General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Dhomeli]

Yeah. That would be the 'Sexodar' flirt, I think.

Yep, YouTube searched for 'removed draenei flirt' and found this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJxQp-KcAM

"You have heard of the Exodar? I will show you the Sexodar."

[CosmicGuitars]

Does anyone know why my Alpha client won't start? The process runs and stays visible in the task manager, but it doesn't open a window nor anything like that.

Mine still works. *shrug*

[Deleted]

Unless they could higher 1M+ beta testers to test internally, this wouldn't be enough to find all the bugs. You seem to have no idea what actually goes into a beta test period.

telling me i have no idea what goes into a beta test while at the same time saying they have 1M+ beta testers (read: people who actually test stuff) is kinda...contradictory

[Marlamin]

New full-res minimap will be going up on frontpage shortly. Here's one of the major changes compared to last build.


(Click for full-res version)

They moved the harbor/train station to the north of the zone, so now some poor guy has to redo all the railroads. They removed them (rather crudely) from the current build while they redo them.

[Simca]

Got it to extract with some fiddling and I know why it wasn't before - it's not in English. My programs think it is valid because it exists, but it only exists in some foreign locale. Not sure which, sounds like Arabic or something.

[Deleted]

Updated slightly

I decided to make a schedule of WoD information releases, both past and future. To help make things a bit more organized. I haven't included all tweets and Blue posts in this because that would make the list too long. It contains more major things. Feel free to quote it and add stuff, I may have missed something.



Legend

►=[#4f6e33] Indicates event is indirectly related to Warlords of Draenor
*=Suggestion, date/information not precisely established


January

1/16/2014 | Warlords of Draenor™—Scouting Report

1/23/2014 | Artcraft – A First Look


February

2/06/2014 | Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter Calendar 2013 Results Conference Call, Mike Morhaime is excited for WoD beta

2/07/2014 | Boubouille mentiones "the beta is definitely coming up soon as far as I know (Feb or March) and people should be on the watch"

2/11/2014 | Artcraft—Building a Garrison

2/18/2014 | Warlords of Draenor—PvP Update

2/19/2014 | Artcraft—Daughter of Draenor

2/20/2014 | Character Viewer Updated: Female Dwarf!

2/20/2014 | WoD press events held in San Francisco, Korea, and France (gameplay footage, interview etc.)

2/27/2014 | Dev Watercooler: Pruning the Garden of War


March

3/07/2014 | Dev Watercooler: Building Healthy Gameplay

3/09/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Trailer: Wish You Were Here

3/10/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Pre-Orders begin

3/18/2014 | Blizzard announced to be at PAX East, with hands-on demo of WoD with updated character models and intro experience

3/21/2014 | New Character Models - Female Dwarf Update

3/22/2014 | Warlords of Draenor - Garrison Resource (minor resource)


April

4/01/2014 | April Fools' Day, Blizzard will probably come up with some rage inducing WoD joke (about flying)

4/03/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Alpha Testing "Begins"

4/04/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Official Alpha Patch Notes

4/04/2014 | The Elder Scrolls Online launches, Blizzard will probably do something to counter it, not necessarily beta

4/07/2014 | Artcraft—Running of the Bulls

4/08/2014 Artcraft—Daughter of Argus (early preview)

4/11/2014 - 4/13/2014 | PAX East 2014 (playable WoD demo, speculation is that beta could start close to this date)

4/14/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Screenshot of the Day begins

4/17/2014 | Warlords of Draenor Official Alpha Patch Notes update (some new sections)


May

5/08/2014* | Activision Blizzard First Quarter Calendar 2014 Results Conference Call


June

6/03/2014 | WildStar launches

6/09/2014 - 6/12/2014 | E3 2014, unknown if Blizzard will show WoD there but they showed Diablo III there last year, so who knows


July

/nil/


August

8/07/2014* | Activision Blizzard Second Quarter Calendar 2014 Results Conference Call

8/13/2014 - 8/17/2014 | gamescom 2014, at which Blizzard most likely will exhibit


September

9/09/2014 | Destiny launches

9/10/2014 |Patch 5.4.0, Siege of Orgrimmar, was released a year ago

9/23/2014 | Autumnal/vernal equinox (Autumn/Fall), 02:29 Universal Time. First potential day for release of WoD

9/30/2014 | Potential release date of WoD (game software in the US is almost always released on a Tuesday)


October

10/7/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

10/14/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

10/21/2014 | Potential release date of WoD


November

11/04/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

11/06/2014* | Activision Blizzard Third Quarter Calendar 2014 Results Conference Call

11/11/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

11/18/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

11/22/2014 - 11/23/2014* | BlizzCon 2014

11/25/2014 | Potential release date of WoD


December

12/09/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

12/16/2014 | Potential release date of WoD

12/21/2014 | Winter solstice, 23:03 Universal Time. Last potential day for release of WoD

[Krazzorx]

One thing has me confused: as a "higher Rez" mini-map, is this something you did on your end that made it have a higher resolution, or something Blizz did in their new build?

[Marlamin]

One thing has me confused: as a "higher Rez" mini-map, is this something you did on your end that made it have a higher resolution, or something Blizz did in their new build?

Blizzard puts many 256x256 minimap images in the client which it uses to show you the in-game minimap, when all stitched together using a script they form a rather large image (Kalimdor is 6328x11679 for example).

I've only posted a low resolution resize (733x660) of the Draenor minimap from Build 18156 as chaud wanted to feature the full resolution (7680x7424) version as news on the frontpage.

[Deleted]

Blizzard puts many 256x256 minimap images in the client which it uses to show you the in-game minimap, when all stitched together using a script they form a rather large image (Kalimdor is 6328x11679 for example).

I've only posted a low resolution resize (733x660) of the Draenor minimap from Build 18156 as chaud wanted to feature the full resolution (7680x7424) version as news on the frontpage.

Starting to doubt the thing even exists, mmo-champion starting to borrow the "soon" thing from blizzard. Waited since Friday for a freaking minimap pic.

[Marlamin]

Starting to doubt the thing even exists, mmo-champion starting to borrow the "soon" thing from blizzard. Waited since Friday for a freaking minimap pic.

I'll be opening up the web-app (when its presentable) I wrote to display minimaps per build so that won't be a problem next time.

When a new build comes out I can update it relatively quickly (within 15 minutes to a few hours after build drops depending on me sleeping).

[Imnick]

Starting to doubt the thing even exists, mmo-champion starting to borrow the "soon" thing from blizzard. Waited since Friday for a freaking minimap pic.

Hey mate, I think you dropped this:

[solgog]

New full-res minimap will be going up on frontpage shortly. Here's one of the major changes compared to last build.


(Click for full-res version)

They moved the harbor/train station to the north of the zone, so now some poor guy has to redo all the railroads. They removed them (rather crudely) from the current build while they redo them.

Did anything change in SMV with the new build?

[rcshaggy]

So with new models will our Battletag images with our characters be updated?

Oh and I am loving these new models and I want to play with them right now and how would questing be with them? AWESOME!
*Faints from the models epicness*

[Ehnoah]

Someone can compare changes from the maps?

[Marlamin]

Someone can compare changes from the maps?

Just open the both old and new (warning, big uncompressed images) in a separate tab and switch between tabs. Always works for me!

Large changes this build include the harbor being moved, many SMV changes, zangar area in Nagrand.

EDIT: I've opened up my minisite for viewing all minimaps. Heavy WIP but the basics are there! http://marlamin.com/minimaps/

[Simca]

Just open the both old and new (warning, big images) in a separate tab and switch between tabs. Always works for me!

Large changes this build include the harbor being moved, many SMV changes, zangar area in Nagrand.

Marla so lazy he can't even post the diffs image he made and posted two pages ago.

[KillerChinchilla]

Hmmm...seems they got rid of the whole 'iron march' thing (can't remember the actual name I saw for it from another datamined map) from the coast to the entrance of Karabor including all buildings and the harbour. It's been replaced with some Zangar mushrooms and what looks like a Draenei village/farm? There's still a part of the attack from the Iron Horde on that wall of Karabor though. The area just to the south-west of that has had a lot added to it as well.

[Ehnoah]

Blade's Edge Mountains, got a big chance, let me check SMV

Edit: Wtf , wow SMV got so much changes, at least on Minimap

[Marlamin]

Marla so lazy he can't even post the diffs image he made and posted two pages ago.

Shut up Simca go back to bruteforcing texture names

[Krazzorx]

I wonder what that was in the North West corner of Tanaan that got the axe?

- - - Updated - - -

What's the Dark Blue rectangle over part of Karabor?

- - - Updated - - -

A few specific changes I've noticed in SMV that haven't been mentioned yet:

the river is a noticeably different color.

The "crop circles" on the south west are now dark blue surrounded by a charred landscape?