Clan Night Waiting List

For the first time tonight, we had too many people for the L4D game and the Xbox Live party. Given the size of our clan, a popular game like Left 4 Dead would eventually run into this problem. Both the game and party can only support a maximum of 8 concurrent players. Sorry to FishBone10 and OmniscientDeath who had to sit out the first campaign. After we finished No Mercy, I asked the two non regular-clan players to drop so that our clan guys could get in. Consider this a formal policy moving forward.

On clan nights, if you are not on in time for the first round to start, you will be at risk of having to sit out an entire campaign. After the first campaign, I will make room for everybody to play. If we have more than 8 to start the night, or between campaigns, and everybody wants to play, I will split us into two parties until a merge is possible.

If you can not get into a game for some reason, leave me a message. I will generally leave you a message explaining what's going on. If you want to play at the next break, stay on-line. If you're not going to wait around, I would appreciate if you leave me a message stating as such so that we don't wait for you at the break.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

In other news, we are selling our house to buy a new house. We absolutely love this place, but have decided to try and make the best of a bad economy. MLS listing link if you know of anybody who's looking for an amazing house at a steal of price. We've studied the comps in the neighborhood in pretty fine detail, and we are priced relatively low, especially considering how mint our house is in comparison.

Halo Wars: Cutter vs Prophet of Regret Rush

From Bonfire Studios:

The most consistent problem I’ve read about in the forums is people struggling to defeat the Prophet of Regret rushing their base early in the game. Here are some step by step tips as Captain Cutter that should help you in your struggle to defeat this popular rush.

If you notice your opponent is the Prophet of Regret (use the ‘back’ button at the start of the game to see an opponent’s leader) then you can be pretty sure that he’s going to rush. Luckily as Cutter you can build defenses and a solid economy at the same time thanks to your unique unit, the Elephant. Here is a typical early game strategy for Cutter when up against the Prophet:

Immediately send your initial Warthog to scout the Prophet’s base, this is important in combating a rush. While you’re scouting with this Warthog you should be training an Elephant and have 2 Supply Pads building.

If he goes Temple first then you can assume his Prophet will be on his way to your base pretty soon. If you see a Temple first do the following:

1. Lock your Elephant down near one of your forward turret sockets and build a small army of Flamethrowers. (usually between 3-5)
2. Build a turret on the socket nearest your Elephant

The combined firepower of the Elephant, Turret, and Flamethrowers will be enough to put the Prophet in his place long enough for your superior Cutter economy to take hold and give you the upper hand in the game. If the Prophet is not putting early pressure on you then use your small Flamethrower army to capture one of the Forerunner structures (preferably a Supply Elevator or Reactor) that may be located on the map. From this point on it’s about making correct unit decisions and minimizing the effectiveness of his Prophet. Do not mindlessly waste units against the Prophet’s shield, instead aim at engaging him in a larger conflict where you can trap him and cast disruption bomb. A strong force of Marines and Flamethrowers early can quickly decimate the Prophet if focus fired properly. Continually scout your opponent to stay a step ahead of his strategy and be ready to add some Warthogs to your army if you see that your opponent is beginning to mass Jackals.


If you see the Prophet goes with a Warehouse first:

1. On a map with good forerunner structures send your initial Elephant near these and train enough Flamethrowers to take the structure (5 is usually enough for any structure).
2. Use this bonus (normally an elevator or reactor) to really push your Cutter economy to a strong advantage over the Prophet
3. Once the Prophet makes it to your base now he’ll usually be accompanied by either infantry units or Banshees, make the appropriate counters to these units and your superior economy should win the game. As Cutter training units from your Elephant as well as a Barracks in your base and some Warthogs from your Command Center can give you a very strong force in little to no time at all.

A typical Cutter build order against the Prophet will look something like this:

, Supply Pad, Supply Pad, , Supply Pad, Supply Pad, Supply Pad, Barracks, Reactor

I hope these tips help you to score a few wins against what looks to be the most popular rush at the moment.

Building a Better Apocalypse

Valve will be releasing several updates along with the April 21st DLC:

• Free new versus maps
• Free new Survival Mode
• Exploit fixes and Versus balancing
• Server issue fixes
  
• Change to the melee mechanic in Versus and the soon-to-be-released Survival Mode

The plan is to release more frequently on the PC, and then group those updates for the 360. With the upcoming release of the SDK, and the community servers already available on the PC, matchmaking is one place where the two platforms will diverge. Details to follow in the future.

In Versus, the update has flipped the order in which teams play the next round based on who was winning the round before it. This was done to better balance the game and give neither team a lasting advantage. Since making that change, the percentage of games being played to the end has increased 5%.

Microsoft unveils blue-tinted Xbox 360 dev kit

OmniscientDeath shares a super 1337 Xbox 360 dev kit unveiled at this week's Game Developers Conference and due out in the summer. In addition to its sleek black-and-blue tint finish and some stylish etchings, it also boasts 1GB of RAM, or twice what is found in the retail model. This hardware is only for those who make the games -- for now, at least.

Xbox 360 E74 Error

The interwebs are starting to buzz about E74 errors beginning to appear on Xbox 360s. I haven't seen this yet myself, but if you have, please share with the clan via comments on this post. The E74 error seems to be related to video problems. It's occasionally caused by a faulty AV cord, but more often than not, the solder on the ANA/HANA (in HDMI models) scaling chip has come loose. In fact, many have reported creating a temporary fix by wrapping pennies in electrical tape and weighing the ANA/HANA down. (For the record, we're not suggesting you do that.) Before the error, the system usually starts showing graphical problems like lines across the screen or snow. It's accompanied by one red light in the lower right-hand quadrant.

Clan night tonight. 8:30pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

Moving it back 30 minutes because folks are consistently not ready to go at 8pm sharp.

In other news, we played some Halo 3 last night on the new Mythic Maps. The community in the Team Mythic playlist is still surprisingly n00bish, so much so that we were able to actually hold our own in several matches. Assembly and Orbital are beautiful maps, and Sandtrap is interesting for what you can do with it. I'm not sure that it's worth $10, but if you know somebody who has the maps, it's worth going over to their house to play a little.

Mythic Map Pack Release Date

From Major Nelson:The Halo 3 Mythic map pack, currently only available to those that purchased the Limited Edition of Halo Wars, will be available to everyone on April 9th for 800 points (about $10 US).

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

Folks have been logging on later recently. Would people prefer I move clan night out to 9pm? I set it at 8pm to try and get everybody as much gaming time as possible, especially for early risers. But 8pm is fairly inconvenient for me, and it's stupid for me to rush and get online at 8pm and then sit there for 20 minutes waiting for the first person to sign-in. Leave a comment.

Sandbox Marble Madness

I don't usually post too many community videos because they tend to be pretty repetitive, but this one takes "spare time" to whole new level. One of the new Mythic Maps is Sandbox, a level designed from the ground up for Forgers. This guy has done a really good job at building a marble maze using Sandbox.

Left 4 Dead Games Tonight

There should be a few people on tonight after 10pm PT for some zombie brain eating. Hop on if you're around.

Halo Wars Progress Tracker Updated

I've updated my tracking workbook in Microsoft Excel 2007 format that allows you to track your progress easier and give you a better idea of how to get your achievements as quickly as possible. I've added the full UNSC and Covenant Tech Trees with resource costs for each item. Version 3 is posted, feedback is welcome.

Halo Wars Ranking System

[Article from Bonfire Studios]

Ranks in Halo Wars are earned by accumulating score from Public Matchmaking games on Xbox LIVE.

Your Service Record shows your current Rank, Score and how many more points you need to rank up. Your Rank is also visible as an icon next to your gamertag when in a game lobby, post game screen and other areas.

There are eight ranks available in Halo Wars. You start as Unranked and then are promoted to Recruit upon completing your first Public Matchmade game.

There are two bonus modifiers that can boost your score by a percentage. To earn the bonus you must complete a Public Matchmaking game and NOT disconnect. If you win you receive an additional 40%. If you lose you get an additional 20%. If you're getting omgwtfbbqpwned, don't get mad and disconnect because you're still in line for a nice little bonus. :) And if you're knocked out of the game early and want to leave you'll still receive your 20% bonus so don't feel you need to stay until the end.

Halo 3 Back on Top

The release of the Mythic Map Pack in conjunction with Halo Wars last week pushed Halo 3 back to the top of the Xbox Live activity list. GTA IV is still holding position at #5 following its popularity boost with the Lost and the Damned expansion pack. Halo Wars debuted at #6, with the demo continuing to be popular at #8. Left 4 Dead has fallen back a little bit to #7, but I would expect that to climb back up as the noise from the other single player games falls out.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

Both the game lobby and Xbox Live parties are open to friends. You should be able to join on your own without an invite to me. If there is room in the game, you will automatically join a team. If there is not room in the game, join the XBL party so that you can chat with us. A space typically opens up pretty quickly.

Halo Wars Skulls and Black Boxes

There is a Skull and a Black Box hidden on every campaign level. The Skulls all require killing a certain number of enemies before they appear. Here are some tips that OmniscientDeath and I picked up on our playthroughs.

• Xbox Life has the best guide for Skulls and Black boxes I've found yet, including screen shots
• Xbox Life only goes up through Mission 12 however, so for the last three, Xbox 360 Achievements does an adequate job
• Unlike Supply Crates, Skulls and Black boxes can be claimed with any unit, including air units. In fact, some are only accessible with air units.
  
• Mission 1 Look Daddy! skull: The tricky thing here is having enough Grunts available to kill. You want to be sure the Spirit dropships don't get killed before delivering their Grunty payload. I recommend rushing into Alpha base and taking out the Wraith before the Shortsword is called to extend the battle. Then concentrate on the Covenant units around the edge of the base, ignoring the ones that get dropped in until the end. Be sure to leave a unit right next to where the Skull spawns (see Xbox Life screenshots) because you have very little time after the 100th grunt is killed to grab it. It's easier to just switch to that unit with Down on the D-pad, then to try and race a Warthog back.
• Mission 5 Fog skull: I recommend not jacking Wraiths until you've killed all 5, otherwise you may run out of Wraiths that spawn.

Halo Wars Campaign Special Achievements

There are special achievements associated with each campaign level. Here are some things OmniscientDeath and I picked up on our playthroughs.

• Xbox 360 Achievements has a decent achievement guide posted
• Mission 1 Everything's Better with Bacon: This is hard because your Warthog gunner tends to kill grunts before you can splatter them. I recommend using the queue movement command. If you press and hold "X", your unit will go there after it's done with its current action. Send in one Warthog at a time and click "Y" on the Grunt as soon as its visible so the gunner stops shooting. Immediately (before your hog gets to the Grunt), queue up a Warthog move to retreat back out of range so that your Warthog automatically turns to come back as soon as possible and doesn't gun down any remaining Grunts. Do the same thing at Alpha Base, but be careful to position Forge and your Marines well out firing range. It took my 81 Grunts to get 50 splatters. Take your time.
• Mission 3 Coveneant "Hot Drop": You don't have to get all 5 kills at one time. If you don't get all 5 the first time, just turn the bridge back on and try again.
• Mission 4 The Real Winner: See the screengrab from Xbox Life. Open the console next to the black box and Adam should come running out.
• Mission 7 Micro Manager: You can get this by just hitting the Scarab with the MAC cannon, and not moving any of your units. The only caveat is that the Scarab will likely burn through the ruins and start hitting your base before you can get enough MAC blasts in. Spend your time building up resources. The Scarab will take out the closest turret and closest building before starting on your command center. Once those are gone, just keep building Supply Pads in the empty space, the Scarab will hit that one first before going back to your command center. It costs 100 resources every time and they go quick, so be sure to keep an eye on your MAC recharge time.
• Mission 10 The Procrastinator: Recommend building Scorpions and Wolverines to escort the Gremlins.
  
• Mission 12 Battened Down the Hatches: As soon as it starts, use all your resources to build Cyclops until you max your headcount. Don't forget about the two airlocks furthest from the power core. Be efficient, it takes almost exactly 4 minutes on easy if you are perfect
• Mission 15 Thinkin' About My Doorbell: Be careful, when you open a door, the glass panels fall away. Any ground units you have parked on them will die. Also, the doors will only if you have cleared all the aliens away from the control panel.
  

Halo Wars Tips and Tricks

OmniscientDeath and I have played through the entire campaign, collecting all the skulls, black boxes and special campaign achievements. Here's some general tips:

• Playing campaign on co-op is more fun than playing by yourself.
  
• The game can get laggy though, so recommend a fast connection.
• Budget about 7 hours to get through on Easy if you're working co-op on skulls and black boxes.

Amazon.com trade-ins

Amazon.com has just announced that they will be accepting trade-ins on used video games. They appear to have slightly higher values than Gamestop, and offer free shipping back to Amazon. You get your value in an Amazon gift card, similar to how Gamestop offers the most value as store credit.

Halo Wars Community Site

Ensemble Studios has put together a community site for Halo Wars not unlike bungie.net. Looks like they will be offering a good variety of stats, though it does look largely skewed towards multi-player. The only campaign offerings they have now are medal chests for skulls and black boxes.

On the front page of the site, they have posted the entire Halo Wars tech tree. Very useful until you memorize everything.

Halo Wars Progress Tracker

There are 50 achievements in Halo Wars that span 15 campaign levels, 14 skirmish levels, 6 leaders, skulls, black boxes, local play and Xbox Live play. I've created a tracking workbook in Microsoft Excel 2007 format that allows you to track your progress easier and give you a better idea of how to get your achievements as quickly as possible.

Version 1 is posted here. Feedback is welcome.

[Update March 10, 2009] Version 2 is posted with bug fixes and improved progress tracking.
[Update March 12, 2009] Version 3 is posted with bug fixes and full tech tree with resource costs.

Prima Games Halo Wars Convenant Unit Overview Part 2

Covers Wraiths, Locusts, Banshees, Vampires, Scarabs.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead.

In other news, the RTS game Halo Wars hits stores today. I pre-ordered it, so am available to play if anybody wants. I'm not going to make it a clan game unless the entire clan clamors for it, but am happy to play after clan night or on other nights. I'll have the Legendary Collectors Edition, so can play Halo 3 Mythic Maps as well as campaign co-op or any of the multi-player modes.

Prima Games Halo Wars Covenant Unit Overview Part 1

Includes Ghosts, Grunts, Jackals and Hunters.