a little excess (is good for you)

Gridmole reborn

2011-08-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

I downloaded Unity, it's pretty fun. Managed to crash it once already! Turns out update scripts get called a lot; creating one object per call makes a lot of stuff.

The plan is to rewrite Gridmole under the new name Gridslam, with a 3D engine, particle effects etc. Oh and respond to more than one mouse button. Doing everything from scratch in pure JS/Canvas was extremely slow so I'm going to try Unity3D.

The original concept was a healing simulator. However I'm not that interested in a fixed range of 'spells'. I'm thinking I'll use a dragbox / holdclick model with an exponential efficiency curve and an S-curve for power (with a bump at the start).

Given Power (in points out of 100), Time (in seconds), Cost (points where click = 50), Efficiency.



Click: power 50, time <0.3, cost 50, E = 1

  - "Flash Heal"

Held click: X = (min(T,3)*10/3)**2, S = 0.25. Power X, cost = P - X*S*P/100

  - Power and efficiency both increase as you hold up to 3sec

Dragbox: S = (25+N)/100. P/N = X,

      C = N(P - XSP/100)

        = N(XN - XSXN/100) 

        = XNN(1 - XS/100) 

        = XNN(1 - X(25+N)/10000)

  - Power is equal for all targets, efficiency increases per target.

As a future improvement, I could add shield mode (-10% effi, adds secondary HP pool) and HOT mode (healing is delivered over T**3 secs, for some efficiency bonus).

So far this is a very smooth design. It needs some bumps to create pressure. The bumps will come from irregular incoming damage. Levels will consist of a number of Hurts, with an attack pattern (EG row, column, random(5)), frequency (probability of occurrence) and power level. With this degree of randomness, I'll need to cap the short-term DPS or (very) occasionally the system will go totally psycho.

When blocks take damage they will wobble and overextend towards red before returning. I'd like to add warning indicators to Hurts, which would make the shield mode more interesting and allow for prehealing. Ideally this would be meteors and dragons, but I'll settle for a red backdrop for now.

TBC

Roller life

2011-07-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

With reference to: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/042910-a-robot-that-balances-on-a-ball

It's hard to imagine a wheeled creature evolving. Scifi provides few examples, I believe David Brin touched on it (along with some very intriguing waxy-toroid creatures).

Let's imagine a Rolla bird. It is flightless but egg-laying, with thick fluffy feathers. The baby Rolla hatches in late Spring, as the first rays of sun strike its icy habitat and begin the thaw. It immediately lays an egg (unfertilised), half the size of the bird itself, and makes its first attempts at balance. As the thin snows clear, revealing the smooth glacier ice formed over polar volcano flows, movement becomes easier.

The Rolla sets out with its siblings in search of food. A pygymy spruce local to the area offers up pine nuts, just within reach of the infants. The pine nuts are difficult to digest for the small stomach of the baby bird and a substantial part is injected into the egg under its feet.

As the Rolla matures, this contribution is enhanced with additional enzymes and organisms. A nucleus forms within the mass of waste which becomes like a second stomach. The hardest parts, mostly bits of cone, are pumped outwards through a constantly extending network of cracks to expand and reinforce the egg. Softer parts which still carry nutrition are retained in the centre.

After a couple of months the Rolla has reached adulthood and migrates in search of a mate. Rollas are hermaphroditic and exchange ova while still upright. The foreign ova, injected into the egg, is fertilised by the DNA therein and begins to divide. The by-now thoroughly decayed soft food waste is consumed to fuel the growth.

No more than a month after conception, the adult Rolla bird lies down for the first and final time. Its frantic summer of feeding is over and winter stands in the wings like Death, beyond survival. As the days draw in, the adult dies and the egg is slowly buried in the snows. The thick outer shell and battery of nutrition will sustain it until the land is inhabitable once again, and this most independent of birds will hatch again.

--

I tried to introduce a couple of evolutionary triggers - a low-hanging food source and a killer winter not even a penguin could survive. The glacier ice is an attempt to explain WTF the place is flat enough for a wheel to work. It's still not the most probable of creatures but not entirely beyond imagination I hope!

The parent who dies before the child is born is rather compelling. Every year a new generation would be totally alone. It'd be interesting to extend this to a small planet, with an extremely long year and a civilizing race. Born in the snowy tropics, slowly migrating to the poles as the equator becomes uninhabitable then back again to breed and die. Each generation would discover the artefacts of the last as if a foreign people. The standard tradition vs discovery dichotomy would have to be reexamined when 'tradition' (IE following the example of prior generations) requires discovery. And of course there is a great, unavoidable extinction every generation.

Crazy cat man

2011-07-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

Working towards my lifegoal of being eaten by my cats when I die, I've decided I will need a cat. I tried the Blue Cross initially but they don't have a Bristol centre. Foop. I tried a few others, including one VERY unfriendly site that pretty much said "Halo + mansion or GTFO" - and didn't even have any cat listings up! The RSPCA site was ok but they only have a few cats listed which is a shame as they must have a hundred waiting. I flatter myself that in this net-savvy generation there are an increasing number of consumers who like me are happiest not even contacting a provider until we know exactly what we want!

Fortunately I tripped and fell heavily upon Bristol and Wales Cat Rescue. They work out of people's homes which could a) mean they're big-hearted animal lovers doing their best on the cheap, b) a scam. However they have cat macros on the site! This substantially enhances their credibility. Also they have a cute rollerskating chick. A girl that is, not a baby chicken, though that would be MOST amusing.

I was planning on picking up a little princess but experience must be sinking in at last as I've decided an elder statesman will suit my lifestyle much better. Maestro the 14 year old, barrel chested and fit as a fiddle. Well, barrel shaped somewhere as he is 6kg. And possibly only fit as a very well-loved fiddle considering his heart murmur and the dental work he's just had done. I shall be purchasing insurance for the wee beastie.

On which topic - FOR SCIENCE! At least, a spirited inquiry. Animal Friends insurance is dirt cheap which reviews say translates directly to being treated like dirt. Sainsbury's allegedly double your premium after a year even if you don't claim, and do not necessarily inform you of this despite the terms of the direct debate mandate. Some others are also full of shit. More Than appear to possess something of a monopoly position in the market for "insurance wot pays up" so with their good selves I shall entrust the care of my feline companion.

Gosh I'm long-winded. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but verbosity is the full English breakfast. And so to vittels. Cats are naturally carnivorous in contrast to my addled self. I appear to be pursuing an oxygenarian or at least breadhead diet. Anyway while I'm not about to start force-feeding the poor creature spinach, I'd rather it didn't eat a) anything which hopes to be fois gras in its next lifetime, b) total crap. Item A rules out pretty much anything from Tesco. Item B is a slippery slope which begins with eliminating bacon flavour lard balls and ends with me preparing chicken sushi garnished with intestine and liver pate. Damned if my pet is eating better than me.

Suddenly! Bristol! It turns out one of the better kibbles is available from Roxford's which is about 25mins walk from my house. I'll probably drive since I'll be carrying about 10kg of used animal tissue home. Here's a picture.

So it looks like the scragball will cost about £22 in insurance and £18 in food (70g/day @ £21/2.5kg) per month. Ouch. He may have to subsist on Whiskas or some other proletarian gruel for a little while. On the plus side I may save on hot water bottles.

Go ducky gogogo!

Took about an hour. I made those clouds by hand then just as I'm finishing off I discover GIMP has cloud filters! Oh well, next time. I used some HSV noise and blur filters for the road, which was nice because drawing all those little dots would have taken FOREVER! The skate wheels have some DIY noise on them courtesy of an elliptical mask and the Galaxy brush, but noise filters are so much better.

It's time for bed. Tonight I have researched cat insurance, researched cat food, written a blog post about researching cats and drawn a ducky. Who says you go crazy when you live alone?!

All action non stop internet dragon pwnage!

2011-06-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

The only two things I really like about MMOs are new quests and fighting bosses. Quests require this whole persistent world, they're expensive. Screw that.

Let's make a game all about killing bosses. None of the fluff around it. You connect to the lobby. You pick your class, maybe tweak it a LITTLE. Not 12 items with gems and enchants, no way. More "blue Rohan" (fast hitter) or "red Rohan" (heavy hitter). Maybe 10 total skills, roughly half for core rotation the rest for utility.

Gear progression naturally works the wrong way. The game gets easier as you get better. Instead, kills on low difficulty modes should unlock higher difficulty modes. Alongside that, a ladder will control who you are grouped with to avoid that "waiting for everyone to get it" feeling. Since the game will have no persistent world, there's no need to shard the playerbase, keeping wait times low.

Let's make it free to play! Give away maybe 9 bosses in 3 arenas for free. Release a new paid DLC boss every... week? Is that really so much to ask? Offer a discount all-new-bosses sub and heavily discounted old boss bundles. Obviously it'll be easiest to find groups for the new bosses and all the buzz will be around the new bosses.

Let's make it fast! A raid boss is a natural 20 minute encounter. That's snacksize! You can do one before dinner without ruining your appetite (or being late to table). Let's put the tactics video right in the goddamn game, played by the devs, with their kill time for all the world to see. You can skip the video if you want to play blind or try to beat the devs if you're hardcore.

Ladder prizes... hmm... say, get to design a boss? :)

--

The impetus to writing this up was my survey submission to Trion after quitting Rift. I figured hey, even if they steal it without credit, I want to play it! But just in case I'll post the exact text I sent them here.

Make a PvE version of Bloodline Champions. With matchmaking by ladder.
Free to play, new bosses cost, old bosses available in packs.
Progression up difficulty settings, not gear.

Dwarf Fortress

2011-02-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

I have downloaded the Lazy Newb Pack and am using Mayday tileset. I chose a smaller world because I am afraid.

Behold, as Sestanilush - The Decisive Carnage - sets off to found the great fortress of Lamlokast (Stonebutcher).

Ral Dodokoshur - Novice Leader, Amateur Sawbones
Mosus Stakuderib - Extreme Mining League
Olon Moruldolush - Ultimate Mining Union
Thikut Rabkulet - Deadcarver
Rovod Kekimedem - Mighty Masonry Inc
Fikod Atolzon - Lumberjack, soldier and teacher
Litast Dalkamgoden - Brewmaster General

Strike the earth! It called your mother a rude word.

The blasted wagon gave out near what is less a mountain, more a hillock. I plan to erect a statue garden on top for sunlight, good cheer and possibly a scouting tower. The rest of the settlement will be two levels down from the entranceway for security. There is sufficient space on ground level for a trade station in the entryway.

I plan to build around a central stairway. This should help me utilise the Z-axis for efficiency and possibly I could flood it (given a suitable sink) to irrigate farms and/or fertilise with goblinflesh. It may alternatively provide a buffet selection to marauding elfs.

Light is fading. We need stone and woodworking facilities up as soon as possible so that we might fashion beds. Bedrooms, a kitchen and a still are second priority.

Magnetite! From this we shall eventually extract iron and craft many cunning implements.

--

It has been some time now and I have several workshops up. I have even begun irrigating a farm, although progress is slow with our single bucket. Earthworks have been ordered to channel a nearby lake. I am concerned about Olon, she is staring at the door to the farm most intently.

--

Yeah that didn't last long. I love the idea and READING about it, but the micro requirement is just crazy.

Guinea pig valhalla

2011-02-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

I am dull. SUPER dull.

However I did draw a picture of a guinea pig in guinea pig valhalla.

The West Wing is a very good show indeed.

This is a good way to write Javascript:

var LXS;
LXS = LXS === undefined ? {} : LXS;
LXS.MyClass = function() {
    var privateVar = 5;
    function privateFunction() {
        return privateVar;
    }

    var pub = function MyClass() {
        this.aVar = 2;
    };
    pub.prototype.publicMethod = function publicMethod() {
        return privateFunction() + this.aVar;
    };
}();

It's a lot like the Module pattern Doug Crockford proposed except it's a class. It probably isn't very original but I like it just the same. It helps you keep everything in a single global variable. I typed it from memory so it might be a bit wrong.

rice-boy.com and dresdencodak.com are wonderful. Gunnerkrigg Court is not drawn nearly fast enough and I'm trying to forget Girl Genius exists because I want more. Drive comic is very promising. I don't know why I like harkavagrant.com but I do!

I got that BOOM BOOM POW!

2010-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

Graylo's guide, redux.

Refresh MF/IS as prio, pref before expiry but wait <2-3s for Eclipse
Starsurge, don't wait
FoN/SFall on CD, SF is lunar
Nuke!

Move as MF/IS/MF+, SS if instant

Glyph IS/Wr/MF, maybe SS;
SF/Rebirth/Thorns

Int > Hit > SP > Haste > Crit > Mastery

int > hit! o.O

http://graymatterwow.blogspot.com/2010/10/moonkin-guide-to-patch-401.html

QC, PQ2 + Chuck

2010-09-12T04:38:00.000-07:00

... are what have mainly been occupying me in this second glorious week of holiday. These being Questionable Content, Puzzle Quest 2 (on Steam) and a show about a nerd who gets sucked into the CIA. The first of these inspired this picture of Hello Kitty in Mirrorworld.

I hope you like the unicorn, I probably ended up spending more time on that than the whole rest of the picture. It boggles my mind the number of hours comic artists routinely expend. QC has 1500 or so pages, each of which took 10 hours or so. If it was a 9-5 job that's 7.5 years of labour.

Quite evidently I'm loving my graphics tablet (Wacom Bamboo Fun, large). The touch interface can be finicky, it's hard to get it to recognise the zoom and rotate gestures sometimes. The pen is spot on as you might expect; I'm getting used to not pushing the buttons on it by accident. The eraser end is really convenient, in the GIMP it can have its own tool + FG/BG colours set.

Besides making childish drawings, I've been using it to read QC and play PQ2. It's not the best device for web browsing really, but I've been using it so much that switching back to the mouse feels like a pain! For 'casual' games like PQ2 or Plants vs Zombies, which are really designed for a touch interface anyway, it's perfect. I did try playing Starcraft 2 with it but - no. There are two buttons on the pen, one of which acts as RMB and the other... I'm not quite sure. They're not designed to be used frequently though, I find them a bit awkward. SC2 uses RMB a lot so the tablet doesn't really work, sadly.

I really recommend Chuck btw. The agent girl voiced Miranda in Mass Effect 2 and it features the ever-awesome Adam Baldwin as well. He's been in Angel, Firefly and Full Metal Jacket. I'm thinking of putting up posters of actors after I move into my new house (squee), but it'll be hard to avoid having the whole cast of Firefly up! My favourites are probably Mal, Jayne and of course Kaylee.

Feel free, if you wish, to take a moment to daydream on the flash of wonder that was Firefly. Now, for my post-closing question I was going to ask who they are. I would much rather someone riddle me this: what does it mean if something boggles your body? Illustrations welcome, although if I should not be eating when I look at them I'd appreciate a warning.

Part le deuxieme

2010-08-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

14:56 - [O7]Garth: I was typing, about that Thorim 2.0 fight
14:56 - [O7]Garth: It's like Twin Valkyrs meets 4 horseman in 1 boss
14:56 - Alexis: Hmm, yeah
14:57 - Alexis: I loved tanking 4H as a tree and I loved mage tanking in the HKMaulgar fight
14:58 - [O7]Garth: You could make it with a teleport to start of gauntlet kind of thing
14:58 - Alexis: I liked the Solarian fight where any DPS can kill you
14:58 - Alexis: It seems a good thing for raid flavour when the DPS have real responsibility, besides their rotation
14:58 - [O7]Garth: Group 1 fighting boss G2 fighting the adds. When you start fighting Thorim 2.0 You have a +150% damage buff. And it slowly diminishes
14:59 - Alexis: Yup that also occurred to me
14:59 - Alexis: I was thinking of ways you could make people want to do 4/6 or 3/7 setups as they got good
14:59 - [O7]Garth: G2 has to battle through the arena to Take over and start with 150% buff again. Once they enter G1 gets teleported out to the start of a gauntlet and it starts over
14:59 - [O7]Garth: So if the gauntlet is slacking, damage will be low (too low/enrage)
14:59 - Alexis: Ahh I see, not what I was thinking at all
15:00 - Alexis: I like it though
15:00 - [O7]Garth: Yeah, the latter just popped in :) didn't read your part yet :D
15:00 - Alexis: I loved the Thorim 1.0 beginning part too, where the arena team are embattled and slowly getting more desperate for their friends to charge to the rescue
15:00 - Alexis: really cool social engineering
15:00 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
15:01 - Alexis: Hmm - an extension to the raid-only idea. You could charge per boss. So at any time you can go "F2P" by no longer buying bosses. Package old "tiers" into cheap bundles and eventually just give them away basic
15:01 - [O7]Garth: The arena/gauntlet part was the "epic" part though, Thorim was cake, unfortunatly
15:01 - Alexis: It sounds expensive but if you made each boss say £3-4, it'd be hard to resist
15:01 - [O7]Garth: F2P?
15:01 - Alexis: and, it'd cost less than a wow sub!
15:02 - Alexis: Yeah. F2P is good because lots of gamers are poor
15:02 - [O7]Garth: what is it?
15:02 - Alexis: Oh, free to play
15:03 - Alexis: The game company wins because on average people spend more than they would on a sub
15:03 - Alexis: The people win because they get the flexibility to keep playing at no cost if they're broke one month
15:03 - [O7]Garth: Ah, I like F2P:D
15:04 - Alexis: A wow sub is £9/month btw. You could probably charge £5 / boss, with a base rate of 2 / month + bonuses now and then
15:04 - Alexis: That model would really inspire you to create bosses people want to buy as well :)
15:04 - [O7]Garth: only "problem" I see, is if it's with guilds, you need to buy it, you can't do boss X when 9 out of 10 people have it. Peer pressure?
15:05 - Alexis: Peer pressure? Did I build peer pressure into my pricing model? Oh dear. That was naughty.
15:05 - Alexis: *snicker*
15:05 - [O7]Garth: O_o
15:06 - Alexis: No guild runs 10mans with only 10 people. Holidays happen, poor periods happen
15:06 - [O7]Garth: the F2P also lets players make their own bosses
15:06 - Alexis: Huh?
15:06 - [O7]Garth: I mean
15:06 - [O7]Garth: They'll suggest bosses you can use, so the development team can be small
15:07 - [O7]Garth: I'm drifting off now :)
15:07 - [O7]Garth: Back on topic!
15:07 - [O7]Garth: Would the fee be needed in the first place?
15:07 - Alexis: Yeah encouraging suggestions would be a good idea... providing you don't make foolish promises ofc
15:08 - [O7]Garth: I know nothing about gaming and development, and games need people to keep it updated etc. But The less people have to pay the more will play. Alien swarm is a games almost everybody in my steamlist has downloaded and played
15:08 - [O7]Garth: And still do
15:08 - [O7]Garth: well not daily, but sometimes :d
15:09 - Alexis: You could give away 10 bosses free, probably. Kind of an "infinite trial"
15:09 - Alexis: I don't like the box cost of wow at all
15:10 - Alexis: As I see it, getting people to install your game is the hard part because you have very little influence over their behaviour at that point - just marketing
15:10 - Alexis: Once you're in, it becomes about the quality of your product + your ongoing pricing strategy
15:12 - Alexis: So yeah free trial because everyone likes something for nothing. Once they've sampled the candy and got over the initial learning curve, buying the latest boss for £4-5 so you can play with non-noobs is a natural
15:12 - Alexis: By that point they know how to play, have hopefully had a great time they want more of and have already spent money
15:13 - [O7]Garth: True
15:13 - Alexis: Spending the next amount of money is easier, because they have already decided your product is worthwhile and they want to validate that decision
15:13 - Alexis: Plus hopefully they have started to make social connections
15:13 - [O7]Garth: They'll be hooked, hopefully
15:13 - Alexis: That is more or less what I am saying, yes :D
15:14 - [O7]Garth: And then the moneymaking can commence *evil laughter*
15:14 - Alexis: I'm no sales guru but I know putting big barriers to entry is poison
15:14 - [O7]Garth: One of the reasons I'm not buying SC2
15:15 - Alexis: Hmm... SC2 for me is a terrible business. Then, they didn't make it for me
15:15 - Alexis: It has a massive sticker cost and immense learning curve... you have to REALLY want to play it
15:16 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
15:16 - [O7]Garth: And once you bought it, you kinda want the Zerg and Protoss part as well
15:16 - Alexis: Hmm - that didn't really work on me
15:16 - Alexis: You can play all 3 races in MP with the first box
15:17 - Alexis: I assume they'll be introducing new MP units for all races in each expansion; the SP terran is much richer than the MP
15:18 - [O7]Garth: Oh, only played a couple of Terran SP levels
15:18 - [O7]Garth: New units.... perhaps
15:18 - [O7]Garth: I think just story mode's
15:18 - Alexis: My impression is that most of the playerbase want to play MP
15:19 - [O7]Garth: Yeah, probably
15:19 - Alexis: The SP is to hook in people who don't realise they want to play MP yet
15:19 - Alexis: On that basis, they have to enrich the MP every time or MP-ers just won't buy the expansion - while consuming infrastructure
15:20 - [O7]Garth: But Story is important as well for (blizzards player base, I think) So having done the SP will be fun/interesting/ good to learn it (new things?)
15:20 - [O7]Garth: Well, SC1 is still being played (prior to SC2 release that is)
15:20 - Alexis: Oh sure story is important, everyone will play the SP
15:21 - Alexis: but MP is the lasting appeal and if people are making a buy/nobuy decision, zero MP extension is going to weight that decision heavily
15:22 - [O7]Garth: For a MP?
15:22 - Alexis: huh?
15:23 - [O7]Garth: WEll
15:23 - [O7]Garth: I mean, single players need to be extended to keep players interested
15:23 - [O7]Garth: But afaik, MP's have that problem far less
15:23 - [O7]Garth: Everytime you play it's different
15:24 - Alexis: MPers will keep playing no matter what
15:24 - [O7]Garth: Making the need for new content less
15:24 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
15:24 - Alexis: but the question here is, how do you make them buy the next box?
15:24 - Alexis: it has to have SP in it, but if that's all there is, I think a lot of MPers will keep playing but not buy the box
15:24 - [O7]Garth: Ah
15:24 - [O7]Garth: Right
15:25 - [O7]Garth: But if you have 1-2 extra units in the box
15:26 - Alexis: then anyone who doesn't buy it is at a handicap
15:26 - [O7]Garth: There will be a problem when people play with or without box. It'll be unfair/
15:26 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
15:26 - Alexis: which is UNTHINKABLE to any pro gamer
15:26 - [O7]Garth: Or make different "ladders" worlds" for them?
15:26 - Alexis: Why would Blizz do that?
15:27 - Alexis: I mean unless they don't like making ridiculous mountains of money
15:27 - Alexis: History appears to show to the contrary...
15:27 - Alexis: Some players might complain, but - screw them, cheapass gits
15:27 - Alexis: I think it's pretty well understood that if you don't buy the product you get an inferior service
15:28 - [O7]Garth: Heh
15:28 - Alexis: You can choose not to buy TBC/LK, but Blizz don't go out of their way to help make that a sensible option
15:28 - [O7]Garth: If you do buy it: more monies, if you don't buy it, stop playing and still have money from that first box you mean?
15:29 - [O7]Garth: Yeah true
15:29 - Alexis: Well - you buy the first box, get a certain amount, are happy. Yay
15:29 - Alexis: You either buy the 2nd box and get more content, simple.
15:30 - Alexis: Or you don't buy the 2nd box and keep the same amount of content. You're probably less happy than before because now relatively, you have less to everyone else; and most people have moved on
15:30 - Alexis: That's really not Blizz' fault though, keeping up with the crowd always entails a cost
15:31 - Alexis: If you have some very good friends they might agree not to buy the box either and that's your decision
15:32 - [O7]Garth: Hmm, I guess :/
15:32 - [O7]Garth: Hard to argue against that
15:32 - Alexis: I have to post something - see you soon

MMO ideas

2010-08-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

13:36 - [O7]Garth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G5fLe3G8GY
13:37 - [O7]Garth: Wrong one
14:12 - Alexis: that was pretty impressive
14:12 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
14:13 - [O7]Garth: And the speedrun achievement for that one is 4.5 minutes, so they beat it by more than 90 seconds
14:13 - Alexis: heh
14:15 - Alexis: there's gotta be a way to mix up achievements + ladders. And a way to present it so knowing you're the 5,382,786th best player doesn't feel quite so crushing
14:16 - Alexis: like "You are in the top 19.82% of players"
14:17 - [O7]Garth: Uh-huh
14:17 - [O7]Garth: Top 20 sounds good enough
14:17 - [O7]Garth: Are there ladders?
14:17 - Alexis: Say the LK kill
14:18 - Alexis: Allocate a certain amount of points overall; you get a %age of them compared to how fast you do it between the best and worst scoring times
14:19 - Alexis: So Paragon get the whole 1000 points since presumably they've done it so many times they have the fastest time
14:19 - Alexis: We get like 400 points for doing it slowly
14:20 - Alexis: Maybe a bonus for doing it with lower buffs
14:20 - [O7]Garth: And I presume Blizz has set a standard then. Killtime: 13 minutes average dps 8K average hps 5K etc
14:21 - Alexis: I assume they do, but I'm figuring Blizz just says 1k points available and the fastest time gets 1k points
14:21 - Alexis: Everyone slower gets some amount less
14:21 - Alexis: Until the slowest run that is someone's fastest, who gets say 100 points
14:23 - Alexis: There's a certain mindset that "progression" guilds have that "friendly" guilds don't, allowing gradations of achievement might
14:23 - Alexis: help make people think of efficiency
14:23 - Alexis: maybe 500-800 points as a min would be better
14:23 - [O7]Garth: How to calculate gear though? better gear is faster, or is it all about speed?
14:23 - Alexis: Gear is ignored
14:24 - [O7]Garth: I best isn't fastest. Or are we just talking about speed now?
14:24 - Alexis: The fastest time will go down over time, as the top guild practices + gears up
14:24 - Alexis: Hmm - I'm equating best + fastest, since you need to a kill to even rank
14:24 - [O7]Garth: I mean, the Timor station speedrun was done with grenade launchers (level 27) what if you can do it without, at alower level
14:24 - Alexis: Oh and I'm talking WoW :)
14:25 - [O7]Garth: Yeah, I know, but I couldn't finda way to make it explain with wow :d
14:25 - Alexis: That's because gear in AS = spells, qualitative differences. Gear in wow = more of the same, quantitive differences.
14:26 - Alexis: So gear in wow can be neglected for speed ranking purposes, but not so much in AS... for AS I'd assume everyone is max stars + level :p
14:27 - [O7]Garth: Those guys? I guess :D
14:27 - [O7]Garth: but yeah, everybody will have the same gear etc
14:27 - Alexis: Yeah
14:27 - Alexis: It gives me another thought
14:28 - Alexis: What if you could take WoW, strip the raids out and stand that up as a game?
14:28 - Alexis: So like in the lobby you pick a class, gear build, talent build etc. Then you just pick a 'map' and boom
14:28 - [O7]Garth: A co-op boss killing game?
14:28 - Alexis: Yeah
14:29 - Alexis: Like SC2 MP has no open world, no research, you just pick a race and go
14:29 - Alexis: What if in WoW you could just pick a build and go?
14:29 - [O7]Garth: hmm I don't know, If we keep the same difficulty in boss fights etc, and keep loot/progression in the game.
14:29 - [O7]Garth: I can think of a problem
14:30 - [O7]Garth: If you make it that simple, the game becomes fast
14:30 - [O7]Garth: And WoW/Raids isn't about speed, you need coordination, time, communication etc
14:30 - Alexis: Nah no loot - you pick your ilvl as difficulty level
14:30 - Alexis: People do all that for SC too
14:30 - [O7]Garth: Speedy games don't like it cause people join/leave when they want
14:31 - Alexis: PUGs would be pretty horrendous I grant you :)
14:31 - [O7]Garth: I mean, if you want to do the LK you need to play with friends to learn it slow
14:31 - [O7]Garth: Or it will be crapfest
14:31 - Alexis: Well - that's just like joining a PUG
14:31 - [O7]Garth: Yeah
14:31 - Alexis: yeah, anyone half decent will join a guild
14:32 - [O7]Garth: But then it doesn't become a loose game like AS or Borderlands or something else that's fast and guildless
14:32 - Alexis: THat's not the idea
14:32 - [O7]Garth: Aha
14:32 - Alexis: You can't play coop SC2 at a high level without friends either
14:33 - [O7]Garth: SC2 is starcraft right?
14:33 - Alexis: THe idea is to get rid of flying around, having to enchant gear, having to level up etc etc
14:33 - Alexis: yeah
14:34 - Alexis: If a games company didn't have to make quests, open world etc they could do so much more raid content
14:34 - [O7]Garth: Hmm, it does sound interesting, but I do see some "problems"
14:34 - [O7]Garth: That's true
14:34 - [O7]Garth: Did'nt calculate that in yet
14:34 - Alexis: Basically WoW is 3-5 games all in one
14:34 - Alexis: which is nice because it gives you a change, but causes friction too - like I will never get the pvp achieves
14:35 - [O7]Garth: but people who play a game need to be entertained by new content or challenges or different mode's, achievements etc.
14:35 - Alexis: If they could split the games out, I could play Leveling when I feel like it, Raiding when I feel like that
14:35 - [O7]Garth: Or the hunt for loot
14:35 - [O7]Garth: I mean Ignis can be so dull etc, but it's being done cause of the loot and when you get it, you're happy.
14:35 - Alexis: Achievements
14:36 - [O7]Garth: With no loot, no journey to/from, you will be bored with it after a couple of raids, so new content need to be out fast
14:36 - Alexis: I mean you could throw some unlocks etc in to give extra motivation for initial tries, but the ultimate goal is speed
14:37 - Alexis: What if instead of releasing 14 bosses at once, they released 1 boss / 2 weeks?
14:37 - Alexis: I think that might even be slower than Blizz
14:38 - [O7]Garth: 1 boss in 2 weeks.
14:38 - [O7]Garth: Hmm not enough I think
14:38 - Alexis: You would focus hard on each boss, pushing your time down, but never get totally bored with the game because in average 1 week, there's a new boss
14:38 - [O7]Garth: Does the old one disappear?
14:38 - Alexis: and you can always go back and work on old ones a bit more if you're hardcore and want to push your score
14:38 - [O7]Garth: Ah right
14:38 - Alexis: That's another beautiful thing
14:39 - Alexis: Because of the gear/level treadmill, bosses go out of date in wow
14:39 - Alexis: if you tie all that to a difficulty level instead, your content never dies
14:39 - Alexis: I mean... some of it will start looking pretty gash... but people don't have to do it
14:39 - [O7]Garth: I like that
14:40 - Alexis: 1/2wks could be the 'base rate', with bonus boss weekends
14:40 - [O7]Garth: but, maybe build a difficulty level in it as well?
14:40 - [O7]Garth: Like you cant go to boss X without level Y
14:40 - Alexis: Yeah the biggest issue I see is teaching people to play
14:40 - [O7]Garth: Oh wait, you mentioned unlocks already :D
14:41 - Alexis: :D
14:41 - [O7]Garth: Training rooms?
14:41 - Alexis: Yeah. Simple bosses with restricted skill sets
14:41 - [O7]Garth: Wow Is ofcourse a big trainingroom to rest skills and spells and other stuff
14:41 - [O7]Garth: Choosing your talent from scrap is hard
14:42 - Alexis: Yet, a very poor one. You can't really learn to tank while levelling
14:42 - Alexis: and healing is nonrepresentative, most of the fun/difficulty comes from multiple targets
14:42 - [O7]Garth: Could make it more mobile though, Not all of them require a tank, more of a berserker(borderlands) kind of class?
14:43 - Alexis: Well... I like the tank-cooldown model
14:43 - [O7]Garth: Less complicated, more with synergy
14:43 - Alexis: Imagine if every DPS class had an Evasion equivalent, and a taunt
14:44 - Alexis: the evasions wouldn't have to be identical... some could be selfhealing, some absorbs, some magic-resist, some armor - etc
14:44 - [O7]Garth: That will be chaos
14:44 - Alexis: Until you learn to control it :)
14:44 - [O7]Garth: people will taunt from eachother etc
14:44 - Alexis: that's the idea
14:44 - [O7]Garth: How many people?
14:45 - Alexis: 5-10
14:45 - Alexis: We're mixing up two ideas now
14:45 - [O7]Garth: Cause, it's hard enough, at times to get a good 3 man interuption rotation going, let alone a 5-10 man taunt rotation
14:45 - [O7]Garth: I'm not negative on all it, I just someone who thinks about negative sides of stuff before the positive side btw :)
14:46 - Alexis: I imagine most encounters would be multiple boss, so you'd break into 2-3 teams and have some people sit out of taunt rotation
14:46 - Alexis: It's easy to get excited about game ideas, much harder to defend them
14:46 - Alexis: There's so much cool stuff Blizz have tried, that the playerbase just broke, lol
14:47 - Alexis: For a tough fight - imagine twin emperors
14:47 - Alexis: You have 3 people tanking one; 3 the other; 4 handling adds
14:47 - Alexis: at set points, the 3 teams swap because they've been debuffed
14:48 - Alexis: or you could have a thorim like map - 5 people at the bottom, 3 on thorim, 2 on adds
14:48 - Alexis: 5 people up top just DPSing like nuts
14:48 - Alexis: at a given point, the top 5 have to click an orb and jump down, in time to let the bottom 5 escape
14:49 - [O7]Garth: Escape?
14:50 - Alexis: Up to the top :)
14:50 - Alexis: Say the boss has an evil damage aura and the orb gives you a limited time resist buff
14:50 - Alexis: with a cooldown period which forces you to use 2 teams, so as to get 110% time coverage

Acid skull

2010-08-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

There's this really cute skull splat I keep seeing everywhere; I think it's some clothing company icon or whatever.

Anyway here is my imitation! I got ArtRage with my tablet which is actually pretty cool, it complements the GIMP nicely. It has different brush textures and when you use the paintbrush, the default option is for it to mix with the paint already present. I imagine for Real Artists Who Can Paint it's super good, for me it's still fun! You can turn anything into a stencil so I have this skull as a stencil now, that's how I made the dropshadow. All the green was added in the GIMP.

Tinky Weatherwhistle

2010-08-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Appearance: Your average double-pink-bunched gnome. She has a fondness for check print and leather.

Power: Humming her discordant yet beautiful songs makes mechanicals fall into line and the laws of physics bend to fit her can-do attitude to engineering.

Quote: "I need more MATERIALS!" "Make way for PROGRESS!"

Combat: She spends most of combat in the bubble of her Macrognomic Shell. This is usually humanoid, but no bets on what sneaky payloads the limbs might be carrying! The acoustics give Tinky a peculiarly deep voice.

Travel: It takes a while to put together, but with a rucksack full of material Tinky can transform the Macrognomic Shell into the Inevitable Sphere of Destruction. It looks a bit like a sea urchin and uses steam power to propel the spines. Acceleration and handling aren't all that, but the top speed isn't bad! So far it has killed one hedgehog.

Engineering: accomplished with the aid of five little autognomatons. Occasionally they wander off but usually they're safely packaged in Tinky's rucksack or compartments in the back of the Macrognomic Shell.

Balance: Tinky's inventions are extremely flexible, but they do take a while to put together and occasionally some special components or additional power sources may have to be improvised.

Secret, the first: Tinky has a real, real tiny, Sphere of Annihilation. The vacuum it generates powers the extremely gradual collapse of a many-layered metal sphere, which in turn powers many of Tinky's inventions. Every few months she returns to HQ and plugs it in to recharge. It has never escaped.

Secret, the second: Tinky has an evil twin called Tonks. Tonks has a fondness for stripes and impractical vagaries of silk.

Secret, the third: Tinky is deathly afraid of air travel. She does not know this yet.

Credit: Yes, this is principally a ripoff of Girl Genius, but with a drop of WoW. The Inevitable Sphere was all me, and the Macrognomic Shell is more of a species in GG than a suit. The D+D Arabian Nights had a clockwork wizard, Tinky is adapted for a more action-oriented, narrativist game.

Why, oh god why? So I can illustrate it! She should be fun to draw.

Random blarghing, now with pictures!

2010-08-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

HB+0.5 has made me want to post random shit again.

Today I reread all my mortgage documentation (mature and responsible) then spent half the night on that blog (irrational funclinging). On the plus side I don't feel guilty or like I've let myself down, just rather puzzled over wtf I'm trying to accomplish. I have faith in me. Me has a great plan, I'm sure and any time me would like to let me in on it that'd be cool.

I spent most of yesterday night reading incredibly positive life-affirming blog posts from positive life-coachy people. The old barf reflex has not entirely subsided but I figure maybe I can drown it with sunshine. The Cartoonival of Wisdom is well worth Googling. Amy Hoy's Slash7 got me onto the whole thing, I enjoyed copylicious as well as some others.

My drawing tablet is languishing. I feel guilt towards my drawing tablet. Dilbert, XKCD and HB+0.5 have clearly proven bad art is funnier than good art and way funnier than no art. Therefore I am potentially fully equipped to enter the world of illustrated blogging. I'm not 100% where unrecognisable art comes in. I did rip off some image I found on Google to make a weather sign which I was idly musing about tattooing on my chest. The idea is "sometimes there are clouds but the sun is always there", which is stilton but might genuinely help me stay this side of murderous.

On that note, I've really been diving into Buddhism again and I hope it isn't just a freakish little phoenix effect thing. So much shit has happened in the last few years I've kind of given up any expectations of the future. On the other hand I'm still working, that's getting easier and I'm buying a freaking house. I have no idea how long I'll be able to maintain any of this but maybe it's okay. No matter how bad it seems I'm unlikely to suffer spontaneous organ failure or seismovoracity. I may not be Stephen Hawking but people much dumberer get along just fine.

Clinging to the skandhas

2010-08-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

I have written this as an exam for myself. I had thought of the skandhas as a mental model and not applied them to ethics, ie the study of saving oneself (autosoteriology?!). Learning that attachment to them causes suffering, I set out to explore how. My answers are not necessarily as useful as they could be.

The five skandhas are (my choice of terms):

Substance, what is

Sensation, attraction or repulsion

Conception, the modelling as objects

Mental formation, our habits of thought

Consciousness, that which observes

Substance in the presence of Consciousness leads to Sensation, Conception and Mental Formation. They cause us suffering in correlation to our attachment to them, that is our participation in them. We can be free of this suffering by:

Recognising the impermanent, relative and composed nature of all substance (for Substance and Conception).

Recognising there is no inherent good or evil, appeal or repulsion, and appreciating all things for their roles.

Freeing ourselves from our preconceptions and seeing each moment anew.

Observing the full contingency of our consciousness on our experience.

Mostly this feels like a reflection on the three marks of existence as applied to our own minds. We free ourselves from attachment to the skandhas by fully internalising our appreciation of the marks, so that as the skandhas arise we appreciate them and let them go.

The last one is tricky for me. Consciousness-as-observer is impermanent (we sleep and die) but it feels unchanging. My best formulation of the emptiness of consciousness is that it is contingent on the other skandhas, it is an illusion conjured by their illusory existence. There is no observer, the sensation conception and formations simply arise. When they do not, when we are asleep, the observer appears to disappear - it was never there.

Couple of things for Mike

2010-08-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Double brace initializers:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/924285/efficiency-of-java-double-brace-initialization

The JSON technique is really simple... use a handrolled or library JSONBuilder on the server to spit JSON onto the client, include some JS which on DOM-load replaces some div's innerhtml with HTML rendered from the JSON. Hang observers off it (remembering not to actually observe until you've set the innerhtml, so the tags exist) and regenerate the whole shaboodle any time the data changes. Never manipulate the generated HTML.

It's great for complex widgets (a smart table) and equally good for making simple widgets smart. For example, restricting the options available in a select according to a mapping from some other select's current value.

.

2010-06-16T06:15:00.001-07:00

wu.js

What would Java be like without null?

Healing for Dummies

2010-06-05T03:03:00.000-07:00

Following on from DPS for Dummies, and Healatica Principia (what an amazingly pretentious title XD). I have healed in Wrath with all of these specs, but not all in progress raids. Like the DPS guide, this will obviously not make you a star, just get you started. The value here is having every style listed in a very condensed format.

Comment very welcome.

Druid:
Always: be casting, prehot if you're bored.
AOE: RJx5/WG, tranquility for decimates
Spot: RG/swiftmend. I like LB for minor spot healing, it's sick efficient and can be boosted if the incoming DPS rises.
Tank: Full hots + nourish spam. You can afford to roll at least 1 stack of LB and are hurting your HPS badly if you don't. Fast stack if you have mana issues; slow stack on secondary tanks.
Mana: use innervate early and you should have very few problems.
Macro: yell to Rebirth, NS+HT
Gear: cap haste then stack SP. Spirit is ok, mp5 is terribad.

Disco priest:
Always: Bubbles are always your priority. Keep PoM up but try not to hide it under a full shield. Melee usually make the best targets; use SW:D if it jumps to you. Use Pain Suppression and Power Infusion liberally.
AOE: If everyone's shielded and big damage is incoming, consider Renew. Not a strength.
Spot: Flash heal. Never use GH. Binding heal if you're damaged.
Tank: Maintain renew, penance to top up, binding if you're damaged, flash when you have to.
Mana: shadowfiend, try the Rapture trick if you're too leet for this guide.

Holy priest: Skipping for now because I haven't played Holy since BC.

Holydin: HL build is recommended.
Always: Maintain beacon, JotJ and SS, usually both on MT. Use your auras and hands.
AOE: Haha. Glyph HL and spam. Raid-bubblewall before big bangs.
Spot: Holy Shock, FoL. Hands.
Tank: FoL, HL when needed (ie most of the time, in raid).
Mana: Time Plea with lulls, but USE it. Other healers will cover you. Stacking with wings loses overall HPS, but this isn't a big problem. Pop DI when you know you'll be spamming HL.
Macro: DS /cancelaura, DF+HS (FoL after)

Shaman:
Always: Think out your totems. Usually you want SoE, Flametongue, WoA + Healing Spring. Use Stoneskin if you have a DK; skip FT if you have an elem sham; use windfury if WoA is covered and you don't have a frost DK; use Mana Spring if you lack BoW. Tremor and Cleansing can be situationally OP.
Always: Maintain water shield and healing waves for yourself, earth shield on the tank.
AOE: Brain heal FTW.
Spot: CH, Riptide, LHW. Rip leaves HOTs about to CH.
Tank: Riptide, LHW spam, HW if you really have to.
Mana: Mana Tide is a bit lame but does affect your group. Shaman are hard to run OOM, but if you get close use more LHW and less HW.
Macro: NS+TF+HW, NS+CH

I really like macros like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover] earth shield; earth shield

It will cast on your mouseover target if it can, or your target if you have one, or yourself (assuming you have auto selfcast on).

SapientMud

2010-06-05T02:51:00.001-07:00

Moved this to Google Wave

.vimrc

2010-06-05T02:45:00.001-07:00

Jeez when did this blog actually get content? Huh.

To balance out all that unwarranted productivity, have my .vimrc file. I'll update shortly with the ninja menu-creating skillz I learnt at work.

set guifont=Courier_New:h12
set title
set nobackup
set writebackup
set nohls
set visualbell
set ruler
set incsearch
set smartcase
set smarttab
set scrolloff=10
"set sidescrolloff=10
"set nowrap
set tw=80
set wm=0
set linebreak
set tabstop=2
set shiftwidth=2
set expandtab
set backspace=2
set noai
set nojoinspaces
set cpoptions-=a
set cinoptions=g0.5s,h0.5s,:0.5s,=0.5s,p0,(0.5s,+0.5s
set winminheight=0
"V6 set winminwidth=0
set matchtime=2
" eol:$,
set nolist
set lcs=tab:>-,trail:\
hi NonText ctermfg=4
hi SpecialKey ctermfg=4
syn on
filetype indent on
" winpos 0 0
" set lines=52 columns=80
set tags=~/.tags

if hostname() != ''
  let &titleold = matchstr(system('whoami'), '\w\+') .'@'. hostname()
endif

" Darn F keys...
map  OP   
map  OQ   
map  OR   
map  OS   
map  [11~ 
map  [12~ 
map  [13~ 
map  [14~ 
map  [15~ 
map  [17~ 
map  [18~ 
map  [19~ 
map  [20~ 
map  [21~ 
map  [23~ 
map  [24~ 

" Printing
set popt=header:3,syntax:a,number:n
set printexpr=PrintFile(v:fname_in)
function! PrintFile(fname)
  let pd = (&printdevice == '' ? '' : ' -d'. &printdevice)
  call system('lp '. pd .' '. a:fname)
  " echo 'lp '. pd .' '. a:fname
  call delete(a:fname)
  return v:shell_error
endfunc


" New ex commands
comclear
command -range=% CppCmt ,s/\/\*\([^\/]*\)\*\//\/\/\1/g
command -range=% CCmt ,s/\/\/\(.*\)$/\/\*\1 *\//g
command -range=% TidyEOL silent! ,s/\s\+$//g
" TidySrc is broken
command -range=% TidySrc silent ,TidyEOL | ,s/{\n\n\+/{ 
/ | ,s/\n\n\+\(\s\+\)}/ 
\1}/ | ,s/\n\n\n\+/ 
 
 
/ | normal "gg=G"
" :silent! TidyEOL
:silent! %s/{\n\n\+/{ 
/
:silent! %s/\n\n\+\(\s\+\)}/ 
\1}/
:silent! %s/\n\n\n\+/ 
 
 
/
gg=G
command -nargs=1 -complete=help Help :h  | normal  _
command -range=% MkLocalScript silent! ,s/set/setlocal/ | silent! ,s/map/map / | silent! ,s/ab/ab /



" Maps
map '1 gg
map # .n
" Comment a visual block
vmap # :s/^\(\s*\)\(.\)/\1# \2/:silent! '<,'>s/^\(\s*\)# #\s*/\1/
map '' :update
"map 'q :!rm -f .*.^^:q
map 'q :q
map 'Q :q!
map 'w '''q
map 'e :files:e 
map 'E '''e
map '# :e #
map '~ '''#
map 'v :e ~/.vimrc
map '. :e %:p:h
map  :update:prev
map  :update:next
map 'r :e!%
map 'd :!rm %:set nomodified
" Updates a line like /# Last:/
map 'l 0f:"_C: :read !date +'\%Y.\%m.\%d \%T'kJ''
map L 10k
map M 10j
map S g$F r
map     w _
map  zi
map Z @q
map ] >>
map [ <<
nmap  1000000u
map  :!irb


" New stuff
set fillchars=vert:\|,fold:\
set foldminlines=3
" set foldclose=all
"V6 set foldlevelstart=2
"V6 set foldmethod=indent
set viewoptions=folds,cursor

" F11: EditFtplugin(), F12: EchoFtPlugin
let vimdir = expand("~/.vim")
let ftdir = vimdir .'/ftplugin'
let skeldir = vimdir .'/skel'
function! EchoFtplugin()
  if exists("b:file")
    echo b:file ." sourced"
  else | echo "No *.vim sourced"
end
endf
function! EditFtplugin()
  if exists("b:file")
    exec "edit ". b:file
  elseif &ft != ''
    let fn = g:ftdir .'/'. &ft
    if isdirectory(fn)
      exec "edit ". fn
    else | exec "edit ". fn .".vim"
    end
  else | echo 'No filetype or b:file'
  end
endf
map  :call EditFtplugin()
map  :call EchoFtplugin()

function! ReadSkel()
  let full = fnamemodify(expand("%"), ":p")
  let tail = fnamemodify(full, ":t")
  let extn = fnamemodify(full, ":e")
  let fn = g:skeldir ."/". tail
  if filereadable(fn) | call ReadSkel_(fn) | return | end
  let fn = g:skeldir ."/". extn
  if filereadable(fn) | call ReadSkel_(fn) | return | end
  let fn = g:skeldir ."/". &ft
  if filereadable(fn) | call ReadSkel_(fn) | return | end
endf
function! ReadSkel_(fn)
  exec "0read ". a:fn
  silent! g/reated/normal 'l
endf


hi Comment ctermfg=6
hi Directory ctermfg=6
hi Folded term=standout ctermfg=7 ctermbg=0
ab LAL Alexis Lee 

let @q = "I:silent! %s/ A\\n// 0\"wdd@w"

" usually unnecessary
filetype plugin on
augroup vimrc
  au!

  " Match any filename with at least one character
  " Careful if /root/.vim -> /home/*/.vim, mkdir /root/.vim/view
  au BufWinLeave ?* if &ft != 'mail' | mkview | end
  au BufWinEnter ?* silent loadview

  au BufEnter *.rbd       setf ruby

  au BufNewFile,BufEnter ~/winmvs*/* exec "so ".vimdir."/mvs.vim"
  au BufNewFile ~/winmvs*/*   call MvsGet()
  au BufNewFile,BufEnter *.jcl setf jcl | exec "so ".ftdir."/jcl.vim"

  " Do this properly sometime - test filename in cpp.vim
  au BufEnter *.h         exec "so ".ftdir."/h.vim"
  au FileType xml         setlocal ts=2 sw=2
  au FileType help        setlocal ts=2 sw=2
  au FileType make        setlocal ts=4 sw=4 list
  au BufEnter sql/data/*  setlocal ts=8 sw=8 list
  " au VimEnter *           au BufEnter * syn sync fromstart

  au BufNewFile *         call ReadSkel()
  " au BufNewFile main.c    call ReadSkel()

  "au BufWritePost,FileWritePost *.pl   normal :!chmod +x %
  "au VimLeave *.pl                 normal :!chmod -R ugo+rx ~/perl/*.pl
augroup end

The trials of minification

2010-06-04T02:32:00.000-07:00

Amy Hoy got me thinking about JS minification and my manager OK'd me to look into it.

Day 1 went very well. I got Sprockets and the YUICompressor working on the command line with a batch file. To integrate this into our Maven process, I wrote a little Maven plugin/mojo I called packJS. Mojos are written in Java so I switched from Sprockets to Combiner. I installed the two jars into my local repository and everything was hunky dory.

Day 2 slid downhill somewhat. It seems the deploy:deploy-file goal doesn't work very well, so I was unable to push the dependencies to our central repository easily.

Day 3 brings new hope, and with it new forehead-rubbing. There's a yuicompressor maven plugin already. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work either, in aggregation mode at least. It complains the output file does not exist; creating the parent dirs manually may help, but clean will erase them again.

Updates ongoing.

ps. Which is it, Maven? A plugin or a mojo?

Link dump

2010-06-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

Some of the crazy CSS stuff I've been reading up on.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprites
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fluidgrids/
http://unstoppablerobotninja.com/entry/fluid-images
http://www.clagnut.com/blog/348/ - 62.5% rule
http://stopdesign.com/archive/2003/03/07/replace-text.html - Fahrner Image Replacement (FIR)

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/ - media queries, not just for mobile

@media screen and (max-width: 600px) {
 .footer {
   -- standard css rules --
 }
}

Bear in mind this is CSS3 and therefore not supported by IE. They do seem to be well supported in FF3.6, contrary to quirksmode.

Amy Hoy knows how to hustle: http://slash7.com/2009/12/02/my-year-of-hustle-the-freckle-aversary/
Thomas Fuchs (her husband) helps write Prototype and Script.aculo.us (v1+2): http://mir.aculo.us/

Prototype 1.7 has a sexy new Element#on. I will be metaphorically feeling up #getLayout as well.
http://prototypejs.org/2010/4/5/prototype-1-7-rc1-sizzle-layout-dimensions-api-event-delegation-and-more

Do we write anything except compilers?

2010-05-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

Seems like everything can be expressed as a DSL.

YAHB

2010-03-03T07:58:00.001-08:00

private class YAHB {
StringBuilder buf;
LinkedList openTags = new LinkedList();
boolean hasIncompleteTag = false;

public YAHB() {
buf = new StringBuilder();
}

public String toString() {
return buf.toString();
}

// Requires close
public YAHB tag(String tag) {
if (hasIncompleteTag)
endTag();
buf.append("<");
buf.append(tag);
openTags.addLast(tag);
hasIncompleteTag = true;
return this;
}
// Requires close
public YAHB tag(String tag, String name) {
return tag(tag).attr("id", name).attr("name", name);
}

public YAHB endTag() {
assert(hasIncompleteTag);
buf.append(">");
hasIncompleteTag = false;
return this;
}

public YAHB close() {
if (hasIncompleteTag)
endTag();
String tag = openTags.removeLast();
buf.append(" buf.append(tag);
buf.append(">");
return this;
}

// Full close
public String done() {
while (openTags.size() > 0)
close();
return buf.toString();
}

public YAHB attr(String attr, Object value) {
assert(hasIncompleteTag);
if (value == null)
return this;

buf.append(" ");
buf.append(attr);
buf.append("='");
buf.append(value.toString());
buf.append("'");
return this;
}

public YAHB text(String text) {
if (text != null)
buf.append(text);
return this;
}

// Closes
public YAHB value(String text) {
if (hasIncompleteTag)
endTag();
text(text);
close();
return this;
}

// these conveniences may not work for everyone
// if you add to this, be sure they're actually convenient
// these progress from most general to least

// Requires close
public YAHB form(String name, String url) {
return tag("form", name)
.attr("method", "POST");
}
// Requires close
public YAHB form(String name) {
return form(name, "#");
}

// Requires close
public YAHB input(String name, String type) {
return tag("input", name).attr("type", type);
}

// Makes a label and opens a <p>
// Requires close
public YAHB field(String fieldId, String label) {
return tag("label").attr("for", fieldId).text(label).text(": ").close()
.tag("p").clazz("field");
}

public YAHB clazz(String clazz) {
return attr("class", clazz);
}

// labels and values are processed in lockstep ("dual comprehension")
// the word 'value' is overloaded, yes it's confusing
public YAHB select(String selectId, String def, List

New way to write MVC apps?

2010-02-24T02:21:00.000-08:00

Seems like you could write a pure XHTML page and insert dynamic elements with XSLT. Writing XSLT is a bitch, so you could use a domain-specific language to declaratively specify which divs to fill in on which events. I'm thinking like:

onload {
'mainbody': "<h1>Huzzah</h1>"
}

action {
'post': doWork();
}

-- continue later --

Lets say CSS selectors or XPath or both.
Since apparently I have the hots for JSON, why not use CSS rules as JSON object keys and pass JSON to a piece of static JS+HTML for construction?

-- continue later --

How to DPS for dummies

2010-02-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

This post is for people doing 4k dps in their mainspec, and maybe as a secondary benefit people can have a bit more fun with alts and offspecs. I know some of you can't spend the time outside the game I can, so I thought perhaps I could bring some of the info to you. We have a saying in England, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink". I'm expecting the standard wall of silence but as always I'm happy to talk performance with anyone. Please note we are on the brink of disbanding and consider the contributing factors, our progress has not been good and we have significantly strayed from the "hardcore casual" mandate into plain old casual. If anyone actually finds this useful, some encouragement would really be appreciated! I can do something like this for healers if desired, even have a stab at a tank one.

Gear and tiny optimisations like speed pots are debated so fiercely by the top crowd because a perfect rotation is assumed, at our level (and I very much exclude myself from that top crowd) there are much bigger fish to fry. In light of that I am not including any info on gear. Similarly I am trying to control my know-it-all side and exclude "pro tips" which are likely to hurt more than they help at low skill levels. For example the cat rotation is stupidly hard and a proper treatment wouldn't help anyone, besides there's an EJ article for pros. What I'm really aiming here for is something *short*, which takes only a minute or two to read and is easy to comprehend, yet covers enough to give you 6k dps.

~99% of the info is from EJ, maxdps.com or my memory of reading those sites.
If the acronyms are too hard to understand, I can go through and expand them.
I put a request for help at the end!

[size=150]Cross-class[/size]

Use wow.com, blog sites or (my preference) wowpopular.com to find a good talent build and glyphs. Use that exact build, if something doesn't make sense try to find out why - you are likely to learn something about spell/talent interactions. Don't make little compromises for heroics, they're so easy already. Same for AOE talents, single target dps is always more important - although get them if you have spare points!

Put a little TLC into your UI. It's your primary interface to the game and a poor UI will cost you more DPS than anything else through gaps between abilities and missed procs. You need easy access to not just your rotation abilities, but also all the little things that you use once in a blue moon, like distracting shot or gouge. Rotation abilities need to be a single keypress - you will regret abusing your hands with modifier keys later. I'm a big fan of putting them on the mouse buttons. More rarely used abilities can soak a modifier but go easy, if you're using ctrl-shift buttons something is probably wrong!

You also need need need a buff/debuff (aura) monitor, NeedToKnow is very good then pick one of TellMeWhen or Auracle. NtK gives bars, these are ideal in most cases. You can set it up to have a fixed duration, I'm using 9sec on my affl lock so I get a decent warning and good resolution. TMW and Auracle give boxes, these have a bit more visual impact when they suddenly light up so I like to use them for procs. I've moved away from PowerAuras since I had trouble remembering what everything meant.

Most classes use a priority system now so I'll just list out priorities. Any ability with a dot or debuff component should be used to maintain that and generally not more often. I'm listing cooldowns but it's quite likely I'll forget some, usually I only remember them myself because I see them on my bar. Ideally you'd learn how all your cooldowns interact with heroism, but that's advanced material and totally not necessary for doing 6k dps.

[size=150]Macros[/size]

Macros aren't strictly necessary, but used properly they make your rotation simpler AND increase DPS. I'm going to give some macro "templates", I hope they help you build your own.

#1: Melee, macro /startattack onto all or at least your most common attack. We've all had that moment when you notice several seconds into a combat or after a target switch that autoattack hasn't engaged - macros like this prevent that. This means more white swings, more rage, more procs, more damage.
[code]/cast bloodthirst
/startattack[/code]
#2: Trinkets. When you're just starting out, worrying about trinkets can cost DPS. This macro ensures high uptime, even if that uptime isn't perfectly timed. Many people will see a DPS increase from using a macro like this. Even pros can benefit from macroing their trinkets onto their big burst cooldown (like Arcane Power or Berserk).
[code]/use 13
/use 14
/cast moonfire[/code]
#3: Stopcasting. For when you absolutely gotta cast something RIGHT NOW. Usually if you try to counterspell in the middle of a cast, you just get a nasty message. With a macro like this, it will abort your current cast then instantly counterspell. Also useful for eg purge, cleanse, spellsteal etc.
[code]/stopcasting
/cast Counterspell[/code]
#4: Cooldown fallbacks. Careful with these, they can make you rather inflexible. They don't work well with three spells, trust me on this. 144 is the number of seconds dash takes to cool down, ie 2:24. I use this technique for ABarr/Fireblast and Mana Tide/Mana Spring - cases where the second ability is essentially a weaker or more expensive version of the primary.
[code]/castsequence reset=144 dash, swiftness potion[/code]
#5: A couple of classes, mainly arcane mages and spookies, have to channel their spells. Channeled spells are awkward because if you mash the key too long, you can find yourself restarting the cast. This costs time, doubles the mana cost and loses your next-spell buffs.
[code]/cast [nochanneling] Arcane Missiles[/code]
#6: STFU. Spamming dps keys can cause a lot of unwanted error noises and messages. This macro makes them STFU, simple as that.
[code]/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Blood Strike
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()[/code]
Here's an example of how you might combine some of these. The ! means "cast this even if I already asked to".
[code]/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/use 14
/startattack
/cast !Rune Strike
/castsequence reset=3 Icy Touch, Plague Strike
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()[/code]
Of course there's more you can do, but I hope I've covered the most generally useful DPS macros. There are plenty of good macro guides out there, this is just a taste!

[size=150]DK - unholy[/size]

Special: DK is hard. Seriously, this isn't a class for noobs, which is why all the noobs playing DKs stand out so much. I actually use the AOE build and glyphs since the gain from the single-target build is meant to be very small. I recommend singletarget glyphs though, I should switch.
Priorities: IT/PS for diseases, desecration (blood strike), scourge strike, death coil, horn of winter. Don't forget the damn ghoul.
Cooldowns: Gargoyle, AMS and IBF are all very strong. Try to keep bone armor up but don't screw your rotation for it, blood tap can help not mess up your frost+unholy pairs.
Monitor: diseases, desecration. Optionally, bone armor.
AOE: diseases, D+D, desecration, blood boil. Try to notice when D+D is coming off cooldown and save runes for it.
Comment: desecration debuff might actually be called desolation, can't remember.

[size=150]Druid - cat[/size]

Special: omg is this one hard. You NEED a dedicated cat build to get even half decent cat dps, King of the Jungle is a surprisingly huge deal and the expertise is pretty big too. Get FeralByNight mod, turn off everything except move prediction and time-to-live. I even turn off 'suggest berserk' as very occasionally I like to save it. At low skill levels, ignore clearcasting procs and spam abilities as fast as you can. Don't stress if FB comes up but disappears before you can use it.
Priorities: SR, Mangle (IF trauma or mangle(bear) isn't up), Rip (5 pt only), FB (if you have 5 pts or mob will die in <10s), Shred (on CC), Rake, Shred, Tiger's Fury. <5 pt SRs are fine, refreshing SR early is also fine, just don't let it drop! FBN will manage all of this for you and much more.
Cooldowns: Berserk, this is an odd CD as rather than increasing your dps directly, it reduces your energy cost. To maximise this you need to be as near to 85 energy as possible before using it, but not above. You can't use TF under zerk but it still cools down, so try to use TF at about 20-25 energy then zerk. Barkskin is amaaazing and I <3 it 4evah. Feral charge is very good to regain contact.
Monitor: SR, Rip, Rake, Mangle/Trauma
AOE: Use mangle to generate CPs, SR, swipe spam. Cat swipe hits 180 degrees in front of you, unlike bear swipe which is 360 degrees. Zerk + swipe = pwnage, just mind aggro!
Comment: Don't target switch if you can possibly avoid it, our abilities synergise so much and we're so reliant on CPs. If the RL asks "all dps" to switch - don't until they start turning purple. Muti rogues are the only other spec I would accept this from, even spookies suffer less.

[size=150]Druid - Balance[/size]

Priorities: FF, Treants, MF, IS, Starfall, spam. 'spam' means wrath or starfire, start with wrath and switch every time Eclipse procs.
Cooldowns: Barkskin is love. Starfall is a bit better with 2 targets than 1, but it's worth using on CD regardless. Do NOT use on heroic trash, it just isn't worth the risk of pulling adds. Treants can die, avoid using during heavy incoming AOE.
Monitor: MF, IS, Eclipse (Solar), Eclipse (Lunar)
Comment: You might like the Squawk and Awe mod, Van does. I prefer to track Eclipse with the same aura monitor I use for everything else. Eclipse is very variable and vulnerable to movement, if you must move reapply dots while you do.

[size=150]Hunter - survival[/size]

Priorities: explosive shot, black arrow, serpent sting, aimed/multi
Cooldowns: rapid fire
Monitor: Explosive shot, black arrow, serpent sting, Lock and Load
AOE: 3+ just volley. Yawn. For two you can sting the off mob, but stay on primary so you benefit from the damage increase component of BA and SrS.
Comment: Explosive shot actually does its damage over a couple of seconds so don't spam it when L+L procs. Instead, alternate ES with other abilities. Flip to viper between trash pulls, even just for a single tick, and drink up before bosses.

[size=150]Mage - arcane[/size]

Priorities: ABx4+, (Missile Barrage), AM.
Cooldowns: arcane power, icy veins, PoM. Macro PoM to AB, it's not worth stressing over.
Monitor: Arcane Blast, Missile Barrage proc.
AOE: Blizzard :|
Comment: Never use AM when MB isn't up. If you hit 4xAB and have no MB proc you have to decide if you have spare mana (more AB) or not (cut your losses with ABarr). 6-8 ABs is usually the max you should cast in a row. 2t10 burns mana, so if you have to, use as little as ABx2 per cycle.

[size=150]Paladin - retlol[/size]

Priorities: ensure mask buff is up then spam faceroll. Reapply mask buff whenever it drops, hurts a lot otherwise.
Seriously now: SoV, HoW, judge, CS, DS, Exorcism (on proc). Usually you want to apply JoW but if there's no other paladin, JoL can be good.
Cooldowns: AW, bubbles, hand spells. Use 'em. No way I'm going through all those. At low skill levels, just spam AW and let healers know if you have raidwall.
Monitor: Art of War, optionally SoV
AOE: 4+ mobs, consecrate then normal rotation. DS might move up a place but it's so weak and you'll use it 1-2 GCDs later anyway.
Comment: Paladins use a FCFS (first come, first served) rotation. So just smash your face against any button with the temerity to be available. /point /snicker

[size=150]Rogue - Mutilate[/size]

Special: Open from stealth with garrotte if you can, otherwise just mutilate + 1 pt rupture. During combat use mutilate to gen 4+ CPs before any finisher.
Priorities: ToT, (Rupture), HfB, SnD, (Expose Armor), Envenom. Rupture and EA are both DPS losses and can be replaced with Envenom if a bleed or major armor debuff (sunder) is up.
Cooldowns: Sprint, CloS, Feint as appropriate. Vanish (for Overkill) and Cold Blood on CD. Try to CB when you have 1 CP (on Mutilate) or 4 (on Envenom).
Monitor: Envenom buff, Slice And Dice, Expose Armor/sunder
AoE: FoK spam little adds. For bigger adds, slip 2xFoK into your normal rotation just after an Envenom.
Comment: Don't let Envenom buff drop, or waste ticks by refreshing early - but never have 100 energy. You can macro Cold Blood onto Envenom and lose very little dps.

[size=150]Shaman - elemental[/size]

Priorities: flame shock, lava burst, chain lightning, lightning bolt.
Cooldowns: elemental overload, heroism. Safe option is to NOT stack them.
Monitor: flame shock, clearcasting. Optionally, water shield and flametongue weapon.
AOE: Usually I cast CL to get it on CD, flameshock as I run in, drop magma and start running out, use fire nova GCD to keep running then CL is off CD again. Prio firenova then CL. Elem AOE is not easy or strong, accept it and set your meter to bosses.
Comment: Elem clearcasting includes a sweet damage buff, use it on chain lightning. If you can afford the mana, always prefer CL to LiB.

[size=150]Shaman - enhancement[/size]

Priorities: maelstrom proc (CL or LiB @ 5 stacks), stormstrike, flame shock, earth shock, lava lash. (not sure where lightning shield goes, I'd guess just above LL)
Cooldowns: feral spirits, shamanic focus. Wolves are a big piece of dps, don't save them! Focus is a survival cooldown as well as mana regen, save it if you have a serious fear of death (Pungent Blight at FGut is a great time to blow a survival CD)
Monitor: maelstrom, lightning shield, flameshock dot. Optionally, windfury (mainhand) and flametongue (offhand).
AOE: use maelstrom procs on CL, magma, firenova. Keep smacking stuff with bricks on sticks.
Comment: if you screw up and go OOM, drink a mana pot, don't sit on autoattack waiting for focus. Alchemy offers an endless mana pot, same return as a super, which personally I adore as a retlol.

[size=150]Warlock - affliction[/size]

Priorities: Life Tap buff (glyph), Shadow Embrace debuff (haunt), Corruption, CoA, UA, haunt, shadowbolt. Drain soul at 25%.
Cooldowns: none I noticed...
Monitor: DOTs, Life Tap buff (glyph), Shadow Embrace, Nightfall, Eradication. Yeah that's a lot. Optionally, spellstone and fel armor (the SP one not the PvP one)
AOE: SoC (could be wrong here). For a two mob pull, just multidot. You can have two corruptions and CoAs up at once, but only one haunt or UA.
Comment: Affliction is all about not wasting dot ticks. Get good at estimating how long things will live and switching targets early. Still, don't overlook shadowbolt, if you get lost and don't know what to do, lob one out while you get comfy again.

[size=150]Warrior - arms[/size]

Priorities: Rend, MS, Exec, Overpower, Slam. HS or cleave if rage > 50.
Cooldowns: Bladestorm, not good for single target. Sweeping strikes, same. Recklessness - use it! Get a stancedance macro if you like.
Monitor: Rend debuff, MS, execute, overpower. Might be useful to be able to see if HS/cleave are lit.
AOE: Limited. Wait for aggro before bladestorm. Pop sweeping strikes AFTER BS, using it before is a big loss of sustained dps.
Comment: Battle stance. Use bloodrage nearly on cooldown, <20 rage works for me. Use berserker rage frequently, especially if there's incoming aoe. Arms is not an easy spec to play and it falls behind at higher gear levels, the only real reason to play it is to provide the Trauma/Blood frenzy debuffs which may help provide more raid dps than you lose by going arms.

[size=150]Warrior - fury[/size]

Priorities: Whirlwind, BT, Execute, Bloodsurge proc (Slam!). HS or cleave if rage > 50.
Cooldowns: deathwish, recklessness. DW is a lot less dangerous than it used to be.
Monitor: Slam! Might be useful to be able to see if HS/cleave are lit.
AOE: standard rotation
Comment: *so* much easier than arms! And aoe is built in you don't have to muck with BS/SS. You might hear using rend is a dps boost... don't bother unless you're seriously pro.

[size=150]-- Request for help --[/size]

I'm missing combat, destro, fire, spooky, marksman and blood DK. The rest are currently uncompetitive afaik, so while I may include them sometime, they're not a prio.

A good day

2009-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

Today we killed heroic malygos and I was paid a huge compliment by my heal leader.
I am awesome.

Sarth +1 down, hopefully +2 on Tuesday.

Druid for mage

2008-09-03T02:45:00.000-07:00

Jive has a mage friend asking how healing differs from DPS

---

Hey there. Snap, I played frost all through MC-T5! I'm a warlock now with priest and druid alts who tend to get called into BT for Gertie + Council.

The main difference between DPS and healing is that when healing, your output is capped. There's only so much healing to do, but you have to do it FAST.

On a basic level, healing is reactive. Raid-regrowth tends to be like this, eXtreem whack-a-mole. This mode is not about high heal-per-second (HPS), it's about people not dying RIGHT NOW.

As you get more experienced you'll be able to watch the field more and predict who'll take damage. This is how those paladins get anywhere raidhealing - they're casting before damage even happens. You don't have to be psychic to heal, but it helps :D

Druids have an extra little thing you may have heard of, called HOTs. These are a lot more like a standard DPS cycle, especially if you have experience keeping up DOTs or debuffs. It depends on your assignment, but usually you want to have between one tank lifebloomed, up to full hots on two tanks. HOTs give awesome HPS+HPM and cushion spikes but have to be put up ahead of time.

Great druid healing comes from being able to flow between reactive OMG healing and stabilising the fight through the insane HPS of HOTs.

Ideally you also need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your other healers. That's a whole extra subject though :)

This is all for 25-man raiding. Frankly, for 5-man, there's a much simpler plan. 1) Get 1600 +heal, 2) roll lifeblooms on 4 people, 3) cackle wildly.

Best Practices

2008-07-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org/2008/06/30/best-practices-part-2/

I’m sure some of these will seem naive or cookie-obvious. Maybe a different few to each reader.

Read books. The Pragmatic Programmer, Mythical Man Month, Refactoring. Learn a new language, methodology or framework every quarter.

Cycle people, don’t let them overspecialise or silo. You’ll get broader more useful employees. Their CVs will look nice, which should compensate for the extra challenge. Maintainability will be closer to the hearts of every developer. Consider how resilient your schedule is to a double-decker (”bus impedance”).

Overtime takes a toll. After eight hours you are not doing your best work. An overtime culture will cause employee throughput, fragmented design and many bugs reaching production. I bet Tseric put a lot of hours in. Having said that, a release push won’t kill you. Just not constantly.

Users are great at describing problems, not always so great at picking solutions (not that you should ignore those). Listen, bring in requirements, write usecases, iterate, run the tests, release, reexamine. Anyone should envy Blizzard the Elitist Jerks forum.

Admit mistakes. Confirmation bias is the root of evil. Identify the drivers and facts, don’t allow elegance as a driver but do allow maintainability and flexibiliity.
Tackle risk early, do design carefully but don’t gold plate. Identify the most likely causes of change and allow for those, instead of making the most general solution possible.

Keep people motivate through attention and constructive feedback. Bored/frustrated people cause problems, responsibility can transform them.
Keep visibility through the management chain, ensure those you lead understand your drivers clearly.
When appropriate, praise employees cc your manager. Help overcome challenges privately.
Ask employees to mail you about their successes or those who especially helped them and keep a record.

Don’t use stack ranking for more than two years.

Healatica Principia

2008-06-17T09:26:00.001-07:00

This started as a response to an Ego post on downranking, but grew well out of scope. The short version:

For raiding, you do have to offset damage taken against the healing you expect them to receive from other healers.

---

For raiding, the key points are:
#1. There is a minimum amount of overheal required to keep a raid tank alive
#2. The goal is to run out of mana exactly at the end of the fight
#3. Mostly, healers have SICK amounts of regen now. We aren't in MC any more. Eldr has nearly 600 mp5 oo5sr and he's far from leet.

Healing by prio is very effective:
#1. Can you CoH 3+ people?
#2. Does anyone need a shield+pom?
#3. Does anyone need a flash?
#4. Is PoM on CD? If not send to tank.
#5. Is a tank healer having trouble keeping up? GHmax
#6. Is renew up on tanks?
#7. Do you have <10% mana? Take a spirit break
#8. Chaincast GH1, even if the tank is full

Besides this, there has to be awareness of the other healers. Paladins are spike saviours, let them do it. Druids prevent spikes, Shaman spam CH4 - help with spikes more. Even if you have paladins, if there's spiky damage on ranged they may be FoLing, watch where others are healing and be cautious - better to waste mana than lose the tank.

We rarely allocate dedicated healers (and my priest is an alt), so I prefer to help out all over rather than try to muscle in on a specific area. Everyone is better at something than priests, I see it as my job to keep the toys going (coh, pom, renew) and help out as necessary. When flashing, I often target the person second-most in need of a heal, as my heals are smaller than others' and the other healers are very, very fast!

leetspeak

2008-06-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

response to another of shamus' posts.

Slang serves many purposes and leetspeak is a fine example of all of them. It's being studied. The key driver imho is not technological change per se, but the availability and routing of comm channels. Rigid language is a form of redundancy which helps the language survive long journeys or periods of isolation. "Rosy fingered dawn arose above the wine dark sea".

The internet, dictionaries and the vast body of modern literature available make this redundancy unnecessary, so language is naturally evolving to a more portable, rich, fluid form.

I use a lot of spoken leet, but usually for effect. I like the subtleties of emphasis it allows. For example:

lol: just funny. Generally people say 'hehe' now.
lul: funny because someone's being stupid or a dick which is what lul means in Dutch.
kek: Alliance side, this means kk (ok) but also that I think you're telling me to do something dumb
lolwut: like wtf but less offensive

Most people probably don't get these subtleties, but that's the point of slang.

WTF is pronounced wuh-tuh-fuh. Pwned is powned or owned, I honestly couldn't care less. Anyone who says pee-owned is an outsider.

I do sometimes find it difficult speaking to work colleagues who still have a tenuous idea of what the tubes are about. Most of the little jokes, references and asides I usually pepper my conversation with I have to omit or expect to be ignored. This probably makes me seem kinda boring, when in fact I'm trying way harder to understand their hobby than they are mine. crai crai. (self-aware emo)

I met a work colleague who didn't understand emo the other day. After a pause, we silently agreed this was an unbridgable chasm and we should just move on.

The content

2008-06-14T04:39:00.001-07:00

After Ego's visit, I'm all starstruck and concerned someone might actually read this blog. Or try to. Doesn't look like there's much here, hm?

All the links are in my shared items, so as not to clog this blog. I read a lot of news, mainly slashdot and lolcats, but now and then I stumble on something like findlaw or ethicalcorp.

2008-06-11T11:08:00.001-07:00

Second comment on the same post. I'm gonna have to start paying Shamus for storage.

-

@DevNull: yay I'm not alone! I feel less dirty for liking WoW now. A little anyway.

Are cookiecutter builds so bad? With scarce resources, not many people will actually achieve the perfect build. It gives people an easy point to aim for, letting them get 'on the path'* without a statistics degree. A rich, well-balanced system will allow playstyle differences to make deviation profitable. So newbies can get on the path to cookiecutter easily, then when they get there they're pro enough to understand the deviations they want to make. I raid felguard.

I actually love the idea of legendary weapons, which provide 50-75% of your character's power. I would like to be able to name my weapon, pop different mods in and out, upgrade the core weapon down multiple trees and so on. I'd be happy to get 1 new weapon every 20 levels, that would require a LOT of work (or some work and the gutting of my current weapon) to bring up to a reasonable level. Each weapon would give my character almost entirely different abilities.

Of course what I'm talking about is a mech game that isn't a frackin mech game**. I've hated every one I tried, totally unapproachable, no story, post-apoc setting. Don't they like selling games?

HG:L screwed the pooch on this one by not allowing you to remove enchantments. You could screw up your uberweapon, forever. In short: no respec button. So close, but no cigar. I'm not Korean, nor am I unemployed, therefore the chances of me ever getting a really good weapon are nearly nil.

That's really demotivating. CRPGers will put up with a hell of a lot if they're on the path. HG:L tips you off the path at every opportunity, one misstep and boom you're dead. Call me obsessive but playing without a respec button is like hardcore mode to me.

* 'on the path' is not my idea, but I wish it was.
http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2008/05/being-on-path.html

** Click my name.

and yeah, I did mention I like obsessive analysis right?

HG:L response

2008-06-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

re: Hellgate:London Autopsy, Part 3

Where HG:L really screwed up is not in making crafting a viable way to obtain and customise top-end items, but allowing it to eclipse the other methods. WoW has several playstyles which reward loot, each generally has a few best-in-slot items to offer which encourage diversifying one's experience.

For the most important gear (read: stuff you might use), WoW is moving towards point and token buy systems. This avoids some of the real-money-trading issues around gold while providing the guarantee of item X after Y points. The Diablo concept of maybe, juuuust maybe a SoJ dropping off a random zombie has been dead for a long time in favor of custom loot tables.

The HG:L tooltips aggravate me more than anything else in the game. One of the revolutionary innovations in WoW was simply putting a DPS (damage per second) number on weapons. It's a small but significant step away from pnp handwaving. It speaks of a culture that cares about mechanical balance and a confidence that 'exploiting' the system is simply playing well. *

The (generally) extremely accurate and detailed tooltips allow theorycrafters to construct wonderful spreadsheets to allow you to figure out your actual DPS. Programmatic access to the combat log allows in-depth postmortems and metrics.

It all comes down to providing control and continual positive feedback. These are key to the usability of any system, not just games.

Veering briefly back to the OP, HG:L has none of that. It's a game-killer to a systems junkie like me. WoW's transparency culture produced the armory**, HG:L can't even tell me what my spells do before I buy them.

And there's NO. FRACKING. RESPEC. BUTTON.

* AD&D is phenomenally exploitable so there was a continual game of "what can we get away with?". There's a theory that munchkins find this question so inescapably fascinating they are unable to focus on actual roleplay while it stands. Consequently they test the DM to destruction.

Technically coins can be thrown 3/round for 1 damage. Plus strength modifier. That gets pretty crazy with a haste (6 coins /r) and a +10 strength mod. They're more like Stinger missiles at that point.

** The Armory is an inspiring example of a web application. There aren't many websites this sophisticated.

Feel the Love

2008-05-23T03:13:00.000-07:00

re: http://www.resto4life.com/2008/05/22/the-bond-between-a-healer-and-her-tanks/

Insightful and very true. I would also extend the relationship to really good DPS, who help the tank do their job rather than make it harder and give their all in CC to protect the healer. Felguard Stuns Save Lives. Although I'm not allowed to tell any of Honey's little friends I make him save people. Even a warlock has to draw the line somewhere.

The relationship is definitely strongest for a regularly paired, raiding tank + healer. These so routinely codepend that a strong bond is necessary, if just to prevent either freaking out under stress!

WRT the protector/nurturer gender roles. I find women (in general) have a strong preference for druids, then mages and priests. No warriors and or paladins to speak of (one of the droods I know does have an unloved 70 protadin). However the role split is equal, all the female droods I've known tank or want to.

At the same time I see plenty of men (including myself) enjoying healer roles in a protective way. When I heal instead of thinking "I'll sustain you, make you strong so you can protect me" it tends to be "I won't let you die!". Almost as if we're in opposition, though I really do appreciate a good tank! Maybe I'm just nuts, I also enjoy it when the tank loses control and I get to flex my +heal a bit ^^;
This may partly be because I tend to gear hard, so I'm usually numerically stronger than the tank. When I'm not, it's usually because we both massively outgear the encounter. It could also be because I almost exclusively play with paladin tanks outside raid. If DPS behave panic-tanking situations rarely arise. It all boils down to the tank depending on me going above-and-beyond way more than I depend on zir.

It seems to me that both genders like both roles, but perhaps perceive them in a different light?

This is an interesting discussion for me partly for the possible crossover to motivating women to choose scientific careers, specifically computer science. At the moment most women do not seem to perceive a career in computer science as rewarding, while they happily take up careers with close parallels like law. Admittedly law is very prestigious, but women are no more likely than men to seek high prestige jobs. If we want more diversity in code labs, we need to understand the difference and work to address it.

Screenshots for Vonya

2008-05-22T07:53:00.001-07:00

Hi from Zanikke! Also Eldr, Deira, Dzi, Kaili and the rest of the family :)

Pictures of my Empyrean Tortoise for Vonya.

The Vice Fund

2008-04-30T08:48:00.001-07:00

You gotta admire them. Ethical investors expect lower profits, so the opposite should expect higher, right?
I'm unconvinced that tobacco is a growth industry, though...

clipped from www.vicefund.com

The Vice Fund invests in companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in the aerospace and defense industries, owners and operators of casinos and gaming facilities, manufacturers
of gaming equipment such as slot machines, manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and brewers, distillers, vintners and producers of other alcoholic beverages.

re: muscle car

2008-03-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/03/muscle-car.html

An ant's strength has very little to do with its muscles and a lot to do with the exoskeleton. Chitin is stiff but flexible, the energy stored by flexing it can build up to a remarkable level. To lift something heavy an ant flexes its shell until it has sufficient force, then heaves it up.
I suspect the multiple legs lock out in sequence, again leveraging the hard exoskeleton to provide a constant basis to rest the weight on.
Neither property is particularly useful for building something fast. Ants are tractors not roadsters.

Dismissing your muscle car as a horse is understandable but missing the point. A muscle car would have many advantages over a natural animal, like wheels. However, assuming only the engine is organic, you need to bond a shoulder-type assembly to a drive train. Presumably genetic engineering could offer a tendon with a gristle hoop on the end. Wear and tear would be an issue, but human hips generally last a good 30 years past maturity if not abused.
The concept would be much faster and cheaper to realise without digestion; or a vastly simplified version. Cellulose is extraordinarily hard to digest. Outsource the problem to a biofactory. Generate fuel composed of alcohol or simple sugars, doped with amino acid sources for tissue maintenance, coupled with an activation agent of enzymes and bacteria.
It would probably have to be sealed in a box to prevent infection, given the near complete absence of an immune system.
You could do without a nervous system; or rather, have a device like a regular car. That should give any wannabe animal rights protestors conniptions; either it can't feel pain, or computers can.

What have I missed?

Reaction

2008-02-29T01:43:00.000-08:00

I probably could have been more constructive and less pissy, but well, I'm late for work >.>
Also, I should learn how to do linkbacks one day...
http://www.massively.com/2008/02/28/behind-the-curtain-should-raiders-get-special-treatment/

The casuals are the 'loot whores' if you ask me. Raiders NEED good gear, to progress. If you aren't running T5 or T6, why do you need epix? Most heroics can be completed with very modest gear, indeed they're more fun like that. BT will be unlocked next patch... try going in there with blues. Please YouTube it entitled "Why Raiders Don't Need Epix and are All Lootwhores".

Besides... 'casuals' has become a misnomer. True casuals don't have 150 badges. A better term would be grinders, people who are unable or unwilling to tackle the social and scheduling challenges of raiding, who want the WoW endgame to consist of one long grind after another. Why should being able to kill 8000 fire elementals or run Mech 50 times equate to mastering a boss strategy and applying it as a team? I can't overstate the social challenges involved in 25man raiding as well.
PvP is a tricky one, you don't need skill to get honor/arena but you do to get it fast. Moreover measurement of PvP skill in a BG environment is tricky... so I don't blame the devs *too* much for this imperfect system.

Your dismissal of world firsts is akin to dismissing chess grandmasters. "Pff... they've just spent way too long reading chess books, they've memorised the game big deal, get a life!". To get a world first, you can't sit around farming loot for 6 months. You can't wait for someone to write the strat for you. There aren't any nice timer bars. You have to figure the whole damn thing out by looking at combatlogs.

Oh and quit your emo QQ. "Clearly I'm the only person who worries about the Internet being a breeding ground for the lowest common denominator."? OMG internet is dying! Since when? Dumbass remarks like this don't serve any purpose.

"how do you keep all of your players happy, when you can pick ten of them, and get twenty different answers when you ask them what they want from the game? Sadly, I don't have the answer to that question, but then again, I don't have to – it's not my job"
Actually, it kind of is. Informed journalistic coverage can have a profound influence on the attitudes of those in power. Instead you chose to have a public whine, without any constructive suggestions on how it could be better. What a copout, is your mother proud of you?

So as not to be entirely hypocritical... TBH I feel Blizz have made stunning moves in this space. PvP honor and arena points are the way forward, unskilled players can gain epix but not fast enough to stay far ahead of the patch curve. Blues for reputation provide a stepping stone into PvP. Triple tier tokens, while still randomised (boo hiss) provide much faster gearing and hence progression; it truly sucks having to farm old content to overcome gearchecks. Tier tokens for PvP gear rocks.
What would I like to see? More badges from 25-man, so that 25-man raiders can stay ahead on the badge curve without farming heroics. More and more interesting heroics (Tribute run \o/), to keep the casuals entertained. 2-3 times as many nontier items. "War effort" style grinds for noncombat pets, RP outfits and gimmicks. Remember Talvash's scrying dish? Let us buy them and make more of them.

Now I'm pissed at you for sure. You're probably pissed at me for lambasting you. There's only one question I ask you, however. How could you make your next article better?

Collectible RTS

2008-02-21T07:02:00.001-08:00

RTS games are often hard to get into. Advanced players credit their success to their 'uber micro' (micromanagement) skills; ie, clicking extremely fast and accurately. While that's certainly an impressive skill, a game which relies too much on micro often seems simply annoying and hard work to play. The original RTS, Dune 2, required you to move every unit individually, without waypoints. Not even the most emo of emo kids would inflict that kind of pain on themselves voluntarily nowadays.

More recent games take some of the micro out with groups. Moving a group of 12 units at once makes focus fire, light armor tactics etc viable. Special abilities aren't touched, however. StarCraft Science Vessels have no default attack, so when you tell them (as part of a group) to attack, they simply bob gently above the opposing forces without even activating a shield.

This leads to the idea of a squad - a group of units, produced together, with alloted roles. Put a medic in a marine group and when the group is told to attack, he will heal marines instead of trying to tase firebats. This frees players from rote tactical micro to make economic and strategic plays, and significantly enhances the value of these units. Another example - put mages with footmen and they auto-sheep the enemy's archers.

It also opens up a whole meta-game of squad design and trading, reminiscent of collectible card games. In effect it layers persistent, solo and social capabilities onto the RTS meat, helping turn it from a one-shot experience only the hardcore will truly explore into something more gripping. WoW has shown that simple base-level play with tangible advancement helps draw a mass audience. Spore is taking a page out of Facebook, it's time for RTS to join the club.

Bonus cow level: imagine an RTS with a window manager, on a multitouch screen. With cows.

Christmas gifts

2007-11-23T02:42:00.000-08:00

I just had an awesome idea for a Christmas gift.

Novelty knife-blocks. Rabbit shaped, for example. Or celebrity knife-blocks - stab Bush with a breadknife!

Offline Web 2.0

2007-09-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

Everyone's abuzz about bringing the Web offline. Not shutting it down, but allowing webapps to be accessed offline.

Once you get past the initial "why would you do that?" there are some benefits. Some webapps do things desktop software simply doesn't. Many content-authoring apps don't need network access for 80%+ of their operation.

Somehow I don't see this being a huge success though. Not because it isn't a good idea, but the hassle involved. The story has already played out with Lotus Notes database replication, which personally I steer well clear of. Maybe Web 2.0 will make the required usability improvements; even so I see this as a niche.

Yet another reason to dislike Java

2007-09-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

Java doesn't deal with lists fluently.

All I'm doing here is splitting a comma-separated string, adding MY_NAME and joining. In Java:

List list = new ArrayList();
list.addAll(Arrays.asList(original.split(",")));
list.add(MY_NAME);
StringBuffer newString = new StringBuffer();
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
newString.append(list.get(i));
if (i+1 < list.size())
newString.append(',');
}

In Ruby:

original.split(",").push(MY_NAME).join(",")

Back to Java again... because this beautiful listcentric pattern isn't supported, I end up using the below code. It's less DRY and the intention is obscured.

String newString;
if (original.length() > 0)
newString = original.trim() +","+ MY_NAME;
else newString = MY_NAME;

Shared RSS, pt 2

2007-09-14T05:25:00.000-07:00

I've done it now.

I really like the Shared RSS feature of Google Reader. It bugs me that when I find a cool page, I have to post on my blog here about it. That clutters this blog, obscuring the little original content I do provide.

So (all credit to Mike T for the idea) I've created a second blog, which is autoshared from Google Reader. So everything I post there should end up in my Shared RSS. That means you know what you're getting - inimitable scrawlings of myself from here, links from the RSS.

Check it out by the way, the first article linked through the new mechanism is a cracker.
My Shared RSS - feed

Old lady pwns Mercedes driver

2007-09-13T02:34:00.001-07:00

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ms6vfacSeJU

Spike theory

2007-09-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Every so often, I get to use something I learnt at university. Rarely on work, but it's still cool. This time, it relates to WoW, which makes it doubleplus cool. In my world.

Top-end combat in WoW consists of a tank, some healers and some DPS (damagers). An important constraint on the DPS is to do less "threat" than the tank. This is usually okay, a good tank will on average deal more threat than the DPS. However, critical hits and crit chains (several crits in a row) increase short-term threat considerably. If this "threat spike" pushes the DPSer over the tank's threat, they usually die. So the size and frequency of one's spikes is of key interest.

Returning to school, queuing theory helps predict how long the queue at a checkout will be. It assumes a server who deals with customers at a steady pace and customers who arrive in a Poisson distribution. Can you see the connection yet?

If we pretend crits are the customers, and the server deals with crits at the effective crit rate, then we can see how long the queue is likely to get. That is, how many unexpected crits are likely to happen in a short time frame. It is possible, of course, for every single attack to crit over a 10 minute period despite only a 1% crit rate - however this is incredibly unlikely!

Using the Poisson distribution we can convert from the effective crit rate into an expected number of crits per second. From that we can determine the longest queue with a probability of, say, 5% or more, over the time it takes for a normal fight (3-10min). By moderating our damage to ensure the tank always has enough threat to handle a crit chain of this length, we can guarantee we stay under zir threat 95% of the time.

Exercises: what crit rate is the spikiest? A high crit rate means 'customers' arrive very fast, but the 'server' will also deal with them very quickly. That is, a lot of crits are expected, so they are less surprising.

Crits vary in size. A basic crit from a magic-user is 50% of the spell's total damage. However, talents can increase this to 125% for some spells. Given the total base damage and the total amount of additional damage done by crits, produce a strict ordering of character builds by spikiness.

XKCD

2007-08-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

"Note: I don't use submitted comic ideas and I have already heard about every company making human hamster balls." - xkcd

le sigh. I want an XKCD poster like this:

Man: "We ran your code and it nuked Russia. WTF?"
Black hat: "Agile!"

Ruby ruby ruby ruby!

2007-08-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ruby links

http://jicksta.com/articles/2007/08/04/the-methodphitamine
http://codeaspects.com/ruleby/articles/news/2007/04/30/ruleby-a-pure-ruby-rule-engine

WowSim is doing well. Buffs/debuffs are looking good, reports are generated and ability modifiers are sorted. Still a LOT to do, but the class diagram seems reasonably settled now. Looking forward to getting more maths in there.

Cthuluteh!

2007-08-14T06:29:00.001-07:00

clipped from community.livejournal.com

Assembla

2007-08-10T03:23:00.000-07:00

Free SVN, Trac, Wiki at http://assembla.com !

One caveat - if you're behind a proxy, even an invisible one, you need to use https to access SVN or you'll get MKACTIVITY errors (amongst others).

My project: http://www.assembla.com/wiki/show/wowsim

acts_as_state_machine

2007-08-07T03:09:00.001-07:00

Rails plugins do clever things. Whoda thunk it: acts_as_state_machine

There are many DPS-estimating spreadsheets available for WoW, but no actual simulators. I've started one, but it's very early days, I'm tangling with debuffs. I'll probably get distracted and never finish it, but ^^

Oblivion is infuriating me again. I'm not sure why I'm even playing it, but there you go. I fixed the levelling problem by installing mods - Oscuro's and KCAS. In the short term, they make it much harder though. I was fighting fire atronachs, clannfeyr, amazons and marauders at L2. I want rats, damnit! Without anything to practice on, it's hard to get your stats up. I did find a nice cave with a mudcrab and a rat this morning and trained myself up to L7 or so. Booooring. Still, I can have a crack at those marauders, get my Arcane University pass and make some decent spells soon. That will help.

2007-07-18T08:34:00.001-07:00

god i'm bored.

HK + Bodymod

2007-07-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.kittyhell.com/
http://modblog.bmezine.com/2007/07/13/tongue-splitting-2/

modblog also has a picture of a girl doing a suspension (with hooks). Novel to me, always seemed to be the guys doing those.

Sexism/racism in gaming

2007-07-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Low-tech trackback

One day I'll figure out how to do it properly.

Clipmarks Experiment #2, aka "I just ruined my blog"

2007-07-10T06:45:00.001-07:00

Now there are going to be frickin' cats everywhere.

awww.

clipped from community.livejournal.com

Hutter prize

2007-07-10T03:38:00.001-07:00

First post! (with the Clipmarks Firefox extension)

I wish I could include this in my 'Shared RSS' feed, but hey, what's a boy to do?

edit: It includes linebreaks somehow. Very annoying, can't figure out why either. If anyone knows, please do tell me... I need an Adams-esque readership to fix these things for me, damnit.

clipped from cs.fit.edu

The Large Text Compression Benchmark and the Hutter Prize are designed to encourage research in natural language processing (NLP). I argue that compressing, or equivalently, modeling natural language text is "AI-hard". Solving the compression problem is equivalent to solving hard NLP problems such as speech recognition, optical character recognition (OCR), and language translation. I argue that ideal text compression, if it were possible, would be
equivalent to passing the Turing test for artificial intelligence (AI), proposed in 1950 [1]. Currently, no machine can pass this test [2]. Also in 1950, Claude Shannon estimated the entropy (compression limit) of written English to be about 1 bit per character [3]. To date, no compression program has achieved this level. In this paper I will also describe the rationale for picking this particular data set and contest rules.

My pet hate

2007-07-09T06:49:00.001-07:00

* "Next" buttons that, when you reach the last page, turn into the "Cancel" button

Shared RSS

2007-07-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

There's a new widget on my blog page, 'Shared RSS'. It contains items from the various feeds I read which are novel, enlightening or just gosh darn cute enough I want to tell the world about. This saves you from a million posts containing just a link to a news article and me from writing anything about it when I have nothing to add.

You can visit my shared RSS page separately if you prefer.

btw it was the macro which really cracked me up in that long lolcat post.

MySpace

2007-06-25T05:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/lxsli

edit: coincidentally, this article was posted on Slashdot today.
edit: I've spent a totally disproportionate amount of time setting up my profile compared to how long I intend to spend on MySpace generally. I guess people really do love customising things.

I'm trying to hunt down a track Annie Mac played as a white label from Mickey Finn, it's on the Finn People label (read it off some vinyl at the weekend! then went a bit spastic) and I think it might be by Modified Motion, but Juno Records doesn't have it. Bah. Annie dubbed it Super Mario because of the well, Mario noises... it isn't called that though.

There's a mix here Hattie pointed out, mainly filler as always but some really nice mixes and basslines too. Actually seems the first/second and last tracks are best!

edit: MySpace ftl. FaceBook seems way more featureful. I may make that my 'main SNS', as far as I even have one.

Kids movies

2007-06-25T03:04:00.000-07:00

Reposted since I hate to waste 30mins writing and throw it away.

Trackback to original post.

You'll never get a great movie by thinking of a new category like this. What was Monsters, Inc? A kids creature feature or a story about a couple of factory workers helping a kid defeat her nightmares?

Where are the comic adaptations for kids? I read Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio, it would make an awesome kids movie. It's available free online, although I've bought all the books. There are giant robots, tiny robots, Transylvanian monster soldiers, a talking cat and lots of dirigibles.

A great 'kids' movie for adults would be Barry Ween by Judd Winick. It spins the traditional supergenius kid story by introducing a foul mouth, *reference* to porn and a reluctant hero. Girl problems and an eight year old friend who acts more like five aid familiarity. I cried and it's a *comic book* for gosh darn sake.

What's your favourite genre? Why hasn't it been done for kids? Hoodwinked is fantastic, it's like Murder She Wrote for kids.

Kids feel oppressed by adults, they like to see kids beating adults. The Witches is about a kid with a power uncovering an adult conspiracy, perfect. Kids also like older kids, I bet a lot of kids under 16 sneaked a look at American Pie.

ps. Psychonauts would be good too. Can't be bothered to write porperly any more.

How to mix and write

2007-06-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

It turns out beatmatching is only half the story. Stick a tune on, tap out the beat if the BPM counter is off, and add FX to taste. To mix the second tune, pitchbend (or timeshift, if you have it) until the BPMs match, cue and drop. This works for tracks with nice long intros/outros because there's time to crossfade. Unfortunately, lots of music doesn't do that. Especially gabba and other esoteric noise music.

So here's the other way. When you put the second track on, match the mid and treble levels and kill the bass. Crossfade the bass or use the kills to hard swap basslines. The downside of this approach (at least to my ear) is your levels end up very peculiar and people complain about the beat change. I have yet to try it. I'm guessing you can merge the styles, at least if you're not changing track too often.

--

This was also an attempt to follow Scott Adams' recent advice on how to write. The first sentence leads you to read further. The sentences are fairly simple and follow subject|action syntax. I culled this entire next paragraph because it lent nothing to the story. Part of what I want to do with this blog is to actively not talk about myself and focus on what I'm doing / learning instead. That should make it much more interesting!

I woke up one day, a couple of months ago now, and decided to learn to mix. I bought some decks off eBay, Numark CDXs. These are pretty unique because they have a fullsize turntable (no tone-arm) with a slipmat, so you can scratch on them. That's waaaay advanced for me though.

Avatar

2007-06-08T10:07:00.001-07:00

Imagine you're a ghost. You had a life once, people you cared about. You grew up, you loved, you hurt, you died. Now you're invisible. Intangible. Powerful.

Find an animal, and possess it. Feed it, care for it, grow it. Augment it. Train it. You are the most powerful being the forest has ever known.

Until one day, you hear a tap on the window. Which is funny, because there are no windows in the forest. Then symbols appear, and suddenly you understand you are not alone, only one tiny piece of a massive telepathic society. Other monsters bump in the night, other Avatars like yourself. Some respect the world about them, others, the Abominations, do not.

--

The most basic shell, the Blob, is also the most adaptable. It is resistant to all kinds of attacks and it has only two component slots. One is a mode of attack, the other a power source. An Appendage allows a melee attack, while a Focus makes the Bolt attack available. Both need to be powered.

The basic choices are a Generator or a Reservoir. A Generator gives a small pool but regenerates quickly. A Reservoir gives a big pool, but does not regenerate. When not fighting, your soul heals and recharges your shell quickly, although you can only 'flash-charge' a certain number of times before needing to rest. (time spent eating / drinking is minimal but exists. 1min in 10 perhaps)

Later shells have more slots, but the base shell becomes weaker. Some shells have defensive slots, which provide damage reduction or avoidance. Other shells have multiple attack slots. Most importantly, components gain adaptations. The Appendage becomes a Stabber, inflicting greater single-target damage, or a Cleaver, inflicting short-range area damage. The Bolt attack focuses a certain type of energy, with effects beyond simple damage.

Eventually you find yourself in possession of a full-fledged war machine, a Biosynth constructed from living organisms, able to fell redwoods with a kick or flash-fry a sheep in under a second just by glaring. The only trouble is, that's what the Abominations think of you.

---

I give up on the story. This is a gameplay feature list. Key items include:

The player has multiple Biosynths available for control. Changing 'class' is not free, but it is far less costly than in WoW.

A Biosynth is the sum of its parts. You don't get so much as a punch attack without buying it. OTOH, if your shell has an empty slot, you may as well fill it. This allows for 'mandatory' abilities.

Components are attacks, defenses, powers, reacts and supports. Attacks are physical or energy based, both CAN be specialised for greater effect. Defenses split identically, in both cases more damage/mitigation can be achieved per point by specialising. Powers include generators, reservoirs and reactors, which create power based on damage taken or done. Shells will closely restrict power builds. Reacts are meta-components which power active abilities when conditions are achieved. Supports buff or debuff one or more targets. They constantly drain power, so are preferably offset by a generator. Some supports can be customised to apply differently to different people.

There is no healing (maybe some regeneration). Post-combat, you insta-heal which costs soul points. To regain soul points, you meditate. Most builds should average to 1min in 10 resting, a big decrease from most MMOs. Some builds will not require any resting, but this will cost in other areas. Builds which require >2min in 10 should be rebalanced. Combat occurs in bullet-time.

Tanking: armor (constant dmg mitigation) and luck (% dmg mitigation) are passive. Dodge, parry (allows counter) and block (partial mitigation) are active.

---

I wanted to gut certain aspects of the MMO canon. WoW bent the trinity a bit, but ultimately the purebreed DPS and healers suffered. Warlocks, hunters, paladins and druids can all perform two or more roles admirably, while mages, rogues and priests are left lackluster in comparison. At present, all the priests I know are DPS-specced... which is just wrong. So remove healing. Now you just have tanking and DPS, and tanking seems a hell of a lot harder.

In a long fight, even a perfectly played tank will eventually run out of HP. This suggests multiple tanks are a good solution. Suddenly 1/3 of the group are tanks, tank-swapping is routine, the line between DPS and tank is blurred and boom goes the trinity. This also removes some of the "KPOW, you're dead" factor. No single blow from even the biggest nasty will fell a tank. Of course, if too many big shots are absorbed, the entire group runs out of HP. AKA wipe.

Position is one of the best mechanics since it's 2D. Actually, since we're in bullet-time, it's 3D - a jump lasts long enough that lag doesn't destroy it as a combat mechanic. DPS will be maneuvering around AOE attacks to reach weak spots, while the tank(s) either dodge (safe) or parry (riskier, but with a damage payoff) the main attacks. Yes, tanks - multiple tanks may be required for the 12-armed Cthuloid Abominations. You do NOT want all 12 arms hitting one tank, right?

I wanted to gut equipment. The whole 'magic sword' idea has gone waaaay overboard. It particularly dissonates that when I get a new shiny, I just *destroy* (aka vendor) that thing I sweated blood for. Originally I wanted persistent items with upgradeable sockets. Then I realised that making the entire character the persistent item, with their limbs and abilities the sockets, I could get the same effect. Instead of looting items off defeated foes, you learn genetic techniques.

As part of the whole loot thing, I wanted to move a little away from the "numbers going up!" basis of RPGs. Through the levelling game, primarily you'll be looting specialisation and diversity. The Blob is going to be pretty damn boring... roll up, set autoattack, wait. Soon you'll become faster, or sharper, or tricksy. By 'endgame', you should have enough techniques to fulfill one or two roles one or two ways.

It bugs me that WoW Mages can only do fire or frost at once. It bugs me I even have that stupid fireball spell when it's so useless. Biosynth mages will put most of their points into lower level modules, they can choose to specialise or not, but two schools should be affordable. The expensive choices will be stylistic - debuff or direct, fast or slow, control or power.

I'd like to introduce some aspects of Populism, but I'm not sure how yet.

I'll add more later.

Character customisation

2007-06-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, Shamus Young wrote this post about character customisation in Jade Empire, and my response got a teensy weensy bit out of hand...

---

I loved the Open Palm / Closed Fist philosophies, re: actual personality development. Except for the couple of cases where you had to be straight, mindless, chaotic evil to avoid Open Palm points. Closed Fist actually makes sense, it's harsh but fair.

I disliked that you really needed all three stats. Health/Chi were pretty interchangeable and Focus let you use weapons, which speed the fights up to a bearable point. Basically, you couldn't be a "warrior" or a "sorceror" or a "ninja" - you were always a jack of all trades. I love to specialise.

I also disliked that there were so many styles and you had to put points in just to make a lot of them worth using. My first toon, I spread my points around a lot and had a tricky time in the midgame. They could have fixed this to a large extent by making all the weapon/support/etc styles use one pool of points each.

I really hated the poor descriptions on the abilities. Storm Dragon stuns, it doesn't do damage over time at all. It stuns for longer than Paralyzing Palm. Misleading text like that is a slap in the face, it honestly decreased my enjoyment of the game.

LoTRO customises via traits. Particularly the choice of Legendary trait can be fundamental, or so I hear. WoW of course has talent builds. Oblivion is so back to front it makes my head spin... although it has the unique quality that min/maxing is sometimes HARDER than normal play. Killing Daedra with untrained fists and arrows is tricky.

What I dislike, especially about D&D based games, is how hard it is to identify successful builds. It seems elitist, a kind of metagame that gives an unstoppable advantage to those willing to actually run the numbers. Google 'DDO Batman' to see the full horror of a Rogue 2, Paladin 2, Warrior 6. While I respect Grenfell a great deal, the developers really messed up.

WoW, for me, strikes a good balance between premade subclasses (talent trees) while still allowing meaningful customisation. You can - generally - just look at the talent trees, read the text and come out with something 80% as good as an optimised build. Each plays differently and requires different equipment choices to optimise (the Warlock has to be the prime example).

The most successful customisations allow a revolution instead of an evolution of gameplay. I would have been happier if they'd removed the style and attribute points from Jade Empire entirely, and had instead focused on genuinely differentiating the styles. Thousand Cuts was a big disappointment.

edit: I'm completely onboard with Lee from the OP who hates critical choices during character development. I want to be able to respec *everything*, goddarnit. Yes, even my class. I have 4-5 L60+ WoW chars and levelling another is not an attractive prospect, even though I would love to see the endgame with that char (my warlock is 43).

DDO was by far the worst for this. There were so many critical points in that system that one misplace stat point during character creation could have a massive impact on your future performance. The developers actually considered rerolling a part of the game. You couldn't even create one of the really good characters (with extra stats) without completing 80-90% of the game content. The redeeming 'feature' was that you could hit max level in a month without even trying. Still, you'd be running the same dungeons again, and again, and again.

edit: Up to 12 80s and a 77 now. I've become more casual with the raiding and the DDO model is starting to appeal much more, particularly in reference to Kingdom of Loathing, where you gain an itsy bitsy bit every 'reroll'. I very much like the KoL model.

How to treat your customers

2007-06-06T02:42:00.000-07:00

I just bought two t-shirts from Noisebot. They're US and charge as much for UK shipping as they do a t-shirt, but two still worked out at <£15 each. We're so ripped off here... or maybe I should stop paying £15 for fancy tees. Anyway, this is how they confirmed the order:

*** ORDER SUCCESS! ***

Yay! Awesome! Thanks a lot for ordering from NoiseBot.com! =)

Please note that orders require at least 3 to 5 business days (excludes weekends and holidays) to process before they are actually shipped.

You will receive an email confirmation for your order shortly. You will also receive a second email with a U.S. Postal Service "Delivery Confirmation" number when your order is actually shipped.

Please print or save this page for your records.

Again, thank you very much for the order!

You are awesome! We love you! =)

Sincerely,

Sylvia

Sylvia Drake
Customer Assistance
hey@noisebot.com

Arguably it's a teensy bit desperate, but I'm not complaining. Way to positively reinforce, people. I particularly like the name and email address at the bottom.

I bought "the cat says MAO" (all pictures) and "Come to the dark side! (we have cookies)". I was tempted by "Make awkward sexual advances, not war" but didn't follow through.

Also I appear to have fallen into traditional "blogging whatever makes me go ooh" mode. Oh well. I haven't had any smart thoughts for a while so this will have to do.

edit: the tees arrived :D I'm very happy with the cat one, but the dark side one I regret a little. It's not the most original after all.

Energy

2007-06-05T04:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/684/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070603225026.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news99904887.html

The downside on solar cells is, as always, production cost. Still, commercial cells are peaking around 19% efficiency now (Wikipedia). Last I heard, it was 5%.

The thermal acoustic piezo article specifically mentions solar cells. If the two dev paths become tightly coupled, it may affect solar cell design by enabling heat dissipation to be partly offset. IE a very high absorption material which sheds too much energy as heat to be conventionally efficient may become useful.

I'm not sure what's going on wrt microwave power transmission these days. Wikipedia seems to say it is possible and safe, but somewhat impractical (a "large rectenna volume" is required).

edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6725955.stm
Brilliant. What pisses me off about this is that apparently it isn't even that hard, just no one bothered. Gah.

Version control

2007-06-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

I've taken another look at version control systems again today. Subversion still seems the clear winner, despite Linus Torvald's writing his own called Git. It's a distributed SCM and designed for the Linux dev model, ie maintainers accepting patches, instead of the centralised SVN model where devs commit independently.

Word is that a distributed system is better for massively branched systems, but I don't quite see it. The killer for Git is that it's optimised for POSIX; Windows performance is poor.

Distributed runners up include Darcs and Mercurial. The former can become unstable, the latter I didn't read about any problems before I lost interest in the distributed class.

edit: huge fan of Mercurial now. Note all (or at least, many) of the Svn devs are now on Mercurial.

Why EVE is worth playing

2007-05-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

http://eve.klaki.net/heist

I love spreading links. But in general, I'm going to resist, because it's too easy to turn into Metafilter. However, this is an old story which somehow I missed at the time.

The reason, btw, is that it allows you to truly, totally, soul-crushingly DESTROY another player, to an extent which would be considered a critical design flaw in another game. EVE is for the truly hardcore and GHSC should be snapped up by the intelligence service.

Big numbers

2007-05-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

what's the biggest number you can write in 15 seconds?

9 > 1
99 > 9
99+99 > 99
99*99 > 99+99
99⁹⁹ > 99*99
99^99⁹⁹ > 99⁹⁹

this is where it gets more interesting.

2 ↑ 2 = 2² = 4
3 ↑ 3 = 3^3³ = 19683
3 ↑ 4 = 3^{3^3³} = lots

3 (↑²) 3 = (3↑3) ↑ (3↑3) = 19683 ↑ 19683

so where: f(n) = n ↑ⁿ n
and f³(n) = f(f(f(n)))

my big number is: fⁿ(n) where n = 9

mr. xkcd would have beaten me though with BB(9). he could have had BB⁹(9 ↑⁹ 9) but it would, frankly, have been unnecessary wear and tear on his pencil. in other words, it would have reduced the computational density.

actually he goes bigger. he also restates the problem in a more exact form, 32 characters instead of 15 seconds. and btw, yes this entire discussion was sparked/ripped by/from his post and my vague recollections of a conversation with josh.

Collision and movement in RTS games

2007-05-30T07:28:00.001-07:00

Collision detection is a fundamentally hard problem. Spheres are easy enough (y² = x² + r², iirc) but generally objects are knobbly.
A related issue is movement and pathfinding. Each step along the path involves collision detection and either halt or reroute.

Probably the oldest solution is to use a square board, a la chess. That isn't very good though, because a diagonal move is longer than an orthogonal. Pentagons don't tesselate well, so hexagons are the next step up. Hexagons offer 6-way movement with a pure grid, the famous isometric grid. This is good enough for most games and people have made east+west movement possible.

Octogons don't tesselate perfectly; they need squares along the diagonals. You get all 8 compass points though and the squares give you a little flexibility. You can choose to put units in them or not, you can choose whether a given item collides on squares as well as octogons (to make a slightly bigger tank). You could allow small units, like single Marines, to occupy a square.

Going back to hexagons, seven hexagons make a superhexagon (my name). They have supersides composed of 3 hexagon edges - happily, they have 6 of these. So by making each tank take up a superhexagon, you gain some freedom for irregular shaped units. That gives me a cool idea for super-units which are assembled from smaller units - like in cheesy anime.

By adding surrounding blocks, you can allow pixel-precise unit placement. A single square sized unit cannot overlap more than a four-square, wherever it's centred within that four-square. A foursquare sized unit needs a ninesquare. A hexagon needs a superhexagon. By doing collision detection on the containing area first, using coarse blocks, you save a lot of CPU compared to trying to make pixel-perfect collision detection between everything at once.

There is a tradeoff involved in how many blocks you use. Too many blocks and the memory requirement goes through the roof. The containing-block lists also get large and less useful. Too few blocks, and you get large blank spaces between units.

Incidentally, the blank-space effect can be substantially mitigated by combining buildings. This is often done for walls in RTS' but not bunkers. I've never seen production buildings built like this - maybe in Rollercoaster Tycoon? - it might be interesting to introduce vertical scaling to RTS'. (traditionally horizontal scaling is used, ie more factories not bigger ones)

Paradoxes of games

2007-05-30T03:39:00.000-07:00

Ha. I thought I lost this. Thank gosh for autosave. It's unfinished though, maybe I'll come back to it.

--

In economics, people pay to make life less challenging.
In games, people pay to make life more challenging.

Life is 'fair' when success is rewarded, eg by the environment becoming more to your liking.

Hypothesis: games are fun when success is 'rewarded' by an increase in challenge, like rubber-banding in race games.

Man-law is very strict on boasting, dares, gambles etc. Public achievement is a key motivator.

Hypothesis: online gamers will fight to succeed with the greatest handicap.
Hypothesis: there are breadth-oriented (completist) gamers and depth-oriented (time attack) gamers

Classes

2007-05-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about an afterschool class/club I could run (with help) at Cantell. I helped on a maths masterclass, which was fairly simple but the contact with the kids was amazing. Recently I found HackityHack which is cool, but it's still beta imo. It also involves writing code, with all the attendant complexity.

The best find was Scratch. I almost couldn't stop playing with this yesterday. There's a Wiki textbook project. I found a Snake game, but sadly it seemed a bit too complex to work towards over a short class (say 6 lessons).

No healing

2007-05-30T03:20:00.001-07:00

MMO without a healer class

Bullet-time, active block/dodge/parry mechanics

Full heal/mana restore outside combat

Chess RTS

2007-05-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

King - flag
Queen - commander, kickass + makes production buildings
Bishop - flyer
Rook - force cannon, makes walls or medium range attacks
Knight - stationary artillery, constructs portal underneath and fires construction kit to endpoint
Pawn - 4-man bunker construction team / marines

Branch/morph units for diversity
3 playable 'races'/styles

Bishops - offensive vs rooks + knights
Rooks - defensive vs pawns + knights
Knight - offensive vs rooks + pawns
Pawn - short range, balanced, anti-bishop
- also farmers?

Direction of movement
independent of direction of offense
independent of direction of defense

Economic targeting by armor + value

Groups are armies, select unit classes by order prefix (eg G1, FLYER, ATTACK)

All special abilities on army page, specify class to reduce

Welcome

2007-05-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. A lot of it probably won't make sense. That's ok by me.

I edit posts a lot.