World of Warcraft Dragonflight IGN Developer Interview
IGN interviewed Ion Hazzikostas and Steve Danuser about Dragonflight.
IGN Interview
- They have been laying the groundworks for this expansion since even before Shadowlands.
- The zones of the Dragon Isles are not particularly themed after each specific flights like in Dragonblight.
- Each zone, however, has powerful links to a particular flight.
- The Dragon Isles are very vertical.
- The dragons were forced to leave this land during the Sundering when the elemental energy waned, but recent events have caused it to surge and the time to reclaim their homeland has come.
- There will be a lot more exploration than in Shadowlands, but the zone order will remain the same for everyone on their first character. Telling a linear storyline is not easy utilizing the Legion and Battle for Azeroth "choose your zone order" methods.
- Each individual zone will have a lot of freedom.
- The continent encourages exploration. Different reputations will unlock new stories as you progress.
- The team thought of the new race early in development.
- The team realized early that none of the existing classes fit the theme of the race very well.
- The new talent system was a way to address the constant new systems without adding new systems every expansion.
- The new talent system was a way to return to the roots in a sense. The goal is to allow maximum customization and the ability to be an actual hybrid.
- The talent system will easily allow you to customize your talents based on the encounter.
- As you level up your Dragon-riding you will be able to reach certain locations and do things you couldn't do with normal flying.
- They wanted to create a sense of aspiration for unlocking areas you can see but couldn't reach with simple flying.
- The profession revamp allows players to have work orders and collaborative crafting to work together for rare crafting materials.
- The new work order system allows crafters to post items with materials and commissions.
- The UI revamp was done to bring the UI into the modern era of large monitors.
- The team doesn't want to take away your addons, but give you the ability to play the game without having to rely on so many of them.
- The Horde and Alliance are working together in Dragonflight.
- The Dragonscale Expedition is the name of the Horde and Alliance expedition.
- The team isn't perfectly happy with personal loot and knows there is room to improve. They have nothing to announce but want to improve collaborative loot.
- Tier sets will remain in Dragonflight.
- The team will improve on the Great Vault from Shadowlands.
- The Bronze dragons will allow us to see unique stories involving timelines.
- Wrathion is a big part of the story. He has never seen these lands before.