Cadia News - May 2004

	Forum Status - DOWN
05/31/04 Posted by: Codex
We've suffered a catastrophic loss of our forum data base and at the moment the forums are down while I make repairs. Unfortunatly the latest version of the forums which we have backed up is about 6 weeks old. I'm working on seeing which version we can restore the database from. Hopefully it'll be a recent one, but if not, the only other one we have available dates to April 11, which means some of our members will need to reregister once the forum is back online. In that event I will be watching the forums closly over the next couple days and will set your status to member the moment I see that you have reregistered. Check back here for further updates. I will post them as soon as I can. Update: The forums will be restored soon. Within a few hours everything should be back the way it was Monday morning. The estimated time for the return of the old forums is tonight (6/1), 11 PM EST.

Forum Status - DOWN

05/31/04 Posted by: Codex

We've suffered a catastrophic loss of our forum data base and at the moment the forums are down while I make repairs.

Unfortunatly the latest version of the forums which we have backed up is about 6 weeks old. I'm working on seeing which version we can restore the database from. Hopefully it'll be a recent one, but if not, the only other one we have available dates to April 11, which means some of our members will need to reregister once the forum is back online. In that event I will be watching the forums closly over the next couple days and will set your status to member the moment I see that you have reregistered.

Check back here for further updates. I will post them as soon as I can.

Update: The forums will be restored soon. Within a few hours everything should be back the way it was Monday morning. The estimated time for the return of the old forums is tonight (6/1), 11 PM EST.

	Auction Houses and Contest!
05/20/04 Posted by: Codex
A new feature to be implemented in WoW has been unvieled today. Auction Houses will soon be making their appearance in all major cities, Katricia revealed! The cities which will feature an auction house are listed below: Stormwind Ironforge Darnassus Ogrimmar Thunderbluff The Undercity Booty Bay The auction system will allow sellers to put their items up for auction and set the minimum price for their goods. Buyers will be able search for a variety of goods and place bids on items that catch their intrest. Once an auction is won, the winner can expect to find their item(s) in a mailbox waiting for them. The auction house in Booty Bay will be unlike the others. Where in all factional cities players could only trade between people on the same faction, the auction house in Booty Bay will allow players to trade between factions! Booty Bay will be a neutral port where both factions and can trade items in the auction format. This has already caused quite an uproar, but Blizzard is holding to their decision and urges players to wait and see the system first before judging. It is still unknown what other steps Blizzard may take to make Booty Bay a more neutral city, but expect new developments tied to this addition to the game. Alliance citizens can rest safely knowing that the Cadian Legion will be there to avenge any hostilites by the ruthless Horde. Blizzard has also announced an art contest. Participants are asked to create an original comic strip relating to the WarCraft universe. The only requirement is that the file size of the comic is kept at below 4 megs. Up for grabs is the chance to win one of 25 beta account keys!

Auction Houses and Contest!

05/20/04 Posted by: Codex

A new feature to be implemented in WoW has been unvieled today. Auction Houses will soon be making their appearance in all major cities, Katricia revealed! The cities which will feature an auction house are listed below:

Stormwind

Ironforge

Darnassus

Ogrimmar

Thunderbluff

The Undercity

Booty Bay

The auction system will allow sellers to put their items up for auction and set the minimum price for their goods. Buyers will be able search for a variety of goods and place bids on items that catch their intrest. Once an auction is won, the winner can expect to find their item(s) in a mailbox waiting for them.

The auction house in Booty Bay will be unlike the others. Where in all factional cities players could only trade between people on the same faction, the auction house in Booty Bay will allow players to trade between factions! Booty Bay will be a neutral port where both factions and can trade items in the auction format. This has already caused quite an uproar, but Blizzard is holding to their decision and urges players to wait and see the system first before judging. It is still unknown what other steps Blizzard may take to make Booty Bay a more neutral city, but expect new developments tied to this addition to the game.

Alliance citizens can rest safely knowing that the Cadian Legion will be there to avenge any hostilites by the ruthless Horde.

Blizzard has also announced an art contest. Participants are asked to create an original comic strip relating to the WarCraft universe. The only requirement is that the file size of the comic is kept at below 4 megs. Up for grabs is the chance to win one of 25 beta account keys!

	Beta PVP Server
05/15/04 Posted by: Codex
A little bit of PVP info on the next push came out today. As has been mentioned before there will be a PVP server in Beta, most likely arriving sometime next push. According to Ogre, the Beta PVP server will be a faction one, as opposed to all out PVP as some people had previously thought. Ogre posted to clear up some misconceptions that the PVP server coming out would not be free reign PVP. Blizzard is currently working on factional PVP. There is still much debate if they will have a full on PVP server like the old days of UO and Rallos Zek on EQ where everyone is free game. Ogre later when on to say that the "standard" server (the one players are expirencing in Beta now), and the factional PVP server are the only server types that will definitly be available when the game is released.

Beta PVP Server

05/15/04 Posted by: Codex

A little bit of PVP info on the next push came out today. As has been mentioned before there will be a PVP server in Beta, most likely arriving sometime next push. According to Ogre, the Beta PVP server will be a faction one, as opposed to all out PVP as some people had previously thought. Ogre posted to clear up some misconceptions that the PVP server coming out would *not* be free reign PVP.

Blizzard is currently working on factional PVP. There is still much debate if they will have a full on PVP server like the old days of UO and Rallos Zek on EQ where everyone is free game.

Ogre later when on to say that the "standard" server (the one players are expirencing in Beta now), and the factional PVP server are the only server types that will definitly be available when the game is released.

	E3 Super Update!
05/12/04 Posted by: Codex
Today kicked off the beginning of the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in L.A. For those who don't follow the game industry too closly, E3 is an annual event where everyone tied to the gaming industry meet to show off their new products in development. For those keen on reading some new WoW info, you won't find a bigger update than this. What WoW info came out of E3 you ask? Well... Cool Images of Plate Mail and a impressive sword Troll Mounts Night Elves in Plate The release date for the game looks like it will be November. Phil O'Neil, president of Vivendi Universal was quoted as saying: "World of Warcraft will launch in North America in November and in Korea the following month. " Also, according to the Blizzard WoW E3 FAQ, the game would be released "late 2004". An article at Gamespy got Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan to reveal some details for the much anticipated next push. It should occur within the next few weeks and will admit "legions" of testers. But the good news doesn't end there... Players will now have a new level cap of 55(!) the in-game mail system will be in place. 5 new zones will be ready for exploration. These include The Hinterlands, Burning Steps,Tamaris, Feralas, Ajami. The barrens will face a super revamp from quest structure to level design. Still in development is PVP. Right now the dev team is working on a few PVP battlegrounds. One of the current ideas is to allow the players to mount a Griffin or Bat (depending on their faction) which will take them into an instanced battleground. When in the battleground the players will have an tactical objective they have to complete within a certain amount of time. This system has been compared to the popular PC game, Battlefield: 1942. Alternativly, they have also considered designating certain areas "war zones" where PVP can occur freely, meaning anyone who enters this zone becomes a legitiment target to the other faction. The Guild Managment Tool is nearly ready for release. It will allow guild masters to rename up to 10 different ranks, contact members, set premissions for guild ranks and set punishments or rewards for players' actions. To further elaborate on the talent system are the much talked about prestige classes. The talent system serves to prepare players for the next phase of character development. The Demon Hunter and Archmage are the only two prestige (Hero) classes that have been currently revealed. It is still up in the air if this will be ready for launch, but Jeff Kaplan said that if not, they will be in the first major game update. The combat system is expected to change as new dungeons are released. The reason is the team working on the dungeons want to create a different type of combat players face while in an instance. Some of the changes players can expect in higher level dungeons is getting swarmed by lots of lower level creates that are immune to sleep or other crowd control spells. Another different elemnt of dungeon tactics players will have to come up with involves a Titan boss who is aided by stone statues his brings to life. Jeff Kaplan's final words in the article invole a "ultra high-end dungeon" where players have to repurify the well of eternity. In the dungeon players will have to face demons and dragons activly fighting each other! But the most intriguing part was the last where Jeff says players may even stumble upon a familar skeleton chained to a rock... Blizzard posted their E3 presentation on their main site. The main points of intrest include some new screen shots (see top of post) and some spectacular artwork (CGI as well as hand drawn). The E3 Expo continues until Friday the 14th.

E3 Super Update!

05/12/04 Posted by: Codex

Today kicked off the beginning of the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in L.A. For those who don't follow the game industry too closly, E3 is an annual event where everyone tied to the gaming industry meet to show off their new products in development. For those keen on reading some new WoW info, you won't find a bigger update than this.

What WoW info came out of E3 you ask? Well...

Cool Images of Plate Mail and a impressive sword

Troll Mounts

Night Elves in Plate

The release date for the game looks like it will be November. Phil O'Neil, president of Vivendi Universal was quoted as saying:
"World of Warcraft will launch in North America in November and in Korea the following month. "
Also, according to the Blizzard WoW E3 FAQ, the game would be released "late 2004".

An article at Gamespy got Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan to reveal some details for the much anticipated next push. It should occur within the next few weeks and will admit "legions" of testers. But the good news doesn't end there...

Players will now have a new level cap of 55(!)
the in-game mail system will be in place.
5 new zones will be ready for exploration. These include The Hinterlands, Burning Steps,Tamaris, Feralas, Ajami.
The barrens will face a super revamp from quest structure to level design.

Still in development is PVP. Right now the dev team is working on a few PVP battlegrounds. One of the current ideas is to allow the players to mount a Griffin or Bat (depending on their faction) which will take them into an instanced battleground. When in the battleground the players will have an tactical objective they have to complete within a certain amount of time. This system has been compared to the popular PC game, Battlefield: 1942. Alternativly, they have also considered designating certain areas "war zones" where PVP can occur freely, meaning anyone who enters this zone becomes a legitiment target to the other faction.

The Guild Managment Tool is nearly ready for release. It will allow guild masters to rename up to 10 different ranks, contact members, set premissions for guild ranks and set punishments or rewards for players' actions.

To further elaborate on the talent system are the much talked about prestige classes. The talent system serves to prepare players for the next phase of character development. The Demon Hunter and Archmage are the only two prestige (Hero) classes that have been currently revealed. It is still up in the air if this will be ready for launch, but Jeff Kaplan said that if not, they will be in the first major game update.

The combat system is expected to change as new dungeons are released. The reason is the team working on the dungeons want to create a different type of combat players face while in an instance. Some of the changes players can expect in higher level dungeons is getting swarmed by lots of lower level creates that are immune to sleep or other crowd control spells. Another different elemnt of dungeon tactics players will have to come up with involves a Titan boss who is aided by stone statues his brings to life.

Jeff Kaplan's final words in the article invole a "ultra high-end dungeon" where players have to repurify the well of eternity. In the dungeon players will have to face demons and dragons activly fighting each other! But the most intriguing part was the last where Jeff says players may even stumble upon a familar skeleton chained to a rock...

Blizzard posted their E3 presentation on their main site. The main points of intrest include some new screen shots (see top of post) and some spectacular artwork (CGI as well as hand drawn).

The E3 Expo continues until Friday the 14th.

	Talent System - Update
05/07/04 Posted by: Codex
On the boards today Katricia posted some information on how Blizzard intends to have the talent system work in WoW. Talent points will come to players at the rate of one per level. All talents available to classes will be uniquely designed for that class. The goal of the talent system will be two fold; It will first be a means for players to individualize their characters so that two players of the same class can be moderatly different. The second allows players to choose how they want their character to be effective. There will now be three types of talents available. General Talents: Can increase or modify a skill / spell a character has. The example used was a talent that may add a +1 modifier to all damage done using shadow magic. Spell/Ability Talent: These increase one specific ability or spell the player has. I.e.: For a Paladin they could use this to increase the damage of holy strike by +5. Exceptional Talent: These will add a new spell or ability to the character. These abilities or spells will not be available to characters through any other means. Players will be able to remove talents from their character in the event they decide they want to change where they put their points. However, a saftey measure will be in place to prevent players from abusing this. Some cost or penality will be placed on players who remove talents. What this penalty will be, Katricia did not elaborate on. The entire post can be found here.

Talent System - Update

05/07/04 Posted by: Codex

On the boards today Katricia posted some information on how Blizzard intends to have the talent system work in WoW.

Talent points will come to players at the rate of one per level. All talents available to classes will be uniquely designed for that class. The goal of the talent system will be two fold; It will first be a means for players to individualize their characters so that two players of the same class can be moderatly different. The second allows players to choose how they want their character to be effective.

There will now be three types of talents available.

General Talents: Can increase or modify a skill / spell a character has. The example used was a talent that may add a +1 modifier to all damage done using shadow magic.

Spell/Ability Talent: These increase one specific ability or spell the player has. I.e.: For a Paladin they could use this to increase the damage of holy strike by +5.

Exceptional Talent: These will add a new spell or ability to the character. These abilities or spells will not be available to characters through any other means.

Players will be able to remove talents from their character in the event they decide they want to change where they put their points. However, a saftey measure will be in place to prevent players from abusing this. Some cost or penality will be placed on players who remove talents. What this penalty will be, Katricia did not elaborate on.

The entire post can be found here.

	In-Game Mail
05/05/04 Posted by: Codex
Katricia gave out some information on the boards today regarding WoW's in game mail system. The mail system more useful than just sending letters to friends or guildmates. Once complete it will allow for players to send "packages" to friends and will be able to be used as a sales tool by allowing players to send items to other players with payment made upon delivery. To further promote Inns as the place to be, there will be mail boxes just outside of Inns which all players will be able to collect their mail from. The entire post can be found here.

In-Game Mail

05/05/04 Posted by: Codex

Katricia gave out some information on the boards today regarding WoW's in game mail system.

The mail system more useful than just sending letters to friends or guildmates. Once complete it will allow for players to send "packages" to friends and will be able to be used as a sales tool by allowing players to send items to other players with payment made upon delivery.

To further promote Inns as the place to be, there will be mail boxes just outside of Inns which all players will be able to collect their mail from.

The entire post can be found here.

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