World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.1.0, Secrets of Ulduar Patch Notes

[Cairenn]

Secrets of Ulduar

Since discovering Ulduar in the Storm Peaks, adventurers have journeyed to the titan city to learn more about its mysterious past. Further exploration has revealed that the magnificent complex is above all a prison, intended to permanently confine the Old God of death, Yogg-Saron. This ancient horror has corrupted its guards, and now it is breaking through the last of its restraints. Faced with the peril of Yogg-Saron's imminent freedom, a band of mortals has made preparations for a sweeping assault on the city. Overcoming the legions of iron minions and towering defenses at the city's entrance will take tremendous strength, but even that great victory may not be enough to overcome the madness that dwells below.

The Argent Tournament Begins!

As the might of the Scourge wanes under the pressure of Azeroth’s heroes, the Argent Crusade have taken a foothold in Arthas’s back yard. Off the northeastern coast of Icecrown, the Argent Crusade have sounded the call for the most bold and brave adventurers of the Horde and Alliance to take part in the Argent Tournament. Representatives of all ten faction capitols, from Undercity to Exodar, have traveled to the tournament grounds to find champions among their heroes who will prepare for the inevitable battle against the enemy of all living beings, the Lich King.

Of particular note for our community:

User Interface

• New Advanced features for quest tracking are now available. Players will need to activate this option within the Interface panel.
• A new Color Blind option is available under the Interface panel.
• Spell Effect Level setting has been split into Particle Density and Projected Textures. Previously, Spell Effect Level controlled both of these features.
• Added new Video Mode Ultra (should only be used on the highest-end systems).
• Shadow Quality has a new higher level of detail. The slider for adjusting Shadow Quality remains the same, though there is an additional step at the high end of the spectrum.
• A new feature has been added allowing players to allocate talent points before confirming they’d like to spend them. This feature must be turned on in the Interface Options.
• A new Equipment Manager feature has been added. This feature can be turned on from the Interface Options, and will enable managing up to ten separate sets of equipped items.
• New high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets have been added. Players can enable this feature by setting Player Textures to High in the Effects Panel of the Video Options.
• Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible.
• Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold.
• The calendar now supports a guild-wide sign-up sheet, allowing the event organizer to invite his or her entire guild.
• Class roles (i.e. damage, tanking, healing) have been added to the Looking For Group feature. Class roles will be displayed when sorting through the Looking For More section.
• Quest and Achievement tracking are now combined in a new Objectives Tracking window. Advanced features can be activated from the Objectives Options panel.
• On-Use items will display in the Objectives Tracking when tracking a quest that uses them. No more searching through your bags for that on-use quest item!
• Health and Fuel/Ammo bars have been added to the vehicle interface whenever operating a vehicle.
• The mini-map has been optimized for better performance. Displays for vehicles, class colors, and off-map pings have been added as well.
• Players first entering any dungeon that will result in a lock-out timer will be warned if they are going to be saved to the instance. This warning will include an option to port to the nearest graveyard before being saved.
• New elite mob frames have been added for V-Key frames.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum. In particular this thread and this one.

You can read the full patch notes here.

Also note, we have our usual AddOn Survival Guide in place and will be continuing to keep it updated for the next couple of weeks as authors update their mods.

[Ethan Centaurai]

You might want to edit your news post Cairenn, the equipment manager didn't make it into the live build.

Quoted from a Blizzard Employee:

Originally Posted by Bornakk Certain issues were encountered with the upcoming Equipment Manager that could not be resolved in time for release with the next content update, patch 3.1. In order to ensure that this feature meets our standard of quality, we will be taking some extra time with the Equipment Manager and it will instead be released some time after patch 3.1. We understand that this feature is a widely anticipated addition and apologize for this minor delay. (source)

The UI part of the Patch Notes is actually as follows:

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment User Interface New Advanced features for quest tracking are now available. Players will need to activate this option within the Interface panel. A new Color Blind option is available under the Interface panel. Spell Effect Level setting has been split into Particle Density and Projected Textures. Previously, Spell Effect Level controlled both of these features. Added new Video Mode Ultra (should only be used on the highest-end systems). Shadow Quality has a new higher level of detail. The slider for adjusting Shadow Quality remains the same, though there is an additional step at the high end of the spectrum. A new feature has been added allowing players to allocate talent points before confirming they’d like to spend them. This feature must be turned on in the Interface Options. New high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets have been added. Players can enable this feature by setting Player Textures to High in the Effects Panel of the Video Options. Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible. Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold. The calendar now supports a guild-wide sign-up sheet, allowing the event organizer to invite his or her entire guild. Class roles (i.e. damage, tanking, healing) have been added to the Looking For Group feature. Class roles will be displayed when sorting through the Looking For More section. Quest and Achievement tracking are now combined in a new Objectives Tracking window. Advanced features can be activated from the Objectives Options panel. On-Use items will display in the Objectives Tracking when tracking a quest that uses them. No more searching through your bags for that on-use quest item! Health and Fuel/Ammo bars have been added to the vehicle interface whenever operating a vehicle. The mini-map has been optimized for better performance. Displays for vehicles, class colors, and off-map pings have been added as well. Players first entering any dungeon that will result in a Raid ID lock-out timer will be warned if they are going to be saved to the instance. This warning will include an option to port to the nearest graveyard before being saved. New elite mob frames have been added for V-Key frames. For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

[voodoodad]

Great. Patch day finally gets here, and I've been stuck at 10% for the last ten minutes. /SOB

[Donnaterassi]

They tell us we have all this cool new stuff like the " no eff up talent allocator" but nowhere in my patch notes did it say I had to turn it on first in my ui. You writing patch notes would have saved me golds.

[Donnaterassi]

Originally Posted by voodoodad2000 Great. Patch day finally gets here, and I've been stuck at 10% for the last ten minutes. /SOB

I use Bullguard Gaming for Antivirus and Firewall and even though Blizzard and the downloader program both have every possible permission, on my laptop, I still find it is necessary to disable the firewall for the duration of the patch, although this is unnecessary on the desktop. (They are configured the same in every way)

Perhaps your system is popping a permission request at 10% (mine was) that is hiding behind all the windows and, because it is hiding, you're not allowing so the firewall blocks?

[Cairenn]

Originally Posted by Donnaterassi They tell us we have all this cool new stuff like the " no eff up talent allocator" but nowhere in my patch notes did it say I had to turn it on first in my ui. You writing patch notes would have saved me golds.

hehehehehehehe

[voodoodad]

Originally Posted by Donnaterassi I use Bullguard Gaming for Antivirus and Firewall and even though Blizzard and the downloader program both have every possible permission, on my laptop, I still find it is necessary to disable the firewall for the duration of the patch, although this is unnecessary on the desktop. (They are configured the same in every way) Perhaps your system is popping a permission request at 10% (mine was) that is hiding behind all the windows and, because it is hiding, you're not allowing so the firewall blocks?

It wasn't a firewall issue as I always turn it off on patch days. Although the downloader ALWAYS says "you appear to be behind a firewall." Anyway, I ended up dl'ing the patch from fileplanet or some such. It took about 10 minutes to dl and another half hour to install.