Video game tips-RTS-Counter Units

Though this tip may be on the simpler side, it still is worthy and deserving of recognition. In almost every single modern RTS game that I have played there are Counter-Units. CUs are particular forces which are especially effective against another, different unit, which in turn is effective against another type....

There are in some games certain units that are effective (to a degree) against all other unit forms. These units are sometimes abused to such a degree that it would be despicable if it were not that everybody who played that particular game spams the same unit. And so it becomes more of a race to see who can produce more of the spam unit. I however think that it is much more exciting and gratifying to see a small number of my units wipe out a larger foe, due to superior planning and countering on my part. There are many players who ignore CUs simply because it takes a little time to study and figure out what the actual bonuses are! So spend a little time, print up some info, do what you have to! In the end the reward is much greater......

NOTE: Will attach game play clip soon.

Video game tips--Combat Shooters-Sniper or Camper?

When in the course of a tactical shooter, you may notice that for some inexplicable reason you just got shot at/killed, without knowing where your opponent could possibly be. Its as if out of nowhere a phantom projectile flies into your face. This is probably due to either a sniper or a camper. These are two heavily used words that deserve a definition.
The term sniper generally means someone that wields a long range high power weapon and uses it as such. NOTE: just because you are using what could be defined as a "Sniper Rifle" doesn't necessarily make you a sniper. Some players (myself included) either occasionally or often use a sniper rifle like some kind of pseudo-shotgun. Basically this means intentionally using a sniper rifle as a close range weapon, not just resorting to it in hand to hand since you currently "have it out".The following is a Halo 3 player video, showing some good sniping. Probably a bunch of my videos will be Halo 3, do to the high number of videos available.



The term camper is often used in derision, since a lot of players say that it is cheap (especially right after being killed by what they call a camper). MY definition of camping is when you choose to position yourself in a more or less concealed position or in a power position (strong defendable spot) and kill people when they come into your view. According to this definition every single player that I have ever seen is a camper sometimes. Just to clear up any confusion: I think that camping (according to my definition) is not a bad thing. It is basically an ambush, and not at all something to sneer at.
It is possible to be a camper without a sniper rifle and it is possible (rarely) to be a sniper without a sniper rifle. Usually players/teams resort to camping when they a) feel that it is the best course of action in the situation, or b) when they are out-numbered or feel less talented than the opposition.
Camping and sniping can both be excellent tools in effecting our opponent"s morale.

P.S Make sure that you realize that there is a difference between general camping and spawn camping/killing. Perhaps I will feature an individual article on spawn camping in the future.

A true definition.....

Some people have different ideas, as to the meaning of certain words. I know that I have many "Special Definitions", but only a few come to mind. Actually shockingly few. I thought that I remembered more. But wait a minute! If I remembered the "Special Definition", than it wouldn't actually be my definition! It would be merely another definition! So now instead of purposing this post towards my definitions, instead it will focus on other's quirky meanings.

Probably the phrase that I know of that has the most varying definitions is the utterance "in a minute" or "just a minute". In fact sometimes people change its meaning more than once in the matter of five minutes. If you are the utterer than JAM (just a minute) means when I am done, whether it takes thirty seconds or a hour. If you are on the receiving end of a JAM, than it means literally one minute or less. Sometimes you would think that somebody who has for each minute for the last twenty minutes said JAM, would say something like "In a while". However I believe that JAM is more widely used because it gives the impression that you actually are practically on your way to them. You just hope that they will forget within a minute's time.

Another good one is "No". This one can mean many things to the receiver, but usually just one thing to the giver. When you say "No" you mean "No". And everybody out to know that "No" is final. Apparently everybody but the current receiver of the "No". they think that it can mean anything from probably not to perhaps.

One of my personal favorite replies is "Nothing!" This is usually yelled when someone asks "What are you doing?" Nothing to the speaker can mean several things, and perhaps even more than one, at the same time. Nothing can mean nothing that is important, or nothing that concerns you, and even nothing that I shouldn't be doing. On average I see girls use this one more than boys... just a side note.

And finally (for today anyway) we come to the infamous F-word, FUN. For like minded people this is a no-brainer, whats fun is fun. You see the trouble comes when there are conflicting definitions of "fun". You might think that hunting is fun, but Greg over there thinks its more like glorified work, he would rather be home watching TV, having fun. Or maybe you think that gardening is fun, well the person you ask to do it with you may think that its a bothersome encumbrance. Or maybe someone thinks that your fun is stupid (lots of people say this about video games).

I hope that you have enjoyed these definitions.....

Video game tips-RTS-Micromanagment

When in the course of a RTS game, there is an extremely important decision to make: To what level will you micromanage.

Micromanaging is an art. It is very easy to abuse into a bad habit. In every single RTS that I have ever played you will have the opportunity to MM. The true test of willpower is to resist the urge to over MM. Often if you study the playing habits of other players you will see certain patterns of debilitating habits. Often even more experienced players can become vulnerable to this odd desire. I know that it is satisfying to watch your troops outnumber and crush an unimportant enemy army, but if you are certain that you are not in a good position to be ambushed, than you are really wasting valuable time that could be spent queuing up more troops and/or preparing a second wave. You would be amazed to see the difference that some MM moderation can make.

Video game tips--Combat Shooters-To shoot or not to shoot?

Todays post is on combat shooters.

Though the talent comes naturally to some people, others have to be conscious of a certain habit. This habit includes (but is not limited to), shooting at anything that moves, the second that you see it move. This is seen especially in free for all games. You might think that doing this will give you a greater chance o getting a kill, but this usually is a bad idea for several reasons. For one thing you will almost certainly be wasting a lot of ammo. Also you will be revealing your location to players who may or may not be more experienced than you. But most importantly you will probably be dieing fairly often, since you will be subsequently getting into more close quarter combat, and in cqc its often more who hits the button first, and not actual skill.

A few good words....

Various words of wisdom, and their definitions.

Whenever entering a conversation, make sure that you really know what the conversation is about. There are few things as socially embarrassing as joining a conversation spur of the moment, thinking that you know what the topic is, and then finding out that you have expressed yourself most eloquently on a subject entirely unrelated. I mean come on! You feel like you have just wasted your opinion on both subjects, since you probably wont mention either again! There are several ways that you can tell if the subject that you are expounding on is not the topic of conversation. usually your listeners will start to smile slightly at the corners of their mouths. Or they start to look mock serious. If you think that you have made a mistake you should stop intantly and say something to the effect of: "oops, thats not what you were talking about is it?".

Video game tips-RTS-Unit Spamming

In RTS games there are often either certain units that are really good, or really good for the price. Whenever possible it is a good idea to lilt your army, so that you embody your opponents weak areas. However sometimes your opponent is in no special way lacking in troops in any way more than you. In these cases having catch all units that are affordable and expendable is a great boon to your cause. Be careful in your choices however, and when possible switch the type that you spam, to mix your foe up. Sometimes units that seem fairly weak can be made quit lethal, when combined with several more of its type. This is often especially true in the ranged unit cases.

One other tool that you can use is to either know or have at hand a list of all the types of units that your enemy has at there disposal, for your enemies particular culture/race/civilization. For most games there can be found on the internet complicated and extensive lists of all you could want to know concerning the units, and the units's abilities, for almost all RTS games. And while I am not sure about you, I think that the more complicated, the better.

Enjoy.....

Video game tips--Combat Shooters- Rolling On

One of the ways that many players are killed in combat shooters is by standing still for an extended time, particularly while sniping. You see every time that you kill somebody they get a general idea of your location. No matter what role you are in you should almost always be moving. If you are sniping make a rule of thumb to follow; two or three kills then move on. There are of course circumstances in which it would be unwise to move, but these situations should be easy to interpret and react to.
Sometimes however you can use to your advantage the fact that most players can get to expect that no one would stop and camp from an obvious spot. Overall its just a good thing to keep in mind when you are playing.

May the Force be with you.....

Sequences

Sequences. Yes, you have heard of them. They are deadly things. At all costs they should be avoided. Allow me to elaborate.

Let us say I am about to mow the lawn... Before I can mow the lawn I must first fill the mower with gas. To fill the mower with gas I must find the red gas tank. To find the tank I must call my dad. Once I call my dad and find out where the tank is, and once I find the tank I find out that the tank is empty. To fill the tank I must go to the gas station. To go to the gas station I must drive. To drive, keys are a must. To find keys I must interrogate everybody in sight. after the keys are found, and the car is started and the station is found and the gas is bought and the trip home is completed and the tank is filled, then the mowing can commence. Overall more time is spent on sequences than on mowing.

That was a MILD example of Sequences. I have been a part in Sequences that take weeks. Just crazy. If you aren't careful a Sequence much stronger than you will sweep you up and dump you somewhere. In my experience there are a couple of things that can save/shield you from Sequences. A good book is an excellent weapon, so long as you posses the willpower to just read it and forget the Sequence of scary stuff that you could be doing. Video games and movies are also excellent tools in this age old war. In some circumstances even food can be a distraction. Try all of them until you find one that fits you.

Good luck.

Video game tips-RTS-Rushing

As the title implies, todays post will be on strategy games.

In many strategy games there is something that is overlooked by many new players. It is a tactic called rushing. Rushing has two basic meanings: resource rushing, and combat rushing.
Resource rushing involves making a gamble that the amount of resources you could obtain in the long run justify temporarily overextending your economy and military, so that you can obtain early in the game a key resource (note: of course this only applies to RTS games that include a form of resource). Many players ignore resources because they are to cautious to go for them. The line between mediocre and advanced players is often the ability to discern when to play risky or when to play cautious.

Combat rushing involves (to various extent) overextending your military and economy, to attack your opponent. In its more extreme it involves literally putting all your eggs in one basket. Now if you are a experienced player this tactic will often work on players of lower skills. They will often be simply incapable of competing with adequate speed to the attack. However this tactic can be much less effective against foes of similar or greater abilities. Still however you can sometimes pull it off, and it sure looks fantastic when you can.
Military rushing in its more moderate approach basically involves keeping a steady stream of harassing troops flowing towards the enemies outposts and any weaker units/buildings. This tactic is highly advised in all situations, as it typically will not put you in a position of no return. Also if your opponent is a typical player they will be doing the same. An object worthy of note is that in all cases mentioned, there are cases were people do things differently to either a) simply be different. or b) throw you off of what they really are trying to do. Sometimes a experienced player will do things completely irregular, and in such cases you will have to act according to your wisdom. But be that as it may these should serve as a good starting guideline of when to rush, and when not to.

(You were right Calvin... that was easier)

Video game tips--Combat Shooters-Proper Reload

This is my first of several "help" posts. These posts are all to be on the general subject of video game hints, tips and strategies. This post will be mostly based on FPS (first person shooter) and TPS (third person shooter).

As it seems some people do not completely understand these terms I will elaborate. FPS means that in the game you are looking through the perspective of the character which you are playing. You see what they would see through their eyes. TPS is a view in which you see the character which you are playing, and still control their actions (not to be confused with real time strategy or role playing). Now that I think of it their are several games with a sort of hybrid TPS, called Over the Shoulder. This basically means that you see the character but your vision is limited to a certain plain of view, and the character is based not in the center of the screen, but to the side a little, thus giving you a view "over the shoulder". Of course there are some games that have different combinations of these methods.

Now that we have some basic terminology, we continue on to the point of this post, being the subject of combat shooters. These tips and tricks will work on most general shooters, later on I will perhaps post some of my tricks on individual games.

I will start with perhaps the most basic rule to remember: Always reload your weapon if you are not currently engaged. The chances of you killing someone while reloading are slim to none, even if you have a melee/knife attack. Let us envision a short episode. Fred picks up a submachine gun. Fred kills somebody with this submachine gun. Fred used half a clip to kill this person. Fred incorrectly assumes that since he only used half a clip that he will only need half to kill another foe. Fred turns a corner and sees Bill. Fred starts blazing away at bill and is happy to see that Bill's life is going down rapidly. Suddenly Fred realizes that his gun is out of ammunition. It doesn't matter if its because Fred is a lame shot or perhaps The Guardians willed that most of his rounds by random chance missed, or even maybe Bill did some evasion manouvres, the fact is Fred missed. At this point Fred hits the reload button. Depending on the game the reload takes different amount of times, from short and crisp to agonizingly slow. The type of weapon often affects the reload time. While he is reloading Fred is in danger from three basic things. From Bill who now has a chance to nail Fred, from some other enemy player who uses the opportunity to get a free kill, or a random source of danger that the player is nearly always open to. The point of this long explanation is that if Fred had come into battle with a full clip he almost certainly would have killed Bill, and perhaps even another player, if startled by them.

FACTS TO DRAW: if you are currently fairly safe, or maybe just sure that you can evade the fire, reload your weapon. NOTE: do not take this idea to far. You should not reload in ridicules times, like when a enemy is is in the middle of killing you or your friend, or you have shot a tiny amount of your clip.

I will be back with more soon,

Something easy to start with.

The following is a recent story of my life. I hope that it is as amusing to you as it is to me, now that the event is over.

My dad and I decided that we were going to do some work on his Suzuki Samurai. Particularly change out the oil and oil filter and some other small trivial jobs of the upkeep type. I was rather surprised that this was the plan since ever since my Dad bought a new Jeep Patriot, the Samurai has been rather unused. But it is good to service your vehicles so we set out with much joy to the project.
The sun was shining nice and brightly, however the day was not fore-casted to precede the temperature of around a balmy 80.We finished the small trivial jobs of the upkeep type, ( yes I copy pasted that to save time, but now I find that in typing this explanation I might as well have re-worded it) and so we set out to do the oil change. I am sure that most of you know to change the oil in a vehicle. It is not an over difficult task. I have been "privileged" to do so a few times. But never with a torque wrench. We (my Dad) decided that to be more professional we should use a torque wrench. Well... I was unsure as to the need of the tool. Any other time that I have been "privileged" to change the oil I have done it with an ordinary wrench. In fact it was after removing the bolt in the bottom of the oil pan that keeps the oil in the pan, with an ordinary wrench, and after draining the oil, that my Dad decided to replace the ordinary wrench with the torque wrench. Here is the situation in words. My Dad is standing up next to the Samurai. He gives me the Torque Wrench, set to the proper setting. I start to wrench the bolt into place. Now here is the clincher. Whether because the the bolt was not very good (sounds likely to me) or if because there was no washer to prevent "bottoming out" (sounds likely to me), or if maybe I was over-zealous in my want to drive "The Bolt" in, (sounds highly unlikely to me, why would I want to work harder?), WELL FOR SOME REASON THE BOLT WOULD NOT STOP TURNING!!! Nor would it back out. So now "The Bolt" is basically free spinning in place. Wont snug in tight to hold oil in; wont come out so we can replace it. At this point we are faced with a decision. We have another oil pan. we can tear apart the entire engine and replace the oil pan. this would probably take around 5-6 hours. Or we can try to remove the bolt. Of course we try to remove the bolt. The following is the steps we took to try and replace "The Bolt"

1. First we try for around half an hour to use a wrench to remove the bolt while using a flat tip screwdriver to try and pry the tiny edge up. EFFECT= Failed

2. We try many various screwdrivers, pliers, hammers,and wrenches, in many different combinations of tools to try and get "The Bolt" out. EFFECT= Failed

3. We realize that both of our pairs of vice grips are at the camper in storage 20 minutes away. therefore we run down to the local O'reilly and buy a pair for 15 bucks. we then attempt to use this tool in combinations with the other tools previously listed. EFFECT= Failed

4. We decide at this point to cut the head of the bolt off and drive the remainder of the bolt in the oil pan. this is after attempting to use a dremmel to cut slots all along the edge of "The Bolt" to try and use the screwdriver and vice grips more efficiently. After cutting the head off and trying with all the afore mentioned tools to drive the bolt in we come to the EFFECT= Failed

5. We now attempt to drill out "The Bolt" with a regular metal cutting drill bit. Effect=Failed

6. We now have two holes in the "The Bolt" without a head. We run down to the local O'reilly and buy some dangerous looking equipment. A set of cold steal ginormous toothpicks to stab into the holes and twist upon and a set of bolt removing drill bits that work because their threading is opposite normal there fore drilling them in is drilling the bolt out of the spot. Ginormous toothpick... EFFECT= Failed

7. We now try the set of bolt removing drill bits, and for around half an hour they failed, but however as the entire project was getting old, my Dad, using his last minuscule of strength took the vice grips, viced them on as tight as possible to the removing bit, and drove into the bolt. Looking and sounding like a madman. for about 10 minutes this failed. Then suddenly pop out came "The Bolt". The Vice grips had not slipped of the bit as they usually did. the reason of this is because the vice grips had been bent to were they could no longer let go, even if the user wished them too. Also the bolt finally gave up, because it did not unscrew out.... It just popped out. We then replaced the bolt with a bolt that was new, had larger threads, a washer, and a smaller bolt within it self so that it was not necessary to remove the bolt in the pan to let the oil out. After doing this we finished up the jobs on the Samurai, checked that it worked well and went for a test drive. The vehicle worked better than it had in a long while. The entire quick job on the Samurai took about 7 hours. So we will change your oil for you whenever you want, however our flat rate charge is manual labor for two people for 7 hours. and thats 30 bucks an hour. Not to mention tools that you'll need to purchase.

I think that it goes without saying that "The Bolt" had many other names, over the course of the afternoon.

This Blog's Purpose

Well, here I am. This is my blog.

My name is Big-Dog. Or Jay if you like. Both are Nicknames. I have others. Both of these are probably my most commonly used and oldest ones. Jay came first. Then came Big-Dog. Jay is an abbreviation. Big-Dog comes from when I was a little short kid. When I was a little short kid I loved "Go Dog, Go!" by Dr. Seuss. If you have read the book you will recall words such as: "Big dog. Little dog. Black dog. White dog." Well, It seems that I badgered my parents into reading it so many times that they applied the name Big-Dog to me. Now from such humble roots it has become my general nickname, particularly in all things electronic. Such as video game call signs, or Blogger profiles.

Well enough about names, on now to the high and noble purpose of this blog. The shortly afore mentioned high and noble purpose of this blog is for me to share my opinions and thoughts on just about everything, to everyone else. The everything meaning mostly recent info or news that interests me. My wish and hope is that I will have both the time and brain power to accomplish this. For all that are curious the URL is http://humorandhelp.blogspot.com/
Well... Wish me luck,

Big-Dog

For all that are curious the URL is http://humorandhelp.blogspot.com/