Project Lore

Fing classic.

Patch v3.0.8 had many of us at ProjectLore a bit excited. Heck, you could get away with calling us downright ecstatic at all the changes the first Wrath of the Lich King patch would bring. We all all had our owns reasons for the anticipation, new achievements, cheaper enchants, one-shot mining, knowing that Dorkins will never stop complaining, it was all there. Blizzard finally dropped the patch on us this Tuesday, but not all was well in the lands of Azeroth. Actually, the whole ordeal has been quite a clusterfrak.

The first major bug to rear its ugly, beady-eyed head was a Death Knight related bug. The non-gameplay issue basically nullified one of the “features” being added by v3.0.8. For many, the ability to make Death Knights on any realm, so long as you had a level 55 character somewhere, was unavailable. Not a big deal, and it didn't affect a majority of the players directly. However, the hotfix forced a series of rolling restarts, the first of many to come.

The next two issues were huge, game changing problems that brought major features of WoW to its knees. A bit more troublesome than some lag and server restarts for sure. Lake Wintergrasp, a highly touted feature for Wrath's release, had a moth in it so bad that it crashed servers or at least Northrend (depending on  reports). I was indirectly informed that Wintergrasp's issue had something to do with zone population. According to the informer, the zone was not stress tested heavily enough on the PTR.  This allowed the bug to sneak into the live code and wreak havoc.

The next major $#*() is far more upsetting than Lake Wintergrasp being disabled. Blizzard silently modified the way Arena matching and rating was calculated in the patch with disastrous results. The modifications allowed teams to shoot up to 2000+ ranking in no time flat. This was caused by the fact that a losing team did not see a reduction in Arena points. Following the Wintergrasp debacle, Blizzard pulled the plug on Arenas as they attempted to correct the bug.

What's worse (to some) is that the developers decided that everything gained during this time frame was “illegitimate.” Do to their stance, the company reset team and personal ratings to pre-weekly maintenance levels, removed all awarded gems, points and enchantments. I for one agree with them on this entirely, but it still sucks when people waste their time.  Kalgan also has a post up that goes into more detail on the rollback.

Hopefully we can have an uneventful weekend after this morning's emergency maintenance “to resolve current In-Game issues,” but at this point who knows. I guess I may have been lucky as none of these bugs really bothered me. I have avoided Wrath PvP so far, as I am still working on my gear.  On my server the Alliance was stuck with the Wintergrasp buff. So that was cool. In fact, my buddy who plays the game for the Arena actually ran some rare instances!

Oh geez, I almost forgot this non-patch related dozy. Despite my best efforts to warn them about the pitfalls of ads on their official forums, Blizzard got a little greedy and did it anyways. As the screenshot shows, an unapproved group of ads slipped through their filtering process. Someone over at Microsoft (who owns the ad provider) is getting canned. At least the banner managed to stay on topic!

Tell me Bastosa, was this the mess you were “so anxious” about?

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^ Not Useless.  Welcome Aboard Guys - Via CNN.com

Of course this would happen.  I take the day off for some "house work" and am greeted by not just maintenance, but extended maintenance.  At least by x o'clock - who knows when the servers will be up AND playable - I can wade through all the changes for v3.0.8 that Bastosa mentioned the other day.  Until that time, we always have the patch notes to drool over/shake our fist at. Yesterday's escapades into level 80 didn't go as well as one may have hoped.  Apparently few people have off on Martin Luther King day, making it incredibly difficult to find a group to run with.  I managed to swing only a third of the dungeons I wanted to do before I got fed up with spamming the channels.  Despite the few runs, I did catch myself doing something unexpected. Since the early days I have always used gear to compare myself to other players.  Although gear != skill, it can show how dedicated you are to your toon.  The assumptions made through the technique aren't always accurate, but in general, a toon with good gear while lacking enchants or sockets means that the player just got decked out, doesn't have the money, or does the bare minimum to look good.  While checking how bad I looked in front of the PUG groups, I found another not-exactly-accurate way to measure players, Achievements. I am one of the few people around these parts that isn't too found of Achievements.  Aside from being an Xbox Live rip-off, I just didn't see much cause for them.  Personally, I would rather something like WAR's Tome of Knowledge, a personal diary of sorts, rather than these arbitrary points.  That being said, it can serve a purpose beyond bragging rights.  Paired with a simple gear check, an Achievement check can lend you extra knowledge about your new teammate, partner or prospective guildmate. There are actually a ton of ways this can be used, but here are a few examples.

• A player has good gear, but their achievement score is pretty low for a level 80 and lacking numerous dungeons.  One could reasonably assume that the character is an alt or new player in general.
• A Druid has average gear, but a very high score, including most of the quest based objectives.  Player probably enjoys the game for the universe and may intend on finishing everything the game has to offer.  Likely to continue to subscribe for the foreseeable future.
• Character is decked out in an odd mix of PvP, PvE and crafted gear; has most of the PvP achievements completed.  Get this player on your 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 and PvP guild ASAP, likely a min-maxer based on his eclectic gear choices.

I am pretty shocked that I never really thought of this useful aspect before.  Perhaps I was blinded by my hatred of the Achievement system as a whole.  At least we don't have to pay $50 a year to use it though.  Anyone have some real-world examples?  I know there has to be some GM's out there that have used this as part of their recruiting measures.

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Blizzard Poster Wryxian added a wall of blue text to the official forums yesterday, dealing entirely with the upcoming patch. Being the first major patch since Wrath of the Lich King went live means we expect many changes, but the list is slowly leaning towards ridiculousness. As of yesterday, the up-to-date Player Test Realm notes for Patch v3.0.8 stands at a full six posts from our boney friend. Needless to say, it is a lot to digest and cover.

Not everything is new to the list, so if you have been keeping yourself abreast of the situation, then you will only have to add small morsels to your extensive knowledge. Every aspect of World of Warcraft will see some small changes with v3.0.8. Some of the most drastic changes target the newly added Wrath content, namely the Death Knight class. Most of that information is old hat, but tweaks to Wrath's PvP contributions aren't. Despite the laundry list of changes to Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients, nothing comes off as earth shattering, except the change in marks. For some actual game changes we have to move to the professions.

Here are some of the highlights to the profession changes:

• All flasks no longer require an alchemy lab to create. (Alchemy)
• Reduced the cooldown on Northrend Alchemy Research from 7 days to 3 days. (Alchemy)
• Succulent Orca Stew and Shoveltusk Soup have been removed from the requirements for any cooking achievements as they will not be added to the game. (Cooking)
• Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them. (Enchanting)
• Added a new recipe to convert a frozen orb and some green quality gems into several superior quality gems. (Jewelcrafting)
• Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits. (Mining)

Personally, my two main toons are not too effected by any of the changes. My priest is in it for the money, thus she is a strict gatherer – Skinning and Herbalism. The rogue will love the change to mining, even though it is four years late, for its speediness.  The flip side is that he will miss the ability to Sap, ninja and go for a HK that he enjoyed so. Heck, even their class changes aren't worth mentioning.  Can't complain about cheaper enchants though!

Blizzard managed to squeak in some UI changes that no one specifically asked for, but are happy to see. The company has pledged to implement much needed anti-scamming measures into WoW and the first of such will come with this patch. MMO-Champion.com gave us the first details and screenshots the other day, and it is a valiant effort by Blizzard, but I am not sure how much scamming it will curb. In practice a GM chat request window will pop-up when a GM wishes to chat with you. Upon clicking it a self-contained GM chat window will show up on the screen.

This is all fine and dandy, but the biggest problem is the dissemination of the information. I doubt most players will realize the request feature has been added, so they won't expect it, leaving some of them open to the same type of scamming we see today. At least Blizzard is finally trying something though, even if it is just to cover their ass.  Naturally, the one thing Wryxian didn't update us on is when the patch is coming out...

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