Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: World of Warcraft Page 11 of 12

WoW: Add-ons and LUA

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On November 2, 2012

In World of Warcraft

I can get a little add-on crazy with WoW sometimes. I know there are a lot of people out there that like to troll about using add-ons but I say to each their own. I currently have 25 add-ons installed (I don’t really know if that is a lot or little compared to what others are running). I recently downloaded an add-on that hasn’t been updated since March 2011 and the author has said that he won’t be updating it anymore because of changes in life, which is understandable.

Remarkably the add-on still worked great but there were a couple of idiosyncrasies that I wished could be tweaked. I thought, well, I’m a programmer by trade so I opened up the code and, in about 10 minutes, figured out what I could do to change the add-on.

So it got me thinking, would it be worth perhaps taking over this add-on and/or perhaps venturing into my own add-on endeavors. I don’t know if there is a suggested method or IDE for writing and debugging add-ons other then clicking save and launching the game to see if you get any LUA errors. Perhaps its something I will start researching. Has anyone else out there spent some time messing around with LUA and writing/maintaining add-ons?

WoW: Is Player Housing Coming?

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On October 22, 2012

In World of Warcraft

I never played Farmville because I didn’t use Facebook to play stupid games; I barely play games on my iPhone and iPad. I was rolling my eyes when I first read about The Tillers which is, for all intents and purposes, Blizzard’s adaptation of Farmville in WoW. Now we are three weeks into the expansion and I find myself checking my farm first thing.

I’m addicted to my farm! I even log out at the Inn above Halfhill Market. While I have no inclination to start doing Farmville, the mechanic Blizzard has developed to allow every player to have their own farm has my mind wondering … is player housing coming?

Apparently I’m not the only one. I, lovingly, stole this excerpt from a post of The Queue from WoW Insider:

BlazeNor asked:

With this farming aspect added to the game that seem to be done with phasing, do you think this could open the door to housing? For example allowing players to own a piece of land and building on it though reputation and dailies.

I absolutely do think it could lead to that, yeah. I think our farm in Mists of Pandaria is Blizzard’s testing ground for player housing. The question has always been, if they give us player housing, what do you do there? Do you just retire after a hard day of questing, make some popcorn, and watch some TV in your house in Stormwind? No, that’s boring. They won’t just give us a room to put up some paintings or whatever and leave it at that. They would want player housing to be an activity, something with goals and objectives. Our tiny little farm in Valley of the Four Winds is a good example of housing being an actual activity — to get something for your farm, you need to work towards it, you have to earn it. It’s a great start. They’re seeing what works and what doesn’t.

I could totally see them building on the Mists of Pandaria model and doing something like … we’re on whatever continent or planet comes next, and the Alliance (or Horde) entrusts you with a newly established, totally ramshackle stronghold. You need to improve its fortifications, make friends with local warlords or mercenaries, recruit officers, and bling out your throne room. That would be way more epic than an apartment in Old Town. Though the roleplayer in me thinks an apartment in Old Town would be pretty sweet, too.

I know that Blizzard has been talking about the possibility of player housing for a few years now and I agree with the author (Alex Ziebart) of that post. I think its very possible to implement player housing and I do think Sunsong Ranch is their beta test. Actually the idea of revitalizing a “ramshackle stronghold” is really cool. I think I almost like it better then player housing.

I have noticed something though that I think they may have to tackle. Even when you are in a group with someone, you cannot visit their farm. I would think that if you introduce player housing or player strongholds, players will probably want to invite their friends to come over and play.

Perhaps that is something Blizzard is working out as well.

/Cheers!

WoW: Mists of Pandaria Impressions (thus far)

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On September 28, 2012

In World of Warcraft

I’m going to try to talk about what I think of the Mists of Pandaria expansion without revealing too much about what is happening lore-wise. I know its only been a couple of days since the expansion has gone live, but I feel like I already have enough to talk about to warrant this post.

The premise is the war between the Horde and Alliance has heated up to volcanic proportions as a result of the senseless demolition of Theramore. The fighting between the two factions has brought them to the shores of Pandaria, a peaceful and lost island of the Pandarians. The presence of this island has only now been revealed thanks to Deathwing’s attempted re-ascension. Now both sides are battling for control of this island and the Pandarian’s are stuck in the middle, forced to choose a side.

I know the European launch seemed to have gotten off to a rocky start but I think the seamless launch in the US went off flawlessly. I would even go so far as to say that this is probably the smoothest launch Blizzard has had with a WoW expansion.

I haven’t played the Horde side yet, but so far the Alliance side is pretty fun. The battle pretty much starts right away as you are sent to the island in search of something very precious that has been lost. Although, about half way through questing in the Jade Forest you are ready to smack the little punk. I have only just begun my adventure and I have only reached level 86 so far (because of that whole “real life” thing that gets in the way).

I have also tried out the pet battles, which is pretty much WoW-style Pokemon, but its still pretty entertaining. If you are an avid pet collector, like my wife is, then you will find this component to be very fun and will only exacerbate your addiction. The nice thing is, since pets are not account wide, it doesn’t matter what toon you are on, or what server you are on, any pet you capture as a result of your pet battle, all of your toons will have it.

I am anxious to reach the max level and try out the scenarios, new dungeons and new raids. Perhaps I will have a follow up post after I have progressed a bit more into the new content. Feel free to post your thoughts and comments from your MoP experiences thus far.

/Cheers!

Theramore's Fall

WoW: The Theramore’s Fall Scenario

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On September 18, 2012

In World of Warcraft

Theramore's FallThe week leading up to the launch of Blizzard’s fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria (MoP), players can participate in the first of the new scenarios. Scenario’s are a new mechanic introduced with this expansion that provide additional end game activities for players. The first scenario is called Theramore’s Fall and it went live this week. This scenario is also allegedly the pre-MoP “world event” that not only explains how Pandaria is found but the catalyst that reignites the feud between the Horde and Alliance. The night the scenario went active I grabbed my wife and my friend and we jumped in queue. This is what I think of the event from the perspective of a world event and from the perspective of the new scenario mechanic.

The Theramore “World Event”

In a word, I found the fall of Theramore world event “disappointing”. When you compare it to the zombie apocalypse (that introduced WotLK) and the earthquakes (that introduced Cataclysm), this one was extremely unimpressive. Even as I am typing this I am still hoping that there will be more to the pre-Mists world event then 15 minutes of countering assaults and the total destruction of Theramore.

I get that Blizzard wanted to show off their new scenario mechanic (which I will get to in a little bit) but I feel like they really dropped the ball. I feel like they could have done something to remind us every time we log in, until the expansion, that something terrible has happened. The scenario could still have been integrated into the event but I don’t think it should have been the only component of the event. I think they should have done more with Jaina since there was such a build up to the change in her persona.

Completing the world event the player is rewarded with a tabard or a mana bomb, some fireworks and a chance at ilevel 384 gear. It hardly feels like a world event at all.

The “Theramore’s Fall” Scenario

One of the new game mechanics Blizzard is introducing with Mists of Pandaria are called “Scenarios”. Basically its a group of 3 that has certain objectives to complete. My understanding is that every scenario will be designed in a way so any three people can participate regardless of class spec. You will not need “the holy trinity”, as I’ve heard it called, to complete the scenario. Its basically an instanced quest chain and it should only take 15-20 minutes to complete. You can only do the scenario by using the looking-for-group tool.

Aside from what I thought about the Theramore scenario as a world event, the scenario itself was a lot of fun. I really like the concept that I can just hop on and grab my wife and a friend and go knock something over and not have to spend all night doing it. I like that none of us have to play musical characters/specs so we have to make sure we have a tank/healer to be successful. It’s also nice, especially for alts, that you may be rewarded with a high level piece of gear. I don’t know what the plans are for rewards for the level 90 scenarios but I am interested to find out.

So far, my early impression is pretty positive for scenarios. I think its a pretty cool idea to add to improve the end-game experience. Honestly, I hope it is received well and perhaps other games will adopt the idea and perhaps even try to add their own tweak to it.

WoW: Patch 5.0.4 Impressions

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On September 7, 2012

In World of Warcraft

The latest content patch has been out nearly two weeks and by now everyone should have picked their new talents and glyphs for pretty much all of their toons. This patch brought a lot of changes to the game including the revamped talent system, which I’m still on the fence about. I felt a little bummed when my warlock hit 83 the other day and I was all excited about setting a talent point but then remembered I don’t get to do that until 85. I have not had an opportunity yet to try out any of the new rotations to get a sense of whether the specs I chose for my classes match my play style. I imagine that I may have to spend some cash changing my talents around until I find something that best suits me.

I’m also curious how this will change the concept of theorycrafting. I thought one of the motivations behind Blizzard’s decision to change the talent system was to prevent players from being forced to use a specific spec. It always annoyed me when I would get a whisper from someone while in a LFG dungeon that I should have put X number of points in Y talent.

I think one of my favorite changes are the changes to the minor glyphs. Instead of utility, for the most part, they are just goofy, cosmetic changes. I really think it adds more depth to the customization of your character. They saved the major glyphs for game play modification. Expect to see things like your shadow orbs appear as shadow ravens, polymorph porcupine, charge leaves a trail of flames, four wings with avenger’s wrath, etc. I could go on forever so log in and check it out.

There is so much more going on with this patch that I don’t think I could possibly cover it all without causing your eyes to glaze over and decrease your heart rate. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the changes with this patch and it does make me a bit more excited for the Mists expansion. If you have been away from the game for a while, I would come back and check out the latest changes, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Cheers!

WoW: Turned Off By Legendaries

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On August 21, 2012

In World of Warcraft

So when Mists of Pandaria goes live, and everyone starts leveling and raiding again, the angst of acquiring the new shiney legendary will begin and I fear the worst. I don’t really fear for our guild because we are all pretty reasonable adults, but I can already see the drama starting now in the community as a whole. It will envelop hundreds and thousands of players. People will be crying endlessly because they were not chosen to receive the required widgets that must be collected to progress through the quest line. I don’t think Blizzard is quite prepared for the swell of controversy by creating a legendary for all classes.

I’m sure there will be several that have staked claim on a legendary “since level 10” and they will not acquiesce quietly.

Personally I’m not going to get caught up in it because I stand by my belief that a legendary item is merely a luxury item so I could care less. As history has shown us through all the previous expansions, you must have completed the raid to even complete the questline to obtain the legendary and most of the time the bosses need to be farmed for several weeks to acquire all the little bobbles needed for the quest. Therefore any claim that obtaining the legendary for any role within a raid/party will make a significant impact in progression is ludicrous. In fact, as far as my personal opinion goes, anyone that makes that claim should automatically be exempt from the list of potential recipients of said legendary.

Something else that makes legendary weapons pointless is that they become obsolete quicker then it takes to obtain them. Unless you are part of a basement dwelling hardcore raiding guild, you won’t complete the quests and construction of it until just as the next content is about to be released. I think its stupid that Blizzard doesn’t allow you to use it for transmog so really you are just obtaining a Feat-of-Strength achievement and/or unlocking some other frivolity. In fact I don’t think I will even finish the construction of Shadowmourne because I can use Shadow’s Edge for future transmogs.

So someone please explain to me any other purpose for obtaining a legendary other then for touting your epeen? I’m open minded enough to listen and discern any logical and practical application or usage.

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