Miscellaneous

I was not expecting to see this:




At least not on anything other than this:

This is the longest I've gone between posts in quite a while. I've been pretty danged busy, though; and the last few weeks especially have been nothing but constant headaches. My wife and I (btw, Happy Birthday, Love of My Life!) made a quick trip to the nearest Gamestop two weeks ago, but I just now got around to updating the games lists and playing one of the games. Specifically, I picked up Lego Batman and X-Blades for the 360; Wild Arms 4 and and the original Lego Star Wars for PS2. When I bought my 360 I got Lego Indiana Jones in a pack of used games and really enjoyed it, so I went back and played Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy on PS2. I wanted to get the Complete Collection for 360, but it was cheaper to just pick up a used copy of the original game for PS2. I've done a couple of levels in Lego Batman, and so far I'm not really getting much enjoyment out of this Lego installment. My wife, who for some odd reason enjoys watching me play video games, says the game isn't nearly as much fun to watch as LSW and LIJ; so I may not stay with this one.

In the meantime, I play a little Street Fighter 4; and, thanks to Steam and Impulse, I've loaded up on some classic sim and strategy titles for only a few bucks. I'm almost done with Railroad Tycoon 2's Campaign in Normal mode...I've made it this far before but I'm having trouble with the last few scenarios. Still haven't tried Sword of the Stars or Making History, but I've heard a lot of good things about them.

In other news, I'm still not completely caught up on Naruto Shippuden. After the Atomic Bomb Ninja Technique, recurring Deus Ex Machina Sasuke started the biggest dumb-ass subplot I've seen in the series so far...(details under the fold, spoilerific). It's takes a lot for me to work up enthusiasm to keep watching. But I'm sooooo close....

Crunchyroll has also started streaming The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I haven't checked to see what order the episodes are in.

I've made it through episode 11 of Chu-Bra! (with my wife...I was too scared to watch it alone.) If I can ever organize my thoughts on this series, it deserves a short amount of commentary. For those who have avoided...yes, it's squicky. Really, really squicky.

Mark finished Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and has started A's. I'm refraining from any comment until he finishes that series.

The 2010 F1 season has begun, which means Wonderduck has started his wonderful F1 Updates again.

Noah Antwiler, aka Spoony; the man responsible for a hilariously savage review/commentary/let's play of Final Fantasy VIII, is going to try Final Fantasy X.

Linkara is producing and narrating a "History of the Power Rangers", which is actually pretty interesting if you're into absolutely useless information, like I am.

I've completely forgotten by this point if I had any other point to make in this post...so I guess I'll stop here.

EDIT: Oh yeah, details about the Sasuke subplot below the fold.

Another out-of-context funny, this time from Naruto Shippuden...

Click the image for a larger version.

Hat tip to The Unwanted Blog

I don't really watch TV, and haven't for quite a while, but somewhere towards the end of my TV watching existence I remember there was going to be a new Dragnet series with Ed O'Neil. Now that internet TV, cheap slimpacks and BR is making TV a little cheaper and more convenient, I was wondering if any of my TV-watching friends and acquaintances had any thoughts on this series.

Thanks in advance!

I was working on a document to help me decide what order I wanted to do the planets in (in Knights of the Old Republic 2), but AbiWord crashed. The reason this is a significant choice is because which order you visit/complete the planets in determines which party members you gain earlier and later.

Well, that's in theory. In actuality, you collect all of your party (except for one mandatory and one conditional character), typically after the intro section and one other planet. While the choice of planets should be important, I've always felt that it's pretty clear what Obsidian intended:

1) You start out on the Peragus Mining Station
2) You travel to Telos Citadel Station; no choice. You now have Atton, Kreia, and T3-M4 available.
3) Surface of Telos; no choice. Bao-Dur is a mandatory addition to the party, plus you have to take him along for this section.
4) North Pole of Telos; no choice. If you are male, you will add Handmaiden after leaving Telos.

Those four stops are all linear and mandatory.

You may now travel to Nar Shadaa, Dantooine, Dxun/Onderon, or Korriban.

Which NPC's can you add at/from each planet?

5) Dantooine - Disciple can be added to your party if you are Female; instead of Handmaiden. I don't believe he is mandatory in any way, nor must you complete the planet story to get him.

6) Nar Shadaa - During the course of the "final act" of Nar Shadaa, you will add Mira (Light Side/Neutral) or Hanhaar (Dark Side) to your party. Upon completion of the final act, you will add G0-T0. You can also complete HK-47 after finishing Nar Shadaa.

7) Dxun/Onderon - Mandalore is a mandatory addition to your party before entering the plot door from Dxun to Onderon.

Korriban - Nothing.

Onderon 2 - Nothing.

Dantooine 2 - Nothing.

End Game - Nothing.

Plot character - Visas Marr will arrive on your ship after you become clearly Light Side/Dark Side AFTER you travel to another OPEN PORT, leave your ship and re-enter it. For most players this will occur on the second free planet they visit. (unless you're strictly playing neutral)

So assuming you want to get each character ASAP, you can do the planets in the order listed above. You don't have to finish Dantooine if you're female, and if you're male, you can skip it entirely in favor of a direct trip to Nar Shadaa.

The conflicting issue: Influence.

KotOR 2 added the game mechanic of influence. You can gain influence with your party members in order to learn more of the back story, learn about each character's personal story, gain skill and ability increases for yourself and the NPC party members, and turn several of them into Jedi. I don't want to get into an influence guide, but there are a couple of salient points that affect who you take to which planet.

Mira, Handmaiden, Disciple, Hanhaar and Visas can nearly or completely max out on influence through conversations and actions on the ship. If you need extra influence, they are all most influenced on Dxun/Onderon.

Mandalore gains most of his influence on Onderon, where he is a mandatory party member. Like all of the dark side NPC's, there are also several people in the game that you can murder for influence. However, Mandalore is broken and you CANNOT max influence with him. What you get from Mandalore is a significant piece of the back story and stat bonuses.

Bao-Dur has no conversation influence options, he must witness you performing good deeds. He is most influenced on Dxun/Onderon, but also shares several influence points with the others on Nar Shadaa, and has a unique influence point on Dantooine. It is possible for Bao-Dur to "break" and become unavailable.

Atton has a couple of influence points while he is forced into the party, plus you have to take him off the the ship on Nar Shadaa at least once. You then have to navigate a conversation map with him to finish out his influence and story. I think you have to complete Nar Shadaa first, but I'm not sure.

Atton, Bao-Dur, Handmaiden and Visas share several influence points on Nar Shadaa and Dantooine. You must have ONE of these NPC's plus Kreia in your party.

HK gains the most influence by witnessing you threaten and murder innocents.

GoTo as well, to some extent; but more importantly he has several plot related doors.

T3-M4 has a few influence points in the early game and on the ship, but is most influenced by your ability to upgrade him. You need a computer skill of 15 and a repair of 20, if I remember.

GoTo, HK, Hanhaar and Mandalore are all evil. You must do things that will result in Dark Side Points in order to gain influence with them. Very easy if you're evil, go find a list of killable NPC's and go to town.

Handmaiden, Visas and Mira can all be maxed out through conversation (I think...or close to it) but (I think) all of them have "level gates". I know you can't finish out your story with Handmaiden until you reach level 18, regardless of how much influence you have with her. I think the same is true of Visas and Mira.

You must seek out some influence points for Bao-Dur, as you can't influence him via conversation. He has either a location gate or a level gate himself, although I'm not sure what it is.

Kreia - I think you can get all of the influence you need through conversations. Just always agree with her. If you have her in your party, there are several places that will gain you influence with Kreia while losing influence with the other party member, and vice versa.

So, the influence guide would seem to indicate the order listed above.


So what's the problem?

Nar Shadaa is almost half of the game. Doing it second, after the railroad of the the introductory sequences, is a major drag. To be sure, I went to Nar Shadaa after Telos the first time I played the game, but this time I got so bored by the time I was halfway through NS that I reloaded from an earlier save and went to Dxun instead. The problem now is actually an obvious one: I'm now getting 3 characters one planet later than I would otherwise. Since I'm playing light side, and two of them will be evil, only Mira is a possible loss. But we'll see. Getting Mandalore early isn't really much of an advantage. Taking Bao-Dur and Handmaiden along on Dxun/Onderon, however has definitely maxed Handmaiden's influence and I think has maxed Bao-Dur's as well.


So, basically, unless you do the game in one particular order, you only make things harder for yourself.

I'd be glad to hear from others who have played the game regarding what order they did the planets in and what they think about it.

Don't kid yourself. Sure, you might have thought Copenhagen didn't count because that was a conference of politicians. If you don't have a global warming/severe climate change advocate available, you can read through this post and these comments at Information Dissemination, which normally confines itself to Navy and General Defense news.

Thankfully, Gahlran offers a decent post that may quiet some of the more severe comments. The biggest problem with almost all of the severe climate change/global warming international agreements is that there is no serious enforcement or verification. Many of the chief nations involved, especially China, will not sign on if they are required, in any enforceable way, to comply with the agreements. And as much as some of these people run down the U.S., the United States is far more likely to keep it's promise voluntarily.

Of course, it doesn't help that so many of the severe climate change/global warming advocates refuse to acknowledge that some of the data and procedures used to justify their beliefs are suspect, and were BEFORE Climategate. Never mind that a lot of the data used has always been used out of context, is unverifiable, or lends itself to multiple or contradictory conclusions from what are claimed. There is an imperative for quality custodial care of our planet and all it's systems. Unfortunately, the alarmists are preventing it by not taking the subject seriously.

No, not what you think. With few exceptions, the "holidays" aspect of the Fall and Winter is a stress-reliever for me. What I'm referring to is that my financial year usually starts in March, April or May; and ends in December. I start getting some income in December. So, the period from November to the end of the year is filled with making every dollar count. Plus, you never "really" know how good a job you did during the year until this final huge, expensive effort.

The amount of work that goes into a harvest and all of the stress mentioned above means, as I posted last year, that I don't really have a lot of time for posting...and when I do, I don't feel like it. I don't want to just do more re-posting from other blogs. I like to try to keep blog mentions confined to other bloggers' original work rather than contributing to another round of viral videos. OTOH, Wonderduck comes up with some of the more unique and entertaining examples I've seen, there are currently two good videos on his front page.

So, just to force myself, I'll just run through some randomness.

Recently found the Let's Play Archive. This particular LP got me wanting to play KotOR 2 again...he made the game sound pretty good. As I tweeted recently; though, I actually think the writing is WORSE in 2 than in one. Different, yes. The story certainly has the basis for something MUCH deeper and more complex than KotOR. Unfortunately, the writer(s) didn't know what they were talking about half the time. Obviously, somebody made it through the first chapter of the Pop Guide to Chaos Theory and a Psychology 101 primer, but missed out on War Strategy and Tactics That Anyone Can Understand and Principles of Leadership: A Common Sense Approach. Then there are the "moral choices." Bioware games and western RPG's in general have become well-known for their "black and white" moral choices. KotOR 2 was made by Obsidian rather than Bioware, and a lot of players felt that Obsidian did a better job of making those choices more like "multiple shades of gray." I don't see it, myself. Most of the choices are still "Save/Eat Puppy", they just word them differently. Most of the "gray" choices are actually railroading by the plot...which is to say, rather than "Save/Eat Puppy" you get to choose "Eat Puppy Now/Eat Puppy Later." See, the writer(s) don't really give you a lot of freedom in "defining" your character. Sure, you can level and play your Jedi as Light/Dark Side, Neutral or Insane; but KotOR 2 goes well beyond KotOR's "this is who you are and what you did, now what are you going to do?" KotOR 2 says, "this is who you are, what you did, why you did it, who you did it with and for, and what you thought of them. Now what are you going to do? Oh, and you're still mad about this, so you should probably choose A, and even though we've made it perfectly clear to you repeatedly, and you have high intelligence and wisdom, you don't really understand B, so we'll just fill in "duuuuuuuuuuuh" for that answer.

And so on.

End the end, it still comes down to "side with/kill bad guy". But there's so much arrogance and ignorance in the story, and the frequent Character Development railroading make the game less enjoyable than KotOR...at least to a certain degree. On the other hand, the story IS more complex...not better, just deeper. The game is bigger, the mechanics are a little better, the crafting system is much improved, and the animations and graphics are much better. On the third hand, the rushed development time means that something like 20% of the game got cut before release, and you see a lot of the resultant broken bits still in the game. I don't bear any hard feelings about that, though...13 months is not enough time to develop a game like this.

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I'm just about tired of my iPhone. Getting sick of what I can't do with it. It's a decent multimedia phone, but it just can't compare to a full smartphone with better desktop integration. Add to that the number of ways that Apple WON'T service the phone, and the dreaded iTunes. Think I'll switch to THIS.

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Thought about playing Dwarf Fortress. Got over it.

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Can't think of anything else, right now. Although this is good:

Checked google webmaster tools. By far the most popular page on my site now is the post I did about the Stephanie from Lazytown bed; i.e. "Pedobed".
Which means either tons of pedos are visiting my site and leaving disappointed, or I've been turned in by worried mothers. If you never hear from me again, this is the most likely reason.

Saw this linked in two places yesterday. Warning: while funny, this video does contain political commentary.