New Years- Azeroth Edition
Christmas may be over but the holiday events are still going on. New years is a big celebration in World of Warcraft. Here is the description of the holiday from Blizzard;
Another year is ending in the rich world of Azeroth. Countless battles have been fought, and numerous accolades achieved. It is time to laud victories and give remembrance to those lost. In celebration of the old year’s passing and anticipation of the new, skilled brewers and talented pyrotechnicians have brought their finest creations to the bustling cities; join the party underway and ring in the New Year with your fellow adventurers!
Type: Holiday Event
Date: December 31st – January 1st
Location: around Azeroth
Fireworks
The innovative and artistic engineers of Undermine have been slaving away since their display of pyrotechnics in July. Their latest and greatest — not to mention highly dangerous to operate — creations will be on display in the cities of the world every hour after sunset. Keep your eyes to the skies, and be sure to stick around for the finale!
Potent Potables
What good is a party without sampling some of the brewers’ delicious work? Kegs of the finest brews are available in the cities of Azeroth, bringing good cheer as we bid farewell to the old year. Cups are available for all party-goers; simply pick one up and fill up at the keg to warm your belly and lift your heart!
Revelers, All
Many soldiers formerly abroad have come home to engage in the festivities. Share in the merriment and dance with the revelers, or, if you’re so inclined, blow a kiss to one that catches your eye. It’s all in fun, after all; they appreciate the attention!
New Years- Azeroth Edition
Christmas may be over but the holiday events are still going on. New years is a big celebration in World of Warcraft. Here is the description of the holiday from Blizzard;
Another year is ending in the rich world of Azeroth. Countless battles have been fought, and numerous accolades achieved. It is time to laud victories and give remembrance to those lost. In celebration of the old year’s passing and anticipation of the new, skilled brewers and talented pyrotechnicians have brought their finest creations to the bustling cities; join the party underway and ring in the New Year with your fellow adventurers!
Type: Holiday Event
Date: December 31st – January 1st
Location: around Azeroth
Fireworks
The innovative and artistic engineers of Undermine have been slaving away since their display of pyrotechnics in July. Their latest and greatest — not to mention highly dangerous to operate — creations will be on display in the cities of the world every hour after sunset. Keep your eyes to the skies, and be sure to stick around for the finale!
Potent Potables
What good is a party without sampling some of the brewers’ delicious work? Kegs of the finest brews are available in the cities of Azeroth, bringing good cheer as we bid farewell to the old year. Cups are available for all party-goers; simply pick one up and fill up at the keg to warm your belly and lift your heart!
Revelers, All
Many soldiers formerly abroad have come home to engage in the festivities. Share in the merriment and dance with the revelers, or, if you’re so inclined, blow a kiss to one that catches your eye. It’s all in fun, after all; they appreciate the attention!
Hurry before they are all gone!
Winter Veil is almost over in Azeroth. If you have not done so, head over to Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Grab your gifts from under the tree. Each of your characters can receive gifts. Hurry though, it all ends on January 2. 2010.
Here are some of the activities athat you can accomplish before its all over.
Hurry before they are all gone!
Winter Veil is almost over in Azeroth. If you have not done so, head over to Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Grab your gifts from under the tree. Each of your characters can receive gifts. Hurry though, it all ends on January 2. 2010.
Here are some of the activities athat you can accomplish before its all over.
| Greatfather Winter Greatfather Winter is visiting the great cities of Ironforge and Orgrimmar – courtesy of the fine folks of Smokywood Pastures and he’s spreading cheer in celebration for the Feast of Winter Veil. But, all the cheer-spreading is making Greatfather Winter hungry, and he’s looking for adventurers to get him his daily fix of milk and cookies. |
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| Winter Veil Bosses The denizens of the dungeons of Northrend are also getting into the holiday spirit, and some dungeon bosses even wear festive Winter Hats just like Greatfather Winter’s. Defeat a Winter Veil boss, and the boss’s hat is yours! Winter Veil bosses of Northrend:
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| Revelers During the Feast of Winter Veil, the innkeepers bring out holiday decorations to provide a festive atmosphere for their patrons. Who knows what might happen if you /kiss a reveler standing near a sprig of mistletoe…. |
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| Gift-Giving In the quiet, early hours of the 25th of December, the industrious goblins of Smokywood Pastures are already awake. As a much-deserved reward for the noble adventurers throughout Azeroth, these generous harbingers of the holidays deposit gifts underneath the decorated trees in Orgrimmar and Ironforge. Keep a keen eye out for these presents, as they’re there for the taking! Starts: December 25 |
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| Metzen the Reindeer Disaster has struck! Metzen the Reindeer has been kidnapped! Metzen is one of Greatfather Winter’s eight reindeer – and property of Smokywood Pastures. The Jinglepocket Goblins have received two ransom letters from groups claiming to have Metzen. Concerned adventurers should visit Ironforge or Orgrimmar for more information. |
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| Smokeywood Pastures’ Missing Shipment Smokeywood Pastures needs a few brave adventurers to investigate the disappearance of a shipment of holiday goods. Rumors are the shipment are in the possession of the Abominable Greench, found somewhere in the snowy regions of the Alterac Mountains. |
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| Jinglepocket Goblins’ Fare Shops The Jinglepocket Goblins have set up their seasonal fare shops in major cities. Adventurers can purchase many holiday favorites – including Greatfather’s Winter ale, candy canes, gingerbread cookie recipes, and mistletoes. |
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| Snowballs Whether you pick them up from your local vendor or ask a friendly engineer to craft them for you, no feast of Winter Veil is complete without some frozen projectile-weapons. Get your mitts on some snowballs and say, “Merry Feast of Winter Veil” the old-fashioned way! |
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| Snowmen Accompanying Greatfather Winter in his journeys across Azeroth are his loyal troops of snowmen. They can be found wandering around Ironforge and Orgrimmar, bringing with them the chill breath of winter into even the warmest climates. |
Dungeon Finder
The newly updated Looking for Group (LFG) Tool in World of Warcraft is,… well Wow! Pardon the pun, but the tool is just that good. In the old days, raiding was the only way to access high level dungeons to attain epic gear. Blizzard realized that only a small, (very small population) of players actually had the chance to enter these epic encounters. Blizzard decided to make these encounters more accessible to a broader audience. Throughout this year and last they have made improvements that would allow the average player a chance to enter these dungeons. The greatest innovation, in my humble opinion, has been the LFG tool or now known as the Dungeon Finder.
The Dungeon Finder supports cross realm groups, teleporting directly into the dungeons and a few other features. Here is a breakdown of those features;
Dungeon Finder
- This feature has replaced the Looking For Group tool and provides all-new dungeon party creation functionality.
- Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members.
- Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance.
- Players can choose the Random Dungeon option.
- The Heroic Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Frost no more than once a day.
- The normal Wrath of the Lich King Daily Random Dungeon option will award two Emblems of Triumph no more than once a day.
- Continuing to complete Wrath of the Lich King Heroic instances using the Daily Random Dungeon option will award players two additional Emblems of Triumph each time.
- Daily Heroic and normal dungeon quests have been removed. These quests have been replaced with weekly raid quests (see the “Quests” section for details).
- Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons.
- Players can be placed in a group for a random dungeon no more than once every 15 minutes.
- Random Dungeon rewards will be placed in each player’s inventory automatically upon completion of the dungeon (final boss killed). A pop-up notification will display any rewards earned through the Dungeon Finder.
- Instead of choosing a random dungeon, players can also choose specific dungeons appropriate for their level range. Multiple instances can be selected at one time. The feature no longer limits the choice to look for only 3 dungeon groups at one time.
- Pick-Up Groups
- Cross-realm instances are now available and use an improved matchmaking system to assist players in looking for additional party members. As with Battlegrounds, the realms in each Battlegroup are connected.
- As part of the matchmaking system, some of the more difficult dungeons will have a minimum gear requirement. Players also need to meet the requirements for dungeons that require attunement, such as keys or quests. If a player does not meet the requirements for a particular dungeon, a lock icon will be displayed next to that dungeon. Hovering over this icon will display the requirements which have not been met.
- Only conjured items and loot dropped in a dungeon for which other party members are eligible can be traded between players from different realms.
- A Vote Kick feature will be available in the event a member of a party is not performing to the expectations of the other members.
- Players who leave the group prematurely are subject to a Deserter debuff preventing them from using the Dungeon Finder for 15 minutes.
- If an existing group loses a member, the leader will be asked if he or she wants to continue the dungeon. Choosing to continue will automatically place the group back into the Dungeon Finder queue.
- A Player will not be placed in a group with people on his or her Ignore list.
- Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon Finder will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained.
- The Need Before Greed loot system will be the unalterable default looting system for pick-up groups in the Dungeon Finder and has been updated.
- Need Before Greed will now recognize gear appropriate for a class in three ways: the class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spell power items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type (ex. paladins for plate). All items will still be available via Greed rolls as well as the new Disenchant option should no member be able to use the item.
- Players will be able to roll on items with a required minimum level higher than a player’s current level.
This system provides access to better gear through the badge system for almost all the player base. This is a step in the right direction, as well as slightly addicting. Have fun and good luck in your travels.
Champions Online — Builds I Like (Unluminous Man)
Even though I have been put off by MMOs recently, I am still plugging away at Champions Online every so often and so I figured I would post another build I am currently enjoying. Unluminous Man is a “copy” of one of my favorite City of Heroes characters. In CoH, Unluminous is a powerful Dark/Dark/Dark Defender with a ton of dark, cold, slimy, tenticular tools with which to defeat evil doers. (By the way, if tenticular is a word, be very afraid.) Since Cryptic saw fit to put a darkness set into CO, I figured it would be an interesting experiment to see how the same character concept worked out in the new game.
Unluminous Man is something of an experimental build. Most of my other builds have focused on having tons of layered defense and/or killing enemies quickly. For Unluminous, I wanted to see if I could create a character who could heal and/or drain himself out of trouble. This means drains, heals and yes, Regeneration. I have gotten this character to level 21 and so far, it is working fairly well, even though I am missing some important powers.
Powers
Shadow Bolt (Rank 1) — Nothing more than your simple energy builder here. There is a chance to cause fear, which gives a small overall reduction to incoming damage, but I have not noticed it much.
Shadow Embrace (Rank 2)– I find the darkness Shadow Blast to be a slow, lackluster power. So, I respecced out of it and went straight for the cone AoE Shadow Embrace. This power has a good area of effect and ticks damage fairly quickly. It isn’t the greatest damage power, but it cuts henchmen down in large numbers easily. It is a little clunky to use against master villains and higher because of its energy cost.
Also, this power has a great visual effect, with writhing black tentacles eminating from the character’s hands. My big disappointment is the fact that you cannot change the emanation point to the character’s head. I think the look of this black-clad figure with tentacles snaking out from under his hood would be the BEST. POWER. EVAR.
Regeneration (Rank 2) — By far, the best passive defense for low-level characters is Regeneration. On Unluminous, the goal is stacking heals of various types as the primary means of defense and regen is one of the best. So, though I generally avoid Regeneration in my builds, Unluminous has it.
Lifedrain (Rank 2) — Another mainstay of the character, Lifedrain allows me to heal while doing damage. Coupled with Regeneration, I can heal very quickly when the battle goes sour.
Crippling Coils (Rank 1) — Darkness has a hold that takes a 2 second charge and up to 100 energy. Crippling Coils has no charge and costs 30 energy. Now, there are a few advantages to the darkness hold, but in practice I have found these advantages to be outweighed by the charge time and energy cost. Crippling Coils is a nice, quick-firing hold that takes one target out of the combat for several seconds — enough time to finish off someone else, or to charge a more lasting attack.
Ebon Void (Rank 1) – The darkness block enhancement is… ok. It has a standard damage reduction and a chance to reflect some damage back at the attacker. In practice, this damage is negligible on all but the biggest attacks; no one is going to kill themselves on your shield. There are better shields out there, but this one is good enough.
Force Eruption (Rank 1 & Gravitational Polarity) — This power acts as a momentary “Get Out of Jail Free” card when I am overwhelmed. It knocks everyone down, allowing me to set up a Shadow Embrace, or Lifedrain. The Gravitational Polarity advantage is a damage buff, and has become standard on many of my characters.
Illumination (Rank 1) – This is an experimental power purchase from the new Celestial power set. It is a debuff you place on a foe that causes anyone attacking the target to get a small heal-over-time effect — another stacked heal for my build.
Stats
My super-stats are Endurance and Presence. Endurance gives me the energy I need to run full maintains of Lifedrain and Shadow Embrace. I am trying Presence as a super-stat to give me big bonuses on my heals… hopefully. Currently, Lifedrain is the only power that benefits from the super Presence. The Illumination buff might benefit, but it is pretty small and so the effect is hard to see. I need to pick up some other heals to make the Presence pick worthwhile.
Tactics
Pretty simple actually — fly in, zap all the henchmen with Shadow Embrace. Any remaining henchmen and villains (or higher) can then be dealt with using another Shadow Embrace, or if I am in need of health, a combination of Illumination and Lifedrain.
If things go bad, I can use the Force Eruption to knock people down for a second while I drain some life, or I can turtle up with Ebon Void and hope that Regeneration can save me.
Thoughts
This is an experimental build and I am not yet sure how well it has worked out. Regeneration is very good at low levels and almost any situation where your health gets low can be handled with block turtling. I hate block turtling and so my goal is to build up enough layered healing so that I can stand in the middle of a pile of enemies and heal through their damage, blocking only the charged shots of the bosses. In this respect, Regeneration is good for probably 80% of the fights in the game. In the fights where the incoming damage is too heavy for Regen, I have Lifedrain which heals for 90-100 points each tick.
I took Illumination on a whim and unfortunately, it underperforms, providing a meager heal over time effect after you hit the affected target several times. The heal amount is in the low teens every couple of seconds and this just isn’t enough to notice under most conditions. If I could, I would drop this power for Bionic Shielding which has gotten a significant boost in the latest patch by having its recharge time cut in half.
I could still use one or two more stacked healing powers and I am wondering how Ego Sprites (with Slave Mentality) and Mindful Reinforcement would perform with a Presence of over 100. Alternately, I could just take a maintained healing power, but I like the idea of fire and forget heals that allow me to recover while fighting and so I will take a traditional heal only as a last resort.
Damage is another issue. The tentacles are adequate for most fights, but take a little too long to kill hard targets. Unluminous could use a big hitter. Still, the goal of this build isn’t powerful attacks, but having the capability of outlasting and outhealing opponents. I will have to see how the next 10 or so levels play out to determine if this is a viable strategy or not.
Yet Another Global Agenda Contest
The folks over at Hi-Rez Studios certainly know how to keep the hype moving. Following the recent Beta Weekend, and Limited Edition reveal, comes another contest that will score some lucky players virtual face time with the devs. Chatting not your cup of tea? How about a shot at a free copy of the Global Agenda, Global Agenda apparel, gift certificates “and more?” Oh, did I forget to mention the drawing would award in-game “flair” items? Because they will.
The contest, aptly titled ‘It’s a great game contest ™,’ is based on your Steam handle. Change it so ‘Global Agenda’ is in the handle somehow, play some multiplayer games (MW2, L4D2, etc), and if you get spotted by a Hi-Rez developer, or a curious gamer, they’ll ask you some questions regarding the game. It’s really that simple, but here’s the official post on the ordeal.
Judging by the wording of the contest, there will be multiple drawings.
Tip: You don’t need to actually be playing multiplayer games to have your name show up. Just load them and alt-tab out of them to keep your name in the pool.
Digital adventures through the third dimension, by shadowisadog
So I decided to do a second part of my journal today. The methodology I wanted to illustrate was too long for one journal entry 
.
So let’s see how to get our imagestrip into CEGUI and then view it in the game.
First we need to write some XML stuff so that CEGUI knows what we are doing:
<!–STARTSCRIPT–><!–source lang=”cpp”–><div class=”source”><pre>
<?xml version=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”1.0″</span> ?>
<Imageset Name=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”mainmenu_labdoorbtn”</span> Imagefile=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”buttons/mainmenu_labdoorbtn.png”</span> NativeHorzRes=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”436″</span> NativeVertRes=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”120″</span> AutoScaled=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”true”</span>>
<Image Name=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”normal”</span> XPos=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”0″</span> YPos=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”0″</span> Width=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”218″</span> Height=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”120″</span>/>
<Image Name=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”over”</span> XPos=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”218″</span> YPos=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”0″</span> Width=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”218″</span> Height=<span class=”cpp-literal”>”120″</span>/>
</Imageset>
</pre></div><!–ENDSCRIPT–>
Alright so now let’s go into our CEGUI layout editor.
First let me show you a bit of the setup:
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/thesetupcegui.jpg”/>
Alright so what I did was I added a ImageButton the layout editor. I configured it by saying what the normal and hover images were in our imageset.
A trick I use for positioning is I export my title screen with the buttons “baked in”. Then I set the alpha of the image button and position it over the particular place I want it. When the images don’t look so blurry is when I got it in about the right place:
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/atrick.jpg”/>
So here it is in the right place:
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/inplace.jpg”/>
Here is the background that I resaved without that door now:
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/mainmenu.png”/>
And back in the layout editor:
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/allready.jpg”/>
Now let’s see what all of this looks like in game .
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/stovelabingame1.jpg”/>
<img src=”http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/shadowisadog/STOVE/stovelabingame2.jpg”/>
Thanks for reading!
Alganon Does Not Address Beta Issues
Alganon Developer Roundtable Unsatisfying
The recent launch of Alganon’s beta has taken the game from a small hopeful mmo loaded
Torchlight Vanquisher Guide Part 2
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