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

[Makabreska]

Could you elaborate on this clarification? Unless Blizzard specifically said “we’re never doing an undermine expansion”, it can’t be ruled out.

Blizz never says "never" anyway. Only "we do not plan on doing it at the moment".

[Teriz]

Blizz never says "never" anyway. Only "we do not plan on doing it at the moment".

I got ya, but what did Blizzard do or say that makes them believe they’d never do an undermine expansion?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

To be fair everything could be a joke from Blizzards side of things when it comes to that quote. Like what expansion concepts fit that people think of beyond Revamp within that framework.

Like I mean I guess you could look over every past expansion through that lense and figure out a criteria of concepts that would fit but yeah thats' about it.

I think it is a bit too much reading into it past the Emerald Dream/Old God part of the quote.

[Nebron]

It could mean Undermine.

Undermine was originally a planned landmass in vanilla. It even shows up on older WoW maps as a continent sized landmass in the south seas.

Blizzard also hinted at an underground expansion when they released Zalarek Caverns. Further an Undermine expansion could explain that Goblin-looking armor in Tanaris.

The only thing that gives me pause in that regard is that Undermine should have a Tinker class alongside it, and we just got Evokers. Though even that could occur if Blizzard wants another class with a support spec available for players to work alongside Augvokers. Blizzard released a new spec mid-expansion, nothing stops them from releasing classes back to back.

I'd take Undermine over Light vs. Void expansion a thousand times. The first one offers a lot of diversity and freedom in theme, since tinker thing may only be a part of the whole set, while light and void narrows down the storytelling opportunities pretty drastically, even if zones could provide some variety in style.

Going after cosmic stuff again after it's poor reception is just revisiting a lost cause. There is literally no reason, from the marketing point of view, to go hard on exploring these topics again, especially on a expansion-wide scale. Just because there's plenty of void stuff in Dragonflight, doesn't necessarily mean that void expansion is to follow. They simply create some loose-ends, so that when the right time comes, the seeds were planted and they'll be ready to just reap the harvest later on.

[Polybius]

Blizzard literally just clarified their stance on Goblins/Gnomes being joke-races, so Undermine is out of the picture.

They're such a joke they were a feature in the Battle of Dazar'alor! Don't forget the pandaren, who were ignored into an expansion.

[Cheezits]

I really doubt it and I feel like it would probably kill the fanbase for two years but there are enough different themes for an entirely underground expansion. Undermine is obvious, Khaz Algar dwarf zone, Uldaz for titan shit, Old God/Anub'arak type thing, etc.

I think more likely than that is a revamp with those being new zones. But if its literally only an underground continent we are definitely going maintenance mode.

[Gurahk]

We need an exciting theme, having an underground expansion right after Dragonflight would not excite people at all.

[Sondrelk]

I really doubt it and I feel like it would probably kill the fanbase for two years but there are enough different themes for an entirely underground expansion. Undermine is obvious, Khaz Algar dwarf zone, Uldaz for titan shit, Old God/Anub'arak type thing, etc.

I think more likely than that is a revamp with those being new zones. But if its literally only an underground continent we are definitely going maintenance mode.

I dunno. Sounds very gimmicky, like having an expansion where every zone has a lake. Or every zone being set on a mountain.
Sure it's possible, and I dont doubt you could have a lot of variety. But underground zones sounds to me more like the kind of thing you use for flavor as a singular zone among many.

[Teriz]

The thing is that Goblins have the science theme backing them up, so you can rather liberally apply that to an underground concept with different areas offering different environments that are totally based around the idea of Goblin science, greed, and industrialization. You also have multiple Goblin trade princes which could also influence the theme of a zone.

In short, if you want to do an underground expansion, basing it on the insanity and randomness of Goblins isn’t a bad idea.

[Raetary]

Spending 2 years in a deep, dark cave does not sound even remotely appealing to me.
Regardless of how varied the zone environments are.

[Cheezits]

Spending 2 years in a deep, dark cave does not sound even remotely appealing to me.
Regardless of how varied the zone environments are.

It would have to be like the core world from Godzilla vs Kong where there's a fake sky. People couldn't even handle months of Zaralek.

Hopefully Towel is trolling because it's pretty awful news and smells like Filler Island 2.

[Makabreska]

It would have to be like the core world from Godzilla vs Kong where there's a fake sky. People couldn't even handle months of Zaralek.

But then it would defeat the entire purpose of having an underground expansion, apart from saving space on world map.

[Cheezits]

But then it would defeat the entire purpose of having an underground expansion, apart from saving space on world map.

That's the only reason I could think of. Or some devs desperate to get Undermine in at any cost.

[Kiria]

We need an exciting theme, having an underground expansion right after Dragonflight would not excite people at all.

I would have to agree with this, Zaralek caverns has been rated as unpopular and an expansion based on underground sounds ugh to me tbh x.x

It would probably be the first WoW expansion I would hard pass on unless it had amazing features and no Tinker does not interest me sadly as I find Goblins and Gnomes the most annoying races in the game tbh :/

[Cheezits]

I don't want to believe it either, but Towel knows stuff and I don't know how to take his comment as anything but Underground.

"You guys are too focused ABOVE the water"

That and a Dwarf zone already foreshadowed.

[Reive]

https://twitter.com/keyboardturn/sta...23137163104410

does anybody know what is she talking about?

[Teriz]

It would have to be like the core world from Godzilla vs Kong where there's a fake sky. People couldn't even handle months of Zaralek.

Hopefully Towel is trolling because it's pretty awful news and smells like Filler Island 2.

I highly doubt a goblin-controlled underground zone would be anything like Zaralek. You’re talking about an underground metropolis controlled by highly wealthy trade princes.

[Raetary]

based around the idea of Goblin science, greed, and industrialization.

All of that shares a single visual theme.

If an underground expansion was happening, it would take themes from various subterreanean fantasy themes as well as warcrafts own.
Underdark and others, Dwarves, Titans, Nerubians and other insectoids, Fungi and elementals, etc.

Basing the entire continent on Goblins but with more money, Goblins but with more conveyor belts and Goblins but with extra Tesla coils, isn't gonna cut it.

[Kiria]

All of that shares a single visual theme.

If an underground expansion was happening, it would take themes from various subterreanean fantasy themes as well as warcrafts own.
Underdark and others, Dwarves, Titans, Nerubians and other insectoids, Fungi and elementals, etc.

Basing the entire continent on Goblins but with more money, Goblins but with more conveyor belts and Goblins but with extra Tesla coils, isn't gonna cut it.

Agreed, I can't see that sort of theme really pulling the masses back in, if anything people will see it and think naw.

Goblins and Gnomes are not a very favourable race on both factions and basing an expansion around them would result in low initial sales which is not what Goblin Kotick would agree to.

[Marlamin]

https://twitter.com/keyboardturn/sta...23137163104410

does anybody know what is she talking about?

There was a leak where some of the court documents around the MS/Activision merger were leaked, but there wasn't really anything about Activision in there that wasn't already known from investor calls. It was largely about MS itself, the run up to the merger and past mergers.