Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[rda]

They should start encrypting everything so people dont get wrong idea from dataminers.

...and not showing any of the new things in testing. And not asking for feedback on them. Talk about having completely backwards priorities.

They should do a much simpler thing: they should EFFING DO THINGS that people can play. But nah, that takes work. Better to explain how the allied races were not really promised bla bla bla and how waiting for time gates is cool and how players are "inherently cyclical", etc. And how sub numbers "aren't an important characteristic".

[Marlamin]

...and not showing any of the new things in testing. And not asking for feedback on them. Talk about having completely backwards priorities.

They should do a much simpler thing: they should EFFING DO THINGS that people can play. But nah, that takes work. Better to explain how the allied races were not really promised bla bla bla and how waiting for time gates is cool and how players are "inherently cyclical", etc. And how sub numbers "aren't an important characteristic".

I think you've reached peak 'rda being emotional' here. Stick to the facts like you used to, please.

[Drekmar]

I'm still somewhat surprised they didn't, really. They've already encrypted some of the shop stuff related to the BfA pre-order and other stuff that is way less important than allied races. I guess it might have been too much work seeing there's so many files.

Then again, they already use the new race models near the embassies etc so it's not exactly useful to encrypt. Answered my own question, nice.

They removed those NPCs and in case of orgrimmar replaced them with goblins.

...and not showing any of the new things in testing. And not asking for feedback on them. Talk about having completely backwards priorities.

They should do a much simpler thing: they should EFFING DO THINGS that people can play. But nah, that takes work. Better to explain how the allied races were not really promised bla bla bla and how waiting for time gates is cool and how players are "inherently cyclical", etc. And how sub numbers "aren't an important characteristic".

Silithus story - Check
Fixed leveling - Check
BG - Check
Ulduar - Check

Contains what they said it would. Granted, it's not much, but anyone who expected the races is idiotic, especially after the datamined requirements.

[Seramore]

They did say, either before or shortly after the PTR started, that Allied Races wouldn't come with 7.3.5, even suggesting (not with these words) that they wouldn't come until the major patch number is 8.
Thing is, we in this thread as well as others viewed that as a white lie, that this patch would at least pave the way for ARs, to be released a significant time before 8.0 - and that's still not disproven, but hardly anyone who had been following this thread closely really assumed they would come with the release of the patch already. It just spiraled out of control due to coverage, and especially random threads like "omg, there's AR stuff on the PTR, that must mean they're coming soon, right?"

As I said at the end of my post, I get the feeling they were referring to Dark Iron Dwarves with the blue post. They didn't outright say they weren't coming in 7.3.5, just that there would be things from BfA popping up in datamined information. Which is true, considering the fact that a full set of the Dark Iron racial icons popped up in datamined information (and I believe even some ability information as well, but I could be wrong on that part).

"Note that since development of the new expansion is now in full swing, datamining sites are likely to see some bits and pieces of features that are part of Battle for Azeroth (such as Allied Races)." The meaning of the post is open to interpretation, but to me it sounded like he was referring to the BfA races, not the four from Legion's storyline.

PS: Why do you think we have these allied races and all this story with them coming before 8.0 to begin with? Because they have just very little to keep people subbed. This isn't a secret to anyone, it is seen freely everywhere and obviously seen in their stats. *That's* why they started looking for things they could decouple from 8.0 and deliver earlier. The preview of a BG is in the same bucket. These talks about how this or that was not officially said to be part of 7.3.5 just misses the big picture completely.

Why is that a bad thing? Legion is over, this is the most post-expansion content they will be providing to us in a long time (arguably ever, since all they provided in WOTLK was a mini raid, and that's it - a lot more people would find races and an almost full rework of leveling from 1-90 more exciting than another Ruby Sanctum). Development is in full drive on BfA, the fact that they're providing this post Antorus is good and shows that they want to put more of an effort into keeping people playing the game post final raid.

[rda]

I think you've reached peak 'rda being emotional' here. Stick to the facts like you used to, please.

(I am at a bit of a loss as to what in the quote was not factual, but OK, I'll try to stick to the latest details instead of bringing up earlier things.)

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Why is that a bad thing? Legion is over, this is the most post-expansion content they will be providing to us in a long time (arguably ever, since all they provided in WOTLK was a mini raid, and that's it - a lot more people would find races more exciting than another Ruby Sanctum). Development is in full drive on BfA, the fact that they're providing this post Antorus is good and shows that they want to put more of an effort into keeping people playing the game.

Blizzard trying to decouple things from 8.0 to deliver them earlier because 7.x content is too watered down by its nature (RNG grinds) and by the numerous delays that have been already put into it isn't bad, it is good.

It's 7.x content needing this that is bad.

The bad that is in the news for 7.3.5 is that even their efforts to try and salvage the issues with 7.x are, frankly, pathetic. It really looks like they are just plain incapable of delivering much. I have long been saying that they are reducing effort and moving on to other projects. Well, that's how it looks like. You try to be a nice guy and do your best, but you are lacking funds and people and it's all apathetic and so your attempts to do things come up short. A delay here, a cut there. The BG they need to call "a preview". The allied races they need to schedule for later. Why they can't hold on publishing 7.3.5 until the allied races are done? Simple, because it's been 3 months already, people are struggling. I suspect we might not see that island AI thing, by the way, or it will be basically limited to their Blizzcon example of enemy rogue maybe sapping your healer. That's what I think when I look at the news for 7.3.5.

[Khrux]

We all know the weekly time gating is used to bridge the gaps between content drops. We saw it for Suramar, Broken Shore and then again for Argus. So its clear from this patch release that we're going to be drip fed quests one by one in Silithus until the BG releases (verbatim: "as the silithus story unfolds")

We also know the purpose of recruiting these allied races to the horde/alliance is due to the increasing faction tension, created by the appearance of Azerite.

So it should in theory play out as follows:
Step 1. Release LFR wing4 - plebs finish Antorus, see Sargeras stab Azeroth and create the wound
Step 2. A quest to investigate Silithus starts, we start doing time gated story quests for X weeks
Step 3. A new BG is released, showing conflict between factions over a new resource (Azerite)
Step 4. Release 4 of 6 allied races (pre-order) now that faction conflict is in full swing, these 4 are released because they are relevant to Legion

The only things we don't yet know are how many weeks Step2 will last and what dates Step3 and Step4 kick in.

[huth]

They should start encrypting everything so people dont get wrong idea from dataminers.

This thread certainly shows why they should. Complaining about not getting something they never said we were getting at the time in the first place because people convinced themselves that it would come anyway and then blaming Blizzard for it is just sad.

Blizzard didn't do anything wrong here. You guys did that to yourself.

[Doomchicken]

We all know the weekly time gating is used to bridge the gaps between content drops. We saw it for Suramar, Broken Shore and then again for Argus. So its clear from this patch release that we're going to be drip fed quests one by one in Silithus until the BG releases (verbatim: "as the silithus story unfolds")

We also know the purpose of recruiting these allied races to the horde/alliance is due to the increasing faction tension, created by the appearance of Azerite.

So it should in theory play out as follows:
Step 1. Release LFR wing4 - plebs finish Antorus, see Sargeras stab Azeroth and create the wound
Step 2. A quest to investigate Silithus starts, we start doing time gated story quests for X weeks
Step 3. A new BG is released, showing conflict between factions over a new resource (Azerite)
Step 4. Release 4 of 6 allied races (pre-order) now that faction conflict is in full swing, these 4 are released because they are relevant to Legion

The only things we don't yet know are how many weeks Step2 will last and what dates Step3 and Step4 kick in.

That actually makes a hell of a lot of sense.

[Seramore]

This thread certainly shows why they should. Complaining about not getting something they never said we were getting at the time in the first place because people convinced themselves that it would come anyway and then blaming Blizzard for it is just sad.

Blizzard didn't do anything wrong here. You guys did that to yourself.

In all fairness, their motivations are a bit unclear. They have other platforms to implement various things for the next expansion outside of the PTR, why do it on there if they don't plan on having it soon? They never implemented the data for Goblins, Worgen, or Pandaren on a PTR, nor did they implement the data for Demon Hunters. I for sure get what you're saying and mostly agree, but Blizzard's motivations are a bit odd here, especially considering that a lot of this allied race stuff was able to be seen even without datamining.

[Makorus]

The Silithus questchain still is a mess, which is what surprises me.

It might as well not exist, it's not a "story line", but much more of a "uh, guys horde and alliance hates eachother now I guess" with no build up. It's 5 quests.

[Drekmar]

The Silithus questchain still is a mess, which is what surprises me.

It might as well not exist, it's not a "story line", but much more of a "uh, guys horde and alliance hates eachother now I guess" with no build up. It's 5 quests.

There were 11 available quests on PTR, we havent seen the encrypted cinematic when we talk to Nathanos/Mathias. Questline ends with Magni, but we have not seen what's beyond except datamined part of cinematic from Stiven. Atleast be factual and not EMO.

[rda]

The Silithus questchain still is a mess, which is what surprises me.

It might as well not exist, it's not a "story line", but much more of a "uh, guys horde and alliance hates eachother now I guess" with no build up. It's 5 quests.

What about the stellar all-new fresh "poop questline"? http://ptr.wowhead.com/quest=50229/a-wee-bit-o-cloth

Will players have the grand pleasure of being able to participate in it? #contentworthdoing

[Makorus]

There were 11 available quests on PTR, we havent seen the encrypted cinematic when we talk to Nathanos/Mathias. Questline ends with Magni, but we have not seen what's beyond except datamined part of cinematic from Stiven. Atleast be factual and not EMO.

11 available quests, 8 of them are faction specific. It's generic kill quests with no real purpose.

Do you honestly think that the questline continues after the Magni part? Do you think they would just test the first few quests and then stop testing for no valid reason?

[Drekmar]

12 available quests, 8 of them are faction specific.

Do you honestly think that the questline continues after the Magni part? Do you think they would just test the first few quests and then stop testing for no valid reason?

Yes, there IS something beyond it. Don't know what exactly, but there is something that leads to consuming the swords power as we seen in the video.

[rda]

Yes, there IS something beyond it. Don't know what exactly, but there is something that leads to consuming the swords power as we seen in the video.

Let me guess what that thing is: one-two more quests. One: "let's all draw our swords and watch the cinematic". And another: "let's report our great success to the faction leader or whoever". Juicy.

(Do you really think it's something more? What, you expect to be able to dig a hold out in the middle of Silithus, then fortify it / fight the bugs / convey diplomacy with the bug queen, then war the other faction? No? Then why reply like you expect something more? Just agree that yes, the quest line is short and uneventful.)

[Drekmar]

(Do you really think it's something more? What, you expect to be able to dig a hold out in the middle of Silithus, then fortify it / fight the bugs / convey diplomacy with the bug queen, then war the other faction? No? Then why reply like you expect something more? Just agree that yes, the quest line is short and uneventful.)

Maybe. Sorta, BG lead up maybe. Because there is more than 5 quests. Nope, I don't agree.

[rda]

Maybe. Sorta, BG lead up maybe. Because there is more than 5 quests. Nope, I don't agree.

"Maybe" and "Sorta" to "you expect to be able to dig a hold out in the middle of Silithus, then fortify it / fight the bugs / convey diplomacy with the bug queen, then war the other faction?".

OK.

[Drekmar]

OK.

Thumbs up bro.

[tristannarutofan]

The Silithus questchain still is a mess, which is what surprises me.

It might as well not exist, it's not a "story line", but much more of a "uh, guys horde and alliance hates eachother now I guess" with no build up. It's 5 quests.

huh? its just some quests this isnt a major story patch. You might as well complain that a wooden table doesnt taste like Oranges

[Makorus]

Maybe. Sorta, BG lead up maybe. Because there is more than 5 quests. Nope, I don't agree.

The BG lead up are the quests currently in Silithus: Sabotaging/Defending miners mining Azerite and starting Skirmishes.

This will be the last real quest of Silithus.

In a week, we will get the followup quest hotfixed in, with Magni being like "Hey, I found out what to do with the sword my dude! Meet up with [Alliance/Horde Dude] on [Zeppelin/Airship] and I'll explain it to you!". Queue cutscene. Queue Artifact Instability stuff going on. Queue Prepatch where the weapon implodes or whatever.

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huh? its just some quests this isnt a major story patch. You might as well complain that a wooden table doesnt taste like Oranges

Sorry that I expected a bit more from a piece of content labelled as "Legion Epilogue". I expected the Legion epilogue to be more than defending Miners, a literal repeat of the second Orc quest and killing some random Cultist who did absolutely nothing, and killing 12 Silithid.