Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Skildar]

It was an artistic choice. Sylvanas and Valeera's expressions being in the BFA plot match those of the reader consuming the BFA plot. It's a way to make them more relatable. It has even more resonance when you remember that this same comic is one of the first allusions to SL.

Be careful, I'm reading more and more comments stating that BfA was a good expansion. We're getting dangerously close to the point where we're starting to forget how terrifying it was.

[fear]

Has this been discussed here yet?

That will be very easy to tell if it's real as expansion ptr's are normally up for 2ish months which would mean it would need to be put up very soon. Probably close to the same time as beta starting which should be in the next 1-2 weeks from what they said.

[Nymrohd]

Be careful, I'm reading more and more comments stating that BfA was a good expansion. We're getting dangerously close to the point where we're starting to forget how terrifying it was.

Hey BfA had possibly the biggest trainwreck of a story, started with completely broken systems, wasted themes that could have served a full expansion, failed to properly iterate on two new systems that both had solid potential. Yet I still enjoyed playing it more than Shadowlands.

[Sondrelk]

Be careful, I'm reading more and more comments stating that BfA was a good expansion. We're getting dangerously close to the point where we're starting to forget how terrifying it was.

Well obviously, we are about to be a full expansion removed from it. Same thing happened with WoD. Everyone was in agreement it was awful early Legion, then opinions shifted slowly during the course of Legion until by the time we reached BfA it had transformed from "WoD is the worst" to "WoD was amazing actually".

Same thing will happen to SL come this time in two years. Barely anyone will even mention once controversial topics like "Semi-permanent Covenants", or "Poorly balanced raids", and noone will remember the long droughts, thats for sure.
Instead everyone will likely be reminiscing about how unique the expansion was, how good it was at giving rewards from Open World content. The wealth of rewards to be gained from various activities in the Covenants, multiplied by 4 even.

This time in two years SL will be the little expansion that was actually amazing except a few niggling little problems, not the mess only saved from the bottom two by virtue of WoD objectively having almost nothing to do, and BfA being a plot suicide with a side of botched gameplay systems.

[Teriz]

Has this been discussed here yet?

Seems legit. Prepatch has been announced for the 30th.

[Xilurm]

there is no reason to think otherwise regardless. We were told the Alpha will have 6 phases, we are at phase 5 and should be entering phase 6 today. All zones have been made available which is the point when previous Alphas transitioned to beta. I expect we will get monk and every zone open simultaneously today and beta in the week after together with DH.

TBH the announcement of the phases did include a + sign on Phase 6. So that's why I'm thinking that.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...w-live/1278547

Phase 2 Zone Experience: The Forbidden Reach
Phase 3 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Waking Shores
Phase 4 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Thaldraszus
Phase 5 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Ohn’ahran Plain
Phase 6+ All zones are expected to be playable

[Nymrohd]

Well obviously, we are about to be a full expansion removed from it. Same thing happened with WoD. Everyone was in agreement it was awful early Legion, then opinions shifted slowly during the course of Legion until by the time we reached BfA it had transformed from "WoD is the worst" to "WoD was amazing actually".

Same thing will happen to SL come this time in two years. Barely anyone will even mention once controversial topics like "Semi-permanent Covenants", or "Poorly balanced raids", and noone will remember the long droughts, thats for sure.
Instead everyone will likely be reminiscing about how unique the expansion was, how good it was at giving rewards from Open World content. The wealth of rewards to be gained from various activities in the Covenants, multiplied by 4 even.

This time in two years SL will be the little expansion that was actually amazing except a few niggling little problems, not the mess only saved from the bottom two by virtue of WoD objectively having almost nothing to do, and BfA being a plot suicide with a side of botched gameplay systems.

I don't think people went with WoD was amazing. What I did see was that "Well WoD is not the worst expansion anymore" (it is). Or that WoD had some great parts to it (it did). BfA also has some things that were great imo (the zones themselves, the Essence system and personally I'd say War Mode). And I am sure Shadowlands has some solid parts too? (maybe with some time I'll see them!)

[Sondrelk]

I don't think people went with WoD was amazing. What I did see was that "Well WoD is not the worst expansion anymore" (it is). Or that WoD had some great parts to it (it did). BfA also has some things that were great imo (the zones themselves, the Essence system and personally I'd say War Mode). And I am sure Shadowlands has some solid parts too? (maybe with some time I'll see them!)

Might not have been many who claimed WoD was flawless, but there was still a clear shift in WoD being considered near indefensible, to players going out and saying that WoD was the best expansion since X expansion, usually WotLK.

And obviously there were good things to WoD. I especially loved the levelling questline, the effort put into the armor sets, how it really nailed the atmosphere in the zones, etc...
But the same is true for all the expansions. They all have some good stuff, and some not so good stuff. Legion for instance despite its deification now was honestly quite egregious to play unless you played only one spec religiously, and 7.2 is a black stain on an otherwise decent open world. BfA similarly had great ambience, and the ideas were great.

It's just to say that in two years time you will only have a few who still care to bash SL, but loads who will be willing to step up to its defense in opposition to whatever flaws DF will have.

[Ilir]

Be careful, I'm reading more and more comments stating that BfA was a good expansion. We're getting dangerously close to the point where we're starting to forget how terrifying it was.

when they fixed the azerite trait system (dunno when but when you could get your desired way easier), it was ok.

Also last patch was a blast.

The first patch was awful.

[Nymrohd]

It's just to say that in two years time you will only have a few who still care to bash SL, but loads who will be willing to step up to its defense in opposition to whatever flaws DF will have.

Hey you can count on me to keep bashing SL until people no longer talk about WoW.

[Fahrad Wagner]

There are modular Horde and Alliance themed walls and tower "pieces" being worked on in the files and have "10" attached. Some have the codename "frontier".

If not a revamp, maybe some kind of base building/housing thing? Check this twitter thread.

https://twitter.com/keyboardturn/sta...ViEVcXDtgGhGgA

*heavy breathing* The World Revamp it's so close I can taaaaaste it *inhales hopium*

[Phatte]

*heavy breathing* The World Revamp it's so close I can taaaaaste it *inhales hopium*

Or, you know, its just updated buildings to replace outdated ones around the world. Dont get your hopes up

[Soisoisoi]

Or, you know, its just updated buildings to replace outdated ones around the world. Dont get your hopes up

Would be odd to update buildings and have higher texture stuff next to lower texture stuff though?

[Makabreska]

World revamp meme will never die!

[Arafal]

Or, you know, its just updated buildings to replace outdated ones around the world. Dont get your hopes up

Replace buildings around the world.... without updating the zone as a whole.

Wonderful idea, the zones sure are gonna look fine with HD buildings sitting next to ancient polygon trees and environment textures that consist of exactly 5 pixels.

[Gurkan]

If they ever handle another world update, I really hope they keep the zones for themselves instead of trying to fit the current content into them, so they don't become immediately outdated like the Cata ones.

[Sondrelk]

TBH the announcement of the phases did include a + sign on Phase 6. So that's why I'm thinking that.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...w-live/1278547

Phase 2 Zone Experience: The Forbidden Reach
Phase 3 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Waking Shores
Phase 4 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Thaldraszus
Phase 5 Zone Experiences: The Forbidden Reach and Ohn’ahran Plain
Phase 6+ All zones are expected to be playable

It's to have some wiggle room if they suddenly need another week of focused testing. Maybe they need focused testing on some specs, or a zone doesn't work properly, so they add a 7th phase to fix that problems.

[Avikur]

That will be very easy to tell if it's real as expansion ptr's are normally up for 2ish months which would mean it would need to be put up very soon. Probably close to the same time as beta starting which should be in the next 1-2 weeks from what they said.

Shadowlands:

Pre patch PTR release date: August 12th 2020
Pre patch release date: October 13th 2020

BFA:

Pre patch PTR release date: 14th June 2018
Pre patch release date: 17th July 2018

Legion:

Pre patch PTR release date: 14th June 2016
Pre patch release date: 19th July 2016


I wouldn't expect the DF pre patch on the PTR before the middle to end of September if the leaked dates are real.

[Cosmicpreds]

Servers down yet?

[Khaza-R]

Would be odd to update buildings and have higher texture stuff next to lower texture stuff though?

That's already the case with many NPC models. Its rather jarring to see an HD gnoll now next to the very dated textures in Westfall.

But that said, if they were planning on slowly updating the old world you would think they would go for the skybox first. Since that's probably one of the lowest efforts ways they could dramatically make the old world look better.