Random Ravings: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

WoW 1.11 patch notes

At first, I didn't believe, but 1.11 patch notes found here.

Secrets of the Xbox: Unveiled!

I alway suspected as much, but today, I have incontrovertible proof that contrary to popular belief, transistors do not power the Xbox, but rather a team of monkeys. Proof below.

patronus: but of course you can't write xbox games wihtout (*sic) a pc
Velius: really? I thought it was just a team of monkeys on typewriters!!! =)
patronus: hehe inside the xbox
patronus: there [is] actually [a] team of monkeys in there
Velius: so THAT'S your secret!!!
patronus: omg now i have to kill you

*Patronus works at Microsoft and is a member of the Xbox QA team. A very reliable source. I am not sure if even my ninjas can save me now...

And you thought the Bonds steroid scandal was BIG!

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Outrage...

You would not believe the outcry from people who want AutoBuff to work again. There are so many posts on this mod at worldofwar. I use the mod myself and I would rate it as #1 or #2 in terms of practicality and overall usefulness (Decursive is close) so I totally understand. Here is a workaround someone found.

"A workaround is possible (yet untested by me): Removing the hook lines (Jump = AutoBuff_JMP; to CameraOrSelectOrMoveStop = AutoBuff_CMF;) should unblock the addon. Users do need to manually autobuff theirselves then, by a /script AutoBuff_Check(0); macro (or the provided keybinding). AKX 05:24, 30 March 2006 (EST) "

In practical speak, I believe it means open up the AutoBuff.lua file in textpad/wordpad. Find the start of the block beginning with Jump = AutoBuff_JMP and either comment out (adding -- in front of a line comments it out I believe) or delete everything down to and including CameraOrSelectOrMoveStop = AutoBuff_CMF. This basically removes all the hooks (Blizzard banned these) and allows the mod to function properly. Albeit it is no longer fully automatic buffing, all you have to do is spam a button to buff yourself with all the buffs you configured.

*Edit, this does unblock the script, but the checking algorithm for the buffs is not working so this fix does NOT fix autobuff.. whee

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

BF2, 1.22 is out

Battlefield 2, 1.22 patch is out. Full details found here. PKM is no longer automatic sniper rifle with 100 rounds. Thank God!!!

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

1.10

Monday, March 27, 2006

Starcraft: "Ghost"

Looks like Starcraft: Ghost is truly living up to its name. Awww, and I was sooo looking forward to playing this on my new Phantom. Game of the year 2001-2006!

Friday, March 24, 2006

Oblivion

Since my internet was out yesterday, I had a good chunk of time to devote to Oblivion. First of all, this game seriously kicks my system's butt. The "recommended" setting for gameplay was 640x480 with all settings on medium. While it did run pretty smoothly on this resolution, it makes it feel like I am playing a console game with the crappy huge textures. After trying to tweak it, I was able to get the game running somewhat smoothly on 1024x768 but with basically minimum draw distance. This also sucks as I cannot see any NPCs until they are literally 1 feet in front of me...somehow not very practical for an archery/stealth based character. I have decided that the best mode of action is to keep the minimum draw distance in cities and increase the draw distance in dungeons.

The character generator is truly amazing. There are soooo many options that I didn't even get to try out some of the more interesting ones like cheekbone curvature or nose concave/convex-ness. I decided to let the game randomly generate a face for me which turned out to be a big mistake as the game seems to think that you play a 65 year old hag who has never heard of botox. The number of wrinkles on the computer generated faces are astonishing. I had to generate at least a dozen ones before I got a "normal" face.

After a brief intro featuring a voice-over by the King (Patrick Stewart), the game starts you off in a beginner dungeon so you can learn the ropes. The new skills rating system is quite interesting. In all previous Elder Scrolls game, the more you used a skill, the better you got. Oblivion throws in a minor twist in that there are now 5 tiers for a skill (0-24 Novice, 25-49 Apprentice, 50-74 Veteran, 74-99 Expert, and 100 Master). Each skill gives different bonuses when you reach a particular tier. For instance, Marksmanship: Novice skill is the starting tier, when you draw your bow back and hold it, you lose stamina at a very fast rate. At apprentice, you no longer have that penalty so you can keep the bow drawn for as long as you need. At Veteran, you can now zoom the view in when you hold the string back for more accurate shots. At Expert, your bow shots have a chance to knock the target down. At Master, your bow shots have a chance to paralyze the target. Of course all of these bonuses are cumulative.

This adds a really cool incentive to level up your skills to get those special effects. People who know my style of playing games know that I am obsessed with skills so this does not bode well for my ever advancing the plotline. For example: I found a nice little high rock that was close to the ceiling of the starter dungeon and proceeded to rapidly jump up and down on the rock to increase my athleticism (At Master skill, I get to jump on water like in all those cool kung fu movies!). I must have jumped there for about 15 minutes, but eventually I decided to proceed with the plot.

The combat system is basically like the other Elder Scrolls games with the exception of the new blocking skill. Blocking used to occur at random, but now you have a specific button to block. Each time you block an attack, you lose a nice chunk of stamina so you cannot just turtle against opponents as eventually you will run out of stamina to block. This gives a whole new tactical aspect to the combat as blocking significantly reduces the damage received which I assume is very important later in the game. There is also a Blocking skill associated which gives different benefits as you increase the skill (Master level allows you a chance to knockdown and disarm an opponent after a block).

There are a couple of minigames worth mentioning. The first is the speechcraft skill. It allows you to "convince" other people that you are a good person. They can then provide you with more information, or possiblly hints to legendary artifacts or quests. If you are a sneaky rogue or assassin, you can persuade them, then pickpocket/backstab them when they are no longer on guard. The way it works is, you have this round table of things you can do to try to get them to like you: Tell a joke, Flatter them, Intimidate them, insult them, or as a last resort, bribe them. You pick choices on the wheel then proceed in order. I haven't figured out the mechanics of this yet, but I am sure there is some trick to it.

The second minigame is lockpicking. Locks are basically rated based on how many tumblers there are on them (0-6). When you attempt to pick the lock, you move your pick to push the tumblers up, then left click to lock them in place. If you fail, the tumblers come crashing down and destroy your lockpick. However, there is an easy trick to this, as when you push the tumbler correctly, they will go up much much slower than when you pushed them incorrectly. It does take some good reflexes to be able to react and lock the tumbler in place. After a little practice, I was able to pick 'Very Hard' (5 tumbler) locks with relative ease.

I am sure there is much more to explore in Oblivion as I only just got out of the beginner dungeon and into Imperial City.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

At least it wasn't the main gas line...

I am having a sprinkler system installed for my lawn. After a lengthy delay of a week to get some kinda permit from the city government, the project finally went underway today. As luck would have it, the workers decided to dig haphazardly and managed to sever the main phone cable that was buried underneath the lawn. Sweet! no phone or internet for a while. I suppose I am lucky that they missed the main gas line, as a smoking crater where my house used to be would be much worse than simply not having internet.... though not by much.

Edit: Wow, they sure were fast with the repairs. Apparently a "temporary" solution is in place until tomorrow, when they will make it more permanent. I assume this temporary solution is simply stealing the neighbor's bandwith. Sweet.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Sebastian Strikes Back!

Had a physical and apparently I have this bacteria in my stomach now that is causing all kinds of stomach problems. I think I might have gotten this in China from eating some of the less than clean food products. Hopefully a 2 week course of antibiotics prescribed by the doctor will fix the problem. If not, I will be royally screwed and they will have to replace my stomach with that of a cow or something.. Mooo

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Not quite Michaelangelo....

So we had another iSketch lunch and this time it was patronus who presented a very... shall we say... unique drawing. Please attempt to guess what this food is:

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

iSketch Lunch!

What does each drawing look like? You decide!

1.

Friday, March 10, 2006

The following is rated WTMI..

for Wayyyyy Too Much Information, but in case any of you wanted to know... To be fair, you have been warned!

Lunch time conversations with BlupnutMM and NobitaNobi are always very interesting. BlupnutMM is a nurse in training and so is currently working at the prenatal department for a hospital. Basically she helps in delivering babies and pre/post-delivery care. You can certainly learn a lot from doing this type of job. Some things that were brought up today during the course of our lunch time conversation:

1. Apparently, women who are pregnant tend to lactate randomly. There is no trigger for this lactation. Hence women not wearing bras can have nice little wet spots on the front of their outfits (similar to man-boobs, but not caused by sweat...)

2. When women lactate, it comes out in multiple streams, much like a lawn sprinkler. It also shoots out very fast and 2-3 streams of milk is not uncommon.

3. Some women and men can have "third nipples." These are little stubby thingies that can be near the armpits and apparently, in women, they are fully functional. This means women can have milk randomly shooting out of their armpits...... (Hey, you were warned!)

4. A common and doctor-recommended way to induce labor is to twist the nipple. Apparently, this causes some kinda hormones to be created that cause labor. It's usually very tiring for women to do this for themselves, so usually the husband does this. Seeing husbands groping their wives constantly is therefore a very common sight in maternity wards.

On a completely different note, there was a group of parents with kids at a table next to us. They were celebrating the birthday of one of the little kids. They lit some candles, sang the birthday song and then the lucky kid blew out the candles. It was at this point, that some other random little kid in the group just started to cry like crazy. This spoiled-rotten kid was apparently jealous that the other kid got all the attention and continued to wail and wail and wail. So in order to placate him, they re-lit the candles, and then sang a birthday song for him even though it wasn't even his birthday. The bratty kid then blew out the candles. If my kids EVER did that, I would just let him cry to his hearts content, then tell him to go outside if he won't stop. Bratty little twerp.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

and 9999 used to be a lot of damage in an RPG...

Interesting screenshot here of damage done by one of the new endgame bosses. Total damage exceeds 10,000,000....wheee

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Stupid Question? Stupid Answer!

About 2 months ago, I submitted a question for Stump Page 2 on ESPN. I can't believe they actually posted it! I guess my 15 seconds of fame.

Random Ravings