Looking for a tank

With my transatlantic World of Warcraft group having reached 60th level and hit the Outlands the XP race, caused by the increased experience gains between 20th and 60th levels, has been slowed. There is less risk of racing ahead of the group by a few levels, where even those few levels can cause frustrating issues in World of Warcraft. The difference in power with characters three levels apart is obvious, mostly related to chances of hitting a target, and also because equipment can scale quickly with level. Being a few levels different can cause a tank to out-damage a DPS class, or a DPS character to out-aggro tanks with too much ease, and even one DPS character to make another DPS character feel superfluous. It's frustrating, but definitely a part of the game and one that needs to be taken in to account.

Having little risk of getting too far ahead of my companions, and having missed a couple of occasions to quest together in the Outlands, I thought I'd take my rogue, Knifey, on a quest of discovery. I called up the 'looking for group' interface and made myself available to run through Hellfire Citadel Ramparts, the first time I would be subjecting myself to a pick-up group as a rogue. At least I was more comfortable heading in to an Outlands instance, which was relatively short and nicely designed.

I was able to get in to a decent enough group, and the instance run went quite smoothly. There was a little discrepancy in power, with a 66 rogue joining us, but we completed the run in good time and with no drama. With my quest to defeat the three bosses in the Ramparts completed I returned again a few days later to see if there would be any interesting loot dropped, and to give a bit more of a focussed session than random world quests. Again, the 'looking for group' interface was used, and again a decent enough group was formed. There was a little bit more of a wait, but it's not surprising considering the time differences involved. This second run went just about as smoothly as the first, with all the bosses defeated again. I got a brief moment of desire when I opened a locked chest to see a blue-quality dagger inside, but it turned out to be a caster weapon. Still, I plucked a cloak from the final boss's chest of goodies, whilst not helping my combat prowess it increases my survivability nicely.

The two runs had one thing in common: the lack of a proper tank. The first run had a paladin who respecced her talents immediately prior to the run because a tank couldn't be found, and the second run had a 70th level fury warrior dual-wield his way through, apparently relying on white damage to hold aggro. Neither run suffered significantly because of this, but running the lowest-level instace in the Outlands was a large factor in our success with improvised tanking.

I am now keen to get my own warrior, destined to be a tank, levelled up and ready to enter the Outlands. Sapphire has been left to linger a little before 40th level partly because of adventuring in the less-than-thrilling Night Elf lands in the hope of gaining a big cat mount, and partly because of the general malaise of doing the same quests yet again. I wonder how quickly I could gain her twenty levels, and whether this could be achieved before boredom with Azeroth sets in again.

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Tags: azeroth, knifey, outlands, sapphire, world of warcraft

Beginning level two missions

Penny Ibramovic checked out of space station Haatamo to jump to strange new systems, to seek out new agents and new clusters of rats to kill, to boldly go where everyone else has been some years before me. My choice of agents offering me level two missions first took me to the near-by system of Niyabainen, where a PR man got me to take out a rat or two and then deliver some mining parts half-way across the region. Luckily, half-way across the region is still only three or four jumps if taking an appropriate route, so it wasn't too time consuming. I then left the PR fellow and sought a different level two contact, this time taking me to the Saila system in The Citadel to hook up with an agent in security. I was hoping that I would not only get missions that were more attuned to a capsuleer piloting a Caracal with multiple missile bays but also that I would get better rewarded for my efforts.

It was on my mind that level two missions would be more dangerous but that the rewards for success would be at least as good as I was used to with high-quality level one agents. I left the PR agent because the idea of increased reward didn't seem to be the case. My first mission or two with the agent in the security division didn't seem too positive either. The missions were certainly a little more dangerous, pitting me against more aggressive enemies of the state, but the reward money for completing missions successfully was underwhelming. The four missions I completed to that point had netted me maybe 150,000 ISK, which is about what I was getting for a single mission with the quality 18 level one agent. I was hoping that I could better advance my standing and wallet by taking on level two missions, but so far it looked like I could be better served by running the now-unchallenging level one missions.

Without a sense of progression there is little reason to continue jumping in to a space pilot's seat, so it was good that I persevered and picked up another mission. This time the reward was around 130,000 ISK, getting closer to what I had been getting before, and this was from an agent with a quality level of -14, so moving up to positive levels should net a healthy profit indeed. I have a suspicion that new contacts test your mettle before trusting that you're capable of getting your hands dirty, giving simple missions for little money until you've proved yourself. It's understandable, if a little frustrating, and at least now I have a level two agent that I can work with without feeling ripped off.

A couple of the level two missions I was sent on had me eradicating a drone threat in the system, and I worked out a difference between rats and drones: drones won't actively engage you from a distance. Drones seem quite happy being drones, allowing me to happily sift through the wrecks for minerals and salvage at my leisure without worrying about the second pocket of drones some 50 km away, as that other pocket will simply drone away without bothering me until I get too close. I need to destroy all of them to complete the mission, but it cuts down the time to clean up and salvage if I don't have to travel back-and-forth after the fight.

More money was made from salvaging, although a little unexpectedly. My first salvaging module was plucked from drifting wreckage, which made it easy to find and gave me a skill training plan. Finding another Salvager I module on the market, to equip a second ship, wasn't as easy. Whilst it should be somewhere under 'ship equipment' it is far from obvious what kind of ship equipment it is, and it doesn't help that there is apparently only one type of salvaging module so that it sits in a class of equipment where you would not think to look. It was only through a search of the available items that I found one. Because of this, when a fellow capsuleer asked in the local communication channel where he could get a salvaging module I felt it a duty to share my information, hunting them down in the market again before pointing out precisely how to locate one to this other chap. He seemed quite grateful, but even so imagine my surprise when my wallet blinked soon after and I found a 100,000 ISK gratuity!

Just as I found the salvaging module serendipitously, I came across another useful system yesterday, but through different means than sifting through wreckage. After I got my Caracal and saw the difference in processing power and power grid offered over a frigate I wondered what I could do with it all. One of my thoughts was to upgrade my standard launchers to heavy launchers, giving a big boost in firepower. I had a look at the heavy launchers for sale and they certainly seemed to need a ship larger than a frigate to control and power, but they also seemed only just out of the capacity of my cruiser. I could train some skills to bring power or processor needs down a few percentage points, but I was happy enough throwing around light missiles for the time being and trained in some skills that looked more pressing.

As chance would have it, pΘtshΘt casually mentioned co-processors in a recent post and wondered if one would give me enough processing power, with some to spare, to fit my Caracal out with heavy launchers without sacrificing any of the currently fitted systems. I hadn't seen a co-processor before and either hadn't thought to see if they existed or didn't know where to look, but a quick examination of the market showed me their capabilities. I had the required skills to use them, and the boost offered by just one would let me change to heavy launchers. On top of that, they sit in a low equipment slots, so I wouldn't even need to swap out any modules to fit one. A quick bit of skill training in heavy missiles later, carried out whilst piloting to a system with a bustling market to pick up the launchers, some ammunition, and the co-processor, and I have a rather more menacing cruiser than before.

Now I just need to work out if the puny damage I was inflicting on the drones with my heavy missiles was because their shields have huge resistances, I was too close to some of them, or our relative velocities had an effect on the missiles' explosions. I suspect it's the former reason, as once the shields were depleted the armour and structure were both reduced in short order, so maybe I can experiment with different damage types on drones to find the most effective warhead.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: agents, caracal, eve online, niyabainen, penny ibramovic, saila, salvage, the citadel

Mission progression

Penny Abramovic's Salvaging Enterprise is continuing quite nicely. The recent recovery of two alloyed tritanium bars and three melted capacitor consoles amongst all the wrecks, which just happened to be floating in space near my Caracal with the smoking launchers, made over two million ISK alone, and that was only part of the recoverable salvage.

Along with running the salvage operation, the two agents of Haatamo have been providing me with reliable missions for profit and reputation. Their relatively high levels of 17 and 18 provide the same level one missions I am familiar with but for good rewards. It was also quite refreshing to be contacted by a storyline agent asking me to meet with him in Haatamo, rather than having to jump half-way across the region only to deliver some veldspar.

With both salvaging and missions letting me rake in the money, with the added benefit of them being synergistic activities, my wallet has been looking quite nicely stuffed recently. At least, when compared to the pennies I had when I started being a capsuleer. I'm still a fair distance away from looking at the brochures for a shiny new battleship, but at least I can comfortably replace my cruiser should I need to.

Being able to replace my cruiser is not a particular concern when running missions at the moment. When all I am facing are the smaller ships that have turret-mounted weapons I have even stopped my ship's engines and let the rats come to me, because my missiles take them down quickly and it speeds up the travelling between wrecks for salvaging. The larger ships with missiles present a greater threat, but nothing particularly challenging with a shield recharger and a large capacitory.

However, another cursory glance through the Caldari Navy agent list revealed that there is a small number of low quality level two agents available to me. I have no idea what a level two mission will entail, in terms of danger and reward, but I am interested in finding out. This is why I am thinking about being able to replace my cruiser. I hope that I can be prepared enough to take on the new level of mission, but it's good to know that I can afford a mistake or two as well.

I have yet to select my first contact with a level two agent, because as well as investigating their locations for a suitably system it will also involve a bit of time to move a few bits of equipment around and get prepared. I'd rather not rush this process, and I'm sure I'll be running my first level two mission soon.

Posted in Gaming | 7 Comments »
Tags: agents, caracal, eve online, penny ibramovic, salvage

It's not easy being a manager

At least, it's not easy being The Micro-manager. My leadership qualities in determining the best visual interface for added value are met with hostile resistance.

And I find the lack of dedication in my team when reprioritising external activities needs some face time.

I sense a team-building exercise is required to add harmonisation to my team's synergy levels.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: city of villains, crossover games, the micro-manager

City of Heroes to be supported in Crossover Games

It looks like City of Heroes and City of Villains are about to get some dedicated attention from the Crossover Games team! At the moment, the games run well enough using Crossover Games on the Mac, but instead of only seeing general improvements through incremental changes in the codebase specific issues are now going to be looked at, which should lead to bug fixes and improvements in stability.

It looks like running City of Heroes natively on a Mac will only get better!

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Tags: advocate, city of heroes, city of villains, crossover games

Gathering intelligence on rats in EVE Online

I mentioned before about trying to find out some intelligence on the enemy ships I am fighting in EVE Online, but didn't really make much progress of my own. I tried finding some ship scanners to help me inspect the systems of the ships for valuable data, and looked in to any skills that might be available to help. I realise now that I have been approaching this problem from the wrong direction, being a newbie and all. Applying some thought and what little experience I've picked up so far I think I've come up with a solution.

When you get a mission you can call up the mission briefing from the journal. If there is information about the type of enemies you'll be fighting it will be presented here, showing the flag of the pirates to be encountered in the target system. The flag can be selected to give an information screen on the rat type, from which the affiliations of the rats can be found. For example, if you are to encounter Blood Raiders you can call up information about them and find out that Blood Raiders typically recruit from the Amarr faction. This is good information.

Once you have found the faction information you can hit the market, but not to buy anything. Find a type of ship you're likely to encounter, which could be frigates, and look for those of the faction you're interested in, in this case the Amarr frigates. Pick one of the ships available for sale and call up the information screen for it, and head to the 'attributes' section. This is where you can find all the details of the ship, everything the shield, armour and structure, and the radar type. All this information is just what I've been looking for, it just needs to be interpreted, about which I think I have a better idea.

The shield, armour and structure sections all have details about the level of resistance each has against the different kinds of attack: electromagnetic (EM), kinetic, thermal, and explosive. Each level of protection can have different resistances to each kind of attack, and working out which type of damage to concentrate on is a matter of finding the best compromise between damaging the shield, armour and structure. It's possible to be able to take out the shield with one type of damage before switching types for the other protections, but it's probably more convenient to stock up with a single type of weapon rather than keep track of which launcher has which missiles loaded. Note that I'm basing this on missiles as that is my weapon of choice at the moment.

The information screen also tells you about the kind of radar system in use, which from my limited sampling seems to be uniform across a faction. Finding out whether the ships uses radar, gravimetric, ladar, or magnetometric allows you to pick the right ECM systems for more efficient jamming.

There is probably more information to be gleaned from this kind of information gathering, such as examining the types of ship in use by the faction to give clues about whether you're more likely to be facing turrets or launchers and tailoring your jamming to counter them, but I think I can give myself enough to be working on for now.

As for ship and cargo scanners, I imagine that these are more specific to the PvP aspects of EVE Online, allowing ships to find out what modules are in use by another character, or to see if a transporter is worth raiding. I'll no doubt try to stay away from that for now.

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Tags: electronic warfare, eve online, intelligence, penny ibramovic

Wall-E

After the amazing Kung Fu Panda I had high hopes when seeing the more highly rated Wall-E, Pixar's latest animated feature film. The opening scenes don't disappoint, as we are shown visually amazing photo-realistic depictions of a bleak city-scape to introduce us to the main character and his world. Sadly, it's pretty much downhill from there.

Wall-E's isolated existence is shared with a lone cockroach, which makes 'sproing' noises when jumping to plant the film firmly in the 'kids' category, until EVE turns up. Wall-E's fascination with EVE is understandable, with the new robot being not only a refreshing break from Wall-E's monotony but also stunningly high-tech. We are then led on a romantic fairy tale of wishes and hope, as Wall-E follows EVE to the end of the galaxy to help complete her directive at the cost of his own.

The two main characters are nicely conceived and look the part, but neither seem particularly sympathetic. For a robot that is designed to find sustainable life it seems highly contradictory for her to shoot and blow up anything that moves without first scanning it, which happens on more than one occasion. It may lead to 'cute' or 'funny' initial misunderstandings but it is surely entirely against the supposed character of the unit. Wall-E isn't much better in being entirely lovable. When the time comes where he chooses to follow EVE Wall-E tells his cockroach pal to stay put. The only friend and companion we are shown Wall-E to have is abandoned, with no idea of how long for, without a second thought!

The story is limited by the protagonists being unable to communicate directly, and we are guided through the plot mostly through the robots' mime and by some initially heavy-handed exposition, with some more carefully crafted scenes later on. The humour of the film consists almost entirely of Wall-E bumping, falling, or getting hit by something, and it becomes entirely too predictable, although there are some original and amusing visual gags scattered throughout.

As a romantic fairy tale Wall-E works well, with whimsical characters being led by and following their 'hearts' and holding idealistic values that ultimately lead to a better future for everyone. But it is this reliance on romance where the film suffers, relying too heavily on the idea that a single interaction with an unknown entity affects another entity significantly enough to change its life forever. This becomes strained not just through its overuse but also from the main characters' general inability to communicate verbally, forcing too much anthropomorphic empathy on to them.

As it turned out, the short film that Pixar traditionally presents before a feature, which this time was Presto, was far more enjoyable than Wall-E, because of its concentrated and tight structure coupled with well-implemented visual gags and a quickly established empathy with the bunny. As a feature-length film Wall-E is overly long and too-often predictable, offering little but a visual spectacular as stunning graphics create an amazingly detailed world. Wall-E would have made yet another fantastic short film for Pixar, and it's a shame that it was drawn out to such a length as to have made it a mediocre offering from the animation studio.

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Tags: animation, film, pixar, presto, wall-e

I found my coffee

A little over a year go I got an espresso machine. Although I like coffee-flavoured ice cream and sweets, I had never really got in to the habit of drinking coffee before, probably because it seemed to me more like getting in to a habit than enjoying a drink. I think it was more that I just didn't like instant coffee.

Through some friends I ended up enjoying a vanilla-flavoured coffee substitute, and that prompted me to take up my boss's offer of a coffee when we headed off to a regular weekly meeting. The coffee at work was made from freshly ground beans and to my surprise I could actually taste the coffee, finding it to be a pleasant flavour and quite different from my memories of instant coffee. It was this revelation that prompted me in to getting the espresso machine, which allows me to make good cups of coffee at home. My only obstacle after getting the machine was finding some coffee that I liked.

There are an awful lot of different flavours and brands of coffee available. I wasn't too daunted, as I could just buy a few different varieties and try them out individually before settling on one or two types that I like. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Buying a bag of coffee to taste it either means wasting the rest of the bag, and the money spent, for the sake of a cup or two, or finishing the whole bag, which takes at least a week with my enjoying a cup or two a day. I try not to be wasteful, so unless the coffee was truly foul I finished the whole bag before going on to try a different variety of coffee. This has drawbacks.

By the end of a bag of coffee it was obvious whether or not I liked that brand of coffee, and I could judge fairly easily how it compared to the next brand, even if I didn't break open the new bag until the next day. But by the time I'd got half-way through the new bag I would have forgotten the relative taste of the previous one, apart from whether I liked it or not. Carrying any qualititive judgements from individual bags of coffee for more than a couple of weeks was difficult when a new flavour dominated my taste buds. I could only ever compare two varieties of coffee directly, across bag changes, and I would often buy the same brands several times because I had forgotten their relative tastes.

I tried to make mental notes of which coffees I particularly liked, and although some written notes may have helped more I never quite got to the stage of reviewing for personal use each brand I tasted. I was happy enough to continue trying different coffees each time, as there were still plenty of brands and varieties to work through. Every now and again, however, I would get a coffee that was obviously not as tasty as others, and that finally gave me the incentive to find my coffee of choice. I bought new bags of all the flavours that I had mentally marked as my favourites up to that point and decided to choose between them.

It still took a month or two to work through at least one bag of each flavour, but the moment came half-way through a bag of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Guatamala Genuine Antigua coffee that I realised I had found the coffee for me. It is smooth and not too bitter, and tastes simply fabulous when enjoyed with some spicy food. There are still varieties of coffee that I haven't tried, and I will likely pick one up occasionally to give it a try, but for now I am happily savouring a brand that has taken me around a year to decide upon.

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments »
Tags: coffee, drink

No more defunct hosting

I recently received another reminder that my hosting service was overdue for payment, having ignored the previous reminder. As my frustration was short-lived and I realised I bore no ill-will to the company, and that judging by the status reports their support service appears to have returned to the good quality level of late, I thought it would be polite if I wrote to confirm officially that I had moved to a different hosting provider. Considering that I was getting no replies from technical support at the time, which was mostly the source of my frustration, I only didn't inform them of my move previously because I didn't see the point in banging my head against a brick wall.

I sent an e-mail detailing how quite a few e-mails went completely unanswered, except for automated repsonses that showed they had entered the support system, and that this lack of response during a period when I needed help, as well as reminding them to send me an invoice for the continued hosting service, was what prompted my move to a different company. I also wrote that I was otherwise satisfied with the service I had received and would still consider the company in the future.

A reply came back today. I got an answer as to why e-mail from inside their network didn't reach my new hosting provider. It was because their servers were configured to host the domains they were treated as local internally and so no DNS call was made for the routing to those domains, which makes sense. Now that they know the domains aren't hosted there the DNS records have been updated and this shouldn't be a problem any more, which is good.

The reply still seemed rather curt. I had tried to be diplomatic and wasn't angry, merey pointing out what had gone wrong from my point-of-view in the hopes that it would be helpful, but there was no mention in the e-mail about not replying to support requests. A simple apology would have gone a long way.

Posted in Technical | Comments Off on No more defunct hosting
Tags: dns, hosting, ukfsn

The Micro-manager

After seeing Melmoth's Brute wreak havoc at the weekend in City of Villains, mostly by running through the carnage in his wake simply trying to keep up with him, I was in awe. The destructive power and speed with which the mobs were flattened was mind-blowing. I reasoned that what was going on would probably make sense if I had been introduced to the archetype and playing-style gradually, but seeing it for the first time at this level was like being shown the lobby scene from The Matrix without any context. There was a lot of noise and flashing lights, bodies were flying everywhere, but don't ask me for details of any specific event. The urge to find out just what occurred was so strong that I had only one option: I created my own Brute.

The first obstacle to overcome was the character creation process. The sheer wealth of options available in the costume creator makes it flexible, there is no doubt, but without having in-depth knowledge of the available options and how they work together it is difficult to plan a detailed costume. It's made more difficult when you are lacking a character concept. I fiddled with a few options, before finding that I could create a face that closely resembles that of a gnome in World of Warcraft, and that handily fitted with my initial choice of a short, huge body. Picking out a smart suit with the idea of it being incongruous with most villains gave me the serendipitous push of inspiration that I needed to find a complete concept.

I present The Micro-manager!

He's short, balding, and will look over your shoulder telling you exactly where to click with your mouse. Now that's a supervillain to hate.

I break The Micro-manager out of gaol and get dropped in to the Rogue Isles. I quickly get to work trying to get to the bottom of why the TPS reports don't have the new cover sheet attached. I gain some quick levels, picking up a couple of new powers, which have satisfying fiery effects and explosions, and test the capabilities of the Brute. Smashing my way through not-so-innocent bystanders, who hadn't filed a status update for ten whole minutes, I see a bunch of eight mobs loitering nearby. Normally I wouldn't meddle with so many mobs by myself, but they are no doubt hanging around the water cooler talking about last night's popular TV show. This has to be stopped before the whole company is brought to a standstill!

I run in to the middle of them, startling them with my managerial prowess, and my fiery fists of memo-writing pound them in to submission. Each victim that falls before me is only lowering productivity and that makes me more furious! I hit harder and harder until they are all ready to pick up their P45. Seeing a Longbow lieutenant nearby, apparently taking a crafty fag break, I race up to him with all my pent-up rage, and I two-shot him in to coming in on Saturday. I then head back to my office to send out a few hundred e-mails with return-receipts turned on.

This was a powerful introduction to the Brute archetype, although it is my experience that the early levels of games tend to make the player feel invulnerable whatever the class. If I can find the time, I'm looking forward to playing The Micro-manager more. I hope the experience really will turn out to be like The Matrix and not 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the onset of flashing lights and bright colours only makes things more confusing, and I end up in bed aged and wondering what the hell has happened to me.

Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Tags: city of villains, crossover games, the micro-manager