Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Kiivar86]

I think Dragon Isles / Emerald Dream / Zereth Lumen are all the same place.

Wouldn't it be Zereth Vitae, for Life? Lumen is Light, after all.

And all that besides, it seems the Zereths would be elsewhere than on Azeroth, like Zereth Mortis was.

[ercarp]

Imagine if Blizzard was reading this thread and sweating as they realize their idea of the Dragon Isles is not even close to any of the wild, outlandish theories people come up with on the forums.

Floating islands? "Nope, just a regular landmass in the ocean next to all the other ones. We simply didn't find it until now because sailors in the Warcraft universe are notoriously incompetent."

Chromatus? Galakrond? "Chromatus... You mean Chromaggus? We don't know who this character is. As for Galakrond, we removed his bones because we actually want to rewrite the Dragon Aspects' backstory and Galakrond just doesn't fit into the story anymore. Yes, he's being retconned. That's the word I was looking for. Oh, who the villain of the expansion is? Well it's obviously Wrathion!"

Class skins? "Sorry, not this time, we don't have the resources for that kind of thing. Okay, fine, you'll get toggleable Dark Ranger customization options for Night Elf and Blood Elf Hunters but no more! You can enable them at the barber after completing the quest. Like the Night Warrior eyes? Yes, exactly like the Night Warrior eyes."

Path of the Titans being relevant? "The Path of What? Who? Never heard of such a thing, I only joined the writing team in BfA. Are you talking about the First Ones by any chance?"

Revamped Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas?! "Definitely not. Why would we revamp it after we just added that cool new heritage questline to Ghostlands and the Dark Ranger customization quest to Tirisfal. It would be a complete waste of our resources!"

New class? "Oh no no. Gods no! How would we add a new class at this point? We would have to rework the Legion storyline too much to fit in a new Class Order and everything... It's just too much work. But there is a new race: Dragonkin! You can turn into a dragon in combat, isn't that cool! What's that? Oh yeah, I guess it kind of is like the Worgen..."

I know this comes off as really pessimistic but I'm just making a joke here lol. Don't take it too seriously. I do hope 10.0 turns out to be good and brings with it a ton of content.

[Le Conceptuel]

Maybe Zereth Vitae?

Yes, it probably can't be Zereth Lumen because the Emerald Dream is all about Life. I could see the Dragon Isles being a part of the Emerald Dream, though. However, it contradicts what we think we know about Dragons (that they're probably mutant Elementals).

[Wangming]

Fuck Id love it if the Dragon Isles turned out to be a research facility with each zone being where either Titans or First Ones ran different experiments.

It would be cool but I already clench my butthole at the can of worms that would open considering Endwalker had Elpis, a research facility used by the ancients that was a set of floating islands.

[Le Conceptuel]

Imagine if Blizzard was reading this thread and sweating as they realize their idea of the Dragon Isles is not even close to any of the wild, outlandish theories people come up with on the forums.

Floating islands? "Nope, just a regular landmass in the ocean next to all the other ones. We simply didn't find it until now because sailors in the Warcraft universe are notoriously incompetent."

Chromatus? Galakrond? "Chromatus... You mean Chromaggus? We don't know who this character is. As for Galakrond, we removed his bones because we actually want to rewrite the Dragon Aspects' backstory and Galakrond just doesn't fit into the story anymore. Yes, he's being retconned. That's the word I was looking for."

Class skins? "Sorry, not this time, we don't have the resources for that kind of thing. Okay, fine, you'll get toggleable Dark Ranger customization options for Night Elf and Blood Elf Hunters but no more! You can enable them at the barber after completing the quest. Like the Night Warrior eyes? Yes, exactly like the Night Warrior eyes."

Path of the Titans being relevant? "The Path of What? Who? Never heard of such a thing, I only joined the writing team in BfA. Are you talking about the First Ones by any chance?"

Revamped Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas?! "Definitely not. Why would we revamp it after we just added that cool new heritage questline to Ghostlands and the Dark Ranger customization quest to Tirisfal. It would be a complete waste of our resources!"

New class? "Oh no no. Gods no! How would we add a new class at this point? We would have to rework the Legion storyline too much to fit in a new Class Order and everything... It's just too much work. But there is a new race: Dragonkin! You can turn into a dragon in combat, isn't that cool! What's that? Oh yeah, I guess it kind of is like the Worgen..."

I know this comes off as really pessimistic but I'm just making a joke here lol. Don't take it too seriously. I do hope 10.0 turns out to be good and brings with it a ton of content.

Ah-hah, realistically you're right. But we're all on a lot of copium, myself included. I'm holding out hope it'll be good even though we all know what to expect quality-wise.

[Wangming]

I hope they dont make ED and Dragon Isles the same thing. That would be some shit.

I for one would love it as the Emerald Dream is awesome. And the datamined dragon was emerald, wasn't it?

[therumblings]

Having the Dragon Isles be floating Islands is just too easy, I will be surprised if they are just regular islands that were sealed away with magic or something.

[Wangming]

Imagine if Blizzard was reading this thread and sweating as they realize their idea of the Dragon Isles is not even close to any of the wild, outlandish theories people come up with on the forums.

Floating islands? "Nope, just a regular landmass in the ocean next to all the other ones. We simply didn't find it until now because sailors in the Warcraft universe are notoriously incompetent."

Chromatus? Galakrond? "Chromatus... You mean Chromaggus? We don't know who this character is. As for Galakrond, we removed his bones because we actually want to rewrite the Dragon Aspects' backstory and Galakrond just doesn't fit into the story anymore. Yes, he's being retconned. That's the word I was looking for. Oh, who the villain of the expansion is? Well it's obviously Wrathion!"

Class skins? "Sorry, not this time, we don't have the resources for that kind of thing. Okay, fine, you'll get toggleable Dark Ranger customization options for Night Elf and Blood Elf Hunters but no more! You can enable them at the barber after completing the quest. Like the Night Warrior eyes? Yes, exactly like the Night Warrior eyes."

Path of the Titans being relevant? "The Path of What? Who? Never heard of such a thing, I only joined the writing team in BfA. Are you talking about the First Ones by any chance?"

Revamped Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas?! "Definitely not. Why would we revamp it after we just added that cool new heritage questline to Ghostlands and the Dark Ranger customization quest to Tirisfal. It would be a complete waste of our resources!"

New class? "Oh no no. Gods no! How would we add a new class at this point? We would have to rework the Legion storyline too much to fit in a new Class Order and everything... It's just too much work. But there is a new race: Dragonkin! You can turn into a dragon in combat, isn't that cool! What's that? Oh yeah, I guess it kind of is like the Worgen..."

I know this comes off as really pessimistic but I'm just making a joke here lol. Don't take it too seriously. I do hope 10.0 turns out to be good and brings with it a ton of content.

This is sad and funny at the same time. But don't worry I will help them. I will have a fully fleshed out expansion concept by early summer and I will legit email it to them. Ya think I should send it to Ion or Mike?

[Makabreska]

Oh, I missed that. They datamined in 9.2.5 a Diablo 4 collectors Edition mount achivement. That may indicate that CE reveal may bee soon, and entire game may be out sooner than we think.

[ercarp]

Ah-hah, realistically you're right. But we're all on a lot of copium, myself included. I'm holding out hope it'll be good even though we all know what to expect quality-wise.

It's all good, I'm on the same copium myself. It was only a few pages ago that I was brainstorming "Elune is a dragon" theories. I have high hopes but more often than not they fall flat with Blizzard these days.

My main hope for 10.0 has basically already been confirmed though, which is that we're going back to Azeroth. I hope the cosmic elements of 10.0 stay subtle.

[Makabreska]

Floating islands? "Nope, just a regular landmass in the ocean next to all the other ones. We simply didn't find it until now because sailors in the Warcraft universe are notoriously incompetent."

This reminds me a Reddit thread from last week complaining that Oribos portals had a wormhole moment instead of an instant transport, when everybody jizzed over that animation during beta. /rWoW has been salty af over past year.

[Sondrelk]

Having the Dragon Isles be floating Islands is just too easy, I will be surprised if they are just regular islands that were sealed away with magic or something.

For lore reasons it's easier to have them floating. But I imagine that practically from a gameplay perspective it might be a bit of a challenge. Realistically you just end up with one big chunk of land without oceans on the side, rather than several smaller island chunks floating next to eachother.

[ercarp]

This is sad and funny at the same time. But don't worry I will help them. I will have a fully fleshed out expansion concept by early summer and I will legit email it to them. Ya think I should send it to Ion or Mike?

Probably Mike. Ion would just turn your idea into a spreadsheet without any soul left.

[Ersula]

And he was doing so well not trying to justify genocide for most of Shadowlands. But I guess old habits are hard to kick, and once he got a whiff of Sylvanas being innocent with the ending of this expansion he fell back off the wagon.

I can appreciate all kinds of story paths they want to go down but I refuse to participate in the Tyrande Pity Party. I'm not justifying genocide so much as we're apparently working backwards on acknowledging genocide in this setting & Tyrande as Azeroth's first colonizer© has yet to take credit for that.

"I'm Sylvanas & I take credit for my actions" Yes, delicious. Chef's kiss.

"You might say genocide is never justifiable but what about in retaliation to displacing & destroying troll culture over thousands of years" Well now that's a spicy meatball.

[Le Conceptuel]

It's all good, I'm on the same copium myself. It was only a few pages ago that I was brainstorming "Elune is a dragon" theories. I have high hopes but more often than not they fall flat with Blizzard these days.

My main hope for 10.0 has basically already been confirmed though, which is that we're going back to Azeroth. I hope the cosmic elements of 10.0 stay subtle.

Same. As I've said many times, I actually am into the whole "geometry" shtick because Catholic Theology. However, I think that we should keep the focus of the story on Azeroth—I can't stand going from place-to-place killing another Super-Satan that's bland as glue. The banality of evil is a fun theme, but only when it's intentional, and I can't stand to hear another giant guy with a deep voice explain how this was actually all his super-elaborate plan all along.

- - - Updated - - -

Probably Mike. Ion would just turn your idea into a spreadsheet without any soul left.

Admittedly, I think that people demonize the "spreadsheet" quality too much. Companies need to make money and of course they're led by profit incentives. It's as much the burden of the players to make their demands if they want to see change as it is the company. If someone tried to maximize profit out of an idea I pitched to a company, I wouldn't be that upset so long as it didn't totally bastardize it in the process.

Honestly, having said this ad nauseum by now, I really think Blizzard's main problem is actually that they're not being loyal to shareholders. I smell moral hazard.

[Khaza-R]

Imagine if Blizzard was reading this thread and sweating as they realize their idea of the Dragon Isles is not even close to any of the wild, outlandish theories people come up with on the forums.

Floating islands? "Nope, just a regular landmass in the ocean next to all the other ones. We simply didn't find it until now because sailors in the Warcraft universe are notoriously incompetent."

Chromatus? Galakrond? "Chromatus... You mean Chromaggus? We don't know who this character is. As for Galakrond, we removed his bones because we actually want to rewrite the Dragon Aspects' backstory and Galakrond just doesn't fit into the story anymore. Yes, he's being retconned. That's the word I was looking for. Oh, who the villain of the expansion is? Well it's obviously Wrathion!"

Class skins? "Sorry, not this time, we don't have the resources for that kind of thing. Okay, fine, you'll get toggleable Dark Ranger customization options for Night Elf and Blood Elf Hunters but no more! You can enable them at the barber after completing the quest. Like the Night Warrior eyes? Yes, exactly like the Night Warrior eyes."

Path of the Titans being relevant? "The Path of What? Who? Never heard of such a thing, I only joined the writing team in BfA. Are you talking about the First Ones by any chance?"

Revamped Lordaeron and Quel'Thalas?! "Definitely not. Why would we revamp it after we just added that cool new heritage questline to Ghostlands and the Dark Ranger customization quest to Tirisfal. It would be a complete waste of our resources!"

New class? "Oh no no. Gods no! How would we add a new class at this point? We would have to rework the Legion storyline too much to fit in a new Class Order and everything... It's just too much work. But there is a new race: Dragonkin! You can turn into a dragon in combat, isn't that cool! What's that? Oh yeah, I guess it kind of is like the Worgen..."

I know this comes off as really pessimistic but I'm just making a joke here lol. Don't take it too seriously. I do hope 10.0 turns out to be good and brings with it a ton of content.

I mean, the Shadowlands "leaks" were way more interesting than what we ended up getting.

If people are expecting something with multiple classes, class skins, new profession, a total revamp and a new continent then they are just setting themselves up for disappointment.

[Wangming]

Oh, I missed that. They datamined in 9.2.5 a Diablo 4 collectors Edition mount achivement. That may indicate that CE reveal may bee soon, and entire game may be out sooner than we think.

Well all we know is not this year. That can mean a lot of things. It can totally mean next january. Since this year is expected to be super light on content they might want to make 2023 their year.

- - - Updated - - -

The weebs are gonna find some way to make it like WoW copied FFXIV entirely somehow yet again anyways and I just really like the trope of ancient lost magic actually being science

You know I'm one of those weebs, right? :P

[Le Conceptuel]

I mean, the Shadowlands "leaks" were way more interesting than what we ended up getting.

I honestly had a whole concept that I was tossing around all the way back in 2019 that I still maintain was better than what we got, even if I was 16-17 and consequently the whole concept was chock-full of "Rule of Cool" bullshit.

[ercarp]

Having the Dragon Isles be floating Islands is just too easy, I will be surprised if they are just regular islands that were sealed away with magic or something.

If they made a custom skybox that showed Azeroth below us, then it could look amazing. But if we're just floating in a sea of clouds with no way to actually tell that we're back on Azeroth, it might give me too many Shadowlands flashbacks.

That said, I'd still be okay with it as it's better than recycling the "wow, new islands suddenly appeared and we never saw them before, wow" trope that they've been doing since forever.

If the islands were floating somewhere high up in the sky, it would be an infinitely better explanation for why ships have never been able to find their way there. Of course they wouldn't find anything in the oceans if the islands were always several thousand feet above their heads!

[therumblings]

For lore reasons it's easier to have them floating. But I imagine that practically from a gameplay perspective it might be a bit of a challenge. Realistically you just end up with one big chunk of land without oceans on the side, rather than several smaller island chunks floating next to eachother.

They could be floating close together maybe overlapping with one big flowing river/waterfall, and get some Argus skybox tech in there for amazing clouds/ocean below.