Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I don't know if it's me being a neat freak or not, but such choices in terms of design appear to be so evident, that it baffles me professional developers didn't go that way and came up with the messy thing we have today (which is still much better than what we had before, but come on...). I don't work in the gaming industry so I have no idea how all of this is decided/built upon, but sometimes it seems like there is no one to check that what was done actually makes sense, specifically with Blizzard. That goes for UI, story, etc.

Anyway, that is wishful thinking but I certainly do hope they keep building upon current customisations: those were a step in the right direction, imho.

To me it's more about a lack of concern of the RPG elements than the actual UI, you know? I actually think the revamped character creation is very sleek and intuitive, it looks nice! The problems I see are regarding what they care the options to be.

The UI is nice in terms of design, but it really lacks when it comes to the depth of player customization and immersion.

[logintime]

True! How could I forget naga, one of the most requested race! Furbolg is a personal favourite, but I do not know if it really is that popular with players

I would absolutely love Furbolg - big, tribal druidic race with a tragic backstory: what's not to love?! - but have accepted that I'm one of the few that wants them. They make perfect sense as a new race for the Alliance, far more than almost any other option in fact, but for whatever reason they've completely fallen off the radar and never come up in any "what new races should Blizz add?" discussions.

[Fahrad Wagner]

To me it's more about a lack of concern of the RPG elements than the actual UI, you know? I actually think the revamped character creation is very sleek and intuitive, it looks nice! The problems I see are regarding what they care the options to be.

The UI is nice in terms of design, but it really lacks when it comes to the depth of player customization and immersion.

The UI is nice, but it's inconsistant: menus aren't organised with the same logic in mind from one race to another that is what bugs me out hte most

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Could have a high elf template that automatically applies a glyph to remove the void effect from the racial, too.

I do like the idea of applying a glyph to modify EE, but I think that would be more of a fix with the current customization system as is. Ideally for me, a character creation revamp would come with a racial one as well.

I'd prefer a system where you have "Traits* and you could choose your own character loadout. You could choose one of the Subraces/Clans that comes with its own default loadout, or you could customize it.

So a Traits loadout could be 2 Actives and 2 Passives, as well as separated between General, Racial and Unique. So, taking a Draenei for example Gemcutting would be General, Something all characters can pick, Gift of the Naaru would be exclusive to Racial, so exclusive to Draenei, and Light's Reckoning would be Unique to Lightforged Draenei, for example. And that would leave you with 2 Passive slots left.

So this Hypothetical Lightforged Draenei could have:

Light's Reckoning (Active-Unique)
Gift of the Naaru (Active-Racial)
Gemcutting (Passive-General)
Demonbane (Passive-General)
Shadow Resistance (Passive-General)

Of course, you could change Traits in game later on, the whole point being you can customize them to your character depending what you're doing, for example if you want to level Blacksmitting, you could swap Gift of the Naaru for Forge of Light. And if you want to min max your Traits for certain PvE or PvP encounters, you can too.

[Fahrad Wagner]

I would absolutely love Furbolg - big, tribal druidic race with a tragic backstory: what's not to love?! - but have accepted that I'm one of the few that wants them. They make perfect sense as a new race for the Alliance, far more than almost any other option in fact, but for whatever reason they've completely fallen off the radar and never come up in any "what new races should Blizz add?" discussions.

Furbolgs are such an interesting, underrated race. They're to the Alliance what Ogres are to the Horde in terms of AR missed opportunities

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

The UI is nice, but it's inconsistant: menus aren't organised with the same logic in mind from one race to another that is what bugs me out hte most

Oh yeah, there are definitely some options that should be reorganized. It's like different people grouped different options on the races they worked on heh.

- - - Updated - - -

I haven't seen that in awhile. Thanks for reminding me!

I really tried to spread the word about that idea when it was new. It would make such a huge difference with such relatively little extra development effort. Maybe with a new expansion on the horizon we can get enough awareness to make it happen this time!

Let's hope so tbh! It really is such a neat concept and it's really about reorganizing assets. It could really do a lot for immersion.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Oh yeah, there are definitely some options that should be reorganized. It's like different people grouped different options on the races they worked on heh.

It's exactly what it feels like that. Like, when you want to organise something but you have four people coming up with four interpretations of the organisational charts, and all interepretations are implemented: it looks tidy enough from far away, but it's not !

[ChairmanKaga]

Playing through Zereth Mortis now I've started to wonder if Blizzard might introduce a class that uses a combination of Dominance magic and First One's language/runes.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

It's exactly what it feels like that. Like, when you want to organise something but you have four people coming up with four interpretations of the organisational charts, and all interepretations are implemented: it looks tidy enough from far away, but it's not !

TBH I think that's how it went regarding the updated customization options.

Some people got draenei or orcs and they said "let's add all these options and organize them like such and such, okay?"

And other people got Blood Elves and said "here are 4 hairstyles and some colors, no need for a new tab"

[AngerFork]

TBH I think that's how it went regarding the updated customization options.

Some people got draenei or orcs and they said "let's add all these options and organize them like such and such, okay?"

And other people got Blood Elves and said "here are 4 hairstyles and some colors, no need for a new tab"

Would make sense, that seems to be how much of the WoW landscape works. Look at covenants for instance. The Night Fae covenant campaign starts out with a fantastic play and a lot of in-depth design whereas the Maldraxxus campaign is pretty quiet overall.

[Syegfryed]

The UI is nice, but it's inconsistant: menus aren't organised with the same logic in mind from one race to another that is what bugs me out hte most

its inconsistent because is just another attempt to get "high elf in the alliance'', no matter if void elves look like then, they need to change the name and the racial colors for validation, even in this is completely bull, cause they are different races all together.

[Fahrad Wagner]

TBH I think that's how it went regarding the updated customization options.

Some people got draenei or orcs and they said "let's add all these options and organize them like such and such, okay?"

And other people got Blood Elves and said "here are 4 hairstyles and some colors, no need for a new tab"

You're probably right, and it's like that for many things: I just think for such a task, there should be someone coordinating, even if it's just one person, making sure things are consistant. Here we have four likely scenarios: 1. there wasn't anyone to do that OR 2. there wasn't enough time to do that OR 3. there was someone to do that but they did a shit job at it. OR 4. There was someone to do that, but that person simply isn't organised/doesn't care about such details.

its inconsistent because is just another attempt to get "high elf in the alliance'', no matter if void elves look like then, they need to change the name and the racial colors for validation, even in this is completely bull, cause they are different races all together.

HE/VE is far from being the only race with said inconsistancies in customisations unfortunately

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

You're probably right, and it's like that for many things: I just think for such a task, there should be someone coordinating, even if it's just one person, making sure things are consistant. Here we have four likely scenarios: 1. there wasn't anyone to do that OR 2. there wasn't enough time to do that OR 3. there was someone to do that but they did a shit job at it. OR 4. There was someone to do that, but that person simply isn't organised/doesn't care about such details.

For sure more overseeing is needed tbh. It's just weird how inconsistent some things are.

[Lady Atia]

You're probably right, and it's like that for many things: I just think for such a task, there should be someone coordinating, even if it's just one person, making sure things are consistant. Here we have four likely scenarios: 1. there wasn't anyone to do that OR 2. there wasn't enough time to do that OR 3. there was someone to do that but they did a shit job at it. OR 4. There was someone to do that, but that person simply isn't organised/doesn't care about such details.



HE and VE are far from being the only races with said inconsistancies in customisations unfortunately

Yeah, it's quite similiar to class mounts back in Legion. Some got 3-4 recolours that you could use on any spec while others were locked in weird state of "you can only use one colour for one spec and can't switch", without any reason behind them, especially Warrior lol. I still wish they would unlock that but I guess the boat has sailed ...

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

its inconsistent because is just another attempt to get "high elf in the alliance'', no matter if void elves look like then, they need to change the name and the racial colors for validation, even in this is completely bull, cause they are different races all together.

Lmao you're so obsessed with hating High Elves that you think everything MUST be about High Elves.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah, it's quite similiar to class mounts back in Legion. Some got 3-4 recolours that you could use on any spec while others were locked in weird state of "you can only use one colour for one spec and can't switch", without any reason behind them, especially Warrior lol. I still wish they would unlock that but I guess the boat has sailed ...

It was definitely quite odd how you had Paladins get 4 variants who were each useable, and DKs only got 1 color changing one, or worse still Druids who didnt even get a mount for their collection.

Lots of arbitrary rules in WoW that never seemed to make sense in any way other than a lack of a senior developer to ensure parity.

[cocomen2]

Playing through Zereth Mortis now I've started to wonder if Blizzard might introduce a class that uses a combination of Dominance magic and First One's language/runes.

Lich? or what kind of class checks these boxes for you? since in my imagination it was always class idea with lowest chance of being possibly added to the game, to drain that WotLK nostalgy if there any left.

[Fahrad Wagner]

For sure more overseeing is needed tbh. It's just weird how inconsistent some things are.

Especially for a finished product of such a company... this seems trivial/fussy, but I think it makes all the difference between a game that is polished and... well, one that is rough around the edges. There are things WoW team does really well: consistancy, in many departments, isn't one of them.

To conclude and then I'll move on cause otherwise I'll ramble about this for pages: this is why I called it unprofessional. Not because the customisations are bad, they're fantastic and artists did a great job, but because people in charge of making sure there is a consistancy in the UI and the menus, and the way everything fits together didn't do a good job (at least imho). And it's not just CC, sometimes it's quests, sometimes stories, sometimes systems, sometimes toys and CDs, like there is a lack of experience/mastery in positions where there should be some heavy knowledge of the regarded topics, to make sure those mistakes are avoided.

Anyway, I will stop here for today on that topic as I do not want to turn this into the lore inconsistencies thread or our beloved and departed sub-races thread hehe! Feel free to keep speculating everyone! And let's hope for a PTR build soooooon

It was definitely quite odd how you had Paladins get 4 variants who were each useable, and DKs only got 1 color changing one, or worse still Druids who didnt even get a mount for their collection.

Lots of arbitrary rules in WoW that never seemed to make sense in any way other than a lack of a senior developer to ensure parity.

Bingo. You nailed it m'bread.

[Revamp Man]

On the contrary I would say the problem with Torghast and Islands before it was that it gave tangible benefits to the core gameplay experience, rather than being an extraneous activity on the side.

The next Torghast equivalent just needs to provide ample cosmetics, and no player power that can be taken into raids, M+ or PvP.
At that point it also has the benefit of not needing to be designed as an activity everyone is expected to do, which in turn means it can be tuned quite high, giving players a more meaty challenge that still gives commensurate rewards.

The boss rush was one of the most requested features and I think was the best thing for it after they butchered it from testing

The endless version was also amazing

[Syegfryed]

HE/VE is far from being the only race with said inconsistancies in customisations unfortunately

for anything similar to that work it would need a complete overall of how races and racials work in wow, it would never work like that, and its too much work for blizzard

It is also way too much work for little return as things will not rly change much.

Lmao you're so obsessed with hating High Elves that you think everything MUST be about High Elves.

Come on now, no one is going to fall for that, with all the attempts of changing the name and racial color, its definitely not me who is obsessed