I hope the devs haven’t minded the glut of sql changes I’ve been posting recently to the bug tracker, but please expect a lot more. Once I finally got my Trinity server up and running, the first order of business for the testers and myself was to evaluate the current state of the game. While they are focusing on completing quests (i.e. playing /emoticons/default_tongue.png ), I began a QA sweep through the zones that has turned out to be a bit more time-consuming that I originally expected. Hopefully, though, it will measurably improve the gameplay experience of the core game. Once I am done with that I will probably start on fixing the broken quests that were logged by the testers.
I am almost through with Kalimdor zones and will be starting on Eastern Kingdoms next. To give an idea of what I am doing for each zone, here is my checklist:
[ol]
[li]Catalog all of the creature types in the zone (mobs and npcs)[/li] [li]Restore any missing mobs, remove any duplicate mobs[/li] [li]Identify rares, elites and elite rares[/li] [li]Correct any faction or creature type errors [/li] [li]Restore any missing pathing for mobs[/li] [li]Set up creature formations as necessary[/li] [li]Remove the overabundance of guards that were added due to pvp abuse in retail[/li][/ol]
After Step 1, it is generally step 5 that is the most time-consuming as the majority of rare mobs in the game do not have their pathing defined. Occasionally, some mobs will be missing (Razormane Wolves) or some formations will need to be set. Most of the other changes are designed on restoring the gameworld to a pre-3.3.5 Blizzlike state and are unsuitable for the TDB. Examples include restoring aggro on noob zone mobs, or elite status to various mobs in the world.
This is a great project, and I am glad that I can contribute. I am looking forward to actual coding changes, but right now the creature sql fixes seem to be the most necessary.