First off, ALWAYS TAKE ANY MISSION YOU CAN, you get a lot of XP and most of the starter quests are quick and easy. Don’t pass them up. You’ll be glad you did later on down the road…

Second, make sure you find the bind points so that you travel back anywhere you have bound. They were usually in cantinas and by the taxis. I can’t remember the name of the special to do it but the cooldown is 30min. That worked out well for us.

Third, make sure you click on the taxi droid to have the point stored. Using the taxis is the fastest way to travel at first and a necessity, so you need to learn it right away. They will show you where you can go from their point and the connecting routes for all of the other taxi droid points you have stored.

SWTOR is going to be fun but I’m gonna miss SWG, SWTOR is not a replacement. SWTOR looks good and I hope it does well. I haven’t got into the crafting side of it much and I’m interested to see some end game stuff too. I did try the warzone feature. It queued me up into a group of 8v8 with toon levels from 11 to 50, I was the 11 LOL. I did get a kill and I died few times too. It was fun. The warzone I was in was like a capture and hold map where there were 3 huge turrets shooting at ship in space. The object was to hold those turret points. Pretty fun stuff!!

Well I’m outta here for now, here’s a screenie of the final minutes in the last beta weekend, Dance party in Coruscant!!

Party at the palace

See ya later,

Mark

www.mogs.com

Eve Online has just released it’s 15th free Expansion, code named ‘Crucible’. This is one of the largest expansions released with a ton of new features. First and foremost four new Tier 3 Battlecruisers have been added to the game for those who don’t want to upgrade to battleship-class, but would like to try out the much more affordable new  battlecruiser models. Also new nebulae back-drops have been added to the game. These new nebulae have been created using new updated software are visible throughout the entire game, and I must say, they look stunning! With the new nebulae brings a new graphics update for our ships and vessels. New shading and detailing has been implemented to make the ships gleam and glow with detail. Also engine trails are finally back! Exhaust has never looked so good as your ship coasts through deep space.

Have you ever wanted to join in a large 500+ person battle but the lag is too overbearing for your pc set-up? Well with Crucible a new Time Dilation feature has been implemented into the server that will slow down the time of the region that is overwhelmed so everyone is at the same speed, reducing lag. As time goes on and people are destroyed time will begin to return to normal until the region is back up to speed. Check out the demo here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIhp_vpeIs&feature=player_embedded

Many other additions have been introduced including a full portrait viewer , new station-themed captain’s quarters, loot-all option, and ship balancing. You can find all of the updates here: http://www.eveonline.com/en/crucible/features/ .

So fire up your starship and take the universe in style with the new exhaust trails and check out the new nebulae in Eve Online: Crucible.

-Jon

Mogs.com

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Td7DT3d4VQ

-Jon

mogs.com

The Eighth Party at the Top of the World… now in a new location!

It is time to start marking your calendars for the 2012 Fanfest in Reykjavik, Iceland, it’s being held for the first time in the brand new Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre; an amazing new home for their Fanfest that welcomes you all with open arms.

Fanfest brings together players in a massive celebration of EVE Online. Travelers from all around the world gather in one of the most beautiful and unique locations the planet has to offer. Allies and rivals alike set aside their in-game differences to share drinks with one another and forge new friendships. CCP developers mingle with the community, always up for  “talking shop” and getting to know the fans.

Iceland is one of  the world’s must-see vacation destinations, and if you haven’t been to one of our previous Fanfests, we encourage you to come.The many wonders of Iceland await your arrival. The Sisters of EVE Program will give your friend or partner a chance to visit Iceland along with you: Details regarding the program coming soon.

Get ready for another crazy weekend of:

• Pub Crawling and hanging out with the developers
• Round Tables
• Presentations with new EVE Video Premieres
• PVP tournaments
• The Party at the Top of the World!
• Poker Tournament
• Battle of the Bands
• Silent Auction
• Live Agents
• Chessboxing?…..I guess not, but you can just imagine what those crazy devs are planning this time.
• And much more!

Further details, including flights and accommodation and Fanfest 2012 Access Pass availability, will be announced later, as the event draws closer.

Hello again folks!! This time around I’m going to talk a little about something that we SWG ‘ers have been asking for since the game added space ships. Atmospheric flight.

With the addition of atmospheric flight you can call any of your spaceships from almost anywhere on the ground and it will launch you into the atmosphere. If you don’t have an ITV set to where you want to go you can just fly across the planet. It takes about 2 minutes to go from one side of a planet to the other now, it’s fast!!! If you are going to take advantage of flying in the atmosphere be careful. They have collision in the game for the ships too. What this means is that if you hit the side of a mountain, you’re gonna take damage. (LOTS OF IT)

Here’s a few pics of my B-Wing above our city, New Boonta Eve.

There are a lot more ships in the game other than the B-Wing. It’s too bad though, the game is still closing and now no one can play unless you had a paid subscription on September 15th. If you did then you get to play the last months of the game for free. I wish this game, that has so many unique things and play styles in it, didn’t have to go far far away……

Mark

Mogs.com

Everything you ever need to know about Itemization and Crafting in TOR

To anyone reading, feel free to cut and paste this (or link to it) if other people ask about mods or crafting, I’ve typed something similar a few times now.

Basic stuff:

All characters in TOR use one primary stat of Aim, Cunning, Strength or Willpower.

• All primary stats give 1% crit for every 140 (at level 50)
• Aim gives 0.2 ranged damage
• Strength gives 0.2 melee damage
• Cunning gives 0.2 tech damage
• Will power gives 0.2 force damage

Endurance gives 10 HP per point.

Your primary stat will always give either [Ranged + Tech] or [Melee + Force], so a Trooper will get a tech bonus from Cunning, and a Smuggler will get a ranged damage bonus from Aim in addition to the bonuses they already get from their primary stat. This causes Smugglers to do more damage with Weapon attacks, and Troopers will do more damage with Tech attacks (see: explosives) assuming both had the same base value and scaling. Strength and Willpower give both of them nothing but crit.

Secondary stats are:

• Presence – boots companion health, damage and healing
• Power – adds melee, force and tech damage
• Force/Tech Power – Found on weapons, works like Power but does not provide melee/ranged damage
• Accuracy – Gives +hit and gives armor/spell pen over 100%
• Crit – gives melee, force and tech crit
• Surge – increased critical damage
• Armor – reduces physical and kinetic damage (all Tech and Force powers unless listed otherwise are Kinetic)
• Defense – increases Parry/Deflect (deflect is just ranged parry)
• Shield – increases chance to be shielded on attack
• Absorption – increases the % of damage shaved off shielded attacks
• Alacrity – Cast/channel Haste
• Expertise – PvP stat. Increases damage and healing done, reduces damage taken.

Basic Equipment Information:

All character have 9 armor slots, 3 relic slots, 1 mainhand and 1 offhand slot.

9 slots are: Head, Chest, Hands, Waist, Legs, Feet, Wrists, Ear and Implant

Mainhands Weapons: Lightsabers (single and double), vibroswords and knives, blaster pistols and rifles, sniper rifles, assault cannons, scatterguns (shotguns), and electrostaves. Gauntlets and Training swords are also listed as being in the game, but are insignificant past level 6, or not in the game as far as I can tell.

Offhands: Focus, shields, generators, lightsabers and blaster pistols.

Relics: Relics are poorly implemented currently, but they are just stat-sticks you make by combining matrix shards (which come from Datacrons.) Matrix Shards come in 4 colors, Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. Tri-color combinations (RGB, RGY, BYR and BYG) require level 15 and give a primary state and endurance (stat depends on the combo.) Double-color relics (YYR, BBG, etc.) give more stats, require level 24, and have a secondary stat. Single-color relics (RRR, BBB, etc.) always give your classes primary stat, have 2 secondary stats, and require level 50.

It should be noted, it is currently impossible to make some of the single-color relics as the matrix shards are not implemented correctly. The only 2 you can legitimately make to my knowledge are YYY, and possibly RRR.

Most gear is itemized currently so item types have correct core stats (i.e., no +WILL Heavy Armor.) There are a few exceptions that will be fixed (+CUN Assault Cannons, for example.)

Companions:

They share the core-stat system and all wear armor of a certain type. They do not have relic slots, but have every other slot.

Droid companions have different gear, but share the same gist to itemization. They have a Sensor Unit (Helm), 2 Cores (Chest/Pants), 2 Motors (Gloves/Feet), and 2 Parts (belt/bracers) and they all use +AIM as a stat. They still use Ear and Implant slots, sport regular Blaster-type weapons (pistols or rifles), and use normal off-hands (sheilds or generators.)

How Mods Work:

It should be first stated that not all items have mod slots and cannot be upgraded in any way.

The mod system is like socketting gems in WoW, but they give more stats and generally drop into items that, on their own, have absolutely no stats; not even armor. Armor values are determined by the type of armor (light/med/heavy), and the armor rating stat listed on mods. Damage is the same thing, but with damage modifiers and weapon types (assault cannons do more than blasters, for example.) Your level 10 armor can be your level 50 armor if you can mod it enough to keep it relevant.

Almost all mods have variable quality (not rarity.) They will have minor variations in their name, and will provide different statistical bonuses even though they will have the same level requirements and rarity.

Example: Patron MZ-40y Power Cell.

Patron is a prefix that always gives +CUN +END. y can be a number between 1 and 4 and is the indicator of quality, 4 being the best (having the highest stats.) The range from 1-4 can be fairly significant. This will drive min/maxers completely insane as you cannot craft them (currently.)

Patron MZ-401 might be [+10cun +8end] and Patron MZ-404 might be [+13cun +10end]. You have 21 mod slots that can have this variable quality “feature”, which can result in the difference of hundreds of stat points on high level mods.

Modulators:

Modulators are the only common mod shared between weapons and armor pieces. Modulator slots are found on critical crafted items, and are effectively a “free” slot. Crafted items with static stats can have modulator slots. Modulators are obtained through Underworld Trading crew missions and can have any stat, making critical crafted epics potentially the best items in the game unless high-level epic items spawn with more mod slots or static stats (both of which are expected.)

Armor:

The 6 types of Armor mods: Harness, Underlay, Overlay, Support, Circuitry, and Modulators.

Items are composed of: Harness or Underlay + 1-2 of Overlay/Support/Circuitry + Modulator (crit craft only)

Harnesses (head/leg/chest) and Underlays (everything else) always have armor rating and core stats, and no items have both Harness and Underlay slots. Overlays have core stats, support/circuitry do not.

Optimal armor items are always Harness/Underlay + Overlay (+ Support/Circuitry if 3 mods.) It is actually not worth upgrading if you lose an overlay slot because of how much better core stats are than secondary stats.

Weapons:

Weapons have the potential, unlike armor, to have 5 mod slots and have more mod types.

• Ranged: Barrel + Power Cell + (Trigger or Scope) + Color Crystal + Modulator (crit craft only)
• Melee: Power Crystal + Hilt + (Focus Lens or Matrix Emitter) + Color Crystal¹ + Modulator (crit craft² only.)

1 – Vibro weapons do not have color crystals. 2 – you cannot currently craft full lightsabers.

Barrels and Power Crystals control damage rating, Power Cells and Hilts have core stats while Triggers, Scopes, Lenses and Emitters do not. Color Crystals can have core stats (but usually just have endurance), so using vibro weapons is inadvisable.

Crafting Basics:

The general crafting system in TOR is nearly identical to WoW, except to make items you simply open a menu and send a companion to do it instead of running to the required apparatus and crafting it yourself. This is actually really convenient, especially since some crafted items take upwards of 20 minutes to craft, and your idle companions aren’t doing anything anyway. You can generally send all but 1 companion to craft, or on missions, but it’s based on your level, not how many companions you actually have. This means you can only send 4 at level 49 even though you’ll have 6 companions, whereas you can send 5/6 at level 50.

All companions, except for the ship droid who’s sole purpose is a profession bot, have bonuses to 2 professions. +Efficiency reduces the time it takes to complete missions by a percentage and +Critical increases the likelihood of getting a critical craft or acquiring epic gems, metals, fabrics, and polymers from mission-based professions. All bonuses cap out around 5-10, and some are lower (+critical to missions are +2 while crafting is +5, because missions have a 20% crit chance already, and crafting is 5% base.)

Critical crafts do 3 things:

• Armor/Weapons: Adds a modulator slot
• Mods: Makes 2
• Missions: Gives epic quality crafting materials

Reverse Engineering:

RE is TOR’s version of disenchanting. You are only able to RE items similar to ones you can craft, and the item’s overall quality determines what kind of goodies you get from it (you always get crafting materials.) Generally speaking, you should never RE anything you cannot craft as it is unprofitable.

You currently cannot RE mods. I don’t know if you ever will be able to, but I feel it has to be added in order make crafting viable endgame.

The main reason RE exists is to learn how to make better craftable items. When you RE an item that you can craft (which you learn off of trainers or schematics) there is a chance you will learn to make a better version of the same item, both in rarity and power. This is done through a prefix system, that will determine a static property being added to whatever item you RE’d.

Lets say you RE’d a Space Blaster (uncommon) and learned how to make a Commander’s Space Blaster (rare).

“Commander” is a prefix (like WoW’s “of the _____” suffixes) that adds +Presence to the item. If you don’t like the prefix you got, you just RE more Space Blasters until you get something you do want, like “Overloaded” (+power) or “Critical” (+crit rating). I do not have a full list of these, but as far as I can tell, you cannot get a prefix from crafting that gives core stats.

Now that you can make Commander’s Space Blaster, you can now RE that to learn an epic version. This epic version will retain the prefix of the first, but since it’s an epic, will have increased stats by having better base mods.

To summarize:

• Step 1: Uncommon version. Learned from trainers.
• Step 2: Rare version. Has improved stats in addition to a prefix for more stats.
• Step 3: Epic version. Has improved stats in addition to the rare prefix. They will also add another prefix “Advanced”.

You can also crit all of these crafts which will add a Modulator slot (as mentioned earlier.) Critical crafts also have a higher probability, when RE’d, of learning better patterns. Unless you fill the Modulator slot, critical crafts do nothing on their own.

Critting an epic craft leads to an obnoxiously long item name, such as: [Exceptional Advanced Commander's Space Blaster]

Specific Crafting Information:

All players can have 1 Production, and 2 other crew skills.

Sending your companions on missions is expensive and time consuming, but the only way to actually level the mission-based professions. You can level a tradeskill from 1-400 without using any mission professions as they only exist to facilitate the crafting of rare and epic items. All Mission professions provide companion gifts, and have 1 other unique feature to them in addition to resource gathering.

Production:

• Force user crew skills: Artifice and Synthweaving – Lightsabers, offhands, STR and WILL armor of all types.
• Non-Force user skills: Armormech and Armstech – Ranged weapons, AIM and CUN medium and heavy armor.
• Good for both: Biochem and Cybertech – Consumables, implant and ear slot items, droid parts.

Gathering:

World nodes are the main way of leveling these, but they do have missions which are useful for getting rarer components such as artifact fragments or color crystals for Archaeology. Droid parts are also quite rare from gathering for Slicing.

• Archaeology – Synthweaving and Artifice
• Slicing – Cybertech, makes tons of money and gets lots of free items (always take this until 50.)
• Scavenging – Armstech and Armormech
• Bioanalysis – Biochem

Missions:

• Treasure Hunting – Gemstones are used to make Weapons and typeless gear (Armstech, Artifice*, Cybertech)
• Diplomacy – Fabrics make “Light” armor (Artifice, Synthweaving)
• Investigation – Research Compounds make “Medium” armor (Synthweaving, Artifice, Armormech)
• Underworld Trading – Metals make “Heavy” armor (Armormech, Artifice, Synthweaving) Chemicals currently unused, but are for Biochem. Only source of Modulators

* - you cannot currently make full lightsabers, but this should be changed before launch.

All the professions are in a bit of a weird unfinished state right now and needs some TLC before launch, but the overall premise to them is good. Artifice makes a lot of armor items it probably shouldn’t, and Cybertech doesn’t make items it probably should (vibroswords/knives and electrostaves.) Slicing is basically a money fountain. All of these things would be reasonably simple to improve before launch.

Here is the link to the original post http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/k5mcd/

I hope this helps you out and ill see you in the game!!

Mark

Mogs.com

SWG Guru

DATE: November 5, 2011.

TARGET: https://facebook.com

Press:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/OP_Facebook
http://piratepad.net/YCPcpwrl09
Irc.Anonops.Li #OpFaceBook
Message:

Attention citizens of the world,

We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.

Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.

Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family. http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iph….

You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.

The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.

Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.

This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.

We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

“Kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy” — doesn’t that sound strange, coming from people who routinely steal private information as they please? But this echoes the manifesto of a related group, LulzSec, whose nihilistic perspective on the state of the Internet kind of made sense. An excerpt:

Do you think every hacker announces everything they’ve hacked? We certainly haven’t, and we’re damn sure others are playing the silent game. Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your Skype accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn’t silently sitting inside all of these right now, sniping out individual people, or perhaps selling them off? You are a peon to these people. A toy. A string of characters with a value.This is what you should be fearful of, not us releasing things publicly, but the fact that someone hasn’t released something publicly.

Will Anonymous be able to successfully lay waste to Mark Zuckerberg’s fortress? This is set to be the Internet showdown of the year.

I cant wait to see what happens. It’s going to be interesting.

Incarna (Also known as Ambulation or Walking in Stations) is an expansion for Eve Online which introduces the ability for pilots to step out of their pods and explore the Space Stations throughout the galaxy. Walking in stations was first announced in 2006 [1]. The title Incarna was given as the official patch name during the 2009 Fanfest, as part of an update revealing the release to be sometime in 2010. The expansion will be released in stages, the first of which was on 21st of June 2011.

Game Design

The expansion is initially going to be relatively bare-bones, due to the nature of the challenges of creating the technology and creating game play that does not encroach on the methods people play Eve Online today.

A Tactical Map is a major feature being planned for the expansion. [3]

On release, the primary content will be the ability to run shops inside of stations, ranging from Plastic Surgeons to Fashion Outlets. Players will also be able to set up corporate offices where they can hold meetings and introduce recruits. Player scripted NPCs will deliver dialogue to people looking for information.

Mini Games are an expected feature of the Walking in Stations expansion, with a thread on the Eve Online forums taking player suggestions for games to include. Gambling is one of the primary functions that is planned for inclusion, with the ability to place anything from ISK to Ships in a wager.

Custom, player made clothing is another major feature. It will be possible for anyone to have a custom made uniform or outfit, but to prevent “visual griefing,” the color palette is being kept subdued and realistic. CCP has also hired fashion designers to aid in the development of clothing and fabrics within the Walking in Stations expansion.

Locations

Players will be able to ambulate inside of Space Stations, the offices, and the ships located within them. In addition, the captain’s quarters of a ship will also be a visitable location where the player can decorate and furnish their quarters to some degree.

Art Direction

The design and art for the Walking in Stations expansion, much like the rest of Eve Online, pushes for grittiness, functionality, and a grim reality. The player visible areas of the space stations will be expansive, with a lot of space to visit. Since there will not be running in Ambulation, special accelerated walkways will be provided to allow faster transport from place to place.

Graphics Technology

Incarna will make use of a radiosity based lighting system licensed from Geometrics. This gives Incarna a softer, warmer look when compared with Eve. As described at the CCP Presents! panel at Fanfest 2009[4]: