Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Luck4]

So it again reinforces that your claim that WoW has a limit to lifetime graphical upgrades is bogus.

As long as Blizzard wants to update the engine they will continue to do so. Their ambition is the only limit.

If they weren't reaching the engine limits constantly then we would have huge graphical improvements in every expansion, but that's not the case, and they can only improve it at a minor scale level, which is my point. We had a far more noticeable graphical improvement from 2004-2012 than from 2012-2022.

Just compare the Vanilla characters models with the Pandaren and then the Pandaren with Dracthyr.

[Nyel]

hey guys we have any idea on when the next talent trees are expected? loved the frost dk and cant wait to see what they do with arms+fury havoc and ret next

I guess two classes per week seems likely. So this week another round of previews. But that basically means Alpha would still be weeks (5) away, so... let's hope it'll be more than just that.

Unless they unlock Alpha only with the classes they have already previewed, which would be weird, but possible.

I still think Diablo Immortal will be their main focus for at least another week or two before there's happening "big" new stuff regarding WoW.

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Pre-order Evoker would be my pipe dream, but I know I've said (Maybe in this thread as well) I can't see it happening with a playerbase so obsessed with the meta and blizzard trying so hard to push M+ seasons as an Esport, a new class into the mix, much less one thrown in as a hail mary with no public testing, would be too much of a shakeup and cause too much chaos.

How would they even achieve this? We know absolutely nothing about Evoker. They are completely untested. If they would be pre-order stuff, pre-orders would be months away.

[Skildar]

Okay, now you're posting in bad faith, my point isn't that we hadn't graphical updates since Mists of Pandaria, but the fact that they're less noticeable nowadays because WoW is reaching the graphical limit of its engine.

For instance one of the new Dragonflight zones (10.0) looks pretty close to Gorgrond (6.0), two zones that are nearly ten years apart from each other.



But let's compare Alterac Mountains, a place that had a texture resolution uplift in Cataclysm, with Kun-lai and Drustvar:



2012 VS 2018 VS 2004 (2010 Remaster)

There's a HUGE gap between Alterac compared with the other two.

Warlords of Draenor is an anomaly. Its world was crazy beautiful for its time. You see this clearly when the following expansion it feels that except for Suramar itself there was a downgrade of visual quality and even a greater one for BfA.

I think it has more to do with "perfecting a zone visually" vs "building more zones".

Legion has some beautiful assets, beautiful fields, etc. But Draenor feels cleaner. The quality is still going up though and Bastion, Revendreth, Ardenweald and Zereth Mortis are testament to this.

I don't know much about game engine, but I would be quite surprised that it becomes an issue now and that they didn't continuously invest on upgrading/improving it.

Let's wait and see a bit more of the Dragonflight zones

[Nymrohd]

If they were planning a revamp any time soon, wouldn't the rebuilt Brill feature more modern world objects?

[Varodoc]

People don't care about graphics. If they did, League of Legends wouldn't be the most popular PC game ever and it would have been dethroned by Hots, which, while a failure, had the best graphics for any MOBA I have ever seen.

The original revamp happened because many zones did not have enough quests and people had to grind mobs to get levels (Felwood) or did not have any quests at all (Azshara), but Classic already exposed this problem of the old world for all to see.

There is no longer an urgency for world revamp since the questing issues for many zones are fixed.

[Alanar]

Warlords of Draenor is an anomaly. Its world was crazy beautiful for its time. You see this clearly when the following expansion it feels that except for Suramar itself there was a downgrade of visual quality and even a greater one for BfA.

I think it has more to do with "perfecting a zone visually" vs "building more zones".

Legion has some beautiful assets, beautiful fields, etc. But Draenor feels cleaner. The quality is still going up though and Bastion, Revendreth, Ardenweald and Zereth Mortis are testament to this.

I don't know much about game engine, but I would be quite surprised that it becomes an issue now and that they didn't continuously invest on upgrading/improving it.

Let's wait and see a bit more of the Dragonflight zones

Its also that it just changed, legion and especially legion all had this weird glow on everything. Zandalar in a way looked like it was made from plastic. Its also just a differnt style.

[Marlamin]

I don't think we'll see a full revamp, but definitely a "refresh" of some of the assets to fit the modern stylized look of the game they started with around MoP/WoD. The new human buildings are prime examples of that, drop-in replacements of existing assets that refresh the look a bit. I'm expecting more of that, especially now they are remaking a lot of Northrend assets for the Dragon Isles that they can later use to refresh Northrend a little.

[Lady Atia]

I don't think we'll see a full revamp, but definitely a "refresh" of some of the assets to fit the modern stylized look of the game they started with around MoP/WoD. The new human buildings are prime examples of that, drop-in replacements of existing assets that refresh the look a bit. I'm expecting more of that, especially now they are remaking a lot of Northrend assets for the Dragon Isles that they can later use to refresh Northrend a little.

Honestly, they wouldn't really need that much more to make my happy. Maybe springle some worldquests and rare mobs that drop mounts into it and you have some fun evergreen content that can be used for any new story threads down the line.

[Marlamin]

Honestly, they wouldn't really need that much more to make my happy. Maybe springle some worldquests and rare mobs that drop mounts into it and you have some fun evergreen content that can be used for any new story threads down the line.

Yeah, same here. I don't think there's an inherent need to actually go through the entire questing/story again. There was that questline that never made it off PTR where we show some Shadowlands denizens around Azeroth. Just sprinkling in some stuff like that would be a neat way to at least make things feel like they're still connected and part of a living world ( ).

[huth]

We're losing Azeroth world-building, lore development behind most playable races, the usability of those places when it fits current expansion lore, all the stuff that happened in books and on ingame texts since Cataclysm, possible new battlegrounds, new incursions from old enemies, new NPC factions, new cities/villages, old enemy factions like Scarlet Crusade/Scourge/Twilight Hammer/Bloodsail Buccaneers/Grimtotem/ and even the Burning Legion.

No, we're not. That's you projecting what you would do with it onto Blizzard. It's also complete nonsense from a development standpoint, as you'd merely be shifting those resources around, not generating more of them. More worldbuilding in obsolete content would just mean less of it in current. I don't see why Blizzard would ever make that mistake again.

Your basic premise is already wrong.

[Lady Atia]

We're losing Azeroth world-building, lore development behind most playable races, the usability of those places when it fits current expansion lore, all the stuff that happened in books and on ingame texts since Cataclysm, possible new battlegrounds, new incursions from old enemies, new NPC factions, new cities/villages, old enemy factions like Scarlet Crusade/Scourge/Twilight Hammer/Bloodsail Buccaneers/Grimtotem/ and even the Burning Legion.

You fail to see how good would be to see smalls hubs of every playable race spread across Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, Vulpera caravans in the Barrens to Tanaris, Gadgetzan revamped into a neutral city, Nightborne settlement in Azshara, Mag'har Iron Horde machinery, Gilneas as a city, a new World Tree for Night Elves, Lordaeron city as the main hub for the Forsaken, Quel'thalas restored, Exodar rebuilt as a proper Draenei city, Draenei/Lightforged machinery, Alterac Mountain and its kingdom rebuilt as a new hostile zone, Plaguelands cleansed, new Zandalari harbors in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, Drust incursions in Duskwood, feral Worgen in Kalimdor, Pandaren farms in Westfall and the Barrens, Void Elf hubs replacing the old High Elf ones, Kul'tirans taking control of Southshore/Menethil Harbor, Highmountain settlements in Stonetalon Peak/Mount Hyjal, Gnomeragan restored with the help of Mechagnomes, Arakkoa/Ethereals in Azeroth.

The list goes on, it's a shame that instead of a World Revamp we'll keep going to alien places such as Zerethi Mortis, while a vast and majestic world rots with the lack of creativity from Blizzard.

Not to mention that everything I suggested above already has assets ready to use from recent expansions, unlike a new expansion where they need to make nearly everything from scratch.



The problem will not start again anytime soon if they make an evergreen revamp, bringing the world back to Vanilla standards with local threats and lore about the zone instead of a major threat destroying everything. Not to mention the graphical revamp. WoW hasn't changed much graphically speaking since Mists of Pandaria (2012). Look at this comparison:







A revamp now, graphically speaking, would last until the game's shutdown.



This time around they need to make the revamped zones the end-game zones and only add new raids and dungeons on top of it, Cataclysm failed because Blizzard revamped thousands of quests, many old zones, and on top of that, five completely new zones with hundreds of new quests.

Great post on your part, don't listen to naysayers. Honestly, they are setting up Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms to be relevant again. We even now have a reason for Alliance players to quest in a revamped Lordaeron - the Nightelven Darkfallen there, aswell as the Pallid Lady. <3

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

The Activision Blizzard executives has basically decided to just run the game in a managed decline and to be honest I can't deny it worked flawlessly in their favor since everyone is too cooked to recognize that.

We will hopefully see better treatment under Microsoft, but it could be that they will just copy the executive and management style of Activision Blizzard realizing it will be the best way forward and Warcraft 3 Re-Reforged will be the better project to boost PR around Microsoft owning Blizzard being Double Plus Good.

[huth]

Great post on your part, don't listen to naysayers. Honestly, they are setting up Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms to be relevant again. We even now have a reason for Alliance players to quest in a revamped Lordaeron - the Nightelven Darkfallen there, aswell as the Pallid Lady. <3

Where are they setting anything even remotely similar to that up? I think your imagination ran away with you.

Darkfallen are dead in the water now that they turned out to be a customisation option for Elves, too.

[Lady Atia]

Where are they setting anything even remotely similar to that up? I think your imagination ran away with you.

Darkfallen are dead in the water now that they turned out to be a customisation option for Elves, too.

Lol. Just because they don't have a dollar-eating "allied race" tag doesn't mean they are less important than "allied races". Darkfallen, Wildhammer Dwarves, High Elves and Sand Trolls are a playable thing, you can't argue with that. And once we get a revamp they will also get more stories told, just like all other races.

And they literally set it up in the Return to Lordaeron quests my friend. Maybe you need to play them again?

[Khaza-R]

The Activision Blizzard executives has basically decided to just run the game in a managed decline and to be honest I can't deny it worked flawlessly in their favor since everyone is too cooked to recognize that.

We will hopefully see better treatment under Microsoft, but it could be that they will just copy the executive and management style of Activision Blizzard realizing it will be the best way forward and Warcraft 3 Re-Reforged will be the better project to boost PR around Microsoft owning Blizzard being Double Plus Good.

Yup. Kind of why discussing the possibility of a revamp is pointless since the direction is likely to heavily shift after the acquisition. If MS if is good at one thing its milking the hell out of nostalgia.

[huth]

Lol. Just because they don't have a dollar-eating "allied race" tag doesn't mean they are less important than "allied races". Darkfallen, Wildhammer Dwarves, High Elves and Sand Trolls are a playable thing, you can't argue with that. And once we get a revamp they will also get more stories told, just like all other races.

And they literally set it up in the Return to Lordaeron quests my friend. Maybe you need to play them again?

And none of them have specific questing areas, so you just shot down your own claim. There's still no signs we'll get a revamp ever again, either, and it would likely still be a major waste of resources like Cata.

Return to Lordaeron was all about the Forsaken, too.

[Nyel]

I'm expecting more of that, especially now they are remaking a lot of Northrend assets for the Dragon Isles that they can later use to refresh Northrend a little.

Are they doing this? If so, why?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/1532112416028430336

I still wonder what the fuck is being planned out on the Classic side. Seems they are moving to offering a Classic WoW product that will start with Wrath and going on from there.

Apparently they are taking away TBC and perhaps Classic will go away too. Consolidation makes sense due to the Pandora's Box problem.

It is odd to have the coincidence of Northrend assets being altered though considering Wrath+.

Then again maybe the famous Northrend: Global Warming expansion is 11.0.

IDK I am definitely intensely curious on what is going on with the asset situation.

[Lady Atia]

https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/1532112416028430336

I still wonder what the fuck is being planned out on the Classic side. Seems they are moving to offering a Classic WoW product that will start with Wrath and going on from there.

Apparently they are taking away TBC and perhaps Classic will go away too. Consolidation makes sense due to the Pandora's Box problem.

It is odd to have the coincidence of Northrend assets being altered though considering Wrath+.

Then again maybe the famous Northrend: Global Warming expansion is 11.0.

It makes literally zero sense to take away classic since the only reason they did it was to give us a museum mode to visit the old world again. You don't need that with TBC, everything is still available on life servers.

Edit: Maybe, maaaaybe if they give us timewalking classic I could see them abandoning classic servers completely. But that's a big if.

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And none of them have specific questing areas, so you just shot down your own claim. There's still no signs we'll get a revamp ever again, either, and it would likely still be a major waste of resources like Cata.

Return to Lordaeron was all about the Forsaken, too.

What are you talking? Allied races also didn't have any starting questing areas because no one needs that in the modern day. Anyways, I will stop discussing this with you as you are set on denying any possible revamp down the line. Have a nice day.

[micwini]

https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/1532112416028430336

I still wonder what the fuck is being planned out on the Classic side. Seems they are moving to offering a Classic WoW product that will start with Wrath and going on from there.

Apparently they are taking away TBC and perhaps Classic will go away too. Consolidation makes sense due to the Pandora's Box problem.

It is odd to have the coincidence of Northrend assets being altered though considering Wrath+.

Then again maybe the famous Northrend: Global Warming expansion is 11.0.

I think it mostly has to do with: 3.0 version Northrend: No argent tournament. 3.1 Argent Tournament being built. 3.2+ (3.2 and onwards) Argent tournament fully built and available. Don't think there is anything special here.