MISSION COMPLETE. PRESS SPACE.
Having spent the better part of the weekend reinstalling my secondary PC after combining it the components of another old PC that was about to be disposed of resulting in some kind of hideous frankenPC that I’ll have to take care to put down if it ever asks for a companion, I’ve made the pleasant discovery that by installing World of Warcraft up to burning crusade on it and never patching that copy, I can run the old Map Viewer. Which is great – except for that the Map Viewer never quite was all that amazing at visuals and it’ll always produce lower quality backdrops than WoW itself. Well drat. But oh well – it does let me prowl around the old world provided I don’t expect to show anything fancy in the background like say the sun, the moon or water.
The last part of that does mean this particular page is a right mess combining WoW and Map WMV backdrops in a zany mix. So I guess it’ll serve as a good test run.
RSS feed
Bah, stuffy Night Elves. They never did appreciate the thousands of Morrowgrain I collected for Staghelm’s nonspecific but highly important reasons.
*Wonders if Hani intentionally infiltrates*
I like how the aloof attitude is portrayed; was after all so dang seldom to see it in roleplay. /thumbsup
Heh, I must’ve had so many conversations down a similar tone between old Moonfall and other multi-millennial night elves. Getting to think of all humans as children was always a fun aspect of the characterization, especially due to what multiple ways it could be expressed. After all, you have things like old Moonfall actually being rather fond of children as one of the reasons why she typically has shown more patience and affection towards humans in general than many of her peers.
youtube.com/watch?v=lgwRlih0Ncw
See also, Metal Gear Onu, and L’Elfin Terrible.
Speaking of, am I the only one who hates the updated water texture in game? It looks terrible, like Cool Ranch Jello.
Actually, I veto that music. The actual music for this page is this.
I’m pretty ambivalent about the updated water texture – it isn’t quite as suitable for oceans, looking far more calm, but works fairly well for a still pond on a completely calm day. I find the biggest thing with the new water is really about visual clash – it looks more high def than pretty much anything around it, sort of like watching a hand-animated cartoon where every character inexplicably wears a photo-realistic hat.
I do like the effects when the water surface crosses non-water though. That’s a definite improvement.
0_o
*selected*
Zomg! I remember that game! <3
Ahhh, so it’s third-person, top-down, skewed angled terrain then, eh? Very well!
youtube.com/watch?v=XmqoFpDWCYY
The water may fit in well with Panderia ground art, we’ll see.
Well if we’re talking stealth, how about sidescrollers?
That may be the most awesome thing I’ve seen this year.
*does a victory lap about the comic*
Toooold you….
*victory jig*
*coughs* right.. Dignity.. Need to pretend I have that…
Nah…
*More jigging*
It’s been on my mind for awhile, really – it’s not something I’ve tried before because having “proper” WoW installs on both computers have been rather convenient; Map viewer lacks the ability to specify which folder you want it to look for data, so it requires the active install to be a version it can interpret, meaning it effectively locks that computer out of running a version that can actually play the game. I’ve had old data files around before, but I simply haven’t been able to point it at them to see if that does it.
It’s become a much more valid thing to try now when I kind of don’t play the game, and having to reinstall that computer anyway was a convenient excuse to see whether I could get it working.
Your comic got linked to by the official World of Warcraft twitter just an hour ago :D!!!!! (they linked to the previous page though but still ;D!)
They did it on their FB page as well…
“Beyond the Tree, the long-running tale of Hani and her companions, continues this week with “Going overboard”:”
I’m actually curious where that post originates from, since I’ve gotten the impression that while the US WoW community team doesn’t really keep up with webcomics that much, I’m pretty sure I have at least one fan in the EU community team seeing how they always seem to post new updates on their community content posts!
Still, don’t take me for an ingrate or anything – I’m quite cheerful about this. Though admittedly I typically touch neither Facebook or Twitter myself, heh!
Oh well, it should bring in some new readers at least ;)
The pose of Hani in the fifth panel is really cool :P
…that’s all I guess XD
keep it up!
Heh, if they feel that way about the humans, I wonder why they let the high elf Fiora Longears stay on the pier as well…
Well considering miss Longears appear to have been run out of the Theramore Inn where she used to stay and her implying that Longears isn’t so much her name as an… affectionate nickname that humans gave her, it’s entirely possible they are united in their common passive dismissal of the Alliance race with the shortest life span ;D
Boy, thats what I call an unlikely friendship.
Its a shame that they “killed her off” though… from her quest dialogue, she really seemed interested in helping the Night Elves, despite their differences.
I never quite figured her out, I’ll admit – she struck me a bit as either a somehow more recent exile (how I wouldn’t know) or a High elf who was more interested in reconciling with her roots (and sort of paying old debts, as it were) than her magical present. Very “I know they won’t accept what I am, but I wish to help them anyway because it is the right thing to do” rather than being about self-promotion.
Considering her past location in Theramore, it’s even possible she was supposed to be a half elf, rather than a full high elf, even.
I like what she seemed to be about, but I never quite figured out where she was supposed to fit in.
I think it might represent the state of the remaining high elves in general. With the exception of a few groups like the high elven lodges and Silver Covenant, they’re pretty much a race without a… focus. Goal. They’re not really a “race” anymore as much as a bunch of individuals…
I can see some returning to their roots and helping the night elves cause as much as I can see some deciding to abandon their roots and become blood elves.
“High Elves” are a dying race, and with the exception of the Silver Covenant, Blizzard seems pretty intent on “removing” them from modern day events. Cataclysm seems to have hit them pretty hard, with the corruption of the elves in the plaguelands, and the upcoming destruction of Theramore (the largest high elf population left in-game.)
I guess all I can do, as a fan, is hope that eventually Blizzard will stop making cracks about Alleria and Turlyon and actually bring them back into the game…. ALIVE if possible.
1) Awesome page, as always. You give your characters such… well, character! They seem more real to me than even the in-game characters, especially your snooty night elves.
2) I had a stint with Rift that only lasted a few weeks, and just yesterday I crawled back to my abandonned Wow account after hearing about the Mists of Pandaria expansion. I missed the Tirisfal Glades :(
(Mysteriously, my account was locked due to “suspicious” activity, and I’m worried about what happened to my characters, though I haven’t noticed anything yet.)
I’ll admit that one of the things I enjoy about writing Beyond the Tree is all these incidental characters – few of them are ever given much of a name or identity, and I rarely have more than two pages at most (and sometimes just a few panes) to give them some form of characterization and context.
It can, of course, also be frustratingly difficult to invent a characterization simply out of nowhere at times, especially if the dialogue in question doesn’t relate to anything currently going on but still needs to make sense as a conversation, but when it works out it really adds to the character of the whole world at large.
Just plowed through the whole story.. and now ill only get 4hrs of sleep untill school.. but it was worth it! Amazing story so far :o
4 hours man if you can make it on that Im impressed.
I sleep for 6-8 hours and still that is just enough.
nothing agains from my inter rail travel 2 years ago think I left an comment before I left.
slept for 10 min one Night.
and walked 20 meter in my sleep woke up when I fell over when I tried to get up from the street to the side walk at an crossroad… in France I mad add.
*adopts Chris Tucker’s voice from Rush Hour*
What the hell did you just say?
Are humans referred to as children because of their lifespan or because they’re, in their perspective, relatively new to the world? Or behaving like children in their eyes?
Sorry to ask if it’s obvious, but I’ve seen all three in different settings and it got me curious.
Night elves used to be immortal, and have lived for thousands of years. By comparison, the average Human lifespan is 65-85. Most humans they have met are pretty young, like Jaina Proudmoore. In-game, unless you make a consious effort, most humans look like they’re between their 20′s and 30′s.
Compared to the aforementioned night elves that have lived for hundreds, if not thousands of years… yeah. “Children” actually sounds nice compared to what I can think of off-hand.
Hi Nahi,
I am friends with Zimtower, one of the people behind WoW Modelviewer. He’s declared Wowmapviewer dead. It will no longer be supported. He is advising folks to use Malu’s Machinima Tool instead. You can turn on freeflight and you got wowmapviewer in-game with high FPS and many controls.
I hope this helps with your issues.
Update!!!
Probably soon™, after Second Big Dragon Stompy Fun Time, this time in the World of Tamriel.
Skyrim ftw! :D Khajiit archer :3
Hehe, with little over 90 hours invested into Skyrim myself, i got no doubt Nhani is “Tamrielling” aswell :P
Besides! How can we expect updated comix, if Nhani aint the: “Dovah’kin that saved the world” – ” Arch-mage of winterhold” – “Listener of the Dark brotherhood” – “Grandmaster of the thieves guild” – “Harbinger of the Companions” – “Thane of every city” – “Person who ended the war title here” – “Champion of every Daedra deity”
See! plenty of requirements before the next page *nodnod*
Definitely not Listener, Nhani is good aligned, she will never pact with that evil guild of murderers. More like “Destroyer of the Dark Brotherhood.” I agree otherwise, and return to waiting for the next update.
…
dammit, you can chose to destroy them aswell?!… See, now you just added another to-do on my list of second char :P…
Love the Syndicate refrences Nhani
That last statement was monumental.