Turtle WoW

Turtle WoW takes its lore from where vanilla left it. In early WoW, both Outland and Northrend remained inaccessible. Conversely, both TBC and WotLK started with titanic invasions by the Burning Legion and Ner'zhul respectively. Apparently, that 5-year-period had merely been a lull, an interbellum of sorts.

So, in our Turtle plotline, can it be the case that this peace-time continues? That the great cataclysms remain in the era of the Third War? That Kil'jaeden "kind of forgets" about the unfinished business for another 10 thousand years? And regarding an Outland patch - it would not necessarily lead to a full onslaught of the Legion either, especially if it's the Alliance/Horde that invade it, and not the other way round.

With Ner'zhul/Arthas, it would be harder, however. Because vanilla already directly deals with the Scourge, killing Kel'Thuzad. At the same time, introducing the Lich King would be so awkward - that's the story of WotLK, which brought an end to the definitive Warcraft character. And redoing all of Northrend would be neither desirable nor feasible.

Have I got it? Is it the way the vanilla-style lore of Turtle to be understood - numerous interconnected stories, yet limited in scope?

While Kel'Thuzad is certaintly a high ranking member of the Scourge, perhaps 2nd only to Lich King, he's still not the main issue the of Scourge - Arthas/Ner'Zhul are the real problem. Us beating back Kel'Thuzad is a "win a battle, but the war still goes on" scenario. So I don't think that Arthas will not ever appear. The real question is rather if the people behind this project will think that far? Vanilla had a charm to it because we didn't really fight anyone 'known' outside of Kel'thuzad. Perhaps it's better to have someone like Abun'arak take the stage before we start talking about Lich King?

Also, I always felt that fighting Undead after Burning Legion was a downgrade, as was Lich King after Kil'jaeden - because that guy is leagues ahead and the one who originally created him (well it was Nathrezim but he was supposed to have a hand in it as well before retcons).

Though I don't think it will happen, but assuming it will sooner or later, I'd rather have Scourge first then Burning Legion and Illidan after.

Nightowl wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:05 pm

Though I don't think it will happen, but assuming it will sooner or later, I'd rather have Scourge first then Burning Legion and Illidan after.

Conversely, exploring the TFT version of Outland would be much more feasible in the scope of Turtle - whereas adding anything resembling Northrend is probably a pipe-dream (thankfully). Outland in TFT is just a few barren islands floating in the Twisting Nether (inb4 people scream at me about space-ships - Kael'thas found none, ok?).

And we wouldn't probably be taking on Illidan because he perished at the steps of the Frozen Throne (yes, Blizzard themselves said they intended to show he was alive, but press X to doubt).

I would say, next steps could be like this:
1) Outland;
2) elemental planes;
3) ???;
4) Pandaria (and a Wisp race for the Alliance).

I'm sure that the Scourge has to be confronted fully eventually. Though if we go to Northrend I expect it to be much smaller in size but the story much more focused. Especially since they don't need to make padded zones for leveling a lot of levels like retail tends to do with expansions.

If we ever get access to Northrend, I just hope that The Scourge is a much more powerful, present, pesky and dangerous threat than what we had in WOTLK. WOTLK was a great expansion, but the Scourge just seemed to me to be "a taste" rather than a danger.

I'm hoping (or rather: my dream would be) for game mechanics that will put players in danger: managing Cold and Hunger, requiring spells or items to light up around you at night, not being able to resurrect in place, undead appearing where players die, random attacks by the Scourge. In a way, a dangerous survival environment where everything is hostile and you only land in one or two vaguely secure places on a huge hostile frozen continent. A slow, expensive and painful progression. And yes, the Icecrown Citadel is almost inaccessible, the Lich King requires 80 players or some such madness. And before that, a long and painful battle to the death in epic raids against Arthas' lieutenants.

Something like that would be my Dream.
And I would like immersive mechanics like that for the Outlands. Corruption, Fell energies, steril earth, etc. If we are keeping the Vanilla mechanics and way of doing PVE/PVP, we should adds some flavors like that to "increase" the stakes.
I've gone a bit off-topic, but as far as the lore is concerned, I'd like to see more of a desperate atmosphere, a struggle for survival in the face of colossi or ravaged lands, than a nice, healthy ride.

Naxxramas is a direct introduction to Northrend. KT's final room directly has a portal to it in fact. andFrom northrend (which would realistically be tiny compared to wotlk's northrend) there is place for a surface zone with frozen throne raid, and an underground zone with nerubians dungeon/raid. That would tie very well and rigidly, since Kel'thuzad is Arthas' lieutenant and uses Nerubian guardians in the fight.

I suppose we could use naxx to take us to an isolated area in Northrend. Would make more sense than just sailing there and seeing that most of it isn't even that dangerous.

I wouldn't support a food or cold system as that would only serve to impede most players. Especially since it's not a feature anywhere else in the game. Would feel odd to develop it just for the North when a Northrend in TurtleWoW more than likely isn't gonna be anything at all like WoTLK.

Personally I would not only go with just Naxx, with maybe it leading to a new zone with raid or the such, but have the Lich King be the invading force. Have him actively be the aggressor then him just letting us messing around in Northrend. That way we have an reason to want to take the fight directly to him instead of taking our time from a story narrative.