Thursday, November 3, 2011

BQBL: Week 8 Scores

Alright, let's move on from last week, where Rob clearly hacked the game and installed a "bad qb shotbot". He was severely reprimanded and is remorseful for his crimes, and we've sent a strong memo to the rest of the league concerning the matter.
  • Nan: 82
    • Panthers - Cam Newton: 5
    • Jaguars - Blaine Gabbert: 62
    • Chiefs - Matt Cassel: 15
    • Buccaneers - Josh Freeman: bye
In a recession week for everyone, Blaine Gabbert just keeps going strong for Nan.
  • Alison: 28
    • Cowboys - Tony Romo: 5
    • Eagles - Michael Vick: 12
    • Browns - Colt McCoy: 16
    • Lions - Matthew Stafford: -5
Looking at these numbers, you probably wouldn't even be able to figure out that the Tony Romo and Michael Vick played against each other in what turned out to be a blowout loss for Dallas. Those five BQBL points Tony put up were for an interception that wasn't even his fault, either. Damn that Martellus Bennet! I knew he should have been waived instead of Tashard Choice! Sorry again for real football complaints. Moving on.
  • Me: 66
    • Redskins - John Beck: 32
    • Bills - Ryan Fitzpatrick: 10
    • 49ers - Alex Smith: 8
    • Bengals - Andy Dalton: 15
Writhing in my grave with the knowledge that the Bills signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to a fat contract extension, and that some analysts at ESPN have started calling him Fitz-Magic. I suppose I should consider myself fortunate that the Grantland staff never foresaw something of this magnitude on the BQBL radar and failed to pre-assign negative points for "lining your pockets". What's worse is, somehow all of my teams won this week, except for the Redskins, and that's only because they played the Bills!
  • Rob: 99
    • Dolphins - Matt Moore: 27
    • Raiders - Carson Palmer: bye
    • Broncos - Tim Tebow: 50
    • Colts - Curtis Painter: 22
Oakland's BQBs are taking the week off to rest their interception-throwing arms, and meanwhile, Tebow-mania begins in the ranks of the BQBL. AHA, that's what he must've been doing last week: Tebowing! Cheater.
  • Xian: 68
    • Texans - Matt Schaub: 5
    • Steelers - Ben Roethisberger: -2
    • Ravens - Joe Flacco: 4
    • Seahawks - Charlie Whitehurst: 35.5, Tavaris Jackson: 25.5
Xian's first benching of the season, but you'd hardly be able to figure out who was benched for who in that Seattle game against the 49ers! Meanwhile, the rest of his QBs played solid games against weak opponents (the Patriots have a leaky pass defense; even if the rest of their team is still functional, you can't say that the QBs that face them are going to have anything resembling a hard time)
  • GOOD QB NPC: 78
    • Patriots - Tom Brady: 18
    • Chargers - Philip Rivers: 30
    • Saints - Drew Brees: 30
    • Packers - Aaron Rodgers: bye
  • MEDIUM QB NPC: 14
    • Giants - Eli Manning: -4
    • Falcons - Matt Ryan: bye
    • Cardinals - Kevin Kolb: 18
    • Jets - Mark Sanchez: bye
  • BAD QB NPC: 38
    • Titans - Matt Hasselbeck: 0
    • Bears - Jay Cutler: bye
    • Vikings - Christian Ponder: 12
    • Rams - AJ Feeley: 26
Man, just when you think your groupings are correct, all the best QBs suddenly put up stinkers. They all lost, too, by the way. Except Aaron Rodgers, who pulled a Final Destination by having a bye week.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

BQBL: Week 7 Scores

Wow, league.
  • Nan: 134
    • Panthers - Cam Newton: 0
    • Jaguars - Blaine Gabbert: 52
    • Chiefs - Matt Cassel: 36
    • Buccaneers - Josh Freeman: 46
Cam Newton getting a goose egg in a win, and Matt Cassel scoring 36 in a win? This would have been a great score on any other week but this one. Sorry, Nan.
  • Alison: 48
    • Cowboys - Tony Romo: 6
    • Eagles - Michael Vick: bye
    • Browns - Colt McCoy: 31
    • Lions - Matthew Stafford: 11
May I digress to actual football fan-dom for a moment? Thanks.
The Cowboys have actually found a running game for the first time in many years? I mean, we get what everyone lauds as 'great runners' every year, even two or three of them sometimes, but our running game never really delivers in the way it has today, with a rookie backup who's hardly even touched the ball so far this year. The team has way more luck lately with these undrafted \ unknown commodities than the disappointment that was highly-touted, high-priced Roy Williams, or the highly-praised Martell Bennett, neither of whom performed up to expectations.
What does this mean for Alison? An actual run game may mean that Tony won't be throwing when the Cowboys are ahead by 2+ scores and having picks returned for touchdowns: high-scoring BQBL weeks from the Cowboys may be over if this trend continues!
  • Me: 10
    • Redskins - John Beck: 10
    • Bills - Ryan Fitzpatrick: bye
    • 49ers - Alex Smith: bye
    • Bengals - Andy Dalton: bye
Whoooo, three of my teams on bye week on this historically high-scoring weekend? Bad planning, me. And how did John Beck only notch 10 points in a amazing loss like that? He's even bad at being a BQB. I want my money back.
  • Rob: 289 (!!!!!!!)
    • Dolphins - Matt Moore: 13
    • Raiders - Kyle Boller: 107.5, Carson Palmer: 70.5
    • Broncos - Tim Tebow: 1
    • Colts - Curtis Painter: 81, Dan Orlovsky: 16
HAX!!!!!
  • Xian: 67
    • Texans - Matt Schaub: 0
    • Steelers - Ben Roethisberger: -14
    • Ravens - Joe Flacco: 29
    • Seahawks - Charlie Whitehurst: 52
Still too angry about Rob to make commentary here.
  • GOOD QB NPC: -21
    • Patriots - Tom Brady: bye
    • Chargers - Philip Rivers: 16
    • Saints - Drew Brees: -26
    • Packers - Aaron Rodgers: -11
  • MEDIUM QB NPC: 41
    • Giants - Eli Manning: bye
    • Falcons - Matt Ryan: 10
    • Cardinals - Kevin Kolb: 25
    • Jets - Mark Sanchez: 6
  • BAD QB NPC: 140
    • Titans - Matt Hasselbeck: 92
    • Bears - Jay Cutler: 10
    • Vikings - Christian Ponder: 15
    • Rams - AJ Feeley: 23
Ah, my NPC groupings have finally sorted themselves out to be correct. See? Cream will rise to the top, and BQB's will sink to the bottom. At least no one had to take Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady in our league.

Monday, October 24, 2011

DWTS: Week 6

It's Broadway week, and there's two dances per competitor! Action kicks off with a number from Sister Act, the musical - it was loud!

Rob Kardashian
Video: So, his mom visited while he and Cheryl were practicing the cha-cha? And she kind of gushed on about how proud she is, and how he's come so far from the shy boy that he was and turned into a man, and now he's got to go out there and kick some butt. But here's the thing. He tried to say at least two different things during this pre-canned speech of hers, and she ran roughshod right over his attempts to speak. This is why he's so submissive, lady? You and all those other women have been running over him all his life. GO ROB YOU'RE FREE OF THEM NOW.
Outfits: Tame. Like Vegas card dealers.
Dance: Also tame. Kind of carefully done. And the music didn't allow for very much cha-cha party feel. His mom's visit has regressed him back to submissive Rob. :(
Critique: No rhythm - that's as far as the judges got before the boos drowned them out. All the Kardashians are there, if I didn't mention. They comment too much on how much of a man vs a boy he is. He's older than 18, so we shouldn't be having this discussion - it cuckolds a man. 8-7-7

Nancy Grace
Video: Nancy had a crazy moment, and this time, someone was there to say "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard" when she jumped to a crazy conclusion. Listen to the man, Nancy. He is the expert.
Outfits: They're all probably going to be boring this week, aren't they. Tristan and Nancy look like they're at a tame Halloween party.
Dance: She's finally forced (or allowed) to smile happily and add personality to the dance. That's good for her. But her steps are awkward at best and didn't look right or on time.
Critique: Carrie Ann claims she nailed everything, so what do I know. Len disagreed. No judges fight. Yet. 9-7-8

David Arquette
Video: They were concerned about his manic energy being released in this song. Energy? That's not what I'd call it. Energy is good, lack of control is bad.
Outfit: Boring.
Dance: Yes, that was manic. But what he did, he did with flair. Parts of it, I thought, were genuinely snappy.
Critique: The judges also used words like "your energy got the better of you" and "your enthusiasm made you get ahead of yourself". That's a really bad sign. 8-7-8

Ricki Lake
Video: She's really competitive, actually! I suppose it's around that time in the competition that you either grit your teeth and tell the camera "I want to WIN that mirror ball!" really aggressively and loud and then put in insane numbers of hours and effort, or you say "I'm so glad I did this, it's been so fun" as you're having your last dance...
Outfit: Tame, and that's good for Ricki, who sometimes gets the bad costume designer
Dance: Kind of tame. Clean, though, and that's what counts.
Critique: Len was nitpicky on a random tidbit, but you know that's a good sign. 10-9-10

Chaz Bono
Video: Poor Lacey seems like she's tired of carrying him through the competition, with him not remembering routines and needing her to talk to him throughout and make easy dances. Lacey deserves some athlete one of these seasons.
Outfit: I think Lacey has something to bolster her butt up really artificially high.
Dance: I thought it was pretty good, actually. His moves were way sharper.
Critique: Now, they're on him, having realized that they gave him too high of scores and he shouldn't be hanging around so far into the competition. Too reactionary, judges. Lacey looked plain out offended at some of the comments after all her hard work. 7-6-6

Hope Solo
Video: If you know anything about Hope, and maybe you don't, you should know that she is not the best "politics" person. She says stuff she doesn't mean, and stuff that should probably be best kept inside, and generally wears her true emotions on the inside. She also appears to take criticism too personally - show your detractors that they were wrong to doubt you, Hope!
Outfit: Did Hope get the bad outfit designer again? Or is this outfit right from Rent? Either way, it was not good, and neither was Max's.
Dance: She went back to semi-stiff, and rumba is a really bad time for that. Also, was there enough content? Maks made a face at the end that clearly said: "are we about to get kicked off?"
Critique: It started apologetically critical by Carrie Ann, and went bad from there, culminating in a snippy rant by Maks, trying to defend Hope from what he knows will be fatal criticism. It was a fight, and even Carrie Ann looked pissed. Remarkably, the voice of reason was Bruno. 7-6-7

JR Martinez
Video: Looks like he's going to sweep this competition without too much difficulty - his only competition is Ricki Lake, the others are just competing to see how many weeks they'll last at this point. Check out the score differentials!
Outfit: Boring!
Dance: Looked like tricky choreo, but it didn't seem perfect and crisply executed to me. Maybe I've become jaded by precise folks like Helio and Kristi Yamaguchi?
Critique: They kept it short and sweet, probably due to the ugliness of the fight previous, and the fact that they were probably going to run out of time if they continued effusive praise. 10-9-10

I did not know who Kristin Chenowicz is, and I don't usually want to be so negative about someone I don't know, but she kind of looks and sounds like a terrifying corpse reanimated and spray-tanned. Cute dress, though? She did a number while the stars changed outfits for the group dance.

Group Dance
Video: This is a really serious, down to earth group of celebrities, but the professional choreographer in charge was "very concerned" things were about to go south on live television. Am I the only one who devoutly hopes that comical moment at the beginning where Lacey and Chaz got stuck in the door trying to go through at the same time, cartoon-style, was genuine? Someone also made the observation that Hope probably benefited most from being around other sexy women, let's hope she takes advantage (no pun intended. How does she avoid puns.) And I've said this before, but Nancy Grace can be positively adorable, which is just not something I would have thought, before seeing her on DWTS.
Outfits: All black and white, the ladies' outfits varied wildly in terms of skin shown. From Karina's, which you probably could have guessed was wholly non-existent, to Nancy and Ricki, who are very much in petticoats back there.
Dance: The together portions were extremely simple, so you couldn't really tell the difference between stars, but you could see a difference between celebs and dance pros, since they gave themselves extra embellishments (spins, etc). Maybe they were trying to cater to some of their bad celebs. The individual parts were really short, and were basically only enough for each person to get out there and demonstrate whatever trick lift they could learn in one day. Ricki's, Nancy's, and Hope's were all terribly awkward, and Chaz did that thing again where he stands there as large backdrop for Lacey to do her thing and look sexy.

Results show featured Corbin Bleu (sp?) in a Macy's Stars of Dance, singing some Broadway song? I didn't recognize it. It came down to Chaz and Hope in the final two (not necessarily the bottom) it was odd because the judges said Chaz did his best dancing that week, and Hope did her worst. I figure these two have a ton of viewer support. In the end, Chad was finally let go. Thanks for everything, Chad!

Dungeon Defenders: Apprentice, In-Depth

Apprentice is my main. This game is a tower defense, and by God, I'm going to play it as a tower defense! Unlike Z, who wouldn't even know what his towers look like, but can kill ogres in like, three shots.

[Potential Problems]
But this is good for me, because Apprentice's main problem is a simple one: surviving the first wave. You better hope you picked up at least a serviceable weapon, or a serviceable companion, because the mana they give you to start out (depending on the level) might not be enough to get by.

The other problem you might face is at the final waves. Ogres, ninjas, multiple ogres - whatever is thrown at you might be too much at this stage. Ninjas or ranged folks could distract you from repairing towers and blockades, and multiple ogres could hit two sides of your defenses at once. You can mitigate by equipping the engineer, enlisting an all-DPS friend, or a repair-capable friend.

Your final thing to watch out for: The towers have vertical range! Try to watch this while laying towers down, they will not target enemies too far in the up and down direction! Also, if there IS a ledge or something in the way, they will sometimes not see enemies, or hit the ledge while trying to hit them. Even if the ground is yellow when you're putting towers down, try to be reasonable about things being in the way of the tower's shot.

[Gameplay]
Other than that, the middle waves and in teams is where you're going to shine. I almost always build as close to the crystal as I can (without allowing the possibility of archers standing outside my range and hitting the crystal) because I want the lightning circles to cover the crystal in case wyverns or ninjas sneak through. Place fireball / deadly strikers behind the crystals, firing past them, and don't forget to cover the same area with fire as well as lightning, for those that are resistant. You don't want a lightning-resistant archer hitting your towers from outside of your fireball towers' range! Once you're entrenched, all your friends are free to run around and take care of enemies as they see fit, without having to worry about the crystals. On boss levels, by the time the boss arrives, I have every lane on lockdown and everyone on my team can focus the boss without worrying about any of the hundreds of minions reaching the crystal(s).

Usually my setup is focused around the lightning tower - though the range is listed as the smallest, it will ultimately hit enemies the farthest away due it it's chain. It will hit enemies around corners, it will hit enemies from miles off. As long as there are hordes (and there are always hordes) it will be your main source of killing before mobs even reach your barricades. It even stuns them for a good moment. The only thing you want to watch for is it's health, because it has to be a little closer to the barricades than other towers, it can get splash damage from exploding kobolds and will definitely take damage from ogre attacks. It could go down during those waves if your back is turned.

Lightning towers of course need to be protected by blockades. Your blockades, if you're not playing with a squire friend. A squire TOWER friend, too, because a DPS squire's blockades and slice n' dices will actually not be as tough as yours, if you've put anything into tower health (or have the engineer equipped). You can't spend all your time trying to repair his blockades, even if they are doing damage, you're better off with the magic pen that yours give and the increased health.

Lightning towers need to be backed up by fireball towers, because lightning resistant mobs will come through. You will have to place fireball towers where they cover the area in front of the blockade, and if possible, the areas where lightning resistant archers could stand and hit the lightning tower.

Finally, the deadly strikers, if you have the Defense Units to spare (your friends may be taking them up, and they are 9 each). It's level-dependent, but I often have them behind the crystals, firing across, towards where the mobs or wyverns are coming from, to pick off anyone who could get to the crystal, and hopefully do some damage to ogres when they arrrive.

[Stats]
So far I have 50+ in all tower categories, and the rest of the points are going to go into attack and attack speed. (I have absolutely zero points in player health, I can be killed in probably two shots, even with bonus health from items) Fifty points in range really expands the tower's range to a very respectable distance - almost 120 degrees for fireball towers, and a solid 45-60 degrees on the deadly striker, and a distance range that can't be seen by the tower camera (they need to make that camera bigger).


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Dungeon Defenders: General Tips

Item Drops
Dungeon Defenders makes it easy by putting a green ring and a thumbs up outlining equipment that is better than what you've got on - simply press 'F' while mousing over it to put it right on (and move your current equip to the item box) or 'E' to move it straight to the item box. On the overhead map (press 'shift') items will appear as dark dots if they aren't good for you, and bright green ones if they are. You can even see green items through walls as urgent green arrows. Items that are left on the ground are automatically sold to the bank and proceeds split evenly among the players, so you can just leave the stuff you don't want.

Item Box
The item box can hold 120 items, and can be accessed from the defense forge (the cabinet-looking thing that's there during build phase and in the tavern). From here you can equip your hero, sell excess equipment, upgrade items, and lock items. Click on a piece of equipment you want to save for later, and use the 'lock' on it. You will see a lock appear on that item, and it will not be sold if you press 'Sell All'. This makes equipment sorting and selling a pretty quick and painless task. Want to move it to your hero? Click on the item and choose 'Give to Hero'. It will automatically equip it in the right slot for your person. That's all there is to it!

Colors and Attributes
Red is health
Yellow is damage
Blue is physical speed (range for towers)
Green is casting speed
If the symbol is in the shape of a shield, that indicates defense (lightning + shield = lightning defense) in a square means it's an offensive stat.
So if you're glancing at a set of stats, and you can't quite figure out what the symbols mean, because there a lot of symbols in this game, use that as your base guide.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigation in this game is generalized for use in consoles and even the iPad, so it's not going to be the best setup for PC players. You press the middle mouse button to bring up the circle menu, and then you go from there. What you'll want to do is bring up that menu, hover over something you want, let's say: Repair, and then hold down a number button on the keyboard, like you're setting radio stations. It will remap the number buttons to anything in that wheel-menu for faster access.

Defense Units
In the upper right hand corner of the screen you'll see a number xx/xx that defines your defense units. Each of your towers, if you hover over them in the circle menu, has a certain number of defense units associated with it, and there's a max for the map, so if you can't build towers, that may be the reason why.

Resistances
You have resistances, listed in the character sheet (press 'I' to view) but the monster also will occasionally have resistances, and that can cause big problems for someone like the apprentice. The resistant monsters will not look any different than regular monsters - just because a monster is a fiery red color does not mean it's resistant to fire. There will be an elemental symbol next to the monster's health bar (just to the right of it) when you hover over him. Resistant monsters often take NO damage at all from that element, so be sure, as an apprentice, to have double coverage of lightning / fire towers, or else a resistant creature will walk right up to a tower and destroy it without taking any damage.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Dungeon Defenders: Apprentice

Ranged attacks, good towers, and a pushback on right-click. He's going to need a ton of mana at every stage of the game.

Towers
  • Magic Missile: Basic tower, no elemental affiliation
  • Magic Blockade: Simple blockade, saps magical resistance from monsters
  • Fireball Tower: Slow to attack, but does splash damage
  • Lightning Tower: Hits 360 degrees, chains lightning among monsters
  • Deadly Striker Tower: Sniper tower, long range, but slow to reload and will hit anyone randomly
Skills
  • Overcharge: Makes the Apprentice faster at summoning towers or charging Mana Bomb
  • Mana Bomb: Uses your mana to bomb an AOE area after a short charge
Important Stats to Invest In
  • Player Speed: A few points at least.
  • Tower Health: Steady contribution is probably warranted.
  • Tower Damage: Probably your main stat to invest in.
  • Tower Range: Also good, eventually. Damage and speed first, though.
  • Tower Speed: Upgraded attack speed is going to be important. Your #2 investment.

Dungeon Defenders: Huntress

Ranged attacks, no real right-click skill (it's 'reload') and proximity traps that have a certain number of uses before they expire.

Traps
  • Proximity Mine: Pretty much what it says. Does good damage.
  • Gas Trap: Poison-based, stuns most monsters for a bit
  • Inferno Trap: Fire-based, hits all monsters in range for the duration after activation
  • Darkness Trap: Divert monster attention away from nearby heroes.
  • Ethereal Spike Trap: Lightning-based, does tons of damage to one randomly selected monster in range.
Skills
  • Invisibility: 15 mana to activate, 4 per second increasing. Monsters can't see you. Except those &^*(%^& ninjas!
  • Piercing shot: Shoot through for extra damage. It's costly and not that effective. But you basically have to use it with the portal gun to do any damage
Important Stats to Invest In
  • Health: She is squishtastic, so at least a few points in health
  • Damage: Increases as a % based on the weapon, so better to put points in later
  • Physical Speed: Important for everyone, at least a few points
  • Tower Health: Health for the Huntress is "number of activations before disappearing." It's key to the Huntress tower build.
  • Tower Speed: Speed for the Huntress is how often the trap can go off, which is worth a few points.
  • Tower Range: I'm not sure if this increases the range of the activation circle, or the damage circle, because I realized to my dismay yesterday that those are not the same circle. Needs investigating