Merry Christmas 2013

It is that time of year again. I'm reposting something I repost almost every Christmas. Merry Christmas, see you next year!

NaNoWriMo 2013: Complete

While some of you are out Black Friday shopping, some of us are getting non-Christmas related things done. Some of us, for example, have finished our 2013 NaNoWriMo story. This also seems like a prime opportunity to update my Matt's Fiction table of contents. Please let me know if any of the fiction links do not work. Consider this your chance to catch up on some of the worst Matt Fiction available on the Web.

Completed Drafts:

"Emergent Problems" -- NaNoWriMo 2013 Story
In the not too distant future, a private conglomerate, with government and military backing, has launched the Drake, a pioneer class research and exploration vessel set to access deep space. A series of problems plague the Drake's launch, and the crew, both aboard and back on Earth, must find and stop the problems before they doom the ship.

The X-Files Today Tweets -- 1

Could the X-Files have been successful made even about 10 years after its debut? The first episode came out in 1993. By 2002, digital cameras were being included on cell phones. Imagine how the X-Files would work if Mulder and Scully could snap a few pics during their investigations. Imagine their Tweets.

Sullivan!

Sullivan would like to join this man's website.

"Actually, I already just post to Matt's Facebook & Twitter."

WAR -- What Was It Good For?

Now that WAR is ending, let's look back on the good, the bad.

Cool Technology

A Von Neumann probe built by Epson [note: not really by Epson.]

Robohelicopters which, if the previous post wasn't about a space printing, would be the coolest thing you'd read today.

I also got my hand on the Mars trilogy, which is filling a sci fi gap I've had in my reading recently, since I've been focused so much on reading about real science on decision-making and heuristics. Consider this a day to tell me about cool technology and/or science fiction.

Strange Dreams

Last night, I dreamed I was some sort of mystery zoo wrangler. This included recapturing a platypus [with wings] as large as a mid-sized sedan, a winged Komodo dragon that could camouflage itself and one escaped, suicidal giant [in which I mean, eight-foot tall] panda.

The thing that sticks out to me the most? "A suicidal panda? That makes sense; they are the Charlie Browns of the animal kingdom." I don't know who or what said that in my dream, but it was such an insight into the mind of the panda, I wanted to share.

Psychoanalyze at your own peril.

To Add or Not To Add, That is the Question

Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The 'twerks' and 'selfies' of outrageous Oxford,
Or to take pen against these buzzworthies,
And by unliking end them: to squee, to say
"Whatevs!" And to tweet to say we must end
The 'LOLs,' and the shocks of a thousand 'OMGs'
That English is heir to?

Candy Stores

If the White House candy store is open, does that mean tours have resumed?

NANOWRIMO is in November. The blog is slow as I prep for that.

And play Final Fantasy 14.

... and World of Warcraft.

Look people, I'm just weak.

The Director Never Made Casting Calls in Character Again

"LF young, petite cross-dressing female to fly on command, kidnap darling children, sing."

-- It's Labor Day, what were you expecting?

Pandas

In trying to avoid the more depressing and/or offensive news stories (Syria/Private Schooling Your Kids Makes You Evil), instead, read this. Which, were pandas not cute and cuddly, may not have caused such vociferous disagreement or been published at all. But, at least it gives me an excuse to link this.

More substantive posting will return once I have a new writing project.

RPG Maker Game Update

Actually playing and trying to break my own game in RPG Maker is really flexing problem solving skills I had long since let atrophy. It gives me a new sense of respect for the QA big games have to go through to get published. Think, in a fairly minimalistic sprite-based RPG, in the first two real rooms of the dungeon, I had nearly half-a-dozen game breaking bugs (using a certain skill causes a crash, saving/loading breaks event scripts, door won't reopen, etc., etc.) Imagine how much more complicated bug shooting, say, Eden Prime or the Human Noble's origin story must have been.

RPG Maker: Scanning Enemies Without Scripting

So, for the past three hours, I have been trying to get a Scan/Libra type skill to work in RPG Maker VX Ace WITHOUT using scripting. I tried a bunch of triggers with events, variables and switches. All of these led to dead ends. Then, I realized something. I can use things for things that they are not meant to be used for.

So, I created a status effect called "Scanned," and my scan-type abilities will inflict this status effect. Then, for each battle, I've created an event for each enemy that triggers at the end of any turn where the enemy is afflicted with scanned by using the "When the end of turn" condition and the "Conditional Branch" option. The event causes a text window to appear and cleanses the enemy of scanned. The text window can have the necessary text written in like a normal event. It won't give you the dynamic HP, TP, MP, currently inflicted states, etc., but it will work for weaknesses and biography type information. You could, theoretically, set INTERNAL conditional branches to say things like "The monster is currently poisoned!," but I felt that was going too far.

Now, this works for me, since I want the numbers to be fairly hidden. Plus, this means I can write things like: "The monster is easily knocked off-balance and takes time to recover after large attacks." Or: "The enemy will respond harshly to attempts to heal." to help players figure out strategies BEFORE they wipe the first time.

Some warnings: Scanned needs to last 2 turns, otherwise RPG Maker clears the effect BEFORE checking if an event should happen. You need to make sure that each event only gets checked for once per turn, otherwise it will constantly fire off if you set it to moment. I have no idea how this work around works if you're using an Active Time Battle System.

... This is how I spent the last three or four hours of my night. What's worst? It probably isn't even the best solution to the problem.

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Edit: What this ALSO means is that you can have enemies scan specific player characters to trigger events. So, you could have an enemy "lock on" to a player, and then have the conditional event text read: "The sniper is aiming at Jim! Protect him!" Then, have the next turn, have the enemy do something to targets afflicted with Scanned [provided you make sure the enemy's event did not clear scanned on the PC]. So, now Scanned is pulling double duty. All without scripting.

RPG Maker Combat System

Before I go any further with making items/characters/skills, I need to sit down and decide combat numbers. On the one hand, I like how the HP/damage scales through Ch.1 (at the end, your tank has around 1.3k HP and his base attack does around 120~, while your damage dealer has around 750 HP and does around 160~, but can reliably do special attacks that pump that 300~.)

That feels like very Final Fantasy numbers. The problem is that it gets unwieldy FAST. So, what's the other possibility? Make the numbers much smaller, removing the multipliers. At the base, a regular attack is your Attack Value * 4 resisted by an enemy defense value * 2 [with a +/- 20.]

What I'm tempted to do is retweak the numbers to get rid of the multiplication. So, instead, your tank would have around 130 HP by the end of chapter 1, the damage dealer would have around 75. The difference in their basic attacks would be 12 to 16, with the damage dealer being able to put out about 30 damage with a special, with the boss going from having nearly 1500 HP to having about 150. Nothing changes except the scope of the numbers, but it would make it easier for me to balance in my head.

So, here's my question for RPG Players: Do you prefer the large abstract numbers of Final Fantasy/Star Ocean titles, or the smaller, more easy to understand numbers of a more tactical game like Fire Emblem?

The Dreaming Path

Ever since I played the early Final Fantasy games, I've wanted to make an RPG. The biggest thing standing in my way has always been a complete and total lack of technical skill in coding, programming and art. Enter, RPG Maker.

In this image, Arthur, our first character, uses a spell.

As you can see, RPG Maker has solved a lot of these problems for me. Finding a script from their Wiki to make the party's sprites appear in combat, we currently have a fairly solid system for an old-school, turn-based J-RPG. But, we really want to try and make things different than other games. The first thing you'll notice is that the title implies that dreams are going to be a powerful theme.

That's true, in more ways than one. Right now, I've only finished the first floor of the starter dungeon. It is a bit surreal, a bit silly, and fairly simple. The enemies there are basic starter monsters. They just attack you. As you're all alone, though, you'll need to guide Arthur to safety. The first dungeon will take you from level 1 to 7.

Banana Strawberry Vanilla Pie

Try this at home kids. I subbed in graham crackers for vanilla wafers. But... I think the crust did not turn out proper at all for me. I think it is going to be more... strawberry banana crumb pie than actual pie. We'll see what happens tomorrow when it is done chilling. I always thought pies were supposed to be easy, but that stupid crust was a pain.

Pictures below, they're fairly self-explanatory. There'll be no pictures of the whipped cream because, well, I'm not doing that till tomorrow morning.

Walking Dead: 400 Days Review & Annoyance

Spoilers below the fold, but first: For a $5.00 DLC on Steam, this was well worth the investment. It isn't very "gamey," sort of like the original five episodes. It is much more narrative in scope. Because of the shorter vignette structure, as opposed to a more cohesive story, it lets us have wildly divergent choices where we're left to imagine the outcome that brings our five characters from the end of their snapshot (if you've played the game, you caught the pun, I hope), to the epilogue.

I'm actually a fan of this style of game, and while a lot of people say you don't get a feel for the characters, I think they're just not paying attention. Vince is a protective leader-type; we're not sure WHAT he was helping his brother with that lead to his story, but throughout his story, no matter what choices you take, he comes across as a can-do leader that both of his companions come to trust.

The other characters are a bit more divergent in their growth, but that is based solely on your final decision. To get into to much detail there is spoilerific, so be warned.

Matt Plays League of Legends

I play League of Legends, which you know from past posts. One thing I want to do is get better at LoL and MOBAs in general, especially with Smite and Dungeon Defenders 2 happening. So, one thing I thought that might help me get better, is to make some MOBA match reports. Before that, full disclosure, I play ranked because there's less racism and trolling than in normals. I may not be good enough for ranked, as my Bronze 1 division attests, but it is a more pleasant experience all around.

So, from here-on-in, I'm going to try and keep updates on my League of Legends play (and later, Smite and Dungeon Defenders 2.)

Caramel Apple Brownies

As always, told in pictures! Recipe from here. I added marshmallows and substituted cinnamon sugar butter for plain butter.

Everything you need (Plus Cake!)

End of June Role Playing Event

In June, I am going to run a Call of Cthulhu one-shot. There is a crew of 11 people that the players can elect to choose from. The transport plane housed 13 people (plus the pilot for 14); only 11 remain. While the lead-in short will give the characters some traits and the like, they'll be flexible Pre-Genned PCs, meaning that the only thing definitively set is their profession and last name.

Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies Are the Ones that I Want

I made this. The only change is that I added a spoonful of cherry preserves to make the cookies a bit softer, though they still seemed a bit crisper, but having not tried one yet, they may still be chewy. That and mine came out in weird shapes. We started with this song from Grease and ended with this song from the Steve Miller Band. Thanks Pandora!

At some point, I'll need to decide I need more than a whisk for these jobs. Either or, total of 28 cookies made.

Here's what you need (and vanilla extract.)

Cherry Blossom Parade Photos: 2013

Hooray for parades!

No Fiction Today

Instead, this. Brought to you by "Stuck on the Metro Without Something to Read."

PAX Overview and Haul

Total list below the picture; apologies for late blogging. Blame Verizon. Also, next year, more photos. For more photos, and a few of Cheers, click here. I also think I need to finally get a better camera sometime this year.

My favorite costume. Hooray Chrono Trigger. Boo Chrono Cross.

The NYT Doesn't Get Why We're Bicameral

Althouse posted this story: "Frances E. Lee, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, said the problem was as real as the solution elusive, adding that she and other scholars have tried without success to find a contemporary reason to exempt the Senate from the usual rules of granting citizens an equal voice in their government."

You can tell this is top shelf journalism because some are saying things, while others are saying other things. As for being the least democratic legislature, it's almost like no one remembers the House of Lords still exists. I also note that all the methods suggested to balance the power, particularly the suggested fix for the Electoral College, essentially would completely neuter small states. This whine is a political power play unfounded in the recognition that we're not a pure democracy, and frankly, pure democracies are scary things.

Then again, I'm not a political scientist. Alas, if only there were some papers somewhere, that some people might have written -- perhaps contemporaneously -- that explained all of this. But, I suppose that the reasoning behind the establishment of the Senate is a mystery shrouded in myths forever and ever, amen.

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PS: This is known as "working as intended;" this is a "feature not a bug;" it is "baked into the cake."

Why Aren't Matt and Sullivan Blogging?

Because of Carrot Cake: The Bakening.

Start with various white powders and things...

Dear Sullivan, 5

"I'm Sullivan!"

Matt said something about "blog called on account of snow and work." This is because Matt does not love you readers. I do. I think he likes snow more than you. I don't. You should revolt against him, for he is The Man. I am The Cat. Not The Cat in The Hat, just The Cat. I don't wear hats because my ears go up and they are uncomfortable. Besides, I have fur to keep me warm. I don't need hats.

FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD

Dear Sullivan, 4

"I'm Sullivan!"

So, Matt is apparently taking "The weekend off blogging." This sounds to me like him being a lazy human. I have a busy weekend filled with naps, chasing feathery things on string and pouncing on sunbeams. I cannot be picking up the slack here. But, I am a "team player," so I've decided to be kind enough to help him out. To do so, I've gone into the mailbag to answer some questions. You are all some crazy cats. Now, to do something just to piss my human off. Like finally add that CATMANCE tag I've been talking about.

FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD

Seen on the Metro

Since I'm stuck in a spot where I don't know what to write next, I have posted this without comment.

Seen on the Metro.

Dear Sullivan, 3

"I'm Sullivan!"

Matt is working on finding things out about a part of mints. Probably the tasty parts, I guess. That's science, that is. I think he likes science because it lets him poke at things he shouldn't poke at. That and sometimes you get to blow things up. I hope he doesn't blow up any of the mints; I like to lick them when he's not looking. Then I laugh when he eats them, and he doesn't know why. Eat stuffed cat germs you stupid human.

Dear Sullivan, 2

I received such a tremendous following yesterday, that I have decided to once again chip in and help Matt out today. Yesterday he was busy watching a movie with too many dogs and not enough cats, and today he's apparently watching a movie about super heroic place settings. I just don't get human entertainment; I suppose it is the simple things in life that keeps them entertained. Some day, I will explain the intricacies of the feather on a string to him, but for now, to the mailbag.

Dear Sullivan, 1

Like many of you yesterday, I saw that the blog would not be happening this weekend. This could not stand. Without the the hits, we don't get the money. Without the money , I don't get the fish. I need the fish. To solve this problem, I have stepped in — on my day off, mind you — to ensure the hits keep rolling. Matt would put a post to an actual hit here, so to keep the mill-you the same, I have done so. Matt uses big words; I do not. I think that makes me smarter: Do more with less. Your questions are "below the fold," which I think means you click MORE. Go ahead and click MORE.

Blogless Weekend

Alas, there is no blog this weekend. Take it up with the temp.

"I'm Sullivan!"

Making More Time In Your Games

People like table-top role playing games, but the general consensus is that a lot of the role playing has subtly turned more into combat roles than character roles. The main reason for this, I am going to posit, is pure economics. Resources, specifically.

The first resource is Time. The average time people have to game drops as they age and responsibilities kick in. The two times in your life when you have the most time to play games are at the bookends of it. For everyone else, there isn't time for a day-long delving into the lair of the dark lich. Combine this with the second resource/problem: Players, like any other actor in an economy, are rarely rational actors. These are the two biggest factors standing in the way of getting more RP in your RPG.

So, how do you get more out of your RPG?

I Have a New Assistant

No fiction to be posted today. We're at 32 pages and the next few sections need more TLC before they are ready, so I'm far enough ahead of the curve for a page-a-day that I think I can take a break until Monday evening to make them perfect. If you have any complaints, bring them up with any of my assistants.

Sullivan the Cat, Junior Assistant, is standing by.

The Dwarf Lord and his shield bearers are working on their customer service skills.

Charrlie is now Senior Assistant in Charge of Thrashing.

For the most recent Lucy and Sam chapter (and links to past ones,) click here. For all previous fiction, check the blog year in review post here.