they must have upped the drop rate since I quit, because it was more like a 10-20% chance about 6 months ago. glad to hear they made crafting less of a pain.
if FFXI had a better crafting system, gear prices would come down considerably. considering that it takes a crystal to make anything and crystals are semi-rare drop items, the only people making things are those that manage to hoard a bunch of crystals and grind through enough to get decent at their craft.
after about a week of experiementing with crafting in FFXI, I gave up on it completely, since it was just too costly to advance as a crafter.
Horizons, on the other hand, has probably the most open crafting system out there. It's extremely easy for anyone to decide to be a crafter and start cranking out tier 1 items. It does get progressively harder(tier 4 armor is very hard to make), however, there's not the same kind of beating your head against the wall, trying to break through the first baby steps of crafting and you only do as much crafting as you want to.
the supply and demand system doesn't really apply with crafting in Horizons. Looking at the consigners, the things that sell for the most, are rare mob drops, used to enhance crafting. player crafted gear is still cheap.
Hell, I just got a full set of steel platemail (tier 3, requires a level 60+ armorer with 100 being current max level) done, complete with all the special techniques that would fit for tips. all I had to do was supply him with the materials for the techniques (the aforementioned pricey rare drops).
All that crafting took about half an hour for us to go through and figure out exactly what to make and what ingrediants were needed. and he did it for tips. and I didn't even KNOW the guy. I just sent a tell to the highest level armorer online!
honestly, I think player-run economies are more influenced by supply (how much of a pain in the ass it is to make things) than demand.
they'd have to threaten the corps that are doing it with litigation for that to work.
considering that the "inventors" are a professor and a student, I think it's safe to say they lack the financial resources to battle it out in court with them, even if it is a guaranteed win.
I'm in the US Army and I'm stationed in South Korea. The Koreans have several channels dedicated to video and computer games and they routinely broadcast Warcraft III and Starcraft tournaments.
They manage to cut the footage and hop between players well enough to keep things interesting enough to watch.
honestly, I think that most gaming shows focus too much on adding stuff to making it interesting instead of just making the footage quality enough for it to be interesting on its own merit.
that all went away after their IPO. going corporate almost always ruins game studios. I just wish people would pick up on this fact and stop doing IPOs when they're making tons of cash and awesome games.
On a related tangent, I curse Google's founders for not thinking that $100+ million net profit was enough and filing for their IPO.
I'm pretty sure import duties only apply if you import with intent to sell or a large amount of items. I've been across international borders quite a few times and customs really only cares about those two things.
it can be argued that the internet is basically a world market, with a bit of a laise faire attitude. so long as it's legal in the country of origin, import restrictions don't really apply.
now, if their liscense to distribute music prohibits them from selling for foreigners, then the RIAA has a leg to stand on.
I shouldn't have to say it, but IANAL, so all of that could be wrong.
I think it's because consumers outsourcing forces healthy price competition with local companies, but companies outsourcing forces local consumers out of jobs.
companies can afford to lower their profit margin, but people cannot compete with job markets where the cost of living is lower; they'll starve.
... but there is plenty of data regarding how females actually destroy the geniuses they encounter by becoming demanding, selfish and annoying enough to trigger deep bouts of depression, and even suicide.
which might be why Alan Turing was gay and dated other mathematicians.
then again, he was driven to suicide, too, so the problem may not rest with women, but just how geeks handle relationships in general.
that'd have to be one hell of a locking mechanism. I've seen quarter inch steel hasps broken off of doors before, all for the sake of some asshole stealing the knob off of a dryer.
who knows what kind of super-human feats of vandalizm would be accomplished if cold beer was the reward.
any chick that's willing to be offered as a prize on television isn't what I'd call intelligent. although she'd be interesting in the same way that a car wreck is.
it doesn't matter if it's "legal protection for children", it's still censorship. if I have to go out of my way to get the original version, it's been censored. I have NO idea how you got modded up so high.
speaking as a US soldier of a number of years, I kind of agree with you in that hands on training is the way to go, however, I know that the number one way you learn in training missions is feedback.
if I take my team and clear a building, top to bottom, I'm going to need about 20 closed circuit cameras and an A/V van recording all of it, so that when it comes time for the after-action review, we can see each and everything we did right and everything we did wrong.
if we do it in a video game, I can customize my camera angles and see EVERYTHING that happened, not just what the cameras caught.
while it's true that there's no substitute for the real thing, virtual training is a much better tool than you'd think.
damn right. I was probably on the same server. I don't remember too many 100+ servers for tribes 2, and I was on a 56k at the time, too
the game handled the unheard of at the time amount of players extremely well. I had even slightly better performance as I was even able to duel people one on one, I just enough lag that I couldn't snipe.
the truely miraculous thing about those servers is that they were public servers, which naturally means having people stretched out from all over north america and likely all over the world, all with very little lag.
I only wish I knew more about network protocols so that I could take a peek at the source for it and get a true appreciation for tribes 2's power.
unfortunately black isle got shut down in november.
during the interview, they said that it would be done by an outside developer. they're not saying who, which probably means they haven't awarded the contract yet. which, naturally, means that the game itself is probably a year or more away from store shelves.
bah. this news isn't nearly as good as I would have liked to hear.
according to the Stalker site, the universe that this occurs in doesn't involve the nuclear explosion at chernoble.
not having seen the movie, I couldn't say for certain, but it seems as though it replicates the movie and is only using chernoble because it's been imprinted into minds across the world as "some where that something horrible has occured in USSR"
since I haven't seen the movie, take a look at this back story from the game's site and see if it looks familiar.
April 12, 2006, 02:33 p.m.
Chernobyl zone was lit by an intolerably bright light. The clouds were evaporating in the silver bright sky with a thunder and earthquake to follow. People fell on the ground facedown closing their bleeding eyes and ears. The glow spread over an immense territory which was subsequently called the Zone. People ran away saving their lives. It looked like a radioactive explosion at the nuclear plant occurred. The army sealed off the Zone...
The explosion epicenter was a kilometre away from the nuclear plant. Obviously, some tests had been held there and they caused the disaster. Presumably, the entire personnel died within seconds, but still there was a probability of survivals among the staff. It appeared impossible to arrange a rescue operation, as the Zone was characterized by strange energy disturbances posing mortal danger to the explorers. Attempts to use robots were unavailing. Several months after the accident the crisis situation peaked when the Zone abruptly grew five kilometres bigger. People from nearby towns and villages were urgently evacuated, and the peril of a difficult-to-imagine scope loomed over the world.
Year 2008
The Zone exploded, radioactive clouds covered vast territories. A dreadful amount of people, animals and forests perished. Thirty kilometres of the area got cordoned off by the army, scientists failed to explain what had happened. The Zone grew, various death-bearing anomalies were spotted inside. Some invisible force tore living beings apart, inflicted awful blood-sputtering wounds. Expeditions faced mutant animals, unlikely to have appeared in the Zone through natural course of evolution. The catastrophe, mutants, anomalies, contamination... Everything appeared to be a consequence of some eerie phenomenon...
Year 2010
First expeditions can enter the Zone several kilometers deep without mortal danger . Amateur researchers, marauders and poachers, called stalkers, show up. They move around the Zone searching for various anomalous formations, i.e. artifacts, they would sell to various organizations.
Slashdot Mirror
they must have upped the drop rate since I quit, because it was more like a 10-20% chance about 6 months ago. glad to hear they made crafting less of a pain.
after about a week of experiementing with crafting in FFXI, I gave up on it completely, since it was just too costly to advance as a crafter.
Horizons, on the other hand, has probably the most open crafting system out there. It's extremely easy for anyone to decide to be a crafter and start cranking out tier 1 items. It does get progressively harder(tier 4 armor is very hard to make), however, there's not the same kind of beating your head against the wall, trying to break through the first baby steps of crafting and you only do as much crafting as you want to.
the supply and demand system doesn't really apply with crafting in Horizons. Looking at the consigners, the things that sell for the most, are rare mob drops, used to enhance crafting. player crafted gear is still cheap.
Hell, I just got a full set of steel platemail (tier 3, requires a level 60+ armorer with 100 being current max level) done, complete with all the special techniques that would fit for tips. all I had to do was supply him with the materials for the techniques (the aforementioned pricey rare drops).
All that crafting took about half an hour for us to go through and figure out exactly what to make and what ingrediants were needed. and he did it for tips. and I didn't even KNOW the guy. I just sent a tell to the highest level armorer online!
honestly, I think player-run economies are more influenced by supply (how much of a pain in the ass it is to make things) than demand.
considering that the "inventors" are a professor and a student, I think it's safe to say they lack the financial resources to battle it out in court with them, even if it is a guaranteed win.
quit feeding the trolls. they're like tribbles, man.
They manage to cut the footage and hop between players well enough to keep things interesting enough to watch.
honestly, I think that most gaming shows focus too much on adding stuff to making it interesting instead of just making the footage quality enough for it to be interesting on its own merit.
On a related tangent, I curse Google's founders for not thinking that $100+ million net profit was enough and filing for their IPO.
Oh! The Torment!
it can be argued that the internet is basically a world market, with a bit of a laise faire attitude. so long as it's legal in the country of origin, import restrictions don't really apply.
now, if their liscense to distribute music prohibits them from selling for foreigners, then the RIAA has a leg to stand on.
I shouldn't have to say it, but IANAL, so all of that could be wrong.
companies can afford to lower their profit margin, but people cannot compete with job markets where the cost of living is lower; they'll starve.
err, upper left. my mistake.
there's a button in the upperright corner to switch to an english mode. I'd tell you what it looks like, but their server is crying in a corner.
well, when it comes to suicidal stress, everything's a factor, but you could very well be more right than me.
which might be why Alan Turing was gay and dated other mathematicians.
then again, he was driven to suicide, too, so the problem may not rest with women, but just how geeks handle relationships in general.
who knows what kind of super-human feats of vandalizm would be accomplished if cold beer was the reward.
any chick that's willing to be offered as a prize on television isn't what I'd call intelligent. although she'd be interesting in the same way that a car wreck is.
true, however, the quote was, "I am. I'm AlanKay and I invented the term." which is still accurate.
it doesn't matter if it's "legal protection for children", it's still censorship. if I have to go out of my way to get the original version, it's been censored. I have NO idea how you got modded up so high.
if I take my team and clear a building, top to bottom, I'm going to need about 20 closed circuit cameras and an A/V van recording all of it, so that when it comes time for the after-action review, we can see each and everything we did right and everything we did wrong.
if we do it in a video game, I can customize my camera angles and see EVERYTHING that happened, not just what the cameras caught.
while it's true that there's no substitute for the real thing, virtual training is a much better tool than you'd think.
they're out-sourced, man. they could be spending friday afternoons sniffing coke off of a dead hooker's breast and you wouldn't know.
the game handled the unheard of at the time amount of players extremely well. I had even slightly better performance as I was even able to duel people one on one, I just enough lag that I couldn't snipe.
the truely miraculous thing about those servers is that they were public servers, which naturally means having people stretched out from all over north america and likely all over the world, all with very little lag.
I only wish I knew more about network protocols so that I could take a peek at the source for it and get a true appreciation for tribes 2's power.
same trick can be pulled with an optical trackball. :D
during the interview, they said that it would be done by an outside developer. they're not saying who, which probably means they haven't awarded the contract yet. which, naturally, means that the game itself is probably a year or more away from store shelves.
bah. this news isn't nearly as good as I would have liked to hear.
futurama had significantly more CG than most other cartoons out there. good CG isn't cheap
so, instead of trying to develop one, they just funded one.
not having seen the movie, I couldn't say for certain, but it seems as though it replicates the movie and is only using chernoble because it's been imprinted into minds across the world as "some where that something horrible has occured in USSR"
since I haven't seen the movie, take a look at this back story from the game's site and see if it looks familiar.
April 12, 2006, 02:33 p.m.
Chernobyl zone was lit by an intolerably bright light. The clouds were evaporating in the silver bright sky with a thunder and earthquake to follow. People fell on the ground facedown closing their bleeding eyes and ears. The glow spread over an immense territory which was subsequently called the Zone. People ran away saving their lives. It looked like a radioactive explosion at the nuclear plant occurred. The army sealed off the Zone...
The explosion epicenter was a kilometre away from the nuclear plant. Obviously, some tests had been held there and they caused the disaster. Presumably, the entire personnel died within seconds, but still there was a probability of survivals among the staff. It appeared impossible to arrange a rescue operation, as the Zone was characterized by strange energy disturbances posing mortal danger to the explorers. Attempts to use robots were unavailing. Several months after the accident the crisis situation peaked when the Zone abruptly grew five kilometres bigger. People from nearby towns and villages were urgently evacuated, and the peril of a difficult-to-imagine scope loomed over the world.
Year 2008
The Zone exploded, radioactive clouds covered vast territories. A dreadful amount of people, animals and forests perished. Thirty kilometres of the area got cordoned off by the army, scientists failed to explain what had happened. The Zone grew, various death-bearing anomalies were spotted inside. Some invisible force tore living beings apart, inflicted awful blood-sputtering wounds. Expeditions faced mutant animals, unlikely to have appeared in the Zone through natural course of evolution. The catastrophe, mutants, anomalies, contamination... Everything appeared to be a consequence of some eerie phenomenon...
Year 2010
First expeditions can enter the Zone several kilometers deep without mortal danger . Amateur researchers, marauders and poachers, called stalkers, show up. They move around the Zone searching for various anomalous formations, i.e. artifacts, they would sell to various organizations.