How to Add L4D Custom Content?

How to add custom skins or maps to your Left 4 Dead game?


As promised, this is a guide on how to change the looks of everything in your Left 4 Dead game. This works online and is client-sided, which means only you could get to see the changes and not other players even if you're the host. So enjoy as you change the looks of your survivors, HUD and even the music!



Early Notes1. Please backup your files that you will change or overwrite. If you screw up things and couldn't recover, you will have to reinstall and it's tedious!

2. You can get custom content for L4D at FPSBanana (http://www.fpsbanana.com/skins/games/222) or any other sites.

Steam...

How to Install .VPK FilesNow if you downloaded a custom skin or map add-on that is in .VPK format, it is very simple to install. Just place the .VPK file into your addons folder.

Example: ...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons


That's it. Run your game and the add-ons will be loaded. You can then manage your add-ons by going to Extras > Add-Ons.

Hunter with cool iJump suit.

How to Install Custom Maps .BSP and .NAV Files
This is also very simple. Just place the .BSP and .NAV files into your maps folder (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\maps) and run the game. To load the map, type in "map [your file name]" and enjoy.

Disney's Haunted Mansion in L4D? Thanks to NIPPER and DrBoo's Night Terror Campaign!

How to Install Custom Skins .VTF and .VMT Files
This is the trickiest and most frustrating part of all. If you're a newbie with no clue where to start, you might even give up on installing the skins instead. However, with RailKill's ultimate guide on installing these files, rest assured!


1. Download Notepad++ and Install!It's very important to have this tool and you can't simply edit your .vpk files with the usual Notepad or Wordpad because it might cause the file to be corrupt.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=95717&package_id=102072



2. Extract your custom skin content!Now extract all your custom skin content into your materials folder or anyhow the Readme that came with your download said.



3. Edit whitelist.cfg!Edit whitelist.cfg which is located in your left4dead folder with Wordpad or anything you like. Look for this line...

// Additional files/directories to allow


Directly underneath it, create a new line and put in...

"add" "materials/models/..."

Remember to make it the same like the other "add" lines by adding indents using Tab button. Save it and close.




4. Edit pak01_dir.vpk with Notepad++!
Go to your left4dead folder and look for pak01_dir.vpk. Right-click it and click Edit with Notepad++. Look for the filenames that your custom content requires to change.

For example, I have a Zoey skin. To change Zoey's clothing, I need to look for zoey_color. You probably will see the same name in your .VMT file. So look for it. If your .VTF file is named zoey_color2, look for zoey_color. Best thing is to read what your custom content's Readme so you don't make mistakes.

Press Crtl + F. Type in zoey_color to search and you should find something like this.


$baseTexture "models\survivors\TeenAngst/zoey_color"


There are two of these exact same lines. You only need to edit the first one UNLESS it is a WEAPON or ITEM skin. Change the zoey_color to the same name as your .VTF file, which in this case is zoey_color2. After changing, it should look like this.


$baseTexture "models\survivors\TeenAngst/zoey_color2"


Do the same for the head and hair if you have. It is the same thing for weapon skins and other skins as well, just refer to your .VTF and .VMT filenames and the Readme! Look for the line with $baseTexture in it, and change the end names.

Faith-inspired Zoey. Faith from Mirror's Edge.

Okay, I did the correct thing. But my L4D crashed!Before I continue, please make sure you really did these steps.

1. Make sure they're in the correct file directory!Skins are always in the MATERIALS folder (...Left 4 Dead\left4dead\materials) which is then followed by the MODELS folder. Then followed by INFECTED or SURVIVORS or V_MODELS or any folder depending on your custom skin.


2. Only edit the first $baseTexture line!
Do not edit the 2nd one. There are two identical lines, but only edit the first one you encounter.


3. Filename matches the .VTF filename.In the first $baseTexture line, ensure the name of your file is correct. If your .VTF filename says zoey_color2, make sure it's zoey_color2 in the line as well. Do not change anything on the second $baseTexture line!

Who would use these pistols if it weren't this beautiful?

Now that you've made sure you've done everything correctly. There is one flaw about it that you might encounter most probably in weapon skins instead. As you add skins, you'll realize that your new skins probably have a different filename and the only difference is that they add a number at the back of the filename.

Example:
Original Filename - v_sniper_reference
Custom Skin Filename - v_sniper_reference2

The difference in the number of characters will also affect and cause your game to crash. Therefore, instead of adding a number behind, we'll just change a letter in that name instead. To do this, we need to download VTFEdit.

http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?c=178

Install VTFEdit and open the .VMT file of your custom content. We'll edit the hunting rifle skin for this example. In this case the .VMT file is named v_sniper_reference.vmt. Look for the $baseTexture line...


$baseTexture "models\v_models\Weapons\Sniper\V_Sniper_reference2"


Change V_sniper_reference2 to for example, V_Sniper_deference. It will now look like this.


$baseTexture "models\v_models\Weapons\Sniper\V_Sniper_deference"


Save it and close. Then change your .VTF filename to be the same which will also be V_Sniper_deference. Make sure the $baseTexture line in your pak01_dir.vpk is also V_sniper_deference. Save everything, close and run your game. Volia! No crash!

Happy modding and customizing! Next, find out how to create your own custom music and sounds for L4D here!




Love,
Nicholas.

How to Mod L4D Server?

Find out how to mod your Left 4 Dead server and install custom plug-ins.


This is not a guide to show you how to add your custom skins, sounds and maps. This guide shows you how to mod your Left 4 Dead server with Sourcemod and allows you to add infected bots, change the number of players, make your game have perks and item system, have admin rights, change most of your gameplay and so on!

Steps1. Get Sourcemod!Go to the following link to download the latest Sourcemod version. Extract it to your left4dead folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)
http://www.sourcemod.net/downloads.php





2. Get Metamod!Go to the following link to download the latest Metamod version. Extract it to your left4dead folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)
http://www.sourcemm.net/downloads/mmsource-1.8.0.zip

You will also need to make a Metamod VDF file! To do this, go to the following link and choose your Operating System. Choose Left 4 Dead and under Game Folder, leave it blank.

http://www.sourcemm.net/vdf

After you got your VDF file, put it in your Left 4 Dead addons folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)






3. Get plugins!Now that you already have both Sourcemod and Metamod, you are ready to add your own plugins and start the real modding. Go to the following link to browse a list of L4D plugins. Download the .SMX file and place it in your Sourcemod Plugins folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\plugins)

http://www.sourcemod.net/plugins.php?cat=0&mod=6&title=&author=&description=&search=1

After you add the .SMX file, you may start your game. The plugin will run and it will be in your game. Certain plugins will create a .CFG file which can be opened with Wordpad or Notepad in your Left 4 Dead cfg folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\cfg\sourcemod) You may edit these to configure the plugin's configuration on your server.

For those looking for timed messages or welcome message plugins, I know you couldn't find it in the link provided above. Look for Advertisements or Simple Welcome Message plugins in the Alliance Modders forums! It's not only for L4D but also for other games so don't only look for L4D-only plugins. You can also find the plugins you like here, so do some real browsing in the forums instead! (http://forums.alliedmods.net/forumdisplay.php?f=123)

Damage Info Display Plugin Menu

How to Setup Admin Rights?You need to be an admin in your server to take control most of the server functions. To do that, you need to change the admins.cfg file. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\configs\admins.cfg)

Open it and read what's written in there. After you understand, or even if you don't understand English...scroll to the bottom and you will find Admins. Add a new admin by typing into the space below based on the example. Here is my example, you can even copy and paste it.

Admins
{
"RailKill"
{
"auth" "name"
"identity" "RailKill"
"flags" "abcdef"
"immunity" "99"
"password" "iloveshit"
}

}

This is the NAME authorization method, which means your name is reserved in the server as an admin and requires a password to actually use the name. Now, how do you type the password in-game?



How To Set Password for Admin Name Authorization
Go to core.cfg which is in the same folder, (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\configs\core.cfg) and find for PassInfoVar. In the same line after a couple of spaces, you should find "_PassInfoVar". Change this into anything you like, but I'll give an example and it works so you could follow.

"PassInfoVar" "_adminpass"

Remember to save it. Then, go into your game and open up the console. Type in the following.

setinfo _adminpass iloveshit

Then you can create or join your server and you'll notice you're an admin! To test whether you're an admin, type in !sm_admin on Chat and a menu should open up at the left side. That is the admin menu.




That's about all to create a modded L4D server, but I'll add a bonus section on how to make many players for L4D for those who don't give a shit about reading words or trial and error.

Pounce Announce Plugin

How to Setup Many Player Versus / Co-Op / Survival / 5V5 VersusDownload Left 4 Downtown extension from the following link and extract it in your addons folder as usual. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons)

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=91132

Then download the Slot Management Plugin and put it in your plugins folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\addons\sourcemod\plugins)

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showpost.php?p=829638&postcount=71

Also, download the following bunch of CFG files with pre-made commands to ease your server creation. Place all the .CFG files into the CFG folder. (...\Left 4 Dead\left4dead\cfg\sourcemod)

https://forums.alliedmods.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=42348&d=1242676777



Now that you're all done, create your server. Then type in the following.

sm_execcfg sourcemod/5v5versus.cfg

The server will restart and change its map to Dead Air and you will notice there are 5 survivors. Congratulations! You've just made your 5V5 Versus server. To customize the amount of players, you can make your own CFGs as well and just execute them in-game.



ALTERNATIVELYYou can also download the L4D Super Versus plugin or similar plugins that also do the same thing. They're probably easier and you just have to modify the CFG that the plugin uses.

Player Stats Plugin Menu

That's all! Have fun modding your server as you like. Other players do not need to have Sourcemod or any of this to play in your server. You can even take it to a cyber cafe.

Find out how to add custom skins and maps for L4D here.

CG Girl Artwork

Drawing of Nico, CG practice.

Initial Sketch

Completed Coloured Drawing

Completed Coloured Drawing with Dramatic Lighting

Nicholas.

[Notice] - Blog Inactivity II

Blog will be quite inactive starting from now.


As I argued with Nico once again, it's about my interest for my blog. When I started my blog, I wanted it to be updated frequently and people would visit to read what I write.

However, a situation happened, where Nico called me. So I answered, and told her to give me 10 minutes to finish my Gaming PRO-ness! blog post, then call back. She thinks that I treat my blog more important than her. After that she doesn't give a shit about me. She had lost hope, faith and love for me. And it hurts me very badly.



Some of you might think that I'm wrong for needing time to finish my computer stuff before I go talk to her because you must stop doing everything and talk right away for your lover.

Some of you might think that she's wrong because she could just give me a little extra time to finish my computer stuff so that I could talk to her without any distractions.

It doesn't matter. I will keep my promises and dedicate even more to our love. And no matter what happens I'll still love her. Even though our relationship might die later on, I will still love her.




I will only update the blog when I have free time and when I feel like it.

Love,
Nicholas.

Gaming PRO-ness!

How to be a PRO in games? Here's my high-self-esteem-nothing-better-to-do-show-off-boasting-shit-hell-of-a-lifetime-act-of-idiocy to show my own PRO-ness.


Early Notes
1. Yes, I know professional means to make money out of it, but we'll use it like how it's commonly used among gamers, which will mean "skilled".

2. Yes, I admit I am not the best gamer, and I may be poor in gaming. It depends on other players whether they're more skilled than me or not.

3. Yes, I do not gamble in gaming, participate competitions, able to own better players, and accept challenges. It does not mean anything as well.

4. Yes, I do not mean to hurt anyone's feelings and this is solely for educational and comedical purposes only. Most of these are actually common sense and smart thinking but this is to educate those who didn't thought of doing it.





Prologue
We're going to use Left 4 Dead 2 as the topic, and I will be the PRO for now.






Today, I went to a cyber cafe. I saw a bunch of players playing this game so I decided to join. Then it turned out they have the same attitude as most Ipoh Defense of the Ancients (DotA) players who have very bad sportsmanship! SHAME ON Y'ALL!!

We PRO gamers always keep our sportsmanship at all times, and will never call anyone else a noob just for fun as well as trying to provoke a fight. DotA sucks. Period. It changes you. It changed my brother into a person who voices out vulgarities because he got killed!







RailKill's Gaming PRO-ness Comparisons
I will show the comparisons between RailKill (apparently the PRO) and the following gamers I played with earlier today.


Low / Average Sportsmanship Players
1. FIsH
2. CAT
3. Mouse


Other players didn't have much problems but they did shout. Might due to frustration of losing, so they're not included. Now, on to the situations!





Situation of PRO-ness! #1 - Teamwork Devastation!
RailKill sees a friendly Smoker pulls a Survivor. RailKill appears as a Hunter and is ready to spawn. What did he do next?







Always backup teammates without them asking for your help.





Situation of PRO-ness #2 - X-Ray Rescue!
RailKill sees Rochelle gets pulled by a Smoker. But RailKill and all of his teammates fell down a hole and couldn't get back up! What did he do next?






Never think that it's impossible to save your teammate. Try shooting through objects and floors, you might get a few shots enough to kill the enemy. Do not leave your teammate alone!





Situation of PRO-ness #3 - Studying Traits!
RailKill keeps spectating after death and looks at the enemy Survivors' tendancy to perform certain actions or not. What did he do next?







By knowing who likes to rush and kill you, you can jump around and gain his attention, then run to a corner to hide with all your zombie teammates waiting for an ambush. By the time the Survivor rushes to come for you, he should be alone as his teammates won't do the same. Either that or just one teammate follows him and both of them get ambushed helplessly as your entire team was waiting.





Situation of PRO-ness #4 - Brave Rescue / Being There!
RailKill sees a incapicitated Survivor or a lone Survivor. Sometimes he also sees a puked Survivor standing in a vulnerable area! What did he do next?








When a Survivor is being puked on, all zombies will only target him. Go in front and block the zombies and start killing. If you see any Survivor in trouble, rush to them and immediately fend off all enemies. Protect him and take all the damage if you could.






Situation of PRO-ness #5 - Watch Yer' Six!
RailKill is mostly at the front or back of the team. Sometimes he leads and might need to move quickly as well. However, some teammates may be moving slowly or are in a dangerous position. What did he do next?

Made a mistake on this image. It's supposed to be "FREQUENTLY", not "occasionally".

Most players rush without looking back because they want to be quick and leave no chance to be set up by the enemy. However, they forget their teammates behind and by the time they realise their teammate is in danger, it might be already too late or a large amount of damage is done. Check frequently so that you could save your teammate immediately.





Sitaution of PRO-ness #6 - Opportunity Waiting!
RailKill sees the enemy Survivors a grouped together and are very good and alert at their defense. They have everywhere covered and his team's attack positions are not good. Suddenly RailKill gets a tank. Enemies had molotov. What did he do next?







My teammates were shouting on the other side of the cyber cafe asking me to give tank to AI. I did not want as I knew the tank would be dead in seconds. So I did a bunch of rock throws to scare off the enemies. One Survivor came to shoot me from a higher ground thinking I couldn't hit him. I jumped and smashed him and...laughed. It bought me lots of time. As my teammates had enough time to spawn and take action, I then joined in and took on all of them. WINNER!





These are the few easy strategies and mindset that any player could have. These are all done without a single communication from my teammates. There is no need for your teammates to call for you, or ask you to coordinate with them at common situations. You will automatically do it.











Other Funny Situations
1. Let's boast and see...

CAT: rail kill go can you leave?
RailKill: but I very pro wan wor
CAT: i am most pro here
CAT: no one dare say pro in front of me

*moments later*
*Situation of PRO-ness! #2 Happened*

RailKill: told u i very pro
CAT: stop saying anything
CAT: fuck u
CAT: we all fight you wan?
CAT: you solo
CAT: rain
RailKill: no la
Mouse: rain noob la
CAT: why?
RailKill: teamwork game ma


This is a dumb question. Want me to take on all of them? This is a teamwork game and it's played 4vs4 on Versus mode. The Special Infected functions are designed to be able to kill a Survivor if he is alone. Also, my name is Rail. Damn you blind players...

CAT's team lost every single round. Even at times we had one less player. So, "no one dare say pro in front of me"? Heh... =D *owned*





2. You were saying...?

*RailKill gets a Charger*
*The rest of his team spawned, attacked and failed*

FIsh: fuck u charger see me spawn nvr do anything

*RailKill hits a lone survivor and deals lots of damage to him*
I'm owning now. You were saying? :D

RailKill: fuck wat...looking for prey ma
FIsh: = =


All of my teammates attacked at the wrong position which was in a very visible hallway. I went outside to the open area. I already knew that maybe one of them would rush first. They would be scattering to gather items and weapons.

Knowing so, I saw a lone survivor separated from his team. I charged him dragging him further and incapped him. My teammates? All died...with little to no damage done to the enemy team.












Closure
That is all I educate today on the gaming world. Always remember, a gamer must maintain sportsmanship at all time! Do not shout and scream at teammates who are less skillful than you! Everyone is learning and playing a game for fun.

The main ideology of gaming is fun.
NEVER PLAY A GAME FOR WINNING. ONLY PLAY A GAME FOR FUN.



Love,
Nicholas.

MGS Ipoh Canteen Day

Methodist Girl's School Ipoh is having their Canteen Day on 10th April, Saturday.





Venue
Methodist Girl School Ipoh

Date
10th April 2010

Time
Starting from 9 A.M.



MGS Canteen Day is a little event for you to buy their food using their coupons and perhaps have some fun, play some games and so on to provide help in their fund-raising activities. So, if you have nothing to do on that day, you could come to support them.


To get your coupons, please contact Ga Yen (ga_yen@live.com), send her a mail or add her into your messenger and get it from her. Yeahhh...

How to Make a Simple Logo?

This guide is to teach you how to make a very simple Nuffnang styled logo using Adobe Photoshop.


The Nuffnang logo is apparently a simple body figure shouting, whitish in colour. Its background is gradient blue. The logo is then outlined with black to create a nice cartoon effect.








We will create a similar logo but more different looking and in our own style instead.




Steps
1. First, select the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Hold Shift and drag it across your canvas to make a rounded square.


2. Select the Magic Wand tool to select the square you just made.


3. Select the Gradient Tool and click on the gradient to edit it. Do the following.





Click on the bottom part of the gradient bar to add a colour. In the picture above, there are 3 points. The first point being a darker blue (007bd1), the 2nd being a lighter blue (00a8ff) at 30% and last one being white.

Drag to colour the square. You will get something like this.








4. Now select the Text Tool and use Verdana. Make your font bold and put a "N" in your square. Pick a nice brighter colour so your letter can be seen. In my case, I made the letter jutting out of the square to make it look nice.

I then added white letters, "EXUS", to show that my example company's name is Nexus. It can be a shape instead of letters too.






5. As it seemed a little too blank, I selected the Custom Shape Tool and selected Ornament 1 to draw at the bottom part of the square. I also made it a little big so it sticks out from the square for some style.






6. Lastly, merge all layers together. Right-click on the layer and apply Stroke with 5 pixels and coloured black.








If you do not like the colour blue, you can also use Hue to adjust the colour you like. You can also add in different shapes or texts and even colours depending on how you want your logo to be.

A good way is to add Drop Shadows and greyish gradients to make the elements in your square more attractive.



Love,
Nicholas.

Google Adsense in Blogger

How to enable Google Adsense in Blogger blogs?


Google AdSense is advertisement serving application. By enabling it, Google will have its advertisements on your blog. When visitors click on it, you will get an amount of money. This pay-per-click feature will earn you if your blog has high traffic!



Simple Steps
1. Login to your Blogger account.

2. At the Dashboard, click Monetize.

3. Under the AdSense tab, choose an option on how the ads will be displayed on your blog and click Next.

4. If you currently have a Google AdSense account, just Sign In with it. If you do not have an AdSense account, you will have to Create one. Just fill in the blanks and read the policy, agree with everything and you can proceed.

5. Blogger will then give you a preview on what your ads look like and it'll be added as a Widget in your blog. You can then drag or rearrange the Widget anyhow you like.





Make Sure You Do the Following
- Read, agree and obey all of Google AdSense's policy before signing up.
- Make sure all your details are correct and legit, especially your address.
- Do not try to click on your own ads!




Love,
Nicholas.

How to Search Effectively?

How to search effectively and get the results you want in search engines on the Internet.


Some of my friends have troubles trying to search for certain things they need. However, they tried and ended up getting results which are of no use to them. So how do others actually searched and found the right content while some couldn't?

A bunch of search engines.

Mistakes in Word Usage
1. Write Your Search Correctly As a Sentence
Avoid any spelling mistakes and make sure you use correct grammar. If you want to search for guides, make your sentence a question. For example, if you want to find out how to kill people, you can type in "How to Kill People?" or "How to Murder?" or even, "How to Murder Without Getting Caught?" and so on. Upper case or lower case letters does not matter, but it's best to just keep it all in lower case.

Spellcheck? Know your ABCs.

2. Avoid Usage of "AND", "BUT", and "NOT"
Most of the time you would include the word "AND". If so, most search engines will treat your search as two conditions and will show you results that satisfy all the words you write, but not either one. When searching, you should search for every single possiblity, and there isn't a need to satisfy all the conditions unless you need very very specific results.



3. Precise Keywords and Phrasing
If you are searching for information on a Trojan Horse virus, don't just type in "trojan". Type in "trojan horse virus". If you type the three words with the quotation marks, it becomes a phrase and it will not be separated in the search.

Another example is when you search for a kind of cheese, don't just write cheese. Type in "parmesan cheese". This lets you go straight to the point instead of getting unrelated results.

Words, words, words.

4. Searches Shouldn't Be Too Long
It is best that your searches are short and simple. Long searches definitely won't give you the results you want. Limit your search to a maximum of 10-12 words.


5. Arrangement of Words
The arrangement of words will return you different results. Example, if you search "ROSE Online Knight Guide" and "ROSE Online Guide Knight" will return different results. If you're unsure to put which words first, search both and take a look.





Mistakes in Human Attitude
1. Don't Be Lazy, Browse the Pages
Another problem with most people is they're too lazy to go through the other pages. They just look at the results on the first few pages and give up. If you couldn't find you need, keep looking before you start a new search.


2. Open Multiple Windows and Tabs
To optimize your search and speed, open a few browser windows and start searching separately. Once you perform many searches, look through them one by one. When you found something related to what you need, open that link in a new tab and continue looking. Once you gathered enough tabs, look through them one by one. Do not care if the results might not be related. As long as you see something you feel that's related (through keywords or sentences) then just open a new tab.

Tabbing in Internet Explorer.

3. Click on Anything that is Related
You might feel that some of the results are not like what you want. However, you should try clicking them and take a look before you continue. It's just an extra 30 seconds or so.

One of the most famous search engines.

4. Make use of Google Cache
If you used Google to search, you might have noticed there is a Cache link at the bottom of each result. Sometimes you might have overlooked the words in a page, but by using this, the keywords are highlighted with colour and you could jump into it quickly.

Also, you can also use this if the page has been removed, forbidden or not found. Google's cache may still have the data stored on that page and so you could see the page before it is removed or even skip the login/password requirement.

Love,
Nicholas.

How to Manage a Game Guild?

Find out how to manage an active and cool guild in any online game or MMORPG.


Yes, firstly this post is made after Alex's rant on how my blog post should be nicely about my guildmates! I am in the WarriorNation guild, I joined it when I played Cabal. So I met this awesome guild and we had so much fun together. Back then it was so active. Now, the Cabal section is DEAD!




Steps
1. Recruit members.
Firstly, recruit friends. Then recruit random people you see. Populate your guild a bit, and set a little level requirement for the guild. This ensures that your guildmates won't be too slow or too weak for any occassion. It's good to have girls in your guild too. It keeps the guys from leaving your guild.

Snowie A.K.A Olivia, happy-go-lucky girl in the guild.

2. Keeping the guild chat active.
Mainly your friends will be the ones actively spamming in the guild chat. This will let other guild members chat and have fun themselves as well. When guild members chat and interact with each other, they will build a relationship and will be more devoted to the guild.

In forums, we celebrate birthdays to keep everyone warm and active.

3. Scheduling events.
For every guild, there would be guild events and some fun for all members to participate. Members can get to join events and win some fancy prizes or advantages. When making events, you must be creative and make sure that every guild member has a chance to participate. Have your assistants or yourself sponsor some cool prizes. Set a date and let all members know about it at least a few days before the event starts!

Battle Ops Lulu posting up a CTF event in forums.

4. Manage your guild's ranks and groups.
Sometimes you may want people to help you. So a guild could consist not only the guild master, but also his assistants and many other levels or ranks of members. This allows members to have a small goal to achieve as well as lightening your burden by splitting up the work. You can give funny names to your groups as well!

It's also best that you assign a member as a crafter, or someone who keeps all the stuff like a warehouse. You can also select members that are specially for guild wars and many things to ease management.

Points & Rank system in my guild. Templars rock, Paladins suck. =D

5. Get a guild forum or website.
If your game doesn't support a guild board, then you have to create your own. Having your own guild forum allows you to post up events and various things you need to let your guild know. Guild members can also chat and moderate the forums and post up pictures of themselves to share online.

Here is an example site which lets you build guild sites for free.
(http://www.guildportal.com/)




6. Do stuff together and party.
When knowing guild members of nearly the same level, party them and do some training together. You could also get higher level members to help out the lower level members in their quest or leveling. Help each other and interact more daily, even when there's no events!

xTitan from Cabal NA trying to split an item with his party.

Example Suitable Events
If you don't know what I mean by suitable events, here's a few examples.

1. Hide and Seek
Being my guild's traditional event, Hide and Seek is a simple game where the organizers will find a place to hide and give simple hints. Players will then try to find them and start a trade. The first one who succeeds doing that will win and get their prize. This is done a couple of times in one whole event.


2. Chicken Dash
I don't know why it's named like that but this event is a race event. Players are required to team up with a partner. The first player will start at one point, and race with the rest to another point. Then the second player will start moving as soon as the first player reaches them. This is pretty much like the passing the baton.

Yeah, XiiaoRanger or Alex, tribute to you for coming up with the greatest ideas for events. Oh, almost forgot, that's the cute and forever young Mashi beside him.

Notice these events does not require any level requirement and it's just plain and direct fun. There are many more cool events my guild has made, but it's not as common as these and is more complex. So use your imagination!




Real-Life Gatherings
I'm sure most of you all didn't expect this, but a gaming guild could have real-life gatherings and have some quality time. Firstly, it's best that the members you're going out with are on the same region or nearby. You can't expect guys from Malaysia to fly over to the US just to meet up and have fun for 3 days, unless they want to and have money to spend.

Guild Mistress Ohmchii posts up the outing event in forums.

GarDiaN, the most handsome pastry chef cooked for us in our 2nd gathering.

For these outings, the host must get a good hotel which is near to all the places where your activities will be done. If possible, travel light and let the places you want to go in walking distance. If it's not in walking distance, then you have to rent a car or use your own car(s), else, call a few cabs. Then, do some fun stuff together that you could interact more such as paintball, archery, pool, picnic and so on.

Picnic at waterfall, with Superman GarDiaN and Wonder Woman Qiu Han.

Estimate the total expenditure and post it up in the forums or something to let your guild members know. Oh, and the most important thing is SAFETY!! Be sure to look out for each other.

Yeah, group photo of 1st gathering.

Well that's about it. A guild can be as close as a family and you could have lots of fun in it. Manage a fun guild and members will always keep the guild active!

Love,
Nicholas.

How to Make Perfect Milo?

How to prepare a perfect cup of hot milo.


Firstly, perfect basically means that it suits your taste and what you want. Some people like it sweeter and some not. So be sure to look and change according to what you like! Experiment!

Ingredients

Powdered Milo

Sweetened Condensed Milk

Fresh Milk / Pasteurized Milk

Hot Water

Instructions
1. Put in about 4 tablespoons of Powdered Milo into a cup.
2. Add Hot Water until it reaches about 3/4 of the cup.
3. Stir and make sure all of the Powdered Milo is dissolved.
4. Add in 3 tablespoons of Sweetened Condensed Milk and stir.
5. Then, add in some Fresh Milk / Pasteurized Milk. Its amount should be around 1/10 of the cup.
6. Add a little more Hot Water until nearly full and stir once more.




In the end, you should get a smooth and slightly creamy chocolate-y drink. The feeling should be as if you bought the Milo packet drink. If it's iced it's also very yummy.



Love,
Nicholas.

How to Get a Guy / Girl in IM?

I don't know how I would put this post title but, this is on how to get a guy or a girl in instant messaging.


This sounds desperate and dumb but there are some people who would like to chase after someone but just don't have the guts or chance to do it in real life. So online seems to be another choice.



Getting The Contact
You can have many ways to get your contact's e-mail. Be it through a friend, through social networks, blogs, or basically anything. By surfing randomly in Facebook you could find someone maybe your friend knows as well and so on. Say that you're a friend of your friend's contact and have similar interests. State the reason why you're adding, e.g just to make friends.

Some people you could meet through games, and ask for their e-mail.

Nico is one of my contacts I got through gaming.

General Steps
1. Chat generally.
Talk about how you found that person to add as your contacts, talk nicely and be polite. Introduce yourself and maybe let the person know more about yourself so that he/she feels comfortable with you.


2. Ask a few general questions, get to know.
Now you've introduced yourself, and talked a bit, you could get to know each other. Like say...share your hobbies, interests, ideas, gossips and everything else. As you talk more and share more, you will understand more about each other's personality, mindset and even lifestyle. (So you can decide to ditch that person now, before you regret!)

Nico made a nice biodata of herself to show me although we haven't met each other yet.

3. Relax and hold back.
No one wants to be asked out or being known too much on the first day. So be sure not to talk too much until you touch a sensitive subject. Just keep it for the next time and go slow. Come back every 2 days, then everyday.


4. Play games!
After all that boring mumbo-jumbo conversations, it's time to have some fun with each other. Play some games with each other and eventually let him/her win. Crack some jokes and bully each other a bit while having fun. Your contact will feel that you're a very friendly and amusing person, aside from all that kind and politeness charm you gave merely through words.

You can also play the game called "20 Questions", where you question each other 20 question about their lives and there'd be no lying.

Yeah, she says I love you too! in MSN...and she didn't even knew how I looked that time.

5. Now, realise how your contact feels about you.
By now you should look for signs whether your contact likes you or not. If your contact really only wants to make friends, or had someone else in mind, or did not believe in online relationships, you could still try to convince that person that you're better than the people he/she knows.

If you face such problems, you have to go slowly and keep being that person's best friend. If she comes after you and starts conversations, advise you about your life, send you lots of e-mails and stuff like that, it might mean that she is attracted to you.

Nico did this in her wood project showing her love to me, although we haven't even met.

6. Ask out!
Now you're so happy and having fun with that person, it's time for you to actually meet up. Maybe go by a casual saying to meet up with a bunch of friends. Normally if your contact has no confidence, he/she will not go out alone with you.

Success. After 1 year and 9 months together, we finally were able to meet in Genting for our first date and kiss.

Once you succeeded asking your contact out, means you've gained some trust of your contact. From there onwards, it's all about repeating the steps and making yourself seem better and irresistable by having the same interests, same kind of thinking and put in some effort to make situations where both of you could get a spark.

It sounds dangerous huh, if I were a pedophile or a grifter, how would you think Nico would end up? So ladies, please be careful when you date online. The person you're trying to date might not be real. Luckily Nico met a guy so innocent and true like me...and luckily I met her as well.




Love,
Nicholas.