Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Kiivar86]

Yeah from what I remember they kept the name and lore but had to speed up development so the city part ended up just as the small ruins of updated-by-destruction Oribos assets and an underwhelming surrounding zone. The plan I think was it to be a Oribos style city on land with surroundings.

Wish I could find the link to the thread. It was soon after 9.2 announcement I think

Ah, what could have been. I was looking forward to exploring an abandoned/destroyed city.

And then we got what we got...I did actually kind of like Korthia as we got it, but much prefer what could have been.

[Draedarr]

Maybe I'm mis-remembering, but I swear they said somewhere that the skies were different in the old world and they could only do things like Darkshore due to a particular workaround that wouldn't make sense everywhere. Otherwise I don't see why they at least didn't just make some basic sky and slap it everywhere during Cataclysm instead of the blur clouds we still have.

I think that's not the case anymore, as they are updating the skies on the major cities on next patch

[Shadochi]

While it did feel bland-ish. I can't say it was bad. I enjoyed it and doing the content in there, what it lacked in style diversity it made up in diversity of creatures there. Zereth Mortis I like both the zone design, style, flora and fauna so far. Just left to see how the day to day gameplay feels like.

Honestly, since the level design of Highmountain (which I really disliked how the zone was designed, not the style itself) I feel like they learned from that and I haven't really seen a zone with bad design since then.
The 2 argus zones were a bit bland but I wouldn't call their design or style bad as they did fit the theme in the end

[Jokubas]

I think that's not the case anymore, as they are updating the skies on the major cities on next patch

I hadn't heard of this. I checked the PTR and Stormwind was still a smudgy sky with giant blur clouds, so I Googled it and I found something about a new skybox when it's raining in Stormwind. It was hard to tell if it actually looked nice in that screenshot, but it made me wonder.

Is this the Living World thing? Looping skybox animations for different times of day, weather, and how close you are to the zone? Enter/Exit for changing the skybox when you enter or leave the cities?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I hadn't heard of this. I checked the PTR and Stormwind was still a smudgy sky with giant blur clouds, so I Googled it and I found something about a new skybox when it's raining in Stormwind. It was hard to tell if it actually looked nice in that screenshot, but it made me wonder.

Is this the Living World thing? Looping skybox animations for different times of day, weather, and how close you are to the zone? Enter/Exit for changing the skybox when you enter or leave the cities?

Nobody really knows what Living World is, just speculation and some leaks have tried to interpet already as well.

[huth]

I hadn't heard of this. I checked the PTR and Stormwind was still a smudgy sky with giant blur clouds, so I Googled it and I found something about a new skybox when it's raining in Stormwind. It was hard to tell if it actually looked nice in that screenshot, but it made me wonder.

Is this the Living World thing? Looping skybox animations for different times of day, weather, and how close you are to the zone? Enter/Exit for changing the skybox when you enter or leave the cities?

Couldn't they already do that?

[Hitei]

Couldn't they already do that?

I said this a bit back, but I think the fact that enter/leave are seemingly new formats for animations is important. They are probably for something that operates in a new way we haven't seen before. Also do things like skyboxes even operate on animations that would be in that list? Looking at it, it just seems to be things used by characters/mobs.

[Kohtra]

I said this a bit back, but I think the fact that enter/leave are seemingly new formats for animations is important. They are probably for something that operates in a new way we haven't seen before. Also do things like skyboxes even operate on animations that would be in that list? Looking at it, it just seems to be things used by characters/mobs.

Another idea is they could be something like behavioral animations for npcs and mobs. NPCs huddling when it snows, or rains, or maybe they look more nervous at night than during the day. Things like that.

[username993720]

Nobody really knows what Living World is, just speculation and some leaks have tried to interpet already as well.

Another idea is they could be something like behavioral animations for npcs and mobs. NPCs huddling when it snows, or rains, or maybe they look more nervous at night than during the day. Things like that.

Hopefully, it means dynamic events.
The world changes and adapts instead of remaining static and mundane. What you would call phasing, but in a greater scale.
By the sound of the name, "living world", i have a feeling that zones wouldn't just stay the same.

[Mauderkin]

That logo really seems legit the more I look at it. Everything about it is new. Even the choice to use void colors for a dragon expansion is a choice.

AOTC mounts have teased an expansion before, and BfAs seemingly lead nowhere... But then you have to think about how it was a void dragon?

[Seiklis]

AOTC mounts have teased an expansion before, and BfAs seemingly lead nowhere... But then you have to think about how it was a void dragon?

Eh only really the moose did from WoD.

Korkron fit Siege, Violet Spellwing had a very heavy Khadgar theme, and the Voidwing fits with Vexiona.

So this spider is kinda par for the course (still not a fan though)

[Vakir]

Eh...the pattern with AOTC being a hint at future expansions seems to have a weak pattern. The Kor'kron War Wolf only indicated anything surrounding Warlords by virtue of WoD's aesthetic being just an extension of much of Siege of Orgrimmar anyway.

Obviously the Grove Warden was a sign of Legion, but the Violet Spellwing was generic enough that it didn't really indicate anything specifically about BfA. And now we have a Zereth Mortis looking Protoss Dragoon vehicle as the likely AOTC candidate for SL, so really it may not be a sign of anything.

The Uncorrupted Voidwing may have just been a mount simply because...we were dealing with N'Zoth and Wrathion was there. Simple as that.

EDIT: Beaten by literally one minute!

[Polybius]

AOTC mounts have teased an expansion before, and BfAs seemingly lead nowhere... But then you have to think about how it was a void dragon?

Back in the 9.0 speculation thread there were folks ('leakers') claiming the dragon theme was scrapped and moved up in favor of Shadowlands. Probably untrue but it's worth noting that during Blizzcon's SL livestreams the environment artists were BARELY working on the terrain. Expansion concepts may be created ahead of time, but might not be approved until late.

[Dracullus]

Let's start day 1 of hoping it's today, even if it's totally Thursday.

[shise]

We really need another seamlessly connected continent again. The zones being separated in SL really hurt the expansion.

The Broken Isles were so comfy to traverse.

Indeed. I can´t wait for the new Isles in Azeroth. Being able to fly around them without relying on external teleportation systems is a big deal.

[Nyel]

The void lords won't be better than the Jailer if they don't manage to give us information about them beforehand. N'Zoth f.e. worked so well because he was a thing build up in the game since Cataclysm - unlike Zooval who wasn't even hinted at.

- - - Updated - - -



I still think it's a missed opportunity that we never got any island expedition / argus style scenarios that show the other afterlives being invaded by the Jailer.

Exactly. Plus, Old Gods were a part of the game at least since Vanilla, so people knew what to expect. If they teased the Eternal Ones way before Shadowlands, it could have worked as well. They didn't, they failed. Let's just hope they've learned their lessons.

By the way, I'm laughing so hard if Dragon Isles isn't the location for the next expansion and it's something completely different yet somehow related to Dragons. They perverted the South Seas expansions with the Battle for Azeroth theme, so let's just wait and see what's their twist for the Dragon stuff.

[MrUnit]

I once joined you.
An interesting speculation thread, i have a question because I'm interested:
Which regions or stories would be possible in future expansions?
Hasn't everything been completed?

[Soulwind]

Exactly. Plus, Old Gods were a part of the game at least since Vanilla, so people knew what to expect. If they teased the Eternal Ones way before Shadowlands, it could have worked as well. They didn't, they failed. Let's just hope they've learned their lessons.

By the way, I'm laughing so hard if Dragon Isles isn't the location for the next expansion and it's something completely different yet somehow related to Dragons. They perverted the South Seas expansions with the Battle for Azeroth theme, so let's just wait and see what's their twist for the Dragon stuff.

We go to K'aresh, but it's full of dragons for some reason.

[Nyel]

We go to K'aresh, but it's full of dragons for some reason.

Yrel is creating a new Light Dragonflight and wants to invade Azeroth and we have to team up with the five original Dragonflights to stop her. /s

[LorDC]

I once joined you.
An interesting speculation thread, i have a question because I'm interested:
Which regions or stories would be possible in future expansions?
Hasn't everything been completed?

There are at least two major forces that are not yet dealt with: Shadow/Void Lords and Light/Naaru.
Plus, we have Azeroth herself that has not yet recovered from all the stuff that happened recently.
And on top of that recent bits of data-mining seem to indicate that next expansion may be tied to dragons in some way.
Not to mention that Blizzard can always pull something out of their ass in style of WoD.