Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[shoc]

Watch we get Tinkers.. as an April Fools joke.

[therumblings]

Watch we get Tinkers.. as an April Fools joke.

Would be even better if we got Tinkers as an April Fools joke then got the real Tinker announcement on the 19th.

[Catastrophy349]

They are going to announce Ashes of Galakros tomorrow.

[Shadochi]

There was Wrathgate before that, no?

Wasn't wrathgate the first non patch trailer cinematic they did?

[SunspotAnims]

There was Wrathgate before that, no?

Wrathgate was pre-rendered. We're talking about the ones that are entirely in-game. They've been used since like Cata but for the longest time just involved taking control of the camera and playing talking animations. Legion stepped them up by using camera cuts and some more elaborate animation-splicing. Shadowlands is the first time we're seeing realtime cutscenes use entirely unique animations as if they were pre-rendered.

[therumblings]

Wrathgate was pre-rendered. We're talking about the ones that are entirely in-game. They've been used since like Cata but for the longest time just involved taking control of the camera and playing talking animations. Legion stepped them up by using camera cuts and some more elaborate animation-splicing. Shadowlands is the first time we're seeing realtime cutscenes use entirely unique animations as if they were pre-rendered.

Yeah this is a perfect summary of what's going on with cinematics. It's pretty exciting honestly, I wonder how far they can keep pushing this tech.

[Jokubas]

Would be even better if we got Tinkers as an April Fools joke then got the real Tinker announcement on the 19th.

Ooo, like the Goblin Alchemist. They did that there, right? I miss when the joke would turn out to be that something wasn't entirely a joke.

Edit: It looks like it might literally have been the Tinker in Warcraft III, not the Alchemist?

Yeah this is a perfect summary of what's going on with cinematics. It's pretty exciting honestly, I wonder how far they can keep pushing this tech.

I kinda wish they weren't showing us the work in progress, though. There have been so many important moments in the last couple of expansions that have been relegated to the new in-game cutscenes, and I don't blame them experimenting and bettering the tech, but in the mean time it means that moments that should be extremely climactic just feel sloppy and even a bit goofy. For instance, after Sylvanas being in so many cutscenes and cinematics, her "final" fate is in an in-game cinematic that, while it has more custom animations, still has her pop into frame in the official upload. I wish they could have waited to use this tech until it was truly on the level of the pre-rendered cutscenes.

[Izalla]

That Argus cutscene made me just now realise, why the heck doesn't KJ have the same accent as the rest of them? Like losing the accent after all this time, or Velen and the draenei gaining a new accent is one thing. But surely during this time period they would have the same one?

I have no idea why I didn't notice this and get bothered by it until now...

[therumblings]

That Argus cutscene made me just now realise, why the heck doesn't KJ have the same accent as the rest of them? Like losing the accent after all this time, or Velen and the draenei gaining a new accent is one thing. But surely during this time period they would have the same one?

I have no idea why I didn't notice this and get bothered by it until now...

It could be KJ was born outside of Eredath and has a different regional accent from somewhere on Argus.

[Izalla]

It could be KJ was born outside of Eredath and has a different regional accent from somewhere on Argus.

I mean it could be, except he sounds like he came from Azeroth haha

[therumblings]

I mean it could be, except he sounds like he came from Azeroth haha

That's a problem with the game in general, a lot of different races have similar accents, but more importantly... how does pretty much everyone know and speak in common? Most likely just game mechanics trumping lore.

[Izalla]

That's a problem with the game in general, a lot of different races have similar accents, but more importantly... how does pretty much everyone know and speak in common? Most likely just game mechanics trumping lore.

I imagine it has to do with KJ already having a voice before the draenei were retconned into being what they are so Blizz is just continuing to use KJ as he always has been regardless of if it actually makes sense now.

As for the part about common? Yeah it's weird and can't be anything other than gameplay taking precedent over lore.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

That's a problem with the game in general, a lot of different races have similar accents, but more importantly... how does pretty much everyone know and speak in common? Most likely just game mechanics trumping lore.

It's almost certainly segregation of mechanics and lore, but I would actually argue it is feasibly possible it's the result of some kind of Titan interference. This would also explain why Titan constructs always seem to be speaking Common. Although we know that the Titans have a different language of their own, Common could be the language that the constructs used to communicate in the olden days, and when the different races spread out Common became a trade-language in pre-Sundering Azeroth. That would explain a lot—this also explains why Orcs can speak it fine from the get-go in lore, assuming Medivh didn't teach them. They could've understood it subconsciously from their Breaker ancestors.

Draenei also could be feasibly explained—being such an advanced civilization, it is possible that they simply observed Titan constructs either on their own planet or even across the stars during their trek and came to realize that for some inexplicable reason, the same language was vastly-known across every planet they visited.

[huth]

It's almost certainly segregation of mechanics and lore, but I would actually argue it is feasibly possible it's the result of some kind of Titan interference. This would also explain why Titan constructs always seem to be speaking Common. Although we know that the Titans have a different language of their own, Common could be the language that the constructs used to communicate in the olden days, and when the different races spread out Common became a trade-language in pre-Sundering Azeroth. That would explain a lot—this also explains why Orcs can speak it fine from the get-go in lore, assuming Medivh didn't teach them. They could've understood it subconsciously from their Breaker ancestors.

Draenei also could be feasibly explained—being such an advanced civilization, it is possible that they simply observed Titan constructs either on their own planet or even across the stars during their trek and came to realize that for some inexplicable reason, the same language was vastly-known across every planet they visited.

Don't forget that the entire universe is constructed, as well.

Though i think it's mostly for the sake of simplicity and translation convention.

[Revamp Man]

Y’all ready for an old Anduin heading into the void with velen in 11.0 after he helps his new wife Sylvanas in the maw

- - - Updated - - -

Ok so we don’t know much about how time flows
In the SL other than faster. Now tinfoil hat time:
Anduin stays in the maw long enough that he ages into the old man from the comic with Velen.

This gives a few things
1. His character gets a break which after the strangeness of BfA and SL he deserves
2. Alliance story progression
3. Future friction with leadership

[KainneAbsolute]

WoW's expansion titles focus on the enemy (WotLK, Legion), a new place that didn't appear in the RTS games (MoP, WoD, SL), or a big event (Cata, BFA). In all expansions, we get new zones, enemies, and events, but Blizzard focused on a feature (enemy, place, or event) to sell the expansion. The focus in SL wasn't the jailer, the destruction of the sky...it was the Shadowlands' afterlives, the covenants, etc.

True, I am forcing this because Blizzard can choose any title for their expansions, but maybe we should look at the leaks that propose a new enemy, place, or event. Usually "event" titles take place in the Azeroth (destruction of the known world or world at war). There are no hints for a new enemy...so I guess we should look for an event (Awakenings?) or place (Dragon Isles?).

[Wangming]

I would fucking love a third faction made up of undead Azerothian races, especially if it was playable. I would have so damn many undead characters, I'd probably have to delete all of my non undead to make space which would be a shame because they're all max or near max level. I'd also go for the first option you mentioned but the second one is *chef kiss*.

Glad you like it. And I mean we have had undead trolls and undead elves in the game since forever. A full undead faction would make a lot of sense. And they won't even have to work on the models that much.

- - - Updated - - -

WoW's expansion titles focus on the enemy (WotLK, Legion), a new place that didn't appear in the RTS games (MoP, WoD, SL), or a big event (Cata, BFA). In all expansions, we get new zones, enemies, and events, but Blizzard focused on a feature (enemy, place, or event) to sell the expansion. The focus in SL wasn't the jailer, the destruction of the sky...it was the Shadowlands' afterlives, the covenants, etc.

To be fair WoD is a bit of both since the Warlords are the main enemy force for a significant part of the game before the Legion hijacks it.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Very important Leak:

- 1-60 is the prologue

- 60-70 is Shadow and Light

- 70-80 is the Apocalypse

Your new Borrowed Power is a Trinket with a classic-style talent tree.

The release date is 4/1/2023.

I made this in about 5 minutes. Happy April Fools.

[Wangming]

They're on different fucking continents. Do you mean boat travel? Pretty sure that's still there.

I am so tired.

The new Cataclysm will be super big. Old Kalimdor rejoined together

[Syegfryed]

i expect the april's fool joke being better than the expansion they will reveal april 19, how sad.

either way, from what i remember, the last years all the jokes have being just uninspired patch notes