I’ve done a bit of studying of the map and the areas east of Tirisfal Glades and north of Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands but south of Ghostlands.
Fixing one problem – no flying over Silvermoon – means fixing northern Lordaeron and all of Quel-Thalas (the non-named zone in northern EK) because you can’t fly over that massive stretch either. And it’s empty. That’s because you would see the Stratholme instance (it even has a contested zone flying over it) from behind and it looks awful.
Also, Stratholme (I hear) was a port city. If you’ve seen the elven tower on the northern coast of Eastern Plaguelands – yes, it’s about that far over), that is where Ghostlands should appear and theoretically you should be able to follow the coast around Tirisfal Glades through the port of Strath to Ghostlands and fly the whole way, and over Silvermoon TO the Isle of Quel-Danas, because it’s a quick flight (it was done in the Belf heritage quests – believe that they fly low) and having the Isle of Quel-Danas inaccessible when Silvermoon is would just be silly.
Add to this that eastern Eastern Plaguelands and north you cannot fly either, and the Ruins of the Scarlet Something are east of Tyr’s Hand – Flying ceases – as does swimming, even – at the north end of it.
So. Fixing Silvermoon properly means fixing Tirisfal Glades (happening, that zone is dead only briefly), but also all of eastern and northern Lordaeron (Plaguelands), removing the actual instance from Eastern Plaguelands for Strathholme and actually building RUINS down to the coast so it’s a port city (that elven tower on the north coast is where Strath’s port would/should be) and nestled between Lordaeron and Ghostlands.
Note that Stratholme would be an amazing addition if they were to “take it back,” and rebuild it, but they wouldn’t want competition from New Strath for Stormwind; they can only encourage population in so many places and for each expansion it is wherever that expansion is, not Azeroth. Not anymore. Not, in fact, since Cataclysm.
Note that the map of the area is a bit misleading. The Quel-Thalas zone can’t be clicked on, but it’s not the size of the space you can travel in there as a flying druid, at least, it stretches clear from east of Scarlet Monsatary all the way over to Eastern Plaguelands, where finally it becomes Stratholme.
If you try to fly over Strath, you can see the city is there but burning: well it looks awful from behind, and from behind you can also see a completely undetailed Naxxramus floating above Stratholme.
So to fix flying over one city, which we all want, they have to overhaul all of Quel-Thalas (old and new) as well as Tirisfal Glades and Western and Eastern Plaguelands.
Then consider that Ion H. said that we don’t want Blizzard spending money on redoing old zones rather than making new worlds, and that’s a point, but when Azeroth becomes largely a visual assault in today’s gaming world, and you devoted two years and an entire expansion to remaking DRAENOR when Azeroth looks so horrible – how long can you stand to hover in Ashenvale Front in southern Darkshore and look at how hideous Ashenvale looks against it? (It’s ALWAYS the trees, Ashenvale, Ungoro Crater, etc. …)
Anyway. If this is in the offing it’s been happening under the radar for a long, long time because this is recreating all of NE EK.
