I also think that the criticism is quite accurate, the lighting and colours of Amirdrassil don’t really match the lighting and colours of Teldrassil, the zone which it was supposed to replace. However, the criticism is also pretty minor and I think it’s highly dependent on when you’re playing.
Typical image of Teldrassil: https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/864608-teldrassil.jpg
The most yellow image of Amirdrassil I could find: https://dotesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Emerald-Dream-WoW-Dragonflight.png
A part of Amirdrassil with more appropriate lighting: https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/blog/images/37006-name-of-new-10-2-in-game-cinematic-hints-at-emerald-dream-story-finale.jpg
So yes, at some points Amirdrassil can feel too bright and too yellow and more like the ideal home of the “day elves,” but depending on where you are and what time of day you’re playing at, it can also be pretty perfect for night elves.
I did not even consider that. You’re right, it should feel more shrouded in darkness if we’re going for night elf vibe.
This might be something I am also missing, that atmosphere that made you feel shrouded in the shadows. It’s crazy, when you think about it, how many things were done right many years ago.
And it should be so easy to fix. Just replace the Emerald Dream skybox, which is perpetual ambient light, with the normal Dragon Isles skybox so the zone has a normal daytime and nighttime. At the moment, you can’t even see the moon.
I don’t know why the Azeroth version of Amirdrassil has the Emerald Dream skybox to begin with.
The “shrouded in darkness” feeling of Classic Teldrassil is due to a combination of sky-box and view distance. Better machinery allows for much greater view distance these days and much less fog - you might notice that same “shroud of darkness” is absent from Teldrassil if you go there today.
But if you turn down your view distance to 1 and go to either Bel’ameth or Whorlwing Basin, you can replicate that extremely thick and obfuscating purple atmosphere. You just need to be prepared for the ground textures to suffer as a consequence.
WoW used a lot of these tricks back in Vanilla - TBC, and, honestly, it’s kind of impressive. Shadowmoon Valley’s soil has the same colour as The Burning Steppes without any lighting on, but with them, it looks like a completely different zone; in spite of it being basically the same zone but with green lava.
The more I see of it, the more a total travesty it feels.
I can’t even be glib about “Those Americans writing, huh?”, it’s just bad. For Gilneans and Forsaken, too.
Can we take Calia back to Legion and Just Not, please?
My initial reaction to the video was “WThell is this tone-deaf ?!” but… I’ll try and reserve my judgement for when I’ve actually done the questline. Maybe we’ll be surprised.
What-what happened to your hairs Lintian!
I leave for a couple of days and you suddenly have purple hairs, runic marks around the shoulders? And— And— that’s about it but damn your avatar has changed.
Darnassus used to be my favourite city to AFK in back in the day. Until things like barbershops were added and both Ironforge and Stormwind had the convenient portals.
At least now with SoD I can somewhat relive those times as now in phase 1 the focus is all about Darnassus.
I will die on the hill that Blizzard should have added all the conviences like a Portal Room, Barber Shop, Transmogrifier, etc to -all- capital cities so not to favor one over the other.
Alas, we are now eternally stuck with Stormwind and Orgrimmar as capitals for all races within a faction, even if said capital does not fit a race’s aethestic in the slightest. ._.
Totally, I think their argument was that they wanted to make the city look more alive by stuffing them all into one capitol city but on non-RP realms they’re layered anyway.
Blizzard probably : Well we just thought that since Night Elves are all about being naturists, dendrophiles and in touch with nature, having a barber just didn’t make sense… I mean look at them, they even use leaves as adornments for their hair and stuff, truly they don’t need a barber in the capital.
I only put my blizzardhead hat for this thought exercise… I have little doubt that I could find multiple staff members vaguely thinking this to be true (or wishing for it) without looking for that one crazy Jack or Jill in the company.
Concept art for Alleria in The War Within. I’m of two minds about this.
On one hand, I like that they’re giving her a distinct visual identity of her own instead of her just being Generic Elf. And I mean, hot.
But on the other hand… It feels like a different character. Somehow she stayed the same during the timey-wimey thousand years of war, but suddenly got a makeover now?
?!” but… I’ll try and reserve my judgement for when I’ve actually done the questline. Maybe we’ll be surprised.
