– Some more minor performance improvements (including improvements to Wukong’s Command) – Fixed Pangolier’s Rolling Thunder interaction with knockback abilities – Fixed Ogre Magi’s Multicast continuing to stun if you buyback quickly – Fixed a bug that caused Monkey King to have one less soldier in the area
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-26-2019, 09:20 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Heroes of the Dorm™ Leads Tespa’s College Esports Lineup in 2018
Signups now open for college esports tournaments featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s Heroes of the Storm®, Hearthstone®, and StarCraft® II
This year’s programs offer more opportunities—and scholarships—for college gamers across U.S. and Canada than ever before
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Student gamers everywhere can now matriculate in a full schedule of college esports programs, as Tespa, Blizzard Entertainment’s college esports network, has revealed its lineup of tournaments and events for this year, including the fourth edition of Heroes of the Dorm™. With programs for Hearthstone® and StarCraft® II in addition to Heroes of the Storm®, Tespa will award more than $1 million in scholarships and prizing by the end of the 2017-18 academic year.
Now in its fourth year, Heroes of the Dorm is introducing regional play. More than $500,000 in scholarships and prizes are up for grabs in this premier collegiate esports competition. Regional winners and other top teams on the national leaderboard will be seeded into the 64-team National Championship bracket. The battle for the Heroes of the Dorm National Championship—and for the scholarship money each player receives for the remainder of their college careers—will be fierce. Fans can watch all the action on both www.twitch.tv/blizzheroes and www.mlg.com.
In a one-of-a-kind broadcast partnership with Raycom Sports, Heroes of the Dorm will have a dedicated, nationally-syndicated program during a five-week period of competition. Raycom will produce the weekly, one-hour Heroes of the Dorm program, featuring schools competing in the tournament’s Atlantic Coast Region. The original series, which will cover competition as well as spotlight player and team stories, will be broadcast across Raycom Sports’ syndicated network of affiliates in more than 50 markets in the United States.
“With intense student competition and an epic tournament bracket featuring schools across the United States and Canada, Heroes of the Dorm showcases the kind of excitement that can only come from college esports,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to cheering on all of the talented players who will be competing in Heroes of the Storm, as well as Hearthstone and StarCraft II, for their share of Tespa’s biggest scholarship prize pool ever.”
Starting today, eligible college gamers in the United States and Canada can sign up to compete in Heroes of the Dorm at www.heroesofthedorm.com. See the full schedule below:
Tournament Stage
Date
Registration Opens
January 22
Registration Closes
February 5
Regional Play Begins
February 6
Live Broadcasts Begin
February 14
Regional Championships
March 11
Bracket Reveal
March 19
Round of 64 Begins
March 28
Heroic Four/Finals
April/May
Hearthstone Collegiate Championship
Teams vying for the 2018 Hearthstone Collegiate Championship will have their hands full as they battle for their share of $150,000 in scholarship prizing. Each team of three will have to battle through a seven-week regular season and the regional playoffs to make it to the single-elimination championship bracket. Fans can watch the tournament live on www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone.
Eligible college gamers in the United States and Canada can sign up to compete in the Hearthstone Collegiate Championship at compete.tespa.org starting today. See the full schedule below:
Tournament Stage
Date
Registration Opens
January 22
Registration Closes
February 15
Matches Begin
February 19
Tespa Collegiate Series—StarCraft
The first ever Tespa Collegiate Series—StarCraft will award $35,000 in total scholarship prizing to the top performers in the 16-team league. Teams of three players will battle it out in StarCraft II twice a week during the eight-week regular season, with four teams joining the tournament via the open qualifiers. Matches will be broadcast on www.twitch.tv/starcraft and www.mlg.com. Eligible college gamers in the United States and Canada can sign up for qualifiers at compete.tespa.org starting today. See the full schedule below:
Tournament Stage
Date
Registration Opens
January 22
Qualifier 1
February 10
Qualifier 2
February 11
Matches Begin
February 17
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®, Overwatch®, the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, and the multi-franchise Heroes of the Storm®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes twenty-one #1 games* and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Blizzard Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.
*Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners.
About Tespa
Tespa is the premier college gaming network in North America, dedicated to creating a home for gamers on every campus. Recognized as the leader in college esports, Tespa cultivates student communities that host epic gaming events on campuses in the United States and Canada, and plans to distribute more than $1 million in scholarship prizing in 2018 through intercollegiate leagues. Tespa has had more than 5000 teams from more than 1400 universities compete in its college tournaments and has empowered student leaders to become entrepreneurs in the gaming industry.
About Raycom Sports
Charlotte, N.C.-based Raycom Sports is a leader for compelling storytelling, production, and content distribution across all platforms. With an award-winning production team, Raycom creates original feature programming such as Football Saturdays. Raycom is the syndicated rightsholder of Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball and football since 1982, and manages live television broadcasting, original programming, archival footage, mobile applications, social media, the official ACC website and the ACC Official Corporate Champions program. Raycom also serves as the digital content, marketing, video and broadcast production partner of The Basketball Tournament (TBT). Raycom manages client activations and hospitality at ACC FanFest at the ACC Football Championship and ACC Basketball Tournaments.
Raycom Sports’ parent company Raycom Media, owns and/or provides services for 65 television stations and 2 radio stations located in 20 states covering 16% of U.S. television households.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the dates and features of Heroes of the Dorm 2018, the Tespa Collegiate Series—StarCraft, and the Hearthstone Collegiate Championship, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Christy Um Director, Esports Communications 949.955.1380 x61251 christy.um@blizzard.com or David Gordon Global PR Manager, Esports 949.955.1380 x13506 dgordon@blizzard.com or Sara Zaidi Global PR Manager 949.955.1380 x61091 szaidi@blizzard.com
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-26-2019, 09:20 AM - Forum: Lounge
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This Week At Bungie – 6/20/2019
This week at Bungie, we prepare for Calus’s new challenge.
If you’re reading this at the moment of publication, we’re currently live on the GuardianCon Charity Marathon Stream hosting a Bungie Bounty. We’re being hunted on all three platforms while a menagerie of hosts reads off donations to support a great cause! We have a list of incentives, ranging from releasing the TWAB early to showing off a few Legendary weapon concepts from our upcoming Destiny 2: Shadowkeep release. For more information about the GuardianCon charity stream, make sure to check their website. If you’d like to join the fun on stream, we’ll be live from 1–5 PM PDT (4–8 PM EDT).
Now, let’s get down to business on your weekly roundup of Destiny– and Bungie-related news.
Challenge Fit for a Guardian
Season of Opulence is full steam ahead. You’ve scoured the depths of the Menagerie, begun your quest for Truth, and taken the Crown of Sorrow. Our next stop on the roadmap begins June 25 with Menagerie Heroic mode.
So, let’s dig in. What does Calus have lined up for our most powerful Guardians?
Increased Power Difficulty: Starts at 750, increases to 770
Matchmaking is disabled; you must form a fireteam to enter
Weekly curated gameplay modifiers, rotating per boss
Unlike normal mode, Guardians can hit a failure state
Extinguish is active; if your team wipes, Calus will send you to orbit
Encounters never repeat; if you fail to reach 100% progress toward the boss after completing each encounter once, you will be returned to orbit
Heroic-mode-specific Triumphs, rewards, and challenges await you
Though we’ll be watching, this won’t be a race. We’re excited to see how players customize their experience with various challenges to show off their skill. Can you defeat Heroic mode with fewer than six players? Maybe with specific loadouts? Only time will tell.
Take Pride
June isn’t the only time when we live our values as a company, but it’s a great opportunity to celebrate them. Here is an important message from the Bungie Diversity Committee on how you can join us in expressing your pride, along with the people who make the games you play.
Pride Month is an exciting time of year, when we can all unite under a rainbow flag and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ family. Bungie has come together this month to do more than we’ve been able to accomplish before.
We have a Pride pin for sale on our Bungie Store, with all proceeds going directly to the It Gets Better Project (a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe). This year, not only will Bungie continue its tradition of marching in the Seattle Pride Parade as an official sponsor, but we have also teamed up with other nearby dev studios to create a more united game industry alliance. While we celebrate this month, it’s vital that we stay centered on what Pride is truly about; the equal rights and representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, People who deserve to be celebrated and recognized for their role in making our community as amazing as it is.
“For me, Pride means being able to be visible to someone who needs representation (even when they may not realize it), as opposed to how it used to be where visibility only meant being a target.” —Jayce D., Designer
We on the Bungie Diversity Committee are committed to improving Bungie’s work culture, practices, and policies in order to make this community a more welcoming and inclusive space for our LGBTQIA+ employees and fans around the world. This work does not start and end in June; rather, it’s a series of challenges that we work on every day, month after month. Here at Bungie, we know there are still a lot of ways we could be doing better. We also know that our industry sometimes drags its heels when it comes to necessary change. However, we must keep moving forward for the sake of our own teams, coworkers, families, and players who need to know that they are seen, accepted, welcomed, and loved for exactly who they are.
“One of the most empowering things I’ve experienced is the acknowledgement that I exist in a world that generally pretends otherwise. This was the greatest gift games have ever given me, and one of the most important things I want to do as a developer is give that gift to players.” —David S., Engineer
We look forward to celebrating Pride Month with all of you. Let’s keep our eyes up, and do our part to forge a brighter future.
—Bungie Diversity Committee
Please note: If the Pride Collectible Pin shows “Currently Unavailable” on the Bungie Store, this indicates that the item is currently out of stock. We plan to have these available through Pride month, and beyond. If you’re interested in snagging one of these pins, but it’s not available, make sure to click the “Email when available” option on the portal to be notified the moment they’re back in stock!
Preserving the Truth
The members of Destiny Player Support navigate the help forum daily, spreading helpful tips on how to work around issues or collecting data on any newly surfaced problems within Destiny 2. This week, they have some super good advice on how to keep your Truth quest on the right track.
This is their report.
Fall 2019 FAQ Update
This week, we’re making some updates and revisions to our Fall 2019 FAQ. See below for this week’s additions:
Q: What is included with Bungie Store purchases of physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?
A: Digital products delivered via email before September 17, 2019:
Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.
Collector’s Edition exclusive physical collectible bundle contents delivered on or before September 17, 2019:
Collector’s Edition Exclusive In-Game Emblem Code: An exclusive in-game emblem code printed inside the physical collectible bundle.
Hive Cryptoglyph Replica: Follow clues in the Collector’s Edition to unlock the Hive Cryptoglyph and its secret contents. Dimensions: 7.8”L.
Metal Luna Mission Container: A metal Luna mission folio that holds esoteric relics and records. Dimensions: 8.6”L x 5.9”W.
Luna Mission Handbook: Containing 40 pages of schematics and design documents.
Luna Journal: A 160-page journal featuring additional story content that is bound with the mysterious charms and talismans of Eris Morn.
Artifacts from the Golden Age.
Q: When should players expect Destiny 2: Shadowkeep to ship from the Bungie Store?
A: Physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will ship to players on or before September 17, 2019. Included digital codes will be delivered by email to players on or before September 17, 2019. Players should be aware that Bungie Store codes included with Shadowkeep physical edition purchases will arrive only by email, and that no versions include any codes in the box.
Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.
Q: Who should players contact with concerns regarding their Bungie Store physical edition purchase of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?
A: Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to orders@bungiestore.com.
Additionally, we’ve revised the following questions for clarity in response to player feedback:
Q: Do players need to repurchase Destiny 2 on each cross-save platform separately?
A: Destiny 2 will be accessible to players on all available platforms for free as Destiny 2: New Light. However, players will need to purchase Destiny 2 expansions (Forsaken, Shadowkeep) for each connected platform in order to access that expansion’s content. Cross save will preserve all gear, character, and items across all platforms regardless of expansion ownership.
Q: Can players merge different characters, items, or Triumphs from different accounts?
A: Cross Save does not feature any form of account, character, or progress merging. Selecting a set of characters for Cross Save does not delete or alter the data of any other character sets. Other character sets will be inaccessible for use as long as Cross Save is active.
Q: Will Stadia feature cross-play with Steam or other platforms?
A: Cross-play will not be available for any platform in 2019. We are investigating this feature for Destiny 2, but we have no official announcements to make at this time.
Destiny 2 Season of Opulence Known Issues
Listed below are the latest player-impacting issues discovered in Season of Opulence:
Not Getting Truth from the Ascendant Chest: We’re investigating an issue where players may not receive Truth after they open the Ascendant Chest if they aren’t on the quest step “Candy from a Baby.” Players should ensure they are on the appropriate quest step before opening this chest.
Refer-a-Friend Linking Issue: We’re investigating an issue where new players can’t accept links from veteran players.
690 Gear for Alternate Characters: We’re investigating an issue where players don’t receive 690 gear on all of their characters after completing “The Invitation” quest.
Rune Bonus II Not Refunding: We’re investigating an issue where players who have this node active in their Chalice of Opulence don’t always receive a rune back when opening the Menagerie chest.
Double Rune Drops: We’re investigating an issue where players receive only one rune when two runes of the same type drop at the end of an activity.
Infamy Points and Bounty Issues: We’re investigating an issue where Gambit Prime “Civic Duty” bounties are not counting toward player Infamy ranks.
Crystals in Eater of Worlds and Crossroad Public Event: We’re investigating an issue where these crystals don’t transition correctly and it becomes difficult to shoot them.
Raid Witches Vessel Swappers Not Spawning: We are investigating an issue where the swappers do not spawn during flawless runs of the Crown of Sorrow raid, resulting in players being unable to complete the flawless run.
Static Shock Emote: We’re investigating an issue where players have a hard time interacting with this emote prompt.
Sturm and Drang Audio: We are investigating an issue where Sturm plays the reload audio on every kill when paired with Drang or Drang (Baroque), even when Drang’s magazine is full.
Frame by Frame
The movies keep rolling in. With players finding new pinnacle and Menagerie weapons to add to their arsenal, we’re seeing some great plays in the wild. Not only that, but fireteams of three taking on the Crown of Sorrow raid.
Movie of the Week: Three-player Crown of Sorrow
Honorable Mention: You use your anger well, Guardian
This weekend, I’ll be on the hunt for some Iron Banner gear with enhanced perk rolls. This is your first chance for enhanced perks through the Crucible, so get to it! Lord Saladin is offering a new quest to unlock each piece, so make sure to complete the appropriate quest step for your desired armor piece before exchanging tokens for random rolls. If you’re a sniper, I highly recommend the enhanced Unflinching Sniper Aim perk for chest pieces.
We’ll see you next week for Menagerie Heroic mode. Prep your fireteam accordingly.
Roughly five months following the debut of Ludwig, Uber’s open source and no-code deep learning toolkit, the ride-hailing company today detailed improvements with the latest version: Ludwig 0.2. Among them are new tools and over 50 bug fixes, plus Comet.ml integration, the addition of Google’s BERT natural language model, and support for new feature types including audio, speech, geospatial, time, and date. (Source: VentureBeat)
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-26-2019, 04:39 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy TV Series Reportedly In Development
The classic novel series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is reportedly being adapted into a series for Hulu. THR reports that the series will be headed up by Carlton Cuse (Lost, Jack Ryan) and Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman). The two will write and executive produce the project.
The show is said to be under the umbrella of ABC Signature, the ABC division that focuses on streaming shows. Disney is also the majority owner of Hulu, and owns the rights to Hitchhiker's Guide. Cuse has an overall deal with ABC as well.
The HGTTG series of novels from Douglas Adams follows Arthur Dent, a down-on-his-luck British man who goes on a space-hopping adventure after Earth is destroyed to make space for an intergalactic highway. The series is known for its dry wit, with equal parts satirical and absurdist humor. It was previously adapted into a movie in 2005 starring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, and Zooey Deschanel.
Hulu has gained critical attention in recent years for The Handmaid's Tale. While Disney is the majority owner, it offers a mix of original programming and selections from network and cable TV. Disney's own streaming service, Disney+, is scheduled to launch this fall for $7 per month.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-26-2019, 04:39 AM - Forum: Windows
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At global Hackathon, customers break something to make something
Summer is a time for growth. Whether you’re traveling to an historical destination or picking out a book for the beach, the season is ripe for taking a break from the grind to focus on introspection and renewal, to make new friends, re-connect with old ones, and create shared experiences together. With any luck, come autumn you have a sharpened mind and a greater sense of where you want to go next.
Which is why summer is the ideal time for the Microsoft global Hackathon. Minds will be sharpened, advancement made tangible, and friends with diverse backgrounds will be brought together to create shared experiences.
By now you’re probably aware of the 27,000 employees who gather at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington campus and 45 venues around the world, embracing the event (part of One Week – a series celebrating the company’s people, products and ideas) as a platform for innovation. But at the 6th annual installment, there’s another rapidly growing segment that deserves its own spotlight: customer collaborations.
More than 30 customer teams join 27,000 Microsoft employees at the 2019 Microsoft global Hackathon. (Photo by Scott Eklund, Red Box Pictures)
“We started inviting customers two years ago,” explains Susie Kandzor, group program manager at The Garage, an experimentation and growth program at Microsoft that produces the Hackathon to further its mission of encouraging collaboration, creativity and experimentation. “In 2017, we only had four customers join us. Last year we had 10 customers join us, and the feedback from executive leadership was that they loved it and wanted more.”
For the 2019 installment, the largest private hackathon on the planet welcomes some 30 companies (a dozen more will participate around the globe). Each sends three to five representatives, cross-functionality encouraged, arriving with wildly diverse business hurdles they hope to jump – and confidence that the latest technological breakthroughs can get them there.
“This is how we channel innovation into a focused effort,” says Angela Yochem, executive vice president/chief digital and technology officer for Novant Health, a network of healthcare providers that attended the global Hackathon in 2018 and is sending two teams this year from their offices in North Carolina.
“Remember in the movie ‘Apollo 13,’ where there’s something wrong with the spacecraft and all the engineers get together, spill parts all over a table, and using their past experiences and backgrounds, solve the problem? A Hackathon is that, on steroids.”
By leveraging technology, Novant Health is improving the health of its community. (Photo courtesy of Novant Health)
“We’re going to talk about the art of the possible,” agrees Kirk Windisch, Novant Health’s vice president of Digital Products and Services. “I’m excited to find solutions that we haven’t even thought of yet.”
The 2019 list of customer attendees is as diverse as it is impressive. Where else could you find 3M, Starbucks, Mastercard and Blackbaud under one roof? From meals (Nestle) to electricity (Chesapeake Energy) to investments (Vanguard), you’d be hard-pressed to find a greater range of industries innovating alongside one another.
“In the past we’ve seen a lot of instances where companies talk between themselves, and the Microsoft Hackathon has introduced different companies to one another. We’re just humbled by the enthusiasm our customers have toward hacking, and honored that these customers have given us the opportunity to help develop their growth ideas,” Kandzor says of the Hackathon’s unique atmosphere.
One customer attending Hackathon 2019 is Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile – a company with over 80 million customers and annual revenues of $43 billion – wearing their self-proclaimed moniker of “The Un-carrier” with disruptive pride. Principal analyst Sarah O’Brien says T-Mobile is perfectly positioned for the Hackathon experience.
T-Mobile employees, who proudly sport their branded black and magenta, are encouraged to share ideas that lead to new technology solutions. (Photo courtesy of T-Mobile)
“I was at a conference not long ago, and my takeaway was the sheer volume of publishing, whitepapers and patents around machine learning and AI coming out of Microsoft – the true investment in it – and the notion that rather than treating it like a buzzword, there is thought leadership and movement to drive it forward for everyone,” she says.
“Our companies have a lot of shared experience and recognition that what made you successful in the past does not guarantee success in the future, so I’m excited that we can put these great teams together and build something impactful.”
Novant Health has over 650 locations in five states, and provides increased access to care through digital channels, and through advanced tech in their hospitals and physician centers. “We just deployed an AI-based system for treating stroke patients faster than ever before,” says Yochem, citing one exciting example. “With a stroke victim, every minute matters, and now we are able to save many more lives. It’s an example of how leveraging technology can impact the health of our community.”
Novant Health team members train on new technology at patient check-in. (Photo courtesy of Novant Health)
And while Novant Health’s goal is nothing short of saving lives, other companies may simply seek to improve the quality of life.
“We’re empowered to achieve more, simply by combining forces,” says Jan-Jaap Oosterwijk, global head of innovation for digital platform security firm Irdeto, who is flying in with his team from The Netherlands. “I love the diversity of the event. I also really like that in the invitation, it was specified that the team doesn’t need to consist of engineers only. The Hackathon is open to people from any background, which will provide a wide range of perspectives.”
There are a lot of great brains working together at the global Hackathon, using a variety of technologies (last year, efforts focused on everything from artificial technology to sustainable farming). Much like a summer cookout, each customer brings their own specialty – in this case, a hack.
Sprint & T-Mobile merger could win DOJ approval as soon as Wednesday
By Roger Fingas Monday, July 22, 2019, 07:44 pm PT (10:44 pm ET)
The contentious $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint is reportedly close to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice, to the point an announcement could be made as soon as Wednesday.
The tentative deal would require the creation of a fourth wireless competitor, CNBC sources said. As rumored that firm should be Dish, the people went on, adding that it’s unlikely to face limitations requested by T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom since the DOJ wants a genuine fourth competitor in the U.S. carrier market. In particular, Dish may be free to sell an equity stake to whomever it wants.
That firm may also absorb Sprint prepaid brand Boost Mobile, but initially rely on T-Mobile’s network, switching to its own 5G as the sharing agreement ends — likely in 6 to 7 years. In return for network use T-Mobile is expected to “receive about half of the economics” from each person signing up to Dish wireless.
Dish currently specializes in live TV via satellite and Sling, but has wanted to become a mobile carrier for a decade, snapping up wireless spectrum accordingly. In fact the company has until March 2020 to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that a sizable portion is being used.
Two threats to the merger remain. Sprint and T-Mobile have set a self-imposed July 29 deadline, but more significantly, a lawsuit by state attorneys general — now up to 13, plus the District of Columbia — could block a deal on competitive grounds.
Note: .NET Core 3.0 Preview 7 requires Visual Studio 2019 16.3 Preview 1, which is being released later this week.
To install the latest client-side Blazor templates also run the following command:
dotnet new -i Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Templates::3.0.0-preview7.19365.7
Installing the Blazor Visual Studio extension is no longer required and it can be uninstalled if you’ve installed a previous version. Installing the Blazor WebAssembly templates from the command-line is now all you need to do to get them to show up in Visual Studio.
Please also see the full list of breaking changes in ASP.NET Core 3.0.
To upgrade an existing ASP.NET Core 3.0 Preview 6 project to Preview 7:
Update Microsoft.AspNetCore.* package references to 3.0.0-preview7.19365.7.
That’s it! You should be ready to go.
Latest Visual Studio preview includes .NET Core 3.0 as the default runtime
The latest preview update for Visual Studio (16.3) includes .NET Core 3.0 as the default .NET Core runtime version. This means that if you install the latest preview of Visual Studio then you already have .NET Core 3.0. New project by default will target .NET Core 3.0
Top level ASP.NET Core templates in Visual Studio
The ASP.NET Core templates now show up as top level templates in Visual Studio in the “Create a new project” dialog.
This means you can now search for the various ASP.NET Core templates and filter by project type (web, service, library, etc.) to find the one you want to use.
Simplified web templates
We’ve taken some steps to further simplify the web app templates to reduce the amount of code that is frequently just removed.
Specifically:
The cookie consent UI is no longer included in the web app templates by default.
Scripts and related static assets are now referenced as local files instead of using CDNs based on the current environment.
We will provide samples and documentation for adding these features to new apps as needed.
Attribute splatting for components
Components can now capture and render additional attributes in addition to the component’s declared parameters. Additional attributes can be captured in a dictionary and then “splatted” onto an element as part of the component’s rendering using the new @attributes Razor directive. This feature is especially valuable when defining a component that produces a markup element that supports a variety of customizations. For instance if you were defining a component that produces an <input> element, it would be tedious to define all of the attributes <input> supports like maxlength or placeholder as component parameters.
Accepting arbitrary parameters
To define a component that accepts arbitrary attributes define a component parameter using the [Parameter] attribute with the CaptureUnmatchedAttributes property set to true. The type of the parameter must be assignable from Dictionary<string, object>. This means that IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, object>> or IReadOnlyDictionary<string, object> are also options.
The CaptureUnmatchedAttributes property on [Parameter] allows that parameter to match all attributes that do not match any other parameter. A component can only define a single parameter with CaptureUnmatchedAttributes.
Using @attributes to render arbitrary attributes
A component can pass arbitrary attributes to another component or markup element using the @attributes directive attribute. The @attributes directive allows you to specify a collection of attributes to pass to a markup element or component. This is valuable because the set of key-value-pairs specified as attributes can come from a .NET collection and do not need to be specified in the source code of the component.
Using the @attributes directive the contents of the Attribute property get “splatted” onto the input element. If this results in duplicate attributes, then evaluation of attributes occurs from left to right. In the above example if Attributes also contained a value for class it would supersede class="form-field". If Attributes contained a value for type then that would be superseded by type="text".
Data binding support for TypeConverters and generics
Blazor now supports data binding to types that have a string TypeConverter. Many built-in framework types, like Guid and TimeSpan have a string TypeConverter, or you can define custom types with a string TypeConverter yourself. These types now work seamlessly with data binding:
Data binding also now works great with generics. In generic components you can now bind to types specified using generic type parameters.
@typeparam T <input @bind="value" /> <p>@value</p> @code { T value;
}
Clarified which directive attributes expect HTML vs C
In Preview 6 we introduced directive attributes as a common syntax for Razor compiler related features like specifying event handlers (@onclick) and data binding (@bind). In this update we’ve cleaned up which of the built-in directive attributes expect C# and HTML. Specifically, event handlers now expect C# values so a leading @ character is no longer required when specifying the event handler value:
@* Before *@
<button @onclick="@OnClick">Click me</button> @* After *@
<button @onclick="OnClick">Click me</button>
EventCounters
In place of Windows perf counters, .NET Core introduced a new way of emitting metrics via EventCounters. In preview7, we now emit EventCounters ASP.NET Core. You can use the dotnet counters global tool to view the metrics we emit.
Install the latest preview of dotnet counters by running the following command:
The Hosting EventSourceProvider (Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting) now emits the following request counters:
requests-per-second
total-requests
current-requests
failed-requests
SignalR
In addition to hosting, SignalR (Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Connections) also emits the following connection counters:
connections-started
connections-stopped
connections-timed-out
connections-duration
To view all the counters emitted by ASP.NET Core, you can start dotnet counters and specify the desired provider. The example below shows the output when subscribing to events emitted by the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting and System.Runtime providers.
New Package ID for SignalR’s JavaScript Client in NPM
The Azure SignalR Service made it easier for non-.NET developers to make use of SignalR’s real-time capabilities. A frequent question we would get from potential customers who wanted to enable their applications with SignalR via the Azure SignalR Service was “does it only work with ASP.NET?” The former identity of the ASP.NET Core SignalR – which included the @aspnet organization on NPM, only further confused new SignalR users.
To mitigate this confusion, beginning with 3.0.0-preview7, the SignalR JavaScript client will change from being @aspnet/signalr to @microsoft/signalr. To react to this change, you will need to change your references in package.json files, require statements, and ECMAScript import statements. If you’re interested in providing feedback on this move or to learn the thought process the team went through to make the change, read and/or contribute to this GitHub issue where the team engaged in an open discussion with the community.
New Customizable SignalR Hub Method Authorization
With Preview 7, SignalR now provides a custom resource to authorization handlers when a hub method requires authorization. The resource is an instance of HubInvocationContext. The HubInvocationContext includes the HubCallerContext, the name of the hub method being invoked, and the arguments to the hub method.
Consider the example of a chat room allowing multiple organization sign-in via Azure Active Directory. Anyone with a Microsoft account can sign in to chat, but only members of the owning organization should be able to ban users or view users’ chat histories. Furthermore, we might want to restrict certain functionality from certain users. Using the updated features in Preview 7, this is entirely possible. Note how the DomainRestrictedRequirement serves as a custom IAuthorizationRequirement. Now that the HubInvocationContext resource parameter is being passed in, the internal logic can inspect the context in which the Hub is being called and make decisions on allowing the user to execute individual Hub methods.
Now, individual Hub methods can be decorated with the name of the policy the code will need to check at run-time. As clients attempt to call individual Hub methods, the DomainRestrictedRequirement handler will run and control access to the methods. Based on the way the DomainRestrictedRequirement controls access, all logged-in users should be able to call the SendMessage method, only users who’ve logged in with a @jabbr.net email address will be able to view users’ histories, and – with the exception of bob42@jabbr.net – will be able to ban users from the chat room.
[Authorize]
public class ChatHub : Hub
{ public void SendMessage(string message) { } [Authorize("DomainRestricted")] public void BanUser(string username) { } [Authorize("DomainRestricted")] public void ViewUserHistory(string username) { }
}
Creating the DomainRestricted policy is as simple as wiring it up using the authorization middleware. In Startup.cs, add the new policy, providing the custom DomainRestrictedRequirement requirement as a parameter.
It must be noted that in this example, the DomainRestrictedRequirement class is not only a IAuthorizationRequirement but also it’s own AuthorizationHandler for that requirement. It is fine to split these into separate classes to separate concerns. Yet, in this way, there’s no need to inject the AuthorizationHandler during Startup, since the requirement and the handler are the same thing, there’s no need to inject the handler separately.
HTTPS in gRPC templates
The gRPC templates have been now been updated to use HTTPS by default. At development time, we continue the same certificate generated by the dotnet dev-certs tool and during production, you will still need to supply your own certificate.
gRPC Client Improvements
The managed gRPC client (Grpc.Net.Client) has been updated to target .NET Standard 2.1 and no longer depends on types present only in .NET Core 3.0. This potentially gives us the ability to run on other platforms in the future.
gRPC Metapackage
In 3.0.0-preview7, we’ve introduced a new package Grpc.AspNetCore that transitively references all other runtime and tooling dependencies required for building gRPC projects. Reasoning about a single package version for the metapackage should make it easier for developers to deal with as opposed multiple dependencies that version independently.
CLI tool for managing gRPC code generation
The new dotnet-grpc global tool makes it easier to manage protobuf files and their code generation settings. The global tool manages adding and removing protobuf files as well adding the required package references required to build and run gRPC applications.
Install the latest preview of dotnet-grpc by running the following command:
As an example, you can run following commands to generate a protobuf file and add it to your project for code generation. If you attempt this on a non-web project, we will default to generating a client and add the required package dependencies.
dotnet new proto -o .\Protos\mailbox.proto
dotnet grpc add-file .\Protos\mailbox.proto
Give feedback
We hope you enjoy the new features in this preview release of ASP.NET Core and Blazor! Please let us know what you think by filing issues on GitHub.
There is no canonical version of Robin Hood. The earliest printed tales we have date from the 15th century, but it was an oral tradition much earlier. And it seems he wasn’t always the jolly socialist we know and love. These first stories feature many well-known names, but a violent Robin who is more interested in regaining his lands than giving to the poor.
So it’s fitting that the best part of Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood, a text and strategy hybrid game about his adventures in Sherwood forest, is how you can shape Robin as you like. Even the gender and love interests of this Robin are yours to make your own. Beyond that, you can fashion Robin’s morality from classic outlaw to a far crueller thief.
You can make Robin a wronged nobleman or a champion of the peasantry. They can be a practical champion or one who dabbles in monsters and mysticism.
Choosing to add supernatural elements to this much-loved fairy-tale is a controversial choice. And it’s something any player has to buy into full-heartedly because it’s everywhere. On the whole, it works, adding a lot of extra choices and colour to the classic stories, as well as allowing the occasional mood change. An early encounter with a ghostly knight on a hill was a welcome touch of horror amid the pageantry. But as the story moves on, it becomes too frequent, becoming everyday and pedestrian when it should be mystical and exciting.
As far as the core characters of the legends go, though, they’re all here and bought to life in vivid colour. Some, like Marian, you’ll meet close to the beginning. Others don’t turn up until you’ve got a good way into the story. The drip-feed helps build the anticipation for big entrances. Bumping into well-known names, like Little John, wielding his staff atop a river crossing, feel like punch-the-air moments.
Of course, none of this would work without some quality writing, and here Nocked! delivers in droves. Descriptions make a great job of setting the scene and drawing characters, who advance in complexity alongside the story. Fantastic art and music help draw you deep into Sherwood. Yet for all that, it’s well-edited and restrained as a good gamebook should be. You’re never too far from making important decisions instead of getting bogged down in reams of text.
Indeed, the writing is so good it does a great job of supporting those decisions. Often, text adventures like this are complete crapshoots where there’s almost nothing to go on other than blind instinct. Nocked!, by contrast, telegraphs potential consequences with great skill, dropping hints to use when choosing your path. You can shape Robin however you like, but when the chips are down it can pay to re-read the passages before a decision.
Some rudimentary strategy elements add depth to your text-based decisions. Early on this consists entirely of resource management. Later you’ll be able to use those resources to make more long term decisions as you build a base of operations deep in Sherwood forest. Some decision options, often the more desirable choices, come with a resource cost which is clearly marked in-game. Where it gets more interesting though is in resource allocation at pivotal moments.
Say you’re in a battle against a group of fearsome bandits. Nocked! neither leaves it all to text or numbers but a mixture of the two. You’ll get to direct the major characters in the scene and allocate your pool of Merry Men to attack, defence or other operations. These choices can have major consequences for how the story plays out.
Yet they actually feel less strategic than making text decisions. The numbers are clear and visible whenever you need them. But the outcome of spending or allocating them to different options doesn’t carry the same sense of hidden hints. This creates an odd contrast, where the subjective decisions feel weightier than what should be objective ones. Nocked! uses numbers creatively, adding timers for tension on top of stats and resources. But while they add colour, they don’t offer any extra sense of control.
Nocked! True Tales of Robin Hood is not a short game, but the many faces you can give to Robin give it plenty of replay value. A bigger question is how many players will want to. This is no Six Ages, with a seamless blend of story and tactics. Rather it’s a top-quality gamebook which throws a few numbers around to add a vague sense of strategy. Fans of the former genre will lap it up; fans of the latter should approach with a bit more caution.
Nocked! was originally released on iOS in 2017, but it made the jump over to Steam last week.
