9.0 General Discussion

[Ersula]

I thought the loyalist ending made it rather clear the faction war was a manipulation to feed Death, and she planned on disposing The Horde eventually, simply Saurfangs "ill fated challenge" caused her to abandon it sooner than she anticipated. Plaguing thunderbluff too early would result in the same.

Then why give Azshara the weapon to kill N'zoth?
She mentions "the hungering maw" but not that she's in favor of it. Just that she wants more undead soldiers, as being undead is one of the few ways souls get saved from oblivion in this universe. The hungering maw is the oblivion she's been trying so hard to avoid.
The bombing thunderbluff thing was just a fan theory that turned out to be bullshit

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Isn't it pretty well known WoD cut a lot of content though? Sure felt like it.

We have early maps that show us at least 3 things were cut: Farahlon the zone (which still appears on doodad maps), Shattrath the raid (which still has the obvious location for its raid portal), and the Chronal Spire as our entry point.

[Blayze]

What do you mean, i do think we get a level squish.

I mean things like letting you go straight to Outland at level 1, and stay there until the level cap.

[Kronicsauce]

Added dino eating bread

Clearly needs a bottle of hot sauce somewhere then

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I mean things like letting you go straight to Outland at level 1, and stay there until the level cap.

While doubtful due to quest density I would take something like that instead of a world revamp. So that way I can just skip the Old World and do fun continents.

[Raizstorm]

Why though? It could be a cool new meme

True, it could add some spices to The Bolvar

[Draedarr]

We have early maps that show us at least 3 things were cut: Farahlon the zone (which still appears on doodad maps), Shattrath the raid (which still has the obvious location for its raid portal), and the Chronal Spire as our entry point.

And in the alpha stage, there was a zone southwest of Spires of Arak, that was removed later, and another island between Farahlon and Gorgrond

[keelr]

Maybe they will just use one of their old trademarks, like World of Warcraft: Cute but Deadly

[Shadochi]

We have early maps that show us at least 3 things were cut: Farahlon the zone (which still appears on doodad maps), Shattrath the raid (which still has the obvious location for its raid portal), and the Chronal Spire as our entry point.

I would say Chronal spire wasn't cut, but they decided that it wasn't a good entry point

Seems like it became Khadgars tower

[Draedarr]

I would say Chronal spire wasn't cut, but they decided that it wasn't a good entry point

Seems like it became Khadgars tower

Yes, it was in the same region of the original Chronal Spire

[C-LO1979]

I would say Chronal spire wasn't cut, but they decided that it wasn't a good entry point

Seems like it became Khadgars tower

same thing could hypothetically have happened with that Nyalotha (transit) thing becoming ICC (transit) for example.

[Augusta138]

I mean things like letting you go straight to Outland at level 1, and stay there until the level cap.

Nah i highly doubt it,
.
Thats (i think) the major hiccup about the level squish, dealing with all the expansions in between.

Either you remove them from leveling and say: here are EK and Kalimdor have fun till 60 then you can enter *enter expansions zones here* to level to 70.
Or you make them like an option to experience whatever you really like.

[Kiivar86]

We have early maps that show us at least 3 things were cut: Farahlon the zone (which still appears on doodad maps), Shattrath the raid (which still has the obvious location for its raid portal), and the Chronal Spire as our entry point.

Several zones also underwent massive changes, as seen during datamining. Gorgrond had a different storyline that was gutted (hence why it has the most bonus experience areas of all the zones, it had space left over). Shadowmoon Valley also had a large change. There was a point where the Iron Horde would've cut a scar like the Dead Scar or what the Alliance did in Tirisfal to the temple.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

same thing could hypothetically have happened with that Nyalotha (transit) thing becoming ICC (transit) for example.

No because if we're talking the leak I think we are it said Ny'alotha was in the Shadowlands.

[Kathranis]

If you look at blizzzad job openings

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/

there are a lot of announced projects

I was checking up on it last week, actually. It looks about the same, which makes sense. I doubt they're processing applicants right now with Blizzcon prep underway.

This was the last breakdown I did of the projects they were hiring for a few months back: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...1#post51279870

Not much has changed.

• Diablo Immortal seems to be mostly complete as almost all the positions have been filled. Just a couple positions left open, and QA testing positions.
• Seems like most of the Diablo IV art and design positions have been filled, as there are relatively few "unannounced Diablo project" listings now. Mostly they are hiring software engineers at this point, which means a lot of art development is probably complete.
• It looks like they've got one unannounced mobile game that's being developed in Unity, like Hearthstone was, which could mean a simultaneous PC release. There's not enough listings to gauge what kind of game it is. I believe Immortal is also Unity 3D.
• Lot fewer listings for unspecific incubator prototypes, which jives with them shifting focus to OW2 and D4. Still a few there.
• They're still hiring people to help develop their next-gen shared game engine, which has been an ongoing project for a while now. It's possible this is connected to OW2, as I believe the original plan for the OW engine was to use it as a basis for future games. Could be mistaken, it's been a while since I looked into the OW engineering stuff.
• They're hiring a combat designer for an unannounced FPS multiplayer game, which may or may not be OW2.
• Still hiring aggressively for Overwatch, including artists, writers, software engineers, and designers.
• Hiring lots of temp artists for the Cinematics Department, which makes sense as they're probably in the process of finalizing a bunch of productions for the upcoming announcements at Blizzcon.
• They're hiring lots of interns for summer 2020.

[Renley]

same thing could hypothetically have happened with that Nyalotha (transit) thing becoming ICC (transit) for example.

Good point. Or them scrapping the zone entirely(from the first Shadowlands leak), and moving it to a raid to move on from that story.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Yes, it was in the same region of the original Chronal Spire

WoD, the expansion of all wasted potentials...

[Eurothemist]

They're hiring a good amount of people for WoW, Id like to think thats a goood thing.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Several zones also underwent massive changes, as seen during datamining. Gorgrond had a different storyline that was gutted (hence why it has the most bonus experience areas of all the zones, it had space left over). Shadowmoon Valley also had a large change. There was a point where the Iron Horde would've cut a scar like the Dead Scar or what the Alliance did in Tirisfal to the temple.

Yup we actually have evidence from the reveal Blizzcon that the entire Alliance Garrison was moved. It was going to be in that forest south-west of Karabor before being moved to where it ended up being.

[C-LO1979]

No because if we're talking the leak I think we are it said Ny'alotha was in the Shadowlands.

well in this case I'm talking specifically about the map only