Total Mad Ownage

In March I bought an aPad, a cheap, Android-based 7" tablet device. It is quite nice to browse the web with and to read on it, not to mention the 720p video playback, but now, after half a year I rarely use it for anything else than reading and browsing. So I decided to sell the aPad for 100 GBP and ordered one of those new Kindles, because it can do exactly what I need from a device like that: browsing the web and reading ebooks. I did a lot of research before I made the decision, and the most important factor was the INK-technology screen, which will make reading for long times on the bus or on the plane so much less eye-straining. Not to mention that you can read in plain daylight, which was impossible on the aPad during the summer months. I will see what 2011 brings in regards to Android tablets, and if someone adopts the ink-screen technology, because it just makes sense to have this for these devices. I'm still using Android on my current phone, a HTC Hero, which I can u...

Since this is going to be a DPS build, your three top stats will be: Intelligence = adds to magic damage Willpower = adds to healing Wounds = adds to hit points The 25 points will be placed as follows: (There will be a few extra points from RvR rewards, however we will not use them here) 15 in "Gork" Buy the following skills in the Gork tree for one point each: Leaky Brains Big Waaagh Da Waaagh! is coming Geddoff! Fists of Gork Skills in the tree you do not buy: "Mork's Touch" and "Hurts, don't it?" The last 5 points will be put in the healing tree "Mork". Any additional points should also be placed in "Mork", there is no reason to buy the bottom or second to the bottom skill in the tree. 80 RvR points to be placed in: Acumen level 1 = 1 point Acumen level 2 = 3 points Acumen level 3 = 6 points Acumen level 4 = 10 points Acumen level 5 = 14 points Resolve level 1 = 1 point Resolve level 2 = 3 points Resolve level 3 = 6 points Sa...

Lets start with the trees Scout - Long range / long cast trees, this tree is for those great big wind ups that you blow an enemy away with. You'll be focusing on "Festering Arrow" with Enchanted Arrows and Fell the Weak following it. Assault - Melee tree, does exactly as it sounds, makes you a melee hybrid where you peck at them from range then close in and dish out some pain. Skirmish - Kiting/AoE/Short Range Tree, this tree gives you the flexibility of shooting shots on the move as well as AOE. While its range is generally short, you can increase it with Powerful Draw. Your most useful tool comes from here as well, "Shadow Sting" -- just about every spec you do will require this. Theres many abbreviations involved with talking about skills, so get to know these-- BHA-Broadheaded arrow SS-shadowsting FA-festering arrow FTW-felltheweak EE-eagle eye BA-brutal assault SFA-spiralfletched arrow FS-flanking shot PD-powerful draw BE-bullseye RS-replenishing strikes LS...

There's a new version of eReader at http://www.ereader.com/android (device-friendly). The latest version is 1.2.39, but since they do not release patch notes I can't tell you what is new and/or fixed. If you have not given ebook-reading on your Android a chance, this might be a good time. The books on ereader.com and fictionwise.com are quite affordable in general.

After working on NetHak (both client and server) for most of the day I need a little distraction now. It is a lot of fun to work on the game, but I noticed that the text-based nature of the game seems to be the main reason for people logging out. I can not really blame them, as this niche area of gaming is hard to get in to. Luckily for me the game pretty much runs on its own now and while I still intend to enhance the client and server over the next months I will also work on another little project of mine: iFarm. iFarm will be a framework for web-based strategy games, realised with PHP and mySQL. I will see if I can convince one of my co-workers to create some graphics for me. I'll be using my old webview template for the Android client, I think. I will have to improve it, but the default Android browser does not display my project page correctly (it is zoomed out and I have to zoom twice to get it to display as intended). I'll keep this blog up-to-date with my progress on th...

After a good night's sleep (or better said morning) there's now over 1200 downloads and a diabolical number of active installs. :P Time to work on the server changes for tonight's server patch!

Today's client update pushed the game to the top of the "Just In" list in the Android Market since it's original launch on Saturday of last week. It has been downloaded over 1000 times now and 45% still have it installed. The revamp of the tutorial area and the new client layout (thanks for the help, Steven) seems to work, as more players have made it out of the tutorial and into the game. I'll be releasing a server update tomorrow to make it easier for players to get credits to build their own systems.