Consider a bill coming from mail.com for blocking their pop-up ads, or from the Cable TV company for not watching commercials (they DO know when you change channels and for how long).
Ok, now everyone else here is missing some factors. Cable TV already costs you something. You pay for it. If you're hijacking a Cable line and they find out then you're the one who was stealing. If they want to say that when you change the channel, you're stealing from them, then you best be damn sure some other company will start up that says its OK to change the channel, and look who will get the leading edge in that market? [Even if they might charge a slightly higher price.]
So the difference between Cable TV and P2P networks sharing mp3s and videos, is those mp3s and videos DO NOT BELONG to you, and you havent paid for the service, either. If you paid Kazaa to share those files, then the RIAA / etc would be filing lawsuits against KAZAA for selling copyrighted material, and the cost would fall on them. Who knows if they'd let you keep the mp3s / videos or not.
You pay for Cable TV, you DONT get a reciept for using kazaa.
5.2 We have already pointed out that this would cost the state over 74 crore rupees in terms of license fees alone at the modest rate of 10 computers per school. The government has actually prescribed use of up to 15 computers per school. Thus, there would be more than 41,600 computers in schools alone by the year 2004, and either the schools, or the government, stands to lose, and the corporation actually stands to gain, not merely rupees 74 crores, but sums far in excess of Rs. 118,56,00,000/- (Rupees one hundred and eighteen crores, fifty six lakhs) on license fees alone.
1,185,600,000.00 INR
India Rupees
=
24,596,557.80 USD
United States Dollars
1 INR = 0.0207461 USD 1 USD = 48.2019 INR
All I can say is wow.
If you understood their currency then it might be different. Who knows, maybe after the hundreds place, people from india do things differently? Give 'em a break.
1.2 We gather that there are nearly 2600 high schools in Kera1a. The scheme envisages that each school should have 10 computers within next three years. Cost of prescribed operating system is approximately Rs. 3500/- per computer. The application software specified in the syllabus costs another Rs. 25,000/- per computer. At the prescribed ratio of 10 computers per school, by the year 2004, this will cost the schools an astounding Rs. 74,10,00,000/- (rupees seventy four crores and ten lakhs) - (Rs. 3,500 + Rs. 25,000 = Rs. 28,500 x 10 computers per school x 2600 schools).
Being Microsoft and all, this comes as little surprise... but my goodness that sounds like a great deal of money to be spent on operating systems, even if its in rupees and not dollars. Anyone got the conversion for Rupees to Dollars?
I can see this being capitalized on. People will make start selling the source code to their programs for ridiculous prices al la the Microsoft Way off doing things. As Seen Here.
I would like to see some kind of standard set for pricing. OS's cost too much [as noted above], Most software has a set shelf value from day 1, and many of us have got to remember when you could find website auctions going on... "Buy www.YourCompany'sNameHere.com for $9,999,999!!!"
Who is going to be watching out for the little guy if there isnt any kind of realistic gauging done on supply and demand in the Tech industry? Its certainly not the government if they're supporting the idea that because we use computers we're criminals.
Now that just isnt right.:( They die too fast for being 6 - 7$ for 4 AA batteries. Then again I havent purchased batteries in awhile so maybe local costs are lower then where you are.
I'd like to buy 10000000 batteries please. And no, that isnt a lazer gun in the back of my truck outside. *gets batteries to power the gun that will allow him to take over the world!!!!* And I didnt even have to tell them where I lived. How kind.:)
Jk, this is really a good move. I mean if you're buying an 600$ piece of hardware they might want your name and number, but if you're buying 2 batteries for 2$ there would be little harm in it.
Now if only they would stop asking for the money...
I mean what kind of costs go into taking a shot of the moon when we dont really *need* to? Sad to see equipment being *wasted* on this kind of thing.
If you think about it the conspiracy theorists are just going to say we launched these things at the moon but no one ever actually set foot, its all just some plot to make them believe... yadda yadda.
Just commercialize space travel for a low cost, and let them go see the sites for themselves.
Not just movies, there are entire books set in the star wars universe. There is a WHOLE lot of content they can add that you've never seen in the movies.
Is there going to be a set number of planets? Or will we be able to band together in large groups and after we gain enough recognition in game and maybe even enough out of game $$$ would we be able to purchase our own planet? I've heard this whole thing about having planets in the game... I think that would be cool to be able to have your own for a large team or organization.
Hey, I'm going to give you a little bit of insight into my life. Mostly because I, like your children, grew up with computers.
I'm currently 17. I'm in a High School & College Dual Credit program. [I was allowed to take college classes for free and earn both college credit and my remaining high school credit with the same classes.] I'm majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Despite economic trends, I have a job downtown. I am a programmer, and I make almost double the national average for teenager's wages.
I started using computers about the same age as your three year old. I didnt completely understand them at that age, but I tell you by age 5 I was using Basic A with ease[Hey it was cool to make your own program. One with a bouncing ball!]. This whole time I was using Dos / Win3.1, and shortly after we moved up to the pacific northwest I was introduced to Apple, and MacOS. Having many different computers at home, I eventually learned how to setup my own LAN, around age 9 or 10. My father, part of the highly trained tech support group for a Local Newspaper, was constantly building new machines and introducing me to new operating systems... and well he still does it now. I remember when we had the BeBox around the house running BeOS. Man that was my favorite, too bad that didnt work out:( He also provided me with a variety of programming languages and tutorials for them. I've at least learned the basics, or more, for Basic, Fortran, VB, C++, HTML, Java, PHP, and Perl. I've had very little actual training. I took a VB class at a High School program, but thats it.
I've been part of clubs like Mock Trial, which has gone to state each year since its encarnation in my freshman year. I've been on track teams, soccer teams, baseball teams, and more. THATS the key. I know, it took me awhile to get to it. The thing is, variety will do more for your kids than anything else. I didnt just sit at a computer screen. I was constantly reading books, hanging out with a small group of friends, solving puzzles, playing those educational games you can get from "TurnOffTheTV", and more. I'm assuming you do the same, and this is more from a computer perspective.
On a budget, I'd suggest if you could keep the XP machine, and setup a Linux machine as well... That would be best. The things you're worried about [compatability? Autorun?] could be solved by having more than one OS around to use. Then it'd be a little like my house,:) FreeBSD, MacOS, **Win2k, **RedHat, QNX, etc.:)
BY THE WAY, Get those kids off windows!! Fast!!! Before they accept the idea that an OS can be trash in a box for 300$
Then wouldnt a logical fix to that problem be to start marines and aliens with some kind of primitive defenses? Maybe a turret factory and one or two turrets [for marines] and a handful of offensive chambers for aliens?
I do notice that the *premise* for the marines landing is that the aliens had been on the *ship* or *colony* for an extended period of time. I'm still quite confused as to how the aliens could be there for so long and only have a hive structure and one resource tower.
Have you played on a patched server yet? Fades are a lot stronger, and can be a strong force to use against those turrets. Regardless you're right, this game relies heavily upon teamwork.
True, I've seen drastic comebacks and sudden victories, but out of 20 games how many fall upon that outcome?
I admit you're correct though, the imbalance(s) isnt(/arent) obvious yet and probably wont be for awhile. A week or two isnt going to do it. I've been playing for more than that and some of the "fixes" placed since starting havent even touched on it. So yes, the imbalances will surface, but it might not be so soon.
hehe its probably just because so many of the people playing NS right now are greatly more used to First Person Shooters. Its just a common complaint I hear.:) I personally would like to see NS develop both its FPS and RTS sides though. then again why would this be BETA 1.01 if it werent already far into testing;)
Re:Balancing Issues in NS
on
Gaming Goodness
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
First, I agree on your comment. I find it extremely cool that a game I bought for such a small price has blossomed into dozens upon dozens of good Mods that are completely FREE:)
In response to the 2nd half though... I am not a game developer but I know my way around the gaming community and I think I can give you a good idea of how it works.
Natural Selection takes advantage of both FPS [First Person Shooter] and RTS [Real Time Strategy] characteristics. Its in essence a hybrid.
To start with the marine side, it has a commander who plays the game more like an RTS [top down strategy] where you dont get to control your "units" [the marines / players] directly but you can give them waypoints and stuff to build or use. The players experience the game like a first person shooter and can ask the commander to drop them weapons and armor, or place turrets for them to build.
The Aliens follow a similar structure except they have no commander. They all have their own resources and have multiple levels of alien evolution. Each type of alien has its own attacks and stats like armor and health.
A major way to prevent aliens and marines from rushing is to adjust weapon damage, or available resources for either side or even both sides. With lower starting weapon damage rushing wouldnt do much damage. This would be undesirable because you would loose resources and time. It could also prove to be hindering to either side later on where their first level marines or aliens would be nearly useless against higher level creatures or equipment.
The other way, to adjust starting resources, could determine how quickly either side could build up defenses, evolve, or research better equipment.
In reality there are many different ways to approach that problem. Its determined more by the problem, the game, and the community that defines the problem.
Good Gaming Site and Company
on
Gaming Goodness
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Another note I'd like to make is where you can find a large variety of services for the gaming community. Anything from game reviews to servers for rent. They beta tested BF1942, another game noted on the comments, and AA [America's Army] as well.:) Its a great place to be if you love gaming.
www.homelanfed.com
thx:)
Balancing Issues in NS
on
Gaming Goodness
·
· Score: 5, Informative
One of my assosiates in a gaming organization is in on Natural Selection because he helps moderate their forums. Due to this, my team of gamers got a first crack at Beta 1.00 and 1.01b [before it was released no less:)] and are still pointing out something thats obvious. The game needs some major balancing before it reaches its acme, as do most games. At first players complained that Aliens were underpowered and Marines could win the game in just about any situation. Now while the game is a little more even the Aliens are starting to come out a bit more powerful and the marines a bit weaker. The most obvious flaw in this game is that the whole outcome can be determined in the first 5 - 15 minutes of the game. With an average game running anywhere between an hour to four hours this is considerably undesirable. One team knows they're destined for doom hours ahead of their demise.
Another note is how players constantly claim that aliens can rush marines in the beginning and overpower all their foes easily with the high attack power on the level 1 alien creatures. Well the night before last I displayed what a marine rush and an alien rush can do:
Aliens Win: ~5 minutes
Marines Win: ~3 minutes
I'm pretty sure they didnt make this game to be played in under 10 minutes. So while it does have great prospects and is a considerably nice idea, I would like to see it balanced out before I start calling it the best game ever.
Slashdot Mirror
So the difference between Cable TV and P2P networks sharing mp3s and videos, is those mp3s and videos DO NOT BELONG to you, and you havent paid for the service, either. If you paid Kazaa to share those files, then the RIAA / etc would be filing lawsuits against KAZAA for selling copyrighted material, and the cost would fall on them. Who knows if they'd let you keep the mp3s / videos or not.
You pay for Cable TV, you DONT get a reciept for using kazaa.
1,185,600,000.00 INR India Rupees = 24,596,557.80 USD United States Dollars 1 INR = 0.0207461 USD 1 USD = 48.2019 INR All I can say is wow.
I did the math its actually 741 million, but its still a large number. 741,000,000.00 INR India Rupees = 15,372,140.68 USD United States Dollars
If you understood their currency then it might be different. Who knows, maybe after the hundreds place, people from india do things differently? Give 'em a break.
Being Microsoft and all, this comes as little surprise... but my goodness that sounds like a great deal of money to be spent on operating systems, even if its in rupees and not dollars. Anyone got the conversion for Rupees to Dollars?
I would like to see some kind of standard set for pricing. OS's cost too much [as noted above], Most software has a set shelf value from day 1, and many of us have got to remember when you could find website auctions going on... "Buy www.YourCompany'sNameHere.com for $9,999,999!!!"
Who is going to be watching out for the little guy if there isnt any kind of realistic gauging done on supply and demand in the Tech industry? Its certainly not the government if they're supporting the idea that because we use computers we're criminals.
Now that just isnt right. :( They die too fast for being 6 - 7$ for 4 AA batteries. Then again I havent purchased batteries in awhile so maybe local costs are lower then where you are.
I'd like to buy 10000000 batteries please. And no, that isnt a lazer gun in the back of my truck outside. *gets batteries to power the gun that will allow him to take over the world!!!!* And I didnt even have to tell them where I lived. How kind. :)
Jk, this is really a good move. I mean if you're buying an 600$ piece of hardware they might want your name and number, but if you're buying 2 batteries for 2$ there would be little harm in it.
Now if only they would stop asking for the money...
If you think about it the conspiracy theorists are just going to say we launched these things at the moon but no one ever actually set foot, its all just some plot to make them believe... yadda yadda.
Just commercialize space travel for a low cost, and let them go see the sites for themselves.
I'm almost sure there was an article that talked about this same thing about a year ago. There was one hit in 1993 and... again in 1996???
Well I wouldnt be surprised if a group like HomeLAN [which I'm part of] might get a planet of their own someday hehehehe.
Not just movies, there are entire books set in the star wars universe. There is a WHOLE lot of content they can add that you've never seen in the movies.
Is there going to be a set number of planets? Or will we be able to band together in large groups and after we gain enough recognition in game and maybe even enough out of game $$$ would we be able to purchase our own planet? I've heard this whole thing about having planets in the game... I think that would be cool to be able to have your own for a large team or organization.
Does this mean I should get Mozilla?
Updated Price: $7900.00 Who wants the Navi? If only to call themselves Lain? buhahaha
Hey, I'm going to give you a little bit of insight into my life. Mostly because I, like your children, grew up with computers.
:( He also provided me with a variety of programming languages and tutorials for them. I've at least learned the basics, or more, for Basic, Fortran, VB, C++, HTML, Java, PHP, and Perl. I've had very little actual training. I took a VB class at a High School program, but thats it.
:) FreeBSD, MacOS, **Win2k, **RedHat, QNX, etc. :)
I'm currently 17. I'm in a High School & College Dual Credit program. [I was allowed to take college classes for free and earn both college credit and my remaining high school credit with the same classes.] I'm majoring in Aerospace Engineering. Despite economic trends, I have a job downtown. I am a programmer, and I make almost double the national average for teenager's wages.
I started using computers about the same age as your three year old. I didnt completely understand them at that age, but I tell you by age 5 I was using Basic A with ease[Hey it was cool to make your own program. One with a bouncing ball!]. This whole time I was using Dos / Win3.1, and shortly after we moved up to the pacific northwest I was introduced to Apple, and MacOS. Having many different computers at home, I eventually learned how to setup my own LAN, around age 9 or 10. My father, part of the highly trained tech support group for a Local Newspaper, was constantly building new machines and introducing me to new operating systems... and well he still does it now. I remember when we had the BeBox around the house running BeOS. Man that was my favorite, too bad that didnt work out
I've been part of clubs like Mock Trial, which has gone to state each year since its encarnation in my freshman year. I've been on track teams, soccer teams, baseball teams, and more. THATS the key. I know, it took me awhile to get to it. The thing is, variety will do more for your kids than anything else. I didnt just sit at a computer screen. I was constantly reading books, hanging out with a small group of friends, solving puzzles, playing those educational games you can get from "TurnOffTheTV", and more. I'm assuming you do the same, and this is more from a computer perspective.
On a budget, I'd suggest if you could keep the XP machine, and setup a Linux machine as well... That would be best. The things you're worried about [compatability? Autorun?] could be solved by having more than one OS around to use. Then it'd be a little like my house,
BY THE WAY, Get those kids off windows!! Fast!!! Before they accept the idea that an OS can be trash in a box for 300$
Then wouldnt a logical fix to that problem be to start marines and aliens with some kind of primitive defenses? Maybe a turret factory and one or two turrets [for marines] and a handful of offensive chambers for aliens? I do notice that the *premise* for the marines landing is that the aliens had been on the *ship* or *colony* for an extended period of time. I'm still quite confused as to how the aliens could be there for so long and only have a hive structure and one resource tower.
I believe the acid rockets do no damage to buildings or turrets. ;) Might be why its a problem for ya.
Have you played on a patched server yet? Fades are a lot stronger, and can be a strong force to use against those turrets. Regardless you're right, this game relies heavily upon teamwork.
:) Exactly, someone mod this guy up. Knows what he's talking about ;) :)
True, I've seen drastic comebacks and sudden victories, but out of 20 games how many fall upon that outcome? I admit you're correct though, the imbalance(s) isnt(/arent) obvious yet and probably wont be for awhile. A week or two isnt going to do it. I've been playing for more than that and some of the "fixes" placed since starting havent even touched on it. So yes, the imbalances will surface, but it might not be so soon.
hehe its probably just because so many of the people playing NS right now are greatly more used to First Person Shooters. Its just a common complaint I hear. :) I personally would like to see NS develop both its FPS and RTS sides though. then again why would this be BETA 1.01 if it werent already far into testing ;)
First, I agree on your comment. I find it extremely cool that a game I bought for such a small price has blossomed into dozens upon dozens of good Mods that are completely FREE :)
In response to the 2nd half though... I am not a game developer but I know my way around the gaming community and I think I can give you a good idea of how it works.
Natural Selection takes advantage of both FPS [First Person Shooter] and RTS [Real Time Strategy] characteristics. Its in essence a hybrid.
To start with the marine side, it has a commander who plays the game more like an RTS [top down strategy] where you dont get to control your "units" [the marines / players] directly but you can give them waypoints and stuff to build or use. The players experience the game like a first person shooter and can ask the commander to drop them weapons and armor, or place turrets for them to build.
The Aliens follow a similar structure except they have no commander. They all have their own resources and have multiple levels of alien evolution. Each type of alien has its own attacks and stats like armor and health.
A major way to prevent aliens and marines from rushing is to adjust weapon damage, or available resources for either side or even both sides. With lower starting weapon damage rushing wouldnt do much damage. This would be undesirable because you would loose resources and time. It could also prove to be hindering to either side later on where their first level marines or aliens would be nearly useless against higher level creatures or equipment.
The other way, to adjust starting resources, could determine how quickly either side could build up defenses, evolve, or research better equipment.
In reality there are many different ways to approach that problem. Its determined more by the problem, the game, and the community that defines the problem.
Another note I'd like to make is where you can find a large variety of services for the gaming community. Anything from game reviews to servers for rent. They beta tested BF1942, another game noted on the comments, and AA [America's Army] as well. :) Its a great place to be if you love gaming.
www.homelanfed.com
thx :)
One of my assosiates in a gaming organization is in on Natural Selection because he helps moderate their forums. Due to this, my team of gamers got a first crack at Beta 1.00 and 1.01b [before it was released no less :)] and are still pointing out something thats obvious. The game needs some major balancing before it reaches its acme, as do most games. At first players complained that Aliens were underpowered and Marines could win the game in just about any situation. Now while the game is a little more even the Aliens are starting to come out a bit more powerful and the marines a bit weaker. The most obvious flaw in this game is that the whole outcome can be determined in the first 5 - 15 minutes of the game. With an average game running anywhere between an hour to four hours this is considerably undesirable. One team knows they're destined for doom hours ahead of their demise.
Another note is how players constantly claim that aliens can rush marines in the beginning and overpower all their foes easily with the high attack power on the level 1 alien creatures. Well the night before last I displayed what a marine rush and an alien rush can do:
Aliens Win: ~5 minutes
Marines Win: ~3 minutes
I'm pretty sure they didnt make this game to be played in under 10 minutes. So while it does have great prospects and is a considerably nice idea, I would like to see it balanced out before I start calling it the best game ever.