My Xmas break I will be Starbound

It's freaking cold outside and I am finally getting a few moments to break into the Starbound beta from indie company Chucklefish, (yay for pre-orders, yay for Steam).

Not far yet, but playing on my Macbook currently so I can be mobile.  (And my PC is currently in pieces)

Beating a dead horse I know, but this $15 was already much better spent than the money wasted on EA's Sim City debacle.  There is a special circle of hell reserved for you, EA.

I did get stuck in the terrain but easily teleported out to release myself.  I felt so smart, then immediately realized the more obvious solution...apparently I need to work my way back into gaming mode.**   I blame it on post-Packer squeeker win giddiness, (made even sweeter by a Bryant early exit and a dumbfounded Romo).

So the verdict for Starbound so far:

• +1 playable beta 
• +1 robust communication from/to developers
• +2 Mac release for initial beta
• +5 not Origin
• +5 cost
• +5 fun!

Can't wait until I have more time during Christmas break.

PC Gamer article: http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/12/14/starbound-so-far-spelunking-eyeball-trees-and-moons-of-doom/

**For the uninitiated, Starbound is at it's heart a terraforming game.  Yes I am pathetic.

SimCity for Mac Aug 29th

I almost forgot, SimCity for Mac's scheduled release is for 8/29 unless they pull the rug out again.  Good show EA, of course coming out in August meant darn near the last possible day in August.  Should have seen that coming.  Personally a release right before school starts seems like a pretty terrible idea.

With the last traffic and bridges patch (7.0) it is finally becoming playable and not mind-numbingly tedious.  (Although still nowhere near "good")

It would appear that I won't have to buy the game again to play it on my Mac although I'm not sure I've seen anything official say that.

So the fun fact may end up to be that SimCity ends up with more Mac users that PC since us PCers have been dropping off in droves bored to tears with month after month of beta-test worthy game play. 

I'm still holding out hope they'll surprise us with bigger maps and one-way streets for the Mac launch date.  

Hey...I can dream

SimCity Enters the Third Dimension - Update 7

Finally bridges & tunnels coming with update 7 on Thursday.

Is anyone still playing?

Raise & Lower Tool Demo - Developer video complete with French accent and suspiciously large maps...

Developer Blog

I'm pushing my luck but can we get round-abouts and one way roads now please? (and subways and larger maps and...)

Europa Universalis IV Windows demo available

Just days before the general release (8/13), the Windows only (grumble grumble) demo is available for Europa Universalis IV through Steam.

• You can play 28 years of four empires that are each geared towards one of the main strategies (trade, warfare,  colonization, diplomacy)
• Includes tutorial and hint system
• No save/load feature
• No multi-player

They do say that multi-player and cross platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) will be available at launch.

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whiney

Now that I have had half-an-hour to digest the news of Peter Capaldi as the next Doctor I have a few gripes.

1. I never been a fan of recycling actors who played a significant part earlier in the show.  Someone looking familiar is often relevant.  (Yes, you Martha..., identical cousins were ridiculous in the Patty Duke Show too)
2. We are already in the midst of a story line where Clara's re-occurrence and existence over time has been remarkable and just been explained by her jumping into the time stream.
3. Capaldi is an alumnus of both Doctor Who and Torchwood.
4. Not only did "The Fires of Pompeii" spawn our new Doctor but also Amy Pond.  This is just too much of a coincidence.
5. Not to mention the silliness of Peter Capaldi playing a W.H.O. Doctor in World War Z.  (I'm willing to let this one go since I choose to believe that this movie doesn't exist).

Are we going to have a reunion of  David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Karen Gillan, Matt Smith and now Peter Capaldi to explain all this?  I hope not, or sad to say we may have regenerated the shark...

Re-balanced Economy = Easy Mode: SimCity Patch 6

Welcome to Starlight Fields

All your troubles are over...

I have never had a plain old RCI city with no specialization build up this kind of profit without significantly higer services expenses.  Looks like they have finally re-balanced.  

Almost seems too easy...

RCI in SimCity Patch 6 Industrial Revolution!

Well now that Industry matters, boy does it ever matter....

Started a new town and had to build A LOT of industry to make my commercial happy, and even then I have a huge amount of unemployed.  I am not looking forward to seeing what this "tweak" does to my existing cities!

Doesn't look like the traditional 2:1:1 balance will work anymore, but we shall see...

Now if you have a freight warehouse in the trade depot it actually creates additional demand for freight.  I can't tell yet whether this demand causes unhappiness in the case of demand out pacing supply yet.  I would hope the commercial buildings would get priority.  Unfortunately you can't turn off individual add-on lots like you can with some buildings.  You have to bulldoze them in order to remove the demand from the report.

The workers/residential ratio is still a mess...

• 8k residents 
• -1.5k workers
• -700 shoppers
• -700 students
• = 5k useless people wandering the streets and 900 unfilled jobs?
• CI demand balance seems odd
• Commercial
• 700 shoppers
• 370 total goods available
• 330 unsatisfied
• Industrial
• 780 freight available
• 1000 frieght orders
• 220 unsatisfied
• Can't add commercial or industrial to meet need, already more jobs open than I can fill
• Adding residential adds to my shopping demand!

I do seem to be able to generate money a lot quicker early in the game (or perhaps I am getting less expenses).

SillyCity

That's a lotta bus!

New feature, water park rides...

Crazy price on Tropico 4 & DLC bundle $7.99 (4 hours left on Steam!)!

Oh Steam why are you so awesome?

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/19282/

Tropico 4 with a bunch of DLC 80%(!!) off.  Can't beat that with a stick.

You can actually play a functional game, and hell Steam is ever-so-less annoying a resource sucking monster than Origin.  Yes, SimCity I am still terribly terribly bitter....

More on SimCity Update 6.0

Some really good fixes here in this planned patch.

http://www.incgamers.com/2013/07/simcity-update-6-notes-detail-more-rci-tuning-and-fixes

Can't wait till the game is out of beta! trollolololol

So Maxis decides to break every city you've built so far - Update 6.0

SimCity update 6.0 coming soon

There's nothing like a force-fed complete overhaul to strategy midstream in an always-online game.

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/making-i...dustry-matter-rci-improvements 

Don't get me wrong, they are fixing a real problem, Industry has been essentially irrelevant except as a quick job supply early in a city's life cycle.  But due to the *fudged population* and the increasing disproportion of workers to residential population as a city grows this becomes less and less desirable.  

Unfortunately as with every fix you'll have to rework your whole city (maybe even region) just to be functional with the new parameters. Given these small-ass map sizes, I sense a lot of abandoned regions on the way as it's just easier to start over.  I would have found this more palatable 1 month after launch, this is getting less and less fun the longer the issues go on.

• Buses/service vehicles driving in circles in the completely opposite direction of where they are needed.
• Still watching trains of service vehicles following each other as well
• Multi-city play still isn't consistent.  I have a feeder city cranking out more than 150 excess MW of power and yet my other city can't buy more than 30, and even that keeps saying it has "stopped sending" periodically.  
• My service vehicles like fire and garbage still disappear and never come back until I bulldoze and re-plop.
• 4 fire stations and 2 neighbors sending 4 trucks still cannot serve a 10k population city, really?
• I still get completely random issue messages.  
• Houses being abandoned because there is no work with many unfilled jobs in all categories.
• Houses abanoned for lack of shops/parks while adjacent to both.
• Industry closing for lack of freight demand even though demand is double production.
• I don't think rain is really replenishing the water table correctly yet.  

I can't help but point out to you EA and Maxis, had you had a REAL beta I would have been please as punch to work through these (and worse) with you in that venue.  Not very happy that you decided to do it on my dime.

Oh well... it is still pretty

SimCity tips you may not know

Things that make sense:

• RCI 2:1:1 still best balance without taking into account regional trade/specialization.
• When choosing a location the resources are listed so you may want to modify your strategy based on the available resources.  For example: Lots of coal, little wind - industry heavy/coal power city might be an easier route.  Or link up with a heavy wind power city.
• Place water facilities near a river, this area will not dry up.  I'm still seeing issues with rain not really replenishing wells.
• Minimize intersections to reduce traffic.
• Wind is cheapest and cleanest energy, but takes up room.
• Industry is fine with coals/oil power, but residential areas are not.  If you have these resources it generally makes more sense to sell.
• Watch the wind indicator with placing industry/other polluters like sewage/garbage.  Don't have residential downwind.
• Trees can help as an pollution buffer but distance is really best.
• Check service capacity regularly, try to update as needed before receiving a critical issue notification. (power, water, sewage)
• There is no reason not to share services (police, fire, ambulance), you can make a little money and you get no penalty.  And if your region does better so do you.
• Proximity matters, and everything (power, water, sewage) all use the roads for pathing.
• If your coal level in your power plant falls below 50%, your power generation drops to half.

Specializations:

• In general
• Can connect service roads, take advantage of service roads they allow a lot of flexibility
• Keep trade depots close to the resources they service.  If trading keep close to highway/port/rail. 
• Closed loops are best for anything that requires traffic/deliveries.  Try to keep your specialization separate from general town stuff.
• Tourism
• High population, and transit best first
• Other cities in region populated
• Place cultural point
• Expo center/events the goal
• Water ports and airports still don't seem to have enough benefit for cost
• The signs bring in tourists
• Gambling 
• Need sufficient population
• Mass transit helps, but not as crucial as tourism
• Need extensive police force
• Make sure casinos cater to your city's wealth class
• The signs bring in tourists
• Mining needs space and pollutes
• Delivery trucks are key, trade depot location
• HQ, smelting factory as soon as possible metals mean more money
• Need coal for alloys, not really as profitable unless there is a sufficient coal deposit locally
• Oil
• Leads to plastics and fuels
• HQ to get refining division
• Trade HQ
• More storage/trucks
• Freight via water and rail
• Trade ports you need to unlock the storage types
• Really need the water expansions for high level trade, rail alone is much less effective

Silly quirks you just have to know:

• Best order for implementing services early on (order of criticality)
• power
• water
• sewage
• clinic
• fire
• trash
• police
• Don't worry about citizens complaining about needs that you verify are already met, if nothing is critical they just whine anyway.
• Town hall additions, keep in mind these are shared for the Region.  So you don't want to double up and waste a slot,  but make sure your buddy will keep it open or you'll lose access to the features when it closes.
• Best 1st choice overall - financial
• Allows setting detailed tax rates
• Best balance is 12:11:10 (yes the poor should have the highest taxes...)
• Can take out higher loans (100k)
• Next usually Utilities, it allows more efficient buildings for saving space
• If you already have a big enough transit issue, or specifically need traffic to/from the region, plop Transportation next.
• Safety is a big money sink so not needed unless you have a specific need for upgraded services generally more small buildings are more efficient. (possible exceptions: haz-mat - tech/police - gambling)
• Tourism, only if needed for specialization
• The basic school system is dumb you don't have to worry about the school "type"
• When you get a high school you can get rid of the grade school, apparently kids are then born smarter and can go right to freshman year.
• Higher education
• Add mass transit before adding college, school buses don't run there.
• Extremely expensive to maintain for little direct profit benefit, but you need expansions based on your specialization, great works or clean energy goals.  So you need to keep in sync and plan well. 
• At least it unlocks things for the region.
• The more cities you share resources with, the smaller the share is that each city can have.  So one big city and one small city will still have equal chance to buy.  So it's best not to share with a second city that doesn't really need it.

I knew I hated this game... SimCity 99%ers

The rich start losing happiness after 10% taxes 

The poor will tolerate 12% before they start getting ticked. 

F* the simulated 1%!

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated

After a long silence, finally some tidbits about the nature of the Deviation Studios gaming project emerge.

7/05/13 I've been simulated! 

The premier project has been confirmed. 

 

The initial gaming release will be a simulation/AI demo.  Stay tuned! 

WoW Mobile Auction House Back Up - Account Security Warning

As of 4:00 PM CST I can access the Mobile Auction House and have successfully posted an auction, I haven't seen any official notifications.

oh and there it is... of course twitter, duh

UPDATE: The Remote Auction House is available in the US region ONLY at this time. More details here: http://t.co/CfODwLreSO
— BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) June 26, 2013

Some more stories....

Account Security Warning
Security and Titan tease

Poop on Sim City

Yeah yeah I'm a masochist, but I keep thinking at some point EA & Maxis will actually deliver a working game even if it's months after I bought it.

But not yet.

Backed up pipes you say? Ok I'll bite.

• Hmm says I have excess capacity, it's in the green not even yellow...
• Hmmmm no waste being collected from another city...
• Hmmmmmmmm the roads don't look like there's enough volume that it's a rate of flow issue...

So what's the deal?

I try the forums and any guide I can find.  The consensus answer is just plop another outflow pipe, don't worry about why.

Seriously?

I realize that is a fairly obvious solution, and yes I assume this will get Mr. Poop to go away.  But that's not my point, it's the principal of the thing!  If there are no indicators to suggest that there is a real problem with the city, (except for the incessant nattering of Hard Hat Harry) this isn't much of a simulation or even a city management game.

After my third meteor strike in 2 years in one town and then two alien invasions within about six months in another, even the random events don't seem all that random.

The game in it's current form is a collection of events you react to with a specific canned response.  Oh fun.

I've loved you Sim City for too long to give up without a fight.  Remember what we once were, we can have that again if only you try!

More on the auction house hack

Auction House Hacks Confirmed - VG24/7
Mobile Armory Access Suspended - Softpedia

My account was compromised years ago even after having the authenticator.  Given the relative rarity of any individual getting hacked, I'm not sure they actually do anything to prevent these guys.

When I use mobile my password required a manual reset constantly for suspicious activity given that there are 6 municipalities that I can pass through in a day.  Little does WoW know these towns are all less than 10 min apart.  It's really annoying process on my semi-smart phone.   And then of course when I travel for work, of course I have to reset.

So given all this pain I have to go through to legitimately access my account , how can WoW accounts still be so vulnerable?

Guess WoW is still worth hacking, Mobile Auction House Down "Indefinitely"

I don't understand why anyone would buy gold these days.

Emergency Maintenance - WoW Forums
World of Warcraft Mobile Auction House Hacked - PCGamesN
Alleged Mobile Armory Hack -WoW Insider

I'm not sure what's sadder, that there was some way to exploit accounts through the mobile auction house; or how truly terrible the in-game auction house UI is.  Gah, guess I'm done with auctions until this is back.

Beat me to it!

Well bugger, outdone by my offspring.  I guess my first post has to be linking to her first blog since she beat me to it. :)

http://rewatchinghowimetyourmother.blogspot.com/  Welcome to the interweb P

~clk