Destiny 2 Update 2.0 will bring many changes to the Destiny 2 experience in preparation for Forsaken. Some features may not be fully operational until September 4.
This is the final week of Season 3. Season 4, “Season of the Outlaw,” begins on September 4.
Player Character
General
Subclass screen updated in preparation for Forsaken
Weapons and Armor
Exotic Armor
Hunter
Orpheus Rig
No longer grants Super energy on bloom and damage sharing
Raised base Super amount that you receive from tethers to create a more consistent and less exponential experience
Super energy given is scaled up when more powerful enemies are tethered
When used with Moebius Quiver, grants additional tether shots
Does not grant ability energy on tethering targets
Celestial Nighthawk
Now grants 33% of your Super energy back if the target is killed by the shot
Wormhusk Crown
No longer starts regeneration of health and shields
Instead grants a larger health and shield bump at the beginning of dodge instead of at the end
Knucklehead Radar
Enhanced radar resolution while crouching
Lucky Pants
Extended duration of Illegally Modded Holster
Shinobu’s Vow
Skip grenade returns some energy when it damages an enemy
Warlock
The Stag
Rift dropped from death now has standard rift duration
Eye of Another World
Ability recharge bonus increased
Nezarac’s Sin
Increased duration of Abyssal Extractors
Rapid kills extend the duration up to 20 seconds
Skull of Dire Ahamkara
Increased Super energy gained from Nova Bomb kills
Killing higher-ranked enemies now rewards more Super energy
Transversive Steps
Enhanced mobility
After sprinting for a short time, your currently equipped weapon is automatically reloaded
Winter’s Guile
Tuned damage and duration per stack to be more consistent
Titan
Mk. 44 Stand Asides
Overshield granted by sprinting appears faster
Hallowfire Heart
Base cooldown reduction when Super is uncharged in addition to CDR when charged
Helm of Saint-14
Grants allies an overshield for a short duration when passing through Ward of Dawn
Mask of the Quiet One
Increased energy gain from incoming damage
While critically wounded, health is granted from kills
Crest of Alpha Lupi
Healing pulse is more effective
Peacekeepers
Increased movement speed when wielding an SMG
Wormgod’s Caress
Tuned damage and duration per stack to be more consistent
Weapons
Developer Insight: With Forsaken, we’ve made a major change to the systems—the freedom to slot powerful weapons in either the Kinetic slot or Energy slot. This fundamental change necessitated a fresh look at a player’s damage output in both PvE and PvP.
Primary ammo weapons and Special ammo weapons may exist in either the Kinetic or Energy slot.
Heavy ammo weapons can exist only in the Power slot.
Ammo type and damage type are now fixed attributes of a specific weapon.
Ammo distribution models updated entirely to support weapon slot changes.
Energy weapons no longer deal bonus damage to active enemy Supers.
Ammo Economy
Primary Ammo Weapons
Hand Cannons
Scout Rifles
Auto Rifles
Pulse Rifles
Sidearms
Submachine Guns
Special Ammo Weapons
Fusion Rifles
Shotguns
Sniper Rifles
Trace Rifles
Single Shot Grenade Launchers
Heavy Ammo Weapons
Drum-Loaded Grenade Launchers
Rocket launchers
Linear Fusion Rifles
Swords
The following Year 1 weapons have moved to the Kinetic slot
Baligant
Shepherd’s Watch
Hawthorne’s Field-Forged Shotgun
Alone as a God
Perfect Paradox
The Frigid Jackal
Silicon Neuroma
The following Year 1 weapons are now locked to Solar damage
IKELOS_SR_v1.0.1
IKELOS_SG_V1.0.1
The following Exotic weapons did not change slot and still use Heavy ammo
Tractor Cannon
The Legend of Acrius
D.A.R.C.I.
Whisper of the Worm
Developer Insight: The tuning of Destiny weapons and abilities is inexorably tied to the systems that we build upon. Ultimately our goal is to still provide gameplay challenge despite a global increase in player damage output due to the new systems introduced. To properly support the higher uptime of Shotguns, Snipers, and Fusions, the following changes were made to all weapons in the game.
Primary Ammo Weapons
Increased precision damage output of Primary ammo weapons
Increased in-air accuracy
Decreased body shot damage in PvE
Decreased Auto Rifle damage required to stagger enemies to compensate for reduced body damage
Special Ammo Weapons
Reduced damage output of Special ammo weapons
Increased damage of Trace Rifles
Trace Rifles now disintegrate defeated enemies
Heavy Ammo Weapons
Grenade Launchers:
Increased damage and blast radius
Linear Fusion Rifle
Increased damage
Reduced time to charge and fire
Reduced aim assist
Swords
Increased ammo
Increased damage mitigation when guarding
Exotics
Sleeper Simulant
Fixed issue where charge time was not displayed properly on weapon
Magazine size increased
Reduced base damage
Borealis
Bonus damage after breaking a shield increased on precision hit
Still grants bonus damage on body shots
Prometheus Lens
No longer generates Special ammo on kill
Tractor Cannon
Repulsor Force’s Weaken effect now also increases non void damage by 33%, but no longer stacks with other weaken effects. (Shadowshot,Hammer Strike, etc).
Perks
Explosive Payload
Reduced bonus damage output
Ambitious Assassin
Increased time allotted between kills to earn bonus ammunition
Backup Plan
Decreased amount of time weapon must be stowed for perk to become available
Box Breathing
Reduced time required for perk to activate
Reduced precision bonus
Perk now resets after firing
High-Impact Reserves
Damage bonus granted earlier in magazine
Grave Robber
Now reloads your entire magazine
Primary ammo is granted directly to magazine
Heavy and Special ammo is transferred from reserves to magazine
Field Prep
Increased inventory reserves
Increased stow, ready, and reload speed when crouched
Auto-Loading Holster
Reduced time required for perk to activate when weapon is stowed.
Opening Shot
Increased falloff range (weapon does more damage at longer ranges)
Triple Tap
Grants ammo directly to the magazine; no longer pulls from reserves.
Mods
Starting with 2.0.0.1 (9/4/2018), Year 1 mods can no longer be inserted into gear or weapons. You will no longer be able to insert any mods into Year 1 gear or change the elemental damage type come next week.
Misc
Fixed an issue where Rocket Launcher stability stat was not working as intended
Fixed an issue where the Impact Casing perk on Grenade Launchers did not function
Swords now have the ability to accept shaders
Abilities
General
Visual layout of perks has changed in subclass paths
Increased base Guardian melee damage
It now takes two melee hits to defeat an enemy Guardian in PvP
Increased the base damage of Seismic Strike, Hammer Strike, and Shield Bash
Adjusted active Super bonus damage resistance values
Added a timer to the status effect for Healing Rift, Empowering Rift, and Rally Barricade to communicate the time remaining before they expire
Grenades
Axion Bolt
Increased base damage
Increased the amount of time it takes for the tracking strength to lower
Flashbang
Increased base damage
Incendiary Grenade
Increased base damage
Storm Grenade
Increased base damage
Scatter Grenade
Re-tuned range and falloff ranges for the detonations for more reliable damage
Magnetic, Fusion, and Flux Grenade
Increased base damage
Damage is now the same whether a target has been stuck or simply walked over grenade when detonating
Magnetic Grenade now detonates a second time only if it’s attached to a target
The second detonation no longer only occurs on the grenade itself and will now be applied to each individual target hit by the initial detonation
Skip Grenade
Increased impact damage of each Skip Drone impact for a higher total potential damage
Voidwall
Increased the damage of initial Void Wall wave
Hunter
General
Marksman’s Dodge is now considered a reload; it can interact with Kill Clip, Rat King, etc.
Gunslinger
Practice Makes Perfect perk now grants Super energy on throwing knife kills
Increased the duration of all versions of Golden Gun
Nightstalker
Once activated, the Shadowshot tether will find enemy targets more reliably within its search radius
Titan
General
Rally Barricade no longer requires players to take cover to reload—it now feeds ammo to your magazine over time
Striker
With Terminal Velocity enabled, the opening Fists of Havoc slam no longer leaves a lingering damage area
Lowered the health threshold for triggering Knockout so that it triggers sooner, to keep up with the PvP lethality changes
Increased the lunge range of the Fists of Havoc melee attack
Sunbreaker
Sol Invictus will now trigger on burn kills
Sentinel
Increased Ward of Dawn health significantly
Increased the amount of health provided by the Ward of Dawn overshield
Sentinel Shield Super
Increased Shield Throw projectile speed
Shield Throw no longer loses damage after bouncing or ricocheting off targets
Faster attack animations for grounded melee attacks
Increased Sentinel Super damage in PvE
Warlock
General
Increased Healing Rift effectiveness
Empowering Rift now increases precision damage (previously, bonus damage was capped at the weapon’s precision damage in PvP)
Stormcaller
Increased the PvP damage of Stormtrance
Increased Arc Soul’s projectile speed
Dawnblade
Increased Dawnblade projectile speed and base tracking strength
Voidwalker
Significantly reduced the length of time that Blink disables your radar and HUD
Chaos Accelerant no longer costs Super energy to use
Increased the damage bonus granted by Chaos Accelerant for each Voidwalker grenade
PvE
Daily Heroic Story Playlist
Year 1 meditations have been retired and replaced with a Heroic Story playlist
These will share modifiers with Heroic adventures and strikes
Forsaken campaign missions will be featured at 500 Power, while Year 1 campaign missions will be featured at 200 Power
Destinations
Wanted escapees from the Prison of Elders now roam the open world
They will not drop rewards until September 4, 2018
Increased the difficulty of Lost Sectors
Example: EDZ Lost Sectors are now 240 Power
Adventures
Replayable adventures have been removed from destination vendors
Heroic adventures have been added to all destinations
Destinations without Heroic adventures before Forsaken will have them available during their Flashpoint weeks
A random Heroic adventure will be available each day
Mercury and Mars Heroic adventures are unchanged
Heroic adventures will share similar modifiers with daily Heroics and strikes
Strikes
Vanguard Strikes
Heroic Strike playlists have been retired for all players and replaced with a single content-appropriate playlist:
Legacy
Strikes playlist matches the legacy playlist that is currently available in Year 1
Recommended Power 200
Will have modifiers
Forsaken
Strike playlist has three difficulties to select from:
Recommended Power 300 (not available when your level is 40 Power higher)
Recommended Power 400 (not available when your level is 40 Power higher)
Recommended Power 500 (always available)
Will have modifiers
Nightfall
Retired Prestige difficulty
Increased base difficulty for Nightfall activities
Players can choose one of three Nightfall strikes each week
Players may select only the strikes for which they own the appropriate expansions
Legacy players will still be able to enable modifiers via the Challenge Card, but scoring will be disabled in the 270 Power Nightfall
Raids
Developer Insight: Our goal with the changes was to provide players with an opportunity for heroic moments where they can carry the fireteam to victory at the end of the encounter. Players are still incentivized to resurrect their teammates as quickly as possible but brings back the chance for one player to bring down the boss while everyone else is dead.
Revive Mechanics
A fireteam has a total of 2:30 seconds to revive fallen team mates during a given Raid encounter
This time is only refreshed if a fireteam wipes
If a player is not revived within the time remaining, the fireteam is wiped to “Shared Fate”
Each player has one token that they may use to revive a player
Multiple players being dead does not increase the speed of the timer
General
Escapees from the Prison of Elders now appear in strikes, Lost Sectors, and public areas
Crucible
General
New ammo model for maps to accommodate weapon slots
Items & Economy
General
Collections (emblems and Exotics) that are found in the vault will be unavailable during the week of August 28–September 4, but they will return with 2.0.0.1 in the upcoming Collections tab
Exotics will now always drop at or above your Guardian’s Power level
Year 1 challenges will no longer grant destination materials or tokens
Destination materials can be earned via bounties, available from their respective destination vendors
Anything that previously granted destination tokens or Rare materials will grant Common destination materials moving forward
Destination tokens and Rare destination materials are no longer granted, but they can still be redeemed for reputation if you have them in your inventory
Xûr
His will is not his own
No longer displays a vendor icon on destination maps
No longer tied to Flashpoints
He has a clear purpose but cannot explain it—forgive him
Fated Engrams grant only pre-Forsaken Exotics
Tower
Increased vault size to 500 slots
Players can now dismantle shaders in stacks of five in Master Rahool’s vendor screen
Cayde-6
Cayde-6 has left the Tower to investigate disturbances in the Reef
Removed Treasure Maps and Scout Reports
Technical
Localization
Added Korean language support to consoles
User Interface
Updated title screen to reflect Forsaken launch
Director
The Director screen has been updated to reconfigure the way challenges, milestones, Flashpoints, and quests are presented:
Challenges
The Year 1 challenge system has been removed and converted into bounties, which will be available through their respective destination and activity vendors on September 4
Bounties are displayed in the Pursuits bucket of the inventory screen
In Year 2 (Forsaken), “challenges” now refer to the bonuses that grant rewards on a daily or weekly basis
These can be seen in the Director via new indicators on a playlist or destination when available
Milestones
The milestone tray will now be limited to showing specific quests and quest steps
One-time completion objectives, such as campaign missions, subclass missions, and strikes introductions will remain as milestones
Players who do not have any active milestones will not see a milestones blade being displayed
Many Year 1 milestones have been converted into challenges
These challenges will continue to grant powerful rewards
Weekly and daily milestones
Previous weekly and daily milestones, such as strike completion and Crucible, will now appear as weekly or daily challenges on their associated playlists
Flashpoints
The Flashpoint milestone will now appear as a challenge visible on its respective destination vendor
Flashpoint progress has been expanded to include Lost Sectors and Heroic adventures
Exotic quests
Exotic quests are now displayed in the Inventory tab under the Pursuits bucket
They can be recovered at the quests’ associated vendor if abandoned
Exotic quests now correctly use Exotic coloring in the UI
Icons for Exotic quests are now appropriately represented with Exotic rarity
World quests
World quests are now displayed in the Inventory tab under the Pursuits bucket
Updated the Director with a new theme and layout to better represent destinations for Year 2
Presell is in the Reef location
The “Leviathan” raid and raid lairs have been moved to Nessus
Character Screen
Weapon slots
Weapon tooltips now display ammo types
White ammo icon – “Primary”
Green ammo icon – “Special”
Purple ammo icon – “Heavy”
The HUD will show a color based on the associated ammo type next to each weapon on the weapon tray
Subclass screen
The path name is now being displayed along the bottom of the character art
Collections
Collections are not available until September 4
Triumphs
Triumphs are not available until September 4
Gear tooltips
Perks are displayed by name only on tooltips for Ghost Shells, weapons, and armor
Exotic perks will display a short description
General
Adjusted contrast and saturation to match Forsaken theme, throughout Destiny 2
Players may adjust their brightness manually through the Settings menu
PES 2019's release date has finally arrived, and fans are getting their hands on this year's Pro Evo worldwide. The new edition contains improvements in players' energy depletion, meaning you now have to spend more attention to how much you keep that right trigger pressed down.
Huge advances have also been made in the on-pitch presentation, with new lighting techniques meaning matches look more realistic than ever. Our critic, Richard Wakeling, was impressed by this year's game, and he awarded it a 9/10 in our PES 2019 review-in-progress.
Take a look below to check out what other critics thought of this year's Pro Evolution Soccer. Alternatively, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic for a wider view of critical opinion on the popular sports game.
Game: Pro Evolution Soccer 2019
Developer / Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Release date: Out now
Price: $60 / £50 / AU $97
GameSpot -- 9/10 (Review-In-Progress)
"For as long as EA continues to develop FIFA and hold a monopoly over official licences, PES will be the scrappy underdog just hoping for a surprise upset, even when it's fielding the likes of London Blue and PV White Red. The lack of licences for top-tier leagues remains a disheartening sticking point, but PES continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch, building on what was already an incredibly satisfying game of football to produce one of the greatest playing football games of all time. It might be lacking off the pitch, but put it on the field against the competition and a famous giant killing wouldn't be all that surprising." -- Richard Wakeling [Full review-in-progress]
IGN -- 8.2/10
"You shouldn't buy PES 2019 for its new modes--there aren't any of note. Nor should you buy it for major changes to existing modes--the ones made are minor. If you do opt in this year, it should be for the focus on player individuality that sets this iteration apart from all previous years. It's not just a case of introducing bespoke animations, but accurately reflecting each player's ingrained habits, too. Football, after all, is a battle that's both physical and psychological. From PES 2019's crisp and robust action to the mind games unfolding behind the scenes, this is a game successfully capturing both sides." -- Benjamin Griffin [Full review]
Game Informer -- 8.5/10
"It's easy for me to sit and revel in what I love about PES, jogging through instant replay just to gawk at a foot flick a ball on to a teammate or charting out the future of my Master League club. But occasionally that reverence is broken by an ill-suited moment that illustrates that more work needs to be done. The franchise is steps away from greatness, which makes some of its foibles frustrating." -- Matthew Sato [Full review]
GamesRadar+ -- 4/5
"PES 2019 is still very much a hard sell to all but the most ardent who will religiously buy Konami's newest entry and the quantifiable new features are very much lacking this year. Hardcore FIFA fans, too, will find little here to tempt them outside of the handful of exclusive leagues and features; Master League is very much mired in the mid-'00s with its bland menus and odd quirks, and MyClub but a pale imitation of Ultimate Team.
"Regardless, of all that, PES 2019 is a game you'll like, and very much enjoy in extended spells. The nagging feeling, despite the superb football, remains: more could have been done to set it apart from its contemporaries, and even past Pro Evo entries--but you'll be having too much fun to care otherwise." -- Bradley Russell [Full review]
Eurogamer -- No Score
"The harsh, inescapable truth about PES 2019, though, is that quality on the pitch can't make up for the disappointment of the overall package. Even if you were to fall in love with its more sim-like gameplay, PES 2019 as an overall offering falls flat. Off the pitch, PES remains a shambles. Konami's licensing problems are well documented, but the addition of the Scottish, Russian and Turkish leagues, among half a dozen other officially-licensed leagues that appear in the game, does not make up for the loss of the Champions League license, which had been a PES mainstay for a decade. There are no new game modes. No new game modes! Beyond that, there are some basic, fundamental features PES lacks that do not sit well in 2018. Where are the women teams, for example?
"Despite it all, I keep thinking about the football. You know, the actual football. It really is a marvel and it matters so, so much. So much good comes from it--gorgeous passes, stunning shots, realistic tackles--but it finds itself stifled by a football video game that's stuck in the dark ages." -- Wesley Yin-Poole [Full review]
Solving License Compliance at the Source: Adding SPDX License IDs
Accurately identifying the license for open source software is important for license compliance. However, determining the license can sometimes be difficult due to a lack of information or ambiguous information. Even when there is some licensing information present, a lack of consistent ways of expressing the license can make automating the task of license detection very difficult, thus requiring significant amounts of manual human effort. There are some commercial tools applying machine learning to this problem to reduce the false positives, and train the license scanners, but a better solution is to fix the problem at the upstream source.
In 2013, the U-boot project decided to use the SPDX license identifiers in each source file instead of the GPL v2.0 or later header boilerplate that had been used up to that point. The initial commit message had an eloquent explanation of reasons behind this transition.
Design stunning hospitals, cure peculiar illnesses and manage troublesome staff as you spread your budding healthcare organisation across Two Point County.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-30-2018, 10:34 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Find out what Xbox is up to at PAX West 2018
Xbox is bringing games, gear, and more to downtown Seattle for PAX West August 31 – September 3. Whether you’re joining us in person or following along on social media and Mixer, here’s what you can expect:
Xbox Booth North Hall, 4th Floor, Booths 403, 411, 417
Experience a few of the games that make up Xbox One’s diverse line-up at the Xbox booth. We’ll have playable demos of Forza Horizon 4, The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Devil May Cry 5, NBA 2k19, Metro Exodus, Kingdom Hearts III, Tunic, Ooblets, Kingdom Two Crowns, Generation Zero, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Supermarket Shriek, My Time Portia, and some new DLC from State of Decay 2. You will also have the opportunity to earn a Cuphead Pinny Arcade pin, participate in a Tomb Raider-themed scavenger hunt, guess the amount of Nuka Cola caps in a Fallout 76 experience, visit the Game Pass vending machine, and pick up exclusive Xbox Official Gear for the first time at PAX. (PAX Badge required)
Mixer North Hall, 4th Floor, Booth #425
Drop by booth #425 in the North Hall to meet up with some of your favorite broadcasters and Mixer Partners, and for a chance to win swag in the HypeZone LIVE! In addition to that, there’s also going to be a main stage at PAX featuring our Mixer Partners, developers, and so much more. Can’t make it to PAX West in person? No problem! Watch all the action happening at PAX West via Mixer.com/Mixer and Mixer.com/HypeZoneLIVE!
Find out more about streaming and the Xbox Adaptive Controller at these panels featuring Xbox and Mixer members. (PAX West badge required.)
Building Your Streaming Community Wyvern Theater, Saturday, September 1 from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Building a community comes with many challenges and hurdles, good news is we’re here to help! We’ve gathered a council of content creators to discuss the ins-and-outs of building a great online community in your own livestreams. We’ll be smashing myths and sharing the facts about streaming to help you set a foundation for a positive and effective community.
The Xbox Adaptive Controller: Designed with the Community Sasquatch Theater, Sunday, September 2 from 12:30pm-1:30pm
The Xbox Adaptive Controller is the newest controller by Xbox, created to help people with limited mobility play. Larry Hryb will lead a conversation with pivotal community experts and representatives of game accessibility organizations like AbleGamers and Stack Up, along with one of the controller’s creators. We’ll describe the journey of designing the controller leveraging the input of gamers with disabilities from the start… and where we need to go next.
Xbox One Summer of PUBG Tour
The Xbox One Summer of PUBG tour will be making their final stop in Westlake Center during PAX West. No badge required to visit! Check out the PUBG bus and enter to win it or one of many other prizes. More information can be found here.
Xbox PAX West Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win one of 11 Xbox Design Lab controllers, influenced by some of our favorite games. Xbox Design Lab allows you to create your own personal controller from over a billion different color combinations, metallic finishes, and rubberized grips. Check it out and design your own controller at xboxdesignlab.xbox.com.
There are two ways to enter:
Take a photo of your favorite Xbox Design Lab controller in the Xbox booth and share via Twitter using #XboxPAX #XboxDesignLab #Sweepstakes. Don’t forget to follow @Xbox while you’re at it!
Follow @Xbox or @XboxCanada on Twitter and retweet one of their tweets mentioning the sweepstakes and including #XboxPAX #XboxDesignLab #Sweepstakes.
You have until September 3rd to enter. The contest is open to anyone from the US or Canada. Click through for the Official Rules.
See you at PAX West! For more Xbox news, follow @Xbox on Twitter, visit the Xbox PAX West website, and stay tuned to Xbox Wire.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-30-2018, 04:32 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Fallout 76: Release Date, PvP, And What We Know (So Far)
Only a couple years after Fallout 4's release, Bethesda surprised fans by officially announcing Fallout 76, the next entry in its beloved post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. The new game was revealed in a trailer after a series of teases, and Bethesda discussed it in more detail at E3 2018 and more recently at QuakeCon 2018. While there's still so much we do not yet know about Bethesda's upcoming game, the company has offered some clarity on Fallout 76's most curious features and additions to the Fallout formula.
To ensure you're kept up to date on everything there is to know about Fallout 76, we've compiled all the information we have on the game so far: the platforms it's on, its online functionality, its anti-griefing features, and where the game falls in the series' timeline.
Fallout 76 is a prequel to all of the previous Fallout games. Set in 2102, you play an inhabitant of Vault 76 who emerges from the shelter 25 years after the bombs fell on America. Your task is simple: explore what remains of post-apocalyptic America and rebuild civilization.
Longtime fans will likely recognize Vault 76; although it's not a place we've visited before, this isn't the series' first mention of it. Both Fallout 3 and 4 reference it and, according to the Fallout Wikia, this West Virginia-based vault was occupied by 500 of of America's best and brightest minds. Unlike the more grotesque experimental vaults in the Fallout universe, Vault 76 is a control vault intended to be opened 20 or so years after a nuclear war. But if the Vault was supposed to open 20 years after the bombs fell, why have 25 years gone by? The story likely has a few surprises in store.
Fallout 76 uses the Creation Engine, the same engine used to make Fallout 4, but it will purportedly feature much more graphical detail than its predecessor. Game director Todd Howard has said that Fallout 76 has new rendering and lighting technology, which allows for "16 times" the detail.
Who's Developing It?
Bethesda Game Studios, the Maryland-based developer responsible for the Elder Scrolls series and both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, is at work on the game. In addition, Bethesda Game Studios Austin--formerly BattleCry Studios--assisted in fine-tuning the Creation Engine to support multiplayer functionality.
Is It An Online Survival Game?
Fallout 76 is a much different sort of game from its predecessors. It's "entirely online," but don't worry, you'll be able to play it solo too. According to Bethesda, the idea to take this approach to open-world survival came four years ago, when it started to work on building a multiplayer Fallout experience. Howard described the game's approach to survival as "softcore," which means death doesn't equal loss of progression.
You can form a party with up to three other players. You won't be able to manage your placement in servers when you login, as you'll automatically be inserted into a session with others upon booting up the game. Of course, you also have the option simply join alongside your friends and play together.
Howard commented that Fallout 76 will have dedicated servers that will support the game "now and for years to come." At launch, there will only be public servers, but Bethesda plans to introduce private servers that will allow players to invite friends to play in order to prevent undesirable behavior.
Some classic mechanics from past games will be changing to accommodate the shift to online play. For example, V.A.T.S has been reconfigured to work in real time, while still allowing players to target specific enemy body parts. But this time around, it has been updated to be more of a tool that allows you to spot out dangers in the environment.
How Big Is The World?
According to Howard, Fallout 76's world is four times the size of Fallout 4. There are six different regions to explore, and each has its own unique style, risks, and rewards. Confirmed areas include the West Virginia State Capitol, The Greenbrier, Woodburn Circle, New River Gorge Bridge, and Camden Park. Contained within each area is a variety of new creatures to encounter, some of which are based on West Virginian folklore.
What Can You Do?
Like previous games, players will spend the majority of their time exploring and completing quests. However, Fallout 76 will not feature any human non-player characters, as all surviving humans will be controlled by active players. Instead, the game will use combination of robot NPCs, collectible recordings, and environmental storytelling in order to give players what they need to piece together quests and the story at large.
Given the game's premise of rebuilding the world, there will be base-building elements similar to Fallout 4. You will be able to set up a bases anywhere using an item called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform, or CAMP. These can be placed down in the world and allow you to construct an impromptu camp. At E3, we got to see the player laying down walls and decorating the base with pool tables, toilets, and other household objects. As the "mobile platform" part of the name implies, your CAMP can also be picked up and relocated, allowing you to move your base anywhere in the world.
While you can help build the world, you can also destroy it. If you have the necessary nuclear launch codes, it's actually possible to access a missile silo to fire a nuke at any point on the map. Doing so irradiates the chosen area, but it also allows for the opportunity to discover rare weapons, gear, and items. Be wary; nuking an area also causes more powerful enemies to show up, making it more difficult to survive. But don't be discouraged by this, the CAMP blueprint system makes it easy for players to quickly rebuild their homes, and if they're privy to an incoming threat, they can pack their things and move to a new location.
As an online experience, player choice is said to be incredibly important, going as far as giving players the freedom to choose who are the heroes and who are the villains. Early footage showcased multiple players engaging in combat and participating in friendly activities, which seems to indicate that players have the freedom to choose their paths in the world of Fallout 76.
How Does Character Creation And Progression Work?
You'll have similar character creation tools as Fallout 4. However, you're free to change your appearance at any point. In addition, you can also utilize the game's new photo mode during the creation process to better see how your character looks, as well as snap some shots you can share on social media.
The SPECIAL system returns and it's a bit different. Like previous games, SPECIAL encompasses the following stats: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck. You're given one point to put into any of those stats every time you level up. The first thing you do when you emerge from the vault is pick a SPECIAL and then you pick a perk in that particular SPECIAL. Essentially, every SPECIAL is a pool of points for your perks.
But unlike previous games, perks are now cards you can equip and unlock as you rank up in a given SPECIAL; though, you're free to swap cards out at any time if you want to alter your build. Each SPECIAL characteristic you develop has a perk card cap of 15. These perk cards can be enhanced further from one to five points to increase their power.
You can obtain additional perk cards via Perk Card Packs (four random cards), which you earn every two levels initially (1-10), and then every 5 after that. You can also pick one perk card per level, usually from your SPECIAL choice. There are hundreds of Perks cards you can unlock, so naturally SPECIAL ranks cap out after a while (you gain a rank up in a SPECIAL each time you level up). At level 50, you'll stop increasing SPECIAL ranks, but you'll still get card packs.
How Does PvP Work?
When you shoot someone you do a little bit of damage, which can be equated to lightly slapping them in order to challenge them to a duel. In response to this, the other player can choose to ignore or engage. If they engage in a battle with you, they'll start to take full damage. The one who is killed in this consenting PvP match has the option to seek revenge. Doing so gives that person the opportunity to get double the rewards granted they're successful.
If you'd rather choose to ignore a PvP match, there's no way to escape being killed--despite the small damage dealt to you during the initiation phases. However, if you are killed by a player under these circumstances, that player becomes a Wanted Murderer and will receive no rewards from having killed you.
A Wanted Murderer is marked on the map as a red star and a bounty is placed on their head. Players looking to cash in on this bounty aren't visible on the Murderer's map. If the murderer is killed, the money from that bounty is taken out their stock.
In order to give players time to properly acclimate to how Fallout 76 plays, PvP won't be available to players until level five. And if you perish from any PvP encounter, the only thing you'll lose is the junk you've been collecting, which can be reclaimed after death if not already picked up by other players. You can always store junk in stashes found around the world, so as to safeguard a portion of your stock. Armor and weapons are retained in your inventory after death.
Any Voice Chat?
It's possible to chat with your teammates and even strangers you discover out in the world. It's area-based so your ability to hear other plays will vary. But if you want nothing to do with strangers, it's possible to mute their voices entirely.
When's the Beta?
Falout 76's beta will be available exclusively to those who preorder the game. Bethesda said that it will begin selecting participants from the pool of pre-orders in early October. The plan is to start small and expand over time. Xbox One owners have a slight leg up on the beta compared to other platforms. For more details, you can check out Bethesda's Fallout 76 FAQ for more details on how to redeem your code.
Release Date
Fallout 76 is being developed for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and is currently scheduled to be released on November 14. Unfortunately, there's no word about a Nintendo Switch release, which didn't seem out of the question after the Skyrim re-release made it to that platform.
Most images on the Web are small or medium sized, since otherwise users need to wait longer before their favorite web pages load. However, sometimes you need to find a larger version of an image, but the search doesn’t bear fruit. Any bitmap image can be scaled up or down in an image editor (such as Gimp). But obviously upscaling would not add any detail to the image. Instead, the result will usually be blurred, pixelated and noticeably stretched-up. In this brief roundup we’ll try to upscale bitmap images with a little better result.
There’s no magic in it, just a few advanced scaling algorithms that help produce better-looking pictures. Everything is open source and works great in Fedora. The results will be tested against the Cubic interpolation method, which Gimp applies by default.
Filters in ImageMagick
This is the most famous and widely used open source software for manipulating images from the command line. Fedora, like the majority of other Linux distributions, already includes ImageMagick. Fedora even installs it by default in Fedora Workstation. ImageMagick provides the convert command, which can also change dimensions of input images.
The trick is that convert supports filters, and ImageMagick provides a rich selection of such filters, some of which work really good for upscaling. You can check out the full list here. For instance, the point filter works well for upscaling pixel art and screen shots, as it preserves clarity and sharpness at the cost of emphasized pixels. Still, this can look better than the blurred results of the convenient Cubic algorithm.
Use it with the following syntax:
convert input.png -filter point -resize 600% output.png
The PNG file format as well as the 600% scaling factor are just examples.
Hiding pixels in Cubic is not really good for upscaling. Use something without anti-aliasing, such as the Point filter in ImageMagick.
Although it’s possible to get the same result in Gimp by choosing the None interpolation method, working with ImageMagick is sometimes easier. Not only it is installed in Fedora Workstation by default (Gimp is available, but not installed), it provides command-line tools which are ideal for scripting.
Xbrzscale
Xbrzscale is a command-line utility that implements the xBR scaling method. In brief, xBR is based on pattern recognition and interpolation, and it’s perfect for magnifying pixel art. xBRZ is an enhanced version of xBR, with a focus on preserving very small details. Therefore, xBRZ delivers pleasing results on both pixel art and photographic images, such as portraits.
In the following side-by-side comparison, the left part definitely looks preferable thanks to the superb clarity.
The Xbrzscale version features sharper edges and looks as if it had more details than the version to the right.
Install Xbrzscale in Fedora
To build this tool from source, you must install some prerequisites first:
The command line syntax to upscale with this software is:
./xbrzscale X input.png output.png
…where X is the scale factor, a number within the range of 2 to 6.
Note that Xbrzscale always outputs PNG images, no matter what you feed it with. If the input file format is different, Xbrzscale will convert it to PNG.
Smilla Enlarger
Smilla Enlarger has a user-friendly graphical interface. It makes use of yet another different technology, this time based on fractal-based interpolation algorithms. The main goal is to produce sharper results when you upscale photographic images. The enlarged image usually preserves more details than the Cubic interpolation can.
Install Smilla Enlarger in Fedora
Again, start by installing the build dependencies:
The application window has numerous advanced controls and extra parameters that put a user in control of upscaling details.
Smilla Enlarger lets you choose a zoom factor, configure cropping and, more importantly, preview the result before hitting the Enlarge & Save button.
The upscale version of the sample image looks noticeably different from both the decent Xbrzscale version and the cubic-enlarged version.
Smill Enlarger adds a subtle amount of grain, which seems to effectively hide artifacts and make a picture look cleaner. Try this application on a photo to get the best results.
It’s hard to recommend the plethora of ImageMagick filters over Xbrzscale and Smilla Enlarger. The actual results will vary across different sorts of images, and of course different user preferences.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 08-30-2018, 04:32 AM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
What parents think about technology in the classroom
As a former educator, I’ve always been conscious of the parent’s role – essentially as their child’s first teacher – and their unique, valuable perspective on learning. Parents remember the ways they were taught in school and often have valid questions and thoughts on the new ways children learn, and about the curriculum being taught.
With summer coming to an end and parents sending their children back to school, Microsoft wanted to understand how parents felt about technology in the classroom. What did they really think of the importance of learning digital skills? Microsoft Education partnered with YouGov and surveyed parents in the U.S. with children aged 18 and under and found most parents are hopeful about what technology will do for their kids. [Download the accompanying infographic here.]
Parents optimistic about technology
The survey asked parents how they felt about the role of technology in their child’s life as that child grows up. In reply, 60 percent said they felt “optimistic” or “hopeful.”
Understandably, parents felt differently about tech depending on where it’s being used. When asked about tech use between home and school, 63 percent of parents cited concerns about their kids spending too much time on devices at home, while 86 percent of parents believed tech in school – including computers and educational software – would be helpful to their child’s education.
When I was teaching I would often talk to parents about screen-content, not just screen-time, and whether the engagement with digital content was active (like creating an animation) or passive (viewing a movie). It’s encouraging seeing parents understand that, when used in the right way, technology can help prepare their children for the jobs of the future and help them succeed.
The importance of Computer Science and learning digital skills
Using technology to learn isn’t the only way to prepare children for the future, however. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 52 percent of job growth by the year 2020 will be in the fields of computing and mathematics, which shows a great importance in teaching Computer Science and digital skills in classrooms today.
According to the survey, half (50 percent) of parents believed coding and computer programming to be the most beneficial subject to their child’s future employability.
Another promising result: Parents felt strongly about the positive role federal and state governments can play in ensuring their children are learning these subjects. The survey sample indicated strongly that parents would like to see increased government support to help schools build kids’ digital skills.
When asked about the technology industry’s involvement, 75 percent of parents said they believe big tech companies should be involved in helping schools build kids’ digital skills. Many companies, including Microsoft and organizations like Code.org, are working to do just that. Programs like TEALS, which is supported by Microsoft Philanthropies, pairs trained Computer Science professionals from across the technology industry with classroom teachers to team-teach the subject.
Tech tips for teachers this school year
With parents seeing the importance of their children learning with technology and being taught Computer Science, coding and digital skills, the survey points to good news for teachers who work every day to ensure the children in their classrooms are prepared for the future.
Teachers work incredibly hard to bring the best and most inspiring learning opportunities to their classrooms. We celebrate and thank them.
For those teachers just starting to explore the potential of Computer Science in their classroom, I’d recommend these three simple approaches:
Open up the conversation with your students. What do they understand CS to mean? What jobs are unlocked with CS?
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 3927 adults, of which 1011 were parents of children under 19. Fieldwork was undertaken between 2nd – 6th August 2018. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults.
Watch two hours of Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Gameplay
By Joe Robinson29 Aug 2018
Asmodee Digital have now put the archive of last night’s Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game stream up on their Twitch page, if you didn’t get a chance to watch it last night. It’s about two hours long, just so you know, and we’ve replaced the embed below with the archived stream instead of the live feed. Enjoy!
Original Story
As Hearthstone continues to dominate the digital CCG market, new and interesting variations on the formula are slowly starting to emerge. Faeria, despite abandoning mobile development, tried to change the game by adding a physical board. The Elder Scrolls: Legends iterated in a subtler way by providing more tactical depth.
The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game is the latest contender for the throne, but it represents an interesting quandary – for one, it’s an adaptation of an existing, and highly successful physical card game of the same name. Secondly, it’s co-op, not PvP, so you’re playing against an AI opponent who uses slightly different rules and the whole design is bent towards a more bespoke, story-driven experience.
When it first announced last year, it was generally accepted that Lord of the Rings LCG will be coming to mobile. Sadly we’ve heard no further news on that score, but since the game’s out in Steam Early Access today and I’m sure some of you are interested in seeing how it plays, can’t hurt to highlight the on-going gameplay stream over on Asmodee’s Twitch account:
[embedded content]
The stream started at 4pm UTC / 5PM GMT, so you may have missed the beginning, but the archive will probably be made available tomorrow if you want to catch up.
I’ve been playing it myself, and so far it’s proved a fascinating experience – the narrative-driven nature of the game throws up some very interesting and unique mechanics you won’t find in more PvP games. On top of that though, I’m having conflicting emotions over how differently the digital game has evolved from the physical one – the physical game is a very good co-operative card game, and I’m surprised by how much the team at Fantasy Flight Interactive have decided to distil the game’s core tenets and try to mould into Hearthstone’s template.
We’ll probably do a full write-up over on Strategy Gamer since this isn’t officially a mobile thing yet, so keep an eye out over there for more impressions. Otherwise, enjoy the stream!
Looking for a small but full featured open source (LGPL) C++ 14 game engine with a built in editor? If so, the Limon Game Engine might be the perfect choice for you! Primary features of the Limon game are:
Model loading using Assimp
Skeletal animations
Realtime shadows
Rigid body physics
3D spatial sound
Preliminary AI
In game map editor
Trigger volumes
API for Custom Trigger code
Loading shared libraries that has Trigger code
Creating Animations in editor
Additionally the engine is documented, with the manual available here. The source code is cleanly written C++ 14 code and is available on Github. The engine works on Windows, Mac and Linux with binaries available for download here. If you are interested in seeing the engine in action, be sure to check out our hands-on video, embedded below. There are additional videos available on the Limon YouTube channel, available here.
EDIT – The author in response to the video has released an updated version, with the editor key changed in 0.5.2 to the much more sensible F2 key.
