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DIABLO 3 » Onto Nightmare mode
Posted by Roguey on Monday 28th May, 2012     0 comments

A bit ago I was a little worried that Diablo 3 was a bit easy. However by around act 4 in normal the game did start to get a lot tougher: I was getting killed a few times.

Now I am on Nightmare mode (where you go around again but with harder monsters and better items drop) and I'm getting some good battles, although having to be careful as some monsters put out some massive damage. I remember one skeleton guy with large axe charging it up, and then doing over 4,000 damage! I also seem to have problems with molten guys too (usually forget about their little parting gift, doh).



Now I had a bit more time with the level system, I can understand how they done a few things. I do like the idea about unlocking a skill per level, as this allows you to change at any time. In Diablo 2 you would pick a skill, then that was it. This meant if you built your character badly, then you have to restart the whole game (no way to get back your skill points). However I would still like some way of boosting skills, like Guildwards. I feel the skill system has probably been dumbed down too much. I prefer Guildwars approach: skills belong to attribute (ie. Fire magic, strength, spawning power etc.). You are given a set amount of points, where you can assign them where you want (and can move them any-time in towns/outposts).

However I do feel that the attributes points in Diablo 3 should be assignable. Then we have some way of making our characters more customized, and levelling more important. Atm, levelling doesn’t feel all that important.

Diablo 3 dif. a very addictive game!

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DIABLO 3 » Further in, now at level 20
Posted by Roguey on Sunday 20th May, 2012     0 comments

I am now a bit further into Diablo 3, at act two and being level 20 Demon Hunter. So I had a bit more time to get used to the game and its mechanics now.

My only real gripe so far is with levelling system, as it kind-of does everything itself now. In Diablo 2, you would gain 1 skill point and like 15 attribute points (to place where you like). However in Diablo 3, skills are simply unlocked at certain levels (ie. No skill points to boost skills, so skills don't really improve per level) and attribute points are automatically assigned. Whilst automatically assigning attribute points means that you can't put a load of points in the wrong place, equally means you have less freedom on how you develop your character. You may want to focus on say boosting your health, or increasing strength/dexterity for more damage. However this isn't possible in Diablo 3.



I'm not sure if it's me, however so far the game hasn't been too hard - although it does seem to be increasing in difficulty somewhat. I guess Blizzard didn't want to make the game too hard to start with, as it may put off new players. I do hope it does get a bit harder, as so far ive had just 1 death, which was mostly my own fault: running after a treasure bandit, into a horde of monsters. D'oh!

I am staying solo for now, as playing cooperative online many people skip through all the text/speech, which I want to read/listen to so I get the idea of what's going on. For me I like knowing what's happening with the story, rather than just running around hitting monsters. I guess I'll get around to playing with others online, but for now quite happy to play solo.



Now some good things ive noticed: Ive only played cooperative for a very short amount of time, but the first thing is loot is now dropped for each player, rather than a free-for-all. In Diablo 2 people would stand very close to a boss, so they could grab drops for themselves. This was a bit silly, as some characters were forced to stand right next to a boss just before the kill. Now with loot for each, this is no longer the case.. To be honest I would have expected such a thing nowadays although.

I do like how the weapon stats are now shown by damage per second, rather than just showing the damage (like in Diablo 2). This gives you a much better idea how good a weapon is, without having to try and work it out. . There is also a small area below the weapon stats which shows how the new weapon affects your character. Well done Blizzard for making this much easier for people.



Another good thing is the amount of space your character has now. In Diablo 2 it did feel quite limiting how much you could carry on. This wasn't helped when charms were introduced (an item you used to keep in your inventory to boost your character) has they made your inventory even smaller, at some points you could only carry a few items (especially the big swords etc.). Now you can carry 10-20 items with no problem, so you don't need to head back to town so many times.

Its kind-of funny seeing so many of the old features return: the stash, town portals, away points etc. So many of them I had forgotten about since Diablo 2, however as I discover them, they have been nicely done: adding to the mechanics of the game.

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DIABLO 3 » Wheres Roguey?...
Posted by Roguey on Friday 18th May, 2012     0 comments

In the next few days you may wonder why Roguey has gone a bit quieter than normal.. well, the reason is that Diablo 3 came out. It seam it's a hard game to find: being sold out at so many places. One seller play.com said in-stock within 3-5 weeks! However a few retailers are taking advantage of this, hiking the prices up-to £45+ (which is just crazy for a PC game). I understand a bit of a price hike, but £45+ just seems extreme!

Anyway... Ive had a few hours in it and things are kind-of strange.. The first thing to note is the graphics. They havnt changed the view (like Guildwars), so it plays much like Diablo 2 but with vastly improved graphics. Towns, dungeons etc. look very well done.



However, I am finding the skill system some-what confusing atm. In Diablo 2 when you levelled, you would gain a point to use on a skill, either to improve an existing one or to get a new one. However in Diablo 3 it looks like you simply given access to skills at certain levels. So this can make levelling not so exciting. I also remember being given attribute points in Diablo 2, where I could decide where to put them. Attribute points are still in the game, but it looks like it's automatically done now?



I thought ill touch on the issue.. DRM. To me signing up online and requiring you to have an internet connection isn't too bad. Ive done this in countless games now: GTA4, Guild wars, X3AP/Steam etc. I know developers have a hard time with crackers, hackers etc. So asking for internet connection is much friendlier than some aggressive CD/DVD copy protection – as they always get broken given enough time and cause countless problems for people.
Well.. I need to spend some more time there.. Axe you later..

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Repairing a Denon RC-970
Posted by Roguey on Monday 23rd April, 2012     0 comments

You may wonder what the heck is a Denon Dc-970.. well it's an old remote control for Denon A/V unit (AVR3805). Because the remote control is quite old now, it is much harder to find a replacement for it. So I decided to try and repair the unit after all of the lighted panels went out. This is what I did a while back: its took me awhile to get around to posting this.

The first part is actually getting the thing undone, as it's held by 8 clips. So the first thing to do is to undo all 8 clips, here:



This is quite hard to undo as each clip pretty hard to unleash. You also have to careful has the screw-driver could slip or mark the side of the remote. It took a while but in the end I got it undone. The next bit was easy, simply undoing the screws, so the front part of the remote comes away:



The lights dont work because some liquid got in-between the PCB and the plastic light panel; breaking the electrical contacts. The only way to fix this is by replacing the tape with special tape.



I used 3M 9703 Z-Axis Conductive Tape (from a eBay seller #250923556603). The tape wasnt has thick as the Denon stuff (the grey strips in the above picture), but if carefully layered became thick enough. This tape is special as it conducts electricity only in one direction.

Once all tape is replaced, its a case of putting the remote together again. After-which:



Before I started all the lights of the remote were out, but now most are working again. I guess I should be more careful with this remote in the future.

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New compare program
Posted by Roguey on Thursday 23rd February, 2012     0 comments

In the past ive relied on people feebck and the change list to update my stats. However with v2.0 due too, I wanted something better so I could update my stats easier, quicker and with more detail. So I set about creating a small program in VB to scan two CSV files and tell me all the differences.

My program can also understand the tships file, telling me the name of the ship and even what columns have changed. (v1.0 to v1.1):



Hopefully this should make updating much easier for me... Let the computer do all the hard work!