jeudi 31 décembre 2015

mercredi 30 décembre 2015

Extended leave and thanks

Playing World of Warcraft on Kronos has started to take too much of my personal time and after a long period of reflection I have decided to take an extended leave from the game.

It has been a bit over 4 months since I have been on the server and I got to level 60, I downed Blackwing Lair and Zul'gurub, I did some bug testing raids, I started a Kronos comic (which I plan to continue, but on a softer schedule), I got to meet and interview many new players, I survived a couple server crashes, I got involved in increasing the Kronos population, I wrote a guide to help new players face connection issues, I asked players about advices for starting players, I made PvP polls and followed the population numbers, I tried to gather all Kronos videos on a forum thread, I broke the price of bloodvine for a couple days and many, many more things. I feel like I had a blast on Kronos! :)

But most importantly, I met a lot of great people with whom I had good experiences, that I would like to thank.

Smashyou, for being one of the very first great players I encountered, for tanking BRD like a boss, for your vanilla raidleading debut skills (which I maintain were decent) and because raptor steaks are the thing.

Smooglab, for being an incredibly comprehensive leader, because you took the time to discuss my concerns about <Friends> raiding schedule and because it felt like you cared that I had a good time in the guild. Thank you for inviting me in it, I think it was a great decision.

Isadora (Priestwithacause), for your inspiring stories that gave me the push I needed to start on Kronos. I don't think I would have started on a vanilla realm without you.

The <Friends> guild for allowing me to meet a community where I could feel at home, for your help killing big dragons and big red snakes, for making my days feel fuller, for the cheerful guild channel and because you are all incredible!

Novaskin, Jakeltank, Cruelfate and A for having the patience to go through my interviews and accepting to publish a part of who they are. With a special thank you to Gorthaur because your interview had a little something more and Pussochkram (and your mind-connecting skills!).

Andwar, because the apocalypse will be much more fun with you, especially now that you have your voidwalker and that you can gather souls. I wish I had met you sooner.

Muneca, because there can't ever be enough gnomes on this world, especially the good ones with a kind-heart. I am sorry that I did not interview more gnomes, I promess I will have a comic about them one day!

Gabz, for your patience with leavers during that SFK run (that never happened), and for your continued support with my comic and your interest in art. I hope that one day you will get your story right.

Aurigon, for your wisdom and immortal and unconditional support of the Kronos server and your infinite efforts at bringing positive changes. I think you are a huge asset of this community!

Chero, Gurky, Davros, and all the Kronos team for helping players get on Kronos, for surviving the player's ire at any and every change, for your bug solving skills in times of need and for your involvement and the time you take to make this project possible for all of us.

All the players I forgot, those who helped me get some dungeons running, answered questions on the world channel, suggested comic ideas, made me feel like Orgrimmar had people in it, the bots that sold cheap peacebloom when I was leveling alchemy, for those who gave me some advice, participated in my polls or were simply very nice people. Thank you! Thank you all!

Kronos comic 32

Special thanks to Heknowswhoheis for the idea. You asked for it :)

[<< first] [< previous] [next >] [last >>]

I now plan to post a comic a day at 9am CEST for about a month, with a couple old drawings I had in reserve. Some other blogposts might show up at 17pm and irregular comics can still happen if special things happen.

Cheers,

Tekai 

lundi 28 décembre 2015

What would you say to a player starting out on Kronos?

Over 3500 characters have now made it out to level 60 on Kronos. That is 3500 characters that had to face the hardships of leveling, farming, dungeons running, gold making and other challenges. But we also have over 20'000 characters level 10-50, with a lot of those no longer playing and many players still starting out on the server [See my interviews]. Those players will very likely end up with the same questions the previous ones had and advices might be useful to them to avoid making some mistakes.

Thus I decided to send in-game messages to 40+ different characters from varying levels, both Horde and Alliance and I asked for advices, guides or tips.

Here is what they answered :
  • Join the world chat (/join world), it helps you to find groups and enjoy your time here (B & B, 27 priest and 60 priest)
  • Make sure all your characters have four bags to carry all the items and make some money. Invest in bags early on. (K, 42 warrior, HizOdge)
  • Don't level alone, get some friends with you, 2 is the best number. (S, 40 rogue)
  • Take your time, leveling will be long. Rushing removes the fun in it. (M & A, 41 mage and 41 priest)
  • If you are tired of the leveling, try out helping some friends or doing a dungeon. (N, 60 warrior)
  • Pull mobs away from eachother. (E, 7 rogue) 
  • Think well before you chose a class, faction, race and the looks of your character because you won't be able to change those afterwards. (Pussochkram, 33 mage)
  • Prepare your questing by mapping your path with Google to make the best of your time and finish as many as possible before you return to the questgivers (K, 42 warrior)
  • Sell your items as much as you can on the auction house (K, 42 warrior)
  • Turn on instant quest text (K, 57 druid)
  • Level alchemy and herbalism, it makes easy money and helps for raiding. (B, 60 priest)
  • Do quests and use your professions to make gold (S, 60 warlock)
  • Fish wreckages in Stranglethorn Vale or sell herbs to get the gold for your level 40 mount (S, 60 warlock). 
  • If low on gold at level 20, try farming the wolves north of Duswood and selling their Soft patch of fur (6 silver each). (Ddarr, Redditer) . At level 35 you can farm the turtles in the thousand needles for their shells and scales and the silithids.
  • Install the addon Questie, and check Joana's leveling guide, unless you want to immerse yourself as much as possible (K & T, 57 druid & 29 warrior) 
  • Be friendly, you will get friends on the way. (L & B, 60 hunter & 60 priest) 
  • Set your hearthstone somewhere practical, near current questgivers  or in main cities. (Abyxsal)
  • Try to logout as much as possible in inns to get the rested bonus. (Abyxsal)
  • If playing is starting to get boring or repetitive, there's no content for you or you don't find much pleasure anymore then take a break, play some other games for a couple months or maybe on another server and then give it another try. (Muneca) 
  • Skip buying the spells and abilities you don't need (eg. Eye of the Beast, Eye of Kilrogg, etc.). (wreckfish)
  • Focus on yellow quests, orange, red and elite will give you a hard time. (Zipzo)
  • Before doing a dungeon be sure to get as many of this dungeon quests as possible. (Esibelle)
  • As a rogue pickpocket everything in your path. (Nualkrisaarx)
  • Level up First Aid and use bandages as much as possible so you don't have to eat/drink between fights. Same thing with Cannibalize as a forsaken. (Covello)
  • If you are a caster check out for low cost wands while leveling, often they end up dealing more damage than your spells for no mana cost at all. (Covello)
My personal answers :
  • Try out some classes at max level on the PTR to be sure of what you like playing at 60. It can be quite frustrating to take the time to level and find out you don't like the gameplay of your class.
  • Join the world channel with /join world (but be ready to quit it with /leave world) and a guild, add the players you meet to your friend list during your play or play with someone. Leveling alone is incredibly long and sometimes frustrating, communication with other players makes you forget about the time.
  • Check out the details about what you want to do on the server before you start (when raiding guilds do their raids, what the NA population is, if there is PvP, etc).
  • Use addons, they really add to your quality of life (titan, caster bars, Ezdismount, Mobinfo, Equipcompare, timers on dots, etc.)
  • Since line of sight and pathing are implemented, use them to your advantage.
  • Keep the low-level green and blue items (especially weapons) you get to give them to your alts or other classes you would like to level. The first levels are much faster and easier / pleasant with them. Ask guildmates for some items to help.
  • Use autowalk and abuse it. You will face long walks, very, long, walks.
  • As a hunter you don't need to put your pet's Growl on automatic, a single cast per fight should keep the aggro on your pet.
  • The server is currently in need of tanks, it could help to roll a class that can do this job. If you are a warrior, paladin or a druid you will be wanted. Besides it makes it easier to make groups as a tank. (also suggested by N, 60 warrior)
  • If the game is way too hard then maybe consider rolling a hunter or warlock, pets help.
  • Use the Census (population) (discontinued), the Kronos forums, the account manager, diverse databases, the bugreporter (and its guide please), the armory, the honor rankings and the character auctions to fulfill your needs. Also, do not hesitate to use the different class guides you can find on the internet.
  • There's also a way to see all the boss kills and check how some class is doing. A webpage that shows each guild's raid progress. And a talent calculator. And if you are into comparing servers or looking for a specific player with an item maybe Realmplayers is your tool
  • If you prefer to see how encounters, talents, scripts, PvP work first-hand with videos, there is a video thread for that! 
  • Happy about the server? Then tell the devs, they'll love it!
  • If you find someone is abusing bugs, boting or breaking the rules you can report them too. And assuming you need some assistance there should be gamemasters ready to help you on IRC (#kronos-wow & #kronos-help) most of the day.
  • If you can't connect to the server, check my guide.
  • If you wonder how long a dungeon could take, check this table. To help find players for it ask in the world channel and whisper all players of the appropriate range (with /who 30-40 for example) with a friendly message like "Hey, we are going to do the Wailing Caverns, would you like to come?".
  • When creating an auction on the auction house do not set a low bid. Players rarely bid, they buy when a short amount of time is left and you will lose money if you set a bid too low.
  • Sell fused wiring from the simple target dummies (engineers only) to make some starting gold.
  • Go for the chests. They often contain some items of value and at higher levels herbs.
  • Create level 1 bank alts to keep your items without having to mind about bag spaces. Also send items you would like to sell on the auction house to him so that you don't have to travel.
Others offered feedback about the server instead
  • Everyone I have met here is pretty nice (D, 51 rogue)
  • The population is lower at NA times but there is enough to always be able to do dungeons (B, 27 priest)
  • This is my favorite server after trying Nostalrius, Primal and Dalaran. Good scripts, no lag, and the best community I have met so far. (K, 33 warrior)
  • This is a high quality server in term of programming with a small population but I suggest you stay on it, it is getting more popular (T, 20 hunter)
  • Hit me up if you want to do some low-level dungeons. I have a druid tank, a healer, (D, 51 rogue)
  • The closest vanilla server to retail must be this one, I recommend it. (A, 44 paladin)
  • The server is worth it. (W 60 mage)
  • This server is the best scripted. (E, 60 warrior)
  • Have fun. (L, 60 hunter)
I hope you have found it insightful and have learned something useful today! If not, maybe you can think of a different advice for new players and tell it in the comments? Have a great day!

[See other articles about Vanilla] 

Kronos comic 29

Special thanks to Peasemold for the suggestion!
(no comics this afternoon at 17pm CEST, advices for new players on Kronos instead)
[Kronos comic 28] [Kronos comic 30]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

dimanche 27 décembre 2015

Who are the vanilla wow players on Kronos? (7) Pussochkram

This is the7th part of a multi-part blog serie dedicated to discovering the Kronos players, especially those that maybe would not come on the forums and talk about their experiences. See [Part 1 - Tekai] and [Part 6 - Anonymous]. Thank you very much Pussochkram for your participation and all the efforts you put into the details!

What is your current character, class and spec? What made you decide on those ?
My current character is Pussochkram, a level 33 undead female firemage in the guild <Confratres>. The character is part of a proud tradition of mine. On every realm I’ve played since retail vanilla all those years ago I’ve had an undead female mage with this exact name and appearance. The character is really an alt that I’m going to level to 60 to do some fun world PvP with. I used to do that on my Pussochkram-mages before, and also did some PvP-movies. That is something I might pick up on this server too since I miss it a bit :)

What made you decide on this server? How did you find out about it ?
I stopped playing on retail for many different reasons but still wanted to immerse myself in the World of Warcraft now and then. So a friend of mine and I started trying different 1.12.1 private server projects and comparing them side by side. While many were alright I did not find one that clicked with me, one that would make me feel like « this is it », « this is the place where I will spend a long time and level to 60 » until Kronos. Kronos had no pay to win, a blizzlike experience, good scripting and stability (a project that I think will likely stay for longer that 8 months) and seemed to be the best one I could find. As such I decided to settle on it. And so far I haven't regretted it!

*new* If you had a friend just starting out on this server, what would you like to tell him ?
I would tell him to consider what faction, class and race he rolls very carefully. Also, if you care about your characters haircut etc you don’t want to change your mind when you’re lvl 55+. If he came from retail s/he might have forgotten what vanilla WoW was like and have a shock, so in a line I’d say: « Be prepared, this is not the same as retail, think before you act, participate in the community and have fun! ».

Could you tell me a bit more about you? (who's behind this character, your mmo experience, what you feel relevant, etc)
I’m 26 years old and I live in Sweden. I have been playing WoW since vanilla, but after WotLK just in a very casual way (less than 10 hours per week, with frequent and very long breaks). This is due to my job (as a construction worker) and because I have a family and other interests and hobbies (board games and misc geek stuff).

*bonus* What is the last special, peculiar or unusual thing you have done or seen on Kronos?
That must be doing this interview. When I logged on I didn’t expect to end up participating in something like this :) .

What are your current short-term (days/weeks) and long-term (months) objectives in-game?
As I am a very casual player I do not bother setting clear goals beside playing when I feel like it and having fun. But obviously I would like to get this character to level 60, get some PvP gear and give the Alliance a hard time :D .

What was the hardest thing you've had to do on this server (quest, PvP, dungeon, group, guild, etc)? Can you be specific ?
If by hard you mean challenging to my skills then I must say one of the duels or world PvP I have encountered while leveling. Now, leveling in itself is hard... but in a different way ^^.

Did something make you wish to quit or switch server? What would ?
So far I am super-happy with my experience here and I have never considered quitting or changing server. Massive decline in population or the introduction of some sort of pay-2-win system would make me consider leaving (even if I think this is quite unlikely to happen on this server). While I’m not against helping fund the server I think it should be done in other ways.

*bonus* What do you fear in the future of Kronos and your experience here ? What do you hope for ?
I really don’t want the server to turn into a TBC one once we reach « the end of the road » with Naxxramas cleared, etc. I came here to play Vanilla and since I do not play that much I will probably never be tired of it. It’s unlikely I will ever end up in a guild that have Naxxramas on farm but that is not my goal either. I am here for the fun and to enjoy the ride without the feeling the pressure to gear up and clear the content before the next expansion.

What were the last positive and negative experiences you have had in-game?
I met a rogue named Redead yesterday and duelled him for quite a while by the sea in Desolace, that was great fun! :) As for the bad part I’m going to say trolls in world chat. But I guess it could’ve been worse.

*bonus* What do you feel most proud of having done on Kronos?
I feel most proud of making an attempt to spread some love and good vibes on the server. There is so much evil in the world I would like my means of escapism to be a paradise of peace, love and understanding hehe. I guess not everyone agrees that I’m the nicest one, but hey, at least I’m trying!

Would you like to add something?
I would like to apologize for not keeping it short, it is something I am not good at. Thank you for the interview and thank you dear reader for taking the time to make it through. See you in game!

Kronos comic 28


(no comics this afternoon at 17pm CEST, an unrelated interview blogpost instead)
[Kronos comic 27] [Kronos comic 29]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

samedi 26 décembre 2015

Kronos comic 27

Typical Horde joke on Kronos.

[Kronos comic 26] [Kronos comic 28]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

Kronos comic 26

What happens when a player has a name that begins like Nostalrius when you can't say "Nos*" on Kronos?

[Kronos comic 25] [Kronos comic 27]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

jeudi 24 décembre 2015

Kronos comic 23


[Kronos comic 22] [Kronos comic 24]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

What are the Kronos comics?

 The Kronos comics


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What are they?

The Kronos comics, Kronos wow comics or "Tekai's comics" is a serie of humoristic and thought-producing drawings about the experiences of the author and the different players on the World of Warcraft 1.12 vanilla private server Kronos. I began drawing them in November 2015 a bit after I started blogging and made them public by posting on the Kronos forums here on the 22th December.

What do they talk about?

Some of those comics are about the Zul'gurub release, the PvP state, the meaning of "blizzlike", gamemaster's decisions, new player challenges, the current bugs or general issues, the server crashes or events, special player behaviours, oddities, and much more.

For what purposes?

Because I am very busy and I thought it would be a good idea to start one more project that I don't have the time for. The comics aim at entertaining and encouraging the server's players (and maybe moderators) to think and reflect about Kronos and the decisions and story that they are making together. They are also cool to share, they might stimulate interactions between players and they offer me a personal first experience and a way to both develop and test my skills.

What about the author, is he related to the Kronos team?

I am not affiliated in any way with Kronos, I do this mostly for fun and as a personal exercise. I am free to draw about any and all aspects of Kronos, whether I like them or not (though I do try to remain respectful at all times). The point of views of the different characters do not necessarily represent my own and are often exagerated for entertainment purposes.

Where can I find them? And how often, at what hour?

The most recent comics can be found on the blog by using the kronoscomic label, like this. Since the 20th December 2015 the newest updates are also posted on the Facebook page here. The current plan is 2-3 comics per week. If you want to start at the beginning, the first comic can be found here.

Can I give you some ideas?

I tend to have too many ideas and the issue is mostly that I don't have the time to draw them ^^. Otherwise you can share some ideas with me by sending a private message on the Kronos forums, here. Do not expect too much about it though.

Can I share your drawings or post them on other forums/etc?

Sure, go ahead ! I highly encourage you to share them wherever you like as long as you don't claim those comics as your own and give a link to the original drawing.

What about the future? When will you stop?

I currently (24th december 2015) have over 25 extra comics that I have done and plenty of ideas. While I can't tell about what will happen next it is likely that I will post a comic a day for a month and then slow down due to studies. Only the future will tell.

Kronos comic 22

Or maybe it is not that clear.

[Kronos comic 21] [Kronos comic 23]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]
*Now also on Facebook! That makes it much easier to check for updates :D *

samedi 19 décembre 2015

Zul'gurub 2nd night, 6 days after release (first part)

On the 14th I raided ZG for the first time but couldn't try all bosses. Yesterday I joined an alt guildrun again and I could try most of the Zul'gurub content, with almost a full clear. Here is my experience.

We started at 20:15 ST with about 18 players, most of which were socials or new raiders. Our tanks (Epix and Rocksteady) were in good mood that night which lead to quick trash packs aggro that also died fast. This means it was difficult to see if there were issues with abilities or unlinked packs, although there were occasions where packs got separated and it seeemed abnormal (like tiger packs near Thekal). I was happy to notice that the big trolls did use their aoe-fear, something that felt missing on my previous tries.
We moved to Jin'do and pulled him into the pit (this time I thought about changing my helm beforehand, :D). A couple totems got summoned (with some staying for a bit too long, wake up melees!), mind-controlled players added a bit of chaos to the fight, which got dragged on due to Healing totems actually doing their job. I could not see if the shades interrupted players or hit for too much.
No trashpacks from outside Arlokk's room got in combat with us, she did not one-shot the raid with instant whirlwinds (I actually didn't notice any), she even gouged the tank, but she did hide for a very long amount of time (40s). Most panthers attacked the player that was marked.

Thekal cleaved the tank and had an attack speed buff that looked like a Bloodlust, we got gouged and blinded by Zath, Khan tried to heal Thekal and used his lightning shields. Then he switched to tiger-phase, the tigers spawned, he force-punched us in the face multiple times and charged random players. Nothing special I noticed.
Mar'li, working as expected, adds spawned, she charged, the 30 yards aoe worked, she did web the tanks and melees. Strangely she did charge a tank that may have been webbed. The spider spawns did not get stronger or bigger over time but it is difficult to say if they should have when they last less than 7 seconds.
On Mandokir I had no idea what to do besides not getting aggro, not standing near the boss and not doing anything if I ever got a fixate. Strangely that seemed to be plenty enough (Blizzard is good at making me think the encounters are harder than they look like in Vanilla). His whirlwind was instantaneous and lacked animation and spellcast (and hit for over 3-4k on cloth which is probably overtuned). He did not use Mortal strikes. I got double-feared after a charge (okay...?) and we had a couple of fears after charges, as expected but not otherwise. We had decided to keep most melee out because we had heard of chain-fear bugs when more than 1 player is in melee, this seemed to work well.
Overall on this first part of the raid most bosses did look like they worked with their expected scripts and abilities. Some details of spells may be incorrect (like charges supposed to select the players farthest away instead of random, etc.) and some timers may need a bit of work but I had a hard time noticing those and I was satisfied with the experience.

What stuck me the most were the instant hard-hitting whirlwinds that could easily wipe a raid, the harder-hitting abilities (crushing tanks in T2 gear on Kronos when ZG was done by UBRS players on retail) and Arlokk staying hidden until God knows how long (which is not even a bug, she did hide for that amount of time back then).

Part 2 incoming.

[See other articles about Vanilla] 

Kronos comic 13

Hakkar in 60 seconds
Synced first Hakkar kill was a minute long. Perfect if you've got a low attention span.

[Kronos comic 12] [Kronos comic 14]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]

vendredi 18 décembre 2015

How to connect on Kronos when issues arise

Are you having problems connecting, "Disconnected from the server" and/or do you get disconnected instantly from Kronos?


There are multiple possible causes to this problem, ranging from server, to internet providers, to firewalls, to game files, to user's mistakes to miscellaneous and unknown. But the main issues are often the same and can be fixed with some simple steps. You can do them one by one and stop once it works for you.

For first-time users :
  1. Verify that you have activated your Twinstar account after its creation by clicking on the link on the activation email you have received (check your emails, spam folder and junk folder). If the activation link doesn't work then either make a new account or contact jeniczek@twinstar.cz or chero@twinstar.cz (explain your problem and give him your account name, they are the Twinstar project leader and Kronos admin).
  2. Start WoW with an unmodified WoW.exe, not another server's launcher (other launchers like Feenix automatically replace your WTF files and the realmlist with theirs). If you have downloaded the game client from Kronos skip this step. If you aren't sure then replace your WoW.exe with the one made available by Kronos here or one from a neutral source.
  3. Make sure that you have the 1.12.1 patch when WoW is launched (bottom-left corner). Otherwise patch it or download and install World of Warcraft again.
  4. Make sure that your caps-lock key isn't used and that you are entering the correct password for an in-game account and not the forum account (ex: write them on Word).
  5. Make sure that your account is set to "Classic" by logging on your account from the twinstar website and changing account type.
  6. Make sure that your Firewall (Avast, Kaspersky, AVG, Peerblock) is not blocking WoW or the WoW ports [Battle net guide]. You can try to disable it for a minute and login for a test, but restart it right away.
  7. Try the steps for players already on Kronos.

For players already on Kronos :
  1. Make sure that the server is actually online here or here (top of the page). Or on Facebook here by looking at official announcements and server status. There may be a small 5-10 minutes delay for the server to show as offline. Players sometimes also give information about what is happening on the server IRC.
  2. Try changing your realmlist.wtf content (use Notepad or such to edit) to this :
    set realmlist login.kronos-wow.com
    SET realmName "Kronos"

    Note that simple writing errors happen to everyone, logon is not the same as login.
  3. Alternatively change the realmlist.wtf content to this :
    set realmlist wow.twinstar.cz
    SET realmName "Kronos"
  4. Open config.wtf in the WTF folder and check that you find SET realmName "Kronos" and SET realmList "login.kronos-wow.com" . If it is not the case or there are other values then erase those parts. Or delete the config.wtf file as a last resort (this may delete your addons preferences, try other steps before and keep a copy of the WTF folder just in case).
  5. After you have started WoW change the realm and select Kronos, not the PTR if it is not already the case.
  6. Deactivate your internet connection then reactivate it (if it doesn't cause trouble with other persons that could use it) and relaunch WoW. 
  7. Restart your computer.
  8. Make sure that you haven't received a ban by logging on your account from the twinstar website
  9. Check if the steps for first-time users apply to you. 
  10. Wait some time, 15'-60' or up to a day and try again if you are not in a rush. (self-resolving issues)
  11. As a last resort ask a gamemaster, moderator or very close friend to log on your account. Don't write your password on a public place (Facebook, forums, etc.). Afterwards always change the password. Skip this step if you don't trust doing it.
  12. Your issue may be unusual, ask your guildmates for help, use the IRC here or post on the forums. Explain the steps you have already taken (1,2,3,4, etc.) and the errors you are facing, the more precise, the better the answer. Making a post with only "I am getting disconnected" can't tell us what the issue is.

I hope this helps you, and if it does not please make a comment to tell others how you solved your issue so I can update this article. Suggestions are appreciated.

Cheers,

Tekai

Kronos comic 12

Refering to Hakkar's state after the ZG release. Mind-controlled players (especially tanks) could not be healed.

[Kronos comic 11] [Kronos comic 13]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]

jeudi 17 décembre 2015

Kronos comic 11

Mooncloth prices go up with the ZG release.

[Kronos comic 10] [Kronos comic 12]
[Other articles and comics on Kronos]

On judging other servers with an open mind

Most if not all private World of Warcraft servers are valuable and interesting. Even Nostalrius, Kronos, Feenix, Heroes WoW, Vanillagaming, WoW Mania, Voidheart and [insert all servers you know here].
Why do I say that? Well, I often see forum posts where players comment on servers different than their own and say they are bad, crappy, of low quality, useless, or various negative adjectives. 

Now, everyone can have his point of view, that is perfectly fine, we all have values, previous experiences and beliefs and preferences and the right to think by ourselves. But preferences are not the same for everyone, just like coffee, some like it hot, others cold, some like it creamy, others hate it creamy, some like it with milk, others don't, etc. Some like twink servers, others want vanilla servers, some like retail, some like only Kronos, some would be happy with no raids and no dungeons, some would be satisfied with a server that has disconnects every 30 minutes, etc. It is incredibly difficult to make a general subjective claim on the quality of a server. Because we are all different.

Then there are different ways to evaluate a server. Some will focus on population, others on how easy it is to connect, how its reputation is, if you can find a group in less than 50 minutes, what a best friend thinks of it, what a video review said about it, how the forums look like, how the Nefarian encounter looks like on a youtube video, how the leveling 1-20 is, etc. None of those ways are wrong, they are just different and show how different indicators fit different persons.
On Kronos plain letters cannot be read after a logout. That matters to me quite a lot, but I am confident that most players do not care about this feature at all. Again, preferences.
As such each server has strengths and weaknesses. Some have better scripting, some have a specific raid working, some have logging issues, some have czech forums, some allow fast leveling, etc. And we all approach them in a unique way. What is good and important for someone is not for someone else (if what you like is exploring the vanilla world maybe you don't care about the population and scripts at all). The bottom line for me is that if you have fun then it is probably good for you.

Thus when I read players saying that "server X is bad" what I think they really mean is closer to "I think server X is bad for personal reasons" and what happens is a confusion of one's own beliefs with those of every possible person. If players play on a server for some time they are probably having some fun.

There are obviously other factors that influence those posts, like a possible fear about players leaving for other servers, a will to defend the server's identity, emotional attachment to the server, an effort to prevent cognitive dissonance, a feeling of belonging to the server's group and contextual events. But I will not focus on them, not today.

To conclude, what if you played for 3 days on a very laggy server before it stopped running entirely and you had lots of fun? Was that wasted time? Was the server bad? What makes you think so?