Month: October 2017

Auto Leveling? How it Really Works.

GW2_2016_12_13_17_53_53_814x.jpg By the way, let’s not forget how Auto Leveling works – at least in Guild Wars 2 where it was first implemented Game Wide, at least as far as I’m aware. Officially it’s called Dynamic Level Adjustment.

Unlike Wow Legion areas Level Scaling, GW2 Auto Leveling changes your level to match – roughly – the zone or instance where you are working. But there are two key features that Wow Legion didn’t do that GW2 also does:

  • Your character is never “Up Leveled” so that you still can’t hunt in areas above your level, at least not without help. And in many cases, you simply can’t go to the higher area anyway. This is what you might expect. Yes, you will be up-leveled to 80 in Fractals of the Mist, one of the instances.
  • The XP that you get for killing mobs and doing quests [Hearts and Events in GW2] scaled up to your level. So in GW2, there is no such thing as a “Trivial Quest”. So it’s not a waste of time to hunt in lower level areas. Well actually, if the zone is much lower than you are, your XP is actually reduced enough that you’ll likely move on, unless you would like to explore that area for an achievement. So as an 80, if you want to work all the starting areas [ 1 – 10 ] don’t expect rewards except the Exploring achievement.
  • The Loot you get is always appropriate to your actual level. It’s not the best gear. White or Green and  rarely Blue. But does make sense to hunt in a 60 area if you are already 80, and you’ll get some nice things. All crafting mats come from Dismantling Found gear, so hunting this way makes a lot of sense. To get explorer achievements you need to do all the Hearts – zone quests – and the loot / gold is appropriate to your level.
  • When GW2 started, they got Auto Leveling wrong, and it was a real pain to move to harder areas. They leveled you to exactly the level of the mobs where you were, so it was a pain if you got jumped by more than one mob. Now the down-leveling is more like +3 to the mobs you are fighting and it’s completely reasonable. Here’s a post I did back in Sept 2013 about a year after GW2 released. They fixed this problem. Like I said, you are now working at about +3 to the mobs around you and that’s totally reasonable.

So how is Wow Level Scaling for Legion different?

Continue reading “Auto Leveling? How it Really Works.”

Auto-leveling? I vote NO!

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There has been a lot of discussion lately, in the Run-Up to Blizzcon, about Auto-leveling. Apparently there has been rumor and speculation about the next expansion deploying the same style of auto-leveling across all of the game that is employed in Legion areas, where the mobs around you are leveled to your strength [level?] or vice-versa.

I vote NO on this. There are too many aspects of the game that have grown up over the years that would be trashed by this change.

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Draenor Untangled

I’ve now had some time playing the Warlords of Draenor expansion and I’ve figured out an efficient and productive way to deal with Garrisons. I should mention that I’m playing with mostly Heirlooms: three pieces of armor, weapons and usually a necklace. And I have Draenor Pathfinder, so my Alts fly from the beginning as they finish the Assault on the Dark Portal event.

I would have preferred to level up to 91 with the Alts before going to Draenor. This would allow the Heirlooms to level up significantly. As it turns out, with Heirlooms you reach 91 at the end or shortly after completing the Draenor Starting Event, and there is enough help during the event that it doesn’t matter a lot whether you are 91 when starting it.

I’ve played three Horde toons through Draenor until 101, which is my goal before entering Legion, again to level up the Heirlooms. Along the way I’ve learned some lessons with Garrisons and with the areas to play to level efficiently.

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Qt Development for Windows

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I’m a long time user of the Qt Development Framework. But every few years, it seems to change hands and everything about how to install it changes.

I recently installed it on Linux Mint, and while it looks like it is built in, the install was anything but simple.

But now I’d like to add a feature to one of my personal programs for Windows, so here we go again. I started by trying to look up a recent YouTube video on the subject and while it was only a year or so old, and all the domains were active, it failed miserably after the install in the same way that the Linux install failed. It was unable to find a valid “Kit”. A Kit for Qt is a set of definitions so that the IDE – integrated Development Environment – can find the other tools like compilers, framework libraries, debugger and make program. Well the Youtube video I found had the same problem. The install looked like it worked, but it brought along no tools, framework or valid kits.

Well I’ve solved that, so I’m making a post here so that I remember, and maybe it will help you too.

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Wow – Hurray! Level 100

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DK Reaches 100

Hurray! I’ve reached 100 in Draenor. Using Heirlooms and the power of Flight, thanks to my previous adventures with a Demon Hunter, it only took about 2 days. Also, I was only about 1/2 way through Gorgrond when I reached 100.

I’ve got a level 2 Garrison with some buildings. Not sure if I’m going to want to play much more “Farmville” tho, since The Burning Legion is attacking Azeroth again. Should I finish something here, or go back and help save our homeland?

Actually, I’ll probably level up the rest of my ALTs to 100 on this Realm before I go save the world. Choices. Choices.

:ww

 

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Wow – Water Strider Mount

Posing with the Last Fish
Turning in the Last Quest
Hurray
Water Strider Near Anglers
Close up view
Super Walking on Water

Hurray! I started Fishing on 18 September and I finally have my Water Strider mount. If you do this, be sure and buy the enhancement from Nat Pagel at Revered that boosts your rep gain by 100%. Makes the last climb take 1/2 as long.

That last fish was a doozie. I suggest you wait until you are 90 and can fly in Pandaria to do this grind. Makes flying around the area each day much easier. And it makes it easier to clobber that big fish too. When you get the quest to Jump the Shark, be sure and look up the quest on wowhead to see how to do it. The good news is that I put two levels on this character while I did this grind. So I’m 92 now and ready to go to Draenor. Should be easy. Although I’ve taken a hunter into Draenor at 90 and it was fine.

Cheers, and good luck with your fishing.

:ww

AMD Ryzen 1800 System

Seems that I can never go too long without building a system. Now that Intel has been duly embarrassed by AMD bringing out some awesome mega-core systems, I just had to support AMD by building one. Intel rushed to build their Core i-9 Processors, but they are way expensive compared with the AMD alternatives.

I first considered an AMD Threadripper 1900x processor  but after asking for advice from the Overclockers forum, it became clear that the 8 core 1900x was not more powerful than the earlier AMD Ryzen 1800X, and this one was on sale for about $100 off.

As you can see, I got a fancy glass case, and water cooler from Corsair, and those fancy carnival lights RAM from G.Skill. Those things are blinking away as we speak.

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Sharing with Linux Mint 18.2 and Windows

I have an “Equal Opportunity” network. A few Windows 10 systems and a lot of Linux Mint systems. And I obviously want to share files among my systems.

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Over the years and versions, Linux Mint has gotten more friendly when sharing files with Windows systems. Samba has always been a thing, but in recent versions, Linux Mint has made it easier to get it going.

Back when I was using Ubuntu – which Linux Mint is based on – in 2008, it was a pain to get Samba going. But things are better now. Now with Linux Mint 18.2 the dialog above is what you get if you navigate to Home and then try to share your personal folder, presumably for read-only, to the rest of the network. That’s a start. Look even an install button.

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