[Preview] Development

[MoD]

eLo!

Today i'm glad to present you, if not the most secret/unseen, one of the funniest map to explore:


A few notes:

First, be assured that those are not the old vanilla-wow development maps.

This is only a preview as I'm for the moment unable to fully explore the maps due to various technical issues:

-Those files aren't really meant to be used on a retail client as some PM4 files are shipped along with the ADTs, holding some coords & several values of unknown purpose (they could either be used by WoWEdit, or for pathing some server informations for phasing & other dynamic content)
-There are obviously a lot of missing files, and quite a few are 0Kb sized. Several map chuncks either miss the objects or the ground under them we could expect to find when looking at both those minimaps: Wotlk dev map | Cataclysm dev map.
(For example, the snowy versions of WSG/AB's objects are there, but miss terrain ) Some interesting chuncks of the map are unfortunaly missing.
-The WDT seems to be source of trouble and won't let me explore the map on the default development map (MapID:451) or any others I tried to swap it with.

For some if not all of the above reasons, WoW more then often kicks you out of the game world back to main menu, along with rare #132s. To get those preview shots, I had to use some brutal & inappropriate terrain swap, which means limited explorable world space & altered perceptions as part of ground, models & skyboxes of the original zones are still around.

It is safe to assume that I managed to cover about 50% of the map, so until I figure out how get everything working, the rest will remain ...SECRET!

~

Development is huge, and features several zones & subzones:
[spoiler]
Programmer Isle:
Dead Man's Hole
Jeff NE Quadrant Changed
Jeff NW Quadrant
Jeff SE Quadrant
Jeff SW Quadrant
Chunk Test
Pattymack Land

Designer Island:
Sub Zone
claytonio test area

Development Land:
Claytön's WoWEdit Land
Bernau's Happy Fun Land
Familiars

Brian and Pat Test < in development but not a subzone of any of the three above zones
[/spoiler]

Eventhough I haven't found all of those yet, you might be interested by some of the ones I went to:

A slightly updated Programmer Isle, the only one with destructible objects in whole development (info by Schlumpf) used in this quest:

[spoiler]








[/spoiler]

Part of Designer Island, Claytonio Test Area:
[spoiler]





[/spoiler]

A Nerubian (thanks for correcting me) underground base, artificially caved in using a single giant inverted stalagmite model:
[spoiler]









[/spoiler]

And yet another Alterac Valley design, slightly different than the alpha, old (classic) & current versions of the map:
[spoiler]


[/spoiler]

Some kind of fortress made from various mixed up models "BSM's Style":
[spoiler]




[/spoiler]

Here are some more random testing places I found, from simple terrain tests ones to others where obviously some of Blizzard's devs went wild with WoWEdit!:
[spoiler]























[/spoiler]

I hope you enjoyed this little tour, and are too willing as much as me to see the unseen!

~

For those willing to dig deeper for some additional fun stuff, here is an incomplete list of quests taking place in development:
[spoiler]
Programmer Isle:
The Pattymac Special
Omar's Test Quest
Designer Island:
Kanrethad's Quest
Test Kill Quest
[TXT] Goblin Savages
<DEPRECATED>Control
<UNUSED>
One Shot, One Kill
Clayton's Quest: Extreme!!
Test Quest - Craig
Can You Get This Quest While I'm In Combat?
If You're Reading This While I'm In Combat...
[/spoiler]

~

This post will be edited as further progress is made, also I will release the files to everyone once I figure the problems out or give up; no need to beg for them

~

As for where credits should go, appart from me for pulling this whole mess, i'd like to say thanks to:
Aléquia/Saouline (from Ridpef)
Alram for being a awesome longrun supporter.
Schlumpf for your help at fixing the map / understanding PM4 files.
Cromon for the ME fix, and being a patient & resolute debugger.
Someoneicantmentionhere

~

UPDATE 05-24-2011:
[spoiler]

eLo

I'm not dead & gone, yet.

First I'd like to apologise for the lack of news, but my IRL life lastly took over anything else, leaving very short time for anything but small []Minecraft[] sessions, not to mention that my WoW dedication is for the moment frozen (I haven't done anything wow related for months...)

I still have the files (finally fixed my HD to recover them), the ingame crashes problems were also fixed (with the talented help of Aléquia /hug), meaning the areas are fully explorable, I didn't feel like releasing them back then, letting the 'special' tag over "Development" (remember, I kind of a 'secretive' person), and knowning that The Royal IdP Essploring Fundation RidPEF was working on a video showcase just conforted my decision. (As I'm confident that they will do it much better then I would have had on my own as I don't have much time)

But the fact that some of you have been waiting for months also concerns me, so I'm seriously thinking about releasing the CORE filesin an archive (the original ADTs -untouched/unedited-, not packed in a ready to use MPQ) along with a few tips about the path to follow to get them working (which DOESrequires quite some time/work), letting the door to the few truelly dedicated ones open, but closed to the uninitiates.

I'll talk about this possible 'pre-release' to some individuals's opinions's I care about (A_Snake01, Schlumpf_, some people from Nogg-Aholic/RidPEF communities) before taking a final decision, so stay tuned.
[/spoiler]

UPDATE 07-31-2011:
[Spoiler]
To those who can't wait: As you already know, those files are special to my/others eyes, development being the most anticipated and desired but also the hardest map to get/explore ever, source of many hopes and disappointments. Holding the files back may sound cruel to your/others ears, but be aware that I could also have left them private forever, seeing I'm the only one (among the very few others who own them) willing to ever release them to public.
Don't expect any files released before the 15th of august. After that date you may want to put your hopes back up high.
[/Spoiler]

UPDATE 08-15-2011:
[Spoiler]
Come back tomorrow!
[/Spoiler]

[Xel]

Yes! Thanks for sharing this with the public
This maps are amazing as the images show.
Can't wait to see these maps myself :>

How did you manage tho find those quests? I mean, seriously, this is incredible.
Never seen a "preview" of something this size and this ... impressive.

Have some cookies - no- have the whole jar !

EDIT: Too much cookies given to you lately, you'll have to wait a little longer for them

[culdin]

holy cow.....

this is epic.....

[Amonfel]

love that, you did a great job here, +rep.

[amd]

this is truly amazing +rep

[rchy]

Im confused.... did this guy just find a secret place that hardly/knowone knows about? Without model edits? Like, is it like GM Island where you can fly for a certain distance and get their, or is it like Emerald Dream where it's instanced, but you somehow still found a way in?

[Leonim]

That ain't a undead underground base.... That's Nerubian! Could it be the under kingdom below Northrend?

[WizardTrokair]

Im confused.... did this guy just find a secret place that hardly/knowone knows about? Without model edits?

From what I'm reading, he's extracting information that exists in the game files and exploring the areas. I'm not too much up on this stuff... I think it does fall under the realm of model editing. Normally I'd say it should probably go in that forum... but with a discovery and exploration of this magnitude... wow... just wow man...

Very impressed with what I'm seeing. Makes me want to start looking into all this MPQ, PM4, ADT business and start exploring myself...

+rep for some in-depth work here. Amazing.

[rchy]

I'm still confused... so can he do that all on a live server? Like get the quests etc?

[Xel]

From what I'm reading, he's extracting information that exists in the game files and exploring the areas. I'm not too much up on this stuff... I think it does fall under the realm of model editing. Normally I'd say it should probably go in that forum... but with a discovery and exploration of this magnitude... wow... just wow man...

Very impressed with what I'm seeing. Makes me want to start looking into all this MPQ, PM4, ADT business and start exploring myself...

+rep for some in-depth work here. Amazing.

This, at least for now, belongs to exploration as it is definitely one of the most impressive developer map finds/previews we have seen this far.
This is something completely new and - as I believe - the first time these maps have ever been visited/seen by non zone-designers.

What comes to the relation with model editing:
I think what MoD did here was an ADT swap (made WoW load these map files by changing a normal ones to these), as he said, they are not
meant to be loaded with a retail client, which pretty much make them special already.

[EddyEvil]

Wow, this is epic! Very, very, veryy nice find.

[Daaltonwow]

This is very impressive. These could be things added in future patches/xpacs.

+rep all day

[Omgwtfowned]

This is amazing +rep. Like literally this is so impressive I notice a lot of these zones are like alpha models of the zones we have today. COMPLETELY AMAZING!

EDIT: "Kanrethad's Quest" I think this is the alpha quest of the Death Knight Starting Zone, maybe they had to test the abilities or something.

[Xel]

After Reading this Post I was so amazed I forgot I had grilled cheese sitting next to me on the table but now its cold.

That sentence sounds somehow familiar , are you sure it wasn't your pizza that got cold?
(check noggaholic the movie quotes from the beginning of the video)

[Daaltonwow]

After Reading this Post I was so amazed I forgot I had grilled cheese sitting next to me on the table but now its cold.

Copying off nogg? Lol fail.