"Oh, and if you labs also accidentally develop a tiny, tactical version that's only about 100x as strong as a MOAB, we wouldn't mind, nudge nudge, wink wink."
Re:its swirling in the bowl
on
DDO Goes Solo
·
· Score: 1
I have to completely disagree -- the D&D stat system is the best thing out there.
Aren't you tired of situations in WoW such as the following:
"Hey, I just looted a sword that gives me +30 on my strength!"
"Whoa! What does that do for you?"
"Uhh, boosts my damage by 0.18%?"
Yeah, boosting your strength by 1 or 2 in D&D actually does matter. There is no "curve" where someone with average AC gets hit 30% of the time, but with infinite AC gets hit 20% of the time because that's what the developers decided.
You could wear a +2 str item and a +3 str item, and all you get is the +3 str because that's the max single boost.
In this manner, stats can actually mean something. When every single body slot could have the same stat boost bonus, the developers have no choice but to apply a diminishing returns curve. Hence the idiocy that is WoW and EQ and DAoC and SWG and...
Note also that this is quite different from, say, unlocking the rocket launcher or lightning gun in Quake. In those cases, you're not unlocking them so much as getting to levels where they are available, and earlier levels without them are not designed to be tackled by characters with them.
But that's completely different, and you have access to rocket launchers in online play, immediately.
This is like logging on to play Quake online, and finding out other people had rocket launchers, but you did not, because you hadn't played through Act VIII, Episode 49.
That's what metamoderation is for. Every chance I have at that, I do it, and reward all "insigtful, funny", etc., and punish, with very rare exception, all troll/flamebait mods.
If you keep pounding enough of these morons with "unfair" metamods, presumably they'll lose enough karma so they don't get to mod anymore, though I'm not sure exactly how it works.
I suppose some of you mortals can only find fun by using cheat modes. Others of us love to do things like play on nightmare, or "serious", depending on the game.
Without cheats.
Because it's hard.
But that's a competency-level thing. Most people don't get that sense of accomplishment because they can't accomplish it. No, you don't know what it's like to get into a fantastic school. No, you don't know what it's like to get awards for math. No, you don't know what it's like to finish the original Lemmings without cheating, or Quake on nightmare, or Serious Sam on Serious, solo, or Icewind Dale II on "Heart of Fury" mode with two level 1 characters, no imported money or items.
Fantasy game player? You didn't think bards wrote their heroic epics about your exploits, did you?!?!?
"Oh, listen to the tale Of a man named 'Bub' A poor little fighter Always swung and always flub'd And then one day He hit tilde for console! And right through the wall Went-a-walkin' this manpole."
> Why not use the new Seagate drives with built in crypto now?
And this would have helped in this situation just how again?
Unless the drive recognizes it's in a different computer and refuses to decrypt, he's gained nothing. And even in that case, repairing the old computer (barring CPU S/N or whatever the drive looks for) would have cracked the HDD open anyway.
Re:Not so funny when/if the seller commits suicide
on
Online Revenge
·
· Score: 3, Funny
> So what? The guy is iranian, so he'll get his 72 virgins.
> Maybe the hacker can't get a copy of the private key > through the socket file, but something better (from > his/her view) can be done. If the hacker has root on Box D, he or she can
Isn't politically correct writing precious!
The world record for unassisted bench press is a little over 700 pounds. However, the person wishing to bench press more can use a special shirt that binds up the muscles. With this shirt, he or she can lift as much as 1000 lbs. The shirt wraps his or her muscles tightly, preventing the arms from easily lowering the bar to the "down" position.
Google? Oh, so that where it came from! I thought it was a malware that somehow got installed on my computer. "Hello from Picasa!" -- I thought it was horrifically traitorous social engineering....nevermind!
> anyways the housing as of right now ***is*** non-instanced > but I am pretty sure it is zoning-restricted. I could be wrong.
Yes, but the world is absolutely massive, so even at the best, with dozens and dozens of player-made cities, each with many score buildings, the vast majority of the world was still empty desert.
You're pretty free to build anywhere a building will fit, as long as it's somewhat outside the pre-made cities. You get 10 build units (I forget the term) where a small house takes 1, the largest 5, a cantina, etc. 6 (forget the exact details.)
Still waiting for a game where you can build your own house from pre-made wall pieces. Maybe design it on a web site, then place in-game.
Count me on the side of difficult, real accomplishments.
"Difficult" is not "sitting on your ass for days on end waiting for a spawn".
"Difficult" is not slaughtering thousands of gnolls or whatever.
Difficult is solving tough problems. But that might make it nowhere in MMORPGs because solutions will all be on web sites -- look at the idiocy of D&D Online right now, where 9 times out of 10, your "group" has been through the dungeon you're on, and are blowing through it, rather than adventuring.
Of course, you can avoid web sites, to be left on the side of the road by people who do use web sites, get twinked, etc. That may be the state of things, but it's not adventuring and it's not "difficult".
As far as actual roleplaying was concerned, in ancient EverQuest, the ogres, close to the beginning of the game (within a few months of release), the ogres were largely roleplayed. This was little more than talking in "dumbspeak", but that was enough for comaraderie.
And don't tell me if I've misspelled comaraderie because I'm talking in dumbspeak now!
Then a guy dropped a precious store bought steel longsword in the shallow water of Oasis of Marr, and of course you cannot pick up something underwater unless you are also underwater, which you cannot be in the shallows. GM was useless as tits on a bull in that situation, so guy quits, group starts breaking up, that's that.
I haven't had time to RTFA, but I hate Use Magic Device, too. What a stupid skill. It makes a mockery of class separations on the one hand, and makes it harder for a fighter to use high-magic weapons they should be able to use on the other hand. Either you can use the thing, or you can't. Don't want a chaotic guy using a lawful sword just because he pumped up his UMD.
We probably all think "But the word processor helps EVERYONE to write better, thus improving the writing capabilities of humanity as a whole!", but apparently the English teachers disagree; they are just selfish old geezers who want us to "Suffer As They Did."
Actually, for grade-school students learning to write, there is mounting evidence that learning to type instead causes them to suffer in the language department. There seems to be something about hand-drawing letters that gives a distinct advantage.
Whether that's still valid at the high school level though, I don't know.
these students had never even heard of a linker, had only the vaguest idea what a compiler was, and weren't sure how the editor was different from the compiler.
Wonderful. I heard a few years ago universities started not requiring a class in Shakespeare of their English majors.
I guess that brainiac move has infected the CS departments -- no assembly language class required for you!
Slashdot Mirror
"Oh, and if you labs also accidentally develop a tiny, tactical version that's only about 100x as strong as a MOAB, we wouldn't mind, nudge nudge, wink wink."
Great! Now I can pick up right where I left off -- falling off that god damned burning rope into the lava.
You know what you need to do? Pass more laws regulating the economy.
That'll help! Politicians tell you so.
Ya, it'll be:
Q: So is Pluto a planet under these new rules?
A: No
Millions of nerds and children: Noooooooo!
A: Awwww, back to the drawing board.
I have to completely disagree -- the D&D stat system is the best thing out there.
Aren't you tired of situations in WoW such as the following:
"Hey, I just looted a sword that gives me +30 on my strength!"
"Whoa! What does that do for you?"
"Uhh, boosts my damage by 0.18%?"
Yeah, boosting your strength by 1 or 2 in D&D actually does matter. There is no "curve" where someone with average AC gets hit 30% of the time, but with infinite AC gets hit 20% of the time because that's what the developers decided.
You could wear a +2 str item and a +3 str item, and all you get is the +3 str because that's the max single boost.
In this manner, stats can actually mean something. When every single body slot could have the same stat boost bonus, the developers have no choice but to apply a diminishing returns curve. Hence the idiocy that is WoW and EQ and DAoC and SWG and...
Note also that this is quite different from, say, unlocking the rocket launcher or lightning gun in Quake. In those cases, you're not unlocking them so much as getting to levels where they are available, and earlier levels without them are not designed to be tackled by characters with them.
But that's completely different, and you have access to rocket launchers in online play, immediately.
This is like logging on to play Quake online, and finding out other people had rocket launchers, but you did not, because you hadn't played through Act VIII, Episode 49.
That's what metamoderation is for. Every chance I have at that, I do it, and reward all "insigtful, funny", etc., and punish, with very rare exception, all troll/flamebait mods.
If you keep pounding enough of these morons with "unfair" metamods, presumably they'll lose enough karma so they don't get to mod anymore, though I'm not sure exactly how it works.
Playing games with his wife is my #1, too.
I suppose some of you mortals can only find fun by using cheat modes. Others of us love to do things like play on nightmare, or "serious", depending on the game.
Without cheats.
Because it's hard.
But that's a competency-level thing. Most people don't get that sense of accomplishment because they can't accomplish it. No, you don't know what it's like to get into a fantastic school. No, you don't know what it's like to get awards for math. No, you don't know what it's like to finish the original Lemmings without cheating, or Quake on nightmare, or Serious Sam on Serious, solo, or Icewind Dale II on "Heart of Fury" mode with two level 1 characters, no imported money or items.
Fantasy game player? You didn't think bards wrote their heroic epics about your exploits, did you?!?!?
"Oh, listen to the tale
Of a man named 'Bub'
A poor little fighter
Always swung and always flub'd
And then one day
He hit tilde for console!
And right through the wall
Went-a-walkin' this manpole."
> Odd, I don't recall dying even once when I was learning baseball...
How about basketball when you were forced to be on the "skins"?
> Why not use the new Seagate drives with built in crypto now?
And this would have helped in this situation just how again?
Unless the drive recognizes it's in a different computer and refuses to decrypt, he's gained nothing. And even in that case, repairing the old computer (barring CPU S/N or whatever the drive looks for) would have cracked the HDD open anyway.
> So what? The guy is iranian, so he'll get his 72 virgins.
Mmmmmm...720 creamy, succulent tootsies...
Yep! The very same "privacy loving" British that have video cameras on all public areas.
> Maybe the hacker can't get a copy of the private key
> through the socket file, but something better (from
> his/ her view) can be done. If the hacker has root on Box D, he or she can
Isn't politically correct writing precious!
The world record for unassisted bench press is a little over 700 pounds. However, the person wishing to bench press more can use a special shirt that binds up the muscles. With this shirt, he or she can lift as much as 1000 lbs. The shirt wraps his or her muscles tightly, preventing the arms from easily lowering the bar to the "down" position.
> Google Releases Picasa
...nevermind!
Google? Oh, so that where it came from! I thought it was a malware that somehow got installed on my computer. "Hello from Picasa!" -- I thought it was horrifically traitorous social engineering.
With a PnP DM, nobody's gonna say, "Hey, let's go back and see if the caves by Keep on the Borderlands have respawned!"
At least not if they're hoping their character survives another five seconds.
> anyways the housing as of right now ***is*** non-instanced
> but I am pretty sure it is zoning-restricted. I could be wrong.
Yes, but the world is absolutely massive, so even at the best, with dozens and dozens of player-made cities, each with many score buildings, the vast majority of the world was still empty desert.
You're pretty free to build anywhere a building will fit, as long as it's somewhat outside the pre-made cities. You get 10 build units (I forget the term) where a small house takes 1, the largest 5, a cantina, etc. 6 (forget the exact details.)
Still waiting for a game where you can build your own house from pre-made wall pieces. Maybe design it on a web site, then place in-game.
Count me on the side of difficult, real accomplishments.
"Difficult" is not "sitting on your ass for days on end waiting for a spawn".
"Difficult" is not slaughtering thousands of gnolls or whatever.
Difficult is solving tough problems. But that might make it nowhere in MMORPGs because solutions will all be on web sites -- look at the idiocy of D&D Online right now, where 9 times out of 10, your "group" has been through the dungeon you're on, and are blowing through it, rather than adventuring.
Of course, you can avoid web sites, to be left on the side of the road by people who do use web sites, get twinked, etc. That may be the state of things, but it's not adventuring and it's not "difficult".
As far as actual roleplaying was concerned, in ancient EverQuest, the ogres, close to the beginning of the game (within a few months of release), the ogres were largely roleplayed. This was little more than talking in "dumbspeak", but that was enough for comaraderie.
And don't tell me if I've misspelled comaraderie because I'm talking in dumbspeak now!
Then a guy dropped a precious store bought steel longsword in the shallow water of Oasis of Marr, and of course you cannot pick up something underwater unless you are also underwater, which you cannot be in the shallows. GM was useless as tits on a bull in that situation, so guy quits, group starts breaking up, that's that.
Regardless, I guarantee you one of the scientists has already had this thing walk up and down his wiener for...awhile.
Don't give me that! You know it's been done already!
> I shared the hilarity with my hand-maiden, who
Leave Rosie outta this, nerd!
I haven't had time to RTFA, but I hate Use Magic Device, too. What a stupid skill. It makes a mockery of class separations on the one hand, and makes it harder for a fighter to use high-magic weapons they should be able to use on the other hand. Either you can use the thing, or you can't. Don't want a chaotic guy using a lawful sword just because he pumped up his UMD.
We probably all think "But the word processor helps EVERYONE to write better, thus improving the writing capabilities of humanity as a whole!", but apparently the English teachers disagree; they are just selfish old geezers who want us to "Suffer As They Did."
Actually, for grade-school students learning to write, there is mounting evidence that learning to type instead causes them to suffer in the language department. There seems to be something about hand-drawing letters that gives a distinct advantage.
Whether that's still valid at the high school level though, I don't know.
vi? emacs?
Real men use Notepad.exe.
these students had never even heard of a linker, had only the vaguest idea what a compiler was, and weren't sure how the editor was different from the compiler.
Wonderful. I heard a few years ago universities started not requiring a class in Shakespeare of their English majors.
I guess that brainiac move has infected the CS departments -- no assembly language class required for you!