Sorry for the lack of updates, I've joined the millions of people who have purchased Starcraft II lately and have not resurfaced... yet. Between trying to learn the game (first RTS game ever for me) and messing around with UMS/custom maps - my free time has been severely taken up. :P

That being said, I'm maybe a silver quality player in 1v1 but I don't really do 1v1 (I don't even do 2v2 haha). I'm still working on my midgame macro - I love micro but I've learned the hard way that having solid macro goes further than having solid micro. I mean, there is no use for the micro if you keep forgetting about upgrades and pushing more units out, right?

Anyways, I'm sticking to 3v3 and 4v4 until I get my build orders flawless + remembering to macro when I decide to tech and play micro-heavy units (aka void rays). I have a bad habit (as with any new player if I'm correct) of watching all the little fights that go on and then completely forget about the base haha...

Here's my profile, for US/NA players to add if you want to mess around with some games. :) Right now I'm dropping my fast-ray tactic and working on 4gate to improve my macro.

For people who are new to the game like me, I found it helpful to watch some of day9's shows, random diamond-level replays from teamliquid.net, and just observing some of my friends who are sc1 vets. I haven't completed campaign (1/3 of the way through) and I haven't finished all the single player challenges. So improving in multiplayer doesn't require any of single player parts of the game :P although I will agree that tactics in 1v1 vary greatly from 2v2, which then is quite different from 3v3 and 4v4.

So this Monday (July 19th) Valve released a free (yes, free) game called Alien Swarm. It is a 4 person birds-eye view shooter that can be played solo, co-op, or multiplayer.

This mod was originally created by Black Cat Games for Unreal Tournament 2004 - the developers were hired by Valve (these devs have also been working on the Left 4 Dead series as well as Portal 2). Interesting that they only announced this game 3 days before launch.

Best news of all: this game comes with source files and a map editor so players can create maps and campaigns for the community!

Client size: ~2gb


Characters
There are 8 characters with their own specific stats - these stats are all "boosts" to certain areas, such as healing more or bigger explosions.

Classes
Officer
Special Weapons
Medic
Tech

Difficulties
Easy
Normal
Hard
Insane

I'll have a proper review later... when I'm not busy playing it. :)

Alright, so whenever I have free time at work (aka lunch break) I like to take some time and read Massively articles. Unfortunately I think most of their commenters are haters because finding a positive comment is like digging for a needle in a haystack. Seriously, since when have gamers become so whiny and ranty about games that aren't even released yet (such as SW:TOR)? I'll have to agree with them on Allods though - from what I've observed I might not even be trying out the new patch at all. Their rep as an mmo pretty much continues to sink, I've yet to see a single supportive comment, and many Massively readers aren't giving the game a chance.

This week was a bit rough for gaming - a storm caused my internet cable to fray and thus I didn't have stable internet from Tuesday until now. :P I've been playing a lot of Diablo 2 lately - mostly because I've never played it before (gasp, I know!). Just finished Act 1 of Nightmare mode... :)

I'll be hitting up Team Fortress 2 tonight, so add me on Steam if you have it... I'm a complete noob though, so be nice!

Lately I've been playing a lot of Transformice... it has a silly name, and it's a silly game, but it's tons of fun and perfect for people who can only squeeze in a few minutes a day. Just imagine 20+ mice, 1 shaman who can create planks (and more) affected by physics, and a mad scramble to be first to return the cheese.


Basically you get to play a mouse, who wants to collect some cheese and return to your hole. Except... usually the cheese is placed in an unreachable area, and you need help from the shaman who has building powers. Now this can go either way, the (good) shamans can help you and keep everyone alive, while the (bad aka troll) shamans will abuse their power to kill you. Sometimes this creates hilarious circumstances.

It's a web browser Flash game, and you can play it here: http://www.transformice.com/en
Each round only takes a maximum of 2 minutes and the game keeps players coming back by implementing a store that sells hats and such (at the price of cheeeese *-*) aside from sheer fun factor. The 2 people who created this game are constantly adding updates and new servers! The latest update introduced several new maps, and now the game has a whopping 81 levels to play.

Continue reading...

For those of you checking out free to play mmos: Turbine is making Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) free to play soon! It just entered closed beta and you can sign up for it here. The client is 10gb and their downloader goes pretty slow... Is it worth it? We'll see either tonight or tomorrow when I get my hands on it!

I've got the latest Allods patch downloaded, but haven't had a chance to play. Seems like there is so much to do on my list - I've got art commissions to finish up and about 4 different games I want to finish.

Bioware announced that Dragon Age 2 will be released around March 2011. (I still haven't finished Dragon Age: Origins, and yes its on my to-do list!)

p.s. Excuse the random template changes, I'm seeking the best structure to tweak - a bit lazy/busy to start from scratch.

p.p.s. Don't forget I'll be undergoing a url change today. I still get a few hits from people searching up "Life in Tensess" on Google.

So I didn't have the time last night to log on Allods (or even download the patch haha, gg me) but I'll definitely check in within the next day and have an "impressions" post sometime up this weekend. Perhaps it'll come earlier if the changes infuriate me as much as some of the posters are expressing on the forums. I know Allods gets a lot of flack when patches come, but the onslaught of negativity on the forums has me worried - generally there aren't SO many and usually there are a group of people diligently defending the game.

For people who have already experienced the new patch - what makes you go yay and what annoys you the most? So I can prepare myself...

I don't understand people who stick around the game complaining though, and predicting the game will die... I posted this on the forum yesterday (yes I'm lurking!) and I'll rewrite it here: Allods is more or less still a free to play game. I don't care how much you want to argue it, but without a subscription cost it can still technically be called that. People only predict doom and gloom for subscription games (like APB), when these games fail (Global Agenda) they hop on the free 2 play wagon. After that there is no real "death" to the game. Since Allods is already free, it will continue to attract random players... it won't die off for a long time. Yes the turnover rate will be extremely high (lack of substantial amount of long term players) but it won't die.

Some people are still keeping an eye on this game (Massively) hoping it will redeem itself from the very first cash shop fiasco to the last few patches, because (usually) the only thing to lose is time.

Speaking of BURNN 1up posted their APB review yesterday and the verdict was a D... Ouch! Several people who commented even went as far as an F! Personally I would give it a C+.

"A dev releases a mediocre game that is full of problems, yet many still play it. What incentive is there for a dev to do it properly?"

Something to think on!

I'll be checking out the new patch with my psi (who still hasn't hit 40) - but since all my friends have also quit, I'll need to find a place to call home. With that being said, are there any casual guilds on Tensess recruiting? If not and if everyone is on Nezeb, I feel a reroll coming on... :P (I still have my healer on Nezeb!) With that said, any guilds that are recruiting - please leave your faction/server/contact info in a comment and I'll stop by later tonight or tomorrow. :D

I'm mostly looking forward to player addons. I saw a video on cursed items, and it looks like it doesn't occur that often so I'm not too bothered by them. There's a lot of random rage about them (like on Massively) but I guess we'll all get to see for ourselves tomorrow. I didn't read all the patch notes but.. disappoint @ lack of psi skill/ruby fixes.

Right now I'm playing the other acclaimed free2play mmo, Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO).. so once I reach (or almost reach) endgame there, I'll do a comparison of what works and what doesn't when it comes to cash shops.

Edit: Reading the forums makes me want to strangle people again, I think Allods has one of the less enjoyable mmo communities I've been in. Not sure if its because people are angry the game requires money (that they prob aren't paying anyways) or if its because there is a mass of younger players (free games tend to attract that group).

Hey readers! Since I'm undergoing revamping of this blog, the name will no longer be "Life in Tensess" and the URL will no longer be "lunith.blogspot.com"

Instead, they will change to Just Duet and justduet.blogspot.com respectively. The name "just duet" is a play on my alias Duet and on the phrase "JUST DO IT!" I'll be changing the address on July 9th.

Speaking of names, what names do you typically use in games/forums/etc and why?

I've used the name Airu (or Eiru for male chars) for maybe 4-5 years now - in mmos this character is probably a healer. Duet is fairly recent, being only slightly over a year old. If those names are taken I use a variation of Aeso. I love short names (less than 5 characters) and none of them really have any special meanings. :) Where did Lunith come from? Well that's a really old name of mine, definitely over 6 years!

I'll be back on Allods for the July 7th patch, and as usual, I'll be uploading mirror patches!

Hey people, whoever is still left anyways, I'm revamping my blog to a general gaming and art blog. I'll admit I've missed this blog and I've missed writing articles, even though I'm not that good of a writer. :) I've been a fan of user generated guides since forever ago, and I love babbling on about whatever.

Since getting a job I've started running out of time to really game, but I still love to read about them when I have the time! Aside from guides I'm a big fan of discussing "balance" and trivial matters that people won't know unless they live on forums like I do... so expect a lot of that (and my heavily opinionated reviews). The blog layout will also be redone since I've become very familiar with CSS within the past few weeks.

I'll have articles up about TERA Online (very excited for this mmorpg) and Sims 3 Ambitions soon!

Hey all, I have not played Allods for 3+ weeks now. And have no motivation to do so as my friends have also quit - some to go as far as uninstalling. :P Perhaps I'll be back in the future when there is more content or what not, perhaps not. After 2 years of WoW and plenty of other misc mmorpgs, I think I may just be growing out of / getting bored of the genre... Right now I have far more fun logging in for 1-2 hours of FPS/TPS than several hours of mmorpg grinding.

So here's to wishing everyone a good summer and fun on Allods!

Hope this blog was interesting/useful to some people... bye for now! :D

Hey all, I haven't played Allods for about a whole week now - was preoccupied with the EU All Points Bulletin beta (which was pretty fun, but like many MMO betas: has its imba and glitch issues). So how is everyone with Allods? Still having fun? I have a lot to catch up with but we'll see if I'm even up for it... Just redownloaded a psx emulator so I might be MIA for a few more days. ;)

My most important question is: is endgame still boring as usual? Perhaps I'll spend some time with my league now...

With that being said, here's my rep grind music of the day (instrumental!):

As of this entry, I'm only 80% away from dinging 40. I'm not too fond of Dragon Ring, after dodging 2 geared 40s with warbanners patrolling the whole map for the entire banner duration... so I've decided to check out Yazes Shard. Fortunately that place has a lot more quests and the terrain is a bit easier to navigate... aka, not filled to the brim with 39 mobs that I can't kill without using spectral assassin.

Posted this screenie because I believe this is the official Xad psi cape! ;D I could be wrong, but it certainly matches the color/symbols from the character creation screen.

Pretty tired of browsing the forums because it seems like every other thread is raging about one thing or the other. I can't believe the "omg do something about teh AT ganking!!1" stuff is still going on. Come on people, this is a WORLD PVP game, what the heck are you expecting? How come I have a feeling most people who complain about that stuff have never experienced world pvp games? It's nothing new, world pvp is never fair and even I have come to accept that. When I was leveling up my priest during the release of TBC, I think I died like 13 times within an hour in hillsbrad. I died even more in STV, the AT of WoW. Except unlike Allods, you had no unflag option in contested areas in pvp realms and you had to run back to your body so level capped players could literally CAMP YOU FOR AN HOUR. Did we have the option to stand on a res pad and teleport out? NOPE! When I was leveling in outlands I was ganked from ABOVE - by players on flying mounts completely epic'd out. Did I go on the forums and cry that this was unfair and something needs to be done about it? No.

Now I'm ranting, but yeah... Really tired of seeing that issue keep popping up. I'm starting to believe the only way to make people happy is have PVE and PVP servers.

Although it took them almost 5 days to fix the crash - at least its done. The latest patch has cleared majority of users from the annoying memory leak that made many aspects of the game unplayable (notably instances and astral). Even I got a taste of it - ran tt2 with a few new 40s and we wiped on a boss soley due to the fact that all 3 40s managed to crash during a boss encounter. That aside, I can't imagine doing tt2 with a legit group of 35s, it seems quite difficult.

There has been no word on whether or not fixes will go out to heroics and astral. From what I've read and heard ingame, new 40s will have an extremely hard time completing heroics because of aggro issues - it seems like aggro ranges have increased significantly along the 20% damage increase. As we all know, psi's spectral assassin has been nerfed for bosses so I'm a bit bummed since I'll be fairly useless dps-wise on red rings. As for astral, the drop decrease seems a bit dramatic... I will agree that previously it sounded way too easy, but now it seems like they went overboard with nerfs.

As much as I am all for "challenging" in a game, anything extremely time consuming that provides little rewards goes opposite of that belief. There is a difference between wasting time because the game mechanics said so, and wasting time because people in your group just don't know how to play. People should be able to finish heroics in a timely manner without needing to be already in epic gear... it kind of defeats the purpose of progression. I would say that a geared group should be able to clear all heroics for the day given 5 hours. Since this game does not have that many heroics yet, and 5 hours is quite a span of time, I think it's a good goal to shoot for. If it is taking people longer than this to clear, then something is wrong. (We aren't even counting the hours they need to do dailies + farm money + whatever)

I'm not far from 39, but I will probably get to 40 just doing my dailies every day... more or less postponing 40.

I've been meaning to draw more art of my characters, but I never seem to get around to doing it. :P So here's a  quick doodle of my league healer... Yup, I rolled a male elf! Although, if you ask me, it's not much different from rolling a female elf... just I don't have the flimsy Disney-like fairy wings. ;) He's only level 8 right now, but I'm out of fatigue for the day. If you see me on Tensess, be sure to say hi!

So far I'm not having too many problems with crashing. My psi (just dinged 37!) has arrived in Avilon and is actually almost done with it since the zone is so short... I'll probably hit 40 this weekend, and we'll see whether or not the QQing about heroics is justified!

Oh right,  I wanted to mention it felt like the first few levels of League were more... finished. At least, I felt like it was more interesting than Empire's waddling around Nezebgrad. Granted, League side also felt longer since there was more travel time + actually completing a zone by level 6-7.

As far as I know, there is currently no fix for this. The crashing is caused by a memory leak - the longer your client/game runs (AOgame.exe) the more memory it eats until it crashes. It seems like for most people this is somewhere around 1.5gb of memory. Basically, the game isn't crashing "randomly" and it only feels like its lagging because it's using up so much of your computer's resources.

I have actually not experienced any crashing because I restart my client when it hits the 1gb mark, and it takes approx. an hour of running before it gets that high. Now I've read on the forums that it crashes even faster (less than 30min) for some people, so keep an eye on your taskmanager (or whatever you use) and restart accordingly. Their latest patch (the 16mb one) seems to have done absolutely nothing to fix this error.

I'm not sure whether or not Gala-net really operates during the weekend - probably not - but they need to get a fix out for this as soon as possible. This is one of the few reasons why releasing patches late in the week is a horrible idea for a game prone to bugs and glitches, we usually end up having to wait a whole weekend before support resumes.

That aside, I'm liking the anonymous psionicist-only channel!

For people who need the 16mb patch (1.0.06.36.1 -> 1.0.06.37.1) due to peer searching issues, I've also uploaded that at this link:
Filefront: http://www.filefront.com/16321601/1.0.06.37.1_.zip
Megaupload: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9SJE7F1U

If you are getting the launcher corrupted error, don't forget to run this!
http://allods-ftp.gpotato.com/repair.exe

I am pretty much busy with finals and projects until mid next week... so I probably won't have time to really write anything long and meaningful like I have planned. I still do check up on the forums whenever I'm taking a break though. :D

The forums are a mess and I'm tired of going in there and trying to sort things out. I'm in no way affiliated to Gala-net, so any of my "defending" posts I make on the forums are my own thinking. I criticize when it needs to be done, but I defend when too many people are being unreasonable.. which, right now, too many people are. (I have been called a "suck up to the GMs" on the forums now, that's pretty cute - ad hominem attacks are always nice) Sometimes I wonder if I'm digging myself into a hole acting like this... I have been more or less rejected by the 2 big empire guilds on Tensess - but I'm going to wave that around like a trophy.

Quite frankly I am sick of how entitled a lot of people think they are. They are playing a *free* to play game, with the bought items not having a timer until you activate it... or some items like bags will stay with your character forever. Now if it was a subscription-based model, and the servers were crashing and glitchy for several days - I would probably join the masses of unhappy people.. because you know, you're actually wasting money the more days you go without playing. But this isn't the case with Allods. Why do people feel like not playing a game for 1 day is the end of the world? Some people should probably step away from their computers for awhile...

Hello readers (whoever you are!), if you are looking for a faster way to get the latest patch without waiting for the launcher's torrent... look no further!

Yesterday I was able to talk to Darren Allarde, or GM Chomp, directly on ventrilo concerning the future of Allods. Darren is the associate producer of Allods, he works for Gala-net and you might have seen him ingame (or just on [world] chat) under the name "CHOMP_". Sometimes you'll also find him on the forums or posting on his developer blog. Novograd Times is doing an interview with him soon and is accepting questions from the players themselves - check it out.

Amount of crying and whining over the new patch notes is making me stay away from the forums, which is also making me not generate any new ideas for content... :P Next post will probably be a Coba Plateau rep guide, but I haven't even found the rep quests yet so...

There is a thread on the forums asking about the possibility of including battlegrounds or arenas in Allods. The replies are fairly interesting, some people agree and others disagree. It seems like most players who are against it believe that battlegrounds/arenas will kill world pvp, while the opposing side thinks organized pvp is a great way of obtaining the currently almost-impossible at 40: the Judge/Juggernaut rank. This rank unlocks the special third ruby, one of the very last ruby for any player to get.

If you have played a caster, you will notice that sometimes your cast bar will go to 100% but your spell will not cast (especially if you are getting hit by a mob/player). Spell push back is a good mechanic, but is fairly useless when your cast bar does not work properly - all you can do is guess when your spell will actually go off. This happens to other classes as well, such as scouts not doing the correct damage until their second shot (according to a friend).

Pardon my earlier rant, we'll now return to regular posts. :D

Putting it under a cut because it is wholeheartedly ranting, mostly about game mechanics. Call it whining if you want!

Making speedy progress, I'm actually halfway through level 25 now. :) I spent a good hour grinding out about 40% of a level, then grouped up with a player I met in Dead Sea and knocked out about 10 quests. Fortunately, we didn't run into many league players! But lots of thanks to Teggycon the summoner for helping me with my quests even though he had already finished them.

Anyways, grinding is not bad at all on Allods! And at times I would rather do that then die repeatedly to level-??s with war banners. This is how I grind:

1. A good pace for me is having mind link / mental twin up every time I kill a mob, unless I know it does not hit hard (does not get me below 75% by the time it dies). If it takes longer than that, it's not worth it. If it dies quicker but doesn't hurt, I will use twin every other mob. For the mobs that I don't link, I use mental pulse to preserve some hp and buy some time.
2. My spell rotation, after setting up ML / twin, is mindfire -> choke -> psi shock til dead. If it takes more than 2 psi shocks after choke for the mob to die, it takes too long to kill and is not worth it. Ideally it will die after choke.
3. I have little if any downtime, usually I will heal spam with Mental Cleansing and then Trance to get rid of overload (saves money on food!). With the gear from Lab13, AT, and rookie pvp rank, I have enough faith that my heals hit for 600-1k.

Alright I just spent the last few minutes looking over templates and tweaking things, I'm not particularly happy with any of these pre-set themes so it'll be awhile before this blog gets its correct look.

Hello! This is Lunith from Empire on Tensess... This blog will just be a recording of my adventure on Allods Online.