Are these fancy skyboxes a way of cutting content?

[Mirishka]

We are really digging deep to find things to complain about now. Holy smokes.

Pretty much. Practically every day here I come across a 'wow... someone's crying about this?' kind of topic.

[Lochton]

You lost me.. what?

Skyboxes it to make a zone have the needed feel..

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I dunno, I expected Teldrassil to just plain be gone. Not explorable in the slightest.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Why would you be able to do that? There's nothing there, there's no content there. We weren't promised any burning of teldrassil content to my knowledge. The idea of making a zone literally just so that you can explore it would be a far bigger waste of resources, even if it might be cool. For now, we assume that the fires are so intense that even our character couldn't survive, and it's magic fire on a magic tree so it might be like the Burning Bush where it never actually burns down.

[clevin]

Cutting content? No.

Avoiding creating content? Yeah, absolutely. The thing is, though, that it would be a lot of work to create a Teldrassil that's post-burning and they'd need to have some reason for us to go there, more than just "Hey, I want to...". They COULD have done that - quests that lead us to survivors, or where we discover things that lead into another area and more quests.... but for whatever reason they didn't do that. Lazy? Not needed? Able to tell the story without recreating the whole zone? Got me.

I do hope this isn't a trend. I don't really like 2D skybox landscape stuff and it IS new so I'm a little concerned that they'll just wall off areas with this vs flesh them out.

[Gaidax]

I do hope this isn't a trend. I don't really like 2D skybox landscape stuff and it IS new so I'm a little concerned that they'll just wall off areas with this vs flesh them out.

New? They used this technique all the way from Vanilla. Stormwind Castle was exactly that back then. Heck this is everywhere, you simply do not notice, here this rings the bell?

[Better]

Also, it directly locks out Teldrissal quests and rewards supposedly in doing this. I assume Tirisfal won't be locked out for players, though Lordaeron is. Not that it matters, but it's still a curiosity.

Well Tirisfall definitely wont work if you don't talk to a bronze dragon to turn it back.

[AnonEntity]

I still would rather explore a burnt down Teldrassil instead of looking at a fancy skybox.

The whole question and debate got derailed. They saved themselves the effort of creating a burnt down version of Teldrassil.

Edit: The same for Undercity. The destroyed version cannot be entered either. A pity!

[Kieldon]

No, lol.

/10c

[SoulSoBreezy]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

I don't believe so. If there's no intent to have content in said area in the first place, what's the harm?
That said I'd love to see Outland's skybox updated to see other busted up parts of the planet.

[Khaza-R]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

Considering there is zero "content" in a burnt down Teldrassil, I wouldn't consider it cut. Because there is nothing to cut in the first place.

- - - Updated - - -

I still would rather explore a burnt down Teldrassil instead of looking at a fancy skybox.

The whole question and debate got derailed. They saved themselves the effort of creating a burnt down version of Teldrassil.

Edit: The same for Undercity. The destroyed version cannot be entered either. A pity!

Yeah, what a shame they are not wasting time so you can fly over the ashes of Teldrassil for 5 min and then never touch it again.

[Dominus89]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

So you think it would be money well spent on Blizzard wasting resources just so you could walk in a burning Darnassus once and then never return there? It was never planned to be any kind of content, just a way of showing off in-game what happened to Darnassus.

[Maljinwo]

IMHO, the real question is... will the tree ever stop burning? Or will it burn for eternity? I wonder how many patches it will take for the tree to stop being on fire .

According to Stratholme? No

[Nnyco]

burned teldrassil never was content, so it cant be cut in the first place

[Kathranis]

Forced perspective is used all the time in game development. If you're studying game design you should know that the most efficient way to design an environment is to only create what players actually need to see.

Do you really want them to waste time designing a giant burnt out husk with nothing on it, just so players can fly circles around it?

[FelPlague]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

A zone with LITERALLY nothing in it is not content.
making these fancy skyboxes actually gives us more content.
would you rather they make a zone we can actually have content in? or spend thousands of man hours to make a giant burning tree that if you approach it your computer will blue screen?

[Kathranis]

Also, it directly locks out Teldrissal quests and rewards supposedly in doing this. I assume Tirisfal won't be locked out for players, though Lordaeron is. Not that it matters, but it's still a curiosity.

Zidormi the Bronze Dragon can be found in every zone that was destroyed or changed post-Cataclysm to revert to their original version so you can do the old quests. Theramore, Blasted Lands, Peak of Serenity, Silithus, Tirisfal Glades, and Darkshore-Teldrassil.

[FelPlague]

IMHO, the real question is... will the tree ever stop burning? Or will it burn for eternity? I wonder how many patches it will take for the tree to stop being on fire (let alone being rebuilt, if that ever happens at all).

Also, it directly locks out Teldrissal quests and rewards supposedly in doing this. I assume Tirisfal won't be locked out for players, though Lordaeron is. Not that it matters, but it's still a curiosity.

THing is something of that size can burn for along time, the coal mine that caught fire in america https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire
found it, should burn for about 250 years.
so a tree of that size could burn for easily 10+ years in reality, think that the fire could stop burning on the surface but flames coudl still pour from its core.
that thing could be burning for YEARS or even longer depending if magic has an effect on it, or the enviroment etc, who knows that thing could burn for hundreds to thousands of years.

- - - Updated - - -

Cutting content? No.

Avoiding creating content? Yeah, absolutely. The thing is, though, that it would be a lot of work to create a Teldrassil that's post-burning and they'd need to have some reason for us to go there, more than just "Hey, I want to...". They COULD have done that - quests that lead us to survivors, or where we discover things that lead into another area and more quests.... but for whatever reason they didn't do that. Lazy? Not needed? Able to tell the story without recreating the whole zone? Got me.

I do hope this isn't a trend. I don't really like 2D skybox landscape stuff and it IS new so I'm a little concerned that they'll just wall off areas with this vs flesh them out.

post burning? dude that tree will burn for YEARS its not going to just all burn in an instant.

- - - Updated - - -

I still would rather explore a burnt down Teldrassil instead of looking at a fancy skybox.

The whole question and debate got derailed. They saved themselves the effort of creating a burnt down version of Teldrassil.

Edit: The same for Undercity. The destroyed version cannot be entered either. A pity!

how would you explore this?

[MalfLFT]

No, its a way to avoid another cataclysm. If they did it the old way and made the actual places they might have had to cut actual bfa content Just to make the pre patch cool er. Would both things be Nice? Sure but they know what they Are doing