3 Faction System

[matrix123mko]

Problem 1. Nobody would play the new faction.

Problem 2. If people are moving to it in enough quantities to not make it a total fucking joke, it means Blizz unbalanced it somehow (IE racials) and everyone is gonna move there making the Horde and Alliance total fucking jokes.

From what I see on the forum, everyone wants to leave Alliance for Tyrande. It would be funny if everyone left Anduin and Thrall.

[Caperfin]

I can't possibly imagine them adding a third faction when two are already proving frustrating as hell to balance.

I don't think we're going towards no factions as some people say, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the faction restrictions between the two we have were rendered a loose PvP-based thing. I seriously doubt we'll see a third faction, unless you count "Neutral" as a faction.

imo allied races already feels like a third faction, I dont see the reason to add another faction. And you're right the balancing would be troublesome.

[matrix123mko]

Found the warcraft 3 player!

I think the problem is races, there just arent enough races for forsaken and sentinels to be full factions. Also battlegrounds would be kind of messy, though actually if a battleground was A vs B, then C and D could go on either side to balance out pvp...
maybe that isnt such a bad idea?

Forsaken could have:
- undead humans
- undead dwarves
- undead high elves
- undead orcs
- blood elves in BC

The Sentinels are the problem. I would give them dark trolls and furbolg.

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All Blizz needs to do is let all factions do PVE instances with each-other. I think the story would actually benefit from having the Night Elves in particular split from the Alliance, as well the Undead. PVP may have slightly longer queues with 3 or 4 total factions, but those aren't typically that long anyway.

It would only break PvP on starter accounts. Good idea.

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I think we got 2 options...
1. We get 4 factions the horde, alliance., Sylvanas loyalists and the nelfs vengeance group.
2. We get 3 horde and alliance becomes as 1, Sylvanas loyalists and the nelf group.
I also got an ideea how this could work but I don't want to spoil the whole thing ������

I think option 1,5 is the most likely. We get three factions but Horde is a bit autonomic from Alliance so players won't cry too much.

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Alliance / Horde should be removed for PvE, yes that means there will be no "evil" player faction.
Give players the option to pick horde or alliance for warmode on and for PvP battlegrounds (and zones).

"Evil" faction can too care about saving the world. For example, papa N'zoth didn't want Sargeras to win. Just don't make raids against "evil" faction.

[shade3891]

Found the warcraft 3 player!

I think the problem is races, there just arent enough races for forsaken and sentinels to be full factions. Also battlegrounds would be kind of messy, though actually if a battleground was A vs B, then C and D could go on either side to balance out pvp...
maybe that isnt such a bad idea?

I can see Tyrande and Genn teaming up as they shared a home. You don't need a lot of races to be a full faction. Current Alliance members might fully agree with Tyrande and Genn to get revenge for the burning of their home/tree and join them. Same goes for the Sylvyfans. But then if you agree with Sylvanas or Tyrande you just turn on warmode..

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"Evil" faction can too care about saving the world. For example, papa N'zoth didn't want Sargeras to win. Just don't make raids against "evil" faction.

Sure N'zoth surely wants to survive it doesn't care if its minions die. I do think it more easy to control the flow of the story if blizzard is moving the pieces of the "evil" faction, currently it is all over the place. We players react to enemy movement and actions. Imo it makes more sense then the Horde - Alliance collaborate/war trafficlight relation. :S

Also by joining the factions vs a npc enemy faction all recreated content is easily accessible by all players. Up to now all content had to be split and created for both factions and you only play halve the game/story (unless you played both sides). If joined as one faction you get to experience the full story in every zone, this game is still a rpg, not?

[Aeula]

They’ve said they won’t.

But goddamn I wish they would. I want out of the Horde and Alliance.

[Faerillis]

Alliance / Horde should be removed for PvE, yes that means there will be no "evil" player faction.

There's never been an "evil" faction for players to join?

[shade3891]

There's never been an "evil" faction for players to join?

Well in the eyes of the Alliance Horde is often evil, I think for many events the same can be said viceversa.

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They’ve said they won’t.

But goddamn I wish they would. I want out of the Horde and Alliance.

When did they say that?

[Omedon]

Literally the only way we have more than two factions is if there was absolutely no non-warmode delineation between them, leaving the alliance and horde as the “PvP team” for every character based on their initial binary affiliation.

More likely they will retain the two factions that are core to the brand, with a toggle like war mode (or maybe the toggle will just *be* war mode) that allows for the individual choice (big theme in BFA) as to whether the player can be grouped with the other faction or not.

Multiple factions with hardline raid/group/guild delineations are absolutely not happening.

[Aeula]

When did they say that?

https://blizzardwatch.com/2018/11/05...con-interview/

Since Afrasiabi brought up the Saurfang vs. Sylvanas option, Mitch pressed him about the idea of splitting the Horde into separate factions for each camp. While the idea would be “thematically cool and appropriate for this scenario,” Afrasiabi explained that creating a third faction would really mean splitting up friendships and guilds since factions cannot adventure together. His preference would be the other way: that the Alliance and Horde could group together “one of these days.”

“That is the bigger meta lesson of Azeroth,” he concluded, “that these battles that we fought, even when we are separated, are for the same damn purpose. For our home.”

[rrayy]

You guys think that we are heading into a 3 Faction system?

Currently based on choice the Horde is splintered into 2 the Horde and the Sylvanis Loyalist, the Alliance IMHO will be given a similar option soon. Decide between Anduin and peace, or Tyrande and her vengeance. If players decide for peace they can play alongside Horde alliance being friendly, but if they side with the other 2 they are against all.

Purely a story idea I do not think this will work with PVP, but it would be kinda cool.

No. That would require a complete re-write to the entire game. Not going to happen.

[Cosmic Janitor]

No.

But there should of never been 2 factions in the first place. WoW should of been Alliance / Horde / Forsaken / Sentinels

Each faction should of been able to group with eachother freely but had their own separate hubs and stories

Ah I wish we could have been just free adventurers doing our thing and working for who ever is willing to pay :/.

Alas we were roped into a race war from the beginning with absolutely no stakes in it from a lore PoV.

[ls-]

At this point it's already proven by multiple MMOs that having 2+ factions that can't cooperate, as in no mixed raids, parties, guilds, etc is bad for a game and its community. Pretty much every game that launched w/ multiple factions got rid of faction restrictions.

Factions can exist for the sake of story and whatnot, but players shouldn't be restricted by them.

[Anti-Troll-Bot]

It seems to me one faction content is less effort in development than two or three faction content. Also, after BFA, there is probably a lot of negative feedback on faction based rewards, and that you need to replay the other faction to get their special allied races or their special mounts.

Too much to do is as bad as nothing to do.

[matrix123mko]

I guess reading a book or watching a film comes in handy in that case. If three integral parts to an MMORPG ruined the story for you.

Yes. I will always curse the day when Blizzard made WoW instead of Warcraft 4.

[Golden]

All I can say is that if they don't fix the faction imbalance in PvP, I will definitely be playing horde next expansion.

I prefer quality over quantity.

[CaptainV]

My thesis on this is:

In the next expansion tehre will still be an alliance/horde but they will only be used for pve reasons thus both factions will still exist but in essence merge into one during story specific segments.

However, there will possibly be a pvp sub story featuring two NEW factions comprised entirley of pvp alliance side, and pvp horde side in the form of Tyrande/Sylvanas.

I think they'll use this going forward as a sort of "sub theme" where the alliance/horde still exists as a pve themed entity but they are no longer at war and work against the tyrande/sylvanas factions who focus on killing each other and causing more mischief.

As for who will be in each faction including possible races from them that go beyond just forsaken/NE

Tyrande's Faction:
Tyrande/Malfurion (Faction leaders)
Admiral Rogers (Champion) Vengance for Southshore/Lordaeron, Humans join.
Ivar Bloodfang (Champion) Worgen leader with Genn being more neutral lately.
Kuradin Wildhammer (Champion) With Falstad more or less leader, Kuradin decides to take vengance on the Horde for old transgressions, dwarves/gnomes follow.
Alleria Windrunner (General) Brings some of her elven comrades and old alliance allies to the frey.
Turalyon (Champion) Convinces some Draenei/Lightforged to join the fight.


Sylvanas Faction:
Sylvanas and Nathanos (Leaders)
Gallywix (Benefactor) Gallywix joins after realizing working with two sides isnt as profitable as working against them.
Magatha Grimtotem (Champion) Grimtotem remenant joins Sylvanas.
Blood Queen Lanathel (Champion) (Possibly returned or a new blood queen/king replacement) Convinces some Elves to join her.
Rend/Maim Blackhand (Champion) (Raised or a son/daughter) Dark Horde joins the new Sylvanas front.
Zul'jinn (Raised/Champion) Forest trolls convinced to join along with some trolls.


These factions sort of serve as the new alliance/horde for story pvp purposes, possibly haveing a more story driven pvp campaign with a similar thing to war campaign but with more pvp focus.

They also get faction specific pvp capitals ONLY available to them while pvp mode is on, when it is turned off, these areas become neutral hubs.

Sylvanas Faction: Gadgetzan/Tanaris

Revamped Tanaris, Gadgetzan becomes corrupt city run by Gallywix, Sylvanas takes over and turns the desert into a dark haven for the new dark army.


Tyrande Faction: Gilneas City/Gilneas

The area becomes a new wellgrove with various factions aligned taking the city, despite Genn wanting it back, Tyrande takes it as "payment" for the Night Elves saving his people, rather forcefully.

[Zechs-cenarius]

Im glad people are starting to see that the faction system we have in WoW is very dated and in many situations should have never happened in a MMO. RTS is fine but holy crap Im hoping this crap ends soon. So many possibilities for the story to get much better when we don't have to deal with silly repetitive faction drama just for the sake of drama.

I liked how EQ did it in the past where yeah there was factions but there wasn't anything explicitly prohibiting players from playing with each other. I also feel its a missed opportunity for WoW to have a faction system similar to EQ where a human can eventually, through tons of hard work and grinding, can be friendly with the orcs lmao.

[Swnem]

After trying pvp recently in FFXIV i am of the opinion that in PvP 3 factions actually works well cause it forces players into uneasy alliances in order to trump the force winning, wich creates a player created balance. I did think that was interesting.

But in PvE, no factions, for sure. That would be the best thing.

[Rhlor]

elf faction!

[Tretlon]

With the current state of BFA storywise it would be the best moment to get rid of player factions and turn Horde / Alliance into story/reputation factions. After the last content patch they could add a questline that would set the opposite faction of your race's faction to neutral and exalted for your current one. Then you could start working for whichever side you want.

In terms of rep they could leave the neutral/friendly/honored/revered/exalted stages in and remove all the others. So if you are Alliance and start working for Horde, then once you reach friendly with Horde you'd drop from exalted to revered on Alliance. Obviously with something like that the rep stage should not just automatically progress to the next level, but require something like a quest to be completed to go to the next rep stage.

For future content this could work like this: Alliance and Horde would work on their own ways to deal with the current problems (against the Void/Light/Death/etc) without stepping on each others toes too much. Them being at peace doesn't mean they are best buddies, so they obviously don't tell each other all their secrets. So there could be 2 tiers of questlines. The quest areas would start with the one for all players, which would deal with any obvious threats in the story. After that the Horde/Alliance would give you secret quests if you are trustworthy enough (like revered+).

PvP in BGs and such can work as it does with few changes. They could just let you choose on which side of the BG you'd want to be queued, IIRC the Deserter queue in WoD was also a thing.

For World PvP they would need to come up with something new though. They could add in elements like in Lineage II: players could attack and kill each other (and since there were no hard player factions you could attack anybody), but if the attacked doesn't retaliate and gets killed like that, then the attacker becomes a Player Killer and can be hunted by anyone until your karma has been worked off (killing mobs or dying). If you have accumulated enough PKs you could even drop your items (including your equipped gear).

In WoW dropping any equippable items is a major problem, so maybe dropping some of your gold/materials or such would be more appropiate. But it could be interesting to "claim" an area with a group.
But it doesn't have to be like in Lineage II, they could simply add in some other elements for World PvP to add new incentives.