Day: June 1, 2010

Patch 3.3.5 Regional Release Information

Patch 3.3.5 Regional Release Information

Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)
In patch 3.3.5, we will be introducing our new Battle.net system, which opens up new communication options for World of Warcraft players and lays the groundwork for integration with future Blizzard games, such as StarCraft II. In order to ensure that the implementation of this major new system goes as smoothly as possible, we plan to release the patch to North American realms first, with Europe, Korea, and the region of Taiwan following approximately one week afterward.

HudMap, Facebook / Twitter / IRC

Addon Spotlight – HudMap
It's time to talk about another addon on the front page! With the recent news of AVR and AVRe removal with Patch 3.3.5 I figured it might be the right time to mention HudMap. It will probably remind you of AVR in some ways but this addon is different and so far it looks like Blizzard will tolerate it.

What is it?
HudMap is an addon that provides a true heads-up tactical display of an encounter, with raid member positions, range data, debuff area-of-effect indicators, and more.

Additionally, HudMap ships with totem radius indicators. In general, if you want to do range or player-to-player directional stuff, HudMap's your huckleberry.

Can I use this in to replace AVRe?
Possibly. You can use it in a similar manner, though it definitely takes a very different approach to information display. HudMap is designed to give you proximity awareness of your partymates and areas that are potentially hazardous due to proximity or some other effect that boss mods generally warn you about. In that sense, yes, it's a replacement.

However, HudMap is not going to let you annotate the world, add additional data over physical locations, or let you draw obscene pictures on Arthas before you pull him. HudMap does nothing to emulate or project 3D data, and never will. Additionally, feature parity is not a goal of the project – some information is better presented in AVR than it will ever be in HudMap, and I'm not going to try to replicate that. Other data will fit HudMap better naturally, and those pieces will be actively pursued.

Is this addon going to get banned because Blizzard doesn't like AVR?
To head off the inevitable, I've asked Blizzard if this is kosher in light of the AVR breakage. They have not indicated that it is a violation of the rules. Until they indicate otherwise, HudMap will be developed and updated. The impression I get is that Blizzard's primary complaint was with AVR's ability to draw pseudo-3D images over the game world, which is outside of the scope of what the UI was intended to be able to do. HudMap doesn't do any of that.

Extending HudMap
Have an idea for a range feature? It's easy to implement one. Just see modules\example.lua for a simple framework upon which you can build your own modules.

Let's socialize!
We're at the end of a very long and very calm week-end and we all reached the point where we just need more people to hug. If you're not into hugs, it's also a wonderful opportunity to start working on a plan to take over the world.

That's why I finally created a Facebook fan page for MMO-Champion! Technically we already had a MMO-Champion group but I couldn't do much with it, the fan page might actually let me do a few interesting things.

On a slightly more personal level, I also decided to create a Twitter account and fight my fear of social networking. It will probably take a few days to get used to it but it looks like there are also a couple of fun things to do with Twitter.

MMO-Champion IRC Channel
Last but not least, if you really aren't afraid of strange people, come and say hi on IRC! If you're not sure about how to join us, just read:

I also uploaded last month statistics just for fun.