A big gripe of most players when a new expansion rolls out is the lack of flying until a later patch. Call it “time-gating” or “making players explore the content created by the developers first”, it’s always been a heated topic for players.
I think a compromise can be this: flying is avalible to players day 1, but only after doing a reasonable amount of content, most that can be achieved almost completely, if not fully during a basic leveling campaign.
My thought is the achievement to unlock it (The “Pathfinder” if you will) would be accessible the second you start playing 10.0. You simply have to fufill the reasonable conditions for it, and they can account-wide if you play with more than one toon. And once you unlock it, all your toons can fly in the new expansion.
Here’s some reasonable conditions they can use I think most people would achieve easily. They don’t even have to use all of them; just a few ideas I had:
1: Hit New Level Cap (If done 10.0, then probably 70)
2: Complete all region storylines (Just the basic leveling ones. No extra side quests)
3: Find the major landmarks in the areas (Just the big areas. No needing to look for some obscure corner of the map)
4: Become honored with the region factions (You’d be close, if not already there by the cap).
5: Complete all day 1 expansion dungeons on normal or above.
I think this would be a fair compromise. Players can get flying early on, but have to do some reasonable work for it. And the programmers’ work can still be validated with the requirement to explore content on foot.
5 Likes
Ah, you bring me such find memories of Cataclysm with this talk. The expansion was so bad, but it had 2 real major awsome things about it… Flying day 1 and “Have Keg Will Travel”.
Unfortunately, it turned out everyone (aka development team) hated (you) getting where ever you were trying to get to super fast.
1 Like
They do it this way because they want players to have to unlock zones and spend time essentially crawling on their bellies like a reptile for an extended period of time. The fact that they don’t care that many players have left over pathfinder is illustrated by the fact that now every patch requires flying to be unlocked again.
2 Likes
That’s why I figured the compromise could work. You still have to work for it, but you don’t have to wait until 10.2 or 10.3 to start flying.
A reasonable player who does like 2-4 hours of gameplay on a normal schedule probably would ding it in 2-4 weeks. A more hardcore, around the clock player, would probably do a week and a half.
I don’t mind a short wait like we had this time. It seems like a major change from reluctantly giving us flying in Legion and BfA, and the foolish way they tried to kill it in Warlords. They need to stop trying to use frustration and difficult navigation as a way to extend the life of content. It just leads to players not wanting to log in at all because it’s not fun. Better to have players enjoy their time in game and be excited for what’s next, even if there’s a wait. We don’t have infinite patience for switchbacks and terrain puzzles.
1 Like
flying should unlock after doing the launch zones main questlines.
if blizz is really feeling mean about it, make the above only unlock the ability to purchase flying and have it cost like a wow tokens worth of gold just to squeeze every cent out of us “ungrateful players that can’t appreciate the scenery”
if they want to do mini-pathfinders for new zones, fine, but launch zones should be flyable at launch.
5 Likes
imo, there should a month to two months of no flying, give everyone a chance to explore an area that designers put time into.
then flying available to buy for like 10g or something.
I don’t see the problem with what they did in Wrath and BC. They’re some of the most cherished expacs. Do the leveling in ground, create content around flying at max level. People like flying. It feels good.
But it’s not for relevant content. I never go back to Shadowlands anymore except for M+. And in that, only Bastion dungeons are not close to FPs. So all that waiting for a waste. I want to do content with flying.
1 Like
I don’t see any form of Compromising on behalf of the Developers and flying. The day that happens where flying goes back to gold purchase and early on from the get go, hmm Guess maybe that’s it for wow for reals.
I’ve reached my own compromise with Blizzard about Pathfinder… I’ll unsub while Blizzard waits. Take as long as you like, but I’m not paying to wait.
4 Likes
someone else being able to fly in 2 days in no way stops you from taking 2 weeks or 2 months to explore the area they put time into…if that person wanted to explore it they will, even once they get flying.
I do more exploring of nooks and cranny’s once I can fly because running around on the ground and trying to find what F’d up path they “designed” to get you from point A to B is just annoying and a pain.
I’m much more into “That area looks cool, I’ll go check it out.” :: Flies to area that is cool :: “Wow, they did some cool designs here, that’s a cool model for such and such…”
Rather than “That area looks cool, I’ll go check it out.” :: opens map and tries to decide which 10 mile long path to take to end up 500 feet away due to obstacles, cliffs, and foliage and petty annoying mobs that exist only to annoy at that point :: “No…on second thought, let’s not go over there…tis a silly place.”
:: shrugs ::
4 Likes
yeah but not every player plays like you or i.
idk
They want you to see their beautiful content.
Then they want you to get so sick you vomit doing the quests to unlock flying.
you have the chance to do that regardless of if someone can fly or not.
3 Likes
No. Instanced content participation shouldn’t gate a feature that is unusable in instanced content.
5 Likes
I don’t want a compromise.
It’s a fantasy game, where guards fly in your hubs [for most part], why can’t we fly lol - unless it’s some arbitrary reason.
Design the game around flying and stop caring so much about things ~ because you want people to play as you design it with mobs dazing or being a nuisance.
Go level, do the questing, explore and get flying. This 1 yr wait or w/e is stupid.
5 Likes
Most forum posters*
Not the same thing at all.
2 Likes
flight has nothing to do with dungeons and should not be restricted by them.
Unless of course there are going to be dungeons with flight as part of the dungeon.
2 Likes
idk man its just my opinion
