Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How do I stay undetected while pickpocketing?

Question

When I'm pickpocketing, sometimes it seems like I have a 90% chance to steal, but after a few items, I get detected. I thought I saw a loading screen about this, but it went by too fast and I didn't get a chance to read it.

How do I make sure I don't get detected while pickpocketing?

Answer

Spells like Muffle and Invisibility seem to help me remain undetected, or at least escape after detection. Also, pickpocketing while detected by anyone in the area seems to aggro guards most swiftly.

When I really want something that's dangerous to get--pickpocketing a staff of fireballs off an enemy warlock for example--I often save before the attempt. It feels a little like cheating, but becoming a crispy critter somehow didn't make my character's bucket list.

--You probably saw the tip that describes how looking at someone's pockets isn't a crime, but taking anything is.

What's the point of assassins taking over a city?

Question

I'm looking at a minion assassin mission in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and it says the rewards is that

The Assassins will take control of this city.

Does that have any tangible benefits?

Answer

By taking over a city, you're effectively creating another source of income and supplies. Just like when you take over Templar Dens and renovate the stores in the zone. The difference here is that you acquire the different revenue/item generating sources through the different missions.

Once you have removed the templar influence in the city, you should send assassins to the missions that show the difficulty bar as stars (rather than diamonds). Being successful in that mission will increase the assassin influence in the city as well as other perks such as additional income, experience for the assassins that are occupying the city, crafting items and an additional slot for occupation.

Alien game with spacebike - possibly an adventure game

Question

I remember playing it when I was young. I think it must have been 1996 or later. You were basically a alien and had to find pieces around the universe. I remember the start of the game you had to find a bike jacket so you could use your space bike to cross space to go to another station/store/location.

I have been banging my brains for ages! Any ideas?

Answer

I'm not sure if this is right or not but I think it was called "Alien Rampage". What you've described rings a bell so this is what I thought of. It was a 2D side scrolling game, similar to Doom graphics wise.

Hope it helps.

How do the bonus modes differ from the normal game?

Question

After finishing Cthulhu Saves the World, some new game modes were unlocked - Highlander, Overkill, Cthulhu's Angels and some sort of boss rush. Before playing through though I'm curious if there are enough differences to keep me interested for one more playthrough, or if the changes are mostly cosmetic.

How do each of the bonus modes differ from the normal game?

Answer

Since the answer @AshleyNunn posted didn't contain enough information (it was more or less exactly the same as what the game tells you), I looked into it a bit.

Highlander and Overkill mode, seem pretty straightforward, as Ashley mentioned - bigger XP boosts and some limitations in the former, or just ludicrous powerlevelling in the latter.

In the Score Attack mode it seems that though you are underleveled from not encountering random enemies, you still have to walk through empty dungeons to reach the bosses. So it isn't exactly a boss rush in the common meaning of the phrase.

The Cthulhu's Angels mode seems to be substantially different. The main storyline is heavily altered, including the dialogue and characters. (E.g. one of your enemies in the standard mode becomes your ally, etc.) There are only four characters available (all of them girls, of course.)

In what way is the game different (or the same) when you play in 'Hero Mode'?

Question

So the game actually has a Hero Mode which is unlocked when you beat the game.

What are the changes that I can expect when playing in Hero Mode? What remains?

Answer

Here's the changes that I was told by characters in the game or have observed so far:

  • The slot in the quest selection screen will have the goddess insignia on it.

  • You can Skip almost all cinematic and dialog sequences

  • Keep all bugs and treasures from previous adventure

  • Some characters will acknowledge that you're playing in Hero Mode as they speak with you** What they say to you will change telling you what has changed or allowing you to skip some explanations.

  • You lose hearts twice as fast as you normally do

  • All hints are unlocked at Sheikah Stones

  • Maximum strength Skyward Strike always
    Every Skyward Strike you perform will have the strength as if you had used the Master Sword, including the faster charge. After getting the actual Master Sword, charging is instantaneous.

  • Hearts and Heart Flowers no longer appear normally in the game*
    Monsters, pots and other sources do not drop hearts anymore. You will have to heal by using potions, fairies, sleeping or sitting in chairs. *Equipping the Heart Medal will provide a reduced chance for Hearts and Heart Flowers of appearing.

  • Fi will remember how many of each type of monster you defeated from your previous adventure
    When Fi analyzes a targeted enemy, the count will continue from where you left off.

  • Your high score at Bamboo Island and other places that keep records will remain from the previous adventure

  • The Boss Rush challenge now includes the final bosses in the game instead of just the first 8

  • The Silent Realm challenges now includes the Skyloft Silent Realm

  • Beating the game this time around will allow you to save just before the final battle and you get a Triforce icon in the quest selection screen.

To all hardcore Zelda fans out there, the game is a lot more challenging in this mode so it's definitely worth it to play through.

A game where you physically manipulate cubes/blocks?

Question

There was a major release game (maybe from 2007-2009), where in the official trailer the main character manipulates cube blocks with some sort of force field from his hand. He can throw the blocks and debris and other things at his enemies. The commentary on it was boasting about the heavy physics of the game.

Does anyone know the name of this game?

Answer

I believe you're talking about CellFactor. There was a tech demo called CellFactor Revolution and game called CellFactor Combat Traning, both released for the PC in 2007 and a 2009 multiplatform release called CellFactor Psychokinetic Wars.

This is a trailer for Revolution


And for Psychokinetic Wars

How do I wrangle animals?

Question

Is nudging the only way to get an animal into my breeding pens, or can I use another, more reliable method?

Answer

If you hold wheat in your hands, the animals will follow you.
Good grief, nudging them would take forever. :)

You might also be interested in this thread about separating them into pens. Better read it beforehand. ;)

Are Dwemer constructs vulnerable to shock magic?

Question

I explore Dwemer ruins for soul gems, so am interested in any vulnerabilities that spiders/spheres/centurions might have. In many games, "robot" enemies are vulnerable to shock; does that apply in Skyrim?

Answer

Dwemer constructs do not specifically have a weakness to shock, but they have a 25% resistance to magic and are completely immune to poison and frost. So really they are the exact opposite of most games due to that fact that they have a resistance to magic. (shock and fire)

This is were I got my information. It has all the information you could want on Skyrim's creatures. =)

How do I hurt Voldemort at the end of Year 5?

Question

I've reached the part of "A Veiled Threat" where Dumbledore joins the fight. I've managed to knock a couple of Voldy's hearts off — I shot him, then destroyed his fire dragon — but now he's standing on the fountain where I can't shoot him or jump up to him.

I've got a large ball of water in the fountain which I can move a little by shooting, but it resets frequently and I can't get it very far before Voldy kills me. Trying to jump on it just pushes me back. How do I continue the battle?

Answer

This video's probably the most helpful, skip to about 10:45 mark to see the part you're talking about:

It appears you can lift the ball of water and throw it at Voldemort, which will cause him to change tactics.

Can every game of Solitaire be solved?

Question

I play a lot of Solitaire games on my Android phone and love to keep an eye out for the statistics.

Given that the Solitaire version lets you restart the game endlessly, I usually play until I solve it. But I never managed to solve more than 80% of the games played (1000+).

So now I wonder, is every Solitaire game solvable?

Answer

No. Example: If all of your cards face up on the board are red, and the cards that come up every third card are also red, and none of them are aces. You lose. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Can I change my color / design in Spiral Knights?

Question

Upon character creation in Spiral Knights, you pick a design and a color.

Are these attributes forever immutable, or does there exist an in-game way to change either option (short of creating a new character entirely)?

Answer

There is no way to change your design or color (yet). Hopefully there'll be a way to do so in future updates.

Is there any good reason not to distribute StarCraft replays?

Question

Is there any good reason not to distribute StarCraft replays -- like maybe security or something like that? For that matter does blizzard or battle net have a social area that they maybe allow public download/viewing of replays?

Answer

One of the biggest reasons that players do not want their playstyles to be found through people watching their replays. One of the biggest weapons you have against your opponent is the guessing game of what build order you use on what maps. If you tend to use a certain strategy on a certain map then your opponent can blindly go with a counter build and just win, simply based on your habits.

That said, players sometimes do release replay packs to their fans.

Blizzard themselves do not have a social area for the upload/download of replays but there are a few sites out there:

You'll need to download the replays and then open them up in Starcraft 2 to view yourself.

How can I lower my “Templar Awareness” quicker?

Question

Raising your Templar Awareness (formerly known as notoriety) as too easy and lowering it is relatively difficult.

Before, any mischievous action raised it a bit like pickpocketing which wasn't too bad. At least lowering it back down was pretty easy since there were plenty of ways to do so. You could find wanted signs everywhere to rip down for a quick 25% reduction. Bribing heralds lowered it 50%. Assassinating officials dropped it down 75% but they only appeared if you have a lot of notoriety.

This time, pickpocketing doesn't raise your awareness anymore but purchasing places does (A LOT!) and there's a lot of places to buy. It seems just about anything common that you do in the game will raise it.

To make things worse, there are very little opportunities to lower it now as far as I can see. The wanted posters are gone now, heralds only lower it about 25% now but they're still not plentiful. Officials don't appear very often anymore and they only reduce by 50%.

What are some ways I can lower my templar awareness down easier or faster?

Answer

You can't really lower it any faster than just looking for notoriety lowering people whenever they show up (as you've noticed, there's only heralds and witnesses). It's more the fact that it works differently than notoriety in AC2/BH

Guards no longer care what your notoriety is (at least as far as I can tell) even when you're in the red.

The red seems to be meaningless except for one detail. As long as you're in the red, doing something that would raise your notoriety has a chance for one of your dens to come under attack, with more notorious things (like buying property) having a very high chance.

The idea is that once you hit the red, just don't buy anything or kill anyone until you've managed to become secret again, and you won't have to worry about ever being attacked again.

If you manage to get all of your dens a master assassin, then it won't matter if you're in the red as none of your dens can be attacked (I'm currently at 6/7 dens locked, so I'm not sure if this is true, but I'm guessing either it won't matter anymore, or your notoriety will be locked at 0 or something).

Scoundril's Folly: Shadow Golum-Ei: Where did he go in the the East Empire Company Warehouse?

Question

In order to solve the quest "Scoundril's Folly" I followed Golum-Ei into the East Empire Company Warehouse. When dealing with guards I lost track of him. Where did he go?

Answer

If you follow the deck around the edge of the water, on the other side from the entrance, there is a set of steps leading down to the ground below the deck. From down there there is a ramp leading back up to an area behind the shelves full of goods. In the area behind the shelves there is an exit to a smuggler's cave full of bandits. At the end of that cave is Golum-Ei.

Dealing with thieves in Dwarf Fortress

Question

There is currently a thief in my fortress and I do not know what to do with him. So, what can be done about a thief?

Answer

Thieves come in two varieties: goblins and kobolds. Kobolds aim to steal items while goblins aim to steal your children! Parents of course become very distraught when their children are snatched away.

Dealing with thieves is easy: spot them before they take anything. A found thief will run away without a fight. Thieves are invisible (to you) until they are spotted, but they are on the map. Any dwarf and tamed animal near the thief has a chance to spot it. So to increase your odds of spotting any incoming thieves, it is typical to chain a pet near your entrances. (This doesn't block caravans.)

It is also worth noting that doors and traps will not stop all thieves.

It is also possible of course for your military to deal with thieves, but they're quick so your best bet is just to prevent them from getting to the goods.

How does the shop work?

Question

I don't really understand how the shop/upgrade system works in Really Big Sky. For example, Wideband, the first item, seems like a one-time purchase item, as it allows you to fire 2 shots at 45 degree angles.

However, when I go to purchase it, 20 points are taken away from my total there, and the cost in star bits goes up to move further across the band. Do I have to completely purchase the entire bar before I receive the upgrade? Or are further purchases just upgrading the potency of that item?

Really Big Sky

Can someone explain how this is supposed to work? Also, do the star bits I don't use carry over, or do I lose them? I've currently been trying to upgrade as much as I can when I get there based on the assumption that I lose them if I don't. Is this the case, or should I be saving them?

Answer

As you already suspected, you're improving the stat a little, upgrade by upgrade. Each upgrade level of a stat costs more than the previous level.

There are no one-time upgrades that go from inactive to active when you fill the bar. The Wideband shot might seem like that, but what you're actually buying is increased frequency of that shot (and possibly, potency, but I can't really tell).

Try paying attention to the projectiles you shoot during the initial lull to observe those upgrades in action. They don't really do that much at all, at least initially.

Unspent star bits are saved, of course.

Can I secretly kill every guard in a town?

Question

Is it possible to kill all the guards in a town? Ideally, I'd like to do it secretly, so the entire town doesn't see my deeds and give me a bounty.

Edit: Currently I was questing in Markarth and was told by a guard to back off and stop being nosy.. I didn't and then I went to the Shrine of Talos and was set up and a bunch of gaurds started attacking me. So now I have a huge bounty on me and had to sneak and kill my way out of the city. Everytime after I killed a group of guards the bounty was reduced by 1000, but I still have a 30,000 bounty.

I know I haven't even been through 1/3 of the city yet and know there has to be a lot of quests, so what do I do? The only solution seems to kill every single guard (and inhabitant)?

Answer

So, this is a classic case of asking the wrong question. Guards will respawn, and unless you want to give up on the Reach for good, you'll need to resolve this. You can't slaughter your way out of this one. Well, at least not without letting them haul you in first.

After finishing The Forsworn Conspiracy quest, being arrested is the only real resolution. This triggers the quest No One Escapes From Cidnha Mine, which is short, offers some great rewards, and will clear your bounty in Markarth.

If guards in Markarth will no longer accept a yield, your best bet will be to reload a save prior to the wholesale slaughter of innocent militiamen.

Broken DS card?

Question

I was playing Mario Kart DS in a bus terminal one day since I was on a long layover, and as I was loading a new map, it blanked out on me for several minutes. Confused, I turned my DS off then on, and upon turning it back on, the DS gives me the message "No DS card found".

It's not the DS, as my copy of SoulSilver works just fine. I tried a few remedies, but to no avail. I've attempted blowing it out, swabbing it... One other remedy I found suggested that the pins might not be touching, and to put a small piece of business card behind the DS card so it fits more snugly. That didn't work.

I don't understand why the card would suddenly brick like this. I wasn't moving around, the DS was being held in the air, nothing hit it or knocked out of place, it simply broke out of random.

Has anybody come across this problem? Is there a fix or something else I can try?

Answer

If it's a new cartridge, it might be under warranty from Nintendo.

What maneuvers can be employed to shake a jet from my six?

Question

Say I'm in a jet and start getting pinged by the machine gun fire of a jet directly behind me. He has me in his cockpit view and without some serious flying...I'm dead.

  • What specific maneuvers make it difficult for the enemy pilot to follow, and would allow me to shake him?
  • What specific maneuvers make it difficult for the enemy pilot to hit me even if he can follow?
  • What, more generally, can I do to increase my chances of survival?

Answer

One of the easiest moves to do is:

  • Brake hard (but not so hard that you stall)
  • Roll left or right so that you're somewhere between 45-80 degrees off horizontal.
  • Pitch upwards hard (if your flying controls are reversed, you'd be 'pulling back on the stick' at this point)
  • Max the throttle and afterburners (making sure that the path forward is clear)

This will quickly take you out of an enemy pilot's field of vision. If you continue the slow turn, and they don't immediately chase you, you'll be in a good position to get around behind them. You can also do various rolls or loops, or combat maneuvers, but since this is a video game, realistically what you want to do is change your course frequently. Even small course changes can really hurt the accuracy of other players. Matching speed can also be tricky in dogfighting, so change your speed up frequently.

Also remember that their focus is going to be on you and your focus is on flying - so challenge their flying skill by flying low to the ground or near obstacles. They'll have to choose between trying to keep you in their sights and avoiding a crash.

Max RCI zones in SimCity Deluxe (Mobile).. unable to delete a zone

Question

I have maxed out my RCI zones, and am unable to re-zone on top of a demolished zone because I've "run out'

How do I delete a zone to nothing? Or how do I get past the pop-up in the case where I'm trying to rezone an existing zone?

This is Sim City Deluxe for Blackberry, one of the many apps that are being given away for free on the Blackberry App World through the end of this month.

Answer

You have to work around it. Build something on top of the zones you want to change. Then demolish the buildings and re-zone. Slow and painful, but it will get you there eventually. You might have to cover quite a bit of ground before you get rid of the max RCI pop-up.

Are there negative effects for wasting time?

Question

In Skyrim, you can sleep or wait for up to a day at a time. Is there any negative consequences to wasting time like this? Do certain quests expire or certain conditions happen after several days (or even weeks) have passed that can be considered negative?

Obviously temporary buffs expire, but that happens after one day.

Answer

Nothing negative happens if you wait for a long time. Anything you have killed (dungeons, guards, etc.) will re-spawn and shop keepers will get new stock. Quest will not expire at any point so you are safe to wait for as long as you like.

How can I complete the last episode in Super Meat Boy?

Question

I can't get past the last episode. I'm reaching the end of the stage, but I just can't do it.

Are there any tips or tricks to beating this episode?

Answer

I don't know if it's the same level that you are talking about, but here the solution of the W-6 (Light World).

You can see the integral of the world 6. All stage are there.

What is the minimum level I need to be to get the strongest version of leveled items?

Question

Some items given as quest rewards vary in strength based on your level when you are given them. What is the minimum level I need to be to ensure that any of these items I receive are as strong as they can be?

Answer

UESP says 46 is the highest level required for leveled items. Level 48 is where you can start finding Daedric armor. We might need the Creation Kit to be sure about every single item.

How long does it take to move into silver league?

Question

I am rank 3 in my bronze league division in Starcraft 2. I just played a 4v4 quick match with 2 gold players and 1 silver player on my team, and 2 golds/2 silvers on the other team. And I wasn't the worst player on the list post-game, either. When will I be moved into Silver league?

Answer

Battle.net keeps a hidden rating called "MMR", which is similar to an ELO rating used in chess and other games. When you win a match, your MMR increases. The better your opponent, the more in increases by. When you lose a match, your MMR decreases in a similar fashion.

In order to be promoted,

  1. Your MMR must elevate so that it's well into the next league
  2. Your MMR must be "stable" so bnet can have confidence that you will stay in the new league once promoted

And note that even if you meet these criteria, the promotion itself may not happen right away. The internal statistics in battle.net are ever-changing, and as such not all calculations happen in real-time. For example, you may win 50 games in a row against gold leaguers and not be promoted. Wake up the next morning, play one game and be promoted.

The best guide to how this works is on Team Liquid: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=195273

Do companions use poisons?

Question

If I give a few poisons for my companions to carry, will they use them in battle?

And if the answer is yes - is there a way to control when they're used?

Answer

No, they will not use poison. However, you could try poisoning a weapon and giving it to your companion if you need it in a tougher fight. Otherwise, you're stuck with the normal, unpoisoned weapon your companion uses.

Logitech G27 with Need For Speed: The Run

Question

I successfully installed Need For Speed: The Run and when configure my controls my Logitech G27 doesn't respond. I choose "wheel" as control (keyboard works fine) but after that any button or action in the G27 doesn't work. I can escape from the "select button" option, so I need to force close my game.

I tried with the Logitech app but neither the "let the game" or "override game setup" options work.

How do I configure it, and does it need special configuration options? My wheel works with other racing games like F1 2011, Dirt 3 and NFS Undercover.

Answer

What really happens is that NFS The Run doesnt work with another joystick connected and Logitech G27. I unplug all my joystick and then just connect the logitech g27 and it works.

How do I save all the citizens in the first Masyaf key mission?

Question

In the first Masyaf key mission in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, I have to save all citizens in order to achieve 100% synchronization.

Are they before the gate and the crusader? Or do I have to somehow make sure the crusader doesn't kill more hostages than necessary?

Who do I have to save and how?

Answer

This confused me as well. The citizens are before the gate.
What you need to do is run around the area you start at, looking for small black circles on your minimap, these mark areas where templars are attacking a citizen, simply go there and kill them off, when you took care of all of these you'll see the message for optional objective completed.

Replay a chapter in Magicka?

Question

Can you replay a chapter in Magicka without losing your current place?
If so, how?

I really want to get that magick I missed...

Answer

No. Not without starting over with a new wizard.

TF2 Achievement Advisor - is there a way to know which achievement to go for next?

Question

Is there an Achievement Advisor that tells me which achievements I should go for next in Team Fortress 2?

e.g. the easiest one or the one that that will give me my next milestone.

A similar service for Item Crafting advising is tf2crafting.info

Answer

An achievement adviser and a crafting adviser are two different beats.

Most TF2 achievements are unrelated to one another... which is some feat, considering the game has nearly 400 of them.

The Official TF2 Wiki has achievement guides broken up by class (and general). These guides break down the achievements by difficulty. It's recommended that you do the easier achievements first in order to get the associated weapon unlocks.

Is it possible to create an iron door which responds to levers on both sides

Question

In order to protect a portal in the nether I have an obsidian room with an iron door, which works off a switch in the room. The problem is that if I leave the room and someone else on the server closes the door from the inside I can't get back to that portal.

Powering red stone on the outside of the door doesn't seem to work, as the switch inside is already powering it, so I'm guessing something like an XOR gate will be the solution, however I am finding it difficult to see how to make this work in practice.

Answer

I would suggest using buttons instead of switches. You push a button, the door opens, then the button deactivates, closing the door.
It's true that the delay is really short, maybe not even enough for you to get through. This problem can be solved using repeaters to build circuit delaying the closing signal. I currently don't have enough time to try and build a working solution, but if you won't figure it out on your own by then, I'll do my best to update this post later in the day.

Edit: Just for for the sake completeness: instead of buttons, you could also use pressure plates. Just place one in front of the door from both sides. Be wary though, because mobs can also trigger them. (I almost lost my mind once, when I had a door wired like this and a damn chicken kept stepping on the plate and banging with the door. I had to replace the plate with a button.)

Neutral mob timings

Question

What are the spawn timers on the various mobs on League of Legends?

  1. Initial spawn time

  2. Re-spawn times

  3. Variables (i.e; If you kill the Blue Golem and left one of his minions, does it affect the Blue Golem's respawn time? Different mob spawning order on Twisted Treeline)

Summoners Rift (5v5)

  • Wolf Camp
  • Golem Camp
  • Wraith Camp
  • Blue Golem Camp
  • Red Golem Camp
  • Dragon
  • Nashor

Twisted Treeline (3v3)

  • Mixed minor Camps (Golem, Wolf, Wraith)
  • Red Golem
  • Black Wraith Camp(s)
  • Green Wolf Camp(s)
  • Dragon

Answer

For Summoner's Rift (5v5)

Baron Nashor - 15:00 initial, 7:00 respawn after death

Dragon - 2:30 initial, 6:00 respawn after death

Lizard/Golem - 1:55 initial, 5:00 respawn after entire camp death

Wolf camp - 1:40 initial, 1:00 respawn after entire camp death

Wraith camp - 1:40 initial, 0:50 respawn after entire camp death

Small golem camp - 1:40 initial, 1:00 respawn after entire camp death

For Twisted Treeline (3v3)

Ebonmaw (Dragon) Buff - 4:40 initial, 5:00 respawn

Grez (Lizard) Buff - 2:10 initial, 4:00 respawn

Ghast/Rabid Wolf Buff - 1:55 initial, 3:00 respawn after entire camp death

All small camps - 1:40 initial, 1:15 respawn after entire camp death

Not sure if these values are 100% accurate for Twisted Treeline after the recent jungle remake. If anyone has specific info, feel free to comment/edit it in.

Special Notes:

The values listed for the Ghast/Rabid Wolf and Lizard/Golem initial spawn are 1:55 officially in the wiki, however this appears to vary by about 1s and in practice they're actually a bit closer to 1:54 on the in-game clock

As indicated, a camp of neutrals will not respawn if even one mob is left alive in that particular camp. The timer to respawn will not start until the last mob is killed. For example, if I kill the Blue Golem at exactly 3:00 but leave the small casters alive, the Blue Golem will not respawn at 8:00, but rather, 5:00 after whenever those two casters are killed.

Also, unlike HoN / DotA, neutral mobs will still respawn if there is something obstructing their spawn point (e.g. a ward, an object like Shaco's JitB or a Nidalee trap, a player, etc.)

What does giving lutefisk to the lutefisk god actually do?

Question

As in the title. Do I get anything out of it, or is it pointless?

Answer

If you tithe enough pieces (I believe it is 30+), you get an artifact you can use or sell.

Levelling in FIFA 12

Question

In FIFA 12 you are awarded XP and rise through experience levels. Are the experience levels actually used for anything, e.g. unlocking features? If so, is there a list somewhere of what gets unlocked at each level?

Answer

The points are used to compare yourself with other players, and the points you earn are also given to whatever club you've chosen (whether you are actively playing as that club or not), which are then used to rank the clubs in week long "seasons".

How do I meet with Esbern?

Question

In the main quest line, I have to talk to Esbern and think I need to free him from his jail.

Now, I've talked to him but the door window just closes afterwards without progressing the quest.

I think I have done something wrong, what do I need to do exactly to progress in the quest?

Answer

If you have talked to Esbern and he has agreed to let you in, but nothing happens, then your game has a glitch. If you are playing on the PC, hit the ~ key and type "tcl". This will allow you to pass through the walls. (I know some may consider this cheating, but if you are only using this to fix the glitch...) Once inside, press the ~ key again and type "tcl" once more to turn the noclip off. After talking to Esbern, the game should automatically correct for the glitch and then continue from there.

What trophies unlock the bonus themes in Final Fantasy XIII?

Question

In the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII, there are a number of unlockable bonus themes. After completing the main storyline, I only have three of the themes unlocked. What trophies do I need to complete in order to unlock all the themes?

(Your answer may also explain how to unlock the themes on the Xbox 360, assuming the themes exist on that system.)

Answer

On this page it lists them:

Unlockable: Dashboard Themes

Win the Trophies below to unlock dashboard themes.

  • Fang - Get the "Treasure Hunter (Gold)" Trophy / Held every weapon
    and accessory.
  • Hope - Get the "Instrument of Change (Gold)" Trophy / Witnessed the dawn of a new crystal legend.
  • Lightning - Get the "Superstar (Gold)" Trophy / Earned a 5-star
    ranking in the battle to determine
    the world's fate.
  • Sazh - Get the "Lore Master (Gold)" Trophy / Discerned the full
    attributes of 100 enemies.
  • Serah - Get the "Ultimate Hero (Platinum)" Trophy / Acquired all
    trophies.
  • Snow - Get the "L'Cie Paragon (Gold)" Trophy / Earned a 5-star
    ranking for all Cie'th Stone missions
  • Vanille - Get the "Instrument of Faith (Silver)" Trophy / Defied
    destiny's charge and embarked on a
    different path.

Good luck with some of them. I've only gotten four so far. It'll take quite a bit of grinding for full crystarium/those T. things for the last weapons, and those latter Cie'th Stone Missions are hard! :O

Identify old PC space adventure game

Question

I do not remember many details (I played it a long time ago), but I think it was a mostly overhead perspective space-themed adventure game, with some platforming and puzzle solving. The main character was a man, and I think the initial scene involved your character being disposed of in a garbage ship. You are dumped off in a pile of rubble and had to escape through a series of conveyor belt and crane puzzles. I do remember eventually leaving this level and ending up in some kind of diner which had some weird arcade machine mini-games. The art was fairly primitive sprite-based, probably made in the mid 90s. Hope this helps, I may be able to come up with more details if necessary.

Answer

Space Quest III

One of my favorite series of games. Here is a link containing screenshots from the game.

Where can I find an unattractive, overweight woman of leisure?

Question

One of the assassination targets in the Saintsbook is "Smoov" in Henry Steel Mills. To draw him out, I apparently have to, and I quote, "grab one of his ho's" who are described as "fatter, uglier ones."

However, after an exhaustive sweep of the area, I haven't found any women of leisure that I would classify as unattractive or overweight. (or any people who are unattractive and overweight who appear to be "workin' the corner") What's the trick to drawing this target out?

Answer

Perhaps Smoov has updated his hiring practices since the time the hit was taken out on him, as his employees do not appear to actually differ from those of his competitors.

I was able to complete the hit with the assistance of a perfectly ordinary-looking streetwalker in the Mills.

What rune words can I build at lower levels?

Question

I started a new ladder character and am beginning to find random runes in Act II (Normal). What rune words can I reasonably find runes for and create while I'm still in Normal?

I know of Stealth (TalEth), but the words on the Arreat Summit aren't listed by level, rather alphabetically. Is there a handy reference that lists them all by max rune level?

Answer

The DiabloWiki has a list here of the runewords in order of rank.

Runewords by Rank

Can I haunt people as a ghost?

Question

I have 2 extra philter of the phantom potions from a quest that make me appear spectral for 30 seconds. Are there any practical uses for this? I can use it to scare other people for some benefit or use it to walk by undead safely?

Also, is it possible to make more?

Answer

The potion seems to be a cosmetic and nothing more. I have yet not discovered any use for it, other than making you look fancy.

Regarding your question if making more is possible; No, or as far as I have explored the alchemy possibilities, I haven't found an option to do so. The only way to obtain some are by killing Wyndelius in the Shroud Hearth Barrow.

How do I improve my strength and agility in FIFA 12?

Question

I play career mode in FIFA 12 and have played 2 seasons but my character does not improve in strength and agility. What do I need to do during games to get better?

Edit: These are my conclusions for now:

  • The agility and strength attributes are governed by your height and weight. The "fatter" your character, the slower he is, but his strength raises. There is a sweet spot in the height/weight ratio.
  • If you play a virtual pro you can improve through accomplishments
  • It is very hard but possible to improve strength/agility otherwise, but I do not know what the trigger is.

Answer

This page has a list of all the Accomplishments and the reward associated with each:

Virtual Pro Accomplishment List

From this list the following accomplishments will improve Strength or Agility:

ARENA
14) Check out the fakeshot – perform the fakeshot when inside the penalty 
box
Agility +124) Beat a player with skill – dribble past any opposition player or the 
goalkeeper using any skill move
Agility +1PHYSICAL
01) Beat 2 players – dribble past two players in a single match with your 
virtual pro
Agility +205) Win 3 headers – win a minimum of 3 headers in any match with your pro
Strength +108) 2 jumping headers – win a total of 2 jumping headers in a mathc with 
your virtual pro
Strength +113) Win 5 games – play in & win at least 5 total matches as your virtual pro
Strength +119) 2 career volleys – score 2 goals from any type of volley in your career
Agility +324) 25 total headers won – win a total of 25 headers in the course of your
career
Strength +130) Win 150 tackles – win a total of 150 tacles of any type in your career
Strength +233) 10 matches in the rain – play through at least 10 matches in rainy 
weather conditions
Agility +339) Get fouled & win 50 free kicks – get fouled & win a total of 50 free 
kicks in your career
Strength +242) Volley in consecutive matches – score with a volley of any type in 2 
consecutive matches
Agility +447) Play 100 games – play in and complete 100 matches with your virtual pro
Strength +2

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

How can I disable Riddler's Proximity Mines?

Question

In Batman: Arkham City, some Riddler trophies are found behind Riddler's Proximity Mines. When Batman gets close, they explode. These mines must be disabled in order to reach those trophies. I use Detective Mode to discover if they are connected to any mechanism, but they seem not to be connected to any mechanism.

How can I disable Riddler's Proximity Mines?

Answer

You need to have the Disruptor with the Mine Detonator. From IGN:

Received for completing the Remote Hideaway side mission, the Mine Detonator allows you to detonate mines from a distance and locate Riddler Trophies.

How do you unlock the “Khaaan!” achievement in Civ 5?

Question

I played through the 100 turns of a Mongol scenario and didn't conquer the number of civs I was supposed to (5 for King in my case). But I didn't get the "Khaaan!" achievement either ("Run out of time to beat the Mongol scenario").

Does anyone know if it's bugged, or if there's a trick to unlocking it? I googled around a bit but wasn't able to find an answer. I'm not using any mods and I had an active Internet connection when I finished the game, can't think of anything else that would prevent it.

Right now Steam says 0.9% folks have unlocked it: http://steamcommunity.com/stats/CivV/achievements/

Answer

From the civfanatics forum:

Khaaan! requires an outright loss through both score and lack of conquests. If you want the achievement, easiest is to give all your cities away to a remaining AI one turn before the end of the scenario, then press end turn.

How is Experience handled with Companions?

Question

When I am out in the wilds with a companion, e.g., Aela the Huntress or Mjoll the Lioness, how is it decided who gains how much experience by defeating foes?

Do all the kills my companion achieves get attributed to me, are they splitted up, or does each companion level up on his own?

If I wanted to level up fast, is it better to avoid using companions?

Answer

You do not gain experience from kills in Skyrim. Whenever you use a skill in a meaningful manner, you gain a little bit of experience in that skill. Gain enough experience and that skill levels up, giving you experience towards your next level.

Having a companion may make leveling slower solely through the fact that they take the kills and you have less opportunity to exercise your skills, but their kills do not attribute anything to you at all.

Where is Lydia's home?

Question

With my first character, Lydia would hang out in the Jarl of Whiterun's palace until I bought Breezehome, and then she moved in there. With my second character, I don't own Breezehome, but I do own Honeyside. I dismissed Lydia and went to find her later, but she didn't appear in either location.

I assume I simply haven't waited long enough, but I would like to know where to expect her. How does Lydia determine her home?

Answer

If you own Breezehome, she should be there. Otherwise she should be in Dragonreach (the keep in Whiterun), so you might just be dealing with a glitch.

When does the treasure merchant Sheikah Stone become available?

Question

In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword there is supposed to be a Sheikah Stone that sells treasure. This answer tells where to find the stone, but says nothing about when it is available. How soon can I find it?

Answer

You can only access the Moonlight Merchant toward the end of the game after you completed the Hero Song.

At this point, the monsters will leave the Waterfall Cave completely and you will find the butterflies inside at night.

Is there a way to search for a particular type of resource?

Question

I often need to track down a specific type of tree, rock, animal, etc. However, the zone map doesn't seem to give any indication of what resources are where. I have to either rely on my limited memory, or just wander in hopes of finding what I'm looking for.

Is there any way in game, on the site, or using some third-party tool, that I can search for a particular resource and get a map of where it can be found?

Answer

There is a pretty good site called Zog's Glitchy Tools. You can click any resource, log-in, and it will give you the closest location of that resource to your current location.

Can I buy the full version of Rayman Origins on XBOX Live?

Question

Recently on XBOX I downloaded the demo for Rayman Origins.

The demo is quite good and I enjoyed all of the previous versions (especially Hoodlum Havoc) so I want to buy the full game, however I can't seem to find it anywhere in the download catalogue.

How can I get the full game? I'm can't find it anywhere on XBOX Live..

I'm not that experienced with the XBOX Live interface / tools so it may just be somewhere I'm not expecting it to be?

Answer

Not every game that has a demo is an actually fully downloadable title - some are only available in a physical dics format.

Rayman Origins is one of these - it's not available on the xbox live marketplace - it is a retail title. You will have to buy a physical copy from a store.

What's the point of XP in Freeway Fury 2?

Question

I am playing Freeway Fury 2 and I noticed that every time I die, I get XP.

What is it used for? What do I gain with higher XP?

freewayfury

Answer

It gives you special bonuses in Free Ride mode.

Where does the game League of Legends take place?

Question

World of Warcraft = Azeroth

Heroes of Newerth = Newerth


Where does League of Legends play out? In lore, what is this place called?

Answer

The setting of League of Legends is on the world of Runeterra, specifically the continent of Valoran. There are two primary city-states, Demacia and Noxus who were constantly at war. The League of Legends was formed in order to control the conflict.

For more detailed information, you can read through the Journal of Justice, which is a sort of ingame newspaper that chronicles goings-on in Runeterra from an in-character perspective, talking about the various Champions, events, etc.

If you'd like a super-quick crash course, you can watch Total Biscuit's LoL Lore-In-A-Minute.

How do I examine the Crime Scene?

Question

I am trying to solve the "Blood on the ice"-quest and am told to examine the crime scene. But I cannot find any trigger to activate or object to collect.

What am I supposed to find/do here?

Answer

You are supposed to follow the trail of blood

It will eventually lead to a house where you can find various pieces of evidence.

Can you make Mutant League Football enforce the deaths seen at half time?

Question

In the game Mutant League Football if you watch the other games that occur at halftime you can often see players on the field being killed. However, when you play these teams later on in the playoffs (even the next game) none of their players seem to be missing. My question is how does one enforce the players on the computer controlled teams to be dead when witnessing them die at the halftime of other games?

Answer

I'm afraid that isn't possible. Whenever you play a team in the playoffs, they start off with a full roster, even if your roster is severely depleted by prior games.

It's part of what makes winning the championship on the higher severity levels so difficult, as you have to conserve your players, in addition to winning the games.

If I Retry, do I keep my star bits?

Question

When you die, you have an option to either Retry or Quit. Quitting allows you to access the shop, where you can spend your star bits in the upgrade shop.

If I choose to Retry, rather than Quit, do I get to keep the star bits I earned on the run I just failed? Or do I just start over normally?

I'm mostly wondering because unless my star bit count is carried over, I don't see why I would ever want to Retry without spending what I have earned in the store.

Answer

Retrying is just a quick way of starting another game of the same game mode you just died in.

Your star bits are saved, but you might still want to quit and spend them first — so you have a better chance of survival on your next attempt.

Once something has been sold to a merchant, does it disappear?

Question

I am quite sure I have sold the first dragon priest mask I found, to a merchant. I'm not entirely sure which merchant though. It happened a long time ago, now.

Can I find the merchant and buy it back, or will it have disappeared, once the store was re-stocked?

Answer

As soon as the merchant restocks, anything you've sold them disappears.

At this point, PC players who want to "buy" it back can simulate this with the console with two commands. You'll first have to find the internal item ID of the mask and its gold value, which you can look up at Skyrim Artifacts (beware spoilers!) in the "ID" and "coin" columns.

Armed with these two numbers (save first! always make a new save first), open the console (~ on US keyboards) and type:

additem ItemIDGoesHere 1
removeitem 0000000f MaskValueGoesHere

The first line adds 1 of whatever item ID you give it in ItemIDGoesHere, which should be the ID of the mask you want to "buy" back. The second line removes a number of gold equal to MaskvalueGoesHere (gold is item ID 0000000f). Make sure you have enough gold to remove before you go removing it! (Probably it would just reduce your gold carried to 0 instead of anything bad, but why tempt fate?)

For example, to get Volsung back, you would type:

additem 00061cab 1
removeitem 0000000f 4611

If you want to be super-correct about this, you can try to calculate your current vendor buying percentage and adjust the value upward. Or, if you don't want to "buy" it and just want it back, you can entirely skip the command that removes the gold from your inventory. It's a single-player game, so whatever feels appropriate to you, do that.

What is the difference between “Damage Health” and “Ravage Health”?

Question

I've been experimenting with Alchemy in Skyrim, and I've noticed that I've acquired two distinct alchemical effects: "Damage Health" and "Ravage Health". They both cause instant poison damage, so what's the difference? Why do some ingredients give "Damage Health" while others give "Ravage Health instead?"

Answer

Ravage Health reduces your maximum HP. Damage Health deals damage.

You can test the effects on yourself with the following potions:

  • Red Mountain Flower + Void Salts (Fortify Stamina + Damage Health)
  • Eye of Saber Cat + Silverside Perch (Restore Stamina + Ravage Health)

How to get rid of bugs in Revenant?

Question

The old Revenant game had its share of bugs. Some of them were non-critical, but annoying (e.g. if you had a mana-boosting item equipped, after loading a save the mana pool state wasn't restored correctly).

However some were bad to the point of being game-breaking: namely, combos and item interactions.
There were sequences where one had to perform a combo to 'learn' it. I sometimes managed it (by accident), but most of the time the game simply didn't register them.

Is there some way to fix this problem? I haven't found any working hacks, official or unofficial fixes or patches, nothing.

Answer

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there's any support for this game anymore. There's also no community that is active in trying to fix the bugs, and the developers never released the source. Some games are just buggy messes that can't be fixed. This seems like one of them :(

Is it possible to boost skills beyond 100 points?

Question

Certain equipment will give boosts to your skills (such as +12 to light armor for example). Is it possible to boost a skill over 100 points using this equipment, and other items which boost your skills (such as a fortify skill potion)?

For example, if I have 100 points in light armor and I'm wearing a ring which gives me +12 to light armor, would it result in my Light Armor skill being 112?

Answer

if I have 100 points in light armor and I'm wearing a ring which gives me +12 to light armor, would it result in my Light Armor skill being 112

Yes. Your modified Light Armor skill is 112.

  • For armor skills, each point above 100 is another 0.4% increase to armor. (Mind the 567 armor rating cap).
  • For weapon skills, each point above 100 is a percent increase to damage.
  • For crafting, each point above 100 increases the outcome when skill is involved. (upgrading, enchanting, etc).

For the other skills, going above 100 may not produce the expected effect. Pickpocketing, in particular, may overflow and give lower chance of success than you'd have with 100 skill.

What happens if I kill a butterfly?

Question

I was trying to capture a butterfly in Skyward Sword, when I accidentally hit B and put the bug net away. Unknowingly, I continued to swing. This armed my sword, and before I realized it, I had killed the poor butterfly I was trying to capture.

I had a similar incident early in the game, before I bought the bug net: I tried using the beetle to capture a grasshopper. To my horror (and probably the grasshoppers), the beetle killed it.

Does killing an insect effect the game at all? Or are there enough bugs to go around?

Answer

Bugs respawn like grass and monsters. There's no harm in killing them other than needing to leave the area and come back to capture them.

(Plus the long-lasting and appropriate stain on your conscience. You murdered a butterfly.)

I purchased “AC:R Embers” from XBox Live. How do I view it?

Question

I purchased the Embers video for Assassin's Creed: Revelations on XBox Live, but I can't find where to view it. Where do I go to see it? I've tried in all the menu options in AC:R and I looked in the XBox Live Dashboard, but no joy.

Answer

Purchased or downloaded videos will typically show up and be played in Zune.

From the dashboard, go to Video Marketplace, select Zune (should be first). Under there should be an area for Video Library that contains anything downloaded or purchased.

How do I raise the Assassin's influence in cities over 50%?

Question

It seems to be capped at 50% for me. Is this normal, or am I missing something obvious?

Answer

The more assassins you have stationed in a city, and the higher their level, the higher your maximum influence in that city is. If you enter the assassin management interface, you can see it listed as current%/maximum%. Three or four high-level assassins is enough to get it close to max. (There's really no reason not to fill them up with your low-level assassins constantly - a fully upgraded city will send them all to level 6 or 7 in a day).

How to trigger pressure plates from a distance?

Question

What ways are there to trigger pressure plates without standing on them?

Say I sneak into an old ruin and come across a posse of skeletons that are so positioned to be completely decimated if I could just trigger the trap they are standing next to!

Answer

I've triggered floor plates with projectile spells (such as frost bolt and fear) as well as arrow shots. I've also dropped linen and bowls on them.

What good are bugs?

Question

There are lots of bugs everywhere. Collecting them is encouraged, but I don't see a use in them. They aren't needed in crafting or sellable to the peddler at night like materials, it seems. I'm obviously still gonna collect them all, but why am I doing it?

Answer

You actually could sell them to Stritch, the tall bug guy. If you visit his room at night (the one closest to the lower entrance of the academy), he will offer to buy some bugs from you.

Note that you could only sell three types of bugs to him on certain nights so don't expect to sell them all off at once. If he's not interested in buying the ones you want to sell, come back another night and hopefully he'll be buying them.

Otherwise, you can use them to infuse your potions. Talk to the "infusing guy" (the potion lady's husband) to do this.

Do sneak bonus damage modifiers effect elemental and poison damage?

Question

If I sneak and get a double damage strike on a target with:

  • A sword with 10 fire damage
  • A sword with an applied poison of 15 damage

Does only the base damage have the bonus, or does every damage type receive it too?

Answer

Only the base damage; although with bows, arrow damage is affected as well.

Source: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Sneak (the sentence you want is under the second table)

All tests performed on Devin Mallory in The Ragged Flagon (by the miracle of quicksave, no Devin Mallorys were permanently harmed by these tests):

Poison Tests

Test I: Control

Glass Bow, base damage = 29

Steel Arrow, base damage = 10

Sneak attack x2.0 damage = 72.04 damage (I assume reduced from 78 by armor, I have no idea what the math on that looks like)

Test II: Poison

Glass Bow, base damage = 29

Steel Arrow, base damage = 10 Weak Poison, damage = 15

Sneak attack x2.0 damage = 85.69 damage (again, I assume damage was reduced by armor, but since the poison didn't even do its full damage, it's definitely not doubled by the sneak attack)

Enchantment Tests (as suggested by Fizz):

Test I: Control

Hunter's Bow, base damage = 8

Ancient Nord Arrow, base damage = 10

Sneak attack x2.0 damage = 15.46 damage

Test II: Enchantment

Hunter's Bow of Chills, base damage = 8, frost damage = 6

Ancient Nord Arrow, base damage = 10

Sneak attack x2.0 damage = 35.6 damage

Based on that, I'd say shock/ice/fire enchantments are affected by the sneak attack bonus. If someone feels like figuring out Devin's armor and doing some math, feel free!

Where are the 4.3 dungeons actually accessed from?

Question

Patch 4.3 is adding three new dungeons to the game:

  • Well of Eternity, taking place in the Night Elf city of Zin-Azshari immediately prior to the city's destruction and transformation into the Maelstrom
  • Hour of Twilight, wherein Thrall's passage to Wyrmrest Temple must be assured during Deathwing's assault on the Dragonblight
  • End Time, which is a distant future version of the Dragonblight following Deathwing's ultimate success and eventual suicide

While it's pretty likely that the vast majority of players will get to these dungeons through the dungeon finder, it should still be possible to reach them manually. Where are they actually accessed from? "Current" Dragonblight, or Caverns of Time, or what?

Bonus question: where is the raid Dragon Soul accessed from, for that matter?

Answer

The three new dungeons in 4.3 will be accessible from the Caverns of Time.

The Dragon Soul raid starts out at Wyrmrest temple. I am only guessing, but I would expect that the instance entrance is there (if it is not also in CoT).

Are Wards actually useful?

Question

Is there any point to using these spells? They drain so much magicka it hard for me to believe there is an actual use for them. If there is a use can someone please tell me how and what combination of spells if any do they use with them.

Answer

It would be nice to hear from someone who does use them, but I remember looking at the math quickly and deciding against doing much with them. I'm revisiting that here with a bit more detail.

Here's how the wards break down (they add to armor and absorb magic damage):

------------------------------------
Name      Cost/sec  +Armor  Absorbed 
------------------------------------
Lesser         28      40        40
Steadfast      50      60        60
Grand         203      80        80

and here are fire projectiles (which all have rough equivalents in frost and shock):

-----------------------------
Name           Cost   Damage
-----------------------------
Flames          12/s      8/s
Firebolt        35       25
Fire Rune      202       50
Fireball       247       40
Incinerate     255       60
Wall of Flames 101/s     50/s

and here are the mage armor spells:

------------------------
Name        Cost  +Armor
------------------------
Oakflesh     90      40
Stoneflesh  170      60
Ironflesh   228      80
Ebonyflesh  292     100

So, here's my thinking: if you just want physical protection, Oakflesh costs as much as holding a Lesser Ward for 3 seconds but lasts for 20x that (while freeing up both hands), and the metrics just get more favorable from there. Plus, you can take ranks in Mage Armor to triple that. Oh, and ranks in Alteration let you take the Magic Resistance perk, which adds 10% spell resistance for each rank, and you get Atronach at 100, which lets you absorb 30% of the magicka from spells that hit you. Ward Absorb is nice, but still not enough, IMO, to focus on Restoration.

If you look at the Destruction spells, you'll notice that they can quickly break wards (no more than two spells), which has the nasty effect of staggering you. Often, I'd rather absorb an enemy mage's damage -- and elemental protection is cheap -- while backpedaling than get caught flat-footed by a warrior type. And whereas NPCs can put the ward back up immediately after a stagger and resume moving around, evading, keeping the ward up, and targeting you (made even harder by the ward's animation in first-person), I just don't have that coordination. Of course, I'd be very interested in a real strategy for using them, but I find it more effective to deal with the underlying problem -- enemies -- by dealing damage.

You could enchant equips to bring the cost down, but even then, I'd rather do that with a different school. The only exception I can see is if you have a bunch of spare magicka and a spare hand, particularly the less sneaky spellswords (I prefer shields with Elemental Protection, but to each his own). A more general use is for dealing with traps, as others have pointed out below.

So yes, I suppose that like everything it has its uses, but mostly for very specific character types.

What do the starred upgrades mean?

Question

Some of the upgrades in the Payday: The Heist have a star next to them. What does this mean? Is there some kind of prerequisite for it different from upgrading normally?

enter image description here

Answer

Starred upgrades can be toggled on and off by clicking on the star.

The reason is that these upgrades change the appearance of the weapon in a way that some players might not prefer. For example, if you'd prefer to use the simpler iron sights instead of the upgraded reflex sight on your M4 / AMCAR, you still can, even after passing the point in the upgrade tree where the reflex sight is applied to the weapon.

Cosmetic changes to weapons do not affect the underlying stat - for example, if you toggle off the damage upgrade for the revolver, the graphic will show the old style bullets, but you will still deal increased damage as if you had hollowpoints loaded. If you toggle off a functional upgrade (such as a reflex sight), your accuracy will still be increased, but obviously, you will lose the ability to use the sight.

What type of armor should I use as a thief?

Question

In past versions of the elder scrolls and many other RPGs, thieves play with light armor. Is this also the case for skyrim?

As far as I understand, both heavy and light armor affects sneaking, but as you are playing close combat, you will want to have at least some armor.

What type of armor is common for a thief, and why?

Is using spells for armor(stoneflesh etc) a good idea, or do they cause detection?

Answer

It is dependant on your build.

I am playing a Khajit thief and I use light armour. Minor spoiler below:

The thief guild provides you with some nice light armour.

The benefits of light armour are:

  • You are less detectable in lower levels with light armour (the perk that light armour weights nothing is at skill level 50, in heavy armour, it is 70). As a thief you don't tend to get hit often, so leveling your armour takes longer than you would expect.
  • Windwalker is great for a thief, your stamina regenerates 50% faster if you are wearing all light armour. You need to be agile so stamina is pretty important for you running away, positioning etc.
  • Light armour still gives a decent armour rating, so if needed you can go toe to toe without taking a huge beating.
  • Fits roleplaying.

The benefits of heavy armour are:

  • Higher armour rating
  • Tower of strength stops you getting knocked back if you get caught off guard. (You are a bad thief if you get caught off guard ;) )
  • You can still sneak effectively once you hit level 70 and get the conditioning perk.

Using robes is also a very viable option, depending on your character set up. If you decide to go this route, I'd recommend going with illusion + alteration.

The benefits are:

  • Decent armour rating with alteration stone flesh skins, combined with mage armour. (Triple the effects)
  • Robes give +x% magica regen and -x% spell cost on x tree.

This means you can benefit more from the magic attributes below:

  • Decent magic resistance from the alteration skill tree (up to 30% magic resistance)
  • Alteration grants you the detect life spell. This is awesome as a thief, totally reduces the chances you have of getting caught off guard.
  • Illusion skill tree (at level 50) lets you cast spells silently. This is perfect for a stealth character.
  • Illusion grants you the invisibility spell, perfect for a thief.
  • Illusion gives you crowd control for when the brown stuff hits the fan. You can make a single target (or groups at higher levels) stop fighting, fight each other, or run away.

Are PS3 games exactly the same between PAL and NTSC?

Question

I know that PS3 games are region free. I'm not sure whether there is any sort of quality difference if you play PAL games on an NTSC PS3 or vice versa.

Does anyone know?

Answer

Yes, there are some minor differences:

  • If you are playing on a CRT, a PAL game will output a resolution of 576i, while an NTSC game will output 480i. On my PAL television (which does support NTSC) the difference is very noticable - NTSC looks a lot worse.

  • While the games themselves are region-free, sometimes the DLC is not. One example of this is Dragon Age: A friend of mine has the US version, but he has not been able to use any of the DLC from the Australian store - it simply doesn't work.

How much gold do you receive for minion kills over the course of a game?

Question

How much gold do you receive for kills for each type of minion (range/melee/anti-turret) and how does this amount scale throughout the game? Also, if someone knows, how do I max money from creeps?

Answer

I'll try to sum up what I found at the wikia article about minions:

Meelee Minions

  • 3 spawn in every wave
  • 22 gold during the first wave on Summoner's Rift
  • 29 on Twisted Treeline
  • increases by 1 after the first wave
  • +1 after every 5 minutes game-time passed

Caster Minions

  • 3 spawn in every wave
  • 16 gold on Summoner's Rift
  • 22 on Twisted Treeline
  • +1 after the first wave
  • +1 after every 5 minutes

Siege Minions

  • 1 spawn in every 3 waves (one every 2 waves after 20 minutes game-time)
  • 27 gold during the first wave on Summoner's Rift
  • 36 gold on Twisted Treeline
  • +1 every 2-3 minutes

Increased Gold Income per Kill

There are a few champion abilities that increase the amount of Gold the caster gets when slaying a minion:

  • Ashe's Hawkshot passively grants her 1/2/3/4/5 bonus gold per kill.
  • Gangplank's Parrrley grants a bonus 4/5/6/7/8 gold if it lands the killing blow to an enemy unit.
  • Katarina's Voracity grants her an extra 25 gold on each champion kill or assist.
  • Twisted Fate's Loaded Dice grants him and his allies 2 bonus gold per kill.
  • Smite grants 10 gold when used when enhanced by the mastery Summoner's Resolve Summoner's Resolve.
  • In Dominion, Promote will cause the user to gain gold for each of the promoted minion's kills.

Summary

Like FallenAngelEyes said, you gain more gold the more times you manage to do the last-hit or killing blow on a minion. To get most out of a wave of minions just last hit as many as possible. If you have to decide between killing a melee minion and a caster minion and you can't get both, go for the melee as if gives more gold. Kill a siege minion whenever possible - they are worth the most.

Some numbers: Farming the whole first creep-wave gets you 114 gold, the 3rd wave sums up to 147 gold. Cleaning a whole wave after 30 minutes would give only 36 more gold. Therefore, it may be better to help your team and gain an assist than farming a whole creep-wave.
Another thing to know: the gold received from neutral monsters in the jungle and the dragon does not scale with game time, therefore killing these becomes less relevant over time.

Edit: With the Volibear Patch (1.0.0.130 released 11/29/2011) jungle monsters now give less rewards at the start of the game but scale over time - both difficulty to kill and gold/experience. I'll try to add some numbers as soon as I know them.

How hungry will I get from a boat trip?

Question

I am planning to make a large expedition with my boat. Does travelling by boat reduce my food bar? If so, how much (compared to walking/swimming)? And does this actually depend on the difficulty? I am playing on 'easy'.

Answer

Boating does not inspire hunger. You can use it to cross thousands of blocks (meters) without any need for food. On the other hand, you can only cross 133 blocks per haunch of meat by swimming (0.015 hunger/block) and 200 blocks walking (0.01).

Difficulty only affects hunger as to what happens when you're starving. Your health drops on easy until it hits 5 hearts, normal drops to 1/2 heart, and on hard you die.

Can I defeat Arino in the game's credits?

Question

I finally got around to beating "Retro game challenge", and the credit screen includes a minigame where you fly a small spaceship on the bottom screen and can shoot energy bolts at Arino, located on the top screen. Arino, in turn, pelts you with various D-pad shaped projectiles.

I thought this was just a cute addition, but after hitting Arino enough he changed color and became more agressive, which led me to believe you can actually win this minigame.

Is it possible to completely defeat him before the credits are over? If so, what are the effects of such a victory, other than feeling good about yourself?

Answer

Yes you can, according to Gamefaqs:

=ENDING= [E]

After completing all games, you'll get a final award, and the fourth option on the main menu, Sound will be unlocked. During the credits there will be a mini- shooting game in which you can shoot Arino's head by pressing A & B. If you beat him he'll say something, but doing so takes a LOT of shots. His head will change colors as he takes damage.

Do armor sets have maximum armor caps?

Question

I created a set of Dragon Scale armor with 100 smithing and improved them to legendary, they had an armor rating of 584(502 without the shield). Here are the individual ratings for each piece of gear (with 5/5 light armor skill bonus[100%], 25% all light armor bonus, and 25% matched set bonus).

Armor - 232 Boots - 84 Gauntlets - 84 Helmet - 103 Shield - 83

This adds up to 586 (or 503 without the shield) and yet the armor rating I get is 502 without the shield, and 584 with the shield.

I took another set of dragon scale armor and made and improved them while wearing +100% bonus gear to smithing. I got gear with much higher ratings as follows ..

Armor - 300 Boots - 119 Gauntlets - 119 Helmet - 138 Shield - 102

And I still get the same armor ratings, 502 without shield and 584 with shield.

Has this worked properly for anyone else? Could it be a bug? Is this intended? Any information would be helpful =] I'd really like max armor resistance without the shield on.

Thanks!

UPDATE - I took my original set of dragonscale gear back to the workbench wearing my +100% smithing gear and was able to "upgrade" that set to legendary with the new armor ratings and that set worked just fine, must have just been a buggy set of dragonscale gear. Selling it to a vendor and rocking my 674 armor rating without a shield =D

Thanks for the help/ideas guys!

Answer

There shouldn't be an armour cap for items, but there is a cap on the amount of damage you can mitigate (80%) this comes at 567 displayed armour rating.

With that said, even if you go over it should still display what your actual rating is, just won't mitigate more than 80% of the incoming damage.

My guess is a bug or you're doing something wrong.

Source

At what levels do the various types of armour start to appear in Skyrim?

Question

I was wondering at what levels do the various types of armour start to appear?

For instance right at the beginning hide/studded is the more prevalent armor type (from memory) However I'm now level 18 and starting to see bits of Elven armour creep in to bandit chief loot, etc.

Answer

Copied from another post:

The full Heavy Armor progression is (with very rough levels):

  • Iron (lv 1)
  • Steel (lv 6)
  • Dwarven (lv 12)
  • Steel Plate (lv 18)
  • Orcish (lv 25)
  • Ebony (lv 32)
  • Dragonplate (lv 40)
  • Daedric (lv 48)

The full Light Armor progression is (with very rough levels):

  • Hide (lv 1)
  • Leather (lv 6)
  • Elven (lv 12)
  • Scaled (lv 27)
  • Glass (lv 36)
  • Dragonscale (lv 48)

Clothing doesn't progress, rather the enchantments get more powerful as your level increases.

Source: this answer by Cloudancer

How does inFamous 2 decide if you were good or evil in the previous game?

Question

The way I understand it, is that it takes the information from your accumulated trophies, but what if I've beaten inFamous-1 as both evil and good and have both of the relavent trophies for doing so? How does it decide then?

Answer

Actually, it looks for savegames from the previous game. When starting a new game with an Infamous save present, you'd have the option to start the game as good or evil, depending on the progress present in the savegames on your machine. So if, for example, you only have a save where you finished as evil, you'll have the option to start Infamous 2 as evil. If you have saves for both endings, you'd have an option to start as good or evil, etc.

You always have the option to start from scratch. Also, there are certain other bonuses for a present save game, for example, you get an energy cores bonuses if you collected enough shards in the previous games.

Escaping from League of Legends Elo Hell

Question

What are the different ways to boost your Elo rating in LoL?

It seems like when you lose 5~7 games in a row there is no way to get a decent team to play with, thus leading you to lose more and more.

  1. How do you get in to winning streak in solo queue?
  2. Are there specific champions I should watch out for and queue dodge?

Answer

1) As far as I can remember, "Solo" queue actually lets you queue up to a team of two. This may have changed. Unfortunately, Solo Queue is just that - you and some strangers - and if you want an easy strategy to climb the solo queue ladder, there isn't one. You're largely at the whim of the matchmaker, so the best you can hope for is to carry a team, perhaps by playing a ganking jungler such as Rammus, Shaco, or Nocturne.

The current metagame theory is that teams with a jungler > teams without, so by playing a strong jungler (assuming you aren't overestimating your skill) will give you the best odds, as an early game lead can be hard to overcome.

2) Queue dodging in a ranked game not only suffers the penalty of a "leave" on your record, but will also drop your ELO by 20 points. If you want a higher ELO, don't queue dodge, ever. Period. It's just counterproductive.