What if this New Approach to racial cities in 9.0?

Community General Discussion
1

You help your race build it!

What you think?

A race focused expansion, race campaigns instead of class campaigns, but you build your race’s new city along the way as you progress in the campaign of the new continent. Find out what your race has been up to, how actions from great events that mattered to it more changed it (like MoP, WoD, Legion, BfA), insights to its culture and sub-groups etc - but as you progress your city expands and you help determine what goges up first where, some quests to enlist help from various factions of your people that can help. See how it galvanises your race etc.

New patches, that bring new content, also bring new quests and tasks for your race and contribute to building your city and unlocking more features, more lore and more stuff to do. Your races capital is like a much more expansive version of your class hall. Your city will get full quest sequence like Suramar did, but given in increments - with more added to patches, as you also have a continent to explore

This process can go on indefinitely, and not all races need to start with a new city. Some races already have cities in place, don’t worry you’re not left out, you will get extensions and expansions to yours a bit later, the homeless get the main development for the expansion launch.

  • Night elves, Forsaken, Lightforged, Darkspears, Mag’har, Void Elves - all build new cities, these will double up as raids and quest zones too for the expansion.
  • Blood Elves, Draenei, Worgen, Goblins, Gnomes - all rebuild their damaged cities
  • Tauren, Highmountain, Dwarves, Pandaren - All expand their cities.

Humans, Kul’tirans, Zandalari, Nightborne, Orcs - Cities remain unchanged, you get to do interesting things like customise buildings, inddor spaces, like Stormwind Keep and MAge tower are proper castles/towers, rather than just one linear stretch etc. Till you get your expansions

Example:
Night elf city would require a Temple for Elune, a forest for the druids, and night elf city scape like you see in Suramar and Zin’Azshari.

  1. It’s not the only feature of the expansion, but a major one
  2. It comes in addition to better systems, class designs, end game progression that combines the best of legion and BFA etc
  3. You still get new class and more allied races as well some race class customisations like was done for DHs and DKs.
  4. New race-class combos and an upgrade to that system too, that allows
  5. All the usual new great music, improved graphics, new mounts, rewards etc.
Hmmmmmmmm

Yes, I know you all hate it, but any how, why not give you a chance to like it. Oh btw, it doesn’t mean all the races have cities in the new contient, it could, but I was thinking more like you move from your city in Azeroth to the new continent, just like you did with Class order halls.

Maybe blizzards chance to give a lot of down trodden races a fistbump… part of the race campaigns for some of them, espiecally the low pop ones who’ve been really depleted by war is finding new allies and more of their people around.

Part of some of the race campaigns is properly securing the main zone of the city and the surrounding zone to secure a future for your race, using new resources. I mean, why not utilise all those unused zones anyway.

To save work and time, allied races are joined with their core race for campaigns, this could mean that they come to live together in the same area, but they would have their own city - although this migh make allied races whose main race is in the opposite faction an interesting exercise in creative writiung :smiley:

4 Likes
2

BfA is the closest thing to race-focused expansion you will ever get

1 Like
3

I’d love if some capitals were rebuilded or if some races, currently without capitals, got a new one and we as players would participate a lot in the process.

2 Likes
4

Your idea is too ambitious. Blizzard didn’t even manage to make racial garrisons, and that was a major feature of the expansion.

I think helping build the new faction capital city is more realistic. There should be buildings and spaces to represent every race and class. Although I’m not sure this could be done with out putting people in different phases, which would be a no no.

What Blizzard should do is give us housing. Let us have a house in any capital city of our faction and decorate it as we see fit.

5

Yeh that was my thought…

each race has a major campaign focused on it, with bits in the new contient as well as the existing world - they tell a nice story.

But for a change, rather than htem just magicking capital city, you get to build it with your race… if you’re a llow pop race, find some sub-race to help or gather your folks etc. THe sharing tech would be easy…

as Stormwind and Orgirmmar hare hubs anyway, you’re just in the same phase as people with your progress . THey’vea already designed the city ofc, you just unlock new sections in phases.

The first ofc, is the essential sancutary area, with quest givers most vendors etc, but the rest of the city, as you build (i.e. unlock) opens quests and story progression too.

Yeah I know, which is why it is something that can be built up in time. So they don’t have to do it all in one go, just plan it such they can fill in the rest as they go along.

IT makes capitals useful, they get used as content too - which justifies doing them, and they progress the lore of the race which everyonewants.

Not every race would get a new city ofc, only the homeless ones, and those in smaller capitals would instead just expand them. This actually makes the workload much smaller.

furthermore…art assets exist for many of the races with missing capitals, although they could design new ones.

Forsaken - have ice crown citadel type architecture they could replicate
Night elves - have Suramar/CoEN architecutre they could replicate too, add a forest to the city as well and it has a place for highborne, pirests and druids :slight_smile:
Gnomes - have Mechagon architecture for an updated vibe for their city
Darkspear - have Zandalari architecture, gurubashi architecture, to pick from for thiers.

Draenei - could rebuild a version of Auchindoun, Shattrath, Karabor and Mac’aree as their city - the assets are all there.

BLood elves - ofc have SIlvermoon so it just expanding it same with Goblins
Kezan is there - so it is just clean up and expand a bit.

Void elves - could have theirs on the new contienent, especially if it is a void expansion, they and Mag’har orcs could get something interesting.

6

That idea sounds too ambitous. It would either turnout like garrisons where everyone build what they want and noone else sees it or like broken shore towers where people contribute to build specific buildings. Either way it wouldn’t be very engaging gameplay.

7

It’s an organisational issue. One joint capital each is no where near as exciting as each race geting its own campaign and new space, some more than others ofc as they’re hommeless. While a few don’t read any new space but can have other things instead.

If you also do it in stages it is easier too. Add more parts to the new cities with each patch as their campaign progresses, the city doesn’t even need to finish in that expansion.

Remember citeis are often part of the design space for new content in the expansion, if the new cities and expanded sections of old cities double up as questing zones. And they can start the size of a class order hall and grow.

It’s more like blizzard cleverly apportioning developing time for new cities, by giving them in small chunks rather than all at once. But rather than just give it to you, you get to contribute to building it… More like opening of Ahn’qiraj rather tahn building your own garrisons.

As in the buildings are all set and pre-designed you’re technically unlocking the new area.

I don’t know if they have the tech for you to have different types of buildings that looks like one thing on your computer but another player would have his building choice on another. IF they have the tech , they could do that to make it feel like your personalised your city are lot more. But if not they could have a designated area of the city where that can happen, or j ust one space for y YOUR home, and that can double as player housing. it’s the same of 3 locations in the city, bu t the player has a choice of building to choose from.

Could be interesting. Planned well, it could work fantastically.

Like a combination of garrisons, order halls, Suramar city city-zone quest style. But upgraded continuously for possible expansion 9 and 10 before the full size is reached.

8

Creating these quest chains for every race is indeed little too ambitious.

Although I’d say that at least Forsaken and Night elves should get a new capital and in this way, making it essential for the story, it could work and Blizz would have a reason to do it. Especially Night elves should get some love…

Void elves or Mag’har should not get capital because their populations are really small, but some buildings/small towns might work just to show their architecture (though there is not big difference between Mag’har-orcish and orcish).

As for other races, Blizz can upgrade their current capitals (even though they are not accessable right now in the game) and that could be it (Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, Gnomeregan, Gilneas etc…), most of them can be functional with not that much work put in it.

Silvermoon and Exodar, + their respective zones of Quel’Thalas and Myst Isles, on the other hand should be reworked a lot more … If we are going to fight the Void in the next expansion, then both Blood elves and Draenei can have pivotal role. It would also be nice for them to be finally part of Kalimdor/EK.

As for how to do the quests, I don’t think that helping with one building at a time would be enjoyable. But to have multiple phases, after which when you complete them, part of the city would be builded, might work. And I would definitely do not want these cities to be like garrisons, where you choose, where to build exact building etc.

This sounds as nice idea at first, but on the second thought you would end up with a cities with weird mishmash, no real style or as copies of Stormwind and Orgrimmar. I bet that that is not what would most of the players want.

9

Sorry dude, it won’t happen. Blizzard clearly wants to gather every Alliance and Horde race in Stormwind and Orgrimmar. To be honest I’m surprised that they even bothered to update Shadowforge City, The Nighthold and Thunder Thotem and create Telogrus Rift.

10

It’s a certainly a path they could take.

Quest chains for each race might not be as ambitious as you think if they’re smart about it.

Core races and their corresponding allied race could share a campaign , even if their sub-race is in the opposite faction. (or they could share with their main ally instead - or a combination of their core race and main ally)

This wittles the actual campaigns down to 13 instead of 13 + allied races.

When you think about it, Legion gave us 12 class campaigns, and bearing mind we had 35 artifact weapon quests too.

You can further combine certain races. Here is an excerpt from another topic that proposed other features for an expansion, but included it in a race themed campaign

Summary

Race Themed Expansion

All this comes to focus and is perfectly timed for the race expansion. It all makes much more sense when introduced in a Race-themed expansion that can explore each racial group in more detail. Each race has a campaign similar to classes in Legion and Factions in BFA. And from there you get to be introduced to:

  • the race’s current issues and recent plight

  • The current state of recovery

  • The race’s interest in the new continent

Deeper fleshing out of racial lore, classes, professions, identities Allied races are connected to their core race. Which reduces the number of full campaigns necessary. Each patch explores a new faction of the race in the campaign. For e.g. if 9.0 focused on Druids and priests for night elves, 9.1 would be Highborne, 9.2 Demon Hunters There can be some overlap between races too.

Group 1 - Campaign 1, 2 & 3

  • Human/Kul’tiran

  • Worgen

  • Forsaken/Vampyr - 1 Huge campaign, they start off focused on their own 4 separate issues, but their quest will overlap down the line.

Group 2 - Campaign 4 & 5

  • Night Elves, Nightborne,

  • Blood Elves, Void elves - again they all start separately, the night campaigns meet (night elf and nightborne) and the Thalassian elf campaigns meet (Blood elf and void elf) then they all meet towards the end.

Group 3 - Campaign 6, 7, 8 & 9

  • Orc/Mag’har/

  • Tauren/Highmountain/

  • Troll/Zandalari - just like the others, they will meet to involve each other. Bear in mind you will see members from other races ofc, like goblins around and others, the plot is exclusively about the race involved however.

  • Goblins & Gilgoblins

Group 4 - Campaign 10

  • Dwarves/Dark Irons

  • Gnomes/Mecha Gnomes

Group 5 - Campaign 11

Draenei & Lightforged

Group 6 - Campaign 12

Panderan

It is 12 Campaign strands, but only 6 Major Threads, covering 24 races.

11

Which is an incredible shame, because one of wow’s biggest asset are its races. They are so rich and diverse, with very distinct and individualised, lore, aesthetics. Even the allied races, , which are extensions of the core races, add flavour, complexity and a richness of diversity to each race.

Bring that more out, giving players a more engaging part in that, making them feel proud as their race rather than just as an individual or their class or their faction.

The race is the biggest individualised aspect. They are so detailed, and make you feel you more unique and special. RAther than just a cog, or one of two cogs (horde or alliance).

Cities can be great when well done as Suramar has shown, doubling up as quest zones, raids, dungeons. And if you have campaigns tied to them… once they finish them, you can imagine quests in citeis can provide 25% of content they don’t need a fresh design for, allowing the new continent to be much richer and only needing quests in the cities as campaigns get updated.

Meanwhile people will love that, becuase htey love their cities, and lvoe spending time in them, so having stuff to do every patch cycle or some major advancment every expansion, because they get to spend 25% of their time actually doing stuff and new content in their cities would please them.

I know a lot of people are drawn to the character, aesthetic, vibe, lore and nature of the race they play and its visualization of their class. Night elves drawing people who both love that nature lover elf and that dark elf arcane caster as well as the amazonian female warrior - shown in their caster, hunter and druid class representation, then addd the demon hunter too

Each race has multiple identities the class expresses a facet of that race, and while not all classes have deep connection or lore to a race, most races have 2- 5 that do.

e.g. Night elves: Druids, Priest, Mage (highborne), Demon Hunter & Warrior/Hunter
Blood Elf: Paladin, Hunter, Mage, Priest
Human: Warrior, Priest, Mage, Paladin, Rogue
Orc: Warrior, Shaman, Hunter, Warlock

Look at how each of these institutions diversify and add depth to each race, sometimes with astounding diversity (compare night elf druids to demon hunters , to priests , to mages - it’s like 4 night cultures - all different and unique compared to their equivalents amongst the blood elves even by virtue of the fact they are night and star/moon based rather than day and sun

It is defintely worth prusuing.

1 Like
12

Ofc I’d love it, but I really doubt that they would do all of this in one expansion.

Maybe a few cities an expansion, just for Blizz to know if it is wotŕth their time and resources, because people do not like changes that much as it might seem.

+you take it mostly from the lore/story point, but to build/rebuild/visually upgrade whole cities, create multiple phases and incorporate evrything into the story is a lot work.

Anyway I love this idea, hopefully Blizz will at least try something like this :slight_smile:

Night elves + Forsaken should get new capitals and Draenei + BE reworks firstly.

1 Like
13

Indeed, but if they start small and just make it gorw over time they split their work load, have a cosntant source of content for 4 year season, and players see theirrace capitals grow every patch until they are complete, right alongside with an expanding campaign that has new quests and aims every patch.

Basically you don’t give all of it at once, the work load is too much, so you spread it. Each one starts small, and keeps adding. Which makes sense, cities take a while to build anyway, and stuff is constantly happening you have to deal with.

Besides it could be a great source of race building - to counteract all the tragedy a lot of the races get, which will excite the players as they feel they are building something . And if they are part of city building, well who’s to say one building cannot be the players, and the player can choose what type to build, maybe something that fits his class.

1 Like
14

I agree with most of what you’ve written except this in a way, they should either give as housing areas in these newly built/rebuilded cities, which would be separated, or it should be the same for everyone. (I know that you might have this in mind, so if yes, then sry X) … I just do not want to have a personal capital for myself, like some suggests)

15

I’m always sad they funnel us into a capital. It’s like make them all equal, let us choose from them all. But no.

2 Likes
16

Completely agree. It was one of the bestthings aboutwow, few other games do, races each with their unique aethestics and looks. All their cities are different styles properly reflecting their image as if they grew organically. This is wirthkeeping and even developing as an Integra feature players employ for more than vendors

17

I think races without capitals having to build them with player help and part of a racial campaign would be quite exciting as a next stage concept to both Garrisons and the Order Hall who I don’t think had the focus of being the centre of a race campaign that runs alongside the usual expansion questing.

1 Like
18

I just want Thunder Bluff to be upated visually and to have portals and etheral vendros.

It would be cool for echo isles to be updated to had HD structures, but TB would do.

19

That’s the whole point of this. MAke cities useful, fun core part of the game, look amazing and the centre for racial lore and activity. Get updates and expansions.

  1. Races that don’t have capitals can get to build theirs from scratch

  2. Races that do have capitals, but are either small, out dated, or in need of updates, they get expansions to their cities.

  3. Races that have fully fledged great cities - i.e. Suramar/Zuldazar/Stormwind/Orgrimmar - well I’m not sure what they do… I guess they can start a second smaller capital.

The key to making this a huge succes and doable is tying into actual activites, like a great race campaign that progresses every patch where the city, like the Order Hall, is where you have to keep going back too. Including updating whatever is the new artifact power mechanism. - this is what Garrisons and ORder halls never had

e.g. where we had Azerite power or artifact power you now have a race based thing… you acquire and empower. Like Night elves: Phase 1 involves bringing the Well of Eternity to your city. Then you have to power it up and it has an artifact tree like artifact weapons had (and azerite necklace will in 8.2). As you build the Well’s power so to does your race and your character ofc allowing you to access new abilities and traits for your class. but it’s a smaller trait path than we got one that ends in the first patch, because patch 2, you then have to restore Shaladrassil and lend the power of the Emerald dream to your poeple. And this starts another one. As you build this you also get empowerd, Phase 3, would have something to do with Elune. As another example, Humans get a Path of the Titans, as they are a combination of all the titans. And so get to build a something related to each titan. ANd some races share: Humans and dwarves will share, Zandalari and Darkspear will share because theirs will be based on something related to a Loa, like Loa shrines where they get the loa to have a shrine or temple in their city.

This is how your character is affected, but also as you build your races power, you also build your city, and you can choose which sections to open up first. Certain buildings give boosts to your class too. You would want a Demon hunter citadel first, before going to set up a mage or druid one - certain buildings can give extra effects to your character. DH buildings unlock class specific ones for your class, but setting up ones for other classes have generic ones.

  1. The quests in the new continent for the main expansion’s theme, as well as the race campaign will give rewards like Order resources you can make progress towards unlocking [if blizzard guages well, and they design the phase 1 of each city, players would be able to unlock the whole phase 1 by the time the next patch is ready, So you start with nothing, but all of phase 1 is already pre-designed, they’d have been working on further extensions for future patches as you continue.

  2. Why not design a portion what is player housing too? a quadrant of the city is a zone where players of that race can put what they want. THis is the only zone of the city that will look differently for each players screen once everything is complete or doesn’t even have to it could just be sometthing like in FFXIV where it is already pre-designed and you just pick a building to be yours - that acts like Garrisons did in WoD, so basically you can transfer some central key functions from some parts of your city to where you are.

Cities are like Order halls, they are not private instances, you will get to see players of your race in there, just like order halls saw players of your class. The difference is that on one persons screen, they will have more buildings and more powerful features based on what they’ve unlocked/completed. So one persons screen is a plot with some rubble or construction going on, but on another’s that same plot is building b/c he’s unlocked it. they see each other on the street, but where one can run into his building, the other has to wait until he has completed his.

I mean this is just an example of how it could work, they could fix it up in any way.

THe key part is that it needs to be exciting, tied to the race, meaningful both lore wise and character progression wise.

20

A race focused expansion is what I have always wanted, no matter how. I doubt it will ever happen though

1 Like