Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Kiivar86]

The only thing of "substance" we have - and the quotation marks need be emphasized - is pretty much just the few mentions of the place. The outdated maps and 50x50 screenshots of even more outdated concept art is as good as nothing, since Blizzard has changed things so much over the years. It's pretty much a blank slate besides being related to their namesake.

Fair enough. I think it is still something (outdated though it may be, it is at least some sort of plan they once had) but it isn't much, I'll admit.

This doesn't really mean much.

Pandaria was based on 1 hero unit that's primarily meant to be a joke and the Shadowlands had a vague 1 paragraph description in the chronicles, yet we still got expansions out of them.

The fact that the concept lacks fundamental details only adds to its potential.

Also, while the floating thing is just fan daydreaming, Blizzard (contrary to the belief of some) actually does browse through community ideas and takes them into consideration.
If we are loud and persistent enough, they might (internally) pick up on the floating isle concept, at least to some degree.

Oh I'm not saying it isn't happening because of that! Just that I was kind of bewildered how it felt like people were talking about them floating as if it were a sure thing. I wasn't sure if I had missed some detail, but turns out the detail is all fanon at this point.

And yeah I'm well aware of them looking at fan concepts from time to time. I actually saw the original Worgen idea posted on the official forums waaaay back when. I was amused when the Worgen and Gilneas ended up being almost exactly like that post, years later.

[therumblings]

An entire expansion on floating dragon islands with waterfalls and flying on launch is such a good concept I am going to just keep saying it until Blizzard wills it into existence! Also hoping for a PTR build today

[Hitei]

Alrighty, so just fan speculation based on...pretty much nothing, then. Just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something. It seemed like some folk were so sure that I thought there was something more than that.

While the concept art certainly is old, it is the only real concept art we have. Otherwise we have, what, a few mentions of it, a few islands on some equally old maps, and that's about it, yeah?

It's a bit more complex than that.

The concept art isn't just old, it's defunct. It was made with the original plan of the Dragon Isles as an early zone with Old God content and early introduction of the Aspects. That entire idea was scrapped, Alex was instead introduced in Wrath at Wyrmrest, the Old Gods were addressed in other ways and are now dealt with sans Xal'atath, the zone was never taken past the very early blocking of the temple on Designer Island. The whole temple's concept was then recycled into the mountain for Shrine of the Storms. It was also done prior to the more mapped out themes of the individual dragon flights (hence not having anything to do with dragons).

So that concept art might as well not exist. It was made for a scrapped idea and then used for something else instead--so whatever the Dragon Isles is, it's not going to be that.

Re: flying, it's not based on nothing but more the best guess of some things we do know:

1. The Isles are difficult to find. This either means they are magically cloaked (Uldum), physically cloaked (Pandaria) or have some other inherent navigation difficulty (like moving around). Since Blizzard will probably want to avoid similarities to Pandaria's weather cloaking, and Uldum's Titan cloaking, there's probably going to be some option C for why it is difficult to locate.

2. The Isles are about Dragons. Dragon thematic and influence will be ubiquitous. Since dragons are winged creatures and their ancestors (protodrakes) are also winged creatures--it's likely other things in the environment will also feature wings by virtue of being "dragon" ecology, there is going to be a lot of verticality to the region even if it is grounded, regular islands. There are going to be a lot of mountains and cliffs and in general it will be designed with that verticality and air factor in mind.

3. There is going to be very heavy magic involvement in the environment, and one of the universals of warcraft's universe is that magic loves making rocks float (see: Outland, Argus, Dalaran, etc.) and this is also true of the dragon flights. Coldarra is the biggest location for the blue flight and the magic there makes bits of terrain float. The Emerald Nightmare's dreamstate features floating and disconnected terrain. The closest thing to a true black zone, Deepholme, features floating terrain. If you make a continent that is just supercharged with different sorts of magic, it's gonna have a bunch of floating stuff.

Which taken together make the Isles themselves flying a reasonable conclusion. Flying makes them difficult to find in a new and fresh way, it works well with the fauna and flora being "aerial" in design and the islands being primarily the home of a winged species, and it bakes in the fantastic, magical-infused terrain that is going to be a thing anyway.

[Nagawithlegs]

You're crazy if you think that they would follow Shadowlands with Lifelands. it COULD be a small collection of 9.2 zones (think Argus) while the raid is located Zereth Mortis though.

They are building up Azeroth stories and no two expansions are identical in theme and scope back to back: even Legion was mostly about Thalassians and their culture for the first half to distinguish it from the Legion story at the end of Warlords.

The Elune story buildup in launch Shadowlands would make sense if Lifelands are a patch in SL as the two realms mirror each other and are bound to the "Cycle". It also lines up with how Blizz has shown they don't think "Life" can be its own expansion (see their reluctance to do the Emerald Dream forever) and instead can feature in an expansion about Death AND Life.

[Nyel]

An entire expansion on floating dragon islands with waterfalls and flying on launch is such a good concept I am going to just keep saying it until Blizzard wills it into existence! Also hoping for a PTR build today

Preach, it's my favorite fan made concept for the next expansion now as well.

#teamfloatingdragonisles

[Aeluron Lightsong]

You're crazy if you think that they would follow Shadowlands with Lifelands. it COULD be a small collection of 9.2 zones (think Argus) while the raid is located Zereth Mortis though.

They are building up Azeroth stories and no two expansions are identical in theme and scope back to back: even Legion was mostly about Thalassians and their culture for the first half to distinguish it from the Legion story at the end of Warlords.

The Elune story buildup in launch Shadowlands would make sense if Lifelands are a patch in SL as the two realms mirror each other and are bound to the "Cycle". It also lines up with how Blizz has shown they don't think "Life" can be its own expansion (see their reluctance to do the Emerald Dream forever) and instead can feature in an expansion about Death AND Life.

If they wanted to do the life equiv of the Shadowlands, it would happen. I don't think that is the path they are taking.

[Raetary]

Just imagine:


^this, but warcraft themed.

It would look so damn good.

[Hardwing]

Just imagine:


^this, but warcraft themed.

It would look so damn good.

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

[therumblings]

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

Maybe one of the islands being at sea level, and each zone progressively is located higher into the sky

[Zyrinx]

As long as the zones are connected!

Like, they realized this was key in Cataclysm, said so, forgot, then made it even worse in SL.

[Lady Atia]

Fan speculation.
Its dragon themed islands, so people want them to float.

Would also give us a rather unique continent, as we never really had proper floating islands.

Nobody even considers the old concept art anymore, for one we only have that one single piece of art and its almost 2 decades old.
It's outdated and barely worth taking into account, especially as the only thing it portrays is a single building along an empty shoreline.

Also they said they already re-used that concept for Stormsong Valley and the Old god shrine there.

[Hitei]

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

That is not even remotely similar.

[therumblings]

Okay...

Azeroth is fucked. Her heart is a crater, and the Old Gods have filled it. She's alive but dormant and corrupt. Sargeras tried to end it with his mighty blade, but failed.

As a max level character, you are inside a dangerous phased version of Azeroth where Old God minions are everywhere. Basically a world covered in darkness, tentacles and so on.

With the launch of 10.0, there's a cinematic featuring Wrathion. Instead of flying across Azeroth to wreak havoc like his father in Cataclysm (an Old God puppet by the way) he flies boldly in the face of danger while being chased by terrible winged beasts. He dodges tentacles lashing out from different directions, zooms and swoops in and out of their grasp among the clouds. Eventually, he bursts through the haze as something begins to protrude in front of him against the blue backdrop... The Dragon Isles!

We see a great floating archipelago, long ago stuck at sea but once raised into the sky. The camera pans across great landscapes featuring tropical jungles, beautiful waterfalls, snowy peaks and arid deserts. At the centre of it all, on the largest island, stands a great Titanic temple. The heart of all dragon flights.

• Discover the Dragon Isles and unearth the secret to protecting Azeroth against the Void once and for all.
• Unlock the ancient powers of the Dragonsworn, as you build your fame among the pristine dragon kin inhabiting the isles.
• Carry out raids all across Azeroth, mounted atop your special dragon mount, and push back the shadow.
• Watch the world return to its former splendour, as each victory against the Old Gods brings Azeroth one step closer to her rebirth. Culminating in a full revamp of Azeroth.

I love it!

[Shelldor]

Okay...

Azeroth is fucked. Her heart is a crater, and the Old Gods have filled it. She's alive but dormant and corrupt. Sargeras tried to end it with his mighty blade, but failed.

As a max level character, you are inside a dangerous phased version of Azeroth where Old God minions are everywhere. Basically a world covered in darkness, tentacles and so on.

With the launch of 10.0, there's a cinematic featuring Wrathion. Instead of flying across Azeroth to wreak havoc like his father in Cataclysm (an Old God puppet by the way) he flies boldly in the face of danger while being chased by terrible winged beasts. He dodges tentacles lashing out from different directions, zooms and swoops in and out of their grasp among the clouds. Eventually, he bursts through the haze as something begins to protrude in front of him against the blue backdrop... The Dragon Isles!

We see a great floating archipelago, long ago stuck at sea but once raised into the sky. The camera pans across great landscapes featuring tropical jungles, beautiful waterfalls, snowy peaks and arid deserts. At the centre of it all, on the largest island, stands a great Titanic temple. The heart of all dragon flights.

• Discover the Dragon Isles and unearth the secret to protecting Azeroth against the Void once and for all.
• Unlock the ancient powers of the Dragonsworn, as you build your fame among the pristine dragon kin inhabiting the isles.
• Carry out raids all across Azeroth, mounted atop your special dragon mount, and push back the shadow.
• Watch the world return to its former splendour, as each victory against the Old Gods brings Azeroth one step closer to her rebirth. Culminating in a full revamp of Azeroth.

Take all of my money. Especially if we get real-time phased city building as part of the revamp, kind of like how the tree in Suramar, or the little town in BOTW.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

An expansion of floating islands and dragons? Now where have I seen that before...

Which honestly makes me more convinced they'd do it. But setting alone won't make an expansion good, we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too. At the end of the day where is going to matter less than why and what we get on the systems side of things.

[Cosmic Janitor]

we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too.

Please speak for yourself. Pirates and trolls are so overdone. The only thing more creatively bankrupt was the faction war itself.

[shoc]

A cool story beat for 10.x, could be a war between the Light and the Void taking place in the Elemental plane, with the Dragon Isles situated in-between the elemental zones.

The Light allies with the Firelands and Skywall (giving us Ragnaros, Lightlord) while the Void allies with Deepholm and the Abyssal Maw, giving us a dope Cthulhu Neptulon.

The Firelands, Deepholm, Skywall and Abyssal Maw could be zones Shadowlands-style, with the addition of the Dragon Isles floating in the nether space in between.

[Seasz]

@Marlamin new build later today?

[Dracullus]

An expansion of floating islands and dragons? Now where have I seen that before...

Which honestly makes me more convinced they'd do it. But setting alone won't make an expansion good, we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too. At the end of the day where is going to matter less than why and what we get on the systems side of things.

Well, BfA's first 3 weeks are easily my favourite moment in WoW (personally, if we talk about general atmosphere in community, I will say Legion launch). War Mode was awesome, Zandalar was great (best introduction to first raid in history) and when I started my Alliance alt week later I had completely new experience.

Problems started around warfront launch when it was clear BfA needed like 2 more months in Beta, Warfronts/war campaign/azerite were a mess, also novelty wear off and we were left with badly designed progression systems.

Also hype and promotion were great. Only misstep was Sylvanas warbringer (surprise, surprise), but Jaina, Old Soldier, TV commercials created massive hype, I think it would sell much more boxes than SL in same circumstances.

[draugril]

right, but i don't see the connection with what i said.

Simply that they've normalized dragons masquerading as mortals amongst themselves. Thereby giving them the ability to give us boring geology and architecture that make sense for that humanoid instead of actually getting creative and giving us a setting that actually makes sense for dragons to inhabit as dragons. Why put the islands in the sky or under the ocean or in another elemental plane when they can just slap something together appropriate for boring humanoids because dragons hang out in those forms amongst themselves?