#fp data is kinda pointless

[superm4ks]

are we back

It's Baku bro even if we're back its joever ykwim

[c7thetumbler]

Life Update Notes: January 7th 2017

Look at that banner! MMM. Get it? It’s like, Update notes. For like a video game. But it’s built into that heartbeat thing I like that I keep using.

So it like, a LIFE UPDATE NOTES. GET IT?!?!

You get it. You’re smart.

And while I do like to hide little easter eggs in some of my banners, the “notes” don’t directly translate to like Morse or Binary or anything like that so don’t bother trying to decode it.

So yeah, I gave up on the State of the Epic posts halfway through 2016 because of.... reasons, but given our politics recently I figured I’d take that concept out of any sort of presidential context and kinda tie it in with the themes I’ve been using for a couple years now; the sort of minimalist programmer art with green/blue accents-

Wait, you didn’t notice I’ve been using this theme for over a year? ... Have you not seen my Twitter or my Twitch or some other banners I’ve been- forget it, it’s fine.You’re fine.

Let’s get started.

Projects

This section’s gone.

“But C!” you begin to inquire with your stunned expression, having nearly averted fainting from reading some random guy’s blogpost, “This was the most important part of your posts! And didn’t you just say in that other post you did almost exactly a week ago you were gonna do a project a month? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME! I TRUSTED YOU!”

Fear not, person whose behavior is indicative of someone who almost certainly exists, I am holding myself to that. But these projects are going to be so important that I am in fact putting them in their own post. After each week of the month, I will create a post about my project up until the day after the month ends, where I will be posting my thoughts on it and, hopefully, begin the next project, or continue expanding on the current one if it all works out. So that will be coming tomorrow!

What will instead take this place will be a rant or my opinion or outlook on something or other, keeping the in-formalities to this while the more interesting stuff to its own deal.

Let’s rant about facts and skepticism

So let’s kick off this whole deal with something very important to me. Facts. This past year was rife with headlines, news, and opinions that were spouted in the face of actual provable facts and data, and because of how modern society has streamlined everything, everyone just ate that shit up.

Now my outlook on these sorts of things, and almost everything is a healthy skepticism. That is, question claims that seem bizarre, unusual, outlandish, or contrary to things you previously looked into, but do you really have to question every mundane thing? Of course not; no one has the time for that. Now, that’s not to say don’t question the things you believe in; quite the contrary! The things you believe in should always be on your mind, and therefore be the most subject to criticism. But do you really need to start an argument with family members over how they got that flat tire? Nah. Not the point. It’s said and gone.

So basically, scrutinize things people claim. This is the rant. Right here.

You remember all those fucking lessons about making a bibliography, referencing which books and page numbers you used, and making sure you got the quotation exactly right during your 12+ years of education? There’s a reason for that; it’s how you call out bullshit. Any news site worth their salt should be citing a source that undeniably proves that what their reporting on actually happened, and then make it clear to you what parts are their opinions, if any. When a news site doesn’t do this, or even worse, cites another news article that leads to an infinite regress of bullshit sources or is an opinion piece, you can safely throw it out, because it’s not journalism, and nor is it important.

This is incredibly important to me; I’ve seen so many claims recently that have no backing in reality, and it’s really starting to unnerve me. What benefit is there to come up with conspiracy theories that fail a shave with Occam's Razor? Why would you chose to be ignorant of the truth and ignore evidence; wouldn’t you rather be right and have your thoughts form around things that are real over being wrong about everything?

And this source citing is especially important, not just in news headlines but other things as well. You know how many times anonymous game leaks have been believed and then completely falsified? How many time I’ve looked up rules or things with games and seen an answer that claims to be an authority, but has no backing (D&D rulings are especially guilty of this in places like reddit)? So here’s what I propose; it’s of course not that important to quote sources on everything you can think of. But at least think of how you know it. Where was the source? Have you checked it? If you’re having a discussion and need to bring out a fact the other person hadn’t heard of, where’s the harm in trying to find a source for it?

And don’t be afraid to say you’re unsure or that you don’t know; this is fine! It’s better to say you don’t know something and be open to information rather than make up something and then be closed to it. 

... But mainly if you try and have a discussion in, say, the comments section on common ruling in /r/dndnext, make a point to say what page or book the rule your referencing is on. 

Games I played this week

Normally the weeks after the Holidays are filled with me joyously going through all the neat games I got, but unfortunately the Holidays were a bit.... Different, this year, and that wasn’t the case. I ended up splurging and getting a few games anyway, and here’s what I played this week.

Paper Mario: Color Splash

I already covered this in my big WiiU retrospective, but I’m going to go a bit further. This game is a mechanical mess. Sure, the writing’s good, but it makes so many design choices that just don’t work, and it’s worth looking into.

The card combat system was clearly the biggest issue, and the designers knew that. They added in several aspects to make it less stressful and more tactical; A solid number of max cards, with no “big cards,” paint in order to power up cards, and a battle wheel to ensure you don’t completely run out, turning the focus from making moves that preserve your attacks to making moves that make the most effective use of your turns. Basically, you never *really* run out of options.

However, this MASSIVELY misses the point. What is the purpose of having a limited attack selection if you’re going to supply the player with the means to attack regularly anyway, and have cards pop out of EVERYTHING? Why not just go to a normal RPG battle system again; it accomplishes the same thing with turning into an item management simulator. They also didn’t fix the core problem I had with Sticker Star, which is that you’re actively encouraged not to engage in battle, as it would waste resources for at best the cards you lost and some “paint hammer badges” (become pointless halfway through the game even without actively fighting). You should never, ever, ever, encourage your players not to use or to actively avoid a core mechanic.

Additionally, the real worlds objects, or Things, return, which would be fine if every boss fight but the final wasn’t reliant on you finding and guessing what you needed before the fight and using it at exactly the right moment. How should I have known I’d need the balloons to pull a submarine out of the water, when I didn’t even know there would be a submarine? Well... They knew this issue as well: you ask the toad who tells you what you need before you enter the next level. It’s a cheap solution, and a waste of time to continually need to run back to the “hub” to check to make sure you have the right thing- sorry, Thing. It’s not exactly clear organically either. You find an ice pick. What do you use it on? Ice of course! Not really though; you melt ice with a hair dryer. Using the ice pick actually has its own text saying it doesn’t work. It’s an artificial wall that just serves as a waste of time.

What I will say, however, is they did a good job with having optional side-content. There are loads of things I know I didn’t find; alternate exits, Luigi’s, a couple Things, and there’s an achievement banner system as well. So there’s a lot of work to be done, but it’s not all bad. I still can’t recommend it though.

Mario Party Star Rush

.... This is really good. Like, the best Mario Party I’ve played since Gamecube days good; maybe even better. The main game mode actually feels like a board game, but makes clever use of the fact that each player has their own system. Sure, there’s still that crazy MP luck thrown in, but it feels fun. I feel like me playing well actually has an effect on the game, without feeling like all hope is lost if I’m losing or getting too comfortable with my lead. There’s loads of fun minigames, and even though it’s got the normal Mario environments and look, it’s made them feel fresh and fun.

I can’t recommend this enough. It’s really good game design with the traditional feel of a Mario Party game with fresh new game modes, rather than MP9/IT/10′s destruction of the formula in favor of random chance.

DOOM

Man this game!... Runs at 17 fps on my computer on low settings =(

Pony Island

Pretty fun sort of Anti-game so far. It’s got me interested, and its mix of actual gameplay with a creepy possessed 90′s computer and messing with the way code runs. It makes you think out of the box a lot, and I like that, though I probably should’ve suspected when the... “antagonist”? Asked if I wanted to leave to take a break so it can work on making more content that saying yes would close the whole game

Touché, Pony Island.

No judgement yet, but so far it’s positive so far

What I’m looking forward to next week

Awesome Games Done Quick Starts tomorrow!

Keewy’s attending that, and I’m excited for him! It’s always fun to tune into every once in a while, and it’s an awesome way to raise money for charity as well as show off some cool games and speedruns. I’m specifically looking forward to Miles’ MP2 run (always a fun watch), The Mario Sunshine Race, Ori and the Blind Forest, Mighty Number 9 (just out of curiosity), The Sonic block is almost always a fun time, And of course the TAS block. But honestly, I’ll tune in randomly, because I always find one or two really good runs and commentators on games I never previously had any interest int. Check it out!

The Nintendo Switch Direct is on the 12th, 8:00 PST

Everyone got their bingo cards? I’m personally excited to see what the launch lineup is, as well as how well it runs docked and undocked, which will be easy to see since they’re doing a treehouse stream I believe immediately after it, so that’s going to clear up a lot of things. 

... And that’s it! I’ll get to the project post tomorrow