Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, I've stopped becoming annoyed at long delays. Instead, I think about all the cool stuff that will be added because of the extra development time. The thing that's had me most excited about Twilight Princess, from the very beginning, has been how huge the world is supposed to be. And especially after reading Nintendo Power's Inside Zelda series of articles, where they interview various people working on the game, that excitement has really grown. From all I've heard, they've really been making the most of the extra time, to add a lot of explorable area as well as fine tuning the details to make each area as atmospheric as possible. I'm really looking forward to wandering around Hyrule once more.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I don't even bother looking at any date a retailer gives out. They're usually just wild guesses. But yeah, the most Nintendo has said is that TP will be released around the same time as the Revolution. Which they've said they're going to try to release around Thanksgiving. So I'm guessing some time in November. TP will still be a GCN game. They've hammered that point into the ground ever since the latest delay. It'll just be able to make use of the Revolution's controller if it's played on a Rev.[/color]

[QUOTE=Dagger]My post won't follow the same format as most of the rest of the thread, since I just wanted to say that I thought this [url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0308_060308_spider.html][u] short article[/u][/url] was quite interesting. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the spider's body structure--even with the labeled photograph included, it doesn't totally make sense to me. Pretty interesting stuff, though. ~Dagger~[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]o_O It looks like it has the abdomen of a spider, the thorax of a praying mantis, and the legs of a grasshopper. . . . The platypus of the arthropods? And I'll also vouch for dragonflies biting when handled. They don't care if they're just sitting on you, but hold one in place and you'll find that sucker chomping down on your finger. Not that it hurts much--at least not from the common Darner dragonflies. Now, when I caught an alligator lizard and it latched onto my finger, that hurt. . . . But that's a different subject.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Well, at least it didn't affect me, then. I hadn't played since the previous night so everything was as I left it. Which is good, 'cause I got an ecto on that UW run, and I would've been pissed to lose it. Pre-reqs for joining Fifteen Over Fifty? If I understand things correctly, you basically just have to not be an asshat like so many other players out there. The guild leader is Carinae Dragonblood, and two of the officers are Savio Striator and Unien Aule. I know Savio and Unien the best, so if you whisper one of them and mention you're a friend of mine and interested in joining, they'd probably let you in. Or if not right away, if you come along for an UW/FoW run or something so they can see you're a competent player, probably after that. I'll probably be playing tonight as well, so maybe I can weasel you into a group if people are around to do something. :p[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Hmm, rolling the game back to before the error happened. I wonder if that means people won't get to keep the stuff they bought during that hour during in which the traders were reset. I was going to say I wished I was online at the time, to stock up on dye and materials, but it may not matter. But yes, the social interaction was what I was missing as well. Going out and killing stuff, even just to farm for greens, or ecto, or shards, or whatever--it's a lot more fun when you're doing it in a group of people you know, with random banter flying around the team channel in between target calls. You just don't get that from random PUGs, and with there never being more than three people online at a time, it wasn't happening in the QKT like it used to. I think, though, a lot of people that used to play have just lost interest in the game. Ether that or, in the case of Alex and Adam (Saya on OB here), left in favor of a more PvP oriented guild. Maybe if people get Factions and start playing again, activity will pick up, but I can't see much else helping in that regard. Which makes me kind of sad, because I remember having a lot of fun playing together with Mitch, Warlock, and others that used to be around. So I hate to say it but I've been having more fun with GW since joining Rare than I've had in quite a while. We've done several runs into the Fissure of Woe, as well as an awesome Underworld run last night. Those areas can be hell when you're trying to get through them with a PUG, but they're tons of fun when you've got a good group of friends.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Hmm, looks like there's still server/database troubles happening on theOtaku/myOtaku. If you give me your myOtaku username I think I can attach the account manually though.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The really crazy thing, if you ask me, is that 500 PMs is only 1/40 of the total number you're allowed to save. I wonder if anyone's ever even had that many pass through their PM boxes, let alone be saved at one time.[/color]

[QUOTE=Charles]I'm disappointed. lol I thought you were going to link directly to that image. Man, it's been at least a couple years since I've seen that thing. I should really do a new one since my photoshop skills are much better now.[/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]I didn't feel like uploading it before, but if you insist. . . .[/color] [center][img]http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/7838/desbrekolink3gz.jpg[/img][/center]

[color=#4B0082]Okay, now that I can do something about. You should be able to view 500 messages per page now. . . . I really hope you don't need any more than that. lol Not the best solution, but it can't hurt anything, and it helps a bit.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I would be all for more GvG except that, while the QKT has a good number of members, most of them haven't signed on in a month or more. I don't think I've seen anywhere close to eight members on at the same time in months. Which kind of led to yesterday's developments, which I figure I should post here as well as in game to let people know. I ended up leaving the QKT. Yeah, I know, I had a lot of fun in the guild, but its activity dropped off so much than I've just been playing with henchies or PUGs (pick up groups) 90% of the time for a good while now. Which, while it's still fun, is just not what I'm looking for in the game. Signing on day after day to see that, "Oh, I'm the only one online," gets old. So while I'm plenty interested in partying with friends from OB here whenever you guys are playing, I'd like to get more out of the guild I'm in. So I joined the guild Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare] which was made by some friends I'd met in game a while back while doing Sorrow's Furnace runs. (The name refers to the elusive "Damage +15% while above 50% health" mods on weapons.) It's actually very similar to the QKT, only with more active members. Main focus seems to be on PvE, though we still do some PvP, which is just how I like it. And everyone I've talked to in it has been nice and friendly. I think I'm going to be happy with this guild. ^_^ Be sure to add me (Arik Desbreko) to your friends list, then, to see when I'm online. I've added people from the QKT to mine--or at least those who are still somewhat active. And send me a whisper if you're interested in doing something together. I can even still join you guys for GvG through guest invites, if enough members get online to do it.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I don't think this is possible with the current software as it is, but there might be a hack or something out there. Something to look into when we revamp the site. Anyway, I can't test this myself as I only have 31 PMs spread across four folders right now, but you might be able to change the number of PMs displayed per page. Have you tried tacking on "&perpage=50" or whatever to the end of the page's URL, like you can do with threads? That would at least make searching with the browser easier.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Hah! I love the image used for the QKT entry. (No, not just because I happened to take the screen shot.) Absolutely perfect! I gotta say, this was worth the wait. The table layout with the graphics really sets things off and makes it a lot of fun to scroll through and see each entry. Everyone and everything mentioned definitely deserves to be there. Well, maybe not so much my, "People who misspell my screen name," one, but I'm happy that I've managed to continue my tradition of getting funky nominations into the final results. . . . Congratulations to everyone who got a mention, both here and in the nominations--and thanks to everyone who nominated me! . . . . . . :triforce: [b]I AM LINK IRL![/b] Recognize my niftiness! :triforce:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Actually, Nintendo never gave a release date after it was delayed. They just said they'd be waiting until after the 2005 fiscal year, which ended in March. So April was just assumed by a lot of people. Funny thing is, this is exactly what happened with Ocarina of Time. It was slated for a November 1997 release. Then it got delayed and was rumored to come out in March/April. Then it was finally released in November 1998.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I did some hunting around and turned up little for results. The only thing I can figure is that the posts or the threads that the posts were in got deleted. I do vaguely remember some little fad with taking/giving souls going around quite a while ago. Similar to the OB marriages thing, really. . . . I think it may have been related to posts in the Newbie Lounge. If so, that might explain why you're missing posts, if you had posted in there any decent amount. The forum got deleted, so everything in it went away.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]There really aren't any limits in terms of number and sizes of songs that you can embed into an RPG's thread. But out of common courtesy to people with slower connections, it's a good idea to keep your files from being too huge and to keep the number down. As for how to embed a music file, that requires a bit of HTML, so you can't do it with vB tags. This is the code you'd use: [code][/code] Obviously you'd put the URL of your sound file in place of the midi/mp3URL bit. The width and height attributes set the pixel dimensions of the player toolbar that will be displayed; 175x16 is what I usually use. It's also common courtesy to set autostart to false so that music doesn't start blaring out at people unexpectedly. Loop is pretty self explanatory, and the volume setting just determines what the volume will start out as; people can still change it through the player's little toolbar. One thing to note is that you [i]do not[/i] want to use the hidden="false" attribute in the embed tag. I've seen this mistake made a lot, and it just screws up the display of the player toolbar in some browsers. The default setting is for the toolbar to be displayed, so unless you're using hidden="true" (which you shouldn't be, because then people have no way to start/stop the music), there's no reason to include the hidden attribute.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Final Fantasy IV Advance has been out for a while now, but 1) it's awesome enough to keep its hold on my banner for a while yet, and 2) I haven't thought of anything to replace it. :p Though Metroid Prime Hunters or New Super Mario Bros. might just do the trick. I made the banner myself, using a scan of some official art of (from left to right) Kain, Rosa, and Cecil that was featured in Nintendo Power as well as the game's official logo. Add some drop shadows to reproduce the white glow seen on the game's box, some shadows behind the logo to make it stand out against the background, and voila. It's not exactly a complex banner, but I like simplicity in web graphics. I've also got a couple links down below that which lead to OtakuFiles, a site of mine dedicated to keeping records of some of OB's best content and moments. Unfortunately, I'm horribly lazy when it comes to keeping web sites up to date, so it's kind of dead for now. The second one is a link to my DailyOtaku thread, which is a series of articles that I write from time to time on the [strike]completely true[/strike] scandals of OtakuBoards. Simple and to the point is how I like my signatures.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Anywhere HTML is enabled (such as the Adventure Square), yes, you're able to embed midi/mp3 files into your posts. Though like images, they have to be relevant to the post. So you can't embed a song into your posts in, say, the Web Site Workshop just to have it there. Anywhere HTML is disabled, well, it's disabled for a reason. That would be to prevent people from embeding who knows what in their posts. And one of the most apparent reasons for that is, as already mentioned, to make the site actually viewable by people on 56k connections. Not everyone can load a 3 MB mp3 in only a minute's time. Or, if you mean uploading songs as attachments, like you can do with images and text files, I think it's pretty safe to say that'll never happen. In order to make the feature anything but worthless the attachment file size limit would have to be drastically increased. And that would mean hosting a lot more stuff on the server, as well as a lot more bandwidth--and money, because bandwidth ain't free--being expended in serving up those attachments. OB is a message board, not a file hosting service.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I once looked up and down the first page of the Anime Lounge about five times, searching for a thread. Failing to find it, I had to resort to using the search function when it was, indeed, on the first page. So don't feel too bad.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]1) Please check [url=http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/game/920607.html][u]GameFAQs[/u][/url] before posting for help here. 90% of the time game questions are posted, answers can easily be found there. 2) We've already got a thread for DMC3, which you can find a link to in the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=46746][u]Play It Thread Directory[/u][/url]. If you still require help after checking GameFAQs, or if you just want to talk about the game, please use that thread. Thread Closed[/color]

[color=#4B0082]The idea of the world crashing when/if the natural oil wells run dry sounds a lot like people saying similar things about Y2K, if you ask me. It's not as if there aren't [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization][u]alternate ways[/u][/url] of producing oil, other than drilling it out of the ground. As it becomes less and less cost effective to drill for oil, other sources will become more and more viable. We're already seeing that as less efficient resources, such as tar sands and oil shale, are being exploited as they become cost effective. As the technology improves, and the efficiency of exploiting the natural sources declines, synthetic production of oil will increase. Or we'll come up with a viable alternative to oil and the whole issue will become moot. But I'm not holding my breath on that one.[/color]

[QUOTE=Tigervx][FONT=Arial][COLOR=Teal] Warning: Serious Rant on Social Issue ahead. ... [/rantend][/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]o_O . . . [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Japanese][u]It's a song[/u][/url], you know. I'm pretty sure that's what the title was refering to. Myself, I've some interest in learning to speak/read Japanese. I was even planning on taking first semester Japanese along with trigonometry last semester until I realized there was no way I'd have time for both along with my normal high school work. (Trig as a three unit class was deceptive; it ended up taking way more actual time than intermediate algebra, which was five units.) And I might still take it once I've graduated and am actually in college. My motivation for wanting to learn it? To be able to watch anime without subtitles and read the text of imported video games, of course. :p And I guess there's also the fact that it's the only foreign language I've ever had any interest at all in learning. I like my English, I do. As for what I actually know, that would be only a few words here and there that I've picked up from anime. But I haven't really pursued the interest, so I have no idea how to correctly string them together into phrases/sentences, heh.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]At first, when I was using Daisy in the Dry Bomber, maybe a seven? I was mini-turboing only once, if at all, around most turns, with no snaking. It's hard to put something like that into a numbered scale. And on the other hand, without snaking, I can concentrate fully on taking the turns as sharp as I can, so there's a bit of a trade off. On some of the later rounds, when I was using other characters/karts like Wario, I was playing as best or nearly as best I could. Mainly because I had to, since I hadn't played on those characters in a long time. And I'd be very interested in how you're able to dodge spike shells, Howls. I might be able to see how it could be done with certain items (maybe boosting with a mushroom just after the shell has circled and is about to drop), but I wouldn't think a mini-turbo would be sufficient to get you out of the blast radius in time. Or am I way off, and there's just some movement trick that'll throw the shell off your path? If anyone's looking for friend codes of people at OB here, by the way, we've got a running list in [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=50458][u]this thread[/u][/url].[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Heh, got it registered now. I look forward to [strike]shaming[/strike] racing you. :toothy: And yeah, I've actually gotten three stars on every cup in every engine class of grand prix mode. It didn't take me as long as expected; maybe five days, with two of those being spent on 50cc and 100cc. But it was a while ago, so I can't quite remember. Once I found my prefered character/kart combination, the hard part was avoiding getting screwed by spike shells on the last lap of races.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Sure, I guess I'll post my record. I barely ever play over the WFC except among friends, though. Seems like whenever I'd play regional/worldwide, matches would be ruined by people disconnecting. Or when I'd play rivals, matches would be determined almost entirely by who got the best items because everyone was at the same skill level. Wi-fi good, broken items and quitters bad. :( WFC Name: Desbreko Win/Loss Record: 38/8 Win Percentage: 82.6%[/color]

[quote name='Dai Grepher']I also have the storyline differences, as well as the many level differences and how Zero Mission was made to be more basic and plain than Metroid.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Well, yeah. But like I said, it was necessary to tweak Zero Mission's story in order to fit in the extra content after you beat Mother Brain. Things, both in storyline and level design, are rarely ever exactly the same as the original. If they were, it would be a port, not a remake. There is a difference between those two, and I don't think anyone's ever argued that Zero Mission is only a port.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']The second interview with Sakamoto shows that he considers storyline consistency very important. Also, how can you be so sure that these are inconsistencies and not intended differences to show that Zero Mission is a unique adventure? It is more likely that the developers made the Mother Brain pod look as it did in Zero Mission so that it could not be compared to Super Metroid's destroyed Tourian or Metroid's Tourian. The fact that the area beneath the brain pod was undamaged by the blast shows that it cannot possibly lead into Super Metroid. There are too many differences for these all to be mistakes or cases where they simply disregarded how Tourian should look in Super Metroid. Even if they had not made Tourian to look that way before the explosion, they could have made it match Super Metroid after the explosion.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Consistancy in a bigger sense, yes, I'm sure he considers important. But the tiny details you're bringing up would probably never even occur to the average player. Heck, out of all the people who've played Prime, how many do you think even read that Fall of Zebes scan? Or if they did read it, how many stopped to think about its relation to the rest of the series? Probably only a very small percentage, because Metroid is primarily about action and exploration, not storyline. A lot of people aren't going to stop to read every scan that isn't necessary for the completion of the game. Some of your points about the inconsistancies are valid, but they're so minute, I don't think they really count as significant evidence.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']Well that is not exactly fair. A Link to the Past did not have to follow any certain map layout because it was a new game and a new adventure. Zero Mission would have, or should have as a remake of Metroid. Plus, the alternate dimension argument does not really have a basis. Zero Mission being a prequel relies on other proof to support the idea, and as a prequel it explains why the maps do not match without blaming it all on the developers.[/quote][color=#4B0082]I think it is. The two situations aren't exactly alike, but the underlying argument is very similar in both. You're arguing that there are differences in the map between Zero Mission and Metroid, so they can't be set at the same time; one must've been set after the other, and in time the map changed. In my example, Zelda's map is vastly different from A Link to the Past's. Now, LttP is known to be set a good while before LoZ, but lakes and forests don't just get up and walk to the other side of a country, even in a few hundred years. So it's impossible to reconcile the maps being different besides by saying, "The developers wanted to change things up." So in the same way, I'm saying the developers wanted to change things up in Zero Mission--to remake the game, rather than simply port it -- in order to provide a fresh experience while still staying within the basic framework of the original game. If you look, there are actually a lot of similarities in the map layouts of Metroid and Zero Mission, there's just been so much added to make the game play better, it's hard to recognize sometimes.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']That is not true. The first statement says that Samus first battled the Metroids on Zebes. The next states that it was on Zebes that Samus defeated Mother Brain. So there is nothing in those statements that imply that these two events happened in the same timeframe. In reality, the first sentence is describing the setting and the second is describing the event and time.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Yes, yes it is. I'm sorry, but if I said, "I first ate a hamburger at McDonalds. It was there that I discovered my love of french fries," no one is going to think I'm talking about two separate occasions unless they have some other reason to do so. You have your theory as a reason to think those two sentences in Super Metroid are separate, but a straight reading of the paragraph provides no such implication. I would think this would be especially clear considering Zero Mission as a game was not even in concept at the time Super Metroid was released. As well, I would have serious doubts about a vast backstory for Samus already having been developed at that time. So within that context, it would make perfect sense for the two sentences to be refering to one previous mission, and one only.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']However, the second interview I quoted from Sakamoto states that he worked closely with Retro on Prime to make sure the storyline stayed consistent with Metroid. Why would he then throw all of that hard work away by remaking Metroid to be completely inaccurate with the facts? You are also suggesting that Sakamoto's idea of Zero Mission would have to be different from what Metroid has always been. Why do these inconsistencies have to be cases of where Sakamoto wanted something other than consistency, and why couldn't he find a way to work around the facts? Also, why couldn't he simply make a storyline that matches Metroid Prime? I do not think that gameplay is that important. After all, storyline comes before level design. Even if it did not, story can be created to make the levels and events flow together consistently. Also, if gameplay is more important than storyline and is going to make a story inconsistent, then why not just make a new story to fit the gameplay and call it a new adventure (which is what happened, in my opinion)?[/quote][color=#4B0082]Again, I think he cares about plot consistancy in a bigger sense, such as making sure Prime didn't conflict with the overall timeline. (As an extreme example, making sure it wasn't set after Fusion, as that would be a huge inconsistancy.) I doubt developers have the time or resources to pour over every small little detail in order to make sure everything lines up from game to game. Development time isn't free, and for something that a vast majority of gamers aren't going to notice, why bother? Little things like what you've mentioned don't affect sales, and at the end of the day, that's what matters. As for making a new story to fit the gameplay, that is kind of what they did. That's part of what makes the game a remake. A whole new game would feature a lot more changes than Zero Mission does.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']So "The full story of Samus Aran's first mission finally unfolds..." from Zero Mission and "Samus had completed numerous missions..." from Metroid does not indicate a prequel to you?[/quote][color=#4B0082]Maybe if I didn't realize that it's PR hype aimed at the average gamer who has no idea Samus has completed numerous missions before the original Metroid. The fact is, Metroid was the first mission that we, as gamers, saw. And that's all most gamers are going to remember; thus, they remember it as Samus' first mission as well. It's not technically correct, but it doesn't confuse people either.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']Wait, so if you only regard in game events and text, as well as some manual text, then what makes you think that Zero Mission is a remake in the first place?[/quote][color=#4B0082]Because of the fact that the game progresses nearly exactly the same as the original Metroid, only with improved gameplay mechanics. Even the in-game storyline is very similar to the original Metroid's, it just has some tweaks to accomodate the added content.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']What about the fact that Ridley is the pirate leader in Zero Mission but Mother Brain is the pirate leader in Metroid? Those are both storyline differences that would be inconsistencies if Zero Mission were a remake. What about Mother Brain being reactivated in Metroid, as Metroid II's prologue states? What about all of the differences between the level designs of Zero Mission and Metroid? Why are there so many new areas, or areas taken out?[/quote][color=#4B0082]For the Ridley thing, I think that got changed to reflect Ridley's role in every other game in the series, short of maybe Fusion. In Super Metroid and Prime both, he was the leader of the space pirates. So I'd think they changed it to be consistant with that. But either way, it's a minute detail like all the others that most people aren't even going to be aware of--heck, even I didn't know about that one. As for Mother Brain, "reactivated" implies that it was dormant and got powered back up or whatever. If it had been destroyed, the space pirates would have [i]rebuilt[/i] Mother Brain. Therefore, the space pirates could've found Mother Brain laying dormant, then reactivated it, setting into motion the events of Metroid. The level design, I've explained already: A remake will not be exactly the same as the original. There will be changes, to provide a fresh experience within the basic framework of the original. Which is exactly what Zero Mission does.[/color] [quote name='Dai Grepher']Thank you for the compliment, and for reading and replying.[/quote][color=#4B0082]Always fun to have a good discussion like this.[/color]