I like Earth & Beyond. I d/l'd the demo and get to play full version for 14 days then i can pay $14 and get a new regcode making the demo a full retail copy and a month access. They dont want billing info till im ready to buy. I only wish other MMPs let you sample the goods for free.
Just been playing with the mod for 3 days now. First impression is it didnt live up to the hype that was put forth but alot better than some 0.1a releases. Im glad to see a modern SW'esque game I dont have to pay 15$/month to play.
Lets start with player models. They are fairly well done. They look like they fit the enviroment very well. You can tell these are people from the SW universe. Some of the animations need to mature more. Mostly small things like they dont hold some weapons properly. Grenades float next to the hand etc. A big baddie is the support player. The gun emplacment you setup when you enter it moves your view up in the air but the model is positioned correctly. This is a camera POV setting issue likely and easily fixed. Cant wait to see the other player models when finished.
The vehicle models are the center of this mod I think. You get to see/fly/drive some of the classic vehicles. You can tell this is where the modders really focused thier time. Some of the models are too ritch in polygons for the detail the engine can produce. The Corellian Freighter for instance on its landing gear has these extra angled crossmember supports. I dont remember these on the original but I may just hadnt noticed, in any case they are small rectangular primitives and they tear at certain angles sometimes. Its better to remove them, it doesnt change the detail of the model and it makes it look cleaner. The interior is well detailed almost to excess right down to the holochess board, wheres the wookie?;) The air/snow speeders looks exactly like the movie speeders, well done. The texture for the cocpit displays are not done yet but I turn them off normally anyway for better visibility in any BF flying vehicle. The rear gunner position is just like the original. The speeder can stay on the ground at full speed making it like a fast hover tank, not sure what the deal with it is but its a minor detail at this level of development. Now for the republics offerings. The tie bomber is straight from moviebook spec. Not too ritch in polys but the design makes for an easy modeling. The interior/cocpit skin is not there yet either but has a spacious design as the exterior implies. It flies as you would expect, this ones pretty done I think. The Tie fighter is about the same not alot to say here. Now the biggies the quadraped ATAT isnt ready for the BF engine yet but the ATST biped is....mostly. The detail is in the usual overkill detail but nicely done. However getting it to walk right has been the modders biggest challenge. The animation is a cross of a foward moonwalk/pee pee I really gotta pee dance, this makes it move much slower than it should. This makes it virtually impossible to hit things while moving. And im confused over the missile/mortar launcher whichever is it. It looks like a missile and travels like a mortar. I think the modders should study some mechwarrior to help with the walkers, mostly they are fighting the BF engine which didnt have walking mechs, or wookies, in mind when designing it. A great start though. The rebel gun emplacments are well done and simple to do, lets move on.
There are many balance issues and setting tweaks that need to be done. Why can a speeder kill a Tie in 1 shot but the inverse is not ture? I had to lower my detail to keep the game from being so laggy. There are a few causes for this. One thing is all the textures are not finished and the BF engine doesnt handle that well. Another cause is the visibility setting for the map, its too far and this makes the engine work harder than it should. EA still has work to streamline the BF engine to start with, it doesnt stress well. Once I lowered the detail to medium it worked smoothly. I have a p4 2.4Ghz and a Radeon8500 I normally play with everything turned to max with little troubles normally. Though like I said the textures are not complete yet. The sounds are true to the movies and I have no complaints there. All these issues are game balance and parameter tweaks mainly, the
First of all there are many ways an artist you see and hear and love or hate got thier shot at fame. Many who approach the labels independently dont stand much of a chance unless they know people, most of the time thier press kit goes straight to the trash. If you are lucky and they listen to your demo they may just try to buy or steal the song if they dont think your image is easily marketable. And even rarer they call you to talk about what your looking for. Theres the P&D which many labels try to avoid unless your a known cash cow switching labels or they got the CD for a steal. P&D-Publication & Distrobution they from the money for pressing alot of CD's with a bit of marketing money sometimes. They dont do alot of these unless they know theyre gonna make a good investment, independent labels really tore into the big labels action by granting alot more P&D's because if you dont make doe the artist will rarely get another shot at it and will have to pay his own way unless they make a turn around. Now what the labels really like and if you approached them by yourself and they want you be prepared to make a deal with the devil. "The Full Ride" is what the average joe from nebraska thinks being a rock star is about. The record label is shoving that contract down your throat and your surrounded by execs and your soon to be producer and manager that you only dreamed of seeing in person let alone them shakin your hand every 30 seconds, calling you "Bro" with the slick pressure of the god of car salesman. They promise you limos, cars, women, whatever makes your eyes sparkle they zone in on it and get you to sign that contract as fast as they can with you reading as little of it as they can. When you lay the ink down the bells should toll, the room gets silent a moment, they shake your hand and say congratulations your gonna be famous. Then you get setup with a manager and producer who are gonna get you started and setup your image, your schedule, and all the other details you promised then on legal ink youd obey.
Ok time to record, the producer and manager have prepared protecting your songs through the services of your lawyer which you pay for. And the producer wants to use the labels nice state of the art studio, which you pay for at a insane hourly rate sometimes. By this time you have taken more than a few rides in your limo, which you pay for. You havent made any money yet all this glamour is fronted to you and anything they want you will get buy you pay for it eventually. You pay the producer for a few tens of thousands of dollars per album the manager gets an anual cut and so on... Now this is the darker side of this and "The Full Ride" isnt always bad if the wouldbe artist is smart and watches his back. If he's good enough and is smart enough to have his own lawyer before going to the table and not relying on the labels "I know just the guy" thing. Ill give you an example, Vanilla Ice, not a bad kid, im not a fan, but he got a raw deal. He was 0wned, they told him what to wear, where he would be seen in public, what and when he would do most of the time. Now the big labels have cleaned up quite a bit since they are losing ground to alot of indie labels.
The industrious artist who wants to cut a deal with the big boys and come out alive will get a lawyer they can trust , Then they use said entertainment lawyer to cut a fair deal with a good talent managment agency. The agency has the contacts to get your project hears by the right labels and producers. Then you have a good shot at securing P&D's with some studio money and leave the marketing to the managment agency. All these guys know eachother and you cant BS any of them because the word gets around fast. There are good and fair managers, lawyers, and producers out there. Many of them are wise enough to see the future where yes an artist can with time, money and luck make his own way enough to get picked up by a label at a fair deal. Example Cherry Poppin Daddies they tried for years to get signed and got turned down, so they did it themselves, m
OTECs Have great capabilities but have some limitations. The best way to get energy from thermal exchange is by having the greatest temp contrast. Equitorial waters are the most suited. OTEC that use an amonia to enhance the reaction do not leak it out. Basically deep cold water is mixed with warm surface water in a vaccum turning it to steam. The by-products are clean fresh water and hydrogen. Also the water brought up is heavily mineralized which has its uses in secreting a concrete like substance. Sea-Crete as some call it basically is same thing sea shells are. By using iron rebar for instance you immerse it in this heavily mineralized water and apply a slight electrical charge and you can grow this sea shell sea-crete stuff, its not fast but its strong and natural. Theres this group that has a idea of using a few OTECs and building a city near the equator on the ocean. The mineralized water is also usefull in mariculture, aka growing fish and crusteaceans. They plan to grow spirulina on the surface of the mariculture ponds. Spirulina is a plant/algae that when dried to powder is a potent source for nutrients. They think they can make a stable economy for this said city off exporting fresh water, sea foods, spirulina, and the hydrogen which the OTECs are central to producing all those including power in excess. And we all want clean power and hydrogen for those new fuel cell laptops coming next year. Course, if they built it exxon or someone the like would probably run into it and sink it. Or maybe a US submarine??? Though seriously, if the petro companies were real smart instead of fighting and stifling new energy theyd help develop it and get in at the ground floor of a new industry.
Rant mode off...Those who use power without wisdom cannot claim courage...
My step father has a pace maker that via induction pads hooks to a modem. His doctor calls him and says call me at the office. He calls doc gets a phone number and auth code and hooks his modem up. It uploads all his blood pressure and ekg data stored in the pacemaker for the last month. The doc can review the data and make any needed adjustments. The pacemaker doesnt have internet capabilities the modem box does. Also the pacemaker can be put into a sleep mode by the patient. Its actually required to be in sleep mode to talk to the modem. Also if the software in the pacemaker gets corrupted or fails theres a imbedded rom that has a default program that will keep any patient safe until the software can be reloaded. I dont know who makes this pacemaker but its pretty cool. My step father has had it about 3 years now and has never had a problem. He is a tech geek too and thinks the device is pretty cool himself. He is also glad he doesnt have to drive to the VA hospital ala 50 mile commute once or twice a month just to have his pacemaker checked and to give his data to the doc. YAY technology! Actually being put to good use for once.... =) Keep on tickin....
It seems all you need to do is Put Linux, Microsoft,and now WalMart Together in any story and you can././'s hard drives. Let them fill to capacity with "Trolls" "Flames" and "Nuggets of Insight". You have your heated debates, conspiracy theories, IMHO's, and enough pennies from "2 sence" =).....to buy a deserted island.
The important thing here is for whatever reason, or motive, for better or worse, they has done something bold in the age of "Precautions", "Secuirty", and "Political Correctness". They have the eyes and ears of the masses upon them. They have broke ground for something new, atleast as far as some people are concerned. =) It may be a good choice, It may be a bad choice. You may not like the distro, you may swear by it, you may swear at it.;P But Jim Bob, Joe Blow, and John & Jane Doe get something new this week on sale.......A CHOICE! And thats the moral of the story......
"I can only show you the door Neo, It is you that has to walk through it....." --If you dont know what this quote is from its time to leave the cave;P
Sorry to rant for my first/. post. Ive been reading/. for years silently but I gotta speak up.
The specs in this contest are beyond the fantasy of Lord Of The Rings, and beyond the science fiction of Star Trek. The computer they ask for cannot be built for many reasons.
1-To manufacture a high quality product that is also cheap and international requires all custom parts that have no logo's. That means setting up a component infrastructure all anew. Expensive.. Many vendors will sell "blank" versions of products for alot of money but just plastic and metal. Circuitry is a different matter. I worked for an un-named company that sold "blank" componets but if you inspect certain parts with a 100X microscope w/blacklight the vendor logo was still there. No sane company makes something and not either plug thier name or identify the part somehow.
2-The OS. =) Well there are many ways to go. If you start from scratch you need a whole new company to handle just that. And they will have to work closely with the hardware company if they want a solid product. Does |ntel & Micro$haft sound familiar? Linux is also a good choice but you will still need to write alot of code to intergrate it tightly with the custom hardware, but the kernel is a good foundation to build on. Plus it has to be an easy to use GUI with a suite of custom software.
3-The human factor. Any device has a learning curve. Typically the more complex the device the greater the learning curve. Its going to have to be simple and have few external moving parts for durability. The contest hints its a laptop in thier little story. Expensive. Laptops are mostly a throw away device. That means more junk and LCD chemicals that have to be made, stored, and disposed of safely....more infrastructure and money.
4- Security....a subjective concept. If you make a lock someone will pick it. Ill leave it at that. My rant has become too long for even my taste.
I have an idea, they should just buy Apple Titanium books. =) Seriously, Its great to inspire innovation and creativity, but lets be a little less broad. Also what I want to know....IF someone wins this contest does the contestant keep the rights to his idea? Or does a budding new enterprise get a "market shaking" product handed to them for 150 euro???
Slashdot Mirror
I like Earth & Beyond. I d/l'd the demo and get to play full version for 14 days then i can pay $14 and get a new regcode making the demo a full retail copy and a month access. They dont want billing info till im ready to buy. I only wish other MMPs let you sample the goods for free.
Greetings,
;)
Just been playing with the mod for 3 days now. First impression is it didnt live up to the hype that was put forth but alot better than some 0.1a releases. Im glad to see a modern SW'esque game I dont have to pay 15$/month to play.
Lets start with player models. They are fairly well done. They look like they fit the enviroment very well. You can tell these are people from the SW universe. Some of the animations need to mature more. Mostly small things like they dont hold some weapons properly. Grenades float next to the hand etc. A big baddie is the support player. The gun emplacment you setup when you enter it moves your view up in the air but the model is positioned correctly. This is a camera POV setting issue likely and easily fixed. Cant wait to see the other player models when finished.
The vehicle models are the center of this mod I think. You get to see/fly/drive some of the classic vehicles. You can tell this is where the modders really focused thier time. Some of the models are too ritch in polygons for the detail the engine can produce. The Corellian Freighter for instance on its landing gear has these extra angled crossmember supports. I dont remember these on the original but I may just hadnt noticed, in any case they are small rectangular primitives and they tear at certain angles sometimes. Its better to remove them, it doesnt change the detail of the model and it makes it look cleaner. The interior is well detailed almost to excess right down to the holochess board, wheres the wookie?
The air/snow speeders looks exactly like the movie speeders, well done. The texture for the cocpit displays are not done yet but I turn them off normally anyway for better visibility in any BF flying vehicle. The rear gunner position is just like the original. The speeder can stay on the ground at full speed making it like a fast hover tank, not sure what the deal with it is but its a minor detail at this level of development.
Now for the republics offerings. The tie bomber is straight from moviebook spec. Not too ritch in polys but the design makes for an easy modeling. The interior/cocpit skin is not there yet either but has a spacious design as the exterior implies. It flies as you would expect, this ones pretty done I think. The Tie fighter is about the same not alot to say here. Now the biggies the quadraped ATAT isnt ready for the BF engine yet but the ATST biped is....mostly. The detail is in the usual overkill detail but nicely done. However getting it to walk right has been the modders biggest challenge. The animation is a cross of a foward moonwalk/pee pee I really gotta pee dance, this makes it move much slower than it should. This makes it virtually impossible to hit things while moving. And im confused over the missile/mortar launcher whichever is it. It looks like a missile and travels like a mortar. I think the modders should study some mechwarrior to help with the walkers, mostly they are fighting the BF engine which didnt have walking mechs, or wookies, in mind when designing it. A great start though. The rebel gun emplacments are well done and simple to do, lets move on.
There are many balance issues and setting tweaks that need to be done. Why can a speeder kill a Tie in 1 shot but the inverse is not ture? I had to lower my detail to keep the game from being so laggy. There are a few causes for this. One thing is all the textures are not finished and the BF engine doesnt handle that well. Another cause is the visibility setting for the map, its too far and this makes the engine work harder than it should. EA still has work to streamline the BF engine to start with, it doesnt stress well. Once I lowered the detail to medium it worked smoothly. I have a p4 2.4Ghz and a Radeon8500 I normally play with everything turned to max with little troubles normally. Though like I said the textures are not complete yet. The sounds are true to the movies and I have no complaints there. All these issues are game balance and parameter tweaks mainly, the
First of all there are many ways an artist you see and hear and love or hate got thier shot at fame. Many who approach the labels independently dont stand much of a chance unless they know people, most of the time thier press kit goes straight to the trash. If you are lucky and they listen to your demo they may just try to buy or steal the song if they dont think your image is easily marketable. And even rarer they call you to talk about what your looking for. Theres the P&D which many labels try to avoid unless your a known cash cow switching labels or they got the CD for a steal. P&D-Publication & Distrobution they from the money for pressing alot of CD's with a bit of marketing money sometimes. They dont do alot of these unless they know theyre gonna make a good investment, independent labels really tore into the big labels action by granting alot more P&D's because if you dont make doe the artist will rarely get another shot at it and will have to pay his own way unless they make a turn around. Now what the labels really like and if you approached them by yourself and they want you be prepared to make a deal with the devil. "The Full Ride" is what the average joe from nebraska thinks being a rock star is about. The record label is shoving that contract down your throat and your surrounded by execs and your soon to be producer and manager that you only dreamed of seeing in person let alone them shakin your hand every 30 seconds, calling you "Bro" with the slick pressure of the god of car salesman. They promise you limos, cars, women, whatever makes your eyes sparkle they zone in on it and get you to sign that contract as fast as they can with you reading as little of it as they can. When you lay the ink down the bells should toll, the room gets silent a moment, they shake your hand and say congratulations your gonna be famous. Then you get setup with a manager and producer who are gonna get you started and setup your image, your schedule, and all the other details you promised then on legal ink youd obey. Ok time to record, the producer and manager have prepared protecting your songs through the services of your lawyer which you pay for. And the producer wants to use the labels nice state of the art studio, which you pay for at a insane hourly rate sometimes. By this time you have taken more than a few rides in your limo, which you pay for. You havent made any money yet all this glamour is fronted to you and anything they want you will get buy you pay for it eventually. You pay the producer for a few tens of thousands of dollars per album the manager gets an anual cut and so on... Now this is the darker side of this and "The Full Ride" isnt always bad if the wouldbe artist is smart and watches his back. If he's good enough and is smart enough to have his own lawyer before going to the table and not relying on the labels "I know just the guy" thing. Ill give you an example, Vanilla Ice, not a bad kid, im not a fan, but he got a raw deal. He was 0wned, they told him what to wear, where he would be seen in public, what and when he would do most of the time. Now the big labels have cleaned up quite a bit since they are losing ground to alot of indie labels. The industrious artist who wants to cut a deal with the big boys and come out alive will get a lawyer they can trust , Then they use said entertainment lawyer to cut a fair deal with a good talent managment agency. The agency has the contacts to get your project hears by the right labels and producers. Then you have a good shot at securing P&D's with some studio money and leave the marketing to the managment agency. All these guys know eachother and you cant BS any of them because the word gets around fast. There are good and fair managers, lawyers, and producers out there. Many of them are wise enough to see the future where yes an artist can with time, money and luck make his own way enough to get picked up by a label at a fair deal. Example Cherry Poppin Daddies they tried for years to get signed and got turned down, so they did it themselves, m
Played the E3 alpha/demo. Wont be playin that in the dark......
Resident Evil 2 was some spooky sheit too.
OTECs Have great capabilities but have some limitations. The best way to get energy from thermal exchange is by having the greatest temp contrast. Equitorial waters are the most suited. OTEC that use an amonia to enhance the reaction do not leak it out. Basically deep cold water is mixed with warm surface water in a vaccum turning it to steam. The by-products are clean fresh water and hydrogen. Also the water brought up is heavily mineralized which has its uses in secreting a concrete like substance. Sea-Crete as some call it basically is same thing sea shells are. By using iron rebar for instance you immerse it in this heavily mineralized water and apply a slight electrical charge and you can grow this sea shell sea-crete stuff, its not fast but its strong and natural. Theres this group that has a idea of using a few OTECs and building a city near the equator on the ocean. The mineralized water is also usefull in mariculture, aka growing fish and crusteaceans. They plan to grow spirulina on the surface of the mariculture ponds. Spirulina is a plant/algae that when dried to powder is a potent source for nutrients. They think they can make a stable economy for this said city off exporting fresh water, sea foods, spirulina, and the hydrogen which the OTECs are central to producing all those including power in excess. And we all want clean power and hydrogen for those new fuel cell laptops coming next year. Course, if they built it exxon or someone the like would probably run into it and sink it. Or maybe a US submarine??? Though seriously, if the petro companies were real smart instead of fighting and stifling new energy theyd help develop it and get in at the ground floor of a new industry. Rant mode off...Those who use power without wisdom cannot claim courage...
UNEMPLOYMENT..the gift that gives weekly!
My step father has a pace maker that via induction pads hooks to a modem. His doctor calls him and says call me at the office. He calls doc gets a phone number and auth code and hooks his modem up.
It uploads all his blood pressure and ekg data stored in the pacemaker for the last month. The doc can review the data and make any needed adjustments. The pacemaker doesnt have internet capabilities the modem box does. Also the pacemaker can be put into a sleep mode by the patient. Its actually required to be in sleep mode to talk to the modem. Also if the software in the pacemaker gets corrupted or fails theres a imbedded rom that has a default program that will keep any patient safe until the software can be reloaded. I dont know who makes this pacemaker but its pretty cool. My step father has had it about 3 years now and has never had a problem. He is a tech geek too and thinks the device is pretty cool himself. He is also glad he doesnt have to drive to the VA hospital ala 50 mile commute once or twice a month just to have his pacemaker checked and to give his data to the doc.
YAY technology! Actually being put to good use for once.... =) Keep on tickin....
It seems all you need to do is Put Linux, Microsoft ,and now WalMart Together in any story and you can ./ ./'s hard drives. Let them fill to capacity with "Trolls" "Flames" and "Nuggets of Insight". You have your heated debates, conspiracy theories, IMHO's, and enough pennies from "2 sence" =) .....to buy a deserted island.
;P But Jim Bob, Joe Blow, and John & Jane Doe get something new this week on sale.......A CHOICE! And thats the moral of the story......
;P
The important thing here is for whatever reason, or motive, for better or worse, they has done something bold in the age of "Precautions", "Secuirty", and "Political Correctness". They have the eyes and ears of the masses upon them. They have broke ground for something new, atleast as far as some people are concerned. =) It may be a good choice, It may be a bad choice. You may not like the distro, you may swear by it, you may swear at it.
"I can only show you the door Neo, It is you that has to walk through it....." --If you dont know what this quote is from its time to leave the cave
Sorry to rant for my first /. post. Ive been reading /. for years silently but I gotta speak up.
The specs in this contest are beyond the fantasy of Lord Of The Rings, and beyond the science fiction of Star Trek. The computer they ask for cannot be built for many reasons.
1-To manufacture a high quality product that is also cheap and international requires all custom parts that have no logo's. That means setting up a component infrastructure all anew. Expensive..
Many vendors will sell "blank" versions of products for alot of money but just plastic and metal. Circuitry is a different matter. I worked for an un-named company that sold "blank" componets but if you inspect certain parts with a 100X microscope w/blacklight the vendor logo was still there. No sane company makes something and not either plug thier name or identify the part somehow.
2-The OS. =) Well there are many ways to go. If you start from scratch you need a whole new company to handle just that. And they will have to work closely with the hardware company if they want a solid product. Does |ntel & Micro$haft sound familiar? Linux is also a good choice but you will still need to write alot of code to intergrate it tightly with the custom hardware, but the kernel is a good foundation to build on.
Plus it has to be an easy to use GUI with a suite of custom software.
3-The human factor. Any device has a learning curve. Typically the more complex the device the greater the learning curve. Its going to have to be simple and have few external moving parts for durability. The contest hints its a laptop in thier little story. Expensive. Laptops are mostly a throw away device. That means more junk and LCD chemicals that have to be made, stored, and disposed of safely....more infrastructure and money.
4- Security....a subjective concept. If you make a lock someone will pick it. Ill leave it at that. My rant has become too long for even my taste.
I have an idea, they should just buy Apple Titanium books. =) Seriously, Its great to inspire innovation and creativity, but lets be a little less broad. Also what I want to know....IF someone wins this contest does the contestant keep the rights to his idea? Or does a budding new enterprise get a "market shaking" product handed to them for 150 euro???