by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Late this evening, data started getting pushed onto the Public Test Realm (PTR) servers, and the dataminers have already gone to work. Tune in to the dataminer of your choice for a complete list of what’s been extracted so far, but keep the Rules of Datamined Information in mind:

1. Datamined info should never be taken as definitive or complete. If it’s on the PTR, it’s subject to change at any time.
2. Datamined spell tooltips often reflect hotfixed changes made since the previous client-side patch. NEVER assume that numerical tooltip changes represent intended changes to spells, as the changes may have already taken place.
3. Datamined information can contain unmarked spoilers for in-game events. Be warned.

With that out of the way, here’s a few highlights we’ve been able to suss out so far:

“Veteran Edition”

Several new global strings seem to indicate the addition of  “Veteran Edition” of the game, which has a lot of error messages that would make it similar to a Starter Edition of the game. For example, Starter Edition characters can’t invite players to parties, and have several restrictions on how they can interact with chat channels, in addition to the current level cap of 20. Veteran Edition appears to have many of the same restrictions, but the strings indicate a few curiosities.

For instance, Veteran Edition accounts cannot join guilds without an existing character in the guild. This wouldn’t be a reasonable restriction for a Starter Edition account, since those don’t tend to have pre-existing characters. This feeds into the idea that Veteran Edition might be a mode that Blizzard intends to use as a free option to entice lapsed players back into the game.

Put it this way: imagine if Blizzard made if possible for you to play the game for free as long as you had an active WoW license at some point in the past? You’ve got many of the same restrictions as Starter accounts, but you’ve got your pre-existing characters. Presumably you’d have a higher level cap than the Starter accounts, but you still wouldn’t be able to access the latest content unless you step up into a full subscription.

All in all, it could be a way to entice more players back into the game. Right now, however, it’s only strings in the data.

Rush Orders

Spells exist for something called Rush Orders, and there are corresponding spells for all of the buildings that offer work orders. The spells universally allow for a number of active work orders (five for most buildings, but 25 each for the Mine and Herb Garden) to be completed instantly. No indication what the cost for this service will be, but it’s an interesting addition to garrison functionality.

The Jukebox

While we’ve been given some teases of this from dev commentary in the past, we’re now seeing actual strings for the Garrison Jukebox, in addition to achievements for collecting tunes from different areas. No indication currently on how tunes are acquired or what (if any) costs will be associated with the Jukebox itself, but we can tell already that what appear to be the loading screen tracks from the first four expansions are among the selection we’ll get.

Other Garrison Additions

• There’s a new level of Garrison Invasion completion: Platinum. Points required? 1300. Good luck, heroes.
• There’s a series of follower missions called Relic Hunter, and completing all of them rewards you a follower contract for Harrison Jones himself. There’s some confusion in the data where it could be player quests instead of follower missions, but we’ll see.
• There’s evidence about a set of bosses you can summon to your garrison for fights; in addition to spells summoning particular bosses, there’s also an achievement that rewards you for defeating a group of them.
• For everyone who loves Pepe, there’s now an achievement for killing bosses with Pepe on your head. What exactly the reward does? It’s a summonable Pepe so you can put him on your head from anywhere.

There’s sure to be a ton of other information coming out about Patch 6.1 over the next few days, and we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop.

(Header credit to @Nerdacide)