Quick shot of my Desktop

for no other reason than I can.. a shot of the windows 10 Tech Preview running on my AMD K10-7700K based machine.

Mister W00Ts guide to droids,

Or "entirely obvious and pointless Star Wars reference goes here."

When you're booking in an android device for testing there's a couple of things to look for that will save you time and hassle.

• Check the apps for mentions of #SU , #SuperSU and Root. If you see it, hand it back to the customer with a nice smile and a wave.
• Have a look at the Kernel Version in the settings | about phone/tablet. If it mentions root, cyanogen or AOSP, do the same.

If you are on test, look up how to get into the recovery and see if it looks like this. If it does, fail it (the icon in the middle there with the top hat is also a give away when it come to the apps menu.)

Other than that, it's pretty much just common sense.

How not to be a dick in pugs.

Here's an idea for you and it's not just limited FFXIV. Getting into a pick up group and expecting it to be some kind of uber speed run is idiotic. As the guys on Aetherite Radio said it's like expecting to grab a dozen people off the street and asking them to fly fighter jets in formation.

If you're in a pickup group in an MMO, leave your elitist self behind and go with it. If you want a speed run get into a premade group. Otherwise own up to the fact that you're going to get new players, people who don't know which way is up, arseholes and no end of "scum and villainy".

Go easy on the new guy, not everyone has been running these dungeons forever. Some people are undergeared and trying to improve. Enough with the "your gear isn't good enough" elitist arseholery.

Hello Eorzea, goodbye Azeroth?

So I have already declared my adoration for Final Fantasy XIV. Unashamed, unabashed and without hesitation.

I'm so bad I'm a legacy player who get the sub cheap, can create up to 40 characters, get a funky mount and early access to the game starting in 11 hours. I even preordered collectors edition of the PS3 version.

Here's the thing, I am not loaded by any means and neither is my wife. We are just like you guys and living to a budget in these wonderful economic boom times. This means something has to give and after 7 glorious years of stomping mobs and bosses in World of Warcraft I am calling it a day, hanging up my Bow and Dragonstalker armour and bidding goodbye to Azeroth.

I have many many good memories of WoW and had gone back for a month or so to see how it still fit, but FFXIV has just about put the nail in the coffin.

I am even starting afresh in Final Fantasy. Level One, Phoenix server, Miquo'te male marauder.

If any of you people who happen to stumble on this blog are going to be in the game and know the name I habitually use feel free to /wave at me if our paths cross

Hello Eorzea my old friend...

I freely admit I am a lunatic. Crazy in the coconut, totally sack of hammers, mad as a box of frogs. I liked the original Final Fantasy XIV. Yes, it was bug ridden, grindy, and a complete pain in the arse to play, but it was visually gorgeous, had aspects that really sucked you in , and the crafting was great fun.

For all of that, it had promise. Lots of promise, and I'm a sucker for promise.

Naoki Yoshida and his crew of developers have done amazing things with the new reworking of FF14, there's enough of the familiar for old timers like me who have had the game since release (I even stumped up for the collectors edition) and enough new toys to have everyone looking around and going "ooh, look at that!" on a regular basis.

The Phase 1 beta had limitations, a level cap, only the city of Gridania was accessible so no sun bathing in the desert city or drinking rum with the pirates in Limsa Lominsa and a few others, but the new features include a large number of features that players of MMOs have come to expect. Quest tracker on screen, hud layout adjustments, macro support etc. There's also separate logs for hunting, gathering and crafting that you can access which is a nice touch.

Visually, the city of Gridania has been almost totally reworked, the layout has cues that make you think "I recognise this" like the large water wheels on a couple of buildings and the street layout is familiar... but it's like returning to your old stomping ground 20 years after you left your home town. The changes are there and are numerous enough to put a fresh new perspective on familiar old locations.



Phase 2 introduced some new things to play with, some extra levels and other fun, but was mostly about stability and stress testing.

Phase 3! And so the NDA is lifted, the Beta is open and away we go! While I dig out my old character from Version 1.0 (yes, we can play them again ) and see what's new... hhave a look at some screenies!

Eorzea

New game syndrome and UI Design.

My wife just said something that made me think.

Her words could be summarised as new or unfamiliar UI design is a barrier to her trying a new game. If she can't recognise major chunks of the UI within the first 5 or so minutes of a game she has a tendency to drop the thing and leave it. Maybe an hour or so later she might go back, but more often than not... if it's an ugly lump o shite... she gone!




Here's a question for you dear reader...




Do you find it possible to get past an ugly UI?

"No Bugger plays 'em!" Part Two. Istaria : Chronicles of the Gifted

On December 5th 2003, I started playing the release version of a game I had been beta testing called "Horizons : Empires of Istaria". It was your generic fantasy sword and spellchuckers kind of game where the "living races" ( players and NPCs) were trying to save the world as they knew it from "The Withered Aegis" (a bunch of undead nasties).

The living races were your usual mix of races; Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Half-Giants, Fiends (blue skin, horns on the head, tails), Saris (cat people! Furries Rejoice!), Sslik (asexual reptilian bipeds), Dryad (Faeries to you and me), Satyr, and as a nice little unique selling point... DRAGONS!

Now when it comes to mechanics, we're talking generic adventure classes that are either spell monkeys or meatshields in the usual combinations (Paladin, Cleric, Warrior, Ranger, Mage etc) but with some nice changes, Chaos Warriors use spells that can either buff them into godlike behemoths that stride the battlefield smiting their foes, or nerf them so hard a naked dryad with a feather duster will 1 shot them depending on luck and the cruel gods.

As a game, poor old Istaria has had a pretty rough time of it, chapter 11 bankruptcy, 3 or 4 different developers (including the almost universally reviled Tulga Games) and a few other hassles including years of almost no new content. Things are looking up though, and it still has some excellent features. I haven't found any other game that has the depth of crafting and adventure classes.



the moon over istaria

Bipeds for example, can be EVERY SINGLE class, and switch just by talking to a trainer. So you can spend DECADES playing this game and not repeat yourself overly much. Players can buy land in the game world and build on it. Indeed, I have my own little piece of Istaria with its scaffolds on it and a Big blue Gothic lookign house on it. Houses are storage, you can also build crafting buildings (forges, storage silos etc.)






My fiend looking towards his plot in Morning Light

Dragons aren't left out either, they get to carve lairs out of hilsides and hang murals on the walls.



Big blue house is blue!

The end game (such as it is) is mainly made up of killing world bosses with names like Fafnir and helping dragons with the epic quests they have to do to firstly become adult and fly, and secondly become ancient and end up one massive scaley beastie.

All in all, Istaria is a bit of a mutant, it's showing its age and the old girl is still kicking along with a decent enough population on its two servers (one RP one not) and it has some issues with content. None of this should put people off from grabbing the client and registering for an account though, you get a 30 day trial for free and if you're willing to just play as a human paly is free completely. It's only when you wish to move on to plot ownership etc that the subscriptions become necessary.

If you want a game that will (once you get past a few rough edges) give you a long long loooong time in game exploring and finding new bits of scenery that even with an ageing engine like Alchemy make you go "wow, that's pretty damn cool". Give Istaria a go, just be prepared to work on your own charatcer yourself and for the love of god DO THE DAMNED TUTORIAL!