Also added was the Field of Glory north of Carlin which was developed by Tekvorian. Early on, the project was to be made by Lightbringer and Virgel but they must have resigned their position on the project at some point and Tekvorian took over. The surface area mainly remained grass and trees except for a small cave which I think contained a Bear. A small graveyard could also be found which had a statue that commemorated the battle between human and orc a few centuries ago. If you were curious, the storyteller NPC Aneus would discuss the battle which took place there. The story he tells of the Red Legion is interesting lore I hadn't heard before so worth a look.
Northeast of Carlin and the graveyard was the small finishing village of Northport. It consisted of several building and a boatless port on the north side but not a single NPC could be found in the village. Strangely the building where all locked and rumor was that no one could blame them as Tibia had become a little more lawless of late. Future expansions to the town would make them more willing to share their space with others, but for now it was just a curiosity, like many things in Tibia, the real secrets lie below the surface.
A couple of inauspicious holes and lose stonepiles would alert you to a dungeon below the surface. At first you would come across a series of winding paths and rooms filled with vermin of all kinds such as "spiders (poison and non-poison), wolves, rotworms (probably the ones who dug most of the tunnels in the first level), snakes, rats, and farther down below in level two are trolls." The well-known Maze of Lost Souls was only a vision for a not so far away update. According to a guide written at the dungeons introduction the second floor was best to hunt for mages and fresh from Rook knights.
Taghor's amazing ingenuity of crafting a reasonable looking ship allowed the AFT to fulfill their dream this update with the creation of a ship on the north shore of Greenshore. From now on they would no longer have to deal with the challenges around building and maintaining a parcel ship.
To access the ship you had to walk up a ladder onto a wooden dock which was connected to the ship via a plank. The ship consisted of a flat deck with two masts made from the thinnest wood ever envisioned for a mast. This vessel featured a large aftcastle which had a ladder leading to the poop deck. No helm could be seen on the deck as graphical sprites were limited, but that didn't stop people from pretending they were a helmsman there. These areas where all accessible to the public, so you would see random people on deck enjoying themselves. Looking at the ship you could see that it didn't have a smooth profile in the front but had jagged angles, so it didn't look completely like a ship, but players didn't mind.
Two doors in the aftcastle led to the internal portion of the guild hall, which had a ladder leading to a huge bar a level down, which sat on the surface of the ocean. The middle of the room had a large, long red carpet and a huge, long permanent wooden table to the south. A large bar was close to the ladder leading up and had three casks locked in place though I don't know what beverage they contained. There was another ladder on the east side which led to a series of four rooms below and a fifth larger room on the west side of the ship. Each of the four rooms had two beds and the large room at the end had a red carpet and four beds.
A ladder in the middle of the hall took you to the final level of the ship which was a massive room filled with beds and a large room on the east side which was blocked by a door and could act as a storage room. The configuration of the ship was the same as the first Tibanic Expedition which would come at the end of 2002 at the start of Version 7. It is interesting to note that the design for this ship changed some between then, and version 7.7 which altered the ship entirely.
Also changed was the area below Ab'Dendriel which was beatified to include a more visible worn stone path which led towards Kaz, Abby, and Carlin. Added to this new path was an empty house you could use to rest up before your journey continued. This sat at the juncture just slightly south of the city and east of Fermor Hills.
Lasting just one update, Fermor Hills was greatly expanded to include new mine paths and featured several additions. Wastl reprised his role as creator of the area as he added Goblins to the area, making it the first such area in Tibia. The single path into the mountain with a ladder leading up and down at different points inside the hill was replaced by a continuous path that led to a ladder at the end which now took you to the Cyclops Lake. A box at the end of the path contained some Salmon slices. It is unknown if the lake existed originally or if Cyclops could be found there but it did exist now, and players enjoyed the spawn. It was easy to kill the cyclops while running around the lake as a paladin, though you had to be careful as you could accidently fall down the grassy hole which dropped you back down to the surface level to an awaiting ambush from Spiders. The lake was comprised of the same tiles found in Carlin, so it was graphicly pleasing. A mine shaft connecting this area to the east led to two ladders leading down to Goblins, which spawned around a hut with a Witch. You could only access the hut from the south which was annoying, and I think a pig may have spawned in this area too. Northeast of the hut was another ladder down which led to a large area of Goblins. A further ladder down led to a square room with beds and more Goblins and the south part of this area was a pig pen that you could enter, providing a nice place to stock up on food. I think there was a chest inside that had a Power Ring and Bronze Amulet.
If you entered the area from the northwest, there was a long path leading to two ladders set apart. The second, farthest one, led to the next level while the closer one led to a small cave which I think had Goblins inside. The only other paths to the next level of the hill were the three newly added ramps. One was located on the west side after the bridge which was now narrowed to a one tile wood bridge with Goblins that spawned around it. The second was much more south of this location and the third was on the far side of the hill which was the only way to access from the Ab'Dendriel side.
On the second level above the surface there were a few other interesting features. The northern small plateau had a five-story tower which could be accessed by a ramp, though I don't recall anything inside the tower other than some furniture. Continuing south to the southwest plateau you would find two ramps, one to west and the other east, which would lead you to another plateau. Taking the ramp on the west side of the plateau would bring you to the top which had grass and trees but nothing else. In a later update a flying carpet would be added to the area but for now there was nothing interesting here.
To the east was another small plateau which had a mine like entrance on the north side. There was a ladder which led down along a twisting path and then dropped down into another area which we will talk about later. If you took the ladder which led up to the surface, you could see a smaller plateau which had a ramp on the west side. The surface this area was green grass with tress like the others but had a hidden drop-down hole which had a Skeleton or two and a coffin which had a yellow rose on the front. I don't think you could get a Yellow Rose here, but I am not 100% on that as I recall some rumors of this.
There was one other mine entrance on this plateau which was east of the first. Inside was a ladder leading down to a path that led west that and had a couple of Rots on the way. Dropping down the ladder again would take you to the same place as the previous mine ladder which was a mini-Rot dungeon. This passage led north to a dead end which had a sign that declared "I won't dig any more stupid dungeons unless the mining company provides me better tools!"
The large central plateau which had the Cyclops Lake could also be accessed by a ramp to the east. This would take you to the next level which had a large reverse crescent shaped plateau which also had a ramp to the east which spawned some Spiders, six Sheep, a Hunter and a Black Sheep. The Black Sheep that spawned here was unique, but not really special otherwise as it didn't drop anything different than normal sheep.
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Following the crescent around to the south led to a mineshaft which led down a couple of floors to a Rot dungeon which I think may have spanned two floors. Continuing around the crescent you would come across wolves and a couple of bears before seeing an escarpment which overlooked the Cyclops Lake. You could stack parcels to access this level but otherwise there was no way down from here.
In behind the escarpment was a smaller plateau which could be accessed from two ends by a ramp to the east and west. On this area was the famous Fermor Hills Tower which had a bunch of jungle grass you could cut, but the square before the door would instantly grow back when you tried to walk on it. It would not be until 2007 that the tower would finally be accessed but in the meantime, players tried everything, believe there was some hidden quest involving the coffins in the area. This place was a pretty big Tibia mystery before the tower was given a purpose.
There was also a tree on the plateau which had a hidden drop hole which led to several more coffins including one with a Red Rose on it. A DS also spawned here as did a body though I don't know if anything was inside of it.
The Witchswamp area received a new expansion to the east, with the area east of the blood herb quest now launched as the Black Knight Villa. This sunken house was accessible from the south which led you into the second floor which was on the map surface. A staircase inside led you to the first floor which was sunken underground. The story was that the house had sunk into the bog after an earthquake, which was an interesting concept for Tibia. Players could not travel to Orcland from this spot as the Amazon camp to the north didn't yet exist and would instead come to an empty grassy area.
A locked door inside took you deeper into the dungeon which required key 5010 to open. The key spawned under a tree to the south of the villa periodically. Inside, the dungeon had many Beholders which where a very good source of money due to the gold and equipment they dropped. You might even get very lucky and loot the newly added and rare Beholder Shield which was for most players their first real shield upgrade. The first room below the cellar, which was itself just a small room of boxes, was a narrow path that led to a small Skeleton spawn. Dropping down the hole led to a small lake to the south of the path while a larger room with Beholders was to the north. As you continued east would pass two more rooms with a Beholder or two and the northern most spawn led you to more Beholders and a ladder leading down. The room below had several stone rooms with Beholders and a staircase up to the main attraction, Tibia's first regularly spawning boss, the Black Knight (BK).
The backstory of the knight was that he was the commander of the Royal Army who traveled with his soldiers to the swamp which they believed to be an island. Evidently the area was not swampy enough to deter the commander who decided to build a home there. While under construction an earthquake hit which sunk the building. The commander was trapped in the cellar which was locked for some reason. His soldiers fled thinking he was dead and with no other choice he decided to dig his way out and found a hidden cave of Beholders which ignored him. Over time he became angry about being left behind which is why he is called the Black Knight.
Though the plot for the knight was a little thin, the monster proved to be very strong and the loot he dropped was excellent. You could loot a Knight Armor, Knight Legs, Warrior Helmet, and the very rare Lance (now Dragon Lance) which no other creature in Tibia dropped and still doesn't. Unfortunately, the spawn rate was very slow so players would wait on the Beholder side to the south, so they didn't block the respawn of the BK. You would kill the Beholders while you waited the 10-20 minutes for the monster to respawn. If you were very lucky you would get a Knight piece worth around 8k each or Warrior Helmet which earned you 10-20k each which was significant. The BK was the only other creature to drop the Warrior Helmet other than the very rare drop rate from Orc Leaders, which was a very important part of most of the player's equipment. Many of those who hunted the BK did so to improve their equipment directly. Those who were exceptionally lucky would get the Lance which sold for upwards of 20k and was the most powerful weapon a player could reasonably buy at 48 attack but was unfortunately two handed (SoV was one handed and the same attack, but worth a lot).
Also added to this area was a small Hunter hut located to the south. This two-story building offered several hunters on the surface and upper level. A ladder took you to the deck above and the building had a roof design like those of Thais. From screenshots we also see that this little hunting camp spawned a friendly dog, and a campfire also was present. There appears to be a break in the railing, but I don't know if it was a bug or was just for flavor. At this time the Hunter was very deadly due to how bugged its mechanics were so this hut would have been difficult to hunt for most players and mostly avoided as Hunters didn't drop much for loot.
Other changes could be found around the map such as the road out of Carlin to the north and east which had a cobbled path to help lead new adventures towards other inhabited areas. The guild hall in Greenshore was also redesigned entirely with the moat removed and replaced with grass.
It is also interesting to note what didn't get added with this update. The Tibia Wiki lists that the Ghost Islands were added this update, but Falke never finished the addition to the west of Carlin, which would only be finished several years later.
Also missing was Reokon's Tundra which was to be made by Cohen the Barbarian. This place was supposed to add some basic caves northwest of Carlin, but this was never added. Maybe the much later Amazon camps and other small additions were inspired by this original idea?
The massive Mad Mage Valley that should have taken over the west side of Kaz was still under development by Hammerfall and would not arrive until June 14th, 2002 after Beta 6.61 update.
Muesli was also supposed to expand on his popular Orc Fort, but I can't find any evidence of this happening. Maybe the changes to the fort we see today were inspired by original ideas?
South of Thais was to be a dungeon, made by Niehoff, called The Snake Stone. Unfortunately this too never came to pass, though there is a cave under the Snake Temple if you pick the patch of mud in Bug Cave down the stairs.
The Stone Wood, which was to be made by Alara, was the idea behind the Amazon Camp south of Orc Fort, but Alara never finished the area and Amazon Camp wouldn't exist for a few more years.
I had remarked earlier about the comments from KM on the difficulty of developing content by amateur creators. The list of unfinished areas above really underscores how spotty content creation driven by players could be. From the huge list above its curious to see how much time it took before all these projects were fully realized, and then only after many of them were taken back by CIP employees to finish. The quality and design aesthetic are very noticeable as well with some areas rich with details and innovation while others lacked content or originality. It is clear from this wide swing of consistency why CIP backed away from their player made content route. Despite the mixed results, anyone who tried to create content deserved full praise for their attempt as it was a difficult feat and one which we are unlikely to see again. Though most of these areas have been beatified and updated, it is interesting to see how much of the original design still remains.
The offline player maps to this point had always been created by players, with the earliest maps found on Yorin's website, and new maps provided by WoT after that. With this update CIP provided their own maps for the first time which where like the ones WoT would continue to produce. Oddly, the maps produced by both parties came up with different arrangements for the untraversable islands around the map. The islands near the Ice Islands were notorious for disappearing, getting added, or changing between green and snow covered. Calcanea, Lost Boy Island, also often changed compared to the WoT map. CIPs version showed that the house and features were removed though these stayed on the WoT map but access to the island was removed between this update and the previous update. Also odd was it seemed that every one of the early CIP maps were significantly worse for quality then the WoT versions. A high-quality map from CIP didn't arrive until half a decade later with the Svargrond update on June 26th, 2007 (Version 8).
