Monday, December 29, 2008

Bug Fixes Bring Smiles

Ok, its no secret that I get into the game a little too deeply. Hey, we don't judge around here, so you don't either :-)

Valdesta at WoWGrrl posts her usual copy of the patch notes for 3.0.8, which is immensely helpful to those of us who do our reading from behind a corporate firewall. Thank you!

The inner nerd comes out more than usual when reading over patch notes, specifically when I come across a change or bugfix that I've personally encountered. I have no idea why its as amusing as it is, but so be it.

No Alchemy Lab Needed for Flasks



Rock on. I know, its a small tiny change. And its hardly directed at me, my alchemist is still sitting on my old server :-(

But how annoying was it to scrape together your mats for a flask shortly before a raid, only to discover that your alchemist friend is already at the summoning stone with hearth on cooldown?

For items like flasks, that're needed right then and there for a raid, removing the need for a lab is a good idea.

Stuff like special cloths that need a loom, I suppose I'm still ok with needing to travel to the loom since these items are generally made over time while trying to craft a piece of gear, or just make cloth for profit. They're not so much a "i need this right now and 24 other people are waiting on me" kind of thing.

Clams



You can now open them while shadomelded (lol) or flying or mounted (yay).

How annoying to be twiddling your thumbs during a flight on a hippogryph, scan through your bags, find some clams that you can't do anything with.

Sure, this doesn't make or break the game, but this post is about nerdy giddiness at reading patch notes pertaining to personal annoyances. /applaud

Unlootable Wild Mustard Plant



Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.

Love it. That one stupid plant has pissed me off every time they've put up this daily. Now it's lootable, and I can haz joy.

Naxx mobs with no Heroic values



Every time we pass through the frogger boss (slow moving, very predictable slime balls that one shot you if you touch them. invariably we lose one or two players to the frogger boss every week) in the Plague Wing of Naxxramas, somebody will drop a comment on how the next few mobs are all wacked out and don't have Heroic values for how hard they hit or health or whatever.

Well, now it'll be fixed. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

Shoost Em Up, now with more Shoosting



The daily quest, "Shoo[s]t 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from10.

Ahhh, so very nice. This quest pisses me of on so many levels.

Firstly, I gotta log out, disable addons, and then come back in.

Secondly, the left-right range of the guns is always f'ed up, as in, you can train totally to the right, way way far, but left-wise, you can only go a smidge past center. Awful.

Thirdly, the stupid harpoons shoot behind and below the aiming point. So you're trying to lead your target like a good Quarterback or Gunner, only to have the harpoons shoot directly at where your target is at the moment of trigger-pull. Stupid.

Fourthly, that hateful voice telling me I don't have enough energy. Ok, ok, I get it. I'm spamming #3 endlessly and there's no bullets. Ok, STFU!!!

Fifthly, I gotta log out, re-enable addons after I'm done.

So changing the energy per shot and number of kills is pure win in my book. Now just make the vehicle interface easier for addon authors to comply with, and I'm all yours.

Hunter Changes



Ok, no giddiness here.

Laid out all in a nice and neat Blizzard press release, it hurts to look at.

Forget my earlier theorycrafting the predicts a 15.6% decrease in my DPS. It was probably all wrong anyways, plus my gear has changed so much since then, it'll be impossible to actually verify.

But seeing the patch notes makes it feel like too much is being done all at once. Mayhaps they should make just a small change, assess the results, and then continue if necessary. Oh well, life goes on.

Nerds, Unite!



So anybody else get giggly when "working" the day after xmas in a totally empty office when seeing personally appropriate items in the patch notes?

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