tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12338974460466883372024-03-14T06:10:16.327+00:00The Dàchéng DiariesThe Diaries of a casual newbie on World of WarcraftDàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-26500945416355498752017-03-27T07:21:00.000+01:002017-05-24T08:47:48.965+01:00I hate orcsOrcs. I don't know why we call them a race. They are not. They are an invasive, destructive, alien species.<br />
<br />
This species destroyed their own world. And when I say destroyed, I mean they blew it up into separate pieces, floating in the nether. This was all part of their attempt to destroy their civilized neighbours, the Draenei. And having almost wiped out the Draenei and destroyed their own world, they opened a portal into our world and they immediately tried to destroy us, too.<br />
<br />
A Draenei spaceship escaped from their dying planet, and crash-landed on ours. The difference between their behaviour and the orcs was instructive. The Draenei tried to repair the damage their crashed spaceship caused, and tried to establish good relations with their Azerothean neighbours. Guess what the orcs did? Not hard, that one. They tried to kill everyone they met.<br />
<br />
Today's orcs like to pretend that it was the 'old' orcs, the '<i>fel</i>' orcs who were the problem. They were junkies, under the influence of drugs. Like heroin addicts, they destroyed every place they ever lived in, and threatened all their neighbours with their needles (and axes and blades). Heroin (like Mannoroth's blood) is a tough drug to get off. Imagine having to live next to them.<br />
<br />
What weak-willed boredom led them to take it in the first place? Oh, Gul'dan. He said it would make them feel strong and great. It was his fault. Yeah. Blame the drug-pusher on your own problems. Like all drug addicts, it's never their fault. They blame everyone but themselves. Not their fault. Gul'dan made them do it. It's not like they had a choice. Oh, and Mannoroth and Kil'jaedan, it was their fault, too. The orcs were just poor innocent victims. Oh, and Illidan and Magtheridon. Poor helpless orcs. Meanwhile the Draenei did not succumb. They fought on against countless enemies for what they knew was right. May the light be upon them forever.<br />
<br />
Once the orcs had destroyed Draenor, They came through the Dark Portal to Azeroth. Did they come in peace? By the light, they did not. They tried to destroy this world, too. We humans are stern enemies, though, and we fought back to defend our world and our families from these orcs who were bent on terrorizing our world as they had terrorized Draenor.<br />
<br />
Today's orcs are just the same as the fel orcs of their past. They carry on destroying whatever they meet, and never accept responsibility for their own actions. Under their leader Garrosh Hellscream, their horde invaded the mystical elven woods of Ashenvale, burning both the woods and the peaceful town of Astranaar. They gave the ancient holy places of Azshara to their goblin serfs to build a racetrack on (who they then got to destroy Theramore). And they invaded the newly-discovered isle of Pandaria, attempting to enthrall another race. Yeah. Real good neighbours.<br />
<br />
Now we hear the same old story from the orcs. It wasn't us, it was Garrosh. He made us do it. The orcs of today are the same cruel, feckless, weak-willed thugs as they ever were, picking on whoever they think they can bully, Like the Draenei showed, and the humans confirmed, the best way to deal with orcs is to fight back.<br />
<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-25595042612359798482016-11-02T07:55:00.000+00:002017-03-25T01:28:37.616+00:00Illidan's army.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VA0vWhpPPM0/WBf3JE-nDUI/AAAAAAAAAvw/46A267bWNhQMJiKNvnXO-s_3wH_yd0uJQCK4B/s1600/aion-avatar.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VA0vWhpPPM0/WBf3JE-nDUI/AAAAAAAAAvw/46A267bWNhQMJiKNvnXO-s_3wH_yd0uJQCK4B/s1600/aion-avatar.jpg" /></a> I am <a href="http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/azuremyst/Aion/advanced">Aion</a>.<br />
<br />
Dàchéng isn't happy with what Khadgar is up to. She keeps muttering about betrayal, and the mistakes that Khadgar made in the past, and how the orcs are the real enemy. I don't care. I'm loving it. Killing demons of the Burning Legion? What could be better. I have dedicated my life to killing demons, so it's a bit of an annoyance that the cows in Highmountain keep asking me to fix their trivial gardening problems, but I feel for the elves in Suramar, Azsuna and Azshara. All the same, I don't have time to worry about their problems. Demons need killing.<br />
<br />
And that's what worries me about Khadgar's new plan of returning to Kharazan. Has he not noticed the big island below Dalaran, containing the Tomb of Sargeras? It's crawling with demons. Uhm. Maybe we should be concentrating on this place instead of hunting down actors in Kharazan or bears, spiders and dragons in the Emerald Nightmare. Let the Kirin Tor tidy up Kharazan if they feel the need to (they've got to be good for something, right?) and let the dragons and the druids worry about the Emerald Nightmare. It might keep them from interrupting the Illidari's mission to destroy the demons of the Burning Legion.<br />
<br />
Where are these demons coming from? We've seen portals all over the Broken Isles. My first step would be to try to take control of these portals, and to try to ascertain who is able to create them and how. But the rest of the elves seem more concerned with their next mana fix, or making sure the balance of nature is maintained. The Vrykul have their own private agendas and gods to worry about; and who cares about the petty problems of a herd of cattle? It's down to the Illidari to show the way. We should destroy the demons in the Felsoul Hold in Suramar, then take the fight to the Broken Shore.<br />
<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-20200770428391926722016-11-01T01:41:00.001+00:002023-03-31T13:55:53.305+01:00TG4 - fíche bliain ag fásFíche bliain ó shin, thainig Teilifís na Gaeilge - TnaG - ar an tsaoil. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TG4TV">TG4</a> mar atá siad anois. Go mairfidh siad beo, agus go mbeadh súil eile ann i gcónaí.<br />
<br />
Scéal eile: an bhfaca sibh an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TG4TV/videos/10154244942867955/">aimsir</a> aréir?Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-17084224788428859212016-08-30T04:27:00.000+01:002016-08-30T04:27:47.676+01:00Jaina and me.Khadgar has taken a course of action that he knew would allow him to depose Jaina from the leadership of the Kirin Tor and assume the leadership himself. Now, Khadgar was the guy who had us storm the Dark Portal into Alternative Draenor and free Gul'dan from his imprisonment, so he is far from infallible. Jaina, on the other hand, has always been right, and despite that is always marginalised by the menfolk in the Alliance (Ansirem Runeweaver is the only honorable exception).<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>She was right to try to build a dialogue with Thrall in the hopes of bringing peace between the Horde and the Alliance</li>
<li>She was right to urge Varian to defend the lands in Kalimdor that the horde were invading under Garrosh's leadership</li>
<li>She was right to banish the Horde from Dalaran in reponse to their betrayal of the neutrality of Dalaran by smuggling the Divine Bell through the city. The Divine Bell, you will recall, was to be the power unit for a bomb similar to the one that flattened Theramore and killed all its inhabitants.</li>
<li>She was right to urge Varian to besiege and take Orgrimmar and defeat the horde under Garrosh. if only Varian had allowed Thrall to execute Garrosh when he had the chance, and had followed Jaina's advice to take executive control of Orgrimmar and dismantle the Horde as a military force and a political entity, we would not face the peril we currently face.</li>
<li>After Varian's death, she was right to urge Anduin not to trust the horde, who had shown their untrustworthy character on several occasions - the invasion of Azeroth by the orcs; the destruction of Lordaeron by the undead; the Wrathgate; Theramore; the list is far from complete. The Horde, and not the Burning Legion, are the greater existential threat to the Alliance.</li>
</ul>
<br />
She's had enough of being right and being ignored, and has withdrawn from the Kirin Tor in the wake of the council's vote of no confidence - effectively telling her that they prefer Aethas Sunreaver to her. My respect for Jaina and my repugnance of the disloyalty shown by the council will not allow me to give any support to Khadgar, and so I will accompany her in her exile, while the Alliance expends its energy fighting the wrong enemy. I used to be proud to wear the tabard and insignia of the Kirin Tor. I hope the day will come again when I can feel that pride.<br />
<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-10808892662259238502016-07-28T07:34:00.001+01:002023-03-31T12:15:42.268+01:00Caving inAn aside from "Alternative Chat" (in <a href="https://alternative-chat.com/2016/04/16/youre-history/">You're history</a>) caught my eye today:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"... the moment last year when Blizzard caved on allowing flying in Draenor. That shows a group of people that if they complained long and hard enough, the Company would realise the error of their ways and simply concede to demand"</i></blockquote>
The precise moment when I realized that Blizzard will always cave in was back when patch 3.1 got to the PTR, and people discovered that Blizzard had fixed a particular abuse of instances that was called "ghetto hearthing". Prior to patch 3.1, if you joined a group, entered an instance and then left the group, after 60 seconds you would be teleported to wherever your hearthstone was set to. Of course this exploit was a terrible abuse of the adventurers in the instance, who would then be forced to find a replacement, or try to 4-man it.<br />
<br />
This was before the dungeon finder and queuing for instances, so if often meant that one person had to leave the instance, head to Dalaran or another city and ask in LFG* (or trade) for a replacement while their comrades waited patiently at the summoning stone.<br />
<br />
You might wonder what sort of self-important, entitled ass-hole would inflict such a hardship on their fellow adventurers just because his hearthstone is on cooldown and wants to get home quickly. Well, it turns out that it's exactly the sort of self-important, entitled ass-hole who sees nothing wrong in this exploit and whines on the forums for it to be retained! I could hardly believe that anybody who actually did this would be shameless enough to demand its retention; but lo, the forums were full of whines and complaints.<br />
<br />
But instead of just telling these whiners that this was an exploit and the exploit has been fixed (well, to be fair, they did repeat that line for about a week), the developers decided to halve the cooldown on hearthstones instead, teaching everyone that whining works.<br />
<br />
It was therefore no surprise to me at the start of the Cataclysm, when instances were "too hard" for the poor babies, that they would whine about it and demand that Blizzard fix it so that they could enter instance and get loot without having to work for it. Blizzard held out. They made the point that at the end of WotLK instances seemed easier to complete simply because everyone was overgeared for them, and these new Cataclysm dungeons would get easier as people upgeared. To nerf them would make them just too easy once people actually had appropriate gear. I was proud of Blizzard, sticking to their guns for a change. They held out for almost a month before they caved in and nerfed the instances.<br />
<br />
With Draenor flying, I knew it was just a matter of time before the whingers got their way.<br />
<br />
Of course, there is another way of looking at this: Blizzard are responding to their customers. Or at least, they're responding to their whiny customers. Perhaps I need to get with the program and start complaining more on the forums.<br />
<br />
<br />
*<span style="font-size: x-small;">The "Looking For Group" chat channel.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-28148329067049834352016-07-15T07:55:00.000+01:002016-07-15T07:55:03.882+01:00Lost landsPearl River, Dragon Ridge, Province, Hidden Village, Severogorsk, Komarin, Northwest, South Coast. I miss these battlegrounds in World of Tanks. All withdrawn and no longer playable in public random matches. I have fond memories of playing them. Even Port. <br />
<br />
Unbalanced? I don't know. What I do know is that I'm bored seeing the same few maps pop up again and again. I'd like some variation. A little variation is better than a little imbalance. Or how would it be if Wargaming.net were to tweak these maps to ameliorate them, rather than ditching them.<br />
<br />
I wonder if I'll ever miss Overlord and Stalingrad, though. I doubt it.<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-26171729489920003462016-05-31T15:15:00.000+01:002016-05-31T15:16:11.956+01:00Legion release dateWell, I got back from a sailing trip to learn that my guess on when Legion would be released was way off. Even though the film is already out in Ireland, the release of the expansion is three months away, so there isn't much of a tie-in with the film (perhaps the idea is to give new players time to learn).<br />
<br />
All the same, I wonder why it was so important to drop all work on Warlords of Draenor, and leave existing players with not much to do for over a year. Worse, the WoD expansion was left unfinished, with Farahlon still missing from the map of alternative Draenor. I could understand Blizzard dropping everything WoD-related if it was important to hit a date that linked up Legion with the film, but it seems that was never the plan.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I see, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65AjY_nRdqE">one of the film's trailers</a>, that the director understands that to form a shield wall, you need to have shields equipped. <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.com/2013/07/shield-wall-we-dont-need-no-stinking.html">Unlike Blizzard</a>.Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-22227895044032058212016-01-05T14:58:00.000+00:002016-01-06T10:51:00.710+00:00Legion predictions (again)Alpha testing for family and friends of Blizzard started last November (never mind that Ion Hazzikostas promised it would be beta testing, we get the gist). That gives us an extra data-point with which to make predictions of when Legion will be released, and forces me to revisit my previous predictions to see if they stand up. It would be madness to ignore pertinent new information.<br />
<br />
Let's take a look at what hard data we have for previous releases (by the way, all the dates are ordered as year-month-day, to make it extra hard to understand them, no matter what part of the world you are in):<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Announced"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Announced</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Testing start"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Testing start</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pre-release patch n+1.0.0"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Pre-release patch [n+1].0.0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pre-release event (shattering/scourge plague, etc)"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Pre-release event (shattering/scourge plague, etc)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Release"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Release</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"BC"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">BC</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,38653]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2005-10-28</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,38944]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2006-08-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,112]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">112</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39056]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2006-12-05</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,35]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">35</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39091]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-01-09</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,7]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">7</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39098]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-01-16</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"WotLK"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">WotLK</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39297]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-08-03</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39588]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-05-20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,147]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">147</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39735]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-10-14</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,9]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39744]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-10-23</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,21]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39765]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-11-13</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cataclysm"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Cataclysm</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40046]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2009-08-21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40301]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-05-03</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,162]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">162</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40463]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-10-12</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">42</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40505]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-11-23</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,14]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">14</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40519]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-12-07</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"MoP"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">MoP</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40837]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2011-10-21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40988]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-03-20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,161]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">161</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41149]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-08-28</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,20]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41169]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-09-17</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,8]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41177]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-09-25</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"WoD"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">WoD</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41586]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2013-11-08</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41794]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-06-04</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,133]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">133</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41927]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-10-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41927]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-10-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,29]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">29</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41956]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-11-13</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
First, let me point out that I made up the testing start date for BC. I could only find that it started in mid August 2006. All the other dates are exact.<br />
<br />
So what is this table saying? Well, I'm calculating how long it was after testing started for each release, until certain landmarks along the way. The first such landmark is when the pre-release patch appeared. This is typically the patch with the last two numbers 0.0, and it's usually when new mechanics appear, to get players used to them before the release. For instance, talent tree changes, stat re-balancing and so on. It also usually contains all the artifacts needed for the new release.<br />
<br />
The second landmark is when the pre-release event starts, that draws us into the new release. For instance, with the Cataclysm, the 4.0.0 (or 4.0.1) patch appeared on October 12, 2010 resetting everybody's talent trees and spell bars and glyphs. But there was nothing new happening in Azeroth, save a few tremors from time to time. Then came patch 4.03a on 23 November 2010, bringing the events of the Shattering: the old world was changed forever as Deathwing erupted from the fiery elemental plane of Deepholm, bursting through the crust of the planet and destroying everything he found in his path. However, all this was content available to everyone who had paid for WotLK. The new Cataclysm content became available (to everyone who had paid for it) on 7 Dec 2010, and we all rushed off to Uldum, Mount Hyjal, Vash'jir and so on.<br />
<br />
So for each of these landmarks I calculated how many days that stage lasted (the delta column). So there were 162 days between when closed Alpha testing began and when 4.0.1 released. then a further 42 days before the Shattering, and another 14 days until the new zones opened and we could start levelling from 80-85.<br />
<br />
It doesn't take much work to calculate the averages for each of these stages: on average, it takes 143 days of testing before the x.0.0 patch; an average of 21 days between that patch and the start of the pre-release event; and an average of 16 days after that until the release day, for a total of 180 days on average from when testing begins until product release. Let's plug these into the table and see what we get:<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="38"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Announced"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Announced</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Testing start"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Testing start</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pre-release patch n+1.0.0"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Pre-release patch [n+1].0.0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pre-release event (shattering/scourge plague, etc)"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Pre-release event (shattering/scourge plague, etc)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"delta"]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">delta</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Release"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Release</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"BC"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">BC</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,38653]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2005-10-28</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,38944]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2006-08-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,112]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">112</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39056]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2006-12-05</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,35]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">35</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39091]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-01-09</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,7]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">7</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39098]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-01-16</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"WotLK"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">WotLK</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39297]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2007-08-03</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39588]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-05-20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,147]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">147</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39735]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-10-14</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,9]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">9</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39744]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-10-23</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,21]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,39765]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2008-11-13</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cataclysm"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Cataclysm</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40046]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2009-08-21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40301]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-05-03</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,162]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">162</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40463]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-10-12</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">42</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40505]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-11-23</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,14]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">14</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40519]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2010-12-07</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"MoP"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">MoP</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40837]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2011-10-21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,40988]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-03-20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,161]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">161</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41149]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-08-28</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,20]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41169]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-09-17</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,8]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41177]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2012-09-25</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"WoD"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">WoD</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41586]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2013-11-08</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41794]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-06-04</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,133]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">133</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41927]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-10-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41927]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-10-15</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[1]-R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,29]" style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">29</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[2]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,41956]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2014-11-13</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Legion"]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Legion</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42222]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2015-08-06</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[-19]C[0]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42328]" style="font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2015-11-20</td><td data-sheets-formula="=average(R[-5]C[0]:R[-1]C[0])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,143]" style="color: #ea9999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">143</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[-2]+R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42471]" style="color: red; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2016-04-11</td><td data-sheets-formula="=average(R[-5]C[0]:R[-1]C[0])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,21.2]" style="color: #ea9999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">21.2</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[-2]+R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42492.2]" style="color: red; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2016-05-02</td><td data-sheets-formula="=average(R[-5]C[0]:R[-1]C[0])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,15.8]" style="color: #ea9999; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">15.8</td><td data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[-2]+R[0]C[-1]" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,5,"yyyy\"-\"mm\"-\"dd",1]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42508]" style="color: red; font-family: Arial; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2016-05-18</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So there you have it.<br />
<br />
These predictions in red are to be taken with a pinch of salt. That average of 180 days? It has a standard deviation of 25 days. In other words, we shouldn't be surprised if the release date is a month before or after the 18th of May.<br />
<br />
What this tells me is that I am still comfortable with my <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.de/2015/08/more-warcraft-predictions.html">original prediction</a> back in August that Legion's release date is planned to tie in with the release date of the Warcraft movie, which is currently 10 June in the US.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-29546496641188705842015-12-31T08:09:00.000+00:002015-12-31T08:09:01.816+00:00Reasons to be cheerful, part 3.<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Warcraft: the Beginning</li>
<li>Film and Legion twinning</li>
<li>Summer sun is coming (and boats)</li>
</ol>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Devs chat at GamesCon</li>
<li>Afrasabi and Tom Chilton</li>
<li>Demons die in Legion (and nanny goats)</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Demon Hunters! <chortle></chortle></li>
<li>Dalaran's next portal</li>
<li>Demons aren't immortal (plus equal votes)</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Flying back in Draenor</li>
<li>The tailoring trainer</li>
<li>Gul'dan isn't saner (and porridge oats)</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
#Listmas</div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-75102031932026130722015-12-23T13:16:00.001+00:002015-12-23T13:17:10.277+00:00Priestly disciplinesI took advantage of the level 100 boost that comes with Legion last month to bring a new healer under my wings: a discipline priest. They seemed to be doing fantastic things with healing in the raids I've been in, and priests are sadly lacking in my arsenal. A boost to level 100 and ilvl 640 is not to be sniffed at!<br />
<br />
Sadly, I can't get to grips with the discipline style of healing, which is more about absorbs (and also a little bit of DPSing to restore mana and build <a href="http://www.wowdb.com/spells/81662">Evangelism</a><span style="font-size: xx-small; vertical-align: super;">1</span>). I've read IcyVeins, I've read Noxxic, I read HealingWow, but I'm still not very good at it. And despite having 640 gear, I wasn't able to complete the proving grounds even on bronze, so I still haven't got a good "rotation" (that's not even the right word here).<br />
<br />
On top of that is the add-ons I'm using. I'm a clicker when it comes to WoW. I find I just can't memorize keybinds, and I have to see a visual indication of the spell I'm about to cast; or when I do memorize them, they interfere with the next class I'm playing, so for instance I go to cast Smite, and find myself hitting the key that's bound to Arcane Blast on my mage<span style="font-size: xx-small; vertical-align: super;">2</span>.<br />
<br />
So I'm not comfortable with mouse-over macros that require me to mouse over a raider and hit a memorized key-combo to cast a particular spell on her (plus, in raids there are so many melee bunched together that I'm bound to heal the wrong person). And individually targetting each raider and then clicking on the spell I want to cast on them is doubling the workload.
<br />
<br />
I'm using healbot, which at least allows me to hover over the player's name in its grid and cast a spell with a mouse-click combination (for which a tooltip appears to let me know what I've bound to each combo). It's not great for me. Besides the difficulty of finding the spell I want (spells on shift or ctrl modifiers only show in the tooltip once you hold down the modifier), I also note that I'm spending my time watching the grid, not the fight. I often find myself standing in the fire and not even seeing it, but spotting on the grid that that priest is taking a lot of damage and I'd better shield her!<br />
<br />
So I don't think I've yet found a comfortable way to play this role. I've put my discipline priest away for now, and I've switched to a druid healer which I'm finding much more appealing. Druid heals are reactive, whereas priestly absorbs are best when proactive. And the longer (and fixed) duration of druid HOTs make it more rewarding to spend two clicks (one to select the player, one to select the spell) per cast, so I don't bother with any addons for druid healing.<br />
<br />
All suggestions gratefully received!<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>1. By the way, I read in various places that <a href="http://www.wowdb.com/spells/129250">Power Word: Solace</a> generates 3 stacks of Evangelism, but I can't find this info in its tooltip, nor does it seem to be generating 3 stacks for me. What am I missing?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>2. You might say, "why don't you just map smite to the same key that you use for arcane blast?" That might work in this single case, but there isn't in general a one-to-one mapping between spells across classes, so it won't work in general.</i>Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-34285702952350786762015-11-03T09:06:00.000+00:002015-11-03T09:06:20.829+00:00Sinking under the weight of inconsistenciesBack in Azeroth after the Rugby World Cup finished. And with a fresh outlook, I can't help feel that the weight of story inconsistencies are crushing the World of Warcraft.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A fresh horde character showed the problem starkly. All through the classical levels, Vol'Jin is now sitting in Orgrimmar as warchief. Okay, Garrosh turns up in Outland and Northrend, but the fresh character is unaware of 'later' events. However, when she reaches the Twilight Highlands, Garrosh is spearheading the assault, as Warchief. He's in the Stonetalon Mountains as Warchief. Later he's in Pandaria as Warchief. And Vol'jin is plotting against him. What?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That could be partially fixed by putting the portals to Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria in the Caverns of Time, removing all other routes into them, and replacing Garrosh in Kalimdor with another NPC. But it's hard to keep all these mixed stories straight. Anyway, I was in Dalaran recently, and I was amazed to see that Jaina has let the horde back in. Did Theramore suddenly get undestroyed? Did the duplicitous Sunreavers do something trustworthy? What's going on?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After we invaded Orgrimmar, defeated the Kor'kron and brought Garrosh to justice, you would expect the Alliance to install an administrative leader in Orgrimmar (perhaps Jaina would have been the right person for the job), and to restore the destroyed or desecrated lands of the Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale and Azshara to Night Elf care, Instead, orcs and goblins continue to run riot through these areas. And rather than getting rid of the aggressive alien invaders right here on our doorstep, we're off in Draenor, invading another planet.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It would be fantastic if the night elves could have their lands restored, and the orcs and Draenei could have their planet restored and we could all live in peace on our own planets. Then all we have to do is get rid of the scourge in Lordaeron.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-86607443572536098952015-10-15T13:38:00.000+01:002015-10-15T13:39:28.711+01:006.2.3 and Legion predictionsAnother PvP season is coming in 6.2.3. And 6.2.3 is only going to the PTR, so we can't expect it on live servers until about the start of December.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How long does a PvP season last? Well, about 20 weeks; which would take us until about mid-April. Then there'll be a further patch with the pre-release event for the Legion expansion before Legion actually goes live. That could be anything from a fortnight to a month, leaving us around early to mid-May for the Legion release. And when does the Warcraft movie go on general release? End of May. My July <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.com/2015/08/more-warcraft-predictions.html">prediction</a> about that is strengthened.</div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-71844328276564788632015-09-23T10:47:00.001+01:002015-09-23T10:47:41.994+01:00Living it upFuill, Paoquan and I are taking a well deserved holiday from Azeroth. We decided to spend a marathon month on Earth jet-setting around Europe. We're just back from the <span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.7px; line-height: 19.05px;">Côte </span>d'Azur which was fab. I don't think I've ever seen so many yachts in my life before. And not cheap ones, either. The port of Antibes alone held over a thousand yachts that the three of us couldn't afford to buy. In fact, we could hardly afford to buy a mooring berth there! We hired bicycles, instead.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1gV7w3VKncA/VgJxvXvll0I/AAAAAAAAATQ/EIc5CRWasyU/s1600/Mooring_Berth_Antibes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1gV7w3VKncA/VgJxvXvll0I/AAAAAAAAATQ/EIc5CRWasyU/s400/Mooring_Berth_Antibes.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">€65 000 for a 10x4 metre mooring here.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I liked Antibes a lot. Probably the only town in the world with more chandleries than supermarkets.<br />
<br />
But the <span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.7px; line-height: 19.05px;">Côte </span>d'Azur has a problem with its "beaches". In Azeroth, a beach has sand on it. In Nice, their beaches are made up of large pebbles or small rocks. I'm not one for lying on a beach sunbathing, but lying on a rocky shore sounds more like mortification than pleasure.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.eurotrip.com/files/u9612/Nice_Beach_Surf_prefRes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.eurotrip.com/files/u9612/Nice_Beach_Surf_prefRes.jpg" height="243" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what passes for a beach on the Côte d'Azur</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We took a trip to Monaco to see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Museum_(Monaco)">Napoleonic exhibition</a>, only to find it was sold off last year. It seems the sovereign Prince of Monaco was <a href="http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/be+short+of+a+bob+or+two">short of a few bob</a>. A few bob short of a pound, if you ask me.<br />
<br />
Anyway, our jet-setting isn't over, and the rugby world cup is underway in England, so we're off to London to watch Ireland defeat the rest of the world. Slán!<br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-55875934325944609502015-08-31T12:20:00.001+01:002015-08-31T12:20:33.744+01:00Ahoy there, me hearties! Avast behind!My time in Azeroth has temporarily come to an end. I let my subscription lapse some months ago and am now paying with WoW tokens instead. Now I've stopped that, too. I still have some tokens in my bags, but what with a summer holiday approaching (now that it's autumn!) and the rugby world cup on the horizon (and Ireland has the incredible ranking of <a href="http://www.worldrugby.org/rankings">world number 3</a> right now), I don't think I'm going to have any time for raiding. Plus, I need a break.<br />
<br />
I may come back to Azeroth refreshed in October, or I might wait a little longer. Perhaps even to the next expansion, who knows.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I've been playing with wargaming.net's latest World of Warships beta release. I downloaded it ages ago, but I had trouble getting it running. The screen would flicker in such a way that I could see what was previously on the screen, For instance, in the middle of battle, I could still see the pre-battle screen flickering in and out. And moving my gun target left a trail of target cursors in its wake. Don't even think about what happened when I rotated my point of view. Suffice to say it was unplayable.<br />
<br />
I updated it recently to see if the problem had been fixed, and lo and behold ... it hadn't. But after much searching I found a <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.com/2015/08/screen-flicker-in-world-of-warships.html">work-around</a>, and got the try out WoWs (as we cognoscenti call it).<br />
<br />
Have you noticed how much more agile the tanks in World of Tanks are, compared with actual tanks? WoWs has the same problem, on speed. My low-level ships feel like windsurfing boards.<br />
<br />
There are several different classes of ship, and the most problematic for me are destroyers, which at low-level fire torpedo broadsides from deck-mounted launchers. The problem is that the torpedoes travel really slowly, and once you have four or five destroyers on each side, well, there are a lot of fish in the water. And it's not unknown for your team to find themselves turning into the path of your slow-moving torpedoes. Uh, oh!<br />
<br />
I am a team-killer. Inadvertently. I've also inadvertently been been killed by my own team's fish. I haven't yet had the ignominy of steaming into my own torpedoes: thank goodness my top speed is slightly lower than the top speed of my torpedoes. Otherwise it would have happened.<br />
<br />
I guess it's just a matter of better map awareness, and better awareness of how slowly these torpedoes travel. Although the torpedo range is 8km, there really seems to be no point in using them until you're on top of the enemy. Definitely cease firing them while you are behind your own team. Avast behind!*<br />
<br />
<br />
*This whole article written to allow me to legitimately use that final exclamation.<br />
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust" style="background-color: white; color: #9d1961; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-decoration: none;">Blaugust</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, day 31.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><br /></span>Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-918060752598763582015-08-31T12:03:00.001+01:002015-08-31T12:03:47.285+01:00Screen Flicker in World of Warships I'm only going to deal with one kind of flicker, the one that was bugging me! The screen would flicker in such a way that I could see what was previously on the screen. For instance, in the middle of battle, I could still see the battle-loading screen flickering on the battle-screen. And moving my gun target left a trail of target cursors in its wake. Don't even think about what happened when I rotated my point of view. Suffice to say it was unplayable.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DVPVb3wmchU/VeQwASGeI3I/AAAAAAAAAS4/OwOAD3uTovk/s1600/shot-15.08.31_11.36.29-0730.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DVPVb3wmchU/VeQwASGeI3I/AAAAAAAAAS4/OwOAD3uTovk/s640/shot-15.08.31_11.36.29-0730.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the view mid-game!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It turns out that WoWs doesn't respect the hardware anti-aliasing setting on your graphics chip, and tries to do it for itself. That means that if your graphics processor is set to do the anti-aliasing itself, you're in trouble, and you need to switch off the hardware anti-aliasing. But only for WoWs, or you risk other 3D software slowing down. I don't care about that, so I put up with it to get WoWs running.<br />
<br />
I've got a very basic graphics chipset, an AMD Radeon HD 5450 (I know this because it comes with some management software that told me (AMD Catalyst Control Centre (or CCC ))). To fix the problem, I went into CCC, selected "Gaming"->"3D Applications", and then changed the setting "Anti-Aliasing Mode" from "Override Application Settings" (which I presume is the default) to "Use Application Settings". Once I'd done that, the game played perfectly.<br />
<br />
Then I decided to take some screen shots, like the one above, so I set the Anti-Aliasing Mode back to "Override Application Settings", and tried again. Lo and Behold, there was no flicker! What happened?<br />
<br />
This: when I set the Anti-Aliasing Mode to "Use Application Settings", CCC automatically changed the next setting, "Anti-Aliasing Samples", to "Use Application Settings", also. Then when I changed the Anti-Aliasing Mode to "Override Application Settings" for the screenshots, it automatically changed the "Anti-Aliasing Samples" to "None". I don't know what its original factory setting had it at, but when I changed it from "None" to "2x", the problem came back.<br />
<br />
So now I have two ways of getting rid of the flicker:<br />
1. Change the Anti-Aliasing Mode to "Use Application Settings" or<br />
2. Change the Anti-Aliasing Samples to "None".<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust" style="background-color: white; color: #9d1961; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-decoration: none;">Blaugust</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, day 31</span><br />
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Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-69710209490434046492015-08-21T15:11:00.000+01:002015-08-21T15:11:07.089+01:00Progression<br />
In "<a href="http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2015/08/paying-to-be-hunter.html">Paying to be the hunte</a>r", Tobold made the point (with respect to MMOs):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Many other games don't have character power levels or gear, so it is totally possible to create a game in which playing a lot would only make you stronger in as far as you become more skillful in the game</i></blockquote>
As 8f and Samus pointed out in the comments, there are plenty of games which require player skill, such as Call of Duty; but one of the unique features of virtual worlds is that we players are more like actors than athletes. Our skill lies not in dexterity, but in playing a role.<br />
<br />
The premise of virtual worlds is the same as in D&D. It is the character that progresses, not the player. The fun is not in improving your keyboard skills, it is simply in acting the role of the character, and seeing the challenges from her point of view. As a player, I'm still rubbish at casting fireballs, but I act the part of my character, who is expert at it through the effort she has put into improving her magic abilities (not my keyboard abilities).<br />
<br />
Of course, given equally powerful characters, player dexterity will matter if both are in competition. But it be the end, we players do not play these games because of our superb keyboard dexterity, or we'd be playing games in which keyboard dexterity matters more, and the second-by-second and minute by minute game-play was more attractive. We play these games for the epic stories told (and our part therein), whether player generated or developer generated; and for the personal development of our characters within that world.<br />
<br />
It so happens that in most virtual worlds, character progress only happens when the player is in-game. That's not a law of nature, though, and I can quite imagine games in which characters are set skill-building tasks that progress while the player is offline. Skills in Eve online are trained while the player is offline. In WoW, followers level up by doing missions that progress while we are offline. In fact, the legendary quest is progressing through such naval missions. It would be interesting to see what could be made of a game in which our characters could train while we players are elsewhere.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust" style="background-color: white; color: #9d1961; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-decoration: none;">Blaugust</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, day 21.</span><br />
<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-71759037753542202992015-08-11T20:51:00.000+01:002015-08-11T20:51:53.566+01:00Class Order HallsAfter Garrisons, where all the NPCs lick up to me and call me Commander, I'm hoping that Class Order Halls will be a big improvement. I cringe every time some programmed cartoon calls me Commander, in fact. Me and 10 million others. I'm hoping that the Class Order Halls will curb that tendency to <a href="http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/irish-pl%C3%A1m%C3%A1sing-loan-word-in-english.1860605/">plamás</a> us with honeyed terms of insincerity.<br />
<br />
Two things in the early reports that are bugging me, though:<br />
<ul>
<li>First, it seems that Afrasiabi is <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1839187-Afrasiabi-on-Class-Order-Halls">telling all who will listen</a> that you are the leader of your order. More plamás, it seems. You, and me, and that guy meléeing with his wand. Afrasiabi wants us all to believe we're the leader of the order of mages. The Garrison was bad enough for that sort of thing, but at least I had built my garrison up, and the only other people there were people I invited (though I don't remember inviting Fiona). But the class order hall will be filled with all sorts of mages of all sorts of abilities, and I'd really prefer that the class leader would be the most able of the mages who put themselves forward for the job.</li>
<li>Cross-faction? I don't think I could bear to spend any time in the same hall as the Undead. The smell alone would drive you out. Not that orcs or trolls smell much better. In any case, I'd be just as happy killing <i>them </i>as the Burning Legion. I hear reports that Dalaran would become a neutral city. I can't in all conscience square that with the behaviour of the despicable, lying horde of thugs who are our enemies. Jaina has been proven to be entirely right about the matter, and it's a shame that our king stopped Thrall from ending Garrosh's life when we invaded Orgrimmar and defeated him. In fact, its a shame we shirked our duty to bring decency and fairness to that lawless orc city.If only we had seized that moment and dismantled the horde, as Jaina wisely insisted, and executed Garrosh as Thrall tried, we could have saved ourselves the misery of a year and more stuck on Draenor in a story that has never made any sense</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust" style="background-color: white; color: #9d1961; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-decoration: none;">Blaugust</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, day 11.</span></div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-4239773118480874602015-08-07T18:10:00.000+01:002015-08-07T18:10:43.920+01:00What about those predictions, then?It's normal human behaviour when making predictions, to celebrate your brilliance when you got it right, and rationalize away your mistakes as not really a failure of prediction, more of a failure of others to behave rationally. I'm working on that, but meanwhile, let's look at the <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.com/2015/08/more-warcraft-predictions.html">predictions I made last week</a> and see what became of them. So here they are repeated in quotation marks, and my comment on whether I was brilliant or Blizzard were idiots following the quote.<br />
<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">
<li><span style="color: #38761d;">"I already mentioned that I thought Blizzard would be announcing the next expansion at Gamescom. That was the first part of my guarantee."</span><span style="color: #333333;"> - I don't care what you think, Wilhelm, I'm counting it!</span></li>
<li style="color: #333333;">"The release date will tie in with the World of Warcraft movie. That was the second part (oh, yeah, sure it seems obvious now, but it wasn't even obvious to most people that there would even be a expansion announcement back when I guaranteed it)." - The jury is still out, though it seems likely still.</li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">"</span><span style="color: red;">The next expansion will be set in Draenor, still: in Farahlon and other parts.</span><span style="color: #333333;">" - My genius outstripped Blizzard's here.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #38761d;">"The Burning Legion, who have hardly shown their face this expansion, will be out in force."</span><span style="color: #333333;"> - I'm so hot I'm sizzling.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333333;">"That also means we get to meet Medivh and Kil'jaedan." - I admit Blizzard's greatness in fetching Illidan back from the grave was so greatly great that I feel stupid not having thought of it first; but the jury is still out on Medivh and Kil'jaedan.</li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">"</span><span style="color: #38761d;">Gul'dan will finally get his come-uppance. Please let it not be as Garrosh finally got his</span><span style="color: #333333;">." He isn't getting out of the Suramar Palace alive.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;">"</span><span style="color: #38761d;">More people with pointless apostrophes in their names will turn up</span><span style="color: #333333;">". I think that's a given. Blizzard's names department has an apostrophe where the space bar should be.</span></li>
<li style="color: #333333;">"The gold price of WoW tokens will skyrocket." - We'll only know in the months to come. I will of course count any uptick as proof positive of my magely brilliance.</li>
</ul>
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So that's one wrong, four right (though even the furbolg could have predicted the excess of apostrophes), and three more about which we must wait and see.</div>
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust" style="background-color: white; color: #9d1961; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px; text-decoration: none;">Blaugust</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">, day 7.</span></div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-50358242281201497072015-08-05T19:29:00.000+01:002015-08-05T19:29:45.505+01:00Archimonde and other nobodiesRaiding in Draenor feels like a pastiche of the good ol' days of raiding during the days of the Burning Crusade. The problem, for me, is that the developers don't seem all that interested in telling stories. Not that they've skipped it altogether: the main story, of the struggle between Gul'dan, Grommash and Khadgar is well told. But the problem is that there is not much story that prompts us to enter the various raid and dungeon instances around Draenor. It seems that the developers are simply asked to produce a fun instance, with challenging fights, and not bother too much about how it fits into the story.<br />
<br />
The dungeons are at a double disadvantage in that one now normally enters them through the dungeon finder while levelling, long before discovering their entrances. That leads to a story-telling problem. As a designer, you don't want to introduce a breadcrumb quest before the adventurers are at the level to enter the dungeon, but once they are, they've probably already seen it before they got the breadcrumb quest. Or else the quest is offered out of thin air, by the GUI rather than by any individual (my least favourite form of questing).<br />
<br />
There was a solution, back in the days of Wrath of the Lich King, that I thought was very good: Jaina offered a breadcrumb quest and before you had got the quest off her, you simply couldn't queue for that particular instance. Later versions of the dungeon finder didn't allow queuing for dungeons whose entrances you had not found. But for whatever reason, these ideas were scrapped, and now dungeons seem like separate games, where the real world of Draenor or Azeroth is just a waiting-room or lobby.<br />
<br />
The raids in WoD particularly bother me, though. I can think of no good reason for wandering into Highmaul, except to exercise my lust for death and gear. Kargath Bladefist, at least, has a story we all know from Draenor. We've seen him at Bladefist Hold in the Spires of Arak. I believe he has also been seen in the company of Grommash and the other Warlords. Kargath Bladefist is a bona-fide boss with a back-story. But Tectus? Brackenspore? Even Imperator Mar'gok seems to have no story*. Why do I care about these monsters?<br />
<br />
Frankly, the bosses in the other two raids are not much more interesting, although at least Blackrock Foundry itself has a worthwhile storyline. But in Hellfire Citadel, bosses are name-checked and killed with no story attached to them, nor reason for their presence. You're supposed to just remember the good times you had with them in Outland. Even Archimonde only turns up in order to get killed.<br />
<br />
Without stories*, it's hard to remain interested in the goings-on in Draenor. Perhaps it's time to return home to Stormwind. Beneath the sands of Silithus, in the cold vastnesses of Northrend, and in the dread wastes of Pandaria, qiraji silithid nerubian mantid toil endlessly in the darkness, extending their underground empires.<br />
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust">Blaugust</a>, Day 5<br />
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*I exclude stories written in novels in another universe that our adventurers cannot enter.Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-71961213712613218212015-08-03T18:21:00.002+01:002015-08-04T12:40:45.200+01:00More Warcraft PredictionsI wasn't clear enough for Wilhelm in <a href="http://casualnoob.blogspot.com/2015/07/after-62.html">my predictions</a> for what Blizzard would announce at Gamescom. Wilhelm is usually correct, and I can quite see his point, so I will attempt to be clearer, with no links you have to follow to understand what I'm trying to say this time.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I already mentioned that I thought Blizzard would be announcing the next expansion at Gamescom. That was the first part of my guarantee.</li>
<li>The release date will tie in with the World of Warcraft movie. That was the second part (oh, yeah, sure it seems obvious now, but it wasn't even obvious to most people that there would even be a expansion announcement back when I guaranteed it).</li>
<li>The next expansion will be set in Draenor, still: in Farahlon and other parts.</li>
<li>The Burning Legion, who have hardly shown their face this expansion, will be out in force.</li>
<li>That also means we get to meet Medivh and Kil'jaedan.</li>
<li>Gul'dan will finally get his come-uppance. Please let it not be as Garrosh finally got his.</li>
<li>More people with pointless apostrophes in their names will turn up.</li>
<li>The gold price of WoW tokens will skyrocket.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust">Blaugust</a>, day 3.</div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-90999078066081419192015-08-01T15:19:00.000+01:002015-08-01T15:19:38.992+01:00Toxic TankersIt seems that especially on weekends, an especially toxic strain of tankers infests the World of Tanks. They complain about their own team, rage and curse at players who don't play the way they deem correct, and often give away to the enemy the position of players they feel deserve to die, even though it's at the expense of weakening their own team's chance of winning. Of course, usually all this is after their own tank's destruction.<br />
<br />
You may remember South Park's take on people with anger management issues (episode <a href="http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/T.M.I.">T.M.I.</a>): angry men's members are smaller than average, and that's what they're really angry about. But there's no point in reminding tankers about that unless you're trolling them.<br />
<br />
In fact, this kind of angry ranting in WoT is not helped by Wargaming.net's response to it, which is basically to ignore it. They believe that their in-game reporting tool and automated response is sufficient. It is not. What wargaming.net expect is that if people are rude, enough people will report them during the game that their automatic tools will realize that and penalize the player. There are two things wrong with that:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Lack of reporting</li>
<li>Lack of feedback</li>
</ul>
<div>
Let's look at the first of those: lack of reporting. If a player is cursing and swearing at his team-mates, many players who would like to report the player at that point cannot do so because they're far too busy controlling their tanks and trying to avoid getting killed themselves. In the heat of battle is the wrong place to be reporting. Moreover, reporting players for inaction is problematic, because the player might be simply watching through gun-sights at a spot he expects an enemy to appear at. General inaction can only be thoroughly evaluated after the battle.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Lack of feedback is the next problem. There appears to be no benefit in reporting players. They never seem to receive penalties. Maybe they do, but how would anyone know? Lack of feedback leads in turn to the first problem: lack of reporting. Why bother reporting when nothing ever seems to be done?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Finally, Wargaming.net will no longer follow up on reports of player rulebreaking that you raise out-of-game on their support website. Even if you support such a complaint with a replay of the match in question, their customer support agents will take no action.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Meantime, player misbehaviour worsens. I've taken to changing my "General Settings" to disable battle-chat. At least I don't have to listen to the ragers. But then I can't tell if they're giving away our positions to the enemy.</div>
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<a href="http://www.anook.com/posts/blaugust">Blaugust</a>, Day 1.</div>
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Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-14833640482944105242015-08-01T11:59:00.000+01:002015-08-01T11:59:12.738+01:00Exaltation of SpiritToday is the 100th anniversary of the funeral of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_O%27Donovan_Rossa" target="_blank">Jeremia O'Donovan Rossa</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenian" target="_blank">Fenian</a> leader, one of the most famous revolutionaries of his day, and a tireless enemy of the British occupation of Ireland. But nowadays it is his funeral that is best remembered, because of the speech <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Pearse" target="_blank">Padraig Mac Piarais</a> gave at O'Donovan Rossa's graveside in Glasnevin Cemetery, closing with<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace</i></blockquote>
It was an explosive oration that lit the spark of the 1916 uprising (in which Mac Piarais himself died) and the War of Independence. It was a speech that changed the world.<br />
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UOw-LtdlsvI/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UOw-LtdlsvI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Contemporary silent film of O'Donovan Rossa's funeral, with a musical soundtrack added.</i></span></div>
Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-73363510467105346232015-07-24T12:08:00.000+01:002015-08-02T03:23:55.575+01:00After 6.2?Blizzard have told us that 6.2 will be the last patch in this expansion, and so the Isle of Farahlon (Netherstorm) won't be developed as they planned for this expansion. Also, Hellfire Citadel is the last raid? Gul'dan still at large? That has all set my antennae twitching like a Nerubian. Let's see. They haven't time to implement their vision for Draenor in this expansion, they have a tie-in film coming out in the autumn, and now www.mamytwink.com has given notice of a press conference promising "de nouvelles annonces croustillantes" (thanks for the <a href="http://www.alternative-blog.net/2015/07/two-minutes-to-midnight.html" target="_blank">heads-up</a> from Alternative Chat)<br />
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My take on all this is that Blizzard will be announcing a new expansion to release at the same time as the film. I guarantee it. And the new expansion will bring us to Farahlon. And we'll hunt down Gul'dan, wherever that may take us. Perhaps Azeroth in an alternative timeline where Lordaeron is in the ascendant? I don't guarantee that.<br />
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Edit: mamytwink's promise of "spicy-hot new announcements" from Blizzard at Gamescom has proven to be correct, and as I predicted, those announcements are of a new expansion for WoW. So that's the first part of my prediction, but it has yet to be seen if it will be released in time for a film tie-in, and we are still far from knowing if it involves Farahlon or Gul'dan.Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-4654584355229059752015-06-11T14:01:00.000+01:002015-06-11T16:31:56.426+01:00Fear of FlyingI knew Blizzard was going to give in and let people go flying. I learned that Blizzard <i>always </i>give in, back in 2090, when they fixed a problem in how group disbandment worked. Before patch 3.1.0, people who left a group in the middle of an instance would be teleported to wherever their hearthstone was pointing. This so-called "ghetto hearthing" was identified as a potential problem for Blizzard's not-yet-released Dungeon Finder. People might queue for instances just to ghetto hearth out: hearthstones had a 60 minute cooldown at the time. When Blizzard announced that they were fixing the problem by teleporting instance-abandoners to the nearest graveyard, there was an outcry from the usual entitled sources, who felt it was their right to be able to ghetto-hearth. To use the other 4 people in their instance in order to hearth out.<br />
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And incredibly, instead of telling these entitled idiots that we all have to play nice with each other, Blizzard gave in to them, and announced they would reduce the cooldown on hearthstones to 30 minutes. I knew then that Blizzard would always give in.<br />
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Flying has always been problematic, for reasons that I'll not go over here, as they've all been given a good airing recently! And because it's problematic Blizzard has tried to curtail flying in many ways (and I'm sure they're sorry they ever introduced it). I don't want to get into why it's been problematic, or what Blizzard could have done to make it less problematic. I want to focus on how Blizzard attempts to curtail it.<br />
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Flying was introduced for level-capped adventurers in the Burning Crusade, and at that point Blizzard had a proper 3D layout for Outland, but not for Azeroth. So for ages, flying was not possible in Azeroth. No convincing in-game reason was ever given, it was purely an implementation problem.<br />
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But once you have level 70 players flying in Outland, there was a hidden problem left for Northrend. Why couldn't level 70 players fly their mounts in Northrend? The real reason was that it would have made quest design a whole lot harder. Blizzard introduced it in Outland only for level-capped players - so after they had already explored the whole of Outland on horseback, and done all their quests on the ground. Blizzard wanted the same freedom for their designers in Northrend. So they introduced the idea of "Cold Weather Flying", which was a neat way of sidestepping the problem. You needed to train a new skill to be able to fly in such cold conditions. That kinda got them over the hump for Northrend. But wait - if I can fly in Northrend, what magical property of Kalimdor prevents me from flying there? Again, no in-game reason, and this was one of the many reasons Blizzard decided that for their next expansion, they'd redesign the old world to allow them to support "Old Weather Flying".<br />
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So the idea of a "Flight Master's License" was introduced for the old world. Not a skill that was trained. A licence. We're used to the idea of levels as being proxies for our level of ability. So I am more skilled at level 70 than at level 1. But the problem for the Cataclysm was that I am already well-skilled in flying, having learned how to do it in Outland, and having perfected the cold-weather variant in Northrend. Blizzard couldn't keep inventing new skills that were particular to Azeroth but not Northrend, and it wasn't a viable long-term solution to their problem, which was that they wanted to keep us from flying until we'd done all the quests they'd designed to be done on the ground.<br />
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So they embraced the problem in the Cataclysm expansion. and designed their <i>new </i>quests with flying in mind right from the start. They allowed flying right from level 60. In fact, the stonecore dungeon entrance couldn't even be reached on foot, and the Vashj'ir zone was based on everyone swimming (i.e. flying) underwater.<br />
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That was a great solution, but for some reason Blizzard didn't extend it to Pandaria. I don't know what they saw that made them change tack (perhaps they deplored the "fly-in, kill, loot, fly-out" play pattern that Cataclysm brought), but change tack they did, and in Pandaria, flying was again only available at the level-cap.<br />
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This was a retrograde step for two reasons.<br />
1. We already had the expectation that we would be able to fly in Pandaria from the start<br />
2. There was no convincing in-game explanation for why we couldn't fly in Pandaria.<br />
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Sadly no explanation was given as to why my existing flying skills don't work there. "<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=115913/wisdom-of-the-four-winds" target="_blank">Wisdom of the Four Winds</a>" was the gate to flying in Pandaria.What is it anyway? A skill? I already have flying skills. A licence? Who is the licensing authority? I already have a "Flight Master's License". Something else? What? This was a lazy solution. There was no in-game reason. <i>As a player, I understand the designers' design reasons, but a solution that made sense to Dàchéng would have been nice.</i><br />
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Now we have reached Outland again, and my well-honed flying skills yet again seem to have faltered. I'm sure Blizzard by this stage were ruing the day they ever allowed flying, but their attempts to put the genie back in the bottle were always doomed to failure. However their "compromise" is as ugly a solution as the Wisdom of the Four Winds. None of the preconditions for "<a href="http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19800551/dev-watercooler-flying-in-draenor-6-10-2015" target="_blank">unlocking the ability to fly in Draenor on <b><u>all</u> </b>[your] level 90+ characters</a>" make any in-game sense.<br />
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This is just a gamified solution, with not even the pretense of an in-world reason. Not even an inscrutable reason like Wisdom of the Four Winds. Instead we are asked to collect 100 "treasures". Explore all of Draenor on the ground. Complete all the quests that are part of the Draenor Loremaster and Securing Draenor achievements. Achieve three Tanaan Jungle Revered Reputations. These are hoops for the player to jump through that make no sense to their characters. What has any of this got to do with flying? It's another step away from a believable virtual world.<br />
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<br />Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1233897446046688337.post-15075182347826975832015-06-10T09:55:00.000+01:002015-06-10T09:55:18.275+01:00Personal loot changesThese changes to "Personal Loot" in 6.2:<br />
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<span style="background-color: #1a0f08; color: #efc9a0; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">"rather than treating loot chances independently for each player—sometimes yielding only one or even zero items for a group—we’ll use a system similar to Group Loot to determine how many items a boss will award based on eligible group size"</span><br />
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Source: <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19162236/dev-watercooler-itemization-in-62-5-20-2015">http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19162236/dev-watercooler-itemization-in-62-5-20-2015</a><br />
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Let's imagine that our 10-man raid is set to "Personal Loot" and will get awarded 5 items of loot. Just how will this be distributed? Does Blizzard look at the first team member and decide "Well that's a 50% chance of them getting personal loot. Let's toss a coin. Heads! You win". Then the next person in the group has a 4/9 chance of being awarded loot? I.e. 4 items left to distribute among 9 players. Is that how the mechanics of this will work? I don't know, but I'd like to. Do you know for definite?Dàchénghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02994982502333811797noreply@blogger.com3