[Brad]

Originally Posted by drewprops Dellphi said he was UP THERE with you both - he either climbed the ladder or towered up there.

Well that explains THAT.

Also, I'm finally watching SpecMode's videos now (on #2), and I just realized something that makes this whole thing a lot funnier: YouTube's automatic captions.

1:58 a comment to make on Afghan that's what I can make a 2:03 benchmarking Arab Park Mich 2:06 ok etc 2:09 oh you mind that already 2:12 ok I'm not lying at anchor I'm 2:16 I'm just trying to keep her safe from skelton 2:19 house I just got assortment 2:23 kick some things but up 2:27 Pokemon on like

Now I have to go re-watch all of mine with automatic captions.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by turtle Actually I'm good with only the members left standing getting the badge. I think it's cool and wasn't expecting to see that.

Yeah, I'm good with ONLY the survivors getting the badge


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[Elysium]

I'm working on upgrading for the next one.

Finally got around to installing Windows 7 on my second hard drive so I can dual boot on the Hack and max out the hardware. Working on a proper mic and testing out the recording in the next few weeks.

[drewprops]

Crap. Am I going to have to buy a beefier machine just to keep up?


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[Bryson]

I might be in for the next one if it works with my schedule... After July 4th I have a lot more options, and if it's over before 5:30pm PT I'm free and clear...otherwise it needs to be after 9pm PT to work for me, which is far too late for you Easterlings.

[SpecMode]

Originally Posted by Brad Not a bad idea, but I prefer the other idea that someone mentioned in the voice chat (I think) immediately after the game: force MC to generate the 2024x2024 area *before* we even start the game. There are third-party apps that can do that (can't remember the name; I know turtle used one once before to find a mooshroom island in a previous world), but the only question I'd have is would they support the new block types and terrain controls of the weekly snapshots. My guess is no, but it's worth investigating.

I'm reasonably sure the Mindcrack guys do this for each UHC using the latest snapshot, and they don't seem to have any block or terrain issues. Might be worth looking into what tool(s) they're using.

[RowdyScot]

They had a little lag, but nowhere near what we had.

[Elysium]

Go watch Season 16 from Pause. They had crippling lag to start.

[kscherer]

Originally Posted by Brad Also, what did you guys think about the boosted ore settings? I think I mentioned in voice chat after the game that my thought process about that was that having more readily-available ores would allow us all to get better equipped so we could have more interesting encounters. I increased both the spawn attempt count and the maximum spawn height for most of the ores. Yay? Nay? Did you even notice?

Yes, definitely. I say let that be the norm, rather than the exception. What I would like to see (always) is everyone having a roughly equal shot at winning, rather than just being luck of the draw. I HATE that!

The plentiful ore spawns gave everyone an opportunity to armor up and prioritize how much time they spent on strategy rather than hoping for some lucky iron/diamond strike. At the end, everyone had armor, but only some had enchants. This showed the differing strategies and priorities as opposed to who got the luckiest.

I am 100% all-in on this approach!

P.S. I am all for Gerlocian's approach to jumping in and out of the game until the computer lost track of him and he became invisible. I thought this was positively brilliant. Had he been all focused on having to actually *mine* for neat things, there is no way in hell he would have had time for this immensely valuable and forward-thinking strategical approach! I commend him!

[drewprops]

Whammer it was actually Dellphi who went invisible - as I understand it he kept getting kicked from the game and having to log back in and at some point he fell off the player list and wasn't rendered to the other teams.

What I can't figure out is why THEY could see him when we could not. At first I was thinking that being on a team was an arbitrary thing that shouldn't matter, but if you think about it we were each assigned specific colors, which means that Brad had to invoke some sort of command to bestow us with special name tag coloration.

It's somewhere in the plumbing that things got lost.

Edit: I vote for a similar ore setup for the next one.
With the Deathwall™ closing in on us it helps to get a head start. You still have to mine to find some ores worth doing anything with... and we will always make adjustments into the future.


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[kscherer]

Originally Posted by drewprops … it was actually Dellphi who went invisible ...

I thought about that all night and decided, first thing this morning, to edit the post. Alas, some early-rising booger got in here, first!



I might also suggest that we have the UUHC (Ultra ULTRA Hard Core) tournament in which Brad makes ALL of us invisible, then causes the world to compress down to ONE square block.

[RowdyScot]

I have a different strategy to try next time. It will remain a secret, but I am loving how diabolical it is. Involves a little luck and a little extra work, but I want to try it. We could have done it last time, but I dismissed the thought without voicing it.

[turtle]

That's funny, I had the same idea! Or at least an idea that I didn't voice and will now consider for the next game.

[Bryson]

I was wondering if we could get a bit "Hunger Games" here and put a Cornucopia at the centre point to encourage people to attempt to dominate the centre,..might make for more varied gameplay...

[drewprops]

The bad thing about putting bait in the middle is that teams who go for it all likely to engage in unarmored punch fights, resulting in a lot of early deaths and a bit of a letdown for the finale. Plus, if one team (or even one person, if it were just one single item) is now far more powerful than the other teams, which isn't fair either. I guess if we were tired of the format we just played I might be more willing to stray from the format, but I think the last game really hit a good balance to provide interesting final encounters.

And as far as ideas of strategies?
I don't have any ideas at all.
Not a one....




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[kscherer]

Originally Posted by drewprops And as far as ideas of strategies? I don't have any ideas at all. Not a one.... ...

Excellent. We should be on the same team next time. That way, between the two of us we will have exactly zero idea what the hell we're doing!

[drewprops]

!!

My intended sarcasm didn't translate well into text, however, if you don't have any ideas I certainly do


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[Brad]

Originally Posted by Bryson I was wondering if we could get a bit "Hunger Games" here and put a Cornucopia at the centre point to encourage people to attempt to dominate the centre,..might make for more varied gameplay...

I'd thought about that before the big event, but the game function that spreads out the teams doesn't actually spread them in an even radius around a center. Instead it plops them down randomly. So, it's too unfair when you consider that one random team will always spawn closer and be more likely to loot the cornucopia before anyone else. Maybe this could work if I manually placed teams around the map, but then you have the unfair angle of differing terrain. The only way to level the playing field, so to speak, would be to have a completely custom designed map that evenly distributes terrain changes radially out from the origin.

[drewprops]

Part of the fun of the event is seeing how everyone gets kitted out, based on their individual fortunes and risks taken. I think it would be fun this winter, when we all have more inside time, to play an old school style with stationary walls and eternal day. Go watch UHC Season 11 for some terrific battles and lucky breaks.


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[Bryson]

Brad, just as you can tweak ore distribution, can you tweak dungeon/village generation?

[gerlocian]

This is a great conversation, but I have to wonder where the rest of the videos of team purple are?

Spec? I want to see what I did, because I honestly don't remember. Four rum and cokes will do that.

[kscherer]

My child shot a drunk dude?

YES!!

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by gerlocian This is a great conversation, but I have to wonder where the rest of the videos of team purple are? Spec? I want to see what I did, because I honestly don't remember. Four rum and cokes will do that.

The pressure is mounting, Spec!!!!


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[SpecMode]

Gah, sorry folks - quite busy and stressed over here for the last few days. I'll try to get the next clip up tonight, and the rest over the weekend.

[SpecMode]

Welp, my iMac just went unresponsive yet again while I was trying to render the next episode, so there's that. Something is obviously wrong with this system – it's been doing this for the last month or so, and now even after a clean OS install.

Dammit.

[SpecMode]

Performed another round of surgery on the iMac, and reconnected a few things that I accidentally left unplugged last time (camera, IR sensor, AirPort cable).

Running the next episode through Compressor now, and hoping it behaves better this time.

[SpecMode]

It's still processing as of this posting, but Episode 3 has been uploaded without further incident.

Episode 4 is transcoding right now, and I'll upload it later in the morning.

EDIT – Noticed when I tried playing the local Episode 3 file that the aspect ratio of the resulting video is way off – top and bottom edges were cut off and there were ugly black bars on the sides. Cancelled the YouTube upload, fixed it in FCP, and it'll render when Episode 4 is done.

[kscherer]

It's a conspiracy. A conspiracy I say!

[drewprops]

I suspect he's meticulously painting in the unrendered blocks that gave him x-ray vision for the entire game. Between his x-ray vision and Dellphi's cloak of invisibility they were a regular team of MUTANTS. All I'm left wondering is: what was Gerlocian's secret mutant power?


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[gerlocian]

Originally Posted by drewprops I suspect he's meticulously painting in the unrendered blocks that gave him x-ray vision for the entire game. Between his x-ray vision and Dellphi's cloak of invisibility they were a regular team of MUTANTS. All I'm left wondering is: what was Gerlocian's secret mutant power? ...

There are a few depending on who your ask.

My teammates would say I have a legendary ability to find the most efficient way to be ineffective at any given point.
Jess would say I have an almost magnetic attraction to arrows to the face.
Brad would say it was rage. Pure, unadulterated rage.