March 2010, what I was doing

I was going to do a Minecraft Mondays 002 yesterday, but I have family in town from out of state, so I took them out on the town instead. However, I feel like I need to post to keep people from drop kicking me off their RSS feeds and blog rolls. So I figured I would look back and see what was up on this blog last year during March.

It's a bit ironic that I have an MMOGs blog, yet the majority of my inbound traffic has nothing to do about MMOGs. That's all thanks to my wonderful Punkbuster posts from March of 2010 for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Anyone that has dealt with Punkbuster errors knows the first place to look is Google and Google will generally direct Punkbuster + BFBC2 queries to this very website.

Battlfield: Bad Company 2 also launched on the PC in March of 2010. I had my initial impressions of singleplayer and I shared a bit of propaganda for the game.

I also got around to talking about Elemental and Lord of Ultima. Both games pretty much disapeared off my radar shortly after my initial postings. Elemental went on to a gloriously epic failure of a launch that I'm unsure Stardock (the game's developer) can ever recover from. Lord of Ultima was pretty much like any other browser strategy game, built and aimed to suck as much money out of teenagers and tweens that somehow got a hold of mommy and daddy's credit card.

We also found out in March that George RR Martin's book, A Game of Thrones, was coming to an HBO mini-series. Since this initial announcement, the pilot episode was completed and the series signed on for full production. The brief glimpses we've seen of the show so far are very promising. I'm really excited about this mini-series!



Lastly, probably the biggest event of the month for me, was my Gmail account getting hacked. Ah, the memories!

Heartless_ Gamer's Minecraft Mondays 001

So I promised a Minecraft video. Here it is. A bit outdated and I missed Monday, but it's never too late for a Minecraft video!



001 show notes:

This is an older video from the previous beta version 1.2.

This video covers my mountain base, cart station, and track switching station on the SMP player server I play on.

Sorry there isn't any sound in the video. I am working out some technical issues with FRAPS.

If there are any questions about any thing I show in the video, please let me know and I may follow it up with a video response!

Thanks for watching.

#Minecraft continues to amaze

Minecraft was down for a good portion of the day yesterday. After it came back up and I was able to get logged into my friend’s server again, the feeling of how great Minecraft is hit me again. Minecraft is full of endless possibilities for every type of player. After hundreds of hours of playing the game, it continues to amaze me each time I log in.

My current project is two-fold. I'm expanding out of the topside of my mountain hideaway. I am building both a sapling/log catching apparatus and a chicken coup. These will solve two annoying problems for me: collecting saplings and farming eggs.

The first, collecting saplings, may not seem that big of a chore. Chop down a tree and wait. A minute or so later you can collect all the fallen saplings. However, during large tree cutting operations, who wants to have to go back and run all over the place to get fallen saplings? Instead, I’d rather go to a single point and collect all the fallen saplings on my way to the storage area.

My tree farm is moving out of my main base and up to the top of the mountain. Two stories tall, it will be situated over a series of six whirlpools that will collect fallen saplings and logs and funnel them all to a single collection point. After clearing the trees, the collection point for the saplings will be on my way back down to the storage area.

The second item on my list, collecting eggs, is nearly impossible to get started and annoying to babysit afterwards. It generally involves finding and pushing several chickens into a hole and letting them procreate. Later on you jump in and collect the eggs. This is made easier by one of the recent Minecraft updates which allowed eggs to be broken and chickens spawned from them. However, a chicken only spawns from every eighth egg.

Now, the “chicken pit” is the simplest form of egg farming . It boils down to throwing eggs in a hole and waiting X to go in and get the eggs. Not only is that too simple for me, it is annoying to have to run all over the pit to get the eggs and when I’m done collecting, what do I do with the chickens?

My current solution is a crafty piece of engineering. It is two stories tall and features two whirl pools stacked on top of each other, each on their own floor. The top whirlpool sucks all the chickens together into a group so they lay eggs. The bottom whirl pool catches the eggs and funnels them to my collection point.

The important feature is that the second floor whirlpool is situated on signs. The water in the whirlpool keeps the chickens on the second floor and the signs hold up the water. However, since the signs are not solid, eggs fall right on through to the first floor. Throw in two dispensers with a clock generator and a flip of the switch unleashes a blizzard of eggs (and eventually chickens) into the second floor. Just like in real life, chickens sit on top, eggs get collected at the bottom. The system feeds into the same collection area as the saplings.

But there is still an important question to answer: what to do with all the chickens when a sufficient amount of eggs have been procured? If the area is left alone by all players, the chickens will simply disappear with time, but that isn’t much fun. Instead I will eventually have a door on the second floor that can be remotely opened. The whirlpool will force the chickens through the door and a short trip around a cactus corner and the chickens will be killed. Their feathers will then be collected into the same collection stream as the eggs and saplings and be delivered to my collection point.

Now this is a wall of text, so I promise that once I have the bugs worked out of these two systems I will post a video. Real life continues to be busy, so please be patient!

The Green Bay Packers are WORLD Champions!

The Green Bay Packers just won Super Bowl XLV.  The curse of 4th and 26 is lifted.  The shadow of Favre has passed.  A new era of Packers greatness has been ushered in.

Now, lets see how I did prognosticating the game:

• The Packers have not trailed by more than 7 points in any game this entire season, including the Playoffs.
• The Packers lost their six games by a total of 20 points, not losing a single game by more than 4.
• Of those six losses, most came down to the final play.
• The Packers played one of the toughest schedules this year of any team in the NFL.

The Packers never trailed during the game. If they would have lost, it would most likely have been on the last play of the game and it would have been by one point.

• The Packers went ON THE ROAD and beat the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeded teams in the NFC playoffs to advance to the Super Bowl.

This paid its dividends in what seemed like a game that was being played at the Steelers home field.

• The Steelers probably didn't anticipate the Packers having a running game. The Steelers are most certainly sleeping on James Starks. And while James Starks is not the next Barry Sanders, he has shown a spark that no other Packer running back has this year. He could single handedly break this game wide open running the ball well which will lead to Aaron Rodgers picking apart the Steelers defense with the play action.

Well, I was definitely off here. The Steelers didn't bite on play action, but then again the Packers never tried to run the ball to set it up. Starks showed some promise with a couple good runs. Would like to have seen him with the ball near the goal line.

• Unlike last years match up with the Steelers, the Packers have Sam Shields this year, easily one of the top cover corners in the league. Big Ben will find it very difficult to throw against this years Packers because Sam Shields talent allows the Packers to blitz freely or drop extra men into coverage elsewhere.

Wow, what a prognostication this turned out to be. When Sam Shields was out of the game due to injury late in the first half, along with Charles Woodson and Nick Collins being out at the same time, the Steelers attacked that side of the ball. When Shields was back in the game the impact was immediate and outside of a couple plays the Steelers respected Shields cover ability.

• 
  Big Ben is known for shrugging off would be tacklers and creating big plays outside the pocket. And the same thing was said about Michael Vick this year. The Packers played him and beat Vick twice this year, forcing him into being mainly a pocket passer and wrapping up their tackles on him every time. I anticipate the same thing when the Packers get to Big Ben.

Big Ben was forced to stay in the pocket for a lot of the game. He broke containment a couple of times, but once the Packers put Clay Matthews on spy-mode Big Ben was stuck throwing it in normal rhythm. This may sound like a bad thing, but this actually prevented Big Ben from opening up huge plays long after the normal rhythm of a play had ended. Basically, the Packers contained Big Ben, hit him a few times, and wrapped him up when they did get their hands on him.  The didn't "shut him down", but they didn't need to.  Big Ben is average when he can't extend plays.

• Oh and the Packers are missing 14 starter-caliber players to injuries and yet proved they had and still have amazing depth at every position other than running back (which may be changing, see my Starks comments above). Imagine this team next year.

Another beauty of a prognostication considering the Packers lost three starters during the course of the game (and had more starters sit out several plays). IMAGINE THIS TEAM NEXT YEAR!

• My actual prediction? The Packers win by double digits.

OK, the Packers didn't quite make it to a double digit win, but they did lead by 18 at one point. Also, they lead by 11+ point sat half time of every postseason game this year. The Packers may not have had a perfect game, but the first quarter couldn't have gone any better.

See ya'll next year when the Packers attempt to repeat.

#Packers Super Bowl XLV Motivational Video

A Few Thoughts on the Super Bowl

It has been a long time since I last watched the Green Bay Packers in a Super Bowl.  So long in fact, that the last time it happened, most people still liked Brett Favre.  Two teams and three retirements later, Favre is a distant memory.  The Packers have a new ace in town: Aaron Rodgers.  Super Bowl XLV will usher in a new era of Packers football.  By this time tomorrow night, the janitor at the Packers Hall of Fame will be dusting off the pedestal for Lombardi trophy #4 (how ironic).

Overconfident you might say?  No, what would you expect from a Cheeshead?  For me not to be confident that my team is going to win?  Here are some bullet points to chew on:

• The Packers have not trailed by more than 7 points in any game this entire season, including the Playoffs. 
• The Packers lost their six games by a total of 20 points, not losing a single game by more than 4.  
• Of those six losses, most came down to the final play.
• The Packers played one of the toughest schedules this year of any team in the NFL.
• The Packers went ON THE ROAD and beat the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeded teams in the NFC playoffs to advance to the Super Bowl.
• The Steelers probably didn't anticipate the Packers having a running game.  The Steelers are most certainly sleeping on James Starks.  And while James Starks is not the next Barry Sanders, he has shown a spark that no other Packer running back has this year.  He could single handedly break this game wide open running the ball well which will lead to Aaron Rodgers picking apart the Steelers defense with the play action. 
• Unlike last years match up with the Steelers, the Packers have Sam Shields this year, easily one of the top cover corners in the league.  Big Ben will find it very difficult to throw against this years Packers because Sam Shields talent allows the Packers to blitz freely or drop extra men into coverage elsewhere.
• Big Ben is known for shrugging off would be tacklers and creating big plays outside the pocket. And the same thing was said about Michael Vick this year.  The Packers played him and beat Vick twice this year, forcing him into being mainly a pocket passer and wrapping up their tackles on him every time.  I anticipate the same thing when the Packers get to Big Ben.
• Oh and the Packers are missing 14 starter-caliber players to injuries and yet proved they had and still have amazing depth at every position other than running back (which may be changing, see my Starks comments above).  Imagine this team next year.

My actual prediction?  The Packers win by double digits.

Out of steam

I've been out of steam lately and haven't been posting much.  I was planning to do some stuff for all of 2011, but I haven't gotten around to it.  I was thinking about moving to a daily posting schedule.  For example, I'd have like Minecraft Mondays, Indie Tuesdays, What I'm Playing Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday, and maybe even Frisky Friday!

Also, I want to redesign the site layout again.

Any spare time I do have I am dedicating to either Minecraft or the backlog of singleplayer games I have piled up in Steam.  I finished Bioshock 2 and have moved onto The Witcher.  I have Dragon Age and a ton of other games to get to.

I think for the time being I will just go with the flow and see what happens.  I want to get this site back on track at some point.  Hell, I may even get around to mentioning the Packers are in the Super Bowl.

Quick #Minecraft Upate

I don't have access to my home PC currently, so I can't share any pictures of my work in Minecraft, but I did want to give an update.

Work on the SMP (survival multi player) server that I frequent has been going well.  My mountain base has been a solid defensible position against the terrors of the night and I was able to install a really neat secret entrance.  I've also been playing with a neat secret door trick that I plan on implementing for this secret entrance.  However, I showed off my secret door trick to my closest friends who then decided to use my secret test area to build a shrine deep under ground for me to find a spiraling staircase to.  I was not impressed.

Before the secret entrance was constructed, we worked on taking down our monster trap.  It was an eye sore out in the open and we felt we needed some empty space between all of our buildings.  We blew it up with TNT and covered it over.  However, we love to leave leftovers underground so at some point in the future when someone digs up the remains of the project they will have something to think about.  The left overs include redstone wiring, torches, water flows, pressure plates, and ladders.  I filled the lava portion in to prevent forest fires as we planted trees over the spot.

We've been putting time into our minecart system.  I am the main engineer for the cart system and have been building the boosters and stations.  So far we have the main departure station and a 4-track switching station out at what I've dubbed "the cool ass rock formation".  From past experience I've learned that minecart systems can be overly complicated and prone to breaking.  For this iteration of our shared world, I decided to go with simple with room for expansion.

Simple because I am now  using Bleh's door boosters which leave the booster cart static until it is called upon.  This fixed the problem of self resetting boosters that would randomly stop working and require a push start to get going again.  So far it has been far more reliable once I worked the kinks out of the system.  This also reduces the amount of materials and space needed.  It is a single cart and can be fit into a relatively small area. 

The next issue was track switching.  As I am fairly ambitious with this project, I wanted to be able to have multiple switching stations and be able to deploy one rapidly if needed.  However, most of the 4-way track switching designs out there have fairly complex and tricky redstone wiring behind them.  For example: necramar's 4-way track switcher.  Something that complex was just not going to work.

Ironically the answer for simple switching stations came to me by the use of nothing other than SWITCHES and redstone wiring!  The basic concept is this: all switches start in a down position.  Only one switch is switched up (aka ON) and that switch ties to the departure track the player wants to take.  While realistically someone could leave two switches up and exit on a track they didn't intend, I have not run into any problems using my "all switches down except one" method.  And I've come to realize how dead simple and reliable this system is.  Not only that, this design offers a very simple way to expand the switching station to accommodate more tracks and greatly simplifies the deployment of a new switching station.  It was such a success at my first switching station that I've decided to start work putting  a multi-track switcher at the host departure station as well.

The only problem with a massive minecart system is having interesting destinations to cart off to and right now our server has a limited player base and therefore we don't have a lot of great destinations to head out to.  However, soon enough I will be packing my things up to head out and start some satellite projects out of range of our current area and connect them using the minecart system. 

Now inside my actual mountain base I have been doing work as well.  I've tunneled out some of the area above my ceiling and shot a "wing" out through the top of the mountain.  Its a glass and wood tunnel of sorts that covers the span to the next mountain.  Sadly, I have left this project sitting for a week or so now and while the wing is complete, I just have a stack of dirt and ladders currently set to access it.  Its an eye sore I need to correct.

Next, I redid my storage area and labeled all of my chests.  I have a temporary work area underneath the storage area that houses my furnaces and workbench.  I don't like having workbenches and furnaces sitting out in the middle of everything, so I am debating how I want to position them going forward. Its annoying right now having to climb down into my cubby hole to make stuff with the bench. 

I also got around to digging down to bedrock and counting up 15 layers to start my branch mining operation.  Layer 15, for the uninformed, is the richest layer for ore deposits and sits far enough above the lava spawning layers to be safe to work in.  I haven't done much mining up to this point (I actually have yet to get any diamond.  I've found some, but died bringing it home).  The coolest part is that I also took the time to build a water ladder to bedrock as well as a drop shaft with a water break at the bottom.  It takes me a couple seconds to get down and a couple dozen to get back up.  Efficiency!

In conclusion, I am still hopelessly addicted to Minecraft.  The possibilities are truly endless and every time I try and force myself to play some more Bioshock 2 or get started on Dragon Age or Mass Effect, I find myself logged back into Minecraft.  Oh, and I play Minecraft during my breaks and a bit at lunch while at work.  Too bad it doesn't get counted by Raptr currently :(

Asymmetry in game design

I was reading this article over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun about Blight of the Immortals when one of the developers responses struck me as interesting. 

RPS: Hmm. The starting positions for both your games, particular the PvP in Blight, seems uneven. Position, resources – that can all give you a better or worse start. Is that deliberate?

Kyburz: I really love Starcraft but one thing I don’t like about it is that everybody starts on an even playing field. The sides are carefully balanced and each player starts with the same amount of resources and access points.

Most people would say this is absolutely critical, but I would argue that is actually makes that game more difficult and less enjoyable for new players, limits the number of interesting strategies for experienced players, and reduces the amount of player interaction.

As a long time MMOG player, I've had my fair share of arguments about balance.  In the decade I've argued about balance I've landed firmly in the middle.  I want balance, but only if it is asymmetrical.  Like the developer being interviewed, I find the Starcraft approach where both sides start on equal footing uninteresting.

This reminds me a lot about the discussion regarding racial abilities prior to World of Warcraft's launch.  Originally, races (and even classes) were going to have very unique traits.  Taurens were going to have plains running for sprinting over open plains.  Paladins were going to do more damage to undead, including players.  However, Blizzard pulled the plug on this idea and neutered the racial abilities into fairly meaningless afterthoughts; some more worthless than others (anyone that played a Troll or Dwarf at launch know exactly what I mean).

Its one of those "I wonder what it would be like..." moments that I look back on.  How different would WoW have been had the races and some classes kept their unique asymmetrical features?  How critical is this for the Blizzard design mantra: "easy to play, hard to master"?

Back to the interview, the asymmetrical starting resources definitely has me interested in Blight of the Immortals.  I couldn't get into this developer's first game, Neptune's Pride, as it was terribly unfriendly to new players (not challenging, but more just basic explanation of how you even played the game).  If I manage to kick my Minecraft habit (doubtful), I may get around to playing a few games.

#Minecraft: The Monster Trap

From my previous post I got some feedback asking about my monster trap.  Don't want to go into much detail, but here are some pretty pictures.  Ask any questions you have.

Left: Trap on ground and spawn box above.  Right: Loot house.

View from the loot house, spawn box in the background.

Under the loot house is a pressure plate that is wired to the redstone torch on the roof.  When loot activates the pressure plate, it lights up the torch on the roof and I know to go collect.  The cactus is to kill any chickens or pigs that get past the trap (which happens a lot).

This is the trap.  It was poorly planned so the water is not efficient.  Simple really, water flows to lava, lava kills monsters.

Another view of the water flows.  Monsters spawn in the dark spawn box above and there are rivers inside the box that suck the monsters to a hole that drops them down into the trap.