Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Wangming]

Cursed timeline prediction: Silvermoon is built upon sacred amani ruins, is actually Uldaz.

We launch all of quel'thalas into the sky for reasons. We get our sacred flying sun city/ continent.

Quel'Thalas turns into Azys Lla.

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Well the ocean obviously couldn't solve the Quel'Thalas transition, but the fog could be used if they make it look good enough and give some good enough handwaving to explaing why it is there

Speaking of the ocean. I wonder if we could get just one zone that is....just the ocean, a few scattered islands and the sea under. Just a DF zone sized chunk of the open sea?

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

I think it's both, there's a bunch of models for housing specifically given it is going to be an evergreen feature, but as with most model kits they've made in recent expansions, a lot of other models are made in a way where they are easily reusable in the future as well. They started doing this a bit in WoD, a bit more in Legion, way more in BfA, (kinda skipped SL) and then did it A LOT in Dragonflight and TWW. There is a good amount of asset reuse in everything they do now (which is a good thing) and I expect that to be the case going forward as well. e.g. we'll likely be seeing a lot of the DF Reliquary kit in Midnight, DF Tuskarr kit in TLT, etc, etc. The reuse also goes further than just models with the terrain itself also being built in a modular way where they can easily copy paste and recolor it for elsewhere without it looking copied over unless you have a trained eye.

It is also worth noting that as of the last few expansions, an increasing amount of models for WoW are no longer being made in-house but are outsourced (with art direction still from Blizzard), so they're likely to be more strategic with what they make in-house and what they have made externally which fits with how they've changed their strategy on asset reuse more and more.

And yes, I do feel like this will all be mass-used in a major revamp in the future, but I'm not quite sure if it's going to be a gradual thing or a mass one after TLT. I'm leaning more towards the latter with the exception of more and more generic model kits being added that will get used in it.

Yeah, there are lots of Dragonflight assets that can be reused for Northrend. Azur Span pines for Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord, little Azur Span trees/ice/rivers and frozen lakes for Icecrown and Storm Peaks, Titan structures for Sholazar Basin and Ulduar, Dragon structures obviously for Dragonblight,... I'm pretty sure this was planned in one way or another, and that the whole of Northrend will be rebuilt.

[Pyrophax]

I expect new neighborhoods be smaller for other zones (like come on, I want my darkspear hat be in Echo Isles, while my orc have in Durotar one) or ability to purchase multiple houses in same zone. Maybe not at start, but it will be implented. While starter zone mixing from Durotar and Aszhara is cool, trolls lack representation there.
I want each of my alt different house, not different room in same house.

[Daniri]

Nobody reasonable expected more than one house per neighbourhood with this level of complexity.

I don't know on what grounds you're attributing the limitation to complexity, but Wildstar's system is still more complex and allowed for individual characters to have their own houses. You could even have your alts be your neighbors.

[Cheezits]

What if North EK gets split off somehow, effectively becoming its own continent?

[Lahis]

What if North EK gets split off somehow, effectively becoming its own continent?

Technically it already is.

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I don't know on what grounds you're attributing the limitation to complexity, but Wildstar's system is still more complex and allowed for individual characters to have their own houses. You could even have your alts be your neighbors.

Sure, lets have every account have 60 different houses with thousands and thousands of items in them and store all of their exact XYZ coordinates and customization data in a server.

Single account data would be bigger than several Nintendo games combined.

[Enrif]

The Airlock tech wouldn't really work when there is no airlock to load in. Zaralek had long enough winding tunnels and the zone itself was small enough that is always loaded in time. I have flown down the Coreway several times and ended up in unloaded void at the end of it because the three underground zones didn't load in time. With the border between Plaguelands and Quel'thalas being simply an open mountain range, there wouldn't be time for Airlock tech to work. It is either gonna be direct update on EK map itself, or separate instance with portal gate or really, really convoluted excuse for long tunnel between the zones.

yeah, thats why i'm sceptical on that. I guess they could use a "void wall" or "clouds" to obfuscate the view while loading. But we have yet to see blizz use the airlock tech in an old map, as it was only used in DF and TWW maps.

[Auxis]

i'm in camp "just QT+Amani" for Midnights 12.0 zones. For the patches i don't think we will go to any of the EK. The Draenei Isles could be something nice and fitting, something with the Naga could be fitting, the moon itself has potential. Or something underground QT.

I know it was brought up here recently that Silvermoon was built ontop of the ruins of an Amani city, but wasn't there something about the Sunwell specifically being ontop of an Amani necropolis or something? Regardless, a buried haunted Amani city could be a cool concept to explore in a dungeon, raid, or part of a zone.

[Enrif]

I've experimented with making airlocks in the open world, it is doable with the current tech provided the transition point is in the ocean and far enough from land to be the generic-ocean color, or with a fog of war type situation where you fly through fog for a bit while being ported back and forth until the map is loaded. The latter is likely not to work well with the current system as it still fails every now and then (notably, it has a bunch of new issues with Delve airlocks specifically in 11.2.0, suspicious...), but I feel like a natural next level of the system would be what I described.

I don't know if they can manage to get over the issues the system currently has though and there's also the whole "locking people out of zones if you don't have the expansion/it hasn't launched" which might becoming a bit weird when airlocks are involved.

i have assumed something like that could work, but seems very unsatisfying at the moment. Would be very surprised if Blizz could pull it off in Midnight.

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I know it was brought up here recently that Silvermoon was built ontop of the ruins of an Amani city, but wasn't there something about the Sunwell specifically being ontop of an Amani necropolis or something? Regardless, a buried haunted Amani city could be a cool concept to explore in a dungeon, raid, or part of a zone.

i only know about the "high elves build upon the sacred lands of the amani". Nothing really about buildings, rather the general "thats my land, go away invader" stuff. There is Kith'ix though, thas was killed where the amani build zul'aman. So there is potential for underground stuff.

[bardicbass616]

I know it was brought up here recently that Silvermoon was built ontop of the ruins of an Amani city, but wasn't there something about the Sunwell specifically being ontop of an Amani necropolis or something? Regardless, a buried haunted Amani city could be a cool concept to explore in a dungeon, raid, or part of a zone.

I don’t think there were any specific details on what Silvermoon and the sunwell were built on top of besides it being an area the Amani held sacred.

[Wangming]

Technically it already is.

Angy Earth Dragon 2.0 emerging, Void Shenanings, or other similar events could widen that gap and indeed make it a separate continent. That could provide us with a nice playable area for Midnight that can be remade.

[Enrif]

I think we also should take into account that the Cataclysm could have separated QT from the rest of the EK. QT as we see it currently is still stuck pre-Cata.

[milkmustache]

Angy Earth Dragon 2.0 emerging, Void Shenanings, or other similar events could widen that gap and indeed make it a separate continent. That could provide us with a nice playable area for Midnight that can be remade.

Thandol Span as a properly foggy long bridge could work as an air lock too.

[Enrif]

Thandol Span as a properly foggy long bridge could work as an air lock too.

what about flying? With flying the bridge loses its gateway function for the airlock.

[milkmustache]

what about flying?

Imagine the gap expanded to the size between Waking Shores and Forbidden Reach, but a decently thick cloud of fog in the middle to act as the airlock.


Northern EK ====== ( Airlock Fog ) ===== Southern EK

[Enrif]

Imagine the gap expanded to the size between Waking Shores and Forbidden Reach, but a decently thick cloud of fog in the middle to act as the airlock.


Northern EK ====== ( Airlock Fog ) ===== Southern EK

yeah, i figure that. But that wouldn't really make the thandol span work. Also, it would break the quest from the wetlands that are set on the thandol span most likely

[Nibelheimy]

I could see a possibility of using the Ban'dinorial. Wasnt there a 'leak' saying something about runestones in the cinematic trailer?

I could see 12.0 being a race to collect moonstones to power a forcefield against the incoming void. Blizzard love their mcguffins.

Especially considering the Ethereal stuff, I could see them aiding quel'thalas in constructing a magical barrier, as they are want to do.

I also wonder what they're going to do with the dreadscar. I could see it being a long stretch of maw like danger.

[Enrif]

I could see a possibility of using the Ban'dinorial. Wasnt there a 'leak' saying something about runestones in the cinematic trailer?

I could see 12.0 being a race to collect moonstones to power a forcefield against the incoming void. Blizzard love their mcguffins.

would feed into the recent novella and the k'areshi arcane shields against the void, but also a call back to the dalaran dome and the elven gates of quel'thalas from WC3. I have a feeling, that some type of barrier will be the reason, why it is not directly connected to the EK

[Nibelheimy]

would feed into the recent novella and the k'areshi arcane shields against the void, but also a call back to the dalaran dome and the elven gates of quel'thalas from WC3. I have a feeling, that some type of barrier will be the reason, why it is not directly connected to the EK

Its been a while since I read any of this lore but wasn't it Arthas that brought the shield down? Could be why he's in lorewalking if they're going to have a similar callback with that but presumably Alleria or depressed Rommath (or whoever the dalaran quest sad guy is) bringing down the shield. However I've yet to do said lorewalking, so I don't know if this much is touched upon.

[milkmustache]

I could see a possibility of using the Ban'dinorial. Wasnt there a 'leak' saying something about runestones in the cinematic trailer?

I could see 12.0 being a race to collect moonstones to power a forcefield against the incoming void. Blizzard love their mcguffins.

Especially considering the Ethereal stuff, I could see them aiding quel'thalas in constructing a magical barrier, as they are want to do.

I also wonder what they're going to do with the dreadscar. I could see it being a long stretch of maw like danger.

This is a good call. The leak was pretty off beat for whatever an expansion cinematic could be in my opinion, but the idea of the Ban'dinorial coming back is a good one. Oathstones all over again lol, but maybe this time it makes a bit more sense.

Would also make sense as to where the Amani could be the first victims of the void, as they may not have a chance otherwise. All of Quel'thalas is protected behind the shield and due to their centuries long blood feud, they're stuck on the outside. Part of the MSQ could be helping convince the Sin'dorei to let the Amani in before it's too late.

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Its been a while since I read any of this lore but wasn't it Arthas that brought the shield down? Could be why he's in lorewalking if they're going to have a similar callback with that but presumably Alleria or depressed Rommath (or whoever the dalaran quest sad guy is) bringing down the shield. However I've yet to do said lorewalking, so I don't know if this much is touched upon.

Even better-- Dar'khan Drathir, the former magister who inspired the creation of the void elves. Right on the money.