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

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Gamescom seems a bit too early to me for the acquisition being finished up. Didn't they extend their agreed upon deadline to October? I think they're still working on some agreements with the various agencies that opposed it previously too.

I think they did extend it to..do whatever they needed to do( Actiblizz)

[Catastrophy349]

New Dragonriding races and Glyphs, new world quests, maybe the revamped Archeology stuff, a new arena maybe, new story content, a new renown track (Likely being in regards to the denizens of the Dream, or maybe even Titan Watchers within the Dream), more side quests and all...

The usual stuff ngl.

True, there's always wishing/hoping for more, though!

[Woggmer]

The Earth Mother is more than likely just Azeroth herself.
The Tauren myth has her mostly asleep and rooted in the earth, dealing with Old God corruption and has emphasis on her beating heart.

Or because the Emerald Dream is meant to be a version of Azeroth without mortals interfering with it, the Earth Mother IS the Emerald Dream or rather what she sacrificed herself to become.

[Santandame]

-A Forest
-A Forest
-Lakes and Rivers
-A Forest
-the capital city
-A Forest

I will never understand people's fixation on an ED expansion, lol.

I’d be all over this. It’s just the aesthetic I like when it comes to fantasy. Enchanted forests.

But forest settings can look vastly different from each other whilst still being a forest.

That said, I wasn’t advocating for totally forests only; though I wouldn’t complain. I’d like the sun based area to be a heavy water focus lend too. Great Lakes, rivers, and a heavily coastal area. The Midnight area would have been a midnight mountain range, not a forest. And the Titan Petri dish/lab zone would have been something a lot more sci fi.

10/10 setting for me.

I’d also be keen for a South Seas setting as described by some of the posters here over the last few pages.

[Kiivar86]

I think they did extend it to..do whatever they needed to do( Actiblizz)

Yeah, I searched and the deadline was moved to October 18th so they deal with regulatory concerns elsewhere (especially the UK). I recall reading elsewhere that they're maybe going to divest of something small to help there, so that'll take a bit of time. And I saw something earlier about the FTC still trying something.

So yeah I think later this month is too early. Government tends to move slowly, let alone several.

[Cheezits]

It would be cool if the Dragon Riders of Loreth'aran come back due to Dragonriding and the Dream. Maybe they got brought into the Dream (saved from the Sundering) and turned into something?

[Hitei]

I’d be all over this.

Considering that only one expansion has not had a forest zone*, I think there are probably better options than an expansion that is almost entirely forest zones.

[Santandame]

Have you ever been inside a forest? There's a gazillion things they could fit inside that umbrella.

Just consider all the different forests and jungles of Azeroth and Draenor.

Thorny jungles, mighty redwood forests, mushroom-filled clearings inside a dark labyrinth of fir trees. Dead woods, crystallised trees, lush undergrowth beneath an army of palm trees.

Let's not even begin pondering all the other things they could do in the Dream, which might be "nature themed" but not strictly a forest. Flowers, vines, fields, meadows, parks, and a whole lot more.

Titan facilities like Sholazar and Un'goro, underwater coral reefs, mangrove, or kelp forests.

There's also plenty they could do just to temporarily alter a pretty basic enchanted forests for the duration of our visit. Nightmare incursions, Light bleeding in, drust seeping in from the Shadowlands, a forest ablaze or frozen solid by the Incarnates.

Perhaps something akin to Ardenweald's "celestial" trees.

I could do this all day.

I hadn’t even considered crazy fungal, mushroom forests. I adore Zangarmarsh, so something similar but also even more alien would be a thumbs up from me.

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Considering that only one expansion has not had a forest zone*, I think there are probably better options than an expansion that is almost entirely forest zones.

I wasn’t advocating for a complete Forest continent in my original post but I’d be lying if I said several flavours of Forest wouldn’t have me pretty happy.

As @Worldshaper has said, there’s much that can be done.

[Cheezits]

ED can easily be extended to be more primordial/prehistoric as well as fantastical/fae. As we will probably see with the zone.

[Santandame]

ED can easily be extended to be more primordial/prehistoric as well as fantastical/fae. As we will probably see with the zone.

Indeed. I’d like to see a mix with some zones representing typical fantastical fantasy, as well as primordial, with some alien, whacky areas too.

[Raetary]

Fae woods.
Merman-coral reefs.
Fungal forest.
Rainforest.
Mountainside.
Riverines.
Plains.
Steppes.
Tundras.
Glaciers and icy biomes.
Insectoid nest.

It'd be easy enough to incorporate a dessert zone in there too.
A Life/Dream expansion has enough real or fantastical biomes to choose inspiration from.

[Hitei]

Let's not even begin pondering all the other things they could do in the Dream

A limited version of what they can do in every other expansion? Again, they make a forest zone each expansion and often at least one other heavily vegetated or otherwise nature-focused zone. This isn't some new and exciting, unexplored possibility. People keep acting like the ED is some frontier of infinite possibilities and not something we've been in and seen countless times. Val'sharah is an Emerald Dream zone. Ardenweald is a death-themed Emerald Dream zone. We've had an entire raid and a class hall in the Emerald Dream. It's had tangential zones in Vanilla and Cata.

Taking something that is present in pretty much every expansion and going "okay but what if we had an entire expansion that was limited to flora-focused spaces like this" just doesn't hold much appeal. There's a reason a lot of those zones aren't hugely popular: Dressing up a forest doesn't really make it super novel.

Resorting to things like @Arafals example--adding in things that are totally unassociated with the Emerald Dream and have little logical connection, or even things entirely antithetical to it, like a desert--sort of just brings up the really obvious question that I think Blizzard asked internally a decade ago: Why even bother doing an ED expansion?

If in order to give it decent variety or breadth, you're having to make the dream as little like the Emerald Dream and as much like any other regular expansion island as possible, why even put the expansion in the Emerald Dream and have to deal with the logistical, narrative and design problems that entails? Why set an expansion in the Emerald Dream, when you can put it in "Avaloren" and make those exact same fantastical forests, and deserts, and reefs and meadows, without having to come up for an elaborate reason why a place that's supposed to be all nature and planty now has a lifeless region and a fauna-focused region, and quest hubs and cultures even though it's supposed to be devoid of standing populations and peoples and also explain why none of those people were helping to stop Xavius from nearly destroying that entire plane of existence.

ED has been placed over and over in the category of "side content" because it's quite limiting while offering almost no added value beyond "it's the Emerald Dream and people know about it". Much like they decided that a

[Palapop]

New Dragonriding races and Glyphs, new world quests, maybe the revamped Archeology stuff, a new arena maybe, new story content, a new renown track (Likely being in regards to the denizens of the Dream, or maybe even Titan Watchers within the Dream), more side quests and all...

The usual stuff ngl.

Bolded part = its just "maybe" and speculation.

About dragon races= yep.... it is minor content. but please, dont add "glyphs" as extra content xD (They are not even confirmed afaik)

When I hear wow "devs" advertising that shit, it sounds like some car dealer advertising "yep... our car has 4 doors. 2 left doors and 2 right doors. Theres also 1 frontal left door and 1 front right door. it also has 4 tires. 2 left and 2 right. 2 tires go on front wheels 2 go on back wheels. its new cutting edge technology!"

empty words... empty "content".
not saying it's nothing. But it takes too long to come live.

Imo, they could cut s1 and s2 for 30-45 days MINIMUM. And that would give them more than enough time for 10.3 as REAL patch.
Just as we used to have in "normal" expansions (every 1 beside wod/shitlands/wokeflight)

[huth]

Shadowlands is 7 flavours of death.
Argus is 3 flavours of green hellfire.
Kul Tiras is 3 flavours of English maritime stuff.

Some of us love forests and wouldn't mind what you just described at all.

That's rather reductionist. And just an outright lie for Kul Tiras. Not to mention that Kul Tiras came together with the entirely different Zandalar and Argus was a patch zone.

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Imo, they could cut s1 and s2 for 30-45 days MINIMUM. And that would give them more than enough time for 10.3 as REAL patch.
Just as we used to have in "normal" expansions (every 1 beside wod/shitlands/wokeflight)

How is shortening the time they have to develop it going to help with that? You'd just complain about 10.1 and 10.2 if they did that anyway.

[Revamp Man]

So, I am curious, what are we expecting in 10.2 in terms of content (stuff to do)?

New zone
Probably a form of nightmare/Vyranoth invasions
Campaign showing the past and how Alex and vyra were in love
Raid where Vyranoth switches sides and gets killed by fyrakk making Alex actually do something and no longer holding back.
Aspects regain their powers and we all get a legendary that can have one of five effects depending on what flight we attune with

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Yes, I'm speculating in a speculation thread. Crazy how things work, am I right?

Idk why but some don't want speculation here

[Palapop]

How is shortening the time they have to develop it going to help with that? You'd just complain about 10.1 and 10.2 if they did that anyway.

There are MANY companies with FAR LESS employees.

Remember earlier expansions? Had same or even more meaningful content, more lore with shittier technology and probably like 3-4x less employees.

We need more enthusiasm in WOW dev team. And less personal wishes/gains/taste.

[Nibelheimy]

What's mad to me is dragonflight has had the patch cadence players deserve for a subscription game and I'm seeing people like yeah I'd wait a year now with no big updates.

Wow has let the player base down multiple times over the years, some bigger than others. But even though I'm not the biggest fan of how the story is being handled, keep that content coming. If you want to retain a player base this is the cadence that's needed.

[Hitei]

There are MANY companies with FAR LESS employees.

Remember earlier expansions? Had same or even more meaningful content, more lore with shittier technology and probably like 3-4x less employees.

What expansions are you talking about? Because the first decade of this game, additional "meaningful content" in patches was extra daily hubs or a short dungeon built from reused assets and mobs.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

What's mad to me is dragonflight has had the patch cadence players deserve for a subscription game and I'm seeing people like yeah I'd wait a year now with no big updates.

Wow has let the player base down multiple times over the years, some bigger than others. But even though I'm not the biggest fan of how the story is being handled, keep that content coming. If you want to retain a player base this is the cadence that's needed.

True, they are doing pretty well despite my criticisms.

Isn't that exactly what they did with Shadowlands, though?

I am going to agree here, if Blizz wanted a Emerald Dream expansion they would will it into existence. SL is proof, MoP is proof of it to.

[Well Done Steak]

1. The post I linked was in regards to the Illidan novel.

2. The Demons transcend time, which would include the Multiverse yes.

3. If you go back in time to get a Demon from OUR past, then putting said Demon in the future would automatically just take the present ones place, cause it's quite literally the same guy, and is the only version of said guy.

4. There would be no secondary copy. You got the Demon from our past and brought him to our future. Regardless, there would be no "second copy".

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And no, not everything works fine if there were multiple lines of Demons or so. Makes WoD 100 times more confusing, makes thr Archimonde fight practically worthless, and it makes the Legion's defeat at Antorus far less significant.

It's be fine because wod arch would still be our arch, the dungeon journey says he reached across space and time.

So he went to AU Draenor and made a pact with guldan

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Fated raid around June

Please no. Fated is just a crutch for COVID screwing with dev time.