Posts with tag zarhym

Yesterday evening the background downloader for patch 6.0.2 became active, serving up around 15GB of patch data. Shortly after the downloader became active Blizzard pulled it offline. Zarhym explains:

Zarhym

As some of you may have noticed the background downloader for patch 6.0.2 began today. After discovering issues with the size of the download, however, we have deactivated it for the time being. We'll let you know once when we're ready to start the 6.0.2 background downloader again, as well as provide you with some additional details on how it works and what you can expect when downloading the 6.0.2 patch in advance of its release on live realms.

source

It's important to note that Zarhym goes on to say that any data you did download is fine and won't mess up your patching process. There is no need to delete files or anything like that; and you should listen to what he's saying here too, don't go and delete files in your directory over this. Everything will work fine when the correct files begin to be served up again at a later date.

Update: And since this was written, the background downloader has officially begun anew.

---

Every time this pops up on the forums, I mull it over - should World of Warcraft have a customer loyalty program, and if it did, what should it entail? Part of my difficulty with the concept is, I would probably benefit from it - I've been playing WoW pretty much non-stop for its entire existence. Even when I stopped playing I didn't unsub (probably should have, but hindsight is gloriously incapable of altering the past) and so, if a customer loyalty reward of some kind was implemented myself and my wife would probably get something out of it.

This has me wondering if it would in fact deter new players - the last thing you want is a system that makes people just picking up the game envious or feeling as if a reward is forever out of their reach. After all, you can't go back in time and start playing in 2004, If there was (say) a special mount or pet or transmog item that people who'd been playing five or more years got, then it would by definition exclude players who hadn't been playing that long. And a lot of people tell me they started playing in Cataclysm nowadays - that's a significant number of people who would have to wait at least another year or two before they could get that hypothetical reward.

I'm not opposed to the idea, mind you - like I said, I have been playing forever, so if it got implemented, I'd probably get something cool, and I'm sure you could work it so that it didn't feel like something so far out of new player reach that they felt like it wasn't even worth trying to get. I'm frankly more curious about what you think, friends - is a customer loyalty feature a good idea, or more trouble than it is worth? How should it be implemented? What should it do?

There's a number of people are concerned about needing the legendary cloak to fight the Fire-God Ordos, a special boss accessible on the Timeless Isle. Those people with the concern raise the point that this is essentially cutting off a significant portion of the game to those without the cloak -- or at least what they feel is a significant portion of the game.

Except, it's not a big portion of the game. It's one boss, and a rather insignificant one (in the grand scheme of things) at that. Further, players that have put in the year long effort to actually get the legendary cloak deserve some sort of reward for their troubles. And while the awesome cloak is certainly part of that reward, getting to experience a different boss is a nice added bonus.

Zarhym makes this point well in a post on the forms, and it's worth taking a few minutes to read his words. He also makes a great point at the end -- getting the legendary now through SoO farming is just as viable as working on it over the past year (and it's entirely possible to do that). Now it might be a point of pride to have worked on it over the long haul, but still, he is correct in saying it's just as cool no matter when you pick it up.

Zarhym's full post after the break.

When reader Kristen sent in this link, we thought it would be some silly fun. But after examining the photographic evidence for ourselves, we have to say this astronomical phenomenon bears a striking resemblance to our favorite flying skull, Zarhym. This nebula is estimated to be 45,000 years old, which means this galactic vacation must have required a lot of advanced planning. (Zarhym, we'd love the name of your travel agent.) If you want to know what makes this particular flaming skull appear in the sky, astronomer Phil Plait covers the science, and if you just want a cool background wallpaper, the full resolution photo taken by T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF) can be found at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

And Zarhym? We appreciate that everybody needs the occasional vacation, but we hope to see you back on earth one day.

---

---

If you've been on the leveling treadmill -- or if you frequent the WoW forums -- chances are you've noticed that after patch 5.2, you stopped automatically discovering new flight paths. For those of you (myself included) who loved this feature, it's unfortunately an intentional change. According to everyone's favorite floating skull, Zarhym, the auto-discovery of flight paths -- introduced way back in patch 4.2 in June 2011 -- was never intentional.

@autumnsunxo @bubblepuffle Unfortunately, you weren't provided correct info. Auto-discovery was never intended. Post to explain coming.

- Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) March 17, 2013

So why's it waited so long? Again, according to Zarhym, it was a complicated problem to crack -- and low on the priority list.

@reaper2352 Until 5.2 we couldn't fix it without erasing what paths any character had discovered pre-Cataclysm. It required new tech.

- Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) March 19, 2013

While I mourn the loss of what was one of my favorite Cataclysm-era features -- the run through the Wetlands to pick up the flight path at Menethil Harbor used to be a killer, literally -- I can't complain too much. After all, with mounts starting at level 20, hearthstones on a 15 minute cooldown (with the right guild perks), and flight paths scattered conveniently around the world, getting around is easier than it's ever been, even without automatically discovering new flight paths.

---

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

I wanted to throw out a challenge to Bashiok and Zarhym.

I'll donate 5,000,000g to the Alliance charity of their choice if they can prove their father was not a Sha.

Zarhym's got the whole floating skull thing going on, and Bashiok's old green-tinted tree is back. It's pretty clear to me that they've got some Sha-ness.

Prove me wrong. The ball's in your court, fellas.

Eric asked:

Does anyone have a clue if a Windows Phone Remote Armory/Auction House is in the works?

After WoW Insider's Anne Stickney rounded off Blizzard's Developer Interview schedule with her chat to Cory Stockton and Dave Kosak, discussing patch 5.1, brawler's guild, lore, dailies, proving grounds, scenarios and player housing, WoW Insider thought we should bring together all the interviews in the recent set.

Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street:

• Legendary, GAMEBREAKER.tv Ghostcrawler discusses raiding, PvP, alts, reputation, dailies and cross realm zones with the Legendary hosts.
• All Things Azeroth Design, Cataclysm vs. Mists, patch 5.2 release schedule, classes, transmogrification changes.
• Wowjuju Brawler's guild, daily quests, transmogrification, 10man vs 25man, the gear grind, pet gear for battle pets?

Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas

• Convert2Raid Scenarios, challenge modes, Brawler's Guild, dailies, and, of course, raids.
• Method Coming soon!

Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton:

• Curse Coming soon!
• Warcraft Pets Pet design process, pets in future expansions, pet battles, potential for pet gender and breeding, pet model updates, "boss" pets

Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak

• Darkmoon Herald Hidden quests, easter eggs, phasing, lore, future questing changes, interesting activities, tillers, dailies.
• Wowhead Patch 5.1 factions, brawlers' guild, scenarios and their lore involvement, dailies, alts, faction grinds, cooking changes.

Lead Designer Tom Chilton

• ArenaJunkies Coming soon!

---

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

---

WoW's friendly skull, Zarhym, took to Twitter last night with a hint about potential upcoming changes to the transmogrification system in patch 5.2. Essentially the main-hand vs off-hand transmog distinction may possibly be getting cut, along with adding some exceptions to the absolute restriction of similar weapon types (ie: axes vs. swords). Expect any changes make sense -- so no shields as main-hand weapons.

We need to emphasis here that these changes are only possible, and are by no means set in stone. Don't get upset if you don't see in them in patch 5.2; or ever. You haven't been promised anything.

That said, it's neat to see what Blizzard is thinking for the next patch. Zarhym's tweet as follows:

.@iizeppii Removing main-hand/off-hand Xmog restrictions maybe by 5.2. Also allowing Xmog of weaps w/ similar anims (2H axe/2H sword, etc).

- Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym) December 3, 2012

---

This weekend, some of the most competitive PvP and PvE players in the World of Warcraft (alongside players from Starcraft 2) will be engaging in the Battle.net World Championship. The event, taking place at the Shanghai Expo-Mart in Shanghai, China, is the largest competitive event focused specifically at Blizzard's games. So, in case you're wondering what's going on, where the live streams are, and how to find the events you're interested in seeing, Blizzard has you covered with this extensive survival guide to the event.

Our old friend Zarhym breaks it all down for you. With links to profiles of the players, a schedule of events and everything else you'd need to find the events you're interested in, this guide should help you find the challenge mode, arena, or live raid you want to watch. The event lasts from November 17th to the 18th.

---

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

---

I'm not going to pretend that I like the process of gaining reputation in World of Warcraft, because I don't, and I never have. I remember grinding Brood of Nozdormu reputation back in vanilla for a ring that I still have in the bank. I remember gathering Scourgestones so that I could get to exalted Argent Dawn (I also still have my Seal of the Dawn), and murdering bears in Winterspring to get enchants off of other bears. As an insanely old bearded madman it is fair to say that I have dragged my ancient, grumbling carcass from expansion to expansion, finding various ways to get various groups to like me (often via the application of murdering pixels or collecting pixels off of murdered pixels) and I have always come to loathe the groups I've gained rep with along the way.

In fact, I'd go so far to call it an axiom. The more a certain group comes to like me, the more I'd willingly feed them all to a wood chipper if only that were an option. (Yes, Klaxxi, I'm looking right at you here.) That being said, it would be unfair and untrue to pretend that faction-based reputation hasn't undergone several design permutations over the years.

During Burning Crusade, for instance, there were specific dungeons that rewarded reputation with specific factions. I ran Shadow Labyrinth for Lower City reputation until my eyes quit in protest and moved to Paraguay. One of the ways that design began to change was with the Isle of Quel'Danas, which itself built upon the foundation laid by the Ogri'la and Sha'tari Skyguard factions.

These were faction grinds that allowed for the progressive unlocking of quests designed to be repeated daily, and these three faction grinds laid the basis for what we have today in Mists of Pandaria. And I'm starting to wonder if the reason I so dislike the Mists approach to reputation, with its copious daily questing, is not because of anything wrong with that system but rather because I'm incredibly spoiled.

Good news. We found a bug with Stampede being too high only in Arenas. That accounts for why feedback can be so varied. More info later.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) October 31, 2012

Community Manager Zarhym emailed us late last night to inform us that the bug had been isolated and added to the beast mastery hunter-specific section of the blog. The bug is now detailed as follows: