Primal News Transmute [11/12/2007]

Eej · 12/11/07, 12:31 PM

This is the Massive Quote Edition, because that's pretty much all that happened this week.

Season 3 Items Require Rating

Originally Posted by Tyren

Please be aware that with this week’s maintenance, purchasing arena season 3 items that have a required arena personal rating will now also require the purchaser’s arena team rating to be at the same point values as well.

No more farming terribles like carrots.

Class Feedback Threads Now Up

So for WOTLK, Blizzard is thinking of gathering some feedback through sticky posts in each class forum. I don't know how they ever thought this was a good idea but after wading through a few pages of "Viper Sting sucks buff it" I've already written the Hunter thread off. Want to have your voice heard? Make quality, thought-provoking class feedback posts in the appropriate places on these forums and it'll have a higher chance of actually mattering to the game in the long run!

You can find these stickied threads at the top of your "favourite" class forum.

Blizzard working on Russian version of WoW

An MMO in Cyrillic sounds next-gen to me!

Originally Posted by Blizzard

PARIS, France -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning, subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is to be fully localised in Russian for release in 2008. The Russian version will be the fifth officially supported European language, complementing the existing English, French, German and Spanish versions.

A dedicated Russian-speaking team is currently being assembled at the Blizzard Europe offices in France and Ireland to ensure Russian World of Warcraft players will benefit from the same quality of 24/7 native-language support as other European players. Roles will include in-game support, offline technical and customer support, localisation and quality assurance, community relations, and creation and maintenance of a new official Russian World of Warcraft website.

"Considering the scale and enthusiasm of the Russian community, we recognized that offering a dedicated Russian-language version of World of Warcraft was the next important step for the game in Europe," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We’re looking forward to providing an even more accessible gameplay experience to current and future players."

Further details on language pack downloads and migration plans for existing Russian players will be available closer to the release. To keep pace with the multi-lingual European growth of World of Warcraft and development of other games, Blizzard is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities at Blizzard Europe, including positions on the Russian team, can be found at Blizzard Entertainment - Employment Opportunities.

Cows are bigger than Cats

Even I knew about the Tauren hitbox being bigger than pretty much everything including the cat forms, I guess they finally got around to confirming it.

Originally Posted by Tharfor

The Tauren character model has a larger attack range than other humanoid models; the feral form models do not benefit from this as the feral form is no longer a Tauren. Simply put: when you shapeshift to a smaller form (feral), you will need to get closer in order to attack – this is not a bug.

We also received a video (YouTube - Catform Range Bug - World of Warcraft) which shows auto-attacks hitting a target which is behind the player, but the special abilities do not. This was investigated and it was discovered that the ‘target is in front’ check for abilities is much more thorough than the standard auto-attack. This applies to all classes.

Stuff about Server and Character Transfers

Some stuff you may wish to be aware of if you are thinking of transferring and keeping those Arena titles.

Originally Posted by Pavonum

Good afternoon, ladies and gents; it has come to our attention that a number of players have expressed confusion, and at times consternation, regarding the functionality of Arena titles — e.g. Duelist, Gladiator, etc. — when using the Paid Character Transfer service. In hopes of providing some clarification into the matter at hand, such Arena titles may be lost when transferring a character between realms or accounts.

This mechanic is currently being examined in greater detail, so that further determination may be made as to whether its current functionality is in line with the design as envisioned by the appropriate developers; we regret to inform you, however, that any titles lost as a result of this mechanic are unable to be reinstated or reimbursed by the Game Master Department. Please accept our most sincere apologies, however, for any frustration or inconvenience this matter may have caused, and await word on any potential changes in the status of this functionality.

Thank you, above all, for your understanding; we are truly sorry if any misconstruction has arisen during correspondence with our department.

Lots of small fixes and announcements that don't go anywhere else

Originally Posted by Blizzard

Group loots bugs
It seems that some items from quests, skinning, herbalism, etc ... now counts as group loot. This is a known issue and a fix will be included in a future patch.

Wrath of the Lich King
Yes, you will replace most of your epics quite fast in WotLK, exactly like it was with BC.

3rd profession on characters
For the moment, the answer is "not going to happen". World of Warcraft is a multiplayer game, it is meant to have communities and have you interact with other people to accomplish certain things. I have played on a high population and a low population realm and while some rare recipes were a little harder to find on the low population realm, I definitely could find them and just had to put some effort into communicating with the proper player and meeting up with them. In the end I don't really see a reason to add a 3rd profession to my characters other than convenience and making things easier.

Backpack: Bigger is better
According to Bornakk having bigger backpacks is a possibility, but no final decision has been reached on the backpack at this time.

Alterac Valley
Players in Alterac Valley will now be awarded honor correctly when capturing or destroying towers.

New cooking recipes in 2.4
New cooking recipes will be introduced in 2.4 to remove all the "gaps" in cooking leveling requiring you to level your fishing as well if you want to reach 300 cooking skill.

Good Bye Salthem !
Salthem is going on to other duties in Blizzard and won't be posting on official forums anymore.

Zeppelins Vendors
The vendors haven't been removed permanently, they will be back on duty once the propulsions issues on boats and zeppelins are fixed.

Free character transfer eligibility
"The realms chosen consist of source realms with the highest sustained queues, and destination realms with the lowest population. The numbers gathered are directly from our data, and depict the realms in most need of these transfers. We will be continuing to monitor all realms and open additional free transfers in the future where necessary."

Character transfers
Free and Paid character transfers are on a different cooldown, you can use a free transfer and then move your character again by using the paid character transfer feature.

Wrath of the Lich King
Don't expect WotLK too soon. Even if Blizzard would like to release an expansion a year they don't plan to rush anything for the sake of releasing one a year.

Night Elf Mohawk !
The Mohawk in the Mr. T advertising was a custom model made specifically for the commercial, there is no guarantee that it will be a new hair style in Wrath of the Lich King.

World Events
World Events can be a double edged sword, they're a very enjoyable experience for players but they take a lot of development for something only usable once most of the time. there is also the problem of forcing an entire server into a one location and all the performance issues it causes. They aren't ruled out, they just have to be planned very carefully.

Transportation Vendors Removal
The vendors on the Boats and Zeppelins throughout Azeroth have run out stock and shut up shop, they are no longer able to service you with their wares.

BG Daily quest display issue
There is a known issue where re-logging after completing the daily battleground quest will result in your honour estimation displaying incorrectly. Please note that this is just a display issue, and any honour you are owed should be applied as normal the next day.

Rogue
An issue has been identified with Vanish/Cloak of Shadows not working properly in some situation and it's being worked on.

Warrior
The bug allowing Warriors to Intercept/Intervene through the whole map as long as the target was in range in the first place will be fixed in a future patch.

Death Knights
No final decision has been made on whether ther will be an additional slot or not to let people create a Death Knight character. For the moment it looks like people will have to delete one of their character if they don't have any slot left but it could be changed in the future.

Feast of Winter Veil
The Feast of Winter Veil will start on December, 15.

Dalaran
Quests around the current location of Dalaran shouldn't be changed with the expansion. It's just a matter of renaming a few things like "Kill people near Dalaran" into "Kill people near Dalaran Terrace".

I just got Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and am getting destroyed constantly

This game is pretty unforgiving but it's pretty fun so far. Shame about how small the playerbase is, though.

Obligatory Anime Blurb

(。_゜)〃

That Persona 3 anime has a trailer now which tells you pretty much nothing at all but I think the Personas and Shadows will be done in CG.

Amusing Armoury Link of the Week

Now it's breaking my Firefox.

Lodekim · 12/11/07, 12:54 PM

I suppose it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's having Firefox crash like half the time I try to use Armory (with the other half having it load like half the page then stop)

And man, the intercept/intervene issues sure bring back memories of when the game was first out and that's how it worked.

Lokthra · 12/11/07, 1:14 PM

Originally Posted by Lodekim

And man, the intercept/intervene issues sure bring back memories of when the game was first out and that's how it worked.

It was so great in the yeti cave in hillsbrad and other caves of that model. Walk in, target a yeti at the bottom of the central area, hit charge, watch your warrior run through the whole cave aggroing as you go, then subsequently dieing to 30 yetis.

Caligula · 12/11/07, 1:35 PM

Originally Posted by Lodekim

I suppose it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's having Firefox crash like half the time I try to use Armory (with the other half having it load like half the page then stop)

And man, the intercept/intervene issues sure bring back memories of when the game was first out and that's how it worked.

I find that if I open the armory in a window with no tabs it seems to work better than opening the armory in a new tab. I don't know if it's a memory issue or bug but that's how I'm working around it currently.

Erongg · 12/11/07, 1:42 PM

I just got Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and am getting destroyed constantly

This game is pretty unforgiving but it's pretty fun so far. Shame about how small the playerbase is, though.

Strategy games are my first love, but ever since playing all of the Warcrafts and Starcraft, games from other companies just never really match up. How does Supreme Commander compare to them? Do they play similarly at all?

Asmod3an · 12/11/07, 2:00 PM

Originally Posted by Eej

Night Elf Mohawk !
The Mohawk in the Mr. T advertising was a custom model made specifically for the commercial, there is no guarantee that it will be a new hair style in Wrath of the Lich King.

My dreams have been crushed once again.

Abaxial · 12/11/07, 2:13 PM

It would be nice to fix the charge/intercept bug sooner rather than later. Had a warrior intercept me in an arena match last night from the other side of a pillar.

Bryne · 12/11/07, 4:25 PM

Originally Posted by Abaxial

It would be nice to fix the charge/intercept bug sooner rather than later. Had a warrior intercept me in an arena match last night from the other side of a pillar.

I tabbed to a Monstrous Kaliri up in Skettis a week or two ago and Intercept-warped almost across the entire zone, it was pretty funny. The mechanics behind making Charge/Intercept work must be a nightmare for whoever is working on that, they're constantly broken.

Kewangeder · 12/11/07, 6:41 PM

Now I'm inclined to wonder just how broken it is.

My dream is to stand at Xi'ri, have my friend start hearthing to Stormspire, intercept him from max range at the last possible moment, and fraps the trip.

roquer · 12/12/07, 3:15 AM

Originally Posted by Tharfor
The Tauren character model has a larger attack range than other humanoid models; the feral form models do not benefit from this as the feral form is no longer a Tauren. Simply put: when you shapeshift to a smaller form (feral), you will need to get closer in order to attack – this is not a bug.

And yet the cat model will get stuck on hanging objects that are clearly twice your height. If you want to call it a feature, make it beneficial as well as detrimental.

PsiVen · 12/12/07, 7:41 AM

Originally Posted by Erongg

Strategy games are my first love, but ever since playing all of the Warcrafts and Starcraft, games from other companies just never really match up. How does Supreme Commander compare to them? Do they play similarly at all?

SupCom is sort of similar to WC3 in that early roaming is important, but it's closer to its predecessor Total Annihilation than anything else. Things like rapidly expanding in multiple areas, nested shields, and extremely vulnerable power grids (one bomber will wipe you out if you set up "optimal" power supplies without defending them properly) make it rather unforgiving if you don't have a clear strategy in mind.

I don't have the expansion as I haven't played the game in quite a while, so I'll ask, is Forged Alliance worthwhile?

My dream is to stand at Xi'ri, have my friend start hearthing to Stormspire, intercept him from max range at the last possible moment, and fraps the trip.

On a related note to the whole intercept/shadowstep warping madness, if you Exorcism the Magistrate in Stratholme at the last possible second as he's running away to warn Baron Rivendare, a few things happen:
- You will successfully pull him
- He will successfully teleport to his location in Baron side
- He will come back for you and bring friends

I pride myself on being able to AoE down huge masses in Strath (all of the "postmaster" undead packs in 2 pulls) but damn, have you ever tried killing 40-50 mobs at once that mana burn, silence, root, and knockdown?

Alhena · 12/12/07, 7:52 AM

Originally Posted by Kewangeder

Now I'm inclined to wonder just how broken it is.

My dream is to stand at Xi'ri, have my friend start hearthing to Stormspire, intercept him from max range at the last possible moment, and fraps the trip.

If you pull this off, you absolutely have to share.

That'd be so awesome.

Eej · 12/12/07, 12:15 PM

Forged Alliance changes the gameplay of SupCom significantly and I'm pretty much relearning the game all over again. I can't really comment on it because I keep getting stomped because I don't have a good build order in mind to get my economy going. Also, no one turtles anymore and I think the standard strategy is to have five T1 facts pumping out constant streams of units.

Nurru · 12/12/07, 12:16 PM

SupCom never really clicked with me, but I might give Forged Alliance a shot.

Grunge · 12/13/07, 7:47 AM

The World of Warcraft Armory hurr hurr, has this been posted yet?

As for Persona 3. It's the best game ever!

(I can't wait the soccermoms going ballistic when/if it hits the States.)

bv728 · 12/13/07, 3:38 PM

Originally Posted by Grunge

The World of Warcraft Armory hurr hurr, has this been posted yet?

As for Persona 3. It's the best game ever!

(I can't wait the soccermoms going ballistic when/if it hits the States.)

Sadly, the anime looks to not have Evokers, so no fun with symbolic suicide.

Grubsnik · 12/13/07, 7:43 PM

Originally Posted by Erongg

Strategy games are my first love, but ever since playing all of the Warcrafts and Starcraft, games from other companies just never really match up. How does Supreme Commander compare to them? Do they play similarly at all?

Well, There are some key differences
Economy:
Starcraft and Warcraft both run a on limited ressource economy, once you spent everything on the map, you won't be getting any more ressources.
Supreme Commander runs with an unlimited ressource economy, a power plant keeps producing power, a mass-extractor keeps producing mass. FA has renewed the economic game, with the fact that map control becomes very central to winning the game.

A secondary difference is that your construction units are not also your primary economic unit. Mass extractors and Power generators don't need engineers to keep running them, once built.

Unit Control:
Starcraft and Warcraft is very micromanagement focused, with having individual units have special powers.
Supreme Commander has focused on minimizing the emphasis on micro management, complete with a rich patrol, waypoint and attack formation system.

Unit Caps:
Starcraft and Warcraft use relatively low amounts of units, bigger units cost more "unit cap", unit cap is usually 100.
Supreme Commander considers both buildings and units as "units", and any unit from the tiniest landscout to the giant experimental units and battleships, still only counts as 1 unit. Default unit limit is 500, but can be raised to 1000.

User interface:
the UI in Supreme commander is fully moddable, allows unlimited selection of units and lets you zoom all the way out, so you can get a quick overview of the battlefield (i miss this whenever i play a different RTS).

Graphics:
The graphics in Starcraft and Warcraft is more neat and interesting, Supreme commander is way more generic on that account.

Overall:
I prefer Supreme Commander, the massive amounts of units coupled with huge amounts of "BLAM!" is right up my alley. It's a matter of power play really, no matter how cool your hero gets in Warcraft 3, he will never truly be able to compare to having heavy artillery and battleships soften up your enemy before you sweep in with strategic bombers and gunships to break him.

Finally, yeah, i suck at both WC3 and SupCom, but I still find Supcom more appealing. Could just be the slightly more mature crowd.

Eej · 12/13/07, 8:08 PM

You forgot to mention air units that behave like air units. Fighters will chase each other around the map, bombers need ample room to line up with their target for a bombing run and need a lot of room to turn around (which is usually where they die) for another one. Oh and T3 bombers carry mini-nukes which do ridiculous damage except they have fairly long build times and get destroyed by T3 fighters if they are intercepted before they reach their target.

Also, everything can fire while moving and all projectiles have physics attached to them so obstacles do in fact matter. Kind of important when they have T3 artillery in their base and they start shelling your base from across the map.

Muggins · 12/17/07, 6:12 PM

Originally Posted by Abaxial

It would be nice to fix the charge/intercept bug sooner rather than later. Had a warrior intercept me in an arena match last night from the other side of a pillar.

Its not all good unfortunately.

Last week while on Al'ar I intercepted him as he was switching positions during phase 1. I ended up running straight past him, carrying on all the way around the top of room, down the ramp and across the floor to the healers underneath his position with half the raid staring at me wondering what the hell was going on and the other half rolling around with laughter.

Needless to say, we wiped.

Angeron · 12/17/07, 7:26 PM

Originally Posted by Grunge

The World of Warcraft Armory hurr hurr, has this been posted yet?

As for Persona 3. It's the best game ever!

(I can't wait the soccermoms going ballistic when/if it hits the States.)

Stamina rogue without any stamina? I don't get it.

Enova · 12/17/07, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by Grunge

The World of Warcraft Armory hurr hurr, has this been posted yet?

As for Persona 3. It's the best game ever!

(I can't wait the soccermoms going ballistic when/if it hits the States.)

Those talents make my eyes bleed. And come on? These are stats? I got more strength than that on my hunter, by hitting level 70. And [Honor's Call]?