In case you don’t know already, I’m a huge fan of a Half-Life 2 mod called Dystopia. The game is set in a cyberpunk future, and you play as a member of one of two warring factions (Punks and Corps) battling for control of various multiplayer maps. Each map has multiple objectives, either defending or attacking.

What makes the game unique is that capturing or defending objectives often requires players to hack into a 3-dimensional cyberspace environment, where the conventional laws of physics don’t necessarily apply; you can walk on walls and ceilings, gain momentum without air resistance, and use cybergrenades to launch yourself obscene distances across virtual landscapes.

The game portion outside of cyberspace is referred to as “meatspace”, where the laws of physics DO apply. Fortunately, meatspace is pretty forgiving; fall damage only affects your health bar a small percent, unless of course you fall into a bottomless pit. Obviously, one wouldn’t expect future soldiers with cybernetic implants and prostheses to take much damage from a fall.

And the implants. The developers of Dystopia took great lengths to provide players with all sorts of options as far as enhancements and abilities for players, adding a very strategic element to the game play. Depending on what type of player you choose (light, medium, or heavy) you have different levels of modifications. Lights can equip any implant, and can have several, including a modification that turns them nearly invisible to the naked eye (but an experienced opponent will know to be on the lookout for tell-tale heat shimmer refractions, at which point they might turn on their infrared vision). Mediums and heavies are slower and have less implant slots than their light counterparts, but make up for it with better armor, strength, and endurance. Still other modifications allow for hacking, sound wave tracking, and team-assisting radar.

Kill-stealing is not a big issue in the latest version of the game; if you have done the bulk of the damage to a particular enemy and then another player delivers the fatal blow, that player will be awarded the kill but you will be awarded more points than they will. This reward system even works if you died before the kill was made, so you are always rewarded appropriately. In general, the points system in the game is meticulously fair, reflecting well on the developers’ level of attention to detail.

Dystopia’s point system interfaces directly with a universal statistics system, which tracks player rank and accomplishments. Player rank is calculated across a 60-day rolling window of time, so the dedicated player, no matter how fresh, has a fair chance of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with players who have been playing since the original beta demo.

That said, a defining feature of Dystopia is that it is very difficult to master. This can often be discouraging to new players who may have been experts at games like Counter-Strike. Many new users complain that the game is too difficult, especially if they get killed repeatedly by near-invisible stealthers. Still other new players find that playing in the game’s cyberspace environment is challenging at best, and mind-numbingly sadistic at worst. It is an unfortunate fact that many newbies “ragequit” before giving the game a proper chance, and the presence of the occasional elitist player in pub games does not help matters.

Fortunately, a number of servers feature regular players who will help new players out, and there is a general understanding among seasoned veterans that Dystopia needs as many fresh players as possible. A multitude of empty pubs serves as a constant reminder of this. Additionally, the developers of the game have pledged to keep it 100% free, so server costs are paid for with the help of supporter donations. About a week ago, I sent in my one-time donation of $10, which gives me access to future test builds as they are released. It may be a while yet though before the next build of the game comes out; there was a 2+ year period between version 1.1 and the newly-released version 1.2, but the changes made were very dramatic, polished, and worthwhile. At the very least, the game recognizes my contribution in the form of a dollar-sign-in-heart icon next to my name, in-game and on the forums/online stats site.

I sincerely hope that you give this mod a try. It’s a true gem, and Dystopia needs new players.

And here’s a little inside joke-type Dystopia humor that I made in Photoshop, for your enjoyment:

Yay! I don’t think I’ve gotten a snow day since before Fishburne! HUZZAH!

Hooray! Pandora and other internet radio sites may have a chance to survive, after all!

Check it out here!

And while it isn’t the best of deals, it certainly beats what previously existed.

Okay, stop what you’re doing! Just STOP.

Now, get yourself this awesome board game called Khet. It plays like a fast, Egyptian-themed version of chess, but with mirrors and lasers. Trust me, you’ll love it.

The awesomest board game you'll ever play

For those of you who use Facebook, I have started up a group for organizing tournaments. Try as I have, I have failed to find any organized group that brings together US-based Khet players, let alone ones in the Delmarva region. So please, for the love of (insert deity or non-deity here), check out my group.

For those of you who find yourself addicted like I am, there are currently two add-on packs that enhance the game considerably. The first that was released is called Eye of Horus, which gives each player a special mirror piece called a beamsplitter. These beamsplitters are essentially translucent mirrors that are designed to let 50% of a laser beam through, while the other 50% is reflected at the angle of incidence (90 degrees to the right or left of the beam’s originating path). This allows for some very unique game strategies.

The second expansion pack was just released in the past month, and is called Tower of Kadesh. This pack adds a second, top level board to the first, which uses mirrors at the bottom of a central column to carry the laser beams up. Again, this adds a whole new level of complexity and difficulty for experienced players.

Now, before I forget, there are tons of possible board setups for Khet. You are only limited by the game’s written rules, but these are very flexible when it comes to making unique starting variants. Pictures of just some of these setups can be found here.

Enjoy!

]]> http://jawmaster.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/for-the-record-i-clicked-no-does-that-make-me-a-bad-person/feed/ 0 jawmaster Somewhere, a programmer is giggling. http://jawmaster.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/trying-out-rescuetime-and-expressing-my-concerns/ http://jawmaster.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/trying-out-rescuetime-and-expressing-my-concerns/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:37:11 +0000 jawmaster http://jawmaster.wordpress.com/?p=27 ]]>

Starting yesterday, I decided to try out a web-integrated service called RescueTime. This program sits in your system tray and logs (at a user-defined interval) the program that you are currently focused on. If you are using a browser like Firefox, RescueTime goes one step further and tracks the site that you are currently focused on, even if you have multiple tabs open. This information is sent to the RescueTime’s online servers, which analyze the information sent and give you a breakdown of the way you are using your time on your computer. User-voted categories are assigned to the programs and sites you use to help in organizing the information, and you can assign tags to increase the level of specificity. From there, you can define goals that help in minimizing the frequency of less-productive activities, while increasing the frequency of more-productive activities. You can even set the service to nag you or reward you via SMS or email based on how you are performing in your goals. Finally, the service uses your inputs to evaluate your efficiency and productivity. All-in-all, it’s a pretty neat idea with a lot of potential.

What’s that you say? “Jawmaster is stamping his approval on a program that monitors his every action and uploads that info to the net?” Yes and no.

-YES, because the makers of RescueTime have a very well-defined privacy policy that states they will never give out that information to anybody, and will never do things like keylogging, etc. Additionally, they give you the ability to access the info directly on your computer that is being uploaded. You can even delete info that is online through their website. Lastly, these concerns are kind of silly, because many programs and online services also have the ability to record your actions already (there is security in obscurity).

-NO, because the rest of the program is currently closed-source, and this always leaves open the possibility that additional data is being uploaded from your computer through a separate channel. I sincerely hope that RescueTime’s creators will make the program self-contained soon. They should allow users to do private, contained analysis and categorization, rather than having to upload that data to a server. Taking this approach instead, users could still vote on categories for specific applications and sites, but in a way that guarantees anonymity. But at the same time, let privacy-minded individuals have the option to make their own private classifications.

I can understand why the creators made this closed-source. The program has the ability to be used for teams, and to make the code available would allow team leaders to alter the code and spy easily on team members. With that in mind, I guess the creators have little choice as far as making sure that usage statistics are only recorded by them.

Perhaps the best way to appeal to everybody would be for them to leave the team release of the software the same, but change the private version of the software to be standalone. That way, individual users can conduct their productivity studies on their computers, but teams would still have to use the RescueTime servers.

For those looking for a private alternative to the software, TimeSnapper is a possible choice. That software takes screenshots of your system at a set interval, which you can review as a movie at a later time. Unfortunately, these screenshots can pile up over time (if you are not careful with settings), and the free version of the software does not offer up the level of categorized data analysis that RescueTime does. I can only speculate that the professional version doesn’t either. That said, I’m currently recommending RescueTime not as the best choice, but the only productive and straightforward choice. I would be glad to find an alternative that does everything RescueTime does, only completely private. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you find or develop such a program.