Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Vasoka]

We REALLY need some sort of a "what's next" from Hazzikostas soon, 9.1 has been out for 2 months, in Legion we'd literally have a new patch already.

[Ivarr]

How could they make leveling relevant again but in a fresh way that didn't just replicate the old design?

I wouldn't be opposed to some kind of completely seamless design system where, let's say in a hypothetical revamped 10.0 Azeroth, even after hitting max level you went back and forth between max level zones and leveling zones and actually had reasons to want to group up with players of all levels?

World quests. Blizzard already knows how to do this. The world quests are merely variations of the levelling content. Players who haven't maxed out can't play world quests so far, but that's just an arbitrary barrier to prevent people from exploiting some levelling trick, doesn't seem very impactful now that Chromie Time gets players to max level in a couple of afternoons.

[Aenwyrm]

We REALLY need some sort of a "what's next" from Hazzikostas soon, 9.1 has been out for 2 months, in Legion we'd literally have a new patch already.

Remember that we've had two years now of a pandemic and now the sexual assault allegations on top of it. I'd be surprised if they even had a two second video of Ion just saying "we have stuff planned" and nothing else.

Granted, we still have 4 months left in the year, so there may be an announcement close to the end of year, But i don't expect anything big to be announced until after the new year

[Vasoka]

Remember that we've had two years now of a pandemic and now the sexual assault allegations on top of it. I'd be surprised if they even had a two second video of Ion just saying "we have stuff planned" and nothing else.

Granted, we still have 4 months left in the year, so there may be an announcement close to the end of year, But i don't expect anything big to be announced until after the new year

Time to stop using Covid as an excuse to not deliver what people pay you for tbh. It flied for the first year, year and a half - at this point it's just getting funny.

[Makabreska]

Time to stop using Covid as an excuse to not deliver what people pay you for tbh. It flied for the first year, year and a half - at this point it's just getting funny.

Why? Is it not a still valid believable excuse? Is pandemic gone? Are other industries fully operational? COVID cases are currently on a sharp rise in USA.

[draugril]

I could actually see this one & it sounds kind of neat. It would explain why Wrathion can't find the Dragon Isles right now, especially if the other dragons aren't really working with him. This could be an interesting concept to see realized & would likely help us to get back to some smaller stories while not feeling like a massive scope drop from Shadowlands.

I do find myself dwelling on this bit, as well. Is this something poached from an earlier concept, or it is novel? Have the Sanctums of the dragonflights ever been explained?

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Why? Is it not a still valid believable excuse? Is pandemic gone? Are other industries fully operational? COVID cases are currently on a sharp rise in USA.

Because people want to pretend it doesn't exist, and since it has turned into a political issue, people are being as belligerent about health measures as they are about any other political issue.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Why? Is it not a still valid believable excuse? Is pandemic gone? Are other industries fully operational? COVID cases are currently on a sharp rise in USA.

Because the gaming industry is one of the least affected by it and Blizzard struggling with it in the way they do is only up to them and them alone.

[Makabreska]

Because the gaming industry is one of the least affected by it and Blizzard struggling with it in the way they do is only up to them and them alone.

Least affected (if it actually is) doesn't mean affected lightly, looking at how bare-bones last E3 was announcement-wise.

[Kiivar86]

I do find myself dwelling on this bit, as well. Is this something poached from an earlier concept, or it is novel? Have the Sanctums of the dragonflights ever been explained?

From what I can see on wowpedia, they apparently are basically pocket dimensions.

[draugril]

From what I can see on wowpedia, they apparently are basically pocket dimensions.

That much is obvious, but why do they exist? What is the purpose? Especially when we already have the Dragonshrines as that representative slice of the dragonflight's focus given temporal form... The answer is probably, "So we have somewhere to stick a raid!" but I've never really thought about this before, even as someone who is a big fan of the draconic lore.

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Also, do we have an ercarp for 10.0 "leaks" yet?

[Sondrelk]

Because the gaming industry is one of the least affected by it and Blizzard struggling with it in the way they do is only up to them and them alone.

Least affected in general doesnt mean Blizzard has also been affected less.

Given the work conditions we hear of WoW programmers I wouldnt be suprised if WFH measures have been absolutely catastrophic for the company.
Work from home is easy to get behind when everyone has a home office, not so much when developers live in a tiny flat with 5 roommates.

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That much is obvious, but why do they exist? What is the purpose? Especially when we already have the Dragonshrines as that representative slice of the dragonflight's focus given temporal form... The answer is probably, "So we have somewhere to stick a raid!" but I've never really thought about this before, even as someone who is a big fan of the draconic lore.

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Also, do we have an ercarp for 10.0 "leaks" yet?

The Dragonshrines in general feel weird. We have those, the pocket dimension, and then we also have a third area for each flight (Borean Tundra for Blue etc.)
The pocket dimensions are definitely the odd ones out though. I can only guess they were originally meant to be portals to whatever dragon headquarters, which I guess it could technically be. The Ruby Dragonshrine doesnt look that dissimilar to their base in the Twilight Highlands, and there are plenty of volcanoes we have not visited in depth.


Also, I think you mean, El Caro, mustachioed man of legend.

[Kiivar86]

That much is obvious, but why do they exist? What is the purpose? Especially when we already have the Dragonshrines as that representative slice of the dragonflight's focus given temporal form... The answer is probably, "So we have somewhere to stick a raid!" but I've never really thought about this before, even as someone who is a big fan of the draconic lore.

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Also, do we have an ercarp for 10.0 "leaks" yet?

Yeah I'd never given it much thought before either. Glancing over the page for it, it does seem like Blizzard didn't put too much thought into it, more just "we need a place for the Aspects to meet up and also look interesting" sort of thing.

As for that, not as far as I'm aware, though until recently there weren't many leaks to speak of. If ercarp (who is still relatively active here from what I saw) doesn't make one, maybe I will, or someone else will.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Given the work conditions we hear of WoW programmers I wouldnt be suprised if WFH measures have been absolutely catastrophic for the company.
Work from home is easy to get behind when everyone has a home office, not so much when developers live in a tiny flat with 5 roommates.

Precisely these are issues that are on blizzard. Underpaying your staff to the point that they can only function in lab conditions is not the fault of covid, not to mention that these kinds of things should have been handled already, the pandemic is in it's second year. Every other industry had to arrange itself as well, and others in the digital entertainment industry have actually reported record earnings because of it, enough that Blizzard could have helped its employees.

[Sondrelk]

Precisely these are issues that are on blizzard. Underpaying your staff to the point that they can only function in lab conditions is not the fault of covid, not to mention that these kinds of things should have been handled already, the pandemic is in it's second year. Every other industry had to arrange itself as well, and others in the digital entertainment industry have actually reported record earnings because of it, enough that Blizzard could have helped its employees.

Sure, but Blizzard being shitty to their employees isnt going to make Covid less relevant out of principle.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Sure, but Blizzard being shitty to their employees isnt going to make Covid less relevant out of principle.

It is when you try to give Blizzard a free pass for being incopentent by blaming it all on covid, instead of blaming those at fault: Blizzard.

[Sondrelk]

It is when you try to give Blizzard a free pass for being incopentent by blaming it all on covid, instead of blaming those at fault: Blizzard.

I am quite clearly blaming both. Covid would not be a big issue if Blizzard didnt underpay in a housing market that is already on the breaking point.

Point is that just because Blizzard is shitty doesnt mean that Covid is less relevant, in fact its more relevant. Just because this is Blizzards fault doesnt mean they magically don't have a problem.

[draugril]

The Dragonshrines in general feel weird. We have those, the pocket dimension, and then we also have a third area for each flight (Borean Tundra for Blue etc.)
The pocket dimensions are definitely the odd ones out though. I can only guess they were originally meant to be portals to whatever dragon headquarters, which I guess it could technically be. The Ruby Dragonshrine doesnt look that dissimilar to their base in the Twilight Highlands, and there are plenty of volcanoes we have not visited in depth.

Yeah, we have the Caverns of Time (bronze), Coldarra (blue), the Vermillion Redoubt (red)... what equitable areas do we have for green and black? Regardless, it is strange that we have so many specific "home domains" for the dragonflights. They're all essentially the same concept - the Sanctums, the Dragonshrines, and the "Domains." Add in the conceptual ownership of certain aspects of Azeroth, and yeah... they need to settle down. Seems overwritten.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah, we have the Caverns of Time (bronze), Coldarra (blue), the Vermillion Redoubt (red)... what equitable areas do we have for green and black? Regardless, it is strange that we have so many specific "home domains" for the dragonflights. They're all essentially the same concept - the Sanctums, the Dragonshrines, and the "Domains." Add in the conceptual ownership of certain aspects of Azeroth, and yeah... they need to settle down. Seems overwritten.

Thinking about it, I guess assuming the portals are to somewhere on Azeroth instead of a pocket dimension we do only have to question where the Black Dragonflight shrine is. The Ruby one could easily be in Twilight Highlands, and we have not seen the last 3.

[Nyel]

It is when you try to give Blizzard a free pass for being incopentent by blaming it all on covid, instead of blaming those at fault: Blizzard.

Yeah, the pandemic excuse worked last year and very well so as the situation was severe. But with everybody already having adapted to the situation and the vaccine being available to everyone in the US, it’s become a very pointless way of justifying how bad things are shaping up to be at Blizzard. Sure, they have other issues with the lawsuit, but if they weren’t able to adapt to the COVID situation in well over a year there are way bigger, underlying problems at the company level than just that.

[Nagawithlegs]

Unsure of the implications here but I found it interesting that they moved the intro for BFA away from the throne room and into an adjacent room. Foreshadowing for a change to the area?