gwBBCode is go!

August 19, 2008 – 6:06 pm

After fiddling around for awhile, I finally got gwBBCode to work again. I made a simple 5 line plugin to call the parser on a post submit. Should be a bit more maintainable that way. There is a subtle problem that I can’t track down though…

Posting a build works fine… like so:

 
Current Build

Posting individual skills as icons borks my layout (I need to do some CSS-Fu to fix that) but wierder is that when posting text links, the first text link appends a closing <p> tag, any that follow it don’t… so to post text links I have to surround them in a <span> or <div> tag… like:

Cyclone Axe

 Bonetti's Defense Gladiator's Defense Executioner's Strike Dismember Axe Twist Vigorous Spirit Sprint

I’m not really sure which script is at fault, Wordpress or gwBBCode. But, it works, which is what matters… :-)

Edit: It seems it all only works on the main page and not others (for example, the post’s page itself….) trying to track down why not now.

Edit 2: I have no idea why it isn’t applying when you visit this post itself…. having them display on the index page is better than not at all though, so it’ll do for now…

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming | Tagged , | Comments (2)

New Arrival and a Separation

August 18, 2008 – 11:33 am

“World of Warcraft Programming” arrived today and based upon a short flick through it looks very comprehensive.

At 1022 pages including index it goes into some pretty good detail, which should hopefully mean I can get a good grasp on writing add-ons before Wrath of the Lich King comes out.

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, myself and Joanne have decided to take a break from WoW for awhile, there are a few reasons I think that contributed to this decision.

The first being that our characters are geared pretty much as well as can be (except for badge gear) for where the guild is and is likely to get before WotLK comes out, because of this there often feels like there is little point playing our main characters through lack of perceived progression.

The other main one is just general guild issues. As nice as everyone in the guild is (and for the most part they are, there are a few idiots but you’ll always get them) the guild as a whole is very cliquey. This isn’t necessarily the fault of anyone but it ultimately really gets annoying when someone not in the “exclusive group” asks to do something and no-one is interested yet magically when someone “cool” says it they all fall over themselves.

There are other little annoyances too but those are the main two I think.

I’m still massively looking forward to Wrath of the Lich King, it brings a LOT to WoW, so hopefully we’ll be back in Azeroth in a few months armed with Addons aplenty.

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, General, wow | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Gwen! You’ve Gotten Bigger…

August 16, 2008 – 6:21 pm

As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I ordered Guild Wars: Eye of the North with some of my birthday money, it arrived yesterday and while I haven’t really progressed passed the first few quests I thought I’d comment on Guild Wars as a whole.

GWCatacombs Guild Wars is often called an MMO-lite, you only see other players in the world when in towns or when those players are in your party. Out in the wilderness it’s just you and your party. Guild Wars also has no subscription fee, you buy the game and that’s it. You can play forever (well, until the servers shut down eventually).

At times it feels very much like a Diablo 2-esque dungeon crawler and although it has a very PvP-focused end-game it is an accomplished PvE game too. It’s probably one of the only games to really successfully blend PvP and PvE into a single game.

GWEotNI’ve played Guild Wars on and off since it launched in April 2005, I own both extra campaigns and now the expansion. I have always loved how the game plays and I think it does a lot of things right, the setting is generally fantastic with both extra campaigns having a totally new feel (Oriental for Factions and Persian/Arabic for Nightfall).

Anyway, one thing Guild Wars does great is skill-based combat and graphics. Each class has 150+ skills to choose from, what makes combat interesting is that you can only have 8 skills on your characters hotbar at a time. Making tactics and strategy important, which skills you choose to combine and take with you really matter.

Graphically it still astounds me how good the game looks after all this time. Hopefully the few screenshots I’ve posted show some of that beauty. It is a very beautiful game.

So why hasn’t it ever really kept my interest over long periods?

GWHoMI’m honestly not sure, while there isn’t the sheer amount of “stuff” to do as in World of Warcraft, there is still a LOT to work towards and obtain. Collecting “Elite” skills and getting high-end armour and weapons takes some commitment and with plenty of titles to obtain (think achievements) there is always something to work for.

I love the scenery, character designs and classes. I love the overall feel of the game and how it all works, but for some reason it’s never been enough to root me to it for days/weeks/months at a time like World of Warcraft, yet I still absolutely love the game.

What that magical “something” is that is missing, I’m not sure, but I know that at this moment I am loving Guild Wars again. Perhaps it’s the sight of Gwen, all grown up and fighting back against the enemy who destroyed everything she held dear as a child. (Ignoring the illogical nature of the fact we haven’t aged and she has, by 8 years :-) )

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

World of Warcraft Levelling Guides

August 14, 2008 – 2:56 am

The loveable and quirky Praeludiah asked me about levelling guides earlier so I thought I’d give my thoughts on most of the popular ones and the alternatives available. This entry is pretty long, so have a coffee ready and enjoy. Hopefully it’ll be informative and useful.

First of all let me quickly just state the obvious, levelling guides essentially step you through the questing process, telling you which quests to take, which to leave, where to go etc. They also generally require you to buy them for often ridiculous sums of money.

Are they worth it? In my opinion no, not at all. Let me cover each of the “popular” pay guides first, I’ll cover alternatives after. (I’m not including links to the various pay guide sites as I’m not willing to be held responsible for anything “nasty” you could potentially get from them. If you REALLY want to see the sites, you can google them, you’ve been warned.) Click Read More… to mmmm continue reading! :-)

Read More »

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, wow | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Birthday Money, WoW and Guild Wars

August 13, 2008 – 11:45 pm

As anyone who knows me will attest, I dabble in programming quite a bit. Normally not actually finishing anything but dabbling non-the-less.

For my birthday I got a little bit of money, with that money I’ve bought myself “World of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons“. It’s a well recieved book that is apparently quite thorough, written by “famous” addon authors.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get to grips with the LUA implementation WoW uses and write some interesting addons, I already have a request for a bag addon from Joanne, she hates pretty much all the bag addons I’ve ever shown her…

I’ve also bought myself the last Guild Wars expansion, Eye of the North. I keep getting twinges to play now and then so thought I’d pick it up as it was only £12.

In other news, a fellow guildy has suggested I do a beginner’s guide to WoW addons as my Addon Corner’s are only understandable by WoW Geeks :-) so that’ll be my next Addon Corner.

She also mentioned levelling guides to me so I thought I’d cover my thoughts on those along with levelling addons in my next blog post.

So busy busy me for the next few days…

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, General, wow | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Wrath Approaches…

August 12, 2008 – 9:35 pm

So, Wrath of the Lich King is being iterated over VERY quickly with new builds going up every few days it seems. So it seems likely Blizzard are on target for a mid-October-ish launch.

With that in mind I’ve been pondering what Alt to focus on to level to 70 before WotLK hits. I’ve had a 70 Hunter and got a Mage to 67 before so not really sure I want to do another as I’ve already played them. Although the Hunter pet changes are giving me pause for thought. They look incredible.

I currently have a Shammy, Pally and a Priest in the mid to late teens, but I’m not really sure who to nominate as my next 70. My very first WoW character was a priest, he made it to the late 40s (48 I think). Both Shammies and Paladins are getting a big shake-up come Wrath, with Retribution Paladins finally doing decent damage, and Shammies getting a tad more versatility.

A Shadow Priest appeals to me, mostly because I like caster classes and the SPs have good synergy with most other classes.

Shammies appeal because Joanne had one specced Enhancement and it kicked ass, and some of the changes to Enhancement look great.

Paladins appeal because I love the whole ideal of a Paladin, the Holy Warrior, even if in WoW it doesn’t totally fit that mould. There will be a LOT of undead in Wrath so…

Time is running out so I better decide soon…

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, wow | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Guild Drama and Me - A Guide

August 7, 2008 – 3:45 pm

EDIT: I’ve since rejoined after having a good long talk with the GM. Also, if you write a comment, at least don’t be coward. Pointless flamebait/troll comments will just be deleted.

Step One - Join a nice, friendly, mature guild.

Step Two - Get to know the nice, friendly people in said guild.

Step Three - Get annoyed by child doing childish things in guild.

Step Four - Put said child on ignore. (The sensible option)

Step Five - Get chastised for putting child on ignore.

Step Six - Take child off ignore and put up with childish behaviour.

Step Seven - Get fed up of childish behaviour towards yourself and fiance.

Step Eight - Get called immature for dealing with said child in a mature way.

Step Eight - Leave guild.

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, wow | Tagged , | Comments (4)

Addon Corner - Opie

August 3, 2008 – 10:27 am

Rather later than originally intended, here is the 2nd video Addon Corner. Better late than never, eh!

This time covering the Ring-based Shortcut mod, Opie. Again, I apologise for my voiceover… It’ll get better… eventually.


Hope you enjoy it.

By pucechan | Posted in Addon Corner, Gaming, wow | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

More Kara!

July 24, 2008 – 5:46 pm

Maiden, Dead AgainSo, on the 22nd we visited Karazhan again and finally downed the Shade of Aran and completed the Chess Event. We managed Shade on the 2nd attempt thankfully. We one-shotted the Chess Event which was fun!

Last night Kara reset so we entered again, this time getting upto the Opera Event (which was the Little Red Riding Hood sequence) in one sitting. So I feel like we are making progress. We return to Karazhan on Sunday night where hopefully we’ll down Curator, Shade of Aran and the Chess Event.

At the moment I think that is as far as we can go due to group make-up and gear. But if we can consistently do that it’ll be great for now to help folks gear up with badges and Kara loot.

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, wow | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

2nd Visit to Kara…

July 21, 2008 – 1:57 am

So we returned to Kara last night and we managed to down the next two bosses. For the Opera Event we got the Wizard of Oz, so sent Dorothee, Tito, Roar, Strawman, Tinhead and The Crone to meet their maker.

After that we made our way through to The Curator, after a couple of attempts taking him down too.

We then made our way through some annoying Trash Mobs to the Shade of Aran. Even though the fight is relatively straightforward (once you know what to do at least) we couldn’t quite down him.

Hopefully we’ll do that when we return to Kara, which should hopefully be Tuesday night.

By pucechan | Posted in Gaming, wow | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)