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NASA uses a DNA sequencer in space for the first time
The crew of the ISS just took the first step towards making the orbital laboratory a little safer for its inhabitants. For the first time ever, NASA astronauts have sequenced DNA in microgravity. The experiment was actually a test to see if a MiniION portable DNA sequencer would work in orbit -- so far it does. The samples tested on the ISS produced the same results as a control group back on earth. If further tests pan out, astronauts will be able to use the sequencer to test microbes found on ISS surfaces.
RIFT plans improvements to dimensions and minions
Two of RIFT's more popular systems, dimensions and minions, will be getting some major dev love when Patch 3.1 arrives. In a new dev diary that went out yesterday, the team lays out a list of improvements for these systems. Dimensions will be getting a free-fly camera to allow for even more building precision, permissions options for visitors, ban lists, and -- prepare for this to blow your mind -- a bigger +1 button. As for minions, players will have even more options in how they deploy these hard-working followers. The team is adding minion stamina potions, the ability to shuffle adventures, and the option to link to minions in the chat window.
RIFT beefs up the minion system
RIFT's new minion system is arguably one of the more popular additions to the game in some time, with players sending out their loyal subjects to bring them back treasures and fame. However, Trion Worlds says it still has work to do, and in a new "State of the Minunion" post, the studio lists a few areas that it's improving with the game's next hotfix. The new Fae Yule minion mission pack, with a series of quests that tell a story, will have some of its minion rewards buffed up with better stats. The hotfix will also tackle a few bugs and add minion-releated achievements. Finally, adventure rewards are being fine-tuned and improved, although it has been difficult for the team to handle this as it has been "an extremely extensive change touching dozens upon dozens of loot tables."
Enter at Your Own Rift: Do my bidding, minions!
RIFT: Nightmare Tide is here at last, and the one overriding thought that permeates my every gaming minute is this: I am going to get totally addicted to minions. Heck, I already am. I'll be getting into other aspects of the expansion in coming weeks (spoiler: sidekicking is way tubular), but since this one feature is available to everyone right now and it's completely new to the game, I wanted to discuss minions today. There isn't a lot of information out there on the minion system thus far, which is surprising considering how much I've seen guildmates and general chat buzz on about it. Perhaps it's simple enough not to require detailed explanations, but there's still enough depth to elicit a few questions. So what's the minion system like? How does it benefit players? How much money does it require of free players? What are some good strategies for it? I'm all over this today, so let's get into it!
RIFT's Autumn Harvest returns
Starting this afternoon, RIFT's annual Autumn Harvest will return, bringing back the special fall-themed realm and all of its related quests and activities. In addition to Halloween rifts and the monster mash, this year's Autumn Harvest will activate seasonal minion adventures and a trio of new followers to boss around. RIFT is also hotfixing several small issues today, such as tweaking the minion system, increasing XP in Nightmare Tide dungeons, and making sure hit was added to various quest and crafting rewards for endgame activities. The Autumn Harvest runs from today through November 13th. Both Junkies Nation and RiftGrate have excellent guides for those looking.
Enter at Your Own Rift: How Nightmare Tide brought me back to RIFT
Wow -- it's been a year and a half since I last sat down to pen this column. Obviously, around that time I had left the game and focused on other writing projects here at Massively. It wasn't a bad break-up with my former stomping grounds in Telara; it was a "goodbye for now" type of situation. There were other vistas to be viewed and other worlds to conquer. Yet RIFT has this power to eventually pull me back in. I'll admit that I hadn't even thought of the game for the most part in 2014 until one fateful morning at PAX Prime in September when I sat down with Trion's devs to get an overview of the new expansion. The more I watched, listened, and asked questions, the more I groaned inwardly because I knew that my carefully tuned play schedule was about to witness another upheaval. I knew I'd have to go back to RIFT to experience Nightmare Tide. In less than a week, Nightmare Tide will roll into this game, bringing with it several new features, zones, and most likely fellow lookie-loos who will be equally curious how the game's improved with its second expansion. For this returning edition of Enter at Your Own Rift, I want to highlight four factors that were instrumental in grabbing my attention and convincing me to come back for another go in this fantasy world.
MinION USB-sized DNA sequencer goes through real-world testing
Back in 2012, a UK company called Oxford Nanopore announced a chewing gum packet-sized DNA sequencer, something that people found hard to believe since rival machines can be as big as fridges. After dealing with technical issues and bugs (as well as being accused of launching vaporware), Oxford has finally begun making that device called MinION available to beta testers. Several of the testers (mainly scientists doing research in educational institutions) reported that it only exhibits a 60 to 85 percent accuracy. While that's nowhere near more traditional sequencers' 99.99 percent accuracy, many of the testers still believe that the device could be a game changer due to its size and relatively affordable price. Traditional sequencers could cost as much as $1 million, while the testers bought their MinIONs for only $1,000 each.
RIFT: Nightmare Tide to introduce Minions
Today's adventurer in RIFT is busy. There are a lot of villains all across Telara, after all, and let's not forget those rifts opening up all the time. So instead of having to help another random NPC find a missing coat, wouldn't it be nice to just have some of the NPCs you've met solve problems for you? Good news, then, because the Minion system being added with the game's Nightmare Tide expansion will allow you to do just that. Minions come from a variety of sources across Telara, and they can be dispatched on a variety of different missions. Once they've completed their tasks, they'll return with a variety of rewards including crafting items and dimensional rewards. Minions can only be sent on so many missions before they need a break, though, so a player won't be able to do everything with just a handful of loyal troops. Check out the full preview for a bit more insight into the upcoming system.
Minion rounds up Elder Scrolls Online addons
It's Addon Day here at Massively, and as such we have another handy-dandy platform to help you manage your mods. ZAM has started an open beta for Minion, an addon management software designed to work with Elder Scrolls Online. Minion will help you install, manage, and update your addons for next month's ESO. It includes automatic updates and options to support additional future titles (such as World of Warcraft) and it claims to be safe from viruses, malware, and keyloggers. Minion is available for both Windows and OS X systems.
Blood Pact: What makes a 'lock a 'lock?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill discusses class identity. One of our editors, Adam Holisky, forgot what class he was playing last week, and it made me a little sad. It's great that he wanted to be a warlock again, but we are not hunters. We're not mages either, despite how convinced Matt Rossi is by shared armor. We're not shadow priests, we have demons not totems, and having purple wings is the only similarity between a demo 'lock and a night elf moonkin. I'm not out to make Adam eat his hat, but warlocks certainly distinguish themselves from other classes, I think.
Mists of Pandaria: Priests get an optional Shadowfiend upgrade, Zoidberg approves
Getting tired of your Shadowfiend, priests? After having served us faithfully over multiple expansions, your Shadowfiend will be able to be talented into an upgraded Shadowfiend. Enter the Mindbender! The Mindbender is a floating, squid-like creature that'll leech mana off opponents just like the original Shadowfiend --not just that, but the Mindbender hits harder and you get more mana back. Mindbender can be talented into at level 45. (That spot used to be blank before.) At level 87, my little minion was doing around 12,000 damage with possible crits up to 30,000 against the raider training dummies while I was in a healing spec. Pretty cool facelift for the little guy! It'll be an interesting choice between Mindbender, Archangel, and From Darkness, Comes Light. Too bad we can't give these pets names. I'd name mine Zoidberg. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
MinION USB stick decodes DNA in a matter of seconds
If you happen to be "special," then this $900 USB device is just about the worst thing ever. The aptly named MINion serves its masters by interrogating the cells of living organisms and rooting out their genetic secrets. We won't pretend to know exactly how it works, but it starts by pulling a strand of DNA through a razor-like nanotube that unzips the double helix. The nucleotide bases are then electrocuted one by one until they give up their code. The resulting sequence is stored like a ticker-tape readout, for the whole world to see. The MinION can complete its task in seconds and, unlike most other DNA sequencers, it's portable and simply plugs into a laptop. Luckily, it has so far only been shown to work on very short genomes, like those belonging viruses and bacteria, so for now you're probably safe.
MMOUI Minion is coming
With all this talk about the Curse client and WoWMatrix, it's easy to forget that another major player is entering the scene soon (™): MMOUI Minion, from the people at WoWInterface. According to the FAQ for the forthcoming client, the target date for open beta testing is May 17, 10 days from today. Here are some salient points about Minion: Will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. Has an option to auto-update, set to "off" by default. There will be a premium version, but the only difference will be that premium users don't see ads. In contrast to the Curse client, the non-premium version of Minion is not crippled, and will have an update-all button and full download speed. If an author enables donation requests, they will show up in the updater.
[Updated] Blood Pact: They're not pets, they're minions
The week has rolled around, the planets have aligned, and it's time again for Blood Pact! Here to keep you up to date with all the unspeakable horrors perpetrated by Warlocks. Presiding over this week's dark ritual is Nick Deathcaller -- I mean Whelan. I was perusing the Blood Pact archives this week, trying to think of a topic which would be a little less dry than my last topic, and I noticed that an in-depth look at a Warlock's minions is rather over-due!I've long been of the opinion that Warlock minions are far more similar to a Warrior's stances than they are to a Hunter's pets. Hunter pets are very much a separate entity from the hunter them self. They have their own talent trees, different abilities they can train, and regardless of spec can account for 25% or more of the Hunter's total DPS in any given encounter -- closer to 50% if the Hunter is speced beast mastery! Warlock minions, on the other hand, have no customisability whatsoever, save the various talents which can be used to improve them. Often times a minion is used for no other reason than for the buff it provides -- or in the case of affliction Warlocks -- as a mana battery for Dark Pact.
World of WarCrafts: Voidwalker plush
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.This week, instead of showing you how to make something, I want to focus on something that someone else has created.My main is a human warlock (yeah, Alliance here) and as such I have a soft spot for all things blueberry. So when I happened across this über cute plush voidwalker by seller Glowgoyle on Etsy, I instantly fell in love. I happened to forward the link to my husband who later surprised me with it as a gift.Now it sits proudly on my desk amongst my other toys and assorted WoWCrafts. The plushie itself is very well-made and is about 15 inches tall. The crafter was awesome enough to include a stand and the final coup de grâce is that the eyes glow in the dark.There's a possibility that Glowgoyle might make more in the future so definitely keep an eye on her Etsy shop.
CollegeHumor reveals Bowser minion coup d'etat
It was bound to happen. One day, the minions of Bowser would stand up and ask, "Why won't you let us kill The Mario?" That day has come, my friends. The minions of Bowser have revolted against their king and are ready to take the issue of killing The Mario into their own hands, paws, mouths and assorted tools, once and for all. Witness CollegeHumor's astounding footage after the break. There will be blood!
Overlord announced for Xbox 360 & PC, Codemasters to publish
Codemasters has grabbed the publishing rights to Overlord, a twisted action/adventure fantasy developed by Triumph Studios (Age of Wonders). The game looks to put a spin on the popular good vs. evil open-ended genre. In this case, players must decide to be sorta evil or really evil.As the new Overlord, players gain the allegiance of the Minions — a horde of impish creatures who are eagerly awaiting their master's bidding, be it to pillage, murder, or chug brew (as pictured). Overlord will be enriched by plenty of dark humor and parodies of classic fantasy scenarios. We're thinking 'Naughty Kameo'.
