MTC Monday: Kerreck

Meet The Crew Monday is an opportunity to find out more about all the TAURENS we have in Harms Way. Apparently we only have TAURENS. What? My brain is fine, thanks for asking.

Kerreck
Tauren Druid
Balance/Restoration

Location:
Melbourne, Victoria

Age:
26

Likes:
Picking flowers, punting gnomes, raiding alliance cities.

Dislikes:
Humans, dwarves, night elves, dranei, GNOMES!

Most Epic Moment:
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Sporran defending Sylvanas from an Alliance raid. I was blasting the Alliance into smudges on the ground while Sporran ensured I stayed alive longer than they did. Forty Alliance, countless Undercity Guards, a pissed off banshee queen and two very dangerous tauren. It was beautiful.




Kerreck has always had a passion for destroying things, a trait not often seen in tauren druids. After honing his destructive skills in the lush green plains of Mulgore, Kerreck set out to find his fortune. Young and naïve, Kerreck believed he was ten-feet tall and bulletproof. After meeting Sporran, Kerreck realised that together they actually were ten-feet tall and bulletproof. The pair have been inseparable ever since.

The taurens travelled all over Azeroth, destroying any of the foolish Alliance that got in their way - and there were many. Kerreck's irrational fear and hatred of gnomes (similar to how an elekk is scared of mice) has led to the two paying special attention to any situations involving their slaughter, of which there were many more.

Seeing the opportunity to develop his destructive potential, Kerreck joined Harms Way shortly after Sporran did. Now, along with his own talents, Kerreck hopes to help others attain the skills necessary to sow maximum havoc within the Alliance ranks.


That's quite enough tauren for this week. If you'd like to see your character in this space, in all their splendour and glory, drop Ahzae a line. If you're not a tauren, you'll probably make him weep with happiness. Tune in next week for what will probably be another tauren! 
*runs away cackling madly*

A whip-crack went his whuppy tail!

The song says it all:





Actually, if Tribute said it all then there'd be nothing to post here.


After spending the day in villain mode, trying to keep things truly sadistic, Harms Way has thwarted me in ways I never expected:




Malygos Result:
Our nemesis has fallen! With A Poke In The Eye! On the first attempt!


Harms Way decided to impede my evil plans early by one-shotting Malygos with only 8 members. Given the grief that Big Blue has caused us in the past, I thought he'd be a perfect way to start Sadism Sunday. You let me down Blue...

In order to burn the time we had left, we also took on The Hundred Club and Just Can't Get Enough, neither of which posed much of a challenge for our heroes.


Another thing that surprised me was what these heroes chose to do with the 1000g bounty that's been on Malygos's head for the past few weeks: They turned it down, and chose instead to let the guild keep the money.


Needless to say, I was stunned.




Charity Run Result:
Despite the fact that nothing of value dropped (except a schematic we got 25g from) we still managed to raise a respectable 2677g for our guild bank.


Overall:
Everyone had a blast yesterday. A few even questioned my credentials as a villain, seeing as nobody ended up punching a wall like I had hoped for.


Except for Kerreck, that is. Kerreck was determined to beat the Bonus Game no matter what. He spent the entire day cursing my name until he finally got it late in the evening.


Congratulations Kerreck, you've given me hope for the Sadistic Sundays to come!


-Ahz

Sadism Sunday

Today I'm planning on starting what will hopefully become a bit of a weekly Harms Way tradition: Sadism Sundays. The idea is very simple: For the whole day, we put ourselves in stressful, unfair and occasionally inhumane situations as a way to have fun and relax. I'm sure that there's a psycho-whatsit term for this type of activity, and bonus points for whoever finds out what it's called.

In short, we go put ourselves in harm's way for the giggles. At the same time, we're trying to put a fun spin on things by offering up a little more than usual. Here's what we have planned so far for today:

12pm: Malygos

Since the very inception of Harms Way, Malygos has been our nemesis. Sure, we'll eventually knock the crud out of him, then look back and laugh at how much trouble he caused us, but in my mind he's always the one laughing at the end of the day.

We've scheduled two hours to bring big blue down today, and the team that does it first takes home the bounty we've got on his head. At the moment, it stands at 1000g. It's up to the winning team as to how they want to distribute it - be it an even share or a random roll or a game of peggle (I'm a huge fan of the peggle addon). It's all part of the fun.

Of course, if no-one can down him before 2pm server time, the loot jackpots to next Sunday.

2pm: Charity Auction Run

The idea behind this is similar to what I've outlined before, but I'll go over the rules again just in case:

• A group is formed to travel to various instances and raids trying to get their hands on rare loot.
• Whenever any loot of value is dropped, members of the group can bid on it.
• Highest bidder wins the loot.
• All proceeds go to the gbank to fund repairs, tabs, etc.

We've run it a few times already, with huge success. I myself won a mammoth sized white Hawkstrider with a 700g bid.

The catch is that there are only four spots open (aside from myself). In order to secure a position, each player makes a silent bid - essentially, they whisper to me how much they will pay in order to secure a place on the run. The people with the four highest bids win the spots and as a bonus I will match the highest bid too (assuming I can afford to, of course).

The run itself will proceed as follows:

• 1:30pm - Silent bidding begins (you must not tell others what you bid.)
• 2pm - bidding closes and the four highest bidders are invited to the group.

We then run the following instances/raids:

• Heroic Sethekk Halls (please check that you are honored with Lower City)
• Heroic Magisters Terrace
• Karazhan
• Zul'gurub
• (optional) Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle

After all those are done there is one last option. It rarely happens, and it's open to all guild members should it go ahead, but the last is a shot at Ashes of Al'ar - the 310% flying phoenix mount.

The reason I'm scheduling these on Sadism Sunday is because the rare treasures we're after are just that: rare. Chances are pretty good that nothing of value will drop, but that's part of the fun of Sadism Sunday *cheeky grin*

6pm: Deathbringer Saurfang

At this point we'll be butting heads with Saurfang, our current roadblock in ICC. Nothing too amazing about this event, except for the laughs... and repair bills.

7:30pm: Harms Way vs The Alliance

From here we take on the Alliance in whatever way we see fit. This week, we're going to jump into the battlegrounds. We'll either make them cry for their daddies or we'll give them a few easy victories, but as long as we get to knock around some Alliance scum we'll win either way.

BONUS GAME!

Go and play this game. The first guild member to leave the journal owner's name (found at the end of the game) in the comments here will win 500g as well... keep reminding yourself while you play: This is Sadism Sunday... please try not to cheat :P

***

In any case, none of these events are mandatory - in fact, I would discourage anyone from trying to attend all of them. The whole idea behind this is to have a bit of fun and relax on a Sunday; let some of the seriousness go for a day. Anybody who doesn't attend won't be frowned upon, we're just here to have fun :D

If you ever have any devilish ideas for a Sadism Sunday event, make sure you get into contact with Ahzae and we'll slide it in there.

-Ahz

A Quick Reminder

Our first team raid is scheduled to begin tonight at 7.30pm (team 1).

UPDATE: The raid went extraordinarily well. Everyone had a blast (despite finishing a little early on a Saurfang attempt) and we got a few more gear upgrades. We'll be heading back in today(Sunday) at 6pm.
Big thanks to Eleclya for giving us a hand :D

If you want to join one of our core teams then make sure you let either myself (Ahzae - team 1 - evenings) or Raggingruck (Team 2 - midday). We have roughly six spots left on each team, so act fast or you might miss out!

-Ahz

Seven Deadly MMO Sins: Greed & Sloth

I meant to post this last Saturday, though it slipped my mind when I found out about Rozie. It certainly wasn't due to sloth... probably. Disclaimer time!

Sections of this article will contain references to actual players and situations that have occurred within an MMO. Ordinarily I'd let these sorts of things slide under the radar and allow the lessons to be learned privately (which is the ideal outcome for these sorts of things) however I view this as an opportunity to teach other potential leaders of the various pitfalls and possible solutions to these kinds of events.

No names will be used. Even if one were to guess who I am referring to, I must make it absolutely clear that I do not intend for them to be vilified in any way. Redemption is always possible and I do not wish it to be prematurely denied to them. Please keep this in mind throughout the following.

"Mine."

A quick update before we go on: Some of the sinners within our ranks have been removed since the last Seven Sins post. As always, I will name no-one, nor will I specify if they were shown the door or left of their own accord. Either way, it was always for the same reason: 

Harms Way was created with an ideal in mind; a safe haven for mature gamers who wanted a friendly place to experience what the game had to offer without having to deal with the ever-growing population of anonymous jerks. Anyone who doesn't fit in with that ideology usually won't find anything of value by staying with us, and anyone who actively tries to disrupt said safe-haven is dealt with.

Hmm, it sounds kind of harsh now that I think about it - however our main concern is for our members to enjoy themselves, we can't ever let an individual ruin it for the many.

• Greed: 

Much like its ugly cousin Gluttony, the sin of Greed is committed whenever a player becomes driven by what's in it for them, even if it ends up being a detriment to others. A good example of this is when a Battered Hilt drops in a Frozen Halls instance - one player rolls "need" with a publicly stated plan to sell it, and wins. The others in the group who could've used the upgrade now have to wait for the next hilt drop (which may never come) or fork out thousands to buy it off the greedy bastard who won it.

We all know that in a pug there are no rules - everything is fair game. In a guild setting though, that kind attitude is, and must be, completely intolerable. A guild is effectively a family; anytime you help them you in effect help yourself as they will likely be in a position to return the favour at some point.

A player who gave (or passed on) the hilt for another guild member has just done your guild an incredible service. Not only have they helped make one member stronger - which in effect strengthens the rest of your guild - but they've also reinforced the feelings of trust and loyalty amongst your members and, with any luck, everyone has walked away happy.

The guy who greedily keeps it for himself and walks away with a fistful of coins they didn't really earn doesn't belong in a guild, period.

• Sloth:

Sloth is a tricky thing to characterise in an online world. The entire basis for the game's existence effectively revolves around sloth.

To best translate this into MMO terms, think back to the old fable about the chicken (or whatever talking animal it was) who was making bread. No-one would help make the bread, but once it was made, all the other talking animals (it's a wonder any of us grew up to be even close to normal, really) wanted some of the bread, despite having done nothing at all to earn it.

There are loads of examples for this one, but I think this one says it best:

Any players who want to be carried by their guild, without having to do anything themselves (eg, study encounters, learn more about their class, etc.) as well as be given loot and basically being rewarded for simply showing up and doing close to nothing - these people are committing the sin of sloth.

Of course, Harms Way already punishes the slothful ones, even if you haven't noticed it yet. Our second gbank tab is reserved for enchanting materials and disenchantables. All of our members are frequently encouraged to put high-end disenchantables in there (green and up) so that we can disenchant them and put the materials back into the tab. Those materials are then used to give our members free enchants whenever they get a gear upgrade.

The catch is that anyone who doesn't contribute to the tab (by way of disenchantables or materials they find in dungeons, etc.) doesn't get any bread... er, free enchants. 

People who actively participate in Harms Way are the ones who benefit the most. Always.

Like I said before, Harms Way is not a particularly fun place for the people who are here just for themselves and it's all due to the fact that we don't reward people who do nothing without something being in it for them. We're like a family, we look out for each other and we all make sure we're having fun... what's the point of being in a guild if you're only in it for yourself?

Perhaps more importantly: Why would we want to keep you?

-Ahz

Our Neck of the Woods

It's late. I'm tired. I can't think of anything substantial to put up here, so I'm going to do what I normally do in this situation: write gibberish and post annoying songs for you to listen to whilst reading the post and simultaneously annoy the people around you.






So desperate was I for an idea that I asked Ruck for a topic he'd like to see something written about. His immediate response was "boobs". I really should've seen it coming (my spellcheck is saying is saying "should've" is not a correct contraction. pfft.)


Speaking of spellchecks, I recently spent twenty minutes trying to convince a robot that I was a spell-checking program - more on that another time. For now, I'd thought I'd put in an update of all the various goings-on in Harms Way.


Rozie update:
Rozie has been in contact with me recently. We're still waiting on the full restoration, but the account has been reclaimed! Hopefully we'll be seeing that mammoth... er, I mean Rozie, back with us very soon.


PvP update:
Earlier tonight Sporran, Raggingruck, Kerreck, Midnitefudge and myself created a 5v5 Arena Team by the name of No Harm Done. Befitting our name, we didn't even participate in a single match. We gathered in Dalaran, created the team and dispersed immediately after. I think we chose our name quite well.


Raid update:
Slowly our two teams are beginning to come together. Hopefully next week we'll have them together proper.
Oh, and we have a new Maobie nominee (I'll explain these towards the end of the month)! It involved an epic VoA run against the clock with an equally epic (and hilarious) "Oh sh-" ending. Great fun was had by all.


Blowing-a-fuse update:
I really should mention this too, though I won't name the person(s) responsible for triggering it (you'd know if it were you :P). A lot of waves were made recently when a new member began committing the sin of gluttony, both publicly and through whispers. This of course eventuated in me receiving whispers and even in-game mail concerning said sinner from other disgruntled members.
Please, please, please try not to be a nuisance to other members - Harms Way is a place to get away from those types... remember: I SEE ALL!


Fist-shaking update:
During an off-the-cuff guild run through Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle we came across a Blue Proto-drake drop (insanely rare mount). The roll was won by one of our new members and, after the congratulations were passed around, I cleaned the drool off my chin and made an offer for it.
"750g for the drake! :D" I said, which was all the gold I had on me. Normally I wouldn't stoop to such a level, but I've always suffered from particularly nasty cases of mount envy... I have a documented history of it. Then came the reply that almost made me faint:
"I was going to give it to one of you guys anyway, you can have it"
I literally squee'd at that moment. After the instance, the trade window opened, in went the drake and away with any part of me that resembled maturity.


I was about to click the drake to learn it when I had the most buzz-killing thought ever: Why did I only have 750g, my character is loaded... oh no. I was on my alt.


It didn't feel fair to keep the drake on an alt, when other main characters would get more use out of it. Fighting through tears and rage, I traded it to Katinalus, who has been quite happily rubbing it in my face ever since. So for you Kat, I found a picture that accurately illustrates how happy I am for you:

Have a great day everyone :D


-Ahz

Raid Lag and Disconnecting

I've noticed lately that a lot of players seem to hit a massive lag spikes during boss encounters. Worse still, a lot of players will disconnect at certain parts of these encounters everytime.


I was running in a pug ICC25 recently in which one member kept disconnecting. The member would come back screaming "Check your addons for Libhealcomm!" and, after all of the healers (including myself) admitting that we had no clue what he was talking about, he decided to randomly blame me.
"Ahzae, it's you, I know you have it."


Of course, I didn't know what "it" was, and I was using the exact same addons as all of our other healers. I simply assumed, along with most others in the raid, that his connection simply was not good enough and he was looking for a scapegoat. This turned out to be completely true, too.


I decided to find out what Libhealcomm actually was and after some research I found that it's a library used by Grid that sends hidden message to other players in the raid in order to show incoming heals. The first discussion I saw about it had players blaming Libhealcomm for disconnects due to "Addon Spam" - Addon spam is the term used for an inordinate amount of hidden messages being received by other players addons.


The discussion continued with what seemed to be much wiser more level-headed users who outlined the evidence showing that Libhealcomm spam was not what was hurting them, and that they must have a bad connection. However, I wasn't planning to stop there.


I dove in deeper into the field of Addon Spam and came up with (hopefully) a few solutions. From what I've discovered, these three addons seem to be causing the most trouble:




1. Carbonite


I really hate to admit this, because I've been a huge carbonite addict for a while, but it seems that this addon is the worst offender. Carbonite has a tendency to be constantly sending hidden messages about everything that's going on (position, hp, quest status, "Punks", etc.) and it hits a peak during raids. Add to that the fact that Carbonite uses a huge amount of cpu power and memory, and you've got a possible liability instead of a helpful tool.


Carbonite seems to have been designed for high-end users with top of the line hardware and a net connection you could drive a car through. Even if your hardware can handle what it does, it might still be adversely affecting others.


My recommendation is to stop using it. Carbonite is a terrific tool - well designed and amazingly useful - but it may be causing more problems than you realise, and not just for you.




2. Gearscore


Hooray! Another reason to hate gearscore! Sadly, Gearscore isn't the worst when it comes to addon spam, but it can still cause problems. If you use it and you have problems, switch it off and forget about it. Forever.




3. Recount


Recount is the only one on this list that doesn't affect anyone else, but it will kick the crud out of your own cpu at certain moments, causing fairly predictable disconnects.


If you find that you disconnect at times when Recount is hit hardest (eg. Raid aoe on fifty-odd whelps or just about any moment in a 25-man raid) then disable it.




Hopefully, removing these three should improve the quality of the time you spend raiding, however there could be any number of causes for what's going wrong. If you're still having problems after removing these three (or if you don't use them at all) I'd suggest doing your own research into the matter. Chances are that there are loads of people experience the same problems and just as many who have found a way to combat it.


Remember: When Cataclysm hits you'll likely be spending some time without any addons, so it's best to stay as true to the original ui whenever you can.

-Ahz