Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Joshuaj]

It would be a bit better, depending on how they set it up. But it sounds like lots and lots of work. Which means a lot of time to wait before I can move into an area I like, and that's what's bothering me among other things.

What do you think is better? Blizzard giving players lots of living spaces at launch, at the cost of the feature sucking and requiring lots of updates? Or waiting for Blizzard to give players a proper foundation to the feature, and then expanding on it as time goes on?

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But I totally agree with you. I think it's logical and a good basis, but I can see what people object to. The fatigue of orcs and humans is understandable.

That I agree with. Maybe I'm less fatigued, due to the fact I main a Human Ret Paladin lmaooo.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

You are exaggerating. It's a foundational plan that they very clearly plan on expanding in future updates post-launch.

Of course. But is it safe to assume they'll change “a fundamental pillar” so soon?

[Joshuaj]

Speaking of which, what do you think about the Housing art, Enter? With the Human neighborhood and Orc neighborhood concepts? The human one looks amazing imo lmaooo

Love the typical medieval fantasy architecture of Stormwind and its people.

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Of course. But is it safe to assume they'll change “a fundamental pillar” so soon?

What would be changed so soon? One of their pillars literally states that housing is an ever evolving feature with its own roadmap.

With the roadmap in mind, I'm gonna assume we'll likely see Elven Neighborhoods in Midnight.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

What do you think is better? Blizzard giving players lots of living spaces at launch, at the cost of the feature sucking and requiring lots of updates? Or waiting for Blizzard to give players a proper foundation to the feature, and then expanding on it as time goes on?

If by “mediocre” we mean a slightly less ambitious home like ESO, then yes I prefer that. I wouldn't be loved for it, but that's what I would have preferred.

[Joshuaj]

And then for TLT, we'll likely get a Northrend Neighborhood, and maybe a Dwarven and Forsaken based Neighborhood (With one by Dun Morogh and Loch Modan, and the other being by Tirisfal and Silverpine).

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If by “mediocre” we mean a slightly less ambitious home like ESO, then yes I prefer that. I wouldn't be loved for it, but that's what I would have preferred.

I'm gonna assume Blizzard will give you the option of having a singular house in the future. That way, social and non-social players alike would be chill. Me, personally, I love the idea of Neighborhoods, and others definitely don't, and that's fine. It's definitely somethin I think Blizzard will look into in the future.

[Ersula]

Oh man, how I went from a dream to a nightmare. Neighborhoods might have worked in the vanilla days, but on retail today? A lot of people don't care about social interaction, it's all about playing solo in your own corner. And now they've come up with a good idea that would have worked 20 years ago? I get the impression that the housing team has no idea what WoW is like today.

There were a lot of us who wanted a nice little house in the open world somewhere in familiar areas that we love. Not instanced neighborhoods in new areas where you're forced to have neighbors and interact with them. They should have let people gather in specific places IF THEY WANTED, not forced it.

It's like that square in Dornogal where there's nothing but houses, I naively thought they'd be arranged to accommodate housing. But no, I won't be able to settle down in a place I love and relax. Instead, I'll have to move to new areas I don't know, build my house there and put up with neighbors, if I come across any from time to time. And above all, I'll have to wait YEARS for a neighborhood inspired by an area I love, with the risk that it simply won't happen.

I don't see how you're "forced" into social interaction anymore than seeing randos running around donogol. It's not like real neighbors.

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With the roadmap in mind, I'm gonna assume we'll likely see Elven Neighborhoods in Midnight.

Yes. I'm assuming the Org/Stormwind neighborhoods will be locked into being Orc/Human buildings, while we get a Belf/helf neighborhood at the release of Midnight & maybe a Lordaeron neighborhood halfway through the expansion as I'm still guessing updated Lordaeron will be one of the patch zones. Though a big bit of contention will Lordaeron be Horde or both like Silvermoon?

I see them saying Lordaeron & Silvermoon being nostalgic Alliance areas is why the push for them to be neutral exists, but I think the portion of the fandom who got into warcraft before Warcraft 3 are a distant minority. No fans of the game actually remembers Lordaeron & Silvermoon being alliance. They were only in the Alliance before these zones existed.

[Joshuaj]

I don't see how you're "forced" into social interaction anymore than seeing randos running around donogol. It's not like real neighbors.

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Yes. I'm assuming the Org/Stormwind neighborhoods will be locked into being Orc/Human buildings, while we get a Belf/helf neighborhood at the release of Midnight & maybe a Lordaeron neighborhood halfway through the expansion as I'm still guessing updated Lordaeron will be one of the patch zones. Though a big bit of contention will Lordaeron be Horde or both like Silvermoon?

I see them saying Lordaeron & Silvermoon being nostalgic Alliance areas is why the push for them to be neutral exists, but I think the portion of the fandom who got into warcraft before Warcraft 3 are a distant minority. No fans of the game actually remembers Lordaeron & Silvermoon being alliance. They were only in the Alliance before these zones existed.

Actually, I like the idea of other Neighborhoods having different architecture styles to choose from. My argument is more-so the idea that, as other Neighborhoods appear, so will other culture based architecture.

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So like, if you want to customize a Night Elf or Dwarven house in the Human Neighborhood, you should be allowed to do that, and vice versa. Boundless customization is part of Blizzard's design pillars, afterall.

[Lady Atia]

I don't see how you're "forced" into social interaction anymore than seeing randos running around donogol. It's not like real neighbors.

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Yes. I'm assuming the Org/Stormwind neighborhoods will be locked into being Orc/Human buildings, while we get a Belf/helf neighborhood at the release of Midnight & maybe a Lordaeron neighborhood halfway through the expansion as I'm still guessing updated Lordaeron will be one of the patch zones. Though a big bit of contention will Lordaeron be Horde or both like Silvermoon?

I see them saying Lordaeron & Silvermoon being nostalgic Alliance areas is why the push for them to be neutral exists, but I think the portion of the fandom who got into warcraft before Warcraft 3 are a distant minority. No fans of the game actually remembers Lordaeron & Silvermoon being alliance. They were only in the Alliance before these zones existed.

Tbf, the zones are already pretty much neutral anyways. Yes, you need a char of said faction to get the house in the first place, but besides from that, there are 0 faction restrictions in place.

[Alanar]

I bet housing will be like the Alterac Valley entrance, where the zone inside isn't really on the world map and you have to imagine that it exists in the world proper.

Which kinda sucks tbh.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

Speaking of which, what do you think about the Housing art, Enter? With the Human neighborhood and Orc neighborhood concepts? The human one looks amazing imo lmaooo

Love the typical medieval fantasy architecture of Stormwind and its people.

I love. It's very beautiful and it makes you dream. Especially the human neighborhood with the gates of Stormwind behind in the distance, I like the feeling that the art captures. But to play the service asshole card, concept art always looks crazy, compared to what's in the game...

What would be changed so soon? One of their pillars literally states that housing is an ever evolving feature with its own roadmap.

With the roadmap in mind, I'm gonna assume we'll likely see Elven Neighborhoods in Midnight.

This one :

Having many housing zones conflicts with the second pillar of designing a feature that is “Deeply Social.” In a world where players can live in many different zones, they become increasingly spread out and even with aggressive sharding, the chance of seeing other players, much less interacting with them, drops quickly.

I'm gonna assume Blizzard will give you the option of having a singular house in the future. That way, social and non-social players alike would be chill. Me, personally, I love the idea of Neighborhoods, and others definitely don't, and that's fine. It's definitely somethin I think Blizzard will look into in the future.

I hope they do, but it seems to be contrary to their philosophy like the quote above.

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I don't see how you're "forced" into social interaction anymore than seeing randos running around donogol. It's not like real neighbors.

I don't know how they're going to do it, but judging from the look of the article I have the impression that there will be quests or things like that to complete. But this is only a supposition, even if nothing forces people to interact with each other, just the fact of having to settle in neighborhoods is a form of forced socialization. Let's see what the private neighborhoods offer because that will be the only escape.

[Joshuaj]

I bet housing will be like the Alterac Valley entrance, where the zone inside isn't really on the world map and you have to imagine that it exists in the world proper.

I'm thinking more like Garrisons or the zones from TWW. Phasing "instance" tech.

[Al Gorefiend]

Oh man, how I went from a dream to a nightmare. Neighborhoods might have worked in the vanilla days, but on retail today? A lot of people don't care about social interaction, it's all about playing solo in your own corner. And now they've come up with a good idea that would have worked 20 years ago? I get the impression that the housing team has no idea what WoW is like today.

There were a lot of us who wanted a nice little house in the open world somewhere in familiar areas that we love. Not instanced neighborhoods in new areas where you're forced to have neighbors and interact with them. They should have let people gather in specific places IF THEY WANTED, not forced it.

It's like that square in Dornogal where there's nothing but houses, I naively thought they'd be arranged to accommodate housing. But no, I won't be able to settle down in a place I love and relax. Instead, I'll have to move to new areas I don't know, build my house there and put up with neighbors, if I come across any from time to time. And above all, I'll have to wait YEARS for a neighborhood inspired by an area I love, with the risk that it simply won't happen.

You vastly underestimate how many players there are if you think non-instanced housing would work. You really want every square inch of the game map covered in people's houses?

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I bet housing will be like the Alterac Valley entrance, where the zone inside isn't really on the world map and you have to imagine that it exists in the world proper.

Just like Siren Isle, all the island expeditions, strand of the ancients (whoa what a callback!)

[Ersula]

You vastly underestimate how many players there are if you think non-instanced housing would work. You really want every square inch of the game map covered in people's houses?

They said there would be around 50 plots for homes in the neighborhood. And they also said it would be "open-world" which implies its not instanced, which WoW has an answer for: Phasing. Combine that with their comments about public & private housing, seems like they're describing that in public mode, the rest of those 49 plots will be filled in with player's homes the same way layer matchmaking works, and everytime you visit you have completely new neighbors, and private mode will probably be friend or guild based, where you share a version of the one neighborhood with your personalized community.

The only difficultly logistics wise, is trying to visit the home of someone who put their house in the same plot as you did.

Tbf, the zones are already pretty much neutral anyways. Yes, you need a char of said faction to get the house in the first place, but besides from that, there are 0 faction restrictions in place.

Putting houses of wildly different racial aesthetics together would look pretty bad. Plus I don't see them giving a house for each character. It'll probably be warband based. There being multiple neighborhoods for each racial house aesthetic added over times seems to be the solution to this problem.

[Khaza-R]

Just like Siren Isle, all the island expeditions, strand of the ancients (whoa what a callback!)

Tbf, its always been that way. Strath and SM are not acutally in the game world in real proportions but there are assets there to make it feel like they are.

So we could see something like that used just with much newer tech. At distance it feels like the neighborhoods are there but when you get near them you are phased into the real instanced neighborhood.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

You vastly underestimate how many players there are if you think non-instanced housing would work. You really want every square inch of the game map covered in people's houses?

Lmao obviously not. I don't know why you think I was talking about non-instanced houses but that's not the case. I was thinking about the ESO system, the houses are there, but when you approach you can enter your personal instance. Everyone can buy the same house. For me it is the most balanced system.

[Raetary]

I don't mind neighborhoods, so long as they do plan to eventually add more in other locations.

But what i do care about, is the actual house.
If the outside of the house is stuck as a hut/village home, then there is gonna be a problem.

Though, Component Theme for the exterior was a category in the datamined strings, so i'm staying optimistic.

[Al Gorefiend]

Lmao obviously not. I don't know why you think I was talking about non-instanced houses but that's not the case. I was thinking about the ESO system, the houses are there, but when you approach you can enter your personal instance. Everyone can buy the same house. For me it is the most balanced system.

I don't know other MMO systems, that's cheating on WoW. I am a faithful lover

[Cheezits]

I don't mind neighborhoods, so long as they do plan to eventually add more in other locations.

But what i do care about, is the actual house.
If the outside of the house is stuck as a hut/village home, then there is gonna be a problem.

Though, Component Theme for the exterior was a category in the datamined strings, so i'm staying optimistic.

I'm pretty sure the houses will be entirely customizable, it's the neighborhoods that will be aesthetically static.

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As was mentioned before, the fact that these zones are merging old zones is a good point to a revamp sooner than later. Hopefully at launch Midnight, though early access would be cool.

[Joshuaj]

I don't mind neighborhoods, so long as they do plan to eventually add more in other locations.

But what i do care about, is the actual house.
If the outside of the house is stuck as a hut/village home, then there is gonna be a problem.

Though, Component Theme for the exterior was a category in the datamined strings, so i'm staying optimistic.

Yeah, I imagine they'll add exterior edits to the feature. Afterall, I'm sure they realize players want to design how their Elven house looks, etc (Cause yes, I do believe we'll see these as customizations in the coming years).

[SunspotAnims]

A thing that I've seen some people confused about is what the houses will look like, and to be clear they haven't really confirmed much at all about that. I think the Durotar concept art threw some people off because it depicts nothing but orc homes, but that was a zone concept, not a house concept. They copy-pasted a handful of hut drawings just to get a feel for where the houses can go.

We really don't know if there will be limitations at all for what style of house can go where, but I'm guessing there won't be. A big reason for me thinking this is that the orc-style furniture is labelled "rugged" and the human-style furniture is labelled "folk". They're specifically avoiding racial labels and also implying there will be more styles than just those two.