Reference for Story Writers

I've been trying to work on getting more details filled in for the overall story of Crescent Legends. Even aside from the story though, it helps to have details listed in the characters as well as their surroundings as well. So here are a few reliable tools to help you do just that.

Promo - Meikahna's Art Commission

I have a good friend who I met on Gaia Online a long time ago, in one of the threads I made about Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. I guess as early as 2003 since I got the Japanese release and I was sharing details with those who were anticipating the game in the US way before the US release of August 31st, 2004. In fact, I have another friend who I met from this same thread, but that promotional post will come later. So the good friends and I have been talking on Gaia for a long time, eventually making a guild for those interested in the many games made by tri-Ace initially, then widened to SquareEnix games as a whole. Syn was one of the three guild leaders there, and brought life to the guild with some of her artworks. One of my previous promos regarding the UMvC3 site was for someone from the guild as well, although the actual work is that of her boyfriend's rather than the actual guild member. Er.. my point here is that I have many friends from that guild, I guess.

Black Friday 2011

I just came back from Black Friday Shopping. And am I ever disappointed with the sales this year. Very few hot items were really on sale this year, and among them, I was really interested in this PS3 bundle where you get LittleBigPlanet 2 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One with it, for only $199.99. I'm not entirely interested in the games, but the bundle is cheaper than just getting the PS3 as well, so I thought, "Why the hell not?". Of course, this bundle sold out at all the stores it seems. The same deal was at nearly all the stores that you would check for this thing too. I stopped by at Best Buy, Target, Game Stop, and I'm checking Amazon.com right now, and even there the $199.99 deals are gone.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I just had my first, homemade turkey dinner with a huge family group, which is cool. Thanksgiving dinner back with my family is usually small due to everyone else in my family living in Japan, so we never have turkey, unless we want half a month's worth of leftovers. It sounds like my family is having Boston Market again this year, as is our tradition, I guess.

As for now, I'm looking forward to doing some Black Friday shopping soon. Although from the advertisements and flyers I've seen so far, I'm not seeing anything that's spectacular of a sale this year, which is a disappointment. But I may go out and get something anyway. Probably something small.

I guess I'm going to have to spend all my adventures on Kingdom of Loathing now though, so I'll leave this post at that. If I find anything worthwhile during the Black Friday sales, I'll be sure to talk about it. Happy Thanksgiving, and for all the other adventurers, Happy Feast of Boris!

Weird Movie - The Dolphin

Was just at another movie night with the others. Of course, the movie we decided to watch is yet another weird movie on Netflix. Upon browsing for movies on Netflix, Vicki freaks out at "something scary" on the screen. Naturally, people thought she meant the Human Centipede, which is a legitimately scary/creepy concept, especially after having seen the trailers for it. But no. She meant the movie NEXT to the Human Centipede, The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer. @_@ "I mean, LOOK AT THAT FACE! It looks weird!" Well, I can't really argue with that. Your call on what's scarier.

Feesh! - Firion 3

Today certainly is a lot of things. My birthday, the release date of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and also Firion's anniversary since he arrived here on my birthday! =D So today's entry will be about Firion, although I still never got that LED light. This post will also double as a guide for keeping betta fish as a pet.

Freedom of Voluntary Ignorance

Warning example

So another poll ended, and here are the results.

How should spoilers be handled here?
Warning with a Spoiler sign: 3 votes
Hide them in a Spoiler Box: 2 votes
Avoid them all together: 0 votes
Make it hard to read: 0 votes
Just post it openly: 0 votes

Seems like having the post be labeled with a spoiler sign seems to be the most popular vote. Personally, I wanted to implement a spoiler box, but as of now, I have no way of doing that as I lack the code for putting a spoiler box in my posts. Hopefully I'll find one in the future, but until then, having a warning image for spoilers is the best I could do.

KoL - Trendy

So just recently, on November 15th, the new, special challenge path run was released for Kingdom of Loathing. Personally, I really liked Way of the Surprising Fist, so I was hoping for this new run, Trendy, will be as good and rewarding.

Well, here's what the description says for Trendy. "You're a slave to fashion -- a prisoner of style. You cannot use any item, skill or familiar that has been unavailable for more than one year. This includes Mr. Store items, holiday content, expired raffle items, and all other limited-time stuff."

I thought that if that's the only restriction, I probably wouldn't have too much of an issue with this run, since Way of the Surprising Fist had greatly reduced the amount of meat you gain from it. That was the major issue with that challenge path run, so with the meat gain un-nerfed, there's nothing to worry about. >_> ... And holy crap, was I wrong.

Promo - Charlie Tang's UMVC3

I have this friend who's quite tech-savvy; much more tech-savvy than I am, in fact. And she's in a team that designs websites for commission for those who don't have the expertise and talent in web designing. Among them is her boyfriend, who made this awesome, fan-made Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 site, where it plays mp3s of each character's themes. It isn't quite finished yet, it seems, as it's a Work In Progress, but none-the-less, awesome enough to check out.

(Btw, for Phoenix Wright, click on the files below him.)

It's definitely a nice site to favorite so that you can listen to UMVC3 music and mess around on. Looking forward to when it'll be complete. o_o

Bad Movies - Mega Piranha

So... Just came back from movie night with my friends. Didn't have any particular movie to watch though, so someone suggested something with piranhas. Turns out there was only one movie in Netflix about piranhas, and it was Mega Piranha. The title says it all, really. The plot, written on Wikipedia...

"The film focuses on the Orinoco River in Venezuela, where a strain of genetically modified piranha have escaped into an isolated tributary of the river. Through human interference of the local environment, the megapiranha manage to escape from their isolated spot and swim downstream, killing all that crosses their path. The megapiranha gradually make their way towards Florida at the height of the tourist season."

I'm not very big on monster movies, honestly. They just don't appeal to me because of the one-sided, ridiculousness that's typically predicable and cliche at this point. Not to mention how I was recently talking about some of the filming techniques that a friend of mine told me in this blog post, Promo - Fiorella Films, so watching this complete mess of bad acting, bad plot, HORRIBLE CGI, and the overall low budget feel of the movie just seemed... well, a joke. I mean, here's probably the highlight of the movie.

 I was going to blame the bad acting, editing, and camera usage on the director, but upon research, it turns out that the director wasn't even there for the shooting apparently. What the hell? It makes me wonder if the director KNEW that it was going to be bad and just didn't care about this movie. Even aside from that, they try to pull some pretty bad Hollywood bullshit like "sucking on dead batteries to recharge it.". Here's a clip of the scene.

 

Yeah. ._. I pretty much gave up on the movie at this point. Just letting you guys know how bad this movie is. Feel free to check it out, if you're into this kind of thing. Otherwise, I'd just.. not bother. 

Vanguardian Axis Revisited

While looking for all the space related photoshop content, it made me think about the Escape Velocity series again that inspired me to do this RP. It may be a bit dated by now, but it's still a nice, single player, action RPG based on space ship combat.

I bought and registered Escape Velocity Nova when it came out on the Mac, because... let's face it. Anyone who had a Mac computer had nothing but crap games back in the year 2000s. Only Ambrosia Software made decent games on the Mac then, IMO, and this one had a lot of depth. I'm kind of disappointed that they haven't made anymore, and also how.. at least, I don't think, my Mac registration code doesn't work for the Windows version of this game. There's plenty of competition for the genre now, and I don't think this game will fair well at the unchanged price of $30. At least you can play the game for free un-registered, but with some of the later content locked away.

Anyway, I wanted to touch up some more on the events of Vanguardian Axis, since it appears that people are most interested in what I had written in my last post about it, at least according to page views.

Last time, I spoke a bit of Grand Vanguard's technologies. Things like how the Axis Tower is the main power generator, and briefly mentioned about the Solar Trance Electro Panels. The STEP is a layer that regulates the amount of light that passes through to Vanguard City. It is its own energy source as well, working like solar batteries, and can simulate the sky in Earth by appearing blue during "day time mode", and be dark with simulated stars during "night time mode", if strong light is still supplying power to the STEP. It is strictly there for visual enhancement, as a city being exposed to a bright light source without enough atmosphere to reflect light will be unpleasant for its citizens.

Concept drawing from high school

There is also a thin, blue tube circling around the Axis Tower near the ceiling of Vanguard City. Those are a suction-based pod transport system with stations at each intersection for switching pods and exiting to the city below. Compared to the rest of the technology used in Grand Vanguard, the suction-based transportation is much more low-cost than the artificial gravity generators. Of course, artificial gravity is still used within the pod for a safer and smoother ride for the passengers while the pod is in rapid motion. Speed and low cost transportation helps a great deal with getting around the large city.

Cross section of Grand Vanguard

The city itself follows a fairly straight forward layout. Near the center is where all the big corporation buildings are. The outer-rims of the city mostly consists of residential buildings, from single homes to apartment complexes. Living within the city is a luxury, as the city is only about 1/4th of the whole station. The majority of workers for the star base, and smaller businesses reside just below the surface in the basement floors of the city. Between the corporation circle and the residential ring is where other businesses and commercial buildings are, such as food, retail, and other services.

Another thing to note within this RP is how tight security is within Grand Vanguard. This was set to reduce any trolls from causing any major problems within the RP, while having context within the RP as well. In order to enter the star base, you must have a registered ID Card. ID Scanner systems are all over the star base, making it easy to identify a person who enters each area within. Each scan will take a picture and DNA scan of the citizen to ensure that they are the rightful owners of the ID Cards, and any unsuccessful scan of a person of their ID Card will alert the authorities. These ID Cards are not only used for identification, but has other functions similar to debit cards, and are required for certain services within the star base.

Of course, Grand Vanguard is not the only place where Vanguardian Axis took place in, and here are the other star bases used for the RP.

Avantgarde Station

Vann Sky Station

Military Base: Mythril Legion

These other bases were ran by other people, so I don't quite have as much details in those as I do with Grand Vanguard. I believe Avantgarde was used as a storage and exporting base for asteroid mining, Vann Sky was a resort station for vacations, and the Mythril Legion was a mobile base for the military. With these star bases however, Vanguardian Axis has spread its territory further.

Clash of Ternion Battle.

Aside from Role Playing, there were actual games that we ran within the RP as well. There was a racing board game of sorts at one point, and a combat simulator that I programmed in Java to calculate the damages dealt by using the stats and formula from Super Robot Wars. It was my first, big Java program I made, which is to say, was rather messy and inefficient in its use of memory. Unfortunately, I don't think I have the code anymore, since it was written on Lappy. The outdated code, which is.. even worse, I guess, can be found here. 

During war time, this program was used a lot to determine the outcome of battles, and ultimately, what direction the RP would take depending on the results of the battles. It was definitely an interesting concept for many people; turning a working formula from Super Robot Wars to something like a table-top board game, online. Once I learn how to write a better program, I would like to do something as elaborate as this, once again.

Spacey References

Been looking around for some more helpful Photoshop Tutorials. Here are some more that I liked, and listing for future references.

This page has a list of tutorials for many different types of outer space images, such as of planets and more. So many to go through, I don't know where to start. I guess I'll try recreating the twin planets of Crescent Legends while using these tutorials.

http://designreviver.com/inspiration/31-breathtaking-planet-space-tutorials-for-photoshop/

Here's one for creating a simple outer space image with stars and nebula gasses. Very flexible, easy to do, and looks great.

http://www.oktutorials.com/photoshop-tutorials/cool-ideas/deep-space-nebula-p5

 Here's a nice tutorial for a habitable planet. Probably what I would use for most planets that would take place in an Earth-like environment.

http://www.solarvoyager.com/images/tutorials/splanet.jpg

And here's a set of brushes that you can download and put in your Brushes folder for your Photoshop for techno themed shapes and patterns. I haven't tried them yet, but these will come in handy for space themed things, surely.

http://freebrushes.net/techno-brushes/

And another, huge list of brushes. Quite a lot of them here, and among them are some more techno themed stuff, as well as other things too. Definitely something to look into when you start getting more advanced with Photoshop.

http://www.designzzz.com/25-cool-brushes-for-photoshop/

That about does it for now. I plan on making some more graphics to decorate this blog with, using these tutorials and brushes I've found, among other projects. The more images I make, the better, so hopefully I'll get around to doing all this for the blog soon. Expect to see more things be on the blog, like the Labels list on the right. It's a great way to sift out topics of your interest out of all the things I've been posting here.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention about the Promos I'm doing as well. If you'd like something of yours featured on my blog, contact me.

Promo - Fiorella Films

One of my friends from New Jersey, although we mainly met online despite me being from New Jersey as well, has been studying film and television to become a director. o_o She told me quite a few things about film making in the classes she has taken and I've learned a lot of interesting facts about film making and the tricks involved in achieving certain moods and emotions from the viewers with these tricks. Usually, when you watch TV or even movies, you don't think too much about how the movie was taken, and what importance the camera angle and a lot of technical details play in them, but after hearing what she has learned, I've been analyzing a lot of the media I see now as well.

In her film class, she has also made several short films of her own. Here's one of my favorites, "Point Me to the Sky". It is about an Angel, Thea, in a scene where the Devil makes a proposition with her to clear his name.

 The camera angles, lighting, and the overall directing of this video is something I find to be very pleasant to see, which is something all viewers should be able to appreciate. There is a lot more to talk about such as the set that they used, the styles, the acting, etc. which I found all to be pretty good, but my focus was drawn more towards the directing.

Here is another video, which is her most recently uploaded video, "Gottlos: A Short".

There are more videos on her YouTube channel. Check them out here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FiorellaFilms

Review - Terraria

I have already written a review for this game on Steam, but I'll go ahead and copy what I have written there, and add more to it here.

 

Bunker I made in SuperCoke's world

"Great game for $10, especially considering there's content for many different types of players. Explore many randomly generated 2D worlds and discover many treasures on the way. Adventure through many different biomes such as the forest, the Corruption, jungles, deserts, underground, Dungeons, floating islands in the sky, and the Underworld, fighting your way against all the monsters and creatures that you may encounter in them. You can also trigger events through your adventures that may affect your world. Remodel your world by building all sorts of buildings and terrain with both materials you find and create. On top of all that, this game has multiplayer support to explore, adventure, build, and also Role Play with.

With so much to do, I easily spent 60+ hours on it, and still play often. Feel free to contact me so we can play multiplayer together. =D

* Description was made during update 1.05. Frequent updates may include more than what is described here."

A building I made in version 1.04

I got this game during version 1.04, when a friend of mine on Steam offered me a free copy since he got the 4-pack. (Thanks, SuperCoke!) I enjoyed the game so much, I decided to grab this game for Taco as well, who I knew would enjoy sandbox games like this. Surely enough, we played a lot, and gathered lots of materials and slain many monsters and bosses. o_o Other friends have joined in too on my server, like Solomon, Gamer, CrankyCrab, and... trying to remember if anyone else joined in with us, but I don't think I recall the others having joined me. Either way, we've built quite a lot of things too, with even bigger projects on the way.

Taco and Solomon digging tunnel

Gameplay-wise, there's definitely a lot to do. The moment you start the game, you can explore, mine, build, poke a few slimes, etc. And then night time will come and you'll get swarmed by zombies and learn the importance of building shelters. >_> By the time you get a shelter built, and night time comes, you end up looking at all the things that you can craft with what materials you've gathered while you wait for day time to come and get ideas of what you want to build. That usually consists of better equipments so that you can withstand monsters better for further exploration, allowing for more materials to be gathered.

Apartment in version 1.05 (unfinished)

Exploration is fun when you can randomly generate worlds. With all the ores you find in the ground, pots filled with items, and treasure chests hidden in the caverns, exploration is kept fun and rewarding. Slaying monsters doesn't give you any EXP, since this isn't a game where you level up in, but with monster drops being used for crafting and accumulating money to buy things from NPCs, there's plenty of things to work for during your explorations. Add to that multiplayer, and you can have fun explorations in a party, or even PVP with other people. Even PVP between two different parties, or up to 4 parties of varying party member sizes can all duke it out in an all open war for the heck of it too.

Extended upwards a bit.

Graphics is something that is difficult to really judge, because... well, some people have different opinions on different styles. Personally, I really like this style that is reminiscent of 16-bit games. From the character sprites to the environment tiles, it really speaks to me by giving me a sense of nostalgia with a fresh, new package in a very open-ended game. Sounds may not be the strongest point in the game, but it isn't bad either. I guess my major annoyance with the sounds is when the zombies will keep knocking on your door at night time, throughout the whole night, until you kill them. It's pretty annoying when they do that, while you're just trying to manage your inventory and stuff.
 

Underground Gardens.

This game can easily provide many hours of entertainment due to its openness. As I write this blog, my Steam account tells me that I have played Terraria for 136.6 hours now, and with big plans on the works in my world, that number is bound to rise up higher. Soon, with more updates to come for the game, adding new features such as colored lights, more furnitures, and possibly more biomes, the game will grow further into a bigger game that you can spend even more hours on; especially for builders.

Considering that this game is originally $10, and have gone on sales for as cheap as $5 on Steam, there's no reason not to get this game if an open-world, multiplayer sandbox game is your fancy. Check out the site for more details.

Edit: There has been a few updates for Terraria since this review was posted. Check the other posts labeled with the Terraria label for more info.

www.terraria.org

Growing Nostalgia - Button Mashers

Button Mashers. ._. A flash cartoon series that I wanted to do with my friend Larry from when I was in Rutgers University, inspired by Bonus Stage by Matt Wilson.

http://bonusstage.keenspot.com/episodes.html

We both greatly enjoyed the series, and we wanted to do something like that of our own. We would talk about the plot that we could have, jokes, how we'd do it, etc. Of course, this plan never saw its light of day since... well, it's a huge project, and we were in college at the time. Drawing characters and stuff frame by frame takes an awful lot of work, and then recording our voice acting in good enough quality was another issue too, since we lacked the tools to do so.

It's a shame, because I got a copy of Flash, but... what little experience I have with flash is far from good enough to make anything worthwhile. ._.; It certainly doesn't help that I can't draw people very well, let alone animate them. The picture there is what I drew of my character, pretty without the face so that I could animate the face separately. One of the first things you'd notice about Bonus Stages is the way the mouth is animated in the series. Simple, yet very effective. I mean, I learned the basics of working with Flash at my highschool's graphics arts class. That's where I learned my Photoshop skills, which is great. I still use Photoshop now, mostly for this blog now. But as for Flash, we only touched up on it a little bit, and I never really got the grasp of the more detailed stuff in animating things on there.

Seeing the difficulties in animating it though, the idea downgraded itself to a web comic instead. Considering I can use Photoshop, that seems like a more reasonable goal than making an animated series. Of course, it still wasn't going to happen by myself since I couldn't draw people. I mean, look at that thing I made! @_@ It looks like any amateur flash art you'd see all over NewGrounds or something. I'd like to think that I have greater standards than that, if I were to publish a web comic. I never did attempt to make the web comic happen though, partially because by then, I wasn't at Rutgers anymore. Instead, I'd talk about this with my little brother, Taco. He certainly enjoys the idea of a Bonus Stage inspired cartoon or comic, and naturally, he wanted to be a part of it as well. Which is fine, since I still needed characters for this anyway, and he kind of fits the part of the crazy and retarded guy anyway. For some reason though, the plot of one episode was about how Taco pisses off a goth kid or something, and he places a curse on him. Except it wasn't a very good curse, because it made him immortal. Whenever he dies in an episode, he would then just *poof* into a green triangle with a face. ... Certainly made the idea of drawing him easier that way.

Anyway, as I continue to update my blog, it gives me the urge to start this web comic, now that I have an audience and a place to host it at. It would be nice to slap a few things together quickly and make a few short comics and see how it does. Not sure if the plot will still be the same, since it's been several years since the original idea was thought up. One of the episodes would be about me finally learning how to drive, since I got my license rather late, partially because I didn't need to drive while dorming at Rutgers. The episode would consist of me driving the way I knew best... Speeding through the roads by Snaking, a glitch/exploit used in F-Zero GX and Mario Kart DS where you move left and right to attain speeds normally unachievable at all times.

 

Of course, there are plenty more of dumb ideas to be tossed into the making of this comic. >_> And hey, it's about time Taco learned how to drive too. It all works out. ... Hopefully he won't be snaking in real life though. Cause he won't be crawling out of the car as a green triangle like he would in the comic... 

Oh yeah, I don't know whether to call it Button Mashers anymore either, because I think there's a game show or something called that now, which sort of saddens me. ._. But we'll see what will become of this whole idea if I ever do decide to make it.

Legacy of Lappy

It was a big deal when I got my first laptop. I wanted to have my own computer that isn't filled with so much clutter that my Dad especially leaves on anything he accesses. Whether it be on the desktop computer he uses, or on top of the physical desk the desktop computer is on, it's just a mess. Of course, being organized isn't the main reason why. The "real" reason for me wanting my laptop was for my own entertainment, such as being able to run computer games that our crappy desktop with Windows ME couldn't play well. I mean, the graphics chip that that old thing had couldn't render textures properly on character models. Mind you, this is as far back as the year when Guild Wars was released when I took that screenshot on Windows Mistake Edition.

Lack of texture sure is... shiny... ?

2005 was also when I graduated from high school, and decided to go to college at Rutgers University. The main purpose of me getting a laptop would be so that I can do my assignments on them at college, so my parents bought me a Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv4000. It was definitely superior to all the Macs and the Windows ME we had at home. Allowed me to play Guild Wars with the proper texture, albeit it didn't provide the absolute best in graphics, but I wasn't really looking for a super-expensive laptop that can look super pretty and drain lots of power whilst doing so. As my first laptop, I wanted an all-round, versatile laptop that can do everything to a point where it's acceptable. It did for as long as the 3 years Lappy worked for me.

I did a lot of things on Lappy. My college assignments, of course, browse the internet, mostly talking with people on Gaia Online back then, use Adobe Photoshop to make simple stuff for Gaia as well... games from Guild Wars, Ragnarok Online, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, Flyff, etc. Lappy and I also experienced a lot of other things too like viruses and malware. I mean, I knew enough to have protection on my computer but ... geeze, Norton Anti-Virus sucks. Norton kept detecting trojan horses that would immediately get quarantined, only to get replaced with a brand new one that Norton will continue to quarantine, filling its quarantined folder with countless copies of this crap that the main virus was creating. It was quite the nightmare. Norton eating up a lot of Lappy's resources to fill its harddrive with this crap, without solving the problem at all. Norton was essentially used to work against Lappy in a harmful way, and that pissed me off pretty badly. =/ Used some other program to detect where the main virus was, and removed it manually myself to fix the issue. Got rid of Norton so fast after that...

Lappy and I played Stepmania a lot too. It was my first time really getting into DDR then. My friend, Xu and I would play for hours... In fact, he was the one who taught me how to be good at DDR. After a while of getting used to DDR, I nearly played an endless game for about an hour straight. I just wish my Dad hadn't broken my dance pad with his carelessness when I had to leave Rutgers... ._. The dance pad I got cost just above $100 too, from RedOctane.

It was around that time when Gaia Online came out with a new, big game called zOMG. Big, ring-based MMORPG combat which mechanics are somewhat similar to Guild Wars in that you pick 8 skills to take with you into combat. However, the game, much like most flash games now, eats up an awful lot of resources it seems, so I tried getting bigger RAM for Lappy. Unfortunately, Lappy was still using the old DDR (Not Dance Dance Revolution) type RAM, which has a smaller limit than DDR2 type RAM, and costs more on top of that. D= And even worse, upgrading its RAM still didn't help run zOMG any better. The game lagged so badly that the game would freeze for around or over a minute when things got action heavy, and that's when you need it to lag the least. By the time the lag's over, if it ever DOES end, everyone would be dead. It was virtually unplayable. The issue I found was to be with my processor. It was simply not strong enough to keep up all the processing it required for flash games, for some apparent reason.

It was then that I decided to get a new laptop which main focus was for gaming. I wanted a strong graphics card, a powerful processor, and a big enough harddrive for all the things that I wanted, like games. Things that Lappy lacked for my needs. And this was what I had found on Newegg. I decided to name this laptop Pugyuu, a nickname for the abbreviation, P(ortable) G(aming) U(nit).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220343

I got Pugyuu when Newegg was having a sale, and Asus also had a $100 mail-in rebate going on at the same time as well. I had to wait a few months for this opportunity to come, and I had to jump at this opportunity, or else I would have missed it. I nearly did miss it anyway, because of Dad, but I understand how he was reluctant about getting it. I ended up having to spend what money I had saved up from my job at a pizzeria when I was in high school, as well as combining my birthday and Christmas gift for that year into buying this laptop, which worked out better for me since it's rare that I get anything good on my birthday and Christmas anyway. When Pugyuu finally arrived in the mail, the first few things I did were setting it up like removing Norton and replacing it with a different anti-virus program immediately. I also tested out zOMG on Gaia, and it ran so well that I felt so powerful in the game in comparison to how helpless I was on Lappy. On top of that, having Lappy handle things like AIM to chat on, while I played games on Pugyuu was a powerful and convenient set up where I don't have to alt tab to see messages and also not having to split my computers' resources that way.

It was around then when Lappy suddenly blue-screened on me. Obviously, I was concerned, wondering whether if I should have ran some malware scan or if maybe I had skimped out on keeping Lappy running optimally. Thankfully, I had Pugyuu with me, so if in the case of an error, I could look it up on Pugyuu while I work on fixing up Lappy. I quickly turned Lappy back on after the blue screen to get to work... but all that greeted me was a black screen. Not even a splash screen of any sort. The power was definitely on, but the processors weren't running. Perhaps I had turned Lappy back on too soon after it had shut down from its blue screen. It's possible that doing so had possibly corrupted the hard drive. That was the last I saw of Lappy with its screen lit, and that was the conclusion I came up with after the many diagnoses of Lappy's behavior.

There have been plans on resurrecting Lappy once again, by getting it a new hard drive with an operating system, and perhaps attempt to salvage what valuable data I have still in that hard drive. However, the opportunity hasn't come yet. Lappy now sleeps in its box, back with my family in New Jersey. Pugyuu now carries on Lappy's legacy with what information I could gather that I had before. So much was still lost however, as well as a big part of my life. It is a loss I wish to never experience again.

Wishlist - November 2011

So I've been trying to get myself in the habit of posting once a day, but I wasn't able to keep it up with the sudden demand of my time popped up yesterday. My plans for today has been kind of a mess as well because of it and some other stuff having to crawl itself into my life. Really though, when someone else just dumps their responsibilities onto you in a worse situation then they had started with, it's a rather stressful experience. Everyone should know that, but I'm afraid the person who's doing this just doesn't understand until it's too late.

But I'm going to decide NOT to talk about that, and instead, do another wishlist. This time of some game software that I am interested in. I was contemplating whether to just do this in the other wishlist I had, but it just didn't seem to fit well, especially with the wishlist ending up with a bunch of video games in there with some random things like LED lights for Firion, a sweatband, and a sword thrown in the mix. Also, I'd like to not let this be a monthly thing, especially since I really don't find too many things that I'm really interested enough to buy anyway. I wouldn't have anything to put in these wishlists for a while anyway.

1. Fortune Street / Itadaki Street Wii

Glad this game got announced in the US. I'm playing the one on the DS in Japanese right now, and I find it to be more fun than Mario Party, mostly because winning in it is not-so reliant on luck-based minigames like Mario Party is, but rather economic strategy. In a nutshell, it's basically Monopoly with the stock market thrown into the mix. The stocks you buy are of the area that you buy properties of like in Monopoly. With more stocks bought in the area, or if the properties/buildings/stores in that area are worth more, the price of the stocks go up, and vice versa if people sell stocks, property value drops, etc. Having a solid economic strategy is the key to winning, which makes it more fun for me. If the game ran mostly on luck, then might as well play Russian Roulette. The game decides who wins; not the players. Sure, there are some skill-based minigames in Mario Party, but it just feels like the more the game gets a new iteration, the more the minigames are reliant on luck than skill. Can't remember which Mario Party I've really played much of last though. I know I owned 1-3, but I've played others at a friend's house I believe.

2. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Zelda has always been a huge series among Nintendo, and ... well, to put it bluntly, graphically, it looks better than Twilight Princess. I'm not saying Twilight Princess looked bad in particular, but Skyward Sword is so much more colorful. Leave the shades of gray and brown to maybe the dark world or something, but when majority of Hyrule looks like that, it just doesn't have the same appeal otherwise. As for gameplay, it looks like Skyward Sword is utilizing the Wii Motion Plus well, which is good. I just hope that they'll fill the game with plenty of content, and not end up rushed like Twilight Princess was. Not to mention this game gets released right on my birthday. >_> Coincidence much?


3. Kirby's Return to Dreamland

So ever since I was a little kid, I was into video games. The games I grew up with mostly consisted of Mario, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest when I was as early as 5 to 9 years old. But after that, I learned about Kirby, and found that its games are pretty fun and awesome. Among them, Kirby's Dreamland 2, Kirby SuperStar, and a few others really stuck out as great games to me, and ever since SuperStar, I always wanted another Kirby game just like that, but didn't quite happen for a while until Amazing Mirror brought back the way how abilities had multiple moves and stuff. Well, what I've seen of this game looks pretty promising to fulfill that desire to play another Kirby game that plays similarly, if not better. Also looking forward to the multiplayer aspects of this game.

4. Gyakuten Kenji 2 / Miles Edgeworth: Ace Investigations 2

Well, I'm one of the many that are disappointed that this game never got released in the US. =( Being that I'm Japanese though, I could technically play the game in Japanese, but I really like Capcom's localization team. They do a really great job at writing the scripts for the series, and I'm also concerned about having to import the game to play it. Importing is expensive, and it was something I wanted to avoid. Well, that's probably the only reason why I haven't played this game yet. Otherwise, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it much like the rest of the series.

5. Professor Layton VS Gyakuten Saiban

I don't have a 3DS yet, and this game isn't out yet, but hell. I'm excited about this game. The trailer has put a lot of hype for the game within the fans, and many of us are desperately hoping that this game will be released in the US. I'm still playing through Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box right now, but I'm hoping I'll be caught up with Professor Layton games by the time this game comes out in the US.

6. Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3 (PS3)

I've always wanted to get Marvel VS Capcom 2. Never got the opportunity to get the game though. Then MvC3 came out, and thought it was finally my chance to own a fun, kickass fighting game. Never did get it though because this house never got a PS3, as described in my previous wishlist. @_@ But who knew that they would release an Ultimate MvC3 as soon as they did? Well, I feel bad for the people who had bought MvC3 and now have to buy the game again to be up-to-date, since I've been through that myself with a few SquareEnix games. Well, UMvC3 is even more appealing because of.. well, it's obvious by now. Phoenix Wright is a playable character in it. XD

7. Good People Die / Gyokugen Dasshutsu ADV: Zennin Shiboudesu

After having enjoyed 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, hearing that a sequel is in the works for the 3DS certainly has got my interest. Apparently it hasn't been announced whether if it would be released in the US yet though. Here's to hoping that it will be released in the US too. Leave a comment to show support for this game! ... Assuming they'll see this blog. >_> Regardless, talk about the series and let the marketing team in Aksys Games know that the public wants this game.

8. Pokemon Rumble Blast

Well, I played Pokemon Rumble, and I feel like I could say that it's a casually appealing game. Great for single player and multiplayer. I'd definitely like to pick this game up if my other friends will be getting this. I was disappointed with the first Pokemon Rumble on the WiiWare because it didn't have Pokemon from all 4 generations, but only the first and fourth gen in it, but Blast is supposedly going to have all 5 generations. Sounds great to me.

Well, it's also been a while since I've really talked about the games I've been playing too. I might have to go ahead and do that once I've reached a good point to do so.

Pardus - Alliance Merger

So I'm currently sitting in a chatroom for Pardus, with the leaders and senior members of Open Space Alliance (the alliance I'm in), and Federal Force (our neighboring alliance, and ally). Lots of technical, detailed stuff are being discussed at the moment. Things like, the territorial rights after merger, economic changes and taxes, internal structures and who will uphold each position within the alliance, etc.

As you can see in this image, Open Space already has a lot of space that we own, and with the addition to Federal Force's territory, we will own nearly half of the entire Federation Human Core. Also with the combined number of members, we will be allowed 7 congress members as opposed to the 5 OSA has, giving us more democratic power within congress.

Some changes I'd like to make within Cesoho where I manage, would be to adopt FF's commodity pricing to encourage traders to upkeep buildings more-so than the building owners taking much of the profit. That way, I won't have to be the only person that supplies all the upkeep for all the buildings in Cesoho by having traders that would be willing to do the work for me for the bigger profit they'd be making by trading. A good 60% to 80% of my Action Points are spent upkeeping buildings, the planet Ook, and my Star Base, Cesoho Urban Nook Terminal. Of course, it's easier said than done, because I need the cooperation of all the people who have buildings built in Cesoho to make the necessary price changes, after I've already recently changed to tweak the prices of stim chips lower.

As of now though, the only thing keeping us from merging right away is how the merge should be done. Federal Force seems to want to keep their name as it has more of a meaning than our Open Space Alliance does, and making a compromise with the name doesn't seem to be an option as doing so will require us to create a whole new alliance just to change the name, apparently. So it's either OSA joins FF, or FF joins OSA, and at the moment, it looks like OSA would join FF and ... pretty much take over FF due to our greater number. >_>; I'm okay with the idea, and so are others, except for a few that feel attached to the OSA name. Being that OSA has been around a lot longer than FF, and how we are more established than FF is, some feel that it would make sense for the FF to join OSA. I'll leave it to the forum to help convince them that the merger would be beneficial for both alliances.

On a side note, The New Pardusian Alliance and The Guild are still discussing... or rather, quarreling about the possibility of having a drug nook within the Federation Human Core. I'm hoping we don't end up with a civil war between them over this, especially when winter is coming. D= Every winter when I've been playing, the Federation always ended up in a war with either the Empire or Union, and it might look like we'll have another war with the Union again this year. I'm sick and tired of wars honestly, because of how demanding the game gets to defend ourselves against the enemy. I mean, war got declared on Christmas day last year. @_@ Who wants to spend their Christmas fighting a war? Seriously...

Feesh! - Firion 2

So the results are in for the first poll.

What do you want to see on this blog?
Firion: 3 votes
Vicki's troll posts: 3 votes
More pictures: 1 vote
My life: 0 votes
Girls: 0 votes
Stock market (LoL): 0 votes
Other: 0 votes

Didn't get anywhere near as many votes as I was expecting, sure, but this poll was mostly here for me to learn how these polls work. Anyway, the next poll will be up in a bit, this time regarding how I should handle content that contains spoilers for games, stories, and anything else that should be hidden from some people's eyes that would ruin the experience. Anyway, my readers have spoken, so I'll continue talking about Firion.

The thermometer on the right

It's gotten a lot more chilly compared to a week or two ago now, even here in Florida. And one of the concerns I've had last year was whether if Firion's water is warm enough for him, since apparently bettas' natural habitat is in tropial areas of Asia. Because of this, I decided to get a thermometer for him, although it's mainly for tanks rather than fishbowls. ._. PetSmart didn't have any thermometers for fishbowls, so I got one that floats in the water instead of the colored strip thing where you stick it on the inner surface of the tank.

So during these cold days, I put Firion to my left, which Pugyuu, my laptop, vents out its heat towards. I put something in the way so that it isn't too hot though. Otherwise, the bowl goes to my right where it's a bit further away since I need room for my mouse on my right as well. Doing so has definitely allowed me to maintain a pretty consistent temperature between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm hoping this trick will work throughout the winter, since I didn't have the thermometer last winter, so I don't know how effective it was then.

Also, I still haven't gotten the LED light for Firion yet, since I don't think I've been to PetSmart since I posted about it. Kind of surprising, considering how often I got dragged there before, but Vicki's schedule has been ridiculously filled lately too. I'm not sure if she's even reading my blog either because of the amount of work she's getting swamped with, which is sort of disappointing. She did print out a coupon for small pet stuff, but it's for purchases of over $30 something I believe, and the light I want is only $16. >_>; Might be just better to just wait for the light itself to go on sale rather than to force myself to use a coupon.

Also, while writing this, it dawned upon me that I haven't talked about Pugyuu on here yet. There's quite a story with this laptop too, along with my previous one, so it'll be another topic to post about for sure.

Halloween Events 2011 Finale

So I hadn't really finished all the Halloween event stuff on all the games and stuff I hang out in, the last time I posted about this. Most things have come to a close now, so just a small update for now.

Team Fortress 2 - So I managed to take down Monoculus and reach the Bombnomicon without too much of a problem. Played most of the time as Scout for the mobility to get into the portals that Monoculus leaves more often, and to hunt down the gift boxes that show up randomly. ... Too bad I never found any gift boxes the whole time I played. D=

I've also considered staying in the Underworld to try to hunt some gift boxes there, but there were already people hogging all the health packs down there, that it would have just ended up killing both of us from... well, the constant damage for being in the Underworld. I wonder if Heavy has a better chance at surviving in the Underworld with his Sandvich, but getting into the portal with his slow movement, as well as getting around fast enough to grab the gift box first is kind of questionable, unless I use the Running Gloves of Urgency and take even more damage per second. ._.

The Bombnomicon is pretty interesting in that you blow up a unique, purple-y explosion when you die. Makes me wonder which effect would have dominance though; the Golden Wrench kill, or the Bombnomicon explosion. ... Oh, wait, according to the Wiki, the explosion is dominant over quite a bit of other effects, including the silent kill from Your Eternal Reward, at least, in the current update.


Guild Wars - So I decided to check out the major cities in Guild Wars to check out whether if Mad King Thorn was around. At first, he wasn't, so I went ahead and did one of the quests that gave me 50 Trick or Treat bags, and when I came to get my reward, he was there playing Rock Paper Scissors with people. I decided to hang around and participate, and he was also giving people more Trick or Treat bags for participating in each action you were supposed to do with emotes. In the end, we played a game similar to Simon Says with the similar concept using emotes, and before he left, he gave everyone a Reaper's Hood. Haven't decided which character to wear it on yet. I know that I'm probably not going to wear it on my Elementalist there. >_> And having it on the Dervish is kind of questionable. He already wears a hood.

There's my Elementalist using a Sparkler I got from the Chinese New Year's event or something. My Xunlai Storage is filled with a bunch of components for Warrior weapons for some reason, and I need to open up more space in there. Maybe I'll just sell them off to the merchant or something, since I kind of doubt I'd be using them any time soon. I'm thinking they'll be used for Heroes on my other characters, but that won't happen for a while.

Gaia Online - I don't even go on Gaia now, but Vicki wanted me to help her out with the event or something, partially because she didn't understand how the event worked, and because of how ... ridiculous it is. For someone who's not so item-driven, it is a huge hassle that isn't even fun; perhaps because the event is broken and poorly executed. I guess compared to some of the earlier years' events, it's better in that they didn't have any server issues while running this event. And honestly? I'm surprised, given how stupid and ridiculous these events are. The whole event is based off of spamming up the event forums. D=

I don't really care to explain this event, but for future reference for people who might not know much about it, here's a brief summary. It's a battle between Humans VS Werewolves, and you get to pick an action to start off with at level 1. Under the enemy's avatars in the main event forum, there is an Attack button to use your attack skills on. Using skills cost energy, and the only way to regain energy is to post in the main event forum. Aside from the energy limitation, if you are dead or have 0 health, you can't use skills either. You can heal yourself by posting in either the Humans' or Werewolves' home base forum, or get healed by an ally.

So naturally, being the main source of energy, the main event forum is filled with a huge amount of spammy BUMP posts. I found it funny that the Sticky thread regarding the forum's rules mentioned not to spam too. Makes me think that they have too many different departments within Gaia that don't communicate enough to know what the hell's going on in the site. >_> But that's not the only issue with this event. I have found quite a few grammatical errors in the event, and I'm talking about basic stuff too, like the difference between "You're" and "Your". There were other instances of grammar fail, but there were also issues with certain skills not working as described; namely skills where you have a chance of stealing the target's energy too. Of all the times I've used it, I don't think it ever gave me the energy it said it was supposed to give me. Just programming fail there, probably. Finally, the leveling up system is far from straightforward as well. It sounds like making kills is the only way to level, but not really. I leveled up mostly as a human by constantly spamming heals. Too bad I couldn't do that as a werewolf because werewolves don't get any healing skills until level 6, and they're crappy anyway. Add to that that there's not nearly enough people healing than there are people attacking, so finding people that aren't already dead is hard as it is. VERY poorly executed, but then again, my standards for quality have been a lot higher lately.

So that was pretty much my Halloween. I haven't finished the wings for Vicki yet either, unfortunately, because I can't figure out how to position the straps on the wings to hang off of her shoulders. I'm going to consult some people who might be more experienced at crafting to see if they have a solution to this before I finish up the wings.