Azeroth’s Lost Secret - “Underworld City”

[asdfx123]

Hey everyone,

Unfortunately I have been banned (which is not unexpected in a way). I doubt that it will be possible to get my account back once again. Creating a new account is no option for me. Therefore I have to play – if I play at all – on trial accounts. It is no secret that the diversity of exploration cannot really be experienced on a trial account. Consequently I cannot continue my work on some projects I have ever wanted to finish. This is why I apply to all of you. And now a little outline of what I’m talking about.

AZEROTH'S LOST SECRET – “Underworld City” [by Paku and Jabu]



Some people may think that Azeroth itself can be considered as “explored tarrain”. This actually isn’t quite true as this found proves. There is a city that lies deep under the ocean. It is devided in several districts - horde and alliance - different building models, crypts, towers, ships, trees and other objects that could not be classified yet. Before I start to give some more detailed information, here some screenshots so you get an impression.













(These screenshots were made with the wow machinima tool in 4.3.x)

In 4.0.x Paku (the real owner of this ownedcore account) and I (Jaburius) found this place which is located in the great sea. The reason why it has not been expored yet is that it is insanely difficult to reach. It lies under the ground of the ocean, even under the deathline, in the west of Gilneas.



Until now it was only possible to get there using offline mode and secondworld. One of the biggest problems is the camera which does not follow your character. The following pictures (high contrast) show the minimal camera range.









I should add: Most of the objects are connected to different areas. One of the horde building is connected to orgrimmar. When you enter the Crypts your channel will change to Karazhan. Have a look at the minimap of the following image (unfortunately german - it says "Hall of the Brave")



This screenshot was made while I was in secondworld (patch 4.3.x). Blizzard changed the place with MOP. They added more objects and trees. This is very weird.

Reaching this place - not in offline mode or secondworld - has been my destination for over a year. Now I share it with YOU since I'm not able to continue with it. I hope someone will find a way - new methods - new characteristics of this place. This is one of the last real secrets that Azeroth offers us. Take this into consideration.

Thank you for your great support concerning this project: Spiken (Neiru), Berserks, Mannoronno, Cruven

Jaburius, KotS

[WizardTrokair]

Amazing images and discovery, Jaburius and KotS. You are truly the Keeper of the Secrets! +7 rep for sharing.

A shame that you have been banned. I am surprised, as explorers are usually not banned for our activities. I am curious what put the final nail in your coffin with Blizzard?

I doubt I can make any headway on such an amazing and involved project... but I will look into it as always. I wonder what lay under the other continents?

Thank you!

[spoutnik]

Very impressive Jaburius ! Sad to hear you got banned

This city is the only remains of Tol'Barad from Cataclysm Alpha : indeed, when the Alpha launched, Tol'Barad was initially located in Eastern Kingdoms, and later in a beta patch Blizzard created a specific instance. And instead of deleting what they did in Eastern Kingdoms, they prefered to bury the buildings and the trees deep under water.

I once reached this place a few days before the end of Cataclysm, with some kind of heavy model-editing : I changed the y-coordinates of the the terrain all of the things that were here, so that they could be reachable witout going swimming in the deeps for a few minutes), and here's a few screenshots (remember, the objects are deep under the terrain, and on these screenshots I've moved them on the same level) :














Here's a video from Cataclysm Alpha showing the place : Cataclysm Alpha - New Battleground/PvP Zone: Tol Barad (HD) - YouTube (yes, done on a sandbox )

Blizzard changed the place with MOP. They added more objects and trees. This is very weird.

This is indeed very weird.

[Khamul40]

This is the alpha version of tol Barad. During the alpha, the first version of Tol Barad wasn't instanced. After, batiments wasn't deleted, just moved under map.

You can find others screenshots here : Voyages d'un Démoniste - Page 43.

This is a rare exploration, good job and nice screenshots !

Edit, rofl, Spoutnik is rapid !

[asdfx123]

Oh wow I did not expect this to be so "popular" in a way. And I also did not realize that these objects are artifacts from Cataclysm Alpha. Thank you for these impressive screenshots, spoutnik. But why are some of these buildings connected to areas such as orgimmar or karazhan? Doesn't sound logical to me.

[Khamul40]

This is just placeholders I think ^^.
There is the same placement configuration, 3 tours, 3 bases.. ect

[spoutnik]

But why are some of these buildings connected to areas such as orgimmar or karazhan? Doesn't sound logical to me.

Well, it's the same as the good old Ortell Hideouts that you could find in ZG, BWL and Dun'Morogh.

Short explanation : all of the WMOs (generic term, way better than building, cave...) have a reference to a special ID that refers to a certain name, located in the list of all the zone name in the game (a file called AreaTable.dbc). In the wiki page of the WMOs, there is a reference to a "WMO/v17 ID (column 2 in WMOAreaTable.dbc)" that links to this DBC containing :

11 iRefID_AreaTable Integer If 0, the underlying terrain is asked for its id.
12-28 Name String + Loc The name of the area. If 0, an AreaTable query is made.

And, why did Blizzard not changed those things ? Well, testing purpose probably, and lazyness ^^

[Shunt1900]

Something that I've not seen before. Amazing discovery thanks for sharing. I will definitely be checking this out. +rep

I'm also as curious as Trokair to why they banned you. I've been caught doing exploration before and so far they've only teleported me outside Orgrimmar and I received no warnings.

[akspa420]

Great to see these types of explorations! It's strange to see Blizzard leave a bit of alpha TB in the game, when they're obviously cracking down on people from exploring the game world. Now I want to see if these WMO's exist in the ADT's or if they're spawned as gameobjects, thus thwarting us from seeing them on private servers...

[Strangletusk]

Something that I've not seen before. Amazing discovery thanks for sharing. I will definitely be checking this out. +rep

I'm also as curious as Trokair to why they banned you. I've been caught doing exploration before and so far they've only teleported me outside Orgrimmar and I received no warnings.

Agreed, I find this a bit weird too. You've been exploring for quite some time now, and not exactly secretively, so Blizz must've already known about you...so why ban you now?

Personally, I've been lucky enough to not have been banned, caught or received any warnings, but I'm not naive enough to expect this state of affairs to continue. I just hope that when they do eventually ban me that it's not a perma-ban or I can get my account back.

[Ebah]

very cool.

[Nyarly]

This is so very cool, +5 rep
I told you to explore underwater content !


I'll share you my account, check your PMs.

[Nonpareill]

Very cool, i never even knew this was here! I really enjoyed looking at the pictures.

No idea how i would go bout getting there though without the methods you mentioned above

+rep

And sorry to hear you got banned.

[Thurok]

I remembe this a few months ago when you shared it with me, and this is what u we're talking about in skype i see, pretty epic man :3

I'll try to find more about it, BRB!

[Hurricaanz]

This is very damn interesting! I wonder what else is down at the bottom of the sea.. + rep man and I'm sorry to hear about the ban