9.0 General Discussion

[Eurhetemec]

This is starting to feel hopeless... A datamine feast would give SOME comfort in this Corona-craze...

Yeah honestly as my country goes into semi-lockdown (respect to all the people in countries where it is already lockdown) I could definitely do with the distraction. C'mon Blizz! First time I've said that with SL!

[Edward Wu]

Watch there be nothing this week too.
God this is lame. I wish I never found this thread so I don't feel like a complete dumbass waiting with bated breath for weeks on end.

[EbaumsTipster]

It's more the fact that this is as far as we know the grand finaly of the Black Empire story. All the Old Gods are seemingly dead with no indications that there is any chance of them returning. I would have liked to see some more in-depths stuff about what this means for the other Aqir races like the Qiraji, Mantid and Nerubians. As it stands we are now looking at never having them be relevant ever again, and they barely got their time to stand out.

I guess it just goes to show how mismatched the ending of BfA is to its beginning, it was not just a proper ending to the Faction war story we were robbed of, it was also a decent opening to the Black Empire one as well.

Blizz is scared shitless of expansion ideas they feel they can't make varied enough. There's no way they would've ever done an entire Black Empire expansion, not when they made the Dream, Argus, Nyalotha and Nazjatar into single patch areas.

Considering how talented the WoW art team is you KNOW there would be a problem if they couldn't make any of those into feature-length expansions.

If they go through with Dragon Isles then each island will be radically different the same way that no-two zones in Shadowlands look remotely alike.

[Alanar]

*Blasts Gifdwarf with Glitter Bolt*

“If you could see me as I see you now! Mindless Hype towards a meaningless Alpha, you will all see.... this games shit”

*Team Taylor Blasts off Again!

Thanks for this <3

[Sondrelk]

Blizz is scared shitless of expansion ideas they feel they can't make varied enough. There's no way they would've ever done an entire Black Empire expansion, not when they made the Dream, Argus, Nyalotha and Nazjatar into single patch areas.

Considering how talented the WoW art team is you KNOW there would be a problem if they couldn't make any of those into feature-length expansions.

If they go through with Dragon Isles then each island will be radically different the same way that no-two zones in Shadowlands look remotely alike.

There is definitely truth in having to get some variety so it isnt all tentacles and bugs. But hte funny thing is that we already have that with Naga.

Imaginary Black Empire Expansion raid list:
X.0: Ahn'qiraj. Stop N'zoth ressurecting C'thun and fight against Aqir.
X.1: Nazjatar. Stop Azshara.
X.2. Deal with a subplot vaguely related to Old Gods like scourge in Northrend.
X.3: Ny'alotha. Finally deal with N'zoth.

Personally i feel that would end up beign a perfectly reasonably varied expansion all things considered.

[Eurhetemec]

There is definitely truth in having to get some variety so it isnt all tentacles and bugs. But hte funny thing is that we already have that with Naga.

Imaginary Black Empire Expansion raid list:
X.0: Ahn'qiraj. Stop N'zoth ressurecting C'thun and fight against Aqir.
X.1: Nazjatar. Stop Azshara.
X.2. Deal with a subplot vaguely related to Old Gods like scourge in Northrend.
X.3: Ny'alotha. Finally deal with N'zoth.

Personally i feel that would end up beign a perfectly reasonably varied expansion all things considered.

Presumably this is imagined as an alternative to BfA? If so yeah I think that could have worked. But after BfA noooo waaaaaay is that going to work. You'd need a different X.3 for sure. And probably X.1.

[EbaumsTipster]

There is definitely truth in having to get some variety so it isnt all tentacles and bugs. But hte funny thing is that we already have that with Naga.

Imaginary Black Empire Expansion raid list:
X.0: Ahn'qiraj. Stop N'zoth ressurecting C'thun and fight against Aqir.
X.1: Nazjatar. Stop Azshara.
X.2. Deal with a subplot vaguely related to Old Gods like scourge in Northrend.
X.3: Ny'alotha. Finally deal with N'zoth.

Personally i feel that would end up beign a perfectly reasonably varied expansion all things considered.

But how would you make each zone varied enough in aesthetic? Nazjatar, then Northrend, then Nyalotha is fine as patch content, but how do you make the foundations of the expansion where every zone would be "Lol bugs"?

Someone can be contrarian and say "well Shadowlands is LOL GHOSTS" but you know it isn't.

[Sondrelk]

Presumably this is imagined as an alternative to BfA? If so yeah I think that could have worked. But after BfA noooo waaaaaay is that going to work. You'd need a different X.3 for sure. And probably X.1.

No, it definitely wouldnt work now. But the assumption here is that it either takes the place of BfA, or BfA has very few, if any, Old God elements and this happens after Shadowlands.

- - - Updated - - -

But how would you make each zone varied enough in aesthetic? Nazjatar, then Northrend, then Nyalotha is fine as patch content, but how do you make the foundations of the expansion where every zone would be "Lol bugs"?

South seas expansion like always. Nazjatar is simply a zone or two like the others.
It doesnt have to be Northrend for the final patch either, could be pretty much anywhere remotely important to the Old Gods. Could be another underwater area where you find remnants of the Black empire.

And no, just because the raids are old god themed does not mean the zones have to be. You could have one zonein Plunder isle, one in Zandalar, one on Kul Tiras, one in Silithus and one in Nazjatar. Suddenly you have the same amount of zones as Legion and a reasonable amount of variety.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They are making an expansion on Shadowlands, if they wanted to do an Old God full exapnsion, then it would happen(NOt BFA like mind you). I mean Pandaria was mostly original in its lore, yes inspired by asian themes but still original stuff mostly.

[gcsmith]

Watch there be nothing this week too.
God this is lame. I wish I never found this thread so I don't feel like a complete dumbass waiting with bated breath for weeks on end.

What happened to your sources?

[matrix123mko]

There is definitely truth in having to get some variety so it isnt all tentacles and bugs. But hte funny thing is that we already have that with Naga.

Imaginary Black Empire Expansion raid list:
X.0: Ahn'qiraj. Stop N'zoth ressurecting C'thun and fight against Aqir.
X.1: Nazjatar. Stop Azshara.
X.2. Deal with a subplot vaguely related to Old Gods like scourge in Northrend.
X.3: Ny'alotha. Finally deal with N'zoth.

Personally i feel that would end up beign a perfectly reasonably varied expansion all things considered.

And Jaina could have been used as filler villain for X.0 raid.

[Edward Wu]

What happened to your sources?

My sources currently say sometime in 2020. I'll keep you posted.

[George Costanza]

we just had an old god expansion can we take like a loooong break from those expansions? we have had 2 and 2 halves. already.

[EbaumsTipster]

we just had an old god expansion can we take like a loooong break from those expansions? we have had 2 and 2 halves. already.

It CLEARLY wasn't old god enough because we didn't get cinematics about it, despite everything besides a quest campaign, one raid and Drustvar being about old gods.

edit: I forgot that the box cover also wasn't old gods. So it's not about old gods.

[Edward Wu]

we just had an old god expansion can we take like a loooong break from those expansions? we have had 2 and 2 halves. already.

This is why we need a world revamp in 10.0

Just revamp Kalimdor & EK and transform some of those zones into the endgame zones. Visually the zones would be massively varied. Story-wise? Can be anything you want. Classic has us tackling Ragnaros, Onyxia and Nefarion, onto Trolls & their Loa, onto Old Gods and bugs, onto the Scourge. That's hella varied, man.

Just do that again. Have the world be the main character this time.

[George Costanza]

It CLEARLY wasn't old god enough because we didn't get cinematics about it, despite everything besides a quest campaign, one raid and Drustvar being about old gods.

edit: I forgot that the box cover also wasn't old gods. So it's not about old gods.

The delusions of this one astounds me.

[Nathanyel]

There is definitely truth in having to get some variety so it isnt all tentacles and bugs. But hte funny thing is that we already have that with Naga.

Imaginary Black Empire Expansion raid list:
X.0: Ahn'qiraj. Stop N'zoth ressurecting C'thun and fight against Aqir.
X.1: Nazjatar. Stop Azshara.
X.2. Deal with a subplot vaguely related to Old Gods like scourge in Northrend.
X.3: Ny'alotha. Finally deal with N'zoth.

Personally i feel that would end up beign a perfectly reasonably varied expansion all things considered.

Honestly, I'm not one to shit on Blizzard, but I would've preferred this over the "Faction War, again" nonsense for BfA. It could've replaced it while preserving the expansion's main bits of going to Zandalar and Kul Tiras (to fight the Old God influences there) and of course also the Heart of Azeroth story, expanded by expeditions into Ahn'qiraj as you mention, perhaps as a Suramar equivalent or 8.1 zone, replacing the War Campaign.
Mechagon, Nazjatar being similar as 8.1/8.2 content.
For 8.3, I do like the reworked zones, but the Visions could've been incursions into Ny'alotha instead, using an adjacent zone to the raid area (remember the Molten Front, which was technically some kind of islands close to the Firelands zone?)

Sylvanas would either fuck off on her own or fuck up and thus be deposed, leading into the Shadowlands story.

[TS26]

i remember when people said the expansion will probably launch in july/august.


These were better times

[Edward Wu]

i remember when people said the expansion will probably launch in july/august.


These were better times

Everything was better before the damn Coronavirus.

[LemonDemonGirl]

i remember when people said the expansion will probably launch in july/august.


These were better times

I'm starting to believe the fact that it could release in 2021 now

Everything was better before the damn Coronavirus.

Yep. Hopefully Blizzcon happens this year, and the virus is gone by then