Optimistic speculation about expansion number two
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 9th 2007 at 1:30PM
The lack of information about the next expansion continues, and so does the fabrication by fans hungry for info about new content. This time Tobold lays out what he'd like to see in the next expansion, which he is calling, as a parody of the Burning Crusade, the Freezing Jihad.He's got some of the usual suspects in there, including the long awaited hero classes. But his biggest suggestion is probably that the expansion focuses on adding oomph (technical term) to the midlevels of the game. In his imagination, there is no new level cap, but rather a complete reworking of everything between 1 and 70, including an all new neutral faction with four new races, and a new continent of quests for players from beginning to end. I doubt we'll get anything near that comprehensive, but it's true that players want more midlevel content. While this is probably beyond their wildest dreams, hopefully Blizzard will at least hear their pleas.
In other places, Tobold is just plain wrong-- we're going to see guild housing before we ever see player housing, and Blizzard has consistently said they want their armor to look like what they say, not what players say. But he's dead right on the new professions-- woodworking and the ability of players to make arrows and bows would both fit perfectly with the lore, and fill a nice hole in crafting that's been there for a long time.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions, Leveling, Factions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
andregalan Jul 9th 2007 1:43PM
I've long been a proponent of the so-called Neutral Faction idea. Instead of tacking on to the already quite robust alliance and horde, you would get together five new races who simply wouldn't even want to align with the existing factions.
The mercenary Goblins and the beer-before-war Pandaren would fit perfectly into this. They would have to learn languages to communicate with factions, and learning a major language such as Common or Orcish would require reputation with the Alliance or the Horde, allowing you to choose a side to align yourself with for more quest options, or to play the middle and work for whoever pays the most. The rep requirement for languages would leave the language barrier largely intact, as one would have to state allegiance to learn the language.
RogueJedi86 Jul 9th 2007 2:07PM
But Pandarens and Dwarves are very tied together. Both are beer-heavy cultures. I can't imagine Pandarens not siding with the Dwarves. Apparently they're allies, the closest allies the Pandarens accept.
overneathe Jul 9th 2007 2:12PM
Blizz can't bring Pandaren ingame 'cause they won't be able to publish in China. Alas. They also stated officialy a looooong time ago, that they won't make goblins playable. I'm pretty sure though, that there are plenty of humanoids out there with tons of history and future that can go playable (High elves, Satyrs, Ethereals, Naga may be even demons? And why not Crack Belfs even?? And wait a minute... How many draenei were ingame before TBC?).
In order to fully use the poor old Azeroth Blizz will have to realese ALL closed content right now (also leading to Azeroth flying mounts) such as Guilneas, Grim'Batol as a 70 zone + an instance/raid, current state of Hyjal + the raids that are confirmed there (probably remaining legion holds), Uldum, Dalaran (don't know why but I've got that strange feeling of an instance city instead of a normal city..), probably the Emerald Dream with it's (what was it now....4?) zones, and finally Undermine. The last one is a bit far in my opinion, but THIS is what Blizz must do in order to keep endlvl people in Azeroth.
overneathe Jul 9th 2007 2:18PM
I would also like to add Trolls, we've got around 5 species of them so...
viktorie Jul 9th 2007 2:23PM
Right up to the bitter end and the release of BC, I was hoping that the new Alliance race was the worgen. The Draenei work just fine, but I would so love to play a werewolf.
kekleon64 Jul 9th 2007 2:27PM
A while back when I first saw that Northrend would be in the expansion I started thing about what they would do. While I really hope that they don't tack on another 10 levels and a new area, that is likely.
What I came up with was essentially Northrend being the location of a "Demon" faction, consisting of The Scourge, Fel Orcs, Naga, Satyr, and Gnomes (They were kicked out of the alliance for being too evil). These races wouldn't have paladins, shamans, or priests as these appose they're way of life. The would be replaced by Death knights, Spell breakers, and Necromancers (Death Priests). All of these races would be located in Northrend and thats where they would level from 1-70. The main race of the Demons would be the scourge, ruled by King Arthas (The old king has fallen).
RogueJedi86 Jul 9th 2007 2:34PM
@#6/kekleon64
That sounds more like a stand-alone expansion, like the Guild Wars games, except no content for pre-Northrend players.
ben1778 Jul 9th 2007 2:49PM
How about a brewing profession?
overneathe Jul 9th 2007 2:52PM
YES @6
One thing I would extremely love to see is an entirely new 1-70 zone. And Northrend being a continent (with the same size of Kalimdor and EK) that dream of mine might come true.
Though that will mean less 70+ zones so...
Coherent Jul 9th 2007 3:19PM
Woodworking was laid out in a forum post about two years ago, I can't remember by whom, but he had laid it out meticulously. I wonder if it was Tobold, or did he just steal some long-forgotten forum poster's idea?
slybri Jul 9th 2007 3:24PM
Blizzard, I'm sure, has already planned out the next expansion and is working on it now. Any suggestions would have to apply to a third expansion.
They've already said they will be releasing expansions annually. So the expansions will probably be smaller than TBC but still add some interesting things.
Maybe they will copy stuff from LOTRO, like titles, deeds, musical instruments, and NPC character play. Maybe some extra-client apps, like auction house browsing and guild chat on portable game systems or a web-site.
My personal wish, and it's a long shot, is an optional graphical update. Maybe even DX10 support. Add in some special effects and higher rez textures. More animation and detail in the cities.
Make it optional for folks running the game on toasters, Iphones, and ancient computers.
kekleon64 Jul 9th 2007 3:57PM
@ #7&9
I thought of that as well, and what I came up with is the emerald dream, it's quite large and is already in the game so it wouldn't be a long shot to think that it will be included in the next expansion, they could also open up areas like Hyjal and Dalaran (This would explain the recent "No man's Land" Buff you et for being in unreleased areas). I just don't want to see another 10 levels making all of the current gear worthless again and making all of the current raid content undesirable)
Quoi Jul 9th 2007 4:19PM
Being a mage, I hope to God that they open Dalaran in the next expansion, and that there is some awesome stuff there for mages.
overneathe Jul 9th 2007 4:24PM
Like... a mage trainer? :p
Sirg Jul 9th 2007 4:28PM
Some of my ideas for the expansion:
* Heroic classes from level 70 to 80, each class having several options DIFFERENT from one race to an other, like Sentinel (warrior) for the elves, Mountain King (warrior) for the dwarves, Necromancer (warlock) for the Forsaken, etc.
* some heroic classes like: archmage, wizard, conjuror (summons more elementals), templar, crusader, blademaster, spy, assasin, invoker, protector, cleric, monk, necromancer, etc
* heroic class players having an elite like dragon around their portrait
* maned boats and zeppelins with either alliance sailors, neutral (goblins) or faction related (Kul Tiras) instead of those ghost automated ships
* an underwater city/location reachable by those turtle like subs from Warcraft 2.
* heroic low level instances for more quests (a heroic Deadmines for levels 40)
* targets and dummies that can be used for leveling weapon skills (the max level should be related to the zone level, like fishing)
* TOWN PORTAL scrolls to teleport players to lesser cities from almost each zone
* class specific trades - runecrafting/scrolls (casters), traps (hunters), poisons, lockpicks, smoke bombs (rogues), wards (druids), weapon auguments and mods (warriors) and so on
* traps (from hunters) to catch critters as pets
* a naval battleground, like a costal assault, including usable cannons/siege weapons
* an XP boost trinket (i.e. 400%) available at level 70 that can be given to an alt for faster leveling
* Daralan rebuilt as a Shattrath of Azeroth (sanctuary city) for both horde and alliance (requiring rep with the violet eye)
* more legendary items like trinkets, rings or armor
* more armor sets available from vendors or quests (no more of those useless vendor items) available for each level decade
* unlimmited gold (kidding)
KaonNemesis Jul 9th 2007 9:16PM
Here's some things I would like to see in the next expansion...
Northrend & Undermine "continents".
New level 80 cap.
Flying Mounts in Azeroth.
Old content finished (Dalaran, Uldum, Grim Batol, Dustwallow Marsh, etc).
Heroic Versions of ALL existing instances and raids (pre-level cap), brought up to the challenge level of the current level cap. They don't have to be re-itemized (in fact many would probably prefer the old raids were not), instead offer tons of gold from heroic bosses or rare crafting mats or a trade-in type system (like the Badges of Justice). Just imagine, every instance would still be viable to run at the level cap! Heroic Deadmines ftw!
New mid-level content and/or allow increased XP gains for new characters once you already have a character at the level cap (compounded by each character you have at the level cap on the server), making levelling up additional characters much less "painful".
Old factions, do something to make it possible to still earn rep with them (and have it scale UP to the new level cap). Perhaps this something that the new Heroic versions of old instances could help with.
Inventory size improvements (Trinket Chain, Jewelery Box, Small Pet Carrier, Trash Bag, Suit Racks, etc). Either that or just give us unlimited space in our banks... I probably won't buy the next expansion without something along these lines (and no, a couple of extra bank slots WON'T cut it).
Woodworking Profession (Bows, Crossbows, Arrows, Staves, etc). The only original Warcaft "profession" missing!
No new Classes or Races! Instead allow a method for players to switch factions that is time consuming (faction based?) but repeatable (remember, it would take a long time). Cross-faction stuff is laced throughout the lore of WoW, players should be able to do it too if they wanted.
Battlegrounds re-visiting... improvements and add new ones. So many good ideas floating around out there for this...
Guild Housing and Guild UI improvements (notes, alt links, spec, maybe even integrate a configurable DKP system, and so on).
LFG improvements (PvP, spec notes, etc).
Heraclea Jul 10th 2007 12:30PM
If they add woodworking, add the ability to make shields with it as well as bows and arrows. A crafted shield would be sweet.
Coherent Jul 10th 2007 12:40PM
There has long, long been a problem with hunters able to make bullets but not arrows. It's a stupid deficiency, and needs to be addressed.
The problem with any expansion suggestions is that they don't usually take available development resources into account. Making new content is downright efficient compared to going back and reworking old content (what if you broke something?)
The amount of testing would be insane. This is why they can only really ADD content, not modify it.
That said, I hope they do! I hope they rebuild gnomeregan and update all the noobie quests and stuff like that. I'm tired of the same old Defias war, Van Cleef endlessly dying to no effect, or Mankirk never friggen getting over his wife's death.
Some fresh way to play through 1-60 would be incredibly welcome. Either that, or an "Instalevel!" button to make me instantly 58 would be nice, thanks.
Trimagestis Jul 26th 2007 9:12PM
I think in a future expansion a Hero level would be awesome (not a new level cap) so at level 70 there could be several quests to a.) Become exalted with at least 4 members of your current faction and b.) kill certain enemies of your faction (number to be decided possibly every major boss of every lvl 70 instance?) once all of these are achieved you become a Hero of your faction and you get certain things like - permanent 10% increase all stats - a flying mount usable anywhere in Azeroth and Command of a Platoon of NPC's to fight for you (10? and only usable in LVL 70 contested area's and not instances) so in effect you become a Player Boss - the Platoon cannot be renewed until after a 24hour cooldown, and you have a random high level drop for your killers when you die - your platoon npc's drop vendor trash. Also the NPC's should be controllable and will ignore enemies unless you are attacked or are told to attack specific targets. It would be so cool to watch / fight a battle with 5 heroes on each side!