Many turns of the moon ago Naithipe was in Feralas. She was doing a little special questing and another lower level player that was in the area had asked Naithipe for some help. She obliged. With two players the quest was quickly completed, Naithipe got a thank you, and the player went on his way. All very normal stuff. What got Naithipe's attention, though, was what happened when she first entered the quest area. A banner appeared telling her that she had completed the exploration of Feralas, earning the Achievement for that accomplishment. The date was March 26th, 2009.
That planted a seed within Naithipe. It wasn't an obsession (and Naithipe certainly has her obsessions), but after that Naithipe made it a point to seek out exploration achievements during her travels. The urge to explore grew even stronger as the time of the Cataclysm drew closer. There was great uncertainty about how exploration would be affected by Cata, but Naithipe knew that no matter how that turned out, it was important to her that she see this world in all it's entirety before Cata altered it completely and irrevocably.
No one in Naithipe's adopted family had ever completely explored the world they lived in. She was determined to be the first to do so. This past weekend she set out to see just how far she could get. Now it was an obsession. Before she could begin, though, Naithipe needed to determine where she had already been. After all, she had been gathering exploration achievements ever since Feralas. But how much was left to do? There are four major areas of the world of Azeroth: the two continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Continent (which make up the original world); the Draenei space debris called Outland that settled into the skies (during the Burning Crusade); and the great island of Northrend was discovered (during WotLK). Within those land masses are 61 individual zones of exploration. Within those zones are literally thousands of areas to explore.
Naithipe was all about the doing of things, but not necessarily the recording of things. Where photos exist of her explorations, she'll share them. Some of those areas will no longer exist or be greatly altered by Cata.
Since Naithipe got her first completed exploration in Feralas, which is a zone within Kalimdor, Naithipe decided she would document in pictures the original exploration achievements she completed in Kalimdor. All of these accomplishments occurred in 2009. You'll have to excuse Naithipe for not showing a photo of each one - Feralas is shown, since it was the first. The rest is a compilation on one shot. Note that there were still more zones in Kalimdor to complete. Naithipe was far from finished.
None of these zones were that difficult to complete, although having to use a ground mount to get around required a lot of traveling. Naithipe also got a peek at the dungeon Dire Maul in Feralas, and was lucky enough to see a rare spawn of Skarr the Unbreakable. Skarr is a Champion npc that takes on all comers inside The Maul, which is an arena located outside the instance. Naithipe does not have the key required to get into Dire Maul, but she did know the way through the underground passages and into the arena area. Skarr was far too tough for little Naithipe to challenge. She was just happy to have gotten a glimpse of him.Next, Naithipe will take a look at her early accomplishments on the Eastern Continent.
[Cata Note about Exploration Achievements: There are questions about how those achievements would be changed in Cata. It would really suck to complete the explorer achievements pre-Cata and then find out they have to be redone in Cata due to the changes in existing zones. It would seem to make sense to provide a new achievement for exploring the changes in the Cata world. Some have suggested that pre-Cata achievements should be made Feats of Strength that can no longer be accomplished in the "old world" once Cata hits. Others think that the achievements won't change, and the only way to tell whether they were done pre- or post-Cata would be the date it was accomplished. I hope it becomes a Feat of Strength, but as yet no one seems to know how that will fall out. Also, as an aside there is a great project that has been in progress for some time to record in images the original two continents for posterity. It's called "Scrapbooking Azeroth" and can be found at
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=120478 ]
No comments:
Post a Comment