Why does L'ghorek have a unique structure?

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

You don't see this kind of structure anywhere else. Why is that? Cut content from the abyssal maw? I know Blizzard likes reusing assets so why is this one not reused? The one i'm talking about is the giant stone box in the middle where the twilights hammer cut off the heart of L'ghorek.

[Venziir]

Unless an asset designer, who worked on Cataclysm, happens to come by; you'll never get an answer to your question.

[Lochton]

Because the asset file was most likely among the thousands of assets designed pr. expansion but never used, and they just picked one? I mean, it isn't news that Blizzard's art team and designers are sometimes given free design reign and just produces a ton of stuff that we won't get to see anyways unless someone thinks of a good location to put some of it (Like the majority of the products on the store).

[Kaleredar]

I think the cutting of the abyssal maw and the let down of Dragon Soul make people forget that Cataclysm started out as an extremely ambitious expansion, and I'd wager that the technical hurdles of designing the entirety of Vashj'ir (which was further separated into three zones) meant that they worked on that zone for a long, long time and were able to design neat little specific things like this at the outset.

WoW used to have a lot more "set piece" type scenery things that might not contribute very much to the overall storyline but nontheless took up a lot of space and were unique. Like the demigods in Vashj'ir or the Engine of the Makers in Storm Peaks or the whispering gorge in Howling Fjord. Sadly they seem to have done away with a lot of that kind of thing in recent expansions.

[thesmall001]

Unless an asset designer, who worked on Cataclysm, happens to come by; you'll never get an answer to your question.

Not an asset designer, but I was there during MoP for a short while, and have spoken with many a designer about what happened with Cataclysm. Most of this is also public knowledge from various interviews, forum posts, retrospectives, and behind the scenes documentaries. Almost every quest design team/unit overran on the EK/Kalimdor updates and Vashj'ir was one of the hardest hit by this. The Earthen Ring originally played a much larger role in the zone and it was planned to be more comparable to Hyjal's setup for Firelands. As most people know, the Abyssal Maw raid was cancelled, and the datamining for that is easily available (RIP Hayven Games <3).

The raid was a mix of the dungeon we ended up getting, a bunch of Nerubian-like platforms and architecture which players would swim between, and a SSC-like section in L'ghorek with the Twilight's Hammer Cult and Naga. This was all cut long before Cataclysm actually released but close to the end of the crunch on Vashj'ir. As such there are breadcrumbs, teasers, and assets (including all of L'ghorek) which were added to the quest zone and "squeezed" into the zone narrative after it was looking likely the Abyssal Maw's 'Molten Front' equivalent and the raid were going to be cut. The blank patch of reef behind L'ghorek, 'The Abandonned Reef', is likely a reference to exactly this. (I don't have any confirmation of that, I only know about the production issues, but it's exactly the sort of thing a fed-up designer who has been told to drop tools and push to prod would do.)

Anyway, I'd imagine L'ghorek would have been sealed had they not cut the Abyssal Maw raid. That whole third section of Vashj'ir was a very late addition after the raid was looking likely to be cut. The temple structure itself is a Twilight's Hammer temple. I'd imagine that would've been where the final or penultimate boss would have resided, only becoming available at the end, similar to Blackwing Descent.

[Pakheth]

WoW used to have a lot more "set piece" type scenery things that might not contribute very much to the overall storyline but nontheless took up a lot of space and were unique. Like the demigods in Vashj'ir or the Engine of the Makers in Storm Peaks or the whispering gorge in Howling Fjord. Sadly they seem to have done away with a lot of that kind of thing in recent expansions.

Those sort of set pieces always made the world seem more mysterious imo and I miss that. Today most of what you see in-game needs to have a purpose, and I understand that because else it would be a waste of dev time. And often it just seems like something the world/dungeon designers just added because it looked cool (without talking to the story/lore team), like the huge snake tail in Gundrak.

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Snip

Considering Vashj'ir is one of my favourite zones in the game you just made me love the zone even more. They really put a lot of effort into it didn't they? Shame we never got to see the raid.

After the colourful and atmospheric design of Vashj'ir it was a huge letdown for me how Naszjatar ended up. It was simply too grey for me, too washed out, even for a place were water was just drained.

I doubt we will ever have another underwater zone but I always imagine it would be as grand.

[Highlord Hanibuhl]

Not an asset designer, but I was there during MoP for a short while, and have spoken with many a designer about what happened with Cataclysm. Most of this is also public knowledge from various interviews, forum posts, retrospectives, and behind the scenes documentaries. Almost every quest design team/unit overran on the EK/Kalimdor updates and Vashj'ir was one of the hardest hit by this. The Earthen Ring originally played a much larger role in the zone and it was planned to be more comparable to Hyjal's setup for Firelands. As most people know, the Abyssal Maw raid was cancelled, and the datamining for that is easily available (RIP Hayven Games <3).

The raid was a mix of the dungeon we ended up getting, a bunch of Nerubian-like platforms and architecture which players would swim between, and a SSC-like section in L'ghorek with the Twilight's Hammer Cult and Naga. This was all cut long before Cataclysm actually released but close to the end of the crunch on Vashj'ir. As such there are breadcrumbs, teasers, and assets (including all of L'ghorek) which were added to the quest zone and "squeezed" into the zone narrative after it was looking likely the Abyssal Maw's 'Molten Front' equivalent and the raid were going to be cut. The blank patch of reef behind L'ghorek, 'The Abandonned Reef', is likely a reference to exactly this. (I don't have any confirmation of that, I only know about the production issues, but it's exactly the sort of thing a fed-up designer who has been told to drop tools and push to prod would do.)

Anyway, I'd imagine L'ghorek would have been sealed had they not cut the Abyssal Maw raid. That whole third section of Vashj'ir was a very late addition after the raid was looking likely to be cut. The temple structure itself is a Twilight's Hammer temple. I'd imagine that would've been where the final or penultimate boss would have resided, only becoming available at the end, similar to Blackwing Descent.

Thanks for the input!
Sad to hear..

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Not an asset designer, but I was there during MoP for a short while, and have spoken with many a designer about what happened with Cataclysm. Most of this is also public knowledge from various interviews, forum posts, retrospectives, and behind the scenes documentaries. Almost every quest design team/unit overran on the EK/Kalimdor updates and Vashj'ir was one of the hardest hit by this. The Earthen Ring originally played a much larger role in the zone and it was planned to be more comparable to Hyjal's setup for Firelands. As most people know, the Abyssal Maw raid was cancelled, and the datamining for that is easily available (RIP Hayven Games <3).

The raid was a mix of the dungeon we ended up getting, a bunch of Nerubian-like platforms and architecture which players would swim between, and a SSC-like section in L'ghorek with the Twilight's Hammer Cult and Naga. This was all cut long before Cataclysm actually released but close to the end of the crunch on Vashj'ir. As such there are breadcrumbs, teasers, and assets (including all of L'ghorek) which were added to the quest zone and "squeezed" into the zone narrative after it was looking likely the Abyssal Maw's 'Molten Front' equivalent and the raid were going to be cut. The blank patch of reef behind L'ghorek, 'The Abandonned Reef', is likely a reference to exactly this. (I don't have any confirmation of that, I only know about the production issues, but it's exactly the sort of thing a fed-up designer who has been told to drop tools and push to prod would do.)

Anyway, I'd imagine L'ghorek would have been sealed had they not cut the Abyssal Maw raid. That whole third section of Vashj'ir was a very late addition after the raid was looking likely to be cut. The temple structure itself is a Twilight's Hammer temple. I'd imagine that would've been where the final or penultimate boss would have resided, only becoming available at the end, similar to Blackwing Descent.

Fascinating. Cut content in wow is such a underexplored topic. Makes me wonder though what the bosses of the raid would be... Ozumat and Neptuleon? I know blizz likes corrupting stuff.

[The Stormbringer]

Fascinating. Cut content in wow is such a underexplored topic. Makes me wonder though what the bosses of the raid would be... Ozumat and Neptuleon? I know blizz likes corrupting stuff.

Agreed. That would make such a cool documentary.

[Biomega]

Fascinating. Cut content in wow is such a underexplored topic. Makes me wonder though what the bosses of the raid would be... Ozumat and Neptuleon? I know blizz likes corrupting stuff.

Fair bet on Ozumat - wouldn't be the first time we see a big boss in a dungeon preview and then get to fight it in the raid.

Neptulon I'm not so sure; could well be that it would have been intended as much the same encounter we see in ToT, or could have been the guy making us go into the Abyssal Maw to cleanse it. No way to know.

Unrealized content is always cooler in our heads than it likely would have been in reality

[FelPlague]

You don't see this kind of structure anywhere else. Why is that? Cut content from the abyssal maw? I know Blizzard likes reusing assets so why is this one not reused? The one i'm talking about is the giant stone box in the middle where the twilights hammer cut off the heart of L'ghorek.

Same reason why the entire inside of that is also unique.
there is countless models that are used in literally 1 place.

[Myradin]

It probably didn't fit too well with other Twilight's Hammer structures, which are usually more twisted and spikey.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Fair bet on Ozumat - wouldn't be the first time we see a big boss in a dungeon preview and then get to fight it in the raid.

Neptulon I'm not so sure; could well be that it would have been intended as much the same encounter we see in ToT, or could have been the guy making us go into the Abyssal Maw to cleanse it. No way to know.

Unrealized content is always cooler in our heads than it likely would have been in reality

Yup. And the deep dark sea makes it even more mysterious.

[Magistrate]

Those sort of set pieces always made the world seem more mysterious imo and I miss that. Today most of what you see in-game needs to have a purpose, and I understand that because else it would be a waste of dev time. And often it just seems like something the world/dungeon designers just added because it looked cool (without talking to the story/lore team), like the huge snake tail in Gundrak.

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Considering Vashj'ir is one of my favourite zones in the game you just made me love the zone even more. They really put a lot of effort into it didn't they? Shame we never got to see the raid.

After the colourful and atmospheric design of Vashj'ir it was a huge letdown for me how Naszjatar ended up. It was simply too grey for me, too washed out, even for a place were water was just drained.

I doubt we will ever have another underwater zone but I always imagine it would be as grand.

I'm pretty sure it's low key established that snake thing in gundrak is a leftover asset of a raid that never happened but I may be wrong.

[Alanar]

Those sort of set pieces always made the world seem more mysterious imo and I miss that. Today most of what you see in-game needs to have a purpose, and I understand that because else it would be a waste of dev time. And often it just seems like something the world/dungeon designers just added because it looked cool (without talking to the story/lore team), like the huge snake tail in Gundrak.

- - - Updated - - -



Considering Vashj'ir is one of my favourite zones in the game you just made me love the zone even more. They really put a lot of effort into it didn't they? Shame we never got to see the raid.

After the colourful and atmospheric design of Vashj'ir it was a huge letdown for me how Naszjatar ended up. It was simply too grey for me, too washed out, even for a place were water was just drained.

I doubt we will ever have another underwater zone but I always imagine it would be as grand.

Sadly these were the days atleast according to some pre dev interviews that indeed were just moments in time that they were bored and put it in or just had a little sideproject that had no function besides looking cool. Ye those days are gone for obvious reasons.

Despite this info we gor back then.. I couldnt helpmyself to think: ye whatever probably something that got cancelled/scrapped or just had to move on cus time.

[Aydinx2]

Unless you ask on the Blizzard forums and a dev answers you directly, all you're getting are baseless guesses.

[thesmall001]

Unless you ask on the Blizzard forums and a dev answers you directly, all you're getting are baseless guesses.

Not an asset designer, but I was there during MoP for a short while, and have spoken with many a designer about what happened with Cataclysm. Most of this is also public knowledge from various interviews, forum posts, retrospectives, and behind the scenes documentaries. Almost every quest design team/unit overran on the EK/Kalimdor updates and Vashj'ir was one of the hardest hit by this. The Earthen Ring originally played a much larger role in the zone and it was planned to be more comparable to Hyjal's setup for Firelands. As most people know, the Abyssal Maw raid was cancelled, and the datamining for that is easily available (RIP Hayven Games <3).

The raid was a mix of the dungeon we ended up getting, a bunch of Nerubian-like platforms and architecture which players would swim between, and a SSC-like section in L'ghorek with the Twilight's Hammer Cult and Naga. This was all cut long before Cataclysm actually released but close to the end of the crunch on Vashj'ir. As such there are breadcrumbs, teasers, and assets (including all of L'ghorek) which were added to the quest zone and "squeezed" into the zone narrative after it was looking likely the Abyssal Maw's 'Molten Front' equivalent and the raid were going to be cut. The blank patch of reef behind L'ghorek, 'The Abandonned Reef', is likely a reference to exactly this. (I don't have any confirmation of that, I only know about the production issues, but it's exactly the sort of thing a fed-up designer who has been told to drop tools and push to prod would do.)

Anyway, I'd imagine L'ghorek would have been sealed had they not cut the Abyssal Maw raid. That whole third section of Vashj'ir was a very late addition after the raid was looking likely to be cut. The temple structure itself is a Twilight's Hammer temple. I'd imagine that would've been where the final or penultimate boss would have resided, only becoming available at the end, similar to Blackwing Descent.

Sometimes you get lucky though.