Maidens of the Kaleidoscope

~Bunbunmaru News~ => Letters to the Editor => Ask a *Blank* Archive => Topic started by: Naut on June 15, 2011, 01:34:05 PM

Title: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 15, 2011, 01:34:05 PM
Ask questions, receive answers.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Dr.Strafe on June 15, 2011, 01:36:54 PM
It seems that Marisa is your favorite character. Could you tell us why?

How long have you been playing shmups? How often do you play them?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Iryan on June 15, 2011, 01:39:38 PM
At what point does a danmaku pattern no longer have "too many safespots"?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: XephyrEnigma on June 15, 2011, 01:45:17 PM
And for that matter, what's more important to you, bombs or lives?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 15, 2011, 01:55:03 PM
It seems that Marisa is your favorite character. Could you tell us why?

She's awesome. Outgoing, not afraid to speak her mind, life of the party, etc. She's almost always the character I use in the games due to her speed and firepower, which I prefer to have in high quantity.

How long have you been playing shmups? How often do you play them?

Actively, since October 2008. I had played one or two in an arcade before then but I had no idea what they were. Also played Gradius V before that as well, but not very much. October is when I tried out Mushihimesama, Imperishable Night and Subterranean Animism after watching the "Hardest Boss Ever" video as well as Dracil's IN Extra playthrough (which, at the time, I thought "What the fuck is going on this is awesome"). I didn't start playing specifically to get better until March 2010, where I started playing shmups primarily over other videogame genres like RTS and FPS. I usually play almost every day for a little bit, maybe an hour, though some days I'll play a lot more if I have some free time, and other days I won't play at all because I'm working on a game in danmakufu or hanging out with friends... Or something like that.

At what point does a danmaku pattern no longer have "too many safespots"?

When one can no longer see the background because of the bullets.

And for that matter, what's more important to you, bombs or lives?

Score. Of the two, lives, because I much prefer to dodge stuff over bombing through it, and getting lives gives me more chances to do so.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Pesco on June 15, 2011, 02:45:17 PM
I think we could be bros. Like how Hele is a bro. You in?

Care to join us for Unreal Tournament in GBA when we get the server?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: communist unity (comm-unity) on June 15, 2011, 04:12:14 PM
Does your name have any relation to ships or sailors?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Shadoweh on June 15, 2011, 05:03:12 PM
Obligatory how did you find MotK?
Obligatory how did you become a staff member?
Obligatory what DO you do here as staff? What's your function sailor?

Do you think you would make a good diplomat for your country?  :yukkuri:
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Silent Harmony on June 15, 2011, 06:02:29 PM
What's your preferred/favorite scoring system in any shmup?

Favorite shmup?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Kips McKipzerson on June 15, 2011, 06:23:46 PM
Why does your name make me think of those enemies from Paper Mario 2?
What is the hardest spellcard you've ever captured? What is the hardest touhou boss in general?
Why am I your favourite? <3
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Tamashii Kanjou on June 15, 2011, 07:18:41 PM
Care to join us for Unreal Tournament in GBA when we get the server?

If yes...

Preferred Weapon?

Preferred Race / Class / Colour Armour / etc, etc?

How good are you at UT?

Better then the rabbit?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Iryan on June 15, 2011, 07:38:22 PM
What are so far your greatest achievements and your greatest failures? (don't have to tell if you don't want to, obviously)

What is the #1 design advice you can give to any danmakufuist?

Preferred Race / Class / Colour Armour / etc, etc?
There are no different races or classes in UT.

If you think there are, you are thinking of the wrong game.  :smug:
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Mimachiro on June 15, 2011, 10:19:36 PM
So how about that Alice?

What's the first Touhou game you 1cc'd, and how did you feel afterwards? (You have 1cc'd at least one, right?)

What are you goals in life, in order of priority? (if one has priority over the others, just list them if they don't)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Tengukami on June 15, 2011, 11:00:08 PM
As I've said before, "Naut" is the Icelandic word for "bull", as in a steer. Thoughts?

Just how badly do you miss Bananamatic?

You are being shipped to a desert island where you can only bring one shmup, and it cannot be Touhou. What do you choose and why?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 16, 2011, 12:38:04 AM
I think we could be bros. Like how Hele is a bro. You in?

Hell yeah.

Care to join us for Unreal Tournament in GBA when we get the server?

I've never played/don't own UT, but if I did I totally would.

Does your name have any relation to ships or sailors?

Sadly, no it doesn't.

Obligatory how did you find MotK?
Obligatory how did you become a staff member?
Obligatory what DO you do here as staff? What's your function sailor?

Do you think you would make a good diplomat for your country?  :yukkuri:

Was looking around for Danmakufu tutorials and stumbled across Blargel's basic tutorial on the old MotK before this one, and spent most of my time hanging around the Danmakufu Dojo back then, not really meandering away from that board much. When MotK had the wipe back in April 09, I started exploring the other boards, mainly the gaming ones.

There was a "request to be a janitor" button over a year ago, which I clicked and was then randomly appointed Shrine Janitor unexpectedly a couple months later with a few other people. As a Shrine Janitor, I move around thread to their right place if somebody posted in the incorrect subforum, I'll resize pictures that are over the limits, and other clean up things like that. We don't make decisions on members of the community, nor do we have any authority to do so, though we'll occasionally weigh in on moderator reports too.

I would make a horrible diplomat for Canada :fail:

What's your preferred/favorite scoring system in any shmup?

Favorite shmup?

UFO and UFO, probably because of the former. I like being able to trade away getting lives for score. There's no real gimmicks that make me dodge less either like in bullet cancelling games, and I don't have to brutally memorize everything like in chaining games. It works really well and I can score at my own pace and adjust my UFO collection if I screw up or something. I also like the dodging the game makes me do so I'm glad the scoring is awesome too :V

Why does your name make me think of those enemies from Paper Mario 2?
What is the hardest spellcard you've ever captured? What is the hardest touhou boss in general?
Why am I your favourite? <3

You're crazy :V

Byakuren's first spell card on Lunatic, Good Omen "Nirvana's Cloudy Way in Purple." I could say something like Virtue of Wind God but it's really not as hard as people think. I have a much harder time consistantly capturing Byakuren's opening spell card than I do timing out Virtue of Wind God. Byakuren is also the hardest boss to me.

Because you're so crazy <3

Preferred Weapon?

Preferred Race / Class / Colour Armour / etc, etc?

How good are you at UT?

Better then the rabbit?

Dunno, dunno, never played so probably horrible (though I do play FPS games regularly so I'd like to think I could pick it up fast), unlikely.

What are so far your greatest achievements and your greatest failures? (don't have to tell if you don't want to, obviously)

In regards to life in general? I wouldn't know what my greatest achievements are, regardless of whether or not it's my own personal scale or what other people would consider my greatest achievements. Failures, probably failing out of University due to lack of interest. I'm going back in 2012, but I shouldn't've let myself fall so behind.

What is the #1 design advice you can give to any danmakufuist?

Add variety. You don't want your non-spells to be the same shit rehashed over and over again with some slight variation (even though ZUN sorta does this with Extra stages, he can do wrong, that shit sucks). Spell cards should have a definite theme but be very different in both presentation and dodging required. If you're doing the same thing over and over again, nobody is going to want to play your scripts over and over again, because they already felt like they have. It's boring.

So how about that Alice?

How about her? She's nice, I guess. Kind of a bitch, though.

What's the first Touhou game you 1cc'd, and how did you feel afterwards? (You have 1cc'd at least one, right?)

Subterranean Animism was the first game I 1cc'd, on Normal mode. It took me a long ass time. It felt fucking fantastic. IN would've been my second 1cc, also on Normal, but I didn't like that game as much at the time so I didn't put any effort in to it. I did prefer it's extra stage though, so it eventually became my first Extra clear, followed by Subterranean Animism's shortly after. By this point, I was interested in the other games, and Perfect Cherry Blossom was next. Unlocking Phantasm in that was a time as well. Fucking great. Not to sound like an asshole, but I do wish I sucked as much as I did back then nowadays, just so I could get more out of these games. I barely get any enjoyment out of Extra stages now, and I usually have to put some stupid special condition on my runs to make them challenging and fun. Back then it was challenging just to play on Normal mode, and Extra was still the holy grail of achievements for me. Great times.

UFO was my first lunatic 1cc, back in March 2010 (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,163.msg277385.html#msg277385). UFO was also my first hard 1cc, in September 2010 (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,163.msg445207.html#msg445207). MoF is the only other game I've 1cc'd on hard mode. I've cleared UFO, MoF, SA and IN on Lunatic, PCB on Normal, and I've never cleared EoSD. I'm pretty sure I haven't cleared any PC98 games, though I can't remember.

What are you goals in life, in order of priority? (if one has priority over the others, just list them if they don't)

Finish University, move out, get [permanent] job (since I already have one now), find wife. In no particular order.

As I've said before, "Naut" is the Icelandic word for "bull", as in a steer. Thoughts?

Kick ass. Wait, bull as in animal, or bull as in bullshit? >_>

Just how badly do you miss Bananamatic?

Not very. He livened the place up a bit, I guess. I pester him on another forum I go to though so it's not like I don't have contact with him anymore.

You are being shipped to a desert island where you can only bring one shmup, and it cannot be Touhou. What do you choose and why?

Probably Dodonpachi Daioujou. I find it a lot of fun and it would give me an excuse to learn all the chains in the game :V
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Tengukami on June 16, 2011, 12:57:47 AM
Yeah, "bull" like the animal.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: theshirn on June 16, 2011, 03:54:10 AM
GET OUT >:(
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Zengar Zombolt on June 16, 2011, 04:06:17 AM
Oh look! I have so much to ask y- go play mars matrix
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: MatsuriSakuragi on June 16, 2011, 05:16:50 AM
Oh look! I have so much to ask y- go play mars matrix

What does 'home run derby' mean to you? 8)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: HakureiSM on June 16, 2011, 06:19:12 AM
cyberpunk or steampunk
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Yukarin on June 16, 2011, 09:40:25 AM
Naut. Why Naut?

And also, MOTHERFUCKERS
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Furienify on June 16, 2011, 11:51:54 AM
Are you done with Ijiyatsu yet?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Helepolis on June 16, 2011, 12:25:40 PM
Marisa rejects you, what would you do?

On a more serious note: How would you describe yourself on the following aspects:  thoughts and actions, social stance, beliefs and dreams.

On an even more serious note: Do you own any animals and if you would want, which one(s) and why.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: FinnKaenbyou on June 16, 2011, 01:43:58 PM
Hibachi: Brutal dictator or misunderstood foreign leader?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Sapz on June 16, 2011, 02:22:14 PM
Favourite shmup pattern(s)?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 16, 2011, 02:27:20 PM
Yeah, "bull" like the animal.

Hell yeah.  8) I'll take that in the best way possible.

GET OUT >:(

THESHIM :)

What does 'home run derby' mean to you? 8)

I need unlimited credits for unlimited room for failure in my game of T-ball.

Naut. Why Naut?

And also, MOTHERFUCKERS

(http://i.imgur.com/OAmBc.png)

Look at this motherfucker.

Are you done with Ijiyatsu yet?

We're working on it more than people think, and have lots of stuff completed. We just keep rethinking stupid things and changing stuff so it takes a long time. And we're lazy. :derp:

Marisa rejects you, what would you do?

Seppuku I don't really like her in a romantic/etc sense, she's really just my favourite Touhou character and that's all :V Though I guess if she rejects my friendship or something... Not that she seems the type to do so even if I am horribly uninteresting

On a more serious note: How would you describe yourself on the following aspects:  thoughts and actions,

Spontaneous, borderline impatient, though only in some regards. I don't think very far in to the future (or more accurately, I don't care much about it). It's not something that hinders communication -- I don't say stuff and immediately regret it mind you, but I will procrastinate to ungodly levels and generally not care about the consequences due to a really relaxed attitude. I don't stress or worry about anything, regardless of importance. I don't freak out over anything, nor do I take offense to anything (which I guess is almost a lie, but it's extremely difficult to offend me even when trying to). I avoid conflict, even if it means I have to pretend I don't understand what's going on, just to defuse a situation (or never start one). I would never be the one to start a fight.

social stance,

Conservative. I don't like changing things just for the sake of changing them. I'm not against change, but I don't encourage or enable it actively.

beliefs

I'm a Christian, so that about sums up everything in regards to that, I guess.

and dreams.

Nothing beyond my goals I guess. I don't aspire to be rich/famous or anything, so I don't really have dreams beyond my really basic goals in life.

On an even more serious note: Do you own any animals and if you would want, which one(s) and why.

I own a cat. I don't think I'd like to own any other animal, really. Not that I don't like any, but cats are awesome enough that I wouldn't need to  8)

Hibachi: Brutal dictator or misunderstood foreign leader?

Misunderstood. He's just a tool of a higher power, after all.

Favourite shmup pattern(s)?

Virtue of Wind God
at 90fps
is an easy pick. Border of Wave and Particle
with the SA ultra mod on
is another good one. DFK's laser wheels are still awesome. Can't think of much else right now, there are lots that I enjoy, but not enough to call my favourites. I'll think about it more at work.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Sapz on June 16, 2011, 02:31:25 PM
Any long term shmup goals? Really ideal stuff you'd love to achieve (within the realms of possibility).
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Janitor Morgan on June 16, 2011, 03:32:20 PM
Favorite food? Beverage?

What is your favorite Danmakufu script?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Helepolis on June 16, 2011, 04:58:01 PM
Did you already beat the Afro dude in Uwabami Breakers?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: XephyrEnigma on June 16, 2011, 05:54:44 PM
You have to take 3 of us forumites to Vegas with you. One of them must be theshim. Which others do you choose and why?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Mimachiro on June 16, 2011, 10:10:56 PM
What would you do with a billion dollars (USD)?

What's your favorite country, and why?

If Yukari offered to gap you to anywhere in Gensokyo, where would you choose and why?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 17, 2011, 12:31:08 AM
cyberpunk or steampunk

Cybersteam.

Any long term shmup goals? Really ideal stuff you'd love to achieve (within the realms of possibility).

90fps clear UFO lunatic. Nothing else really, I'm more spontaneous with what I do in regards to shmups. I'll randomly decide what I'm going to do and then just do it (though more than likely I'll fail it). All about the improv.

Favorite food? Beverage?

Steak. Steak.

What is your favorite Danmakufu script?

Ijiyatsu.

Did you already beat the Afro dude in Uwabami Breakers?

I have beaten him, just not along with the other bosses in the game in one credit.

You have to take 3 of us forumites to Vegas with you.

Baity, Nobu, Drake.

One of them must be theshim. Which others do you choose and why?

Fuck. Who does theshim hate again? Them. We'll have a grand time.  :toot: :smug: :toot:

What would you do with a billion dollars (USD)?

Pay off everything everybody I know owns, like their house, car, etc.

What's your favorite country, and why?

Canada. (http://i.imgur.com/7shie.jpg)

If Yukari offered to gap you to anywhere in Gensokyo, where would you choose and why?

Probably the human village so I wouldn't die to all the youkai. Though I guess getting eaten by a youkai wouldn't be that bad.


Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Zengar Zombolt on June 17, 2011, 12:36:51 AM
Expectations for STGT?
Bro quotient with bananamatic and treasurance?
Why are you such a sucker for shmups farm drama?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: LHCling on June 17, 2011, 12:39:43 AM
Fuck. Who does theshim hate again? Them. We'll have a grand time.  :toot: :smug: :toot:
dohohoho

What is your dream sandwich? In other words, describe in as much or as little detail as desired, the best sandwich ever.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: theshirn on June 17, 2011, 02:08:48 AM
Fuck. Who does theshim hate again? Them. We'll have a grand time.  :toot: :smug: :toot:
(http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2671/orsonclapping0.gif)
well played sir

What does your miserable pile of secrets life consist of beyond shmups and MotK?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Mimachiro on June 17, 2011, 10:15:22 AM
If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who and why?

If you could be any of the ladies of Gensokyo for a day, who and why?

Do you have a tendency to "borrow" things?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: HakureiSM on June 17, 2011, 02:47:23 PM
Cybersteam.
what do you got against punks
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Iryan on June 17, 2011, 03:02:15 PM
what do you got against punks
punk is nothing but death and crime and the rage of a beast
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Hello Purvis on June 17, 2011, 08:35:06 PM
Punk is awfu-
/me is hit with a shovel by Ammy

Alrighty Naut, I dun know you as well as many, so let's see what's up.

-Why am I more dear to you than the rest of these mooks?
-Can you tell us a bit about your faith, given the myriad interpretations of Christianity?
-What is the biggest problem this forum has faced?
-If you could change one rule here, what would it be?
-How do you deal with the crippling sadness that comes with the insufficient Purvis in your life.
-Do you consider yourself exceptionally talented at SHMUPs, or do you consider yourself fairly average?
-What's your favorite part of working with Danmakufu?
-What kind of  Bulletmaku Hell patterns do you tend to enjoy, what kind do you hate?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Prody on June 18, 2011, 11:54:17 AM
Do you have any interest in Nico Nico Douga culture?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 19, 2011, 05:23:31 AM
Expectations for STGT?

Shitty games that nobody wants to play, sikraiken wins everything. One probably leads to the other, but which leads to which?

Bro quotient with bananamatic and treasurance?

Very little nowadays, we don't talk much.

Why are you such a sucker for shmups farm drama?

Only when it comes from certain people. There are some guys that keep shoving their opinions on everybody thinking that they're completely right and everybody who thinks otherwise is wrong, yet they're just as biased as who they're flaming. So I give 'em a little shit in return. Plus I know some stuff about shmups so it's not like I'm talking out of my ass.
Most of the time.

What is your dream sandwich? In other words, describe in as much or as little detail as desired, the best sandwich ever.

The Ham & Swiss from Quiznos subs I get like almost every day for lunch, so I guess that would be the best sandwich ever to me. It's fucking delicious. I could go on about how much bacon, steak, and six other types of animals I'd want to shove on my dream sandwich and whatnot, but they don't work very well together in sandwich form, unfortunately. I would know.

What does your miserable pile of secrets life consist of beyond shmups and MotK?

For the summer, I work at a hardware store for five days a week. When school season starts up, I'll be in Uni for computer science. Otherwise it's the standard crap, hang out with friends, etc. I don't socially drink much (not that I'm against it, but I don't really do parties or drinking for the sake of drinking) so the stuff I do with my buddies is play/discuss videogames, watch anime, and ping pong, mostly. I also script in Danmakufu during my other spare time, where I'm currently working on a shmup called Ijiyatsu based on some weird MotK fad over a year ago.

If you could be anyone in the world for a day, who and why?

Nobody other than myself. Sorry for such a boring answer :(

If you could be any of the ladies of Gensokyo for a day, who and why?

Yukari. Playing with gaps and seeing how far that goes would probably be the coolest thing ever.

Do you have a tendency to "borrow" things?

Not at all :V

what do you got against punks

What do you have against Cybersteam, punkpunk?

Alrighty Naut, I dun know you as well as many, so let's see what's up.

-Why am I more dear to you than the rest of these mooks?

I wouldn't say top of the list, but I must say I have great respect for you and what you do for MotK, and that extends beyond stuff like your Z machine adventures and whatnot. You're a cool guy.

-Can you tell us a bit about your faith, given the myriad interpretations of Christianity?

I would be of the Pentecostal variety. The main difference between it and many other interpretations of Christianity I guess would be that it encourages a deeper, more personal relationship with God, as opposed to the typical catholic "everything is led by the priest/pastor/higher level of human" kinda stuff.

-What is the biggest problem this forum has faced?

I don't get around much outside the gaming subforums (HME, AA) and the script/coding section (RaNGE) so I wouldn't really know what to say. I may have been around during problematic times, like the April Fools incident and whatnot, but I wasn't really involved so I don't know how bad things got. I guess I'll just go ahead and say that it was the April Fools incident, since it was the only really big problem that I can think of right now.

-If you could change one rule here, what would it be?

Toughy. I rather like the set of rules MotK has, and wouldn't downright change any one of them. Maybe a slight adjustment here or there, but nothing big enough to kick up a stink about... Or even mention, really. I wouldn't be a Janitor if I didn't agree with the rules.

-How do you deal with the crippling sadness that comes with the insufficient Purvis in your life.

Read more Z machine adventures. I regret not following them actively.

-Do you consider yourself exceptionally talented at SHMUPs, or do you consider yourself fairly average?

I wouldn't say exceptionally talented, it took me a long time to get to where I am now. I started off pretty average, struggling with normal mode clears and sinking many hours in to stuff I thought was hopeless, but I enjoyed playing the games and kept at it, and eventually got to be one of the lunatics.

-What's your favorite part of working with Danmakufu?

Being able to make stuff I want to dodge. I enjoy many different kinds of shmups, but there is no shmup that I enjoy absolutely everything about, and there is some stuff that I would think "if it were more like this..." Danmakufu gives me the chance to try these things out and create my own stuff. I like making stuff other people can enjoy as well, which is to say that I'm not just going to make brutally impossible patterns that I like to pretend to be able to dodge, I also like designing simple and beautiful danmaku that people of all skill levels can enjoy. Hopefully I'm somewhat good at it so Ijiyatsu doesn't turn out to be horrible (at the very least I'd like to put it in a state that Drake can fix up proper) :V

-What kind of  Bulletmaku Hell patterns do you tend to enjoy, what kind do you hate?

I enjoy patterned danmaku with random elements. I guess the best example of this would be Mountain of Faith's titular spell card, or Virtue of Wind God as it's called on higher difficulties. It's a beautiful pattern with lots of fast but reasonable bullets coming at you at random but dodgable angles. There are no gimmicks or anything, it's just you and your raw dodging ability put to the test. I strongly dislike danmaku that would force me to memorize something (like a weird gimmick), or stuff that is practically impossible to beat on your first try, like anything that has huge, fast, instant-death lasers or stuff to that effect. Don't get me wrong -- patterns that are genuinely difficult dodging that I just happened to have died on the first few times I got to it I have no problems with, I just need to get better and then I'll be able to dodge it. If I was good enough, I could've dodged it on the first try since there was no hidden/secret trick. When I talk about the stuff that I hate, "memo-garbage" stuff, it's just crap that wastes your time rather than tests your skill. I mentioned instant-death lasers -- that shit is horrible design. It's only purpose is to instantly and unavoidably take away one of your lives. It's stupid design that forces you to play it again and again to get better results, no matter how skilled you already are. This extends to my pickiness in scoring systems. In general, I don't like enemy chaining systems since it takes forever for it to start testing your skill. For the longest time, you're wasting your time trying to memorize the positions of every freaking enemy the game throws at you so you can chain them properly... Eventually. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, you are completely forced to sink countless hours in to the game to get a better score, and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. It is only after you have memorized all this crap that the game finally starts testing how skilled you are, but subjecting myself to such a horrible timesink before getting to the good stuff is painful to even think about. Bleh.
woop tangent

Do you have any interest in Nico Nico Douga culture?

Not in the least.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Pesco on June 19, 2011, 07:37:14 AM
Any chance of Ijiyatsu materialising in some form before I release my Diablo2 forum jokemod (Lord of Forums)? (I intend to only really work on it after my main project, but it'll likely be developed alongside)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Sapz on June 19, 2011, 02:49:20 PM
I enjoy patterned danmaku with random elements. I guess the best example of this would be Mountain of Faith's titular spell card, or Virtue of Wind God as it's called on higher difficulties. It's a beautiful pattern with lots of fast but reasonable bullets coming at you at random but dodgable angles. There are no gimmicks or anything, it's just you and your raw dodging ability put to the test. I strongly dislike danmaku that would force me to memorize something (like a weird gimmick), or stuff that is practically impossible to beat on your first try, like anything that has huge, fast, instant-death lasers or stuff to that effect. Don't get me wrong -- patterns that are genuinely difficult dodging that I just happened to have died on the first few times I got to it I have no problems with, I just need to get better and then I'll be able to dodge it. If I was good enough, I could've dodged it on the first try since there was no hidden/secret trick. When I talk about the stuff that I hate, "memo-garbage" stuff, it's just crap that wastes your time rather than tests your skill. I mentioned instant-death lasers -- that shit is horrible design. It's only purpose is to instantly and unavoidably take away one of your lives. It's stupid design that forces you to play it again and again to get better results, no matter how skilled you already are. This extends to my pickiness in scoring systems. In general, I don't like enemy chaining systems since it takes forever for it to start testing your skill. For the longest time, you're wasting your time trying to memorize the positions of every freaking enemy the game throws at you so you can chain them properly... Eventually. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, you are completely forced to sink countless hours in to the game to get a better score, and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. It is only after you have memorized all this crap that the game finally starts testing how skilled you are, but subjecting myself to such a horrible timesink before getting to the good stuff is painful to even think about. Bleh.
woop tangent
DNM!

Tastes in music?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Erppo on June 19, 2011, 04:44:39 PM
I strongly dislike ... or stuff that is practically impossible to beat on your first try, like anything that has huge, fast, instant-death lasers or stuff to that effect.

So when choosing your difficulty, do you pick "Monkey" or "Baby"?

:V (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2YSH95x7O4&feature=player_detailpage#t=255s)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: MatsuriSakuragi on June 19, 2011, 05:04:42 PM
So when choosing your difficulty, do you pick "Monkey" or "Baby"?

:V (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2YSH95x7O4&feature=player_detailpage#t=255s)

On that note, do you like Gunbird 2?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 19, 2011, 05:53:47 PM
Any chance of Ijiyatsu materialising in some form before I release my Diablo2 forum jokemod (Lord of Forums)? (I intend to only really work on it after my main project, but it'll likely be developed alongside)

Depends on how far along you are with your mod, I guess. When do you expect it to be out?

DNM!

m i kawaii

Tastes in music?

I'll enjoy pretty much anything that isn't rap or country. I can't stand either. But anything else I can get down with. I enjoy trance, particularly the uplifting kind, like Tiesto's vocal mix of Edward Carnby's Alone in the Dark (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI1_vUlMN0U), Mystery's Fever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_aFGRefY4), or Super8 and DJ Tab's Helsinki Scorchin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlABK0K-i6Y) (which is one of my all time favourite songs, fast forward to 3:30 if you're not interested in the usual long trance build up). I also dip in to other electronic genres like hardcore. Stuff like Negative A & Counterfeit's Ritual Killing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YodjfrXEG4). I even go as far as speedcore, like m1dy's Cold Pizza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYI9nV4rVSY) or getting even faster (and shittier) like Round Wave Crusher's Born in 1600 (bpm) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZLeWXzPpic).

I listen to a lot of videogame sound tracks too. ZUN's stuff falls in there, as well as other shmup music like Manabu Namiki (Vertigo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB9LE16xkxI), The Battle Was Just "To Continue that Future" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQOtLRa8Phw), Different Blood ~ Wearing Blood (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rikcFTcw5xc)), Ryu Umemoto (Akai Katana Shin's Boss music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTPfpWrCDZ4)and Stage Four music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1YONlPGBeQ)). Virt's remix of No Remose for Ketsuipachi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzPuPQKGtEU) is fuckawesome too. I wouldn't be able to list every videogame sound track I like, but I'll also want to mention Civ4's version of Epitaph of Seikilos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpVrmRkPWk) by Geoff Knorr and Michael Curran since I always listen to it when I want to listen to something relaxing.

I used to enjoy metal a lot too, Stuff like Lamb of God or Dream Theater, and I still like them but I don't actively listen to them anymore. But anytime I happen to stumble upon some metal songs I used to listen to, I'll enjoy it :V

So when choosing your difficulty, do you pick "Monkey" or "Baby"?

Yes, as well as changing the settings of the game to give me unlimited continues so I have unlimited room for failure.

On that note, do you like Gunbird 2?

Never played it. Looks pretty cool though.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Edible on June 19, 2011, 06:07:14 PM
I do naut have any further questions.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Suikama on June 19, 2011, 06:20:39 PM
hi nuat
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Pesco on June 19, 2011, 07:14:46 PM
20% done with the main mod, so far only 4 confirmed player classes for the jokemod. If I do mechanics too, 3-6 months would be my rough guess. People aren't gonna be buying into you guys working on Ijiyatsu unless they see updates.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 19, 2011, 09:15:16 PM
20% done with the main mod, so far only 4 confirmed player classes for the jokemod. If I do mechanics too, 3-6 months would be my rough guess. People aren't gonna be buying into you guys working on Ijiyatsu unless they see updates.

Might release some sort of beta soon
provided some people continue working on it
so I guess that'll show some stuff. I doubt we'll finish the whole game before you finish your mod, but I'd like to have a good size demo out before it for sure.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Silent Harmony on June 20, 2011, 04:43:50 AM
Why is this "Ask a Staffer" if SJ are not staff? :V

Do you like any video games outside of shmups? If so what's your (other) favorite genre?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Kips McKipzerson on June 20, 2011, 04:52:42 AM
If I asked if you were a mage, Would you give me an adorable bunny?
Wait where the fuck is naut who is nuat what have you doooooneeee
Favorite quote from a vidya game? What about from a game thats not touhou?

And finally, Are you a boy or a girl? ...   A giiirl? (http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=0)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: orinrin on June 20, 2011, 05:06:24 AM
If you had a choice between playing RSG or Ikaruga for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?  (Suicide is a viable option too.)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Mr_Bob on June 20, 2011, 07:42:51 AM
Wow you guys are still doing  Ijiyatsu stuff.  I must applaud the sustained effort.  Who still works with it, and what have you guys accomplished so far?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Mimachiro on June 20, 2011, 10:18:31 AM
If you could wish for any girl in the Touhou universe to be your companion/lover/always there person, who would it be and why?

If a giant hole opened up in the floor below you this second, how would you react?

What would you do with command of the Nautilus (http://www.vernianera.com/Nautilus/Warren/Warren.html)?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Hanzo K. on June 20, 2011, 11:31:36 AM
Chicken or Sea Bass?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: HakureiSM on June 20, 2011, 05:29:16 PM
Chicken or Sea Boss?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Alfred F. Jones on June 20, 2011, 06:49:49 PM
If you could go back in time and change any one historical event to have the outcome of your choice, what would it be and why?

Favourite book, if any?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Hello Purvis on June 21, 2011, 02:01:53 AM
If you could strand Ruro in any historical period, where and when would it be, and why?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: theshirn on June 21, 2011, 02:09:17 AM
If you could strand Ruro in any historical period, where and when would it be, and why?
This is a good question.  We should all ask questions like this.

Some people feel Ijiyatsu is polarizing, a "cool kids club", if you will.  Thoughts?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Silent Harmony on June 21, 2011, 02:23:45 AM
Sorry for 2 posts, but since it's last day:

-Did your sister ever learn the joy of spamming DFK hypers?
-How close are you two? Close thanks to a love of gaming, or the typical brother-sister mutual tormenting? :3
-Have you 2 ever played a shmup together/2P? (I can guess the answer, but still)
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Drake on June 21, 2011, 08:03:10 AM
Some people feel Ijiyatsu is polarizing, a "cool kids club", if you will.  Thoughts?
<Naut> Drake: you should answer this
<Naut> my inevitable "i don't care" to that linked question isn't going to suffice

THIS MEANS LOOOOONG ANSWEEERRRRR PARAGRAAAAAPHS

To answer your question from the start, yes. When Ijiyatsu first came as an idea, it was entirely a joke, and was based on specific users because these people were picked by Rou due to their popularity at the time. At this point, it wasn't even "Ijiyatsu". It was a complete joke that began receiving positive input because it was easy to build upon, and everybody wants to make a game based on themselves; it was just fun. The fact that it was a Touhou reflection was completely irrelevant, it could game been any game genre/style; the main drive was that it was based on us. To this extent, hell yes it was a cool kids club. But nobody really cared.

More and more input was thrown in, which some actual serious suggestions, and some suggestions were taken as serious from intended jokes, because it worked. This thing we were creating was heavily malleable, the basic plot was covered very quickly and so the discussions led to the logical next steps, an actual system. I don't mean system as in generalmechanics alone, but system as in music ideas, aesthetic ideas, miscellaneous details, and more importantly the idea that "hey, we could actually do this". Note that "actually doing this", while a valid statement at the time, was incredibly naive and is an idea formed entirely through hype that goes through every kid's mind when he goes "yeah i could make this game and it would be awesome!". Even if we had the tools, we didn't know what making this would entail; the actual dev process was completely unknown. We actually started in the middle, without any base aside from "do touhou".

Anyways, at this point Slaves had already designed a lot of the cast. Which was balls awesome because we got art that represented ourselves. Getting that artwork was like a goddamn crown. I'm sure Slaves felt the same way when he started drawing members (incl. himself) and received praise for it. But even still, the characters were solidified and done with; there was no real cool kids club so to speak. Rou even popped out some music, which is where I signed up. The music we did make was another primary motivator to keep going; and without it I might not have joined. For that, Rou will always be a key contributor to the game.

Still, the actual cool kids club began with the invention of Embodiments. We already had our roster set up, and these people were glorified. And suddenly a new group popped up that many people could join. But because the game was based on the forum, we couldn't just have any random people join. Suddenly, a heavy bias is created. This is where things got very tricky, because even after the roster was confirmed, people tended to either complain about it, or insert themselves anyways, creating art and fiction: creating the world when we haven't even done anything ourselves. This to us (well, me and others) was a slap in the face, because it meant all our hard work amounted to nothing more than a scribble pad. This is why there were so many issues in the first place. This introduced many conflicted feelings that all parties didn't even know they had, and we had to figure them out and explain to each other in a short, heated amount of time. The conclusion of this was simply that Ijiyatsu had to be taken off the map somewhat. We already had the IRC channel, so we moved most discussion there.

With the forum-driven pressing and stress gone, we actually got some hardcore work being done. However, the focus evolved into "fuck, we are doing so many things wrong and we have no staff and this sucks and this sucks and we have to redo this and we actually have to learn things because we are developers now oh god". Most of our work we've revised fifty billion times, recoded at least two times, tweaked and then scrapped again; that or we're already planning on doing so eventually. To be honest, if you haven't been in the #ijiyatsu channel during active dev periods (lol active), none of you have any idea how difficult it is to make this thing. Saying "it is difficult" is a copout of an answer, and the long answer is too long to explain properly. This paragraph probably spanned at least half a year by itself.

Today, it is not a cool kids club. The forum-driven aspect is gone, it's going just by the efforts of Naut and I, really. We've set all the previous things aside and are working like game developers working on a game. But slower. Nobody really cares about the progress enough to drop in, #ijiyatsu has become its own social (circlejerk) channel that is pretty much dually-named #shmups (which is actually really helpful). Nobody argues about the choice of characters or bullshit like that, we argue why certain aspects of a certain mechanic don't work because players don't like to do X, and Y is a terrible decision and we should scrap it, but I want to keep Z so we build and rebuild constantly. It has nothing to do with circlejerking forum members anymore because the game has evolved to the point where it is a game and not a concept based on the forum, and that's how we treat it. The characters are based on members of the forum, but they are just that, characters. They have no integral meaning or function to the game; they have personalities, background stories, music and danmaku that represent their character, but this does not represent the forum member in any real way. Hell if we know, ZUN could base every Touhou character on a person he's met, and yet it wouldn't make any difference. Simply put, as Naut would answer this question much shorter than this, "I don't care and it doesn't matter". Even if forum members still thought it was a shoddy cool kids club, we would tell them to screw off, the end.

okay i'm done yw naut
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Infy♫ on June 21, 2011, 12:15:14 PM
OWO OHAAAAAAYOO  KAWAIII KAWAII NATO-CHAN~~~!@!^!%u$!@^#!@!!754742645!!!!!!!!OMG
OGENKYDESKARR?!
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Zengar Zombolt on June 21, 2011, 12:45:30 PM
Naut you're the laziest mother of fuck ever.
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Sapz on June 22, 2011, 12:46:31 AM
So, what's the deal with you and memorization/bullet cancelling in shmups? I don't think I've ever seen anyone dislike them as vehemently/often as you. :V
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: LHCling on June 22, 2011, 12:55:08 AM
what should i stream today? Or tomorrow?
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 22, 2011, 01:37:13 AM
Why is this "Ask a Staffer" if SJ are not staff? :V

No idea. I think we had a discussion about this in the Janitor forum but I can't remember what the reason was after. Oh well, the person up next is even less staffer-y than I am so :V

Do you like any video games outside of shmups? If so what's your (other) favorite genre?

I enjoy RTS and FPS games. I used to play Command and Conquer a lot, particularly Generals: Zero Hour and Red Alert 2. I still actively play an online free to play FPS called Soldier Front fairly regularly. I go by "Suwako" on it :V

If I asked if you were a mage, Would you give me an adorable bunny?

...Yes.

Wait where the fuck is naut who is nuat what have you doooooneeee

All is lost!

Favorite quote from a vidya game? What about from a game thats not touhou?

I don't play videogames for the story and whatnot, so I don't read dialogues and whatever. For example, I've put several hundred hours into UFO and I still don't know any dialogue or story in it, other than Marisa says "What the hell" at the beginning of the stage 1 boss fight when you play as her laser shot type. So I guess that's my favorite quote, 'cause it's all I can remember :D

And finally, Are you a boy or a girl? ...   A giiirl? (http://www.vgcats.com/super/?strip_id=0)

♥✿~M~a~l~e~✿♥

If you had a choice between playing RSG or Ikaruga for the rest of your life, which one would you choose?  (Suicide is a viable option too.)

Suicide, since it is obviously much more enjoyable. If I had to pick one, RSG: at least you have to dodge some stuff in it.

Wow you guys are still doing  Ijiyatsu stuff.  I must applaud the sustained effort.  Who still works with it, and what have you guys accomplished so far?

Drake and I are the only contributing members right now. We had many developers a while ago, but everybody lost interest/whatever. We have most of the mechanics of the game completed, like the scoring system and gameplay elements like that. Five player characters are half finished (they have four power levels and they work fine, but don't have any bombs other than a simple testing one right now). Three stages have been planned out and have enemies and stuff populating them, but are subject to change considerably as we keep playing and fine tuning it to play like how we want. Anybody is welcome to drop by #Ijiyatsu on irc.ppirc.net to talk to us about it or whatever, though that channel is mostly used as ppirc's "shmups" channel due to the people who populate it right now.

If you could wish for any girl in the Touhou universe to be your companion/lover/always there person, who would it be and why?

Reimu, probably. Realiable, not crazy, relaxed, responsible. I don't really think of the Touhou girls that way so I apoligise for not having a more in depth or well thought out answer :(

If a giant hole opened up in the floor below you this second, how would you react?

"Fuck, not again"

What would you do with command of the Nautilus (http://www.vernianera.com/Nautilus/Warren/Warren.html)?

That is awesome. Travel the world, I suppose! There are lot's of places to explore in the sea, and exploring them in that would be awesome.

Chicken or Sea Bass?

Chicken, don't like fish.

Chicken or Sea Boss?

Sea Boss. Obvious reasons.

If you could go back in time and change any one historical event to have the outcome of your choice, what would it be and why?

Favourite book, if any?

I know nothing about history (and am doomed to repeat it) and I don't read for pleasure. Of the few books I have read, I'd say Animal Farm was my favourite. But I probably wouldn't read it again or anything.

If you could strand Ruro in any historical period, where and when would it be, and why?

Ah, I know precious little about Ruro, but if I had to guess, maybe early 1600s london. Seems like a fascinating time to me, I hope she'd be somewhat interested in it as well.

This is a good question.  We should all ask questions like this.

Ask it about people I talk to on a regular basis ;_;

Some people feel Ijiyatsu is polarizing, a "cool kids club", if you will.  Thoughts?

This vvvvvv

<Naut> Drake: you should answer this
<Naut> my inevitable "i don't care" to that linked question isn't going to suffice

THIS MEANS LOOOOONG ANSWEEERRRRR PARAGRAAAAAPHS

To answer your question from the start, yes. When Ijiyatsu first came as an idea, it was entirely a joke, and was based on specific users because these people were picked by Rou due to their popularity at the time. At this point, it wasn't even "Ijiyatsu". It was a complete joke that began receiving positive input because it was easy to build upon, and everybody wants to make a game based on themselves; it was just fun. The fact that it was a Touhou reflection was completely irrelevant, it could game been any game genre/style; the main drive was that it was based on us. To this extent, hell yes it was a cool kids club. But nobody really cared.

More and more input was thrown in, which some actual serious suggestions, and some suggestions were taken as serious from intended jokes, because it worked. This thing we were creating was heavily malleable, the basic plot was covered very quickly and so the discussions led to the logical next steps, an actual system. I don't mean system as in generalmechanics alone, but system as in music ideas, aesthetic ideas, miscellaneous details, and more importantly the idea that "hey, we could actually do this". Note that "actually doing this", while a valid statement at the time, was incredibly naive and is an idea formed entirely through hype that goes through every kid's mind when he goes "yeah i could make this game and it would be awesome!". Even if we had the tools, we didn't know what making this would entail; the actual dev process was completely unknown. We actually started in the middle, without any base aside from "do touhou".

Anyways, at this point Slaves had already designed a lot of the cast. Which was balls awesome because we got art that represented ourselves. Getting that artwork was like a goddamn crown. I'm sure Slaves felt the same way when he started drawing members (incl. himself) and received praise for it. But even still, the characters were solidified and done with; there was no real cool kids club so to speak. Rou even popped out some music, which is where I signed up. The music we did make was another primary motivator to keep going; and without it I might not have joined. For that, Rou will always be a key contributor to the game.

Still, the actual cool kids club began with the invention of Embodiments. We already had our roster set up, and these people were glorified. And suddenly a new group popped up that many people could join. But because the game was based on the forum, we couldn't just have any random people join. Suddenly, a heavy bias is created. This is where things got very tricky, because even after the roster was confirmed, people tended to either complain about it, or insert themselves anyways, creating art and fiction: creating the world when we haven't even done anything ourselves. This to us (well, me and others) was a slap in the face, because it meant all our hard work amounted to nothing more than a scribble pad. This is why there were so many issues in the first place. This introduced many conflicted feelings that all parties didn't even know they had, and we had to figure them out and explain to each other in a short, heated amount of time. The conclusion of this was simply that Ijiyatsu had to be taken off the map somewhat. We already had the IRC channel, so we moved most discussion there.

With the forum-driven pressing and stress gone, we actually got some hardcore work being done. However, the focus evolved into "fuck, we are doing so many things wrong and we have no staff and this sucks and this sucks and we have to redo this and we actually have to learn things because we are developers now oh god". Most of our work we've revised fifty billion times, recoded at least two times, tweaked and then scrapped again; that or we're already planning on doing so eventually. To be honest, if you haven't been in the #ijiyatsu channel during active dev periods (lol active), none of you have any idea how difficult it is to make this thing. Saying "it is difficult" is a copout of an answer, and the long answer is too long to explain properly. This paragraph probably spanned at least half a year by itself.

Today, it is not a cool kids club. The forum-driven aspect is gone, it's going just by the efforts of Naut and I, really. We've set all the previous things aside and are working like game developers working on a game. But slower. Nobody really cares about the progress enough to drop in, #ijiyatsu has become its own social (circlejerk) channel that is pretty much dually-named #shmups (which is actually really helpful). Nobody argues about the choice of characters or bullshit like that, we argue why certain aspects of a certain mechanic don't work because players don't like to do X, and Y is a terrible decision and we should scrap it, but I want to keep Z so we build and rebuild constantly. It has nothing to do with circlejerking forum members anymore because the game has evolved to the point where it is a game and not a concept based on the forum, and that's how we treat it. The characters are based on members of the forum, but they are just that, characters. They have no integral meaning or function to the game; they have personalities, background stories, music and danmaku that represent their character, but this does not represent the forum member in any real way. Hell if we know, ZUN could base every Touhou character on a person he's met, and yet it wouldn't make any difference. Simply put, as Naut would answer this question much shorter than this, "I don't care and it doesn't matter". Even if forum members still thought it was a shoddy cool kids club, we would tell them to screw off, the end.

okay i'm done yw naut

This ^^^^^ also ilu so hard drakums mmwaahh~@@~#!$R`~~uguu~!@3~~

Sorry for 2 posts, but since it's last day:

-Did your sister ever learn the joy of spamming DFK hypers?
-How close are you two? Close thanks to a love of gaming, or the typical brother-sister mutual tormenting? :3
-Have you 2 ever played a shmup together/2P? (I can guess the answer, but still)

- Nah, she lost interest in the game, unfortunately. She plays Dodonpachi Daioujou now, whenever she remembers it exists (not very often, usually only if she walks by my room and sees me playing it).
- Pretty close. We torment eachother but not in the same way siblings around the same age would torment eachother (I am 13 years older than her after all). She mostly plays games typical for her age and gender on her DS more than shmups or the like. I still enjoy playing those childrens games with her though.
- Only a few times. DFK and Mushihimesama Futari are all we've played together, and Futari was only once (doesn't have autobomb and the novice mode is harder than DFK's so it's incredibly difficult for her to get anywhere with it, she loses interest because the game is too hard).

OWO OHAAAAAAYOO  KAWAIII KAWAII NATO-CHAN~~~!@!^!%u$!@^#!@!!754742645!!!!!!!!OMG
OGENKYDESKARR?!

I AM SUGOKKUUUU GENKY DESUUUUUU SERKAN-COON^_)))))))))^__^^^^^^^^^^______xd________^ WHAT A KAWAIII NATSU WE'RE HAVING THIS YEAR NEEE?????????^___^^ XDxDXDxdXDDDXDd^_^^

Naut you're the laziest mother of fuck ever.

Hell yeah. Though if you're referring to me getting Drake to answer that question, it's primarily because I wasn't involved in Ijiyatsu until some time into the project, so I actually don't know about the history of the circle-jerking off or how it affected anybody. If you're not talking about that, then yes, I agree completely.

So, what's the deal with you and memorization/bullet cancelling in shmups? I don't think I've ever seen anyone dislike them as vehemently/often as you. :V

I accept memorization and bullet cancelling to a certain degree...

I play shmups to dodge bullets. If I am cancelling bullets, then I'm not dodging them. Essentially, I'm dodging the dodging. I hate that. Now I know games like DFK have a purpose for cancelling the bullets and it's actually detrimental to your score to cancel bullets when you have a large chain going, but I still can't shake the feeling that I'm cancelling bullets to avoid dodging them. This is particularly evident in games like Ikaruga, where you don't have to dodge anything at all. Then we have games like UFO, where you can still cancel bullets via killing UFOs. But it's hardly ever useful to do so since the timing is absurd and you'll probably end up using a bomb anyways, so cancelling using UFOs isn't a big deal to me since it may only come up once or twice and you'll probably screw it up anyway. You typically don't cancel bullets to avoid dodging them, they just happen to get cancelled when you kill a UFO. Same with capturing spell cards. You don't specifically end a card to cancel the bullets in it, you end the card to get the score/capture and the bullets just happen to disappear when you do so, so it doesn't bother me.

So, memorization. I actually don't mind memorizing. I just don't like it when there is absolutely nothing else I can do but memorize something to get better. Essentially, I don't like getting forced to do it. I want to play the game and get enjoyment out of it before I feel like I need to memorize anything to get better at it. I want to passively memorize stuff as I play, not play just to memorize. So games that have stupid memo heavy scoring systems like enemy chaining force you to play it to memorize all the positions of every enemy in the game, which is absurd for anybody to do if they were playing it casually or for fun. Yeah you'd remember big sections and whatnot, but games like DDP/DOJ don't give you enough chain time to just "roughly know what's coming" or "only know the basic stage layout." It's rediculusly precise and forces you to grind memorize it into your head so you don't fuck up. It's only until the second loop of those games comes that the chaining becomes fun and interesting, since you get much more time to make your chain so a basic knowledge of whats coming at you will suffice. It's much more about dodging the bullets around than it is precisely timing each enemy kill and movement, which, in my opinion, is a shitload more fun than sinking hours and hours into grinding and memorizing every enemy in the game.

Memorization also prevents me from dodging bullets actively. If I have memorized what's coming and where to be when it comes, I am not dodging the bullets, I'm just replaying a stupid route from my mind and not testing my dodging skills. I conciously try to not memorize bullet patterns and where to be when large waves of bullets come at me so I can use my dodging skills to get through them and improve, rather than my muscle memory (and thus miss out on improving my skills). For example, I have Murasa's third non-card on lunatic completely memorized, since it is static and repeats quickly. I do not dodge it. I see maybe three or four bullets, move twice and pass the non-spell with no effort. But it's fucking boring. I hate it. There are times in non-serious runs where I'll attack the wave of bullets from a different side just to spice it up and test my skills. When I use my muscle memory to pass bullet patterns rather than my general dodging skills, I become too relaxed and inaccurate, my mind slows down and I'm not ready to take on the next challenge as much as I would be if I'm constantly using my mind to make split second decisions and precise, sponanteous movements. In short, I improve faster the more I actively dodge, rather than memorize and not improve at all. Memorization also has the downfall of not being interchangable between shmups. What you memorize in one shmup is completely useless to you in almost every other one. Active dodging skills are useful in pretty much every shmup in existance. It is this which I view as actual skill, and how much you have memorized in a particular shmup means absolutely nothing to me.

tl;dr: Bullet cancelling and memorization stop me from actively dodging bullets. I want to dodge bullets.

what should i stream today? Or tomorrow?

DOJ and UFO. Why don't you play UFO anymore? :(
Title: Re: Ask a Staffer Ep.18 - Naut
Post by: Naut on June 22, 2011, 02:30:49 AM
k bye