As soon as the Warlords alpha returned yesterday, I obviously rushed to explore new areas, including Shadowmoon Valley. Unfortunately, the servers were reset to prepare for the beta, so this discovery was abruptly ended.
Overview
After only a few quests, a bit of clearing, and a few crows killed, I had access to my garrison.
I discovered a fortress with a very different atmosphere. The buildings are in a human style, in the shade of secular trees.
A little outside, there is a small camp, with strange stones, which also seems to be part of the stronghold.
The doors can be opened and closed!
More generally, we find the same services as on the Horde side (merchants, portals, griffins).
How the fief works
For those who have not read my previous presentation article, in a few words, the fief will accompany us throughout our leveling up and especially in this first area where it is found. As the quests progress, we are required to accomplish various missions which will reward us with materials. These allow the construction of buildings for which plans are needed. Blueprints can be looted or quest rewards.
The Garrison interface looks a bit like a management game, with slots of three sizes that can be used for any building we choose.
Finally, during the quests, NPCs enthusiastic about our heroic deeds will want to join us, becoming our subjects. It will then be possible to send them on a mission.
Monument
In addition to the features already presented, I discovered the monument. Take this magnificent well, with an engraved plaque that you could see in the last pictures below. If we click on it, the tooltip gives us a name that is not very evocative for the moment: SMV - Garrison - Monument 02. If we click, a new interface is offered:
With the arrows, you can then place other decorations in this location!
Two other monuments cannot be used: one clearly has a problem of scale (poor donkey) while the other is inaccessible (only previewable, it disappears if it is selected).
Telescope
Outside, a telescope gives you an overview of your stronghold!
When clicked, it launches a cutscene that doesn't seem complete yet. The game does a kind of backtracking and hangs on this image:
It will be really nice to be able to have an aerial view of your stronghold!
Zone capacity
After a few quests, you get an area ability that allows you to summon troops from your stronghold.
Buildings
I only had time to build the barracks:
About buildings, I take this opportunity to slip in some information given last night by a developer: there are no more specializations! This added too much complexity and made it necessary to choose between two options. It is better in their opinion to put only one really cool option!
@mumper @Muffinus Garrison Blog says 21 unique buildings, but there are 24. It also looks like specializations aren't a thing anymore.
— Crow (@unlimitedBLACK) June 27, 2014
Subjects
These are the first two subjects to join us.
Missions
The mission system is now fully functional, allowing subjects to be sent on an adventure to bring back loot or simply experience so that they also level up!
So much for this new overview which, as I said in the introduction, completes that of the horde while unfortunately being less exhaustive (especially on the list of subjects) due to the arrival of the beta!
