Replacing Legions' Jetpack sound
Sound effects can make or break a game. I played around with replacing the Legions jetpack sound, and the results are actually quite aweful and disturbing.
Test 1 of 4
Test 2 of 4
Test 3 of 4
Test 4 of 4
So, how would it hold up if were to replace that sound with, say, the Hampster Dance, Bananaphone, or the Crazy Frog? Results below
Hampster Dance
Banana Phone
Crazy Frog
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Legions Flag Chase
Fallen Empire: Legions
A few days ago I decided to have fraps run in the background to see if I can't capture a few decent moments of me playing Legions.
I got lucky and managed to get a decent last-second shot on Ultima112. The rocket jumping was horrible though, and I had a bad feeling about it right as I started it. Blame impatience.
Another video of a flag capture on Blade Run. Fairly straight forward and nothing too special about it:
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I bought a new Headset
For the longest time I've used the Plantronics .Audio 70 "Behind-the-headset". It's lightweight, has clear sound, and has an almost 10 foot long cord. And perhaps that's part of the problem. I keep rolling over it with my chair every so often, and eventually, after 6 months of use or so, the chord will short out. Although the issue is usually right where the cord meets the headset so I doubt I can fault my chair for that. Ultimately I'm not quite sure whether it's smart or idiotic to keep buying the same headset. I just like it the way it is. Other and usually bulkier "gaming" headsets are just too heavy and clamp onto my ears so tight that they start to hurt after an hour.
The last headset I bought was a Microsoft USB headset, which was pretty decent, but it also had the dreaded broke cable issue after a few months of use. I threw it out a few months ago, and have just been using my very awesome (and cheap) Sony MDR-G42 headphones along with my laptop's built-in microphone. That works, but I also use my PC every so often, particularly when I need more horsepower.
So I went out and found the Plantronics .Audio 645 USB headset, which seems to be the successor of the .Audio 70 I used to buy. It's very similar, except that they've added padding, and a USB adapter.
I don't need the USB adapter at home since I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi, but it's interesting that for all intents and purposes, this USB adapter essentially is a sound card. The headset set me back $42, and I doubt that the USB adapter cost all that much. I'm almost tempted to crack it open and take a peek inside. And I feel a bit sheepish having bought a $150 X-Fi if a $2 thumb drive looking adapter can accomplish, well, something similar, anyway.
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Tribes Evolved: GarageGames, InstantAction, and Legions
A good friend of mine alerted me to a spiritual successor of the Tribes series. Tribes, Tribes 2, and Tribes:Vengeance were games that I've wasted enjoyed countless hours playing, modding, scripting, and participating in tournament games with.
The Fallen Empire: Legions open beta started just a few days ago. It's a Torque based game developed by GarageGames and will feel instantly familiar to old school Tribes players.
The interesting part is that it all runs in a browser with the help of a Firefox plugin. An interesting distribution model, and probably a really good idea considering the success of Valve's Steam. There are also other games on instantaction.com, which probably appeal more to casual gamers.
I've been digging through my archives and found the old MoopScript collection that our group used back in the day. Still trying to figure out whether client side scripting is at all possible yet. So far I've replaced the default flag taken/captured/returned sounds with the ones I created for Tribes 2 using Cool Edit Pro.
Flag Voice Pack
Download the ZIP file: Legions Flag Voice (119)
You'll want to first backup your original sound files, since right now they get overwritten. (I'll try to find out whether it's possible to create .zip files much like the old Tribes .vl2 files.)
On XP, the files go into C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\GarageGames\IAPlayer\products\www_instantaction_com\102\install\legions\data\sound\game\CTF.
On Vista it's something like C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\GarageGames\IAPlayer\products\www_instantaction_com\102\install\legions\data\sound\game\CTF
Rename or move the FlagCap.mp2, FlagReturn.mp2, and FlagTaken.mp2 out of the way, then extract the three files from the archive.
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Entropia Universe: Earn real money with an MMORPG
Some time during Summer 2007 while reading up on the CryEngine 2, the technology behind the first person shooter Crysis, I came across an article that mentioned a company that was licensing the engine for their upcoming virtual world. So I was curious to see what happened to that project and while searching I came across another company using the CryEngine 2.
Entropia Universe is an MMORPG created by the Swedish software company MindArk. The difference between this MMO is that it's essentially free to play. There's no subscription fee. Perhaps influenced by virtual worlds such as Second Life, Entropia Universe sports its own virtual currency that can be exchanged for real world funds at a fixed exchange rate. In other words, virtual items the player gains during battles with NPCs through trades with other players or other interactions have a real cash value.
In terms of game play Entropia Universe has a feel similar to Star Wars Galaxies when it was first released (that is, before it underwent the combat upgrade and new game enhancements).
While it's tempting to spend real dollars in order to fund your character, it is possible (albeit a much slower start) to work your way up by following the newbie guides put together by veteran members.
When it comes to visuals, it's not necessarily the most spectacular game, and certainly not a shining example of how to put the CryEngine to best use, but considering how new the game is, it's entirely possible (and desirable) that the developer will improve the models, textures and, most importantly, the currently rather ridiculous character animations.
While MindArk's (historically proven) business model is to earn revenue from player activies, it's certainly possible for savvy players to have fun playing an MMORPG while generating an income.
As with any endeavor, there's no free money to be had. It'll take dedication, research, and a certain amount of luck. Being an early adopter is a risk, but can be potentially more rewarding.
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