Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Auxis]

This is what I'm seeing. Whether it's another intentional "crappy" piece of concept art that they've allegedly given to some sources, or if it's just an AI fake like that orc/Iridikron image from a few weeks back; IDK.

Personally I think it's far too small to be the sword in Silithus as it currently is, if that small shrub in the foreground is anything to go by.

[huth]

Teldrassil is overrated. Nothing about it was unique. Just a generic wood elf city and land.

Also, the tree looks really crap when viewed from outside. Just set Darkshore to the pre-invasion past and look at it. Teldrassil the world-shrub.

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This is what I'm seeing. Whether it's another intentional "crappy" piece of concept art that they've allegedly given to some sources, or if it's just an AI fake like that orc/Iridikron image from a few weeks back; IDK.

Personally I think it's far too small to be the sword in Silithus as it currently is, if that small shrub in the foreground is anything to go by.

Definitely not the silithus sword. Not only does the size not fit, Goribal is not nearly as deep into the ground. It also looks completely different.

About the only things they have in common is being swords stuck in the ground.

[Lahis]

Also, the tree looks really crap when viewed from outside. Just set Darkshore to the pre-invasion past and look at it. Teldrassil the world-shrub.

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Definitely not the silithus sword. Not only does the size not fit, Goribal is not nearly as deep into the ground. It also looks completely different.

About the only things they have in common is being swords stuck in the ground.

Classic engine couldn't fulfill the vision for Teldrassil. It couldn't handle 3D object that big and the terrain sculpting was limited. So we got world-stump instead of world-tree.

These days they could make zone on top of the tree like they envisioned.

[huth]

Classic engine couldn't fulfill the vision for Teldrassil. It couldn't handle 3D object that big and the terrain sculpting was limited. So we got world-stump instead of world-tree.

These days they could make zone on top of the tree like they envisioned.

I'm reasonably sure that's at least part of the reason they burned it down. They have to completely rebuild it to make it look like the cutscene one.

[Teriz]

They can just introduce Old Lords to replace Void Lords as the Bigger Bad, just like First Ones were introduced to one-up Titans.

Which is really bad. Honestly we should have stopped at the titans.

[Lolites]

Warcraft existed for years without those elements. Even if you wanted to obnoxiously call orcs a sci-fi element/"aliens" because they came from another planet(through a magic portal), you can't say the same about demons, because demons come from the Twisting Nether, not the Great Dark beyond.

so basicaly from another dimension?
yeah that is soo unusual in sci-fi settings... /s

[Sondrelk]

I mean, it was poorly executed. It was no Lothlorien no Silvanost heck not even a Suldanessellar

Honestly fantasy architecture in WoW is mediocre. Karabor and Shattrath are OK as is Suramar but none of them actually make use of fantasy locations. Dalaran is a sky city but it just lacks scale and definitely doesn't make use of the fact that it is a sky city in its architecture; it is mostly flat and the spires are barely used. There are some cool places like Utgarde Keep and Icecrown but the capitals just do not push the fantasy element and lack scale. Ironforge is small and doesn't connect with all the small towers around it, havin exits on the airfield and the farms on Wetlands' side etc. Undercity was cool but lacked scale. Stormwind is too cookie cutter. Thunder Bluff stops itself with using the top of the bluffs, not using the sides or crossing to the cliffs around it. Orgrimmar doesn't even cut through the cliffs to get a protected port. Silvermoon is smoke and mirrors and Exodar is a ruin.

I think this has more to do with cities in WoW traditionally being kinda small. Suramar felt very much like the magical elven city it was meant to be, what with the casual use of magic alongside traditionally Elven stylings like trees everywhere.
Zuldazar and Boralus are large, but also more traditional cities. Even with that though Boralus has the giant seawall and the lighthouse being incorporated into the castle.

I imagine that the limiting factor to WoW cities is more so that we don't usually get them as locations for actual content, and more so just have them used as hubs.

[Cheezits]

Potentially a new dungeon map snuck into the files last build. Vakthros?

[Sondrelk]

Potentially a new dungeon map snuck into the files last build. Vakthros?

I wouldnt be surprised if it's just a map from the new raid that is mislabelled.

[Murlocos]

The biggest mystery to me surrounding a new night elf capital isn't location, but implementation. As early as vanilla, players would only congregate to one city per faction with the others being largely abandoned. After Silvermoon and the Exodar suffered the same fate, new races stopped getting their own capitals and the only new ones we got were to serve as primary hubs for a new expansion's content.

Completely isolated from the story's needs, a new racial capital city currently has no purpose. It'd be a decent amount of environmental work that'd be deserted a few days after the novelty wore off. Gilneas is in the same boat. I'm not sure they have an incentive to develop these cities without some means of making them actual content. The 'easy' way is effectively making them patch hubs, ideally there'd be some kind of evergreen reason to visit other cities again beyond that.

[huth]

I wouldnt be surprised if it's just a map from the new raid that is mislabelled.

I'm still puzzled by how many people seem to assume there was ever going to be anything in the first place. Vakthros is pretty much just some broken towers on a mountain with no indication that it'd still be usable after 10,000 years of neglect.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I think we are 1 week away from blizzcon virtual ticket rewards reveal, which lore character do you think will be the murlock pet this time?

[Therougetitan]

I think we are 1 week away from blizzcon virtual ticket rewards reveal, which lore character do you think will be the murlock pet this time?

Iridikron or Thrall is my guess

[Nymrohd]

I'm still puzzled by how many people seem to assume there was ever going to be anything in the first place. Vakthros is pretty much just some broken towers on a mountain with no indication that it'd still be usable after 10,000 years of neglect.

I mean there probably was going to be something there as in some minor questing scenario that got cut; we do know that originally Azure Span's questline led to the raid which was also positioned in Azure Spawn.

[Cheezits]

I think we are 1 week away from blizzcon virtual ticket rewards reveal, which lore character do you think will be the murlock pet this time?

Honestly? Azshara, unless they haven't done a Doomplate Thrall murloc.

[username993720]

Eh even back in vanilla it was so very easy to ruin the illusion they tried to craft for Teldrasil and that's because the concept for it was soddy. Don't get me wrong, I loved the zone and it was my introduction to WoW. But at no point while on Teldrassil did I feel I was on a tree; it looked like I was on a forest because there was soil beneath my feet (and even caverns); you'd only see the branches if you run to the edge of the zone and then you'd see the completely unnatural tree trunk that I guess had elevated a mass of soil up in the sky?

I would hope if they use Amirdrassil for the new Night Elf Capital that it is a backdrop or that buildings are around the trunk and roots (or possibly inside folds of the trunk) but definitely not just propped up on the top level

What the hell are you talking about? It starts out as an enchanted forest and at some point you get to the edges and see the height and branches and think to yourself wow... even that portal to the dock emphasized it, or the hippogryph to Darkshore.

Teldrassil is overrated. Nothing about it was unique. Just a generic wood elf city and land.

And the music.
What do you consider a good zone?

[Hitei]

It doesn't matter if it's AI image or not. True or fake, it is meant to be a hint, not some leaked image.

No it's not. He specifically said that he wasn't doing riddles or anything because he doesn't have any significant information this time around, just these pictures he was given.

[Cheezits]

I think people will feel better about Amirdrassil not being on Kalimdor if they reveal the scope of the new city it may come with, as well as easy access (portals?) to Ashenvale/Hyjal. Maybe it will be surrounded by tons of boats as well?


The common complaint (besides the losing ancestral home thing) is that the expansions are too disconnected. But what if they try and change this by adding areas that keep old expansions relevant over time? They already have seeded this somewhat with the Nighthold in Suramar.

[Well Done Steak]

The murloc will either bel Xalafin or Yrlurk. Or both????

[Cheezits]

I know the 2021 items were probably more of a "Blizzard turns 30" kinda thing, but it's still interesting. The bear mount is straight out of the Azure Span, thematically (I know, I know, Blizzard, snow, ice, etc.), but the pet? We're bringing Nether Dragons to the Emerald Dream in 10.2, aren't we? Will they be "moon-touched" by Elune?

Yeah it was probably a very early foreshadowing that Nether Drakes (dragons as a whole) would be appearing. The polar bear was used for speculation of a future ice zone of some kind, as they bothered to make a new polar bear model that's not just a white bear.