GameNotes February 4, 2020

Death At Darkmoon!

The new Arcade is up at the Darkmoon Faire!  It’s right behind the roller coaster, and is very hard to miss.  It needs to show up on the island map, and have lots of lights to show the way to it, or those great goblin neon light arrows.  The area itself looks very innocuous, with only the arcade machine and it’s operator standing at the front.  When you open/play many of the games, they come up right in that open area.  Other players who are working on games run right through yours.  These aren’t instanced like the leyline games in Nazjatar.

Here are the games.  Just click on the one you want and it will offer a description and tips for the game as well as a Start the Game! option.

 

HexSweeper is apparently based on Minesweeper (?)   You get a grid and you’re supposed to identify safe spots vs. the spots that will kill you in a second.  I do not see what the 0s and 1s represent, in theory one is safe and the other not, but I didn’t want to die again to figure it out.  Who knew there was a graveyard on Darkmoon Island?

HexSweeper Rules

 

Runematching is everyone’s favorite Bejeweled-Alike.

 

 

Bull-E Is the Leyline Puzzle from Nazjatar, only initially less torturous

 

Barrells O Fun is just the old shell game-the actual one where someone puts a pea under a walnut shell and moves it around fast and you’re supposed to pick where the pea is.  Hmm I guess there’s a cup and ball version too.  The arcade version isn’t hard but you’re kind of far away from the barrels and there a bit behind the console…it may be you can just go out nearer the puzzle as you can with a couple of others, I did not try.

 

Remembery is the in game Shell Game which I love to death.   Like the old Concentration card game.

 

Totemic Matris sounds so doable in the instructions, but it will be awhile before I conquer this one.   You toggle the totems between fire and water, trying to get them all to be water.  They’re interconnected in groups of four.

Darkmoon Faire: Home Again

While checking all my characters pockets to see if they had the current Timewalking dungeon quest to turn in, I tallied all the Darkmoon Faire quests everyone had accumulated. I decided to send them to the faire just for the experience points.

Imagine my delight when all of the craft quests there were once again giving out 5 crafting points for each quest. Fixed! I immediately started sending in everyone that had Darkmoon quests from dungeoneering, and all crafters.

It has always been such a favorite way to inch everyone along, even characters not currently not in play.

At this time of year, in World of Warcraft, I get in a habit doing the Darkmoon Faire each month, and also sending in as many as are eligible to the various Timewalking Dungeons as they occur. It’s just a nice way of making progress without feeling there’s a grind.

WOW Notes

I actually played quite a bit this weekend, and WOW was one of the games I played.  I got all my girls through Darkmoon Faire.  I ran the race with everyone, getting nailed by new floating “Mini-Zeps” which are level 100 teeny zeppelins that sail over to you and slow you down mightily.  I just couldn’t seem to avoid them.

Since I don’t always keep up on patch notes, I noticed, but didn’t try till my last character an all new track that is at the left of the original.  Holy Moleans Rocky.  I was so unprepared for the track.  I got lost pretty quickly and was up and down the hillside and swimming through the water watching the tolls of the bell just go bong bong bong. 

I will make sure I have some Elixir of Water Walking with me next time.  Cone of shame city. I tried to just end the race by making my way back to the start but the race wasn’t having any of that. Bong bong bong!  Finally I went through the banners as they wanted me to and I could end it all. Man.

New this time around also were prizes for doing the races.  Randomly I got mostly Darkmoon Prize Tickets, but I also picked up a Stationary Carousel Gryphon Ride that you could place for three minutes (but I didn’t because…my precious…).   Good thing I have 11 characters I could run through because I really liked the possibility of getting an interesting prize and would have sent a single character through over and over to see what you could get if it were allowed (which it isn’t you only get the prize first on the run through).

I see in the PTR Patch Notes they’re bringing in a Whack-a-Mole game to the Faire and some potions, NEW FISH! and…I thought I saw cooking recipes…

Darkmoon Faire

• New Darkmoon Potions: A new set of Darkmoon potions can be purchased for one Darkmoon Prize Ticket from the Draughts and Tinctures vendor, Faldar Willowshade at the refreshments table.
• Darkmoon Fishing: The elusive Darkmoon Daggermaw can now be caught off of the shores of Darkmoon Island. Return them to Galissa Sundew at the docks for a variety of prizes.

Also highly of interest to me is the opening of the Tanaan Jungle area and missions which will get you a Shipyard for your Garrison where you could have a SUBMARINE among other ships.  So exciting!  As my niece would say: Want!

Weekly Roundup

Yay, yay!  another fine edition of the weekly roundup.  It’s all about World of Warcraft this week as we push to level 25 as a guild.  At 96% as I write, it should be a done deal by later this evening 🙂  We have such good peeps in the guild.  How I do love them 🙂

It is funny because as we’re working so hard together for this goal I see people in trade WTB Guild, Want to sell Guild….I became aware recently some people just start and level up guilds  to sell them for fun and profit.  They recruit poor little chipmunk level players to grind along and help them level it up if it isn’t at level 25.

Keep the Wheel Moving!  Level Up!

All those “fun social guilds” you get invites to might all be what we’ll term “Chipmunk Guilds” for the furious efforts of low level players to complete quests and help the guild level so the bozo can sell it off.  Mice on a wheel man… By the way if it is level 25 when purchased, then the Chipmunk Master may hold onto the guild long enough to have a certain number of bank tabs or a certain amount of money made by the guild perks that toss 10% or so into the bank for every copper the Chipmunks make.

Want to sell Guild!  Used peeps included!

 

Darkmoon Faire    The faire snuck up on me this week.  I only noticed peeps (speaking of…) from Farstriders and Cenarion Circle no evil Moonguard this time.  I allowed myself to fantasize this meant these were the realms we’ll end up with after The Connection.   And Evil steenkin Moonguard will GO AWAY.   Ever the Dreamer.

 

Everquest II

I played my Defiler cat enough to see agh she’s like a Shadow Priest.  She was getting pounded by things four levels below her.  I took the time to rearrange her skills, see what each did, blah blah…sent her back out, much better!  Once I get a good handle on her I’ll make her available as a healer and Gasp be social with her to maximize her potential.  Good Kitty.

 

 

 

Darkmoon Island and the CRZ

On Sunday when I logged in and went to Darkmoon for the profession quests I was astonished to find the place packed to the gills, standing room only.  The game had without mention of it added Darkmoon Faire to the Cross Realm Zoning, and in a big way.  I didn’t count how many realms were represented but it looked from the forums as if some people were seeing as many as 15 realms crammed in.  You really couldn’t get at anything without some patience.  There was no hope of any fishing treasures.

By yesterday morning it had calmed down and we now have people from five different servers in the area.  You can do all of the quests easily, but the competition for fishing treasures is wild, much more intense than it was previously, so I’m lucky if I can circle the entire island twice and get two pools.  I send all my characters in to advance their trade skills so between all of them I’m still able to find treasure enough.

I do wish the developers would re-think the CRZ and take it away.   The ugly behavior of other server people is compounded by the fact that you can’t even put them on ignore, because “that player doesn’t exist”.  Clearly they do.  If you’re on my server grabbing my stuff and filling the air with piggy talk, then you do exist and I want to be able to make you go away.

There is no question in my mind that the population and character of Blackwater Raiders has dropped and dropped and dropped since the CRZ.  I could see it right away.  I liked Raiders because it was a sort of happy friendly server.  That character is simply gone, drowned out by Moonguard.

Needless to say I have seen this sort of large game change thrust upon players elsewhere, and it ended badly.  I’d like to think Blizzard, who I always thought had a good relationship with its players, would step back and say, oops, lets look at another solution for low population servers.