Messages

41

Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 23, 2004, 02:18:12 PM »

am I the first in?  I'm an undead warlock on the shattered hand east coast server... I was gonna go with central but every single one was at 'high' server load =x I think it was the same for mountain...

42

Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 23, 2004, 11:33:42 AM »

k when I get home I'm joining stormreaver :> haven't decided on my name yet, but I'll prolly be undead warlock still...

43

Off Topic / Warezed Soundforge Files In Windows Media Player

« on: November 23, 2004, 08:11:49 AM »

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/13/0036243

An anonymous reader writes "German PC-Welt magazine reports that Microsoft used an illegal copy of SoundForge 4.5 (Google translation) for editing Wave files shipped with Windows Media Player. You can check that yourself by opening any file in the [Windows location] \Help\Tours\WindowsMediaPlayer\Audio\Wav\ folder in notepad or other editors of your choice and looking at the last line. There you will find a reference to SoundForge 4.5 and also a user called 'Deepz0ne' who happens to be one of the founders of an audio software cracking group called Radium."

just found it funny. :p

44

Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 23, 2004, 06:37:34 AM »

I think by 'buy it again every month' he meant pay the monthly fee... is it true they still haven't decided what that'll be?  I hope they're not holding off telling us cuz it's gonna be some crazy amount...  

but yeah, I heard the game cards are coming into stores next week so there WILL be a way to pay the monthly fee.

as for the server, I'm fine with central...

45

Off Topic / Broadband Connection

« on: November 22, 2004, 10:17:03 PM »

is this on all servers, or 1 particular server?  it's not normal for your connection in general to get worse over the weeks/months... so maybe you should check the connections and all that.

as for downloads, yeah that's normal - download speed doesn't generally stabilize to a good estimate for a bunch of seconds into the DL...

46

General / Ns Identity Consistency

« on: November 22, 2004, 10:12:10 PM »

the change doesn't affect me any, but my condolences to those of you whom it does affect.  I've always steered away from using any semblance of 'l33t' in my pseudonyms.  it stems from AIM, where I thought anyone who couldn't think of an interesting screen name that wasn't taken without using numbers was just terminally uncreative.  

as for the NS.org forums, what worries me is, are all the old posts lost forever?  the off-topic history was a treasure trove of useless but fun information

47

General / Shotguns

« on: November 22, 2004, 10:06:30 PM »

I always thought welders should do more damage to structures, as an early-game structure killer :>

48

General / Any Shotgun Replacement Ideas?

« on: November 22, 2004, 10:03:39 PM »

FLAMETHROWAR!

gravity gun?

 :help:

if it's agreed that it's unbalanced at least in hivekilling, I'd vote for weakening it, or take away its armor piercing capability.  changing it to a whole new weapon, I dunno.  I don't think anyone can think of something feasible yet creative enough... could do a 'medium' machine gun, but how boring would that be? =/

49

Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 22, 2004, 08:19:33 PM »

Now, before anyone runs off on a whiny tangent about how "Eww, you have to buy the game, and then buy it again and again every month", stop and think; For those of us that are getting the game, it's obviously entertaining enough to warrant the monthly fee, and it really isn't that much of a problem if you're running off of more than a weekly allowance.

[snapback]33897[/snapback]

I agree.  compare it to going to a movie or something.  if you see 2 movies a month, that's (probably) about the price WoW is gonna be.  now that's 4 hours of entertainment.  assuming you play WoW more than 4 hours a month, you're getting your money's worth.

50

Off Topic / Hl2 Dissapointments

« on: November 22, 2004, 08:13:37 PM »

I finally finished it, and I think I'm the only one who wasn't floored by the game.  yes, it was very pretty.  yes, the physics are neat (though don't seem all that much different than, say, UT2k4).  the physics are also overplayed.  UT uses its physics without making the game's most important gun shoot gravity.  some of the random, weird physics puzzles, while interesting, took me out of the mood of the game (why is this pully set up so that I need to push this washing machine into it to raise a ramp?  why do I need to fill this underwater basket with air barrels to raise another ramp?  speaking of which, how can a man pull a huge barrel filled with air underwater without floating to the surface?)  

I didn't feel like there was enough variety to the enemies either.  let's see, 3 varieties of headcrabs, 3 associated varieties of zombies (2 of those varieties very rare), combine soldiers in various skins, and a couple novelty enemies - walkers and gunships.  to generalize, combine, headcrabs, and zombies are basically all you fight for 90% of the game - and combine for 70% of that 90%.  I was at the point where I couldn't bear to look at or hear another damn combine soldier by the end.  doom 3 tried to keep up with the variety of enemies, and for that I'm glad.  they'd gradually introduce each new monster and each new gun, and let you bask in it for a while.  

doom 3 kept me much more scared than HL2 too.  people say ravenholm was scary; I just found it one of the more annoying areas.  instead of waves of combine I was wading through waves of zombies.  big whoop.  

as I've already basically said, the combine areas really dragged on for me.  I couldn't wait for the damn prison to end.  "oh boy, in this room there are 3 turrets instead of 2, such variety".

it felt like the game was just one long string of gimmicks.  the gravity first of all.  the vehicles.  the squads.  weapons and enemies - the meat and potatoes of any FPS - were the weak points... I already went into the enemies, and the guns were very generic as well.  they really didn't have to rehash the HL1 weapons for the sake of nostalgia...

my favorite chapter was the highway... because it was relatively slow-paced.  it wasn't just an endless string of combine pouring at me.  it was a few quiet villages strung together that I had to clear and explore, with plenty of time to admire the scenery...

the dialogue scenes were also awesome.  if like 3 more hours of dialogue were stuck in there instead of 3 hours of shooting generic soldiers, I'd probably be raving along with everyone else... but in the end, we're left knowing little we didn't know at the end of HL1...

I'm definitely not saying it's anything close to being a bad game.  I liked it a lot.  it just got really tedious for me at times, such that I could never bring myself to play it for more than about 2 hours at a time.  I think the sweet dialogue scenes just managed to set me up for disappointment, because they made me wish I had a 'party member' with me at all times, talking to me while I shot stuff, at least to break up the monotony...

anyway, if I were planning a mod right now, it'd be for the HL2 engine.  however as far as single player retail FPS games go, HL1 and Halo still beat out HL2 in my mind, as far as fun factor goes.  I'm done ranting, especially since no one's going to even remotely agree with me

51

General / Any Shotgun Replacement Ideas?

« on: November 22, 2004, 05:24:38 PM »

I still think the win/loss % speaks for itself and nothing really needs balancing... if everyone had perfect aim, shotgun would be overpowered.  hell, if everyone had perfect aim, the LMG would be overpowered.  maybe for that reason the SG IS overpowered in competitive play, where the players are more serious/skilled - I wouldn't know, I don't play competitively.  all I know is that with average skilled people, like myself, sg rushes are not instant game winners.  in a 7 v. 7 game, most sg rushes go like this: 4 to 6 marines w/ shotguns head toward the hive.  I'll leave out the rambo factor and assume they're actually sticking together.  1 or 2 get snuck up on while en route and bite the dust.  the aliens who spotted them alert the team, and a couple head back to the hive.  the 3 to 5 or so marines left start unloading on the hive, often getting picked off while reloading.  if the alien team is actually cooperating, enough of them would be back at the hive to finish of the 2 or so remaining marines, who cannot gun down the hive in a nerve-wrackingly short period of time.  

I still say stealth is the counter.  you could just as easily say cloaking is overpowered.  yes, there are counters to cloaking.  a comm who pings a lot and builds strategic obses (rare), or just getting MT... but cloaking used intelligently (like not moving when the marines are reasonably close) can nail even the best unsuspecting players...

I'm not honestly arguing that cloaking is overpowered, just saying it's 1 possible counter for shotguns.  yes, it's possible to have a successful shotgun rush - usually when half your players are dead and they're already in the hive.  yes, it's annoying to be gunned down point blank in one shot.  these are just products of player stupidity and bad luck, though...

only time an alien team I'm on gets pwned, by shotgun rush or otherwise, is when it's obvious the other team has better players.  otherwise, people know where to be to stop a rush, and how to come at the rushers...

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Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 22, 2004, 04:34:52 PM »

yeah, I guess my real question is whether anything important an engineer creates can only be worn by people who can wear mail... which would be sucky for a warlock :/

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Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Release!

« on: November 22, 2004, 12:09:43 PM »

I was an undead warlock and I will probably continue to be one.  theoretically I should try something different, but... but, DAEMONS...

as for server, if people decide to go to an east server, yay.  I wish the NS.org (now .com) forums were up; I like coordinating w/ as many ppl as possible :>

edit: btw, what's a good job for a warlock?  I tried alchemy and wasn't all that happy with it.  it was annoying to always be short 1 reagent or another, though I guess that's the case with any profession.  

so if I don't want to be an alch again, is engineer any good for a warlock, or are there mail and leather restrictions that'll make it pointless?  should I go tailor or enchanter instead?  I fear going enchanter - that's gotta be hella expensive :>

54

General / Any Shotgun Replacement Ideas?

« on: November 22, 2004, 08:41:13 AM »

I've got a very vanilla opinion here but I think the SG is just fine.  sure it's powerful in the right hands, but if it were overpowered, then a comm dropping his team 8 shotguns would be GG.  

I'm not much of a 'twitch' alien.  my bhopping sucks and I've never been that excellent at knowing what angles to run at a marine w/o getting mown down.  the games I actually come out of with a good score are the games I use stealth, which is the biggest counter to SGs imo.  running headlong at a sg marine and getting blasted in the face is not frustrating, it's stupid.  falling on his head or decloaking next to him or setting up an ambush = smart.  the end.

as for the hive killing ability - sg rushing a hive is a beautiful thing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. :p the fun of being part of a rush definitely beats the annoyance of being an alien and watching the hive disappear in 5 seconds, IMO.

55

Off Topic / Ravenholm!11

« on: November 22, 2004, 08:18:15 AM »

I brought Dog's "ball" with me to help out with the zombies.

[snapback]33825[/snapback]

me too - I'm surprised more people didn't.  I brought it with me just cuz it was a cool gadget, and to my happy surprise, the zombies liked attacking it more than me =D

56

Off Topic / To Kill A Mockingbird

« on: November 22, 2004, 08:01:01 AM »

I <3'd it.  I showed teh GF and teh GF's roommate.  they <3'd it too.

I find that a lot of things I find funny in one mood, I won't in another.

so watch it when you're in a lighthearted, silly mood.  it's particularly funny when thought of in context, i.e. a kid doing a book report on a book he hasn't read.

57

Off Topic / The Crowbar

« on: October 24, 2004, 03:51:13 AM »

crowbar ftw.  if it wasn't iconic, they wouldn't be bringing it back for HL2 now would they??

I really don't think your average passer-by would think it meant something phallic.  I *do* believe they'd have no clue what it means, though, and if forced to guess most would say something to do with thiefly shenanigans...

and, what?  some peoples' parents are married?  I thought everyone was the result of a 3 month fling like me

58

Off Topic / Angband

« on: September 16, 2004, 11:06:50 AM »

I prefer Ancient Domains of Mystery myself :p

59

Off Topic / Van Helsing

« on: May 25, 2004, 11:53:07 AM »

I have no idea why I seem to be the only one on the internet to have noticed the microphones looming over the actors' heads in about 1 in every 5 shots.  when *I* saw it, the entire audience cracked up all the way through at the constant boom-fest that was the top of the movie screen... couldn't exactly take it seriously...

I'll look for this thanks.

I think he's full of it. MovieMistakes.com has absolutely nothing about dangly boom mics, and those freaks don't miss ANYTHING (read the Pirates of the Carribean listing... oh god)

the first sighting I saw was when they fell into Frankenstein's cave... that's where you should start looking. :>

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Off Topic / Van Helsing

« on: May 22, 2004, 10:02:23 AM »

I have no idea why I seem to be the only one on the internet to have noticed the microphones looming over the actors' heads in about 1 in every 5 shots.  when *I* saw it, the entire audience cracked up all the way through at the constant boom-fest that was the top of the movie screen... couldn't exactly take it seriously...