I've had a Nintendo 3DS for a while now (my old DS was on its last legs and I wanted to have a console to play FFIII on when I got there in my marathon) and one of the apps it came loaded with was a rudimentary music player. It comes with a 2G SD memory card so I was able to move my mp3s from my ancient mp3 player to the SD card through my laptop. I was then able to play the music fine in my 3DS, but every time I opened the music or camera app it would yell at me. The claim was that the SD card was set to write protected mode and therefore nothing could be saved to the card. I took it out and looked at it... Not write protected. I put it back in my laptop... Not write protected. I stopped caring at that point since it would play my music at least and went on with my life.
Nintendo released a patch on the 6th which added in a web browser and a game store. Great! Only problem, it wouldn't let me update with a write protected SD card. (Well, it didn't tell me as much, but I updated and it failed.) Mark had linked to an FAQ describing a bug in the update which broke the Ridge Racer game. (Want to keep playing it? Don't update your 3DS.) In the same sub-section was an SD card FAQ. It didn't describe my error at all, but it did advise that the SD card can only hold 100 music files per folder and 1000 folders total. That got me thinking... I have more than 100 mp3s, right? And I remember searching through trying to find a specific song I _knew_ I had on there but couldn't find it on the list. (Simple & Clean by Utada Hikaru) So I took my SD card out, split up the mp3s on my laptop, and tried it in the 3DS. Worked perfectly. Downloaded the update. Worked perfectly. Got my free copy of Excite Bike 3D. Woo!
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Amumu the Sad Mummy
A few months ago the League of Legends servers were really unstable for a week and people were unable to play. To try to make things up to people they credited all active accounts with 350 RP (less than $3 worth). I can't complain since I didn't even try to play during the outages and only found out about it later when I was talking to Adam. 350 RP isn't actually very much and there isn't a whole lot you could buy with it so I just left it sitting around.
Now, periodically they put a couple heroes 'on sale' which cuts their RP cost in half while leaving their IP cost the same. (IP is the currency you earn by playing games.) One of the heroes currently on sale is Amumu who dropped from 575 RP to 287 RP. This is particularly relevant to me since it takes him from out of reach to affordable with the free RP they gave me. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to play Annie and Ashe during the last free week but was often stuck taking a tank for team balance reasons. Amumu was that tank and I enjoyed playing him so I figured I might as well buy him while he's on sale and always have that option open to me. I was lamenting that I didn't have the proper runes to play him so I should probably save up for them now. But what should they be?
There are plenty of interesting guides for heroes at Mobafire but very few of them actually put any hard facts behind their recommendations. By and large they wave their hands and say what works for them or recycle 'known information' which I haven't been able to properly source. So, my intention is to work out exactly what the different talents and runes are going to do for me so I can make an actual informed decision.
First off, though, I need to decide how I'm going to typically play the character. There are a lot of different roles that can be filled by a hero in the game and Amumu is particularly adept at a few of them. The roles it seems like he's best at are:
Tank - The primary goal of a tank is to mitigate incoming damage. If everything goes optimally the enemy team will attack the tank for a long time during which the tank's teammates will be killing off the squishier members of the enemy team. To pull this off you need to both be tough and be attacked. Some heroes have taunt effects which force the enemies to attack them which makes things easy. Alternatively you could root the enemies in place which will prevent them from attacking far away people, forcing them to focus on the person near them. Or you could just disable them entirely and prevent them from attacking anyone at all. Some heroes can be set up to be very annoying or damaging if they're left alive and therefore you can 'force' the enemy to attack you by making it a good idea for them to attack you. You can also rely on your opponents being bad and just attacking the first man in which actually works a lot in the games I've been playing.
Initiator - Games often devolve into all 5 heroes from both teams standing close to each other. Neither team wants to start a big fight since who starts it off is going to lose. (The first person to walk close enough to the other team to get hit by their fireballs is probably going to explode.) So you end up wandering around looking at each other until either someone gives up and stands down to farm or makes a mistake and starts a losing fight. An initiator will have the ability to force the fight to start on terms beneficial to your team. Perhaps the best example of this is from my favourite hero, Blitzcrank. He essentially has a Scorpion style grappling hook which you can launch in a direction. If it makes contact with an enemy it pulls them in to you. Pulling an enemy into your team of 5 is a good way for them to end up dead and now you can charge in 5v4 and use strength in numbers to overcome hitting them on their turf. Or you can just walk away with your hero kill and farm.
Jungler - There are 3 lanes with perpetually spawning monsters which is where most of the experience and gold in the game is generated. Experience is split evenly among all nearby heroes so by default you'll have 1 hero getting full experience and 4 getting half experience. (You split your 5 heroes among the 3 lanes in a 2-2-1 split.) In addition to the lanes there are also little camps of neutral monsters that spawn all around the map. These are also worth experience and gold and sometimes even provide a powerful temporary buff. If you have a hero dedicated to killing these neutral monsters in the jungle then suddenly you've split your team up 2-1-1-1 and now have 3 heroes getting full experience and 2 getting half. And you're getting powerful temporary buffs on your team. And you have a hero perpetually hidden in the fog of war so the other team has to worry about where he is and if he's going to jump out of the shadows and gank them. (And if they don't worry about it at all then you just run around actually ganking them!)
Beatdown! - Someone needs to actually kill the enemies!
All characters in League of Legends have 5 abilities. A passive ability, 3 normal abilities they can level up (1 skill per level) and an ultimate ability they can level in the same way which can only be leveled at 6, 11, and 16.
Amumu's passive makes anyone he hits get a debuff with -35 magic resist. This lets him do more magic damage but more importantly lets his caster teammates do more magic damage and can provide an incentive for the enemies to kill him off.
Amumu's Q ability is like a reverse Scorpion throw. You throw a 'spear' in a direction but if it hits any enemy they get stunned and you get teleported on top of them. It also does some damage to them. This is awesome for initiating since you get right in their face from a fair distance away. The stun helps hold them in position so your allies can catch up. Great for initiating. The stun can also be used in the middle of a fight to stop their best damage dealer from attacking your team, so it's ok for tanking.
Amumu's W ability is an aura. This aura drains your mana but deals damage to everyone around you. The damage it deals is percentage of maximum health so it hurts the other team's tanks a fair bit. This is another reason the enemies want to kill Amumu off. If he just stands in the middle of the fight he's gradually killing off their whole team. Great for chasing people down, too, since you just have to stay near them to keep the damage coming.
Amumu's E ability has two parts to it. The first part is a passive effect that reduces incoming damage by 10 at max level. This is fantastic for tanking, of course, but also very good for jungling. In a lane the monsters tend to attack each other so the heroes don't take a lot of damage but out in the jungle the neutral monsters only have you to attack. Taking less damage from them is good. The second part is an area of effect damage spell. It's nothing spectacular but it gets its cooldown reduced each time you get hit. So if they wail on you then you get to do more damage to them.
Amumu's ultimate ability is one of the best in the game. It puts down a pretty substantial area of effect snare. This prevents any enemies in the area from moving or attacking for 2 seconds. It also does a fairly large amount of damage. It's insanely good for initiating fights. Or for ganking people. Or for preventing the enemies from hurting your teammates while they run away. Coupled with his first ability this lets you jump onto someone, stun them, then root them when they try to get away. Just fantastic!
Now, periodically they put a couple heroes 'on sale' which cuts their RP cost in half while leaving their IP cost the same. (IP is the currency you earn by playing games.) One of the heroes currently on sale is Amumu who dropped from 575 RP to 287 RP. This is particularly relevant to me since it takes him from out of reach to affordable with the free RP they gave me. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to play Annie and Ashe during the last free week but was often stuck taking a tank for team balance reasons. Amumu was that tank and I enjoyed playing him so I figured I might as well buy him while he's on sale and always have that option open to me. I was lamenting that I didn't have the proper runes to play him so I should probably save up for them now. But what should they be?
There are plenty of interesting guides for heroes at Mobafire but very few of them actually put any hard facts behind their recommendations. By and large they wave their hands and say what works for them or recycle 'known information' which I haven't been able to properly source. So, my intention is to work out exactly what the different talents and runes are going to do for me so I can make an actual informed decision.
First off, though, I need to decide how I'm going to typically play the character. There are a lot of different roles that can be filled by a hero in the game and Amumu is particularly adept at a few of them. The roles it seems like he's best at are:
Tank - The primary goal of a tank is to mitigate incoming damage. If everything goes optimally the enemy team will attack the tank for a long time during which the tank's teammates will be killing off the squishier members of the enemy team. To pull this off you need to both be tough and be attacked. Some heroes have taunt effects which force the enemies to attack them which makes things easy. Alternatively you could root the enemies in place which will prevent them from attacking far away people, forcing them to focus on the person near them. Or you could just disable them entirely and prevent them from attacking anyone at all. Some heroes can be set up to be very annoying or damaging if they're left alive and therefore you can 'force' the enemy to attack you by making it a good idea for them to attack you. You can also rely on your opponents being bad and just attacking the first man in which actually works a lot in the games I've been playing.
Initiator - Games often devolve into all 5 heroes from both teams standing close to each other. Neither team wants to start a big fight since who starts it off is going to lose. (The first person to walk close enough to the other team to get hit by their fireballs is probably going to explode.) So you end up wandering around looking at each other until either someone gives up and stands down to farm or makes a mistake and starts a losing fight. An initiator will have the ability to force the fight to start on terms beneficial to your team. Perhaps the best example of this is from my favourite hero, Blitzcrank. He essentially has a Scorpion style grappling hook which you can launch in a direction. If it makes contact with an enemy it pulls them in to you. Pulling an enemy into your team of 5 is a good way for them to end up dead and now you can charge in 5v4 and use strength in numbers to overcome hitting them on their turf. Or you can just walk away with your hero kill and farm.
Jungler - There are 3 lanes with perpetually spawning monsters which is where most of the experience and gold in the game is generated. Experience is split evenly among all nearby heroes so by default you'll have 1 hero getting full experience and 4 getting half experience. (You split your 5 heroes among the 3 lanes in a 2-2-1 split.) In addition to the lanes there are also little camps of neutral monsters that spawn all around the map. These are also worth experience and gold and sometimes even provide a powerful temporary buff. If you have a hero dedicated to killing these neutral monsters in the jungle then suddenly you've split your team up 2-1-1-1 and now have 3 heroes getting full experience and 2 getting half. And you're getting powerful temporary buffs on your team. And you have a hero perpetually hidden in the fog of war so the other team has to worry about where he is and if he's going to jump out of the shadows and gank them. (And if they don't worry about it at all then you just run around actually ganking them!)
Beatdown! - Someone needs to actually kill the enemies!
All characters in League of Legends have 5 abilities. A passive ability, 3 normal abilities they can level up (1 skill per level) and an ultimate ability they can level in the same way which can only be leveled at 6, 11, and 16.
Amumu's passive makes anyone he hits get a debuff with -35 magic resist. This lets him do more magic damage but more importantly lets his caster teammates do more magic damage and can provide an incentive for the enemies to kill him off.
Amumu's Q ability is like a reverse Scorpion throw. You throw a 'spear' in a direction but if it hits any enemy they get stunned and you get teleported on top of them. It also does some damage to them. This is awesome for initiating since you get right in their face from a fair distance away. The stun helps hold them in position so your allies can catch up. Great for initiating. The stun can also be used in the middle of a fight to stop their best damage dealer from attacking your team, so it's ok for tanking.
Amumu's W ability is an aura. This aura drains your mana but deals damage to everyone around you. The damage it deals is percentage of maximum health so it hurts the other team's tanks a fair bit. This is another reason the enemies want to kill Amumu off. If he just stands in the middle of the fight he's gradually killing off their whole team. Great for chasing people down, too, since you just have to stay near them to keep the damage coming.
Amumu's E ability has two parts to it. The first part is a passive effect that reduces incoming damage by 10 at max level. This is fantastic for tanking, of course, but also very good for jungling. In a lane the monsters tend to attack each other so the heroes don't take a lot of damage but out in the jungle the neutral monsters only have you to attack. Taking less damage from them is good. The second part is an area of effect damage spell. It's nothing spectacular but it gets its cooldown reduced each time you get hit. So if they wail on you then you get to do more damage to them.
Amumu's ultimate ability is one of the best in the game. It puts down a pretty substantial area of effect snare. This prevents any enemies in the area from moving or attacking for 2 seconds. It also does a fairly large amount of damage. It's insanely good for initiating fights. Or for ganking people. Or for preventing the enemies from hurting your teammates while they run away. Coupled with his first ability this lets you jump onto someone, stun them, then root them when they try to get away. Just fantastic!
Monday, June 06, 2011
Paying For Games
I've been playing 4 online games recently which have drastically different ways to pay. I have a deep seeded aversion to some of them and I'm not entirely sure why. Those games and how they make their money will be detailed here to try to figure it out. The games are Starcraft 2, Final Fantasy XI, League of Legends, and Galaxy Legion.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
More Power!
I played a couple games of Battlestar Galactica over the weekend. I talked a couple weeks ago about how I became President Admiral CAG Colonel Saul Tigh. Well, in the very next game I played I pulled it off again, become President Admiral CAG Samuel T Anders. This was even less likely since I started the game with no titles at all and Anders is near the bottom of the President and Admiral depth charts. This time I made a questionable call which resulted in us losing the game at a mere distance of 5 with a reasonable amount of every resource left. We lost to the ship exploding. The critical decision involved a crisis which would either gain us a morale but damage the ship twice or lose us a morale. We had 5 morale at the time, so we could either go up to a robust 6 or drop down to a scary 4 with likely 3 jumps still to come. 2 damage doesn't sound so bad except we were 3 damage from losing. The damage token pile had 4 left in it, and cylon Byung was up next. His action is likely to be roll a die and on a 4-8 he'd get a bunch of ships into play to attack us and he could then follow it up with rolling another die and on a 1-5 (I think) he'd damage the ship once.
So, we immediately lose specifically when the null token is the last one drawn and Byung makes two dice rolls for a little under 10% chance of instant loss. Of course, we're still left with a very damaged ship and 2 revealed cylons taking actions but we would have 2 human turns in between which included my turn which could launch a nuke with my once per game ability for the guaranteed destruction of all ships in one space. Our chief had some repair cards so it's entirely possibly we could have stabilized things under that choice. On the other hand, we weren't likely to win.
That said, dropping to 4 morale with so much game left to play is a lot like losing, too. We still have a rather damaged ship and pressure is coming in from all sides. I didn't really think the decision through all the way at the time and I still can't really quantify the odds of losing from 4 morale... The choice was definitely questionable but I'm sure if I'd made the other choice and we'd lost on morale we would have complained then, too.
As it turned out the non-damage token was the last one and Byung did make both of his rolls so we immediately lost.
The second game didn't involve consolidating power and the humans actually managed to win but that involved some pretty crazy luck too. We played with 10 loyalty cards and the sympathizer card in particular was the 10th one in that deck, which doesn't get dealt out. So our game which was supposed to be 2.5v1.5 became 3v1. Cylon Byung managed to force us to add an 11th card to the sympathizer and deal one of them to Andrew but still missed on dealing it out. Despite that we still came very close to losing and needed 14 or 16 straight cards to come up with jump prep in order to win. Ultimately it feels like the new cylon fleet action (the one that let Byung roll those dice in the first game) is just too powerful. The cylon fleet smooths out the attacks and makes the game feel more like BSG which is nice but it really seems like it makes the game a lot harder for the humans to win. Not sure how to fix it, though...
So, we immediately lose specifically when the null token is the last one drawn and Byung makes two dice rolls for a little under 10% chance of instant loss. Of course, we're still left with a very damaged ship and 2 revealed cylons taking actions but we would have 2 human turns in between which included my turn which could launch a nuke with my once per game ability for the guaranteed destruction of all ships in one space. Our chief had some repair cards so it's entirely possibly we could have stabilized things under that choice. On the other hand, we weren't likely to win.
That said, dropping to 4 morale with so much game left to play is a lot like losing, too. We still have a rather damaged ship and pressure is coming in from all sides. I didn't really think the decision through all the way at the time and I still can't really quantify the odds of losing from 4 morale... The choice was definitely questionable but I'm sure if I'd made the other choice and we'd lost on morale we would have complained then, too.
As it turned out the non-damage token was the last one and Byung did make both of his rolls so we immediately lost.
The second game didn't involve consolidating power and the humans actually managed to win but that involved some pretty crazy luck too. We played with 10 loyalty cards and the sympathizer card in particular was the 10th one in that deck, which doesn't get dealt out. So our game which was supposed to be 2.5v1.5 became 3v1. Cylon Byung managed to force us to add an 11th card to the sympathizer and deal one of them to Andrew but still missed on dealing it out. Despite that we still came very close to losing and needed 14 or 16 straight cards to come up with jump prep in order to win. Ultimately it feels like the new cylon fleet action (the one that let Byung roll those dice in the first game) is just too powerful. The cylon fleet smooths out the attacks and makes the game feel more like BSG which is nice but it really seems like it makes the game a lot harder for the humans to win. Not sure how to fix it, though...
Saturday, June 04, 2011
World Boardgaming Championship Video
It's almost that time of year! 2 months until WBC! Here's a video they have posted on their website which tries to give a brief overview of the event.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Difficulty Settings
I've been playing Dead Rising 2 a lot recently and the difficulty of the game is starting to get frustrating. The problem I'm having is there are 'boss' fights that exist as part of the plot and as part of rescuing survivors and these fights are brutally hard. For the most part they all seem to have a powerful ranged attack which has a knockdown component making it practically impossible to aim a gun at them and powerful melee attacks which make it hard to swing any sort of awkward melee weapon at them without taking a beating in return. They kill me in 3 or 4 hits. I have to hit them 20-30 times to kill them and it has to be with a powerful weapon like a katana, sledgehammer, or lightsaber. They move faster than I do, can't be stunned or dazed, and knockdown even with their melee attacks. The only advantage I have is I can heal by eating food in the area or that I brought with me and they can't. (Except one guy who actually spent most of the fight eating. I have no idea how to even try to beat him since he healed to full every 10 seconds.) Also they're AI controlled so if there's a trick that can be exploited I may be able to exploit it. The problem there is when I first get into a boss fight I tend to be dead in a matter of seconds and the nearest save point was probably a 5 minute run away.
Now, every time I level up I get more powerful. I can do more damage with my attacks, or get more max health, or get the ability to carry more items (which means more healing items or powerful weapons if I prepare in advance) or get more abilities. I remember in the original Dead Rising that I gained the ability to dodge by rolling away at one point and that ability would be crucial for many of these fights. Get in, melee once or twice, dodge the big attack, repeat. Instead of now where my plan is get in, melee one or two times, get knocked down while losing a third of my health, run in a circle until I find food, eat it, repeat.
Am I supposed to just ignore the boss fights and level grind? You can restart the plot from the beginning without resetting your character level so that's certainly a plausible way to approach things. Certainly the non-plot fights I've taken to just skipping but I had a mandatory mission involving a fight with two katana wielding babes and it took many tries before I final won. My winning strategy? Fill my inventory with broom/machete combo weapons and full health items. Blindly charge in and mash attack until I got knocked down. Heal when I got low. Repeat. I barely won. But there was no tactics involved. If they started attacking me I had no way to avoid the damage so I simply had to chase and burn them out first.
I like hard fights but these just seem so out of reach and not having saves anywhere near the fights is frustrating. I feel like the fights should scale with level in some way or I should have some sort of ability to use defensively. Right now it seems like whenever the AI decides to do damage to me they get to and my only hope is it just is designed to play badly enough to let me win. Maybe I should just grind up some zombies and see if I can't learn a dodge move...
Now, every time I level up I get more powerful. I can do more damage with my attacks, or get more max health, or get the ability to carry more items (which means more healing items or powerful weapons if I prepare in advance) or get more abilities. I remember in the original Dead Rising that I gained the ability to dodge by rolling away at one point and that ability would be crucial for many of these fights. Get in, melee once or twice, dodge the big attack, repeat. Instead of now where my plan is get in, melee one or two times, get knocked down while losing a third of my health, run in a circle until I find food, eat it, repeat.
Am I supposed to just ignore the boss fights and level grind? You can restart the plot from the beginning without resetting your character level so that's certainly a plausible way to approach things. Certainly the non-plot fights I've taken to just skipping but I had a mandatory mission involving a fight with two katana wielding babes and it took many tries before I final won. My winning strategy? Fill my inventory with broom/machete combo weapons and full health items. Blindly charge in and mash attack until I got knocked down. Heal when I got low. Repeat. I barely won. But there was no tactics involved. If they started attacking me I had no way to avoid the damage so I simply had to chase and burn them out first.
I like hard fights but these just seem so out of reach and not having saves anywhere near the fights is frustrating. I feel like the fights should scale with level in some way or I should have some sort of ability to use defensively. Right now it seems like whenever the AI decides to do damage to me they get to and my only hope is it just is designed to play badly enough to let me win. Maybe I should just grind up some zombies and see if I can't learn a dodge move...
Thursday, June 02, 2011
League of Legends: Level 20!
I recently hit level 20 in League of Legends. Level 20 is probably the second most important level to hit with only levels 21 and 30 being even anywhere near as relevant. Why, you may ask? Well, every level gets you a talent point and a rune slot. Talents are free and can be changed around at will at any point you aren't actively playing a game. It takes 21 points to reach the bottom of a talent tree and the 21 point talents in 2 of the trees at least are incredible. (The three 21-point talents are 5% extra base damage, 4% less damage taken, and 15% cooldown reduction on your 'summoner' spells.) This is what makes 21 powerful. 30 is the maximum level and you need to get to level 30 before you can play ranked matches. But what is so important about 20?
Runes work a lot like World of Warcraft glyphs work now. There are 4 types of runes (glyphs, marks, seals, and quintessences) and you can't mix and match. Marks go in mark slots, not in glyph slots. You need to buy the runes before you can use them but once you've learned a rune you have it forever. (Though if you want to fill all 9 of your glyphs with one you need to buy 9 of them.) You buy these runes with in game currency you win at the end of every match, though you can spend real money to increase the rate at which you accumulate them. You start out capable of buying low powered runes. (Lesser Mark of Desolation, for example, is .93 armor penetration.) At level 10 you can start the second tier of runes. (Mark of Desolation, for example, is 1.29 armor penetration.) At level 20 you can buy the third tier of runes. (Greater Mark of Desolation, for example, is 1.66 armor penetration.) There is no fourth tier.
Personally I bought a couple lower tier runes when I first started but didn't end up buying enough to fill all my slots at all let alone to have different sets for different heroes. (Stocking up on tier 1 runes seems silly in the long term since they're strictly inferior to the higher tier ones in every way except cost and when you can start using them.) When I hit level 20 I barely had enough IP (the in game currency) to fill my 20 slots with top tier runes. So I had to make some choices... Armor penetration runes are supposedly the best ones for melee characters but are practically useless for mages. Mana regeneration runes are good for characters who don't buy mana items but pretty weak for those that do and useless for those that don't use mana as a resource. I couldn't afford to buy 2 full sets. So I could either buy flexible but non-optimal runes that work for everyone (magic resistance, for example, is decent on everyone but not the best for very many people) or I could optimize one class of characters and just try to play those ones or I could break down and pay some money to get more IP.
I ended up picking a hero that was free the week I hit 20 and buying the optimal runes for that character. (Ashe, for reference, who is an archer that does physical damage and has a pathetic mana pool.) I got armor penetration for my marks, mana regeneration for my seals, cooldown reduction for my glyphs, and movement speed for my quintessences. Unfortunately most people who play in pugs don't think about team composition at all so sometimes I'd be in a game where my teammates took 2 archers on top of my Ashe. It's pretty easy to beat 3 archers (stack armor) so I'd want to switch to Annie who is a fire mage with a pet bear, Tibbers. She has no use for armor penetration but is ok with the other ones. It turned out I barely had enough IP left over to buy 6 magic penetration marks so now I'm stuck with move speed, mana regen, and cooldown reduction but I can pierce the right kind of defenses for whatever damage dealer I pick.
And then I ended up playing a tank most of the week since no one likes to play tanks but they're really important. *sigh* Guess I need to play more games to earn more IP, eh?
Runes work a lot like World of Warcraft glyphs work now. There are 4 types of runes (glyphs, marks, seals, and quintessences) and you can't mix and match. Marks go in mark slots, not in glyph slots. You need to buy the runes before you can use them but once you've learned a rune you have it forever. (Though if you want to fill all 9 of your glyphs with one you need to buy 9 of them.) You buy these runes with in game currency you win at the end of every match, though you can spend real money to increase the rate at which you accumulate them. You start out capable of buying low powered runes. (Lesser Mark of Desolation, for example, is .93 armor penetration.) At level 10 you can start the second tier of runes. (Mark of Desolation, for example, is 1.29 armor penetration.) At level 20 you can buy the third tier of runes. (Greater Mark of Desolation, for example, is 1.66 armor penetration.) There is no fourth tier.
Personally I bought a couple lower tier runes when I first started but didn't end up buying enough to fill all my slots at all let alone to have different sets for different heroes. (Stocking up on tier 1 runes seems silly in the long term since they're strictly inferior to the higher tier ones in every way except cost and when you can start using them.) When I hit level 20 I barely had enough IP (the in game currency) to fill my 20 slots with top tier runes. So I had to make some choices... Armor penetration runes are supposedly the best ones for melee characters but are practically useless for mages. Mana regeneration runes are good for characters who don't buy mana items but pretty weak for those that do and useless for those that don't use mana as a resource. I couldn't afford to buy 2 full sets. So I could either buy flexible but non-optimal runes that work for everyone (magic resistance, for example, is decent on everyone but not the best for very many people) or I could optimize one class of characters and just try to play those ones or I could break down and pay some money to get more IP.
I ended up picking a hero that was free the week I hit 20 and buying the optimal runes for that character. (Ashe, for reference, who is an archer that does physical damage and has a pathetic mana pool.) I got armor penetration for my marks, mana regeneration for my seals, cooldown reduction for my glyphs, and movement speed for my quintessences. Unfortunately most people who play in pugs don't think about team composition at all so sometimes I'd be in a game where my teammates took 2 archers on top of my Ashe. It's pretty easy to beat 3 archers (stack armor) so I'd want to switch to Annie who is a fire mage with a pet bear, Tibbers. She has no use for armor penetration but is ok with the other ones. It turned out I barely had enough IP left over to buy 6 magic penetration marks so now I'm stuck with move speed, mana regen, and cooldown reduction but I can pierce the right kind of defenses for whatever damage dealer I pick.
And then I ended up playing a tank most of the week since no one likes to play tanks but they're really important. *sigh* Guess I need to play more games to earn more IP, eh?
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Dead Rising 2
The original Dead Rising is a game about a zombie outbreak in a small town. You control a photojournalist who helicopters onto the mall in town which appears to be the center of the outbreak in order to take some pictures and break a story. There's a whole plot line where you're going around taking pictures and trying to figure out what is going on (along with actually surviving until your escape helicopter arrives 3 days later). In actuality what you're doing is wandering around a mall picking up anything and everything in sight and killing zombies with them. Baseball bat? Club the zombies to death. Chainsaw? Slice them in two. Bowling ball? Toss it at them and knock them down. (There's an achievement for killing 10 zombies with one toss of the bowling ball.) I think this was the first game I really played on the xBox 360 with lots of wacky achievements like that and it was awesome. To give you an incentive to wander around the whole mall and find lots of different zombie killing implements there are survivors scattered around which you get sent to save. Get to them, kill the zombies around them, and lead them back to safety for bonus experience. They even follow you around and use items you give them so it's possible to build a small army of followers armed with handguns to go on a zombie killing rampage.
As I was saying yesterday all I really want out of Dead Rising 2 is more zombies to kill in interesting ways. I've been playing it a little the last couple nights and it has certainly delivered on all cylinders. The basic idea here is zombies are now a fact of life in America and there's a game show where you drive around on a motorcycle with chainsaws attached to the handlebars. The goal is to kill the most zombies by driving through them. You control one of the stars of this show. Shortly after the show ends something happens and suddenly all the zombies the show has locked up for use get free. (Oh noes!) The area is quickly quarantined but it's going to take the army 3 days to arrive to clean up. So you end up trapped in a casino/mall complex for 3 days with a plot directing you around trying to figure out what exactly happened to cause the zombies to get loose. There are lots of zombies. There are lots of ways to kill zombies. And there are survivors to go rescue...
In short, it's the same game. Yes! They made some tweaks of course but they really followed the same price template. 3 game days of zombie killing mayhem loosely guided by plot points. They did remove the picture taking aspect of the game. (I think I liked it more than most people but really I didn't have an itch to take more pictures of zombies so I'm fine that it's gone.) In its place is a system where you get to learn recipes as you progress through the game (so far I've found recipes by leveling up and by finding a secret thing to examine in the mall) and you use those recipes in specific rooms to build super weapons. In short, they took out a low awesome aspect of the first game and replaced it by adding in absurdly awesome ways to kill zombies.
For example, you can find a box of nails in the mall. Use it as a weapon and you feebly throw some nails at the zombies. The zombie will get dazed when you do this and probably will die if you hit him with enough nails. (I haven't thrown nails specifically but I did manage to kill a zombie with poker chips so I imagine you can eventually pull it off.) Or you can find a baseball bat. A couple good thwacks will kill a zombie. In both cases you earn 10 experience. But if you take the box of nails and the baseball bat to a maintenance room you can combine them into a spiked bat! Now you can swing the bat to kill a bunch of zombies in one attack for 50 experience a pop. Or you can line up one zombie for a big attack and rake in 100 experience! Leveling up by fighting zombies with normal stuff is obsoleted. Not a big loss, especially since you get some pretty silly animations from the super weapons.
The second super weapon involves combining a bucket with a power drill. You end up with a sadistic looking device that has drill bits pointed into a bucket. Plop it onto a zombie's head and watch as his skull gets ripped to shreds by power drills. 200 experience and you can pick up the device to use on the next zombie.
Next up? Combine the box of nails with a propane tank. You end up with a propane tank covered in spiky bits. You can swing it around to kill zombies with the spikes. Or you can wind up and impale it into a zombie's back. This doesn't kill the zombie but he has no way to get rid of it so he stumbles around with a propane tank on top of him. Run a bit away, pull out a gun, and shoot the tank. Kabooom! Massive zombie explosion! 300 experience per zombie killed in the explosion. (I can see rewarding people for using the tricky to combine weapons but a 30 times multiplier seems a little absurd. But whatever, more zombie death!)
Take an ordinary push broom (useful for clearing a path through a bunch of zombies I guess) and combine it with a machete (useful for clearing a path through a bunch of zombies by hacking them to itty bitty bits) and you end up with a polearm that makes zombie Gary Gygax wet his pants.
Combo weapons aren't the only sources of awesome zombie deaths though. Starting up a lawn mower and pushing it into a crowd of zombies results in some very satisfying zombie bits flying all over the place. I even found an "adult" store and tried to kill a zombie by beating it with a giant purple dildo. Sadly it didn't seem to do much damage and I gave up long before the zombie died.
They also kept the system of getting new outfits in the mall by trying on clothes in stores. I like how it adds a bit of customization to your avatar. You can dress your guy up in a dress if you really want to. At the moment I'm wearing a white fedora, a fake moustache and glasses set, a suit jacket, jeans, and black go-go boots. It works, honest!
I'm sure there are tons of zany achievements though I haven't even looked at them yet in case their are spoilers to the plot. I figure I'll play through the game once and then bask in the glory that is achievements. Who knows, maybe this will be the first game in which I get them all!
As I was saying yesterday all I really want out of Dead Rising 2 is more zombies to kill in interesting ways. I've been playing it a little the last couple nights and it has certainly delivered on all cylinders. The basic idea here is zombies are now a fact of life in America and there's a game show where you drive around on a motorcycle with chainsaws attached to the handlebars. The goal is to kill the most zombies by driving through them. You control one of the stars of this show. Shortly after the show ends something happens and suddenly all the zombies the show has locked up for use get free. (Oh noes!) The area is quickly quarantined but it's going to take the army 3 days to arrive to clean up. So you end up trapped in a casino/mall complex for 3 days with a plot directing you around trying to figure out what exactly happened to cause the zombies to get loose. There are lots of zombies. There are lots of ways to kill zombies. And there are survivors to go rescue...
In short, it's the same game. Yes! They made some tweaks of course but they really followed the same price template. 3 game days of zombie killing mayhem loosely guided by plot points. They did remove the picture taking aspect of the game. (I think I liked it more than most people but really I didn't have an itch to take more pictures of zombies so I'm fine that it's gone.) In its place is a system where you get to learn recipes as you progress through the game (so far I've found recipes by leveling up and by finding a secret thing to examine in the mall) and you use those recipes in specific rooms to build super weapons. In short, they took out a low awesome aspect of the first game and replaced it by adding in absurdly awesome ways to kill zombies.
For example, you can find a box of nails in the mall. Use it as a weapon and you feebly throw some nails at the zombies. The zombie will get dazed when you do this and probably will die if you hit him with enough nails. (I haven't thrown nails specifically but I did manage to kill a zombie with poker chips so I imagine you can eventually pull it off.) Or you can find a baseball bat. A couple good thwacks will kill a zombie. In both cases you earn 10 experience. But if you take the box of nails and the baseball bat to a maintenance room you can combine them into a spiked bat! Now you can swing the bat to kill a bunch of zombies in one attack for 50 experience a pop. Or you can line up one zombie for a big attack and rake in 100 experience! Leveling up by fighting zombies with normal stuff is obsoleted. Not a big loss, especially since you get some pretty silly animations from the super weapons.
The second super weapon involves combining a bucket with a power drill. You end up with a sadistic looking device that has drill bits pointed into a bucket. Plop it onto a zombie's head and watch as his skull gets ripped to shreds by power drills. 200 experience and you can pick up the device to use on the next zombie.
Next up? Combine the box of nails with a propane tank. You end up with a propane tank covered in spiky bits. You can swing it around to kill zombies with the spikes. Or you can wind up and impale it into a zombie's back. This doesn't kill the zombie but he has no way to get rid of it so he stumbles around with a propane tank on top of him. Run a bit away, pull out a gun, and shoot the tank. Kabooom! Massive zombie explosion! 300 experience per zombie killed in the explosion. (I can see rewarding people for using the tricky to combine weapons but a 30 times multiplier seems a little absurd. But whatever, more zombie death!)
Take an ordinary push broom (useful for clearing a path through a bunch of zombies I guess) and combine it with a machete (useful for clearing a path through a bunch of zombies by hacking them to itty bitty bits) and you end up with a polearm that makes zombie Gary Gygax wet his pants.
Combo weapons aren't the only sources of awesome zombie deaths though. Starting up a lawn mower and pushing it into a crowd of zombies results in some very satisfying zombie bits flying all over the place. I even found an "adult" store and tried to kill a zombie by beating it with a giant purple dildo. Sadly it didn't seem to do much damage and I gave up long before the zombie died.
They also kept the system of getting new outfits in the mall by trying on clothes in stores. I like how it adds a bit of customization to your avatar. You can dress your guy up in a dress if you really want to. At the moment I'm wearing a white fedora, a fake moustache and glasses set, a suit jacket, jeans, and black go-go boots. It works, honest!
I'm sure there are tons of zany achievements though I haven't even looked at them yet in case their are spoilers to the plot. I figure I'll play through the game once and then bask in the glory that is achievements. Who knows, maybe this will be the first game in which I get them all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)