Wow Ascension Private Server

Wow Ascension Review

Overview

Wow Ascension is a World of Warcraft Private Server. <Insert Legal Disclaimer Here> Let’s review briefly. For more information do a google search for “Wow Private Server Legal”. As I recall, in about 2018, there was a big brouhaha about Blizzard taking some private server folks to court and shut them all down, but the private server folks went to Blizzard and had a meeting and they decided to call a truce. If the Private server companies [Groups or whatever you‘d like to call it.] did not “Charge Money” for playing, then Blizzard would “Look the other way”. And based on the obvious popular appeal, Blizzard dug around in their old backups and recreated the original Wow, which they released as Wow Classic in 2019. So Private Servers are effectively “Legal” although technically against the “Terms of Service”. But if you are playing Wow, and paying for it, then you are subject to any TOS, and if you are not playing the official Wow, then how are you subject to any TOS? I’ll leave that question for some lawyers. I’m sure that for legal reasons, Blizzard needs the TOS to forbid private servers, but has decided to “Look the Other Way” for community reasons. Now on with the show.

Wow Ascension has some interesting ideas, and if you played Wow for years as I did, it has a powerful nostalgia value. Wow Ascension is essentially Wow The Burning Crusade Classic, with a novel class system and about 5x XP leveling boost.

Quick Overview of “Classless”

The “Classless” system allows you to learn spells from any class to mix and match to make your own class. This is available from level 1. They are two tracks: Pick a pre-built combo of spells, or roll your own. Personally, I can see the appeal of using Pre-Built if you are already max level and understand the system. But a whole setup will not work if you are just starting out and don’t have enough Spell or Talent points to do the build. So I always have “Rolled My Own”. More on that later.

So let’s talk in detail about the features Good then the Not So Good.

JavaFx – Modify a Modal Dialog when Shown

Note: Post is back dated by a year to keep it off the front page.

The latest Java app is progressing well. The AboutBox needs some modification to the text after it launches.

The app is built in JavaFx using IntelliJ. It is far along enough to build a modal AboutBox. The Box has a TextArea containing a description of the program is not editable. All that works fine. But the area can’t be formatted with new lines in the SceneBuilder, so the fix is to load up the content when the DialogBox launches. The code works to modify the TextArea with new text, but not when the Dialog Box is Shown. At that time, the changes have no effect on the TextArea.

FFXIV New Quest Icon?

Gotta post it somewhere to put it in a forum post. Sigh…

So this arrow means that the NPC takes you somewhere to continue quest.

However. This NPC takes you to a room to see the Lord Commander and there is no Arrow.

So oddly inconsistent apparently. Oh, but this NPC has a confirm box before he takes you in to see the Lord Commander. Sigh…

Actually, no. This NPC has a confirm just like the one for Fortemps Manor. But no Arrow on the icon.

:ww

Payments – Secure and Traceable

Current Payment Methods

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a common payment infrastructure. What we have now with Check and even On-Line banking services is outdated and not secure. Checks were first used in the 17th century here in the US. Here are a list of problems that I’ve seen over the past few years with payment systems. I’m sure this is not a complete list:

Handwritten checks can be cashed by anyone who can convince a bank to do that.

Handwritten checks can be lost in the mail, so you need to pay postage and extra fees to have tracking numbers to assure they are delivered to the correct person / entity.
Online Banking services are not much better than handwritten checks. There are three means of delivery of payments by the services that I’ve seen. At least two banks in my area use the same online-banking service, so there aren’t choices that I can easily find. 1 – They take your money from your account, then they write a check on their account and mail that check, apparently with no tracking and there is no transparency so if the check is lost, you need to deal with it in a cumbersome way by visiting your bank, and contacting the payee. 2 – They take your money, then do a money transfer directly to the payee. You have no visibility that this has been done or that it worked. 3 For some payees, your money is taken from your account, then it’s bundled up with many other payments and a bulk money transfer is done. Again no transparancy or accountability is available on the online banking website to assure this worked and when.
Credit cards and debit cards sometimes work, depending on the Payee. But there is no security if the card number is passed to a website since if the website is hacked your card may be stolen.
Privacy.com is a website that creates virtual cards funded by a Debit card from your bank and provides additional security and accountability. Privacy cards can be created at will, with a limit, and are locked to the merchant the first time they are used. If the merchant is hacked, only that card need be replaced since all other merchants have a different card number. The payments are easily tracked on the Privacy website. But there are transactions that will not work with Privacy. Payments are limited to small amounts – a few hundred dollars – unless you pay for a paid plan. So Privacy can help with small and continuing payments made online, but only if the payee takes credit cards and only if the amounts are relatively small.

Let’s examine this problem in more detail and propose at least part of a modern solution to solve it:

Core i7-4770 and Parts For Sale

Update: Sold. Craigslist post removed.

Computer CPU and system parts from 2013. All that is required is a power supply and case for a complete system that will run Linux. It will run Windows 10 of course, but Windows 10 loses support as of October 2025, so Linux may the better choice. System parts were recently removed from a running system. No warranty is made. Yada Yada Yada.

Intel Core i7-4770 CPU – Mounted on Motherboard
Including original box with Air cooler. Introduced 2013 AMAZON price about $60
ASUS B85M-E/CSM Motherboard – MicroATX Form factor, battery probably needs replacing
4 DDR3 Memory 8GBtye for a total of 32GB RAM AMAZON Price about $30
Corsair Liquid Cooler, with 120mm radiator and two fans and mounting suitable for this board and CPU. Plenty of Thermal paste for this application. AMAZON about $50
ASUS Nvidia GTX 760 circa 2013
8 Pin PCI Power. 2 x DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 Display Port. Amazon about $120
System build requires adding power supply and case of course.
System not suitable for Windows 11. But will run Linux very well.
Removed recently from running system.
Cash Only, with Pickup near Coos Bay, Oregon. $100

Posted here and to Craigslist 15 Mar 2025. Post backdated to keep it off the front page of blog.

Modernizing Final Fantasy XIV

These are suggested modifications for FFXIV to make more in line with other modern MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2. There are several areas that, in my view, should be upgraded to keep FFXIV more in line with a better user experience and to make the new user experience better. These three MMOS are all approximately the same age and yet ESO and GW2 have modernized, or were created in a modern way that prevented some problems that with its older design FFXIV now faces.

The Leveling Experience

FFXIV is facing a severe problem with regard to leveling. The static, vertical leveling model has gone way past a reasonable limit. The amount of work that a new player faces to catch up to the current “End Game” is too daunting to expect a casual player to invest that amount of time and effort. Also the current design of the game locks the new features – new Jobs, new Zones, new Allied Races, etc. – behind this long progression. To bring FFXIV more in line with the current state of other modern MMOs changes should be made. For years now we have heard that folks must just push through A Realm Reborn and the game will get better. Well it may get better after ARR, but you are just nearing the tree line of the huge mountain you must climb to get to that class you want to play or that dungeon you want to do or that story you want to experience. “I’d like to meet the Loporrits”. Well in a few weeks you can do that.

Many MMOs that are now, sadly deceased, have tried to address progression by making the game just much easier. And this appears to fail most often. None of the suggestions here are attempting to make the game “Easier” or “Progress Faster”. The total time to play the entirety of the FFXIV game should take about the same amount of time. After more than 10 years there is a huge mountain of game play and world out there. The suggestions here are intended to add choice not make things easier. Tera changed things to make things easier. Made the game all about End Game and then after a few years died. Anyway, after many years playing Tera that was my observation.

As MMOs Age

I’m an MMO addict. Let’s forget about Wow and ones before that. Recently I play Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2. Recently I got bored and went back to Guild Wars [1], but let’s ignore that in this comparison.

In these games I have many characters:

Elder Scrolls Online – about a dozen
Final Fantasy XIV – about two dozen
Guild Wars 2 – about two dozen

Each game has lots of choices for classes and races and so there are lots of combinations to try. Some I don’t find that interesting – Cat People [Khajiit] in ESO for example just aren’t that interesting to me personally. All the races in ESO are just head changes on basically the same body with or without fur. And new classes appear with new expansions. We just got Arcanist with the Necrom expansion recently.

For FFXIV, all classes [ jobs ] are available to all races and in every character. So you don’t have to make a new character to try a new job. So there aren’t so much as “Combinations” as just all the race choices. And more races and jobs with each expansion.

For Guild Wars 2, all races can play one of any of the classes [Professions] and each expansion brings along new “Specializations” for the classes.

So what happens as a game ages. All these game are more than or almost 10 years old at this point. What happens to the games over time and what does that mean for new players.

ESO Easy World Boss Weekly Events

Occasionally, the Weekly Endeavor task is to kill 20 world bosses. There are several easier bosses around the world. Here’s a list of them from a Forum Post from a while ago:

I’ve posted this here for my easy reference. Enjoy,
:ww

ESO Easy Public Dungeon Event

Each day when I do Endeavors in ESO, I use this short cut page to find the easiest way to do them. However, when there is a Public Dungeon Event, I need to find the Easy Public Dungeon that I know about in Deshaan. So this page is an easy way to find that Easy Public Dungeon. I keep forgetting the name of the Dungeon here.

The name of the dungeon is Forgotten Crypts in Western Deshaan. Unlike many Public Dungeons in ESO, this one can be easily solo’d. The Group Event, which is the one required for an Endeavor, is in the Southern chamber.

The Kwama insects spawn quickly in this chamber. To the right and left are groups of lower level Kwama that must be killed, and after they are all killed, three larger Kwama spawn in the lighted area in the center of the chamber. When these are killed the event concludes. The event spawns again in about 5 minutes, so if the daily or weekly Endeavor requires multiple Public Dungeon events, just hang out and finish things here. Another interesting thing is that the gathering nodes spawn very quickly in this chamber.

Enjoy,
:ww

Tarisland – Wow Reflection from China

I recall reading that Tarisland is being built by a team in China after they kicked World of Warcraft out of the country. And it’s apparently coming to the West soon.

Here are some articles so you can catch up if you have not heard of Tarisland.

Here’s a summary:

Ten classes – pretty much the standard ones you’d expect based on Wow and other popular MMOs.

Classes follow the Holy Trinity. Healer, Tank and DPS, as you would expect.

The Art style is reminiscent of Everquest Next.

The game seems to check all the boxes for gameplay types. But lacks any rich character customization and the classes are gender and race locked, which is odd for a game in this decade.

I’ve made a short video of the website and character creation here:

Video of Website, gameplay trailer and char creation

Enjoy,
:ww