Are BFA zones too bland?

[Exilian]

I know the blizz art team usually outdo themselves when it comes to visual representation, and although the monsters we saw looked great, the zones overall seemed very stale and kind of "been there done that". The desert is nice, we havent had a desert in a long time, but other than that theres 2 forest/jungles on zandalar, and three forest/highlands on Kul'tiras (with one of them having a creepy vibe to it)... I dont know, it just seems a bit lacklustre, and the colour palette is just too drab, and not in a cool kind of way.

Maybe i just like big flashy zones, but for me personally Cata had some of the best looking zones ever. Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Ulduum (far too few deserts in wow tbh) even the Twilight Highlands were ominous and different. Personally nothing that weve seen so far in BFA compares to these, they are just reskinned jungles and forests.

[Exilian]

It's always been like this.

Outland was the only real expansion to have majorly different looking zones.

So was Cata, and Legion to some extent (Azsuna was kinda greek islands, Stormheim was Stormpeaks without the snow, and Suramar was awesome)

[Vezri]

I felt that way about Legion tbh. I still think Broken Isles is the most boring continent added in a expansion :I. BfA zones have some great variety, Zuldazar at least (desert, swamps, jungle, awesome looking city).

[Deleted]

It's always been like this.

Outland was the only real expansion to have majorly different looking zones.

WoD zones were the best imo, outland zones, while having different themes were kind of bland, though a lot of that is probably due to the age of the expansion.

[Deleted]

Well they don't look particularly alien, that is true. But even normal zones can have lots of cool stuff.

Go watch TFS at the table. Zito turned a regular pirate island into a scary convoluted mess of liches, ratmen, gator men, snake temples repurposed as carnivals, navi bases, mimics, mind flayers and liches. And it's still coherent.

[Directionalk9]

To answer the question, no the new continent don't look bland, Zandalar looks fucking amazing, and the setting of Kul'Tiras has me debating spending more time on Alliance alts.

[Skulltaker]

I think they want to create a little more relatable land to have us fight over. Jungle and Desert for a savage, hard land like the Horde is used to, and mild Forests and snowtopped peaks for the alliance.

And for the new races it will represent a whole new experience. "Come see the world! Join the Horde. Get Dysentery in the Jungle! Be butchered by the Alliance in beautiful meadows and forests. Have your face bitten off by Foxpeople in the desert!"

[Sky High]

For the alliance porbabbly, for the rest of us Zandalar looks awesome. We better have the troll capital be our capital a la opening the golden gates from MoP.

[elaina]

Zandalar has significant variety. Kul'tiras looks a lot more uniform but Dustvar? probably is different enough.

And honestly considering the time spent doing world content, I like my zones with peaceful music and vibrant colors so it is relaxing playing there. That is the wonder of TI that has yet to be replicated.

I felt Timeless Isle was visually bland with very boring geography.

[kamikaze148]

Must give props to MoP in terms of aesthetically different and visually pleasing zones. Jade Forest for the first time was amazing, Kun Lai was a mountain zone without being entirely focused on the mountain itself, Dread Wastes whilst visually boring had good atmosphere etc.

Whilst in paper BfA zones might not look all that interesting, (must admit during the live stream I wasn't that gripped by them) they will be a different kettle of fish upon release when we actually get to spend a bit of time there...I hope

[Thimagryn]

So is there confirmation on how leveling works?

Is it 3 Zones per faction, or will you be going cross faction-zone at some point? I don't really understand how we'll be going 10 levels in 3 zones and if the island exploration stuff is playing a part in the leveling.

[Wyrt]

I am not looking forward to more human based zones with human architecture.

Also, only having 3 zones to level in is awful. I have no idea what Blizzard was thinking.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I am not looking forward to more human based zones with human architecture.

Also, only having 3 zones to level in is awful. I have no idea what Blizzard was thinking.

It's better then Orc huts. Hell Human stuff is pretty good at HD levels of quality.

[Heladys]

Crystalsong Forest was one of the best ever and it was criminally underused.

[RotDog]

Crystalsong Forest was one of the best ever and it was criminally underused.

Oh my god it was. I loved that zone SO MUCH. I actually spent time there just to spend time there. Just running around. Loved it.

I am super hyped for Zandalar, actually and I liked the art shown for everything else. Not really sure why nobody likes Kul' Tiras, though. I really like the green they chose for that roofing, looks like it's copper/bronze patina!

[Powerogue]

Don't knock it till you try it, we've seen a handful of screenshots of the zones. After what they pulled off with Suramar in particular I'm eager to see what they can come up with.

[Mormolyce]

I do think they're reaching the limits of how impressive you can make a WoW zone. The tech seems to be heading for diminishing returns, and we've already seen so many wild and wacky things.

Don't knock it till you try it, we've seen a handful of screenshots of the zones. After what they pulled off with Suramar in particular I'm eager to see what they can come up with.

I was kind of hoping we'd get city zones in all future expansions...

[Sithalos]

Zandalar looks amazing from what I've seen. Not sure what you're looking at OP.

[Kathranis]

You need to watch the art panel from Blizzcon and see some of the zone preview videos.

While it's true that there's nothing insanely alien going on, they made an obvious effort to make each of the biomes unique. I mean, sure, there are only so many different types of environments, they can't just create an infinite number of zones without eventually having to overlap thematically or aesthetically on some level, but they're introducing new flora and fauna and creating new vistas that still look very distinct.

Kul Tiras, for example, they could have easily just mirrored the architecture of Stormwind and Theramore, which I think is what anyone would have expected, but instead they're drawing from Dutch and similar cultures to create a completely new, nautical-themed style of architecture, and are pulling from Slavic and Polish folklore to help build out the surrounding landscapes and NPC races. They're incorporating new types of flora and fauna into the environments with new skyboxes to create new color combinations and new, visually unique vistas.

Much the same for Zandalar. We've only really ever seen troll ruins before, so they're designing Zuldazar as a massive, thriving hub of troll culture. So, not only is it our first true glimpse of a pristine troll city, but it's our first look at a thriving troll civilization, with a distinctive Mesoamerican influences. They're also taking the dinosaur concept and running with it, not only introducing a variety of new, tamed dinosaurs, but incorporating things like dinosaur hides, eggs, and meat into their society. We've had jungles, swamps, and deserts before, but just as with Kult Tiras, they're infusing them all with new things to make them into unique biomes; the swamp, for example, will have giant mangrove trees with elaborate root systems you can even walk under, and they're designing the area so that you'll be moving back and forth between bright, open areas and dark areas shadowed by heavy vegitation, with different lighting and color temperatures, which is something they've never really done before.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

How would we know? We've barely caught a glimpse.