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

[Enrif]

Isn't that just replacing one gameplay loop for another? Cities are going to be designed very differently depending on if we spend time there as a hub, spend time there doing quests, or if we don't spend time there at all unless we're roleplaying.

Boralus was a pretty clean mix of all three in different areas of the city, although I think the hub section could've been a lot better than it was. I'd like to see something similar for Silvermoon: a hub section with the inn, bank, auction house, etc. in a fairly tight circle with areas for chilling/AFKing (more Dalaran than Dornogal); a questing/hostile section with storylines that involve residents (more Suramar than Boralus); and a section with profession tables, a market, and residential homes with scripted NPC roleplay and enough room for RPers to do their thing. Other than that we definitely need attention paid to spires and floating objects for flying around aimlessly (think the floating root circles in the Emerald Dream).

I'm not married to there being a questing/hostile section, but Suramar and the City of Threads show that it seems to help a lot with worldbuilding. It makes a city feel alive and interactive rather than just a place for NPCs to stand.

You may have noticed i called out Suramar and Ahz'Kahet, but not Boralus or Zudazar. The BfA Hubs were actually pretty good and would be the only acceptable way. But i would like the Hub part to be the main portion of the City.

Looking at BC Silvermoon, the current hub area should be that again: the hub. The western Zone could be the Boralus like zone, rebuilding and a bit hostile, but not full on Suramar.

And thinking about it, it would make much more sense to have a hostile city zone in the Amani area. The amani will very likely be hostile at the start, and the Amani style would make it stand out more compared to Suramar and Ahz'Kahet. More Tribal and forested.

[username993720]

Protoss facial features: Eyes. That's it.

Good thing we ended up with Draenei instead.

[Jaggler]

You may have noticed i called out Suramar and Ahz'Kahet, but not Boralus or Zudazar. The BfA Hubs were actually pretty good and would be the only acceptable way. But i would like the Hub part to be the main portion of the City.

Looking at BC Silvermoon, the current hub area should be that again: the hub. The western Zone could be the Boralus like zone, rebuilding and a bit hostile, but not full on Suramar.

And thinking about it, it would make much more sense to have a hostile city zone in the Amani area. The amani will very likely be hostile at the start, and the Amani style would make it stand out more compared to Suramar and Ahz'Kahet. More Tribal and forested.

If we have to have Silvermoon as a (neutral) hub, it should have a smaller area as a main hub with everything you need (like in Boralus), and an extended Horde only section.

[Enrif]

If we have to have Silvermoon as a (neutral) hub, it should have a smaller area as a main hub with everything you need (like in Boralus), and an extended Horde only section.

No. What a braindead idea. Bel'ameth is fully accessible by the Horde too. Faction restricting bullshit has to go.

[Foolicious]

I guess. The healing spec of brann ist just throwing potions (apothecary survey class?) perhaps delve companions will just be a testing bed for different class ideas?

To be fair blizzard loves to give npcs all kinds of abilities and make up new class/race combinations and when players want night elf paladins they go "nah-ah! No evidence in the lore for that"
Runescriber, astrologer, hydromancer, shaman tank are just a few "classes" i can think of the top of my head we have seen before. I don't think giving brann abilities to tank in response to player feedback is testing new class mechanics.

Yeah, I can definitely see Elune being a factor too. The known Dark Troll evolution was her chosen race, while the Haranir protect the tree she gave Eonar.

I don't think they're anywhere near as connected to bats as most people assume though. It's their flight form, sure, and they have some bat traits (like their ears and possibly their fur)... but it's mixed with a bunch of other animal features that bats don't have. I mean, I've never heard of a bat with quills, their fangs look very different from bat fangs, and the same goes for their claws... it looks more like they took parts from a wide variety of different animals, rather than just becoming part bat. And that's a big part of why I see them being influenced by Life itself rather than being tied to a specific animal or Loa.

I always assumed they have a bat form because they live in a cave.

[SunspotAnims]

Bit out of left field, but what would be your absolute dream zone added in the next 2-4 years?

For me, I'd say one of these:

- Underwater zone that goes as hard as Vashj'ir. A true "journey into the dark depths below" kind of feeling, where we gradually descend from sunlit coral reefs into true abyssal depths where Void creatures or Elementals rule.

- A vast, VAST desert zone, which captures the "endless dunes" vibe of central Tanaris, but with the fidelity of Vol'dun. A struggle for survival, mirages, hidden dungeons, bugs, bandits, sun-scorched dunes and moonlit nights.

- A jungle akin to Zuldazar, tropical and wild, but much bigger. Potentially an island south of Stranglethorn, or someplace on the other side of Azeroth.

- Perhaps most of all, something which I'm hoping for in Midnight's Quel'thalas: a super stereotypical green forest, similar to Elwynn. Villages, oak trees, grass, little creeks, hidden-away huts and clearings, etc.

- An archipelago of sorts, in a tropical setting. Think that beachy place from Star Wars Rogue One, combined with Krasarang Wilds, Zuldazar's coastline, etc. Just lots of little islands, shallow water to traverse, etc.

What about you?

Pretty much everything you want, but I'll add a more fantastical note:

- A flying island archipelago. Something that really puts the verticality of skyriding to use, maybe with each island cluster having a distinct biome.

- A ring-shaped Titan installation in space. Yes, like Halo. Alone it'd be pretty cool just to have a standard zone with the skybox effect of the horizon looping around into the sky. It'd be more impressive if they somehow had the full loop be explorable seamlessly (or faked with airlock). At one point I would've assumed a seamless ring world environment would've been impossible to program into a game until the Outer Wilds DLC just went and did it like it was nothing.

- A zone-sized version of the shrunken-down level in Return to Karazhan. Like the whole zone is just a mage tower or inn or something, but you're shrunken to a tiny scale and so you have stuff like rat tunnels, giant Hearthstone boards, fighting bugs in a garden, etc.

- Darkmoon Island-style zones for most major holidays: tropical party island for Midsummer Fire Fest, a haunted forest/manor for Hallow's End, Greatfather Winter's workshop for Winter Veil, and so on.

[Jaggler]

No. What a braindead idea. Bel'ameth is fully accessible by the Horde too. Faction restricting bullshit has to go.

I think it's bullshit that Bel'ameth is neutral/accessibale to Horde as well. Having some exclusivity is fine. Unless we open up everything for everyone and make places like Stomwind, Ironforge, Orgrimmar etc. neutral as well.

[Enrif]

I think it's bullshit that Bel'ameth is neutral/accessibale to Horde as well. Having some exclusivity is fine. Unless we open up everything for everyone and make places like Stomwind, Ironforge, Orgrimmar etc. neutral as well.

fine with me. faction restrictions are the worst thing in WoW.

[micwini]

Hard to discuss Silvermoon when we dont even know if they're going to enlarge the zones or not. Could easily be a part of the city is occupied and the rest is normal.

[Enrif]

Hard to discuss Silvermoon when we dont even know if they're going to enlarge the zones or not. Could easily be a part of the city is occupied and the rest is normal.

since seeing the twitter image that shows that the Eversong zone is nearly as big as the Azj-Kahet zone, i think it will get enlarged, but not by a lot. It will mostly likely fill the paper screen holes, and expand to add the Amani area

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This comparison

[Cheezits]

... so the expansion will be as big as two-three TWW zones? Huh?

[Enrif]

... so the expansion will be as big as two-three TWW zones? Huh?

One zone will be as big as one zone? Quel'tahals has 3 zones currently: Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, Isle of Quel'danas. Midnight will likely add a full Amani zone.

[Sondrelk]

since seeing the twitter image that shows that the Eversong zone is nearly as big as the Azj-Kahet zone, i think it will get enlarged, but not by a lot. It will mostly likely fill the paper screen holes, and expand to add the Amani area

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This comparison
[IMG]

"Almost as big" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It's more like half the size, especially given the Eversong woods map includes part of Ghostlands, and large amounts of water.

[Enrif]

well, double the size and it is fine.

[Cheezits]

One zone will be as big as one zone? Quel'tahals has 3 zones currently: Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, Isle of Quel'danas. Midnight will likely add a full Amani zone.

It's possible, but three of those zones are very similar unless they radically change Ghostlands and/or Quel'danas.

Also I'm expecting SMC to be as big as Suramar/Undermine.

[Sondrelk]

Silvermoon City as an Adventure zone would suck. It should be the capital for Midnight, no questions. Anything else would be a disgrace and a wasted opportunity to update one of the most beloved cities of roleplayers, just for some world quests to take place there. Anyone that advocates for Silvermoon to be some sort of Suramar or Azj'kahet is so tonedeaf. It would be like saying lets rework Ironforge, Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Thunderbluff, Shattrath, Dalaran into advneture zones. This game is a fricking MMO RPG, it should have cities that people could live in. Not everything has to be some stupid gameplay loop.

You say this. But making Silvermoon a hub has some unfortunate implications long term. It would mean making Silvermoon unquestionably a neutral hub in perpetuity when it's always been a Horde hub for one.
Making it an adventure area lets you retake it as the expansion goes. Eventually turning it back into a Horde hub. Very much similar to how Suramar is now a Horde hub by way of the Nighthold.

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well, double the size and it is fine.

Sure. Just double it. Then double or more like triple Ghostlands. Make Zul'aman a full zone. Then all you have left is to somehow reconcile the zones being completely incongrous with the zones south of it. Not to mention the extra zones you would have to somehow bolt on. An underwater zone for Naga would make sense narratively, but the playerbase seems to hate the idea of a zone like Vashj'ir.

Dragon Isles is a bit on the larger side for sure. But if you compare that and EK, you see that you would have to make Quel'thalas the size of all the zones south down to the edge of the Arathi Highlands. And such a size discrepancy seems quite extreme.

[Jolly Roger]

You're right, we don't, but at the same time, its the only named void lord we've had at all, involved with K'aresh, the Voidsong staff from some time back connects Dimensius with the Black Empire and the Twilight Hermit said that they gave it to Xal'atath (doesn't name drop her, fair, but he said it was given to the Harbinger (and it is called the Stave fo the Harbinger, after all) and uses feminine pronouns).

So I mean, it feels pretty weighted in that way, if you ask me.



I would like to see zones re-used to a point, but personally I also want to see new areas. 4 expansions of zones we've been to is pretty much a snorefest unless they're massively redone.

they redid a classic dungeon that proceeded to not be addressed in any way. they added void summoning and tentacles but if you werent leveling then you never saw it.

example of a redone zone
Un'goro: titan forged dinos awaken and you have to discover why with it turning out a void emissary is trying to corrupt them.

i remember nothing from classic leveling and would honestly love to see more reason to go back

[micwini]

since seeing the twitter image that shows that the Eversong zone is nearly as big as the Azj-Kahet zone, i think it will get enlarged, but not by a lot. It will mostly likely fill the paper screen holes, and expand to add the Amani area

- - - Updated - - -

This comparison

Interesting image but the overlay also includes quite a large part of Ghostlands (bottom where the text is and the part on the right next to the water. There is also a large body of water on the left and top right that is basically dead space. So the overlay makes Eversong seem way larger than it is.

Red is what the actual zone comprises of. It is much smaller than presented in the initial image.

[Cheezits]

SMC will have to be neutral because of the Silver Covenant and expansion setting. I feel like they already lampshaded this with that short story and the reuniting elves comment at reveal.

[Nymrohd]

How do you "just double" a zone that needs to seamlessly connect with a different landmass just to the south? Make it make sense.

Also are minimaps all on the same scale?