Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Khaza-R]

Islands suffered from a similar problem that Warfronts did, that being that their main gameplay loop was actively detrimental to the intended experience.
Islands were supposed to be about exploration, finding fun stuff, and generally having fun seeing all the random stuff that pops up, whether that is random dragons, pirates, or even old god incursions. Instead we had a mad dash to the finish where even the slightest pause didnt just leave you with no progress, but could indeed leave you capable of losing.
Warfronts similarly had a main gameplay loop of human wave tactics using 40 players, whereas the intended experience was supposed to be emulating playing as a hero unit in Warcraft 3. A game which many might realize doesnt have 40 hero units.

How Blizzard managed to fuck up so badly with these two features is still beyond me. I can only assume they took the bare minimum look at how they would be played by impatient players, and then decided to triple down on that.

Completely agree.

WFs would of actually worked well as a pseudo MOBA mode. Maybe with some micro on unit management. I'll never know why they basically turned it into a resource farming scenario. Probably one of the most unfun type of gimmicks in WoW.

And IEs, I don't even know where to begin. Can you imagine if we got 11 minizones with actual story and lore? I think it easily could of flipped BfA to being one of the best expansions.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I see potential in Dragon riding for new mage tower or stuff like this, since their different skins could be sorta kinda like artifact weapons in this expac. Only downside is that wouldn't be class specific reward, so people would look for easiest spec to finish it.

That is almost unavoidable, the "speedracing" mentality in the most bleeding edge players will always trend to that and I rather not cater to them, sure they'll get it fast but who cares honestly.

[Chickat]

T minus 17 hours till alpha.

Copium.

[Tsamane]

Is this confirmed?

[Chickat]

Is this confirmed?

No that's why I put copium.

[Revamp Man]

No that's why I put copium.

i mean talent tree or something mentioned i am assuming

[TS26]

it is today I can feel it in my bones

[Veluren]

it is today I can feel it in my bones

for me that's usually just arthritis.

[TS26]

for me that's usually just arthritis.

dammit. that could be it

[Hyrja]

Alpha watch has officially started

[Lady Atia]

Still surprised this isn't what Blizzard actually did. It very much sounded like you would at least have areas inside Torghast that looks the same as Maldraxxus, or Revendreth or what have you, and not just the same Torghast aesthetic with different colored filters.

Go to a new floor and it's styled to look like a section of Ardenweald, with more organic rooms and hallways. Would have spiced it up immensely.

I have to wonder whether Torghast was intended to be properly procedurally generated, instead of the fixed floor structures we have now. Would have explained a great deal about why everything looks the same.

Yeah, somewhere during the beta Torghast got changed from an endless rogue dungeon to the "twice a week choreghast" we had 'till 9.2. Which is super weird as most streamers actually loved the original iteration. It would be interesting to hear why they changed it, and if they actually think it was a mistake. I also imagine a combination of the invasion system and Torghast for 9.1 where the Jailer is chaining different realms to it - we kinda saw that with the Guardian of the First Ones raid encounter - a propper realm invasion event could have been the prelude to that and also would have shown the "infinite realms" propperly.

At the end of the day, I think Torghast was the last victim of borrowed power. They had to attach it to the legendary system which broke it's neck for everything but the two extra modes which were actually quite good, although once and done things (and for many people tainted by their choreghast experience). The weird thing is that they didn't take the one thing Island Expeditions did well - lots of cosmetics, pets and mounts to farm through. This could have saved the chorghast version atleast! (and again, a realm invasion event could have helped here too as you could have had a bunch of themed stuff for each new mini zone. Imagine a lava realm that gives us a new fireworm mount, a part of ardenweald that has feathered dragons or a shaman realm with a HD spiritwolf mount)

- - - Updated - - -

it is today I can feel it in my bones

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.

*puts on my hype hat*

Let's break the cycle of waiting!

[Worldshaper]

Let's have some fun!

What are you guys hoping to see datamined today (or later this week)?

I want:

- Cool new character and creature models.
- Music! (But unlikely this early.)
- A better look at the zones, because we haven't seen much and most of what we've seen looks so-so imo.
- Weapons and armour so I can plan out some cool alts.
- Obviously more on Dracthyr Evokers and talent trees.
- Icons! I'm a sucker for new icons, they're so colourful and pretty.
- Character customization pleeeeease. We need more!

[Lady Atia]

Let's have some fun!

What are you guys hoping to see datamined today (or later this week)?

I want:

- Cool new character and creature models.
- Music! (But unlikely this early.)
- A better look at the zones, because we haven't seen much and most of what we've seen looks so-so imo.
- Weapons and armour so I can plan out some cool alts.
- Obviously more on Dracthyr Evokers and talent trees.
- Icons! I'm a sucker for new icons, they're so colourful and pretty.
- Character customization pleeeeease. We need more!

- NPC models, especially the dragon aspects and an update to all the old classic drake and dragonkin npc's and mounts
- new mounts
- new pets
- dragonriding customizations, and a confirmation that each alt is able to customize their own four drakes like we can with pocopok
- the dracthyr models and customizations
- for character customization, I actually hope for dk green and red eyes - their new talent tree artwork already has them!
- new transmog
- new achievements
- first look at the new dungeons

[Nymrohd]

What I want is a working sandbox to come out early so I can explore the place at my leisure.

[Raetary]

Inb4 we just get an announcement for next week.

[Lahis]

Inb4 we just get an announcement for next week.

No.

We'll get a teaser of an announcement of an announcement.

[Nymrohd]

No.

We'll get a teaser of an announcement of an announcement.

Like a 2s clip with low sound and a single image that flashes a bit?

[Lahis]

Like a 2s clip with low sound and a single image that flashes a bit?

No, this week it is just a single jpg with some ominous message about next week.

Next week we will get 5 second clip.

The week after that some real announcement. Possibly still divorced from the actual Aplha release.

[Valysar]

No, this week it is just a single jpg with some ominous message about next week.

Next week we will get 5 second clip.

The week after that some real announcement. Possibly still divorced from the actual Aplha release.

Don't forget the "Alpha have been delayed due to technical issues"

[Xofoo]

I don't want to hype myself up, because that usually only leads to disappointment, but I'm hoping for good things today.