Certain classes have had some major overhauls to their class design such as Warriors and Warlocks. Upcoming patches point to Hunters and Palidans and Druids as getting some attention. What classes will come after that?
What is your plan/vision for the Mage class? Having played one since Beta I've seen a lot of changes to the class and I am curious where it is being taken? To expand upon this, I'm sure many of us would like to know what the developers ideas are on each of the different classes. Are Rogues to be sneaky S.O.B. damage dealers? Are priests just heal bots? Are mages just vending machines? I know there are utility listings on the web page, but those are vague and in the case of the Mage it has changed quite a bit over the last couple of months.
What is being done to reconcile some major differences between end game melee gear and end game caster gear?
While Melee gear becomes increasingly stronger, allowing melee charcters to increase their DPS (damage per second) as well as their stats (str, agil, stam) this is not the case with caster items. Casters are given the choice of either having +dam (increase to damage) gear or +stat (int, stam, spirit) gear.
Also, are there any plans to change how +dam gear works, allowing it to give the full benefit to spells with 3 (or is it 3.5) second cast times?
...Some space alien sees a commercial for Bud Light and comes to our planet in 10,000 years and finds it not here and destroys the planet... Oh joy. Who thinks of this stuff anyways?
I started out as your basic Tech Support grunt, running around fixing this and installing that. After a few years (and graduating from college) I got a position at my University where I manage all the computers for the Comp. Sci. Department (including servers). While normally this is a pretty 'geeky' job, I do have to manage student workers and facilitate requests from different faculty members. Luckily for me, I got a dual degree in College (Business and Comp. Sci) so I already had some managerial training. I am also currently going back to school for my MBA (school has an MBA program so free education).
Here are a few things I have learned. Managing effectivily is hard, but it gets better with experience. Everyone you manage requires different methods of managing. You can't manage everyone the same way, we all have different motivating factors. A good manager can find those factors for each individual and 'exploit' them. It never hurts to get more training in how to manage. Be it a formal degree such as an MBA or just some work shops, whatever it is, the company likely will help pay for all or part of it. Nice thing about getting an MBA is that it will help with moving up the corporate ladder as most if not all upper management jobs require an MBA. A lot of managing is trial and error. Don't beat yourself up over bad decisions, we all make them. It's the good managers that learn from their bad decisions and make better decisions in the future.
Tell me about it. My time card is generally due mid month (14-18th generally), typically it is the 3rd Monday in the month so some months I have a 4 week pay period others 5. The 5 ones are nice because that means a bigger pay check...but it does make budgeting your spending a hassle.
I had a setup similar to that, though connected to my TV which left much to be desired in terms of resolution.
As far as kids and stuff in the movies, go to later showings, when most of those brats are at home and asleep. Course then you have to deal with the pot smokers in the back row (which can be good or bad, depending on if you got popcorn or not) and those to cheap to rent a motel room for 2 hours.
I won't argue that their won't be people who would pay to have the movies, what I'm arguing though is that if they charge, they are going to do little to stop piracy. The people that will pay are the people that would pay anyways. The pirates will remain pirates until it is cheaper not to do so.
I routinely have 5 week pay periods, which is how a work month is generally scheduled here. And since weekends don't count, that's 25 work days. Not that I like how it is done, just how it is where I work.
how will it defeat piracy? If I'm going to pay for a movie, I sure as hell am going to see it in the movie theater on a huge screen instead of paying the same amount and watching it on a 17inch CRT. Ah the illusions of Graduer.
I suppose the Justice Department or whoever could just send you an email saying you've won a trip to (insert location here) and have you click a link to 'download' your trip planner software. Or they could always go with the porn route, directing you to a website with some nasty active X scripts and what not. Glad I use mozilla.
Actually I have a camera on my computer, that is motion activated. Installed it when I was living at home and my brother would break into my room and steal stuff.
As for the hardware key loggers, I think I would notice if someone hooked something to my computer to capture keystrokes, though this brings up an interesting thought. Wireless keyboards/mice. Intercepting this signals and capturing keystrokes that way. Might have to go back to using a regular keyboard now as I've given myself paranoia.
With link monitoring, you would just want to use encrypted communications, which for me all my email is done through SSL and I use SSH for remote connections so that should provide one with a little protection right?
They did not mention how they would get the spyware installed on the computers. Personally, when I'm not near my computer, it is password protected. And I'm not logged in as root either, so how do they expect to go install software on peoples computers without them knowing? Will it be like in the movies when then come as electricians and ask to check your meter while putting in bugs/cameras? Will they now come as Geeks asking to check your computer for virus's while they install their software? What about with Macs or those that use Linux...Sure they got themselves a law that lets them do this...but makes you wonder how much success they will really have at it.
it still needs some work. Having been in the closed beta, then the second stress test and open beta, I have seen the game progress quite a bit. Or digress depending who you talk to. Couple of the classes are really solid and complete, like the Hunter, Paladin, and Warriors. Other classes have been without much upgrade in the last couple of patches are in dire need of some help, such as Druids and Mages.
Over all I found the game to be fun and enjoyable. It doesn't force you to group with othes, though for a lot of the instances (read almost all) you will need a group to complete all the quests with that instance. Some of the quests are simplistic, get Item A, got to Vendor B, Kill Monster C, but it does allow you to explore the world and the regions are quite amasing. The expansiveness of the game is breathtaking, especially the cities. I think that is one of the major things that drew me into the game, was the artwork.
Blizzard was pretty good about listening to their beta testers and trying to balance out our requests with reality. Though if there is something in the game that sucks, don't blame me, I probably posted against it.:)
I don't think I will actually be buying the game, as I don't have the funds to pay a monthly subscription, though if I did, I would likely play, at least for a while. The game has great potential, and some of the raid aspects that have been tossed around should keep the end game interesting to those that top out on levels.
Blizzard is using BT for transfering files to their Testers of their World of Warcraft game. Every time we get a new client download its well over 2gigs of data they are pushing. Patches are around 250-300megs. That's a lot of data to be pushing around.
I don't totally agree with you on this. Sure you might not be able to buy a 486 processor, but that doesn't mean that the only processors being made are the latest and the greatest. Actually the biggest demand is for the lower end processors. Those little ones that go into embedded devices. Cell phones, pda's, microwaves, TV's, gameboys. All of these types of devices are now run my microprocessors that 10 years of go would have been considered fast computers. So it isn't that the processors aren't there, they have just moved into other devices. And I've seen old P100's available for under 100 bucks. They are all over the place at PC recycling shops. But that's just my take on it.
...As we have seen with computers, a lot of components advance quickly but there are always a few parts that seem to lag behind the rest (HD's for example) and this is true with cars as well. The Battery has remained relativily unchanged over the years. Still the roughly the same size with the same output in power. And sure once we get the vehicle running, the altinator should kick in and power everything, but how many of us turn everything electronic off before we turn the car off? I'm hoping with the advances in and greater uses of technology we will see some break throughs in batteries as well. I think that is still an area that needs improvement, in cars, laptops, cell phones...all that portable gear we carry has to get power somewhere.
I have long believed there was a problem in the educational system in the United States. I was raised up through it, and have experienced it in 4 different states. Each state takes its approach to education differently, which made it hard for me when I moved around from school to school. There was no consistency throughout my education. At one school I would be ahead and at another I would be behind, but all the while I felt I was playing catch up. Yet that being the case, I was still able to do well when I got to High School. I entered the academically challenging IB http://www.ibo.org/ program, and did a full course load for three years and my senior year I tested and got my IB Diploma as well as the regular HS diploma. I also graduated 15th in my class of 345. I'm not tooting my horn here, put using this as a point to show education is possible, but you have to choose a path that means hard work.
The program I was in was the only one in the district of 6 or so High Schools. Other HS's has Honor's programs, but those are a joke. As are the basic requirements for passing. You show up to class and they pass you, for fear if they fail you, they will destroy your self esteem. Did they ever think about how that makes those who actually work for their grades feel? My brother was able to skip 40 days out of a 90 day semester and still graduate. Now if I were to skip out of work without letting anyone know nearly 50% of the time, I would be fired in a heartbeat. What kind of message are we sending the kids in the educational system? Do what you want, and we will let you pass because we don't want to hurt your feelings. That's bullshit, the minute they get out into the 'Real World' they get stuck with the cold hard reality that it sucks, and bosses are tough. But they have been so pampered and babied, that they blame their bosses for being demanding and uncompromising, and the bosses end up being more lax in the work force. Can you begin to see the effects this could have on society.
There are good teachers out there, I know, I had some outstanding teachers. Teachers that challenged me to think, to question. This became even more apparent when I got to college. But it needs to start earlier, and not just in the 'special or gifted' programs. Our society has been moving away from a mass-production intensive society to a services environment. That means people need to think more on their own, problem solve, not just be mindless droids on an assembly line.
I think and know the educational system needs to change, and it isn't so much about money in the schools, its about complacency. We have gotten two comfortable with how things are, loosening the requirements are far easier then failing students that don't perform.
But that's just my 12.5 cents worth on that subject.
This restriction would be fine if the coverage we got in the US was good. But as I've seen over the years, it is very limited and focused solely upon the major *US* athletes in the most popular events. Or the play the events I would like to see at such random hours you never know when you can watch it. I personally have watched the CBC more for these types of events as their coverage is far less nation centric and more broad unbiased (in my opinion). So maybe the the Canadians can do something right (j/k).
I wanna be the guy that writes into sanctions:
"...and any who shall play chess in this country under sanction, who are not citizens of this country, shall face the penalty of treason and shall be subsequently shot on sight for violations of said sanctions..."
Granted Bobby Fischer was a bit of a loon, but it is kind of funny to read about. Who'd have thought you could get in trouble for playing chess....(will never look at a chess board the same again).
...if they are so close to each other, with only windowing and security being the defining differences...then why are all those people still using Windows? And they called this guy a Fan of Microsoft...? I doubt MS would like to be viewed this close to LINUX, escpecially with one of the defining characteristics being security...because we all know how 'secure' windows is(n't).
Aw...well the article just stated what many of us have know for quite a while...
Why should we worry so much about those that can't secure their networks...doesn't that just mean free access for those of us with Pringles cans?:) I figure if they don't know what they are doing, then they obviously want to share with everyone else. Just a thought.
Slashdot Mirror
Certain classes have had some major overhauls to their class design such as Warriors and Warlocks. Upcoming patches point to Hunters and Palidans and Druids as getting some attention. What classes will come after that?
What is your plan/vision for the Mage class? Having played one since Beta I've seen a lot of changes to the class and I am curious where it is being taken? To expand upon this, I'm sure many of us would like to know what the developers ideas are on each of the different classes. Are Rogues to be sneaky S.O.B. damage dealers? Are priests just heal bots? Are mages just vending machines? I know there are utility listings on the web page, but those are vague and in the case of the Mage it has changed quite a bit over the last couple of months.
What is being done to reconcile some major differences between end game melee gear and end game caster gear? While Melee gear becomes increasingly stronger, allowing melee charcters to increase their DPS (damage per second) as well as their stats (str, agil, stam) this is not the case with caster items. Casters are given the choice of either having +dam (increase to damage) gear or +stat (int, stam, spirit) gear. Also, are there any plans to change how +dam gear works, allowing it to give the full benefit to spells with 3 (or is it 3.5) second cast times?
...Some space alien sees a commercial for Bud Light and comes to our planet in 10,000 years and finds it not here and destroys the planet... Oh joy. Who thinks of this stuff anyways?
Competition Bad....Monopolies Good....
Best not let your citizens think for themselves, and giving them options is more then they can handle.
Must be their simplistic European Lifestyle?
speaking with a passanger or... singing with the radio.
But then studies find what you want them too don't they?
I started out as your basic Tech Support grunt, running around fixing this and installing that. After a few years (and graduating from college) I got a position at my University where I manage all the computers for the Comp. Sci. Department (including servers). While normally this is a pretty 'geeky' job, I do have to manage student workers and facilitate requests from different faculty members. Luckily for me, I got a dual degree in College (Business and Comp. Sci) so I already had some managerial training. I am also currently going back to school for my MBA (school has an MBA program so free education).
Here are a few things I have learned. Managing effectivily is hard, but it gets better with experience. Everyone you manage requires different methods of managing. You can't manage everyone the same way, we all have different motivating factors. A good manager can find those factors for each individual and 'exploit' them. It never hurts to get more training in how to manage. Be it a formal degree such as an MBA or just some work shops, whatever it is, the company likely will help pay for all or part of it. Nice thing about getting an MBA is that it will help with moving up the corporate ladder as most if not all upper management jobs require an MBA. A lot of managing is trial and error. Don't beat yourself up over bad decisions, we all make them. It's the good managers that learn from their bad decisions and make better decisions in the future.
Tell me about it. My time card is generally due mid month (14-18th generally), typically it is the 3rd Monday in the month so some months I have a 4 week pay period others 5. The 5 ones are nice because that means a bigger pay check...but it does make budgeting your spending a hassle.
I had a setup similar to that, though connected to my TV which left much to be desired in terms of resolution.
As far as kids and stuff in the movies, go to later showings, when most of those brats are at home and asleep. Course then you have to deal with the pot smokers in the back row (which can be good or bad, depending on if you got popcorn or not) and those to cheap to rent a motel room for 2 hours.
I won't argue that their won't be people who would pay to have the movies, what I'm arguing though is that if they charge, they are going to do little to stop piracy. The people that will pay are the people that would pay anyways. The pirates will remain pirates until it is cheaper not to do so.
I routinely have 5 week pay periods, which is how a work month is generally scheduled here. And since weekends don't count, that's 25 work days. Not that I like how it is done, just how it is where I work.
how will it defeat piracy? If I'm going to pay for a movie, I sure as hell am going to see it in the movie theater on a huge screen instead of paying the same amount and watching it on a 17inch CRT. Ah the illusions of Graduer.
Unless it is a 5 week month in that case:
One Week a Month = 20%
I suppose the Justice Department or whoever could just send you an email saying you've won a trip to (insert location here) and have you click a link to 'download' your trip planner software. Or they could always go with the porn route, directing you to a website with some nasty active X scripts and what not. Glad I use mozilla.
Actually I have a camera on my computer, that is motion activated. Installed it when I was living at home and my brother would break into my room and steal stuff.
As for the hardware key loggers, I think I would notice if someone hooked something to my computer to capture keystrokes, though this brings up an interesting thought. Wireless keyboards/mice. Intercepting this signals and capturing keystrokes that way. Might have to go back to using a regular keyboard now as I've given myself paranoia.
With link monitoring, you would just want to use encrypted communications, which for me all my email is done through SSL and I use SSH for remote connections so that should provide one with a little protection right?
They did not mention how they would get the spyware installed on the computers. Personally, when I'm not near my computer, it is password protected. And I'm not logged in as root either, so how do they expect to go install software on peoples computers without them knowing? Will it be like in the movies when then come as electricians and ask to check your meter while putting in bugs/cameras? Will they now come as Geeks asking to check your computer for virus's while they install their software? What about with Macs or those that use Linux...Sure they got themselves a law that lets them do this...but makes you wonder how much success they will really have at it.
it still needs some work. Having been in the closed beta, then the second stress test and open beta, I have seen the game progress quite a bit. Or digress depending who you talk to. Couple of the classes are really solid and complete, like the Hunter, Paladin, and Warriors. Other classes have been without much upgrade in the last couple of patches are in dire need of some help, such as Druids and Mages.
:)
Over all I found the game to be fun and enjoyable. It doesn't force you to group with othes, though for a lot of the instances (read almost all) you will need a group to complete all the quests with that instance. Some of the quests are simplistic, get Item A, got to Vendor B, Kill Monster C, but it does allow you to explore the world and the regions are quite amasing. The expansiveness of the game is breathtaking, especially the cities. I think that is one of the major things that drew me into the game, was the artwork.
Blizzard was pretty good about listening to their beta testers and trying to balance out our requests with reality. Though if there is something in the game that sucks, don't blame me, I probably posted against it.
I don't think I will actually be buying the game, as I don't have the funds to pay a monthly subscription, though if I did, I would likely play, at least for a while. The game has great potential, and some of the raid aspects that have been tossed around should keep the end game interesting to those that top out on levels.
Blizzard is using BT for transfering files to their Testers of their World of Warcraft game. Every time we get a new client download its well over 2gigs of data they are pushing. Patches are around 250-300megs. That's a lot of data to be pushing around.
I don't totally agree with you on this. Sure you might not be able to buy a 486 processor, but that doesn't mean that the only processors being made are the latest and the greatest. Actually the biggest demand is for the lower end processors. Those little ones that go into embedded devices. Cell phones, pda's, microwaves, TV's, gameboys. All of these types of devices are now run my microprocessors that 10 years of go would have been considered fast computers. So it isn't that the processors aren't there, they have just moved into other devices. And I've seen old P100's available for under 100 bucks. They are all over the place at PC recycling shops. But that's just my take on it.
...As we have seen with computers, a lot of components advance quickly but there are always a few parts that seem to lag behind the rest (HD's for example) and this is true with cars as well. The Battery has remained relativily unchanged over the years. Still the roughly the same size with the same output in power. And sure once we get the vehicle running, the altinator should kick in and power everything, but how many of us turn everything electronic off before we turn the car off? I'm hoping with the advances in and greater uses of technology we will see some break throughs in batteries as well. I think that is still an area that needs improvement, in cars, laptops, cell phones...all that portable gear we carry has to get power somewhere.
by SCO
Okay not really marketing speak, but it seems to have become their business plan...and they are going to die out soon (so we all hope).
I have long believed there was a problem in the educational system in the United States. I was raised up through it, and have experienced it in 4 different states. Each state takes its approach to education differently, which made it hard for me when I moved around from school to school. There was no consistency throughout my education. At one school I would be ahead and at another I would be behind, but all the while I felt I was playing catch up. Yet that being the case, I was still able to do well when I got to High School. I entered the academically challenging IB http://www.ibo.org/ program, and did a full course load for three years and my senior year I tested and got my IB Diploma as well as the regular HS diploma. I also graduated 15th in my class of 345. I'm not tooting my horn here, put using this as a point to show education is possible, but you have to choose a path that means hard work.
The program I was in was the only one in the district of 6 or so High Schools. Other HS's has Honor's programs, but those are a joke. As are the basic requirements for passing. You show up to class and they pass you, for fear if they fail you, they will destroy your self esteem. Did they ever think about how that makes those who actually work for their grades feel? My brother was able to skip 40 days out of a 90 day semester and still graduate. Now if I were to skip out of work without letting anyone know nearly 50% of the time, I would be fired in a heartbeat. What kind of message are we sending the kids in the educational system? Do what you want, and we will let you pass because we don't want to hurt your feelings. That's bullshit, the minute they get out into the 'Real World' they get stuck with the cold hard reality that it sucks, and bosses are tough. But they have been so pampered and babied, that they blame their bosses for being demanding and uncompromising, and the bosses end up being more lax in the work force. Can you begin to see the effects this could have on society.
There are good teachers out there, I know, I had some outstanding teachers. Teachers that challenged me to think, to question. This became even more apparent when I got to college. But it needs to start earlier, and not just in the 'special or gifted' programs. Our society has been moving away from a mass-production intensive society to a services environment. That means people need to think more on their own, problem solve, not just be mindless droids on an assembly line.
I think and know the educational system needs to change, and it isn't so much about money in the schools, its about complacency. We have gotten two comfortable with how things are, loosening the requirements are far easier then failing students that don't perform.
But that's just my 12.5 cents worth on that subject.
This restriction would be fine if the coverage we got in the US was good. But as I've seen over the years, it is very limited and focused solely upon the major *US* athletes in the most popular events. Or the play the events I would like to see at such random hours you never know when you can watch it. I personally have watched the CBC more for these types of events as their coverage is far less nation centric and more broad unbiased (in my opinion). So maybe the the Canadians can do something right (j/k).
I wanna be the guy that writes into sanctions: "...and any who shall play chess in this country under sanction, who are not citizens of this country, shall face the penalty of treason and shall be subsequently shot on sight for violations of said sanctions..."
Granted Bobby Fischer was a bit of a loon, but it is kind of funny to read about. Who'd have thought you could get in trouble for playing chess....(will never look at a chess board the same again).
...if they are so close to each other, with only windowing and security being the defining differences...then why are all those people still using Windows? And they called this guy a Fan of Microsoft...? I doubt MS would like to be viewed this close to LINUX, escpecially with one of the defining characteristics being security...because we all know how 'secure' windows is(n't).
Aw...well the article just stated what many of us have know for quite a while...
Need I say more. They provide continual job security for us. And the more there are the better.
Why should we worry so much about those that can't secure their networks...doesn't that just mean free access for those of us with Pringles cans? :) I figure if they don't know what they are doing, then they obviously want to share with everyone else. Just a thought.