Some things I noticed and got a strange feeling

Community General Discussion
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I’m playing with a different character in the Season of Discovery, and everything there gives me a strange feeling that… even though the graphics are dated, it still has a strangely better ambiance.

Of course, there’s a huge difference between seeing this on my monitor and in a screenshot.

And aside from the fact that the trees have much lower resolution… I can’t explain it, this ambiance is much more enjoyable to walk around in…

There are things I can’t explain, but they make much more sense to me.

I didn’t remember this NPC, but it’s apparently a high elf, an old model, Captain Thalo’thas Brightsun. What intrigues me the most is that this model, TO ME, was much better than what we have today.

They doesn’t have the strange posture of Blood Elves or High Elves today, that weird sway at the waist. Although it’s an outdated model, it does much more justice to “they have athletic and agile bodies”.

I randomly picked up this image from Reddit. One of the things I like the most are the lighting effects: the Kobolds using torches, you can see the illuminated path around them… the wands, the illuminated projectile going towards the enemy…

I can’t appreciate these details in today’s game anymore, not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. I can’t SEE these details like it was back in those days.

(random pic)

To wrap it up, although I can’t live without the ability to use flying mounts to travel between distant areas anymore, traveling on foot provides a much greater sense of immersion. The maps were more spacious, with a feeling of vastness, while the islands and small cities that came in later expansions (retail) feel too “compact” (again, in my opinion).

I think there should be a balance. For example, flying mounts should require food or have stamina to balance them with ground mounts… but of course, people would probably hate that. However, I’ve been walking even in retail, after realizing how much I miss it. The difference I noticed between walking in Classic and walking in retail is that the environment in Classic was much better (even with dated graphics).

The only thing I don’t like about Classic are the quests that require you to collect items, like “Collect 8 spider legs…” or “Collect 4 feline claws” - and when you kill the spider or the feline, you get nothing. I think that’s the weak point I can point out in that era.

Anyway… I like coming to work and logging into a character in Classic and just being there for a while, leveling up or doing something interesting… I just can’t feel that in retail anymore…

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I miss wow having actual nights. Cross realm servers screwed it up now it’s always seemingly day time in wow.

Walking the barrens or 1000 needle at night was always a feel.

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totally agree

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There is definitely night time. It’s not as dark as it was in vanilla (though you can fix that yourself with the inky black potion). Over the weekend I saw the sunset, night time, and sunrise in Waking Shores, and there is DEFINITELY a day/night cycle. It goes by server time.

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Just really breaks immersion now when I’m playing at night in a server timezone that says 10 pm and it’s broad daylight when wow has night and day…

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But that I have to drink wow absinthe to see the world darker shouldn’t be a thing D:

But I guess I’ll become an ink drinker xD

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I don’t know, but I’m on an eastern time server, and there is definitely a sunset between like 7-9pm and it does get darker and look like night. At least, in regular zones…it doesn’t apply to weird locations like Outland and the Shadowlands. It’s not pitch black like the inky black potion does, but there is definitely a night.

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I think the old rougher graphics better captured some of the old, scribbly concept art of Metzen and Didier. While I find the newer graphics more pleasant to look at, I do have to agree they are lacking a certain grit and charm. The original feels like it was cobbled together in someone’s shed with sheer determination. The modern game feels much more clean and easy. Even sterile.

To be clear, I’m not a retail hater. I don’t even touch classic. And maybe it’s my nostalgia. But those are some very evocative screenshots.

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I understand that, and I agree as well.

This day and night cycle is complicated because there are players who say they could only play at night in real life, which is why I’ve always advocated for in-game time to be one hour for each side (one hour each for day and night)…

But still, I agree that having to drink an ink potion to see darker nights is strange. The lighting effects I’m mentioning were visible both at night (which was really cool) and on wands and torches, even during the day… but at night, they were much more “visible”.

There’s a quest in Legion where we become a mage student and use a wand to target certain things… it’s completely different. The projectiles are slow like old school wands, but there isn’t the same lighting effect impact, which led me to believe that this type of effect was removed from the game, which explains part of my strangeness and why I think Classic had better effects…

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I respect what you’re saying but I only feel dread when I imagine going back to anything close to vanilla.

On the other hand, someone mentioned the day & night thing–I miss that as well. All my toons have like 100 inky potions in their inventory :slight_smile:

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It’s nostalgia. When vanilla first came out, it was unlike anything seen before, including other MMO’s which it was way ahead of in visuals and immersion. In 2004 the size of the areas we had to explore was nearly unimaginable, and there was a great deal of wonder about everything.

It’s impossible to experience something like that for the first time again, only get nostalgic when you see it again. I have a lot of fond memories from back then too, but do I really want to spend 30 minutes walking on foot across the barrens because you couldn’t mount until level 40 again? No.

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Agreed.

I mostly play retail, and I do prefer the updated models in retail.

However, we definitely seem to have lost stuff in translation. There’s a female night elf face that had an entirely different lip color to what it is now - if the face even got properly translated to begin with.

It also feels like the… I don’t know whether to call it ‘atmosphere’ or ‘environment detail’, but honestly it feels like weather and shadows were a lot better in Classic. Retail feels a bit too saturated, sometimes, and a lot of the atmosphere of old zones doesn’t exist anymore. Weather is a lot less heavy, too.

I was sitting in Darnassus the other day, and it started raining, and I mean that rain is heavy in Classic. Entire area darkens up, there’s a light fog to it, it feels like real rain - plus, buildings all had better collision. I run under a rooftop, or even the boughs of a tree, and the rain lets up.

I think what I most wish retail had retained, was just… that sort of weather and atmosphere. It does a lot to help you feel immersed.

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Rain is really heavy in retail now too, starting in Dragonflight…though it did go through a period a few years back when weather effects were very light.

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If it is, I haven’t noticed.

I’ve seen rain in Stormwind rather frequently since DF released, and it still is nothing like how Classic’s rainfall is whatsoever. You can barely even see the raindrops, even at max settings.

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I always get that strange feeling in most classic content I play but it’s mostly nostalgia. The game and community were in a better place back then, and those are the feelings that bubble up when I see those graphics.

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Night time scares me in the Darkshirt or whatever Patchwork is now.

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Yesterday I went for a walk around azeroth and tried to find a place with rain, but I didn’t find it. However, I remember that they are still quite different indeed

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They used the Nelf rig back then. Some of them still exist in the caves in Blasted Lands. I actually liked them, too.

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I would play as a Blood Elf if it weren’t for the waist. I think many armors look great on them, but the posture means a lot to me.

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Wow is cartoon-y, but it also used have an aspect of “realism” to it, modern wow has ditched that and gone all in on the cartoon aspect, colors are more exaggerated, shapes are disproportionate, and environments are more fantastical.

None of those are necessarily a bad thing, it just shifts the tone of the game from exploring a world that has secrets to uncover, instead to going on a heroic adventure and kicking badguy butt.

That’s how I’ve rationalized the difference in atmosphere between retail and vanilla for myself at least.

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