At the moment, steady flight is still locked behind the Pathfinding achievement, while skyriding is rewarded after the first few quests. This is an accessibility issue. Not everyone can manage skyriding, and I know Blizzard knows this because quests that require skyriding have an accessibility option. So why are people with motion sickness and other concerns punished with the old Pathfinding achievement before they can unlock flying?
This was an issue in Dragonflight for a time, too. Unfortunately, I doubt they will budge. :[
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I really doubt their goal was to punish you.
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I have to agree. Putting normal flight behind Pathfinder isnât a good idea. There are lots of people who just canât do dynamic flight due to various physical challenges.
They shouldnât get left behind.
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Pathfinder unlocking flying sorta made sense in Shadowlands and prior expansions because they wanted everyone to be immersed in the worlds they created. Youâd have flight masters once you unlocked them, but generally it required some level of effort to get to them.
Dragonflight completely upended that by making the flight part of that immersed experience. Pathfinder getting added in 10.2.0 felt antiquated at that time because we were getting a feature that was available in every other zone; of course it should be an option in the Dragon Isles. Now with TWW weâll have both flight types unlocked at level 20 everywhere, including Dragon Isles. Great!
What, exactly, is special about skyriding in Khaz Algar? Arenât we spending most of this expansion underground and not, as implied by the ability, in the sky?
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you do what you did for WoD, Legion, BFA, and Shadowlands which I didnât hear any accessibility complaints about.
Not that I agree with the additional hurdle but I as someone with a disability I really hate people throwing this argument around for something so minor.
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There should have been no accessibility issues in those expansions because moving around on ground mounts, and flying when itâs enabled were equally accessible, and everyone was on the same playing field.
Dragonriding upends that concept because the world is designed around it in both size and layout, making running around on ground mounts significantly worse, and more frustrating. And of course, it confers a clear and tangible advantage to someone more abled.
I donât know about you, but I wouldnât expect someone to have to hoof it from, say, the top of Valdrakken to Zaralek Caverns on a ground mount. Thatâs the kind of world design we have in Khaz Algar as well. That doesnât sound fun in any way. Even moving around Dornogal on a ground mount is (and we can test this right now), a significantly worse experience. Whereas just being able to use Static Flight puts things back to ânormalâ.
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The caverns is an added area not part of the original area. By the time they add areas everyone should have normal flying. And you arenât in a competition with others so what if they âget aheadâ.
Plus I am sure there are flight paths.
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What?
War Within literally launches with zones like Azj-Kahet, underground levels, all that stuff already there in the expansion launch. Players are going to have to go through all of that to unlock Static Flying if the requirement is finishing all the zone campaigns. How is Dragonflightâs patch cadence relevant?
Being âbehindâ on an expansion launch can be a significant detriment to player experience. For just one example, even on a basic level for groups, getting behind the curve can be the difference between getting declined over and over again for âplayers with more experienceâ, vs. being the person whoâs in demand. More importantly, thereâs absolutely no reason for people to be arbitrarily behind. Itâs one thing if a player chooses to take opening week off, or whatever. Itâs an entirely different thing if a player is just having their time wasted, or being set at a disadvantage, by the gameâs literal design.
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you are the one who made the comparison - it was a rather bizarre comparison as well considering they have flight paths in the game.
seriouslyâŠ
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I agree it is an Issue, worsened by the Dawnbreaker Instance.
But they will most likely not change that (Thou Iâd love to be wrong) for the simple reason that Skyriding is considered Legacy Content. That means they want it to be used now and in future. And unfortunately it plays right in the âGgogogogogoâ-Mindset that crept up in WoW since introduction of Mythic+. That means itâs popular. Putting Skyriding behind the Pathfinder, would cause an uproar louder then what we can do. Such an uproar looks bad for investors. And unhappy investors are a bigger problem in this capitalist world then accessibility issues.
I bet, in their opinion we can be happy to get steady Flight as an Achievement.
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Flight paths need to be unlocked by actually moving around manually first. And are of limited value depending on where youâre having to move around.
While levelling, especially if you check back into Dornogal or go back to Stormwind or whatever at any point, you then have to start your travel from scratch. Between each zone campaign is also a decent stop/break point. Take the very first starting zone - you start off with the intro in Dornogal, and have to go around to the village area for the next part. As a Skyrider, you get there in 30 seconds. If youâre running around on a lame ground mount, I donât even know if youâll get there in 5 mins. Iâm sure someone could time the difference if they feel bored enough.
Moving around for Hallowfall, Azj-Kahet, City of Threads, etc., are all worse. And flight paths only help once youâve already gone there to unlock them. They do nothing for your first run through, which is the thing you need to do to unlock Static Flying in the first place.
I have no idea why you thought the Zaralek Caverns being added in a patch was the thing I was talking about. Clearly Iâm talking about world layout, which is something Blizzard has only built on using their previous work so that thereâs ânewâ stuff already at War Within launch.
Look, if what youâre trying to convey here is that you think people are exaggerating, whatever. Youâre not actually denying the accessibility concern saying that, youâre simply insinuating that itâs not as big (for others) as you think it is. That said, given that what people are talking about as a remedy isnât asking Blizzard to develop some new feature or whatever, but simply to toggle on something that already exists in the game - something that should take literal seconds to do âŠ
Which is the actual important point here. Itâs such an easy win for something that would significantly improve other peopleâs game experience, at no drawback to someone like me who can happily Skyride around. And it doesnât even make logical sense - itâs asking people to struggle through content theyâd most benefit from the accessibility of Static FLying for, to then unlock Static Flying once theyâre finished with it.
10 Likes
This is what they should be changing. There is no reason to have those locked in that manner when we have dragonflying and people with dragonflying can go pick them up in a few minutes. It is an out of date game structure. All the flight paths should be open from the start.
pretty sure they give you a transport for this part. I didnât progress far into that yet because of remix but they do provide a transport right near the start and I think it is in the part you are referring to.
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The same logic you use for why thereâs no reason flight paths need to be locked applies even more aptly to Static Flying. And of course, it doesnât work as well to just unlock flight paths, since some flight paths need to be unlocked by doing quests etc., in the first place.
Whereas just enabling Static Flying is literally the simplest change. And, to boot, it essentially preserves the play experience - people fly around in the same manner as others would Dragonride. It would be weird if you had a starting breadcrumb quest that was meant to introduce you to a zone, and to do it you first took a flight path to a city you didnât know about, walked back out of it, then starting doing the intro that moved you back into the city, etc.
I think youâre confusing quests there.
When youâre finished with the landing area, you get a quest to go TO Dornogal and start your intro. You Dragonride through some rings that essentially point your way, thereâs a clicky mount to do that, etc. It sounds like thatâs what youâre referencing, but feel free to correct me.
Iâm not talking about that part. Iâm talking about the quest chains that come after.
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blizzard has reasons they want a delay on static flying - the requirement to unlock the flight paths there is actually is no real reason anymore.
And I have zero desire to get into a big discussion with you again on this. I donât care if blizzard puts static flying in from the start, in fact I prefer they do but I offends me people are whining about accessibility when it clearly isnât an accessibility issue for someone who knows what a serious disability feels like.
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Thatâs a stupid take, with which right are you ranking disabilities?
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https://media.tenor.com/p54UKZMskZoAAAAM/jonah-jameson-laugh.gif
The fact that those reasons were nonsensical when they were said years ago, and now no longer apply to a world with Skyriding, has been one of the reasons this conversation keeps coming up. Not to mention whether those reasons outweigh accessibility concerns (that arenât new). You havenât demonstrated any understanding of how these designs work to be able to comment on that.
Just keep getting offended, I guess.
Hell, your suggestion of simply unlocking all flight paths literally causes a host of other issues as I touched upon. It would be worse/more work for developers, worse from a design PoV, and worse from the playersâ PoV.
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it is called my opinion and you may not like it but I get to have one. No one playing a game has a right to expect a game company to change anything for them. Playing the game is optional - playing it at the same rate as other people is a ridiculous ask in my opinion.
And the person I was replying to has motion sickness which doesnât even appear to be stopping her playing beta so I am not going to even consider that a disability.
WoW! Iâm an investor with an accessibility issue. I am also an investor in Microsoft. If Blizzard refuses to fix this issue by putting revenue ahead of people, then this is the type of issue that needs to be reported to Microsoft concerning Blizzardâs management. I want to believe that Blizzard will fix this in a reasonable time.
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There continues to be no practical or gameplay purpose behind locking static flight behind
Pathfinder.
Except Blizzardâs continued spite that they couldnât kill Flying in general in WoD.
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