I know I can't be the only one intrigued by content gated by flying?

[Stardrift]

Not necessarily, as long as the gated content is available when flying is available.

For instance if they released an xpac, and flying isn't available until a few patches, no point in introducing that content until people can actually access it and reach it.

True. It would be nice to see something like that once in a while. Seriously, Stormpeaks had such a sense of scale to it because of this.

[Bramickias]

I loved zones built around flying. Icecrown and Storm Peaks are great zones.
But for the rest, they just make regular zones feel useless.

[ohwell]

Yeah I do miss having things to explore after getting flying. Christ, even Draenor had a metric ton of hidden treasures that flying made easier to snag. Legion, as much as loved so much of what it did, really didn't capitalize the map design toward flying at all; a trend which continues to this day.

Quite sad. Loved Netherwing dailies, Storm Peaks/Icecrown's huge vertical design.

How is that a boon to flying? Treasures that you could naturally get with skill became a cake walk? That's not a pro for flying.....Now if you said there were ones that were literally impossible without flying....

- - - Updated - - -

I loved zones built around flying. Icecrown and Storm Peaks are great zones.
But for the rest, they just make regular zones feel useless.

Neither of those were that though.....

[Irian]

In general Blizzard wastes the potential of flying hard. It'd be cool to be leveling up to see a huge exotic-looking landmass in the sky, only to find out it's an optional leveling zone when you unlock flying.

I think Storm Peaks was legit the last zone that actually made full use of verticality, and it's a shame. People love tp praise WoW's art and environment design but there are so many simple things they could do to make the game way more interesting and they just keep on doing the same shit. I came to realize during Shadowlands that it's by design, they know they don't even need to try to get the addicted core fanbase to keep playing.

I do really love unreachable places, though, it kinda adds to the sense of wonder and makes the world feel more like a world and less like a questing jungle gym where you jump through hoops and click all the sparkling shit.

[Pakheth]

Neither of those were that though.....

There were part of each zone literally inaccessible without flying, like the airship in Icecrown or the many Titan construct caves and temples in Storm Peaks with no other access than from the air. You could even borrow a set of windrider reins from the flightmaster in K3 for those who couldn't afford flying at lv77.
Heck, even Deepholm has a quest which is impossible without flying, again another airship.

[froschhure]

Am I the only one who thinks that special areas that you can't visit unless you are able to FLY to them? Imagine a huge fortress in the sky, a vendor somewhere you can't reach unless you fly, something like that?

I think that Blizzard should re introduce flying specific destinations, especially considering that flying in SLands is gated behind just regular content and isn't a rep grind this time, it's apart of the campaign story.

Storm peaks were designed like this. But farming for rep grind is req.

- - - Updated - - -

( at least if you wanted a fast flying mount) the rest tabbed and went afk until they reached ulduar)

[shise]

It would be cool, if not everyone was able to fly.

Flying is accessible to everyone right away, no requirements for it. So it is not that interesting.

[Kumorii]

I don't care if environments require flying, walking or crawling. If its interesting, then you have my attention. Environments that "require" flying can be cool, but that's not because it requires flying. It's just a by product to me.

For example if you have floating islands you can have either portals or maybe some lift connecting them, or maybe even some launch pads that propel you between them. It would be great to me.

But I'm one of those who think flying is shit because of the mechanics of it. No inertia, no feeling, no engagement, no nothing. No environment is gonna change that.

[WowIsDead64]

Am I the only one who thinks that special areas that you can't visit unless you are able to FLY to them? Imagine a huge fortress in the sky, a vendor somewhere you can't reach unless you fly, something like that?

I think that Blizzard should re introduce flying specific destinations, especially considering that flying in SLands is gated behind just regular content and isn't a rep grind this time, it's apart of the campaign story.

Metroidvania mechanics, i.e. so called non-linear progression, don't work in Wow. Wow is long term game. It takes months to release new content. Waiting for so long to open access to some content just doesn't make sense.

[mysticx]

I loved zones built around flying. Icecrown and Storm Peaks are great zones.
But for the rest, they just make regular zones feel useless.

Frankly, when you're done questing through them and travelled to the dailies/world quests a bunch of times, regular zones feel useless anyway.

Ground zones and the mobs in them are a lot like those styrofoam peanut-shaped things in packages, annoying stuff you need to get through to get to what you actually want.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Would be far more interesting if flying wasnt just the ability to noclip around the world unhindered.

Maybe if the flying worked more like how it does in games like Guild Wars 2 where you need to factor in momentum and such then flying could be balanced around, but currently there is no way to balance it except removing it, either by making flying unfeasible with instakill mortars or similar, or simply not letting you fly at all.

This. It's just lazily gating QoL in WoW instead of being part of the gameplay and the half-hearted attempts at fixing this amount to nothing more than annoyance for the most part. Not to mention that Blizzard's hyper dense world design approach together with the subsequent ever more jagged landscape design amplifiy the annoyance factor of losing flying.

It would be interesting if there is some gameplay component. That could also make different mount types interesting (gliding vs VTOL, long distance vs maneuverability).You can even still have jumping puzzles by actually utilizing the hitboxes of things and making it impossible to hover in place forever while clipping through terrain on 5 sides.

[Azerate]

As you stated, "flying only content" is now basically content that requires X step in your covenant campaign. Can't see much point in that

[Malania]

I always thought those zones weird. Like Ogrila. How the FUCK did the fat ogres get up there?
How did the people get up there? Why are they up there? How did they build a base up there? Is the zone completly selfsustaining?
Portals are not very common in wow and actually quite heavily regulated. I think there is actually a capital punishment on using portals without a permit.

If they ever make those. I probably would not mind. I enjoyed tempest keep as it made sense. BC zones as a whole lend it very well because of the shattered world and floating landmasses (not ogrila though) like nagrand and stuff like that.
If they ever go with a more scifi floating islands world in an expansion. Sure why not.
I just want it to make sense.

Also: Flying was the biggest mistake ever in wow. It destroyed the open world. After that there was no point in having an open world at all other than the first week sightseeing. Now it is: swoop down kill mob for WQ swoop back up. World is empty and useless. But the cat is out of the bag so no use whining here^^

If we ever visit something like this ( don't think about where the water comes from ) hell yeah.

Nagrand...

I'm in two minds, while I did enjoy Blades Edge when I finally got flying back in TBC, these days places like Revendreth are just a nightmare to navigate on foot. If they're going to make a flying zone then make it a flying zone, minimal ability to go anywhere in the zone. Otherwise, making a mess like Revendreth is just annoying.

[VinceVega]

Nagrand...

I'm in two minds, while I did enjoy Blades Edge when I finally got flying back in TBC, these days places like Revendreth are just a nightmare to navigate on foot. If they're going to make a flying zone then make it a flying zone, minimal ability to go anywhere in the zone. Otherwise, making a mess like Revendreth is just annoying.

I love revendreth... and the zone is really small. many many elevators all over the place and the map tells you where you have to go to move over the different rings.

Far better than Maldraxxus. Basically a flat surface. So boring.

[Malania]

I love revendreth... and the zone is really small. many many elevators all over the place and the map tells you where you have to go to move over the different rings.

Far better than Maldraxxus. Basically a flat surface. So boring.

Fair enough I prefer being able to take a direct route to my destination. Going around, circling back and up and down lifts just frustrates me. Generally if I'm in a zone I'm doing something (WQ's, going to a dungeon etc) and making it harder to reach my destination for no reason is a little tedious to me. I wouldn't mind lifts etc if the routes to a given direction were ore or less in a straight line but the battlements etc take you like 90 degree's away from your destination etc.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Dude imagine how much faster you can get to world quests in Shadowlands. It's like the best content in the game and flying just serves it up to you!




/s

[Wraethion]

How about...we tie flying to loremaster for a zone? If you complete the zones quests, you get access to flying for that zone. Example: You get to fly in stormpeaks for completing the stormpeaks quests. In the process of completing that questline, you subsequently explore the map as it sends you gradually all over the zone, but you don't quite fill out all of your map. When you unlock flying, you can now visit the content at your leisure that requires flying, and in the process finally fill out your map for that zone.

In addition for this gated content, I feel instead of something like a rep grind or some other system becoming a factor, just something fun for the players to do. Like maybe a gladitorial arena made of clouds, where Al'Abas (djinn from rogue order hall questline) or another djinn who acts as a vendor and sells various novelty items such as transmogs or toys or whatever in exchange for coins of air that you get from winning in this arena. That while the player character is present in this area, they have a buff that gives them slow fall and allows them to stride like they do after completing throne of four winds.

[Echo of Soul]

We used to have content gated by flying, now we have flying gated by content.

[Echeyakee]

I think flying should not be time gated. Sure, if blizzard admits that they can't design a good zone with flying in mind, restrict it by loremaster. Show us your amazing quest and story design that would be spoiled by flight, but don't force us, essentially, RP walk to world quests and dungeons once that is done.

World quests are a punishment enough on their own, no need to rub the salt in by making the commute vexing as well.

But I also think flying should be redesigned. Creative flight is boring. We could actually enjoy going places if flying was more fun and challenging, but it's still has to be a viable way to travel, not a cheap gimmick or another glorified glider system. Make it so that getting somewhere is not that hard, but getting there fast and with style takes practice and skill.

[Duese]

Blizzard continuing to play games with flying is a perfect example of the stagnation of their development and the regression of their ability to be innovative. If they have to cut out variables in order to make content, that's already a problem but given the level of content that they are putting out right now, it's so incredibly stagnant that it needs something.... ANYTHING... to make it better.

I will take less content that is more engaging than more content that is like what we have right now. I don't need flappy bird minigames. I don't need gimmick quests. I need world quests that make me feel like I'm actually having an impact on the world and the zone. I would absolutely love to have Warfronts be part of the world where you have ACTIVE PvE content rather than general world quests built around forced respawn timers. At least give me something engaging to do because these world quests right now are just boring.

What's worse is that there are so few different world quests that it feels like I'm always doing the same exact quests. Nothing about this is good and it has nothing to do with flying.

Flying, however, can be used in really innovating world content. Consider a situation where the flying is extremely risky and choosing to fly will cause cannons to fire at you which you have to dodge if you want to try to fly. Now, add another element to this which says that you can destroy the cannons so that players can fly freely without being shot at. You create a dynamic zone where players impact the zone. Get a few players together and destroy the cannons to enable open flying in the zone. Then have quests to disrupt supply lines trying to repair the cannons. When the supply lines fail, have bigger war parties attack and defend the cannons so the supply lines can repair the cannons. If you can hold off the war parties, then have bosses and other elements try to fight against the players. Keep escalating it and escalating the reward.