Leap Day!

Rest in peace Davy Jones

Sorry for no post yesterday. I've been somewhat sick. I'm going to go ahead and shift the every other day ranting to this day since leap day and I would like to take advantage of it.

I'm currently programming the class system for Selatria but it's not coming along as well as I would have liked it.

XIV Job AF. The pics they didn't want to show you.

I modified the URLs, and apparently there were more pictures he wanted to show but never were shown.

My views on un-friending

So I logged on and noticed I had a lot of people I knew that were no longer my friend on Facebook. While I'm not really upset over people "un-friending" me (as I tend to post a lot of random/obscure stuff). I can't help but think that I offended someone or something in one of my posts which prompted taking me off of their list.

Another thing is that I generally never message people first. So if it's because "we never message each other any more" that's likely. But that would be more on you than mine. I generally respond to messages more than initiating conversation.

So... if my posts ever offend any of you, please let me know or call me out on it.

Well, there's my thoughts on that.

Signed up for classes for Spring!

Excited. Almost done! :)

CSE 441 - Video Game Programming
CSE 460 - Operating Systems
CSE 401 - Computer Architecture
CSE 565 - Systems Programming

Chapter 1 Selatria Trailer

Trailer of Chapter 1:

Designers/Script: Grover Wimberly IV, Airen Blakovich, Jonathan Dishaw
Art: Johan Flynn
Composer: Luke Simpson
Mage's Voice: Jabari Smith
Melanie's Voice: Vikki Ceballos
SFX: Donald Brown

Confession.

It's always relieving to confess how you really feel [anonymously] about someone and make them feel better on Valentine's Day, even if they don't know it was from you. (Or they might think it was from someone else!)




But yeah, I did it, and she was happy. I'd have to say I'm pretty happy too. ^_^

2012 Valentine's Day Post

For those who haven't been keeping up with posts on holidays, I try to post little comics like these using the game engine for fun. If it catches on, I might make a Deviant Art or something for these comics, but as of now they'll only be posted for special occasions like today! Which is Happy Valentine's Day, or Single Awareness Day and/or February 14th.

For the last couple of years I have been pretty bitter about this day, but I'm determined to make today a good day, regardless if I have someone to share it with or not! Some people become either really happy or are outright heartbroken or lonely depending on the day, while I've been the latter, I want to take the time and appreciate the people who don't have a Valentine or whatever. There are lots of good guys and gals out there that are single and get passed over for whatever reason, and it's an awful feeling for sure.

Anyway! Check out the comic and the song below.

You can see the comic in its original size here.

I always post a song for each year pertaining to this day. Last year's song was "Love Is Like A Rock" by Donnie Iris. This year is "Something About You" by Level 42.

 How, how can it be
That a love carved out of caring
Fashioned by fate
Could suffer so hard
From the games played once too often
But making mistakes
Is a part of life's imperfections
Born of the years
Is it so wrong
To be human after all

Drawn into the stream
Of undefined illusion
Those diamond dreams
They can't disguise the truth
That there is something about you, baby, so right
I wouldn't be without you, baby, tonight

If ever our love was concealed
No one can say that we didn't feel
A million things and a perfect dream of life
Gone, fragile but free
We remain tender together
If not so in love
It's not so wrong
We're only human after all

These changing years
They add to your confusion
Oh and you need to hear
The time that told the truth

Because there's something about you, baby, so right
I couldn't live without you, baby, tonight

And that there's something about you
Yeah
And I couldn't live without you tonight

That's Our Robert

I found this on Facebook, I loled too hard.

"New Figaro"? My thoughts on FFXIV's new server scheme.

See also: About the World Merge and Character Transfers (02/09/2012)

 Well, I'm calling it "New Figaro", at least.

Square-Enix announced a controversial move the other day that it is pretty much going away with all 18 servers, forming 10 new servers, and making everyone who is still playing go to one of these new servers in an attempt to consolidate servers and make it easier on those who are playing and sticking it out.

Here is their planned move:

When Final Fantasy XI started closing servers a few years back, they simply merged all the characters in one world and dumped them into another. This caused all kinds of conflicts because well-known people lost their character identities. Famous people from a server had to come back as another name. Less creative people added an extra letter to their name in order to try and maintain what was theirs. Linkshell names were cyber-squatted and held for ransom on destination worlds, and the whole system was a convoluted mess.

XIV is trying to get rid of that whole thing by doing this system. However, the way they are proposing is setting them up for a catastrophic mess.

1. They are giving all current players a window of time to choose one of the "New World"s to go to. If it is not chosen in a specific window, then they will be randomly allocated to a new server.

I know a well-handful of people who are sitting out of the game until Version 2.0, moving them to a random server while they're not playing is not going to entice them to come back.

2. There's no plans for server transfer while version 1.0 is active.

For those who may return, unless they have plans for this in the future, won't have a chance to be on the same server as their friends or old LS mates if they don't choose one in time.

3. Linkshells/Friend Lists are going to be deleted.

This one I am kind of used to. Unlike Final Fantasy XI, in which I had a pretty decent sized friend list, most of my friends on FFXIV are on Facebook and I keep in touch with them through there, for that reason I don't really use FFXIV's Friend List function. However, for those who use just the game to communicate, this is going to be a pain in the ass to try and re-connect with them..

4. The 10 new servers are going to be named after the 10 most popular servers at the time of the server switch.

This is understandable and will ease the transition. I'm pretty sure Figaro is decent size and will be one of the names to choose from soon. Other server names may not be as lucky. (Karnak or Bodhum, for example.)







-

My one big suggestion for all of this is that they need to have a one-time server transfer for those who come back to the game and want to re-connect with friends who are also coming back. They don't seem to be taking this into account, and to me that's [another] nail in the coffin. 

As for me and my linkshell (and others on Figaro seem to be following suit), we're all going to go to either "New Figaro" or New World 06.

I hope this goes well.


.

Not enough time!

I really wanted to post something today, but I couldn't. Just no time!

It will be posted Friday I guess.

Launch of Selatria YouTube Page!

  

Selatria YouTube page launched Friday! Subscribe to us here. New videos will hopefully be uploaded each week.

Delays Smh-lays

No real post today. We had a meeting yesterday and hopefully we can get Chapter 1 of Selatria out by March 24th. Here's hoping!

RPG Maker + Final Fantasy XIII-2

"Dude quit being a fucking hater about everything who gives a fuck if you dont like something dont hate I dont hate on your game even though it looks like a carbon copy of a old ff game that looks like you made it on rpg maker, so fucking unoriginal with that see ya when I see ya hater"

This was the message I received in my inbox this morning for saying something bad about Final Fantasy XIII-2. I'll talk about my views on that a little later.

Well, joke's on you. I am using RPG Maker. It's a shame it has this kind of reputation, and one I am trying to get rid of. Good games can be created by the program, however they are overwhelmed by the amount of bad games made on the program.

Here's an example of a good game in RPG Maker:









Here's an example of a bad game in RPG Maker:

  

The bottom is why the majority of people seem to frown upon using the program. But hey, if you want to program a game from scratch, feel free to. There is a project (two of them!) my university is doing that are coded from scratch. Mythic and Lacuna Reaver. Both are RPGs.

Both which are great projects, have a lot of time and effort invested into them. Have their own well-designed teams and what not. However, for the amount of time building everything from scratch, their purpose is more to have a game that is coded well and built primarily to train students on how to program and function in a software engineering team. I'm not here to code anything from scratch with Selatria. I'm using pre-built programmed assets with my own programmed modifications and systems to create an epic experience that you don't quite get in other RPG Maker games.

At least, that's the goal. So when people say (and I get this a lot) that it looks like a Final Fantasy carbon copy. I'm actually very pleased to hear that, because it models off a handful of 2D RPGs that I grew up with a kid, notably Lufia, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, and Pokemon. Games which don't seem to have that sense of passion anymore. Games that once were one of my favorite games I would look forward to in a franchise and now seem to have been developed without a heart in it.

Which brings me to my next point.

---

Final Fantasy XIII-2 came out the other day for Xbox 360 and PS3. This was the first Final Fantasy game I have not bought on release day since the release of FFIX in 2000. This is my reasons: I honestly feel burned by the FF series. This is with no disrespect to the people that make them, the productions of the game has gotten so large as of late that there seems to be no cohesion. I loved the Final Fantasy games that had a unique brilliance of music, storytelling, art, and most importantly gameplay.

The first production department which does production of FFX, FFX-2, and FFXIII seems to value a unique storytelling experience, even if it does away with unique gameplay systems like exploration and adventure.

They make good games, they sell well, but they aren't of my tastes. I want more of an exploration than a action-packed game. That's the direction of the team, and that's not why I like role-playing games.

So I mean no disrespect for those who actually like FFXIII-2, like FFXIII it is a good RPG. But when it comes to being a Final Fantasy game, it does not fit my vision of what a Final Fantasy game should entail. Me sarcastically bashing the game is what started the whole message in the first place.

Example of what I think a chocobo theme should sound like:

  

Example of what one of the two chocobo themes in FFXIII-2 sounds like: