Stuffs and Things
[I won't be able to put up pictures until I get back home and can use my own computer. I'm currently on the Solaris systems at work... yay fun.]
Hmm... what first...
Well, school is progressing as always. Getting adjusted to the pace of JP 301, and I think I prefer this format (not as many tests, for one thing). Actually /using/ the kanji we're studying makes a HUGE difference. Before we might use three or four out of ten, but now every kanji we study is drawn directly from a reading, or is closely related to something in the reading. \(^^)/
Getting ready to jump back into leveling in FFXI. Still debating over whether or not I want to level BRD outside the set, since it would require to acquire a very different equipment set. Still need to make my Piccolo +1 (debating buying it, since trying to sign a +1 would generate a lot of extras I don't have space for atm) and Hope Rings +1 (this is simple, since I can desynth the NQs and sell the HQ1s for a profit). It's unfortunate that I can't do the same for the rest of my set, since they'll be using (probably) Astral Rings.
Dynamis is going... interestingly. Did a Dynamis-Beaucedine farming run with GS Saturday, and died three times. For those who are used to Dynamis, this might not seem odd. However, each time I died was because of a ridiculously stupid pull.
1) Apparently attempting to train a large group of Vanguard Eyes and associated spawns while picking out the time extender. Good plan, except they didn't tell anyone else about it. Time wasted: 15-20 minutes.
[Pic of Hydra group looking cool: including that damn Hydra Black Mage who's wearing my coat]
2) Pulling three more eyes while we were dealing with two. The situation went from "under control" to "watch the Hydra Monk pwn the ever-loving shit out of everyone when he uses Hundred Fists at 90% health". Time wasted: 10-15 minutes.
3) Pulling three more eyes with FOUR MINUTES LEFT. This might actually have made sense if they were going for a time extender, but I saw no one pulling out an eye to kill. Instead they just unleashed the hordes on the unsuspecting mass of players.
And for all of that, we got two AFB drops: WAR and DRG. I think I'll be sticking with Dienamis for a while... at least I can berate them when they do stupid stuff... although with Arzo pulling it's unlikely to happen. And they've made Aeravon the Rules Enforcer... which is frankly brilliant. I'm hard-pressed to think of someone better suited for the role.
I'm very, very tempted to start designing a map of Dynamis-Beaucedine. I actually lay awake for about an hour last night thinking of all the stuff I could do with it.
What I'm thinking is making it interactive (without of course knowing of anything off-hand that would allow me to do the stuff I'm thinking about). You'd start with an overview of the entire zone, with very few salient points marked at first... entrance, boss, trigger NMs, maybe common camping spots.
You could then choose to display time extender mobs, which would clear the map and display only the locations of those statues... however, if you click on one of those statues, it will display that square and the eight squares around it, effectively showing you what you'd have to deal with in order to get that extender. In the case of time extenders with other statues very close to them, detailed information (probably a Photoshopped snapshot) would be included in order to clarify the exact statue you'd need to kill.
You can also click on any given square in order to display it and the eight surrounding squares. In this view (regardless of how you got here), each statue is marked according to race and number - i.e. a Serjent Tombstone would be marked as O-5, meaning the fifth Orc Statue. You can then either click on that name or enter that combination into a field on the side of the screen in order to bring up detailed information about what the statue pops, relative danger of the pops, if there are pets, any abilities the pets might use, etc.
Each statue would also be color coded, possibly in multiple ways: Blue means a statue that needs to be killed, Red means a statue that should be bypassed, Black a statue that can be bypassed, and Green a time-extender. You could also include HP and MP restore information, although it's probably more useful just to note which eye colors mean what.
Common route information would also be included: Going for the win, Normal farming, Hydra farming, etc.
There's also Attestation information and strategies, but I'm not familiar with those.
That's all I can think of atm, but that's quite enough. If I can find some software or a language that lends itself to this type of work, there's a pretty good chance I'll do it.
Crafting progress is slow but steady. Haven't updated the thread in a while, but I've made enough progress that it's probably worth doing. Leveled both cooking and alchemy since the last update, and I'm now .4 away from 68 goldsmithing. I just hope the platinum rings sell more quickly this time, since I'm currently sitting at 600k. However, Zeratu pulled me along for another KS run, and we did get a Damascene cloth drop while I was there, so I've got a little more money coming my way. Being as close as I am to 68 (which means my apron, the other goldsmithing key item - although I could get that now -, and the change to another guild contract), I'm going to keep pouring any money I've got into that until I get there. I'll probably finish leveling bonecraft and woodworking after that though, so that I can get rid of all those arrowheads I've got sitting on my mule. Good thing I'm lvling THF too, since that gives me a chance to use some of the arrows I can't bundle.
Hmm... in anime news, Condor Hero still kicks ass. I /love/ the Live Action, despite the horrible subs. It's in Chinese, so I can't translate it myself, but the subs are... understandable, at least. As always, I adjust to them and don't notice the quality after a while. Judy also sent me the Gokusen live action, which is beyond hilarious. There's just something about anime style comedy done by live actors.... They changed the story from the anime somewhat, but not in any significant way. I actually think I like the live action story a little better.
Shuffle: a "romantic comedy", harem style. The setting is interesting, with the three worlds - god, man, and demon - being joined after an event called the "Opening of the Gates". The main character, Tsuchimi Rin, is being considered as a marriage candidate (the only candidate) by both the daughter of the Lord of the Gods (some amusing jokes revolving around "Why has God deserted me?" "There is no God!" etc. etc.) and the Lord of the Demons. The Lord of the Gods and the Lord of the Demons are amusing characters, although they're kept relatively minor.
side note: I wonder why they have so much free time? They seem to do nothing but party and drink...
As is typical of romantic comedies, these aren't the only two interested in Rin... there's also "Asa-senpai" who Rin's known for several years, and Kaede, who Rin lives with. Their families were fairly close, and when Rin's parents and Kaede's mom died in the same car wreck, Rin moved in with Kaede and her father (who has yet to show up).
I haven't seen anything terribly original in the series, but it's well done and they avoid the "Love Hina" syndrome for the most part. The series drops off in comedic value in later episodes (10, the most recent one I've seen, is actually serious as romantic comedies go), but I'm into the story enough that I'll watch it til the end.
Mahou Sensei Negima: seen all of the anime at this point, and I have to say "meh". Too many story lines showing up and getting dropped, too many characters being thrown in all at once, and no sense of direction for the anime. Most of the crises in the anime feel contrived or just plain stupid. I'll hold out hope for the manga, though.
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid: oh. my. f'ing. god. You know those occasional serious bits of story in the original FMP? Imagine those, twice as dark, on crack, and extended to the entire series. /glee
Tsubasa Chronicles: currently stalled, as I haven't seen any new eps in quite a while... really really want to keep watching though.
Azumanga Daio: Seen it before, but it's just as cute and funny as ever. Sakaki-san still gets the award for best character though.
Hmm... what first...
Well, school is progressing as always. Getting adjusted to the pace of JP 301, and I think I prefer this format (not as many tests, for one thing). Actually /using/ the kanji we're studying makes a HUGE difference. Before we might use three or four out of ten, but now every kanji we study is drawn directly from a reading, or is closely related to something in the reading. \(^^)/
Getting ready to jump back into leveling in FFXI. Still debating over whether or not I want to level BRD outside the set, since it would require to acquire a very different equipment set. Still need to make my Piccolo +1 (debating buying it, since trying to sign a +1 would generate a lot of extras I don't have space for atm) and Hope Rings +1 (this is simple, since I can desynth the NQs and sell the HQ1s for a profit). It's unfortunate that I can't do the same for the rest of my set, since they'll be using (probably) Astral Rings.
Dynamis is going... interestingly. Did a Dynamis-Beaucedine farming run with GS Saturday, and died three times. For those who are used to Dynamis, this might not seem odd. However, each time I died was because of a ridiculously stupid pull.
1) Apparently attempting to train a large group of Vanguard Eyes and associated spawns while picking out the time extender. Good plan, except they didn't tell anyone else about it. Time wasted: 15-20 minutes.
[Pic of Hydra group looking cool: including that damn Hydra Black Mage who's wearing my coat]
2) Pulling three more eyes while we were dealing with two. The situation went from "under control" to "watch the Hydra Monk pwn the ever-loving shit out of everyone when he uses Hundred Fists at 90% health". Time wasted: 10-15 minutes.
3) Pulling three more eyes with FOUR MINUTES LEFT. This might actually have made sense if they were going for a time extender, but I saw no one pulling out an eye to kill. Instead they just unleashed the hordes on the unsuspecting mass of players.
And for all of that, we got two AFB drops: WAR and DRG. I think I'll be sticking with Dienamis for a while... at least I can berate them when they do stupid stuff... although with Arzo pulling it's unlikely to happen. And they've made Aeravon the Rules Enforcer... which is frankly brilliant. I'm hard-pressed to think of someone better suited for the role.
I'm very, very tempted to start designing a map of Dynamis-Beaucedine. I actually lay awake for about an hour last night thinking of all the stuff I could do with it.
What I'm thinking is making it interactive (without of course knowing of anything off-hand that would allow me to do the stuff I'm thinking about). You'd start with an overview of the entire zone, with very few salient points marked at first... entrance, boss, trigger NMs, maybe common camping spots.
You could then choose to display time extender mobs, which would clear the map and display only the locations of those statues... however, if you click on one of those statues, it will display that square and the eight squares around it, effectively showing you what you'd have to deal with in order to get that extender. In the case of time extenders with other statues very close to them, detailed information (probably a Photoshopped snapshot) would be included in order to clarify the exact statue you'd need to kill.
You can also click on any given square in order to display it and the eight surrounding squares. In this view (regardless of how you got here), each statue is marked according to race and number - i.e. a Serjent Tombstone would be marked as O-5, meaning the fifth Orc Statue. You can then either click on that name or enter that combination into a field on the side of the screen in order to bring up detailed information about what the statue pops, relative danger of the pops, if there are pets, any abilities the pets might use, etc.
Each statue would also be color coded, possibly in multiple ways: Blue means a statue that needs to be killed, Red means a statue that should be bypassed, Black a statue that can be bypassed, and Green a time-extender. You could also include HP and MP restore information, although it's probably more useful just to note which eye colors mean what.
Common route information would also be included: Going for the win, Normal farming, Hydra farming, etc.
There's also Attestation information and strategies, but I'm not familiar with those.
That's all I can think of atm, but that's quite enough. If I can find some software or a language that lends itself to this type of work, there's a pretty good chance I'll do it.
Crafting progress is slow but steady. Haven't updated the thread in a while, but I've made enough progress that it's probably worth doing. Leveled both cooking and alchemy since the last update, and I'm now .4 away from 68 goldsmithing. I just hope the platinum rings sell more quickly this time, since I'm currently sitting at 600k. However, Zeratu pulled me along for another KS run, and we did get a Damascene cloth drop while I was there, so I've got a little more money coming my way. Being as close as I am to 68 (which means my apron, the other goldsmithing key item - although I could get that now -, and the change to another guild contract), I'm going to keep pouring any money I've got into that until I get there. I'll probably finish leveling bonecraft and woodworking after that though, so that I can get rid of all those arrowheads I've got sitting on my mule. Good thing I'm lvling THF too, since that gives me a chance to use some of the arrows I can't bundle.
Hmm... in anime news, Condor Hero still kicks ass. I /love/ the Live Action, despite the horrible subs. It's in Chinese, so I can't translate it myself, but the subs are... understandable, at least. As always, I adjust to them and don't notice the quality after a while. Judy also sent me the Gokusen live action, which is beyond hilarious. There's just something about anime style comedy done by live actors.... They changed the story from the anime somewhat, but not in any significant way. I actually think I like the live action story a little better.
Shuffle: a "romantic comedy", harem style. The setting is interesting, with the three worlds - god, man, and demon - being joined after an event called the "Opening of the Gates". The main character, Tsuchimi Rin, is being considered as a marriage candidate (the only candidate) by both the daughter of the Lord of the Gods (some amusing jokes revolving around "Why has God deserted me?" "There is no God!" etc. etc.) and the Lord of the Demons. The Lord of the Gods and the Lord of the Demons are amusing characters, although they're kept relatively minor.
side note: I wonder why they have so much free time? They seem to do nothing but party and drink...
As is typical of romantic comedies, these aren't the only two interested in Rin... there's also "Asa-senpai" who Rin's known for several years, and Kaede, who Rin lives with. Their families were fairly close, and when Rin's parents and Kaede's mom died in the same car wreck, Rin moved in with Kaede and her father (who has yet to show up).
I haven't seen anything terribly original in the series, but it's well done and they avoid the "Love Hina" syndrome for the most part. The series drops off in comedic value in later episodes (10, the most recent one I've seen, is actually serious as romantic comedies go), but I'm into the story enough that I'll watch it til the end.
Mahou Sensei Negima: seen all of the anime at this point, and I have to say "meh". Too many story lines showing up and getting dropped, too many characters being thrown in all at once, and no sense of direction for the anime. Most of the crises in the anime feel contrived or just plain stupid. I'll hold out hope for the manga, though.
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid: oh. my. f'ing. god. You know those occasional serious bits of story in the original FMP? Imagine those, twice as dark, on crack, and extended to the entire series. /glee
Tsubasa Chronicles: currently stalled, as I haven't seen any new eps in quite a while... really really want to keep watching though.
Azumanga Daio: Seen it before, but it's just as cute and funny as ever. Sakaki-san still gets the award for best character though.