Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[therumblings]

Wait, i havent thought about this before, have we not had cut scenes before Legion? Not counting the ones like in scenarios where it just flies over an area

They've been in the game since Cataclysm I think, but they have mostly been really bad looking, Shadowlands is the first time they look decent. I still prefer pre-rendered though.

[therumblings]

World of Warcraft: A New Dawn

-60-70

-World Revamp. Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend all updated to current timeline. Many zones combined (Quel’Thalas from Eversong Woods and Ghostlands; Barrens and Stranglethorn rejoined).

-60-70 Leveling takes place over revamped zones with new storylines. Alliance Civil War between Turalyon/Scarlet Crusade/Light-forged Races/Army of Light versus Genn/Worgen/Human Rebels/Lilian Voss and Forsaken. Horde focuses on rebuilding unity, bringing in orc clans, troll tribes.

-Dragon Isles is end game zone similar to Timeless Isle but much bigger. Narrative focused on Wrathion rebuilding the dragon flights to prepare Azeroth for the threat that the Jailer warned us about.
-
New Class: Artificer

-Mail User. 3 Specs. 2 RDPS Specs (Gunslinger and Techmancer) and 1 Healer Spec (Medic). Uses guns, bows, crossbows, and pistols (new weapon that hunters can also use).

-Class reworks.

-Arms warrior more samurai like, survival hunter more primal to be different from Artificer, discipline priest reword towards shields again, etc.

-New Race/Class Combos. Human Druids, Nelf and Forsaken Paladins, Orc and Draenei DH, Worgen and Goblin Monks.

-Profession Revamp, new abilities for all classes, valor and justice points brought back similar to Wrath.

This might be my favorite leak so far, the only thing I don't like very much is how small the Dragon Isles would be. Other than that I like it, I still think it's fake though.

[Bsirk]

10.0 is going to shake up AND shock the MMORPG world. Just watch. 19 days and we will know. If I’m wrong, I will crawl back into my very small shell until 11.0 HYPE.

I'm going to be sad to see my optimistic Blizzard employee leave. /s

[Three Faced Goddess]

Shit if the real leak dropped on April 1st, that would be great

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So a diverge group of undead who are mostly vampiric and include all known Dark Rangers in their ranks. It does seem to mirror the Illidari for a possible playable Dark Ranger.

Unless they just straight-up make Darkfallen a third faction with undead variants of present playable races. Seems like an easy and cost-effective way to give us more undead options and spice up the faction dynamic. Horde is no longer the evil one.

I would fucking love a third faction made up of undead Azerothian races, especially if it was playable. I would have so damn many undead characters, I'd probably have to delete all of my non undead to make space which would be a shame because they're all max or near max level. I'd also go for the first option you mentioned but the second one is *chef kiss*.

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I think the whole deal where the San'layn killed and consumed a whole bunch of Forsaken likely undercut diplomatic relations with the Horde a tad.

But who knows, this was BfA Horde, where nothing short of complete and utter annihilation of the Horde as a whole was enough to make them consider not backing Sylvanas' plans, so maybe they considered a few lost troops an acceptable trade for vampires.

As it was an Alliance only quest, who says the Horde knows about Dreven draining the Forsaken? Wasn't the ship also sunk? No evidence. Who's to say there aren't different groups?

[Bsirk]

I appreciated in the Pelagos/Kleia cutscene in Zereth Mortis had much better lip syncing then previously shown; however, WoW's art team can only carry the age of its base system for so long. I know it won't happen, at least for a while, but WoW's been overdue for an entirely new base for creating the game on. The game has looked ugly by contemporary standards since 2014.

While true, but wow has always been made to run with people playing on a potato of a pc. lol

[Raetary]

They're on different fucking continents. Do you mean boat travel? Pretty sure that's still there.

I am so tired.

They mean no more north/south divide for Barrens and Stranglethorn.

[Catastrophy349]

Can't wait for 2 things tomorrow:

1). Morgan Day interview (although it's April 1st)
2). ALL the craziness for April 1st from Blizzard posts, social media posts, fake "leaks", etc.

[Shadochi]

Can't wait for 2 things tomorrow:

1). Morgan Day interview (although it's April 1st)
2). ALL the craziness for April 1st from Blizzard posts, social media posts, fake "leaks", etc.

I hope for tinker. And then the T-Gang claiming how Pandaren was also at some point april fools
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Pandaren_(April_Fools)

[Chickat]

Wait, i havent thought about this before, have we not had cut scenes before Legion? Not counting the ones like in scenarios where it just flies over an area

Not ones with our characters in them no. It was new tech for Argus.

Look how bad this looks.




Although that one doesn't have our character, but it was new tech to allow them more cinematics on a budget. There was a tech video or some kind of interview on it, but I cant find it.

[therumblings]

Not ones with our characters in them no. It was new tech for Argus.

Look how bad this looks.




Although that one doesn't have our character, but it was new tech to allow them more cinematics on a budget. There was a tech video or some kind of interview on it, but I cant find it.

This stuff has been in questing since Cataclysm

[Chickat]

This stuff has been in questing since Cataclysm

There is new tech for that, but I don't remember the details. Cata ones were like silent movies with basic animations. This video was the start of them learning to animate the mouth cheaper and without rendering it. Its all in game. It may be an evolution on the cata tech, but there's new stuff in there as well.

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Either way, compare that to the new sylvanas ones. The Sylvanas ones are MUCh better.

[Khaza-R]

They've been in the game since Cataclysm I think, but they have mostly been really bad looking, Shadowlands is the first time they look decent. I still prefer pre-rendered though.

There was Wrathgate before that, no?

[therumblings]

There is new tech for that, but I don't remember the details. Cata ones were like silent movies with basic animations. This video was the start of them learning to animate the mouth cheaper and without rendering it. Its all in game. It may be an evolution on the cata tech, but there's new stuff in there as well.

It looks the same but with some adjusted movements based on character emotes in game, plus voice over. A definite improvement, but what they did in SL was the first real improvement, as they actually added custom animations entirely on the same quality as the pre-rendered ones. I do think it's great though, I remember a long long time ago people said you would never ever see your own character in the pre-rendered cinematics (for obvious reasons), however doing it this way is quite genius of them and is a massive step forward.

[shoc]

Watch we get Tinkers.. as an April Fools joke.

[therumblings]

Watch we get Tinkers.. as an April Fools joke.

Would be even better if we got Tinkers as an April Fools joke then got the real Tinker announcement on the 19th.

[Catastrophy349]

They are going to announce Ashes of Galakros tomorrow.

[Shadochi]

There was Wrathgate before that, no?

Wasn't wrathgate the first non patch trailer cinematic they did?

[SunspotAnims]

There was Wrathgate before that, no?

Wrathgate was pre-rendered. We're talking about the ones that are entirely in-game. They've been used since like Cata but for the longest time just involved taking control of the camera and playing talking animations. Legion stepped them up by using camera cuts and some more elaborate animation-splicing. Shadowlands is the first time we're seeing realtime cutscenes use entirely unique animations as if they were pre-rendered.

[therumblings]

Wrathgate was pre-rendered. We're talking about the ones that are entirely in-game. They've been used since like Cata but for the longest time just involved taking control of the camera and playing talking animations. Legion stepped them up by using camera cuts and some more elaborate animation-splicing. Shadowlands is the first time we're seeing realtime cutscenes use entirely unique animations as if they were pre-rendered.

Yeah this is a perfect summary of what's going on with cinematics. It's pretty exciting honestly, I wonder how far they can keep pushing this tech.

[Jokubas]

Would be even better if we got Tinkers as an April Fools joke then got the real Tinker announcement on the 19th.

Ooo, like the Goblin Alchemist. They did that there, right? I miss when the joke would turn out to be that something wasn't entirely a joke.

Edit: It looks like it might literally have been the Tinker in Warcraft III, not the Alchemist?

Yeah this is a perfect summary of what's going on with cinematics. It's pretty exciting honestly, I wonder how far they can keep pushing this tech.

I kinda wish they weren't showing us the work in progress, though. There have been so many important moments in the last couple of expansions that have been relegated to the new in-game cutscenes, and I don't blame them experimenting and bettering the tech, but in the mean time it means that moments that should be extremely climactic just feel sloppy and even a bit goofy. For instance, after Sylvanas being in so many cutscenes and cinematics, her "final" fate is in an in-game cinematic that, while it has more custom animations, still has her pop into frame in the official upload. I wish they could have waited to use this tech until it was truly on the level of the pre-rendered cutscenes.