The Home Life of General Steelstrike - Hallowfall Side Quest Spotlight

Live Posted 11 days ago by Portergauge

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Comment by GazagoblinHard core mantid artComment by Thomas24A nice little extra bit in the cooking quest: Once the general is finished, sufficiently skilled cooks (I think 25 Khaz Algar Cooking skill is required) are able to salvage the result. The family response is a lot more positive, praising your skill and asking you to cook again for them some time.Comment by HelperssonThis was a great questline story-wise but the technical execution of the individual quests was bloody awful. I've said in comments elsewhere that recent confusing visuals and unintuitive or clunky quest design smells like the work of interns to me. Or perhaps new employees who don't yet know how WoW quests are properly made.

I think Blizzard has suffered from a massive loss of 'institutional knowledge' where the old hands who knew how to handle the spaghetti code and knew how WoW quests are properly done have left the company over the last few years and their managers did not make sure that all their knowledge was preserved so that it could be passed on to their replacements. It's a typical story of management not valuing (or even being aware of!) the skills of their workers.Comment by XanderFloydI think Blizzard has suffered from a massive loss of 'institutional knowledge' where the old hands who knew how to handle the spaghetti code and knew how WoW quests are properly done have left the company over the last few years and their managers did not make sure that all their knowledge was preserved so that it could be passed on to their replacements.Comment by 2lazy2jzthis is one of those quests people talk about when they say wow is soft, no one besides the weirdos seek these type of quests they are also unfun 90% of the time because they usually all have vehicle mechanics which suck. overall the questing is fire this xpac the lore fire the darkness fire but quests like this just arnt what wow players want (insert well i like it !@#$%^s) by no means should these go away though theres never not a reason for lighthearted content they are just very distracting in a story where 99% of the content is DARK and that 1% is light i changes the mood ruining the vibe the build up of emotionComment by ArchieAngel...FOR THE EMPERORComment by HelperssonWhile the current looming threat is that of the Void and Xal'atath, Hallowfall rather distinctly seems to be setting up a threat of the Light as one to be dealt with in the far-off future. threeareComment by mremaknuthis is one of those quests people talk about when they say wow is soft, no one besides the weirdos seek these type of quests they are also unfun 90% of the time because they usually all have vehicle mechanics which suck. overall the questing is fire this xpac the lore fire the darkness fire but quests like this just arnt what wow players want (insert well i like it !@#$%^s) by no means should these go away though theres never not a reason for lighthearted content they are just very distracting in a story where 99% of the content is DARK and that 1% is light i changes the mood ruining the vibe the build up of emotionComment by ArjisajWhile the current looming threat is that of the Void and Xal'atath, Hallowfall rather distinctly seems to be setting up a threat of the Light as one to be dealt with in the far-off future. threeareComment by Camio3495never have I ever seen anyone cook like thatComment by XanderFloydI think Blizzard has suffered from a massive loss of 'institutional knowledge' where the old hands who knew how to handle the spaghetti code and knew how WoW quests are properly done have left the company over the last few years and their managers did not make sure that all their knowledge was preserved so that it could be passed on to their replacements.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Department_of_Fair_Employment_and_Housing_v._Activision_Blizzard]Comment by ohvist

Light has not been "clear good guys" since what Xe'ra tried to do to Illidan. I don't even like Illidan but his reaction, however cringe the "I am my scars" line was, was peak response to Xe'ra's bull%^&*.Battle for AzerothWarlords of Draenor

Saving the Draenei civilization from falling; which prevented them from embracing Shamanism as an alternate path of both success and survival.

The death of that timelines' Prophet Velen: which was the lynchpin holding the Draenei back from expanding across Draenor as an all-encompassing Empire in a manner similar to their Eredar cousins.

Yrel suffering the deaths of her mentor Velen, her sister Samaara, and her potential lover Maraad in a short period of time that it affected her psyche when she would come into power as the new High Exarch and leader of the Draenei.

The power vacuum we left behind by destroying every other hostile faction on Draenor that would have served to keep the Draenei in-check.

Legion

In the Beta, Yrel often called Velen "Uncle": back on Argus when Velen, Archimonde, and Kil'jaeden were once the Triumvirate, they called each-other brothers.

One of the lines of dialogue in the Beta informed us that Yrel suffered from some inner darkness: likely indicating her feelings about her father being one of the high-ranking leaders of the Burning Legion.

In the main timeline, Kil'jaeden managed to corrupt the Orcs into the Horde by giving them the blood of Mannoroth with Grommash Hellscream being the first to drink of it and becoming the Hordes' greatest champion. Meanwhile in this timeline; Kil'jaedens' daughter managed to convince a number of Orcs into joining the Lightbound by infusing them with the Holy Light with Grommash's son becoming one of their most powerful Exarchs. "It's Like Poetry, It Rhymes."

Comment by Helpersson@Arjisaj, @ohvist

Thank you for schooling me on the fact that Light has not been the clear good guys since Legion. I know all that stuff and love that part of the lore, especially the Maghar orc intro. And the Illidan cinematic is pretty iconic. However, I do agree that what I wrote did not get across my meaning which is more like, "with the new twist that for a whole expac the Light is going to be the out-and-out 'bad guy' (or if they manage to include a bit more complexity, the 'really-really-heavy-shades-of-grey guy').

But my main thrust, if this scenario should ever happen, is about wanting some player choice: choose Void, choose Light and - most important of all - choose neither. EDIT: and each choice should have a different storyline, at least as good as the Legion Class Halls and definitely much better than the BfA Forsaken Loyalist 'storyline' (if you can even call it that). END EDIT

Any thoughts on that?Comment by Helpersson these type of quests are also unfun 90% of the time because they usually all have vehicle mechanics which suck Comment by 2lazy2jzthis is one of those quests people talk about when they say wow is soft, no one besides the weirdos seek these type of quests they are also unfun 90% of the time because they usually all have vehicle mechanics which suck. overall the questing is fire this xpac the lore fire the darkness fire but quests like this just arnt what wow players want (insert well i like it !@#$%^s) by no means should these go away though theres never not a reason for lighthearted content they are just very distracting in a story where 99% of the content is DARK and that 1% is light i changes the mood ruining the vibe the build up of emotionComment by BlackDragonAJ89So when are we going to have a "worst cooks in Azeroth" then? We've got Nomi and Mrs. Steelstrike for potential contestants...Comment by felbloodsthis is one of those quests people talk about when they say wow is soft, no one besides the weirdos seek these type of quests they are also unfun 90% of the time because they usually all have vehicle mechanics which suck. overall the questing is fire this xpac the lore fire the darkness fire but quests like this just arnt what wow players want (insert well i like it !@#$%^s) by no means should these go away though theres never not a reason for lighthearted content they are just very distracting in a story where 99% of the content is DARK and that 1% is light i changes the mood ruining the vibe the build up of emotionComment by lovelywazSo when are we going to have a "worst cooks in Azeroth" then? We've got Nomi and Mrs. Steelstrike for potential contestants...Firelord Nomi the SecondSargerasComment by guardiantitanProbably should mention the quests are time gated. Can't really complete them one after the other, at least not the first time. They often require you to come back the next day to finish which isn't really intuitive. Haven't really bothered to try doing them on an alt to see if they're not time gated the second time, but what little I have done on another alt suggested it was still time gated.

Just some random thoughts on the direction the Arathi could go. Hidden under a spoiler since it's a bit lengthy and a lot of people whine about TLDR.

In regards to the Arathi, if they become an enemy, it's a question of where they'll really fit in. If the ethereal raid comes to pass, we know they'll be the focus on that patch. The goblin raid would be similar with likely a faction of goblins or whatever the goblins are fighting being the focus.

Midnight is a possibility, but the focus is on northern Eastern Kingdoms there. They're unlikely to be the main focus in patch 12.0. Unless Blizzard opts to jump to the other side of Azeroth in 12.1 or 12.2, I don't see the Arathi really as an enemy in that one, either.

Then TLT is in Northrend which is again a far cry from the Arathi Empire. I get the impression the Arathi Empire is likely closer to Kalimdor than Eastern Kingdoms since that makes more sense for them to end up in Khaz Algar which is again closer to Kalimdor. At the same time, the original Arathi left from the Arathi Highlands and traveled the ocean. Only direction they could really go is west suggesting they would have ran into Kul Tiras, the Broken Isles, and then Kalimdor if they didn't get lost in the Maelstrom unless they went north (running into the Dragon Isles and/or Northrend) or south. The Arathi Empire honestly makes no sense because there's so many places they could have stopped before finding their eventual current location.

Either which way, if they're really going to be any real threat, their empire would have to be maybe the size of effectively the Broken Isles/Dragon Isles which is an expansion in of itself. Midnight will revamp the northern Eastern Kingdoms. Will the Arathi Empire be released as part of the second half of the starting expansion experience so we're just not retreading old zones? Same could be true of Northrend in TLT. Are they really going to redo the entirety of Northrend? Revamping the entire continent would be quite an undertaking and likely not allow for time to work on the Arathi Empire. The best spot really ends up being release content with Midnight. With the focus on reuniting the elves and the Arathi are "half elves", there would be reason for the elves in the known parts of Azeroth to want to go to the Arathi Empire. I just don't see the Arathi as patch content, especially not if they want them as an enemy.

It'd be quite sad if they finally introduce the Arathi Empire as an enemy in a patch and the "empire" turns out to be the size of maybe Azuremyst, Teldrassil, Mechagon, or Isle of Thunder. Some empire. I really don't expect the Arathi Empire to show up in TWW, but if they're not release content in 12.0 or 13.0, their inclusion in a patch could very well be disappointing. We'll have this lead up to this great empire expecting huge zones with a huge army only to get the Genie in his lamp from Aladdin.

Granted, the emperor sent effectively a tiny strike force to deal with Renilash? If he really had the power and felt Renilash was really that dangerous, wouldn't he have sent a considerably larger force? Or at least sent a secondary fleet a few days behind them? Unless he did send the majority of his military and now most are dead. That'd leave a significantly weaker Arathi which is again a disappointment compared to what's been setup. Granted, if the guy is a prophet and saw what was going on, he probably sent the Hallowfall expedition not so much for Renilash but as scouts to assess what his forces could face if they ventured to the other side of Azeroth again. He likely knew the expedition was going to fail even before he sent them and sent them anyway. In that case, he sent willing lambs to slaughter. How better to take out a potential rival than to get them to think you might be friendly? Get close to them with a small group of his people and then hello knife in the back when the real empire shows up. Renliash was likely just a ruse by the emperor the entire time to just get them to willingly go to their deaths. Fanatical groups aren't beyond doing that. While there may be a real Renilash per se, it was probably just the Legion invading which was already dealt with. While we assume he saw what Velen did, we can't really be sure on that. Guy's probably a con artist and might end up BFF's with Gallywix for all we know. That would give an opening for at least a small contingent of Arathi to be in the goblin raid patch showcasing a more fanatical part of the empire compared to Hallowfall. It'd be a sharp contrast to what we see already of a people that have been separated from their home for over a decade. Hallowfall's had a chance for the kool-aid to begin to wear off. Seeing a super fanatical group that just left their empire may be a reality check for characters like Steelstrike and Faerin to not want to go home at all and side with the players.Comment by AivekBoring...