Mania’s Arcania

I just noticed that in my post on 4/30 about the Skettis Kaliri I accidentally used a link to my local version of Petopia instead of the real live public one. (I run an Apache web server on my home machine so I can test any changes to the site before I push them live.) I’ve replaced it with the correct link now — so hitting that link will again show you the Avian Warhawk in all his glory. But I apologize for the goof, and if I do it again please let me know so I can get it fixed fast!

Darsh from Garona dropped me an e-mail about Hawkbane, the level 70 King B look-alike, on the PTR:

I was messing around in Skettis, and tried to visit Hawkbane, but he’s not in the cave anymore… Either he’s been moved to a new location, is now a rare-spawn, is now spawned for a quest, or has been removed.

I noticed when I was up there that he wasn’t around, but I wasn’t 100% certain where he was supposed to be. So — has anyone else on the PTR seen him in patch 2.1? Drop me an e-mail at Mania.Petopia@gmail.com or leave me a comment here if you have. Thanks!

I haven’t had much time for the site this weekend because I’ve been trying to help my husband get his first game out the door. I’m supposed to be detoxing from a year of high-pressure work, but instead I’m remodeling challenge grids for a casual game. Actually, it’s pretty fun — but it’s not getting the site updated, more’s the pity. And in my free time — or rather, my other free time, since all my time is technically free right now — I’ve been playing.

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As you probably know, Petopia uses the WoW Model Viewer to get nice shots of creatures in the abstract, without worrying about distracting backgrounds or weird lighting conditions. But there are some pets whose true glory isn’t reflected in the model very well, such as the lovely and ethereal Ghost Saber. The viewer can show the right model but it can’t show the ghosting effect that makes the Ghost Saber so unique.

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I spent much of last night flying around Outland looking for new creatures to tame. I didn’t find anything I hadn’t heard about yet other than a new untamable grey owl up on Twilight Ridge, called a Wild Sparrowhawk . It flees when you get near it, oddly. But it can’t be tamed, so not very exciting.

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Well, I made it! After several days of way too much WoW, Mania is now level 70! My mousing arm is killing me and my husband is pretty close to killing me, but now I can copy over to the PTR and check out all the cool new creatures myself! I still have some slogging to do on live to get my flying mount, but thankfully I can just copy myself to the PTR multiple times and solve that problem temporarily.

When I was in San Francisco weekend before last, I had some time to watch my friend play his warlock. I was surprised at the bond he had developed with his voidwalker. It wasn’t a deep emotional bond — this is a manly hard-core gamer, after all – but he spoke to it often, encouraging it in fights and chiding it when it (he) did something stupid. He also told me that he really wishes he could name it, like we do with hunter pets. The game may imply that he is summoning a new demon each time he gets the previous one killed, but to him it’s a continuous personality.

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I updated the site last night with the info about the Skettis Kaliri. I also pulled all the PTR info onto it’s own page where I can manage the updates more easily. And I added some shots that show the differences in crab and lion models.

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