#perhaps first game i play 200 hrs in? we will see…..i may have played that much in botw but again i can’t see it

[lesbianlenas]

i have already played 105 hrs in totk lmfao i have never played 100 hrs in a game that fast except maybe botw but i can’t see my play hrs on that 😭 but it hasn’t even been 3 weeks i didn’t realize i was playing it THAT much…..

[glassandmetalwings]

You all thought I was done talking about Jurassic World Alive, didn’t you? While I’m not, but I’ve been a little less active with it as of late. Mostly because my feelings towards it have grown a but tepid. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First up, I want to show you two lovely babies I made today. I should have made Deinocheirus like, four days after getting the game. We ran into one at the museum that specific day, and I got enough DNA from one attempt, but the game suddenly had connection problems and didn’t get to save that information. Therefore I didn’t have the DNA to make it. I was pretty salty.

Purussaurus Gen 2 (or any at all) was something I wanted since I first saw it in battle. It’s a big friend. Except none ever spawned anywhere near me; I didn’t even get it registered as seen until this Monday, and then it was too far away to get to. And then today I found three. Two spawned right on top of me.

So I have those lovely babies.

Now I want to talk about a feature that I’ve mentioned in the past: the daily dino (also called featured dino). Those green squares that you see in the third and four pictures are what these special supply drops look like. The first of those two images is actually the first thing you (supposedly) see when you log on after the drops have changed for the day. For the past two or three days, however, I actually haven’t gotten that image. And it’s kind of frustrating since I’m a very visual person.

Depending on the rarity of the dino, a few things change: the number of attempts you get and the time it takes for the dino to respawn at that spot:

Common (50 pts to create): 12 attempts, respawns after 1 hour Rare (100 pts to create): 5 attempts*, respawns after 3 hours Epic (150 pts to create): 3 attempts, respawns after 6 hours Legendary (200 pts to create): 1 attempt, respawns after 12 hours Unique (250 pts to create): 1 attempt, basically doesn’t respawn (24 hrs)

*This has recently been upped to 5 (from 3), likely with the addition of Legendary and Unique dinos being added to the featured dino list)

You may notice something here: you get fewer attempts to go after dinos that need more DNA, and if there’s only one green stop, you have to wait longer to try again. Which is in part a balance mechanic, but honestly could also use some tinkering.

However, as of today, I discovered something strange. At some point Ludia changed the mechanic. You may notice that, in the middle picture, there are two different dinos shown under the green stop: pyroraptor and t-rex. The notification today said the featured dino was pyroraptor. So why the rex, and why (when you click on the dino, as seen in the sixth pic) does it have a timer and a counter for attempts?

Well, look at the timer. Look at the number of attempts.

At some point, Ludia basically paired up featured dinos. Pyroraptor is today’s, but t-rex is tomorrow’s. I’m guessing this has to do with adding Unique dinos to the list; Mon/Tues is one pair of featured dinos, Wed/Thurs is a second pair, Fri/Sat is a third pair, and Sunday is the Unique. The number of possible attempts is the combined total (pyro and rex are both Epic, so they contribute three attempts each).

Due to an interesting mini-event last week (discussed later), it must have been added this week.

I actually really like this. You can prioritize and divide your attempts accordingly. For example, if they pair a Common and a Rare, you get 17 attempts. Over those two days, if you really wanted, you could use all 17 on the Rare. Or if they’re the same rarity, but one will benefit you more (either in battle or for a hybrid), you can focus on that.

It gives me more incentive to go looking if, say, euoplocephalus is the daily, but I know we’re supposed to have velociraptor the next day. I’m not particualrly in need of euoplocephalus (it has a hybrid but rarity-wise it’s the equilvalent of a Pidgey in Kanto), but raptor is great both for battle and towards making i. rex and indoraptor.

By the way, if you’re good enough at recognizing the photo cards, it’s easy enough to know the dinos for the week; all week they offer a special incubator with DNA of the week’s featured dinos, with the cards showing them next to the ad (see the last image). Which...actually brings me to my final point: why I’ve lost some interest in the game.

(As a quick aside, the three raptors shown in that last image are Charlie, Delta, and Echo, of Owen’s original raptor pack. Indoraptor debuted as the first Unique featured dino on the 23rd, followed by Blue as an Epic that Sunday, and then the other three in order the following three days (as Rares). They all have different stats and attacks-Blue even has plot armor-but other their specific days and the special incubator that week, I’m not sure if we’ll see them again.)

There are a couple things that are making me lose my interest. A major one is honestly the lack of communication and information. JWA doesn’t keep its news archived on the app-I can’t even double check what the daily dino is without seeing one at a stop. However, they’re more than happy to remind you about the special spots every few days, like the Walmart ones and the one-time AMC (even if you already got the AMC one).

In fact, when they revealed the daily dinos, the app took you to Ludia’s site to show the info regarding respawn rates and attempts by rarity. And the new blub vanished from the app after you read it, so it still isn’t easy to find again. Like I mentioned, they didn’t reveal this whole thing about paired dailies, nor when they added Legendary and Unique dinos to that list. At the very least, they could put a countdown at the greed spot telling you how long before it respawns.

But even more significantly...it feels so pay to play now. Like, even early on it was clear the fastest way to get rare and hybrid dinos was through the more expensive incubators. But I didn’t mind too much.

At this point, however, it’s starting to require so much DNA just to level up a dino. My raptor is at level 12, and has been for awhile, even with me going after every raptor I see. The coin cost to bring it to the next level is absurd. She’s gotta be level 15 to even start to make i. rex (which, as a Legendary, will cost as least 200 of its own DNA to make, and we’ve talked about how much raptor and rex DNA that can be).

And guess what? To make indoraptor, do you know what you need? A level 20 i. rex and a level 20 raptor. That’s so much DNA, even if you get lucky and make 90 points of hybrid DNA every time. So much t-rex and raptor DNA, and so many coins.

The best, if not only, way to make this an achievable goal (both in terms of DNA and coins) is to buy the more expensive incubators. The in-game cash you get from battle incubators isn’t nearly enough for anything.

Look at the second to last pic-the one on the left. If you’re a reasonable person who can only buy premium currency in small amounts, $5=about 500 cash. Every week there are at least three limited edition incubators. One will always be that week’s featured dinos (bottom row), and the other two will be things like ‘powerful carnivores’, ‘dinos with stun attacks’, or even ‘pure, 100% hybrid DNA’.

They’ll range from approximately $20-$50. Sometimes they won’t even be for sale in cash; it will be in real UDS, like you see on the middle-right incubator. Likely at the expense of the people who do drop $100 to buy cash in massive bulk, which gets them extra.

Leveling is agonizingly slow.

Long story short, if you want to get even moderate entertainment out of this game, or make any progress at all, you have to put money in it. A lot of money. Like, at least $100 per week, and then some.

Yeah, there is stuff to buy in GO, but coins are relatively easy to earn (even as a member of Instinct), and it doesn’t cost you a kidney if you want to use real USD to buy more coins. The most expensive event box, which I’d say gives you more than enough stuff, will set you back about $12. And minus bag and storage expansions (and perhaps the occasional incubator or raid pass), it’s nothing you can’t ultimately do without.

I’m starting to really accept that this game exists almost exclusively as a money sink, to ride the hype of Fallen Kingdom and milk as much out of the fans as it can. As far as I can tell, there’s no intention for longevity, unlike GO. When the hype putters out so will the game; they’ll stop fixing bugs or doing updates.

And yeah, the combination of those things bugs me a lot. Like...just let me collect dinos so I can take cool pictures. That’s all I want in life.

[insidethegiftbasket]

Gerrit Cole

Gerrit Alan Cole is a 30-year-old right-hander from the luxurious land of Newport Beach, California.

From what I am told, the below is an accurate depiction of his upbringing.

He was raised a Yankees fan, and that passion for the team has not waned in his family one bit.

And he enjoys a good night out with his wife and Earth’s most wonderful couple—the Tanakas.

Oh, and he’s an absolute fucking legend out there on the hill.

2020 Vision

For Cole, this is considered a down year since finding his full potential in the 2018 season. As a note, you have no idea how glad I am he has nothing to do with the 2017 Astros—being a part of their ’18 and ’19 rosters is already bad enough.

He was worth 2.1 WAR in just 12 starts. That’s absolutely stupid. He only pitched 73 innings too, in no small part to having 2 of his first 3 starts shortened by rain. He was absolutely blowing people up on Opening Day, but Darth Manfred brought the rain and lightning and he was only given 5 innings to work his magic.

Sometimes the only way to stop a man this powerful is to have the mythical titans of a Greece past intervene and bring some unstoppable weather.

And he does it all really efficiently too.

Look at all this good stuff. The pitches in the zone are meant to be there, the ones out of the zone are meant to be there. He knows how to attack hitters, get ahead in the count, and put guys away once he’s got you in that 2-strike hole. It also helps that pretty much all of his pitches are considered plus pitches as well.

He just eats people alive out there. He’s a real pitcher’s pitcher.

If he does have one minor, and I mean minor, bugaboo, it’s that last year he gave up a few more dingers than we would’ve wanted and 14 more than he wanted.

This FB% rate and FB/HR rate doesn’t bother me too much given the 2020 gong show season, but hey, it happened and it’s worth mentioning at least a little bit. You don’t even really care about this. He’s Gerrit Fucking Cole.

Have More Fun in ‘21

He is, obviously, the opening day starter.

And you can see why. This is what they think is going to happen. I don’t even have good words to describe this. His average projection is a 16-win, low-3 ERA, 200-inning, 5+ WAR campaign. And from what we’ve seen, and given a proper offseason and preparation, we know that these may even be…conservative guesses on behalf of the robots doing the math.

I don’t see any problem with these numbers. Neither do you.

Let’s get to the fanfiction.

Cole Wins His First of 5 Consecutive CY Awards

Take the above screenshot and turn all of the rate stats up/down 20% in the right direction and add this section’s title. Pushing 14K/9, ERA below 3, WAR near 7.0, and his first ever CY en route to 4 more in ’22-’25.

He’s this fucking good, stays healthy, and just absolutely obliterates people for the next 150 starts in his career. Oh, and he becomes a mix of Playoff Andy and Playoff Tanaka and gets at least one WS MVP. He’ll have more than a few chances at it, but he’ll get at least one of them.

Cole Underperforms His Lofty Expectations But Is Still A Top 20 Pitcher In The League

That’s it. That’s the negative prediction. I’m not even going to play the, “If he gets hurt” game with him. Fuck you Injury Gods. Fuck you and your injures.

Evan’s Official Is Gerrit Cole Single, and If Not, Is Mrs. Cole Cool With Her Hubby Swinging? Final Gift Basket Prediction

He’s going to fuck. He’s going to seriously, seriously, fuck. We’re gonna be running over ourselves to watch his starts. He’s going to win the AL CY. He’s going to help carry us to the playoffs. He’s going to be a big piece of why we make the World Series and eventually win it. He’s Gerrit Fucking Cole—Today, Tomorrow, Forever.

(And in case you need something to finish off with.)

Join us in a few days when we have some different content that isn’t a player breakdown, and perhaps something from a 3rd contributor about baseball science. Yeah, this crew is nerdy like that. 

From the honest bottom of both my heart and Sam’s, we want to thank everyone that read these and hung out with us while we talked Yankees baseball while waiting for Spring Training to slog through as we get ready for Opening Day on Thursday. 

Fuck the Red Sox. Fuck the Astros. And let’s go Yanks!