It finally happened. Hell froze over.
Adobe bows to html5.
You can finally uninstall the internet's most widely known security leak without that nagging guilty feeling that you might be missing out on something.
Sure, you'll have trouble playing all those flash based games on kong, armorgames and whatnot,. but face it, an increasing number of those are being converted to html5 or unity anyway. The sooner you get rid of that bloated security cheese called flash the better. Even adobe says so,. and they made the piece of junk!
Imagine, you buy a car from Ford, VW, Opel or even Tesla,. and they tell you: "Thanks for the money, but it's a piece of junk, you really shouldn't drive it on the road because it'll get you injured for sure". That surely wouldn't inspire you with confidence to ever buy a car from them again.
I haven't had flash installed on my PC for over a year. I don't even miss it anymore.
Sure, as i stated, if you go to kongregate or armorgames you'll get a message like this: "Your version of Adobe Flash is no longer supported by xyz. Please upgrade to the latest version to continue your gaming experience."
Tough. Still plenty of games available on steam.
Funny enough if you actually try to ask the guys on kongregate, what will happen to the site now that so many people are uninstalling flash. They delete your posts. I think they're sticking their heads into the sand, but you can't really blame them. When over 95% of their content (and thus income) is based on flash.
Armorgames is doing better, with more and more games moving to different code bases,. but still have the majority as flash as well.
It's only a matter of time really, but I think Adobe did the right thing in calling people to stop using flash. After all, youtube is already converted.
Will you join the latest "get rid of flash" wave as well?
Just a quick heads up. RPG Maker MV's minimum system requirements state:
- OS: WindowsR 7/8/8.1/10 (32bit/64bit) or Mac OS X 10.10 or better
- CPU: Intel Core2 Duo or better
- RAM: 2GB or more
- HDD: Installation needs over 2GB
- Graphics: Compatible OpenGLR
- Display: 1280x768 or better
But,. I'm running Windows Vista x64 here, and it seems to be running just fine so far.
So much for minimum system requirements.
If you're still using VX Ace (because it was available through Humble Bundle for onlly 1$) then don't miss out on these resource links from earlier.
I'll play around with MV and update the tutorials posted earlier if needed.
Changes
- Resource manager is gone. You can simply add/remove project related files in the project folder using windows explorer, just like most people did before.
- Tile resolution went up from 32x32 to 48x48
- Ruby scripting is gone, RPGM now uses javascript. Yay!
- Projects can be exported to Windows, Mac OSX, iOS, Android and HTML5
- There's now a mac version, obviously since you can export to iOS you will need a mac.
- Projects should run better on most computers as they can no use both your CPU and GPU instead of being CPU focused. OpenGL is for shaders, etc.
- Improved Character Generator, now with previews of all elements.
- Mouse Support/pathfinding
- 3-layer Mapping as depicted on the official site
- Side-view battle option built-in (no longer need a script for that)
- Regions can be painted/filled
- Plug-ins (customization, calls)
This video will explain everything in detail:
Setting up
Have a quick peek at this forum, you'll want to look at these things for starts:
- VX Ace project converter. It is possible to convert your old project, but keep in mind that MV uses a bigger tileset - so converted projects will need their graphics checked.
- Default database is bare bones, if you want a full one get the link there.
- Lag when using animating tiles. This is fixed in 1.0.1
- Update to 1.0.1 at the least, or newer if available.
Every so often you check through your giant list of bookmarked webcomics, in the hope that one you hadn't checked in a while has done another update or so.
Webcomic creators are people like you and me, they get bored with doing the same thing, take a short break, have a vacation, get married, check back on their hobbies so n then. Invariably some webcomics go through a number of phases:
- Startup
- Grow bigger
- Start selling merchandise
- Slow down on updates / replace content with fillers
- Stop updating
- The comeback
- A sprint of updates
- Slow down on updates again
- Stop posting mysteriously
- 404
The life and death of webcomics is undoubtedly well documented somewhere on google,. I just don't think looking up a comparison right now will do anyone any good.
Anyhow, I did the above, still alive, wife good n happy, her family staying another month and or two. We got the new gen 4 apple TV a week back, and it's been claimed and running pinoy love stories all day.
Grand day, big party, lotsa pictures, I'm sure less than 5% of the readers here will really care too much,. though a congrats comment wouldn't hurt if you feel like it. ;)
Anyway, back to the webcomics
I just checked Pawn.se - and found it dead. It wasn't really updating much in the last year or... 5,. but it was always nice to know it was "there" and people were commenting on the message board. Alas, no more. It's showing a smackjeeves page now.
Aikida, is now redirecting to what I can only guess is the owner's youtube page.
Paradox lost, hasnt updated in ages, was showing just a filler for most of the time after,. but now it's gone. RIP.
Lowroad75, hasn't updated in 5 years, but at least the page is still up.
That's the good thing about using a comic host, rather than your own website really.
Sure, there's a certain prestige in having your very own web comic website, and url to go with it. But you can't really beat hosts like comicgenesis, keenspot, drunk duck or smackjeeves for the sheer fact that your comic will always be available for your readers without having to spend a single penny. Even if you go off the radar for a while, or *knock on wood* get hit by a truck and pass away.
Your comic will live on for future generations.
Speaking of which, is drunk duck down for everyone or just me?
Shadow girls, also gone. Though that one was somewhat expected as the owner went on hiatus ages back. Still, it was a great read.
And then there's a good number I've already deleted from my bookmarks a few weeks back,. try a few times, then delete. It's a shame really, but we can always hope the comic lives on somewhere in a dusty corner of googles cache servers.
If you're already playing this game and just want the promotional codes, then check the earlier post. At the time of writing there's about 57K in gold codes up and available, which should get your Stronghold to level 4 in no time.
Currently the game is about a week old, it was released on May 9'th for iOS, and will be made available for the Android market on May 21'st 2015.
Some questions in Global chat will be repeated so and then, it's always a nice thing to just have a list of answers rather than having to find a wiki or listen to hours of Youtube chatter and end up with nothing.
FAQ and Tips
- Q: Where do I enter codes?
- A: At the bottom-left of your screen you'll notice 3 icons, press the one with 9 squares. This is called the "menu" button. Next, scroll right until you find "Redeem a Code". Now just enter a few of the codes that we've collected so far. You'll have a nice bunch of gold to start. Mind though, keep them in your inventory until you actually have storage space for it. Please note you can only use each code once.
- Q: What is a kingdom and why can't I join one yet?
- A: If you've played Clash of Clans (CoC) in the past, this is basically a Clan or Guild, a group of other players who are "on your side" so to say. You help each other, and as a group you fight PvP battles. You need to have a level 4 stronghold to join one.
- Q: Why should I join a kingdom?
- A: Simple reasons. 1: You get more troops, thus you earn more gold and can progress on battles better. 2: Kingdom raids earn you more rings as well as loyalty points. Every 5K LP you can buy a loyalty chest, these can contain junk, but also a LOT of gems (I had 500 from one, 150 from another). More gems means more builders. You will want to get into a kingdom as soon as you can, never start your own though - always join an existing one. Aside that, most kingdoms will rotate the raider position if you ask for it - meaning you'll get between 10-25% "extra" gold during raids.
- Q: When building my base, what buildings should I protect?
- A: Your stronghold is generally the most important building, if you lose that you'll have lost the battle and your attacker gains +15 mana. Aside that, there's the Troop Portal, which gives your attacker +4 bonus mana which will generally be enough to start casting his first spell, or the kingdom portal which gives +3. Gold Smelters and Gold Storage can be annoying to lose if you've hoarded a lot of gold as well, and may become juicy targets once you reach a high "win streak".
- Q: These ancients, how do I get more and can I make them stronger?
- A: As stated, you start with Sulric if you use the code "Samurai" you'll unlock the "Essence Master" as well. You'll be able to find more ancients when doing battles and getting a chest reward. You can also buy chests. If you get a duplicate ancient you will "convert" him or her to "primus" which you can then use to upgrade an ancient the same element. "Pure primus" may be used on any element.
- Q: Mana? Wtf is mana? CoC didn't have mana.
- A: Your ancients use mana, you'll start with a fire guy called "Sulric", and later on you'll unlock new ones. You can store up to 30 mana during a fight and use spells which cost 5, 10 or 15 mana to cast. Failing to protect these "high mana buildings" can change the outcomem of the battle quite quickly.
- Q: Walls are important to protect my buildings then, right?
- A: Yes and no. Until you reach Stronghold level 4+ you probably shouldn't even bother building walls, let alone upgrading them. This is because you won't have enough walls to really make a good fence, and early on most people will use the Warden (aka: archer) troop which will shoot right across your walls anyway.
- Q: What do I do with gems, how to I get more?
- A: Gems are the "special" currency in this game, it allows you to skip upgrade times, buy extra builders, rare chests and more gold. If you follow the tutorial and complete some of the achievement tasks you'll soon have 2000 saved up. I recommend buying an extra builder with that. You could buy a "rare ancient chest", but chances are big that you'll get a duplicate or one you'll replace or not even use.
- Q: Upgrading my Stronghold now requires rings, where do I get these?
- A: Once you start needing rings, you'll start getting them in battles, just save them up. You'll get 1 battle stone every 20 minutes up to the limit of 5. And you can get 10x5 free battle stones each time you run out. It's best to save those free battles until you also get rings that way.
- Q: Some guy with a high level base said I shouldn't build Gold smelters, what gives?
- A: Gold smelters are a building, and each building your attacker destroys gives him at least +1 mana, see above why that is bad. If you can't play the game more than once or twice a day though, gold smelters can be a good source of income for being able to build more stuff. You can't destroy them later on though. The reasons for not building them means you'd have to battle a lot to get the gold you need, not all players will have that luxury of time. But, most high players will tell you that the smelters barely provide you with any gold, and it costs a lot to upgrade them - so there is merit to the story.
- Q: Dragons? I want one! Why can't I build a Dragon roost yet?
- A: You'll most likely get your first dragon called "Foreveil" after completing "Tracking Forevail" in The Frozen North. It's an 8 piece quest which gradually increases in difficulty and costs a battle stone each time you make an attempt. I recommend doing it once you reach Stronghold level 4-5 and have upgraded your Wardens some. Foreveil will help you a LOT during battles.
- Q: What does the retreat button do?
- A: You don't "have" to wait for your troops to fully destroy the enemy base, and you don't "have" to use all your troops if you don't want to. Especially during kingdom raids it's advised to retreat as soon as you've destroyed the enemy stronghold. Press the button "X" at the top of your screen twice to end the battle.
- Q: What ancient should I use / level up?
- A: That is entirely up to you obviously, generally the Rare ancients will be a bit better than the Common ones, and the Epic ones will be better than the Rare ones. They still each have a different playstyle, and are good with different kinds of troops. High HP troops will benefit from healing more than low hp troops for example. Foreveil once you get him is a good one to start leveling - since you also increase your dragon's dps while in battle. Later on you may want to move to Nakhti for disabling defenses while doing damage, or Nyrax for the sheer number of cannon fodders and healing. It's all down to the playstyle you enjoy most - as well as how your enemy has set up their base. Experiment and find out what's best for you.
- Q: What is the best way to rank high in individual tournaments?
- A: You only get 10 fights, and you're rated by the amount of rings you've stolen. You get more rings at a higher win streak. So, if you expect to be able to get a 10 win streak at most - lose a battle, then start the individual tournament and get that 10 win streak. If you expect to be able to get a 20 win streak, then you get a 10 win streak started before starting the individual tournament. With greater win streaks comes the increasing risk of losing however, and possibly missing out on the number 1 spot for this tournament.
Have more questions? Don't fear to ask, they'll be answered in the comments or added to the article.
This game is a clone of "Clash of Clans", which if you've done any mobile gaming you probably heard of by now. Rival Kingdoms looks better, and is basically the next generation CoC clones,. I haven't got a lot to tell you about it for now,. but I do have some codes to share which will provide you with an ancient, some material to level him, and well over 20K gold that should allow you to level your buildings nice and quick.
Feel free to leave a comment if you find new codes.
I'll update this post when I run into extras, so keep checking back so and then ;)
The Codes
You enter a code by pressing the 9 Dots icon in the bottom-left of your game screen, then scroll right to where it says "Redeem a code", and press that. All codes are case insensitive, so you can use big or small caps.
- SAMURAI: The rare ancient "Essence Master"
- FB3497 : +2500 lightning essence, which can be used to level the ancient
- FBLOOT : 6K gold
- 3MILLION : 10 battle stones
- FB9761 : 10 battle stones, 10 rings, 6K gold, rare boost chest
- 1000GOLD : 1K gold
- YDDMVTWV : 50K gold
- TWRKME : 1K gold
- INSTAFIRE : 3 battle stones
So, we got this machine at home called an overlock machine,. I haven't a clue how it works, but it broke down, which means I get to take it apart and "see" how it works, then figure out how to put it back together again. It's a "SilverCrest SON 90 A1, 90W", and obviously an overlock machine.
I realize this isn't the usual material you'd find on this blog, but hey, it's interesting! I figure opening this thing up is a good excuse to put up some pictures of the process, so let's get started on that.
You'll need 3-4 kinds of screwdriver to get to the tiny parts and open everything up:
- Flat screwdriver (aka "-")
- A big and a small Philips (aka "+")
- Torque (aka "*", aka shit that will break down easily and often)
The machine:
The problem:
You'll notice the "square gray thing" with the slightly darker gray circular thing somewhat in the middle of the image. There's a hole on the side of that where a screw had fallen out. This in turn ensured that the metal bit indicated on the left with my screwdriver had some loose, and was lodging itself against the bottom plate. We'll cheat a bit, skip forward and loosen said plate and show the problem with a video:
Now, to get a screw into that tiny space, the front plastic plate needed to be removed from the machine. Unfortunately to be able to do that, both side panels needed to be removed as well. So let's just remove everything while we're at it and look at this technical bit of engineering.
Remove all non fixed attachments and trays (1 for parts, 1 for sleeves and 1 on the front for cut cloth).
Start at the bottom and locate the 2 screws with washers on the right. The nice part is that most screws (sadly not all of them) are a combination of flat and philips, so you can use whichever you own that fits best. I would recommend the flat though, since you can put the most force on those without overturning and thus making future maintenance a bit more troublesome. You can leave the black ones and sucker cup ones alone.
Store all screws you remove in the tray you removed earlier, and keep track of them - you wouldn't want to end up closing everything and suddenly having 1 more screw than you started out with It'll give you a headache.
Next is another easy part, the bottom-left panel, just 2 screws and it'll come right off.
Turn to the rear of the machine and find the single screw keeping the topleft bit in place. Removing that will allow you access to the light (in case those leds ever break down, they're easy to replace)
The next part is a bitch, and also the "only place" on the whole machine where you need the torque screwdriver. Now, I went ahead and removed this one before removing the thread handles in the back since it's the first time I'm opening one of these things, but normally you'd want to do "that" first... so that you have some much needed space.
That's where it's located, and it's in quite deep. Make sure you use a torque screwdriver of the exact size that fits and no smaller. Also notice the "(" slot in the bottom, that indicator knob can (and needs to) be removed by pulling it.
After that the side will come off fairly easily, as well as the front.
The thread arm has a hidden screw (well, it was hidden under a spool here) which needs to be removed before you can remove the arm.
And yes, it needs to be removed because it hides yet another screw. This one is keeping the rear plate in place, so let's go ahead and remove it shall we?
Having done that will allow access to some moving parts as well as the heart and "engine" of the machine.
All those parts removed allowed me to finally indicate more clearly the location of the missing screw. Right "there". All the movement and frequent use had apparently made it fall out.
Voila, tiny critter reinstalled in it's rightful position.
Simply tightening it won't do however, as you'll notice in the above video it was still hitting the bottom plate. There's 2 flathead screws keeping the plate in place, loosen those to align everything. Frequently keep turning the machine's mechanics using the manual movement knob on the right while adjusting the alignment to ensure smooth operation.
Here's a nice image of all the internal giblets on display.
Now, while we have the machine opened up, it's a good time to clean and lubricate it using some of the supplied oil. Pierce the top of the plastic cannister with a needle and apply a tiny drop to the following boom:
It moves up and down a lot, and a tiny drop will ensure smoother operation. Manually rotate the mechanics through 3-4 full motions to ensure a good spread. Next we add a drop to this boom here:
And again rotate it through another 3-4 full motions to spread the lubricant.
Now just a quick lunch break,
And putting everything back together.
Again, keep track of your screws and make sure you didn't miss any.
If you came upon this post looking for a disassembly, hopefully these images helped you fix your machine without the help of a professional, and saved a good sum of money.
Whoa, did I honestly not post anything for half a year?!
What is the world coming to...
I've been playing some Diablo 3 recently, expansion is pretty decent - lots of room for character growth and season 2 was as good an excuse as any to work on some achievements.
Also, this game on iPhone / Android is worth checking out. It's... good, and growing better. No pay2win so far, just a lot of annoying spammers. But, those are everywhere nowadays.
It finally happened. Hell froze over.
