Desbreko

[color=#4B0082]If this is going to take a while, I have a question: Why does there have to be a deadline at all? There were challenges similar to this -- the basic, "accomplish this objective in whatever manner you can," sort -- in FF Survivor that just went until all the teams finished, and those were usually my favorite. Racing against a deadline tends to stifle creativity, which is kind of counter-productive in a challenge that's meant to inspire that very thing. And sorry if I'm sounding like I'm trying to tell you how to run your RPG, Sandy. I know I've suggested a good number of tweaks/changes such as the one above, but I'm perfectly willing to go by whatever you decide. ... Just so you know. :catgirl:[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Okay, I've gotten everyone into the guild now. Welcome, and have fun. :) And I've started playing more often again. I started a ranger (yes, again, but I'm not letting my secondary class distract me this time) and played her through pre-searing. She's still there currently, but all that's really left to do is take her to post. I'll probably do that some time tonight. I'm planning on going primarily Wilderness Survival for doing traps, ignite, poison, gas, all that fun stuff. I'll probably throw some interrupts in there too. Ignite Arrows is already lots of fun, and I can't wait till I can pump Wilderness higher and get Lightning Reflexes for the attack speed bonus.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I'm the same -- LttP is my favorite in the series -- but Trinexx seems like it would be harder to work with. More people are likely to be familiar with Volvagia and you see more clearly what its abilities are, so it would probably be the easiest to write about. Or maybe we could go with Aquamentus and really throw people for a loop. :p[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Okay, I like the idea behind this challenge. But as a long time Zelda fan, I have to ask. ... WTF, mates? ^^ Seriously though, Bubble and Bobble? How do they fit in with Zelda? [url=http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7448/zootvolvagia7es.jpg][u]Volvagia[/u][/url], from Ocarina of Time, would be fit so much better. And be more fun to fight, I think, considering it can both fly [i]and[/i] tunnel underground.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Hey, I posted three times this challenge and I would've posted again if not for the fact that it wouldn't have mattered. :shifty: And I know. I wasn't implying that the Adventurers had an advantage in this last challenge, but rather that, as others mentioned, the next challenge should be one that doesn't give any advantage. Since the team sizes will be so off balance.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Well, you don't choose a specific server, but you do have to choose a server region. (There are North American servers, European servers, and Korean servers so far.) Our guild is in the North American region, so when you create your account, you should select that region if you want to join us. Pre-searing is basically the newbie area where new players get acquainted with the game. All the enemies are easy, you can solo everything there if you're careful, there's no penalty for dying, etc. Once you go to post-searing, you can't go back to pre-searing. (As mentioned, time passes in between the two, so you've got a new map that you're on.) And if you're wondering what exactly the "searing" is, you find that out in the process of going from pre to post. You can, however, communicate with whispers (PMs) and guild channel chat without regard to whether characters are in pre- or post-searing. So you could create a character, message one of our officers, join the guild, and be able to talk over guild chat with us even if our characters couldn't meet with yours right away. And as for necros, they can be fun. They're probably my least favorite of the four caster classes, but that's just personal preference; if GW has anything going for it, it's that the game is really well balanced, so each class has its own pros and cons. Some pros for necros, though, would be that they can really screw with physical attackers (warriors especially), they get some nice health stealing abilities, and their primary attribute gives them energy (i.e. mana) whenever something nearby dies. Cons would be that they, like all the other casters, have pretty crappy armor and they only have a few hard hitting, direct damage skills.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, it's a bit discouraging when the same competing team wins three times in a row. But in a game like this, at least towards the start here, I figure that the fat is just going to get trimmed wherever it most needs it. (No offense to anyone that gets voted out, it's just an analogy.) Even if you're in a losing team, you shouldn't have much to worry about if you played well in the challenge. Of course, I don't think any challenges should give advantages to teams with more players. Otherwise, considering that people didn't get to choose who they got teamed with, a really good player could get teamed up with other not-so-good players who get voted out. The good player would then be at a disadvantage which he/she was powerless to stop, and could end up getting voted out regardless of skill. Or, in short, "safety in numbers" shouldn't exist in a game such as this, which ultimately comes down to individual skill.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Nice to see some new faces interested in joining the QKT. I haven't been playing much lately, since I've been occupied with Mario Kart DS (and soon Animal Crossing: Wild World and FFIV Advance), but I'm sure I'll be back before long. I think Brasil (Jade Ashland) is still playing regularly at the moment, though, so if you see him online, he should be able to hook you up with a guild invite. Warlock is also an officer, though I'm not sure if he's active at the moment. Or, if all else fails, PM or IM me some time and I can jump in game for a while.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]I've never really seen the problem with bringing back old threads, provided that both the thread in general and the new post are both still relevant. And if they aren't, I usually just delete the post and send the thread back to where it was in the list. It has the same effect as closing it but without cluttering up the first page.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Can we try and keep the "Favorite FF Whatever" threads to a minimum, please? We already have a few floating around, in addition to the Final Fantasy Fan Thread, and most end up generating a lot of spammy posts that don't adhere to the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=43464][u]Favorite Thread Guildelines[/u][/url] sticky. Thread Closed[/color]

[QUOTE=Solo Tremaine][color=#503f86]Yeah, I was having horrible trouble trying to follow where the heck everyone was. Holes appeared, a river happened, there were ceilings outside...[/color] [color=#503f86][/color] [color=#503f86]Seeing as the last post I read ended up in Mario World, I decided it'd be best to stick with whichever Mario incarnation everyone else was in. Before we know it we'll be on Delphino Plaza. Des must think we're really unprofessional :p[/color][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]:rolleyes: Well, to be honest, it is kind of hard to follow what's going on with the Adventurers. You guys seem to be jumping all the heck over -- literally. Flinging Pacman way far away, then having him back with the rest of the group in the next post with no explanation? Methinks we should all try and work on keeping the plot consistant, if only to make things less confusing. But I don't see anything wrong with bringing in elements from later games in the series. Personally, I chose to stick with a pretty literal interpretation of the original Super Mario Bros. levels (which I, at least, am having fun with), but tossing in stuff from later games could also be interesting. The nice thing about staying within those levels, though, is that you always have a reference point for where people are.[/color]

Samus looked at the single block she had encountered in World 1-3 -- it was empty. Maybe slow and thorough wasn't the best idea here. Jumping from the green platform she was standing on, she activated her space jump boots and jumped again from mid-air, landing on a higher platform. Idly raising her arm cannon, she blew away a paratroopa that had gotten the bright idea of leaping down at her. [i]I don't have time for this,[/i] Samus thought as she leapt up to yet another platform. Not a single block was in sight. Dashing across the platform, not even bothering to stop as she dispatched the goomba in her path, she pushed off at the edge and flipped through the air in a spinning somersault. Jumping through the air again and again with her space jump boots, she bypassed the lower platforms. Two red blips appeared dead ahead on her radar; two more koopas on the next platform. No matter, though -- she had enough momentum built up by now. Landing on the platform in full stride, Samus stopped abruptly and crouched. White light was shining up and down across her power suit as she stood up and grinned at the two koopas approaching her. Jumping forward, she hung in mid-air for a split second, then flew straight ahead, her shoulder block ripping the koopas apart. Looking ahead as she flew, Samus watched as she cleared a wall of stone blocks by a matter of inches. Then -- a flagpole was in her path, and beyond it, a large castle. Snapping the pole clean off, just below the koopa-emblemed flag, Samus crashed through one of the castle's windows before deactivating her speed booster and stopping her flight. Dropping to the ground inside, she quickly took in her new surroundings. The words World 1-4 greeted Samus from the gray brick ceiling. [i]This looks more like a dungeon than a castle,[/i] she thought to herself as she deftly jumped a lava pit. Floor, ceiling, walls, it was all constructed of the same gray brickwork. The only highlights were the spinning chains of fireballs that seemed to be attached to various places along the ceiling and floor. [i]Ah ha,[/i] Samus thought as a question mark block came into view. It floated above a small platform surrounded by lava pits, and below it twirled one of the fiery chains. Taking aim with her ice beam, Samus froze the flames before jumping across to the platform and blasting the block. Out popped a mushroom, which she wasted no time in consuming. Those fireballs wouldn't stay frozen forever. Squeezing through the narrow passage ahead, careful of her new height, Samus froze more of the fiery chains and wondered if this was supposed to be challenging. But then, it was still only the first world. As the passage opened up and she passed what seemed to be the last of the chains, a fireball came flying towards her out of nowhere. Crouching before it could slam into her helmet, Samus reconsidered her earlier thoughts. Morphology: Bowser Imposter A fake Bowser, it posseses all the abilities of the real koopa king. Only fire is capable of penetrating its spiked shell and tough scales.Dashing ahead, Samus leapt over more fireballs while freezing others in her path. Coming to a bridge suspended over yet another pit of lava, she found the source of the fireballs: A giant, spike-shelled koopa that walked on its hind legs. She could already guess the quickest way to get rid of this pest, even without the information from her scan, but she had her own way of dealing with monsters like this. Activating her missile launcher, she took aim, then jammed a super missile straight down the koopa's gullet before it could spit its next fireball. It promptly exploded, covering the bridge in quickly fading green goo. [i]Always with the monster goo,[/i] Samus thought as she stepped off the bridge. At least in this world it had the decency to disappear after a moment. "Thank you!" a strange mushroom-like being greeted Samus as she stepped into the next room. "But our princess is in another castle!" Morphology: Toad Natives of the Mushroom Kingdom, toads are sentient creatures that resemble toadstools. They are usually peaceable and friendly.Samus scanned the strange creature, finally realizing why this place was called the Mushroom Kingdom. "Excuse me?" she asked, not quite sure what the toad was talking about. "Thank you!" it repeated. "But our princess is in another castle!" Samus sighed, having to remind herself that this was an 8-bit world. "I see. Then I'll be on my way."

[quote name='PremierSullivan']I have reason to believe that Ryoga's name is "Ryoga". Some people have been spelling it "Ryouga." I know why this error happened, but I'm not gonna go into the details of Hepburn Romanization. I might be wrong (I only know a little Japanese) so if anyone who knows why "Ryouga" might be more correct, please tell me.[/quote][color=#4B0082]I'd be interested in hearing about that, actually. I've always wondered why there are varying translations -- "Ryoga" and "Ryouga," "Tendo" and "Tendou," and the like.[/color]

[quote name='Doukeshi][SIZE=1']We are -471/\/ on t3h 1337 5|>34

[quote name='Lore][QUOTE=Doukeshi][SIZE=1]Have you exhausted all methods? Now I'm not saying get all kinky and S&M here[/SIZE][/QUOTE][color=#333333][font=trebuchet ms]Not that there's anything [i]wrong[/i] with that.[/color'][/font][/quote][color=#4B0082]Phew. Now that is a load off my mind.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, that's correct. Images are limited to a maximum file size of 1024 KB (i.e. 1 MB), but I've never come anywhere close to having a problem with that. Dimensions don't matter at all if the file size is under that, and they'll keep your image up pretty much forever. Or if they do delete them, I think it's only when they haven't been accessed at all for over a year or so. Oh, and you can't upload porn, but I don't think that's a concern if you're going to be posting the images on OB. So yeah, you should give it a shot. So long as you save the image URLs (I have a text file with all of mine), you have a permanent host for them. Or I think if you actually register, which is also free though I haven't gotten around to it, it'll keep track of all the images you've uploaded. I host all my banners on ImageShack, and you never see them going down, right? :)[/color]

Lingering in the tunnel, Samus motioned for the others to continue on. She'd catch up with them later, but for now she had an idea. There were blocks all around her, some extending nearly to the floor. Surely there was more to this area than met the eye. Morphology: Koopa Troopa Ill tempered turtles with sharp beaks, their hard shells protect them from harm. Only fire is capable of destroying them.Curling up into the morph ball, she rolled under a particularly low section of blocks, coming out into a crouch on the other side. Looking ahead she saw an odd, turtle-like creature plodding towards her, and behind it two goombas. Scanning the new creature, she smiled and switched to the plasma beam. [i]Fire, huh. I can do fire.[/i] Raising her arm cannon, a blast of fiery plasma shot out and incinerated not only the koopa, but the goombas behind it too. Her arm cannon flashing back to the power beam, she stood up; now to see if her idea would pay off. Samus activated her x-ray visor, her surroundings suddenly appearing in shades of white and gray. Peering around through the masses of blocks, she saw the outline of some coins sitting on the blocks above her. But she wasn't interested in coins. Stepping forward slowly, sweeping her gaze about the tunnel, she finally saw it: A mushroom hidden in one of the blocks. [i]And that's not all,[/i] she thought with a smirk. Stepping out from under the block with the mushroom in it, she aimed up and fired just as a goomba stepped off an overhanging ledge. Crouching as the baddie above her was vaporized, she aimed ahead and popped off two more shots, catching a couple more goombas in mid-air as they dropped off a ledge on their way towards her. [i]I get an ambush as well.[/i] Turning around, Samus blasted the block that conceiled her prey. Catching the mushroom as it trundled off the edge of the block below it, she again removed her helmet and tossed the odd fungus into her mouth. [i]Getting a bit cramped in here,[/i] she thought as she replaced the helmet on her head. She was now three times her normal height and her head was nearly scraping the blocks above her. Moving on, Samus continued sweeping the area with her x-ray visor. Slow and thorough had always payed off before -- she glanced at the missile counter on the edge of her HUD, which read 255 -- and it looked to be doing so now. She wondered how many more mushrooms were hidden away in the blocks of this tunnel.

[color=#4B0082]Having beaten all the cups on all the engine classes, I'm now going back through to get 3 Star rankings on them all. So far I've only done up through 100cc Shell Cup, so it's been kind of boring, but once I hit 150cc it should provide a good challenge. At the same time, I've been practicing the technique of power slide snaking. That is, drifting back and forth along a straightaway, doing mini-turbos for near-constant boosts. I already got some practice at it from Double Dash!! where I used it a bit on Yoshi Circuit during the time trial competition I was in. In MKDS, however, it seems both more effective and harder to control. I'm no master, but I think I've gotten pretty good at it, and I just started using the Dry Bomber kart. Turns out that the best stats for snaking are high acceleration, high handling, and low drift. Also, there's another thing I've noticed, which I think is odd: Mini-turbo boosts seem to last longer when I use the Dry Bomber than for the Light Tripper. Which means that, if you can be doing mini-turbos often, the kart's horrible top speed is completely moot. And if you're snaking you're going to be doing a whole lot of mini-turbos. Personally, though, I wish they'd go back to how things were in the original MK and Super Circuit, where you didn't have mini-turbos. Coming up with ways to cut corners as sharp as possible and finding the perfect route along the track is more fun to me than trying to cram as many mini-turbos into the track as I can. But I do it because, otherwise, it's pretty much impossible to be competitive against top tier players. And playing against other people of a high skill level [i]is[/i] fun. But anyway, has anyone else around here given snaking a try?[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Really? I found the 150cc Retro cups to be a lot easier than the 150cc Nitro cups, and even the 100cc cups. (The tracks feel like they're meant to be raced on 150cc; so much easier to mini-turbo around turns.) Maybe it's just because I'm already familiar with all the retro tracks, and for a lot of them I find it easier to do tons of mini-turbos (

[color=#4B0082]I like this idea, assuming that disabling the thumbnails would still leave text links. It does look kind of funny to have the full size version in the post, then below it, the thumbnail version. But if I'm going to hotlink something I usually just upload it to [url=http://imageshack.us/][u]ImageShack[/u][/url]. Quick, easy, and free.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Whoo. I'm liking this challenge. A lot. ^_^ A note to the rest of my team: As you can see, I took the image in Sandy's post literally and plopped us down at the start of World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros. The rest of you can continue on this route if you'd like, or do whatever, but I think going through the worlds (and maybe even finding a warp zone) would be really fun. You can find maps of the levels [url=http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/smb_breakdown.shtml#levels][u]here[/u][/url], to use as reference.[/color]

Glancing around as the surroundings of the CPU faded away in a swirl of pixels, Samus kept an eye on her companions. She was used to inter-dimensional travel, having gotten plenty of experience while on planet Aether, but she wasn't so sure about the rest. None had gotten sick yet, but she wasn't taking any chances; there was no telling which direction the vomit would fly in a trans-dimensional space, after all. Her feet finally coming to rest on some rather pixelated ground, she found herself in 2D once more. A blue backdrop of a sky, a small hill in the background, and few small shrubs were all that was apparent for landscape. She was right at home, but the others didn't look too happy about it. Ada sighed. "Again?" "This shit be trippy, yo." CJ was looking all around, trying to get a grip on his surroundings. "Whoa, check dis shit out!" He pointed up, where a large sign reading [i]Super Mario Bros.[/i] floated. Above it were the words [i]World 1-1[/i], and below, [i]©1985 Nintendo[/i]. Dante whistled, shaking his head. "Man, how'd they live back then?" Chuckling, Samus stepped forward, eager to start the hunt. "We got by as best we could. But come on, let's find some mushrooms before we lose to those blue feathers again. Xiaoyu punched the air excitedly. "Yeah! Let's go!" She ran past Samus and a strange mushroom-like creature appeared only a few steps beyond. "Ooh, there's one already! I got it!" "Xiaoyu, I don't think that's--" Samus reached out to stop her, but it was too late. Xiaoyu ran straight into the creature, promptly flying straight up into the air, a shocked look of pain on her face, then falling down out of view, somehow bypassing the ground. The rest of the team stood there a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened to the girl. "Da hell?" CJ voiced what they were all thinking. Morphology: Goomba Mushrooms turned evil, these creatures move slowly along the ground, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings. They are weak to hard impacts from above.Coughing, Samus offered an explanation, reading straight from the information gathered by her scan visor. "It's an enemy," she added after she had finished, looking back over at the goomba, which was still shambling towards them. Raising her arm cannon, she vaporized the baddie with a single shot from her power beam. "A weak one, apparently." "What happened?" A distressed Xiaoyu called from behind them. The team whirled around, staring at the girl, who looked no worse for wear. Except that a small avatar of her with [i]x2[/i] beside it now appeared above her head. "What are you looking at?" She quickly looked to where the rest were staring, just in time to see the display before it vanished. "Let's just say," Ada began, "that the walking mushrooms are bad. And I think it would be a bad idea to do that twice more." Dante was tapping his foot impatiently. "Let's go already." Walking past Samus, he idly sliced a floating block in half with his sword. Two halves of a large, gold coin fell out and onto his head. "The hell?" He kicked the halves away in annoyance. Taking the lead again, Samus pointed to some more floating blocks just ahead. "It looks like they have things in them -- maybe even mushrooms. So be careful." Setting her power beam to half power, she picked off a single block floating above a row of others. The blocked shattered into four quarters and out fell a coin. Aiming down to the lower row, she continued firing, and out popped a mushroom from the second block. "There's one!" Xiaoyu said and again began to rush forward before Samus held out her arm to stop the girl. Morphology: Super Mushroom A species of fungus unique to the Mushroom Kingdom. Eating one increases body size substantually."Wait," Samus said, scanning the mushroom as it slid along the ground, then rebounded off a green pipe a little farther ahead. "Okay, I think this is what we're looking for." Samus knelt down as the mushroom neared her, then grabbed it. [i]No adverse affects so far[/i], she thought. Taking off her helmet, she popped the mushroom into her mouth, then replaced the helmet. "Shit!" CJ exclaimed. "I gotta get me some o' dat!" Looking down at herself, Samus realized she was no less than twice as tall as before. "Mog wasn't kidding," she mused quietly to herself. "Lucky," Xiaoyu pouted. "I'm next!" "Finders keepers," Ada said as she began shooting the remaining blocks open with her handgun.

[color=#4B0082]Yeah, true, the bullet bill doesn't require any skill whatsoever. But it's also less powerful than a super mushroom, so I figure it balances out. I've never seen any of the CPU players come even close to me with a bullet bill when I'm in 1st, and when I've gotten them, they've only put me back up to around 4th. The bob-omb is actually one of my favorite items. It's great for when someone's tailing you and, if you can throw it accurately (which is hard to do on anything but a straightaway), it hits with the same effect as a spike shell. But, if the targeted person is good, they can either dodge it or slow down so that it only blows up in front of them and doesn't delay them as much. So it both takes skill to use and there are skillful ways to avoid it, which I really like. And yes, playing online with random people can be really annoying. Having them disconnect in the middle of a race, like I mentioned in the online morals thread, pisses me off. Which is why I'm looking forward to having more peoples from OB to race with.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]Another update comes and goes. ... Most of them were added, but there's one problem with the ones you submitted, Goddess: I can't put them up if I don't have a name for them. On my end, I added 13 Chobits avatars. Most of them of Chii, seeing as I have a hard time finding high quality art of anyone else from the series.[/color]

[color=#4B0082]You don't like the bob-omb or the bullet bill? I really like those two, as the bob-omb actually takes some skill to hit with, and the bullet bill you never seem to see unless you're way back in 8th or 7th. And besides, I find super mushrooms to actually be more effective than bullet bills anyway. I was playing 150cc Mirror, on the Koopa Beach 2 retro track, when I fell in one of the deep water pits. I was dropped back on the track just in front of the item boxes, in 8th place, and I got a super mushroom. That baby got me back into 1st by the end of the lap. The only item I find to really be broken is the spike shell. It doesn't help you much if you're back in 7th or 8th; all it does is screw the person in 1st. I also don't like how they changed lightning, making you smaller for longer depending on your place, but it's not completely crippling like a spike shell. As for what character I use, I've settled on [spoiler]Daisy in the Light Dancer[/spoiler], at least for now. She's got decent top speed, decent acceleration, and excellent drift, which I really like. Very handy when you're trying to do mini-turbos like mad around every possible turn. The only problem I have is the weight of that kart; practically anyone can bash me around. But, having played on lightweights throughout the series, I'm used to that and am good at dodging.[/color]