New TWW zones a bit bland?

[Urzaels-dragonmaw]

Anyone could’ve known that is not the sword? Maybe if they have paid attention to the panel that was at Blizzcon where they have showed the location then maybe they would’ve known that it is way off shore and off the coast to be anywhere near silithus.

[Jintra-moon-guard]

At first, I felt the same way regarding Dorn. But after a while, I began to really appreciate its more mundane nature in comparison to the crazy landscapes that are going on beneath. There’s a few spots in Dorn where there’s quite a lot going on visually beyond the capital.

I suspect that some patch will change how the Isle looks in some capacity. I just hope it isn’t crazily drastic.

[Orwyn-area-52]

You are malding over a non-issue.

[Lorelaî-stormrage]

@Taeilan-moon-guard

Isle of Dorn: I actually like the new city. In terms of being an actual city it’s one of the larger one’s we’ve had, and it seems to have a nice simple clean dwarven aesthetic. Aside from that? Really dorn itself is the same 3 new dwarven buildings with brown, green, green and more green with very little vegetation. A very subdued color pallet in a game that usually has bright colors. I hope there is a new asset drop sometime between now and release. There are no real standout landmarks other than said city. It looks like a mid-expansion zone that’s full of small camps of baddies, no verticality whatsoever. Flatter than ohnaran plains.

This is the only thing I really agree with you on in terms of the zones being bland. The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall and Aj-kahet are all beautiful zones. The Isle of Dorne is just… It’s boring. Besides Dornogal there is nothing there, no distinguished landmarks, very few trees, just flat green hills and some Dwarven buildings. Nothing stands out and it feels like the Canadian Prairies, you’ve seen 1 inch of it, you’ve seen it all. It’s remarkably unremarkable.

@Orwyn-area-52

You are basing your opinion on the beta? I would think that there is still a number of things to be added and polishing to be done. I’m wondering people’s opinion once they explore the zones in full release.

Once the game reaches beta it’s more about fine tuning than it is implementing new things. The zones are basically done, they might go in and tweak a couple things but don’t expect the zones to change in any meaningful manner between now and launch.

[Taeilan-moon-guard]

That’s a fair assessment. I wouldn’t want it to get ruined like the vale. I just want some more trees, plants and some contrast. It for all intents and purposes does look like a typical remote island. That aspect of it doesn’t take me out of it.

[Qamaits-darrowmere (Qamaits)]

Dorn and Hallowfall are my two favorite zones of all time as of right now.

[Breadisfunny-turalyon (Breadisfunny)]

@Orwyn-area-52

I would think that there is still a number of things to be added

and you would be WRONG. blizzard HAS NEVER added new zones or altered them in any physical way in the middle of beta. once the zones are out for beta testing thats it. that’s what gonna be in launch.

[Orwyn-area-52]

[quote=“Lorelaî-stormrage, post:24, topic:1877205, full:true”]

@Taeilan-moon-guard

The zones are basically done, they might go in and tweak a couple things but don’t expect the zones to change in any meaningful manner between now and launch.

I think if they got enough feedback that they feel dull they would spend some time touching things up, I think the devs generally care about what people think but there are just SO many people. It’s probably hard to sift through all of the feedback to find the stuff that actually impacts people’s experience of the game especially in a community like WOW that isn’t afraid to talk about what they don’t like lol.

[Breadisfunny-turalyon (Breadisfunny)]

this is one of the biggest word salad non statements ive ever seen.

[Lorelaî-stormrage]

@Orwyn-area-52

I think if they got enough feedback that they feel dull they would spend some time touching things up

Unfortunately, it would have been done in Alpha. They won’t change a zone much in beta. Beta is about class tuning and end-game testing. Maybe there’s an event of some sort in a patch that changes the Isle of Dorne a bit, but otherwise I would not expect to see any changes from the zone designs. We’re 9 weeks from launch.

[Lìvía-moon-guard]

Dunno if they want a repeat of WoD. Where half the zones were redone mid dev due to feedback about too many orcs… (which cut out the train tracks).

[Taeilan-moon-guard]

This is unfortunately true. Blizzard released the zones in beta because they consider them mostly finished. I’m not really asking for anything at all, but wanted to give my opinion on it. It would be wrong to do that before actually seeing them.

[Lorelaî-stormrage]

@Lìvía-moon-guard

Though, dunno if they want a repeat of WoD.

WoD was a hot mess, they redesigned zones due to Orc Fatigue but what did they expect to happen after 18 months of Siege of Orgrimmar? That we’d all love to go full ORC for another 2 years? They flubbed WoD hard.

[Lìvía-moon-guard]

Yet still it’s overall theme ended up more engaging that DF : |

[Lorelaî-stormrage]

I strongly disagree, but we’re all welcome to our own opinions.

[Lìvía-moon-guard]

Well, draenei have their reasons. \o/

[Requitus-stormrage]

Yes, they are.

@Requitus-stormrage

Freywold Village on the Isle of Dorn, the place they showed in the announcement trailer, is really the only place in the zone that looks like it does, being cozy and lush; the rest is bland, flat, and as I keep harping on, the textures are soft and low-res even at high settings, which further makes the zone feel unfinished, lending credence to that ol’ “lol 2004 graphics” chestnut.

This all seems like the inevitable result of making enormous zones now that we have Skyriding.

I was just flying around Hallowfall and kept thinking, “Is this it?”

Yes, the crystal is an impressive visual landmark, but there’s actually very little landmass to be explored, and it’s all kind of bland. A lot of the zone is inaccessible seas heading toward said crystal. Hallowfall isn’t Dorn-bland, but I can’t help but feel like a Suramar-like Arathi city under siege would give the zone more “oomph”. As it is, it’s a handful of buildings and zeppelins flying around aimlessly.

I assume more will be added as the beta continues (?), but again I must stress that to me, the zones feel lifeless and empty. I hope there’s a massive asset dump into them in the next two months and things liven up (without depending on players running around to give the impression of vitality in the zone).

[Breadisfunny-turalyon (Breadisfunny)]

no they were trying to bring back the feeling of warcraft 1 and 2. when it was orcs and humans. the garrisons even reflected that with their tiers town hall keep castle great hall asethtic. they even bought back the old elven destroyer designs and stuff with naval missions.

[Myzrym-area-52]

I hate to break it to you but DF’s zones were pretty bland as well. They did a good job of capturing some of the feelings of old and fondly remembered zones (Waking Shores reminded me of 1k needles, Ohnaran of Nagrand, and Azure Span of Howling Fjord/Grizzly Hills) but they were still just kind of bland remakes.

[Taeilan-moon-guard]

I felt like although the DF zones were a bit derivative in some instances that they had a good variety of subzones. Ohn’aran planes was exactly what it said it was. A flat plane (with the caveat that it had some verticality to support dragon riding for leveling characters). However, if you noticed there were distinct regions of it that represented the different clans of centaur. Blizzard’s plan for the earthen was to have each zone represent one culture. That is the crux of my main complaint is a lack of contrast in most of the zones. The exception being the ringing deeps which I have nothing to criticize about despite my thesis.