Pucechan.co.uk

And Blizzcon, it be Finished!

And it’s over as fast as it started. This year’s Blizzcon was definitely disappointing for players of WoW with little to no real “new” information. It was definitely Diablo 3’s year this year.

The news that Starcraft 2 was being split into 3 campaign releases was an unexpected (and boo-inducing) announcement, the game itself still looks great though. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.

When it comes to WoW news though there wasn’t much. Patch 3.1 finally having ground mounts that can swim rather than forcibly dismount was noteworthy, as was the fact that the upcoming dual-spec system will remember your keybinds and glyphs meaning you won’t have to constantly keep re-purchasing glyphs each time you respec.

But, as I said in the previous post, there wasn’t really much Blizzard could announce without lessening the impact of Rash of the Itching. It’s just a tad disappointing when there has always been a “BIG” announcement at Blizzcon.

The panels were interesting as always though, even if there wasn’t much in the way of news, it is always nice to hear the devs thoughts and reasoning behind changes.

WoWRadio will have downloadable archives of the panels HERE over the next few days.

Tags: blizzcon, diablo 3, starcraft 2, wotlk, wow

Blizzcon 2008 Underway!

Well, it’s that time of year again. Blizzard’s unique convention is underway but sadly there is little in the way of World of Warcraft information it seems.

The only real announcement in the opening ceremony was the addition of the Wizard class to Diablo 3, essentially D3s answer to the Sorceress, it looks like they have some interesting abilities.

Overall the event this year has a big Diablo 3 focus, there hasn’t been anything new mentioned for WoW although the dual-spec system was confirmed as in-progress along with the fact that built in itemrack/deadly boss mods functionality is being worked on although without any kind of deadline set.

In a way it’s kind of disappointing so far from a WoW perspective, although Ghostcrawler turning out to be lead systems designer Greg Street and not a hot chick as most of the forum seemed to think was kind of amusing. He’s just as honest and forthright as he has been on the beta forums and honestly he’s a breath of fresh air. It’s good to see such honesty and openness about their design ideas.

Although in the end I guess there isn’t really anything to be announced unless they wanted to ruin the launch of Wrath of the Lich King in little over a month. Announcing the next expansion so soon prior to the launch would dampen folks excitement for Wrath. And let’s be honest, Wrath looks great so far.

What Blizzard did show in the WoW panels today was interesting, especially all the iterations the Achievements interface and Death Knight Rune interface undertook before settling on the current versions. It’s just a shame that nothing really new has surfaced, but there is still tomorrow.

Tags: blizzcon, wotlk, wow

Easy to Miss Quests - Part 1

With Wrath of the Lich King looming ever closer I thought I’d make a series of posts with all those easy to miss quests, mostly for future reference but I thought it may be useful to other folk. The inspiration for this post (and a lot of the quests) came from a post on the official forums, here. I’ve taken the basic idea and expanded the listing to give more info.

I’ll link to Wowhead where applicable. This isn’t every quest possible for this list, just ones I felt could be easily missed from experience and a bit of Wowhead searching.

This post will just include quests that both factions can accomplish, I’ll attempt similar posts for Alliance and Horde only quests soon™.

If you can think of anything that is missing, especially quest item drops, please mention it in the comments and I’ll add to the list.

No Faction Requirement:

[Captain Sander's Treasure Map] - Req. Level 10 - Westfall: Random Drop from Murlocs
Starts the quest chain Captain Sander’s Hidden Treasure.

Captain Grayson’s Quests - Req. Level 10 - Westfall: Located at the lighthouse, has 3 quests. 30,86

Ziz Fizzik’s Quests - Req. Level 16 - Stonetalon Mountains: In a hut, has 3 quests. 59,62.

[Pendant of Myzrael] - Req. Level 30 - Arathi Highlands: Random Drop
Starts the quest Crystal in the Mountains.

[Noboru's Cudgel] - Req. Level 29 - Swamp of Sorrows: Drops from Noboru the Cudgel who wanders the marshes.
Starts the quest Noburu the Cudgel. Which leads to…

Magtoor - Req. Level 30 - Swamp of Sorrows: Has the quest Draenethyst Crystals. 26,31.

Rackmore’s Log - Req. Level 30 - Desolace: Near boat wreckage. 36,30.
Starts the quest Claim Rackmore’s Treasure!.

Gizelton Caravan - Req. Level 32 - Desolace: Given by Rigger Gizelton, can be awkward to find, wanders the path from Thunder Axe Fortress to just beyond Mannoroc Cavern.

Galen’s Escape - Req. Level 30 - Swamp of Sorrows: Given by Galen Goodward who is locked in a cage in the Broken Draenei camp. Around 63,20.

Get Me Out of Here! - Req. Level 34 - Desolace: Given by Melissa Brimbuzzle who is locked in a cage near the Maraudon entrance. Around 34,55.

Ghost-o-plasm Round Up - Req. Level 34 - Desolace: Given by Hornizz Brimbuzzle. 48,62.

Faldir’s Cove Quests - Req. Level 35 - Arathi Highlands: The entrance to the Cove is behind Stromgarde Keep. Has several quests.

[Cortello's Riddle] - Req. Level 37 - Stranglethorn Vale: A Scroll that can appear in any of the three ships off the southern tip of Stranglethorn.
Starts the Quest Cortello’s Riddle.

[Ship Schedule] - Req. Level 40 - Tanaris: Contained in [Pirate's Footlocker] which is dropped by pirate mobs.
Starts the quest Ship Schedules.

[Grimesilt Outhouse Key] - Req. Level 43 - Searing Gorge: Drops off Dark Iron mobs.
Starts the quest The Key to Freedom.

[Cuergo's Treasure Map] - Req. Level 40 - Tanaris: Combine the 3 map pieces from [Pirate's Footlocker]s.
Starts the quest Cuergo’s Gold.

[Carefully Folded Note] - Req. Level 42 - Stranglethorn Vale: Contained in [Half-Buried Bottle]s found on the beach due East of Booty Bay.
Starts the mini quest chain Message in a Bottle.

[Monogrammed Sash] - Req. Level 35 - Stranglethorn Vale: Drops from Mok’rash over at the island with the goblin statue.
Starts the quest The Monogrammed Sash.

Tooga’s Quest - Req. Level 40 - Tanaris: Given by Tooga. Can be found both north and south of Thistleshrub Valley so check all around for him.

It’s a Secret to Everybody - Req. Level 47 - Un’Goro Crater: Also known as the “Zelda” chain. Starts at A Wrecked Raft. 63,68.

Kim’Jael - Req. Level 47 - Azshara: Gives 2 quests, located at 53,21.

Cyrus Therepentous - Req. Level 52 - Burning Steppes: Starts the chain A Taste of Flame. Requires the [Black Dragonflight Molt] from Kalaran Windblade’s quest chain. Located at 95,31.

Krakle - Req. Level 51 - Un’Goro Crater: Starts a mini quest chain Finding the Source. Located at 31,50.

Tirion Fordring’s Quests - Req. Level 52 - Eastern Plaquelands: Major lore character slightly hidden away, has a fair few quests. Located at 7,44.

[Brann Bronzebeard's Lost Letter] - Req. Level 58 - Silithus: Drops off the Silithid mobs.
Starts the quest Brann Bronzebeard’s Lost Letter.

Tags: guide, quest, wotlk, wow

Addon Pick of the Week - Bejeweled

This new, regular feature will cover addons I find cool, useful or exciting each week. I’ll try to pick one or two addons that stand out and give a brief rundown of what they do and where to get them.

Bejeweled

The first lucky addon is an official version of Bejeweled. That’s right, as if you weren’t hooked on the game enough in the first place PopCap have created an extremely feature-packed version that works as a WoW addon.

It has everything you’d expect from Bejeweled, both Classic and Timed modes, Friends List and Guild based high score tables, the ability to auto-start a timed game when you start flying (with the duration of the game matched to your flight time). It’s essentially devised to occupy all those dull “downtime” spots in the game, flights, battleground queues, waiting for raid members to turn up, that kind of thing. And honestly it succeeds, perhaps too well. Combining two of the most addictive games around is bad for your health.

It even has fun little achievements and a Bejeweled skill that improves as you play. It serves no purpose but it’s fun to watch numbers go up.

This is probably the most professionally polished addon I’ve ever seen in World of Warcraft except for perhaps Carbonite Quest and it deserves to be downloaded and played by everyone. You can get it from PopCap’s Site HERE.

Minipet, Coconuts and Baldrick

This trio of addons all come from the same author and they all look functionally similar. As you can see on the screenshot, these addons create a button that can be placed anywhere you like on the screen. Cool, but what do these buttons do?

Minipet enables you to bring out a random vanity pet without having to root through your bags.

Coconuts does the same thing but with mounts, so you can add a bit of variety to your running around. It also gives you a bit of fine control over what you summon and where.

Both of these will come in even more useful when mounts and vanity pets no longer take bag space in the upcoming Patch 3.0.2 and Wrath of the Lich King.

Finally Baldrick displays quest items that are suitable for use, taking into account current quests and location to ease doing Daily Quests. Never again having to hunt through your bags for the [Orb of Murloc Control].

All three are lightweight, well-designed and useful, and in the case of MiniPet and Coconuts fun as well.

Why I’m Excited For Wrath

With around 6 weeks to go until WotLK launches, it’s interesting watching how playing behaviour has changed.

The Auction House is a lot emptier than usual and people don’t appear to be raiding as often, although those folk who are doing T6 content won’t appear to be replacing their gear in Northrend until 79-80.

There is a much slower paced feel in game at the moment, with people preparing their characters for Wrath rather than raiding. Levelling up professions, getting alts to 70, gearing alts up in PvP gear, the focus is definitely on the individual and not the group it seems.

People will get their first taste of Wrath when patch 3.0.2 (the Wrath Pre-Patch) hits in a few weeks, it’s currently on the PTR being tested. It essentially gives everyone all the class changes and “old world” content that is to come in Wrath.

Most classes have seen quite a heavy overhaul, with talent trees re-shuffled, new skills added, some old skills removed and a few system changes, like the +damage and +healing mechanics being replaced with a single spellpower stat.

It’ll be a fun and interesting few weeks after the 3.0.x patch as people try and min/max stats and try to work out which gear will be best going forward into Wrath.

Now this is only tangentially related to why I’m excited for Wrath of the Lich King.

I’m looking forward to Wrath for all the stuff that ISN’T in patch 3.0.2, I know that probably sounds obvious but for a lot of folk, especially the PvP crowd, the talents and skills are what matter. For me though, it’s the whole draw of a new continent, with 10 zones, each bigger than the ones in Outland, each with hundreds of quests and new and wonderful sights to see.

The fact it acts as a true continuation from the end of Warcraft 3 interests me to. Seeing what actually happened after the events of The Frozen Throne will be fun.

The main draw of the whole expansion for me (which actually comes to everyone with Patch 3.0.2) is the achievements system. Sure it’s not exactly original but it’s completely awesome.

I often find myself in a bit of a lull, where I don’t really feel like doing, say, PvP or 5-mans. The achievement system gives me a multitude of other things to aim for that are doable.

That alone will improve the game experience for me, and I for one can’t wait.

Tags: Patch 3.0.2, wotlk, wow

Enjoying Warcraft Again

Well the headline says it all, but I am indeed enjoying playing in the World of Warcraft again.

I’m enjoying levelling up Twigleaf so much that I’m already pre-planning what the next alt I intend to level will be.

Now that Wrath has a release date, November 13th 2008, I have a definite time frame to work inside. I reckon I can get another class to 70 before Wrath hits. It’ll be nice having 3 characters to immediate level up to the new cap of 80.

I’m in a quandary over what the third class should be though, at the moment it’s between a Paladin, Shaman or Rogue. I “think” the Shaman is just winning out the others, but I’m not sure yet.

I have plenty of time to ponder the problem though as Twigleaf will be at least another week and a half to two weeks away from 70.

Tags: twigleaf, wotlk, wow

Patch 3.0.2 - The Wrath Pre-Patch

So, patch 3.0.2 has gone into testing on the Public Test Realm (PTR). Patch 3.0.2 is what has become known as the Wrath Pre-Patch. It’s intended to bring those with WoW original and Burning Crusade up to the baseline of Wrath content.

Basically, any changes that affect everyone, regardless of if they own Wrath of the Lich King or not, are included.
Pretty much the only things not included are the Wrath zones and quests and levels 71-80 (and corresponding skills).

The biggest changes are the various class talent trees and skills, for most classes the trees have been rearranged and rejigged quite substantially. Some classes also get new skills, such as the druid with their much sought after regular ressurection skill, Revive.

A big change for casters is the removal of +damage and +healing, combining them into a single Spell Power stat. This change also changes a lot of gear, and potentially provides some gear overlap and choice where previously there was none.

Most of the old world map changes have taken effect too, Dalaran is no longer under it’s protective bubble in Alterac Mountains, only a HUGE crater remains now it has “flown” to Northrend. Naxxramas has vacated it’s Plaguelands home, Stormwind Harbour has appeared along with the new zeppelin towers for Horde.

Barbershops have appeared in various capital cities and you can now learn Inscription (the new “Wrath” profession) and take it to 375 skill.

A lot of the miscellaneous changes have also taken effect. The Achievements, Token and new Vanity Pet/Mount systems are in. The latter two are designed to save bag and bank space, the Token pane eliminates carrying PvP marks/Raid Badges and similar, simply showing how many you have and giving you that bag space back. The new Vanity Pet/Mount system has you learn how to summon pets and mounts when you use the old item. Meaning you can throw the item away once learnt. You simply click the relevant pet/mount from a new tab on your character sheet.

As well as these Quality of Life changes, we also have a new dynamic shadow system implemented, this looks fantastic, especially when you’ve been used to nothing more than blob shadows. It makes the world much more alive, but equally ups the power required to display it. Luckily you can disable them if your PC can’t take the strain.

It’s perhaps the biggest patch WoW has ever had due to a lot of the fundamental class changes and system alterations. Because of this it will perhaps also bring with it a lot of question from folks not understanding where things have moved to, where their marks have gone etc.

It’s also to my mind, the most exciting patch since I’ve been playing WoW, as it signifies that Wrath of the Lich King isn’t all that far away. It will be interesting to experience the new expansion from day one, rather than after the buzz has died down.

Also, to me, Northrend is much more interesting than Outland. I can’t wait!

Tags: Northrend, Patch 3.0.2, wotlk, wow

New Comment System

I’ve altered the comment system on the site to use a system called IntenseDebate, IntenseDebate is a community-based comments system that allows for comment rating and user reputations. This excerpt is taken from the site:

“Intense Debate has a variety of innovative features to inspire your online commenting experience. Take a moment to check ‘em out!

• Users Reputations
• RSS Feeds
• Widgets
• Threaded Comments
• Tracking and Notifications
• Profiles
• Comment Voting
• Social Traffic Drive”

Ultimately, this is largely an experiment, from my little play around with it, the features are nice, being able to rate up or down good and bad comments as well as having a reputation that builds up based on those comments are pretty cool things.

If however, people don’t like it then I can quite easily return to the default system with any new comments that are made intact.

So, use that as an excuse to post comments!!!

Tags: comments, intensedebate, website

Spore - My Thoughts

So, Spore has been hailed as the next coming in god games. The ability to create a creature at the cell level and watch it evolve into a space-faring race sounds pretty revolutionary too, but is it any good?

I love Spore, I think it’s a great game, but it does have it’s problems.

As you no doubt know, the game is split into 5 distinct phases; cell, creature, tribal, civilisation and space.

The main problems I have with the game are two-fold, firstly the camera controls are sometimes a tad finicky with the camera sometimes lurching around a bit. Secondly, the jump in complexity from Tribal to Civilisation stages seems a bit uneven, the cell and creature stages are really simple, with the civilisation and space stages being comparatively much more complex.

Anyway, let me give my impressions of each phase after the “jump” (I really hate that phrase):

More »

Tags: ludl, maxis, spore, will wright

Google Chrome - My Thoughts

As you probably know, Google have released a beta of their contender for the browser wars crown called Google Chrome. I’ve been using Chrome for a few hours now so I thought I’d give my hastily-formed opinion of what I think so far.

Chrome has a nice straightforward and fast install, it picks up your IE or Firefox bookmarks along with browsing history and passwords based on which browser you have as default (you can import from another browser after install if you need to) which is a nice touch.

The first thing you notice after installing is how slick it looks, it has a very minimalist, google-like look to it which you’ll either love or hate. At first glance though it doesn’t look particularly different to IE7 or Firefox 3 though. But it does do a few things differently.

It has tabs along the title-bar which can be re-arranged and dragged into new windows (by dragging into the page) with ease. It has a home page which has taken the Opera “Speed Dial” idea of having your most visited sites a click away and tweaked it a little, having recent search boxes along with recent bookmarks and recently closed tabs.

The address bar, or “Omnibox” as google are calling it, takes the “Awesomebar” idea of Firefox 3 and tweaks it a bit. It’s very similar but it has a nifty search capturing ability. As you use various search boxes, say Amazon, you can do a search from there in future simply by typing A and then using Tab-complete and typing a search query. Quick and nifty.

The page rendering is pretty good, it uses the Webkit renderer and has a pretty good Acid3 standards test score of 77/100 which beats IE8 Beta 2’s 21/100 and Firefox 3’s 71/100.

It has some neat under-the-hood features too, like each tab being a seperate process meaning if a page crashes it won’t take the whole browser down with it. It’s also exceptionally memory efficient. It also has a turbo-speed javascript engine along with built in Google Gears support, making webapps like gmail much more responsive.

Everythings not quite rosy though. It’s bookmarks implementation feels half-finished, there is no efficient way to mass-organise bookmarks, having to move or edit them one at a time, no tags support either. And figuring out how to access them isn’t exactly intuitive either. Which is surprising as honestly, Bookmarks are perhaps the most used feature in a browser.

Joanne also found an odd bug with facebook where it was appending a url onto the existing url rather than replacing it causing following links to stop for obvious reasons. Despite doing the same things in Firefox/IE working as intended. But, it is beta so this kind of thing is excused, we reported it like good beta testers.

Overall, I’m very impressed, it feels faster to me on my machine than Firefox 3 which is great, FF3 isn’t exactly a slouch. I’ve had no issues with any sites so far (bar the facebook url issue) and it just feels nice to me.

It’ll be interesting to me to see where Google take this, it definitely has potential. I can see IE users flocking to it readily, as performance wise it’s no contest, hardcore Firefox users who rely on a multitude of plugins perhaps not so readily although that may change depending how the plugin situation matures with Chrome.

Tags: browser, chrome, firefox, internet explorer