Sunday, July 31, 2011

Generating terrain around structure in Minecraft

Question

is there any program/server plugin/etc that can be used to generate, say a forest, around a building i created? however, it should not delete any of the blocks of the building. i want to make it look old, like the forest overran the place.

Answer

WorldEdit's forestgen (both available as bukkit plugin for SMP and as SSP mod) can generate forests centred around you, but I don't know whether this will skip your house (I think it won't delete anything but you might end up with trees on your house, I never tried this). You'll probably have to chose at least four places a bit away from your house and generate smaller forests that don't reach your home.

Alternatively, plant some saplings manually and use bone meal to immediately grow the trees.

How does a Terran player stop a cannon rush from Protoss?

Question

On a small 1v1 map playing Protoss vs. Terran, if the Protoss player brings the probe to build a pylon and forge in a corner of the Terran base, what should the Terran player do?

It seems like the probe is so fast that sending all the SCVs to kill the pylon/probe would slow down mineral gathering.

Answer

When playing on a small map, you should be careful and scout your starting location. When you see a probe coming, try to kill it with two SCVs (micromanagement needed, you will have to round it up). If it starts building a pylon, send about 5 SCVs to destroy it, since without the pylon all buildings are useless. You should have at least one or two SCVs gathering minerals at all times and build more while getting rid of the rush. Then build barracks asap and you should be fine.

So the strategy is like this:

1) if you suspect a canon rush, scout your base 2) once a probe comes in, send 2 SCVs to kill it, micromanage the hunt 3) if the probe starts building a pylon, go for the pylon with more SCVs 4) always have at least 2 SCVs gathering minerals and build more 5) Build Barracks ASAP

Enlarging embark location after embark?

Question

Is there any way to make my embark location larger? Or some way to rembark without getting different dwarves? I saved my skills/items to a profile, but I want the same dwarves because I spent a huge amount of time matching skills with their attributes/preferences.

I thought the 4x4 square I chose was just the little meeting spot my wagon and dwarves would gather. Now I see that it actually is the edge of my playable area.

I had planned to dig into a mountain but I embarked in the forest right next to it. So I am really missing the giant cliffs I had planned to build into.

Answer

This is not currently possible as of the latest verstion of Dwarf Fortress (31.25)

You are able to enlarge your embark location pre-embark, but there is no way to guarantee the same dwarves on a reembark (and indeed, I believe Dwarves are spawned from thin air (rather than taken from historical dwarves).

Do note that lesser computers are likely to struggle with embarks greater than 4 x 4.

Should I spend all points at the “Prepare for the Journey Carefully” stage in Dwarf Fortress?

Question

I'm a brand new player to Dwarf Fortress, and I've been looking at some beginners guides for starting a game. Although the guides tell you which skills it is worth investing in at the outset, they do not say anywhere if I should be spending the maximum amount of points that I can on my Dwarfs (this is after spending points on necessary items).

Should I be maxing out my points expenditure at the start, or do I need to save these for any reason?

Thanks in Advance.

Answer

All points left after embarking are lost, so use them all up.

Where is the Treasure located in The Mountain Path area of the Ignan Ruins (2-1)?

Question

I've purchased the hint from the Priest to try to figure out how to find the treasure, which is in the spoiler below:

Nature provides the drums, you provide the beat

I... have no idea what this means. The only thing I can think of is that it possibly has something to do with the mushrooms? Because... mushrooms sort of... look like drums?

What I have tried:

  • Killing all the mushrooms first
  • Killing everything but the mushrooms and leaving them for last (this is actually harder than it sounds)
  • Hitting the 3 rocks in the zone both clockwise and counter-clockwise (both with and without enemies in the zone)
  • Killing everything
  • Killing the wasp nests first
  • Killing the wasp nests last

Answer

Well, you almost got Nature's Drums right. There are five rocks you need to strike in order to get the chest to spawn. You don't need to hit them in any sequence, you need simply make sure you strike them hard enough for that nice CLANG sound. The screenshots will include the minimap so you know exactly where they are. It isn't all that hard to see them, but it's easy to miss which ones you've actually hit.

The first 3 rocks are all on the main area. One right at the entrance...

First Rock location

One to the west...

Western Rock location

One to the east...

Eastern Rock location

The other two are on the raised areas. The fourth one you should hit is the platform near the entrance.

High Rock location

The final rock you should do is the one right at the exit. Order doesn't matter, but I recommend this one last for two reasons. One, because the chest spawns right near it. Two, because if you clear out all the enemies in the process, you can then just pick up the chest and exit to the next room.

Exit Rock location

Once you've clanged all those rocks, pick up your prize!

It's a Common Shield! This one gives +25 Defense.

In Radiant Historia, is money a problem?

Question

I'm starting a game of Radiant Historia, and as with most RPGs I'm under the pressure of making a choice as to whether I should spend freely or save it all up for a rainy day. Do I have to be wise in spending in this game or do I spend on weapons, armor, etc freely?

Answer

You can always fight random battles to make more money, so essentially no, money isn't an issue.

If you fight all the enemies you come across during the normal course of the game (without running past them, or away from them), you'll have enough money already that you won't have to farm.

You can still farm though, and it's not difficult.

How do I find the treasure in the Silent Church section of Aquan Ruins(3-5)?

Question

Under similar circumstances as my Lava Pool treasure hunt, I find myself poking and stabbing at random enemies and objects in Chantelise, hoping to uncover another hidden treasure. This time, however, I took the deep dive and bought myself a hint at the cost of my life force.

It says that I have to "punish the imposter. Again."

This is in reference to...

...the hint for 3-4, "punish the imposter", where I had to find the tombstone that didn't match and stand on it. I believe I also could not kill any other enemies, or wake any other skeletons.

However, in spite of knowing this, I don't really get what I'm supposed to be doing this time around. I've run around hitting random objects that seem out of place and killed each jellyfish individually, yet I don't seem to have found anything secret at all.

How do I find this treasure?

Answer

Well, as with the last one, you need to get an unusual enemy to spawn. And, just like the last one, you get it to spawn through some vandalism.

You need to break all of the torches in the room. They take 3 hits to take out, so you may've passed them off as indestructible. Normally I'm an advocate of getting the treasures then clearing the room, but with that big Bomb there you might want to clear the room out first. At any rate, once you've broken the last one, hey, look who decides to show up?

Unique fish enemy spawns

This opponent is non-elemental, so you won't get an elemental bonus against it. However, it only has about 50 HP, so it dies quite easily. Defeat this fish to win the following prize.

A Silver Gauntlet! It gives you +40 attack. Simple, yet reliable.

How much gold does a diplomatic mission provide, and is it worth it?

Question

In Civilization 4, great merchants increased in value the further you sent them from your capital and the larger the city you sent them to. In Civ 5, the tooltip / civilopedia entry seemed to say that the bonus is the same for any city state, so I sent my Great Merchant to the nearest one. I was very disappointed with the bonus (600 gold and 30 influence, I think) as it was fairly late in the game and a Golden Age would have netted me a lot of gold and production.

Is there something I missed that would have increased his value? Should I have sent him further away, or to a bigger city state?

Answer

The money gained from performing a diplomatic mission is 350 + (50 * <era number>) where era number is just a serial number starting with 0 for the ancient era. In addition game pacing also affect this number: quick games modify this value by 0.67, epic by 1.5 and marathon by 3; or in other words:

             Gold in   Gold in   Gold in  Gold in
Era          Quick     Standard  Epic     Marathon
--------------------------------------------------
Ancient      234.5     350       525      1050
Classical    268       400       600      1200
Medieval     301.5     450       675      1350
Renaissance  335       500       750      1500
Industrial   368.5     550       825      1650
Modern       402       600       900      1800
Future       435.5     650       975      1950

I know of nothing else which can affect the gold amount.

Now, if I have a strong economy in the late game I typically gain another 100-200 gold per turn when in a golden age. That means that the only way in which a golden age is preferable to a diplomatic mission is when it lasts at least 3 to 6 turns. But usually by the time I get to the late game my golden age duration from great people is really low, and if you take into consideration that the influence gained is worth a few hundreds in itself, you'll see that a golden age looks less and less profitable in comparison. All this is especially true if you play in longer game speeds, which translate to higher gold.

Of course, golden age also nets production, so it's still a dilemma; but I do believe merchants are worth it from the financial aspect.

How does the demoman charge?

Question

I've read some of the demoman's weapon descriptions, and some of them affect "charge rates".

How do you do it?

I saw some players doing what I think was a charge (running fast to perform a melee attack), but I didn't see any indication about it when I play as demoman.

Answer

The Chargin' Targe is a shield for the Demoman, often used in combination with a sword to make a "DemoKnight". It starts with an initial charge, and upon right-clicking your mouse, the demoman will zoom forward, increasing their damage with the sword/pan/bottle (by making attacks crits / minicrits). You will often see them slicing the heads off of some people with plenty of blood once they stop moving. You need to be wearing the shield to use it. A charge bar will be in the bottom right corner.

The Splendid Screen is the other Demoman shield, which does more damage than the Chargin' Targe, but has fewer bonuses.

Tactically, from my experience, it's a fun thing to do by charging into a crowd and chopping off a few limbs. Each takes 12 seconds for a new charge up.

Which champions can jungle effectively in League of Legends?

Question

Which champions can solo in the jungle and keep their levels up to those in lane? I know Warwick of course, and I've seen Shaco and Udyr do okay. What others work well?

Answer

It highly depends on how you build the champion, but I've seen:

  • Tryndamere (start with Agility Pot)
  • Xin Shao (start with agility Pot)
  • Amumumu
  • Olaf

More often than not succeed as junglers. There are other heroes who can jungle, but these are particularly adept at it.

What are the different endings in Witcher 2?

Question

Needless to say, the answers to this question will be full of spoilers.

What are the 16 possible endings in The Witcher 2?

Answer

From http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Witcher_2_Ending not so clear answer to the question and still needs some editing.

Roche's PathEdit

-If you decided to kill King Henselt then the meeting in Chapter 3 will change a lot.

-If you let him live, Henselt doesn't only have Upper Aedirn but whole of Aedirn will be given to him as there isn't anyone left to ascend to the Aederninan throne because prince Stennis dies in the ghostly mist.

*If you went with Vernon Roche to save King Foltest's daughter, Anais, and you convince Roche to give the Anais to Temeria. Then Roche wil say that she decided to pick up a sword instead of a doll, and will be a great leader.

*If you went with Roche to save King Foltest's daughter, and you convince Roche to give the daughter to Radovid. She will grow up to marry Radovid and Redania will protect Temeria for the time.

_In the Epilogue, If you went to save Triss yourself, then on your the path to see Letho, You will see Roche saved Anais by himself and is defending her from a bunch of soldiers. You will save him.

Iorveth's Path

-If you decide to save Philippa Eilhart, then you will be able to release dragon from her control. You will not be given an option to kill her.

-If you decide to save Triss instead, then you will be given an option of killing the dragon or leaving it. Iorveth would've went to save Philippa and then get badly hurt by her. You will be given the option to walk away and leave Iorveth to the troops, or attack them and tell Triss to save her. She will say that he is badly hurt and will take months to heal him.

Shared Choices

If you saved Sheala de Tancarville, Letho will mention she will be hunted by Royal witch-hunters and die a slow death by them. If you let her die, then Letho will say you showed her mercy.

In both paths, if you save Triss instead, the Council of Sorcerers will still be created, since Triss is the one that pointed out Sile was the traitor.

If you did not save Triss, she will be saved by Lethos, Shilard Fitz-Oesterlen will point out Sile as the traitor and the Council of Sorcerers will not be created, as people will be hunting witches from then on.

Ending Sequence

If you go with Roche/Iorveth in Chapter 3, then you will walk out with Roche/Iorveth and Triss.

If you go with Triss, you will walk out with Triss only.

Ending Plot Summary

No matter what, Nilfgaard will be on the march north to invade the northern kingdoms. Lethos was employed by Nilfgaard to kill Kings in the northern kingdom to soften them up for the later invasion. Letho used the Lodge of Sorceresses as a cover to kill the Kings because they initally had the same objective.

Lodge of Sorceresses initally only?? wanted to kill Demavend because he was shown to be a weak King. But after his death, Letho used Sorceresses' resources to get in contact with Scoia'tael to kill King Foltest and King Henselt. After the death of Foltest, Letho split with Iorveth and went into hiding, Letho couldn't trust Iorveth anymore as Iorveth and the Sorcereses figured out Letho's true plan.

Why do Zerg players build their Evolution Chambers quickly?

Question

I often see Zerg players build spawning pool immediately followed by an Evolution Chamber (EC). What is a purpose of that quick EC? To get quick armor/attack upgrades for zerglings?

Sometimes I also see a Zerg build EC without building extractor... so how he is going to get gas in this case?

Answer

There are two reasons for the quick Evolution Chamber.

Reason One

The first, as you noted, was early upgrades which can quickly turn a fragile force (take zerglings for example) into an early game force to fear. However without gas this isn't a feasible strategy. If attempting this build order, gas first is a must to make use of that early Evolution Chamber.

Reason Two

What you are witnessing is preventative measures designed to protect against early air pressure. With Banshees, Void rays, and Mutalisk a consistent threat, a Zerg can unlock the ability to build spore crawlers providing both detection and vital air defense. The extra protection is often worth the extra resource cost to help the Zerg survive to mid-late game where they can overwhelm their opponent with macro.

How do I get the treasure in the Lava Pools section of Ignan Ruins(2-3)?

Question

As the last remaining secret treasure I haven't discovered in the Ignan Ruins, I am very eager to find riches in the Lava Pools. However, I'm struggling quite a bit, and I don't want to waste my precious health purchasing a hint.

Currently I have tried:

  • Luring all of the bombs together(like a bomb party, or a bomb family reunion). This failed because the bombs hit an invisible wall when they venture too far from their spawn points.
  • Hitting all the rocks
  • Hitting all the rocks as many times as the fire pillars near them shoot up
  • Jumping into the fire pillars that shoot out from the lava
  • Jumping into all the lava I can find while craning my neck in a vain attempt to look for sekret passages
  • Luring the bomb at the top-most platform into the bridge gap to kill it
  • Running around in circles

I have NOT tried:

  • Killing only bombs/fire slimes/bees/mushrooms since the jumping enemies are very suicidal and I'm too young to die from a frustration-induced stroke
  • Killing all the jumping enemies by making them jump into the lava because this isn't Waiting For Godot
  • Rubbing my belly and patting my head while singing because I'd feel silly

What do I do?!

Answer

The solution to this is to only break the barrels after you have cleared all of the enemies.

Naturally, the barrels are in your way at the start, and you can't exactly jump over them. Which means we need to take a shortcut.

First, clear out all of the enemies on your starting side of the barrels. So, all of those purple Mushrooms, a handful of Bees, and that one Bomb in the middle. Once you've got none left (Red slimes don't count), you need to move onto the central platform. Head straight east and jump to land roughly in the middle of a circle of Mushrooms. Now you're past the barrels!

You'll need to double back towards the barrels to catch a couple Bees and Mushrooms. Make sure not to break the barrels yet. As well, you should hopefully harvest enough magical gems from enemies to take out the Bombs safely. Once you clear the last enemy (it'd dispel the barrier, if this is your first time or a time trial), then double back and break the barrels. You'll spawn the chest near the entrance of the room.

Your prize is as follows.

Ferromin! That's... it. +10 Max HP, though, so use it to buy more hints!

Searching for old PC game: Robots fought in a 3D arena, you 'programmed' them by connecting circuits between radar, guns, etc.

Question

I cannot remember the name. I think I know it, but don't want to have the wrong name stick in anyone's head. I cannot find it based on what I thought it was called.

You put 'components' on these robot platforms, and connected them to each other. The components were things like radar, guns, motors, etc. If I remember correctly, the platforms were big and slow, or small and fast. The smaller ones had fewer empty 'spots' to put components. When you built your bot, you put it in an arena. You had no control over it at that point, they just fought it out. I even remember servers where you uploaded your bot and someone would have them battle other users' 'bots' hundreds of times, and tally/ranke

Answer

Could it be Mind Rover?

How does a Terran player stop a canon rush from Protoss?

Question

On a small 1v1 map, Protoss vs. Terran, how does a Terran stop a canon rush from Protoss?

If the Protoss player brings the probe to build a pylon and forge in a corner of the Terran base, what should the Terran player do?

It seems the probe is fast and sending all the SCVs to kill the pylon/probe would slow down mineral gathering.

Answer

When playing on a small map, you should be careful and scout your starting location. When you see a probe coming, try to kill it with two SCVs (micromanagement needed, you will have to round it up). If it starts building a pylon, send about 5 SCVs to destroy it, since without the pylon all buildings are useless. You should have at least one or two SCVs gathering minerals at all times and build more while getting rid of the rush. Then build barracks asap and you should be fine.

So the strategy is like this:

1) if you suspect a canon rush, scout your base 2) once a probe comes in, send 2 SCVs to kill it, micromanage the hunt 3) if the probe starts building a pylon, go for the pylon with more SCVs 4) always have at least 2 SCVs gathering minerals and build more 5) Build Barracks ASAP

Is there any way to play Left 4 Dead on a LAN?

Question

It seems the only option for playing Left 4 Dead with my friends is to have all computers online, even though I bought the 4 pack from Valve. Is there anyway to plan a LAN game on Left 4 Dead 1?

Answer

It is possible. If you use srcds to set up a dedicated server and note the LAN IP of the computer hosting it, you can enable the developer console in-game (under Keyboard settings then advanced) press the ~ key (on foreign keyboards, it is usually whichever key is next to the 1 key) to open it and enter the command connect <LAN IP of server> into it. You'll then be dropped into the game. Make sure to edit the key of the server so that random people don't start joining. Consider setting it to LAN-only.

If you're using a non-QWERTY keyboard, sometimes binding the developer console may not work. If so, you can edit the launch options and add --console. Then, whenever you launch the game, you'll have console open.

Is there a “Go to Coordinates” command?

Question

I'm just starting out, and having trouble navigating space in 3 dimensions. Even when I know what coordinates I want, I have a difficult time getting there. Is there any way to target a specific X,Y,Z coordinate so I can aim for it manually or autopilot to it?

Answer

Yes, in sector map. Change axis and navigate the blinking cursor with the numpad arrows, then click on the cursor.

how to...

...do it

There are mods/scripts that make it even easier to navigate, I don't have the links to them though.

Are there benefits to buying the box version versus the Steam version of Civilization 5?

Question

Is there any benefit to buying the box version of Civlization 5 on Steam versus the box, or vice versa?

Answer

All Civilization V version are basically the same because at the end all have to be registered on Steam, because it implements the Steam DRM.

Then could be that some reseller add some exclusive stuff:

Steam Standard edition

  • Adds Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia.

Steam Deluxe edition

  • Adds Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia.
  • Plus also get the bonus Babylon Civilization with leader "Nebuchadnezzar II"
  • Behind the Scenes at Firaxis with Civ V video feature
  • Game Soundtrack

Play.com Edition

  • Adds Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia.

Collector's Edition

A boxed collector's edition is also coming. It should contains some miniatures, a book and possible other contents like soundtrack/make of.

The price should be around 100$.

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Why do I need to delete the META-INF folder when installing mods?

Question

In Minecraft, nearly every tutorial on how to install a MOD tells you to remove the META-INF folder. However none of the ones I found tell you what it is. I don't like the idea of deleting a folder without knowing what it is or what it does.

So what is the META-INF folder, and why should I delete it?

Answer

Because Minecraft is digitally signed. META-INF contains the manifest, but also a signature file (MOJANG_C.SF) that accounts for all the files within the JAR and their checksums, and Mojang's actual signature (MOJANG_C.DSA).

When that signature checks out, you know it wasn't tampered with and comes from a trusted source (in this case, Mojang). When you do tamper with it (by installing mods), the signature is invalid and Minecraft won't start at all.

By deleting the META-INF directory, you remove the signature completely. Depending on your security settings, you might get an "unknown publisher" warning, but you'll be able to run it.

More detailed info: JAR File Specification

Which objects give me elemental gems when I hit them?

Question

So far, I've noticed in Chantelise that when I swipe at grass, I occasionally get a green elemental gem, and when I hit a tree, a yellow elemental gem drops out. What are all the objects like these that yield elemental gems when I attack them?

Answer

You can get green gems by hitting tufts of grass. These are pretty much the most frequent and easiest to find, which is great because Air spells are awesome.

You can get yellow gems by hitting trees. Unlike grass which grows in caves, there aren't a lot of trees inside places, but there generally are multiple trees in any stage.

You can get blue gems by destroying barrels. Barrels, despite being, y'know, constructed things, can be found practically everywhere. Sometimes they may have food, but in general you're getting blue gems.

You can get red gems by destroying torches. You don't see these outside often, but you can find a lot of them indoors.

Why make cheese if milk is already food?

Question

In Dwarf Fortress, milk is already a food item, and if I am not mistaken, you get one cheese for every one milk. So would the only benefit of cheese be that it is just one more ingredient for making meals? Do dwarves, even without a preference for cheese, generally like cheese better or get more out of it?

Are there any other advantages? (besides cheese loving dwarfs making engravings of cheese)

Answer

Milk rots. I'm fairly sure cheese doesn't - or at least does so at a much slower rate.

What could cause a Minecraft portal to not work?

Question

I have build two portals in Minecraft now, and neither of them seem to work. This is on a multi player server.

They were built correctly, and they both have the purple portal tiles in the center. But, when I stand in the center of the portal, nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer

Are you in single player mode? Portals don't yet work on multiplayer servers.

Specifically, there is a multiplayer server command, "hellworld=true" that is applicable for testing, but is buggy and not yet fully implemented.

As of 1.6, Nether Portals do work in SMP. Make sure you're updated to 1.6 or later if you're trying to access the nether in SMP.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

How do I open the gate in the Familiar Forest?

Question

In the Familiar Forest in Chantelise, there is a wandering traveller selling equipment and a gate, like the ones that would normally be unlocked in a stage by killing all the enemies. However, there are no enemies or hidden switches to be seen. Is this gate opened at a certain point in the plot or is there a hidden way for me to open it?

Answer

The Familiar Forest is a late-game area that can only be accessed when you have acquired every secret treasure on all of the other maps. Once you have done so, then you will be allowed access to the later sections of the Familiar Forest. So, if you haven't been feverishly ensuring that you've collecting all of the secret treasures, it's best to start now if you want to access this place. ♪

What does the Void Crystal do and what sort of enemies is it useful against?

Question

So I just dropped 20000 gold on this Void Crystal item, which claims to drain enemies of their magical energy and also grants me access to a powerful charging attack. However, it's unclear to me what sort of enemies in the game are considered to have magical energy, and what happens to them as a result of the Void Crystal's power. If I attack an enemy who has a projectile attack, will they be temporarily unable to attack me? What sort of situations is the Void Crystal useful in?

Answer

The Void Crystal is an interesting weapon that doesn't look like it has a lot going for it. It doesn't improve your normal attack at all, and its charged attack is strikingly similar to that of the Fire Crystal, but with no elemental affinity and it does normal damage. While on the one hand, this gives it the benefit of at least neutral damage, you should have access to enough elemental crystals to always be picking the most powerful one.

Why use the Void Crystal? Because its charged attack negates magical projectiles. Magical projectiles are specifically the ones that target your magical defense (so in general, these hurt a lot more). The common ones you run into are:

  • Fireballs from Ghosts or the Giant Red Bomb
  • Red smoke from Caterpillars
  • Ring shots from Ahriman
  • Bubbles from Fish
  • Green smoke from various opponents
  • Lightning balls from various opponents

It does not work against

  • Lightning bolts or laser beams
  • The slash attack of the Knights (which is physical, anyway)
  • The ice shots of the Giant Blue Bomb. I don't know why. I have not successfully cancelled these at all.

Everything else is pretty much fair game. You can tell if you cancel an attack because it'll make a glowy particle effect as it dispels it.

It has a short duration and it also has an awkward area, so it is a far better idea to perform this at an angle, rather than directly into the projectile. It is excellent if you don't need to focus on strict attack power (since it gives none), as well as if you need to approach particularly dense groups of magical opponents.

I'll include notes about specific bosses below, but since that's very specific information, it will be included in a spoiler block. Don't read this unless you have an idea why I'd make specific points about projectile attacks.

For the first boss in the final stage, the crystal works on all 3 spell attacks it uses. However, for the fire spell, you can only dispel the front part that traces the flame. The fire trail cannot be dispelled, so don't charge into it.

For the first form of the final boss, the crystal works on every projectile - cannon ball, electric spark, laser shots, energy balls, and even the bomblet. However, you again will probably hit yourself in the face if you go head-on. It will also work on the attacks of the final boss in the second phase.

Good Add-on to show coordinates in World of Warcraft

Question

What is a simple Add-on that shows coordinates in WoW?

I found information about Koordinator and Cartographer in the Web, but both does not work (they are outdated, at least the versions I found) giving many Lua script errors when I enable them.

I've tried Carbonite as well, but it is very confusing and heavy.

Answer

I've used TomTom for as long as I can remember.

Out of the box it not only includes a really simple coordinate box, but a way to have an arrow point to any arbitrary set of coordinates:

Coordinate box Waypoint arrow

What was the name of this old children's computer game set in medieval times?

Question

I was born in 1996, and sometime when I was young, not sure what age exactly, I remember playing this cartoony point and click game where you had to solve puzzles and stuff. It was similiar to the "pajama sam" games. It took place in a castle and I think there were missing knights of the round table that you had to find. Does anyone know what the name of the game I'm thinking of is? I'd really love to know!

Answer

Do you know what platform is was on?

If it was on NES, it could have been Castle Shadowgate. Castle Shadowgate was a point and click that, predictably enough, took place in a castle. It was on the Nintendo NES.

Here are some google screenshots.

How do the elemental gems influence my magic attacks?

Question

When I use a magic attack with multiple gems of a different type in Chantelise, the nature of the attack seems to be determined by one of the gems I use(i.e. if there's an earth and a wind gem used together I might end up with a hammerorb that has wind properties. In this case, the nature of my attack would be earth, or a hammerorb). However, there are some cases where I specifically want the magical attack to not be of a certain nature; for example, if I'm attacking a bomb-type enemy, I don't want my spell to turn out to be a hammerorb, forcing me to get up close to inflict damage.

What determines the nature of my magic attack? Is it based on the ordering of the gems, or the number of gems of each type that I put into the attack? Or is it entirely random?

Also, what sort of attributes does each gem type add to my attack?

Answer

The first gemstone you cast from determines the element of the spell. This is shown in the color of the magic circle that forms. For example, if you start off with Red, you'll get a Fire spell with a Red magic circle around your feet. Don't forget to reorder your gemstones if you end up with the wrong element to start.

Further gemstones will augment them in specific ways, but the order does not matter past the first gemstone. Red-Red-Yellow is the same spell as Red-Yellow-Red. Order is instead just for planning out your spells that will come afterwards.

The quantity of gemstones affect how much of an augment they provide, unless they are of the same color as the spell you are casting. If the element matches, it instead changes what spell you will be casting. As a consequence, you cannot provide an augment from a gemstone to the elemental spells that correspond to it (no attack boost on Fire spells, etc.). The below are the augments with respect to the attack spells - Heal and Super Armor have unique effects since they cannot split or add status ailments.

  • Red gemstones increase attack power. The more red, the more power.
  • Blue gemstones add status ailments, either poison or paralysis. This is dependent on the specific spell, with additional blue either adding the other ailment or strengthening the poison/paralysis effect.
  • Green gemstones increase the number of spells fired. Additional green means more shots fired.
  • Yellow gemstones increase the "duration" of the spell. For spells like Air Tornado, this makes it last longer. For projectile spells like Fireball, it increases the number of times it can hit, by giving it a piercing effect. More yellow means a longer duration boost.

Are there performance and stability differences between vanilla and Bukkit servers?

Question

I am deciding whether to switch my vanilla server over to a Bukkit server. I did upgrade to the development build of Java 7 which did give me a slight performance boost. Just wondering if anyone has seen noticeable performance or stability difference between the two.

Answer

The core CraftBukkit server (Bukkit's implementation) itself is equivalent from my experience.

But since anyone that can copy/paste Java can create a plugin, it really depends on which plugins you use. It pays to do your research here and understand the impact of each plugin you decide to install.

You can sort of rely on the most popular plugins (plugins with threads that have a lot of comments compared to others) to be fairly reliable. If you start delving into lesser used plugins, spend the time to read the entire thread and understand exacly what the developer is trying to accomplish. If you have any coding experience at all, look through the source code to get an idea of what it exactly does.

What I would say in summary is that a significant portion of most servers (small, medium, and large) run CraftBukkit successfully. There are problems for sure, but there are problems with Vanilla also. Nothing's perfect.

What are these percentages at different locations and how do I increase them?

Question

I was exploring Just Cause 2 after the tutorial missions, and I found that doing things like blowing up the gas station in the town next to the guy's house or picking up weapon parts increased the percentage to the location.

  • What is this percentage?
  • How do I earn it? (i.e. What are the ways I can do this? Picking up weapon parts did, but killing the military didn't.)
  • What is the bonus of doing this?

Answer

This percentage is the completion rate of the location. In order to complete the game 100%, you will need to complete each location.

Increasing your completion rate at a location is done in two ways:

  • Picking up weapon, armor or vehicle parts
  • Destroying military installations, such as electricity generators, missile silos, water towers and cranes. These are marked with the special red symbol of the military. Standard military vehicles(motorcycles, helicopters, airplanes, jeeps, boats) do not count towards this completion rate.

For each location completed, you are awarded with an additional bonus of infamy and cash. The size of this bonus is dependent on the size of the location completed.

How to remove an acount from xbox 360

Question

I have a second-hand xbox 360 with huge amount of old accounts, how do I remove them? I do not have xbox live.

Answer

You can just delete them from the drive. Go to System Preferences (when at the My Xbox channel, it's the far right item IIRC), then Memory, and select Hard Drive (or whatever storage device the console is using). There should be list of the types of items stored there, one of which is Profiles. Select that, then delete each one.

Where in Arkham Asylum are the plans for Arkham City?

Question

I was just reading on Wikipedia about the forthcoming Batman: Arkham City, and it seems the developers were planning the sequel before the original was even released. There is a secret room somewhere in Arkham Asylum containing Quincy Sharp's plans to build Arkham City.

Where in the game can I find these secret plans?

Answer

The plans are in the back of Quincy Sharp's office. GameInformer has a video walkthrough describing how to see the plans for yourself.

How can a broken gate be repaired?

Question

While exploring, I've noticed in a few random sectors the remains of a dead sector Gate. I've heard in the forums for previous versions of the game that Gates are repairable.

Can broken Gates be repaired and how does one go about repairing them?

Answer

You can't if you're playing "vanilla" x3. In vanilla x3 they are just there to sit around.

If however you're playing a modded out version of x3, there's a script on their official scripting forum, that allows you to repair and link broken gates.

How to lightning-proof a structure?

Question

What's the best way to lightning proof a structure? I've seen some people attempt to place a 'ceiling' of glass at the top-most level of the map, but I don't know if this works or not (and it's a tad unattractive)... I'm a bit worried for my tree-house: enter image description here

Answer

  • Keep regular backups until Notch provides a form of protection against this or a way to disable thunderstorms.
  • If you see a thunderstorm get far enough away that the chunks containing your treehouse are unloaded.

EDIT: As of Minecraft 1.6, fire is severely nerfed and will not burn through your buildings like before. Consequently, lightning is also nerfed, and may not be worth worrying about, unless you structure is made of difficult to replace flammable materials, such as certain colours of cloth and leaves.

EDIT 2: Leaves are now replaceable due to the ability to cut them with shears in Minecraft 1.7. As a result, even treehouses no longer need to fear lightening.

Does the extractor trick actually help?

Question

The Zerg extractor trick allows you to start your 11th drone a few seconds faster. Does this actually help though? You gain a few seconds on that extra drone, but you lose due to:

  1. The cancellation fee for the extractor which is something like 6 mins. That's like an entire drone trip to a mineral patch.
  2. The time spent being an extractor, which is likely to be close to the time of a trip to minerals.

So I would say you lose something like 10 minerals to gain a few seconds on a drone. Is this actually worth it?

Disclaimer: I am really terrible at Zerg; I have no idea what I'm doing really.

Answer

Economy wise, overlord at 9 is best. If you happen to create a tenth drone by mistake, go for the extractor trick as it helps you minimize economic loss.

Some people do the extractor trick just to keep their fingers busy...

Can I rest or speed up time?

Question

Can I sleep, rest or somehow speed up the time?

After several fruitless attempts to get back to the trader during the night, I have decided to stay at the hangar and try my luck the next day...do I really have to wait?

Answer

Are you using the STALKER Complete 2009 mod? If you're not, you should be, it fixes a lot of problems with the game and greatly improves it overall. One of the enhancements in it is a sleeping bag that's always in your inventory and allows you to do exactly what you're looking for. The link above has a list of all the other changes, take a look through, it's an extremely nice mod.

I don't think the un-modified game has any way to sleep, but I found a reference on a forum to being able to press * on the numpad to speed up time, and - to slow it back down. I have no idea if that actually works though.

Why can I not sometimes hijack a helicopter, and instead hang beneath it getting ripped to shreds?

Question

Sometimes when I try to hijack a helicopter on Just Cause 2 (when the army are after me), I grapple onto the bottom and just hang there with no hijack option. I proceed to get shot by the ground troops and dropping causes me to get shot by the helicopter.

I've tried grappling onto lots of parts, but I always hang from the bottom.

Is this meant to happen?

EDIT: For quick answers if people find this question, the answer is that you have to move forward to the front of the helicopter to kill guards, then you can hijack.

Answer

I think you need to be in front of the vehicle to perform a hijack for planes and helicopters. When you are in the bottom, try to move the joystick so you'll transfer on top or in the front. And yeah, you need to take down to co-pilot too if there is one.

Maybe this video will help

As you can see he go in front of the helicopter to do his hijack. Hope this helped!

what is the right way to use a water candle?

Question

I have been wondering do water candles work if you place them on the floor or on the table, or if they only work if it is in your hand.

Answer

According to Terraria's official wiki page on Water Candles:

Holding a Water Candle in your hand will increase the monster spawn probability to 133% and the maximum number of monsters to 150%.

They produce light in any situation a regular torch/candle would (except apparently underwater in the current version), but only increase the spawn rate whilst holding it as the active item.

Baldur's Gate: Understanding weapon damage

Question

I have a very limited understanding of D&D concepts. How does weapon damage work in Baldur's gate?

Answer

Baldur's gate I & II use a modified AD&D 2nd edition, if I'm not mistaken.

The damage itself is expressed in dice, so e.g. 1D6 means you throw one six-sided die and count the sum of it. 2D8 means you throw two eight-sided dice and count the sum of the two dice. The damage gets subtracted from the hitpoints of your enemy.

Armor class (AC) defines the probability of getting hit. The attacker throws a D20 and if the value is lower than your AC you are hit, else the attacker misses. Certain bonuses apply to attacker and defender. You have to pay attention to your THAC0, which tells you what you have to throw to hit an enemy with an AC of 0.

A vertical scrolling shoot 'em up, where you can reverse the scrolling

Question

I'm looking for a game I remember playing as a kid on a PC (I think) and my Game Boy (early 90s), but I can't recall its name.

  • It was definitely a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up, where you could reverse the scrolling a bit. In some levels you needed this in order to escape dead ends.

  • The enemies where organic. Giant monsters instead of enemy ships.

  • There was an ugly alien shopkeeper where you could buy power-ups between levels.

  • Some of the power-ups would then show up as sidekicks next to the player ship.

Answer

Xenon 2 - Megablast.

Apparently its creators are offering a free download of a remake over at http://www.bitmap-brothers.co.uk/our-games/past/xenon2.htm

How do you lengthen a redstone button signal in Minecraft?

Question

I made a little redstone circuit to open a door (using pistons) with a button, but I was wondering how I could make the door stay open a little longer. I don't want to use a lever as I want it to close automatically after.

I thought of running parallel redstone delayers, with gradual delays, but I wanted to know if there is something more compact?

Answer

The words compact and Redstone don't usually go together :) There could be something simpler than this, probably using some weird combination of water, pistons, and chewing gum, but this is the best I can come up with: a basic delay circuit (from the wiki):

redstone circuit diagram minecraft screenshot

In the screenshot, there is actually a pressure plate on the right, bit hard to see. I prefer not to use buttons, when running for my life. :)

Which Baldur's Gate NPCs can you keep for the longest time while playing through the trilogy?

Question

I'm planning to play the Big World Project version of the Baldur's Gate games. I'd like to have a standard party with one fighter, one thief, one priest, and one mage.

Which of the NPCs should I take if my goal is to keep them as long as possible? What should be the class of the main character?

Answer

The only rejoinable recurring characters between BG1 and 2 are:

  • Imoen: Thief (Thief/Mage in BG2)
  • Minsc: Ranger (and a decent fighter)
  • Viconia: Priest
  • Jaheira: Fighter/Druid
  • Edwin: Mage

So they would last you the longest. They're also a lethal combination. The only thing is, I'm not sure but I think you may have trouble keeping this party together if you have low charisma and low or high reputation.

EDIT:

Choosing the player's class:

  • You already have 3 decent fighters: Minsc, Jaheira, and Viconia (with a strength boost)
  • 2.5 healers: Viconia, Jaheira, and Minsc once again
  • And the most powerful mage in the game: Edwin
  • I don't remember how good Imoen is but I'm sure she's not terrible.

Point being you can choose any class for the PC. I usually go with one of the thief variants or a sorcerer in DnD games.

Battlefield 2 widescreen support

Question

Is there a way to support widescreen views(1920x1600) in Battlefield 2?

Answer

I tried this out recently, and all I could find was at WSGF but it works pretty well. Since then, this is now officially fixed in Battlefield 2 patch 1.5:

I can confirm the latest Battlefield 2 patch (version 1.5) "fixed" the widescreen issues. Although the main menu and some HUD bars are stretched, and not in "proper" view.

The Eye of Cthulhu disappeared after I reloaded the game. Is there a way to get it back?

Question

I was playing Terraria earlier, having just reached the Hell layer (~3000ft.) and after I killed one of those annoying imps, I got a message stating:

You feel an evil presence is watching you.

I read on the official Terraria Online forums that it means The Eye of Cthulhu is about to spawn at the surface. Unfortunately, after receiving the message, I saved the game and quit to look online for that message means (while still in Hell). When I reloaded the game and spawned at the surface, during night-time, Cthulhu wasn't there.

Save for breaking a Shadow Orb (which I do not have, nor can I survive in the Corruption with 7-8 Eaters of Souls spawning from all sides the instant I step into any corrupted patch of dirt), is there any other way to get Cthulhu back?

Answer

It is possible to spawn the Eye of Cthulhu by using a Suspicious Looking Eye.

This item needs to be crafted from 6 lenses. Lenses are occasionally dropped by Demon Eyes (the flying eyes that attack at night along with zombies).

Once you have collected 6 lenses you will need to find a Demon Altar in order to craft the Suspicious Looking Eye. You will probably have to do a bit of searching underground in order to find one of these if you haven't already found one.

Note that in order to summon the Eye of Cthulhu it must be night time. If dawn breaks while fighting the Eye, it will fly away to return the next night with full health.

Blizzard's SystemCheck tool doesn't work

Question

I'm trying to use Blizzard's SystemCheck tool to opt-in for future Blizzard game betas.

When I run it I see a page with my system information, but when I click "send" I get the error:

There was a problem sending your system information to Battle.net. Please check your internet connection, close all applications and try again. For further assistance, please visit Battle.net.

And in addition my browser opens on this page, which looks like an attempt to send me to a support page further explaining the problem, but it's actually just an error page.

The specific tool I am using is named SystemCheck_enUS.exe, downloaded recently from my personal account page on Battle.net. If it makes any difference, I'm running Windows 7 and I'm not located in North America.

Answer

Blizzard's troubleshooting page has this to say

Why is the Beta Opt-in application giving me an error message when I try to submit my information?

First, verify that you have a stable internet connection when attempting to access a website. If you are able to access websites, you may have a firewall preventing the information from being sent to us. Please make sure there are no firewall(s) blocking the opt-in application from sending us your system information. Downloading a fresh copy of the SystemCheck application may be the answer if you are still seeing a failure message after verifying the connection is stable.

As a bronze league hopeful, is it better to focus on one race or should I keep playing as random?

Question

I've heard mixed feedback from my friends on this topic. Some say pick a race to focus on. Others say they made it to Platinum as one race and now they wish they could play the other races without dropping out of their league. So as I am still pretty fresh to the game and still in bronze league (around 70 games played) should I keep playing random to try and become well rounded or should I focus on a single race to get good with?

Recommendations?

Answer

Play the other races.

Sure, you might be able to advance your score faster by focusing on one build, but you're also a lot more likely to become bored. At the bronze level, the most important lessons you can learn are transferable between races, like building workers (build a lot, and keep building), building buildings, expanding, and keeping pressure up.

If you feel that this is too hard, or playing all 3 races is too much, then I recommend you focus on either the zerg or protoss and terran. Z plays very differently from P/T and you might run into frustration if you try to play Z the same way as you play P/T.

How do I get a “Perfect” in Bit.Trip Runner?

Question

I've been playing Bit.Trip Runner, trying to ace the Retro Warp Zones and get the "!!" on each level for collecting the gold. All the gold.

I had thought that simply collecting all of the gold was sufficient to earn a "perfect", but I managed to get a "!!" score on level 1-5, and yet, I did not also get the "PERFECT!" That I got when "!!"-ing 1-6, 1-7, 1-8, and 1-9.

Edit:

As Mr. McClelland points out below, a PERFECT! rating is scored by obtaining the maximum amount of points in the level.

What actions increase your score? I know collecting gold is obviously part of it, but not all obstacles (such as sliding under low overhangs, or jumping gaps) reward points...

Answer

Quoted from the wikipedia article:

The perfect completion of a retro challenge will award players with an exclamation point beside the stage and the word "PERFECT" beside the score in the scoreboard, but only if they have done everything "extra" (i.e., jumping on top of springboards that they do not need to in order to finish) in the level beforehand.

Edit

According to this gamefaqs forum thread:

! = All golds collected; advanced to Retro level

!! = All golds collected in Retro level

As such, it sounds like you need to not only get all the golds in a zone, but also all the golds in its retro levels. A bit of forewarning, I don't actually own B.TR, so I can't confirm any of this data.

Friday, July 29, 2011

How much extra damage does using an enemy's elemental weakness inflict?

Question

In Chantelise, I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it to use up one of my equipment slots with an elemental crystal when I could be stacking up another weapon or defense item instead. How much extra damage will I inflict on an enemy with their elemental weakness? Is this is a constant percentage or does it vary from enemy to enemy?

Answer

Elemental attacks deal strictly around double damage compared to normal attacks of the same strength. So for example, on normal attacks with absolutely no equipment, you will deal maybe 9 damage to a caterpillar. With the Wind Crystal, you'll deal 18-20 damage per hit. You can tell the enemy's element based on the color of your targeting circle.

However, keep in mind, the elemental crystals come with their own special benefits. For example, the Wind Crystal changes your combo into a 5-hit instead of a 3-hit, while the Water Crystal gives you a round-about spinattack when charged up (hold the attack button). Mastering the extra attacks is key and often gives you a greater advantage than pure stats do as their damage is not the same as a standard combo. As well, since you can only equip a certain number of each kind of equipment, elements give you even more damage on top of maxed attack equipment (should you go all out).

Also keep in mind that elemental damage allows you to defeat skeletons and other special enemies using just your weapon, not requiring the use of actual spells.

How do I defeat Volcanicrab, the Ignan Ruins boss?

Question

I'm almost done Ignan Ruins, the second dungeon of Chantelise...except for what clearly seems to be the most difficult part, the boss. Volcanicrab seems impossible to damage with my sword, front and back, and doesn't seem to offer me any magic shards even when I swing at it. Magic manages to chip away its health, but without any way to get more shards to cast more spells, I can't seem to figure out how I'm supposed to inflict much damage at all. Is there something I'm missing here? How do I defeat Volcanicrab?

Answer

There are two general ways you can defeat this boss.

The first is the obviously hard way, and that's straight up force. Gather enough blue gems from the previous rooms, equip yourself with any staves to boost your attack power, and open up with all of your damage. Then, switch to the Water Crystal (I hope you bought it) and equip any gloves you have. The more, the better! In essence, you want to dodge all of his attacks and hang out in front, then sneak in a charge attack. It may take a while, but you can certainly take him down this way.

The smarter way.

If you perform a combo attack on the boss in his face (3 hit combo, so probably shouldn't use the Wind Crystal), then it will knock him backwards. Take care to avoid his claw swipes while sneaking in another combo, and knock him into those giant fire pits. This will cause him to be blasted out, and land on his back, where you will deal significantly more damage, he cannot attack you, and he will yield more gemstones.

It won't take too many rounds of this to succeed, and you'll win!

How can HD skins be used as minecraft avatar in online SMP?

Question

The 64x32 pixels of the default resolution skin look rather crappy if one uses a HD texture pack, but that's the only resolution allowed to for upload to the profile on http://www.minecraft.net. I can of course play in offline mode, which gives me the texture pack's default char.png which I could replace with my favourite HD skin, but in SMP everyone would look the same (if the server doesn't require online at first, that is). So, is there any possibility (vanilla, client mod, bukkit plugin, anything...) to walk around with HD skins in a HD world?

Answer

The possibility does not exist yet, but then again, why would you wanna do that? The whole game is about squared and pixels. This would ruin the experience of minecraft.

I also remember something about Notch saying hi wouldn't want that because then people would bring in +18 stuff in the game trough their skin.

Can Park Entrances be Changed?

Question

Can park entrances in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 be changed, in sandbox mode or otherwise?

That is, can you change the physical model or position of the entrance gates? I noticed that most (all?) of the career mode scenarios do this, and at least one of them actually has two active entrances on opposite ends of the park.

I couldn't find any park entrance objects to place as scenery, and it wouldn't let me delete the existing one because I "didn't own it." Clicking the gate does nothing, and there's nothing in the park management screens.

Answer

It's only possible to use custom park entrances in the map editor. The career mode and sandbox mode both lock down anything outside the borders of the park, and that includes the park entrances.

The map editor gives you the option to place any of the 'themed' park entrances (you might even be able to have a park with no entrance set, but I'm not 100% sure). You can also place (and thus, change) the location that peeps enter the map from, which lets you have an 'underground' entrance to a map (provided you have a fully patched version of the game)

Where is the Treasure located in the Cave area of the Terran Ruins (1-5)?

Question

I cannot find it. Things I have tried include (all attempts were after enemies were cleared):

  • Running around the stone column and hitting it
  • Breaking all the barrels and torches
  • Breaking all the barrels then breaking all the torches with Icicle Edge
  • Breaking all the torches with the Hammerball
  • Running around the edges of the map trying to find some piece of wall to hit to trigger it

I give up. I'm really hoping that this isn't a case of just having to pixel hunt to get the exact right area.

Answer

The objective of this room is that you must defeat a powerful foe. But not just defeat it, you must defeat it first! As such, if you try to look after clearing the room out, you'll never get it. Quite fiendish.

I speak of none other than the very fast skeleton that is at the exit. You need to go over to it and kill it without killing any of the other enemies in the room. A pretty easy task, honestly, they won't harass you if you just run. As a skeleton, remember that you can kill harm it with spells, so either bring some gems with you from a previous room. Or, you can break the torches or the grass in that area fairly safely to harvest some gems.

The prize you claim is...

Speedboots! They can be worn to increase your moving speed, and count as a pair of shoes (you can only wear 2 at a time). They're... really, they're as awesome as they sound and may easily find their way into a very common slot in your equipment.

Is it possible to see which Oblivion mods a save relies on?

Question

Having transferred my Oblivion save file from the old computer to the new one, I don't remember all mods I had on the old computer (which I don't have access to anymore).

Apart from guessing, is there any other way of knowing which mods was used with the save file?

P.S. AFAIK, I didn't use Oblivion Mod Manager.

Answer

Yes! Wrye Bash has a savefile browser tab that will show you a save's "master list", which is the list of mod files (and their order) that the save file depends on for all its object IDs.

How much are 3DS Virtual Console Games?

Question

Not sure who all has heard the latest news the past couple days but the Big 'N' is slashing the price of the 3DS by $80 (here in the US) and will be offering their early adopters 20 free Virtual Console games (10 NES and 10 GBA).

I'm trying to figure out the value of the NES and GBA games but I can not find anything that states how much Virtual Console games cost on the 3DS. I know NES games are 500 Wii Points ($5) on the Wii, so I'd assume that's the same.

How much do these games costs/will they cost once they are released?

Answer

It seems that NES and GBA game prices have not been released yet, but this article from Wired says:

"Nintendo has set a rock-bottom price point of $1.99 for eShop games. Of the three Game Boy games available, Super Mario Land will cost $3.99, and Alleyway and Radar Mission will cost $2.99. Some applications will be free, though."

Likely to be a few dollars higher, considering the Wii's Virtual Console pricing structure of having more advanced systems' games be more expensive.

How are Gran Turismo online games physically hosted?

Question

A group of my friends have been having regular GT5 evenings using Community > User > My Lounge.

We were wondering how games are physically hosted. Are they managed by one of the PlayStations (denoted by the crown next to the username?) or are they managed by the PSN (GT5? Polyphony?) servers?

Last night the network was dropping out for some of the users and we couldn't work out what was going on. A couple got a "network incompatibility error 717" error. Two racers couldn't see each other for a few of the races.

All of us are in New Zealand and we're using a combination of ethernet cable and wireless. As the word has spread more friends are signing up so we had 6-8 racing last night.

If the game is physically hosted by the first user's PlayStation we need to make sure they are using an ethernet cable and on a fast/low-lag internet connection.

Answer

Quoting from the Gran Turismo FAQ:

What is the role of the host in an online race event?
Last Updated: Dec 24, 2007

In the online gameplay (Star type) of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue there is a host player.

The host has the following two roles:

(1) Manages the start and end of races.

(2) Performs the communication between all participant players for internal data communications during gameplay.

Because of this, if the host exits out of a race during the race, the race itself will be terminated. Also, please note that if the connection environment of the host deteriorates, the cars on screen may not drive properly.

For this reason, the software automatically evaluates the network connection environments of the participant players, to select the players with the most suitable network connection as the host.

The actual upstream bandwidth of the host is especially important since they will be communicating with other players. Therefore the software evaluates both the NAT type of the players, and the measured connection speed during actual play as well.

Regarding evaluation of your network connection environment, please refer to the following page.

I know this information covers the Prologue rather than GT5 itself, but I can't find any references to whether or not they changed the networking model between then and GT5. There is no other relevant FAQ entry for GT5, so I'm making the assumption that this information is still valid.

Based on this, it appears that the games are, indeed, hosted by one of the players and not on the PSN servers. If I'm reading this right, the game determines which player has the best connection as the time, so you shouldn't have to worry about it yourself. That said, having more people on a wired instead of wireless connection would help, since their bandwidth still matters for timely communication with other racers through the host.

How do I determine if someone is cheating in Call of Duty: Black Ops?

Question

I've played games with some friends and they claimed that so-and-so was cheating. I honestly just thought that he was a really good player.

What are some indications that someone is actually cheating?

Answer

It is very hard to tell nowadays, where you can rack up kills on tight maps like NukeTown by using Hardline and getting a mass destruction weapon like the Gunship or the Chopper Gunner.

Speed hacks (he moves much faster than anyone ever can) and health cheats (he just does not die) are more obvious, so I am not going to mention them

Wall hacking is the most commonly used type of cheat where one can see through walls and track enemies from very far distances.

Some indications are:

  1. He has a ridiculously high kill-death-ratio. Especially when deaths are less than five.
  2. He plays with a sniper rifle the whole time, and can kill from the other end of the map before you see him.
  3. He is prematurely firing before you actually show yourself around corners.
  4. Shoots through walls/doors where you know it's impossible to detect you there.

There are some caveats to the last one, though. He might know you're there because:

  • There is a spy plane in the air and you don't have Ghost.
  • There is an SR71 in the air (Ghost Pro won't protect you here).
  • He has a motion sensor installed in your proximity (Ghost Pro won't protect you here, either. Only Hacker Pro makes you invisible to motion sensors).
  • He has previously thrown in a nade (flash/nade) and saw it "connected" someone and he tried his chance by spraying in the possible places (it's obvious a lot of people camp the wooden rooms and the caravan wagon on the map Firing Range)
  • He has Ninja Pro and heard your footsteps from further away.
  • He is on a lucky day.

There is one test to almost exactly tell if he can see through walls: the step-ahead-step-back technique, in which you need to know the place the player in question is before hand. As you are coming out of a closed space or round a corner, just run to the corner and before you really show yourself, back up a step. If he fired before you appeared chances are high he was tracking you through the walls.

As you can see, finding out whether someone is cheating is not an easy task. He might just be a good player, having a strong intuition or excellent knowledge of the map, and a good timing. I would really not take this as a rule set to say yes or no, but as a checklist of questions you ask yourself before accusing someone.

For sake of completeness, check out Toastandjam18's interesting answer below about boosting.

How can I mine lots of obsidian without paying much attention?

Question

I would like to mine lots of obsidian without paying a lot of attention. I was thinking about a 1X1 column of obsidian going straight to bedrock so could look down and put a weight on my track pad button.

What is the best way to make a 1X1 column of obsidian underground? I would prefer if I did not need a huge number of lava buckets. I was thinking maybe something about the redstone to obsidian glitch.

Answer

Whether you use lava buckets or redstone to obsidian, my recommendation for the actual mining part would be to get a copy of InfinitiesLoop's controlpack mod.

It contains a couple features which will help, specifically auto-run and auto-mine. With one keypress each you will be able to mine and move without any further input. It's a client-side mod (it'll work fine with your server) and works with mcpatcher.

Also, making a line of obsidian to mine is FAR easier and less time consuming than making a column.

One last suggestion is to consider building molds for your lava blocks wherever you want obsidian and then cooling it in place instead of making it somewhere else, mining it, and then placing it. Forming it in place with molds saves me a lot of time when I'm building obsidian structures.

How do I turn off Hardcore Mode in Mount & Blade?

Question

I regret choosing to play Mount & Blade in hardcore mode. Is there a way to turn it off?

Answer

There isn't a way to do this, unfortunately, unless someone goes and deciphers the savegame format and figures out where the hardcore mode flag is.

What you can do though, is export the character, then import them into a savegame that is not on hardcore mode.

If you do this, you keep your skills, attributes, money, and experience, but you lose your reputation, honour, army, and items. Its not really a great method, but if you're attached to your character, its a better alternative than starting over.

Here are the steps to take to export your character and import them into a non-hardcore save:

  1. Load up your hardcore save
  2. Go to the Character tab
  3. Click on the Statistics button
  4. Click on Export Character
  5. Return to the main menu
  6. Make a new non-hardcore mode character with the same name as your old character (don't worry about the stats and stuff, they get imported)
  7. Play through until you get outside the city
  8. Go to the character tab
  9. Click on the Statistics button
  10. Click on Import Character

I know this isn't exactly what you want, but its about as close as you can get.

How does a Terran stop a canon rush from Protoss?

Question

On a small 1v1 map, Protoss v Terran, how does a Terran stop a canon rush from protoss?

If the protoss player brings the probe to build a pylon and forge in a corner of the Terran base-- what should the Terran player do?

It seems the probe is fast and sending all the SCVs to kill the pylon/probe would slow down mineral gathering.

Answer

When playing on a small map, you should be careful and scout your starting location. When you see a probe coming, try to kill it with two SCVs (micromanagement needed, you will have to round it up). If it starts building a pylon, send about 5 SCVs to destroy it, since without the pylon all buildings are useless. You should have at least one or two SCVs gathering minerals at all times and build more while getting rid of the rush. Then build barracks asap and you should be fine.

So the strategy is like this:

1) if you suspect a canon rush, scout your base 2) once a probe comes in, send 2 SCVs to kill it, micromanage the hunt 3) if the probe starts building a pylon, go for the pylon with more SCVs 4) always have at least 2 SCVs gathering minerals and build more 5) Build Barracks ASAP

What are the Endermen?

Question

Notch's twitter feed has been talking about something called an Enderman. I can sort of gather that this is a new mob coming in minecraft 1.8, but neither Notch's twitter account or his blog contain anything substantial in the way of explanation.

What (or who) is an Enderman?

Answer

Notch first disclosed the existence of a new mob in development on his Google+ account in a screenshot. He gave no information other than it was "creepy".

The screenshot was immediately enhanced and posted onto Reddit, where a commenter suggested the name "slender man", a popular meme: Notch liked it and decided to use a variation of that name, "Enderman".

After days of speculation and idea generation on Reddit and elsewhere, Notch decided to use some of the more popular ideas to define what the mob did, and described the Endermen's behavior on his Twitter account:

  • The Endermen are peaceful. If you look straight at them, they freeze and look at you. When you look away again, they run fast. And teleport. (Source)
  • They run TOWARDS you, not away. So if you happen to look at one, do not look away. (Source)
  • (they stop being peaceful if you look straight at them) (Source)

Where can an Orbital Weapons Platform be purchased?

Question

I've searched much of the galaxy, probably more than 100 sectors, but I haven't found any shipyards producing orbital weapons platforms.

I would love to get one of these to upgrade the defenses around my factories and to hold spare weapons and drones.

Can a player purchase or build a small, medium, or large orbital weapons platform?

Or are orbital weapons platforms only for the AI-controlled Core Sectors?

Answer

A quick look at the Egosoft forums turns up a few posts that indicate that it is not possible for the player to control an Orbital Weapons Platform - they cannot be purchased or captured.

However, there are also posts on the forum that indicate that mods or scripts can be used to add this functionality to the game, but I don't currently have the game available to test any of them and I'm not going to recommend any of them blind - but have a look around on the forum if that's something you're interested in trying.

Do I need a harbor in the capital to make trade routes from other harbors work?

Question

The manual (and the civilopedia) state for the harbor:

Effects: Forms a naval Trade Route with the Capital City, +25% Production of Naval Units, City must be on a coast.

It is unclear to me though whether I need a harbor in the capital to make the trade routes from other harbors work ... ?

Answer

The trade network is just that - a network.

In the same way that a city can be linked by road via another city already linked by road - they don't all need their own roads directly to the capital - your trade network will spread via harbours.

What this means is you need at least one harbour within each "sub network" of your trade network. Here is a quick diagram:

Continent A     Water     Continent B
            |~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~|
     1------2 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 3------4-----5
            |~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~|

City 1 is your capital, and linked by road to city 2. If city 2 and city 3 both have a harbour then they extend the trade route across the water, this means 4 and 5 are also connected, because they are linked to 3 and so, by proxy, use it's harbour link.

If in this example, even if 2 was your capital it would still need a harbour to extend your trade route accross the water, having a harbour in 3 alone is not sufficent.

This also works if 2 and 3 were on the same continent, but not connected by road/rail.

Best way to play Defense of the Ancients (Warcraft 3) on a Mac?

Question

I own a Macbook Pro. I want to play a PC game called WarCraft 3 - Defense of the Ancients. I have googled and done some research on how to play DotA on a Mac.

Most of resources I found recommended I buy Warcraft 3 for Mac version (yes, there is warcraft 3 for mac). However, I already own the PC version, and I don't want to waste another $60++ bucks to buy a Mac version (it's an old game as you guys already know).

I also came across some forums suggesting using a virtual machine or using Bootcamp to install Windows and play.

Using bootcamp and installing Windows sounded good for me, but after I did more research, I found that since I don't have experience with using Bootcamp, I might crash or need to reformat my Mac(when partitioning). Apple also recommends doing backups for your Mac when using Bootcamp. I do not want to go through all this troublesome things, thus I will not choose this method.

My last option is to install virtual machine. I used VirtualBox and already installed Windows XP. It runs and works perfectly fine. Now, I am wondering, if I install Warcraft into this virtual machine, and play the game, approximately 5 hours a day, will it crash my Mac?

Okay, to give a summary, following are my questions about running Wacraft 3 on VM Windows XP on MacBook Pro:

1) Will the game lag, the video render okay, etc? 2) Most importantly, will it damage my Mac?

If you have others methods of playing DotA on a Mac other than what I mentioned above, those are welcome too.

Answer

Firs, you should reconsider not buying it. You can have i for 20 USD, available for download at Blizzard site. Furthermore, IIRC you can register you activation key on the new Battle.net site and download the mac version for free.

As for you questions about the VM machine:

  • First, it should not damage you mac in any way, that's the point of a virtual machine. It's software computer, using a software hard drive. If it damage your machine, there is something really wrong with the program.

  • Warcraft 3 could run on it, but if it require graphic acceleration, don't expect too much. Some VMs have implemented graphics acceleration, but it is mostly experimental. Although, I think it should be OK for Warcraft3.

688 Hunter/Killer torpedoes not finding their targets

Question

I'm trying to complete the training missions in "688 Hunter/Killer" and I'm having trouble hitting the training submarine targets. I've turned on active sonar and I can see the target, I load two ADCAP torpedoes and:

  • Set the target
  • Set the floor to be 1500ft
  • Set them to enable before they reach the target (say 4500 yards)

Once they launch they head towards the target, their little target thing goes reddish but then they "conduct a turn away manoeuvre" and disable instead of exploding.

Any suggestions would be great!

Answer

It turns out that this only happens for the training missions! In the actual mission the torpedoes correctly find their targets.

In the training mission once the torpedo has "conducted its turn away manoeuvre" point are awards in the goals list.