FreeIndie: Super Crate Box

To contact us Click HERE


Super Crate Box is one of the few totally free games on steam due to the fact that Valve only seems to add games to their F2P section if they have an ingame cash shop of some sort, Valve getting quite a large chunk of profits from said shop.

I am glad SCB is on steam, it is so simple yet so fantastic(ly addictive), check out one of the quotes from Destructoid.


Now when I first read that, I had assumed that it was just another overrated or out of context quote, but my god, they are right.

SCB is a simple game with a simple premise. Get ammo crates. Each crate contains a new weapon to help you shoot/burn/slice your way through the dastardly pixelated enemies that infinitely spawn. While there is no main objective (except saving your skin and collecting crates obviously) there are plenty side 'missions', I use this term loosely as they are somewhat like unlocks and are not necessary in the slightest, though playing the game itself will unlock them anyway.





Enemies swarm from the top and make their way down to the fire, where they burn up and re spawn at the top full of piss and vinegar, making them faster, stronger and essentially a pain in the ass. You want to kill them before this happens to make life easier for yourself though sometimes it can't be helped.

Crates contain one of a dozen or so weapons in the game. Your general objective is to get as many of these as possible, they add on to your score. Swapping to a new weapon looses you your old one, and the new one may very well be a downgrade for the situation your in.

You will die and you will die often, yet you will go back for more, you have been warned.
I seriously recommend you check this game out, clickies are below.


SteamWebsite

Empires and Allies tips

To contact us Click HERE
So I've been playing a lot of Empires & Allies lately. Here are some tips I've figured out:

• Energy maximization is typically what you're trying to do. Longer contracts on Oil, Lumber and Farms gives the best return on your energy point, but those longer contracts demand larger amounts of land space. You want to balance your contract length with your available land space. Generally speaking you want to aim to use the longest contract on every building for maximum energy efficiency
• You want to be energy efficient because the fastest levelling actually comes from combat. While almost every activity in the game converts energy into experience at a 1:1 ratio, combat gives a roughly 175% return in converting energy into experience. This is because of the crit rate which seems to be ~30% against "Great Targets". Crits reward an energy back, which basically means free experience. Crit kills reward 3 experience and 2 extra energy.
• Try to aim to hit 0 energy just as you're about to level, since levelling up gives a free energy refill you want to make sure you're maximizing that bonus.
• If people gift you energy, don't use it right away! We all have real life events that limits when we can be in front of the computer, but you really want to time your level-ups to happen when you are at 0 energy, so hoard your energy gifts and use them when you're just a few energy short of a level-up. This minimizes wasted energy due to do other life activities by allowing you to level up at a time that's convenient to sit and play.
• Clicking on houses is a sucker bet, dont' ever do it. You're basically turning 1 energy into 1 XP + 200-400 coins which is a terrible conversion rate. After level 6 your click is worth at least 1 XP + 1000 coins, if you're not getting at least that much value - don't do it.
• If you're clicking to queue up a bunch of commands and you accidentally click on a building you didn't mean to click on (such as a house) click the Red "X" cancel button in the bottom right corner, this will complete the current command but then clear out the command queue.
• Clicking on consecutive "loot icons" such as coins and xp that come out of buildings can chain. You've probably noticed the bonus meter in the top right. You want to maximize this for maximum coins. Keep track of where your tractor is, if your tractor needs to move a long way to reach the next click location, hold off on picking up the loot until your bonus meter flashes red a few times, then pick up the loot to keep the bonus meter filling. This should give your tractor enough time to reach it's next destination.
• Government buildings take a long time to process and will kill your chaining bonus. The easiest way I've found to deal with this is to play in full screen and try to get my Government building and a regular buliding on a different island on the screen at the same time (or scroll back and forth a lot). As you tell a tractor to use the government building, switch over quickly to your second island and start farming there to keep your chain bonus going. Then, when the government building is done, pick up the loot there.
• Land is at a premium! Military units take up space! When you take a unit out of a barracks/hanger/port instead of placing it in the world, click the red "X" button in the bottom right, that will stash the unit in your inventory! It is now available for combat but doesn't take up any space
• If you end up placing military units to complete quests, or you have old military units that are in the world for whatever reason, you can either sacrifice them in a war or just sell them to free up space.
• In early levels, you get so much resources from repulsing an attack, you actually want to be attacked by something weak enough to fend off. The best way to get attacked is to put a bunch of juice targets in the middle of your island and don't defend it. Wait for somebody to attack you, then push them off your island and collect your defense bonuses. Caution, as you get higher up in levels and the units become more costly, the loss of units will start to cost more than the repulsion payoff.
• There are a few ways to influence what other people will attack
• 1. If your island is full of defenders except for one region which has no defenders, opponents will tend to attack the region that has no defenders. For this reason it can be useful to set up a set of buildings that you don't care about that much so that fighting can happen there without affecting the rest of your operation. In my case, I deliberate don't defend my houses because I never click my houses, and I'd be totally thrilled if somebody attacked them.
• 2. People tend to fight on your main island, all things being equal. If you put a juicy target in the middle of your main island, that's the first thing people will see. I put a set of undefended government buildings in a cluster on my main island as a juicy target. This is because somebody camping my government buildings doesn't really interfere with the rest of my plan.
• 3. If you have defenders EVERYWHERE, people will still attack you. People tend to ignore defenders because ultimately the attacker has so many advantages in Empires and allies in terms of choosing what units to attack with and having the option to use power-ups. So if you do have defenders everywhere, you still need to pay attention to which part of your island is the juiciest target for other people. If you have a buildng you care about and click a lot like an Ore Mine II or something, set it off to the side, in the corner of your second island, so that it's not as likely to be attacked.
• When you are attacking somebody else, the units that are left at the end of combat are the units that the defender needs to defeat in order to kick you off. This has been emperically tested. So if you really want to try and hold your aggressive stance, use big units.
• However - if you are attacking a friend and simply want to farm resources and black hearts, attack with weak units, or less than your full army. This is a kind and considerate thing to do so that you're easy to kick off. I will often try to gauge my attack army so that I end the battle with the smallest possible force so that it's easy for my friend to repulse me.
• If you really want to get fancy, set up an agreement with a friend to attack each other using minimal units. The goal here is to farm more resources out of attacking each other than the cost of what you're losing.
• Even better is to set up a Camp Treaty. I'm making that term up now. You heard it here first! A Camp Treaty is where you each agree to attack the other person but NOT repulse the other person from your island and more importantly, do not accept offers from other people to help repulse your friend off the island. Have you ever visisted a neighbour to see a red "attacker" that you can't interact with? That icon means that the person was attacked, but repulsed by another neighbour, but the island owner hasn't yet accepted the help. The catch is that the aggressor can still farm the defender every 4 hours until the defender agrees to accept help. You and your Camp Treaty partner are now camping each other's base and collecting free resources and Infamy every 4 hours without every having to spend action points.
• If you have a Camp Treaty, set it up as a 3x3 grid of whatever your treaty partner wants, usually Ore. If you set up 9 ore mines that means you're basically getting 45 ore every 4 hours for free.
• Additionally, you do not even need to finish the ore mines for your Camp Treaty. Just lay down the 3x3 grid of ore mine foundations - your attacker will get full benefit for attacking even placed foundations (in this way it cost you 0 energy to lay)
• In combat, you don't want to match up unit counters exactly. For example, if your opponent has 4 paper and 1 rock, you do not want to play 4 scissors and 1 paper. You'd think that your units are exactly lined up to counter the enemy units, but this is actually suboptimal. The truth is that you already know you are going to win this battle, so your goal isn't to "win more", your goal is to minimize your losses. If you run with a 4 scissors and 1 paper loadout, then the opposing papers are going to choose your lone paper to attack. (Units tend to attack the enemy unit they have the most advantage against. Note that this isn't 100% of the time, but it's a rule of thumb). The likely outcome of such a battle is that you'll win but your paper will be dead. A better lineup is to run with 2 scissors and 3 paper. You attack the Rock with your paper early, and the most likely response is the enemy rock will attack your scissors. However, the damage will be divided roughly evenly between your two scissors units. You kill the rock before losing any units, then use your remaining 2 scissors to attack the 4 papers. The 4 papers will likely divide their damage evenly between your 3 paper, and because of your combat advantage you are likely to end the battle with 0 losses

Hero Academy: Using a Knight's knockback against itself

To contact us Click HERE
When playing against enemy knights, be aware that their knockback is often an impediment to them dishing out damage.

Here is a situation I found myself in recently.



I am playing the White Dark Elves, we're near the end of the game.  Based on my current game state my Wraith needs 2 swings to kill the Wizard.

My goal for this turn will be to kill the Wizard, munch on him and survive retaliation from the Knight. This is going to require 5 actions:
1. Move
2. Move
3. Wraith Attack
4. Wraith Attack
5. Nom

I'll abbreviate this as M-M-A-A-Nom

My first move is obviously to get closer.


But after my first move, from which direction should I attack?  2a or 2b?  Instinctively many players would attack from 2a.  First, there is a bias to position yourself closer to your side of the battlefield, closer to potential reinforcements, etc.  Secondly, since you are trying to avoid the Knight, without thinking about it too much, 2a sounds like a reasonable place to go since it seems "farthest" from the Knight. Here is a shot of what my Wraith would look like if I attack from 2a.


At the end of this, I'm going to be standing with one open space between my Wraith and the Knight. The Knight has a sword and deals 300 damage per swing.  As we can see, my Wraith will have 895 health and since Wraiths have no armor, the Knight only needs 3 swings to kill me.  Now if my opponent takes a naive approach and walks straight up to me and swings, trying to kill me, the Knight will fail because of the knockback.  Since every swing will knock my Wraith back, my Wraith will survive the round.  (M-A*-M-A*-M where A* represents attacks that caused a knockback)  However, my opponent may be a bit clever and position the Knight south of my Wraith and use the wall to negate the knockback.



As you can see from this diagram, moving into position 2a allows a clever opponent to use the wall to get the full 3 swings on my Wraith to kill it.  M-M-A-A-A

To circumvent this, position 2b is actually the correct attack angle. If I attack from position 2b, the Knight no longer has a good angle to attack in a way that negates his own knockback.



With my Wraith in this position, the Knight's knockback will always work against him.  If the Knight approaches from either the west or the north (or a truly silly attack from the east) then every other attack will cause a knockback, pushing my Wraith away, forcing the Knight to walk forward to close the gap before he can swing again.
1. Move
2. Attack (Knockback)
3. Move
4. Attack (Knockback)
5. Move

The Knight could try to attack from the south but that still doesn't give the Knight enough swings within 5 actions.  M-M-A*-M-A

Hope this little tip helps!  See you all in game!

America's Army 3.1 Released!

To contact us Click HERE
After long waiting, the update many of the America's Army 3 players were waiting for was released at 9.6.2011.

If you ask me America's Army 3 had lack of content.
Before the update it had only 5 maps - Ally, Bridge, Impact, Ranch, and Pipeline.
And this updates includes 2 new maps - ShantyTown and Stronghold.
It will be great improvement for the game.


Here's the article on America's Army's site:
http://www.americasarmy.com/press/news.php?t=207

If you haven't played yet America's Army 3, I would recommend you to try it.
And if you do here's a tip:
Don't give up! America's Army 3 is a difficult game, specially for beginners.
And take your time to aim, you will miss every single bullet unless you aim properly!

How To Skip Titan Quest's Intro Movies

To contact us Click HERE
First of all, this solution works for both "Titan Quest" and "Titan Quest: Immoral Thrones".

In order to skip these movies and go straight to the main menu, here are the steps you have to follow:

1. Enter the folder "...\Titan Quest\Videos".

2. In this folders there are 4 files:
"TQCinematic.bik", "TQGameIntro.bik", "TQLegal.bik", and "TQLogos.bik".
Rename them to something else, adding just a single underscore or a number will do the trick.
(example: TQLogos_.bik)

3. Now create 4 text files, and name them like the original file names from step 2. (not including ".bik")

That's it.
The next time you'll launch the game there will be no intro!

Winning with a Wraith that never attacked

To contact us Click HERE
I recently lost a Hero Academy a game to an Empowered Wraith that never took a swing.

How?

Here was the early board position about 4 turns in:



I'm playing purple on the left, and my enemy is orange on the right.  As you can see, the enemy Wraith at position A was pre-scrolled.  Pre-scrolling means my opponent had used a scroll on his Wraith but had not yet attacked with the Wraith. To be clear, generally speaking you almost never want to pre-scroll.  Pre-scrolling

• Gives up the element of surprise
• Leaves your unit vulnerable to being pre-emptively attacked and killed without you ever gaining the benefit of the scroll.  
• vs. Dark Elves even if you can't be killed, it presents your opponent with an opportunity to hit with a Priestess debuff your pre-scrolled unit.  The Priestess debuffs any unit she attacks to deal 50% less damage on it's next attack, which means the 50% damage debuff will mess up your pre-scrolled attack.

In this case, however, pre-scrolling the Wraith made a lot of sense because it set up the potential to
Action 1. Move out
Action 2. Kill an enemy in swing
Action 3. Devour
Action 4. Move back to safety

This even leaves 1 extra action to spare which can be used for an extra move at the front or back of the action set, or an extra attack as needed.

To compensate, I positioned all of my units to be outside striking range of the empowered Wraith.  The Orange area is how far the Wraith can get in 1 move, the Purple area is after 2 moves and the Red area are all the spots the Wraith could melee attack on Action 3.



Here I was thinking I was so smart for staying free of the Wraith's zone of control, denying him the sweet use of his scroll and Wraith.  The problem?  The Wraith threat created such a huge sphere of influence, it enabled the rest of his army free reign over the board.  My opponent used my passivity to attack my crystals directly with Sworded Sorcerer from position A and B.



I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, but the game ended about 5 turns later from continuous crystal damage. I spent so long trying to maneuver around the empowered Wraith, I wasn't putting enough pressure on his other units.  When I finally realized the imminent threat of continuous crystal damage, it was too late to do anything about it.

In essence, the threat of the Empowered Wraith over multiple turns was far greater than the damage I would have incurred if I had simply allowed the Wraith to attack and devour one of my units.

I would have been far better off rushing forward with multiple units at once, allowing the Wraith to devour, accepting the loss but putting forth serious pressure in return.

The Ninja Bomb

To contact us Click HERE
Today I am writing about the Council strategy I call the "Ninja Bomb".  It's one of the most powerful Council configurations you can use.  It involves a dual-wielding Ninja, sitting next to your priest safely within your territory, and a heavily armed Knight with a Shield and Helm deep in enemy territory.

The Knight has 1440 health, 40% armor and 20% magic resist.  This makes it virtually unkillable in a single turn to just about everything in the game.  Think about it, 1440 health can withstand:

• 5 hits from any 200 damage unit (600 or 800 damage)
• 5 hits from any 200 damage unit even when it's standing on a Red Sword (900 or 1200 damage)
• 5 hits from any 300 damage unit (900 or 1200 damage)
• ANY unit spawned in from the spawn locations.  An Archer/Impaler spawned in, given a weapon, and then a scroll.  (Spawn, weapon, scroll, attack, attack is 1800 damage, exactly 1080 after resists).  The only exception to this is a Ninja.  If your enemy still has their Ninja, just don't end your turn next to a spawn point.

Once you have your Knight in enemy territory, and your Ninja safely on your side, you can set up turns that look something like:
1. Swap Ninja and Knight
2. Ninja Attack
3. Ninja Attack
4. Stomp
5. Swap Knight back in for Ninja

If your Knight is injured, you can substitute a priest heal for Actions 2-4.  If there's no risk of healer intervention you can skip the stomp.

In pretty much every game I play as the Council I try to set up a good Ninja Bomb situation.  More and more of my Council opponents are doing it as well.  And, as this screenshot shows, a lot of my Council-Council games have double Ninja Bomb setups.  In this screenshot you can see my opponent has planted a Knight deep in my base, and I have my Knight (I haven't drawn a helm yet) in his endzone.


A few Ninja Bomb tips

• If you can end your Knight on red swords, the Ninja can do some crazy damage when he pops in.  A Ninja standing on a Red sword can 1-shot 800 health units.
• Ending your turn on the enemy shield is incredibly effective as well, it renders your Knight completely immune to everything short of Archers standing on red squares.
• Use your Knight's knockback to set up favorable positioning for a future turn
• Enemy archers are typically the biggest threat, get up in their face to make it difficult for them to shoot for maximum damage.
• Sometimes the best approach isn't to swap, but rather run straight in with your Ninja, and then on a subsequent turn you can port in a Wizard or an Archer to apply damage from the front while you continue to set up devastating bomb configurations.
• Swapping for a second Knight back at home can allow you to keep up pressure at opportune moments without having to stop and heal.

Playing against Ninja Bomb

• Sometimes you can suicide a unit with a weapon and a scroll to dash directly at the ninja and stomp it.  If you ever get this opportunity, take it.  Losing a few units to take out a sworded Ninja is almost always worth it.
• Try not to have any of your units end their turn next to the Knight.  You opponent wants nothing more than to port in and already be in melee range of a target.
• Even though you can't take the Knight out in a single turn, try to plink a little bit of damage onto the Knight.  Do NOT shoot the knight more than twice if you can't kill it.  Your opponent will simply laugh and heal the damage away with a priest.  But if you spend 1 or 2 actions to plink the Knight your opponent will be forced to use an action to priest-heal it.  This will make it fairly difficult to have enough actions to stomp and still get the Ninja out to safety.  If your opponent doesn't keep the Knight topped off, the Knight will eventually be in health range to be bursted down.

br_BaseRace_Beta

To contact us Click HERE
A beta version of a map I'm working on for Counter Strike: Source.
The idea of baserace maps came from Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, and only existed there till now.

I uploaded the map to FPSBANANA and MediaFire:
FPSBANANA:
http://www.fpsbanana.com/maps/133098

MediaFire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?oznjtmnzzmy

Some info about the map:

• The base race idea originally came from Wolfenstein Enemy Territory map, and I created a version of it for Counter Strike: Source.
  
  in the game the team must steal the other team's flag (like capture the flag), bring it back to base an upgrade part of the base.
  I made 7 upgradable things with 3 upgrades each which are:
  gate
  front wall
  left wall
  right wall
  back wall
  armory
  medical center
  
  you must play this map with deathmatch mod.
  
  this is still a beta version an it may be laggy, there are few known bugs:
  -nades's damage can bypass upgraded walls.
  -the rain sound may not work on the second round.
  
  Also there is a twist with the gameplay, team members can pick up their on flag and carry it around (but can't upgrade their on base with it of course).
  
  lacking stuff that I'll add to later versions:
  -sounds
  -when one team upgrade all upgrades to the max, the other team dies (and the round is over).
  -fix bugs.
  make the flag to return to base when member of its own team touch it(only if the twist won't be liked).

America's Army 3.1 Released!

To contact us Click HERE
After long waiting, the update many of the America's Army 3 players were waiting for was released at 9.6.2011.

If you ask me America's Army 3 had lack of content.
Before the update it had only 5 maps - Ally, Bridge, Impact, Ranch, and Pipeline.
And this updates includes 2 new maps - ShantyTown and Stronghold.
It will be great improvement for the game.


Here's the article on America's Army's site:
http://www.americasarmy.com/press/news.php?t=207

If you haven't played yet America's Army 3, I would recommend you to try it.
And if you do here's a tip:
Don't give up! America's Army 3 is a difficult game, specially for beginners.
And take your time to aim, you will miss every single bullet unless you aim properly!

How To Skip Titan Quest's Intro Movies

To contact us Click HERE
First of all, this solution works for both "Titan Quest" and "Titan Quest: Immoral Thrones".

In order to skip these movies and go straight to the main menu, here are the steps you have to follow:

1. Enter the folder "...\Titan Quest\Videos".

2. In this folders there are 4 files:
"TQCinematic.bik", "TQGameIntro.bik", "TQLegal.bik", and "TQLogos.bik".
Rename them to something else, adding just a single underscore or a number will do the trick.
(example: TQLogos_.bik)

3. Now create 4 text files, and name them like the original file names from step 2. (not including ".bik")

That's it.
The next time you'll launch the game there will be no intro!

Guild Wars 2 Pre-order date!

To contact us Click HERE

Turns out my post yesterday was somewhat accurate, ArenaNet has revealed the pre-order details for Guild Wars 2! You can start pre-ordering on 10th April, and if you do, you will have access to ALL Guild Wars 2 beta weekend events, three day headstart access, and an in game equipment to boost your stats. The price of the Digital Edition, and Digital Deluxe Edition have not been made known yet, but the Collector's Edition is priced at £129. Below is the list of items you will receive if you pre-ordered:

1. Digital Edition
• Guild Wars 2 Game
2. Digital Deluxe Edition
• Guild Wars 2 Game
• Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
• Rytlock Miniature
• Golem Banker
• Chalice of Glory
• Tome of Influence
3. Collector's Edition
• Everything in the Digital Deluxe Edition PLUS
• 10-inch figurine of Rytlock
• 112 page Making of Guild Wars 2 book
• Custom Art Frame
• Art Portfolio and 5 Art Prints
• Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD

I am so excited for this game, and I probably will only purchase the Digital Edition. The extra items that you receive in the Digital Deluxe Edition are mostly temporary and not very significant, and I wouldn't want to pay almost triple to get the Collector's Edition. ArenaNet is doing this well as there is no advantage in purchasing the Digital Deluxe and Collector's Edition, and it's probably only for the hardcore fans. April 10th, here I come!  Image source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/13/guild-wars-2-pre-orders-come-with-beta-access-130-collectors-edition-comes-with-big-cat/

Star Wars: The Old Republic Free-To-Play Weekend!

To contact us Click HERE

Have you been wanting to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic, but didn't want to risk paying for a game you wouldn't like? Now here's your chance to try out SWTOR over the weekends. The Free-To-Play weekends starts from 15th March, 12:01 A.M. CT and will last till 19th March, 2:00 A.M. CT. As a free trial, of course there will be certain annoying restrictions:

1. Characters are restricted up to level 15
2. Players are restricted to certain zones
3. Will not have access to various chat channels
4. Unable to send or reply to mail
5. Not allowed to trade with other players
6. Restricted skill levels

Sure there are a lot of restrictions, but you don't have to pay a penny to get a taste of the game, and if you do enjoy SWTOR, then you can buy the game. At any point in the future if you decide to purchase SWTOR, your trial character will be saved and you continue playing your character without any restrictions. I will definitely be giving SWTOR a go, just to see what all the hype is about.
You can sign up for the Free-To-Play weekend here: http://www.swtor.com/weekendpass 

Image source: http://my.mmosite.com/c474ec58b84b30d1637236df32241f59/blog/item/ecd063b9e452c9fc53cf86fff7da9604.html

Diablo III release date announced!

To contact us Click HERE

15th May is the magical date where Diablo III is finally ready and will be released for all Diablo fans to enjoy, finally! It will be coming to stores internationally on 15th May, or you can pre-order it online on Battle.Net. There is however, no mention of the release date for the consoles, which probably means it will be arriving to the consoles in the near future. 
If you're a hardcore fan, there is the collector's edition you can purchase for $99.99. It includes a behind-the-scenes blu-ray documentary, a 208 page art book, a soundtrack CD, a 4GB USB drive that comes with Diablo II and its expansion, Lord of Destruction, as well as various cosmetics bonuses for your characters in Diablo III.
So finally, Diablo III is ready, despite having various features such as PvP to be cut out from the game at the last minute. The core campaign and co-op should be solid, seeing how much time Blizzard has put into this game. What I'm interested to find out more is the real-money auction house, and whether it will make or break the game. I guess we'll find out on 15th May.
Image source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5680/diablo-iii-coming-may-15

Indie Royale: St. Patrick's Day Bundle!

To contact us Click HERE

In celebration of St. Patrick's day, Indie Royale has released yet another pay what you want game bundle which features five independently developed games for an awesome bargain. This bundle includes the following games:

1. Hard Reset
2. Jolly Rover
3. Vertex Dispenser
4. DLC Quest
5. BONUS: Lair of the Evildoer (Available if you pay more than the minimum.)

For less than 5 bucks, this bundle is a steal, especially due to the fact that Hard Reset is one of the bundled games. The minimum price will continue to rise as more people purchase the bundle, so if you have been looking for games to play and have a spare $5 sitting around somewhere, this bundle is perfect for you.
You can purchase the bundle here: http://www.indieroyale.com

Baldur's Gate coming to the iPad

To contact us Click HERE

Remember the good old classic RPG, Baldur's Gate? It will be arriving to the iPad this summer, alongside the PC release. The port to the iPad comes along with all the improvements and enhancements that are implemented in the PC version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, plus various UI changes to make the interface much more user-friendly so that it can be played effectively with the use of a touch interface. What's even better is that the game will be playable on all three iPad models, so it doesn't matter which one you own, you'll be able to play Baldur's Gate!
I'm pretty interested to see how the game will play out on the iPad, there might be a couple of control issues as using the touch screen only is kind of like trying to play Baldur's Gate with only the mouse, which is pretty challenging, but not impossible. It would be great if the game turns out to be successful on the iPad, more game developers might actually start to bring back their old classics onto the iPad.
Image source: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/03/23/pc-classic-baldurs-gate-is-coming-to-ipad/

Enemy Nations - For Free!

To contact us Click HERE
I remember I had this game when I was a little kid.
I found out that the creators of the game providing the game for free:
http://www.windwardreports.com/enemy_nations2.htm



They ask in return a favor, to add the 2 following links:
http://www.windwardreports.com/java.htm
http://www.windwardreports.com/dot_net.htm
I couldn't resist adding those links because of their kindness.

America's Army 3.1 Released!

To contact us Click HERE
After long waiting, the update many of the America's Army 3 players were waiting for was released at 9.6.2011.

If you ask me America's Army 3 had lack of content.
Before the update it had only 5 maps - Ally, Bridge, Impact, Ranch, and Pipeline.
And this updates includes 2 new maps - ShantyTown and Stronghold.
It will be great improvement for the game.


Here's the article on America's Army's site:
http://www.americasarmy.com/press/news.php?t=207

If you haven't played yet America's Army 3, I would recommend you to try it.
And if you do here's a tip:
Don't give up! America's Army 3 is a difficult game, specially for beginners.
And take your time to aim, you will miss every single bullet unless you aim properly!

Deus Ex: Invisible War - Windows 7 Fix

To contact us Click HERE
Recently I tried to play Deus Ex: Invisible War, but I couldn't run it, it would instantly crash as soon as I open the dx2.exe file.
The reason why it won't run isn't clear.

I looked for a solution and found a way to fix this problem.
To fix this crash you need to patch the game with the euro 1.2 fixed exe, which you can download here.
To install the patch just replace the old dx2.exe, which can be found at"...\Deus Ex - Invisible War\System\"with the patched one provided in the RAR file.

Facebook Publishes Your Personal Information Without Your Permission

To contact us Click HERE

There are reasons to keep certain information private

Recently I found out I got an account on a website called Scribd.
Well I never heard about this website before, yet it had an public profile with my full name and picture.
Apparently people from my Facebook friends list also have accounts, and "they" followed me and "I" followed them.

At first I was shocked. "I never registered for this site!", "How did they get such personal information?", "Why did it took actions in my name like following other people?!".
At first I thought some idiot friend used an app that stole my information, but it wasn't the case.
I looked into my Facebook privacy settings, and after a short while messing around I found out about "Instant Personalization", or in less misleading words, "We sell your personal information to other sites!".

In the Instant Personaliztion page it says:

"When you first arrive at the following sites, you'll see a notification message and an option to turn off the personalized experience"

But when I entered Scribd, I wasn't given an option to turn it off, in fact the profile with my personal information existed there long before I've ever entered the site.

It seems that Facebook doesn't ask for your permission before enabling Instant Personalization, but it's possible to disable it.
To do so follow these steps:

1. Go to your privacy settings.
2. Go to "Ads, Apps, and Websites".
3. Go to "Instant Personalization".
4. Uncheck the check box that says "Enable instant personalization on partner websites.".



I'm afraid of their next step, what will it be?
Publishing more personal information like birth dates, addresses, and phone numbers, without permission?
I don't think my Facebook account will exist by then...

How To Skip Titan Quest's Intro Movies

To contact us Click HERE
First of all, this solution works for both "Titan Quest" and "Titan Quest: Immoral Thrones".

In order to skip these movies and go straight to the main menu, here are the steps you have to follow:

1. Enter the folder "...\Titan Quest\Videos".

2. In this folders there are 4 files:
"TQCinematic.bik", "TQGameIntro.bik", "TQLegal.bik", and "TQLogos.bik".
Rename them to something else, adding just a single underscore or a number will do the trick.
(example: TQLogos_.bik)

3. Now create 4 text files, and name them like the original file names from step 2. (not including ".bik")

That's it.
The next time you'll launch the game there will be no intro!

Indie Royale: St. Patrick's Day Bundle!

To contact us Click HERE

In celebration of St. Patrick's day, Indie Royale has released yet another pay what you want game bundle which features five independently developed games for an awesome bargain. This bundle includes the following games:

1. Hard Reset
2. Jolly Rover
3. Vertex Dispenser
4. DLC Quest
5. BONUS: Lair of the Evildoer (Available if you pay more than the minimum.)

For less than 5 bucks, this bundle is a steal, especially due to the fact that Hard Reset is one of the bundled games. The minimum price will continue to rise as more people purchase the bundle, so if you have been looking for games to play and have a spare $5 sitting around somewhere, this bundle is perfect for you.
You can purchase the bundle here: http://www.indieroyale.com

Elder Scrolls MMO?

To contact us Click HERE

The rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO have been circulating for quite a while, but it has been revealed by Tom's Guide that Bethesda will be officially announcing Elder Scrolls Online in May 2012. The game is supposedly set at a full millennium before Skyrim, which is at least a few hundred years before any of the Elder Scrolls Series. Little is known about the MMO yet, but we do know that there will be three factions, each represented by either a dragon, a lion, or a bird. More information should be made known in the near future.
Elder Scrolls MMO? I'm sold, as long as they don't screw things up. Just imagine, thousands of players in town screaming "Fus Ro Dah", that would be quite the sight. This is yet another game I'm looking forward to in 2012, and I just hope that Bethesda will deliver.
Image source: http://www.gamezone.com/products/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/news/is-an-elder-scrolls-mmo-in-the-works

Borderlands 2: Love Letter from Claptrap

To contact us Click HERE

In a mushy love letter from Claptrap, the iconic character from Borderlands, Borderlands 2 promises optimization for the PC version. It took the feedback from the players of Borderlands and decided to implement many features for the PC version of Borderlands 2. Here is the list of things that Claptrap has promised:

• FOV slider
• Fully mouse-compatible menus with wheel scrolling
• Remappable keys
• PC Specific UI
• Native Matchmaking
• Push-to-Talk
• Logitech Keyboard support
• LAN support
• Controller support
• Integrated v-sync option
• Support for higher resolutions
• Mouse smooth options (especially complete disablement)
• Cloud saves
• Achievements
• Friends Lists
• No port forwarding needed

I love the delivery from 2KGames, how they used Claptrap, and how they listened to the players' feedback. This love letter has done nothing but made me even more excited for Borderlands 2. Personally, I didn't think that the controls and UI was that bad in Borderlands, but if they are promising so many things, it's definitely going to be much better.
You can read Claptrap's Love Letter here: http://www.borderlands2.com/loveletter?x

Kingdoms of Amalur MMO?

To contact us Click HERE

If you've played Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and enjoy playing MMOs, then you'll love this piece of news. Kingdoms of Amalur comic book artist and designer, Todd McFarlane, has revealed that the development team is working on the MMO, codename "Kingdoms of Amalur: Project Copernicus", and it is supposed to be released later in the year. With a already solid single-player game, adding the MMO element is perhaps one of the best ideas. Not much detail has been made known about the project, but much more information will definitely be made known at E3 later this year.
I've played Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and I loved it, but there was just one thing missing from it, and that is having a friend to play alongside with. I remember saying this exactly in my mind, "This would be awesome as an MMO", and guess what, Kingdoms of Amalur is indeed being made into an MMO! I'll be keeping an eye out for this game.
Image source: http://www.justpushstart.com/2012/03/amalur-mmo-coming-later-in-the-year/

Baldur's Gate coming to the iPad

To contact us Click HERE

Remember the good old classic RPG, Baldur's Gate? It will be arriving to the iPad this summer, alongside the PC release. The port to the iPad comes along with all the improvements and enhancements that are implemented in the PC version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, plus various UI changes to make the interface much more user-friendly so that it can be played effectively with the use of a touch interface. What's even better is that the game will be playable on all three iPad models, so it doesn't matter which one you own, you'll be able to play Baldur's Gate!
I'm pretty interested to see how the game will play out on the iPad, there might be a couple of control issues as using the touch screen only is kind of like trying to play Baldur's Gate with only the mouse, which is pretty challenging, but not impossible. It would be great if the game turns out to be successful on the iPad, more game developers might actually start to bring back their old classics onto the iPad.
Image source: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/03/23/pc-classic-baldurs-gate-is-coming-to-ipad/

Dark Souls coming to PC?

To contact us Click HERE

Dark Souls may very well be arriving on the PC in the near future. There has recently been a new post on Dark Souls' Facebook page stating that "an announcement is coming", and with that comes along a reveal page that will be unlocked upon achieving a certain amount of "Likes" from its Facebook fans. Apart from this, there was also another teaser for PCPowerPlay, an Australian magazine, which simply says, "You Died.", an unmistakable message from Dark Souls. All of this kind of adds up to the fact that there will be a PC port for Dark Souls.
If you can recall, earlier this year there was a petition with over 66,000 signatures for Dark Souls to be ported to the PC, and Namco did reply saying that they know of its existance. This is really cool, seeing a big game company actually listening to the fans and doing what they've requested. It would be so awesome if more game companies would do more favors for its gamers. I look forward to playing Dark Souls on the PC when it arrives.
Image source: http://gotgame.com/2012/01/13/namco-notices-dark-souls-pc-petition/

Guild Wars 2: Microtransaction Explained

To contact us Click HERE

Much like any other MMOs that does not require a subscription fee, Guild Wars 2 will feature a microtransaction system that will allow players to purchase Gems, which can be used to purchase cosmetic items or temporary conveniences. Many players were worried that Guild Wars 2 will turn into another Pay-to-Win MMO, so ArenaNet has come up with a detailed explanation on how microtransactions will turn out.
Guild Wars 2 will have three currencies: gold, karma, and gems. Gold is the standard tradable currency that can be earned by all players in the game. Karma on the other hand, is not tradable but is rewarded to players for completing events. Lastly, gems are the tradable currency that is bought with real money. ArenaNet has made it very clear that it will not affect the playing field for all players. Players who do not wish to spend real money can still obtain cash shop items by trading for gems with gold, and ArenaNet believes that this will allow players to create and decide the market.
I personally have nothing against microtransactions, as long as they do not give other players an unfair advantage. I think what Guild Wars 2 is trying to do is the same as Team Fortress 2. Think of gems as keys and gold as refined metal in Team Fortress 2, it's pretty much the same thing. I, for one, welcome the microtransaction system.
Image source: http://www.ikogamer.com/2012/03/21/guild-wars-2-micro-transactions-explained

Zynga buys over OMGPOP

To contact us Click HERE

If you have an Android or an iPhone, this picture above might be very familiar to you. Draw Something is the smash hit game made by OMGPOP, a somewhat popular online casual games website. You've probably have heard or seen your friends play or talk about Draw Something. Zynga has apparently caught wind of how popular it is, and how fast it is growing, so they did the only logical thing- They bought it, for over 200 million dollars. All current OMGPOP employees will be joining Zynga and they're company will still be operational, just that it will be part of Zynga now.
It blows my mind to think how a small game company with only a little over 40 employees are able to make such a trending game, so much so that Zynga could see the potential in it and buy their company over for such an absurd amount of money. OMGPOP has existed for quite a while now, and nobody really knew of it until recently. I'm really surprised that Zynga would go out and buy over their company. This is good news for the current employees, with $200,000,000 they could spend their entire lives without working anymore!

Image source: http://hypebeast.com/2012/03/zynga-to-buy-omgpop-makers-of-draw-something/

Adventure Time: On the DS!

To contact us Click HERE

I know there are a number of you out there who watch Adventure Time religiously, and if you happen to own a NDS, good news! An Adventure Time game is being developed by WayForward Technologies for the Nintendo DS, and the game will be released later this year. The news was broken by Adventure Time creator, Pendleton Ward on his Twitter account, alongside a NDS flailing his arms around:
I'm pumped for this release, and I wonder how they're going to make Adventure Time into a game. One thing I'm still surprised about is that the game is being released for the NDS, and not the 3DS, which is really odd to me as Nintendo should really make use of popular games to attract potential 3DS customers. Not much has been revealed yet, but I'm sure more will be revealed soon enough!
Image source: http://gamerant.com/adventure-time-ds-jeff-139889/

Baldur's Gate coming to the iPad

To contact us Click HERE

Remember the good old classic RPG, Baldur's Gate? It will be arriving to the iPad this summer, alongside the PC release. The port to the iPad comes along with all the improvements and enhancements that are implemented in the PC version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, plus various UI changes to make the interface much more user-friendly so that it can be played effectively with the use of a touch interface. What's even better is that the game will be playable on all three iPad models, so it doesn't matter which one you own, you'll be able to play Baldur's Gate!
I'm pretty interested to see how the game will play out on the iPad, there might be a couple of control issues as using the touch screen only is kind of like trying to play Baldur's Gate with only the mouse, which is pretty challenging, but not impossible. It would be great if the game turns out to be successful on the iPad, more game developers might actually start to bring back their old classics onto the iPad.
Image source: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/03/23/pc-classic-baldurs-gate-is-coming-to-ipad/

Path of Exile - Stress Test Weekend Open

For those of you who do not know, Path of Exile is a ARPG, infact, it is more or less a Diablo 2 clone, and a good one at that.
The company behind the game has opened its doors from its closed beta standpoint for the weekend to give their servers a run down.
If you do enjoy the game, they have a timer on their website that counts down every 5 min and automaticly gives beta keys to random users.
I do recommend that you check the game out while it is still open.
Check it out here.
I will post a review of the beta and give out a key in a week or so on my both my blog and IF.

This Precious Land

"Learn the workings of nature, and make us proud of This Precious Land."

A construction sandbox where you create worlds with interesting mechanics.

The game was made in Ludem Dare, a contest were all the best programmers go to develop a fully functional game within the span of 48 hours.

This is the incredible outcome for such a short time period, and for this we have Ishisoft to thank.




You can download the game, for free, here.

Giveaway: Torchlight

Torchlight is a brilliant game from the founders of Blizzard North, they guys that made the original two Diablos.Regardless of how you feel of Diablo and him not just staying dead, Torchlight is a must play for any true ARPG fan.
Two giveaways this week,


Note: The games are NOT steam keys.
Steamgifts:

• Sign up to steamgifts.
• Head over to the giveaway page.
• Enter the giveaway!
• Note: If you do not have enough points to enter, simple wait a day, you gain ~25P per day.

Youtube:

• I will pick one of my youtube subscribers to hand the key to.
• Simply subscribe to me on my youtube page.
• Comment on the video. I will pick one of the commenters (must be subscribed)
• Make sure you are a registered youtube user, else I will not be able to see you on my subs (Click on your channel, if you don't have one, youtube will ask you to make one and add a username)

The giveaway ends on Monday the 4th of June at 11:55PM(GMT)
Winners have one week to claim the key.
Good luck all!

Firefall: First Impressions

Firefall is a hard game to summarise. It tries to be everything at once, and it does it well.What is Firefall? It's a F2P MMOFPS/TPS from Red 5 Studios, yeah, a mouthful.
For ages my friend and I have been searching for an MMO to keep us busy, where we can level our respective characters and explore. Ah yes, exploring, what has happened to mmo's these days, every enviroment seems bland, generic and only seems to serve as a place to hold the mobs you grind. Firefall rids us of the point and click and selection based combat to bring true gunplay into the mix. Jetpacks add a unique hight element during PvP and PvE while being a huge boon to eploration allowing the devs to build their worlds vertically. All this and more adds a sense of depth to Firefall that many and more MMO's fail to capture.


You start out creating your character, picking from several battleframes, the classes.
The first thing you'll notice is the unique cel shaded art style akin to that of borderlands but toned up and fitting to the setting and area.One of the many unique things about Firefall is the fact that you can quickswap your class, you are not locked down to any single one. All you have to do is drop by one of the terminals and pick a different battleframe, no cost, no setbacks, though the frames level individually. 


Actually having to aim, shoot and reload makes the mundane generic quests of every other mmo exciting. Though quests in the current state of the beta are sparse and only seem to serve as a sort of guide to help you along. Not to say that this is is in anyway generic, its not, it takes the best elements from questing and chucks the rest out the window.
You battle on Earth, though far in the future and now inhabited by many otherworldly creatures, from swarms of insectlike beings seemingly inspired from Starship Troopers, to dinosaur esq runners. You fight many and more of the creatures in the wonderfully detailed and rich environments, only a single (massive) one in the closed beta however. It is open world, so once you get in there are no load times unless you happen to join a PvP match.

      


Watch the video above and skip though to get a nice summary of what the game is all about.A big part of the game is resource gathering, you call down a "Thumper" dropped from the skies that pounds the ground to harvest its delicious minerals. Unfortunately, all the racket wakes up the locals whom then proceed to swam you and attempt to take down the thumper, which you now have to defend.You can build larger varieties of thumpers, the one on the video is the smallest. Larger thumpers are louder and thus call in a much larger swarm of enemies.
Crafting is a huge part of Firefall, when you level they give you "nanoprints" essentially recipes that you have to craft to give you the item you want. The many items you can craft ranges from modules you can stick into your armour to give you your class abilites or the armour itself. You can craft weapons and mods for the weapons and even refine the minerals you dug up to create better gear.
Though PvP is another way of resource farming, I can't say much about it. You go to a PvP terminal and sign up for TDM or sabotage and duke it out in arenas. Though due to the game still being in closed beta, its hard to get a PvP match going.


There are loads of random events and things to keep you busy that i'll talk about in my next video, however, the thing that blew my mind the most, was the day night cycle.Suddenly the game started getting darker, I though it was just me, but eventually it was near pitch black and as it turns out, everyone has a flashlight. The lighting looks amazing at night, a chaingun going off in the distance, the glow of your jetpack, your limited visibility. Never before have I seen a day/night cycle in a MMO, and it is fantastic, especially so with the projectiles, jetpacks and the setting.
Firefall is going to be a AAA F2P the likes of which the world has never seen before. It will be epic, it will be awesome, you better get ready, I for one sure as hell can't wait.

FreeIndie: Super Crate Box

Super Crate Box is one of the few totally free games on steam due to the fact that Valve only seems to add games to their F2P section if they have an ingame cash shop of some sort, Valve getting quite a large chunk of profits from said shop.

I am glad SCB is on steam, it is so simple yet so fantastic(ly addictive), check out one of the quotes from Destructoid.


Now when I first read that, I had assumed that it was just another overrated or out of context quote, but my god, they are right.

SCB is a simple game with a simple premise. Get ammo crates. Each crate contains a new weapon to help you shoot/burn/slice your way through the dastardly pixelated enemies that infinitely spawn. While there is no main objective (except saving your skin and collecting crates obviously) there are plenty side 'missions', I use this term loosely as they are somewhat like unlocks and are not necessary in the slightest, though playing the game itself will unlock them anyway.





Enemies swarm from the top and make their way down to the fire, where they burn up and re spawn at the top full of piss and vinegar, making them faster, stronger and essentially a pain in the ass. You want to kill them before this happens to make life easier for yourself though sometimes it can't be helped.

Crates contain one of a dozen or so weapons in the game. Your general objective is to get as many of these as possible, they add on to your score. Swapping to a new weapon looses you your old one, and the new one may very well be a downgrade for the situation your in.

You will die and you will die often, yet you will go back for more, you have been warned.
I seriously recommend you check this game out, clickies are below.


SteamWebsite

Empires and Allies tips

So I've been playing a lot of Empires & Allies lately. Here are some tips I've figured out:

• Energy maximization is typically what you're trying to do. Longer contracts on Oil, Lumber and Farms gives the best return on your energy point, but those longer contracts demand larger amounts of land space. You want to balance your contract length with your available land space. Generally speaking you want to aim to use the longest contract on every building for maximum energy efficiency
• You want to be energy efficient because the fastest levelling actually comes from combat. While almost every activity in the game converts energy into experience at a 1:1 ratio, combat gives a roughly 175% return in converting energy into experience. This is because of the crit rate which seems to be ~30% against "Great Targets". Crits reward an energy back, which basically means free experience. Crit kills reward 3 experience and 2 extra energy.
• Try to aim to hit 0 energy just as you're about to level, since levelling up gives a free energy refill you want to make sure you're maximizing that bonus.
• If people gift you energy, don't use it right away! We all have real life events that limits when we can be in front of the computer, but you really want to time your level-ups to happen when you are at 0 energy, so hoard your energy gifts and use them when you're just a few energy short of a level-up. This minimizes wasted energy due to do other life activities by allowing you to level up at a time that's convenient to sit and play.
• Clicking on houses is a sucker bet, dont' ever do it. You're basically turning 1 energy into 1 XP + 200-400 coins which is a terrible conversion rate. After level 6 your click is worth at least 1 XP + 1000 coins, if you're not getting at least that much value - don't do it.
• If you're clicking to queue up a bunch of commands and you accidentally click on a building you didn't mean to click on (such as a house) click the Red "X" cancel button in the bottom right corner, this will complete the current command but then clear out the command queue.
• Clicking on consecutive "loot icons" such as coins and xp that come out of buildings can chain. You've probably noticed the bonus meter in the top right. You want to maximize this for maximum coins. Keep track of where your tractor is, if your tractor needs to move a long way to reach the next click location, hold off on picking up the loot until your bonus meter flashes red a few times, then pick up the loot to keep the bonus meter filling. This should give your tractor enough time to reach it's next destination.
• Government buildings take a long time to process and will kill your chaining bonus. The easiest way I've found to deal with this is to play in full screen and try to get my Government building and a regular buliding on a different island on the screen at the same time (or scroll back and forth a lot). As you tell a tractor to use the government building, switch over quickly to your second island and start farming there to keep your chain bonus going. Then, when the government building is done, pick up the loot there.
• Land is at a premium! Military units take up space! When you take a unit out of a barracks/hanger/port instead of placing it in the world, click the red "X" button in the bottom right, that will stash the unit in your inventory! It is now available for combat but doesn't take up any space
• If you end up placing military units to complete quests, or you have old military units that are in the world for whatever reason, you can either sacrifice them in a war or just sell them to free up space.
• In early levels, you get so much resources from repulsing an attack, you actually want to be attacked by something weak enough to fend off. The best way to get attacked is to put a bunch of juice targets in the middle of your island and don't defend it. Wait for somebody to attack you, then push them off your island and collect your defense bonuses. Caution, as you get higher up in levels and the units become more costly, the loss of units will start to cost more than the repulsion payoff.
• There are a few ways to influence what other people will attack
• 1. If your island is full of defenders except for one region which has no defenders, opponents will tend to attack the region that has no defenders. For this reason it can be useful to set up a set of buildings that you don't care about that much so that fighting can happen there without affecting the rest of your operation. In my case, I deliberate don't defend my houses because I never click my houses, and I'd be totally thrilled if somebody attacked them.
• 2. People tend to fight on your main island, all things being equal. If you put a juicy target in the middle of your main island, that's the first thing people will see. I put a set of undefended government buildings in a cluster on my main island as a juicy target. This is because somebody camping my government buildings doesn't really interfere with the rest of my plan.
• 3. If you have defenders EVERYWHERE, people will still attack you. People tend to ignore defenders because ultimately the attacker has so many advantages in Empires and allies in terms of choosing what units to attack with and having the option to use power-ups. So if you do have defenders everywhere, you still need to pay attention to which part of your island is the juiciest target for other people. If you have a buildng you care about and click a lot like an Ore Mine II or something, set it off to the side, in the corner of your second island, so that it's not as likely to be attacked.
• When you are attacking somebody else, the units that are left at the end of combat are the units that the defender needs to defeat in order to kick you off. This has been emperically tested. So if you really want to try and hold your aggressive stance, use big units.
• However - if you are attacking a friend and simply want to farm resources and black hearts, attack with weak units, or less than your full army. This is a kind and considerate thing to do so that you're easy to kick off. I will often try to gauge my attack army so that I end the battle with the smallest possible force so that it's easy for my friend to repulse me.
• If you really want to get fancy, set up an agreement with a friend to attack each other using minimal units. The goal here is to farm more resources out of attacking each other than the cost of what you're losing.
• Even better is to set up a Camp Treaty. I'm making that term up now. You heard it here first! A Camp Treaty is where you each agree to attack the other person but NOT repulse the other person from your island and more importantly, do not accept offers from other people to help repulse your friend off the island. Have you ever visisted a neighbour to see a red "attacker" that you can't interact with? That icon means that the person was attacked, but repulsed by another neighbour, but the island owner hasn't yet accepted the help. The catch is that the aggressor can still farm the defender every 4 hours until the defender agrees to accept help. You and your Camp Treaty partner are now camping each other's base and collecting free resources and Infamy every 4 hours without every having to spend action points.
• If you have a Camp Treaty, set it up as a 3x3 grid of whatever your treaty partner wants, usually Ore. If you set up 9 ore mines that means you're basically getting 45 ore every 4 hours for free.
• Additionally, you do not even need to finish the ore mines for your Camp Treaty. Just lay down the 3x3 grid of ore mine foundations - your attacker will get full benefit for attacking even placed foundations (in this way it cost you 0 energy to lay)
• In combat, you don't want to match up unit counters exactly. For example, if your opponent has 4 paper and 1 rock, you do not want to play 4 scissors and 1 paper. You'd think that your units are exactly lined up to counter the enemy units, but this is actually suboptimal. The truth is that you already know you are going to win this battle, so your goal isn't to "win more", your goal is to minimize your losses. If you run with a 4 scissors and 1 paper loadout, then the opposing papers are going to choose your lone paper to attack. (Units tend to attack the enemy unit they have the most advantage against. Note that this isn't 100% of the time, but it's a rule of thumb). The likely outcome of such a battle is that you'll win but your paper will be dead. A better lineup is to run with 2 scissors and 3 paper. You attack the Rock with your paper early, and the most likely response is the enemy rock will attack your scissors. However, the damage will be divided roughly evenly between your two scissors units. You kill the rock before losing any units, then use your remaining 2 scissors to attack the 4 papers. The 4 papers will likely divide their damage evenly between your 3 paper, and because of your combat advantage you are likely to end the battle with 0 losses