Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Shadochi]

...Blizzard plays everything extremely close to the chest because of how poor reception has been in the past when things that are in development don't make the cut.

This isn't even hopium. This is...sky-high expectations I can't comprehend.

But I also see what Worldshaper is talking about. The 2023 roadmap was really well received when they released it. So they might see a worthy benefit in player trust by releasing a general roadmap for ahead (not specific expansion themes or features) along the line of "throughout 11.x expansion we will visit 8 zones of this mysterious new continent, and in the expansion after the plan is to visit as much as well, after that we might add more but time will tell"

[Kiria]

The Bobby and the Phil, The Bobby and the Phil,
One is a genius, the other's insane.

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The idea of playing together with his wife doesn't?

Currently the game doesnt interest him at all, he plays World of warships and Cities 2 atm.

[Nyel]

A world revamp needs to make sense. If it’s EK first and Kalimdor second (or the other way) there needs to be a very good reason why it’s just that place and why that place first. And as of now I haven’t seen any convincing storyline why you would need a world revamp at all. They’re not going to revamp a continent for your leveling experience, that would be a massive waste of resources. A revamp needs to make sense and it did after Legion and even after BfA with the Azerite. Right now it makes absolutely no sense story-wise.

[Vakir]

But I also see what Worldshaper is talking about. The 2023 roadmap was really well received when they released it. So they might see a worthy benefit in player trust by releasing a general roadmap for ahead (not specific expansion themes or features) along the line of "throughout 11.x expansion we will visit 8 zones of this mysterious new continent, and in the expansion after the plan is to visit as much as well, after that we might add more but time will tell"

A year roadmap is going to look like a total of 5-6 zones over one continent. At best. Remember that there's a pretty significant wait period inevitable between 10.2.7 and 11.0 on top of it, whether there's a 10.3 wedged in there or not.

[Shadochi]

A world revamp needs to make sense. If it’s EK first and Kalimdor second (or the other way) there needs to be a very good reason why it’s just that place and why that place first. And as of now I haven’t seen any convincing storyline why you would need a world revamp at all. They’re not going to revamp a continent for your leveling experience, that would be a massive waste of resources. A revamp needs to make sense and it did after Legion and even after BfA with the Azerite. Right now it makes absolutely no sense story-wise.

Could argue it makes sense since 5 years or so have passed since events of Shadowlands (tho that would be more for the DF revamp an excuse but it would still work for the next expac)

[Wangming]

Currently the game doesnt interest him at all, he plays World of warships and Cities 2 atm.

I get that. i can't be bothered to play retail either. But if I had a partner who loves the game I would probably still play it. Especially if she wants to.
Anyway, that's just me.

Fingers crossed, for more quality leaks today.

[ercarp]

New zone leak.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...reenshot_leak/

I feel like people saying this is "clearly AI" aren't all that familiar with the current capabilities of AI image generators. I admit that there are parts that look off, but this is anything but "clearly AI". It's possible they've trained a custom model capable of mimicking WoW screenshots accurately, sure, but I personally think there's some in-engine work involved here.

I don't think it's real though, the skybox looks awful for a modern WoW expansion.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

It would be funny if blizzard announced a roadmap for the next 30 years and they would eventually make wow version for seniors. senior+

[keelr]

I feel like people saying this is "clearly AI" aren't all that familiar with the current capabilities of AI image generators. I admit that there are parts that look off, but this is anything but "clearly AI". It's possible they've trained a custom model capable of mimicking WoW screenshots accurately, sure, but I personally think there's some in-engine work involved here.

I don't think it's real though, the skybox looks awful for a modern WoW expansion.

DALL E 3 really can generate wow screenshot like images. You just need to try a couple times.

[Kiria]

I get that. i can't be bothered to play retail either. But if I had a partner who loves the game I would probably still play it. Especially if she wants to.
Anyway, that's just me.

Fingers crossed, for more quality leaks today.

I'm all good I installed ATT and went back to Cata to start clearing areas 100%, so far I have completed Silvermoon, Tirisfall, Darnassus, Azure/Bloodmyst, Ashenvale, Felwood, Winterspring and Im currently doing Stonetalon mountains.

[Joszef Kiprich]

In my opinion or head for that matter, the revamp shouldn't be for 1-60 leveling. We have other continents for that now. It should be revamped for pre endgame leveling and designed in such a way future expansions can also make extensive use of those zones. It's gonna be harder and harder to shoehorn unexplored continents in. And to keep going to alien worlds would also can get kinda fatiguing.

[ercarp]

DALL E 3 really can generate wow screenshot like images. You just need to try a couple times.

Whenever I've tried that, they've always come out looking either like paintings or screenshots from a completely different game.

[Sondrelk]

A world revamp needs to make sense. If it’s EK first and Kalimdor second (or the other way) there needs to be a very good reason why it’s just that place and why that place first. And as of now I haven’t seen any convincing storyline why you would need a world revamp at all. They’re not going to revamp a continent for your leveling experience, that would be a massive waste of resources. A revamp needs to make sense and it did after Legion and even after BfA with the Azerite. Right now it makes absolutely no sense story-wise.

The argument that makes sense, at least to me. Is that dividing them up allows the developers to use all the zones effectively, and it just most of them. It also allows for patch zones or endgame zones in addition to the existing ones without too much issue like what happened in Cataclysm.

[Jaggler]

It would be funny if blizzard announced a roadmap for the next 30 years and they would eventually make wow version for seniors. senior+

i mean, that already exists, it is called classic

[Harbour]

Video of Thrall, riding in Durotar. Retro vibe.

Video of Jaina, studying in Theramore. Retro vibe.

Video of Chromie and Nozdormu in a corridor of time, with portals - one of which leads to the scene with Durotar where Thrall was.

BlizzCon floor area featuring the exact same corridor of time.

Yeah, I don't think that's me reading too much into it. That's Blizzard saying "oooh, what have we here? Wonder what it could be, you guys!"

I wont be surprised if the World Revamp would be the result of US going back in time to play around WC3 events
i remember before DF there were rumours of time travel expansion about pre-Arthas fall world, with alive Sylvanas etc

[Chickat]

Video of Thrall, riding in Durotar. Retro vibe.

Video of Jaina, studying in Theramore. Retro vibe.

Video of Chromie and Nozdormu in a corridor of time, with portals - one of which leads to the scene with Durotar where Thrall was.

BlizzCon floor area featuring the exact same corridor of time.

Yeah, I don't think that's me reading too much into it. That's Blizzard saying "oooh, what have we here? Wonder what it could be, you guys!"

I agree that theres more to it.

[Sondrelk]

I feel like people saying this is "clearly AI" aren't all that familiar with the current capabilities of AI image generators. I admit that there are parts that look off, but this is anything but "clearly AI". It's possible they've trained a custom model capable of mimicking WoW screenshots accurately, sure, but I personally think there's some in-engine work involved here.

I don't think it's real though, the skybox looks awful for a modern WoW expansion.

It certainly looks more like what you would expect from a features trailer shot though, so it has that going for it.

Hope it isn't true though, I still want to believe in the world revamp.

[Nyel]

The argument that makes sense, at least to me. Is that dividing them up allows the developers to use all the zones effectively, and it just most of them. It also allows for patch zones or endgame zones in addition to the existing ones without too much issue like what happened in Cataclysm.

Sure, but again, there needs to be a story attached to it. Something like the Scourge ravaging through Eastern Kingdoms -> revamp material. Or something like the Quiraj spreading over Kalimdor and Old God influence everywhere -> Kalimdor revamp. But right now we’re simply missing that storyline. Why would it take place after Dragonflight anyway?

I guess they could just cut off Lordaeron from the rest of EK and then revamp it, at least that would still make sense to do it step by step. But otherwise I have a hard time imagining why a revamp is even necessary or explained when there’s no world-shattering event is going on (which should have been Sargeras stabbing Azeroth, by the way).

[locketto]

I feel like people saying this is "clearly AI" aren't all that familiar with the current capabilities of AI image generators. I admit that there are parts that look off, but this is anything but "clearly AI". It's possible they've trained a custom model capable of mimicking WoW screenshots accurately, sure, but I personally think there's some in-engine work involved here.

I don't think it's real though, the skybox looks awful for a modern WoW expansion.

Yeah but are all the people dumb to don't know how to take a proper screen?

[Mecheon]

In my opinion or head for that matter, the revamp shouldn't be for 1-60 leveling. We have other continents for that now. It should be revamped for pre endgame leveling and designed in such a way future expansions can also make extensive use of those zones. It's gonna be harder and harder to shoehorn unexplored continents in. And to keep going to alien worlds would also can get kinda fatiguing.

I'd argue that's too confusing to anyone new. You step out of Stormwind city and whoops, endgame material, a random wolf one-shots you for the sheer audacity to step outside of town. That's not exactly a good player experience.

On that fatigue thing, it absolutely would be kinda fatiguing for endgame to just be stuff we visited over 20 years ago. We need something new to draw people in. I already have access to all of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, and Cata showed that you get the revamped world regardless if you buy the expansion, its just the new zones. Why should I buy the expansion if its endgame is just stuff I've had access to for almost 20 years at this point?