Some pictures

[Jarulf]

OK, I finally got arround to make a few pictures available. I only have 10mb for now, so I had to pick only some pictures (mostly from the travell I mentioned in a thread below travelling into "enemy" territory. They are all converted to jpg and using a rather high compression to cut size, so they are NOT the same quality as you will see in game. This is especially noticable in text anbd so on that luks blurry. Also, I am not that good at remembering taking pictures, so it is mostly some scenic ones and not always from the most interesting parts.

I will try to exchange the pictures for others in a day or two. Since one can't list the directory, you have to do some work :)

The files are found at:

http://www.bolina.hsb.se/hsidor/pedro/wow001.jpg

The just increase the number (002, 003 and so on). Note that some picture 8like the first one) might have got in the wrong order when I renamed them. Have fun!

[--Pete]

Hi,

The quality is fine, the subjects are interesting -- makes me want to go play some more :)

I especially like the night sky shot -- I've got to remember to look up more :)

--Pete

[NuurAbSaal]

nasty Tidecrawler

[Jarulf]

Hi,

The quality is fine, the subjects are interesting -- makes me want to go play some more :)

I especially like the night sky shot -- I've got to remember to look up more :)

--Pete

Yeah, a lot of night for me. The whole colour of the view get different. That is why many of the pictures at The Barrens look as they do. At day light, is is much more yellowish, sort of the savannah (or whatever it is called).

[TaiDaishar]

That place with all the thorns is Stranglethorn Vale I suppose?

Also a Barrens giraffe?!?! :blink: :blink: Please tell me that's it's some kind of sick joke and not a real monster...

Overall, excellent screenshots, overwhelmingly beautiful.

[nobbie]

Nice screenshot Jarulf, but you know, all those on-screen statistic messages and numbers and the galores of icons, which remind me rather of some air- or spacecraft cockpit controls and messages than a fun game, are yet another reason why I won't get into MMORPG's (I think most of them work this way?). That's what I like about Diablo: You just put your points into the (rather self-explaining) spells of your choice, and there you go. Very easy to understand and to use, user-friendly and fun. In WOW, it appears all very complicated, at least from what I can see on the screenshots: "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage"- "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You hit Kolkar Stormer for 25" - "Your Strike hits Kolkar Stormer for 52" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "Kolkar Stormer dies" ... Oh my God, what's next? "Your Shoes got a Hole of 1.5 inch from too much Walking"? ;)

[Jarulf]

That place with all the thorns is Stranglethorn Vale I suppose?

Also a Barrens giraffe?!?! :blink:  :blink: Please tell me that's it's some kind of sick joke and not a real monster...

Overall, excellent screenshots, overwhelmingly beautiful.

It is in the Barrens. You see it on many mountains. The giraffe is actually a "yellow" animal that doesn't attack you. It is not anambient level 1 though, so it put up some fight (although I was a bit higher than it in that case I think). I just wanted to see how it looks fighting.

[Jarulf]

Nice screenshot Jarulf, but you know, all those on-screen statistic messages and numbers and the galores of icons, which remind me rather of some air- or spacecraft cockpit controls and messages than a fun game, are yet another reason why I won't get into MMORPG's (I think most of them work this way?). That's what I like about Diablo: You just put your points into the (rather self-explaining) spells of your choice, and there you go. Very easy to understand and to use, user-friendly and fun. In WOW, it appears all very complicated, at least from what I can see on the screenshots: "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage"- "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You hit Kolkar Stormer for 25" - "Your Strike hits Kolkar Stormer for 52" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "Kolkar Stormer dies" ... Oh my God, what's next? "Your Shoes got a Hole of 1.5 inch from too much Walking"? ;)

All those messages are me not caring about the situation much. Basically it works like this. The special attacks consumes rage. A warrior get rage by perfroming normal attacks (and some special such as a charge). When you have enough, th3e icons for the special attacks light up (the ammount varies for different ones), and you can use it. i tend to just click madly not really bothering to check if I have enough rage, hence I get tons of those messages.

It is like a mage clicking madly to cast a spell but not having regaind enough mana yet, won't work. A solution is of course to not click on attacks that are not "active" until you have enough rage. So I think it is something about my playing style only :)

[Ruvanal]

It is like a mage clicking madly to cast a spell but not having regaind enough mana yet, won't work. A solution is of course to not click on attacks that are not "active" until you have enough rage. So I think it is something about my playing style only :)

You are not alone in this. ;)

[Sabra]

Thank you so much for these pictures, Jarulf. Must admit they're a lot more interesting looking than, oh ... say ... dlvl 13 ;)

[SwissMercenary]

Seeing as the time of day is implemented, could any of you answer this question:

How quickly does the game's clock go? Is 1 game day as long an actual day? Or is it a 12 hour cycle?

[TPJ]

Those of you interested in seeing more in-game shots can head over to the Basin's Picture Pages forum. There are a multitude of threads there dedicated to WoW screenies.

Glad to see so many LL folks in the beta - All the LL'ers and Basiners should get a group night together!

[--Pete]

Hi,

Right now, it seems that one day in game is one day in the real world. Also, the time seems to be PDT (the time where Blizzard's offices are). However, they have said that they are planning to look at that and maybe come up with something else. I hope they do, otherwise some people will always be playing at night, or early morning, etc.

--Pete

[Arnulf]

Nice screenshots. Thanks for posting.

What I noted so far:

* "WARNING: Jumping in the ironforge elevator results in DEATH!"

* "Captain Placeholder"

-Arnulf

[Jim]

Hi

In every MMORPG I played in, Day/Night Cycle is made up so that if you enter the game at the same time each day you experience a different time of day, this is a persistent world so the clock Never stops. :o

I think [not sure] 2 hours for daylight...1 hour for night, is the basic 3 hour cycle, I'm sure each game does have it's own cycle :D

The day/night cycle will probably not be real time.
The European server might not be ready on release.


New WoW Info @ www.mmorpg.com Author: Matthew Fusco!

Edit: ooops I forgot to mention Seasonal changes as well exisit in MMORPGs like Asherons Call in Dec/Jan/Feb there is Snow on the ground, while the rest of the year the Grass is green :rolleyes:

[TPJ]

It seems as though Blizzard is making some areas stay the same ‘season’ all the time. In the Dwarf starting town, for instance, it is winter. I believe it’ll always be that way.

Also, with regard to daylight hours, etc., there are portions of the map that seem to stay ‘dark’ all the time as well. While playing during the daylight hours on the server a few nights ago, I ran through a forest that turned the sky dark as soon as I entered it. I can’t imagine it will ever be daylight there. See below:

[Jim]

Hi

Yep that's all correct, Black forests are dark in the daytime pitch black at night & there are Mountains & towns where it will snow all year round ;)

EQ was not user friendly when it came to Night...if you did not have night vision, which Humans did Not, you were almost blind at night. You needed to find someone with a magic spell for "Night Vision"...good thing night only lasted for a short time either 30 min or 1 hour. It was a great time for characters to buy supplies :lol:

[Jim]

all those on-screen statistic messages and numbers and the galores of icons, which remind me rather of some air- or spacecraft cockpit controls and messages than a fun game,

are yet another reason why I won't get into MMORPG's (I think most of them work this way?). That's what I like about Diablo: You just put your points into the (rather self-explaining) spells of your choice, and there you go.
Very easy to understand and to use, user-friendly and fun. In WOW, it appears all very complicated, at least from what I can see on the screenshots: "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage"- "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "You hit Kolkar Stormer for 25" - "Your Strike hits Kolkar Stormer for 52" - "You fail to perform Strike: Not enough rage" - "Kolkar Stormer dies" ... Oh my God, what's next? "Your Shoes got a Hole of 1.5 inch from too much Walking"? ;)

Hi

nobbie, you really need to give at least 1 MMOPRG a try in your life time. Learning an Interface be it complex or not is easy, it's just a matter of spending a bit of time to understand the instructions. Once you learn one, the rest will be even easier to learn.

#1 HUD = Head Up Display...this is what the Interface is in the screen shot with ALL those Icons. Those icons are easier & more user friendly than Diablo 2 system of memorizing F1 thru F12 keystrokes in order to cast a spell & I noted an Up/Down arrow at the end the 12 slots to bringing up a different Icon bank so you can not only have ALL your spells available...but you can seperate them in to usefull groups like DD spells & AOE spells & Player buffs etc:

#2 Text...in most games you can filter out whichever Text messages you like...my dear friend "Thenry" could not stand the text messages in EQ..."Your Hungry or "Your Thirsty" these messages played till you bought food or drinks. In some games you can even Turn off the Text box completely.

I admit the learning curve is different in All games, but WE are Gamers...Gaming is the name of the game....GO For It :D

Jarluf Screenshot

I'm not in the WoW beta, but I'm able to read the Interface by just looking at the screen shot which I love to do with all new games. If I'm wrong with this someone Please correct me  :D

Keyboard numbers 1 thru =/+ are 12 keys to press to activate anything from using a Postion, Special Melee attack or a Spell and even let you switch weapons like in Diablo 2.

The next set of 7 [looks like room for 8 icons?] Is the same as the ones in Diablo 2...Icon  #1 Character stats #2 Quest Journal #6 Log off or for changing Options while in the game #7 Help!

The last set of 5 icons appear to be Inventory. ?

Upper left "Character Health & Mana...green = Stamina ???

Upper right Compass, Direction your moving, Location & time of day I see a 1/4 Moon ???

To the left of the compass is what I believe to be a BUFF Icon ?

The Purple bar above the Icons, measures your current XP ?

[Nystul]

I'm not in the WoW beta, but I'm able to read the Interface by just looking at the screen shot which I love to do with all new games. If I'm wrong with this someone Please correct me

Well let's see how you did!

Keyboard numbers 1 thru =/+ are 12 keys to press to activate anything from using a Postion, Special Melee attack or a Spell and even let you switch weapons like in Diablo 2.

That's pretty accurate.

The next set of 7 [looks like room for 8 icons?] Is the same as the ones in Diablo 2...Icon #1 Character stats #2 Quest Journal #6 Log off or for changing Options while in the game #7 Help!

You have the right general idea here. I actually forget what some of these are, because I never click any of them (to me the corresponding keyboard letters are easier). I believe icon #2 is acually your spells/skills list though, with icon #3 being the quests.

The last set of 5 icons appear to be Inventory. ?

Yeah. The last icon is your initial inventory. You can buy bags that hold various numbers of items for the other ones. In this case, the bag on the far left is specifically some type of ammo bag (looks like an arrow quiver, although I've never used one yet).

Upper left "Character Health & Mana...green = Stamina ???


Green = health. In some of Jarulf's pictures you may see a red bar below it, which is the warrior's rage (used for skills like mana).

Upper right Compass, Direction your moving, Location & time of day I see a 1/4 Moon ???

Yes. Also referred to as the minimap.

To the left of the compass is what I believe to be a BUFF Icon ?

In this case, it is just a status indicator that "find herbs" is active. Buffs, poison and disease, eating and drinking, a lot of things about the status of your character can be indicated in this area.

The Purple bar above the Icons, measures your current XP ?

Yes. I would think of it as a percentage of the way from your last level to the next level. When it gets all the way to the right, you level up.

[Jarulf]

Note that the full interface, including all pop up windows and such are fully scripted and customizable. There are allready many "scripts" for download that add or enhance features and change various aspects. An example of a good one is a quest script that let you see and check quests of others in your party, that way you can easilly determine common quests for example. Another such example is a kill log, it keep track of monsters you have fought, like kills, their levels, average to hit chance (for you and them), ammount of critiacal hit and damage. Obviously it varies as you level up and change equipment, but it is nice to see.

I have actually sent in a sugestion that Blizzard should themselves add a few such log functions. What I would like to see are:

Quest log that keep track and let you view quests you have done. I am the type that like to do it all and even hunt down newbie quests in other areas just to be complete. It would also be fun to see how much quests one have actually done.

Map/Location log. All regious have sub areas on the map with their own specific names. It can be a town, a lake, a ruin or whatever. In many areas you even get exp for discovering it the first time you get there (I think it has just not been added to other areas yet). It would be fun to have a list of all places you have been to and discovered (by region) to look at.

Combat log. SImilar to the existing third party script but slightly more detailed and better implemented. I would add monsters you have seen as well, not just fought and sortable by region.

Since all the above is client side, it adds no over head on the servers. It is all based on information your client recieve, it is just log functions that store such info and present it in a nice way. I can easilly see more complex logging functions that perhaps does not need to be done by Blizzard that keep track of all items you have come across and activities you have done. Perhaps the number of trips you have done on various flight/boat routes. Just for the sake of it. But then, I (we?) are statistics freaks, right?