April 2009

Mish Mash of Things to Cover

Greetings Folks. Vettie here. Been awhile since I posted anything on the ol' blog. Maybe there are still a few that read it.

Let me give you a quick update on my situation and then on to the future of Vettie's Views. I went to UAB Kirklin Clinic last month to have my liver checked and to see if I was going to be put on a transplant waiting list. The Doctor at UAB had not yet rec'd all of my medical records from the different doctors in Huntsville. Most importantly, he had not rec'd the films of my latest MRIs and the pictures or samples of my biopsy. he set a new appointment for me at the end of April to take his own set of pictures with some new type of CT Scan developed by UAB Imaging. UAB is a major medical research facility. so i was okay with it except for the possible cost.

Since I am not able to work I am not employed (shocker there, huh). My wife carries me on her insurance. For the most part, its very good. She is employed by one of the local hospitals and most all of our medical stuff is free if we use there facility (or facilities as they have hospital systems all over the south east). However, if you do something that is out of their "network" as they call it, we have a 1200$ deductible PER PERSON, and like most other insurances, they then pay 80/20. 12004 is a bit steep for us right now (anytime really), however, the good doctor at UAB asked me if I wanted to be on th student study program. This allows UAB to wave any insurance deductibles and accept only what our insurance covers from 0$ to all, with UAB absorbing the balance (if any). In my case that means I dont pay the 1200$ or the 20% our insurance doesnt cover. The downside is that many students COULD be with the doctor every time I see him including any surgeries, but only the doctor would do the surgery (if required). It also means that I will get any medicines for free, but I may be taking "new" drugs as part of the study. The good LORD has a way of taking care of those that believe...

We finally closed on our house. Our mortgage company was giving us a lot of crap about selling because we were behind in our payments by a month. All our savings were depleted, we sold 2 of our 4 vehicles and we werent gonna touch the kids college money (what little bit of that there was). They kept delaying and delaying and the buyers were ready to back out. As most of you know, this is not a great time to be selling houses. It is a great time to buy them. If I had the money or the backing, I would buy up a bunch of the foreclosed homes and put back on the market. Sooner or later the economy will turn around and there will be a killing made on real estate (again). Anyway, our mortgage company got sold twice while we were trying to close our sale and the final group were just a bunch of asses. I finally got to talk to a level 3 manager and I told him to either approve the sale or foreclose on the house. either way, we were done. He said, you credit will be ruined. I laffed and said look it up, it already is and I only have 3 years to live, you think I give a damn about my credit rating? Sign the frigging approval form so you can get some money out of our house or foreclose on it, but dont call me anymore, we are through with it, the insurance is canceled as of 4.30p CDT today. About 2 hours after that conversation, our real estate agent called me and said they had approval from our mortgage company to sell the house and was wondering when we could do the closing...shocker there. So they house is sold and the people buying it got a great deal, the (our) mortgage company is all paid up and our agent actually gave us some of his commission back on the sale. We loved that house but our backs were up against a wall and I could no longer go up and down the stairs. C'est la vie.

Big Sy, my beautiful Husky passed away last month, suddenly. He got real sick on morning and we rushed him to the Vet. They kept him for a few hours and called us. they told us that there was little chance for his recovery, but they could lots of things and for several days and several thousands of dollars he might get a little better. We spent another hour or so with him and said our goodbyes. They euthanized him later that day and he felt little or no pain on his last day. He was 10 yrs old and lived a very full and happy life after he came to us at (his) age 2. he was a great dog and very beautiful. We miss him badly, but we know he is better off now. If dogs go to heaven, I know I will see him again real soon.

I have read recently that Sunder is having some money issues and that my honourable friend Oneshot has taken up the slack and put up a server called Sunder II! this is good. The Sunderites will still have a place to play and mission play lives.

In other news, I hear that the mythical MP4 release from MekTek is not that far off the horizon. When i was still able to play, I did have the honour to play a little of MP4 (altho still very early in the alpha testing stage) and I have to tell you I was totally shocked at the things they were able to do. I am not talking about the new mechs (I never saw them on the battlefields), no folks I mean the changes to the game itself. I signed a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), and even if I had not, I would not give away the info I know, but I can say you guys are gonna be blown away. The game will be incredible. MekTek has put a lot of focus on the team play aspect and brought in things that probably should have been there all along. In typical MekTek fashion, by the time they are ready for release, I suspect there will be additional changes from what I saw and played with.

Many of you will not like the changes. That happens with every MekTek release. I think MP4 will bring more discontent than any previous release because of the nature of the changes. The game has changed so much that you have to re-learn things that you have known for 6 to 8 or 9 years. Some things that were second nature to you will have to be completely re-learned. Some of the basics of the game are no longer what they were. About the only things that havent changed (thru the alpha version I saw) were the names of the mechs and their weights.

My biggest hope for MP4 is not only that it draws new (or old) players back to the game, but that there are some new maps to go along with the 'new' system. i would hope to see some more mission play maps (w00t! for Sunderites) as well as team maps. New battlegrounds can add a freshness to even a well worn game. One of the biggest and best changes in recent years to Mercs was when Lord Magnus added some new Mission Play maps. he added others as well (I believe in the MP3 release) but the mission play maps have had a longer lasting impact (in my opinion).

I know that he made changes to some of those mission play maps he created because i downloaded them when he made a post about them. the problem is that NBT did not want to implement those changes for one reason or another, but those changes fixed a few things and made those few maps even better than what we are currently using in Sunder or Sunder II.

One of the thing I would really like to see MekTek do with this final(?) release is put an updater (similar to NBT) in place so that when you log on it automatically checks to see if you have the latest version, updates you if not (if you choose to that is) and also checks to see if you have the correct and most to date version of the maps.

That last part would be really hard to do because there are SOOOO many maps out there (just check MWL's map download section if you dont think so) and the fact that nearly anyone can create and publish a map. I dont mean to say that anyone can do a GOOD job with map making, but I am saying that the tools are out there for anyone and everyone to attempt to make a map, even you or me. I tried it once, making a map from scratch. It worked, but I didnt have all the neat stuff i have seen MekTek, Magnus or Giskard put on a map. It is definitely a skill and a patience thing.

It would take someone, or a group of folks to act as a repository and control what comes in and goes out. They would need to put a revision on each map and control it from there. They would also need serve space with access so that users could up or download. The download would need to be fast so a player could download, install and get into a server before the game that needed that map was over. The uploads would need to be submitted for review and revision control (similar to blueprint releases). Once accepted, any further changes would need to be a new revision so that the servers and players were always assured of running the correct version.

Of course, this is an old game and i doubt if there are that many dedicated persons left willing to take on such tasks and stay with it (it takes a lot of person resource (mostly time but some funding as well) to make it work. Why didnt I think of this some 6 or more years ago? Well, actually I did but I didnt know who to take it to back then.

Well there you have it. My long overdue updates. I am already taking a newer medicine that is supposed to help relieve some of the pain and help me be upright more than I have been able to. so far, it seems to be working. at the end of April we undergo a another full blood work up and see if there are any adverse affects (hopefully not). If it keeps working, i will be able to get back in the cockpit soon and go a round or three in Sunder or Sunder II (where ever the action is). My strength is getting better and my mental state is still on the positive side of things. I take each day that I wake up as a sign that it is not yet my time and I try to enjoy each day as much as I can. Of course, if I could win the power ball or something, I could enjoy some of the things I can only think or read about right now. So if there are any lotto winners out there that need a tax deduction, or if you just want an outlet to dump all that extra cash, send me an email and I will do my best to help you out.

Until next post, enjoy each day folks cause life is a no re-spawn server. w00t!
Vettie out.