The Random Expeditions: The Bael Modan Cave and the Invisible Hills of the Barrens

[Strangletusk]

Hey guys, Strangletusk here with the second episode is this new sorta-series of mine, The Random Expeditions - explorations in the game world that don't really all belong to a set theme, but are cool nonetheless

This second episode shows you two cool explorations that both take place in the South Barrens. Firstly, how to access the blocked cave at Bael Modan, and secondly, I show you a well...really WEIRD anomaly underneath the area around the Great Gate (at the join to Mulgore).

I've dubbed this type of anomaly an 'invisible hill'...there's more than just this one under the Barrens (I found some others accidentally but can't remember exactly where). They're kinda hard to describe quickly, so watch the video and you'll find out all about these odd anomalies that lets you stand underneath the world

Enjoy!

[Nyarly]

I like your stuff, keep them coming !

Do you have far seer, to check if you can see the relief of the invisible hill ?
Also, if you find something like that near some water, you should post it on the fishing spot thread, could be really usefull for botters.

[WizardTrokair]

Great find as always, Strangletusk!

I was going to do a thread like this myself... as I recently discovered one of these "invisible hills" now exists underneath Shattrath, of all places! Same mechanics as you describe above, and yes, I can confirm that the Fishing Chair can be placed on the 'invisible floor' of the hill.

+rep when I can...but you've been putting out stuff so quickly that I must spread before giving you more, as usual!

[Strangletusk]

I like your stuff, keep them coming !

Do you have far seer, to check if you can see the relief of the invisible hill ?
Also, if you find something like that near some water, you should post it on the fishing spot thread, could be really usefull for botters.

Aye, since I'm a hunter I have Eagle Eye, and I can confirm that you can't see any relief of the invisible hill. It's just weird...it's like you're just standing on an invisible wall, that happens to be in the shape of a hill with a flat top to it. I only called it a hill since it's weirdly hill-shaped, it's not actually a model as such that we just happen to not be able to see. I mean, it's even completely changed the death floor for these spots so it's directly below the 'top' of the hills. Bizarre, but cool

As for the fishing spot question, I'll have a look, but sadly the Barrens is largely devoid of water (well at least the South Barrens is).

I will take a look though

I was going to do a thread like this myself... as I recently discovered one of these "invisible hills" now exists underneath Shattrath, of all places! Same mechanics as you describe above, and yes, I can confirm that the Fishing Chair can be placed on the 'invisible floor' of the hill.

+rep when I can...but you've been putting out stuff so quickly that I must spread before giving you more, as usual!

I seem to have an odd habit of posting stuff just before you do Trokair, I do apologise :P

Haha, aye it's true I've been posting quite a lot of stuff recently...been putting out 2 videos a week for the past 2 weeks now, maybe I'll limit myself to just one a week to give you guys a chance haha

Oh and thanks for all the nice comments Trokair and NanaCry you've been giving me on my threads, I really appreciate it

[WizardTrokair]

I seem to have an odd habit of posting stuff just before you do Trokair, I do apologise :P

Ha! No need to apologize... we all do it... we're not mind readers! Great minds just think alike... the curse of the avid explorer, I suppose.

I just wanted to draw attention to this same phenomenon occurring under Shattrath (and beyond... it seems to be this way under some of Terrokar Forest too...a lot of Outlands now, actually.... so that is probably the best place for Nana and the botters to look for their underground fishing spot.)

Keep up the great work! I am absolutely thrilled with the current crop of Explorers posting on Ownedcore... and you are right up there at the top, StrangleTusk.

[Strangletusk]

Ha! No need to apologize... we all do it... we're not mind readers! Great minds just think alike... the curse of the avid explorer, I suppose.

I just wanted to draw attention to this same phenomenon occurring under Shattrath (and beyond... it seems to be this way under some of Terrokar Forest too...a lot of Outlands now, actually.... so that is probably the best place for Nana and the botters to look for their underground fishing spot.)

Keep up the great work! I am absolutely thrilled with the current crop of Explorers posting on Ownedcore... and you are right up there at the top, StrangleTusk.

D'aww thanks man, you really are too kind

Yeah, I've noticed that the "death-floor", so to speak, is a lot lot higher in Outland than well...pretty much anywhere else tbh. You can only really go a small distance under the ground before you can no longer go any further, and as you say, a similar phenomenon of being able to 'stand' under the world occurs under a lot of the zones in Outland. I found this to definitely be the case in Nagrand, for example (was exploring Oshu'gun a while back :P ). I'm sure this is also the case for a lot of the other zones in Outland.

It's weird that, considering the sheer number of zones in mainland Azeroth I've flown under, that I've only found this similar effect in the South Barrens and so far, nowhere else. Curious as well that it seems to be restricted to a few isolated locations, and instead of just having vertical invisible walls surrounding these spots, they are, well...curved, like 'hills'. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever understand even 10% of what Blizzard is thinking when they do these things. Truly bizarre.

[WizardTrokair]

It's weird that, considering the sheer number of zones in mainland Azeroth I've flown under, that I've only found this similar effect in the South Barrens and so far, nowhere else. Curious as well that it seems to be restricted to a few isolated locations, and instead of just having vertical invisible walls surrounding these spots, they are, well...curved, like 'hills'. Seriously, I don't think I'll ever understand even 10% of what Blizzard is thinking when they do these things. Truly bizarre.

I would bet that it has to do with the restructuring of the zone itself.... remember, Barrens got hit pretty hard in The Cataclsym... it was sundered... torn in half. My guess is that these invisible hills you are finding have to do with the old land vs. the new land... the restructuring of that zone.

If that theory is correct... I would imagine that you would find similar isolated locations, similar 'hills' underneath Stranglethorn Vale... since that zone was torn in half just like Barrens was. Just a theory, of course!

[Strangletusk]

I would bet that it has to do with the restructuring of the zone itself.... remember, Barrens got hit pretty hard in The Cataclsym... it was sundered... torn in half. My guess is that these invisible hills you are finding have to do with the old land vs. the new land... the restructuring of that zone.

If that theory is correct... I would imagine that you would find similar 'hills' underneath Stranglethorn Vale... since that zone was torn in half just like Barrens was. Just a theory, of course!

You know, I was thinking similar, and I would bet that that is probably the reason why. The Barrens used to = 1 zone, but now it is 2...and STV is currently the only other zone that changed in a similar way with the Cataclysm. I'll check it out tomorrow - I wouldn't be the remotest bit surprised if it was the case.

I think the whole 1 zone -> 2 zones could well be the key, because I have been under Stonetalon Mountains, one of the THE most changed zones in the Cataclysm, and not encountered any of these anomalies. So this would suggest that how much the zone changed while it stays as its own zone doesn't cause these invisible hills...but who knows? Until we truly study these in-depth over several zones for a long time will we have any decent idea why they are here. A project for us explorers

Oh I do love a project!

[iphigenieKT]

That invisible hill is awesome. Thanks

[OotHE]

I really liked the video - the glitches you showed were not overly complicated, yet they were interesting, and you went about their presentation nicely as well as made the instructions easy to follow. I'm sure everyone's eager to see what you cook up next! Haha, get it, 'cause a campfire? Lewl~ Anywho, keep up the good work! +rep towards your way.

Also, as an idea to what those hills might be - if there are similar ones around the world, their shape gives me the weird, weird feeling that they may have to do with NPC pathing. No clue why, but it's just a feeling. That, or phasing. BLIZZARD has experimented with literally moving mountains, so that'd be no surprise. Check and see if there are some quest givers in the area that might share attributes around those hill zones - I'm curious as to why they're there. Generally BLIZZARD doesn't delete stuff unless very necessary, so it certainly is something.


EDIT: I featured you on our channel if it helps ya. You should post on the thread of currently-updating profiles for YouTube that's stickied for you to be added. You deserve it.

[illas]

Excellent work as always, Mr Strangletusk.

The idea of it being a leftover from pre-Cata that was moved/missed in the zone splitting sounds plausible, particularly since we all know how Blizzard hates deleting anything (and, Ring of Valor aside, we love them for it...). I checked this out earlier, and I have the strangest memory of there being an Orc lookout fort around that area. One of those with gray stone walls and a red cloth roof that looks a bit like a bunker?
Maybe I'm mis-remembering it because it fits my idea, but the sheerness of the walls of this "hill" makes me think it's more likely to be a building.

Regardless, thanks for this video and keep up the good work

[Strangletusk]

I checked this out earlier, and I have the strangest memory of there being an Orc lookout fort around that area. One of those with gray stone walls and a red cloth roof that looks a bit like a bunker?
Maybe I'm mis-remembering it because it fits my idea, but the sheerness of the walls of this "hill" makes me think it's more likely to be a building.

I know the building model you're referring to, and it would fit it in shape, but...it's about 10, maybe even 20, times too small - the invisible 'hill' (for want of a better word) is just massive. But yeah, I'll look at some of the old maps and see if there was indeed a bunker around there. Also, usually you can see buildings under the world, even if only from one angle, and they don't modify the death-floor like this does, but aye...plausible until proven implausible as I say I'll check it out.

I really liked the video - the glitches you showed were not overly complicated, yet they were interesting, and you went about their presentation nicely as well as made the instructions easy to follow. I'm sure everyone's eager to see what you cook up next! Haha, get it, 'cause a campfire? Lewl~ Anywho, keep up the good work! +rep towards your way.

Also, as an idea to what those hills might be - if there are similar ones around the world, their shape gives me the weird, weird feeling that they may have to do with NPC pathing. No clue why, but it's just a feeling. That, or phasing. BLIZZARD has experimented with literally moving mountains, so that'd be no surprise. Check and see if there are some quest givers in the area that might share attributes around those hill zones - I'm curious as to why they're there. Generally BLIZZARD doesn't delete stuff unless very necessary, so it certainly is something.

EDIT: I featured you on our channel if it helps ya. You should post on the thread of currently-updating profiles for YouTube that's stickied for you to be added. You deserve it.

Thanks very much man for the nice positive feedback and for featuring me and naming me on your channel, that's really kind of you

As for your theory...well funnily enough, being right next to the Barrens-Mulgore join, and given the size of it, the invisible hill actually goes under Camp Taurajo a bit, if I'm not mistaken. And we all know ofc that that was a questgiver camp back before Cata. I roughly remember that the other invisible hill I found was around about one of the Ally quest-camps in the South Barrens too (I think the one east of the Battlescar), so it's definitely a recurring theme. Trokair found one under Shattrath too, which ofc, has lots of quest NPCs kicking about. I'll try and find more and if they all too have/had quests NPCs, then I think we can affirmatively say that aye, quest NPCs have something to do with it. Nice theory man, I'd sure as hell have never thought of it :P

[illas]

I know the building model you're referring to, and it would fit it in shape, but...it's about 10, maybe even 20, times too small - the invisible 'hill' (for want of a better word) is just massive. But yeah, I'll look at some of the old maps and see if there was indeed a bunker around there. Also, usually you can see buildings under the world, even if only from one angle, and they don't modify the death-floor like this does, but aye...plausible until proven implausible as I say I'll check it out.

True, true. I don't remember that area being particularly hilly either, which makes your theory more likely.
I just double-checked it from almost every angle and it looks like I was wrong; there's clearly no building.

Old NPC pathing code sounds *highly* plausible, particularly since I definitely remember camp Taurajo and the surrounding area featuring patrolling guards. Such an invisible hill could well have been placed beneath the ground and used to keep said guards from pathing into/over/around fixed position quest NPCs - essentially Blizzard "tagging" the area so their patrol AI doesn't intrude on it. Given that the Barrens was one of the earliest designed zones this might make sense, since back then Blizzard wasn't using the scripted pathing that they do now.
(With that said I fear I've not seen the Shattrath invisible hill, but it would appear to contradict the previous sentence...)

Still, interesting stuff

[Strangletusk]

With that said I fear I've not seen the Shattrath invisible hill, but it would appear to contradict the previous sentence...

Hmm, if something works, Blizz ain't gonna change it, so there's a good chance with the number of patrols going on in Shattrath and the fact it's not been changed for years now, that they still used the same system. I'll check out old ruins of quest hubs that had patrols and see if they also exhibit this invisible hill phenomenon.

A perfect example of Blizz's adherence to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy is how they go about 'submerging' things, for example, things half-buried in sand, in the sea-bed etc etc. If you can see part of the model, and the rest is apparently 'broken' (but actually submerged in the sand or whatever), then 99 times out of 100, the rest of the model will be under the world, intact. My Underwater Uncovered video for Menethil Harbour demonstrates this - 2 houses half stuck in the bottom of the bay as well as a boat, and lo and behold...go under the world and the rest of the models are there.

Makes it easy for me when I see something submerged to just go under and explore it though