Being a power user means tweaking the settings to your optimum usage. I used to have no problems on a desktop, but ever since getting a lappie I have come to notice that not everything is up to personal fancy. Thus, some useful tips to collect.
Ctrl+Shift+enter - runs any command in elevated administrator mode. This is especially useful for playing around with powercfg from the cmd prompt. Just Start > type cmd > ctrl shift enter and it'll start in windows/system32/ instead of users/system32 .
disable my stupid touchpad - never had a touchpad before. Until this lappie. Simply using more than 1 finger to scroll presented a problem because of the two finger gestures like zoom and browser back. To disable this, I had to go to Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > Settings > Advanced gestures and uncheck everything. It did teach me what was available for use if I ever find myself mouseless, but that's not really something i'd give up.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
How to get to UCTI - primer
From Kepong
KTM to Bandar Tasik Selatan - RM 2.20
LRT to Bukit Jalil - RM 0.70
Total - RM 2.90
KTM to Bank Negara - RM 1.00
LRT from Bandaraya to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Total - RM 2.90
LRT from Kelana Jaya to Masjid Jamek - RM 2.30
LRT to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Total - RM4.20
LRT straight from Titiwangsa to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Behold my options.
You know what sucks? I can't justify spending RM150 on the Rapid Pass Integrated, because I won't travel that much.
KTM to Bandar Tasik Selatan - RM 2.20
LRT to Bukit Jalil - RM 0.70
Total - RM 2.90
KTM to Bank Negara - RM 1.00
LRT from Bandaraya to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Total - RM 2.90
LRT from Kelana Jaya to Masjid Jamek - RM 2.30
LRT to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Total - RM4.20
LRT straight from Titiwangsa to Bukit Jalil - RM 1.90
Behold my options.
You know what sucks? I can't justify spending RM150 on the Rapid Pass Integrated, because I won't travel that much.
Monday, March 22, 2010
c3 Pilots
Once more with feeling.
The most powerful deck for Battletech CCG is none of the previous mentioned, but a rather degenerate deck known as C3 Pilots. It basically starts bringing in 'Mechs like Owens, Blackjack and Firestarter, all with C3(If more than 1 'mech with c3 is in the group, they each get +2 atk). Add a plethora of the strongest pilots Davion has access to and you get a nigh unstoppable decklist.
6 Owens OW-1 Revised
4 Partisan 3058
4 Spector
6 Blackjack Omni
4 Firestarter Omni
8 Assembly
7 Tactics
3 Solaris Contacts
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
1 Prince Victor Steiner Davion
1 Dan Allard
1 Kai Allard-Liao
1 Kai, Champion of Solaris
3 Fanatical Leader
1 Training Facility
1 Risky Combat Jump
1 Forged Mission Orders
1 Overrun
1 Comguard Response Team
There are other variants; the Marik deck that eschews the Davion pilots in favour of Blitzkrieg, or a Kurita variant that packs even more c3, but the premise is the same - bring out 4-5 'mechs with c3 and attack in 1 go , flipping the stockpile over and striking for massive damage. Oh joy.
The most powerful deck for Battletech CCG is none of the previous mentioned, but a rather degenerate deck known as C3 Pilots. It basically starts bringing in 'Mechs like Owens, Blackjack and Firestarter, all with C3(If more than 1 'mech with c3 is in the group, they each get +2 atk). Add a plethora of the strongest pilots Davion has access to and you get a nigh unstoppable decklist.
6 Owens OW-1 Revised
4 Partisan 3058
4 Spector
6 Blackjack Omni
4 Firestarter Omni
8 Assembly
7 Tactics
3 Solaris Contacts
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
1 Prince Victor Steiner Davion
1 Dan Allard
1 Kai Allard-Liao
1 Kai, Champion of Solaris
3 Fanatical Leader
1 Training Facility
1 Risky Combat Jump
1 Forged Mission Orders
1 Overrun
1 Comguard Response Team
There are other variants; the Marik deck that eschews the Davion pilots in favour of Blitzkrieg, or a Kurita variant that packs even more c3, but the premise is the same - bring out 4-5 'mechs with c3 and attack in 1 go , flipping the stockpile over and striking for massive damage. Oh joy.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Battletech CCG
Trading Card Games
I first got into TCGs with Magic 4th edition. But the lack of competitive play soon made me bored. Over the years, I dabbled in some other CCGs to satiate the appetite for shuffling and playing a card game.
One of the best games I've ever played is the Battletech TCG. Sadly it got discontinued, but I still maintain a number of decks to play with. The good thing is, the cards are relatively cheap (the value of a good game maintains it's price) but not too cheap as like say, Digimon or Pokemon cheap.
The bad part is - well, there are only 3 top decks in the format. Playing with Box Powers and Alliances degenerates the game further, with the Free Deploy becoming very powerful if The Star League alliance is allowed.
Allow me to explain.
Most CCGs are designed to be duels between opponents. The basic strategy ofBattletech is to bring out 'Mechs and
Vehicles, and attack your opponent's Stockpile(deck). Each point of damage causes 1 card to be overturned into the Scrapheap(where played cards go). When a Player cannot draw anymore cards, he/she loses the game.
Unlike most other CCGs, Battletech's resource base is attackable by the main damage sources('Mechs). This turns a few things sideways - it is possible to lock your opponent down by destroying all his resources. Since a player is limited to playing 2 cards a turn(Deployments), if you can deal 7 damage twice per turn, it becomes impossible for a player to cope.
All CCGs have some limitations. Cards which allow you to get around these limitations are usually the powerful ones. For Battletech, the biggest limitation is that you can only play 2 cards per turn. Most decks are built around beating this and forcing decks that obey this limitation to cope.
The magic number is 7, because all of the main resource cards have 7 life. Thus, the Boomwolf, a deck which plays multiple fast 'mechs with 3 and 4 attack, is one of the strongest decks in the game. The deck plays like an aggro deck, bringing out 'Mechs every turn and slowly ramping up the damage with Missions.
BoomWolf
6 Dasher Prime
6 Fenris Prime
6 Phantom B
6 Phantom A
3 Pushing the Envelope
3 Superior Navigation
3 Trial of Grievance
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors
8 Assembly
4 Munitions
5 Tactics
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank
Sideboard:
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors
1 Evantha Fetladral
1 Vlad of the Wards
2 Trial of Grievance
2 Aerospace Fighter Mission
Pushing the Envelope adds 3 damage while Superior Nav has a 66% chance of adding 4, and a 33% chance of untapping the 'Mech. It is normally common to put a Dasher in play on turn 2 and kill a resource with Superior Nav. The whole deck revolves around hunting resources and slowly attacking the Stockpile. It is the classic Aggro deck.
Another strong archetype is the Big Mech. Most decks play only 2 resources per turn, making it hard to build big 'mechs early. The resource engine of Merchant Caste + Improved COnstruction Facilities gets around this restriction, making turn 3 Ryokens rather easy. Once enough 'Mechs have been brought into play, a resource sink called Double-Time Offense is played and you defeat your opponent in 1 big attack.
The Alliance'd version allowed you to mix cheap Wolf 'Mechs with the powerful Crossbows, but the non alliance'd version fares equally well as Ghost Bear. A deck like this would fall into the mid-range archetype.
Big 'Mech Deck
5 Dasher Prime
5 Dragonfly D
6 Ryoken Prime
4 Ryoken C
6 Merchant Caste
6 Improved Construction Facilities
5 Hidden Reserves
3 Double-Time Offense
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank
8 Logistics
4 Assembly
Now we take a look at one of the most degenerate decks. The whole deck revolves around the powerful card Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, which is NOT unique(Meaning you can have duplicates in play) and untaps after each mission. Basically, a powerful pump to all your Units. The trick with this deck is to flood the board with low cost Units , and then Play both a Treachery(forces your opponent to commit all his 'mechs to attack you next turn) and SRMA - the next turn, your opponent will have no Units blocking, and you drop a second SRMA and go to town.
Comstar Free Deploy
6 Cyrano
6 Hussar
6 Thorn
6 Spider Revised
6 Sandhurst Royal Military Academy (SRMA)
6 Hidden Reserves
2 Command Circuit
2 Treachery!
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
1 Think Tank
8 Logistics
5 Politics
Note the word Free Deploy. This is a keyword on a few fragile Units from the Inner Sphere, whereby they do not count towards the 2 Deployment limit. Abusing this allows you to have 4-5 resources and the combo in hand by turn 5, whereby most decks would have only 1-2 blockers. When each Unit deals 5 damage, a simple swarm is sufficient to win. Sometimes, landing a 6 on the Command Circuit accelerates this even further.
Dealing with the Free Deploy decks are two cards - Rocky Gorge and Aerospace Fighter Mission. The former deals 2 damage to each attacking unit, forcing the opponent to play 3 SRMAs in order to negate that damage(1 more for +2 armor), while the latter divides 5 damage among units on the board. Since both the Cyrano and the Hussar have 1 life, you can wipe an entire board in just 1 command card, and continue to recycle the card with Black Market (which incidentally is usually the target of opposing Arrow IVs and Aerospace Fighter Missions).
Having a game based solely on damage and no alternate win condition results in control decks being forced to the sidelines. This game has no lockdown decks that frustrate you; which might be a good thing - but it does result in the steamroller effect, whereby a side that gains an advantage usually ends up winning because the only race is the damage race. Certain players prefer this while others dislike being unable to counter an early rush.
I will talk more about other CCGs I have played, but this remains my favourite.
I first got into TCGs with Magic 4th edition. But the lack of competitive play soon made me bored. Over the years, I dabbled in some other CCGs to satiate the appetite for shuffling and playing a card game.
One of the best games I've ever played is the Battletech TCG. Sadly it got discontinued, but I still maintain a number of decks to play with. The good thing is, the cards are relatively cheap (the value of a good game maintains it's price) but not too cheap as like say, Digimon or Pokemon cheap.
The bad part is - well, there are only 3 top decks in the format. Playing with Box Powers and Alliances degenerates the game further, with the Free Deploy becoming very powerful if The Star League alliance is allowed.
Allow me to explain.
Most CCGs are designed to be duels between opponents. The basic strategy ofBattletech is to bring out 'Mechs and
Vehicles, and attack your opponent's Stockpile(deck). Each point of damage causes 1 card to be overturned into the Scrapheap(where played cards go). When a Player cannot draw anymore cards, he/she loses the game.
Unlike most other CCGs, Battletech's resource base is attackable by the main damage sources('Mechs). This turns a few things sideways - it is possible to lock your opponent down by destroying all his resources. Since a player is limited to playing 2 cards a turn(Deployments), if you can deal 7 damage twice per turn, it becomes impossible for a player to cope.
All CCGs have some limitations. Cards which allow you to get around these limitations are usually the powerful ones. For Battletech, the biggest limitation is that you can only play 2 cards per turn. Most decks are built around beating this and forcing decks that obey this limitation to cope.
The magic number is 7, because all of the main resource cards have 7 life. Thus, the Boomwolf, a deck which plays multiple fast 'mechs with 3 and 4 attack, is one of the strongest decks in the game. The deck plays like an aggro deck, bringing out 'Mechs every turn and slowly ramping up the damage with Missions.
BoomWolf
6 Dasher Prime
6 Fenris Prime
6 Phantom B
6 Phantom A
3 Pushing the Envelope
3 Superior Navigation
3 Trial of Grievance
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors
8 Assembly
4 Munitions
5 Tactics
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank
Sideboard:
1 Arrow IV Battery
1 Fog Shrouded Moors
1 Evantha Fetladral
1 Vlad of the Wards
2 Trial of Grievance
2 Aerospace Fighter Mission
Pushing the Envelope adds 3 damage while Superior Nav has a 66% chance of adding 4, and a 33% chance of untapping the 'Mech. It is normally common to put a Dasher in play on turn 2 and kill a resource with Superior Nav. The whole deck revolves around hunting resources and slowly attacking the Stockpile. It is the classic Aggro deck.
Another strong archetype is the Big Mech. Most decks play only 2 resources per turn, making it hard to build big 'mechs early. The resource engine of Merchant Caste + Improved COnstruction Facilities gets around this restriction, making turn 3 Ryokens rather easy. Once enough 'Mechs have been brought into play, a resource sink called Double-Time Offense is played and you defeat your opponent in 1 big attack.
The Alliance'd version allowed you to mix cheap Wolf 'Mechs with the powerful Crossbows, but the non alliance'd version fares equally well as Ghost Bear. A deck like this would fall into the mid-range archetype.
Big 'Mech Deck
5 Dasher Prime
5 Dragonfly D
6 Ryoken Prime
4 Ryoken C
6 Merchant Caste
6 Improved Construction Facilities
5 Hidden Reserves
3 Double-Time Offense
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
2 Think Tank
8 Logistics
4 Assembly
Now we take a look at one of the most degenerate decks. The whole deck revolves around the powerful card Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, which is NOT unique(Meaning you can have duplicates in play) and untaps after each mission. Basically, a powerful pump to all your Units. The trick with this deck is to flood the board with low cost Units , and then Play both a Treachery(forces your opponent to commit all his 'mechs to attack you next turn) and SRMA - the next turn, your opponent will have no Units blocking, and you drop a second SRMA and go to town.
Comstar Free Deploy
6 Cyrano
6 Hussar
6 Thorn
6 Spider Revised
6 Sandhurst Royal Military Academy (SRMA)
6 Hidden Reserves
2 Command Circuit
2 Treachery!
4 War Funds
2 Black Market Connections
1 Think Tank
8 Logistics
5 Politics
Note the word Free Deploy. This is a keyword on a few fragile Units from the Inner Sphere, whereby they do not count towards the 2 Deployment limit. Abusing this allows you to have 4-5 resources and the combo in hand by turn 5, whereby most decks would have only 1-2 blockers. When each Unit deals 5 damage, a simple swarm is sufficient to win. Sometimes, landing a 6 on the Command Circuit accelerates this even further.
Dealing with the Free Deploy decks are two cards - Rocky Gorge and Aerospace Fighter Mission. The former deals 2 damage to each attacking unit, forcing the opponent to play 3 SRMAs in order to negate that damage(1 more for +2 armor), while the latter divides 5 damage among units on the board. Since both the Cyrano and the Hussar have 1 life, you can wipe an entire board in just 1 command card, and continue to recycle the card with Black Market (which incidentally is usually the target of opposing Arrow IVs and Aerospace Fighter Missions).
Having a game based solely on damage and no alternate win condition results in control decks being forced to the sidelines. This game has no lockdown decks that frustrate you; which might be a good thing - but it does result in the steamroller effect, whereby a side that gains an advantage usually ends up winning because the only race is the damage race. Certain players prefer this while others dislike being unable to counter an early rush.
I will talk more about other CCGs I have played, but this remains my favourite.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Pilah oh pilah
navigating the internet highways of Malaysia is a pain in the ass. Trying to find bus schedule information - even worse. While looking for a bus from KL to Kuala Pilah for my grandma, I was led to believe that Transnasional would be the bus to take. But then the relative who is picking Gua Ma up from KP said that we should choose SKS. So I went on a search for SKS. To my surprise, it turned out to be the same company.
*sigh*
What's new. Nesting companies within one another. I'm not even sure whether SKS exists seeing it doesn't turn up at Nadi's website at all, even though the wikipedia link points to Nadi.
Plaza Rakyat - another mess. Since I started using the LRT it has been in that dilapidated state, unfinished since the 1998 recession. That's 12 years. You'd think a decade would be enough time to get it back on schedule. Everytime a foreigner passes by and asks, I just tell them it's a relic of Dr. M's time.
Oh well. Now I have to figure out where the real bus terminal for southbound buses is.
>.<
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