancient jungle trolls lurking in forested mountains--you've thrown away what Kul Tiras was.

--

Imagine you want to make a dessert, so you go to the store to buy ingredients. There, you find some really bland pears. For some reason, you decide its a good idea to make a pear pie, but the pears are extremely bland so you're going to have to add a bunch of stuff to the pie to make it appetizing. You end up mixing in really nice cherries, raspberries, strawberries and some high quality dough you had prepared.

Now you have a fairly appetizing pie, though it still has that weird, bland pear taste at the back of every bite.

Now you also don't have any cherries, raspberries, strawberries or that high quality dough you had--because you used them to make the pears an appetizing dessert.

Do you see how you'd be much better off making a nice berry pie and maybe just putting the pears sliced on the side? Instead of wasting all those ingredients trying to make something bland into something good.