Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Raetary]

Out of curiosity, did you explain that to people who just wanted to level an alt? Because if you actually found that many completely new players I'd be interested how you do that..

I'm a guide, i have access to newcomer chat.

No, i'm not talking about people lvling alts, but new players lvling their first character.
By the time they get to focus on lvling an alt, they'd have already gotten rid of their newcomer status.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I'm a guide, i have access to newcomer chat.

No, i'm not talking about people lvling alts, but new players lvling their first character.
By the time they get to focus on lvling an alt, they'd have already gotten rid of their newcomer status.

Ah I completely forgot that thing exists.

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I think it's high time they gave the transmogrification system a huge upgrade. I think it's time for a true armor dye system to make it into the game and create absolutely insane customization to armor possible, with full color customization. Just as well, do the same thing with gloves and boots that you did with shoulders, and make each hand and foot able to be separately transmogged.

That by itself would be an enormous casual boost. I know I'd resub again just to farm old raids to see what crazy mogs I could come up with.

I doubt they are going to do that.. it's yet again more data they need to transmit with each frame and it would completely ruin their raid difficulty incentives right now. So it's alot of work that actively causes them even more work by having to find a new solution to differentiating gear. In general many ideas actively require Blizzard to suddenly put in more work, which imho seems a bit illusoric, it's more realistic to hope for them to manage their resources better instead.

[Edward Wu]

Could they do an episodic-style World Revamp? Where 10.0 and 11.0 both take place on Azeroth and they use those 4 years in total over 2 expansion cycles to revamp and refresh all of the zones in EK & Kalimdor. They've never done a two-part expansion before, maybe it could work? There's a lot of story material to death with. Lightbound threat, Dragon Isles & Aspects, possibly Galakrond resurrection somehow tied to the byproduct of the Shadowlands' destruction maybe? Also the rebirth of the Prime Titan Azeroth in 11.0, maybe. Lots of material to work with.

Say, for example, in 10.0 we have 3 zones revamped in EK & 3 in Kalimdor. Then in 10.1, we get a zone revamped each in Kalimdor & EK again, then another 2 revamped in 9.2, etc.

And the storyline completely follows each revamp and has us trekking back into each zone as they are revamped and the story unfolds.

[Nagawithlegs]

Could they do an episodic-style World Revamp? Where 10.0 and 11.0 both take place on Azeroth and they use those 4 years in total over 2 expansion cycles to revamp and refresh all of the zones in EK & Kalimdor. They've never done a two-part expansion before, maybe it could work? There's a lot of story material to death with. Lightbound threat, Dragon Isles & Aspects, possibly Galakrond resurrection somehow tied to the byproduct of the Shadowlands' destruction maybe? Also the rebirth of the Prime Titan Azeroth in 11.0, maybe. Lots of material to work with.

Say, for example, in 10.0 we have 3 zones revamped in EK & 3 in Kalimdor. Then in 10.1, we get a zone revamped each in Kalimdor & EK again, then another 2 revamped in 9.2, etc.

And the storyline completely follows each revamp and has us trekking back into each zone as they are revamped and the story unfolds.

I would say it’s POSSIBLE: EK is decidedly getting built up with Turalyon, Lothraxion, the Scarlets and Calia. SMC could be the horde hub as well as whatever area of Lordaeron Forsaken get. There is very little foreshadowing of Kalimdor plots aside from Azshara existing and some elemental stuff which could happen on both sides.

However I think Nelf players may commit ritual suicide if their stuff doesn’t come in until 11.0. I think it’s much more likely both continents happen at the same time: after all, even if it’s only Light themed (unlikely) the Lightbound could attack Velen.

I think it’s just not very obvious what the Void plot of the expansion will be. I’m going to assume it’s Xal and Azshara working together and that’s how we’re going to finally get Azshara vs Tyrande (with Azshara being the ultimate Kalimdor threat that Horde plus Nelves have to fight off). Magatha could also get involved.

Also doing both Light and Void at the same time will help fight off fatigue of singular cosmic force theming.

[draugril]

Any predictions out there on when we'll get a 10.0 announcement? Obviously, it isn't going to be Blizzcon... anyone aware of upcoming expos that Blizzard might feature in, during the proper timeframe?

[Cosmic Janitor]

Any predictions out there on when we'll get a 10.0 announcement? Obviously, it isn't going to be Blizzcon... anyone aware of upcoming expos that Blizzard might feature in, during the proper timeframe?

If 9.2 hits before the next blizzconline I wouldn't be suprised to see at least a first reveal for 10.0.

[Edward Wu]

Any predictions out there on when we'll get a 10.0 announcement? Obviously, it isn't going to be Blizzcon... anyone aware of upcoming expos that Blizzard might feature in, during the proper timeframe?

Pax West is Sep 3-6th, EGX is Oct 7-10th, and DreamHack Atlanta is Nov 12-14th. Could be one of those?

Honestly, they might just do a fully online 1 hour stream event from the comfort of Blizz HQ to unveil the expansion and talk about it a little. Then promise more details at Blizzconline in Feb. If I were to drum up a guess on how I think it'd go, I'd say:

Late November 2021: Do a 1-hour reveal stream of 9.1.5 and then the 10.0 expansion, talk about it a bit, then encourage people to start talking and discussing it in the community, in the meantime tell them to enjoy the coming holidays and strap in for the Feb 2022 Blizzconline.

Jan 2022: Release 9.1.5 shortly after the holiday break.

Feb 2022: Blizzconline. Announce 9.2 and talk about it and the 10.0 expansion and how they tie in together lore-wise and all that jazz. Talk about the new gameplay systems, etc.

April 2022: Release 9.2

June 2022: 10.0 alpha/beta begins.

[Dracullus]

You seem to think they can just pull expansion out of blue right now cause you're bored with current one. If anything, they should take their time and think more what even 10.0 should be, this time community give almost ZERO constructive feedback about what they don't like in SL. Between SL and BfA they at least knew they had to make change X and Y.

Not to mention how early 10.0 production must be with all delays. This isn't Legion situation when WoD was abandoned even before launch (and they were rumors it was designed as 1 years expac + Legion during early production was planned as sequel of MoP, not WoD).

Another observation, imo main thing why Legion launch was so awesome (despite that it was objectively filled with more problems than SL) was that most of us took long break from WoW at the same time. Since then many people just played almost non stop, especially youtubers that sadly has big infleunce on community.

[keygy]

Pax West is Sep 3-6th, EGX is Oct 7-10th, and DreamHack Atlanta is Nov 12-14th. Could be one of those?

Honestly, they might just do a fully online 1 hour stream event from the comfort of Blizz HQ to unveil the expansion and talk about it a little. Then promise more details at Blizzconline in Feb. If I were to drum up a guess on how I think it'd go, I'd say:

Late November 2021: Do a 1-hour reveal stream of 9.1.5 and then the 10.0 expansion, talk about it a bit, then encourage people to start talking and discussing it in the community, in the meantime tell them to enjoy the coming holidays and strap in for the Feb 2022 Blizzconline.

Jan 2022: Release 9.1.5 shortly after the holiday break.

Feb 2022: Blizzconline. Announce 9.2 and talk about it and the 10.0 expansion and how they tie in together lore-wise and all that jazz. Talk about the new gameplay systems, etc.

April 2022: Release 9.2

June 2022: 10.0 alpha/beta begins.

9.1.5 is not a major patch you can't delay that patch like if was a major patch, and you can't have a full year between 9.1 and 9.2 that is death for the expansion, the 9.1 was delayed like 1-2 month more than usual and the backslash of the community was hard, think what can be happen if you delay a whole year course.

[draugril]

I like you're line of thinking, but I still fully expect to get a .3 patch, if for no other reason than Ion's stubbornness. To skip .3 would be to admit some degree of failure, and I think he'd much prefer to put out some barebones ill-conceived content and pretend its fantastic than the alternative.

[Edward Wu]

I like you're line of thinking, but I still fully expect to get a .3 patch, if for no other reason than Ion's stubbornness. To skip .3 would be to admit some degree of failure, and I think he'd much prefer to put out some barebones ill-conceived content and pretend its fantastic than the alternative.

I think that assumes that sort of thing is in Ion's hands rather than his executive superiors. I really want to see more of Jen O'neal and Mike Ybarra soon. I want to see who they are and what they care about.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I like you're line of thinking, but I still fully expect to get a .3 patch, if for no other reason than Ion's stubbornness. To skip .3 would be to admit some degree of failure, and I think he'd much prefer to put out some barebones ill-conceived content and pretend its fantastic than the alternative.

I doubt they will put in extra resources to elongate the expansion more than neccessary. Besides the story is at a point where whatever side adventure they may have had planned in the beginning could easily be cut down and we go straight for the BBEG. The pieces are in place, 9.1 hastily wrapped up all plot hooks that were left with the exception of the nathrezim and the bdsm clown.

More than half their projects are practically stuck in development hell right now, they need to get something out and I don't even expect 10.0 before the very end of 2021 at earliest. I'd sooner expect them to half-ass 9.2 again before they drag 10.0 out into mid to late 2022.

[draugril]

I doubt they will put in extra resources to elongate the expansion more than neccessary. Besides the story is at a point where whatever side adventure they may have had planned in the beginning could easily be cut down and we go straight for the BBEG. The pieces are in place, 9.1 hastily wrapped up all plot hooks that were left with the exception of the nathrezim and the bdsm clown.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think we'll see any "extra" resources. I just believe that they'll divvy up the content to adhere to the established formula, regardless of the actual quality or quantity of content being released. Maybe we'll get another S.E.L.F.I.E. camera patch.

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I think that assumes that sort of thing is in Ion's hands rather than his executive superiors. I really want to see more of Jen O'neal and Mike Ybarra soon. I want to see who they are and what they care about.

I want to see where their heads are at, too, but given WoW's development cycle, that's going to be years away. Unless they do something drastic, which I doubt.

[Raetary]

Maybe we'll get another S.E.L.F.I.E. camera patch.

I doubt wow could handle the outrage produced by such a patch right now.

[Edward Wu]

I want to see where their heads are at, too, but given WoW's development cycle, that's going to be years away. Unless they do something drastic, which I doubt.

I was actually able to glean a bit of info on Mike Ybarra in the last couple hours. So, he's a huge Blizzard fan. Also streams on Twitch. Plays WoW and D2 currently. His WoW character is a Male Orc Warrior at 242 ilvl and he has +18/19s/20s completed in M+, and I think Mythic raids. One of his stream clips was him complaining about the AoE cap in Shadowlands, lol.

So yeah, I think we're in good hands. JAB felt totally detached while this guy is already trying to be active with the community.

[draugril]

I was actually able to glean a bit of info on Mike Ybarra in the last couple hours. So, he's a huge Blizzard fan. Also streams on Twitch. Plays WoW and D2 currently. His WoW character is a Male Orc Warrior at 242 ilvl and he has +18/19s/20s completed in M+, and I think Mythic raids. One of his stream clips was him complaining about the AoE cap in Shadowlands, lol.

So yeah, I think we're in good hands. JAB felt totally detached while this guy is already trying to be active with the community.

I do think he has his finger on the pulse, but as someone who would like to see WoW expand beyond its current laser focus on Mythic+ and raids, I also question if he's going to enact much change at all.

[Black Rider]

Thanks, though I wish I could take credit for this work. This was compiled by another user here named ercarp, I just bookmarked it two years ago thinking "this will be useful in the leadup to the next expansion" as so many people went to a lot of these leaks and went "This is it! This is the one!" and so forth.



Oh I know there's legit things that slip through. I remember the worgen and goblin "masks", for example. But there's a difference between things actually found in files like that and all these BS leaks.

And there are sometimes legit leaks well ahead of Blizzcon or reveals. There was a guy on the Scrolls of Lore forum who had a friend who worked in China leak WoD like a week ahead of the reveal. Last I heard that guy got fired for it, too.

I remember WoD leak several hours before Blizzcon, there was a Blizz clip where Dave Cosak was talking and behind him was WoD banner with a name

[therumblings]

I remember WoD leak several hours before Blizzcon, there was a Blizz clip where Dave Cosak was talking and behind him was WoD banner with a name

Oh my god I remember that, it was hilarious.

[Black Rider]

Kul Tiras was leaked as a location through gear in Legion

I don't remember this.

WoD was leaked by an item called "Iron Horde banner".

I remember this, some very small icon or image which was just grey, nothing more.

WoD as a tease at Legion, the same way Kul Tiran marines and Zandalari troops appeared in Azsuna to foreshadow BFA.

There was a lot of speculation at reddit and mmo-champ about those.

The closest thing to a hint (not a Blizzard intended tease) at the next expansion IMO is the updated human house models that are currently in the files but unused in SL, even at times when they should appear (the Arthas flashbacks, etc). Next expansion will very likely include HD human houses.... so revamp. Or an undiscovered new human town at the very least.

BTW @Marlamin found unused hearthstone tavern and some houses I think but it's kinda early for expansion isn't it?

Oh, and updated shield models for Lordaeron(!), the Scarlets and Stormwind that I believe aren't used this expansion.

Really? Can you link them please? @Nagawithlegs

[AngerFork]

I do think he has his finger on the pulse, but as someone who would like to see WoW expand beyond its current laser focus on Mythic+ and raids, I also question if he's going to enact much change at all.

I'd argue that makes him more likely to enact change. Someone that involved knows what he's doing for fun vs. what he's doing as chores, & would certainly want to emphasize the fun portion. His streaming audience I'm sure has had no hesitation in showing him the problems they have with retail. Plus, he does come from Xbox and certainly got a feel for many different types of games there. He'll certainly see the need to freshen up the game, though it remains to be seen if he changes things for the better or the worse.