The Storm Peaks - make more zones like this.

[vitor210]

i disagree. but just bc of own taste. i hate winter zones (ice, snow, etc) and i hated storm peak especially.

but thats all subjective and based on taste and since that zone has nothing special objectively, there will be not much to discuss in this thread.

so, what you expected with that thread ? 2 sites of single word posts that say „agree“ or „disagree“ before the thread fades into nowhereland ? and than ?

hell, do at least a poll, if just asking for plain personal taste...

Ah yes a typical MMOC topic. Someone makes a post about a personal opinion, the very first comment is someone trying to discredit it

[Eapoe]

Flight isn’t required for almost the entirety of Storm Peaks. If yo like the zone, that’s awesome, but almost every area you can’t get to has some kind of taxi or transportation service.
As someone else mentioned, there are roughly 2 quest chains that require it, and I don’t even remember that many. I think there’s one at the side of the mountain to meet some mechagnomes, but other than that I can’t remember any.
Hell, even most of Icecrown could be done without flight.

[A Chozo]

Hell no, Storm Peaks is a bore. You really can't immerse yourself in such a zone. It's beautiful, but so are paintings, and I wanna play a game, not a painting.

Are you just parroting Preach here?

He is.

[loras]

Storm Peaks is the epitome of mediocre zone design though. Just sheer cliffs surrounding disjointed, generic flat areas.

Yet somehow it manages to be more interesting than just about all of Legion's initial zones combined, barring Suramar perhaps. Same with BfA honestly.

And as others mention: it's hardly the only zone like that, deepholme is another excellent example.
I cannot speak for pandaria as i skipped that expansion (though i did like jade forest), but when looking at almost every zone since the start of WoD there is something deeply disappointing about them that becomes especially clear as flying is unlocked.

You just see so much potential that is squandered because they didn't want to bother with designing zones to be inherently interesting after levelling.
The biggest irony is that they then use world quests to force you into said zones because weirdly enough they are deserted unless people are forced into them.

[Hyrican]

Storm Peaks isn't one of my favorite zones or anything but I'd say it puts Icecrown to shame as an epic 'last zone of the expansion'.

probably the same problem as "The Maw" when the concept of a zone is to be "bleak" and "barren".

Just like with Diablo.. everything dark and gloomy ... does not make for a long time enjoyment in it for most people. Just as "goth" is not for everyone all the time.

[THEORACLE64]

Just leveled through The Storm Peaks. It was awesome. It feels like a Giant Ice World and the way that flying is integrated into the zone is amazing. Blizzard should in my opinion make more zones like The Storm Peaks based on flying.

Agree.. disagree?

Are you kidding? It's one of the worst zones in the game, although nothing is as bad as Zul'Drak.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

probably the same problem as "The Maw" when the concept of a zone is to be "bleak" and "barren".

Just like with Diablo.. everything dark and gloomy ... does not make for a long time enjoyment in it for most people. Just as "goth" is not for everyone all the time.

The zone isn't for you then, it appeals to specific people who like that kind of thing.

[CheckThyself]

the atmosphere of the zone is amazing, sure i'll agree to that.
navigating that zone before flying was a nightmare.
from a visual stand point it is worth it.

[thilicen]

Hated that place with a passion. No thanks.

[Kralljin]

I like Storm peaks, one of my favorite zones in the game.

Bigass mountains with snow, looks cool and makes the world feel much bigger.

[Ielenia]

I think when you write ,,thread" you meant "thread". Learn to use quotation marks.

Here's a hint: the poster did not use two commas like you did, there. You'd have noticed that if you tried to select the quotation mark.

Here's another hint: different keyboard layouts and different keyboard languages exist.

[alt-ithist]

You can quest through storm peak without flying, it was actually designed in the same fashion as current zones, just with a lot more dead space. The same thing people bitch about current leveling zones is what the OP is praising. Lots of verticality which makes it impossible to run straight through on the ground. If you think it’s immersive with flying, you really should’ve tried it without. Making your way through it with the goblin campaign, fighting your way through the path to the son’s of Hodir quest line, to finally reaching the foot of Thorims mountain and looking up from its base, the. making your way up there by leaping from protodrake to protodrake till you reach the top. Flying kills immersion and it’s hard to believe that’s subjective.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

probably the same problem as "The Maw" when the concept of a zone is to be "bleak" and "barren".

Just like with Diablo.. everything dark and gloomy ... does not make for a long time enjoyment in it for most people. Just as "goth" is not for everyone all the time.

It didn't even have to be like that. Icecrown in WC3 was more of a raging snowzone like Storm Peaks (with Undead), instead of the Mordor ripoff it was turned into in WoW. The lack of the said WC3 Icecrown was a huge personal disappointment for me back then.

[Hitei]

Yet somehow it manages to be more interesting than just about all of Legion's initial zones combined, barring Suramar perhaps. Same with BfA honestly.

And as others mention: it's hardly the only zone like that, deepholme is another excellent example.
I cannot speak for pandaria as i skipped that expansion (though i did like jade forest), but when looking at almost every zone since the start of WoD there is something deeply disappointing about them that becomes especially clear as flying is unlocked.

You just see so much potential that is squandered because they didn't want to bother with designing zones to be inherently interesting after levelling.
The biggest irony is that they then use world quests to force you into said zones because weirdly enough they are deserted unless people are forced into them.

It doesn't manage that at all. I don't even like Highmountain, but it's just flat out a better designed mountainous zone. It makes sense. It's hilly, its areas flow one into the other. Storm Peaks is just Dragonblight assets pasted onto plateaus that make absolutely no sense, bounded by super lazy mountains.

I don't know why you're pushing the design thing so much. Nothing about Storm Peaks is designed to be more interesting after leveling. It's still the same dumb, flat quest areas that you went through while leveling, surrounded by the exact same random 90 degree straight up mountaintops, only now you can go up and down them faster because of 280/310. Like I don't know how anyone can, with any degree of objectivity, pretend Storm Peaks is the zone that they put a lot of effort into.

It wasn't some elaborate attempt to be multi-faceted. That's why you get handed a rental flying mount when you go there. Because they literally didn't bother to design it making any sense at all except as disjointed levels you fly up and down between.

Also I don't know why you're whining about world quests, when wrath did the exact same shit. The only reason anyone went to Storm Peaks was for Hodir dailies to fly to Ulduar, or to check if TLPD was up. Wrath zones weren't exactly known for being full of life.

The only good thing about the zone is that it has some of the best music in the game.

[Thelyron]

thats the perfect example for the uselessness of this thread. you go like „in WotLK it was Storm Peak, in Cata Deepholme, in Legion Suramar...“

know what ? not for me. not in the slightest. thats just your personal taste and i see no metric why these zones should be special and should reflect that oppinion by thousands or millions out there. i personally think Suramar was a giant copy paste Zone that give max level chars endless useless quests to give them something to do, by the cheapest way possible. do it again on 1 alt (even today) and it is the best in game „feature“ to get you vomit.

look: in cata for me the most special zone was Vashjir. and, in contrast to many others, i loved it. what we can say here is:
- objectively it was special, because first underwater zone in game.
- subjectively for me it was great.
- subjectively for others it sucked.

now, what does this say, objectively about your Cata Deepholm Zone ?
Nothing.

This thread is imho completely useless.

But it isn't useless. It's a good opportunity for you to learn that your tastes are shit, and to adjust them accordingly.

[Doffen]

Storm Peaks got my favorite questline in the game, Thorim/Ulduar. Only one who can compete is Suramar's Insurrection. The music as well is great, deffo my top 5 musical themes in the game.

[CerealLord]

Storm Peaks was one of my favorite WotLK zones. I didn't care that flying was integrated but the quest jumping from drake to drake was fun as shit. I like those silly quests.

[Brostin]

I thought Highmountain in Legion felt like a zone designed for flying, but with flying turned off. Did anyone enjoy how tedious it was if you went the wrong way in that zone and had to backtrack for ages?

Definitely like flying zones though.

[loras]

It doesn't manage that at all. I don't even like Highmountain, but it's just flat out a better designed mountainous zone. It makes sense. It's hilly, its areas flow one into the other. Storm Peaks is just Dragonblight assets pasted onto plateaus that make absolutely no sense, bounded by super lazy mountains.

I don't know why you're pushing the design thing so much. Nothing about Storm Peaks is designed to be more interesting after leveling. It's still the same dumb, flat quest areas that you went through while leveling, surrounded by the exact same random 90 degree straight up mountaintops, only now you can go up and down them faster because of 280/310. Like I don't know how anyone can, with any degree of objectivity, pretend Storm Peaks is the zone that they put a lot of effort into.

It wasn't some elaborate attempt to be multi-faceted. That's why you get handed a rental flying mount when you go there. Because they literally didn't bother to design it making any sense at all except as disjointed levels you fly up and down between.

Also I don't know why you're whining about world quests, when wrath did the exact same shit. The only reason anyone went to Storm Peaks was for Hodir dailies to fly to Ulduar, or to check if TLPD was up. Wrath zones weren't exactly known for being full of life.

The only good thing about the zone is that it has some of the best music in the game.

I suppose you missed the foothills that border zul'drak and crystalsong.
The storm peaks, somewhat ironically, are more of a high mountainous area than Highmountain, which is basically a misplaced bunch of mountains on an oddly small island, to say nothing of the weirdass transitions between val'sharah and suramar.
So no, i do not think that Highmountain makes any more sense than storm peaks, at best it has some better fidelity in the small misplaced slice-of-a-mountain-range that it is.

Perhaps i've worded it wrong, as i did not mean to imply effort, but rather a difference in allocation of such efforts. I believe that they have placed similar effort into, for example, high mountain and the storm peaks, but that the effort in high mountain was focussed on small scale stories which the landscape served whereas in the storm peaks it is a landscape in which stories happen.
The latter approach leads to more believable landscapes, better atmosphere and immersion in my opinion, whereas the highmountain approach yields something that seems better if you put your nose on the details while ignoring the bigger picture.
Issues with the latter arise when you face a landscape more often than once such as is to be expected in an mmo.

Also i have very different memories of wrath, especially in the early days when gathering resources and farming materials was a common thing.

And yes, it does have some of the best music in game, something which i'd argue only underscores the excellence of the zone.

[Smash Adams]

I absolutely loved Storm Peaks. The music and atmosphere are unmatched. Some of the quests were annoying(Genuinely disliked the entire chain that involves riding that stupid bear).