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The Mog Log: Understanding Final Fantasy XIV's markets
There are lots of ways to make money in Final Fantasy XIV, but the fastest way to increase your riches comes from smart use of the market boards. (Yes, you're not creating new money to enter the system; there are a lot of ways to do that, too. Go do some leves.) This is why I'm baffled at how many people understand the principle but don't understand how to sell things on the markets. Some of this probably comes from the fact that the system is never explained in great depth, but it doesn't help that the system isn't set up to work like many auction systems in other MMOs. So while some of you already grasp this and are enjoying the singular fun of being locked into a pricing war with three other people, others aren't sure how to get their Fleece to sell. Let's talk about some market truths you might not have realized.
Dark Age of Camelot launches an update and answers player questions
If you've been playing Dark Age of Camelot for a while, odds are good that you've acquired a lot of things. You've got a set of Epic Armor, you've got tons of items clogging your bank, and you've got a pair of fuzzy bunny slippers that you don't remember buying but you now refuse to remove. The game's latest patch does not improve your slipper situation, but it does improve Epic Armor, add new Epic Weapons and Accessories, allow for remote bank access, and increase the stack limits on many items. So everything else gets better. Does that satisfy you? No? You want to know more about the future of the game? Well, then, you can feast your eyes on a new set of community answers from the development team addressing the future update plans for the game as well as which areas will not be seeing much improvement (throwing weapons, for instance, are pretty much up the creek). So there's plenty for DAoC fans to enjoy. However, no one enjoys those bunny slippers. Seriously. Wear armor like everyone else. [Thanks to Etaew for the tip!]
Mac 101: Use the keyboard to navigate a Grid from the Dock
When I first got my Mac, it came with all the standard applications found in the applications folder. I used to find that opening an application from the applications Grid, on the Dock, was much easier and quicker than opening an application through the Finder. Over time, with more applications being installed on my computer, my applications Grid became larger and larger. Instead of seeing a small bunch of icons that I could easily recognize and navigate, I literally had dozens of icons on my applications Grid. This made it very difficult to distinguish the one application that I was looking for. It was like looking at a sea of multi-colored icons that were all blurring into one. Maybe you know what I'm talking about? Naturally, I had my most used applications accessible directly from the Dock, but for all of my other applications, I started using the Finder or Spotlight to locate and launch them instead. That is, until a friend showed me an obvious way to navigate a Grid and launch an application very quickly.
Firefox Tab Candy groups your tabs, but that's just for starters (video)
Although Firefox already has a strong selection of tab management helpers like TooManyTabs, which gives you extra rows and memory-preserving options, or Tree Style Tab, which shifts things to a tree-based vertical menu, Mozilla has rolled up its scaly sleeves and decided to rethink the whole thing. Tab Candy starts off much like Safari's TabExposé, by showing you all the tabs you currently have open in thumbnail form, but from there it allows you to organize them into separate groups (with sub-groups promised for the future), which then act in very much the same way as opening a new Firefox window. Yes, it's folders within the browser, and it's all based on good old fashioned HTML, CSS and JavaScript, so no pesky additional downloads will be required once this Alpha-stage code gets added to Firefox's official release. If you want to give it an early spin, hit the source link below, but don't neglect the video after the break to see what else Mozilla is thinking of cooking up with Tab Candy.
The Daily Grind: Taking inventory
One of the great points of commonality for MMOs is the time-honored tradition of inventory management. Specifically, the minigame wherein you have to decide what to keep, sell, throw away, or hold on to with a limited amount of space. One of the major contentions regarding the Allods Online cash shop at launch (aside from the huge debuff only removable via cash shop items) was how much it used to cost just to make a minor upgrade to your inventory storage. The prices have since changed, of course, but the irritation at inventory management was obvious. Nearly every game has to decide how much of a management aspect should be involved and the right amount of space for a given character in any stage of their career. Moreover, these aspects usually change with time, as stack sizes increase and decrease with patches. Some players see space management as a relic of games like Dungeons and Dragons, which used it to try and maintain realism in broad strokes. Others see it as an obnoxious limitation on gameplay that's long ceased to have any connection with its original purpose. So what do you think? Is inventory management a good thing, or is it one of those gameplay elements you'd like to see go the way of the dodo?
MaComfort brings a little Mac back to your PC
Let's face it -- as much as we love our Macs, sometimes you've got to use a PC, whether that be for work or at a friend's house, or just for playing some games. But when you absolutely must use Windows, maComfort can make the transition easier. It's a free Windows application (with some premium options) that brings all of the nice software things you appreciate on your Mac back to your PC. It's got a QuickLook-style feature, translates the Windows key to all of your Command hotkeys, and even replicates familiar Mac features like one-button volume control and Spaces and Active Corners. And the app also has a add-on system, so you can download extra features like homemade Docks and shadows just like on your Mac back home. Of course, it's not perfect -- QuickLook only works in Explorer, not everywhere, and obviously all of the less-superficial features on the Mac (like Terminal and Stacks) will stay in OS X. But if you have to use a PC away from home and are frustrated that hitting what's supposed to be the Command key keeps popping up the Start menu instead, try a little maComfort. The app is a free download with limited functionality, or $20 for full use. [via LH]
Ammo stacks in 1000, sells in 200
Whoo, boy. When the news came out that ammo was changing big time in the game, Hunters everywhere pretty much praised it -- no longer would we have to worry about carrying around tons of ammo, with one bag slot spent on just one consumable. But since then, things haven't been so peachy. First, we heard that consumable ammunition wasn't going anywhere, and then we noticed that none of the other changes were happening either. Then, ammo stacks were fixed to 1000 in a recent hotfix on the PTR, but now there's a whole other issue: while it stacks in 1000, it still only sells in stacks of 200. Which means you have to buy, and buy, and buy, and buy, and buy just to fill one slot. And what's more, Dresorull says it's not a bug -- we'll likely see this on the live realms.And as BRK points out, the "1000" stacks aren't even labeled on the PTR yet. He says you can fill your quiver with 28,000 rounds of ammo (of course, you'd have to hit buy 140 times just to do that), but what happened to the quiver changes? Aren't Hunters supposed to get that bag slot back in 3.1 anyway?It's all very confusing, and this smacks of a missed followthrough: the original Hunter changes as suggested were popular, but we're guessing something came up in their way (either the team was needed on another task, or some flaw in the system as designed kept them from turning consumable ammunition into a permanent item). Either way, we hope this gets fixed -- we know this is the PTR and everything is subject to change, but as it stands, it looks like we're getting a half-finished ammo system when patch 3.1 goes live.
The best place to get Frostweave
We've already heard about some great spots for Leather and Chilled Meat farming in Northrend, but Just My Two Copper found a great Frostweave spot -- just to the right of Freya's Avatar over in Sholazar Basin, there's a spawning spot for Bonescythe Ravagers that just can't be cleared out no matter how fast you are. I went over there myself, and Markco is right: every time you down all of these guys, another one pops up, and they drop Frostweave and greens pretty often (in about five minutes of farming, I picked up about 10 Frostweave -- and I'm not even a Tailor -- and a lockbox, too).He says nerf is incoming, and I believe it: there's supposed to be a little battle there going on between Freya's flowers and the undead, and that's probably why they all keep popping up so quickly. But until Blizzard decides to spoil the fun, if you need Frostweave, that appears to be the place to go.
Stacks plugin brings fluid layouts to RapidWeaver
If we've said it once, we've said it 1000 times: TUAW loves RapidWeaver. One of RapidWeaver's strengths is that it has an easy-to-use interface, but you can do some really, really powerful stuff with the program. Plus, the third-party network of plugins and themes is really, really top notch. YourHead Software, which makes some of my favorite RapidWeaver add-ons, has just released a new plugin called Stacks, which ups the ante on what you can do with RapidWeaver, without even having to mess with any code. Think of Stacks as a souped-up version of one of YourHead's other plugins, Blocks. Mat reviewed Blocks a couple of years ago and it remains one of the best RapidWeaver plugins around. Stacks takes the WYSIWYG drag-and-drop layout approach of Blocks, but adds support for fluid layouts (even if your theme has a variable width), nested objects, stacks within stacks, and more. I've been using the Stacks beta for the last couple of weeks and I have to say that it has opened my eyes to some possibilities with RapidWeaver that I hadn't even considered before. Traditionally, creating a different layout for each page is time consuming unless you rely on snippets or go with basic designs. Because I like to use RapidWeaver to rapidly prototype sites, being able to build out various layouts extremely quickly saves me time. As a demonstration, I created this page in about five minutes using Stacks, some graphics and Elixir's Twitter plugin for Stacks. That's another feature I like about Stacks -- there's an API -- so not only can advantageous users look at building their own elements for use in Stacks, RapidWeaver plugin and theme developers can look at using it too. Stacks can also use Loghound's excellent PlusKit so that you can embed Google Docs, other page types or elements and do lightboxing with your photos, all within Stacks. Stacks is $19.95 and it requires RapidWeaver 4.2.1 or newer to work. You can try the demo (direct link to DMG) for free and access all the features; you're just limited to a certain number of items on each page.
Terminal Tips: Gradient highlights for Stacks
If you use Stacks like we do, then you probably love any additional hacks you can do to them. While this Terminal Tip provides no really useful features, it does provide you with some awesome eye candy for your Stacks. This hack gives you a mouse-over gradient (seen above on Terminal) in your Stacks; just open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) and type in the following command: defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YESAfter you type in the command, type "killall Dock" to restart the Dock. You will then see the gradient in your Stacks. To get rid of the gradient, just replace "YES" with "NO" in the command above. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.
Terminal Tips: Add recent applications as a Stack on Dock
Do you find yourself constantly using the Apple menu to find your recently opened applications? This simple Terminal hack will create a custom Stack on the Dock that will show your recently opened applications. Just open Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/) and type in the following command: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }' Once you type in the command, you will need to restart the Dock by typing "killall Dock" and pressing enter. If you decide you don't want the newly created Stack, just drag it off the Dock like any other Stack. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 and Terminal Tips sections.
TUAW Tip: Highlight items in gridded stacks
The Dock's Stacks feature lets Leopard users view a folder's worth of stuff with one click. You'll either love it or hate it, use it or not. If you do use it, here's a little tip that improves it slightly (in my opinion).When you've got a bunch of files from a Stack displayed in Grid View, it can be hard to spot the particular one you're looking for, especially if many of them look identical (such a collection of text files or word processor documents). Luckily, there's a highlight you can switch on, that puts a whiter background around the file you're mousing over. It makes it slightly easier to ensure you click on the correct file.The highlight appears normally if you use the arrow keys to move around a Grid, or if you type Command and the first letter of one of the files displayed. But this trick switches it on permanently, so that it is always in action whether or not you use these keyboard shortcuts.Read on for all the commands.
Quay 1.1b3 offers nice changes
We first wrote about Quay in November. It extends the Leopard dock in a number of very useful ways. For instance, it will pop up on both sides of the dock (Apple only permits this on the right), and even displays software version numbers plus memory and CPU stats on running applications. It's super handy.Changes to version 1.1b3 include Option-command-clicking on a running app displays application stats Shift-command-click opens the contents in the Finder It works properly with FileVault The help menu can be printed Quay requires Mac OS 10.5 (10.5.2 is recommended) and costs €7 (around $10US - give or take). Note that only two Quay items will work on an unregistered copy.[Via Twitter]
TUAW Tutorial: Custom Stack Drawer icons
Many folks commented on our recent post about adding those gorgeous drawer icons to your Stacks. As great as the originals are, however, a lot of you also wanted to know how to customize them. Fortunately, the original author was kind enough to make the blank drawer PNG available, so in this little tutorial I'll show you how to make your own customized drawer icons using nothing more than Preview. Obviously you can get much sophisticated results using a more serious image editing application, but Preview can do enough to get you the results you see above and since everyone has it, I thought it best to focus on using it despite its limitations.
Hierarchical browsing work-arounds
One of the bigger annoyances many folks have complained about with Leopard is the loss of hierarchical file browsing of folders in the Dock. Of course in Leopard you get Stacks, with all their fancy fanning and gridding, but you lose the ability to right-click a folder and dig into the sub-folders. As a solution/work-around many folks have suggested the venerable Dock replacement Drag Thing. But it has a lot more features and at $29 is a bit of overkill just to get that one feature back. So instead, you might have a look at the free Hierarchy from Charles O'Rourke.Hierarchy is a dead simple application. All it does is create a little floating HUD-style vertical palette onto which you can drop your folders. Clicking on those folders opens them in the Finder, but better yet right-click generates the old Tiger-style hierarchical menus. Of course, this adds another (potentially annoying) palette window to your desktop, but it does a good job at its small task.Hierarchy is a free download from Charles O'Rourke.
Improve your Stacks with some drawers
As noted in our recent (bad) little things about Leopard post, the dynamic Stacks icons are a bit of a pain. Basically the Dock icon for a Stack automatically changes to reflect whatever is first in that Stack (based on how it is sorted, by name, date, etc.). A clever Japanese user came up with a beautiful work-around for this annoyance with these lovely drawer icons, which is nicely explained for us Japanese-challenged folks here. The idea is pretty simple. The icon pack features 18 custom drawer folders, and you just place whichever one you like in the Stack you want prettified. Then using a simple terminal command you change the date modified for that folder to well into the future (2020). Now when you sort the folder by date modified, the custom icon folder will always come up first and so give your Dock this great effect.You can download the drawer icons here (download link) and the terminal jockeying is explained here.Update: The original Japanese creator of these drawers wrote in to tell us that he's put up a "blank" drawer PNG (or right-click and download here). that you can use as the foundation of your own custom drawers.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
24 Hours of Leopard: Stacks
Feature: Stacks, which are what Apple is calling clickable icons on the Dock that fold out to show other clickable icons.How it works: It's actually an updated implementation of the old "Piles" idea, in that you can have one icon that gives you access to lots of different things. But Apple's Stacks fill another role-- they get icons off of the Desktop for good, and down into the Dock without looking cluttered. For years and years, almost every Desktop on every computer ever has had icons all over it, from apps to various downloads to whatever ended up there. But Leopard is different-- all of its icons aren't spread on the Desktop, they're piled into the Dock. Click them, and they span across the Desktop (or line up in a grid, if you're boring), click them again and they disappear. That's the real innovation here-- now, finally, you can work your way down to a completely empty, icon-free desktop.Oh, and I should also mention that Stacks aren't just static. Leopard comes with two stacks-- Documents and Downloads, and the Downloads stack will automatically fill out with anything you download from Safari, Mail, or iChat. No more downloading random files to the Desktop and using Expose to let you go find it. Now, just click open the Stack, and get access to everything you need without ever leaving the window you're working in.Who will use it: Everybody! And Windows users in 2010, too, since it's almost guaranteed that Microsoft is already working on a way to get this into Windows 7.
Stacks on the iPhone
So I finally had a chance to watch that Leopard guided tour that everybody has seen already this week, and one thing struck me like a bricked iPhone thrown directly at my head: boy, Apple really does love iTunes, don't they? It's everywhere in Leopard, from the unified toolbars to the Finder with its CoverFlow interface and drop-down sidebars. Leopard might as well be called the iTunes OS.But in the future, a few months from now, we can only hope that some of Leopard functionality comes back around, and beefs up our iPhones and iPod touches. Until then, we've got this awesome hack-- someone has put Leopard's stack functionality onto the iPhone's little dock. Very cool-- if you made all four of the icons on the dock into four little stacks, you could have all of the application access, and none of the clutter.Especially when the SDK comes out (and already, those with jailbroken iPhones are feeling the icon squeeze), we're going to need expansion slots like this. Apple clearly borrowed lots of ideas from iTunes and the iPhone in their new OS, and with this idea, it's time to start borrowing them back.Thanks, Steve!
Sitting on the Dock every day
AppleInsider has a nice long preview of the new Leopard Dock, along with a short history going all the way back to a company called Acorn Computers, and the NeXT Dock (there's even some good, healthy Windows TaskBar bashing thrown in the mix).There isn't really anything new here, but it is a nice wrap up of everything we've seen about the Dock so far, including the new perspective that folks are so worked up about, and the idea of "stacks," special icons that will expand into a number of different icons. AppleInsider even runs down the default stacks provided with Leopard-- Applications, Documents and Downloads. I'm not sure how long those will last on my Leopard install, however-- I'm much more eager to make my own stacks and reorganize everything myself.Very exciting. Unfortunately there's no mention of an update to how the vertical Dock looks, but Leopard is right around the corner, so we'll find out for sure very soon if Apple's new Dock lives up to expectations.
Mac 101: Mimic Stacks in Tiger
Here's a simple trick that will let you approximate Leopard's "Stacks" feature in Tiger (without all the cool eye candy, of course).Lifehacker suggests moving your documents folder, a download folder, etc. into the dock. Then right click that folder (or Control-click or simply click and hold...whichever you prefer) to see that folder's contents.That's fine, but if you want to get fancy, create a smart folder to live in your dock. I made one to mimic Steve's collection of recent images: From the Finder's "File" menu, select "New Smart Folder" Set the criteria to be "Created = Today" and "Kind = Images" Give your folder a descriptive name (like "Today's Images"), save it and drag it into the dock! Now you have a folder that will automatically populate itself with all of the images you create on a given day. I clicked the folder window's chicklet (upper right hand corner) to give it more of a "Stacks panel mode" feel by eliminating the toolbar and sidebar.Yes, this only the most modest approximation of the most superficial functionality of stacks, but it's the best we have until October.
