Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Dracullus]

I mean if it were a slow year, it would be followed by 2023 with D4

I mean people called me too optimistic when I said Diablo IV will be around Christmas 2023 just few months ago. Now we thinks about 6 months earlier date. Overwatch 2 and 10.0 were sure 2023 bets for many people, so much that anyone talking about 2022 release was straight up laughed at.

Now Diablo Immortal is making ton of money even before release on Asian market (which was always intended market to be honest), Overwatch is turned into live service that will for sure print money as well and on top of that there is WoW expansion, safest bet for good (financial) year.

Diablo IV is a even bigger deal than WoW expac (I remind Diablo III held fastest sold PC game title from 2012 to 2020), it will for sure be something similar to Overwatch in 2016, so it could carry 2023 on it's own. Maybe 2024 will be slower year, but again now there is possibility for 11.0 launching this year, maybe even Blizzard will push for release during 20th anniversary (let's officially start 11.0 revamp delus.. hype I mean). And they also work on this new survival game, it should release mid to late 20s.

So next few years has much bigger potential than 2017-2021, of course Blizzard could fuck up everything, but if they use their cards smart it could carry them next few years, after that maybe potential investments from Microsoft will already bear fruits.

I'd now hope it's coming soon. If it's November, don't we want at least 5 months of Alpha/Beta?

If they want release raid this year, they have 4 months: July, August, September, October. I know, scary. From more positive side they don't have to figure out how to implement many stuff (member 15th iterations of Torghast or soulbinds?), everything but talents could be already set in stone. I mean, it's not like they will have to redesign renown style reputations for casual gameplay, we didn't have devs watercoolers about Venthyr party.

[The Stormbringer]

Yes, and that too has passed. MS soon takes over, working environment is/will improve. So again, why only 3 raids in DF?

Because they appear to be rushing things. A lot. The alpha hasn't even started, and the game is supposed to come out this year? That doesn't fill me with confidence that it's going to be a proper, 3-raid patch expansion.

[Makorus]

Because they appear to be rushing things. A lot. The alpha hasn't even started, and the game is supposed to come out this year? That doesn't fill me with confidence that it's going to be a proper, 3-raid patch expansion.

How does the Alpha test of the expansion being short have anything to do with post-launch content?

[Futhark]

[*]Hearthstone effect is simple, elegant and cool. Right up my alley.

This is the only thing that interested me; really playing into my love for Bronze Chronomancers. Maybe they will sell it stand-alone someday...

[Makabreska]

Because they appear to be rushing things. A lot. The alpha hasn't even started, and the game is supposed to come out this year? That doesn't fill me with confidence that it's going to be a proper, 3-raid patch expansion.

And we are back to square one. How do we know that SL being shorter wont be to DF benefit?

[Nymrohd]

I mean people called me too optimistic when I said Diablo IV will be around Christmas 2023 just few months ago. Now we thinks about 6 months earlier date. Overwatch 2 and 10.0 were sure 2023 bets for many people, so much that anyone talking about 2022 release was straight up laughed at.

Now Diablo Immortal is making ton of money even before release on Asian market (which was always intended market to be honest), Overwatch is turned into live service that will for sure print money as well and on top of that there is WoW expansion, safest bet for good (financial) year.

Diablo IV is a even bigger deal than WoW expac (I remind Diablo III held fastest sold PC game title from 2012 to 2020), it will for sure be something similar to Overwatch in 2016, so it could carry 2023 on it's own. Maybe 2024 will be slower year, but again now there is possibility for 11.0 launching this year, maybe even Blizzard will push for release during 20th anniversary (let's officially start 11.0 revamp delus.. hype I mean). And they also work on this new survival game, it should release mid to late 20s.

So next few years has much bigger potential than 2017-2021, of course Blizzard could fuck up everything, but if they use their cards smart it could carry them next few years, after that maybe potential investments from Microsoft will already bear fruits.



If they want release raid this year, they have 4 months: July, August, September, October. I know, scary. From more positive side they don't have to figure out how to implement many stuff (member 15th iterations of Torghast or soulbinds?), everything but talents could be already set in stone. I mean, it's not like they will have to redesign renown style reputations for casual gameplay, we didn't have devs watercoolers about Venthyr party.

Oh I think Diablo 4 can easily be the biggest game of the decade if they live up to the promises.

[Ilir]

Because they appear to be rushing things. A lot. The alpha hasn't even started, and the game is supposed to come out this year? That doesn't fill me with confidence that it's going to be a proper, 3-raid patch expansion.

What was shown in the trailer was way ahead of those past expansions tho.
Most zones were shown with mobs and npc in it. They already knew the story of each zones and shared it with us.

Also no borrowed power is gonna give them a lot of more time to do other stuff.

SL had to test conduit, soulbinds, legendaries, covenant skills and classes covenant skills for every spec in the game.
+ thorgy power.

That's a lot of time invested.

There is none of that in DF.

[Revamp Man]

Let's say alpha next week
Beta a month later
4 months of beta testing at most if they keep it up until the week before launch

That's assuming that alpha testing is mostly done via f&f

[Merryck]

The new talents, dragon riding and profession revamp is way less than what they did in Shadowlands and BFA. It's also significantly less complex.

[Baggz]

Anyone notice that weird, 1 - 1.5 second animation delay in the flying animation of the new drake? Start off on the ground and then hold space to fly up, there is this weird animation that happens before the wings flap. I'm guessing this mount has some form of dragon flying that is disabled.

[Merryck]

Anyone notice that weird, 1 - 1.5 second animation delay in the flying animation of the new drake? Start off on the ground and then hold space to fly up, there is this weird animation that happens before the wings flap. I'm guessing this mount has some form of dragon flying that is disabled.

I think that's just a bug.

[rhorle]

Yeah, this is worse. It just means the game is going to be an abysmal dumpster fire lacking in content. Those of us guessing 2023 were assuming they would, you know, try to avoid Shadowlands' "two major patch" situation and actually put proper time and effort into it. I guess you're right, it was delusional of us to think they had learned their lesson.

What lesson is it you want them to have learned? They is no indication that Dragonflight will have two major patches only and there is no indication they haven't put proper time and effort into Dragonflight. The only lesson you are teaching Blizzard is that haters will hate for any reason they can find. Even if they don't have any evidence to back up their hate.

There isn't that much to test. Standard questing content and balance of basic talents. Dragon Riding is the only advance system that we know about that would require extensive testing. Remember they listened and remove borrowed power.

[Chickat]

I mean people called me too optimistic when I said Diablo IV will be around Christmas 2023 just few months ago. Now we thinks about 6 months earlier date. Overwatch 2 and 10.0 were sure 2023 bets for many people, so much that anyone talking about 2022 release was straight up laughed at.

Now Diablo Immortal is making ton of money even before release on Asian market (which was always intended market to be honest), Overwatch is turned into live service that will for sure print money as well and on top of that there is WoW expansion, safest bet for good (financial) year.

Diablo IV is a even bigger deal than WoW expac (I remind Diablo III held fastest sold PC game title from 2012 to 2020), it will for sure be something similar to Overwatch in 2016, so it could carry 2023 on it's own. Maybe 2024 will be slower year, but again now there is possibility for 11.0 launching this year, maybe even Blizzard will push for release during 20th anniversary (let's officially start 11.0 revamp delus.. hype I mean). And they also work on this new survival game, it should release mid to late 20s.

So next few years has much bigger potential than 2017-2021, of course Blizzard could fuck up everything, but if they use their cards smart it could carry them next few years, after that maybe potential investments from Microsoft will already bear fruits.



If they want release raid this year, they have 4 months: July, August, September, October. I know, scary. From more positive side they don't have to figure out how to implement many stuff (member 15th iterations of Torghast or soulbinds?), everything but talents could be already set in stone. I mean, it's not like they will have to redesign renown style reputations for casual gameplay, we didn't have devs watercoolers about Venthyr party.

I wonder how people would react to a month delay on the raid launching?

Realistically 5 weeks after xpac launch for raid. December 6th with raid release on Jan 10th

Unless they release DF in November which sounds like a terrible idea IMO, but lets be super optimistic for a second. DF is super far along. They have been doing a lot more internal testing than ever before.

Alpha-July
Beta-August
Prepatch near haloween.
Mid Nov release date.
Raid early December. tunes easy so no guilds have to clear it over Christmas.
They are far along with even patch dev due to cutting a tier in Sl and taking forever, so late Jan 10.1 ptr goes up.

Thats really the best case scenario we can hope for tbh. Its probably going to be much worse.

[13last]

What lesson is it you want them to have learned? They is no indication that Dragonflight will have two major patches only and there is no indication they haven't put proper time and effort into Dragonflight. The only lesson you are teaching Blizzard is that haters will hate for any reason they can find. Even if they don't have any evidence to back up their hate.

There isn't that much to test. Standard questing content and balance of basic talents. Dragon Riding is the only advance system that we know about that would require extensive testing. Remember they listened and remove borrowed power.

Man yah there's no indication but they haven't done themselves any favors, we're coming from a "bad" expac, we have little to see what's going on behind the systems in DF, we had one blog to talk about talents of only 2 classes, and now they just release the preorders and saying it's out this year. It sets a precedent, and I personally was hoping they would take the time they need to refine the experience as I don't think 2 bad expacs in a row are a good idea.

Yah I know they had to release this year to appease investors and meet expectations and whatever but as someone said in an earlier post we'll probably hear from them at some point about it so let's wait until then.

[Chickat]

What lesson is it you want them to have learned? They is no indication that Dragonflight will have two major patches only and there is no indication they haven't put proper time and effort into Dragonflight. The only lesson you are teaching Blizzard is that haters will hate for any reason they can find. Even if they don't have any evidence to back up their hate.

There isn't that much to test. Standard questing content and balance of basic talents. Dragon Riding is the only advance system that we know about that would require extensive testing. Remember they listened and remove borrowed power.

They promised talent trees and quests, endgame content for leveling each individual recipe for all crafting. Thats going to need a lot of testing.

[pankind]

With the Overwatch 2/Diablo 4 announcements, its very unlikely for DF to be early 2023. They have 3 massive releases until Q3 2023, especially the D4 in Q2. Doubt they want to muddy the water during it with another release and they are short on projects for the rest of 2023. Summer Q3 2023 for DF is a perfect pre-holidays timeslot.

This is the content I come to mmo-champ to see

[rhorle]

It sets a precedent, and I personally was hoping they would take the time they need to refine the experience as I don't think 2 bad expacs in a row are a good idea.

It sets what precedent? That they release things when they think it is ready? That they are careful about in-development stuff so the community doesn't spend months with negative clickbait reactions? You say that we need to wait and see while at the same time saying wait and see is bad. You even threw in "investors" into the mix for a low hanging negativity. It doesn't even work much anymore because the investors currently are taking a back seat because they approved the Microsoft deal that will close in less then a year.

- - - Updated - - -

They promised talent trees and quests, endgame content for leveling each individual recipe for all crafting. Thats going to need a lot of testing.

Not really. Talent trees is just standard balance stuff and they aren't 100% new. They are just abilities and stuff that already exist and won't need as extensive training. Quests and leveling content doesn't need 6+ months to test. End game content can also be tested fairly quickly. Profession stuff isn't anything truly unique. The only thing that might need longer to test is Dragonriding because it is brand new and might need a lot of iterations to fine tune.

[therumblings]

Well looks like Dragonflight is confirmed for 2025.

[Vasoka]

There is nothing new aside from the race for scalies. Everything else is just reskinned current content with all the complexity and depth removed. What is there to actually test outside of Evoker and raids? They're not gonna test quests anymore so don't need to worry about those working on launch.

Ain't this the harsh truth.

[Padwarle]

Another encrypted Dev build just went out.