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  1. #1

    What do you think about HUGE capital cities? (Orgrimmar/Stormwind)

    Pretty much anyone who is everyone should know by now that in WoW's earlier alpha builds (before the game launched), some of the capital cities were a bit larger and had additional levels or sections that were either taken out or made inaccessible prior to the game releasing. Blizzard didn't want to make cities "too confusing" to navigate and, in particular, made both Undercity and Ironforge a bit smaller by removing planned sections to the cities and their respective layouts.

    So, I pose a question. Would you like it if Blizzard expanded Stormwind and Orgrimmar to be several times larger than they currently are and laid them out more like a complex, large city with multiple districts? For the sake of argument and dilemma, we'll assume the cities are both perfectly laid out so that no matter where you are in them, relevant points of interest (banks, auction houses, mail boxes, etc) are always pretty close nearby. Also pretend that they manage to expand the cities flawlessly without damaging any of the surrounding zones or areas the cities are in.

    You can always opt to use one of the several smaller, unchanged capitols if you don't like how large Stormwind and Orgrimmar made. Essentially speaking, both cities would be terraformed and revamped to be roughly the size of a small zone and would be carefully laid out to feel more like a 'real' city. Also pretend that this wouldn't be an impossibly high tax on the WoW team that would result in them getting nothing else done.

    So, would you, in hypothetical theory, think it would be cool if Stormwind and Orgrimmar were expanded into 'super cities' that were ridiculous and expansive in scale?

  2. #2
    High Overlord RotDog's Avatar
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    Actually, yes. I would very much like that. When I first started playing (MoP), I found the cities very confusing, but now they don't seem big enough. I want them to feel like MAJOR CITIES, the capitals, the center of attention for each faction. I want them to feel much more powerful. The size of them now is pretty easy to learn to navigate honestly. I don't think it would hurt to add more.
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  3. #3
    In terms of size, Stormwind is fine, but the rest of them need an update, and I'm happy to see Darnassus burnt into the ground. Why? Well, the Night Elven capital should be on Mt. Hyjal.

  4. #4
    I loved Suramar, many hate it, but its as close to an actual city as you can get in this game, as is you have to balance having a 'real city' with the conflict of just having so much useless space. If they were to do cities properly I would want them to also do the infrastructure, like how in any world does Goldshire support a population of any reasonable size is beyond me, and it seems trade does not exist in any meaningful way in the game.

    It started getting better in WoD, a compliment for that expac is rare but they started focusing on the smaller details then and it was nice to see.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by RotDog View Post
    Actually, yes. I would very much like that. When I first started playing (MoP), I found the cities very confusing, but now they don't seem big enough. I want them to feel like MAJOR CITIES, the capitals, the center of attention for each faction. I want them to feel much more powerful. The size of them now is pretty easy to learn to navigate honestly. I don't think it would hurt to add more.
    There's screenshots of very early alpha WoW, where they experimented with huge cities. There was an early version of Goldshire with dozens of buildings spanning an area about half the size of current Elwynn. Then they realized that their players wouldn't want a five minute run from one end of town to the other to find one certain vendor or tradeskill npc if they say put one or a few npcs in each building, or just having a bunch of empty buildings for the sake of making the town look bigger. So they crunched it down. Stormwind in lore has a population of around 200,000, I think.
    The most difficult thing to do is accept that there is nothing wrong with things you don't like and accept that people can like things you don't.

  6. #6
    I would soooo love it if they expand existing capital cities to be as big and "alive" as Suramar... Heck, make them actual questing/leveling zones and once you complete the questlines they could act like normal cities as they have always done, add world quests to them (like barging in on some shady gathering, taking care of assassins, spies, etc). I loved Suramar...

    Speaking of that, one of the devs said in an interview that his favourite zone is the Kul Tiras capital (Boralus?) and that we should be looking forward to it. So I fcking am xD

  7. #7
    They could flesh out all of the underground part of Org from SoO. And i would love if they made all the cities much more complex.

  8. #8
    Suramar was great as far as design goes, and really felt like a lively large city. Org and SW have plenty of real estate left to work with, I would love to see “districts” that have the other races architecture. Pandaren could/should have a monastery instead of tent and balloon. They should be multi-cultural Meccas of each faction.

  9. #9
    Ironforge shits all over Stormwind. An expanded version would shit on it even more.

  10. #10
    I would like very much, specially if they look like Suramar in size and with more npc.

  11. #11
    I would rather they add new cities the size of Suramar instead of trying to reuse some of the cities we've already been sitting in for multiple expansions. Giant cities are something I'm sure most people would love to have but it's probably difficult to do. Just look at how much trouble some people have with loading into Dalaran. Imagine a city like Dalaran but 2-3 times bigger.... I just don't think it would work, as much as I would like for it to.

  12. #12
    I'd rather other racial cities get updated than even more attention be given to the human and orc cities.

  13. #13
    Elemental Lord clevin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by therealstegblob View Post
    Pretty much anyone who is everyone should know by now that in WoW's earlier alpha builds (before the game launched), some of the capital cities were a bit larger and had additional levels or sections that were either taken out or made inaccessible prior to the game releasing. Blizzard didn't want to make cities "too confusing" to navigate and, in particular, made both Undercity and Ironforge a bit smaller by removing planned sections to the cities and their respective layouts.

    So, I pose a question. Would you like it if Blizzard expanded Stormwind and Orgrimmar to be several times larger than they currently are and laid them out more like a complex, large city with multiple districts? For the sake of argument and dilemma, we'll assume the cities are both perfectly laid out so that no matter where you are in them, relevant points of interest (banks, auction houses, mail boxes, etc) are always pretty close nearby.
    It's an interesting idea but the last sentence here wrecks it. IF the bank, AH etc is always close by it makes it less realistic (presuming the idea is to make the city feel more like an actual city with lots of people) and what it means is that people will just hang out in their fave district. For example, during Cata, if I set hearth in the Dwarven District in SW since it was close to the portals. There were other areas, but why visit them?

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by clevin View Post
    It's an interesting idea but the last sentence here wrecks it. IF the bank, AH etc is always close by it makes it less realistic (presuming the idea is to make the city feel more like an actual city with lots of people) and what it means is that people will just hang out in their fave district. For example, during Cata, if I set hearth in the Dwarven District in SW since it was close to the portals. There were other areas, but why visit them?
    Because 'hanging out in your favorite district' is part of the charm of a bigass city.

  15. #15
    Mechagnome
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    Would absolutely be into this-expansion of capitals and more realistic sizes, etc. Also give us Gilneas city as is with NPCs throughout and I'll be your best friend

  16. #16
    Bloodsail Admiral Aldo Hawk's Avatar
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    Many people expected Suramar to become a neutral city for a reason, but I can only speak by myself, and I would love that happening, but if not, current faction cities could been updated and be massive cities where we choose in what district stay, and it could be any city in the game, not only SW-Org but maybe Ironforge and Thunder Bluff, idk, but it's a feature that I can expect from this game and I would love it so much.

    Just think it this way: with good city planning we could have a big city with basic services not being too apart, and now, instead on how vanilla was, we have faster and cheaper mounts and even faater fly mounts, so big cities should not be a problem if they are correctly built.

  17. #17
    It would be cool to see.

  18. #18
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    There are times when I just chill ingame - I to go to some silent places (duskwood portal, feralas, old Azshara...) and just chat or whatever. In stormwind there is the farm in the back which is a nice place to hang out. So I would love to see bigger cities, it really doesn't have to be functional or serve as quest content.

  19. #19
    I am Murloc! Tomana's Avatar
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    I think they should increase the whole world in size by a factor of 10, not just the capital cities.
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  20. #20
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    I think they should only expand it if it serves a purpose. Like if they need extra vendor stores or something.

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