Profile: BlackWatch
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• • Conan1, Conan1972, Conandude...Please don't do this!

  • What about names like:

    Boobalicious

    Boobdude

    Boobsnblood

    Doublebreasted

    gotboob

    ncseventeen

    conanobrien

    aoconan

    ageofc

    lastactionconan

    Breastever

    Coolnan

    Coldnan

    Arny

    Conandoinator

    t1000

    sarahconorconan

    runningman

    gettothachoppa

    cumwitm3ifuwannaliv

    eyellbebak

    ...

    I'm sure there wil be a ton of them.  Hopefully you can kill them enough times to make them quit the game.

     

     

     

  • Posted: 5/09/08 12:18 PM
    Age of Conan
• • Totally Wireless Computing.

  • I don't game wirelessly... but if I did go back to it, I would make sure that all of my wireless devices were 2.4GHz. 

    You'll find several wireless mouse products that have 'hot -swappable' battery packs. 

    As far as receivers go, you can go with something the size of a very small thumb drive or the typical usb cable that allows you to put a receiver on your desktop with LOS to your products (not required with 2.4GHz, but 'safer').

    Logitech makes quite a few 2.4GHz mouse products.  I know other companies make them, but Logitech makes some of the best. 

    I would go lazered for sure.  No matter what mouse product you get.

    And for the keyboard portion... there are 2.4GHz solutions out there.  There are even 2.4GHz BlueTooth products out there.  While I'm not a huge fan of BlueTooth myself, they are out there.  Microsoft makes a few products in this line-up and so does Logitech.  Get a keyboard that docks, if possible. 

    If you want to stay cabled:

    For me, I don't like a bulky mouse, but the Microsoft Sidewinder mouse has some great features (other than form factor, imho).  The optional weights, on the fly DPI switch function, and something as simple as the cable anchor make this a very cool product.  (The cabe anchor:  run your mouse cable through giving yourself enough cable on the moue-end to have full range of movement, the anchor holds the moue cable in place from there, as opposed to gravity pulling on the slack that normally would be hanging off of your desk/surface and dragging your mouse or creating additional resistance when you try to move it). (sorry for run-on sentence from hell there)

    I'm a big fan of the Razer mouse products for comfort/feel, though. I own 3 of them atm.  Going back to a standard design mouse from the slim and trim Razer stuff... it's tough.  Feels like going from a sports car to an SUV. 

    ...

    Wireless displays:

    You could go with a wireles projector... or a projector, period.  The signal throughput is improving on the wireless products.  Resolutions are moving north on the wired projectors.  But if the goal is simply to have your display (display surface) at a more distant reach from you... a projector would be the way to go, imho. 

    With DisplayPort monitors shipping, I'm still going to stick with a flat-panel/LCD monitor.  LCD quality continues to get better, though they still haven't reached CRT in true representation of 'black' (instead of the inky color you normally see). 

    Wireless... POWER:

    It's coming.  Tesla did it long ago.  MIT has done it recently.  We already use variations of it.  But, it's coming.  You'll see it in laptops and other items very soon.

     

  • Posted: 5/09/08 11:56 AM
    General Discussion
• • Can someone explain the hate towards SOE?

  • Originally posted by Dracus
    

    The short, short version of the fallout from SWG:

    SWG is the crown point for the negative biased with SOE.

    SWG originally had 32 professions with a skill based system.  Although it had bugs and design flaws, mostly everyone will agree to say that SWG had great potential.  To help overcome those problems, promises were made to conduct revamps/fixes about every month to two months.  The two revamps that never occurred however were the Combat Revamp and the Smuggler Revamp.

    During for about a year and a half, statements were made to the effect that the Combat Revamp was being coded, just around the corner, about one more month, etc.  Similar hints were made for Smugglers.

    Well, the truth was leaked, actually slipped out by loose lips that the Combat Revamp was going to be delayed by another year.  Come to find out that the Combat Revamp had never made it to code, it was still in the high level development area.  This fallout lead to the Coordinator Summit  to help restore trust.  What the Coordinators saw (player volunteers) was designs of the Combat Upgrade, which was not what the players were told of the Combat Revamp.  The Combat Upgrade and Revamp were completely different.

     

    But wait there's more...

    In SWG the customer service was (and I believe still is), "the customer is mostly wrong all of the time."  Meaning, that should a system glitch occur, oh say a lost of 20 million credits, they are gone.  No method or process to restore.

    "Combat Medics are working as intended," even though a single medic can kill waves of players...

     

    Now enter the Combat Upgrade:

    When the Combat Upgrade occurred, all equipment was converted to the new system.  And a fair share of the equipment was made into junk.  That 5 million Flame Thrower, rendered useless.  Sorry, have a nice day.  But fortunately SOE/LA did inform players that the Combat Upgrade was coming up and to expect some cool changes.

     

    The dreaded NGE (New Game Enhancements):

    Well I can go with a revised combat system being more on the twitch, but unfortunately how the NGE was executed and of the other enhancements is what really did the trick of this perceived hatred.

    There use to be 32 skill based professions, with profession combinations.  Now there are 9 Classes, all level base.

    And giving information of the NGE about 10 days prior to launch.  That is what is called Poor Change Management.  Had SOE/LA provided say 6 months of time to inform and take in feedback about the NGE, then the change would have been more smoother.  There are people who don't read the forums and were uninformed of the NGE...  imagine the surprise to them.

    Yes, change is good; but people are resistant to changes.  People however can become acceptable to the changes if informed and engaged in the process of the proposed changes.  SOE/LA failed to do this, giving only 10 days.

     

    Again that is the short, short version.

    I left out a lot of other stuff.

    
    Pretty accurate... I mean, I don't really disagree with anything you had to say.

    If someone asked me why there was a lot of hate towards SOE, my quick answere would be SWG. 

    After SWG, see customer service.  I don't just mean the folks that try to help you if/when you have an issue with game play/technical issue or an issue with your account.  I mean the people who are supposed to listen, respond, and mold the game into something the playerbase has really asked for, wants, and then approves of once they get it.

    The problems with Vanguard, MatrixOnline, SWG, etc.... well, the blame ultimately hits SOE.

     

  • Posted: 5/09/08 10:07 AM
    Pirates of the Burning Sea
• • funcom just redeemed themseves.

  • Is there any official word on this game that states that it is 'thread enabled'?

    Just because the game will run on a multi-core CPU doesn't mean anything.  And just because you think you see activity on both cores and/or they are both at 100% utilization... that doesn't mean anything either.  It's just 'load balancing'.

    Is there a SMP client? 

    If this game is 'thread enabled'... then Core 2 Quad users will see the biggest benefit. 

    Hell, if it is... I'll drop it on my dual socket Xeon box that has a total of 8 cores.  We'll see what's going on with the application then. 

     

  • Posted: 5/09/08 9:43 AM
    Age of Conan
• • After AOCs latest patch - Will EA cancel WAR ?

  • Some of these threads are hilarious. 

    EA won't cancel WAR.

    AoC will be fine if they fix their issues and really learn to listen to customers.

    Calm down.  All of the negative press for AoC isn't going to stop the game from coming out.  No need to bash other games to mark your MMORPG territory. 

    Add a few sticks of RAM, get rid of Vista and install XP SP3, and maybe install a gamepad controller... and you're set for AoC, baby.

    The only issue you may have are bunny-hopping arsehats.  Deal with them however you see fit. 

     

  • Posted: 5/09/08 9:35 AM
    Age of Conan