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It's Hard Out There for a Pirate/Medic

David Murphy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:59:52 -0500

(Wanna see what goodies await Team Fortress 2 Medics and Engineers?)

I don't like to pat myself on the back too much. At least, not in a medium other than our weekly Podcasts, where my dry wit and unintelligible vocal mannerisms carry the day. But I just can't resist taking a little mirth at the plight of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the latest MMO to follow the tried-and-true styling of all massively multiplayer launches that don't have the word "Warcraft" somewhere in the title: big hype, big launch, big fizzle.

Although I might be jumping the gun when I say "big launch." Based on the numbers from resident MMO population guru Bruce Woodcock, it appears that Pirates of the Burning Sea--last we checked--has an approximate population of around 65,000 subscribers. Note: subscribers, not active users. While one could assume that yes, in theory, 65,000 people could be playing the game at once, I venture that the total number of active people on the servers at any given time is far less than that. Far, far less.

"I'm all alone... all by myself..."

There Can Be Only One

Yesterday's server consolidation brought the total number of active servers from 11 to 4. Call me crazy, but shutting over half of a game's active servers to "provide customers with the best game play experience" is a pretty drastic amount. Let's work backwards: assume 65,000 players are concurrently playing the game right now. Really, the number can be anything, as I'm more concerned with percentages and projections. Using my assumption, Flying Lab Software thinks that 65,000 divided by four--16,250 people--is the perfect amount that ensures the best possible gameplay experience on a server. Check.

Now, if this number--16,250--is what makes for an awesome gameplay experience, extrapolate that to 11 servers. By launching with this many Pirate realms, Flying Lab Software assumed that the game would be able to hit an ideal mark of 178,750 users at some point--the perfect server number (16,250) times the number of launch-day servers (11). How many users do they have now? We'll run with our original number, 65,000. Divide that by their expectations, and you get a game that's running at 36% of estimated success. Thirty-six percent. That's not just a fail; that's an epic fail.

Flaws in my logic? Well, this math was the long route. You could just divide 4 by 11, giving you the same thirty-six percent difference. But that's no fun. Also, yes, the game could, in theory, be expanding in a rate that I simply don't know about. Only, it's not. Flying Lab Software has the best barometer of anyone as to how it's game is performing, and if they projected any kind of uptake in subscribers, well, they wouldn't be shutting down more than half of the game's servers.

Dying Two Deaths

I'm not going to belabor the point. There are two things that destroy new MMOs: The Warcraft Check and the game's population. The former is a simple axiom that I've picked up as an MMO enthusiast over the last few years--is what I'm playing now more [adjective] than World of Warcraft? The Mad Libs adjective can be a number of words: fun, complex, annoying, detailed, pretty. However you want to gauge it, the barometer still remains. If I can find a better gameplay experience with the market leader, odds are good that me--and a number of other people--are either going to keep playing Warcraft, or are going to turn to Warcraft instead of an upstart MMO. This happens time, and time, and time again, with varying success.

Pretty graphics do not for awesome combat make (Backslash Yoda).

Second, even if a game can overtake elements of Warcraft, it has to do so and still have other people playing it. Case in point, Lord of the Rings Online. I played this game for two months and loved the crap out of it. It has style and flair. It's set during an epic storyline with a ton of rich, hard-to-spell history. The combat system follows the same tried-and-true method of most MMOs, buffered by LOTRO's immense customization system that rewards players for individualizing their gaming experiences (and killing spiders). The environments are--dare I say it--on par with the pretty Azerothian landscapes of Warcraft, evoking far more of a naturalistic feel than the more cartoony-fantasy settings of the MMO leader. In short, the game is rock-solid and fun.

Only, there's nobody playing. Or at least, I was pretty much the only adventurer throughout most of the Noob zones, even into some of the game's more mainstay cities. Adventuring by yourself is fun, albeit emo once you've spent 10 hours shooting nothing but deer whilst whistling Concerning Hobbits to yourself. Fire up Warcraft, and you'll see plenty of players in the uber-noob zones, the small city zones, and the uber-capitals.

It's a combination of both that's going to destroy Pirates of the Burning Sea, although I have to give Flying Lab credit: they're doing everything they can to staunch the inevitable. At its core, however, Pirates is simply not that fun of a game. I'll spare you a review, but it's as if everyone is playing a carbon-copy of Sid Meier's Pirates. The ship-to-ship fighting is fun, albeit slow: once you've had your 80th battle, you'll long for a more hack-hack-slash kind of fight that doesn't take 20 minutes to complete. The economy system is interesting, but a player-based economic system in a game with few players (let alone players of the merchant class) seems doomed to fail. The person-to-person fighting is lamentable in its lameness, and world PvP is only fun if you have a 50th-level Battlestar Galactica-style boat. Otherwise, your little 10-level self making his first trek out of the noob zone is going to get smoked over, and over, and over on the mighty Pirates world map.

I give Pirates of the Burning Sea... eight months to throw in the towel. Or at the very least, it'll only survive until Warcraft's new expansion hits.

ON THE NEXT PAGE: Team Fortress 2 updates the Medic class, and drops a huge hint of what's to come!

I got a chance to check out all the fancy new updates for Team Fortress 2 last night, and as a casual player (and awesome Medic), I'm quite impressed with what Valve's been up to! For starters, Medics get 36 new achievements to pine for, listed below:

First Do No Harm: Play a full round without killing any enemies and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who's taking fire from 4 enemies at once.
Group Health: Work with 2 other medics to deploy 3 simultaneous uber-charges.
Surgical Prep: Have an uber-charge ready before the setup phase ends.
Trauma Queen: Deploy 3 uber-charges in less than 5 minutes, and assist in 5 kills during that time.
Double Blind Trial: Deploy an uber-charge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy medic deploying his.
Play Doctor: In a team with no medics, be first to switch to medic after a teammate calls "Medic!" and then heal 500 health.
Triage: Deploy an uber-charge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.
Preventive Medicine: Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an uber-charged teammate.
Consultation: Assist a fellow medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.
Does It Hurt When I Do This?: Kill 50 scouts with your syringe gun.
Peer Review: Kill 50 medics with your bone saw.
Big Pharma: Assist a heavy in killing 30 enemies where neither of you die.
You'll Feel A Little Prick: Assist in killing 4 enemies with single uber-charge on a scout.
Autoclave: Assist in burning 8 enemies with a single uber-charge on a pyro.
Blast Assist: Assist in exploding 5 enemies with a single uber-charge on a soldier.
Blunt Trauma: Assist in punching out 4 enemies with a single uber-charge on a heavy.
Medical Breakthrough: Assist in destroying 8 enemy engineer buildings with a single uber-charge on a Demoman.
Midwife Crisis: Heal an engineer as he repairs his sentry while it's under enemy fire.
Ubi Concordia, IBI Victoria: Assist in killing 5 enemies on an enemy control point, in a single life.
Grand Rounds: Heal 200 teammates after they've called for "Medic!"
Infernal Medicine: Extinguish 100 burning teammates.
Doctor Assisted Homicide: Assist in killing 20 nemesis.
Placebo Effect: Kill 5 enemies in a single life while having your uber-charge ready, but undeployed.
Sawbones: Hit enemies with your bonesaw 10 times in a row without dying or missing.
Intern: Accumulate 7000 heal points in a single life.
Specialist: Accumulate 10000 heal points health in a single life.
Chief of Staff: Accumulate 10 million total heal points.
Hypocritical Oath: Kill an enemy spy that you have been healing.
Medical Prevention: Save a falling teammate from dying on impact.
Second Opinion: Uber-Charge 2 teammates at once.
Autopsy Report: Provide an enemy with a freezecam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll.
FYI I Am A Medic: Use your bonesaw to kill 5 enemy spies who have been calling for "Medic!"
Family Practice: Uber-charge ten of your steam community friends.
House Call: Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy and uber-charge on him.
Bedside Manner: Be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own

The Weapons

When you complete chunks of achievements, you unlock new equipable weapons for the Medic class. The three new weapons replace the Medic's default syringe gun, healing gun, and bonesaw, and can be swapped out in the middle of gameplay by hitting up a new equip screen off of the game's main menu. While each gun is fundamentally more powerful than their original counterparts, the weapons come with a bit of balancing: you aren't just trading in your green for a purple.

The Blutsaugher: You lose the ability to nail someone with a critical hit, but the Medic now gains health every time a syringe hits an enemy. Pew pew pew.

The Critzcrieg: Replacing the healing gun, you still... heal. However, your Ubercharge now gives the targeted player a 100% change to nail criticals for the duration. You're both vulnerable, but your recipient (especially if its a heavy), is a Terminator.

The Ubersaw: It swings 20% slower, but you gain 1/4 of your Ubercharge bar whenever you whack an enemy. Kill four people with it and you're good to go!

Feel free to mix and match your preferred weapons if you just really, really like the oldschool bonesaw.

Goldrush

Valve also showed off a new map and play mode last night. The former's called Goldrush, and the latter's called Payload. Each team takes turns attacking and defending (or pushing and pulling) a giant, moveable cart. Basically, it's a mobile capture-point game. Stand near the cart and it moves forward along a track. The more people from a team stand near it, the faster it goes. Your enemies can stop the cart (and roll it back!) by doing the same.

Click on the image for a super high-quality shot of the new map!

Super Engineer Bonus

We noticed in last night's game that Valve is also tinkering with upgrades for the Engineering class. While it's not concrete that these additions will go into the game's next Medic-friendly update, Valve is nevertheless looking at adding upgrade options for the Engineer's teleporter and dispenser. The former, when upgraded to Level 3, would reduce teleport recharge times from ten seconds to three. And a fully upgraded dispenser would heal all around it just slightly slower than a Medic--akin to Shadowrun's Tree of Life.

Maximum PC's 2008 Geek Quiz

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:35:27 -0500

Geeks. We can go about our day unnoticed, quietly making sure the systems that allow the workplace to operate efficiently continue to run. Some people might consider us downright dull—and that’s just fine by us. Because when something out of the ordinary happens—when a car appears in someone’s office, a cubicle is transformed into a fish tank, or livestock roams the halls—we manage to fly right under the radar, and thus remain free to commit evermore elaborate shows of ingenuity without reproach.

In addition to testing your tech knowledge, this year’s Geek Quiz celebrates the best geek pranks of all time, which, unlike baser schoolyard antics such as swirlies and wet willies, showcase intelligence, skill, and guile. If you think you’ve topped the ones we’ve listed here, be sure to contact us at input@maximumpc.com.

<a href="http://www.mystudiyo.com/act61895/go/maximum_pc's_geek_quiz">Maximum PC's Geek Quiz</a>

No BS Podcast #46: The Podcast of a Thousand Laughs

Tom Edwards — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:36:27 -0600

This week, the gang talks about their favorite PC games and announces the winner of our Apple ad mashup contest. Check out the winning videos at the bottom of the show notes. For your chance to win a SanDisk Sansa Connect MP3 player, enter our final contest: Create outro music for the No BS podcast. Make some new music to play at the end of our show!

Submit music entries to maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com with the subject line "Theme Music" For more details available by listening to this very podcast!

To learn more about Intel-sponsored LAN parties, mosey on over here.

Do you have a tech question? A comment? Just have something you want to get off your chest? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337. Also, get your game on with the editors of Maximum PC by joining our Steam group or Facebook Page.

Modders and modding aficionados, check out Mod Shop: submit and vote on the coolest mods around—and win prizes!

Subscribe: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maximumpc/1337

And the winners are:

Honorable Mention #1

Honorable Mention #2

Runner Up

Winner!

Create Animated Sprays in Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:50:19 -0600

Expressing your individuality online can be difficult, especially if you’re a gamer. While running and gunning your way through games like Counter-Strike: Source or Team Fortress 2 it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. But leaving your mark on the world is easier than you might think. Animated sprays are a great way for you to tell your enemy that, not only have they been pwned, but that you're the one responsible.

Custom animated sprays were limited to the most elite players in the days of Counter-Strike 1.6, but now that Source is here that’s all changed. So prepare yourself for a quick and easy way to make your own spray and let the lolcats run wild!

What you need:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Trial works fine, free for 30 days, www.adobe.com)
A game based on Valve Software’s Source engine with multiplayer
VTFEdit

Time to complete: 2 hours

Step 1: Clean up your picture of choice

The hardest part of making your own animated spray is deciding what pictures to use. The choice is tricky, as the end result represents both your unique personal style, and your declaration of badassedness whenever you choose to use it. The choice can either be easy or agonizing.

Make sure that the background contents are transparent, otherwise when you load up your spray online there will be a big ugly white background!

For the sake of simplicity, we used a lolcat for our sample spray. The images are popular on the Internet, and occasionally even funny. Once you’ve chosen your picture, you'll want to place it on a transparent background using Photoshop. Open the original image, then press ctrl+a to select the entire image, press ctrl+c to copy it, and create a new canvas by pressing ctrl+n. The new canvas will already be the exact same size as the image on your clipboard, so you can simply paste it by pressing ctrl+v. It's a good idea to make a backup save of your image now. If you mess anything up, you'll be able to revert your changes much more easily if you have a backup.

Cut out the area of the picture that you want to be transparent by selecting it with the lasso tool, then pressing delete. Don’t worry about getting rid of everything at once, just remove unwanted background one chunk at a time. For bits of the image that are the same color, you can use the magic wand tool. This lets you select adjoining pixels that are the same color quickly and easily. When you've clipped out all the of the background that you want to, for each of the images you'll use in your spray, resize the image to 128 pixels wide using the Image Size panel (ctrl+alt+i), and move on to the next step.

Step 2: Create the backbone of your custom spray

Put your files side by side and make sure that they’re what you want other players to see. For me, this is right on the money.

Once you’ve got your picture(s) clipped, open them up side-by-side in Photoshop. This is the best time to input any text that you want in your spray. With the separate frames next to each other it’ll be easy to see exactly what your finished product will look like in-game. The one thing you can't do is create too many frames--due to the Source engine's 120KB spray filesize limitation, you probably won't be able to create more than five frames. Make sure everything looks the way you want it to and save the finished 128x128 images in one directory with names that alphabetize into the proper order for the frames (1 image.jpg, 2 image.jpg, etc).

3: Conversion, conversion, conversion

VTFEdit's import process asks you all sorts of scary questions. Fortunately, you can just skip over them by pressing OK.

Now that all your images are properly sized, you're almost ready to create the spray. Open up VTFEdit, and go to File -> Import. Control-click each of the images you want to use, and click OK. Select the default options on the Import screen, and wait while your images are converted. To get an insanely high-speed preview of your spray, you can go to the Image tab and press Play. If everything looks right, you can go to the Info tab and make sure that the overall size of the spray is less than 120KB. Then save the file in c:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/<your username>/team fortress 2/tf/materials/VGUI/logos for Team Fortress 2, or your c:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/<your username>/counter-strike source/cstrike/materials/VGUI/logos folder. Once you've saved the file, go to the Tools menu and click Create VMT file, then save the resulting file to the same folder.

4: Enjoy!

All done! Mom would be proud if she knew the first thing about PC gaming. Or lolcats.

Now, your files should be in order, iand you can fire up your game and enjoy your handiwork. From the game's main menu, go to the options menu, and select the Multiplayer tab. Your new spray should be available in the drop-down list, for you to select. Before you venture into the wilds of the Internet, you'll want to test your spray in a private place, so why not create a server all your own, and make sure it works properly there. If you make adjustments to the spray, you'll need to disconnect and reconnect to the server in order to see any changes. Once you're happy with the way things are working, fire up your game and get spraying!

Not Feeling Animated?
Don’t sweat it! Stop yourself after you’ve cut out your picture and save it as a targa (.tga) Size doesn’t matter, so just place it somewhere that it’ll be found easily and import it from Counter-Strike: Source or Team Fotress 2’s in game menu.