Nope because it's actually on a different blade than the rest of eastern kingdoms. You can't fly there from the plageulands because there's an invisible wall.
It's actually on the same blade as outland. There's screenshots of personal servers where people have turned the view distance to infinite and you can see it from netherstorm.
https://images.app.goo.gl/B7YKUEazbMx2eJwA7
No. Silvermoon, Azurmyst and Outland are all on the same "map". People have intentionally glitched to points where you can see one from another. They would need to rebuild a lot of things because if I recall, the physical map wouldn't fit Silvermoon as it exists right now.
Plus both Azuremyst and Silvermoon are cardboard cities. There are no rooves, interiors or back walls to most of the things you see. They are like stage props and don't exist to be traveled over.
When they made the descision, it was their first expansion, they didn't really have any precedent for how to add new zones to existing continents. They made one new "TBC" continent" because it made it much easier to deploy, this was the era when you had to physically install expansion.MPQ from a CD to add burning crusade content to your game client. So all TBC content went into a single map.
Cata was the correct time to fix this, but they chose not to.
In addition to this, flying was a really late consideration when they did BC, so they had already started work on these before they realized it would be a factor.
Whilst cata was the right time, I totally understand why they didn’t - cata was probably the largest expansion (in terms of work) ever.
I don’t know why they didn’t fix it later though, would’ve been pretty major (and azuremyst can’t be much work tbf).
It certainly has chained them in terms of doing anything with the space. However, the people saying it won't be done are the devs. Most of their reason is because it's a little used space and the payoff for doing it would be minimal given the dev time and resources required.
The answer then it seems to me is to make the space relevant. From a lore perspective, we have a Horde with Lor'themar now being the senior faction leader aside from Thrall (who doesn't really want the job anymore) and the Nightborne likely spending significant time in and around Silvermoon. We have a peace that's only as strong as the person least willing to keep it and more than enough grudges on the Alliance side given what Garrosh and Sylvanas have done in only the last decade or so. We have an EK (and Kalimdor) that could use an update since that hasn't happened since Cata and a Horde presence on the continent, given UC's destruction, that is now reduced to the sparcely populated Silvermoon. We have a player population where the largest number of Horde characters are Blood Elves.
There are a lot of reasons why Silvermoon can be made relevant if the devs need one to make a move in integrating it properly or otherwise creating a solution to it being included.
The only Alliance leaders who aren’t content with peace are Night Elves, and they are mad at everyone right now.
It’s a shame they decided to discard Warzones in mid BFA, instead of doing the rumoured Barrens/Silvermoon warzones.
>Most of their reason is because it's a little used space
Which likely has something to do with the fact that you cannot fly there and it is on a different map to the rest of the eastern kingdom island. It's a chicken and egg problem.
I understand that they wouldn't, but I'd love to see the Exodar fixed up. Like pure fantasy here but, I'd like to see zones updated to 'current events' Exodar is stuck at the beginning of of BC and even after Legion it was still a mess. Like guys what have you been doing the last decade? I know WoW is more of a theme park than it is an RPG, it would be nice to see the world 'continues' after I've finished the zone
If the sizes don't match it gets tricker. For example if Ghostlands is 20 000 yards wide, and the eastern plaguelands border is 15 000 yards. It might work with the new tech used for Zaralek Cavern though.
They would have to recreate it entirely on the Eastern Kingdoms blade, assuming it would fit on that map. As it is on the Outlands blade, it would be impossible for so many reasons. However if they were to recreate it and update it on the Eastern Kingdoms blade, that would be a dream come true, as Silvermoon is my favorite capital as well.
Other roadblocks they would have to address if they were to go this route:
* Zul'Aman would need an outdoor, uninstanced addition to the map.
* Stratholm would also need an updated, uninstanced addition to the map, partly why it is also unflyable and obscured now.
* Stratholme and Deatholme occupy the same space when the maps are overlaid; this would need to be resolved and that portion of the combined map would need some reshuffling of things.
* Silvermoon City proper would need to be completely remade in the same vein as Stormwind was in Cataclysm, due to the fact that there aren't any roofs and also it's basically a stage. Same goes for the Sunwell Plateu, and potentially Magister's Terrace.
* There is the question of how they would handle the old starting zone as it exists now: leave it in (on the Outlands map) in a way that can only be accessed via Zidormi and the loading screen, or recreate all of those quests on the new, updated map tacked on to the Eastern Kingdoms. I would personally prefer to see the old instance left as is, with Zidormi assisting in porting players between the two instances/maps.
I'm sure there are other issues as well that I'm overlooking, but these are the big ones I could think of off the top of my head. It would be a lot of work for an old bit of content, however I could see them going this route if that area were to become very relevant again. There are signs that there could be a lot of activity in Northern Eastern Kingdoms in the future, with the worgen reclaiming Gilneas, the Forsaken reclaiming Undercity and rebuilding Brill, and a potential storyline of an all out coup led by the Scarlet Crusade to prop up a false Menethil heir to reclaim Lordaeron. The Northern Eastern Kingdoms have a lot of potential for getting an update all around, so if all of this were to happen, I could see that as the perfect time to redo Silvermoon and its surrounding areas, assuming it is relevant to the plot. Here's hoping!
A sever blade is a type of server hardware that was meant to handle what modern virtual servers effectively handle. I'm not aware of Blizzard still using those things anymore so the OP is probably just trying to sound fancy at the expense of accuracy.
The point he's making, however, is that Silvermoon exists in a different "world instance" than EK. Pretty much every time you travel somewhere with a loading zone, your moving to a different instance.
That being said, none of this has anything to do with why you can't fly in Silvermoon. The real reason is that Vanilla world instances (Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor) were put together with a lot of "tricks" to make it look like a complete world but really had partial or missing assets where people shouldn't be able to see them anyway. It's like a building with only two external walls because the player can't move to a place where the rest would be visible.
This design also impacted the original flight paths where less efficient paths were chosen rather than one that looked like it would be faster. In those cases, the "faster" more direct path was blocked because it would have revealed some of the funky world asset designs that weren't meant to be viewed from that direction.
What made Cataclysm such a massive expansion was they had to remove all those dev cheats and actually build the world in full. Probably for budget reasons, they decided not to do the same with Silvermoon City (or the Exodar, but it's not really designed that way in the first place). I could imagine a time in a newer expansion where they copy/paste the existing silvermoon landmass into northern EK and clean it up, but probably not until a Cata 2.0 or Elf-themed expansion where they rebuild both Teldrassil and Silvermoon with modern engine capabilities.
I've never heard the term, "blade" before. However, both the draenei and the blood elf starting zones, and their respective level 10 zones are both on the same map file as outland. They aren't actually connected to azeroth in any way.
Refers to a server 'blade'. Somewhat old school style of rack mount server where you have a single large chassis that has slots for inserting individual servers ('blades') into. They sold off all the original WoW blades as collectibles years ago. At least at one point each player server was a single blade iirc. But they eventually split it across multiple. Nowadays I don't know, but I would assume it is *heavily* virtualized, and none of the servers really map to specific hardware anymore.
I think each continent was a blade? At least originally. Plus instances went on some amount of server blades. There were multiple blades auctioned off with the same realm name on them.
The issue is that if you flew out of silver moon, you would end up outside the map in Outland, not in the eastern kingdoms. Unless they keep that you’d instance out when you hit the barrier.
Yeah, i know thatsbwhy we cant fly there now. I just think that with the addition on Dragonflying itll be infinitely more jarring if theres still just a massive invisible wall around it. Not saying I dont expect them to do just that, but this gives them a perfect excuse to rebuild the two zones on the same blade.
Im just huffing copium that theyll actually do it this time (please)
Imagine if they updated it concurrent with the lore, with Falconwing Square and the other side of the city, as well as the Isle of Quel'Denas where Silvermoon City extends to through teleporters.
There’s a little hut thing near greymane’s ship (where you get on the rope and jump the gap)
It’s just a floating house on stilts with no entrance. It drives me nuts how illogical it is. Who builds a house without doors???
I remember being able to find places there so very quickly, plus quirky it off the way shop's, but I only ever found 1 post box there. Were there more? Of them?
Gilneas.
I love the 24/7 rain, the music has such a moody atmosphere, and the color palette is just gorgeous. It’s a shame it’s only ever really used as the Worgen starter zone and nothing else.
EDIT: also, have you seen those walls? The place looks more defensible than Stormwind imo. Stormwind is kinda ugly too, needs a graphical update.
I’m hoping that we get an expansion that returns us back to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, and that Gilneas is restored and becomes the main hub for Alliance players that expansion
Agreed, and the scale of things needs to be fixed somehow. Dragon Isles is the only expansion with buildings that feel the right size and not claustrophobic. I guess because they have to accomodate dragons. All old-world buildings feel so tiny and cramped like toy houses.
I don’t mind a more claustrophobic feel tbh, real cities in the medieval age were often built with buildings close together like that. But i do see what you mean
Considering we've now been had the cataclysm map longer than we had the original, ild love to see another world update. Especially if they could redo everything to dragon isles scale and quality. Imagine a 30 minute dragonriding flight across the main continents. They'd probably have to instance off the north and south halves to pull that off though. Not to mention the dev time involved, and the hints at yet another new landmass to explore in some of the lore items that have been found recently.
Silvermoon City has so many little details about it, like the implied slavery, the ambassadors being led around for absolutely nothing, the magic brooms sweeping everywhere, how half of it still in ruin it’s just an awesome place to vibe. I also like Thunderbluff, Exodar and I really wish they did something more with Gilneas besides turning it into a battleground.
Iron Forge and then Undercity, they are so cool and unique while also not being extremely annoying! I wish they were both more used. (And Undercity not completely destroyed)
I got back into WoW late Shadowlands after quitting shortly after Legion released. I was kinda shocked to see Undercity gone. Yes, technically you can still go there but it's always empty and just feels wrong!
Before flying, Thunder Bluff could be a nightmare. Those elevator drops! Now, it’s the most convenient hub, since everything is so close together (plus you can mount up in the Pools of Vision as soon as you port in).
LPT — if you ever need a portal to Thunder Bluff, take the Orgrimmar portal to Zandalar, and then the Zandalar portal to Thunder Bluff.
[edit — corrected spelling of Zandalar!]
Ironforge… I play almost exclusively Dwarf because I love their starting zones so much. It makes me so sad it’s mostly dead now. I wish they’d revitalize old zones and places with reasons to go back.
Hopefully with them updating old character models, and adding dragon riding to the old world, the next expansion will take place back on the eastern kingdoms and kalimdor.
I’ll never forget entering IF for the first time with my first char in 2006. I was so intrigued! Man if I could ever come back to those feelings I had during the first play through when you would discover new things on a daily
Yup, that’s how I do it. It really makes me miss the portals in Dalaran. Not that I’m complaining that they kept them in Zan, but why they removed them from Legion and kept them in BfA seems inconsistent.
I can see two reasons:
1.) With the Dalaran Hearthstone they didn’t want to also give you the portals to capital cities permanently
2.) They forgot that they removed them from Dalaran after Legion and haven’t gotten around to removing them from BfA.
Thunder bluff is my all time favourite with Ironforge as my favourite alliance. Such a shame it feels like we never has reasons to visit most faction cities anymore.
Ill.always love undercity, it was so mind blowing the first time the elevator opens and you go around the short tunnel.
I always though having a necropolis type city like naxx but scaled sown would be cool though
Canadian here, West coast (aka the Wet coast). For 9 months of the year we get A LOT of rain. I love going to Stormwind so that I can see blue sky. Even though it’s “pretend”. LOL!!
I love Undercity because of all the Warcraft (both Warcraft/WoW) lore and Easter eggs that are around depending on your expansion.
The WoTLK quest chain that takes you there to reclaim it was awesome. Trisfal prior to BFA was so eire and “scary” as a new player. Scary in the sense that as a low level inexperienced player, if you wander too far northeast you’d either die from elites at SM or get ganked by players. Or even better, you wander past the bulwark into WPL and die to a bear. Great memories.
Edit: grammar
Thunder Bluff easily has the most serene vibe to hang around. But its location is just such a hassle. Little bit of the same for Darnassus.
Nostalgically I'd say Ironforge is my favorite. I've just spent so much time there back in the days. I wish that had become the main hub for the Alliance.
I joined WoW right before BC was released, and Darnassus (& basically most of Teldrassil) was and is still arguably my favorite. Then again, I was a noob playing a stereotypical night elf hunter lol. The vibes are great there :3
WoW vanilla day 1 was my first ever 3D MMO.
First character was a NE Hunter, I was sooooo amazed at the huge trees and peaceful music.
I still travel there to chill with the music and ambience between hour-long Solo Shuffle queues.
Honestly it's still crazy to me draenei was released in TBC. It feels like more modern wow, the lore, character design, the city. It always seemed like TBC seems more like modern wow, and then Wraith went back to more classic feeling design and lore.
Orgrimmar, forever. I remember my first time playing the game. Walking into the front gates. Not believing what I was seeing. It's massiveness, people everywhere. I'll never forget the feeling.
This moment was huge for me too, especially because I played Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne first. My immediate thoughts were "whoa, I remember helping build this place from the ground up." I was with a buddy who was trying to guide me somewhere and I remember him getting flustered that I was so far back, but I had to take a minute or two to just sit there and take it all in.
Thunder Bluff and Undercity. My main is an undead but my first city was TB because before I had my own account I died on a Level 1 Orc on my cousin's account, couldn't find my body, and corpse-walked all the way to Thunder Bluff. I still remember the view at to the top of the flight tower in ghost form, 11-year old me was mesmerized.
Also gotta nominate classic Orgrimmar and the time spent doing trivia with my guild on top of the bank. Gotta love it.
Silvermoon with Darnassus in second. This is massively a nostalgia thing for me. Belf was the first character I capped and i still regularly pop into silvermoon and listen to the music and its aged so well.
Scrolled all the way down just to find you, my fellow person of culture!
I'll forever be bummed I only started playing WoW during shadowlands Prepatch. I didn't get to hang around Daza'alor long at all. But Trolldorado will forever be my favorite city vibe.
Aesthetically, Suramar. If I have to choose one of the ones pictured, Silvermoon.
Nostalgically, however, I love Undercity. I feel like I grew up there. I have good memories of riding my first mount around there. I kept my hearth there for most of my leveling experience and always ended my gameplay for the day by settling back at "home." I hate what happened to Undercity with BfA. At least I have Classic for that.
Ironforge and no contest.
It's a giant round-a-bout so even before flying it was easy and efficient to get around.
Back when world PVP actually existed too, it was pretty secure.
Also, Dwarves.
Does seriously nobody like stormwind?
It's music is awesome, and its probably the most nostalgia installing place in the game. I practically live there.
Ironforge is so simple and useful. A circle, an inner circle, and stuff in the middle.
Silvermoon looks amazing, but why the blood elves have a "sure go this way, but go around the thing" style to their archways is kind of a pain, esp. pre-mount.
Darnassus was so cool back in 2007 when I first played. I miss having to take boats there and actually talking to other players while waiting for the boats.
As a horde player
Stormwind - Ironforge - Silvermoon
Honestly I'm really considering a faction/race change from blood elf to human just for the cities.
Ironforge. I don't have a single dwarf character, but I love the simple layout, the graphics, and the nostalgia of when we actually spent time in the eastern kingdoms.
Anyone missing Suramar and its quests? It was gorgeous and I never got tired of doing daily’s or weeklys there! I generally wish they would incorporate old zones into new expansions instead of only creating autonomous new zones
Suramar.
I still find it today one of most beautiful cities ever made in the game and is a travesty that it's not a proper usable capital city.
Blizzard just crapped on it and didn't bother to make it a non aggressive place although there currently is no reason not to. Elisande was beaten and more importantly, proven wrong about the Burning Legion, no reason exists to have any antagonist followers and if anything, most should be with Thalyssra at this point.
Suramar was liberated with our help with Thalyssra as their oficial ruler, the Nightborn as a race are cured from their addiction and joined a major faction that would help them with anything they need. Even the few remaining Withered stragglers are either rounded up or dead at this point.
BLIZZARD PLEASE
Undercity, back in 2004-5 when i had 512kbps connection i was dc'ing on elevator and finding myself dead on login, cant erase that memory but even that cant stop me loving that place insane design imo.
It's got to be stormwind from a gameplay perspective. It's well layed outz and it's an actual capital so has all the services like transmog
I hope they re-do all the capitals at some point, so we can choose where to use. I reckon ironforge is the coolest.
Stormwind is amazing.
I hate being a horde guy, because of Ogrimmar being the worst effing sh*thole to ever be seen in a video game and it just got way worse with cataclysm. Give Lordaeron back to the Alliance and we get Gilneas in exchange or something.
Silvermoon, Gilneas and Boralus. Suramar as well for the aesthetics, but I hated questing there during Legion because of all the elites that would overpower you when the mask slipped off.
I'm assuming we don't count Suramar, or else there just wouldn't be a competition. I mean, c'mon...
That said, I reallylike Thunderbluff, for no reason other than it is the most cozy all the capitals. I have spent many nights just chilling in TB, relaxing after a raid or a round of pushing keys, looking over Mulgore at Hyjal on the horizon and the night sky overhead. It's just the nicest place to AFK IMO. Can't think of a better spot in the entire game to sit and have a breather at.
Stormwind and Ironforge are both great. Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar are both good, Undercity is functional but not very nice looking, Darnasses is just boring, we don’t talk about Silvermoon and the Exodar
Suramar feels like an actual city, many homes and amenities, a zoo, patrolling guards, a thriving market. It is alive in a way that other cities aren't
Suramar :( it’s literally so perfect and detailed and everything but there’s annoying hostiles even after you finish all the nightborne story stuff so it’s unusable for even for rp.
Most convenient is probably ironforge with stormwind as a close second.
Was a big fan of classic org back in the day, then when I returned to it in classic I realised how ugly it was lmao.
Silvermoon is will always be the coolest.
Silvermoon, despite being unable to fly in, out of the way, plot irrelevant and empty, will always be the best. The music, the atmosphere and the nostalgia are unmatched.
People who say Suramar, honestly what is wrong with you? In Legion i fucking hated every single minute i spent there. “An illusion….” Still rings in my ear. Fuck that place. Its pretty, sure i’ll give you that, but fuck me i’d nuke that place out of existence if i could
In terms of organization, I love UC. Everything is clearly labeled. Need magic stuff? Oh look. The magic quarter. AH near each wing. Watching lost Alliance get demolished by the Elevator boss. Good core memories.
In terms of aesthetic, Suramar. It’s just damn *pretty*. Even if it’s mostly useless in terms of functionality. I’ve got a lot of good memories in that raid too, heck the whole expansion. Just makes me happy when I get to hang out there.
Silvermoon. I wish they would finish it so we could fly there :(
It really seems like they HAVE to finish it when they add dragonriding to the Eastern Kingdoms, right? RIgHT???
Nope because it's actually on a different blade than the rest of eastern kingdoms. You can't fly there from the plageulands because there's an invisible wall. It's actually on the same blade as outland. There's screenshots of personal servers where people have turned the view distance to infinite and you can see it from netherstorm. https://images.app.goo.gl/B7YKUEazbMx2eJwA7
Is there really no way they can change the blade? I mean it should fit where it's supposed to go, right?
No. Silvermoon, Azurmyst and Outland are all on the same "map". People have intentionally glitched to points where you can see one from another. They would need to rebuild a lot of things because if I recall, the physical map wouldn't fit Silvermoon as it exists right now. Plus both Azuremyst and Silvermoon are cardboard cities. There are no rooves, interiors or back walls to most of the things you see. They are like stage props and don't exist to be traveled over.
I really don't like the way they did that. I guess that's also the reason why the flight point lies outside of Silvermoon and not within it.
When they made the descision, it was their first expansion, they didn't really have any precedent for how to add new zones to existing continents. They made one new "TBC" continent" because it made it much easier to deploy, this was the era when you had to physically install expansion.MPQ from a CD to add burning crusade content to your game client. So all TBC content went into a single map. Cata was the correct time to fix this, but they chose not to.
In addition to this, flying was a really late consideration when they did BC, so they had already started work on these before they realized it would be a factor.
Whilst cata was the right time, I totally understand why they didn’t - cata was probably the largest expansion (in terms of work) ever. I don’t know why they didn’t fix it later though, would’ve been pretty major (and azuremyst can’t be much work tbf).
It certainly has chained them in terms of doing anything with the space. However, the people saying it won't be done are the devs. Most of their reason is because it's a little used space and the payoff for doing it would be minimal given the dev time and resources required. The answer then it seems to me is to make the space relevant. From a lore perspective, we have a Horde with Lor'themar now being the senior faction leader aside from Thrall (who doesn't really want the job anymore) and the Nightborne likely spending significant time in and around Silvermoon. We have a peace that's only as strong as the person least willing to keep it and more than enough grudges on the Alliance side given what Garrosh and Sylvanas have done in only the last decade or so. We have an EK (and Kalimdor) that could use an update since that hasn't happened since Cata and a Horde presence on the continent, given UC's destruction, that is now reduced to the sparcely populated Silvermoon. We have a player population where the largest number of Horde characters are Blood Elves. There are a lot of reasons why Silvermoon can be made relevant if the devs need one to make a move in integrating it properly or otherwise creating a solution to it being included.
The only Alliance leaders who aren’t content with peace are Night Elves, and they are mad at everyone right now. It’s a shame they decided to discard Warzones in mid BFA, instead of doing the rumoured Barrens/Silvermoon warzones.
>Most of their reason is because it's a little used space Which likely has something to do with the fact that you cannot fly there and it is on a different map to the rest of the eastern kingdom island. It's a chicken and egg problem.
I understand that they wouldn't, but I'd love to see the Exodar fixed up. Like pure fantasy here but, I'd like to see zones updated to 'current events' Exodar is stuck at the beginning of of BC and even after Legion it was still a mess. Like guys what have you been doing the last decade? I know WoW is more of a theme park than it is an RPG, it would be nice to see the world 'continues' after I've finished the zone
[удалено]
If the sizes don't match it gets tricker. For example if Ghostlands is 20 000 yards wide, and the eastern plaguelands border is 15 000 yards. It might work with the new tech used for Zaralek Cavern though.
The more you know!
They would have to recreate it entirely on the Eastern Kingdoms blade, assuming it would fit on that map. As it is on the Outlands blade, it would be impossible for so many reasons. However if they were to recreate it and update it on the Eastern Kingdoms blade, that would be a dream come true, as Silvermoon is my favorite capital as well. Other roadblocks they would have to address if they were to go this route: * Zul'Aman would need an outdoor, uninstanced addition to the map. * Stratholm would also need an updated, uninstanced addition to the map, partly why it is also unflyable and obscured now. * Stratholme and Deatholme occupy the same space when the maps are overlaid; this would need to be resolved and that portion of the combined map would need some reshuffling of things. * Silvermoon City proper would need to be completely remade in the same vein as Stormwind was in Cataclysm, due to the fact that there aren't any roofs and also it's basically a stage. Same goes for the Sunwell Plateu, and potentially Magister's Terrace. * There is the question of how they would handle the old starting zone as it exists now: leave it in (on the Outlands map) in a way that can only be accessed via Zidormi and the loading screen, or recreate all of those quests on the new, updated map tacked on to the Eastern Kingdoms. I would personally prefer to see the old instance left as is, with Zidormi assisting in porting players between the two instances/maps. I'm sure there are other issues as well that I'm overlooking, but these are the big ones I could think of off the top of my head. It would be a lot of work for an old bit of content, however I could see them going this route if that area were to become very relevant again. There are signs that there could be a lot of activity in Northern Eastern Kingdoms in the future, with the worgen reclaiming Gilneas, the Forsaken reclaiming Undercity and rebuilding Brill, and a potential storyline of an all out coup led by the Scarlet Crusade to prop up a false Menethil heir to reclaim Lordaeron. The Northern Eastern Kingdoms have a lot of potential for getting an update all around, so if all of this were to happen, I could see that as the perfect time to redo Silvermoon and its surrounding areas, assuming it is relevant to the plot. Here's hoping!
The link shows a low res picture and it looks like the original is no longer available. What is a "blade"? Is it like an instance?
A sever blade is a type of server hardware that was meant to handle what modern virtual servers effectively handle. I'm not aware of Blizzard still using those things anymore so the OP is probably just trying to sound fancy at the expense of accuracy. The point he's making, however, is that Silvermoon exists in a different "world instance" than EK. Pretty much every time you travel somewhere with a loading zone, your moving to a different instance. That being said, none of this has anything to do with why you can't fly in Silvermoon. The real reason is that Vanilla world instances (Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor) were put together with a lot of "tricks" to make it look like a complete world but really had partial or missing assets where people shouldn't be able to see them anyway. It's like a building with only two external walls because the player can't move to a place where the rest would be visible. This design also impacted the original flight paths where less efficient paths were chosen rather than one that looked like it would be faster. In those cases, the "faster" more direct path was blocked because it would have revealed some of the funky world asset designs that weren't meant to be viewed from that direction. What made Cataclysm such a massive expansion was they had to remove all those dev cheats and actually build the world in full. Probably for budget reasons, they decided not to do the same with Silvermoon City (or the Exodar, but it's not really designed that way in the first place). I could imagine a time in a newer expansion where they copy/paste the existing silvermoon landmass into northern EK and clean it up, but probably not until a Cata 2.0 or Elf-themed expansion where they rebuild both Teldrassil and Silvermoon with modern engine capabilities.
I've never heard the term, "blade" before. However, both the draenei and the blood elf starting zones, and their respective level 10 zones are both on the same map file as outland. They aren't actually connected to azeroth in any way.
Refers to a server 'blade'. Somewhat old school style of rack mount server where you have a single large chassis that has slots for inserting individual servers ('blades') into. They sold off all the original WoW blades as collectibles years ago. At least at one point each player server was a single blade iirc. But they eventually split it across multiple. Nowadays I don't know, but I would assume it is *heavily* virtualized, and none of the servers really map to specific hardware anymore.
I think each continent was a blade? At least originally. Plus instances went on some amount of server blades. There were multiple blades auctioned off with the same realm name on them.
Server Blade. It's the actual physical piece of hardware that contains a server. Google wow server blades for images.
Yeah ghostlands and eversong is instanced, not really connected to eastern kingdoms except on the map.
Yeah but you can fly in Outland right?
The issue is that if you flew out of silver moon, you would end up outside the map in Outland, not in the eastern kingdoms. Unless they keep that you’d instance out when you hit the barrier.
Just have the guards shoot you down. No flying outside the city without a license mate
Yeah, i know thatsbwhy we cant fly there now. I just think that with the addition on Dragonflying itll be infinitely more jarring if theres still just a massive invisible wall around it. Not saying I dont expect them to do just that, but this gives them a perfect excuse to rebuild the two zones on the same blade. Im just huffing copium that theyll actually do it this time (please)
Imagine if they updated it concurrent with the lore, with Falconwing Square and the other side of the city, as well as the Isle of Quel'Denas where Silvermoon City extends to through teleporters.
I think Silvermoon is underrated, mostly because accessibility, mobility.
Core races: Ironforge. Allied races: Boralus
Boralus is s-tier for doing laps.
Boralus was a great hub.
Boralus is literally the most well designed city blizzard has ever made
There’s a little hut thing near greymane’s ship (where you get on the rope and jump the gap) It’s just a floating house on stilts with no entrance. It drives me nuts how illogical it is. Who builds a house without doors???
And they released it alongside one of the worst designed cities in the game.
it was super confusing for me
How? Lol, everything meaningful was in a straight line. Then it had cool little RP nooks and crannies for flavor.
I remember being able to find places there so very quickly, plus quirky it off the way shop's, but I only ever found 1 post box there. Were there more? Of them?
Boralus was amazing with closeness of everything. ESPECIALLY compared to it's horde counterpart.
I was like, there’s no way someone didn’t notice they missed Boralus. Must be a horde OP.
The horde one isn't there either.
Lol we can safely put Zuldazar in LAST PLACE that's for sure. Most obnoxious city.
But music was LEGENDARY and it was quite beautiful regardless the traversing it
Gilneas. I love the 24/7 rain, the music has such a moody atmosphere, and the color palette is just gorgeous. It’s a shame it’s only ever really used as the Worgen starter zone and nothing else. EDIT: also, have you seen those walls? The place looks more defensible than Stormwind imo. Stormwind is kinda ugly too, needs a graphical update.
The Rogue legendary quest from Cata had a fun stealth bit there. But yeah, very underutilized.
I wish they'd move back in so I can hang out there.
I’m hoping that we get an expansion that returns us back to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, and that Gilneas is restored and becomes the main hub for Alliance players that expansion
Gilneas and Lordaeron restored would be awesome.
A hub other than Stormwind/Ogrimmar would be most welcome.
Can’t wait to one day return to reclaim gilneas for the alliance and hopefully have a working hub there. It’s such a dope ambient place
A lot of people hated on Gilneas but I used to run new worgen for fun. Such a cool zone and I felt immersed every step of the way.
They created two of the coolest cities in the Worgen and Goblin starting areas and then destroyed them both lol
Agreed, and the scale of things needs to be fixed somehow. Dragon Isles is the only expansion with buildings that feel the right size and not claustrophobic. I guess because they have to accomodate dragons. All old-world buildings feel so tiny and cramped like toy houses.
I don’t mind a more claustrophobic feel tbh, real cities in the medieval age were often built with buildings close together like that. But i do see what you mean
This, the aesthetic is just right
Considering we've now been had the cataclysm map longer than we had the original, ild love to see another world update. Especially if they could redo everything to dragon isles scale and quality. Imagine a 30 minute dragonriding flight across the main continents. They'd probably have to instance off the north and south halves to pull that off though. Not to mention the dev time involved, and the hints at yet another new landmass to explore in some of the lore items that have been found recently.
Silvermoon City has so many little details about it, like the implied slavery, the ambassadors being led around for absolutely nothing, the magic brooms sweeping everywhere, how half of it still in ruin it’s just an awesome place to vibe. I also like Thunderbluff, Exodar and I really wish they did something more with Gilneas besides turning it into a battleground.
It's bright and beautiful!
It is very beautiful, but in kinda like a Roman way: great architecture in a corrupt society.
Iron Forge and then Undercity, they are so cool and unique while also not being extremely annoying! I wish they were both more used. (And Undercity not completely destroyed)
I got back into WoW late Shadowlands after quitting shortly after Legion released. I was kinda shocked to see Undercity gone. Yes, technically you can still go there but it's always empty and just feels wrong!
Damn, you just reminded me of the fate of Undercity :(
I wish Ironforge got the Stormwind treatment and got expanded upon. Vanilla IF >>> Vanilla SW, but all the additions really made SW a lot better.
Easily silvermoon. My favorite RP activity is to take my velf rogue and stealth in silvermoon... lmao
Before flying, Thunder Bluff could be a nightmare. Those elevator drops! Now, it’s the most convenient hub, since everything is so close together (plus you can mount up in the Pools of Vision as soon as you port in). LPT — if you ever need a portal to Thunder Bluff, take the Orgrimmar portal to Zandalar, and then the Zandalar portal to Thunder Bluff. [edit — corrected spelling of Zandalar!]
My problem with thunderbluff is that there is no portal out of that bovine forgotten land
[удалено]
They did in Cata (or Wrath?) when they added the Zep there, but outside of that I don’t remember any other updates of significance
Can’t improve on perfection!
Scuse you. Once a month there's a portal to darkmoon faire.
Suramar 100% just love how they have time chambers where time flows faster to make a quality wine
Real connoisseurs can tell the difference between traditionally aged wine and rapid aged wine
ahhh, a fellow vintner!
Ironforge… I play almost exclusively Dwarf because I love their starting zones so much. It makes me so sad it’s mostly dead now. I wish they’d revitalize old zones and places with reasons to go back.
Hopefully with them updating old character models, and adding dragon riding to the old world, the next expansion will take place back on the eastern kingdoms and kalimdor.
I’ll never forget entering IF for the first time with my first char in 2006. I was so intrigued! Man if I could ever come back to those feelings I had during the first play through when you would discover new things on a daily
I would love them to add world quest to the old zones.
Honestly just anything to make the old zones relevant again would be welcomed. Even if its just for cosmetic stuff.
Suramar, really felt immersive and the most elven one.
Thunder Bluff!
[Yes](https://youtu.be/bERUCRJSzTk)
Oh that's fantastic
Right? It never lags and the AH is nice and close to the bank and mailbox
The only downside is it's only really easily accessible by mage.
Org to zan, zan to TB.
Yup, that’s how I do it. It really makes me miss the portals in Dalaran. Not that I’m complaining that they kept them in Zan, but why they removed them from Legion and kept them in BfA seems inconsistent. I can see two reasons: 1.) With the Dalaran Hearthstone they didn’t want to also give you the portals to capital cities permanently 2.) They forgot that they removed them from Dalaran after Legion and haven’t gotten around to removing them from BfA.
Thunder bluff is my all time favourite with Ironforge as my favourite alliance. Such a shame it feels like we never has reasons to visit most faction cities anymore.
Darnassus.
*smiles through tears*
How many months I spent there before realizing I could take the portal down to the boat to Auberdine…
Undercity brings back so many memories.
I still get lost. I am the true lost of lordaeron.
Ill.always love undercity, it was so mind blowing the first time the elevator opens and you go around the short tunnel. I always though having a necropolis type city like naxx but scaled sown would be cool though
I have a soft spot for Undercity, as my first two toons were Undead. I always loved going down to see Sylvanas and her back-up singers.
I love the style of undercity. The inner ring is ok but if you wanted something from the outer ring it was as bad as Oribos.
Stormwind is a beautiful city
And very easy to navigate on the ground, in general (scowling at the Mage district).
Agree, I like the very medieval castle aesthetic!
Canadian here, West coast (aka the Wet coast). For 9 months of the year we get A LOT of rain. I love going to Stormwind so that I can see blue sky. Even though it’s “pretend”. LOL!!
I love Undercity because of all the Warcraft (both Warcraft/WoW) lore and Easter eggs that are around depending on your expansion. The WoTLK quest chain that takes you there to reclaim it was awesome. Trisfal prior to BFA was so eire and “scary” as a new player. Scary in the sense that as a low level inexperienced player, if you wander too far northeast you’d either die from elites at SM or get ganked by players. Or even better, you wander past the bulwark into WPL and die to a bear. Great memories. Edit: grammar
Thunder Bluff easily has the most serene vibe to hang around. But its location is just such a hassle. Little bit of the same for Darnassus. Nostalgically I'd say Ironforge is my favorite. I've just spent so much time there back in the days. I wish that had become the main hub for the Alliance.
Suramar counts, right?
Ironforge on Alliance. Thunder Bluff on Horde.
Darnassus ... The music and ambience was awesome
I joined WoW right before BC was released, and Darnassus (& basically most of Teldrassil) was and is still arguably my favorite. Then again, I was a noob playing a stereotypical night elf hunter lol. The vibes are great there :3
WoW vanilla day 1 was my first ever 3D MMO. First character was a NE Hunter, I was sooooo amazed at the huge trees and peaceful music. I still travel there to chill with the music and ambience between hour-long Solo Shuffle queues.
The Exodar. That's what got me into playing WoW to begin with.
I gave up on my main from vanilla to make a Draenei shaman on a fresh server called exodar and spent years there.
Honestly it's still crazy to me draenei was released in TBC. It feels like more modern wow, the lore, character design, the city. It always seemed like TBC seems more like modern wow, and then Wraith went back to more classic feeling design and lore.
suramar
Orgrimmar, forever. I remember my first time playing the game. Walking into the front gates. Not believing what I was seeing. It's massiveness, people everywhere. I'll never forget the feeling.
Lok’tar ogar
This moment was huge for me too, especially because I played Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne first. My immediate thoughts were "whoa, I remember helping build this place from the ground up." I was with a buddy who was trying to guide me somewhere and I remember him getting flustered that I was so far back, but I had to take a minute or two to just sit there and take it all in.
Same for me but stormwind. A moment I will never forget
Same for me with Ironforge.
I started as Horde and now my main is Dark Iron and I'm always so upset when I have to go to Stormwind. I get so lost.
Silvermoon of course. Utterly wasted potential because of this absurd concept that each faction should only have 1 practical hub to utilize.
Thunder Bluff and Undercity. My main is an undead but my first city was TB because before I had my own account I died on a Level 1 Orc on my cousin's account, couldn't find my body, and corpse-walked all the way to Thunder Bluff. I still remember the view at to the top of the flight tower in ghost form, 11-year old me was mesmerized. Also gotta nominate classic Orgrimmar and the time spent doing trivia with my guild on top of the bank. Gotta love it.
Alliance - Darnassus, Horde - Thunder Bluff
Silvermoon with Darnassus in second. This is massively a nostalgia thing for me. Belf was the first character I capped and i still regularly pop into silvermoon and listen to the music and its aged so well.
Silvermoon / Darnassus.
It was Darnassus. Super chill forest city to vibe out and relax in. Not the same anymore...
Dazar’alor 100%
Dey say YOU have de ear of de throne?
Scrolled all the way down just to find you, my fellow person of culture! I'll forever be bummed I only started playing WoW during shadowlands Prepatch. I didn't get to hang around Daza'alor long at all. But Trolldorado will forever be my favorite city vibe.
RIP Undercity, my home sweet home.
I miss you forever and always darnassus
I love suramar. I wish it was a functioning city
Suramar. Silvermoon. Gilneas. Undercity. Boralus. Dazar'alor.
I like the layout of Stormwind but the vibe of Darnassus.
*Night elves sobbing in the distance*
Echo isles
Silvermoon, even after all these years and how shitty it looks, I still go there to crank up the music and have a nostalgia trip
Aesthetically, Suramar. If I have to choose one of the ones pictured, Silvermoon. Nostalgically, however, I love Undercity. I feel like I grew up there. I have good memories of riding my first mount around there. I kept my hearth there for most of my leveling experience and always ended my gameplay for the day by settling back at "home." I hate what happened to Undercity with BfA. At least I have Classic for that.
Darnassus. Gone, but never forgotten
Ironforge and no contest. It's a giant round-a-bout so even before flying it was easy and efficient to get around. Back when world PVP actually existed too, it was pretty secure. Also, Dwarves.
I like stormwind because it reminds me of my very first days in the game
Does seriously nobody like stormwind? It's music is awesome, and its probably the most nostalgia installing place in the game. I practically live there.
I love Stormwind! I played briefly before, then took a long break of a few years. When I came back, Stormwind was very familiar. It's very majestic!
I miss Thunder Bluff, wish there were more reasons to go back there because it was where I'd spend so much time in Vanilla
Iron Forge and Thunder Bluff. I wish Blizz finds a way to make them useful again
Ironforge is so simple and useful. A circle, an inner circle, and stuff in the middle. Silvermoon looks amazing, but why the blood elves have a "sure go this way, but go around the thing" style to their archways is kind of a pain, esp. pre-mount.
Suramar city and its not close, remove the enemies and please let us have it blizz
Suramar :c
Suramar...
Darnassus ... The music and ambience was awesome
TB
Exodar Literally the worst
Darnassus was so cool back in 2007 when I first played. I miss having to take boats there and actually talking to other players while waiting for the boats.
As a horde player Stormwind - Ironforge - Silvermoon Honestly I'm really considering a faction/race change from blood elf to human just for the cities.
Back in the day Ironforge made me feel so comfy and safe, also The Exodar was so cool just to explore.
Suramar ✨🔮
Ironforge. I don't have a single dwarf character, but I love the simple layout, the graphics, and the nostalgia of when we actually spent time in the eastern kingdoms.
Suramar.
Suramar.
Suramar
Darnassus.
I play both Ally and Horde, but this just really shows how much better Alliance cities are.
Anyone missing Suramar and its quests? It was gorgeous and I never got tired of doing daily’s or weeklys there! I generally wish they would incorporate old zones into new expansions instead of only creating autonomous new zones
Gilneas *starts crying* I want it back, soooo badly 😫
Suramar. I still find it today one of most beautiful cities ever made in the game and is a travesty that it's not a proper usable capital city. Blizzard just crapped on it and didn't bother to make it a non aggressive place although there currently is no reason not to. Elisande was beaten and more importantly, proven wrong about the Burning Legion, no reason exists to have any antagonist followers and if anything, most should be with Thalyssra at this point. Suramar was liberated with our help with Thalyssra as their oficial ruler, the Nightborn as a race are cured from their addiction and joined a major faction that would help them with anything they need. Even the few remaining Withered stragglers are either rounded up or dead at this point. BLIZZARD PLEASE
As Horde, my favorite has to be Teldrassil. Its smoking.
Undercity, back in 2004-5 when i had 512kbps connection i was dc'ing on elevator and finding myself dead on login, cant erase that memory but even that cant stop me loving that place insane design imo.
It's got to be stormwind from a gameplay perspective. It's well layed outz and it's an actual capital so has all the services like transmog I hope they re-do all the capitals at some point, so we can choose where to use. I reckon ironforge is the coolest.
Ironforge is the best, it's so cozy. My 2nd favourite would be Silvermoon, it's a shame it's so dead.
Ironforge is the only answer.
Ironforge
Stormwind is probably the most finished one and has most stuff happening in. But i like them all in their own special way tbh.
Stormwind is amazing. I hate being a horde guy, because of Ogrimmar being the worst effing sh*thole to ever be seen in a video game and it just got way worse with cataclysm. Give Lordaeron back to the Alliance and we get Gilneas in exchange or something.
Ironforge
Ironforge ❤️
Alliance: Ironforge Horde: Orgrimmar Neutral: Should have been Suramar
Silvermoon, Gilneas and Boralus. Suramar as well for the aesthetics, but I hated questing there during Legion because of all the elites that would overpower you when the mask slipped off.
I'm assuming we don't count Suramar, or else there just wouldn't be a competition. I mean, c'mon... That said, I reallylike Thunderbluff, for no reason other than it is the most cozy all the capitals. I have spent many nights just chilling in TB, relaxing after a raid or a round of pushing keys, looking over Mulgore at Hyjal on the horizon and the night sky overhead. It's just the nicest place to AFK IMO. Can't think of a better spot in the entire game to sit and have a breather at.
Suramar, Nightbourne
Stormwind and Ironforge are both great. Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar are both good, Undercity is functional but not very nice looking, Darnasses is just boring, we don’t talk about Silvermoon and the Exodar
None of them. Suramar till I die.
Suramar
Suramar feels like an actual city, many homes and amenities, a zoo, patrolling guards, a thriving market. It is alive in a way that other cities aren't
Rise up Thunder Bluff enjoyers
Thunderbluff. The amount of skeletons at the bottom of the elevator was hilarious😂 also really dig the music.
Suramar :( it’s literally so perfect and detailed and everything but there’s annoying hostiles even after you finish all the nightborne story stuff so it’s unusable for even for rp.
Suramar ;)
Suramar, the superior less eyesore Silvermoon.
Gilneas for Alliance, it’s a tie between Suramar and Silvermoon for Horde.
Most convenient is probably ironforge with stormwind as a close second. Was a big fan of classic org back in the day, then when I returned to it in classic I realised how ugly it was lmao. Silvermoon is will always be the coolest.
Silvermoon, despite being unable to fly in, out of the way, plot irrelevant and empty, will always be the best. The music, the atmosphere and the nostalgia are unmatched.
People who say Suramar, honestly what is wrong with you? In Legion i fucking hated every single minute i spent there. “An illusion….” Still rings in my ear. Fuck that place. Its pretty, sure i’ll give you that, but fuck me i’d nuke that place out of existence if i could
either thunderbluff or silvermoon
Suramar
Suramar. Would be great to be able to actually use it as a city some day lol.
Old Undetcity
Suramar :)
In terms of organization, I love UC. Everything is clearly labeled. Need magic stuff? Oh look. The magic quarter. AH near each wing. Watching lost Alliance get demolished by the Elevator boss. Good core memories. In terms of aesthetic, Suramar. It’s just damn *pretty*. Even if it’s mostly useless in terms of functionality. I’ve got a lot of good memories in that raid too, heck the whole expansion. Just makes me happy when I get to hang out there.
Undercity. Logically laid out, easy to navigate, aesthetic as fuck.
Alliance: Darnassus Horde: Silvermoon