This, literally in every aspect. It’s small, literally looks and feels like 15 year old Ironforge and Undercity for the poor.
All the corridors are exactly the same, so it’s hard not to get lost, and guards with directions are rather rare. And you suddenly get dismounted in some corridors while passing through, for no apparent reason.
All the NPCs look exactly the same, so it’s hard to find what you’re looking for, and you literally need to run across the whole city to get your gear repaired. And the inn looks quite modest.
BfA is the first expansion that gave us completely new Capitals, and honestly, compared to Zuldazar, and especially Boralus, Oribos looks like a joke.
EDIT: Another thing. Flying in Oribos will likely never be an option. Wouldn’t really make sense, and obviously isn’t designed for that.
I’ll take Oribos over Dazar’alor any day. I’ll take it over any of the faction capitals too - those are way too big, and NPCs are spread throughout the cities. At least in Oribos, similar NPCs are packed together, which is nice. With HandyNotes installed, a quick glance at the map, and I’ll find whatever NPC I’m looking for, don’t even need to find a guard first.
Maybe, just maybe, because Oribos was not originally designed for Mortals, the Brokers for a quick profit opened up some shops
As for IC reasons, Oribos is actually quite nice, as you said, its small, you dont have to spend half of your life to go to one place to another, like say, Dazar’alor for example or the Exodar
Its hard to get lost, its just one giant circle with 4 sections
Actually if you played SW:ToR it is like the Republic/Empire space station wich is the “main hub”
After an hour you could memorise where to go if you want something
Its small, logically planned and easy to navigate
Back in TBC shattrath city barely ran on my computer so i still dislike it. In wrath Dalaran had the same problems for many people comparing wrath era dalaran to Oribos the latter one wins 100-0 in wrath in worst days it took 10-15 minutes to run from side to side of that hellhole because everyone and their grandmother were cramped to a place size of a outhouse.
Oribos is not the best place but atleast it works compared to places that people see through rose colored goggles.
Oribos is the culmination of blizzards “the world must be utility over realism”.
In this case it is believable as the Brokers literally set up to accommodate us mortals.
But ironforge was never meant to be a hub first and foremost. It was meant to be this grand city where yes you can service all those needs, but it’s meant to feel like a heart of activity, people live there, it’s bigger than you and your particular needs.
Oribos was never meant to be that. It’s if the design is built entirely with the adventurer in mind.
I love the fact that it is small and compact and everything is easily reachable. Having spent too long in Dazar’alor where you needed flight points to get round the city this is a breath of fresh air.
I hate Oribos, it’s just bland and boring to me, woo a big spooky city in the middle of nowhere that has no direct links to anywhere else except orgrimmar or SW via a portal, my hearth is set to stormwind and orgrimmar on my horde chars because to hell with that city
Oribos is like the VIP lounge in an airport. Way more room than the number of people require, pretty quiet, tranquil music, everything within range, and appears as much as a design statement as a practical area for visitors between flights.
Other places like Dalaran, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, they feel more like a busy shopping mall where there’s stuff crammed into every nook and cranny, the streets being busy with too many people, shops and places all around you, and all kinds of noise and a general sense of activity.
I think it’s personal preference whether you like the lounge hub or the shopping mall hub. They’re sort of different takes on what a main hub can be.
I quite like Oribos, but it is definitely the main hub in WoW where the design has erred most toward the VIP lounge feeling. The Exodar is probably a close second in similarity and Dalaran is probably the most opposite in design.
Any city that needs flight points to get around is far too big in my opinion. So those two BfA cities are awful. Also cities with loads of enemy mobs is a stupid idea.
Because Oribos was not really designed by “mortal city” standards? Its not big as SW or Boralus or whatever purely by the factor that only few people “live there”? It acts as a SL transit station for incoming souls and nothing more.
I don’t mean getting lost per se. I mean miss the right door, way too oftenly.
Exodar is large and empty, but has different looking quarters (like the light and shaman quarter), so it’s harder to miss your door, you don’t get dismounted all of a sudden, and there are guards everywhere to ask for directions.