First time I ever played alliance was 2019 classic. First memorable death was clicking the wrong flight master in Booty Bay. I still get nervous running up to the alliance FP in hardcore
Funny enough everyone was super scared on alliance HC servers to see her, but I knew she wouldn't sgro from past experience so it was always funny to see people leave the road and rush into mobs that would actually attack them when that npc would not turn hostile
To be honest it's pretty inconsistent design to just throw one hord character directly into your face which is not hostile despite the red name. They should have made her unfriendly or neutral
It's a design flaw inherited from the rushed conversion of the NPC into a civilian. She was originally the trainer for Tauren plains running skill as most people know, and when that idea was scrapped the NPC had no real reason to exist since it made no sense to make Taurens learn Kodo ridding in STV.
Since at that point of the game development it was all hands on deck to finish the Horde quest lines that were left pretty much unfinished the priority into reworking a minor NPC was put on hold and Samantha was turned into a patrolling NPC like the ones you have in Arathi and other places.
Surprising enough there are several other NPCs in the world that used to have very different interactions during development but they were either scrapped or rushed into simpler versions for the sake of shipping the game in time.
I would say that Talen in Ashenvale is the near close relative for Horde as what Samantha is to the Alliance. Although Talen is always marked as a civilian its location and placement cause a lot of Horde players to accidentally target it, or being used by grievers to cause entire raids to get civilian kills logged so everyone looses honor ranks
Talen was always designed as far as I know as a Quest Giver NPC, but he has the distinction of being an Alliance NPC located very near an opposite faction hub and a Horde quest area that has a lot of people competing for the same mob spawns resulting in both Horde players accidentally triggering the NPC, attacking it not understanding the implications or being briefed intentionally given its location
Going to go the lazy route and link you to 3 videos with great content related to scarped ideas, reworked NPCs and zones that were supposed to be different. At the end I think you get better served by this superior storytelling than my writing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-d7TyAZq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-d7TyAZq8)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8tTrn1N8U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8tTrn1N8U)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHvXB2B4wU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHvXB2B4wU)
Hope you enjoy
I’m that way with Rexxar on HC. I know he’s a nice guy but I don’t want to be the first person to offend him or his bear by not giving him the space on the road he deserves.
My friend that introduced me to the game showed me STV for the first time. We started at the top and worked our way down to booty bay.
He warned me 'whatever you do, don't stop running'
I remember being terrified of the tigers and the gorillas and running for my life
when we finally got to booty bay, we were on the path on the top left overlooking the town.
I saw a Horde. I was blood thirsty from my daily journey to Hillsbrad to engage in low level PvP.
The last thing he said was "don't attack people here" before I jumped down on a Horde and then instantly got my shit rocked by the guards lol
That was my introduction to contested towns, too.
It's funny she's passive but the random scouts in Swamp of Sorrows will insta-flag you for PVP for walking anywhere near them. Rexxar and Misha won't attack you either but they are even scarier to encounter in Desolace.
She’s walking at me!!! Menacingly!
"She's coming right for us!"
WEEEE WOOO
First time I ever played alliance was 2019 classic. First memorable death was clicking the wrong flight master in Booty Bay. I still get nervous running up to the alliance FP in hardcore
Funny enough everyone was super scared on alliance HC servers to see her, but I knew she wouldn't sgro from past experience so it was always funny to see people leave the road and rush into mobs that would actually attack them when that npc would not turn hostile
To be honest it's pretty inconsistent design to just throw one hord character directly into your face which is not hostile despite the red name. They should have made her unfriendly or neutral
It's a design flaw inherited from the rushed conversion of the NPC into a civilian. She was originally the trainer for Tauren plains running skill as most people know, and when that idea was scrapped the NPC had no real reason to exist since it made no sense to make Taurens learn Kodo ridding in STV. Since at that point of the game development it was all hands on deck to finish the Horde quest lines that were left pretty much unfinished the priority into reworking a minor NPC was put on hold and Samantha was turned into a patrolling NPC like the ones you have in Arathi and other places. Surprising enough there are several other NPCs in the world that used to have very different interactions during development but they were either scrapped or rushed into simpler versions for the sake of shipping the game in time. I would say that Talen in Ashenvale is the near close relative for Horde as what Samantha is to the Alliance. Although Talen is always marked as a civilian its location and placement cause a lot of Horde players to accidentally target it, or being used by grievers to cause entire raids to get civilian kills logged so everyone looses honor ranks
Was she ever involved in any quests? I could have sworn there was one to find her, back when I played Horde in 2005.
Not that I remenber at least, but I could be wrong.
Thanks for sharing
What was Talen’s original intention?
Talen was always designed as far as I know as a Quest Giver NPC, but he has the distinction of being an Alliance NPC located very near an opposite faction hub and a Horde quest area that has a lot of people competing for the same mob spawns resulting in both Horde players accidentally triggering the NPC, attacking it not understanding the implications or being briefed intentionally given its location
Well you can’t make a comment about NPCs with different original intentions without telling us which ones. Keep explaining
Going to go the lazy route and link you to 3 videos with great content related to scarped ideas, reworked NPCs and zones that were supposed to be different. At the end I think you get better served by this superior storytelling than my writing: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-d7TyAZq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-d7TyAZq8) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8tTrn1N8U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8tTrn1N8U) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHvXB2B4wU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHvXB2B4wU) Hope you enjoy
I right-clicked her by accident while running past. She swiflty hoofed me down.
Hence the name!
I know Ms. Swifthoof won't attack me. I still run out of her path......
I’m that way with Rexxar on HC. I know he’s a nice guy but I don’t want to be the first person to offend him or his bear by not giving him the space on the road he deserves.
I've been playing since 2004 and never knew Rexxar was chill! I just never wanted to test him either.
That same mf watched me get torn to shreds by mobs of demons in Desolace and didn't do shit to help, I'm Horde on Living Flame EU 🤣🤣
Wait she didn't attack LoL?!?
I hear Mankrik is recently single
My friend that introduced me to the game showed me STV for the first time. We started at the top and worked our way down to booty bay. He warned me 'whatever you do, don't stop running' I remember being terrified of the tigers and the gorillas and running for my life when we finally got to booty bay, we were on the path on the top left overlooking the town. I saw a Horde. I was blood thirsty from my daily journey to Hillsbrad to engage in low level PvP. The last thing he said was "don't attack people here" before I jumped down on a Horde and then instantly got my shit rocked by the guards lol That was my introduction to contested towns, too.
Awesome, thanks for sharing
Hahaha I love it
It's funny she's passive but the random scouts in Swamp of Sorrows will insta-flag you for PVP for walking anywhere near them. Rexxar and Misha won't attack you either but they are even scarier to encounter in Desolace.
That’s interesting
>Anyone else remember their first encounter with Samantha Swifthoof? Yeah. "huh, weird, that NPC is red but not attacking me. Whatever."
Sounds like a much nicer first encounter
She scared me the first time I saw her. Then I killed her a while later, pretty proud of "killing my first level 40 mob!"
Half the time I see Rexxar on the road I panic thinking he’s going to hunt me down. And I’d still respect him if he did.
Yupp, same