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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Unfinished business
by James Koon 
May 16th 2010 at 8:00AM
What I found surprised me. In The Park alone, there are many unused buildings: an inn, an archery shop, another shop with scrolls on the counters, and yet another shop filled with wine barrels. All lack NPCs and purpose. In fact, out of all of the shops, there is only one NPC in any of the buildings: a night elf herbalism trainer, whose name you cannot see because it clips into the shelves above.
So I decided to actually pay attention to the rest of Stormwind. The buildings leading into Cut-Throat Alley are empty. There's a large hall in the Dwarven District that is also missing signs of life. These are just a few quick examples of unfinished areas in Azeroth. Other examples might include the unfinished dwarven farming area on the southern border of Wetlands, Old Ironforge or the upper ring of Undercity.
Our beloved Azeroth, in all of its awesomeness, at times seems utterly barren and unfinished. With Cataclysm on the horizon, I for one hope many of these lifeless areas are revisited by the development team and given purpose. What is your favorite unused area, and what do you think the Blizzard developers should do with it?
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Reader Comments (Page 5 of 6)
Leviathon May 16th 2010 1:43PM
Areas are all pretty used in Cataclysm although the Park is kinda gone now.
Banshkeed May 16th 2010 1:44PM
I'm not sure if anyone ever found this spot, but after you cross the ice bridge to Frostwhisper Gorge if you make a left, there's a very hard to see path to a dwarf's grave. I added it to Wowwiki when I first saw it with my first toon at that level in Vanilla.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Frostwhisper_Gorge
I wrote the second paragraph of the notes all those years ago. ^_^
Banshkeed May 16th 2010 1:56PM
I just found out that the area I was referring to was a part of a chain and the site fo the quest Decoy!. I thought I found something special for the past 4 years lol.
Dreyja May 16th 2010 9:08PM
Hopefully anyone who has farmed the reins of a Winterspring Frostsaber has found that gorge. It`s also the reason you can`t get any good money for the enchant of greater frost protection. :)
Sakirsha May 16th 2010 2:06PM
The island off the coast of Ratchet. There are a pile of NPCs there, but it seems that they never got around to throwing a quest or two in. It's a fantastic place for a roleplay-militial guild to hold trainings and even mock-duels.
dwarfish May 16th 2010 3:11PM
I think the island you are referring to is the one where warriors had to go to complete a quest to learn beserk stance.
Glaras May 16th 2010 5:48PM
Yep, that's the place.
Sakirsha May 18th 2010 3:59AM
Oooh! Heee serves me right for not having leveled a warrior. Thanks for that, never knew.
Skarlette May 16th 2010 2:20PM
Just when I think I've explored every nook and cranny in the game, I discover something new. After five years it blows my mind that there are still bits to discover.
For instance, how many of you know that there's a second floor to the building with the mage/priest/paladin trainers in Ironforge? None of my friends did. Unless you have a dwarf paladin, you never have any reason to go up there. I only discovered it recently when I made a dwarf paladin alt and was sent there on a class quest.
It's a cool spot with unique architecture and a nice view of the Mystic Ward.
I've been in that room HUNDREDS of times through the years for training and incoming ports, and I had never been upstairs. I was flabbergasted, and it makes me wonder what else I'm missing! :)
JackdawX May 17th 2010 5:37AM
Wow, really?! That's amazing, I had no idea! Where's the stairs, at the back? Huge worlds like WoW are great, I love exploring.
Skarlette May 17th 2010 12:55PM
Yeah, the stairs sort of run diagonally across the back wall, starting on the right side.
MeanGreen May 16th 2010 2:29PM
WTB Player Shop system.
If only one could pay ~30k (gotta make it hard to obtain folks) for a licence to an NPC in a shop for a month(varying time is available 'o course) The player would give the stuff to the NPC and could sit back and relax in his shop.
Hoggersbud May 16th 2010 5:59PM
I'm not seeing the value in this over the current AH system.
dyre42 May 16th 2010 2:52PM
Old Ironforge is pretty neat. I found it by accident. I was feared into it while defending the king and decided to take a look around. Its totally finished but is vacant and appears to have some serious significance in Dwarven lore. Its like a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in bacon. I'd love to see it fully developed someday.
Tobiathin May 16th 2010 3:01PM
Revisit them? Repopulate them? Eeee! Nuuu!
Us roleplayers have used these barren sanctuaries as hubs for meetings and gatherings. It deterred any griefers / general public because there wasn't any reason for other people to even go there. Other roleplayers would have plenty reason! But the world would just see it as some useless den!
If these places were to be filled, there would be no capital city sanctums for roleplayers. Which is a ghastly scare indeed.
icepyro May 16th 2010 3:31PM
If these places are for RPers, can they be filled on nonRP servers please? There's not many who hang out in the occupied buildings. So those empty places feel like the bad part of town. On second thought, maybe they shouldn't. A npc suddenly showing up may chase people off thinking they are going to get mugged.
Hoggersbud May 16th 2010 5:57PM
People do like to RP on non-RP servers too.
Ayiano May 16th 2010 3:34PM
"Unfinished?" "Empty?" There are no unfinished or empty buildings on roleplay servers! Seriously, in SW, you can walk around to many empty buildings and see them in use by players as guild headquarters, player-run taverns, etc. See? These were kept empty for a reason because, BLIZZARD DOES CARE ABOUT RP SERVERS! :D
Empty.....please.......
Crome May 16th 2010 5:33PM
I sometimes fear that the empty buildings are more 'placeholders' for possible future content (ie. for future profession trainers, etc.) rather than purposefully left empty for rp'ers. One of my fears is that when they remake Azeroth most of these places won't be so empty...and thus we rp'ers will have fewer places to do our thang.
Just look at Outland...lots of barren empty places...but nothing rp-friendly at all...the fricken World's End Tavern doesn't even have usable chairs! WotLK was a little better. If you can get past the horrible lag (and hopefully Cata will help with that some), Dalaran has some good taverns. But no empty buildings. Some of the Northrend towns would be good for rp'ing...as long as you can get people to them. I just hope this is a sign that Blizz IS keeping rp'ers in mind, at least a little, rather than just incidentally/accidentally.
Please don't make Azeroth bland, Blizzard!
Spoiler below:
we've already seen from the leaked photos that the Park, which is chalk full of empty rp spots, and is only really used by Rp'ers and druids, is destroyed. Hopefully they open up as many rp spots as they destroy...but somehow I doubt it.
Angrycelt May 16th 2010 6:32PM
continuing the Cata spoilers...
Looking across to the other side of the city though, that lake, the open area, that little building off on its own. Hopefully there can be suitable replacements there.
Side question - Is there something going on with Moonwells? Auberdine, Park district of SW... both seem to have gone big boom. If so, Teldrassil is screwed.