So in the rescue of Baine cinenatic and the most recent cinematic, I noticed that an updated high quality looking Mulgore exists. I had initially expected there to be a use for it, but that seems to have come and gone.
Maybe it’s because BfA jaded me, but now I kind of expect them to destroy or ruin Thunderbluff and use the high quality version to show off how awesome the thing-that-destroys-Thunder Bluff is.
If we’re blowing up more capitals, I’d say that Org and Bilgewater Harbor are more in the firing line. Which would mean that Thunderbluff getting revamped could be both aesthetic and function oriented. Turning it into a less frustrating player hub than it currently is?
They’ll destroy ALL the other capitals before they destroy Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
They’re the ones they’re building up over time, moving more and more features there.
Orgrimmar is the equivalent of Stormwind. It’s never getting destroyed.
I had to stop and think about it for a while. My first thought was “but I don’t want to be forced into Thunder Bluff” but then I realized that yes, yes I do. Open air, green scenery, room to grow…
Man, Thunder Bluff as a capital with some extra rises brought up by Shaman or with other races having their own areas below would be great.
I don’t think from a gameplay perspective Orgrimmar or Stormwind will ever be destroyed.
Thunderbluff on the other hand seems to be in striking range.
But the only force in the Alliance that is out for blood on Kalimdor currently are the NEs and I don’t really find a reason why out of all possibilities the Tauren would become the target of NE vengence.
Bildgewater on the other hand is in striking range of Mt Hyjal and would secure a more tighter grasp on orgrimmar. Possibly cutting it off from trade routes or such.
On Eastern Kingdoms I only see Silvermoon becoming a target since Alleria has her eyes on it for some time now and I wonder if LorThemars line about Tyrande is meant to be forshadowing or just fluff.
Personal opinion:
I would LOVE if they destroy Orgrimmar and Stormwind to get finally rid of the centralizsation and back to indidivual races and their zones.
Back in Ironforge or Silvermoon, Thunderbluff was allways a cool city that could be expanded on ground level aswell.
Nahh never going to happen sadly.
I agree that they’ll never trash the capitals. They’ve invested too much effort into making them the central hubs of the entire faction.
I don’t see any more ruined cities in our future. The last two didn’t go over well with anyone.
Well what we have seen is datamines of Warfronts in Silvermoon and Barrens during BFA patch cycles which were however in a very early stage and never used.
I wonder if they will use them during SLs.
I mean Blizzard allways recycles their systems no matter how well they were received. We now have the 4th iteration of Mission tables, the third iteration of borrowed powers and probably the 2nd of Warfronts.
It would suite the current narrative with Silvermoon and the Barrens becomin a battlefield.
That doesn’t necessarily mean however that the corresponding cities get destroyed though.
But I don’t think Blizzard will scrap that work on the Warfronts as it would just suite to perfectly for a 9.1 or 9.2 side plot content what is happening outside of SLs. And the hints with Turalyon and the NEs are pretty strong currently.
That would certainly be interesting. I don’t honestly know enough about the direction of Shadowlands questing to speculate on what 9.1 and beyond might hold.
In lore as of Vol’jin: Shadows of the Horde, there were Trolls who lived around the base of Thunder Bluff, implying that there’s enough structures and buildings down at the bottom to support at least a community of some sort.
Not to mention, in the Warcraft Comics, the Pools of Vision are shown to be a good deal bigger than they appear in game.
Expanding on both of those areas gives Thunder Bluff a far larger feeling, not to mention that in lore the Bluffs are all quite large.
And it’s a shame too because destruction can lead to great story beats.
The problem isn’t that Blizzard destroys cities; it’s that they destroy things without ever giving anything back.
I’d wager the Night Elven playerbase would be far less uppity had they gotten a new hub on Hyjal with updated assets.
Personally: I would have welcomed it.
I ALLWAYS wanted Hyjal to be the NE hub as Teldrassil never suited.
The current hate for Blizzard is not because of the event but because of the history Blizzard has with such things and that you NEVER get something back …
Theramore is a crate since 4 expansions now.
Gilneas since 5.
Blizzard can only destroy things but never build things.
Which, in a way, circles back to the problem where they don’t seem to care about any cities other than Org/SW.
If they’d developed a solid gameplay model of how to properly utilize other cities, maybe they’d want to actually make some.
Suramar and the BfA cities are actually good moves in the this direction. It would be great if they could migrate these ideas back into the main continents.
I am a tad flabbergasted that people think Orgrimmar and Stormwind are safe. I can not say what would destroy them. Yet, I also can not pretend they are immune to change.
They CAN build great cities.
Suramar, Bolarus are actually awesome by their art and details.
But these are allways just used for one expansion and than forgotten.
Which is ironic because the racial Hubs would be used for ages to come …
So instead of building a city like Bolarus they could have better updated Stormwind … which is then a better investment in the long run.
But it shows that Blizzard only thinks from one expansion to the next and them being isolated completely.
Everything that happened in the expansion before is than 100% forgotten and never used again.
It is a shame. Blizzard is really really bad at gamedesign it seems.
They get uplifted by their arts team but can’t even utilize them properly…
Noone ever thought Blizzard would destroy a racial city aswell and then BFA happened. So.
But considering their fetish with human potential … I just don’t think it has a high probability.
Which is really weird, because if any Horde Capital would be insanely difficult to go after without massive air-support, its TB. Mulgore is locked behind a huge mountain range with a single access point. The capital itself is located on giant steppe plains and plateau’s, which can only be accesses by air or through elevators. You have a better chance of starving the Mulgore Tauren out than you would actually taking ThunderBluff … while you’re sitting on a wide flat plane with no real cover while angry bulls fire down at you…
Its also totally landlocked smack dab in the center of the continent, which means that supply routes would be way more important and difficult to maintain. It may not be much, but the Tauren picked a really naturally defensive point to build their capital.
Teldrassil?
A fortress with vertical walls taht reach miles into the sky? In the middel of the ocean?
Blizzard is spitting on logic and physics, didn’t you know that?
… I wonder if it’s too optimistic of me to slightly hope that that might be in the works, given the peek we got of Nordrassil in the pre-patch trailer.
Thing is, Boralus is a racial hub, for the Kul Tirans (for all of five seconds, before they ship you off to Stormwind). And so long as they leave the ammenities after they move on to the next expansion, it still could be.
I’m not sure what things are like on non-RP servers, but at least on mine, the racial hubs saw alot of foot traffic. With no portals (except to the Exodar), transmog, barber, or certain vendors, Darnassus still filled up every night. You can’t even fly in Silvermoon, and it was still packed last time I was out that way.
the Alliance Brat in Chief got yanked out from his daddies memorial with Genn right there. When we consider air support… and the Vindicaar… and the Catapults…
I guess “support” is a relative term.
That peak was sadly old graphics, nothing new.
And secondly just a WC3 reference. So not a peak by any means.
This is true actually. I didn’t want to imply that they shouldn’t have ever build the city, but it is ironic that a city of an allied race that is used for one expansion and then forgotten got more treatment than all the older races including humans.