Turns out that if I want the Kryta area to go back to the way it was, I have to finish the War in Kryta.
Things were going really well with Frozen Soil in my build, but then after getting the key, clearing Shaemoor, and opening the door, my computer crashed. Yeah, I'm stuck on A Little Help From Above.
Fuck.
Frozen Soil makes it tolerable. You have to place it right since it dies easily, but with it in use my only remaining frustrations were group sizes and the strange pattern I've noticed in Shaemoor. The first time I pull a group, it's impossible and I'll have to retreat. Then, after resurrecting and healing up, I re-engage and it goes easily. Repeat for the next group. Regardless of whether or not they have healers.
So, Frozen Soil will be stapled to my skill bar until I finish War in Kryta, but I'll have to buy a bunch of Powerstones of Courage.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Crucial Blogger Shortcomings
The following are all sorely needed:
- A "Report Spam" link on every comment left on a blog post
- Captcha forced for blog authors as well
A comment spam filter(8/13/2010: IT EXISTS NOW YAY)- Links to moderated commenters' profiles from the comment moderation panel. Also, a link to their blogs, when applicable. The emails it sends about moderated comments have profile links...
- A link directly to the dashboard from the navbar even when you're looking at your own blog
- The Quick Edit link in a post should use Blogger in Draft if the user has it enabled
- Templated HTML for inserting an image into a post
- Ability for custom theme CSS to use theme variables
- Toggle for target="_blank" on links
- Ability to add extra formatting buttons that apply custom CSS classes to post content via span tags
- A setting to specify custom CSS to be loaded in the post editor, for use with custom CSS classes applied to post content via span tags
- The Twitter gadget needs to show retweets and link whatever #thesearecalled
- A proper trackback system compatible with other blog software
- The post preview click catching element needs to be positioned with position: fixed; rather than position: absolute;, and the diagonal "Preview" text should be below it, not above it.
- Tweaks to the editor so that pressing Enter has the desired effect on the first try, and to eliminate the space it puts at the end of a line.
- Ability to preview the short version of a post using a jump break
- Post editor formatting button for underline
- Some emoticons or something (should be the same height as the text so they don't mess with line spacing)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Crucial Twitter Shortcoming
I'd noticed this in the past, but it actually mattered this time because someone (see comments on previous post) was trying to contact me.
Twitter won't show you @mentions on your Home page from people you aren't following. Normally this is because someone you aren't following could be having an @mention conversation with someone you are, and thus it keeps the page uncluttered. But when someone who isn't following you @mentions you... You have to open the @mention page to see it.
Also compounding this issue is the fact that Twitter doesn't show you how many unread @mentions you have.
Long story short, even though I'm not the guy the commenter on the post below was looking for, I'm helping with the issue.
Twitter won't show you @mentions on your Home page from people you aren't following. Normally this is because someone you aren't following could be having an @mention conversation with someone you are, and thus it keeps the page uncluttered. But when someone who isn't following you @mentions you... You have to open the @mention page to see it.
Also compounding this issue is the fact that Twitter doesn't show you how many unread @mentions you have.
Long story short, even though I'm not the guy the commenter on the post below was looking for, I'm helping with the issue.
Level Editors Suck
In the past, level editors were simple. Open it, make a new map, design the map, script anything that needs scripting if the level editor had support for it, then save and play. That was it.
Warcraft 2's level editor was like this. It was really simple to use, you just drew the terrain with your mouse, added trees, water, dirt that couldn't be built on, gold mines, and start locations for each player. That was it.
Starcraft's was basically that, but with triggers that let you script things. Sure, they took a little bit to learn, but the design process was simple enough and triggers weren't absolutely required, so the editor still had the same accessibility.
Descent and Descent 2 both used the same editor, which was fairly complex, but the average user could still make a map with only a minor bit of effort. This is important because these are the first 3D games I've mentioned thus far.
Also 3D, but going back to the RTS, Warcraft 3's editor looked absolutely amazing at first. You can mess with all sorts of terrain things and design a landscape with hills, valleys, rivers, etc. Placing start locations and other level essentials is still simple. They upgraded the trigger system massively from the one used in Starcraft, and it shows since any trigger set can be converted into some random scripting language. What language is this, what is its syntax like, what are the predefined objects, methods, and properties, etc.? So I go into the help file. Or, so I think. Selecting Help just opens a web page in my browser that basically says that the world editor is not supported by Blizzard. Okay, that's fine, but how about some fucking documentation? Why leave documenting your editor to the third party hacking community? Why not lay everything bare and say "look, here's how to use everything". Starcraft's help file did that. It was by no means a complete trigger tutorial, but it at the very least got you started.
Why isn't it that FPSes and other modern games have the same simplicity in their editors that older games did?
Open up Unreal Editor and churn out a simple deathmatch level in five minutes without having to first research the bare essentials of how to use the editor. I dare you. I made one CTF map in it, that took approximately four hours (after reading documentation, and with further documentation lookups during creation) just to get the bare basics in the level so it was playable. You know, the layout, the flags, ammo pickups, spawn locations, etc. It looked like shit, but that's to be expected of a first level. When I fired it up, I discovered that the bots wouldn't move. You have to litter your level with what it calls PathNodes so that the bots can find their way around the level. This is eased somewhat by the fact that all pickups, flags, etc. contain a PathNode, but if the distance between them is too far, the bots won't know what to do. Really?
Alien Swarm, an otherwise great game, was advertised as having an "easy-to-use tile-based level editor". Upon installing the game and its SDK, I was confused. Starting up the editor started up Hammer, which looks a lot like Unreal Editor. Where was this "easy-to-use tile-based level editor" the game was supposed to come with? I found out via a thread on Steam's forums that contained some of the more useful console commands that in order to get to it, you need to type a console command in-game. That, and you have to enable cheats. The "easy-to-use tile-based level editor" is a cheat.
So, whatever, I open up the console and type in "sv_cheats 1; asw_tilegen" and get the editor up. It's got tiles for rooms with various configurations of doors and so forth, so I happily went about constructing a small network of hallways. I saved it, then told it to generate the level and play it. Upon entering the level, I see nothing but white except for my yellow player name. My marine can fire guns and do all the emotes, but I don't get the feeling that I can move anywhere. It's just white. A little more inspection of the editor shows that you can make your own custom room types and save them, and they automatically get added to the tile list so you can place them. So I make a room based on one of the preset rooms, but it lost the background graphic and was just the small graphic indicating a door to the north. Hmm.
Also, I noted that if I right click, a weird green symbol appears in the level precisely one tile below the tile I right click on, that I can't move anywhere after that. Apparently this is the start location. Why didn't the level editor bitch at me when I went to build the level without a start location? Why doesn't it appear in the tile you click on, and why can't it be moved after that? And furthermore, why is nothing else placeable in this editor?
Apparently, Hammer is still required to actually finish the job. In that case, why does the in-game editor have the option to save and play, and doubly, why doesn't the editor bitch at me about the level being incomplete when I go to build it?
I loaded up Hammer and tried to use it, just by feeling around in the dark hoping to find something, anything that could be used to light the way, metaphorically speaking. Somehow I managed to create a cube and texture it, but I think it wasn't a room because weird things happened when I tried to move the camera inside it. So basically, your guess is as good as mine on how to use this thing. Which kind of sucks, because I was looking forward to making some levels. Why is it that you pretty much need knowledge of 3D modelling to make levels? Haven't they heard of providing prefabricated level elements to get people like me started? Can't they make a level editor that's intuitive to use and that gets the job done without requiring other tools? Sure, the quality of a quickly made level is going to be low, but at the very least LET ME MAKE A SHITTY LEVEL EASILY SO I CAN LEARN HOW TO MAKE BETTER ONES OVER TIME.
Fuck. You'd think that with the huge community that's popped up around modifying and creating custom content for games, that there would be an intuitive editor to get people started that haven't done any of this before. As far as documentation goes, at least Valve has an official wiki with a Getting Started tutorial. I can work with that.
Warcraft 2's level editor was like this. It was really simple to use, you just drew the terrain with your mouse, added trees, water, dirt that couldn't be built on, gold mines, and start locations for each player. That was it.
Starcraft's was basically that, but with triggers that let you script things. Sure, they took a little bit to learn, but the design process was simple enough and triggers weren't absolutely required, so the editor still had the same accessibility.
Descent and Descent 2 both used the same editor, which was fairly complex, but the average user could still make a map with only a minor bit of effort. This is important because these are the first 3D games I've mentioned thus far.
Also 3D, but going back to the RTS, Warcraft 3's editor looked absolutely amazing at first. You can mess with all sorts of terrain things and design a landscape with hills, valleys, rivers, etc. Placing start locations and other level essentials is still simple. They upgraded the trigger system massively from the one used in Starcraft, and it shows since any trigger set can be converted into some random scripting language. What language is this, what is its syntax like, what are the predefined objects, methods, and properties, etc.? So I go into the help file. Or, so I think. Selecting Help just opens a web page in my browser that basically says that the world editor is not supported by Blizzard. Okay, that's fine, but how about some fucking documentation? Why leave documenting your editor to the third party hacking community? Why not lay everything bare and say "look, here's how to use everything". Starcraft's help file did that. It was by no means a complete trigger tutorial, but it at the very least got you started.
Why isn't it that FPSes and other modern games have the same simplicity in their editors that older games did?
Open up Unreal Editor and churn out a simple deathmatch level in five minutes without having to first research the bare essentials of how to use the editor. I dare you. I made one CTF map in it, that took approximately four hours (after reading documentation, and with further documentation lookups during creation) just to get the bare basics in the level so it was playable. You know, the layout, the flags, ammo pickups, spawn locations, etc. It looked like shit, but that's to be expected of a first level. When I fired it up, I discovered that the bots wouldn't move. You have to litter your level with what it calls PathNodes so that the bots can find their way around the level. This is eased somewhat by the fact that all pickups, flags, etc. contain a PathNode, but if the distance between them is too far, the bots won't know what to do. Really?
Alien Swarm, an otherwise great game, was advertised as having an "easy-to-use tile-based level editor". Upon installing the game and its SDK, I was confused. Starting up the editor started up Hammer, which looks a lot like Unreal Editor. Where was this "easy-to-use tile-based level editor" the game was supposed to come with? I found out via a thread on Steam's forums that contained some of the more useful console commands that in order to get to it, you need to type a console command in-game. That, and you have to enable cheats. The "easy-to-use tile-based level editor" is a cheat.
So, whatever, I open up the console and type in "sv_cheats 1; asw_tilegen" and get the editor up. It's got tiles for rooms with various configurations of doors and so forth, so I happily went about constructing a small network of hallways. I saved it, then told it to generate the level and play it. Upon entering the level, I see nothing but white except for my yellow player name. My marine can fire guns and do all the emotes, but I don't get the feeling that I can move anywhere. It's just white. A little more inspection of the editor shows that you can make your own custom room types and save them, and they automatically get added to the tile list so you can place them. So I make a room based on one of the preset rooms, but it lost the background graphic and was just the small graphic indicating a door to the north. Hmm.
Also, I noted that if I right click, a weird green symbol appears in the level precisely one tile below the tile I right click on, that I can't move anywhere after that. Apparently this is the start location. Why didn't the level editor bitch at me when I went to build the level without a start location? Why doesn't it appear in the tile you click on, and why can't it be moved after that? And furthermore, why is nothing else placeable in this editor?
Apparently, Hammer is still required to actually finish the job. In that case, why does the in-game editor have the option to save and play, and doubly, why doesn't the editor bitch at me about the level being incomplete when I go to build it?
I loaded up Hammer and tried to use it, just by feeling around in the dark hoping to find something, anything that could be used to light the way, metaphorically speaking. Somehow I managed to create a cube and texture it, but I think it wasn't a room because weird things happened when I tried to move the camera inside it. So basically, your guess is as good as mine on how to use this thing. Which kind of sucks, because I was looking forward to making some levels. Why is it that you pretty much need knowledge of 3D modelling to make levels? Haven't they heard of providing prefabricated level elements to get people like me started? Can't they make a level editor that's intuitive to use and that gets the job done without requiring other tools? Sure, the quality of a quickly made level is going to be low, but at the very least LET ME MAKE A SHITTY LEVEL EASILY SO I CAN LEARN HOW TO MAKE BETTER ONES OVER TIME.
Fuck. You'd think that with the huge community that's popped up around modifying and creating custom content for games, that there would be an intuitive editor to get people started that haven't done any of this before. As far as documentation goes, at least Valve has an official wiki with a Getting Started tutorial. I can work with that.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Impending doom
I need another hard drive. Or, better yet, I need to put together the file server I have plans for. Then I'd have 4TB of space to store stuff.
111.16 GB free across all three of my hard drives. And really, the 20GB drive doesn't count because it's only Windows and various utilities. All my actual data is on the 120GB and the 750GB.
111.16 GB free across all three of my hard drives. And really, the 20GB drive doesn't count because it's only Windows and various utilities. All my actual data is on the 120GB and the 750GB.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Let the FCs resume.
I started up World Tour yesterday and re-FCed three songs (Guitar: Beautiful Disaster, Vinternoll2; Bass: No Sleep Till Brooklyn), only getting a higher score on No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Then after entering that higher score in on ScoreHero, I was looking at my scores and noticed that I still hadn't gotten the FC of Feel The Pain on Bass.
Since it'd been a while, I played it through once to reacquaint myself. I noticed that my drops were entirely stupid (overstrummed on a sustain at one point, and understrummed due to a brain fart). Went through again, got an overstrum 100%. Went back in a third time and finally got the FC. It ended up being 4th place on PS2. Can't really complain.
I guess I'll stay in World Tour for a while trying to get as many Bass FCs as I can. I doubt I can get all 84, but I'll be happy with at least half. I'm actually kind of near that right now (I'm at 38 of 84), so I might have to adjust that to 60% or so. Even if it means playing the Tool songs again. I don't know if I'll ever FC B.Y.O.B, but getting it 5-starred is just a matter of hitting more SP phrases. Sweet Home Alabama is fairly easy (and fun), but is extremely chokable and has a long string of altstrumming at the end.
So I guess my ultimate goal in GH:WT Expert Bass is to have a sizable portion of the setlist FCed and the rest 5-starred. Also if I can get Pull Me Under unlocked, I could sightread that. I haven't bothered with career mode in a while and certain songs make career mode crash when the game is run off the hard drive...
Since it'd been a while, I played it through once to reacquaint myself. I noticed that my drops were entirely stupid (overstrummed on a sustain at one point, and understrummed due to a brain fart). Went through again, got an overstrum 100%. Went back in a third time and finally got the FC. It ended up being 4th place on PS2. Can't really complain.
I guess I'll stay in World Tour for a while trying to get as many Bass FCs as I can. I doubt I can get all 84, but I'll be happy with at least half. I'm actually kind of near that right now (I'm at 38 of 84), so I might have to adjust that to 60% or so. Even if it means playing the Tool songs again. I don't know if I'll ever FC B.Y.O.B, but getting it 5-starred is just a matter of hitting more SP phrases. Sweet Home Alabama is fairly easy (and fun), but is extremely chokable and has a long string of altstrumming at the end.
So I guess my ultimate goal in GH:WT Expert Bass is to have a sizable portion of the setlist FCed and the rest 5-starred. Also if I can get Pull Me Under unlocked, I could sightread that. I haven't bothered with career mode in a while and certain songs make career mode crash when the game is run off the hard drive...
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Working Guitar Controllers GET!
As I mentioned previously, a friend had some PS2 guitar controllers he wasn't using, having switched over to RB2 on the Wii. He dropped them off yesterday after we played some Alien Swarm (damn, that game is fun) and then I proceeded to distract myself from 7 PM to midnight reacquainting myself.
What he gave me: a GH2 Gibson SG, and a GH3 Kramer Striker.
The Kramer, as previously noted, needs hardwiring, and already has a paper shim. If you look carefully along the left side of the neck you'll see his paper shim sticking out of it, I'll be replacing that with an entirely internal one when I hardwire it.
I did the reacquainting with the SG, since newer controllers have a select button that's over there. While I've almost gotten used to activating with the side of my hand, I still vastly prefer just using my ring finger on the Kramer.
The SG does have one issue: the strum bar can bounce back up and cause an overstrum. This generally only occurs when I whack the strum bar and don't leave my hand on it to move it back slowly, which does affect my gameplay. I found that I have a really hard time strumming and then whammying SP sustains with it, because I'd usually get an overstrum. I don't really know what can be done to fix that, but at least the SG has regular phillips head screws instead of the annoying torx ones on the Kramer.
If I can't get the SG working to my liking, I can always just open it up and gank the rubber bit beneath the fret buttons to put it in my other Kramer... assuming it's the same size of course. It looks like it should be though, just from external inspection.
I also like the body of the Kramer a lot more. The SG's just feels uncomfortable where my right arm rests on it, whereas I never noticed anything with the Kramer. I'll have to see if this Kramer has the half-dead-from-factory whammy bar that my original one did.
I can play Guitar Hero again. Yay.
Edit (2:25 AM): Hardwired the Kramer and replaced the external paper shim with an internal one. Just for shits and giggles I tested it out in GH3's cheats menu before hardwiring, it was indeed in need of it as four of the five frets would flicker if the neck was moved even slightly. Well, that's all taken care of now, works like a charm and the whammy bar is better than my original Kramer's.
What he gave me: a GH2 Gibson SG, and a GH3 Kramer Striker.
The Kramer, as previously noted, needs hardwiring, and already has a paper shim. If you look carefully along the left side of the neck you'll see his paper shim sticking out of it, I'll be replacing that with an entirely internal one when I hardwire it.
I did the reacquainting with the SG, since newer controllers have a select button that's over there. While I've almost gotten used to activating with the side of my hand, I still vastly prefer just using my ring finger on the Kramer.
The SG does have one issue: the strum bar can bounce back up and cause an overstrum. This generally only occurs when I whack the strum bar and don't leave my hand on it to move it back slowly, which does affect my gameplay. I found that I have a really hard time strumming and then whammying SP sustains with it, because I'd usually get an overstrum. I don't really know what can be done to fix that, but at least the SG has regular phillips head screws instead of the annoying torx ones on the Kramer.
If I can't get the SG working to my liking, I can always just open it up and gank the rubber bit beneath the fret buttons to put it in my other Kramer... assuming it's the same size of course. It looks like it should be though, just from external inspection.
I also like the body of the Kramer a lot more. The SG's just feels uncomfortable where my right arm rests on it, whereas I never noticed anything with the Kramer. I'll have to see if this Kramer has the half-dead-from-factory whammy bar that my original one did.
I can play Guitar Hero again. Yay.
Edit (2:25 AM): Hardwired the Kramer and replaced the external paper shim with an internal one. Just for shits and giggles I tested it out in GH3's cheats menu before hardwiring, it was indeed in need of it as four of the five frets would flicker if the neck was moved even slightly. Well, that's all taken care of now, works like a charm and the whammy bar is better than my original Kramer's.
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