Skyriding No More
It is with great pleasure I announce that I have achieved War Within Pathfinder, ridding myself and all of my warband (ish) of the scourge of Skyriding.
After my recent screed about how nobody loves Skyriding, I was chided by a Blooskie because she actually does like it, so suck on that Grimmy.
I concede that she enjoys it. But I maintain that if it wasn’t undesireable, they wouldn’t have built a whole achievement around getting rid of it. So nyah 🙂
It is also with great pleasure to observe that this achievement carries over to all of my toons, as I aluded to above. I verified this as soon as I could.
Virtual life is good.
Sins of a Solar Empire II: A Humble Review
Sins of A Solar Empire is an odd bird. It’s part 4X, and part RTS. And it actually pulls both off well.
This is a statement about the original 2008 game; however, I am reviewing the newest iteration of the game, and I am happy to state that it pulls off the job quite well yet again. Sins of a Solar Empire II is the rare example of a game sequel that understood the assignment.
If you’re unfamiliar, Sins is a 4X game based in some sort of space environment, where you play one of several factions, which have unique properties in many cases. You all have the same basic kind of ship to do the job, the same kinds of resources, and the same capabilities. The cherry on top is that this also an RTS, so once the game starts it keeps going. Sure, you can pause it and take a break, but once you unpause, it’s game on again.
And that previous paragraph is true for both the original 2008 game as well as this modern sequel.
Unlike the original, Sins2 has a robust tutorial that will, if not prepare you for the real deal, at least familiarize you with the basics, which is handy even for a Sins veteran, since it does a great job of highlighting new things that you will need to be aware of, such as Exotics and salvaging. Basically, only scrubs bypass the tutorials. Do eet.
And yes, there are a few changes, outside of the obvious UI and visual changes, which are welcome. Possibly most noticable are the introduction of the previously mentioned “exotics”, a new resource that plays into the production of top-level assets, such as capital ships, Titans, and starbases. Fortunately, there are many avenues to the collection of Exotics, including the introduction of a new orbital asset that generates these resources.
The other major change is to how the planets align, so to speak.
In the original game, SotSE borrowed from the TV series Firefly’s concept of a ton of planets orbiting one star, all inhabitable. Whether it’s SotSE or Firefly, that concept is bullshit. And yet SotSE2 has doubled down on this concept by adding an “orbital” component to each planet’s position. In real terms, this means that the position of a planet, and thus its releative position to other planets, and thus the connections to neighboring systems, may change. I have to say that this is potentially game-changing, albeit in an angsty, angry, unproductive way, as in “what the hell were they thinking, layering some sort of orbital bullshit on top of some unrealistic 50-habitable-planets-around-one-star-system bullshit?” kind of unproductive.
I’ve had one situation where I had a system suddenly get isolated from the rest of mine. And, yes, that was scary. This does change things up, a lot, and not in a good way. For example, in the previous game, you could stage defensive assets in a system to guard against invasion, but in this game the point of entry may change, making gameplay a lot more expensive.
While perusing numerous fora regarding this game, one prevelant complaint was about the campaigns, or, more precisely, the lack thereof. This is an amazing complaint given the state of SotSE v 1 before the introduction of this new game; i.e. there was no such thing as a campaign in the original game, nor its expansions, nor its DLC. In fact the original game was campaign-less, and the new V2 version of the game was, unsurprisinglinly, devoid of same.
In other words, Sins of the Solar Empire II was an accurate sequel to the original in this regard, which also and truly lacked all of these things. This was part of the charm of the original, and, speaking personally, of the sequel. Every game’s a scrum.
When you set up a new game, it’s from a menu of preset random-ish scenarios. For example, you can select from 3, 4, or 5 player scenarios and the game will generate a viable multiplayer game with the appropriate number of players, planets, and so forth. This is, I need to point out, exactly the same as the original game. Excluding some variations, of course.
But, otherwise, to this point, I am seeing no significant differences between the origjnal Sins of the Solar Empire and the New Hotness other than minor technical changes that may, or may not, have a long term change on the game.
Some mechanics have changed. The whole idiom of research, for example, has changed. But if you are a trusty 4X dude, I am 100% certain you’ve figured out the change to strategy required. If not, email me or like my youtube channel.
Other minor items:
- Research trees are deceptively complex. You can switch the display mode which generates a more spread-out version of the tech trees that shows the relationship between technologies, and I strongly recommend it.
- Fleet creation and management is both simpler (creation) and yet infinitely more complex (editing). The UI clearly needs more avenues to adding and removing ships to / from fleets.
- Tooltips, for the most part, are a lot more informative, and if you want more of that, the ALT key usually expands the tooltip quite a bit.
- The AI is better. It now uses things like Jump Inhibitors, which the old AI never did. Makes the game more challenging, at least until you get a handle on how do find and nuke those pesky things.
When this game was announced, I didn’t even realize that they were working on a sequel. It had been eyars since the last DLC, and mostly lived on the backs of dedicated modders. But there was someone hard at work in the Software Mines, and I’m glad they did it.
Without messing with what worked too much, they’ve added a few fresh things to the game, cleaned up some of the older annoyances, and applied a shiney new coat of paint.
If, like me, you are a fan of the original, I think you’ll like it. If you’re 4X-curious, like space games, and enjoy taking over the galaxy, this may be for you. If unsure, wait for a sale.
Well done, Ironclad Games. Well done.
You’re gonna pay for that
When Blizz introduced Dragonriding, they did so in the knowledge that nobody asked for it. And, by and large, nobody thanked them for it either.
Dragonriding (now called “Skyriding”) is fast, surely, but it is also imprecise, clumsy, and difficult to control. I feel like maybe if I had a joystick and no need to land anywhere in particular that it might be something I could enjoy. But I already own Elite: Dangerous so I’m not really pining for something to use my joystick with.
Eventually we got a Pathfinding achievement that allowed us to not use Dragonflight in the Dragon Isles, and that was good. And, when the pre-patch for TWW rolled, we got a handy button that allowed use to select how we wanted to fly. I imagine the button mashing for “steady flight” left a crater in their database.
And then TWW proper rolled in, and we found out that we were stuck with “Skyriding” for flying in the new zones, until such time as the Pathfinding achievement for the expansion was available and achieved. Is it available yet? I have no idea. I’m kind of disinterested in finding out at the moment, to be honest. The previously appreciated button was only viable for zones set in older content areas. Talk about bait and switch.
Skyriding nee Dragonriding was so unpopular that they made a thing for getting rid of it, but they’re too stubborn to admit that we don’t like it, will never disclose numbers on it, and will (this is guessing) continue to insist that Skyriding is a beloved feature of the game for at least the next two expansions.
Dragonriding was a failed experiment that should have ended with Dragonflight. I will die on that hill.
I am willing to concede that “Skyriding” in TWW was far beyond the planning stage and probably deep into implementation before they concluded that we hate it, so they probably decided to leave it in for at least TWW, maybe the next one too, not so much out of stubborness as much as technical we-already-promised-a-release-date-to-Saint-Metzen-ness.
But the cynicism on display of making “steady flight” a feature of Pathfinder for TWW is breathtaking. It shows that they knew damned well we hated Skyriding, and decided to exploit that hatred. Want to get rid of that “beloved feature”? Sure, complete this series of feats. Jump, monkies. Jump.
How many times will we eat this up and ask for more?
It feels like Blizz are punishing us for hating an unasked-for and unwanted “feature”. Maybe it’s time to light up the fora.
The Crafting Problem
WoW has had a problem for years, with Dragonflight being the most recent step into the realm of awefulness.
It has a crafting problem.
I realize it’s kind of hard to nail down what the problem is, but it becomes more understandable when you realize that the problem is, in point of fact, several problems, continuously accumulated over 20-ish years, with no real solutions along the way – just “new stuff” that somebody somewhere considered “cool” or something, without really understanding the point of frustration on the part of the crafters.
So let’s look at this problem, or collection of problems, and try to understand that.
What is it
First of all, I should describe what my intent is with crafting, or what I think it should be, which, let’s be fair, could be something really different to Blizz.
First of all, I am speaking of the first-tier “professions” here. The second-tier professions such as Cooking and Fishing are kinda okay right now. But the primaries, such as Enchanting and Leatherworking have some real issues. “Gathering” professions are a different matter, and seem to mostly be okay, though some of them have acquired some weird bits as we’ve progressed from 2.0 to 10.x (soon to be 11.0).
And to be clear, there are two kinds of primary professions as well; consumable professions such as Alchemy and Inscription versus Goods professions such as Tailoring and Blacksmithing have different quirks about them. And I’m ignoring some professions such as lumber-ing since Blizz seems to be doing that too. RIP Draenor crafting wierdness.
It’s really a lot easier to just list them out, I think.
Gathering
No issues here, at least for herbs and metals, though DF did make it weird. Guys, we don’t need dozens of different kinds of Saxifrage. It’s not interesting or fun. Anyway, these kinds of professions feed into consumable and goods professions, and the expectation is usually that most consumable and goods professions will be paired with a gathering profession – Herbalism with either Alchemy or Inscription, or Skinning with Leatherworking, Mining with Blacksmithing or Jewelcrafting.
Expectations here are fairly simple. Gathering mats for sale or processing should not be a clown show1. Simple.
Consumables
Consumable professions are those that create things that are used by players in some way as to enhance their performance. Alchemy produces potions, Enchanting produces enchanting scrolls, Inscription, alas, produces cosmetic glyphs2.
Expectations here are that the effort put into producing the consumable pays off in some way. Potions and elixers actually help the user, enchants actually improve gear, Jewels improve gear, Glyphs … well, do something3.
Goods
Goods professions produce goods that can be used, usually armor or weapons. Metal becomes armor and weapons, cloth becomes armor, leather becomes armor. There are a few exceptions, but that’s the gist of it.
The expectation here is that the armor produced is actually useful in the context in which it was produced. Basically, with a little work and attention to detail, you should be able to produce goods roughly equivalent or better than what you could expect to get from questing.
Haha
You’re probably already snickering because you already know how many of these assumptions and expectations have been blown away, but bear with me. I’m laying a baseline here.
Difficulty and Scarcity
Okay, the first issue with crafting deals with difficulty and scarcity. For the most part, this was an Early WoW Problem only. The really good crafted gear required mats and sometimes even locations that were not available to just anybody. Anyone remember The Black Forge? You know, where you had to go to forge Dark Iron4? Yeah, early WoW – especially Vanilla and BC – were just full of groovy stuff like that.
This is one of the few cases where Blizz heard the wails of despair and … well, stopped doing it. I’m not sure if they get credit for doing nothing, but they get something resembling credit, at least.
Now, a lot can be debated on this. Considering that the gear you got from some of these was pretty damned good, and rewarded those that worked as a team, a case could be made that, sure, let them have their bragging rights. I’m inclined in that direction, if I’m honest, and kind of miss that there was a level of crafting that was sufficiently epic in the past. Here goes a friggin Blacksmith that Smithed more Blackly than mere mortals have.
Relevancy
Relevancy is something that I use to describe the desirability of a crafted item. For most consumables, this is baked in, within the scope of the consumable5.
But for goods, it’s a different matter. Starting around Cataclysm, the relevancy of crafted goods began to decline. In a lot of ways, this was due to the debut of “Welfare Epics” – epic gear you could earn through just grinding badges or something. I actually approve of “Welfare Epics” as far as that goes, in that it is more inclusive, without robbing Epic Raiderz of their bragging rights6.
The problem was that while Welfare Epics became acquireable from simple grinding7, crafted goods, even epics, were hardly ever as good as what could be acquired from simply questing and doing faction grinds. Even the intermediate steps weren’t relevant – most players were getting better gear from questing than from crafting.
The expectation here is that crafted goods should serve as a starting point for the climb up the gear ladder, not an irrelevant dead end. A tailor should be invested in getting the mats together for some crafting-endgame gear, and use that as the point of entry into some sort of raiding grind.
Rather than, you know, finding that the very finest product they produced was inferior to that dropped by a nameless Hozen.
Enhancements
As I have mentioned, consumable crafting usually holds its own in the world. A +15 Hit Rating gem will not normally be out-done by a gem that drops from a boss, for example – though in the spirit of full disclosure, this actaully did happen – Pandaria, I think, but don’t quote me on that.
The main expecation for enhancements is that they actually enhance things meaningfully, and that the means of production are somewhat feasable. Anything related to Dark Iron Back In The Day, for example, would not qualify.
And, um, don’t get me started on Glyphs.
Crafting Orders
There’s a saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” This is pretty much the full story of Crafting Orders.
This feature was introduced to great fanfare in Dragonflight, and here, at the end of the expansion, has fallen on its face.
The expectation was that we could post a request for a thing, and some enterprising crafter would see that, and provide the thing thus requested, and money would change hands, and everybody wins.
The implementation seems to have fallen flat. I’m not sure where the disconnect is here, but if I had to guess, it would be that crafted items simply were not capable of competing against, say, questing drops (see above). And consumables were generally always available on the Auction House, so why go through the hassle of posting a crafting order?
All I know for sure is that I was unable to complete a few quests that relied on me being able to sell items on the Crafting Order exchange because nobody was even looking, much less buying.
Probably too late to not implement this in TWW, but think about not doing it in the next one?
That Auction House Thang
I’ve waited this long to address the elek in the room simply because I am cruel and sadistic. Also because I had to pick an order, and I did.
Okay.
I’ve been pretending for several paragraphs that profit doesn’t enter into it, and that’s a lie. Crafting For Profit is its own mini-game. People that do this have a name – “Goblins”, though that term also applies to people whos entire thing is doing auctions8.
I will claim some involvement in this thing. In the past, I have been able to totally fund playing this game completely through the AH. My secret? Glyphs. I had figured out the numbers of making glyphs versus the cost of making those glyphs via purchased materials, and it totally rocked.
Now, this whole thing really revolves around the idea of selling consumables. Glyphs are no longer, in my humble opionion, really consumables. They are cosmetic only, and the fact that some still sell for 1000+ GP is amazing, but the main concept of the Glyph Shoppe was focused on the idea that people wanted the consumables that were being offered, for the prices they were offered at.
This is the Expected Auction House Thang, and is the underpinning of the entire Consumable Crafting process.
The Big Hit in this whole thing was the merging of commodity sales across multiple realms. The main effect was that was that the cost of items plummeted. Sales for a specific enchant, for example, dropped drastically when it was posted in an environment where multiple realms’ prices were taken into effect.
Basically, the cost of producing an item became more than the cost of purchasing the mats required to produce that item.
And thus, the economy of crafted enhancements became unprofitable. This is the actual Auction House Thang, and it is the story of the market’s failure.
What can be done?
For this expansion, and the next, I think we’re pretty much stuck in the middle of the New Crafting Minigame for the moment. But I have an idea of what I would like to see come to pass.
- Let’s start with the simple act of gathering. Let’s make it a simple act of gathering. We don’t need some sort of minigame with minibosses and multiple variations on a single ore or herb. Let’s keep it simple. We don’t need to spend more time on gathering than we do on questing.
- Is there a way to make the cost of creating a consumable be less than the cost of buying a consumable, short of interfering with the free market? Maybe the free market is a little bit TOO free? Maybe reduce the number or realms sharing auctions? Maybe let’s do that.
- Crafted goods should be viable for a good part of the base expansion, and extendable into the content patches. We should never be fighting against green random drops. We should be a step up from random greens, but just short of entry level raiding drops. Basically contemporary with dungeon blues.
- Consumables should not be more expensive to create than to purchase. Again, maybe we need fewer realms per auction house shard.
- Inscription should be redone or removed. What used to be useful enhancement glyphs are no longer viable. They’re cosmetic only, subject to the whims of fashion, more or less. That’s just a scandal, nothing short of it. Hang your heads in shame, Blizzard. You should have figured this out two, maybe three expansions ago.
As someone that benefitted so much from the Glyph market until the AH-pocolypse, I do concede that any suspicion of bias is valid. I deny that I am letting my bias color my feelings on this, but I do agree that you have a valid case, right up to the point that I shoot you out of the sky.
The Future
As I have alluded several times, the immediate future doesn’t look like we’re seeing a rollback on the madness. I see nothing to indicate that we’re not facing multiple variations on a single herb in the next expansion, nor do I see a return to simplicity for consumables or goods. WoWHead posts in this regard are pretty clear that the same idioms are going to prevail. I get it. This expansion probably started development six years or more ago. There’s a bit of lag time.
I have no idea at what point that tertiary issues like crafting become addressed in the development cycle. If it doesn’t impact the story directly, it’s not going to get immediate attention. But I do know that we’re getting close to a point where the “market” will make a “correction” and I’m not sure what form that will take.
Ultimately, my feeling is that crafting will become just a bunch of gatherers feeding the AH with materials that a select few elites will consume. Not my idea of fun.
A rather bleak view of the future, I am aware, but I am also being honest here. We will probably not see improvement on this until at least 12.0, and that is assuming that they even agree that (a) there is a problem, and (b) they have the means to correct it.
- I haven’t played the beta or anything like that, but my understanding is that this is largely unchanged in TWW, so any concerns coming from DF will probably appear there as well. I hope to be proven wrong. ↩︎
- Mostly. I’m not bitter. ↩︎
- I will come back to this later. Let’s just say that past expectations from glyphs were a lot more robust than what we expect from them in this day and age. No, I swear, I’m not bitter. ↩︎
- Not to mention what you had to go through to get the recipe in the first place, and the ore? ↩︎
- Again, not to sound like a broken record, but it’s different for glyphs than it is for potions and enchants. ↩︎
- Welfare Epics never had the heavy stats that the really GOOD stuff that dropped from Bosses had. They were good, but not the best. For most of us, that was fine. That last 1% could be lorded over us, we were fine, that was fine, it was all fine. ↩︎
- By which I mean, you could get badges or whatnot from just partially completing a raid, reset, and come back and get that far next week, rinse and repeat. Grind, baby, grind. ↩︎
- I’m not judging. Okay, I’m judging, but I’m also going to assert that Goblins have rights, too, even if they’re playing a game that Blizz never designed, or approved. They ARE participating in it, and that’s endorsement enough. They’re paying for it, probably (tokens probably count, probably). ↩︎
Wrapping Up
I can’t beat the irony after, in my most recent post, cooking up some off the wall theories about why we hadn’t heard a whisper of when the TWW pre-patch was dropping1, only to see in the news the next day that it was dropping on the 23rd.
So we’re entering that phase of the expansion – the point where we know, everything we’re working on has an expiration date, be it crafting, raiding, rep grinding – no matter what, it’s about to be rendered irrelevant.
At times like this I start working on cleanup.
First, there’s gear. I’ve been a subscriber to Ask Mr. Robot since the Legion days, so that means that I don’t automatically throw gear out when I get an upgrade. Sometimes there are interactions, so I keep the five best of each gear slot so that AMR’s gear optimizer can tell me if the gear in the bank has any synergies that might bring it back out to play. Also, I keep a bunch of gear around that isn’t fully upgraded yet. If I ever get my “live” gear all the way upgraded, I may find that upgrading the gear in my bags might bring out something interesting.
At any rate, all that stuff has to go. We’re out of time. In a few weeks’ time, all that stuff is going to be replaced by questing greens.
It would be really great if warbands would let me pass flight stones and the like down to my lower level characters. I haven’t read if it will2.
Another thing to get moving on is mats. I’ve been hoarding mats for crafting, but, that’s not going to matter anymore, so let’s dump ’em while we can get some dosh for them. Oh, I’m sure that after an initial drop the prices will climb again3, but the point is to not be having a bunch of junk in our bags.
Incidentally … for the first time ever, I have not maxxed any of my crafting in this expansion. There are a lot of reasons for this, which I will document later as “The Crafting Problem.”4 But the upshot is that it doesn’t matter. In TWW, crafting will reset to 0, and we’ll start that same old grind again. Hopefully with less suck.
In the past, this was not tenable. If, for example, you didn’t max your crafting in BC, you would be unable to proceed in WotLK until you had brought your crafts up to a certain level. I have four toons in Cata Classic5, and I’m here to tell you, this is true. But Retail has nerfed even that. So, sell, sell, sell.
There are other bag-cleansing activities, as well – unspendable rep tokens, that sort of thing.
At the end of the day, what I want is to have nothing in my bags that I won’t be using in the next expansion. Anything one of the junior toons can use, I’ll pass down (such as cooking mats)6, but otherwise if I can’t use it in TWW, it needs to go.
Prepatch content will of course alter this a bit. As recent tradition has had it, we generally earn some intermediate gear that is better than the average pikey’s gear, though usually not better than the best raider gear7. So we’ll probably have that, and some ephemeral tokens, floating around in our bags as well. Hope we can move them around in the ol’ warband.
Speaking of which – my Warband consists of8
- Grimmtooth the Beastmaster Hunter
- Illume the Fire Mage9
- Jasra the Disco priest
- Floramel the Demo Lock10
… and it always will be this. This is my Ride or Die. I really do best as ranged DPS. Even my healer reflects that – what is better than slapping around your enemy in such a way that benefits your friends?
These are always the first ones to get leveled, and where I squander my resources. During the next few weeks, I’ll be prepping them to storm the underworld. May the Light pity the underworld.
- Read it here if you want a laugh. ↩︎
- And I won’t be doing. If it happens, it happens. If not, they’re just more junk currency that I’ll toss if I can. ↩︎
- It always happens that way, legacy mats end up plateauing at a stable price for those completionists out there that insist on … completing. ↩︎
- Watch your feeds for that hot nugget, fam. ↩︎
- Hey, I said I hated Cata Classic. I didn’t say I wasn’t going to play it. Though I’ll draw the line there. After that, it’s Retail minus some content. ↩︎
- This does not include the traditional professions – in almost all cases, the junior toons are all gatherers only. ↩︎
- Which is, ya know, fine. We’re not in competition with the ‘pro’ raiders. Because if we were, ya know, we’d lose. Accept that, or go out there and raid like a motherfucker. This ain’t a charity, despite all the welfare epics. ↩︎
- Or, will consist of, when we have that feature. ↩︎
- I am open to other options as long as they are not Arcane. ↩︎
- I am open to all other options here, unlike the mage options. ↩︎
When is War Within Pre-patch dropping?
The War Within (I guess we call this TWW?) drops on August 26, and it’s now July 10 as I write this.
Traditionally, pre-patches drop four to six weeks ahead of the actual content, but thus far we haven’t heard a peep as to when the prepatch might drop.
Given that pattern, I would have expected to see the prepatch as early as July the 9th – today – but we don’t even have an announcement yet.
There’s a bit of slop here, so it could drop on the 16th. But even then, we don’t even have a warning yet?
It’s possible that the pre-patch will drop, instead, 4 weeks before the patch, or – gasp! – two weeks before, which would be an interesting signifier.
Let’s consider that traditionally the pre-patch had three main purposes1.
- Let players adapt to the new “systems” – class changes, talent changes, that sort of thing.
- Let addon developers adapt to the new LUA UI. Don’t wanna cheese off one of your main group of supporters here.
- Let Blizz evaluate any last minute changes needed once the new systems met the “real” player environment without the PTR training wheels.
Given the frantic and frequent level of PTR changes, I can’t say that Blizz is in a happy place right now, so (3) is probably still achingly relevant right now.
Given the usual responsiveness of the addon community, I doubt that (2) will change one way or the other2.
(1) is interesting, as I doubt they’ve ever really given two shits about the player experience in this regard. And, really, I see no indication that that’s top of mind for them now, either.
So what’s going on here? There seems to be a possible paradigm shift in pre-patch attitudes. I’m really not in any camp here, given that my own attitude to Retail is, at best, not that sanguine, and at worst, cynical.
At my most cynical, I can guess that they had a less than realistic estimate and / or unrealistic mandate from the Metzensphere3 and have no choice but to release on that date regardless of whether they are ready to go or not.
This is something I have seen in software development lately. The willingness to deliver on schedule regardless of whether they are ready to deliver or not. Basically, we released on schedule, and now it’s your problem. They’ve noticed that people will keep on playing Blizzard products no matter how shitty it is, and thus they realized that they can foist crap on users and the users will just suck it up and give them the time to fix it post release.
This is, I have to point out, a problem in software development project management at large, not just a Blizzard issue4.
But, sadly, I have to point out that Blizz used to stand above that. It will be readty when it’s ready is no longer a valid slogan at Blizzard. And that makes me sad.
deep breath
Honestly, I hope I am wrong. But my inner cynic is happy to get that out there. Time will tell if my inner cynic gets a victory lap. Hope not.
- I realize that there is a fourth purpose, that being to give “influencers” something to stream before the release but I do not include them in the “tradition” quite yet. They are parasites. ↩︎
- NO OFFENSE GUYS. I am merely observing, not judging. You guys got lives, I get it. ↩︎
- Decisions made from the Metzen level rarely, if ever, reflect accurately on the capability of the company to deliver. But he has vision! /gag ↩︎
- But, yes, it’s a Blizzard issue, too. ↩︎
Hardcore is Hard
A while back, the GM of my guild and her local geek pod started playing Hardcore, and had been trying to lure me over ever since. They had no interest in retail, and they sure the HELL had no interest in Cata Classic, so I figured if I was going to “see” my friends I could maybe give it a try.
Now, anyone knowing me knows I would normally roll up a BM hunter to get started, and expand from there. But I decided to try something different and lead with a Warlock this time. Florimel, First of Her Name, blinked into existance in Elwynn and started getting the lay of the land.
(side note: “Florimel” was the original spelling of her name, but when I rolled her up in Retail someone was squatting on that. So I rolled up “Floramel” and was running her ever since. In Classic, someone was squatting on “Floramel” so I reverted to the original spelling. Funny ol’ world.)
Now, the rules of Hardcore are pretty simple: die, and you’re done. My friend the GM tried to impress this upon me (she’s currently at 35, lucky gal) and dropped some knowledge my way, such as the benefit of having a couple of mules around that can store additional supplies in case you end up, um, “merely resting”.
And thus, was born my discipline priest, Rachett, and, later on, a night elf Hunter named Catastrophhe.
Flora the First met her demise when she took on Princess solo, having forgotten how formidable that quest was in Vanilla. Flora the Second met her demise to Murlocs around Crystal Lake – you know the ones – for perfectly Murloc reasons. At which point I decided to try to break the curse by rolling Flora the Third as a Gnome. At level 10, she’s further along than her predecessors have gotten so far.
Level 10 is when things get serious, as you start to pick up your class’ toolbox. Rachett has started down the Disco path, Cat got her pet (a sabre named Arsyn), and Flora will, assuming she makes it that far, get her blueberry. (There’s a mini-boss fight that I plan on enlisting Guldie Might for.)
Honestly, if Flora hadn’t made it to 10 this time I might have just called it a day and switched to Rachett as my main.
Bringing up a Nelf toon reminds me of how much it sucks to play a night elf in Classic. You’re pretty much isolated from the other factions, so you can’t really spread your levelling out over multiple starter zones like inhabitants of Kaz Modan can. That was one thing that made Rachett’s rise a lot more tolerable, was doing quests both in Goldshire and Kharanos. But the only way to do that as a Nelf is to do the dreaded Menethil to Ironforge run. I’m probably gonna have to get an escort from my guildies.
I’m not sold on HC as a lifestyle yet, but at least it amps up the adreneline when you’re down to that last hit point and the Kobolds keep coming. I honestly don’t know how Flora survived that mine. Again.
At any rate, if you wanna join us on Skull Rock server, just drop me a line here and we’ll figure things out. We who are about to die (again) salute you. Looks like there are only 2 pure HC servers left, so join up before it’s too late.
Server Squishes
The title image shows what I saw this morning on the AH on the Windseeker Classic server. That’s five bags of ALL kinds for sale. That’s it.
For the past few weeks I had noticed that Windseeker had become somewhat of a ghost town, ever since the pre-patch for Cata. I figured that it was temporary before the actual Cata Classic launch. But things just kept going downhill, even after the launch.
Being ignorant, I assumed it was a clear sign that the WoW community had a word for Cataclysm, and that word was NO. So I posted that screenie to Bluesky commenting how Cata killed Classic, and oh well I guess I was going to have to join my old guildies on Hardcore.
Shintar commented that maybe my realm was locked and that meant I should get off it? I was dubious, having never seen an announcement, but started searching around. She got there ahead of me and provided a great link that got me what I needed.
Yes, Windseeker was going to be closed. Yes, there were free transfers.
Eventually I figured out the process, despite Blizzard’s support services (huh). Just in case anyone else has the same problems navigating the process, I’ll summarize.
- Make sure you’re eligible for a free transfer.
- Log in to the game
- At the character selection screen, select the Shop button.
- If you are eligible, the “Free Realm Transfer” button will be the very first one in the list.
- Select that.
- Select your character from the drop-down.
- Select the “Transfer” checkbox.
- Select the realm you want to transfer to
- Select the “Transfer” button to commit.
That should pretty much get your character into the pipeline. You’ll be returned to the shop screen. When you close that, a little icon will appear next to the transferring character that shows that the transfer is in progress.
Now, a few things that kept me from transferring.
- I was GM for my guild. I transferred ownership to the old GM, who had never logged in since TBC Classic, and, for good measure, I left the guild. (Turns out that guild server transfers are going the way of the dodo, though they hadn’t mentioned that quite yet.)
- I had auctions active on the AH. Cancelling them was the way to go, but there was lag.
- I had unread mail. Easy peasy.
- I had mail pending that was not yet in my inbox (in flight, needed to wait for it to show).
And a few things that surprised me
- Even though I had emptied my bank of the important stuff, it turns out I didn’t need to, as my bank travelled with me.
- Three of my four characters did not leave the guild, and when they arrived, they were still “in” the guild, though they could not do any of their usual guild activities, even though they were all officer rank. (in fact, when I tried to leave the guild on them after the transfer, the attempt bombed with an error of some sort. This appears to be a residual effect, and eventually “fixed itself” by removing that guild membership.
One odd thing
- Most of my toons rematerialized in the same place on the new server that they were on the old server. Not so, Grimmtooth. He left Windseeker standing in front of the bank in the Dwarven District. He Arrived on Pagle server in the tunnel to the Stormwind trolly station. Weird.
Two interesting things
- Floramel had to change her name because someone on Pagle already had that name. Which is somewhat amusing because she had that name because the name she wanted – Florimel – was taken on Windseeker (and also on Alleria, where Floramel Prime lives). Florimel is, for those not in the know, the name of a character in the Amber series by Roger Zelazney, and the toon was named after that character, same as Jasra is also named after a character in that series. So I was forced to name Flora back to Florimel on Pagle, which is ironic (paging Alanis). Does Flora have a secret fan on Pagle? It’s like a typosquatting incident – Floramel is not something that is real outside of my own weird circle, being a name generated by necessity.
- Grimm got his name back! “Grimmtooth” was taken on Windseeker when I rolled him up, so he became “Grimtuuth”. But I was able to claim my real name on Pagle, as nobody had claimed it there. Which probably means that either the “Grimmtooth” on Windseeker is abandoned, or, like me, that player was unaware of the pending realmpocolypse. Good luck, buddy.
So starting with a bit of a shitpost on Bluesky, I’ve now more or less arrived at a new realm. I’m sure that we’ll see more of these squishes as Blizz continues to ignore the wishes of the playerbase, but, that’s another show.
What I can report is that Pagle is extremely vibrant – perhaps excessivly so. I honestly think that Blizz jumped the gun with Windseeker. Before the merge, it was an extremely viable realm. Extremely busy.
Pagle is far more busy, excessivly so, and the auction houses are packed, to the point that making anything from selling your shit is kind of difficult due to the presence of dozens of Designated Goblins just clogging up both AHes in Stormwind.
My theory is that Blizz’ theory is that the pop on Pagle will decrease immensely over the next six months because, see above, nobody likes Cata. Is that cynical? Maybe. But the way they crammed three or four realms’ worth of inhabitants into one cramped space, given what they know historically, has me leaning a certain direction.
I am starting to gear myself up, mentally, to join my old guildies on Skull Rock, an HC server. While I think HC is just a gimmick, it’s a gimmick with my friends. That counts for something.
Jaina Has Crossed the Rainbow Bridge
Around Februrary of this year, Jaina developed what at first appeared to be a urinary tract infection, and things were done to address this, which appeared to be working, but, over time it became clear that she was dealing with something else – perhaps lymphoma – and as the days went by, she deteriorated.
Finally, in May, the vet brought up the “Quality of Life” phrase and I knew we were probably going to have to make a hard decision. She had declined from a robust 8 pounds to just 3 pounds.
We couldn’t in good conscience continue to stretch things out, to subject her to further suffering. It was time to let go. And so, on May 28, 2024, I sat with her as she drifted off to Valhalla.
This is especially hard since we lost Petey just a few weeks ago to a tumor. He, at least, was over 18 years old (that’s when we first have vet records on him, and he was probably older). He had a long life and was loved. And losing Jaina so soon after that is a bitter pill to swallow.
The WordPress Category for my posts about Jaina has been “The Cat that Lived”, because when we first found her wandering around the parking lot, and took her to a vet, they diagnosed her with FIP and told us she’d be dead in a few weeks, and yet she lived.
We vowed to make her short life as full of love and chin scritches as possible. When she lived beyond “a few weeks” and flourished, we named her Jaina after another lady that had recently survived a scrape (this was just after the “Jaina” novel came out). She lived up to the name.
She would take on cats twice her size, scare the hell out of vet techs, and otherwise terrorize those that did not acknowledge her magnificence.
She would demand laps, stand up on her back feet and look over my armrest when she wanted something. She would SIT ON my armrest or my mousepad until I got up and handled her requirements. She’d go limp in laps and look like she was raised on a boneless kitten ranch. When she was happy her quiet purr would fill the room.
This will be the final posting on The Cat That Lived category. After 12 and a half years, it’s done. Revisiting this will just be painful, if I’m honest. This is more properly the coda to the 12th Annual Finding Jaina Day post.
It was quick. From when they gave her the first drug to make her sleep, to when the doctor checked her heart and pronunced, “she’s gone.” was at most three minutes.
She put her paw in my hand as the first shot came. She died holding my hand, basically.
Jaina was my fierce little angel, and I am going to miss her terribly. But I am so very glad to have known her and basked in the glow of her fire.
Goodbye, little bearcat.
Long live all the mountains we moved
I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you!You will be remembered.
The Lich King is Dead, Long Live the Deathwing
Well, it finally happened. A couple of weeks out from the roll-out of Cataclysm Classic, the pre-patch (4.4.0) rolled out, and it’s official – no choice to the denizens of Azeroth Classic Wrath. You’re going to Cataclysm, like it or not. Same as they forced on us when they transitioned from Burning Crusade.
I am not a hater on those that prefer Cataclysm to older content. I mean, it has its perks. You can fly in Azeroth, and quest hubs are a thing. And don’t get me started on vials and vellums. Though, hey, Void Bank won’t be a thing – they just jumped past that directly to transmog, which was a 4.3.0 thing in the past, but here and now it’s the thing.
But, the whole reason for playing Classic is gone. The Old World that existed is gone. So much of the charm, the mystery, the danger of the older Azeroth is gone.
Well, not exactly.
In this the Modern WoW Age, nothing is ever truly gone. It might be ephemeral (hello, WotLK) but if you time it right, you might be able to relive the past.
Classic Classic is still around. I forget what they call it – Classic Era or something? What the hell does that mean? Ask someone smarter than me. But if you wanna top out at level 60 and grind that shit, it’s there for you.
Then there’s Classic Hardcore. Well, this one is exactly what you expect, with permadeath and all that jive. Respect. It also tops out at 60.
Classic Age of Discovery appears to be Mutant Classic and, while a neat experiment, is probably not All That. I don’t think it’s going away, but, truly, I think they could have spent those resources elsewhere. It tops out at 40? I don’t understand exactly.
Classic Hardcore Self Found Mode earns the title of longest title for a version of WoW. What does it mean? Well, I looked it up and it means that you don’t get to use the AH to augument your toon, basically. That’s pretty hardcore, mon. Also, respect. Also tops out at 60.
So, as you see, there are plenty of options for people that want to relive the past, or a hardcore version of it. Still no options for WotLK, but, hay, maybe that’s for the best.
Let me essplain.
After Grimmtooth (aka Grimmtuuth since some squatter stole my moniker) hit max in Wrath, I actually hated it.
Before Cata pre-patch hit, he was questing in Storm Peaks because Icecrown was absolutely the worst (Funny how nostalgia colors those things).
Back then, we were farming max-level stuff so it kinda felt okay. But with an impending Cata coming, it seemed pretty futile, knowing what we know about this cycle of borrowed powers and stuff from the past.
I mean, aside from gear, it was all gonna go pouf. And the gear would be replaced with Cata greens in very short order.
So what is our verdict here? Well, I personally don’t approve of the forced migration to Cata. I mean, you wanna Cata, you go Cata. But those of us fixated on Wrath as the pinnicle of WoW are pretty put out.
But maybe I’ll roll up something in Hardcore. I have friends over there. But, given my luck, they’ll abandon it just as I get over there. That would surprise me not at all. I mean, have you noticed something about my luck? Yeah.
But, what if?
Hunter or Warlock? Tough call. Probably Warlock. Just because it goes against type. I do love Hunter, but if Classic has taught me one thing, it’s that nostalgia is a harsh mistress.
Not All Hunters 