All fires are not the same
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 2nd 2008 at 6:00PM
I've noticed lately while running around and doing my daily cooking quest that some flames are not the same as others. This seems rather silly to me. After all, a flame is a flame, right?For those of you that don't cook in WoW, I'll fill you in. You need to find a cooking fire every time you want to cook something. Everyone has the ability to make a simple fire, but this requires reagents, and is not something that people normally waste space on. So instead of making your own fire, you can find a premade fire, stove, kettle, etc... and cook your food there. These heat sources are spread out all over major cities and out in the wild.
But, there are oddities. For example, take these two kettles - which are the exact same model.
The one on the left is right in front of the cooking daily quest giver in Shattrath and will cook food for you. The one on the right is a bit over to the East, still in Shattrath, and won't cook food for you. Notice anything different (besides the viewing angle) about the images? Nope. One is a cooking flame, the other isn't.
The same goes for those braziers spread out around Shat. Some are flames, others are not. For example, the left image is from lower Shattrath (not a fire), and the right image is from Aldor Rise (a fire). The models are only slightly different, and occupy the same "look and feel" function for the city. Yet one is for looking and the other is for cooking.
Hopefully someone at Blizzard might just notice this inconsistency and decide to fix it. Well, that and every other issue in the game.
Have you noticed any other strange inconsistencies like this in the game?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cell Feb 2nd 2008 6:04PM
The kettle that is near the Scryer's bank in Shattrath is an object for a Scryer's quest, hence it's not flagged as being a cooking fire for the cooking skill.
Cutyerthroat Feb 2nd 2008 7:06PM
Hehe I have always been amused / annoyed by this.
One thing that I find most amusing about it- I have looked up and down and all around- in Everlook in Winterspring [you know that zone FULL of snow], there is not so much as one cooking fire.
heh
lucifer.cross Feb 2nd 2008 6:18PM
I cook in it all the time. O_o
Cell Feb 2nd 2008 6:24PM
Then it must be a different kettle that he was talking about. Those 2 are the only one's I can think of right now that are in Shat.
jrodman Feb 3rd 2008 6:28AM
I agree that the cookfire for the scryer quest is probably 'special' int hat it's a quest object. It's still sloppy. But it doesn't matter much because it's right next to a brazier with a blue glow that *is* a cookfire.
The article however refers to a kettle east of The Rokk, which has to be in lower city, while you refer to one near the flightmaster, up a level.
jrodman Feb 3rd 2008 6:44AM
Re: cutyerthroat
There is a cookfire in everlook, but it's in the little hut with the mining lady, not in the inn or the bank-hall. It's a stove. It's not obvious at all.
Skarlette Feb 2nd 2008 6:30PM
On a related note, it always amuses me when people bother making campfires in Ironforge for non-RP purposes. Every one of those squat, round braziers that line the streets in IF serve as cooking fires. You're never more than like five seconds away from one.
Now, the lack of a fire near the bank/AH in Stormwind, on the other hand, is massively annoying.
Charlie Feb 2nd 2008 8:55PM
alot of people dont know you can cook without the simple fire. It wasnt till i rolled my alt horde shaman a few months ago that i accidentally clicked cook after i forgot to make a simple fire. I happened to be by a big fire in org and, well, i kind of felt silly for not realizing it for so long (for note i've been playing since Summer '05, but only have done cooking on one of my 2 70s.)
I think its just one of those nub errors, like not realizing you can eat and drink at the same time.
Soulkill Feb 2nd 2008 11:45PM
Yea, not having a fire in SW by the AH and not in the Inn is just stupid.
Atheri Feb 2nd 2008 6:55PM
Other similar inconsistencies? How about the fact that some places have chairs you can sit in, and some don't? I played WoW for a month before I found out about "sittable" chairs, because my starting toon was a nelf.
...And then there's the fact that belfs *have* sittable chairs, but if you use them, you wind up with pieces of chair sticking out of your body! Didn't the designers test the models together in advance?
Saido Feb 2nd 2008 7:55PM
Dear Blizz: Add "Track Cookfire" to the tracking menu?
Oilof Feb 2nd 2008 8:30PM
Haha, that's a great idea! Very creative :)
Brasson Feb 2nd 2008 9:28PM
Ha. You should've been in Shattrath a couple of patches ago. There was one cooking fire in the entire city - just north of Cro Threadstrong.
Schadenfreude Feb 2nd 2008 11:04PM
I've noticed this too; I refuse to carry around fire-making reagents, so this can lead to some frantic searches like the time I got artisan cooking and needed to level it up before I left the zone (you know, that old bug)... but couldn't find a single damn fire in GGzan for the life of me.
My rule of thumb is that if you can mouse over the fire/oven/stove/object and it's highlighted and has a tooltip, you can cook on it; otherwise you've gotta keep looking.
JasonTerminator Feb 3rd 2008 12:42AM
Tarren Mill anyone?
There isn't a fire in that entire town. I know they are undead and all, but they need to be able to SEE at night.
Hoggersbud Feb 3rd 2008 5:09AM
There's a fire to the right of the inn, by the guy selling cooking stuff.
georgeasmith Feb 3rd 2008 12:46AM
You can also Smelt on some fires and not on others. Like you can smelt on the fires in IF but not on a cooking fire (to the best of my knowlege).
insomnifox Feb 3rd 2008 1:21AM
There's an easy way to tell if you can cook on something or not. If it burns you, you can probably cook on it.
Jay Feb 3rd 2008 1:56AM
Some of us that start simple fires to cook do it because many of those fires, braziers, etc. have not always been usable for cooking. We learned years ago that we couldn't cook without Then most places in cities and have never tried without a for... Occasionally we accidentally discover a previously ornamental five has been made useful in a patch.
Green Armadillo Feb 3rd 2008 3:44AM
If it makes you feel any better, there was a point in the TBC beta in which the forge in the Blacksmithing area of the Exodar was flagged as something like "Doodad_Draenei_forge". Problem is, that isn't what the smelting skill is set to look for, so you had to trek to the JC area on the other area of the city to smelt.
LOTRO also had a big pass through their game to flag fires as cooking fires. I think the scenery people and the crafting people at MMORPG studios are not the same people.