Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Catastrophy349]

I agree 100%. While lore wise, it made sense that the SL zones were apart; I do miss a connected continent.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

It astounds me that throwaway content and shrinking world has been a topic since *BC* that every other MMO has pretty much responded to. It's been 10 years since Guild Wars 2 showed that ALL your content can be relevant forever and Blizzard STILL cling to this model. Chromie Time is a start... barely...

The way GWII does it isn't exactly perfect though, heck I don't think its the best way to handle it.

[pacotaco]

One thing I'd say about the crack is it could be there if Azeroth is waking up but I agree that it looks exactly like the Cata one.

No, it doesn't:


Not event rotating it, flipping or anythings. The new one looks more like roots or a stream to me, more than a crack.

[Alanar]

Come on guys.. The Dragon Isle will end up like Pokemon movie 2.



It's to obvious..

and we will need some kind of flute to summon lug..Gala.. I mean..

[pacotaco]

If this is fake it has to be one of the best fakes ever made. It really does look like a legit WoW logo. The border textures are very unique but follows the same style (just compare it to the other logos) and it has so many small details. It's obviously void vs light themed as well with all the voidy stars in the background and the shining light beams on the bottom text.

And whoever made this understands colors very well. I honestly can't find any flaws with it.

That said it could still just be that someone took the time to make a really good fake. Does anyone know where it's from?

Edit: Someone pointed out that both BFA and SL logos are actually properly 3D rendered, and this one does not look to be made the same way. That means it's probably fake. Still, an extremely good attempt.

Yeah, you can clearly see Legion's one is also 3D rendered.

[Shadochi]

The 9.1 Chains of Domination campaign very much feels like they squished down the end of a fully Covenant focused 9.1 and just wrapped it into the Korthia story. I just did it again on another alt last week and especially the Kyrian and Night Fae segments really feel like they were supposed to be their own whole story segments rather than just foot notes in the CoD story.

Well the info said that 9.2 was supposed to be Korthia (why the zone design was a letdown in 9.1 because it was rushed) and a campaign revolving around crafting/finding new sigils. So chapters after the raid/Sylvanas quest. With a raid where the final boss is Anduin as the Jailer attempts to stop us or slow us from reaching Zereth.
Tbh in my mind this all makes sense since in 9.1 we have only one chapter related to korthia (finding the lost primus sigil) and even that could've been moved somewhere else and not needed to be in Korthia but any secret vault. The info about them squishing 3 patches into 2 just makes so much sense to me.

[Kiivar86]

Korthia being a "city" yet very much not one indicates as much to me as well.

[Shadochi]

Korthia being a "city" yet very much not one indicates as much to me as well.

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

[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!