Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Eggroll]

They're going to scrap flying in 9.x
Drama ensues ... again,..
then we're having a collective WoD déjà-vu
then they're going to release a very pruned form of flying. Something like: you have to pay 10 gold everytime you use your flying mount... just for the sake of antagonizing the player

Just wanted to remind you of this nice satire back in WoD times, the "TOO WELL LIT" part reminds me of parts of the Maw a tad bit too much

New interview with Ono Fuzzikoalas discovered in Gollypawn magazine.

THERE'S STILL NO LIGHTING IN DISMAL SWAMP... AND THERE PROBABLY WON'T BE IN ANY NEW ZONES OR EXPANSIONS

When Boredlords of Paymore first hit, some fans were surprised to discover that even upon reaching the level cap of 500, they still couldn't see any of the new zones. Initially Gizzard expected to patch in dim lighting at some point, but now it has changed its mind.

"Having looked at how lighting has played out in the whole world in all expansions, we realized that while we were doing it out of this ingrained habit after we'd introduced lighting in the initial release, it actually detracted from gameplay in a whole lot of ways," Fuzzikoalas explains. "While there was certainly convenience in being able to completely see the world everywhere you looked, that also came at the expense of gameplay like prolonged exploration, like trying to figure out if you're walking into a wall repeatedly, or if you're going to fall off a cliff and will you ever get back up if you do."

"IT MADE THE WORLD FEEL IN MANY WAYS MUCH TOO WELL LIT"

Fuzzikoalas gives an example: Before darkness was introduced to Foiled by Whichcraft, if you got a quest to kill ten rats for ten rat toes, it would play out a certain way. Players would need to fight their way through the rats. After seeing the rats, players could just kill on sight, wonder why there were so many toeless rats, but persist in slaughtering all the rats and then finally return to the questgiver who they could clearly see. With the new system, you won't even know if you're actually going towards the rats or possibly mounting a one-orc invasion on Windstorm. As an added plus, they'll never see you coming, either.

Until you walk into something and discover it's indeed aggro, you are filled with a sense of wonder! No minimap, world map, heck, you can't even see your quest journal. Being required to memorize your quest objectives is like an entire little mini-game all on its own and encourages grouping. Before you knew how big a zone was because you could see it. With all lighting removed, even tiny zones can feel huge, especially if we put in some obstacles designed to keep you going in circles. Hours can be spent in the dark whereas the old, unimaginative style of full lighting encouraged people to dash hastily through, killing rats, and turning their quests in promptly.

"It made the world feel in many ways much too well lit," he says.

Originally, Gizzard thought taking lighting out in Boredlords of Paymore was an experiment, and Fuzzikoalas says he would have bet "something that he was willing to part with" that they were going to bring it back eventually. But as they played the expansion and heard others play it, they discovered that they liked the game better without lighting.

"The world feels darker, feels more lugubrious," he says. "Players have been asking for darker nights for years. Then it dawned on us. Why stop there? Now there's more exploration, secrets, discovery and overall immersion in the world. At this point, we feel that outdoor gameplay in Foiled by Whichcraft is ultimately better without lighting. We're not going to be introducing the ability to see in Paymore, and that's where we're at going forward. At least we think it's forward, it could be going sideways. We won't know until we bump into it. We're applying the same philosophy to development that we want the players to use so we can all understand each other better."

Fuzzikoalas confirms that this lack of direction includes future expansions, though he doesn't discount the possibility of adding visible options in to specific expansion ideas or zones that would benefit from it. In general, though, he believes that exploration in Gizzard's indeterminable world "works better and feels better in our limited view when you're doing it without any light."

He also promises that Gizzard will continue working to improve its selection of rentable seeing eye dogs in the game to prevent any major frustration from this change: "The goal is to increase excitement in getting from point A to point B but retaining as much of the gameplay and depth as possible while you stumble around getting to that point, if you make it at all."

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[Aeluron Lightsong]

There's been no indication flying is going away...what are you even talking about?

[Unbelievable]

The HoA also contains dragonflight powers, so it's not entirely a stretch.

Apparently, you're right:

"After the questline to imbue the Heart of Azeroth with the power of the five dragonflights, it could be compared to the Demon Soul which was also a small golden disc with the dragons' essences."

Probably, another hint towards a Dragon-based expansion.

Isn't that just the usual discrepancy that happens when they depict zones in cinematics...?
Zones/Areas/Anything always looks better in those.

Depends if it's a CGI cinematic or, and in-game cinematic.

[Volardelis]

Apparently, you're right:

"After the questline to imbue the Heart of Azeroth with the power of the five dragonflights, it could be compared to the Demon Soul which was also a small golden disc with the dragons' essences.".

The thing is though, we only empower the heart of Azeroth with 4 of the 5 dragon flights.

Rank 1 = black
Rank 2 = green
Rank 3 = red
Rank 4 = blue

We don’t empower it with the essence of the bronze dragon flight.

Also I doubt that the Dragon Soul thrall used to defeat Deathwing is the heart of Azeroth. It would be a stupid retcon to change it. Although blizzard does love their stupid and pointless retcons atm.

[Revamp Man]

The thing is though, we only empower the heart of Azeroth with 4 of the 5 dragon flights.

Rank 1 = black
Rank 2 = green
Rank 3 = red
Rank 4 = blue

We don’t empower it with the essence of the bronze dragon flight.

Also I doubt that the Dragon Soul thrall used to defeat Deathwing is the heart of Azeroth. It would be a stupid retcon to change it. Although blizzard does love their stupid and pointless retcons atm.

so
1. chromie technically gave us bronze
2. they dragon soul and the heart of azeroth are 2 different things

[Unbelievable]

The thing is though, we only empower the heart of Azeroth with 4 of the 5 dragon flights.

Rank 1 = black
Rank 2 = green
Rank 3 = red
Rank 4 = blue

We don’t empower it with the essence of the bronze dragon flight.

Also I doubt that the Dragon Soul thrall used to defeat Deathwing is the heart of Azeroth. It would be a stupid retcon to change it. Although blizzard does love their stupid and pointless retcons atm.

It doesn't have to be.
It just might be from the same material.

[Black Rider]

Huge Kyrian "City" in the In-Between North of Bastion Explored
Future raid?
https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/top...tion-explored/

[Sondrelk]

Huge Kyrian "City" in the In-Between North of Bastion Explored
Future raid?
https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/top...tion-explored/

I really can't see it being anything but uninstanced and unused spires of Ascension. Likely meant to be used for some quest for Kyrians that got scrapped.
My guess is that it will be used eventually, my guess being whenever Kyrians will choose new paragons.

[Syegfryed]

There has been a "dev talk" reddit post in which, the "dev" spoke that Blizzard is planning a time-travel expansion, with Azshara as the main antagonist (ancient Kalimdor), among other expansion ideas..

they didn't learn with wod? or its the norm now that they just copy their own stuff?

[huth]

Did they mention that it may play into the Zin-Azshari instance from Cata? There's a theory that the Dragon Soul we rescue from there is in fact the Heart of Azeroth in a timeloop, so that Azshara may be the one from the future.

That was something vertigo12 came up with. There's no indication in the game or lore that this is even remotely sensible.

[FossilFree]

I think we will have a patch that goes to the Blighted Lands of Thros where the Drust reside. Those dry areas in Ardenweald aren't actually the Blighted Lands, the Drust are invading from another realm.

[Luck4]

I think the next expansion will be themed around Night Elves/Kalimdor/Elune.

If Blizzcon 2021 rewards are giving any hints.

[huth]

I think the next expansion will be themed around Night Elves/Kalimdor/Elune.

If Blizzcon 2021 rewards are giving any hints.

Not seeing it. Nether Whelp sounds more like BC Classic, while Snowstorm is likely a reference to the Big Blizzard Bear from BlizzCon 2008. What with a Blizzard being a type of Snowstorm.

In particular, there's nothing hinting at Night Elves or Kalimdor whatsoever.

[razorpax]

That was something vertigo12 came up with. There's no indication in the game or lore that this is even remotely sensible.

Yeah they are similar but WoW won’t have more timey whimey bs

9.1 is gonna be fun

[ohwell]

Apparently, you're right:

"After the questline to imbue the Heart of Azeroth with the power of the five dragonflights, it could be compared to the Demon Soul which was also a small golden disc with the dragons' essences."

Probably, another hint towards a Dragon-based expansion.



Depends if it's a CGI cinematic or, and in-game cinematic.

The demon soul wasn't the problem. It was deathwing wielding it.

[LemonDemonGirl]

I think the next expansion will be themed around Night Elves/Kalimdor/Elune.

If Blizzcon 2021 rewards are giving any hints.

I think the Whelpling is just a reffrence to TBC (it even mentions Shadowmoon in its flavor text), and the bear mount is juist a 'remastered' Big Blizzard Bear.
I noticed that it says something like 'celebrating 30 years', soo yeah

But we'll see of course lol

[razorpax]

9.1

Assaults either us going into the maw or them attacking us
More torghast chambers and layers
Torghast raid/dungeon (there’s a couple open spots on the map)

Venari story

More soulbinds and campaign quests with more renown and more catch up
Covenant gear boost
More conduits
More legendary powers
2 new reps

[Sorrowseer]

I really think 9.1 is not gonna be anything exciting to be honest, I don't have any expecations it will, nor do i realistically think it 'has' to be going by past x.1's.

[ExiHext]

But the First Ones also exist.

Do we already know who (or better: what) the First Ones are? As far as I understand they are different from the Eternal Ones (Kyrestia, Denathrius, etc.).
Could it be that Elune is a First One? Are First Ones related to cosmic forces, e.g. Elune being the First One of the light? I there a source somewhere to read about that?

[TheFirstOnes]

Do we already know who (or better: what) the First Ones are? As far as I understand they are different from the Eternal Ones (Kyrestia, Denathrius, etc.).
Could it be that Elune is a First One? Are First Ones related to cosmic forces, e.g. Elune being the First One of the light? I there a source somewhere to read about that?

We know like...3 things about them:

1. They are connected to other Pantheons such as the Titans.

2. They made Maldraxxus, Oribos, and quite possibly the entire way the Shadowlands works and is.

And 3. They shaped the Warcraft Cosmos, which is a pretty vague statement, as this can either mean they made the entire Cosmic Chart as a whole, and therefore the Big Bang of WoW VIA creating the Light And Void, etc. Or...it could just mean they structured the Cosmos that was already made. I'm gonna go with the first part though, since Blizzard's talked about "Expanding past the Cosmic Chart" during SL interviews, and the First Ones do not fit anywhere on the Cosmic Chart.