Other Game News and Updates
Other game news and updates not always related to TBU
Kerbal Space Program: [0.90] – Beta than Ever
Kerbal is now Beta, and this is a sizable update.
Some major changes include: (Quoted from KSP’s Blog)
- A Retooled Craft Editor: Build crafts better than ever before with advanced part sorting and construction gizmos that allow players to place, offset and rotate the different parts on your craft.
- Expanded Contracts: Brian “Arsonide” Provan, creator of the highly rated mod, “Fine Print,” has implemented and expanded his mod into the game, granting greater variety, depth and difficulty to the previously implemented contract system.
- Biomes Everywhere: KSP-TV host, Alyson “Tanuki Chau” Young created new biomes for the game, bringing them to over 100 areas from which Kerbals can collect, store and send science data. The new biomes have been placed all across the universe, giving players bigger incentive to explore every inch of the game.
- New Mk3 SpacePlane parts: Prolific modding community member, Christopher “Porkjet” Thuersam has overhauled and added to the popular collection of Mk3 parts that allow crafts to carry larger payloads.
In a surprise move the ESA (European Space Agency) has allowed Squad to use their logo and imagery. So now players can run their own Rosetta like Missions.
With .90 KSP is getting ever nearer to hitting 1.0, so here’s hopping that we will start to see some of the multiplayer aspects in the near future.
For a full list of 0.90 patch notes, check out the KSP Wiki: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/0.90
Kerbal Space Program: [0.25] – Economic Boom is Live
Kerbal Space Program .25 Economic Boom has finally come.
This update brings several new things to the game from Spaceplane+ to the new Administration Facility.
There are really too many additions to this update to list them all here, your best bet would be to check out their FAQ page here or this thread here.
A Few of the highlights for this update are:
Spaceplane+: More spaceplane parts, plus more parts for rockets as well. And best of all, cargo bays.
Administration Building: Players will be able to select and activate Strategies. This is a new player mechanic will affect aspects of the game for Carrier Mode.
In Depth Difficulty System: Players will be able to better customize how hard core they want their game to be.
Upgraded FX on Explosions: Kind of self explanitory here.
Destructible Building: Watch those falling parts, a damaged part of the KSP facility can be rather costly to fix/replace.
64Bit Issues
There is a issue with the 64Bit build, they are working on it, but it can be a bit unstable.
Have fun
KSP .25 Secret Feature Revealed – Destructable Buildings!
KSP showing off destructable buildings
The Kerbal team has revealed the Secret feature of the upcoming .25 update. Destructable Buildings!
This is a feature that players will be able to toggle through the menu. With this enabled, players will need to be more careful when launching new rockets or landing planes on the runway. Falling debris will be able to damage or destroy buildings in the KSP complex. Repairing/rebuilding these buildings and structures will not be cheap.
Some other planned features for .25 are the following.
Administration Building – This will allow you to choose various strategies to help boost certain areas of your space program. These can come at a expense of others, and there is a limit to how many you will be able to do.
New effects – Particle and sound fx has been largely overhauled, this should help improve the look and feel of rocket sounds and explosions.
Spaceplane Part Overhaul – Several new parts along with integration of Spaceplane Plus, a popular mod for KSP.
Accessibility improvements – Many of us have been waiting for this one for a while. This update adds more markers to your navbal and pointers to let you know were your marker is (Thank god). There will also be a button to push thrust to 100%.
Kerbal Experience – Recovering kerbals will now reward you based on where they have been, and what they have done. They now will have a personal “Career” log showing what each kerbal has done.
Difficulty panel – Much needed addition. This will allow players set how hard core they want their game to be.
When?
Soon, hopefully. They have been putting .25 through QA over the past 1-2 weeks, so it should be soon.
Minecraft Bukkit – Teetering on the brink
The End? Well maybe.
It seems that EvilSeph has left Bukkit and had intended to shut down the project. Mojang owns bukkit, they had purchased it 2 years ago when jeb and Dinnerbone joined Mojang.
Both Jeb and Dinnerbone have tweeted that they will not let the project die.
Much of this drama seems to have started around update 1.7.10 when Mojang started enforcing parts of their EULA, and according to EvilSeph they eventually for a DMCA takdown notice.
More detailed info on a post from Mojang and their stance can be found here: http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/mojang-and-the-bukkit-project.309715/
A timeline thats a bit easier to understand can be found here: https://storify.com/lukegb/the-tale-of-bukkit-for-minecraft-1-8
The Future?
Will this be the end for Bukkit? Could be. The MC community could see a 1.8 update for it since Jeb and Dinnerbone have spoken up about seeing the community continue on, but I do not see the future of bukkit being the same. With Microsoft’s purchase of Mojang/Minecraft it is hard to tell what the future of the game in general will be.
As a side note Microsoft has stated that they will not stop YouTuber’s from monitising minecraft as long as they follow the rules set down by YouTube.
What about our server?
All this does not affect our Tekkit server. We moved away from Bukkit about a year or so ago. Having to vet all the plugins, the worry that some of the plugins that were core to our server dieing, and that people got impatient for updates to the newest MC version were why we left Bukkit.
Microsoft to buy Minecraft (Mojang)
Verified this from a couple of news sites since this, at first, seemed like a far fetched news item.
Microsoft and Mojang are in final talks for for a deal that could value Mojang for more than $2 billion. The deal has been in the works for the past few months when Notch reached out to Microsoft about the sell.
This is a big turn around for Notch, who has advocated against large companies including Microsoft. In the past he has made negative comments about MS’s release of Windows 8, and the buyout of the Oculus Rift by Facebook.
According to Bloomberg the buyout could happen later this week, so we will have to wait and see if it falls through or not.
What will this mean for Minecraft? No telling with buyouts like this. It has been said that Notch will stay with the company during the process, but may leave shortly after. The current development team may not go anywhere. All of this we will have to wait and see when the companies make a statement later on. As of right now the talks are not open to the public.
Couple of sources:
New York Times
Bloomberg
Ars Technica
Sims 4 Release Sep 2nd – To buy or not to buy
The Sims 4 – Release Date September 2nd
Myself, along with many others, have been looking forward to the release of Sims 4. At least until some of the information that started circulating around about features that will not be making it into the game. So will I be buying the game this weekend? We shall see. If I do end up getting the game I will be trying my hand at a video review of the game and will post it to my YouTube. At the least, if I get it I will post a more detailed review on this site.
As many know there are a lot of features that will not be making its way into the game, and may not even make it through DLC’s as well.
First off, some of the good things that are supposed to be in the new game.
Sims 4 has changed the Sim Building method, you no longer use sliders for changing aspects of your Sim. Now you just grab a part with your cursor and pull. In many ways this is a more interesting way of building your sim, but I have found that in some cases having a slider as well would have been nice. Oh, and dont worry, there are still presets as well that you can choose from
Building your home is supposed to be easier, with the ability to add and move whole rooms. The system is supposed to be more intelligent when it comes to how you can expand your rooms and your home.
The third on my list is that sims are supposed to have more detailed emotions when dealing with their environment and the sims around them. they are supposed to have more moods and feelings. These moods and feelings are supposed to shape the sim and their behavior more than it has in previous games.
And of course the last on my list (At least until I buy it and try it) is graphics. The Sims 4 will have a higher level of detail gfx wise. Don’t really have to go into too much detail on this, just take a look at the screenshots or video to see this.
Now the bad, and there does seem to be a lot I am afraid. Many features that have been in the game from the beginning will be missing from the game. The top of my list is Pools. That’s right, no pools or swimming. Well, lets just move on to list form, a lot easier to follow that way.
- No normal careers (Law enforcement, medical, business, etc)
- No open world (Tradeoff I suppose for the higher detail)
- No Pools
- No Terrain Tools
- No Family Trees (Funny they did this since it was such a big part of Sims 3)
- No toddlers (babies are objects that will skip to kid stage at a certain point)
- All buildings on the lot have the same foundation
- No basements (Not fond of this one, no more secret lairs from my crazy sims)
- Smaller lots 50×50 down from 64×64 (no idea why)
- Floors are limited to 3 levels
- Teens are the same height as adults and elders (seems like lazy work here)
- No aliens or ghosts
- Pretty much no death of any kind as far as I can tell (kiddy gloves, got to love them)
- No NPC’s for hire bartender, nanny, gardener, repairman, fire fighters, etc
- No cleaning skill, and I am assuming no repair skill since hiring a repairman is now out
- No environmental needs, fears, dreams, or comfort
- No restaurants, bookstores, or clothing shopping
- No garage doors (Cars might just be for decor)
- No Bikes, hot tubs, pool tables, dishwashers, or trash compactors.
This is not even the full list of features or items that will not be in the Sims 4. This is just a list of many points I found more troublesome.
For a more detailed and up to date list, visit: http://ts4truth.tumblr.com/
I do not usually bash a game before launch, but if this list is half right I fear The Sims 4 could go the way of the last release of Sim City