Diablo 3 Game Play Experience

Been playing Diablo 3 for about a week or so. Absolutely love the game! The graphics is incredible, and the game play is amazing. Played as the Demon Hunter character, who specialises in ranged weapons and traps. Used my old nickname from the golden days of Counterstrike; LuckyStrike. This has nothing to do with the cigarette brand!

I prefer to play ranged characters rather than melee, where I can shoot at monsters from a safe distance. Even in Diablo 2, I used the Amazon character, which is also a ranged character. Here is the typical Demon Hunter combo I use at my current level (25):

Against large swarms of monsters

#1 Caltrops: Set trap on the ground to ensnare monsters, making them immobile.

#2 Vault: Backflip. The monsters would pursue me, but get trapped in the traps I set.

#3 Chakram: Hurl multiple large ninja star things at the ensnared monsters, slicing through them like hot knife on butter. 

#4 Hungering arrow: This is the first basic skill the Demon Hunter has at level 1. I still use it now, even at level 25, because the arrows are homing; I can just shoot in a general direction and the arrow would home into monsters like a guided missile. Very useful against fast moving creatures.

Against stronger enemies

Same as above, except I would use the "Marked for Death" skill on the strong monsters, so that they take more damage.

When swamped / ganged up on

When surrounded, my emergency skills are:

#1 Fan of knives: release a flurry of knives 360 degrees around. This impales and slows down the monsters around.

#2 Vault: Backflip to safety.

My hotlinks are:

Left mouse button = Hungering arrow

Right mouse button = Chakram

Num 1 = Caltrops

Num 2 = Vault

Num 3 = Fan of knives

Num 4 = Marked for death

Everyone plays their character differently, and this is my favourite skill set (so far, with the skills that I have at level 25).

Transit of Venus

A rare astronomical event will occur on 6 June in the Pacific region; the transit of Venus. It won't happen again for another century, so this is literally a chance of a lifetime. This is when planet Venus passes across the sun (like the moon obscuring the sun during a solar eclipse). Venus is much closer to the sun than the moon, hence it only appears as a dot on the sun. The sun is immensely bright and it won't be noticeably like a solar eclipse, but there are ways to view it.

The 2004 transit of Venus.

I want to capture it with my camera. Obviously the sun is far too bright, so I will need to make a filter. I plan to make my own solar filter using old floppy discs (good thing I still have these obsolete things!), a tip taken from this forum's thread. Will try it this weekend first before Wednesday's event.

Error 37

Blizzard made Diablo 3 an on-line only game. That means requiring players to log-in to their servers in order to play, even for single player campaign. This was done to curb piracy, but the downside is that the servers are so clogged that it is almost impossible to get in. 

Error 37 is what greets players when they are unable to connect to the servers. The unintended effect of this is that it has become a meme overnight.

The requirement to log-in, queue and often unable to connect to Blizzard's server is what makes this game frustrating. In my opinion, the single player campaign should be playable offline. Not only would this free up the servers, it would also make it much less frustrating to players. 

I have a life, and have not been able to play D3 much since it was launched. Only barely managed to put in about 2 hours so far and levelled up to level 5 only. The graphics look good... too good in fact until the monsters blend in pretty well in the dark (unlike the more colourful, high contrast creatures in D2). I like how they have bound additional skills to numbers 1 - 4 (in D2, these were reserved for potions), in addition to the usual left and right click attacks. Makes it more convenient to access commonly used skills that way.

I played as Demon Hunter, and one thing I like about D3 over D2 is that this character has unlimited ammo for the crossbow. In D2, I used to play as Amazon, and I had to monitor how many arrows and javelins I have (and restock them when low). Anyway, looks like I'm going to be playing D3 over the long haul slowly. Can't play with friends either since my character level is so low compared to them.

Unequally yoked

When I was a young Christian many years ago, one of the things "hammered" into my life values as part of growing up into a mature Christian is this well-known verse:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:14

The principle drawn from the verse is that Christians should not be in a courtship with non-believers. That's simple enough. But then I was naive and led myself to believe that any Christian man should be compatible with any Christian woman. How wrong I was. Being born again does not magically make every Christian compatible with one another! We are still unique beings, each with our own unique personalities, life experiences and expectations.

I now come to believe that "do not be unequally yoked" can also be extended beyond mere "don't go out with non-believers". In practice, the principle can also apply to relationships between fellow Christians, where "unequally yoked" can mean "incompatible". Even within Christian circles, there are these things to consider:

- age / maturity
- life goals
- personality
- "chemistry" 

Being a young adult now, it is important to consider these things. In the wider world, it is hard enough to find someone compatible, let alone within the smaller church circle. Also, times have changed. Back in my parents days, it was "expected" for men and women to marry and start families. Now, marriage and family aren't the top priorities any more, at least in the developed Western world. Personal goals, ambitions, independence, and (in the Christian context) advancing God's Kingdom, are more considered more important.

For a non-believer, all it matters is "are we compatible?" For Christians, there is a third party involved: God. It is no longer merely "are we compatible?" but add on top of that condition, "is this what God intend?" The circle is already small, and adding this additional "requirement" makes it even more statistically improbable for Christian men and women to find their soulmates. That is looking at it from a human and logical point of view. Perhaps that is why it is truly a miracle when two people get together and find that they are compatible with each other, and that God had intended both of them to be together from the beginning. 

Diablo 3

Today is the long awaited day for fans of the Diablo franchise. Diablo 2 was one of my favourite classic games I played when I was a teenager. 10 years on, the next and final (?) chapter of the story begins.

The end of days begins tonight!