Ground content has gone backwards. In patch 8.3 the content is turning back to fill a bar quests like it was in WoD. Such innovation that BFA is going to go out in a whimper to finish the expansion once patch 8.3 releases.
Imagine if flying was incorporated in the questing experience in BFA with all those amazing flying creatures and questing area potential to utilize flight or the Horde/Alliance assaults. Lots of lost potential but the BC/WotLK expansions opened the door but the current B level team refuses to walk through out insistent on their ground and pound vision that is stuck in the mud.
Look at how long it takes to finish a lot of the quests in BFA. Half of them fall into the category of less than a minute. So you spend more time traveling to do the quest than the quest itself.
Hopefully with world quest 2.0 for shadowlands they make questing more interesting again and actually incorporate flying as part of it. Embrace it and watch how the questing experience goes back to the WotLK/Cata/MoP era.
Well, for me, I see that WQs aren’t meant to be a forever-thing, most of my toons no longer need to do any of them once they hit the M+ system. With the notable exception of emissaries for things like weapons, which M+ just is a horror show for.
With the amount of quests in BFA, they don’t have to worry about anyone skipping over the content. It’s actually not possible to do. There are quests littered everywhere, and the NPCS literally guide you every step of the way until the entire questline is completed. Or I should say, every 5 steps along the way, as that is how often they stop and give you 1-3 more quests to continue the sequence with.
When they first implemented pathfinder it could be argued that it was necessary to prevent people from skipping content, but with this structure in place you really can’t.
Unless, of course, flying 2 steps from the entrance ofthe cave to the inside of the cave is considered skipping content. That’s how crazy they’ve gotten with it.
Yeah with increasingly small map design they are plopping down too many mobs and the questing areas are cluttered with one quest after another. This is to try to make the world feel “big”.
But it has been said by others what makes the world fill big is larger maps and having to “negative space” where there are no NPCs. That is why a lot of vanilla maps are loved by many.
For some reason the name “Preach” makes me instantly dislike him without ever having watched him. Sounds like he takes his opinion way too seriously lol.
That being said, I prefer flying immediately or at least not time gated. If you want us to do a rep grind, fine. But make it available in the initial patch. None of this part 2 nonsense.
I don’t know anyone that ‘loves’ the vanilla maps for the Barrens, or Tanaris, or Desolace, or the Wetlands. All are big, flat, open spaces with plenty of ‘negative space’ with few to no mobs. Most people just view it as a PITA. Big and empty isn’t necessarily good.
Zones like Silverpine Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Western Plaguelands and Eastern Plaguelands, though, I could agree with you on. They are big, and open, but there is almost always a mob in sight, without them being packed like sardines.
But I love Barrens, Tanaris and Desolace. Wetland is really cool if you think about how it is designed.
When I started playing WoW I was an herbalist and miner and those zones were really fun to travel on the ground on my way to nodes. It was a very zen like playing experience.
This is where the problem lies… how do they cater to both crowds? I actually like how the quests are designed in BFA, as you don’t have to travel back and forth all the time. That’s where flying was a major convenience, as it was annoying to bounce back and forth to the exact same location over and over. This is still occuring to a degree, but not nearly as bad as it used to be.
I like the old school approach. Lineage 2 originally had a lot of negative space and it was really cool to see the entire world of Aden. Then they followed the model of putting NPCs around every corner and it made the world much more duller to explore IMO and you also saw a lot of automated “unmentionables” grinding away 24/7 because of increased mob density.
They hated flight yet they choose to suffer in silence then Blizzard decides to try and remove it and suddenly its rally around the flag boys its okay Blizzard we got your back
Seriously how many flight is bad threads existed prior to Ions announcement?
It is still frustrating that the development team has decided to make this an issue in the community. I feel this is one of the greatest failures on the part of Blizzard in pitting their customers against one another, more than anything else in the game.
The devs need to do the right thing and remove PF from every old xpac and either give us our flying back at max level or give everyone their flying back at max level and the first patch. No more grinding and no more time gating.
Yeah and unlike swifty he couldnt rally enough lackeys to threaten Blizzard with more of the same nonsense unril they knuckled under and got his ban revoked
With the kind of design choices they made, it’s as if they are trying to eliminate flying to where it is not needed.
If the quest line is required to go from location to location and open up the next story sequence, as we discussed, then there is no need for flying. No one complains if it’s literally impossible to use. lol
