Forum:Cataclysm in PC Gamer UK (Nov 09)

Evening!

I've got a bunch of what I believe are new revelations about Cataclysm, sourced from the November 2009 issue of PC Gamer (in my hands).


 * General stuff
 * New routes through previous impassable terrain (less roundabout routes to the next zone)
 * Darkshore was the first zone to be remodelled - first step was to blow everything up (since "Cataclysm"). Too much change, too confusing, so most changes will be more subtle.
 * All terrain tech, texture blending, skybox tech will go retroactively into the old world.


 * Azshara
 * Level 15+, and major, MAJOR changes
 * Path carved directly from Orgrimmar's back end
 * Cliffs have mostly gone, to make way for a goblin city
 * On the tallest tower of the city sits a giant cannon, forever tracking and firing upon targets
 * The last mountain has been sculpted into the goblin equivalent of Mt Rushmore
 * Great fan islands (think Dubai)
 * Coastline shaped into a vast Horde symbol, best seen from space. Yes, seriously.


 * Worgen starting area
 * People referred to as "Gilneans"
 * Story begins in the past
 * You work with and for descendants of the King
 * Rumours of a plague have begun to spread
 * You're to prepare the defences
 * You meet a dissenter, Crawley, who's been sent to the castle stockades for causing trouble
 * He believes the Gilnean philosophy of isolation is a mistake - they'd be better joining the Alliance in the fight against the Forsaken
 * Worgen curse arrives - devastating
 * You and Crawley organise a fighting retreat, taking up a last stand in the Gilneas catherdral
 * As you fight/quest, the city is taken over by feral worgen. Safe districts are set alight
 * You realise the worgen you are fighting are your former friends, and ... you become one
 * Years later, you're captured by Crawley, wandering feral in the woods
 * Puts you in stocks, feeds you a potion, and you regain control (start of the demo area, Forsaken invasion begins)


 * Goblin starting area
 * Begin your career as middle management on Kezan
 * Debts, debtors and a hot secretary
 * 1-5, you live the life of a hot-stuff executive - collact payments, engage in some robot powered American football on an astroturf pitch, etc.
 * Goblin city is hilarious; blue skies above, corruption and sleaze below
 * Cataclysm activates dormant volcano
 * Only choice is to evacuate. You throw your life savings at a local trade prince, who promises to get you to safety
 * He betrays you: he's a slaver, and leaves with you in chains
 * Get caught in a Horde/Alliance battle, and end up shipwrecked on an island (start of the demo area, join up with the Horde)


 * Horde
 * Garrosh confirmed as new leader of the Horde
 * Remodelled Orgrimmar being shown off - "Black steel" from Northrend, replacing stone and rope
 * Almost all non-orcs being kicked out of central Orgrimmar, apart from a tauren or two

Also, I noticed this question on MMO-Champion - Flying to Quel'thalas and the Draenei Isles possible?. kd3 asked at BlizzCon: it's unlikely, because Stratholme and Deatholme overlap.

Fun stuff :) 14:39, September 21, 2009 (UTC)

General thoughts

 * Any Saurfang news? '-' Pudim17 (talk - contr) 14:25, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * No, sorry :) 14:39, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * Garrosh? I'm leaving my account once Cataclysm hits. - Sikon (talk) 15:51, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * No-one takes such talk seriously, you know. Besides, you don't think Blizzard have a storyline planned? 16:14, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * Unless it involves Squeal getting himself killed by his own stupidity at the end... [[Image:IconSmall Draenei Female.gif|16px]] Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 18:43, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * It would be nice to have a few portals (maybe from Mage District in SW and Mystic Ward in IF) to the Exodar. Horde gets an Orb of Translocation from Undercity to Silvermoon City, so they should probably add one to Orgrimmar. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 7:58 PM PST 21 Sep 2009
 * Eh, it's not really needed anymore, since you can just take the boat from Stormwind to Auberdine and then to the Exodar. The instant portal between Silvermoon and the Undercity is less for the sake of convenience and more due to there being two level 50+ zones between them. -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 20:02, September 21, 2009 (UTC)
 * A portal to the Exodar would be more of a parallel with the zeppelin to Thunder Bluff. And they put that in... [[Image:IconSmall Draenei Female.gif|16px]] Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 23:09, September 21, 2009 (UTC)
 * Umm... 2 boats to Exodar sucks! It isn't even remotely comparable to a one leg journey. It takes two legs and you might have to wait for two boats. It stuns me that someone might try to compare a one leg, nearly instant transporter to a two leg boat ride. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 5:59 PM PST 22 Sep 2009
 * I wasn't saying that the two were equal, or even that taking two boats to the Exodar is particularly convenient. Just that the orb was out of a necessity that doesn't exist with the Exodar. -- Dark T Zeratul (talk) 18:27, September 22, 2009 (UTC)
 * What I meant was you've got a two-leg trip from SW to the Exodar...and a long run from Org to TB before you get the flight path. They put in the zeppelin pretty much to make it easier to get the flight path at low levels.  It does nothing except save lowbies a long run. [[Image:IconSmall Draenei Female.gif|16px]] Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 08:15, September 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * That's the thing, though. There is no flight path to Exodar. Even the flight path within the isles arrives just outside the city and you have to do a decent run to get down into the city proper. This is why Exodar is even less populated than Danrassus, which also has the evil no direct flight path problem. This means you have to find your way to Shattrath for a portal to Exodar, if you want to get there in less than a short eternity. -- Fandyllic  (talk &middot; contr) 9:04 PM PST 23 Sep 2009

Goblin city?
I think this info is cool, probable inaccuracy aside. Is this oil rig the new goblin city?-- 00:02, September 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * I believe the author went to the Blizz offices the next day for some more in depth coverage. I saw him at BlizzCon, though I didn't quite get a chance to say hello (though I did get a chance to speak to the previous editor of PCG who now works for Blizz EU).
 * I think that concept could be the Kezan city, the feel may be too tropical to fit Azshara, but who knows. 00:28, September 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * The Undermine? No, that is underground. What about Bilgewater Port, home of the cartel the goblins were said to start out as? Piecing together the various and incomplete (possibly, dare I say it, non-canon) concept maps of Kezan, Bilgewater seems to be on an island in a bay. Did Blizzard keep this idea?-- 00:47, September 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I didn't mean the Undermine. I'm not sure exactly where it is the goblins start in, but I'm guessing it's a port town - and Bilgewater makes a lot of sense. It also leaves Blizzard open to introduce the goblins from the rest of Undermine later. 12:36, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

Org
Almost all non-orcs being kicked out of central Orgrimmar, apart from a tauren or two

Grr at Garrosh... but then... he is racist... I'm going back to Sen'jin Village. 07:40, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
 * I think the list of people who actually like Squeal is probably very short. [[Image:IconSmall Draenei Female.gif|16px]] Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 07:49, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
 * Calling Garrosh Hellscream "Squeal" all the time is getting annoying...-- 19:52, September 25, 2009 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, I've only called him that a few times on this site; and I'm not sure why it would "annoy" anyone who's not an actual fan of the character. Nevertheless, I will try to refrain from using that name in the future. [[Image:IconSmall Draenei Female.gif|16px]] Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 05:34, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * Banning all of the non orcs from central Orgrimmar would severely strain the relationships of the Orcs and the other Horde races. This particularly would tear a rift between the Orcs and Trolls who consider Org their home away from home.  I also hope Vol'jin takes a more active role in Cataclysm, hopefully preventing "Squeal" from causing an all out civil war in the Horde.  If you've played the Halo series you know what civil strife did to the Covenant.  It would be devastating if that happened to the Horde just because Hellscream Junior can't play nice.AhotahThunderhorn (talk) 06:03, September 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * Feel free to continue garrosh, ignore the stealthed gnomes in the main district... OkolorionTalk Contribs  22:15, October 1, 2009 (UTC)