Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[13last]

I genuinely think people interpret too much into this. Blizzard has a habit of posting lore refreshers before updates, and while those two languages have probably released it too early, I genuinely don't see how it means anything other than the fact that those two races are in the expansion, which we kinda knew.

I'm with you on this, probably a mistake in releasing it so early or them trying to hype midnight up/refreshers as you mentioned. Wasn't an expansion leaked by someone working on the French translations a long time ago also? Doesn't mean much though.

Personally I'll be a little more sold on the current leak when we see the final cinematic of Dimensius. If the sky goes all voidy and dark everywhere in Azeroth - already hinted at by first audio log yesterday. So I guess we'll know for sure next week when it's out.

[Makorus]

I think this is something we can all get behind. Late Dragonflight WoW social team was incredible. This Week in WoW, Roadmaps, silly videos, etc.

We've lost This Week in WoW, videos are extremely dialed back, and you can tell they're made with out of house marketing firms. A lot of the 11.2 feature videos don't even use the correct font. It's sloppy and disappointing, a clear mistake on behalf of Microsoft that I hope they quickly course correct on. I highly doubt it.

Eeehhh, hard disagree.

Their social media team, like the shorts they are doing, are still really good. Whether you find them funny or not, you can clearly tell there is a lot of passion put into it.

[FossilFree]

While a time travel expansion can be good- certainly can be better than WoD- it's really hard to imagine any way that could fit with the hooks we have for Midnight.

Midnight's supposedly about reuniting the Elven tribes who wouldn't even have been divided in WC2 era, and fighting off a Void invasion that's coming in the present. Neither of those plotlines would make sense if we're time traveling.

Well they will be reunited because we will be interacting with them before they split into 3. And like I said in my earlier post, we could go there to seek their aid against the void threat in the present, but perhaps we get bogged down in the internal affairs of the High Elves, namely their conflicts with the Amani. At least for the 12.0 patch anyways.

[milkmustache]

But that's the thing, the text is clearly saying "Amani". I worked for outsourced social teams and support and something that I quickly learned is that game devs are extremely picky regarding story and spoilers. Using a Darkspear for an Amani would lead to that outsource losing their project in months.

I think a key part here is the characters being in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Had the High Elf been in Quel'thalas and the Amani been in Zul'Aman, it would've been entirely appropriate to use the old Amani model. But at the moment, the Amani are not a part of the Horde, so using the old model would also be a misrepresentation, although far more obvious and on the nose in a way that may draw too much attention to the potential hints that the script is feeding.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

...it's just a video explaining the history of elves and trolls...

...nothing shocking since Midnight is approaching...

...you guys are overanalyzing too much.

[Cheezits]

Also the Amani model is ancient and they may not have thought it proper to put in modern marketing regardless of what fans would think.

https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/scree...ni-warrior.jpg

[13last]

I think a key part here is the characters being in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Had the High Elf been in Quel'thalas and the Amani been in Zul'Aman, it would've been entirely appropriate to use the old Amani model. But at the moment, the Amani are not a part of the Horde, so using the old model would also be a misrepresentation, although far more obvious and on the nose in a way that may draw too much attention to the potential hints that the script is feeding.

This made me think whether they'll be full blown races or just allied races. I'd honestly love some new starting areas but I doubt they'd waste resources on something that we'd only spend an hour in.

And Blizzard showing them in orgri/sw seems to suggest more allied races unless it was only meant to show which faction gets what.

They need to overhaul how races work, the UI is already cluttered with the races in selection screen.

...it's just a video explaining the history of elves and trolls...

...nothing shocking since Midnight is approaching...

...you guys are overanalyzing too much.

I mean there's a reason they were in each capital and them specifically mentioning they won't forget their history together but will fight the greater picture. What else do we do but talk about it?

[milkmustache]

This made me think whether they'll be full blown races or just allied races. I'd honestly love some new starting areas but I doubt they'd waste resources on something that we'd only spend an hour in.

And Blizzard showing them in orgri/sw seems to suggest more allied races unless it was only meant to show which faction gets what.

They need to overhaul how races work, the UI is already cluttered with the races in selection screen

This is something I keep coming back to. Amani will certainly be modeled off the Forest Troll model (in a modern sense), and will clearly be more than an allied race... but High Elves will most likely use the same Blood/Void Elf model with new customization.

It really feels like an incredible opportunity to do a character customization overhaul. I know it's tossed around a lot as an idea (particularly by myself), but it would solve so many problems especially going into Midnight.

[Makorus]

Also the Amani model is ancient and they may not have thought it proper to put in modern marketing regardless of what fans would think.

https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/scree...ni-warrior.jpg

Technically, there is a more up-to-date model which they could have used.



- - - Updated - - -

This is something I keep coming back to. Amani will certainly be modeled off the Forest Troll model (in a modern sense), and will clearly be more than an allied race... but High Elves will most likely use the same Blood/Void Elf model with new customization.

It really feels like an incredible opportunity to do a character customization overhaul. I know it's tossed around a lot as an idea (particularly by myself), but it would solve so many problems especially going into Midnight.

Yeah, both Amani and High Elves feel like a waste of a race slot, but at the same time, they'd be nice to have, so adding a Sub-race option would really be the best of both worlds.

[Cheezits]

This is something I keep coming back to. Amani will certainly be modeled off the Forest Troll model (in a modern sense), and will clearly be more than an allied race... but High Elves will most likely use the same Blood/Void Elf model with new customization.

I noted in my looking up the Amani models that they straight up use the same animations as Pre-WoD Troll, or at least I think they do. So they may just be like however they do High Elf, yeah.

- - - Updated - - -

Technically, there is a more up-to-date model which they could have used.

-snip-

I thought that may be brought up, but it's a dead guy, so yeah. I think we're overthinking it and while they should've used this model, they were probably just told "lol no we are not using the new Amani model before reveal, just use a troll, its not that important"

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, both Amani and High Elves feel like a waste of a race slot, but at the same time, they'd be nice to have, so adding a Sub-race option would really be the best of both worlds.

That race slot is gonna get gobbled up by Ethereal most likely, they would only have ever been an AR. Some kind of AR/customization choice thing would be nice for them (and Broken) but I don't feel like they're stealing anything from say Ogres and Naga because they were going to get new models in the Quelthalas expansion anyway because of all the NPCs (similar to Earthen- nobody asked for OC Earthen, but they were NPCs so may as well make them playable. However both those NPC races of QT are very desirable so yeah.)

[Wangming]

I think a key part here is the characters being in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Had the High Elf been in Quel'thalas and the Amani been in Zul'Aman, it would've been entirely appropriate to use the old Amani model. But at the moment, the Amani are not a part of the Horde, so using the old model would also be a misrepresentation, although far more obvious and on the nose in a way that may draw too much attention to the potential hints that the script is feeding.

While true that an Amani in Orgrimmar is not something that was seen, you can perhaps say that with the Zandalari now allied with the Horde, the other tribes slowly join as well. I mean, what other options do they have?
As MoP showed, and will show again in Classic, if you are not part of the Horde or Alliance war effort, you are collateral damage. So unless we get a third playable faction, every sentien race needs to join one or the other to have a support net when things turn to shit.
And Zandalar is the closest the various troll tribes can have to a federal government.

[Timester]

I still don't buy the "it's just a troll". It's completely lazy disgard for lore established since WC3.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

I mean there's a reason they were in each capital and them specifically mentioning they won't forget their history together but will fight the greater picture

That the video editor simply chose this to represent the High Elves and the Amani, with the player character models and nothing more. The choice of background doesn't matter in my opinion; it's just scenery. And as I said, it's simply a video that explains their history and perhaps sets up the plot of Midnight.

I mean, these two races are on my list because, like many, I think it makes sense for the expansion, but seriously, when I saw this video two weeks ago, I didn't see anything more in it than what I said.

[Makorus]

I still don't understand your argument, Timester.

It's supposed to be a stand-in for an Amani Troll in a lore recap. They don't have an Amani model that's not literally 18 years old at this point. So yeah, you take the modern looking normal troll models, because you can mog them, and they are the best looking Troll models we have. Do we have Amani Trolls in Orgrimmar right now? Can Trolls and High Elves talk telepathically now? It's not an in-game cutscene. It's a Youtube Short.

[Wangming]

They need to overhaul how races work, the UI is already cluttered with the races in selection screen.

Oh there is so much that should get an overhaul provided they have the time and resources. With MoP classic here I spend a lot more time in Stormwind again. Without flying or mounts for that matter. And I keep asking questions like...

"Why the fuck is the trade district so far from the docks?"
"Why isn't there a single piece of dwarven architecture in the dwarven district?"
"Why doesn't Old Town actually look older than the rest?"
"Why don't we have gondolas to traverse the canals if they are there anyway?"

And that's not getting into the fine details of how the windows on buildings are actually just painted over and everything is just one texture from stone, to wood and glass.

[milkmustache]

While true that an Amani in Orgrimmar is not something that was seen, you can perhaps say that with the Zandalari now allied with the Horde, the other tribes slowly join as well. I mean, what other options do they have?
As MoP showed, and will show again in Classic, if you are not part of the Horde or Alliance war effort, you are collateral damage. So unless we get a third playable faction, every sentien race needs to join one or the other to have a support net when things turn to shit.
And Zandalar is the closest the various troll tribes can have to a federal government.

Actually, I want to pick up on something you mentioned-- man, would a third faction (maybe not playable, but existing in the world) be awesome. You make such a good point that most everyone is collatoral damage, especially during faction wars. If there was a larger group that stuck together to kind of just say "Fuck you guys, we're not taking this anymore", that'd be a ton of fun.

As cool as AU Draenor is in concept, I'll always be upset we missed out on the Mongrel Horde.

[Timester]

I still don't understand your argument, Timester.

It's supposed to be a stand-in for an Amani Troll in a lore recap. They don't have an Amani model that's not literally 18 years old at this point. So yeah, you take the modern looking normal troll models, because you can mog them, and they are the best looking Troll models we have. Do we have Amani Trolls in Orgrimmar right now? Can Trolls and High Elves talk telepathically now? It's not an in-game cutscene. It's a Youtube Short.

It's using a Darkspear troll as an Amani troll. Darkspear are lean blue jungle trolls. Amani are green bulky forest trolls. They have thousands of years of separated evolution.

It's pure lore assassination of well established troll lore. They could easily use a Zandalari explaining about the Amani, as the Zandalari are the forefathers of all trolls races. I doubt that Blizzard higher-ups would be this lazy with their own lore.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

It's using a Darkspear troll as an Amani troll. Darkspear are lean blue jungle trolls. Amani are green bulky forest trolls. They have thousands of years of separated evolution.

It's pure lore assassination of well established troll lore. They could easily use a Zandalari explaining about the Amani, as the Zandalari are the forefathers of all trolls races. I doubt that Blizzard higher-ups would be this lazy with their own lore.

Repeat after me.

This. Is. Just. a. YouTube. Short.

[milkmustache]

Repeat after me.

This. Is. Just. a. YouTube. Short.

Maybe the Troll was among us the whole time. (He's not getting it.)

[Timester]

Repeat after me.

This. Is. Just. a. YouTube. Short.

It doesn't matter, it's wrong and lazy. If you guys don't care about lore, not my problem. I do.

Maybe the Troll was among us the whole time. (He's not getting it.)

Caring about lore is trolling now. Wonder why less and less people actually post on MMO-Champ anymore.