Why portals appeared at Forever's docks, and what Blizzard plans for quiet layers

If your boat or zeppelin never showed up on Forever's launch night, there may be a portal close by. Blizzard developer Josh Greenfield, known as Aggrend, says on the forums that temporary portals were spawned near most transport docks or inside the zeppelin towers, to help players move between continents if their boat gets lost. In a post on his personal X account, he also acknowledged that some zones feel emptier than they should. The transport fix and the population tuning were both still plans when he wrote.

What went wrong with boats and zeppelins

"We had some issues with the service that manages transports like boats and zeppelins," Greenfield wrote on X at 06:30 UTC on 5 November. Minutes later he told the forums that transports were "becoming lost in the maelstrom for extended periods of time". He didn't say what failed inside that service.

The forum thread he answered was opened by a player who said they had stood in the Tirisfal tower for over 10 minutes, and had heard the zeppelin's horn. Several replies named the RP-PvP ruleset, and one player asked whether other rulesets were affected. Greenfield's reply doesn't answer that.

Where to look, and how long the portals last

Look near the dock, or inside the zeppelin tower. Greenfield's word is "most", so not every dock is promised a portal, and neither post lists them.

The portals aren't meant to stay. "We'll have a proper fix in the morning and the portals will be removed," Greenfield wrote on X. The forum post adds the order: "once we've verified that's in and working, we'll be removing those portals." Neither post gives a time or a time zone, and at the time of writing neither has been updated to say the fix is in.

What he said about quiet zones

Under the heading "Layer populations", Greenfield wrote on X: "we are aware some zones feel more empty than they should. Tomorrow we'll be tweaking some numbers to make things feel more lively. Sit tight!" He said much the same on the forums, in a thread opened by a player who said they saw maybe 8 people in Ironforge on launch day.

Neither post says which numbers or which zones, how far they'll move, or why those zones feel empty. Like the transport fix, it's a plan and not a result, and we've seen no Blizzard post saying the tuning has happened. If your problem is different, and you can see nearby players you can't reach, here's what to record in a bug report.

What we haven't checked

We haven't tested any of this in the game. The portal locations are Greenfield's description, and the reports of stranded players are those players' own.