Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Hardwing]

Just imagine:


^this, but warcraft themed.

It would look so damn good.

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

[therumblings]

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

Maybe one of the islands being at sea level, and each zone progressively is located higher into the sky

[Zyrinx]

As long as the zones are connected!

Like, they realized this was key in Cataclysm, said so, forgot, then made it even worse in SL.

[Lady Atia]

Fan speculation.
Its dragon themed islands, so people want them to float.

Would also give us a rather unique continent, as we never really had proper floating islands.

Nobody even considers the old concept art anymore, for one we only have that one single piece of art and its almost 2 decades old.
It's outdated and barely worth taking into account, especially as the only thing it portrays is a single building along an empty shoreline.

Also they said they already re-used that concept for Stormsong Valley and the Old god shrine there.

[Hitei]

Got me hooked!

Still, it is a tad too otherworldly after SL. Maybe an island with a set of really high plateus in the middle? This way it would feel more connected to Azeroth.

That is not even remotely similar.

[therumblings]

Okay...

Azeroth is fucked. Her heart is a crater, and the Old Gods have filled it. She's alive but dormant and corrupt. Sargeras tried to end it with his mighty blade, but failed.

As a max level character, you are inside a dangerous phased version of Azeroth where Old God minions are everywhere. Basically a world covered in darkness, tentacles and so on.

With the launch of 10.0, there's a cinematic featuring Wrathion. Instead of flying across Azeroth to wreak havoc like his father in Cataclysm (an Old God puppet by the way) he flies boldly in the face of danger while being chased by terrible winged beasts. He dodges tentacles lashing out from different directions, zooms and swoops in and out of their grasp among the clouds. Eventually, he bursts through the haze as something begins to protrude in front of him against the blue backdrop... The Dragon Isles!

We see a great floating archipelago, long ago stuck at sea but once raised into the sky. The camera pans across great landscapes featuring tropical jungles, beautiful waterfalls, snowy peaks and arid deserts. At the centre of it all, on the largest island, stands a great Titanic temple. The heart of all dragon flights.

• Discover the Dragon Isles and unearth the secret to protecting Azeroth against the Void once and for all.
• Unlock the ancient powers of the Dragonsworn, as you build your fame among the pristine dragon kin inhabiting the isles.
• Carry out raids all across Azeroth, mounted atop your special dragon mount, and push back the shadow.
• Watch the world return to its former splendour, as each victory against the Old Gods brings Azeroth one step closer to her rebirth. Culminating in a full revamp of Azeroth.

I love it!

[Shelldor]

Okay...

Azeroth is fucked. Her heart is a crater, and the Old Gods have filled it. She's alive but dormant and corrupt. Sargeras tried to end it with his mighty blade, but failed.

As a max level character, you are inside a dangerous phased version of Azeroth where Old God minions are everywhere. Basically a world covered in darkness, tentacles and so on.

With the launch of 10.0, there's a cinematic featuring Wrathion. Instead of flying across Azeroth to wreak havoc like his father in Cataclysm (an Old God puppet by the way) he flies boldly in the face of danger while being chased by terrible winged beasts. He dodges tentacles lashing out from different directions, zooms and swoops in and out of their grasp among the clouds. Eventually, he bursts through the haze as something begins to protrude in front of him against the blue backdrop... The Dragon Isles!

We see a great floating archipelago, long ago stuck at sea but once raised into the sky. The camera pans across great landscapes featuring tropical jungles, beautiful waterfalls, snowy peaks and arid deserts. At the centre of it all, on the largest island, stands a great Titanic temple. The heart of all dragon flights.

• Discover the Dragon Isles and unearth the secret to protecting Azeroth against the Void once and for all.
• Unlock the ancient powers of the Dragonsworn, as you build your fame among the pristine dragon kin inhabiting the isles.
• Carry out raids all across Azeroth, mounted atop your special dragon mount, and push back the shadow.
• Watch the world return to its former splendour, as each victory against the Old Gods brings Azeroth one step closer to her rebirth. Culminating in a full revamp of Azeroth.

Take all of my money. Especially if we get real-time phased city building as part of the revamp, kind of like how the tree in Suramar, or the little town in BOTW.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

An expansion of floating islands and dragons? Now where have I seen that before...

Which honestly makes me more convinced they'd do it. But setting alone won't make an expansion good, we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too. At the end of the day where is going to matter less than why and what we get on the systems side of things.

[Cosmic Janitor]

we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too.

Please speak for yourself. Pirates and trolls are so overdone. The only thing more creatively bankrupt was the faction war itself.

[shoc]

A cool story beat for 10.x, could be a war between the Light and the Void taking place in the Elemental plane, with the Dragon Isles situated in-between the elemental zones.

The Light allies with the Firelands and Skywall (giving us Ragnaros, Lightlord) while the Void allies with Deepholm and the Abyssal Maw, giving us a dope Cthulhu Neptulon.

The Firelands, Deepholm, Skywall and Abyssal Maw could be zones Shadowlands-style, with the addition of the Dragon Isles floating in the nether space in between.

[Seasz]

@Marlamin new build later today?

[Dracullus]

An expansion of floating islands and dragons? Now where have I seen that before...

Which honestly makes me more convinced they'd do it. But setting alone won't make an expansion good, we all thought going to Kul'tiras and Zandalar would make BFA good once too. At the end of the day where is going to matter less than why and what we get on the systems side of things.

Well, BfA's first 3 weeks are easily my favourite moment in WoW (personally, if we talk about general atmosphere in community, I will say Legion launch). War Mode was awesome, Zandalar was great (best introduction to first raid in history) and when I started my Alliance alt week later I had completely new experience.

Problems started around warfront launch when it was clear BfA needed like 2 more months in Beta, Warfronts/war campaign/azerite were a mess, also novelty wear off and we were left with badly designed progression systems.

Also hype and promotion were great. Only misstep was Sylvanas warbringer (surprise, surprise), but Jaina, Old Soldier, TV commercials created massive hype, I think it would sell much more boxes than SL in same circumstances.

[draugril]

right, but i don't see the connection with what i said.

Simply that they've normalized dragons masquerading as mortals amongst themselves. Thereby giving them the ability to give us boring geology and architecture that make sense for that humanoid instead of actually getting creative and giving us a setting that actually makes sense for dragons to inhabit as dragons. Why put the islands in the sky or under the ocean or in another elemental plane when they can just slap something together appropriate for boring humanoids because dragons hang out in those forms amongst themselves?

[Sondrelk]

Well, BfA's first 3 weeks are easily my favourite moment in WoW (personally, if we talk about general atmosphere in community, I will say Legion launch). War Mode was awesome, Zandalar was great (best introduction to first raid in history) and when I started my Alliance alt week later I had completely new experience.

Problems started around warfront launch when it was clear BfA needed like 2 more months in Beta, Warfronts/war campaign/azerite were a mess, also novelty wear off and we were left with badly designed progression systems.

Also hype and promotion were great. Only misstep was Sylvanas warbringer (surprise, surprise), but Jaina, Old Soldier, TV commercials created massive hype, I think it would sell much more boxes than SL in same circumstances.

I think the problem with BfA for me was that there was no consistent theme apparent throughout. Ostensibly the entire expansion is about naval superiority, but such a conflict is never established beyond the game placing your primary mission hub on a boat.
The War Campaign is more preoccupied with shoehorning in a conflict in each of the opposing faction zones than actually furthering the story, in hindsight I can only remember a single war campaign mission that moved the plot forwards in a way that is apparent, that being when you attach bombs on the bottom of the Zandalari ships.

Obviously there are other problems, but for me at least the lack of naval stuff in an expansion dealing with naval countries felt like a missed opportunity.

[Marlamin]

@Marlamin new build later today?

As if I know this kind of thing beforehand. However, PTRs are down, so good chance.

[Nagawithlegs]

Patch notes are up. BOA Ember Court stuff (that you can help your friends with!), buyable Renown up to 40 and buyable BOA slot specific gear among other things.

[Raetary]

Redeemed Souls

Rescuing Souls within Torghast, Tower of the Damned now earn credit for “Return Lost Souls.”

Now this, this is useful.

[Dracullus]

Now this, this is useful.

Yeah, this quest is like water drop torture. Looks easy, but doing it every week.. ugh. Those fast 500 Anima though.

[Atriel]

Fan speculation.
Its dragon themed islands, so people want them to float.

Would also give us a rather unique continent, as we never really had proper floating islands.

Nobody even considers the old concept art anymore, for one we only have that one single piece of art and its almost 2 decades old.
It's outdated and barely worth taking into account, especially as the only thing it portrays is a single building along an empty shoreline.

All of Outlands is literally a floating continent. Just trade out the Twisting Nether/Galaxy sky box for clouds and land/sea painting down in the distance.

I'm not saying that the "Dragon Isles" honestly shouldn't be a floating continent in the sky, in fact I would adore that if it were the size and scale as large as a FULL continent instead of completely disconnected like the Shadowlands zones, but it also has been done already.

[Raetary]

All of Outlands is literally a floating continent.

The concept isn't the same.

One is a giant mass of land (with edges) from a dead world in space, the other is an actual island with Azerothian biomes floating above the sea.
Something akin to this