Sybarite Paladin AxL

Haha, americans... But seriously, maybe someone should do a TV skit that takes the piss out of Jack Thompson and exposes him for the opportunistic piece of sh!t that he is. Should broaden people's minds a bit.

KoF was never second fiddle, people are just too limited to see that. Street Fighter is for those who like repetitive, patterned gameplay with satisfaction coming mainly from that extra half a second you managed to shave off your sonic boom spam rotation. KoF has always been better and now it's going to be the best. Street Fighter 4 is trying to be an updated SF2, with characters looking like steroid freaks, and ugly 3Dness. And you know what's funny? SF2 HD will most likely be better then SF4...

To be honest, they should've gone for broke and made it HD. But it's great as it is. Let's hope they revert the damn system to something prior to XI and 2k3, make it 2k2-speed level, get us HSDMs back, and I want everyone that isn't canon-dead back in this one. And unlockables, including the dead guys and all previous costumes. Then it's going to be quite simply, THE best fighting game out there.

So basically I was strolling down Cambridge having a smoke with one of my comrades, who gave me a Gears of War beanie as a gift today, and all of a sudden this Phone4U employee comes and asks us if we want to get a contract phone. Me, I wasn't really that sure, not really savvy in these kinds of offers. Then this guy caught my attention, saying that I get a free 360. I'm like "awesome". Went in and after 4 hours of annoying credit checking and paperwork I got out with my new Samsung U600, free of charge, 750 free minutes and unlimited messages in every UK network service, another SIM card especially designed for cheap international calls so I can call home, and an Arcade 360 with 1 controller and 5 games, which will be coming in 30 working days. All for 40 pounds a month, which is as much as I used to pay for my old credit SIM, even more sometimes. Score!

I find the fascination with sh!t to be retarded. Period.

KUNG HEI FOT CHOI to all my Chinese friends out there. Welcome to the year of the Rat!

Yeah, he's a reclusive bastard. Doesn't talk to people on MSN either. Kung Hei Fot Choi asians! And why the hell is there a turd there, freakin ruins the damn picture...

Lazer eye vision, or it didn't happen.

Vega and then I'll give a crap. And no Chun Li looks freakish on the thighs and generic on the rest. And Guile's stance is like a wannabe photo model.

Thanks for the advice bro. Will have to actually do some extensive searching I suppose, but hey, it's all in the interest of music .

I've heard Exact Audio Copy is the best. Is that right?

Starting off the Aural ebb and flow category, I present to you Xihilisk. Xihilisk is the name of lloyd:everything's music. It's a mix of Indie/Electronica/Experimental. He describes it as "one man and his noise." More info can be found on http://www.myspace.com/xihilisk. Best of all, he makes his music freely available to anyone. I recommend it as I find his songs have a great deal of potential and are perfect for those times when you need inspiration or just want to chillax. Comment.

Otherwise known as Bison/Vega/Barlog, depending on what country you play your Street Fighter in. Personally I don't give a rat's ass about this crappy confusion so I'll spell it out right now how I think it should be. Dictator: Barlog, because it makes perfect sense when applied to him, if it doesn't to you, read some LotR, or if that's too hard, watch the first movie. Spanish Ninja: Vega, duuuuh... Boxer: Mike Bison. I don't care about the obvious reference to Mike Tyson. He's too much of a retard to sue anybody anyway. Right, that being said, force of habbit is such a biatch that I've gotten used to Dictator: Bison, Boxer: Barlog. So I'm not gonna try and shake this off because it's going to annoy me for the rest of my life. Aim: to create an "ultimate" version of post-SFA3 Bison. Keep in mind, this does not mean he's a boss. Sprites: I'm torn between CvS and SvC sprites here. Both are great. I find CvS Bison doesn't show too much evil emotion tho, as opposed to SvC Bison who almost always has an evil superiority-complex-ridden grin. That's a great plus for the SvC sprite. Voice: the CvS voice here shines above all. SvC voice comes second, and SFA voice comes last, although I can't even factor the 3rd one in because it's for Bison's first body so clearly there must be differences. Sounds: SvC sounds are somewhat better, although a mix between the two would be interesting. Move set: I'm going to bring back pre-SF2 Bison's moves and combine them with CvS Bison's new moves. That's basically it. SvC Bison's moves list completely fails unfortunately. I'm also changing the controls around a bit. Details will follow later.

This topic details the gameplay mechanics to a MUGEN project of mine called SvC: Battle Poetry. This game will once again pit SNK characters against Capcom characters in a battle for survival. The roster is as follows: SNK *Kyo Kusanagi *Benimaru Nikaido *Shingo Yabuki *Terry Bogard *Andy Bogard *Joe Higashi *Kusanagi *Rugal Bernstein *Adelheid Bernstein Capcom *Ryu *Ken Masters *Gouki *Dan *Guile *Charlie *Satsui no Hadou ni mezameta Ryu *Violent Ken *Sakura Kasugano Note: keep in mind the roster is not finished and will be updated from time to time Gameplay mechanics: *Button layout = low punch, high punch, low kick, high kick, knockdown blow, evasion *Start button, start+left, start+right = taunts *Start+down = Energy Siphon. Charges your Energy Focus *Parry(maybe) *Evasion/evasion+left or evasion+right = stationary dodge/roll left or right *Air blocking *Throws = HP/HK+left/right *Running = all characters run, no forward hopping *Jumping = small jumping, regular jumping, high jumping and double jumping are all present. Some characters can wall jump too. Small jumping and regular jumping and go into another jump if you did not attack. High jumps and wall jumps can't. *Style Basics = normal punches and kicks, as well as throws, and normal specials. *Style Techniques = special moves. Command throws count as special moves too. *Style Arts = super moves. Consume 1 Energy Focus. *Hidden Style Arts = greater super moves. Consume 2 Energy Foci. *Forbidden Style Art = the most powerful move available to the character. Consumes 2 Energy Foci and 3 Mind Foci. In addition, it cannot be Art Flowed into. *Energy Focus = your standard power bar. Can be charged. 3 levels. Charges by performing Style Techniques or hitting your opponent with Style Basics or Style Techniques, even if he/she blocks. *Mind Focus = your skill stocks. Used for Style Flows, Retaliation and recharging your Defense Focus. 5 levels. Charges by blocking, being hit and over time. Charges faster when you have low life. *Defense Focus = your standard block damage meter. If you take too much damage, you will be unable to block for a period of time. Can be forcibly recharged using 2 Mind Foci. *Style Flow = can cancel some Style Techniques into other Style Techniques. Costs 1 Mind Focus. *Art Flow = can cancel some Style Techniques into Style Arts. Costs 1 Mind Focus and 1 Energy Focus for Style Arts and 2 Mind Foci and 1 Energy Focus for Hidden Style Arts. *Focused Retaliation = performed by pressing Knockdown Blow when blocking. Costs 1 Mind Focus. *Focused Retreat = performed by pressing Evasion quickly after an attack. Costs 1 Mind Focus. *Focused Escape = performed by pressing Evasion while blocking. Costs 1 Mind Focus. That's about it for now.

It's spelled "pursuit"

Third entry and small redesign.

Disclaimer: I've never developed a MUGEN work in my life. These are just my ideas I'm putting down for further reference and feedback. These will be used in a possible MUGEN project of mine. All these ideas are given from an artistic-prone point of view. Character design is a tricky affair. It has to be just right to make you like the character. Important factors I identify in this topic, or rather, their absence, can make or break a character. SPRITES First off, let's talk about sprites. A sprite is the main thing that gives your character a personality. Clothes, stance, face and movement are all important to give you an accurate opinion as to how a character would act in a hypothetical real-life situation. Therefore, I think it's best that we use the most expressive and fine sprites we can when designing a character. Some sprites are bad, real bad. Like some CvS sprites. They're horrible. Some are so terrible, they're an insult to the original characters, mostly SNK, obviously (damn you Capcom). Examples include Ryo, who looks more like a joke character than anything. An example of a great Ryo sprite would be found in KoF XI for example, which is also the latest KoF installment, therefore sprites are fresher, despite being obvious rehashes. On the flip side, looking at what SNK did with SvC Chaos, I'm very happy with most characters. Sagat looks very menacing and I love the grin, although a bit skinny and humpback-ish, and I don't like the Tiger Genocide. Vega simply flows, although hit and move animations look a bit twitchy(maybe because he's insane). Ken/Gouki/Ryu look great, they greatly resemble the Capcom feel, with a SNK twist and Violent Ken is greatly inspired. I especially like how SNK has managed to capture the "SFA" Ken feeling with a SF3-ish Ken, a feeling mostly missing in the original SF3 Ken and apparently, completely missing in SF4. Hugo looks retarded, but that's how he is anyway. Tessa exudes of a great personality too. IMO, a cross between SF3 graphic flows and sprites and SvC sprites would result in a superb array of personality hints. Most importantly, animations should flow naturally to give an impression of artistry. SOUND The voice is the most important aspect of a character's sound panoply, followed by special move sounds, and normal move sounds. Music is, however, in a completely separate category and is just as important as the voice. The voice has to be clear, and a bit louder than the specials/normals sounds, however not annoyingly louder. It should just about go over the second two's sounds. I have yet to identify the volume level background music should have but as a rule of thumb, it shouldn't be too loud or too quiet. Naturally, volume levels should be consistent with all characters and stage songs. EFFECTS Special/Super move effects should be extremely impressive and flashy while at the same time not being overkill, like covering the entire screen or something. They should mirror the character's overall power first and foremost. If it's a character like Bison, obviously he's going to be completely covered in dark-purple-flaming-psycho-energy during Psycho Crushers/Psycho Drives. If it's a weaker character like Sakura, naturally she won't be surrounded in Hadou energy, but rather, we'll just see small-medium amounts released during (Shinkuu) Hadoukens. Naturally these apply only if you want to somehow remain faithful to the original characters and are relative to the author's wishes anyway. The most important aspect however is, regardless of how big or small the amount of energy they possess is, that it be impressive, flow/burn/etc intensely so that it creates another aspect of the character's personality. MOVES Last but certainly not least is the character's array of moves. To put it all in one word they should be MANY! And very diverse. Here's my preference on the numbering of the different types of moves: Throws: 2 Normal specials: between 1 and 4 (I find 3 to be a comfortable number) Specials: at least 5 and at most 7 (this should not include EX moves, if you plan to add any) Supers: 2 to 4 regular supers, 2 greater supers and 1 final super. Note on super moves: I do not take the Capcom way when designing supers, which is basically taking a special and giving it steroids to become a super. This makes everything extremely generic and unoriginal, and does not help towards contouring your character's feel at all. It's the reason why I don't condone the existence of EX moves either. A good example would be the Gou Shoryuken/Shoryu Reppa. It's just 3 Shoryuken's in a row. Excuse me while I yawn... This covers what I think are the important aspects of character design. A lesser one also worth mentioning is: HIT-SPARKS I've never been much of a hit-spark fan, however I find the lack of hit-sparks is also annoying. I've realized they help create the idea of impact. In my view, hit-sparks should be small and localized at the area of impact. You might say they're all like that but I've seen horrible hit-sparks that completely cover the receiver's block/parry animations when they happen and go even beyond his body when they dissipate. Hit-sparks for normal moves should have a neutral color as to not detract from the action and special move hit sparks should share the color of the special move's energy, if any and if not, neutral again. This concludes our "create it like a wannabe artist" tutorial, brought to you by AxL. I reiterate, these are my opinions only. Your mileage may vary. Should you choose to follow them, I'd love to see your work. Note: have you noticed how I didn't talk about move specifications like priorities, downtime, etc.? This is because they belong to an entirely separate part of character design I name "character gameplay".

second entry

Location: dorm room, Cambridge, UK State: mellow-jazzy Description: it's that state when you're staring at the abyss and you got your acoustic guitar with you and you play some random chill out riffs in a smoked up maryhaze Outside conditions: chilly and it's raining Not saying anything, Get ready, I'm not saying anything, Get ready... You know very well what I'm gonna say: Not saying anything. Don't know anything, Maybe I already know too much... Maybe I already learned how to listen, But I'm not saying anything, Because I don't know anything. Not feeling anything, I've prepared myself. Not feeling anything, I'm prepared. I'm prepared for the Grand Nothing, For the Grand Nothing... Not saying anything, get ready! Get ready, for the Grand Nothing, Not saying anything, get ready for the Grand Nothing! Not saying anything.

As much as I try to be honest and sincere, my common sense never tingles [© Skythe] when I do that. Sh!t son, I love it, I know I'm being a jackass though. What the fvck I need a smoke...

On an un-researched note, I think you won't find much appreciation as a voice actor in America. From what I hear, it's treated as a hobby, side-career at best. Unlike Japan, where you're revered if you do it right. Also, if they managed to retire just by voice-acting, doesn't that naturally increase the value of their opinion, rather than decreasing it? Just a thought.

Thanks but that wasn't my question. What I asked for, more or less, is links to extensive documentation on the various disk image formats (.iso, .nrg etc.) so I could learn the technicalities, and apply them to, among other things, audio ripping from the best possible image format to get a perfect disk copy of the files. I've already read the wikipedia article and I think I'm still missing some information, because it doesn't extensively explain each and every image format out there.

As a person who's never played any Myst games, but would like to start, will I be missing out stuff when this game goes under?

Too bad it's a ripoff of Disciples 2. Yeah, too bad... too bad they're 2 different genres and can't really compare... You fail.

Topic__^ Has to rip in mp3, flac and ogg.