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Messages - SmootH

#21
Quote from: ManicMatt on Mon 02/10/2006 23:13:11
Chuck Norris had his own adventure game? Did it have verb commands like :Kick, punch, break and flatten?

If chuck norris had an adventure game, the only action command would be "own"
#22
General Discussion / Re: The Worrier's thread
Sat 05/08/2006 05:11:00
When I was a younger man, I had lots of "what if"s. Luckily for me (and for you) wikipedia has a list of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_What_If%3F_issues
#23
This one was too close too call. I demand recount! :P
#24
I love these "hot button" ethical questions. Mostly because the sides are so polarized that the ensuing debate boils  to a "uh-hun"/"no-way" flame war.

I love the argument that cow farms are cruel because they cram them in so tight they can't properly grow and it becomes torture for them. Have you ever seen a corn field? Without proper maintenance with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers no crop can grow that densely.

I love the argument that acres and acres of forests are cut down in order to build animal farms but no-one ever mentions the acres of forests that are cut down for wheat or coffee or whatever.

I love the argument that animal farms pollute the land and the running water but all the aformentionned chemicals used to grow crops are never considered as pollutants.

I love the cannibalism argument because it makes people seem so clever.

I love the argument about the stink of animal farms, but crop fields smell just as bad because guess what, those chemicals aren't exactly made from roses and gumdrops.

But I digress.

I'm not a vegetarian but I can understand their point of view.

I do agree on an economic/ environmental basis that cows, in particular, are detrimental. It takes far more land, food and money to grow a cow to eating size that an equal amount of, say, corn. furthermore, I don't buy leather goods because with the amount of cows we kill every day,  they should be pratically giving it away.  It's a travesty, anywhere from 300 to 1000 Canadian Dollars for a leather jacket?

Non-human animals are opportunistic eaters(a starving animal will eat anything food-like given the chance). You think an eagle on the hunt says "you know, i should really cut out the field mouse. I eat way too much field mouse, it's bad for my heart!". They eat whats available because they don't know when their next meal is going to be. if animals could buy food at a grocery store, they would and they'd all get really fat and lazy. All the better for me, because I like them big and juicy.

<edit> good catch on the spelling!
#25
Steve, thanks for the vote! I'll bake you a cake
#26
You're right it wasn't half bad - it was all bad! (Nah, I'm pulling your leg it was only 3/4 bad, i was just channeling some of "Waldorf and Statler" on that one)

No one like a hearing lecture, but sequels, in film, are mostly bad. There are a handful of great ones like The Godfather part 2, Terminator 2, Empire Strikes Back, Mighty Ducks 2, but generally they suck.

Why does this Pirates 2 stink, let me count the ways:

Pacing: First off, it's too damn long. A length is great, when the story is strong, see Berlin Alexanderplatz, but when the story is sketchy, you start to feel the time weighing down on you. It was fast then slow then stopped then fast then stopped. It needed some build up and something to build towards.

Storytelling: In a story as linear as this, the surprise ending is pretty much given away near the beginning, to those who've watched the first one and were paying attention.  There was a whole lot of content in this movie that goes unexplained and with 2 and 1/2 hours to work with they could have done something about that. Yes, I understand it's for suspence but there's a difference from suspence and  poor storytelling.

Deus Ex Machina: I'm not a fan of this device. It makes whatever it touches seem like a build up to nothing. Lots of the people that were in the theatre with me did the whole "ooohhh, aaaahhh" thing when the ending came up. I wasn't surprised, this is the sort of thing Disney pulls often
Spoiler
(Tell me, when was the last time in a Disney movie did a main character die and stay dead, Bambi's mom doesn't count.)
[close]

Acting: The reason why the above sequels are good is that the characters that we know and love get more developped, they become more human and therefore more relatable. In this movie the characters are exactly the same like nothing happened in the last movie.  There are exceptions as always: Bootstrap Bill has grown up a bit among others in the secondary cast. If I wanted the same gags, the same people - the same everything, I'll pop in my dvd of the first one and re-watch it.

Having said all that, The movie does have some good points, the special effects are pretty nice looking, the action is fast paced, though the fight scenes do run a little long, the comedy is mostly okay, the film is decent but not clever and I was hoping for alot more.

#27
Here's my two cents:

#28
The Tale of Grasshopper and Octopus

     One, dark summer morning, Grasshopper realized it was going to be winter soon and he had no jam in his geodesic dome. He used his big, strong legs to jump high into the trees to pick fruit and nuts for preserves and other olde timey confectioneries.

     Meanwhile, Octopus just mooched of her parents, Mama Fish and Daddy Octagon. She saw the grasshopper collecting fruit and nuts and joked “Yeah, I'll bet he likes those nuts and there's nothing more fruity than a homemade confectionery”.

     Soon winter was upon the forest, Grasshopper was comfy and cozy in his dome with a thousand Playboy models and poor, old Octopus had to drive her Ferrari to Costa Rica to avoid the Feds, who were after her because of the taxes she refused to pay.

     Months later, Grasshopper received a phone call from Octopus, who said: “It's better to like nuts than to commit tax fraud and end up in a Costa Rican prison, eating your own tentacles to survive, only to be beaten harder everyday by an uncaring and uncompassionate warden because you said the churros at McConquistadores are a mix of sugar and crap”

Finito!


#29
The basics of the dragon are there, which is great, and shading is on the way, excellent!

I'm guessing that the three circles are important and your friend wouldn't want to chane them but because of them the tail gets lost behind all those bends. So, what I would do would be to either bring the tail section infront of the main body but behind the head or maybe shift the head over to the side to allow the viewer to trace the tail more easily.

Second, the sprite looks rather frozen, some ripply whiskers or smoke out of the mouth could lend it some movement, if this is what you want.

Your friend is on the right track, but as we all know, the devil is in the details.

#30
General Discussion / Re: Parkour
Sat 17/06/2006 18:56:28
Parkour and Free Running are different, though the names are now used interchangably. The description of which will follow.

Now the debate of what is a sport and what isn't - Keen.

Parkour does have a quantifiable scale: Time. Think of it like slalom skiing, the quickest time to the end of the course while passing through the gates.  Parkour is about efficiency - overcoming obstacles in the least amount of time with the least amount of wasted energy.

Free Running, on the other hand, has both time and an artistic component, involving and not exclusive to, flips, vaults, and rolls. This is more like the mogul event in skiiing, there is the time component and a jump component.

Both are sports, parkour is a traditional style sport and free running  is more artistic.

#31
General Discussion / Re: I(vy) do comics too
Wed 12/04/2006 00:44:55
I can vouch for Ivy, the editors are hard but fair on cartoonists.  Most of her first drafts are just stick figures saying "Ack! I'm a student!". So the final strips seem like a huge improvement. (Just kidding Ivy, you know I love you!). Also, don't let her catch you giving her points for effort she's got a mean streak a mile wide and some big, punk-stomping boots.

The humour that goes into the paper very broad, but also rather restricted. These stories revolve around occurences at our University so I can understand why some or even most people don't see the humour. I've had alot of my stuff shot down and I regret even publishing most of the "good" stuff. Well, maybe I don't regret getting things published, I regret not rewriting them. Jedi Monkeys? What was I on that day? But my written content was slightly more highbrow than that. For those who don't know, my primary job at the paper was to generate either Top Ten Lists or Humourous movie reviews. Then the staffers got some better and funnier people than me and I lost my job. So I became an accountant for the paper.

Unlike Ivy, I'm posting this to get my ego stroked. So lay it on thick, fellas. Please note the spelling errors in the Valentines Day list are not my fault - "casted" should be "cast", "Internet" should be "internet", "some" doesn't need to be there in the scorpion one - I blame that error on the faulty english that the copy editor obviously learned in a Guatamalan forced labour camp.




p.s Ivy, keep your chin up, publishing stuff in the paper is like canadian politics, 45% of the readers like it, 33% of readers don't care, 20% of readers hate it and 2% of the readers can't read and are faking it. Also, Where can I get someone to stroke my ego IRL? I'm stuck doing it myself and it's getting me no where!

#32
With Omnipotence out? Well, Then I would want to have a power that was utterly impractical for thwarting evil but pretty cool just to have:

A stomach that could digest anything (even the hottest Lamb Vindaloos) without any ill effects on me.

Super human flexibility and joints that rotate more than 180 degrees

Cellular division on a macro scale (like I could devide into two copies of myself)

The power of accurately describing complex smells without use of comparison.

hobo powers

I would write my friends response but this appears to be a "rated G" forum. Needless to say it involves "the Force", surprized strangers, masturbation and public places.

The ability to touch my right elbow with my right hand.

My blood was actually delicious red licorice.

Always have exact change on me.

Last one,  Hands made out of custard.




#33
In my opinion, interactivity, and hence puzzle solving potential, subplots and extras should be dropped if they inhibit character development or slow down the narrative of the game. The game should be about telling a story in an interesting way first and then puzzles to help move the player from place to place.

A successful game, in my eyes, would be one where you can remember the characters rather than the puzzles you had to solve. ( ie you remember Sherlock Holmes for how he solved the crime and not the crime itself). Interactivityhas to stem from something aswell, everything in every room could potentially be used on something but does it help the story in anyway( ie Anyone play Max Payne 2? Then you know what I mean)? if not then you should not be able to use it in any particular way.

I think the best story driven games (not lately though) are the Zelda games. They showed that story related games could be just as sucessful as "timing" based games (Super Mario Bros. etc), pure puzzle games and sports games.




#34
Competitions & Activities / Re: March MAGS
Tue 14/03/2006 03:57:58
Yeah, inhaling helium is only funny when you can talk to someone though. I'm so lonely.
#35
Helm,

If you get the chance, lay your hands on a copy of Transformers: The Movie (the 1984 version). The dialogue that I borrowed to fill in the blanks occurs about 30 minutes in (right after the big fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron.) That was the emotional moment in the movie, afterwards, it's all action.  When I was a kid I watched that movie over and over, back then I had it memorized, it's starting to slip away though.

Well, I'm done nerding out for tonight. Thanks for reading!

#36
Competitions & Activities / Re: March MAGS
Fri 10/03/2006 19:19:26
Just wait until you see my entry! It will literally light your pants on fire. Hopefully it doesn't get disqualitfied for that specific quality.

One month, from start to finish, from knowing nothing of AGS to knowing very little about ags, from utter obscurity to obscurity. Booyah!

Also, a city suspended by one large helium balloon counts as a flying city, am I right?
#37
I don't think anyone has done this yet....



Wow, I'll be about 3-4 people truly get this one.
#38
This may seem like a really noob request  and maybe I don't know the right terminology to find the info I require via the manual, or maybe it can't be done but this is what I'd like to do:

I've set up two rooms, when the character moves from one room to another there is a fade out of the first room and a fade into the next. What I'd like to have is music (an MP3 if that makes a difference at all) starting on the fade out of the first room and continuing on into the next room. There must be a scripting function to do this but my knowledge of this program is limited at best.

Thanks for the help!

Modify: Gilbot you are right in saying the music will continue from one room to the next and the play music function is working fine. Thanks for the input.  But I have yet to find a way of triggering music to start playing on the fade out of the initial room.
#39
Good GUIs are like ninjas. They can execute complex commands in a few key strokes and there's no mucking about. They do the job and then they leave.

the best GUI would be one that you don't even notice is there.

Personally the GUIs in most games take away from the expereince because their either invasive,  counter-intuitive and sloppy.

#40
The Rumpus Room / Re: How did you find AGS?
Tue 28/02/2006 02:02:30
Quote from: The Ivy on Tue 28/02/2006 00:06:37

Sassy?  Well, maybe they just haven't made the right emoticon for sass. :P  I hope you realize that as the only one on these boards who knows me in real life, you'll be subject to all sorts of interesting questions.


See look at that sass! Sass, I say! Luckily I have a blanket answer for all those questions: Knowing ruins the mystique like when a magician you shows you how to do the disappearing elephant trick and then you get banned from the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey's Circus for life. 

And when it comes to guys, if this is all jokes,  its the size of his, you know. You Know *wink Wink, Nudge Nudge* wallet

ps - According to New York State law, if an elephant gives you a funny look you DO NOT have the right to make it disappear.
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