Video game fans cheering heard 'round the world.

PS4 supports used games with no restrictions. NO RESTRICTIONS. 

PS4 is one hundred dollars cheaper than Xbox One.
PS4 does not need to be connected online to function. 

Game. Set. Match. That was the cheering held around the world.
Nintendo Direct is tomorrow morning at 7AM Pacific. We know gameplay footage of the new Smash Bros is coming, along with a new 3D Mario, Mario Kart U.

Perhaps maybe the Xenoblade sequel tentatively titled "X" will make an appearance as well? Pokemon X and Y news too, I hope!

I've been playing Nintendo consoles since I was five, and I have said the only reason I wasn't buying a WiiU was because of the lack of a library at launch.

As it is looking so far, the two consoles I will be going forward with is the WiiU and PS4, and skipping my plans on getting a PS3 entirely.

Pre-E3 2013 Conference Analysis

Microsoft E3 Press Conference @9:30 AM Pacific / Sony E3 Press Conference @ 6:00 PM Pacific

Microsoft:
I'll have to catch it after my doctor's appointment. I'm predicting Halo 5, and the new CoD Ghosts game. What else, though? They'll probably be playing quite the defense due to mostly player backlash. But to be fair, if past mistakes are any indication, they're usually the laughing stock of the convention anyhow.

Sony:
Sony can probably go one of two routes, and there's no doubt that they've been analyzing how well the Xbox One has been going across with gamers. Route A: They go towards the same path Xbox One is taking with DRM knowing that their competition is doing it too and there's really nothing hardcore gamers can do against it other than not buy either console or go for a WiiU. Or Route B: Use the conference as a great opportunity to pick up lost gamers and try to convince them that a PS4 is a better choice and show off convincing [or not-so-convincing] games or features of their console. There's also the chance they may too piss off people with their own policies, but that wouldn't be a smart thing to do at the conference itself, and they might do what Microsoft did and wait until afterwards.



Oh, if you don't believe me that Microsoft was the laughing stock in past years:




http://www.e3insider.com/press-conferences/



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Where the hell do I get my relationship advice from?

Short Answer: Don Juan Discussion. I actually read this forum quite religiously.


Long Answer:

[I mostly speak from a guy's perspective in this post. If you're a female and having trouble with a guy walking all over you, then flip the genders. If he's abusive,  call the authorities and end things asap!]

So I was talking to a friend the other day, and he told me he saw all of the relationship advice I give to people on CSUSB Confessions. Huh! I didn't know people on my friends list saw those posts!

I don't think he's known that I give relationship advice to others, and I have been for years. He kind of took it as a surprise and said "You're the last person to be giving relationship advice!". Well, actually I'm not.

I particularly tend to post if the guy is being stepped all over by a girl, or if he's being cheated on and giving her another chance.

No one deserves a second chance in those regards. Once they're a cheater, they're always a cheater. It's not a matter of 'if'. It's a matter of 'when'. Men don't deserve that kind of treatment or get their kindness taken advantage of.

Having been in that initial hurt/pain, I am much happier than I ever was when I was being all stepped over. Dump the zero!

I was really in a depression for a good half of a year after my breakup, my friends and family and classmates saw that I was a totally angry/depressed person in that slump. What really got me out of it all was initiating what I would later learn in the link I posted below as "No Contact" in early-2011, two years after it ended. I started looking for advice online on how to become a better person, and how to not become so cynical and depressed.

I found this forum, and it's greatly helped me become a better person. It taught me that I don't deserve less than perfect. I should be who I am, and not let people walk over me or wait for those who have done me wrong.

Unfortunately, I see mostly male friends on Facebook (I won't mention names) going head over heels for a girl that will never like them back. It's not the girl's fault, he commits to all of what she wants, and she knows it. She knows that she can walk all over him and get anything she wants, all while getting it on with her friends-with-benefits and leaving this guy who truly cares for her in the friend zone. Now, I'm not saying friend zone because the girl is in the wrong. You can't change her attitude, but it's the guy pining for her. I do know that there are many women that would kill for the kind of affection that he's giving her, and he doesn't see it because of the rose-colored glasses.

The forum would call him being an "AFC" (an average-frustrated chump). My goal is to never be an AFC again, and trust me, I used to be one. Now I'm not saying be sweet and romantic and get walked over, but girls get tired of the hard-to-get. They want a challenge. They want to be surprised, spontaneity. It keeps the fire going. If a girl you're interested in texts you (Hell, if she is not initiating most of the time anyway, she's not interested), don't text back immediately. Wait twice as long as she texts you. It builds anticipation. It's subtle, but it works!

If you're having trouble with an ex or a recent breakup, please read this guide on No Contact. This thread helped me more than anything, and I am happy to say after two and a half years NC, I'm very happy!

That's the end of my thoughts on this. Until next time!



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Whim Independent Studios - Development Log #14

Hey guys, back with the 14th development log!

Selatria:

Among one of the biggest changes in preparation for the new pitch is that a standardized art style was developed. Our initial version of the game/pitch was criticized for having different art styles between the faces, the sprites, and the monsters. In our new pitch, we're planning on having an art style that's consistent throughout the game. 

In charge of the consistency is Jennifer Gilliland. She's a freelance video game artist who has worked on Selatria's environmental art assets, UI icons, and original character designs for a few upcoming characters and enemies you'll encounter within the game. As of recently, she has been working on re-designing the faces, monsters, and sprites you'll see in the game.

Here are some examples of Mage and Melanie:

There were many factors in the decision to use this particular art direction.

1 - I wanted to respect Selatria's art design. Through the many faces that have been done for the game, +Jonathan Flynn has defined the unique artistic style of the characters for Selatria, and in the consistency push, I wanted to make sure the style/essence was kept with slight modifications given via suggestions from the team, and with a small face modification to be more consistent with the sprite art. With this design in mind, the current designs of the characters that are on blogs, banners, promotional cards, etc will not be invalidated. And the concerns that many players/funders have brought about the art direction can hopefully be put to rest. Monsters and sprites will undergo tweaks as well to fit the tweaked designs of the characters.

2 - Lots of indie role-playing games (especially fellow RPG Maker ones) have a generic anime look with their characters. We need an art style that people can look at and know that it's Selatria. I wanted to keep that defined vibrant look of the characters so that people would know that it was our game.

 So the emphasis was put on 1: Respect to current art direction of the characters and 2: A defined look for our game.

Tbere will be more designs and new screeenshots posted in future dev logs as we get closer to the launch date for our Kickstarter campaign. Though I don't want to commit to a date just yet, stay tuned for Selatria's Kickstarter pitch to launch later this summer!


ANTics:

We're about 1/4 done with the development of ANTics. Our lead programmer Gerren Willis has done an awesome job at taking the helm of programming the game. ActionScript guru, I'm telling you! I've been mapping the game design out mostly on paper. What levels do the bugs spawn? How do they spawn? What are their mechanics?

We've decided that we're going to launch with 20 levels and 5 bosses. You won't be able to save your progress, so the goal of the game is to survive the onslaught with some candy intact in one go!*

*Not counting taking playing breaks in the middle. You can pause the game and come back of course!

Here's a sample of the boss theme by Christopher Nuño:



Work is still underway on the actual look and feel of the game. It will be a 2.5D game with 3D model sprites working on a 2D plane.

This is a very early build of the game, and the design of the candy will eventually be re-designed to match the style of the bugs. Consider it a placeholder! Still lots of work to be done.

There was so much more I wanted to post about. Changes to Selatria's voices, new equipment we'll be working with in the future, upcoming game mechanics, new company logo in the works, bloopers from our recording sessions, and progress on new abilities, but I think all of that is best saved for a future log. I need to write these more often!

Until next time.

Oh! Check out our company SoundCloud page. I will be updating that a lot with some Selatria music very soon!





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RE: Mom gets mad at kid for being an Atheist.

Is this how people really react?

Me: I don't believe in god.
Dad: Okay.

That was pretty much the end of it. I guess some people aren't as tolerant.

FFXIV: Server Transfer

The legacy servers for FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn have been announced, and it looks like Aegis (the server my linkshell/guild was on) is going to be a data server located in Japan. So it seems those of us who were NA/EU are transferring elsewhere because of latency concerns in the transition to the new game.

There were lots of cool people/adventurers that I met (and became facebook friends with) that might not necessarily be making the move to wherever we decide that our guild is going to go. And to those who will unfortunately not make the move with us, I say "thank you". Thank you for helping the first version of the game awesome. The game sure as hell wasn't, but it was the people I met along the way that kept me sticking around through it all. Sure there were some pricks along the way, but there were far more awesome people and a community that stuck together and saw the game evolved from what it was.

Look out, A Realm Reborn! Viva's coming to Hyperion!



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Game Design Philosophy: How I would have designed FFXIV's EXP/Stat System

Note: My suggestions and opinions are about a hypothetical system that will not appear in "A Realm Reborn". Please do not cite this as a confirmation or make accusations of breaking any NDAs as this is not the case. Thanks!

Hey readers! I haven't written about game design philosophy in a while. With upcoming Phase 3 for "A Realm Reborn" hitting in a few weeks, I've wanted to get back into the Eorzean mood. Despite what I'm going to post below, I am greatly looking forward to the game and the new direction the game has gone in. However, I do feel that they should have kept at least one big aspect of the first version, physical levels. 

If you didn't play early version of Final Fantasy XIV 1.0, take a look at this post about Physical and Skill Levels.

A screenshot of FFXIV back when Physical Levels were still implemented. They're on the top-left corner.

(Ignore the timers being off. That was my computer's fault.)

One of the aspects I think they shouldn't have taken away from the initial version of the game in the midst of the large-scale changes was the removal of Physical Levels.

Physical EXP Levels -
History:

In Version 1.0, upon defeating an enemy, you would get experience points for your physical level (an EXP level that encompassed all classes) and skill points for your class rank. When your class rank leveled up, you would get abilities for your class, and when your physical level leveled up, you would be able to allocate stats and elemental strengths and weaknesses.

The good part of this system was that no two characters were all alike. If you set your stats correctly, you would have a "natural" role you excelled at. If you put your stats into VIT and STR, you would naturally be a better Marauder. However, if there was another tank and you had a mage role available, you could go as that class and do well, even if you wouldn't be as good as someone who allocated their natural stats into INT and MND.

The bad part of the system lies into the unrestrained growth of the physical level system. It was a common problem for people who leveled up a variety of different classes and then hit physical level 50 with no real direction with their character. As I have a bad attention span, I leveled up a lot of different classes, when I hit Physical Level 50, my highest class was still in the late level 30s, and my second highest was level 20-ish. Those who crafted and gathered had the worst discrepancy as players could get a lot of Physical EXP by leveling their crafting and gathering.

Another bad aspect of the system was originally stats made little to no difference, and with the large amount of stats you got to allocate, you could have up to 80 points difference on a stat at level 50 and it brought no sense of balance to the game.

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How I would have designed it:

Every character, no matter what class they played, start off the game with the exact same stats: I'm going to use STR, VIT, DEX, INT, MND, and PIE as the stat examples. For the sake of argument right now, we're going to make the stat bonuses off any class gear negligible.

Level 1:
STR: 10
VIT: 10
DEX: 10
INT: 10
MND: 10
PIE: 10




For every 10 levels, the player will get two points they can allocate to any slot. Stats will also be added by 2 for every level automatically. An unallocated character at level 10's stats would look something like this. Again, stat bonuses from gear are considered negligible in this example.

Level  10:
STR: 28 (+/- 1-2)
VIT: 28 (+/- 1-2)
DEX: 28 (+/- 1-2)
INT: 28 (+/- 1-2)
MND: 28 (+/- 1-2)
PIE: 28 (+/- 1-2)

Job/Class Stat Differences:

The stat differences between the various jobs in this hypothetical system would come from the limitations of the gear that class could equip.

Physical Level Cap:

To prevent abuse, the physical level will be capped at the level of the highest class. If one person wants to level Gladiator to level 10, and then switches to Conjurer and levels that to 5. They will have a Physical level of 10 until either Gladiator or Conjurer hits level 11. A Physical level of 50 would then guarantee that the character has one qualified class at level 50.

An argument could be made at this point, what is the point of a physical level then and why would it be missed? A high physical level made playing low level jobs much more fun, in my opinion. I never understood why when you would switch to a new class in XI or new XIV that you would become a weakling all over again. With a high physical level, it could make grinding new jobs and becoming more versatile more fun, if you will.






So, what's the underlying point?

FFXIV's current system (as we knew it from the end of 1.0/how we will likely see it in ARR) I feel will be too streamlined. I worry that everyone that is playing the game will have the same exact gear and the same exact stats for their character with little to no variation. Even in an MMO setting which is known for its brutal min-maxing of stats, I think there should be little subtle variations in stats from character to character. Not so much that one person would be punished because they allocated towards a melee class and would be deficient at playing a mage class. But not so little that everyone is a carbon copy of one another.

We know that stat allocations are going to be allocated on a class-by-class basis in ARR, but what's the point of having the system at all when we will just allocate the stats that the class would benefit from most anyway? It seems unnecessary.




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That's the end of my thoughts on that.