Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Fahrad Wagner]

I go to bed early, I wake up and now cross-faction grouping is official.
A bit sad this is not extending to guilds but it is still great news.

[Marlamin]

I go to bed early, I wake up and now cross-faction grouping is official.
A bit sad this is not extending to guilds but it is still great news.

I feel like this is just another thing where they implement certain expansion-level tech changes earlier to check adoption/use/major issues before expanding it wider to e.g. guilds, which requires more effort on the technical side of things, in the actual expansion.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I feel like this is just another thing where they implement certain expansion-level tech changes earlier to check adoption/use/major issues before expanding it wider to e.g. guilds, which requires more effort on the technical side of things, in the actual expansion.

I truly hope so! Cross-faction guilds are something I have wanted for a long long time!

[Pheraz]

Surprised they actually went through with it. Gameplay-wise it's been a no-brainer for a while. Storywise it hinges entirely on whether they actually use the potential they have. The factions at the end of BFA are copy-pastes of each other value-wise anyway and also have races with compatible aesthetics, so it's not like anything is lost by actually wringing some gameplay value out of it. As Ion references you can show a multitude of racial perspectives regarding this and maintain individual motive more re: groups like the Night Elves, Forsaken etc. He's right on paper too, but in practice, it removes the last barrier keeping us from World of Humancraft narratively.

I don't think that night elves Vs forsaken or night elves Vs orcs is from the table story wise. Or forsaken Vs worgen.
As you've described in one of your long posts yourself those auto-sticking two mega factions make not much sense apart from the classic orcs+trolls+tauren and humans+dwarfs/gnomes+high...uhm...void elves

[Hitei]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

It didn't even get how crossfaction works correct.

[Pheraz]

Hope not. No new class would be a big disappointment.

Which one? Sorry I've lost track. I hope not that cosmic thing with the weird zone names...

[Zexaniro]

Wait. Does this mean this leak is true then? They got the cross faction part right and even excluded guilds.

lol no. maybe it would have credibility if it mentioned that it's coming in the patch before, but it specifically outlines it as a selling point of the xpac. most ppl could guess that cross faction was coming after Ion's comments.

-

if they introduced cross faction guilds then 'factions' would cease to exist because it would render it meaningless. it would be a huge change if they went all the way and would impact the stories they can tell and how people view the game, they're probably taking this into consideration before they go all the way. a factionless world of warcraft is a very different wow

[Soulwind]

lol no. maybe it would have credibility if it mentioned that it's coming in the patch before, but it specifically outlines it as a selling point of the xpac. most ppl could guess that cross faction was coming after Ion's comments.

-

if they introduced cross faction guilds then 'factions' would cease to exist because it would render it meaningless. it would be a huge change if they went all the way and would impact the stories they can tell and how people view the game, they're probably taking this into consideration before they go all the way. a factionless world of warcraft is a very different wow

The cross faction functionality was most likely being developed for the expansion. Them releasing it in a separate patch could be an early sign of Microsoft influencing the development team, or a sign that 10.0 is far enough that they want to release something during the drought.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that leak was right, but it did say that it was outdated information.

As for cross faction guilds making factions "meaningless", I disagree. As long as you can't level up Stormwind reputation with an orc, as long as you can't do the other faction's zone quests, and as long as you can't casually visit the other faction's capitals, factions won't be meaningless.

If anything, heroes banding together and ignoring faction conflicts is what Warcraft has been about ever since Warcraft 3, and our characters were never meant to be obedient soldiers, but adventurers who interacted with pretty much everyone in the world without issue. We've always been lesser Thralls and Jainas, not grunt #57352.

[ExiHext]

It didn't even get how crossfaction works correct.

?
The only things wrong are that it is not 10.0 (the leaker says his informations are old) and that they forgot people from your f-list...which is easy to miss. The rest about cross faction seems completely on spot to me.

[micwini]

Anyone find it weird how they bring up "technical difficulties" when talking about crossfaction? I was able to play crossfaction without issues on private servers over 10 years ago.

[Makabreska]

As for cross faction guilds making factions "meaningless", I disagree. As long as you can't level up Stormwind reputation with an orc, as long as you can't do the other faction's zone quests, and as long as you can't casually visit the other faction's capitals, factions won't be meaningless.

If anything, heroes banding together and ignoring faction conflicts is what Warcraft has been about ever since Warcraft 3, and our characters were never meant to be obedient soldiers, but adventurers who interacted with pretty much everyone in the world without issue. We've always been lesser Thralls and Jainas, not grunt #57352.

Ye, I agree. We cooperated in WoW since vanilla, so proposed change is 100% lore friendly.

[Baedril]

Anyone find it weird how they bring up "technical difficulties" when talking about crossfaction? I was able to play crossfaction without issues on private servers over 10 years ago.

Outside of there being 10 years of development since then, I imagine it wasn't just 5 minutes of work for the private servers to implement either and Blizz now has to do all that from scratch. Plus, private servers can often take shortcuts in their code that Blizz cannot.

[Lahis]

The cross faction functionality was most likely being developed for the expansion. Them releasing it in a separate patch could be an early sign of Microsoft influencing the development team, or a sign that 10.0 is far enough that they want to release something during the drought.

It will take 1.5 years before Microsoft can affect ANYTHING on WoW. And even that is subject to mercy of US and EU anti-trust scrutiny.

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone find it weird how they bring up "technical difficulties" when talking about crossfaction? I was able to play crossfaction without issues on private servers over 10 years ago.

"Technical difficulties" is the easy non-answer lazy excuse to anything players wan't but Blizz is unwilling to do.

[Soulwind]

It will take 1.5 years before Microsoft can affect ANYTHING on WoW. And even that is subject to mercy of US and EU anti-trust scrutiny.

I'm not talking about Bill Gates emailing Ion and demanding these features to be implemented immediately. Just that the development team might have been sitting on them for a while, probably setting them up for 10.0 or 11.0, and the news that big movements will happen inside the company after the purchase could push them to announce and release some things ahead of schedule, to put their team and game in the spotlight.

That said, I find my other less optimistic theory more likely.

[Super Dickmann]

I don't think that night elves Vs forsaken or night elves Vs orcs is from the table story wise. Or forsaken Vs worgen.
As you've described in one of your long posts yourself those auto-sticking two mega factions make not much sense apart from the classic orcs+trolls+tauren and humans+dwarfs/gnomes+high...uhm...void elves

That's my thought as well. I've written at length about how important conflict is and my view hasn't and won't change. The factions in their post-BFA state are in no condition to support it due to the extent of the damage done but smaller scale and regional conflicts are if anything improved by looser barriers because you get over some of the stupidest blocks such as the Void Elf-Lightforged issue or the fact that goblins and tauren suddenly have no beef with each other since they both wear red despite goblin practices being the same etc. etc. It's not whether it can be done or whether the potential isn't there, both are, but my greatest misgivings about it has always hinged on whether they'd actually do it. Already, with a two faction setup, many of their stories inevitably follow the same band of boring human assholes against Satan, but there's at least a fig leaf reason to allow space for other groups, when that setup is loosened, such characters universalize and the temptation not to leave the comfort zone worsens.

[Zexaniro]

The cross faction functionality was most likely being developed for the expansion. Them releasing it in a separate patch could be an early sign of Microsoft influencing the development team, or a sign that 10.0 is far enough that they want to release something during the drought.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that leak was right, but it did say that it was outdated information.

As for cross faction guilds making factions "meaningless", I disagree. As long as you can't level up Stormwind reputation with an orc, as long as you can't do the other faction's zone quests, and as long as you can't casually visit the other faction's capitals, factions won't be meaningless.

If anything, heroes banding together and ignoring faction conflicts is what Warcraft has been about ever since Warcraft 3, and our characters were never meant to be obedient soldiers, but adventurers who interacted with pretty much everyone in the world without issue. We've always been lesser Thralls and Jainas, not grunt #57352.

it would still alter how the game is perceived. as the alliance vs horde theme has been central to the game for a very long time. a BFA type of expansion couldn't exist in a post-faction WoW, so in a way it does limit the stories they can tell while also opening avenues for new stories. I think it's overall a good thing; mostly playing devil's advocate as to why blizzard didn't go all the way in erasing factions by removing the guild barrier.

agree that the reasoning this is coming in a patch is due to a very long incoming drought. I'd go as far to say that this confirms we're not getting the next xpac until mid next year and it will be the usual last patch drought.
still think all of these 'leaks' are fake and predicting that cross faction was coming is a nonbrainer foolproof prediction.

[Makabreska]

it would still alter how the game is perceived. as the alliance vs horde theme has been central to the game for a very long time. a BFA type of expansion couldn't exist in a post-faction WoW, so in a way it does limit the stories they can tell while also opening avenues for new stories. I think it's overall a good thing; mostly playing devil's advocate as to why blizzard didn't go all the way in erasing factions by removing the guild barrier.

And I think that players are perfectly fine with it. Plus, it could still happen. HvA was in full swing when inner groups cooperated in Eternal Palace.

[Soulwind]

it would still alter how the game is perceived. as the alliance vs horde theme has been central to the game for a very long time. a BFA type of expansion couldn't exist in a post-faction WoW, so in a way it does limit the stories they can tell while also opening avenues for new stories. I think it's overall a good thing; mostly playing devil's advocate as to why blizzard didn't go all the way in erasing factions by removing the guild barrier.

agree that the reasoning this is coming in a patch is due to a very long incoming drought. I'd go as far to say that this confirms we're not getting the next xpac until mid next year and it will be the usual last patch drought.
still think all of these 'leaks' are fake and predicting that cross faction was coming is a nonbrainer foolproof prediction.

BfA probably shouldn't have existed even then. We just came back from cooperating against the Burning Legion, which was a side effect of us cooperating against the Iron Horde, which was the result of the last "faction conflict". And even then, it was both factions working together against a subfaction led by Garrosh.

Hell, even BfA dropped the faction war pretty quickly and had us fighting together against Azshara and N'zoth.

I'd say that factions haven't been a key element of Warcraft for a long time. They have been a key element of WoW, because they were there when the game launched and were part of the game's identity, but they never meshed well with the story.

[Lady Atia]

I didn't say anything about arenas. I said BGs and PvP zones. I'll believe the new PvP devs are developing new content rather than doing typical balance work/new queue systems when I see it.

Just think, we just had a literal faction conflict expansion and all we got was a single new BG. It's obvious the direction Blizzard wants to move and it's away from all things related to faction tension.

Just chill. They can always go the SWTOR route and do stuff like Huttball (I think that was it's name haha). Basically the WoW version of football which would be super cool!

[Philenia]

"Technical difficulties" is the easy non-answer lazy excuse to anything players wan't but Blizz is unwilling to do.

I think the reason is more that Blizzard what to do it properly and have it tested. Also have multiple implementations and test them to see which version works the best. Also they need to test every dungeon a lot(or have us do it). But I think they do not want to delay 9.2 for this feature. Even tho it can be developed quite easily. It adds another thing that need to be tested and verified to the patch.

I think they are currently in the alpha-phase with this code. Before it is reviewed tested to push to beta might be a month. If you then still need to do the tests on PTR that can also take a month easily. To ensure that there aren't major bugs. 100% bug free is need impossible.

It will take 1.5 years before Microsoft can affect ANYTHING on WoW. And even that is subject to mercy of US and EU anti-trust scrutiny.

I think the first thing we might see is WoW (and the other games of Blizzard) on gamepass. Before we see other stuff from Microsoft in Blizzard games.