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Complete redesign of TTH WoW database
A database is always useful, especially so after going under the digital knife for a redesign. You could say after something like that it would be even more useful -- and you'd be right. Today, Ten Ton Hammer unveiled their completely redesigned World of Warcraft database to the world. It boasts all sorts of new features, such as being more user friendly and easier to navigate. We especially appreciate that the new database is now 100% gold seller-free, which means less spam for everyone involved. Doing a quick look through the database reveals that they weren't lying about the more user friendly stuff. Not only is the entire database easier to navigate and find what you need, but it now also features a download-ready WoW addon that grabs all sorts of information while you play. You can then take your gathered info-bits and upload them to the database where you're given credit for your efforts. All the details on the new additions and changes are in this FAQ here in case you're interested.
Public Service Announcement: clean up your drones!
Any player who has leveled a character in Tabula Rasa past level 25 is likely intimately familiar with the dregs of the Arieki planet -- the Mires. For those not in the know, the Mires is a hotly contested area of the volcanic planet, with much of its geographical area patrolled by roving gangs of Bane. As a rather curious, though likely completely unforeseen side effect of these enemy packs is that the Mires is far and away the laggiest area of any MMO in recent memory. Lag is hardly anything new, especially for a genre as tethered to the online experience as the massively multiplayer, but for a zone to be so singularly laggy is particularly rare. And this after it was claimed a month ago by the devs that the Mires was free from performance issues. Hmm...Evidently, the lag in the Mires is a well-known issue and is actually attributed to an over-abundance of shield drones in the area. Shield drones are small flying robots that hover around groups of Bane and cast a protective yellow bubble around all those who stay within its radius, shielding those inside from most damage. A typical strategy when faced with large groups of Bane and their accompanying drones is to first target the shield drones with EMP weapons to lower the groups defenses, before moving on to assault the larger force. What has happened is that the AFS NPCs who engage these groups of Bane as part of Tabula Rasa's unique persistent warfare, lack the skills or know-how to take out these shield drones. The consequence? The Mires is absolutely covered in small groups of shield drones with nobody to protect but themselves. These wandering shield drones are responsible for the two second lag between when you hit the trigger and when that sonic missile leaves your launcher. Bah humbug.As if we didn't have it bad enough already, I've seen many players blast through dozens of groups of Thrax and Kael, only to leave half a dozen shield drones in their wake. And we wonder why there's lag! So I'm putting out a call to everybody who finds themselves questing in the Mires: clean up your after yourselves, you lazy gits soldiers! Shoot down those drones.
A lack of left-handed WoW
Kaalis has a post on the forums about something that seems small, and yet is something I have never, ever, in all my years of playing this game, noticed before. Everyone (and I mean everyone) in Azeroth is right-handed. From the lowliest guard in Stormwind to the meanest boss in the Black Temple (probably not Illidan-- maybe Gorefiend), everyone who wields a weapon is right-handed. Even the Shivarra (those female demons with the six arms) wield their weapons in their top right hands. How incredibly strange.I should correct that: apparently Blizzard noticed this before they did Zul'Aman, and so there is one NPC in all of Azeroth (actually one character, because all players are right handed, too) that is left handed: Nalorakk, the bear boss. And you have to assume that after this, we'll see other bosses and NPCs that might mix things up a bit.But for players and old NPCs, Bornakk says not to hold your breath. Blizzard is working hard on new customization options for Wrath of the Lich King, but turning players southpaw isn't one of them.
Boat vendors MIA
One of my favorite little additions in patch 2.3 was the boat/zeppelin vendors. Sure, there's a whole crew there, but after talking to them once to see what gossip they had, the vendors were the only ones I went back to. Since Blizzard refuses to take me up on my suggestion to allow fishing from moving boats, it gives me the one more thing to do while waiting for that zone-in screen, aside from chatting and making bandages. Being able to sell trash, stock up on reagents, and sometimes repair during this downtime is really nice.Unfortunately, the boat vendors have been disabled in a hotfix to the live realms, for vague reasons. Nethaera clarifies that there are "propulsion issues" that necessitate the vendors being out for the time being, but that they'll be "back on duty" as soon as the issues are fixed. Possibly related is a note that the entire boat crew is gone on the 2.3.2 PTR, "for testing purposes." Hopefully the vendors will be back soon; until then, my boat rides will be (even more) boring.
First STO in-game screenshot released
In the past, Star Trek Online devlogs have been light on gameplay information. Perpetual's Mike Stemmle usually writes about the development team, concept art, and things of that nature. But this time it's different. Not only does Devlog #5 include juicy details about interacting with NPCs, but it also includes the very first in-game screenshot. Sweet!We can learn a couple of things from this screenshot. First of all, the graphics are neither cutting edge nor outdated; they're right in the middle. This is arguably a sweet spot for MMOs. Second, the LCARS influence can be seen on the UI, but it's not overt. In fact, it's barely there. We do find it a bit alarming that the game features a standard MMO "1 through =" action bar -- a tired convention that's begging for innovation.As far as the NPC interaction stuff goes, though, it all sounds good.
Age of Conan video all about scary monsters
GameSpot is hosting its sixth official Age of Conan video, which we've embedded here. This time, members of the Age of Conan team talk about the philosophies and motivations behind the designs of the various hostile monsters and NPCs of the game-world.The interview clips are interspersed with glimpses at the game's gorgeous graphics in motion. We're sure the graphics will go over well with XBox 360 players, but a case can and has been made that MMOs on the PC can benefit from low system requirements. On the other hand, AoC is not exactly aimed at your grandmother.So if you've got one of those computers so powerful it has to be submerged in 15 gallons of liquid nitrogen to prevent a planet-busting anti-matter explosion, then rest assured that the monsters shown in the video look awesome. [Via Warcry]
To WoW, perchance to dream
Last night I dreamt of Mudsprocket. I was questing with one of my alts -- I assume my shadow priest, but I can't be certain because I was seeing the perspective from her eyes -- and I came across a new NPC standing next to the flight master. She was a female orc named Robin Torres, and I realized she was named after our Robin of WoW Insider fame.The dream switches to me having a discussion at a party with a friend of mine. Over drinks I mention what I found in the game and she doesn't seem the least bit surprised. "Well, Azeroth Interrupted was incredibly popular" she tells me.Now this isn't the first time I've dreamt about the game. I do so pretty much all the time. Since I play so much my unconscious mind feeds on what is on my mind at the time. What intrigued me looking back on it was my creation of my own NPC to place into the game. So I wondered what other NPCs players might like to see referenced in WoW. I know the game is riddled with references, from Caretaker Ophera Windfury to Eyonix himself. I'm interested to see what the readers would select for new NPCs to add to the game. Who would you like to meet lounging at the bar in a tavern in Howling Fjord or standing guard at the Sunwell?
The Art of War(craft): Alterac Valley, Part I - Evolution
When Battlegrounds were introduced in Patch 1.5, it changed the entire PvP landscape. With the introduction of the Honor System in the patch before it, which included the now-obsolete ranks and PvP gear, there was suddenly purpose to PvP. In my previous column, I expressed how I preferred my PvP to have some sort of objective or reason. The Battlegrounds made PvP somewhat more meaningful, with thematic goals situated in instanced areas that gave popular war zones such as Hillsbrad and the Barrens relative peace. The first Battlegrounds came in two flavors: Warsong Gulch, which was designed to cater to short skirmishes because of its size and scope; and Alterac Valley, which was designed to be more epic, with a large zone that had numerous geographical features, multiple objectives, and -- unique to this Battleground up to the present -- faction NPCs. Warsong Gulch, although designed to be short, succumbed to a small design flaw that left it prone to unnecessarily lengthy games. I'll discuss WSG at length in a future article but will, for this week and next, focus on the grandeur of Alterac Valley.Of all the Battlegrounds, AV has gone through the most changes, having received fixes and modifications with most of the patches subsequent to its release. Alterac Valley was an extremely ambitious project for the folks at Blizzard, and it was clear from the beginning that they had very high hopes for it. It was supposed to be epic, with the feel of a great war. The size of the zone, complemented by the faction structures and NPCs, certainly added to that ambiance. In terms of gameplay, however, Alterac Valley was flawed on many levels. In the earliest iteration of AV, there was a giant troll named Korrak the Bloodrager in the Field of Strife in the center of the map. The presence of a hostile boss where players would clash proved to be a nightmare. Players spent too much time trying to kite, kill, or flee from Korrak instead of engaging each other. Most of the other NPCs created the same problem, slowing down the game considerably. Subsequent patches saw Korrak moving to Snowfall Graveyard and eventually packing his bags for greener pastures. Blizzard later removed and weakened many of the NPCs, as well, facilitating faster forward movement towards the end goal.In the latest patch, Alterac Valley received its biggest overhaul yet. The latest changes are the most drastic in terms of gameplay because it now gives another means of winning the game, making it the only Battleground with an alternative victory condition. There is now a new mechanic called Reinforcements, with each side receiving a count of 600 at the start of the game. Killing opposing players will reduce their team's Reinforcements on a 1:1 ratio while destroying a pair of towers or killing enemy Captains (Balinda and Galvangar) will reduce it by 100. Killing the enemy General will reduce the opposing team's reinforcements to 0, winning the game. Conversely, reducing an opposing team's reinforcements to 0 will result in the enemy General's death. The changes make Alterac Valley feel like an entirely new game, forcing a shift in strategy and encouraging more player combat. What used to work in previous iterations of AV no longer work so well in AV 2.3. The zerg rush that used to typify AV races have given way to a new kind of thinking: defend, push forward, kill everything in sight. It would seem, at last, that PvP has come to the Valley.
Inside the accounting files of NPCs
I've already said a few times that I'd love to see Blizzard's population figures, but a query (from an MVP, strangely enough) brings up another set of figures that I wouldn't mind a look at: NPC vendor sales numbers. Crepe wants to know how many items Griftah has sold (and how many hula dolls he sells post 2.3), but unfortunately, Nethaera deflects the question and leaves us with nothing. Additionally, I'd like to know how many heroic badges G'eras is going through on any given night-- maybe the fact that he's not selling many of his Heroic items is the reason why Blizzard is going to start dropping Badges in both Karazhan and Zul'Aman next week.Blizzard has given us peeks at a few numbers behind the game, but they haven't updated that page since it went up (and with all the exceptions on those lists, it's not much help anyway). There is a whole new world of statistics to be had in Outland, and it'd be nice for Blizzard to let us at just a few of the most interesting ones.
Mysterious Mysteries: What's that NPC about?
Recently on an research mission in Dun Morogh (read starting yet another alt) I came across Father Gavin, an elderly gentleman standing in the Dwarven starting area with a pleasant enough expression on his mustachioed face. What makes Father Gavin so very intriguing is not what we know about him -- he wears the tabard of the Argent Dawn, and I must assume is the Dwarves first introduction to the human race in Azeroth -- but what we don't know about him, which is just about everything else. Looking this fellow up on WoW Wiki yeilds little more than a description of his location, because, really well, there's no quest line connected to him. There are a couple NPCs out there who seem to be disconnected from society in a way Tabatha the recluse could never hope to be. How about my favorite Wetlands cipher Terl Arakor? According to WoW Head he was supposed to be a vendor, but his only use these days appears to be keeping his wagon from rolling away and providing the Horde with an easy source of wool cloth. Was he once a sheep perhaps?There are stories out there for these people, but we can't seem to find them. What exactly is the story behind Jane and Nova (besides the obvious Final Fantasy 7 reference) trying to wake their father on the shores of Eversong Woods? Perhaps he was on a bender, and will wake up with a Thrall-sized headache just about the time the Sunwell raid instance opens. Have you seen any NPCs that seemed to have a name, seemed to have been meant to be linked to quests that no one is able to get?
The Daily Grind: In my MMO...
Kill Ten Rats says that in his MMO, using phrases like "u r" (as in "you are"-- yeah, I don't do it either) should flag you for PvP, as should writing "lol" ten times, or using the word "ghey".I'd have to say that I agree, but what if you could design your own MMO, tailored especially to your own tastes?In my MMO, ganking someone below your level would give them a 10 minute buff that would make them stronger than you for 10 minutes or until they killed you, whichever came first.In my MMO, NPCs would be extremely excited and generous even after seeing you complete the simplest of quests. "Wow, you killed all those rats in my basement? Here, have this Holy Avenger Sword!"In my MMO, anyone who needed a group could get one without waiting, and all group members would instantly appear wherever they needed to be once the group was formed.These are all pretty nice, but what can I say-- I'm a nice guy. Your wishes might be a little... harsher. If you had a designer at your beck and call to create the MMO of your own personal dreams, what would be "in my MMO"?
LotRO housing won't be barren forever
Ever since Turbine dropped the Book 11 update to Lord of the Rings Online, much of the attention usually focused on new content as been siphoned away in discussions about the game's new, and admittedly flawed, housing system. Though players continue to be excited about the prospect of filling their homes with exotic goods, a common sentiment seems to be that though the inside of the houses are fantastic, the instanced neighborhoods in which they reside are... sparse. Like a new suburban development, these neighborhoods are immaculately trimmed and utterly, unsatisfyingly barren.Never let it be said that Turbine isn't mindful of their fans. Forum moderator Scenario was there with a quick reply. To wit, "As housing receives continued exposure, we will be looking over our metrics and seeing how much more we can add while still providing an environment that performs adequately (so far we don't have anything to worry about but we've never instanced landscape in this fashion before, so we wanted to be cautious at first). At the soonest, you may see some new NPCs added to neighborhoods in Book 12 - but I make no guarantees!"We can't fault them for wanting to be cautious, but we want more surly dwarf milkmen! But anyway, there's your answer.
Chronicles of Spellborn CM interview
We haven't heard much here at Massively about The Chronicles of Spellborn, but what we have heard has been interesting. It's definitely a lesser-known MMORPG, and doesn't have the promotional power of Warhammer or some other MMOs currently in beta, but the dev team over there is definitely throwing around some interesting ideas. Want to play a fantasy MMO where gear doesn't matter, or where player skill is supposed to trump dicerolls? Then if this interview over at TenTonHammer is any indication, Spellborn might be your new favorite upcoming game.TTH talks with Community Manager Pierre-Yves Deslandes about a game that seems to be aiming to break every MMO convention out there. Gear has no stats on it, so you can wear whatever you like anytime you want. Skills are layered, and meant to be used in conjunction with combos. And there is no auto-lock-- while Deslandes strays away from the "twitch" idea, they instead want to call it "focus." Instead of mindlessly clicking, you've got to be involved in the game.Not all of it sounds completely new-- NPCs still give quests, and their big innovation in that area is that it's a book floating over their head rather than an exclamation mark. But Spellborn might be an interesting outing, especially if you're looking for something new in MMORPGs.
Gallery: Fun with Brewfest goggles
These images just keep making me laugh. Over the weekend, we posted pictures of people having fun with the Beerfest goggles around famous Azerothian NPCs, and although my original request of Illidan never panned out (he's not a humanoid, apparently, and thus not susceptible to the effects of beer goggles), you readers responded with tons of funny pictures featuring our fearless leaders as Gnomes and female Orcs.So here they are all collected into a gallery, and if you have any more, feel free to drop us a note with links to them, and I'll add them in. Thanks to all the commenters who posted links for these pics: Nate S., myrlin, Haaken, erin, and s02.%Gallery-8945%
Considering a real simulated reality
Those of you who are regular readers might have figured out by now that I'm very interested in the relationship between the real and the virtual world, but the latest post at Terra Nova goes far beyond any simple reasoning I've ever done. Basically, they sum up some speculation being performed by academics that says that just like we Earthlings have created our own virtual worlds (in Azeroth and elsewhere), it's somewhat, maybe possible that we ourselves actually live in someone else's virtual world.Wow. To me, that's so far off the beaten path that who knows where to begin with it-- you've got religion in there somewhere, as well as the old question of our existence itself. But supposing that were true (and it's almost too big a jump for even me to make, except for the fact that even if it is true, we'll likely never know it), what would you do if you were living in a virtual world? Would you act differently? Would you be a griefer? Or would you play the game, play by the rules, and help yourself and others not only "win," but have fun too? It seems a little loony (because who wants to admit that their world is someone else's toy?), but it's a fascinating thought experiment that should help you examine both how you're living your life and how you want to live it-- what would you do if you were an NPC in a virtual world?Of course, things get even stranger, because we don't just create virtual worlds-- we play in them. Azeroth isn't just full of NPCs-- it's full of us, walking around, killing things, and generally taking (and taking over) whatever we want. If our world really is someone else's, does that mean they're here too?
The Draw Your Favorite NPC Contest
I don't think I've ever seen a forum thread that has promised so much, and yet delivered so little-- so far. Then again, if ths above image of Hogger is all that ever comes out of this thread, it'll all be worth it.Caela on Earthen Ring has kicked off a "Draw Your Favorite NPC" contest, and it has the potential to be legendary. So far, there are only two pictures submitted-- the one above is amazing, and it's by Arity of ER. The other one is of Cookie McWeaksauce, and it's drawn by Umilluer, also of ER.Now, the contest (though, as Caela says, it's really more of an exercise) doesn't end until Saturday the 21st, so I'd expect that people might still be working on their pictures-- hopefully we'll see a lot more of these. In the meantime, if you've got pictures for the contest, throw them in the comments below, or put them on that forum post. It'll be tough to beat that Hogger picture, I know, but if you've got any interest in drawing your favorite NPC (I'd draw High Overlord Saurfang if I had any artistic skillz whatsoever), please, please do so.
Gallery: What's in a name?
From NPCs to player names to guild names and locations, I often find myself having a chuckle over Blizzard's and players' creative naming decisions. We've started a gallery to showcase some of the funnier names around Azeroth and Outland, and we need your help filling it in. If you see a funny NPC, player, guild, or place name in your travels that isn't already in our gallery, take a screenshot and send it in. We're happy to credit you by name and a link to your blog, guild website, etc. We'll keep updating the gallery and post periodic reminders as long as it keeps growing. Make sure your image is less than 10MB in size and send it to funnynames AT wowinsider DOT com. And of course, check out the gallery so far. Thanks in advance for your submissions! %Gallery-1669%
Know Your Lore: Illidan
It has come to our attention that there are quite a few people out there who don't know anything about the Warcraft universe. Considering that the Burning Crusade expansion is chock-full of major lore characters, this is somewhat disturbing. While it's definitely not necessary to play the previous Warcraft games to enjoy WoW, this is an online roleplaying game set in a particular universe, and understanding a little bit of the history behind the game can make your time in Azeroth more enjoyable. Sure, it's not exactly The Wheel Of Time in complexity, but there's some cool stuff going on in the world that you can only "get" if you know who's who. With that in mind, the new Know Your Lore feature will present quick and dirty biographies of some of the most famous names in Azeroth. Our inaugural article showcases someone you've definitely heard of, and will be hearing much more from in the near future -- Illidan Stormrage, the ultimate boss of the Burning Crusade expansion.
AddOn Spotlight: AutoSelect
I like efficiency. If it lets me skip a click, I say, it's worth a download. And AutoSelect lets you skip many, many clicks. What it does is jump past the "gossip" screen at NPCs that offer one, going straight to the vendor interface/flight path map/whatever it is that NPC is actually for. And if you really feel the need to see Innkeeper Firebrew say "Fill your tankard and pull up a chair" one more time, just hold down control when you right-click the NPC -- that disables AutoSelect.The author has quit developing the mod in dissatisfaction over WoW 2's restrictiveness, but not before updating it to work with 2.0.1. Hopefully someone will take it over when it needs changes; for now, it works perfectly.Download at ui.worldofwar.netPreviously on the SpotlightHave a favorite mod? Drop us a line, or post a comment.
