Sorry, China.
China should no longer be able to post messages to this site. The only Chinese people who have been visiting here are spammers wanting to sell us dresses and penis drugs. While both could be useful, we are not interested. If you have a Chinese friend who would like to post messages to the site, please send me his/her IP address and I will remove their IP from the filter.
If you are a Chinese spammer and are able to reply to this... Damn it. You win. Feel free to spam.
One game to rule them all...
Here is some info from the Penny-Arcade forum:
- Switch from squares to hexagons changing the way the game plays. More room for maneuvers and more tactical options.
- Changes to combat. More depth in combat, no more stacking of units. This will lead to bigger focus on terrain.
- Inspired by Panzer General.
- Reintroduction of Bombardment, now archers and siege equipment can shoot over melee units.
- Better diplomatic AI.
- More diplomatic options between players.
- Less "cheating" AI.
- Religion is not a factor anymore.
- Resources are not infinite. For example one source of horse only supplies enough horses for 1 unit, but when that horseman dies the horses will respawn as a unit.
- City States as a sort of small countries that never develop beyond their single city. They can provide bonusses if you befriend them, or you can take over their land.
- Civics are out, now there is something called "Social Policies".
- About the same amount of wonders, the tech tree will feel familiar. Great People still in.
- Some victory conditions changed. For example in Conquest you only have to capture all the other capitals. Eliminates boring mop up phase.
- Unique Civ leader bonuses, no more standard "Spiritual" or "Financial".
- DirectX 11 support.
- Built in web browser. Sid Meier is also working on a facebook application of Civilization.
I will be watching this thread for updates on the game.
Child's Play
This is not a request or an obligation. This is just a, "Hey check this out." I know times are tough and money is tight. I also know that most charities seem like cash grabs for those running it, but this is not that. This is a charity for sick kids during Christmas run by the dudes at Penny Arcade. It is called Child's Play.
What makes this charity special is that you can donate products directly to hospitals where they will distribute them to the sick kiddos. No money donations, just the products. That way, you know the money you are using is 100% going to the kids. Kudos to Amazon for making this easy enough for a lazy-ass like myself.
Borderlands Released Today
It turns out that a ton of us bought Borderlands. Borderlands is a FPS-RPG hybrid built on the Unreal Tournament 3 engine.
Features from the Steam page:
Role Playing Shooter (RPS) - combines frantic first-person shooting action with accessible role-playing character progression.
Co-Op Frenzy - Fly solo in single player or drop in and out with up to 4 Player Co-Op online and offline for a maniacal multiplayer experience
Bazillions of Guns - Gun lust fulfilled with rocket-launching shotguns, enemy-torching revolvers, SMGs that fire lightning rounds, and tons more
Radical Art Style - New visual style combines traditional rendering techniques with hand-drawn textures to create a unique and eye-catching spin on the First Person genre
Intense Vehicular Combat - Get behind the wheel and engage in intense vehicle-to-vehicle combat
Expect us to be playing this for awhile*.
* At least a week.
TFC Online Reunion
This was posted a couple days ago. Although I know many of you never even played TFC, there's a few of you who (I hope) will be interested. I will most likely be there all 3 days for a significant amount of time :) I hope at least some of you ex-TFC guys around here (you know who you are) come too. Anyway, here's the original announcement:
The Catacombs formally invites you to join in on a TFC Reunion Weekend.
When: August 14th through the 16th, Friday through Sunday.
Where: GameSurge - #TFC
What: One weekend in which EVERYBODY is invited to come and replay TFC for the great game it once was. 2v2s, 4v4s, 8v8s, ADL pickups, fun maps, and good old nade-spamming pubs.
IRC Information:
Client: http://www.mirc.com/
Server: GameSurge
Channel: #TFC
Steam Information:
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/about/
Download TFC: http://store.steampowered.com/app/20/
If you don’t have TFC, buy it. It’s 5.00 dollars through the Steam store. Well worth the entertainment we all once had.
Maps: http://pipebombdream.clanservers.com/tfc.rar
*Note: These are simply maps that are commonly played in organized TFC posted to ease the transition back into TFC for those who have uninstalled or been gone a long time. Not necessarily a reflection of maps that will be played, or are set. As of this post, no events/particular maps are set and expected.
As games advance and players move on, TFC slowly fades further and further from what it used to be. But that doesn't change the fact that a great majority of us enjoyed the game as much as any; from the thrill of winning to the agony of defeat. Just because a game is no longer the most graphically advanced, innovative, or populated doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. TFC may never regain its former glory, but that isn't what this is about. This is simply an opportunity to come back to the game you remember, may have forgot, wish you had played more of, or otherwise wish was still around.
Feel free to voice all questions and comments in the discussion thread found HERE or in #TFC or to me through PM.
A mass email has been sent out to the Catacombs user database to help remind those who have long since forgotten about TFC.
Help out, and spread the word as well. Even if you were never a huge part of the community, you were still a part. Thank you.
#TFC
So Pretty
I just wanted to tell you how pretty Lord of the Rings Online is.
Spoon and I are currently carebearing (again) in LOTRO. We are playing on the server Elendilmir, or also called, "The Big E." So far, it has been a lot of fun just questing, duoing and occasionally grouping. The crafting system is a bit grindy, but very rewarding. It can make some of the best items in the game at some levels. There is also a PvP mode in that once you hit level 10, you can roll a monster character and join up with people to murder other players. Pretty much instant action PvP.
If you are bored and looking for a game to play. Come join us. Or make fun of us.
So. Pretty. I will post more pictures in this thread as I travel Middle Earth.
CAREBEAR FOR LIFE
Zenny, Spoon and I are currently carebearing in City of Villains/Heroes. It has been surprisingly fun so far.
Sporkified and Metalstorm are currently being lame in Warhammer Online.
In other news, the best game ever will be released some day. You heard it here first.
Dawn of War 2 Beta
I think the Dawn of War II beta has another week or so to go. If you liked Company of Heroes or hate base management, give this game a shot. It is pretty fun to me and I am normally horrible at RTS games. There are a bunch of balance issues, obviously, with it being a beta.
Steam link.
Another Look Back
I found two old videos I had made of some past GvGs. The lineup we had was full of really old MB members and we are rocking the world famous three Monk back line.
Moa Birds [MB] vs Eternum Pariah [EP] (back when they were #1): Clicky (105MB XVID)
Moa Birds [MB] vs Muppet Babies [mB] (Our favorite team): Clicky (58.8MB XVID)
Warning: These videos may contain mouse clicking on skill bar action.
Hmmm... I Remember....
Here is a look back into the past adventures of Moa Birds.
The game:
The video: Clicky (Warning, this video is 127MB and WMV.)
A gift from Levicon.
New Ventrilo Server
Peligro has moved us to a new Ventrilo server that will hopefully be less of a hassle than the last one. You can connect using the info panel here on the site, or use the following info:
IP: moabirds.guildvent.net
Port: 5051
Password remains the same.
Also... Steam is allowing preloading of Left 4 Dead. My client did not start it by default and I had to start it manually. Check it out if you have already purchased the game.
Left 4 Dead - Demo approaches...
Left 4 Dead, the zombie apocalypse survival co-op FPS from the gentlemen at Valve is coming soon. In preparation, they are going to have a demo for people that have the pre-order and stuff.
If anyone finds themselves with their Warhammer client closed, we should check it out on Nov 6th.
Warhammer Online Begins
We are currently playing Destruction on the server Skull Throne.
A side note - forum related:
"If you make a group the default one that has a rank and avatar set, the user's old avatar and rank will be overwritten by the group."
Oops. I killed everyone's avatars. Please re-upload your avatar, otherwise you will have a big Warhammer Online icon as your avatar. Sorry. Let me know if you need assistance.
Warhammer Online Preview Weekend
We had a great time playing together over the preview weekend. Fun times included Zerg busting and town raiding.
If you haven't yet, visit this thread to post on your final class decisions.
Expect fun times in Open Beta.
Warhammer Beta/Preview Information
Our Warhammer Online forums are open for business. spoon and Zenny are in the closed CE beta and have been letting us in on some juicy info/gameplay. After playing through Tier 1, I can already say it is going to be a blast.
Here are the details we have at the moment:
Open Beta starts September 7th.
http://investor.ea.com/phoenix.zhtml?c= ... ID=1188038
"FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 2008--Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that the open beta for their highly anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM) (WAR), will begin on September 7th, 2008. This means that hundreds of thousands of fans will be able to enter the gritty fantasy world of WAR to experience the thrill of Realm vs. Realm(TM) (RvR) combat before the game goes live on September 18th, 2008."
Download for Open Beta client is here, but if you already have the Closed Beta client, you will not need to download this. The Closed Beta client will be patched for Open Beta.
Preview Weekend?
Rumor has it, that the preview weekend will start Friday, August 22nd.
Release Date + Head Start
Warhammer Online goes live on the 18th, but people are estimating that the Head Start will be on the 15th. Head Start information is purely speculative at this point.
Upper Left, Upper Right, Up, DONE!
You may have noticed that our Age of Conan forums are gone. That is because we have all stopped playing the game. I am not sure if any of us actually got to 80. We were all in the 70s at least and I found the game to be completely dull post 70. It is very clear there is absolutely nothing to do once you hit 80. I felt that there was no reason to keep going. The siege system was admittedly broken, one shot kills are rampant, feats are still broken, many quests are broken, the crafting system was archaic, stats are broken, and so much more. I can't speak for everyone else and their reasons for quitting, but these were a few of mine.
So we have been playing a lot of TF2 lately. No one is really sure what game we will play together next.
But, for me... WAR is coming. September 23rd. I hope to see more of us trying it out.
Age of Conan (Crynan)
A few of us are busy playing Age of Conan. It has balance issues, fundamental problems and sometimes feels like a beta test, but we are having some fun regardless. It is much improved since the Fileplanet open beta event. We are currently playing with a mega-guild, which is a collection of a number of other guilds like ours, called Northern Kings. You can find us on the Doomsayer-PVP server.
At present, we are all still working towards gaining max level and max crafting stuff. I am personally hoping that by the time we are finished we see some significant balance improvements and bug fixes. Time will tell.
So... come play with us if you are itching for some MMORPG grind/pvp.
A Pointless Endeavor
The first draft of the Moa Birds splash page is complete. 
In the future we can use this site to display news for the various games we are playing. Although, this may be pointless if we cannot find a game to play together. Or even at the very least start a Moa Birds guild/clan. Stay tuned for Warhammer Online. I am forced to try it due to my previous love affair with Dark Age of Camelot.
If you don't have Steam, all I can ask is, "Why not?" We are all using it and it is an easy way to stay in contact with each other. Some of us are on every night playing TF2 or some other game that is offered by the magical distribution system.
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