Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Nymrohd]

If Dragonriding is successful, they will expand it. And if they expand it, it is unlikely they will leave that many mounts unused. They will have to do the work if they choose to keep it forward.

[Kiivar86]

That didn't bother me much cause at that point in the story you're evil and mind-controlled by the Lich King - it bothered me way more when the Kirin Tor has you torture that Malygos-aligned prisoner up in the Borean Tundra. First time I played through that was as a human paladin in the WotLK beta, it was very surreal when the quest giver said that the Kirin Tor has rules against torture, but you don't, wink wink.

Oh I didn't mind it, just to be clear. I remember laughing at some story some website put up around that time about the Borean Tundra torture.

I just remember it taking ages to the point where I felt like it was bugged.

[Nightshade711]

Because they start at level 58, therefore they are being released during Pre-Patch just like Demon Hunters were in Legion. Why wouldn't somebody expect to be able to test it on the Pre-Patch PTR? Granted its the first build yes so we'll see!

Evokers are an "early access" pre-order bonus just like DHs and Allied Races were.
We've never tested any of the "early access xpac feature" pre-order bonuses on PTR. It's always only been tested on Alpha/Beta.

At most you were probably able to go into the character creation screen to customize the new thing... but could never even create the character.
Also because PTR realms are never flagged w/ the license of an xpac until said xpac hits live and/or the x.1 of said xpac hits PTR. Can't make the new class/race without having said license.

[Sondrelk]

Plus all we have to do to get it is replay possibly the best questing experience they've made in WoW.

"Best questing experience" *cough*

Yeah, it isnt all that great by todays standards. And even when doing it with nostalgic goggles its mostly interesting for the fun value of playing the bad guy. The Light's Hope Chapel event at the end is painful to go through again.

[infinitemeridian]

Kind of disappointing that none of the dragonriding skins come even close to that Wrath classic mount. Does that mount support dragonriding?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

"Best questing experience" *cough*

Yeah, it isnt all that great by todays standards. And even when doing it with nostalgic goggles its mostly interesting for the fun value of playing the bad guy. The Light's Hope Chapel event at the end is painful to go through again.

In comparison to BC and Vanilla yes. Today? Yeah I agree its aged a little bit.

[Sondrelk]

Kind of disappointing that none of the dragonriding skins come even close to that Wrath classic mount. Does that mount support dragonriding?

The dragonriding mounts have a much higher degree of fine tuning in the customization options though. That tends to be the tradeoff for getting a wholly unique mount.

Besides, you never know what options might come to the Dragonriding mounts eventually. Exotic scale patterns, special armor pieces, more menacing fangs.

In theory this could have become a Dragonriding option in the form of a saddle, scale colour, and head combo.

[Dracullus]

In comparison to BC and Vanilla yes. Today? Yeah I agree its aged a little bit.

It's currently worst mandatory questline on retail. It's strange that old race DKs can't choose Bolvar prologue instead.

[Nymrohd]

Damn the protodrake has the tiniest of hands.

[AngerFork]

It's currently worst mandatory questline on retail. It's strange that old race DKs can't choose Bolvar prologue instead.

I'm amazed they haven't made that optional like they did with Exile's Reach vs. old starting areas. Surely Bolvar brought back a Blood Elf or two as a DK when he was bringing back the Allied Races.

[Gloriandus]

The main thing I wanted to try out is the new UI. It's obviously VERY much a "work in progress", but needs a lot of tweaks, like individual scaling on things like the minimap. I scale my UI up quite a bit (bad eyes) and many elements simply don't scale at all, or are too large and unable to be scaled. A few initial views:

An option to show class power more like the new unitframe does with health/power:



If you hide the buffs, the arrow should recede to the minimap bar for less clutter:



You STILL can't move the chat box to the bottom edge of the screen. Minor but has always bugged me.



Need a way to fade/on mouseover these, like Bartender; just more visual clutter, especially the bags.

[Celement]

If Dragonriding is successful, they will expand it. And if they expand it, it is unlikely they will leave that many mounts unused. They will have to do the work if they choose to keep it forward.

I don't think it will be successful myself... it's an inferior form of flying. It's better then the usual locked out flying but it's still an annoyance when it doesn't bug out and put itself on cd.

[Makabreska]

I'm amazed they haven't made that optional like they did with Exile's Reach vs. old starting areas. Surely Bolvar brought back a Blood Elf or two as a DK when he was bringing back the Allied Races.

Even DH starting zone is obnoxious. No idea why we still have both of them for consecutive characters.

[Nymrohd]

Even DH starting zone is obnoxious. No idea why we still have both of them for consecutive characters.

Damn, I actually enjoy them every time . . .

- - - Updated - - -

The main thing I wanted to try out is the new UI. It's obviously VERY much a "work in progress", but needs a lot of tweaks, like individual scaling on things like the minimap. I scale my UI up quite a bit (bad eyes) and many elements simply don't scale at all, or are too large and unable to be scaled. A few initial views:

An option to show class power more like the new unitframe does with health/power:



If you hide the buffs, the arrow should recede to the minimap bar for less clutter:



You STILL can't move the chat box to the bottom edge of the screen. Minor but has always bugged me.



Need a way to fade/on mouseover these, like Bartender; just more visual clutter, especially the bags.

We really need a lot more options in general. AS you said, I am baffled that there is no scaling for the minimap (your only options are to move it around and flip the name tag. No customization for the bag and menu icons. No idea why Action Bar 1 also includes bar 2 with a scrolldown instead of having the option for separate bars (or really, letting us map buttons more freely in an advanced mode). Also baffled there is no automatic alignment.

I was also hoping that if Blizzard ever redid the UI they'd enable a version with more cosmetics. I like a pretty UI more than I like a lightweight UI.

[Lahis]

I was also hoping that if Blizzard ever redid the UI they'd enable a version with more cosmetics. I like a pretty UI more than I like a lightweight UI.

Modern UIX design principle for anything is Minimalist White so I doubt they'll be adding any visual elements for the UI.

[TickTickTick]

Check your launchers, new beta invites probably went through. I just got mine last night (EU).

[Nymrohd]

Modern UIX design principle for anything is Minimalist White so I doubt they'll be adsing any visual elements foenthw UI.

I just like my UI to be fancy I have so much real estate in my screen, it can take some cosmetics

[Arkura]

Check your launchers, new beta invites probably went through. I just got mine last night (EU).

One can only dream. Next week then!

[Sondrelk]

I don't think it will be successful myself... it's an inferior form of flying. It's better then the usual locked out flying but it's still an annoyance when it doesn't bug out and put itself on cd.

Old flying is barely even a gameplay element. It's a button to remove gameplay and reduce open world exploration to its most basic version, as in you move completely free from restrictions, away from danger, and with none of the actual moment to moment gameplay offered by other movement options.

Flying has lacked any actual gameplay ever since it was added in TBC, and it's clear that Blizzard has been in a constant battle to actually prevent it from just making the open world gameplay collapse in on itself.
They tried to make the zone larger in Cata, didn't work.
They tried making the endgame questing areas in elevated areas, didn't work.
They tried removing flight entirely in WoD, didn't work because they didn't have open world content worth mentioning.
In Legion they finally managed to get open world content to work, and they did so by not having flying.

DF is adding Dragonriding to try to give a new version of flying that can actually enhance gameplay, and not just reduce it.


Besides, everyone seems to love it, so unless Blizzard shits the bed with its implementation, then I imagine it will be carried forwards, and likely even expanded on.

- - - Updated - - -

Modern UIX design principle for anything is Minimalist White so I doubt they'll be adding any visual elements for the UI.

There are some visual elements. The gryphons on the side of the action bar are still there, even if they look a bit different.

Personally i think my biggest gripe are the UI elements in the bottom right corner (dungeon journal, collections, etc.)
Feels like they are likely to just disappear into the background without any defining coloration to make them visible at a glance.

[Nymrohd]

There are some visual elements. The gryphons on the side of the action bar are still there, even if they look a bit different.

To be fair, that's not some. That's one. There isn't another.