> I'd take FFIII on SNES over FFX on PS2 anyday!:)
Heh, I think you mean FF6. Just cause Square of America can't count (or develop, Secret of Evermore ugh) doesn't mean we have to submit to their ickiness.
Hmm, I really liked FF7 a _lot_ tho. I still think it's the best FF ever made, especially with all the minigames and the really nice art (not shiny stuff, which it had too, but the art art, like some of the backgrounds in the Ancient Capital [drool]). The only nasty thing about it was how Square was so fond of telling people how great it was that the game took up 3 CDs, when in fact the game itself occupies only a few hundred MB and is on every CD, and the rest is used up by FMV.
Yes, and IF is some of the most substantial gaming there is. I've actually been surprised by plot twists in a few particularly good IF entires at the annual competitions.
Hmm, the part about continous rexpulsion, doesn't that seem a bit like 100% efficiency? And, if I remember correctly, isn't that _impossible_?
Assimilate this. (also from First Contact).:-)
Hmmm.... this is indeed offtopic, but I'm curious
about one thing: is this intended to be ironic
or is it just you being an idiot?
To summarize the above message : "Peace-loving
people will only be safe when we've killed
all the peoples of country x, y, and z." Anyone
else seeing a contradiction?
Take a look at MindRover, it's the niftiest strategy game ever.
In the game, you design these little (computerized)1-foot-long robots called rovers. BTW, these aren't pansy glorified RCs, like in *cough*Comedy*Central*BattleBots*cough*, but rather, actual fully programmable robots. You cannot control your rover directly once the battle has started, but must rely on your programming to guide it.
Not only can you use MindRover's UI to generate code for the rovers' AIs, but you can also directly program them in an actual cross-platform (though rover-specific) signal/slot programming language called ICE. As opposed to a special multiplayer mode, all you need in order to battle any two or more rovers is a regular method (such as email, IRC, any P2P chat system, web, ftp, etc) of sending a couple files per bot to the person running the simulation. There are quite a few MR tourney sites, running and re-running battles as new bots come in. This means, it's unlike many other real time games in that you don't have to have a minimum amount of bandwidth in order to play. This is just heaven over my slow suburban 33.6 modem conn.
IMHO, it's a lot more like a real battle then RTS games or TBS games, in that you must prepare your strategy for hours or possibly weeks in advance, even if the battles only last a few minutes. Also, you aren't limited to the specific capabilites that the game gives you, as in just about every TBS and RTS ever made : instead, you are only limited by the physics of the universe that the Rovers exist in. Within that system, you can have bots radio messages to each other, turn and follow arbitrary paths and formations, and even do things normally reserved for real battles, like attempting to calculate projectile vectors.
What all this means is, MindRover is _very_ strategic in that there are tons and tons of different situations your rover could get involved in, and many possible and responses to any situation. MindRover is also quite tactical in that there are any number of different ways to accomplish a given individual task, each with specific advantages and disadvantages.
As an example of one strategy, my personal favorite rover design involes a treaded chassis that rotates at a slight offset (i.e., it moves in a circle and changes it's orientation at the same time). It contains four 10-meter lasers pointed in four different directions, each one connected to a sonar that fires a blip every 0.1 second. If a blip connects to an enemy or a projectile, and said enemy or projetile is estimated to be within the laser's range, the laser fires off. The bot is fine tuned so that by the time a given laser rotates all the way around the bot, it's just finished being recharged. If an enemy or projectile gets too close, it backs away, and attempts to get far enough away to attack it without getting damaged by the blast radius if it explodes. After all this, it still has enough room for one health-kit, and a detector set to use it if the health goes below 30%. All this is done with the largest treaded (as opposed to wheeled or hovering) chassis, 4 lasers, 4 sonar emitters, a medium-power engine and a tread splitter, a health-pack and dectector, 6 or 7 friend-foe-projectile-or-wall filters, a few settable and continual timers, some number comparison functions, 3 close-proximitiy 360 degree radars, and a heck of a lot of virtual wiring to string it all together properly.
You could build this rover yourself, alter a few constants and minor design specifics, and possibly make it much more effective. Or, your design could be completely different. I have actually never seen another rover that involved this very same method, though bits and pieces often co-incide between designs.
Just to give you an idea of all the possible designs, I've seen other rovers designs that follow predesignated paths by navigating between locations, rovers that use rocket launchers on either side and attempt to sweep by the enemy without slowing down enough for them to get a bead, and rovers that move slowly, periodaclly pausing to check for enemies with distance-inspecifc medium-range radars, and in the event of detection, blow the target open with all available lasers simeltaneously while slowly weaving back and forth. And that's just for the open-room battle scearios, which have nothing to do with Capture the Flag, hallway battles, various styles of races and race/battle hybrids, randomly generated maze navigation, team hockey, cops n' robbers, and several other scenarios.
The Windows game is made by CogniToy, and the Linux port (which is compatible with the Windows version, and vice versa) is by our friends at Loki. CogniToy also makes a kit to allow you to export most rover programs onto Lego MindStorms bots, so you can program and fight with actual robots if you can afford the equipment. Only thing this game is missing is an Open Source license, but there are several open games like MindRover that are in development, including one for KDE called BattleBots (no relation to the show) where you actually program your robots in assembly.
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> I'd take FFIII on SNES over FFX on PS2 anyday! :)
Heh, I think you mean FF6. Just cause Square of America can't count (or develop, Secret of Evermore ugh) doesn't mean we have to submit to their ickiness.
Hmm, I really liked FF7 a _lot_ tho. I still think it's the best FF ever made, especially with all the minigames and the really nice art (not shiny stuff, which it had too, but the art art, like some of the backgrounds in the Ancient Capital [drool]). The only nasty thing about it was how Square was so fond of telling people how great it was that the game took up 3 CDs, when in fact the game itself occupies only a few hundred MB and is on every CD, and the rest is used up by FMV.
Nope, it's a real page. Go the regular news.com, search for kazaa, and you'll get that link back.
Yes, and IF is some of the most substantial gaming there is. I've actually been surprised by plot twists in a few particularly good IF entires at the annual competitions.
Hmm, the part about continous rexpulsion, doesn't that seem a bit like 100% efficiency? And, if I remember correctly, isn't that _impossible_? Assimilate this. (also from First Contact). :-)
Hmmm.... this is indeed offtopic, but I'm curious about one thing: is this intended to be ironic or is it just you being an idiot? To summarize the above message : "Peace-loving people will only be safe when we've killed all the peoples of country x, y, and z." Anyone else seeing a contradiction?
No, you're thinking of EarthBound, the niftiest SNES RPG ever. Remember, Franklin Park in Twoson, right before you go to rescue Paula.
Take a look at MindRover, it's the niftiest strategy game ever.
In the game, you design these little (computerized)1-foot-long robots called rovers. BTW, these aren't pansy glorified RCs, like in *cough*Comedy*Central*BattleBots*cough*, but rather, actual fully programmable robots. You cannot control your rover directly once the battle has started, but must rely on your programming to guide it.
Not only can you use MindRover's UI to generate code for the rovers' AIs, but you can also directly program them in an actual cross-platform (though rover-specific) signal/slot programming language called ICE. As opposed to a special multiplayer mode, all you need in order to battle any two or more rovers is a regular method (such as email, IRC, any P2P chat system, web, ftp, etc) of sending a couple files per bot to the person running the simulation. There are quite a few MR tourney sites, running and re-running battles as new bots come in. This means, it's unlike many other real time games in that you don't have to have a minimum amount of bandwidth in order to play. This is just heaven over my slow suburban 33.6 modem conn.
IMHO, it's a lot more like a real battle then RTS games or TBS games, in that you must prepare your strategy for hours or possibly weeks in advance, even if the battles only last a few minutes. Also, you aren't limited to the specific capabilites that the game gives you, as in just about every TBS and RTS ever made : instead, you are only limited by the physics of the universe that the Rovers exist in. Within that system, you can have bots radio messages to each other, turn and follow arbitrary paths and formations, and even do things normally reserved for real battles, like attempting to calculate projectile vectors.
What all this means is, MindRover is _very_ strategic in that there are tons and tons of different situations your rover could get involved in, and many possible and responses to any situation. MindRover is also quite tactical in that there are any number of different ways to accomplish a given individual task, each with specific advantages and disadvantages.
As an example of one strategy, my personal favorite rover design involes a treaded chassis that rotates at a slight offset (i.e., it moves in a circle and changes it's orientation at the same time). It contains four 10-meter lasers pointed in four different directions, each one connected to a sonar that fires a blip every 0.1 second. If a blip connects to an enemy or a projectile, and said enemy or projetile is estimated to be within the laser's range, the laser fires off. The bot is fine tuned so that by the time a given laser rotates all the way around the bot, it's just finished being recharged. If an enemy or projectile gets too close, it backs away, and attempts to get far enough away to attack it without getting damaged by the blast radius if it explodes. After all this, it still has enough room for one health-kit, and a detector set to use it if the health goes below 30%. All this is done with the largest treaded (as opposed to wheeled or hovering) chassis, 4 lasers, 4 sonar emitters, a medium-power engine and a tread splitter, a health-pack and dectector, 6 or 7 friend-foe-projectile-or-wall filters, a few settable and continual timers, some number comparison functions, 3 close-proximitiy 360 degree radars, and a heck of a lot of virtual wiring to string it all together properly.
You could build this rover yourself, alter a few constants and minor design specifics, and possibly make it much more effective. Or, your design could be completely different. I have actually never seen another rover that involved this very same method, though bits and pieces often co-incide between designs.
Just to give you an idea of all the possible designs, I've seen other rovers designs that follow predesignated paths by navigating between locations, rovers that use rocket launchers on either side and attempt to sweep by the enemy without slowing down enough for them to get a bead, and rovers that move slowly, periodaclly pausing to check for enemies with distance-inspecifc medium-range radars, and in the event of detection, blow the target open with all available lasers simeltaneously while slowly weaving back and forth. And that's just for the open-room battle scearios, which have nothing to do with Capture the Flag, hallway battles, various styles of races and race/battle hybrids, randomly generated maze navigation, team hockey, cops n' robbers, and several other scenarios.
The Windows game is made by CogniToy, and the Linux port (which is compatible with the Windows version, and vice versa) is by our friends at Loki. CogniToy also makes a kit to allow you to export most rover programs onto Lego MindStorms bots, so you can program and fight with actual robots if you can afford the equipment. Only thing this game is missing is an Open Source license, but there are several open games like MindRover that are in development, including one for KDE called BattleBots (no relation to the show) where you actually program your robots in assembly.