What's different
Every change Undermine makes to vanilla 1.12.1, in one place: travel pace, the 30-minute Hearthstone, the Cartel Pack Mule, key bindings, addons, the Mithril Cartel, its quests, contracts and crates, the Iron Contract, launch-week respawns, spam gates and the anticheat.
Undermine is vanilla 1.12.1 at 1x rates. This page lists everything we changed. If it isn't here, it's vanilla.
At a glance
| Area | What's different | More |
|---|---|---|
| Money | One Mithril number instead of gold, silver and copper. Vanilla prices are unchanged. | Mithril in game |
| Travel | 30% faster out of combat, on foot and mounted, in the open world | Travel |
| Hearthstone | 30-minute cooldown instead of 60 | Travel |
| First mount | The Cartel Pack Mule at level 20, no riding skill needed | The Cartel Pack Mule |
| Raids | Can be entered without a raid group | Realm rules |
| Controls | A and D strafe, the arrow keys turn, Q and E are free | Controls |
| Interface | Five addons on by default; Auto Loot and Instant Quest Text on | Interface and addons |
| The Mithril Cartel | Trade Prince Mithrix: level boosts, flight paths with the whole map, a mailbox you carry, rare goods. Exchange goblins send Mithril to your wallet | The Mithril Cartel |
| Quests | The Cartel's First Job with a purse, The Big Score heist with a race for prizes, A Mule for the Road | Cartel quests |
| Cartel jobs | Cartel Contracts: three jobs a day and a big job a week, paid in Mithril on the spot | Cartel Contracts |
| Hardcore | The Iron Contract: one life, bounties at 20, 40 and 60 and a season race, nobody outside it can attack you | The Iron Contract |
| Cartel Crates | The Lucky Lever in nine cities: crates of items for Mithril, numbered lost epic mounts | Cartel Crates |
| Launch weeks | Faster respawns in the starting areas when they're crowded | Launch weeks |
| Fair play | Spam gates for new characters, a movement anticheat, account limits per network, dupe fixes | Keeping it fair |
| Account | Sign in with Phantom. No account name, no password, no download | Getting started |
Realm rules
| Undermine | Vanilla | |
|---|---|---|
| Realm type | PvP | |
| Rates | 1x experience, 1x drops, 1x money, 1x reputation and honor | 1x |
| Max level | 60 | 60 |
| Raids | Enter without a raid group (solo or with a party). Lockouts, instance limits and level requirements are vanilla's | a raid group required |
| Factions | One faction per account; no cross-faction chat, groups, guilds, trade, mail or auction house | same |
| Players online | up to 400 | |
| Server tick | 50 ms (vmangos ships with 100 ms) | |
| Staff tools | The game has no staff accounts in the world. Commands that create money, items or levels only run from the server console, and every use is logged |
Travel
Cartel Travel Pace
After 5 seconds out of combat you move 30% faster, on foot and mounted. A buff with the Goblin Rocket Boots icon shows while it's on. It switches off the moment you enter combat and comes back 5 seconds after.
| Speed, yards a second | Vanilla | With the pace |
|---|---|---|
| On foot | 7.0 | 9.1 |
| Cartel Pack Mule | 9.1 | 11.83 |
| Level 40 mount (60%) | 11.2 | 14.56 |
| Level 60 mount (100%) | 14.0 | 18.2 |
- It's a flat 30% on top of whatever speed you have. Sprint, Aspect of the Cheetah, Travel Form and Ghost Wolf get the 30% and nothing more; Mithril Spurs, Carrot on a Stick and mount-speed enchants still add.
- Never in dungeons, raids or battlegrounds, while dead, on a flight path, or in combat. Walking, swimming and ghost speeds are vanilla.
- The anticheat knows about it: long runs at full pace are never flagged.
Hearthstone
The Hearthstone's cooldown is 30 minutes instead of an hour.
The Cartel Pack Mule
Your first mount, from level 20, with no riding skill needed. It's a riding horse in a golden-dun pack-mule coat, leased from the Mithril Cartel: "It hauls, it doesn't fight."
- Speed: 30% (11.83 yards a second with the travel pace).
- How to get it: Trade Prince Mithrix's quest A Mule for the Road, from level 20: bring 10 [Wool Cloth] and pay 250,000 MITH at the turn-in. One mule per character.
- The item: uncommon, unique, bind on pickup, 3-second cast.
- Level 40 and 60 mounts, riding skill and their prices are vanilla's.
Controls
The defaults are 1.12's, with one change: A and D strafe and the arrow keys turn. Q and E are left free.
| Action | Undermine | Vanilla |
|---|---|---|
| Strafe left, right | A, D | Q, E |
| Turn left, right | Left, Right | A, D or the arrows |
| Q, E | free to bind | strafe |
| Everything else | as in 1.12 |
The rest, for reference:
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Move forward, back | W, S (or the up and down arrows) |
| Autorun | Num Lock or mouse button 4 |
| Steer with the mouse | hold the right mouse button (the turn keys strafe while you hold it) |
| Jump, sit | Space, X |
| Target nearest enemy, previous | Tab, Shift+Tab |
| Action bars | 1 to =; Shift+1 to 6 page the bars |
| Bags, character | B (opens Cartel Bags), C |
| Spellbook, talents, skills | P, N, K |
| Quest log, world map, social | L, M, O |
| Chat, reply | Enter, R |
| Hide the interface | Alt+Z |
| Game menu | Esc |
| Fullscreen | Alt+Enter (never forced) |
Everything can be rebound in Game Menu, Key Bindings, and Defaults brings back this layout. Your bindings are saved in your browser, per account and character.
In the browser, the game keeps Tab, F1 to F12, Alt, Space and the arrows for itself, so the page doesn't scroll or switch focus while you play. Copy and paste stay with the browser. Ctrl+W can't be stopped by a web page, so the page asks before closing while you're in the world.
Interface and addons
The interface is the stock 1.12 one. The server installs five addons for everyone; they're on by default, and you can switch any of them off with the AddOns button at character select. Only addons with a free licence are shipped.
| AddOn | What it does | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| pfQuest | Quest givers, objectives and turn-ins on the map and minimap. Its database is rebuilt from this realm's own world data, so it knows the Cartel's quests, Mithrix and the Exchange goblins. | MIT, by Shagu |
| ShaguTweaks | Small improvements to the default interface, each a toggle under Advanced Options in the game menu: cooldown numbers, real health numbers, item rarity borders, a minimap clock, movable unit frames, nameplate cast bars, sell junk, vendor values, world map coordinates and more. | MIT, by Shagu |
| Cartel Bags | Your backpack and four bags in one movable window with quality borders and a free-slot count (/cbags). | MIT, ours |
| Cartel Loot | A compact loot list at the cursor with Loot all (/cloot). Bind-on-pickup items still ask. | MIT, ours |
| Cartel UI | Small changes to the stock interface. | MIT, ours |
Options that start differently from 1.12:
| Option | Undermine | Vanilla |
|---|---|---|
| Auto Loot | on (Shift-click does the opposite) | off |
| Instant Quest Text | on | off |
| Mithril money | on (/console mithrilMoney 0 and /reload bring gold, silver and copper back on your screen) | |
| Ground clutter, weather | a little denser | |
| Render scale | 0.5 to 2.0, to trade sharpness for speed |
Also new: the login screen has one Sign in with Phantom button instead of an account name and password, the loading screens are repainted, and friendly nameplates stay on between zones.
Mithril in game
Gold, silver and copper are replaced by one number and a Mithril coin everywhere money appears: bags, merchants, repairs, the auction house, mail, trade, quest rewards and the loot window. 1 Mithril is 1 vanilla copper, so prices are vanilla's: a [Linen Cloth] still sells for 13 MITH.
- Chat reads "You loot 1,500 Mithril" and "Not enough Mithril".
- Money boxes take one number: type
15000, or25k. - Long numbers shorten only where a row is too narrow (12.5K, 1.2M), and hovering shows the exact amount.
- Fresh loot shows as still settling for about two seconds while it's recorded on chain; until then it can't be traded, mailed or withdrawn.
The Mithril Cartel
Mithril Exchange goblins
Goblins that send the Mithril in your bags to your wallet, and bring it back. They stand beside the bankers in Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Undercity, Booty Bay and Gadgetzan, in the inns of Everlook, Goldshire, Razor Hill, Kharanos, Dolanaar, Bloodhoof Village and Brill, and right in front of you in every starting area.
- Withdraw: the page shows your purse and offers 1%, 10%, 25%, 50% or all of what can go now, or any amount you type. One free withdrawal every 15 minutes; any amount from 1 Mithril. A window shows your wallet's balance and when the Mithril has arrived.
- Deposit: opens a window where Phantom signs. No SOL needed.
- Chat commands:
.withdraw 25000or.withdraw maxfrom anywhere;.deposit,.deposit 25kor.deposit max.
The details: Withdraw and deposit.
Trade Prince Mithrix
The head of the Mithril Cartel keeps a goblin in all six starting areas, in his admiral's hat. Time is money, friend: he sells shortcuts and rare goods, never freebies. Everything he sells is a sink, like a repair bill: the Mithril is burned for good while the Vault of Undermine is well stocked, and otherwise goes back into it to pay everyone's loot.
Level boosts. Jump straight to level 20, 30 or 40. A boost teaches every spell your class and weapon trainers would teach up to that level, the class quest spells (stances, pets, forms, totems) and maxes your weapon skills. The level 40 boost also teaches riding and hands you your race's level 40 mount.
| Boost | Price |
|---|---|
| To level 20 | 1,500,000 MITH |
| To level 30 | 4,000,000 MITH |
| To level 40 | 8,000,000 MITH |
He only offers boosts above your level, 40 is the highest, and he asks "Pay 1,500,000 Mithril?" before any Mithril moves.
A continent: every flight path and the whole map. For 500,000 MITH, learn every flight master of your faction on the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor, as if you'd flown to each one, and get the Cartel Atlas: that continent's whole world map, revealed. Exploring still gives its experience, and the fares are the flight masters'. Offered until you own that continent's map, at any level.
The Cartel Courier. For 500,000 MITH, once per character: click the mail icon on your minimap to open your mailbox anywhere in the open world. Not in combat, while dead, on a flight path or inside a dungeon, raid or battleground. The icon stays on your minimap, bright when there's mail.
The Cartel's rare goods. Things that are hard to find: rare reagents, world-drop recipes and a few world-drop epics, never dungeon loot. Stock is limited and refills over the day.
| Item | Price | Stock per day |
|---|---|---|
| [Black Lotus] | 2,500,000 MITH | 3 |
| [Arcanite Bar] | 1,000,000 MITH | 5 |
| [Arcane Crystal] | 500,000 MITH | 10 |
| [Large Brilliant Shard] | 400,000 MITH | 10 |
| [Mooncloth] | 300,000 MITH | 10 |
| Essence of Fire, Water, Earth or Air | 250,000 MITH each | 10 each |
| [Felcloth], [Living Essence] | 150,000 MITH each | 20 each |
| [Essence of Undeath] | 120,000 MITH | 20 |
| [Formula: Enchant Weapon - Crusader] | 10,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Plans: Arcanite Reaper] | 6,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Recipe: Elixir of the Mongoose] | 5,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Formula: Enchant Weapon - Lifestealing] | 4,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Formula: Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill] | 3,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Recipe: Elixir of Giants] | 1,500,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Recipe: Major Healing Potion] | 1,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Hand of Edward the Odd] | 25,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Krol Blade] | 15,000,000 MITH | 1 |
| [Kang the Decapitator] | 8,000,000 MITH | 1 |
The Cartel charges a premium over the auction house, so farming and selling these yourself still pays. A vendor buys any of them back only at its normal price.
Prices are realm settings; his menu always shows the current one.
Cartel quests
The Cartel's First Job
The first time a wallet's first character enters the world, the Exchange goblin in front of you has a job: bring 3 Cartel Markers from the critters around the start, about a minute and a half. You stay put until you take the quest. Markers are party loot, so a group gets one each per kill.
| At the turn-in | At level 10 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cartel Founders, the first 300 wallets | 200,000 MITH | 600,000 MITH |
| Every wallet after them | 5,000 MITH | 20,000 MITH |
The level-10 part can be spent at once and leaves for your wallet from level 20. Founders also get a founder number and, after their first withdrawal, the Cartel Founder's Tabard. Any wallet takes its founder spot at the turn-in while spots are left, a brand-new one included. The details: Getting started.
The Big Score
The Mithril Cartel has a job, and it pays. The Big Score is a six-step questline, levels 10 to 35, for both factions. Trade Prince Mithrix and the Cartel Fixers in Ratchet, Booty Bay and the Hillsbrad Foothills crossroads hand it out, one step at a time as you level. The Venture Company stole something of the Cartel's, and the Cartel would like it back, plus whatever else is in their vault:
| Step | Level | Reward | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hostile Takeover | 10 | Serve a "completely legal" eviction notice to a Venture Co. foreman, in the Barrens or Loch Modan. | 400 MITH |
| Industrial Espionage | 18 | Put on a Venture Co. peon uniform, walk into Windshear Crag in the Stonetalon Mountains, steal the blueprints. Look busy. | 1,500 MITH |
| Insurance Fraud | 23 | Blow up a Cartel warehouse (an empty, very well insured one) in Ratchet or Hillsbrad. | 2,000 MITH |
| The Inside Man | 28 | Get a Venture Co. accountant out of Windshear Crag alive. He'll complain the whole way. | 2,600 MITH |
| Honor Among Thieves | 33 | Take the vault code from the Bloodsail pirates at Lake Nazferiti in Stranglethorn Vale. | 3,000 MITH |
| The Big Score | 35 | Fly the Cartel zeppelin to Cartel Island and crack the vault. Alone. | 5,000 MITH and the Made Goblin's Tabard |
The finale is solo: no groups, and nobody else can fight it for you or heal you while you're inside. It's built for any class at level 35 in normal gear. Cartel Island is invite-only: without the quest, you're sent home.
The race. The first wallets to finish win a prize, paid once:
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | 20,000,000 MITH |
| 2nd to 10th | 2,000,000 MITH each |
- The first finisher is announced to the whole realm, and every Cartel goblin sets off fireworks. The first ten go on the Hall of Fame plaque on the island.
- One place per wallet; game master accounts don't count. You need a linked wallet to claim; signed in with Phantom, you have one.
- Prizes are paid like any other Mithril, so they show on the public ledger and can go to your wallet like the rest.
What's in the vault? Get there and find out.
A Mule for the Road
From level 20, at Trade Prince Mithrix: 10 Wool Cloth and 250,000 MITH for the Cartel Pack Mule.
Launch weeks
The starting areas get crowded at launch, so for the first weeks:
- Faster respawns where it's busy. Ordinary mobs below level 20 in the open world respawn faster when four or more players of their level are nearby: 6% faster per extra player, up to 75% faster, and never under 30 seconds. A Young Wolf's 3 minutes becomes 45 seconds with 16 players around.
- Faster quest spawns. Eight lone named quest mobs (the Agamands, Ivar the Foul, Vejrek, Vorlus Vilehoof, Oakenscowl) respawn in 60 to 90 seconds, and six looted quest objects (Milly's Harvest, Fel Cones, the Well Stone, Ambercorn, Shimmerweed baskets, the Stolen Books) in 30 to 45.
Both scale back once the crowds thin out, and at the latest two weeks after launch.
Keeping it fair
Spam gates for new characters
| Below level | You can't | Except |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Whisper strangers | Replies within 30 minutes to anyone who whispered you, and friends, group and guild |
| 5 | Talk in General, Trade, LocalDefense or LookingForGroup, or /yell | Your own custom channels; /say works from level 1 |
| 5 | Open a trade with a stranger | Accepting a trade always works; friends, group and guild |
| 10 | Send a letter without an item or at least 100 Mithril attached |
An account with a level 20 character skips the level 5 gates.
The anticheat
The realm checks every move against what's possible. Nothing bans; a cheat gets you disconnected.
| Disconnects | Logs for review |
|---|---|
| Speed hacks, teleports, flying, wall climbing, water walking, slow fall and hover hacks, moving while rooted, jump hacks, falling without taking damage | Movement-clock mismatches, which the browser client can trigger by itself (until its clock fix ships), and a few checks that need a person to judge |
It was tested against honest play first: walking, mounts, the travel pace, summons, Charge, Blink and the freezes a browser tab can have are never flagged.
Accounts and money
- New accounts per network: 2 a day and 5 a month per internet address. Wallets that already have an account always get in.
- Money between players needs a wallet: trading, mailing or bidding Mithril needs an account linked to a wallet, which every Phantom sign-in is.
- Logins wait for money in flight: if Mithril reaches an offline character (a withdrawal or deposit from the website), logging in waits on the loading screen a few seconds instead of failing.
Fixes vanilla servers still have
- Master loot can't hand out the same item twice. A dupe inherited from the server core; fixed, and shown fixed by a test that reproduces it on the old build.
- Drain Soul no longer crashes the server when the warlock has changed maps.
- The test realm's tools are off. The old test helper's free levels, items and Mithril are switched off for every account, and the developers' sandbox map is closed.
Built, not switched on yet
- Buying and selling Mithril for SOL at the Exchange goblin and Mithrix: built and tested, not switched on yet.
- The Goblin Market, the auction house on the web: see Auction House.
Anything further out is on the Roadmap.