Diablo 3 Patch 2.0.1 goes live

 

Pretty big news coming out of Blizzard’s neck of the woods. The long-awaited 2.0.1 patch for Diablo 3 has gone live, which includes the new Loot 2.0 system, a major overhaul of the game’s itemization.

You can find the rather enormous list of changes here:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/12671560/patch-201-now-available-2-25-2014

ASR AI 3 update released

 

Robalo has released an update for his awesome AI enhancement, ASR AI 3.

On a side note, if you want some really good AI, Robalo’s ASR AI 3 plays very nicely with TPW’s Suppression (the submod by itself), or TPWCAS. Then trust me, you are in for a good time against a challenging but believable OPFOR!

 

From the author:

 

This is my AI enhancement mod for Arma3.

It was primarily developed with dedicated server / coop gameplay in mind, although it works just as well for single player use.
I have played both campaign episodes with zero issues having this mod enabled (in fact, I probably would not have played them at all otherwise).

All the scripted features are running server side only. If a player joins a server with the mod active, his userconfig has no effect, the server scripted settings are applied, even for AI spawned/running on the player’s machine.

 

Description:

 

This is an AI enhancement mod for Arma 3.

 

Features:

 

main
– common module, required by the others
– has no effect on it’s own, it contains common macro definitions and versioning stuff

settings
– loads user settings defined in main Arma dir\userconfig\asr_ai3\asr_ai3_settings.hpp
– also required by the other modules

cfgweapons
– AI’s fire mode selection, rate of fire and engagement ranges are tweaked. Makes them shoot more human-like.
– Weapon dispersion varies more with unit’s skill. The lower the skill, the more increased dispersion. Makes tweaking them from the userconfig more effective.

sysaiskill
– Reconfigures detection skills for soldiers. Base sensitivity skill has been reduced for civilians (3->2) and increased for snipers (3.5->4).
Enemy snipers should be harder to hide from while friendly snipers should be employed strategically.
Hearing has been improved for soldiers but the perceived noise made by soldier movement was reduced. Makes sneaking up still possible while soldiers will
detect other noises better overall (those made by gun shots or vehicles for example).
– The units skills are automatically configured based on their unit type, faction and the settings that can be changed in the userconfig. The skills are randomized but
given in between a minimum and a maximum value based on the skill level each unit is assigned in. This way you can have regular unit better then guerilla but spec ops
or snipers a lot better then all so you’re able to customize but also keep the diversity. You can configure for each unit class values for their aiming, spotting and general
skills. You can also apply global coefficients per faction. The skills are appied after the start of the mission for present units or for any units that may spawn in
later.
– Skill reduction for wounded units. Wounding your target has an immediate effect on their ability to detect you or shoot back.
– Reconfigures unit costs. Units are classified by importance in 3 levels: less (civilians, insurgents, militia), normal (regulars), more (special ops, snipers, officers).
Units (especially players) may change equipment so it doesnt make sense to have an “AT guy” wear a big “shoot me first” sign just because he’s in that “class”.
– The viewdistance of the dedicated server is dynamically adjusted during a mission based on sun elevation and fog level. This is done because the view distance of the
AI on the server determines how fast they will lose a target they already became aware of. Less chances of getting shot through the thick of the fog or darkness by AI
you can’t even see.

sysdanger
– AI share info about threats with other groups in their proximity if they have radios. Enhances awareness for groups that are not directly in contact with an enemy.
– AI Groups coming into contact while in the open will try to move to cover. They may use smoke to conceal their movement. Helps them survive longer when caught in the open.
– AI groups which do not have any pre-set waypoints may respond to danger with an attack, take defensive positions, use near houses, static or vehicle weapons.
They will assess known enemy strength when considering how to react to danger. Makes then less predictable and more dangerous.
– AI machinegunners use suppressive fire. Makes them more effective and feared.
– AI will be alerted by explosions. They may try to get to cover. The higher state of alertness will increase the chances of detecting the enemy.
– AI units are more able to detect gun fire. There are many factors which contribute to how far they can hear and how precise the information gained is:
the ammo type, if the weapon is suppressed, how loud the weapon is (sound mods can change this), foliage, houses.
– Wounded AI that is unable to walk may separate from their group and be left alone if there’s no medic in the group. Helps AI groups reach their destination in a timely
manner when one of theirs has been shot in the leg or had a stupid accident (fell of a rock and broke legs, got hit by car etc.).
– Groups reduced to a single unit after mission start will look for near friendly groups and join with them. AI working as a team is a lot stronger then a bunch of separate units.
– Buildings are used in combat by AI. You may see AI shooting from windows or rooftops and it may not be as easy to hide in a house anymore.

 

Changelog:

 

v0.8.0
– official release

v20140217
– updated release

v102501
– initial Arma 3 release

 

Download:

 

Official BI forum thread

 

 

A-10C Thunderbolt II for Arma 3 updated

 

The A-10 has been sorely missed in Arma 3. This is partly because of the lack of available NATO fixed wing aircraft, but mostly because of the versatility of the A-10, and its usefulness as a close air support platform in the Arma world. It’s capable in just about any role you assign to it. Well, thanks to Peral’s hard work, the A-10 is back!

 

Description:

The A-10C Thunderbolt II is an American twin-engine, straight-wing jet aircraft designed solely for close air support of ground forces, the A-10 was built to attack tanks, armored vehicles, and other ground targets with limited air defenses.

 

Features:

 

– Interactive cockpit
– Custom A10C pilot
– Custom A10C sounds
– Custom weapon sounds
– Custom damage system
– Ejection sequence
– Canopy animation
– Master arms “SAFETY” feature
– User interface via Service Menu allowing ordnance and paint scheme customization
– Full realistic set of weapons models
– Collision Lights and Formation Lights

In the works:
– Embedded GPS INS (EGI) Navigation
– CCRP Continuously Calculated Release mode
– CCIP Consent to Release (CR) Mode
– Aerial Refueling

Notes:
– This is alpha version and many features are still not complete
– Please read included PDF

 

Changelog:

 

V0.2
– Crosshair Action key has been changed
– Hud has been reworked
– Air refuelling receptacle modeled on the front of the aircraft
– Rear view mirrors added to the cockpit
– Signal Lamp Test has been fixed
– Some sound volumes have been adjusted
– GAU-8 damage has been adjusted
– GAU-8 sound has been adjusted
– Issue with AI and open canopy has been fixed
– Targeting reticle has been adjusted
– Error with empty loadout from the service menu has been fixed
– Canopy damage texture has been replaced
– The A-10C pilot has been adjusted
– UserActions have been added for CCRP, Master Arm, GUN/PAC, and Canopy
– .bisign for Peral_A10_Data added

v0.1
– Initial Alpha Release

 

Download:

 

Official BI forum thread

 

 

Preview Images:

 

a-10_1a-10_2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EA’s Dungeon Keeper Slaps You In The Face Like A Lowly Minion

 

Let’s cut right to the chase – EA Mythic’s new Dungeon Keeper mobile game is a Pay-To-Win abomination that will slap you in the face harder than you slap your ingame minions.

Rather than say what has already been said endlessly about the game itself across all corners of the internet lately, there’s an excellent article over at Kotaku.com that I will link below about EA’s new mobile game for Apple and Android devices that they branded as a “Dungeon Keeper” title to shamelessly capitalize on the nostalgia of an entire generation of gamers. You can read this for some additional background on EA’s latest gaming travesty.

“‘A Cancer That’s Eroding The Market’: Reactions To EA’s Dungeon Keeper”

 

Ordinarily I don’t bother much with mobile gaming except to pass the time while commuting, but like many of us, ahem, “older” gamers, the original two Dungeon Keeper games rank high on my short list of favorites I played as a kid. They were basically my introduction to “god games” which is the genre I enjoy most, second only to flightsims. It was only after learning that EA released a new Dungeon Keeper game and hearing the ensuing outrage over it that I felt compelled to even try it. Now I understand, my friends. Now I understand.

First EA completely shat the bed last year with their failed “reboot” of SimCity, another dearly loved franchise, and now this? Electronics Arts is already on the fast track to earning The Consumerist publication’s dubious “Worst Company In America” award for the third year in a row, and not without good reason. Not that their chances were in any doubt to begin with, but this app may just clinch it for them.

The sheer balls of EA to design a game in this manner is what has sparked so much hostility over it, and I have to agree, the backlash is well-deserved. This game fully represents what is fundamentally eroding the gaming industry. The primary and most egregious complaint is an endless supply of forced timeblocks, or “paywalls”, at every step of your progression. These can only be overcome by either waiting the required number of hours, or by paying cold hard cash. It’s not a new concept, except that in this game, nearly everything you do in the game forces you to wait. Only the most basic functions are completed quickly, and that’s only if you happen to have any free minions available that aren’t busy with other painfully long tasks. Everything else? Be prepared to lay your device down for another several hours. For two weeks now, my pattern is basically to log on, tap 5 or 6 blocks, replace yet again all the single-use traps that have been sprung by other players raiding my dungeon and stealing my resources, then log off. For anyone who refuses to spend money on this game, this is about as compelling an experience as you’re going to have. No joke – it practically takes more time for the game to load up on a speedy Nexus tablet than my average session takes.

Mind you, other games have successfully employed a similar mechanic, like Candy Crush Saga for example. The difference is, I can play Candy Crush Saga for more than 30 seconds before the game tosses up another, “pay up or wait several more hours” roadblock in my face. At least Candy Crush Saga lets you play a respectable 10-15 minutes, sometimes more depending on how well you do, before you might hit a forced timeblock. Additionally, in most games that have in-app purchases, once you’ve shelled out your cash, you actually get to continue playing the game, often with even more features available to you. In Dungeon Keeper, you pay to overcome time obstacles, until you (quickly) run out of the ingame currency and attempt another task, which throws up the next timeblock. Rinse and repeat.

 

The Horned Reaper is an evil monster who treats his supporters like crap. EA should adopt him as their mascot immediately.
The Horned Reaper is an evil monster who treats his supporters like crap. EA should adopt him as their mascot immediately.

 

So basically your options are to play the game in short 1-3 minute bursts endlessly until you either grow bored of your glacial progress, or you lay down money to actually get anywhere (momentarily, at least). Not that there isn’t any fun to be had here, but you’ll need some serious patience. Sure, you can raid other dungeons – with minions you have zero control over – which lasts a couple of minutes. However, you inexplicably “spend” your minions in the process, even if they survive the raid, then have to spend gold getting them back. Meanwhile, other players stomp all over your poorly equipped F2P dungeon, and steal the resources you’ve been patiently trying to save. Resources, I might add, that you’ll need to make any progress whatsoever if you’re not spending actual money on the game. EA, do you see the problem we have here?

For the sake of this blog post, I threw down $10 to buy more gems, the in-app currency. The money I spent did not improve the experience one bit, nor did it make me any more of a competitive foe against other players. A few incremental upgrades and one extra minion, and the money was already gone. In the immortal words of Peter Griffin, “And now we play the waiting game”. Wait, you’re kidding me, right? I just shelled out more money than most apps cost to buy outright these days, and I still have to wait hours for each task? Shameful display, EA. Shout out to my Shogun 2 peeps.

EA’s senior producer Jeff Skalski flat out denies that Dungeon Keeper is a Pay-To-Win game in his shameless interview with TabTimes. But Jeff, isn’t this exactly what Pay-To-Win means? That you can’t get anywhere in the game without coughing up some cash? That you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell against other players who have spent money on the game? That’s precisely what it means. Honestly, I would have more respect for you guys if you had simply named the game “Money Grab” and been done with it. The real shame of it is, they really could have had something here, but instead EA Mythic chose the path of greed over delivering something worthwhile to fans of the original series, or to anyone for that matter.

Skalski’s denial over the game’s core philosophy is almost comical. He sounds like the Iraqi propaganda minister “Baghdad Bob” who cracked everyone up in 2003 by repeatedly insisting that Iraq was winning the war against invading U.S. forces. Meanwhile, the entire city of Baghdad was in flames in the background behind him, and every tank belonging to the so-called elite Republican Guard was a smoldering husk at the bottom of a smoking crater. SNL had a pretty funny skit depicting that guy. Skalski’s public relations strategy is pretty much the same as Baghdad Bob’s – admit nothing, deny everything. There’s a pretty good critique of his interview here on Forbes.com.

 

"Please ladies and gentlemen, everything is under control. EA is a wonderful company. Dungeon Keeper is not another despicable money grab...."
“Please ladies and gentlemen, everything is under control. EA is a wonderful company. Dungeon Keeper is not another despicable money grab….”

 

Plain and simple, it’s a sin to call this game “Dungeon Keeper”. Even Dungeon Keeper’s original creator, the famous Peter Molyneux, has already called it “Ridiculous”. Metacritic’s user score for the game, rated on a scale of 0-10, currently sits at an astoundingly bad “0.3”. The only positive scores seem to be from gaming sites with paid advertising, so you don’t exactly need a sliderule to figure that one out. Read the user comments for some additional comedy.

But before you go, I will say this – before you even consider spending a dime on EA’s pay-walled disgrace, I strongly recommend that you head over to GoG.com and purchase Bullfrog’s original Dungeon Keeper 2 instead. For a guy who admittedly has a hard time playing older games that have become a bit long in the tooth, I’m about two-thirds of the way through the campaign now, and I have to say that DK2 has held up surprisingly well. As for those old reviews saying the game has stability issues on Win7, GoG must have already fixed those issues at some point. On a Win7 64-bit PC, I’ve only had a single crash in several hours of playtime, and I’m having a blast with it. Money well spent.

Why pay someone else to capitalize on your nostalgia with a greedy, empty, soulless product? For about $6, you can feed your own nostalgia with the very same game that earned your nostalgia in the first place, by providing a deeply satisfying level of entertainment.

The original Dungeon Keeper 2 will indeed remind you of the good old days of gaming, while bringing back fond memories with a long lost friend.

 

Dungeon Keeper 2 on GoG.com (currently $5.99)

 

http://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper_2

 

 

 

 

Griff’s Sphax Texture Pack – important hotfix released

Griff's Sphax Texture Pack for Resonant Rise

 

I’ve just released an important update for Griff’s Texture Pack for Resonant Rise. Thanks to some helpful users on the RR forums, I was able to identify a problem with the pack, and realized that I goofed. I accidently left some 512x WIP textures in the pack instead of resizing them down to 64x.

On a reasonably good machine, you probably would not have noticed a performance hit, but with an older video card, you might have experienced a few lost FPS since the last update. Not a gamebreaker, but still an oversight that needed to be fixed. I have resized and re-added the offending textures, and while I was at it, I also made a few quick updates to the pack.

If you’re a Dartcraft user in particular, you should update to version 14a immediately.

 

Mods updated

 

– Tinkers Construct (minor tweaks)

– Extra Tic (minor tweaks)

– Thaumic Tinkerer

 

Mods added

 

– GregTech (currently unsupported since none of us use GT, but it seems to work fine so far)

 

Fixes and enhancements

 

– Dartcraft textures have been fixed

– finally got around to substituting Emasher textures for Chisel’s un-Spahx-ified Limestone and Marble. No more unsightly worldgen!

 

Enjoy,

Griff