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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Hai.

It’s the holidays now, so naturally, it’s time to catch up on games, relax, and have fun. Why work so hard? Majority of people’s regret on their deathbed is that they spent too much time working, and not spending time with their family, or doing the things they enjoy.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been playing anything much. 3 games. World of Tanks, War Thunder, and Rift.
I actually have 3 other games sitting around collecting dust. I’m not sure why I do not feel like playing them. I need to complete Dishonored, Tomb Raider, and XCOM. And I still haven’t reached max level in Guild Wars 2. Why am I playing a new MMO (Rift)?

Well, Rift is really fun. In fact, it’s better than Guild Wars 2. In my opinion, many MMOs are better than Guild Wars 2. I just don’t like it.

Rift

Rift is now free-to-play, but I went ahead to redeem the Raptr reward for Rift, which gave me a 30-day subscription, as well as the expansion, Storm Legion. This gave me a substantial head start, so I didn’t need to crowd with the free-to-play horde.

The Raptr reward also grants me patron status, so I have more bag slots, some expansion souls (talent trees) unlocked, and some other benefits I’m not sure of. Awesome.

I played Rift briefly during the beta a few years ago, and I passed it off as a generic MMO that followed in the footsteps of World of Warcraft. Most of the mechanics that are present in Rift can be found in any generic MMO out there, and I passed off the soul tree as some sort of gimmick (to be honest, I didn’t truly understand the soul tree matching back then).

But why is Rift so fun now?

It’s smooth. It’s polished. And it’s polished to a gleaming shine. And yes, the soul tree system is pretty darn good. Classes are so flexible. Each class can do a minimum of three of the four possible roles in the game (tank, healer, damage, support). This makes me an extremely happy man. I’ve always loved to play hybrids in an MMO, and Rift offers this opportunity.

The game is very easy to play as well (I heard it gets hard in level 50-60), which adds to the fun factor to the game. No one likes a game that is too difficult, especially when you’re just trying to level. Fall damage doesn’t even exist!

There is very little travelling to do, which is also a huge plus. I remember my time in World of Warcraft running around the huge areas, and even with a mount, the travelling can be a huge pain.

Even the PvP is fun in this game. Sorry for making so many comparisons with World of Warcraft, but it’s the only MMO that I have had years of experience with (I did high-end heroic raiding). In World of Warcraft, you have the potential to get killed very quickly (especially during the pre-Cataclysm health pool). The pace of PvP in Rift is perfect.

Just try it! The free-to-play model of Rift is not prohibitive at all, unlike some other MMOs, *cough* SWTOR *cough*.

I’m Lordhodor on the Laethys (Oceanic) server if you want to find me.

World of Tanks

This is a game I’ve been playing for the past year, consistently logging in to play daily. The first battle of each day has a x2 experience bonus, and I log in to earn these bonuses only. That is all I do.

Why do I continue to do it? Well, World of Tanks provides a unique gaming experience that cannot be found elsewhere. Sounds rather cliche, but true. I tend to play unique games for long periods of time (remember Rakion?). And hey, who doesn’t like driving a tank and shooting at shiny things?

But why do I not play it more than just the x2 bonuses? Well, the game can get rather frustrating at times, and the downtime on this game is horribly large. If your tank gets destroyed in a battle, you cannot use it until the battle ends. This can result in waiting for an average of 5 minutes before you can use your tank again. I have no such patience.

War Thunder

This is a flight combat game. A simple description for this is: it’s World of Tanks with planes. Eventually, War Thunder will grow to have tanks and ships as well, all in one battlefield. Pretty awesome. World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes are all separated.

I’m not a huge fan of planes, I prefer ships and tanks. However, War Thunder is still fun, and it is definitely plays at a higher pace than World of Tanks. If you die, just leave the battle and join a new one. No waiting necessary!

I haven’t gone far in War Thunder yet (rank 4 British only), so I cannot say much. What I can say is, it has been fun so far. I am impressed with the way the planes get damaged in game though. Fires, wing damage, engine damage, etc. It is all very elaborate and detailed. These damages affect the way your plane flies, and it’s fun to see a badly battered up plane fly/glide around to kill someone before you crash to your death.

What I do not like about War Thunder is the way planes are put into battles. Unlike the matchmaking system in World of Tanks, there are no strict rules for the matchmaking in War Thunder. A tier 1 plane can go up against a tier 4 plane, and it’s no fun when this happens.

There are also objectives in each battle, which is usually either to capture bases, or destroy ground targets. It seems like a good thing, until you realise that the game ends in 3 minutes because everyone rushed to destroy ground targets, and you’ve barely done anything. I find it fun to dogfight and shoot down planes, not win in 3 minutes without doing anything fun.

Again, I seem to only play it for the daily x2 bonuses, and again, it provides a unique gaming experience. It’s all good.

Oh, if you want to sign up for War Thunder, use this link: http://warthunder.com/en/registration?r=2386088. You’ll get golden eagles (premium currency that can only be bought with real money). I’ll only get in-game money. Good enough.

posted @ 6:48 pm
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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

I haven’t blogged for so long. The gaps are getting longer. I’ll probably be typing out a series of posts in the near future. I miss typing out stuff; it’s so calming. Programming isn’t the same as it makes me rage.

So, first post that breaks the hiatus will be about my grades for the recently ended semester.

IS1103: C+
CS2100: B
CS1020: B+
LSM1301: A-
SSA2215/GE2018: A-
CAP: 3.8

In the post about my grades last semester, I hypothesized that it is easier to get higher grades in classes with more people. I still believe this to be true.

In the list above, the first module has the smallest class size, and the module at the bottom has the largest class size. And hey, look at the grades! From the worst to the best.

Of course, class size isn’t the only factor that affects your grades. Your level of competency in the module is obviously important as well. What I’m trying to say is that you can mess up more in a module with a larger class size, and the effects will not be as severe.

What implications does this have? I probably do not want to minor in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) anymore. The class size is horribly small (less than 50), and the bell curve in GE2227 (one of the modules needed for GIS) was not forgiving at all. I honestly believe that if GE2227 was not marked based on a bell curve, I would have gotten at the very least an A-. I got a B, which is 2 grades lower.

IS1103: This module is about computing and ethics. It teaches you what you should do in certain situations, weigh the pros and cons, and think about the effects your actions will have to people around you.

I’m not really sure what went wrong here. They seemed to like the presentation, so the problem is either in the report, the blog posts, or the exams. Well to be honest, I still have no idea what I’m supposed to learn from this module, or what the lecturers want in my answers.

So, the reason for the bad grade? Low level of competency and small class size (maybe. This isn’t as definitive as GE2227 last semester).

CS2100: This module is called computer organization. It’s about multiplexers, decoders, flip-flops, number systems, pipelining, and caching.

What went wrong: I failed the first term test (14/30). For term test 2, I got 24/30, which is good. Adding these two together, I still end up average. Also, I messed up some of the graded assignments. Being average gets you a B. I was hoping for a B+ though, oh well. I did what I could to salvage things after messing up term test 1 and the first graded assignment. Could have been worse.

CS1020: Teaches us Java, and more data structures (linked lists, hashing).

What went wrong: Recursion sucks. Did not complete the final paper, though I believe many did not complete it as well. A B+ probably means that I got outclassed by the Indians and Chinese. Not too shabby a grade anyway. Programming in general is getting horribly annoying when things go wrong. And I expect it to go wrong more often and I move up the difficulty scale. Bah. Spending 5 hours trying to figure out why your code doesn’t work isn’t enjoyable at all. I got better stuff to do.

LSM1301: General Biology. Teaches basic biology… yeah.

What went right: I dunno? The module was generally easy. Simple and straightforward, with graded lab sessions and an open book final exam with 60 MCQs.

What went wrong: My lab sessions were either average or below average. Never did well in them.

SSA2215/GE2018: Module is called ‘The Biophysical Environment of Singapore’. It’s about how Singapore is where it is now (plate tectonics), what makes up the rocks and land of Singapore, the mangroves, corals, seagrass and beaches of Singapore, and Singapore’s land use now and in the future.

What went right: Nothing. Maybe that’s exaggerating. I guess you could say that every single assignment I did was average and above. That’s good enough for an A- I guess. *Shrug*. I remember cursing and swearing to myself about this module, that I’ll never ever take an arts module again. Soooooo much memorizing to do. You suggest that I should understand concepts instead? Nope, you can’t understand that Telok Ayer got reclaimed in 1878. But the grades I keep getting tells me that I should continue. I consistently manage to do average in Geography modules and get out with an A-. Go figure.

Sigh. Geography. The path in life that I’ll never know if it’s the right one for me. It just seems to come so naturally to me. I learn it, and I understand the concepts easily. I touch it, and good grades appear.

Anyway, consistent grades so far. If you haven’t noticed, my grades this semester are exactly the same as last semester. My ideal target is to graduate above 4.0 CAP, but if shit happens, I must not fall below 3.5. Should be doable. 

posted @ 6:42 pm
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The Strategist
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