The download versions of Age of Wonders are all fully patched, so 1.3 is not needed (and UPatch 1.4 includes it). And it is worth buying the trilogy pack, even if it is just to play the campaigns of the earlier versions.
[quote who="Tridus" reply="32" id="2963644"]Isn't that rather the heart of the matter? If FE is shaping up to be that much better, then significant time going into it will result in a stronger AI which will make it even that much better still. Taking time away from it to work on something else that you know can't possibly reach FE's level is a net negative: you lower the time put into FE's AI and you don't have something better then FE to show for it. It sounds
Stardock Forums
[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="1" id="2932586"]Hmmm....interesting. I wonder if the Devs ever played that.[/quote] I do not know about playing, but at one point when asked about spells Brad said he has the MoM manual availible to get spell ideas from.
[quote who="Tridus" reply="98" id="2962784"]Honestly, it doesn't. Speed matters in the graphics engine because a 2FPS game is unplayable. If the AI is good, people will tolerate waiting for it until a patch later has some optimization. It's far more important that the AI is intelligent then that it's fast. A great, slow AI is great. A bad, fast AI is bad. Speed is a requirement in an RTS because the AI has to react instantly to whatever the player does. It's a "nice to have" i
[quote who="tanafres" reply="93" id="2962665"]As Tridus mentioned, we were talking about AI, not the graphics. My point was that while similar logic has been written before, since the AI is very engine-specific in what it has to deal with, my impression is that you still start more or less from scratch each time with a new engine (or your first game on a licensed engine). So to duplicate the AI of that game, would take about as much time from a standing start, since they probably
[quote who="Tridus" reply="92" id="2962624"]Which doesn't matter a whole lot when it comes to AI. It's a turn based game, the AI has time to figure some stuff out. The quality of the algorithm is more important then the speed, and basic does have some advantages in terms of getting out of the way compared to C++. C++ is certainly better for something like the graphics because speed is key there. But there's a reason a lot of corporate apps use languages like Java or C#
[quote who="myfist0" reply="44" id="2961321"]IIRC you can also password archives like .ZIP or .7Z files. Not sure how effective it would be though.[/quote] Just as a note, encrypted 7Z files encrypt the file name and data while ZIP only encrypt the data. This is important because the better idea one has of the contents of a file the easier it is to decrypt. As to the security, the encryption method it uses has been approved for Top Secret documents by the NSA for wha
[quote who="ElanaAhova" reply="1" id="2961172"]Ok, first, are you running windows 7? If you are, install in ANY directory EXCEPT 'program files.' Need special permission (Administrator access) for that file, and can be a pain. If you must use 'program flies,' than be sure you have set yourself with appropriate permissions from whereever you are acccessing your PC. This might help... I'm a newby.. and a lot of people are away for the 4th h
One great video cards will be better than two lesser ones in someways, particularly on that MoBo as the PCIe connections for them will be running at half speed. And you will only have the memory of one card. Also consider that some games do not play well with dual GPUs. One card would be cheaper and by the time the extra power is worth having you could upgrade to a new GPU that will likely be more powerful than both of them together (and by then 1 GB of video memory may no longer cut it)
[quote who="FallingStar0280" reply="17" id="2959886"]Just a heads up on that Raidmax PSU, its not 80+gold at all. Its a rebranded Andyson E series (Raidmax sent in a higher end unit to get the certification, then used a lower end part to actually sell). Its not a horrible PSU, but its not all that good. Raidmax isn't a "Known for being good" PSU maker. The 850 is really about the equivalent of a 750 watt bronze certified (or less) of a good manufacturer.[/quote]</p
[quote who="DsRaider" reply="44" id="2959584"]Sadly, most crucial ability of fortifications is lacking from pretty much all games. Castles were used more to hold off the enemy then anything else. An advantage in combat is nice but I would really like castles to have the ability to delay combat until reinforcements arrive. It takes a very long time to siege a well fortified city and instantaneous combat doesn't do the reality justice. Armies should have to sit outside the city walls
[quote who="aeortar" reply="14" id="2959430"]Well I don't have much experience with building PCs (only fully built one from scratch), but here are the things I'll be focusing on when I build my next one: When purchasing the processer I'd keep an eye on the maximum heat it can cope with - I've found with one of my PCs (admittedly one that was mostly pre-built for me as opposed to being self built) that even after getting some decent fans the most common bottleneck is
The problem with finding issues in updates is they can be inconsistent. For instance the file validation plugin works fine on one computer owns, but not on another. Specifically, it caused Excel to not be able to open a certain file that could be opened on the other. Same version of Excel and both machines had the same updates. Oh and the file was known to be fine. Have the updates, no issues with .Net.
[quote who="OMG_pacov" reply="12" id="2959352"]I wouldn't argue that its a bad idea to plan for the future, but c'mon... unless you are planning on owning the same rig for like 10 years... I really doubt 16 gigs of ram is going to be a deal breaker. I'm a fan of the items you suggested btw and think they are quite reasonable and good advice. I just think the plan to have 16 gig or ram is a bit over the top and certainly wouldn't make that a requirement for a build.
[quote who="Kamamura_CZ" reply="8" id="2959232"]Sorry, but this is insane. Can you name ONE game that allocates more than 4GB of RAM? Hell, most still fit into 2GB limit, because it's a hard coded maximum for Windows XP. Buying heaps of RAM that will just sit idle there is not very cost effective - unless you want to run games from Ramdisk. I bought 8GB only because I wanted to run Arma2 from ramdisk, but otherwise, I think 4GB is enough for most games, and 8GB should be a comfortable ove
[quote who="Gwenio1" reply="1" id="2958527"]Desktop* or Laptop? What price range would you like it to fit in? * If desktop, does it have to be prebuilt or would it be possible to buy individual parts?[/quote] Quick run down to expand on this: - Really good gaming laptop ~ $2200 (based on looking for a laptop for my younger brother) - An even better desktop that is assembled for you `~ $1900 (based on searching I did previously on Newegg lookin
[quote who="Tridus" reply="2" id="2958536"]Depends on the game. Something like Rift is so much better optimized on Nvidia hardware that the price/actual performance isn't even close to what the benchmarks will tell you.[/quote] Unless one knows exactly what games will be played on the machine, price and power are the things to look at..
Desktop* or Laptop? What price range would you like it to fit in? * If desktop, does it have to be prebuilt or would it be possible to buy individual parts? On graphics cards, ATI card are better buys for price vs. proformance (at least when they are new), but NVIDIA cards will give you less grief because it is easer to work around their issues. (With NVIDIA, when one card has an issue it is likely they all do, but with ATI errors are specific to the card). 16 GB
[quote who="tazgecko" reply="47" id="2956715"]Pale Moon 5 is out ...[/quote] Interesting, it took the Linux distro I use the same amount of time to put out Firefox 5 as it took Pale Moon 5 to be released.
Sword of the Stars 2. There are other games I am looking forward to, but they have not announced a release date or are slated for next year.
[quote who="tazgecko" reply="18" id="2953475"]at least they are not hiding the problems[/quote] Though Google says it is safe in Chrome as it is run in another process... which while it would protect the browser does nothing to protect the video driver which is the real issue as I see it. It exists in kernel mode, has direct access to the hardware, and has no concept of security.
[quote who="garbanz0" reply="27" id="2948859"]Don't belittle me. The problem is not my computing methods. WindowBlinds WORKS on my system, no matter how hacked it may be. The problem is Impulse, a proprietary software installation platform designed to battle the foe known as PIRACY. One look at these forums shows just how "well" Impulse works. I'll bet money that I'm not the only one here who wishes Impulse had never been implemented... [/quote] As so
[quote who="garbanz0" reply="25" id="2948845"]Sorry bud, you're misreading my post. I patched (hacked) my theme files PRIOR to installing WB via Impulse, and all worked fine. The theme files were NOT the issue. The problem is the crap software called Impulse. If Stardock would just distribute proper installers like everybody else, then all would be well in the world... [/quote] How can you be sure it was not some other hack you had infl
[quote who="Whiskey144" reply="2" id="2948633"]Ah, thanks for your answer WRT what I asked in the OP. Though, I must ask why you consider a laptop to be subpar for gaming? My preference is mostly in that I can easily pick up and go with it, especially as I'll be using it for more mundane tasks in addition to gaming. Since it's likely that most of my personal "e-effects" would be on such a computer, I rather require that it be capable of simply being packed up in under an ho
[quote who="IROKONESS" reply="3" id="2947763"]Malwarebytes Malware for virus protection. [/quote] Or in my case extra protection. And I here it is one of the better ones for fixing the damage they do, so I have it for those that do manage to sneak past my other security programs.