The Ruby Sanctum: Red Trees, Green Grass, And Phat Purple Lewts.

There are strong signs pointing towards Patch 3.3.5 going live today, slaking the thirst of parched raiders who have drained every last drop out of Icecrown Citadel and (quite likely) their guild in the process. The update, whose major features include the Ruby Sanctum raid and Real ID/Battle.net 2.0 integration, may not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it is something, right?

Also included in 3.3.5 should be the files for the upcoming pre-Cataclysm events which feature the Trolls and Gnomes retaking the Echo Isles and Gnomeregan, respectively. Both areas will be eventually be converted into new starting areas for those races once expansion time comes around.

Do remember the following (disappointing) fact:

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…

…To help clarify and add to our original announcement, we want you to know that because we are delaying the release of patch 3.3.5 in Europe, Korea and Taiwan but not in the US, the Ruby Sanctum will not actually be open on our US realms when the patch is released over there.

We will keep you updated on when we plan to open the Ruby Sanctum and any other necessary information.

Yeah, sorry I got you all excited. You’ll have to wait on Halion and co. for at least another week.

Infinitely more interesting is the idea that the Cataclysm beta may be coming “very soon,” word that comes from right from a semi-official source. Discounting the fact that he may be far removed from the actual decision-makers, a blue poster working for Blizzard Taiwan had the following to say today:

感謝大家的熱情支持與耐心等候！Beta測試將在近期內展開。（多近期？板主不能透露確切日期，只能說……真的很快就要到了！）屆時使用的客戶端程式將可直接在Battle.net開通Beta資格的介面中直接下載，所以用不到現行的美國客戶端程式。

另外板主要提醒大家，還有許多玩家沒有將你的帳號資料寄到社群信箱來，請不要讓自己的權益睡著囉！請在6/23（三）之前將你的魔獸帳號、論壇暱稱、以及 Battle.net帳號等資訊寄來，否則你的名額我們就會釋出給其他的玩家機會囉！

Wow! Now that’s some incredible news! Wait, what? You can’t read the divine language of our new Taiwanese overlords?! Alright, here’s one translation (hint: not mine, but cleaned up a bit):

So far, no effort has been made to discount the statement, but it’s still a little early in the morning over here on the Pacific Coast, where most Blizzard employees live. One thing to note, though it’s unlikely to impact anyone reading this, is that Taiwanese players would, in fact, have to download the US client to participate. Still, 6/23, huh? The implication seems to be that’s some sort of cut-off date for beta eligibility, and I doubt it’s only for Taiwan.

The Beta Test will start very soon. (How soon? I can’t tell you the exact time but… it’s very soon!) You can download the Cataclysmclient from your Battle.net Beta interface at that time, so you don’t need to download the US client right now. Another reminder, we haven’t received the confirmation email from quite a number of players. If you do not send us the confirmation email by 6/23 (Wed), your qualification for Beta will be passed on to other players.

With updates to the alpha client coming more and more frequently, I’m inclined to accept this as truth. If you haven’t yet applied for beta testing or uploaded your current computer specs, I’d log on to your Battle.net account get on that, or else all your beta-having friends in the coming months will laugh at you.

In addition to assisting raid strategy, AVR can also be used to make it look like Ironforge has contracted the measles.

Augmented Reality is a technology that’s gained a lot of ground recently, used primarily in advertising schemes or accompanying products to allow people to “interact” in the real world with objects that aren’t actually there. Usually this is accomplished by using a “target” (a card or other surface marked up with a special code), that when read by software through, say, a webcam, displays the fictional bauble above as though it truly exists. The user can then do things such as pass their hand over it to move it about or cause it to perform other actions.

Two examples that come immediately to mind are a line of toys based on AVATAR (the one with the blue people, not the kid with the funny arrow on his head) and Sony’s interactive card game, Eye of Judgment.

Now, not too long ago, a mod hit the scene called AVR. That would be Augmented Virtual Reality, and it works on the same basic principal, except it allows things to be drawn on top of or overlaid upon an already fictional world (in this case, it’s Azeroth). Blown you mind yet? The possibilities of such a plug-in should be immediately obvious, and it sure didn’t take long before people figured out how to use it to their advantage. One popular use was to mark the locations where people should stand during Sindragosa’s air phase so that you don’t wipe the raid (which is, in my experience, notoriously hard for your average raider to remember — yes, I’m bitter about it).

I found this idea so intriguing that I nearly made a video of it for Lore Hound, but retracted the idea when I realized that though the technology was cool, it wasn’t perfect. As it lays above the environment instead of specifically being pasted on it (imagine the way a puck is lifted just above the table in air hockey), changing the camera angle or using it on variable-height surfaces like stairs rendered it nearly useless. Still, the idea was great. You could place symbols on the ground to mark things, or put range circles/rulers around your character to figure out how far away you need to be from things, but of course this would make things far too easy when it did work.

People complain about World of Warcraft‘s difficulty all the time, but it makes you wonder how many of those players are raiding with a spartan, mod-free interface. How many of us are relying on one crutch or another to get through an encounter (and, as an added wrinkle to the argument, how many of those should have been standard and provided by Blizzard in the first place)?

Blizz is generally pretty lenient about the kinds of mods people create and we tend to depend on those that give us added information about the game world. I think the reason AVR is causing such a stir, though, is that it goes one step further and allows us to affect the environment itself. It exists beyond the two-dimensional plane of our user interface and expands into the third that Azeroth occupies, and that’s a major no-no. Here’s the official line:

AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5

This is a notice that we’re making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

We’re making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we’re willing to allow.

The change we’re making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we’ve targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps. Continue Reading