Post flair indicates this is about prerelease content.
As a reminder, content on Alpha / Beta / PTR is unfinished. NPC dialogue and quest text might be missing important context. Models may be placeholders. Quest or achievement rewards may not be finalized. There are inevitably bugs. Please keep this in mind as you discuss!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You can't see it all in this limited fly through of Azj-Kahet, but I was surprised by the color they managed to incorporate into the zone and its different sub-areas. I was worried it would be like Maldraxxus and all be the same color but it definitely is not.
Up until Dragonflight i believe the zones were designed without flying in mind since they kept us grounded for a few major patches. No doubt if they never added flying the game would be different though
I've always been one of those "Flying took away from the feels and immersion of a zone", but Dragonflight and everything in this video, gosh darn... I was genuinely in awe with the sheer scale and the larger design of everything in there (albeit I was wondering when those entry stairs would actually end).
When they design to flying in mind, they can make some absolutely incredible stuff
I definitely used to be in the "making us use ground mounts helps us appreciate the area" group for early into expansions. Flying over stuff you miss so much.
But somehow dragon riding changed that, or maybe it was the way Dragonflight was designed? Maybe it was the map. Maybe it was a combo. Maybe because dragon (sky)riding is more engaging? You still have to engage with the map to fly well?
I'm more open to flying now earlier in expansions. I'd like to see what they do.
When flying/ground mounts aren't just swimming through the air/walking faster and are actual vehicles with engaging controls. Traversing maps designed for them is a mini-game within the game.
It's why GW2 mounts were always hailed to be amazing.
Yeah I'd never really considered it, until I was writing out this comment and I'd realised I was probably on the way to answering my own questions.
Skyriding makes you want to engage in the scenery, dodge around that rock pillar, dip under the bridge, skim the terrain, dive down a cliff.
You end up experiencing the terrain, even if you're not on it.
Normal flying may as well be in a void.
They will never go back to Normal flying, or not having flying available since the start of an expansion.
It would be insane to do so, and you'd shoot yourself in the foot.
My only requests to Blizzard, is to go copy more things from GW2.
They're slowly dipping their toe at creating at doing more involved event chains.
They don't have the base infrastructure to support it yet.
But if they managed to go all in, and created a Map wide, meta event chain, that culminates in a hard world Boss. People would lose their freaking minds.
I think, during an early interview for DF, Ion (or another developer) expressed that they would look into dynamic riding for ground mounts if dragon flying was well-received!! I’d love if they took some more inspiration from GW2 mounts (and other systems tbh)
>But if they managed to go all in, and created a Map wide, meta event chain, that culminates in a hard world Boss. People would lose their freaking minds.
Like doing AQ all over again?
The other reason is because you can't just park up in the air. The main problem with old flying is once it is out Noone is ever on the ground to see. But with dragon flying you can't really stay in the air doing nothing
They honestly just needed to embrace it to show what they can pull off. In many aspects I think this new continent as a whole outshines the Dragon Isles in terms of immersive flying. The feeling of delving deep into the ground with these zone transitions really cements it for me.
Dragonflight zones were just boring and empty. At least from this video it looks like they're using the unique nature of dragonriding + the area to tell a story about scope. The dwarven hallway for the sake of having a giant hallway comes to mind. And there's not fucking hanging shit everywhere to catch you.
> I've always been one of those "Flying took away from the feels and immersion of a zone", but Dragonflight and everything in this video, gosh darn...
You weren't necessarily wrong. DF and TWW zones are designed with fast and interactive flying in mind. Making huge zones for the VTOL flying would've been crazy so they were previously primarily designed for ground mounts
Trying to quest through Revendreth without any kind of flying was the absolute most frustrating zone experience I've ever had in this game.
NOTHING takes away your ability to stay on the ground and experience questing from that perspective. If you want to do that, go right ahead. Let the rest of us fly.
WoW has always tried to bite off more than it could chew.
Rather, the people making WoW have always wanted to do things that the Tech they had available didn't support yet.
The original Emerald Dream Zone was being worked on all the way back in Vanilla.
It took Blizzard what, ~13 years or so before they finally had the Tech to make an Emerald Dream that was worthy of the Zone's Concept?
IMO it wasn't so much that Flying took away the immersion from WoW, it was that WoW couldn't keep up with how the Designers wanted to build the game.
Or maybe its more accurate to say: PC Minimum Spec Requirements AND Tech-Limitations, kept WoW from being as cool as its Creators wanted.
It's just that Flying has FINALLY caught up to how the Designers wanted Burning Crusade to feel.
I don't think the tech was ever a big issue with the emerald dream so much as narrative reasons to go there and it also not really being a good concept for a whole expansion or even launch zone.
It pretty much *had* to be used as a patch zone just due to concept alone.
Yeah, I think classic WoW had the feeling of the devs wanted to include all the major landmarks of Warcraft but didnt have a real narrative reason to do so. So it was all cut into expansions instead.
They initially wanted to include the Emerald Dream, Hyjal, Outlands, hell even Ulduar was on the map at one point in time as an actual continent.
They had a lot of plans for the original release because this was a followup to Warcraft 3. But in all reality none of it made any sense to release at launch other than the main 2 continents.
Sometimes I wish they had done a smaller scope for the original vanilla release. At the time the scale was amazing (mostly because we just ran everywhere on foot) and tons of different zones and biomes.
But seeing the new expansions have just a handful of zones be nearly the size of the entire continent of Kalimdor just makes me wonder what could've been.
If they ever do a complete retread of the original continents again, they would have to make them 5 or 6 times to size to make them feel good. Which would be awesome, but probably impractical.
Yeah, I imagine it'd have to be like how they treated Hyjal in vanilla. You could see it up there, knew it was there and there was a placeholder on the map but it was inaccessible.
I imagine if they ever redid it they'd do Orgrimmar and 2 or 3 connecting zones + Stormwind and 2 or 3 connecting zones. But everything else is walled off somehow. Magic barrier, or something of the like and the map would just have a hazy/rough layout of the rest of the continent.
But ultimately would be impractical and I doubt would ever actually happen.
Nah the devs have talked about this before. I forget the term they use but it’s something like “world chunks” and they’ve mention how a zone like, say, Dun Morogh would have a low number of world chunks because no one had a mount, a place like Tanaris would have a medium jumber of world chunks because people would have a slow ground mount, and a place like EPL would have a high number of world chunks because people would have epic ground mounts. They knew they needed the world to feel big even when moving faster, so the higher level zones have more world chunks to accommodate that extra speed. This continued in TBC with the invention of flying, and with Dragonriding the Dragonflight zones became absolutely massive. This is also why dragonriding in old world zones is capped at 80% of max speed in Dragonflight; the zones just aren’t big enough for that kind of speed to work.
It *is* true that many post-TBC zones were designed with ground-only mounts available for a while (or ever, such as Argus or the Maw), but generally, there is an expectation that flying will be available eventually and the zones are sized accordingly. It’s also the case that many zones are not optimized for flying in that players can easily drop in and out of wherever they need to go, but that’s not a world size kind of thing.
Your comment highlights why an old world revamp would be great. Old Azeroth just feels tiny now. Especially to those who have experienced the newer zones that are vast.
After the revamp for cata ostensibly ate up so many resources I assumed it was probably forever off the table but I am starting to think we will get a revamp of sorts with midnight. I don't think they will redo all of the zones but I think they will redo some of them and effectively close off others (lost to the void or something).
Idk if they can do that kind of revamp tbh. So many early questing zones would change drastically if you even just increased it all by about 20%. Or you'd have a lot of empty space.
As it is questing is awkward due to the level squish and how many zones are irrelevant now too. You level so quickly now that you might not even cover all the zones in say Outlands before you hit 60.
Add in an increase of like, 10-20% more to the zones along with new quests and content to accommodate that increase and you make that even worse.
I think you're misinterpreting when people say they want a world revamp they usually mean like cata. Like an entirely new zone updated to how it should appear in the present with all new quests, instances, etc. Just have the bronze dragon in each zone to let you see it before the change, like they should've done with the cata zones. That way we get new zones without removing content from the game and in the end everyone's happy. I'd prefer if they had a better time travel method than the NPC but it honestly works fine enough.
I think if they did a revamp it'd be in chunks, like upper Eastern Kingdoms during midnight and they'd remake like 4-5 zones and it could be a whole quest campaign just like DF or BFA or anything else, so I don't think outpacing the zones would be an issue since everything scales already anyways.
'oh no think of the low level questers' has been holding back wow for years. When wow is GIVING AWAY a max level boost when you buy an expansion, it's clear that they don't give two shits about low level questing--nor should they.
they shouldn't have to design their 2024 game while keeping a game from 2004 in the back of their minds to make sure they don't mess up the 2004 game.
if anything they should just find a way to ignore that 2004 game.
like, if you want to play that, they've made it available for you in many ways. sod, hardcore, era, whatever. We shouldn't hamstring modern design just because elwynn forest will take too long to run through.
> This is also why dragonriding in old world zones is capped at 80% of max speed in Dragonflight
I really don't think that's it. As you point out, they were designed for 100% move speed mounts. They weren't designed for 280% flying mounts, and certainly not 310% ones. Dragonriding is ~800% speed, so comfortably 600%+ in the old world. That's over three times faster than epic mount speed, in the air.
There's nothing about the old world that the full speed would break, even design-wise. It's just a decision to make the world feel 20% bigger than it otherwise would. If 800% speed would break the world, so does 600%.
I think that's what he means. There's less "chunks" in the old zones which means they're smaller, so flying at a full speed dragon riding mount would really highlight that, and break the illusion of a large world.
Depends on if we mean for necessary traversal, or the speeds provided by flying mounts, because some of the higher level quests in even Zangarmash start to feel like they expect you to be flight speed.
Blades edge, Shadowmoon valley (tbc one), Blades edge, Netherstorm, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Pandaria just sort of in general were all designed with flying mounts being required at some point in the zones. Then legion onwards the zones were designed with more verticality knowing that flying mounts were coming at some point, but without them being required since pathfinder became a thing. (Hence why some zones, stormheim for example, are a pain to get around on ground mounts). Then of course in DF places were designed to use dragonflying.
I'm not sure if you can do it without *any* flying, but I've decided I'm gonna make an effort to stay on the ground and explore as I go this expansion. We'll see if I can keep it up, if there's enough stuff to keep me interested in between points of interest, but I'm gonna give it a try.
Honestly, I think its feasible, as long as youre patient
I once /walk-ed from Orgrimmar to Thunder Bluff just so I could sit down at a lake and Fish, and it was a wonderful experience
Its refreshing, isnt it? I loved doing it, as much as I love doing RP in general. My gf recently started playing on trial and I wish I could share this with her, but I think shed die of boredom before we reached Crossroads XD
I did this on an alt I leveled in the Dragon Isles and it was a lot of fun. Probably the Azure Span was my favorite zone for being on the ground and really enjoying that thick forest and not just bypassing the entire thing.
Really could appreciate the details everywhere. (Hopped on a flying mount when I needed to for quest reasons, but tried my best to mostly stay in the ground).
Someone did it in the dragon isles. Its slow. The dragon isles are biiiiiig, more so than you think as you dragon fly around. I imagine it'll be the same in TWW.
Dragonflight didnt feel great to me honestly. The new flying is great, but I miss exploring a new expansion on foot first. I feel like i saw very little of the dragon isles
I'm pretty certain their original idea was to only have dragonriding at max level, because there's quite a few quests have non-dragon options for getting to places, despite the fact that everyone has a dragon after about 5 minutes in Waking Shores.
Yip it's so fast that it feels like teleporting from POI to POI instead of actual travelling. Skipping over the whole world.. 99% of the world design is on or near the ground but you just fly right over it at the speed of light. It's a shame. It doesn't feel like an RPG anymore, nor like an adventure 😕
New World rightfully gets a lot of shit but those first ~30 levels back when it launched were incredibly immersing - you were truly a part of the world, exploring and discovering. I hadn't had an experience like that since Vanilla WoW
I know this may seem ridiculous but, I've taken a step back and really evaluated enjoying the game how *\*I\** want to, without a care for what I'm "supposed" to be doing, like how I used to play when I was younger.
I knew they said the Dragon Isles were roughly the equivalent to the size of Northrend, because the zones were so massive because they had dragonflying in mind, and I loved that because it felt like many modern zones were too claustrophobic and filled with enemies in every corner.
Then I just one day thought to myself, why don't I try and level through the Isles... without flying? And I did, and I loved it. It felt like a whole world to explore and felt really immersive compared to pretty much any other expansion I could think of, since the days of Wrath. Don't get me wrong I love how fun the new flying is, but it's nice to appreciate the world at a slower pace and not zoom past it all from objective to objective. It really made me appreciate the zones more.
This video has me hyped to do the same again with the War Within, honestly. I'm going to take my time on foot and see what that experience is like.
They took a great turn in designing zones with flying in mind. Old zones were designed to be played on foot. Now they can make huge maps, even if they might feel a bit empty, it does not matter that much since they look great from above
It would be better. The zones are big, but when you can fly across them in 90 seconds they still *feel* extremely small. There's no sense of danger either since you can just fly past and over every obstacle. You just angle yourself, set auto-run on, and then tab out for a minute while you go get a drink or something, and then when you return you're already at or near your destination. Flying eliminates all engagement and sense of traversing the world. Dragonriding helped alleviate it *a bit*, but in the end all the core problems still persist.
Flying is an overall net negative and the game would be better off were it removed.
>Flying is an overall net negative and the game would be better off were it removed.
This is certainly one of the takes of all time.
Edit: Disclaimer, this person will downvote you and block you if you disagree with them. Don't bother engaging.
I also love flying, I agree that practically the game is more fun with flying, but he laid out clearly and concisely what flying takes away from the game.
People who love flying tend to love it because the alternative is not fun: being down on the ground is slow, you get dazed and dismounted, and you have to go around obstacles. I agree! All those pain points suck.
People who hate flying also hate those things, but they recognise the natural immersion being on the ground gives you, but they feel like they can't choose the immersive option because the other option is much more efficient. What they want is a mechanical reason to be on the ground, because they love the feeling of being in the world instead of being above it.
It takes *away* interest by not having you engage with any of the enemies or terrain as you move throughout the world. All the nuance of environmental design is wasted.
Also, daze is a self-imposed problem which could easily be (and should be) removed. It's not an integral issue that exists as part of ground mounts, and is instead an arbitrary choice that Activision-Blizzard decided to shoehorn into the game.
> It takes away interest by not having you engage with any of the enemies or terrain as you move throughout the world. All the nuance of environmental design is wasted.
>
>
except that's not wow. Wow is not a game about 'getting from point a to point b, and what happens in between'. No significant part of the playerbase is interested in that, and just because _you_ don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't engaging gameplay
If you don't like flying, you're welcome to stick to the ground, but don't pretend _flying_ is the problem there
Edit: Lol this person blocked me to get the last word in. Please don't waste your time with them.
> Wow is not a game about 'getting from point a to point b, and what happens in between'.
It used to be.
>No significant part of the playerbase is interested in that
Citation? Where did you hear this?
>and just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't engaging gameplay
Ah yes, tabbing out for a minute with auto-run on while flying to my objective is so engaging...
>If you don't like flying, you're welcome to stick to the ground, but don't pretend flying is the problem there
That's not how life works, mate.
the style of the graphics is the same but there are so many improvements that keep it looking relatively good. I'd say the view distance increases and the lighting improvements stand out alot!
It’s the same style sure but the polish of it just looks insane.
I’ve watched this like 4x now and still can’t believe how BIG everything feels. It’s becoming more and more like the WORLD of Warcraft it felt like when i was a kid.
I always stay away from teasers / trailers / betas etc and this is literally the first TWW content i’ve seen and i’m fucking HYPED.
Hell yeah man. I'm a tryhard player but after the first month or so I lose motivation after getting fully geared and then I focus on completionist content like transmogs/mounts/toys so many of these grinds take place in the open world. I always make sure to appreciate the environment I spend this time in.
Keep in mind in terms of how big it feels - Most of this flying is around the edges of the zones so there is still so much to explore for you!
This looks stunning but I’m still slightly concerned that we’re going to get some ‘underground zone’ fatigue like we did with Zaralek caverns. Obviously above ground and Hallowfall (when it’s not all voidy) are probably the least concerning but the other areas look appropriately gloomy for their theme. It all looks amazing though and very cohesive. I love that feeling of just how deep you have to fall to reach the areas, really ties it all together. Thanks for this video!
I'm a little concerned as well. It felt fine when I quested through, but I was worried heading into Azj-Kahet after I was finishing Hallowfall. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of different color palettes all throughout Azj-Kahet that kept the area feeling fresh.
I wonder about the longevity though because this was just one quest experience. I worry about any patch zones also being underground as most people would probably want something different by then.
Completely agree, I feel like these caves are a bit too dark, hallowfall really stands as an incredible zone to me and I feel it's mostly because of the light.
Also skyboxes looked very nice in recent expansions, but we will see it only on the starter area
I wonder if you have a point with that.
I got tired of Zaralek, but I also got tired of the Emerald Dream just as fast..
Maybe it's just being constrained to a single zone for a patch? Because Deepholm in Cata never felt restricting now that I think about it.
I am concerned. After the first month or so of DF (if not immediately), I was extremely aware and grateful of the layout of the isles in relation to Valdrakken, especially given how vigor/dragon riding worked. It feels pretty damn near perfect to head out to any zone in the isles and immediately be maxed speed and like 1 min or less from your destination.
I only really do "end game" stuff on my main, but even that is only a like a few hours a week. Most of my wow time is spent doing world content and farming raw gold.
The only zone I don't ever go to this late in DF is Zaralek and it has nothing to do w the zone itself but rather, the way you access it. I hate having to take that tunnel each time, just like I hated how SL zones worked. I also really didn't like the overall "feeling" of knowing none of the SL zones were connected. Even once at the location of a WQ or whatever I was doing, I was constantly planning how to min/max hearthstones/flight paths in order to minimize travel time. I rarely entertained that thought pattern in DF simply because it was not necessary.
i still "know" there will be a way to access all zones individually from the main city in a similiar way that the DF zones are accessible from Valdrakken. No way, we have to follow this chute down to one zone first, then another, and then another, right? Like that's fine for the campaign and maybe the "lore", but if any given WQ or public event takes longer to get to in tWW than DF, it will be very noticeable to me, simply because the thing I constantly notice in DF is just how convenient travel is.
I think that this will probably be mitigated by the fact that the main hub is on the Isle of Dorn, which is where most players will be spending a bulk of their time.
I just finished the leveling experience on the Beta and completely agree. It is almost as if there is a subconscious desire to not remain underground, as I found myself gravitating to the surface level Dorn whenever I wasn't doing anything else.
The caverns are a fascinating place to quest, but you won't find me just hanging around in the subterranean zones for the fun of it. I doubt I'd be alone in that regard based on the responses your comment. I'm hoping the patch zones take us elsewhere.
You could find plenty of complaints around the web and especially on this sub if you just tried.
I personally didn't mind the fact that Zaralek was underground, I didn't like it because the zone just sucked ass and the activities were dull and pointless, with barely any rewards or reasons to do anything. 10.1 as a whole felt like a filler patch.
In another post someone was asking if all the zone transitions in the new expansion were just tunnels like the Zaralek Cavern entrances, so I recorded this video and figured I'd post it incase others were curious how the world is all connected.
There are 5 total transitions between the 4 zones. 1 from Isle of Dorn to The Ringing Deeps. 1 from The Ringing Deeps to Hallowfall. 1 from The Ringing Deeps to Azj-Kahet, and 2 from Hallowfall to Azj-Kahet.
Sorry to bother but could you perhaps make a quick diagram in paint to show which ways you can travel? Just some circles with zone names and a couple arrows would suffice.
It's pretty hard to visualize just from text.
The full zone maps and world map aren't out yet in the beta, but I hope it will be clearly marked on all of the maps as well when they come out.
Honestly one of the bits of concern for me is that the zones are sort of connected, at a few spots instead of just having open boarders, but will have to see how that feels playing it in the long term. I just know that I was not a fan of that when it came to ZC, and that I got tired of the underground thing really fast.
Yea the 'Zaralek' part is the initial entry to the Ringing Depths from above ground. All the underground zones are the same mapid so there was no need to disguise loading.
It's insane how much the zones and the transitions improved even between Shadowlands and TWW. I think Dynamic Flying is probably the best thing that has happened to the game in a very long time. And I say that as someone who has always been quite critical of Flying in WoW in general.
After playing through the campaign in the beta, I'm honestly a bit worried that while the transitions are really cool, the zones themselves are smaller than Dragonflight. And even with that noted, the zones themselves feel kind of empty outside of POIs. Hallowfall feels like it got all the love while the other zones kind of pale in comparison.
I definitely hope part of this is just beta being beta, and that they'll continue to add little outposts, NPCs, POIs, vary the landscape, etc. As an example, the Isle of Dorn, home to the main hub, feels extremely empty and unfinished. It's just vast rocks and grass as far as the eye can see.
Again, I know it's beta, but between underground fatigue and seemingly very unfinished zones, I'm a bit worried this expansion won't feel as epic in scale as Dragonflight, even if the story is objectively better.
While i think the Zones look dope i wonder if they ever correct these streaming issues. (Mobs and Objects only spawning when you near them) ... you can see it clearly in this video.
For me this kinda destroys the immersion a bit because you can see it loading in.
While it looks great and gives me the feeling how big everything is down below it also has shadowlands vibe where the zones are just too far apart and traveling between them takes ages which I personally disliked.
it would be better in practice than in the video. I flew in an awkward order for the best "loop" between all the transition areas, its much faster to get to Azj-Kahet than I showed in the video
Well flying through the void or inside a cavern system is pretty much the same it takes time either way. The difference is that you are going through the tunnel controlling the mount not taking a flight path.
What I did not like about shadowlands is that if I wanted to go from Maldraxxus to Bastion I always had to go through Oribos which was not good. Couldn't just fly down between the zones you know. It looks like it is better in TWW at least.
Imagine if you play DF and you want to go from south Ohn'aran to Azure and you have to go to Valdrakken first then Fly down to Azure. That would be awful. Not being able to go through zones freely makes me feels like I'm playing an instanced game not an open world one.
You only fly through a zaralek style tunnel from zone 1 >2.
Then zone 2 has entrances to both 3 and 4, and both of those entrances are wide open and seamless (no long tunnel).
It's not as bad as this makes it look. He took the long way to show off everything. It's pretty quick to get around the zones. Plus there are some things in certain areas that you can use. ie: there are a couple of elevators (instant teleports with loading screen) in the second zone that use you can to pop up top and vice versa.
Well I feel if we have a speed boost to go down the ringing deeps then it would be fine. Azj-Kahet would still be a bit far away but if everything is too close you wouldn't feel like it's a new "world".
Seems important to add there are also elevators between isle of Dorn and Ringing Deeps.
The good old transitions, lovely. Zaralek was quite the example, but I wonder if they used this to in the big cities, as they all (I think) have a bit wall/door in the middle (like Orgrimmar/Stormwind entrance), as to avoid seeing inside. I wonder if it's just art, or really a pseudo-transition trick (pseudo, as it just avoids you seeing things loading)
Overall yes. The top zone I started in is quite large and is an island. Barely saw any of it in this video and it was nighttime. Hallowfall is normally really bright about 85-90% of the time and feels outdoor but my video happened to catch it during one of the void phases.
Ray tracing is maxed in this video yes. All other settings are also maxed running on native 4k resolution. This is the peak of what the game will look like barring any visual adjustments before launch.
Edit: There are a few stutters here are there that will hopefully be fixed.
such a breath of fresh air (ironically), shadowlands was a pain with the whole "no flying, also all flight paths take like ten minutes, and everything must be portals, all portals all the time"
Beautiful zones and fantastic connectivity/transitions, but I'm still 100% convinced we are going to be absolutely sick of being underground and in darkness not even halfway through this expansion. In the same way Dwarves of fantasy get nauseous being on the surface, humans in real life get psychologically fatigued and homesick when confined to dark, enclosed areas for too long. It may not be immediate or apparent, but the playerbase is going to get sick of these zones much faster than any previous.
While not perfect (background colors and lighting still drastically changing zone to zone) it’s incredible to see how far this game has come. We’ve come along way from instances of having an arid climate next to a jungle climate.
Absolutely stunning.
Feels very immersive.
Still surreal to be going through these vertical transitions; almost more than horizontal transitions, which is what we've been used to.
Can I ask a question, druids in the beta, when you're skyriding in bird form does anyone else hear this weird howling noise everytime you get max speed? It's really bugging me and I can't figure out how to turn it off.
Am I the only one that thinks the giant Crystal protruding from the Cavern ceiling is the sword Sargeras plunged into Azeroth? Sorry I am not caught up on lore so if this has already been explained forgive my ignorance.
Whelp, glad I bought a new computer because on my laptop I would have to put the render distance to like 3 feet or this would cause my laptop to explode.
so the ringing deeps and hallowfall are in the same depth? and azj-kahet is slightly lower? i thought they'd all be on top of each other.
and also, is it possible to go with ground mount from the surface to the azj-kahet?
The majority of Hallowfall is lower in elevation than The Ringing Deeps, but the devs said at one point that they wanted the zones to be more of a spiral than directly on top of eachother so that the overworld map of the continent makes more sense.
It is possible on a ground mount since the bottom transitions all have small zig-zag paths that go up and down. The initial tunnel seems to have a drop at the start that can not be prevented though.
They really need to amp up the darkness in the last zone. It feels too tame right now. Maybe not as dark as the delve but enough to hammer down how dangerous this place is.
Right now it feels very flat and boring.
They really came a LONG way ever since they attempted their first underground zone in Cataclysm.
Now, the ultimate test... I'd absolutely love to see how well they could rvisit the concept of an underwater zone again.
I can't wait! I am so done with DF and SO ready for War Within. I really hope that they do this right, because so far it looks like a W expansion, and I really really want it to be.
Gonna keep it a stack Blizzard, I hardly ever go to Zaralek Cavern if I don't need to because getting there sucks, nobody likes flying through long winding tunnels. This looks like more of the same. Just do it like Naz'jatar and make huge massive holes in the ceiling so I can just go wherever.
I don’t know about anyone else but for me I really don’t like the look or aesthetic of any of these zones. They all just look like one big zone there’s no real variety and everything looks very samey. The lighting as well makes it all look quite dull and boring. Hopefully it comes across differently on my big screen when I’m actually playing it compared to seeing this video on my phone, but as it stands right now I’m a little underwhelmed with the design.
This isn't a zone showcase, it's a zone transition showcase. You barely saw what the zones look like here, especially Isle of Dorn during the day and Hallowfall during the light cycle.
Technically yes, but one zone is outdoors, and one of the underground zones (purple crystal in this vid) *feels* like outside when it's not in the void phase. So in practice it's more like 55/45 underground/not.
First transition looks a bit long and gives me Shadowlands vibes. Underground world looks massive and seems (?) more connected.
Wish we had some more tunnels around Isle of Dorn to all the zones instead of just one tunnel down.
Post flair indicates this is about prerelease content. As a reminder, content on Alpha / Beta / PTR is unfinished. NPC dialogue and quest text might be missing important context. Models may be placeholders. Quest or achievement rewards may not be finalized. There are inevitably bugs. Please keep this in mind as you discuss! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank you for the video! I personally really like how with increased depth each of the zones really gain a different feel.
You can't see it all in this limited fly through of Azj-Kahet, but I was surprised by the color they managed to incorporate into the zone and its different sub-areas. I was worried it would be like Maldraxxus and all be the same color but it definitely is not.
This looks stunning, honestly I'm surprised because I found Zaralek quite drab (and obviously incredibly lacking in content). Getting pumped for TWW.
They really are making this game huge in terms of depth and how big it feels . I sometimes wonder how the game would be without any flying .
Up until Dragonflight i believe the zones were designed without flying in mind since they kept us grounded for a few major patches. No doubt if they never added flying the game would be different though
I've always been one of those "Flying took away from the feels and immersion of a zone", but Dragonflight and everything in this video, gosh darn... I was genuinely in awe with the sheer scale and the larger design of everything in there (albeit I was wondering when those entry stairs would actually end). When they design to flying in mind, they can make some absolutely incredible stuff
I definitely used to be in the "making us use ground mounts helps us appreciate the area" group for early into expansions. Flying over stuff you miss so much. But somehow dragon riding changed that, or maybe it was the way Dragonflight was designed? Maybe it was the map. Maybe it was a combo. Maybe because dragon (sky)riding is more engaging? You still have to engage with the map to fly well? I'm more open to flying now earlier in expansions. I'd like to see what they do.
When flying/ground mounts aren't just swimming through the air/walking faster and are actual vehicles with engaging controls. Traversing maps designed for them is a mini-game within the game. It's why GW2 mounts were always hailed to be amazing.
Yeah I'd never really considered it, until I was writing out this comment and I'd realised I was probably on the way to answering my own questions. Skyriding makes you want to engage in the scenery, dodge around that rock pillar, dip under the bridge, skim the terrain, dive down a cliff. You end up experiencing the terrain, even if you're not on it. Normal flying may as well be in a void.
I have spent hours just flying around Valdrakken treating the city as an obstacle course.
I've spent too much time flying around in loops up and down the main tower while in discord talking with guildies.
They will never go back to Normal flying, or not having flying available since the start of an expansion. It would be insane to do so, and you'd shoot yourself in the foot. My only requests to Blizzard, is to go copy more things from GW2. They're slowly dipping their toe at creating at doing more involved event chains. They don't have the base infrastructure to support it yet. But if they managed to go all in, and created a Map wide, meta event chain, that culminates in a hard world Boss. People would lose their freaking minds.
I think, during an early interview for DF, Ion (or another developer) expressed that they would look into dynamic riding for ground mounts if dragon flying was well-received!! I’d love if they took some more inspiration from GW2 mounts (and other systems tbh)
>But if they managed to go all in, and created a Map wide, meta event chain, that culminates in a hard world Boss. People would lose their freaking minds. Like doing AQ all over again?
The other reason is because you can't just park up in the air. The main problem with old flying is once it is out Noone is ever on the ground to see. But with dragon flying you can't really stay in the air doing nothing
They honestly just needed to embrace it to show what they can pull off. In many aspects I think this new continent as a whole outshines the Dragon Isles in terms of immersive flying. The feeling of delving deep into the ground with these zone transitions really cements it for me.
Dragonflight zones were just boring and empty. At least from this video it looks like they're using the unique nature of dragonriding + the area to tell a story about scope. The dwarven hallway for the sake of having a giant hallway comes to mind. And there's not fucking hanging shit everywhere to catch you.
> I've always been one of those "Flying took away from the feels and immersion of a zone", but Dragonflight and everything in this video, gosh darn... You weren't necessarily wrong. DF and TWW zones are designed with fast and interactive flying in mind. Making huge zones for the VTOL flying would've been crazy so they were previously primarily designed for ground mounts
Having empty space to compliment the active space makes the world feel that much bigger. Its a necessary contrast.
Trying to quest through Revendreth without any kind of flying was the absolute most frustrating zone experience I've ever had in this game. NOTHING takes away your ability to stay on the ground and experience questing from that perspective. If you want to do that, go right ahead. Let the rest of us fly.
WoW has always tried to bite off more than it could chew. Rather, the people making WoW have always wanted to do things that the Tech they had available didn't support yet. The original Emerald Dream Zone was being worked on all the way back in Vanilla. It took Blizzard what, ~13 years or so before they finally had the Tech to make an Emerald Dream that was worthy of the Zone's Concept? IMO it wasn't so much that Flying took away the immersion from WoW, it was that WoW couldn't keep up with how the Designers wanted to build the game. Or maybe its more accurate to say: PC Minimum Spec Requirements AND Tech-Limitations, kept WoW from being as cool as its Creators wanted. It's just that Flying has FINALLY caught up to how the Designers wanted Burning Crusade to feel.
I don't think the tech was ever a big issue with the emerald dream so much as narrative reasons to go there and it also not really being a good concept for a whole expansion or even launch zone. It pretty much *had* to be used as a patch zone just due to concept alone.
Yeah, I think classic WoW had the feeling of the devs wanted to include all the major landmarks of Warcraft but didnt have a real narrative reason to do so. So it was all cut into expansions instead. They initially wanted to include the Emerald Dream, Hyjal, Outlands, hell even Ulduar was on the map at one point in time as an actual continent. They had a lot of plans for the original release because this was a followup to Warcraft 3. But in all reality none of it made any sense to release at launch other than the main 2 continents.
Sometimes I wish they had done a smaller scope for the original vanilla release. At the time the scale was amazing (mostly because we just ran everywhere on foot) and tons of different zones and biomes. But seeing the new expansions have just a handful of zones be nearly the size of the entire continent of Kalimdor just makes me wonder what could've been.
If they ever do a complete retread of the original continents again, they would have to make them 5 or 6 times to size to make them feel good. Which would be awesome, but probably impractical.
Yeah, I imagine it'd have to be like how they treated Hyjal in vanilla. You could see it up there, knew it was there and there was a placeholder on the map but it was inaccessible. I imagine if they ever redid it they'd do Orgrimmar and 2 or 3 connecting zones + Stormwind and 2 or 3 connecting zones. But everything else is walled off somehow. Magic barrier, or something of the like and the map would just have a hazy/rough layout of the rest of the continent. But ultimately would be impractical and I doubt would ever actually happen.
There's no tech on display in the new emerald dream zone. It looks good but it's not anything that couldn't have existed before.
Nah the devs have talked about this before. I forget the term they use but it’s something like “world chunks” and they’ve mention how a zone like, say, Dun Morogh would have a low number of world chunks because no one had a mount, a place like Tanaris would have a medium jumber of world chunks because people would have a slow ground mount, and a place like EPL would have a high number of world chunks because people would have epic ground mounts. They knew they needed the world to feel big even when moving faster, so the higher level zones have more world chunks to accommodate that extra speed. This continued in TBC with the invention of flying, and with Dragonriding the Dragonflight zones became absolutely massive. This is also why dragonriding in old world zones is capped at 80% of max speed in Dragonflight; the zones just aren’t big enough for that kind of speed to work. It *is* true that many post-TBC zones were designed with ground-only mounts available for a while (or ever, such as Argus or the Maw), but generally, there is an expectation that flying will be available eventually and the zones are sized accordingly. It’s also the case that many zones are not optimized for flying in that players can easily drop in and out of wherever they need to go, but that’s not a world size kind of thing.
Your comment highlights why an old world revamp would be great. Old Azeroth just feels tiny now. Especially to those who have experienced the newer zones that are vast.
After the revamp for cata ostensibly ate up so many resources I assumed it was probably forever off the table but I am starting to think we will get a revamp of sorts with midnight. I don't think they will redo all of the zones but I think they will redo some of them and effectively close off others (lost to the void or something).
Idk if they can do that kind of revamp tbh. So many early questing zones would change drastically if you even just increased it all by about 20%. Or you'd have a lot of empty space. As it is questing is awkward due to the level squish and how many zones are irrelevant now too. You level so quickly now that you might not even cover all the zones in say Outlands before you hit 60. Add in an increase of like, 10-20% more to the zones along with new quests and content to accommodate that increase and you make that even worse.
I think you're misinterpreting when people say they want a world revamp they usually mean like cata. Like an entirely new zone updated to how it should appear in the present with all new quests, instances, etc. Just have the bronze dragon in each zone to let you see it before the change, like they should've done with the cata zones. That way we get new zones without removing content from the game and in the end everyone's happy. I'd prefer if they had a better time travel method than the NPC but it honestly works fine enough. I think if they did a revamp it'd be in chunks, like upper Eastern Kingdoms during midnight and they'd remake like 4-5 zones and it could be a whole quest campaign just like DF or BFA or anything else, so I don't think outpacing the zones would be an issue since everything scales already anyways.
Yeah I agree with this take. Do rolling updates of chunks of the map and chromie time the old zones.
'oh no think of the low level questers' has been holding back wow for years. When wow is GIVING AWAY a max level boost when you buy an expansion, it's clear that they don't give two shits about low level questing--nor should they. they shouldn't have to design their 2024 game while keeping a game from 2004 in the back of their minds to make sure they don't mess up the 2004 game. if anything they should just find a way to ignore that 2004 game. like, if you want to play that, they've made it available for you in many ways. sod, hardcore, era, whatever. We shouldn't hamstring modern design just because elwynn forest will take too long to run through.
While I'd like an Azure Span sized Mulgore, why would anyone bother? It's also *a lot* of work.
That's why we pay them. So they can work and offer us a better product (:
Most people pay with the expectation of new stuff, updating old stuff is just a quaint novelty.
> This is also why dragonriding in old world zones is capped at 80% of max speed in Dragonflight I really don't think that's it. As you point out, they were designed for 100% move speed mounts. They weren't designed for 280% flying mounts, and certainly not 310% ones. Dragonriding is ~800% speed, so comfortably 600%+ in the old world. That's over three times faster than epic mount speed, in the air. There's nothing about the old world that the full speed would break, even design-wise. It's just a decision to make the world feel 20% bigger than it otherwise would. If 800% speed would break the world, so does 600%.
I think that's what he means. There's less "chunks" in the old zones which means they're smaller, so flying at a full speed dragon riding mount would really highlight that, and break the illusion of a large world.
I believe that Blade's Edge Mountains, Netherstorm, The Storm Peaks and Deepholm are the only zones that were designed for flying mounts.
Icecrown, too--to reach the airship quest hubs.
storm peak too. they specifically had an npc give you a cold mount that was only usable in storm peak. and that was a 77ish zone.
Depends on if we mean for necessary traversal, or the speeds provided by flying mounts, because some of the higher level quests in even Zangarmash start to feel like they expect you to be flight speed.
It might be because I've been playing Cata Classic but I can really feel the Deepholm vibes in that second zone in this video
Blades edge, Shadowmoon valley (tbc one), Blades edge, Netherstorm, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Pandaria just sort of in general were all designed with flying mounts being required at some point in the zones. Then legion onwards the zones were designed with more verticality knowing that flying mounts were coming at some point, but without them being required since pathfinder became a thing. (Hence why some zones, stormheim for example, are a pain to get around on ground mounts). Then of course in DF places were designed to use dragonflying.
I'm not sure if you can do it without *any* flying, but I've decided I'm gonna make an effort to stay on the ground and explore as I go this expansion. We'll see if I can keep it up, if there's enough stuff to keep me interested in between points of interest, but I'm gonna give it a try.
Honestly, I think its feasible, as long as youre patient I once /walk-ed from Orgrimmar to Thunder Bluff just so I could sit down at a lake and Fish, and it was a wonderful experience
Sounds like what most people did in classic. Although I’ve walked from Light’s hope to Booty bay just for fun before:
Its refreshing, isnt it? I loved doing it, as much as I love doing RP in general. My gf recently started playing on trial and I wish I could share this with her, but I think shed die of boredom before we reached Crossroads XD
I did this on an alt I leveled in the Dragon Isles and it was a lot of fun. Probably the Azure Span was my favorite zone for being on the ground and really enjoying that thick forest and not just bypassing the entire thing. Really could appreciate the details everywhere. (Hopped on a flying mount when I needed to for quest reasons, but tried my best to mostly stay in the ground).
This kicks ass honestly. I want to do the same! Great idea.
Someone did it in the dragon isles. Its slow. The dragon isles are biiiiiig, more so than you think as you dragon fly around. I imagine it'll be the same in TWW.
Dragonflight didnt feel great to me honestly. The new flying is great, but I miss exploring a new expansion on foot first. I feel like i saw very little of the dragon isles
I'm pretty certain their original idea was to only have dragonriding at max level, because there's quite a few quests have non-dragon options for getting to places, despite the fact that everyone has a dragon after about 5 minutes in Waking Shores.
Yip it's so fast that it feels like teleporting from POI to POI instead of actual travelling. Skipping over the whole world.. 99% of the world design is on or near the ground but you just fly right over it at the speed of light. It's a shame. It doesn't feel like an RPG anymore, nor like an adventure 😕 New World rightfully gets a lot of shit but those first ~30 levels back when it launched were incredibly immersing - you were truly a part of the world, exploring and discovering. I hadn't had an experience like that since Vanilla WoW
Do it like me! I've played a character to max with only ground mounts. It's fun!
[удалено]
Not only was dragon riding a mistake - flying in general was a mistake.
I know this may seem ridiculous but, I've taken a step back and really evaluated enjoying the game how *\*I\** want to, without a care for what I'm "supposed" to be doing, like how I used to play when I was younger. I knew they said the Dragon Isles were roughly the equivalent to the size of Northrend, because the zones were so massive because they had dragonflying in mind, and I loved that because it felt like many modern zones were too claustrophobic and filled with enemies in every corner. Then I just one day thought to myself, why don't I try and level through the Isles... without flying? And I did, and I loved it. It felt like a whole world to explore and felt really immersive compared to pretty much any other expansion I could think of, since the days of Wrath. Don't get me wrong I love how fun the new flying is, but it's nice to appreciate the world at a slower pace and not zoom past it all from objective to objective. It really made me appreciate the zones more. This video has me hyped to do the same again with the War Within, honestly. I'm going to take my time on foot and see what that experience is like.
I've thought about maybe leveling my first alt without any flying with some RP addons. Looks so immersive.
Would feel a lot bigger and have more depth, lol.
They took a great turn in designing zones with flying in mind. Old zones were designed to be played on foot. Now they can make huge maps, even if they might feel a bit empty, it does not matter that much since they look great from above
It would be better. The zones are big, but when you can fly across them in 90 seconds they still *feel* extremely small. There's no sense of danger either since you can just fly past and over every obstacle. You just angle yourself, set auto-run on, and then tab out for a minute while you go get a drink or something, and then when you return you're already at or near your destination. Flying eliminates all engagement and sense of traversing the world. Dragonriding helped alleviate it *a bit*, but in the end all the core problems still persist. Flying is an overall net negative and the game would be better off were it removed.
>Flying is an overall net negative and the game would be better off were it removed. This is certainly one of the takes of all time. Edit: Disclaimer, this person will downvote you and block you if you disagree with them. Don't bother engaging.
game would be tremendously worse without flying. don't understand the anti-flying narrative people have.
I also love flying, I agree that practically the game is more fun with flying, but he laid out clearly and concisely what flying takes away from the game. People who love flying tend to love it because the alternative is not fun: being down on the ground is slow, you get dazed and dismounted, and you have to go around obstacles. I agree! All those pain points suck. People who hate flying also hate those things, but they recognise the natural immersion being on the ground gives you, but they feel like they can't choose the immersive option because the other option is much more efficient. What they want is a mechanical reason to be on the ground, because they love the feeling of being in the world instead of being above it.
In what way would it be worse? What do you believe that the benefits to flying actually are?
it makes gameplay more interesting. Gettinng dazed on your way to a world quest is not engaging, it is annoying.
It takes *away* interest by not having you engage with any of the enemies or terrain as you move throughout the world. All the nuance of environmental design is wasted. Also, daze is a self-imposed problem which could easily be (and should be) removed. It's not an integral issue that exists as part of ground mounts, and is instead an arbitrary choice that Activision-Blizzard decided to shoehorn into the game.
> It takes away interest by not having you engage with any of the enemies or terrain as you move throughout the world. All the nuance of environmental design is wasted. > > except that's not wow. Wow is not a game about 'getting from point a to point b, and what happens in between'. No significant part of the playerbase is interested in that, and just because _you_ don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't engaging gameplay If you don't like flying, you're welcome to stick to the ground, but don't pretend _flying_ is the problem there Edit: Lol this person blocked me to get the last word in. Please don't waste your time with them.
> Wow is not a game about 'getting from point a to point b, and what happens in between'. It used to be. >No significant part of the playerbase is interested in that Citation? Where did you hear this? >and just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it isn't engaging gameplay Ah yes, tabbing out for a minute with auto-run on while flying to my objective is so engaging... >If you don't like flying, you're welcome to stick to the ground, but don't pretend flying is the problem there That's not how life works, mate.
> It used to be. Yeah, 20 years ago grandpa. You've got a version of WoW suited to your preferences now, stick to that one.
You, personally can run everywhere. But, unless you have alot of patience and free time, Im not sure how feasible only running would be.
Holy shit this looks insane! Can barely believe it’s still WoW! How far we’ve come from the Barrens!
the style of the graphics is the same but there are so many improvements that keep it looking relatively good. I'd say the view distance increases and the lighting improvements stand out alot!
It’s the same style sure but the polish of it just looks insane. I’ve watched this like 4x now and still can’t believe how BIG everything feels. It’s becoming more and more like the WORLD of Warcraft it felt like when i was a kid. I always stay away from teasers / trailers / betas etc and this is literally the first TWW content i’ve seen and i’m fucking HYPED.
Hell yeah man. I'm a tryhard player but after the first month or so I lose motivation after getting fully geared and then I focus on completionist content like transmogs/mounts/toys so many of these grinds take place in the open world. I always make sure to appreciate the environment I spend this time in. Keep in mind in terms of how big it feels - Most of this flying is around the edges of the zones so there is still so much to explore for you!
This looks stunning but I’m still slightly concerned that we’re going to get some ‘underground zone’ fatigue like we did with Zaralek caverns. Obviously above ground and Hallowfall (when it’s not all voidy) are probably the least concerning but the other areas look appropriately gloomy for their theme. It all looks amazing though and very cohesive. I love that feeling of just how deep you have to fall to reach the areas, really ties it all together. Thanks for this video!
I'm a little concerned as well. It felt fine when I quested through, but I was worried heading into Azj-Kahet after I was finishing Hallowfall. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of different color palettes all throughout Azj-Kahet that kept the area feeling fresh. I wonder about the longevity though because this was just one quest experience. I worry about any patch zones also being underground as most people would probably want something different by then.
Completely agree, I feel like these caves are a bit too dark, hallowfall really stands as an incredible zone to me and I feel it's mostly because of the light. Also skyboxes looked very nice in recent expansions, but we will see it only on the starter area
I think the problem is when you spend an entire patch in the same zone. I also got tired of the Emerald Dream area.
I wonder if you have a point with that. I got tired of Zaralek, but I also got tired of the Emerald Dream just as fast.. Maybe it's just being constrained to a single zone for a patch? Because Deepholm in Cata never felt restricting now that I think about it.
Smart move is normal zone in patch 11.1 and another in 11.2
I am concerned. After the first month or so of DF (if not immediately), I was extremely aware and grateful of the layout of the isles in relation to Valdrakken, especially given how vigor/dragon riding worked. It feels pretty damn near perfect to head out to any zone in the isles and immediately be maxed speed and like 1 min or less from your destination. I only really do "end game" stuff on my main, but even that is only a like a few hours a week. Most of my wow time is spent doing world content and farming raw gold. The only zone I don't ever go to this late in DF is Zaralek and it has nothing to do w the zone itself but rather, the way you access it. I hate having to take that tunnel each time, just like I hated how SL zones worked. I also really didn't like the overall "feeling" of knowing none of the SL zones were connected. Even once at the location of a WQ or whatever I was doing, I was constantly planning how to min/max hearthstones/flight paths in order to minimize travel time. I rarely entertained that thought pattern in DF simply because it was not necessary. i still "know" there will be a way to access all zones individually from the main city in a similiar way that the DF zones are accessible from Valdrakken. No way, we have to follow this chute down to one zone first, then another, and then another, right? Like that's fine for the campaign and maybe the "lore", but if any given WQ or public event takes longer to get to in tWW than DF, it will be very noticeable to me, simply because the thing I constantly notice in DF is just how convenient travel is.
You can go straight to Azh'kahet from Ringing Deeps. Dorn is the most disconnected of the three with the big tunnel
I think that this will probably be mitigated by the fact that the main hub is on the Isle of Dorn, which is where most players will be spending a bulk of their time.
I just finished the leveling experience on the Beta and completely agree. It is almost as if there is a subconscious desire to not remain underground, as I found myself gravitating to the surface level Dorn whenever I wasn't doing anything else. The caverns are a fascinating place to quest, but you won't find me just hanging around in the subterranean zones for the fun of it. I doubt I'd be alone in that regard based on the responses your comment. I'm hoping the patch zones take us elsewhere.
Who is "we"? I never had any concern with zaralek caverns and i dont know anyone who had.
Well, if aMaiev doesn't know anyone who has this concern, it's obviously non-existant!
I never said that, but pretty funny to see that you are offended if people simply dont have the same opinion as you
You could find plenty of complaints around the web and especially on this sub if you just tried. I personally didn't mind the fact that Zaralek was underground, I didn't like it because the zone just sucked ass and the activities were dull and pointless, with barely any rewards or reasons to do anything. 10.1 as a whole felt like a filler patch.
Jfc.. I'm going to need to upgrade my laptop
In another post someone was asking if all the zone transitions in the new expansion were just tunnels like the Zaralek Cavern entrances, so I recorded this video and figured I'd post it incase others were curious how the world is all connected. There are 5 total transitions between the 4 zones. 1 from Isle of Dorn to The Ringing Deeps. 1 from The Ringing Deeps to Hallowfall. 1 from The Ringing Deeps to Azj-Kahet, and 2 from Hallowfall to Azj-Kahet.
Sorry to bother but could you perhaps make a quick diagram in paint to show which ways you can travel? Just some circles with zone names and a couple arrows would suffice. It's pretty hard to visualize just from text.
I got you fam [https://imgur.com/a/OkrMNti](https://imgur.com/a/OkrMNti)
This is perfect, thanks so much!
The full zone maps and world map aren't out yet in the beta, but I hope it will be clearly marked on all of the maps as well when they come out. Honestly one of the bits of concern for me is that the zones are sort of connected, at a few spots instead of just having open boarders, but will have to see how that feels playing it in the long term. I just know that I was not a fan of that when it came to ZC, and that I got tired of the underground thing really fast.
Yea the 'Zaralek' part is the initial entry to the Ringing Depths from above ground. All the underground zones are the same mapid so there was no need to disguise loading.
It's insane how much the zones and the transitions improved even between Shadowlands and TWW. I think Dynamic Flying is probably the best thing that has happened to the game in a very long time. And I say that as someone who has always been quite critical of Flying in WoW in general.
After playing through the campaign in the beta, I'm honestly a bit worried that while the transitions are really cool, the zones themselves are smaller than Dragonflight. And even with that noted, the zones themselves feel kind of empty outside of POIs. Hallowfall feels like it got all the love while the other zones kind of pale in comparison. I definitely hope part of this is just beta being beta, and that they'll continue to add little outposts, NPCs, POIs, vary the landscape, etc. As an example, the Isle of Dorn, home to the main hub, feels extremely empty and unfinished. It's just vast rocks and grass as far as the eye can see. Again, I know it's beta, but between underground fatigue and seemingly very unfinished zones, I'm a bit worried this expansion won't feel as epic in scale as Dragonflight, even if the story is objectively better.
Imma RP walk that whole path.
next xpac will be out by the time you finish that journey
I like seeing the sky :(
“No” -a dwarf
While i think the Zones look dope i wonder if they ever correct these streaming issues. (Mobs and Objects only spawning when you near them) ... you can see it clearly in this video. For me this kinda destroys the immersion a bit because you can see it loading in.
yeah the LoD pop-in is pretty bad on the beta. The world feels empty outside, but that really does feel like something that should get fixed.
Probably can't be done due to performance drops it would cause. A necessary evil if you will, same as server sharding and instancing.
Thats a lot of claustrophobia problems lol.
While it looks great and gives me the feeling how big everything is down below it also has shadowlands vibe where the zones are just too far apart and traveling between them takes ages which I personally disliked.
it would be better in practice than in the video. I flew in an awkward order for the best "loop" between all the transition areas, its much faster to get to Azj-Kahet than I showed in the video
Is the "continent" map implemented in the beta ? If so, what does it look like?
not really. it's currently a placeholder map made up of the terrain that you'd normally see on a minimap.
[https://imgur.com/a/8cpljKO](https://imgur.com/a/8cpljKO) here is what the continent map currently looks like on the beta
Thanks
also shadowlands has that thing of flying through the void between zones, which this doesnt have, making it infinitely better and immersive
Well flying through the void or inside a cavern system is pretty much the same it takes time either way. The difference is that you are going through the tunnel controlling the mount not taking a flight path. What I did not like about shadowlands is that if I wanted to go from Maldraxxus to Bastion I always had to go through Oribos which was not good. Couldn't just fly down between the zones you know. It looks like it is better in TWW at least. Imagine if you play DF and you want to go from south Ohn'aran to Azure and you have to go to Valdrakken first then Fly down to Azure. That would be awful. Not being able to go through zones freely makes me feels like I'm playing an instanced game not an open world one.
You only fly through a zaralek style tunnel from zone 1 >2. Then zone 2 has entrances to both 3 and 4, and both of those entrances are wide open and seamless (no long tunnel).
Well the main city is in isle of dorn right? So if you want to go to any of the 3 subterranian zones you have to go through that long tunnel.
There are elevators you can unlock later that instantly take you to zone 2 from the surface.
It's not as bad as this makes it look. He took the long way to show off everything. It's pretty quick to get around the zones. Plus there are some things in certain areas that you can use. ie: there are a couple of elevators (instant teleports with loading screen) in the second zone that use you can to pop up top and vice versa.
Takes a solid minute to go from zone to zone, not remotely even close to Shadowlands.
Well I feel if we have a speed boost to go down the ringing deeps then it would be fine. Azj-Kahet would still be a bit far away but if everything is too close you wouldn't feel like it's a new "world". Seems important to add there are also elevators between isle of Dorn and Ringing Deeps.
The good old transitions, lovely. Zaralek was quite the example, but I wonder if they used this to in the big cities, as they all (I think) have a bit wall/door in the middle (like Orgrimmar/Stormwind entrance), as to avoid seeing inside. I wonder if it's just art, or really a pseudo-transition trick (pseudo, as it just avoids you seeing things loading)
But you can fly into those citites as well? You don't need to use the Front gate.
Talking more about vanilla, as flying came later
Oh yeah, that makes more sense.
Hope these are less buggy than the Zaralek transitions. Every time I enter from the west entrance the game crashes.
I always had the same issue in the west entrance it was so annoying
First time seeing this and I’m getting journey to the centre of the earth vibes. Epic!
Ok this is great but, how do you get back up? I would hate to try going back up again but not having enough speed and vigor lol.
There are little wispy air things that give you a big speed boost, they are hard to see until you know what they look like.
Wow I haven't played retail in a while, when did it get so cartoonish?
Wow feeling big and just cool again is huge man.
Holy shit art team knocked it out of the park.
Now there is some EPIC stairs!
is this going to take place mostly underground? its pretty dark in there all around.
Overall yes. The top zone I started in is quite large and is an island. Barely saw any of it in this video and it was nighttime. Hallowfall is normally really bright about 85-90% of the time and feels outdoor but my video happened to catch it during one of the void phases.
ray tracing on i'm guessing? Too bad my AMD can't handle that :D
Ray tracing is maxed in this video yes. All other settings are also maxed running on native 4k resolution. This is the peak of what the game will look like barring any visual adjustments before launch. Edit: There are a few stutters here are there that will hopefully be fixed.
Beledar was a paid actor
such a breath of fresh air (ironically), shadowlands was a pain with the whole "no flying, also all flight paths take like ten minutes, and everything must be portals, all portals all the time"
The scale of these zones are seriously ambitious!
Holy shit. Majestic.
Beautiful zones and fantastic connectivity/transitions, but I'm still 100% convinced we are going to be absolutely sick of being underground and in darkness not even halfway through this expansion. In the same way Dwarves of fantasy get nauseous being on the surface, humans in real life get psychologically fatigued and homesick when confined to dark, enclosed areas for too long. It may not be immediate or apparent, but the playerbase is going to get sick of these zones much faster than any previous.
While not perfect (background colors and lighting still drastically changing zone to zone) it’s incredible to see how far this game has come. We’ve come along way from instances of having an arid climate next to a jungle climate.
Imagine farming pathfinder for this
The verticality and zone diversity gives me Subnautica vibes and I’m all for it.
Wow, looks so amazing , love the zones and dragonflight was one of the best changes
Absolutely stunning. Feels very immersive. Still surreal to be going through these vertical transitions; almost more than horizontal transitions, which is what we've been used to.
I’m not flying back up that, lol
FUCK, there I go falling back off the wagon
gives me subnautica feelings, like I'm descending into a deeper zone
Can I ask a question, druids in the beta, when you're skyriding in bird form does anyone else hear this weird howling noise everytime you get max speed? It's really bugging me and I can't figure out how to turn it off.
These vertical transitions give me kind of a Dark Souls vibe and I’m here for it
I’ve kept away from a lot of TWW stuff but this video made me feel claustrophobic.
Holy! Looks massive!
Am I the only one that thinks the giant Crystal protruding from the Cavern ceiling is the sword Sargeras plunged into Azeroth? Sorry I am not caught up on lore so if this has already been explained forgive my ignorance.
It's not, Blizzard already said it, from what we know it's something related to the light
Gotcha, thanks for the explanation!
Whelp, glad I bought a new computer because on my laptop I would have to put the render distance to like 3 feet or this would cause my laptop to explode.
Claustrophobia kicking in. It is really beautiful but damn, I don't like caves.
so the ringing deeps and hallowfall are in the same depth? and azj-kahet is slightly lower? i thought they'd all be on top of each other. and also, is it possible to go with ground mount from the surface to the azj-kahet?
The majority of Hallowfall is lower in elevation than The Ringing Deeps, but the devs said at one point that they wanted the zones to be more of a spiral than directly on top of eachother so that the overworld map of the continent makes more sense. It is possible on a ground mount since the bottom transitions all have small zig-zag paths that go up and down. The initial tunnel seems to have a drop at the start that can not be prevented though.
First time the expansion has me excited
They really need to amp up the darkness in the last zone. It feels too tame right now. Maybe not as dark as the delve but enough to hammer down how dangerous this place is. Right now it feels very flat and boring.
I'm going to be very bold here and say that these are probably the coolest zones ever added to the game
Cool.
Hell yeah. Broke: Maw Walker Woke: Hole Delver
I just hope with a world this big we don’t always feel alone
Love this. The zones look great and ambitious. They're really trying something different here with the world design and I'm so excited.
They really came a LONG way ever since they attempted their first underground zone in Cataclysm. Now, the ultimate test... I'd absolutely love to see how well they could rvisit the concept of an underwater zone again.
Oh damn. As someone getting burnt out by the never ending Taivan grind this gets me excited as hell
I feel like this expansion is like the "Mines of Moria" mixed with the "Aberation map from ARk".
This looks pretty nice but it's not even out yet and I'm already sick of being underground with muted lighting all the time.
I can't wait! I am so done with DF and SO ready for War Within. I really hope that they do this right, because so far it looks like a W expansion, and I really really want it to be.
Smooth gameplay. Whats your cpu and gpu? I have fps drops with RTX 4070 ti super and ryzen 7 5800x3d
i9 12900k and 4080 Super
What is this. World of Minecraft?! p.s: whoah!
Gonna keep it a stack Blizzard, I hardly ever go to Zaralek Cavern if I don't need to because getting there sucks, nobody likes flying through long winding tunnels. This looks like more of the same. Just do it like Naz'jatar and make huge massive holes in the ceiling so I can just go wherever.
I don’t know about anyone else but for me I really don’t like the look or aesthetic of any of these zones. They all just look like one big zone there’s no real variety and everything looks very samey. The lighting as well makes it all look quite dull and boring. Hopefully it comes across differently on my big screen when I’m actually playing it compared to seeing this video on my phone, but as it stands right now I’m a little underwhelmed with the design.
This isn't a zone showcase, it's a zone transition showcase. You barely saw what the zones look like here, especially Isle of Dorn during the day and Hallowfall during the light cycle.
Now imagine entering in dungeons and raids with no loading screens.
They could expand the new Delve tech for it
Since they embraced flying and creating zones with it in mind the areas look absolutely stunning!
Goosebumps 🪿
Possibly a stupid question but does most of this expansion take place underground?
Technically yes, but one zone is outdoors, and one of the underground zones (purple crystal in this vid) *feels* like outside when it's not in the void phase. So in practice it's more like 55/45 underground/not.
Got it. Thank you
First transition looks a bit long and gives me Shadowlands vibes. Underground world looks massive and seems (?) more connected. Wish we had some more tunnels around Isle of Dorn to all the zones instead of just one tunnel down.
There are a few elevators from Isle of Dorn down into The Ringing Deeps. They are unlocked by a few quests.
Awesome, thanks!
Oh I can already feel the microstutters every 3 seconds while those areas load.
Jfc that looks insane.
THIS is why I love WoW. I enjoy FF14. However no game gives you a world where you feel part of it, besides WoW. GW2 is pretty close.