08-03-2010, 07:29 AM
The how-to of our lovely new command.
"Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which we will not put."
~ W.C.
~ W.C.
Table of Contents
1.0: How It Works
1.1: How To Use It
1.2: How You SHOULD Use it
1.3: What Is "Too Epic"?
1.4: The Mary Sue Effect
1.5: Realism
1.6: Uniforms
1.7: More Information
1.8: Why The Fel Is Everyone Naked?!1!
This simple guide is intended to ensure people use the shiny new .addrpitem command correctly - in all of its aspects. In the short time it's been instated I've seen it abused numerous times, often without any IC explanation by the character on how they even got the armor and fancy, four foot long sword. I'm no Piroska, but here goes. Enjoy, or perish!
1.0: How It Works
Basically, Kretol has copied most weapons and pieces of armor from Common to Epic and made it completely stat-less vanity armor. These items function as any other custom items do, meaning you must drag and drop to equip them on your character. The ID numbers on the items are the same, with the mathematical addition of 200,000 added onto them. For example,[item]Fine Longsword[/item]'s ID number is 13816. To get the custom item ID number, you just calculate 13816+200,000. This comes out to 213,816, or 213816. Simple, no?
This monumental movement allows you to add just about any item model to your bags with the exclusion of off-hands, tabards, and items like mounts. Thus, my main reason for creating this guide.
1.1: How To Use It
Commands
Desired items are "created" and placed in your bags at the entering of the command .addrpitem [ID#+200000] or [Shift-Click Link]. If you are unsure of an item's ID, or would like the shift click link, simply type .lookup rpitem [Item Name] (shortcut .lo rp) For example;
[Say]: .addrpitem 213816 (Quantity number if desired goes after the ID number with a single space in between)
Or;
[Say]: .addrpitem [item]Fine Longsword[/item]
At this point, you will receive a message saying you have created your item, and may now find it in your bags and equip it.
Item Finding Programs
Here are a few links you can use to find potential items for your character.
Wowhead
Model Viewer (I strongly suggest downloading this program)
The Offical WoW Armory
1.2: How You SHOULD Use It
Ah, yes. My main motivation for constructing this guide. First, I'd like to start by talking about the term "Mary Sue". A Mary Sue is a character that is, essentially, epic. You've created this character with the intent of beating any opponent, hurdling every obstacle, and being a general badass with no room for failure. It's understandable that people may do this subconsciously, or accidentally. Whenever you watch a movie, or read a book, they tend to have a Mary Sueish character than takes down all the bad guys and ends the story with flashy moves, epic brute strength, or over-the-top dynamics. Or all three!
On CotH, these characters are deeply frowned upon. Character profiles showing these traits are always denied, and even mentioning the phrase puts people off. For the most part, it's due to it's nature. When a person refers to your character as a Mary Sue, you may take it as an insult to your RP skill, but it's not always so. As mentioned before, Mary Sues can be a complete accident, and aren't always the product of someone's ego.
The obvious problems with Mary Sues is that it usually leads to power-gaming and ultimately god-moding. Since CotH relies heavily on roll-fighting, this simply does not fly. In the land of rolls, you could be wearing full T10.5 with a giant flaming sword, and still be killed by a naked gnome. Therefore, what's the point, if the items don't even give you stat bonuses?
Overly epic armor can be seen as a sign of a Mary Sue. If you look at a character, and they are wearing glowing weapons with spikes jutting everywhere and shoulder pads that go above their head, one might instantly suspect a Mary Sue. Let's face it; Wearing that armor doesn't make your character better. If everyone is hanging out in the Ratchet Tavern with giant rifles and tusked hoods, it can degrade the quality of the RP severely and shatter any sense of immersion one might have. When in doubt, wear clothing. You don't always need armor, after all.
1.3: What Is "Too Epic"?
To be honest, this is a matter of common sense and point of view, but I thought I might lay down some suggestions and examples on what could be classified as just to much.
Armor
Sanctified Bloodmage - I'm going to point out the obvious here: It looks like what a darkfallen would wear (WoW's vampire equivalent). You know, like Prince Keleseth and the rest of the San'layn?
Cataclysm - I shouldn't need to say much. The set looks like you are covered in volcanic rock, with magma breaking through cracks. It's just not feasible in-game. Even if you were a shaman, the kind of elemental magic to make and sustain it would be ridiculous, not to mention how would you ever convince the spirits to do it?
Sanctified Lightsworn - The shoulders are caved in, with light coming from the impressions. The helm looks like a beak, and I can't imagine it ever being made by anyone, because it's just not helpful in anyway. If you were to replace the shoulders and helm, it would be fine for things such as ceremonial occasions and the like, but you shouldn't expect to wear something like this into battle or take a stroll around town.
Dark Coven - Take a look at this. Glowing runes and a Hershey Kiss hat. If you can get past that, can you honestly tell what it's made of, and how you would get it? I don't think any sane tailors would make something like this, and the Lich King doesn't do free hand outs. And by the looks of it, the Scourge are the only ones who'd even think about making something so out there.
On Death Knights; Death Knights are special cases. Often times, they have the resources to acquire very epic, and very impressively large gear because 1) They have smiths with the ability and need to make them and 2) They have the the strength and stamina to fight and otherwise move in the kind of gear you might see one in.
An example is Wrathful Gladiator's Desecration and Edge of Agony. The helm would most likely hurt the necks of anything other than a tauren and the strongest of orcs, not to mention the shoulders! Those alone would weight a massive amount. And since weapons scale depending on the race and gender, I doubt even a tauren could swing this thing. Death Knights are undead, and empowered by their Scourge Elitism. Leave the big stuff and glowing runeblades to them.
Weapons
Edge of Ruin - I have two major problems with this axe. First of all, it's huge. I mean...comically huge. Not to mention, almost nothing makes sense on it. The curve on the handle would be a detriment to your swing, and the extra blades on the side just don't make sense at all. I advise you to stay away from things like this.
Jin'rohk, The Great Apocalypse - It would be a feat of strength to even pick this thing up. Even for a Death Knight, swinging the thing would be a terror. Besides that, it glows for no reason and is curved the wrong way. I can only wonder who would make something like this, and how they would go about it. It's classic Blizzard fantasy-fail.
Armageddon - I'll put this in a very blunt way; It's bigger than you. You could not swing it. It would probably be even heavier than Jin'rohk. Simply dragging this across the floor could pose problems for most races. This isn't anime, and neither should your sword-to-height ratio be.
(Just for fun, take a look at this)
Spoiler:
![[Image: 80091113kg5.png]](http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/4374/80091113kg5.png)
Archon Glaive - I actually chuckled when I saw this. Let's assume you IC'ly acquire it somehow, whether by spending a fortune on it or making it (however you'd go about doing that), did you notice that the outside curve of the blade is stunted off with stone attachments? Yeah. Unless you can manage to get a body part in those teeny little loops where the blades are peeking out, you'll just cause some blunt trauma if you achieve the impressive feat of swinging it.
1.4: The Mary Sue Effect
As I mentioned already; Ridiculous armor makes you appear to be a Mary Sue if you do not have the IC background to back the items up. If you are a Death Knight and have a large, glowing sword, where did you get it? Was it commended to you by the Scourge? Did you create it yourself? If you have a full plate, how did you acquire it? Perhaps you were in the military, or maybe you even stole it! However, I would like to note that stealing armor as a background is a very lazy shortcut, and should only be used if you hold an event in which you RP obtaining said armor. This can be very fun, as I've used this method personally!
Mary Sues easily ruin RP. Their often taciturn or holier-than-thou attitudes cause negative reactions that don't make for good RP, unlike when it's done naturally, from a taciturn character. People may not want to approach you or RP with you because they suspect you will god-mode, or are IC intimidated by the very large axe on your back and horned helmet. You'll also find yourself attacked less if you don't look like you just hopped off the boat from Strand of the Ancients!
1.5: Realism
A point people have been making is, "This is a fantasy universe." While this may be true, things like physics and probability still exist. The Warcraft Universe is still heavily based off of real life. How could it not be? It's important that players can connect to the game they are playing. The reality is tweaked by all the things that we consider impossible at this time, like magic, demons, long-distance space travel, and talking cows/walruses/crabs/whateveryou'dliketoadds, etc. You still come back down when you jump, and still have to mine materials and cook food and sleep.
Therefore, a certain level of realism should be acknowledged. This does include how much you can carry. You may notice certain Lore figures and epic bosses carrying ridiculously large weapons/armor, but you have to remember: They are made epic by Blizzard, and Blizzard needs to appease a larger range of players. Do you think a hard core raider would be happy with a normal looking sword? No. He or she wants a giant warhammer with a head the size of a small child to crush murlocs with. It's only natural Blizzard would do this, not to mention their own twitchy fits over insanely large weapons. Sometimes I think Metzan accidentally dragged the mouse too far on the scaling slider.
This is how I do it. I use a reference from somebody in real life to compare the character to. Say...Hulk Hogan? Your relative? Arnold Schwarzenegger? It all depends on the character. I then gauge how much I think that particular person could lift, then add the other factors such as strength modification, enchantment, etc. Things like that. Then, just look at the item, maybe pull up modelviewer or wowhead. How big is it compared to your character? Does it look like it's made from a heavy material? These are things to keep in mind that I don't think everyone accounts for.
1.6: Uniforms
This is one of the more exciting things about the new command. You can use if for a guild, a small troupe, an acting gig...the duplication is incredibly easy! I think the section title really speaks for itself, and I don't doubt this possibility has already been utilized in some form or another.
Just remember, small variations can be important. I doubt you could get everyone to look exactly the same, increasingly so the more complex the set becomes. It adds a personal feel to your character, which is also important. I myself wouldn't want to look exactly like the person standing next to me. That would be...really boring!
1.7: More Information
The Player's Guide to Commands! - A rather more concise explanation of the commands, which I think you would benefit from reading anyway, should you want more information on the .addrpitem command or any others that are listed there.
Green is the New Awesome- An Index of Vanity Sets - A collection of normal, non-epic matching item sets that I highly recommend you look at. It's a work in progress, but it's still growing!
Sewer Swimming: A Guide to Sueism, godmoding and Clichés - A guide to avoid being a Mary Sue, which ties in with portions of this guide.
1.8: Why the Fel Is Everyone Naked?!1!
I believe this is a bug having to do with your cache. As Kretol explains it,
Kretol Wrote:This will happen anytime people have their cache purged. The reason you don't hear it much before is because people hardly actually purge their cache on their own. When it was force-purged due to the patch, -everyone- will see those with custom armor (that they're 'seeing' for the first time) naked, initially.
The only way we've found to fix this is to unequip and reequip your custom armor and weapons. If that doesn't work, a relog or /reload will usually do the trick.
For easy armor reequipping, I highly recommend downloading Outfitter from curse.com, as I've been having problems with Equipment Manager that WoW has built into the interface.
Update! Kretol has instated fancy new goggles you can equip and unequip in order to fix the bug! You can buy these goggles from Mok'tar, located on the second level of the GM Island Building. Go Kretol!
That concludes this guide! Remember, if it glistens, it is probably not good! Har har.
Edit: Updated with corrected grammar and spelling mistakes! Woot! (And again)
![[Image: lorn_signature.png]](http://www.powerwordstudio.com/avatars/lorn_signature.png)
![[Image: tumblr_nfm4t0FZcT1rtcd58o1_r1_500.gif]](https://33.media.tumblr.com/3291026593060f4cddcea972b198a89e/tumblr_nfm4t0FZcT1rtcd58o1_r1_500.gif)
