Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Marlamin]

At least we can be sure this one isn't AI.

I mean, it was ahead of its time in more way than one. Who knows?

[Beerplz]

At the rate this is going in ~10 years we are gonna have AI create a whole ass fake expansion for us to play while we wait for the actual expansion

[ZyntosAran]

ok guys. so now we have full map of blizzcon & schedule:






and from what it seems 2.5h opening cermony is not a 'mistake'

2.5 h is huge period of time

also all 'what's next' panels are longer then usual (45m -> 1h)
and we have:
WoW Retail
WoW Classic
Overwatch 2
Hearthstone

but not diablo 4?? how so?
there is no way 'in current descent state of the game' that diablo 4 could be hard passed on blizzzcon
soo...

Diablo 4 1st Expansion Pack inc?

what about recent papa metzen post?


There is something huge incoming
and I think WoW revamp is on the way

Regarding the schedule.

The panels will not be 1 hour long, there will be a break between each (min 5 minutes)
The opening ceremony could also be 1 hour, or 1:30 hours, with a hidden panel afterwards (survival maybe)
diablo 4 has the campfire chat at saturday.

[Harbour]

At the rate this is going in ~10 years we are gonna have AI create a whole ass fake expansion for us to play while we wait for the actual expansion

Which would also be made mostly with AI.

[Monkaliciouz]

I'm not really sure we should be using that site as a way to judge whether or not a leak is real or not. All it's telling us is that the image isn't AI, and uh...well... Last I checked, Eye of Azshara wasn't real.

Obviously, it's not real nor AI, but if something were to be AI, then we can say it's definitely not real. It can be used as a disqualifier, just not a qualifier.

[Dracullus]

I mean, it was ahead of its time in more way than one. Who knows?

Damn this time traveling leakers, they ruin everything.

[Shadochi]

At the rate this is going in ~10 years we are gonna have AI create a whole ass fake expansion for us to play while we wait for the actual expansion

tbh something like this might be much closer, its basically just about automating what we could do on sandboxes for a while now.

[Lady Atia]

I dont think it should've been released with expansion launch, but instead with/shortly before 10.1 launch (not to spoil the other primalists)

Yeah tbf, my second thought was releasing it after the Raszageth race to world first (so in January). Not sure when they announced 10.1, but I still think it would have been cooler to first read about Aberrus in the book and than seeing it realized ingame.

But than again, I grew up with pen and paper and tabletops, so having sourcebooks to read through was always a favourite of mine haha.

[Dnusha]

Imagine if the next expansion is The Dark Below.

The Dark Below.

Finally.

[Shadochi]

https://imgur.com/VkHUMoR

I'm not really sure we should be using that site as a way to judge whether or not a leak is real or not. All it's telling us is that the image isn't AI, and uh...well... Last I checked, Eye of Azshara wasn't real.

Idk man, I still have memories of depleting my very first M+2 key in Eye of Azshara, and that trauma is very real as is Eye of Azshara (well not the EoA from the pic, but EoA is real)

[Teriz]

Least AI logo I've seen so far; I'd be very happy

A light invasion expansion sounds way better than an Avaloren expansion.

The obvious problem is a Y’rel invasion would have to mean that Iridikron’s story is ended or postponed by 11.0.

[Makorus]

Yeah tbf, my second thought was releasing it after the Raszageth race to world first (so in January). Not sure when they announced 10.1, but I still think it would have been cooler to first read about Aberrus in the book and than seeing it realized ingame.

But than again, I grew up with pen and paper and tabletops, so having sourcebooks to read through was always a favourite of mine haha.

Well, the book was originally slated for Nov 22 2022.


The SKU even links to the current War of the Scaleborn page.

[micwini]

A light invasion expansion sounds way better than an Avaloren expansion.

The obvious problem is a Y’rel invasion would have to mean that Iridikron’s story is ended or postponed by 11.0.

Unless the reason Iridikon's chest is glowing bright is because Yrel is hiding inside of him.

[ercarp]

Yeah, from a Worldbuilding and DMing (D&D) perspective I can relate to this. Sometimes players come excited to me with an idea for a new character backstory or something like that, and I just know it won't work but I don't want to discourage them from ideas so I try and modify my worldbuilding to fit it in (tho sometimes it just doesn't work out and they have to start from scratch). And the thing is when I started worldbuilding that world, it predates me playing D&D by like at least half a decade so its not a rare occurrence (however in the last year most of my worldbuilding effort has been trying to intergrade the various ideas I had to put in to feel more like a part of my world and less like a generic Forgotten Realms spinoff)

Yeah, it's hard to be in a position where you have to look people in the eye and tell them, "No, your idea is terrible. Back to the drawing board." I know I could never do that.

[Baraden]

A light invasion expansion sounds way better than an Avaloren expansion.

The obvious problem is a Y’rel invasion would have to mean that Iridikron’s story is ended or postponed by 11.0.

Maybe giving it time to simmer would allow people to actually give a shit about him

[Marlamin]

At the rate this is going in ~10 years we are gonna have AI create a whole ass fake expansion for us to play while we wait for the actual expansion

Hold on.. I'm receiving a message from the future.

Okay guys, I played through the entire 30 minute intro experience demo of 15.0. While great, I did notice a few things:

- The 5th quest went on about how it was a language model and that it couldn't kill any creatures for me, giving me a quest to do it instead. Pretty suspicious.
- One of the new class ability spell effects was very similar to this other existing ability, leading me to believe the AI accidentally just copied and retextured it.
- Sometimes the new race character model sprouted a few extra arms and legs, granted because they are shapeshifters I don't know if this was intended or not.
- It only took 15 seconds to start the download and get in-game, I checked my network usage and the only thing it downloaded was a text prompt. Weird.
- My GPU usage was through the roof during the entirety of the demo, while WoW is historically more CPU bound instead.
- There were no files to datamine.

All in all, pretty suspicious! Not sure if this is a real leak or not, I guess we'll have to find out at MSCon 2032 later this week.

[micwini]

Hold on.. I'm receiving a message from the future.

The MSCon killed me.

[caliphax]

Ah yes... I must have blocked it out...

[Murlocos]

I'm almost 1/3rd through the "War of the Scaleborn" now, and I will say it again - that novel should have been released earlier, as the classic pre-expansion book. 10.1 would have gotten so much more hype if we had known about Aberrus from the start, the book even mentions Rashok. We also finally get insight into the Incarnates and the origins of the Primalists, but it feels a bit too late, as most of the "teases and easter eggs" no longer work now that we already played through the first two patches. The only real potential location for new content so far is Harrowsdeep.

The Sylvanas book had the same problems - it came to late and answered questions which no longer mattered anymore as she was already back on our side when the novel released. Really hope they change that approach with 11.0 and give us a propper pre-expansion novel at the start which both lays groundwork for the upcoming expansion but also gives us enough teasers to speculate on future patches. Which, funny enough, so far this book would have done perfectly at the start of Dragonflight ...

Everything I've seen from the book has made it extremely baffling that they let it get pushed back a whole year. As you said, it's the same fundamental issue as the Sylvanas book: the primary hooks of their respective plots (why did Sylvanas join the Jailer, what are their plans? and the family drama between the Aspects and the Incarnates) are barely elaborated on in the game and left for books after the story is about over. They're straight up telling the plot out of order but still acting as if players have the same knowledge as them the whole way through?

I harp a lot on the story in here, but if we had even half of the book's development in-game, and it actually came out around the expansion's release, I think that DF's main plot would have felt considerably better.

Sylvanas had the "excuse" of a troubled expansion development, hell, go all the way back to Lord of the Clans which had to bridge the gap between WC2 and WC3 because a planned game got cancelled. I'm not seeing what the excuse for them doing it again with Scaleborn is unless they genuinely think this is sensible narrative design.

[Teriz]

Maybe giving it time to simmer would allow people to actually give a shit about him

Not necessarily. Iridikron gives off the vibes of a one and done type of villain. Almost like a plot device personified. No need to drag out his story longer than required.