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Encrypted Text: Theorycrafting basics for the studious rogue
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any rogue questions you would like to see answered. In the immortal words of our favorite crab, "WoW is a game about upgrading your stuff." While achievements and professions allow for your character to grow, they don't make you any stronger. If you want to increase your power, you need to upgrade your stuff. Gear improvements are often the difference between success and failure on cutting-edge encounters, when your raid needs to meet specific raw damage and healing numbers to pull off a win. While it sounds easy, it's not always as simple as it seems to upgrade your stuff. While the advent of the ilvl system allows for us to quickly judge the rough quality of an item, it doesn't provide any help when comparing two items from the same dungeon. It also doesn't assist us in our gemming or reforging choices. Making intelligent gear decisions is a part of every rogue's life. In order to make the best choices for our characters, we use what's known as theorycrafting to evaluate the various stats in the game. The end result allows us to make educated gearing strategies and ensure we're doing the most DPS we possibly can. But how do we get from evaluating stats to choosing an actual piece of gear?
Anarchy Online beats the heat with nano spreadsheets
We may be in the dog days of summer, but that doesn't mean that MMO factories close up shop. On the contrary, the team at Anarchy Online is faithfully hacking away at upcoming changes and additions to the game. Senior Designer Brad L. McAtee (no, he doesn't do virus checking) recently made the rounds to see what the staff was working on, and report back to us. The biggest news is that the keeper class is getting a host of new nano changes. This announcement is so vast that it took the power of a spreadsheet to contain it. Seriously, McAtee includes an Excel spreadsheet at the bottom of the article for number-crunchers to enjoy. The Anarchy Online team is juggling a number of other projects, including a new AI dungeon and a fresh PvP playfield. Daily missions are also slated for an upgrade, with mission scaling, new content and other adjustments heading our way. You can read the full team report over at Anarchy Online's site.
Behind the Mask: The Melee Conspiracy
The controversy never seems to end in Champions Online. The big changes to the Might, Martial Arts, and Supernatural frameworks went live last weekend, and people just can't stop talking about them. There's also been some general changes to melee outside of those frameworks as well. As one might imagine just by a cursory glance at those threads, the forums are quite abuzz with opinions on these changes. There is quite a bit of positive things to be said about the changes, but the overwhelming feeling one gets from reading the forums is that the changes are horrible. Everyone has something they don't like about them, myself included. Still, we can't help but wonder: is it a step in the right direction? Is the doomsaying as bad as people make it out to be? Hit the jump, and we'll look at things from a different avenue.
Blood Pact: Using SimulationCraft for gear selection
Blood Pact is your weekly warlock digest brought to you by Dominic Hobbs. "He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast." ~ Leonardo da Vinci As warlocks, we're used to delving into the mysterious depths of the occult to seek the knowledge that brings us power. This week I'm going to attempt to lift the veil of mystery that covers what is possibly the most powerful theorycrafting tool at our disposal. SimulationCraft is a tool that anyone who has frequented the Elitist Jerks forums will no doubt have run into at least once. In my experience many people take one look and run screaming from all the "maths" that starts to intrude on their game. With this article I would like to reduce the "fear factor" of SimulationCraft and show one way in which it can be very useful. Many of us put together lists of upgrades that we would like to get our hands on and we all do that by comparing the stats on each item. We may also use lists produced by others or even give different values or weights to an item's stats by using scores we find -- these tend to be based on theoretical 'model' warlock's gear set. What I want to show you is how you can generate these lists and scores for yourself based on your own gear.
Ask TUAW: Simple spreadsheets, partitioning with Time Machine, iTunes with a NAS, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about sharing peripherals, simple spreadsheets, backup configurations, using a NAS, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify).
EVE Evolved: Top five EVE Online apps
Back in 2004, a friend introduced me to a relatively new space MMO called EVE Online, where the markets were run by the players and there were undiscovered frontiers to chart. A short time after, I became obsessed with pre-calculating everything in the game. I thought that if the game server can calculate everything we do, I must be able to replicate the process and come up with some interesting results. I wasn't alone, many other pilots had previously created simple spreadsheets and web-databases of EVE's items. Rather than the game's developers hoarding the information required for such an undertaking, they took an unusual stance and released large portions of their main database for player-study. Websites began popping up listing information from the data dumps and it wasn't long before the first pioneering apps came about in the form of handy spreadsheets and interactive web-pages, my own fairly popular tanking spreadsheet among them. In this article, I look at how player-developed apps came about in EVE and give details on my top five EVE apps. Once you've tried these programs, you won't know how you lived without them.
May Guild of the Month: Dragon Knights on Area 52
We're running late on this one (the beginning of the month was quite busy), but it's not any less exciting: congratulations go out to our latest Guild of the Month for May: the Dragon Knights on Area 52. They sent us a nomination along with many other guilds in the game, and were selected for their originality, community, and raiding performance. Among other interesting things about the guild (which you can read in the second half of this post), they run a guild podcast, an email newsletter, and even a lotto, all along with raiding competitively and leveling up as a guild.In addition to being profiled here on the site, the Dragon Knights will also win a raid pack from Swagdog.com, where they (and you) can pick up customized shirts and hats with their guild name and logo printed on them. Our Guild of the Month contest is ongoing, so stay tuned to the site for the next chance to nominate your guild to be recognized here on WoW.com. Read on to learn more about the Dragon Knights and why they're our winners for May.
Scattered Shots: Where to find Hunter information
WoW.com decided it was time to bring back some Hunter luvin'. It was that or they just needed a new Dwarf to pick on. So now you got me Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from The Hunting Lodge. Make sure to drop by here every Thursday as we explore what it takes to play a Hunter. Have you ever caught yourself wondering, "Hmm... where I should go for my next upgrade?" Or how about "I wonder what pet I should get for raiding?" Another favorite of mine is "What spec should I use for raiding?" (This is always a trap. Even if you give a solid spec, someone will always find a something wrong with it.) For these types of questions, I feel it's always better to follow the maxim "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." What's my point? Well, it seems that many Hunters don't know that there is a wealth of information out there. I would bet that there is probably a resource that can help answer all of your questions. You just need to know where to look. For solid information, we all know about Elitist Jerks. But sometimes finding you can't help but say to yourself, "There has to be an easier way." Believe it or not, there is. There are many other resources and sites out there.
TUAW Review: Quickoffice for iPhone
Having worked with Quickoffice on both the Palm and Windows Mobile platforms in the past, I was eagerly anticipating the release of the iPhone version. Quickoffice gives you the power to view, edit, and create Microsoft Office documents. The new Quickoffice for iPhone "only" works with Word and Excel files (no PowerPoint -- yet), and also provides a way to link to a desktop or MobileMe iDisk. iPhone owners who have used Quickoffice on other platforms may miss the lack of PowerPoint compatibility. Another professional trainer I know actually used a Palm device with Quickoffice and a video-out cable to teach her business analysis courses. She's now an iPhone owner, but there's no way she's going to be able to leave her laptop at home until Quickoffice supports PowerPoint. On the other hand, this is the initial version of Quickoffice for iPhone, so there's nothing saying that the PowerPoint capabilities won't be built into a future version.
Encrypted Text: How to use a spreadsheet
Every Wednesday (usually), Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss how to properly use a DPS spreadsheet.Patch 3.1 is finally released, and there is a ton of new gear available for Rogues. The Argent Tournament has some great gear for newly 80 Rogues looking for solid-quality blues and epics, Ulduar has over 800 new items (more than all of TBC's raids combined), and Arena Season 6 should be starting next week. There's multiple new epics for every slot and for every playstyle.With this sudden influx of new gear, the infamous Rogue spreadsheets have seen a huge increase in download traffic. While I haven't seen any officially updated sheets from our friend Vulajin, Aldriana has published a pair of new Mutilate and Combat spreadsheets. While not quite as pretty as Vulajin's, Aldriana's has all of the major features that you need to plan your gear upgrades. Read on for detailed instructions on how to use a spreadsheet.
MarinerCalc for iPhone: A spreadsheet in the palm of your hand
The wizards at Mariner Software have been around the Apple world for a long time. Their first product, a HyperCard stack that charted stock prices, came out in 1989 as a shareware product. After twenty years of developing cool Mac apps, Mariner has just released a useful product for the iPhone: MarinerCalc, a feature-packed spreadsheet application.During the past few days, I've been putting MarinerCalc for iPhone (US$9.99, click opens iTunes) through a series of tests on my iPhone 3G. My assessment is that MarinerCalc is an excellent spreadsheet app. If you have any need to manipulate, create, or even just view spreadsheets on your iPhone, this is the app to get.Read more about MarinerCalc by clicking the (you guessed it!) Read More link below, and be sure to visit the gallery for plenty of MarinerCalc screenshots. %Gallery-47365%
Encrypted Text: The fuzzy math of theorycrafting
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking about the methods used to break down gear and talents into their fundamental parts, and compare them intelligently.While it's not recognized as an official term by the Oxford Dictionary, "theorycrafting" is definitely the biggest buzzword in the Rogue community. Originally coined by Starcraft players looking to use their mathematics knowledge to perfect their strategies and unit build orders, it refers to the idea of using math to guide your choices, instead of simply playing from your gut.From the lowest level of forum troll to the most serious raiders, many Rogues love to punch numbers into spreadsheets and talk about the PPM (proc-per-minute) chance of Mongoose. Theorycrafting is a largely arcane art, and unfortunately an inability to play ball with these math magicians can be grounds for ostracism from the discussion at hand. Asking for talent or skill help on the Public Rogue Forums will likely result in recommendations like "Check the spreadsheet or delete your character."Obviously you've become attached to your assassin of the shadows, so after the cut we'll talk about how to become a theorycrafter even if you weren't first in your algebra class.
First Look: Spreadsheet for iPhone
Softalk, a UK development firm known for their messaging and productivity solutions, has released the first iPhone spreadsheet application. The application has the really original name Spreadsheet, costs US$7.99, and is available now from the App Store (click opens iTunes). The first release features over 50 functions and the ability to email spreadsheets created on the iPhone to Mac or PC for further editing. The function list includes:Date/time functions -- DATE, DATEADD, DAY, DAYABBREV, DAYNAME, HOUR, LASTDAY, MINUTE, MONTH, MONTHABBREV, MONTHNAME, NOW, SECOND, TIME, TODAY, YEAR General functions -- COL, COUNT, ROW Math function -- ABS, CEILING, EVEN, EXP, FACTORIAL, FLOOR, LOG, LOG10, MAX, MIN, ODD, POWER, ROUND, SQRT, SUM Statistical functions -- AVE, MEDIAN, MODE String functions -- CONCATENATE, LEFT, LOWER, MID, RIGHT, UPPER Trignometry functions -- ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, COS, COSH, PI, SIN, SINH, TAN, TANH The initial App Store reviews of Spreadsheet aren't exactly glowing, which is why TUAW will be doing a detailed review in the near future.
Hunter legend Cheeky retires famous spreadsheet
If you're a serious Hunter, chances are you've heard of Cheeky's Spreadsheet, and probably used it. If you haven't heard of it, it's an amazing Hunter resource that allows you to plug your personal spec, gear, pet data, and shot rotation into a handy spreadsheet and figure out your DPS and other vital statistics. You can then swap in different gear, talents, and shot rotations to decide what upgrades to shoot for or just to see if you can squeeze out a bit more DPS from your Hunter. Unfortunately, Cheeky has just released her final version, and is retiring from the spreadsheet business (along with cohort and fellow spreadsheet maintainer Lactose), leaving a rather large hole in the raiding Hunter community for sure (You may also remember them as the authors of the rather insightful look at Hunter DPS from a while back). Cheeky has unlocked the spreadsheet, so we can that some other theorycrafting-minded Hunter will step up and maintain it going forward in WotLK, especially with all the new changes Hunters are seeing that may drastically change the way they play. However, whether that happens or not, Cheeky's retirement is sure to leave a hole in the Hunter Community, and she and Lactose will both be missed. Good luck and good hunting to both of them.
Mariner Calc for iPhone
The upcoming iPhone 2.0 software is providing more document viewing capabilities in the form of readers for PowerPoint, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but Apple still isn't providing a way to edit docs on the run. Mariner Software announced at WWDC 2008 that they'll be resolving at least part of that dilemma with the release of Mariner Calc for iPhone. Mariner Calc is the software firm's popular Excel-compatible spreadsheet for the Mac.Mariner Calc for iPhone is about 80% of the way to completion at this time and is expected to ship about the time the virtual doors open on the App Store. If you like to work on huge spreadsheets, you'll love this app since it sports a maximum of 1,000,000 rows and 32,000 columns.Mariner Software President Mike Wray mentioned to Macworld.com's Dan Frakes that Mariner Calc for iPhone will support multiple sheets per document, charts, and objects. It's expected that the application will integrate with new versions of Mariner Calc for Mac. No price has been set for Mariner Calc for iPhone, but expect this little spreadsheet to be a popular purchase from the App Store. [Via Macworld]
Is this Apple's iWork spreadsheet app?
ThinkSecret has unearthed what appears to be a screenshot of the oft-rumoured forthcoming spreadsheet application expected to ship with a future version of iWork -- either the app is still very early in development, or Apple plans to take its minimalist design ethic to new heights (lows?) with this anti-Excel app. Internally referred to as Lasso, the spreadsheet is expected to be named Numbers or Charts, offer Excel import/export, templates for typical personal and business finance, sales, and marketing, and 200+ spreadsheet functions to help those business types stick it to Microsoft -- but from the looks of the above screenshot, don't be throwing away your copies of Office just yet. [Via TUAW]Update: That screenshot is looking pretty fake, after all.
Rumors: iWork spreadsheet screenshot?
Today ThinkSecret posted what looks like it might be an early screen shot of a new iWork spreadsheet. The spreadsheet, which has long been rumored to exist, might be called Numbers or Charts. I've always thought of iWork more as a ClarisWorks replacement than a direct competitor to Office, and the screen shot provided at the ThinkSecret site only lends support to that idea. It looks like a simple, clean, very Mac-looking interface without the clutter of a lot of heavy-hitting pro-level Excel features. Not that that's a bad thing. There's a lot to be said for an inexpensive Mac utilities suite. I'm still waiting for iDraw.Thanks Ben Wyatt
Tables 1.1 - Spreadsheet for Mac
Those of you who are tired of waiting for a Universal Binary of Excel and need a basic spreadsheet should check out Tables. It's a relatively new Universal Binary spreadsheet for OS X which has just been bumped to version 1.1. It's true, this is far from a real Excel replacement, lacking as it does much of Excel's advanced functionality (e.g. graphing and Macros). However, if you're only doing light number crunching then Tables might be just the trick. It is a nice looking program, but IMO entirely too expensive at € 39 (~$52).[Via Macminute ]
Widget Watch: ThinkFree/Office doc viewer (Dashboard, Yahoo! and Google)
If, for one reason or another, you don't have or don't want Microsoft Office installed, but you still need to view a doc, spreadsheet or presentation, the ThinkFree Online office crew have created a couple widgets (and even a Google module) to help ease your pain. I haven't been following ThinkFree's products very closely, but one of their services called the ThinkFree Viewer lets anyone publish a document online by linking to their web-based viewer - this removes a visitor's need to have one compatible app or another installed just to be able to view the file.To make things even easier for those attachments you receive or the occasional document you simply have lying around, they have now released a new Dashboard widget and a Google module (for their Personalized Homepage), in addition to the Yahoo! Widget we blogged way back in May. These all work essentially the same way: drag and drop a compatible ThinkFree or Microsoft Office doc onto the widget, and it will upload the file to ThinkFree's temporary online viewer so you can crack it open with the least amount of hassle. Of course, there might be limitations to what their viewer can render, but this should make things a little easier for non-Office Office users out there.
