scouting
Latest
Tree of Savior Q&A 13 on tradeable items, scouting, and more
Tree of Savior's latest English dev blog features some interesting gameplay nuggets, chief among them the binding/trading mechanics and the game's map system. Lead developer Hakkyu Kim says that all in-game items are freely tradeable, which differentiates ToS from many of its bind-on-equip or bind-on-pickup contemporaries. There is a catch, though, and it is that an item's Potential stat will decrease by one whenever it's traded. The map system generally shows the location of your party members but not other players. However, Scouts can "select a spot on the map to find out which players or enemies are there and share this info with party members." There's more to this week's dev blog, so click through the links below to give it a full read.
Madden 25 getting play-calling assistance on Xbox One
EA announced a Xbox One-exclusive SmartGlass app for Madden NFL 25 called CoachGlass today. The app will be available to players with a phone or tablet that can support SmartGlass at the system's launch on November 19. CoachGlass pulls data from "tens of thousands" of online matches to offer suggestions for play-calling on defense. It factors in the down and distance at any moment in the game, points of reference for where teams are on the field, to determine an opponent's tendencies on offense. The app presents players on defense with a list of the opponent's preferred targets at a given moment as well as the areas of the field they opt to throw or run to at that point in the game. CoachGlass is available to use in every mode of Madden 25 as well, so it's not just relegated to online matches. When Microsoft revealed its SmartGlass app for Xbox 360 at its 2012 pre-E3 press event, EA's Madden series was one of the featured properties being shown off. EA Tiburon wound up shelving its original app idea for Madden 13, in which players could create athletes and then take them on the field in the game.
See NCAA 13's Dynasty mode scouting in action
EA Sports unleashed a trailer demonstrating player scouting in NCAA Football 13's Dynasty mode earlier this week. NCAA 13 takes the field on July 10 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
EVE Evolved: A new nullsec for everyone
Several weeks ago, EVE Online developer CCP Greyscale published possibly the single most important devblog of the past two years. Titled Nullsec development: Design goals, the blog laid the ground rules for high-level discussion on EVE's upcoming nullsec revamp. For those who live in nullsec, territorial warfare and nullsec life represent the true endgame of EVE. It's in these massive lawless regions of space that players forge alliances, build their own empires, and lead massive fleets of ships into enemy territory to kick over some space sandcastles. Over the past two weeks, I've been delving into the discussion surrounding the upcoming nullsec revamp and speculating on what changes we might see. I started with a look back at the early days of nullsec industry and went on to give some ideas aimed at reclaiming those glory days. I followed that up with last week's summary of EVE Online's empire-building history, the problems faced by today's territorial warfare mechanics, and further speculation on how the system could be radically changed for the better. In this week's EVE Evolved, I conclude this series of articles on the upcoming nullsec revamp with an examination of the discussion surrounding PvE, the local channel, and the potentially revolutionary smallholding system that could give even casual and solo players a taste of nullsec.
Robotics merit badge gets official within Boy Scouts of America, Wall-E approves emphatically
Yours truly knows exactly how determined one has to be to achieve the honor of Eagle Scout, but it's getting a heck of a lot easier for the more modern offspring of this world. This month last year, we saw the Video Games belt loop sashay into the Cub Scout ranks and make all of the others seem inadequate, and now, there's yet another award that'll likely have your nerd-of-a-child clamoring to suit up in blue or brown. The Robotics merit badge was just made official within the Boy Scouts of America, falling nicely into a sect that promotes science, technology, engineering and math. Officials are purportedly expecting some 10,000 or so of the nation's 2.7 million Scouts to earn this badge within the next dozen months, with those who choose to do so required to "design and build a robot while learning about robot movement, sensors and programming." Thankfully for aspiring Ben Heckendorns, we're told that "even some video game controllers can be considered robots," proving that we're just one leap of faith away from a bona fide Hacking badge. Hey, they want us to Be Prepared, right?
Watch knots spring to life with Animated Knots
Do you want to tie a specialized knot? There's an app for that! Animated Knots isn't particularly polished or overdesigned. Instead, it presents a list of knots that are arranged in categories, such as boating, fishing, and scouting. You tap on a knot, and you see the knot tie itself on screen using stop motion photography. I must admit, it's kind of cool. Not only do you see each stage of the knot formation, but you also get a text accompaniment (which you can pause to read) that explains exactly what you need to do at each stage in order to create the knot. This app gave me flashbacks to summer camp, where I learned to tie a bowline with my eyes closed in under 5 seconds ... and that's a good thing.
Scouting around with the Crashin' Thrashin' Racer
Cabinetsanchez over on LJ has documented something that I saw in action yesterday while running a few instances -- while it's a ton of fun to run my Crashin' Thrashin Racer around (I'm undefeated since I picked up the achievement the first day I got the toy, by the way), players have found a few extra ways to make the Racers work for them. Yesterday, I saw one of my group members using the Racer a few times to scout the instance ahead and see what pulled with what, and as CS says, it worked great: while the Racer will aggro enemies, they won't tag on to the rest of the group -- they'll just reset after they destroy the little car.CS also says that the Racer takes no falling damage, so you can send it exploring off of cliffs and platforms, and he says that though the car is considered level 60, its aggro range is pretty small (I can attest to this, as we were driving it pretty close to enemies yesterday without it registering on their radar). And he's got an even more devious use (some might say this is an exploit): bosses aggroed by the racer will sometimes despawn after they conquer it for up to 30 seconds or so. That seems like a hotfix waiting to happen, but I haven't personally tried it, so it may not be as useful as it sounds.The downside of this is that the Racer was meant to be a fun item, and if it really does lead to behavior that Blizzard considers exploiting, they might have to think twice about including great items like this in the future. We'll have to see what their ruling on this is, but hopefully no matter what happens (I'm guessing a quick hotfix, maybe even shrinking the range of the Racer's controller), this won't prevent Blizzard from giving us more fun toys later on.
The Main Man
EVE Online is a game where collective action trumps individual action. It's certainly a game that can be played solo although nowhere near as effectively as when your main's activities are supported or enabled by an alt. CCP provides 3 character slots per account, but skillpoint training can only progress on one character at a time. So where the real alt-play comes in is with dual boxing -- running two accounts at once to facilitate an activity. The main/alt duo can take a number of forms, by no means limited to the following basic examples:
