It is logistically nigh impossible, but I'd like it lore-wise.
It is logistically nigh impossible, but I'd like it lore-wise.
I'd like to see four factions back. Alliance (humans+dwarves, beards, industry and patriarchy), Horde (orcs+trolls, physical and spiritual superiority offset by low civilization), Forsaken (undead+bloodelves, lots of dabbling in the forbidden sciences and magics - advanced but twisted), and Circle (nightelves+worgen, nature, tradition, gilnean nationalism fused with elven xenophobia). No more races are needed, eight is enough.
Considering that separate quest content for four factions would be a developer nightmare, cross-faction content could be applied:
Alliance + Forsaken
+ vs. +
Circle + Horde
- Alliance opposes Horde but can assist the causes of once-human worgen of the Circle and once-Alliance Blood Elves.
- Forsaken are in opposition with the Circle which sees them as defilers and unnatural abominations, but can assist the civilized Alliance with which they share the same past, or the barbaric Horde that values power at any cost just like Forsaken.
- Horde opposes the Alliance mostly because of radically different outlooks on society and a history of wars. They can assist Forsaken, which are not as picky as Alliance, and Circle, which shares their ties to the primal, natural world.
- The Circle opposes the twisted Forsaken that defy and warp the natural order of things (by merely existing in case of undead), but can cooperate with the Alliance because why the fuck not, and Horde, acknowledging that their primal lifestyle is acceptable, and their understanding of elements and spirits is deemed as a good thing.
This setup is kinda rough around the edges, considering the current shit between night elves and orcs, or forsaken and humans, but it's nothing that a small retcon or lore event (such as 30-50 years timeskip) couldn't solve. At least the factions in this model have central ideas, they make sense in that their races have much in common. It's like a return to WC3 model, which was good. Tauren are lorewise too strong to be playable (really, one tauren in a loincloth wielding an unlabored log could pulverize a squad of human knights in full plate), and gnomes... let's pretend they never existed. Worgen are cool, and they are the only race that fits with the night elves as a faction.
Also I'd like to see classes being race-specific. Forsaken could have death kights as tanks, paladins for Alliance, warriors for Horde, and druids for the Circle. Et cetera. For flavor. Homogenization should've mended the possible raidcomp problems by this point.
I doubt it would happen but it would be cool if when we get rid of Garrosh he flees with several orcs and Sylvanas and some forsaken and starts a third faction. Then have maybe the dark iron dwarves and Moira join as well as some humans and (insert a famous powerhungry human here as I cant think of one offhand). Then give them saytrs and one or 2 more races.
Ive always thought that WoW should have started with 3 factions: Horde, Alliance, 3rd "outcast" faction. The 3rd faction would be BE, Undead, Draenei and Naga. Its basically the WC3Illidan faction with the Undead since Sylvanas was an elf. They totally ruined that possibility with KT, Vashj and Illidan character assassination and Draenei retcon.
The 3 way would have fit pretty well too. (most have ~1 enemy in each faction)
BE and Draenei vs Orcs and trolls(BE have no love for humans either after Garithos)
Undead vs Humans
Naga vs Night Elves
Humans and dwarves vs Orcs
Gnomes vs everyone(no one likes gnomes)
Tauren dont really have natural enemies(in factions) they just like to hang out with Orcs
Worgen shouldnt exist but they could be added to undead vs humans and goblins would be like gnomes for the horde. So you would have each faction with 4 races from previous games:
Horde - Orcs, trolls, goblins, Tauren
Alliance - humans, dwarves, NE, gnomes
3rd - BE, Undead, Draenei, Naga
WC3 and Starcraft had 3 factions so its not unreasonable to think WoW should have them.
Guess what? I lied. I'm not sorry, and it won't.
---------- Post added 2013-05-08 at 04:55 AM ----------
Warcraft 3 had 4 factions. If you consider the "Human" campaign in the expansion (actually Blood Elves/Naga) a separate faction, and if you consider the Forsaken separate from the Scourge, it actually had 6 playable factions.
But they all got mooshed into 2 for the MMO because an RTS can have as many factions as it wants but in an MMO it's hard enough to balance just two (and keep them compelling).
That's not gonna happen, atleast i think...
I used outcasts for lack of a better word. Or you could consider the character of the Horde would be different if the Undead and Blood Elves werent a part of it. They are the two main outcast races(both by humans) while the other horde races besides Tauren are classic aggressive Horde. And no one seems to want to work with the Naga except Kaelthas. Draenei fit in because they are oppressed on Draenor and with the new BC lore outcasts/refugees from Argus. Maybe the oppressed faction would be a better way to describe it.
If there ever were a 3rd faction, I still would like to see it be the Scourge. Even with Arthas gone, Sylvanas is close enough to take up that mantle. She wouldn't just be leading the Forsaken, but taking hold of many of the races once under control of the Scourge, reforging the faction similarly to how the Horde went through a change from the Dark Horde.
As for actual playable races, I can't really see it being fleshed out beyond undead versions of existing factions, and maybe adding in playable Vrykul or San'layn characters. Some people might want to play as something monstrous like an Abomination or Crypt Lord, but the novelty isn't enough to sustain a working Playable Character system.
I'd rather see Blood Elves break off from the Horde, they have never been a good fit.
I think a multi faction RTS is much harder to balance than an MMO especially if you look at games like Starcraft and WoW. In Starcraft you have 3 distinct races with very different units and different play styles. A lot of RTS games use the same units for everything and just reskin them. This is one reason why Starcraft is so good. In WoW racials dont really matter so the only thing you have to think about is class balance. Every faction has to have all the classes available which is the same as an RTS with reskins. I think the only issue with the divisions I came up with is druids since its a very select class. Just allow Draenei to be druids and no problem.
And quests can be made mostly neutral or use the same quests given by different factions in separate hubs like a lot of quests are now. It wouldnt really be that hard.
Youre right about WC3, I think I was thinking about TFT since I dont consider the Rexxar episode a faction campaign. Anyway Starcraft is better than WC3.
If they are going to add a 3rd faction into the game then it could be opposite of how the Pandarens were introduced. Have them be neutral the whole way through the game, one main city just for their faction but allow them to be friendly with both sides, and when queing for pvp they are placed on either faction's side. Personally, I think this could have been done with the Pandarens but I understand a system that complex would take a long time to be implemented into WoW. That's time which Blizzard can't really sacrifice with today's playerbase.
There's a lot of flaws and disadvantages to my method, but it's just my thoughts of how a 3rd faction could be introduced in the game.
It would be one of the most awesome things to never happen in this game. I've often thought of how it would be for the Forsaken to split to their own faction and the undead still loyal to the Horde to get a new faction leader and title (Graveborn, perhaps?). Of course, Blizzard would never want to spend the time to do anything like that, especially when having to add a completely new leveling experience for the new faction.
You're getting exactly what you deserve.
Forgot a few races (gnome, pandaren, goblin).
I suggested a Cenarion Circle faction a while ago and I still think it's a good idea...I'd probably do something like:
Alliance: Humans, Dwarves, Draenei, Gnomes, [High Elves?]
Horde: Orcs, Trolls, [Ogres], Goblins
Cenarion Circle: Night Elves, Tauren, [Dryad, aka Mylune like race]
Forsaken: Blood Elves, Forsaken, Worgen, [Val'kyr, Vrykul, Naga, Ethereals, etc...outcast race]
Cenarion Circle aligns with Alliance and Forsaken aligns with Horde for group content. Pandaren are still neutral.
Last edited by Celista; 2013-05-08 at 08:12 AM.