Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Fahrad Wagner]

I made list of models which are not updated yet and sort them to 3 priority level groups based on some criterias:
- appearance in low level zones (interaction with new players)
- how many of them are in a world
- graphical appearance (which of them are low poly)

Priority 1:
Furbolgs, Boars, Wolves, Elementals(Water, Fire, Air, Earth, Fel, Blood), Gnolls, Scorpions, Dragons (wardens, classic dragons), Plainstriders, Savannah Lions, Azerothian Ogres, Centaurs

Priority 2:
Giants, Crypt Fiends, Stranglethorn tigers and panthers, Moths, Lashers, Skeletal Warriors

Priority 3:
Frost Wyrms, Liches, Hellfire Orcs, Oozes, Zombie Elves - Wretched, Dragonhawks, Hypogryphs, Wyverns, Zebras, Giraffes

A thousand times yes. And cows. Cows need a new model. Oh and rams!

[Grimfrost]

And worgen.... Why are there no worgen skeletons btw? We got all other races as skeleton

[Deleted]

We'er just reclaiming our land!

Reclaim? You mean conquer? True citizens of Lordaeron are the forsaken, because they fought and died for their home while gilneas was watching their brothers die by the scourge. The refugees who sailed to stormwind didn't mean it bad, but the true people of Lordaeron are the forsaken who gave their lives for the kingdom of lordaeron! (which doesnt exist anymore because of Arthas and his scourge)

Calling it "reclaim" is just another alliance blandish because they can't accept to be the bad guys for once.

[Drekmar]

Suspicious emoji! You plotting something or nah? :/

[Dracullus]

After quick look at Alpha files I'm more convinced that they aim for September release. It looks more advanced that first Legion builds.

Looks like they have solid schedule now. By the time testing starts, most of textures/zones/models are close to finish, so they can focus on testing quests/mechanics/balance. I remember that Argus was already done when 7.3 PTR started (and we saw that first screen from Argus on November 2016), so they must working on South Seas at least 6 months, likely much more.

[Marlamin]

Suspicious emoji! You plotting something or nah? :/

Nah, just won't comment on sandbox related stuff. Zandalar looks nice from above, though!

[Collected]

After quick look at Alpha files I'm more convinced that they aim for September release. It looks more advanced that first Legion builds.

Looks like they have solid schedule now. By the time testing starts, most of textures/zones/models are close to finish, so they can focus on testing quests/mechanics/balance. I remember that Argus was already done when 7.3 PTR started (and we saw that first screen from Argus on November 2016), so they must working on South Seas at least 6 months, likely much more.

This really wouldn't surprise me. The team has been a lot more healthy in terms of size since Legion. And during Legion a lot of new staff would have been training up. So this expansion should show the fruits of all of that. They're able to get polished content out of the door a lot quicker than in the past.

[Ningjinq]

The reason they didn't call them sub-races is because of the politacally incorrect term, sub means beneath or below.

I’ve always used the term sub race in fantasy games as meaning a more specific group taken from a broader, less specific race. Or An offshoot. Eg, we just had plain old Tauren. But now we get a specific culture of Tauren in Highmountain.

I think the reason we are getting Allied Races is because it’s far more broad of a term and gives them more variety of what they can add. For instance, going by the the traditional use of the term sub race, that doesn’t really fit Zandalari (ironically, Darkspear would fit better with that) or Nightborne.

In a way it’s a catch 22 because there is no hard rule against them adding non-related to current playable races as Allied Races in, And we’ve only had 1 set, but just looking at what we are getting with Allied Races right now, there’s no evidence that there will at some point be anything truly new added as an Allied Race.

To me the biggest argument for that is the fact that the Alliance are getting Lightforged instead of something like Furbolgs. I mean did we really need tattooed, grey Draenei added on a faction that already had existing Draenei? And they couldn’t even really be described as a sub race as Lightforged are just transformed Draenei. Feels like a stretch. (I consider Velves different just because they faction swapped at least)

[Ningjinq]

I did do a search, didn’t find any yet. Though I am definitely the opposite of competent with computers and the internet.

[Marlamin]

I wonder how soon till we get exploration videos. I guess MMO Champ cannot have those though

Client is broken on most systems right now, so anything in-client will have to wait until they fix that.

[CasualFilth]

Any info on DI Dwarves racials yet? Names, icons, &c.?

[Andonais]

Not sure if posted but
http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screen...mal/696672.jpg
Missing the pants but the boots omg the boots.

[Ningjinq]

Way back in 7.3.5’s PTR some of the icons showed up. Like a mole machine for instance

[Kazlofski]

This really wouldn't surprise me. The team has been a lot more healthy in terms of size since Legion. And during Legion a lot of new staff would have been training up. So this expansion should show the fruits of all of that. They're able to get polished content out of the door a lot quicker than in the past.

Agreed yeah, I remember they got lots of new people in the team around WoD production and that's why it suffered so much, they had to be trained so not much content was produced. In Legion we saw more production , from patches to content in each patch, especially in the art department. It seems like they gained quite a lot of artists which makes me very happy

They can afford to do raids/dungeons/zones as normal + in Legion for example design so many weapons for each specs, color + style variations, improvements to some models and in BfA it seems like they went crazy and just decided - we have the manpower and the will! Let's update the models of so many old creatures in game!
And they found a way to bring new races more easily into the game as Chris Robinson said if I recall ,at Blizzcon.

Hoping the "tier sets" that they said would look more around the instance than class variation will look just as good, just sad that we get like 4 variations for each armor type if I heard right :/

[FenixAU]

BFA Preorder at EB Games (Australian retailer)

Does this make the 30th preorder announce seemingly more likely if retailers are screwing up when they should be displaying these things?

They've added the CE to their website for preorder too (though with a disclaimer that the contents have yet to be revealed). That wasn't available on their online ordering system a couple of weeks ago when I last checked. Indeed, Blizzard CE's usually don't pop up on their online ordering until they've been formally announced by Blizzard.

Good ol EB, letting the cat out of the bag.

[Andromedes]

Not sure if posted but
http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screen...mal/696672.jpg
Missing the pants but the boots omg the boots.

also dat durotan's crotch

[Valysar]

The witches (https://media.mmo-champion.com/image...y/Witch002.jpg) use the same skeleton as the Arakkoas. Feels weird...

[Blayze]

Not sure if posted but
http://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screen...mal/696672.jpg
Missing the pants but the boots omg the boots.

Those boots remind me of Megazord.

[Caerule]

Why do people keep requesting female versions of reptilian humanoids?

It would make perfect sense for there to be no sexual dimorphism. There is no reason for reptiles to have breasts so why would they have them? Any Sethrek we've seen could be either male or female. Same for the Tortollan's. The Saurok were the same.
Same is true for piscine species like Jinyu and Murlocs.

Before anyone says, "But naga.." Those guys and galls are transformed Night Elves, their species didn't begin reptilian.

Yes, that is correct. I am not requesting female Sethrak for accuracy. For an NPC race that look like snakes, it makes enough sense that we can't tell genders apart.

But there is no way Blizzard will ever give us a playable race that won't have a male-female distinction. That's not how it works in WoW. So my disappointment is about No Female Form = Unsuitable As Allied Race.

They are a race that looks great and is animated magnificently, so I am sad about that.

[Marlamin]

I love placeholder instance models.

Hail hydra.

One of the maps in the prison instance: