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by Mike Schramm 
May 22nd 2009 at 11:00AM
That's right, when a player suggests that maybe a zeppelin should be flying around the Tauren city of Thunderbluff, Kisirani says only, "Okay." So, a zeppelin is coming to Thunderbluff? Certainly seems that way.
Makes a lot of sense -- Tauren originally had Plainsrunning, and if you've ever made that jaunt through their starting area, you'll know just how many plains you have to run across (of course, they didn't actually get it until level 40, so it wouldn't have helped them much there anyway, but still -- it's a run). And while you can pretty quickly fly into TB from Orgrimmar, it wouldn't hurt to have another point of departure. Kisirani doesn't say where the zepp will go, but maybe a flght up to Northrend wouldn't be out of the question either.
Wow, we got all that from "Okay." Behold the power of Kisirani! Maybe it doesn't mean there's a zepp on the way, but if that's the case we'd be happy with just a cow-tapult.
Makes a lot of sense -- Tauren originally had Plainsrunning, and if you've ever made that jaunt through their starting area, you'll know just how many plains you have to run across (of course, they didn't actually get it until level 40, so it wouldn't have helped them much there anyway, but still -- it's a run). And while you can pretty quickly fly into TB from Orgrimmar, it wouldn't hurt to have another point of departure. Kisirani doesn't say where the zepp will go, but maybe a flght up to Northrend wouldn't be out of the question either.
Wow, we got all that from "Okay." Behold the power of Kisirani! Maybe it doesn't mean there's a zepp on the way, but if that's the case we'd be happy with just a cow-tapult.
Filed under: Horde, Tauren, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
Tumleren May 22nd 2009 12:11PM
Then you might want to get your eyes checked:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17345934557&sid=1&pageNo=3#42
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/17345934557-thunderbluff-too-remote.html
Sayis May 22nd 2009 11:31AM
This would be alright. I remember being annoyed at having my home city be T.Bluff, but needing to head to Org. to get across to Eastern Kingdoms. One more flight path never hurt anybody.
Elathil May 22nd 2009 11:37AM
Honestly, if Alliance can get directly from Auberdine to Stormwind now, there's not much of a reason not to have some easy way from TB to Org before you get the FP.
Matt May 22nd 2009 11:44AM
With the change to alliance boat routes in 3.0 a level one Alliance character could get to all the other alliance starting areas while only cross the level 10 or lower zones. TB was the only Horde faction that didn't have this same benefit. From that point of view I think that this is a good change and I don't care what the author says the run from Tb to Org is a bear without a mount.
squishtastic May 22nd 2009 11:52AM
ok, so that still leaves exodar. They should just connect the FP from there to the rest of Kalimdor already.
Elathil May 22nd 2009 12:26PM
You go from a boat in the starting zone to the docks in Auberdine to a boat to Stormwind to a tram to Ironforge, all while never touching mobs above level ten unless you've got rediculously bad luck with gravity. It's pretty similar to the trip from Org to Silvermoon and back, there isn't really an actual need to put that in.
Amaxe-1 May 22nd 2009 12:48PM
Well, back when Nelfs and Draenei had to corpse run from Menethil I think it was a stronger comparison. Now that it is Auberdine--> SW Harbor, it is an easier thing to do and it doesn't bother me anymore.
I'm guessing the original thought was that Tauren and Nelfs would be able to level to the point that when they got to where they needed to cross over to Ogrimmar/SW they would be strong enough to travel there.
Still, while I can't speak for the the Horde, Exodar will be by far the most isolated city once the TB zepplin comes into play
Kylenne May 22nd 2009 1:16PM
What people always forget is the Exodar is actually on a different map than the rest of Kalimdor. The reason why the FPs aren't connected to the mainland is the same reason why you can't fly from, say, Undercity to Vengeance Landing on a bat. It's a technical issue. Yes, you can fly to Silvermoon City from anywhere in EK, but there's an instance portal between Eastern Plaguelands and Ghostlands that you fly through first (and a weird, tiny bit of buffer zone called "Quel'danas" that I suspect was a placeholder). They would have to do something similar in order to connect Exodar with Darnassus, and short of sticking a portal in the middle of the air, I'm not sure where they'd put it.
Besides, you guys already have a boat, and if you take the back door out of town it nearly puts you right at the harbor. The amount of effort it would take to connect the FPs doesn't justify it, IMO. We have a teleport orb in SMC but remember, we have the highest level vanilla zone right next door. So that orb is basically our only way out, they HAD to connect the FPs.
Melvyl May 22nd 2009 11:58AM
I decided on a whim to use a lvl8 BE priest as a Bank Alt. And I had read that Thunder Bluff was the best place for one-stop shopping. She portaled from SMC to UC, then took the Zep to Org. From there, it was just following the roads to TB. The only attacks came right up at the base of the TB mesa from a couple of the wolves. Between exploring and that little bit of fighting, she was a solid 9 when she arrived.
AyaJulia May 22nd 2009 2:06PM
Easy though it may be, it's still a pretty immense time investment. It takes 15-20 minutes to run across the Barrens, and it's absolutely not fun.
Plus, you got kinda lucky. There are mobs that pat closer to the roads than that. I don't run across them every time, but I do maybe... 30% of the time?
ustilago May 22nd 2009 12:01PM
Seems very unnecessary to me. I've made the run to Thunder Bluff on a couple dozen low-level characters and never had any trouble. Most of the time I never even aggroed any mobs along the way, and when I did I just kept running and eventually the mob lost interest. What's so dangerous?
What they need to do is connect the flight paths at Exodar/Blood Watch to the rest of Kalimdor.
Valderon May 22nd 2009 12:17PM
When seeing this I suddenly thought "isn't that the Invicible from FFIX?"
Ragnorax May 22nd 2009 12:30PM
The Hilda Garde III to be exact.
Kneeber May 22nd 2009 12:42PM
I really like the idea of the Zep going to Taunk'le Village. That would be really nice to connect the tauren towns....maybe even one in Thousand Needles...
James May 22nd 2009 12:58PM
i dont know why this idea brings the most retarded responses. its going to happen, as confirmed by a dev so there really is no point in arguing if horde is getting an "unfair" advantage in terms of travel. who cares anyways you only have to experience this for the smallest portion of the game anyways
Arras May 22nd 2009 1:08PM
Usually when I want to blow someone off or respond without actually responding, I'll just say Ok.
Forums are lousy at displaying intent and inflection. There are lots of ways to say Ok and not all of them mean 'ok, we'll do that'.
just sayin'
mmm'kay?
Alchemistmerlin May 22nd 2009 1:39PM
Except he comes back and, on the NEXT PAGE, says "yeah, we're going to do that in an upcoming patch"
Read the comments before commenting
Calavera May 22nd 2009 1:12PM
While I never really played that much Horde this seems like a valid addition, giving TB-Org much the same connection as SW-IF has.
I don't mind much about low level traveling, but anything that makes it easier to travel between capitals and could spread out players would be great.
Also, I'm all for connecting the Exodar and Blood Watch FPs to the rest of Kalimdors FPs, and I can't wait to see where the Gnome Airport near IF will take us.
jeanericuser May 22nd 2009 1:26PM
Easy modes of transportation besides portal, boat, and blimp:
Catapult
Pros: Free fun view
Cons: Crash land somewhere nasty
Kodo Bus
Pros: Multiple people ride a bus powered by several fast running kodo
Cons: A big mount running over people traveling on smaller mounts or on foot would suck
Land Taxis:
Pros: We already have the wolf and gator riding mounts. Why not have a mount that runs you to there.
Cons: Same concept as bat/gryphin and just as expensive
Submarine:
Pros: Travel from org to silvermoon would be a snap and what better way than to travel by sea
Cons: land locked areas would not be accessible
Rollercoaster:
Pros: A fast coaster ride through some tunnels and lesser used areas takes you from bluff to org to ratchet to gadgetzan and back to bluff. How cool is that?
Cons: If players ride to long they should get a debuff that makes eating difficult
RogueJedi86 May 22nd 2009 1:39PM
Yes, connect Azuremyst/Bloodmyst to Darkshore next. Teldrassil connects to Darkshore via boat as well, but it also has a connecting flight path. Just have your hippogryph fly a certain distance, then loading screen and appear flying to Darkshore, same as when you take a boat. Exodar is the only faction capital that can't be flown to. Yes there's boats, but Horde zeppelin towns also have flightpaths. More people would go to Exodar if they didn't have to deal with the boats. When Thunder Bluff gets a zeppelin, you bet you'll still be able to use flightpaths to connect the towns.