Digisparks and a Taipan

Kickstarter continues to be a source of some truly unique items. Whether they be campaigns for products, software or real-life events, it has been an enjoyable experience for this Kickstarter fan. While some of the projects I have backed have encountered delays, regular updates from the creators have kept me well informed as to the reasons why. An example of this is the Oculus Rift. During one of the first updates it was revealed that the intended displays for the dev-kits was recently discontinued. This led to sourcing a more modern (and better) display and allowed the team to develop their own 6DOF sensor. While I can hardly wait until I get to strap on my very own dev-kit, a delay of around three months is perfectly acceptable (considering the free upgrades), especially when you factor in cultural issues related to manufacture.

Several hardware based Kickstarter campaigns have also arrived - I recently received my digisparks and assorted shields as well as the Multiplo all ready for assembly (when i have the time to build and program it). I already have a few projects in mind for these Digisparks - starting with automating a bore-water pump and a few other automation projects.  I would also be remiss if I didn't at least mention a mate's Kickstarter campaign - Mage's Initiation - which is definately worth checking out (and i am not saying that just because it's a friends project), so head on over to it <here> to check it out.
 

digisparks +shields

Its been roughly two months since HAWKEN went open beta, so I thought I would take a break from the battlefield and review my impressions of this game. Generally speaking, I have enjoyed my time with HAWKEN. Its been a solid few months of play time and I have surprised even myself by pouring much of my free time into this free-to-play first person shooter.

Yet despite all the praise I keep heaping on this game, there has been some contentious issues surrounding changes and balance adjustments to the game. I won't go into specific details here, nor mention which ones garner the most amount of debate, instead I will simply tip my hats to the dev's for continuing to plow through the seemingly endless mountain of fixes and bugs to squash. I must admit though, I am looking forward to trying out the new-and-improved Hellfires on my Rocketeer... bring on the QQ'ing post patch day ;)

There is a multitude of fixes listed in the patch notes and it has been about a month of solid play since the last patch was released. Whilst it's encouraging to receive official word from the dev's that they hope to now maintain some kind of semi-regular patch schedule - it is frustrating that some of the bugs that have been present since closed beta remain. An example of this is the heal charge/orb not working as intended (edit: now fixed during a recent patch). During a battle, these play into a strategic element and can make the difference between living or dying from said encounter. Unfortunately, due to a bug, not all heal charges/orbs work and because of this - the strategic element is reduced to a game of chance.

There have been improvements made to matchmaker and while I still feel it needs more tweaking, I am just happy to be able to find fairly evenly balanced games, especially on Oceanic. Siege mode still takes a while to form a game and have not played Missle Assault, so cannot comment on whether or not that game mode has players. It is disappointing that many of the promised updates (such as clan support, graphics options and other improvements) have not been forthcoming, yet I am still having a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately though, population issues on non-US servers continue to plague local players. With the introduction of a server browser and rating system, the population is being further divided and, removing the "all regions" options on matchmaker now means that it takes longer for local matches to populate.

Lastly, another hardware upgrade for the rig - I recently purchased a Razer Taipan mouse. This was more out of the need for a higher DPI rating so that I wasn't "fighting" with the mouse to control sharper turns/accurate aiming in a FPS environment. When you play mostly MMORPG's,  DPI doesn't really factor into game play, macro's and such however, are things some players can't live without. After a bit of digging around, I narrowed it down to two mice - the death-adder 2013 or the taipan. While the death adder is cheaper (around $50), for me the Taipan ($75), won out due to its ambidextrous nature. There are plenty of choices in gaming peripherals available today and some hardly resemble the traditional mouse, MMO players can have their macro-mice and keyboard too. I've still got the Logitech MX and that will likely end up chilling out the rest of its days as a HTPC coffee-table accessory.

On a final note, I will be checking out some "mad march" releases - a slew of titles that I have had my eye on for a while -  launch this month. In order of appearance they are SimCity (7th), StarCraft 2 - Heart of the Swarm (12th) and BioShock Infinite (26th). Also already out is the Tomb Raider prequel, which from initial reviews looks to be a game that is worth the investment in time, however, with so many titles already headed my way, I might wait a bit before digging into this one. As far as SimCity's launch woe's - both the US release on the fifth and the AU release on the 7th have appeared to have caused massive heamoraging of servers - are continuing, leading further credence to the whole "persistant-online-DRM" debate. As a token acknowledgement, EA have promised a free game DLC for those who purchase (and activate) before the 18th of this month. Sadly though, it should be something that EA/Maxis should have seen coming and no free-software can offset such a negative launch. Lastly, here's a screenshot of the new white-box test map HAWKEN released along with a new mech and balance changes in their latest patch...

low-res screen cap of new test map (whitebox)

General Geekery

Its been a while. It has been a busy few weeks. With birthdays and christmas seeming to come all at once and the end of the year screaming towards us, I thought I would best get one more post in before the the years end. So, with this in mind, I turn my attention towards the general geekery that has been happening in my life of late. Most of my free time is being eaten by HAWKEN. Its easy to think "i'll just pop in for a quick match" and it ends up being four or five in a row and suddenly you have lost an hour or more. My FPS skills are still rather rubbish, although I have still been having a blast. The community in general is pretty good and with the standard one or two exceptions here and there, most people are friendly and seem to want to grow this game. Unfortunately, there are the ego-centric that are rude/abusive or generally childish in nature and I sincerely hope that this attitude doesn't scare off new players. Its hard enough to get n00bs to stick with the game, especially when the majority of experienced players have been playing since alpha or have twitch-skills from other FPS's. Add this to the misconception that level is an influencing factor (it is currently  =< 5% advantage) - I do worry that many who would enjoy it provided an more informed learning curve may end up rage quitting.

I have also upgraded some of my PC gear of late. First to go was the power supply. The old unit had been starting to misbehave on me and after a series of random restarts and rather distinct electrical odor, it was time to update. After a bit of research on just how much power i would need, i settled on a Corsair HX650 (v2). Primarily because i don't tend to overclock much nor run any SLI/Crossfire on the GPU's, this gold certified energy efficient PSU sounded like just the ticket. My local retailer had it in stock for cheaper than online could provide (once you included postage), so off i set to the local store. After unboxing, removing the old PSU and installing the new one, it didn't take long for a rather strange noise to start happening. After isolating it to the brand new power supply, further investigation online revealed this to be a fairly common problem with this particular model of corsair's. Playing around with the power saving settings as suggested by corsair's own forums brought no fixes, so i had no other option than to return it. If i had RMA'd the unit, it would have cost me atleast $50 in postage. This sort of problem i might expect with some cheaper PSU's - as far as i know, it's the capacitor chirping - however on a premium product such as this, I would expect corsair to recall the affected units (from what i understand its a batch issue). In the end, i stumped up more money to go for the HX750 as i didn't want to risk replacing the unit with another defective unit. Besides, RMA'ing the original unit would have taken weeks and quite possibly more than the difference in price.

This is a video of the HX650 chirping

I've also upgraded my keyboard to a Ducky Shine II. It's a mechanical keyboard with cherry switches and dampening o-rings. It is back lit (available in numerous colours), features n-key roll-over with a hefty build quality and is available "locally" in the model i wanted. It was down to the choice between the black widow ultimate or the ducky shine 2, i opted for the "lesser known" brand because it was thoroughly endorsed whenever it was mentioned/hinted at in a forum. besides, the ultimate stealth comes with cherry-black mx switches, which are generally unsuitable for typing due to their zero actuation. I also stumped up for the leather wrist rest which is essential if you intend on using it to type/game on for extended periods and want to avoid RSI. It also has some nice effects with its adjustable lighting methods and modes. I was able to get the keyboard online from a trusted online store, however, the o-rings to mod the keyboard to decrease the switch noise when typing had to come from the US. buying online, it cost me less than $30 to DIY (inc. postage).

Found inside the box is a key-puller and red back-lit replacements for WASD, other key sets or entire custom keyboards can also be purchased online (although i could not find any back-lit compatible replacements). There were some inspiring examples of these in the stores gallery, however, i enjoy my back-lighting too much - so i will stick with the stock key-cap set. Generally though, the ducky has been in the "trenches" now for over a month of solid FPS action and has earned my  recommendation as a great product. My only criticism would be the quality of the USB cable (which is detachable, thankfully). I ended up having to replace the provided cable with another, which is unfortunate on a premium product such as this one.

Photoshop-fu

<open beta begins>

12.12.12

The above image is one from HAWKEN's FANSITE kit. i have used it as the background for this photoshop-fu inspired by my clan's "patch". I have also created a generic avatar replacement for it too, also from the kit. I hope this is ok with the copyright owner/artist.... please? :)