Retro Game Timewarp

In this installment, we will travel back in time to the early 90s, and two of the arguably best Star Wars themed games ever released. Each offer the ability of players to enter the cockpits of the famous space fighters features in all three of the original motion pictures. The first of these was X-Wing.

X-Wing puts the player into the shoes of a young Rebel Alliance pilot, from which a natural progression of rank commences through a linear mission campaign. Included was the venerable John Williams music from the movies, along with a sense of excitement that was unparalleled. Some of the missions were very difficult, and took many tries (and various approaches) to complete. The overall storyline was a progression, beginning prior to the events of the first Star Wars film, and culminating in the famous Death Star trench run at the climax. Graphics were excellent, given the time period we are talking about here.

The second game, TIE Fighter, followed a couple years later, and has the player switching sides and becoming a pilot for the Imperial Navy. Beginning as a relatively unknown pilot that is just starting out and rising through the ranks (even becoming the "Emperor's Hand,) if one so chooses. The missions range from simple policing a star system to full-on fleet engagements with the Rebels, and even fights against rogue Imperial forces. The graphics were much improved over X-Wing, as were the music and sound effects, which now were digital, rather than synthesized by the sound card.

Both of these games were incredible, and deserve a well-earned place in PC gaming history. It almost makes me want to find my old copies and break out my joystick again!

The Making of a User Interface

Okay, I admit it, Blizzard's standard UI has, for the most part, been perfectly fine for me ever since I began playing the game back in December of 2006. Wow, has it been that long already? 12 ability hotkeys and the additional toolbars were all I seemed to need. Other add-ons like Questhelper, Recount and Omen really don't take away from the standard UI. For general play and basic PvP, there is little wrong with Blizzard's interface.

This brings me to arena, the subject I've been most focused on the past weeks. Since our 3v3 progress essentially reached a standstill, I stepped back and began to analyze what has been going wrong. First and foremost on my short list was my inability to easily trip all my abilities and spells when I most needed them. In a heated and generally very short arena match, looking away from your quarry to try to click on an ability on another part of the screen is doubly ineffective; it takes extra time to hit the button, AND you lose out on valuable moments when you could be striking, interrupting, or otherwise harassing your target. Thus, I reluctantly began to look for ways to improve my UI.

I say reluctant, because I'm generally not one who likes change, especially not after three straight years of being in a "comfort zone" with my controls. So, this has become more a forced effort than I was expecting. After a rather laborious research period, I found several key addons that I have implemented to try to improve my UI. They are, in no particular order:

1. Gladius - Arena addon that tells you the build of your opponents, sends messages to your team regarding critical events (like when the enemy uses a PvP trinket), and more.

2. Pitbull - This addon drastically changes the appearance of your UI - it basically does away with the standard target and party frames and re-introduces them in a completely customizable way.

3. Dominos - This is a unit fram editor that finishes the transformation that Pitbull starts, and lets you customize every other aspect of the UI - especially the action bars.

4. MSBT - This alters the default scrolling combat text and adds in more functionality.

5. Cooldown Watch - Gives you small, customizable countdown bars that tell you when your cooldowns will be back up.

All of these are amazing addons, but they are not for the faint of heart. They all must be heavily customized to suit your needs, and often do not function at their best "straight out of the box." The biggest thing I've done with my UI so far is to put two large unit frames on either side of my toon on the lower middle part of the screen - one for my info, and the other for my target. There are many other mods I have done as well to the UI.

It is clear that the UI I've made is becoming purpose built - it is not the best suited for standard PvE any longer because of the information it shows, but so far, it seems to be doing what I'd hoped - providing me with quick information at a glance.

Add in the fact that I've finally broken down and begun to map my spells properly to hotkeys surrounding WASD, and I think I have come a long way. Early testing in BGs and Arena seems promising.

So, if you are serious about PvP and are not afraid to roll up your sleeves and mess around with some highly useful addons, I highly recommend doing so. At the very least, I am now able to use all my abilities without looking at the screen. Learning which ones are which (by feel) is another story! But, I'll get there.

The Ups and Downs of Arena PvP

1256. That is where our 3v3 team stands, after something like 40 straight arena matches over the past few days. We want desperately to break into the 1300s, because it is there that we finally become eligible to purchase the first major piece of the Wrathful gear (belt). Yet, the best we have managed was to get to 1295, and then quickly bumped back down again. The most frustrating part of all of this is the Arena system's seemingly inexplicable allocation of team rating points at the end of a match. I don't pretend to call myself an expert on this subject by any means, and I imagine it is "working as intended," to quote a cliched line often stated by game CSRs. But, when we see teams lower than our "matchmaking rating" receiving +45 points after beating us, and then our team only receiving +5 for besting a team that was ranked slightly less than us, it certainly makes me scratch my head. For a layman, it really seems that point allocation is being given out unfairly. We've even seen teams ranked higher than us, that lose ZERO points when we beat them! I just don't get it.

We had a great run a couple nights ago, and advanced by over 100 points in rating, but since entering the 1200s, we are at an impasse. Each time we get close to 1300 (i.e. one win away from it), we always get beaten. It is not for lack of gear - we are fully geared as best as honor and Arena Points can allow - my DK is 3/5 in Relentless with all the other slots filled out with the Wrathful gear that can be bought with honor. The other two members of our team are similarly equipped. We should be able to do well, right?

Perhaps our composition is not the strongest out there (Unholy DK, Boomkin and Resto Shammy), but we are doing it because it is what we like. We have had a few moments where we shine, but there are quite obviously some comps that are more than a match for us. We give it our all each time, though, and hopefully we will break the 1300 level that is standing in our way.

I am very much looking forward to the ranked BGs that are coming with the Cataclysm expansion - I love BGs, but currently there is little incentive for doing them aside from once a day for the 25 arena points (and honor if I need it). For now, if we want to get the best gear, we need to continue on in Arena.

I'd love to hear some constructive criticism of this posting (if there is anyone out there that sees this blog yet - I don't believe it is easily findable on a google search yet). So, if you have anything to offer, please speak up!

Retro Game Timewarp

In another installment of this posting (perhaps this will become a regular series), we go back in time to the late 1980s, when the Commodore 64 was one of the kings of the home computer market. I was offered my uncle's machine to borrow, and we had it for several years until my folks decided to buy our own setup. I taught myself to program in BASIC on that computer (in addition to the playing around I did on the Apple IIs we had at school). But, more than that, it became my first video gaming machine. At 10 years old, the C64 was a neverending source of amazement and wonder.

There were many notable games that I played on the C64 during the 6 years we owned it (and upgraded to our first PC), and I hope to touch on some of them as this series progresses. One of the most important of these titles, and perhaps the one that strongly ignited my interest in the U.S. Navy, was Electronic Arts' Strike Fleet. This was a game that thrusted you directly into a World War III with the Soviet Navy - and you were in command of the fleet that was to stop them! You began in one ship, learning how to control the various aspects of the game's functionality. Later, the size of your fleet grew and with it, your capabilities (and strength of your adversaries). Though the game was an exercise in micromanagement, I learned the basics of our modern fleet through exposure to this game.

I strongly believe that this game helped me, in some small way, through my Plebe Year at the Naval Academy - I showed up already knowing the answers to many of the factoids that young freshmen are constantly quizzed on.

Lots of great memories here! Sail safe.

Victory!

The stars were aligned for us last night. We went 15-9 in the 3v3 matches we chose to partake in last evening. That is a first for our fledgling team, "The Face Palmers." As I've mentioned in previous posts, we are by no means PvP experts. Thus, winning as many as we did in one night was a great shot in the arm for us. We bumped our team rating up over 150 points, to just shy of 1100 (which gives us a matchmaking rating somewhere north of 1200). This is still relatively low (we don't have access to the first of the better gear until we hit 1300 rating), but for us, it's great. We are still having trouble against some compositions, especially those with resto druids. We also can't seem to best a team with a higher MMR than us on a regular basis.

I believe our performance of late is attributable to two things. First, we have been slowly upgrading our gear, and in my DK's case, I am more effectively gemming my gear. I learned that Spell Penetration is critical to a DK's PvP effectiveness. I believe it is helping. If only I had ONE more interrupt to shut down those freaking druids.

But anyway, a win is a win...and we'll take it! Hopefully tonight will be more of the same.

Visiting things that used to be difficult

Since our performance in arena has reached an impasse lately, the three of us that usually run together (DK, Resto Shaman and Boomkin) decided to try to do some other things for fun. Latley, we have been on an old raid kick...we have cleared Zul'Gurub, AQ20, Molten Core, and last night we did Karazhan. Most would say "big deal, there is no challenge in that," or "bah, I can 1-man those." That's perfectly fine - we did them for fun, but more than that, to be able to see areas that we never would have had access to in prior levels. And it was fun, not a chore! Some of the encounters still have tricks or gimmicks that make you have to stop and think. But they are easily surmountable. Some of the loot, especially in Molten Core, is still worth quite a bit on the AH, to people that want to collect materials to build a lvl 60 Legendary weapon, for example. So, it's even a bit profitable.

It's worth trying out, now that most are more than adequately geared enough to 3- or even 2-man these formerly difficult raids (MC used to require 40 people - and today only 3 can clear it!). What other things do you do to occupy your time if your primary pastime in-game is in a state of deadlock?

So...now what happens?

This article was published this morning:

S.Korean warship 'hit by N.Korean torpedo'

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea's military believes that a North Korean submarine launched a torpedo attack to sink a South Korean warship last month near their disputed sea border, the Yonhap news agency said on Thursday.
The assessment was reported to the office of President Lee Myung-Bak and the defence ministry immediately after the ship sank last month, an unnamed senior military source told Yonhap.
"It's our military intelligence's assessment that North Korean submarines attacked the ship with a heavy torpedo," the source said, adding that the subs were armed with torpedoes with 200-kilogram (440-pound) warheads.
"Since February last year, North Korea has strengthened training that showed the possibility of it launching a guerilla warfare-style provocation, rather than a skirmish."
The South's military intelligence command had also alerted the navy ahead of the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan that North Korea was preparing an attack, Yonhap said.
The South's defence ministry refused to comment on the report.
Seoul has so far refrained from directly accusing Pyongyang and said only that an "external explosion" was the most likely cause of the disaster which cost the lives of 46 sailors.
Pyongyang has denied it was responsible.
South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young has already raised the possibility that a mine or torpedo may have sunk the ship, following deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002 and a November firefight.
The November incident left a North Korean patrol boat in flames and local media reports said one North Korean sailor was killed and three wounded.
The North has vowed "merciless" military action to protect what it sees as its Yellow Sea border.
South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper meanwhile quoted defectors as saying that North Korea had formed suicide attack squads known as "human torpedoes" in its navy.
It said the North's navy operates a brigade of suicide attack squads, which have many mini-submarines capable of carrying torpedoes or floating mines.

I hate to say it, but I called it. So then, what is the ROK's next move? Retaliation? Rhetoric? Nothing? What say you? Is the 2nd Korean War upon us?