Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Hitei]

I guess now that 9.2 has a firm release date I guess we can start expecting the 10.0 announcement and/or trailer.

I am going to make the assumption we will know at least when 10.0 will be announced by the end of March, but I would love if it got announced maybe a week or two after Mythic has been released.

I suppose it might be a more pronounced overlap than the one between WoW and the new Horizon game, what with Elden Ring being a multiplayer game to some extent.

Considering Horizon's more casual and widespread appeal I'd guess the opposite, honestly.

[Vakir]

It's worth noting that Elden Ring is multiplatform and able to get more players, though. Either way, other games exist. Shruggo.

...man, the more I look at it, the more I feel like that's the one. It goes against what we usually have had in the past (sans Cataclysm and the WoD Scrolls of Lore leak) with them usually being just a vague list of 5-6 bullet points. But it's also just underdelivering enough and seems like the sort of intent Blizzard would have behind not "wasting" the effort they placed into Torghast's systems. Also trying to do Covenants again while phasing out the most unpopular portions. Having limited information about two zones with them being barren, lack of story details, and the starting zone having the most focus also checks out as the usual timeline of what we see in early builds.

And finally, with the green dragonflight zone being the starting one and connected with the main hub, it clicks a lot with the (assumed) collector's edition mount aesthetic.

It's just disappointing enough to not be wishful thinking of fanfiction while being just permissive enough of details that might work out to be good.

[Hitei]

It's worth noting that Elden Ring is multiplatform and able to get more players, though. Either way, other games exist. Shruggo.

...man, the more I look at it, the more I feel like that's the one. It goes against what we usually have had in the past (sans Cataclysm and the WoD Scrolls of Lore leak) with them usually being just a vague list of 5-6 bullet points. But it's also just underdelivering enough and seems like the sort of intent Blizzard would have behind not "wasting" the effort they placed into Torghast's systems. Also trying to do Covenants again while phasing out the most unpopular portions. Having limited information about two zones with them being barren, lack of story details, and the starting zone having the most focus also checks out as the usual timeline of what we see in early builds.

And finally, with the green dragonflight zone being the starting one and connected with the main hub, it clicks a lot with the (assumed) collector's edition mount aesthetic.

It's just disappointing enough to not be wishful thinking of fanfiction while being just permissive enough of details that might work out to be good.

I somehow seriously doubt they have the next torghast iteration in and functioning before they've even finished basic asset creation for three of five zones, especially not while porting a bunch of SL systems over. Also why would the intro scenario drop you on the other side of the green zone from the hub? That has not been a thing since MoP. They like putting the player in the hub first, so people can set hearth, figure out where stuff is, conveniently train all professions, transmog, use the bank, go back to SW/Org, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working towards the city and think it's possible. It's just they've opted for hub-first for four expansions in a row now, so clearly they really like that approach. Also, seems somewhat incompatible with:

linear story for leveling, but there are 4 variants based on which house you choose (determines order that you go through leveling zones)

Because why familiarize the player with the green zone if potentially they won't even be actually doing anything in it until they are almost to the end of the leveling.

[Vakir]

I somehow seriously doubt they have the next torghast iteration in and functioning before they've even finished basic asset creation for three of five zones, especially not while porting a bunch of SL systems over. Also why would the intro scenario drop you on the other side of the green zone from the hub? That has not been a thing since MoP. They like putting the player in the hub first, so people can set hearth, figure out where stuff is, conveniently train all professions, transmog, use the bank, go back to SW/Org, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed working towards the city and think it's possible. It's just they've opted for hub-first for four expansions in a row now, so clearly they really like that approach. Also, seems somewhat incompatible with:


Because why familiarize the player with the green zone if potentially they won't even be actually doing anything in it until they are almost to the end of the leveling.

Very good points!

I think the Torghast (Wyrmgast?) bit is entirely possible to be further along if it's just a series of floors, especially since there were early iteration versions of various Torghast "pieces" in the early going for SL even if bosses and mobs hadn't been fully fleshed out. That feels like a "seller" feature they may want to iterate on more given how fast engagement with Torghast dropped off, whereas zones are pretty easy to conceptualize with how much they have them down to a science since Mists.

But yeah, the hub placement and the non-linearity does feel odd unless they would completely scrap the hypothetical non-linear nature of the quest experience. A compromise would be making it more similar to the outpost choices in WoD where there was some quest branches depending on which you chose, but the "core" zone story was roughly the same. But that would be a nightmare to put together for 5 options rather than 2.

Either way, as known I'm an eternal pessimist out of disappointed idealism, so my nose goes off in response to anything that seems rather bland. But even I'd be almost shocked if they didn't have a new race, class, or spec(s) for certain, not to mention the only juicy point being a rework of basically the only new "core" feature the previous expansion had. (I don't count Covenants as they are literally content limiters, not options)

[Santandame]

Gul'dan we actually see do shit, same with Azshara. They're fine. Sargeras IN THE GAME however has like...1 cinematic of him proving ANYTHING, and like 90 other things that are either referenced IN BOOKS OR OTHERWISE, most of what Sargeras has done IN THE GAME ITSELF was be binded by his brethren, have his army FAIL horribly in tryna obtain Eonar's essence, lose Argus and have the Unmaker's nascent death empowered magics used not only against the Dark Titan himself, but have Sargeras' manifested power influence also fly alongside the OTHER part of Argus' power and fuck up the Arbiter for Zovaal to infuse it with and regain both his power, and potentially some extra raw power due to that Argus/Sargeras ordeal etc.

Hell, EVEN THEN, THAT GOT RELEGATED TO ZOVAAL DOUBLE FUCKING SARGERAS OVER NOW!!! So...Sargeras IN THE GAME has him failing to crush us while he's getting pulled by the Pantheon of Order's combined magic binding ritual, etc. BUT HE ALSO CAUSED LESS DAMAGE TO AZEROTH WHEN STABBING IT THAN DEATHWING!!! AND NOW ZOVAAL IS GOING TO FUCKING HARM AZEROTH TO CLOSE TO DEATH AND PERMANENTLY FUCK OVER THE FIRST ONES' DESIGN!!!

You are literally the guy who used to RP as Sargeras during Legion on this forum, then switching to RP'ing as Argus.

[Revamp Man]

I can’t remember the leak but it had a dragonsworn class and a pledge system with the guessed release date of 2.22.22 for the patch which honestly doesn’t lend credence to it imo.
I’m assuming 10.0 info before the world first race ends

I don’t see Elden Ring magically interfering with an mmo especially WoW.

[Vakir]

You are literally the guy who used to RP as Sargeras during Legion on this forum, then switching to RP'ing as Argus.

Thank you.

In 12.0, I'm sure it'll be some new spectacle creep character that's appreciated entirely on their "power level" alone.

[Marlamin]

PTR got a mini-build and is now a release build (as was to be expected).

[TaliaKirana]

Well, my knack for predicting patch drop dates remains. I said earlier this week I thought it'd be end of February and I was right.

[Catastrophy349]

Well, my knack for predicting patch drop dates remains. I said earlier this week I thought it'd be end of February and I was right.

You and many others

[Three Faced Goddess]

Today is the day.

Thank you! I love her smug smile.

[pacotaco]

Does one month make such a difference for the announcement? Only if they are diehard on releasing it in 2022. If not March or April really doesn’t make much of a difference imho.

yeah, March is Q1, April Q2, so they could decide to do the anouncement on Q1 for invesment reasons.

[Revamp Man]

Well, my knack for predicting patch drop dates remains. I said earlier this week I thought it'd be end of February and I was right.

I mean the 22nd isn’t technically the end but yeah a lot of people were guessing two’s day because of the meme and because we have everything in the ptr

[huth]

I mean the 22nd isn’t technically the end but yeah a lot of people were guessing two’s day because of the meme and because we have everything in the ptr

It's the last day of the month it could be, since the 28th is a monday.

[Revamp Man]

It's the last day of the month it could be, since the 28th is a monday.

So the meme had meaning behind it…damn

[mockingbird23]

Can't post a new thread so I'll post it here.

Saw this on 4chan

https://boards.4channel.org/vg/thread/372121239

Name: Forces of Change
New Continents: Kezan and Gnomeria
New level cap: 70
New class: Tinker
Revamped Gadgetzan
Worldbuilding
Housing

The Jailer is dead. With Sylvanas out of the picture, the Alliance and the Horde's relations to one another are healing after the faction war in BFA. Borders are breaking down. Friendships between many members of the factions are established.

The factions are not in any big conflict with one another. It is clear that both sides are happy about a time of peace, no matter how temporary it might be. This allows the Horde and Alliance to work together in some capacity and find out what they can accomplish when they aren't killing each other at every opportunity.

The Horde strengthens its relations to the Goblins of Kezan, while the Alliance sends a group of Gnomes out to an uninhabited island to establish a new settlement. They call it Gnomeria. The Gnomes are especially eager to explore and are well-equipped for such an expedition, because of their technology and their employment of Tinkers. The Tinker plays a big role in some of these building efforts.

Both Kezan and Gnomeria are very light on content. There just aren't that many things to deal with. Some local threats. Some things to deal with as the new island of Gnomeria is being populated. But the big feature is player-generated content.

Worldbuilding will see us go to parts of Kezan and Gnomeria, and other islands in the South Sea and actually build things up there. Buildings, settlements, outposts. And over time, whatever decisions we make might draw certain enemies to certain parts of our newly populated areas. Gadgetzan will appear somewhat similar to what it looks like in Hearthstone, with players having a chance to influence the construction of new areas.

The Forsaken will help the Gilneans retake Gilneas to make up for having played a part in Sylvanas' schemes. In return, the Alliance helps the Forsaken clear up some of the blighted areas around the Undercity, so that the Forsaken can return. The Night Elves have relocated to Darkshore.

Housing in many areas of the world.

As we are building up new places and digging into the earth to uncover potential resources, we might be unearthing certain threats, that should have better stayed hidden. What exactly we find will depend on the player's choices.

This is a new approach to expansion making. The team has content, like raids and dungeons, prepared for the coming patches, but what form that will take will entirely depend on the community and how it acts. For example, there is a concept for an old-god themed dungeon, but whether and when the team will actually design that will depend on when and if players will discover the entrance area. It will then be inaccessible at first until the team designs it and releases a mini patch. Some things might end up never being found at all, at which point, they'll remain on the table as a concept and might be used in some other form at some point.

There will be many more smaller patches instead of the usual type of content. The hope is to break things up to where it feels differently than expansions usually feel. Different servers might unlock different types of content first, and other servers have to figure out how to do that. The teams wants there to be communication in the community so that people try to figure out how these guys have done it, so that they can unlock the same type of content for their server.

It's deemed a risky concept, but the team feels that at this point a move like that is necessary to keep the game fresh and hopefully bring players back and retain existing subscribers.

[Chickat]

Neat


/10char

Yeah, it's kind of unbelievable that someone not working at blizzard could have this much information. The content looks cool, but the validity of the leak is shaky at best.

[Ersula]

Ah yeah, let's ignore the new raid, the reintroduction of Tier sets, a new M+ affix, two new M+ dungeons and brand new mounts and a new zone and an entire system designed to help people in world content... so that we can make a cynical meme about a dance system and pretend like nothing's there.

Usually major patches have actually entirely new gameplay features. Tier sets, mounts & Raids aren't that. They're new but they're the bare MINIMUM for a major patch. At least 9.1 had a dungeon.

How dare you call turning one dungeon into 2 dungeons "new" wtf kind of copium is that? If you're looking at Lost Ark or FFXIV that dance system game is just SAD. It's not even a rhythm game, like I said, its just Simon says. A baby game.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Very unlikely /10chars

[Relapses]

Usually major patches have actually entirely new gameplay features. Tier sets, mounts & Raids aren't that. They're new but they're the bare MINIMUM for a major patch. At least 9.1 had a dungeon.

How dare you call turning one dungeon into 2 dungeons "new" wtf kind of copium is that? If you're looking at Lost Ark or FFXIV that dance system game is just SAD. It's not even a rhythm game, like I said, its just Simon says. A baby game.

It's not meant to compare to those other game's features. It's a fucking DMF mini game. The fact that you're willing to reduce all content in a patch to one of its most meaningless, completely erroneous pieces of fluff says everything anybody reasonable needs to know about your opinion of this game.