Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Cosmic Janitor]

I doubt we will get any news about the next patch before september, more likely novemeber. The renown grind lasts another 11 weeks including this one, for most that is at least a reason to log in. Unless they plan a 9.1.5, I doubt they are going to show their hand yet. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they try to at least have something to show this time after their announcement, so they can at least attempt to take a bit of wind out of FFXIVs sails during their expansion launch. They will want to have at least the PTR up and running and something that actually interests people like a bunch of class changes or tier set graphics. That being said, given their 9.1 progress I'm not all confident that they will have much to show for either way, though maybe they used alot of the time spent on 9.1 to actually cobble together a 9.1.5 in secret and this is where the other 3 months of development time went.

[Nyel]

We have two interesting dates coming up later this year, New World launch end of September and FFXIV expansion launch mid November. Guess we can expect something around those dates. 9.2 reveal maybe around the time of New World launch, but the patch for sure won’t be ready when Endwalker releases, so who knows if we don’t get the expansion announcement by then.

[Black Rider]

Blizzard is not attending.

Are you sure?
I googled and only 2019 article shows up

[Nyel]

Are you sure?
I googled and only 2019 article shows up

I checked the 2021 list some days ago and while Activision was mentioned, Blizzard was not. So my assumption was that they don’t participate on this years Gamescom.

505 Games
Activision
Aerosoft
Assemble Entertainment
astragon Entertainment
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
Bethesda Softworks
Electronic Arts
GAMEVIL COM2US Europe
Headup Games
Indie Arena Booth
Koch Media
NExT Studios (Tencent Games)
SEGA Europe
Team17
Thunderful Games
Ubisoft
Wargaming
Xbox

These are the publishers that have been announced on July 15. They said more are about to follow, but I really doubt Blizzard considers participating during the climax of the scandal.

[Black Rider]

I checked the 2021 list some days ago and while Activision was mentioned, Blizzard was not. So my assumption was that they don’t participate on this years Gamescom.

Meh, I hoped for some 9.2 info.

[Raetary]

Are you sure?
I googled and only 2019 article shows up

Yes.
https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/games...eliste-060821/

Scroll down and you have a list of all attending companies.
Blizzard is not one of them.

[Marlamin]

Man, I miss oldschool datamined stuff speculation.
Isn't there anything that could give us little fire of speculation? @Marlamin @Boubouille

I got nothing. I'm still waiting for the Hearthstone Inn or to find out what those new human buildings are for.

[Nagawithlegs]

I doubt we will get any news about the next patch before september, more likely novemeber. The renown grind lasts another 11 weeks including this one, for most that is at least a reason to log in.

A large portion of people are going to stop playing tomorrow because the story quests end. The second half of renown rewards aren’t much of a big deal, you’re crazy if you think they’ll wait literal months from now to announce any patch details. The renown is to keep some people playing but they don’t wait until the end to say anything.

The patch won’t be for a while but we will have details sooner than later.

I feel like people normally just expect every news announcement to be half a year away from the day they make a post...

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I got nothing. I'm still waiting for the Hearthstone Inn or to find out what those new human buildings are for.

Were there any interesting small updates like the updated animation rigs for mounts (mammoth, maybe dragonhawk based on the new animations for the Sylvanas mount)

[LemonDemonGirl]

If we go to Northrend please give us the Zuldrak Troll raid we didn’t get in WotLK. You could even incorporate Bwonsamdi there.

This 100%! But we kind of already got a Troll Instance in SL so...

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Also, yeah Mueh'zala is still out there

[Nyel]

I just checked some dates:

8.2 release: June 25, 2019 (announced Blizzcon 2018)
8.2.5 release: September 24, 2019 (announced Blizzcon 2018)
8.3 release: January 14, 2020 (October 7, 2019, announcement)

9.1 release: June 29, 2021 (announced virtual Blizzcon 2021)
9.1.5 release: ? (September 28, 2021, New World launch)
9.2 release: ? (November 19, 2021, FFXIV Endwalker launch)

[pewpmeiser]

10.0 is dragon isles

[draugril]

10.0 is dragon isles

I wish I could be that confident.

While I hope for the Dragon Isles, I fully expect something completely left field. More masturbatory content for the writers to congratulate themselves about how clever and subversive they are.

[Cosmic Janitor]

A large portion of people are going to stop playing tomorrow because the story quests end. The second half of renown rewards aren’t much of a big deal, you’re crazy if you think they’ll wait literal months from now to announce any patch details. The renown is to keep some people playing but they don’t wait until the end to say anything.

The patch won’t be for a while but we will have details sooner than later.

I feel like people normally just expect every news announcement to be half a year away from the day they make a post...

And I feel you guys have the memory of proverbial goldfish. They announced 9.1 3 months after release. We are already a quarter into august, them announcing something in september is more than realistic, since they are still bogged down with covid apparently and the last 2 weeks certainly weren't the most productive weeks they've had either. The truthi s also that simply showed their hand to early with Korthia, as their presentation pretty much highlighted that they had a couple mount models and nothing else done. On top of that in 9.0 by week 8 when the campaign was over people were also bored to tears and it didn't stop them from waiting another 6 weeks for week 14 of 16 until they showed next to nothing at Blizzconline. Since the 6-month-mount scheme seems to be working pretty well they also have a huge chunk of the playerbase locked into subs for the next 4 months.

Addemittedly though, I forgot to factor in TBCC. Depending when they have some major updates you can pretty much add some periods of no PTR testing as they clearly account for that as well, as the last month of 9.1 didn't have much happening and they clearly just didn't want to cut the engagement period of TBCC short.

Btw, what would guys think about a hype patch 9.1.5 in which we get a hand full of new chapters, the sigils get united as do the covenants and some of the covenant restrictions finally start being lifted? Essentially a micro rip-cord that let's us at least spend the anima we get at other covenants and extends the grindability for people with less than 4 characters a bit. I'm not saying we get to pick and choose abilitites freely (though maybe?), but just engaging in the sanctum grinds. In the database they obviously all have their own entries already and it's mainly flipping some flags to open up the other stuff if Blizzard didn't code it like undergrad students. I think that would be a major thing that could get some people back, as they now might get to experiment (maybe) with different builds & specs, story and cosmetic items. I think giving the many people that most likely picked their covenants depending on their group content choice a bit of an incentive to play the game might be among the easiest things Blizzard could do right now, without actually producing a massive load of content.

[Black Rider]

I got nothing. I'm still waiting for the Hearthstone Inn or to find out what those new human buildings are for.

Meh, I got a feeling there will be with no use at least for a while

[Kereberus]

Where are the rumblings?

[draugril]

Where are the rumblings?

I'm surprised no one has pitched the "I'm a disgruntled developer - here are the 10.0 plans" narrative given current goings on. But I suppose that would be in bad taste.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

For once the Jailer fanboy is right, there will never be an expansion "about Dragons". There will be an expansion "about the Void", "featuring Dragons".

The Dragons are literally some Titan-enhanced beasts, they're not carrying an expansion. Especially after they lost whatever power they had.

I don't know why people here have this fascination for "omg dragons!! dragon isles!!" but realistically Alexstrasza's bikini armor can only carry an expansion so much. If the dragons ever become relevant again it will be because the Void Lords have found a way into reality or N'Zoth has returned.

I still say there's your hook. Dragons need their power back because of some incoming cosmic threat, we need to delve into old Titan mysteries to get them back.

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I'm surprised no one has pitched the "I'm a disgruntled developer - here are the 10.0 plans" narrative given current goings on. But I suppose that would be in bad taste.

Someone did on 4chan a few weeks ago but it was mostly just doom porn about how Activision was ruining everything and WoW might die because Asmongold is playing FF14 now.

[draugril]

Someone did on 4chan a few weeks ago but it was mostly just doom porn about how Activision was ruining everything and WoW might die because Asmongold is playing FF14 now.

Yeah, that never struck me as a "leak," as it were. More of a muddled exposé.

But yeah, Wrathion found some answer to draconic sterility in the Dragon Isles. Expansion writes itself. Just let me play as something draconic to experience it - a class, race, or both - and I'll slog through whatever trash they sling at us.

[Sondrelk]

It is actually quite odd to consider that we would usually be knee deep in speculatio nabotu the next expansion by now. Those delays really do end up affecting us all these days.

The only question is. Which likely 10.0 expansion will have the highest quality leak?

[draugril]

speculatio nabotu