Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[NikolaiShade]

That’s because dalaran is the capitol obviously
The map is nothing like the broken isles

And what extremely vague similarities there could be are without a doubt intentional and perfectly justified in universe

[AngerFork]

Honestly, all bets are off on what the timeline looks like now. Q4 isn't as pressing of a matter and the whole MW2 + WoW Expansion seems less likely now. Maybe they will have time to develop the expansion?

Revamp squad where you at?

If anything, I think this solidifies my prediction of revamp in 11.0 if it isn't already set for 10.0 (which I still feel is unlikely). A revamp setting up for 11.0 gives us a new version of WoW with updated graphics that could be played on PC or XBox (with Game Pass maybe?) that would come out for the 20th Anniversary of WoW. The marketing basically writes itself at that point.

Plus with Microsoft behind the studio & Kotick almost certainly gone at that point, the team will have whatever resources they actually need for dev/QA work needed.

[Kiivar86]

Are you for real? You can even see the tree in Val'sharah.
Dalaran is located in the same place. The Broken Shore is in place. Y'all need glasses. You guys are too gullible.

I know you're banned but, man, you really can't tell people are joking?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Well this thread went to amusing places.......over a joke >.> >.>

[huth]

I know you're banned but, man, you really can't tell people are joking?

Joking? Nobody in this thread has ever made any jokes, good sir or madam. Never! Especially not about the Broken Isles, or about login screens for a fake Azshara expansion.

[Raetary]

Are you for real? You can even see the tree in Val'sharah.
Dalaran is located in the same place. The Broken Shore is in place. Y'all need glasses. You guys are too gullible.

The joke didn't just fly over your head, it flung itself into another dimension.

[Kiivar86]

Joking? Nobody in this thread has ever made any jokes, good sir or madam. Never! Especially not about the Broken Isles, or about login screens for a fake Azshara expansion.

Ah you're right, my mistake. A momentary lapse in my judgment, that's all!

[crusadernero]

I disagree. The important step for revamped levelling in this case would be to make something that naturally slots in after Exiles Reach in such a way that future expansions can give as little explanation as possible for new players to accept it.
And yes, it could get outdated again, but that will happen no matter what, and at least with this you are guaranteed a baseline level of understanding of the plot.

BfA is a pretty good 10-50 levelling area especially for Alliance, but the entire point of changing levelling in SL was to ensure players have the same understanding of the story going into the 50-60 zones. And it's just by coincidence that it worked out so well with BfA having approachable levelling, SL for instance would be a massive lurch if it became the 10-50 levelling.

And again, revamping zones for 10-50 is just one aspect, the more important aspect would be using it for endgame content, or better still made to such quality that it can continually be reused.


Regardless, if 10-50 levelling in revamped zones is a bust, and instead we use BfA forever then I would still want endgame zones in revamped zones.

Thats assuming every new story/lore in the future is connected to the revamped EK/K in 10.0. If its not, its disconnected and detached from 11.0 and onwards. Looking at the trackrecord of Blizzard and xpac story, they pretty much make each xpac unique and if you only play through one of them(Lets say BC) while leveling then enter current xpac, it makes no sense. The only thing every xpac have in common is that in the last patch/raid we get somewhat of a transition over to new xpac.

I'd like a total revamp of EK/K as anyone else, but I also understand is quite an undertaking for very little in return.

[The Stormbringer]

So many "leaks" about Dragon Isles. I won't bite. I still hold strong: #teamworldrevamperino

I feel like it's gonna be The Emerald Dream. Just a feeling, I could be going for the obvious hints, but it would work well for an expansion where we have to help heal Azeroth.

[Makabreska]

Y u guys mean?

[Akta]

do you really think the teams didn't know about that ? do you really think that ybba coming from microsoft was a random move? they already put him in charge of controlling blizzard and wow next products

[The Stormbringer]

While a similar shape you can obviously see that there is an island below Blue Dragonaria that isn't under Azsuna, also the zones edges dont follow the exact same shape as seen when comparing Broken Shore and the island below Red Dragonia. Does the Broken Shore maybe get revamped into Dragon Isles?

EDIT: Also all zone names are different

Woah, you cracked the code! Dragonia is real!

[Sondrelk]

Thats assuming every new story/lore in the future is connected to the revamped EK/K in 10.0. If its not, its disconnected and detached from 11.0 and onwards. Looking at the trackrecord of Blizzard and xpac story, they pretty much make each xpac unique and if you only play through one of them(Lets say BC) while leveling then enter current xpac, it makes no sense. The only thing every xpac have in common is that in the last patch/raid we get somewhat of a transition over to new xpac.

I'd like a total revamp of EK/K as anyone else, but I also understand is quite an undertaking for very little in return.

Future expansions will however be linked to something we already know, otherise the plot just falls in on itself.
Take for instance as I ahve mentioned before, a plotline dealing ith the Dark Iron rebels attempting to ressurect Ragnaros. This plot would be quite difficult to understand for players who have no idea what separates the different Dwarf clans, or who Ragnaros is, or why he is dead. You could have all this exposition in the relevant expansions narrative, but this would come across as very stilted and forced.

Or just take Shadowlands itself. Understanding much of the plot here requires knowing who Bolvar is, who Sylvanas is, how they both relate to the Lich King Arthas, how he in turn relates to the other human nations like what Anduin is a king of, hether they are related or not given how similar they look, etc.

All this stuff should ideally be explained to new players in a somewhat natural ay so they don't go around questioning everything. You need to give the player the baseline amount of information so they don't question stuff, or if they do that they feel compelled to understand it more organically.
Understanding all the nuances of who Bolvar is might be difficult to understand naturally, but if you give players a brief history on the Scourge and how we eventually defeated Arthas in WotLK then it's easier for new players to feel invested enough in the story to learn more. Maybe they run the old WotLK raids, or level a new character with Chromie Time to see what happened in Northrend.

If you skip over all this then new players just see a weird lava guy everyone calls the Lich King, and learn about this weird lady who made a hole in the sky that everyone is cross about. And while some players might look around to understand what this is all about there isnt actually anywhere obvious you can go in-game to really learn about all this stuff. You instead need to slowly and methodically go through all the quests looking for the actual info, hoping to eventually piece everything together. This all leads players to the wiki instead, if not ending up completely detached from the plot, which is a horrible way to play what is a story driven RPG.

[Jokubas]

I feel like it's gonna be The Emerald Dream. Just a feeling, I could be going for the obvious hints, but it would work well for an expansion where we have to help heal Azeroth.

While it's almost certainly going to get some serious retcons due to its relevance to all the new cosmic stuff, the old "titan's blueprint of Azeroth" description of the Emerald Dream could be a way to actually get both Emerald Dream and world revamp. We could get an in-universe "world revamp" where the Emerald Dream is somehow being used to repair the damage from Sargeras' sword or maybe even some damage Zovaal leaves behind. Of course we don't really have any evidence to expect this (except maybe a possible interpretation of the "Living World" strings), but I can't help but see connections between things (which is probably one of the reason I'm easily distracted from the obvious expansion theme, even when it's something I've speculated about myself). ;P

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Man there sure are a lot of leaks suddenly.

Makes you think the real one's already happened and someone's trying to flood the zone.



Also great news today, I actually feel optimistic about Blizzard's future for the first time in like 5 years.

[The Stormbringer]

While it's almost certainly going to get some serious retcons due to its relevance to all the new cosmic stuff, the old "titan's blueprint of Azeroth" description of the Emerald Dream could be a way to actually get both Emerald Dream and world revamp. We could get an in-universe "world revamp" where the Emerald Dream is somehow being used to repair the damage from Sargeras' sword or maybe even some damage Zovaal leaves behind. Of course we don't really have any evidence to expect this (except maybe a possible interpretation of the "Living World" strings), but I can't help but see connections between things (which is probably one of the reason I'm easily distracted from the obvious expansion theme, even when it's something I've speculated about myself). ;P

Basically what I was thinking, yeah. If the Emerald Dream is a 'blueprint' of Azeroth, then somehow using it to heal and repair the planet would make a lot of sense, and could tie in well with a world re-vamp, especially after a lot of damage is done. Heck, it could even be close to the idea of 'World Shaping' for some zones, where you change what they're like over the course of questing, dailies, or patches.

[Jokubas]

Basically what I was thinking, yeah. If the Emerald Dream is a 'blueprint' of Azeroth, then somehow using it to heal and repair the planet would make a lot of sense, and could tie in well with a world re-vamp, especially after a lot of damage is done. Heck, it could even be close to the idea of 'World Shaping' for some zones, where you change what they're like over the course of questing, dailies, or patches.

I was even thinking that, while the titans making the "blueprint" is probably not true anymore, that doesn't mean the concept still can't be. I feel like they're trying to make Azeroth even more important (which I'm not really a fan of, but if it becomes canonical that's not the point), in which case the lore can just be shifted to a similar idea like "the Emerald Dream is a backup drive in case something happens to Azeroth", since that would be a really good idea to have if Azeroth is the keystone of reality it's starting to seem like it might be.

[The Stormbringer]

I can definitely see something like that happening, Jokubas. It would still keep the essence of the Emerald Dream, just shift it slightly to fit their modern sensibilities of "Azeroth is the center of the universe" that's popped up.

That said, I do still think a lot of dragons would be involved, I just have a feeling it'll be the ED instead of Dragon Isles. Could be wrong, mind you, but it's my gut feeling.

[Ersula]

I'm still betting on a "classic RPG" themed expansion: Focus on analog fantasy elements, perhaps a Bard class. That's the one classic dungeons & dragons class not represented in Wow. Even Dungeons & Dragons rarely feature's dragons because they're kind of boring. I'm sure dragons will be included but they won't be the focus of the expansion.

[Sondrelk]

I'm still betting on a "classic RPG" themed expansion: Focus on analog fantasy elements, perhaps a Bard class. That's the one classic dungeons & dragons class not represented in Wow. Even Dungeons & Dragons rarely feature's dragons because they're kind of boring. I'm sure dragons will be included but they won't be the focus of the expansion.

I am going to go straight for the "devs are apologizing" angle and say the next expansion will have lots of focus on rebuilding Azeroth. Initially with helping the aspects, but also with stuff like rebuilding outposts and generally just lots of focus on how we are back on Azeroth doing Azeroth related things.