It has been over a year since my last loligolf updated but I finally have something worth mentioning. Thanks to the Season 4 XP changes I managed to grind my way to Semi Pro E rank.

This will probably be the last time I ever level up in this game. To make it to Pro rank requires 35258 experience which is roughly 11 days of playtime for me.

I also managed to win two of the swimsuits from the current event. The strange thing was that I won both in the same game. Considering how many people are bitching about the rates on the forums the chances for this to happen must be pretty slim.

Sadly this screenshot is an indication of how most games go for me, some random portugese bullshit followed by disabling chat.

I got bored and decided to try the Windows 7 beta on my Dell laptop. Much to my suprise my horrible creative soundcard and wireless adapter worked out of the box both of which caused me much grief under 64bit XP.

So far it appears Microsoft have learnt from the disaster that was Vista’s launch and the whole thing seems a lot more streamlined.

It took me roughly 20 minutes to get up and running and the only drivers I installed were the Dell touchpad and the updated ATI drivers. Both of these were functioning on install other than the scrollbars on the touchpad and the ability to disable it when another input device is detected.

The only issue I’ve run into so far is the fact that gameguard will not run and nprotect apparently have no plans of supporting a beta OS. I really did want to see if WIn7 made any difference to my ongoing Albatross 18 performance issues but I guess that will have to wait for a retail release and most likely will be as fucked as vista anyway.

After purchasing a Belkin N52te gamepad to go with my laptop I decided to make a single class group to get used to the controller. The gamepad has been great so far with the main improvement being the ability to control movement with your thumb leaving the other buttons much more easily accessible.

Still wanting to avoid the generic five Shaman group I ended up making some Druid’s. So far they have been insanely easy to level with and by avoiding instances this time I managed to get level 40 in 1 day 4 hours played. When leveling at this speed there doesn’t seem to be much point trying to get equipment until outlands.

I haven’t really had a chance to do anything with them since getting Moonkin form but my first trip to Thunder Bluff to get skills gathered quite a crowd.

My laptop finally arrived from Dell and actually came earlier than scheduled which happened to work out perfectly as I was home at the time.

Of course the first thing I did was install World of Warcraft on it and tested my planned multibox setup. Everything seems to be working well and I managed to get everything running decently even with Fraps recording.

Here is my new uber setup (clicky for full size)

I also recorded my first Instance run using the laptop which went better than expected considering the new keyboard layout. There was only one near death moment where I somehow missed my break auto follow key and got AOE spammed.

I have uploaded the video to vimeo for the moment and it can be found here.

It has been a while since my last post mostly due to the fact that no one visits this site but also due to the fact I’m now totally addicted to World of Warcraft. Somehow I quickly progressed from avoiding playing WoW for nearly three years to multiboxing five accounts at once.

For those that don’t know multiboxing is basically controlling multiple characters at once generally done by sending key presses to each WoW window. I started doing this with two accounts to make the most of the refer a friend bonus  (3x experience) but realised that running five wouldn’t be much harder.

After messing around with some groups of five Shamans and five Druid’s I decided to make a group of mixed classes for a bit of a challenge. My current setup is a Protection Paladin tank, Holy Paladin healer and three fire mages. Despite being totally under geared I managed to level to 30 within 23 hours playtime by only doing kill quests as looting five times the items for collection quests is horrid.

Thanks to the refer a friend bonus I have leveled super fast but the downside is that you only receive normal gold from monsters and quests leaving me unable to afford most of my skills. To get some money and equipment I started attempting some instances at level 33 which was a nice challenge after being able to nearly one shot kill any quest monsters.

I managed to run through  The Scarlet Monastery: Graveyard at 33 and Library at 35 without too much trouble at all. I have since moved on to the Armory to finally get some decent mail armor for my tank but it seems the Cathedral is still a bit hard for me. I did manage to clear the entire instance but ended up wiping on the boss thanks to some add’s (or just respawns) right at the end.

After level 40 and completing The Scarlet Monastery instances I think I will go back to questing until 60. There doesn’t seem to be that much point in gearing up when you are leveling so fast anyway. At 60 I will also be able to grant 90 levels to new characters if I wan’t so I may end up replacing two of the mages with other classes like a Druid and Warlock.

Another boring post but I don’t really have much better to do with Tuesday night being WoW maintenance. I will probably end up hosting some videos of my multibox group once my new laptop arrives which should handle fraps a lot better than my current shitbox.

So.

This high school friend of mine, who shall remain anonymous. (More like an accquaintance really). We were not particularly close but we were often in the same classes and hung out on “some” occasions.  I knew some of her friends and she knew some of my friends, that’s the only reason we know each other.

On with the story.

After highschool, she left town to attend university on the otherside of the country. We rarely communicated, only on occasions when she’d message me on messenger. I would stay around and do her the honour of chatting - out of kindness.

This summer she messaged me saying she’d stop by town for half a day while waiting to transfer for another flight. I offered to show up and keep her company along with a few others. I figured why not?

1. It was only 3 hours
2. I was free
3. there might be a slight possibility that it might be fun (oh who am i kidding..)
4. okay maybe for all the time SINCE I’ve known her. (cause I’m that nice)
5. and just in case they grow up to be successful - I wouldn’t want to regret having blown them off.

So that night ended, some what later than I had expected but quite smooth none the less. This is where the story REALLY starts.

So TODAY, she messaged me on MSN, and asked for the most ridiculous favor anyone could ask. I’ll put it simple:

She wants me to go to our HIGH SCHOOL and get a copy of our high school agenda for her.

SERIOUSLY? I mean.. SERIOUSLY?

She wants me to TAKE time out of my busy schedule to actually DRIVE to our old high school, ASK for a school agenda, then DRIVE to the airport the day she stops by for her 3 hour flight transfer, and GIVE her the agenda.

Last i checked, we haven’t spoken in four years.

And to top everything off, her reasons were simply because she doesn’t like her university agenda.

WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUCK HOT DAMN

I was utterly speechless.

Just fucking buy an agenda at the book store

If the high school agenda had sentimental value to her, then that’s more understandable why she’d ask for a favor like that. But she made it pre-tty clear it did not.

FACT: To get her the agenda, I’d have to drive roughly 70 kilometers.

End Rant

Even after 2 or so weeks of Ice Spa being around on Albatross18 there hasn’t been much of a guide written up in english so today I finally got around to making a simple one. Not much of a blog post but wordpress makes thumbnails etc so much easier.

This guide is based around my setup of 250y, 9 spin and 9 curve although nearly everything can be done with various power setups. The guide is mostly for standard play not huge overdrive bonus’. For obvious reasons I have left out the Par 3 holes.

The images are pretty self explainatory but the colour codes are:
Yellow = Spike shot
Red = Tomahawk
Blue = Standard shot

Hole 1

Max power 2W with slight forward spin or 180y backspin tomahawk for pang or in strong winds.

Hole 3

2W backspin to the ice leaves you with a nice flat surface and some overdrive. Be careful to avoid hitting the right wall which will send you into the the water hazard.

Hole 4

Max power 2W with power backspin seems to give the best results here. 180y tomahawk also does the job fine and offers a nice overdrive.

Hole 5

There are quite a few options on this hole but they are really just a last resort if you don’t have power to spare. Spike shots can sometimes catch the top of the arch at lower powers/strong headwinds so it can be worth overshooting. Alternatively you can powercurve or try bounce off the ice wall.

Hole 7

Another fairly straightforward hole. 180y iron backspin or 170y forward spin will set you up with some flat ground. Keep in mind the green is at quite a high elevation for second shot (~10m) so you may need to tomahawk.

Hole 8

I generally just do a full power backspin 1W into the ramp to save power. 180y backspin tomahawk offers the best pang but neither seem to make it to the green with much reliability thanks to “sticky walls”.

Hole 9

1W spike shot with a hole in one oppertunity. If you are stuck for power a 2W shot with backspin (not powerspin) will usually roll onto the green depending on your power and wind.

Hole 11

In most cases you will want to spike shot this hole with strong left curve. Curved spike shots are a bit misleading and you will need to aim to the far left of the green. Without power you can 1W with or without spin off the ice/water and bounce up to the green but it is risky and will quite often fall short.

Hole 12

This is the hole most people seem to have trouble with. A 2W backspin tomahawk into the right wall of the ramp will generally end up on the green for an Albatross putt. Without power you can forward spin to the rough and shoot through the gap between the wall and spikes with some difficulty.

Hole 13

The ice ramp is really the only way on this hole if you want an easy eagle. With 250y you can make the ramp with a power backspin except for in high head winds where it will require a forward or backspin tomahawk. It is normally worth adding a little curve to the left to avoid the trees.

Hole 14

A 2W tomahawk is the best option on this hole as 1W will hit the wall. With higher powers or strong tailwinds this hole can be back spun with a 2W also. Roll in attempts are fairly risky with the ice ledge before green.

Hole 16

A full power spike forward spin with a spin mastery will get you to the green in one shot. A normal shot with spin mastery can make the green with strong tail winds. Be careful to avoid the spa on the right hand side as the slope of the fairway tends to roll in that direction.

Hole 17

I struggle a little with this hole. The best results appear to be from a 1W spike shot with some left curve to avoid the little duck on the tee. I have also seen people 2W tomahawk off the volcano or normal shots off the ice wall to the right.

Hole 18

There are a few options on this hole. You can either spike or tomahawk to the ice on the left or try for the ice ramp on the right. 1W with backspin will clear the wall with no issues and I have yet to end up in the water hazard. I have seen others use a powercurve with a similar aim but it seems a little risky without much benefit.

After 37 days 2 hours and 6 minutes I have finally reached the 500 Hole In One count for Albatross18. Unlike most people I appear to have very similar HIO and Albatross counts for some reason.

In the next game I also managed to set a new Ice Spa record of -30 which isn’t all that impressive with all the possible non chip in eagles/alba’s.

I’ve also finally had the chance to start using my shiny new SSAF uniform for Hana thanks to the recent E-Card exchange event. OGP finally did something useful for once and let me get rid of the Max uniform I was never going to touch.

My next goal is to finally reach Semi Pro. Unfortunately this is still a long way off requiring around 173 wins in 18 hole VS games and 4.2 days playtime.

I have finally broken the 200 point barrier in a single map on internode after coming so close multiple times (199, 194 etc). Not only did I break it I actually ended up getting 200+ twice today.

How exciting…

The new medic achievements have officially been announced. For those unaware there are 36 new achievements scheduled to be released this week which are required to unlock the new alternate medic weapons. These will be unlocked for each 12 achievements. Details of the new weapons can be seen below.

The Blutsaugher
For players that earn one third of the 36 new medic achievements, they will be given a new syringe gun. Called “The Blutsaugher,” this new weapon no longer has the ability to score critical hits against an opponent. Instead it will draw health from enemies each time a syringe hits. Especially useful as a weapon to retreat away from the fight while staying alive.

The Critzcrieg
Once a medic has earned two thirds of the achievements, they will be granted “The Critzcrieg.” This new medigun uses its ubercharge not for invulnerability, but to give its recipient 100% chance to fire critical ordinance. Medics and the player they are charging need to be careful though, because as much fun as it is to fire critical rockets as fast as you can, the other team will see what you’re up to and try to put a quick stop to your plan.

The Ubersaw
For the determined medic that has earned all 36 of the new achievements, they will find themselves the proud owner of “The Ubersaw,” which will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to ubercharge. Four hits with this new weapon will fully charge whatever medigun the medic has equpped.

A list of all 36 achievements can be found here.

Most of the talk regarding this update has been regarding one achievement in particular, the Chief of staff. This achievement requires you to accumulate 10 million heal points. There is no official word whether this includes heal points prior to the update but either way it is an insane amount. Judging by my limit medic playtime it would require roughly 250 hours of medic to reach the 10 mil total.

I play this game way too much already and even if I took my playtime from all classes and assumed it was nothing but medic I would only just barely be getting the achievement. Now obviously you don’t have to acquire the ubersaw but for an item that will most likely only be used for fun in public play I just can’t see why there are such steep requirements.

So many of the other achievements are unrealistic also and will mostly likely only be aquired by people dedicated enough to organise a server with friends to meet the specific conditions ie Uber a heavy and have him punch out 4 people.

The problem with the Chief of staff is that even with friends in your own server its quite time consuming and would take weeks even leaving your PC healing overnight. Luckily many other people have thought this through and there are already some solutions.

A custom map which appears to be dedicated to this achievement has been created appropriately called cp_statwhore. The map is a small box which will spawn one heavy weapon bot in an area which causes him constant damage. If you join the red team you can simply type +attack in the console and go afk healing him for hours on end. I have hosted a copy of this map here.

Since even this method would take something along the lines of 4 days to reach the 10mil goal I decided to play around a bit further and found an even faster solution. Once you have loaded up the map and are healing the bot simply enable cheats again by typing sv_cheats 1 in the console. With cheats on you can now mess with the timescale by entering host_timescale x. Timescale bascially increases the speed in which everything runs. I have tried with a few different values but anything over 100 takes up all my CPU making it near impossible to do anything but is fine for overnight. After running it like this for a while you just need to turn cheats back off (sv_cheats 0) and then kill yourself to end the round.

This is the result of my 30 minute test at timescale 1000.

Since the update has yet to be released there is no way to say for sure if this will actually count or not but since it appears on my steam stats page it looks quite hopeful.

If you need to see how many heal points you have already earned a neat little TF2 stats program has been made which will give you all your total class stats etc.