Eve-Online: Review of days 3 to 7 progress
To keep folk informed, I’ll be pushing Eve Online blog posts (and other topics) to a new blog separate from this one. Some quick polling showed people assume this is a near pure PHP medium so a new blog for the non-PHP topics is called for. This fits in with my target of 3 blog posts a week which now won’t be seen as spamming Planet PHP 
.
When I left off my last post I was enjoying ownership of a new Caldari Kestrel Frigate in Uitra, in the game called Eve Online, and had just joined a Corporation to further my experience and have a support network available. You can find me in-game as “Maugrim McFiriba”, the character I invented in the mid-90s with the now infamous “The Reaper” nickname, and later used as my internet handle all over Yahoo from 1998. Best of luck to other PHP developers trailblazing through Eve right now - I’ll add you guys as buddies in-game . Email me if you want in on my chosen Corporation in the next week or two.
This week started off quietly with me outfitting my new Caldari Kestrel. After training the required skills I’m now running with 4 Standard Missile Launchers (1 is held in reserve). To add a little to my “tanking” (the ability of a ship to absorb damage for extended periods without exploding) I’ve fitted a Shield Hardener, a Small Armor Repairer and a Shield Booster. The first is passive, the final two eat Capacitor power. My naming is not exact - still getting the hang of having module names memorised . I figured out recently that I was off the mark about increasing my ship’s capacitor max - I actually need to make modules I install require less by training relevant skills. In any case, I can now fit in those tanking modules and 3 Launchers without stressing my capacitor beyond it’s design limits. If I disable the Armor Repairer I can put an extra Launcher online (at a safe distance from the enemy since it drains my Capacitor dry when activating!) and increase my fire power by 33%. Assuming my shields can take the return beating with the Shield Booster enabled for short periods, and I don’t end up really really needing that Repair module, I can chew on level 1 Pirates from a distance of 20km or so and take out a ship with each grouped launch. I’m sure that won’t last long as the Pirates get wind of my new death dealer .
More after the jump.
I’ve also now moved from Uitra to Perimeter. Moving to Perimeter leaves me a little closer to my Corporation mates, and just three jumps from Jita. Jita remains a lagfest but it’s a huge market and some of the prices there are just lower then going elsewhere. You can get almost anything in Jita since it’s a natural trading outpost at the confluence of three other star systems. If you can abide the lag at the weekend when it is bustling with commerce. Yesterday I narrowly missed a Corp member’s request for a run into Jita to grab a cheap module for 20 million ISK. That’s 20,000,000 ISK. As a newb I barely scrape by on a measly 435,000. If I’d had the time I could have earned an easy 1 million commission. Corps are where all the money is at - budding players need to get off the newb training wheels and find themselves a Corporation.
Mid week I received a mail from the Corp mailing list inviting members to a mining op (an operation where we strip mine anything valuable from asteroid fields and sell, sell, sell). I’ve accepted the invitation so this Saturday I’ll be mining for the Corporation. I have my laptop on tap for some light reading/writing/browsing while my ship is stockpiling ore. It’s not the most entertaining of professions but the social dynamic is good, and some teamspeak and multitasking works for me 
. Maybe it ranks with WOW’s mindless grinds but it serves a purpose in Eve Online and I do have a new ship to buy later. Primarily though it’s about standing - I don’t want to be the newb who isn’t contributing to his Corp’s future success. I do have a lot of writing to get started on anyway - more on that in another blog post sometime. It’s a 100% taxed op, meaning all proceeds go to the Crimson Industrial and Development. Sunday’s op will be for member-profit.
One of the Corp members should be loaning me a Caldari Osprey (Cruiser) for the ops which will be a massive step up from my lowly Kestrel with its meagre cargo capacity. I’ve spent the last two days training my Caldari Frigate skill to 4, and Caldari Cruiser skill to 3. If the op goes well, and Sunday’s secondary non-taxed op does also, I will be shopping around for a new Caldari Caracal (Cruiser) to replace the Kestrel with. Since I’m on a Missile binge, the Caracal is the best Cruiser to step up for. It will be my fourth ship since starting the game, but really the first I will have purchased myself rather than having it awarded. Moving to a Cruiser should afford me more development room for a while and hopefully make the pirates on these Agent missions less of an annoyance. With a Cruiser also comes additional cargo space - I really need to read up on developing decent Salvage skills for those wrecks I leave behind on missions! It will also offer more room to expand my tanking ability, at the expense of speed and manouverability obviously since a Cruiser is far larger than a Frigate.
This week’s highlight was when a fellow Corp mate, Sam Savage, asked around for anyone interested in a Heavy Assault Launcher he scavenged from a wreck. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity to get at least one expensive piece of kit for that Caracal Cruiser in stock without personal cost. I met Sam down in 0.7 sec space a few jumps from Perimeter and picked up the Launcher - which is now sitting in storage in Perimeter. I have items scattered across Perimeter, Uitra and Urlen - need to grab everything and move down to the mining op location Friday night so I’m ready to rumble come Saturday afternoon. I think my Clone Beta is still sufficient in case of my imminent death (me; total newb; >1.1 million skill pts). Tip to those just starting, keep the clones updated or you’ll lose excess skill points if killed!
With all these Missile Launchers available on the Kestrel I learned eventually (some would say “Doh!”) to assign Launchers to multiple targets correctly. I can’t believe I spent this long wondering how to switch from launching 4-missile barrages at one target, to 2×2-missile barrages against each of two targets. The solution was of course to target two ships (I need to train Targeting to pick more), activate two Launchers for the current primary target, click the secondary target’s graphic in the top right of the UI, and activate another Launcher or two. Hello sitting ducks…! Being able to target more than two ships seems pointless in the Kestrel but the Caracal will have more firepower to distribute across targets.
I also learned another new cultural term “can flipper” referring to another player who attempts to steal the contents of your Canister while mining. Seems to be something players often do to attract the wrath of the owner and provoke them into a PvP confrontation. I suddenly want that Caracal real bad so I can accept a few provocations and get in some PvP experience. I still feel my newbness like a millstone around my neck at times - like when a Drake pops out of a gate marked with the yellow tinge and skull of a wanted player and you wonder if they’ll pop off a few rounds at you for getting in their way .
With the move to 0.0 space (non-existent security!) with the rest of the Corporation in the near future (part of a larger scale Alliance migration), I need to get that Caracal rolling and my tanking skills pulled up. I’ll ask around the other members if there’s any particular specialisation that would be handy for the Corp to have. Squatting in a Cruiser will likely leave me with a lesser role than those pulling 360’s in Drakes and I sure don’t want to be too close to whatever causes a Drake trouble when it turns up without some preparation and suitable skills to at least make my 5 second survival expectancy count for something useful. Hopefully we smaller pilots can fill in some time doing recon in Frigates, or even Cruisers - though Cruisers may be a bit too big and slow (and expensive) for purely recon roles. I’ll ask someone.
In other Eve news from random reading, I’m following sources of intel about the struggle between Tortuga, Goonswarm and their stubborn foes Band Of Brothers (BOB) in 0.0 space. Things do not look good for BOB who in the recent past of Eve were one of the most prominent Alliances. Their fleet is still nothing to be sniffed at according to the intel, but when an Alliance talks about a star system as their Alamo it can’t be a good sign. I’m way out on a limb when it comes to politics in the 0.0 sectors, but I hope this isn’t a sign that the internal struggles of the 0.0 Alliances are going to cease. Where will that leave me as a budding PvP player? My current Alliance “Eve Evolution” hopefully will offer plenty of opportunities for fleet ops where I can gain practice and experience before we’re pushed into a war of our own. A few fleet training sessions wouldn’t go amiss. Some of this might be Alliance pushed - another thing to ask my fellow Corp mates.
Lot of newb questioning this weekend .
My First Two Days Playing Eve Online
It’s a lesser known trait of mine that I enjoy playing computer games, specifically strategy games for the PC. The only console I own is a Nintendo Wii - which is saying something since it’s the first console I’ve owned since the Sega Genesis! So this weekend, with all the free time I have, a new broadband connection courtesy of Eircom (after replacing the crappy Netopia router they give you for free; free as in scrap metal), and a little trepidation, I joined Eve Online.
Eve Online is a MMOG set in space. There are approximately 5000 star systems, 200,000+ subscribers, and perhaps 18,000 to 45,000 players online at any one time. Since I was playing at the weekend for extended periods, I noticed the numbers peaked on my GMT clock each evening. The idea behind Eve Online is to enter the vastness of space and make a name for yourself either through combat, mining, trading, production or research. These are not however true alternatives since any player can train any skill imaginable given enough time. So the name of success is called specialisation, not class leveling…
All star systems have a security rating from 1.0 to 0.0. I spent all my time in 1.0 and 0.9 star systems. The word is that going anywhere with a 0.8 rating or less is not something a Rookie should consider for at least a few weeks. Going to 0.5 or lower could charitably be called suicide. Check out YouTube for a few videos of what happens to players who get cocky and impatient and run off to a 0.4 system to mine. It only takes a high skill player with a few missiles…
As for strategic and tactical gameplay - Eve Online rocks. It’s a thinking man’s dream game. You need to select skills, compare weapons and ammunition types, review Market conditions for the best regional prices (some stations can charge double the average price for items), get used to how ships scale and how to assess which you can take on (which is pretty much nothing since 1.0 sec systems are heavily overwatched by the local race’s police forces and only suicides would attack you, or you them 
). Living in 1.0 space is quite safe and a more than a few corporations stay exclusively there. Even a few of the 0.0 Corporations maintain 1.0 sub-Corporations for you to join.
The game itself is beautifully rendered. Back in December CCP release the Trinity client was released which added an overall graphics update with high resolution textures. My PC was never taxed while running it. I have a pretty good gaming rig so I could easily run two clients at the same time (Eve also let’s you play three characters on your single account). Th only niggle was collision detection on large objects like stations and planets. While it seems an odd flaw, I suspect it’s a simple optimisation. The only annoyance it will serve is trying to reach anything on the opposite side of a station - my advice is to orbit around the station before making a straight-line approach to such objects.
My own experiences from a first weekend after the jump… Day 1: PHP Is Not A Recognised Skill…But Missiles Are!
Sad to say, but I was unable to make a living in Eve Online as a PHP programmer. Aww… After booting up the Eve client I was greeted by an Introduction video detailing some of the back story to Eve Online. It’s standard sci-fi fare as Tor would publish in a cut-sized paperback. Yep, a total cliche, but the backstory just set’s the scene - it can be as cliched as it likes. Anyway, does WOW not have the same? Afterwards I input my trial account username and password, before being greeted by the character creation screen.
Creating a character for Eve Online should not be done lightly. Read up online about what kinds of attributes, skills and race/bloodline mixes are best suited to what you want. I wanted to kick other player’s asses (PVP/PVE) so I went with a Caldari Achura who had taken up the Soldier profession. I added my 5 attribute points to Perception, Intelligence and Memory (2-2-1). This gave me quite a collection of skills for in the area of Missiles, Gunnery and Calderi Frigates. More besides - but these are great ones to start a Soldier with. Adding a portrait is simple with the client’s facial morphing abilities though each race has distinct Earth profiles - so my Calderi Soldier has distinctly Asian features.
The game opens with a tutorial of sorts. It’s slightly eratic on two fronts. Firstly it doesn’t automatically warp your ship to the tutorial area all the time (so you need to warp to a station, and restart the tutorial whose steps are thankfully easy to fast forward past). Secondly, you need to take instructions literally - for example when they talk about shooting a pirate with a blaster in the first tutorial don’t assume to do it now - otherwise the next screen which does say to activate your guns will freeze. Why? Because the pirate is probably dead now after a few shots, and the tutorial doesn’t realise you can’t activate your guns anymore (no target). That’s another route ripe for a restart .
Otherwise the tutorial isn’t all that bad - it gives you the basics, introduces you to an Agent who provides missions, get’s you up and running.
I spent the next day running missions. During this I made sure to a) have a Clone Beta on hand and move it to any new station I decided to base myself out of, and b) make sure I insured any new ships I received. Keeping all your off-ship cargo stored in a station is a really good idea. I consolidated my assets on my chosen station twice so far. In a few more days I suspect I’ll need to consider a semi-permanent central station in the region to consolidate items and other ships in. In truth I spent the whole weekend in about 4 star systems around Uitra which is bot bad for a Rookie in a 5000 star system game 
.
I started out in a Rookie Ibis ship. Basically a tincan with a Railgun and a Mining Laser. As a Soldier, I followed Agent Missions first. After a few I was awarded a new Calderi Condor Frigate which is a bit better than a tincan but only has 2 possible weapon points which I armed first of all with Blasters, but finally with Standard Missile Launchers. Missiles appeared more effective at the time - they deal a lot of damage from long range and even gave single-shot kills. Hybrid Turrets (Guns) are shorter ranged and take more time to kill anything with (as a Calderi at least). Long ranged combat simply makes sense since you’re further from the target’s own guns and they tend to use lower yield Rockets for long-ranged engagements.
Most of the first day was spent learning skills (usually level 1 and 2 for stuff like Learning, Clarity, Mechanics, Science, Navigation). I found my weapon skills were already at levels 3 and 4 but supporting skills for ship systems, shield and armor upgrades, afterburners, propulsion systems and capacitor upgrades were untrained. These are essential to add new ship subsystems like hardened shields, damage control modules, sensors, capacitor upgrades, etc. One of my current concerns is power. Your ships are never fully loaded up with equipment because available power is never enough - something I need to focus on. Processing capacity seems a lot better - but I’d bet that becomes a limiting factor later too. So yeah - train those skills. If not playing for a day or two - pick a big 60hr skill to train while you’re offline.
Overall impressions: It was a good start. As I suspected it’s not the most exciting game full of thrills and spills. It takes patience and acknowledgment of having to plan and execute a long term strategy of skills training, ship research, corporation membership and cash inflow (Missions, Corp work, Mining, Trading, etc). I intend training skills continually - only takes a quick login to start a new one training (lvl1 about 30mins, lvl2 about 1.5hrs and lvl3 a lot more!). I also intend working my way to a new Calderi Kestrel or Merlin which are the most powerful Calderi Frigates. I’m sticking with Agent Missions for now. My Condor doesn’t have the cargo space to go mining for cash and the starting Missions are more profitable for now, as well as being part of an interesting storyline.
Day 2: Suicide Runs, More Missions, Corporation Recruitment Drives
I started Day 2 on a mission to destroy the lair of a Pirate. Outside the Station at Uitra VI Moon 4, a bunch of Rookies were annihilated in an “incident” after opening fire at another player. I also witnessed a wicked looking cargo ship shambling up to the Station for docking and had a quick conversation with the pilot. He was in from a 0.6 system to make a quick sale and get some repairs done. Dangerous places down past 0.8…
After another mission I was awarded a new Calderi Kestrel Frigate. Local chatter advised me it was the finest Calderi platform for Missiles in the Frigate Class. I was happy enough to load it up with 4 Missile Launchers and another 3000 missiles as ammo. Ammo was seriously being chewed through by now from the more powerful Pirates I was taking Missions against. My ship’s power continued to be a problem so I set to on a training track to provide skills I could use to increase capacitor output. Really need to get more supporting systems for my shields and armor in place - but first I need the power capacity to run them!
I spent a block of time spectating the local traffic. Basically just picking out ships, reading their information, and getting a feel for which ones were good, bad or indifferent. Most of the ships were Calderi, but I located an Amarr Industrial which marks a first for another species. I gather I’m so deep into Calderi space it’s a rarity to find anything not Calderi yet.
After some bumming around I felt the need for a little exploration so I headed to the Jita System. Or as the local chatter were calling it: LagFest. Turns out Jita is a system at the confluence of three others which makes it a prime trading spot. It was so popular that the CCP servers in Iceland were having a bit of trouble keeping up with the populace . It was very laggy, but I purchased a few items at a supremely low price. It’s almost a supermarket for the region with low prices and thousands of customers and a *lot*.
After my expedition of a whole 3 jumps from Uitra, I returned to Uitra VI Moon 4. One of the high points of the day was watching two Destroyers (my Kestral being a flea in comparison) start up a firefight. Between the missile barrages, shield flares, and beam weapons flying around a big crowd of Rookies gathered. Into the fray came a few extra ships including a few Frigates. It was an impressive display though one or two Rookies lost all sense of survivability and fired off some Missiles to see what would happen. With some restraint the opponents replied with a single low-yield missile. The antagonisers quickly warped away before the next one!
After some checking of ship, pilot and corporation affiliations of the battle members I realised the whole battle was a deliberate show - a publicity stunt of sorts for a local Corporation. As a recruitment drive it was a good one - Uitra is where most many Calderi Rookies end up so it was their first look at a full scale battle between 5-6 Frigates, Destroyers and Battleships. Such a show of force also underlined what players of 2-3 months can accomplish, which obviously underlines how huge a role patient plays in Eve Online. It takes real time to train up those skills and accumulate the cash for such extravagant ships and equipment.
I finished off the weekend of Eve Online by moving down to the Perimeter Star System a few jumps away. There’s a Calderi Naval Assembly Station here and it’s closer to my eventual possible home in another week down in Venelin. I’ve setup a Missile oriented skill to train which will take about 20hrs (sufficient time for me to sleep, go to work, and take my time recovering at home before logging in again for a quick check and a new skill to set training - maintenance mode on weekdays).
Final impressions: Read this http://atomic-tourist.net/AAR.pdf for a something interesting about Corporation play out in the real world of Eve Online in 0.0 security space. Long term is the keyword. Jumping into Eve and expecting to crush everyone inside of a few days is pure stupidity. It takes planning, strategy and research to pull off a good game. This undoubtably explains Eve continued disparate subscriber count. At 200,000 it’s respectable but not even remotely close to what WOW pulls in. The fact is Eve Online is a different game. It’s quite easy to get into, but whether you have a personal makeup capable of blasting away Pirates, mining for a few hours with a good book (obviously you need some in-game entertainment - which may seem counter-productive but then you’re missing the point!), or trading. Personally if I take up Mining I intend on taking full advantage of the fact I have a PC which can run Eve, Firefox and Eclipse at the same time, and in the future a MacBook Pro too. Eve is not just about having “fun”, it’s about accomplishment on a large scale over an extended timeline. Other folk would find this all dreadfully boring and lack the patience and extended mindset to create their own fun and enjoyment from the game.
So the story so far at 2 days? Eve Online is attractive, skills can be trained offline, but it requires patience and long term commitment. The commitment needn’t be time consuming either. I could play for a few hours at the weekend, or a few minutes at a time on a week day, and it wouldn’t put a dent into my free time. With skills training offline there’s far less pressure to be online all the time, or even a lot of the time. Many corporations clearly state they are looking for players who play “once a month or more” even…
Why I’m Refusing To Purchase Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)
There are exactly three things I love doing most evenings: writing, programming and gaming. The third of these rarely comes up on this blog, though there are exceptions like my past review of Stalker (I was that impressed) or this entry (where I was that disappointed).
In late October, the blink of an eye in marketing terms and less than a month to the release date, Modern Warfare 2’s developer, Infinity Ward, were forced into admitting that the PC version of the game would not feature dedicated servers. I say forced, because the community detective work before the announcement was gathering some compelling clues. They also landed the bombshell for mayhem lovers that MP is a maximum of 18 players (9v9). Other revelations included the removal of support for leaning. I guess it’s hard to lean when using an Xbox controller which everyone on the PC will doubtlessly use (right?). Then, simply because ripping off an old bandage is best done quickly, IW confirmed the lack of a /record feature. I seriously doubt this is the end of the PC feature bleeding. I’m waiting for the DLC pricing scheme to arrive - since IW are so so lying about not knowing that. Do IW think we PC gamers are idiots? There are people in our ranks who run businesses, we know all about budgets, forecasts, and the stupidity of not knowing information like this at a launch date.
The impact of the loss of dedicated servers cannot be understated. Without dedicated servers, you can rule out modding (confirmed). When you rule out modding, you can rule in paid DLC and maps (which previously was free for PC gamers). You can rule out custom rules (i.e. unrestricted rules - not generic presets). You can rule out community policing and banning for team killers (confirmed - you cannot kick other players), racists/haters (always a lot of those morons around), swearing, and general nuisances of that sort. You rule out game longtivity because I’ve yet to see a game developer capable of matching the quality, innovation and volume of the community modder scene - something those of us in open source see every day. You rule out minimal ping times - the reported average without dedicated servers is 100+. No other data has been released. You probably (waiting for player experiences) can rule out playing over long distances - it’s P2P without a dedicated server and the host could be any player (you can’t choose who hosts a game) even that guy still struggling through copper wire laid down in the 12th century.
To replace dedicated servers hosted by thousands of people who have a brain, Infinity Ward are borrowing from the console world (oops, consolitis again) by introducing matchmaking with games played over a P2P system. This means you will be “matched” with players of a similar level and location (to minimise ping times) with the game hosted by one of the players using the P2P system. This matching is automatic, but you can create more focused games with a set of friends from Steam’s list. I could describe it more, but IW have remained vague on details and there’s no demo (a first for COD) to test the system with. Can you remember any other games with matchmaking? Uhuh…
The IW.net replacement sounds great on paper (i.e. a paragraph of PR spin) but it’s ignoring the core problem - reality. It makes organised mayhem impossible. In theory, since there’s no demo MP game to test with (another FAIL), this will work just as it does on the console for MW1. Which is to say poorly. Ping times will increase, clans will be fractured across multiple games, policing will be impossible (though you will be allowed to mute noisy players calling you something derogatory and childish), game rules combating bugs will be impossible, hosts may drop out (requiring host migration needing around 5 seconds) and there will be no mods to keep things lively into the future.
The replacement offers absolutely nothing except to allegedly make casual multiplayer have less of a learning curve and eliminate cheating. I wish I knew what Activision/IW were high on when they used those as reasons. Gee, why don’t Infinity Ward simplify the ranking, prestiges and kill streaks instead - surely that’s a learning curve compared to ordering a list of dedicated servers and clicking connect? I could use the phrase “favourites”, but that might be too much information for IWs poor brains to handle.
But who are we kidding? This isn’t the core problem is it? The core problem is threefold:
1. Players/Clans will have no personalised control over their MP or a dedicated server host.
2. Modders have been kicked out of the COD series preventing new free content from emerging.
3. This was all deliberately kept secret until IW were forced to admit it within a few weeks of the release.
4. Once the admissions started, they just kept on coming. Last major reveals were Nov 4 - less than a week to launch!
This is the behaviour of a completely closed system - something that stands in opposition to PC gaming where modding and/or dedicated servers are the norm (unless you want to fail). No control or modification without our permission. Oh, and they’re charging more cash for MW2 than MW1. THESE are the real reasons why PC gamers will rebel. THESE are reasons IW can’t deny because they are factual. If you want another humourous reason, here’s a quote from the recent BestBuy chat with the developers:
Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?
Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.
Arstechnica have updated impressions of where the PC version is going, now that IW were outed and forced to spill the beans (and then some) before everyone blindly bought a copy -
PC Modern Warfare 2: it’s much worse than you thought.
As a PC gamer and a fan of the Call Of Duty series since it debuted, I’ve decided that I am not going to reward Activision and Infinity Ward for this behaviour. I will not purchase Modern Warfare 2. If that was not clear at the weekend, more recent events like the BestBuy interview chat and continued spin rubbish like in the MTV interview with Robert Bowling, have made it clear that Infinity Ward either do not care about PC gamers, or simply never expected to be outed before the game went on sale and those pre-orders were filled. Either option is intolerable.
To Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2 will be one of the most successful games ever but the love affair with the PC community which fueled your early success just ended. You made your bed, now go and sleep in it. I’m replacing you with another developer who has a clue.
What will be interesting (or not - game reviews have become remarkably short, generic and predictable in recent years) is how the PC gaming media will handle the non-dedicated server, non-modding, non-leaning, non-controllable MP element that surely weighs heavily on more than half the value of a modern shooter. There’ll be some culling of magazine purchasing habits if it’s ignored.
Why I’m Refusing To Purchase Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC)
There are exactly three things I love doing most evenings: writing, programming and gaming. The third of these rarely comes up on this blog, though there are exceptions like my past review of Stalker (I was that impressed) or this entry (where I was that disappointed).
In late October, the blink of an eye in marketing terms and less than a month to the release date, Modern Warfare 2’s developer, Infinity Ward, were forced into admitting that the PC version of the game would not feature dedicated servers. I say forced, because the community detective work before the announcement was gathering some compelling clues. They also landed the bombshell for mayhem lovers that MP is a maximum of 18 players (9v9). Other revelations included the removal of support for leaning. I guess it’s hard to lean when using an Xbox controller which everyone on the PC will doubtlessly use (right?). Then, simply because ripping off an old bandage is best done quickly, IW confirmed the lack of a /record feature. I seriously doubt this is the end of the PC feature bleeding. I’m waiting for the DLC pricing scheme to arrive - since IW are so so lying about not knowing that. Do IW think we PC gamers are idiots? There are people in our ranks who run businesses, we know all about budgets, forecasts, and the stupidity of not knowing information like this at a launch date.
The impact of the loss of dedicated servers cannot be understated. Without dedicated servers, you can rule out modding (confirmed). When you rule out modding, you can rule in paid DLC and maps (which previously was free for PC gamers). You can rule out custom rules (i.e. unrestricted rules - not generic presets). You can rule out community policing and banning for team killers (confirmed - you cannot kick other players), racists/haters (always a lot of those morons around), swearing, and general nuisances of that sort. You rule out game longtivity because I’ve yet to see a game developer capable of matching the quality, innovation and volume of the community modder scene - something those of us in open source see every day. You rule out minimal ping times - the reported average without dedicated servers is 100+. No other data has been released. You probably (waiting for player experiences) can rule out playing over long distances - it’s P2P without a dedicated server and the host could be any player (you can’t choose who hosts a game) even that guy still struggling through copper wire laid down in the 12th century.
To replace dedicated servers hosted by thousands of people who have a brain, Infinity Ward are borrowing from the console world (oops, consolitis again) by introducing matchmaking with games played over a P2P system. This means you will be “matched” with players of a similar level and location (to minimise ping times) with the game hosted by one of the players using the P2P system. This matching is automatic, but you can create more focused games with a set of friends from Steam’s list. I could describe it more, but IW have remained vague on details and there’s no demo (a first for COD) to test the system with. Can you remember any other games with matchmaking? Uhuh…
The IW.net replacement sounds great on paper (i.e. a paragraph of PR spin) but it’s ignoring the core problem - reality. It makes organised mayhem impossible. In theory, since there’s no demo MP game to test with (another FAIL), this will work just as it does on the console for MW1. Which is to say poorly. Ping times will increase, clans will be fractured across multiple games, policing will be impossible (though you will be allowed to mute noisy players calling you something derogatory and childish), game rules combating bugs will be impossible, hosts may drop out (requiring host migration needing around 5 seconds) and there will be no mods to keep things lively into the future.
The replacement offers absolutely nothing except to allegedly make casual multiplayer have less of a learning curve and eliminate cheating. I wish I knew what Activision/IW were high on when they used those as reasons. Gee, why don’t Infinity Ward simplify the ranking, prestiges and kill streaks instead - surely that’s a learning curve compared to ordering a list of dedicated servers and clicking connect? I could use the phrase “favourites”, but that might be too much information for IWs poor brains to handle.
But who are we kidding? This isn’t the core problem is it? The core problem is threefold:
1. Players/Clans will have no personalised control over their MP or a dedicated server host.
2. Modders have been kicked out of the COD series preventing new free content from emerging.
3. This was all deliberately kept secret until IW were forced to admit it within a few weeks of the release.
4. Once the admissions started, they just kept on coming. Last major reveals were Nov 4 - less than a week to launch!
This is the behaviour of a completely closed system - something that stands in opposition to PC gaming where modding and/or dedicated servers are the norm (unless you want to fail). No control or modification without our permission. Oh, and they’re charging more cash for MW2 than MW1. THESE are the real reasons why PC gamers will rebel. THESE are reasons IW can’t deny because they are factual. If you want another humourous reason, here’s a quote from the recent BestBuy chat with the developers:
Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?
Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.
Arstechnica have updated impressions of where the PC version is going, now that IW were outed and forced to spill the beans (and then some) before everyone blindly bought a copy -
PC Modern Warfare 2: it’s much worse than you thought.
As a PC gamer and a fan of the Call Of Duty series since it debuted, I’ve decided that I am not going to reward Activision and Infinity Ward for this behaviour. I will not purchase Modern Warfare 2. If that was not clear at the weekend, more recent events like the BestBuy interview chat and continued spin rubbish like in the MTV interview with Robert Bowling, have made it clear that Infinity Ward either do not care about PC gamers, or simply never expected to be outed before the game went on sale and those pre-orders were filled. Either option is intolerable.
To Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2 will be one of the most successful games ever but the love affair with the PC community which fueled your early success just ended. You made your bed, now go and sleep in it. I’m replacing you with another developer who has a clue.
What will be interesting (or not - game reviews have become remarkably short, generic and predictable in recent years) is how the PC gaming media will handle the non-dedicated server, non-modding, non-leaning, non-controllable MP element that surely weighs heavily on more than half the value of a modern shooter. There’ll be some culling of magazine purchasing habits if it’s ignored.
The Chronicles of Spellborn
Well, I am finally getting myself back into gaming gear slowly but surely. I am back testing Fallen Earth and will most like subscribe with my wife to it. I should be getting back and playing LotRO soon too.
However, I *finally* got a chance to try out Spellborn (to any not aware, it is currently "frozen as is" with no patches or updates but is free to play as the game gets redeveloped as a F2P (I have no clue what they could be doing with it or why it needs this - it just needs proper marketing and some other stuff), and so far I really, really like the game. Now, I am not a fan of cartoonie stuff usually (WoW graphics kill me mostly). I am not a fan of an anime look in games either. I am not saying TCoS is either, but it is a hybrid blend of these looks with a western style art look dominating. It was described in another thread as Fable-esque to which I agree it is in many ways look-wise. I also am sick of traditional fantasy. The nice thing is TCoS is a bit odd, weird, bizarre, not quite standard fare fantasy. It is an interesting "world".
They did a lot of things right and a lot of cool things with this game. It is definitely fun and has a lot of unique approaches to things.
Anyway, my wife and I are most like gonna play this one too mixed in with our other couple online games. I am not sure if this is a good or a bad idea, but it looks like we should be doing for added fun.
Does anyone who had mentioned playing this game still play it? We are on the PvE server and will most like stay there and not make anything on the PvP server. I believe there is still PvP on the PvE server just maybe not FFA PvP? I know you had said you were playing it at one point Maeson. Anyone else?
If you are holler out! 
Oh, and anyone who even vaguely is interested, it is worth the time to check it out.
Burnout Paradise
An open-world arcade racing experiment in Detroit debris
Don’t tell Newton: Ramming your hot rod full-speed into a concrete block, idling minivan, or in-game ad billboard in Burnout Paradise doesn’t really slow you down. The game is a steady, fuel-injected dose of momentum from spark plug to finish line. Pushing over Paradise City’s 20 square miles of pavement for just an hour means accumulating new cars, completing events, knocking over barriers to find shortcuts or spontaneous jumps, earning license upgrades, setting street-specific high scores, or just streaking a newfound scenic route with rubber.
The game combines the feel of impulsive, mission-based sandbox titles like Grand Theft Auto and Tony Hawk with loose, forgiving, driving mechanics—making for disposable, whimsical racing with a persistent career and surprisingly good online mode. Every major intersection in the city is a gateway to a racing event. Spin your wheels at a stoplight and you’ll activate a point-to-point race or one of four other variations on the standard sprint: Road-rage events have you side-swiping a set number of opponents within a time limit, stunt runs are all about racking up points with long drifts and high jumps, and in our favorite, “marked man,” you’ll try to escape a set of ominous black sedans before they can smear you into the median. There are vehicle-specific challenges, too, and as you spend more time in Paradise City, you can earn the keys to rival cars roaming the streets by pushing them off the road.
Some cars earn a boost from stunts, others from banging against other vehicles and objects in the environment, and still another type gains it by just maintaining a high speed.
When you understeer a turn (Burnout’s sluggish map-guidance interface is one of its only shortcomings), you’re treated to a slo-mo sequence of your coupe compressing into a steel accordion. You’ll never see a pre-rendered animation—plow into a passenger van, pole, or unlucky bus near top speed, and the game catches each frame of your chassis’s crunch from a cinematic angle. These scenic crashes don’t affect your car’s performance, and they’re an anchor for the game’s forgiving, unfrustrating design.
Seamless presentation is one of Burnout Paradise’s best qualities. Criterion keeps the experience accessible: Loading screens are a rarity, the player’s stats and best times are all recorded alongside an excellent in-menu city map, and hopping online is a matter of two keystrokes, where you can roll through events or “freeburn” with up to seven other players. The PC release bundles all the updates the console version has seen in the last year: a night-day cycle and dynamic weather, new online game modes, and a handful of motorcycles to hop on when you get tired of four wheels.
Bikes! No, you can’t whip chains at passers-by like in Road Rash, but the choppers are a good wheelie-popping diversion when four-wheeling gets old.
Burnout Paradise is a memorable arcade racing experience. What holds it back an rpm or two are the relatively predictable events—after you’ve won 20 or so challenges, the lack of more dynamic content (police, racing factions, tournaments, or multi-race events) makes the single-player seem tedious. Once you’ve explored the city enough to get a feel for it, Paradise loses some of its charm—busting over a dirt ramp and power-sliding through oncoming traffic as you round a blind corner into a telephone pole is spontaneous only the first few dozen times.
LOTRO: Things I wish I knew before-hand
- At level 39 you can get all three of your epic traits (All three of the books can be purchased off the AH) and begin working on them asap, I got most of mine done since I was questing in the zones at the time. Also, one of the book’s pages can be purchased also. So if you don’t mind dropping some change you can buy all the pages to one of your books off the AH also.
- At level 45 You can begin the Moria line and attain your first Legendary weapon (NOTE: when you get into the instances area before Moria and begin Vol. 2 Book 1, the quest givers in this area are ONLY available to you while you do the first few chapters of the book. You will eventually get to a chapter with a big RED disclaimer telling you if you continue any quests in the instance that are unfinished will be lost. So if you need anything from the quest givers in this area make sure you complete them before you finish Book 1).
- If you CANT pick a profession you’d like to do at LEAST pick Explorer so you can make money for yourself while you level (specially since you’ll be on foot for so many levels).
Koolaid’s Additions
Always work out of one area at a time, in the case of Bree, work one area(ie Staddle, Bree, Adso’s camp) otherwise your quest log get bogged down with quests.
You do not have to do all the quests.
You do not have to do the Fellowships.
I would recommend that you do the quest that are Rep towards the area your working in.
If a quest is Grey and not a Rep quest, DROP IT! I does you not good and provides little XP and only a little money from the quest rewards that you are going to sell because the quest is Grery and you have out-leveled it.
Do not buy anything from anyone off the trade channel, they are just trying to goat you into paying more (personal experience here), do research via the AH, and know the Value of the Item. Do not pay anything over 10 gold for a item, especally if it is not identified.\
Please feel free to add to this.
Ones to not bother with…feel free to add to list
Far Cry 2: this was really supposed to be a really good game but IMO it totaly blew chunks.
The graphics are pretty good but dumbed down when it comes to the fires, water effects and explosions
The story pretty much has you running back and forth all over the same map doing a variety of odd jobs(remembers Ali Das) which really get redundant real quick.
Overall I would give it 1.5 out of 5 stars…:(
F.E.A.R. 2:If you thought TR had bugs at release this puppy has more bugs than a bluetick hound in a hay loft. Constant crashes and hangups as well as complete losses of saved data make this one a steamy pile of poodoo.
They ported it over from the console so a lot of the action keys you had in the first ones in the series are no longer there. Enemies glow now, sounds are way off and the AI is dumber than a box of rocks. Add to all of this that it is tied to a steam account, you couldn’t ditch it on someone else if you tried……Makes a good coaster. As for the devs……..well talk to your wall, you will get better results. I miss the TR devs, now those were some real nice folks.
I give this one a .5 out of 5…..PU
So, there are 2 that I tried and wish I hadn’t. I have gotten Fallout 3 and so far its stable, fun but very lonely in the capital wasteland but the storyline has me interested and it is fairly vast so we’ll see how this one holds up.
If anyone else would like to expand on my list, feel free to do so or add your own comments, remarks or rebuttals since this is just one mans opinion. Of course, if you know a really good one for me to look at let me know………………………………………. ……:D
Aion: Tower of Eternity - 16 New Images - 02/26/09
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Originally Posted by GamePlanets.blogspot.com
NCsoft reveals 16 new in-game screenshots and concept art images of its very expected fantasy CryEngine MMO, Aion: The Tower of Eternity.
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[spoiler]
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My First Two Days Playing Eve Online
It’s a lesser known trait of mine that I enjoy playing computer games, specifically strategy games for the PC. The only console I own is a Nintendo Wii - which is saying something since it’s the first console I’ve owned since the Sega Genesis! So this weekend, with all the free time I have, a new broadband connection courtesy of Eircom (after replacing the crappy Netopia router they give you for free; free as in scrap metal), and a little trepidation, I joined Eve Online.
Eve Online is a MMOG set in space. There are approximately 5000 star systems, 200,000+ subscribers, and perhaps 18,000 to 45,000 players online at any one time. Since I was playing at the weekend for extended periods, I noticed the numbers peaked on my GMT clock each evening. The idea behind Eve Online is to enter the vastness of space and make a name for yourself either through combat, mining, trading, production or research. These are not however true alternatives since any player can train any skill imaginable given enough time. So the name of success is called specialisation, not class leveling…
All star systems have a security rating from 1.0 to 0.0. I spent all my time in 1.0 and 0.9 star systems. The word is that going anywhere with a 0.8 rating or less is not something a Rookie should consider for at least a few weeks. Going to 0.5 or lower could charitably be called suicide. Check out YouTube for a few videos of what happens to players who get cocky and impatient and run off to a 0.4 system to mine. It only takes a high skill player with a few missiles…
As for strategic and tactical gameplay - Eve Online rocks. It’s a thinking man’s dream game. You need to select skills, compare weapons and ammunition types, review Market conditions for the best regional prices (some stations can charge double the average price for items), get used to how ships scale and how to assess which you can take on (which is pretty much nothing since 1.0 sec systems are heavily overwatched by the local race’s police forces and only suicides would attack you, or you them 
). Living in 1.0 space is quite safe and a more than a few corporations stay exclusively there. Even a few of the 0.0 Corporations maintain 1.0 sub-Corporations for you to join.
The game itself is beautifully rendered. Back in December CCP release the Trinity client was released which added an overall graphics update with high resolution textures. My PC was never taxed while running it. I have a pretty good gaming rig so I could easily run two clients at the same time (Eve also let’s you play three characters on your single account). Th only niggle was collision detection on large objects like stations and planets. While it seems an odd flaw, I suspect it’s a simple optimisation. The only annoyance it will serve is trying to reach anything on the opposite side of a station - my advice is to orbit around the station before making a straight-line approach to such objects.
My own experiences from a first weekend after the jump… Day 1: PHP Is Not A Recognised Skill…But Missiles Are!
Sad to say, but I was unable to make a living in Eve Online as a PHP programmer. Aww… After booting up the Eve client I was greeted by an Introduction video detailing some of the back story to Eve Online. It’s standard sci-fi fare as Tor would publish in a cut-sized paperback. Yep, a total cliche, but the backstory just set’s the scene - it can be as cliched as it likes. Anyway, does WOW not have the same? Afterwards I input my trial account username and password, before being greeted by the character creation screen.
Creating a character for Eve Online should not be done lightly. Read up online about what kinds of attributes, skills and race/bloodline mixes are best suited to what you want. I wanted to kick other player’s asses (PVP/PVE) so I went with a Caldari Achura who had taken up the Soldier profession. I added my 5 attribute points to Perception, Intelligence and Memory (2-2-1). This gave me quite a collection of skills for in the area of Missiles, Gunnery and Calderi Frigates. More besides - but these are great ones to start a Soldier with. Adding a portrait is simple with the client’s facial morphing abilities though each race has distinct Earth profiles - so my Calderi Soldier has distinctly Asian features.
The game opens with a tutorial of sorts. It’s slightly eratic on two fronts. Firstly it doesn’t automatically warp your ship to the tutorial area all the time (so you need to warp to a station, and restart the tutorial whose steps are thankfully easy to fast forward past). Secondly, you need to take instructions literally - for example when they talk about shooting a pirate with a blaster in the first tutorial don’t assume to do it now - otherwise the next screen which does say to activate your guns will freeze. Why? Because the pirate is probably dead now after a few shots, and the tutorial doesn’t realise you can’t activate your guns anymore (no target). That’s another route ripe for a restart .
Otherwise the tutorial isn’t all that bad - it gives you the basics, introduces you to an Agent who provides missions, get’s you up and running.
I spent the next day running missions. During this I made sure to a) have a Clone Beta on hand and move it to any new station I decided to base myself out of, and b) make sure I insured any new ships I received. Keeping all your off-ship cargo stored in a station is a really good idea. I consolidated my assets on my chosen station twice so far. In a few more days I suspect I’ll need to consider a semi-permanent central station in the region to consolidate items and other ships in. In truth I spent the whole weekend in about 4 star systems around Uitra which is bot bad for a Rookie in a 5000 star system game 
.
I started out in a Rookie Ibis ship. Basically a tincan with a Railgun and a Mining Laser. As a Soldier, I followed Agent Missions first. After a few I was awarded a new Calderi Condor Frigate which is a bit better than a tincan but only has 2 possible weapon points which I armed first of all with Blasters, but finally with Standard Missile Launchers. Missiles appeared more effective at the time - they deal a lot of damage from long range and even gave single-shot kills. Hybrid Turrets (Guns) are shorter ranged and take more time to kill anything with (as a Calderi at least). Long ranged combat simply makes sense since you’re further from the target’s own guns and they tend to use lower yield Rockets for long-ranged engagements.
Most of the first day was spent learning skills (usually level 1 and 2 for stuff like Learning, Clarity, Mechanics, Science, Navigation). I found my weapon skills were already at levels 3 and 4 but supporting skills for ship systems, shield and armor upgrades, afterburners, propulsion systems and capacitor upgrades were untrained. These are essential to add new ship subsystems like hardened shields, damage control modules, sensors, capacitor upgrades, etc. One of my current concerns is power. Your ships are never fully loaded up with equipment because available power is never enough - something I need to focus on. Processing capacity seems a lot better - but I’d bet that becomes a limiting factor later too. So yeah - train those skills. If not playing for a day or two - pick a big 60hr skill to train while you’re offline.
Overall impressions: It was a good start. As I suspected it’s not the most exciting game full of thrills and spills. It takes patience and acknowledgment of having to plan and execute a long term strategy of skills training, ship research, corporation membership and cash inflow (Missions, Corp work, Mining, Trading, etc). I intend training skills continually - only takes a quick login to start a new one training (lvl1 about 30mins, lvl2 about 1.5hrs and lvl3 a lot more!). I also intend working my way to a new Calderi Kestrel or Merlin which are the most powerful Calderi Frigates. I’m sticking with Agent Missions for now. My Condor doesn’t have the cargo space to go mining for cash and the starting Missions are more profitable for now, as well as being part of an interesting storyline.
Day 2: Suicide Runs, More Missions, Corporation Recruitment Drives
I started Day 2 on a mission to destroy the lair of a Pirate. Outside the Station at Uitra VI Moon 4, a bunch of Rookies were annihilated in an “incident” after opening fire at another player. I also witnessed a wicked looking cargo ship shambling up to the Station for docking and had a quick conversation with the pilot. He was in from a 0.6 system to make a quick sale and get some repairs done. Dangerous places down past 0.8…
After another mission I was awarded a new Calderi Kestrel Frigate. Local chatter advised me it was the finest Calderi platform for Missiles in the Frigate Class. I was happy enough to load it up with 4 Missile Launchers and another 3000 missiles as ammo. Ammo was seriously being chewed through by now from the more powerful Pirates I was taking Missions against. My ship’s power continued to be a problem so I set to on a training track to provide skills I could use to increase capacitor output. Really need to get more supporting systems for my shields and armor in place - but first I need the power capacity to run them!
I spent a block of time spectating the local traffic. Basically just picking out ships, reading their information, and getting a feel for which ones were good, bad or indifferent. Most of the ships were Calderi, but I located an Amarr Industrial which marks a first for another species. I gather I’m so deep into Calderi space it’s a rarity to find anything not Calderi yet.
After some bumming around I felt the need for a little exploration so I headed to the Jita System. Or as the local chatter were calling it: LagFest. Turns out Jita is a system at the confluence of three others which makes it a prime trading spot. It was so popular that the CCP servers in Iceland were having a bit of trouble keeping up with the populace . It was very laggy, but I purchased a few items at a supremely low price. It’s almost a supermarket for the region with low prices and thousands of customers and a *lot*.
After my expedition of a whole 3 jumps from Uitra, I returned to Uitra VI Moon 4. One of the high points of the day was watching two Destroyers (my Kestral being a flea in comparison) start up a firefight. Between the missile barrages, shield flares, and beam weapons flying around a big crowd of Rookies gathered. Into the fray came a few extra ships including a few Frigates. It was an impressive display though one or two Rookies lost all sense of survivability and fired off some Missiles to see what would happen. With some restraint the opponents replied with a single low-yield missile. The antagonisers quickly warped away before the next one!
After some checking of ship, pilot and corporation affiliations of the battle members I realised the whole battle was a deliberate show - a publicity stunt of sorts for a local Corporation. As a recruitment drive it was a good one - Uitra is where most many Calderi Rookies end up so it was their first look at a full scale battle between 5-6 Frigates, Destroyers and Battleships. Such a show of force also underlined what players of 2-3 months can accomplish, which obviously underlines how huge a role patient plays in Eve Online. It takes real time to train up those skills and accumulate the cash for such extravagant ships and equipment.
I finished off the weekend of Eve Online by moving down to the Perimeter Star System a few jumps away. There’s a Calderi Naval Assembly Station here and it’s closer to my eventual possible home in another week down in Venelin. I’ve setup a Missile oriented skill to train which will take about 20hrs (sufficient time for me to sleep, go to work, and take my time recovering at home before logging in again for a quick check and a new skill to set training - maintenance mode on weekdays).
Final impressions: Read this http://atomic-tourist.net/AAR.pdf for a something interesting about Corporation play out in the real world of Eve Online in 0.0 security space. Long term is the keyword. Jumping into Eve and expecting to crush everyone inside of a few days is pure stupidity. It takes planning, strategy and research to pull off a good game. This undoubtably explains Eve continued disparate subscriber count. At 200,000 it’s respectable but not even remotely close to what WOW pulls in. The fact is Eve Online is a different game. It’s quite easy to get into, but whether you have a personal makeup capable of blasting away Pirates, mining for a few hours with a good book (obviously you need some in-game entertainment - which may seem counter-productive but then you’re missing the point!), or trading. Personally if I take up Mining I intend on taking full advantage of the fact I have a PC which can run Eve, Firefox and Eclipse at the same time, and in the future a MacBook Pro too. Eve is not just about having “fun”, it’s about accomplishment on a large scale over an extended timeline. Other folk would find this all dreadfully boring and lack the patience and extended mindset to create their own fun and enjoyment from the game.
So the story so far at 2 days? Eve Online is attractive, skills can be trained offline, but it requires patience and long term commitment. The commitment needn’t be time consuming either. I could play for a few hours at the weekend, or a few minutes at a time on a week day, and it wouldn’t put a dent into my free time. With skills training offline there’s far less pressure to be online all the time, or even a lot of the time. Many corporations clearly state they are looking for players who play “once a month or more” even… Read more
