It took a little bit, but I finally bought End of Eternity (NA version -> Resonance of Fate), Bayonetta for the X360 and the Devil May Cry HD collection for the PS3. The only one left is Vanquish, but I have no idea how hard it is to find it. It wasn't hard tracking down a copy online, but I kinda want to support the local game shop that's a walk away. Plus, the store owner kinda knows what I like to play, so that's always good.
Having bothered booting up EoE or Bayo yet, so I ended up spending time with the DMC collection. More specifically, the original DMC. Because it's still my favourite out of all of them despite all the advancements to the systems throughout the years. Made it to Mission 3 before deciding to stop for some studying. I thought I was going to be able to complete Mission 1 without taking damage, but that was thrown out the window as soon as I started getting swarmed by Marionettes. Luckily, they didn't kill me. Unfortunately, I don't remember them doing that much damage on Normal! It was a pretty good wake-up call, since a lot of the games I've been playing were a little bit on the easy side, until I decide to ramp up the difficulty (that's not to say I don't enjoy easy games, just want a bit of a challenge).
Still love the castle, cheesy voice acting and whatnot, even 11 years after I've started playing it. Got up to Mission 3 then stopped. I don't know if I'm quite ready to take on Phantom, even though I remember the strategies behind it. I'll take a stab at it at some point. Not right now though.
And since I'm still looking for Vanquish, I decided to play the demo for the time being. Showed me just how badly I suck at those kinds of games. Still doesn't stop me from playing them though! Died 5 times during it, suffered a 5000pt. deduction for it. I think I might be able to get through the mission without taking too many deaths if I try again. At least I know how to pace the battle now to keep the turrets around long enough to force the boss to show its cores. It's just really fun sliding around, engaging in bullet time, shooting up your enemies, etc. It's got a really fast pace, which is something I like. It might be a little too fast at the moment, but I'll get used to it eventually.
I'll get a Borderlands post up at some point. Still playing around with Mordecai and haven't exactly planned out his skill set. I think I'll go for being a sneaky little bastard. Although using Bloodwing is starting to look more attractive because of improving drops...
25 Dec 2012
4 Dec 2012
Because this deserves its own post
I was already biased against this for various reasons (mostly art direction and whatnot), but this demo really did the trick. I had watched a few demo vids beforehand too, which looked OK. Almost fun. Until I got a good look at the controls. Thankfully, you can remap the controls. Nothing special, but at least you're not locked. What really annoyed me was the inclusion of 2 dodge options, but there's no lock-on. WHERE THE HELL IS THE LOCK-ON. I mean, I couldn't figure out how to use his Stinger until I read how to do it. It was forward-forward-attack (Y/Triangle). What the hell, Ninja Theory. Million(sorry) Trillion Stab is activated through Stinger, which IIRC, the same as the previous DMC games, but it lacks impact. It's also harder to connect to it from other moves. ETA: OK, DMC1's multi-stab move is actually activated through a combo. You can't really combo from the Stinger. For DMC3, it should be from using a Crazy Combo, or something like that (button mash like crazy). As for DMC2... Eh...
The only good thing, so far, was bringing back Brea. She suddenly reappeared on my YT feed with a combo vid. It was definitely faster than most of the other vids I had seen, but the JC'ing was pretty messed up. Because of how slow the animations were, everything was getting canceled too early. Was amusing to watch though, since it resulted in Dante spazzing like a freak. Not stylish at all. Start up animations are really long, which is a bit of an issue when cancelling because you count on the move hitting the enemy to cancel recovery. Definitely not twitch-based since you don't have that many frames to work with.
The Style System was kinda broken before, but now it's completely broken. There's no reason for it to be built around scoring as much damage as possible in a single strike. This meant that the Arbiter, the axe, was the single most useful weapon during the demo because of its extremely high attack power. Coupled with easily telegraphed attacks, you can just dodge+hit without much issue. And this is coming from someone that hasn't played in about 3 years. I'm really out of practise. You should not be able to score an SSS ranking within 30 seconds with piss-poor timing (the Demon Dodge has a massive window to work with, much larger than Bayo's Witch Time). I can understand if it were a Distorted multi-hit attack that wipes out at least 1/2 a health bar. Actually, don't think that's possible either without initiating counters. Not even spamming Lucifer (which is kinda easy to do) can get up to SS comfortably. Anyways, I saved a bunch of links that echoed my concerns for the game. I'll probably pick it up along the way on sale on Steam. I'm not about to drop money on this for a console, especially knowing that it performs worse on the PS3 (can definitely blame UE3 for that, not that it's a bad engine). A DMC not hitting 60fps is unacceptable. Neither is the difficulty. It shouldn't be original DMC3-level hard, but still enough to actually be threatening. I mean, not having any practice for 3 years then running in on Nephilim without dying? Sure, I screwed up the boss fight a few times, but even that was too easy (used the Vital Star, even if it turned out that I didn't need it).
Default controls (PS3, because I didn't download it on my X360):
Jump - X
Shoot - S
Basic - T
Special - O
Angel - L2
Demon - R2
Evade 1/2 - L1/R1
Devil Trigger - L3+R3
Gun Special - X+T
Cycle Gun - U
Cycle Angel Weapon - L
Cycle Demon Weapon - R
Center Camera - R3
Cycle Ranged Target - L3
Devil Stars are now Devil Trigger Stars (what). Health Crosses instead of Blue Orbs. Devil Trigger Crosses instead of Purple Orbs. They're really gunning for that cross theme. Gold Orbs are still there. It's just a demo, but you can apparently carry up to 10 for each of the S/L Vital and Devil Stars. Definitely less than the 30 from DMC4, but I somehow doubt you'll need that many. It's certainly not as restrictive as the original DMC, seeing as you couldn't even carry more than 1 on the higher difficulties. Then again, that game was a offshoot from Bio4, so I guess it ended up retaining some of the survival-horror elements.
Idle animations: looking around. And... not much else. I might have seen something else, but I didn't want my controller to idle for too long (it goes auto-off after 10 minutes).
Seemingly random capitalization here and there. Even missing ones. It's really nitpicking at this point, but it does speak ill of their presentation. The font, while it's not ugly or as bad as the rather wide one Capcom used for their Sengoku Basara localization, looks pretty bad when blown up to the full screen. I'll have to check how it looks when forced to 1080p. I have the PS3 to output its native resolution (1280*720, supposedly at 60Hz). I find the colours to be over-saturated, but that just might be the screen settings. It's also probably what they were going for since the normal world's colours are rather drab.
The Achievement/Trophy list is also out. Not sure how accurate or official it is, but in a way it's a nice nod to the original series. Most of them of are lines from the previous games. Let's see if I remember them all...
Looks like most of those are quotes. Not too surprising, although some of them are quite similar to other quotes from within the series. Did end up looking them up (scripts!) to clean it up and add which missions they were from (not all though). Turns out that I didn't miss that many of them~
I might have more thoughts later if I go back to it. Got Project X Zone from a StreetPass friend, so who knows. There's still SoS mode to conquer.
The only good thing, so far, was bringing back Brea. She suddenly reappeared on my YT feed with a combo vid. It was definitely faster than most of the other vids I had seen, but the JC'ing was pretty messed up. Because of how slow the animations were, everything was getting canceled too early. Was amusing to watch though, since it resulted in Dante spazzing like a freak. Not stylish at all. Start up animations are really long, which is a bit of an issue when cancelling because you count on the move hitting the enemy to cancel recovery. Definitely not twitch-based since you don't have that many frames to work with.
The Style System was kinda broken before, but now it's completely broken. There's no reason for it to be built around scoring as much damage as possible in a single strike. This meant that the Arbiter, the axe, was the single most useful weapon during the demo because of its extremely high attack power. Coupled with easily telegraphed attacks, you can just dodge+hit without much issue. And this is coming from someone that hasn't played in about 3 years. I'm really out of practise. You should not be able to score an SSS ranking within 30 seconds with piss-poor timing (the Demon Dodge has a massive window to work with, much larger than Bayo's Witch Time). I can understand if it were a Distorted multi-hit attack that wipes out at least 1/2 a health bar. Actually, don't think that's possible either without initiating counters. Not even spamming Lucifer (which is kinda easy to do) can get up to SS comfortably. Anyways, I saved a bunch of links that echoed my concerns for the game. I'll probably pick it up along the way on sale on Steam. I'm not about to drop money on this for a console, especially knowing that it performs worse on the PS3 (can definitely blame UE3 for that, not that it's a bad engine). A DMC not hitting 60fps is unacceptable. Neither is the difficulty. It shouldn't be original DMC3-level hard, but still enough to actually be threatening. I mean, not having any practice for 3 years then running in on Nephilim without dying? Sure, I screwed up the boss fight a few times, but even that was too easy (used the Vital Star, even if it turned out that I didn't need it).
Default controls (PS3, because I didn't download it on my X360):
Jump - X
Shoot - S
Basic - T
Special - O
Angel - L2
Demon - R2
Evade 1/2 - L1/R1
Devil Trigger - L3+R3
Gun Special - X+T
Cycle Gun - U
Cycle Angel Weapon - L
Cycle Demon Weapon - R
Center Camera - R3
Cycle Ranged Target - L3
Devil Stars are now Devil Trigger Stars (what). Health Crosses instead of Blue Orbs. Devil Trigger Crosses instead of Purple Orbs. They're really gunning for that cross theme. Gold Orbs are still there. It's just a demo, but you can apparently carry up to 10 for each of the S/L Vital and Devil Stars. Definitely less than the 30 from DMC4, but I somehow doubt you'll need that many. It's certainly not as restrictive as the original DMC, seeing as you couldn't even carry more than 1 on the higher difficulties. Then again, that game was a offshoot from Bio4, so I guess it ended up retaining some of the survival-horror elements.
Idle animations: looking around. And... not much else. I might have seen something else, but I didn't want my controller to idle for too long (it goes auto-off after 10 minutes).
Seemingly random capitalization here and there. Even missing ones. It's really nitpicking at this point, but it does speak ill of their presentation. The font, while it's not ugly or as bad as the rather wide one Capcom used for their Sengoku Basara localization, looks pretty bad when blown up to the full screen. I'll have to check how it looks when forced to 1080p. I have the PS3 to output its native resolution (1280*720, supposedly at 60Hz). I find the colours to be over-saturated, but that just might be the screen settings. It's also probably what they were going for since the normal world's colours are rather drab.
The Achievement/Trophy list is also out. Not sure how accurate or official it is, but in a way it's a nice nod to the original series. Most of them of are lines from the previous games. Let's see if I remember them all...
| Achievement | Origin |
|---|---|
| Time to go to work guys! | DMC1 - Dante firing E&I on motorcycle |
| Come on Puppy. Let's go! | DMC3 - Cerberus battle |
| Thing drives me crazy | DMC4 - Nero, referring to his arm after fighting Berial (M02) |
| Only kind of gift worth giving | DMC4 - Dante giving Nero Yamato (M20) |
| Flock off, feather-face! | DMC1 - Dante vs. Griffon 1 |
| It's got to stay in the family | DMC4 - Dante to Nero, talking about Yamato (M10) |
| This baby sure can pack a punch | DMC4 - Nero, about the Devil Bringer (M02) |
| He's a demon too | DMC3 - Lady, referring to Dante after she shoots him (M07) |
| You are not a Human, are you? | DMC3 - Dante, after defeating Cerberus (M03) |
| More than just a few sparks | DMC4 - Dante, after defeating Berial (M16) |
| No talking! | DMC3 - Agni&Rudra acquisition (M05) |
| Whatever, Lady | DMC3 - Dante dismissing Lady (M09) |
| You're not going to shoot me | DMC3 - Jester, to Dante (M12) |
| It's time to finish this! | DMC4 - Dante telling Nero to hurry up (M20) |
| Cleaning up his Dad's mess | DMC3 - pretty much the whole plot (spoken by Dante while talking to Beowulf, M11) |
| The end? Don't bet on it | DMC3 - M01 |
| Looks like it's your lucky day | DMC2 - Dante "accepting" his job from Matier |
| Every hero has a weakness | DMC2 - Dante to Lucia (D-M14) |
| It's only the rain | DMC3 - ending |
| A man with guts and honor | DMC1 - vs. Nelo Angelo 3 |
| Now my coat's all charred | DMC4 - Dante vs. Berial |
| Where does the time go? | DMC3 - Dante "accepting" Vergil's invitation (M02) |
| For Tony Redgrave | DMC - Dante's alias, engraved on his guns |
| In the name of my father | DMC1 - Dante declaring that he'll kill Mundus (M16) |
| You'll never have her fire | DMC1 - Dante, to Trish after Nightmare 2 |
| Impressive | DMC3 - Rudra, after Dante's showy display (M05) |
| Bring it on! | DMC3 - Dante |
| Looks like we have a winner | DMC1 - Trish, vs. Mundus 3 |
| Sensational! | DmC Devil May Cry - SSS style ranking |
| It's showtime. Come on! | DMC3 - Dante vs. Cerberus (M03) |
| This is my kind of rain | DMC3 - Catching Lady after she falls (M07) |
| Absolutely crazy about it | DMC3 - Dante, ending |
| Let's rock, baby! | DMC1 - Dante, breaking the warning screen |
| You can't handle it | DMC3 - Vergil telling Arkham he can't handle Sparda's power (M19) |
| Power... Give me more power! | DMC4 - Nero's awakening |
| Dude, the show's over! | DMC3 - M13 |
| Let's welcome chaos! | DMC3 - Arkham breaking the seal (M13) |
| And you are set free | DMC4 - Lucifer acquisition |
| Fill your dark soul with light | DMC1 - narmtastic scene of Trish's "death" |
| Keeps getting better and better | DMC3 - Dante getting ditched by Lady (M03) |
| Stylish! | DMC - general. Appeared as S style rank in 1 |
| Too easy! | DMC3 - Dante after acquiring Cerberus (M03) |
| Devils never cry | DMC1 - Dante consoling Trish DMC3 - ending |
| This is what I live for! | DMC3 - ending |
| And welcome to Hell! | DMC3 - Jester, M05 |
| Jackpot! | DMC - general finisher |
| This party's just getting crazy! | DMC3 - start |
| One hell of a party! | DMC3 - start |
I might have more thoughts later if I go back to it. Got Project X Zone from a StreetPass friend, so who knows. There's still SoS mode to conquer.
1 Dec 2012
Playing demos
Finally got the PS3 online... by moving upstairs temporarily. It was weird... Early in the day it was hovering around 30~35%, then I left for a little grocery shopping. When I came back, the download at the time, Biohazard 6, had advanced from 6% to a measly 35%. In the span of 3 hours. I was, however, able to get onto the PSN for a short amount of time. With that, I managed to nab the E.X. Troopers and DmC Devil May Cry demos (why does DmC have to be that long?). They, uh, didn't really progress for quite a while. In fact, they barely downloaded 3MB before "stopping", which was around 3PM when I last checked. I put the system to shut down once all downloads were finished, which it did when I checked again at around 6PM. No idea when the connection decided to cooperate because all downloads were finished and installed, even the demos that I didn't bother installing at least 5 months ago (whee~ Dragon's Dogma). Not going to complain, since the connection eventually ended up hovering around the 57% range and stayed that way through the night + Sunday morning when I decided to play the demos.
Speaking of which, I played 4 of them. I felt "this is fun~" for 2 of them, "..." for one, and "what the hell is this" for the last. Those who know me well enough can probably guess which ones got which reactions. But I'll spell it out anyways, mostly because of reactions to them.
This is fun~:
E.X.Troopers for both the 3DS and PS3 were great. Love the arcade feel to the missions, so I really don't know which version I want to get. It's not like I'm going to be playing co-op online for the PS3 version, and locally for the 3DS. I mean, really. Who's crazy enough to import a Lost Planet spin-off at this point in time? No one knows if it's going to be localized either, although I wouldn't count on it simply because of its visual style. Just look at it! Brightly coloured, manga-styled visuals/panels, 少年-like feel, etc. Still, it's great fun for short bursts. I'll think some more on the version. Really leaning towards the PS3 because I like the controls more, although I like the portability of the 3DS.
Dragon's Dogma would fit here, and it did. It was basically like a more action-oriented, faster paced Demon's Souls (don't ask about Dark Souls, I'm waiting for a better sale on Steam for that). Playing on a certain TV with glare made getting through one of the areas more of a pain than necessary, but it was still fun seeing the pawns doing most of the work while I was running around being an idiot. The fight against the griffon(?) was pretty bad. I didn't know/pay attention to what attacks I had, so the game actually progressed so far in the day that it was dark. Couldn't see a damn thing, ended up dying. At least the archer was someone fun to play as. Couldn't aim to save my life though. Then again, it's not like you had much of a chance to learn how to aim in the first place. Might look into it at some point.
"...":
Biohazard 6 fell here. Mostly because I decided to try Jake and Chris's campaigns first. Big mistake there, as those 2 throw you straight into the fray as soon as the session starts. Leon's starts with some exploration, so that helped with getting used to the controls. Too bad that was while I was eating dinner with a nice little bit of glare from a lamp. Didn't get to any combat, so no further comment. I did get a nice little death scene by running under the Ogroman's legs. He stomped on Piers. Someone should remind me to not do that during the main game... Also did something completely unnecessary, but oh so fun. I sniped a J'avo at short range with the anti-materiel rifle. That was a OHKO~ I'll try playing the demo again soon. Need to focus on other things.
"What the hell is this:"
And the last one. DmC Devil May Cry. This deserves its own post, so I'm giving it one.
Speaking of which, I played 4 of them. I felt "this is fun~" for 2 of them, "..." for one, and "what the hell is this" for the last. Those who know me well enough can probably guess which ones got which reactions. But I'll spell it out anyways, mostly because of reactions to them.
This is fun~:
E.X.Troopers for both the 3DS and PS3 were great. Love the arcade feel to the missions, so I really don't know which version I want to get. It's not like I'm going to be playing co-op online for the PS3 version, and locally for the 3DS. I mean, really. Who's crazy enough to import a Lost Planet spin-off at this point in time? No one knows if it's going to be localized either, although I wouldn't count on it simply because of its visual style. Just look at it! Brightly coloured, manga-styled visuals/panels, 少年-like feel, etc. Still, it's great fun for short bursts. I'll think some more on the version. Really leaning towards the PS3 because I like the controls more, although I like the portability of the 3DS.
Dragon's Dogma would fit here, and it did. It was basically like a more action-oriented, faster paced Demon's Souls (don't ask about Dark Souls, I'm waiting for a better sale on Steam for that). Playing on a certain TV with glare made getting through one of the areas more of a pain than necessary, but it was still fun seeing the pawns doing most of the work while I was running around being an idiot. The fight against the griffon(?) was pretty bad. I didn't know/pay attention to what attacks I had, so the game actually progressed so far in the day that it was dark. Couldn't see a damn thing, ended up dying. At least the archer was someone fun to play as. Couldn't aim to save my life though. Then again, it's not like you had much of a chance to learn how to aim in the first place. Might look into it at some point.
"...":
Biohazard 6 fell here. Mostly because I decided to try Jake and Chris's campaigns first. Big mistake there, as those 2 throw you straight into the fray as soon as the session starts. Leon's starts with some exploration, so that helped with getting used to the controls. Too bad that was while I was eating dinner with a nice little bit of glare from a lamp. Didn't get to any combat, so no further comment. I did get a nice little death scene by running under the Ogroman's legs. He stomped on Piers. Someone should remind me to not do that during the main game... Also did something completely unnecessary, but oh so fun. I sniped a J'avo at short range with the anti-materiel rifle. That was a OHKO~ I'll try playing the demo again soon. Need to focus on other things.
"What the hell is this:"
And the last one. DmC Devil May Cry. This deserves its own post, so I'm giving it one.
25 Nov 2012
Game Balancing...
In the archery club of all places. But it makes sense since a tournament is essentially a game of skill. I could use myself, an Olympic Recurve shooter, as an example since I shouldn't name names here. A breakdown could make things easier to envision. There are currently 4 categories the shooters can compete in: Novice, Instinctive, Olympic Recurve, Open. Each one of the categories has their own little rules that that define them.
Novice
Instinctive
Olympic Recurve
Open
Doesn't look like there would be much of a problem, right? It wouldn't be a problem if everyone was locked to their main category, which we can't do. So here's the first exploit of the system: shooters are allowed to shift around in different categories to maximize their chances of a medal. I can move from Open, where I willingly placed myself, to either Olympic Recurve or Instinctive. Moving between Open and Recurve is perfectly legal for me since I don't really qualify for Open in the first place (I'm doing it for the challenge). Moving to Instinctive could be seen as unfair, especially since my equipment can be considered superior (it would be if it were tuned), but since I haven't practised that style in quite a while, it would actually serve as a handicap. The same can't be said for a lot of other shooters. Plus, the mere presence of a more advanced or experienced shooter is enough to give the impression of "cheating" to the newer members. The only way to settle their (not necessarily) unfounded fears would be to announce that we would not submit our scores.
The second exploit that requires some patching came about because of the introduction of a promotion policy: score 225+ and you'll be moved to Open for the next tournament. I think there's also the second requirement of winning a medal, so anywhere from 1~3 will be shifted. Now, this can be seen as incredibly unfair because the Open category houses all the compound shooters. Compound shooters are made fun of because they apparently require less skill to use, and that it looks like they're using a bow with training wheels (they're great for efficient high poundage shooting, which is perfect for hunting). That's actually not the case though. They happen to have a higher minimum score when compared to all the other styles. The maximum is still the same and requires the same amount of skill to achieve. The skill set is different, too. Oh, and Instinctive shooters moving there would be completely obliterated, so I don't think they'll be moved if they meet that requirement.
See the problem? This encourages those with relatively high skill to score below 225 but still high enough to get a medal to prevent themselves from being shifted to Open. Moving to Open is essentially a death sentence for nabbing another medal, ever. Unless you're a provincial/national/international level shooter. Which none of us really are. So... no chance. A few have already admitted that if that policy was enacted, there's no reason to score as high as possible if they're going to be "punished" by being promoted to Open. I'd agree if I was a medal hunter.
There have been a few suggestions on how to deal with this, discussed over dinner a few nights ago. Unfortunately, all of them have little details that make them unfeasible. Like mine, which involves tracking attendance and performance, then applying a suitable handicap to their score if they're not competing in their main category. Another solution, which requires a massive amount of tracking and essentially an honour system for shooters to score regularly, is to normalize based on their category. But then we might not have enough sample data to even bother with finding the Z-scores.
The most feasible so far has been to have a raffle alongside the medals. The problem with this one is getting it to pass with the higher-ups, and that it heavily favours the high-end shooters. But that second point can be considered moot since we're playing a game of skill. If you don't have the skill to compete with the best, then you have no argument for even qualifying for the raffle. So. The cutoff point? I think was discussed that it would be around 230+ or 240+. So the shooters would still end up promoted, but they also have a chance at a prize should they not win a medal in Open. Of course, the medal winners with 225+ will also be entered, which can be seen as unfair. Not entirely so since while they're also part of the draw, it's completely random as to whether or not they end up winning. Leaving everything up to the RNG is totally fair, right? As long as it's a 1-RN game, should be fine~
There was one other solution that I've heard, but it's really more of a joke: break everyone's arms. That would work in the sense that no one can participate so that no one wins, and because there are no winners, there are no losers either. Too bad that would also mean that we suffer as a team when the IUAT rolls around. Great idea... if you want to break the team.
Still need to figure out what to do with the Instinctive shooters though. Can't, and shouldn't, pressure them to change to using sights just to improve. It's their shooting style and no one should force a change just for improving scores. Adding intermediate categories is just a bandage solution, so we need something more long term. Wonder what would work though... Adding another category or 2 would also mean that the raffle idea becomes that much harder to implement because of budget concerns. Well, we still have a while to discuss. The medals aren't going to be won until the second tournament anyways.
And I really hope that one guy falls flat when he shoots. I have a feeling that he purposely removed his sight to practice instinctive shooting to (re-)gain an edge for a high score. If a certain guy shows up, I don't think I'll be worried all that much. He's pretty damn good at instinctive. Oh, and there's another guy too, from another campus. As long as he doesn't lose his landmarks, he'll do very well~ I'll be participating, not scoring. And since I'm a coach/range officer, I should be there to help out with dealing with scores. And maybe record them. Getting records would be nice, ね？
This turned out to be a rather long post, didn't it? Well, archery is one of my interests and tournaments are a kind of game! It goes here. Could also go on the other blog, but I doubt many read that anymore. Don't know if I can get the stats on it either.
ETA: Turns out that he really did end up sending back his sight... after 2 months of use. He didn't realize that it was broken until he had used it. As another said, "Russian roulette with sights". He really should be more observant of his equipment.
Another thing. Seems like the systems they were proposing won't be implemented for the time being. Mostly because we don't have enough shooters that quite hit the required 225 yet. Need to focus on running the IUAT smoothly first. We're hosting again this year.
Novice
- <1 year experience
- King's Pawn only
- 60cm
Instinctive
- no sight
- any bow allowed
- 60cm
Olympic Recurve
- sighted shooters
- no scopes allowed
- 40cm
Open
- compounds
- crazy people
- anyone else that would qualify
- 40cm
Doesn't look like there would be much of a problem, right? It wouldn't be a problem if everyone was locked to their main category, which we can't do. So here's the first exploit of the system: shooters are allowed to shift around in different categories to maximize their chances of a medal. I can move from Open, where I willingly placed myself, to either Olympic Recurve or Instinctive. Moving between Open and Recurve is perfectly legal for me since I don't really qualify for Open in the first place (I'm doing it for the challenge). Moving to Instinctive could be seen as unfair, especially since my equipment can be considered superior (it would be if it were tuned), but since I haven't practised that style in quite a while, it would actually serve as a handicap. The same can't be said for a lot of other shooters. Plus, the mere presence of a more advanced or experienced shooter is enough to give the impression of "cheating" to the newer members. The only way to settle their (not necessarily) unfounded fears would be to announce that we would not submit our scores.
The second exploit that requires some patching came about because of the introduction of a promotion policy: score 225+ and you'll be moved to Open for the next tournament. I think there's also the second requirement of winning a medal, so anywhere from 1~3 will be shifted. Now, this can be seen as incredibly unfair because the Open category houses all the compound shooters. Compound shooters are made fun of because they apparently require less skill to use, and that it looks like they're using a bow with training wheels (they're great for efficient high poundage shooting, which is perfect for hunting). That's actually not the case though. They happen to have a higher minimum score when compared to all the other styles. The maximum is still the same and requires the same amount of skill to achieve. The skill set is different, too. Oh, and Instinctive shooters moving there would be completely obliterated, so I don't think they'll be moved if they meet that requirement.
See the problem? This encourages those with relatively high skill to score below 225 but still high enough to get a medal to prevent themselves from being shifted to Open. Moving to Open is essentially a death sentence for nabbing another medal, ever. Unless you're a provincial/national/international level shooter. Which none of us really are. So... no chance. A few have already admitted that if that policy was enacted, there's no reason to score as high as possible if they're going to be "punished" by being promoted to Open. I'd agree if I was a medal hunter.
There have been a few suggestions on how to deal with this, discussed over dinner a few nights ago. Unfortunately, all of them have little details that make them unfeasible. Like mine, which involves tracking attendance and performance, then applying a suitable handicap to their score if they're not competing in their main category. Another solution, which requires a massive amount of tracking and essentially an honour system for shooters to score regularly, is to normalize based on their category. But then we might not have enough sample data to even bother with finding the Z-scores.
The most feasible so far has been to have a raffle alongside the medals. The problem with this one is getting it to pass with the higher-ups, and that it heavily favours the high-end shooters. But that second point can be considered moot since we're playing a game of skill. If you don't have the skill to compete with the best, then you have no argument for even qualifying for the raffle. So. The cutoff point? I think was discussed that it would be around 230+ or 240+. So the shooters would still end up promoted, but they also have a chance at a prize should they not win a medal in Open. Of course, the medal winners with 225+ will also be entered, which can be seen as unfair. Not entirely so since while they're also part of the draw, it's completely random as to whether or not they end up winning. Leaving everything up to the RNG is totally fair, right? As long as it's a 1-RN game, should be fine~
There was one other solution that I've heard, but it's really more of a joke: break everyone's arms. That would work in the sense that no one can participate so that no one wins, and because there are no winners, there are no losers either. Too bad that would also mean that we suffer as a team when the IUAT rolls around. Great idea... if you want to break the team.
Still need to figure out what to do with the Instinctive shooters though. Can't, and shouldn't, pressure them to change to using sights just to improve. It's their shooting style and no one should force a change just for improving scores. Adding intermediate categories is just a bandage solution, so we need something more long term. Wonder what would work though... Adding another category or 2 would also mean that the raffle idea becomes that much harder to implement because of budget concerns. Well, we still have a while to discuss. The medals aren't going to be won until the second tournament anyways.
And I really hope that one guy falls flat when he shoots. I have a feeling that he purposely removed his sight to practice instinctive shooting to (re-)gain an edge for a high score. If a certain guy shows up, I don't think I'll be worried all that much. He's pretty damn good at instinctive. Oh, and there's another guy too, from another campus. As long as he doesn't lose his landmarks, he'll do very well~ I'll be participating, not scoring. And since I'm a coach/range officer, I should be there to help out with dealing with scores. And maybe record them. Getting records would be nice, ね？
This turned out to be a rather long post, didn't it? Well, archery is one of my interests and tournaments are a kind of game! It goes here. Could also go on the other blog, but I doubt many read that anymore. Don't know if I can get the stats on it either.
ETA: Turns out that he really did end up sending back his sight... after 2 months of use. He didn't realize that it was broken until he had used it. As another said, "Russian roulette with sights". He really should be more observant of his equipment.
Another thing. Seems like the systems they were proposing won't be implemented for the time being. Mostly because we don't have enough shooters that quite hit the required 225 yet. Need to focus on running the IUAT smoothly first. We're hosting again this year.
18 Nov 2012
Just rounding up a few things
Well, that was nice. There was a decent spurt of activity over on the PC LasRem boards. Nothing too hard to answer, but at least it was something to stave off boredom. After all, I'm not a Fire Emblem expert, seeing as how I haven't exactly played most of the series, so answering those questions is really only limited to FE13. I should probably play FE4 and FE5 at some point, but the Judgral setting doesn't look all that appealing. Don't care enough about Elibe to do much more than FE7, although I should go through FE6 as a formality. Own the art book after all.
Anyways. The boards. It was mostly discussion about class changes and getting through the first half of the game. I think most of them should be pretty well off now to deal with the rest of it. If not, well... The board's always open for questions. The X360 side pretty much died off. Expected, since the game's coming up to its 4th anniversary now. I think a lot of them are using the Wisdom's Echo grind because it makes things a lot easier. I don't really like it, but I'll use it if I have to. Like I did with the AGO run because of half the team being missing until I closed the quest (it's because the ones in the Third Committee also counted for the run, but were locked until "The Fated One" was finished, which was dependent on "Wisdom's Echo" being successfully finished). Which reminds me, I need to get going on compiling the rest of the quest dialogue at some point, along with all the rumors. Too bad a bunch of the rumors can't be dealt with until you finish "For Love the Bell Tolls" and "The Silent Soul" in Balterossa. But if I have the patience for dealing with all that, it shouldn't be a problem. At least I know that they're being cycled in a set order. Just a matter of visiting enough times to get through them all... This is going to take a while since there's till Undelwalt to unlock and all the earlier quests will more than likely have rumors reaching that forsaken town. At least I gathered all the ones associated with David's quest ("The Distant Promise"). A few funny little real-life references here and there. Don't want to transcribe the JP since I'm pretty sure that it's going to be different in a fair number of places. Localization and all. That, and I can't really transcribe JP text without taking an ungodly amount of time doing it. I need lessons, dammit. At least I'm almost through with converting the formation pages to a format. Also caught a rather glaring mistake on the Trident page. Stat mods were off... Hopefully nothing else will pop up, but it's not too big of a deal if it does. I'll just cross-reference with the tool and correct whatever needs correcting.
On the FE front, not much about my files has changed. Still stuck on Ch.6, still bumming around with the extra Lunatic file, still haven't done anything with the Normal file's pairings. There should be just 1 more DLC episode left, which is the last Ultimate Training and it's priced at 300yen. My guess is that Minerva is the reward since the Whitewings were featured for the other 3. Hopefully there's going to be something else because of the slightly higher cost when compared to the other Ultimate Training maps. It's going to be one hell of a map... I doubt that I'll get a team ready in time since I haven't exactly been training anyone lately. Too lazy to do so, and it looks like it almost requires using the children because of their much higher modifiers. It seems that it's an Anna that'll be the boss. Wouldn't be surprised since she can travel on a multi-verse scale...
Still haven't downloaded the Biohazard 6 demo, but that's because the PS3 can't seem to connect to the net. Going to find out what's wrong since I also want online access while playing Journey once I get around to it. Although that's also going to come with the little "good luck staying connected" because of the distance between the system and the router. Maybe it won't be that bad since all the other systems (save for the 3DS, but that's the 3DS) don't have much of an issue connecting and staying connected for long periods of time. If I can get it connected, going to grab the E.X. Troopers while I'm at it. The 3DS demo was actually really fun so I want to see how the PS3 version holds up.
Speaking of which... E.X. Troopers definitely has an arcade feel to it. I'm not exactly fond of how the mini-map works. The directional FOV cone doesn't rotate with the character smoothly, only changing its direction if the camera has rotated enough. Kinda annoying. At least the map is fixed. That much I liked. Also, you can toggle the zoom by tapping on the -/+ on the bottom screen. Just make sure that you don't accidentally press the big yellow one, or else you'll use their special attack (メテオ or Meteor? in Bren's case). The controls aren't too bad either. It takes some getting used to using the d-pad to change the camera, but that's fine. It's not like the system has a second analog stick to help with that. Might be a tipping point for getting the PS3 version instead. But I do want to tag it along for short bursts since the gameplay and mission-based setup lends itself well for that. The demo's pretty short, and can be finished in less than 10 minutes. Consists of a tutorial (you can't die) with a short "boss" fight, and a mission where you have a real chance of dying if you flounder around a little too much. You also have to defend Julie to proceed in the mission since she's vulnerable while hacking an entry point. It can get a little bit hairy if you don't watch where all the bullets are coming from. Oh, and getting turned into a snowman sucks. You have to mash B to get free... Pretty sure that it's not going to be localized.
Oh, and I watched an entire playthrough of Operation Raccoon City. Eh... doesn't really look like something I'd want to play. Plus, some of the missions don't look all that well designed. Facing off against 2 Tyrants with only their faces as their weak spot with weak player AI? Yeah, no. Even worse with the DLC, where there are 4 of them running around and already mutated. Have fun getting stunlocked! And that final boss for the Spec Ops missions? It took forever to get through. Was not that fun watching/listening to the guy cuss his way through the battle because the Tyrant-parasite thing would. Not. Go. DOWN. In a reasonable amount of time. I guess that's why they give you "unlimited" ammo during those kinds of fights.
Anyways. The boards. It was mostly discussion about class changes and getting through the first half of the game. I think most of them should be pretty well off now to deal with the rest of it. If not, well... The board's always open for questions. The X360 side pretty much died off. Expected, since the game's coming up to its 4th anniversary now. I think a lot of them are using the Wisdom's Echo grind because it makes things a lot easier. I don't really like it, but I'll use it if I have to. Like I did with the AGO run because of half the team being missing until I closed the quest (it's because the ones in the Third Committee also counted for the run, but were locked until "The Fated One" was finished, which was dependent on "Wisdom's Echo" being successfully finished). Which reminds me, I need to get going on compiling the rest of the quest dialogue at some point, along with all the rumors. Too bad a bunch of the rumors can't be dealt with until you finish "For Love the Bell Tolls" and "The Silent Soul" in Balterossa. But if I have the patience for dealing with all that, it shouldn't be a problem. At least I know that they're being cycled in a set order. Just a matter of visiting enough times to get through them all... This is going to take a while since there's till Undelwalt to unlock and all the earlier quests will more than likely have rumors reaching that forsaken town. At least I gathered all the ones associated with David's quest ("The Distant Promise"). A few funny little real-life references here and there. Don't want to transcribe the JP since I'm pretty sure that it's going to be different in a fair number of places. Localization and all. That, and I can't really transcribe JP text without taking an ungodly amount of time doing it. I need lessons, dammit. At least I'm almost through with converting the formation pages to a format. Also caught a rather glaring mistake on the Trident page. Stat mods were off... Hopefully nothing else will pop up, but it's not too big of a deal if it does. I'll just cross-reference with the tool and correct whatever needs correcting.
On the FE front, not much about my files has changed. Still stuck on Ch.6, still bumming around with the extra Lunatic file, still haven't done anything with the Normal file's pairings. There should be just 1 more DLC episode left, which is the last Ultimate Training and it's priced at 300yen. My guess is that Minerva is the reward since the Whitewings were featured for the other 3. Hopefully there's going to be something else because of the slightly higher cost when compared to the other Ultimate Training maps. It's going to be one hell of a map... I doubt that I'll get a team ready in time since I haven't exactly been training anyone lately. Too lazy to do so, and it looks like it almost requires using the children because of their much higher modifiers. It seems that it's an Anna that'll be the boss. Wouldn't be surprised since she can travel on a multi-verse scale...
Still haven't downloaded the Biohazard 6 demo, but that's because the PS3 can't seem to connect to the net. Going to find out what's wrong since I also want online access while playing Journey once I get around to it. Although that's also going to come with the little "good luck staying connected" because of the distance between the system and the router. Maybe it won't be that bad since all the other systems (save for the 3DS, but that's the 3DS) don't have much of an issue connecting and staying connected for long periods of time. If I can get it connected, going to grab the E.X. Troopers while I'm at it. The 3DS demo was actually really fun so I want to see how the PS3 version holds up.
Speaking of which... E.X. Troopers definitely has an arcade feel to it. I'm not exactly fond of how the mini-map works. The directional FOV cone doesn't rotate with the character smoothly, only changing its direction if the camera has rotated enough. Kinda annoying. At least the map is fixed. That much I liked. Also, you can toggle the zoom by tapping on the -/+ on the bottom screen. Just make sure that you don't accidentally press the big yellow one, or else you'll use their special attack (メテオ or Meteor? in Bren's case). The controls aren't too bad either. It takes some getting used to using the d-pad to change the camera, but that's fine. It's not like the system has a second analog stick to help with that. Might be a tipping point for getting the PS3 version instead. But I do want to tag it along for short bursts since the gameplay and mission-based setup lends itself well for that. The demo's pretty short, and can be finished in less than 10 minutes. Consists of a tutorial (you can't die) with a short "boss" fight, and a mission where you have a real chance of dying if you flounder around a little too much. You also have to defend Julie to proceed in the mission since she's vulnerable while hacking an entry point. It can get a little bit hairy if you don't watch where all the bullets are coming from. Oh, and getting turned into a snowman sucks. You have to mash B to get free... Pretty sure that it's not going to be localized.
Oh, and I watched an entire playthrough of Operation Raccoon City. Eh... doesn't really look like something I'd want to play. Plus, some of the missions don't look all that well designed. Facing off against 2 Tyrants with only their faces as their weak spot with weak player AI? Yeah, no. Even worse with the DLC, where there are 4 of them running around and already mutated. Have fun getting stunlocked! And that final boss for the Spec Ops missions? It took forever to get through. Was not that fun watching/listening to the guy cuss his way through the battle because the Tyrant-parasite thing would. Not. Go. DOWN. In a reasonable amount of time. I guess that's why they give you "unlimited" ammo during those kinds of fights.
23 Oct 2012
By eventually, I mean four months later
Started my Lunatic run for FE13. And it's definitely hard. Maybe I should have started on Hard first? But that wouldn't be much fun, now would it? I have my Normal file still hanging around, mostly for continuing to build supports and to check out the newest DLC episodes.
Actually, I "finished" it a little while ago. Since you can carry over units from previous and current playthroughs (among other units) if you register them into the "My Unit Compendium", I carried over a few units that I maxed out from my Normal file. My curiosity got the better of me for Lunatic+, so I split off my legit Lunatic run to race through to the end. Then when poking at the Prologue stats...
HOLY CRAP IT'S QUITE LITERALLY "THE COMPUTER IS A CHEATING BASTARD" UP TO ELEVEN.
A bunch of them had Absolute Hit, Luna+ and Vantage+. It's semi-randomized too, so it's possible to really get screwed with the distribution. Oh, and all of them have Pass, so no bottlenecking (not that you could in the Prologue in the first place without dying horribly). Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how to proceed in Ch.6 without losing anyone, without cheating. I don't want to reduce deployment because it'll screw up EXP distribution, but deploying the max number is pretty much suicide at the moment. Can't use skirmishes since by the time you reach Ch.5, they're practically at max stats anyways (it's barely manageable on Ch.4 with Frederik+Chrom on a fort, and he needs to have gained at least 2SPD to avoid being doubled if there are Myrmidons). Don't want to use the DLC to train them, although I've run through the more manageable ones to nab their rewards so I don't have to deal with it later. It's a little difficult when you're working with 3 maxed units. I should probably finish maxing Rufure from my initial Normal run already. In terms of skills, not stats. Almost done with that, including Limit Breaker. *ahem* Gaia is proving to be a bit of a pain since he starts as an enemy. I haven't checked if he attacks anyone in range. If he doesn't, I might be able to use that to my advantage. Not counting on it though.
I really need to figure out how to distribute EXP more evenly. It's a little disconcerting when MU is sitting at 16.99 with Chrom trailing behind at 9.58. Everyone else is sitting around base or has gained a level at most. Or if it's Frederik, sitting at 30.18. I think I fed him too many kills... I know that I gave him a lot of EXP during Ch.5 because of he choke point, trying to kill anything that would kill Mariabell and/or Licht. At least MU got some EXP from initiating Dual Attack every now and then. Ronkuu scored a few kills while going west. Then I had him sit on a fort to prevent reinforcements, because those would have ruined my life and he needed the healing because Liz was too far away due to using Rescue on Mariabell+Licht and staying out of range of the incoming Dragon Knights. And in order to even use Rescue on them, Liz needs at least MAG8 to reach them. The other option is using Sumia and Frederik (requires a Change Proof to give him wings). Since I also put the restriction of "No Fame Bonuses", no Change Proofs, so limited to efficient killing and/or using Rescue. And you're only going to have Rescue if you've completed S1 or gotten lucky with a Merchant. And S1 was a nightmare in itself if you want to recruit Denis. Good thing you can lure and trap Archers... Or else he'd never get the EXP. Could always risk fighting the Thieves or Barbarians, but getting doubled and Weapon Triangle disadvantage.
I think that's about enough for FE13. Next bit has spoilers for an ending...
Been watching Bio6 vids. Also been poking at Pixiv. The amount of art Piers is getting is rather disproportionate to everyone else that's featured in the game. The only thing more popular from what I've seen is Jake/Sherry. Not individually either, but as a pairing. Capcom pretty much doomed him from the start anyways... So it's not exactly surprising that a lot of them refuse to believe that he's dead. If the Haos doesn't survive an underwater facility blowing up (after being electrocuted in the damn ocean), I don't think Piers has much of a chance either considering that he was still somewhat human when it blew up.
And just like with Emma, he has an article of clothing that I liked. Instead of a cool hat, he has a nice scarf (I have a soft spot for scarves...).
I think the funniest thing I've seen so far of Piers is him as a Pikachu (ピアチュウ, and it makes sense in context. maybe). Or him as a puppy. Attacking Jake. He is rather puppy-like, isn't he~?
Actually, I "finished" it a little while ago. Since you can carry over units from previous and current playthroughs (among other units) if you register them into the "My Unit Compendium", I carried over a few units that I maxed out from my Normal file. My curiosity got the better of me for Lunatic+, so I split off my legit Lunatic run to race through to the end. Then when poking at the Prologue stats...
HOLY CRAP IT'S QUITE LITERALLY "THE COMPUTER IS A CHEATING BASTARD" UP TO ELEVEN.
A bunch of them had Absolute Hit, Luna+ and Vantage+. It's semi-randomized too, so it's possible to really get screwed with the distribution. Oh, and all of them have Pass, so no bottlenecking (not that you could in the Prologue in the first place without dying horribly). Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how to proceed in Ch.6 without losing anyone, without cheating. I don't want to reduce deployment because it'll screw up EXP distribution, but deploying the max number is pretty much suicide at the moment. Can't use skirmishes since by the time you reach Ch.5, they're practically at max stats anyways (it's barely manageable on Ch.4 with Frederik+Chrom on a fort, and he needs to have gained at least 2SPD to avoid being doubled if there are Myrmidons). Don't want to use the DLC to train them, although I've run through the more manageable ones to nab their rewards so I don't have to deal with it later. It's a little difficult when you're working with 3 maxed units. I should probably finish maxing Rufure from my initial Normal run already. In terms of skills, not stats. Almost done with that, including Limit Breaker. *ahem* Gaia is proving to be a bit of a pain since he starts as an enemy. I haven't checked if he attacks anyone in range. If he doesn't, I might be able to use that to my advantage. Not counting on it though.
I really need to figure out how to distribute EXP more evenly. It's a little disconcerting when MU is sitting at 16.99 with Chrom trailing behind at 9.58. Everyone else is sitting around base or has gained a level at most. Or if it's Frederik, sitting at 30.18. I think I fed him too many kills... I know that I gave him a lot of EXP during Ch.5 because of he choke point, trying to kill anything that would kill Mariabell and/or Licht. At least MU got some EXP from initiating Dual Attack every now and then. Ronkuu scored a few kills while going west. Then I had him sit on a fort to prevent reinforcements, because those would have ruined my life and he needed the healing because Liz was too far away due to using Rescue on Mariabell+Licht and staying out of range of the incoming Dragon Knights. And in order to even use Rescue on them, Liz needs at least MAG8 to reach them. The other option is using Sumia and Frederik (requires a Change Proof to give him wings). Since I also put the restriction of "No Fame Bonuses", no Change Proofs, so limited to efficient killing and/or using Rescue. And you're only going to have Rescue if you've completed S1 or gotten lucky with a Merchant. And S1 was a nightmare in itself if you want to recruit Denis. Good thing you can lure and trap Archers... Or else he'd never get the EXP. Could always risk fighting the Thieves or Barbarians, but getting doubled and Weapon Triangle disadvantage.
I think that's about enough for FE13. Next bit has spoilers for an ending...
Been watching Bio6 vids. Also been poking at Pixiv. The amount of art Piers is getting is rather disproportionate to everyone else that's featured in the game. The only thing more popular from what I've seen is Jake/Sherry. Not individually either, but as a pairing. Capcom pretty much doomed him from the start anyways... So it's not exactly surprising that a lot of them refuse to believe that he's dead. If the Haos doesn't survive an underwater facility blowing up (after being electrocuted in the damn ocean), I don't think Piers has much of a chance either considering that he was still somewhat human when it blew up.
And just like with Emma, he has an article of clothing that I liked. Instead of a cool hat, he has a nice scarf (I have a soft spot for scarves...).
I think the funniest thing I've seen so far of Piers is him as a Pikachu (ピアチュウ, and it makes sense in context. maybe). Or him as a puppy. Attacking Jake. He is rather puppy-like, isn't he~?
24 Jun 2012
Signpost to the head
So I took a bit of a break from Fame farming (I'll get a post on FE up eventually) and downloaded the Max Anarchy/Anarchy Reigns demo. It's actually really fun. And not surprisingly, fully localized. This is Platinum Games we're talking about here. Even their Bayonetta demo was fully localized. Which reminds me, I should get Bayonetta for the X360 and Vanquish at some point.
Good thing it included a tutorial... in which I proceeded to stick signposts into enemy heads. I probably would have done so during the main demo, but eh. Was running around killing random mooks because that was more fun than trying to deal with environments. Unsurprisingly, there are a few that want this to be competitive, which can probably be done... but there are so many random elements flying around that it's incredibly difficult to build a competitive community for it. But a mark of a really good player would show that they would be able to adapt to anything and everything being thrown around, randomness and all. It would be interesting to see if it does end up on the competitive scene.
Good thing it included a tutorial... in which I proceeded to stick signposts into enemy heads. I probably would have done so during the main demo, but eh. Was running around killing random mooks because that was more fun than trying to deal with environments. Unsurprisingly, there are a few that want this to be competitive, which can probably be done... but there are so many random elements flying around that it's incredibly difficult to build a competitive community for it. But a mark of a really good player would show that they would be able to adapt to anything and everything being thrown around, randomness and all. It would be interesting to see if it does end up on the competitive scene.
8 Jun 2012
Fire Emblem Kakusei Music Selection
31 Mar 2012
Might be time for an update
It's been a little while, thought I'd type something up. Not much has gone on because of school work and whatnot (and sucking terribly at shooting lately, but that's another issue). A few minor things here and there...
The new LasRem trainer is looking pretty damn good~ I like that it also displays how many of the different enemies you've killed so far in the file. Perhaps also displaying the number of battles that you've already fought would be another nice touch, but that's really only if you're adamant on trying to spawn the 3 annoying Jhana rares that require a certain number of Jhana encounters already fought (20/50/150). Haven't progressed through my own playthrough for quite a while now, but I should be able to get a little bit in after the exam period. About 2 weeks before the next term starts should be enough to complete the run since I'm about halfway through anyways. But the question is... will I be able to do that? Which leads into the next bit.
Fire Emblem: Kakusei was announced a while ago (about Sept. 2011, actually), and 210's been updating their site and releasing info on a nearly weekly basis for about a month. Needless to say, I'm very excited for its release, especially since the voice cast is looking quite stellar along with a few new mechanics that I had been hoping for. While I'm a little bit concerned that it's Kobayashi Yuu voicing "Marth", it should prove interesting since Midorikawa hasn't voiced Marth in about 11 years. It's thrown off quite a few people, myself included. Seeing how the JP players are more likely to link characters with their voices, it's actually reasonable for them to doubt that it's really Marth there. The mask is a little bit strange too... It's a butterfly, which is also featured somewhat prominently in the OP. Ah well, won't really know the significance until I play it anyways. I wonder if it'll be localized? It's been announced for the EU territories, which is great for them. Problem. The 3DS is region-locked. So... I currently have my eyes on the Kakusei Edition. Hopefully I'll be able to snag that since I really like the colour and the simplicity of the design. Plus, I was going to import the game anyways and would need a JP 3DS to play it. Nowhere at PMall sells the JP version, so I'm stuck having to import it from an online shop. No matter, since I was going to do that anyways.
In preparation for the new release, I have started replaying some of the FE games. ... Although it seems that starting FE1/FE2/FE11/FE12 all at once wasn't the brightest idea in the world since I actually don't have that much time to play through them all at the moment. I doubt I'll even get through one of them in time for Kakusei's release. Maybe. But considering how they're portable (DS or emulator), I'll likely get through one of them, albeit poorly. In the meantime, also watching playthroughs, which is considerably faster. Just finished watching a FE1 playthrough with silly commentary from the characters themselves. KING CRIMSON! And actually making Riff useful. Somehow. With feeding him a ton of stat boosters. That really should have been used on other units. And then there's another run that was done a little bit after the initial that maximized gains (and turn counts). Needless to say, funds weren't an issue there! Everyone had boosts everywhere and the final chapter was dealt with in 4 turns. Curbstomp battle, anyone?
Perhaps I should blog my progress through one of the games...? It might help my issue of boredom. And maybe not let this blog just sit here with random updates of more serious things. Would require that I restart, but eh. I'm not that far in any of them in the first place.
Hm. Maybe FE1. No reset. Definitely not doing a LTC run since I've been out of practice and there's no RNG manipulation to be had. Looks like my PSP will be seeing some use now! I still haven't finished Type-0, but that's because I don't know which side quests I want to do...
PS: "Ike's Resolution" is a strangely cute track for a guy who does Flat Whats all over the place. And I hope I have enough for the Sengoku BASARA HD Edition. And maybe the DMC HD Edition. Really want to replay them, but my PS2 is dying and the emulator doesn't like running those games at 60fps.
The new LasRem trainer is looking pretty damn good~ I like that it also displays how many of the different enemies you've killed so far in the file. Perhaps also displaying the number of battles that you've already fought would be another nice touch, but that's really only if you're adamant on trying to spawn the 3 annoying Jhana rares that require a certain number of Jhana encounters already fought (20/50/150). Haven't progressed through my own playthrough for quite a while now, but I should be able to get a little bit in after the exam period. About 2 weeks before the next term starts should be enough to complete the run since I'm about halfway through anyways. But the question is... will I be able to do that? Which leads into the next bit.
Fire Emblem: Kakusei was announced a while ago (about Sept. 2011, actually), and 210's been updating their site and releasing info on a nearly weekly basis for about a month. Needless to say, I'm very excited for its release, especially since the voice cast is looking quite stellar along with a few new mechanics that I had been hoping for. While I'm a little bit concerned that it's Kobayashi Yuu voicing "Marth", it should prove interesting since Midorikawa hasn't voiced Marth in about 11 years. It's thrown off quite a few people, myself included. Seeing how the JP players are more likely to link characters with their voices, it's actually reasonable for them to doubt that it's really Marth there. The mask is a little bit strange too... It's a butterfly, which is also featured somewhat prominently in the OP. Ah well, won't really know the significance until I play it anyways. I wonder if it'll be localized? It's been announced for the EU territories, which is great for them. Problem. The 3DS is region-locked. So... I currently have my eyes on the Kakusei Edition. Hopefully I'll be able to snag that since I really like the colour and the simplicity of the design. Plus, I was going to import the game anyways and would need a JP 3DS to play it. Nowhere at PMall sells the JP version, so I'm stuck having to import it from an online shop. No matter, since I was going to do that anyways.
In preparation for the new release, I have started replaying some of the FE games. ... Although it seems that starting FE1/FE2/FE11/FE12 all at once wasn't the brightest idea in the world since I actually don't have that much time to play through them all at the moment. I doubt I'll even get through one of them in time for Kakusei's release. Maybe. But considering how they're portable (DS or emulator), I'll likely get through one of them, albeit poorly. In the meantime, also watching playthroughs, which is considerably faster. Just finished watching a FE1 playthrough with silly commentary from the characters themselves. KING CRIMSON! And actually making Riff useful. Somehow. With feeding him a ton of stat boosters. That really should have been used on other units. And then there's another run that was done a little bit after the initial that maximized gains (and turn counts). Needless to say, funds weren't an issue there! Everyone had boosts everywhere and the final chapter was dealt with in 4 turns. Curbstomp battle, anyone?
Perhaps I should blog my progress through one of the games...? It might help my issue of boredom. And maybe not let this blog just sit here with random updates of more serious things. Would require that I restart, but eh. I'm not that far in any of them in the first place.
Hm. Maybe FE1. No reset. Definitely not doing a LTC run since I've been out of practice and there's no RNG manipulation to be had. Looks like my PSP will be seeing some use now! I still haven't finished Type-0, but that's because I don't know which side quests I want to do...
PS: "Ike's Resolution" is a strangely cute track for a guy who does Flat Whats all over the place. And I hope I have enough for the Sengoku BASARA HD Edition. And maybe the DMC HD Edition. Really want to replay them, but my PS2 is dying and the emulator doesn't like running those games at 60fps.
3 Mar 2012
Annoyed
I've already posted this on my wikia blog a while ago, but might as well post it here too. The LasRem wiki was nearly 100% copied and hosted elsewhere. They probably obtained a database dump, which is admittedly not that hard to do. I mean, you just need to find a way to navigate to the Statistics page (Special:Statistics) and request one. They used to do weekly dumps, but that got pretty excessive so now you have to request one (the requests are processed weekly). They're still missing a few articles for units, but that may be because of the rather excessive number of redirects we have (which are justified because of wanting to keep the number of actual pages down...). Even after 68 days of stealing the content (which I can't do anything about because of the Creative Commons), their info is pretty outdated because of a few things I'm trying to implement. The JP wiki already started on something that I was going to get to over the break, but a certain assignment effectively put a stop that, along with trying to finish up adding CO/CD rates to the equips.
In other news... Still making my way through Skyrim. Probably not doing a very job of it since I'm only at the Diplomatic Immunity stage. Eh, good enough. First TES game after all. Instead of progressing through the main quest, all I've been doing are sidequests. Still not the best at killing people in towns, so I got a dragon to take care of it for me~ Might stop for a little while to try out Arena. Got it installed on another laptop that I'm using when I don't need all the extra RAM and processing power (although it's stupidly loud and annoying to know that it only has DDR2 RAM). Need to look into an SSD for dual-booting, but the prices are still really high. Either that, or switch over to a Linux distro completely. Good thing Wine can allow to play the games I want without much issue~
Nabbed the Ikaruga demo. I like it... but it's a little bit weird at the moment. Not sure how big the hitbox is, nor am I used to the polarity shift timings, which resulted in me eating a bullet. Maybe I'll get it at some point. Only 800 points...
Speaking of hardware... Mechanical keyboard broke, got a refund for it (annoyed). No Cherry MX Blues until mid~late April. Want a new trackball with a scroll wheel. 5400rpm HDDs are really slow. Practically everything in the house uses DDR2 RAM (Acer + desktop use DDR3, pretty sure mom's laptop is DDR3). Amused to find out that my DELL has 1GB because of 2 512MB sticks. My netbook usually beats it in speed despite being a single-core. Still need to clean the HP laptop, but don't know exactly what's up with the screen. All of this should really be on my other blog. And why am I here when I have an assignment due in about a day?!
And now a little something that tickles the geek in me, an equation:
sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7) *(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5
In other news... Still making my way through Skyrim. Probably not doing a very job of it since I'm only at the Diplomatic Immunity stage. Eh, good enough. First TES game after all. Instead of progressing through the main quest, all I've been doing are sidequests. Still not the best at killing people in towns, so I got a dragon to take care of it for me~ Might stop for a little while to try out Arena. Got it installed on another laptop that I'm using when I don't need all the extra RAM and processing power (although it's stupidly loud and annoying to know that it only has DDR2 RAM). Need to look into an SSD for dual-booting, but the prices are still really high. Either that, or switch over to a Linux distro completely. Good thing Wine can allow to play the games I want without much issue~
Nabbed the Ikaruga demo. I like it... but it's a little bit weird at the moment. Not sure how big the hitbox is, nor am I used to the polarity shift timings, which resulted in me eating a bullet. Maybe I'll get it at some point. Only 800 points...
Speaking of hardware... Mechanical keyboard broke, got a refund for it (annoyed). No Cherry MX Blues until mid~late April. Want a new trackball with a scroll wheel. 5400rpm HDDs are really slow. Practically everything in the house uses DDR2 RAM (Acer + desktop use DDR3, pretty sure mom's laptop is DDR3). Amused to find out that my DELL has 1GB because of 2 512MB sticks. My netbook usually beats it in speed despite being a single-core. Still need to clean the HP laptop, but don't know exactly what's up with the screen. All of this should really be on my other blog. And why am I here when I have an assignment due in about a day?!
And now a little something that tickles the geek in me, an equation:
sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7) *(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5
11 Feb 2012
Poking...
While looking through the TLR.exe, I noticed some rather amusing comments here and there. Some of the stuff was just romanized JP too. After a few "Invalid ___!(%d)" (I guess it's looking for an int), there was a "haaa?". Morale was misspelled as "Moral", but I think that's forgivable since they get the right spelling in-game. Plus, English isn't exactly their first language so mistakes like that would be fairly common. Another amusing thing of note is that some of the gibberish that I initially noted, is really Japanese. It might take a little while longer, but I think I can find a hex editor that will display the characters properly.
Anyways, I'll be updating this post with various things I find within the .exe file and whatever else I find interesting. Don't expect much though since most of my activity is probably going to be on GFAQs or the wiki.
And along the way, I did another damage test for the X360 board concerning the difference between the Might Splitters and Shielding Hawkwind. Needless to say, I was right in thinking that the Might Splitters were much better for damage despite there being a 40+ ATK difference in the Shielding Hawkwinds' favour. You need at least a 50 point difference to overcome the various damage boosting effects (really to deal about the same amount of damage if only 1 effect is in play, more if multiple effects are affecting damage). It's really that effective. The more you know~
Although come to think of it, the data may have been a little bit messed up. Mostly because of Rush being a Ninja. From a few tests ago, it seems that the most damage you can add on top of base damage is 100% (and another ~28% if you're adding extra hits). If Rush was a Ninja (and he was), then he would have been adding 105% when using 2 Black Belts and 2 Might Splitters, but losing the 5% extra. [Combat Arts] +5 (+15%), [Axe] +5 (+15%) and [Dual Wield] +5 (+15%). So... +30%/+30%/+45% total from each effect. This probably explains why the damage added wasn't quite lining up... Plus, Rush went from STR86.48 to STR112(.42), so there's that to consider as well.
savegame03 comparison - start @ 0xAFC0
TLR.exe - 0x1A09FA2 - debug logs?
Using MadEdit... 0x01A0B35C~D - バ... Something about amount of time spent in battle (minutes).
0x01A0B350
Anyways, I'll be updating this post with various things I find within the .exe file and whatever else I find interesting. Don't expect much though since most of my activity is probably going to be on GFAQs or the wiki.
And along the way, I did another damage test for the X360 board concerning the difference between the Might Splitters and Shielding Hawkwind. Needless to say, I was right in thinking that the Might Splitters were much better for damage despite there being a 40+ ATK difference in the Shielding Hawkwinds' favour. You need at least a 50 point difference to overcome the various damage boosting effects (really to deal about the same amount of damage if only 1 effect is in play, more if multiple effects are affecting damage). It's really that effective. The more you know~
Although come to think of it, the data may have been a little bit messed up. Mostly because of Rush being a Ninja. From a few tests ago, it seems that the most damage you can add on top of base damage is 100% (and another ~28% if you're adding extra hits). If Rush was a Ninja (and he was), then he would have been adding 105% when using 2 Black Belts and 2 Might Splitters, but losing the 5% extra. [Combat Arts] +5 (+15%), [Axe] +5 (+15%) and [Dual Wield] +5 (+15%). So... +30%/+30%/+45% total from each effect. This probably explains why the damage added wasn't quite lining up... Plus, Rush went from STR86.48 to STR112(.42), so there's that to consider as well.
savegame03 comparison - start @ 0xAFC0
TLR.exe - 0x1A09FA2 - debug logs?
Using MadEdit... 0x01A0B35C~D - バ... Something about amount of time spent in battle (minutes).
0x01A0B350
10 Jan 2012
Back to using the other Dragon!
I've had Sengoku BASARA 3 Utage for about 1.5 months now. Only started playing it about a week ago. Yeah. I was busy with other stuff, plus I wasn't sure if I wanted to start it without finishing up some stuff in 3 first, such as everyone's story routes. Pretty much went "screw it" and started. I'll deal with everyone's story modes after I've gotten them to Lvl. 100. It'll be easier that way since the new Basara difficulty will make gaining levels a lot easier. I got Masamune from 84 to 104 as a tag partner with one trip to Sekigahara without any trouble, so everyone else will be easy. Like Motonari...
Speaking of story modes, it seems that Tenkai, Kojuurou and Sasuke's stories are canon with 3. And part of Yoshiaki's. And I'm probably extremely biased with saying this, but I like Kojuurou's story the most. Matsunaga's back to give people hell, but he's supposed to be a dick like that. And instead of taking physical objects, he's taking the immaterial. Things like "names", which was what happened to Mitsuhide. He had his name "taken" from him, so he had to assume a new identity, which leads us to 3's Tenkai. Anyways, about Kojuurou's story. Retreating with the few troops Oshuu had left after their defeat at Odawara, ended up meeting Matsunaga (you can tell that Kojuurou wasn't happy about that, considering what happened last time). I think Matsunaga's just out to troll everyone. Really. The Oshuu forces eventually end up moving through Kawanakajima, which meant having to face off against Kenshin. Again, Kojuurou's not exactly happy about this because they barely have the numbers to get through it (not that it really affects gameplay or anything). He makes one little mistake and Kenshin almost kills him. Good thing (not really) Shingen had fallen sick with Kasuga running in with the "news". He gets everyone left back safely and marks all those who died with a katana marker. They all have the same design as his base weapon... Then Ieyasu and Hondam make an appearance, looking for an alliance. Pretty forcefully, I might add. Good thing Kojuurou doesn't really know the meaning of "give up." The ending was pretty touching too, since it resonates with Ieyasu's theme about bonds. And just to drive the point home further, Kojuurou's rearranged theme is now called "The Oath of the Right Eye".
The new Oshuu stage is probably some kind of joke. You can fight that stupid drill thingy in the damn vegetable field! Ieyasu even mentions that Mogami presented him with that "gift". It's also one of the harder stages added. Lots of heavy soldiers, that drill, tigers and random boxes appearing, courtesy of Hondam dropping them on your head. Probably the best way to approach it is to start at the bottom right because starting almost anywhere else is going to get your bases pincered, which means extra work for you.
The new Osaka stage is a rooftop battle. I still haven't found Kanbei yet. Maybe I have to use one of the ninja to do so, but I'm pretty sure that other characters that have air movement are capable of finding him. At least the new track is awesome. Actually, most of the new music is awesome, as are the new modes. Love the challenges even though I really suck at them Probably because I just jumped right in there without learning the ins and outs of some of their new quirks. Characters were buffed and nerfed in various ways, including an indirect nerf to everyone because of improved AI. Not to mention that it seems that they're far more willing to use any and up to 6 different arts in your face. Still not smart enough to combo endlessly, but I think that might be a good thing... It certainly wasn't pleasant to suddenly get hoisted up in the air by the neck then immolated by Matsunaga, consequently losing half your HP. But yes, smarter AI is most welcome.
And "UTAGE" really grew on me after listening to it a few more times. Eh, that's all I'll type for now.
Speaking of story modes, it seems that Tenkai, Kojuurou and Sasuke's stories are canon with 3. And part of Yoshiaki's. And I'm probably extremely biased with saying this, but I like Kojuurou's story the most. Matsunaga's back to give people hell, but he's supposed to be a dick like that. And instead of taking physical objects, he's taking the immaterial. Things like "names", which was what happened to Mitsuhide. He had his name "taken" from him, so he had to assume a new identity, which leads us to 3's Tenkai. Anyways, about Kojuurou's story. Retreating with the few troops Oshuu had left after their defeat at Odawara, ended up meeting Matsunaga (you can tell that Kojuurou wasn't happy about that, considering what happened last time). I think Matsunaga's just out to troll everyone. Really. The Oshuu forces eventually end up moving through Kawanakajima, which meant having to face off against Kenshin. Again, Kojuurou's not exactly happy about this because they barely have the numbers to get through it (not that it really affects gameplay or anything). He makes one little mistake and Kenshin almost kills him. Good thing (not really) Shingen had fallen sick with Kasuga running in with the "news". He gets everyone left back safely and marks all those who died with a katana marker. They all have the same design as his base weapon... Then Ieyasu and Hondam make an appearance, looking for an alliance. Pretty forcefully, I might add. Good thing Kojuurou doesn't really know the meaning of "give up." The ending was pretty touching too, since it resonates with Ieyasu's theme about bonds. And just to drive the point home further, Kojuurou's rearranged theme is now called "The Oath of the Right Eye".
The new Oshuu stage is probably some kind of joke. You can fight that stupid drill thingy in the damn vegetable field! Ieyasu even mentions that Mogami presented him with that "gift". It's also one of the harder stages added. Lots of heavy soldiers, that drill, tigers and random boxes appearing, courtesy of Hondam dropping them on your head. Probably the best way to approach it is to start at the bottom right because starting almost anywhere else is going to get your bases pincered, which means extra work for you.
The new Osaka stage is a rooftop battle. I still haven't found Kanbei yet. Maybe I have to use one of the ninja to do so, but I'm pretty sure that other characters that have air movement are capable of finding him. At least the new track is awesome. Actually, most of the new music is awesome, as are the new modes. Love the challenges even though I really suck at them Probably because I just jumped right in there without learning the ins and outs of some of their new quirks. Characters were buffed and nerfed in various ways, including an indirect nerf to everyone because of improved AI. Not to mention that it seems that they're far more willing to use any and up to 6 different arts in your face. Still not smart enough to combo endlessly, but I think that might be a good thing... It certainly wasn't pleasant to suddenly get hoisted up in the air by the neck then immolated by Matsunaga, consequently losing half your HP. But yes, smarter AI is most welcome.
And "UTAGE" really grew on me after listening to it a few more times. Eh, that's all I'll type for now.
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