Friday, September 28, 2012

MWO podcast and sound files.

"No Guts No Galaxy" Podcast
Great podcast so much info it actually hurts my head.

I got this mp3 last night and I need to share.
They Be Hearing Bells

Sounds:
Mechwarrior 2 and 3 sounds
Mechwarrior 2 effects



I have been busy but am stockpiling ideas and blogs as soon as this damn NDA drops. In the mean time if you have not gotten into the closed beta you are doing 2 things wrong.
1) All you ahve to do is sign up and complete your profile 100%
2) Watch MWO on twitter or facebook for free beta keys.

It is easy and you are stupid for not trying it :D

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Do you remember QEMM?



Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager
This post has a point ....it is one of those remembering the past to better understand the future.

QEMM was a product from the 80's it was a memory manager for DOS. My dad and I had it on every pc we owned ....it was vital the difference between loading a application and a game at the same time without running in to memory error. More than likely my dad and I over did it with utilities ...we were obsessed with fine tuning everything to make it run better (which meant we probably slowed it down running utilities) but we could really tell the difference if we commented out a load command.

Today memory is CHEAP like $5499


G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR20% off w/ promo code EMCNAJF34, ends 9/20




So today you don't need memory management right? Well that is not entirely true. Razer has announced Razer Game Booster.
So what is it?
I signed up for beta so i will tell you as soon as I know.
Here are the facts (followed by a video)
It looks at everything that is running and creates a profile which disables EVERYTHING that is not essential to gaming. Once the game is over it reverts to its standard profile. Memorymanager, Application Manager and Monitor all in one and its free.





I am becoming a fan of Razer. This needs a cooler name though.

Monday, September 17, 2012

What is success in a gaming MMO?

First
What is an MMO?
MASSIVE - Supporting Hundreds of players.
MULTI-PLAYER - must allow multiple people to play simultaneously in a persistent world
ONLINE - must be online to play

Second
What is success?
Well no one will give the same answer. The truth is success is a measurement of happiness and money. For example, if I owned my own business and barely made any money but I loved what I do - I would consider that a success. But say I had creditors ...then I owe money and I am also quite unhappy. What if I make enough to pay my creditor but cannot pay my employees what they deserve and they are unhappy.

Now look at the gaming industry MMOs in particular.
The most successful game in the history of gaming World of Warcraft. Even if you haven't played it I bet someone you know close to you has. WoW became the standard of what gaming companies thought they should be. So now every single game that comes out says well its like WoW but the setting is different or Wow doesn't include this we do.
When someone steps outside of what makes WoW successful they either fail, or are looked down on like a failure.
EQ2 has been running as long as WoW ...it has a deep lore, made players happy with wants and fulfilled many roles. Yet no where near the player base of WoW, gone free to play, yet no advertising.
Warhammer Online - huge opening day, too big in fact they underestimated the need for servers and had long queues. They resorted in opening new servers and after the newness wore off they had to shutdown and combine servers. While they had lots of testing they failed by not including a 3rd realm for combat and could not support huge battles when 300 people entered a combat zone the servers just could not handle the load.
SWTOR - after a huge bump and push to take over the top slot ...failed as of this writing it looks like they are combining ALL servers just to get a reign on population. Froogle
Guild Wars 2 - nothing truly original and yet, so far, highly successful. 2 million subscribers when it opened.

There is no magical formula. WoWs numbers are slipping even though they have a huge expansion coming out. Almost every game on the horizon is free to play. How much time are you willing to invest ... and how does that equate to money and success for the company making the game? Can they paid developers with that success? Do companies just keep making games as fast as possible and move to the next one until they make a successful self running game and then come back to it and "fix" it? At what point is it considered a success?

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Scouts balancing power and effectiveness.

Scouts are not rangers. Although they excel in nature, being a guide, being a teacher.


Scouts not archers. Although they carry the equipment and are precise in striking.

Scouts are not rogues. Although they are masters of speed and camoflage.

Scouts are not cartographers. Although they know the land and have memorized locations and landmarks.












The way I see it you cannot have a complete squad without a scout. It requires speed, spotting forces, cover, communication, diversion. Being a scout is in many ways like being a poker player.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When I was growing up my parents listened to different music but I had to listen to enough coutry music  that I would like to punch them for ingraining in me now. It did make it onto the pop charts peaked at number 16 (! omg it broke into the top 20) in 1979.
So thanks but that mom and dad ...however it did have one gem that stuck with me.
Kenny Rogers "The Gambler"
"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away, know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table,
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
See the key here is a scout will have to learn to make the best decision typically at a moments notice. this applies to any game I have ever played and still play. I have been one and I typically enjoy it ...it has a defined purpose and has turned the odds in many games.

 


Friday, September 14, 2012

Cataphract - post from the MWO forums

Cataphract

Boom Click-boom click-boom click-boom click-boom click
The Ultra AC-5 snickers as she tracks the Jenner in the distance; rounds impacting around, and on, the enemy ‘Mech. She could almost feel the enemy pilot shaking as each round impacted. Leaning forward as he approaches cover, her jump-jets arching her into the sky as the last AC-5 round enters the Jenners left leg, crippling it in an explosion of metal and smoke. Her four medium lasers rake giant lines down and across the top of the torso, her LBX-10 round crushes the centre torso from above, taking the ‘Mech out of action.
Tapping the jump-jets as she lands, the ‘Mechs legs absorb the fall, and she’s moving forward, the Cataphract slowly bobbing as her head tracks left and right for enemy targets. Her time as a Recon pilot is paying off now, as she scans every place she’d have been…

Vaulting through the air, she spots an Atlas in the distance, again the ‘boom click’ of a UAC firing and reloading fills her ears and shots arc out at the Atlas, impacting across the torso while four medium lasers add their burning lines. Just as she reaches the apex of the jump, she hits the Atlas with an LBX-10, clouding the enemy ‘Mech in smoke - and then she’s on the rear-side of a hill, and moving. LRM’s impact around her, causing almost no damage. She grins, twisting to the left and down the hill. That simple jump just took a big chunk out of that enemy Atlas, she thinks with a ferocious smile.
The Hunchback fires it’s AC/20, and her ‘Mech screams in rage as the impact shakes it, followed with a howl of indignation as the two medium and one small laser attempt to reach her through her Cataphract’s stomach. Moving without thinking – she’s already in the air, sailing over the hunchback, 'BOOOOM click' of her LBX-10 in her ears even as the ‘boom click’ of her UAC-5 begins. The four medium lasers trace lines over the head and each shoulder of the Hunchback, as its pilot struggles to turn around and face her. Tapping the jump-jets again, slightly leaning even further out of his firing arc, her AC-5’s and LBX-10 mixed with four medium lasers absolutely shred the rear armour of the Hunchback. She barely registers the 'Mech stumbling forward, focussed instead on the how.
How’d it get behind her? Did she move further forward than she thought? No - she is clearly where she should be! She frantically scans her HUD, looking for any other readings and realises her entire company is gone...

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Do you get spam in your mail?

So yesterday, I see a tweet from Russ Bullock (President - Piranha Games Inc. - Developing MechWarrior Online ) that indicates that if you are not in the closed beta by now you are doing it all wrong.

"If your not in Closed Beta for Online yet, why not? Is your Closed Beta profile at 100%.Make it so letting in huge numberss now"

Now maybe you did get in but it was marked as spam by your email reader so go check that first.

This leads me to a funny story (well atleast my friends think so) that we laugh about to this day.

When I say "we"; I mean "we" had this thing going about 3 years ago where a group of us from work played games together about once a week. We went through some games, if we liked it we kept playing but mostly each game lasted about 3 months. RL would get in the way or we would just get frustrated with trying to get together ...whatever, we burned out; collectively as a group.

We were playing Warhammer Online ...now its a great game, fun pvp, interesting classes, pretty easy to stay together. But it requires a lot of running back and forth if you want to stay in combat you must fight in one location and either sit and wait for combat or run to the next destination and pry it away from the other side. There is not much fun in waiting so you run.

We had just help turn the tide in a gruesome battle and were running to the next hotspot. Six of us ...on the way to the next location we stopped at a village to repair armor, bio break, grabbing a drink and whatnot.

Well you know how is it ...in a group ...one person is a bonehead. Todays bonehead was XXXXXXX (name changed to protect the innocent). It was an epic fail but everyone is getting ready to go we are all lined up to run to the next area. Except bonehead is not moving we are watching his icon on the minimap and he is just completely stopped. "Let's go," says our commander. Everyone says they are ready except bonehead. "Hey" he says "you get spam in your mail?!?" It makes me laugh everytime I hear someone say spam now ...it was aggravating then and it is funny as hell now (to us anyway).

Every once in a while while we are together you will hear someone say "hey, you get spam in you mail" for no reason at all. It is funny.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Athene

Hey you
If you are reading this you owe it to yourself to check this guy out.
His "Athene" persona is OVER the TOP ...completely insane. He really is one of the best gamers in the world. He gets backed by a lot of people and does some really incredible stuff. I can watch him play for hours.



Saturday, September 8, 2012

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tactic Tip 101

Rufus: Very basic strategy. If your enemies know where you are, then don't be there.
Rufus is played by Chris Rock in the Kevin Smith movie Dogma.
A recent reviewing of this movie I picked up on this quote and well ...its just too good to not be applied in PVP games.

So move swiftly and do not be where your enemy suspects you are. This will result in a retargetting or new acquision.

In call of duty a grenade thrown can signal your location so throw and move.
In WoW there was a battle in Alterac Valley where a team could raise a Avatar to destroy the enemy but this avatar was noisy ..your enemy would know what you were doing and would try and stop you.
Shooting from a tank or a rocket launcher is a dead give away of your location.

MOVE
MOVE
MOVE
COVER and HIDE
then light them up when assistance arrives :D

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

MWO server down for maintenance.

Server Downtime - 10AM - 2PM PDT - SEP 6th

Server Downtime - 10AM - 2PM PDT - SEP 6th

by Piranha Games Sep 5, 2012 7:35 PM EDT
Greetings MechWarrior Community,
This message is to inform you that we will be temporarily shutting down all MechWarrior® Online™ related services for an extended maintenance period. This includes the game servers, the web server, PlaySpan operations (Founder’s Packages) and our backend database servers. The current scheduled maintenance window is Thursday, September 6, 2012 - From 10AM - 2PM PDT (4 hours).
Keep an eye on the Facebook/Twitter feeds for any updates regarding this maintenance window.
What does this mean?
During the maintenance window:
  • You will not be able to play games.
  • You will not be able to log into the client.
  • You will not be able to log into the website/forums.
  • You will not be able to purchase a Founder's Package.
  • You will not be able register a new pilot.
Also, essentially all data is being wiped. That means the following will all be reset:
  • Stats
  • C-Bills
  • MechWarrior Credits (the free amount we give you.)
  • All non-founders Mechs
  • Mech Trees
  • XP
Founders will keep their founders items, and your Friendslist will not be touched. Thank you for your patience and we will see you back on the battlefield shortly after 2PM PDT!
The MechWarrior® Online™ Team

Founders Atlas

Massive.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

HUGE NEWS from MWO

MechWarrior® Online to Deploy Vivox’s C3 Voice Integration

This is hugely important move for this game. Team communication is beyond vital for a winning strategy it is a bonding feature in team play.
Using teamspeak felt like such a gimmick for such a slick game. This is great news for all players and new people to the game.

Well done PGI!

Monday, September 3, 2012

The Raven

From the offical forums:
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/7293-battlemech-9-raven/

BattleMech 9: Raven

McDoomswinger hated this place. His Awesome – The Shatterer - could barely get any firing angles. Everywhere he looked there were more hills. Far at the rear of his company atop the highest hill, he scanned for easy targets ahead; his three PPC’s gave him ample hitting power past 500 metres.
“There it is again what the hell is that?” he whined into the mic.
Something was popping up on his HUD – it looked like an enemy target, but it kept disappearing just as fast. He thought he heard a dull ‘thud’ but had taken no damage, so he scanned the horizon.
“There we are, hahahah take this suckers!” he whooped into the mic, to no reply.
He fired all his weapons, alpha striking at a distant Dragon that managed to evade his shots, but was too busy to return fire. He focussed on the Dragon, standing stock still as his PPC’s recharged.
“Got you now!” he squealed, as WARNING! INCOMING MISSILES! light up over his HUD.
“What? No-one is near me! How the hell?” he whinged as LRM’s descended onto him, over and over. His Awesome stumbled backward as he slowly backpeddled, flight after flight of missiles shredded first his armour, then his ‘Mechs internals. Explosions surrounded him as his ‘Mech buckled under the punishment.
“This is b-!”
In the distance a Raven poked its head out.


“Roger that Commander, target down.” She spoke with a small smile, looking for her next victim.


________________________________________________________________________________
The Raven is a technological marvel and employs a large number of advanced electronic warfare systems, possibly making it the most advanced light 'Mech on the field, at least in detection and targeting equipment. It was first built by the Capellan Confederation as an electronics test bed unit that was pushed into combat during the Fourth Succession War, when the Federated Suns made a concentrated effort to destroy the Liao state. Since that time, rediscovered Star League technology has allowed the Raven to reach its full potential.

The Raven has a maximum speed of 97.2 km/h, which is respectable for a 'Mech of its weight class. It is armored with four and a half tons of Ferro-Fibrous armor, giving it good protection. To further its survivability, it is outfitted with CASE to protect against any ammunition explosions. The 'Mech is also powered by an XL Engine and carries some of the most advanced electronics warfare equipment in the Inner Sphere.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Another MMO is leaving the fold. Cost of Gaming.

Another blog I read Ancient Gaming Noob points out the fact that even while F2P model is working for some companies. City of Heroes is throwing in the towel in November. It has survived where others have failed even being assaulted by Marvel for infrigement.

This reminds me of a quote that was credited to anonymous
"Linux is only free if your time is worthless."


It is so true; I mean how many games can you think of off the top of your head. I can name probably 15 without pausing ...some are gone, some are running.

Everquest for example; I was addicted to this game. I promised myself an account for finishing my MCSE and I never stopped playing it ..every waking moment was obessed with it.

Yet, I have tried to go back and play it and I just can't it hurts me to play it now. The fond memories I have are fond because of the people I played with not because fo the game itself. Even free I cannot handle it.

I am looking forward to what is ahead for MMO's ...it kills me because the cost of the game is no longer the issue (since everything is going free to play). It is all about YOUR time.

TIME = money

I enjoy entertainment; in fact, if you were to get to see my checking account I believe you would see about 60% goes toward enterainment. Dining, groceries, movies, video games, hardware all are entertainment to me. Yet the value is in the time spend.

Movies: 3 hours = $7.50
  • I am (usually) entertained
  • Great escapism
  • Fun to attend as a group or watch solo
Dining out: 2 hours = $20.00 (x2 for 2 people)
  • Good food
  • Great Company
  • Satisfies a need (usually in abundance)
Dining in: 3 hours (I am talking about cooking, eating, clean up) = $10 (per person)
  • I enjoying fixing a meal especially with my wife. The more elaborate the more I enjoy.
  • I enjoy the eating part.
  • I hate the clean up.
Videogames: X Hours = $800
  • Hardware (just upgraded everything about $500 total)
  • Software (about $300 this year)
  • I enjoy everything about it and I spend a minimum of 1 hour a day.
So to me the cost/value lies in the time I willing to spend. Every hour of my life has a dollar amount just as your hours cost you money to ...either making it or spending it. What value do you have in entertainment? What are you willing to invest your time in?