We shouldn’t be flying anyway as it ruins the immersion of the game, but at least dragon riding makes sense with the expansion theme. I say remove pathfinder in DF and just leave it as it is.
This has already been addressed multiple times in the thread by now. In general, I agree with this point. No game developer should be compelled to design elements of their game for any need or want of a player. There are far too many things to design for and it doesn’t take much to change the gameplay experience in the way the game developer would be unhappy with. If this were one of the posts from beta and when the expansion first launched asking for legacy flying to be brought back to WoW, then I would fully agree with this rationale.
But Blizzard already did commit to designing and implementing legacy flying. They announced it was coming several months after DF’s release. Whatever effort spent and potential experience degradation might exist from doing so was determined to be worth the benefits. The ask in this post specifically is with the return of legacy flying as a given. Given Blizzard is bringing legacy flying to the game in 10.2, having pathfinder being a requirement given most players aren’t likely to use legacy flying and those most impacted by needing the achievement are those who aren’t DR doesn’t make much sense. In fact, it’s such a strong overlap between legacy flying only being useful for those who aren’t DR and those who aren’t DR being the players most likely to struggle to unlock PF that is feels in many ways to just be a punishment for those who aren’t DR. For those who just don’t like it that’s fair enough, but for those with disabilities preventing them from doing so it feels wrong to also gatekeep legacy flying.
To start, I do appreciate the suggestion for folks who have motion sickness and other similar conditions. Having knowledge around workarounds that might help some people enjoy the game more is truly amazing.
But as someone who has a disability, you should know that no two disabilities are the same. Even someone with a similar disability as you won’t necessarily experience similar symptoms as you. Accommodations that work for you may not work for another person and vice versa. Dismissing someone with a similar disability because you’ve found a workaround that works for you only makes it harder for disabled individuals to get the assistance they need. Close-minded able-bodied people will see a member of the disabled community claiming that this particular concern is invalid and use that as a reason why such an accommodation should never be made.
Similar to the motion sickness workaround, having the tip to make that trip is great knowledge to share. But it also doesn’t address other situations where such a strategy will not work. If instead you need to make the return trip from Iskarra to Valdrakken this method completely falls apart. In fact, if you aren’t going from a place with an easy to get to high point and winding up in a low point, this method will not work at all.
And then even in the perfect situation you described, not everyone struggles with the sheer speed of the dragon moving. I know two different people in WoW who can’t even watch their character when legacy flying or on a flightpoint or they’ll get sick. Reaching even 300% speed is a problem much less the 500% you’re proposing.
For them, when they use a flightpoint they get up and walk away from the computer once in the air. For legacy flying, they can point their camera to the sky and use the minimap to make angle adjustments with their keyboard. The passive nature of legacy flying makes it possible for them to still engage with the system in some way. The active nature of DR makes this impossible because you need to see where you’re going to make adjustments. Then even if you can get your trajectory completely correct, taking off and landing require watching your character.
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TBC flying is simple and elegant in design which is why it is the crown jewel of the MMORPG world.
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/cracks knuckles
okay, diving in. this is the problem, legacy flying is here. we, who have trouble with dragonriding, are being told we have to farm 6 reps to renown 15, in order to fly. juxtapose this against people who dont have problems with dragonriding, getting it on day one without having to grind a single rep. comprende’?
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I never like this idea of not being able to fly in new zone but majority wanted other wise so here we are.
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My thoughts are that once im done doing all the story I missed (recently returned after a very long time away) I will be leaving. I hate the dragonflying as much as I did Guild Wars 2s which did this style first and I will not take the time to do reputation in the new expansion just to make travelling decent again.
I sampled the story and it did not grip me. Couple that with the horrendous travel and the expansion is unsalvageable for me. Perhaps if they made it so old flying could just be purchased I might have stayed around to at least complete the expansion story. As is, it isnt good enough to put in that kind of time.
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Sorry to see you go.
Your feedback is valuable and you have been a valued member of the WoW community.
14956 posts
I bet most of them were as useful and this one was.
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Everyone gets to play the same game. the same grind. the same optional content.
EVERYONE, including you.
comprende?
/thread.
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I prefer to elevate people instead of talk down to them. All people’s feedback is valuable and valuable to the greater WoW community.
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What does that have anything to do with the topic? Nobody is asking for special treatment in this thread. People are merely questioning the value in locking legacy flight behind pathfinder given that dragon riding exists and was available from day one.
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Great point.
Let me add that what is happening is apparent to even people that do like DR but do not like TBC flying.
At this point there is no reason to lock away TBC flying and hold it hostage behind patchfinder once more.
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bro at this point i think if you engage with grindy systems they def have disabilities, at this point it may as well be synonymous with wow in general, i for one cant wait for the new grind that awaits me and i cant wait to engage with it on a daily basis
Their shift from front loaded profits to long term growth has really started to hit their front loaded profits.
Front loaded box sales of DF are way down. But it is little things like PF that starts to peel players away to FF.
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the majority of who? no one other than the developers themselves I suspect
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I don’t understand people’s gripes with pathfinder.
Like, I got all of the questlines and zones explored from 10.0 in the first 3 days. I had the requisite rep by the end of the 2022.
If there was some ridiculous achievement linked to it (IO 2250) or an absurd fee (300k) then sure there’d be room for backlash but folks are going to get this just by playing the game.
And beyond that if you don’t get pathfinder… no big deal? Like you still have a form of flying that is faster and allows for you to carry a passenger.
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It’s been explained many times.
For one thing, why are they making us do this? In the past, Pathfinder was a way for us to fly. Well… we’re already flying. We already been all over the maps because we needed to collect glyphs. The other point of Pathfinder was to make us see the world from the ground. Again, we haven’t done that since day one.
Then there’s the fact that regular ol’ flying is the inferior way to travel. What Blizzard is basically doing is giving us 310 flying for free but making us do a laundry list of chores for 150%.
Plus, the only people that this will effect is those with RL issues. Maybe they have arthritis in their hands or they get pretty bad motion sickness from watching their screen move around so quickly. Most people will not downgrade to regular flying so why are they doing this to people seeking relief?
And last but not least, and this is just my theory and I have no proof of it, I think Ion is making us do this out of spite. He’s wanted flying gone since it was introduced in TBC but he knows, from the experience in WoD, that if he removes it completely, the game will die. So this is just him sticking it to us any way he can.
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At its creation I personally don’t think old school flying was intended to ever be put into Dragonflight. It was an xpac designed around dragonriding as being the only form of flight in mind. Only at some point the design team started to say, yes we will add in old style flight at some point, without any promise as to how they would do it. As just tossing out a bone to players who didn’t like dragonriding in general.
As far as the promise that we would have flight in this xpac without pathfinder, well we did, as it was dragonriding, dragonriding is flight and we got it without pathfinder. They never said at any point, old style flight would come without a gimmick attached to it, they only said that at some point it would come.
But that is my take to the whole thing. That this xpac was really design from the start to be 100% dragonriding only xpac and that was it for flight.
Pathfinder would be fine if it didn’t have the renown tied to it. I am fine with the quest and exploration achievements. But the rep/renown needs to go.
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Actually its a very small % that is having such an issue with dragonriding.
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