Patch 11.1 will have new Warband screen backgrounds, and up to 20 camp groups

The Warband system, which released with The War Within, had a lot of potential for expansion with new features from the get-go. One particular aspect of it that seemed somewhat undercooked is the campfire at the character selection screen: currently, it only displays four of your characters, and there’s a single available background. With the advent of patch 11.1, this feature is about to get a little more developed, as new backgrounds that can be collected by players are being added to the game.

So far, we seem to have about four new backgrounds based on locations featured in The War Within, including landscapes from the Isle of Dorn, Delves, and the new 11.1 location of Undermine — these will be collected in multiple ways, including Achievements, Delver’s Journey progress, or just given to players for free. The new feature includes a “Favorites” drop-down menu, which allows you to see only the backgrounds you like, and has a handy “Randomize from Favorites” button, which should let the game surprise you with a different background each time you hit your character select screen.

In addition to the new backgrounds, you’ll soon be able to have up to 20 camp groups, and name and rename your groups as well. This, in particular, makes it much easier to organize your characters: gone are the days of just rolling through a long list of names. Alt lovers will certainly find creative ways to categorize their characters in groups of four, and it will definitely be nice to find your desired characters with fewer clicks. (The UI/UX grad in me rejoices at boring stuff like that!)

It’s easy to imagine further improvements they could make to the Warband campfire. A big request the community has is the ability to pick the poses of your characters: the current system where they all kneel and the selected character stands is a bit too “stiff” and restrictive. It would also be very nice to be able to pick which forms you want to see for characters like Worgen and Dracthyr — the latter, in particular, don’t get to really see their Visage form transmog around the campfire, so it’d be neat if they had that option.

Are you excited about this development to the Warband screen? What else do you want to see from this feature?