The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[taishar68]

Has Blizzard ever done a expansion reveal with this much set design before? From all the reveals I have watched I just remember a stage with a large screen and no "extra" set pieces to give away the reveal.

Here's Shadowlands reveal (I see set design but nothing that would lead to an "Afterlife" expansion

At that Blizzcon, there were multiple areas with stage sets, most notably Diablo and it's rooms of oddities, altar for sacrificing the innocent...I really don't recall if there was one for SL; I played the demo for D4 and SL but I don't recall a themed SL area. The Hearthstone area had a full set and the trading area had...something...it's been 4 years and I'm old, I think I've just forgotten what the WoW area looked like.

Might be a small nitpick, but does the US have significantly different standards for wooden pallets? Because some of those pallets look weird to me. Though that might just be my familiarity with the EU standard pallet.

Standards? Not really. There are 2 basic types; what some call 4x4, where two sides are formed into the rectangles you see, and the sides are closed but with cutout for the forks of a lift truck to slide into; these are 48" x 40", and you can fit 26 in a trailer if you orient them in a specific way. The other types have the rectangular opening on all sides, which are easier to maneuver then the ones with the cutouts, but they tend to break if you don't lift them correctly. Most companies will use recycled ones because they are cheaper than buying new, but a company like Blizzard might see that extra cost as negligible so maybe they only use new ones. I've worked in logistics for 12 years and most companies, even huge brand names, use whatever is cheapest.

Speaking on logistics, when it comes to conventions/trade shows, the schedules are generally tight. For big shows like CES, the work starts a month before due to the scope of the show, and while Blizzcon is really big, they seem to be working on a tighter schedule, so it is not surprising that the sets are coming up already. My guess is general construction will be done Thursday morning, allowing the QA team a walk through with the production company. I assume Blizzard works with one of the large outfits like Freeman or GES, but I don't know for certain.

I actually tried to get Blizzcon to Vegas, offering our warehouse as a hub for storage and delivery, but was given a polite no.

[matijwow]

What if that's the real leak but we're focusing on the wrong part!

SoA confirmed. Shipping over Azeroth.
New Class: Courier - Package Handler (DPS), Boxer (Tank), Manager (Support)
Revamped EK and Kalimdor
Story: Iridikron killed Azeroth so there's no more magic, which means no more portals. No more portals means mail and packages have to be delivered by hand! Katy Stampwhistle calls the champions of Azeroth to establish a delivery network all over the planet called Azeroth Express.
Features: Construct outposts and establish flight points and shipping lanes to speed up travel. Defend them from attacks and raids. Utilize and customize new forms of transport to help you deliver mail and parcels.
New Zone: Darkmoon Island Revamp - Silas Darkmoon set up some fancy pillars but they were overgrown. He's also added a gambling mini-game.

[Floot]

lmao, stop overanalyzing pictures, you people sound almost shizo

"AI in my walls, AI in my walls, AI in my walls!!!"

[Marlamin]

lmao, stop overanalyzing pictures, you people sound almost shizo

"AI in my walls, AI in my walls, AI in my walls!!!"

Literally every leak season and edition of the hype thread is 90% overanalyzing pictures. Welcome!

[kavikor]

What if that's the real leak but we're focusing on the wrong part!

SoA confirmed. Shipping over Azeroth.
New Class: Courier - Package Handler (DPS), Boxer (Tank), Manager (Support)
Revamped EK and Kalimdor
Story: Iridikron killed Azeroth so there's no more magic, which means no more portals. No more portals means mail and packages have to be delivered by hand! Katy Stampwhistle calls the champions of Azeroth to establish a delivery network all over the planet called Azeroth Express.
Features: Construct outposts and establish flight points and shipping lanes to speed up travel. Defend them from attacks and raids. Utilize and customize new forms of transport to help you deliver mail and parcels.
New Zone: Darkmoon Island Revamp - Silas Darkmoon set up some fancy pillars but they were overgrown. He's also added a gambling mini-game.

Manager being supportive is way too unhinged to be real, must be a fake

[ercarp]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...3#post54280403

Well, that's pretty disappointing if true. If there's not even a partial world revamp and 11.0 is just another random island expansion (with barely any established lore or build-up going for it) full of recycled assets, then that's a bit of a hard sell for me.

For those that missed it like me:

Was contemplating on saying this since its 3rd hand info (so take it as you will).
Over the weekend I got 3rd hand confirmation (colleague of an ex-colleague type of thing) that the Features Overview screens are real.
As I said take this with a 50kg bag of salt since its literally a "friend of a friend" situation.(Even I am not taking it 100% for serious)
Tbh if true then I am a bit disappointed at least from the small subarea we can see of each zone. The wasteland one looks cool, but others are very basic.

[Holdodlig]

What if that's the real leak but we're focusing on the wrong part!

SoA confirmed. Shipping over Azeroth.
New Class: Courier - Package Handler (DPS), Boxer (Tank), Manager (Support)
Revamped EK and Kalimdor
Story: Iridikron killed Azeroth so there's no more magic, which means no more portals. No more portals means mail and packages have to be delivered by hand! Katy Stampwhistle calls the champions of Azeroth to establish a delivery network all over the planet called Azeroth Express.
Features: Construct outposts and establish flight points and shipping lanes to speed up travel. Defend them from attacks and raids. Utilize and customize new forms of transport to help you deliver mail and parcels.
New Zone: Darkmoon Island Revamp - Silas Darkmoon set up some fancy pillars but they were overgrown. He's also added a gambling mini-game.

Man you just leaked Death Stranding 2

[Redwyrm]

Here is the Battle for Azeroth features overview trailer for reference for the 4 zone pics

[bruxx]

lmao, stop overanalyzing pictures, you people sound almost shizo

"AI in my walls, AI in my walls, AI in my walls!!!"

What should we do instead? What do you expect from this yearly hype thread?

[kavikor]

Here is the Battle for Azeroth features overview trailer for reference for the 4 zone pics

Ohhh, I see.
I was thinking there was some text leak with it talking about actual features. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

[Teriz]

Here is the Battle for Azeroth features overview trailer for reference for the 4 zone pics

Yeah, that looks vastly superior to those asstastic pics.

And that was what? 6-7 years ago?

[taishar68]

Everyone, the image is most certainly fake and used AI generation. Let me point out a few notes:
1. Pallets are not consistently square and flat; uniform. We see plenty of pallets that have edges not uniform, chunks missing, pallets bending, pallet corners missing.
(A) The pallet on the bottom left has a board under the pallet, which corner is floating? Or the corner is extended?
(A.1) The lower board on the bottom left is mixing with the box, so the AI doesn't know if it is part of the box or pallet. Creating a warped carboard box.
2. Most of the shadows are incorrect in the image. Namely you can have a field day with the cardboard boxes towards the bottom/middle part of the image.
(A) Espectially the tallest stacked box, has an angular shadow that does not have consistency with any other shadow in the image.
3.The pallets in the bottom right of the photo is a big mess
(A) The pallet under the cardboard boxes, has a huge rising chunk coming out of the pallet.
(A.1) The "tree' is sitting on top of multiple pallets. At least 3-4 plallets are meshed in with each other.
(A.2) The black pallet is severely warped. I've worked with these black pallets before and they dont' typically do this to this degree, There'd be more supports under a heavy load such as this.
(A.3) The two stacked wooden pallets seem real but the tree is on the wooden pallet and black pallet at the same time? Seems like the black flooring has meshed into the top of the wooden pallet with the rightmost tree.
4. The pallets behind the left most tree, has some odd warping? You can see the pallet floating on a grey artifact, but right next to it is a black and red top tote, but the tote is touching the ground and can't be seen "under" the floating box?
5. Biggest dead giveaway is the homo sapeins standing in the middle of the photo. The left most person has warping over their head, with the cardboard being pulled into the warp. Creating a cardboard box halo.
(A) The middle most man in the middle has his legs spread, with color balance being wrong between the legs, AND the pallet dissapears between his legs.
6. This is obviously a blurry photo. At this rate ANY blurry photo is flagged as "most likely fake"
7. There may be missing lighting, there's only 1 lighting can shown. For a photo to be actually this bright, there'd be a lot more lights shown in this photo

Some other notes, When you're working on a set or scene like this, especially with a forklift, there'd be a lot more safety equipment present.
Notes: I also edit photos often and have used AI. i know it's quirks and this photo reaks of the quirks I experience when editing clients photos.

As I said above, I've been in the warehousing/logistics business for a long time; I disagree with some of your assertions:

There is no such thing as continuity in pallets. Especially if its stuff that was pulled from storage, possibly staged in another location then brought to the CC, those pallets are gonna get chipped, chunk, split, etc. It just happens.

As for safety equipment, it depends on the area, but nothing in that image made me go "wow, where is X?" If we were seeing actual construction, maybe, but we also don't see a lot of elevated work, it's a fairly low ceiling and if lighting has already been rigged we wouldn't see a cherry picker for example (which has inherent safety needs).

I am not disagreeing that it could be fake, it very well maybe, AI is insane. But I think the other points are not absolute.

[Triceron]

lmao, stop overanalyzing pictures, you people sound almost shizo

"AI in my walls, AI in my walls, AI in my walls!!!"

To be fair, there's nothing else to do but overanalyze :P

That's the entire point of a speculation thread

[Moth Preacher]

Tbh, what gives me some hope for the stage leak, is how inconsistent "the mistakes" are. If we check DALL-E images from this thread you can clearly see patterns. This one's weirdness may as well be "human factor", shit lightning and blur.

Ladies and Gentlemen, synchronise your leak watches.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Hola babes! Anything new?

[Nymrohd]

Hola babes! Anything new?

Someone took a picture of the convention space being set up.
A lot of people think it is AI. Imo it's real.

[Ebonn]

As I said above, I've been in the warehousing/logistics business for a long time; I disagree with some of your assertions:

There is no such thing as continuity in pallets. Especially if its stuff that was pulled from storage, possibly staged in another location then brought to the CC, those pallets are gonna get chipped, chunk, split, etc. It just happens.

As for safety equipment, it depends on the area, but nothing in that image made me go "wow, where is X?" If we were seeing actual construction, maybe, but we also don't see a lot of elevated work, it's a fairly low ceiling and if lighting has already been rigged we wouldn't see a cherry picker for example (which has inherent safety needs).

I am not disagreeing that it could be fake, it very well maybe, AI is insane. But I think the other points are not absolute.

Beat me to it.

I will add, LOL.

[bruxx]

Yeah, that looks vastly superior to those asstastic pics.

And that was what? 6-7 years ago?

I like to play a game: Pause litterally whenever in that video, and except for those map shots at the beginning, I don't think you can get a single frame without a few obviously new models/skeletons

[kavikor]

Someone took a picture of the convention space being set up.

Allegedly! It could be AI but we are currently deciphering that

[Nyel]

Hola babes! Anything new?

This (real/fake) image from the convention center: