Absolutely, which is why when I saw NPC’s flying in the game, I wondered how long it took them to do Pathfinder 1 and 2. It’s just the in-game implementation that boggles my mind. They have such a great mechanic like flying and can design very meaningful and punishing areas that create more depth in the fantasy world. But seem to go the path of least resistance. /shrug/
But when it comes to Ion, I can’t really be surprised since he was the one that said that comment about Demonology Warlocks and has come out several times either lying or contradicting themselves.
I didn’t like Argus but damn did that ever make sense for not being able to fly.
Wrath, albeit I didn’t play during it, when leveling, I saw how they created the zone around flying and it made storm peaks nicer to traverse.
Heck even Mechagon with flight made sense but had that lingering pest of those flying robotic mechanisms that detect you.
There is lots of unexplored design paths they never fleshed out.
I disliked that we couldn’t fly because they made cheap, half-finished zones with invisible walls and painted backdrops. I would so much rather have had complete, connected zones where flying was simply unfeasible because of constant aerial bombardment or even “the planet is broken, gravity is inconsistent, you might get thrown into empty space and killed”. Even if flying was still disabled, giving us a lore reason would at least have made sense there.
Instead, they’ve stopped even trying to give us lore reasons (you have to learn how to navigate the cold northern winds, the timey-wimey stuff on this island confuses your flying mounts, whatever) for no flying.
Pretty much. They didn’t want flight but without it they wouldn’t have a game audience to sell to without it. You don’t take a QOL improvement like flight from the game after many years with it.
And the nerve of them to sell a flying mount that xpac, show it off in WoD areas flying and then say that they didn’t intend WoD to have flight.
Every thing they do regarding flight feels spiteful.
“Here, have a collector’s edition mount from the new zones, based on a model that flies in the new zones, that you can’t fly on because…reasons!” Oh man, I’d forgotten about that mount, honestly.
like timeless isle where the temporal mechanics denied all flight yet it somehow had no effect on the giant gulls and other flying creatures including the taxis that flew to and from the island
I could accept the gulls and cloud serpents, since they were native to the island. But logically, we should have been able to fly on the beach where our flight paths were, rather than getting knocked down over the ocean. Logic has never been Blizzard’s strong suit, though, and at least they tried to give us an explanation.
Unlike the Broken Isles and Kul Tiras/Zandalar, which should both fall under “normal flying conditions in greater Azeroth” but don’t because…because.
Sorry I could of written more to my response, and that is I kind of meant to say the premise made sense. They definitely could of made more of an effort to implement what you mentioned in game because frankly your points are perfectly reasonable to be met at a place like Argus. Instead of the hack-job we got.
They later said it was meant to be an expansion, hate to see how that would of been.
I think Legion in general was very disjointed in their zone development… I’m not sure if it’s what they have to work with, or what the game can allow them or (CEO overlords) lol but that’s my main complaint is that they lack creativity, and thinking outside the box.
They freakin’ went back to just some old systems again. Me thinks they are out of their element
yeah amazing how we earned flight for azeroth in legion yet we ended up stuck on the ground in BFA I was under the impression KT and Zanda was part of azeroth
Your second sentence here is compelling to me. Attaining max level, to me, used to mean something for everyone: those that wanted to raid or dungeon dive could begin the meta-leveling (gear score/ilevel/raider IO/etc) to achieve that goal; pvp could continue in arena/end-game PvP (obviously twinks notwithstanding); and folks more vested in open world content could unlock flying (these three activities are by no means comprehensive, just boilerplate).
Each level gained in modern wow feels less like an event; it feels to me like another mile on the odometer - not just dinging max level. A continuous grind that doesn’t end at 120/130/X.
Whether that’s because there’s “a lotta miles” or simply my own bias (probably more of the latter) is definitely debatable.
he definitely doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of the players, as subs have been consistently sliding under his regime
the only thing he’s done successfully is increased micros massively, where they generate more revenue than subs, mostly due to buying gold with real money (wow tokens). Successfully for his bosses, not for us.
Ion is a PR guy and carefully avoids real transparency, making up lines to justify design decisions when the ugly truth can’t be told (i.e. they want higher /timeplayed and retention for more micros, that they’ve given up on increasing subs, that they are trying to extract as much money as possible in a slow transition to a grindy F2P game)
We aren’t giant gulls, what do you expect!? lol
But seriously, I think apart from some flying creatures, they really just never do a good job at implementing a reason for these things.
what do you expect after all hes a lawyer first and a gamer second he is only interested in listening to the shareholders who have even less interest or desire in the game than he does and the only motivation is how much money is the game gonna make
they don’t seem to get the point that happy customers will bring in more money they want us to spend more time and cash enjoying the game then lose the ego trip and put the customers first
we get it Watcher and his team hates flight nd wants it gone but this isn’t about what the company wants they keep deciding that the players don’t want it based simply on the fact the developers want it will only lead to more and more people leaving
eventually the higherups will finally have to accept the fact the customer is their highest priority and watcher and crew will either find themselves removed from WoW or just downright replaced at Blizzard altogether
It’s almost like people don’t want todo what pathfinder entails. Remember when hitting max level, flying was the reward. Hitting max level now just means the actual grind begins.
Yup, it’s very easy to complete…if you play the game a certain way.
Funny thing is, even though Pathfinder as implemented in BfA is perfectly suited to my gameplay style, and I had part 1 and part 2 very soon after they were implemented just by playing the game normally for me, I can still see how my gameplay isn’t everyone’s gameplay, and how options are needed that don’t force players into a single playstyle.
Yep, I’m not finding much fun in the game right now either, but IMO flying gives you have gigantic advantage in this xpac. I get so pissed off in the new zones trying to farm rares and the mob of flying people get to the rare and kill it before I can get there.
easy is relative though. is it easy in terms of complexity… sure. Is it easy relative to time commitment? hardly. Have had a couple friends return to the game recently and none of them are close to getting it. Most of them play 6-10 hours a week, but would rather spend that time doing arena or M+. Flying is a huge quality of life piece, but it’s still just a nicety.
It’s just odd. Flying has been central to the game experience for how long and now they change it? Makes no sense. The funny part is the need for flying is substantially higher now than it was before pathfinder was even a thing.
