Only a few days ago i wrote a post “Should I Play Vanguard In 2011?” Yes, And Here’s Why: Vanguard Myths Debunked – Myth №2: Vanguard is not upgraded and there is no new content – and here we go with another “Bug Bash!” patch from the new Vanguard development team! I am going to Egypt tomorrow (27.08), and from the rate of their work i expect to probably see another patch when i come back :) Keep reading the post if you want to see Vanguard: Saga of Heroes patch notes for bug fix update from August 24, 2011. I am very pleased by them myself because i play Warrior and it got an increase in DPS.

Vanguard Bug Fix Update Release Notes

Adventuring

• Adventurers should once again be able to visit Prince Julian.

Items

• The Vampire Femur should once again have the correct set of attachment slots.
• Sacred Solvent has had its price corrected.
• The drop rate of rare items from the Bridge of Destiny such as Rage Filled Cloak have been increased.
• The Arachnidon Claws should no longer miss more than other claws.

Blood Mage

• Pellets of blood now stack up to 10 for blue, green, and red.

Cleric

• Boom of Spirit and Replenishing Strike all ranks Refresh from 20 to 10 seconds.
• Added a mana regeneration proc on attack when a Cleric is in Healer's Focus.

Disciple

• Inner Light VI (Modified) should now correctly stack with healing modification ability such as Purity.

Dread Knight

• Fixed an issue with DC6 that caused some abilities, such as their Pet Abilities to not be usable.

Druid

• Druid Epic has had its cooldown lowered to 15 minutes.
• Starfall V has had its damage increased and is harder to resist.
• Deadly Swarm IV has had its damage increased.
• Wild Growth V has had its damage increased.
• Solar Flare VI has had its cooldown lowered from 8 seconds to 6 seconds.
• Superior Venomous Thorns is harder to resist.

Warrior

• Savagery has been upgraded.
• From A brutal slicing attack that does 150% weapon damage and causes your target to bleed, taking 275 damage and adding hate over 60 seconds.
• To A brutal slicing attack that does 200% weapon damage and causes your target to bleed, taking 600 damage and adding hate over 60 seconds.
• The Warrior Epic Mainhand has had its tooltip updated to be clearer on how it works as well as an issue where it would not always work as intended fixed.
• The Warrior Epic Offhand will now have a 10% chance on being hit to proc a bonus of 8% block for 10 seconds.

Monk

• Monk's should no longer take out their aggressions on their fellow group/raid members by way of Errant Strikes – Thundering Blows.

Necromancer

• Necromancer's pet ability Sneer and Ghostly Acolyte mana replenishment should both be more effective.
• Essence Stone for the Necromancer epic should now stack to 200 as well as fit into graft bags.

Paladin

• Epic Two Hander no longer triggers Guardian Might but instead will gain a 5% bonus to melee damage.
• Epic Two Hander Block lowered from 28% to 14%. This bonus is also now only available in the Aura of Shielding stance.

Psionicist

• Meta Mind should now properly stack with other energy regeneration buffs.

Rogue

• Upgraded the bonus damage for using daggers on as a Rogue from Dagger Expertise from 1%, 2%, 3% ,4%, 5% to 5%, 8%, 10%, 15%, 20%.
• Shadowblade can now crit.

Shaman

• Acuity IV Will now grant 3% Spell Strikethrough instead of 3% Melee Strikethrough.
• Hayatet's Gift of Acuity Will now grant 5% Strikethrough to both Spell and Melee.

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I post from time to time to mark how the blog is changing :) And changing it is – yesterday was the first time when, according to Blogger statistics, this blog crossed 1000 daily page views! :P Also, i have Google PageRank 2 now, which is quite an improvement. Looking into my backlinks (i.e. links leading to Chick Geek Games) i discovered that some of my posts even made it into Wiki for certain game, which is very cool and means i wrote something really worth reading! Also, i wanted to let everyone know i will be away between 27 August and 7 September on a diving trip, so no posting between the dates, i am afraid!

Interesting backlinks i have found:

My post Minions Of Mirth - Forging a Dream: How a Two Person Team Has Created the Minions of Mirth listed at Minions of Mirth page on MyWikiBiz, right next to Massively’s article, haha!

Someone else mentioned my Hidden Pearls: Regnum Online review in the comment section of Massively’s post Rise And Shiny recap: Regnum Online. Though, i don’t know who it was, the account is “unverified” :( Also, there’s a weird post at Amazon Askville: “Where can i find a Hidden pears: Regnum Online Review?” with my article being an answer. I guess, it’s something automated?

I also found my posts being hosted at article websites, though some of them i posted myself at the very beginning of this blog (i thought it will help Google to start indexing me faster), most are just took copied my posts.
Many of my posts appear at Worldportal.us (all of the review i wrote and some other posts), and my post Online Games and Cash Shops: Why People Pay appears on Womans Articles.

And here’s what i am so proud of :) A miniature step for many well-established blogs, but a giant leap for me, heh heh.

@ChickGeekGames Twitter account has been growing too, a few days ago it crossed 2000 followers.

Which is really great, because i met so many interesting people and so many people thought i am interesting enough to follow :)

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You’ve probably never played Vanguard (or if you did – you don’t play anymore), but you definitely heard about it. I’ve met people on Twitter and over the Internets who said they’d play - but because the game was such a big fail it’s “not playable”, and why even try, when “there’s no one in there?”. There’s an initiative by Vanguard players to bring new people into the game, so i wanted to write this post for quite some time now – to disband some common myths formed around Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and to let people know not only that it’s a great game, but also why it’s worth playing after all the bad stuff you might have heard. So, read on and let me open your eyes :) The previous post on this theme was: “Should I Play Vanguard In 2011?” Yes, And Here’s Why: Vanguard Myths Debunked – Myth №1: No One Plays Vanguard”.

Myth Number 2: Vanguard is not upgraded anymore, it’s abandoned by its developers and there is no new content whatsoever, so there is no reason to start playing.

Not true.
Never was fully true and fully not true anymore (no pun intended ;) Vanguard had a very rough past thanks to Sigil owners (i wrote a series of posts about it: Vanguard. Saga Of Heroes: The Famous Fail Beginning And End), and when SOE got it they did practically nothing to improve the situation, to whatever reasons they ever had SOE invested less and less into Vanguard. The upgrades became more and more rare, until they finally stopped somewhere in the beginning of 2010. But… there’s still a very good reason to play Vanguard in 2011! And here is why:

1. Vanguard is going to be upgraded again, soon and often!
At Fan Faire 2011 SOE employee confirmed to Massively that Vanguard is going to receive two upgrades “within the fiscal year” (source). And looks like SOE holds true to the promise, because only a couple of weeks since the announcement Vanguard got a new bug-fixing patch, which is a great start. Many old players are coming back to Vanguard these days, in anticipation of the upcoming upgrades.

2. Even before these upgrades hit the live servers, you aren’t going to run out of content to play with.
If you start playing Vanguard in 2011, right now, this very day and SOE won’t release anything in the next year to come, even then you aren’t going to run out of content! Why? Because Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (and i mentioned it in the previous post on why you should play Vanguard in 2011) has a world of enormous size. It has 3 continents, and a few big towns on them hold together could house the whole RIFT! But, unlike RIFT, you can’t beat Vanguard to level 50 in a week, you’ll need months of playing even if you’re hardcore.

3. Vanguard has a very high rate of replay ability.
It DOES make sense to create several different characters in this game. Take RIFT for example (I’m talking of it because it’s the newest AAA title out there) – you can create a new character, but you will be playing in the very same areas unless you choose a different faction. A third character *must* be played in either one of the areas you already saw. Take Lord of the Rings Online – you could start leveling your different characters in different areas, but will have to come to the same areas still later in the game. How is Vanguard any different?
As i said, Vanguard has 3 very huge continents. You’re supposed to be able to level your character to a very high level *by playing on a single continent*. Back when the game was released the only way to see other continents was to create a whole new character! Imagine, how many content there is to see? And there’s still more!

4. Vanguard has content for all tastes.
How? By using what i could call a “multi-level system”. Each character has 3 different “sides” – Adventurer, Diplomat and Crafter. They all have distinct levels, different experience points and different quests, so leveling up 1 character is like leveling up 3 of them (there is also a Harvester “side” you it has no levels, just skill points). So, you could play as Adventurer one day, then switch to Diplomacy or Crafting when you get bored. Or, you could roll a Crafter-only character – no need to kill stuff to get new crafting levels!

So, as you see, the myth is 100% disproved – there are going to be new upgrades for Vanguard in 2011, and there is a lot to do and to see even before they’re released!

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I sometimes write off-topic posts, but this time it’s even a useful one :) I’m going to tell how to make a cheap lightbox at home, along with lighting system and stuff. Me and my husband are working together on a website project that requires shooting the client’s glass stuff for a catalogue, and we have no professional equipment or the money to buy one, so we built an affordable lightbox and the lights for it right at home. Yes, this post is not exactly related to games, but i wanted to share it with my twitter friends and i don’t have other blogs written on English, so… if you’re not interested, just pass on this post :)

What we used:

For the lightbox itself -
A big cardboard box (a leftover from laser Canon printer/scanner), a roll of tracing paper, two pieces of whatman paper, a big stapler (we used the cheapest model available), a pen, a paper knife and some scotch tape.

For the lighting system -
Two cheap office lamps (with long corbels that could be adjusted in space and also with a fasteners to fix the lamps on the edge of a table), several energy-saving bulbs and a corresponding amount of lamp bases, a few meters of electric cable, a pack of double-row screw terminals, a plastic container (to isolate the terminals), an electric plug with switch and insulating tape.

We also used a stool and a piece of an old IKEA table to assemble things on it, so it won’t clutter up one a working or dining table.

How to make a lightbox 
To build a lightbox i took the cardboard box and cut out all of its sides, leaving the same amount of space on each side to fix the paper on it. The box then turns into a skeletal construction. Then i cut tracing paper to cover two opposite sides of the box – to the left and to the right from the center hole. The paper was then fastened with the stapler so that no light would get into the gaps between it and the box. The last step was to put a big piece of whatman paper so that it would cover the back side of the box and its “floor” side.

Note that the paper is not fastened to a corner between those two sides, so it wouldn’t create an unnecessary shadow. Also, to the left and to the right of the whatman sheet there are two pieces of paper to cover inner sides of the box structure, so they won’t create shadows too. Those sides of the box that were made of two pieces rather than one (where the box was supposed to open) are connected together with scotch tape to make them stronger.

 

The lightbox is practically ready. You should then have a box with two sides (left and right) covered with tracing paper, two sides (back and bottom) – with whatman paper, and two last sides (front and top) are completely free. As an afterthought i think we should also have fixed a piece of cardboard under the whatman layer because it crumbs a little when a weight is put on it. But the box works just fine “as is” if i put a piece of leftover cardboard under the whatman where the item I’m going to shoot will be placed.

How to make a lighting system for the lightbox
That was a lot more complicated and my husband built it, not me. But i observed! :) He designed the system so we have two stationary lamps that could be positioned in the air, and also a third lamp that could be put from up down as long as someone holds it (if we had to station the lamp it would be noticeable behind the box and appear on photos).

So, he measured 4 pieces of electric cable – 3 for the lamps and 1 for the plug. Then double-row screw terminals were used to connect each corresponding cable to a lamp base or to an electric plug.

They were also connected between each other with more double-row screw terminals – 3 cables were connected to the one leading to the plug. A small plastic container was used to enclose and isolate that 4-way connection (the cables were inserted first, then connected to the terminals). All other connections were sealed with insulating tape.

2 of the 3 lamp bases were attached to lamps with insulating tape - the original bulbs were removed and their bases weren’t used because we took some cheap lamps supporting only weak bulbs. The lams are attached to a table top to the sides of the lightbox.

And this is what we got in the end:

The most expensive parts were light bulbs and lamps, also getting the right box could be hard if you aren’t into hoarding them, but we were lucky :))) Overall it was very easy to make and not expensive at all (especially comparing to professional lightboxes!). Also, that piece of IKEA table i didn’t threw out finally found a new life! :) And if we want the light to be softer, i just put another layer of tracing paper above the box and between the sides of it and the lamps (it also keeps dust off the insides), and the big box ensure that a lot of stuff will fit in.

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The game a new self-developed title by Korean studio Liveplex and i wrote about Dragona Online it a while ago (the game is also known as Dragona Story Online). When i wrote that post there has been no indication of English version being in development, but, surprisingly, it looks like Philippines version of Dragona Online will be released in English! The game features its own unique “possession system” which allows game characters to transform into Dragons, and the game’s graphic engine is also very nicely done. As of August 16, 2011 Dragona Online open beta testing has started for Philippines version. Here’s Dragona Online PH official teaser trailer:

 

Also, i found a homemade video of Dragona Online actual gameplay from the closed beta of the same version, it’s right behind the cut.

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After Sony Online Entertainment was being hit by hackers all of its subscribers suffered dearly for the lack of security on SOE’s side. Looks like SOE learned its lessons after all: Fan Fairy 2011 brings announcement of SOE Authenticator being released to ensure account security for all SOE Station accounts. The thing is similar to the device used by Blizzard for World of WarCraft accounts security and will provide its user with a unique, one-time authenticator code (PIN) to use in conjunction with the account’s regular password. How – according to SOE – the thing will work?

There will be physical authenticator devices available for sale right now at SOE.com (9.99$ for USA, and that’s including shipment - overseas orders will cost more), and mobiles applications for iPhone and Android available for free, though they aren’t ready yet. When you get either one of these you’ll be prompted to enter a one-time unique six digits number into your Station account along with your regular password. So, in theory, even if someone steals your account information they won’t be able to access your account without having your Authenticator at hand.

That still leaves open a question on how should you protect your account if you don’t have iPhone or Android and don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money just for the sake of shipping a random number generator with Everquest 2 art on it. I am myself not sure how well this thing will improve security of our accounts, but it’s certainly  going to improve SOE’s financial balance.

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  I don’t like Lineage II (which is probably obvious from my Lineage 2 review), but what i can’t deny this game is the amazing cosplay based on Lineage II characters. While some of LA2 female character costumes are too hot to wear in public, there are still plenty of less sexy Lineage 2 girl costumes to make. Here i stumbled upon the most wonderful costume play work made by what seems to be a Chinese semi-professional community  – at least, the photography and costumes are obviously not made by amateurs, and from what i gather the costumes were presented at ChinaJoy digital entertainment expo. If you want to look at beautiful Lineage 2 elf girls and guys dressed in most elaborate costumes, this post is for you.

All credits for the costumes and photography goes to whenhappy.com team (whoever they might be :) Click on the photos to enlarge them to original size.

 

 

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This is a 4rd post in the series of detailed explanation of how to get your hands on Alicia Online. The previous posts were on how to register an account for Alicia Online, then how to download Alicia Online and finally, how to prepare your system to run Alicia Online and what to do in case it won’t work. I assume you have read all of the previous posts before proceeding to this one or asking any questions. If something doesn’t works, check the comments on all of these posts, maybe your problems was already encountered by someone else and we found a solution for it. If you want to know how to run Alicia Online, keep reading this post! :)

 

*INTERMISSION"*

I’ve decided to create Alicia Online Wiki site for all of us to share information about Alicia. Just finished setting it up yesterday, and it’s pretty much empty right now (except for the guides i have in this blog, they were copied over to Wiki), so I’m asking everyone to please come and join me at Alicia Online Wiki site and help fill it up! If you have anything to share, post it!

After you have installed the game you press Alicia Online shortcut and it opens a browser window with AO website. You have to login first and then press the big “Game Start” button. Note, that the browser opened will be your default browser, but you need Internet Explorer – so if it’s not your default one (most probably not), open the same page in a new IE window or it will NOT work.

Internet Explorer is required because Ntreev made it so the browser installs some plug-in to initiate the game’s client startup.

After you pressed the button Windows might ask if you want to let GametreeLauncher by NtreevSoft Co., Ltd make some changes to your computer – if it will ask or not, depends on your system’s security settings. Answer “yes”.
You will be taken to the following page:

The first (topmost) button will take you back to Alicia website, the second button will attempt to run the script to initiate Alicia startup process again. As you are being taken on this page, you don’t have to press anything right away, because the script was already initiated before you have been forwarded to the page.

If nothing happens for a minute or two, don’t worry, because Gametree launcher is a slowpoke and may take a while to load. Only if a couple of minutes passed and nothing happened, press the second button. If you try to run a copy of Gametree launcher and there is already a copy running, you will get this error:

Check your process list (from ctrl+alt+del menu) if the launcher is there but not responding and shut it down before trying again.

If it finally works, you will see either one of these windows:

It doesn’t really matters, which one, because it’s the same good old Gametree Launcher you were waiting to start. It just displays different pictures. I’m too lazy to type in all the Korean writing to translate them, but you don’t need to check any of the boxes for it to run. The launcher will check if there are any upgrades to the files you have installed and download them if needed:

After that you will see Alicia Online startup logo and HackShield window at the same time:

HackShield runs every time you run Alicia, if will check its own integrity and then proceed with the launch.

You will see another window:

At this step Alicia Online is checking it’s integrity too and loading files to finally start the game.

If something is wrong, you will get an error window. In this case, check this post - How to prepare your system to run Alicia Online – Or What to do if Alicia Won’t work - Step-by-Step Walkthrough

If the game is starting, you will see this screen:

How Alicia Online runs on my system:

Happy playing! :P

A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here:
Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know

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This is a 3rd port in the series of detailed explanation of how to get your hands on Alicia Online. The first was on how to register an account for Alicia Online and then the second on how to download Alicia Online. Let’s assume you have already registered an account, downloaded and installed the game, now i will explain what you need to do in order to run it. If you’re going to do that win Windows 7 OS, you must either own an Ultimate or Enterprise version, because you will need to install Korean Language Pack. Other versions won’t let you install the language pack so Alicia won’t run. So far i haven’t heard of a successful attempt to run Alicia with Vistalizator or something like that, but i can’t verify that it’s 1000% impossible, because i own W7 Ultimate and can’t check for myself. If you were able to run Alicia under other versions of W7 OS, please let me know!

Step 1 – You need to install Korean Language Pack.

If you have Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise.
How to install Language Packs you can read in Microsoft’s support website. You will need to install MUI – Multilingual User Interface packs, which are available only to W7 Ultimate/Enterprise versions.

If you have OTHER versions of Windows 7.
You may try to run Alicia with LIP – Language Interface Packs – available to W7 Home, Professional and Basic.  The difference between MUI and LIP is that MUI translates the whole system and LIP is said to translate only parts of it, how it affects Alicia and if LIPs have everything that it needs in order to run i don’t know. Try it for yourself and please post here what happens. Also, there is a tool called Vistalizator that is supposed to install MUI packs on W7 versions that aren’t allowed by Microsoft to do that naturally. You may want to try it too. Don’t forget to post a comment if it works.

If you have Vista.
You poor tormented soul, i cannot help you… Okay, as far as i know, only Vista Ultimate and Vista Enterprise are allowed to install MUI packs. There is a help page on Microsoft on how to install additional language packs in Vista. Vista Basic, Premium and Business are pretty much screwed just like the corresponding versions of Windows 7. I have heard of a tool called “Vista Multi-User Language Interface Hacker”, you may want to check it out. But generally, you’re on your own here, because i don’t own any Vista versions and i never did, i know nothing of this abomination of Microsoft.

If you have Windows XP, NT or 2000.
Language Packs on any systems below Vista had no version restrictions, so if you own any of these you can install new languages easily. Microsoft also has a help page on how to install language packs in XP, NT or 2000.

If you’re trying to install MUI via Windows Upgrade and it’s not in the list:
1) Check if maybe you have it already.
2) Google for direct download links. There are plenty of them.

Step 2 – Setting language setting in order to run Alicia Online
All of the example screenshots below were taken in Windows 7 Ultimate. If you own Vista, XP, etc. look into your system, it’s not so very different from what I’m showing here.

Go to Control Panel > Region and Language and set Current language for non-Unicode programs to Korean:

You will have to restart your system for the changes to work. After that, you can try to launch Alicia, proceed to this post: 
How to run Alicia Online – Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Fixing problems in case Alicia won’t run.

If after doing Step 2 Alicia won’t run, you may want to try taking some of the following measures, or if it keeps refusing to work, do all of them at the same time.

Change font settings.
Go to Control panel > Fonts > Font settings and UNCHECK “Hide fonts based on language settings”.

Change system location.
In the same dialogue as in Step 2, change Current location to Korea:

Change system language.
You can do it in the same dialogue as in Step 2, in a list below “Choose a display language”.

Note, that after you press Apply, the system will ask you to restart in order to apply the changes, and when it starts again, all interface will be in Korean. So you may want to save a shortcut to Region and Language settings somewhere.

How to change system language back to your while your Windows is all Korean.

Open Start and select the fifth option from the top, Control Panel:

Go to Region and Language:

Open 3rd tab from the left. It’s the same screen where you set Korean as system language.

A list of other posts about Alicia Online can be found here:
Alicia Online: Fresh News, Tips and All You Wanted to Know

Read more...