This time around the Hotline program did not lose any current options. Instead only two options were added, which made things extremely simple to update. In the OptionPanel class the new JButton variables were created and added to the very end of the GUI. Then the file output was updated to add the number of calls taken for these new categories to the very end of the file, so as not to displace any current call values.
This took care of the OptionPanel, the ReportPanel required just as few changes. Basically a new qualifier had to be created that covered the time from the last update (April 2009) to the new one (June 2009). Then the default qualifier, everything from June 2009 onward, covered the two new call categories. Those were the only changes required to include the new call categories. Now the page actually is full, before there were empty spots for JButtons in the display as I didn't have the correct number of options for full rows. Now I do so the GUI looks more complete.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Diablo II: Frost Zealot Skill Layout
A Frost Zealot is a Paladin that utilizes the Holy Freeze aura to deal cold damage to his enemies. A side effect of this aura is that it slows down 90% of the monsters movement rate as well. This type of character has a few different avenues for skill placement available, for my purposes I am dealing with only the pure cold damage variation that has minimal backup skills. As a result the mercenary is relied upon to help out against any Cold Immune monsters encountered. The skill setup is as follows:
Might - 1
Sacrifice - 1
Smite - 1
Holy Fire - 1
Holy Bolt - 1
At level six the character has a single point Holy Fire aura active that adds additional fire damage to all attacks. Might is also available and depending on the equipment found Might may be more damaging than Holy Fire. Either one will allow the character to deal decent damage to the monsters encountered and progress should be fairly smooth.
Zeal - 1
Charge - 1
At level twelve one of the character's main skills becomes available, Zeal. With Zeal the character is now attacking multiple targets at a time and dealing out damage faster than before. It does require mana, so if any mana steal equipment can be found this would be very helpful. However Zeal requires so little mana that such equipment isn't absolutely necessary and the character could simply drink a mana potion from time to time instead.
Holy Freeze - 1
Zeal - 4
Resist Cold - 1
At level eighteen the main damaging skill is now available, Holy Freeze. This will add increasing amounts of cold damage to all attacks as well as slow down any monster's movement within a certain radius. Along with this Zeal has been increased to the point where the maximum number of attacks per cycle is achieved at five. This allows the character to attack many targets at once, or a single target multiple times faster than using the normal attack. Thus increasing his killing ability and speeding up progress through the acts.
Holy Freeze - 20
The first thing that is done is the main skill, Holy Freeze, is maxed out. This is achieved at level thirty-four. At this time the character is dealing significant damage to enemies and they are all slowed by by at least 54%. This significantly increases the character's survivability as monsters don't hit him as often while he is hitting back rather hard.
Blessed Hammer - 1
Holy Shield - 5
Resist Cold - 20
The next thing to do is to max the main synergy for Holy Freeze, Resist Cold, and this is accomplished by level fifty-two. Maxing this synergy boosts the damage done by the character even more and allows his progress through the acts to remain steady as the hit points of the monsters encountered increases accordingly. Up to this point blocking has not been an issue, but moving forward through the end of Normal and into Nightmare it becomes a necessity. As such Holy Shield is given enough points so that a single cast lasts a respectable amount of time and it won't fade in the middle of a heated battle.
Holy Shield - 10
Salvation - 20
By level seventy-six Holy Shield is given enough points so that the duration is significant, as is the bonus to blocking percentage. It isn't require to max this skill as the character still won't be able to boost defense into the ten thousand range and this build is rather tight when it comes to skill points. But level 10, along with any plus skills from equipment, is sufficient to protect the character. As this build is going for pure cold damage, Salvation is the next Holy Freeze synergy to be maxed. While it doesn't provide as much of a bonus as Resist Cold, it's contribution is significant enough that maxing it is desired.
At this point all of the main skills have the hard points they need to make the build viable before entering Hell difficulty. Everything from here onward is simply gravy. To that end I suggest putting points into Zeal. The character is relying purely on cold damage to deal with monsters, and there are plenty of CIs in Hell. Against them the character is depending on the mercenary to handle those types of monsters, however some help against them would be welcome. To that end Zeal is given all additional skill points to increase the character's physical damage, as well as increase the attack rating of the character to ensure a decent hit percentage. The damage done by the character physically won't be massive, but every bit will help when encountering CIs. Simply understand that fights against those types of monsters will take a little longer than against non-CIs.
Might - 1
Sacrifice - 1
Smite - 1
Holy Fire - 1
Holy Bolt - 1
At level six the character has a single point Holy Fire aura active that adds additional fire damage to all attacks. Might is also available and depending on the equipment found Might may be more damaging than Holy Fire. Either one will allow the character to deal decent damage to the monsters encountered and progress should be fairly smooth.
Zeal - 1
Charge - 1
At level twelve one of the character's main skills becomes available, Zeal. With Zeal the character is now attacking multiple targets at a time and dealing out damage faster than before. It does require mana, so if any mana steal equipment can be found this would be very helpful. However Zeal requires so little mana that such equipment isn't absolutely necessary and the character could simply drink a mana potion from time to time instead.
Holy Freeze - 1
Zeal - 4
Resist Cold - 1
At level eighteen the main damaging skill is now available, Holy Freeze. This will add increasing amounts of cold damage to all attacks as well as slow down any monster's movement within a certain radius. Along with this Zeal has been increased to the point where the maximum number of attacks per cycle is achieved at five. This allows the character to attack many targets at once, or a single target multiple times faster than using the normal attack. Thus increasing his killing ability and speeding up progress through the acts.
Holy Freeze - 20
The first thing that is done is the main skill, Holy Freeze, is maxed out. This is achieved at level thirty-four. At this time the character is dealing significant damage to enemies and they are all slowed by by at least 54%. This significantly increases the character's survivability as monsters don't hit him as often while he is hitting back rather hard.
Blessed Hammer - 1
Holy Shield - 5
Resist Cold - 20
The next thing to do is to max the main synergy for Holy Freeze, Resist Cold, and this is accomplished by level fifty-two. Maxing this synergy boosts the damage done by the character even more and allows his progress through the acts to remain steady as the hit points of the monsters encountered increases accordingly. Up to this point blocking has not been an issue, but moving forward through the end of Normal and into Nightmare it becomes a necessity. As such Holy Shield is given enough points so that a single cast lasts a respectable amount of time and it won't fade in the middle of a heated battle.
Holy Shield - 10
Salvation - 20
By level seventy-six Holy Shield is given enough points so that the duration is significant, as is the bonus to blocking percentage. It isn't require to max this skill as the character still won't be able to boost defense into the ten thousand range and this build is rather tight when it comes to skill points. But level 10, along with any plus skills from equipment, is sufficient to protect the character. As this build is going for pure cold damage, Salvation is the next Holy Freeze synergy to be maxed. While it doesn't provide as much of a bonus as Resist Cold, it's contribution is significant enough that maxing it is desired.
At this point all of the main skills have the hard points they need to make the build viable before entering Hell difficulty. Everything from here onward is simply gravy. To that end I suggest putting points into Zeal. The character is relying purely on cold damage to deal with monsters, and there are plenty of CIs in Hell. Against them the character is depending on the mercenary to handle those types of monsters, however some help against them would be welcome. To that end Zeal is given all additional skill points to increase the character's physical damage, as well as increase the attack rating of the character to ensure a decent hit percentage. The damage done by the character physically won't be massive, but every bit will help when encountering CIs. Simply understand that fights against those types of monsters will take a little longer than against non-CIs.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Online Game: Castle Age
Recently I've gotten involved in a Facebook application named Castle Age. It's a realtime text-based game centered around the medieval age. In this game the player is king and hires soldiers and buys land as well as equipment for the soldiers. The main point of the game is to complete a series of quests to reap the rewards given as well as engage other players in combat. Players can choose which aspect they wish to concentrate on however, as neither combat nor questing is absolutely required.
A player has a certain amount of health and energy available to them, and these regenerate over time. The energy is used to complete quests, a certain amount is necessary to attempt a quest and a quest needs to be completed a certain amount of times before the player may move on to the next quest. This is called gaining influence in that quest, and the player needs to reach 100% before they can move onto the next quest.
Health on the other hand is used only when battling another player. This can be done in one of two ways, either invading or dueling. Invading involves bringing your entire army to combat the other player, winner takes all. Conversely dueling is a one on one fight between your general and the other players active general. After each fight both sides lose a random amount of health and if either reaches zero that player is "eliminated". Being eliminated doesn't affect the player more than making them lose six experience points. A player can be eliminated multiple times with no derogatory affects onto their account.
Personally I'm not so interested in battling strangers for the off chance I can steal some of their gold. Instead I only concentrate on completing the quests and building my defenses to repulse invading armies from my kingdom. As a result this means I level my character slower than others as I'm not gaining experience from fights and only from quests. As this game isn't really a race, this is fine by me.
To this end I've invested some of my stat points into Energy to ensure I can perform multiple quests at a time. I wanted to make sure that I could leave the game for extended periods of time and not have to worry that I lost energy, so I plan on having 120 Energy total that means I can be gone for ten hours with no ill effects. All of the rest of my stat points go into Defense, in the attempt to win more battles than I lose when defending. I am willing to retaliate against those that attack me, but if I can't when I notice the attack, if the other player is too low in health, then I ignore them and continue on my merry way with questing.
Overall the game is pretty entertaining, and not too much of a time sink. In the beginning one is forced to login often to use up the small store of Energy that accumulates, but as stat points are put into Energy logging in becomes a less frequent occurrence. It is a fairly quick game however, as after a month of playing I have completed four of the five currently available quest areas. The last one should take two months to complete but with no reward at the end isn't something I have to worry about much. So as long as I don't concern myself too much with my battle stats or win/loss ratio it is a decent distraction from time to time but not something I have to feel is taking over my life, as I am rather limited in terms of what I can do in the game.
A player has a certain amount of health and energy available to them, and these regenerate over time. The energy is used to complete quests, a certain amount is necessary to attempt a quest and a quest needs to be completed a certain amount of times before the player may move on to the next quest. This is called gaining influence in that quest, and the player needs to reach 100% before they can move onto the next quest.
Health on the other hand is used only when battling another player. This can be done in one of two ways, either invading or dueling. Invading involves bringing your entire army to combat the other player, winner takes all. Conversely dueling is a one on one fight between your general and the other players active general. After each fight both sides lose a random amount of health and if either reaches zero that player is "eliminated". Being eliminated doesn't affect the player more than making them lose six experience points. A player can be eliminated multiple times with no derogatory affects onto their account.
Personally I'm not so interested in battling strangers for the off chance I can steal some of their gold. Instead I only concentrate on completing the quests and building my defenses to repulse invading armies from my kingdom. As a result this means I level my character slower than others as I'm not gaining experience from fights and only from quests. As this game isn't really a race, this is fine by me.
To this end I've invested some of my stat points into Energy to ensure I can perform multiple quests at a time. I wanted to make sure that I could leave the game for extended periods of time and not have to worry that I lost energy, so I plan on having 120 Energy total that means I can be gone for ten hours with no ill effects. All of the rest of my stat points go into Defense, in the attempt to win more battles than I lose when defending. I am willing to retaliate against those that attack me, but if I can't when I notice the attack, if the other player is too low in health, then I ignore them and continue on my merry way with questing.
Overall the game is pretty entertaining, and not too much of a time sink. In the beginning one is forced to login often to use up the small store of Energy that accumulates, but as stat points are put into Energy logging in becomes a less frequent occurrence. It is a fairly quick game however, as after a month of playing I have completed four of the five currently available quest areas. The last one should take two months to complete but with no reward at the end isn't something I have to worry about much. So as long as I don't concern myself too much with my battle stats or win/loss ratio it is a decent distraction from time to time but not something I have to feel is taking over my life, as I am rather limited in terms of what I can do in the game.
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