Yep. Got 戦国BASARA4 in about a week ago. Still haven't unlocked everything, which is a bit of a shock, to be honest. Then again, I didn't expect some of the changes to the game that would make it a little bit more difficult. Normally, Hard would be relatively easy for most characters starting from Lv1 (Kenshin is arguably the most broken character in the series, even if he's cherry-tapping all the way). About 12 more stages need to be unlocked, although I think I've gotten most of the weirder stages for now. Don't really care about the Matabei invasion stages since it's really just an extra boss fight on top of what's already in that stage. Unfortunately, I read that there are more than 42 stages involved with the "beat all stages" trophy. So I think I'll need to track down all the "outbreak" stages, which are likely going to be the duels missing. Don't remember which ones I've already done...
It was nice of them to not make Kojuurou an NPC again for the main installment (he's graduated!). Don't really want to wait another year before the expansion inevitably comes out to play as him. And it turns out that "Bontenmaru" line was part of a flashback. The story was actually kinda cute. Little Masamune was such a little brat~ Too bad about only having 1 ending though. Want Yoshiteru playable. He seems pretty interesting, and should be as broken as possible considering the kind of hell he can give you during his fight. Although that might be because of trying to take him on without too many upgrades to my weapons and not really knowing how to use Hideyoshi (lol, I can't do chain grabs to save my life).
Should slowly get through the rest of the characters. It'll be interesting to see who kills who, who doesn't kill certain characters, etc. In other words, waiting on the announcement of the script book because I'm very sure that I won't trigger every possible convo. Some had rather strict conditions before they popped.
By the way, Masamune? Spinning your katana like that doesn't give you flight. You're not flying a jet-horse. And I think that's cheating when you're trying to do a race. Love the fact that Kojuurou just stands there with a straight face when Masamune takes off like that. Then again, he does that a lot.
Another thing I noticed... I didn't see Tsuchibayashi's name for character designer. Maybe I missed it, but pretty sure that it's not there. His personal site doesn't even list 3 Utage, so maybe there's a change to a different designer from now on...?
ETA: Ah, that's why. Since SB4 is considered a parallel universe (amongst all the other parallels), they're going with something new. Kinda also explains why they're a little bit on the scrawny side. Production IG's characters tend to be rather slim. Looks like SB's got some sort of multiverse thing going since there are a few constants here and there, and some variation elsewhere.
5 Mar 2014
2 Mar 2014
SaGa, and other things
Well, the teaser from not too long ago was been revealed to be a Romancing SaGa event of sorts. Learned something new too: there's a prefecture called Saga there, which is the location of a sort of collaboration between the two. Needless to say, no one (that I've seen so far from the English-speaking community) is actually happy about this. I'm intrigued though since the actual 25th anniversary isn't until some time in December. Not sure if the whole anniversary thing is going to focus on the entire series as a whole or if it's going to focus on the Romancing SaGa sub-series. Either way, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Doubt they're going to put out another soundtrack collection (and I don't think I'd buy it since I already have the 20th Anniversary edition).
Been keeping an eye out for inFAMOUS Second Son news every now and then, so I think I'm mostly up-to-date on that front. What I didn't realize was that the SRP is now $10 higher than I anticipated. Kinda makes me wish that I had pre-ordered it on Amazon instead of at a local store, but I'm not sure about getting the pre-order bonuses from them. That, and I normally don't pre-order games that far in advance... Oh well.
One of the things that's starting to concern me is the graphics, funny enough. It's not that it's not a pretty game (it is!), but that there are some very glaring differences between the different builds we've seen so far. And shadows. Delsin doesn't seem to be casting a shadow from all light sources (self-shadowing is present, which is good). It's likely that there was some sort of performance hit somewhere along the line that resulted in some of the changes. Possible that there were just "too many" light sources for it to be feasible. Trade-offs and whatnot. Or maybe the E3 build, which was definitely one of the prettier builds (at least in terms of texturing), is what we're to expect. Or maybe it just won't be that noticeable in the long run because the screens we'll be playing on wouldn't be exposing all those flaws in the first place. I know that I wouldn't be able to pick out some really minor details if I tried with my current setup (and the current pair of glasses I'm wearing, but it's mostly the distance from the screen).
Speaking of different builds... New gameplay vids have come out, although in Russian. Can't understand a single word~ Looking pretty fun, and the reflections are looking great. Getting a bit of rain while looking up is a nice touch. The UI is pretty ugly, although the first games weren't really that notable either. So nothing new in that regard. Feels kinda weird seeing the energy bar on the bottom left though. But damn. The mini-map? I LOVE IT. Not only does it show your location, but also the cityscape based on the camera's direction! It's a really nice touch. For the gameplay, great to see that when using Precision mode with Neon, you can see a red highlight for an execution (headshot) and a blue highlight (leg) for a non-lethal takedown. Shoot that area while using Precision, and you have your result.
Thief reviews have come in. It's interesting to see the split so far. To be honest, the split was pretty much expected.
Been keeping an eye out for inFAMOUS Second Son news every now and then, so I think I'm mostly up-to-date on that front. What I didn't realize was that the SRP is now $10 higher than I anticipated. Kinda makes me wish that I had pre-ordered it on Amazon instead of at a local store, but I'm not sure about getting the pre-order bonuses from them. That, and I normally don't pre-order games that far in advance... Oh well.
One of the things that's starting to concern me is the graphics, funny enough. It's not that it's not a pretty game (it is!), but that there are some very glaring differences between the different builds we've seen so far. And shadows. Delsin doesn't seem to be casting a shadow from all light sources (self-shadowing is present, which is good). It's likely that there was some sort of performance hit somewhere along the line that resulted in some of the changes. Possible that there were just "too many" light sources for it to be feasible. Trade-offs and whatnot. Or maybe the E3 build, which was definitely one of the prettier builds (at least in terms of texturing), is what we're to expect. Or maybe it just won't be that noticeable in the long run because the screens we'll be playing on wouldn't be exposing all those flaws in the first place. I know that I wouldn't be able to pick out some really minor details if I tried with my current setup (and the current pair of glasses I'm wearing, but it's mostly the distance from the screen).
Speaking of different builds... New gameplay vids have come out, although in Russian. Can't understand a single word~ Looking pretty fun, and the reflections are looking great. Getting a bit of rain while looking up is a nice touch. The UI is pretty ugly, although the first games weren't really that notable either. So nothing new in that regard. Feels kinda weird seeing the energy bar on the bottom left though. But damn. The mini-map? I LOVE IT. Not only does it show your location, but also the cityscape based on the camera's direction! It's a really nice touch. For the gameplay, great to see that when using Precision mode with Neon, you can see a red highlight for an execution (headshot) and a blue highlight (leg) for a non-lethal takedown. Shoot that area while using Precision, and you have your result.
Thief reviews have come in. It's interesting to see the split so far. To be honest, the split was pretty much expected.
18 Feb 2014
No more shooting for now
Well. Definitely not going to be shooting for the next while. Just returned a (very nice) set of limbs to a friend since she needed them back. Already got some recommendations for what to get next because of being acquainted with some shopkeepers. Carbon-foam was the suggestion due to the lack of arm length and need for efficient energy transfer. I did like the carbon-wood though, since it was a much smoother draw than your typical starter limbs. The price is definitely going to be a bit on the steeper side though, since it is carbon-foam. The tech used is enough to boost the price tag, unfortunately. Fortunately, SF does have a decent set for less than $300 before factoring in taxes. Might nab those at some point. Seeing those on sale is practically a no-go, although shorts are apparently a harder sell... We'll see.
Speaking of which, I haven't been shooting as much as I would like this term. Still, it's justified to the workload being considerably higher than I had expected. I'll probably have a post up on that on the other blog. It's quite fascinating if you think about it. And I think that 2 should really be -2 since that's what the formula states. Still not sure what that white spot is supposed to be though. Things at the range have been moving along quite nicely. Things are still getting broken, but they're also getting fixed quite quickly. Probably because they don't want me to try killing them from short range (I'm actually quite a weak long-range fighter, which is ironic since I favour sniping rather than CQC in games). Managed to accomplish the one thing that some of wanted to do without much of a fight. I think we managed to chip away at it long enough to get it to happen. The sweep was rather uneventful though; spent my time talking to another on what to order for the club/classes because of pooling some resources. Should be seeing quite the bill on my credit card soon... but since I'm dealing with the finances, I can at least see where the money is going. Which reminds me, I should file those receipts soon since it takes 35 days for the reimbursement if it's over $100, fewer days if less since it goes under "petty voucher".
Already noted on my other blog is the "Twitch Plays Pokémon" thing that's still ongoing. Even though people have started dropping off a bit, if you could call dropping from 80K to 47K dropping off, they might actually get somewhere!
...
Doubt it.
They're still trying to get the Lift Key.
Have a few other thoughts floating around in my head, but I'll leave those till later. Involves some SenBASA and inFAMOUS. By the way, I still think that Delsin is shaping up to be a complete dork.
Speaking of which, I haven't been shooting as much as I would like this term. Still, it's justified to the workload being considerably higher than I had expected. I'll probably have a post up on that on the other blog. It's quite fascinating if you think about it. And I think that 2 should really be -2 since that's what the formula states. Still not sure what that white spot is supposed to be though. Things at the range have been moving along quite nicely. Things are still getting broken, but they're also getting fixed quite quickly. Probably because they don't want me to try killing them from short range (I'm actually quite a weak long-range fighter, which is ironic since I favour sniping rather than CQC in games). Managed to accomplish the one thing that some of wanted to do without much of a fight. I think we managed to chip away at it long enough to get it to happen. The sweep was rather uneventful though; spent my time talking to another on what to order for the club/classes because of pooling some resources. Should be seeing quite the bill on my credit card soon... but since I'm dealing with the finances, I can at least see where the money is going. Which reminds me, I should file those receipts soon since it takes 35 days for the reimbursement if it's over $100, fewer days if less since it goes under "petty voucher".
Already noted on my other blog is the "Twitch Plays Pokémon" thing that's still ongoing. Even though people have started dropping off a bit, if you could call dropping from 80K to 47K dropping off, they might actually get somewhere!
...
Doubt it.
They're still trying to get the Lift Key.
Have a few other thoughts floating around in my head, but I'll leave those till later. Involves some SenBASA and inFAMOUS. By the way, I still think that Delsin is shaping up to be a complete dork.
11 Feb 2014
Pink Golf Carts
Slowly moving through Saints Row The Third with a friend now... Still don't know what else I can do to get it to run a little bit better. It can easily tank at <15fps, which is nigh unplayable once you get swarmed. What's even funnier is that I can't see my partner's avatar, which he eventually told me that they're very similar save for the outfit and weapon choices during our BL2 session.
So. During the little rampage of various story missions, we needed a vehicle (since I still can't drive properly) to get around to the various locations a little bit faster. So my friend runs off to find one since he knows the city a lot better than I do, while I deal with the fighting (something I'm decent at even with crap fps). He asks one really simple question, "pink or purple?" Since I had no idea what he was referring to, I said "pink" for the hell of it. Turns out that he went to get a golf cart, of all things, out of a nearby garage for our use. And thus we continued our rampage in a pink golf cart. Tried to keep laughter to a minimum to not wake everyone else in the house... It was pretty absurd driving around in a tiny golf cart with Pierce and shooting up everything that gets in the way. Now only if it could run better... Maybe the cleaner install will help? It's already helping other things a bit.
Speaking of BL2, started playing as Zero. In a tux. And it's awesome. Well, except for going down all the time while trying to melee everything in the face. Also, he's a little bit taller than Maya, which was a little bit fun trying to adjust to (not as bad as Sal being really short though). Still don't know what to spec into. Started with Sniping at first... but that wasn't really helping since I wasn't the host, so lag killed the sniping. So respecced to Bloodshed, which worked a bit better, save for the fact that I went with Killing Bl0w instead of Ir0n Hand, which was pretty lulzy in itself. Funny enough, it saved me a few times while downed.
So. During the little rampage of various story missions, we needed a vehicle (since I still can't drive properly) to get around to the various locations a little bit faster. So my friend runs off to find one since he knows the city a lot better than I do, while I deal with the fighting (something I'm decent at even with crap fps). He asks one really simple question, "pink or purple?" Since I had no idea what he was referring to, I said "pink" for the hell of it. Turns out that he went to get a golf cart, of all things, out of a nearby garage for our use. And thus we continued our rampage in a pink golf cart. Tried to keep laughter to a minimum to not wake everyone else in the house... It was pretty absurd driving around in a tiny golf cart with Pierce and shooting up everything that gets in the way. Now only if it could run better... Maybe the cleaner install will help? It's already helping other things a bit.
Speaking of BL2, started playing as Zero. In a tux. And it's awesome. Well, except for going down all the time while trying to melee everything in the face. Also, he's a little bit taller than Maya, which was a little bit fun trying to adjust to (not as bad as Sal being really short though). Still don't know what to spec into. Started with Sniping at first... but that wasn't really helping since I wasn't the host, so lag killed the sniping. So respecced to Bloodshed, which worked a bit better, save for the fact that I went with Killing Bl0w instead of Ir0n Hand, which was pretty lulzy in itself. Funny enough, it saved me a few times while downed.
4 Jan 2014
Silent Melody
Well, played through inFAMOUS 2 twice and Platinum'd the game within a week without much effort. Definitely like it a lot more than the first one, although it did have its little charms (grumpy Cole, for one; I don't miss chasing helicopters on foot). The one thing that constantly irked me was the camera though. I really didn't need it swinging back and forth to give me more dynamic angles when I was using finishers. Really, it gets old after the first 20 or so uses. Mostly because there are about 3 animations for a normal finisher and 3 for the ultra finishers, and considering an upgrade you can get for ultra finishers to restore energy after a take down, you'll be seeing those a lot if you go for melee (it tends to be faster to recharge energy this way as long as there's a human-sized enemy, unless you're low on health; Cole can't really eat a rocket to the face on Hard). Another problem with the camera after finishers was that it can be disorienting as the camera will attempt to shift behind Cole, and he's usually not facing the direction you originally had him.
You can see that a lot more effort was put into 2. Didn't really notice any stock animations during key scenes. Somewhat forgivable for the random NPCs since they're not major players. The game was also more my speed. iF1 felt a little bit slow and clunky, iF2 fit more my "let's get this done as efficiently as possible" mentality at times. Plus, with the power variations and being able to swap them out with Left on the D-Pad, more variation in battle! Although it does break up combat while changing things since it does pause the game. Real-time changing probably would've been a bit much in the middle of a massive firefight. Not that I would mind since even Hard Mode was a bit too easy once you got enough upgrades/cheesed your way to either Hero or Infamous ranked powers.
Still prefer the Good powers over the Evil ones. All that extra splash damage is great and all, but nothing really beats freezing your enemies for an instakill and some extra EXP. Not to mention energy regen when you hit human-sized enemies with any Bolt variation. Kinda miss the grenade upgrade that would auto-restrain your enemies if they were taken down by it. Some of the new neutral powers are pretty fun to play with, including the DLC ones. Love the Electrocution Grenade for setting up head shots. The Lightning Tether is also nice for travelling around when I don't feel like climbing things. And then I end up climbing it anyways because I tend to have Kinetic Pulse or Frost Shield equipped to the R2 slot.
Both endings sucked. Kill all humans or kill all Conduits. Either way, someone gets screwed. But then there's Second Son, which leaves me curious as to what really happened with the RFI. Seattle is definitely a lot closer than somewhere across the ocean if we're to take into account diminishing effects based on blast radius... We'll see what happens.
I suppose the next thing I should conquer is the UGC Editor. Looks like a fun little tool to play with. After I watch the tutorial vids. Or maybe I won't get to it because the break's almost over...
Oh yeah. Second Son has been pre-ordered... Problem is, I don't have a PS4. Yet. And the first thing I'm going to do when I get around to playing it? DUNKING DELSIN IN WATER. I should ask a friend who's actually living in Seattle where has the most water... or at least the deepest pool.
You can see that a lot more effort was put into 2. Didn't really notice any stock animations during key scenes. Somewhat forgivable for the random NPCs since they're not major players. The game was also more my speed. iF1 felt a little bit slow and clunky, iF2 fit more my "let's get this done as efficiently as possible" mentality at times. Plus, with the power variations and being able to swap them out with Left on the D-Pad, more variation in battle! Although it does break up combat while changing things since it does pause the game. Real-time changing probably would've been a bit much in the middle of a massive firefight. Not that I would mind since even Hard Mode was a bit too easy once you got enough upgrades/cheesed your way to either Hero or Infamous ranked powers.
Still prefer the Good powers over the Evil ones. All that extra splash damage is great and all, but nothing really beats freezing your enemies for an instakill and some extra EXP. Not to mention energy regen when you hit human-sized enemies with any Bolt variation. Kinda miss the grenade upgrade that would auto-restrain your enemies if they were taken down by it. Some of the new neutral powers are pretty fun to play with, including the DLC ones. Love the Electrocution Grenade for setting up head shots. The Lightning Tether is also nice for travelling around when I don't feel like climbing things. And then I end up climbing it anyways because I tend to have Kinetic Pulse or Frost Shield equipped to the R2 slot.
Both endings sucked. Kill all humans or kill all Conduits. Either way, someone gets screwed. But then there's Second Son, which leaves me curious as to what really happened with the RFI. Seattle is definitely a lot closer than somewhere across the ocean if we're to take into account diminishing effects based on blast radius... We'll see what happens.
I suppose the next thing I should conquer is the UGC Editor. Looks like a fun little tool to play with. After I watch the tutorial vids. Or maybe I won't get to it because the break's almost over...
Oh yeah. Second Son has been pre-ordered... Problem is, I don't have a PS4. Yet. And the first thing I'm going to do when I get around to playing it? DUNKING DELSIN IN WATER. I should ask a friend who's actually living in Seattle where has the most water... or at least the deepest pool.
18 Dec 2013
Bonjour!
Finally did get Monaco at 80% off, which was nice. Played it for about 3 hours, and it's definitely one of the harder games I've played in a while. Or maybe I just suck at navigating the places. Just waiting until I'm finished with everything before getting into co-op sessions with a couple of friends. If I see it on sale again at a pretty low price, I'm supposed to email a friend about it. Looks like he's interested in playing after I got bored from fixing things and trying to finish assignments with everyone standing around.
Picked up the inFAMOUS Collection not too long ago. About 2 weeks ago, actually. Finally turned on my PS3 again. Good thing I still remember all my sign-ins, then decided to change them all to be more uniform. Almost forgot that I used a JP Yahoo account for my main. Really wish I could change the displayed ID to Zephyr135 to be more consistent with all my other stuff. Using an older alias, which was much easier to pin me as a female. Kinda fun, but kinda not at the same time. At least all those Demon's Souls players didn't send stupid messages at the time. I wonder if the servers are still up...?
Anyways, finished the game on Hard and with the Good ending. And I was only on Hard because the game thought I was doing too well in the initial missions. I don't know if I want to go through it again while going fully Evil since I'm currently trying to grind for EXP to do 1 more lousy upgrade to the simple lightning bolt. I still need 7000 EXP. Could do some amazingly annoying things like kick a innocent bystander, then run up to heal them for a quick 3EXP per go. But fighting is usually the way to go. Lots more EXP that way and I can cause some collateral damage along the way to get some healing in. Still need to clean up the rest of the areas as well.
I'm not really sure what to think of the game, really. Gameplay was OK. Nothing that spectacular, although the sneaking around is done better than in AC. Really, you can take cover. That's one of the main complaints I have about the AC stealth segments: you can't take cover behind random objects on the ground. Instead, you have to stay out of sight via corners or using vertical space. The Good-Evil choices were really black and white. Would've liked something with more of a grey area to it, but that might screw with the Karma system they have in place. Controls were decent. Might just be my controller, but sometimes my L1 doesn't register going into Aim Mode that quickly. Minor quibble, really. Aiming with the right analog could be a little more sensitive, and I've already cranked up the sensitivity to max. Including a slider would've been nice instead of 3 discrete settings.
If there's one thing I'm not particularly happy about, it's the sound. BGM is really sparse and takes a while to kick in whenever you're doing something.
And maybe 1 more really tiny thing: Cole doesn't seem to like running up stairs at times.
Picked up the inFAMOUS Collection not too long ago. About 2 weeks ago, actually. Finally turned on my PS3 again. Good thing I still remember all my sign-ins, then decided to change them all to be more uniform. Almost forgot that I used a JP Yahoo account for my main. Really wish I could change the displayed ID to Zephyr135 to be more consistent with all my other stuff. Using an older alias, which was much easier to pin me as a female. Kinda fun, but kinda not at the same time. At least all those Demon's Souls players didn't send stupid messages at the time. I wonder if the servers are still up...?
Anyways, finished the game on Hard and with the Good ending. And I was only on Hard because the game thought I was doing too well in the initial missions. I don't know if I want to go through it again while going fully Evil since I'm currently trying to grind for EXP to do 1 more lousy upgrade to the simple lightning bolt. I still need 7000 EXP. Could do some amazingly annoying things like kick a innocent bystander, then run up to heal them for a quick 3EXP per go. But fighting is usually the way to go. Lots more EXP that way and I can cause some collateral damage along the way to get some healing in. Still need to clean up the rest of the areas as well.
I'm not really sure what to think of the game, really. Gameplay was OK. Nothing that spectacular, although the sneaking around is done better than in AC. Really, you can take cover. That's one of the main complaints I have about the AC stealth segments: you can't take cover behind random objects on the ground. Instead, you have to stay out of sight via corners or using vertical space. The Good-Evil choices were really black and white. Would've liked something with more of a grey area to it, but that might screw with the Karma system they have in place. Controls were decent. Might just be my controller, but sometimes my L1 doesn't register going into Aim Mode that quickly. Minor quibble, really. Aiming with the right analog could be a little more sensitive, and I've already cranked up the sensitivity to max. Including a slider would've been nice instead of 3 discrete settings.
If there's one thing I'm not particularly happy about, it's the sound. BGM is really sparse and takes a while to kick in whenever you're doing something.
And maybe 1 more really tiny thing: Cole doesn't seem to like running up stairs at times.
1 Dec 2013
Watching stuff
So... Been watching livestreams of BL2. Turns out that you can kill certain enemies with the Lv.1 Repeater you get at the beginning of the game with Zer0 and B0re. Namely BNK3R and Hyperius. Also, that Wattle Gobbler DLC. That pretty much broke the ones playing it, and a few that were watching. All that delicious suffering~
And then watching the 24-hour livestream, which was pretty epic once it hit around the 5 hour mark. Nero - Doomsday, from one of the trailers that featured the 96.5% MORE WUB WUB, "Dubstep World" (lots of flashing lights, seizures!), and bullet time. It was leading up to the BNK3R fight, which experienced a few... technical difficulties. Yay. And then Mr. B0rgue just wants to kill the damn thing. "Why is he still living." And Bahroo accidentally "fixed" BNK3R fight by changing the turret hitboxes. No B0re to exploit!
In other news... Almost forgot about the Steam Autumn Sale. Still waiting on Monaco to drop a little further in price. Got Saints Row The Third and Surgeon Simulator 2013 from 2 friends. Amongst other things (2 Batman games, a few indies). Also finally managed to get 1 Prestige on Maya. Then again, I wasn't really aiming for it in the first place.
Still waiting.
And then watching the 24-hour livestream, which was pretty epic once it hit around the 5 hour mark. Nero - Doomsday, from one of the trailers that featured the 96.5% MORE WUB WUB, "Dubstep World" (lots of flashing lights, seizures!), and bullet time. It was leading up to the BNK3R fight, which experienced a few... technical difficulties. Yay. And then Mr. B0rgue just wants to kill the damn thing. "Why is he still living." And Bahroo accidentally "fixed" BNK3R fight by changing the turret hitboxes. No B0re to exploit!
In other news... Almost forgot about the Steam Autumn Sale. Still waiting on Monaco to drop a little further in price. Got Saints Row The Third and Surgeon Simulator 2013 from 2 friends. Amongst other things (2 Batman games, a few indies). Also finally managed to get 1 Prestige on Maya. Then again, I wasn't really aiming for it in the first place.
Still waiting.
27 Oct 2013
Got Bored
So... yeah. As the blog title says, I was kinda bored. So I baked brownies. I said I would a few days ago in the event that there were no leftovers after the batch given to the archery club (and knowing the club, there would never be leftovers!). I happen to like the recipe that my sister found, which is over here. Except that for some reason, the brownies came out kinda wrong Wednesday night (it worked fine the first time I made them, but it was also during a warmer season). Not sure why since I followed the ingredient list and the instructions. Of course, there's also the issue of the house being perpetually cold, except for those stupidly hot summer days. Might have affected the batter negatively because of the melted chocolate mix cooling way too much.
So. Today. It was effectively a speed run brownie making session (I'm a gamer, speed-runs are probably inevitable to some at some point). Also changed a couple of things to reduce the chances of a dry brownie. So, below is what I did (and no, I'm not going to call them anything while wishing there was some wiki mark-up here):
* 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
* 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into quarters
* 3 Tbs cocoa powder
* 2 Tbs instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
* 3 large eggs
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 Tbs Kahlua liqueur (optional)
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, Kahlua, and salt until well-combined.
3. Add the chopped chocolates and the butter to a medium, microwave-safe bowl, and heat in 30-second intervals, until melted, stirring well after each time. Whisk in the cocoa and espresso powder until smooth. Let it cool slightly.
4. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Add in chocolate chips if desired. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and spread into the corners with a spatula. Level the surface.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.
So yeah. All I really did was change some of the sugar used and the order I did things. Namely that I changed the 1 1/4 of sugar to 1/2 cup white sugar + 3/4 cup brown sugar (the molasses should add a little extra moisture), and that I did the egg mixture first then melted the chocolate because of the colder environment. This ensured that the chocolate mixture didn't cool so much that the batter was near impossible to fold in the flour and spread in the baking pan. The end result was a somewhat dense brownie and it wasn't as crumbly as Wednesday/Thursday's result. Plus, chocolate chips. Knowing the people that would be eating these, the added chocolate isn't that much of an issue.
The original blog post that I got the recipe from also had frosting. Because I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, no frosting for me. Plus, it was pretty annoying making the frosting in time when I was covering for a certain someone for her potluck.
So. Today. It was effectively a speed run brownie making session (I'm a gamer, speed-runs are probably inevitable to some at some point). Also changed a couple of things to reduce the chances of a dry brownie. So, below is what I did (and no, I'm not going to call them anything while wishing there was some wiki mark-up here):
Ingredients
* 5 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped* 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
* 8 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into quarters
* 3 Tbs cocoa powder
* 2 Tbs instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
* 3 large eggs
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 Tbs Kahlua liqueur (optional)
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and adjust the rack to the lower-middle position. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Use another sheet of foil to line the dish perpendicular to the fist piece, leaving another overhang on two sides. Spritz with cooking spray.2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, Kahlua, and salt until well-combined.
3. Add the chopped chocolates and the butter to a medium, microwave-safe bowl, and heat in 30-second intervals, until melted, stirring well after each time. Whisk in the cocoa and espresso powder until smooth. Let it cool slightly.
4. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Add in chocolate chips if desired. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and spread into the corners with a spatula. Level the surface.
5. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours.
So yeah. All I really did was change some of the sugar used and the order I did things. Namely that I changed the 1 1/4 of sugar to 1/2 cup white sugar + 3/4 cup brown sugar (the molasses should add a little extra moisture), and that I did the egg mixture first then melted the chocolate because of the colder environment. This ensured that the chocolate mixture didn't cool so much that the batter was near impossible to fold in the flour and spread in the baking pan. The end result was a somewhat dense brownie and it wasn't as crumbly as Wednesday/Thursday's result. Plus, chocolate chips. Knowing the people that would be eating these, the added chocolate isn't that much of an issue.
The original blog post that I got the recipe from also had frosting. Because I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, no frosting for me. Plus, it was pretty annoying making the frosting in time when I was covering for a certain someone for her potluck.
22 Oct 2013
Oji-san really needs to DIAF
Seriously. I think I've attempted the Fiore de Rosa battle at least 5 times within 10 hours while staying in the default classes (they're all around Lv.8~9 in it now). The only reason why the battle is even remotely annoying is because of the Red Mage's job ability: you have a chance of gaining BP whenever you take damage. Hurting him means you're giving him extra actions per turn, and the AI generally doesn't like putting in negative BP. Cura-Thundara(-Attack) is the BP usage. Healing 1500~2000HP per, ~320 damage from Thundara (could be more, but eh)... Unsurprising that it took as long as it did. Don't deal enough damage per hit, and you'll be running around in circles. Not even stealing all his MP helped (Ringabell had enough levels invested in Magic Swordsman to use Aspir Sword).
Oh yeah. It only took about 6 months to start the game! Go me.
...
... I'll go hide in my corner of woe now.
Friend Code for BDFF: 1076-9148-2658
Oh yeah. It only took about 6 months to start the game! Go me.
...
... I'll go hide in my corner of woe now.
Friend Code for BDFF: 1076-9148-2658
1 Oct 2013
30 Sept 2013
I don't get it
Poking at some AC fan art... I don't get it. Why's Altair sometimes a bunny? It's still more common to see him as a cat due to his "inability" to swim, but a rabbit is still up there. I can understand wolf for Connor. Ezio is a little harder to pin, but most common seems to be cat. Seen cat!Edward, but I think that one with him as a shark is the best being a pirate and all. Still haven't touched III, so I don't know if I want to get anywhere near IV.
I do approve of bunny!Altair though. Cute~
Also, note to self: after reinstalling everything and putting back LasRem, uncheck the "Read Only" box for likely both RushEngine.ini and RushKeySetting.ini. It seems that having either or both of them set to "Read Only" crashes upon the initial startup until the files are initialized. No idea why it does that, but at least I don't have to change around my HDs in order to do testing now! Probably didn't catch it because those files were set to Read Only on the SSD and it hasn't crashed before.
I do approve of bunny!Altair though. Cute~
Also, note to self: after reinstalling everything and putting back LasRem, uncheck the "Read Only" box for likely both RushEngine.ini and RushKeySetting.ini. It seems that having either or both of them set to "Read Only" crashes upon the initial startup until the files are initialized. No idea why it does that, but at least I don't have to change around my HDs in order to do testing now! Probably didn't catch it because those files were set to Read Only on the SSD and it hasn't crashed before.
20 Sept 2013
Game On 2.0
So... went to the Ontario Science Centre to check out the "Game On 2.0" exhibit. It was... disappointing to say the least. Honestly, it was just a relatively small room filled with a bunch of games of many genres. It was really nice seeing some of the older machines still functional. We're in Gen 7~8 now, and Gen 1 stuff still looks pretty good, if simplistic. Maybe it's because of how late we went. According to the site, there were a fair number of features that I didn't see. Still, ended up playing Deathsmiles, so I might go ahead with picking that up at some point. Should really add a Cave shooter to my library that isn't something as insane as Mushihime-sama or DoDonPachi.
After wandering around that exhibit for a bit, we went ahead with visiting the other parts of the OSC. Not too much has changed, although a few exhibits were missing. Namely the physiology related exhibits. Kinda hoping that Body Worlds returns at some point since seeing humans stripped down to their muscle groups is always entertaining. Plus, a lot of their more amusing activities were there. Could have checked out some IMAX stuff; that would've costed extra and we didn't really make plans around it.
Yeah, really not much to say about it. Wished there were displays showing the insides and the development process for the systems and games. Maybe a diagram showing the evolution of graphics and whatnot (gameplay is definitely harder, and isn't something as easy to quantify).
Also meant to get this post out a lot earlier, but eh. Got busy with stuff, lazy with the actual typing, distracted by Ezio's/my horrible bomb throwing,etc.
After wandering around that exhibit for a bit, we went ahead with visiting the other parts of the OSC. Not too much has changed, although a few exhibits were missing. Namely the physiology related exhibits. Kinda hoping that Body Worlds returns at some point since seeing humans stripped down to their muscle groups is always entertaining. Plus, a lot of their more amusing activities were there. Could have checked out some IMAX stuff; that would've costed extra and we didn't really make plans around it.
Yeah, really not much to say about it. Wished there were displays showing the insides and the development process for the systems and games. Maybe a diagram showing the evolution of graphics and whatnot (gameplay is definitely harder, and isn't something as easy to quantify).
Also meant to get this post out a lot earlier, but eh. Got busy with stuff, lazy with the actual typing, distracted by Ezio's/my horrible bomb throwing,etc.
11 Aug 2013
Tiny thing
Just finished cleaning my keyboard. Feels almost new~ Don't seem to be sliding around as much anymore since I wiped down the keys with a weak alcohol, which is nice. Should probably do the same to the laptop keyboard at some point, mostly because I don't use the mech. while in class. Too loud, really. Unless I'm in a lab. Then it's mostly OK, if only because the teacher isn't always talking and that we're going to be working on our stuff.
By the way, I'm really not liking the small surge of activity on the Recipes Wikia. Mostly because I have to go in and fix the formatting, removing irrelevant links/photos/vids, etc. A few times, one of the users actually replaced already established pics, so they needed to be reverted then reuploaded with a different file name. Yeesh.
Oh yeah. Finished Assassin's Creed. Now working on Assassin's Creed 2 (restart for feathers). Slight spike in activity on the LasRem boards, which is usually nice. At least I'm not speedrunning a file anymore. Don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.
By the way, I'm really not liking the small surge of activity on the Recipes Wikia. Mostly because I have to go in and fix the formatting, removing irrelevant links/photos/vids, etc. A few times, one of the users actually replaced already established pics, so they needed to be reverted then reuploaded with a different file name. Yeesh.
Oh yeah. Finished Assassin's Creed. Now working on Assassin's Creed 2 (restart for feathers). Slight spike in activity on the LasRem boards, which is usually nice. At least I'm not speedrunning a file anymore. Don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.
18 Jul 2013
2014 needs to get here already
戦国BASARA4 trailer just came out. There's a lot more spinning than I thought there would be. Liking the new music... Then the ending. My god, the ending.
梵天丸.
We may see how 小十郎 meets 政宗, since 小十郎 calls him 梵天丸. Should probably do a little research on the Muromachi period since the Sengoku era is only part of the larger period. I guess 足利義輝 is a mirror boss...? Looks like it from the trailer.
梵天丸.
We may see how 小十郎 meets 政宗, since 小十郎 calls him 梵天丸. Should probably do a little research on the Muromachi period since the Sengoku era is only part of the larger period. I guess 足利義輝 is a mirror boss...? Looks like it from the trailer.
9 Jul 2013
Honor for All
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep was probably the best and most satisfying DLC I've played from both Borderlands games. Just the main campaign was worth it. Still need to go through the rest of the side quests. Should be funny enough, though I'm kinda itching to throw IRL D20s. Story-wise, it was kinda weak at first, but the character interactions were great. I'm not sure how real those kinds of reactions are to someone's death, but it does get somewhat disturbing at points when it's clear that she's in complete denial despite what the other 3 Vault Hunters are telling her.
And started playing a little bit of Dishonored. First game over I get? It wasn't from combat. It was just me, jumping onto a table... then falling onto someone's head. Apparently that's assault (then again, who would want someone to land on their head?), and enough to get me arrested at the very beginning of the game. Whoops. So even the Lord Protector isn't immune to giving someone a slight bop on the head with a boot.
OK, that's a lie. I've finished the game within the week. Wanted to see if I could still play and finish a game in a week, and luckily for me, the game was on sale. Picked it up with Fallout 3 GOTY for $15. Didn't want to try it with an RPG because I knew that would probably take longer.
I really enjoyed playing it. Kinda wished that you could explore Dunwall and maybe the surrounding islands more, especially since there's so much reading you can do, but I guess that's what the DLC is for. Maybe. Went High Chaos for my first playthrough since I figured that would be the easiest route. It kinda was and wasn't at the same time. I didn't bother upgrading and purchasing any new powers and enhancements, but all the various upgrades to equipment was enough to get through the game quite comfortably on Normal.
Then went Low Chaos, with buying whatever powers I would probably need/want. Mana consumption went through the roof, and it's a good thing that Piero's Remedies are just as common as the Sokolov Elixirs. Unfortunately, even though I managed not to alert anyone, I still somehow managed to kill 2 people by accident. The first was a Weeper in the sewers. Didn't realize it until I read on the forums that it counted (whoops). Must have hit his head on the pipes after I hit him with a sleep dart. The other was in the Flooded District. And seriously? There's a ton of water in that level. Might have been when I accidentally dropped an assassin into a shallow pool. After I heard the splash, I immediately picked him up and dumped him somewhere else. He was still breathing, but I think it still counted against me. I check everything I shoot/hopefully render unconscious. There was really no other instance where I could've killed anyone because I choked out all the weepers (didn't have any sleep darts at the time). So now I'm going to have to go through it again for the no-kill achievement (not that I mind), because that was my Low Chaos run's intention in the first place. I just screwed up really early without knowing it, then just kinda got sloppy at the Flooded District (although it was kinda non-indicative...).
Oh yeah. In the credits? Noticed certain names. They're from Looking Glass Studios. No wonder. At least Corvo's controls didn't feel rubbery like Thief 3's Garrett. That was awkward.
At this rate... I might actually be worried about Thief... Although the idea of expanding on Dishonored's world might ease my worries a bit since I probably won't be thinking about it. Maybe... As long as it's Arkane doing all the work without Bethesda interfering! I still want an art book!
And started playing a little bit of Dishonored. First game over I get? It wasn't from combat. It was just me, jumping onto a table... then falling onto someone's head. Apparently that's assault (then again, who would want someone to land on their head?), and enough to get me arrested at the very beginning of the game. Whoops. So even the Lord Protector isn't immune to giving someone a slight bop on the head with a boot.
OK, that's a lie. I've finished the game within the week. Wanted to see if I could still play and finish a game in a week, and luckily for me, the game was on sale. Picked it up with Fallout 3 GOTY for $15. Didn't want to try it with an RPG because I knew that would probably take longer.
I really enjoyed playing it. Kinda wished that you could explore Dunwall and maybe the surrounding islands more, especially since there's so much reading you can do, but I guess that's what the DLC is for. Maybe. Went High Chaos for my first playthrough since I figured that would be the easiest route. It kinda was and wasn't at the same time. I didn't bother upgrading and purchasing any new powers and enhancements, but all the various upgrades to equipment was enough to get through the game quite comfortably on Normal.
Then went Low Chaos, with buying whatever powers I would probably need/want. Mana consumption went through the roof, and it's a good thing that Piero's Remedies are just as common as the Sokolov Elixirs. Unfortunately, even though I managed not to alert anyone, I still somehow managed to kill 2 people by accident. The first was a Weeper in the sewers. Didn't realize it until I read on the forums that it counted (whoops). Must have hit his head on the pipes after I hit him with a sleep dart. The other was in the Flooded District. And seriously? There's a ton of water in that level. Might have been when I accidentally dropped an assassin into a shallow pool. After I heard the splash, I immediately picked him up and dumped him somewhere else. He was still breathing, but I think it still counted against me. I check everything I shoot/hopefully render unconscious. There was really no other instance where I could've killed anyone because I choked out all the weepers (didn't have any sleep darts at the time). So now I'm going to have to go through it again for the no-kill achievement (not that I mind), because that was my Low Chaos run's intention in the first place. I just screwed up really early without knowing it, then just kinda got sloppy at the Flooded District (although it was kinda non-indicative...).
Oh yeah. In the credits? Noticed certain names. They're from Looking Glass Studios. No wonder. At least Corvo's controls didn't feel rubbery like Thief 3's Garrett. That was awkward.
At this rate... I might actually be worried about Thief... Although the idea of expanding on Dishonored's world might ease my worries a bit since I probably won't be thinking about it. Maybe... As long as it's Arkane doing all the work without Bethesda interfering! I still want an art book!
16 Jun 2013
I'm not dead
Just been busy with various things. Mostly school and archery, because I'm now on the committee taking care of various pieces of equipment. But I think I have a little bit of time for some updates. So how about that vault hunting? Maybe not that vault. Or that one... Oh well. As long as it doesn't have tentacles and disappointment as the reward, I'll be fine with it.
So about that Borderlands post? Yeah. Finished Playthrough 1, 2, and 2.5 quite a while ago with Mordecai. With enough enemies around, he's a decent killing machine with Bloodwing and some sniper regen. I can still run out of ammo easily if I'm using the Penetrator to spray the field. Still need to beat Craw, but I don't think I can do it solo. Skill level isn't high level, although I think the equipment I have should be sufficient. Been farming on 2.5, so... Waiting on a friend so we can take it down together. Meanwhile, I've started playing with another set of friends as Brick (campus friends), and probably with Lilith with another friend. I guess I'll go solo with Roland, not that I mind. Free ammo regen with the turret!
The campus group is interesting. They're Roland and Lilith. So... you would think that this would be a decent team. Kinda, not really. The Roland really likes to run up and empty his clip at close range (maybe I should try getting him a Chopper since I can take on Knoxx's DLC now). The Lilith likes using elemental launchers and non-elemental shotties. I'm using almost exclusively explosive weaponry, which is fine because I'm boosting explosive damage via skills, and have rocket regen. I think I've taken down most of the story bosses for them (including cheesing Krom because I thought it was funny). In Moxxi's, I'm mostly running around making sure that they don't die. Real reassuring when the Roland goes "it's alright!" then goes down within 5 seconds of saying it.
We haven't been playing together lately so I've gone ahead with finishing PT1 with Brick. He has a pretty crap endgame, and I can definitely see it getting worse in PT2/2.5. Berserk has practically 0 range as it's not projectile based or a game changer. Does give a decent boost to damage resistance and some health regen, but usually not enough while under heavy fire. Doesn't help knowing that I also activate it when I'm critical. At least it was improved upon for Salvador and Krieg (not that I've played Krieg, but the concept is much the same) by giving them some sort of ranged option. Or in Salvador's case, it's Berserk with guns!
I seriously need to get Brick better gear if he's going to survive PT2~2.5. Not sure what kind of shield because Tediore's HP regen is quite nice to have around. It's not like the Moxxi guns are going to save me because they don't exist here! I haven't found any info about how Berserk's HP regen works. If it's based on max HP, then it might be better to go with Torgue's shields to boost that effect. I know that it's generally better for Mordy to go that route because of the percentage heal when Bloodwing attacks. Explosive damage is still decent, but I may need to switch over to using other elements until I can farm for much stronger explosive gear. Too bad grenade mods are so plain here. Transfusion is still one of the more useful ones. Never did figure out how to use Atlas's Rain mods, and I tend to be pretty bad at lobbing grenades in the right direction.
Eh, that's really about it for BL1. Maybe I'll type up something for BL2 soon. Still need to beat Crawmerax.
So about that Borderlands post? Yeah. Finished Playthrough 1, 2, and 2.5 quite a while ago with Mordecai. With enough enemies around, he's a decent killing machine with Bloodwing and some sniper regen. I can still run out of ammo easily if I'm using the Penetrator to spray the field. Still need to beat Craw, but I don't think I can do it solo. Skill level isn't high level, although I think the equipment I have should be sufficient. Been farming on 2.5, so... Waiting on a friend so we can take it down together. Meanwhile, I've started playing with another set of friends as Brick (campus friends), and probably with Lilith with another friend. I guess I'll go solo with Roland, not that I mind. Free ammo regen with the turret!
The campus group is interesting. They're Roland and Lilith. So... you would think that this would be a decent team. Kinda, not really. The Roland really likes to run up and empty his clip at close range (maybe I should try getting him a Chopper since I can take on Knoxx's DLC now). The Lilith likes using elemental launchers and non-elemental shotties. I'm using almost exclusively explosive weaponry, which is fine because I'm boosting explosive damage via skills, and have rocket regen. I think I've taken down most of the story bosses for them (including cheesing Krom because I thought it was funny). In Moxxi's, I'm mostly running around making sure that they don't die. Real reassuring when the Roland goes "it's alright!" then goes down within 5 seconds of saying it.
We haven't been playing together lately so I've gone ahead with finishing PT1 with Brick. He has a pretty crap endgame, and I can definitely see it getting worse in PT2/2.5. Berserk has practically 0 range as it's not projectile based or a game changer. Does give a decent boost to damage resistance and some health regen, but usually not enough while under heavy fire. Doesn't help knowing that I also activate it when I'm critical. At least it was improved upon for Salvador and Krieg (not that I've played Krieg, but the concept is much the same) by giving them some sort of ranged option. Or in Salvador's case, it's Berserk with guns!
I seriously need to get Brick better gear if he's going to survive PT2~2.5. Not sure what kind of shield because Tediore's HP regen is quite nice to have around. It's not like the Moxxi guns are going to save me because they don't exist here! I haven't found any info about how Berserk's HP regen works. If it's based on max HP, then it might be better to go with Torgue's shields to boost that effect. I know that it's generally better for Mordy to go that route because of the percentage heal when Bloodwing attacks. Explosive damage is still decent, but I may need to switch over to using other elements until I can farm for much stronger explosive gear. Too bad grenade mods are so plain here. Transfusion is still one of the more useful ones. Never did figure out how to use Atlas's Rain mods, and I tend to be pretty bad at lobbing grenades in the right direction.
Eh, that's really about it for BL1. Maybe I'll type up something for BL2 soon. Still need to beat Crawmerax.
25 Dec 2012
Classic DMC = Yay~
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...
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...
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.
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