Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[guro-tchai]

i don't think it's a bamboozle because blizzard just doesn't have the energy for this kind of stuff. 10 years ago they would prepare elaborate april fools jokes, now it's only patchnotes. most of what they do is predictable and formulaic.
if it's a prank, it could give me hope - and i don't want this.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Honestly all they need to do is just have that be for cosmetics and story and it's fixed. It's the soulbinds, covenant abilities, etc that really fucked that system up.

While the systems got fucked the most, the story suffered alot from it as well. 2/3 of the playerbase have at best a vague recollection about Pelagos and his journey. It just makes the already awful story even worse, because people simply lack context without having played 4 or different characters. It was already a terrible descision in BfA and lead to the first raid making practically no sense for the alliance (and that was only with 2 factions). Making it 5 now would make the already paper thin story probably non-existent in some places, as I see no reason why they would suddenly get it right after failing very consistently twice before without even a hint of improvement.

[uikolertekopoku]

i don't think it's a bamboozle because blizzard just doesn't have the energy for this kind of stuff. 10 years ago they would prepare elaborate april fools jokes, now it's only patchnotes. most of what they do is predictable and formulaic.
if it's a prank, it could give me hope - and i don't want this.

I would say back in the days where the devs loved the community the old team (tbc,wotlk..)would do that thing.

But todays Team? It’s ridiculous to assume its intended to prank us.

[Vakir]

Vanilla and BC are the only two who have ever had anything to do with players. It's always just an important lore figure.

WELL ACKSHUALLY, BFA also involved a Horde and Alliance soldier as a stand-in for players.

But kidding aside, yeah, fair enough. I just don't want things to suck and I feel pretty burned. Going through the hype emotion rollercoaster. At the end of the day, we all just want the game to be the best it can be.

...most of us, anyway.

Pumping out races is piss easy at this stage. BFA put out like 6 of those things and it did nothing to make azerite armor less of a pox to play with. The core of meaningful complaints about the game center on the seeming complexity of systems and the unnecessary grinds glued on and the main fear hinges on backtracking from progress made of basically functional versions of the game like 7.3 and to a lesser extent 9.2 which are on a base level capable of sustaining enjoyment in the day to day play. The game already has enough classes and races, which much like customization options, don't have meaningful gameplay utility and much like mounts have already hit the point of oversaturation. The most essential things to include are a frontloaded shiny object, say, class skins, the aforementioned basically functional gameplay and managing a release schedule. The shiny sheen of everything wears off and when it ends you want to have more to throw at the person so they don't get bored rather than leaving them in an insane asylum gathering relativistic amounts of gold from facebook minigames because the rest of the game might as well not exist when you're not raiding (like WoD) or various degrees of unsatisfying grinds for negligible bonuses (the x.0 of the last three expansions).

The new shiny feel is meaningless compared to how bogged and awkward the systems are, yes. I suppose my fear is less that it has anything to do with how long-term stable the game is and more that it's a worry that, with how similar Legion, BFA, and SL have been to one another at times, this is the intended blueprint to follow and no matter what, the decisions are already made surrounding it. So pretty much all the other bullshit they could pack in is disconnected from their strategy.

So going the possibility that not only do you get the same x.0 problems (and possibly into future patches) but they're also putting far less energy into core features because the idea is that base level cosmetics with slow-drip power increases is "enough" to get the numbers they want.

I trust less that any of it influences their ability to manage the game because I consider them functionally unrelated. The problems in SL that have been fixed were absolutely deliberate choices. You can see it in the face of the people defending these bad decisions in interviews with little to no rhetoric to support them. It is purely a calculated "engagement" based decision.

I guess if I had to sum it up a certain way, I'd say that if they're going to fuck me, at least give me something nice to distract me while they do. Preferably, though, yes, don't do it at all.

[Black Rider]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

[guro-tchai]

I would say back in the days where the devs loved the community the old team (tbc,wotlk..)would do that thing.

But todays Team? It’s ridiculous to assume its intended to prank us.

well, you could make an argument that they're well aware that the community likes leaks - it's been acknowledged in the last april fools bluepost with Tinker Leaker or something. the question is, would they go further with the joke or not? laudable if yes, expected if no.

[Vakir]

well, you could make an argument that they're well aware that the community likes leaks - it's been acknowledged in the last april fools bluepost with Tinker Leaker or something. the question is, would they go further with the joke or not? laudable if yes, expected if no.

You have to pre-suppose that they made fake concept art and a fake logo to go with web code that someone would just happen upon but also two weeks earlier uploaded textures for an encrypted transmog set that resembles the exact same thing worn in the "fake" concept art.

That is...a lot.

[FossilFree]

Although the name is probably the real deal, I'm still on the fence about the image.

Now I'm not someone who does these kind of things for a living, but why do the pictures look like someone is printing them out on their home computer? The white borders are all uneven from picture to picture, and they are manually laminating one at the bottom. They are even manually cutting them out with scissors. Is that something a person making promotional items would do in a professional setting? It seems more like a homemade craft project.

[Sondrelk]

Seems like a lot has happened while I was sleeping.

I guess Dragonflight could be the name, though I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was a partial name, or otherwise just called that in the code, though that might be a stretch.

I hear rumours of a bit of Alex art that might be close to believable though. Anyone happen to have that? Don't really feel like scouring the 25+ pages I missed.

[Aradur]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

Way to big scope and change of direction for one AddOn. Name is surely just a coincidence

[Super Dickmann]

I trust less that any of it influences their ability to manage the game because I consider them functionally unrelated. The problems in SL that have been fixed were absolutely deliberate choices. You can see it in the face of the people defending these bad decisions in interviews with little to no rhetoric to support them. It is purely a calculated "engagement" based decision.

I guess if I had to sum it up a certain way, I'd say that if they're going to fuck me, at least give me something nice to distract me while they do. Preferably, though, yes, don't do it at all.

Personally my expectation is Dragonflights as the 9.1.5 version of Covenants and to follow SL's footsteps in not having an unlimited grind. With all the talk of deterministic gearing and the Vault changes I also expect that if there's leggos at all it'd be akin to end of SL grind mechanisms included where you'd be able to grind it. Past that, you'll have cosmetic, either class skins if they're putting some effort in or extra character customization options and a formalized version of 9.2.5's evergreen raids/dungeons put into M+. They won't be reinventing the wheel.

It is a fucking hideous logo though, worse than Empire of Dragons.

[Sondrelk]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

How convenient it was leaked a couple of hours after the name was basically confirmed. I guess the leaker looked at his strict contract and decided everyone basically knew everything already once the name came out.

[ro9ue]

How convenient it was leaked a couple of hours after the name was basically confirmed. I guess the leaker looked at his strict contract and decided everyone basically knew everything already once the name came out.

Dude that was posted almost 2 months ago lol.

[Vakir]

Personally my expectation is Dragonflights as the 9.1.5 version of Covenants and to follow SL's footsteps in not having an unlimited grind. With all the talk of deterministic gearing and the Vault changes I also expect that if there's leggos at all it'd be akin to end of SL grind mechanisms included where you'd be able to grind it. Past that, you'll have cosmetic, either class skins if they're putting some effort in or extra character customization options and a formalized version of 9.2.5's evergreen raids/dungeons put into M+. They won't be reinventing the wheel.

It is a fucking hideous logo though, worse than Empire of Dragons.

Fair assessment. And I'd be just about fine with most of it if they don't introduce some new extraneous fly in the soup. It would still not be anywhere near as impressive as something like a Cata-level revamp, Mists, or Legion, the latter two introducing much but also having better systems but...whatever, I guess the dreams of that are just not sustainable by a game this big with a company that has a future this uncertain. At least right now.

The logo is pretty awful, but I also could see it being poorly represented by resolution even post-upscale. It's definitely a huge departure in terms of shape, though.

[Sondrelk]

Personally my expectation is Dragonflights as the 9.1.5 version of Covenants and to follow SL's footsteps in not having an unlimited grind. With all the talk of deterministic gearing and the Vault changes I also expect that if there's leggos at all it'd be akin to end of SL grind mechanisms included where you'd be able to grind it. Past that, you'll have cosmetic, either class skins if they're putting some effort in or extra character customization options and a formalized version of 9.2.5's evergreen raids/dungeons put into M+. They won't be reinventing the wheel.

It is a fucking hideous logo though, worse than Empire of Dragons.

A covenant variant where the abilities are only used in the open world would be interesting. Would allow them to be essentially purely cosmetic as basically noone cares about balance in the open world.

I only wonder whether there would be much of a point otherwise though. The biggest draw of covenants was that each one had a very distinct theme that gave fitting rewards. And while Dragonflights are not just recolors it's still difficult to figure a way to differentiate the rewards beyond just being colour coded.

[Chickat]

omg every time i open up a texture file I get spooked

It almost looks like dead waterlogged body.

[Kiivar86]

How convenient it was leaked a couple of hours after the name was basically confirmed. I guess the leaker looked at his strict contract and decided everyone basically knew everything already once the name came out.

2022-02-08, 02:11 AM

Current date and time for me (eastern): 2022-04-03, 03:11 am

Where you living, man?

Not saying it makes it right but it was posted two months ago.

No one saw me post it at 2002 at first I hope

[Holdodlig]

I hope it's not this
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...t-Dragonflight

There's no way it's this one. I was at first baited by the expansion name but this "one spec classes" is just impossible to make. Imagine having to design 4 class sets just for 1 spec (which means 6 color variation for LFR, normal, heroic, mythic, conquest and elite and different variation for mythic and elite), having to balance this stuff for PvP (blizzard hates tank in PvP so dragonknight would just be a no no), class colors, identity.

This would be dumb as hell, especially when you add class cosmetic on the same expac.

[Sondrelk]

Dude that was posted almost 2 months ago lol.

Huh. So it was. My bad then.

Still can't see why it would be real. Fake leaks before SL managed to guess the name there as well.

[therumblings]

The image, however, was posted very close to the name leak.