Flying is finally the way it SHOULD be: Got it right after 8 long years

[OMGTwitchTV]

When Blizz decided there would be no more flying at the start of WoD, a 1200 page megathread lit up the skies as people who both love and hate flying took to the thread and railed on it from both sides. In that thread years ago we said:

- Add faster methods of travel that flight paths. They did it.
- Make the skies dangerous again. They did that too.
- Restrict it to certain zones, but only after the Lore path was finished and not some REP requirements. Did it.
- Add more interesting transport systems. Done.
- Introduce new flight systems without so much looping. Mostly done.
- Add some ground mounts, but allow most mounts to fly. Did it.
- Remove Pathfinder and ease up with the rep requirements. Done again.

While I know the anti-flight group claims it "ruins the game", I would bet a month's salary they are using flight for dailies, world bosses, rare hunting, and more. So thanks Blizz for actually paying attention and making flight something worth having again, and slow rolling it so it didn't interfere with the initial passes through the zones.

What are your thoughts? Did they get it right? Did they do well enough leaving flight out of Oribos, The Maw, and Korthia? Since Zereth Mortis is essentially the new Timeless Isle, was this the better place to add flight, or should Korthia have been given flight and ZM left on the ground?

[Davryn]

I'm okay with how they handled flying in this expansion. As long as a zone is properly designed around the possibility or non-possibility of flying, that's fine. I didn't like the Maw, but I don't think flying would have made it better.

[ohwell]

When Blizz decided there would be no more flying at the start of WoD, a 1200 page megathread lit up the skies as people who both love and hate flying took to the thread and railed on it from both sides. In that thread years ago we said:

- Add faster methods of travel that flight paths. They did it.
- Make the skies dangerous again. They did that too.
- Restrict it to certain zones, but only after the Lore path was finished and not some REP requirements. Did it.
- Add more interesting transport systems. Done.
- Introduce new flight systems without so much looping. Mostly done.
- Add some ground mounts, but allow most mounts to fly. Did it.
- Remove Pathfinder and ease up with the rep requirements. Done again.

While I know the anti-flight group claims it "ruins the game", I would bet a month's salary they are using flight for dailies, world bosses, rare hunting, and more. So thanks Blizz for actually paying attention and making flight something worth having again, and slow rolling it so it didn't interfere with the initial passes through the zones.

What are your thoughts? Did they get it right? Did they do well enough leaving flight out of Oribos, The Maw, and Korthia? Since Zereth Mortis is essentially the new Timeless Isle, was this the better place to add flight, or should Korthia have been given flight and ZM left on the ground?

Once again just because you can opt out of using something doesn't make it bad for the game or the people who don't like it hypocrites. That's like saying you can use a pocket knife in a gun fight if you hate guns but nobody in their right mind would do it and you could still hate guns. That tired sad argument just needs to stop.

[OMGTwitchTV]

Once again just because you can opt out of using something doesn't make it bad for the game or the people who don't like it hypocrites. That's like saying you can use a pocket knife in a gun fight if you hate guns but nobody in their right mind would do it and you could still hate guns. That tired sad argument just needs to stop.

Agreed. Self control is almost as rare as common sense. You can choose to fly from NY to LA, or you can drive. And, if you are absolutely insane, you are welcome to walk there. Personally, I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs a 4 day drive.

[ohwell]

Agreed. Self control is almost as rare as common sense. You can choose to fly from NY to LA, or you can drive. And, if you are absolutely insane, you are welcome to walk there. Personally, I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs a 4 day drive.

I mean look at that example you just gave. It's hilarious all the people crying about climate change take private jets between those 2 locations. Does it make them wrong about climate change? No. Just like flying is bad for the game, but you're probably going to still use it as to not set yourself back, the same goes for them.

[PaladinBash]

Yeah nah I don't care that you hate flying. I'm not having my dailies take 4 times as long because of you. Blizzard isn't going to make dailies and shit like GW2 or something, that ship sailed a long long time ago. They're not going to recreate fun little things to do at max level, it's never going to happen. The only thing they know how to do is make dull repetitive content that you can either do quickly and efficiently like a good little rat in Papa Ion's maze or they can draw it out with pointless little timegates and arbitrary requirements. That's it, that's the game. That's all flying is anymore and you all know it.

[OMGTwitchTV]

I mean look at that example you just gave. It's hilarious all the people crying about climate change take private jets between those 2 locations. Does it make them wrong about climate change? No. Just like flying is bad for the game, but you're probably going to still use it as to not set yourself back, the same goes for them.

I never could understand people who insist on handicapping their movement for the sake of "Lore, immersion, etc". It's part of the game, so use it As for the people you described above, there is one term that solidly fits them: hypocrites. Like that scene in Armageddon where the Green Peace group is protesting an oil drilling operation on a boat that uses hundreds of gallons of fuel every hour. If you are concerned about climate change, feel free to go green, add solar, use composting, etc. But they can excuse me while I drive a gas guzzler, use my pool, and replace my grass with gravel to make for a more desert landscape. I have no problem with people being themselves, but their shouting and complaining without proper logic stops when it reaches the end of my nose. They have a right to their opinion, and I have the right to ignore it.

[enigma77]

I'm excited for the Dragonflight flying. That's how it always should have been. Not swimming through the air, like a noclip hack.

Riding a mount should be exciting. Groundmounts are good enough because you at least need to pay attention to obstacles and enemies. But the new flying looks sick.

Just look at this. It's so cool.

[OMGTwitchTV]

Especially when you can customize your Dragon and learn new flying/rolling/diving abilities

[Caprias]

I'm excited for the Dragonflight flying. That's how it always should have been. Not swimming through the air, like a noclip hack.

Riding a mount should be exciting. Groundmounts are good enough because you at least need to pay attention to obstacles and enemies. But the new flying looks sick.

This.

Flying pretty much has always been:
Press spacebar> auto to the direction you want to go to> tab out/2nd monitor stuff/youtube or whatever> look from time to time if you've arrived or overshot your target.

I'm not anti flying, but with that as "gameplay experience" you could also just give me a official point and click teleport hack so I can get to do actual fun stuff faster.

Movement mechanics in the world are so boring and underutilized it's almost depressing.

[Kaleredar]

Flying was absolutely fine in BC and WotLK and Cata and MoP. It wasn't until the ass-end of MoP when people started bitching about flying being what was causing an almost decade-old game to feel old. Yes, flying would have made WoD better. The best patch of WoD is the one where they introduced flying back into the game.

As other posters have noted, the outside world is not "challenging" or "difficult" once you obtain the barest shred of gear to where you can just knock over any mob that dazes you off your mount. Artificially increasing the time it takes to perform various end-game quests is not increasing the challenge, difficulty, or, most importantly, enjoyment of these activities. And this has been going on for eight years now, without them ever innovating on what daily chores are or constitute in any meaningful way, which leads me to believe that they aren't ever going to.

The game was at it's best... like, objectively, player-population wise, when flying was an integral part of the game's experience. Zones were designed around it. Certain WotLK and Cataclysm zones were completely untraversable without it. Blizzard has been resisting that fact for a long time now, I think due in part to both listening to the wrong segment of the community that has fanciful ideas of what makes good gameplay and wants to force them upon others, and their desire to artificially lengthen how long content takes without creating anything new or novel and provide a carrot-on-a-stick reward for some down-the-line patch as one of the few compelling rewards outside of end-game content.


Hopefully dragon flying in dragonflight will allow me to bypass irrelevant mobs that offer absolutely no challenge or reward and only slow me down, bypass annoying hills that I'd otherwise have to traverse every day to get some series of chores done, and make it so I can make it to rare spawns on the other end of the map as the people that find it try and raidlog DPS on it like it'll give them more loot.

[OMGTwitchTV]

This.

Flying pretty much has always been:
Press spacebar> auto to the direction you want to go to> tab out/2nd monitor stuff/youtube or whatever> look from time to time if you've arrived or overshot your target.

I'm not anti flying, but with that as "gameplay experience" you could also just give me a official point and click teleport hack so I can get to do actual fun stuff faster.

Movement mechanics in the world are so boring and underutilized it's almost depressing.

I always felt like the Gryphon masters should have a counterpart for faster options. Innkeepers. Everytime you discover a new Inn, in person, it is ADDED to your hearthstone. Then, when you get ready to hearth, it gives you a map of nearby inkeepers, but just like FPs, you can zoom out on the map. Only difference is, I can now Hearth to any Inn on any expac as long as I have met the InnKeeper in person and cleared the Green ! over his / her head.

[WowIsDead64]

When Blizz decided there would be no more flying at the start of WoD, a 1200 page megathread lit up the skies as people who both love and hate flying took to the thread and railed on it from both sides. In that thread years ago we said:

- Add faster methods of travel that flight paths. They did it.
- Make the skies dangerous again. They did that too.
- Restrict it to certain zones, but only after the Lore path was finished and not some REP requirements. Did it.
- Add more interesting transport systems. Done.
- Introduce new flight systems without so much looping. Mostly done.
- Add some ground mounts, but allow most mounts to fly. Did it.
- Remove Pathfinder and ease up with the rep requirements. Done again.

While I know the anti-flight group claims it "ruins the game", I would bet a month's salary they are using flight for dailies, world bosses, rare hunting, and more. So thanks Blizz for actually paying attention and making flight something worth having again, and slow rolling it so it didn't interfere with the initial passes through the zones.

What are your thoughts? Did they get it right? Did they do well enough leaving flight out of Oribos, The Maw, and Korthia? Since Zereth Mortis is essentially the new Timeless Isle, was this the better place to add flight, or should Korthia have been given flight and ZM left on the ground?

We still aren't sure, how long grind will be. Yeah, I assume, that it will finally be "gradual return of flying right at release", I've been asking for for years. But it's not first time, when assumption doesn't match real implementation. I call it "Great idea, but terrible implementation". May be it will be standard "Just a little gliding till first major patch, jetpack mode till second and finally you have flying after year of grinding some 'Mount power'".

[Zardas]

Agreed. Self control is almost as rare as common sense. You can choose to fly from NY to LA, or you can drive. And, if you are absolutely insane, you are welcome to walk there. Personally, I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs a 4 day drive.

Yup, personnaly is the right term here. Personnaly I'd rather enjoy a nice long trip and enjoy my journey, but each his own. Does that makes me "insane" ?

[Biomega]

Agreed. Self control is almost as rare as common sense. You can choose to fly from NY to LA, or you can drive. And, if you are absolutely insane, you are welcome to walk there. Personally, I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs a 4 day drive.

That's totally fine.

It's also not what's happening here.

Here's what it's ACTUALLY like:

A: "I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs. a 4-day drive"
B: "I prefer a 4-day drive actually, it's more scenic and you get to experience the JOURNEY"
A: "Cool, we both like different things and we can each do the one we like."
B: "Actually, no. You are no longer allowed to take a 5-hour flight. You will now only have the option to do a 4-day drive and enjoy the JOURNEY."
A: "Wait what, why does my preference get removed?"
B: "Because it made me feel bad. I could still do what I liked when you did what you liked, but it felt bad and so now we all get to do what *I* like and nothing else. And enjoy the JOURNEY!"

[ceall]

You will LOVE DF then, OP.
Flying (in some way) since day 1! Made possible by dragon riding. Regular flying will then be implemented in a later patch (as they have done it since wod).

[arkanon]

I mean look at that example you just gave. It's hilarious all the people crying about climate change take private jets between those 2 locations. Does it make them wrong about climate change? No. Just like flying is bad for the game, but you're probably going to still use it as to not set yourself back, the same goes for them.

Climate change is a fact. Flying being good or bad for the game is an opinion. Try again!

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That's totally fine.

It's also not what's happening here.

Here's what it's ACTUALLY like:

A: "I like the idea of a 5 hour flight vs. a 4-day drive"
B: "I prefer a 4-day drive actually, it's more scenic and you get to experience the JOURNEY"
A: "Cool, we both like different things and we can each do the one we like."
B: "Actually, no. You are no longer allowed to take a 5-hour flight. You will now only have the option to do a 4-day drive and enjoy the JOURNEY."
A: "Wait what, why does my preference get removed?"
B: "Because it made me feel bad. I could still do what I liked when you did what you liked, but it felt bad and so now we all get to do what *I* like and nothing else. And enjoy the JOURNEY!"

Lol, that's actually pretty accurate.

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I always felt like the Gryphon masters should have a counterpart for faster options. Innkeepers. Everytime you discover a new Inn, in person, it is ADDED to your hearthstone. Then, when you get ready to hearth, it gives you a map of nearby inkeepers, but just like FPs, you can zoom out on the map. Only difference is, I can now Hearth to any Inn on any expac as long as I have met the InnKeeper in person and cleared the Green ! over his / her head.

So diablo fast travel to spam through those mindless WQ faster. Honestly it is only a matter of time until wow is just diablo for old people.

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This.

Flying pretty much has always been:
Press spacebar> auto to the direction you want to go to> tab out/2nd monitor stuff/youtube or whatever> look from time to time if you've arrived or overshot your target.

I'm not anti flying, but with that as "gameplay experience" you could also just give me a official point and click teleport hack so I can get to do actual fun stuff faster.

Movement mechanics in the world are so boring and underutilized it's almost depressing.

And flightpoints have always been "pick your destination - leave the room and go make a coffee". And yet so few people complain about flight points. Strange really.

[Tentim]

I rather just play the instanced content of wow so flight is something I would prefer by default to avoid annoyingly culling the 20 weak mobs.

[Biomega]

So diablo fast travel to spam through those mindless WQ faster. Honestly it is only a matter of time until wow is just diablo for old people.

My position has always been simple: if you want people to be interested in your content, make the content interesting. If they're only interested in the rewards, don't be surprised if they want to skip everything that isn't the reward.

You can't make ten WQs each of "kill 20 mobs in area X" and then complain when people want to click through shit and rush it as fast as possible.

[arkanon]

My position has always been simple: if you want people to be interested in your content, make the content interesting. If they're only interested in the rewards, don't be surprised if they want to skip everything that isn't the reward.

You can't make ten WQs each of "kill 20 mobs in area X" and then complain when people want to click through shit and rush it as fast as possible.

Not blaming anyone or saying if its a good or bad thing - simply stating that a LOT of D3 style systems already have been implemented into wow, and this would be yet another.

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I rather just play the instanced content of wow so flight is something I would prefer by default to avoid annoyingly culling the 20 weak mobs.

Or, do the one thing the groundies refuse to accept is an option - just do what everyone does and ride straight through them. Groundies like to pretend they have slogged up the side of Everest killing entire armies of mobs, having adventures, and discovering hidden treasure on the way to their destination. Truth is the hit autorun and ran through everything as fast as they can to the top of the mountain. They forgot to equip one of the items to stop them being dismounted, so they got dismounted once, but they just kept autorunning in the same direction for 8 seconds and mounted back up.