Monthly Archives: January 2010

Garden – 2010

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It’s been a while since I bored you updated you on the state of the garden.  Since you can’t see any of it due to the snow, I thought now was a good time!

We’ve had a couple of decent snow falls over the last week or so, the first didn’t melt before the second arrived, although the skies have finally cleared so we might be okay for the rest of the day.  Here’s a long shot of the garden.

Garden - full shot

We bought a water tub / plant feature thing ages ago, it’s probably been in a few shots of the garden.  We take no care of it at all, and each year it grows a few plants from the bulbs which somehow survive.  We keep it mainly because the cats like drinking from it in the summer when the water is pretty clean.  At the moment, it’s an ice cube.

Fizz - and the water 'feature'

Much like the surface of the canal near here, which is now solid ice (kids have been cycling on it) except for a couple of areas of free flowing water where all the birds are hanging around.  Anyway, here’s two shots of our apple tree.

Apple Tree

Garden - past tree

We know it’s not a real guitar!

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We’ve had Guitar Hero for a few years on a couple of platforms (Wii and PS3, the PS3 version is better, the Wii version made a horrible noise when you missed a note and was very distracting).  We also recently bought Band Hero despite the fact that there’s only two of us in the house.  We love the games, we keep trying to find a copy of Rock Band (and Rock Band 2) second hand although they’re still expensive, because they’re still popular.

It amuses me when I hear people talking about how ‘sad it is’ to play Guitar Hero and how they feel it’s not good for kids in case ‘they think they’re playing a real instrument’ and it puts them off playing a proper guitar or learning the drums or whatever.

In fact, it’s worse than amusing, it’s annoying.  Firstly, we know it’s not a real guitar folks.  In fact, if you try and treat it like a guitar you’ll not do very well in the game.  You have to treat it like a game controller (which, amazingly it is) and treat winning like playing a game of hitting the colours.  It helps to have good manual dexterity and it helps to have a good sense of rhythm and it can be useful to know the song, but these aren’t critical.  It’s entirely possible to ace songs with the sound muted, because it’s about pressing the right colour at the right time.

It feels to me that it’s only some part time musicians who feel a little threatened by the fun that people can have playing Guitar Hero and similar games.  Those of us having fun playing them know they’re games, know they don’t make us musicians and know that it’s only a controller.

I never, even as a kid, truly thought I could fly a jet fighter just because I played T.L.L. on the Spectrum for hours on end.  I suspect kids playing Guitar Hero or Band Hero or Rock Band know even better than their parents that it’s a game controller they’re handling and not a real instrument.  But you know what?  If it gets them interested in music and being musical and if it encourages cooperative gaming rather than purely competitive gaming then how can that be a bad thing?

If you are deluded enough to think the little plastic thing in your hands is a real golf club and that you learned to play golf in front of your Wii, maybe you’re better off not playing Guitar Hero, but for the rest of us, we know it’s a game, we know it’s a game controller and we don’t care.  It’s fun.

Usenet / netnews

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Usenet was one of the first things I did on the Internet, coming from a background of FidoNet / Bulletin Boards it was a natural progression, along with e-mail.  The web was still in it’s infancy, Gopher was still more useful, or e-mail responders, at the time.  IRC was huge and if I wasn’t reading Usenet I was probably on IRC (usually, both).

I spent a lot of time posting to Usenet and using software to run a news server locally (sort of a caching only server), I even wrote my own (newsmangler, although there appears to be a new tool out and about called that as well, resulting in various hits to this blog).

For whatever reason, my involvement in Usenet slowed and in fact, Usenet use for text-discussion slowed in general.  Binary use grew and is still huge, but I don’t really think it’s the right place for binaries.

Recently though my involvement has increased again, mainly in the uk.* hierarchy although I lurk a lot more than I used to and post a lot less.  I’ve been looking for an excuse to get another Virtual Private Server (this time with Gandi because their setup is so nice) and I’ve finally relented and put together an INN2 Usenet server ( http://matrix.darkstorm.co.uk/news/ ).  It’s been interesting, there’s a steep learning curve to getting it set up so that it behaves, and then getting peers (up to 3 now).  But it’s been fun.  I hope to keep developing the server and maybe end up offering access to other folk, if there are any others left who still read usenet that is 😉

Lord of the Rings Online – Virtues, Traits and Deeds! (part four)

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This is the fourth article in the series of posts on the Lord of the Rings Trait system (including Virtues and Deeds).  This part of the series covers Race based Traits.  You can find parts one, two and three under those links.

Introduction

Each of the four races in the Lord of the Rings online game (Men, Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves) have a set of 9 unique Traits.  The Traits try and complement the particular mythology or maybe enhance stereotypes of the race in question.  In all cases, eight of the Traits come from Deeds related to monster killing and one Trait comes from a purchased item (sold by a reputation vendor in each race’s home city).

Although the Traits are in theory unique, in order to try and balance things out Turbine have ensured the races get similar classes of Trait.  For example, each race gets a Trait which affects fellowship manoeuvre’s (FM’s), one which provides a +20 bonus to one character attribute, one which provides a fast travel skill to a starting location, one which provides an increase in damage from certain weapons, etc.  As the Traits get harder to earn (higher level creatures), they get more unique.

Gaining Racial Traits

Each Race has a set of three creatures to which they show great enmity.  Eight of the Racial Traits are earned by killing creatures in those categories.  The types of creatures to be killed highlight one area where earning Racial Traits is not an equally difficult activity for all races.  Elves and Dwarves must kill enemies which only come in Signature and Elite varieties for two of their Traits while Men and Hobbits do not suffer this issue.  Other than that disparity, the process is the same for all races.  For any one creature type there are two or three Deeds required, each opens up at a certain level and requires the previous level to be completed.  They are named Enmity of the Creature I, II or III depending on which rank is being worked on.

For example, in the case of Dwarves they can earn Enmity of the Dourhands I at level 13 (when killing any Dourhand will trigger the Deed), but may not start Enmity of the Dourhands II until they are level 19 and have completed Enmity of the Dourhands I.

The ninth Racial Trait is always purchased in the character’s home town, from the reputation vendor.  It’s a page that when read, creates a Deed which provides the Trait as a reward, already completed.  You need Friend standing with the relevant reputation to purchase the item.  This Trait always provides bonuses to 3 Virtues, and importantly, allows an equipped Virtue to rise to rank 11.  For example, the Virtuous Man Race Trait provides +1 to Confidence, Justice, and Patience.  Equipping that Racial Trait would allow you to take those three Virtues to rank 11 (the normal limit being rank 10), as well as automatically increasing them by 1 rank when equipped.

Equipping / Viewing Racial Traits

Racial Traits are equipped at a Bard like any other Trait (at the cost of around 22 silver each).  Each character may have up to 5 Racial Traits equipped from their choice of 9.

Trait Dialog - Race

The Trait dialog shows you your currently equipped Race Traits, as shown below.

Virtue Dialog - Race

Race Traits – Complete list

The following tables list all the different Race based Traits, and information relating to each of them (such as required level, benefit, and associated Deed).

Race of Man – Traits

Level Deed Trait Benefit
13 Enmity of the Dead I (50) Upper-cut Short distance Melee attack
13 Enmity of the Wargs I (50) Man of the Fourth Age +20 Will
19 Enmity of the Dead II (100) Tactics and Might Bonus Adds 5% to FM healing and damage
25 Enmity of the Dead III (150) Man Sword-damage Bonus Increases 1H and 2H sword damage
29 Enmity of the Wargs II (150) Return to Bree Fast travel to Bree
30 Enmity of the Hillmen I (150) Balance of Man +1% to Evade, Parry, and Block
35 Enmity of the Hillmen II (250) Strength of Morale Skill which restores ~3000 morale
35 Enmity of the Wargs III (150) Duty-Bound Skill which temporarily increases fellowship member morale
35 Friend of Men of Bree Virtuous Man +1 Confidence, Justice, Patience

 

Elves – Traits

Level Deed Trait Benefit
13 Enmity of the Goblins I (50) Sylvan Shadows Skill which provides Stealth ability
13 Enmity of the Orcs I (50) Friend of Man +20 Fate
19 Enmity of the Goblins II (100) Tactics and Conviction Bonus Adds 5% to FM healing and power
25 Enmity of the Goblins III (150) Elf Bow-damage Bonus Increases bow damage
29 Enmity of the Orcs II (150) Return to Rivendell Fast travel to Rivendell
30 Enmity of the Drakes I (150) Elf One-handed Sword Damage Bonus Increases 1h sword damage
35 Enmity of the Drakes II (250) Power of the Eldar Skill which temporarily increases fellowship member power
35 Enmity of the Orcs III (150) Eldar’s Grace Skill which provides temporary improvement to Parry
35 Friend of Elves of Rivendell Virtuous Elf +1 Wisdom, Patience, Charity

 

Dwarves – Traits

Level Deed Trait Benefit
13 Enmity of the Dourhands I (50) Head-butt Short distance Melee attack
13 Enmity of the Goblins I (50) Fateful Dwarf +20 Fate
19 Enmity of the Dourhands II (100) Guile and Might Bonus Adds 5% to FM damage and DOTs
25 Enmity of the Dourhands III (150) Dwarf Axe-damage Bonus Increases 1H and 2H axe damage
29 Enmity of the Goblins II (150) Return to Thorin’s Gate Fast travel to Thorin’s Gate
30 Enmity of the Trolls I (150) Dwarf-endurance Skill which increases fellowship vitality
35 Enmity of the Goblins III (150) Endurance of Stone Skill which provides mitigation improvements
35 Enmity of the Trolls II (250) Shield Brawler Increases Block chance
35 Friend of Thorin’s Hall Virtuous Dwarf +1 Fidelity, Honesty, Loyalty

 

Hobbits – Traits

Level Deed Trait Benefit
13 Enmity of the Spiders I (50) Hobbit-stature +20 Might
13 Enmity of the Wolves I (50) Stoop for a Stone Ranged attack skill
19 Enmity of the Wolves II (100) Guile and Conviction Bonus Adds 5% to FM healing and DoT’s
25 Enmity of the Wolves III (150) Hobbit Club-damage Bonus Increases 1h and 2h club damage
29 Enmity of the Spiders II (150) Return to Michel Delving Fast travel to Michel Delving
30 Enmity of the Goblins I (150) Hobbit-Stealth Stealth skill
35 Enmity of the Goblins II (250) Hobbit-Silence Feign death skill
35 Enmity of the Spiders III (150) Hobbit-resilience Provides a non-stacking Hope buff for the fellowship
35 Friend of Men of The Mathom Society Virtuous Hobbit +1 Empathy, Honesty, Idealism

You can see those tables laid out much more nicely over at the lotro-wiki – here.

Summary

Race based Traits allow you to enhance the natural talents of your character as dictated by their race.  Some of them are very useful, for example the Hobbit-Silence Trait is invaluable regardless of the class your Hobbit picks, and the huge heal that Men can obtain is a source of jealousy for many other races.  The most often sought after skill is the fast travel skill, since any method of reducing journey time in Middle Earth is worth the effort.

I have the power!

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If, like us, you buy batteries for stuff and then forget, or you take batteries out of something and put them on a shelf, or you somehow end up with batteries from you’re not quite sure where, then you’ll eventually end up with a box / tub / draw full of batteries.  None of which you’re sure work.  When the remote control / guitar hero guitar / doorbell / smoke alarm then stops working and you put batteries in and it still doesn’t work you’re never sure if it’s the batteries or the device.  I mean, those batteries could have been standing there for months, or they could even be the ones you took out last time it stopped working.

I finally decided to buy a battery testing device so I could check the several million batteries we have lying around and see if any of them are any good.  As is normal these days, I spent about 11 minutes checking the reviews on Amazon and bought a device which got the least bad reviews.  It was pretty cheap so I wasn’t expecting anything built to last, but if it saves us a few quid buying new batteries then job done.  It has a little LCD display which indicates the charge left in the battery you’re testing and it tests like every single battery size known to man.

When it arrived, I was amazed to discover the device is the very definition of irony.  It takes a single AAA battery to operate it.  So, if you put a battery in to test, and the battery in the device is dead, you don’t know if the device is dead or your battery is dead.  And you can’t test the AAA battery, because, your battery test device isn’t working.  Ad infinitum.

Maybe I need a backup battery testing kit with an emergency known-working AAA battery to test the battery of my battery testing kit in the event that a large number of batteries I’m testing don’t work and I start getting nervous.

I guess they could have avoided this issue by including a ‘self test’ mode on the device, but they didn’t.  Still, it has proven that 1/4 of the batteries we had are virtually dead, another 1/4 are ‘okay’ and the others seem pretty good.

Funny what you think you know

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When I started writing the articles on the Traits system in the Lord of the Rings online (part 1, part 2, part 3 so far), I thought I knew how they worked.  In particular I was pretty sure I knew how the Virtue window worked, what the icons meant and how to understand them.

After writing the relevant section in part 3 I realised I didn’t really understand how they worked, so I quickly re-hashed it after looking at the dialog again so that I could publish it with a ‘good enough’ section.  Now though, after going back and looking again in more detail I realise I’m still wrong.  It’s only when you try and explain stuff to other people that you really begin to find out if you understand it yourself.

Which is something I always sort of knew but has been refreshed, and it’s equally valid in terms of understanding your own belief system.  If you don’t take time to explain it to other people, you may find that you don’t really understand it yourself.  Anyway, I’m going to go and re-write part 3 so that it’s correct (or more understandable at least).