9.0 General Discussion

[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?

[Raetary]

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.

[Raetary]

Monday is gonna drag like hell.

[Dracullus]

Monday is gonna drag like hell.

Lol, not for me, still have shit ton of work to do and want catch at least 4-5 hours of sleep afer 3PM.

[Sondrelk]

Monday is gonna drag like hell.

It really is. Luckily I have set aside quite a few tasks that will take up quite a lot of the day. Things like cleaning my bathroom, and making a lavish dinner for the evening.

Combine that with the last few attempts at Daddy Bronjahm Big-sack and I think the day should move at a steady pace. At least I hope so.

[Blayze]

I'll be waiting for the servers to explode when the expansion launches.

[TheFirstOnes]

Cinematics should leak early from foreign sites, I think.

[huth]

Cinematics should leak early from foreign sites, I think.

How so? Release is global, everybody gets it at the same time.

[Gorsameth]

I'll be waiting for the servers to explode when the expansion launches.

The joy of a midnight release means I can simply ignore it go sleep, to wake up early and play when the servers will have stabilised.

[Sondrelk]

The joy of a midnight release means I can simply ignore it go sleep, to wake up early and play when the servers will have stabilised.

Or conversely you wake up and loads of players have had the same idea, leading the servers to be more unstable than when they initially opened.

Regardless I will stay awake for the actual launch, nothing quite beats that initial high you get from waiting for that first quest to be available. It might not be the best first impression when you are tired from being excited so long, nor is it a particularly good questing experience when so many are on the same quests at the same time, but it is an experience that cannot really be replicated outside the actual launch.

[Varodoc]

Cinematics should leak early from foreign sites, I think.

Does that include cutscenes? I heard there is one cutscene in Oribos which will explain when the machine of Death broke and, since this is the main catalyst for the entire expansion, I am intrigued by that.

(By cutscene, I mean the weird/cheap cutscenes made with the in-game models)

[Arcinatoss]

Monday is gonna drag like hell.

for sure, i got a food/snacks delivery to look forward to atleast. I got covid so I can't go shopping myself >

[cface]

The joy of a midnight release means I can simply ignore it go sleep, to wake up early and play when the servers will have stabilised.

Same here, my body simply can not stand being awake after midnight, I need a guild that ends their raiding at 22 cause that's the latest I can be up lol.

[Makabreska]

The joy of a midnight release means I can simply ignore it go sleep, to wake up early and play when the servers will have stabilised.

BfA midnight release was very smooth. Sharding helped a ton.