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

[Nightshade711]

There was a post on Reddit where someone found a map of Draenor in Hallowfall. It's most likely just reuse of assets

But...

A light worshipping culture, in a zone with a giant Naaru crystal, with a "reused" asset of a map from where the last we heard of was being overrun by light fanatics?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There is also that Genesaur & Magnaron.
Though it is possible they came along with the Mag’har as we’ve seen a few of non-orcs escape Draenor after the scenario.
(And also the lightforged gorehowl in China)

Though I hope the map is just a reused asset, they need to leave Draenor in the past where it belongs.
Though it would be hilarious if they subverted expectations and the Lightbound are brought in and aren’t villains.

[Hitei]

Interestingly, the green part of the map is supposedly new and looks to have been taped on to the existing map. However it has a new landmass not from Draenor, though it features the eastern edge of Tanaan.

If someone can correct me asset wise, that would be great, but this could be a huge hint to where they were originally from (Draenor???? somehow??)

Not new. It's from Legion.

7dh_demonhunter_battlemap01.m2

[Fahrad Wagner]

Not new. It's from Legion.

OK that at least confirms it's not new... but I swear if they connect the Arathi to alternate Draenor and Farahlon, it will be unexpected imo (but could be cool though)

[Jaggler]

OK that at least confirms it's not new... but I swear if they connect the Arathi to alternate Draenor and Farahlon, it will be unexpected imo (but could be cool though)

It's just random maps. Random maps in places they make little to no sense is not anything new really, it happens regularly

[ImTheMizAwesome]

If it's random or not, i think they should include yrel and lightbound in the story and not forget about it forever, there's potential for it even more now with Arathi.

Banter between Khadgar and Light crazy zealot Yrel could be interesting, with khadgar reminding Yrel what she said at the end of WoD.

[Osmeric]

Calculating larger numbers do in fact require more effort from your hardware. Alone its negligible but thousands of players constantly calculating 3 digit numbers is easer on people's computers than 6 or 9 digit numbers.

All the machines this is running on are 64 bit architectures, so the natural limit is far beyond what we have now.

The cost of computation with 64 bit numbers is insignificant. The only possible serious impact would be on network bandwidth.

I suspect the original issue was data formats for that assumed 32 bit integers. Those had to be redesigned, which is always annoying.

[MauroDiogo]

Yeah I've scoured all of Hollowfall and those maps aren't new. What's new though are a few books with one of them showing what all of Beledar looks like (and we also have a full picture of it in the Art book)

Which I find a bit weird because you only see the bottom 2 thirds of it. How do the Arathi know what the rest of it looks like? Unless they've been through the zone w'ere the top of it is?

[CasualFilth]

OMG I love this theory:

Dark Heart Raid:

Xal traps the player character inside the Dark Heart - a pocket dimension, where we traverse and fight through the ruins of Dalaran.

[Nebron]

If we get the Lordaeron revamp we should have with BFA included in this expansion, I will jump for joy.

I do expect the Plaguelands/Zul'Aman to maybe be combined into "Maisara Hills" although.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Lordaeron, I don't believe they are going that far, just my wishful thinking. But Zul'Aman is a place I can bet my money on

But yeah, revamp of Lordaeron would open a lot of storytelling potential and I'd love a "basic", down-to-earth zone, leaning more into a mixture of Elwynn Forest + Redridge Mountains + Westfall aesthetics. Even if I stretch my imagination for the sake of fun, I could see Lordaeron City being retaken, and rebuild - and serving as Alliance capital city, with Silvermoon being Horde-only one. Hell, Undercity could even operate as prior to BFA, just with a separate, lore-wise "secret" entrance

- - - Updated - - -

OK that at least confirms it's not new... but I swear if they connect the Arathi to alternate Draenor and Farahlon, it will be unexpected imo (but could be cool though)

Some people are praying for Yrel's return, and what better time than Midnight to utilize this wish - after all, Renilash could very well be a finale for Midnight and some help would be welcome
I can't imagine Blizzard giving up on this plotline. That's why I would love to see the Scarlet Crusade feat. Silver Hand's paladins and Arathi from Hallowfall - united by Turalyon, being joined by Yrel. A nice and fitting prelude to a grand finale of "modern WoW" storyline finished off with The Last Titan.
Also, a satisfying closure for Light and Void chapter (if executed properly of course )

In fact, the potential here is so massive, with keeping the tension and great pace, that it could easily be pulled-off as an S+ tier expansion, contrary to a so-called "filler expansions".

[Cheezits]

Not new. It's from Legion.

Thank you for the confirmation that it's not new.

I forgot about this, but there is a whole slew of Delver's Dirigible stuff that is Arathi themed, including a color scheme that gives the Zeppelin the Arathi logo. So I think this is another hint towards a Hallowfall season. Or at least a Hallowfall DELVE season (maybe there is a Zekvir type thing in Beledar?)

EDIT: Nevermind, there are a lot of colors actually that have yet to be unlocked.

However, as you can see on warcraft mounts, there are a LOT of nerubian mounts that have yet to be unlocked. A lot of colors of the worm grub, a few swarmites.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

The floating magic orb of Khadgar's head still haunts my dreams.

Thanks!

[huth]

All the machines this is running on are 64 bit architectures, so the natural limit is far beyond what we have now.

The cost of computation with 64 bit numbers is insignificant. The only possible serious impact would be on network bandwidth.

I suspect the original issue was data formats for that assumed 32 bit integers. Those had to be redesigned, which is always annoying.

Given that Ra-Den started bugging out at the 32 signed int positive value cap, it's pretty much guaranteed.

[Joshuaj]

Interestingly, the green part of the map is supposedly new and looks to have been taped on to the existing map. However it has a new landmass not from Draenor, though it features the eastern edge of Tanaan.



If someone can correct me asset wise, that would be great, but this could be a huge hint to where they were originally from (Draenor???? somehow??)

I mean, considering everything implies there's more to Draenor than meets the eye? Idk. Then again, the asset isn't new, nor is it specific to JUST Light guys, so there's also that lol.

Wouldn't be shocked if we had a Lightbound expac in the somewhat far future that explored some of the unknown parts of Draenor though.

[micwini]

The 'Arathi dark combat' also has WoD music vibes here and there. Maybe they were supposed to be lightbound initially and changed to arathi, because lightbound are a dumb idea.

[Sondrelk]

Given that Ra-Den started bugging out at the 32 signed int positive value cap, it's pretty much guaranteed.

That was back in MoP though. And they specifically said they changed the way numbers were handled to prevent needing to go for weird ways around that limitation in bosses in the future.

[Hitei]

The 'Arathi dark combat' also has WoD music vibes here and there. Maybe they were supposed to be lightbound initially and changed to arathi, because lightbound are a dumb idea.

Music is usually a very late process element compared to say, zone design, so I sort of doubt it since nothing else about any of their assets really seems to evoke Draenei (I guess besides the crystal itself being, as the zoomers would put it, Naaru-coded). If they'd been swapped over late enough for specific situational music tracks to still be WoD themed, you'd expect some of the buildings, or weapons, or anything really to at least look vaguely Lightbound rather than so specifically human fantasy civilization.

[Telogrus]

Can we go ahead and assume that a revamped Zul’Aman will be the Midnight megadungeon?

[Kiivar86]

Can we go ahead and assume that a revamped Zul’Aman will be the Midnight megadungeon?

I feel its a safe bet. The harbinger questline mentions how the trail the EK agent was following went cold in its direction, too.

[Hitei]

Can we go ahead and assume that a revamped Zul’Aman will be the Midnight megadungeon?

I think it's very, very unlikely. The space of ZA is needed to help round out and diversify the open world region (presumably the updated QT will want to make more use of the eastern coast and that latitudinal breadth across the ghostlands), and they've already dipped into ZA as a revamped dungeon once before.

I bet that it will be quest hub area and that it might contain one of the regular leveling dungeons, but they generally like to go very interesting and out there with the megadungeons, so I don't think an already twice used relatively plain troll area is a stellar candidate.

[Nymrohd]

I could see the ziggurat in ZA being used as the entrance to a delve or dungeon (or even raid) leading to Kith'ix tomb but the greater area will probably just be part of the zone.