Vent Normalization

Something I recently found out about, which I think is just amazing is the ability to normalize vent volume. Which means when someones too quiet or loud they will just sound the same. It's really awesome, and thought I'd show some screenshots of what to do to do it.

First just click the setup button in vent. (why no one uses the wow voice chat I still wonder)


In here just make sure direct sound is checked, then click SFX button.


Here you just need to add the compressor to the list.


And finally just set the settings of the compressor to these values. You can increase or decrease the gain in order to change the volume everyone will be heard at.

Patch!

So the other night was a raid with a new patch, omfg. I love healing though, so I didn't complain. The major issues would be addons, they always break and mess up, right? Well mine were all fine, I don't use very many, and the only one that died was carbonite, and I barely use it anyways. So what's the first thing I see when I join the raid? Half the people are logging on and off trying to get their addons working. I understand this is their first time on all day, but why do they need so many to function I always wonder.

I never like patches, there's too much hassle when one comes out. First there's the patch, which needs to download. It's nice that part of it preloads once they know they are done with parts, but it can still be a while. Also, nice they use a torrent since the more people downloading it the faster it has a chance to go. Then it has to install which always takes a while. Then the servers have to come back from the extended downtime when they update the server software. Then you have all your addons that break and you need to try and get them back. Then the addon website is overloaded by everyone else trying to get their addons. Then there's the random bugs that each patch brings (strafe and jump then shapeshift into crow form, whee!). Then there is the lag from everyone trying to do everything new all at the same time, which may or may not crash the server.

Really though, this was one of the best patch days (or weeks) I've ever been through. I downloaded the patch, read the notes, got new addons, and by then the servers were up and then addon websites crashed. So I logged in and was ready for the raid that night. I'm just sitting there slightly fixing grid so it doesn't error out, which is really easy, don't even need to log off. People are trying to get a new DBM, which there isn't one, and complaining about xperl. As always people take a good 30 min to get to the instance, and even longer since they keep logging off to mess with addons.

I've never seen the point of a vastly different user interface for any of my characters. Before my mage I didn't really need any sort of bar mod. And when I used one I didn't replace blizz, just added some extra buttons I could customize of keybind. So when people completely replace the UI and then freak out on patch day, I always wonder why they do that to themselves. If you don't freak out, yay!

Outfits

Somewhere in my 50's back in old WoW I discovered Geenia Sunshadow, my favorite spot to repair in Nighthaven, sold special rare dresses. I don't know if the pretty green wedding hanbok was the first one I bought, or if it was the red one, but I always gave the red ones to alts. The green one is part of my favorite outfit I love to wear everywhere I can. I'd always be running around Ironforge looking very close to the picture of my character on here.

About the same time I got my favorite dress I also got some sort of wardrobe addon. I think that was the name back then. And finally there is some sort of default blizz option for this. I've not had time to play around with their's until now, but on almost all my characters I have four different outfits set up in my addon: cute, default, pvp, and birthday suit. The last one was a default one that came with it, but I had to modify it to only unequip durability items and of course switch out my chest armor for one of my many cute dresses I always carry with me, instead of standing around in my undies.

So my first test of this new system showed me it is missing my favorite features. With my other addons I can choose if it saves each slot. This allows me to keep a tabard equipped while switching sets without having to save the tabard in each set. Also updating new sets in this system seems a little odd. If I get a new piece of gear and wear it during the raid I got it, then come back later to update the armor set, well first it's gonna put the old armor back or complain it can't find it. Then I have to make sure I equip it right again before saving it. My old addon just hit update, and select the one to save, and accept.

Last little quirk that I don't like is it moves my armor around all weird. Not sure how the one I have is able to switch the armor almost perfectly between the same spots in my bags, but I love it. For now I'm gonna stick with my old addon. It has some issues since it's 4 patches old, but all the parts I use still work just fine. Maybe I'll code it myself if it breaks and no one updates it, but for now it's perfect and allows me to look cute whenever I want.