Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Chickat]

And because “we are much more powerful than the threats you mentioned” will be a point I think it’s important to note that we aren’t

Storywise we lost the artifacts, we used up the heart’s power, we will lose our attachments to the covenants outside of the shadowlands.

We are no stronger than we were at the beginning of legion

Yeah we are back to WoD levels of Strength. As in we can defeat people as powerful as Archimonde/Kiljaeden, maybe Azshara, but not gods.

[maplesyrupgl]

I think the first raid would be a non tier raid lasting around 4 months before the 1st tier raid comes out. Tier 1 is just local island threat raid. Not as big.

Tier 1 raid Is Galakrond.
Tier 2 raid is Infinite Dragonflight and Moruzond.
tier 3 raid is Chromatus and Xal'atath with Xal escaping and leading the way into 11.0 which is light and void.

Xal is the guldan of Dragonflight like Guldan was the catalyst for Legion.

It'd be hilarious if Xalatath became a big bad.

Spriests sitting there like... "you sat on my belt for like 3 years this is awkward "

[Chickat]

5 EK zones aren't 1/3rd of the EK (also, Cataclysm revamped the entirety of the old world, which is way larger).
4 new zones are a lot less than TBC (12-ish?) or WotLK (9 or 10?) put out.
4 specs is just a little more than a DK.
Even indie MMOs do player housing, and garrisons show the tech is there.
Not doing leveling and just going straight to grinding for gear is less work, I don't know how you can think of that as more.

Chanonicly Lordaeron and Quel'thalas are actually larger than 1/3rd of Eastern Kingdoms. But fine. I disagree with you. We can leave it at that.

[Das Thora]

I think the first raid would be a non tier raid lasting around 4 months before the 1st tier raid comes out. Tier 1 is just local island threat raid. Not as big.

Tier 1 raid Is Galakrond.
Tier 2 raid is Infinite Dragonflight and Moruzond.
tier 3 raid is Chromatus and Xal'atath with Xal escaping and leading the way into 11.0 which is light and void.

Xal is the guldan of Dragonflight like Guldan was the catalyst for Legion.

I kind of pictured The Maw as the perfect place for our 10.0 big bad to escape from but unfortunately that didn't happen.

I think a Light vs. Void expansion would be a big waste since they both could have their own expansions.

The Light has
1. Yrel and the Lightbound with Xe'ra/Light Mother returning from the AU (Shattrath raid?)
2. The Scarlet Brotherhood (and in turn their plans for Genn and the worgen)
3. Calia and Lordaeron, and in turn a crossroads for the Forsaken (Lordaeron raid?)
4. Turalyon vs. Anduin (Stormwind raid?)
5. The Sunwell
6. Elune
7. More on the Naa'ru in general

Though honestly I expected this to come after BFA since IMO it would be perfect for continuing most of the stories BFA put forth.

The Void has;
1. Void Lords
2. Xal'atath
3. Azshara
4. The realm of the Void itself
5. Void elves and Locus-walker
6. Ethereal + the remains of K'aresh?

[Dragons Are Bad Mkay]

Chanonicly Lordaeron and Quel'thalas are actually larger than 1/3rd of Eastern Kingdoms. But fine. I disagree with you. We can leave it at that.

You must really feel like Legion and BFA were both patches since we just visited islands then if you're going by lore size.

[Revamp Man]

Yeah we are back to WoD levels of Strength. As in we can defeat people as powerful as Archimonde/Kiljaeden, maybe Azshara, but not gods.

We had help from dadgar and WoD leaders along with a ring forged by magic during archie and kj we had artifacts.

We can get stomped by a demon army

[Kiivar86]

It'd be hilarious if Xalatath became a big bad.

Spriests sitting there like... "you sat on my belt for like 3 years this is awkward "

I mean, the process of acquiring the blade involves her betraying her current wielder. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone, least of all the priest.

Meanwhile as a mage I'm just waiting for Aluneth to show up again.

[Chickat]

I kind of pictured The Maw as the perfect place for our 10.0 big bad to escape from but unfortunately that didn't happen.

I think a Light vs. Void expansion would be a big waste since they both could have their own expansions.

The Light has
1. Yrel and the Lightbound with Xe'ra/Light Mother returning from the AU (Shattrath raid?)
2. The Scarlet Brotherhood (and in turn their plans for Genn and the worgen)
3. Calia and Lordaeron, and in turn a crossroads for the Forsaken (Lordaeron raid?)
4. Turalyon vs. Anduin (Stormwind raid?)
5. The Sunwell
6. Elune
7. More on the Naa'ru in general

Though honestly I expected this to come after BFA since IMO it would be perfect for continuing most of the stories BFA put forth.

The Void has;
1. Void Lords
2. Xal'atath
3. Azshara
4. The realm of the Void itself
5. Void elves and Locus-walker
6. Ethereal + the remains of K'aresh?

I kind of imagine Light vs Void being mostly a light expansion with a smaller void focus.

Final boss would be Yrel or some light lord or something. Void would play out in dungeons, questing, and maybe 1 raid. Maybe it would feature old gods and a light invasion at the same time, but I do think the Void would have its own expansion.

Or it could even be Xal leading us to Karesh for some reason. Light is there fighting the void, they are our enemy, but the void is the big bad. Not void lord level threat either tbh.

Theres a bunch of ways they could do it. I could see the light have 1 solid expansion, but the void could easily have 2.

[Izalla]

Anecdotal again, but I found the reality of the expansion to be completely divorced from the forum's mood when this went down. My impression was that the higher-skill players were flustered by having to put in effort during content that wasn't a raid, but they had to complete to be competitive in that raid. Whereas my friends and guildies in-game, regardless of skill level, were actually engaged by the content for the first time in a long time.

I once saw a fully ICC geared healer in heroic Halls of Reflection do an absolutely terrible job getting through the gauntlet event and it scared me off healing that dungeon because if a raider couldn't manage it, how would a pleb like me? Turns out they were either badly carried or just didn't want to put any effort into a lowly dungeon because when I finally DID try healing that place we made it through without a single death and I was new to healing in general then (and no it wasn't a tank issue in the case of the other healer, they just weren't casting anything often enough). The memory of that ICC geared healer failing so badly in there has always stayed with me and your post reminded me of that.

[Chickat]

We had help from dadgar and WoD leaders along with a ring forged by magic during archie and kj we had artifacts.

We can get stomped by a demon army

Sure, but we would have the help of the dragons, plus likely khadgar again as well IMO. We haven't truly been on our own with a threat since MoP. Even then we had the Pandaren helping us as well as the Wrathion leggo cloak. We had help in Cata. We had help in Wrath, although I would arguer much less help.

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This can be applied to literally everything in the entire game. There shouldn't be some kind of progression system for housing and it usually doesn't have some insane crazy aspect to it in other games, I don't understand. This feels more like a personal taste thing.

Honestly housing could have a great progression system. Outdoor combat bonuses, profession bonus buffs via trophys, minigames in the house, housing competitions like Trial of Style. Convienience items, not counting an auction house. there's loads more too.

Maybe you get a Illidan's Head trophy for killing him in Black Tempel 10 times for an achievement. It doubles the Drop rate of all items in black tempe while placed in your house.

I could go on.

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Aren't Worgen and Goblins as well as their zones like... the ONLY thing people like today about Cata?

I think the dungeons and raids sans DS are all well liked as well. Cata was good, it just needed more content.

Cata with the amount of content MoP had could have been just as good or better. I honestly think most "BAD" wow expansions come down to a lack of content.

Maybe you could argue bfa was bad because the content that was there was lacklustre, but I think 8.2 saved BFA. Its not amazing, but I would still put it ahead of Cata and WoD.

[leviathonlx]

Case in point POTD and HoH in FF14. Basically what Torghast tried to be. Still relevant, still played, designed in such a way as they don't really need to do much with them now except bug fixes. Even end game dungeons and raids remain relevant because they get rolled into the scaling LFD system at the end of an expansion. Meaning that I could, right now, queue up for the end game from an expansion 3 expansions ago, and be scaled in such a way that it's still a challenge and still fun and players regularly do this, like the queue is comparable to any other content. (Or I can check the box for going in at max level if I felt like it)

Pretty much everything added to that game generally remains doable and relevant without needing to be constantly updated. At most, the occasional new reward and bug fixes.

I mean that's more since POTD and HoH are great for leveling alt jobs when your only other options are roulette spam and possibly some beast tribe dailies but you'd be hard pressed to convince me it's fun or good content. And no you getting an old dungeon in roulette is never a 'challenge' and is always just run down the hallway to whatever arbitrary thing is blocking your path and AoEing all the trash down then killing the boss.

And let's be honest. WoW has content like that too which is irrelevant to the current expansion and can be ran still today such as how you can solo queue into Islands to get the pets and mounts it has. The borrowed power systems like artifacts, azerite, and covenants aren't that sure but I think that's fine and honestly I like borrowed power systems like that as they do give me something to do unlike FF14 which I get bored of quite quickly with each patch after playing for 8 years.

[Chickat]

I think Pocopoc encapsulates everything wrong with modern Blizzard, for me at least. Here's this little personal robot! You can customize him to perform to your liking, upgrade him, unlock and choose his aesthetics... all great stuff! But 10.0 is coming. And the moment it hits... all that investment goes right out the window. It's thrown out. So... why should I get invested now when you know from day one that the system you're engaging with it 100% going to be disposed of?

Yeah, you had me ready to fight you for Poco, but its true. They abandon systems and features way too often. We need more evergreen systems and less 1 expansion or worse, 1 patch systems.

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I truly do not understand, why are people here ignoring the fact that the "Thalassian Conflict" plotline, so to say, is one of the longest and oldest in the game? Already in Classic we had High elves who remained loyal to the Alliance while the rest of the country was closed-off and left the Alliance at the end of the Second War. In TBC the Sin'dorei joined the Horde, In WotLk the Silver Covenant are introduced as the main militant faction of the Alliance elves, their rivalry continues in Cataclysm at the gates of Zul'aman, and culminates in bloodshed at the Purge of Dalaran. But two events have changed everything.

The Return of Alleria Windrunner has changed everything, the legendary hero of Quel'Thalas and eldest sibling of the Windrunners, always looked up by her countrymen, she has charisma, popularity, and strength that Vereesa could never hope to match, giving rekindled hope to the Alliance elves.

The Rise of the Ren'dorei, the "Children of the Void" led by Magister Umbric, who were cast out and exiled, but turned defeat into victory by finding a source of great power. For the first time, we have a faction of Thalassian elves in the Alliance who have grown so much in numbers and strength as to become playable and encompassing many Quel'dorei scholars and Sin'dorei travellers. The Silver Covenant could never match the Ren'dorei in numbers, resources, and strength, which is why they were never made playable.

Now the storyline started all the way back in Classic will soon reach the culmination as the Alliance will march on Quel'Thalas and reclaim it for the Alliance, as it should have been done long ago, when Lor'themar Theron plotted to rejoin the Alliance.

People don't mind the void elves and that plot. People mind you treating it as the holy grail to story and future content. Its fine to discuss it some. Its not okay to form your entire personality and every topic you post in around it. It gets old. Just like The T class. Its fine. It might be coming. No one wants to talk and argue about it for 40 pages.

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I dont get the argument anyhow. Back then they had far less technology (yes meme) and workarounds unlike today but their team is also substantially larger since WoD/Legion. And as you already said, many assets have already been made.
I mean look at Shadowlands, the amount of quests available with each Covenant is actually quite big since many of them involve scripts, etc.
Also the revamped zones don't have to be even close in detail to the zones we currently get which are overdesigned disney themeparks.

It's definitely possible but I don't think blizzard will do it since they wouldn't know how to implement the revamped zones in progression/expansion properly so they don't feel like wasted assets.
I think the key here would be a fully revamped Profession system that is a 4th meaningful way to gear besides M+/PvP/Raid. Maybe tied with another new feature besides the WQs system we already have.

Yeah, I don't think anyone should expect a full revamp to be as intensive as WoD was for OL, but they could easily retexture things and make them look almost as good as MoP or WoD zones pretty quickly.

Compare this.


Sure the mountains wouldn't look as detailed, but retexturing, new grass, trees, doodags, buildings and its fairly close to that pic of Gorgrond.

To this.

[Vakir]

People don't mind the void elves and that plot. People mind you treating it as the holy grail to story and future content. Its fine to discuss it some. Its not okay to form your entire personality and every topic you post in around it. It gets old. Just like The T class. Its fine. It might be coming. No one wants to talk and argue about it for 40 pages.

You know what I'm gonna say.

You know.

Don't bother. Waste of energy. Mascot rules courtesy of that one Treehouse of Horror episode: Just don't look.

[Chickat]

And tbh, I would be 100% okay with them reusing older zone textures. Go ahead and use Jade Forrest ground textures in Feralas. It would look great. No need to remake every texture. Same with trees, buildings, doodads grass etc. Also most zones would look fine with a generic cloudy blue sky skybox.

[Three Faced Goddess]

I find it funny that Raeshalare didn't even make it out of Shadowlands before being surpassed and replaced. Yet a few people were convinced that its inclusion in game was a permanent substitute for a certain player fantasy and excluded a certain class from happening ever. Even the daggers were replaced before this expansion's end. I wonder what legendary items are going to be like in Dragonflight? I can see some of them being based on each of the five Aspects while others are based on class aesthetics. Please no more ass ugly hunter sets. I don't want to be wearing dragon parts during my dragon themed adventures. The dragons I'm allying with might take umbrage to that and eat me.

[Chickat]

Here ya go: https://twitter.com/jeffliu/status/1511387690146557958

Would an existing ui port into a new engine well?

Maybe they are taking forever because they are porting WoW to UE5? UE5 WoW would make it a lot easier to port to consoles. I mean the chance is less than 1%, but what if?

[SniperCT]

pls don't remind me of the way they ruined yrel almost entirely off screen and in a way an alliance player will never see lol My favorite new lore character to be introduced up to that point and then they do that to her.

Yeah we are back to WoD levels of Strength. As in we can defeat people as powerful as Archimonde/Kiljaeden, maybe Azshara, but not gods.

She toyed with us during the well of eternity dungeon and she's had a long time to get more powerful. We needed the power of the heart to be able to take on azshara during BFA and she still survived and escaped.

But then I'm biased and still hold out for her to be treated as a proper threat by blizzard.

[Chickat]

Please! Fucking pleeeeeease make this true!!

Yes, I would love for Crafting to be like Wildstar, or even ESO. Both games have good crafting.

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How did you make that map anyway?

I'd love to make my own for my own writing and my D&D campaigns.

Yeah, I have no experience with something like that, but Id like to make my own fan WoW expansions, but I suck with paint.

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How did you make that map anyway?

I'd love to make my own for my own writing and my D&D campaigns.

Yeah, I have no experience with something like that, but Id like to make my own fan WoW expansions, but I suck with paint.

[SniperCT]

Would an existing ui port into a new engine well?

Maybe they are taking forever because they are porting WoW to UE5? UE5 WoW would make it a lot easier to port to consoles. I mean the chance is less than 1%, but what if?

The amount of effort required to port WoW to any new engine would not be worth the time and money cost. Hundreds of thousands of art assets would have to be converted at the very least and even with some kind of importer they'lll have to go through each one by one and make adjustments.

I don't know if UE's netcode would even be compatible without some major rewrites. Can it handle a world as huge as WoW's without choking both client and server? Each of wow's continents is a massive sprawling landmass with no loading screens.

[Chickat]

Photoshop/Illustrator or you can make use of map making tools like Incarnate or Wonderdraft.

Ah, so now I know why paint wasn't working for me haha.

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I too hope so. I just remember someone talking about the fact that there were specific job postings to make the profession system in WoW engaging/etc.
It seemed oddly specific and considering that Ion wanted to improve professions and saw they need work back in BfA i think, though he didn't know what to do with them, gives me some hope that this might come with 10.0.
Maybe that is also the reason why they didn't really bother with professions in SL except for the few spreadsheet stuff they added, as they were focused on getting things done for 10.0 in this regard.

Found a tweet about it, though its from October 2021. However as you can see he mentioned details need to be "finalized and realized" so they seemed to be quite far already. Looks promising to me as a mayor Profession revamp is probably one of the most anticipating features Id look forward to personally.
https://twitter.com/nite_moogle/stat...64352544219138

"While we are always looking for well-rounded applicants this requisition will be to primarily support development of professions in WoW. We have some ambitious plans and need people who can focus their time and effort in this space. It is likely we will hire more than one person.
We've got a high level plan but many details need to be finalized and realized, and there is a good deal of implementation across a wide swath of the game that this position will be expected to take on. It is a great opportunity to learn how many parts of WoW function."

Oh shit, I hadn't seen this. Hoping its amazing.