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

[Barator]

Uhhh, that is not a simple in-game cinematic lol, that is prerendered with tons of custom animations. Would love it if we got these instead of the ones that are just existing emotes, some dialogue, and some matching lip flaps, but those clearly take way more time and effort than the 10.2 cinematics we've seen so far. I do wish they'd just have NPC's do the dialogue in game for more of these than the crappy cutscenes tho. Easier to suspend disbelief when the presentation stays the normal in game POV than when it goes to a cutscene that is distractingly bad.

That Cutscene absolutely isnt pre rendered and we got lots of cutscenes with custom models and animations in dragonflight. The one posted above with Fyrrak and Alex also uses special custom models and custom animations. And there probably will be more in the encrypted story like there was in 10.1

[Raetary]

Uhhh, that is not a simple in-game cinematic lol, that is prerendered with tons of custom animations. .

It isn't.

That's an in-game custscene.

[milkmustache]

The Dream looks very pretty for what it is, but it feels very clean in a way that is a bit disappointing. I was really hoping to see some untamed wilderness, but I also understand its ties with both Order and Life so I can understand the reasonings for it being how it is. Happy that the Nelves are primed to finally get the W they've needed. Excited to see the roadmap and what's coming.

[vintage79]

[ZyntosAran]

how is that news.
Chris said on the opening ceremony, that the ws saga will shape the path to the next 20 years of wow.

[Sondrelk]

So what are people first impression of 10.2 so far?
Personally I think it's a big improvement on 10.1, insofar as I feel far more compelled to engage with the various mechanics of the patch. As opposed to Zaralek where I mostly engage with it on a superficial level of new expansion.

How much longevity the zone has is a different matter of course. Though I do at least feel they got the minigames more correct.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Definitely feels like the iterative progression of learning from feedback and continuing to apply it. I think Delves will leave the pressure on the World Events and Public stuff and make it more appetizing to consume again.

I think a lot of the current discourse about the Timeless Isle Repetition will kind of die down with TWW even if the Patch structures remain the same.

Major Patches definitely do need to feel a bit more "spiked out" as the Minor Patches really shone this expansion and were what really drove most positive sentiment while Major Patches kind of just felt like they had a formula and stuck to it.

[Ersula]

Except they can do in game cutscenes with closeups and dialogue.



They just kinda didn't bother for any of the cutscenes post-Forbidden Reach. Even the Emberthal/Ebonhorn in-game cutscene was good.

That cutscene was pre-rendered. Notably its using a more detailed version of Sylvanas & Anduin's in game models. I know it's hard to tell the different between in engine cutscenes & pre-rendered cutscenes that use in-game assets & environments but there is a difference.

[Throren]

so wowhead datamined the models for the hammers that match the pre-order set, and got I love them - there's even a 2nd thundering version with lightning vfx like the set has - and multiple recolours

https://www.wowhead.com/news/datamin...ng-post-336011



I just 'wish' there was a 2 handed version so I could use them on my arms or fury warrior

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I think they did a really good job with the set and it will probably look even better in-game.

Absolutely stunning, in my opinion.

[Nerdslime]

Yeah, the art team continues to nail it in so many ways.

[Barator]

That cutscene was pre-rendered. Notably its using a more detailed version of Sylvanas & Anduin's in game models. I know it's hard to tell the different between in engine cutscenes & pre-rendered cutscenes that use in-game assets & environments but there is a difference.

its easy to tell the difference, because ingame cinematics have that compressed look, which that cutscene doesnt have. That cutscene even gives you a loading screen because the game needs to load the maw first. i dont know if you have noticed it, but since patch 9.2.5 we had lots of cutscenes that use the "high quality ingame cinematic model". They even talked in a few interviews after 9.2.5 about these cutscenes being live rendered. And as a last giveaway, the cutscene uses the old white subtitles and has black bars, while pre rendered cinematics are full screen and have yellow subtitles.

[Makorus]

That cutscene was pre-rendered. Notably its using a more detailed version of Sylvanas & Anduin's in game models. I know it's hard to tell the different between in engine cutscenes & pre-rendered cutscenes that use in-game assets & environments but there is a difference.

That is literally not pre-rendered.

It is in-engine, in-game. Yeah, they use higher-polycount models, and custom animations, but it still is in-game.



You can literally see your character in this cutscene.

[Worldshaper]

how is that news.
Chris said on the opening ceremony, that the ws saga will shape the path to the next 20 years of wow.

Friend, that was not a literal claim. It's just something you say. "Thanks for these past ten years, and here's to the next!"

[Civciv]

Friend, that was not a literal claim. It's just something you say. "Thanks for these past ten years, and here's to the next!"

duh???
/10chars

[Hitei]

Friend, that was not a literal claim. It's just something you say. "Thanks for these past ten years, and here's to the next!"

They didn't say "thanks for these past ten years, and here's to the next". They said multiple times that they were attempting to set up or shape the next decades of wow.

[Kathranis]

That cutscene was pre-rendered. Notably its using a more detailed version of Sylvanas & Anduin's in game models. I know it's hard to tell the different between in engine cutscenes & pre-rendered cutscenes that use in-game assets & environments but there is a difference.

No, that isn't prerendered. That is 100% in-engine. They've been able to do this level of acting in-engine since the start of Shadowlands. It can even bug out, I've seen streamers watch this and the models not load properly.

[Merryck]

So what are people first impression of 10.2 so far?
Personally I think it's a big improvement on 10.1, insofar as I feel far more compelled to engage with the various mechanics of the patch. As opposed to Zaralek where I mostly engage with it on a superficial level of new expansion.

How much longevity the zone has is a different matter of course. Though I do at least feel they got the minigames more correct.

I don't have any characters I want to play ...

I wish Blizzard would change how names work because what holds me back from making new characters is that all the names I want are taken.

I'd rather have to invite someone using their BattleTag than having to put accented letters in my preferred name.

These cross-realm guilds might force them to make a change since it'll be possible to be in a guild with multiple people who share the same name.

[Kathranis]

I don't have any characters I want to play ...

I wish Blizzard would change how names work because what holds me back from making new characters is that all the names I want are taken.

I'd rather have to invite someone using their BattleTag than having to put accented letters in my preferred name.

These cross-realm guilds might force them to make a change since it'll be possible to be in a guild with multiple people who share the same name.

Right now it appends your realm name to the end of your player name. They've been doing it this way since they started doing virtual realm mergers. I have characters with the same name on both Alleria and Khadgar servers in the same guild, and they show up as Name-Alleria and Name-Khadgar.

That said, they absolutely should overhaul how they handle names.

1. Introduce surnames, allowing players to have the same given name so long as the surname is different, and maybe even allow players to choose which of the two they want displayed as their primary identifier.

2. Allow for a single apostrophe or hyphen in the given name, with some restrictions. This would allow players to use lore-accurate names in the same style as "Gul'dan" or "Kel-Thuzad."

[Viridiel]

Edit: In a different direction I'm curious what theyll do for the new dungeons in Midnight. I'd bet a revamped Zul'Aman ends up as the megadungeon if it doesnt become a raid of its own. But outside of that it feels like basing it off of TBC Quel'thalas there aren't a ton of different notable areas to turn into dungeons that won't have a similar feel to each other. Here's a potential list that I can think of:

1. Deathholme - leftover undead stuff. (also could justify updated art assests that can then also be used in The Last Titan in Northrend revamp)
2. Magister's terrace - legacy of Kael'thas stuff, maybe demonic leftover? Or could make it void stuff since its so close to to the Sunwell.
3. Windrunner Spire - Seems like it could be easily made into a dungeon. Cool location on a clif overlooking the sea. Lore significance. Could be void or ghost focused.
4. Troll dungeon - maybe not if Zul'aman ends up as a raid or the mega dungeon just for enemy/environment variety but otherwise easy add.
5. Some sort of void invasion - Think it'd be cool to see the ruins of silvermoon or some section of silvermoon city being invaded and overrun by void forces.

Thats all I've got really. There are other existing locations that could be made into dungeons but without a pretty significant change in environment or the inclusion of a whole new zone with new locations, everything else feels like it'd just be more troll or Blood elf towns.

Zul'Aman should rightfully be its own zone with multiple instances inside it if they want to do Quel'Thalas justice.

And if they pull from the whole history of lore then all cosmic forces should have a presence in Quel'Thalas, so I think there's a lot that could be done in terms of biomes. Life and Arcane are present to begin with (their balance is what creates Eversong Woods' biome and is the same magic that made the Arcandor of the Nightborne), Fel and Death came from the blood elves' addiction and Arthas' crusade respectively, and of course Light and Void will likely be the main storyline due to the Sunwell. I'm loath to have an entire expansion about elves, but honestly there's some pretty good opportunities for great stories given the relationships between the elves and the cosmic forces they deal with.

Someone somewhere (sorry) raised the possibility of an entire floating zone based on the floating spires and platforms the blood elves love to use, and I think that would be sick. They'd need to either be creative with airlock technology or develop something new for it to work if it's on top of another zone, but that makes it an exciting prospect. If we end up seeing a small zone like this in TWW then we can be fairly certain they're testing it for Midnight or TLT.