Morning Discussion

A little later today we're going to have some quick impressions of the final, PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops in 3D. On Monday, we're doing a Kill/Death Ratio comparison piece where we pit 2D versus 3D. I'm interested to see if the tech will improve my gameplay.

There's no doubt that Call of Duty: Black Ops is a big game--according to sales it's one of the biggest single titles in entertainment history. But, who really cares about all that? I only bought one copy. The point, when I pitched these features, was to focus on specific concepts of the game. Was the PC version solid? We examined that. Are new players prepared for online play? We handled that yesterday.

On the other side of the coin, I just want to do some content specific to the PC platform--and Call of Duty: Black Ops (whether you agree or not) is the biggest PC game out at the moment. The 3D thing is interesting for a few reasons, primarily because PC gamers are wondering what the fuss is about. The tech has existed on PC for a while. But, does the 3D push from developers on consoles make the experience better overall? We'll have to wait and see.

If there's a game you want me to compare Black Ops' 3D experience to, let me know.

Xav de Matos was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 19, 2010 5:00 AM

    Thursday Evening Minecraft Thread!
    Bland Edition!!!

    Nothing exciting planned for today!

    Multiplayer Servers!
    MercFox1 : shackeast.sytes.net / se.shkn.ws / shackeast.shkn.ws
    Shadowdane : shadowdane.shacknet.nu / sd.shkn.ws / shadowdane.shkn.ws
    Chicken Fur : 69.169.149.253 / cf.shkn.ws / chickenfur.shkn.ws
    m0rfus (PvP/Mobs on) : morfus.dyndns.org / morfus.shkn.ws
    Haxim (TNT Server) : asplode.dyndns.org / haxim.shkn.ws

    Teamspeak : ts.shackbattles.com:9987

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 5:00 AM

      Guides and Utilities

      - Oizomapper! Map your single player or multiplayer levels! By mroizo40
      http://www.digitized-e.com/mroizo/OizoMapper.zip

      - Shackwiki Minecraft page!
      http://shackwiki.com/wiki/Minecraft

      Video Guides!
      - (Series) X's Adventures in Minecraft! Linked by zuff!
      http://tinyurl.com/2ah7sex
      Lots of useful info in here!

      - (Series) Minecraft Minecart Tutorials! Boosters! Track switches! Et cetera!
      http://tinyurl.com/2udl2lt

      - Water Physics Tutorial by Arctic Fox!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24127669#itemanchor_24127669

      Written Guides!
      - Beginner’s Guides to Minecraft, originally linked by at0micgarden!
      (Work in Progress) Guide to Alpha: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17021
      How to Survive Your First Night: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=19065

      Shacker Help!
      - Things I Wish I’d Known, a retrospective by Ebu!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23608826#itemanchor_23608826

      - Linkmania! By zuff!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23514788#itemanchor_23514788
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23533536#itemanchor_23533536


      - Ores, and How to Find Them, by Fooldozer and CodeRedBeard!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23582115#itemanchor_23582115

      - Multiplayer Tips from BlackCat9
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23641449#itemanchor_23641449

      - Circle guides! More useful than they sound!
      http://www.agentpothead.com/minecraft/sphere.html linked/hosted by AgentPothead!
      http://www.shackpics.com/files/radii_even_to_100_pgzh2n77iabkgcmee93q.png hosted by Arctic Fox!

      - Beginner’s Guide to Redstone, links by The Grolar Bear!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24044649#itemanchor_24044649

      - And some generally useful keys to press!
      F11 - full screen!
      F3 (hold) - CPU/ memory usage bar! Spikes for CPU/ red box for memory, I think!
      F5 - third person mode!

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 5:01 AM

      Uh oh.

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      November 19, 2010 5:17 AM

      Does everyone have the reappearing block bug or is it a server thing?

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      November 19, 2010 6:07 AM

      [deleted]

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 19, 2010 6:10 AM

      Dude, we all know you're doing this on purpose.

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      November 19, 2010 6:13 AM

      The office of a modern millionaire:

      http://yfrog.com/1g49225323j

      At least notch is conservative with his money, he should be set for years just with what Minecraft made already.

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      November 19, 2010 7:26 AM

      MINEo{CRAFT}o Quiz, courtesy of the newest addition to Mojang Productions

      http://beta.planeto.com/#lb=d9c70d03-9165-4db1-b580-0cebc44c0097&uref=mcqs

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 8:57 AM

      YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

      http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1619400201/status-of-smp-health

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        November 19, 2010 9:03 AM

        "Fix the block re-spawning bug: NOT STARTED" DE FUCK!? WHY WHY WHY! That's the main reason I'm not playing currently!

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          November 19, 2010 9:21 AM

          We don't know the reason for that bug. It's easy to assume that he just needs to set it back to how it was and it's done. But the old netcode was very incomplete, and I suspect that this bug was caused by him working on improving the server validation and it wasn't all working quite right yet, but he didn't want to go backwards. Maybe from a development perspective it makes more sense for him to do damage first before implementing the fix for the blocks. You guys need to quite micromanaging his work based on tiny scraps of information and just sit back and take a chill pill.

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            November 19, 2010 9:36 AM

            So, this changes that the main point of his entire game.. DOESN'T WORK?

            Sorry, but I disagree.

            • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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              November 19, 2010 9:52 AM

              In SMP. And he's fixing it. The question is if it was wrong of him not to immediately prioritize that bug and release a patch, and I'm saying there's no way for us to know the circumstances. It's possible that the bug was caused by an incomplete implementation of the fully functional netcode(rather than the hack that was in before), and that the only two ways to fix it would be to revert the previous patch or to go all the way. People would cry bloody murder if he did the former. And for the latter, maybe it made more sense to develop damage first before revisiting the block issue. Software development is a lot more complicated than just picking which task is more important and fixing it.

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                November 19, 2010 11:51 AM

                I do believe at one point he mentioned that the lag with blocks was related somehow to server-side health.

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              November 19, 2010 9:58 AM

              Let's take a magical journey together Nighthawk! Below is a simulated view into Notch's brain:

              "Ok, got the block-reappearing bug... yeah, I think I know where that is. Not really worried about it, shouldn't take long to fix. I'd rather work on this SMP health thing right now, its been hanging over my head since forever. "

              <notch works and time passes>

              "Ok, made some good progress on the huge unknowns for me, and I think I can post an update of my progress and what I think I will get out next week. *reviews list* Oh, the block-reappearing bug, holy fuck will they crucify me if I don't acknowledge it on my blog, so I will note it as on my TODO list."

              <minecraft fans read his post and blindly interpret that his priorities are fucked up when they have no clue about how software dev works out sometimes>

              I mean seriously, in light of the shit hes gotten done according to that post, the block-reappearing bug is trivial.

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                November 19, 2010 10:03 AM

                *trivial in difficulty, not in how much it impacts the game. i definitely agree it cannot be ignored!

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                November 19, 2010 10:05 AM

                I'd rather him fix bugs he knows exist than add new features that have bugs making a huge list of bugs that need to be fixed and then never do.

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                  November 19, 2010 11:27 AM

                  the entire post was about him fixing bugs that he knows exist and not adding features at all

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                    November 19, 2010 11:35 AM

                    [deleted]

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                      November 19, 2010 11:50 AM

                      [deleted]

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                        November 19, 2010 11:54 AM

                        I don't, because it seems he is most active on twitter on the days where he is cranking through tons of code. On the Fridays before the secret updates he would spam twitter with updates as he did stuff. I think it's his way of blowing off steam while he works.

                    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                      reply
                      November 19, 2010 11:59 AM

                      And if you spent half the time working that you did on ShackNews...

                    • reply
                      November 19, 2010 1:17 PM

                      [deleted]

                  • reply
                    November 19, 2010 11:42 AM

                    I think people are mostly upset because they see the block reappearing bug as severe enough to warrant some kind of emergency hotfix and not make it part of some scheduled patch.

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                      November 19, 2010 11:58 AM

                      fair enough, but the post above mine wasn't bitching about the priority levels of individual bugs, it was bitching about the priority levels of bugs vs features

                  • reply
                    November 19, 2010 11:55 AM

                    fixing the block reappearing bug is more important than every single other thing on his list. it should've been an emergency patch after the last patch fuckup. this one bug has literally killed minecraft. look how small the threads have been ever since it dropped

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                      November 19, 2010 11:58 AM

                      LITERALLY

                      *goes to play minecraft*

                      • reply
                        November 19, 2010 12:02 PM

                        you do remember the gigantic minecraft threads before this patch, right? i could link posts of people specifically indicating that they're taking a break because of this bug. i know i have. it's too frustrating to do things when the blocks keep reappearing

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                          November 19, 2010 12:04 PM

                          so because people post here less you think that minecraft is dead?

                          i'm sorry, the 10,000+ purchases since the Boo Update say otherwise.

                          • reply
                            November 19, 2010 12:07 PM

                            Sales since the Boo update isn't a really useful statistic. Something like the average number of connected players to foo's server before/after the update that introduced this bug would be.

                            • reply
                              November 19, 2010 12:27 PM

                              but there's tons of MC servers out there. i don't think the shack is a good metric on the current state of the game.

                              • reply
                                November 19, 2010 12:27 PM

                                the game is just as broken on their servers as it is for us. the source of people stopping playing here is not some shack-specific thing, it's a bug in the game

                                • reply
                                  November 19, 2010 12:28 PM

                                  true, but you can't take players on shacknews stopping and say "all players are stopping"

                                  • reply
                                    November 19, 2010 12:32 PM

                                    i don't see any reason to believe everyone else isn't seeing the same thing we are. like i said, it's the game, it's not our community. i was hoping for a quick hotfix on the block reappearing issue, just like he did with the skybox bug in the last big patch. the skybox bug pretty much made the game unplayable but he fixed it quickly and pushed out a release, which i give him credit for handling appropriately.

                                    • reply
                                      November 19, 2010 12:34 PM

                                      I'm assuming that because it's a netcode thing, it's actually related to the refactoring he's doing for server-side damage, and thus is being worked on at the same time as server-side damage. You've got to apply the 'Notch is a terrible communicator with English as a second language' filter to all of this.

                                      • reply
                                        November 19, 2010 12:38 PM

                                        Yes but considering that server side damage isn't in now, there's no good reason to let a game-breaking bug like this go unchecked for so long. Hotfix this, and roll out your completed new damage-friendly netcode later.

                                      • reply
                                        November 19, 2010 12:39 PM

                                        I assume we'll see the fix in the next patch along with server-side damage. He wouldn't have included it in his post if he weren't planning to fix it.

                                    • reply
                                      November 19, 2010 12:35 PM

                                      I'm not questioning your points or saying that other players aren't seeing this stuff, I'm just saying that you're generalizing that Shacknews players are quitting, so all players are quitting.

                                      • reply
                                        November 19, 2010 12:40 PM

                                        i am indeed making that generalization, because i don't see any reason that such a generalization would be invalid. there's nothing shacknews-specific going on here. the game is broken in a really annoying way

                                        • reply
                                          November 19, 2010 12:57 PM

                                          I know that a lot of the public servers have seen a large decline in members as well. People are waiting for the next verb update (giving them more to do)

                                          We'll all be back when damage is working and blocks are buildable, just like a huge number of us will be back for Cataclysm.

                                          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                                            reply
                                            November 19, 2010 1:25 PM

                                            And once the fix is in they'll all come back. A week or two of relative inactivity in SMP only due to serious bugs is not the end of the world in in Alpha.

                          • reply
                            November 19, 2010 12:08 PM

                            how is that relevant? i said that this bug is extremely important and that it has killed minecraft. unless you're extremely daft it should be clear that i'm not saying there are absolutely zero remaining players, i'm saying that the momentum is shot. people have stopped playing the game specifically because of this bug. it is serious enough to warrant #1 priority after the last botched patch to get things operational again before going ahead and implementing all of server-side health and such features.

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 9:05 AM

        * Fix the block re-spawning bug: NOT STARTED


        rofl

        • reply
          November 19, 2010 9:08 AM

          lol notch

          • reply
            November 19, 2010 11:09 AM

            at least he is honest. Didn't he start a poll about what people wanted most? Something about server-side hp vs bug fixes?

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              November 19, 2010 11:15 AM

              i don't think anyone would accuse notch of being dishonest. the man is open and honest to a fault.

              for the record i voted against server-side hp. fuck everyone! bug fixes first, features second

            • reply
              November 19, 2010 12:11 PM

              it was server-side HP versus server-side inventory

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 9:06 AM

        Interesting choice of bug fixing priority.

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 9:38 AM

        * Make players riding carts or boats a long way receive terrain updates: DONE

        YES!!!

        • reply
          November 19, 2010 9:41 AM

          Finally,


          5 hours later...


          Update: Minecarts work, but for some reason they crash the server and corrupt its data, no biggie, I will have a patch out next week with (random new feature)!

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 9:48 AM

        [deleted]

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        November 19, 2010 9:48 AM

        god sometimes i really wish he would let someone help him code

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          November 19, 2010 9:52 AM

          By this i mean, he clearly loves to add features, and dislikes working on bugs. (even though some of the "bugs" are technically features) I bet there is a shitload of coders that are minecraft fans out there who would love to just bugfix part-time for a pittance. Of course, if his code were open source a bunch would do it for free, but that makes selling the game a bit more difficult if anyone could just start up a free version.

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
            reply
            November 19, 2010 9:52 AM

            He just introduced a server programmer on the blog who said he might be helping on Minecraft.

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              November 19, 2010 10:01 AM

              yeah, which is good. i just meant have someone do basic cleanup shit in his code, since he seems to be the type of coder more concerned with his vision of where things are going rather than best-practices and bug fixes.

          • reply
            November 19, 2010 12:13 PM

            You guys were using this argument when he wasn't coding damage for SMP last month, saying that no server-side damage was the biggest 'bug' in SMP. Make up your damn minds.

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 9:49 AM

        Mercfox: Will your server be tagged PVP?

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        November 19, 2010 11:18 AM

        Shit I'm too late to make my routine "armchair quarterback" Minecraft community post.

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        November 19, 2010 12:01 PM

        Look at all you negative Nancys up in here. He posts these, which you fucks have been whining my ear off about:

        * <SMP health>
        * Fix leaves. Again: DONE
        * Make players riding carts or boats a long way receive terrain updates: DONE

        and you guys are whining about the thing he hasn't done yet? Take a fucking pill.

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 1:13 PM

        [deleted]

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        November 19, 2010 5:48 PM

        ooh damage AND reappearing blocks? Which frequently cause me to fall? This shit keeps getting better and better

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 9:11 AM

      Installed the biome mod and a minecart mod and I have to say, its made SP an entirely new experience, its not so much about the mining anymore as much as its about exploring and building on the avatar world-esque land scape that is created. Very happy I did it.

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 9:26 AM

      Merc or Foo
      I know this is a lot to ask but the logic structure at
      -677, 71,-477 facing north
      Basically I screwed up in the planning by a bit.

      Is it to much to ask to get it moved 1 block to the east so the middle of the buttons line up with my building? And if your really adventrurous send it 5 blocks north.

      If you do this for me I will give 2 very very shitty blowjobs for you.

      Ram

      • reply
        November 19, 2010 1:57 PM

        nice try jerk.

        • reply
          November 19, 2010 2:06 PM

          ? what you say roger? seriously I need thsi thing moved

          • reply
            November 19, 2010 2:41 PM

            Thank you for moving it over a block foo.
            You didnt stay around for me to show you it, pop on whenever you want a rundown.

            • reply
              November 19, 2010 5:49 PM

              he did it? I should have waited a little longer for him to move the galleon D:

    • reply
      November 19, 2010 2:40 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      November 20, 2010 7:43 AM

      Can someone help me with using OzioMapper on a multiplayer server? It seems to only allow me to use my singleplayer worlds. Am I missing something?

      • reply
        November 20, 2010 8:49 AM

        Pick the directory location of your MP worlds, at the top.

        • reply
          November 20, 2010 8:50 AM

          At the top? Are you using the UI.exe? This crashes for me every time.

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