Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Lahis]

I think we all can agree on that not the entire team was working on Shadowlands. If indeed the entire team was working on Shadowlands, nothing can save WoW at this point if that's everything they're capable of nowadays. So lets assume a huge bunch of their employees was already working on 10.0.

That's just copium speaking. Next expansion pre-production should only take minority of the dev team. Most of them should keep the current expansion content pace on track.

[Seasz]

This A and B team is the biggest copium bs anyone could ever come out with in WoW.

[draugril]

Has this ever been confirmed? I know Blizzard has different teams and it makes sense that different groups of people would be working on individual projects but I'm pretty sure in a company the size of Blizzard a lot of the people would float between teams.

Pure speculation. We can’t possibly know what happens behind closed doors.

[Myrrh]

So, I was thinking today, if a World Revamp does not come in 10.0, and 10.0 end being something entirely different, without using the new human building models, what would that mean?

Revamp in 11.0? Waste of resources? Revamp canceled?

TL, DR: In case 10.0 isn't a World Revamp, what could be the purpose for these new buildings?

I tend to subscribe to the revamp idea in some capacity, but to play devil's advocate these buildings could easily be a passion project by a bored asset dev or something commissioned to provide experience to a grad/new team member.

IIRC the darkmoon rollercoaster is a good example of this, some devs made it for fun.

I'm guessing probably May at this point. Once the big guilds have cleared Sepelchur and all that information is out there on Youtube and such.

Eh, doubtful they will hold off on an announce for lore reasons. Both BFA (3 Nov 2017) and SL (1 Nov 2019) were announced prior to us learning of the transition lore from their raids (Antorus opened 28 Nov 2017, 8.3 released 14 Jan 2020.

I think someone suggested this 50-100 pages ago; I would tend to agree that we'd be either looking at the Game Awards in Dec or Dreamhack in Feb, leaning towards the latter so they can piggyback 9.2's launch on the new expansion hype.

[huth]

I tend to subscribe to the revamp idea in some capacity, but to play devil's advocate these buildings could easily be a passion project by a bored asset dev or something commissioned to provide experience to a grad/new team member.

IIRC the darkmoon rollercoaster is a good example of this, some devs made it for fun.

There's also the possibility of them being used for some new area, and they're just replacing outdated buildings while they're at it without any specific intent.

Eh, doubtful they will hold off on an announce for lore reasons. Both BFA (3 Nov 2017) and SL (1 Nov 2019) were announced prior to us learning of the transition lore from their raids (Antorus opened 28 Nov 2017, 8.3 released 14 Jan 2020.

Eh, they didn't exactly have much. Particularly Ny'alotha, which didn't really contain any hints to SL at all.

[TheFirstOnes]

Yeah, that's fair. They wouldn't have to make it "a bigger threat" anymore though, just a threat.



In my interpretation, instead of going to fight whatever is the bigger threat right now, it'd open up the floor for more side stories, going back/continuing the story lines of older content or going to new places where we'd just help the local populace against a local threat vs. the heroes, or these last few expansions, entire planets/realities being in constant danger. They could still do the last part for sure, but it doesn't need to last entire expansions anymore. This would also fit with partially refreshing older assets and expanding/refining chromie time (which got separate chat channels per expansion in 9.2) so old content remains available untouched.

There's a good chance this is all coming from my imagination of being able to retire my characters or letting them do more meaningless stuff, because it's been quite a ride for them.

I'm fine with the story going backwards a bit regarding power, as long as the story's at least good, and sets up the more "cosmic" side of things well enough. BFA was a MASSIVE step down from Legion in terms of threats, yet N'Zoth still ended up being a well enough threat, lore-wise.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The 'dual team' thing was discussed extensively during the transition from MoP to WoD. It's the reason so much of WoD was unfinished. The old team training the new team was a massive drain on productivity and the Devs talked quite a bit about the challenges during that time.

No there is no team 1 and team 2 for wow. What you describe are basically people who are training new people that are getting hired, not the same thing you are implying.

[Nyel]

That's just copium speaking. Next expansion pre-production should only take minority of the dev team. Most of them should keep the current expansion content pace on track.

And this is completely unfounded guesswork. We don't know how they're working, if they do it simultaenously, if they alternate between retail content patches and expansion content etc.

Assuming how little they did with Shadowlands and how much they were able to do with Legion and BfA, one must assume that they shifted workpower towards 10.0 very early during the Shadowlands-cycle. Because there were no official major layoffs when it comes to developers and creative staff.

[Relapses]

And this is completely unfounded guesswork. We don't know how they're working, if they do it simultaenously, if they alternate between retail content patches and expansion content etc.

Assuming how little they did with Shadowlands and how much they were able to do with Legion and BfA, one must assume that they shifted workpower towards 10.0 very early during the Shadowlands-cycle. Because there were no official major layoffs when it comes to developers and creative staff.

I mean, isn't this all unsubstantiated guesswork? I only asked for confirmation of the two teams thing because I haven't really kept up with the behind the scenes stuff and was wondering if they'd dropped that in one of their infodumps.

[Luck4]

So, after reading both this and another thread, I got some conclusions:

A. 10.0 is a World Revamp.
- And this means that Blizzard still loves WoW, and was working on 10.0 since BFA/Legion era.

B. 10.0 isn't a World Revamp but still a lot bigger than Shadowlands.
- And this means Blizzard still wanna put effort into WoW, and will try to give the game a comeback.

C. 10.0 isn't a World Revamp, comes only in 2023, and is smaller than any previous expansion.
- And this means...

[Varodoc]

Option D: Dragon Isles expansion, N'Zoth was alive all along, the Ren'dorei emerge to oppose him and help the dragons, is announced at Game Awards 2021 (December 9, 2021), comes out on or before December 31, 2022.

[Lahis]

Option D: Dragon Isles expansion, N'Zoth was alive all along, the Ren'dorei emerge to oppose him and help the dragons, is announced at Game Awards 2021 (December 9, 2021), comes out on or before December 31, 2022.

I doubt Geoff wants ActiBlizz spoiling the image of his show unless absolutely necessary.

[Varodoc]

I doubt Geoff wants ActiBlizz spoiling the image of his show unless absolutely necessary.

I'll admit that I'm somewhat smoking copium.

Still I hope 10.0 is revealed reasonably early into the next year, because I truly, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, don't want FillerLands to last until 2023.

[Chickat]

Raids are made from patch to patch and expansion is just another season. Especially since BfA where they didn't test at all second big raid during Beta. But zones/dungeons/new features must be made through whole expansion, it's not like team is working on patch zone for 6 months and then BAM whole continent is ready for Alpha few months after last patch.

Clear example why some things are made very early is Anima. It works exactly like AP and I bet it supposed to be artifact 3.0. But they saw people are sick of this and repurpose Anima into cosmetic territory.

Team A/team B thing is obviously bullshit. Some expansions are more popular than others (usually when stars align and good theme is combined with good patch support, new feature that clicks and new class on top of that), but everyone had different flaws. There are things that SL or BfA did better than Legion, WoD did better than MoP, Cata better than Wrath. A lot of things actually.

Our theory about 10.0 revamp is different thing. Shadowlands is clearly smaller by design (nothing to do with covid, reveal was 2019), especially compared to massive BfA. It really feels like some people are doing other things. And remember that second revamp would require much more resources than first one, Cata was just 5 years after Vanilla.

Btw, anyone counted how many quests has SL compared to BfA? I think difference is most noticeable in that field.

When shadowlands alpha started most zones were nearly complete art wise if I'm remembering correctly. We barely got anything bfor 9.1 and 9.2 is big but not 1.5 years to develop big. Either they are working on a revamp for 10.0 or the future, or the next expansion is far on along in the art department already. What have the artists and world designers been working on for the last year and a half other than the small 9.1 or 9.2?

Next xpac is either massive without a revamp or has a revamp. Nothing else makes sense to me.

- - - Updated - - -

That's just copium speaking. Next expansion pre-production should only take minority of the dev team. Most of them should keep the current expansion content pace on track.

Which is why they have to have either 10.0 art almost done by this point, or a big project aka world revamp.

[Resheph]

Next xpac is either massive without a revamp or has a revamp. Nothing else makes sense to me.

You heard it here first folks, it has or hasn't a revamp!

[Luck4]

Next xpac is either massive without a revamp or has a revamp. Nothing else makes sense to me.

That's what I think as well, but there's also the grim possibility of Blizzard not putting enough resources in WoW anymore.

[Chickat]

You heard it here first folks, it has or hasn't a revamp!

Either way the next expansion has to be big. There's no other explanation for why the art team has produced so little on a year and a half.

- - - Updated - - -

That's what I think as well, but there's also the grim possibility of Blizzard not putting enough resources in WoW anymore.

Last we heard the wow team is growing and bigger than it was during WoD and Legion. Either 90% of the dev team is lazy and incompetent, or they are working on something big. Doesn't have to be a revamp, but it's something.

[maxje98]

Some spoilers about after the raid:

https://twitter.com/Stiven_SRB/statu...91434933624835

Dont know if anyone has posted this, but it appears that Sylvanas will be a person of importance after the raid?

[Luck4]

You heard it here first folks, it has or hasn't a revamp!

He's making a good point, I mean if it's not a revamp then it's a big expansion, like Legion, otherwise, Blizzard isn't putting resources in WoW as they did in the past, doing only the bare minimum to milk the community as much as possible before the game becomes a ghost town.

[Makorus]

Some spoilers about after the raid:

https://twitter.com/Stiven_SRB/statu...91434933624835

Dont know if anyone has posted this, but it appears that Sylvanas will be a person of importance after the raid?

I don't know about this.

Maiev, Alleria and Vereesa being there is weird. So is Lillian Voss, but she is involved in some way.