Saturday, May 30, 2009

May 30, 2009
5
So, there isn't really anything amazingly interesting going on lately. Unless you're a druid. If you've seen the post on MMOC you know what I'm talking about. New Night Elf bear forms, and Tauren bear forms. Edit - New tauren cats: linky. Edit2 - New night elf cats: linky2. Upon closer inspection vs the old bear you'll notice the following changes: * Sideburns more obviously visible. * More teeth! No kidding. * Four nails per clas instead of three. * Facial hair combed. * Snarl more smooth. * Eyebrows! * Ears modified, tauren get an earring. * Claws have more polygons (vertexes, triangles, you get the idea) * Butt is more rounded. * Texture is less affected by software blurring. (probably a higher resolution) * Tattoos are more pronounced, different colors and part of the texture itself rather than just a cheap paint job. (its very detailed check it out) * The Night elf faces look less like a giant bat, and more like an actual bear. * Eyes look better. Night Elves got a glow. * Wristband and Necklace. * Fur line / ridge on the back is more detailed. * Tauren horns have gotten a different angle. Small things, but a lot better model. I can't quite see the actual structural changes on some of the more important areas, but, allow me to show you how ridiculously BAD the current models are. And seriously they are HORRIFYINGLY BAD. Caps is intentional. Blizzard has admitted these are some of the oldest models in the game, and as stated "badly in need" of an update. Sadly the image at the top of this post probably won't be considered.. Let's look at the bear Angular and creepy from above. The side isn't too bad at least. But, for our star of today... the cat. Cat form This one scares me the most and keeps me awake at night. How on earth can whoever put this together live with himself?! This is what happens when you try to /sit Oh god, that looks totally wrong, disjointed, painful even. What on earth is the bottom half of my cat made of?! Now lets see what happens when that disjointed "move" is completed. What happened here? Our sleek cat is no longer so sleek, but shaped like an hourglass with vertexes protruding from odd angles. He has no butt whatsoever. (Whereas the bear has too much /wink) Hopefully the model update will be implemented soon. But I'm guessing it's scheduled to go live in 3.2.. so that'll be a few months yet. Wintergrasp Finally, a quick tip for Wintergrasp. Or venting frustration if you will. First of all, you can hit two walls at the same time as long as you position your vehicle at the joint between those two walls. Kindly DO so! In short, don't stand in the middle of a wall, stand between two walls and you'll hit both, do double as much damage etc. Please only use this if you are a horde ;) In the below screenshots that would be directly "under" the enemy turret. Not only are you immune to damage from that turret, you'll hit two walls at the same time. Demolishers Secondly, Demolishers are awesome for breaking the final door. Don't be an idiot and rush there if you are riding one, you'll just give the other team an easy kill. Position your vehicle like this: Or this: And, as you can see in the screenshot, you'll be able to damage the door just fine without having to get too close and get zerged to death. I've destroyed many a door in this manner. Another trick with the Demolisher, is to position yourself behind a wall that is 50% broken down. Why? Because with a little maneuvering you can shoot "over" it, and not be seen by the enemy. Meaning you can keep shooting at that damn door for a longer period of time. It's hard to see from this map, but should give you an idea: Finally, although you can easily nuke down turrets from outside the base it's very easy to simply "fly" into the enemy base after the battle has started and kill them from the inside. Or simply log on with a stealth character after the battle has already started. There's an awesome and completely covered spot where you can safely log in/out inside the base. Near the left wall of the eastern workshop inside the base. Use this info well.

5 comments:

Tristan Johnson said...

where did that picture of the cat from the top of the post come from?

bbr said...

It's from an art contest blizzard held, back in 2006 or 2007.

Quite amazing isn't it?

Anonymous said...

horrible UI there. You should cleanup those icons around the minimap.

Anonymous said...

That picture of the cat form at the top is ugly, looks more like a fucking alien than a cat.

bbr said...

Sort of a Lion / Panther / snake toothed jackal.
The horns are too short though.

But the official images have been released. Those look pretty good imo. Miles better than the current cat at any rate.