The QueueJul 20, 2023 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: It’s Season Day!

By Matthew Rossi

Season 1, y’all.

I might stretch myself and play a Barbarian this time. Also, man, nobody told me that this sword model is finally in World of Warcraft after me literally asking for it since Wrath of the Lich King.

XIV

Q4tDiablo4: I was thinking about giving D4 a try now that Season 1 starts but I have found out that everything now will be worse. I’ve read that existing characters get most of their progress reset except for altars, and it will take longer to reach the point they were at in ”season zero” (designation my own). Is that a correct interpretation or good old internet hyperbole?

This is the Aurochs, the ancestor of modern domesticated cattle. It was an enormous member of the genus Bos, with some bulls reaching nearly six feet at the shoulder and weights exceeding 1500 kilograms (that’s over a ton and a half for you Imperial users) and as you can expect, as such a large and powerful herbivore it ate a lot of fodder and left behind significantly large amounts of excrement.

It would take ten thousand aurochs several months of work to produce enough excrement to match up with that view of Diablo 4 and Season 1.

SHUANNA_THE_REJECTED

I was perusing the US forums. Someone was mad that the Horde didn’t get Eredar, it doesn’t matter, it was just confusing nerd rage. But this model though, based on some lose idea about good ol’ Saurfang joining the Alliance and taking his people with him? That … is intriguing. It’s a fan made model btw, not official Blizzard stuff.

So QftQ: IF some elements of respective faction was to defect – which one’s would it be? I can see some minor Forsaken houses inching their way back into Stormwind, or some disgruntled Dark Iron Tribes running for the Horde. Likewise, I could see some troll tribes and perhaps some tauren flipping sides. There could be quite an interesting quest line there if someone was brave enough to … escape to freedom.

Both factions collapse and we get an utter free for all with every nation at war with every other nation and we can finally have that “putting the War back in Warcraft” expansion a few loud people really want.

I kid because I’m a sour old grump and there’s a squirrel on my lawn.

Seriously though, I think every faction has or could have groups that could defect, although perhaps not necessarily to join the other faction. For example, I’ve been saying for years that we could end up with a big chunk of the Night Elves leaving the Alliance over the way they were not exactly the best help to them during the whole “we’re going to take back our home now” deal in Battle for Azeroth, and since a lot of Gilneans died to Sylvanas in Gilneas only for her to show up and burn down their refuge on Teldrassil, some of them might well go along with them, especially if the Nelves were willing to retake Gilneas.

Maybe we could get some kind of Argent Dawn/Cenarion Circle group that considers itself outside of Horde or Alliance issues and just cares about making sure no Elves have to suffer like the High Elves did under the Scourge or the Night Elves did when Teldrassil burned.

FUZZYBUNNY

Biggun

Fuzzy is linking to an article about Oblitosaurus, a recently described Ankylopollexian, also sometimes described as Iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaurs. Oblitosaurus is currently being described as the sister taxa to Draconyx, but much, much larger. Both are currently known from relatively few fossils, so we could discover new information at any time that would change our understanding, but at present think of Oblitosaurus as a very large and surprisingly derived Ankylopollexian specimen, more like later ornithopods like Iguanacolossus.

In fact, I’m even struck by the similarities in size between Oblitosaurus and Ignanacolossus. The current estimate of 23 feet (7 meters) for Oblitosaurus puts it under Iguanacolossus who was likely over 30 feet (9 meters) but Iguanacolossus was a much later dinosaur, an early Cretaceous species, whereas Oblitosaurus dates to the mid-Juerassic. It’s very interesting to see such a large specimen of a Ankylopollexian species from that period.

Anyway, while certainly not the largest Ankylopollexian Ornithopod ever discovered — either Shangtungosaurus or Edmontosaurus probably have that honor — it’s a very large and surprisingly similar member of the clade to those later species and could well end up teaching us quite a lot of new information about the development or ornithodirian dinosaurs.

BENDOVER

QftQ: What are you hoping to hear more about at Blizzcon?

I’m kinda waiting to see what their new Survival Game is gonna be, see some actual gameplay etc. A less likely thing I’d like to see, is anything done with StarCraft.

What are these upcoming Diablo 4 expansions? Where do we go? Who do we fight?

My absolute pie in the sky dream wishes are for a StarCraft single player RPG ala The Witcher series/Cyberpunk 2077 made in collaboration with Obsidian Entertainment (this is not going to happen) or maybe even my dream game, something along the lines of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which I still think is possibly the best open world RPG made in the last ten years.

Yes I want them to make a Blackthorne single player open world RPG.

MUSEDMOOSE

Question for the Rossi Queue: what do you plan to play in Baldur’s Gate III?

Mountain Dwarf Barbarian. Yes, I know they don’t get the +2 Str/+2 Con, but I like the flavor — one of my favorite D&D characters was Rista, a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian who wandered around completely unimpressed with everyone she met and whose 8 Intelligence manifested itself as severe impatience.

This is her. She had a ferret pet and her totem animal was her tribe’s Wolverine god. The art is by Cinnri Starling who I very much recommend for commissions if they are currently accepting any.