In Minecraft, is it possible to customize your skin in single-player mode (not just in multiplayer)? How?
When you change your skin, it affects both single player and multi-player.
If you don't see your skin in single player, make sure you're online so it can download the skin.
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At the end of Mass Effect 2 you have the option of either
destroying the Collector base or preserving the base to allow Cerberus to study it.
What effect on Mass Effect 3 (if any) does this decision have?
Saving the base gives you 110 points towards your Galaxy at War score compared to 100 for destroying it.
There is a rumour that the Illusive Man will be friendlier towards you in ME3 if you went his way in ME2 (saving the base) but that's unsubstantiated.
Since he's (confirmed) trying to kill you in ME3, I don't know how much weight this carries.
The endings below 1750 or above 2800 effective military strength are the same, regardless of what you chose to do in ME2.
The endings, organized by rating required are different depending on what path you chose:
Low EMS Option
Saved the base:
1750-2049 EMS Choose to Save the Reapers and the Earth will be saved.
Destroyed the base:
1750-1899 EMS Choose to become a Reaper and the Earth will be destroyed.
Mid range EMS Option
Saved the base:
2050-2349 EMS Choose to become a Reaper and the Earth will be saved.
Destroyed the base:
1900-2349 EMS Choose to destroy the Repears and the Earth will be devastated
Saved the base only option
2350-2649 EMS Choose to destroy the Reapers and Earth is destroyed.
High EMS Option
Saved the Base:
2650-2799 EMS Choose to destroy the Repears and the Earth will be devastated
Destroyed the Base:
2350 - 2799 EMS Choose to become a Reaper and the Earth will be saved.
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What missions give Alliance funding? I get it for a good amount of the priority missions as well as some of the side missions. I don't like doing hundreds of side missions unless they are rewarding for the time I spend on them.
Is there a way to know which missions give funding or even good rewards for that matter. I get useless war assets more then anything which I don't need now that my bar is maxed.
I apologize if this is a duplicate can't check on my phone very easily.
Pretty sure it's awarded after every 'real' mission.
(As in, every mission in which you have to go and shoot things, not Citadel fetch quests to scan planets).
The amount is fixed per-mission, and gradually rises as you progress through the game.
That said, the Citadel fetch-missions are among some of the most rewarding in the game, as they award incredible XP and credits on a per/time basis.
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From what I see playing INSANE A.I. opponent teaches you to play well. Especially the game beginning: insane opponents usually build a big army quickly and attack you in 4-6 minutes... If you don't manage how earn a lot of resources and how to spend all of them quickly and effectively, you will lose.
Probably that won't work for platinum and diamond players, but definitely helps for those who are silver/gold or just starting. Am I right?
Or is it better just to play usual multi-player games?
Thanks
Play against other players!~
I'm a firm believer in playing against other players to improve. A lot of players avoid multiplayer due to the high level of stress over stats. The simple reality is even the best of players sit around ~60% win/loss.
The very nature of the matchmaking is designed to pit you against players of equal skill and there is no shame in losing. While playing against computers may help you get your timings right you're missing out on a very integral part of the game itself: The Meta-game.
The Meta Game
The Meta-game can best be described as the current style of players and techniques in the game. When the beta started, 3 barracks Terran was the 'standard' opening. It wasn't until later that a solid 1:1:1 (barracks into factory into starport) was an accepted strategy.
This evolution of the game (fueled by the community) leads to dynamic strategies. Knowing and identifying these strategies is often the difference between a decent player and a great player.
Why its better to play against other players
By playing against a computer you lose the ability to identify and recognize an opponent's build when you scout him. These skills are essential in all levels of play! By recognizing the build a player can then 'expect' a certain army make-up or army size. Playing against a computer just won't teach you real player's timings, popular builds, and scouting.
Lets take an example: How does the community view TvZ on Lost Temple? Currently Terran can cause serious damage to most players by doing a 1:1:1 into thor and dropping it on the cliff overlooking Zerg's natural. Why is this successful? Currently Zerg has accepted that going for an early hatchery against Terran is relatively safe. This perspective (dictated by the Meta-Game) is already fluctuating! You just don't get this sort of thing against a computer.
An Insane Computer has built in advantages to negate your intelligence!
The enemy computer (on Insane) gathers at an increased rate over a regular player, making their strategies unachievable for regular players! Most RTS's do this! Because player's constantly evolve to beat the AI, the game developers program and advantage into the AI to help them be competitive. Enemy workers return 7 minerals a carry instead of 5, a 40% collection bonus. This 40% collection bonus leads to a larger than ANY player can achieve at that time. This leads to bigger pushes with more units and loses the 'feeling' of an even game. In addition to that Insane AI do not need to scout you. While the computer doesn't react to your build like another player, it also doesn't need to scout to find your 'hidden expansions'. If you only have one building left on the map the insane computer will walk to it directly (without scouting). This can be absolutely game changing! Against another player hiding a unit building structure (starport or dark-shrine comes to mind) can be the difference between a win and a loss if scouted!
The Crux
These advantages lead to fighting a larger, and more educated (scouting) then possible army. This may help you improve your general mechanics: building placement, not getting supply blocked or early game timing. However, the actual game play is so dramatically different that you would be better off playing against any level of human opponent (even if they are no competition to you). Real players are much more aware of the evolution of the Meta-game (whether they know it or not) and practicing against REAL strategies is the only way to improve.
But Every Ladder Loss Feels Like Hades Ripping a Piece of Pride Directly Out of My Soul
There's a solution for this too! Find a practice partner to play custom games with. This will give you the ability to improve (and for them to improve) as both of you explore the game. But the real benefit to this is human vs human strategies without the stress of recorded ladder stats.
Hope this help!
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10-15 years ago, when game got released it was rock solid from the start, maybe with some minor bugs (but most of the time without them)
Today - almost every game require patches to play, they have lots of huge bugs, what changed?
Your question is based on a false assumption that older games were "rock solid" and only with minor bugs.
Maybe you happened to stumble mostly upon games that were good enough, but that wasn't generally the case. Many games were buggy or badly balanced, often to the point of being unplayable. But since the internet wasn't as widespread as it is now, and there wasn't such a huge amount of money in the gaming industry, no one bothered to fix them, issue and distribute a patch.
Another factor that might influence the abundance of bugs in today's games is also tied to the business logic. For big game publishers, it is often preferable to hit a release deadline, even at the cost of releasing a buggy game.
Almost ubiquitous broadband connections help with the patching immediately after the game's release, and the publisher doesn't lose as much money as he might if he delayed the release until the product is polished and finalized.
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I've dug it up again and remember that you can sink enemy ships on some maps. I've tried a few times but it's a lot of work so my question is: Is it worth the effort?
Sure it removes a spawn point but unless you manage to take out all ships the bots will just spawn somewhere else.
So does it incur some significant ticket loss, to make it worth it?
Also this question is mainly aimed at single-player where I don't have X teammates to coordinate with...
The idea is to prevent the enemy access to airplanes and a mobile spawn point. Since its single player, the AI isn't smart enough to move the ships or use the guns/planes very effectively.
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How much playtime does one usually require to beat S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Clear Sky?
Depending upon how many times you eat hot NPC frag grenade, you can expect it to take less time than either of the other STALKER titles. It took me about 10 ~ 12 hours to get through all the areas and beat the game.
Also, if you played the original STALKER, you might spend less time because you know some of the original areas that are being re-used.
EDIT:
I should also point out that depending upon how many caches you decide to go after, this can be extended by about 10 hours, but that also depends upon how often you use the guides to quick-travel. Walking will take a while, but quick-travel costs money.
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I'm playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, level No Fighting In The War Room. I read a lot of walkthroughs, but couldn't solve the problem.
First of all, you start as Soap MacTavish, with your teammates: Captain Price, SSgt Griggs, and Cpl Miller. The latter is is not mentioned in any walkthorugh I saw. He is a real coward, and engages in almost no fight. Despite this, he gets killed no matter how I try to save his life.
Anyway, I continued the level till I reached a corridor where crates blocked the road. There were two entries to my left and right, each leading to parallel side corridors. I entered each of them and killed every enemy. Oddly enough, neither Captain Price nor SSgt Griggs followed me.
After that, killing all enemies in side corridors, I took a path leading to the main corridor (bypassing the wooden crates which blocked the road). At the moment I set foot on the passage joining the side corridor to the main one, an alarm set off.
I sprinted to the main corridor, meeting Price & Griggs! They were running towards some giant door. No matter how fast I ran, just before entering the door, something exploded, and I was dead!
This explosion is not mentioned in any walkthrough. I think it might be related to Cpl Miller's death, but I'm not sure.
Any ideas?
One thing you should always keep in mind with Call of Duty games is that the action sequences are completely scripted. Basically, what that means is the game will keep throwing enemies at you or will otherwise not progress the level until you initiate a specific action. In this case, you are faced with this corridor:
The corridor is filling up with flammable gas. Once you pass a specific point in this corridor, shortly after exiting one of the side corridors, Captain Price will say Go! Go! Go! This is your queue that the corridor will be detonated by the opposition. If you listen carefully, you can hear a countdown on the overhead speaker in Russian. You need to make a mad dash to the end of this corridor and exit it before Captain Price shuts the door. He will shout out Move! Move! right before he shuts the door.
I would suggest sprinting for this door as soon as you exit one of the side corridors and make it through the door before Captain Price shuts it, thus:
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The "Deity" difficulty level of Civilization V says that "the AI receives heavy advantages". In Civ IV this meant that the AI started with more units, 2 settlers, etc.
So my question is two-fold:
a) what bonuses does a "deity" level AI get in terms of units and resource production (hammers+cultures+food+gold+science etc)
b) any general suggestions as how to deal with the results of a? I know that you should generally try to expand as fast as possible and war with a neighbor sooner rather than later (before they can get a tech lead) to take advantage of their developed cities and remove their production.
Apparently there is a flawless strategy in civ5 and if you apply it correctly wining on deity is rather easy. And you don't even have to make some special settings for the game. Just I have to warn that its much more fun if you discover it yourself rather than get it from internet, as in that way it kind of ruins your game experience as it did to me to some level.
The easiest way (as Irony Man correctly pointed out) is setting archipelago map, as AI is totally hopeless on water. Just expand all the time, build some naval units to fend off any aggressive AIs, grab those resources, trade and develop. You should be able to get any kind of victory quite easily.
Another thing is continents or Pangaea maps. You do need to apply a flawless strategy to get a win on those. A strategy might be slightly different depending on which faction you are playing, but there are some basic rules which work for all of them. The specific faction strategy is to get the most of the special ability. That means if you are playing for English - build naval units, if you are playing for French - build a lot of small cities, if you are playing for Romans - get all the needed building in Rome asap, etc.
The most important bit is a good start. I would divide it into three phases:
Now if you still haven't lost your army at this point you should be doing rather well and can continue playing the way you like. Or if you want to be really effective and crush them all you can apply an ICS (infinite city sprawl) strategy. This strategy is genuine and it works perfectly, but honestly I don't like it myself at all, as it takes all the fun off the game. So if you enjoy Civ5 so far and want it to continue better close this post now, but if you want to further ruin your game experience read on..
The basics of ICS are explained elsewhere much better than I would be able to, so I'll just quote. Here's the theory behind Infinite City Sprawl, as written by alpaca in his Infinite Rome thread on Civfanatics:
The idea of an ICS strategy is to settle cities as close as possible to leverage the additional growth, production and commerce that small cities have over large ones. In Civ5, there are a number of game mechanics that lend themselves well to this kind of strategy. To wit:
1) Maritime city states. The bonus granted from maritime city states is per city. Each adds +2 food to the city tile at the start, increasing to +4 over the course of the game. Since every city benefits from this free food, a single maritime CS ally will allow you to set up two additional specialists in every in the later stages of the game. Obviously, the more cities the better, because each gets the bonus.
2) Happiness buildings. In Civ5, happiness is global... or is it? In fact, only the consumption of happiness is really global. The production is local. Each city can build happiness buildings, and the low-tier buildings are more efficient and more effective than the higher ones. If you have lots of small cities, each can have a Colosseum and a Circus where available, and some theatres. This actually rules out happiness as a long-term limiting factor and turns it into a growth-limiting factor because you need to set up these buildings in each new city.
3) Purchasing things with gold. Provided you have enough gold, you can buy buildings where and when you need them. Spamming trade posts is a typical strategy, and it's possibly even better in ICS. Just spam trade posts, make money, and buy the buildings you need. This is especially good for the more expensive buildings which have a better gold/hammer ratio.
4) Certain policies, like Communism and much of the Liberty tree, scale with the number of cities. So do some civilization abilities or buildings, like the one of Harun al-Rashid or the Chinese Paper Maker. For them, you also want as many cities as possible.
5) Research favors large empires because a tech will cost the same, no matter how many cities you have. Since having more cities usually means having more science, you will tech faster.
6) Trade route maintenance makes you want to put your cities as close together as possible. City tiles are free roads, after all.
There is a significant drawback to ICS which I won't hide from you: The speed of unlocking social policies. This is the only thing that is really better for small empires because, roughly, your average culture per city is what determines policy speed. Since there are sources of culture that don't scale with the number of cities, like wonders and cultural CS, you will be slower at unlocking these SPs, so make sure you only pick those which are most useful to you.
You can find some great comprehensive examples of how it is applied here: http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/liberteordre.html or here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=390302 and this one is very short and straight to the point: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=388793
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I'm working on some of the achievements in the single-player Wings Of Liberty campaign. Several of them are in the form of "Complete the mission in X minutes or less". Is there any in-game way I can see how much time has elapsed since I started the mission, or will I have to keep track of the time on my own somehow?
There's a built in timer since patch 1.1.
It's in the options gameplay -> display in game timer.
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The "Deity" difficulty level of Civilization V says that "the AI receives heavy advantages". In Civ IV this meant that the AI started with more units, 2 settlers, etc.
So my question is two-fold:
a) what bonuses does a "deity" level AI get in terms of units and resource production (hammers+cultures+food+gold+science etc)
b) any general suggestions as how to deal with the results of a? I know that you should generally try to expand as fast as possible and war with a neighbor sooner rather than later (before they can get a tech lead) to take advantage of their developed cities and remove their production.
Apparently there is a flawless strategy in civ5 and if you apply it correctly wining on deity is rather easy. And you don't even have to make some special settings for the game. Just I have to warn that its much more fun if you discover it yourself rather than get it from internet, as in that way it kind of ruins your game experience as it did to me to some level.
The easiest way (as Irony Man correctly pointed out) is setting archipelago map, as AI is totally hopeless on water. Just expand all the time, build some naval units to fend off any aggressive AIs, grab those resources, trade and develop. You should be able to get any kind of victory quite easily.
Another thing is continents or Pangaea maps. You do need to apply a flawless strategy to get a win on those. A strategy might be slightly different depending on which faction you are playing, but there are some basic rules which work for all of them. The specific faction strategy is to get the most of the special ability. That means if you are playing for English - build naval units, if you are playing for French - build a lot of small cities, if you are playing for Romans - get all the needed building in Rome asap, etc.
The most important bit is a good start. I would divide it into three phases:
Now if you still haven't lost your army at this point you should be doing rather well and can continue playing the way you like. Or if you want to be really effective and crush them all you can apply an ICS (infinite city sprawl) strategy. This strategy is genuine and it works perfectly, but honestly I don't like it myself at all, as it takes all the fun off the game. So if you enjoy Civ5 so far and want it to continue better close this post now, but if you want to further ruin your game experience read on..
The basics of ICS are explained elsewhere much better than I would be able to, so I'll just quote. Here's the theory behind Infinite City Sprawl, as written by alpaca in his Infinite Rome thread on Civfanatics:
The idea of an ICS strategy is to settle cities as close as possible to leverage the additional growth, production and commerce that small cities have over large ones. In Civ5, there are a number of game mechanics that lend themselves well to this kind of strategy. To wit:
1) Maritime city states. The bonus granted from maritime city states is per city. Each adds +2 food to the city tile at the start, increasing to +4 over the course of the game. Since every city benefits from this free food, a single maritime CS ally will allow you to set up two additional specialists in every in the later stages of the game. Obviously, the more cities the better, because each gets the bonus.
2) Happiness buildings. In Civ5, happiness is global... or is it? In fact, only the consumption of happiness is really global. The production is local. Each city can build happiness buildings, and the low-tier buildings are more efficient and more effective than the higher ones. If you have lots of small cities, each can have a Colosseum and a Circus where available, and some theatres. This actually rules out happiness as a long-term limiting factor and turns it into a growth-limiting factor because you need to set up these buildings in each new city.
3) Purchasing things with gold. Provided you have enough gold, you can buy buildings where and when you need them. Spamming trade posts is a typical strategy, and it's possibly even better in ICS. Just spam trade posts, make money, and buy the buildings you need. This is especially good for the more expensive buildings which have a better gold/hammer ratio.
4) Certain policies, like Communism and much of the Liberty tree, scale with the number of cities. So do some civilization abilities or buildings, like the one of Harun al-Rashid or the Chinese Paper Maker. For them, you also want as many cities as possible.
5) Research favors large empires because a tech will cost the same, no matter how many cities you have. Since having more cities usually means having more science, you will tech faster.
6) Trade route maintenance makes you want to put your cities as close together as possible. City tiles are free roads, after all.
There is a significant drawback to ICS which I won't hide from you: The speed of unlocking social policies. This is the only thing that is really better for small empires because, roughly, your average culture per city is what determines policy speed. Since there are sources of culture that don't scale with the number of cities, like wonders and cultural CS, you will be slower at unlocking these SPs, so make sure you only pick those which are most useful to you.
You can find some great comprehensive examples of how it is applied here: http://www.garath.net/Sullla/Civ5/liberteordre.html or here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=390302 and this one is very short and straight to the point: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=388793
Check more discussion of this question.
