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The Death of Aeris: Reflections on 'Final Fantasy 7'
Just Adventure
The Death of Aeris: Reflections on 'Final Fantasy 7'
Brad Kane writes about what he considers to be "one of the most stunning moments in videogame history"
Posted: 11/24/13 | Category:
| Platform:
It's cold, and snow falls in flurries. You run, like you always do, because time is of the essence. You're on the Northern continent, beneath the forgotten capital of the Ancients—a long-lost culture who understood mako energy as the Shinra Electric Power Company never will. The Ancients possessed profound wisdom about the life force of the planet… but you're not here for ancient wisdom. You're here for personal reasons. You're here because of her.
You know her as Aeris, or Aerith, or perhaps by another name (in my version of this story, she is Flosh). She is young, beautiful, and descended from the Ancients, connected to their wisdom by a bond of the spirit. Aeris was supposed to be under your protection, but she left in the night. She might be in danger. You mean to get her back.
You enter a large, underground temple… and there she is, kneeling beside a pond, as beautiful as the day you met. Her pink dress, her stylish hair, her sweet smile, her heart full of love. Is she praying? Of course she is. What a beauty. You slowly approach, eager to reunite with her once more. But you are not yourself today. Your hands are not your own. He is here. Trying to control you. He wants you to kill her. You know who I mean.
Sephiroth dresses in black and carries a wicked scimitar. He has awaited this moment with frightening sobriety, despite his burning madness. When you resist him, he decides to do the deed himself—and drops from the ceiling, that wicked blade in hand. What happens next will scar you for life—for the shocking crime that Sephiroth commits can never be forgiven.
If you've played
Final Fantasy 7
, you may still be reeling from the death of Aeris Gainsborough. Her murder, halfway through the game, ranks as one of the most stunning moments in video game history, a pivotal scene in what some would call the greatest RPG ever made. Even now, sixteen years later, I still get chills when I remember Aeris (well, Flosh) collapsing in my arms and dying. Her death resonates in my cells, like… well, like mako energy.
Let's put this event in context. When
hit the PlayStation in 1997, video games were nowhere near the storytelling sophistication of modern titles. (Even caring about a video game character was rare in the 1990s.) The closest thing to a Final Fantasy experience was TV—but modern serialized television had yet to be invented, and shows like
Game of Thrones
The Walking Dead
—in which the deaths of main characters are standard fare—were on nobody's radar yet.
Final Fantasy 7
came along. The previous game in the series had been fairly complex from a storytelling point of view, but as the first RPG with 3D graphics and an enhanced soundtrack,
Final Fantasy 7
set a new bar. The game pulled you in like no game ever had. How could you not get caught up in a game this beautiful, this intricate, this long? (When I finally escaped Midgar after infiltrating Shinra headquarters, I was certain the game was over. In truth I had finished the prologue.) Aeris was the last person I expected to lose along the way. Cloud (the game's spikey-haired protagonist) had a number of sidekicks, but Aeris was the most special. She was an Ancient. She had powers. She and Cloud had a unique relationship. And right from the beginning of the game, she had been introduced in a way that made players fall in love with her.
Sure, Tifa was the sexy one. She had the long brown hair, the generous curves, the skimpy outfit that left little to the imagination. Tifa was sexy and tough yet emotionally vulnerable—a nice role model for a growing audience of female gamers, and a drool-worthy sidekick for the inevitable fanboys. But Aeris… Aeris was different. She was sweet and pretty, an angel made flesh. She sold
for a living, and went to
. Aeris wasn't the kind of girl you pinned up on your wall. She was the kind of girl you took home and married, and spent your life holding hands with by a pond. Aeris was the one you were supposed to love. She captured your heart one gentle word at a time.
And it worked. I really did love that girl. Until Sephiroth murdered her.
Aeris' death occurred less than halfway through the game (though by that point it felt like a lifetime.) In the weeks that followed, I went on to complete many important tasks: bringing down Shinra, defeating the Emerald and Ruby Weapons, saving the world from destruction. But none of these was quite as epic as my pursuit of the game's most rare and powerful item: the materia known as Knights of the Round.
For those who haven't played the game, it's hard to overstate the work involved in obtaining Knights of the Round. First you have to breed Chocobos. (For the uninitiated: think giant chickens.) The way this works is, you run around the planet looking for the beasts; when you find one, you chase it, capture it, feed it special food, and take it to the race track at the Gold Saucer (an amusement park.) If you win enough races, your Chocobo's ranking improves, at which point you take it to a farm that specializes in Chocobo-raising and breeding.
Breeding Chocobos is a science and an art. The goal is to breed a blue Chocobo with a green Chocobo to create a black Chocobo, which can then be bred (after being raced and fed and raced again) with a so-called "amazing Chocobo," to eventually produce the coveted Golden Chocobo. Describing the process like this, it sounds like it might take an hour. If memory serves, I skipped class for nearly a week to make it happen. Because only on the Golden Chocobo could you reach the most remote spot on the planet: a rugged island in the northern sea.
On that island, inside a cave, awaited Knights of the Round. Equipping this materia allowed you to summon
thirteen consecutive medieval knights
to slash your enemy to bits, one awesome 3D graphic at a time. In an era long before YouTube, the only way to even witness this amazing feat of magic was to breed a Golden Chocobo and obtain the materia yourself. Why did I invest so much time in this mind-numbing quest? The answer is simple: because I loathed Sephiroth. He had killed my Flower Girl, and I was going to do whatever it took to kick his heartless ass. Even if it meant getting up early. Even if it meant skipping a few meals. Raising those Chocobos wasn't easy, but love never is. Such was the strange allure of
Final Fantasy 7
Eventually, I descended into the Northern Cave and unleashed my medieval knights on the evil man-in-black, and he was destroyed. Sephiroth died, vengeance was mine, and the game was over. But in the final moments of the final sequence, Aeris returned. Not in the flesh, but in the spirit, watching over my characters as if her life force had merged with the life stream of the planet itself. In this moment—witnessing the gorgeous ending to a perfect game—I finally cried. And as the credits rolled, I uttered the words that millions of other gamers uttered that year: "That was the best video game I've ever played."
Article © 2013 by Brad Kane
Reprinted with author's permission
Specials from Digital Download
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Klassen, Agatha Wiebe Thiessen (1887-1979)
Agatha Wiebe Thiessen Klassen: registered nurse; born 9 May 1887 in Weidenfeld, Manitoba, to Peter B. and Anna K. (Wiebe) Wiebe as the fourth of nine children. Agatha's younger brother, Cornelius Wiebe (1893-1999) became a family physician in Winkler and Manitoba's first Mennonite Member of the Legislative Assembly.
Agatha grew up in a rural community in southern Manitoba. She attended school in Rosenfeld until another school was built nearer Weidenfeld. Her education was delayed when her parents needed her help at home. However, when her own lack of strength prevented her from doing hard physical work, she was again allowed to continue her education. She completed Grade 11 at Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna. She moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1911 to receive nurse's training at the Evangelical Deaconess Hospital. At the end of the 3-year program, she graduated with a nursing certificate in 1914 and returned to Manitoba as one of the first Mennonite women to hold official nursing qualifications. Since these qualifications were not recognized by Canadian hospitals, she took another nursing course in Winnipeg. After she successfully passed the Canadian Registered Nursing examinations, she was employed at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Ninette, Manitoba for seven years. By the end of her time, she was the head nurse.
Agatha married on 30 January 1927 at the age of 40 to Franz F. Thiessen (1882-1959), a widower with 11 children. Three years after their marriage, the couple's first child was born, and a year and nine months later another child. Agatha and Franz lived on a farm near Lowe Farm, Manitoba for 23 years. Agatha used her medical skills whenever someone in her large family became ill. She also assisted with vaccinations at the nearby school when necessary. Agatha and Franz retired to Steinbach in 1950, where Franz died in 1959. A little later Agatha married Jacob J. Klassen. He died in 1961. Agathe spent her last eight years at the Salem Personal Care Home in Winkler, where she died on 6 December 1979.
GRANDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) Database, 5.03 ed. Fresno, CA: California Mennonite Historical Society, 2007: #166264.
Hildebrand, Marjorie Wiebe. "Agatha Wiebe (1887-1979) Registered Nurse." Preservings No. 14 (June 1999): 80-81.
|Susan Huebert
|Date Published
|November 2007
Cite This Article
MLA style
Huebert, Susan. "Klassen, Agatha Wiebe Thiessen (1887-1979)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. November 2007. Web. 20 Aug 2018. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Klassen,_Agatha_Wiebe_Thiessen_(1887-1979)&oldid=105531.
APA style
Huebert, Susan. (November 2007). Klassen, Agatha Wiebe Thiessen (1887-1979). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 20 August 2018, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Klassen,_Agatha_Wiebe_Thiessen_(1887-1979)&oldid=105531.
©1996-2018 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Begin your weight loss journey today with these tips on diet and physical activity to get started on losing weight.
Use the panel above to download the NHS 12-week weight loss plan and start your weight loss journey.
The plan, which has been downloaded more than 3 million times, is designed to help you lose weight safely – and keep it off.
The keys to success:
Below are some helpful tips to start your journey towards a healthy weight. Once you're on the way, there is lots of information and advice that can help you keep going in our Lose weight section.
Lots of us eat and drink more than we realise and do little physical activity. The result is often weight gain.
To lose weight, we need to change our current habits. This means eating less – even when eating a healthy, balanced diet – and getting more active.
Drastic fad diets and exercise regimes that result in rapid weight loss are unlikely to work for long, because these kinds of lifestyle changes can't be maintained. Once you stop the regime, you're likely to return to old habits and regain weight.
You can take six actions today that will start your journey towards a healthy weight:
There are four actions you can take this week:


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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew travels to China Sunday to press senior Chinese officials on currency reform, market access and a number of other trade irritants.
The trip, Lew's third, comes weeks after the Treasury Department told Congress that it didn't think China is a currency manipulator but needs to take further steps to liberalize the yuan.
Earlier this year, China made it easier for the value of the yuan to rise or fall within a band. It was widely seen as an important step toward a currency whose value relative to other currencies is determined by financial markets like those of most other industrialized nations.
But as China's economy began slowing, now projected by Western analysts to grow in the range of 7.5 percent, the government seemed to endorse allowing the yuan to lose value, making China's exports cheaper on international markets and foreign-made products imported into China more expensive.
"There is still substantial adjustment to take place," a senior Treasury official told reporters Friday, in a briefing that was conducted on the condition that two Treasury officials not be identified in exchange for discussing policy. The official said China's economic slowdown "doesn't change the necessity" for currency reforms.
Secretary Lew is also expected to press senior Chinese officials to do more to protect patents and copyrights of U.S. products, and to push for greater access for U.S. products within China.
"There are a whole host of issues that the secretary will want to raise," said another Treasury official, saying Lew will push next week, and later in the year during Strategic and Economic Dialogue meetings in China, for a relationship that is "more balanced and fair."
China is projected to overtake the United States soon as the world's largest economy. It still lags far behind the United States and European allies in per person income, output, innovation and a host of other areas that will continue to distinguish the largest economy from more potent ones.


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Christine's Story
I was born and raised in Germany, but there must be some gypsy blood running in my veins as I have lived in so many different places by now. Packing and moving on has almost become a habit, although one I do not necessarily enjoy. The good thing is that I can take my work with me wherever I go, and there is a good chance you will see me at a fair or sitting in a meeting or such, with knitting in hand or working on some project.
I always enjoyed handwork in school, but was jealous of the boys when they went off to woodwork and craft class and we girls to "only" handwork. I wanted to do both! I have not always been a "knit whiz" though. I remember my mother's words in first grade, "One could kill somebody with your knitting, it is so tight!" I also remember my stitches not moving on those No. 2 ( now my favorite size) metal knitting needles because of my sweaty fingers. No nice handmade wooden needles like the children make in Waldorf schools! My mother also was, and still is (at 86 years old), knitting all the time. As a child I was dressed in knits during the weekdays and only my Sunday outfits were sewn by a seamstress. After I had outgrown a hand-me-down from my sister, my mother would unravel it and make something else out of it.
Knitting and crocheting has always been a big love of mine, and if things go crazy I will sit down and knit to relax. I apprenticed as a Pharmacy assistant and later trained and worked as an esthetician. I lived with my husband in Switzerland when our son Florian was born, and I quit my job to become a full-time mother. I made my first soft-body dress-up doll for his second Christmas in 1977. The face was a plastic form with fabric glued over it and facial features painted on it. It is really difficult to get the eyes to look alive, and I had an artist friend do this part for me. Because of this, I never felt it was "my" doll. Still, I made more and started selling at Artists Markets in Zurich till we moved to San Francisco in March of 1981.
By summer of that year, I had created a good stock, and I attended the "Burlingame Art in the Park" Festival, my first and only one in a long time. Children did not even look at my wares! It was the time of the Muppets and Miss Piggy fad, and my things were not anything like it! Oh, what a disappointment! I do remember clearly, though, two older ladies coming by to look, examining everything closely, and commenting, "Oh, does that not look exactly like home?" to each other. They did not realize that I understood them perfectly – they were speaking in Swiss German.
When my son entered first grade at the San Francisco Waldorf School in 1983, I learned to make dolls with the "Waldorf head" from a parent leading a workshop group "Doll Making" for the school's Christmas Festival. I found it much more to my liking, but slow and cumbersome. We were sitting there stroking and forming the head for almost an hour until she told us that that was plenty, and we would not get anything done if we didn't speed up a bit! She was a very accomplished doll maker and had made many, many dolls to sell to raise funds for the school.
In 1985 we moved to Gainesville, Florida, and at a University Christmas Market in 1988, I was "discovered" and invited to join the local Artisan's Guild as a new member. About the same time, 'The Ark', a toy store at the San Francisco Waldorf School opened and started selling my creations and, shortly after, I was contacted by the Sunbridge College Bookstore in New York. I have sold dolls and offered workshops at Rahima Baldwin Dancy's "Waldorf in the Home" Conferences in Ann Arbor, Sacramento and Boulder since 1993. I was also involved with Waldorf during my daughter Francisca's kindergarten time in Tennessee. When she started first grade at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm in Santa Rosa, California, I volunteered in her class for handwork and painting. I managed the school store for a time and organized the vendors for Christmas Fairs. I still volunteer at the biodynamic Farm there now.
Our journeys also took us to the Whidbey Island Waldorf school in Washington, were I taught a 5th and 6th grade handwork block in my favorite subject: knitting socks. At 'Gorka', an anthroposophic community in Russia where my daughter and I lived for 9 month, I delved into sacks and sacks full of unprocessed wool: washing, carding, spinning, knitting and felting. I also set up a little cottage industry for them by employing local women to spin yarn and then knit socks from it. I brought many pairs back with me to the US to sell for them. I remember Babushka Clava, 94 years old, being thrilled of knitting socks in exchange for her daily milk. I still wear a pair made by her. A rainbow colored pair of mittens I knitted with yarn I had spun from roving they had, inspired many of the young members to pick up their knitting again during our daily handwork sessions.
Back in California, I helped a friend manage the front office of her anthroposophical clinic. But doll making called me back again! And again after a short detour to Erie, Colorado. Now I am back in California, enjoying walks on the beach and hikes in the redwoods whenever time allows. I especially look forward to spending time with my two grandchildren, Cody and Madeleine, when they are around for vacation breaks. I am very interested in mindful and sustainable living and building - cob, straw bale and light clay - and my dream is to build my own cob/hybrid house. I am also a dowser and energy worker and am interested in various, sometimes far-out healing methods. If I had free time on my hands, I would love to garden, actually have a farm, make cheese, work with bees, relax at my spinningwheels, learn to turn wood, learn more about subtle energy and healing, and read all day long!
I want to express tremendous gratitude to my daughter for stepping in and helping me with the set-up of this new website and with all the computer work and the patient tutoring she gives me (over and over!), as well as her pep talks when I was ready to quit! I could not have done it without her! Also, I appreciate her selling for me at fairs when there are too many for me to handle or I am off gallivanting around the world! I also want to say a big THANK YOU you to all my customers over the years for the support and trust I have received. I am glad I can serve you. Love, Light, Blessings and Joy to all of you.


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The sole example of a "useful mutation" that evolutionist biologists refer to is the disease sickle cell anemia, in which the hemoglobin molecule responsible for transporting oxygen becomes deformed and changes shape. As a result, its ability to transport oxygen is seriously impaired.
Victims of sickle cell anemia suffer increasing respiratory difficulties. Yet this example of mutation, discussed under blood diseases in medical textbooks, is regarded as advantageous by some evolutionist biologists.
Sufferers from this disease enjoy a partial immunity to malaria, and this is described as an evolutionary adaptation. Using that kind of inconsistent logic, one could say that the genetically lame were spared being killed in traffic accidents since they could not walk, and that lameness is a useful genetic trait..
It is clear that mutations have only destructive effects. Pierre Paul Grassé, former president of the French Academy of Sciences, compares mutations to spelling mistakes during the copying of a written text. Like spelling mistakes, mutations add no further information, but rather damage what is already there. Grassé goes on to say:
Mutations, in time, occur incoherently. They are not complementary to one another, nor are they cumulative in successive generations toward a given direction. They modify what preexists, but they do so in disorder, no matter how . . As soon as some disorder, even slight, appears in an organized being, sickness, then death follow. There is no possible compromise between the phenomenon of life and anarchy [disorder]. 225
225. Pierre-Paul Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms, New York: Academic Press, 1977, pp. 97-98.2009-08-17 16:14:41


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Hand Painted Glass. This range of Glassware also match the French Garden Tableware
Villeroy & Boch's traditional French Garden Vienne bread plate / butter plate, part of the French Garden pattern stands a touch of classical to embossed patterns. More detaily, with green and yellow border for delicate trims, the French Garden selection offers and creates the brightness with joy and excitment to your dining table at any occasions


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(Scores 20 to 29)
- For companies in the top 10 list, WWF found that they have responded well to almost all of the individual asks WWF has made of all companies who buy palm oil.
- They are all members of the RSPO and mostly active ones; most have made public commitments to using CSPO and have set up policies and control systems internally so that they have a good handle on where they are sourcing palm oil from and how they are using it; and finally they are all currently using at least some CSPO and in several cases they have been doing so for some time.
- These companies are showing their competitors that it is possible to act responsibly when it comes to palm oil - but even they will need to do more to fulfill their targets to only use CSPO.


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This is an archived program. Resources are still available although grant funding has ended.
The EPA's Office of Wastewater Management funded outreach efforts by NACCHO and the National Association of Counties (NACo) to increase county officials' knowledge of onsite decentralized wastewater systems.
The program assessed the need for cities and counties to reduce pollution from onsite decentralized wastewater systems and determined ways to increase their responsibilities in this area. The assessment gathered and disseminated information through NACCHO and NACo outreach mechanisms, including conference workshops, advisory committees, Web sites, and NACo's annual county operations survey. Additionally, the program provided grant money to officials for model management practices, policies, and educational programs.


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April 16, 1979
To: Department Secretaries
From: Harold V. Manson, Coordinator 1979 Commencement Exercise
Subject: Request for Posting of Notice
Request the attached self-explanatory notice be posted in a conspicuous location within your department so as to be seen by those of your students who expect to be awarded degrees (bachelor's or master's) at our May 25 Commencement Exercise.
To: Students receiving Degrees at the 1979 Spring
Commencement Exercise, San José State University
San José State University is preparing a list of the names of those students who will be awarded degrees at the Commencement Exercise to be held here on May 25, 1979. The University intends to treat this list as directory information, under the provisions of the FamilyEducational and Privacy Act, as
The names of degree recipients will be published in the Commencement program which will be available at the Commencement Exercise for distribution to those in attendance. Further, it has been the policy of the University to prepare a news item citing the individual's name and degree awarded for release to the individual's home newspaper.
Any student eligible to participate in the May 25 Commencement Exercise who objects to either of the University actions indicated above should so notify the University in writing. Such notification should be addressed to:
Mr. John McLain
Office of Community Relations
San José State University
San José, CA 95192
Individual notifications must be received no later than May 1, in order to preclude the individual's name from appearing in the Commencement program or to preclude the issuance of a home newspaper release.


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ChemSpider News Switches Off. ChemConnector Switches OnPosted by: ChemSpiderMan in Uncategorized
For the past 8 months I've been running two blogs associated with ChemSpider…the ChemSpider blog and this blog, ChemSpider News. These had different intents – the ChemSpider blog was to cover the general directions, vision, activities, challenges and community conversations about the ChemSpider service. ChemSpider News was to cover details of new functionality as it was rolled out. What has happened is that the postings on this blog regarding new functionality have been missed by the readers of the other blog as a result of the readership being different (and different subscriptions to Feedburner being in place). This has not been good for the ChemSpider users since they have not been getting the latest and greatest news about new functionality. It's a great shame to deliver new functionality and not have people use it for weeks on end because they don't know about it.What I've also been posting on the ChemSpider blog are my own personal views regarding a whole variety of issues…none of them ChemSpider related. For example, my views on vaccines, on fluoride, on drugs, and on my views of various research undertakings. Recently John Doe took me to task in a recent response on the ChemSpider blog. While I vehemently disagree with his comment regarding the reasons behind my posting I have decided to separate news regarding ChemSpider and its mission, direction and new functionality from my own personal commentaries, pleas, musings and, once in a while, thigh-slapping fun exchanges (especially the ones about erectile dysfunction drugs and how the drug industry can learn from the golfing industry).
So, this site, while it will remain online for past references , will be discontinued in terms of new postings and all new functionality comments will be posted to the ChemSpider Blog. The ChemSpider blog will become just that…all about ChemSpider.
Regarding ChemConnector and it's associated Blog. That blog will be a communication vehicle for the website www.chemconnector.com, to go online shortly. As many of you will know me from the ChemSpider blog you will likely be aware that I took a sabbatical after 10 years working a company and have taken a few months down. For the time-being my intention is to spend some time consulting for groups and organizations interested in utilizing my skills and growing the business of ChemConnector – Connecting Scientists to Problem Solvers. This, of course, in parallel to the ongoing work on ChemSpider. More on this will come shortly and will be exposed on the site.


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My first review of a more-or-less serious WAD, I hope it's at least readable
Screenshots for this review: http://imgur.com/a/3KPGo (22x, resolution is around 512x384)
WAD: http://washboardabs.net/doom/breach/breach-latest.zip (1,4 MB)
Text file: http://washboardabs.net/doom/breach/breach.txt (a few KB, heh)
Thread on Doomworld: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/ ... ach-beta4/
In 2015, Alun "Viggles" Bestor released his first level since the mid-90s, Breach. It won a Cacoward on Doomworld in 2015. Moreover, it comes bundled with Doom Retro, the classic, refined source port. Breach requires a "strong limit-removing" port (> 32K segs), so I'm sorry, Vanilla purists, you won't see this beauty of a level.
I played this level using Doom Retro 2.3.2, on HMP difficulty. So what do I think about it? Shortly, it absolutely kicks ass.
But that's not much of a review, is it? Soooo...
The level is set in some sort of invaded base. You can already guess the plot, right? The starting area looks kind of just abandoned, but later all Hell breaks loose, literally. The level takes you through entire abandoned, broken, destroyed facilities, some rocky caves covered in nukage and a couple of hellish areas. The selling point of Breach is its truly beautiful detailing. Every single little thing is beautifully detailed, with nukage flowing out of pipes, cracks in the floor and on the walls (one particular crack appears on the ceiling as you move toward it!), brick stones hovering above the void, lights in the walls, snakes coming out of a gargoyle's mouth (I can't really describe that accurately), all sorts of fancy techy thingies, and, everyone's favourite, crates. Viggles even manages to create such works of art without using any custom textures (except all-black ones)! However, it might slow down your FPS quite noticeably. Not all the time, only sometimes.
The difficulty (on HMP) is quite fair, with classic gameplay elements, like chaingunner and revenant ambushes, fights on toxic waste, but doesn't overdo the slaughter moments, and its 205 monsters will provide a fun challenge. The dominant gameplay element is: you enter a weakly defended area, start exploring things, then you're suddenly teleported to short areas in Hell, then you return to that area, but it's significantly expanded, with, you got it, monsters all over the place. The author does it really well, so I'm sure you'll enjoy, even if your Doom skills suck, like mine.
Also, there is a really weird telefragging section, but don't worry about it, you'll see what I'm talking about.
I don't have much to say now, so, do yourself a favour and go play Breach. You won't regret it. At all. It'll take you around 40 minutes if you don't spend too much time looking for secrets.
One thing to conclude the review with: Viggles says that this is just ONE HALF of the level and that he might release the other half one day. Hell, even another 20 years would be worth waiting if it turns as good as the first one!
Some screenshots, more can be found at the beginning of the post:
BREACH.WAD (Cacoward 2015 winner) review
Ever wanted to review a map? Post your reviews here (with screenies and a link to the download) and it may end up on DWS.
Moderator: Sematary
3 posts • Page 1 of 1
Re: BREACH.WAD (Cacoward 2015 winner) review
So, thanks for the review!!! Excellent job. It's now posted on the website.
Re: BREACH.WAD (Cacoward 2015 winner) review
Cool, thanks!
Though, the image on the main page doesn't seem to be clickable, both on my phone and my computer.
Still, a big, big thanks; I already have one more review ready, but I can't really upload the screenshots now.
Though, the image on the main page doesn't seem to be clickable, both on my phone and my computer.
Still, a big, big thanks; I already have one more review ready, but I can't really upload the screenshots now.
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Pay Premiums / Report Wages
Your premium and wage reports are due quarterly.
- April 30: Quarter 1 reports are due for wages paid in January, February, March.
- July 31: Quarter 2 reports are due for wages paid in April, May, June.
- October 31: Quarter 3 reports are due for wages paid in July, August, September.
- January 31: Quarter 4 reports are due for wages paid in October, November, December.
You can file your quarterly premiums and report your wages online, via FTP, or by paper.
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text:
Shinco 868 DVD
Player - Page 1
A few months after our review of the Shinco 8320, we got hold
of the Chinese manufacturer's newest model, the Shinco 868. Its main differences
compared to its predecessor, are the on-board Dolby Digital decoder, the addition
of a component video output, and the inclusion of a Sega Mega Drive (aka Sega
Genesis) in the same box! Let's see if the newer model solves the problems of
the past?
Shinco 868 box includes the player, the user's manual (in English and Chinese),
an RCA audio cord, an RCA video cord, the remote control, a set of AAA batteries
for the remote, a DVD demonstration disc, and a "lunchbox" with nine
GameVCDs. What's sadly missing is an S-Video cable, which can boost picture
quality on newer TVs (buying such a cable, is strongly advised. Typical cost
ranges from $10 for most cables, up to $50 for special gold-plated jacks).
Shinco 868 DVD Player Specifications:
WaveLength 650nm
Video System
Frequency Response
Signal/noise ratio
> 85dB
Audio Distortion+noise
< -80dB (1Khz)
Channel Seperation
> 90dB (1khz)
Dynamic Range
> 85dB (1khz)
Audio Out (analog audio)
Output Level : 2V
Load Impedance : 10K ¥
Audio Out (digital audio)
Output Level : 0.5V
Load Impedance : 75 ¥
Video Out
Output Level : 1Vp-p
Load Impedance : 75 ¥, imbalance, negative polarity
S-Video Out
Output Level : Brightness (Y) 1Vp-p
Chromaticity (C) 0.286Vp-p - Load Impedance : 75 ¥
YUV Out
Y: 700mv
CB: 535.5mV
CR: 535.5mV
Microphone 1/2
Jack Type : 6.35mm microphone jack
Maxi-output level :10mV - Load Impedance
: 600 ¥
Power Supply
AC 110V-240V (50Hz-60Hz)
Power Consumption
435x300x90 mm


text:
Amy Bundy, 89
Amy Bundy, age 89 of Broken Bow, formerly of Ansley, died Oct. 3, 2012, at the Heritage Hall Nursing Home in Broken Bow.Amy Natalie (Tobin) Bundy was born May 18, 1923, to Amelia (Small) and Walter Tobin at Clarks. As a little girl, and the oldest of four girls in the family, she enjoyed helping her father on the family farm. She loved the farm life and caring for the animals. She graduated from high school at Hordville. The family then moved to the Comstock - Arcadia area where she met and married Evert Allen Bundy. They were married Aug. 5, 1944. To this union was born three sons: William, Glen, and George. During the mid 1950's the family moved to Ansley, where she lived until 2006. Failing health forced her to need assisted living and later nursing home care.She leaves behind, son Glen (Carolyn) Bundy of New Ulm, Minn., and son George (Melvina) Bundy of Ansley,; daughter-in-law, Carol Bundy of Minnesota; 13 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She also leaves behind two sisters, Margaret Nelson of Lincoln and Shirley Land of Callaway; brother-in-law, Ralph Sell, and many nieces and nephews.She was preceded in death by her parents, Amelia and Walter Tobin; step-father, George Sell; husband, Evert; son, William; and sister, Alice Sell, along with many brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.Funeral services were Monday Oct. 8, 2012, at the First Baptist Church in Ansley, with the Rev. Bill Ragan officiating. Burial was in the Douglas Grove Cemetery at Comstock, with Govier Brothers Mortuary of Broken Bow in charge of arrangements. Memorials may be made to the Ansley Baptist Church or Hospice.


text:
|Summary of reviews :
|Room :
|Facilities :
|Service :
|Location :
|Hotel room status:
|Prat Rajapruek Resort is near Royal Flora Garden and
Chiang Mai Night Safari. The resort is situated 8 km. from Chiang
Mai International Airport or 10 km. form city of Chiang Mai,
Complimentary Round trip transfer service to airport & Night bazaar,
The Boutique Colonial resort & Spa, Thai & International Food &
beverage available at Tong Guy, Restaurant, 100 persons Maximum for
meeting room and full facilities for seminar.
Deluxe RoomDeluxe rooms are All double bed room type decorated in contemporary colonial style.
King SuiteKing Suite rooms are decorated in contemporary and include Living room and full set Sofa.
Family SuiteFamily Suite rooms are decorated in contemporary 1 double & twin bed room.
|The restaurant dining is more than just about open cooking but the lifestyle.
We are simple and uncomplicated with a casual menu combining the best, freshest and most
authentic ingredients, The aim is to bring out the best flavors and promote the share experienced dining
that traditionally Asian, a way of eating whether you are alone, inviting friends or doing business,
where food is about enjoying and celebrating.
The Mixologist has created the cocktail with the belief that life and drinking should be as artistic as art itself with with focuses on house made syraps and drink recipes pairing with Restaurant cuisine, Discover further on our extensive wine and drink list. Sip your favorite wines and cocktails over a cool sound of music.
Tong Guy Restaurant served American breakfast buffet + a la carte menu of egg and Thai & western food. Traditional Thai and Western Cuisine and a la carte menu.
Restaurant : Open Daily 06.30 a.m. - 11.00 p.m.
Breakfast : Open Daily 06.30 a.m. - 10.30 p.m.
Lunch and Dinner : Open Daily 10.30 a.m. - 11.00 p.m.
Prat Rajapruek Resort provide custom solutions to fit your every need, from seminars,
to workshops, to business conferences or events like annual dinner and dance
or even school's prom nights! karaoke party, Wedding Party indoor and Out door pool, Full meeting facilities.
|From city of Chiang Mai, Complementary Round trip
transfer service to airport & Night bazaar.
|First Floor Corridor
|Walk way
|Swimming Pool
|Bicycle Service
|Swing in the garden
|Prat Rajapruk Boutique resort is near Chiang Mai Rajapruk Night
Safari The resort is situated 8 km. from Chiang Mai International
Airport or 10 km.


text:
Written by Elizabeth Barrett Wednesday, 21 July 2010 21:57
Lessees taken to courtin 1994, 2002.
Property owners at Jeffrey and Midway Lakes recently received certified letters from Central Nebraska Public Power & Irrigation District stating that their leases have been terminated.
The letter goes on to state that Central filed an action in district court regarding the termination notice and lease.
Jeffrey and Midway lakes are on Central's supply canal that provides irrigation and power.
Central leases land next to the two lakes to the two corporations—Jeffrey Lake Development Inc. and Midway Wildlife and Recreation Club—on which property owners have built cabins and homes.
The corporations in turn sublease to property owners who pay a yearly fee.
Central's board of directors approved the sending of the termination notice at their July 6 meeting.
The district's public relations manager, Tim Anderson, said in a news release that Central officials hope that property owners will enter into new leases with them.
A draft of a proposed lease agreement, between Central and each individual property owner, was included in the mailing.
Anderson said the action is intended to resolve litigation over charging lease fees at both lakes.
He described the litigation as ongoing since 1995 when property owners sued to prevent Central from the collection of proposed lease fees at the lakes.
In that case, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a Lincoln County District Court ruling which prevented Central from collecting lease fees from property owners at the two lakes.
Gothenburg attorney Steve Windrum, who represents the Jeffrey and Midway Lake corporations, said the ruling prevented Central from collecting rent under the existing leases written decades ago.
In the most recent development, Windrum said the bottom line is that Central wants to end the lease agreements with the lake associations—agreed to in 1980 with Jeffrey and 1981 with Midway—and put a new one in place between Central and each of the individual sublessees.
The agreement would allow Central to charge rent—starting at $500 per lot in 2010 for Jeffrey leaseholders and $250 per lot for leaseholders at Midway.
The proposed lease would also spell out new rules for lessees including such things as how the lease could be terminated, maintenance of leased property including shoreline and structure requirements.
Property owners at Johnson Lake and Lake McConaughy are charged a fee which is determined by a percentage of the appraised values of their lots.
The two lakes are also part of Central's water supply.
On behalf of the Jeffrey and Midway corporations, Windrum said he plans to ask the judge to dismiss Central's case.
In addition, he said he plans to include a claim that Central breached a civil law so the lake corporations can sue for interference with a contractual relationship.


text:
:: home > city services > city library
Location: 15011 Circle Drive
Victorville, CA 92395Telephone: 760.245.4222See a map to this location...
Hours:Monday - Thursday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
Looking for activities for Teens? The Victorville City Library is holding it's annual Teen Activities Event. Follow the links for more information.
Busca actividades del verano para los adolescentes en su familia? La Biblioteca de la Ciudad de Victorville Tendrá su evento anual de Actividades Para Adolescente Para mas informacion siga el enlace.
Have you checked out our digital collection yet?
How to use OneClickDigital
How to use Zinio:
Library Programming at a Glance
For a quick overview of programs at the Library:
September 2016 Calender
The Victorville City Library currently offers a variety of programs including weekly preschool story times and an afternoon story time and craft for school age children.
Want to read to a new friend? Join us on the third Friday of the month when P.J.'s Pals, reading therapy dogs, are here to listen to you read!
Children's Program Sept. 2016
Friday Class
Free computer classes are held every Friday morning from 9:00 a. m. - 11:30 a.m. Both beginning level and intermediate classes will be taught each month. Check out the new schedule!
Call the library at 760.245.4222 to sign up. Space is limited.
Sept. 2016 Computer Classes
Beginning Computer Classes for Spanish Speakers
The Victorville City Library is offering beginning computer classes in Spanish. Classes will be held Monday mornings from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Call the library at 760.245.4222 to sign up. Space is limited.
Clases de Computacion de Sept. 2016
Crocheting Classes 1st & 3rd Tuesdays
Do you want to learn how to crochet? Or do you just need to brush up on your crocheting skills? Whatever your level of expertise, you're welcome to join in the fun!
Come join the Victorville City Library's "Crocheting Club" on the first and third Tuesday of each month from 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm.
Paper crafting Classes 2nd & 4th Tuesdays
Are you ready to learn something new? Join us for our *NEW* paper crafting classes! Learn how to make cards for special occasions, gift tags, gift bags, scrapbook pages, and bookmarks. Also learn about the art of quilting. All supplies will be provided but donations of additional supplies will be gladly accepted.
These fun-filled classes will be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month from 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm. All skill levels are welcome. Ages 12 and up.
Also available to our patrons is Career Transitions, a program which provides a one-stop, comprehensive guide to changing careers. The program takes a guided, self-paced approach to helping users find a rewarding career during these challenging times.
Patrons are required to have a valid Victorville City Library card to access these new programs. San Bernardino County Library card holders can access these programs through the San Bernardino County Library's website.
The Victorville City Library together with the San Bernardino County Library System offers users the ability to:
Access a variety of electronic resources.
With these online resources users can download e-books, use encyclopedias or get up-to-date health information, to name a few.
Search the San Bernardino County Online Library Catalog.Use this link to search for books and other materials available for check out.
View Your Online Library Account
A valid Victorville City Library card or a San Bernardino County Library card enables user to view their online account, enabling them to order and renew books from home.
The Friends of the Victorville Library are members of the community who value public library service. Friends work together to promote goodwill and foster support from the community for the library; they increase public awareness of library needs; raise funds for equipment, furniture, and library programs.
The Friends of the Victorville Library meet at the Victorville City Library on the first Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am.
Currently, the Friends of the Library are raising money to purchase new computers for our library. Any monetary donations will be gladly accepted.
Call the Library at 760.245.4222 for more information.
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text:
Simpson puts Idaho businesses, jobs first
Washington, D.C. – Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today voted to re-open the federal government, avoid default on our nation's debt, and preserve the historic spending cuts Republicans have won in Congress over the last three years.
"There has to be a way to address our nation's fiscal problems without making them worse in the process," says Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson
While acknowledging his vote in favor of the bill might be unpopular with some of his constituents, Simpson said the potential economic consequences of continued stalemate outweighed any political consideration.
"The easiest, most politically expedient thing for me to do would have been to vote NO and protect my political right flank," said Simpson. "Doing so, however, would have been the wrong thing to do for my constituents and our economy. My vote today was about the thousands of people facing layoffs at INL, the multitude of businesses across Idaho that have told me their livelihoods are at stake, and the millions of folks across the country who can't afford the devastating impacts of default on their investments and retirements. There has to be a way to address our nation's fiscal problems without making them worse in the process. That is the result I will continue working toward during the time we've afforded ourselves with today's agreement."
Simpson also suggested that he doesn't expect the ongoing controversy over the implementation of Obamacare to subside with this agreement.
"The fight over Obamacare may now move to another venue, but the fight is far from over," said Simpson. "While I strongly believe we should continue working to delay the entire law for one year, I also tend to believe that Obamacare may collapse of its own weight. I don't think it will work. I don't believe it will contain costs. I don't believe it will improve access. And I certainly don't believe that it can survive the scrutiny it is sure to receive once it is fully implemented and its impacts are fully realized. At that point, Republicans may have a much stronger hand."
Simpson made clear in his reaction to the vote that while the compromise bill was far from ideal, the consequences of a continued stalemate were costing Idahoans their jobs and putting an unnecessary strain on our economy. He also stressed that Congress must now turn its focus to a more long-term solution to our nation's budget crisis.
"This bill, while far from perfect, preserves the progress Republicans have made in reducing spending and moving toward a balanced budget. This bill, while far from perfect, ensures thousands of people in eastern Idaho won't lose their jobs at INL. This bill, while far from perfect, ends the uncertainty for Idaho businesses that have been impacted by the shutdown and are terrified of default. This bill, while far from perfect, gives Congress the time to approach our budget challenges in an honest, collaborative, comprehensive, and enduring way over the next few months. I am deeply hopeful that we will now look toward a grand bargain, or 'big' solution that includes spending cuts, tax reform, and entitlement reform. The American people understand that doing so will require tough decisions, difficult sacrifices, and political courage. I am ready to face those tough decisions and I hope a majority of my colleagues in the House and Senate are ready to do so as well," said Simpson.


text:
Why? Because you can! And pickle, and jam, or otherwise celebrate the resurgence of the domestic arts our forebears held so dear. Put on your best apron and step into our kitchen, won't you?
Heart, Spleen, & Kidney Merguez inspired by Bob Zrenner's "Le Merguez" featured at Franks 'N' Dawgs.


text:
Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Relay For Life of Lewiston/Niagara invites the community to its Oscar party, Sunday, Feb. 24, at Water Street Landing, 115 S. Water St., Lewiston.
Come view "The Big Screen Awards" on the biggest screen in town. The red carpet cocktail party begins at 6:45 p.m., and the Academy Awards broadcast starts at 7 p.m.
Water Street will offer a menu of hors d'oeuvres inspired by some of the major movie nominations.
Visitors are welcome to come dressed for the red carpet party, or as their favorite movie character or celebrity.
Cost is $25 and reservations are required. All proceeds benefit the Relay For Life of Lewiston/Niagara. To purchase tickets, call Water Street Landing, 716-754-9200, visit www.RelayForLife.org, or check out the event in the Facebook group "Relay For Life of Lewiston, NY."


text: Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Season 1 Eps10 | Watch movie | Die Borgias – Sex. Macht. Mord. Amen. 123MoviesHub HOME MOVIES Adventure Fantasy Animation Drama Musical Horror Action Comedy History Western Thriller Crime Eastern Documentary Disaster Science Fiction Road Movie Erotic Mystery Sport Music Holiday Suspense Romance Fan Film Family War Film Noir Neo-noir Short Indie Sports Film Sporting Event Foreign TV movie TV - SERIES Action Adventure Animation Children Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Family Fantasy Food Game Show Home and Garden Horror Mini-Series News Reality Science-Fiction Soap Special Interest Sport Suspense Talk Show Thriller Travel Western BOXOFFICE TRENDING TV-TODAY 404 Look like something wrong! The page you were looking for is not here. BACK TO HOME A wide selection of free online movies are available on 123Movies . You can watch movies online for free without Registration. × You need to enable browser's cookie to stream. Click here for instruction.


text:
Roses -- fiction
The bare, forlorn branches and thorny sticks of her rose bushes give Galilee Garner something to look forward to all winter in The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns: "Something to hang my daydreams on like the ornaments on a Christmas tree. In the spring, they will bloom again."
Roses have long been used in metaphors for love in literature, and Margaret Dilloway continues the tradition in her charming novel. Dig right in with Gal Garner as she grows and breeds her difficult and obstinate Hulthemia roses, which thrive under a set of specific and limited conditions. The roses she breeds pretty much describe Gal, who was born with kidney problems, has gone through two kidney transplants, and has been on dialysis for eight long years waiting for another donor. Learn about love, roses and thriving under difficult conditions as you read this sweet, beautifully-written story.


text:
When mortising I found it difficult to remove waste left at the bottom of the mortise by my hollow-chisel mortising bit. Prying it out with a bench chisel often damaged the shoulder of the mortise and was not kind to the cutting edge of the chisel. I needed a tool with a right-angle cutting edge that would allow me to scrape the bottom of the mortise right up to the corners, then pull the chips out. I figured out how to make one from a 7⁄32″ Allen wrench. Here's how:
With a hacksaw, cut the short leg off at a 45° angle, leaving about 3⁄4″ of length on that leg, then grind the face of the cut flat. Next, grind the top of the short leg flat to create a 30° cutting edge at the intersection with the first cut. The exact angle isn't critical. You just want it sharp enough to cut well, but sturdy enough to withstand the prying action. Go easy with the grinding, cooling the metal frequently in water. If you overheat it while grinding, it will lose its temper and your tool will dull quickly in use.
For a handle, drill a 3⁄16″ hole at least 1″ deep in a piece of 3⁄4″-diameter hardwood dowel, then tap the Allen wrench into the hole. This tool works well for cleaning mortise slots 1⁄4″ wide and up. For larger mortises make one with a larger Allen wrench.
– Mike Callihan


text:
Dog Control Orders are in force in Calderdale's car parks.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try the A to Z of Council services.
© Copyright 2012
Calderdale Council serves the towns of Brighouse, Elland, Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden.
Is there anything wrong with this website?
Last Updated: 19/12/2006


text:
3D dynamic scene analysis: a stereo based approach
Springer-Verlag, 1992 - Computers - 300 pages
This is the first book to treat the analysis of 3D dynamic scenes using a stereovision system. Several approaches are described, for example two different methods for dealing with long and short sequences of images of an unknown environment including an arbitrary number of rigid mobile objects. Results obtained from stereovision systems are found to be superior to those from monocular image systems, which are often very sensitive to noise and therefore of little use in practice. It is shown thatmotion estimation can be further improved by the explicit modeling of uncertainty in geometric objects. The techniques developed in this book have been successfully demonstrated with a large number of real images in the context of visual navigation of a mobile robot.
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Reconstruction of 3D Line Segments
15 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
3D Dynamic Scene Analysis: A Stereo Based Approach
Zhengyou Zhang,Olivier Faugeras
Limited preview - 2012
3D Dynamic Scene Analysis: A Stereo Based Approach
Zhengyou Zhang,Olivier Faugeras
No preview available - 2012
3D Dynamic Scene Analysis: A Stereo Based Approach
Zhengyou Zhang,Olivier Faugeras
No preview available - 2012
Common terms and phrases
3D frames 3D line segments algorithm apply approach calibration camera Chap chapter component compute Computer Vision constant angular velocity coordinate system corresponding covariance matrix dashed lines defined denotes described in Sect displacement egomotion EKF-AXIS EKF-QUAT endpoints environment epipolar equation error example extended Kalman filter Figure focus feature function geometric given hypothesis initial estimate INRIA iteration KIM-AGGA kinematic model kinematic parameters least-squares linear Mahalanobis distance matched segments measurement method midpoint minimization mobile robot motion analysis motion estimate motion parameters motion-determination moving objects multiple matches navigation noise number of segments object motions observed scene obtain odometric optical flow orientation pairings plane position predicted quaternion reconstructed recover representation represented rigid motion rigidity constraints rotation axis rotation matrix second frame segments of Frame sensor shows singular value decomposition solid lines solution stereo frames stereovision superposition Theorem top views trajectory transformation translational velocity uncertainty update Vision
References to this book
Active Sensors for Local Planning in Mobile Robotics
Penelope Probert Smith
No preview available - 2001
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Algebraic Frames for the Perception-Action Cycle: Second International ...
Gerald Sommer,Yehoshua Y. Zeevi
No preview available - 2000


text:
Assignment: Newtown school shooting: Thoughts and tributes
iREPORTS FILED
iREPORTERS SIGNED UP
Created December 14, 2012 by
People across the world are sharing their concern, anger and sadness after one of the deadliest school shootings took place Friday in Connecticut. Adam Lanza opened fire in an elementary school, killing 26 people, 20 of them children, according to police, before turning the gun on himself. He also killed his mother.
What are your thoughts following the shooting? Whether you want to share a message of hope for the victims, your thoughts about gun control, or sound off on another related topic, this is the place. CNN will continue to report on the school shootings, and your thoughts may be part of our coverage.
If you have tributes to the victims of the shootings, we invite you to share them here as well.
Update: This assignment is now closed. See our Open Story of tributes to Newtown


text:
Open air aluminum screen cage! - Great for small species of Old World Chameleons, Juvenile Green Iguanas and other arboreal species of lizards, such as Geckos, Anoles, etc... - Large front door for easy cage access and bottom door for easy substrate removal. - Beautiful corrosion-resistant black anodized aluminum screen cage. Easy to assemble using only a screw driver.
Product code: TZR011
Copyright © 2018 Mega-Ray Uk Privacy Notice | Conditions of Use


text:
SEATTLE -- ( TheStreet) --The Boeing ( BA) 767 is entering the later stages of an airplane's life, where passenger planes are converted into cargo aircraft. "Passenger 767s are becoming available, being replaced by 787s or A330s, with aircraft pricing conducive to looking at freight conversion," said Steve Rimmer, CEO of Guggenheim Aviation Partners LLC, a Seattle-based aircraft leasing firm. "They are a good fit for the medium-haul freight market." Boeing said Wednesday it will convert three Guggenheim-owned 767-300ER jets to freighters. The work will take place at ST Aviation Services in Paya Lebar, Singapore. Guggenheim previously owned one of the planes and purchased two others. Rimmer said the price was "somewhat less" than the price of a similar aircraft from the mid-1990s, which is around $15 million. The agreement is a landmark in the evolution of 767 usage, said Boeing spokesman Bob Sailing. During the 2010s, Boeing completed seven 767 conversions for Japanese carrier ANA, but in those cases ANA was paying to have its own aircraft converted. "Once we completed the work for them, we had the 'feedstock' issue," Sailing said. "The residual value of the airplanes meant it was not worthwhile to convert" for parties who did not already have their own airplanes. At that time, the 767 had a relatively high value as a passenger aircraft. Add to that the cost of conversion, around $15 million per aircraft, and it was clear the 767's time had not arrived. But now, 767s are being replaced by larger, more efficient passenger airplanes including the A330, A350 and A380 as well as the 787, which this week began flyingintra-U.S. routes for United ( UAL). The airplanes were all slow to arrive, but with the exception of the A350 they are now in service. Additionally, new cargo versions of the 747-8 and the 777 freighter have also become available in the past three years. The large number of new aircraft contributes to a diminution in the value of older 767s. Conversion "is a solution to the problem of what to do with airplanes that otherwise have no market," said aviation consultant Scott Hamilton. The 767 entered service in 1982 and made history because "up to that point, with the exception of a few charter carriers, all airlines used three- and four-engine airplanes" for trans-ocean flights, Hamilton said. Subsequently, aircraft makers developed additional twin-engine aircraft including the 777 and A330. The 767 remains the preferred trans-Atlantic airplane, flying the route more frequently than any other aircraft, Boeing maintained. But orders for the passenger version have dried up. On the cargo side, Boeing still produces new 767 freighters. That is because congressional approval of the Air Force aerial refueling tanker program early in 2011 meant 179 more aircraft for the 767 line, making it important for Boeing to keep the line open even before production ramps up. Late in 2011, FedEx ( FDX) saw leverage in Boeing's situation: It ordered, presumably at a low cost, 27 new 767s for use in domestic cargo transport. Who will fly the three planes Guggenheim is converting? Rimmer ticked off the prospects. He said FedEx recently indicated it may be interested in converted 767s. DHL has new 767 freighters from Boeing. LAN has a cargo fleet that includes 767 freighters. And UPS ( UPS)? "UPS has never taken a converted 767, but there is no reason why they wouldn't," Rimmer said. At times, Guggenheim leases are to aircraft operators who fly for the overnight cargo companies. The air cargo market deteriorated substantially in the recession, and it has not returned. "We're not seeing the overall and general cargo market recovering," Rimmer said. "We've even got a concern as to, when it does start recovering, whether it will come back in the same way as it has in years gone by. But I do think there are pockets which are changing and where the dynamics are changing." Boeing expects the cargo market to pick up over the next few years, said Sailing, who acknowledged that for the moment, the cargo aircraft market may be oversupplied. He called Guggenheim's order "a vote of confidence by an important customer that feels (it) can place these airplanes." Follow @tedreednc -- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C. >To contact the writer of this article, click here: Ted Reed
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text:
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Things I'd Like to See
Knowing that more useful UIs will be coming, either soon as in 5.3 or with the release of the next expansion, that solves one of the things that I consider a huge quality of life upgrade. No more will I need what feels like a million addons to do what should be capable of being done in game naturally. I call this a huge quality of life change. No more broken UI addons when patch day comes as it will all be integrated and part of the game. Woo-F'N-Hoo, what took so long.
Conditional Macros:
The recent change that you can not use two things that are on the global cooldown in the same marco was an annoying change. I liked just macroing my dire beast to my arcane shot and making it a set it and forget it thing. I do understand why they did it however, because people could basically make rotations with them by putting a bunch of abilities on the same button and spamming it but what if there were a way to do something like that, to make bloated rotations less cluttered, while not making every spec into a one button wonder.
I would like to see conditional macro ability added. Allow all macros to have one "if" statement in it. Just one, not so much that you could put an entire rotation in there but enough that a smart player can ditch some of the button bloat.
if target < 20% /cast Kill Shot
else /cast Arcane Shot
Something like that would be nice, it would basically make it possible to remove some of the clutter. It could have many applications to remove some clutter and the smart players will take complete advantage of it. It would not simplify rotations into one button wonders but it will surely remove some of the useless clutter in the game.
The more expansions that come out and the more levels we get the more clutter our characters have. While some classes are fine with the amount of buttons they have at the moment sooner or later all of them will become hunters, 101 buttons to do the same thing other classes can do with 5. Anything to reduce a little clutter would be nice and those other classes might not be asking for it now but they will be asking for it when they too enter the world of annoyance that is the hunter buttongeddon.
Resource Tapping:
On many characters I do not have much of a problem with quest collection or resource gathering because there are ways to get what you want anyway. As a hunter I just let my pet attack and I gather, same with my lock, but other classes it does not work as well. Sure I can throw a stun off on my warrior, paladin, bear, and others, and I do. Land on a mine, start getting attacked, stun them and finish mining then kill them. Other classes are basically shit out of luck however.
One of the most annoying aspects of a multi player game is that there are other people in it. Duh, that is obvious, but it is also true. I am the type of player where if I see someone fighting over something I pass it up. I figure they are fighting there, it is their quest item or node. No worries, there are 100s around and I will get mine elsewhere, that one is theirs.
I am one in a million. Most people are not like that, as a matter of fact, most people are pricks. I remember back in wrath when I landed on a titanium node and got attacked and someone landed and took it and said thank you. I said, that was not nice, you saw me coming for it. They said, yes I did and was waiting for someone to do that. I knew I would get attacked and someone might steal it from me so I hovered here and waiting for someone else to land and take the mob so I can get the node, maybe you should be smarter next time and do it the right way. I told them the right way is to let the person that fought for it to get it. The conversation ended there.
That is the exact reason why there should be something called resource tapping in game. I understand that there are many, most even, that would not agree with me. They would say it is a multi player game and that is part of the game. Sure, it is. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I treat people with respect and let someone fighting for a node get it and all I want is the same respect in return.
Being most of the people that play this game are incapable of that sort of respect, they are all basically the dog that shits on the living room rug and no matter how much you try to train them they still do it. That is the player base and that is why I think resource tapping should be added.
When you start to mine a node, pick an herb, or gather a quest item it is tagged for 1 minute. So if you are attacked you basically now have 1 minute to finish your fight and get back to what you were gathering. If it takes longer, it is now open for someone else to take.
It would be a minor quality of life update but one I believe is needed in a game that is inhabited by what seems to be some of the most disrespectful people to ever assemble and play a game. Sure we all want to get our quest done as quick as we can, sure we all want to gather all the resources we need but some common courtesy to your fellow player would be nice and the player base is just not capable of that level of decency, so a change like this would have to be made to force them into being decent by taking away their ability to be assholes.
Character Copy:
Who hasn't ever wanted to make a character on another server to play with someone they met there? If they are like me they do not want to transfer, and it is not a money issue, it is just that the character you have is settled in where it is. You have your friends, your guild, your routine. But you want to play on that other server so you start an alt and start leveling it just to play there.
Now if you are obsessive like me you have done that a few times and even maxed out that said character a few times but by the time you get there you are not really into it any more and the character just sits there. Or someone needed a healer and you leveled a healer but by the time you caught up they no longer needed a healer.
Enter the character copy to help assist in doing just that. With some extremely restrictive rules and a $50 cost of course. This would be the rules I would not mind and would be willing to accept.
1) Copied characters must be max level.
2) They must have been max level for at least 30 days.
3) They will have stock gear of a 450 item level in each slot, not copied gear.
4) No achievements or reputation will be copied, shared achievements will still be shared but that character can get them again for the first time as the only achievements they will have themselves are the level ones.
5) The character would act like a completely fresh character that started at level 90.
6) The only skills that would carry over are riding skills, no other professions will be copied.
Now you can copy over that priest to heal for someone and just need to gear it up and get some professions. You can easily jump in and do the end game leveling, via gear, instead of the entire process.
Some people like to level, I know I do, but sometimes you just want to have a max level character to help out someone else on another server and do not want to transfer one of your others, this would be a nice little addition for that and I would surely use it.
Would anyone else besides me buy something like that? I think so. I actually think many people would. It would be a nice quality of life addition to the game and in the end, it would be great for blizzard in two ways.
When the next expansion comes out that person will now level that character from 90 to 95 thus meaning they are on playing more often, something blizzard would like, or they will just level the original to 95 and pay to copy it again, making blizzard more money, something blizzard would like. It would be win/win for them.
It would be great for guilds like mine that are having trouble fielding a second team too. Someone can just copy their main so they can play on both teams filling a spot. I know I would make a crew on any new server I went to, just to go back and max out every profession for all of them, so I had my network built, the same crafting and gathering network I try to build on all servers I play on.
Scaling Difficulty:
There are 10 million people playing this game and each of them plays at a different level of skill. Blizzard is aware of this and it is part of the reason for LFR, normal and heroic raids but that does not actually address the issue enough. The more people that play content the better it is for them. So why not allow difficulty scaling.
Something like the ICC buff or the DS debuff, but on a sliding scale. And not just making it 30% easier but 30% harder. From the moment a raid comes out it would have the difficulty slider available. No waiting, so everyone regardless of skill level can step in on day one if they want to.
To address the problem some people have with the need to feel better than others because they did it without the buff/debuff and the people that have the sense of entitlement that they too should be allowed to do everything there would need to be some other changes as well instead of just a slider bar set by the raid leader that moves the buff/debuff 10% up or down to a maximum of 30% either way.
Lets make a factitious raid that drops 500 normal gear and 513 heroic gear.
Normal Mode -
-30% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 494
-20% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 496
-10% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 498
Normal - Drops 500
+10% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 502
+20% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 504
+30% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 506
Heroic Mode -
-30% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 507
-20% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 509
-10% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 511
Heroic - Drops 513
+10% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 515
+20% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 517
+30% to all mobs life and abilities - Drops 519
Also, there would need to be achievement changes, so people do not feel the need to do them all to get all the achievements. Just for finishing it there would be an achievement that awards points. So what difficulty or when you did it makes no difference. Just like now. However, there would be an added achievement as a feat of strength that keeps track of the the highest level of difficulty you finished it at while it was current content.
Now the people that need to feel like they are better then others can do so because they would have better gear and a feat of strength to prove they did it, and people that are in guilds that hit the brick wall can scale things down a little and still keep moving.
I think a system like this would be better than the ICC or DS version as those offer the same gear and no incentive to do it without the beneficial buff. The blues always said to people that complained about the buff could "just turn it off" but they do not understand the mentality of people, myself included. Sure I can turn it off, but why do that when there is no benefit to turning it off? If I get the same gear for no buff that I do with the 30% buff I would be a fool to do it without the buff. Offering different gear for different levels creates an awesome incentive to turn it off, and even to turn it up.
Lets say you were stuck on the 5th boss in MV or the 3rd boss in HoF, like it seems half my server is, this would allow you to do it with a -10%, -20% or even -30% just to get past it. It would also allow you to get some better gear off the ones you have on farm, like my guild 8 manned MV a couple of weeks ago because we did not have enough on and did not feel like pugging. If we could have boosted it to +30% we would have been encouraged to pug 2 people so we could get better gear.
A sliding scale would be easiest to implement because all you are changing are values. Life totals and damage of abilities are increased or decreased by whatever percent you choose. I would love it. It would mean you can bring lesser players in on those days when a normal player does not show, it would mean that farm content is not just farm content but a chance for some small upgrades.
And lets not forget the added bonus to community from something like this. More pugs running at -30% just to get it done. And what about business. Scribes selling more shoulder enchants, leather workers selling more leggings, enchanters selling more enchants, jewelcrafters selling more gems, engineers selling more scopes, blacksmiths selling more buckles.
There is so much good that could come from scaling and it can be done without offending the people that want things hard, because they can have it 30% harder now, or making people that are not that good fell left out, because they can make it 30% easier now. It would also begin a whole new race to the end game by making the +30% the real world first and I am sure that will extend the race considerably.
This would be a quality of life change on a scale of epic proportions. It would make the game a whole new game and breath life into raiding like it has not seen since the days of wrath with separate lock outs and the ability to gear up alts quickly. If you notice, the item scaling I suggested also works out perfectly with their designed 13 item level difference between tiers and difficulties. The lowest level heroic is 1 over the highest level normal. As it should be. Perfect design that fits their theory already.
What other quality of life changes could you come up with? I know the three I would like to see would not be difficult to implement. What do you think the chances we will ever see any of them? The macro one I see as never happening. The character one I see as quite possible. The raid one I think is the most likely of the three.
17 comments:
- AnonymousFebruary 5, 2013 at 11:07 AM
PVP anon here:ReplyDelete
Conditional macros won't happen, since (if you only add checking for buffs / debuffs on yourself / target), you'd be able to fit a 99% rotation for every spec into a single button. No jokes.Replies
- AnonymousFebruary 5, 2013 at 11:15 AM
(Argh, incomplete post.)Delete
Why I am so sure? Because the topic of conditionals has been brought up earlier (somewhere in Cata), and Blizzard said that's why they won't have neither conditionals nor buff / debuff analysis in macros, ever. Maybe doing just the conditionals won't allow for a 99% rotation, but it makes sense to me that they don't want to risk even a 95% one, even if only for some specs.
That is why I said only one conditional per macro allowed.Delete
I could easily write a script that could do complete conditionals, it is not hard. Implementing the script however, that would I would know how to do.
As such, if I were able to, I would, but it would get so boring so fast from a DPS standpoint it would ruin the game for me. So that is why I do not think they are good ideas. I do think that individual conditionals would be nice, but like I said, I do not see that ever happening.
But like I said, with only one "if/else" conditional per macro allowed it would not be something that could be completely automated and would be capable of removing the bloat from many classes.
The sliding scalar for raiding sounds good. That gets my full approval. I'd like to add some sort of mode where you could go with different compositions. Rather than needing 2 tanks, 2-3 healers and then 5-6 dps for a 10 man raid. Maybe it's just because of my battle to find healers, but I'd love to have a raid option where you could have npc's help. They'd be operated as an AI so it wouldn't be as good, maybe the gear dropped would be inferior, or you couldn't get achievements that way. I don't care, but I would like to be able to raid with less people and/or not correct raid composition.ReplyDelete
As for the character copy. I don't know. I wouldn't put my hand in my pocket to pay for such a service. I just couldn't justify it. I could grind out a character if I wanted it that bad. I dislike paying real world currency (or in game as it happens) for something I could get if I worked for it.
I would much prefer that they relax lockout/realm restrictions. Have it so you can personally only get loot off the boss once a week, but that you can raid it as many times as you like. There'd be no benefit to doing so, beyond helping friends out and I suppose getting more practice at it. I guess the practice part could be problematic, but you'd have that anyway with the character copy. I suppose you'd have to gear more characters ready like that. I'd prefer just to have my characters as they are, but then I never have really liked the gearing treadmill.
I also wish they'd relax the restrictions for current tier raiding x-realm. I understand the problems of realm first which is why I think they should introduce a leaderboard. Something similar to your idea about the feat of strength per difficulty tier. I'm all for breaking down the boundaries of servers, possibly because I'm on a low pop one. I have friends on other servers who'd raid with me, and I'd like to raid with them. The ability to do x-realm current raids would be a big bonus and I don't think it'd hurt the community any. Take OpenRaid, that's building a whole new community, which I think is fantastic.Replies
Healers are always hard at the beginning of an expansion sadly because it seems like the first tier is all on how quick they gear up.Delete
I had read a few people that had NPC raider ideas, that could have some potential but unless they are perfect it would be all about the RNG on if you NPC does the right thing or not and in my opinion the last thing this game need is more stuff left up to random, there is too much of that crap already.
I would like to see two lock outs again myself.
Resource tagging would be nice - "They would say it is a multi-player game and that is part of the game"ReplyDelete
How is being a shiffer brained selfish jerk part of the game? Maybe in that tiny footed vermin's world it is. But not in mine or yours.
Good post. I would like to take it add some more food for thought - some are prob silly, some might make you go WTF?!? And others, well, who cares, at this stage, it is called barn storming. No idea is too silly or too great–
• ability to turn off pet or human dueling with a check mark - they try to duel you, they get a polite "no thank you" and you don't see it happening nor does it stops you in your gathering or doing your quests.
• How about a special dueling area oft to the side of a major city or under the city (in the sewers)? Like how our farms are. No special weapon awards or anything, maybe an achievement at being the top 10, the top 5 and even the #1? Leaderboard? It is tiring doing low quests with every dueler being in the middle of Goldshire, blocking post boxes, flying mounts, quest givers, etc.
• Ability to replace that terrible 16 slot bag by giving everyone a +2 slot bag for every 20 levels made for that first bag (or last bag, but you know which one I am talking about), with the ability on lvl 90 (or highest level of the game) to replace it with whatever one wants.
• No mounts at doorways, post boxes, quest givers, trainers, etc. no blocking of the same. That way you might be all crowded up but at least you can click on the item or quest giver/trainer.
• Items used for transmorg (is this the right word?) do not take up bag or bank space.
• Ability for a tradespeople to go up professional levels without having to go up toon levels.
• Ability for professions/tradespeople to change color of items. For example - maybe I want a red Santa hat, but all that drop was green – take it to a tailor who can change the color (bleach out the present color, use red dye to make it red). Why not :D
• Add more professions – such as bow maker and let the professions/tradespeople make all the weapons, armor, etc in the game – NO DROPS for armor or weapons, but better add-ons do drop outside of the normal profession/ tradespeople add-ons as rewards for killing raid bosses (plus 1000 gold for each person on the kill).
• When pvp'ing or dueling, everyone's armor and weapons become the same. No one has a better weapon or armor than the next. This would then prove that the better pvp'er or dueler is the better skilled player, not better geared.
• Armor or weapons drop related to the class and not a universal cloth item for a mail user. Also, if raiding, everyone gets loot related to their classReplies
RE Starter bag, I think they explained it as the initial 16 slotter is hardcoded in, rather than being a slot in which a bag is perma-equipped. So changing it to an equippable slot would probably be too much. I don't know why they couldn't add slots though, as you level up.Delete
IMO though, all this bag space stuff would go away if they would just have reasonable stack sizes. Who made 20 the iron law of stack size? Is anyone honestly bothered by Kyparite stacking to 200? Why doesn't all ore/herb/cloth/leather do this?
thats what I was thinking, though I didn't explain it too well. every 20 levels, you get +2 more slots added to it. Thanks for helping me explain it better. :DDelete
-roo "better living thru chemistry"
I think there is a setting to auto decline dueling already in game. The sewers were a great dueling area and I guess something like that could become a ranked thing if they wanted to do it but people would complain because PvP is not balanced for 1 on 1 and never will be so some classes would just be over powered. For example, no class could beat a hunter one on one, a good one that is, I would lose all the time.Delete
Oh yes, we need something better than that starter bag desperately.
They have armor dye in diablo, I could see it coming to warcraft one day.
• Increase cloth drops, ore nodes, plants, etc in the world.ReplyDelete
• Make humanoid npcs have to fight animal npcs out in the world. No more walking npc humans not being attacked by npc animals.
• Let npc animals be skinnable after 2 minutes if not looted by the killer.
• No more server worlds. By this I mean, Everyone is in the same world - able to buy, sell, join guilds, to each other, etc - there will be 1 world for all practical purposes. PVP can be turned off and no one can cause you to turn it on, unless you flip that switch (but you have to flip it on and off in a city, not in the middle of someone's fight.). that way folks who want to pvp can do it, those who don't want to, don't have too. Nodes or herbs are increase tenfold or a hundred to make up for everyone being in the same world.
• Horde and Alliance are yellow to each other. You can go into their capital and cities, but you can't buy or repair or daily quest (though that may be fun for fishing). You can fish without being killed :)
• Bring back 1 handed weapons for hunter. I miss the adds. :)
The condition macros, as nice as having them would be, I think would be a bear for Blizz to program into the game. And as PVP annone says, Blizz did write in their forums way back when it wouldn't happen - of course they say a lot of things and they seem to happen sooner or later. :D Though again, that would be nice.
First things first though, we need to have a lot removed off the global cooldown.
Like your ideas on raids :D
@PVP Anon - why don't you register and get yourself an avatar? :D I mean you have a lot to say here. And if you would need help with an icon for your avatar, I would be more than happy to help ya out. :)
Ok, a lot of nothing here. Move on….
-roo "trying to get thru the day"
A blind Dwarf in a bar shouts to the bartender, "Wanna hear a Night Elf joke?"
In a hushed voice, the guy next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, you should know something. Our bartender is a Night Elf, the bouncer is Night Elf. I'm a monk. The guy sitting next to me is a warrior. The fella to your right is a druid. Each one of us is a Night Elf. Think about it, Dwarf. Do you still wanna tell that joke?"
The Dwarf says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."Replies
The skinning thing would be awesome. I hate seeing a nice pile of animals and starting to drool thinking of all the free leather and the person did not loot any of them.Delete
Why do people do that, every thing is worth money, pick it up and sell it people.
I think the anon wants to stay anon, some people do and I can respect that.
On the raid difficulty idea, not bad but no no no to the gear differential. This game has way too many gear levels as it is. All raids should drop the same gear!ReplyDelete
For my ideas:
As I mentioned above, everything should stack to 200, except when it should stack to 1000.
Get rid of vendor trash. Just have everything drop gold.
No more hit and expertise
No more dodge and parry while we're at it
Each class can use one set of gear for all of its specs. It may not be totally minny-maxxy, but it'll get the job done.
Enchanting and Jewelcrafting no longer offer performance stats, instead they give interesting buffs, like lifestealing or chance to cast/proc certain effects.
(As you can see, I care nothing for the gear optimization minigame, but others' mileage may vary)
There should be a transmog interface, where you can open a window, drop a piece of gear in it, and it will disappear and be added to your collection with a warning so you don't inadvertently waste something. This interface would contain a searchable and favorite-able database of all gear and sets in the game, and be account-bound, and you can transmog directly from it.
Server transfers should be free, or keep the 25 dollar fee and add a mass-transfer option.
I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.Replies
Larger stacks just make sense, even more so being the game encourages hording, at least as I see it, it does.Delete
The raids would need different gear or there is no reason to do it in a harder version. If the easiest version offers the same gear as the hardest version only a complete moron would do it on the harder version. That would be like giving heroic raid gear in LFR. Why would anyone do the heroic version if they did not have to? Sure, some want the challenge but human nature would take over and they would do the easiest version to get all the gear first.
I have often said it is time for hit and expertise to go, so I agree there 100%.
I also support the one gear per class thing. Sure you would need to reforge between specs but all specs should use the same gear.
If server transfers were free the whole dead server issue would be a non issue. But blizzard cares more about money than about quality game play and experience or keeping its subscribers happy so that will never happen.
The reason to run the raid in a harder version would be for mounts/titles/achievements. You're right though that this wouldn't provide a reason to run the harder raids repeatedly, which I suppose is the real issue. But doesn't it strike you as odd design in the first place, to have people running these raids long past the point of interest in the content just to chase randomly dropping gear of a particular itemelevel?Delete
Yes for Conditional macros but probably won't ever happen.ReplyDelete
Maybe for Resource tapping. I'd just change it so you don't get a pushback or take damage while doing it. You'd still be "in combat" though.
Yes for Scaling difficulty. I always hated that it was all or nothing and there was no reward for doing it on normal difficulty. I'd probably not go with the different gear levels though because I just don't like gear levels anyway.
No for character copies. I just wouldn't pay that much. I'd rather allow more x-realm activities as Taitrina said.
And for other people's ideas:
Yes for all gear being crafted. I've commented on this before.
Yes for PvP being about skill only (take gear out).
Yes for better item stacking.
Yes for gear closets.
Yes for same gear for all specs in the same class.
Yes for getting rid of hit/expertise and dodge/parry.
No for a single world server. I'd quit playing if I was on a high pop server and that's how everything would end up.
Yes for peace between the Horde and Alliance though. It'd be cool if that's how it ended up with this expansion.
Yes for armor dye. Blizz can do it! They had it in Diablo 3! And it's in other MMOs.
Yes for profession level being separate from player level.
And a few "Things I'd like to see":
Better Auction house UI: take the best elements from Auctioneer, Auctionator, and TradeSkillMaster.
Separate AH messages from normal mail.
Remove racials.
Remove profession bonuses.
Learn all professions on one character (there can be an increasing fee for learning the 3rd, 4th, etc to keep it more balanced).
Get rid of infinitesimally small percentage things. 1/1000, 1/5000, 1/10000... that's just stupid. Nothing can have a rate lower than 1/500. It's a game, not torture.
Scale rare spawns based on zone population. More people, more frequent spawns.
Take Loque'nahak off Frostbitten. It's just cruel for hunters.
Move Vryagosa so it doesn't share a spawn with the TLPD. It doesn't need the extra competition.
Add a Pandarian fish for "One That Didn't Get Away" so we don't have to fish for an eternity in low lvl areas.
Get rid of the stupid PvP holiday achievements. I've trudged through them all to get my proto-drake but people should not have to go through all that. Keep the holiday goers out of the BGs.
Something to increase the availability of healers. Perhaps make all classes into hybrids by adding 4th specs:
- Hunter - Beastrider, mounted tank
- Rogue - Brawler, avoidance tank
- Mage - Barrier (can't think of a good name), shield healer
- Warlock - Vampiric, lifestealing healer
Matt's idea of using the same gear for each spec would help too since you wouldn't need to grind multiple sets (Respec and Just Do It!).
Lots of other ideas but they're mostly superseded by things already mentioned.Replies
As I mentioned in another reply, the gear differences would be needed or no one would do it at the harder difficulties. There would be no reasonable reward to encourage people to try harder or get better. Gear is a great motivator for many.Delete
I would love to learn all professions on one character but like you mentioned you would need to remove profession bonuses for that to work.
Even 1/500 drop rate is out of line. I think the worst anything should be is 1/100 and there should be an internal counter that checks and assures a guaranteed drop on the 100th try. There are a few mounts I am approaching that 500 number for and it is just wrong. It is a game, and random has the ability to ruin games.
Want to increase healers? Remove mana being an issue. Make healing about using the right abilities at the right time and less about managing a resource and you will see the healers quadruple over night. I would bet money on that.
So forget mana and balance it with CDs, I guess. The big heals are on a longer CD than the small heals so people only use big heals when needed and just keep the small heals going regularly but not constant button mashing?Delete
I don't have a healer but I guess it could be something like that.


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