This past week, Taliesin did a video about the taking Classic into an alternate WoW starting with Cata. Thinking on and expanding this, I could see different versions of an alternate game and thought it might be interesting to talk about it here:
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Starting with Cata, or restarting with Vanilla and bringing future QOL features into them. Things like races, transmogs, etc. would exist starting with Vanilla, so we’re able to experience flying or achievements, etc. Kind of like the opposite of #nochanges, it would be #allchanges. This would keep the same lore and be mechanics changes only.
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Keeping the same lore and storyline, same game features, but writing new stories within the confines of the existing expac. So maybe during LK, we’ve got an alternate storyline having to do with what ignored characters are doing. Questlines would be changed or rewritten. Dialogue rewritten. Different characters introduced. Arthas would still be out there, Arthas-ing, but maybe we get to see what’s going on in Gilneas, or there are defense quests for Ironforge…something new but doesn’t affect the overall storyline.
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Completely going in a different direction with lore moving forward. Arthas isn’t the Lich King - instead Calia takes up Frostmourne. Sylvanas doesn’t get killed - it’s Jaina. Maybe Deathwing doesn’t show up and cause Cata. Instead, the Orcs from Yrel’s universe invades and that starts to split continents from the power they use to open a new portal.
Which would you prefer? How would you sort it out? What changes would you make? What would you keep and what would you throw out for good?
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AU Timeline where Tirion doesn’t break out of Arthas’ ice prison and Arthas successfully raises Azeroth’s greatest Murder Hobos as his new Undead Murder Hobo army.
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Classic WoW reforged. Gimme transmog and new models I beg you
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Classic WoW Reforged as Sarestha said. The biggest thing keeping me away from Classic now is the lack of transmog and new models. Most of the Allied Races and expansion races wouldn’t fit into things lorewise really aside from Goblins. Other than things that we still don’t have in Retail. looking at you Taunka, real High Elves, Broken, Mok’nathal, etc. I absolutely love just about every other aspect of things, but I have become obsessed with mogging and making my characters, to my mind, perfect with all of the new options in retail. It honestly is what has kept me playing other than rp since BfA. If I had never had access to such improvements, I would probably be Classic only at this point, but because I’ve been given them, I now don’t know if I can do without them long term.
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I guess I’d be interested in a timeline where Garrosh did something wrong. Just because I’m curious what it would be.
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I like a mix of 1 & 2 – classic era being Vanilla through Wrath, but with modern character models, xmog etc. Then, go “horizontal” with it all.
- Tweak stuff to make more sense in terms of narrative but keep it very, very familiar
- Make more tiers of raids, more dungeons, etc
- Really extend Vanilla in this way
MAYBE do something crazy where Vanilla and Wrath are sort of merged into “classic +” and TBC isn’t involved, though bring in the elves and stuff in some other way…maybe… perhaps, TBC is more a series of patches that bring in elves, Demon Hunters etc. in a new way. That gets to alternate timeline stuff though.
For alternate timeline stuff:
I’d like to see Chromie time fleshed out more, where each timeline reflects that time of the game. For example: Classic, TBC and Wrath have the old pre-cata world. Cata has Deathwing attacking. Wrath has scourge events. Stuff like that.
Then, building on that, add in alternate timeways. Could be its own expansion or big expac feature that continues on.
For a full revision, I’d love to see some real sharp storytellers remake the entire the thing for a revisionist take on WoW, sort of a WoW2 but also not.
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One thing many of us have talked about in various RP discords, DMs, in game chats, etc. is the idea of an xpac set before the Sundering. I’d really like to see, for one example, what it was like when the Pandaren Empire was a thing and how they interacted with all the other cultures of Azeroth when it was all one big continent.
. . .
imagine a version of the game where going into each one of the Caverns of Time didn’t just lead you to a dungeon/raid, it actually led you to one of these other Azeroths.
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I want a full silly alternate Hearthstone timeline:
Cartel wars in Gadgetstan
Parties in Karazhan
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
Curse of Naxxramas!
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while it’s too late for this, it could’ve been interesting to see a classic+ thing happen
where instead of outland happening, they continued to iterate on the classic version of azeroth.
so furthering the argent dawn/scarlet crusade plot, adding a different version of Quel’thalas, seeing the horde expand in Kalimdor, etc
i heard the idea compared to RuneScape, because apparently RuneScape did something similar to that and it was very popular among the playerbase
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I would be all for this. I’ve got a Dwarf Warrior that I used to RP in the AD. He’s been on ice for years when it comes to RP.
Also - too early to ask for AU Shadowlands? I will swear by the light that it could have been my favorite expac of all time had it been crafted entirely different.
It should have taken us back to Azeroth. It should have been a portal into the realms of death/undead WoW that in a huge circle, brought us back to the beginning of everything. There is so much in my head about how I wanted /want it to be, I can’t begin to put it all down on paper.
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I kept thinking about timelines with villain victories and it continue to affecting the story and world.
One idea is Onyxia assassinating both Varian and Tiffin, making Anduin the “Boy King” from a very early age. Eventually Onyxia’s schemes are revealed and she is ejected from Stormwind but continues to cause problems across Azeroth with her brother.
Which could make Wrathion a stronger and more compelling character. He’s still a rascal but he’s motivated at attempting to undo the damage Onyxia and her brother have done and cleanse his flight of the old God corruption.
Another possibility is Wratharion never gets saved by the Red Dragonflight, and he gets raised by Onyxia.
they should do classic WotLK BUT it actually has the dance studio
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Remember the Path of the Titans?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
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Path of the Titans sounds like it was gonna be some proto-version of Artifact Power so we’re lucky such a feature got delayed for several expansions
Anyway more seriously I said this somewhere else and what I’d like the most is classic-style retail realms. Instead of applying QOL features to classic apply classic hardships to retail! Realms with no transfers, boosts or x-realm features where leveling takes 10 times as long and open world creatures deal 4 times as much damage! Ironman achievements for reaching max level without dying!
Exploring different rulesets for retail realms could be an interesting way to experiment with bringing those things people like about classic into current content. Classic WoW, especially from WotLK-on, is not such a fundamentally different game from retail, it is just that in retail open world content is too trivial and realm communities do not exist (except on RP servers!). Those are problems that you could attempt to address on retail in some ways.
After all these years, as a night elf main who roleplays A Very Serious Sentinel, dance studio is the feature I mourn the most.
…And if it’d been selectable animations, oh man.
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All my Characters would have the Draenei Dance.
Every.
Single.
One.
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I wish I didn’t have to go to Boralus every time I want to do the Karazhan dance for an obscure easter egg on a single dance floor. IT’S ALREADY IN THE GAME LET ME HAVE IT. MAKE IT LIKE A HUMAN ONLY TOY OR SOMETHING DISCO IS DEAD BLIZZARD!
DISCO IS DEAD!!!
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You know, the strange with them not giving us the dance studio at this point, it’s to the point of childish refusal.
Can you imagine the amount of word-spreading, good branding, good karma OMGLOOK that would happen if Blizz did even just this one thing? It’s been a running joke for so many years that they promised it and never delivered.
One happy little thing - the ability to change your dance - would make so many people happy…and yet they refuse to do it.
As I often say, the question is then begged - why?
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My guess is that it’s licensing of the dance moves. If we did/do get a dance studio, it will probably be all new, proprietary moves. Which would still be cool but implementation might be complex – not for design reasons, for legal/due diligence reasons.