* Buyback respawn time penalty changed from +25% of remaining time to +25s always
* Level 2 XP requirement changed from 200 to 230 (in a scenario where Team A gets 2 melee denies per wave, and team B gets 1 melee deny per wave: Team A wave requirement for level 2 increases from 2 waves to 3 waves. Team B wave requirement remains at 3 waves. Total XP needed for other levels unchanged. )
* Glyph is now on cooldown until the 3 minute timer in-game
* Stout Shield: Damage block for melee heroes increased from 18 to 20 * Ring of Aquila: Bonus damage reduced from 10 to 7 * Mekansm: Heal increased from 250 to 275 * Guardian Greaves: Heal increased from 250 to 275 * Urn of Shadows: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30 * Spirit Vessel: Heal rate reduced from 35 to 30 * Spirit Vessel: Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 20 * Scythe of Vyse: Manacost increased from 100 to 250 * Phase Boots: Speed bonus on ranged heroes reduced from 16% to 13% * Phase Boots: Instant turn ra te is now a melee only feature
* Alchemist: Greevil’s Greed bounty rune multiplier rescaled from 3.5x to 2/2.5/3/3.5x * Bloodseeker: Bloodrage heal rate reduced from 19/21/23/25% to 16/19/22/25% * Broodmother: Base agility reduced by 3 * Chen: Penitence duration reduced from 8 to 5/6/7/8 * Clinkz: Base strength reduced by 2 * Crystal Maiden: Crystal Nova manacost increased from 130/140/150/160 to 130/145/160/175 * Dark Willow: Shadow Realm damage reduced from 120/200/280/360 to 90/180/270/360 * Dark Willow: Cursed Crown cast point increased from 0.1 to 0.2 * Drow Ranger: Base agility reduced from 26 to 19 (base damage unchanged) * Drow Ranger: Agility gain increased from 1.9 to 2.2 * Drow Ranger: Base attack animation time improved from 0.7 to 0.65 * Enchantress: Base movement speed reduced by 15 * Gyrocopter: Base agility reduced by 5 (base damage and armor unchanged) * Huskar: Base damage reduced from 42-51 to 40-45 * Huskar: Level 10 Talent increased from +175 Health to +225 * Io: Spirits cooldown from 20/18/16/14 to 26/22/18/14 * Io: Level 10 Talent reduced from +25% XP to +20% * Mirana: Level 15 Talent reduced from +100 Leap Attack Speed to +80 * Nature’s Prophet: Base damage reduced by 3 * Necrophos: Agility rescaled from 15 + 1.2 to 12 + 1.3 * Necrophos: Base movement speed reduced by 5 * Phantom Lancer: Level 25 Talent reduced from -7s Doppelganger CD to -6s * Silencer: Arcane Curse manacost increased from 75/95/115/135 to 105/115/125/135 * Spectre: Spectral Dagger linger duration reduced from 2 to 1 * Spectre: Dispersion max reflection range reduced from 1000 to 700 * Spectre: Desolate single hero range check increased from 325 to 375 * Tiny: Tree Grab manacost increased from 20/30/40/50 to 50 * Tiny: Avalanche cooldown increased from 20/19/18/17 to 23/21/19/17 * Ursa: Overpower manacost increased from 45/55/65/75 to 75 * Vengeful Spirit: Wave of Terror cooldown increased from 10 to 16/14/12/10 * Weaver: The Swarm manacost increased from 70/80/90/100 to 110 * Wraith King: Wraithfire Blast cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 14/12/10/8
Players from around the world have said their final goodbyes to Cayde-6 and are hunting for Uldren Sov and his Barons. They’re finding collectibles in the farthest corners of the Reef, and some Guardians have already become notorious in a new season of Crucible.
This launch has been a rollercoaster of emotions, and we’re thankful to share it with this community. Everyone at Bungie, High Moon Studios, and Vicarious Visions has been watching as you invade the lawless frontier. We thank you for playing, and for being heroes in the worlds we’ve built together.
New experiences and secrets have yet to be discovered, and some are still on the way. Season of the Outlaw has just started. The full calendar for year 2 content can be previewed in the roadmap that was released last week. The dust hasn’t even begun to settle.
The Pinnacle
Guardians have made their way to the Tangled Shore, and some of you have already reached the Dreaming City. The pursuit of powerful loot has taken hold, in preparation for new doors to open…
The race for World First is coming up soon. The field just got a little more competitive, with our new friends from Korea joining us on the starting line. This time, there’s more than just bragging rights on the line.
When “Last Wish” becomes available, the first fireteam of six to complete the raid will have the opportunity to acquire real-world trophies for each teammate, commemorating their accomplishments. We’ll have more details next week, so stay tuned.
A Treat for Your Ears
Composers Michael Salvatori, Skye Lewin, Rotem Moax and Pieter Schlosser also have a few words for you as you continue your hunt in the Reef, accompanied by the music they’ve created.
The Destiny 2: Forsaken original soundtrack is now available on the Bungie Store, and includes the Curse of Osiris and Warmind soundtracks. All purchases through November 22, 2018, will also include the Pursuit of Dreams emblem.
Challenges and Resets
With the release of Destiny 2: Forsaken, challenges have become a new avenue for players to acquire powerful rewards.
There are two types of challenges: daily and weekly. Now, these types behave a bit differently when it comes to resets.
Weekly challenges follow the weekly reset each Tuesday at 10 AM PDT.
Daily challenges, on the other hand, offer a unique challenge each day, and they reset every four days. Here are some examples:
The first daily strike challenge was offered on Tuesday, September 4. So, the next daily strike challenge will arrive with a reset on Saturday, September 8.
The first daily Gambit challenge was offered on Wednesday, September 5. So, the next daily Gambit challenge will arrive with a reset on Sunday, September 9.
However, players will retain daily challenges until they’re completed.
If a player completes the daily strike challenge on Friday, September 7, the challenge will be offered once more on Saturday, September 8.
If a player does not complete the daily strike challenge by Saturday, September 8, they will not receive a duplicate challenge. Instead, the challenge will be reset and progress will be cleared.
Fear not! We’ll be creating a calendar to be featured on help.bungie.net to lay out how the system works. Stay tuned to @BungieHelp for details. Speaking of Player Support…
Making a List, Checking It Twice
Forsaken has landed, and Destiny Player Support is here to make sure your time in the Reef is stable. They’ve been in the trenches, providing troubleshooting steps for various known issues and passing along information for investigations. Would you like to know more?
This is their report.
Destiny 2 Hotfix 2.0.2
On Tuesday, September 11, Destiny 2 will undergo maintenance to receive Hotfix 2.0.2. For the deployment schedule, please see the times listed below or check out our Server and Update Status help article.
On Tuesday, September 11:
9 AM PDT: Hotfix 2.0.2 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions
10 AM PDT: Online players who have not installed Hotfix 2.0.2 will be removed to the login screen at the next activity completion
2 PM PDT: All remaining online players who have not yet installed Hotfix 2.0.2 will be removed to the login screen to install the patch
For Hotfix 2.0.2 patch notes on September 11, players should keep an eye on our Updates page or follow @Bungie on Twitter for live announcements.
Bungie Rewards
Players wishing to participate in the Bungie Rewards program will need to make sure their Bungie.net profiles meet the following requirements:
Have their Destiny 2 account linked with their Bungie.net profile
Set their notification options to receive news, updates, promotions, and exclusive content by email
For more information on the exclusive rewards to earn and purchase for your moments and triumphs, please see the Bungie Rewards page. Players who are encountering issues with the program should check this help article.
Forsaken Editions and Incentives
Destiny Player Support is monitoring reports of purchase issues and confusion around the various Forsaken editions, incentives, and other items. Please see below for a brief list of known issues or read our help article here for a more detailed explanation.
Standalone Forsaken Expansion: We are working with our platform partners to investigate issues that may be preventing players from purchasing the Destiny 2: Forsaken standalone expansion on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. Please stay tuned to @BungieHelp for more updates as we investigate the issue.
Digital Deluxe Items: Players will receive the items from the Destiny 2: Forsaken Digital Deluxe Edition after completing the final Forsaken campaign mission and then returning to orbit.
Cayde’s Exotic Stash: Players who pre-order any edition of Destiny 2: Forsaken from participating retailers will be eligible to receive the Cayde’s Exotic Stash pre-order bonus. These items can be retrieved from Amanda Holliday in the Tower after you complete the final mission of the Forsaken campaign.
Forsaken Annual Pass: Players who purchase a Destiny 2: Forsaken edition that includes the Forsaken Annual Pass, or who purchase a standalone Forsaken Annual Pass, will receive 1,000 bonus Silver as part of their purchase. This Silver will be automatically added to their account’s Silver balance the first time they log in after purchasing the Forsaken Annual Pass. Players can see their Silver balance and Eververse purchase history from their Bungie.net profiles. Players who encounter issues with Silver purchases should see the Silver and Eververse Guide for more information.
Destiny 2: Forsaken Known Issues
The Player Support team is monitoring, tracking, and investigating a number of issues reported by players in the #Help forums. Here are some of the issues we are tracking:
Cayde’s Will Quest: To receive proper Gambit kill credit for the Aces of Spades quest line, players must defeat an invader five times with a Hand Cannon.
Traveler’s Chosen Sidearm: We are investigating an issue where the Traveler’s Chosen Sidearm cannot be dismantled or stored in the vault. Players are encouraged to not retrieve this weapon, as it will remain in their Kinetic weapon slot until a fix is deployed.
“Limited Edition” Triumph: We are investigating reports of players being unable to claim the “Limited Edition” Triumph.
Character Boost – Year 1 Adventures and Triumphs: Players who use the character boost may not be able to access Year 1 adventures and won’t be able to unlock previous campaign Triumphs on that character.
We keep an updated list of issues we are actively tracking in our Forsaken Known Issues Thread. Players who are encountering an issue that has not yet been included in our Known Issues thread should report to the #Help forums with a description of the issue they are encountering, any known repro steps, and any video or picture evidence they may have of the issue.
Could I Get Some Hype in Chat?
Last Saturday (September 1), Gambit was made available to all. It was a blast seeing players take their first footsteps through an invasion portal. Thanks to all who jumped in and took the mode for a spin before launch! That said, let’s get to watching some sweet clips. Never forget, DEATH HEALS PRIMEVAL.
Movie of the Week: IT’S A TRAP!
Honorable Mention: Don’t Get Comfortable with That Lead
Honorable Mention: Fowl Play
If you’d like a chance to earn the Lens of Fate emblem, make sure to submit your video to the Creations page on Bungie.net and include #MOTW in your title.
A few weeks back, we sent out a thank-you to some of our community artists. To see players bring their Guardians to life through content that’s handcrafted is always a pleasure. To further cement our appreciation for these talented Guardians, we’ve crafted our own gift of gratitude. Starting today, any artists who are featured in the Bungie Blog or through @Bungie on social media will be granted the Artist in Residence emblem.
Thank you all for an amazing launch week, and we’ll see you in the wild.
JEHUTY lives. And there, ANUBIS thrives. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner returns with 4K and VR support on Steam.
Relive the experience Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner MARS as a full-length remaster of the classic fast-paced 3D robot action game, recreated in VR, native 4K and in full surround sound. Enter JEHUTY's cockpit and fly through Martian skies!
The year is 2174 and the despotic BAHRAM military organisation is using new Orbital Frames robot technology to secure its grip on Mars and Earth. Seizing control of the JEHUTY Orbital Frame, the player is the last hope for the stricken planets. Strike deep at the heart of the BAHRAM army with unrivalled powers! Written and directed by Shuyo Murata, The 2nd Runner MARS is recognised as a masterpiece among space action titles.
A teenager who has lost her sight and a mysterious cat team up in a surreal fantasy adventure into the unexpected, weaving a tale that brings together some of the world?s greatest minds: Monet, Tesla, Edison and other historical cultural icons.
There's a single rule that could save the protagonists of horror movies a whole lot of trouble: If a demon, ghost, or otherwise evil/otherworldly antagonist is very clearly trying to lure you somewhere, run the other direction. The characters in The Nun are painfully unaware of that general rule, which makes for some admittedly great scares in the latest entry in the Conjuring universe. It also helps make The Nun just a little bit goofy--chances are, the fifth time the brave but hapless Father Burke gets lured down a dark hallway or into a spooky graveyard, it might elicit a laugh rather than the dreadful trepidation that was likely intended.
But The Nun embraces all horror tropes, not just that one. Its tributes and homages to past horror movies are countless. There's the hyper masculine alpha priest, Father Burke, played by Demián Bichir, and his companion, the virginal, white-clad nun-in-training Irene (Taissa Farmiga), who travel together at the Vatican's behest to investigate a suicide at a remote Romanian convent. There are exorcisms and jump scares, crosses flipping upside-down, moving shadows and demons in mirrors, pentagram-shaped gashes slashed by invisible claws into pious, white flesh.
It's not all tropes. The Nun's rules are wishy-washy--within the confines of this movie and with the larger Conjuring universe. But that gives it freedom to be whatever it wants from scene to scene, as well. Entire stretches turn out to be hallucinations, delusions, or dreams; sometimes the demon can affect the physical world, and other times it's all psychological. Sister Irene is anything but helpless, while Jonas Bloquet's character Frenchie--part action hero and part comic relief--gets to deliver one of the goofiest and best one-liners in recent memory. It all blends together to make a funny, super terrifying movie that works despite its inconsistencies.
The setting is a large part of that. There's something deeply unsettling about The Nun's Cârța Monastery, a dark, sprawling heap of cobblestones, statues, and tombs where the candles are always fitfully flickering, but no one's ever home. The place's geography is never fully established, which adds to the disorientation as Farther Burke, Irene, and Frenchie run around chasing/fleeing from various demonic apparitions.
The Nun herself--AKA the demon Valak, as established in previous Conjuring movies--is also quite scary. She's a constant presence, whether she's flitting by in the background or baring her splintery teeth in full, feral terror. She especially loves to appear directly behind people or at the opposite ends of long, shadow hallways. That the movie's laborious exposition dumps and backstory explanations don't detract from these scares is a testament to the fundamental effectiveness of the Nun as a movie monster.
Some of the funnier dialogue can seem out of place, although the movie's funnier moments often serve as welcome reprieve from the tension. There are also some weird tacked on clips from other Conjuring movies at the beginning and end--they ensure you don't need to be caught up on the series to enjoy The Nun, but they also blow the creature's reveal in the first 10 seconds, ruining any build-up the movie might have made toward it. And these awkwardly inserted clips make explicit a connection to the first Conjuring movie that fans would easily have figured out anyway, which suggests a mistrust in the audience's ability to put two and two together.
The Nun takes a weird turn in its third act as our heroes follow various clues toward a holy relic that will supposedly save them, when an encroaching Indiana Jones vibe starts to clash with what the rest of the movie tries to do. There's also a terribly clunky reveal in the vein of "swing away, Merrill" in the M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs. This final act is predicated on something Father Burke says: "There's a time for prayer and a time for action. This is a time for action," which I can't help but read as a denunciation of the "thoughts and prayers" front of America's current culture war.
In the end, The Nun's most gripping scenes relate to that as well--as far as Sister Irene is able to discover, the Cârța Monastery's nuns are trapped in a constant vigil, forced to pray in continuous, overlapping shifts to keep the demon at bay. As Valak grows stronger, their prayers grow less effective, until Irene finds herself in very real danger with no means of defense against evil. That's when the action really begins.
Although The Nun can be inconsistent, silly, and predictable, it's also terrifying and atmospheric, with a great monster, phenomenal setting, and likable characters you'll never stop rooting for. It doesn't quite hit the highs of The Conjuring 1 and 2, but it's definitely a fun, scary ride that horror fans will enjoy.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-08-2018, 10:32 AM - Forum: Windows
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Meet green warriors from India enabling a sustainable future
With a trained AI algorithm, the team hopes to classify the urban and rural areas, identify forest cover, river beds and other water bodies from satellite images, and create a precise grid map for the region. The team hopes to apply computer vision to create a comprehensive database of biodiversity in the region to help policymakers and local communities make better-informed economic, ecological, and infrastructure-related decisions.
“You can’t save an ecosystem if you don’t fully understand it,” exclaims Dr. Mariappan. “That’s where our data along with Microsoft’s AI resources can help.”
Tracking the monkey population in urban areas using AI-powered image recognition
The monkey population in urban India has spiraled out of control in recent years. India’s capital city, New Delhi, alone reports at least five cases of monkey bites daily that can cause rabies and be fatal. It is estimated that 7,000 monkeys prowl the streets of the capital, damaging public property and attacking people. With their natural habitat shrinking owing to urbanization, authorities are struggling to avoid monkey attacks.
Managing the growth of the population is critical. Currently, there is no way to identify which monkeys have already been given birth control or sterilized without further handling such as tattooing a code or embedding a microchip in the monkeys. Ankita Shukla, a PhD student at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT Delhi), aims to use computer vision as a non-invasive alternative for identifying and tracking monkeys as it is safer and less stressful for the animals, as well as humans.
Shukla, a native of a small town near Lucknow, had earlier worked with the Wildlife Institute of India on a project to classify endangered tigers in a nature reserve with machine learning and distance-object recognition algorithms. She wants to combine this experience in wildlife monitoring with machine learning to create a tangible solution for the simian problem in cities.
She is creating an AI-enabled app that can help the community tag monkeys in photographs and upload it to a cloud where authorities can track the simian population’s growth, vaccination history, and movements. “With a bird’s eye view of the monkey population, we can deploy contraceptives more efficiently,” she says. “Training a deep neural network with image recognition to identify a monkey and its species, and whether it’s already been sterilized could go a long way towards solving this crisis,” Shukla adds.
Having teamed up with Saket Anand, a professor at IIIT Delhi, she pitched the idea to the AI for Earth panel earlier this year. The team plans to leverage the Microsoft Azure platform for the processing power required to train the AI model.
“The Microsoft resources and technical assistance helped us develop a genuinely useful app,” says Shukla. “We’re now trying to take things to the next level so that we can find a solution to the monkey menace in a scientific and humane manner.”
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma will retire from the company he cofounded on Monday, telling media outlets he plans ply his more than $40 billion fortune on philanthropic efforts in education.
EPA photo
Ma informed The New York Times of the surprise move on Friday, saying he will step down as Alibaba’s executive chairman effective Monday, when he turns 54. China’s richest man will stay on the company’s board of directors and intends to mentor upcoming management, the report said.
Ma founded Alibaba alongside 17 other people in 1999. Initially developed as a business-to-business e-commerce solution, Alibaba found its stride when it launched the consumer centric Taobao marketplace in 2003.
A behemoth in the Chinese internet shopping space, the company launched complementary services in online payments product Alipay, which was spun out to as subsidiary Ant Financial.
Apple was at one point rumored to partner with Alibaba through Ant in a bid to bring Apple Pay to the Chinese market. Those plans failed to materialize and Alibaba instead integrated with rival payments service Samsung Pay in 2016.
Beyond e-commerce and digital payments, Alibaba has its fingers in online banking, cloud computing digital media and entertainment, and other internet-based products and services.
Ma’s departure comes as a surprise to many, as Chinese tycoons rarely retire at such an early age. The move is unlikely to leave the $420 billion company in dire straits, as a number of co-founders and well-seasoned managers are ready to take the reins.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. It’s a slow week, thanks in part to The Elder Scrolls: Blades slinking away to December.
It’s been a slower week on the site as well, but hopefully we’ve given you some interesting reading none-the-less. We only had one review this week, Evergarden, but we also gave you our thoughts on what the best strategy games to play offline are as well. We also highlighted the (now finished) sale on Six Ages and wrote up a spot of news as well.
Out Now
The Elder Scrolls: Blades (iOS U- oh wait…nevermind)
We thought we were going to be able to talk about The Elder Scrolls: Blades this week, Bethesda Game Studio’s latest foray into mobile games. Blades is to be a first-person RPG based in the popular Elder Scrolls game world, but its App Store release date keeps moving. It was September 1st, then September 7th. Now it is December 1st. Bethesda said the prior dates were never the real release date and the game hasn’t slipped. Apparently, they looked at the September App Store dates as ‘placeholder’ dates used by Apple only.
SpellKeeper is a puzzle game where you become a Chosen One. Your job is to free butterflies trapped in magical cocoons using spells. You have limited spells at your disposal, so it’s all about their efficient use to free all the butterflies on each level. SpellKeeper is not particularly challenging, it’s going for more of a relaxing style puzzle game, which is supported by attractive graphics and sound.
Asmodee Digital secretly launched another game into their digital catalogue this week – Onitama is a strategy boardgame that resembles Chess. Each side as four warriors and one elder at their disposal, and the aim is to either capture the opponents elder or take their place in the temple arch. Unlike chess, movement is controlled by randomly drawn cards, with the players swapping cards between them as they use them. We haven’t had a chance to play this one, but it’s free-to-play with only a couple of IAPs right now, one of which being for the expansion.
It’s 3018 and humanity has taken to space. You are a captain of the space fleet and are in charge of finding a new world for our species to inhabit. It’s Reigns in space. Like any Reigns-like the gameplay in Final Frontier: A New Journey is very familiar so it all comes down to the narrative. While the narrative choices aren’t bad, they also aren’t particularly varied or compelling. I’d pass on this one unless you’re in the mood for more Reigns, but space.
The digital adaptation of Reiner Knizia’s card game Money, where you start with six different kinds of currency and try to concentrate your holdings into just two or three, is on sale for a buck…
…As is Kingdoms, a tile-laying strategy card game set in medieval times. Neither game features online multiplayer but are worth consideration if you enjoy solo board gaming on your device.
Dungeon Rushers isn’t a terribly deep dungeon crawler, but it is entertaining and worth a couple bucks if you’re looking for a new game. It’s got monsters, traps, treasure, loot, skills, crafting, and even an online arena system to battle other players.
Also just a buck or two, depending on your device, is Mi-Clos Studio’s fantastic sci-fi adventure game Out There: Ω Edition. It’s got a little of everything from interactive fiction, to RPG, to resource and crew management simulation game. If you haven’t played it, this one is worth a go.
Mi-Clos also has a discount on their interactive fiction games based in the Out There universe. You can pick up the first episode for a buck and the latest game, episode 2, for $1.99 (on iOS only at this point).
XCOM-like, turn-based tactics gem Templar Battleforce is a must-have for fans of the genre. It’s currently half off and is worth it, so much so that’s on our guide to the best offline strategy games on mobile.
Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
3 PS4 Game Sales Are Now Live On The US PlayStation Store
It's a good week to be a frugal PS4 owner. That's because you get not one, not two, but three game sales on the PlayStation Store between now and September 10. If you enjoy the Assassin's Creed series or games made by Rockstar or Bandai Namco, there's a good chance you'll find something worth buying this week. As usual, PS Plus members will get additional discounts on some of the games. Read on for the details.
Fans of historical bloodshed can pick up most of the Assassin's Creed series at a discount right now. Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, which contains remasters of Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, is on sale for $20. The seafaring Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is down to $10, while Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered is on sale for $18. And if you haven't picked up Assassin's Creed Origins yet, you can do it now for $24, before Odyssey lands in October. Additionally, a hefty amount of Assassin's Creed DLC and expansions is also on sale.
That's a lot of deals, and we only really scratched the surface of what's available on the PSN. You can find the full listings for all of the sales right here.
Create your own player and rise to legend status in THE ONE. Play on different courts across the world, Build Your Squad, and challenge others for global dominance in THE LEAGUE and on THE STREETS. With new ways to develop your player and play the game, experience the most authentic feel NBA LIVE has ever had.
