All Steamed Up

Recently I tightened up my firewall rules. A while back I got hold of a Watchguard T10, nice piece of kit for the home. Turned the wifi off, as already had some Ubiquiti kit in, and that knocks the socks off in-built router wifi, as you might expect.

With the aforesaid tightening, I expected a few teething troubles, but some have manifested in curious ways. Watchguards are good in that they are set up to default block everything incoming but also outgoing - if it doesn't use a common port (i.e. less than 1023), then it will default block outbound traffic.

Examining the logs, I found that some traffic was being blocked by the HTTP Proxy - although the traffic was going out on port 80, it was being denied with the reason: "Body content type match". A bit of research into the error found that the WG was blocking the traffic due to a strange (i.e. whichever game was trying to update) executable dialling out. This is desirable behaviour, clearly, as you don't want some sneaky virus exe dialling home to start cryptolocking all the things. That said, it took a bit of sorting out, so figured I'd write it up for the other 2 people in the world who run home T10s and play steam games.

Firstly, here are the steam ports:

TCP: 27015 - 27030

UDP: 4830, 27000 - 27030

For completeness, here's Valve's IP address space pulled from ARIN:

162.254.192.0/22
192.69.96.0/22
205.196.6.0/24
208.64.200.0/22
208.78.164.0/22
2620:f9::/44

How to fix the HTTP proxy issue:

• Check the policy properties to see which proxy/content action the policy is using, likely to be HTTP-Client.Standard.
• Go into Setup | Actions | Proxies
• Scroll down the list until you see the proxy action you're interested in.
• Edit, and select 'Body Content Types' from the menu on the left.
• Highlight Windows EXE/DLL and ensure that 'If matched' picklist doesn't say 'Deny', 'Drop', or 'Block'. I've chosen AV scan, as I have an active subscription on the T10, but you can also choose 'Allow'.
• OK out and save the config back.
• Enjoy correctly updating Steam games.

Whilst I'm on it as well, here's the (full) list of ports required by Rainbox Six Siege, as the Ubi support pages don't appear to have a complete list:

TCP : 13000, 13005, 13200, 14000, 14001, 14008, 14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024

UDP : 2070, 3075, 3478, 6015, 6019, 6020, 6021, 6250, 6085, 30000, 30100, 30200

Baby Steps

It comes to us all eventually. Most of us. Some. Ok, look, do it if you want to, alright?

Babies. I had to be convinced that they were a good idea. It took a long time, but now the baby is fab. Wish that I'd had one sooner. If only for the reason I'm going to be in a wheelchair when they're running around wanting to do stuff and all the kid's friends will be like, 'Why does your grandpa always pick you up from school?'

Like. Another pet hate, but a verbal habit I can't shake.

I often wonder what I did with all my time before the babe came along and suspect this is a pretty common feeling. Gaming is naturally bottom of the list of priorities. It's a hobby. I think I had come to believe that it was almost a right. A necessity, like electricity. Try telling my wife that - after she's finished laughing, her face will go all serious in the blink of an eye. 'No.'

Be told.

It took me a while to get used to it (not having infinite time for games, not the little one). I don't begrudge it (the time lost, not the little one), in fact. It has actually forced me to rationalise my gaming habit. Only to play what's important to me. To focus on one game rather than chopping and changing, never fully experiencing the game to it's full, wasting money on buying games that I play for an hour - and so on. Has stopped me from spending willfully on Steam sales 'just because it's cheap'. That's a real positive. It goes without saying of course that the main upside is that I have a small, fully functioning autonomous human being to look after and love, a superb replacement.

Pre-baby, I could feel the 'game library dilemma' getting close to a situation that I experienced with my PS1. Before my PS1 was chipped, I invested money (at the time the cost of a game a real consideration), time and enjoyment in a game. Post-chippage, I had a stack of 10 games for cheap (around £3 each) all at once, would play each one for half an hour and then move on, not really enjoying any of them, It was more related to volume of games and time, I think. It's at that point that I stopped bothering to play copied titles and considered which ones I could afford to buy and had much more fun out of them in the long run.

Whilst a baby has really stopped me, I noticed that Steam sales were leading to exactly the same situation. Why buy another game just because it's so cheap when I still have a few others on the go? One only needs to look at common comments about Steam libraries and 'back-catalogues', or use Steam APIs to stalk your friends to see that 2/3 of titles are often unplayed. Not cracked games - just the sheer volume and time required has relegated them to never even being downloaded. Not that Valve cares, of course. Their money trucks just keep rolling in and also includes a nice little piece about why Half-Life 3 will never be made, and once I heard it, I tend to agree with them. Incidentally, a new article about HL3 with an interview from a Valve staffer (allegedly) can be found here. There will be no HL3.

I recently bought Last of Us. Had been wanting to for a loooong time, ever since first hearing about it, but never got around to it. Last of Us 2 was announced just before Christmas, so thought I really ought to make the effort, so I dusted off my PS3, plugged a network cable in and had a look. It was 20 quid for what seemed like everything, DLC and what not. Turns out that I had not logged into PSN for 2 years or so. Slack, eh?

Downloaded LoU and began an install. Apparently, I didn't have enough disk space, so I deleted the 'big' game on my disk, Wipeout HD/Fury - still no space. Ok, deleted all games. Still not enough space. Right. Seeing as I'd not been online for a while, I deleted all save games, game info, the lot. Turns out I was still 700Mb short, as the firmware takes up *just enough* space to stop me installing my new game. Arse.

A short bit of investigation later reminded me that I was still running the HD that the PS3 came with on launch day in 2008 - a (useable) 37Gb. Great. Being somewhat of a geek, I at least didn't have to order a disk, so had a rummage and found a 2" 350Gb drive lying around that merely needed a format. Then the USB drive I put the firmware onto didn't work, so had to find another... aaaaaannd it finally booted. I had a fully updated PS3 and could check out my new game.

Well. Last of Us - what a treat! Not a massive fan of these type of games, as I tend to get bored by them, but in this case, the story was good enough to keep me interested. Better than good actually, it was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed the play through (although sometimes the clunky movement got up my nose), and, am not ashamed to say it, teared up once or twice. Not many games can claim that. I wondered whether it was because I now had a child of my own that some scenes affected me and suspect so.

Of course, this revitalised PS3 playing has made me look at PS4s. Le sigh. They are ridiculously cheap now for what they are, but still - as I get older I'm starting to feel that 'this one hasn't packed up yet, so I don't need a new one'. But y'know. Western shopping instincts.

I really enjoyed the time on Last of Us, and it was a game that felt like it rewarded the focus, actually gave you a story back with all it's hopes (or lack thereof) and dreams of Ellie & Joel. Pausing to think that this world was all that she knew, not the world that we're all familiar with. What would my child be like in this situation? Would they become infected? How would I deal with it? Could I actually, look them in the eyes and shoot them in the head? Clearly nonsense, but an illustration of the power of the game's environment and story that you find yourself idly thinking about these things whilst making your way around a quieter section of a level. It allows you brain space, isn't a constant shoot and stress factory. In fact, one of my favourite parts of the game comes near the end - and I probably won't be giving anything away here since it's two years old - but as you get to Salt Lake City and see the small Giraffe family, calmly walking around having a graze. Beautiful. You can see the effort that the devs went to with this game - not to belittle the efforts that all developers give in crunch-time - and it really does show. The game timer showed around 20 hours, maybe a little less, spread over 6 weeks or so, and that was the only game that I played. Loved it.

Little ones sure do reduce your game time, but if I'm brutally honest, I think it's actually made me appreciate games more. That and having an hilarious little person running around doing funny shit.

Get Back, Blackguard!

So, Dishonored 2 is out soon. Talking to a friend about it, I was reminded what a superlative game it was. Incredible level design allowed you a true decision in what path to take. Certain choke-points to take you through to the next sub-section, but other than that there was often 3, sometimes 4 different ways to achieve your objective. Sneak, kill, distract, possess, blink...

It's been about 3 years, I can't really remember the details of the story, it would be good to do it again. Was it ever!

You invest Corvo Attano, the Royal Bodyguard. The opening sequence deals with your titular misfortune - a dastardly plot that pits you against the powerful senior members of society in the city of Dunwall. Pretty soon you link up with the Loyalists, a group of concerned citizens fighting to save the Royal Progression and leverage power from the veiny mitts of the plotters. You are also chosen to be the Outsider's champion, the patronage of whom gives you supernatural powers... pretty soon Corvo is embroiled deeply into plots within plots, as the game's story plays out across the industrial cityscape.

As these types of games go, the story is pretty decent (if at times predictable)- you care (at least, I did!) about the characters, cheering some and booing the delightfully pantomime villains of the piece. As the game goes on, you meet more principles, get to know older ones better, and by your actions in the game alter those people's attitude towards you. I think Samuel was my favourite, and remember feeling singularly disappointed in myself at his later disparagement. I was a Bad Man(tm).

Although you have obtained the right to use your powers, the game doesn't hand them to you on a platter - The Outsider's tokens must be hunted down to increase your abilities - you are given some at the start to get you going, but if you want more, you're going to have to work for it. It's a really nice design balance that shows up some games' achievements for collecting as simple Magpie Moments. At the same time, it encourages exploration and consideration as opposed to speed running, something I've never really been a massive fan of (or indeed, any good at). These powers never feel unbalanced really either - you could, if you so wished, not bother with any of the more powerful abilities (barring blink), and survive on your wits alone - but this game is to be played and I would rather not torture myself with the frustration. Especially if attempting the non-lethal route. (I do have a small whinge here - I was never able to work out where to hide the bodies if I had knocked them out rather than made them vanish, always got tagged for it on the end of level tally). The final supernatural aids that you are given are runes, which are incremental upgrades to various parts of your arsenal, carved out of whalebone.

Also worth a mention is the voice acting. It is brilliant. I'd forgotten how great it was, and on a few occasions thought I recognised a voice, looked it up and it was them. There is some serious voice talent in this game, which really adds to the atmosphere - Brad Dourif in particular stands out for me.

The backdrop of the city is richly detailed; a civilisation powered by whale oil, steampunk contraptions abound, a hard life for most with the extraction and hunting of the whales pretty unpleasant (with indications of them getting more rare). Arkane clearly took great pains to paint a vivid picture, plenty of background snippets to read all add to the excellent atmosphere.

I enjoyed it so much the second time around that I ended up buying some DLC - The Knife of Dunwall, aka 'Daud's Story'. Daud is the head of an assassin's guild, and he's feeling guilty, Ladies and Gentlemen. He's having doubts about also being a Bad Man (tm) and your task is to salve his soul. You are given somewhat of a different choice of powers (although disappointingly the runes don't seem to have changed much). There is a second add-on called The Brigmore Witches, where Daud again tries to prevent another gang from sealing his fate (at the hands of Corvo) with a powerful ritual.

I will probably wait before I get Dishonored 2 (because DotA), but I will look forward to playing it. If this genre rocks your world and the quality holds, it should be great. A cut above.

Dote you want me baby

Sim racing. It filled my gaming time for a good few months with thrills and spills, ditches, rocks and the odd tree. Dirt Rally however, has got a bit old for me. Codemasters did a sterling job with the game, and bringing out new cars as free DLC as promised (that all handled differently), but sadly no new tracks. Understandable really, the lengths that they went to to make the stages just so was nothing short of heroic. That shit costs money, and lots of it. That's one reason.

The other is that there's no time now. There's only DotA.

According to DotaBuff, I first had a game in February/March 2014, and only 3 games at that. I probably got yelled at for feeding, not levelling my abilities properly, not buying wards, hell, not buying items. Who the hell needs items anyway. Not this cancerous feeder. I can only assume it was uninstalled in disgust at the toxicity of the community, none of which was my fault oh-dear-me-no. The next time I had a go was when The International 4 rolled around - I enjoyed watching the pros play, and they (Valve) set up a noob stream to basically explain what the eff was going on. Playing wise, I lasted a single game.

The International is Valve's yearly 'main event' for DotA; the best teams from around the world gather together to compete in a tournament with a prize pool that grows bigger every year - nearly $11 million in 2014 (over $20 million 2016). It's is partly funded by players buying skins and a 'compendium' (then), 'battlepass' (now) containing loot, quests and what-not from Valve, and 25% of the purchase price of these goes towards the prize pool.

July 2015 - TI5 was getting nearer, shit I'd better have another crack at this game. Figure it out once and for all. This time I did it properly, advertised on Dotafire as a noob, LFG. Some experienced players picked me up and taught me the basics, and put up with my shit. It was so much more fun. They were all far, far above me in MMR (MatchMaking Ranking, DotA ELO effectively), so whilst I enjoyed the experience mostly, and we were in a 5 stack so I didn't get continually griefed, the games were hard. I was with 2 year old players, against 2 year old players, and still feeling my way like Captain Michaelus Raphael prowling the Sin of Damnation. You want over-wrought similes? This is the spot.

I played for longer, watched the streams for longer, understood barely half of it. Soldiered on for a few months, made it until the end of November when I played 10 games in one session and lost 7. I think my new found friends finally got sick of me, because I started to get mildly frustrated comments like, 'Why were you there? What were you doing? You should be here. P-p-p-ping!' Small potatoes in DotA insult-world that, but I quietly let the game finish, and then quit. Deleted them off my friends list, sold all my skins and uninstalled it. Fuck that game. Fuck them. I don't need that shit.

August 2016. TI6. Shit me, this game looks great. Why don't I still play it? This time. This time, I will bend this game to my will. Played a few matches, then absorbed myself in TI. The production quality was incredible - all credit to Valve, the production team and the commentators, they really pulled out all the stops. For example, if you'd bought a Vive headset, you could spectate in VR; I nearly bought one for just that! I steeled my will, and rode out the consumer desire. TI6 has been the best yet - here's the ending of a tightly fought game between Digital Chaos and Evil Geniuses.

This time I had a clue what was going on, I could follow the main stream, and didn't really need the noob one. I still missed some of the more esoteric details, but it was mostly there. I've noticed since then that my play has improved - I can last hit (sorta). I can support. I can ward. I can't pull yet, still keep forgetting, but meh. Muscle memory isn't there in a team-fight panic, but that's why I'm low MMR (720-odd). And you will panic.

This game has really got it's claws into me now. I try and at least play once an evening, twice if I'm lucky, time permitting. I'm definitely improving, my opponents are clearly better - and I need to get better to best them. The eternal challenge. The itemisation is still a struggle, still working from online builds mostly, but beginning to understand why I might choose the Heart of Tarrasque over Shiva's Guard in late game, for example. Solo queue does suck though; I try to remain positive, if there's any salt from team-mates to team-mates, I try and mediate, head it off - after all, criticism will only make that player play tilt more, and then you're really boned. Seems to work to some extent. My win rate is creeping up - 46.58% (out of 307 games), up from the doldrums of 44.67%. That's right, I've never claimed to be any good.

I'm digging this game, it feels as though I've crested a hump. I'd go as far to say that the DotA2 learning curve is akin to Eve Online's:



I love that pic.

I've still got a lot to learn. I still feed when I try a new toon. BUT! I can see when people are doing strange things... abstractly, my game-sense has improved. My MMR, KDA, GPM and XPM are all creeping up. I'm getting used to the blink dagger. I will never be pro, clearly. Those guys are all late teens to mid 20s, with reactions like cats.

I'd be happy with an MMR of 1500. For an introduction to the game, you could do worse than checking out Purge's 'Welcome to DotA. You suck'.

He's right. You will.