|
Post by satoh on Jul 23, 2013 17:44:29 GMT -5
The brand name is Monoprice, but the manufacturer is UC-Logic (they provided the drivers and the root technology everything... Monoprice is just a distributor... a very affordable one at that).
I don't have $400 to spend on $70 tech, so no Wacom. Not ever.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 23, 2013 14:10:55 GMT -5
I understand satoh, my point is that almost every fan game is free, mine's free too and it will still be free when finished, I'll never ask for any donation for any piece of software I make; I just don't think it's fair; unless they need the money to buy some kind of software or license that's okay, if they charge for a physical copy it's OK. But that's just my opinion. Sadly that's not how copyright works. Capcom would most likely take offence in someone who isn't them cashing in on one of their IPs, even if its just indirectly. After all you wouldn't be buying the physical media for the physical media's sake and wouldn't support the developer if they didn't make a game you're already kind of involved in. In other words, you wouldn't be buying it if it was a game called 'Superdude Stories 3' or 'Musicalguy HYPHEN 3.' Basically giving money for a fangame is quite literally the same as giving credit to the wrong person on purpose. Granted, I think Capcom deserves every hit they take to their wallet at this point... but there are laws in place in several countries (but not South Korea and some places in China) protecting the rights of the original creators of just about any art or media. (Seriously though, look at a few Chinese MMOs and you'll note that many of them have Megaman, Saber, Shrek, Sonic the Hedgehog, Batman, etc, etc, as characters and none of them have authorization for it... but because they don't recognize copyrights as a thing there, there's nothing that can be done about it)
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 23, 2013 14:01:34 GMT -5
In other news, windows 7 hates tablets. Huh, in what way? :U I rebooted my computer and windows 7 completely replaced my properly installed official drivers with some crappy Microsoft 'catch-all' drivers that are actually for a mouse and only 'simulate' a tablet's functionality... meaning my tablet lost all its useful pressure and angle sensitivity... The same thing happened the first time I installed my tablet... So far the number of times I've had to reboot this PC, -just- for installing and uninstalling tablet drivers, is up to about 17... and that's only two cases of using my tablet. The bad thing is that it seems to be fickle like a tired kitten with the tablet drivers... I used them for a while without issue, then suddenly after a reboot I had to go through a 4 hour process of reinstalling the OEM drivers for the tablet. I say it took 4 hours, I should mention that they only take about 2-5 minutes to actually install... but there's a mandatory reboot after each install or uninstall of drivers... and you can't install drivers and uninstall drivers in a single reboot... meaning: Uninstall, reboot, Install, reboot, test, not working, rinse, repeat. It's working again now... but it really bothers me that windows 7 keeps trying to make my incredibly useful pen into a completely useless fake-mouse. I mention Win 7 specifically... because I had no issues with this tablet on XP. EDIT: Ahem, and also the Win7 and graphics fora were all chock-full of threads about Windows 7 doing this very same thing.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 21, 2013 22:49:17 GMT -5
So that's why they need founds? They could have thought of something less recurrent, and more awesome. I wouldn't pay for that kind of game, that's the kind of fan game that's fun just because it's a free spin off, now if they're asking for donations they could afford to hire better programmers or 3d modelers. I don't think most fangames actually "hire" anyone... I am quite convinced that all 'donations' that go to fangames simply line the pockets of the webmaster. It's one bit of questionable legality to accept donations for a fangame project... It's another thing entirely to actually pay someone to illegally use IP... And it's highly unlikely anyone that actually does said 'hired' jobs would accept a paying job as such... unless they really just don't care or know any better about the legal issues. In the end though, any modeler's product will be rather expensive, (for example, a single gun from a modern game costs around $800 US, roughly. This doesn't account for discount model websites that sell stuff for $5, as that is all amateur work, and a lot of it is worth more than is being charged...) reason being that art is a skill and requires time, just like any other job. More than that, quality art of any type is well above the average person's ability, meaning art is more than a mundane skill, its a special skill, meaning that it is worth more than minimum wage for example. For this reason, it is a very BAD idea to hire anyone to work on a game that you can't sell. You will quickly run out of money and have no way to make it back. Fangames = strictly unpaid work
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 21, 2013 21:48:21 GMT -5
On the subject of Bleucher's 'digging empire,' I suspect that he never went in a single ruin... He was Barrell's Roll basically.... (since they did work together) I suppose that opinion reinforces my original thought...
To me he still seems more like a con artist than a working stiff... Not to say he's evil, but rather his weapons are guile and bluffs while his armor is charisma. He's the type of guy who sells things before they're in stock, and uses the profits to get the things he sold.
A statistician... a stock broker... he doesn't get paid for things he's done, rather, he gets paid, and then does things. He doesn't seem like the sort to blow his entire worth on an iron whale.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 20, 2013 13:27:59 GMT -5
Ok so, I started MML2 again recently and I noticed something...
There's a lot of sponsors on the Sulphur Bottom's stage... There's even more people there seemingly for publicity...
So here's my theory...
Bleucher is a dude who is charismatic and good at stretching a little money over a large area and making it look like a lot...like a roll of 1's wrapped in a 100.
What he did, in fact, is use his modest cash flow in an extravagant way, to lure big companies into sponsoring his expedition, meaning he didn't really pay for much of it at all. He spread some cash on public relations, and waited for everyone else to build his ship for him...
Now, this is all conjecture at this point, but lets look at the things we CAN ascertain about Bleucher... He's personable. People hang on his words and he puts on a good show... He's manipulative. He convinces Megaman and Co. to get the 4 keys for him with no real promise of reward... Barrell seems to recognize this in him as he comments multiple times on how Bleucher is getting them into things that aren't really even their business, and implies that this is a recurring theme.
Sometimes it seems like Barrell doesn't really care for Bleucher... but that could just be the tension of their expedition, rather than a distaste for him completely.
So, what do you think? Is Bleucher really a wealthy man, who spent vast riches on his pipe dream expedition, or did he get someone else to do it and make it seem like it was him? Or is he in fact very rich, and STILL got other people to fund his ship so he wouldn't have to?
Any thoughts? Possibilities I missed?
(It's worth noting that there's nothing inherently bad about it if he DID use other people's money to fund it... I mean, it's just how business works... In order to make money, you must find someone with money to take. Money is finite after all.)
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 18, 2013 22:26:29 GMT -5
Ever notice that the Sulphur Bottom speech lists the Bonnes as one of the sponsors? Next time you boot up MML2, check out the front of the stage, just under the podium. You know, if you're talking about Legends stuff, you really ought to make a topic about it in the Legends sections instead of putting it in this thread where it'll just get buried. That's really the main part of the forum, and we're constantly running out of things to discuss there. eh, I'll keep that in mind... but really it was just a random thought I had. In other news, windows 7 hates tablets. ... Proper tablets, like for drawing and painting, not those giant phones that don't do telephony.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 18, 2013 13:38:49 GMT -5
Ever notice that the Sulphur Bottom speech lists the Bonnes as one of the sponsors?
Next time you boot up MML2, check out the front of the stage, just under the podium.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 18, 2013 13:35:45 GMT -5
I like how you try to stay true to the original themes without going overboard like most remixers do. I like remixes that still sound like they could be used in the game. It may not be in your area, but I'd be interested to see what you could do with Bola and Claymoor's introduction themes... hopefully looping. (It always bothered me that their themes cut off after like 30 seconds)
It seems you really like the Defense Zone... can't blame you on that though. The newest one seems to be the best one.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 18, 2013 0:08:04 GMT -5
so... Cameos... who likes 'em? Who hates 'em? Who likes them but only with the stipulation that they stay in the background as easter eggs?
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 17, 2013 13:23:06 GMT -5
I've always found it strange that when you give Roll the safety helmet (which is, judging bythe context of the game, an ordinary yellow hard hat) she makes a bright blue head-basket with metal and rivets and... glowing ear LEDs...?
What part of that was the original helmet?
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 16, 2013 12:48:48 GMT -5
You are neglecting the fact that no Legends 3 will be "the" Legends 3. As it stands there are, right now, no less than 13 "Megaman Legends 3" games being made. And I'm sure there's more... that's just the ones I've run across.
To put it in even more perspective, the original MML3 looked like it wasn't going to be a fitting end to the series, what with all the focus on "hey look we made edgy looking cool guys and the story's really gonna be about them because Megaman is boring."
Even the character concept behind Barret and Aero was weak... they're part of a hated biker gang that's always edging around the police... for doing... oddjobs...that people genuinely need done... and being... entirely wholesome.... but they do it on BIKES.
That's fine. That's about the same as Amelia being Barrel's long lost assistant and suddenly rising to power over an entire island despite being a totally ineffectual leader who leaves all her concerns to a child. Who is also a stranger. But, oh wait... Megaman Legends didn't have any points where you spent the day running around as Amelia...
What I'm getting at, is that no MML3 to date would ever have ended up being a proper finale to the series. More than that, it's extremely silly to think that a fanmade game -should- ever be a fitting end to the series. Fangames are fanservice by definition, and fanservice is rarely quantifiable as being 'a fitting' anything to a series. It's there to scratch an itch, to amuse you, but not to impress you.
In the end though, this is a discussion about a 2D balls-hard classic MM style game that, while having a pretty tight engine, is not very fun to play and has pretty lousy control dynamics. It looks good, the movement and jumping feel pretty good, which give it some massive points because the number one complaint I have with new platformers is that the jumping utterly sucks 90% of the time, but where it loses those points is that Barret (stepping aside from the point that he's not just an NPC I can ignore) can't hurt practically anything with his shots, including Horokko, which by all rights are some of the weakest reaverbots around... and his punch, which can hurt them, requires you to get right up in touch-damage range just to use it... but you can't, because your damage frames are playing and you can't move.
It's a neat game that shows a lot of work went into it, but its hardly anything anyone should be taking so seriously as to consider it an official end.
This series has survived over 10 years on the merit of 2 PSX games no one's ever even heard of, what are the chances a proper MML3 game would ever be enough?
Megaman 8 was "the end." Megaman X 6 was "the end."
and both of those series continued because people just couldn't let it go...
The difference with MML is that capcom never really -liked- the idea of a 3D action-exploration RPG Megaman. Keiji Inafune is largely responsible for what we love in both of the originals, and I doubt another could ever recapture that even if they hadn't canceled MML3 specifically to spite him. (Because anytime a company has to come right out and say THIS CANCELATION HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INAFUNE QUITTING, you know it has everything to do with it.)
It's pointless to get upset about MML fangames not being what you want them to be, because unless you're making it yourself, it never will be. Slapping the word MML3 on something pretty much means "this is a spinoff."
But anyway I'm getting side tracked again. A 2D MML game is something I've toyed around with in my head many times, though I've never been a fan of the Classic look, mainly because the sprites, even for their time, were ghastly. This game clearly breaks the 8-bit palette, and it probably had to, but it could have been done better, choosing slightly less specific colors for the enemies, rather than gong for the exact ones used on the original textures.
The enemies are somewhat interesting, even though there seem to be only 2 of them. However, they aren't the enemies that we are familiar with despite their appearance. I don't think I've ever been so terrified of Horokko since I tried doing a kick only 0HP run. (that lasted a very short time) The enemies also spawn far too quickly and far too much in the initial area, completely wrecking the difficulty curve, which even the Classic MM games had a handle on. Classic MM had usually 3 enemies on the first screen... this game starts out that way, but before you can kill them, 10 more have appeared, and you'll probably not ever see past the edge of that pink building on the right. One could argue that this is because MM Classic's gameplay is mostly spent trying to cleverly avoid enemies rather than killing everything on the screen, but this is MML. MML gives you rewards for killing things, and therefore it is in your best interest to commit genocide on a ruin.
You could argue that this is not MMClassic and therefor the number of enemies on a screen shouldn't be limited to the NES upper enemy limit... but you'd still be wrong, because even MML had a fair pacing between enemies, with rarely ever more than 3 on the screen at a time, except Mirumijee which are harmless unless you walk right up to them.
You could argue that the lock-on feature should help you eliminate the swarm of enemies, but it doesn't. Most of the time I didn't even know it was there, and even once I did figure it out, it spent most of its time looking onto enemies that are both level with me (thus not needing a lockon to hit) and also immune to my shots.
From an engine aspect I'd give this game a 7 out of 10, with 10 being somewhere below "I would pay for this" and 1 being "Go home and cry in shame" The jumping and movement handle pretty well, but the punching hit detection is atrocious. Lockon is nice, when it isn't just picking a completely random enemy. For the gameplay I'd give it a hesitant 5 out of 10, Its hard to really play a game that has complex controls of a platformer, with the number of enemies in a manic shooter. The controls for the Lockon feature and melee attacks are poorly handled. Lockon should be something I do with my attack hand, rather than my moving around hand. There is no real control over the melee attacks aside from being really close and pressing attack, not that you'll actually hit anything. Visually I'd give it a 7. It is pretty well done, but some of the things just don't look very good, and its not because they needed more bits.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 15, 2013 22:13:55 GMT -5
Your computer needs to be set to Japanese locale. That, or you could use applocale, but that never works for me. Thus, I'm not going to play it... ... ... ... A 2D Classic-styled game, really? Is that the best they can do? I could rant for about an hour, but THIS is not the direction I would expect from a DASH fangame. People should get out of their comfort zone and try making 3D games sometimes. 8-Bit is cool, I grew up with it. I still play a lot of 8-bit or 8-bit styled games... BECAUSE NO ONE IS FUCKING MAKING ANYTHING ELSE! Okay, okay, I'm going to stop. Though I would give it a try if it would work on a regular English Windows. Its not as simple as that... the amount of work involved in making a 3D game is like the work involved in a 2D game squared... You'd be tempted to think that if you can do 2D programming you can apply those same concepts with just 'one more D' but it doesn't work that way. Currently the easiest to use 3D game platform is Unity, and it can be 'balls-hard' (to paraphrase Handlebar-Orion X.) to even make the character move in a straight line without gravity deciding it hates you and the solidity of the floor doesn't matter anymore...and that's before you add jumping. And sure, you can say that sprites take a long time to make, but if you're doing 8-bit you really only need three or four for most things, and almost no one who does this kind of thing is an even slightly decent modeler, and there are no free models worth using either. To put it another way, yes, people should try doing a 3D game once in a while, just to remember that it IS HARDER, and isn't really worth the extra work when you wanted classic Megaman 8-bit anyway. Its also harder to make a 3D game look good, which you might think is backwards... but in the end realistic physics LOOK TERRIBLE for this kind of game, and getting a model or lighting setup to look right takes about as long as making a demo link in the link, unless you've been doing it for years and know all the tricks. That said, it is always nice to see a 3D game someone has made, that looks good and plays well... I just... so far haven't seen one outside of people who already do it for a living. EDIT: and also I had no issues running the demo in applocale. I seriously don't know why it doesn't come standard.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 15, 2013 16:37:57 GMT -5
I fell for the old "Press up+B to increase the chances of catching a Pokemon" rumor back when I was a kid. As it turns out, this was one of those false "Oak-isms" that were published in a gaming magazine, so it's no wonder that stuff like that spread like wildfire: 'Discovered to be false' or not, I still do it, and it still seems to work in the old games. I think it might have something to do with poorly coded random number generators taking input from the keypad, but in the end, every time I down+B'd it seemed to work. Games newer than Red/Blue/(Green) don't have this at all. If you want probably the biggest and most widespread and logical game myths... the "Save Aeris" myth is probably it. There were a lot of reasons it spread and a fair number of bits of info that supported it even... For instance, no one could believe a main character could die at that point in time. Not only that but she did have scenes and dialogue in the game's code for places that you never reach until after her death. Some were even part of the main plot no less. The reason is simple though, she was killed off after those scenes were written, or they didn't know exactly where those scenes were meant to be in the plot, so they stayed. What I think is funny, is that a few games actually DO have game myth as part of their programming... I can't recall which game it is now, but there was a game that had a myth that if you repeatedly talked to one NPC without doing anything else between chats, for about 65 times, he would give you a whole bunch of rare items to quit pestering him... I immediately thought it was a lie... then I found that a number of guides had explored the myth in depth, and sghowed exactly the ways it can and cannot be triggered, and eventually I found a youtube video of it being done, and a disassembly of the code, listing the variable that counts the times you've chatted him... and I think there was even a codebreaker code at one point to set the count to 65... And of course you know the only reason it was in the game, is specifically because it sounded so absurd that no one would actually believe it... I like when companies do this kind of thing. I know I plan to add such pointless things to one of my projects if I ever find the time.
|
|
|
Post by satoh on Jul 15, 2013 14:27:22 GMT -5
Digital distribution has the drawback of being linked directly to your device with the 3DS, meaning if it should break, you have to -buy a new set of games-. There is no floating license server for the 3DS platform according to a bunch of nintendo comments... So basically its like your digital copy IS a physical copy, but its one you can't touch in any way. If anything happens to it, you're out of luck.
I prefer my property to be property.
|
|