This strikes me as the sort of Cata-era optimism that subsequent content had disabused me of. Suffice to say, I’ll believe it when I see it, and given the recent news that the Night Elf vengeance arc has gone nowhere, I don’t believe I’m going to see it.
We have different views on Teldrassil as well. I feel that when you take away the basis for that culture to be expressed, to flourish, and to respond to what’s happening in the rest of the world, something that Darnassus was uniquely positioned to do, there’s a lot less room for that cultural expression. I certainly haven’t seen traces of it in the depiction of Night Elven territories being turned into warzones.
And I’ve always been one for arguing that the idea of the “moral” Horde is a lie and the Horde commiting atrocities is something which the Horde has glorified for it’s entirety, the issue stemming from the writers finger-wagging the player more so than the actions of the faction.
God, that’s the dream. Just zone by zone racial and community storytelling. Slowly rebuilding at least the majority of EK and Kali over the course of an entire expac. Make all the dungeon and raids quirky and fun, surrounding those more local stories. And maybe scatter some “seeping up the from the floorboards” new big bad for the following expac if you need to.
It is unlikely Blizzard will ever attempt a Cataclysm style revamp of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms again. Given their insistence on gameplay, we will probably at best see zone per zone updates when Blizzard wants to use the locations in whatever current expansion story, like the way they did with Arathi, Darkshore, Uldum, and the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
I disagree that they aren’t going to do it again, I felt like Warfronts were an easy way to double dip on their work and each patch since BfA has added updated textures to old classic era models or HD textures of old buildings which aren’t used but existing within the files.
I do believe there’s a revamp in the works but they’re working on it as a side project so that when it becomes main project, they aren’t forced to rush like they had to with Cataclysm.
Sigh … which is such a shame. They really do not understand the value of the Old World they have already. Not to mention they’ve really run the setting ragged with all their Big Bad after Big Bad stories back to back. Not to mention desensitizing the playerbase with that constant escalation.
It’s not a lie, it’s present throughout WC3 that they aren’t meant to be monsters. That seems to have been glossed over as just justification by the time the MMO rolls around though.
Also, it’s not what the REEEEing has been about at all. I don’t see anyone being half as upset about the scolding they receive, as much as I do even anything as simple as the view that they’re actually being monsters through evil acts, being something attributed to crazy ideas like real life racism, or reflections of some conjured images of prejudice by the faction they view as antagonistic for reasons that might as well be brief.
For context to my above point: we saw HD textures and files regarding Stromgarde being worked on during Warlords of Draenor, which were ultimately used in the Arathi Warfront.
We currently have HD human houses and buildings existing in the file that don’t exist anywhere in-game, which if I recall were datamined during BfA.
While it’s illogical to connect the two, I wouldn’t be surprised if post-Shadowlands is rebuilding the world while we’re away. And with the new level scaling, they don’t have to distinguish leveling zones and endgame zones.
It’s why Chromie Time just feels like a stopgap at the moment.
They already said they would not be cutting Shadowlands short the way they did Warlords.
Given their development set backs it wouldn’t likely help them move things along, as any slowdown that would affect the next Shadowlands patches would just create the same slowdown for the next expansion.
I do not in any way believe a revamp is in the works. Blizzard reusing old assets is not new. Many of the assets for the Darkshore Warfront and Warsong Gulch update were just reused from Legion. They didn’t even bother with new assets in Uldum or Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
They seem to be hyping up 9.2 with bundlefull of content, which could be interesting depending on how the raid concludes. Like, I hate to be the optimist on anything, but I am generally enjoying SLS as an independent story experience. Its bogged down by a lot of the baggage of BfA, but its not bad. Plus, I am kinda intrigued where the story can go with the Sylvie issue hopefully being dealt with to some capacity at the end of the raid. Though … my money is on her being captured.
If BfA/Legion/Shadowlands interviews has shown anything, most of their word during interviews is utterly meaningless.
The biggest red flag for me in regards to Shadowlands is the fact they said they’re not going to do in-between raids, a staple that’s been in every expansion since WOTLK except WOD.
I am honestly confused where they will be going from here. They are blowing up Torgast and the Maw seems to be done as content now. Are we even going to be in the Shadowlands for 9.2?
I will settle for a cleaned up Hyjal using assets from the last couple expansions. In BFA the inn got a refresh; we only have two more buildings and we will have a modern refresh of our entire building kit (The open walled hunter’s lodge building, and the towers), on top of that we got the entire Highborn kit and the Dreamgrove kit.
Nope? I haven’t see any leaks, just a random guess if the Jailer is really escaping from the top of Torghast when the skybox still shows Icecrown. But that rift could go somewhere entirely different if Blizzard wanted. Or maybe the Jailer doesn’t use that rift at all, since the fight maybe ends in Oribos. I have no idea.
Someone made a ghost ships at the Stormwind docks “screenshot” back during BfA, too. Anything is possible, obviously, but I’d save discussion until something is actually up on a PTR.