Do you remember the outcries from paladins and the menace to go play warrior priest? Go play ret on ptr ('randomly' opened during war open beta) and compare it with wp.
Also the small improvements in the engine make it look far better than war (although war mostly buries itself on that department).
The timing is 100% intended. And it's not a conspiracy just common sense business.
Also the small improvements in the engine make it look far better than war (although war mostly buries itself on that department).
Could you elaborate a little on this please? I haven't really followed WAR's developement, but how do the graphics compare between WOTLK and WAR (or any other mmorpg coming out soon).
Force disables aa, mipmapping is wierd (a bit improved with last build but textures still get too blurry too close). Skin textures tend to get a plastic look.
An example, everything maxed with an ati 4850: ImageShack - Hosting :: ferief001rr5.jpg.
You're partly right. Items are scaling logarithmically. Where we all may be wrong is the assumption that the item level formula for epics is or was a linear formula. I took the raw item value for Journey's End, this is the value after the summation and after taking it to the 1.7095 root, and then came up with a series of imaginary item tiers, each increasing by 13 item levels that were each 13% better than the previous tier. I then graphed it and came up with the equation:
iLvl = 106.41 * Ln(itemValue) - 344.81
What's interesting is that if you take an epic from TBC, this formula manages to have a similar accuracy to what we previously had as the linear formula for epics. I then took an average of raw item values from both TBC epics and WotLK epics, which lead to a more accurate equation:
iLvl = 105.92 * Ln(itemValue) - 342.12
I'm pretty sure that this is similar to the formula that Blizzard has been using since, at least, Naxxramas as it's off by 2 levels at calculating the item level for [The Hungering Cold] while still managing to calculate TBC and WotLK item levels.
That makes a lot of sense - we probably were attributing the slight running-off of stats in TBC to rounding errors or slight developer typos, but I guess as the item levels went past 150ish the deviation from a standard linear mapping became way more obvious.
Question now is, we know (Sorta... gotta check up wowhead for the Northrend drops to be sure) greens with random suffixes follow a linear mapping... what about blues?
As for style WAR is one step away from "arcade" style and one step closer to "realistic" style. That being said it is still in the WoW category.
WoW vs WAR:
1) Trees, grass and sky is better than in wotlk. Especially trees look 10 times better.
2) Textures are very good however it is all destroyed by broken level of detail. Basically most textures on distance (especially ground ones) are blurred and even forcing AF does not help.
3) Character models are same quality as TBC drenai/be I would say.
4) Shadows in wotlk are much better than in WAR. Basically in WoW you have dynamic shadows on everything besides other characters (those got them only if you get very close). In WAR you have dynamic shadow only on yourself and everything else seems to lack any shadows (besides other characters that have shadow circles just like in WoW now).
5) Performance is way better in wotlk.
6) Most animations are better in WoW. Sync and overall flow is much better in WoW.
In short I would only grab WAR trees and put them in WoW. Also I would love that Blizzard someday would make as detailed textures as in WAR and it is really shame that WAR engine destroys all great work that was done with high quality textures.
As for conspiracy theories. Nothing strange here. That only shows that people involved in Blizzard marketing aren't noobs. However I do not think that wotlk release date had anything to do with WAR release date - rather other way around. Also I am too concerned that it is too soon etc. I do not really care what disaster will happen with patch 3.0 - I will rather level another alt with new talents then But I really do not want to see hell like "TBC raiding pre-2.1" again.
Only thing that surprised me about the release date was that it is set for a Thursday. I figured it would be on a Tuesday. Nice to see it coming, as it also means something fun for me to play with during Thanksgiving weekend.
I wonder if there is any chance they'll give the pre-order or Collector's Edition crowd the ability to fire it up on Tuesday the 11th....
It's probably a stupid question, but why does it have to be a Tuesday? Is that some Thanksgiving thing I don't get since I am not American myself or so? <_<
That being said, I am not really happy that the release is actually coming this early. Not because I don't think it's going to be a mess when they release it since they can fix that with patches, but I am genuinely worried that this might kill raiding far earlier than I assumed.
It's probably a stupid question, but why does it have to be a Tuesday? Is that some Thanksgiving thing I don't get since I am not American myself or so? <_<
That being said, I am not really happy that the release is actually coming this early. Not because I don't think it's going to be a mess when they release it since they can fix that with patches, but I am genuinely worried that this might kill raiding far earlier than I assumed.
Most games/DVD/books are released on Tuesdays so the Thursday release is a bit unusual.
Inadvertently a cold-blooded water-breathing vertebrate with a mood disorder.
It's probably a stupid question, but why does it have to be a Tuesday? Is that some Thanksgiving thing I don't get since I am not American myself or so? <_<
That being said, I am not really happy that the release is actually coming this early. Not because I don't think it's going to be a mess when they release it since they can fix that with patches, but I am genuinely worried that this might kill raiding far earlier than I assumed.
On tuesday the Americans have patch-day. It would seem logical that the new area gets unlocked during maintenance, although if I recall correctly the "opening of the Dark Portal" event was not on a patch day either.
It's probably a stupid question, but why does it have to be a Tuesday? Is that some Thanksgiving thing I don't get since I am not American myself or so? <_<
That being said, I am not really happy that the release is actually coming this early. Not because I don't think it's going to be a mess when they release it since they can fix that with patches, but I am genuinely worried that this might kill raiding far earlier than I assumed.
North American Music and Film industry publishers release CD's and DVD's on Tuesdays (the date was chosen to provide midweek sales in stores or something like that way back in the day). Typically, video games conform to this standard for the simplicity of the retailer. However, the Tuesday date is not set in stone for video games, so they break away from it from time to time.
I would imagine a release later in the week would mean the truly hardcore only take 2 days off work instead of a whole week.
*E: I'm actually reminded of Dragon Quest in this regard. Because of the popularity of the series in Japan, there are actually laws forcing the release to occur on a Saturday so as to provide as little interference as possible in other people's lives (before the decision, schools would be empty on the release day of a new game)
It's probably a stupid question, but why does it have to be a Tuesday? Is that some Thanksgiving thing I don't get since I am not American myself or so? <_<
That being said, I am not really happy that the release is actually coming this early. Not because I don't think it's going to be a mess when they release it since they can fix that with patches, but I am genuinely worried that this might kill raiding far earlier than I assumed.
When you say "kill raiding" how do you mean? That your guild will stop raiding? If so, it's not the patch causing it, but your guild not wanting to continue (IIRC you guys are on Muru, correct?). I am pretty sure my guild will keep raiding until the end -- if for no reason than to play with new specs and talents.
When was the collectors edition for TBC announced? Still no word that there will even be a WOTLK collectors edition?
From TFA:
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows® XP/Windows Vista® and Machintosh® in two packages: a standard edition, which will sell for a suggested retail price of $39.99, and a special Collector's Edition (in select regions) priced at $69.99. The limited Collector's Edition package will contain:
I would expect to see it as a pre order available in stores / websites in the next day or two. Keep in mind that Gamestop / Amazon / etc. were just as in the dark on a release date as us, it'll take them a few hours to put together graphics / copy and paste text and throw it up on their websites.
Edit: Also to find out how many copies they will have available for sale.
When you say "kill raiding" how do you mean? That your guild will stop raiding? If so, it's not the patch causing it, but your guild not wanting to continue (IIRC you guys are on Muru, correct?). I am pretty sure my guild will keep raiding until the end -- if for no reason than to play with new specs and talents.
It will kill raiding in so far that we only have 8 more resets to kill M'uru and KJ until Wrath. We are definitely going to try it, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting we'd have more time to finish up TBC and get a sense of closure.
SW is definitely no Naxx in regards of bad expansion announcements, but it isn't all that better either. They should have set the release date for Xmas instead in my opinion.
What's really interesting is that Blizzard has moved to DVDs. I guess their research has shown that enough of the market has upgraded (including all the older generation computers).
I received and email this morning from Amazon, who are usually quite good with these sorta things, which said 4th November with preorder. This is what prompted me to check mmo-c and other sites which pointed at the 13th. Amazon can't be offering it 9 days early surely?
Originally Posted by Ulthwithian
Paladins do have an ability to heal multiple people at once. It's called Divine Storm. ><
I received and email this morning from Amazon, who are usually quite good with these sorta things, which said 4th November with preorder. This is what prompted me to check mmo-c and other sites which pointed at the 13th. Amazon can't be offering it 9 days early surely?
Seems a bit odd but probably wouldn't impact anything what with the servers likely only going up on the 13th.
I received and email this morning from Amazon, who are usually quite good with these sorta things, which said 4th November with preorder. This is what prompted me to check mmo-c and other sites which pointed at the 13th. Amazon can't be offering it 9 days early surely?
I would bet that if (want to emphasize the if there) Amazon is offering it early, then they'll arrange it so that when including shipping time/delay, WotLK will land on your doorstep on the same day as the brick stores get it.
One of my friends ordered the BC xpac online, he was whining nonstop because with shipping, it took a few extra days after BC official launch to get the package.
I was planning on going today after work to my local Toysrus or Best Buy and file a preorder, but if Amazon is offering WotLK early, then I might take my business to them.
North American Music and Film industry publishers release CD's and DVD's on Tuesdays (the date was chosen to provide midweek sales in stores or something like that way back in the day). Typically, video games conform to this standard for the simplicity of the retailer.
In the UK, CDs and DVDs are released on Mondays and video games on Fridays. There are very few exceptions to this. I don't know how matters stand for the rest of Europe, but if it's similar for games then it makes sense for the US release to be on Thursday for the same reason their patch day is Tuesday and Europe's is Wednesday - it gets the content as close to simultaneously released as is possible.
I think Amazon will get my business too, just to make sure I get it in time, as it surely can't take more than 9 days to get here?
Although, I also had to wait a day, getting TBC on the 17th January, having preordered it waaaaay back on the 22nd October (was my birthday present) from Amazon.
Originally Posted by Ulthwithian
Paladins do have an ability to heal multiple people at once. It's called Divine Storm. ><
09/15/08, 5:26 AM
But I really do not want to see hell like "TBC raiding pre-2.1" again.
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