Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Nymrohd]

I mean, they've taken a lot of care/effort not to leak the entire thing through earlier builds (although some bits obviously leaked through, but far less than usual for upcoming features). The non-global release is a bit disappointing for the reasons you mentioned, but whatever. I hope it's going to be a fun enough event either way, hopefully cool enough to do again in the future but with different themes/variations.

Just saying, the fun better be in the gameplay, not the surprise factor.
Personally I was hoping they were going to effectively playtest some of their delves tech by releasing a reskinned mock up to start getting feedback early.

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I don't understand why they aren't launching it at the same time in every region, defeats the purpose of this event completely.

Other than that I'm disappointed we didn't learn anything about 10.2.7 today, was hoping we'd get more info on that.

I'd say the actual important news is that we will get a S4 PTR probably next week

[DrBrnr]

10.2.6 survival mode for warcraft, stranded on an island, pirate themed, somewhere in the undiscovered west, following the community speculation re: all the pirate themed items on trading post, the in game book, and Nightsquall

[Marlamin]

Is there anything pointing to just HOW limited the event is? ie weeks vs "up to TWW"

No clue.

Just saying, the fun better be in the gameplay, not the surprise factor.

Yup, that's going to be the most important for sure. It will quite literally be "experimental gameplay" either way, if it succeeds it'll probably be back in some way/form, if it doesn't that's a shame but at least it wouldn't have taken all the time away from other things (given they have a separate team for that, although probably sharing some artists/dev time obviously).

[milkmustache]

10.2.6 survival mode for warcraft, stranded on an island, pirate themed, somewhere in the undiscovered west, following the community speculation re: all the pirate themed items on trading post, the in game book, and Nightsquall

The true gift of 10.2.6 is giving us the "leaks" that we will miss from already knowing 11.0 and 12.0.

[Ersula]

Exactly. If you want to be secretive you have to be damn sure that what you got there holds up. A limited time event simply does not.

The last "event" we had that wasn't tested is still on-going & is broken garbage. I guess that's what we should temper our expectations with.

[Throren]

I do hope the entire "secrecy" experiment ends up being considered a failure by Blizz and not done again for major patches going forward. Its been a long time since Ive seen such negative driven unrest from players because of game related decisions

[Auxis]

To quote Alan Davies:

Bloody hell, Stephen. This better be good.

Like, it had better run for at least the 8 week gap between patches that they said would exist.
Way to fix this would make it be a seasonal event.

Because limited time shit is not fun, especially if it has rewards.

[milkmustache]

I do hope the entire "secrecy" experiment ends up being considered a failure by Blizz and not done again for major patches going forward. Its been a long time since Ive seen such negative driven unrest from players because of game related decisions

I was an early defender of this attempt, but I the approach has just been pretty rocky in it's community acceptance. A big positive of Dragonflight & 2023 was the consistency of Blizzard's communication. It maybe would have been better to leave this unannounced as much as they could.

They're trying something though, so hopefully they adapt to whatever the ultimate reaction is and address future content as such.

[Nymrohd]

The last "event" we had that wasn't tested is still on-going & is broken garbage. I guess that's what we should temper our expectations with.

Here is the thing. My issue with the HS event is not that it is broken. It is that it is garbage. Blizzard supposedly is gameplay first. The HS event is all about the rewards. There is nothing particularly rewarding or enjoyable about the gameplay. And this seems like a constant theme for their world events. The focus is entirely on the collection element and not on making the gameplay of the event enjoyable.

[Darkarath]

Here is the thing. My issue with the HS event is not that it is broken. It is that it is garbage. Blizzard supposedly is gameplay first. The HS event is all about the rewards. There is nothing particularly rewarding or enjoyable about the gameplay. And this seems like a constant theme for their world events. The focus is entirely on the collection element and not on making the gameplay of the event enjoyable.

Completely agree with your reasoning. Sadly, I think that we tend to underestimate how many WoW players play just to keep collecting stuff.

[justwatching]

The last "event" we had that wasn't tested is still on-going & is broken garbage. I guess that's what we should temper our expectations with.

And before that they shipped that amazing Gilneas Event.

Completely agree with your reasoning. Sadly, I think that we tend to underestimate how many WoW players play just to keep collecting stuff.

Sure but I think they wouldnt mind the activity being enjoyable. I mean the main drive of the mage tower was the rewards as well and people still enjoyed that.

They gotta get their shit together with these things...Gilneas was low effort garbage as well.

[Varodoc]

Completely agree with your reasoning. Sadly, I think that we tend to underestimate how many WoW players play just to keep collecting stuff.

Which begs the obvious question: Why BfA raids are not solo'able yet?

Seriously, this needs to come in 10.2.7.

[Marlamin]

Here is the thing. My issue with the HS event is not that it is broken. It is that it is garbage. Blizzard supposedly is gameplay first. The HS event is all about the rewards. There is nothing particularly rewarding or enjoyable about the gameplay. And this seems like a constant theme for their world events. The focus is entirely on the collection element and not on making the gameplay of the event enjoyable.

Collectables will definitely be a part of the upcoming event, but hopefully the gameplay is going to be on par/worth it (it'll have to be for it to be consistently replayable as Max mentioned). You can't have a good event without both of those being good (as indeed shown by the HS or archival event not exactly being fun).

[Nibelheimy]

Let's remember that they stated this was available to anyone without the Dragonflight expansion, so it being on the Isles wouldn't be the case. I can't imagine them creating a new zone for a time limited event. Maybe they reskinned island expeditions?

True, true. I agree with your point there, this is a bit shit for them either way. The event sucks and we all hate it, it goes and nobody cares and people will be left with a bad taste in their mouth about it. The event is great, and we will all be disappointed when it leaves. I'm confused why they've held off on mentioning it is limited time, would adding that to the roadmap have tempered the expectations I woner.

[Woggmer]

I was an early defender of this attempt, but I the approach has just been pretty rocky in it's community acceptance. A big positive of Dragonflight & 2023 was the consistency of Blizzard's communication. It maybe would have been better to leave this unannounced as much as they could.

They're trying something though, so hopefully they adapt to whatever the ultimate reaction is and address future content as such.

They could've just lied and say "It isn't anything special, don't get your hopes up" and people won't get too hyped about it like a patch with nothing too substantial.. but then when they do release it, people will see what it is and be genuinely surprised by it.

But the fact they say "We want this to be a surprise" is hyping it up and making people expect it to be something massive that would really 'wow' them.

[justwatching]

Which begs the obvious question: Why BfA raids are not solo'able yet?

Seriously, this needs to come in 10.2.7.

It's wild it even takes that long. Slap a 1000% dmg and health aura on anyone in the instance and disable any mechanic that requires more than 1 player.

[Viridiel]

Hm someone in the other thread found the location similar to Freehold, but there's differences. So it seems the shot they used is just plucked assets from BFA and placed elsewhere. Possibly Dragon Isles?

It looks to me like it could be the Azure Span based on the trees and the mountains in the background, but it's really hard to tell. I definitely don't think those are the trees in Freehold, and they don't look particularly tropical so I doubt it's Tel'Abim.

[Nymrohd]

Collectables will definitely be a part of the upcoming event, but hopefully the gameplay is going to be on par/worth it (it'll have to be for it to be consistently replayable as Max mentioned). You can't have a good event without both of those being good (as indeed shown by the HS or archival event not exactly being fun).

The archival event has me worried really. It's been many weeks since it launched yet the event is riddled with bugs. Not that it would be particularly fun if it did not have the bugs but that goes with them not knowing what to do with world content in general.
Which I don't get. World gameplay can be fun for the following reasons
a) base gameplay is just good. I'd say DF actually has this, most specs play well. Ofc for this to work things still need to survive long enough for you to actually be able to play your spec instead of 1 or 2 shoting most things.
b) the content is challenging. That is anathema for world content these days. Everything needs to be easy
c) the gameplay delivers on power fantasy. This is what happened with Legion and with the latter half of BfA (Essences and then Corruptions). Yes the content was not challenging but you had fun demolishing massive pulls of mobs and you were actually offered mobs in high density to slaughter. But DF is not offering that.


And yeah I was not really excited about this patch until that detail about Max came about which got me interested.

[Viridiel]

I'm wondering if it isn't the part of the Azure Span to the west getting near Amirdrassil. Could this somehow be the follow-on for Wratheye?

[justwatching]

I'm wondering if it isn't the part of the Azure Span to the west getting near Amirdrassil. Could this somehow be the follow-on for Wratheye?

It's not part of the Dragon Isles.