Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW Moviewatch: Stormwind and Ironforge Alpha
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:00PM
In celebration of today ushering in five years of WoW, let's take a step away from traditional Moviewatch material and look at some early alpha and beta footage from Stormwind and Ironforge.
The footage is quite astounding when you watch it. You'll notice that there are entire sections of both cities which have changed dramatically, and indeed Ironforge itself was nearly entirely revamped to remove the "second level" from it. You can see remnants of the second level of Ironforge today in that there are some oddly placed balconies and doors -- it all looks normal to us now, but when you watch the video you can see that it looks much more natural the way it was.
The "internet consensus" is that alpha Ironforge was changed because people were getting themselves lost all the time in it -- something which isn't very good for a starting city. However as far as I can tell that never came out of published comments from a WoW designer, so take it with a grain of salt.
And yes, before some you inevitably ask, Patches of Yesteryear will be returning this week -- although we'll only be running it once every other week due to time constraints.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
andy Nov 23rd 2009 12:46PM
you can still get up to the second floor with slowfall (parachute cape might work) rocketboots (being mounted works but it much harder) the sewer entrance and some luck, its quite cool to do i would recommend on on a mage or an engineer
Alanid Nov 23rd 2009 12:56PM
I think there will be some of the new undead architecture in Lordaeron City in Cataclysm. But I think Blizz will try to stay close to what they shown in the Warcraft 3 cinematics.. and tbh I hope they do because that city looked awesome.
Traneth Nov 23rd 2009 12:20PM
If they were worried about ppl getting lost I wonder why they left Undercity so, lol. They even left in the UC Boss(the elevator) as a wonderful starting encounter =D
Anyway, should be cool to see it in the expac with it all opened.
netheray Nov 23rd 2009 1:13PM
So I'm not the only one who constantly dies by falling down that elevator shaft? That's a relief!
Jack Miles Nov 23rd 2009 12:22PM
The two tiered IF looks cool, but HOLYCRAP old tinker town. Why did the change that? The Alpha one looks Amazing!
Ringo Flinthammer Nov 23rd 2009 1:30PM
You're missing the giant pile of bodies at the bottom. The elevator was apparently gnomish tech, too.
linkers746 Nov 23rd 2009 2:41PM
Lol @ ringo, but yeah, that old tinker town looked really really cool.
Jason Nov 23rd 2009 12:22PM
There's also a great vid out there of Orgrimmar in alpha or beta...not only is the city fairly different, the filmed runs around as a troll female, which had a completely different model.
Falcon6 Nov 23rd 2009 12:23PM
I've always loved the idea of a city like Ironforge alpha in WoW. Two stories, filled with shops and such for both the RPer and the regular player. Dalaran was close to it with the ground floor and the sewer level.
You know, with the revamping of old content in Cataclysm and the fact that most people will start to use home cities as their hearthstone point again, they should definitely consider giving Ironforge that second story again. Especially since flying mounts will make going through the city a breeze.
Then again, I'm a dreamer.
maeby Nov 23rd 2009 12:26PM
heh your definitely dreaming if you think there gonna allow flying mounts in IF
Darkthunder Nov 23rd 2009 1:14PM
Maeby: Then we must all be dreamers, since Blizzard have said themselves that they are gonna be revamping most of the old world capitols specifically to allow for flying mounts.
You ever seen what Orgrimmar REALLY looks like? All the cities are currently technically "instances".
On a related note: Holy crap the Alpha Ironforge looked awesome. Bring it back !!!
Ringo Flinthammer Nov 23rd 2009 1:33PM
Hopefully they reconsider flying in capitol cities, then. Dalaran is much more successful than Shattrath ever was.
The world does not need 10,000 idiots hovering on their dragons by the fountain in Stormwind.
Falcon6 Nov 23rd 2009 2:03PM
I would hope that if they use the Dalaran tech to avoid stuff like the Alliance/Horde doing a sort of air attack on Stormwind/Orgrimmar, they would also add special places inside the capitals where takeoff is easy. You know, not just the entrance to Orgrimmar...maybe make it so the flight path tower is a way to fly out of the city...and make another tower near the Warrior/Hunter trainers.
The dwarfs could also create a new entrance to the right side of Ironforge as a way to get to the airstrip. That way, they could move the flight point there and make that area the basic flight entrance.
Heck, maybe with Tinker Town becoming obsolete, or moving due to the Gnomes possibly retaking Gnomeregan, the dwarfs could use that space as a sort of transportation hub. The tram would stay there and a ramp would be build that would take you straight into the airstrip.
Again, just dreaming.
Utakata Nov 23rd 2009 6:54PM
This is one of the things I am excited about Cat, which this video touched upon with showing Stormwind first....is that these semi open cities will be redesigned yet again to allow us to fly into (like Shatt). Or least around (like Dala). It will be interesting to what they will do with Stormwind.
Dedrae Nov 23rd 2009 12:25PM
wtb alpha ironforge back so awesome. get lost? ask a guard too bad IF be flooded in cata
Rexton Nov 23rd 2009 1:12PM
It's not being flooded.
edumansky Nov 23rd 2009 4:03PM
/\ This.
RetPallyJil Nov 23rd 2009 12:26PM
You know, I've been wondering what "Old" SW looked like ever since you had that article on early patches. One line said something like, "Stormwind map has changed," and I thought, "Eh? I must know what it looked like!"
And now I know. TY :D
Pimmeh Nov 23rd 2009 12:28PM
Man yeah, two tiered IF looks amazing. I always thought Ironforge was too small for the main dwarven city anyway.
RogueJedi86 Nov 23rd 2009 12:34PM
Especially compared to Blackrock Depths' size as the Dark Iron Dwarf capital. Ironforge should've been on a scale to rival BRD. Double levels would've been close enough.