9.0 General Discussion

[Sondrelk]

leak from discord?! login screen hype?!?!

https://i.imgur.com/1g9iVI1.jpg

Well now, that is a surprise. A loging screen that isnt Eye of Azshara.

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That being said, it violates the unwritten rule that every loading screen should include a portal or gate of some kind. Not to matter that the skybox is lifted directly from the one used in Tiragarde and Mechagon.

[Lazarel]

leak from discord?! login screen hype?!?!

https://i.imgur.com/1g9iVI1.jpg

It's just the Ascension private server login screen, but looks really cool

[Alanar]

Never tell me how to write my posts ever again.

Just stop my god.. there is no need for that.

[Nagawithlegs]

Logically the only opportunities left are Dragon Isles and revamping something or other. Not necessarily another old world revamp, but definitely something that is set in a place we have technically already been. Like how WoD is technically a revamped Outland.

Dragon isles is also an extremely limited concept, though given that we actually got a nexpansion set entirely in Shadowlands i guess Blizzard might be getting desperate for areas to visit. So going to places like K'aresh which has extremely little to go on storywise might be the way forward for expansions.

Shadowlands was quite literally "black and white Azeroth/Draenor/Argus/etc" until they confirmed Helheim was part of it and showed the new designs/concepts for it in 9.0. Dragon Isles will likely be the same as Broken Isles: before Legion they were just "fucked up nelf ruins" and then they made an entire mini-world on it. Kul Tiras was just Green Stormwind with boats, etc.

[Sondrelk]

Shadowlands was quite literally "black and white Azeroth/Draenor/Argus/etc" until they confirmed Helheim was part of it and showed the new designs/concepts for it in 9.0. Dragon Isles will likely be the same as Broken Isles: before Legion they were just "fucked up nelf ruins" and then they made an entire mini-world on it. Kul Tiras was just Green Stormwind with boats, etc.

Well i don't think the Shadowlands is that great an idea either, i would have much preferred the Dragon isles since then at least you would not have to create each zone as pretty much the same thing with different palettes.

But even beyond that, even if we both agreed there is a lot of variety in those two concepts it is still also very true that there is not a whole lot of space left on Azeroth that is unvisited, large enough for a continent and not completely pulled out of thin air.
Presumably 10.0 will be Dragon isles going by the usual pattern of an expansion being heavily foreshadowed 2 expansion in advance like with MoP having Burning Legion, WoD having Faction tensions and Legion having Helheim and Sylvanas.

[Defend]

Do you understand that systems can only change so much in an alpha, due to the length of time it takes to consider, make, and re-test major changes?

As example, they couldn't have fundamentally re-worked or removed Azerite, even if in Alpha all responses to it were "This is the shit-est thing ever!!!" (which they weren't, either, contrary to revisionism - but it wasn't very positive either). They can change numbers. They can add or remove specific individual powers/abilities/items. They can makes fairly big changes to how things are acquired, but basic stuff like "You have three items which have Azerite powers and you need to gather Azerite to make a number increase to make them go", that's not likely to be possible to change within the framework of alpha/beta.

Alpha is mostly about testing a buggy and unstable version of the game, which isn't feature-complete, but where all the features are already in the pipeline and due to be added fairly soon (and will be before Alpha finishes).

What you seem to think that an Alpha is experimental thing where they can just try stuff out, where they can implement entire systems and then later pull them and so on, because people didn't like them, but it isn't. It's just beta with way more bugs and not all the features in. Again, for total clarity, the features aren't in the Alpha aren't "subject to change" in a huge way, they're just not even testable yet. Once a feature is in the Alpha, it is very, very, very unlikely it's going to go away entirely, even if people don't like it. The numbers might change. A specific ability or whatever might be removed or totally reworked. But if, say, Covenants come into the Alpha, and you don't like the basic implementation of them, well, that's not going to change before they go live.

As an example of how long this takes, Essences were probably conceived in response to the poor reception that Azerite abilities got - particularly as a very, very common EARLY complaint re: Azerite was "all these abilities are passives". They probably started work on them in BfA Beta, maybe even Alpha. But no matter how mad people were about Azerite, Essences couldn't have appeared in 8.0 or Beta.

TLDR: It's not useful to think of Alpha as a period where "anything can change", whereas Beta is "Just numbers and bugs". Alpha is just an incomplete Beta. The main reason things are subject to more change in Alpha is that it's further from release, not that it's a fundamentally different period. It's not, note "Early Access". They're not going to completely re-work major systems they introduce just because you don't like them.

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I feel like you should have that painted on the wall in your house/flat hipster-style, in a cheery font

They made huge sweeping changes to the corruption system and the way assaults worked as well as visions during the 8.3 ptr, corrupted items started as Kiss/curse items and evolved from there; they can change systems in an alpha as long as they don’t wait till a month before to test like BFA

[Asphyx22]

leak from discord?! login screen hype?!?!

https://i.imgur.com/1g9iVI1.jpg

It actually wouldn't bother me if Blizz took some inspiration from that. It has a lot of potential to turn into something really cool.

[matrix123mko]

leak from discord?! login screen hype?!?!

https://i.imgur.com/1g9iVI1.jpg

Very pretty. Who made it and how old is it?

[Pantupino]

leak from discord?! login screen hype?!?!

https://i.imgur.com/1g9iVI1.jpg

Nice troll bait!

[Throren]

Overwatch - new hero announced

Hearthstone - new expansion announced

WoW - *cricket sounds*


All this new info for their other games and they cant even throw us a bone. If alpha isnt ready then just give like a "here is some new shadowlands features info" or something. Hell Im desperate enough that even a few new screenshots would be better than nothing

[George Costanza]

Overwatch - new hero announced

Hearthstone - new expansion announced

WoW - *cricket sounds*


All this new info for their other games and they cant even throw us a bone. If alpha isnt ready then just give like a "here is some new shadowlands features info" or something. Hell Im desperate enough that even a few new screenshots would be better than nothing

Gonna be honest.

Hearthstone new class feels like 8 years too late or something like that (i mean i think hearthstone was live in 2008 tbh) And overwatch I dont give a shit about coz there is way too much shit everywhere for me to keep track of.

[Revamp Man]

The rumbling has begun

[Valysar]

Something is happening right now.. You can hear the drums in the distance...

[johnny download]

Did anyone else feel that...?

[puddypounce]

I'm hearing good things from high places.

[Valysar]

That must be a sign. The only license plate I read tonight while walking my dog contained the letters "SL".

[TarzoEzio]

Guys stop being so cryptic smh

[Blayze]

Nothing matters besides launch anyway, so just enjoy the ride.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Nothing matters besides launch anyway, so just enjoy the ride.

Imagine coming into a thread hyping Alpha to say this.

Alpha/Beta matters.

[Edward Wu]

All it takes is 1 unencrypted build and we'll have that shit transferred over to a playable sandbox environment almost immediately. We'll be able to explore every nook and cranny of the map, minus npc's.