Something that is working as intended in the new patch
by David Nelson 
Dec 7th 2006 at 2:00PM
The wrong stuff is dropping in raids. The LFG system is hated by many, loved by some. There are 201 problems with 2.0.1. The servers haven't really been stable. The arenas are nowhere to be found.Yes, if you want to find the negative in 2.0.1, you can find it. But thanks to a reminder from one of our fine readers, I am going to focus for a minute on something about this patch that is actually working and I am pretty darn happy about. We can now have 25 quests in our logs! I can't tell you how many times, especially in the 40-60 area, that I have a completely jammed quest log. With so many quests requiring travel, stacking the quests for efficiency became a pain. This allows more quest stacking, and stops the dropping of quests you'd like to complete, but need to abandon to free up some space. Until you hit 25 quests that is. Come to think of it, why not expand it to 30?
So during this week of some disappointment and lack of quality game time, it is good to know something is working as intended. So go and fill up your quest logs!
[Thanks Rocklands!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
StormC Dec 7th 2006 2:27PM
I didnt really ask around but im going to keep 25 completed quest and dont complete them until TBC hits us at January. Coupled them with rested xp, its going to be fun going up 60plus without even stepping into the dark portal.
Therizo Dec 7th 2006 2:38PM
Remember, this is a game with 7 million customers. Quests are stored along with your character in the database, just like items. So by adding one quest to each character's quest log, you're adding seven million times ever how many characters the average person has. It took an entirely new storage solution and entirely new hardware just to get to the point of having an extra row of bank slots, an extra bank bag, item buffs that lasted across instance zoning, and 5 more quests in your quest log. A lot of folks don't realize how costly such upgrades are from a technical standpoint, simply because they seem insignificant on the front end.
Also I personally have had great success with the LFG tool, I start a group and hit the looking for more screen, and read people's comments (like 'Healadin tier 1 Baron untimed') and just toss them an invite. Or if I don't feel like leading I just LFG Strath and let myself be auto joined. I've had several successful groups from the tool just in the couple of days it's been out, ALL much faster than I could ever put one together in the global LFG channel. And there are LOTS of people using it, you just never see more than a few in the list because it's WORKING. If they were in the list, they're not in a group, and the system's not matching them with folks.
And of course the new talents are amazing; raid dps and healing has improved; the new macro language is very powerful and much easier to use; the new honor system pwns my socks. Overall I'm VERY pleased with this patch, the few bugs and inconveniences (trinkets not working after res, cross-faction class gear dropping in raids) do little to temper my excitement.
Freehugz Dec 7th 2006 2:57PM
@Storm
Blizzard already said that saving quests like that isn't going to help you and your rested xp won't carry over into the expansion
jpc Dec 7th 2006 3:00PM
Alot of things seemed to work:
More bank space - This is awesome for anyone. Consider that an 18slot bag is about 2x as much as a 16 slot bag, now you get 4 extra slots for free! Very nice.
More quests - Already noted.
Free respec - C'mon, who doesn't love that?
The best rank spells/abilities - Now you don't have to farm Moam or UBRS or wherever; esp nice if your guild has retired AQ20 or doesn't do it for whatever reason.
Um, yeah. I just read the No2 post by Therizo and he basically said everything I was gonna say :-)
Brian Dec 7th 2006 3:58PM
Therizo,
Yes. More items int he game means more storage, no doubt about it. Bigger hard drives, raid arrays, etc...
But seriously, at the rate Blizzard makes money from this game, I would say that they can afford it. Actually, they can afford a lot better customer service and quality assurance in general.
Keep in mind that every day, they gross millions of dollars from this game.
moongaze Dec 7th 2006 4:12PM
well all my quests on my warrior got nuked on patch. i had 18 of them. Blizzard has not responded to any of my tickets.
Therizo Dec 7th 2006 4:15PM
"This company can afford it" and "The company is able to spend money on it" are two very different things. Anyone who works for a large company can tell you that budgets, ANY bugets, are always tight, no matter the level of success. I have no insight into the innerworkings of Blizzard, how their money is filtered down from Vivendi, or how efficient their technology teams are at any level of production, any more than you do. All I know is that the numbers on these things must be astronomical, and the rationale behind any decision made in Irvine certainly takes into account both everything we know about how this game works and a million other things we don't know.
The idea of 'Blizzard' being a beady-eyed guy in a suit behind a giant desk counting his money while telling groveling lackeys to nerf warriors is a generalization born from the us-versus-them groupthink mentality bred on the forums we all spend too much time reading. It's in everyone's best interest to make this game as fun as possible, and I'm sure the folks in Irvine are fighting the constraints of running a real business at the best of their ability to make this happen.
Thomas Dec 7th 2006 4:59PM
Some things that pleased me:
New loading screen. That was so cool!
New areas on the maps...wayyyyy cool!
New NPCs - specifically Dranei. Obviously setting the stage for TBC, thus it won't seem like they just abruptly appeared on Jan 16. Now they just appeared Dec 5.
Extra bank spaces, bank slot, and much cheaper slots (capped at 25 gold). That alone is a saver. Now saving for your epic mount won't mean ditching desired items.
5 extra quest slots are just great - STV won't require you to drop a whole slew of quests.
A chance to respec...while not free (still have to rebuy the skills and that money wasn't refunded like previous times) it still was nice to not have to pay the 5 gold or whatever I'm at now.
A chance to play naked WoW...no I'm not being a perv. I mean no UI/mods are working. It gives everyone a chance to see what WoW is like as just...WoW.
New BG Honor is making me excited to try this out for a change. Arenas I'm ho-hum about, but my guildies are wanting to put together some teams.
The new spells, talents...
One could keep going on and on about what is good with the new patch. I think I could sum it all up by saying, this new patch puts us 5 weeks closer to TBC release...and that's a good thing.
forzaq8 Dec 7th 2006 5:27PM
the click sound that keep on happening every 5 sec
( like the sound of a bag ) is driving me crazy
Arras Dec 7th 2006 5:21PM
there's also additional bank slots, tree form, 41 point talents, new animations, new quests, PVP revamp, etc etc
it's frustrating that not *everything* is working exactly the way we want it to, but WoW is a fluid game and the talents, the descriptors, the class balance, all of it are not set in stone - they will change
people need to chill out and just enjoy the game
Robdoe Dec 7th 2006 5:41PM
OMG forzaq I keep gettin that noise too, no one in my guild would belive me >_
Melf Dec 7th 2006 5:56PM
@10
this should get rid of the clicking:
/script if not _clickfixed then __xps=PlaySound; function PlaySound(snd) if (snd~="igCharacterInfoTab") then __xps(snd); end end _clickfixed=1; end
http://forums.elitistjerks.com/viewtopic.php?id=9516&p=5
Condord4myt Dec 7th 2006 7:13PM
i think it will just take some time to getting used to the LFG inteface (punishing people who use trade or general chat would be a good way to start).
also theres just some kinks that could never have been found out. every patch comes with its own unique hangover, with problems of every sort. this one just seems to be a more painful one than we are used to, but well get over it in a bit.
being a warrior i was really not looking for this patch at all, but with the 41 arms talent i'm generating almost as much (sometimes more) rage as i was before the patch.
only thing i'm not liking about this is that the pvp mounts need the 150 skill now.
Keeper of the Dumplings Dec 8th 2006 12:21AM
I am definitely happy with some of the changes, I am dissapointed specifically with the unjustified warrior nerfs tho.
But the extra quest slots are definitely appreciated because I love questing and it is always a pain to run out of room especially when you find a pick up quest or an escort quest you weren't expecting.
And I can't just abandon my dumplings!
http://murlocdumplings.com
Atto Dec 8th 2006 3:54AM
What I don't like about the patch is that they apparently abandoned the "gold for XP" at level 60. Too bad, I was hoping on making some extra money while questing in Silithus...
Morkins Dec 8th 2006 4:35AM
Well the patch is a mixed bag of chickens for me.
My Warrior (60) sucks, but he wasn't *brilliant* anyway so it's not a massive deal. All that's different is now I get rooted and killed in 2 seconds instead of 5. No biggie :D
My Rogue (60) is all over the bloody shop, but that's mainly due to gear. Cloak of shadows is godly and once I grind some PVP gear, he's really gonna hurt.
My Paladin (60) has gone from decent to godlike and considering how relatively crap (soulforge mixed with late 40's early 50's blues and GREEN lvl 48 BOOTS! :S) his gear is, that's saying something.
The LFG is cool.
The honor system is genius.
The casters 1-2 shotting everything is poor.
The lack of balance is poor.
Swings and roundabouts, see? Some good, some bad. Overall I'm pleased cus, for me, despite totally nerfing one of my characters, the good outweighs the bad.
Morkins Dec 8th 2006 4:06AM
Also, I don't like the fact I'm forced into respeccing and then given no gold to buy back skills. I'm poor, Blizz! I've just bought my 3rd epic mount! GIMME A BREAK!!!
Trippy Dec 8th 2006 9:49AM
I really love the extra bank slots and it took me 5 minutes to fill up the 5 extra quest spots, though of course I'd love about 5 more of those. However am I the only one who has noticed that the emote button is gone? I'm completely lost without it!!