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EricBall

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  1. I saw it last week and properly enjoyed it. I'd say the film is better the less you know about the various characters and groups (which I didn't). I have to say I'd forgotten who the Kree were until I was properly reminded (although it's too bad they couldn't get the same actor).

    de-aging has come a long way since Tron: Legacy, there were times when it seemed like SLJ's face was too round, or otherwise didn't look quite right IMHO.

     

    And was it just me, or did there seem to be some blatant visual references to 90's movies?

     

    Finally, the film makes an interesting political statement without taking away from the origin story.

  2. That's weird. My Netgear R7000 the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands are configured separately with unique SSIDs (network names). So stuff which only works on 2.4GHz or is too far away uses the 2.4GHz network while stuff which can handle both gets two connections (typically with the 5GHz preferred, although I can manually select the 2.4GHz network if desired / required).

     

    According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Nintendo_3DSthe 3DS only supports 2.4GHz. I don't know why YouTube wouldn't work.

     

    Note: I used the Android Wifi Analyzer app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzerto figure out which channels to use. The trick is to check at the highest point farthest from the router and pick the channel which has the least competition.

  3. Stuff I've learned:

    • Loot drop locations are set, but loot at a location is completely random (including no loot) - therefore early looting success is a function of how many locations you hit
    • If you find a SMG / shotgun box and don't have a melee weapon, order a knife then drop the tablet (G) in an open area and continue looting.
    • When going for a airdrop, order ammo before you get to the airdrop
    • While height does give an advantage when attacking, it also makes you more visible and harder to duck behind cover.
    • Don't walk the beach - enemies at the top of the cliff have a huge advantage and easy cover.
    • Set walk to Toggle so you don't have to keep holding shift (and get annoyed when shift-Tab brings up the community until I disabled it) - just don't forget to go back to run when you get in a firefight.
    • Don't set explosive charges near the red zone - especially if is moving or about to move (as the red zone will set them off)
    • It is often better to use a pistol found on the ground (P2000 or Glock-18) rather than one from a box as you can then get extra ammo from other pistols on the ground.
    • Once you have the basic load-out (pistol, melee, armor), there is little need to open more small boxes as you're a sitting duck while you're opening the box.
    • Headshots matter! They are worth 4 body shots. Better to control your aim than spray and waste ammo.
    • Armor helps, but full health is just as important - use that medi-shot, it might be the difference between dying and killing. You start with 120 health and the medi-shot adds 50. So if you're at 90, you're already at 75% health.
    • Watch where other players are landing to determine directions you may be attacked from, locations which will have been looted and locations which might not be looted.
    • Knowledge (of other players' locations) is power. Being able to shoot first gives a big advantage. So after obtaining a basic load-out, start walking so you can move without being heard and maybe camp a house so you can watch without being seen.
    • Breaching charges (and other explosives and the Zeus x27) can be used to open big boxes.
    • You can swing while dropping, although the rope will swing you back. For really far swings, swing away then toward your target. You can also press & hold the use key to unlatch early, but you will take normal fall damage. Look at the ground while dropping to spot crates, boxes, turrets and even cash and unboxed pistols (once you're close enough). For big boxes, buy a knife when you hit the ground and head for it first.
    • Don't forget to reload after picking up ammo. Having to reload during a firefight is usually fatal.
    • Add ammo to pistols rather than shotguns - you'll seldom run out of shotgun ammo. Or leave the ammo until you finish looting in case you get an SMG.
    • Drones hate trying to drop at the water tower (nor is the loot worth the climb). Drones will also drop the box on the roof above you and boxes can tumble down hills or over ledges, so be aware of where you are when your delivery arrives.
    • When you get shot - unless the guy is in front of you - run for cover! Bonus marks if you manage to use a medi-shot while you're running away. After you've taken cover & healed, then starting thinking about how you can go from being the hunted to being the hunter. Just remember that your enemy likely knows where you are, so peeking out the way you came is probably the wrong idea.
    • After the initial looting phase, walk over loot boxes and check your six before opening them. I've killed several players because they were looking at the loot on the ground rather than me sneaking up behind them.
    • The blast radius for C4 and exploding safes appear on the tablet map - even those you didn't trigger. Running to an exploded safe is also often a good way to find an easy target.
    • Shotgun crates are twice the height of SMG crates - but breaking them makes them harder for other players to find them.
    • Drones start at the opposite side of the island. So don't bother chasing an inbound drone. OTOH if you spot a loaded drone headed towards the coast you can usually follow it to find an easy target.
    • Unless you have an upgrade or just ordered something, swap for the tablet from the enemy you killed - they might have ordered something. Upgraded tablets will also have a colored dot, matching the color of the upgrade card.
    • It's very easy to "tunnel vision" on the tablet and not see the enemy in front of you. Without the upgrade, the tablet only shows the hexes players are in. Each hex is a good sized area so you need to use your eyes & ears to find your enemies. And unless they are your high value targets, the tablet doesn't show whether there is another player in your hex. That being said, the tablet is useful in determining which hexes don't have players, whether there are players in nearby hexes, and where the danger zone will advance to.
    • Turrets are a pain - especially when they spawn outside of the containers. Unless you're desperate for ammo, it's usually better to avoid them. They can also let you know when another player has stumbled into their view.
    • Reload and med immediately after a firefight before looting the body.
    • Drop location selection: you can either select early to get a location with more possible loot locations (and possibly have multiple nearby opponents) or select late and have fewer options on where to land. What you should never do is let the timer expire as then you will be assigned a random location (solo) or excluded from the match (duo / trio).
    • Your initial $500 isn't much, but it's enough for a knife, armor or a pistol (if you're really unlucky). I often order a knife if I spot a crate when dropping or armor if I didn't find any during my initial looting.

    For people coming from other BR games:

    • Walking is silent - although you may still make noise when jumping / falling, picking up & dropping, reloading, etc.
    • You can climb through windows by crouch jumping. Sometimes you will get the timing right and not get slowed, but most times it's quicker to use the door (but noisier).
    • Boarded over doors and windows cannot be opened. Explosions go through walls.
  4. Valve has tweaked the matchmaking so only 14 players have to Accept before the waiting room starts. I don't think it tries to backfill players who don't accept or disconnect in the waiting room, so (single player) matches tend to have less than 16 people.

     

    A loot heatmap has been created (https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/12/21/csgo-danger-zone-blacksite-map-best-locations-where-to-land-best-loot/) and the good news / bad news is my favorite landing spot, Tourist, is one of the "hotspots" - so I might have more competition for it in the future. As I fast-rope down I try to spot boxes etc to decide whether to land on the roof of the big building or swing closer to the plywood bridge onto the adjacent roof. From there I circle through the buildings, checking rooms etc before ending up on the ground to make a final pass along the boardwalk before going back to the northern building.

     

    From a game design perspective, I'm really impressed by how balanced DZ is. The loot & buy mechanic means players aren't starting the game with ARs and sniper rifles - and even if they have an SMG it doesn't have a lot of ammo. Rifles only really come into play later in the game when they can be obtained from supply drops - and they have even less ammo. The size of the map (400m x 400m) largely negates the lack of scopes as most engagements are less than 100m.

     

    The one questionable part of the game is the missile / bombing zone. I just haven't seen it have an impact on gameplay (other than being an auditory distraction). The missiles are part of the danger zone expansion rather than being like a PUBG redzone. From a story perspective they deliver whatever makes up the danger zone. But for the most part they don't land in hexes which aren't part of the danger zone already so they have little gameplay impact.

  5. As much as I'd like to enjoy Fortnite, the fun just isn't there. I just don't see me getting good enough with the building mechanic to be able to have a chance against a decently skilled player. So while I can avoid conflict and sneak into the top ten, I'm basically dead once I'm spotted.

     

    And it's not just muscle memory. After some training, my fingers can hit the right keys - now the big problem is my natural reaction to an engagement isn't building. And while I might be able to learn those patterns given enough playtime, the bigger issue is Fortnite just doesn't make me feel like PUBG. I don't get that suspense / tension excitement.

     

    Other complaints:

    1. As above, the longgg & buggy startup. When I want to play, I don't want to have to wait for 10 minutes for the game to maybe start correctly.

    2. Even with headphones, I found it incredibly difficult to use sound to detect enemies - even when they are nearby. Part of the problem is there are ambient sounds (e.g. towers creak), but also the sounds you make (especially harvesting and building) are extremely loud. And for some reason I couldn't localize sounds like the crack of a rifle or a rift.

    3. Automatic weapons are incredibly inaccurate at any significant distance. So even if I spot someone first (probably because I've seen them building), I can't engage unless I have a sniper rifle (which probably still won't hit due to slow projectiles and bullet drop).

     

    So I'm back to trying to justify buying an iPad Air 2 to play PUBG....

  6. Thinking about it, the real distinguishing feature of older computers and consoles was the GPU, not the CPU. While the CPU could make certain operations and calculations easier or harder, the GPU dramatically impacts what is possible.

     

    And the GPU on those older consoles and most computers was closely tied to the capabilities of a standard TV (along with what was economically viable anf technically possible for VLSI at the time.)

  7. Hmm... from a programmer's perspective, I wouldn't call it 6K of RAM. More like 6K of writable ROM. Yes, the cartridge contains 6K of RAM (organized as three 2K banks plus one 2K bank of ROM "BIOS"), but writing to the ROM wasn't a single instruction, but a multi-step operation. (Because the 2600 cartridge is missing the signals needed for normal RAM.)

     

    And there wasn't anything in the cartridge which inherently provided better graphics, but games could take advantage of the extra RAM to create displays not possible without it. (Like I did for my unfinished Lode Runner style game which used the extra RAM to store the level and the sprite data.)

  8. I've been wondering for years now if software (and hardware) companies have gotten lazier about quality control because they know they can just push an update out later.

     

    Software companies - definitely. Although I wouldn't say lazier, but certainly more willing to release software before all of the bugs have been corrected.

     

    I think hardware still goes through a more thorough design & QA process because it can't be as easily fixed. But there's certainly hardware which is released with incomplete software (e.g. Stern Pinball).

  9. The three bits of advice I have for anyone thinking about seeing this movie:


    1. Go see it now before someone can't help themselves and spoils any of the significant plot points / twists.

    2. Make sure you're up to date on the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is not an origins story. There's no flashbacks to previous films. This is the sequel to multiple MCU series and it assumes you know who each of these heroes are.

    3. (As suggested by Howard Tayler) If you're planning on taking younger children, you might want to see it yourself first. There are reasons why audiences are not exuberantly cheering on their way out of the theater.


    And if you're sitting at the end of the row, feel free to hit the restroom rather than wait for the post credits scene.
    • Like 1
  10. A couple more videos about using lasers to emulate vector displays:

     

    Custom code to duplicate Asteroids - points out that galvos are slower and how momentum makes corners round unless the code includes the proper de-acceleration

     

    On a commercial laser projector, which now includes homages to various vector games

  11. I also saw Black Panther recently (in prep for Infinity War) and I will agree with you on all parts (especially the magical miracle metal). However, I wonder what would have occurred if T'Challa had welcomed N'Jadaka with open arms and tried to apologize for his father's sins. I also wonder how Wakanda society functions - e.g. what do the people playing "third world" get?

  12. The recent update to PUBG Mobile fixed the iPhone 5s bug so I was able to give it a try on a 4" screen. While I wouldn't call it unplayable, the size of the screen really makes it difficult to play effectively both because:

    • the size and spacing of the controls makes them difficult to use
    • using the controls blocks the screen
    • low 1136 x 640 resolution and small size makes it difficult to see anything - the mini-map in particular
    • difficult to select weapons as they are close to the edge, which brings up the notification pull

    Because I can play PUBG on larger devices I've deleted it. It's also a space hog. ~1GB for the game and you need another 1GB of free space for updates.

  13. Played another game on the Pixel 2 and finished 3rd with 6 kills! I got four of those kills camping out in a shipping container near a compound which staying inside the safe zone until late in the game. Eventually I needed to move, which I did badly and got killed for it. My biggest mistake is I moved too early, before the play area started contracting. This meant I could be (and was) attacked from the rear. I also didn't choose a particularly good position inside the safe zone. While I had decent visibility of the area where I thought one of my opponents would be coming from, I had very little cover from any direction.

     

    Playing on the smaller screen is definitely troublesome. In order not to block my view I find I am keeping my left (look / turn) hand near the left edge of the screen. But this has caused me on numerous occasions to accidentally hit the fire button, potentially alerting other players to my position. Often I don't realize I've fired, so I think I'm being fired upon. The smaller screen also means the "buttons" are smaller, which makes them more difficult to press in a panic situation. Being able to use a controller would definitely help with this problem.

  14. I installed PUBG Mobile on my work Pixel 2. The smaller screen (5") means less visible space around my fingers. The higher resolution (1920x1080) and medium level graphics doesn't make much of a difference as the finer detail is so much smaller. But now I can get my PUBG fix during lunch, although I need to bring in some headphones.

     

    This game I coulda / woulda / shoulda won, but I could have lost just as easily. My early looting was quiet, but not very good as I only found a pair of shotguns and some basic armor. This game i tried to stay well ahead of the damage zone by moving towards the center of the new play zone early. I continued looting and upgraded to an AKM and a Vector and eventually scored a level 3 helmet (although I think I never found anything better than a level 1 vest). I also made one kill.

     

    My first almost death occurred because I tarried too long at one point, not realizing how far away the next safe zone was and how little time there was before the play area started reducing. I covered about half of the distance before the blue wall caught up with me, and I barely made it into the safe zone with minimal health - after starting with near full health. Fortunately I didn't have to continue running to the next safe zone so I was able to stop and heal up (although only half way).

     

    The safe zone straddled the river, with me on the south bank, near a bridge. I crawled to edge of the roadway, so if the safe zone moved to the other side of the river I could try to make a dash across. (Swimming might have been a better plan, but that would have pinned me to the riverbank and made it harder to move inland. But luck was with me and the safe zone collapsed onto my position and my side of the river.

     

    I hadn't been taking any fire, so I suspected the other players hadn't seen me. So I stuck to the prone position and waited them out. Eventually I had to move to get in the next safe zone, so I shifted over near s blockhouse, with the blue wall directly behind me. It was down to me and one other player. But then disaster - the WiFi flaked out (which had happened before) and the game controls locked up. I move my view, but not shoot. I started mashing "buttons" as my opponent started coming towards me. It would have been an easy kill. But nothing worked and I was put out of my mercy.

  15. I've played a few more games, but none of them were better than a top ten (and one was much worse). Unfortunately, PUBG Mobile only shows the aggregate numbers, not the results of each game. So unless I'm prepared to write down or share the results, that detail is gone after I exist the game over screen.

     

    I have noticed the expertise of my opponents has increased (or at least fewer WTF moments) - so ranking is probably built into the matching system.

     

    My son and I had a discussion of the possibility of PUBG Mobile having bots. My assertion was PUBG would be unlikely to spend additional development time creating bots simply to give new players an ego boost. However, I then realized they might have needed to create bots as part of their testing process (so they wouldn't need hundreds of human testers). In that case the question becomes whether the cost to run the bots can be justified or if bots are necessary to fill out the noob matches.

     

    I need to spend some time looking at the various weapons so I can make better decisions for which I want to keep. I also wish I could tune the automatic pick-up. While there is some logic in not picking up items which you can't use (e.g. ammo or accessories for guns you aren't carrying) in the early game I want to grab everything because I don't know what I'll find later one. I also haven't had to not pick up stuff because I am out of space. Maybe I've been fortunate and found backpacks early.

     

    Learning the map better is also something I need to work on. While there is a time advantage to exiting early and diving straight down, I might find more loot and fewer people if I try to get farther away from the path of the plane. I've been watching Mobius's videos and he makes some good points about remembering the path of the plane and staying away from it even later in the game. I am also seeing the value in having a vehicle in the early game.

     

    I would love if there was some kind of practice mode so I could try out grenades outside of a match. Due to only having so much "free time" and because I'm having to borrow my son's tablet to play, I don't get to play that often.

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