archeology
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Recommended Reading: Your AirPods are going to die
Everyone's AirPods will die. We've got the trick to replacing them. Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post If you hopped on the AirPod bandwagon early, your earbuds are likely near the end of their life. The Washington Post details what happens when your true wireless audio accessory stops working, including the fact that "battery service" really just means giving you a new pair and tossing your old ones in the recycling bin.
Breakfast Topic: Things you just can't bother to do in WoW
I've played World of Warcraft for a long while now, which means at one time or another, I've at least tried most of the things the game has to offer. I've done PvE and PvP; I've played as a hard-core raider and a total casual; and at one point or another I've at least dabbled in all of the game's professions. For quite a while, the one in-game thing I just wouldn't do was fishing: it seemed tedious and I could never find the time or interest to level it very far. But lately, that's changed: a recent venture into fishing has shown me that it's not nearly as tedious as I remember it being and dailies for the Anglers are not un-fun. This has reduced my list of things I can't be bothered to do in-game to just one item: archeology. Tempted by the appeal of high-level items and lured by the new-found ease of leveling fishing, I gave archeology a go only to discover that leveling it goes well past my tolerance levels for tedium. Maybe next expansion? So today, tell us, WoW-ers, what in-game tasks -- professions or not -- can you just not bring yourself to do?
EVE Evolved: First impressions of Odyssey
The Odyssey expansion has been live for a couple of days now, but it's already starting to have a massive impact on EVE Online. Traffic through low-security space has increased significantly for the first time in years thanks to explorers hunting data and relic sites, and some players are even hunting asteroid belt NPCs in lowsec for the new security tags. New wars have erupted in nullsec following the redistribution of moon wealth, mining has become a more valuable profession, and the rebalanced battleships feel powerful again. Unfortunately, Odyssey has seen its fair share of problems too. The new jump effect looks spectacular the first few times you see it, but long-term play is reportedly causing motion sickness in some players. Some players have also been objecting to the ice mining changes, and the revamped radial UI menu hasn't done much to fix the game's usability problems. Explorers in low-security space and nullsec are reporting incomes in the billions of ISK per day range thanks to the scan probe changes and new hacking minigame, but not everyone is happy with the new loot-scattering mechanic. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the early impact of Odyssey on the EVE Online universe and discover the secrets behind collecting all the valuable loot when hacking.
EVE Evolved: Get ready for Odyssey
With just two days to go until EVE Online's exploration-focused Odyssey expansion goes live, players have been scouring the test server for information that can give them an edge. Some have been practicing moon surveying techniques for the upcoming redistribution of tech 2 minerals, and others are hoping to get rich quick by speculating on battleship price changes. Explorers are kitting out new exploration ships, theorycrafters are working on new setups for rebalanced ships, and pirates are setting up base in lowsec areas that are about to become fertile hunting grounds. Odyssey isn't quite the Apocrypha-level expansion I've been hoping for, but it certainly seems set to shake things up. Changes to moon minerals will throw nullsec into chaos and hopefully ignite some big territorial wars, and battleship buffs may change EVE's popular fleet compositions. The Discovery Scanner Overlay will make exploration much easier for new players to get into, but will also give pirates another tool with which to hunt down explorers. A new co-operative hacking minigame will also make exploration more of a team sport. But how can you make the most of the expansion from day one, and what can you do today to prepare for it? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the new exploration system and other changes you can expect when you log in on Tuesday, and what you can do now to make the most of them.
EVE Evolved: Archaeology and Hacking in Odyssey
EVE Online's Odyssey expansion is set to land in just over a week's time, kicking off the game's second decade with a focus on exploration, immersion, and resource rebalancing. Developers plan to shake up nullsec by redistributing the value of various moon minerals and buffing player-owned outposts, and lowsec will become a more tempting place to visit with the addition of valuable new tags to asteroid belt NPCs. But what's in it for highsec players? In addition to new navy issue battlecruisers and immersive new jump and death sequences, players from all corners of EVE will find new exploration content in their back yards. A big part of the new exploration system is a complete redesign of the Hacking and Archaeology mini-professions, which have been in EVE for as long as I can remember and have remained relatively unchanged. Odyssey will add new sites for both professions and replace the boring old chance-based system with a new minigame that emphasises co-operation with other players. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the history of Hacking and Archaeology in EVE and what the new system brings to the table.
EVE Fanfest 2013 day two: World of Darkness, Odyssey, and EVE Virtual Reality with the Oculus Rift
EVE Online's tenth anniversary Fanfest promised to be its biggest yet, with over 1,400 players packed into Iceland's Harpa convention centre to find out the latest on EVE Online, DUST 514, and World of Darkness. The first day focused mainly on DUST and its link with the EVE universe, but today the focus largely switched back to internet spaceships. There were plenty of roundtable discussions, and the CSM and Alliance panels were as awesome as ever, but it was the EVE Keynote that really blew the crowd away. The day got off to a good start with the highly anticipated World of Darkness talk. Most fans were probably expecting to see more airy game design ideas and another shiny trailer, but this year CCP just came out and put all its cards on the table. We saw that the game is still firmly in pre-production, with much of the previous work going into developing the engine and cool content creation tools and shaders. While I was initially disappointed at the lack of gameplay progress or shiny cinematics, I found this approach of being open and direct with fans very refreshing. As I told WoD art director Thomas Holt, honest beats shiny every time. Read on for a full run-down of the EVE reveals from the second day of EVE's tenth anniversary Fanfest, including in-depth details of the Odyssey expansion's features.
Archaeologists eschewing traditional whip / leather jacket combo for Kinect controllers
The latest must-have piece of technology in the archaeological world? The Kinect. Students from the University of California, San Diego are taking Microsoft's much-hacked peripheral on an archeological dig in Jordan, using the device to help create 3D scans of the site on the cheap. The hack pulls data captured by the Kinect's camera and infrared scanner, turning the information into avatars that can be plugged into virtual worlds. The hack's creator is hoping that it might some day be able to capture information as complex as a buildings or neighborhoods. The first, decidedly less ambitious application is being referred to as "ArKinect," because what's a cool hack without a cool name?
Blues explain nature of archaeology cooldowns
Several players and Community Manager Lylirra shared some discussion today on the official World of Warcraft forums about the cooldowns of novelty items crafted through the archaeology profession. In the thread, the original poster suggested that the cooldowns of certain novelty items were too long in comparison to others and that Blizzard should consider fixing the discrepancies. The poster used Pendant of the Scarab Storm and Bones of Transformation as an example, noting that both items have a vanity effect that lasts 20 seconds but a cooldown difference of 90 minutes. Lylirra responded, explaining that the cooldowns, though seemingly random, were chosen with specific issues in mind. She explains that with the Pendant of the Scarab Storm specifically, developers were concerned that the item's effect might strain certain players' computers. Archaeology Items' Cooldowns The current cooldown was chosen deliberately, but I can see why you might think otherwise (100 minutes is kind of strange for a cooldown time). Anyway, summoning a harem of scarabs can be pretty taxing on some systems, so there were some initial concerns about putting the pendant on a short cooldown. Based on the feedback we've received, though, we're looking into reducing it. We agree that the effect is pretty cool and would be nice to use it more frequently. source Personally, a little lore logic behind the items might be nice as well. How is it that my character can summon a god every 3 minutes, but it takes 10 minutes to round up some sassy dwarven ladies?
Archeologists brave flinging bits of rock with the iPad
You hear about interesting uses for the iPad all the time, and many times, those uses are merely theoretical. Sure, using an iPad at an archeological dig sounds cool and practical and all, but does anybody really do it? As it turns out, the answer to that question is "yes." In some of Apple's online promotional galleries, the company highlights a team of archeologists making use of the iPad for tasks such as text and graphical data entry. One of those in charge of the dig says that using the iPad for this work has saved countless hours of data entry that would have otherwise been done back at the field office. Sure, the iPad needs to be sufficiently protected from the elements (such as, y'know, flying hunks of rock), but that's likely a small price to pay vs. paper notebooks with one's chicken scratch that someone needs to translate. I bet these archeologists were wishing there was an on-board camera for the iPad right about now. [via Cult of Mac]
EVE Evolved: Exploring New Eden
A common theme in popular MMOs today is the idea of exploration. For a surprisingly large number of players, their reason for playing an MMO is to experience new content and explore new lands. Each new MMO or expansion becomes a new country to explore with its own set of features and game mechanics. Limits such as levels, raid progression and quest chains are used to ensure we don't burn through all the game's content too quickly. New Eden:EVE Online is set in the expansive universe of New Eden. This nebular stellar nursery contains thousands of stars, of which approximately 5000 have been explored and added to the game's stargate network. Even though EVE doesn't have level limits, it does have a familiar approach to exploring content. Some content such as difficult complexes (space dungeons) will not be completable solo and other content like level 4 missions will be so difficult as to require large ships with a lot of skills behind them. The majority of the universe, however, is free to explore from day one and there's a lot to explore.In this visual article, I explore some of the stunning content of EVE Online and take a brief look at what the future holds for explorers in New Eden.%Gallery-38200%
