What a waste....

[XDurionX]

this is simply wrong, if vanilla hadn't this vibrant colorful artstyle, then nothing of that would have happened like it happened, including the well made zones of bfa (yes some zones are well made unlike some particular assets). realistic games doesn't age well.

don't try denying that vanilla had no style, it's well known that wow created its own style made of very colorful zones.

There's nothing "realistic" about BfA either, it has still conserved WoWs cartooney art style. It just has adapted to the better technology. Vanilla looked (and looks) like shit, wow would be long dead if they hadn't adapted in this department.

[Tyron]

One man's trash...

[Cæli]

There's nothing "realistic" about BfA either, it has still conserved WoWs cartooney art style. It just has adapted to the better technology. Vanilla looked (and looks) like shit, wow would be long dead if they hadn't adapted in this department.

yes but my point was that the quality and essence is starting to fade as seen by some assets having less depth and vibrant colors than the original despite having more poly! increasing in numbers since roughly wod.

asside from the low poly, the colors of vanilla can hardly be made better.

[lockybalboa]

Are you joking? What resources? This is just a filler expansion that Blizzard is devoting minimal resources to and milking the shit out of the remaining players (suckers).

[Morssoe]

That is Blizzard's tactic, they do this every expansion.

I don't know which audience they target with such tricks.

Anyway, their systems are always so bad they just delete them and make new ones for next expansion.

[edw]

I'm not talking about the superior technical rendering

I know what you said, the game looks gorgeous and it's very detailed, you can see the effort they put in to create the zones and dungeons, every corner has something different, you can say a lot about the gameplay etc, but the style and graphics of the game are top notch and it would be an insult to really compare it to vanilla.
I understand nostalgia and we will play classic soon but I am not really looking forward for it's "art style"

[XDurionX]

yes but my point was that the quality and essence is starting to fade as seen by some assets having less depth and vibrant colors than the original despite having more poly! increasing in numbers since roughly wod.

asside from the low poly, the colors of vanilla can hardly be made better.

Those "vibrant colors" are the main reason vanilla looks like shit. It's like they used a palette of 32 colors, there's nothing good looking about it. The technical limitations clearly show that the artists had no means of creating good looking assets. That has changed a lot.

[McNeil]

The new warfront and islands were probably made long before BFA released, so they didn't expect these features to become lackluster to the playerbase. Now they need to finish and ship it and then see if its worth making more of them. Personally I find both features only fun for like the first 1 or 2 times, especially the warfronts where you first experience on actual war in game. Then its just for the big reward on my main and gear up alts.

[SirCowdog]

I get that some experimentation and trial is needed to discover new and interesting concepts.

That's just it though. Between warfronts and Islands we're already hearing hints about NPC group members for dungeons. We could also VERY easily see the new ai applied to open world zones to create more epic and engaging quests.

We could have entire zones where there's a constant back and forth battle going on. For example: Imagine southern Silverpine into the Gilneas, but with Warfront and Island AI mixing things up.

Now imagine dungeon boss fights and encounters with island AI thrown in.

Yes, I agree that BfA is a trainwreck right now. It's actually REALLY bad right now, with only a bandaid coming in 8.1 to cover the gaping bullet wound. But there's a staggering amount of potential here.

And you're absolutely right that Blizzard needs to get their shit together. All the tools and pieces are there to make it happen; they just have to stop shooting themselves in the foot constantly.

[eduwneso]

Its staggering the amount of resources blizzard is devoting to aspects of this expansion that nobody cares about.
Warfronts, isle expos, azerite. Take warfronts and isle expos out of the game and nobody will notice. Take azerite out and people will be happy.

Its insane that so many resources are being wasted on ideas which are clearly failures. Instead of developers focusing on actual class balance, they're focusing on adding new azerite traits. Instead of getting more/more instersting/more frequent dungeon and raid encounters, we're getting fucking warfronts and isle expos.

I get that some experimentation and trial is needed to discover new and interesting concepts. The problem here is that instead of treading lightly and gauging what works and what doesn't, bliz loaded up all of its resources into a train which has already derailed. And instead of accepting this they are doubling down, adding to the train more of what made it derail in the first place. That being boring, one dimensional grind-fests, existing only to fuel a horribly designed azerite system which the game would be better without.

BFA is like a product from a sh!tty late night infomercial. Its got all these supposed features; Azerite! Warfronts! Island expeditions! Super absorbent! But the reality is that its cheap garbage.

The problem though is that BFA isn't cheap garbage. Its expensive garbage. The amount of art and so called "design" resources that went into these failed concepts is staggering. Hell, we could have probably had another xpac by now.

Get your shit together bliz.

While I agree with you that these failed at the level of a majority of players liking it, first, it's their game. I'm sure as hell the ones who developed warfronts and island expeditions did it with passion, it's a shame that those systems failed to take our attention, but I can see that if they improve on them and come with new ideas it can become something very good, and as much as blizzard failed us in the incomplete delivery of those systems, we are failing them in encouraging them to make them way better, and that only leads to something 'meh'.

The thing a lot of people don't understand is that the more they try to improve with new ideas and they try to develop them, the better they can do with it in the future. If they didn't think of island expeditions maybe they would not have tried to develop an AI... they did answer to a question about the AI that they want to improve on them more and more and that the island expeditions gave them the push, they question was about using it on raids and they answered that was something they are thinking but first they want to develop more and more that AI before taking that dangerous step.

Just imagine a Raid with a boss with a very good AI... I'm hyped just thinking about it.

You guys must think that programmers, animators and artists are robots with no feelings, or at least it seems that way, and i'm sorry if what i'm about to say makes you angry, but part of the fault (a small part) of wow as a lot of people say is "shit right now" lies in those same people.

And why is that? because people in the internet ussually lack the decency, education and maturity to talk about something. The best example is in these forums, where people say that blizzard reads it, and their complaits 80% of the time is "X is shit I don't like it" "stupid Y for developing X", and after that they wonder why lately the developers lack that enthusiasm that they had before.

Now... why does the artistic side of wow remains at the highest all of the expansions, surely is because they are good and are being paid, but is not only that, most of the time they are praised about it, and people who do not like it ussually adds that they do not like it but they understand is very good. That as an artist would motivate me to make more and better stuff.

sorry for the TL/DR cheers!

[Deleted]

I doubt they're actually spending that many resources on warfronts, expeditions and azerite.

[Destinas]

First off I don't raid.

Second off, bullshit. You are delusional if you think people spend more time doing warfronts and expo's than raiding. Even if you don't count LFR.

At this stage in the game both of those are a chore to gear up an alt.

Well, as far as Island Expeditions, they're not used for gearing alts, at all. They're more for some quick azerite and lots of collectibles. The problem with "expo's" (as you call them) is that azerite from them isn't necessarily required after you've done the weekly once or twice. On top of that, the collectibles don't drop very well. I do them all the time just to collect things - I've never once used it as a tool to gear up a character. I instead spam warfronts when they're up to get pretty much everything I need. I have gotten just as much gear from warfronts as I have LFR or dungeons, and even then I wind up getting the same gear every week from LFR if I get anything at all.

You don't have to love certain features, that's fine - but you're projecting your own feelings and biases by suggesting that "no one would notice" if they took some key features of the expansion out of the game. That's just plain incorrect, but you can dislike it as much as you want. Instead of hoping they remove things, suggest improvements to those features. For instance, Island Expeditions could actually drop more 310 gear/320 weapons more often, to act as a stepping stone for new 120s. Perhaps warfronts could give a larger array of rewards, like different gear that could have more stats.

Also, I have to question this:

Instead of getting more/more instersting/more frequent dungeon and raid encounters, we're getting fucking warfronts and isle expos.

So, you mean like the raids and dungeons we're getting in 8.1, 8.1.5, and 8.2? You do know there are at least three raids (Dazar'alor, Crucible of Storms, Azshara's Eternal Palace) in the future, as well as a dungeon similar in length to Karazhan, right? You also know there will be world bosses with the new warfronts, and presumably in the new areas like Mechagon and Nazjatar, right? On top of that, they're adding more for people to do, like the Brawler's Guild update, WoD Timewalking, updated Arathi/Warsong battlegrounds, etc.

If absolutely none of those meet your criteria for "more dungeon and raid encounters" then I'm not really sure what you want. Though, to be honest, I'm betting you didn't know about all the dungeons and raids that are coming in the future.

[Tinytalon]

Its staggering the amount of resources blizzard is devoting to aspects of this expansion that nobody cares about.
Warfronts, isle expos, azerite. Take warfronts and isle expos out of the game and nobody will notice. Take azerite out and people will be happy.

I actually like these features and I know atleast a few others who do. Thus, your argument about no one liking them is inaccurate.

There's a lot wrong in the game rn, but those aren't part of them.

[eduwneso]

That's just it though. Between warfronts and Islands we're already hearing hints about NPC group members for dungeons. We could also VERY easily see the new ai applied to open world zones to create more epic and engaging quests.

We could have entire zones where there's a constant back and forth battle going on. For example: Imagine southern Silverpine into the Gilneas, but with Warfront and Island AI mixing things up.

Now imagine dungeon boss fights and encounters with island AI thrown in.

Yes, I agree that BfA is a trainwreck right now. It's actually REALLY bad right now, with only a bandaid coming in 8.1 to cover the gaping bullet wound. But there's a staggering amount of potential here.

Exactly what I was thinking, they already said that they want to develop more and fully grasp this new AI before implementing it, but you know... raids were mentioned... that would be amazing, as you said, dungeons and open world events with AI... *Drools*

[Seranthor]

Its staggering the amount of resources blizzard is devoting to aspects of this expansion that nobody cares about.
Warfronts, isle expos, azerite. Take warfronts and isle expos out of the game and nobody will notice. Take azerite out and people will be happy.

Its insane that so many resources are being wasted on ideas which are clearly failures. Instead of developers focusing on actual class balance, they're focusing on adding new azerite traits. Instead of getting more/more instersting/more frequent dungeon and raid encounters, we're getting fucking warfronts and isle expos.

I get that some experimentation and trial is needed to discover new and interesting concepts. The problem here is that instead of treading lightly and gauging what works and what doesn't, bliz loaded up all of its resources into a train which has already derailed. And instead of accepting this they are doubling down, adding to the train more of what made it derail in the first place. That being boring, one dimensional grind-fests, existing only to fuel a horribly designed azerite system which the game would be better without.

BFA is like a product from a sh!tty late night infomercial. Its got all these supposed features; Azerite! Warfronts! Island expeditions! Super absorbent! But the reality is that its cheap garbage.

The problem though is that BFA isn't cheap garbage. Its expensive garbage. The amount of art and so called "design" resources that went into these failed concepts is staggering. Hell, we could have probably had another xpac by now.

Get your shit together bliz.

Have you considered that there are people that actually like the things Blizzard is doing? Of course not, because you think your way is the only way.

Get your own shit together.

- - - Updated - - -

First off I don't raid.

Second off, bullshit. You are delusional if you think people spend more time doing warfronts and expo's than raiding. Even if you don't count LFR.

At this stage in the game both of those are a chore to gear up an alt.

And they are going to jump to it because of your post? Bull... they'll laugh and keep doing what they are doing.

[RoKPaNda]

First off I don't raid.

Second off, bullshit. You are delusional if you think people spend more time doing warfronts and expo's than raiding. Even if you don't count LFR.

At this stage in the game both of those are a chore to gear up an alt.

Hi,

Mythic raider here. Progression is over.

I actually spend more time doing the weekly quest for Warfronts on my alts than I spend in raids at this point. This will change when a new tier starts. For right now though? Yeah I spend more time in Warfronts than I do actually raiding.

[kamuimac]

Its staggering the amount of resources blizzard is devoting to aspects of this expansion that nobody cares about.
Warfronts, isle expos, azerite. Take warfronts and isle expos out of the game and nobody will notice. Take azerite out and people will be happy.

Its insane that so many resources are being wasted on ideas which are clearly failures. Instead of developers focusing on actual class balance, they're focusing on adding new azerite traits. Instead of getting more/more instersting/more frequent dungeon and raid encounters, we're getting fucking warfronts and isle expos.

I get that some experimentation and trial is needed to discover new and interesting concepts. The problem here is that instead of treading lightly and gauging what works and what doesn't, bliz loaded up all of its resources into a train which has already derailed. And instead of accepting this they are doubling down, adding to the train more of what made it derail in the first place. That being boring, one dimensional grind-fests, existing only to fuel a horribly designed azerite system which the game would be better without.

BFA is like a product from a sh!tty late night infomercial. Its got all these supposed features; Azerite! Warfronts! Island expeditions! Super absorbent! But the reality is that its cheap garbage.

The problem though is that BFA isn't cheap garbage. Its expensive garbage. The amount of art and so called "design" resources that went into these failed concepts is staggering. Hell, we could have probably had another xpac by now.

Get your shit together bliz.

exept for milions of people who use them on daily basis .

but hey since OP doesnt use them clearly nobody does.

only who then forms those instant warfront/island groups 24/7 .

must be AI/NPCs

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly what I was thinking, they already said that they want to develop more and fully grasp this new AI before implementing it, but you know... raids were mentioned... that would be amazing, as you said, dungeons and open world events with AI... *Drools*

they have to work on AI to copy other games and implement solo que dungeons as the next big feature of next expansion wouldnt surprise me if they also started to supplement LFR with AI to farm groups much faster

and if you dont know what im talking about you live in bubble of past not seeing what other games are pushing for this and next years releases / expansions .

[Archibalde]

this is simply wrong, if vanilla hadn't this vibrant colorful artstyle, then nothing of that would have happened like it happened, including the well made zones of bfa (yes some zones are well made unlike some particular assets). realistic games doesn't age well.

don't try denying that vanilla had no style, it's well known that wow created its own style made of very colorful zones.

They still have colorful zones though. Zuldazar is very bright, it's a shiny gold city with a vibrant green jungle. The majority of Stormsong is also quite nice and colorful. Yes, Vol'dun and Nazmir have muted colors but that's to set the atmosphere.

There were zones like that in classic as well. Searing Gorge was very dark, with the colors being mostly gray and red. Duskwoods wasn't very vibrant either. Felwoods was extremely gloomy and while it was all green, it wasn't vibrant at all. Desolace was incredibly depressing and dull looking before they added the oasis in Cataclysm. Silithus was also a very dull looking zone.

Overall the game tends to stay very vibrant even with the more realistic style. Pandaria, Draenor and the Broken Isles were all super colorful, for the most part.

[Th3Scourge]

Imagine if all those hours went in to core gameplay problems and class design.....

[Kynario]

It's a fundamental feature of this expansion.

It's what they've planned for this expansion's life cycle and it's what they're sticking to. :/

So you either like it, or you don't. I don't, so I've unsubscribed. I'll play again the next expansion if I like its principle features. Simple as that.

If you do, good for you. Have fun.