Wintergrasp mining risks and rewards

Wintergrasp is not just a zone for a regular PvP battle, it persists outside of the battle times. It isn't quite an 80th level zone in its own right, as there is no standard quest hub or paths in to the area, but there are NPC mobs extant outside of the PvP battle times as well as node spawns for gathered crafting materials. With the mobs offering crystallised elements as drops and high-level materials able to be gathered Wintergrasp offers potentially lucrative returns for time spent in the region. However, it remains a contested zone even outside of the battle, so the rewards are balanced by the perpetual risk of PvP combat.

Despite not being terribly fond of permanently being flagged for PvP the amount of saronite and titanium available in Wintergrasp, as well as elementals for the crystallised materials, is an attractive lure and I often find myself spending some time running around the region looking for ore. I also occasionally find trouble and do my best to defeat my assailant or flee to safety, but I understand the risks of being in the contested zone and accept the occasional ganking. After all, I can leave the zone at any time if I find it to be aggravating. It is all about choice, and a player's presence in Wintergrasp is a clear indication of accepting the risks of being flagged for PvP combat.

There is a positive aspect to mining in Wintergrasp beyond the quality of ore available, and it is related to being PvP. Should a member of the opposite faction be attempting to gather ore they can be interrupted and prevented from mining the node by fighting them. It may seem a little petty to fight over mineral nodes but in PvP it is often the case that might makes right. I rarely attack anyone on sight in Wintergrasp outside of the regular battle, but should a member of the Horde be found mining I would often try to get the ore for myself. If I think I can defeat or scare off my opponent I will stake a claim in the node's minerals, otherwise I will let them be.

For example, I have been seeing quite a lot of a troll hunter called Lunroz, enough to remember his name, who is often found mining from the plentiful nodes in Wintergrasp. When I first entered Wintergrasp I was only 76th level and was quite happy to let this 70th level hunter know that I was there for the ore as well, mostly by mining over his still-warm corpse. But time moves on and I soon find myself at the level cap. With Lunroz progressing more slowly he no longer presents me with an HK and I find myself not wanting to be an oaf and causing him frustration for no reason other than my character is stronger. Luckily, I have other means to dissuade him from mining veins I am claiming.

My death knight's death grip can pull someone away from nodes, handily interrupting any mining as well if needs be, and chains of ice can root a character in place. Both methods allow me to mine some ore using non-violent means and use an emote to say 'no', before the hunter is released back in to the wild, hopefully relaying the message that I am there for the ore and not to make his gaming time a misery. However, it doesn't seem to work, as Lunroz then follows me down to the central bridge and tries to mine from the same node as me. With a tinge of regret I tell him 'no' again, this time using my titansteel mace. But we are in a PvP zone, both of us are free to leave at any time, and I am staying true to my ideal of not attacking him where I would otherwise not gain.

Everyone progresses eventually and in a recent expedition in to Wintergrasp I notice that Lunroz is now 72nd level. This is unfortunate for him as my first thought on seeing the green number appear in his name plate was that he is again an HK for me. Not only do HKs gain me honour but in Wintergrasp they will also count towards the 'No Mercy for the Merciless' quest. Of course, I realise my continued attacks on this fellow are potentially building up a huge karma debt for when he attains high enough level to beat the daylights out of me, but when that day comes I'll accept my comeuppance as part of the natural order in PvP. Or maybe I'll hide in PvE zones. Either way, I only hope Lunroz realises it is nothing personal.

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Tags: gnomesblight, mining, mmorpg, pvp, wintergrasp, world of warcraft

The first one hundred million ISK is the hardest

As I refine scrap mission loot in my current Core Complexion, Inc. base, before gathering more scrap from my cobweb-gathering home base and on to my Caldari Navy mission base, I take jumping around the region as an opportunity to modify the few sell orders I have outstanding. The orders still have a while to run before expiring, but there must be a reason why the modules are not selling. The lack of sales is likely owing to being undercut since placing the items on the market, because although it is possible, for whatever reason, for modules to experience a flux in popularity those I have yet to sell are still being bought for similar prices in other stations.

Modules and ammunition I place on the market always have a decent profit margin. Any module that won't sell for a good profit can safely be ignored, as there is always a better alternative to fill a manufacturing slot. Insisting on good profits means I have some leeway in my pricing that I can modify later to stimulate sales over the competition without dumping goods. I tend to ignore small quantities of what is probably mission loot undercutting my own prices, as it will sell out quickly and my own modules will then become the best option and I don't lose any ISK overall, but occasionally another industrialist will undercut me with a quantity significant enough not to be ignored.

My options to battle competition are generally limited. I can modify my own price to undercut the competition, which only really works when the competition also looks for a high enough profit margin. Otherwise, I either need to bite the bullet and let my stock sit stagnant on the market whilst the cheaper units sell or cancel the order and relocate the modules to a different station, which will lose me some ISK to taxes. In my current run I only need to relocate a couple of items, one in to a wonderfully criminally neglected market, with the rest of them able to have their prices reduced. It takes a little while to modify the orders, if only because I need to be in the station where the sell order was set-up. I need to make an extra stop or two on my journey to set the new prices, but it will be worth it if the stock sells and makes me the ISK I have invested in to their production.

The results are seen relatively quickly, with the new prices stimulating a boost in my sales figures, without sacrificing much profit, within a couple of days. The difference is readily seen in my wallet. Combined with the recent peak in sales that gains me forty million ISK quickly the current boost finally pushes my wallet over the one hundred million ISK mark! I am only half a million over the mark, but with new modules about to come on to the market made from solely refined minerals I am hoping to sustain the figure for a while until I work out what to do with my wealth.

One purchase option that quickly comes to mind is the daytrading skill book, which would allow me to modify buy and sell orders remotely, up to region-wide at the highest level. It is defintely nifty to start manufacturing runs when I am a few jumps away from my production base using the equivalent science skill and being able to alter orders from a distance would not only save a lot of travelling time but also encourage more market manipulation than my time currently allows. Whilst it sounds like a good way to invest my ISK I have to wonder if it is worth the quite hefty eleven million ISK price tag. I doubt the skill book will ever pay for itself as such, but it certainly is an effective reminder that 'time is ISK' and my current experience shows that it is better to have ISK in the wallet then potential sales on the market. I switch my training queue around a little so that I will have trading IV within the day, a prerequisite skill for daytrading, and will ponder the purchase further.

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Tags: eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Bugs and exploits in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp

Like any aspect of a complex MMORPG the battle for Lake Wintergrasp is not without its problems. Some are problems of balance that can be expected to occur for an open PvP zone without guaranteed or limited attendance on either side, which Blizzard have tried to solve with the 'tenacity' buff. Other problems are only caused when the interactions of a large number of sufficiently motivated people are introduced after the design stage. Others still are are bugs or exploits that crept in to the design unnoticed. Ideally, all the problems should be fixed, but that can only be accomplised if they are noticed and raised as issues.

The first problem, and one many players have no doubt encountered, is mages conjuring rogue portals in place of the portal to Lake Wintergrasp. The mage portal can send a player to any major city, although Theramore is often chosen for its remoteness and lack of quick return without a hearthstone. Whilst it is certainly possible not to be tricked in to using such a mage portal, as the tooltip displays the exit location of any portal, the urgency of many players in getting to Wintergrasp often leads to a handful of characters finding themselves in a different continent. Quite why players find it amusing to send allied forces away from the PvP battle for control of Wintergrasp, except simply to cause frustration for others, is beyond me. Needless to say, enough people have registered complaints that Blizzard are aware of and trying to come up with a solution, whilst encouraging players to report anyone conjuring such a duplicitous portal.

It is interesting that the only real griefing in the PvP battle is before you even enter the zone and performed by characters on your own side. Inside the zone of Wintergrasp it is difficult to grief anyone, as there are plentiful graveyards with spirit healers to resurrect players at no cost, removing corpse camping as a problem, and the battleground icon on the mini-map can be used to leave Wintergrasp at any time, with the same effect as an instant hearthstone. The only actions I have seen that could be considered griefing have been when hostile players have pulled quest givers away from the camp after a battle, preventing players from handing in completed daily quests, but as this is a PvP zone the pullers can be dealt with or chased off and can be considered a part of the battle.

Griefing aside, there appear to be a couple of bugs or exploits that are being taken advantage of, at least on the server I am playing on. One was first noted by a guild member, who pointed out a discrepancy between building ownership depending on who was attacking and who was defending. It seems that when Horde are assaulting the fortress they control all external structures from the start of the battle. The three southern towers are, of course, Horde controlled, as are the southern workshops and the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple workshops in the east and west of the zone.

However, when Alliance are on the assault the Horde still controls the Sunken Ring and Broken Temple workshops, with only the southern buildings under initial Alliance control. I have confirmed this every time I have entered Wintergrasp. Whilst it presents an imbalance it is hardly game-breaking, although it still has the effect of having to split Alliance forces at the start of the battle to claim workshops that the Horde don't need to do when in the same situation, whether assaulting or defending. And when combined with the other bug or exploit I recently witnessed having initial control of all the workshops can become significant.

With the 'No Mercy for the Merciless' quest now allowing completion by attacking NPC mobs and Wintergrasp offering good opportunities for gathering materials, whether herbs, ore or fish, I often find myself riding around the zone outside of battle and occasionally during the few idle minutes before the battle commences. It is in one of these times that I run across an orc attacking some Alliance NPCs, who I assume is getting a head-start on the above quest. I take advantage of his health running low to attack him and hopefully gain an easy HK, but as I get closer I notice something unsettling: as he kills one of the NPCs a flash surrounds him, the same flash that signifies gaining a rank during the battle for Wintergrasp.

The problem is that this is before the battle has started, so there should not be a way for him to boost his rank. Indeed, I am in Wintergrasp and have no rank to boost! Even the HK gained in defeating this orc does nothing but bring me a step closer to completing the 'No Mercy for the Merciless' quest, because with no rank before the start of the battle I have no way to improve my rank. Quite how this Horde character was able to get promoted outside of the battle is a mystery, and whether it is a bug or exploit it needs to be fixed. Being able to kill NPCs in order to pilot vehicles immediately as the battle begins gives a huge advantage and is quite unfair. When coupled with owning at least two external vehicle workshops at the start of battle, whether attacking or defending, this bug/exploit becomes quite serious.

The two bugs/exploits also explain how I once saw a Horde-controlled demolisher roll out of the Sunken Ring workshop mere seconds after the battle began and before I, one of the first through the portal to the zone, had managed to get to the workshop myself. I have reported all the issues via the in-game ticket system and hopefully they can be corrected quickly to preserve the sense of fairness and balance in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp.

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Tags: mmorpg, pvp, wintergrasp, world of warcraft

Cold War Kids at the Electric Ballroom

Touts are outside Camden's Electric Ballroom selling 'tickets for the Cold War!', which doesn't sound terribly appealing so I scurry inside. This is a great venue, relatively small yet surprisingly open for its size and offering good views of the stage. The only disappointment is the sturdy metal fence separating the audience from the stage by a few feet, which sadly seems to be in nearly every venue these days. I have managed to arrive a little early in order to catch at least some of the support act. I'm glad I do, because even though they seem enthusiastic and energetic the music does little for, and me I find it better to know this than wonder if I missed out on a future headliner.

The wait for Cold War Kids to turn up tests my rule that any sign of a roadie on-stage means the band is at least five minutes from coming on, which becomes frustrating when the stage is empty for what seems like an age, and the band must surely appear soon, before a roadie quickly checks that one cable is still plugged in. But the house lights are finally cut and the Cold War Kids walk out to a round of bemused indifference. A scatter of applause welcomes them when a couple of backlights turn on to show that they are picking up instruments to play, not to tune, and the band start in to their set.

I would normally highlight a few songs from the set, but I only picked up the second Cold War Kids album a few weeks back, in response to buying the ticket to this gig, and haven't become fully acquainted with it yet, and most of the main set is dedicated to promoting this second album, Loyalty to Loyalty. It is a little peculiar to be promoting the album, as I believe this is their second tour in support it, released eight months ago. But the songs are still getting a lukewarm reception, particularly in contrast with the two songs from first album Robbers and Cowards sprinkled in the set. It could possibly be because the predominance of slow tempo songs on the second album compares unfavourably to the upbeat debut, but even the quiet and poetic personal favourite Robbers gets a markedly different big response. Maybe the second album simply isn't as good as the first.

Whilst Cold War Kids are certainly promoting Loyalty to Loyalty, even selling the CD in the foyer where the first album is absent, they also know how to please their fans. With the main set culminating with the popular We Used to Vacation they leave to raucous applause before coming back to perform the equally appealing trio of Hang me up to Dry, Roubidoux, and St John. Improvised instruments are put to good use in the songs, with a cymbal being walloped with a maraca in one, a tambourine sitting on a tom in another, and the last having spare cymbals tossed on to the stage by the keyboardist at opportune moments.

With all the songs in the encore being from the first album it must be a little disheartening for the band that the later material doesn't receive the same enthusiastic response, particulary as the timing makes it likely not from a lack of familiarity. Hopefully, it is just the process of writing the awkward second album and Cold War Kids will push through it to create more vivifying songs that capture the hearts of the audience as those on the first album have. Their enthusiasm and obvious passion for music and performance makes me want this to be the case, so that I can enjoy their talents again another day.

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Tags: cold war kids, electric ballroom, gig

Processing scrap metal

With sell orders running low and no new manufacturing jobs running I take a break from building up my standings with Core Complexion, Inc. to replenish my stocks. This isn't a random series of events though, as I have been training in scrapmetal processing recently. This should let me recycle the many modules I have looted from wrecks left in my Drake's wake in to minerals that I can use for manufacturing, so I have purposely delayed starting new production runs until I was ready to recover the minerals instead of buying from the market. The time is now.

I have a few points I am interested in, the first being how efficient my refining is after all of this training. Although a fraction of a percent of minerals is retained by my current Core Complexion, Inc. mission base, it still nets me a grand amount of minerals that I can put to good use, and which is probably worth more than the modules themselves on market. Heading out to my old Caldari Navy mission base, where I have much better standings, I get a splended 100% efficieny rate, recovering and keeping all of the minerals.

The second point I am keen to find out is how sustainable it could be to feed my standard production runs with refined mission loot. Although I get enough minerals to fill my Badger Mark II's cargo hold a few times the loot is from more than a few level three encounter missions, and I am currently working with a manufacturing agent who don't generally offer regular encounter missions. Even so, I am easily able to start production runs that will restock my popular modules in two or three stations each, with enough minerals left over to produce a good run of heavy missiles. Whilst I am unlikely to produce missiles in any reasonable quantity this way it looks quite feasible to be able to turn junk mission loot modules in to profitable modules.

An additional aspect I was interested in was what quantity of minerals I could expect to recover, given the 100% efficiency I can achieve in at least one station, from any given module. As I have a duff run of modules hanging around I am quite happy to recycle them in to minerals to recover at least my mineral cost and produce something that will sell instead, but I rashly forget to make a note of the mineral quantities I am recovering, to compare against the mineral cost of production. Logic would dictate that a 100% recovery efficiency, so no losses, means that all of the minerals used in making the module are recovered to me, although that assumes there is no waste in the production of the module. Given a high-enough material efficiency this may be a reasonable assumption, but I don't know.

As it stands, I have recovered several loads of minerals from what would have been low-profit items on the market or wasteful to recycle. The minerals are being manufactured in to modules that will be put in to proven lucrative markets, all of which will result in profit for negligible expenditure. If I can make time to take on some encounter missions occasionally it looks like my industrial career will become incredibly profitable.

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Tags: eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic

Know your audience

Larísa over at the Pink Pigtail Inn is concerned about the marginalisation experienced by gamers when discussing weekend activities, pointing out that any description of a successful weekend in World of Warcraft would cause non-gamers' eyes to glaze over in stark contrast to similar weekend stories by people with 'regular' activities. I disagree, and consider it more a matter of scope.

It may be that people can talk about their football matches, rounds of golf, or theatre performances, but if they go in to too much detail, whether it is about every poor decision made by the referee, how their swing changed over the round, or tedious backstage gossip, their listeners' eyes will just as quickly glaze over unless they too share the passion of the pastime. Just so with World of Warcraft. In any subject there is a general amount of information that can be discussed and a level of politeness that one can expect from friends and colleagues without any prior knowledge on their part.

Think about an activity you know nothing about and ask yourself how you would react if a colleague talked to you at length about it. It's possible you would show interest, even if you're feigning it a little to be socially polite, just as it is likely that your eyes would glaze over because of a lack of comprehension. If you can tell a good story you have an advantage, otherwise keep it simple and offer a broad picture of what you have been up to. You may be surprised just how interested people can be in any activity that makes their friends or colleagues happy.

It is true that if you try to explain that you got a gem with +23 spellpower from a daily fishing quest, that this is a rare find as a reward and how much gold it can sell for on the auction house, you really shouldn't expect anyone but other WoW players to be interested. However, in understanding this it becomes possible to craft a more general anecdote about gaming, making it as simplistic as possible such that your enthusiasm and positivity can make it relevant and interesting. Generate a more abstract level of detail and focus on how it made you feel or what the consequences were, the personal aspects that any empathising person can relate to.

Essentially, you need to know your audience. If they are gamers, particularly if they know the game you play, you can go in to a fair bit of detail about your fabulous speed run through an instance. But if you are dealing with others it is unfair to expect them to show interest in obtuse, jargon-heavy subjects. And don't feel unduly ignored just because you play computer games and others don't. The fact that there are so many unconventional gamers playing social games like World of Warcraft shows that you are not alone. Just moderate your enthusiasm until the right time and place.

I can assure you, everyone either has to withhold the specifics of their personal adventures or risk boring others stupid, just as they can also share general information about their hobbies and expect a warm reception from anyone with an ounce of social skills. But the worst thing you can do is start with the perception that no one is interested as it will affect the delivery and come across poorly. Be as happy and enthusiastic as we all are about our games and, with time, friends and colleagues will end up asking us whether we finally got that last boss down without having to start the conversation ourselves. Just don't forget to listen and show and interest in them too!

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Tags: comment, mmorpg, world of warcraft

Star Trek

The new Star Trek film doesn't follow from the previous release or let the cast and crew from a later series explore space in widescreen format, but instead harks back to the original television series. As we are to witness the first flight of the starship Enterprise it is unsurprising to see unfamiliar faces introduced as familiar, in a bid to inject a new spark of life in to an exciting mission to explore new life and new civilisations that had become disappointingly stale.

The main cast are introduced quite quickly, with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura all aboard the Enterprise as it heads off to investigate an emergency on Vulcan, with Scotty turning up to join the others a little later. All of the crew are recruits, only getting their first taste of space exploration as part of the Federation because of the emergency, and the film is the story of their initial relationships and the building of friendships that will last for decades.

Even though there are new actors playing the rôles of the memorable Enterprise crew there is clearly the intention of keeping their characters intact. Bones is realised perfectly, Spock is wonderful, and Chekov has a fabulous spirit and recognisable exubarance, all of which makes the portrayal of Kirk quite the disappointment. The new Kirk appears to be nothing like Shatner's Kirk and simply a generic action hero, with a recognisable pose or two and speech affectations cropping up a scant few times in the whole film. Considering the similarities found in the other crew members I can only assume that, despite my misgivings, Shatner is irreplaceable as Captain Kirk.

It is unfortunate that arguably the most important character is the farthest from the original. It may be that the actor, or studio, want to reinvent Kirk to be a new character in his own right, but it seems apparent to me now that I am watching Star Trek for the characters as I remember them, not for their names. I want Kirk to act like Shatner's Kirk. For all of his delivery, general lack of nuance and exaggerations it's what I have come to expect, and it is clearly what makes him Kirk.

There are other problems with the film. The car chase introducing Kirk is horribly dull and obviously slow, which is a poor mistake to make in a film that has exciting combat between spaceships. The Romulan ship is far too complicated; there is little point in having a million little details if it becomes impossible to discern any of them. I found myself asking yet again why space dramas insist on giving a single, bizarrely often psychotic, crew member the one item vital to completing an important task instead of allowing for some needed redundancy. There is even a brief Lucas-esque CGI beast-fest where the protagonist is disappointly passive, making the whole scene ultimately pointless from a narrative point-of-view. And someone must have been able to come up with a term better than 'red matter'; it may be an attempt to avoid the technobabble criticised in later series, but in this case it is an overcompensation as it is difficult to experience dramatic tension when someone is worried about the 'red matter' exploding.

These are just niggles and don't spoil the enjoyment of the film overall, which is something that sadly cannot be said of the original score. Whilst generally competent the original score is lacklustre in parts and mismatched to the action at worst. The cue for the Romulan ship cries 'these are the bad guys!' in an almost comic book fashion, and a fight scene late in the film would almost be made more atmospheric if the score were replaced by a clown on a kazoo.

Yet despite the complaints I find myself enjoying the film thoroughly. The motivations and actions of the characters seem authentic, there are few contrivances and the effects are great, beyond the niggles I've mentioned. There is a real sense of danger and excitement as well as the pushing of new frontiers in technology, highlighting well how accomplished the newly graduated cadets are. Even the time travel story is handled well, which is quite a feat considering how trite time travel has become in Star Trek. Instead of glossing over any effects that may occur in the future because of changes made in the past, generally essential to the continuation of a series, it becomes a vital part in allowing Star Trek to start again.

The charisma and personalities of the recognisable crew and the interactions between them are fabulous to watch, even as adversity and strife threaten to overcome them. It is a delight to see new relationships forming with the knowledge of how strong the bonds will eventually become between the characters. Now that there is a new history available to create I look forwards to further adventures with the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

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Tags: film, star trek

Holy Fuck at Scala

As far as I am aware, Holy Fuck have only one album release and as it clocks in at a little over thirty five minutes I travel to the venue hoping I'll enjoy the songs I won't recognise to fill up what must be at least a one-hour set. Because of their mostly electronic sounds and reputation for using any old and beaten-up technology I am already unsure what to expect, both in terms of what I will see on stage and whether my awkward self will feel comfortable trying to bounce along with the solid grooves. But first, I manage to turn up shortly in to the support band's set.

I kick myself a little on the train in to London for leaving slightly late to get to the gig, because even though the quality of support acts is highly variable it is also the most reliable way to evaluate new bands. I may end up bored for half-an-hour wishing a band would hurry up and leave, but I have also seen some amazing support acts as well that I have gone on to see headline at later dates. When I get in to the venue I hear some fantastic fuzz drone over the PA system as I stroll over to the merchandise desk to see if Holy Fuck have a new release I can pick up.

There is only Holy Fuck's eponymous release on display, but alongside is the support band's album and I recognise the name. I am sure the NME gave It Hugs Back a decent enough review to catch my attention and it is quite handy to have their CD for sale at the gig, so as I hear the distorted guitars blast through the speakers I hand over a tenner before wandering inside to see the band themselves, hoping that I haven't just wasted my money. I shouldn't have worried, as It Hugs Back were gliding from song to song, extracting some big distorted sounds out of electric and acoustic guitars alike, whilst the keyboard player had more effects pedals than a Slowdive guitarist. I look forwards to becoming more familiar with their songs.

Watching Holy Fuck set up was interesting. It was comforting to see a traditional drum kit on stage along with a bass guitar, if only to give me something other than knob twiddling to look at, but the only other 'instruments' were two tables full of samplers, effects boxes and random objects that would produce some kind of signal to distort. There was even one item that I simply couldn't recognise, but which had some kind of ribbon or tape fed through it that made some kind of noise when it was pulled one way or the other.

When the band come on stage they start the set with Milkshake, the recognisable samples being squeezed out of one of the boxes being tweaked by the two front men, standing sideways on, rocking with the beat mostly provided by the aloof drummer. Other songs I recognise include the catchy Super Intuit and The Pulse, although they are sufficiently altered to provide an electrifying live experience, and the set is strung together smoothly and with enough energy to make any unreleased tracks seem as familiar as current favourites.

I had a little concern about Mr Centre-of-attention, the man who looked like he believed the gig was being thrown just for him, but when the beats start pounding through the amplifiers a mosh pit forms around him, and it is possible that his over-enthusiastic energy helped drive it. Mosh pits seem rarer than ever these days and it is fun to see one from the start of the gig and last until the end, and I didn't care that it means someone occasionally slams in to me.

The set ends with Lovely Allen, the crescendo of bass and samples causing stormy waves of motion through the audience, resulting in crashes of applause as the band leaves the stage. There is the inevitable encore, of course, but at least Holy Fuck must feel they deserve it. They come out to play a few more tracks, the bassist doing a good job having to work around only having three strings now. A quick change of batteries is required to get a small keyboard powered, during which time the drummer and bassist keeps everyone warmed up, before the electronic fanfare announcing Safari gets everyone charged again as the band say goodbye.

But it is not enough and the chant of 'one more song!' gets the band back to entertain further those not foolish enough to have left so quickly. Despite even more applause and calls at the end of the unexpected second encore there is no more Holy Fuck tonight. At least, not on stage. They electrified the atmosphere such that no one left the venue without being switched on to their grooves and electronic mayhem.

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Tags: gig, holy fuck, it hugs back, scala

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Tucked behind the achivements pane in World of Warcraft is the potentially interesting statistics pane, showing plenty of detail about your character's exploits during her time in Azeroth. There is information about the total amount of damage dealt and received, the biggest single hits dealt and recieved, along with similar information about healing if you are that way inclined. You can find out how many creatures you have brutally slaughtered, whether they offered XP or honour at the time, and which type of creature you have killed the most of.

The figures on kills could show how much time has been spent grinding reputation by completing low-level quests, for example. But as murlocs come under the 'humanoid' type, rather than being a type of their own, the statistics sadly cannot record the glory of your regular visits to various low-level beaches where you take revenge on those bastard by one-shotting entire camps of murlocs at a time. Or maybe it is just me who does that.

There are details about how much gold you've accumulated and spent, from quests, the auction house, and the thieving armour repairers and flight masters; how many pets and mounts you own; how many times you have defeated Van Cleef and other dungeon bosses that refuse to stay dead; your own continent of doom where you've died the most; even how many hugs you've given. Thankfully, the statistics pane is split in to sections, otherwise it would be almost impossible to filter through the wealth of mostly irrelevant but still quite interesting information.

Whilst the trivia contained within the statistics is fun to flick through occasionally a more interesting use is unfortunately broken, and not through any fault of the interface itself. Having spent a fair bit of time in Wintergrasp with Gnomesblight my death knight I have been picking up some decent PvP gear, as well as mining and crafting some titansteel equipment, and my weapon and spells have been hitting for more and more damage. Noticing one glorious critical hit dealing over seven thousand damage to a Horde victim I wonder if that is my biggest hit to date. In a quiet moment I pull up the statistics pane to try to confirm my hunch, as well as to mark the hit for future progression, I find that I have hit for more in the past. That I have hit for an order of magnitude more is rather suspicious, though.

I am fairly certain that I haven't had any kind of maximum damage hit during normal combat like the one listed in the statistics pane, as I am sure I would have noticed five digits floating in big yellow text above a mob followed by various fluids oozing from my body. But I have been in some extraordinary fights. Whether flying on the back of a dragon, hurtling boulders bigger than a house, or dropping bombs on pirates, there have been times when my damage has been significantly augmented beyond my abilities. I can understand the need to have special encounters involve inflated numbers, as it prevents players from attempting to complete or disrupt the encounters outside of the scripted situations, but it has the drawback of making an otherwise epic hit of forty five thousand damage as underwhelming as a score of ten billion in pinball.

It seems that the game doesn't differentiate in its gathered statistics between damage I deal directly and damage caused by special circumstances. Although lumping all the big hits together, whether from your own spells' hits or the dragon you're flying through the Oculus, removes some of the potential for ugly bragging matches to occur, it also unfortunately prevents gaining some useful information. Essentially, some of the more interesting statistics available concering your character are rendered meaningless, statistics that World of Warcraft itself arguably made most important through the implicit realisation that 'character' means 'equipment'. Currently, your biggest hit will only really show that you have completed a certain daily quest or visited a particular instance, which is barely worth keeping track of, whereas what fits with the idea of character in the game is to be able to see what you are capable of as an individual.

It may be too late to separate the figures currently gathered by the system in to those augmented by vehicles, whether engineering or creature, and those dealt personally by your character, but it should certainly be a consideration for the future. If we are to believe and invest in the promotion that we are our characters and equipment our finest moments should not then be measured by external events, particularly when those events are artificially inflated themselves.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Tags: mmorpg, world of warcraft

Fortuitous planned skill interruption

I have started my training in scrapmetal processing, to melt down mission loot for profit, but a little tweak was needed in my plan to complete the training of its prerequisite skills. Left alone, the skill training was due to finish early in the morning, at a time that I'd rather not crawl to the computer to switch skills. It would have been possible to make use of the excellent skill training queue to tack a skill on to the end to ensure continuity of my training except for a couple of reasons: it is not possible to inject a skill where you don't meet the prerequisites, so I couldn't simply add scrapmetal processing to the end of my queue; and I was hitting fake plastic instruments with friends the day before the skill was due to finish and had no convenient access to the training queue for the final twenty-four hours.

The main benefit of the skill training queue is its flexibility, where it allows training to be configured around your schedule and not vice versa, and as such it is easy to find a solution that continues my training plan without interrupting my attempts at socialising. Instead of trying to add a skill to the end of the queue I insert a skill at the current time, a couple of days before I would be unavailable and at an arbitrary point in the two-week training of refinery efficiency V. This effectively interrupts my training in the level V skill for a few hours, after which it would continue, pushing back its completion to a more convenient time for me. My only concern is which skill to train. I need a skill that ideally will only take a few hours to train, so that it will complete and not waste skill points for now, and preferably be relevant to my current plans. Luckily, I have such a skill.

I may have two R&D agents working for me currently but it will have obvious benefits to double that number, even if weren't the case that two types of datacore are required for my invention jobs. I already have the research project management book so training to the next level of the skill costs nothing and works towards my overall plan. It also only takes a few hours to train to the next level, which is perfect for delaying the end of the refinery efficiency skill. As it happens, I manage to delay the skill training until a minute after the daily maintenance finishes, which is hardly convenient, so I tack another skill on to the end of refinery efficiency V just to keep my skill points increasing, switching to train in scrapmetal processing seamlessly within a few minutes of the servers coming back up.

I have my new skill training, after training two two-week skills to meet the prerequisites, feeling quite pleased with myself for not deviating from the plan. On top of that, I also have the capability to work with another R&D agent. I don't think it's worth having another agent work on electronic engineering research, as I will only end up swamped in one type of datacores whilst having none of the other, and I know that there are precious few agents specialising in mechanical engineering in Core Complexion, Inc., so it isn't worth looking until I have access to high-quality level three agents at least. However, I have one of my rare good ideas.

I may not have the standing to work with a suitable Core Complexion, Inc. agent but I have been working with Caldari State for quite a while, which should have gained me some faction standings with most member corporations. It is possible that I have enough standing to be granted access to an arbitrary agent with mechanical engineering skills, which would at least get me started in generating those datacores. I turn to the EVE Agents database, a feature that really ought to be present within the game's interface even if it were restricted to friendly corporations who would allow you access to their databases, and search for Caldari State member corporation R&D agents involved in mechanical engineering. I sort the list by quality, displaying lowest first, and cross-reference the results with my character sheet's information on my current standings to find if there are any suitable agents.

Even though my character sheet shows no information that I can readily see on Lai Dai Corporation standings it transpires that the corporation has a low-quality level two agent that I can work with for mechanical engineering research. The agent is in an adjacent region and not too many jumps away, so I hop in to a shuttle and make the journey to start the research, which the agent is happy to do. I now have three agents performing research for me, two in electronic engineering and one in mechanical engineering, which feels like fabulous progress on my way to Tech II invention.

I still need to get better quality agents working for me, unless I only want to run a single invention a month, and to that end I am still running missions for Core Complexion, Inc. to increase my standing with them. My skill training also now has a more definite plan after the uncertainty of what to train with the completion of scrapmetal processing, in that I will boost my invention skills for better chances of success. Everything is coming together slowly but surely.

Posted in Gaming | Comments Off on Fortuitous planned skill interruption
Tags: agents, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, skill queue