Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Blizzard dropped Diablo 3 profiles today. The profile for

Blizzard dropped Diablo 3 profiles today. The profile for my most recent character, a Barb by the name of Discipline is shotted above.

Here is the profile for my account:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/jdodson-1332/

This is my highest level character, Snuggy Bunny a Witch Doctor:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/jdodson-1332/hero/3331502

Snipped from the D3 site:

"View your heroes’ gear, stats, and skills. How high have you raised your characters’ attributes? What are they wielding in each slot? What are their most prominent gear bonuses? What skills comprise their current build? Nuance awaits you in the Heroes tab.

Track your game progress. How many acts have you... Read All

Tungsten wrote on 08/07/2012 at 03:34pm

Here's mine:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Tungsten-1411/hero/24042013

Not the highest level, but it's my highest HC Character (hence the 13k HP)

hardeyez wrote on 08/07/2012 at 11:45pm

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hardeyez-1191/ with my 2 chars (the DH is mine, the witch dr is my daughter's)

hardeyez wrote on 08/07/2012 at 11:54pm

oh and here's insano chowda's http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/chowda-1109/ he's spent WAY too much time on it... :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2012 at 02:06am

Tungsten: Like how many of your char names are Steaks! :)

Hardeyez: Cool. Looks like we don't create many characters either. I only have 3 and its because I didn't like the Female Barb's voice, rolled a dude.

Tungsten wrote on 08/08/2012 at 09:45pm

I decided to name all of my HC characters after meat. Helps me get into the frame of mind that they could die at any time. Kind of macabre.

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Finished John Carmacks yearly Quakecon keynote today. It

Finished John Carmack's yearly Quakecon keynote today. It comes in a little over 3 hours and is jam packed with information about all things gaming and tech related. The video is linked above and I took notes on the things I felt were interesting.

First part of the keynote he talks about Rage and apologizes for the PC launch.

He talked about Doom 3 BFG Edition and that it will run at 60FPS on consoles and higher on PC.

He wants to Open Source Doom 3 BFG Edition but its unclear if thats possible. Might be able to just release parts of it.

Talked about what part of the Doom 3 codebase has changed. Much is similar in Tech 5.

The rendering engine was improved over... Read All

First part of the keynote he talks about Rage and apologizes for the PC launch.

He talked about Doom 3 BFG Edition and that it will run at 60FPS on consoles and higher on PC.

He wants to Open Source Doom 3 BFG Edition but its unclear if thats possible. Might be able to just release parts of it.

Talked about what part of the Doom 3 codebase has changed. Much is similar in Tech 5.

The rendering engine was improved over time.

Carmack wants to port Doom 3 to the Wii U, Vita and iPhone. Development and time constraints won’t allow it.

Doom 4 will be done when its done, no date to announce.

People felt Rage would be like Borderlands or Fallout 3 and that wasn’t what they were trying to do. People understand Doom, so Doom 4 will be an easier sell.

iD is closing down its mobile development.

Doom 3 BFG Edition is less of a survival horror game and now an action shooter with the recent changes:

They brightened things up.

The flashlight is attached to your gun now.

Less ammo stinginess, more liberal amount of ammo.

He thinks its more fun now and less masochistic as gamers are much less hardcore these day.

Recently he played Super Mario 3 and it was pretty hard, newer games are fun, but not really challenging.

iD games can’t take 6 years to create anymore. Hopefully Doom 4 won’t.

Feels like he has grown a lot in the last year as a software engineer.

NASA’s software engineering reports are not too useful to Carmack.

He is doign much more software engineering stuff like code reviews and helping the team learn best practices.

Carmack thinks Cloud Gaming is the unquestionable future of gaming. When he sees Gabe Newell he tells him this.

Its faster to send a packet over the web to Europe than it is from the back of your computer over a cable to your monitor. He thinks that is wrong and we shouldn’t put up with it.

Carmack is very interested in head mounted displays.

Doom 3 BFG Edition will work with head mounted displays and 3D tvs.

He doesn’t care about Windows 8. XP and 7 are just fine for him.

Here are the rest of the Quakecon panels featuring people from iD, Bethesda and Valve:

http://www.bethblog.com/2012/08/04/quakecon-2012-keynote-panels/

Tungsten wrote on 08/07/2012 at 05:37am

I love that guy. He talks about video games like an engineer. I read an interview with him a while back about voxels and octrees... stuff that I still only half understand. He's a genius, and he devotes that genius to helping me destroy the minions of hell. Sounds like fun to me.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/07/2012 at 05:59am

Yeah, Carmack is awesome and his yearly keynotes are great. This one was especially long which was good.

hardeyez wrote on 08/07/2012 at 11:58pm

That's surprising that they are closing down their mobile development, they made so much money off it (I thought that most of there recent profit was from mobile -- Rage didn't do so hot)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2012 at 02:12am

I heard from Carmack the year earlier that they paid peoples salaries from it? He mentioned that some people can do 20mil+ sales but they didn't. Didn't say it wasn't good sales, just not AAA sales they are used to apparently.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2012 at 02:12am

Rage made money, according to sources I saw it sold maybe a million + units? A few bucks but not a Skyrim.

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I spent far too long on this.

I spent far too long on this.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 05:20am

Thats really cool. Too long? No. Long enough? Yep. ;)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/06/2012 at 12:51pm

It only took about 5 minutes to put it in the CG world, but I did a lot of experimenting with materials, etc in my world first. Then I had a template to go by and it was easy. I am thinking of more ambitious ones now.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 02:24pm

Im thinking of Link.

Tungsten wrote on 08/06/2012 at 07:11pm

Bowser

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 07:18pm

Sweet.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/07/2012 at 12:43am

This: http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2011/07/TerrariaMarioLarge.jpg

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/07/2012 at 01:17am

Wat? Wow people are really creative.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/07/2012 at 03:20am

Yeah, no kidding. That's just insane.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/07/2012 at 05:31am

Link: http://i.imgur.com/BWSwn.png

Not awesome, but turned out ok.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2012 at 03:20am

Well *I* think it's awesome.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/08/2012 at 03:52am

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/25/2014 at 01:02am

Awesome!

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Mindwedge, an indie game company recently released its first

Mindwedge, an indie game company recently released its first game called Monster Minis Extreme Off-Road and I was able to virtually sit down with Dave and ask him a few questions about it all. You can easily snag the demo for Monster Mini's on the website and the full meal deal is available on Beamdog and Desura.

jdodson: What was the inspiration for Monster Mini's?

Dave: For inspiration I look to my creator first. It's my feeling that I can do no greater honor to him than to emulate him by being creative.

But on a more practical level, I think that there were a few influences in play. I really enjoyed off-road ATV as well as off-road truck racing games. One day I was... Read All

I have wanted more major players to port games to Linux for

I have wanted more major players to port games to Linux for years. For along time iD was the only AAA developer that ported its games to Linux. Occasionally other companies would dabble in it but it was largely ignored.

As Windows 8 is nearing release some people are not happy with the direction Microsoft is headed. Gabe Newell recently called Windows 8 a catastrophe and make no secret that they were going to be porting Steam to Linux in response. Valve has stated the first game they are porting to Linux is Left for Dead 2 and have posted an update about it.

Snipped from the Valve blog post:

"After this work, Left 4 Dead 2 is running at 315 FPS on Linux. That the Linux... Read All

Tungsten wrote on 08/04/2012 at 06:08am

...hmmmm... i just started liking windows again, don't do this to me.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/04/2012 at 02:14pm

I'm sure it will still be around :) having choices isnt bad plus I imagine this may be a pre-cursor to a Steam console.

Tungsten wrote on 08/05/2012 at 06:03am

I'm all for a linux based Steam. Actually, if they can pull some more gamers and publishers, maybe linux will finally be used by more than geeks.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/06/2012 at 01:28am

I hope so. Its a fine operating system and after playing the newest humble ports on Linux I am pretty convinced its ready for prime time gaming. Might have been a few years ago, but the UI and such has finally come into its own and its pretty damn good right now. Then again, I am programmer.

hardeyez wrote on 08/08/2012 at 12:17am

Linux FTW! :)

Actually, I've wanted to use linux boot disks with games as a console-like experience for games for a long time. That is, ship a bootable disk that used linux and a linux version to make the game as fast as possible on pc hardware. I pushed at several companies for linux versions -- but it always fell on deaf ears because of the install base, ignoring the fact that you could just tell people to reboot and the game would be MUCH faster... and gamers go to great lengths to eek out more performance. We (as developers) would spend so much time working around and just not being able to control windows at a low-level that it was painful... And those of use who loved being able to code for consoles and eek out every last shred of performance from the machine, LOVED it... Until xbox came around and brought along the windows-isms to consoles (including the painful directx rendering performance). I can't tell you the amount of time I spent lobbying Microsoft for just a couple changes to directx on xbox to vastly improve performance... ah so sad. (I got out of the game before the 360 hit shelves, so maybe they got better there, but I doubt it).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2012 at 02:11am

I remember Gentoo doing something you mention back round 2005 or something. I found a Linux distro for gaming:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linuxgamers

But I remember Gentoo making a bootable CD or DVD with Wolfenstein Enemy Territory that booted from the disc, with the right drivers and such to just play games. I don't remember that is was really popular, but it was something I remember being tried out back in the day. I am not sure if there were any performance gains, I imagine going right off the CD/DVD was kind of a hit right there?

I really notice how much better gaming is on my PC than the PS3. Load times are cut considerably, nicer graphics and the game is just a smidge more responsive. Still, in general the console experience even with a reduced FPS is a bit more polished in the UI.

Anyways, not sure where that last part came from but rad-sauce!

Tungsten wrote on 08/09/2012 at 04:37am

As a side note, which distro are you using now?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/09/2012 at 08:05am

Latest Ubuntu LTS. Server and desktop depending on the context.

MoonWyrd Supporter wrote on 08/09/2012 at 02:32pm

At one time there was a company doing nothing but ports of games to Linux - Loki Entertainment. I played many hours of Civ:CTP on Linux. I think they were ahead of their time sadly.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2012 at 01:22am

Loki was cool. Too bad they folded. A few good things happened from it though, SDL, the Loki installer and Ryan Gordon :)

I have a hunch he is working on Steam and Left 4 Dead 2 for Linux but he hasn't said officially. If I see him at PAX ill ask :)

hardeyez wrote on 08/10/2012 at 01:50am

There is also http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/ but I never actually bought anything off them... (something about their site/messaging/communication that made them feel fly-by-night).

Also Neverwinter Nights (the first version) has a linux version... Not to mention the humble bundles have linux versions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2012 at 02:15am

I played Neverwinter on Linux, it was a good port!

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Sup CheerfulGhosters, Our Terraria server has been a huge

Sup CheerfulGhosters,

Our Terraria server has been a huge success I think. I've had a lot of fun seeing the houses everyone has built and fighting monsters with you guys. And I dunno about you, but I've ended up with a ton of new loot exploring and mining. :D

There's two things I'd like to run past you guys. First up, while exploring the underworld I found the item necessary to spawn the Wall of Flesh boss character (http://wiki.terrariaonline.com/Wall_of_flesh). We have a little over a week left on our server and I think it would be fun to try and kill this thing and put our world into Hardmode before we're done. However, this is not something I'll do unless it's cool... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/03/2012 at 04:20am

I am up for hardmode but I want more people to chime in before we drop the bomb on that one.

Ill just toss out a date and time of next Monday @ 8pm PST.

Tungsten wrote on 08/03/2012 at 05:14am

I'm in for the Eater of Worlds boss. I can't guarantee a time, but I can always try.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/03/2012 at 02:29pm

Thanks to fighting EoW with you a couple nights ago, I have actually fought him about 20 more times in my own personal world (so as not to destroy people's houses with meteor strikes in the CG world). I'm to the point now where I need to start farming hellstone and really build out my endgame gear. So I would be totally cool with doing this soon.

HOWEVER. I would suggest before we take on the wall of flesh, Jon should make a copy of the world as it is right before we do that and send it to all who are interested in keeping it. Since some majorly destructive things can happen post-WoF, it would be nice to have a clean happy world to go to just in case.

As for the EoW, if I'm on for any of those I'll help out to speed things up, and I can make some of the items needed to spawn him too if needed. But as for the loot, I really don't need it. In fact, if you check the "leave a penny, take a penny" chests, I dropped some demonite and shadow scales in there because I literally have no need for them. So I'll join the fight and give away any demonite and shadow scales that I manage to pick up.

WBS, you seem to have the most experience here (I think). What kind of gear do you recommend before jumping to the post-crisis world? I'll work on getting that ready.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/03/2012 at 03:02pm

Hmmm if the wall of flesh could mess up the world in hard mode then maybe we should spawn a few days before the server ends. Ill snapshot it before and afterward.

Also if meteorite strikes happen more, we can add layers of dirt above us to protect from the strikes. That might work.

I am shutting off the server next Friday so lets say we spawn it next Wed the 8th?

Travis Admin wrote on 08/03/2012 at 03:24pm

I'm cool with any time after this weekend, to give me some time to get molten armor and a badass sword. Maybe the one that requires you to destroy all your other badass swords in the process. That's a lot of work, but sounds fun!

Travis Admin wrote on 08/03/2012 at 03:24pm

Beyond loot, everyone should try to get full health and mana before then as well.

Timogorgon Member Post Author wrote on 08/03/2012 at 05:37pm

I think I have the most hours clocked in to Terraria, but most of that was a long time ago before most of this stuff was added. The vast majority of my gear all comes from oir server. So I've never been to a hardmode world before, so I'm new to this as well. As far as gear goes Molten armor is going to be the best defense wise. I think phase blades or grass blades will be the best craftable weapons, but you might be able to find better stuff in the dungeon or underworld. If you can afford it, the minishark gun from the arms dealer is really good and a lot of fun.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/04/2012 at 01:01am

Awesome, then unless anyone objects, lets do the boss Wed eve round 8pm PST. That work for everyone? Maybe bump it earlier if you can't do that Travis?

vdogmr25 wrote on 08/04/2012 at 01:30am

I'm up for Wednesday, but I'll need to hop in at some point for the eater of worlds. I'll probably be on every evening through monday.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/05/2012 at 12:03am

I've been reading up on prep, and I'm going to start preparing the world for the change, if anyone wants to join. Certainly get yourself prepared first. Defeating WoF creates an X in the world, one arm being corruption, the other being hallow, and the two spread VERY fast. In order to halt that we should have a sizable gap all around it. There's still the chance that the X will totally take out our town, in which case this is pointless, but if not we can breath easier.

So when you exit/enter town *BE CAREFUL* because there's going to be a gap. You will fall to your death without a golden horseshoe. I also recommend finding a magic mirror in case you do fall (and have the horseshoe to survive) so you can get back up quickly.

Also, for town itself, I'm going to put a few layers of brick down at ground level just in case the X spawns within the gap. While that won't necessarily stop it, it may give us a little longer to mitigate.

I recommend putting a few essentials in your bank, just in case.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/05/2012 at 06:46am

So I have the 10-block-wide trenches dug all around our important stuff. No light or way to get back up yet, so use caution. I need to see if the corruption/hallow can travel across wooden platforms.

The grounds of our town are now brick to fortify us against the corruption/hallow menace. I also went around every important building/area if it was underground. Stuff above ground *should* be safe, depending on where the X lands. If I missed anything, it's just basic gray brick if you want to add your own fortification.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 01:27am

First off, love the stone around the Village. It really make it feel like more of a cobblestone like area. I really like it.

I also like the HUGE drops now and hollowed area around the village, it gives everything WAY more scale. Does this protect us from corruption? Makes sense that it would, can't travel through air. :)

I am ready for the server drop, someone kindly gave me a few hearts :) and now I am maxed out. Totally love how much time weve all put into the game, it really feels like we have accomplished a lot!

Timogorgon Member Post Author wrote on 08/06/2012 at 05:18pm

Yeah the brick is awesome, it makes our town look really cool. There's a guide to containing the corruption/hallow which can be found here:

http://wiki.terrariaonline.com/Guide:Containing_the_Hallow/Corruption

I don't think containment should be a huge concern outside of our starting village (don't want to wreck our houses) because the server isn't going to be active much longer after hardmode is started.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 05:42pm

Hey all, let's pop the Wall of Flesh / hardmode Thursday at 8p PST. Does that work for everyone?

Travis Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 06:39pm

8 PST is a little late for me. 7 or 7:30 is good if it's manageable for you west-coast types.

Timogorgon Member Post Author wrote on 08/06/2012 at 07:02pm

Normally anything before 8pm is too early for me (kids don't go to bed before 8) but this week they'll be away at summer camp, so I can get on anytime after 6pm PST.

Tungsten wrote on 08/06/2012 at 07:11pm

It might work for me, but it does kind of depend on the kid. I'll try, but don't wait for me.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/06/2012 at 07:18pm

Ok so let's do this Thursday at 6.30pm PST. That work well for everyone?

Travis Admin wrote on 08/07/2012 at 12:42am

That's fantastic for me. Gives us a chance to kill him a bunch if we're so inclined. I can get rid of all my voodoo dolls. And not accidentally spawn him. Not like anyone would ever do anything like that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/07/2012 at 01:16am

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New trailer released for Quakecon 2012 about the new

New trailer released for Quakecon 2012 about the new missions added to Doom 3: BFG edition. I can't wait to go back to the corridors of Doom 3!

Quakecon 2012

To celebrate Quakecon 2012 iD Software & Bethesda are both kicking in to bring you the most kick ass gaming deal of the year folks. For $99 on Steam you get practically all the titles from both studios. But I won't bother you with any more details than the actual games you will get. *Ahem*

Oh right and Dawnguard is now available on Steam for download. Its $20. Yeah so I bothered you with one more detail. Totally worth it.

Quakecon Pack contains:

BRINK
BRINK: Agents of Change
BRINK: Doom/Psycho Combo Pack
BRINK: Fallout/SpecOps Combo Pack
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Commander Keen
DOOM 3
DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
DOOM II
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
... Read All

Dawnguard is out for PC! Get it while its hot! In case

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb57524/elderscrolls/images/8/89/Dawnguard.jpg

Dawnguard is out for PC! Get it while it's hot!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/211720/

In case you missed it during the Steam Summer Sale, the base game is also half off right now, and there are deals on previous Elder Scrolls games as well.

If you've missed out on id games, you can also get a massive pack of every game id and Bethesda have released for cheap!

Been playing a brand new iPhone game called Jurrasic Park

Been playing a brand new iPhone game called Jurrasic Park Builder. Its essentially a My Town 2 or Farmville type freemium game. It follows the same freemium tropes in that you have limited resources, things take time to build and you wait. Like many freemium games you can pay if things progress too slowly.

I picked up the game because I have a special place in my heart for Jurassic Park. In the end the game is fun, but like all other freemium games it won't hold my fancy for long. That said this game is a bit different as it is much faster paced. For instance, I can collect the money from my Dinosaur exhibits much faster and have more than other freemium games(see... Read All Been playing a brand new iPhone game called Jurrasic Park Builder. Its essentially a My Town 2 or Farmville type freemium game. It follows the same freemium tropes in that you have limited resources, things take time to build and you wait. Like many freemium games you can pay if things progress too slowly.

I picked up the game because I have a special place in my heart for Jurassic Park. In the end the game is fun, but like all other freemium games it won't hold my fancy for long. That said this game is a bit different as it is much faster paced. For instance, I can collect the money from my Dinosaur exhibits much faster and have more than other freemium games(see screenshot above for my accumulated game wealth). I guess I could spend it all on shrubs and decorations but I want more Dinosaur exhibits. To that end the game does limit you on getting one exhibit per level so if you want to unlock more you need to grind time or pay.

This game seems to pull a play right out of all the other "freemium waiting games" in that roads seem to be something they want you to think you need, but you don't. For instance, I have a road leading into my park(because I just haven't demolished it yet) but haven't built any others. Many of my exhibits don't have a road, yet the game doesn't penalize me for it. On the flipside, Simcity would p0wn me for such a mis-step.

They just added a new feature that you can use once a day where the "Dinosaurs go Wild!" and they can possibly escape(its the red Jurassic Park logo button in the bottom left). Essentially they just put a count down over the cages and you have to tap it before it fills up. The longer you wait on the timer the more money you get. Haven't seen what happens if I let on of my Dinosaurs escape. "Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."

That all said, the game is fun and its free. If you have an iPhone and want to build up a Dinosaur park, get it. Well that and it helps me check off a bucket list item of raising a pet Triceratops.