Hello, Stormforge!

Today we'd like to talk about a few essential things, such as a new TBC client, the future of Mistblade, and the current state of Legion development.

TBC update:

It has now been over two months since launch and we’re extremely happy to see that the population has nearly doubled since then, reaching peaks of over 8000 online players!. It’s heartwarming to fly through Azeroth and Outland and spot people in every nook and cranny of this vast world. We hope this trend continues and we will get to see more and more newcomers join and enjoy playing on Netherwing. We have already made some performance improvements for the server to be able to sustain this number of players and we will continue working on optimization as the demand increases.

We’ve been very busy working on multiple projects since even before launch, and we’d like to give you a small glimpse into it. First of all, as we stated before, we’ve been trying to improve the functionality of the 2.4.3 client, starting off with changes to the .exe file. For now, we’ve done the following:

• Removed memory limit
• Widescreen FoV patch
• Increased nameplate display range
• Unlocked serverside patches for further improvements

There are more enhancements planned but we first want to make sure that everything is stable and working correctly. If everything goes well, we hope to release the custom exe later next week. Just as a precaution, we recommend making a backup of your addon/WTF settings beforehand.

In terms of long-term planning and future engagement, we are excited to announce that we are developing full native support for the TBC Classic client, including both the ARM and X64 versions. This means that you will be able to play through Windows and MacOS without needing any additional software. Our goal is to give players the option to play using either the 2.4.3 client, or the Classic client, without needing to use any proxies with their associated restrictions. We already have a head start with the basic connection handling thanks to the work our Legion branch of the Stormforge team has already done over there, as you can see some very early footage of that in the video below.

Naturally, this is still just scratching the surface, early days and very much a ‘work in progress’ with a lot still left to go, but we’re optimistic we can get it done with time. We will try to inform you about the progress whenever we reach any major milestones. For now, please look forward to it, hopefully later this year.

Once again, thank you for your support and all positive feedback. We intend to make some improvements to the Stormforge store next week, including the addition of much requested services such as appearance, race change, faction change, and more. Your donations are what allows us to keep doing what we’re doing and we greatly appreciate every bit of support. We will continue to work hard and deliver the best quality possible.

MOP update:

Our MoP realm was the first one created under the flag of combined teams of Atlantiss and Tauri. We have created Stormforge with one goal - to design and develop a platform for players with different tastes and preferences, offering multiple realms with a variety of expansions. Mistblade release was the first test of the credibility and quality of our brand. We were delighted to see that Mistblade exceeded our expectations surpassing 5000 online players on launch and creating a solid and stable community for more than a year. And here we are today, with progression coming to an end and the last Arena Season 15 being right around the corner. The final big change we'll introduce to Mistblade will be full Cross-faction of PvE content, including:

• /world channel common for both the Alliance and the Horde;
• party/raid system shared by both factions with tradable loot and common language;
• Cross-faction Random Dungeon Finder with working quests (we did think about certain quests being exclusive to one faction);
• shared mail system.

Sadly, Auction House will NOT be included in this update due to certain technical issues, but we'll be working on it to implement "xfac" AH in our future MoP project.

Did someone say "future MoP project"?

Mistblade is not over - this is just the beginning. We'll be analyzing everything that happened during the realm's lifetime and the conclusion will be FRESH Mist of Pandaria experience. Mistblade Vol.2 shall be released under Stormforge banner later at the end of this year. Look upon the mists during Q4 2023!

Legion update:

When we established Stormforge, we stated that one of our goals is to provide players with the Legion realm. As some of you know, the Tauri team has been working on it for quite a long time now, and currently, a major part of our combined dev resources is assigned to its development as well. Since last year, thanks to advanced tools we've developed and using the knowledge of our most experienced members of the team, we made great progress towards our goal of preparing an epic adventure on the Broken Isles for you, with quality never seen before.

Let's have a glance at Legion's development status:

These values grow up each and every day and we are getting closer and closer to open beta tests, therefore we'll try to post more development updates regularly.

Legion will initially be released under the Tauri banner and sometime later on Stormforge as well.