Community Check-in: Calendar Tutorial & Interactive Northrend Map
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 7 Comments Tags: calendar, map, northrend, ui, wrath, wrath of the lich king
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 7 Comments Tags: calendar, map, northrend, ui, wrath, wrath of the lich king 
A few things have cropped up in the larger World of Warcraft community that are likely to interest many of you. Both of them are Wrath based, although I would not call any of the upcoming information a “spoiler.” So feel free to read on without learning that Arthas is a sled and that Azeroth is really Earth in the distant future.
First up, we have a YouTube look at the new calendar system. The guild calendar is one of the biggest changes that Wrath of the Lich King will bring to the user interface. Although, we now know that the change will be coming as part of the last content patch for The Burning Crusade. When the patch launches, guilds can stop depending on, and the author can stop creating, GroupCalendar. Since the video is from the beta, things may change a bit before it goes live.
Highlights include:
- Personal calendar filtering by Battleground Holidays, Raid Lockouts, Darkmoon Faire, Weekly Holidays and Raid Resets.
- All users can create events viewable by a selected group and/or the guild.
- Created events can be of various categories - PvP, Raid, Dungeon, Meeting, Other.
- Creators and moderators can modify the event including attendee status.
- Users will be notified of event invites by a flashing calendar icon on the minimap. They can then RSVP to the event.
- Events will display the number and classes of players that have RSVPed. Inviting from the calendar interface is also possible.
The next piece of Wrath goodness isn't created by Blizzard in anyway. WotLKWiki has put together a tidy, interactive map of Northrend that acts a lot like Google maps (it is “Powered by Google” after all). You can click-drag the map, center, zoom in and out. Double clicking on an area will zoom in and center. So yea, just like Google Maps. Really there isn't anything too impressive with the map but it's fun to take for a spin.
Reader Comments (7)
Pretty soon they'll incorporate all the other things guild websites take care of. So in this patch they'll be taking care of raid schedules, and it's very likely in the future they'll put in some sort of DKP system.
i dont know about your suggestion of DKP... too many guilds use too many systems (loot council, suicide kings, and even just variations within DKP systems)... it would be very complicated to make a 'one size fits all' solution.
im not saying it wouldnt be welcome tho... only reason my guild never used DKP was because i couldnt find enough time to configure and maintain it...
The currently shown calendar looks AWESOME. it is everything i hoped it would be by the looks of it, very exciting.
Lets hope those spammers keep away from it :(
The map looks pretty sick but I hope they make faster rides so it's not such a pain to get from one region to another region like it is from Netherstorm to Shadowmoon Valley, of course it isn't for me because I have a spellfire tailor mage and my hearth is in Netherstorm but flying from Shatt to Shadowmoon is still pretty bad. As for DKP systems I really hope they include that in there because sometimes our guild leader messes up and forgets to subtract some from people for false pulls and loot so they can go for another item which is bs while the rest of us builds our way back to the top. Also there should an impeachment guild leader program so we can kick out the gleader by vote if he's a arse.
yeah, they are bringing out more raid features so 3rd party addons and programs dont have to be used. but im not sure how many of them will be successful, they brought out in in game voice chat. but seriously who uses that over ventrilo?
Hmm looking at the map, it reminds me of Iceland O_O
Coldara is Reykjavik, the Geyser Fields would be Þingvellir and the real Geyser area... I could go on but unless you've spent time in Iceland its probably all gibberish.
Awesome, none the less.
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?near=iceland&q=iceland+google+maps&f=p&btnG=Search+Maps&rl=1
Mogri is right, the question is will Blizzard's Calendar be as good as or better than the addon(s).
Like he said they tried with voice chat, and it works in some situations, but most big guilds still prefer vent. They added player notes, but I still use AuldLangSyne since it doesn't have a stupid character limit like their implementation does.
I think if Blizzard really wants to improve the game, they should fix things that don't have already good addons, like LFG (see Episode 2.2)..
.. Any other addons they have or will be building into the game?
@Aquavendor if you're lvl 70 and have your flying mount, it might actually be faster to fly yourself from Nethermoon to Netherstorm by taking a shortcut through Hellfire, rather than taking the FP. It's definitely faster if you have an epic flying mount.