9.0 General Discussion

[huth]

1 more day [tomorrow]. When will this thread be closed?

Probably when they merge the forum with live General.

[razorpax]

OK so completely random but I’m watching the new all craft episode and does anyone remember back in warlords when there was a big video and it had like 12 creators on it and one chick was literally crying and begging for forgiveness like trying to play the martyr card because she defended garrisons

I don’t know why I started thinking of that but with this expansion coming to an end there’s literally nothing as bad as the garrison reaction even though this expansion was kind of shit in terms of the systems I don’t know why I started thinking of that but with this expansion coming to an end there’s literally nothing as bad as the garrison reaction even though this expansion was kind of shit in terms of the systems

And of course Shadowlands is not going to get the addition of a system in every patch thus invalidating the previous system like we had with Azariah armor which got no real new additions after 8.1.5

[Laubman]

OK so completely random but I’m watching the new all craft episode and does anyone remember back in warlords when there was a big video and it had like 12 creators on it and one chick was literally crying and begging for forgiveness like trying to play the martyr card because she defended garrisons

I don’t know why I started thinking of that but with this expansion coming to an end there’s literally nothing as bad as the garrison reaction even though this expansion was kind of shit in terms of the systems I don’t know why I started thinking of that but with this expansion coming to an end there’s literally nothing as bad as the garrison reaction even though this expansion was kind of shit in terms of the systems

And of course Shadowlands is not going to get the addition of a system in every patch thus invalidating the previous system like we had with Azariah armor which got no real new additions after 8.1.5

What are you talking about?

[Makabreska]

I still don't know what to pick for my covenant. I think I've ruled out necrolords since not much appeals to me except the staff. Night fae I love the idea of the shape shift but not much else. Venthyr and Kyrian both appeal to me. I like Venthyr a little more but it is apparently terrible for Demonology even though balance could change that easily. The only thing I hate about the covenants is that none are an "instant like"

And that's why you can test each on of them during levelling.

[razorpax]

What are you talking about?

Like near the end of warlords there was a big round table that had creators like final boss and preach and anyone that was known for World of Warcraft videos and even some that weren’t known like this lady who had maybe 2000 followers or some thing she was known by the convert to raid people

And prior to release she apparently talked about how the Garrison was going to be amazing content and it would be wonderful but in the video she was almost breaking down and crying apologizing for how she essentially praised the Garrison system at the beginning

Like I said it was a completely random thought I was just watching the video and got reminded of it

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I can’t for the life of me find the video and it’s bugging me more than uldum

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

24hours...

[Arafal]

Are you ready for it?

No, because my transmog dreams just got shattered because i realized the pine cones on the cloth Night fae set are part of the damn pants and not the belt.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

[Sondrelk]

No, because my transmog dreams just got shattered because i realized the pine cones on the cloth Night fae set are part of the damn pants and not the belt.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Might as well just delete the game at this point. What is the point is transmog is not completely perfect?

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33 hours and 30 minutes to go. I am starting to feel it in my bones. The adventure. The excitement. The plentiful new transmog opportunities.

[Venziir]

Before we all go heelsvsbabyface let’s remember we get some more dailies next week and it’s officially under 2 weeks until launch

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I’m still saying it’s a time travel expansion in 10.0 because of all the budding storylines

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What was BfA prepatch?

Silithus questline with azerite, a bg and War of Thorns.

[Sondrelk]

Silithus questline with azerite, a bg and War of Thorns.

I think the BG was added before. Outside the once and done questlines the BfA pre-patch "event" was Warmode and World Quests with no reward in Darkshore.

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Or rather no reward outside gearing alts.

[razorpax]

Silithus questline with azerite, a bg and War of Thorns.

I keep thinking war of thorns is a scenario at the beginning lol

[Venziir]

I think the BG was added before. Outside the once and done questlines the BfA pre-patch "event" was Warmode and World Quests with no reward in Darkshore.

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Or rather no reward outside gearing alts.

Added before yes, but it showed the start of the war for Azerite which was the focal point of BFA.

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I keep thinking war of thorns is a scenario at the beginning lol

The Battle for UC?

[Eurhetemec]

Honestly the biggest tipoff for me was when there was the lore interview where they mentioned there was a specific place where time was completely meaningless within the Shadowlands as opposed to the rest where there was some semblance of time. The next expansion could basically work by saying "Oh wow you can back from [timeless place]! We thought you'd been lost forever!".

Before that the biggest problem with a timeskip was that Blizzard would need to keep players in the Shadowlands the entire expansion to prevent plotholes which would prevent Blizzard from going back and completing various heritage armor questlines and whatever if they want to do some for Night Elf or Forsaken or whatever.

With these specific areas where time is completely meaningless it is much more feasible to state that players are spending the entire time in that area for a patch or whatever, leaving it open for whenever the 10.0 pre-patch has us actually return to Azeroth.

The easiest way to make this work would be to have the final raid involve going to this "timeless" place, because canon-wise, it can be assumed all player characters participated in said raid (even though obviously most don't).

However, this would require a full-world revamp to come in 10.0, and I'm incredibly skeptical that that will happen. Even with the larger team WoW got in response to the issues with Cataclysm (and it's even larger now), the idea of revamping the entire world in a single expansion (which they'd need to do, to do a timeskip) is completely wild effort-wise.

The only way I could see it is if they decided to return the "main" WoW world to a sort of "resting" state as it was pre-Cataclysm. Pre-Cataclysm, stuff was happening, but little of it seemed particularly urgent or changing across the world as a whole. It was all slow and largely static (as makes sense for a long-term MMO). For reasons which have never been explained and are hard to explain except with "high as balls the whole time", Cataclysm threw that aside, and made the main world be in a very specific moment of time, days to weeks after the Cataclysm. A few zones were slightly more timeless, but most are "Shit just went down!!!! FIX IT!!!" to a greater or less extent. So you revamped the world to be more steady-state (not utterly static, but like, durable) in a time-skip, you could have a situation which was more enduring, and could be altered on a zone-by-zone basis as necessary, but never again needed a "full revamp". This would be good for WoW's long-term health, I think, particularly if future expansions are to be set on Azeroth.

But it'd be a big investment, and I'd expect to see them hiring already if they were doing it for 10.0.

[Sondrelk]

The easiest way to make this work would be to have the final raid involve going to this "timeless" place, because canon-wise, it can be assumed all player characters participated in said raid (even though obviously most don't).

However, this would require a full-world revamp to come in 10.0, and I'm incredibly skeptical that that will happen. Even with the larger team WoW got in response to the issues with Cataclysm (and it's even larger now), the idea of revamping the entire world in a single expansion (which they'd need to do, to do a timeskip) is completely wild effort-wise.

The only way I could see it is if they decided to return the "main" WoW world to a sort of "resting" state as it was pre-Cataclysm. Pre-Cataclysm, stuff was happening, but little of it seemed particularly urgent or changing across the world as a whole. It was all slow and largely static (as makes sense for a long-term MMO). For reasons which have never been explained and are hard to explain except with "high as balls the whole time", Cataclysm threw that aside, and made the main world be in a very specific moment of time, days to weeks after the Cataclysm. A few zones were slightly more timeless, but most are "Shit just went down!!!! FIX IT!!!" to a greater or less extent. So you revamped the world to be more steady-state (not utterly static, but like, durable) in a time-skip, you could have a situation which was more enduring, and could be altered on a zone-by-zone basis as necessary, but never again needed a "full revamp". This would be good for WoW's long-term health, I think, particularly if future expansions are to be set on Azeroth.

But it'd be a big investment, and I'd expect to see them hiring already if they were doing it for 10.0.

I don't think revamping the wrold would be as massive an undertaking as it was in Cata honestly.
Back then all zones had to be at some level remade in anticipation of flying, meaning cities had to be mostly redone.
In a new revamp what would really be needed is replacing assets with higher quality ones, take for instance a look at revamped Darkshore to see just how big a difference changing trees, lamps and the grass texture does. Not to mention that one of the most quickly noticeable things that can be changed for a massive improvement is the skybox.

Quests are likely to be the biggest timesink, but Blizzard doesnt have to completely remake the levelling experience like they did in Cataclysm unless they want to. Now that Chromie time is a thing they can only make a few new zones for endgame, or even revamp 3-4 zones each patch. Not to mention that BfA showed that it is viable to not give new zones for content, and instead just reuse old ones, which is something Cata did not do at all for endgame, instead creating 5 (or 6 with Tol Barad) brand new zones that took extra time and effort to make.


In short: A world revamp is completely doable if Blizzard takes a few "shortcuts" like reusing zones for endgame content, or similar.

[Kereberus]

We can just stay logged in on the 6th right and wait till we get the quest yeah?

[Arafal]

1 and a half days to go.

Relish in the calm before the storm.

Might as well just delete the game at this point. What is the point is transmog is not completely perfect?

What is life if you can't create your perfect transmog.

[Sondrelk]

We can just stay logged in on the 6th right and wait till we get the quest yeah?

You mean for launch tomorrow?

That is how it has worked all the previous times I have done it, so I certainly assume so.

[Eurhetemec]

I don't think revamping the wrold would be as massive an undertaking as it was in Cata honestly.
Back then all zones had to be at some level remade in anticipation of flying, meaning cities had to be mostly redone.
In a new revamp what would really be needed is replacing assets with higher quality ones, take for instance a look at revamped Darkshore to see just how big a difference changing trees, lamps and the grass texture does. Not to mention that one of the most quickly noticeable things that can be changed for a massive improvement is the skybox.

Quests are likely to be the biggest timesink, but Blizzard doesnt have to completely remake the levelling experience like they did in Cataclysm unless they want to. Now that Chromie time is a thing they can only make a few new zones for endgame, or even revamp 3-4 zones each patch. Not to mention that BfA showed that it is viable to not give new zones for content, and instead just reuse old ones, which is something Cata did not do at all for endgame, instead creating 5 (or 6 with Tol Barad) brand new zones that took extra time and effort to make.


In short: A world revamp is completely doable if Blizzard takes a few "shortcuts" like reusing zones for endgame content, or similar.

I don't think "redoing 3-4 zones per patch" is very practical and it doesn't fit at all with a timeskip. And I think you're underestimating how much more work goes into things when you need to re-do art to a higher standard (even where models/textures already exist). Plus Blizzard have fairly high standards for themselves (much as people love to say otherwise). The Darkshore modernization shows that. Combine that with questing and you've got a huge deal. I agree that using some zones as endgame zones helps - in fact I'd suggest not adding any new zones on release might be a good idea - though this whole forum would be full of people screaming "BLIZZ IS CHEAP!" and even more "WOW IS DEAD!" and "WOW IS IN MAINTANANCE MAID!!!!" than usual, just re-using zones. With no or like 1 new zone at launch, and a lot of effort, I could see it.

[Sondrelk]

I don't think "redoing 3-4 zones per patch" is very practical and it doesn't fit at all with a timeskip. And I think you're underestimating how much more work goes into things when you need to re-do art to a higher standard (even where models/textures already exist). Plus Blizzard have fairly high standards for themselves (much as people love to say otherwise). The Darkshore modernization shows that. Combine that with questing and you've got a huge deal. I agree that using some zones as endgame zones helps - in fact I'd suggest not adding any new zones on release might be a good idea - though this whole forum would be full of people screaming "BLIZZ IS CHEAP!" and even more "WOW IS DEAD!" and "WOW IS IN MAINTANANCE MAID!!!!" than usual, just re-using zones. With no or like 1 new zone at launch, and a lot of effort, I could see it.

When I say redoin zones I should probably have clarified I meant adding quests to them, instead of a barebones graphical revamp.
Darkshore also didnt have that much content added to it in the grand scheme, especially considering how little of it was used. We have the remade port that is never used for anything but windowdressing. Most of the quests took place in a small area in the northern half, and indeed the warfront also only used a small portion. The Arathi revamp had even less for even more work, things like a HD rework of Hammerfall, despite it never being used for anything but lovely windowdressing as you fly past it to a rare spawn.

To reuse old zones for new content would require Blizzard to put more effort into it than the bare bones, but it could be done, there is nothing stopping Blizzard from revamping Searing gorge and whatever the other Dark Iron zone is called, and using that for an endgame zone. Or revamping the Eastern Plaguelands using non-plagued assets and setting a long questline in what would be a new zone by quite a few standards.

Players will cry about anything they can think of, the important part is whether other players enjoy the revamp, and I bet that there are quite a few that do not really care what the zones look like or where they are, but rather if the dungeons and raids are good.

[huth]

You mean for launch tomorrow?

That is how it has worked all the previous times I have done it, so I certainly assume so.

Ever since they stopped having to restart the servers for it, anyway.