9.0 General Discussion

[jzhbee]

Yeah, I don't even particularly care if it's alpha, tbh. A lot of people in this thread have been like "give me the juicy models", but I couldn't care less. I want solid info on systems, specifically class design. I took "no major overhauls" to mean "No Surv hunter or Demo lock type overhaul from Legion", but Classes won't play properly if they don't give something to supplement lost Azerite traits and Essences.

Also plz revert GCD change

My damage CDs in Classic are off the GCD.

[MrGMYT]

The Blizz CDNs have been super quiet the last couple of days. Very unusual

[Edward Wu]

According to my very authentic sources, Shadowlands alpha is slated to drop sometime in 2020. You can quote me on this.

[threads]

another week of no alpha?

[MrGMYT]

Its been nearly a week since we've had an encrypted build on wowv or wowdev. Very unusual

[Valysar]

another week of no alpha?

We're only monday, don't give up hope even if some "streamers" are not confident.

[Chickat]

I actually think of Bwonsamdi as more of a mortal troll that ascended into Loahood, rather than a 'wild god'. I doubt the he was created by the Titans.

I've had quite a lot of people argue with me that he isn't, but it just doesn't fit




I still find it curious how Bwonsamdi has a 'blood moon' thing that he does. Is it blood magic, or just something cool that he can do?

I think the same thing. I think Bwonsamdi and Voljin are going to be like 2 opposing heads. I think the arbiter or Elune elevated Voljin to loa level and he will either be the loa of Kings or light or both.

[Monster Hunter]

I'm failing to see what presumably (based on a 6-year-old discussion) costly calls to a random number generator on a server that's probably not even the immediate one the game client connects to have to do with performance issues on the client side.

It's a world boss that's close to areas where you do dailies/events, unlike the Uldum one that's only close to the quest hub for the Aqir Assault, and which is zerged more because of overtuned mechanics. I've also noticed (anecdotal evidence) that it's more likely for ganks/counter-raids to happen for this boss, further increasing the number of players involved.

It's not the server checking whether a proc procs, it's the number of players that cause the issues.

its not client side perfomance issues. the rubber banding that is the hallmark of the BFA issues points to it being server side. my personal theory is that its probably related to load balancing more than anything.

but that doesn't detract from random still being very inefficient which is my only point. what the actually causes it i wouldn't speculate without seeing the system and code. but im still going to point out to people that random number generators, especially generic ones from library's should be avoided if possible.

[Chickat]

Can you imagine Hakkar being the boss of Bwonsamdi?
Just think about all the souls the blood plague must have brought them...

I've thought about what if the arbiter or Elune is bwonsamdis boss? Probably not the arbiter but it could be Elune. I think Elune will be on the good side of the spectrum, but she has two sides. You have the priests and then you have her dark side servant Bwonsamdi. Also maybe with ysera dead Voljin is taking her place as her light side servant?

[Queen of Hamsters]

I agree with you.

Problem is that all they care about at the end of the day is money (prove me wrong, white knights, I see you).

And while people stay subbed (thanks, Horrific Visions, and THANKS, Classic...) they can do whatever the f they want - having a good morning coffee giggle at this thread on a Tuesday...

So they literally have to do NOTHING to please you and I while we stay subbed (and we are).

WoD says hello.

This "woe is us as poor consumers"-crap is getting old.

The only truth is that unless they keep people wanting to play, they'll not make any money. If you think that the tiny TINY minority of people always whining on these forums represent the entire playerbase, then you need to step out of the bubble.

The vast majority either play the game, because they want to, or they don't, which loses Blizzard money. Simple.There is no logic in thinking that they'd be twirling moustaches and giggling at us all rather than working hard at releasing a new expansion to keep the money coming in.

I don't doubt that there are fools playing and spending money on a title they can't stand, we have such individuals on these forums after all, but to assume that the entire fickle population would be the same? In that case, Blizzard has pulled off a miracle in entertainment media.

As for "all they care about is money", I wouldn't say that applies to every individual in the entire team that works on the game, bringing their dogs to work, interacting with fans. But, I'm not one for victim mentality in the first place.

[LemonDemonGirl]

I've thought about what if the arbiter or Elune is bwonsamdis boss? Probably not the arbiter but it could be Elune. I think Elune will be on the good side of the spectrum, but she has two sides. You have the priests and then you have her dark side servant Bwonsamdi. Also maybe with ysera dead Voljin is taking her place as her light side servant?

What if Bwonsamdi is the Arbiter, Elune or Mueh'Zala's son? And he's just scared of his parents getting mad at him because he lost a soul?

Hmm... I'm not sure about him being Elune's 'dark side' servant. He has glowing eyes that aren't black unless they're 'closed'. Unless there's another moon deity?

[ercarp]

another week of no alpha?

As I said earlier in the thread, I think there's a high chance we'll get a datamineable build this week, but it will probably be later in the week. And after that, playable build will probably drop at some point next week. That's what I'm guessing.

I think we can at least make a reasonable assumption that we're getting a build this month no matter what, whether it's datamineable, playable, or both. I just can't foresee a reality where they would make us wait until April or later—seems highly unlikely.

[Queen of Hamsters]

As I said earlier in the thread, I think there's a high chance we'll get a datamineable build this week, but it will probably be later in the week. And after that, playable build will probably drop at some point next week. That's what I'm guessing.

I think we can at least make a reasonable assumption that we're getting a build this month no matter what, whether it's datamineable, playable, or both. I just can't foresee a reality where they would make us wait until April or later—seems highly unlikely.

Please be right about the datamine build this week... It is highly anticipated!! D:

[infinitemeridian]

It's literally Monday, ya'll need to chill. Even if streamers have inside info, it's likely when the builds will be playable, not when they're datamineable, which I believe is what most people here are hyped for.

[Newname1234567890]

Especially with Ion's "lot more to talk about with Shadowlands in the very near future" which was said Feb 11 (or at least that's when the interview was published on Warcraft Radio YouTube).

We're about to be a month from that comment in 2 days and no peep or inklings of SL information coming. Especially yeah accounting for 5 months without any much information about it.

When the timeline laid out by that im shocked we havent heard anything. Not even like the release of some artwork, nothing.

[FlubberPuddy]

I think we can at least make a reasonable assumption that we're getting a build this month no matter what, whether it's datamineable, playable, or both. I just can't foresee a reality where they would make us wait until April or later—seems highly unlikely.

Yeah I agree here. It's for sure at least going to come out this month. It would actually be really concerning if April comes and there isn't anything. Although chances are very slim for that.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Yeah I agree here. It's for sure at least going to come out this month. It would actually be really concerning if April comes and there isn't anything. Although chances are very slim for that.

If we were waiting until May...then I'd wonder what is going on over there in Cali.

[Merryck]

Heyo, Blizzard even admits their is a distinct performance problem with 40v40 content at the moment, nerfing ashran to a 25v25 bg in the mean time as they figure out a solution.

But the solution is obvious: get rid of all the RNG procs.

- - - Updated - - -

But yes, Alpha on thursday.

[Eurhetemec]

well that was true, but usually due to players having shit pcs.. so it was fps issue, now it's server lag issue. And you can easily prove that by playing on a highly populated pserver

No. WoW had completely shit netcode for the majority of Vanilla. People forget that. It was dreadful. And at various points in WoW's history, it's had real lag issues. This was frequently the case in Vanilla and TBC in Alterac Valley for example. And no, this wasn't "an FPS issue" (especially as I ran ridiculously fancy rigs back then). I dunno how old you were, but I was in my late 20s. I'd been playing first-person-shooters online since they existed, and was extremely clear on the difference between FPS drop and actual lag.

Also in tbc/wrath when they were live i remember having huge battles and it was fine. Even on my old PC without SSD and with shitty fps

What you're forgetting is that they weren't ALWAYS fine (if they were for you, you must have been staggeringly lucky). The more you space people out, the better large-scale battles work in WoW. AV was fine unless everyone was close together and fighting (on both sides), for example. Lake Wintergrasp was usually relatively lag-free, because people were spaced out everywhere, and often there wasn't much fighting if there were a lot of people close together (because you tended to quickly wipe out the other side). But even it could have times when it was running less-than-perfectly.

The TM vs SS brawl smashes both sides together in a pretty narrow corridor and has them fighting constantly in a way that wasn't true of AV (most of the time) or Lake Wintergrasp (most of the time). This is why it is very laggy. In heavy fighting on PvP servers (or when everyone was flagged) in the outdoor world, WoW regularly got ridiculously laggy. People used to joke about it. I also note that Tol Barad had some lag issues, despite trying to space people out.

WoW has never had netcode well-optimized for large clashes in small areas - it's not DAoC.

- - - Updated - - -

its not client side perfomance issues. the rubber banding that is the hallmark of the BFA issues points to it being server side. my personal theory is that its probably related to load balancing more than anything.

but that doesn't detract from random still being very inefficient which is my only point. what the actually causes it i wouldn't speculate without seeing the system and code. but im still going to point out to people that random number generators, especially generic ones from library's should be avoided if possible.

You seem to be assuming it all works on an random number generator that's generating random numbers for each event, though, and that's very unlikely, precisely because it's inefficient (as literally anyone who knows anything about them knows), and as well-qualified as you may well be, I think you'd agree that Blizzard has people with far more expertise working for it.

It's much more likely they're using some kind of continuous seed to do the randomization (yes that makes it less random, potentially, but that's fine), rather than "rolling dice" (I mean, I know you're not really saying that, but the dude who was, was so profoundly clueless that it's staggering, and that people believe him is outright worrying).

[Hitei]

I've thought about what if the arbiter or Elune is bwonsamdis boss? Probably not the arbiter but it could be Elune. I think Elune will be on the good side of the spectrum, but she has two sides. You have the priests and then you have her dark side servant Bwonsamdi. Also maybe with ysera dead Voljin is taking her place as her light side servant?

What if Bwonsamdi is the Arbiter, Elune or Mueh'Zala's son? And he's just scared of his parents getting mad at him because he lost a soul?

Hmm... I'm not sure about him being Elune's 'dark side' servant. He has glowing eyes that aren't black unless they're 'closed'. Unless there's another moon deity?

The implication with Elune always seemed to be that the trolls thought of her as a "Loa" not that she had any real connection to the troll Loa structure. I can't imagine she has any specific relation to Bwonsamdi.

Also we have seen Elune's dark side, in both the Night Warrior, and to a lesser extent, Balance druids, as well as in Legion with Ysera. It is still distinctly an arcane/star/space sort of thing, not like Bwonsamdi's vibrant ghost-spirit magic and ectoplasmy necromancy.

Also really doubt Bwonsamdi is the Arbiter's son, given how completely at odds their designs are.