World of Tanks, a different style of PvP

Not so very long ago I decided I would try World of Tanks. A friend highly recommended it, even though he knows I am not a fan of PvP.

He said it’s different than World of Warcraft’s version of PvP, and its a lot more fun.

He could not have been more right.

I have played about a thousand matches now. Not enough to be an expert by any means, but enough that I have a decent grip on the basics. I’ll be going over those in upcoming posts. For today, I just want to take a look at the two games I really enjoy, and see where the differences lie.

First off, I am only going to address the PvP portion of WoW, as compared to WoT. I can’t compare the character development, side games, or role playing aspects when only one game has those. Simply put, for PvE, it’s WoW all the way.

In each game you control one unit on a digital battlefield.

In each game there are different types of units. Granted, one group is made up of fantasy characters and the other of armored vehicles, but the underlying concept is the same.  Unlike Starcraft for instance, where you control all the units.

In each game, in theory at least, the individual units are relatively well balanced against one another. Some are better equipped or slightly higher in level, but once again the concept is very similar.

One glaring difference is that each player in WoT gets one life per battle, whereas in WoW you get unlimited lives thru respawning. The closest WoW gets to this is the reinforcement counts in some battlegrounds that limit the total deaths per side.

This causes a very different mindset when it comes to the game. With only a single life per game, it matters much more how that one life is spent.

Another difference brought about by this is the way matches are scored.

In WoW, generally, it’s a capture the flag style game. You need to achieve an objective while at the same time holding another. Even in Alterac Valley, you need to kill the enemy leader while defending yours (though he can defend himself somewhat as well).

In WoT there is the capture the flag element as well, though the flag captures are more like capturing a graveyard in WoW PvP, where you hold the position until it becomes yours. Do that, before the enemy caps your flag and your team wins.

The other way, and the way perhaps 80% of the WoT matches I have been involved in end up, is with extermination of the opposing team. Most battles last about 10 minutes or so, though they time out after 15.

In both games, the matches are a lot of fun. I do think that WoT is more balanced, but since thats the only thing they balance for its much easier to do, in my opinion.

One of the largest differences, other than the single life per match, is how advancement is handled.

In WoW you can have up to 50 characters per account, 11 per server. In WoT, as far as I know you could have every single tank in the game. It would be prohibitively expensive since you start with 5 or 6 garage slots and have to buy more with meatspace money, but you could do it if your pockets were deep enough.

The biggest difference is in WoT you get to keep your progression.

There are 10 tiers of tanks in this game, and generally you will be facing tanks within one or two tiers of yourself. I say that to say this.

Lets just say, as a for instance, that I level a WoW character up to a given level bracket. Lets just say 19 to have a number. I can then take him out and gear him up, increasing his relative worth in that bracket.

However, I have to choose whether to stop advancing with him or not. That choice affects who my opponents will be as well. Now, lets say I would also like to play in the 20-25 bracket. I have the option of leveling another character, or progressing the one I already have.

If I go up, everything I have is useless, and I am now locked out of playing in the lower bracket.

If I level an alt, I now must grind my way up to and past the other character in order to get where I want to be. In short, I’m not doing what I want to be doing (PvPing in the 20-25 bracket) I’m out in Durotar questing my way to 20.

In WoT on the other hand, the leveling system is different. Once you buy a tank at whatever tier, its forever at that tier. It can be improved thru playing however. As the tank gains XP you unlock improvements to it, and the crew gets more efficient. Eventually, you have enough XP to unlock the next tank in the line.

If you decide to buy that next tank as well, congrats, you have a new one that needs some love to get “geared up”. You also still have your old one, crew and all. The next patch won’t come along and make you regrind all your equipment again.

I think for someone who PvP’s as casually as I do, WoT is just a better model. A can, and have, walked away for five or six months, only to come back and pick up right where I left off.

Now, this post is already about twice the length I thought it would be. To avoid tossing out a whole book all at once, I’m going to stop here, after just chatting about these gameplay differences.

I could easily dump another thousand words on the financial differences of a subscription modal and a free to play with microtransactions model. Thats a post for another day though.

Until then, keep your head down and your powder dry.

See you on the battlefield.

It could happen tomorrow

Hello again folks,

By the time you read this, I’ll most likely be offline. I’m writing this from the warmth and comfort of my living room, something I’m sure I’ll be wishing I had soon enough. Within an hour or two after it goes live I’ll be in the middle of nowhere. To be exact, I’ll be deep in a Wisconsin state park testing myself and my gear.

For many years I have heard “carry the following things in your trunk every winter”  followed by a list of various items. I have faithfully done so for many years. I always wondered though, what would happen if I really needed to use those supplies.

What if the shit really did hit the fan?

Well, this week, from Monday the thru Friday I’ll be finding out.

Why do this you ask?

I say, why not?

What better way to find out if what I carry really is enough for a true emergency than to test it?

Here, let me explain in my first video blog:

Getting Ready

With any luck ill get enough pictures and/or video of my excursion to make another post or two for next week. Also with any luck the video quality will be a bit better. First time is for learning right?

Well, I suppose I’m off for now. Time to tie up a few loose ends before I go.

Have an awesome week.

I’ll catch you all on the flipside.

Goin Postal

An odd bit of synergy happened last week. I was at work listening to Tauren Think Tank, a great podcast about Wow, and oddly enough they started talking about work. (For those that don’t already know, I work for the US Postal Service)

In particular, they were talking about making Garrosh the postmaster of the Azerothian post office after he loses his job as warchief.

Now, I thought that was kinda fun sounding. Even better would be making him his own faction, complete with daily quests.

You see, in the wake of the cataclysm the Azerothian post has been struggling. Portals were destroyed, trade routes disrupted, and worse yet the Venture Company is trying to muscle in on the delivery business.

For years they have worked quietly in the background, and now they need the help of heroes like you.

There will be awesome new daily quests, and not just the package delivery you might expect.

In The Pony Express you will be asked to ride a route as fast as you can, making deliveries along the way. Similar to ram running at brewfest, but with a few twists you’ll have to discover on your own.

Ridin Shotgun is a quest reminiscent of the supply delivery quests you Horde folks might remember from The Barrens. Nothing quite like getting chased down by hordes of Venture Company employees to make your trigger finger itchy.

Now, Our troops on the front lines are always looking for that next letter from home. In Air Mail you will join with Harrison Jones once again to fly bags of mail to the troops. Watch out for Venture Company planes that try to knock you down, after all, every delivery you make is money out of their pocket!

Now, for those that accept the challenge there are great rewards to be had. Here are a few examples.

Starting at Friendly, and continuing as your standing improves, you will receive a 5c discount on all mailings, and they will arrive 10 minutes earlier. By the time you make it to exalted your mail will only cost 10c and will arrive in 20 minutes!

At honored the Pep-R Spray trinket becomes available. The trinket allows even non-rogues to blind an opponent once every 5 minutes. (Subject to diminishing returns, etc)

At revered enchanters gain access to Pattern: Enchant Boots Gort-Ex. Decreases damage from ground effects by 30% and provides a minor run speed increase.

And finally at Exalted even non-Engineers will now be able to place their very own portable mailbox!

There are other quests and rewards still in the works, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what they are.

Dech’s easy peasy chicken and dumplings

It’s a quiet morning today.

My wife and kids all either at work for the day, or off to classes. I, on the other hand, had the day off.

A perfect day to get some quality WoW time in on my Hunter.

Well, Elune was apparently displeased with me, so my WoW client was busted when I got up for the day. I was planning on making a nice post about leveling leather working and such, but that will have to wait.

Instead, you lovely folks are stuck with me reminiscing about cooking while I watch the download slider inch towards the yellow.

Not the first time I have done that here, but such is life. In the past I have shared recipes for my pulled pork, and a few other odds and ends. Today it’s easy comfort food. For my family that means chicken and dumplings.

Mmmmmm…. chicken and dumplings.

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Da mats:

2.5 pounds of chicken leg quarters

3 ribs of celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 chicken bullion cubes

2 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of chicken soup

2  1/4 cups of bisquick (or other baking mix)

2/3 cup milk

Da method:

Chicken Phase:

Place the chicken, bay leaves, salt, pepper, garlic powder, bullion cubes, celery, and onion in a stock pot with 4 quarts of water over high heat.

Once it comes to a boil, drop the heat to a simmer and hold it there for about 40 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot, and set it aside in a bowl. When it cools off enough to not burn yourself pull the meat off the bones. Toss the skin and bones. We only want the meat, and we want it kinda shredded.

While you are in the neighborhood, pull out the bay leaves and toss them too. No sense biting into one of those later =P

Put the torn up meat back in the pot, add the can of cream of chicken soup, and bring it back to a simmer.

If the stew part ends up a bit to thin for your taste, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to about 1/4 cup of water and whisk it in before going on to the dumpling phase.

Dumpling Phase:

Make your dumplings according to whatever baking mix you bought. If it’s Bisquick you’ll use 2 1/4 cup mix and 2/3 cup of milk. Pull it out in large spoon fulls, and add to the simmering stew.

Gently spin the pot so that the dumplings sink down a bit and are fully covered, but don’t stir after you add the first one.

Keep simmering until the dumplings float and aren’t all doughy any more, about 4-5 minutes.

Da servin:

I like to use warm bowls for this, it just seems to work the best. I just put a stack on the stove near the pot for the last half hour or so and it keeps everything nice and warm while its getting served.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as my family does!

A golden opportunity

Since my work hours and environment changed I have noticed something. I spend about 30 to 40 minutes a day on my phone. You know, the thing I’m writing this post on…
Ill be sitting on break, or on lunch, and just start goofing around. I check on my auctions in WoW, though I can’t do anything with them without my authenticator.
That takes all of a minute or so, and then I’m playing app games on my phone like Plague inc. or Oregon trail.
Sometimes I will pop into guild chat, though every time my screen saver engages the silly app logs me out.
There are several ways I think Blizzard could make their app experience better.
First would be to have chat with realid/battlenet friends available just like guild chat is now, preferably with a way to leave a message for those not currently online. That would be awesome.
Second, and a potential gold mine for Blizz, would be to create an app that would allow me to work my farm, or possibly fish, or even both, from my phone.
I’d actually pay good money if they put an app in my App Store that would let me fill in the downtime I have in my day with a little bit of WoW mini-game action.
Am I alone?
Anyone else see giant dollar signs above this idea?

Oooooo! What does this button do?

Meet Lidocane.

Death Knight who loves to pick flowers.

Tank who’s never tanked an instance.

Long time banker for team Dechion.

Once upon a time I decided I wanted to make a fortune as a scribe. I would pick flowers and make glyphs. I wouldn’t be making a lot on any one glyph, but if I kept a good variety up for sale I’d slowly make enough money to get by.

Making enough, that’s a good title for another post. Brb, jotting down the title.

Alrighty, I’m back sporting a fresh cup of coffee and ready to go.

Where were we?

Ah yes, Lidocane.

You see, I started this Death Knight exclusively to be a money-maker. I played thru the starting zone, and then flailed away at a few quests in Hellfire Peninsula (the zone I love to hate). The moment I hit level 60 I dropped all my quests, trained flight, and proceeded to pick flowers all the way to 85.

With that huge stockpile of inks I made enough money that I had enough to get by for a good couple of years.

The point is, when I decided that I really wanted to level Lidocane the right way, questing my way from 85 to 90. I’m having a blast actually, wondering why it took me so long to actually play this character.

So there I was, in a set of level 85 PvP blues that I had a friend craft for me to replace my Hellfire greens staring at my screen wondering how the hell I was going to do this.

I quite literally said “Oooo, what does this button do?” like the idiot sister from Dexter’s Lab.

I’m probably still doing it kinda wrong, since I didn’t study rotations or anything along those lines. I just divided my buttons up into 4 groups.

Group 1: Buttons that hurt things.

Group 2: Buttons that make me harder to kill.

Group 3: Buttons that heal me.

Group 4: Everything else.

I put groups 1, 2, and 3 on my action bars and commenced to flailing away at the bad guys in the Jade Forest.

Yep, I’m doing it wrong. My spec isn’t optimal, my gear is a mess, my UI would probably make a veteran DK player cringe. Guess what?

I don’t give a rats ass.

I’m noobing my way thru this and having more fun than I have in years!

It took abandoning every class I have ever seriously played to remind me that I don’t have to play seriously.

The key word is play, not seriously.

It’s a game, I’m playing, and I’m having a blast.

That, my friends, is what actually matters.

Spring cleaning

So, I have returned to the game. I’ve also returned to blogging. Probably not to the extent I once did, but I’m back.

I went thru and updated my blog roll to some extent, purging it of sites long since dark and quiet. I haven’t gone thru and added new ones yet.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

I also updated my character links with the ones I’m actually playing now days. At some point I should add my twitter info and my battle tag as well.

Anyhow, I have a few posts cooking, but certain things are hard to put together when I don’t have access to all the content to test things.

One I am working on, and thinking a lot about, is how to start over financially. Another is likely a gear list for my Hunter and Death Knight, as I need to make them anyway.

Anyhow, most of the cobwebs have been cleaned out. Soon actual posts with like content and stuff will be rolling thru.