Diablo 3 Website Launched
June 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The exciting news of Diablo III was confirmed to the world this morning when Blizzard unveiled it in its week-long splash screen! Shortly after my previous post on the topic, the Diablo III website was launched too! The site, as is typical with Blizzard sites, is gorgeous…here’s some info that was gleaned.
Storyline
It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.
Character Classes
There will be 5 character classes in Diablo III and classes can be either male OR female.
The Barbarian
This old favorite is back! See the Barbarian page. Some skills that are definitely returning are: Cleave, Ground Stomp, Leap, and Whirlwind! Check the barbarian page for videos on these moves!
The Witch Doctor
Here’s the newbie! This guy seems pretty freaking sweet. Check the Witch Doctor page for more information. This class will feature spells such as: Firebomb, Horrify, Locust Swarm, Mass Confusion, and Soul Harvest.”
Video
Currently on the Diablo III site there are two trailers. Cinematic and Gameplay. I can’t find any version of the two in decent quality yet so I’ll have to post those puppies later. In the mean time, check the videos out on the Diablo III site!
Release Date
As with any Blizzard game during announcements…there is no release date announced. Meh. But that’s why we love it. They polish a game until it glistens beyond compare and THEN deliver it to the world. I just wish they’d wait to announce things until a day before it is released so I don’t have to drool for years on end :P
Diablo 3 Officially Announced!
June 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Blizzard has had a splash screen that changed daily for the past 5 days, today was its final day and I was extremely surprised to see that it revealed what has long been rumored…Diablo 3! This is exciting news!
The graphical announcement looks freaking awesome and I look forward to the link on the announcement to actually go to the Diablo site rather than a broken page! w000000t!
D&D 4th Edition NPCs: Minions
June 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I received my Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition books on Monday and have been reading over them throughout the week. Because of the difference in rules from versions 3.5 to 4, I plan on covering a number of topics related to some of the new features of 4th Edition.
Minion NPCs happen to be the topic of this post.
So, I was reading through the Wizards forums and came upon a thread relating to the confusion with Minion NPCs in combat and how to explain their really weak stats. One of the questions that was posed asked how it made sense to have a level 14 Minion Cyclops that could feasibly drop in one hit while its fellow level 14 Standard Cyclops could withstand a much heavier beating.
One sage of a user, Morholdt, had this response which I buy in to totally:
Using that understanding of hit points, one can see that minions are not puny versions of the monsters, but they are versions with no karma. They are the marathon runner who twists his ankle after the first mile. That orc minion can kill you almost as easily as the normal orc, but when you stab him with your spear, his luck runs out and he dodges the wrong way.
Personally I love minions. I’ve always found it a little lame to go into a goblin village which is populated by 12 goblins, or a dungeon where the monsters never leave their rooms and swarm the adventurers because any more would make it too hard.
With minions you can have truly epic battles against foes that can actually threaten you and live to tell the heroic tale.
So…that level 14 Minion Cyclops that I talked about earlier isn’t necessarily a slim, diminutive one-eyed brute that walks around with his fellow level 14 Standard Cyclops that his a hulking monstrosity with bulging biceps and a club that could fell an elephant in a single blow. Nope. The minion is the same as the level 14 Standard Cyclops…the Minion just makes a few mistakes on the battlefield that cause him his life much sooner.
If you haven’t read the Dungeon Master’s Guide for 4th Edition and don’t know what a “Minion” is, then here’s an excerpt on them from the DMG:
A Minion is destroyed when it takes any amount of damage.
I know…any amount of damage doesn’t seem overly scary. However, each minion causes damage similar to a standard NPC of its type and level. Just because they fall quickly doesn’t make them easy to hit or prevent them from hitting you!
The Minion role in a combat encounter is one sexy addition to 4th Edition that will make for a much richer game!
Cyanide & Happiness Graces the Chalkboard at ROFLCon
April 26, 2008 | 3 Comments
So, as I mentioned, I’m at ROFLCon and one of the attendees whom I was excited to see was Cyanide & Happiness. After their session on Making it Big (also on the panel: Homestar Runner, Rooster Teeth, etc) - Cyanide & Happiness graced the chalk board with a wonderful piece of art:
Sadly, Matt Chapman didn’t do any Homestar Runner voices (other than a little Strong Bad).
ROFLCon 2008
April 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’m at ROFLCon in Boston this weekend and there are a number of really cool guests here and speaking. Some quick names/groups: Leeroy Jenkins (Ben Shulz), Homestar Runner, xkcd, StuffWhitePeopleLike, I Can Has Cheezeburger, LOLCode, LOLCatBible, Cyanide & Happiness, and many more.
The conference has been fun thus far with some great swag; loose talks; insights into surviving fame, growing with your community, and shrugging off hate; monetization; humor; etc!
DotA 6.51 Released
February 23, 2008 | 6 Comments
DotA 5.1 has been released! You can get it here or here. Here’s the changelog:
- Fixed a bug with Kellen’s Dagger that caused it to sometimes not get disabled when hit
- Fixed Land Mines tooltip
- Increased cast range of Kelen’s Dagger
- Undid previous Bottle changes. Bottle now works as follows: Costs 600 gold, does not require mana to refill, auto-fills it when you are near fountain, rune refills it to full, resells at 50% like normal, purchasable at base only, regenerates less than previously, has no usage cooldown.
- Fixed Medusa’s Mana Shield from triggering Essence Aura
- Fixed Searing Arrows’ tooltip
- Changed Hyperstone purchase hotkey to fix a conflict
- Fixed a bug with Invoker when creating illusions
- Updated Kelen’s Dagger tooltip
- Undid some of Morphling’s base damage buff from last version
- Fixed Bloodrage tooltip
- Fixed Pulse Nova and Invoker’s Reagents from triggering Last Word
- Smokescreen interrupts teleportation once again
- Color coded Invoker’s spell descriptions (203050)
- Improved Sange’s percentage and Yasha’s percentage, and lowered the recent buff on S&Y a little
- Fixed Vladmir’s Offering sell cost
- Increased Counter Helix chance by 2%
- Minor bonus armor in True Form
- Improved the effect timing on Split Earth (187877)
- -swapcancel code is triggered when a swap is successful (to prevent other accidental swaps)
- Improved Shuriken Toss cast range
- Added new Backtrack icon (183079)
- Changed Battlefury recipe slightly
- Lowered Poof casting time from 2 to 1.5 seconds
- Lowered Elder Dragon Form’s manacost and cooldown a little
- Added neutrals field to -cs
- Changed Phantom Edge’s secondary ability from evasion to magic resistance
- Replaced Phantom Assassin’s Shadow Strike with a different similar ability (132694)
- Fixed a minor coding bug with Time Lapse
- Fixed Impale based spells from moving Juggernaut during Omnislash
- Added new icon for Melting Strike
- Reduced some lag with Invoker
- Fixed level 1 March of the Machines doing slightly less damage than intended
- Removed stock cooldown on Ironwood Branch
- Added a new system that tracks when you help an ally kill a hero (no gameplay ramifications at this point)
- -swap is now allowed in -sd
- Fixed some minor neutrals’ vision and pathing glitches
- Lowered level 1 and 2 cast range on Replicate
- Lowered Phantom Assassin’s cast animation time
- Fixed a bug with Exorcism’s cooldown after leveling Witchcraft
- Fixed some issues with -ah
- Refined how some kill related messages and sounds are shown
- Increased mana regeneration on Perseverance by 25%
- Lowered Buriza recipe by 250 gold
- Changed Voodoo Restoration to heal over a smoother interval (same total regen)
- Lowered Manta Style’s cooldown a bit
- Fixed a bug with Voodoo Restoration and Impales
- Fixed a bug with invoker in -spreverse
- Fixed some inconsistencies with tower visions (TheLoneWolf14)
- Increased duration of Lycanthrope’s wolves a bit and allowed them to attack air
- Temporarily disabled -unstuck command
Tutorial: Digital Coloring 1
January 6, 2008 | 2 Comments
I did up a quick and rough tutorial for coloring a dude’s face in Photoshop. This is my first time using FLV video of my own creation so bear with me :)
Art: Acheron “Briareos” d’Tana
December 20, 2007 | 6 Comments
Here’s a character sketch I did for a fellow member of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. Acheron, modeled after Briareos Hecatonchires from the Anime film Appleseed, is depicted here with sub machine guns. Using a toy as a reference, I drew this with my Intuos3 tablet. Overall, I liked the way it came out!
myPlymouth: Thanksgiving Theme
November 28, 2007 | 3 Comments
Thursday before Thanksgiving, users of the myPlymouth portal at Plymouth State were greeted by an altered header graphic similar to that of the Halloween theme I had done for the previous month.
This one, however, changed daily for 9 days. Here’s the sequence:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday (The flames flickered ever so slightly):
Friday - Monday:
Now, once I finished that final graphic Dan approached me and made a funny request. He wanted a special little violent ending for himself. The thought of a custom final header for a few sketchy people sounded fun…so I obliged with this header that showed for a mere 5 people on campus:
In addition to the internal alteration of the header, I did another alteration on the login page for the Tuesday and Wednesday before as well as the Thursday of Thanksgiving. My pal, the turkey, showed up in place of the random image. Here he is:
Overall, the header was well received be the campus feuling my desire to come up with something nifty for the coming holidays! A special thanks to Ken, Zach, and Dan for giving good content suggestions and allowing me to bounce ideas off them!
Art: Kraval Novir in Ceremonial Armor
November 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The Master at Arms from the Dark Jedi Brotherhood contacted me and asked me to do another character drawing of his character, Kraval Novir. He looks a little pissed, is reclining in his command chair, and holds his lightsaber. All in all, I think it turned out alright.
Chuck Norris & Mike Huckabee: HuckChuckFacts
November 20, 2007 | 1 Comment
Chuck Norris is a god among men, legendary warrior, and all around deadly guy as I’ve stated before. It turns out that Mike Huckabee knows of this powerful force of roundhouse-kicking-bearded fury as well. Watch and be blown away:
Thanks to UNH Mike from who’s blog I found this awesome piece of work.
Sam In A Pumpkin. Sam In A Turkey.
November 11, 2007 | 2 Comments
Right before Halloween, my wife put our daughter in a pumpkin for a cute photo-shoot:
Not wanting to be out-done, I put Sam in a turkey for a Thanksgiving photo shoot:
Overall, both pictures turned out nicely. She was surprisingly calm for both.
Note: due to the surprising number of people that actually think the second picture is real…I can assure that it is not. :) Here is the original.
Art: Turkey Sketch
November 1, 2007 | 6 Comments
I’ve begun the design of custom headers for holiday themed portal action in Plymouth State University’s portal. Here’s a quick turkey sketch I did with my Wacom tablet in preparation for a Thanksgiving themed header. I’m still a little undecided on what I plan to do with the header as a whole. I have a few weeks to figure that out, I suppose :)
Halloween: A Day With Black Sclera Contacts
October 31, 2007 | 1 Comment
Contents:
Intro
Two years ago I rocked the house with a sweet Scooby Doo costume. Last year I was a Ninja (but aren’t I always?). This year was a bit different…a bit more traditional/spooky/subtle. Black Sclera contacts.
For those of you that don’t know and are slightly curious, Sclera Contacts are contacts that cover…well…the sclera:
My Experience
Overall, I have been very happy with my contacts once I learned how to put them in. The look is just creepy and causes double-takes of passerby. At the Halloween party that I attended and throughout the day at work while the contacts were in place, I got just the right amount of surprise, disgust, averted eyes, and laughs to make it all worth while.
Thank god that I have a MacBook Pro with a webcam on it because the contacts have popped out a number of times and had no desire to use public bathrooms for contact insertion (in the off chance they fell on the floor). Setting the webcam’s properties, my monitor becomes a handy dandy electronic mirror! w00t!
Here’s a quick little video of me with my Sclera in place at home along with fake teeth from Dental Distortions:
What few know is how long it took me to learn to put these quarter-sized contacts into my head. To just get one in, it took me over an hour and a half of actual attempting split up by searches online and questions to contact wearing friends for help. It wasn’t until I found this awesome video that I actually learned how to insert the little suckers. Kudos to whoever it was that threw that puppy together.
The Drawbacks
Despite the cool factor…there are some drawbacks.
- Comfort…or Lack Thereof
- Prescription
- Price
- Installation into head
Comfort…or Lack Thereof
Because the contacts that I ordered are not custom fit (few Theatrical Sclera Contacts are), there is some level of discomfort that comes and goes with increasing frequency the longer you wear them. I find myself adjusting the contacts throughout the day to ensure optimal visibility and minimize the blurriness caused by creases that creep up due to my eye being a bit too small for the contact’s diameter of 22mm.
Prescription
A prescription is required even for non-corrective lenses because contacts are a “medical device.” Fine fine…I’d understand that if they were custom fit for my eyes (which they aren’t, typically) and corrective. But stock sizes and non-corrective shouldn’t require a prescription. The lame part about that is…even though you are required to have a prescription, if they cannot contact your eye doctor within 3 days, the order is processed anyways. Such is life, I suppose.
Price
Sclera lenses cost an arm and a leg. I set my sights (pun intended) on these contacts last halloween and saved accordingly. The lenses I purchased cost $128 a lens. Yup. Per lens. The enjoyment is worth it though (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).
Installation In To Head
As I mentioned before, putting these quarter sized objects on top of my eyes was very difficult at first taking a good 10 minutes per eye once I finally knew how to put them in (thanks to this awesome video). Never having worn contact lenses before made this very complicated for me. Now that I have removed and inserted them a number of times I can do so with little irritation and typically on the first or second try (sometimes third if I have no mirror).
Basically what needs to be done is this:
- Wash your hands
- Clean the contacts
- Make sure the contact lens is not inside out (an inside-out contact lens flares out along the edges)
- Place the ridiculously huge contact on the tip of your index finger and middle finger of your dominant hand, curved side down (of course)
- Hold your upper eyelid up with your non-dominant hand just enough for you to slip the edge of the contact under your eyelid with your dominant hand (index and middle fingers).
- Next, basically wiggle and shove the contact up under your lid (opening your other eye and looking into a mirror to check your progress is key) until the majority of the contact is shoved under the lid. This can fill like shoving a handful of gravel in your eye, but that passes quickly.
- As soon as you notice that the contact is sufficiently shoved under your upper lid, release that lid with your non-dominant hand and pry your lower lid down and over the lower part of the contact lens.
- At this point, depending on how sensitive your eye is, you may need to close your eye tightly to get your bearings because it may still hurt at this point. Keep it closed until you feel you can open your eye just enough to wiggle the contact around on your eye to get it in place. This gets easier and less painful each time you do it.
- The end. w00t. If you are doing two contact lenses…I’d suggest doing the eye opposite your dominant hand. (if you are right handed, do your left eye first and vice versa). That worked out better for me.
Getting Halloween Sclera Contacts
If you are totally pumped and want your own, you can pick up some Theatrical/Movie/Halloween Sclera (sometimes called full-eye) contacts at a number of places:
- FXEyes
- Coastal Contacts
- ExtremeSFX
- etc…just search for on the interwebs and you should find a supplier.
Dance Vader
October 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment
This just must be posted. You just can’t beat a dancing Darth Vader and Stormtrooper!
Thanks to Sara for sending me this!
