Has anyone noticed a change at the airstrip?

[LochnarITB]

A couple days ago, I was flying from Ironforge to Menethil. As I flew over the airstrip up in the mountains of Dun Morogh, I looked down. It appeared that the airstrip was populated and there was a battle going on. There were red names and green names in close proximity. I wasn't low enough to see any detail but it certainly looked like there was fighting happening. Has anyone tried getting there lately? With the downtime and other things happening, I forgot to see if there was now a way to easily get up there.

[Tal]

I've heard the gun shots and other signs of fighting but haven't been quick enough to look down and see what is going on. :blush:

[Icebird]

There was a thread on undocumented patch changes on the official forums. Periodically trolls or yetis or troggs or someone emerge from a cave near the airstrip and fight a battle with the dwarves there.

I've heard reports from people who have visited the airstrip in its unpopulated state. I've never got round to trying to find a way in myself.

Chris

[savaughn]

There was a thread on undocumented patch changes on the official forums. Periodically trolls or yetis or troggs or someone emerge from a cave near the airstrip and fight a battle with the dwarves there.

I've heard reports from people who have visited the airstrip in its unpopulated state. I've never got round to trying to find a way in myself.

Chris
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It's really straightforward to get there, and it's not a long walk. Just make a hard left coming out of Ironforge and hug the wall until you get around to the back. Then it's just a simple walk over the hills and you can drop into the airstrip (or into the farm area between IF and Menethil Bay).

[LochnarITB]

It's really straightforward to get there, and it's not a long walk.  Just make a hard left coming out of Ironforge and hug the wall until you get around to the back.  Then it's just a simple walk over the hills and you can drop into the airstrip (or into the farm area between IF and Menethil Bay).
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I'll have to give it a try again. I've tried that and a couple other paths I found in various forums and could not get there. I assumed changes had been made in terrain to block the passage. Being ever the explorer, I would like to get up there and see what's going on with the area.

[Abattoir]

I'll have to give it a try again.  I've tried that and a couple other paths I found in various forums and could not get there.  I assumed changes had been made in terrain to block the passage.  Being ever the explorer, I would like to get up there and see what's going on with the area.
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You! Explorer! Few weeks ago I found a guy in a hut and a stable on the Eastern coastline of Arathi. Didn't have much to say to me and no one on at the moment knew anything about it. Any idea what this is or why he's there? I was swimming south from The Hinterlands coastline since I couldn't find a way back up the cliff...heh...

[Darian]

Has anyone tried getting there lately?  With the downtime and other things happening, I forgot to see if there was now a way to easily get up there.
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Arleas and I got bored and made the trip tonight. Got a ton of screenies which I need to get formatted and posted.

Some highlights:

The gryphon master at the airstrip is a placeholder -- a Stormpike Mountaineer.

At both the airstrip and the Menethil farm, there are Dun Algaz-style tunnels heading generally toward Ironforge. The airstrip tunnel is blocked off only a few feet in -- but the other one runs about 200 yards before opening up onto a vast... nothing. Arleas decided to jump. Fell for about 20 seconds before going splat.

Near the Menethil farm, there's a four-way crossroad; one road leads to the farm area that you fly over, another leads to the above-mentioned tunnel, and the other two roads sort of peter out after a bit (more on that in a second). At the crossroads, there's one of the usual road junction signposts... with signs saying "This Way," "That Way," and "The Other Way."

The other two roads both lead out onto a massive plain of empty grass. I mean, massive. To the north, this plain rolls right up to the top of the Raptor Grounds and Whelgar's Excavation Site; to the east... you ever noticed on your mini-map that lake to the west of Dun Algaz and south of Angerfang? The one you can't get to from below? The plain rolls right up to it. From the hillocks surrounding the shores, I was able to get overhead screenshots of Dun Algaz, the Spider/Incendicite Cave, and Angerfang. Anyway, we're talking about real estate stretching all the way from Menethil Bay to Dun Algaz west-to-east and from Angerfang to Dun Algaz north-to-south. If it were populated, a dozen (people/groups) could probably hunt there without contention.

There's some very odd ground texture seams up there, too. Grass cutting straight into rock on a straight line. Obviously still needs some work.

[LochnarITB]

You!  Explorer!  Few weeks ago I found a guy in a hut and a stable on the Eastern coastline of Arathi.
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Using WarAtlas, I see that there is a pretty good sized piece of land outside the border mountains on the SE corner of Arathi. I don't know what they are doing there but it certainly looks like it should be some sort of quest destination... or maybe a farmer who just found a nice little spot to get away from it all. :)

[edit] I found the little farm. The was a farmer (sleeping in his bed) and his wife (doing chores), along with a couple rams in a little shelter. Talking to them got me directions to various things in Dun Morogh. They seemed to think they were Dun Morogh guards. :blink: It also has a good sized dock. It almost looks like it could be the sea link to a yet to be named third continent.

[LochnarITB]

with signs saying "This Way," "That Way," and "The Other Way."
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Now I have to get there! :lol:

[edit] I still can't get there. I'm wondering if your race matters. Maybe little gnome legs can't catch the places they need to. I try to run and I try to jump. I've tried blink. I can see what looks like a shallow sloped valley that I think I need to get to but I just can't get my little toon over there. There are a few trees at the edge that I can get to. I've tried getting above them to use them as an anchor but no go. I guess I'm just not de uber at this rock climbing exploration thing. Oh well.

[Darian]

A couple days ago, I was flying from Ironforge to Menethil.  As I flew over the airstrip up in the mountains of Dun Morogh, I looked down.  It appeared that the airstrip was populated and there was a battle going on.  There were red names and green names in close proximity.  I wasn't low enough to see any detail but it certainly looked like there was fighting happening.  Has anyone tried getting there lately?  With the downtime and other things happening, I forgot to see if there was now a way to easily get up there.
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It's not easy. When you make the hard left out of IF, you sort of have to hug the wall until you reach a tower sort of thing at the SE end of the "gates." You have to try and approach the base of that tower from the highest possible elevation, traverse the very narrow valley beyond that tower while losing as little elevation as possible, then roll around the following ridge while failing to slide below the snow line, then angle sharply to follow that ridge up into the next valley, far enough that you manage to get past the tree line. Even knowing how to do it... it still can take multiple attempts, and each time you fail you have to go back to the gates of Ironforge to try again, because you simply can't get enough elevation any other way. (The previous sentence probably irrelevant for priests with feathers.)

Once you're past that, it's all gravy... until it comes time to drop down into the Wetlands. (Each time you take a plunge downward while doing that, it is vitally important that you make sure you're at full health before dropping down again, otherwise you're probably going to be having a pleasant conversation with your friendly local spirit healer.)

[Darian]

...and the reply I just posted was supposed to be a reply to you, not to the main post. Inattention 4tw!

[Bolty]

There's some very odd ground texture seams up there, too.  Grass cutting straight into rock on a straight line.  Obviously still needs some work.
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Back in certain phases in the beta when it was laughably easy to climb ANY mountain in the game (due to bad pathing logic), you could go anywhere, really. There are dozens of vast plains of nothingness in the game on both continents - Blizzard was really thinking ahead and gave themselves lots of room to expand without having to add another continent or something.

Many of these cannot be accessed anymore, but some still can - glad you had a chance to explore.

My FIRST DAY of beta testing back in Phase I, I found that there was a place on the west side of the Gnome/Dwarf starting area that you could climb up and go over mountain ridges to inaccessible areas. I reported it back then.

They still haven't fixed it. If you want to look for it, it can let you get up to Gnomeregan - on TOP of Gnomeregan, where there's nothing but a snowy plain. Also, if you want to risk falling deaths, there's actually a house out on the beach in the middle of absolutely nowhere, west of that newbie zone. Must have been put in way back in the day and then forgotten about.

-Bolty

[LochnarITB]

It's not easy.  When you make the hard left out of IF, you sort of have to hug the wall until you reach a tower sort of thing at the SE end of the "gates."
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I finally made it to the airstrip! It took just the right mouse wiggle to hug the mountain as I went around from the front gate but, once I got the feel for it, I could see how to get there. The trick is to progress around without dropping and the mouse wiggle starts my toon stepping forward just as he's about to drop.

When I first got up beyond my past tries, I looked back.. You can see Ironforge to the right. Right behind that position was this camp. There was nobody there, but someone has to tend that fire so they must have been exploring too. I kept going around the top of the mountain until I was looking down on the Wetlands too far below to see. Going farther around, I'm looking down on Dun Morogh, again too high to see all the way down. Notice that there is a guard patrolling up there, just in case I get lost and need better directions. A little farther and I'm standing on top of Ironforge. I head back around in an attempt to find my first intended destination.

I travelled easily over a couple hills and, in the distance, I think I see where I want to be. Sure enough, there it is! I got down there and started looking around. The only building there is one of the Loch Modan style guard towers. The entrance to it is blocked at the stairs, but you can get past it with a little jump and climb in the corner of the blocking stone. It looked just like the Loch Modan guard towers inside too, without any guards once you get past the front door. There is a gryphon area there but the gryphon master must have been on break and the guardsman watching things for him wouldn't offer me a ride. There are a couple mounted patrols roaming around and several other rather confused friendlies. This one seems to think he's at the races in Thousand Needles. There is a tunnel leading away from the area but it is blocked by a large curtain. Turning slightly allows one to see behind the curtain. It looks like there will be a tunnel to Ironforge, once the airstrip becomes functional.

There are baddies there too. They spawn in one to three groups of three outside a little cave past the lake at the end of the airstrip. They are level 4-8 so they stack up nicely with the pop of an arcane explosion. The drops are only worth a few copper but a lot of linen drops if you happen to need to farm some for an alt. Because the battles are rather trivial, the guards tend to get bored. You can find one dwarf dancing while his little friend does a silent cheer and the other claps along. You can also find them practicing gestures like salute and shout. That was pretty much my tour of the airstrip. I hope they eventaully have a place that we can fly to from there. It would be fun to be able to hop in a plane and go.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the farmlands mentioned. I tried getting there from the airstrip. That attempt ended when I took a misstep and hit bottom before I thought to hit feather fall. My ghost ended up in the cemetary out in the Wetlands so I was done. I might have to head for the other area another time.