what if the illidari get like, really into dragonracing. possibly dangerously into it. somebody loses a horn, a wing, and three fifths of an arm in a tragic collision with a window before the bronze dragonflight mandates that unmounted flight is no longer allowed in the races
I'm really enjoying the races that WoW has added recently (started in Dragonflight but now we have them in the old-world zones too). I like that they actually take skill to get the maximum reward in a game that is quickly losing much of its skill-based gameplay. Kinda wild how 99% of this game is "walk around and press 3 buttons to kill 20 things at once" and the top 1% M+ gameplay requires perfect timing, multi-focus, and execution otherwise you die horribly. But I'm tangent-ing again. Dragon racing.
(Boring post below that will only interest like, the four people on the planet that happen to follow me and also enjoy dragonracing in World of Warcraft)
The races (standard 'fly through the glowing rings' timed course) are designed to kinda loop in and out of the terrain and architecture of the zone. If the zone has a big landmark that it's known for, you're absolutely gonna do a loop around that bad boy. It's a great speedrun of the area if you, like many modern WoW players, didn't really do much in the old zones. It gives you a feel for what this place is like and piques your interest for maybe exploring it with future characters.
But all of that being said, it absolutely cracks me up when I find something that was added solely to make the race more entertaining. Because, see, the races aren't instanced in any way. If someone is doing the race and you're running around killing monsters, you can absolutely look up and see them flying overhead. Which means all of the cool eye-catching stuff the racer is speeding past is also present in the world. Now, I've been playing this game for an embarrassingly long time AND I've played a good bit on the classic servers, so I'm more than passingly familiar with the vanilla zones. Enough that I know when a big pointless thing didn't used to be here.
The one that I first noticed is a devilsaur in Un'goro Crater. This is the Jurassic Park ripoff themed zone so it having giant T-Rexes stomping around isn't unusual. Back in the classic days, it was an hourly thing to see "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT" in the general chat and no one even had to ask why: the person was questing and got snuck up on by a 40-foot dinosaur and one-shot. Happened literally all the time. But the whole deal is that they patrol. There are different devilsaurs with different names and patterns and they each have a path that they follow, so if you pay attention while you're running around out there you can avoid them. It's part of the fun of the zone, the constant threat, seeing your screen start shaking and immediately panick-panning and hoping you're not too late.
But there's one, as of now, that just stands at the base of this otherwise non-noteworthy ramp. There's nothing at the top of the ramp, it just kinda disappears into a mountainside. You can kill the devilsaur, of course, and at max level it's one-shot like every other 30E enemy. But it just stands there with its tail clipped into the wall behind it, it's the only one in the zone that doesn't move. It felt so weird to me when I found it. I knew it didn't used to be there but I can't say when it was added. But I did the Thorium Loop enough times in classic that I know what that outer ring of Un'Goro Crater looks like.
Then I did the race in that zone and you fly right past that same devilsaur. It's at the perfect height and orientation where you fly directly past its face. Then it all made sense. This is a roller-coaster prop. It's specifically for this race and they just didn't bother to make it make sense in the actual world. Once I realized they were doing that, it was easy to spot them in every zone.
Idk what this post was for I just wanted to ramble about WoW I guess.
I found these very old drawings and thought I would share! I must have been 7ish when I drew them?
These were my pet racing dragons. I had completely forgotten about them! Lady was my favourite. I think there was a 6th one.... brain is mushy! Now I want to 3d sculpt them, or maybe paint them again. Ah, the innocence of childhood and the obsession with dragons.
Drag(on) racing. Check out “Can I have an autograph?” by Neytirix: http://bit.ly/39xGbZG #neytirix #deviantart #dragonracing https://www.instagram.com/p/B9w2WPHBtg1/?igshid=g6qcpvvdnrt5
Faraday Future Dragon Racing Reveals Formula E Season Three Livery Hong Kong, October 6, 2016 – Faraday Future Dragon Racing today debuted its new season three race car livery, exemplifying the team’s drive towards a powerful, sustainable future for the motorsports industry.
