We often get new players who know nothing about the game, and existing players who want to level alts, just maybe not in a random way. So allow me to present:
CHROMIEVISION: A Journey Through Time
When first arriving in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, new players are presented with a new option under the Chromie conversation: Chromievision. In this version, new characters are transported to major moments throughout each expansion by Chromie and given a meta quest in that expac that upon completion grants them a level. Each time it is completed, Chromie whisks you away to a new expansion where you complete another meta quest. Here’s how it would look:
Classic Chromie: Takes you into Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor bringing you to level 30 Chromie’s Crusade: Takes you into Outlands and levels you to 35 The Frozen Chrome: Takes you into Northrend and levels you to 40 Chromieclysm: Returns to Cata only zones and levels you to 43 Chromie in the Mists: Takes you to Pandaria and levels you to 48 Warlords of Bronze Dragonflight: Takes you to Draenor and levels you to 50 (LvL1 Garrison) Broken Isle Time: Takes you into Legion and levels you to 55 Chromie for Azeroth: Takes you into Boralus/Zuldazar and levels you to 60 Shadows of Bronze: Takes you into Shadowlands and levels you to 65 (Choose covenant) Where It All Started: Takes you into Dragonflight and levels you to 70
Each expansion’s questline is a mini-campaign that shows you the zones, gives you just the essential background and lore, and avoids doing OLD questlines. Think of them more like the quests to unlock Artifact Weapons. Lots of hopping around with specific purpose. Each time you complete an expansion, the next quest will start a new expansion, and you simply tell Chromie “I am ready to go”. Much like Legion with the head in the Crystal ball, Chromie will appear only when the questline completes, otherwise all of the meta quests in that zone will auto pop and complete just like WQs and Dailies.
Ultimately, this would be a fresh approach to leveling, which I might try if it ever happened. However, with 6 level 80s over my NA and EU accounts, this would probably benefit someone other than me who loves their alts. Just a suggestion, and if Blizz wanted to steal it, tweak it, and run with it, they are more than welcome. Just me hammering out an idea I had while queuing for Timewalking dungeons on my Rogue
What is wrong with the way it is now? They got the leveling island to teach them how t play and then they can level wherever they want. That’s way more freedom than I ever got leveling my characters. In vanilla you couldn’t just go wherever you wanted and make a difference where you wanted unlike today. I just think it’s nice for players to be able to play in areas that interest them more then forcing them down a linear path.
The problem at the moment is, it has been this way since the Shadowlands Prepatch, and while interesting enough to let you pick your path, it is the same old paths we did in 07, 09, 11, 13, 15, and so on. What this option would do is “Remix” every expansion, offer some specific and fresh Lore quests, and take you on a trail through time, and not just one specific expansion the way it has for the past near 5 years.
It is an alternative, optional, open world leveling experience that takes nothing away from what we have, and removes nothing from the game. If anything, you get a sampler of Lore vs picking on expansion and then being so bored with it in 7 levels, you switch to dungeons and just grind those and PvP for “something faster” and newer.
You can hit 70 on one expansion. If you want a walk through time why not just go do all the quests for each expansion? The carrot is world knowledge, if players don’t find it worth it then idk. You can’t keep handing people free stuff for doing trivial things. It barely takes 10 hours to hit max level on a level 1 character.
And you are missing the point, which means explaining it to you is more squeeze than juice. So, thanks for your “opinion” I guess and have a great day.
Perhaps how I answered is a product of how you wrote your post? You want a redesigned leveling experience and for what? So new players can “get more into it?” This game couldn’t be made more easier than it is today.
Just like every other person on these forums, myself included, you read the title, skimmed the post, figured I was begging for something to REPLACE the leveling experience instead of adding to it, and immediately dismissed the whole thing without a great deal of detail except for
So, it had nothing to do with what I wrote, cause this was an ADDITION to Chromie time, not a replacement. When you get to Chromie she’s like “Hey, you can pick ANY expansion… OR, I can show you around”. It was never one or the other as the ONLY way. It’s MORE options and content.
More options and more confusion for new players. You complain there are too many options for leveling and it’s confusing players but to want to add more options on top of more options. Your logic is flawed.
New players might be confused. Existing players might look on with dread. Some players are content leveling through the same expansion for the 33rd time. But since this idea will never actually happen, I will still illustrate how it would be less confusing.
Right now, if you create a new character that is NOT an Allied Race, you are taken to a screen before you ever zone in. You are presented with two paths (however these choices are static and cannot be changed til lvl 10).
In this version, you get the same pretty screen, except it is a picture of Chromie holding up two portals. One says “Chromie Time” and leads you directly to her in SW or Org. The other says “Show Me Around” and takes you into the opening quest with her standing next to you. At anytime you can talk to her and say, “Show me Chromie Time” and be teleported back to her in SW or Org to leave the guided Lore crunch and pick wherever you want to go. If you get bored, simply go back to Chromie in SW or Org and say, “Can you show me around again?” and it takes you right into the level appropriate quest.
The leveling island gives you the very simple basics of how to move your character and press buttons to attack things. It teaches you how to do quests.
It teaches you nothing about what talents to add, what stats favor your class/spec, what class/spec even means, it teaches you nothing about dungeons and raids and the various levels, nothing about professions, gathering, what “mat” means, nothing about all the currency systems.
Yes there is WoWHead but the ads they constantly throw in your face are super annoying. You finally find something, your excited, there’s my answer and *** SPLAT *** an ad slaps you in the face,covers most of the screen and what you were reading jumps up or down so even when you gun down the ad you have to go search for what it is you were just reading.
The forum gives good advice if you know to go ask but you need to have skin a bit thick to deal with the negative replies.
An organized beginner tutorial that took you through all of this would be really helpful. Chromie time would still be great for leveling alts.
It’s always good to see someone who actually understands it and can see it as well. I probably didn’t even have to share the “split screen” idea and you already knew what i was talking about.
The exile’s reach is OK, but not really that interesting. Having already played through many expansions I didn’t have any tutorials on, so I just blazed through.
I didn’t know the tutorials added anything of note until I watched a video of someone coming into wow for the first time.
There is so much more to teach them than in those first few levels. Providing an alternate leveling path with more in depth tutorials, as well as lore catchup, would help new players immensely.
Heck, I’d even go back and see what the new experience with the lore catchup is like. Never hurts to get reminded of what was; I mean 20 years is a long damned time.
If you think they ignore us casuals, you might be in for a shock…
Playable Dragons
When asking for shared rep like we got in DF and TWW
Account Wide banking (even with Faction restrictions)
Account wide mounts and mogs
and the list goes on… They may hate my idea. They may never use it. This thread may get lost in the archives on this forum. But at some point, we ask and they listen. It’s kinda how we got Cataclysm. But you have an amazing day!
While I think the idea has some merit, an obvious issue raises its head:
It’s a condensed storyline.
While it could, theoretically, cover the essentials of the story and lore… I think it’d just leave players in a lurch as they are catapulted from one setpiece to the next. It’d be a rapid-fire narrative with no room to breathe… hell, even doing the quests normally feels rushed a lot of the time.
Pacing still has some importance, as generally poorly done as it is throughout WoW’s content, and unfortunately I only see this making it even worse.
It may have a different effect than intended, and a lot of those major plot points the game’s mythos are built upon would lose their significance.
I appreciate the insight. When I originally crafted the idea, my thought was “If someone only levels in Outland, they miss the other 9 zones. Or the same with any zone”. I’ve leveled alts in WoD and SL just so I have Garrisons and Covenants unlocked, and then will go do Legion just to unlock Dalaran and my class hall for that character. Instead of just doing one zone of leveling, I have to do 3. So what if we had a condensed line, that unlocks all the important stuff, gets the person to level 70, moves them into TWW, and then are inspired to go back if they desire?
It is far from perfect, will certainly feel rushed especially with the up to 25% bonus from having so many 80s, but felt like it would be a nice mini-meta that at least exposes key moments in each expac. Someone else even suggested allowing Follower dungeons to offer a respite from questing in that section of the condensed content.
It would give people the basic idea of what went on in Azeroth’s history and prepare them for what’s going on now. Remember it’s a balance. Too little, people are lost, too much and they are going to move on to something else.
In terms of game play there is, however, a massive gap between where the intro island leaves you and showing up prepared for a dungeon or raid in a way that won’t get you kicked on sight. A tutorial that teaches the middle part would be great.
