SpaceX truly inspires - Grasshopper 325m Test | Single Camera (Hexacopter)

Defiance - The Game - Too little to keep me interested any longer

After doing the story, the side missions and grinding reps to trusted and realizing how long it will take to work them higher and the pay off for doing it....

... I'm done with the game, it's become boring and repetitive.

Sure I've been working the arkfalls over and over, and the pursuits till I've got over 5000 kills and got the suits. But that is all there is to do, and it gets old very fast. At first I thought I'd stick with it until the first DLC (downloadable content) drops but I just see it being more of the same.

Sadly there is practically no 'MMO' interaction to be had in the game and I fail to see how they can work it in there at this point.

I feel a little cheated as I expected it to last longer than it has before joining the pile in the games graveyard. It remains to be seen what happens with the TV show, but that is starting to suffer from lack of progressive story lines as well. Maybe I'll come back in the future but for now I think the game will fade fast.

DEFIANCE Patch 1.021 goes live today, here's the notes.

• Reduces game server crashes
• Fixed a client crash caused by keybinding in character select Settings.
• Fixed a Plague event Emergency where not all of the assets were spawning correctly.
• Fix for Perks not remaining in their proper slot after loading.
• Data recorder associated with the Svushinnira event Vagabond mission now able to be grabbed by all members in a group.
• Salvage Crew Emergency now has a completion message.
• There was an invisible shotgun wielding mutant roaming around the world - he is now visible.
• One of the Mutant Rifleman was not always attacking players properly. He is smarter now.
• The Alamo in San Francisco had some periodic issues with Dark Matter guys popping in and out which is now fixed.
• Reduced the difficulty of the Matron in Island of Lost Soldiers for groups.
• Contracts page will no longer get locked after completing all daily and weekly Contracts.
• Fixed a case where you could get instant shield regeneration.
• Addressed a synchronization issue that caused people to see a couple of extra seconds added to their race time.
• Mastery effects that were increasing the duration of EGO powers were causing an issue that would let you have essentially unlimited duration on their powers. These Mastery effects have been changed to reduce the cooldown on Powers when performing a full reload with the weapon to correct this issue.
• Fixed a situation where a few weapons would not get XP when used. This included the VOT Mass Cannon, VBI Guided Launcher, and the Hydra Launcher.

Defiance - The Game - Shooting sheep, I mean Episode Plague

If you have not tried the latest content updates for Episodes 5 and 6 then you should, you'll have a blast literally, it's as close to zombie smashing as you are going to get. It's like fish in a barrel siege mode, endless fun to be had but bring a big gun with plenty of muscle.

I've already done 3 of the 4, they appear roughly 30-40 minutes apart in 4 locations (almost on the hour). You defend four locations, from 10 waves of plague infest bad guys, it's a co-op mode and the locations appear in blue/green color on your map just like arkfalls. Each lasts around 15 minutes.

There are also 3 other pursuits you need to get done, nothing to major with them just the usual killing of certain types and quantities.

Get them done before they disappear, plus it also helps that so many are trying to get the siege's done at this time that it will really help you out.

Find me in the game as Daryll

Defiance - The Game - Faction Rep building is worse than WoW Fishing :)

So I'm at the same point as quite a lot of others players I'm guessing, you've done the main story, you've done the side missions and now you're wondering what now ....?

Well it's onto rep grinding then, something that should be very familiar with any MMO player out there. Except in Defiance it's a very different beast, here's the break down basics.

What is it?

• There are five factions at this time.
• One faction WILL require you to do some PVP (player versus player)
• Each faction gives you two faction quests
• One has to be completed in 24 hours and usually involves collecting a certain amount of items (which is really just killing a whole bunch of something).
• The second lasts longer and is a little harder to complete.
• Sadly the reward is very low and it is pretty much going to take a hell of a long time to get your faction levels up beyond friendly.
• Rewards are usually purchasable items from the vendors much like anything else you've been buying up to this point in the game, but they [should] be better quality and have some nicer stats.

So is it worth it?

Well I guess the only real answer at this time is ... what else you going to do instead until those DLC's (downloadable content) start dropping? :)

There is an excellent site you can use as reference should you get stuck on where a particular contract is and other details for it, just visit

http://www.defiancedata.com/

Goodbye Samsung S3 hello HTC One

Switched from Samsung Galaxy 3 after finally getting fed up with all the plastic and spotty working GPS on jellybean.

My new baby is an HTC One and this thing is sweet, the build quality really does feel like quality, the screen is gorgeous and it's as responsive as any iDevice I've ever used. Took a while to get used to sense, and in the end I put APEX Launcher back on it as that app just rocks.

So what phone are you going for this year?

Defiance - Weapon Skill Explained.

Superb video explaining the theory behind weapon skill advancement.

Defiance, The Game - Week 4 - Lessons learned & Anti-Gravity!

Having played a while here are some notes on what I have taken as my approach to leveling weapons and inventory management.

Leveling weapons

• Do not care so much about a favorite, you'll move on from it in no time if you want to keep working that skill level. Once the weapon is at a max level either sell it or most likely break it down to resources.
• Attaching modifications seems rather pointless unless you really want to keep a weapon for some reason, maybe you like the look or it suits your play style and you are OK with it hanging around in your bag taking up space while you level others.
• Do not get obsessed with keeping all the different ones you come across, SMG's, sniper rifles and BMG's are all over the place and you will end up with lower level weapons that you probably will never level until you have nothing else to do.
• As you progress you will have the option for multiple configurations, use them. It's quicker to switch to another layout in the heat of battle when you run out of ammo than go find a weapon in the inventory that has shells.

Inventory management

• Always have some spaces available, nothing worse than having to try and find space when that really nice weapon reward hits you. Sure you can go claim it later, but you'll most likely forget and end up with a bunch in there that will be useless by the time you remember.
• Breakdown anything you do not plan to use, you need the scrip more than you need a full bag. If you cannot break it down then sell it when you get the chance.
• 'I'll use that mod one day so I'll keep it' ... been there, most likely never going to happen so unless you really plan to use them just get rid of them by selling and free up space.
• My rule of thumb is before I quit the game for the day I clean up my bags, I upgrade my shields or grenades with anything I think I want to use and then clean out the rest. You would be surprised how many you collect running around.

My weapon rotations

• If I'm doing contracts or random group attacks I start from a distance and pick off as many as I can with a sniper rifle till they get too close then switch to which ever weapon I'm trying to level in close combat. This is a great way to get a few sniper leveling shots in without having to worry about them coming at you quickly.
• If I'm doing an ark fall or instance run I'll usually have a pistol and either an assault rifle or shotgun for a little more fast crowd handling.
• When I come across an ammo refill location, I always always refill and rotate my weapons to be sure all are topped off in the magazine and then maxed in my inventory.

   What are your tips? Share with us all and lets that EGO rising.

   Finally as a side note, was anyone else getting floating vehicles, players and ark falls on Saturday 27th April? Weird.

Defiance, The Game - week 3

Defiance, The Game - Week 3

   A weird week in the game for sure, over the weekend us P.C. users had a long server downtime due to an unusual situation where many of us (I was one of them) suddenly saw our EGO boost into the 000's and many players reporting in the defiance forums other strange behavior. As expected the servers went down fast and we had to wait over 7 hours if I recall correctly for them to come back up again with 'normal' stats returned most likely due to a back up restore.

   Having now spent some quality time playing here are some thoughts from a P.C. player.

1. There really is no sense of community in the game, I'm lucky if I see the occasional thank you for rezing someone. The only time I come across other players in any kind of numbers is when we get some ark falls, even in the instance maps there is little to no conversation, and I think a lot of it is due to the weird way they implemented chat (textual).
2. Weapon leveling is interesting and keeps you mixing it up, but unless I am missing something I end up with a ton of them in my inventory and once I level one to the max I end up having to break it down to resources to make space, there needs to be some kind of stash mechanism where I can keep a set of gear that I've leveled and pull out for those special occasions.
3. I should not have to un-equip a weapon to modify it, this is extremely annoying to have to do every time, especially when you have a lot in your inventory.
4. Using transport with boost and flying up into the air with jumps never gets old, especially when you have that oh $%^& moment when you realize you just jumped from a ridge over water and are about to take a long swim back to shore.
5. I agree with conversations in the forums that Trion needs to find a way to prevent people from driving around in ark falls of bug out breaks, just flat out annoying for the rest of us.

   I am still immensely enjoying the game even though we have to deal with disconnects and server down time, I say we give Trion time to settle the systems down and quit whining about it as if peoples lives depend on it.

Defiance, The Game and The Show

So it is perhaps the first real attempt at a cross-over between a game and a TV show, syfy.com has put some big money and a lot of talk behind it. I am willing to put aside my problems with syfy and the way they churn out the junk that's all over the network these days and give this new attempt a fair hearing.

The Game
I've been playing the game since it came out and so far I'm impressed with it, the twists are nice and the gameplay good with a steady progression, that is putting aside the launch problems that I think it is fair to say any online game suffers from when you hype it and overload the networks.

A third person shooter with lots of weapons, modifications and open gameplay (although there are plenty of missions and a main story line to follow should you want too ... and you should). To the credit of Trion Worlds, Inc they have managed to release the game at the same time across all the major platforms and have worked diligently to fix bugs with fast patches and responsive support.

To not spoil the plot(s) I will not go into too much detail other than to say your character will interact with those in the TV show whilst allowing you to do your own thing and influence the game. In fact much has been said regarding how the TV show will influence the direction of the game and vice versa, I have even read that you just might see your character mentioned in the program further down the road so choose those names carefully!

The Show
The show follows the lives of those on Earth years after the arrival of many Alien races that come seeking refuge and a new home. Through a series of events the Earth is terraformed into an unrecognizable landscape where all races now exist (and fight!).

Defiance is the name of a city now standing on the ruins of St. Louis where I expect most of the show will take place in the first season at least, in many ways the initial pilot part 1 episode reminded me of a mix between Jericho and most Westerns with the rivalry between two controlling families.

There is understandably a lot of comparisons with BattleStar Galactica, not surprising since a lot of the people involved in that program are working on this one including camera work and sound track by Bear McCreary.

There will end up being 3 groups, those that watch the show, those that play the game and those that do both. I think you will really have to do both if you are so inclined to get the most out of it.

As hard as it is to judge a program by a pilot episode, I think this might be the one to watch for Sci-Fi fans and gamers this year at least and assuming syfy does not kill it, it could do well branching the divide between watching and interacting.

Let the new catchy phrases begin to encroach on society and go gather some Ark Tech.

What is up with Samsung Galaxy 3 + Jelly Bean = Bad GPS?

Ever since I upgraded my wonderful Samsung Galaxy 3 on AT&T to Jelly Bean the GPS has been a disaster. It either fails to find my location, reports it inaccurately or gives the impression that it is trying to find my location without ever actually doing it.

If I hard reboot the phone it will run fine again for the first time I use it or until I turn the GPS off and on again and then I'm right back where I started. Having searched the web I've found many people reporting similar problems since upgrading to Jelly Bean on different networks.

At this point, I've gone from relying and trusting it to using my old school dedicated GPS device.

.... Samsung needs to address this issue and fast.