Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Costa]

Why do people still believe in summer releases? We never had one and we will probably never get one either.

Legion Release Date - August 30, 2016

Hmmm, August is now winter month ? xD

I seflishly hope we see August onwards anyway as the world cup is on June - July 2018 and i would hate to have to be spamming WoW and missing some of that :P

[Deleted]

To be fair, September is summer.

No September is autumn:

The meteorological convention is to define summer as comprising the months of June, July, and August in the northern hemisphere...

[CosmicGuitars]

No September is autumn:

Summer lasts until September 22nd in North America, where Blizzard is based.

[Soulwind]

No September is autumn:

Meteorology has nothing to do with games not being released in summer.

People on vacation are less likely to spend their time playing games. Summer vacations take place anywhere from june to september.

The stores that would sell it may also be closed, but that's less of a factor now that most purchases are digital.

WoW is not really afected by this, as its playerbase is essentially forced to buy expansions to keep playing. Expansions can be released at any time of the year and the sales will be roughly the same.

[huth]

No September is autumn:

You're missing the second and third word. That's just one of multiple definitions, and not the one a layman would use.

People on vacation are less likely to spend their time playing games. Summer vacations take place anywhere from june to september.

Why do people always say this? Back when i was in school, that was when i did most of my gaming.

[Phunkle]

I actually forgot that Legion came out in late August. Somehow it doesn't feel like it's just over a year and a couple of months old.

[Lahis]

They turned their back against Azshara and stopped the legion from opening a second portal in the Temple of Elune in Suramar. After that they decided not to help the rebellion marching to Zin-Azshari and went under shield and kept it for ten thousand years.

Suramar is the home on Tyrande and the Stormrages, and the closest city to Blackrook Hold. All of them prominent fighters in the Kaldorei Resistance. No wonder Suramar would sway their way.

- - - Updated - - -

Speculation about 7.3.5:

They update Midsummer Fire Festival and turn Teldrassil into a Horde bonfire.

[Hyrja]

7.3.5 could drop today, excited!

[Wildmoon]

The now-Nightborne actually fought against Azshara, according to Chronicle, and Legion already made it clear that the shield was a reaction to the perceived end of the world.

They decided to betray Azshara to save their own hides. They decided to just leave the rest of the night elves to fight for the world while they hid in their shield.

[Nathanyel]

They decided to betray Azshara to save their own hides. They decided to just leave the rest of the night elves to fight for the world while they hid in their shield.

Nightborne@Wowpedia, citing the BlizzCon 2015 World and Content Overview Panel:

The Great Sundering blasted some of Suramar to the bottom of the Great Sea, although a good portion of it remained above shore in the Broken Isles due to the efforts of the resident Highborne, who crafted a magical shield that kept the center of their city together. This shield would stay up for 10,000 years, as the Highborne led group believed the world outside of Suramar had been destroyed.

The shield was a direct reaction to the Sundering.

[thilicen]

Legion Release Date - August 30, 2016

Hmmm, August is now winter month ? xD

I seflishly hope we see August onwards anyway as the world cup is on June - July 2018 and i would hate to have to be spamming WoW and missing some of that :P

Ever heard of Autumn?

[Paula Deen]

7.3.5 could drop today, excited!

Boi I can't wait for 7.3.5 to launch a whole 2 weeks before it even hits the PTR

[Veluren]

Boi I can't wait for 7.3.5 to launch a whole 2 weeks before it even hits the PTR

Wait, I thought the Antorus patch was .3.5? Have I been mistaken the whole time?

Well, crap

[Ningjinq]

Because Blizzard is based in California, they probably are going to go by the American definition/general useage of seasons which means summer lasts until September 21 and autumn until December 21.

[Paula Deen]

Because Blizzard is based in California, they probably are going to go by the American definition/general useage of seasons which means summer lasts until September 21 and autumn until December 21.

I mean, we know they do. They said Legion was launching Summer 2017. To most people that would mean June/July but the definition of a season would put it in July-September. It launched right in the middle.

[Eurhetemec]

Meteorology has nothing to do with games not being released in summer.

People on vacation are less likely to spend their time playing games. Summer vacations take place anywhere from june to september.

The stores that would sell it may also be closed, but that's less of a factor now that most purchases are digital.

WoW is not really afected by this, as its playerbase is essentially forced to buy expansions to keep playing. Expansions can be released at any time of the year and the sales will be roughly the same.

I agree with most of this but what the fuck "stores may also be closed"? Seriously? What country does this happen in? Living in the UK and US I have literally never come across any store which sells computer games (at all) which was "closed" in the summer. That's a bizarre concept. Is it something from Eastern Europe or something?

Something I just realized that imo is fairly exciting.

The Heart of Azeroth is supposedly linked with 3 item slots. Helm, Shoulders and Chest.

In several interviews we have been told that as you are able to unlock further slots in those items they will also upgrade graphically.

This most likely means that Azerite Chests will have significant 3D elements! There is only so much they can do to upgrade a texture after all.

I certainly hope this is true, and that the items look good and not ridiculous/stupid, if we're all going to be wearing them all the time (how tier sets play into this may be interesting to find out). I know there's transmog but... I'd really like to see actual chestplates, not just the current "flat skin with some glued-on bits" for chests too. Hopefully this means legs/gloves/boots will be low-key enough to actually work with varied chest/shoulders/helm combos.

Also I totally wouldn't put it past Blizzard to have the "visual upgrades" for chests to be "bland flat texture", "complex flat texture", and "ridiculously ornate and utterly hideous flat texture".

Because they marketed MULTIPLE WarfrontS Thats why.

Well for one during the interview he made it pretty clear they are focusing on polishing the single Warfront they have. He made a passing mention of possibly adding more.

I know you're super-overexcited about this Paula, for whatever strange reason, but they always said "one warfront at launch". They've literally never implied otherwise.

Your entire excitement seems to revolve around one comment from Muffinus. Blizzard repeatedly implied there would be multiple warfronts later, and still have "Warfronts" listed on the website, so I think it's unlikely that they've made some sort of definitive decision to only do one Warfront, just because of this one Muffinus concept. You know when people talking Internet People "pouncing" or "leaping" on a post and getting really overwrought about it? Yeah, that's what you're doing here.

If continued messaging is similar, sure, but one post? Pffft. Calm down, frankly.

I do suspect they are finding the Warfronts concept to be the most demanding aspect of BfA to get right, but somehow I don't think they're going to just have one, all expansion, because they'd never hear the end of it, especially in an HvA-themed expansion. More likely they want to be circumspect about it and not make any claims that you or others can leap upon and go "WE HAVE BIN LYED 2!" when they only have three Warfronts over the whole expansion, rather than, say, the 4-5 they originally intended.

[Ningjinq]

I think whether or not they add more warfronts will depend on how the first one is received. Of all the content they are adding in BfA it is by far the hardest one to get right. The fantasy of it is obvious, but to actually make it fun will be exceedingly difficult. I could see it being one of the most fun features they’ve ever added to WoW but could also see it just falling flat on its face because of all the multiple things they need to do to get it right.

Even traditional RTS games can’t get this right commonly.

[Paula Deen]

I agree with most of this but what the fuck "stores may also be closed"? Seriously? What country does this happen in? Living in the UK and US I have literally never come across any store which sells computer games (at all) which was "closed" in the summer. That's a bizarre concept. Is it something from Eastern Europe or something?



I certainly hope this is true, and that the items look good and not ridiculous/stupid, if we're all going to be wearing them all the time (how tier sets play into this may be interesting to find out). I know there's transmog but... I'd really like to see actual chestplates, not just the current "flat skin with some glued-on bits" for chests too. Hopefully this means legs/gloves/boots will be low-key enough to actually work with varied chest/shoulders/helm combos.

Also I totally wouldn't put it past Blizzard to have the "visual upgrades" for chests to be "bland flat texture", "complex flat texture", and "ridiculously ornate and utterly hideous flat texture".



I know you're super-overexcited about this Paula, for whatever strange reason, but they always said "one warfront at launch". They've literally never implied otherwise.

Your entire excitement seems to revolve around one comment from Muffinus. Blizzard repeatedly implied there would be multiple warfronts later, and still have "Warfronts" listed on the website, so I think it's unlikely that they've made some sort of definitive decision to only do one Warfront, just because of this one Muffinus concept. You know when people talking Internet People "pouncing" or "leaping" on a post and getting really overwrought about it? Yeah, that's what you're doing here.

If continued messaging is similar, sure, but one post? Pffft. Calm down, frankly.

I do suspect they are finding the Warfronts concept to be the most demanding aspect of BfA to get right, but somehow I don't think they're going to just have one, all expansion, because they'd never hear the end of it, especially in an HvA-themed expansion. More likely they want to be circumspect about it and not make any claims that you or others can leap upon and go "WE HAVE BIN LYED 2!" when they only have three Warfronts over the whole expansion, rather than, say, the 4-5 they originally intended.

Yeah bruh they totally never ever said Warfronts anywhere else. Not at Blizzcon not in marketing nope. I am just an angry hater boi who is mad all the time > : (

[Eurhetemec]

Yeah bruh they totally never ever said Warfronts anywhere else. Not at Blizzcon not in marketing nope. I am just an angry hater boi who is mad all the time > : (

It appears that you did not read my post. They never said multiple warfronts at launch. That's a fact, and if you're claiming otherwise, you'll need some evidence.

[rda]

Haven't been following the thread much (and apologies for not having the time to reply to a couple of questions from earlier -- alpha vs beta plus whether WoW devs are being exemplary in terms of amount of shared details), just several quick notes:

1. "Warfronts" morphing into a single warfront is damn hilarious. :-) Everybody thought there were multiple warfronts planned, yet the linked interview shows that apparently not, it's going to be just one warfront "for the expansion" unless they suddenly decide to do more. Maybe they are reacting to early feedback after Blizzcon, which in the case of warfronts was not all that stellar (LFR 2.0), maybe not, but who really cares - if there is just one warfront, that's barely worth putting onto the list of big items for the expansion. It's just mini-Ashran, but significantly smaller because it's 20xLOLPVE, and significantly dumber because it's not even PVP. It's a prolonged boss fight with adds and some variants in execution. And since there's just one, the entire feature is on the level of, I don't know, Proving Grounds. If not smaller than that.

2. Nobody cares about "multiple definitions of summer". Summer means June, July, August. Period. When someone starts going "but there are multiple definitions bla bla bla <and so that date outside of June, July, August that I want to call 'summer' is 'summer'>" remind them that we are talking about dates of sales and products. We aren't talking about climate. We aren't talking about temperatures or magnetic fields or astronomy or whatnot. We are talking about buying things and selling things. There is exactly one definition of summer for this and it is: June, July, August.

Finally, folks thinking that BFA might be releasing earlier than anticipated <- because there is no need to have a big beta campaign <- because there doesn't seem to be much to test -- absolutely have a point. BFA just doesn't seem to have much, exactly. In fact, it seems we even *overestimated* how much it has already, because apparently the number of warfronts is going to be one (LOL). With that, however:

* Fear 1 - they can have this short beta and go early, with this little content. It's going to be BS because what they have just isn't much. It's a blatant money grab, "please give us $60 for half the content, and hey, prepare for the next such half-expansion in a year". That's WoW going HS.

* Fear 2 - they can go with this little content but still release in the end of 2018. LOL, it's a different kind of BS because again there isn't much worth looking at and there is a big drought as well. I don't even know if that's an improvement on Fear 1.

* Unlikely Variant 3 - they add lots of content on top of what they showed on Blizzcon and release in the end of 2018. That's the only sane variant and it's unlikely because, well, that requires adding lots of content on top of what they showed. Everything they did in the last several years screams "we are going to do less, not more".

It hasn't been even a month after Blizzcon and we already have a supposedly major thing collapsing. ROFL