9.0 General Discussion

[niztheundead87]

he's too powerful to be ignored

Too powerful trashbait videos

[Haloren]

Towelliee's title says Alpha THOON. TH probably stands for THursday. So next thursday we get alpha bois

THOON might be a reference to Thursday noon?

[Raetary]

Towelliee's title says Alpha THOON. TH probably stands for THursday. So next thursday we get alpha bois

Watch how in a week everyone's gonna scream that it's next week again.

[razorpax]

Bellandular is as connected as @razorpax

hey now ive paid for my crimes

but in terms of the alpha being delayed it is hitting most departments with a pretty substantial slow down

you will see alpha before you see bellular make any meaningful content with substance

[DeEva]

Also waiting for the picture

[Hitei]

No reason for it to be plague related. What should happen is undead going on a rampage; there is no organized effort to turn people this time around.

A good point. I can't imagine they will just revamp the same invasion both Wrath and Naxx used though, so I wonder what it will take the form of.

[razorpax]

No reason for it to be plague related. What should happen is undead going on a rampage; there is no organized effort to turn people this time around.

i think the only thing mentioned about the plague was that the event would be reminiscent of the plague event

undead hordes invading and we as the heroes of azeroth must fight back the invasions in a similar fashion to the Legion and BFA assaults

i just want to see if my shammy is getting cool loot again

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Also waiting for the picture

i dont think any pic is going to appear that wasnt already debunked garbage from last year

i just went through some of the old posts from last year...i definitely need to do it again this year lol

[Dracullus]

Why WoW wouldn't have any plague elements? Because some snowflake will protest?

I think it will be other way around, more movies/games about pandemics will be released because people are interested in this topic.

[Dreen]

Is it possible for evrything to be encrypted to datamining but still playable?

[Caerule]

I'll be helping out on the MMO-C side of things this year while also trying to kick wow.tools into working shape. Should be fun.

Very excited to hear this. The MMO-C datamining team has felt like it could use more talent on it. WoWHead seemed to have had the upper hand by far during BFA, to me at least.

Looking forward to seeing all the goodies you guys will uncover. Best of luck overcoming any hurdles thrown in your path!

[Sondrelk]

Is it possible for evrything to be encrypted to datamining but still playable?

Not really, only a very few things can be hiudden by an encryption key in a way that does not interfere with the game. It is in theory possible, but i imagine it would require a rework of how the game stores hidden information, remember that currently hte only things that are hidden are prerendered cutscenes, we haev yet to have in-game cutscenes encrypted, despite them possibly being just as impactful.

[Nathanyel]

THOON might be a reference to Thursday noon?

Or simply a reference to Blizzard Soon™. Why may mean any time between now and the end of time the year.

Keeping your options open in true clickbait manner.

[Caerule]

Why WoW wouldn't have any plague elements? Because some snowflake will protest?

I don't think plague elementals are being argued against. I think it's more about the plague of undead of the Wrath pre-expansion event, that killed folks and brought them back as zombies that could kill others to spread it, if I recall correctly. I can see how spreading a deadly disease through the player population may be something Blizzard would withhold from, given the current crisis.

[Nathanyel]

Wowhead also has a new tool that is very good and developed by a capable developer so I feel like they'll have a lot of stuff up very quickly. I'll be helping out on the MMO-C side of things this year while also trying to kick wow.tools into working shape. Should be fun.

Honestly, Datamining World First is much more exciting than Mythic World First

Is it possible for evrything to be encrypted to datamining but still playable?

Highly unlikely. As I understand it, once your client gets a decryption key, the corresponding data on your hard drive is decrypted, permanently. Decrypting everything while playing would cut into performance too much, and stuff could still be extracted from RAM (layman's assumption though)

[Marlamin]

Very excited to hear this. The MMO-C datamining team has felt like it could use more talent on it. WoWHead seemed to have had the upper hand by far during BFA, to me at least.

Looking forward to seeing all the goodies you guys will uncover. Best of luck overcoming any hurdles thrown in your path!

Wowhead will likely still have the upperhand, but that's okay. They have a considerably larger team as well as some pretty talented devs!

Is it possible for evrything to be encrypted to datamining but still playable?

As of BfA, pretty much, yes.

Not really, only a very few things can be hiudden by an encryption key in a way that does not interfere with the game. It is in theory possible, but i imagine it would require a rework of how the game stores hidden information, remember that currently hte only things that are hidden are prerendered cutscenes, we haev yet to have in-game cutscenes encrypted, despite them possibly being just as impactful.

This is based on somewhat outdated information. In-game cutscenes have also been encrypted (see the recent N'zoth ending scene/cinematic combo) as well as bigger things like the entire war campaign map/questline for 8.2.5. They have adapted many game systems to support encryption throughout BfA and we'll likely see a lot of it going forward.

Honestly, Datamining World First is much more exciting than Mythic World First

I guess, but I'm not counting on getting a ton of those myself this time around.

Highly unlikely. As I understand it, once your client gets a decryption key, the corresponding data on your hard drive is decrypted, permanently. Decrypting everything while playing would cut into performance too much, and stuff could still be extracted from RAM (layman's assumption though)

It isn't decrypted permanently, the key is stored for when that information needs to be decrypted again. There is indeed a performance impact, though.

[Sondrelk]

This is based on somewhat outdated information. In-game cutscenes have also been encrypted (see the recent N'zoth ending scene/cinematic combo) as well as bigger things like the entire war campaign map/questline for 8.2.5. They have adapted many game systems to support encryption throughout BfA and we'll likely see a lot of it going forward.

I am pretty sure the N'zoth kamehameha cutscene was found early in 8.3 testing, we just didnt have the second part that was prerendered.
I suppose, in case there was any confusion, by in-game i mean the cutscenes where you can see the player character.

[Marlamin]

I am pretty sure the N'zoth kamehameha cutscene was found early in 8.3 testing, we just didnt have the second part that was prerendered.
I suppose, in case there was any confusion, by in-game i mean the cutscenes where you can see the player character.

Yup, because they accidentally pushed it to PTR. It was quickly pulled and encrypted afterwards.

And it only came out because Wowhead requested it from the servers, not because Blizz 'released it'.

[Monster Hunter]

Maps are going to be especially interesting this time around. With Legion and BfA the feature trailers showed off a lot more of the zones, with high up terrain shots) and we also had zone previews at Blizzcon.

For SL we don't have much yet. We've seen a good chunk of Bastion, but Ardenweald is pretty much one subarea screenshot and then a look at some dense groves, Maldraxxus has only shown a few narrow canyon areas even though a large portion of the zone is open bone wastes and marshes. Revendreth's castle structures are absolutely massive, and it also has more open hilly lowlands and the canyony sunlight exposed regions. And there's nothing about the Maw except the concept art showing it's shrouded in swirling smoke and even the structures/land itself seems to dissolve into it.


There isn't. If you actually read quests you'd know that the Farraki in BfA are actively aligned against the Zandalari most of the expansion and even after the Alliance attack on Dazar'alor, are only neutral, not allies. The Zandalari are the Zandalari and other tribes are other tribes, they aren't the Mag'har. The issue with Dark trolls isn't joining the Horde, my guy, this issue is that there is. CANONICALLY. One, single Dark Troll in existence, because the rest of her relatively small tribe was wiped out during Cata, so she now just hangs around the Zandalari as a relic of the past.

And I have to wonder if you even read my post, because as I explained, the upgraded broken model, like the one the Krokul on Argus use, is extremely close to the Draenei model, the only big difference between them is the size of their upper arms. It's a non-issue. Giving them an emaciated texture skin, will, just like the Void Elves, and the Demon hunter Night elves and blood elves, make them look emaciated. The difference is 95 face+skin texture, and the alternate tail.

Frostborn would not need their own specific sub customization, because they all have one skintone/texture and one hair color that dwarves already ahve, so all you need to make them is access to that that skin.

It's no where near close the broken arn't even the right size or posture. It's a whole different model for Christ's sake.

Also who even says the darker skinned trolls or sand trolls are even from this tribes? It's litteraly just more customisation options.

Also the old starting zones are gonna be legacy anyway, new chars cononicaly start on that new island thing.

I'll reapt this loud and clear, there is absolutely 0 and I mean 0, bottom, nothing below it, 0 kelvin, chance of actual sub races that are beyond simple cultural and skin colour difference being added via this system.

[Sondrelk]

Yup, because they accidentally pushed it to PTR. It was quickly pulled and encrypted afterwards.

And it only came out because Wowhead requested it from the servers, not because Blizz 'released it'.

Didn't know that, good to know i guess.

Does make me wonder what else could be encrypted. The most intriguing thing to hide are the raid and dungeon bosses, though that might not be feasible with the way WoW is currently set up.

[Marlamin]

Didn't know that, good to know i guess.

Does make me wonder what else could be encrypted. The most intriguing thing to hide are the raid and dungeon bosses, though that might not be feasible with the way WoW is currently set up.

At least 2 item sets, 2 mounts and 2 creatures (likely a pet and another mount).