If the leak hounds at MMO-Champion are to be believed, the next World of Warcraft patch is going to drop onto the US servers today. With it comes Blizzard's new RealID service, that lets players from Alliance and Horde, and from server to server, and even between game-to-game (Starcraft II and World of Warcraft for starters), chat without restriction to their little hearts' content. There's an extensive FAQ in place on the Battle.net site which explains some of the ideas behind the service. Reading through it, it feels like Blizzard are building their own social network off the back of World of Warcraft. The last raid of the expansion, Ruby Sanctum, is also included in the patch, although the instance won't unlock until the new code is applied worldwide. The full patch notes are below the break.
World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.5
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html
The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/
Assault on the Ruby Sanctum
For ages the red dragonflight and its noble matriarch, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, have dedicated themselves to preserving all life on Azeroth. Recently, the very heart of this virtuous dragonflight has come under threat.
An eerie silence has settled over the Ruby Sanctum, the red dragonflight's sacred lair within the Chamber of the Aspects. This troubling development has led to fears that the sanctum, home to Azeroth's largest clutch of red dragon eggs, has been breached by an unknown, sinister force. If these claims are true and immediate action is not taken, the benevolent red dragonflight might be crippled forever.
Real ID: A New Way to Connect With Your Friends on Battle.net
One of our goals for the new Battle.net is to create the framework for an online gaming experience that is even more accessible, more engaging, and more entertaining than the previous Battle.net. The newly released Real ID feature, available to World of Warcraft players as part of patch 3.3.5, is an integral part of this effort, providing you with advanced ways for forming and maintaining meaningful relationships with your friends on the service.
Real ID is a completely voluntary and optional level of identity that keeps players connected across all of Battle.net. When you and a friend mutually agree to become Real ID friends, you'll have access to a number of additional features that will enrich your social gaming experience in new and exciting ways. Go here for more details.
General
- The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid dungeon featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, has been added! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight. Please note due to the way this patch is being applied in all regions, this dungeon will not immediately be available in North America. Stay tuned to our General Discussion forum for an official announcement on the opening of the Ruby Sanctum.
- The functionality of the Vote Kick feature in the Dungeon Finder will now behave differently according to a player's history with the system. Players using the Dungeon Finder who rarely vote to kick players from a group, or rarely abandon groups before a dungeon is complete, will find that the Vote Kick option will have no cooldown. For players who frequently abandon groups or vote to kick other players, the Vote Kick option will be kept on a cooldown. This functionality will adjust itself as a player's behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.
User Interface
- Chat Frame
Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose to move conversation types into separate windows. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
- Using the Move to Whisper Window option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
- Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
- Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
- Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
- The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
- Friends List
- A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
- In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
- A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
- Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
- A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster's Real ID information in each friend's list.
- For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.
