Random beta puttering: But I wanna tame something!

[Boven]

I checked out some of the newly opened Jade Forest zone last night. I didn't get to do a whole lot since the beta server crashed.

While having gigantic pets was fun for a bit, I went to the stables to swap my Krush and Chromaggus for some smaller beasts. When I did, I noticed that 5 of my slots at the stablemaster were empty. At first, I thought maybe this meant we were getting more slots, but then realized I was just missing 5 of my pets. I'm not sure which pets they were. When I tried to drag one of my five pets into one of those empty slots, I got an error message indicating the slot was locked. Weird. I put it down as another beta bug and swapped out Grumpy and GIR for a raptor and wolf (Takk and the Lone Hunter). They were still 'wild' sized, but at least I could actually *see* what was around me.

The intro quests/videos shown on WoW Insider and elsewhere aren't in place yet. Speaking to a Pandaren outside Garrosh's building just gives the option to teleport to either the Horde starting point (actually, to a spot a way south of it), or a temple in the middle of the zone. There are currently portals back to Org from both those places, but the one at Hellscream's Hope doesn't work. I dunno about the other one.

The most interesting beast I ran across in my short visit was the new tiger skin. I really like it. I also kind of like the turtles near the Horde starting area. The other beasts I was able to find were standard skins of bears, owls and talbuks. Unfortunately, none of the beasts are tameable yet. I imagine that'll happen in a later beta patch.

The taxi's are kind of cool. Leaving from the Horde base, the flight was on a standard wyvern. From the temple's flight point, it was a big kite with a lantern on the back.

Questing was tough just due to the large number of people there. The Horde ones consist of some of the "Kill a bunch of these guys" and "Gather 8 of those things" Nothing too difficult, unless there are 20 or more people all around trying to do the same thing.

My UI and talents make things a bit more challenging too. I really miss my macros, bar mods and other quality of life addons. I've got abilities spread all over the action bars and I resort to clicking some things. My talents are kind of all over the place as I've tried some of the new ones.

The one that gets to me in a bad way is graphics related. There's nothing wrong with the zones or anything. They're beautiful. What bothers me is that everything has a rather strong golden lighting effect to it. I'm sure it's a setting somewhere, but I can't find it. It makes things look as if it's late afternoon and there's a bright, almost harsh, pre-sunset light on everything. It kind of bothers my eyes. Since it occurs everywhere else I've gone (Orgrimmar, Mulgore, and Thunder Bluff) I figure it's some global effect. It gets to my eyes after a while.

[Malackai]

So that's might be also the reason why my beetle is gone in my 5th pet slot
I noticed when I logged on the first day i only 4 pets on me while in live i have 5 pets with me :S

[Slickrock]

The Horde ones consist of some of the "Kill a bunch of these animals"

That's one thing I want to check when I get in Beta in June. Find those quest areas, to profit greatly from skinning.

[Lohuran]

The one that gets to me in a bad way is graphics related. There's nothing wrong with the zones or anything. They're beautiful. What bothers me is that everything has a rather strong golden lighting effect to it. I'm sure it's a setting somewhere, but I can't find it. It makes things look as if it's late afternoon and there's a bright, almost harsh, pre-sunset light on everything. It kind of bothers my eyes. Since it occurs everywhere else I've gone (Orgrimmar, Mulgore, and Thunder Bluff) I figure it's some global effect. It gets to my eyes after a while.

Try this command:

/console ffxglow 0

There used to be switch for this in the graphics options menu, but it was removed in Cataclysm for some reason. Basically, "ffxglow" or "Full Screen Glow Effect" (as it was once called) turns off/on the bloom effect we get from the sky and ambient lighting. Depending on the area you're in, the effect can be either really noticeable or not noticeable at all. Well. Relatively speaking. Personally, I find that it adds a lot of life and vibrance to the scenery, but this is about making the game more comfortable to play.

Turning this off can also improve framerate. In fact, I often turned it off when I raided ICC on my old computer so I could fight with better frames. Anyway, give this command a shot. See if it helps!

*PS: If you haven't figured it out, /console ffxglow 1 turns the effect back on. ( 0 = off; 1 = on. )

[Boven]

The Horde ones consist of some of the "Kill a bunch of these animals"

That's one thing I want to check when I get in Beta in June. Find those quest areas, to profit greatly from skinning.

I was looting and skinning corpses just out of habit. About half the beasts that I skinned gave me nothing at all. The rest gave the new kind of leather scraps. I can't remember the name of the leather, though.

[Boven]

Try this command:

/console ffxglow 0

There used to be switch for this in the graphics options menu, but it was removed in Cataclysm for some reason. Basically, "ffxglow" or "Full Screen Glow Effect" (as it was once called) turns off/on the bloom effect we get from the sky and ambient lighting. Depending on the area you're in, the effect can be either really noticeable or not noticeable at all. Well. Relatively speaking. Personally, I find that it adds a lot of life and vibrance to the scenery, but this is about making the game more comfortable to play.

Turning this off can also improve framerate. In fact, I often turned it off when I raided ICC on my old computer so I could fight with better frames. Anyway, give this command a shot. See if it helps!

*PS: If you haven't figured it out, /console ffxglow 1 turns the effect back on. ( 0 = off; 1 = on. )

Ah okay. I was thinking there was a setting for that kind of thing but couldn't find anything. At first I thought the effect was just in the new areas, but when I created a Tauren monk, it affected him, too. It was actually worse in Mulgore. That was probably because it was open plains and not woods n such.

I did notice one of WoWCrendor's videos shows old versus new lighting effects, so it appears that ambient lighting in general is a lot more evident.

[Lohuran]

Oh! I also forgot to mention that the 'ffxglow' command also disables the screen effect when you're underwater (y'know. That watery distortion thing) and the blur from being drunk.

[Wassa]

When I did, I noticed that 5 of my slots at the stablemaster were empty. At first, I thought maybe this meant we were getting more slots, but then realized I was just missing 5 of my pets. I'm not sure which pets they were. When I tried to drag one of my five pets into one of those empty slots, I got an error message indicating the slot was locked. Weird.

I have the same error too. The first five stable slots are locked. Thankfully I only lost one pet since I had four empty slots, but still annoying.