Shadowlands and the potential of a reworked Azeroth

Now, I’ve found an interesting tidbit of information while browing reddit:

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Neltharion%27s_Lair:_Braid_of_the_Underking

"Greetings, Deathlord. Years have passed since we first met, but for me it has been mere days."

Salanar is the one who sends you out in order to get your horse mount in the death knight starting zone. The quest is from Legion years later.

And when we enter the Shadowlands time will potentially flow differently for us as well. Could. Maybe. We know Blizzard and consistency. But, let’s imagine that they remember: So we are only in there for a few weeks or months but decades have passed on Azeroth. This potentially means that we could experience a changed and new Azeroth.

Now we all know that Blizzard will not revamp the entire world again. But, what if we return from the Shadowlands but we don’t return to all of Azeroth…but to for example the Kingdom of Stormwind and its surrounding zones which have been greatly upscaled. So Elwynn Forest is suddenly just as large as Dragonblight or similar zones. Goldshire is an entire town and Stormwind is just as large as Boralus if not larger. Redridge is more akin to the Kun-Lai-Summit, Westfall is just as large as Vol’dun, and Stranglethorn is the single largest zone in the entire game with Grom’gol being closer to the size of the current Orgrimmar, and Booty Bay is turned into a pirates heaven “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style.

And suddenly we can have twenty new expansions in the new-old-world of Azeroth without the need to add new continents, zones or planets. The old zones could probably be entered through a portal in the Shadowlands itself. So, the old world stays for leveling and so on, while the end-content plays in the post time-skip-Azeroth.

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Are you suggesting layering the existing world with another time-skip version? I think the game is bloated enough as it is. Creating an alternate timeline copy of Azeroth would not be that easy or straightforward.

Did you even read the entire post? Seemingly not because otherwise how do you think would a layer of Elwynn Forest work if the new “Reforged” Elwynn would be the size of Dragonblight?

The post-time-skip Azeroth would be more akin to a new continent in terms of game mechanics instead of a layer or something similar simply because the “Reforged” Azeroth would be ten times larger than the old one.

By layering I meant phase layering which uses same server data. At the moment this allows for timeline phasing when you speak with Zidormi. But even if you create more continents, zones and planets, won’t solve the issue of bloating this game is experiencing and how performance suffers because of it, especially if you still want access to old Azeroth in its entirety.

Edit: I do find your idea interesting, don’t get me wrong. But the devs have to find a solution to sustain multiple further expansions.

I don’t see why this plays a role in this particular thread. That’s something Blizzards technicians have to solve not me. I’m throwing around ideas how the old world could be reworked because many people want a revamp of it.

Especially since we are in the story forums…where this plays even less of a role.

Urgs, that would just kill RP. No thanks.

Apart from that I much prefer the setting of a depleted world that needs its heroes to one that had 20 years to recuperate. And no, I don’t want them to have suffered through great catastrophes while I wasn’t there, because I played with the angels.

WoD gave us a much better possibility of revamped old zones: Other dimensions. If you want to change everything, that’s the way you can do it without changing anything for people who don’t want the change.

Perhaps, Sylvanas broke the pillar between life and dead, don’t she? Doesn’t it mean that we are near to Shadowlands than ever before and that it don’t have any affects for the time probably? I mean for me they seems to be merged dimensions right now.

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