l4d tweaks

Some useful stuff; I'll post more as I find it.

Create a blank text file named autoexec.cfg here:
[your steam folder]\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\cfg\

Bioshock 2 pre-sale/4-pack

Are any of you guys interested in making use of Steam's Bioshock 2 pre-order savings? A 4-pack is available for ~$135 (just under $34 per copy) [edit:before tax]. We won't see a price like that per copy for a while after release, so if we have enough people who want Bioshock 2 right away, that would be a good way to do it.

The MP side of the game could be a welcome addition to our choices of online diversions. The modes are mostly variations on familiar types (DM, team DM, CTF, last man standing, a KOTH variant w/+wo/ teams, and a turf mode). Also mentioned is a progression system to unlock new weapons and plasmids as you go.

We won't see reviews until launch day or just before, but I'm tempted to take the chance on it, but only if others want to do the same. Post your thoughts here and we'll see what happens.

[EDIT 2] BTW we only have just over 2 weeks until that launch, so if anyone is on board with this, we need to figure that out very soon. It might be even more helpful if those of you who are definitely not interested to post that as well.

Borderlands tweaks

Shamelessly copied from the Penny Arcade forums, themselves copied from elsewhere. As of posting this, I haven't tried them yet.

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How to change FOV (Field of View):
>> my documents\games\borderlands\willowgame

• open willowinput.ini
• add Bindings=(Name="F10",Command="FOV 90",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
• add it amongst the other bindings, change the fov to whatever you want and switch it by the corresponding keys

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How to turn off In-Game Voice Chat:
>> my documents\games\borderlands\willowgame

• open willowengine.ini
• find bHasVoiceEnabled=true

change it to false and you wont be transmitting voice all the time.

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If the mouse feels odd to you, try this:
>> my documents\games\borderlands\willowgame

• open willowinput.ini
• Find bEnableMouseSmoothing=true, change to false

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How to turn off the opening splash screens, brought to you by TetraNitroCubane:

1. Navigate to My Documents\My Games\Borderlands\WillowGame\Config
2. Open WillowEngine.ini
3. Search for "FullScreenMovie"
4. Erase all the entries in the [FullScreenMovie] section (Do not go past the next section title, wrapped in square brackets!)
5. Make the file read only: (Right click, properties, read only)
6. Done! All you see now is the engine logos and such (much better than seeing all the other videos).

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To host an online game, the following ports need to be opened / pushed to the host's internal IP address:
6500 (TCP/UDP)
9989 (TCP/UDP)
7777 (TCP/UDP)
28900 (TCP)
27900 (UDP)
28910 (TCP)

L4D2 Trailer - Zombie Survival Guide

Looks like a blast. Thanks for IM'ing this to me, Scott.

Domain Xfer Completed

The site should be fully functional again at it's old address http://toc.digihotaru.com

Domain Xfer

I'm transferring some of my domains to a new hosting service so I can save a few bucks a year. There's a slight chance this site might go down for up to a week because of this.

A Post??? Zounds!

So, the topic hasn't been fully addressed with everyone present, so I thought I'd take the initiative and get a discussion going.

It's pretty obvious that WoW isn't the go-to diversion anymore on the previously designated nights, not only due to ToC inactivity, but also because it would appear the casual raiding scene we were a part of has dissolved for the most part. We've all seen the available 5-man content, and PvP hadn't really come up as something we wanted to pursue seriously. Other than one more upcoming large content patch, we've sampled most of what the current expansion has to offer.

Recently, we've been giving some other games some attention, which is good. A nice change of pace. Some Warcraft 3 custom games, some L4D, a little TF2, etc.

The main goal of this post however is to get us talking about our gaming nights, maybe to organize them in some way. Three questions come to mind on the subjects that have come up so far that I want your input on...

1. What are your feelings about WoW? Are you bored of the game, or does it still entertain? If you're not playing now, would you ever go back, and when?
(My answer: WoW is ok, but it has been like 3 years or something, and it's getting overly familiar, routine, and less entertaining. Considerations of account suspension do come to mind. It would take a fair amount of new content in the game to bring me back, or at least, a mass return of ToC.)

2. Given that Wed. and Sun. were the nights we would log on to WoW (raiding nights aside), are these still good designated nights for online gaming for us? If not, which night(s) can work better for you? (Me: I'm flexible, most nights would be fine to designate, but i'm cool with Wed. and Sun., Fri. night would be bad for me though because I'm more tired then than any other night.)

3. Including the games we've been playing online instead of WoW, what games would you like to suggest for designated gaming nights? These can be future releases, presently available titles, and enjoyments of the past (don't be afraid to stroll memory lane, lots of great games from years ago that would be cheap to obtain for those that don't have them).
From my mind, a brief list:
Warcraft 3 (custom games mostly, I was never an RTSer)
Left 4 Dead (good fun and cheaper than it used to be, better now with custom campaigns!)
Team Fortress 2 (better with more people)
Diablo 2 (have we ever all played a run-through together at once? No? I'm certain we all own this one so why not?)
Counter-Strike (it's been a while, we could go for it once/twice)
Deathmatch mode of a good shooter (good for any number of people)
Battlefield: Heroes (it's free to play and pretty fun, so you've got no excuse not to try it)

So please don't just read this post and move on, go ahead and reply with some input on what we can play online in the future. I don't get to see you guys any other way, and I don't see a trip to california anytime soon, so I want to make the most of what we can do online.

Thanks for them pants!

Now that I have pants, I feel less embarrassed to go places with you guys. It was really fun to play with all of you. Looking forward to more ToC fun, and cupcake! Thanks again!

CPU vs GPU Upgrades & WoW

Posted on the WoW forums for your enjoyment.  (link in title)

Shooting Star

To bring in the Christmas Season a very special event happened in Azeroth, A new star was seen streaking across the heavens above crystalsong forest. All who saw it were amazed... but probably from the screaming that accompanied the star's decent.

In Game Calender

Here's the link on the in-game calender, so you all know the details about it. It's pretty great but right now we can't use it because so few of us can make events for the guild. Of all of us regulars had access given to our mains I think this could be very useful as we can schedule runs in advance and include things like "I won't be there Wednesday" too. If Guild Leader Sama could please give us some event making access we could hopefully get started on getting used to using this. Mucho gusto.

Speed Rep'ing

Having read my initial posts on the rep grind (1, 2), I'm sure you're now wondering, "OK, so what's the fastest way to get there?  Hands-down, the answer is championing in heroics.  This is followed by doing dailies, which is followed by championing normals.  If you're in a rush to hit exalted, get that tabbard and do as many heroics as you can.  During those few moments when you can't get a group together, do the dailies.  Only in desparation should you resort to normals.

Further Rep Grind Info

If you haven't read my first post on grinding reputation, catch it here before continuing.

In BC, once you got to the level of doing heroics, normals were nearly 100% cut out of your life.  In Wrath, though, this is not the case.

A)  You earn rep (albeit at a slower pace than heroics) all the way to exaulted in normals.  This is unlike BC where at some point you stopped earning rep altogether.

B) Turning in a daily normal dungeon rewards gold and a choice of one of four commendation badges.  Using the badge consumes it, and grants 250 rep with the faction you chose.

The badges/factions to choose from are:

Kirin Tor

Argent Crusade

(Knights of the) Ebon Blade

Wyrmrest

Here's a good reference guide to the various factions and their rewards in Wrath.  Note that Horde Expedition and Alliance Vanguard are identical versions of the same group for their respective sides, and the rewards they offer are identical.

The New Rep Grind

Disclaimer:  This post is information as I understand it thus far!  There may be some innaccuracies here, and I hope you guys will help me correct it as the true system is better understood.

Blizzard hath both giveth and taketh away this xpac. That is, while it's likely rep grinding will be easier and less tedious in Wrath, there are more distinct reps to be concerned with, and the new badges work in conjunction with rep to get you gear.  Simply collecting a mountain of badges won't get you into the good gear anymore.  Generally you must have a combination of both badges and rep with a specific faction.

Sounds more complicated so far, right?  Well this is where Blizzard giveth.  Rather than being locked in to a specific instance or set of instances to grind faction x, you now "champion" a faction and run any instance you feel like to earn rep with them.  You champion a faction by wearing their tabbard while running any level 80 instance.  If you want rep with The Buggering Brothers, you're not locked to running Buggering Brothers' instances.  Run any instance wearing a Buggering Brothers tabbard to gain rep with that faction.  Normal and heroic modes will earn you rep all the way to exalted, though naturally you'll gain faction faster in heroic mode.

Again, the one caveat is that you must be in a level 80 instance for this to work.  If you throw on the Buggering Brothers' tabbard an run heroic Nexus, no problem.  If you throw on the Buggering Brother's tabbard and run normal Nexus (lvl 72 - 74) you gain no rep.

All factions have mountains of dailys that can be done as well.  The quests may change as your rep level increases, but quests will be available all the way to exalted.

Looking for the New Shoulder Enchants?

They come from reputation with The Sons of Hordir. I wrote a fairly thorough description on how to get started with this faction over at wowdb.com, so rather than rewrite it I'll just link the page.