@FuzzYD: Go I think our situation is quite similar. Three years have I shared with this sweet! sweet girl. She approached me, one day, not going after anyone else despite what distance I kept with people, she came to me, surprisingly, with all her light and cute little hands. She would always request a hug. All the time.
I walked the darkness. For a week, I literally were blinded by the most obscure will, I ventured to the far end of the country, of myself, I let my intentions dance with an idea that was night. Never coming back would not scare my mind, for it was deliverance; slowly loosened grip, slowly strength becoming an echo I would hear and forget; what was Death? An open road ahead, expanded upon the very road my feet walked and met. There was rain.
I remember this rain.
The thoughts that crossed my mind. She... was there. Not that I ever told what I saw of her, how she dressed, merely how she looked absolutely gorgeous— I couldn't. It would have been lying to myself; for my words lack the power to draw her.
Today is all weird. We're friends. Ordinary so. For months I fought to reverse things. The most terrible thing which happens is never breaking up. It's forgetting. Letting the good times go, letting it all die, parting away with your own life, miserable, unrecognizable to what your heart once projected.
She wishes I find someone. I wish her the same. How does that work?... I can't give a damn about any other girl. I smile. I'm not going to bother her, not anymore. I'll sing No Woman, No Cry... and be done with it.
I'm actually kind of scared to get back into WoW...I was 12, until I was 14 I basically wasted my life on that game...From the time school was finished to bed time it was World of Warcraft. Like it really looks cool, but I seriously need help with portion control. T_T
If you had fun playing the game and meeting with other players, do not regret that time. Even if you wish you played less.
Times goes, it's okay, you have so much more ahead of you. Keep the good memories. And explore new avenues.
Admittedly, I owe to a movie my rediscovery of the band. Before watching Across the Universe, which features cover versions of The Beatles, I thought, ''Okay, cool. Let's see how it delivers. ''
Next thing you know I was browsing through the albums, listening to all and every song.
Am I the only one here who enjoys ballads that are accompanied by a piano or guitar? Sweet soothing instrumental melodies are my choice of music. Most of it ain't english though.. Its either Japanese or Chinese. I can't stand most of the songs of the newer generations, its just noise to my ears -_- the beats are just so inconsistent.
One man for you: Jesse Cook. His guitar play is all soothing and sweet and awesome. and are must-listen.
@s3rius: Go Video game music wise, I think we can all agree this is a In fact, the soundtracks of all 3 games bring back so many good memories. I've rarely heard music that enhances the game so well, that fits flawlessly with the characters, the theme, the rhythm, music that drags you so deep within the world.
Some other soundtrack which sucked me in is 's. This ode literally writes '' E P I C '' all over the sky.
I think one reason I got burned out so fast in LK, was because they stopped bringing that creativity to the boss fights that they used to. There have been some amazingly fun bosses in LK, but nothing like Vanilla days, or even TBC. Of course, it's hard to come up with new ways to challenge your players.
I found Ulduar really interesting and the Mimiron encounter, amazing. Of course, it was hands down the best instance of WotlK and no amount of awesomeness can excuse the fiasco known as ''Trial of the Crusader''. Icecrown Citadel, while not a bad raid by any means, lacked the ambitious audacity put behind the design of Ulduar and there aren't many encounters that feel memorable, The Lich King being a fortunate exception.
The WotlK raiding experience would likely have been better if Blizzard didn't try so many things, at least after 3.1. I mean, the rehash of Naxx wasn't the end of the world, they explored an interesting concept with the Obsidian Sanctum. Climbing the difficulty levels from 0 to 3 dragons felt great, the fight was altered, and it was rewarding. They extended the concept with Ulduar and from my perspective, it has been the pinnacle of WoW raiding since 2004 : every player could get in, you had optional bosses, variety, good rewards (even a Legendary!) and the difficulty and accessibility never reached so many guilds. The concept of hard modes triggered in original manners, sometimes offering up to 5 difficulty levels with appropriate rewards, is precisely the design Blizzard should of kept (albeit with a limited number of bosses).
Why they purposely regressed with ToC, I cannot fathom. You'd think a 5-boss instance would be the perfect opportunity to offer original bosses, while exploring new avenues for hard modes. Instead, not only have they recycled old stuff, but worse, they chose to offer two difficulties : ''pug-level'' and ''hardcore''. I mean, wait, what? That's so silly. So incredibly silly. I would have preferred 3.2's raid content not to exist at all and see 3.3 buffed or released earlier, than receive this silly slap. Then they totally scrap Ulduar's design of hard modes and go on with Icecrown linear-modes, which do not even unlock hard modes right away for guilds who faceroll normal mode. Blizzard's gating the content but in a bad way. =/
This is why I'm skeptical about the future of raiding and Cataclysm. They had it right and changed their mind. That's not to say they lack the talent and expertise to pull off an ''Ulduar-move'' again. But I deplore the odds the raiding experience will further suffer from unwarranted experimentation.
I've got to say, I stand in Mozared's boat. I'll listen to virtually anything that pleases my ears. I don't care if it's popular, or hated, sung by teenagers, mainstream, or largely unknown : I like what I like. To add some artists to this thread :
The Fountain OSD, composed by Clint Mansell. I've been listening to all tracks ever since I saw the movie ; I can never hear enough.
All albums of Jewel. I grew up with my parents listening a lot to her, more so when they needed to relax. As a result, her voice has this inherent power to immediately calm me.
Bob Marley's reggae. Quite possibly the only reggae I ever listen to, but man, do I love it!
Recently came across Tom Pyrdol when browsing the SC2 official forums. Apparently he's the author of several songs played on piano. You can look him up on Youtube ; ''Annie'' is a jewel.
Jesse Cook and his guitar sound marvelous. No vocals to be heard, either.
Side note: I like Era too. One of my closest friends, who made me discover the band, personally *knows* one of its members. (:
I believe the title system linked to Battlegrounds is making a return. Ranges from ''Corporal'' to ''Marshal'' (Alliance) and ''Grunt'' to ''General'' (Horde).
The leveling experience grew you into your character. Now? You just rush to 80 as quick as possible or else you quit. You skip all that growing, and all the exploring. The different brackets of PvP adventures, the social friendships formed while WALKING, yes WALKING to BRD or Wailing Caverns.
I don't think the leveling experience has gotten any worse. Following the XP cap reductions, perhaps the heirlooms are 'overkill' in that they unnecessarily shorten the path further, but that's up for debate. If anything, the quests are now more varied, new zones are being added while the old ones are getting a second life, there are more pets and items and dungeons than ever. This is not to say I don't hear you about the LFG changes — instant-summoning doesn't feel right to me neither, yet many appreciate the feature.
What can we say? It's the game evolving. For every move Blizzard takes, there are players to raise their thumb and players to mourn the change. And, honestly, I don't think anyone's really right or wrong about it ; there are wishes that are mutually exclusive. You like the Arenas, I think they're the bane of WoW as I believe Blizzard should have always put more emphasis on Battlegrounds as far as PvP is concerned, for a multitude of reasons — but hey, they're here to stay and it's fine.
Let's be honest to ourselves : we like or dislike the direction WoW is taking because we fit in a certain crowd. I can see why some players prefer shorter dungeons. I can see why hard-earned rewards are appreciated. I can understand why the concept of Hero classes is frown upon. I can regret the feeling of epicness some 40-man raids provided. I can even hate Blizzard's choice to shrug off Ulduar's originality when dealing with hard modes in profit of a linear drop-box and number tweaks. But all of this, is not due to the game getting worse, catering to casuals, or what have you — we grow up as players and our interests do not always match a game's direction, that is all.
I once ate a Blizzard (variation of a McFlurry) and suffered from an inflammation. Which lasted about 3 days. Hurt so much I could hardly walk...
What's sad is I keep hurting myself in the most improbable ways. My family sort of just learned to shrug it off ; just last week I got hit by a car in front of the house. For what's worth my life I couldn't see the car coming even after I looked at the street. The woman was kind enough to stop by right way and ask how I was. Bleeding hand (from hitting the asphalt) and leg hurt at two points. Nothing to worry about, mate. Next thing you know I was back on feet and kicking, running to catch my bus.
It's the kind of thing that only really starts hurting the next day.
Stopped playing about 5 months ago. While I quit for a multitude of reasons, I can't say I disliked the experience. I have met and played with numerous friends, many of which I keep contact with, through the Real ID feature and beyond. Dungeons, Raids, everything up to Arthas I have visited and vanquished, sometimes with a hella lot of trouble, but vanquished nonetheless. Between Karazhan, Ulduar and Sunwell, through the legendary Deadmines and Halls of Dwarf Sexyness, I have been challenged and rewarded greatly. To this day, my Priest still wields a Val'anyr.
About Cataclysm? I say it looks promising. But making a return? Ugh. When you suddenly earn back hours of weekly free time, with no engagement to raid specific days, you kind of... don't want to look back. You could of course play ''casually'', but that's unsatisfying : you are used to end-game content, you seek the hardest challenges. Oh well. I will probably buy a month at some point, if only to visit the refreshed zones.
In any case, I definitely experienced a lot of great moments throughout the years. (:
I wish I could attend a midnight release. Unfortunately, the store I pre-ordered at will only open 30 minutes earlier, which is a whooping... 9h00 am. Oh well. Will at least get my hands on a collector's edition. =)
I find motivation by improving. For instance, I'm working on a fan site (sorta) which I want to hold loads of unique artwork inspired from the Starcraft universe. To achieve this, I dedicate myself at learning and using some applications to create what I hope will turn out to be half-decent.
The process is enjoyable because with every new piece created, I find areas to improve upon, I learn how to read shapes better so my models are more believable. I invest steady amounts of efforts and things just keep getting prettier and nicer. My current avatar is a quick mothership I modeled weeks ago, based on the in-game model, and even then I can totally see how I'd do it in a different, more efficient way.
The cool thing about all this is throwing yourself at doing something you have no initial affinity with (other than passion) is it teaches you how to better appreciate and admire what people achieve with the same tools. My respect for Blizzard's artists went up a bit when I started looking more closely at their models and scenes. And that motivates me even further, just having this far, far, far away seal of quality I can aspire to. =)
I don't know about a standalone Previewer, however, what version of Starcraft 2 are you running? Did it always crash or was the problem introduced in a recent patch?
You can export from Blender. However, alike other 3d applications, it does not support by default the format used by the Galaxy Editor (.m3). For each application, it will require that a plug-in be written through scripts, and I'm unsure wether Blizzard will eventually provide such plug-ins or not.
Luckily for us, some programers like the game enough to do this work. :D NiNtoxicated01, from the Sc2Mapster community, delivered (and is still updating, as far as I can tell) a plug-in compatible with 3ds Max, a common high-end application. There's also someone that seems willing to write a plug-in for Blender as well, as shown in the second thread I linked you. Can't vouch for him though.
This being said, I would suggest you keep learning and practicing with Blender. It may or may not end up directly supporting exports (through a plug-in) to the Sc2 GEditor, however you could get yourself the 3ds Max trial and then Export from Blender > Import into 3ds Max > Export through NiNtoxicated01's plug-in > Import into the Galaxy Editor. Yeah, it does seem a bit tedious, but it's all that's available for now and you're not alone wishing it gets easier. (If you ever happen to switch —and that's a bit more of a general tip here— to another program, the time spent learning an application is never wasted, as there's so much to learn about space, lighting, compositing, heck everything that makes a creation attractive —and that transcends applications frameworks.)
So if you have 3DS max, how do you export it into sc2?
Man this is certainly confusing
I think you'll find the necessary explanations in the first link I gave ya.
I'd like to add you really shouldn't let small inconveniances refrain you from pursuing your 3d modeling goals. Starcraft 2 is a young game (some may say it isn't born yet!) and it's perfectly normal we face some technical difficulties. Don't let this matter bother you and instead keep focusing on getting better with handling the application's tools, read some tutorials and try them out, work on the proportions and so forth.
There's obviously a lot to learn, to develop and to master, but I swear, it's worth every minute if you're into it. It's just so gratifying. ;)
Unfortunately, I think it only works with Autodesk 3D Studio Max thus far, although some work-arounds can be made if you import meshes under compatible formats into 3ds Max. (Using certain softwares, such as Maya, allows this.)
don't you feel like you could put this on a TD map and it would be more fun than using the usual stuff?
Oh absolutely. It's one of the reasons I'm trying to get better at modeling myself. Being able to create and implement custom structures is something I've dreamt of since I started playing Warcraft 3. =)
0
@FuzzYD: Go I think our situation is quite similar. Three years have I shared with this sweet! sweet girl. She approached me, one day, not going after anyone else despite what distance I kept with people, she came to me, surprisingly, with all her light and cute little hands. She would always request a hug. All the time.
I walked the darkness. For a week, I literally were blinded by the most obscure will, I ventured to the far end of the country, of myself, I let my intentions dance with an idea that was night. Never coming back would not scare my mind, for it was deliverance; slowly loosened grip, slowly strength becoming an echo I would hear and forget; what was Death? An open road ahead, expanded upon the very road my feet walked and met. There was rain.
I remember this rain.
The thoughts that crossed my mind. She... was there. Not that I ever told what I saw of her, how she dressed, merely how she looked absolutely gorgeous— I couldn't. It would have been lying to myself; for my words lack the power to draw her.
Today is all weird. We're friends. Ordinary so. For months I fought to reverse things. The most terrible thing which happens is never breaking up. It's forgetting. Letting the good times go, letting it all die, parting away with your own life, miserable, unrecognizable to what your heart once projected.
She wishes I find someone. I wish her the same. How does that work?... I can't give a damn about any other girl. I smile. I'm not going to bother her, not anymore. I'll sing No Woman, No Cry... and be done with it.
0
If you had fun playing the game and meeting with other players, do not regret that time. Even if you wish you played less.
Times goes, it's okay, you have so much more ahead of you. Keep the good memories. And explore new avenues.
0
I dreamed a friend of mine reintroduced me to WoW.
I now want my night back. If anything, let me dream about Starcraft!
(Dreaming about medics can get pretty sweet. See by the 1m50s mark for reference.)
0
I'm surprised! No , anyone?
Admittedly, I owe to a movie my rediscovery of the band. Before watching Across the Universe, which features cover versions of The Beatles, I thought, ''Okay, cool. Let's see how it delivers. ''
Next thing you know I was browsing through the albums, listening to all and every song.
One man for you: Jesse Cook. His guitar play is all soothing and sweet and awesome. and are must-listen.
@s3rius: Go Video game music wise, I think we can all agree this is a In fact, the soundtracks of all 3 games bring back so many good memories. I've rarely heard music that enhances the game so well, that fits flawlessly with the characters, the theme, the rhythm, music that drags you so deep within the world.
Some other soundtrack which sucked me in is 's. This ode literally writes '' E P I C '' all over the sky.
0
I found Ulduar really interesting and the Mimiron encounter, amazing. Of course, it was hands down the best instance of WotlK and no amount of awesomeness can excuse the fiasco known as ''Trial of the Crusader''. Icecrown Citadel, while not a bad raid by any means, lacked the ambitious audacity put behind the design of Ulduar and there aren't many encounters that feel memorable, The Lich King being a fortunate exception.
The WotlK raiding experience would likely have been better if Blizzard didn't try so many things, at least after 3.1. I mean, the rehash of Naxx wasn't the end of the world, they explored an interesting concept with the Obsidian Sanctum. Climbing the difficulty levels from 0 to 3 dragons felt great, the fight was altered, and it was rewarding. They extended the concept with Ulduar and from my perspective, it has been the pinnacle of WoW raiding since 2004 : every player could get in, you had optional bosses, variety, good rewards (even a Legendary!) and the difficulty and accessibility never reached so many guilds. The concept of hard modes triggered in original manners, sometimes offering up to 5 difficulty levels with appropriate rewards, is precisely the design Blizzard should of kept (albeit with a limited number of bosses).
Why they purposely regressed with ToC, I cannot fathom. You'd think a 5-boss instance would be the perfect opportunity to offer original bosses, while exploring new avenues for hard modes. Instead, not only have they recycled old stuff, but worse, they chose to offer two difficulties : ''pug-level'' and ''hardcore''. I mean, wait, what? That's so silly. So incredibly silly. I would have preferred 3.2's raid content not to exist at all and see 3.3 buffed or released earlier, than receive this silly slap. Then they totally scrap Ulduar's design of hard modes and go on with Icecrown linear-modes, which do not even unlock hard modes right away for guilds who faceroll normal mode. Blizzard's gating the content but in a bad way. =/
This is why I'm skeptical about the future of raiding and Cataclysm. They had it right and changed their mind. That's not to say they lack the talent and expertise to pull off an ''Ulduar-move'' again. But I deplore the odds the raiding experience will further suffer from unwarranted experimentation.
0
I've got to say, I stand in Mozared's boat. I'll listen to virtually anything that pleases my ears. I don't care if it's popular, or hated, sung by teenagers, mainstream, or largely unknown : I like what I like. To add some artists to this thread :
Side note: I like Era too. One of my closest friends, who made me discover the band, personally *knows* one of its members. (:
0
I believe the title system linked to Battlegrounds is making a return. Ranges from ''Corporal'' to ''Marshal'' (Alliance) and ''Grunt'' to ''General'' (Horde).
I don't think the leveling experience has gotten any worse. Following the XP cap reductions, perhaps the heirlooms are 'overkill' in that they unnecessarily shorten the path further, but that's up for debate. If anything, the quests are now more varied, new zones are being added while the old ones are getting a second life, there are more pets and items and dungeons than ever. This is not to say I don't hear you about the LFG changes — instant-summoning doesn't feel right to me neither, yet many appreciate the feature.
What can we say? It's the game evolving. For every move Blizzard takes, there are players to raise their thumb and players to mourn the change. And, honestly, I don't think anyone's really right or wrong about it ; there are wishes that are mutually exclusive. You like the Arenas, I think they're the bane of WoW as I believe Blizzard should have always put more emphasis on Battlegrounds as far as PvP is concerned, for a multitude of reasons — but hey, they're here to stay and it's fine.
Let's be honest to ourselves : we like or dislike the direction WoW is taking because we fit in a certain crowd. I can see why some players prefer shorter dungeons. I can see why hard-earned rewards are appreciated. I can understand why the concept of Hero classes is frown upon. I can regret the feeling of epicness some 40-man raids provided. I can even hate Blizzard's choice to shrug off Ulduar's originality when dealing with hard modes in profit of a linear drop-box and number tweaks. But all of this, is not due to the game getting worse, catering to casuals, or what have you — we grow up as players and our interests do not always match a game's direction, that is all.
0
I once ate a Blizzard (variation of a McFlurry) and suffered from an inflammation. Which lasted about 3 days. Hurt so much I could hardly walk...
What's sad is I keep hurting myself in the most improbable ways. My family sort of just learned to shrug it off ; just last week I got hit by a car in front of the house. For what's worth my life I couldn't see the car coming even after I looked at the street. The woman was kind enough to stop by right way and ask how I was. Bleeding hand (from hitting the asphalt) and leg hurt at two points. Nothing to worry about, mate. Next thing you know I was back on feet and kicking, running to catch my bus.
It's the kind of thing that only really starts hurting the next day.
0
Stopped playing about 5 months ago. While I quit for a multitude of reasons, I can't say I disliked the experience. I have met and played with numerous friends, many of which I keep contact with, through the Real ID feature and beyond. Dungeons, Raids, everything up to Arthas I have visited and vanquished, sometimes with a hella lot of trouble, but vanquished nonetheless. Between Karazhan, Ulduar and Sunwell, through the legendary Deadmines and Halls of Dwarf Sexyness, I have been challenged and rewarded greatly. To this day, my Priest still wields a Val'anyr.
About Cataclysm? I say it looks promising. But making a return? Ugh. When you suddenly earn back hours of weekly free time, with no engagement to raid specific days, you kind of... don't want to look back. You could of course play ''casually'', but that's unsatisfying : you are used to end-game content, you seek the hardest challenges. Oh well. I will probably buy a month at some point, if only to visit the refreshed zones.
In any case, I definitely experienced a lot of great moments throughout the years. (:
0
I wish I could attend a midnight release. Unfortunately, the store I pre-ordered at will only open 30 minutes earlier, which is a whooping... 9h00 am. Oh well. Will at least get my hands on a collector's edition. =)
0
Bouleau.488 (US)
0
I find motivation by improving. For instance, I'm working on a fan site (sorta) which I want to hold loads of unique artwork inspired from the Starcraft universe. To achieve this, I dedicate myself at learning and using some applications to create what I hope will turn out to be half-decent.
The process is enjoyable because with every new piece created, I find areas to improve upon, I learn how to read shapes better so my models are more believable. I invest steady amounts of efforts and things just keep getting prettier and nicer. My current avatar is a quick mothership I modeled weeks ago, based on the in-game model, and even then I can totally see how I'd do it in a different, more efficient way.
The cool thing about all this is throwing yourself at doing something you have no initial affinity with (other than passion) is it teaches you how to better appreciate and admire what people achieve with the same tools. My respect for Blizzard's artists went up a bit when I started looking more closely at their models and scenes. And that motivates me even further, just having this far, far, far away seal of quality I can aspire to. =)
0
@Skoite: Go
I don't know about a standalone Previewer, however, what version of Starcraft 2 are you running? Did it always crash or was the problem introduced in a recent patch?
@BrotherLaz: Go
As far as I'm concerned, the Previewer only started crashing with Patch 15. It worked (and works) perfectly fine with previous versions.
0
You can export from Blender. However, alike other 3d applications, it does not support by default the format used by the Galaxy Editor (.m3). For each application, it will require that a plug-in be written through scripts, and I'm unsure wether Blizzard will eventually provide such plug-ins or not.
Luckily for us, some programers like the game enough to do this work. :D NiNtoxicated01, from the Sc2Mapster community, delivered (and is still updating, as far as I can tell) a plug-in compatible with 3ds Max, a common high-end application. There's also someone that seems willing to write a plug-in for Blender as well, as shown in the second thread I linked you. Can't vouch for him though.
This being said, I would suggest you keep learning and practicing with Blender. It may or may not end up directly supporting exports (through a plug-in) to the Sc2 GEditor, however you could get yourself the 3ds Max trial and then Export from Blender > Import into 3ds Max > Export through NiNtoxicated01's plug-in > Import into the Galaxy Editor. Yeah, it does seem a bit tedious, but it's all that's available for now and you're not alone wishing it gets easier. (If you ever happen to switch —and that's a bit more of a general tip here— to another program, the time spent learning an application is never wasted, as there's so much to learn about space, lighting, compositing, heck everything that makes a creation attractive —and that transcends applications frameworks.)
For the time being, and given you get NiNtoxicated01's plug-in, that is correct. Things can (and are likely) to evolve though.
I think you'll find the necessary explanations in the first link I gave ya.
I'd like to add you really shouldn't let small inconveniances refrain you from pursuing your 3d modeling goals. Starcraft 2 is a young game (some may say it isn't born yet!) and it's perfectly normal we face some technical difficulties. Don't let this matter bother you and instead keep focusing on getting better with handling the application's tools, read some tutorials and try them out, work on the proportions and so forth.
There's obviously a lot to learn, to develop and to master, but I swear, it's worth every minute if you're into it. It's just so gratifying. ;)
0
The following thread highlights the procedures : http://forums.sc2mapster.com/mapping-utilities/third-party-tools/963-m3-exporter/#posts
Unfortunately, I think it only works with Autodesk 3D Studio Max thus far, although some work-arounds can be made if you import meshes under compatible formats into 3ds Max. (Using certain softwares, such as Maya, allows this.)
As far as Blender is concerned, there's this thread that recently popped : http://forums.sc2mapster.com/development/artist-tavern/3173-any-importers-exporters-found-for-freeware-editing/#p8 I don't think I can help further though.
Oh absolutely. It's one of the reasons I'm trying to get better at modeling myself. Being able to create and implement custom structures is something I've dreamt of since I started playing Warcraft 3. =)