Expansion based on old but revamped zones...?

[Gelannerai]

I would probably enjoy this. A major shake-up for Azeroth would help at least a little in freshening things up. Like SW and Org being completely destroyed and new faction hubs taking their place, new questing zones involving notable characters from each faction’s races (not Cata meme-tier garbage like Rambo and Indiana Jones), etc.

[Zyrinx]

Would love this but you cannot please everyone, at least not conceptually.

Landmass just needs to be 1) connected and 2) bigger. SL sucks in both regards

[Ivarr]

I would probably enjoy this. A major shake-up for Azeroth would help at least a little in freshening things up. Like SW and Org being completely destroyed and new faction hubs taking their place, new questing zones involving notable characters from each faction’s races (not Cata meme-tier garbage like Rambo and Indiana Jones), etc.

Indeed Stormwind loops pathetic compared to Boralus. Orgrimmar's interior redesign by Garrosh is even worse.

I do think that Orgrimmar would benefit from some destructive event. Something that would deepen the ravine it's built in, largely destroy these idiotic metal girders everywhere and then repopulate it into a messy favela slum town, a rich tapestry of tribal enclaves the way it's supposed to be.

As for Stormwind, I have no hope. It feels like a cardboard decor. It doesn't need to be destroyed, but indeed a hub situated elsewhere taking the immersion from Boralus would be beautiful.

[Triceron]

As far as I understand how Blizzard designs their terrain, I estimate the actual formation of the zones is the least of their effort. It's the populating of these zones with points of interests that requires real effort.

Procedural design has been present since Vanilla. Desolace is the clearest example. It shows eroded hills and also the way the textures run around the hilltops to simulate water taking the sediments down:



So a designer starts with random hills, then sculpts in the terrain according to what the lead for that zone has in mind, and then it has an erosion pass creating these beautiful textured streams, and then probably still needs a terrain designer coming in to correct any wonky textures that came from the process.

And this is Vanilla content, it's old. Terrain generation has advanced since then. Blizzard uses new techniques, but the point remains, it's a mix of procedures and hand-sculpting that pushes down the development costs, while at the same time every actual asset and story has to be built from scratch.

Imagine it like raisin bread. The raisins are the content, the dough is the terrain. You can chose to add more baking powder or yeast (I'm no baker) to let the dough rise further. The amount of raisins will stay the same, but they'll be scattered further apart from each other due to there being more terrain that fills the space in between.

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Sounds amazing to me. Especially when these events impact each other in a sequence. It's not just rolling the dice for each city, but each city having an entire string of outcome dependent dice forming its history. Maybe an earthquake caused a war, and that war prevented a faction from conquering and enslaving another faction that now went on to invent some technology that created a disaster in another place etc. Uncovering that kind of history is thrilling, and no WoWhead guide will spoil it for you.

But there's no lore to speak of.

It's literally madlibs. And while the infinite combinations may sound nice, madlibs just isn't going to be as interesting as a directed narrative, over the long run.

There's also problems if you're trying to follow the generated lore and save a bunch of villagers from giant Rats, leave to take a break, and come back only to see that some asshat player paved over the entire location and built a fort where the village used to be.

[tomten]

I wish we get an expansion with updated old azeroth (or even outland,northrend) zones but scaled and relevant to current level,that would help cure my nostalgia,but would it work ? cant see any exp theme that would fit.

Cataclysm already did this, wasn't exactly a loved expo.

[dextersmith]

I wish we get an expansion with updated old azeroth (or even outland,northrend) zones but scaled and relevant to current level,that would help cure my nostalgia,but would it work ? cant see any exp theme that would fit.

Did you miss Cata?

[mbit]

There's also problems if you're trying to follow the generated lore and save a bunch of villagers from giant Rats, leave to take a break, and come back only to see that some asshat player paved over the entire location and built a fort where the village used to be.

Why is this a problem? Unless quest progress is required(i.e. unlocks class ability you cant get elsewhere) it just adds to the game even if quests are forever lost. You can extend it even - if rambo kills the village the system might allow you to resurrect their corpse or take their stuff for free since looting a dead village aint no crime. First option you get some reputation or whatever for being a good guy while second gives access to more items. You could make things even more interesting and say villagers farm and sell their goods. So players are interested in keeping villages alive for the goods they offer - don't grind resources, just protect villages as a hero would and buy them.

[Swnem]

I don't.

Why would i want to spend another 2 years in the same zones which i already spent 5 years on? Those that played classic already got 2 more years on it.

I know that is the nostalgia speaking, but that game no longer exists and bringing the old ones back will just stain them on the same stink.

The problem with WoW is a design one, it's not the zones.

[Triceron]

Why is this a problem? Unless quest progress is required(i.e. unlocks class ability you cant get elsewhere) it just adds to the game even if quests are forever lost. You can extend it even - if rambo kills the village the system might allow you to resurrect their corpse or take their stuff for free since looting a dead village aint no crime. First option you get some reputation or whatever for being a good guy while second gives access to more items. You could make things even more interesting and say villagers farm and sell their goods. So players are interested in keeping villages alive for the goods they offer - don't grind resources, just protect villages as a hero would and buy them.

Yes, that is fine until you realize that there will be players who just want to see the world burn and have fun with screwing with the players who want to protect villages.

And the thing is, there's no system in place to fully protect any village, since the whole point is to have a completely open system defined by procedural content. Some group of players hellbent on anarchy could forever go through and trash places as they see fit, and there would be no real structure to the game other than that.

It'd be like Minecraft if everyone was forced to play on the same server, effectively. Instead of an isolated world you could start and create, you'd always be housed on some server where a small group of asshats can ruin all the fun, for the sake of being able to. And if those guys go away, eventually some new players will join and do the same. I feel like that kind of content is best when you have actual control and agency over a server, like a game like Terraria or Minecraft, and not just how MMO's are structured to have the most people be connected within the same server, while giving everyone agency to do their own thing.

Of course, there's always ways to try and prevent it, but overall if it's intended to be an MMO and a living breathing world, then it's like a 'public Minecraft server' where people are more likely going to join the server to troll the players more than they would to work together for some greater common goal. And, frankly, that's how a lot of these MMO types end up being like when given free agency for chaos.

There was a Conan MMO game that Sandbox style PVP. It just felt like a griefer's paradise, is all I can say.


Also fun trivialties that it reminds me of -

[fatgunn]

Sooooooo many bad ideas in this thread.

[Planetdune]

I would probably enjoy this. A major shake-up for Azeroth would help at least a little in freshening things up. Like SW and Org being completely destroyed and new faction hubs taking their place, new questing zones involving notable characters from each faction’s races (not Cata meme-tier garbage like Rambo and Indiana Jones), etc.

Eh? We had a full revamp not that long ago with Deathwing... that resulted in many zones now having two time states to switch between, it is complicated enough already... however, I WOULD love to see an expansion based in Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor. Just in the current zones. And make Silvermoon city and surroundigns flyable!