Schoolchildren in Cornwall and Devon are being taught about the importance of washing their hands to prevent the spread of swine flu…. From BBC News. Full story

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WordPress is a funny thing. I’ve noticed a spike in traffic to an old post before I restarted my blog. WordPress automatically suggested it as a related article to this one about optimizing characters and character choices in 4e. It’s an interesting article; I didn’t fully understand what they meant by “heirarchy” but I did agree on several points.

The first of those is that the all choices presented in character building make it hard to present categorically optimal advice like you could in earlier editions. In the olden times the most effective (in combat) min-maxed builds were well understood. I had a standard Evoker build for a mage in second edition, and I remember a party member once remak in a 3.5 game that “open locks” was the most useless skill as he dumped those points into more “useful ones”. 4e has changed up the existing advice. Between all the power books and the dragon subscription that comes with DDI, it’s hard to see an obivous path, but I’m sure its only a matter of time until the min/maxed combos are well known and we can all laugh about goliath wardens.

Tavisallison’s last point the article is about optimizing choices in combat. With all the options presented in 4e, it’s hard know what the best move is. Now wizards can hold their own in combat, and everybody has a range of abilities that attack different defenses, number of creatures, ranged and melee, and move people around. The consequence of these choices is that there is no longer does one attack neutralize an entire horde.  In the past a good sleep, silence, or tasha’s uncontrollable laughter spell or a turn undead or a flame sword could turn the the battle or even it win it out-right. In 4e this no longer holds true. The best you can do now is optimize your odds on a round by round basis. In order to have the best, statistically speaking, chance to eliminate your opponents, each of the players has to work together to decide what this path is. The other author wants to bring back the old style of play, but I kinda like the new, assuming the party can work together.

In my game it’s hard enough to get each player to make the optimal choice for his own character, let alone for the whole party. The best move at given point for a single character may move an enemy or ally into the wrong side of an effect or cause a change in defenses or conditions that impedes another character’’s actions.  I am particularly not good at suggesting strategy to my party-mates in my game. I think people don’t like being forced into planning too far in advance or being asked to give up their spotlight because someone else has a better chance of hitting.  I’m certainly guilty of that.  I have some ideas for encouraging better team play and if they pan out, I’ll post them in a future article.  I think that if the DM or the game designers can make the rewards for team play more tangible than just ending the encounter earlier or safer it would encourage people to think of the whole group in their actions.

Rolling badly can suck for immersion when you have a really long streak of failed rolls. (This is one reason why computer games use streak-breaker algorithms.) Suddenly your trained warrior can’t hit the broad side of a barn! Even worse, the bookworm magic-user is making you look bad by kicking more ass than you are. This can be seriously disempowering to players with traitorous dice.

The problem here is color text—or, rather, the lack of it. Adventurers don’t just stand there and swing their swords at immobile monsters, like trainees whacking away at a wooden post! Combat is full of movement and action, and the DM—or the players—can use their descriptions of a fight scene to turn even poor rolls into dramatic maneuvers that don’t make the PCs look like chumps.

Here are some basic methods for translating those bad rolls into cool moves:

* By the Skin of Their Teeth: Describe how the target of an attack only barely escapes harm. Perhaps the PC hacks chunks of wood out of an opponent’s shield, or the opponent staggers clumsily backward to evade the PC’s sweeping blade. This is a good way to indicate that the PC is facing an inferior opponent!

* Line ‘Em Up, Knock ‘Em Down: Instead of trying to score a hit on the target, describe how the PC is actually maneuvering the target into position to be hit by a fellow party member. This can range from distracting the target with fancy bladework to feigning incompetence to lure the target into overextending himself.

* Don’t Point That Thing at Me: If a melee is getting crowded, you can always blame a missed attack on the chaos of battle! Either the attacker or the target may be jostled out of position by the press of bodies or slip and stumble in a pool of someone’s spilt blood.

* Ow, That Really Hurts: Losing hit points has no actual effect on one’s fighting ability, but it’s still a convenient explanation for misses. A cut on the PC’s brow drips blood in the eyes; a blow to the head results in dizziness; lacerations or cracked ribs cause spasms of debilitating pain.

* Danger, Will Robinson: When facing a superior foe, play up the target’s superiority! The PC’s blows are easily dodged or casually turned aside by the target’s exceptional armor, skill or magic. This is a helpful way to make it clear to the players that their characters are outmatched, giving them a chance to either step up or get the hell out of Dodge.

I think we can agree that yelling at people in frustration is not the best way to pass on information. (See yesterday’s post and comments.)

But when we’re playing in a group in a MMO, a lot of information needs to be communicated quickly. Are we trying to focus fire and if so, does everyone know what they are supposed to be hitting at any time? Do you need to ask another player to remove a debuff from you? Have you just used a cooldown that your tank or healer or dps needs to know about? Are you going to assume someone else’s role because they just died in combat?

A lot of our abilities are designed to interlock with each other. A buff from one player might significantly affect the abilities or optimal ability use of another. If you have debuffs, you need to know when to use them. When you think about it, that’s a crazy amount of information that needs to be assimilated quickly.

So how do we do it?

• Pre Pre-planning. This is where you discuss the fight and tactics in detail on a bboard before you even step into the instance.
• Pre-planning. If you know what will happen in a fight, you can pre-arrange the kill order, any crowd control, any other tactics, and roughly when significant buffs will be used.
• UI. We rely heavily on the user interface for information about when players have buffs or debuffs active on them. This is automatic information provided by the game (and the UI addons, if you use them) and doesn’t require anyone to actually say ‘I’m poisoned!’
• Flashy graphics. Some spells just come with very unmistakeable graphical effects that no one can miss if they’re paying attention.
• Boss cues. Some bosses will cue before they make a special attack with either a graphic or some kind of yell. Games don’t tend to use pure audio cues; I’d like to think this was in respect of deaf gamers but it’s probably just because they know a lot of people play with the sound off.
• Text and macros. Sometimes the easiest way to inform your group or raid when you’ve used a cooldown or buff is to macro in an automatic comment on group or raid chat when you activate it. eg. ** Just used Bloodlust ** The only problem is … not everyone reads text chat in the middle of a fight.
• Shout on voice chat. Best saved for if something really unexpected happens and pre-arranged plans have to change on the fly. Also probably best left for the raid leader.
• We don’t. No one says or types a word. We just assume we roughly know what they’ll be doing and go with it. (Really common in 5 man instances in WoW these days, or any content where it isn’t critical to micro-manage.)

Either way, it is a huge amount of information to process and I think regular raiders often forget how enormously overwhelming it may have felt when you first tried a raid, particularly as a healer or debuffer.

Broadcasting Taunts

Given the sheer amount of information flying around, I’ve always tended to the cautious side when I’m deciding which of my abilities and cooldowns to publicise. I was thinking about this lately because with the heroic beasts fight, we do a lot of tank switching in the first part. So I picked up an addon which would automatically tell people on the raid channel when I’d used various different abilities. What I really wanted was to let people know if a taunt had failed, but I figured I might as well add an inform about Shield Wall also (it’s a tanking cooldown).

You know the worst part? Not people complaining about spam because actually no-one complained. I got the impression it was felt to be generally useful. Nope, the most difficult part about automatically informing your group when you use an ability is that … they automatically also get informed when you press the button by mistake.

You don’t realise how naked this makes you feel until you try it. I mean, OF COURSE I press taunt at the wrong time sometimes. So does every tank who ever lived, unless they have it bound somewhere really inaccessible. If it’s not being broadcast, you just whisper to the other tank afterwards and apologise. They’ll shrug it off, we all do it. If using taunt by mistake means it wasn’t up when you really needed it then you can always fake that it missed or failed. But if you broadcast your abilities, then suddenly your entire raid becomes a backseat driver. Or at least it can feel that way.

So one positive side to broadcasting my taunts and cooldowns? You can bet I’m way more careful with them now. There’s no doubt that it’s made me a better player, in that sense at least.

Today’s the time for the next update in the Female Warrior Armor series by Caverna Obscura, the Rogue Warrior.

Rogue Warrior Armor 2.0 Set by Caverna Obscura

The biggest changes are: new shoes, which don’t require shoebase anymore, and look more natural and suitable for combat; sculpted prim buckles and chainlinks instead of old normal prim ones; additional hooded cloak!

The set includes:
Clothes:
Chainmail shirt
Chainmail gloves
Leather corset top
Leather gauntlets (Gloves layer)
Leather pants
Leather underpants
Leather socks
Modifiable Rogue Warrior shape

Prim parts:
Shoulder armor high & low prim
Chest armor high & low prim [updated]
Battle Skirt high & low prim [updated]
Gauntlets high & low prim [updated]
Cape with hood hide/show [updated]
Combat boots/leg armor high & low prim [updated]
+ version 2.0 also includes cloak!

Please click on the thumbnails below for more details!

Bernard Cornwell’s name is fitting, because it begins with a B, and his books are built around the three B’s: Bitches, Beer, and Battle. If we dare be more callous, we can easily translate this triad to reflect Cornwell’s surname, thus rendered: Cunts, Cups, and Combat. Obviously, Cornwell writes books for men, and suffice to say that if I saw a woman reading a Sharpe novel, I’d call her an impostor and a spy – unless she were a lesbian orc. Except, that would be even more suspicious.

Now shut your face and read one of Cornwell’s books before you disdain my sexual profiling; mighty fast you’ll see what I’m talking about. His fantastic storytelling abilities may win over some lesbian orcs, but at heart his novels are about killing and fucking, and these two activities are done by men to men and men to women, respectively; and consequently, I have no doubts that the novels will appeal primarily to dudes. At first blush this may seem prejudicial, but on sober reflection it becomes apparent that Cornwell’s work is the ineluctable male counterpart of chick lit – dick lit, if you will.

I’ll remind you again to fuck off before you, in your wellspring of infinite tolerance, rage against my obscenity. The Pale Horseman, the second book of the Saxon Stories, kicks off with the protagonist riding away from a bloody victory on the battlefield to “plough” his wife, whom he insists is “a good field to plough.” I’ll tell you right now, there’s a lot of plowing in Cornwell’s books, and he doesn’t write about farmers – except to say that their fields will be fertilized by the enemy’s blood. Whether or not Cornwell intends to, he glorifies this shit, and despite the fact that war and sexual subjugation are unqualifiedly wrong, Cornwell is such a damned good storyteller that, in the heat of the read, it becomes near impossible to resist the Hobbesian heteronormative imperative and get swept away in a torrent of the three B’s and/or C’s.

Wut?

But despite the iniquity of Cornwell’s worlds – which, we should not forget, are historical, rather than purely fictive, worlds – his books give me great satisfaction. They’re entertainment – entertainment well done, I should add – and they need to be approached with all the enlightenment of the modern age to prevent oneself from becoming a beast through the consumption of their delights.

So take this as both warning and laudation. Whatever desires they might stir in my primal heart, I know that Cornwell’s heroes – who are killers and adulterers all – are bad men, and I caution you to remember that. But if you want a read that will keep you on the edge of your seat and fill you from top to bottom with murderous, rapacious, and unshakeable passion, pick up a Cornwell. And pick one up for me, too, because I’m nearly done Enemy of God.

-bn

Dark void Mixed combat Gameplay Trailer, check it out shooting looks more or less similar to Gears of War

   Am făcut rost de golem şi iarăşi am descoperit noi opţiuni şi tactici de combat şi astfel mi-am dat seama că mai am personaje nefolosite sau pe care le-am folosit doar la începutul jocului – fiecare are aptitudini diferite şi mi-a trebuit ceva vreme să-mi dau seama de asta – la început credeam că pe măsură ce avansezi poţi dobândi toate skill-urile necesare, dar nu-i aşa – fiecare personaj are un set de skill-uri proprii şi unele comune cu celelalte personaje – precum am mai spus complexitatea strategiilor cu care poţi aborda o luptă e fantastică – nici măcar nu poţi explora jumătate din posibilităţile oferite de joc . În altă ordine de idei pe măsură ce avansezi în joc faci tot mai multe alegeri dificile – unele semi-morale aş spune şi îmi pun iarăşi întrebarea pe care mi-am pus-o şi în primul articol pe tema asta – cum afectează acest lucru sfârşitul jocului oare ? Am mai aflat că pe măsură ce partenerii te dezaprobă tot mai mult în deciziile pe care le iei de-a lungul povestirii se poate ajunge ca in cele din urmă ei să te părăsească şi ca atare trebuie să le dăruieşti câte ceva – fiecare vrea altceva şi oricum, indiferent ce decizie iei nu îi poţi mulţumi pe toţi . O chestie care mă enervează oarecum este întreruperea unei călătorii pe hartă cu bătălii fără rost şi out of quest . Momentan însă m-am blocat pe podul cu dale mobile care trebuie activate de două ori – cred că am pierdut aproape o oră şi încă nu mi-am dat seama care este şmecheria (în timp ce puzzle-ul cu pisica a fost relativ uşor) .

We will be posting tolls and we just got two new pages! One on how to join our clan, and the other, clan members and information. You need to join quickly becuase spots are filling up fast!

   Povesteam în articolul anterior despre complexitatea sistemului de combat şi depre niscaiva neajunsuri ale sale – între timp am mai avansat în joc, am făcut alte combinaţii şi am abordat alte tactici în luptă, iar rezultatele se văd cu ochiul liber – omuleţii se mişcă mult mai bine, îşi utilizează mai bine resursele şi per ansamblu mă pot declara mult mai mulţumit decât înainte de combat şi asta în pofida unor mici delay-uri şi stagnări în luptă . Cât despre alegeri nu poţi avea niciodată sentimentul că ai luat decizia corectă sau doar bună (exceptând cazurile evidente) – practic mereu ai un sentiment de părere de rău – oare ai omorât pe cine trebuie, oare ai cruţat întemeiat pe cineva şi aşa mai departe, dar tocmai ăsta constituie punctul forte al jocului şi ceea ce îmi place la el – îmi aminteşte de un alt joc excelent – The Witcher .

Replay – Sean Kingston

major splurge at powells today. hence the added books to my new soul list. found places in powells i’d never seen before. city block of books best idea ever. no regrets on the splurge. ♥♥♥ and it’ll be even better when i don’t have parental eyes examining my finances.

dinner with kristine and marco was lovely. she’s an amazing cook. we had this lasagna-type-but-better-and totally-not-lasagna main dish and homemade blueberry ice cream. their daughter isabella is super cute and lorenzo is precious with his deal making. frankie even offered to be their babysitter. trying to make good impression on my family found out lots of things about them i didn’t know. hopefully we/i can have them over for dinner once i get an apartment to repay them its fun to have family here

frankie’s friends are here this weekend and it looks like portland might really be the new walnut creek, just like frankie’s been saying. his friends are fun. i like hanging out with them, even though they’re crazy sometimes. but they’ve been friends forever and you can totally tell. most of them share similar mannerisms/phrasing/choice of words and they have these amazing stories and they love to tell them/relive them. makes me happy and its nice to see frankie with his friends too. its good all around

apartment hunting is still slow going and frustrating. but frankie’s being positive when i’m not so its rubbing off on me. i just want to find a place to live! sheesh. i don’t want much. but things are still hard to find. hopefully it works out.

yuumm pudding. work tomorrow then 3 days off, girls day with val on wednesday, thanksgiving on thursday!, early work friday and the weekend! woo hoo. seems so short but work will be a tiny bit stressful just ’cause i’m still learning and trying not to make mistakes. it’ll be nice when everything is muscle memory.

had interesting conversation tonight at the old barn. now if i had a blog that people actually read i would ask opinions on this topic. gonna put the question out there anyways: do you think women should see combat in the military? why, why not?

]]> http://ssgtlanger.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/the-hell-of-ptsd/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:39:29 +0000 ssgt langer http://ssgtlanger.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/the-hell-of-ptsd/ http://usmilitaryveteranscenterinsecondlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/the-hell-of-ptsd/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:39:02 +0000 ssgt langer http://usmilitaryveteranscenterinsecondlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/the-hell-of-ptsd/ http://usmilitaryveteranscenterinsecondlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/house-bill-could-expand-agent-orange-claims/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:20:58 +0000 ssgt langer http://usmilitaryveteranscenterinsecondlife.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/house-bill-could-expand-agent-orange-claims/ http://ssgtlanger.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/house-bill-could-expand-agent-orange-claims/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:20:24 +0000 ssgt langer http://ssgtlanger.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/house-bill-could-expand-agent-orange-claims/ http://thesightlesssentinel.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/combat/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:32:29 +0000 THe SIGHTLESS SENTINEL http://thesightlesssentinel.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/combat/

“COMMANDO” Pen on paper – Ali Gill 2009

Well, LFM is on hiatus.

I think, if I am at all able to complete Nano, it will be with short stories. I’ve about six ideas, including one WIP and one strong concept I’ve storyboarded. That ought to be enough to hit 50k, if I can get cracking on it.

Ergo, back to the keyboard again.

In N-Gage, the dueling system will be necessary to facilitate combat between two small parties or one on one combat. In this respect, N-Gage will step back and take several levels of sophistication off the accepted strategies to managing this kind of interaction under most roleplaying rule sets. This combat will consist of 3 major steps: targeting, acting, and reacting. This is very similar to zone / army style combat under this system, but there will be several significant differences. Now to detail each step:

Targeting

Targeting is simple enough. Which team or individual is acting first is determined by speed and then, in the order of their speed from slowest to fastest each character selects a target and states what they will attempt to do. According to whatever modulation the game master determines appropriate, the actions are evaluated, starting from fastest to slowest. However, these two steps are carried forward in a different way, as detailed in the following steps. Targeting ends after each character selects their target.

Acting

The acting character is the fastest, but there’s a trick involved with this kind of close quarters combat. Anyone nearby or with an appropriated skill or ability may choose to sacrifice actions, including the target, to react to things as they take place, negotiated through the game master. This is where the fastest acting character will have the most decisions to make, as unless they delay they will have to deal with being reacted to often. This means that the characters that can afford to play the most defensively will come out on top, where as those who are attacking must come up with a severe means of overcoming their opponents, all involving extensive discussion and roleplay. Where many games glaze over the details, many long conversations about skill level, difficult, physical effects, and the senses of the characters will be important. Sometimes these things will be stated out and determined within the campaign setting to streamline these discussions, as in N-Gage core. Once the acting individuals have selected their actions and the order of resolution, then the game carries forward into the reaction phase.

Reacting

This is perhaps the most difficult portion, as reacting requires knowledge of several things. To simply this process, every character that wishes to react instead of waiting until their turn to act states they wish to do so, and the game master one by one, starting from fastest to slowest, determines if they are able to do so. The fastest character obviously will face the most challenges, so they must one by one roll through the obstacles laid before them by the game master. Once this is resolved for the first, the same is done for the next, so on until the round is resolved.

End of Round

At the end of the round, anyone taking damage or changing status is evaluated by the game master, and their situation is explained to them. They may chose to back out or continue fighting, until the game master determines that combat is no longer possible or has been completed. This will usually involve a similar point system to the one mentioned earlier, where the last group or individual left after the others have reached negative five will be removed from combat.

Using this system, duels will flow according to the ability of the players to command their characters more and less according to their gear, stats or bonuses.