L4D: High Point [v0.91]

Updated version of my L4D Map is out!


Alright! New version of my L4D: High Point map has just been released today. You can get it at the all new Downloads section in the blog!







Here's the changelog.
v0.91
- Fixed Boomer's Unlimited Horde
- Fixed Pill's Magical Heal bug.
- Added "/blood (on/off)" for Infected bloody death.
- Added "/noisymusic" to turn off the damn horde music. Use ONLY WHEN you face this problem where the music won't stop.



Love,
Nicholas.

[Notice] - Sick

Yeah...no updates because I'm sick!


I have been sick for the past few days...and I'm still stick now. Having a flu, sorethroat and cough. It's really annoying!


So I would like to apologize for not updating WNx Homestay's strip last Sunday, but will do when I get better. Let's talk about something instead of just putting up boring notices like I used to do.



Today
Today, I saw my friends' (Jason & Queenie) blog...and it was a couple blog thing that this blog is supposed to be as well. So I saw their blogposts, their activities...which was pretty sweet and all that.

Well, this blog was supposed to be that way as well...but of course I've talked about it before, and it's kinda hard to blog about our daily activities because my girlfriend and I can't meet each other at all! Besides, the things me and my girlfriend talk are a bit...weird and personal. So let's not get into that... ;D




Future
Well, I've completed my L4D Map Project, and there will be a new project soon called the Dungeon of Burnt Map Project. Burnt is a name, so it's not a typo. Apart from my map project, I might experiment more on Linux and post more of it here.




Blog Expectations?
I'm sure by now, readers who actually keep track of this blog will actually think that this blog isn't really good. It's so random, that it becomes messed up. Oh well, I might as well begin to stick to one topic at a time over a period of time. That's just one of my plans.




Love,
Nicholas.

Left 4 Dead in Warcraft 3

My L4D Map has finally been released!


I have been working on this map for almost a year and I am proud to present you my WC3 map, "Left 4 Dead: High Point" to all of you WC3 players! Enjoy.



This map is based on Valve’s Left 4 Dead game, and is designed specially to give players an almost identical experience to the original game itself. Due to how Warcraft III is a RTS game itself, this map certainly brings a slight difference in the gameplay of L4D.

Just like L4D, Alarmed Cars are here! This picture shows the trouble I'm having.

Gametype: Co-operative / Survival
Maximum Players: 4
Language: English
Main-Feature: L4D Zombie Apocolypse

Shootin' some zombies.

Features:
- Designed to be almost identical to L4D itself.
- 5 Levels: 4 Levels of Travelling and 1 Rescue Finale.
- Has all Special Infected which are the Boomer, Smoker, Hunter, Tank and Witch.
- Contains Tier 1 & 2 Weapons and all items as seen in L4D itself.
- 3 difficulties to choose from which are Normal, Advanced and Expert.
- Openable and closeable doors and rooms for cover.
- Random spawn points for all items, weapons and even Special Infected (ambush spots)
- Working systems such as Incap System made very similar to L4D.
- AI support for Survivors.

Camping in rooms...

Gameplay:
- With a survivor team of 4, travel and reach safehouses at every level to win.
- If you are dead, you have to wait for the team to reach a safehouse to respawn.
- If all 4 survivors are dead, the game is over.
- Hotkeys should be used as controls which are simple to use and explained in game.
- When a survivor’s HP initially reaches 0, he/she will be incapacitated and needs a player to revive them.
- Incapacitated players cannot move and can only fire their pistol.
- If you are incapacitated more than 3 times, you will die instantly.
- Press W to Melee nearby Infected to knock them back and stun them a while.
- Meleeing can save survivors from Hunters and Smokers too.
- Flashlights give a very small bonus sight range, but attracts nearby Infected.
- Do not shoot or walk too close to alarmed cars as they will attract the horde.
- Hide in rooms so that the Infected will come in only one direction which makes them easier to deal with.
- Use molotovs and pipe bombs to quickly kill Common Infected.
- Explore rooms to find useful items!

Getting pounced by a Hunter. You probably can't see it due to the blood gushing out...

Typical Boomer + Smoker Combo...

Witch that works just like L4D's.

Tank.

What’s Different?:
1. No Dual Pistols
- This map does not include dual pistols as I did not think it was necessary yet. Maybe in future versions?

2. Perks System
- Due to how L4D is a FPS and accuracy is based on players’ skills and so on, I decided to add perks for the player to level in order to increase weapon accuracy. There are up to 11 perks to choose from and they all benefit the player slightly.

3. Tank No Rock Throw
- Due to how the map is not spacious enough, the Tank doesn’t have the ability to throw rocks. However, Tanks have a fairly good movement speed and will eventually catch up to the player. They also can hit cars!

4. Melee is Target-Based
- L4D is a FPS, and therefore you can aim and Melee wherever you want. In WC3, I just find it hard to angle the survivor and Melee someone I want to Melee! So Melee is a target-based skill, and not just a right-click spam-fest kind of skill.

Molotov that works exactly like the one in L4D.

Known Issues (Having Problems Fixing Them):
1. Smoker Pull Reaction
- Just like L4D, the player is given some time to react when they have been pulled by a Smoker. However, with a looping trigger that keeps moving the player, it seems that the player cannot do anything in that period of time! After several tests, it seems that the player can fire if…

a) They fire at the moment they’re being pulled. This will then allow them to freely fire after that.

b) They are facing in the same direction which they are being pulled. This is probably due to a turn rate problem.

Don’t know how to fix this, seems to be WC3’s nature.


2. Boomer Vomit Lag
- Some players seem to face a lot of lag when Boomer vomits. This seems to be a very mysterious case because they do not face any lag when Boomer explodes. The thing is, the Boomer Vomit trigger and Boomer Explode trigger is like 95% identical. So if the vomit lags, the exploding should lag too. But this is not the case! I’ll post up the triggers some day and see if anyone knows what went wrong.


3. Weapon System Leak
- I am having troubles fixing Point leaks in the Weapon System. Please play my map and see how it works, then you can go to this link and reply to suggest a fix.

http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=1284806





A video preview for the game will be up maybe in a week or so. Try it out by going to this link at Hive Workshop to download it!

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/maps-564/left-4-dead-high-point-v0-9-a-179455/



Love,
Nicholas.

Messy Hair

Yeah, I've been told a thousand times...


"Your hair is weird, you should just cut it!"


See, I know my hair is unkempt, messy and ugly because I do not spend the time combing it or going to a barber for a haircut. It is also the way it is because of the curly nature of my hair. So it goes left, it goes right, it goes boom, it goes everywhere like a mop/creeping plant/pile of noodles!

Literally, noodles.

Do I really look like someone who cares how physical appearances lay an impression on just about anybody's mind? I am just a college student, still looking for deeper knowledge. I am not working for money yet, so it doesn't matter.


I hate haircuts since I was young because I have to sit around for half an hour doing nothing. I also hate haircuts because of the annoying sounds the scissors/shaving thing make every time they cut. So, I'm not gonna do anything to my hair until my girlfriend comes and rants about it! Simple.

CrashCromWell's photo.

Some of you might think, "Guys are all like that! They don't care about anything! Insensitive!", but this post has nothing to do with that. I just have no interest to look good and let people who judge books by their covers to have a liking on me. If I look good, it is not going to gain me anything anyway. I'll just waste more time and energy to look good for people who don't really care at all. So, why bother? :(




But I'll always try to look good in front of you, baby! Next time you just tell me how you want me to look and I'll do that. ;) When you come next year, of course.


Love,
Nicholas.

WNxH: Vomit Lag

It's Sunday and it's time for WNx Homestay!


I apologize for not giving much attention to my cute little comic strip series, so here is it. This strip is about my L4D Map Project in which I had a problem with Boomer's vomit. Every time he vomits, there is this annoying lag. Only some players experience this though, most other players do not.

WNx Homestay: Vomit Lag

That's all folks! My map is near completion! A lot of bugs and leaks have been removed. The annoying vomit lag is still there, and there are leaks in my Weapon System which I have no idea how to fix them. Will be releasing the map soon enough. Stay tuned.



Love,
Nicholas.

Blog Inactivity Again

Yup, blog's going inactive for a while.


Working on the L4D Map Project which is almost complete. So I'll be giving full commitment towards it and therefore, all other projects will be on hold and this blog will be inactive for a while. The project should be complete in a few weeks time. Thanks for visiting this blog!




Love,
Nicholas.

GRUB Rescue Solutions

Yup, about Linux. GRUB fails? Here are some tips.



Some time in your happy days of using your epic Linux distro, you would face a simple and clueless problem. GRUB fails to load and gives you this grub-rescue which you don't have any idea what to do with it!

Before you proceed, you might wanna try Super Grub Disk to fix your GRUB.
http://www.supergrubdisk.org



Solutions for GRUB Failures

Situation: Unknown Filesystem / Corrupted or Deleted GRUB
When Does it Happen: Usually during repartitioning.
Solution:
1. Boot into your LiveCD.
2. Find out where you installed your distro by typing "sudo fdisk -l"
3. Mount it by typing "sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sda6 /mnt (please change /dev/sda6 to the partition path of your installed Linux)
4. Install GRUB by typing "sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda"



Situation: Uninstalled Linux / No GRUB
When Does It Happen: When you delete the Linux partition.
Solution:
1. This is for Windows 7, to recover Windows' bootloader.
2. Boot from Window 7's System Repair Disk.
3. Open the Command Prompt.
4. Type in "Bootrec.exe /FixMbr" to overwrite the boot record.



Love,
Nicholas.

Not in the Mood

Sorry for not updating...just not in the mood.



My girlfriend has gone to Shanghai for some kinda exposition in an extremely huge museum that take weeks to discover everything in it. Her voice is my lullaby. No lullaby, no sleep. And so these few days I've been messing around with Sabayon and Ubuntu Linux, as well as my L4D Map project for Warcraft III which is still going on.


Although I must say that the L4D Map project is long and tedious which started last year, it is near completion and I plan to release it once it's done. Maybe in a few weeks or months time, you'll be able to download it on my blog.


Ever since my girlfriend went overseas, we couldn't talk to each other as it would be too expensive. Now, I'm waiting for her to come back, so I can finally hear her sweet voice that makes hell like heaven, chaos like bliss and noise like silence. A voice so irresistable, a drug so addictive. It is only a few more days till I can talk to her. But it seemed so long. Hope you'll be back safe and sound, baby.


Because of that, I am not in the mood to update my blog. I apologize for not posting up a WNx Homestay strip for last Sunday. But everything will resume as normal after this week. Thanks for supporting this blog!



Love,
Nicholas.

Linux Blank Screen Problem

Problems with Sony Vaio or other PCs with Linux concerning blank screen or no display.



Some of you might have experienced that when you boot into your Linux CD/DVD, nothing shows up. Your computer is running, but nothing is on display. However, some people experience it when they boot into their OS in the hard disk, and get a blank screen instead of actually getting it during a boot from CD.

I'm going to talk about two reasons for blank display. First one will be for Sony Vaio users and the second one will be for general users. But first, you need to know how to boot into your distro, 'cuz you probably can't do it as it shows a blank screen.




Booting
If a normal boot doesn't work and shows a blank screen, you need to boot into either Safe Mode, Failsafe Mode, Compatibility Mode or something of the sort when the GRUB screen comes up. If there is no such option, you need to add "nomodeset" to the GRUB command before booting. To do so, just press the "C" key on your keyboard while having your OS selected and type in "nomodeset" at the end. This should be enough to boot into your OS with minimal display.

Added "nomodeset" into GRUB command.

Sony Vaio Blank Display
This problem occurs in Sony Vaio with NVIDIA graphic cards (such as G210M, G310 and so on). It happens because your operating system's drivers could not detect the EDID data. The EDID file is crucial as it describes about your LCD screen. Failure to detect this file will result in a blank display.

Vaio fail? Nah, it's a very good laptop. It just doesn't work well with Linux.

To overcome this problem, follow the steps below.

1. You need to extract the EDID file while you're at Windows. Go to Windows and install the Phoenix EDID Designer.




2. Place the extracted EDID file in "/etc/X11" directory. Rename it to anything you like, for example, "sonyedid.bin".




3. Install Nvidia drivers from restricted drivers list. This can be achieved by going to the Hardware Manager or just by waiting for a pop-up or indication at your taskbar about restricted drivers. You will need to connect to the Internet as it will automatically download the drivers for you.

Activate Restricted Drivers so it will begin downloading and installing it.

4. Edit your xorg.conf file located at "/etc/X11/" and add the following into the Device section of the file. The extra stuff that you need to add is highlighted in this example.


Example:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/etc/X11/sonyedid.bin"
EndSection


(Notice the second last line, /etc/X11/sonyedid.bin, which is the path of your extracted EDID file. If you renamed your EDID file differently, please change accordingly.)

Typical xorg.conf file with no EDID options.

5. IF YOU CANNOT FIND YOUR XORG.CONF FILE DO NOT PANIC! The reason why you cannot find the file under "/etc/X11" is because you are probably using the newer kernel and drivers where the xorg file is located in somewhere else which I don't remember. However, if you do create a xorg file and place it in "/etc/X11", that file will be read instead. Since it works like that, all you need to do now is to create a xorg.conf file, since you don't have one. But how? Follow these steps...


a) First, you need to kill the X server. Uh...different distros have different ways to kill the X server, so I'm just gonna list some. Killing the X server basically means no more GUI, only CLI...all text.

You can try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. (BackTrack)
You can try going to the terminal and type init 3, then press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace twice. (OpenSUSE)
You can try going to the terminal and type sudo service gdm stop. (Ubuntu)


If it doesn't work for your distro, please just Google it by typing "How to kill X server in YOUR DISTRO NAME HERE"



b) Now, since you already installed your restricted Nvidia drivers, you can run the following command.

sudo nvidia-xconfig


If it doesn't work, your user might not have rights to use the sudo command. So, type in "su" and type in your root password (if you don't know, just type in your user password) and then type "nvidia-xconfig".

It will generate a xorg.conf file at /etc/X11.



c) Now edit the file and put in those highlighted lines as seen in step 4 and reboot.

Linux's file system is different from Windows. Windows starts from C:\ and so on, while Linux starts from Root, which is only a slash "/".

General Blank Screen Problem
Some graphic cards just don't work well with Linux's display drivers. It is most often experienced by Nvidia cards. ATI cards also do experience this problem though.

Most people have the blank screen because their drivers are not installed. Just follow the Booting step at the top of this blog post, so you can boot into your OS and install the restricted drivers as mentioned in Sony Vaio Blank Display step 3.


If it still doesn't work, you might have to boot your PC with the nomodeset option on. You can do this by adding the nomodeset line into the GRUB file, or just type it in before booting. Refer to the Booting section of this blog post.


That's all for the blank screen problem. The next post will be about configuring Linux and how to use it. I will explain on the different features in Linux and things you might want to do, as well as how to install software and the sort in the near future.




Love,
Nicholas.

How to Get Started with Linux?

How do I get started with Linux?


Alright, the previous post talked about what is Linux and several good features it brings. Now, we will talk about how to get started with it, such as downloading, installation and preparing your PC for use with Linux!



Notes and FAQs Beforehand:
1. How Much Space Does my Distro Need?
Depends on your distro. Typical linux distros, with lots of software, you should leave about 40GB for it, so you can contain anything you want, which is more than enough. Puppy Linux only needs about 100-300MB. Just refer to your distro's forums.

2. How Much Swap Space Do I Need to Leave?
A few GB, 2-5 would be already good/more than enough.

Arch Linux, not for beginners and lets you pretty much build Linux from the ground up.

Step 1: Pick Your Distro
Since there is a whole big list of Linux distros, you'll have to pick one that you really like. You can pick a few too, since you can install all of them into your PC at once as well. For those of you who are not aware, a PC can contain as many OS-es as it can, as long as you have the space and a bootloader.


Recommended Distros (all of the following are free)
Desktop Users - Sabayon, Mint, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Arch
Laptop Users - OpenSUSE, Puppy, BackTrack
Servers - CentOS, SimplyMEPIS


The MOST user-friendly and suitable-for-beginners distro to me is Linux Mint. You can also get Ubuntu because Mint is based on that...and these two are by far the most user-friendly ones. You can look into other distros like Fedora, Slackware, Zenwalk and so on as they're quite good as well.

Linux Mint's Desktop, just to show so you know how it looks like. It's GREEEEN.

Step 2: Download!
Download the LiveCD or LiveDVD if you want to install it into your hard disk. Be aware that you can also install OS-es on removable USB flash drives and so on, so it is all your choice. I will be teaching how to install using LiveCD/DVD, so for the flash drive, you can refer to the site where you got your distro as they'll have a guide there too.

Once you've downloaded your CD/DVD, burn it.




Step 3: Install!
Now, you can either dual-boot, which means to install the distro while still remaining the current OS, or to completely delete the current OS and replace with the distro you're installing.

Firstly, insert your CD/DVD and boot into the CD/DVD. If you do not know how to boot into CD/DVD, please read here.

After booting, you will probably be directed and have instructions on the installation. If the desktop shows and nothing comes up to direct you, they probably have a "Install" icon on the desktop for you to click and install.

Ubuntu. The option selected is to replace your whole OS. The 2nd and 3rd options are for dual-booting.

Then, follow the instructions during the installation. Eventually, you'll end up at the partitioning part. If you want to completely replace your OS, tick the option where it says "Erase all data and install" or something of the sort.


IF YOU WANT TO DUAL-BOOT, BE AWARE OF THIS:
Linux requires two partitions and they are of different format than Windows partitions. One is called the swap partition (the format is: swap) and is the space your computer uses when your RAM is full. Another one is called the root partition (the format is: ext4) which is the main space for all files. Some distros include another partition called the home or user partition (ext4) which is basically a place for you to store YOUR folders, but is not necessary as it can be stored in root as well.

So if you want to dual-boot, tick the option to create and resize the partitions according to your liking. If you're messing around with the number of partitions, just make sure you have the root and swap partitions and that's it.

OpenSUSE. Notice there are 3 partitions. Swap, Root and Home.

Step 4: Reboot
Once you're done installing, reboot and remove your CD/DVD to see your brand new OS. If you dual-boot, you will notice that after you reboot, you should see GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) which is installed together with the distro. GRUB allows you to select which OS to use.

Typical look of the GRUB.

IF YOUR LINUX BOOTS WITH A BLANK SCREEN, PLEASE WAIT FOR ME TO POST SOLUTIONS ON THE NEXT POST.

In the next part, I'll talk about problems in booting your Linux distro. I will also post a solution for a major problem experienced by Sony Vaio users with Linux distros.




Love,
Nicholas.

What is Linux?

We've always known Windows...but what's Linux and how does it differ?

Linux's official mascot/logo. They call this penguin, Tux.

Alright, starting from today, most posts will be based on Linux for a while. Maybe about 4-5 posts will be about Linux, and I would like to introduce this wonderful operating system/kernel to everyone as it is actually, a very good competitor along with Mac and Windows.




What is Linux?
People now are so used to Windows, I don't think they even know what other OS-es are there available in this world.

A kernel is the central component of an OS. In Windows, they use the NT kernel. Linux is a kernel. There are so many distributions of Linux you see out there, such as the famous Red Hat, Ubuntu and so on. They are using the Linux kernel, and to generalize it you can call Linux an operating system.

Linux is open-source, meaning that it is developed and supported by a bunch of people who have too much of free time and is giving it out for free.

Ubuntu Linux's official logo.

What are Linux DISTRIBUTIONS?
There are many Linux distributions or distros, which are OS-es built on the Linux kernel with many different software and features included. Each distro can work differently and support more on special purposes, such as BackTrack for networking/penetration testing purposes.

By default, all programs are installed for you to use. Web browsers, instant messaging clients, e-mail clients, image editing tools, music players and many more are already there. You don't need to worry about a single thing and it is very easy to use.

Linux is ugly? Wrong. This is the gorgeous OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE Desktop.

Why Linux is good?
1. With the latest distributions, it is very user-friendly, and sometimes even more user-friendly than Windows.

2. You can install software by just ticking the software you want from a list of open-source software, and it will download and install the packages for you without you doing anything.

3. It is completely free. No piracy, no illegal stuff, no worries. Well, except for some distros like Red Hat which commercialize their distro. The rest is free.

4. Some distros have a higher CPU performance compared to Windows.

5. Very good security. You can basically go online without a firewall.

6. Full access and customization. You can do anything in Linux, and even create your own distro without violating any laws. Very flexible.

Linux is not user-friendly? Wrong. This is Ubuntu Netbook's GNOME Desktop.

The problem about "hardware drivers not supported" is actually no longer there, because the latest distros have most drivers, and if they don't, you can download them directly from the repository. You just have to get used to the different system, and Linux is actually very very good. Don't just stick to Windows! It's boring!

Mandriva, also another Linux distro. Beautiful log-in screen.

In the next post, I'll show you how to get started with Linux, and what distros are recommended.




Love,
Nicholas.