"I am leveling rather fast and see no sign of slowing down."
Once you hit level 20, you will hit a brick wall. Level 20 is the max level in this game. You can still gain more in game skills and "madskillz" as a player tho.
You don't write it in XML, you write it in whatever way your "editor" presents it to you. Just like you don't write write OpenOffice files bit by bit, but rather using a graphic user friendly interface. You "editor" in text mode, could show you the code in a standard programming language syntax where all your actions will be reflected in the "XML file" or whatever data structure.
Forget an indenting convention. Just make high quality auto-indenting software. When you recieve a source file, run it thru this program and view the file the way you want to look at it.
Hell, even make the underlying code be some kind of XML structure, and every "editor" uses a custom "stylesheet" to view it however it want.
An editor can be a simple text editor of some sort, or a graphic monster showing your program structure using a fisher-price like interface.
Bottom line: regardless how the code appears NOW, your viewer can automatically re-indent to your liking.
There's a DRM plugin? I just renamed the plugins directory. I have never used any plugin and it just slows down the launching of the program. Now acrobat loads in a second or two.
Optional, and not limiting, expansions every 6-9 months. It is possible to play the game and stay competitive without buying the expansions. And I would assume instanced (i.e private) maps reduce the server and network load by a lot.
btw, some of the main devs for the game are ex-blizzard, people who worked on Diablo, Warcraft (not 3) and Starcraft.
Try Guild Wars. It's not REALLY an MMORPG, since after you party up, the game creates an instance of a map section for your party only, no more "kill stealing" or such non-pvp annoying things people do to eachother. It doesn't have this "time-wasting treadmill cycle", simply by capping the level at 20. You don't waste time "levelling", but rather in doing "quests" and gaining new skills. The game is pretty analogous to playing a game like Magic: The Gathering, since the skills are pretty balanced, and the outcome of battles depends not on how much time you wasted "levelling", but rather on how good you play your skills strategically.
I'm gonna burn in hell for so many other things, so it really doesn't matter;) (I'm going to the 6th level of hell, the city of dis, according to Dante, btw)
Hell, just remove passwords completely. Just let the device store your RSA private key or something and authenticate using that. Or even easier, have it store your Diffie-Hellman private key, and use the agreed key to encrypt your connection to the sites.
Even without the biometric ID on it, it's still secure, at least as much as ATM cards. They only requiere a card and a 4 digit pin.
The solution to item farming (and generally "endless levelling"), can be something like they did in Guild Wars where:
1. Every area is instanced for the party visiting it, therefore no "kill stealing", "training" or other non-PvP things players can harm others with.
2. There is a level of cap of 20, which can be reached in about 20-30 hours of gaming. What CAN be still upgraded are skills. The idea behind the game is that the winner of the battle won't be the one who played for more time, but rather the person who planned the best skill combination (you can have 8 skills per battle, out of 150~ unlockable) and has the best cooperation with party members. Since everyone is pretty much the same, stat-wise, there's no reason to sell players. To an extremety, it would be like selling your CounterStrike or Warcraft3 player. The game is then in a sense a lot like M:TG. It's not about the time you waste "levelling", but rather on how you strategically choose your 8 skills to use (think a 60 card deck) and how you use them. Just like a skilled M:TG player can beat a lower level player with a much weaker deck, simply by playing smarter. Also, think first person shooters... as you near the end of the game, sure you get better weapons, but generally still use the weaker ones. The game becomes much harder, but you, as the player, can handle it better because you know when to use what.
3. Another reason I think people buy high level items for real cash, is that most MMORPGs have a monthly subscription fee, people think: "instead of paying 30$ for levelling my char for 2 months, i'll just buy one". GuildWars is free other than the initial cost (again, think M:TG). What is planned tho, are optional expansions, which btw will be balanced with the previous "chapters", but will let you have more variety. Again, think about expansions in M:TG, the new cards are generally balanced like before, but since you have more choises, you can have better skill combinations.
"What's next, for an extra fee each month, you'll level 10% faster?" There are several korean based MMOGs where it goes exactly like that, except that the game is a free download and there's no subscription. You're not FORCED to pay anything, but you can buy double exp cards for about 10$/month, or various items which are just for show off like cool clothes. Again, the game is free to download and play, the company only profits from these "cash items", and even tho not everyone buys, they make big bucks. Anyways, after 57 levels, I realized i'm doing the same thing all the time, repetitive "level grinding", and now I consider moving to a game like Guild Wars which is based more on player skill than level grinding (and btw has no monthly fee, like diablo or starcraft).
Unless ofcourse at least one of your guild members has a cure-poison skill and he heals you. The game is made so it's possible to play with players that have different expansions.
The "M:TG" analogy is a good one, and is often used to explain how GW works. Eveyone is almost the same (all "LV20") other than the skills, skill combinations they use and their own skills as a player (i.e know when to cast what...)
How is this device "modular"? Inside the "core", you have a non-modular combination of CPU, RAM, VPU and HD.
What I would like to see is small modules: A cpu module, a ram module, a VPU module, an HD module. Then you could connect them all together using some sort of standardtized connectors. Want to have more memory? Just add another memory module. Want more CPU power? Add or replace a CPU module. Each module will include various general connectors: Data with various bandwidths, power, some sort of cooling solution (maybe a heat pipe, which will be connected to a cooler somewhere)
Obviously the video module would have video out connectors, the sound module will have audio out and the network module/s will have ethernet connectors etc...
I remember reading that IBM was working on such a system, other than the fact the modules were bigger, each box including at least one processor and the modules were "a stack of CPUs", "a stack of hard drives", etc.
This is what I could call modular.
This will also lead to interesting module configurations, optimized for specific needs....
1) Check out the OpenGL versions of the original Doom (jDoom for example). Me and a friend finished Doom3, then we tried jDoom, using the original map packs. I must tell you, it was funner than playing Doom 3. Surely, it adds mouselook and standard WASD controls, but the SPIRIT of the original game was there. It was fun.
2) Agreed. 3) R-Type? I have never played it, but there were plenty of shooters afterwards, for consoles and for the PC which were very fun for me, even if they aren't too famous (such as Raptor: Call Of the Shadows and Tyrian).
Exactly! You know what player I use now? MPlayer. It has the best gui I can ask for, just like a TV. The window shows the image, and when you seek or change volume (using keyboard shortcuts), it displays the changes. Minimalistic, yet enough for me.
Moreover, i started using OpenBox more than KDE... sure it's minimalistic, but it works fast, and leaves more screen space for my apps.
Slashdot Mirror
"I am leveling rather fast and see no sign of slowing down."
Once you hit level 20, you will hit a brick wall. Level 20 is the max level in this game. You can still gain more in game skills and "madskillz" as a player tho.
You don't write it in XML, you write it in whatever way your "editor" presents it to you.
Just like you don't write write OpenOffice files bit by bit, but rather using a graphic user friendly interface.
You "editor" in text mode, could show you the code in a standard programming language syntax where all your actions will be reflected in the "XML file" or whatever data structure.
Refer to a classic
And that's why I hate hungarian notation ^_^
(yes yes I know that's not what he was trying to achieve)
Forget an indenting convention. Just make high quality auto-indenting software. When you recieve a source file, run it thru this program and view the file the way you want to look at it.
Hell, even make the underlying code be some kind of XML structure, and every "editor" uses a custom "stylesheet" to view it however it want.
An editor can be a simple text editor of some sort, or a graphic monster showing your program structure using a fisher-price like interface.
Bottom line: regardless how the code appears NOW, your viewer can automatically re-indent to your liking.
Every medium or better compiler will optimize that kind of redundancy anyways.
There's a DRM plugin?
I just renamed the plugins directory. I have never used any plugin and it just slows down the launching of the program.
Now acrobat loads in a second or two.
Optional, and not limiting, expansions every 6-9 months. It is possible to play the game and stay competitive without buying the expansions.
And I would assume instanced (i.e private) maps reduce the server and network load by a lot.
btw, some of the main devs for the game are ex-blizzard, people who worked on Diablo, Warcraft (not 3) and Starcraft.
Try Guild Wars. It's not REALLY an MMORPG, since after you party up, the game creates an instance of a map section for your party only, no more "kill stealing" or such non-pvp annoying things people do to eachother.
It doesn't have this "time-wasting treadmill cycle", simply by capping the level at 20. You don't waste time "levelling", but rather in doing "quests" and gaining new skills.
The game is pretty analogous to playing a game like Magic: The Gathering, since the skills are pretty balanced, and the outcome of battles depends not on how much time you wasted "levelling", but rather on how good you play your skills strategically.
Oh and there's no monthly subscription.
I'm gonna burn in hell for so many other things, so it really doesn't matter ;)
(I'm going to the 6th level of hell, the city of dis, according to Dante, btw)
So if this new "STEM" technology runs on IBM's CELL processors, will we get STEM CELLs?
Hell, just remove passwords completely. Just let the device store your RSA private key or something and authenticate using that. Or even easier, have it store your Diffie-Hellman private key, and use the agreed key to encrypt your connection to the sites.
Even without the biometric ID on it, it's still secure, at least as much as ATM cards. They only requiere a card and a 4 digit pin.
No-one will ever guess my super-secret password: GOD
If I copy paste your password, only you see it... we all still see asterisks ^_^
The solution to item farming (and generally "endless levelling"), can be something like they did in Guild Wars where:
1. Every area is instanced for the party visiting it, therefore no "kill stealing", "training" or other non-PvP things players can harm others with.
2. There is a level of cap of 20, which can be reached in about 20-30 hours of gaming. What CAN be still upgraded are skills. The idea behind the game is that the winner of the battle won't be the one who played for more time, but rather the person who planned the best skill combination (you can have 8 skills per battle, out of 150~ unlockable) and has the best cooperation with party members.
Since everyone is pretty much the same, stat-wise, there's no reason to sell players. To an extremety, it would be like selling your CounterStrike or Warcraft3 player.
The game is then in a sense a lot like M:TG. It's not about the time you waste "levelling", but rather on how you strategically choose your 8 skills to use (think a 60 card deck) and how you use them. Just like a skilled M:TG player can beat a lower level player with a much weaker deck, simply by playing smarter.
Also, think first person shooters... as you near the end of the game, sure you get better weapons, but generally still use the weaker ones. The game becomes much harder, but you, as the player, can handle it better because you know when to use what.
3. Another reason I think people buy high level items for real cash, is that most MMORPGs have a monthly subscription fee, people think: "instead of paying 30$ for levelling my char for 2 months, i'll just buy one". GuildWars is free other than the initial cost (again, think M:TG).
What is planned tho, are optional expansions, which btw will be balanced with the previous "chapters", but will let you have more variety. Again, think about expansions in M:TG, the new cards are generally balanced like before, but since you have more choises, you can have better skill combinations.
"What's next, for an extra fee each month, you'll level 10% faster?"
There are several korean based MMOGs where it goes exactly like that, except that the game is a free download and there's no subscription.
You're not FORCED to pay anything, but you can buy double exp cards for about 10$/month, or various items which are just for show off like cool clothes.
Again, the game is free to download and play, the company only profits from these "cash items", and even tho not everyone buys, they make big bucks.
Anyways, after 57 levels, I realized i'm doing the same thing all the time, repetitive "level grinding", and now I consider moving to a game like Guild Wars which is based more on player skill than level grinding (and btw has no monthly fee, like diablo or starcraft).
Unless ofcourse at least one of your guild members has a cure-poison skill and he heals you.
The game is made so it's possible to play with players that have different expansions.
The "M:TG" analogy is a good one, and is often used to explain how GW works. Eveyone is almost the same (all "LV20") other than the skills, skill combinations they use and their own skills as a player (i.e know when to cast what...)
Piccy from GuildWars: click
;)
If that's modest, I wanna know what's not
How is this device "modular"? Inside the "core", you have a non-modular combination of CPU, RAM, VPU and HD.
What I would like to see is small modules:
A cpu module, a ram module, a VPU module, an HD module.
Then you could connect them all together using some sort of standardtized connectors.
Want to have more memory? Just add another memory module.
Want more CPU power? Add or replace a CPU module.
Each module will include various general connectors:
Data with various bandwidths, power, some sort of cooling solution (maybe a heat pipe, which will be connected to a cooler somewhere)
Obviously the video module would have video out connectors, the sound module will have audio out and the network module/s will have ethernet connectors etc...
I remember reading that IBM was working on such a system, other than the fact the modules were bigger, each box including at least one processor and the modules were "a stack of CPUs", "a stack of hard drives", etc.
This is what I could call modular.
This will also lead to interesting module configurations, optimized for specific needs....
1) Check out the OpenGL versions of the original Doom (jDoom for example). Me and a friend finished Doom3, then we tried jDoom, using the original map packs. I must tell you, it was funner than playing Doom 3. Surely, it adds mouselook and standard WASD controls, but the SPIRIT of the original game was there. It was fun.
2) Agreed.
3) R-Type? I have never played it, but there were plenty of shooters afterwards, for consoles and for the PC which were very fun for me, even if they aren't too famous (such as Raptor: Call Of the Shadows and Tyrian).
Unreal 3 was announced like half a year ago....
Or at least the engine was.
And it looks very sweet.
Dupe.
Exactly!
You know what player I use now? MPlayer.
It has the best gui I can ask for, just like a TV. The window shows the image, and when you seek or change volume (using keyboard shortcuts), it displays the changes. Minimalistic, yet enough for me.
Moreover, i started using OpenBox more than KDE... sure it's minimalistic, but it works fast, and leaves more screen space for my apps.
Great ^_^
I put that into my siggy on another forum, with credit ofcourse.
Only IANAL, RTFA and GP are kinda slashdot specific... all others are very common.
IIRC
Reasons for playing the sims are here (sims1) and here (sims2).