Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Ersula]

Literally one (1) expansion was focused on the old world, what do you mean? Cata was very hype despite being the start of the decline.

No, two warfronts and a questline in Durotar doesn't mean BFA was an old world expansion.

Sure but so far everyone pitching an old world revamp is also pitching more faction war stuff to go with it.

- - - Updated - - -

Are you actually justifying that a patch that had one raid in it and the Maw; was more content rich than Legion's opening? LOL

(Looks at the entirety of shadowlands & the covenants) Yes. Absolutely. Legion opened with a 6 boss raid & an endgame zone you could only do half the content in.

[EbaumsTipster]

Sure but so far everyone pitching an old world revamp is also pitching more faction war stuff to go with it.

Haven't seen that. Calia vs Scarlets and Nelves vs Botani and Azshara aren't faction war.

If you mean "Bad Turalyon" then I don't think Alliance will be forced to side with him, more than likely he seals Stormwind off in a light bubble if that's the route we're going. Hell they may just have him be a good guy after all but have to struggle with Lothraxion/Yrel influence.

[Eladia]

Sure but so far everyone pitching an old world revamp is also pitching more faction war stuff to go with it.

- - - Updated - - -


(Looks at the entirety of shadowlands & the covenants) Yes. Absolutely. Legion opened with a 6 boss raid & an endgame zone you could only do half the content in.

Yes and before Legion even released which had 12 Class Order Hall campaigns & Suramar, a mega dungeon had been announced and a 3 boss raid. Counting bosses in a raid when the amount of TIME that elapsed between the addition of new content is indicative of how badly Shadowlands launch was handled.

[Ersula]

If you mean "Bad Turalyon" then I don't think Alliance will be forced to side with him, more than likely he seals Stormwind off in a light bubble if that's the route we're going. Hell they may just have him be a good guy after all but have to struggle with Lothraxion/Yrel influence.

"I don't think players will be forced to side with the King of the Alliance" meanwhile his wife has been asking him to attack the Sunwell over & over & over....

[draugril]

They've learned so much about dynamic and evergreen content since then.

... what?

I really can't think of any modern features that are either.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Realistically just Dragon isles is probably still more likely than a full world revamp. Question just becomes what Blizzard cna pull off after that. I stand by that the strongest argument for a world revamp is the need for Blizzard to eventually recycle content if they want to keep making expansions, and with this interview where Ion talks about how its important to stay on Azeroth I think their options are running dry for Azeroth content that isnt completely pulled out of their ass.

Though that being said I could see the Dragon Isles being either an endgame zone in a world revamp expansion, or even patch content.
The first option is probably the worst one since it would end up with Blizzard likely making the same mistake as Cata, though the second would likely just cause massive outrage from players that want a full continent for anything even remotely interesting.

A third and last option is that we get a world revamp, and then 11.0 is Dragon Isles, though I would say this is probably the most unlikely option.

I think we have plenty of leads for Azeroth based expansions:

- World Revamp expansion, could even be split in two, EK and Kalimdor
- Return to Northrend expansion, with a half-melted continent
- The Other Side of Azeroth, with a brand new continent and a free card for the creative team
- The Underground expansion, focusing on the Nerubians, Undermine, maybe some Gnomish equivalent
- The Dragon Isles expansion

That's already 5 potential expansions!

[EbaumsTipster]

... what?

I really can't think of any modern features that are either.

World quests, collectathon rare spawns, rotating dailies, respawning treasure chests, transport networks? Shadowlands has flaws but the amount of ooptional stuff you can do in each zone isn't one of them. And none of these were in Cata save for some very dated dailies.

[Ersula]

World quests, collectathon rare spawns, rotating dailies, respawning treasure chests, transport networks? Shadowlands has flaws but the amount of ooptional stuff you can do in each zone isn't one of them. And none of these were in Cata save for some very dated dailies.

Actually, yes. Refitting Cata for flight took a long time. But if they just update the assets of Kalimdor & Eastern Kingdom & add world quests, that would be very cool & not hurt the develpment time of endgame content: Plus let people still access Cataclysm era Azeroth through timewalking: 3 unique eras of Azeroth, including classic.

[Hitei]

Compare Cata questing content and daily quests to modern world quests and stuff. It's a big difference.

Now, if they could just evolve world quests a bit further. For example, bounties you collect from Hero's Call Boards to go off and kill a difficult mob with your friends. Or a pack of wolves attacking the Elwynn logging camp. Or hell, a massive dragon invading a zone, forcing a multiple-day-long struggle for players to participate in the event and fight back. Collect a rare herb at the bottom of a lake in Ashenvale. Delve deep into a cave in the Badlands.

Lol, you think this would go over well?

I can already see the endless fucking whining posts about people being forced to fly all the way to Ashenvale or the Badlands to click on a thing for a world quest """because they are just trying to pad the metrics for shareholders""".

[Nightmare Queen]

Cosmic Void vs Light people are hard on copium.

From the Interview:


I think they should use the traditional & terrestrial expansion to build up for more cosmic stuff but maybe try to do it smooth.

They could alternate between having a 'normal' expansion and a 'cosmic' one once every few years

[EbaumsTipster]

Lol, you think this would go over well?

I can already see the endless fucking whining posts about people being forced to fly all the way to Ashenvale or the Badlands to click on a thing for a world quest """because they are just trying to pad the metrics for shareholders""".

Literally anything Blizz will do now will get that critique. Your point?

A beautiful EK and Kalimdor with stuff to do in the continents would be beloved. Blizz will never be seen as anything but greedy CCP shills despite that.

[rainhard]

The way he hints at 9.2 makes it sound like it will be a 9.2 with a 9.3 compressed into it, could we perhaps get the biggest content patch yet or just a 8.3 but .2?

[Hitei]

A beautiful EK and Kalimdor with stuff to do in the continents would be beloved.

It wouldn't. People do not like having stuff to do, especially not spread out over two continents. They already bitch and moan about having to go all over a single continent. What passes as "beloved" is shit like Timeless Isle, where people can just stand in one spot in a group and have shit handed to them for killing things, or being able to just spam run dungeons for a similar experience while getting extra things.

[EbaumsTipster]

The way he hints at 9.2 makes it sound like it will be a 9.2 with a 9.3 compressed into it, could we perhaps get the biggest content patch yet or just a 8.3 but .2?

If we look at SL like BFA:

BFA 8.1: just a raid
BFA 8.2: Nazjatar (big zone) plus Mechagon (small zone) + megadungeon + raid
BFA 8,3: two reused zones + raid

SL 9.1: raid + Korthia (small zone)

SL 9.2 can be the big zone PLUS 8.3 sized stuff, so maybe two smaller zones? This would line up with the idea that it's two lifelands zones (Elune and An'she) and Zereth Mortis.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Good news, the interview managed to get Azeroth trending mostly for people hoping for a "Return to Azeroth" "Lowered Stakes" Expansion.

Bad news, people immediately were like "Okay but what if Warlords of Draenor 2, Human Boogaloo?"

[EbaumsTipster]

It wouldn't. People do not like having stuff to do, especially not spread out over two continents. They already bitch and moan about having to go all over a single continent. What passes as "beloved" is shit like Timeless Isle, where people can just stand in one spot in a group and have shit handed to them for killing things, or being able to just spam run dungeons for a similar experience while getting extra things.

People suck and are fucking retards, we get it homie. Doesn't matter because Blizz has yet to make a recent patch that caters to the people you are talking about. Not even Korthia is super casual.

- - - Updated - - -

Good news, the interview managed to get Azeroth trending mostly for people hoping for a "Return to Azeroth" "Lowered Stakes" Expansion.

Bad news, people immediately were like "Okay but what if Warlords of Draenor 2, Human Boogaloo?"

They don't know about all the redone Nelf assets laying in the files and think next expansion is just EK.

[Ersula]

The way he hints at 9.2 makes it sound like it will be a 9.2 with a 9.3 compressed into it, could we perhaps get the biggest content patch yet or just a 8.3 but .2?

They typically plan a "filler" tier, that has already been dropped because of Covid. Like, Nazjatar could have been skipped if there was some major calamity. The only thing that feels off is that typically the story is all but wrapped up before the last raid of an expansion & all there is left is to beat the big bad: Because they usually reveal the next expansion before the last patch of the previous expansion: But for Shadowlands it seems like whatever the premise of 10.0 is, it will spoil what the end of Shadowlands will be: But they already planned for that with the next expansion being revealed at Blizzconline.... except that's been cancelled.

TL;DR They're prepared to wrap this up in 9.2: The Sepulcher (Mortisland) was always intended to be the last tier of this expansion: They just have to preview 9.2 before we get the next expansion teaser.

[EbaumsTipster]

I bet you that if any filler for Shadowlands was cancelled it was a Drust raid.

- - - Updated - - -

TL;DR They're prepared to wrap this up in 9.2: The Sepulcher (Mortisland) was always intended to be the last tier of this expansion: They're just have to preview 9.2 before we get the next expansion teaser.

Just like how they did with Nzoth patch. And how they will do it for every unpopular expansion.

[rainhard]

SL 9.2 can be the big zone PLUS 8.3 sized stuff, so maybe two smaller zones? This would line up with the idea that it's two lifelands zones (Elune and An'she) and Zereth Mortis.

Could end up similar to 7.3 and argus layout but with a more obvious main zone in terms of size. Hopefully with a dungeon too serving as the raids prologue but kind of doubt that will happen even if the first ones theme remains very undiscovered.

[Sondrelk]

Lol, you think this would go over well?

I can already see the endless fucking whining posts about people being forced to fly all the way to Ashenvale or the Badlands to click on a thing for a world quest """because they are just trying to pad the metrics for shareholders""".

This is a case like flying where Blizzard just needs to out their foot down and say that the players just need to live with a really playing the game.
Blizzard is designing a game, not a lobby for players to look at while waiting for raids to reset. Or rather, they do, and it's called Oribos and the Covenant sanctums.

Blizzard cannot design the game if they want to pander to those that genuinely dislike it.