Topics

1

General Chat / Watch NASA build a rover

« on: October 23, 2010, 05:31:22 PM »

NASA has a live webcam that lets you watch engineers building their next Mars rover, Curiosity:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/&medium=498663

The facility is closed for the weekend, but should be up and running again Monday.

2

General Chat / Another one bites the dust

« on: September 23, 2010, 11:34:24 PM »

I have to live in one of the most accident-prone blocks in the world.  In the 5 years I have lived here there have been 3 lethal fires on my block alone. 

Further, there is a car accident on the block while I am home on average about once every week and a half.  Another just happened.  And, as is typical, while I am typing this a fire truck pulls up.  Now the drivers are yelling at each other.  I don't even have to look out my window to know what is happening anymore, I can tell just from the sounds.

3

General Gaming / FoldIt

« on: September 19, 2010, 10:33:51 PM »

Anyone remember the Folding@Home distributed protein folding screensaver?  The people behind it have now come out with FoldIt, the same basic idea but in game form.  Instead of having your computer do the folding in the background, the goal is to have you do the folding yourself.  It is essentially a puzzle game, trying to rearrange the protein backbone and functional groups to get a higher "score" (or minimize the free energy, if you know molecular biology).    You need to make sure bits of the structure don't overlap, that certain parts are towards the middle and others towards the edge, and try to get particular bits to line up. 

The program itself is pretty sophisticated, with an almost infinite undo/redo, and a graph showing your score per move that lets you easily go back to a particular point.  There are online leaderboards, the ability to work off of other peoples' results, live chat between players, co-op and versus mode, and a bunch of other features.  The game is free on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Here is a screenshot:


And Here is a youtube video showing the gameplay.

Note that these are both from much older versions of the game, the current version has a lot better graphics, and doesn't have the cell-shaded look.

What are the Goals of Foldit? Goals of the Intro Puzzles The Intro Puzzles are meant to familiarize new players with the basic concepts and tools they'll need to start folding proteins in Foldit's Science Puzzles.
 Goals of the Science Puzzles The current series of Science Puzzles, the Grand Challenges, are meant to generate the evidence needed to prove that human protein folders can be more effective than computers at certain aspects of protein structure prediction. That's what all the puzzles in Foldit are about right now: predicting the structure of a protein based on its amino acid sequence. The three rules mentioned above describe the characteristics of correct protein structures.
 Goals of Foldit For protein structure prediction, the eventual goal is to have human folders work on proteins that do not have a known structure. This would require first attracting the attention of scientists and biotech companies and convincing them that the process is effective. Another goal is to take folding strategies that  human players have come up with while playing the game, and automate these strategies to make protein-prediction software more effective. These two goals are more or less independent and either or both may happen.
The more interesting goal for Foldit, perhaps, is not in protein prediction but protein design. Designing new proteins may be more directly practical than protein prediction, as the problem you must solve as a protein designer is basically an engineering problem (protein engineering), whether you are trying to disable a virus or scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It's also a relatively new field compared to protein prediction. There aren't a lot of automated approaches to protein design, so Foldit's human folders will have less competition from the machines.

4

NWR Forums Discord / The Guide to Being a Video Game Villain

« on: September 10, 2010, 11:31:05 PM »

   The Guide to Being a Video Game Villain
   (and living to tell about it)

 
In video games, there are certain, usually fatal mistakes the villains make.  These mistakes give the hero, heroine, or enemy party a vital opening allowing them to defeat the villain.  Sometimes they are just small slip-ups, other times they are systemic bad policies or tactics, but if these mistakes were not made the villain would most likely succeed.  So here is what to do to avoid those mistakes and destroy your enemies once and for all.

 
Note: The use of masculine or feminine in this list usually follows the most common genders for certain roles in video games.  This does not preclude other genders, or for that matter genderless characters or groups, from filling those roles.  It simply follows certain conventions found in most games.

 

• If you have a whole army at your disposal and the hero must follow a certain path, either because the world is laid out in a line or because certain areas must be visited in a certain order, don't spread your army out along the path. Concentrate most of them right at the beginning and have them attack the hero en masse.  Better yet, aim all available artillery somewhere early in that path.
• Similarly, if you must spread your minions out, don't make them so they get gradually more powerful as the hero gets more powerful.  Put the most powerful enemies aright at the beginning
• If you have a number of very powerful bosses the hero must defeat to progress, put them all in one room and order them to attack the hero simultaneously.  Don't put them in a bunch of rooms scattered all over the place.
• If you have the technology or magic needed to clone your fallen bosses, or to create new ones at will, don't only make one of them at a time.  Make as many as you can afford and use them simultaneously.
• If your enemies get stronger as they fight more battles, you are better off not sending weak minions at all. Just send strong ones, as many as you can as soon as you can.
• Never design your ultimate weapon or monster so it has one small weak point.  It doesn't matter how small it is, or how rarely it is accessible, the hero will find a way to exploit it.  Especially don't make it glowing or blinking.
• Conversely, covering your monster or weapon with totally pointless glowing parts and blinking lights should keep most heroes occupied for a while.
• Never let the hero make it all the way to you just so you can have an amusing fight or prove your strength, no matter how confident you are in your own abilities.  If you really want a fight you can fight your minions, any good minion would gladly sacrifice his life for his master's amusement.
• Never keep the hero alive just so he can witness the birth of your ultimate monster or the completion of your ultimate weapon, no matter how unbeatable you think it is. There is a good chance he already knows its one weakness, and if not he will figure it out as soon as he begins to fight it.  If you just want to test it, test it on your minions.
• Never spare the hero's life or leave him clues as to how to navigate your bases. You are not going to impress anyone.
• Don't spare the harmless but strong willed little whelp just because you are confident in your conquest of the kingdom or your ultimate power, there is a good chance he will grow up into the fated hero in a decade or so.
• If you don't want the hero to get to you, don't leave a path he can use to reach you.  If possible, keep as much of your fortress, ship, or castle sealed as much of the time as possible.
• Especially don't lock all the doors except those leading directly to vital areas. Your minions should be smart enough to find their way around, so make it at least a little bit difficult for your enemies navigate.  This is especially true if all the rooms in your base or ship look exactly the same.
• Make sure all the signs in your base or ship are wrongly labeled, even the dumbest minions can get used to that sort of thing pretty quickly.  For instance the room labeled “reactor core” should really be “the pitch black room of  endless spikes”
• Also, don't leave several weak bosses the hero must defeat to gain access to your inner sanctum.  Especially don't use weaker versions of bosses he has already beaten.
• If you do want the hero to reach you, don't put enemies and traps in his way.  He might be killed, and if he survives he will be stronger and/or more skilled than before.
• Many heroes have some sort of strange biological fluke that prevents them from doing simple things like walking to the side, crawling on their hands and needs, working their way through bushes, or jumping over 2 inch tall stumps.  Keep a close eye out for such disabilities and use them to your advantage
• If there is one surefire way to lose a war it is to divide your forces.  So don't evenly divide up your forces amongst conquering the kingdom, killing the hero, finding The Ultimate Power, and random puppies.  Pick the objective that is most important and focus all your resources on that.  Generally the hero won't even notice you if you quietly go about finding the ultimate treasure, and generally there won't even be a hero if you level his Mom's house before he sets out on an adventure.
• If you identify a character with any of the following characteristics, the enemy is a hero and is extremely dangerous, send all forces to destroy him immediately and at any cost
         
  • The characters is small and extremely cute
  • The character wears a full body suit of armor, especially powered armor
  • The character wears a bandanna
  • You are facing twins
  • The character is carrying another creature, a robot, or a especially an AI
  • The character is female and all alone
  • The character wears all green
  • The character is a reincarnation of or uses the same name or clothing as a hero you have faced before
  • All of the character's companions magically disappear unless the group is in a battle or in a scripted sequence
  • If you are in an RPG world, anyone capable of saying more than two or three different things
     
          And the biggest warning sign:
         
  • The character is mute but no one seems to have any problem holding a conversation with him
     
• A mysterious person who appears intermittently to either taunt people, throw out unsolicited advice, randomly intervene in fights, diffuse dangerous situations, or just act mysteriously is not the hero, this is either a sage, a mentor, or The Real Villain.  It doesn't really matter which, all of these individually are a greater threat than the hero himself and should be treated as such.
• If you use a certain strategy against a hero, lose, and are lucky enough to survive (or get cloned or resurrected), don't use the exact same strategy against the hero next time you face him.  Even if you use more powerful minions or more bosses, the hero is more powerful now too so it won't help.  Think of something new.
• If you fought the hero and were either killed or sealed, and have the good fortune to be resurrected or freed generations later, there is a very good probability the hero has been reincarnated.  Your first order of business should be to find and kill anyone who looks, dresses, or is named remotely similar to the previous hero, no matter how young or old they me be.
• Heroship tends to run in families, so if you are resurrected or freed, find and kill as many descendants of the previous hero as possible given the amount of time that has elapsed and how good record keeping has been in the meantime.  Hiring a genealogist may help.
• If you have an opportunity to either capture or kill the hero, do the latter.  It doesn't matter how secure the prison is, if the hero can't escape and his friends can't rescue him then some sort of random natural disaster or accident will free him.
• If, for whatever insane reason, you take the hero prisoner, and he is being extremely cooperative, either he is trying to trick you or his friends are on their way. Kill him while you have the chance.  Making an example of him in a showy public execution is not worth it.
• If the hero needs a certain weapon to defeat your minions, find and destroy all copies of that weapon. Similarly, if certain minions can only be defeated with certain spells, find and destroy all written records of that spell and destroy any artifacts that can cast it.  This is especially true for your bosses, and essential for you.
• If for some reason you absolutely cannot do without the weapon, never, ever, leave that weapon in the same building as the minions it can defeat.  The same goes for the artifact or object that, if destroyed, will render your minions useless.  If you must, make sure it is in the very last room and the hero has to fight through all the minions to get to it.
• If there is only one item that can destroy you, you possess it, and for some reason you can't destroy it outright, don't give it to one of your trusty but far weaker bosses.  Keep it yourself, or put it in a room behind you so anyone who wants it has to go through you first.
• If you have a weakness to something, never live in a room or building full of that that thing. For instance, if you are weak against fire don't live in a volcano.
• Have similar policies for your bosses and minions.  If your minions mindless walk off pits, don't put them in an area full of pits.  If your boss cannot stand lava, don't put him next to of a lake of the stuff.
• Better yet, design your lairs to take advantage of those abilities.  For instance, if you or your minions can fly put uncrossable bottomless pits or beds of spikes in the lair.  If your minions are immune to lasers put walls of lasers in all passageways.  Incomplete walls or pits are useless, though.
• If your buildings are built out of materials the hero cannot damage, seal off all sewers and air vents with the same materials.  Making them too small to crawl through isn't enough.  Many heroes have robot drones, small animal helpers, or can shrink to a smaller size.  Make sure they form gratings at least a foot thick and with holes no larger than 1/8^th inch.
• If you are constantly tracking the hero and know exactly where he is, don't wait for him to fight through your soldiers and come you.  Send your forces after him the moment you pinpoint his position.  Or better yet send the largest air strike you can muster.
• Never make the entrances to your base obvious.  The entrance to the base should look like a wall, some random patch of ground, a cliff, anything but a door.  The grand, metal-and-oak door should open into a reinforced room packed with several tons of high explosives.
• Don't rely solely on key cards, they are too easy to steal.  If you have the technology for key cards, you also have the technology for security cameras.  Make it so security doors to vital areas and checkpoints can only be opened from the control room.  Identify authorized personnel by sight.
• Don't use retinal scans, palm print scanners, or other biometric identifiers either, they are too easy for spies to circumvent.
• If, for some reason, you must use key cards, make them unique to each user and give the users vital sign monitors.  If someone holding a key card is killed or goes unconscious, change the access codes immediately.
• The exact opposite is true for vehicles of any kind.  Make sure none of them can be operated without a key, key card, or biometric scan.  These won't hold off a hero for long, but at least they will prevent him from commandeering one of your tanks in the middle of a battle.
• Don't make your doors so they can be opened by weapons or items that can be readily found lying around or taken from your forces.  Make your doors so they must be opened by items only your forces can use.
• If your guards see the hero run around the corner, the hero is NOT gone.  Keep the security alert up until he is found.
• If your units report a problem, not matter how small, and don't report back, you have a major problem.  Send more units.
• If all the units in a room are killed after reporting a security breach, don't assume the hero is gone and turn off the security alert.  Send more units.
• If your elite forces are not smart enough to chase after the hero, they are really not that elite.  You can do better.
• If your forces are being overrun, never underestimate the usefulness of retreating to regroup or sending in reinforcements.  There is no reason for your minions to continue to fight to the last man when you have dozens of additional soldiers in the next room or a place to set up a defensive perimeter around the corner.
• If you rig your base to self destruct after you escape, don't give it a timer, make it go off instantly.  Your minions don't matter, you can easily find more. It's worth sacrificing them to kill the hero.  This is especially true if you have back up forces hiding at a safe distance, or if it the bomb is being used for revenge if you die.
• If, for whatever reason, there must be a delay before a bomb goes off, don't display a countdown timer.  If for some bizarre reason you are actually concerned with the well being of your forces, inform them how long they have to escape and give them stopwatches.  Alternatively, set the bomb to go off when the timer says there is 5 minutes left and warn your minions of this fact.
• If you rig your base to self destruct, make sure you, and only you can activate it.  Make sure there are at least 3 biometric identifiers and a 30 digit pass code.  And never, ever correctly label it.
• By all means, have a button labeled "Self Destruct", just make it so the button itself is the only thing that self destructs (with enough force to take out anyone nearby)
• If you have the resources to pay and equip hundreds of minions, you can surely afford to hire a few skilled assassins to kill the hero.
• If you do hire skilled assassins, don't have them announce their intentions to the hero, challenge the hero to a duel, or carry out any other sort of frontal attack in broad daylight.  Have them attack when the hero isn't looking, or better yet when he is asleep.  Never hire assassins that insist on doing something stupid like giving the hero a fighting chance.
• Never send skilled assassins or trusty lieutenants of the opposite sex against the hero (or homosexuals of the same sex).  Always send members with opposite gender preferences.  Minions don't matter, but assassins and lieutenants are likely to fall in love with the hero. If you are up against a multi-gendered group, send assassins or lieutenants of an incompatible species or eunuchs.
• If you have taken control of an incredibly powerful, vicious, and mindless monster, never let it loose while you are in the same room.  No matter how well you think you have it under control, there is a good chance it will turn on you and kill you.  Better yet, don't let it loose while you are in the same time zone.
• I don't care what the ancient legend says, the Demon Lord is not going to obey you.  Just suggesting such a thing to it will probably get you killed for your insolence, if not just for fun.
• If an ancient race went to great lengths to seal off a powerful creature or species, there is probably a good reason.  If they couldn't control it neither can you, leave it be.  Unless of course your objective is destroying everything, in which case release as many of them as you can.
• If you are going to unseal a powerful creature or species with the intent of destroying everything, don't do it when the hero is around.  Most such creatures grow more powerful by consuming innocent victims, so letting it loose on defenseless village is more effective.
• I don't care what happened, if you don't have a body the hero isn't dead.  Even if you do have a body the hero may not be dead, but if the hero just fell of a cliff or got washed away in a flood or his airship crashed you should assume the hero is alive and send out a search party immediately.
• If you have a great deal of magical skill and there are healing spells available, learn them. They aren't as flashy or sinister but you can be as flashy and sinister as you want when the hero is defeated.  Similarly, if there are items that can restore your health, magic meter, or some other stat, get a stockpile of them and use them as often as possible.
• If you have several attacks, don't save your best ones until the hero has whittled away half your health, use them immediately and as often as you can.  Similarly, if you are capable of moving quickly, don't move slowly until your health is almost gone and then start panicking.
• Never randomly cycle through attacks if you can avoid it.  Use your most powerful attacks whenever possible.  Only use weaker attacks if the stronger ones stop being effective.  If you must intersperse weak attacks with strong ones, use healing spells or items for the weak attacks.
• If you are able to teleport, and you don't end up naked on the other end, you obviously can carry stuff with you.  Rather than waiting to steal the Ultimate Power from the hero just before he touches it, grab it as early as possible, then use your teleportation to drop artillery, monsters, cruise ships, and such on the hero from a safe altitude.  Or better yet just teleport into his hotel room and stab him in his sleep.
• If two of your enemies are ready to fight each other, don't identify yourself as The Real Villain just before or during the battle.  Wait until one of them kills the other, then simply kill the victor without warning before he has a chance to recover.
• Never make a trap or use an attack that eliminates all but 1 unit of the hero's health, any trap or attack should be able to do that 1 more unit needed to finish the hero off.  If it really is impossible, follow that trap up immediately with another trap or attack that does at least 1 unit of damage.
• If the hero is aided by a trusty scientist or weapons smith who makes cool gadgets and powerful items for him, kill the helper, destroy whatever items and documents of his you can find, and vaporize his house.  It will likely enrage the hero, but it's worth it to cut off the hero's supply of upgraded equipment.  Destroying the house helps guarantee that the ultimate item the helper hid in the event of his demise will never be found. Never, ever, under any circumstances keep anything the helper made, no matter how tempting it may be.
• Make sure you eliminate all weapon trainers who refuse to be in your exclusive employ.  House those that cooperate in your personal barracks.  This goes for contests involving weapons or shooting of any kind.
• Unlike movie villains, video game villains are not supposed to have independent thought or initiative. If one of your minions starts doing things without being ordered to or moving around behind your back, he is most likely going to betray you.  He may even be The Real Villain.
• On the other hand, feel free to plant as many spies or saboteurs wherever you want.  No one on the side of Good will ever, under any circumstances, doubt anyone who claims to be good no matter how suspiciously they act.  Similarly, lying about turning good may be enough to get you off the hook,
• If you are not The Real Villain, make sure someone is your enemy before trying to kill him.  It is a lot easier to work with someone from the beginning than to try to kill them for a while then join his party.  You can't really predict how a hero will behave in this situation, even those that won't defend themselves against “good” soldiers or villagers may still kill a villain that tries to turn good just for the heck of it.
• If the ancients left a bunch of powerful magical or technological artifacts lying around, send as many forces as you can spare to find them and destroy them immediately.  Don't bring them back, don't try to use them yourself, destroy them.
• If you kidnap the hero's girlfriend or “very close female friend” for the sole purpose of luring the hero into a trap, just kill her. Heroes usually don't ask for proof of life and, if he does, threatening to kill her if he asks again should be enough to shut him up.  This prevents the girlfriend from tricking you, prevents her from escaping or revealing your foolproof trap, and saves on food and water. This, of course, doesn't apply if you are kidnapping the girlfriend so you can marry her.
• If you want to marry the hero's girlfriend or “very close female friend”, don't wait until the hero has arrived or schedule some fancy ceremony in a few weeks.  Marry her immediately in private.  Announce it immediately afterward, knowing that his girlfriend is married might be enough to dissuade the hero from continuing.  You can have the lavish ceremony once the hero is defeated.
• Although killing the girlfriend or “very close female friend” after capturing here is a good plan, killing her directly in front of the hero is the worst thing you can do.  There is a very good chance he will fly into a murderous rage or unleash some ultimate attack
• If you kill the hero in a universe where time traveling is commonplace, you can't sit back and relax. The hero's friends are probably already carrying out a plan to save the hero by replacing him with a duplicate at the last moment.
• Don't give your mindless minions money, potions, keys, or anything else besides weapons.  If they are mindless they can't make proper use of such items, so the only one who will benefit from them is the hero.
• Zombies are hurt by healing spells, so logically they can be healed by well placed damage. Order them to hurt themselves to counteract such spells, or if they are too mindless have your own forces do it for them.
• When attacking the hero, there is nothing wrong with disguising your troops. You're a villain, after all.  Making them look like friendly units or common villagers allows them to get a lot closer without being spotted.  Also, many heroes are psychologically incapable of fighting villagers or “good” soldiers even if attacked first.
• Along similar lines, although vicious, disgusting monsters make an impact, cute, fuzzy, doe-eyed monsters are less likely to be killed on sight.  This make them more likely to get close enough to strike.
• No matter how well it sets the mood, don't play your specially composed personal theme just before attacking the hero.
• If the ancient sage that is the sole holder of information vital to the hero escapes your grasp, make sure you eliminate any close friends, family, or students.  Any such person is likely the hero or the hero's girlfriend or “close female friend”, and if not they will tell the hero where to find the sage.
• If you want a save state nearby for your own use, don't put it just outside the main entrance to your chamber.  Put it in a locked room at the back of your chamber, and carry the only key on your person.  If it is for your minions’ use, put it near their barracks.

   
This article was inspired by Peter’s Evil Overlord List.  If you have suggestions for additional rules, please post them.  I am especially in need of RPG rules, as I am rather unfamiliar with the genre.

5

General Gaming / Why's it called that (video game etymology)

« on: August 24, 2010, 12:39:49 AM »

Lots of things in video games have weird names for no reason.  But sometimes there is actually interesting reasons behind the names, or some sort of meaning that isn't immediately obvious.  Symbols also have significance that may not be readily apparent.  You can also discuss the origin of specific terms commonly used in games today.

For instance, in Chrono Trigger one of the characters is named Magus.  Magus is actually a generic term for a magician, sorcorer, or astrologer.  The three wise men from the Christmas story are also called the three magi, which is the plural of magus.  It can also refer to a priest of the Zoroastrian religion.

In the Metroid series, Chozo (or Chouzou rather) actually means carved statue or sculpture in Japanese.  Having that as the name of the race was a result of miscommunication between the American and Japanese branches of the company.  In the Japanse versions of the Metroid games, the Chozo are referred to as chōjin-zoku which literally means "race of bird-humans", although apparently the name Chozo is becoming more popular in Japan.

The name Ridley, the boss from the Metroid series, is named after Ridley Scott, the director of Aliens.

The triforce is actually the first step of a famous fractal called Sierpinski’s triangle

So does anyone have any other interesting stories about the meaning or origin of a name or symbol in video games?

6

NWR Forums Discord / BOOBIES!!!!!

« on: August 11, 2010, 08:07:01 PM »

7

NWR Forums Discord / How to skin a cat?

« on: July 22, 2010, 11:37:02 PM »

In honor of Mop it up's furry friend, I think we should take a stab at answering the age-old question: exactly how many ways are there to skin a cat?  Let's see who can come up with the most original method. 

No Rube Goldberg machines though, all that matters is the actual act of skinning.  Using some random contraption to make a knife cut in the normal manner, for instance, is not a new method.

I've been doing a bit of research on the subject, and besides the obvious method some other proposed solutions:
belt sander
can opener
squeeze it
centrifugal force
vacuum cleaner

8

NWR Forums Discord / Amazing illusions thread (lots of pics)

« on: July 10, 2010, 04:54:38 PM »

This is, as its name implies, a thread for optical illusions.

Appropriately, here is a video of a perspective illusion using the Nintendo's controller as a model.  It is not projected, it is made using construction paper and blacklights:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=brusspup&annotation_id=annotation_230956&feature=iv#p/u/0/foF13Ezxt5c

And the amazing inside-out box illusion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laty3vXKRek&feature=related

And the Rubik's Poster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET66oPXlCJU


And some pictures:




This is not an animation:


Count the dots:

9

Nintendo Gaming / Super Smash Bros Rumble: Ideas and wishlisht

« on: June 29, 2010, 12:17:25 AM »

I know that no new smash bros game has been mentioned, there may not be another game period.  But that doesn't stop us from hoping, right?  So I thought it might be fun for us to post a wishlist for the next smash bros and discuss how certain characters, items, levels, or assist trophies might be best implemented (or whether they are good ideas at all).  So post what sort of features you might like, what characters should be added and existing one should change, what levels, items, or assist trophies might be added, and so on.  The more detail you can provide the better. 

Here are my current ideas:

Features:

Outfits: rather than just changing the color of a character's outfit, it would be cool if, like with Wario in Brawl, you also had alternative models for the characters.  This could avoid some of the clones (for instance Dr. Mario or Toon Link), as well as some of the ugly color hacks used to make a character look like a different one even though the models don't match (like the "Daisy" color scheme for Peach or the "Fusion Suit" color scheme for Samus).  These would naturally include 8bit and 16bit 2D pixelated (and maybe vectorized) versions of characters when possible.  I will include alternative outfits for all the characters I mention later.

Horizontally rotating levels/sliding:  This idea is for a new class of levels that rotate along the horizontal axis (in other words they spin like a top) or move back and forth between the foreground and background.  The rotation would either be continuous and slow or fast and intermittent.  The characters would be locked in a 2D plane, but the platforms and level layout would change.  A good example of a rotating level might be the new star fox level, where it could show the front view, rotate to show a side view (with a wider field and different platforms), or show the front view. 

Outfits for existing characters:
Bowser: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D, skeleton, wart
Captain Falcon: Normal, 2D drawn, Samurai Goroh
Diddy Kong: Normal, Candy Kong
Donkey Kong: Normal, 8bit 2D,, 16 bit 2D, Donkey Kong Jr, Funky Kong
Fox: Normal, Star Fox Assault outfit, Dinosaur Planet outfit
Ganondorph: Normal, toon, 8bit 2D ganon, 16bit 2D ganon, 3D classic-style ganon
Ice Climbers: Normal, 8bit 2D
Jigglypuff: Normal, 2D drawn, wigglypuff
King Dedede: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D
Kirby: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D, yarn (you can see what is inside him)
Link: Normal, 8bit, 16bit, toon, young, shadow (semi-transparent)
Lucario: Normal, 2D drawn
Luigi: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D, sports
Mario: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D, Doctor Mario (with pills replacing fireballs), sports, water mario (transparent, from Mario Sunshine)
Meta Knight: Normal, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D
Mr Game and Watch: Normal, 3D, pixelated 2D
Ness: Normal, 16bit 2D, Lucas
Peach: Normal, 8bit, 16bit, Sports (t-shirt and shorts), racing   (motorcycle jumpsuit from Mario Kart), Daisy, Rosalina (using a star   dude in place of toad)
Pikachu: Normal, 2D Drawn, Pichu, Raichu
Pit: Normal, 8bit 2D
Pokemon Trainer: Normal, several variants using creatures and appearance from other games
Samus: Normal / Zero Suit, 8bit / Justin Bailey Suit, 16bit / Black Swimsuit (super metroid ending outfit), Fusion / Orange Tank Top and Shorts (Fusion Ending), Dark Samus / ? (use their imagination)
Snake: Normal, Old, Raiden
Sonic: Normal, 16bit 2D, mecha sonic
Wario: Normal, Warioware, Master of Disguise, Waliuigi
Yoshi: Yoshi, Bad Yoshi from Mario RPG
Zelda: Normal, 8bit, 16bit, toon, Midna, all with equivalent sheik variants

Changes to existing characters:

Samus: make it easier to switch back and forth from zero suit samus

Kirby: can inhale then swallow more than one opponent if they are near each other, which causes you to randomly get a power from any of the characters, even those not being played (and a few from characters not in the game or assist trophies).  Can inhale item containers and spit them out as projectiles, if you swallow a standard one the items disappear but if you swallow an explosive box it hurts you.

Mario: Go back to the cape, get rid of F.L.O.O.D


New Characters:
First: NO new Mario, Zelda,, Pokemon, or Kirby characters, and no more star fox clones.  There are more than enough of those already.  Time to give some other series more of a chance.

Nintendo Characters:

Zebsian Space Pirate (Metroid Series): Outfits: Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, 16bit 2D.  These would be fairly acrobatic, with high jumps and the ability to cling to walls.  They would have a short slash attack for their normal attack, a weak beam for their B attack, and can throw their claws or blade (depending on the outfit) as their B smash attack.  Their down attack would be a slide kick on the ground or a dive kick in the air.  Up B would attack up with its claws/blade while spinning.  Final smash would would call in a swarm of flying pirates that would attack characters on the ground then fly off.

Kihunter Space Pirates (Metroid Series): Outfits: 3D, 16bit 2D.  This would be fa lying/gliding character like pit or meta knight.  On the ground they would walk slowly in small hops but run quickly with larger hops.  If they take too much damage at once their wings fall of and they can't fly, the wings regrow over time.  Standard attack would be a slash with their front claws, B attack would be spitting a glob of acid that stick to characters or the ground and hurts anyone who touches it (or continues to hurt the character it lands on), down B would be a leaping slash on ghe ground or a diving slash in the   air, up B would be to propel itself upward by shooting a stinger straight down.  FInal smash would be to call in a swarm of computer-controlled kihunters with little health.  You also lose control of your kihunter.  The last one alive becomes your character again.

Krystal (Star Fox Series): Outfits: Normal, Space Suit.  She uses the staff from Star Fox Adventures and is fast and jumps high like Fox.  Standard attack would be a slash with the staff, B attack would be a fire blaster shot, B smash would be ice blaster which freezes enemies, down B would the shockwave attack (jump up then smash the staff into the ground, creating a shockwave), up B would be rocket boost .  Final smash would summon a pterodactyl she can ride, flying around the level and swooping down at characters and shooting them with a rifle.

Starfy (Legendary starly): 3D, 16bit 2D.  Standard attack is a spin attack, B is a spin dash, up B is spin up attack, down B rams the ground   and causes a small earthquake.  Slow walking, fast running, high floaty   jumps, light weight, and very low traction.  Final smash is to summon his bunny friend to turn into 1 of the four special modes, with   corresponding powers.  The mode is selected randomly.

Isa/Kachi (Sin and Punishment): Isa, Kachi.  Fast.  Their standard attack is a beam attack, their B attack allows them to lock on to opponents and keep shooting at them while tapping A, B smash is a sword attack.  Up B pulls out their board and allows them to float around and glide for a while.  They can reflect enemy attacks by using the sword attack at the right moment.  Their final smash has them fly to the foreground, where they can attack players with their beam using charged-up shots.


Non-Nintendo Characters:

Megaman: Outfits: 3D, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D, Bass/Forte, X.  Somewhat slow but is not knocked far.  Standard attack is a punch/kick, B is a standard blaster shot, down B cycles through 4 or so different robot master's power, B smash uses the current master's power, up B is an uperrcut punch with an energy-charged blaster.  Final smash is to fuse with rush, allowing the character to float for a while, shooting powered-up shots with the A button and homing missiles with B (unlimited ammo for both).

Zero (MegaMan Zero Series): 3D, 16bit 2D.  Like megaman, but faster.  Uses a sword for regular attack, charges the sword with the power of a robot master with B, and has a slash that flies through the air with the power of a robot master for B smash.  Down B switches powers, up B is an upwards slash with the sword.  I assume the final smash would be to summon  a big robot to ride which walks around the level, but I am not sure if this is in the Mega Man Zero games, since I have never played them.

Tails (Sonic series): 3D, 16bit 2D.  Is fast like sonic, but not as fast.  Has similar horizontal attack, spin attacks, and so on, but uses his tails as a whip for standard attacks giving slightly longer reach, and the up b is to float using his tail.  Smash attack is to get in a big robot that walks around the level and can shoot missiles.

Knuckles (sonic series): 3D; 16bit 2D, bat chick.  Like tails, but punches with his knuckles, can cling to walls, can glide but not fly, his up B is an upercut then immediately goes into a glide as long as the B button is held down.  Special attack is to summon his subordinates that randomly attack other players.

Bub/Bob (bubble bobble): 3D, 8bit 2D, 16bit 2D.  They shoot bubbles out of their mouths.  Normal attack shoots a bubble that just explodes, doing a little damage.  B attack fires one that traps opponents momentarily, trapping them longer the more damage they have.  B smash fires a stream of bubbles.  Down B jumps up then smashes the ground, which if done on an opponent trapped in a bubble does a ton of damage.  Up B puts you in a bubble that allows you to float around.  Final smash put you at the top of the screen with a puzzle bobble/puyo pop/bust-a-move turret and lets you shoot marbles at opponents.  The marbles stick to each other and remain after the final smash, which can make new platforms or block passageways.


Existing Level Changes:

Frigate Orpheon: The Parasite Queen periodically targets players then shoots them with high-energy beams from the background

Hanenbow: you can swim in the water for a short time.  The electrolpankton will do damage if they collide with you, and can be hit to propel them into other players

Lylat Cruise: The level rotates horizontally periodically, giving you a back, front, left side, or right side view of the ship, with different platform layouts in each case.  In the front view, asteroid and lasers will come from the the player's side of the screen and can cause damage, in the back view they will come from the background, and in the left and right view they will come from the left and right-hand side of the screen respectively.  In side views asteroids can bounce and roll along the stage, in the front and side view they won't.

Mushroomy Kingdom: Add the first Bowser's castle, complete with a race to be the first to retract the bridge at the end and dump your opponents in the lava.

Shadow Moses Island: The metal gears will attack players and smash platforms if they are caught by a searchlight.

New Levels:

Tetris: As you would probably guess, this features falling tetris blocks.  The level scrolls upwards or downwards to keep the top of the blocks about 1/3 of the way from the bottom of the screen.  Falling too far below the bottom of the screen will kill you, and you can be trapped by falling tetris blocks, which are all hard platforms you can't jump through.  The piece placement will not be random, it will be really played by an AI with a skill level determined randomly at the beginning of the match.  So a good AI will tend to keep a relatively flat level and will have lots of disappearing rows the players have to contend with.  A bad AI will have a really random level that moves up fast.  A medium AI will be in-between.

Mario Galaxy: A round level with gravity towards the center of the level, so players fall towards the center and jump away from it.  Horizontal attacks follow the curvature of the level rather than going straight.  It rotates steadily, has pits, a block hole at the center that can kill you, stakes you can do down attacks on that cause stakes on the opposite side of the planet to pop up and hurt players, launching them skywards.  Enemies sometimes walk around the level from the background to the foreground and back.  There are pipes connected different ends of the level, underground areas, and platforms.

Chibi Robo: Like in the game, you are miniature in a giant household.  The level periodically sidescrolls to a new area of the house and you have to keep up.  Area could include the floor by a table with shoes and a fallen cup as platforms, a kitchen counter with a toaster you can use as a springboard and a sink you can swim in, or a bouncy bed with toys to avoid.  Periodically random problems could occur like a dog you have to avoid being stepped on by, overgrown mice and cockroaches, and vacuums.

Monster City: pretty much the opposite of Chibi Robo, you are the size of Godzilla in a miniature city.  You can jump on buildings, swim in the harbor, walk along a bridge, and so on.  Building are destroyable, but if you destroy a building then the military will send in tiny helicopters, airplanes, or tanks to attack you (doing some damage).  You can knock other players into badly-damaged buildings to make them destroy it and have the military attack them.  Other monsters like an alien robot or a radioactive lizard also attack.you and the city.

Art Style Light Trax:  A simple level made of colored glowing lines (which cast light on the players).  The lines zoom in from the sides, top, and bottom of the level and turning randomly while in the level, making random new platforms.  The lines only last for a limited period of time at which point they disappear from the direction they came in.  This leads to a constantly-changing random layout to the level.

Endless Ocean: Underwater level, with physics changed appropriately (higher jump height, slower falls, slower movement, etc).  There are hazards like whirlpools and dangerous fish, but some larger and less dangerous fish and marine animals can be jumped on  (like whales or manta rays)  or grabbed onto (like dolphins or seals).  There are caves, drop-offs you need to avoid, and so on.  This would probably be an up/down scrolling level, starting at the shore line and moving progressively deeper, changing the species and losing light as you go, then reversing and going back up.. 

Boom Blox: Level made of collapsible platforms.  There are a large number of such levels with different layouts that are randomly-selected.  Platforms can be knocked over with attacks and, depending on the layout, by standing in the wrong spot.

New Items:

Mirror shield (zelda series): Your shield reflects enemy attacks instead of just blocking them.  It still shrinks normally, and if it breaks you will drop the mirror shield in addition to being stunned.  You can also drop it if you take too strong of a hit while carrying it.  It disappears on its own after a period of time.

Bombchu (zelda series): a self-propelled bomb that circles a platform (even upside-down) until it hits an someone (including you) or runs out of time.

Jetpack (pilotwings): lets you float for a period of time.

Plastic Sword (Wii Sports Resort): does a little damage, but bounces an opponent far backwards (farther with a smash attack). 

Ring box (sonic series): If you get one of these you get 10 rings.  If you get hit you take no damage but drop the rings.  You and/or other players can then grab them as they bounce along the floor, but if nobody does they disappear after a period of time.  You cannot take damage as long as you have at least one ring, but the more times they are dropped the faster they fade away.

Red shoe box (sonic series): Increases your running speed and jumping height dramatically but decreases your traction.

Paintbrush (mario paint): randomly changes the outfit and/or color of one opponent.  Has no other effects, negative or positive.

Blue Shell (Mario Kart): Homes in on the opponent with the least damage and causes a big explosion near him/her for large damage over a large area

Balloons (Wii Sports Resort): Attach this to an opponent and 3 balloons inflate.  Then a plane from the game strafes the level 3 times, hitting the opponent with paint balls, doing damage and changing his or her outfit each time, resulting in a random outfit.

Giant Egg (Yoshi's Island): Can only be thrown a short distance, but when it lands it does massive damage to anyone it hits and some damage to anyone standing on the same platform.

Goo gun: Shoots a ball of slime that sticks to whoever or whatever it hits.  If it lands on the ground players con only move through it slowly.  If it land on a wall players will stick to it and can wall jump when they are release even if they normally can't do that move.  If it lands on a player they can walk and use a shield but cannot attack, they have to press the attack buttons quickly to break free.  It disappears if it is interacted with enough.

New Assist Trophies:

Boss Summon: summons a boss that does one random attack targeted at a random opponent then disappears.  The more powerful the attack, the more rarely it appears.

Virus (Dr Mario): Three viruses go after the nearest enemy (or enemies).  They reduce speed, jumping height, and attack power and slowly increase damage as long as they are on.  Running past someone fast can brush them off, and getting hit can knock them off.  They will fade on their own after a while, but if they get passed on to someone else this timer gets reset.

Pipes (Mario):  6 pipes appear in random locations: 2 green, 2 red, and 2 yellow.  The pipes of each color connect to the other pipe of the same color, and you can travel both ways through them.  They could appear over a pit, which could be a disaster or a lifesaver depending on which direction you are traveling through them.

Big Metroid (Super Metroid): Latches onto one enemy and increases his or her damage, then latches onto you and decreases your damage by the same amount.  It is heavy, so the jump height is reduces and double and triple jump are entirely eliminated while it attached, so it can kill you or your opponent if it attaches over a pit.

Plant seed (Super Metroid): grows plants like you see in Brinstar in Super Metroid, namely a bed of spikes with a yapping maws (basically a plant that reaches out and grabs you then drops you in the spikes or over a pit, depending on the angle it is growing) and big flowers (which if you step in them chew on you then let you go).  It goes to the nearest platform, so if you do it while just underneath a platform it will attach to the ceiling.  It will grow for a ways, wrapping around corners if necessary.  It does not disappear.

Subspace bugs (Smash Bros): These attack the nearest enemy, turning them into a statue and creating a computer-controlled clone of the enemy that is on your side (it has no friendly fire, either).  The statue cannot be damaged, but it can be picked up and thrown.  If it is thrown in a pit the player loses a life and the clone disappears.  Otherwise the clone has to be killed by your opponents in the normal manner (it stars with zero damage).  So if the targetting opponent is low in damage, it might be better to take the opportunity to finish him or her off.  It he or she is high in damage and thus not a threat, it might be better to let the clone help you out.  This never appears in a two-player match.

Cheer Squad (Elite Beat Agents): The singing group appears, making everyone run faster, jump higher, lose traction, do more damage, and get launched farther while the group is singing.

Grim Leecher (yoshi's island): attaches to an opponent's back and reverses his or her controls for a period of time (just long enough for him or her to get used to it).

Scarecrow (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask): Makes the level turn to night (or change day/night in levels that have that).  At night on levels that do not normally have it, the level gets very dark, although light-emitting items and attacks (like fire attacks magic attacks, or beam attacks) create light around them that illuminates characters and the level.  It is not completely dark, but dark enough that it is hard to make anything out.  Things go back to normal only if someone gets the scarecrow again.

10

General Chat / Theme songs (your own choices)

« on: June 01, 2010, 01:21:32 AM »

Post any songs, albums, or artists you think are appropriate in any way for any movies, tv shows, games, novels, genres, characters or anything else but where this connections was not obviously intentional (so for instance you can't say the Bond Theme is appropriate for a Bond movie, or that Skullcrusher Mountain is appropriate for a Bond movie).  The exact reason you associate the two and in what way you associate them is entirely up to you. 

Perhaps you think the lyrics describe a character or situation, the beat matches the flow of action, the emotional tone of the two somehow meshes well, that a song from one movie or game would work well for another, or you find yourself listening to a particular song when reading a particular book.  It could even be the music video, concert, cover, or some other thing related to the music rather than the music itself.  Also feel free to look through your music to figure on new similarities if you want, it isn't limited only to stuff you haven't noticed before. 

If you can, it would help to explain as best as possible why you link the two (although I know this might be hard).  If the lyrics are important post them here (if that is allowed, mods will have to weigh in on that, we may have to link to them).  Posting links to the music (no illegal downloads, of course) can also help but is not mandatory.


For some examples (I'll leave the ones with lyrics until a ruling on the above issue):

A classic example is the Dark Side of the Moon album by Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz

It may be subconscious due to the nature of the movie, but I always sort of picture a Metroid intro sequence when I listen to the Terminator theme song, sort of like the SM intro.  It has brief heavy beats for  Samus's first appearance and important events that just feel they should belong to something powerful, with longer, calmer, but somewhat sad-feeling sections between them for the rest of the story.

I also thought think that Heaven by DJ Sammy would make great boss battle music for a high-speed sort of battle in something like Metroid or Zelda, especially one that goes through several stages, if it wasn't for the lyrics.  It just has the sort of high-intensity beat that I think works well for a boss battle and some good transitions.

The theme from Remember the Titans (Titan's Spirit, at least the initial part) seems like good ending music for a game, particular something like a mario game where they are showing all the areas you have visited in the game.

11

NWR Forums Discord / Game-related comics [big pics]

« on: May 10, 2010, 01:40:06 AM »

Know any good or funny game-related comics?  Post them here!  This includes both comic series that deal with games, as well as individual comics from more general series that deal with games.  Here are a few random comics:

12

General Gaming / Gluon game creation software

« on: May 09, 2010, 12:09:01 PM »

I thought people might be interested in this.  People affiliated with the KDE and Qt software projects are working on a new 2D game creation software system called Gluon.  It is free, open source, and cross-platform (working on desktops, tablets, even higher-end smart phones).  It is still in the early stages, it just had its first alpha release, but it looks promising.  It has a graphical game creation program that will support collaborative game editing (that is, multiple people around the world working on the same project), and have a game distribution site featuring leaderboards, discussion forums, and so on.

The ultimate goal is to have a free, lightweight way for users without much programming experience to create sophisticated (or simple) 2D games that can be played by anyone anywhere without having to rely on things like flash.

Here is a brief overview The Gluon Vision

And a video showing a quick implementation of a basic space invaders game in the recent alpha release Gluon Creator Alpha 0.7 - X-Ray

And a video showing a[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whxl7JTixc8 much earlier implementation, there was a major refactoring before the alpha release so the current version lacks some of these features.

13

General Chat / 40th anniversary special: 13 things that saved Apollo 13

« on: May 05, 2010, 09:53:12 PM »

For the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, this is a pretty cool set of articles listing 13 things that were critical to the survival of the Astronauts on the Apollo 13 spacecraft. Some were acts of genius or hard work, some were total coincidence, and many are lesser-known, but without all of them one of the greatest rescues in history would probably have ended much more tragically.

• Introduction

• Timing
• The   Hatch That Wouldn't Close
• Charlie   Duke's Measles
• Using   the LM for Propulsion
• Unexplained   Shutdown of the Saturn V Center Engine
• Navigating   by Earth's Terminator
• The   Apollo 1 Fire
• The   Command Module Wasn't Severed
• Position   of the Tanks
• Duct   Tape
• A   Hollywood Movie
• Lunar   Orbit Rendezvous
• The   Mission Operations Team

14

NWR Forums Discord / What software do you use?

« on: April 18, 2010, 12:53:53 AM »

An informal poll:
Which program of the following types do you use?    If you don't regularly use a program of that type, you can say "None"   or just leave that category out.  Feel free to add additional categories   if there is a type of program you use a lot but isn't on here.  If you   use two about equally you can show both, but it is better to just put   one.

Operating System:
File Browser:
Web Browser:
Music   Player:
Video Player:
Image Viewer:
Photo Manager:
Media Center:
Office   Suite:
CD/DVD/BluRay Burner:
Email:
Calendar:
Chat:
Calculator (software):
Calculator (device):
Text   Editor:
Image Editor:
Video Editor:
Drawing/Vector Art:
  Programming language:
Development:
Search:
Desktop  Applets/Widgets (underlying program):
Desktop  Applets/Widgets (specific widgets):
Launcher:
How networking:


And file types (if you routinely make files in this   category:
Text Document:
Image:
Audio/Music:
Video:
Drawing/Vector Art:
Compressed File:
Hard Drive Partition:
 
edit: added launcher per insanalord's suggestion
edit: added programming language, media center, home networking, and split some ambiguous categories

 

15

NWR Feedback / Suggestion: consistent prev/next link position

« on: February 25, 2010, 11:03:42 AM »

Having the prev and next links on the pictures is very useful.  I do have a suggestion though.  Currently, for this first picture in a series, there is no prev link.  This makes sense, since there is no previous picture.  The problem is, at least in my browser (firefox), when there is no prev link the next link is shifted over to the left.  So when I open a series of pictures and want to move on to the second picture, I click the next link.  At least for me, my instinct is that when I want to look at the third picture, I click again.  This is because I expect the links to have a consistent position.  This is how buttons usually seem to work in user interfaces.  But in this case they don't, what was the next link gets replaced by the prev link, so clicking the same place I clicked to go forward instead takes me backward.  I think it would be better if the links maintained a consistent position.  It doesn't matter how, there could be a non-functional prev "link" that is grayed out on the first picture, or just a blank space, but I think it would be better if the links somehow maintained a consistent position throughout all the pictures.  That way people can just click without having to think about it.