Are these fancy skyboxes a way of cutting content?

[MarkTheMadMad]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

[Veyne]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

What content is being cut when there was no content ever intended?

[Queen of Hamsters]

No.

It's a way to give more life into the horizon, skybox, something games like GW2 have been doing for ages. If you think that we were EVER supposed to get access to the entire planet of Argus, then you're delusional.
I'll take fancy skyboxes over the horizon being empty and dead just to not trigger people without a smidge of common sense...

You will never set foot onto the Sun, that doesn't make the sunset a "lazy way of showing off"... Use your brain.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

There's no cut content, it's the best way to show more of something and a better use of resources. Also as much as I wanted a better Argus, getting a whole planet in a major content patch isn't realistic.

[Khallid]

If it looks the same from the perspective of the player, who cares what it's made out of?

[kraid]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

I.....how did you?...How could you?....''brain overheats''

[Littleraven]

What content? What would you gain from being able to fly to the burning tree? It's not like there would be anything worth seeing there anyway. At best it would just be an empty zone like how AQ is in the overworld. Stop trying to find something to be mad about.

[Deleted]

The real question is : Why would you like to visit a blazing tree?

[iETHOSi]

If you're honestly going to try and nitpick something THIS small and insignificant... I think it's time for you to find a new game to play.

[rda]

Not cutting, limiting the required work. This is a good thing. Because instead of doing one full scene, they can do two partial ones, that's more gameplay. It's a different question that the amount of dev effort that goes into the game decreases every expansion. But not there, not on art / scenes.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I always thought the best way to cut out content was to add content. That way people see you adding it but then you are not somehow. /s

[therealbowser]

The real question is : Why would you like to visit a blazing tree?

IMHO, the real question is... will the tree ever stop burning? Or will it burn for eternity? I wonder how many patches it will take for the tree to stop being on fire (let alone being rebuilt, if that ever happens at all).

Also, it directly locks out Teldrissal quests and rewards supposedly in doing this. I assume Tirisfal won't be locked out for players, though Lordaeron is. Not that it matters, but it's still a curiosity.

[Deleted]

IMHO, the real question is... will the tree ever stop burning? Or will it burn for eternity? I wonder how many patches it will take for the tree to stop being on fire (let alone being rebuilt, if that ever happens at all).

Also, it directly locks out Teldrissal quests and rewards supposedly in doing this. I assume Tirisfal won't be locked out for players, though Lordaeron is. Not that it matters, but it's still a curiosity.

Since this is a cardboard art... I expect some evolutions for the tree. It's not like i would be a hard thing for them to make.

[therealbowser]

Since this is a cardboard art... I expect some evolutions for the tree. It's no like i would be a hard thing for them to make.

It's not a question about being hard. Blizzard can use an excuse that "the effort isn't worth it" and put off things for years. Look at Stormwind back during Cataclysm. How long did it take for just the fires to go out?

[MarkTheMadMad]

Stop trying to find something to be mad about.

Did I say anywhere in my post I was mad? I study computer games development and just wanted to get people's views on skyboxes showing secenary compared to actual content.

Since this is a cardboard art... I expect some evolutions for the tree. It's not like i would be a hard thing for them to make.

This would be good actually, to see the tree bollosom again in a future expansion with a possible revamp

[spleen1015]

We are really digging deep to find things to complain about now. Holy smokes.

[Powerogue]

While an Argus expansion would have been sick, people were clearly very tired of the charred fel land after two patches of the stuff.

The skyboxes are certainly no replacement for actual explorable terrain, but they're better than nothing.

They mainly need to fix that tree so it at least looks convincing from every angle.

[taishar68]

We are really digging deep to find things to complain about now. Holy smokes.

To be fair, I’ve seen complaints here about the size of ears, shoulder pads, the way characters walk, how icons look. So it’s not that obscure.

We even complain about how we complain! #mmochampforever

[Mirishka]

Does anyone else think these new skyboxes are just a lazy way of showing off new area content hidden behind "cardboard cutouts?".

The new Darkshore sky box is a perfect example. One thing I was really looking forward too was seeing and being able to explore a destroyed Teldrassil tree, accessing the destruction and being able to explore the area but instead, when it's been burned down, the original Teldrassil is simply hidden and a fancy sky box stuck in it's place. The only way to do it would be to create a whole new revampted zone and its obvious that blizzard don't want to do this.

Argus was another perfect example. Instead of a complex detail planet, we just got an "outland style" island with a fancy sky box stuck in place to make it look bigger and more complex than it really is.

What do people think about this? Content hidden in fancy skyboxes that we can look at in wonder, think "that looks so cool" ..but then realise we can never reach it.

In order for content to be cut, that content must first be designed. There was no 'explore the burning ruins of Teldrassil' content, ergo, it wasn't cut.

As far as Argus goes, yeah, there's a lot of fake 'stuff in the distance' used to create the scope of a larger world. Tons of other games do this as well. Dragon Age Inquisition, Witcher 3, Skyrim and many others have areas created in the distance with 2d/3d assets that the player can't actually reach, to create the illusion of a bigger/more complex world than what we can actually explore.

What was Blizzard supposed to do, build the entire planet or even an Eastern Kingdoms-sized chunk of it and delay the patch (not to mention the next expansion) several years? Or make an entire expansion on Argus AFTER WoD and Legion, when many people were already sick of the whole demon/green fel crap everywhere theme?

Some of you guys need a better understanding of game design before you make these topics whining about stuff.

[Deleted]

What I'd like, and what we don't know yet if we'll get, is some change to after-scenario-Duskwood. Flying towards Teldrassil should just burn you to a crisp, the way going into capital city in Lordaeron kills you with poisoning.

This tree isn't just any tree, its roots reach down into the heart of the world. It's not going to stop burning any time soon.
In a year or so they could maybe add something at the very edge around it, where the Goblins are shown working in some kind of shredders with heat-protection at getting an Azerite mine going ^^ Just as I'd like the Alliance to develop some kind of gas masks within the next year (/s-alert!) to begin cleaning up in capital city.