Idea: Racial Ending Zone

[Kalcheus]

(Note: I don't care if you think this costs you a raid tier or something, I'm looking for creativity)

So I had a thought while discussing Racial Starting Zones over at Wow Insider: what about Racial Ending Zones?

How it would work: at max level (it would always occur at max level, and would scale with each xpac) you are sent to one of your race's low level zones or nearby location to expand your race's story line. It would play out as quests and maybe even a scenario or two. The reward at the end would a race-specific toy (like Gnomeregan Pride), and there would be some minor (blue) rewards as well. Note that the final results would be phased for the player (so for example if the Exodar is fixed at the end of the Draenei story, it would still appeared in a crash state to non- or low level Draeneis).

So what do you think the racial ending zone should do? Here are some ideas I've had, I'd be interested in your ideas as well.

Tauren: The final elimination of Magatha Grimtotem

Gnome: Gnomeregan reclaimed. Finally.

Dwarf: Blood in the Snow expanded (so you would be involved in the parts narrated by Cho) and the Frostmane Trolls finally eliminated in Dun Morogh.

Human: Final mop-up of the Defias and Sentinel Hill de-flamed? Maybe?

Worgen: Gilneas City retaken.

Draenei: The Exodar rebuilt?

Any other ideas, or ideas for the races I haven't come up with an idea for yet?

[shoc]

Racial specific scenarios would be cool, kind of as a way to bring players back to their roots and update the story in the old world.


My suggestion would be to tie these into the sub-race unlocks. Dwarves see the Dark Irons and Wildhammer fully incorporated into the Alliance: Dark Iron & Wildhammer Skin Unlock.

Gnomes retake Gnomeregan and Mimiron moves in. Mecha-gnome skim unlock.

Worgen retake Gilneas, discover non-infected survivors. Permanent Human Form unlock.

Something about Blackrock and Mag'har joining the New Horde. Mag'har & Blackrock skin unlock.


Just something along that line would be cool.

[Yaminho]

would be cool. vanity or cosmetic items with some gold as reward would suffice

[Zaz]

I really dig this idea, it brings real meaning back to what race you play.
Here are some ideas...

Blood Elves: Finish cleaning up Ghostlands

Trolls: Short voyage to Zandalar for the annual troll meeting

Undead: Finish off the Scarlet Crusade

Goblin: Return trip to Kezan, see whats left (maybe a long term rebuilding of Kezan set-up?)

[shamSmash]

This is a really good idea! I have a decent number of alts, and every time that I get one to 15 or 20, I start to get that feeling of assimilation - in a bad way. Besides your racials, which unless your a minimaxer dont really do much, I feel like the whole identity of race is totally lost after the lvl 10 zone is done - perhaps even the lvl 6 starting questline. There certainly isn't enough in the game currently that maintains a race's identity. Sure the 1% expertise or 1% crit chance is great for this race or that race, but it's kinda lame that the only real difference is that your character's model looks different compared to other people's. Blizz should definitely add some race-specific high level lore, and I totally agree that this would not at all be a waste, even if a "raid tier" disappears because of it.

[roflwaffle]

great way to tie in sub races unlocks and or racial tmog sets, like the SW human armor for humans, orc guard sets, and stuff like that.

[Hardkorr]

Brilliant idea you got going here.

Humans: Harken back to Vanilla's story on humans and Cata's expanded story on peasants/homeless. Maybe something with political intrigue, player can decide which resources go where, and blame all the slow progress on those in charge. (Or maybe not because it'd seem too similar to how Blizzard Entertainment functions...)

Night Elves: God there is so much material to work with here. Maybe discovering origin of Worgen with the Scythe of Elune, help rebuild desolated/destroyed places with Malfurion, finally working in tandem with Furbolgs, follow up on those Demon Hunter training notes from that one achievement quest, finally retake Ashenvale, maybe stop an invasion from Satyr which hints to a Burning Legion invasion, figure out what the vision that Tyrande had was all about in MoP, or maybe another political thingy because it was pretty much the Night Elves who aided the Draenei and Worgen and added them to the Alliance.

[Nurvus]

Sorry, but a mega quest with no real effect in the world? No thanks.

Those kinds of things are best done in expansion transition.

[Kalcheus]

Sorry, but a mega quest with no real effect in the world? No thanks.

Those kinds of things are best done in expansion transition.

It would have an effect in the world.

[Nurvus]

It would have an effect in the world.

The way you worded it, it seemed to me like you do your "racial quest" and then everything is back to normal.


Why did I think that? Simple.

Remember that you're suggesting racial quests - a dwarf does not get the "retake gnomeregan" quest.

When does the "World" change?
- When the first gnome does the quest to retake gnomeregan?
Who sees the changed "World"?
- Everyone?
- Only gnomes?
- Only gnomes who did the quest to retake gnomeregan?

You see the limitations of your suggestion?
The idea is good, but it seems to have extremely low practicality.

[The Flavour Cat]

That's a great idea for tying up the loose threads in those early zones' story lines. They should use the single player scenarios for lore and story.
My ideas are:
Alliance
Human-Helping Westfall recover sounds good. Maybe also taking out other remaining Defias, Gnoll and mercenaries still plaguing the nearby subzones.
Dwarf-Dun Modr is now a proper base populated with Dwarves. We help them march over the Thandol Span to set up a front in Arathi Highlands as a precursor to when they join the Humans and Gnomes in retaking Stromgarde (Which itself would be part of another expansion precursor in the form of a scenario, dungeon or one-time World Event 'raid' like Operation:Gnomeregan was).
Gnomes-Lore-wise, have they not now retaken Gnomeregan? The dungeon would be lost if it was phased out. That being said, I'd like to see some new lore for Gnomes in a different direction. I'm not sure what it could be, though. Maybe something relating to discovering more of their history and what they plan for future. Hell, maybe some adventures with Narain Soothfancy joining them! They're just not one of the races I follow.
Night Elves-Cleaning Ashenvale of Horde now that Tyrande has kicked most of the lumber guys out. I'd also like to see some foreshadowing, or maybe a few objectives in the scenario where you encounter Asterion travelling from Darkshore to Ashenvale.
Draenei-Great idea already with the Exodar being operational. Again, destroying any Blood elf remnants on Bloodmyst Isle is also a possibility.
Worgen-It's obvious what we want for them!

Horde
Orcs-Maybe getting rid of any Garrosh loyalists or threats to The Barrens. They're the race I don't like to think about given the constant exposure they receive.
Tauren-Again, your idea for dealing with Magatha is great. No changes required.
Troll-A scenario demonstrating Vol'jin's abilities as Warchief. Could involve a cross-continental journey to STV where there's a rumour of a Zandalari meeting or something.
Goblin-Anything to develop their race from being one-dimensional greedy banker types. It could involve foreshadowing of Gallywix's future plans for the Goblins, and some of them questioning what to do about their leader...
Undead-A scenario involving Tirisfal lore, Sylvanas or the Reliquary digging where they shouldn't, and maybe some traveling to the Whispering Forest. This could be a precursor for an Emerald Dream/N'zoth/What the hell is Under Tirisfal? expansion.
Blood Elves-They are one of my favourite races aesthetic and architecture-wise. Maybe claiming Quel'lithien Lodge in EPL. Personally I'd like to see some sort of lore regarding their past in WoD.

[Kalcheus]

The way you worded it, it seemed to me like you do your "racial quest" and then everything is back to normal.


Why did I think that? Simple.

Remember that you're suggesting racial quests - a dwarf does not get the "retake gnomeregan" quest.

When does the "World" change?
- When the first gnome does the quest to retake gnomeregan?
Who sees the changed "World"?
- Everyone?
- Only gnomes?
- Only gnomes who did the quest to retake gnomeregan?

You see the limitations of your suggestion?
The idea is good, but it seems to have extremely low practicality.

Gnomeregan would be retaken from the perspective of the character that completed the quests via phasing, as well as in Lore. Other races and lowbies would see it as it is now. This is consistent, for example, with the idea that the Alliance now control Ashenvale (which could be the NElf racial ending zone) in Lore but is not visible in game.

- - - Updated - - -

That's a great idea for tying up the loose threads in those early zones' story lines. They should use the single player scenarios for lore and story.
My ideas are:
Alliance
Human-Helping Westfall recover sounds good. Maybe also taking out other remaining Defias, Gnoll and mercenaries still plaguing the nearby subzones.
Dwarf-Dun Modr is now a proper base populated with Dwarves. We help them arch over the Thandol Span to set up a front in Arathi Highlands as a precursor to when they join the Humans and Gnomes in retaking Stromgarde (Which itself would be part of another expansion precursor in the form of a scenario, dungeon or one-time World Event 'raid' like Operation:Gnomeregan was).
Gnomes-Lore-wise, have they not now retaken Gnomeregan? The dungeon would be lost if it was phased out. That being said, I'd like to see some new lore for Gnomes in a different direction. I'm not sure what it could be, though. Maybe something relating to discovering more of their history and what they plan for future. Hell, maybe some adventures with Narain Soothfancy joining them! They're just not one of the races I follow.
Night Elves-Cleaning Ashenvale of Horde now that Tyrande has kicked most of the lumber guys out. I'd also like to see some foreshadowing, or maybe a few objectives in the scenario where you encounter Asterion travelling from Darkshore to Ashenvale.
Draenei-Great idea already with the Exodar being operational. Again, destroying any Blood elf remnants on Bloodmyst Isle is also a possibility.
Worgen-It's obvious what we want for them!

Horde
Orcs-Maybe getting rid of any Garrosh loyalists or threats to The Barrens. They're the Race I don't like to think about given the constant exposure they receive.
Tauren-Again, your idea for dealing with Magatha is great. No changes required.
Troll-A scenario demonstrating Vol'jin's abilities as Warchief. Could involve a cross-cotinental journey to STV where this a rumour of a Zandalar meeting or something.
Goblin-Anything to develop their race from being one-dimensional greedy banker types. It could involve foreshadowing of Gallywix's future plans for the Goblins, and some of them questioning what to do about their leader...
Undead-A scenario involving Tirisfal lore, Sylvanas or the Reliquary digging where they shouldn't, and maybe some traveling to the Whispering Forest. This could be a precursor to for an Emerald Dream/N'zoth/What the hell is Under Tirisfal? expansion.
Blood Elves-They are one of my favourite races aesthetic and architecture-wise. Maybe claiming Quel'lithin Lodge in EPL. Personally I'd like to see some sort of lore regarding their past in WoD.

Nice ideas!

Since I'm big on Dwarf stuff, I'll talk about that one. While I love the Dun Modr idea (the restoration of Dun Modr is actually a pet desire of mine), I'm hesitant to embrace it here. For one reason, I prefer the idea of the ending zones circling back to starting zones issues. While it doesn't always have to be the case (e.g. Goblin), I think it'd be more synergistic to do so. The other issue with Dun Modr is that Arathi Highlands is itself a future flashpoint between Alliance and Horde. I'm concerned that anything done with Dun Modr now would have to be shelved/revised whenever Blizzard gets around to addressing AH.

[Nurvus]

But then it's not really meaningful world content, and is actually worse than Class specific quests.
Class specific quests give you something that everyone can see.

Your suggestion would be content only a specific race can see.
Not sure Blizzard will ever bother doing something like that.

I'd rather Blizzard let us ALL retake Gnomeregan and enjoy it as a full-fledged Gnome capital once again.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Preposterous! Possibly not orc or human related story lines at max level? Development of each racial story? In an something-something-RPG game? What are you smoking, if I may ask?

Of course it would be great, but they already said that class quest lines take too much effort, doing one for each race would be the same or even more (13 races VS. 11 classes). So no, not going to happen, even though its a damn shame. I'd prefer class quest lines though, because chances are better that someone has all classes, where usually not everyone wants to make a toon of all races.

[Aeula]

Good idea, I always prefer a good story over 10 fameless npcs I have to kill for loot.