Twitter Updates for 2008-01-28
January 28th, 2008 |
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- I have a case of the Mondays. #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-23
January 23rd, 2008 |
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- Brandon Sanderson is an amazing author! #
Tabula Rasa
January 22nd, 2008 |
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Because I haven’t had enough new games to play here lately (heh), I’ve started playing Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. I’ve been following the progress of the game since it was in Beta at the end of last year, and while intrigued by the idea of a Sci-Fi MMORPG that doesn’t suck, I’ve been too addicted to World of Warcraft to really make the plunge into another game.
So after reading some reviews here and there, last weekend I decided it was time for me to give it a try. And surprisingly, I am very impressed by the game.
Tabula Rasa is your standard MMORPG in many ways: You create a character and it has basic abilities and attributes. You have to complete a variety of quests from random NPC’s in the game ranging from “kill x number of these mobs” or “get x number of these items from some mobs” and even “escort random NPC loserbutt from this place to somewhere safe by traveling through a very hostile area.”
The differences between Tabula Rasa and other MMORPG’s are quite numerous, however. Quests often contain elements of choice in them, which can (supposedly) drastically change your standing with various factions in the game. It introduces a bit of morality that while not as in-depth as some games like Fable, adds a nice touch that games like World of Warcraft lack.
You don’t pick a class at the very start of the game. Instead, you start off as a Recruit (the Tier 1 class), and once you get to level 5 you can choose between becoming a Soldier or a Specialist (Tier 2). At level 15 you can choose your Tier 3 class of Commando or Ranger (if you are a Soldier), or Sapper, or Biotechnician (if you are a Specialist), and at level 30 you can choose your Tier 4 class, which is either a Grenadier, Guardian, Sniper, or Spy (for Commandos/Rangers), or Demolitionist, Engineer, Medic, or Exobiologist (for Sappers/Biotechnicians). It’s a neat tree that lets you choose as you go so you can make choices that fit your gameplay style a lot better.
After leveling your character, if you decide you want an alt, you don’t have to start over from scratch. As you level you gain a number of “clone credits” you can use to create a clone of your character. That clone is the same level of your main character, has completed the same quests, etc. You can then decide to change the sex and class of your clone (and in the next major patch, splice in alien DNA to create a hybrid, woot!). This way you don’t have to start completely over. The downside is that your clone won’t have any good gear or any money to speak of, so save and plan in advance!
Combat is a lot different. You don’t lock onto one target and spam different abilities. Instead, you have to actually aim at your target before you fire, make strategic use of cover, and react to enemy AI that is more involved than in other MMO games. Enemies will attempt to flank you if in groups, and they will come to the aid of someone in need a lot more intelligently than others. Crouching while aiming improves your chance to hit and the amount of damage you can do. Also, if you kill a mob and move on to another one within a few seconds, you will get an XP modifier, making quick grinding an attractive option.
Another neat feature is that instances are scaled based on the number of players in your group. So you can actually solo some of the instances at low levels if you are having trouble finding a group. This feature alone has really kind of thrown the traditional “gotta have a tank, healer, and DPS to run this” paradigm out the window in a lot of cases until you get into considerably harder content.
My main character is currently a Specialist named Charlie Ashwell on the Cassiopeia server. I plan on making him into a Medic for his Tier 4 class. So if you feel like trying it out, look me up!
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-16
January 16th, 2008 |
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- Launching Uberhealer, a forum for WoW Healers: http://uberhealer.net #
Uberhealer
January 16th, 2008 |
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For a little while now I have been bored with my Warlock on World of Warcraft. He’s level 70, has tons of epic gear from Karazhan and from crafting, and our raiding progress, while steadily improving, is kind of slow, so getting better gear won’t happen very often. I can only do the daily quests available to me so many times before I want to beat my head into something.
So I’ve been leveling a bunch of alts trying to figure out what I really enjoy playing. DPS has been fun for me so far but I want to be more useful to the raid than that. So I rolled a tank and leveled to 30 and I really enjoy that. After getting to 30 I decided it was time to seriously try a priest, so I created Aidyssa, a female priest with the goal of being a healer.
Now I realize what I’ve been missing in this game, and I am in love. Healing is by far the most fun I have had in the game since I started playing a few years ago. The exhilaration I get from thinking quickly and reacting to the group’s actions really gets me going and I’m finding a lot of the content I was bored with is now fresh and exciting.
I think I’ve found a new main toon.
So I scoured the net looking for healing resources, and found several good ones, but nothing quite as in-depth and cohesive as The Warlock’s Den does for warlocks. So I decided to create one myself and see if I could put together a community of like-minded individuals who are totally obsessed with healing. At the same time I want it to be as free from trolls and spammers as possible. So now I am proud to introduce the world to a new set of forums:
Uberhealer - forums for World of Warcraft healers
If you are reading this and are interesting in learning more about healing in WoW, or if you want to contribute and spread your knowledge, feel free to join us and become an Uberhealer yourself.
Wood Laminate Floor (Part 2)
January 16th, 2008 |
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We haven’t had the same progress on the living room floor that we had going this weekend. Between work and other obligations we only worked about 30 minutes on Monday and two hours last night. But we are finally in a groove and I can say that we will most definitely have the floors completed this weekend.
We borrowed a miter saw from some friends of ours (thanks guys!!) and that has made life so much easier cutting the boards to length when necessary. I did use this opportunity as an excuse to buy a cheap table saw for cutting the last boards to the proper width (with a rip cut–which is a cut through the length of the wood).
So now we have a little more than a third of the floor covered with the new wood flooring. It is really starting to shape up:
It isn’t taking us very long now to get a row complete so progress is going to continue quickly until we hit the fireplace and have to start making miter cuts. But even that won’t take long at all, really. I’m looking forward to finishing it up and getting the trim back on the walls and moving the furniture back in. Then it will be time to shop for a cool rug to bring the room together (insert The Big Lebowski references here).
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-15
January 15th, 2008 |
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- Got a table saw to rip the floor boards for the edges #
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-14
January 14th, 2008 |
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Wood Laminate Floor (Part 1)
January 14th, 2008 |
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After talking about it for years, Lori and I finally decided to rip up the carpet in our living room and replace it with a wood laminate flooring. The living room receives a fair amount of traffic, so it would be nice to have an attractive surface that is really easy to clean. We decided to go with wood laminate instead of real wood mainly because the maintenance is easier and also because the materials are a lot cheaper than real wood. Also I prefer the smooth surface to the sometimes-uneven look of wood.
So after getting the materials and letting it acclimate for about a week, we ripped up the carpet in the living room and got rid of the padding. Here is what the floor looked like after removing the old flooring:
There was a lot of glue on the padding that caused bits of it to stick when we pulled it up, so we had to use a floor scraper to get all the remaining foam and glue up. After that we swept the floor and scrubbed trouble spots and let it dry.
The next thing we did was to lay down a moisture barrier. The moisture barrier is a plastic that feels about like a trash bag, but slightly heavier. The barrier has a self-adhesive, but we felt better taping all the seams ourselves.
After the moisture barrier was put in place, we had to put down padding because the boards we bought did not have any padding of its own. The padding was a bit more difficult because we had to make sure that nothing overlapped to cause unevenness when we put the boards down. Here’s what it looks like on the floor:
You can see in the pictures above that my cat Fiver has really been enjoying the work.
After the padding, we put down about 5 rows of boards. I would have gone farther last night, but the tapping block I was using to tap the boards into place broke. After work today I have to get a new one and we can continue. In the next part I’ll have more pictures with the flooring down as we finish laying that and get the trim back on the walls.
Twitter Updates for 2008-01-13
January 13th, 2008 |
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- we removed carpet yesterday. Today we lay the new floor down. #
