Benie's Games Blog

Seems like the fragile economy is even hurting the game business. But actually, that’s not the case. They say in some areas of Blizzard Entertainment, positions are getting overstaffed. So they’re letting people go. Mostly non-developers.
Like people that handle the water coolers or mail. They will however not be walking away empty-handed. This is good. I’d hate to see the families of these unfortunate employees hurting over this.

I just hope they get their shit together. Some people think “does this mean Blizzard is hurting due to the increase in gas prices?”. That question is easily answered with the billions of dollars they make… every day. So they’re not hurting. The answer is simply, they don’t have any work for them. That’s what happens when people get laid off.

And to ensure to players that development of games will not be affected by this, they state in the coming weeks, they’ll be announcing Diablo III’s release date (don’t care), AND give more info on MoP in the process. And they also state that they’re doing what is humanly possible to getting those games into players hands ASAP.

Looking forward to the new news on MoP. Like as to where Pandarian will be.

These were posted from a week to just a few days ago, but they go over what the WoW Dev Team thought of when they made Cata what it is now.

The first one discusses quests, and how hard it was to redo zones to allow for flying mounts in Azeroth (and to make the Cata lore more true).
They enjoyed making the solo quest lines for 80-85, to make the player feel s/he is special, and is contributing to helping stop the Cataclysm (such as repairing the World Pillar in Deepholm).

However, it also was a learning experience. They want players to be able to do the quests their way, and any pace they want.

They also know how cool (and sometimes annoying) phasing was in Hyjal, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands. They know that some players want to help their alts (or other players) through difficult quests, but can’t due to phasing (because one person has already done all the quests).
But it was also immersive for solo players, which gives a feeling of accomplishment.

They talk about the Molten Front dailies of 4.2, and they say “we want to make more of this”. I very much disagree, as it reminded me so much on doing the Netherwing dailies.
If they’re going to do it, give us alot more quests. More variety and less… randomness, is required, in my opinion. I want to feel like I’m actually doing something, instead of coming back and finding out the same guy I killed yesterday has to be killed again, and again, and again…

They discuss the lame (in my opinion) quest Elemental Bonds. They agree that there wasn’t alot of character development. Plus, it was too easy. They say they had to make it simple, because they didn’t know what gear type of player would do it. And they know they can do better.

Might as well post of what I’ve been doing. First off, the INNER LOOP LINE is now a full loop! A first time in W2TS History.
Second, the map has a Marina! But that’s kinda old news since I had it for about a week now. It’s pretty basic. Has all the Zeppelin mod-controlled boats, and a Boat House with a door controlled by a Zeppelin Remote.

Due to the fact I haven’t been playing Minecraft because of Skyrim, I got some catching up to do of getting the rest of the mods I use updated. Unfortunately, the issue with Adf.ly (going directly to Mediafire and no download) was getting in my way today. And that’s not all that made me want to pull my hair out and scream for angry to come to my rescue.
It started with TortoiseSVN, the SVN Client I use to keep tabs on minecraft.jar. It decided to not do what I asked of it, which is to fall back to a previous revision that doesn’t have mods like Zombe’s Modpack, NEI, and Zeppelin mod in it so I can do a clean update.
Instead, it was making me think Zombe’s Modpack was a spirit, haunting my game. I thought I had removed the mod, yet it seemed the .cfg file was still in memory. But I ignored it and went on with updating. And then the keys I set up for the Weather mod of Zombe, decided not to work for me.

I tried falling back to the first revision of when I did a clean install of 1.1.0, and I was still having problems. Happen to glance inside the .jar and noticed all the files I THOUGHT were gone from it (by reality, they should), were still there! Of course this raised a red flag.
Acting calmly, (yeah, right… I begged angry to get back on and help me) I looked through Youtube and found a tutorial on setting up a SVN for local use. After some time and without angry’s help, I got it.
Sometimes I wish I had friends that were at my beckon call when I need help.

So now I’m having to do a clean install of all my mods again. But at least this time, I’ll be able to update.

Came back to Minecraft for one reason; to try my hand of building a real Zeppelin using the Zeppelin mod to fly it. Yogcast’s mod spotlight of the Zeppelin mod made me come back. It turned out to be a big mess.
I however going by memory, did a version of the Horde Zeppelin from WoW. It works, but it’s a bit laggy.

So anyway, I’m flying around my map, heading over to the southwest corner of it. I had my eye on that spot to build a Marina. However, “nature” had other ideas.
I noticed the water near where I had planned to slap down the Marina was starting to turn to ice. So I wondered and tried turning weather on, and it was snowing in Taiga biomes. Of course I panicked.
What still baffles me even as I type this, I had this map for a long time (not as long as World2, but…) and I even had it when I had the 1.1.0 version. I remember hearing about Taiga biomes getting snow. But what I didn’t think that did happen, is I thought it means a new biome, not freezing existing Taiga biomes!!
Anyway, like I said I had this map for a long time, and even in 1.1.0, it never snowed in Taiga biomes.

So I take off from Minecraft due to Skyrim for a week or two, come back, and now they’re getting snow?
I thought not seeing snow in Taiga biomes was a feature, not a bug. I actually enjoyed it. Got tired of the only way to see pines is if they’re covered in snow. And now I’m stuck with it again.

Last time I saw snow in Taiga biomes was when I asked angry to help me make a new station, which became to this day, the INNER LOOP LINE (or just OUTER LINE in the W2TS v1). And now, they’ve returned to ruin my plans. By freezing up part of the ocean, it is now impossible to do the idea.

But I’m not giving up. I’ll find another way to have that Marina. Unfortunately I can’t think of an idea at this time. I am planning to somehow connect it to the INNER LOOP LINE. But where, is uncertain at this time.
In a way, this is irony. First time I saw a Taiga biome in snow was before the creation of the line. And now I’m using the same line because of a Taiga biome in snow keeping me from doing my Marina.

I unfortunately didn’t get that title (due to not being in a heroic raid), but I got the glory, and the feeling of accomplishment.

Today, Blizzard did surprise server maintenance. When it came up about 15 minutes before its normal ending, I tried to do WoE and HoT a final time before doing the Dragon Soul raid. I still didn’t get those shoulders and that ring.
Later on, Terlarer comes on and asked if I’m ready to raid. I say that I am and we get in the queue. It takes about five minutes ’till we get in (and around 13 minutes for the second).
When we do, he’s the raid leader. And then we get right to it.

The first raid, there wasn’t any wipes, and I only died once. I actually had fun.
Before the final boss of the first raid, I saw a part I didn’t see from that video. Of Thrall telling the aspects that the Dragon Soul is too powerful to be used by him, and if he uses it, it could destroy them. But Kalegos comes up with an idea to send the raid to Malygos’ old lair; the Eye of Eternity to attune the Dragon Soul to be used against Deathwing.

But the 2nd raid as I figured it would be, did have issues. But there’s was alot more than just a wipe or two.. there was of my computer struggling to keep up with so much stress.

The first boss of the second raid.. oh wow. I was getting like 2-10 FPS at times. It was really sickening. But Terlarer was also feeling it, so it wasn’t just me. He believes it was all the DKs using their Army of the Dead spells at the same time.

When we got on Deathwing’s back, due to the number of people infront of me, I couldn’t target mobs for a bit. But as we advanced and the raid started separating, I was able to get my needed space and do my job.
The final battle of dealing with Deathwing’s corrupted parts, it too was quite hard on framerate (though not as bad as Ultraxion). But, we managed to get him down. And the look on his face before he died was very satisfying. It’s almost if he was saying: “How? … HOW?! … You are…just a mere soloer!! How could you…have….so much power?!?!”
And I said to him “I told you I would have my revenge, bastard. NO ONE fucks up Azeroth AND LIVES!!”

At the end after the climatic and everyone starts needing and greeding on gear, I needed on a staff (a Tier 13 LFR staff) and won it. Terlarer was the only one that was happy for me. The others were yelling how I had the lowest DPS, but he defended me. They’re just jealous I won it. To be honest, I didn’t really care for the staff. The only disappointment I saw was the fact I didn’t get the title for killing Deathwing.

As the raid group dispersed, I did what I said I was going to do; stand there facing the Maelstrom while listening to victory music, and thinking about what led me to this moment. Though he’s been killed a long time ago… I, a soloer for life and still don’t care about gear, despite all odds, went in there and defeated him. That is a big accomplishment. I have finally done what took me months to prepare! If only I had gotten a title for it. Something like “Benie, Azeroth Avenger”.
I want to give a big thanks to Mr.Robot for telling me what I need to gear up, and Cooleow for telling me about it, and getting me back doing dungeons again. Without both of them, I wouldn’t of been where I am now.

And also after talking to a friend, I understand now why the dragon aspects did what they did in the climatic. Dragons were put on Azeroth to protect mortals from the incredible evil on the planet. But seeing how mortals were able to defeat the aspects’ greatest enemy (and to all of Azeroth), they realize now they aren’t needed anymore. They know now mortals can take care of themselves. We mortals may be unable to fly, but dragons can’t weld guns. Plus, we’re more resourceful than they are.
Yet, how do they know it’s over? That’s what kicks me. Was it due to the fact what they had to give to power the Dragon Soul weakened them that much?

But this doesn’t mean the end of dragonkind. This is just a part of the timeline. In the past, they’re still alive. But in the present and the future, we will be writing our own history. Azeroth is in our hands now. Let us take care of her.

The only “threat” to Azeroth now… is ourselves. Our insatiable hunger for war and honor.
And that’s where the Pandarens come in; to hopefully end the war and bring an everlasting peace to Azeroth. But with Hellscream all “URGH I SQUISH PUNY ALLIANCE UNDER BOOT BECAUSE I’M SO BADASS!! FOR THE HORDE!!!”, and Varian is all “The Alliance will never fall!! I require another useless statue of myself in Stormwind!”, that seems unlikely.

What am I going to do now after killing Deathwing? I plan to gear up my other chars using Mr.Robot to prepare them for MoP. With them geared, it will give them and myself an advantage to be able to take down mobs faster.
Yet this new road to gear up will be very challenging, especially for my Melee chars (Druid/Rogue). Mr.Robot is thinking they’re in 4.2 gear already and can move up to 4.3 (I use WoW’s major version numbers as Pre-Raid Gear Tiers). My Rogue alone needs ALOT of Justice Points, and it will be very hard finding a kind and understandable PuG everytime for him to acquire them.
.
.
.
.

In other news. What I was told a few days before the raid, BlizzCon won’t be done this year due to Blizzard working very hard on MoP, Diablo III, and Rift. One of my friends says it’s possible that MoP could be released at the end of this year (maybe on the two year anniversary of the launch of Cata), or at the beginning of next year.
For the first time, I’m actually looking forward to it! Finally, No “AZEROTH WILL FALL!!!” super boss. It’ll be my kind of EP.

I’ve been struggling to get geared, doing the HoT Heroics. So far I got nearly every piece Mr.Robot suggests I get, except for two stubborn ones; Shoulders from HoT and a Ring from WoE.
I feel like I did these two dungeons 50+ times, and I haven’t had any luck.

So yesterday I got fed up and decided to enchant what I got as bulk. The fact I had little money is why I chose to do it this way.
So I got everything I needed. Got them gemmed and reforged as well. And decided to do a ZG run. I haven’t done a 85 ZG run since I was item level 354, and I was kicked out for no reason for failing to kill the boss that has the cauldrons.

This time was no different, but the group was more patient with me. After the third time, we FINALLY got him down. And I was able to finally complete the once was a raid dungeon, later on.
After that I did ZA. I’ve never done this one before, yet again the group was thankfully patient. 4 of 5 of them, this was also their first time there. And we got that completed too. And I got a free 24 slot bag!
I’m going to put it into my bank as a slot. I can use the extra space.

Later that day, Terlarer was telling me I should do the Dragon Soul raid. He even gave me this flask that boosts Agility for a while. But, you know me. I’m nervous when it comes to trying new things.
That was until I decided to go on Youtube and look around, and found this series of videos of the two raids that make up the Dragon Soul raid. Both were in four parts.

What they showed is this guy as a female NE Rogue (go figure), queuing up for the raid. Said he never did it before, and he’s not a raider. Both are the same as me.
I watched both sets of videos. All four parts. And he was able to complete both raids and emerge victorious (though he never showed a sense of justice of finally defeating the source of Azeroth’s near-destruction. I would, though). So, if he can do it… surely I can do it, right?
And I plan to, this Tuesday. I just have to dedicate about an hour to it, maybe more if wipes occur. He got lucky when he got in those raids, especially outside of a guild raid. I don’t think my luck will be the same.

As for the gameplay, well, there’s certain parts were there is “go here, QUICKLY!! Kill this guy before he heals the other guy!!” action.
But what’s probably the best thing; the raid was caring more about defeating mobs and bosses than the gear people wear. So maybe I’ll do alright. As long as I stay focused and try not to screw up, I should.

I can’t wait to see the look on Deathwing’s face, when a soloer for LIFE, makes the final blow on him. And stand there on the edge of the Maelstrom as victory music plays, knowing justice has been made on this day. And justice feels realllllly good from what I saw after coming back to WoW before Cata’s release.
I swore I would get revenge on Deathwing, and now’s my chance.

As they said in BlizzCon back in October, the new talent system to be shipped in MoP (Mists of Pandaria) will be changing. And Wowhead has the latest change for all classes (not including the new Monk class of MoP).

Currently for Hunters, they have scaled back the level tiers. The former Level 90 talent tier is now the Level 75 talent tier, and so on. Level 90’s talent tier has been completely redone that includes three interesting and pretty cool skills.

(Image of the current Hunter talent tier)
Again, these are still subject to change.

And of course there’s no word of a known release date for MoP. All they say is “Soon.” I say it’ll be released somewhere between 2013-2014 (if we live that long to see it). It was just announced at BlizzCon. Do people really think it’ll be released this year, with all the beautiful content promised?

Came back to WoW a few days ago. Heol has returned as well. He says his video card died on him, why he wasn’t on for months.
The reason I came back was to get geared and hopefully do some raiding in the future. Unfortunately, nothing dropped that I needed of the runs I did.

Coming back to SW after discovering Mr. Robot has a thing that shows a recommended build for each race and class.
Getting that done, I flew around SW and then saw something different near the area with the Cata portals. It was some kind of small monument. Two Drakkins from Wyrmrest Temple are guarding something black and glowing red in places in the middle of it.
As I looked closer, it looked like… what was left of Deathwing. And I saw Chromie standing there, talkable.
I walk over, ask her what the hell is this thing, and she mentions about she can show me the aftermath of what happened to Deathwing at the Maelstrom.

Asking her to show it, comes up with a movie of Thrall, the orc you helped save him, and all the dragon aspects in their human forms. Thrall mentions that “the Cataclysm, is over”. Then Alexstrasza mentions that “it’s time to see from mortal eyes”, and how their time is coming soon. They look at Thrall’s wife and see she’s pregnant. And then mention that this is “the age of mortals”.
So…, does this mean the dragon aspects (maybe even all of dragonkind) can now die in peace, knowing mortals will take over? Are they saying they have fulfilled their destiny in ridding Azeroth of all evil?

Something I have found out after poking around in Wowhead, the Alexstrasza-like dragon mount (called “Life-Binder’s Handmaiden”) is only available if you complete the end of the Dragon Soul raid in Heroic. It’s unknown to me if this is a Dragon Form mount. Going by the description, there’s nothing about that it “transforms you into a (dragon name here)”. Which makes the Sandstone Drake the only Dragon Form mount.
You can also get this same mount (but it’s called “Reins of the Blazing Drake”) from the Dragon Soul raid in Normal, but it’s a rare drop. I haven’t seen anyone as of yet with this mount. When I do, I’ll be sure to edit this part of this blog post.

All that is known, isn’t affecting the rest of the game. It’s just Deathwing has been defeated, and Azeroth can finally heal (though I doubt it ever will. Only Blizzard can do that). Who the guild was that killed Deathwing for the first time on this server, is a mystery. But it seems anyone that participated is received a new title; “, Destroyer’s End”.
I just wish I could of been a part of it that first killed him. In a way, I was. I stopped the Maelstrom from collapsing into itself by repairing the World Pillar, and got the Dragon Soul to Wyrmrest. I contributed putting an end to Deathwing in my own way. I also brought Thrall back. So where’s my title? Heh.
I can still do the Dragon Soul raid once I’m geared enough, but it has no meaning now since he’s dead anyway.

Will this stop the rare Deathwing encounters? No idea. I say, possibly. That means, no more achievement for my future chars.

.
.
.
Moving on, I had a temporary idea of creating chars for just getting all skills up to 525. That way I won’t have to rely on asking others for what I need. I can rely on my chars. But that would take too long. Plus, what would I name them? Plus I would have to gear them up as well and get them to 85. That’s why I decided to scrub the idea.

There’s also this new mount on the Blizzard Store — the first purchasable dragon mount outside of the game. Costs $25. It’s called the Heart of the Aspects. It’s a golden dragon, but it doesn’t have the same flying/hovering animation as all dragon mounts do. Some say it’s a Chinese Dragon, since officially, this is the ‘Year of the Dragon’ in China.

Yet, it’s not a true Chinese Dragon, since Chinese Dragons have really short legs, or no legs at all. Also, Chinese Dragons don’t have wings. Plus, what’s with the helmet? It makes it look like a Proto Drake.

There’s been talks of course about the newest mount in the game. Most are saying it’s really cool and I agree. But some say that it should of been made as a rare drop for the Heroic version of Dragon Soul (I also agree to that. It’s too easy to get such a cool mount). Others are laughing at the people for paying $25. They’re just jealous.
As for me? I’m thinking of getting one. But Wowhead is giving away 10 of them, and 20 of these Blizzard Collector Cups. All you gotta do is comment in the post about it.
I doubt I’ll win one. Many will play, only ten will win.

I will buy one, but not now. By the end of the month if I’m lucky.

The Creation Kit has been released. That’s good news for modders. Hopefully soon, there will be a few mods that will allow you to fly on a dragon’s back. That will seal the deal with me.
Already, modders are pumping out some pretty cool things. You can check out the full listings of Creation Kit-created mods here in the Steam Workshop.

And also, we have a surprise that’s been talked about for awhile. And finally the secret is out. It’s a High Resolution Texture Pack. The first DLC of Skyrim.
I’m actually hesitant of installing this. I’m not sure how well my video card will handle it.

Going by the specs, my card isn’t part of this. I need a GTX 260 or higher. And I’m not really that crazy for High Resolution textures. I’m no graphics whore.
Going by before and after pictures posted by others who have it and are testing, I’m not really seeing much of a difference in quality. It’s like an HD TV. The picture looks no different than Standard Depth.

I can’t believe I’m still playing this game! Thought I would of gotten bored and went back to Minecraft or WoW.
But, I’m not bored. Well I don’t think I’m bored. I try to find things to do. And I guess there’s something about Skyrim I like, compared to other freeplay games.
However, the game also had alot of potential to be even more epic, but Bethesda was either too lazy, or found it impossible to do. Such as, having a staff that will transform you into a dragon for a short time. Here you can breath fire and stuff like a dragon. So why didn’t they let you BE one? Or even have Odahviing fly you to where you wanna go.

Well, I got TCL (aka noclip) that gives me “flight mode”. So, who needs wings? And now it’s even better, thanks to this mod that can modify player sprint speed. I set the “Player/NPC Sprint” value to 1500. The default sprint speed is 400. I’m now able to move as fast as a dragon can fly. The bad thing about it, if I sprinted while on the ground I’ll probably run into a tree or up a mountain by mistake.
I’ve also had the game crash on me twice since doing this.
But when this “Creation Kit” (aka the SDK) comes out, it’s promised that there will be dragon flying mods out there.

Anyway, I’ve been still getting the shouts. So far I have about four shouts fully upgraded. But running back and forth between dungeons (they’re called Tombs in this game) is getting a bit tiring.
Another thing about dungeons, some of them require you be part of a specified group to enter it. However, I can still do them but I gotta use noclip (TCL) to access doorways only opened when the player has the quest. This is how I managed to get Fire Breath fully upgraded.

I managed to get a second house. One in Riften. And I didn’t even have to become the Thane of that zone. There’s a mod that can “move” this house to a mountain, WNW of Riften, and near the dragon lair Autumnwatch Tower.

I also did manage to kill that damn Blood Dragon who flew away from me before. Nearly the same location. I had just Fast Traveled to Robber’s Gorge and saw him freezing away at something East of me. Soon he saw me and attacked again. And I finally got his scaly ass.
So far I haven’t encountered a Frost Dragon (that is actually named “Frost Dragon”), or an Ancient or an Elder dragon. Not even a Skeletal dragon. Maybe this is best, but I wish I could.

.
Edit — 2/7/12: First off, I’ve been doing guild-related quests since I am… ok, I’ll admit it. I’m getting bored.
So far I’ve completed The Companions, the College of Winterhold, and the Thieves Guild. The Thieves Guild quests weren’t as bad as I thought they were. All of them are mellow and don’t involve assassination. That’s the Dark Brotherhood’s territory. I had fun with all of them.

I’m using more mods now. Deadly Dragons, and Dragons in the Wild. Both, as you can tell, give me more fun against my winged fire-breathing foes.
Deadly Dragons makes dragons tougher to kill — the way “they should of been” to some people. But it also adds different types of dragons which offer more awesome challenges. Like a Magma Dragon who can unleash flaming meteoroids from the sky.
The mod also has other features, like making all of your followers immortal, offering new crafting options, and WoW-like Dragonslayer gear sets.

Dragons in the Wild, adds walking dragons in various areas. They don’t “give you” their souls like random encounters would. What they do is just walk around minding their own business. They will fly up and attack you like a random dragon encounter if you get too close, or attack them.
This is how I met my first Ancient and Elder dragons. But anyway, this mod also has a history. As in, I believe it was causing all dragons to suddenly, stop showing up all together.
I tried to reinstall and do a new game, and that has gotten it.

But that has lead to another issue. But a rather funny one. Where The Companions hang out, there’s two people there who are named “LOOKUP FAILED!”. It’s quite funny when I complete a quest for them, and I see “Return to LOOKUP FAILED!”.
This is a known issue. The common way to fix this is making sure your install matches the install of Steam’s servers. Well, mine does. And it’s still happening.

I asked how I can fix this, and someone posted a rather drastic way to do it. And it makes me cringe. Here I finally got Dragons in the Wild working again, and one of the steps is to, purge (as in delete) my saves. And clear the mods out of the save. Which is impossible since Dragons in the Wild stays in the save.
Tomorrow, the Creation Kit is coming out. The author hopes to make a fix for this where it will clear it out of the save, since people are reporting of still seeing walking dragons after deleting the mod.

But to delete my save… after what I just went through in Markarth (seriously, it feels as if I’m playing two games at once. Killing dragons, and winding up in prison for crimes I never committed). Fuck that. I rather deal with the issue. I do NOT feel like doing the main questline a third time.

Also been told to use this “BOSS” thing which will load mods in a specific priority. I don’t know what priority to use, as both mods don’t require it.

.
But as I was saying before, yeah I’m getting bored. But I feel putting this game down and playing another is wrong, since I became interested in it and I should play it to the very end. It feels as if this is the only “true dragon-related game”. And it is better than WoW. Yet WoW is better than it with the fact you can become a dragon.

There’s really not much else I can do, though. All the “do work for The Companions” are repeat quests. I’m doing the same “clear out cave of mobs” quest several times. Besides, Minecraft is boring now.

I have found something else that will hope to entertain. #2 on the most downloaded mods list of Skyrim Nexus; Dovahkiin Hideout. Not only does it gives the player a load of custom storage and shit, but “portals” to every player house. All you need is the key to them.
To get the key, you gotta do things for the townsfolk. Help them out. And in return, the Jarl will permit you to purchase property in his or her city. It’s different from what it was in Oblivion, where you can just walk right in and say “I wanna buy this house!”.

The hideout also has a dungeon, which has a shrine to the dragons and dragon priests, which is sometimes seen during level loading (however there’s a bug with this that it’s not showing the Dragon Priests. It does on level loads). And in a room, it has statues that you can put collected Dragon Priest masks in instead of selling them. That’s cool.
Hopefully this will keep me entertained a bit longer.