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Strange framerate problems abundant in Silvermoon City
WoW Insider was contacted via twitter by a concerned WoW player who was having some issues with this Horde hub. Chris dropped us a line with a warning that, if we attempted to test Silvermoon's issues, we should do so with a Horde character that we didn't mind benching for a while. Characters walking into the city seem to have no particular problems, but those using a portal such as the one in Undercity or in the Pandaria Shrine, appear to be having issues. On attempting to confirm this, the portal from Undercity was used. I monitored my frame rate across Orgrimmar, onto the Zeppelin, over to Undercity from Brill and out of the portal room in Silvermoon to the scene you see in front of you. You can see the results of this to the right-hand side, the 31 FPS is when I first arrived in Silvermoon, dropping to 10 when I stepped outside the portal room itself, then to four, and then stabilizing at 2FPS, where it remained for 15 minutes until I was unceremoniously disconnected. A second attempt with no addons revealed the same results, though marginally higher frame rates. Silvermoon is very graphically intensive, and I'd turned my graphics down from their usual Ultra to Good in anticipation of issues like the ones experienced. On logging back in after my disconnect, I had a framerate of zero even with lower graphics settings, so dropped the quality to Low, which gave me a framerate of 6.
The OverAchiever: In which Alliance has it much worse than Horde
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we are grateful to play Horde. This past week, I was tabbed out of the game writing an OverAchiever on Bloody Rare as a follow-up to our guide on Northern Exposure when something interesting started happening in the background. In the sliver of laptop screen dedicated to WoW, the chat channels exploded with warnings that the Alliance was attacking Orgrimmar. Given that the Midsummer Fire Festival is still going on with lots of players busy stealing enemy fires, this isn't particularly unusual. I shrugged and went back to work. And yet, the warnings just kept coming. Curious, I tabbed back into the game to discover that a full 40-man Alliance raid was fighting its way to Garrosh Hellscream. Other players said that none of the other Horde leaders had been attacked, so I can only assume the raid was starting For the Alliance! with the toughest foe among them. Now, Garrosh is by no stretch of the imagination anywhere near as popular as Thrall was, but lots of Horde players are still willing to defend him from attack because, well, he's got his moments. Orgrimmar's central district quickly became a lagfest of epic proportions as dozens of players who'd been gossiping in trade or loitering around the Auction House rushed to defend Garrosh. The Alliance raid was ultimately defeated, but they rallied and tried again -- unsuccessfully -- an hour later. This was the first of three days that I saw the same Alliance raid desperately trying to kill Garrosh, and something started to niggle at me by day two. Namely, For the Alliance! and For the Horde! are among the very few achievements that are significantly tougher if you play one faction over the other.
Know Your Lore: The Troll Wars
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The past is prologue. Melodramatic, perhaps, but it bears stating. The world of Azeroth, known to us for the three most recent wars, has in fact seen many -- the War of the Ancients, the War of the Shifting Sands, the war between the ancient troll empires and the aqir. One of these wars went far to set the stage for the First and Second Wars by creating, in effect, three of the major players in those conflicts. Without the Troll Wars, there would today be no Silvermoon, no human nations (and thus no Forsaken), and the troll nation of Zul'Aman would rule all of northern Lordaeron, perhaps all the way south to Khaz Modan. The Troll Wars were named by their victors. To the trolls of Zul'Aman, they never really ended. Pushed back by the elves of Quel'Thalas and their human allies, the once-great northern troll empire receded but never actually died. Technically, even after repeated raids by outsiders, the Amani still hold onto their ancestral home. But all around it, the direct descendants (barely two elven generations) of their conquerors hold the Ghostlands, forests scarred by the Scourge during the Third War. War seems to never leave the gates of the troll kingdoms. However, to be fair, it's not as if the trolls are shy about warring on others, either.
Insignia's Infocast gains a web browser, a little dignity in the process
Nah, it's not an officially supported browser, but it's a browser nonetheless. Chumby founder Andrew Huang has recently posted up instructions (along with a prebuilt file for those stretched thin) on how to port a WebKit-based browser onto Best Buy's self-proclaimed Internet Media Device. Currently, the browser requires a USB keyboard for text input, though the touch panel still functions just fine when it comes to window management / navigation. Hit the links below if you're looking for good reason to dust your Infocast off and put it to better use. Or don't, and just become more bitter at the world around you for no good reason at all. Your choice.
The Queue: Quelling subversion
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. You may or may not remember my poll from the other day. You know, Taco Bell vs. KFC? I was impressed with how many people yelled at me to learn how to cook so I don't need to eat fast food. Come on, guys. Give me some credit here! I know how to cook. I cook all the time. Sometimes you just want some fast food! Seriously, I can cook. I promise. Tell you what, if any of you magically fall down my chimney one day, I'll whip up a nice spinach quiche for dinner. Unless you'd prefer a pot of chili or some shrimp scampi? Maybe even potato pancakes if you're that kind of guy or gal. We can have a piece of old-fashioned slab apple cake for dessert. Family recipe! Zulix asked ... "Just rolled a BE, and In Silvermoon City by the entrance, there is a 'harassed citizen' surrounded by guards, and you talk to the guards they say it doesn't concern you. What's the lore behind that?"
Know Your Lore: Current Horde politics -- the Blood Elves
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Before I begin, I'd like to thank all of the people that commented on the last post I made that covered orc politics. Apparently orcs are a hot topic of conversation, and while I didn't respond to everyone, I did read through everything said. I do have a couple of points to address, however. First, yes, I am aware that orcs are not all brute-minded savages. There's a lot more to orcs than simple savagery; however, that savagery is something that is a basic part of what makes an orc ... orcish. It's an innate part of being an orc. Thrall seems to lack that savagery for the most part and almost seems to want to cull it from orc society in favor of a more gentle and diplomatic disposition. Garrosh, on the other hand, embraces that savagery to an alarming degree. That's where the conflict between the two of them rests. One has what the other does not. Both are extreme cases in either direction. Second, evoking the name Garrosh Hellscream sets people off. I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but I'd have to say it's a telling statement to the storytelling department that Garrosh, regardless of how much or how little he's been developed, is provoking this kind of reaction from players. Given that most writers like to evoke some sort of emotion in their readers, I can only imagine they are secretly pleased with the outrage. Right, moving on! The blood elves, or sin'dorei as they've taken to calling themselves, have been a largely quiet presence in Wrath of the Lich King. Given this, they may seem like an odd choice to cover. Why bother talking about a race that hasn't done much to speak of since the days of Burning Crusade? Well... that's sort of the point. While the orcs, trolls, and tauren were natural additions, and the forsaken a little different but accepted at large, the blood elves were a very odd choice for an ally to many Horde players, and through the course of Burning Crusade, there was very little light shed on what made these creatures a valuable ally to the Horde because a large amount of blood elf history stemmed from events that happened prior to World of Warcraft.
Chumby prototype with Marvell innards spotted at MWC 2010
Even though they don't make retail devices, the booths of component makers like Qualcomm, Broadcom, TI, and Marvell at trade shows are often great venues for actually seeing retail devices -- these guys have to help showgoers make the connection between a boring chunk of silicon and an end product if they're hoping to score orders, after all. Indeed, Marvell's tent at MWC this year is a veritable cornucopia of Good Things, and we couldn't help but notice that they're showing what appears to be one of Chumby's not-for-sale reference designs sporting an 800 x 600 display with an 800MHz Marvell Armada core (hence the appearance here in the booth). For the record, we're told this is a successor to last year's reference platform known as "Silvermoon" that had been running on a 1GHz PXA168 and that there's a chance it'll be available in retail form later this year. The UI's attractive, but not really as multi-functional as Sony's Dash -- you can think of this as more of a giant Chumby One, really, with some extra screen elements designed to take advantage of the significantly higher resolution. There's no guarantee this'll ever be produced -- or if so, when -- so for the time being, our video UI tour after the break is about as close as you're going to get.
Ask a Faction Leader: Sylvanas Windrunner
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Chromie, ambassador for the Bronze Dragonflight, and he shed light on several key issues, including gender identity, dwarven futures, Mary Sues, and going back to the future. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the forsaken. Our first reader question... Dear Sylvanas, There have been rumors that your elder sister Alleria had a son with the Alliance paladin Turaylon. How do you respond to this? Sincerely, Wylendrin of Blackwater Raiders Sylvanas responds: With the opportunity to ask me anything, of course the blood elf paladin asks me tabloid questions.
The Queue: My, what big teeth you have
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Why yes, that is the most disgusting whale you've ever seen. Unless, of course, you've witnessed local authorities taking dynamite to a beached whale to get it out of the way since they couldn't move it just by pushing the thing. That is disgusting. Whale guts landing on cars a mile away? No thanks. I'll take the guy pictured above over that. Moonkinmaniac asked... "On the WoW calendar there's an undead whale picture. What the heck is it? Is it a rejected project for the current expansion or possibly one for Cataclysm?"
Ask a Faction Leader: Lor'themar Theron
WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, night elf leader of the Cenarion Circle, and he shed light on several key issues, including morrowgrain research, moonkin form, troll and worgen druids, his overwhelming popularity, and Silithus stankiness. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Regent-Lord Lor'themar Theron, interim ruler of the blood elves. Our first reader question: Dear Regent-Lord Lor'themar Theron, As a loyal defender of both you and Silvermoon, I have seen you fight first hand, and there are questions I need to ask. What Class are you? I mean you are said to be a ranger, or a hunter. But you look like a paladin, and use quasi-magi abilities so it has become impossible to tell. But honestly, I just want to tell you to cheer up and get some personality. Maybe then people might come back to Silvermoon and defend you, which would help seen as whatever class mash-up you are you fight terribly. Don't blame it on gear, Thrall is in level 30 greens and he at least fights like he cares. The fight to Arthas, the destroyer of Silvermoon, is coming, and you stand there, doing nothing. Will you ever send troops to Northrend? Will you ever get a personality? Yours, Bvannas Blood Elf Mage Terokkar (EU) Lor'themar responds: My class? As in the role I fill in a group? It should be evident from looking at my list of abilities. You see the one labeled "Mass Charm"? Not a difficult thing to infer.
Breakfast Topic: The best city for shopping
This discussion site we linked the other day, Epic Advice, is humming with activity, and full of interesting queries and answers about the World of Warcraft. Like this one: which city is the best for running to and from the bank and the AH (the question-asker also wants to get the mage portal in that circuit, but for the purposes of our discussion, we'll assume you're on a bank alt, so no portal necessary)? In terms of speed and ease, which is the best capital city to set up shop in?
WoW Moviewatch: Green Tambourine
Dude. Wait, what? I think I got a contact high from watching this trippy video. This is Green Tambourine by Demachic. It seems like we've missed covering it before now, which is a shame. As the story goes, a bored Blood Elf finds a trippy hookah hanging around, and decides to try it out. He's looking to break that boredom and day-to-day life he leads in Silvermoon.While it might be my inner hippy speaking out, I found this video absolutely gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and beautiful, and Demachic's flair for scenery sets up a great context for the music. All the characters really fit in that 60s and 70s psychadelic genre, and the whole thing just comes together wonderfully.The song was originally by the Lemon Pipers, and it actually reached #1 on the charts in 1968. Demachic's video is a great homage to the song.Thanks to Stephen for the tip!If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch
More free character transfers open for the EU
A new batch of fre realm transfers have opened up for European servers, which is always a good thing. A lot of these transfers are ones we've seen before though, so hopefully this time around these options will be more successful than they may have been previously. We also have a whole load of transfers opening up to EU-Magtheridon specifically for the Alliance, so they're continuing to try and repair the faction imbalance there. Right now, we're looking at... Horde players on EU-Magtheridon may transfer to Haomarush, Tarren Mill, Trollbane, Zenedar, and Silvermoon. Alliance players may transfer to EU-Magtheridon from Aerie Peak, Aggramar, Alonsus, Aszune, Azjol-Nerub, Bronze Dragonflight, Bronzebeard, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Khadgar, Kul Tiras, Runetotem, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, and Turalyon. Check behind the cut below for the rest of the current free character transfers.
10 things I learned from a destitute alt on an RP realm
I have a few alts on an RP realm that I visit from time to time, and I remember thinking to myself at one point: "These characters are a bunch of deadbeats." I'd gotten too used to the alts on my main realm being a bunch of pampered brats, spoiled rotten by the presence of a hardworking main, so financial discipline had grown to be a thing of the past. Not so on another realm where you don't have a main, and I realized that unless I went back to a few monetary basics, my alts would wind up dancing naked on mailboxes in pursuit of gold. This is a fine tactic with a long and storied history, but when your most promising alt is a level 16 Undead Mage, you're up the proverbial creek. No one wants to see a rotting, naked corpse.So I started not being a deadbeat, and it was with surprise and delight that I logged on to find the little tyke sitting on a pretty respectable pile of gold by level 21 -- as in, he can afford to pay for his level 30 mount and training several times over, and still have enough left over to train himself all the way to 45 even if he doesn't make another penny.
Midsummer Fun: Where to begin
The Midsummer Fire Festival is represented relatively equally in all capital cities, so you don't need to worry about the entire Azerothian population being packed into Ironforge and Orgrimmar. Below is a list of where, exactly, the festivities are in each of the capital cities.Alliance Stormwind - Just north of the Mage District, west of the Trade District. Next to The Stockade. Ironforge - At the far back of the city, in the Hall of Explorers. Darnassus - Outside of the city proper, in Rut'theran Village, right by the dock to Auberdine. Exodar - In the center of the Crystal Hall, the northmost wing of the city. Horde Undercity - Above ground in the courtyard, right by the city gates. Silvermoon City - In the Court of the Sun, just outside of Murder Row. Orgrimmar - In the Valley of Wisdom, just outside of Thrall's chambers. Thunder Bluff - On the Spirit Rise, near the northwestern edge of the bluff. Shattrath also has some of the activities these places have, but not everything. If all you're looking for is the Maypole or the daily quest Striking Back, Shattrath will do you fine. Otherwise, head to one of the locations listed above.
Midsummer Fun: A Thief's Reward
While not the fastest way to earn Burning Blossoms, stealing the opposing faction's flames is the most fun way to do it, I think. How do you steal the enemy's flame, you ask? Easy! Run into the heart of their capital city and click on their bonfire. Okay, maybe that isn't very easy, but knowing where you should be going makes it less difficult, at least.To acquire to flames, simply run up to the bonfire and click on it like you would a chest or similar item. Once the casting bar has completed, the fire will be placed in your inventory automatically. Right click on that item to begin a quest, one quest for each fire. Unfortunately, these quests require level 50 to begin.Alliance Flames Exodar - The Exodar Flame is one of the more hidden simply due to the town's layout, but you'll run into the least amount of player resistance here. You'll find the Flame of Exodar in the back of The Crystal Hall, the northmost wing of the city's three wings. Darnassus - You will run into a little more Alliance opposition here than in Exodar, since Alliance players generally pass through here to begin the Unusual Activity chain. Luckily, you don't even need to enter Darnassus itself to reach the flame. It is in Rut'Theran Village, a few steps away from the dock to/from Auberdine. Ironforge - This is where you'll see the most Alliance interference, most likely. The flame is in the Hall of Explorers, far in the back of the city. If you want to avoid going through the front door and getting slammed by all of the players auctioning and banking at the front of the city, I recommend doing the Stormwind flame first and using the Deeprun Tram since it will take you pretty close to the Hall of Explorers. If Stormwind is highly populated on your server, you may want to do it the other way around. Stormwind - This city has become fairly popular since The Burning Crusade, so this might challenge you more than Ironforge depending on your server. The Stormwind flame is just next to the Stockade. If you don't know where the Stockade is, go west from the Trade District and across the first bridge you see. If you look north along the Canals, you'll see the Stockade Meeting Stone. Run towards that, and the flame will be on your left. If you need to make a quick getaway or drop some heat from guard aggro, pop in there for a minute or two and people will forget all about you. Horde Flames Silvermoon City - If you play on an RP server, you'll probably run into a fair amount of opposition in this city. If you play on a PvP server, you'll probably skirt by without much issue. The Silvermoon flame is right on the edge of the Court of the Sun, just after you exit Murder Row. Murder Row has a distinct lack of guards, so if you need to drop some aggro, flailing wildly in this section is a good way to make the guards give up and go away. Oh, and if you play a gnome, you can hide from players under the lilypads in the fountain. I'm serious. It works. Undercity - This is one of the more populated cities, but that's balanced out by the fact that it has the most exposed flame of them all. Ride straight in the front door, enter the courtyard, and it's on your left. Easy enough. Orgrimmar - The flame is pretty close to Thrall's chambers in the Vallery of Wisdom, just a few steps away from the corpse of Mannoroth. There will be a lot of player interference in this area, but you can dodge and/or leash most of the guards if you enter the city from the side entrance and sneak along the back of the city. If you need to make a quick escape, dip down into the Cleft of Shadow and spend a few minutes inside Ragefire Chasm, just as Horde players can do with the Stockade. Thunder Bluff - Your mileage may vary as far as the opposition you run into. I got in and out pretty clean, but this city's population varies wildly per server. The flame can be found on The Spirit Rise. The easiest route is to simply take the elevator up, ride straight to the bridge across, and then go straight for the flame. The guards from the main area of the city will leash on the bridge, and you likely won't pull more than one or two guards on your way to the flame. What does stealing these flames get you? Well, each of them gives a guaranteed 25 Burning Blossoms, for a total of 100 if you gather all four flames. In addition, each of them allows you to pick one of the following: 5 Elderberry Pies, 5 Midsummer Sausages, 5 Fire-toasted Buns, 5 Toasted Smorcs, 10 Fiery Festival Brew, or 10 Handfuls of Summer Petals. Level 70s also receive 9 gold, 10 silver per quest. If all you want from the festival are those minor goodies, completing these can actually save you a fair amount of Blossoms. If you're after things like the dress or the vanity pet, it's not as good of a deal on the currency front.So, what happens if you turn in all four of the flames? Well, I'm glad you asked! That is where the quest A Thief's Reward comes in. You turn the flames in at any of your own capital cities, and those same people will over this to you when they've gotten all four. 5 gold, 10 silver, and the Crown of the Fire Festival is your prize for all of your hard work. Blizzard really enjoys making hats hard to get, don't they?
Maintenance for June 17th will be short
Here's a heads-up to all our North American night owls early risers and Oceanic readers: It's Tuesday morning, and that means maintenance. Luckily, it's a short one today. Bornakk has said that they expect most servers to only be down a half hour, starting at 5AM PDT and ending a 5:30AM PDT. There are some extra servers that will be down slightly longer, until 6:30AM PDT. Those servers will be listed after the break. Aussies can rejoice as well, as any Oceanic servers not on this list won't be taken down until 5AM AEST (Which is noon over here on the American west coast). For the list of servers that will have a longer downtime, read on:
Ask a Lore Nerd: The Evil-o-Meter
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, the column that answers your questions about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe. Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!Travis asks... What can you tell me about the other portals around Outlands (the only one that springs to mind right now is the one in Zangarmarsh)? They look just like the one you get to Outlands through, but are just standing there doing nothing. Answer: Those portals were once used by the Burning Legion and their lackies to travel between Outland and various other worlds. Those portals were also used to send Legion reinforcements to Outland. Before Illidan and his posse usurped Magtheridon, they went around shutting down these portals to prevent Magtheridon from being reinforced. Further, they've been kept closed so Kil'jaeden can't come stomping back into Outland to punish Illidan for not being able to kill the Lich King.
One Shots: Hanging with L70ETC
We admit it; for all that many of the team have spent time in World of Warcraft, most of us hadn't noticed that when not on tour, apparently Silvermoon City is the place to be if you want to spot L70ETC! Complete with a small gaggle of fans under their balcony, you can find them by going into the city and turning an immediate right. Considering all of the people below them have dialogue, and the guards in Silvermoon will interact with certain emotes, we suspect L70ETC may well interact if you target them and /wave or /cheer. If you pop by and say hi, leave us a comment on this One Shots and let us know if they reacted! Have you stumbled across something you never noticed before in an MMO you play? Perhaps something tucked away overhead, or in an odd corner you normally don't visit? Whatever the case, we love to hear about things like this. Just pop those screenshots into an email to oneshots AT massively.com along with a quick note on what you found. %Gallery-9798%
The Wow-ku challenge
So, you know what Haiku is, right? It's form of Japanese poetry. The most popular English version is 3 lines long. The first line is 5 syllables, the second 7, and the third is 5 again. All well and good, I'm sure you say, but what does this have to with WoW? Fimlys of the Asleep at the WoW blog posted a Wow-ku challenge a few days ago, asking people to make up Haikus based on our favorite game. Here's a few I whipped up:
