Sidekick 3

by | Feb 17, 2006 | Personal

Actual, real pictures this time. Apparently from a developer. Looking pretty good. I’ll be looking to upgrade when they release it. It’s supposed to be released to special pre-order people and also offered to those who have the big extended warrenty plan in July and the general public in August/September.

 

Link

BF2 Patch

by | Feb 14, 2006 | Personal

A little news from the gaming front. EA has put out a community update that says briefly that the next patch (1.2) should be here “shortly”. Originally slated for the begining of this month, it now seems we’ll get the patch by the end of it. The folks over at TotalBF2 have a quick interview up with one of the EA guys talking about the improvements and what we can expect in the future. Here’s a run down of items we should be seeing in this patch:

  • Dolphin Diving is no longer possible
  • Players can no longer jump and shoot at the same time
  • Prone Spamming is now fixed
  • Sprint exploit is now fixed
  • Helicopter now carry 8 missiles rather than 14
  • TV-Guided missile now have a shorter range
  • Damage decreased from M134
  • Hit points on all air vehicles has been reduced
  • AA missile lock has been improved
  • All support kit weapons have been adjusted
  • All Sniper rifles have been adjusted
  • Sa80 has been adjusted
  • G3A3 has been adjusted
  • Reload while sprinting has been enabled
  • Medic defibrillator paddles have been adjusted. They now reload while not in use.
  • SCAR-L reload sound has been fixed
  • Server setting to allow friendly fire to be off on mines without affecting other weapons.
  • Server search filters now work properly
  • Mines can no longer be destroyed with other explosives
  • Bug in MP7 fire rate fixed. Ammo count increased and mag count and damage decreased
  • Flash bang effect radius decreased
  • Added unlocks for Sniper and AT kits
  • Fixed a bug in terrain rendering with night vision, whereby terrain was still dark in dark areas.
  • Fixed a bug whereby mods that are not bf2 or not xpack permutate shaders every time a level is loaded.
  • Fixed a bug whereby non-xpack mods cannot use xpack shaders.
  • Fixed bug in TV guided missiles of Havoc helicopter
  • The LAV25 now no longer shoots through penetrable materials.
  • Vehicles no longer disappear when viewed from some vehicles with a HUD (e.g. Tanks).
  • Performance gain found in static mesh rendering.
  • Detonation radius from grenade launcher explosions has been reduced.
  • Grenade launcher projectiles now have a minimum distance.
  • Fixed bug with capturing a flag from outside of the flag radius.
  • Fixed map selection screen issue on Wetlands
  • Being able to pass through walls using a spinning tank turret has been fixed. It has also been address on all rotating vehicle positions just to be safe.
  • Tanks taking damage from the terrain has been reduced
  • The Red/Blue nametag bug has been addressed
  • The disappearance of tank projectiles and grenade launcher projectiles during online play has been improved and should occur less frequently
  • The distance for throwing hand grenade, ammo packs, and health packs has been increased

There’s a few things in there I’ve been waiting for and should signifigantly impact game play for the better. There’s also a few I disagree with. The top 4 items are welcome changes since they all address aggrivating infantry combat issues. “Jumping while firing” is at the top of MY list and hopefully this will put an end of the endless “bunny hoppers” who jump around like morons thinking they’ll get hit less if they do, all the while, spraying everything in sight with poorly aimed bullets. This is not Quake, please don’t try and rocket jump. Thank you.

The next two issues I’m torn on. Helos now carrying less ammo and those weapons having less distance. First off, let me explain the PROPER roll of a helocopter in combat. It’s job isn’t to fly into a major conflict, spraying the ground with rockets, swoop upwards, turn around, and do it all over again. That A) Doesn’t work very well and B) Leads to far more TKs than nessisary. What a good helo pilot and gunner should do is circle the outskirts of said conflict and take out enemy helos and large armor. That’s what helos are for, anti-armor. They are not anti-personel, or at least, they’re not supposed to be. What most people complain about are “base raping” helos, who sit high above, raining missles below. This will hopefully be resolved with the “AA lock-on improved” bug fix. If AA is improved, I don’t see the need to nurf the power of the helos.

The only other bug fix I’d like to bring up is the grenade launcher change. The “splash damage”  radius has been reduced, which is more than welcome. People would run around with the “noob tube” as people call it, and take aim at the ground below, wall beside or behind a player and fire away. The splash damage was so high that it was pretty much a guaranteed kill, even if you missed by a mile.

Hopefully, all these changes will help with some of the more aggrivating BF2 issues. We’ll see.

Test of DS

by | Feb 7, 2006 | Culture

Quick test of a new Firefox plugin called Deepest Sender. Check it out on the “Extend Firefox Contest” page here:

Link

More fun

by | Feb 6, 2006 | Personal

Quick update of the “media” variety. I added 6 new pictures to Flickr, 4 of which are considered the “newest” and are thus on the Flickr thumbnails below. The pictures are from this years “Lindy Bowl”, a little fun swing dance party thrown by the Houston Swing Dance Society, of which Lauren and I are now card carrying members. Huzah for us. There’s lessons and dancing every Sunday and Sundays of the “Super” variety aren’t an exception. I think I’ve told you guys this before. I hate repeating myself. Anyways, there are some new pictures of Lindy Hop fun for all to see. I also shot a dozen or so videos with my new camera. They’re quite large (800×600, 30fps, SuperFine quality, uncompressed AVIs) so I’m not sure there is an easy way of sharring them. Anyone know a video Flickr? One that will let you upload 500+ megs of video.

Also, in anticipation of the next patch EA Games BROKE the stat system for Battlefield 2, so that 10,000 should be somewhere in the 10,400 range. At least, that’s the damage I laid down this afternoon. A few rounds of Karkland and Sharqi followed by some Special Forces action. Toss in a couple of gold stars, 100pt rounds and a medal or two and you’ve got my typical Monday.

That’s about it gang. Stay tuned for more fun page tweaks and other projects.