#IfWinActive, Path of Exile
SendMode Input
{
F1::
SendInput, 1234
Sleep 20
SendInput, {Esc}
Sleep 20
MouseClick, Left, 960, 482,,Fast
Sleep 20
return
}
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Path of Exile - Autohotkey Logout script
Path of Exile is an insane game. 176 hours since release is saying something for me. Like most ARPGs I play hardcore or I don't play at all. Anyways, an auto logout script to save yourself is quite useful. Of the other versions I've found have bugs in them. Either they're too slow, inaccurate or just don't work. Here's mine:
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
MTGO - Dragon's Maze Prerelease Results
I've been on MTGO all day playing the horrible value prerelease events. What can I say, I'm a sucker for new stuff. Regardless of how many tickets I lost today I've had a blast playing the new set. Though in my haste to begin the fun, i mistakenly bought 20 guildmarks and 1 ticket in my first go around. Yeah oops. Hope they refund me soon, that's quite a bit of money.
Throughout the day I ended up playing in 8 Sealed and 6 draft. My first sealed pool was insane (value wise). Double Voice of the resurgence, foil Ral and some other 4 tix rares. Sold off the foil Ral and double queued my next two sealed. Overall I ended up poorly on the winning side of things. 4-0, 4-0, 3-1, 2-2, 2-2, 3-1, 2-2 and a 3-1 in total. There are some truly broken things you can do with this set that I didn't end up with and got wrecked.
Now on the draft side of things, whoooooo boy I tell ya what. I love funky draft formats and 3x DGM is funky as they come. First off its a small set, so expect 5-10 of your primary common. Secondly gates and gatekeepers are just so much value. I love them all. Check this 3-0 (no game losses) deck. I dub it, "Esper Value.dec"
Yep, this deck was sick. Got passed the Mirko pack 3 pick 3 for some odd reason. The only weak link in the deck was the Woodlot Crawler, it was merely a 2/1 for 2 in every matchup. Rakdos Drakes were insane as were the Ascended Lawmages. There are so few flyers and reach creatures in DGM they just rule the sky. And of course, the gatekeepers. Every time they hit I was getting value, even if it was even just an extra card. Add the singlton Deputy and the black one and you have yourself a solid removal spell. It was pretty fun to pilot this deck.
While I don't recommend 3x DGM ever, it was fun for what it was. It let us see each DGM card in potential matchups and how they play out. Its a great way to learn a new set, especially a small one where you get multiple of every card. Such as my Tithe drinker spell where I got 11, yes, 11 Tithe drinkers. While I lost to the guy with 8 Green Gatekeepers (gain 7 life) and 3 bombs including Tesya, it was still hella fun to play.
All in all, a great day of magic. Even if I lost overall value.
 |
| Buying stuff while half asleep and before caffeine and nicotine is a bad idea. |
Now on the draft side of things, whoooooo boy I tell ya what. I love funky draft formats and 3x DGM is funky as they come. First off its a small set, so expect 5-10 of your primary common. Secondly gates and gatekeepers are just so much value. I love them all. Check this 3-0 (no game losses) deck. I dub it, "Esper Value.dec"
Yep, this deck was sick. Got passed the Mirko pack 3 pick 3 for some odd reason. The only weak link in the deck was the Woodlot Crawler, it was merely a 2/1 for 2 in every matchup. Rakdos Drakes were insane as were the Ascended Lawmages. There are so few flyers and reach creatures in DGM they just rule the sky. And of course, the gatekeepers. Every time they hit I was getting value, even if it was even just an extra card. Add the singlton Deputy and the black one and you have yourself a solid removal spell. It was pretty fun to pilot this deck.
While I don't recommend 3x DGM ever, it was fun for what it was. It let us see each DGM card in potential matchups and how they play out. Its a great way to learn a new set, especially a small one where you get multiple of every card. Such as my Tithe drinker spell where I got 11, yes, 11 Tithe drinkers. While I lost to the guy with 8 Green Gatekeepers (gain 7 life) and 3 bombs including Tesya, it was still hella fun to play.
All in all, a great day of magic. Even if I lost overall value.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Eve - A story of a Misclick
While I haven't mentioned it yet, I play Eve online. I was on reddit today and something reminded me of an event that happened to me once. One of the most memorable moments in my eve career. One of the best and worst engagements I have ever FC'd before. Here is the story.
There was one time we were baiting an overeager new titan pilot into a fight. He had this habit of DDDing lone battleships just for fun, so we used that.
We began by forming up, as always. I picked up about 40 battleships, 30 support ships, 15 cap ships and 2 titans for bridges and possible damage. Plenty for what we were trying to accomplish. Everyone had the utmost confidence in my abilities to pull this off, for I had done this several times before in the past.
We setup the fleet about 7 jumps out from the target system and started the baiting process, and a small cap fleet ready with 2 titans as support. We were going to pwn this guy.
Attempt #1: We tossed in 3 battleships and let them rat in the belts, all with coverts watching them with cynos. About 15 mins into it, he took the bait. We lit the cyno, jumped the BS fleet in and engaged. Sadly he popped the cyno cov ops before we got points on him and we lost a few over eager carriers. In the engagement. (He did have support in the system). So we disengaged and headed back to the staging POS 7 jumps away licking our wounds and posting some battleship killmails we got in the fight.
So we get ready to jump back, and suddenly, one of the cov ops pilots says over comms: "Oops just lit a cyno off the station. Don't use to me!" Then, the Avatar suddenly jumped for no reason.
I as an FC asked, "Uh, where the hell did you just jump to <name withheld> the cyno isn't up yet."
About 30 seconds later I received a phone call, it was the titan pilot. Odd I think to myself, why the hell would he call my phone? So I answer.
"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I JUST JUMPED TO BACK TO THE SYSTEM THEY HAVE POINTS ON ME AND I BROKE MY MIC AND KEYBOARD AHHHHH"
Begin Attempt #2.
At this point every cyno pilot was dead in the system, we had nothing there. Our entire support fleet was 7 jumps away with only 2 cynos left. This was not going to be good. I told everyone in battleships and lower to go as fast as they fucking could back to the system and start targeting support. Had the 2 cynos remaining hold back and wait for the smaller ships to engage.
We rushed back, I don't think I've ever seen a battleship fleet move so fucking fast. Our Cap pilots furiously checking to see if they could jump in and engage. Everyone's heart was racing. Our first cyno made it one jump out with the battleships. They go through, warp to the station and start engaging. It was 7 carriers, one titan and 30 battleships engaging our dumbas... I mean Titan pilot. His shields were down and armor already failing. (It was an avatar fyi). They engaged the tacklers and the cyno jumps into the system.
BOOM! Some random ass roaming fleet was there, not in anyway connected to either side. They just happen to get to that stargate on their little roam. My heart stopped, I could hear the high command yelling at me already for losing a titan. The whole time my dumbass titan pilot was on the phone with me screaming and losing his shit. All I could hear was "HELP HELP HELP HELP" on the phone and "IS the cyno up, is the cyno up, is the cyno up" on TS and "WE NEED BACKUP" from the BS fleet all at the same time. So now, half my support fleet is locked down on the gate from some random roaming fleet. I was stuck with them, unable to give commands in the fight. But I had one shot left. It had to count.
When we began the fleet, I did a quick check of fittings for the BS fleet. When I saw one of our newbros fitted a Cyno to his battleship I almost made him take it off. We had a strict fleet setup at the time and this just wasn't acceptable. He even had medium guns on his mega to fit the cyno. However being a good manager that I am, I allowed him to do it. I told him it was a bad idea and we have fittings for a reason, but to keep it. I wanted to show him why this was a bad idea. He was 8 months fresh, and he was now our only hope to save a dumbass titan from a misclick jump in a failed op that may of gotten me fired from the high command.
I cleared comms. Took a deep breath and asked, "Hey Newbro, where are you exactly?" The seconds it took him to answer me felt like an eternity. The silence was killing me, knowing I was losing numerous battleships and support, knowing the titan pilot was going to die of a heart attack. My game career flashed before my eyes.
"Oh I went the wrong way, I'm at the other gate about to jump in, sorry about that." (little info, the constellation was circular, so he ended up going around 5 jumps and ending up at another gate)]
Other gate? Are you fucking kidding me? My heart started racing. Suddenly the idea that we might actually do this entered my mind.
"Jump in, warp 100 off the station and light that cyno. GO NOW"
Then I heard it, "Hey as I was warping from the gate a huge fleet started landing on the gate". They... went the other way? "Go light that cyno newbro! The rest of the support fleet Jump in and engage anything you can! GO GO GO! Cap fleet, jump as soon as you see the cyno!
Newbro on comms: "Aww I died"
My heart sank again. Even after a high, I get another low. We're out of cynos, 6 more carriers and a dread jumped in time to their doom. I begin calling primaries but the depression of losing hundreds of billions of isk weighed on me. I sighed, started to ignore the pleas for help and begging from my fleet for commands, the cries of pain and destruction as we lose battleship after battleship, carrier after carrier. The cap fleet grew in size during this whole thing. The entire alliance was well aware of what was going on, cyno trains for cap pilots were hot. We had over 100 cap ships ready to jump and engage, ready to destroy this titan (who was still engaged). Our titan was in hull, about to die. Then I saw it.
There, on my raiper. A cyno. I had gotten into the wrong ship. I had gotten into the wrong ship. I HAD GOTTEN INTO THE WRONG SHIP! WOOHOOOOOOO!!
Comms: "I HAVE IT! I HAD A CYNO! JUMP IN 3, 2, 1 JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP!!"
After the battle, the entire TS was a buzz with laughter, sorrow and partying like I've never seen before or since. On the way home tales of valor and awesome mini fights were abound.
We had done it. We killed our target. We saved our titan with 10% hull left. We had destroyed them. A newbro who also took the wrong ship. Those carriers he brought in kept our titan alive and my own dumbness, taking the wrong fucking rapier on the trip.
I'm still not allowed to command a cap fleet to this day.
There was one time we were baiting an overeager new titan pilot into a fight. He had this habit of DDDing lone battleships just for fun, so we used that.
We began by forming up, as always. I picked up about 40 battleships, 30 support ships, 15 cap ships and 2 titans for bridges and possible damage. Plenty for what we were trying to accomplish. Everyone had the utmost confidence in my abilities to pull this off, for I had done this several times before in the past.
We setup the fleet about 7 jumps out from the target system and started the baiting process, and a small cap fleet ready with 2 titans as support. We were going to pwn this guy.
Attempt #1: We tossed in 3 battleships and let them rat in the belts, all with coverts watching them with cynos. About 15 mins into it, he took the bait. We lit the cyno, jumped the BS fleet in and engaged. Sadly he popped the cyno cov ops before we got points on him and we lost a few over eager carriers. In the engagement. (He did have support in the system). So we disengaged and headed back to the staging POS 7 jumps away licking our wounds and posting some battleship killmails we got in the fight.
So we get ready to jump back, and suddenly, one of the cov ops pilots says over comms: "Oops just lit a cyno off the station. Don't use to me!" Then, the Avatar suddenly jumped for no reason.
I as an FC asked, "Uh, where the hell did you just jump to <name withheld> the cyno isn't up yet."
About 30 seconds later I received a phone call, it was the titan pilot. Odd I think to myself, why the hell would he call my phone? So I answer.
"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I JUST JUMPED TO BACK TO THE SYSTEM THEY HAVE POINTS ON ME AND I BROKE MY MIC AND KEYBOARD AHHHHH"
Begin Attempt #2.
At this point every cyno pilot was dead in the system, we had nothing there. Our entire support fleet was 7 jumps away with only 2 cynos left. This was not going to be good. I told everyone in battleships and lower to go as fast as they fucking could back to the system and start targeting support. Had the 2 cynos remaining hold back and wait for the smaller ships to engage.
We rushed back, I don't think I've ever seen a battleship fleet move so fucking fast. Our Cap pilots furiously checking to see if they could jump in and engage. Everyone's heart was racing. Our first cyno made it one jump out with the battleships. They go through, warp to the station and start engaging. It was 7 carriers, one titan and 30 battleships engaging our dumbas... I mean Titan pilot. His shields were down and armor already failing. (It was an avatar fyi). They engaged the tacklers and the cyno jumps into the system.
BOOM! Some random ass roaming fleet was there, not in anyway connected to either side. They just happen to get to that stargate on their little roam. My heart stopped, I could hear the high command yelling at me already for losing a titan. The whole time my dumbass titan pilot was on the phone with me screaming and losing his shit. All I could hear was "HELP HELP HELP HELP" on the phone and "IS the cyno up, is the cyno up, is the cyno up" on TS and "WE NEED BACKUP" from the BS fleet all at the same time. So now, half my support fleet is locked down on the gate from some random roaming fleet. I was stuck with them, unable to give commands in the fight. But I had one shot left. It had to count.
When we began the fleet, I did a quick check of fittings for the BS fleet. When I saw one of our newbros fitted a Cyno to his battleship I almost made him take it off. We had a strict fleet setup at the time and this just wasn't acceptable. He even had medium guns on his mega to fit the cyno. However being a good manager that I am, I allowed him to do it. I told him it was a bad idea and we have fittings for a reason, but to keep it. I wanted to show him why this was a bad idea. He was 8 months fresh, and he was now our only hope to save a dumbass titan from a misclick jump in a failed op that may of gotten me fired from the high command.
I cleared comms. Took a deep breath and asked, "Hey Newbro, where are you exactly?" The seconds it took him to answer me felt like an eternity. The silence was killing me, knowing I was losing numerous battleships and support, knowing the titan pilot was going to die of a heart attack. My game career flashed before my eyes.
"Oh I went the wrong way, I'm at the other gate about to jump in, sorry about that." (little info, the constellation was circular, so he ended up going around 5 jumps and ending up at another gate)]
Other gate? Are you fucking kidding me? My heart started racing. Suddenly the idea that we might actually do this entered my mind.
"Jump in, warp 100 off the station and light that cyno. GO NOW"
Then I heard it, "Hey as I was warping from the gate a huge fleet started landing on the gate". They... went the other way? "Go light that cyno newbro! The rest of the support fleet Jump in and engage anything you can! GO GO GO! Cap fleet, jump as soon as you see the cyno!
Newbro on comms: "Aww I died"
My heart sank again. Even after a high, I get another low. We're out of cynos, 6 more carriers and a dread jumped in time to their doom. I begin calling primaries but the depression of losing hundreds of billions of isk weighed on me. I sighed, started to ignore the pleas for help and begging from my fleet for commands, the cries of pain and destruction as we lose battleship after battleship, carrier after carrier. The cap fleet grew in size during this whole thing. The entire alliance was well aware of what was going on, cyno trains for cap pilots were hot. We had over 100 cap ships ready to jump and engage, ready to destroy this titan (who was still engaged). Our titan was in hull, about to die. Then I saw it.
There, on my raiper. A cyno. I had gotten into the wrong ship. I had gotten into the wrong ship. I HAD GOTTEN INTO THE WRONG SHIP! WOOHOOOOOOO!!
Comms: "I HAVE IT! I HAD A CYNO! JUMP IN 3, 2, 1 JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP!!"
After the battle, the entire TS was a buzz with laughter, sorrow and partying like I've never seen before or since. On the way home tales of valor and awesome mini fights were abound.
We had done it. We killed our target. We saved our titan with 10% hull left. We had destroyed them. A newbro who also took the wrong ship. Those carriers he brought in kept our titan alive and my own dumbness, taking the wrong fucking rapier on the trip.
I'm still not allowed to command a cap fleet to this day.
Dragon's Maze Thoughts - Drafting 5 color or "Not a color" decks.
Is this the best draft format in years? Why I think it will be!!!
Ok, first let me preface this with, I hate GTC-GTC-GTC drafting. Its horrible. The pack runs suck, the cards suck, and aggro only formats suck. Its a suck circle that only sucks more suck while it's sucking on it's own suck. Read my previous blog entries for more. GTC sucks.
However... Dragon's Maze turns the format into pure awesome sauce. Allow me to explain. I've done aprox 30 drafts so far. 7 Paper, and 23 online. While it's not a lot by any means, it's enough to gain a decent grasp on the format. Thus far I've been drafting one strategy. It's what I like to call, "Not X color". For example, "Not Blue", or "Not Red". All 4 other colors are fair game. While this works now, once people figure out the format it will be less good, however it's been doing very well for me.
During Shards of Alara block draft, I developed a 5 color draft strategy. Pack 1, take bombs then mana fixing (most rares, Tower Gargoyle, and the like). Pack 2, take bombs then fixing. Pack 3 go wild. Bloodbraid Elf into Adrent Plea into a hate bear? Yes please. Since Return to Ravnica is similar, I decided to try this approach to the full block.
Pack 1 is the key pack. You'll be fighting for gates, cluestones, bombs and the power commons. Do you take the gate over a bomb? Will you see another gate? Is the guy on your right going to switch to gates next? Can you risk losing a moderate gate for a moderate 5 drop? So far I haven't cemented my pick order. However I will almost always err on the side of caution and take the gate over everything else.
If you pick right, you could easily end up with 9-11 gates and just play everything.
Take this pack for example:
 |
| DGM Example - Pack 1 |
My eye went straight to 3 cards.
- Trostani's Summoner
- Sunspire Gatekeepers
- Gruul Guildgate
Since this is P1P1, I would take my first choice. Trostani's Summoner. This thing is a beast. 10 power for 7 mana is HUGE. The format has slowed down so much that dropping 7 drops is just something you can do without worry. I have never lost a game when I resolved a "Cone of Dudes on a Dude".
If the summoner wasn't in the pack, I would most likely take the Gate first. Sunspire Gatekeepers is the best of the Pillarfield Oxen, making a 2/2 is huge as a bonus, but they typically come back around.
Notion Thief is interesting, but it just ends up being reading: Target Opponent discards a card, you draw a card". The Snare Squad is pretty good, but it puts you in an aggro White based deck, similar to boros. While that is a strategy and I've seen it do good work, that's not what I'm talking about today.
Pack one should just be Gates, Bombs and Gatekeepers. Keep an eye out for the white, black and red gatekeepers. They're the strongest overall. Making a 2/2 to slow down your opponent or make something to populate with is huge. Killing their early drops with the black one, or a post combat trick is pretty good. And the red's act of treason effect can just straight up win games.
The Green Gatekeeper's 7 life effect is pretty huge. If you're going up against a boros/white based aggro deck its a godsend, however against another slow bomb heavy deck that effect is pretty worthless. Pick him up if the gate is missing or you really don't want a cluestone.
Blue's gatekeeper is by far the weakest. Keep in mind I say this as a control player. Drawing a card is great, but not really what you want to be doing with your 4 drop in this format. You really want value out of your gatekeepers.
Pack 2 is pretty fun for you. This is where you pick up some invaluable cards for your deck. The filling if you will. Pick up value cards like good extort creatures, or solid Gruul bloodrushers. Take Prophetic prism's to 'speed up' your deck and fix your mana. Evolve creatures like Cloudfin Raptor become huge in a 5+ drop deck since everything will evolve them. Also the best utility creatures like Greenside Watcher automatically make the cut. You can also pick up some defenders if you feel your deck will be glacially slow since there are quite a few no one else will touch.
Pack 3 is your bread and butter. There are so many great midrange creatures and big fatties. I would focus on the black removal, token makers and fatties. Lots of fatties. Grab midrange creatures like Centaur's Healer and Voidwielder. Ogre Gatecrasher is an autopick if you get the gates pack 1. I typically end up with at least 9 gates by the end of pack 2, so Ogre Gatecrasher is just a 4/4 for 4 mana. Great in any set.
So that's it. Its pretty simple. Pack 1 take fixing and gatekeepers. Pack 2 take utility and fixing, Pack 3 go wild. With this strategy you can build fun decks like this:
 |
| DGM - Example Deck "Not really White" |
Sure it may not look like much. But it has defense to last until the late game, removal to kill off early aggression and 6 and 7 drops to crush the late game
Go go army of indestructible 3/3s!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Dragonmaze first thoughts
So the prerelease is half over. Here are my thoughts so far on the format.
Its slow. I got away with my curve starting at 4 and had almost no issues wrecking aggro decks. The abundance of pillarfield oxen at common with great abilities turns the format into a massive board stall. The white one in particular that makes a 2/2 knight creates a stalled state on its own. The green one's 7 life gives you plenty of breathing room, and the red one's threaten effect will just flat out end games. Drawing a card (blue) and killing another creature (black) are nothing to scoff at either. All of them are absolutely insane and single handily hold down the fort the moment they hit play.
Seven drops are playable. Trolstani's Summoner is by far one of the biggest limited bombs of the set. Creating 10 power on the board with the ability to populate more should almost always be good game. Horncaller's chant? Maindeck. It feels like a slightly faster Rise of the Eldrazi format in this respect. Plenty of ramp, lots of good removal and big fatties.
Overall I feel like the full draft format will be one of the best limited formats we've had in years. It will be slow, methodical and skill intensive. Finally putting the power back into better players hands in a limited format. No more losing to Skullcrack kid because he curved out perfectly and you sputtered. No more, "oops I won".
I look forward to the format.
Its slow. I got away with my curve starting at 4 and had almost no issues wrecking aggro decks. The abundance of pillarfield oxen at common with great abilities turns the format into a massive board stall. The white one in particular that makes a 2/2 knight creates a stalled state on its own. The green one's 7 life gives you plenty of breathing room, and the red one's threaten effect will just flat out end games. Drawing a card (blue) and killing another creature (black) are nothing to scoff at either. All of them are absolutely insane and single handily hold down the fort the moment they hit play.
Seven drops are playable. Trolstani's Summoner is by far one of the biggest limited bombs of the set. Creating 10 power on the board with the ability to populate more should almost always be good game. Horncaller's chant? Maindeck. It feels like a slightly faster Rise of the Eldrazi format in this respect. Plenty of ramp, lots of good removal and big fatties.
Overall I feel like the full draft format will be one of the best limited formats we've had in years. It will be slow, methodical and skill intensive. Finally putting the power back into better players hands in a limited format. No more losing to Skullcrack kid because he curved out perfectly and you sputtered. No more, "oops I won".
I look forward to the format.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Gatecrash: A collision of bad drafting situations.
With Dragon's Maze prereleases happening this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on triple Gatecrash as a draft format. We've had a few months of constant gatecrash, one of the most aggro formats they've printed since triple Zendikar, but issues have cropped up with the format, almost all of them controllable by WoTC.
Heavily aggro formats in general tend to be very bad for limited. When you only get 4-7 turns, the luck factor (1) rises. When you only get to play a game with your starting hand and the top 4-5 cards of your library, game factors like proper curving out and proper answers rises. If you cannot draw an answer for that Wojek Halberdiers or Steppe Lynx you'll just lose to it. This doesn't make for a very fun game in the long run. Triple Gatecrash is one of those formats. Games can play out very quickly and snowball out of control if one person curves out perfectly and the other player struggles to find their fourth land. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it tends to reward luck over play skill in the long run.
When drafting a heavy aggro format like Gatecrash and Zendikar, one of the most important things to do is figure out what color(s) you're drafting as soon as possible. Since your curve is extremely important, you may have to take that Grizzly bear (2/2 for 2) much higher than any other card just to curve out properly. That leads us into the next part.
The common print runs are heavily skewed towards a specific guild. How many times have you seen the following commons in the same pack? Slaughterhorn, Scab-Clan Charger, Crocanura, Ember Beast. More than once? How about Kingpin's Pet, Syndicate of Tithes and Basilica Screecher together? This is an issue with the print runs. These cards are all printed near each other, causing massive headaches for drafters trying to send signals. How can you signal Gruul/Simic isn't open when you take the Croc and pass Slaughterhorn, charger and Beast? Even worse is the Orzhov pack. All three of those cards are first pickable. You just sent a signal to your opponent its wide open by passing two, the traditional signal number, playable cards in that color combo.
When you combine both horrible signal sending and an aggro format you end up with a pretty bad format. Since its an aggro format and signals and curve are so important and you have packs that are so heavily geared towards a single color combination you end up with what we have now. A format where you end up drafting whatever you open (first bomb) and stick to your guns for better or worse. Sadly this just makes the format a cluster fuck from a decent drafter's stand point.
When you have either one of these, a good drafter can work around it. Heavy aggro? Draft on curve over high drops and win on combat math skills. Horrible print runs? Stick to your guns and know the format, sometimes passing a good card for a better card thats on curve and sending a bad signal is worth it.
Such is life I suppose. We'll see what happens when Dragon's Maze comes out.
Heavily aggro formats in general tend to be very bad for limited. When you only get 4-7 turns, the luck factor (1) rises. When you only get to play a game with your starting hand and the top 4-5 cards of your library, game factors like proper curving out and proper answers rises. If you cannot draw an answer for that Wojek Halberdiers or Steppe Lynx you'll just lose to it. This doesn't make for a very fun game in the long run. Triple Gatecrash is one of those formats. Games can play out very quickly and snowball out of control if one person curves out perfectly and the other player struggles to find their fourth land. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it tends to reward luck over play skill in the long run.
When drafting a heavy aggro format like Gatecrash and Zendikar, one of the most important things to do is figure out what color(s) you're drafting as soon as possible. Since your curve is extremely important, you may have to take that Grizzly bear (2/2 for 2) much higher than any other card just to curve out properly. That leads us into the next part.
The common print runs are heavily skewed towards a specific guild. How many times have you seen the following commons in the same pack? Slaughterhorn, Scab-Clan Charger, Crocanura, Ember Beast. More than once? How about Kingpin's Pet, Syndicate of Tithes and Basilica Screecher together? This is an issue with the print runs. These cards are all printed near each other, causing massive headaches for drafters trying to send signals. How can you signal Gruul/Simic isn't open when you take the Croc and pass Slaughterhorn, charger and Beast? Even worse is the Orzhov pack. All three of those cards are first pickable. You just sent a signal to your opponent its wide open by passing two, the traditional signal number, playable cards in that color combo.
When you combine both horrible signal sending and an aggro format you end up with a pretty bad format. Since its an aggro format and signals and curve are so important and you have packs that are so heavily geared towards a single color combination you end up with what we have now. A format where you end up drafting whatever you open (first bomb) and stick to your guns for better or worse. Sadly this just makes the format a cluster fuck from a decent drafter's stand point.
When you have either one of these, a good drafter can work around it. Heavy aggro? Draft on curve over high drops and win on combat math skills. Horrible print runs? Stick to your guns and know the format, sometimes passing a good card for a better card thats on curve and sending a bad signal is worth it.
Such is life I suppose. We'll see what happens when Dragon's Maze comes out.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Reddit musings: A reply about Deep Space 9 and the Prophets
I was browsing /r/startrek and came across a topic that peeked my interest. Someone had finally watched all of Deep Space 9 and enjoyed it. I've always held the notion that DS9 was one of Star Trek's best series. It dealt with the conflict between the utopian Federation and the rest of the universe. It developed characters and races further and better than any Trek prior or since. The dark overtones of the series clashed perfectly with the utopian ideals of the Federation.
In the thread, many people talked about how boring and unnecessary the Prophet episodes were to DS9, and how they seemed jammed in there with no real reason to exist. I made this reply to one person in particular.
The original post I replied to here.
The jist of his post was, "In the end, doesn't it seem like everything was predetermined by the Prophets to happen and that all the decisions by the characters meant nothing?". I disagreed.
Ever watch FlashForward? There was a scene in season 2 I think that talks about [Linchpin Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_analysis#Linchpin_analysis). Thats what I believe the Prophets did, set the ball in motion with limited information (first contact with Sisko) in order to try to make sure the event happened to expand their knowledge.
This is not collaborated with anything but this is my theory:
The Prophets never interacted with the outside prior to meeting the Sisko. They had no concept of linear time, other races or anything else but themselves. They existed only within their spacial anomaly. We know this because in the first encounter the Sisko described linear time, and the Prophets closed the wormhole because 'it damages' them. We know from later episodes people travelled through it, so why not close it then? Their only desire was to learn more about this, and thus Sisko was let go with the promise of returning.
The Prophets then decided to make sure it happened. They desperately wanted to learn about the outside universe, so using their non-linear existence set the linchpins in motion to make sure both Sisko's existence happened and that he returned due to their own lack of understanding of Linear time.
This is where I believe the Pah Wraiths come into play. They have a deep, deep hatred for all things we, the audience sees. They hate linear existence and those in it, and hate the Prophets because they want to explore this universe. In the first meeting with the Prophets, there are many more entities. Many of them are aggressive to Sisko, saying he needs to be destroyed. In subsequent visits, these angry, aggressive thoughts are no longer there. Those were the Pah Wraiths. Perhaps a 'war' of sorts happened and they were cast out, confined to Bajor's fire caves away from the Sisko's time line, or so they thought.
We know from what they've said, and how they act the Prophets are akin to the Q. Omnipresent, incredibly knowledgeable and extremely powerful beings. However since they had no concept of Linear time, they made mistakes, in the episode "The Reckoning" shows it.
There is a battle, between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths coming. We don't when, where or how but its coming. The Bajorian equivalent of armageddon. The Pah-wraiths take their revenge on the Prophets for casting them out and not listening to them about the Sisko being dangerous.
It all comes down to that first contact. Sisko interferes with a people's way of life, and thus changes the course of history, and himself along with it. Sisko violated the Prime directive inadvertently by entering the wormhole. He interfered with the Prophets development (a secluded, and non-warp capable species) and in return, nearly brought down the entire Alpha quadrant because of it.
"*The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.*"
—Jean-Luc Picard, Symbiosis
Before DS9, the prime directive only concerned itself with less developed societies, but never before or since has it touched on what happens when mankind interferes with a more advanced one. DS9's entire story arc revolves around this.
So while boring to watch, the whole Prophet-guidance thing in DS9 was essential to DS9 and Star Trek in general. Nothing was planned by the Prophets, they just set it in motion to make sure they could learn more about the outside universe and linear time, while not understanding it.
TL;DR: The Prophets fucked with time because they had no concept of it.
In the thread, many people talked about how boring and unnecessary the Prophet episodes were to DS9, and how they seemed jammed in there with no real reason to exist. I made this reply to one person in particular.
The original post I replied to here.
The jist of his post was, "In the end, doesn't it seem like everything was predetermined by the Prophets to happen and that all the decisions by the characters meant nothing?". I disagreed.
Ever watch FlashForward? There was a scene in season 2 I think that talks about [Linchpin Theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_analysis#Linchpin_analysis). Thats what I believe the Prophets did, set the ball in motion with limited information (first contact with Sisko) in order to try to make sure the event happened to expand their knowledge.
This is not collaborated with anything but this is my theory:
The Prophets never interacted with the outside prior to meeting the Sisko. They had no concept of linear time, other races or anything else but themselves. They existed only within their spacial anomaly. We know this because in the first encounter the Sisko described linear time, and the Prophets closed the wormhole because 'it damages' them. We know from later episodes people travelled through it, so why not close it then? Their only desire was to learn more about this, and thus Sisko was let go with the promise of returning.
The Prophets then decided to make sure it happened. They desperately wanted to learn about the outside universe, so using their non-linear existence set the linchpins in motion to make sure both Sisko's existence happened and that he returned due to their own lack of understanding of Linear time.
This is where I believe the Pah Wraiths come into play. They have a deep, deep hatred for all things we, the audience sees. They hate linear existence and those in it, and hate the Prophets because they want to explore this universe. In the first meeting with the Prophets, there are many more entities. Many of them are aggressive to Sisko, saying he needs to be destroyed. In subsequent visits, these angry, aggressive thoughts are no longer there. Those were the Pah Wraiths. Perhaps a 'war' of sorts happened and they were cast out, confined to Bajor's fire caves away from the Sisko's time line, or so they thought.
We know from what they've said, and how they act the Prophets are akin to the Q. Omnipresent, incredibly knowledgeable and extremely powerful beings. However since they had no concept of Linear time, they made mistakes, in the episode "The Reckoning" shows it.
There is a battle, between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths coming. We don't when, where or how but its coming. The Bajorian equivalent of armageddon. The Pah-wraiths take their revenge on the Prophets for casting them out and not listening to them about the Sisko being dangerous.
It all comes down to that first contact. Sisko interferes with a people's way of life, and thus changes the course of history, and himself along with it. Sisko violated the Prime directive inadvertently by entering the wormhole. He interfered with the Prophets development (a secluded, and non-warp capable species) and in return, nearly brought down the entire Alpha quadrant because of it.
"*The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.*"
—Jean-Luc Picard, Symbiosis
Before DS9, the prime directive only concerned itself with less developed societies, but never before or since has it touched on what happens when mankind interferes with a more advanced one. DS9's entire story arc revolves around this.
So while boring to watch, the whole Prophet-guidance thing in DS9 was essential to DS9 and Star Trek in general. Nothing was planned by the Prophets, they just set it in motion to make sure they could learn more about the outside universe and linear time, while not understanding it.
TL;DR: The Prophets fucked with time because they had no concept of it.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Going out for the weekend, need to idle. Script + contrab to the rescue!
Just a quick update on the TF2 Idling for Linux project, I haven't done much due to real life expectations. However I whipped up a quick shell script to run idle accounts quickly. Since I'm going out for the weekend, I just setup contrab to run my accounts at specific times. Hopfully this script will be of use to others.
#!/bin/bash
# Start an idle account
clear
echo "*******************************************"
echo "* TF2 Idle Start *"
echo "* Valid Accounts: 1-5 *"
echo "* *"
echo "*******************************************"
case $1 in
1) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password1 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
2) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password2 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
3) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password3 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
4) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password4 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
5) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password5 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
S) su -l tf2server ;;
z) exit 0 ;;
*) echo "Invalid response. Exiting";
esac
My end goal is to have this script setup to automate running the hlds (restarting once a week) and starting and stopping idle accounts. Or perhaps a more user friendly interface, who the hell knows at this point. I'm just happy I can finish idling up this week. Don't forget to fix the paths and add in your username/passwords. Also to run this without the sudo password, you'll have to add arkose to the sudoers file:
sudo nano /etc/sudoers
Under: # User privilege specification, add
cyhawk ALL=NOPASSWD : /usr/bin/arkose
change your username of course. Is this secure? I doubt it, but the machine I idle on isn't very secure to begin with.
I've also noticed memory usage for TF2 in -textmode can be quite varied. I've seen as low as 240mb and as high as 1.7gb. I have no idea why this is, or what resources it could possibly want to balloon up that far. I believe the answer to this will be to run a dedicated server locally and connect to it to combat the high memory usage. The HLDS doesn't use much and if you aren't running as a server memory usage drops down to 200-500mb which is quite acceptable. This should allow scaling of multiple idle accounts much easier. We'll see how this goes (hlds is currently updating again, i'll have results sometime next week)
#!/bin/bash
# Start an idle account
clear
echo "*******************************************"
echo "* TF2 Idle Start *"
echo "* Valid Accounts: 1-5 *"
echo "* *"
echo "*******************************************"
case $1 in
1) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password1 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
2) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password2 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
3) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password3 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
4) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password4 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
5) rm /home/cyhawk/.steam/steam.pid && nice -n 20 sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login login password5 -applaunch 440 -nomouse -textmode -nosound -low -novid -nopreload -noipx -nojoy -sw +sv_lan 1 -maxplayers 2 +map itemtest" ;;
S) su -l tf2server ;;
z) exit 0 ;;
*) echo "Invalid response. Exiting";
esac
My end goal is to have this script setup to automate running the hlds (restarting once a week) and starting and stopping idle accounts. Or perhaps a more user friendly interface, who the hell knows at this point. I'm just happy I can finish idling up this week. Don't forget to fix the paths and add in your username/passwords. Also to run this without the sudo password, you'll have to add arkose to the sudoers file:
sudo nano /etc/sudoers
Under: # User privilege specification, add
cyhawk ALL=NOPASSWD : /usr/bin/arkose
change your username of course. Is this secure? I doubt it, but the machine I idle on isn't very secure to begin with.
I've also noticed memory usage for TF2 in -textmode can be quite varied. I've seen as low as 240mb and as high as 1.7gb. I have no idea why this is, or what resources it could possibly want to balloon up that far. I believe the answer to this will be to run a dedicated server locally and connect to it to combat the high memory usage. The HLDS doesn't use much and if you aren't running as a server memory usage drops down to 200-500mb which is quite acceptable. This should allow scaling of multiple idle accounts much easier. We'll see how this goes (hlds is currently updating again, i'll have results sometime next week)
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Starting a business.
I've been using eCigs for a very long time now. My first 'mod' was an old flashlight, some stripped electronic wire and some cotton I salvaged from cotton balls. That was 8 years ago and eCigarettes have come a LONG way since then.
About 6 months ago, I picked up my first modern eCig, an eGo-T and some eJuice. And I played with it for a while. Then 47 days ago, I made a large order and haven't touched an analog cig since. Hell I even converted a few friends by accident. They just couldn't keep from asking questions and they ended up switching too after seeing my chain-smoking butt fully convert over.
Move forward to two weeks ago. My best friend (He was my first convert) came to be and said, "I have the best idea, lets sell eCigs! Lets start a business!" Now, I have to admit to you, I already wanted to try this on my own, I just didn't have the capital to begin. Now heres my best friend with the exact same idea as me with the sales ability I don't and the money to back it up. Fast forward two weeks, we have a shipment coming in from China, a website (only accepting reservations for the first kit right now) and at LEAST 70 pre-orders for this product. My head is currently spinning on how fast this got up and running.
Dealing with suppliers from China was massively overwhelming at first. The sheer number of suppliers for the same product is just insane. If I want a simple item, theres maybe 200+ companies to buy it from. All of them more than happy to email with quotes. (Also I should note, I now have a separate email address for this purpose. I once went out to play an MTG Draft and came home to 600+ emails. Oops) However one thing was constant. Everyone was incredibly friendly and more than happy to help. If I need my company's logo in 5 places they'll do it. If I want the batteries to be a specific color they're on it. My only complaint is getting a solid price from them. Whenever I search Alibaba for a basic part only a handful of suppliers provide the pricing, and even then its not correct.
I also had to setup a website, http://www.spartanvape.com in case you're wondering, and as of this post its VERY basic since we don't have any products physically in hand yet. Now 14 years ago, I started a business which failed horribly. I was young, I had $$ in my eyes and I surrounded myself with bad people. That aside setting up an eCommerce website was damned simple today compared to 14 years ago. I put maybe a total of 4 hours into the website to do what I needed it to do (just take reservations for now). Last time I did this, it took 9 weeks and 4 companies to get a website up and running. How things have changed. I ended up using Shopify. They may not be the cheapest but damn their admin interface is just... simple. I don't have to fight with anything, I love it.
My head is still spinning to the speed at which this is happening. I love it. I haven't been this excited about anything in many, many years.
About 6 months ago, I picked up my first modern eCig, an eGo-T and some eJuice. And I played with it for a while. Then 47 days ago, I made a large order and haven't touched an analog cig since. Hell I even converted a few friends by accident. They just couldn't keep from asking questions and they ended up switching too after seeing my chain-smoking butt fully convert over.
Move forward to two weeks ago. My best friend (He was my first convert) came to be and said, "I have the best idea, lets sell eCigs! Lets start a business!" Now, I have to admit to you, I already wanted to try this on my own, I just didn't have the capital to begin. Now heres my best friend with the exact same idea as me with the sales ability I don't and the money to back it up. Fast forward two weeks, we have a shipment coming in from China, a website (only accepting reservations for the first kit right now) and at LEAST 70 pre-orders for this product. My head is currently spinning on how fast this got up and running.
Dealing with suppliers from China was massively overwhelming at first. The sheer number of suppliers for the same product is just insane. If I want a simple item, theres maybe 200+ companies to buy it from. All of them more than happy to email with quotes. (Also I should note, I now have a separate email address for this purpose. I once went out to play an MTG Draft and came home to 600+ emails. Oops) However one thing was constant. Everyone was incredibly friendly and more than happy to help. If I need my company's logo in 5 places they'll do it. If I want the batteries to be a specific color they're on it. My only complaint is getting a solid price from them. Whenever I search Alibaba for a basic part only a handful of suppliers provide the pricing, and even then its not correct.
I also had to setup a website, http://www.spartanvape.com in case you're wondering, and as of this post its VERY basic since we don't have any products physically in hand yet. Now 14 years ago, I started a business which failed horribly. I was young, I had $$ in my eyes and I surrounded myself with bad people. That aside setting up an eCommerce website was damned simple today compared to 14 years ago. I put maybe a total of 4 hours into the website to do what I needed it to do (just take reservations for now). Last time I did this, it took 9 weeks and 4 companies to get a website up and running. How things have changed. I ended up using Shopify. They may not be the cheapest but damn their admin interface is just... simple. I don't have to fight with anything, I love it.
My head is still spinning to the speed at which this is happening. I love it. I haven't been this excited about anything in many, many years.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Linux TF2 Idling - Minor, scratch that major victory today!
Its 8am and I've been awake for far too long. However in my hazed state I found the missing component to getting TF2 idling working in Linux with Arkose. While reading and rereading stgrabber's blog (the developer of Arkose) I realized I may have to give the device access to the video card to properly work. So I did, and it didn't work. After some fiddling around on a whim I tried giving it access to both /dev/nvidia* devices and... it worked! I had two copies of TF2 running at the same time on two different accounts.
I can now start Steam/TF2 within an Arkose container with the following command:
sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login username password --applaunch 440"
and it will launch steam and TF2 in a container! Woohoo! Of course I was also having the issue of steam failing to launch again once a copy was running. While writing this it came to me that the only way for steam to know it was already running is with a simple file check. So I dove into the ~/.steam directory and found the steam.pid file. Removing that prior to launching another copy in arkose will allow steam to run again. I have no idea what the effect of removing the steam.pid file will do however, that bares some investigation.
Well, that would be the hard part done (getting multiple copies working). Next step, write a shell script to get this baby point and click! Maybe even a simple GTK application Then become famous! Well maybe not that last step...
I can now start Steam/TF2 within an Arkose container with the following command:
sudo arkose -h --device /dev/nvidiactl --device /dev/nvidia0 "steam -login username password --applaunch 440"
and it will launch steam and TF2 in a container! Woohoo! Of course I was also having the issue of steam failing to launch again once a copy was running. While writing this it came to me that the only way for steam to know it was already running is with a simple file check. So I dove into the ~/.steam directory and found the steam.pid file. Removing that prior to launching another copy in arkose will allow steam to run again. I have no idea what the effect of removing the steam.pid file will do however, that bares some investigation.
Well, that would be the hard part done (getting multiple copies working). Next step, write a shell script to get this baby point and click! Maybe even a simple GTK application Then become famous! Well maybe not that last step...
 |
| Yup, I did it. Thats 3 copies running =) |
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Setting up Cockatrice in Ubuntu 12.10
UPDATE 3/5/2013:
Seems Hasbro has sent their ever famous legal threats to the Cockatrice team. Horrible timing I might add. However you can still download the source and setup a private server, of which I won't elaborate on here. You can find the final snapshot of the git hub tree on reddit here.
Thanks to Adrian for the information, I would of missed the reddit post due to my vacation.
I love Cockatrice. It is one of the best testing programs (without owning any cards) out there. Together with Skype and some friends this is the best testing option outside of high-end proxies. There's something to be said about testing with actual cards instead of sharpied lands.
However installing the Linux port is not as simple as apt-get install cockatrice. So lets get started. For this is a very quick tutorial and I'm going to assume you know at least some basics of Linux, specifically how to use the terminal and basic file structure. If you're really new, just open a terminal and copy/paste these commands in one at a time. Enter your admin password when asked.
sudo apt-get install git
git clone git://github.com/mbruker/Cockatrice.git
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools
sudo apt-get install libprotobuf-dev
sudo apt-get install qtmobility-dev
cd Cockatrice
mkdir build
cmake ..
sudo make install
Seems Hasbro has sent their ever famous legal threats to the Cockatrice team. Horrible timing I might add. However you can still download the source and setup a private server, of which I won't elaborate on here. You can find the final snapshot of the git hub tree on reddit here.
Thanks to Adrian for the information, I would of missed the reddit post due to my vacation.
I love Cockatrice. It is one of the best testing programs (without owning any cards) out there. Together with Skype and some friends this is the best testing option outside of high-end proxies. There's something to be said about testing with actual cards instead of sharpied lands.
However installing the Linux port is not as simple as apt-get install cockatrice. So lets get started. For this is a very quick tutorial and I'm going to assume you know at least some basics of Linux, specifically how to use the terminal and basic file structure. If you're really new, just open a terminal and copy/paste these commands in one at a time. Enter your admin password when asked.
sudo apt-get install git
git clone git://github.com/mbruker/Cockatrice.git
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools
sudo apt-get install libprotobuf-dev
sudo apt-get install qtmobility-dev
cd Cockatrice
mkdir build
cmake ..
sudo make install
Everything should go fine. Every package is in the Ubuntu repositories, its quite seamless. Cockatrice installs three programs needed. The first is the obvious `cockatrice` which starts the program. The second is `oracle` which downloads and setups the card images. Run this first and update your card database. The third is `servatrice` which I haven't delved into yet, but it allows you to start a private Cockatrice server. Both the main program and the Oracle database utility show up in app launcher as well!
 |
| Cockatrice running in Ubuntu 12.10 (Gnome3 desktop) |
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Getting MTGO to work in VMWare
I'm no stranger to virtual machines. However this minor issue had me up in arms for a while.
Since moving over to Linux full time, I realized the one piece of software I really need is MTGO. (Magic the Gathering: Online). It sadly does not run in wine as it once did. So, I go to my universal backup plan Virtual machines!
So I install a fresh copy of WinXP Pro, disable a couple of services to speed up operation and proceed to install MTGO ('Classic' now that the beta is open). Everything goes fine until I start up, it crashes.
Eh? Some googling revealed others with the same issues, mostly mac users with fusion (I suppose the Linux crowd doesn't really play MTG) but no solutions. Diving into the error codes with other games, I figured out the issue. Actually two issues.
.Net 2.0 is required. It seems the version the MTGO installer installs for you is incorrect. So I downloaded .net 2.0's installer (which oddly claimed to be the SDK, whatever floats its boat) and ran it.
DirectX 9c is required: Another odd one, since I ran windows update as soon as I installed WinXP, and directX did get installed. So I downloaded it again and reinstalled it from Microsoft's website here.
Once both of those were in, mtgo loaded up flawlessly. No restart required.
TL;DR:
.net 2.0 from here.
DirectX From here.
Install both, will work.
I think I'll support Wizard's new client more now simply because the guys who have the contract now are idiots.
Also I should mention Unity mode does not work unless you start MTGO in Unity mode. MTGO will claim the number of monitors has changed (yeah right, like it supports multiple monitors) and force closes. Now if they could just release a native client for Linux....
Since moving over to Linux full time, I realized the one piece of software I really need is MTGO. (Magic the Gathering: Online). It sadly does not run in wine as it once did. So, I go to my universal backup plan Virtual machines!
So I install a fresh copy of WinXP Pro, disable a couple of services to speed up operation and proceed to install MTGO ('Classic' now that the beta is open). Everything goes fine until I start up, it crashes.
Eh? Some googling revealed others with the same issues, mostly mac users with fusion (I suppose the Linux crowd doesn't really play MTG) but no solutions. Diving into the error codes with other games, I figured out the issue. Actually two issues.
.Net 2.0 is required. It seems the version the MTGO installer installs for you is incorrect. So I downloaded .net 2.0's installer (which oddly claimed to be the SDK, whatever floats its boat) and ran it.
DirectX 9c is required: Another odd one, since I ran windows update as soon as I installed WinXP, and directX did get installed. So I downloaded it again and reinstalled it from Microsoft's website here.
Once both of those were in, mtgo loaded up flawlessly. No restart required.
TL;DR:
.net 2.0 from here.
DirectX From here.
Install both, will work.
I think I'll support Wizard's new client more now simply because the guys who have the contract now are idiots.
Also I should mention Unity mode does not work unless you start MTGO in Unity mode. MTGO will claim the number of monitors has changed (yeah right, like it supports multiple monitors) and force closes. Now if they could just release a native client for Linux....
Friday, February 15, 2013
Ubuntu 12.10 - Steps backwards
With the release of Steam for Linux and the decline of my own video game playing (I seriously haven't touched a game in almost 5 months now) I decided to switch to Linux for my primary everyday desktop. This isn't a new thing for me, I've used Linux/Ubuntu/Debian for many years now. However today marks the day I make the final switch for my primary desktop. Games have always held me back, Steam for Linux solves this. Since I primarily watch Twitch/TV and play MTGO (already in a VM I might add) I really have no more uses for Windows.
To date I haven't really used Ubuntu since the great Unity fiasco. My laptop will continue to use 10.04 until it dies since the damned thing works. I've toyed with it in VMs for specific purposes and a server runs 12.04 with Unity for a friend but I hardly ever go into the GUI in that machine.
So I happily install Ubuntu deleting my now useless Windows 7 Partition.
First problem: Install failed. The hell? Just clicked next on the first screen and it froze. Ok, odd, since I couldn't get it to restart (tried killing all processes, restarting X, etc) I rebooted and tried again. This time it worked.
Second Problem: Grub installed to the wrong drive. In my nearly 20 years of BSD/Linux I have never run into this before from a major distro. Luckily I know how to install grub in other ways.
Third Problem: nvidia-current broke Unity. SERIOUSLY?!? Do you people not test these things? All I did was update the system, installed nvidia-current, rebooted and.... No unity. I.. I.. I have no words for this. This is just damned sloppy. I expect this from some student project distro not THE major Linux distro for the masses. Googling this issue has brought up a plethora of issues from everyone, including ATI users reporting the same issue. Every fix requires manually installing Linux headers. Why aren't these things now included in the main install by now? I swear Ubuntu has been the only distro to consistently not include the headers. With a new influx of Linux users coming specifically for Steam this seems like a pretty damned important thing to have working.
Fourth Problem: Multi-Monitor support still flawed. While it has been getting better, there are some minor things I've gotten acustomed to from Windows. The lack of duplicating the start bar/Unity Bar on every display (I have 9 displays.. eve player.. I don't need to see it 9 times). Even dropping down to 3 displays yields the same annoyance. I also watch twitch/VLC a lot in a secondary monitor, yet It can't remain full screen if I want to do something else? Shit, Microsoft added this in Windows XP SP1. You'd think people would use multiple monitors by now in the FOSS world by now. Googling for fixes yields HEX EDITING!?? Well, guess I'll watch all my videos in a VM.
Fifth Problem: Steam doesn't install from the software Center with an unknown error. *facepalm* Just *facepalm*
Props to both Spotify and Chrome. Both installs were flawless and my two primarily used programs. Love you guys, don't change.
I haven't had this many problems with a fresh install of Linux in years. Oh and Unity is ugly.
To date I haven't really used Ubuntu since the great Unity fiasco. My laptop will continue to use 10.04 until it dies since the damned thing works. I've toyed with it in VMs for specific purposes and a server runs 12.04 with Unity for a friend but I hardly ever go into the GUI in that machine.
So I happily install Ubuntu deleting my now useless Windows 7 Partition.
First problem: Install failed. The hell? Just clicked next on the first screen and it froze. Ok, odd, since I couldn't get it to restart (tried killing all processes, restarting X, etc) I rebooted and tried again. This time it worked.
Second Problem: Grub installed to the wrong drive. In my nearly 20 years of BSD/Linux I have never run into this before from a major distro. Luckily I know how to install grub in other ways.
Third Problem: nvidia-current broke Unity. SERIOUSLY?!? Do you people not test these things? All I did was update the system, installed nvidia-current, rebooted and.... No unity. I.. I.. I have no words for this. This is just damned sloppy. I expect this from some student project distro not THE major Linux distro for the masses. Googling this issue has brought up a plethora of issues from everyone, including ATI users reporting the same issue. Every fix requires manually installing Linux headers. Why aren't these things now included in the main install by now? I swear Ubuntu has been the only distro to consistently not include the headers. With a new influx of Linux users coming specifically for Steam this seems like a pretty damned important thing to have working.
Fourth Problem: Multi-Monitor support still flawed. While it has been getting better, there are some minor things I've gotten acustomed to from Windows. The lack of duplicating the start bar/Unity Bar on every display (I have 9 displays.. eve player.. I don't need to see it 9 times). Even dropping down to 3 displays yields the same annoyance. I also watch twitch/VLC a lot in a secondary monitor, yet It can't remain full screen if I want to do something else? Shit, Microsoft added this in Windows XP SP1. You'd think people would use multiple monitors by now in the FOSS world by now. Googling for fixes yields HEX EDITING!?? Well, guess I'll watch all my videos in a VM.
Fifth Problem: Steam doesn't install from the software Center with an unknown error. *facepalm* Just *facepalm*
Props to both Spotify and Chrome. Both installs were flawless and my two primarily used programs. Love you guys, don't change.
I haven't had this many problems with a fresh install of Linux in years. Oh and Unity is ugly.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Gatecrash Prerelease - Boros NO REMORSE
10am, Friday, Feburary 08, 2013. Gatecrash has been released on MTGO!
In the weeks leading up to today I've been at my local store every day drafting Gatecrash. I was even able to get in 5 sealed events at the prerelease. Its time to crush some people.
Queues went up and I instantly jumped in with my Boros emblem and this is what I got:
Not too bad. A touch light on creatures, I'd prefer two more for battalion to trigger more often. I also made a slight mistake when I submitted, I end up sideboarding out Ripscale (6 drop) and one Scorchwalker (5 drop) for a Knight Watch and Nav Squad Commandos. Its very minor but I can feel the difference in longer games. Not that this deck gets to the longer game very often.
The crown jewels are the double Wojek Halberdiers and triple Madcap Skills. Round 2 and 3 were variations of small dudes and Madcap skills and smashing face. For reference, here is my round 3 opponent during game 2:
Yeah, thats not fair.
On the sad side of things I opened nothing of value. I'll be lucky to see the two Primordials I picked up for 2 tix total and Firemane Angel is a WHOLE 6 cents! Oooooo. Kind of sad since the paper prerelease I opened a Firemane Angel every event and the store (Channelfireball) was buying at $10/each. Kept me going.
A quick breakdown of the event:
Round 1:
Played against a Gruul splash Boros pool. Made a few "I just woke up" mistakes like swinging a Wojek with Madcap into two guys and forgetting Smite won't kill the other guy he blocked with. Oops. He got a game off me with triple bloodrushing a guy and killing me out of nowhere. Game 2 and 3 were easy, just madcap and win.
Round 2:
Played against the lucksack Orzhov pool. Game 1 he dropped a foil ghost dad (aka Obzedat, Ghost Council) I laughed and said, "Nice Pull sir." he responded by saying, "I have two of them." Oh its on.
Proceeded to finally kill off Ghost dad #1, which he responded to dropping the second one. Game 2 and 3 I curved out with fliers and madcaps and a quick Ariel Maneuver to take out what he thought was a safe attack. Game 3 I curved out and crushed him with Wojeks.
Round 3:
I feel bad for this opponent. Game 1 went like this: Turn 1 Boros Elite, Turn 2 Bomber, Turn 3, Wojek, Turn Madcap, Madcap win. He was mana screwed. Game 2 is highlighted above.
So on to round 4. As I finish this post theres still only 3 games done, and one was a BYE.
I may end up defecting from the Dimir after this event.
Edit:
Round 4:
Boros Mirror. He goes turn 1 Boros Elite, I call with a Boros Elite. Its going to be one of those games.
Round 2 is the fun one. I keep a slowish hand with Elite, Skyjak and double red removal. Jocky around for position for a few turns and he drops fireman angel. Ut oh. I top deck Act of Treason. Proceed to Act of Treason his Firemane angel and attack with 3 guys and kill the angel with its own trigger.
Yep, Act of Treason Firemane to kill itself. Its a thing.
4-0
In the weeks leading up to today I've been at my local store every day drafting Gatecrash. I was even able to get in 5 sealed events at the prerelease. Its time to crush some people.
Queues went up and I instantly jumped in with my Boros emblem and this is what I got:
 |
| Gatecrash Prerelease #1 - Deck & Sideboard |
The crown jewels are the double Wojek Halberdiers and triple Madcap Skills. Round 2 and 3 were variations of small dudes and Madcap skills and smashing face. For reference, here is my round 3 opponent during game 2:
 |
| Round 3 - Game 2 |
On the sad side of things I opened nothing of value. I'll be lucky to see the two Primordials I picked up for 2 tix total and Firemane Angel is a WHOLE 6 cents! Oooooo. Kind of sad since the paper prerelease I opened a Firemane Angel every event and the store (Channelfireball) was buying at $10/each. Kept me going.
A quick breakdown of the event:
Round 1:
Played against a Gruul splash Boros pool. Made a few "I just woke up" mistakes like swinging a Wojek with Madcap into two guys and forgetting Smite won't kill the other guy he blocked with. Oops. He got a game off me with triple bloodrushing a guy and killing me out of nowhere. Game 2 and 3 were easy, just madcap and win.
Round 2:
Played against the lucksack Orzhov pool. Game 1 he dropped a foil ghost dad (aka Obzedat, Ghost Council) I laughed and said, "Nice Pull sir." he responded by saying, "I have two of them." Oh its on.
Proceeded to finally kill off Ghost dad #1, which he responded to dropping the second one. Game 2 and 3 I curved out with fliers and madcaps and a quick Ariel Maneuver to take out what he thought was a safe attack. Game 3 I curved out and crushed him with Wojeks.
Round 3:
I feel bad for this opponent. Game 1 went like this: Turn 1 Boros Elite, Turn 2 Bomber, Turn 3, Wojek, Turn Madcap, Madcap win. He was mana screwed. Game 2 is highlighted above.
So on to round 4. As I finish this post theres still only 3 games done, and one was a BYE.
I may end up defecting from the Dimir after this event.
Edit:
Round 4:
Boros Mirror. He goes turn 1 Boros Elite, I call with a Boros Elite. Its going to be one of those games.
Round 2 is the fun one. I keep a slowish hand with Elite, Skyjak and double red removal. Jocky around for position for a few turns and he drops fireman angel. Ut oh. I top deck Act of Treason. Proceed to Act of Treason his Firemane angel and attack with 3 guys and kill the angel with its own trigger.
Yep, Act of Treason Firemane to kill itself. Its a thing.
4-0
Friday, January 25, 2013
Gatecrash Prerelease Haiku
The Simic Evolve
The Gruul are Aggressive
I had no mana.
- Gatecrash Prerelease Haiku
Friday, January 4, 2013
Re: Google Haters.
I was just reading a thread on Reddit, the Google hate was strong today. The TL;DR of this is, if you don't like Google, fuck you. Google has enriched my life and changed it for the better. If you don't like that they sell your information, don't use them. Nothing is free.
-----
Here is why I love Google. They made my life easier.
Before Gmail, email was an issue. Hotmail/Yahoo and other free providers sucked and still do. ISP email addresses could easily disappear if I moved or changed providers. Email was a fucking nightmare. Then came gmail. I've been using it for 8 years, it hasn't changed, my emails are still there. I no longer worry about losing important information because I moved, or lost a hard drive.
Then came Google Docs. Allowing me to store important documents forever. Another major improvement to my life. Now I don't have to rebuild my, for example, Resume every time. I can just load up an old one, anywhere, anytime on any device. This one feature just got me an interview recently. I was talking to someone about work/IT and he asked me for my Resume. Of course I don't carry paper resumes with me at all times so I loaded it up on my phone and showed it to him, then emailed it to him right there.
Next major improvement: Android. Fuck I love Android. Smart Phones are the way of the future. We now have the entire sum of human intelligence and knowledge at our finger tips, and now it fits into your pocket. Android paves the way for this, and Google gives it out for free.
Before all this was the search engine. Say what you will, but prior to Google, searching for a topic in Yahoo/Altavista/etc was a bitch. First time I used Google, I got my answer in one go. Done. No random searching, no going through linkfarms that looked right on the search page, etc. Fucking done. I haven't looked back since.
What else has Google given us?
* Chrome - Great Browser, saves Bookmarks (omg, this is a beautiful feature. This alone made me switch. The speed of the browser made me stay)
* Google Earth/Maps - Best Mapping software out there. I doubt many people remember GPS without Google Maps. Lets just say ending up on a dead end road wasn't a rare event, or a road that goes into a river.
* Google Music - I personally don't use it much (Spotify fits my needs right now) But its a great music delivery system. Also uploading your own MP3s? WHO DOES THAT?
* Google Voice - Hmm, generating a phone number on the fly and forwarding it to my cell? For Free? This has been a Boon in many ways, most notably for me Craigslist. (You get more replies if you have a phone number) This is just the tip of the iceberg
* Youtube - Cats in Socks? Ok. Anything else I want to see? Its there. Nothing has ever existed quite like Youtube.
* Google Calendar - Professional level Calendar available on almost any device? This one thing has been a great improvement in my life as well. "Where was I on the night of Dec. 12th 2008? Well let me check and see officer." (exaggeration sure, but knowing where I was years ago come up more than one, Google Calendar saved my ass every time)
I'm sorry. No single company has improved more of my Life more than Google has in the past 10 years. To risk sounding like a iTard, It just works. I never have to worry when a piece of hardware dies if I can save my Bookmarks, or my Emails, or my Documents. Just reinstalled Windows, SHIT forgot to back up X. It hasn't happened since Google came into my life.
People want to bitch about Google's privacy and they sell your data, well guess what. Every fucking company does it. You think they give this stuff out for free? Everything costs money in this world, even if we don't believe it should. Don't like it, use something else.
So thank you Google. You have made my life easier, you have enriched my life by providing great services, entertainment and a worry-free computer using existence. Thank you.
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