Blogs

Figured I may as well round up and share all the new Pokémon info that has been revealed.  Again, source may not be allowed on BZP.  I’ll do my best to list everything, though I may miss a few details.  Let’s see now…
 
-You can now move diagonally.  I REPEAT: YOU CAN MOVE DIAGONALLY IN POKÉMON X AND Y.  Need I say more?
 
-Also you can sit on benches!  The camera will then shift to show a better view of the area, with the trailer showcasing a nice little fountain.
 
-It appears that every trainer you encounter will now have VS artwork.  Shown is artwork for the “Lass” Trainer Class, saying “You are challenged by Lass Anna!”
 
-There will be a limited level of character customization!  It appears there are three sets of hair color and skin tone combinations that you can select, and we have been promised that new clothing and accessories will be made available as you progress through the game.
 
-The new region, which is confirmed to be inspired by France, is named “Kalos”.  At the dead center of the region is Lumiose City, which, of course, has an Eiffel Tower duplicate.  The official region map was revealed, so I’d recommend searching for it—can’t be too hard to find.  Like Gen V, routes begin back at Route 1.
 
- The Pokedex, which resembles a tablet, is divided into three areas: Coastal Kalos, Central Kalos, and Mountain Kalos.  They are respectively color-coded blue, white, and red so that the mini-diagram of the region resembles the French flag.  It looks like Marill and Zigzagoon will be in the Kalos Pokedex.
 
-Four new Pokémon were revealed: Pancham, a Fighting type panda; Fletchling, a Normal/Flying type Japanese robin (and likely the Pidgey of this Generation); Helioptile, an Electric-type lizard; and Gogoat, a Grass type goat.
 
-Pancham displays a new move named “Parting Shot,” which lowers the opponent’s stats and lets Pancham switch out.  Helioptile uses “Parabolic Charge,” which does damage and heals the user.  Also, it appears that you can actually ride Gogoat, although this may be limited to Lumiose City.
 
-The character limit on names seems to be extended.
 
-Boxart was also revealed—it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.
 
-There are also screenshots showing the movesets of the three starters at Level 5 (Chespin and Fennekin), Level 8 (Chespin and Froakie), and Level 11 (Fennekin).
 
-This may not be new, but it looks like rollerblades will be available in the game.
 
-Also, official artwork was released for the two player characters.  They both have some sort of black cuff on their wrist, which may be this Generation’s equivalent to Pokegear/Xtranceiver/etc.
 
-A little off-topic, but another Pokémon-themed 3DS LL has been announced for Japan, this one featuring an Eevee color scheme.  Personally, I don’t care for it, since it’s just an awkward striped pattern, although there is an image of Eevee on the back of the console.

 
At 10:00 we left Wausau bound for Minnesota. By 10:40 we made it to Abbotsford, the first city in Wisconsin. The sky was overcast and very cloudy. We passed farms and saw various farm animals as well as various farms and silos. While different, the sameness of the road was tiresome after a while.

We were surprised to see signs warning of Amish buggies, and saw a farm animal pulling a plow, but did not see any horse-and-buggy combinations then. Each small town we passed through on the route featured beautiful and customized signs with the town name and motto. Wisconsin towns are clean and have a lot of pride in themselves.

Trees became a more common sight as the hills began to roll as we headed towards Chippewa Falls. The sky began to darken just a little bit more the farther we went towards Minnesota.

We neared Eau Claire as my mom read to us from her back-seat nest of a massive rivalry. Apparently, Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls had a massive rivalry as they competed for dominance in the state's once-large logging industry. However, when the forests were depleted, the towns both turned to other fields. No word on whether they're still bitter with each other.

Trees in Wisconsin are just starting to bloom, as the long winter has finally passed. A little before noon it began to drizzle as we merged onto Interstate 94 bound for the Twin Cities.

The road became very wet very quickly as trucks churned up mist. We had to pull off the highway and stopped for gas about 30 miles east of the Minnesota border. It was pouring rain at this point. Pulling out of the gas station, we saw an Amish buggy before getting back on I-94.

By 12:30 we were heading out of the storm and the rain had decreased to a steady drizzle and saw a coyote near the road. The rain stopped as we crossed the Mississippi into Minnesota (state #7). We stopped at the welcome center and saw a number of interesting characters, including a man with his shirt half-off crouched over on a picnic table, around 15 Amish men and women, and an anorexic hippy who, my mom testified, busied herself in the bathroom by washing her hair in the sink.

At 1:00 we were in the Twin Cities, crossed the Mississippi again, and tried to find a place we'd seen on TV called Pizzeria Lola. The route there did not seem hard - just go on the expressway until you exit off and go on Xerxes Avenue.
 
What we did not realize is that not only did the exit we were supposed to take nonexistent, but that there seems to be more than one Xerxes Avenue. In our attempts to get to our hotel we ran into this road a number of times, but we did not take it at any point for fear of getting even more desperately lost. At that point, all we wanted to do was get to our hotel.

We had seen what we thought was our hotel from the Interstate into Minneapolis, but that one turned out to be different. Thinking that was the only one, we were confused when our GPS told us to pass it. We pulled off into a Culver's parking lot and called the hotel. After a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, everything went better than expected; our hotel was right where it was supposed to be. Our confusion was due to the fact that it can't be seen from the highway. We then ate at Culver's and sipped on some milkshakes as we went to our hotel.

Heading off at around 6:45 for the stadium of the independent league St. Paul Saints, we took a detour and drove around Macalester College. The outfield fence at their field was incredibly short but also incredibly high, at they built the field into very limited space. It would have been fun to see a game there - my dad called it "arena baseball."

At 7:15 we parked near the stadium in the Lions Club parking lot, where the attendants could not believe that we had driven over 1500 miles from North Carolina. One guy even ran behind the car to check our license plate out. Clearly we need to play up on our accents and throw in more "y'all"s. 

The game was insane, and by insane I of course mean our brand of insane. One of the highest-drawing independent teams in the country, the Saints are co-owned by the grandson of famous baseball owner Bill Veeck, the mind behind such infamous fiascos as pinch-hitting midget Eddie Gaedel, 10-cent beer night, and the infamous Disco Demolition. His grandson carries on a muted version of this bizarre tradition, with such between-inning games as the tire roll race and various contestants trying to put on a frozen t-shirt first.

The Saints also have various characters who are paid to just walk around in-character to entertain (and occasionally harass) fans. One fellow alternated between French chef and train conductor, another was dressed in drag and hobbled around on a walker, and yet another was basically Elvis meets Mr. Sulu. (Oh my.)

One of the most inventive traditions the Saints have is the annual pig mascot, named before Opening Day and announced with smoke signals like they're selecting a new Pope. Previous pig names included Kim Lardashian, Kris Hamphries, and Kevin Bacon.

Their PA announcer wandered around the stadium and I'm still not sure if he was drunk or not. He asked fans dumb questions and made fun of the other team. During the "charge" cheer, he did the "charge" yell in a very small, sleepy voice the first time, then burped the next time and didn't say anything the third. He also told all the fans that he "hoped they all had their jumper cables." (If my dad were a PA announcer, he'd be that guy.)

The food at the stadium was also excellent, as it is one of the only independent teams in the country to have a VP to run the stadium food. We sampled gyros and cheese curds - both of which were fresh and excellent. We left a bit early to get ahead of the large, drunken crowd, but when we left the Saints were beating the New Jersey Jackals 7-2. (The Jackals starter got hammered in the first two innings - he had no control and kept leaving pitches over the plate.)

Tomorrow, I'll be at the Mall of America meeting Paleo at the LEGO store. We'll also go and meet Takuma Nuva later on in the day.

saw it, it was pretty great, much better than Iron Man 3 and probably my favorite film of the year so far.

Spoiler

that said, there was one thing that disappointed me, and it’s the same exact problem I had with The Dark Knight Rises last year: the ending felt rushed.

there was no real climax, no epic finish, nothing - and the worst part of it is that they did the same thing to Khan that TDKR did to Bane, having spent the whole movie building the character up only to give him a really disappointing, anticlimactic finish.

seriously.

he gets punched in the face and then we fast forward several months and that’s it. we do see him in stasis briefly, but.. seriously? that’s the way the big epic villain is handled? by getting punched in the face?

oh well. I suppose it’s better than having him turn out to be an actor decoy and revealing that the real Khan was the tribble Dr. McCoy had been testing on about halfway through the film.

still, despite these gripes, it was a great film. I’m not sure whether I’d rank it above the previous Star Trek film, but I’d definitely say it’s equal at least.

(as a side note, I can’t talk about the movie without mentioning the inclusion of the famous “KHAAAAAAN!” and the different spin they put on it. that was well-handled and very satisfying to see.)

So I heard about this group from a music critic and from the clip he showed of the band I liked what I heard. Though I'm just wondering are they any good? Which songs in particular are good? Whatever you want to say.

Essays, Not Rants! 061: Breaking Point
 
Let’s talk about Into Darkness. It’s a sequel to a reboot and also has some shades of a remake. Those are all things that seldom bode well for a movie, but, Into Darkness pulls it off magnificently. It simply does everything right. The main thing I want to address is Into Darkness’ existence as a sequel. There’s no getting around that. Amusingly, the main criticism I see in reviews is just that: Into Darkness doesn’t feel as fresh or new as 2009’s Star Trek. I’d like to counter that by saying: hello, it’s a sequel.
 
Now, a year ago, I wrote a post about what makes a good sequel. In that post I quoted Joss Whedon’s thoughts on how to make a sequel that would top The Avengers: “By not trying to. By being smaller. More personal, more painful… By being the next thing that should happen to these characters, and not just a rehash of what seemed to work the first time.” This is exactly what Into Darkness does.
 
What was 2009’s Trek about? A vengeful threat from the future seeks to destroy Earth and it’s up to the crew of the Enterprise to band together to stop him. The stakes are massive (destruction of Earth) and it allows our characters to come into their own and form the crew their supposed to be. It firmly establishes the new universe, re-introduces the characters, and sets it up for their next adventure. Why don’t we make a chain of stars explode and rip apart several planets now?
 
Into Darkness’ stakes are less direct. The whole of Earth isn’t quite currently at risk, but we do know the sweeping consequences if they fail their mission. Rather, the villain John Harrison and his actions cause tension and conflict among the Enterprise’s crew (particularly Kirk and Spock) and forces them into a corner, forces them to face the thing they fear most. Kirk is faced with the most difficult no-win challenge of his life. Spock is forced to face a scenario absent of a logical solution. These characters are forced to their breaking point, situations which, as Kirk says, “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do”. What’s so important about this scenario? Well, as Kirk goes on to say: “I only know what I can do.” This desperation marks much of the film. Where once we had our protagonists scrambling around trying to save the world, Into Darkness sees them trying to save each other and, at their core, themselves. It’s personal, it’s painful, and it’s precisely where the story needed to go.
 
2009’s Star Trek saw the assembly of the crew, Into Darkness forces them into a stronger, more unified whole. We need to see the Enterprise’s trial by fire for them to become the crew from The Original Series. This is their moment to become who they are.
 
Another thing that Into Darkness succeeds at is its reconciliation of the ‘first’ film and any future films with the classics. This movie, more than the prior, looks at Gene Roddenberry’s idealistic view of the future and translates its core tensions to work in a modern setting. It’s worth noting that in modern science fiction interplanetary organizations tend to be militaristic: Halo’s UNSC for example, far from the exploratory nature of Starfleet. The idea of pure exploration isn’t as cool anymore, is it? Into Darkness, more so than its predecessor, takes apart our own expectations and Starfleet itself, rebuilding it and proving that, yes, Roddenberry was right. Into Darkness is Roddenberry’s vision rebuilt.
 
Into Darkness is a phenomenal film. It follows up 2009’s movie by not trying to go bigger, but instead to go deeper. It draws on ideas from prior movies and episodes to create a new adventure that really gets into the heart of the characters. It dares to push them to their breaking point and forces them to find a way out. This is what sequels should do. The end result is a fantastic film that effortlessly blends old ideas in a new world.
 
Go see this movie.

Hi all! I wanted to let you guys know that I've been looking for new friends to add on my Nintendo 3DS, in light of the upcoming release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf! If you plan to play and would like to add me, feel free to send me a PM and we can exchange friend codes. We can trade foreign fruits and other items! This will be especially handy if you live somewhere besides the US or Canada, since you can visit me on US/Canadian-only holidays and maybe get some NSTC-US exclusive items, and I'd also be cool with giving NSTC-US exclusive items to friends. Even if you don't plan to play and are just looking for new friends, drop me a PM.
 
As soon as I have it, I'll be posting my Dream Address (I'm guessing this is what they're called in the English version?) so you guys can visit my town from the Dream Suite, as well.
 
So excited ~ !
 
EDIT: Thanks for all the shares so far! If you want to swap codes with me please don't be shy, even if we don't talk I'll still be happy to add you.

Shortening development time is good!

Those of you who have been following my work-in-progress fan game already know that programming games is a lot of work. It's insanely fun to piece together a game, but it's still work, and work takes time. Now, I've got a lot of time on hands, sure, but sometimes I wish I could spend more time on some things and then have someone else to do the rest. So far I've been working alone on my game, because I am quite frankly the only one with enough insight into my own head to know how things should end up.

Still, I can't do it all myself. I might be a jack-of-all-trades of game-making, but I am not perfect. I could use some help in several places. That's where you come in.

---------------
DISCLAIMER: I will be asking for some creative input on things such as map design in the list below. A natural process of game design is to brainstorm ideas, and there is always A LOT of ideas. Tons of them. So many that they can't all be used, and some are flawed from the get-go due to game balance, technical feasibility, etc. You are all free to post comments, critique and ideas; but please remember that I am in charge of this project, and as such I have the final say in what goes in-game or not.

I can say right off the bat that I will be sticking to the main Matoran Universe (the setting of BIONICLE from 2000-2008) and thus not include any direct Bara Magna references, alternate dimensions, crossover content, and so on.

Also note: This is a completely free game. There is currently no development cost, and there will be no income from the game even after it is 100% done. Therefore, I can't offer any payment to those of you who wish to contribute, but you will have my gratitude, a spot on the credits list, and the knowledge that you helped develop an awesome BIONICLE fan game. I hope that's enough.
---------------

Now, for the list of what I do need help with. I will keep the list updated and cross off items as they get done.

IMPORTANT: All sprites must be made in the same style as the Rayg 2.5 sprite kit. Size, proportions, the amount of color shades, etc. are all vital. Even if you're not able to make that perfect sprite, though, your half-finished sprites can also be useful as a starting point for some other spriter!

Characters and item sprites

• Animation: Toa "hurt" pose, falling forwards and getting back up.
• Animation: Rahkshi "hurt" pose, falling forwards/backwards and getting back up.
• Animation: Rahkshi walking/running. (Proper leg poses, more Mask of Light styled)
• Some Kanohi do not have rotated views.
  
  • Toa-sized Kanohi Felnas
  • Matoran-styled "adapted" Akaku (Solek's mask)
• Basic melee weapons such as swords, axes, and so on. Please, nothing extravagant here.
  Just basic equipment, such as this.
• Nuva armor fitted to Rahkshi poses. This will require some reshaping of the armor itself since Rahkshi have wider torsos.

Graphical effects

• All sorts of energy beams and spheres, for use as attack graphics.

Map graphics and map design
Map design should seek to allow a variety of different characters. (A sky-based map with no ground to stand normally on is a bit limited, for example.) Sketches work, but a Photoshop-file with a finished map would be crazy awesome.

• Karda Nui: Improved graphics (swamp water, vegetation, vast cavernous backdrop, etc.)
• Kini-Nui: Mountain background, fores background for parallax scrolling, trees and vegetation.
• A sketch for the interior of the missing Ta-Koro fortress.
• Map layout sketches for other, generic maps you might think of.

Sound
IMPORTANT: Sound effects must be free of noise and scratches!

• Any missing sound effects for powers being used.
• Consistent male/female vocalizations such as grunts and yelps. No words required, just noises.

Hey yo, I'm the BZPower staff interview guy this month, fill my inbox with questions! Silly ones are great, but this is also your chance to ask me anything you want about my MOCs and style, my interactions, LEGO conventions, moving across country because of a BZP member, running the blogs, etc. If you've ever wanted to know something, ask!
 

I'm still catching up on a lot of things after BrickFair New England, which was a blast. I had some of the most fun there that I've had at any other convention, met a bunch of awesome people, and caught up with some old friends.

But before the convention, I asked you guys for some questions. At Kevin Hinkle's TLG Q&A I asked a few, but wasn't able to get them all in. So on Saturday during the public hours we sat down away from the crowds for a little bit to chat and go through some others. What you see below are not exact quotes, they're sentences constructed from the notes I was taking on my tablet typing away as fast as I could. Please do not treat them like infallible quotes that could not possibly be wrong and must certainly represent LEGO perfectly.

Questions are in italics, responses are in bold.

How long until Galidor comes out on DVD?
When you find it and burn it to a disc.

How are you doing?
A little overwhelmed lately due to the changes on the team - really just trying to continue to deliver on the expectations of the community and assume the new responsibilities. It's tough but I'm hanging in there.

When are we getting old fire back?
[Kevin had a really clever reply for this that I forgot to write down. ]

Who's your favorite Toa?
Lhikan.

What year of BIONICLE was your favorite?
2006 because of the cartoony styles of the Piraka.

Were Bionicle-themed sandwiches ever considered a viable option during the theme's 9-year long run?
I can neither confirm nor deny. Sandwiches? Really?

Q: THANK YOU FOR THE PIZZA
Q: ALSO YOU'RE RIGHT THE SUPERMAN: RED SON ARC IS BRILLIANT
Q: YOU ARE MY HERO KEVIN
I'm glad to know you read that.

How is the Hero Factory theme doing in terms of sales?
Okay, not stellar, but not 'oh my god get rid of this line right now.'

How is the constraction category as a whole doing?
We're still trying new things to see what we can do with it.

Is there ever any chance of bringing Christoffer Raundahl or another Hero Factory designer to a convention in the United States?
That would be awesome but I do not get a say. I just decide which event gets designers - only one or two a year to spread across the conventions.

What has The LEGO Group's experience with their expanding social media presence been like?
They've learned a lot from it - testing new waters and expanding. They're trying to rope it into a single voice/channel of communication.

What kind of considerations go into determining whether a theme gets a page on a social networking site? As an example, currently LEGO Ninjago, Duplo, and Legends of Chima all have official pages on facebook, whereas LEGO Friends does not and the LEGO Hero Factory one has not been updated in over two years.
It's based on marketing drive - what does the company want to push and when?

What can expect from the future of LEGO Digital Building?
It will still be in existence, we're still exploring that realm of the LEGO experience.

How Chima doing? Is doing as well as LEGO has hoped?
It is doing well; there's still a lot more data to collect.

What sort of opportunities are there within LEGO for mechanical engineers?
Most likely in the Czech Republic and Mexico where a lot of the moulds are made and manufacturing is done.

How successful is the Collectible Minifigure line lately? Are they going to continue?
Extremely successful and has introduced LEGO to other retailers. Definitely going to continue.

Have you guys made any strides in the color purple? I've seen purple in a considerable number of new sets, so I'm wondering if there's anything behind that (new science, heightened demand, market research, etc).
It's a little of all of those. If it's a licensed set it's going to have it, but otherwise they're always making improvements in quality and color consistency.

I'd like to thank the BZPower Community for all their love and support and have very much enjoyed meeting the staff and members at conventions. I enjoy talking to you all - keep up the great stuff and keep Bionicle alive!

As always I want to thank Kevin for supporting BZPower (and now BioniLUG). We really appreciate all your hard work and look forward to hanging out with you whenever we can!

I am leaving tomorrow for nine days, during which my BZP activity will be very limited. I will try to get into both of the mafia games, and I will try to respond to any PM's as soon as I get them. I also have another entry set up to show up in about three days time, hopefully the Mafia game is over by then. =P
 
Yep, that is about it. Also my project got delayed like two weeks, but I should be giving you all details on that when I get back.
 
Thanks for reading!

Leaving at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Back Monday. c:

why do i keep coming back

Anyone know where I can find the font with the correct symbols used for numbers? I found a version on BZP, but that doesn't have the correct symbols for numbers.

 Yup, yup, yup. You heard right. After a "short" hiatus of CeeCee's av's I will be bringing them back and with a twist... actually there will be no twist(I just thought it would sound cool, I apologies for my actions and misleading you), they'll be the same silly, stupid computer drawn Av's with that horrible purple-y blue back grounds. 
 
FAQ about CeeCee Av's
 
 

CeeCee, what makes you such a good artist?
 
Being a good artist doesnt come naturally. It takes practice and hard work and sometimes a deal with the devil
 
CeeCee, how did you deal with the fame of being such a great artist?
 
"Often I would wake up and there would be people outside my door asking for CeeCee Avs. It was cool at first but now its quite annoying so now I only let the hot girls in because I'm really shallow. Although they dont come anymore because of an incident with a shotgun"
 
CeeCee, what do you do with all the money you earn from being super famous for you Avatars?
 
"I'm afraid the three things I buy with the money and not permits to be said on this site, but they begin with an A, a D and a H"
 
CeeCee do you honestly expect us to believe this is a real interview?
 
"Yes. Shut up."
 
CeeCee, why do you expect people to care that your Av's are back?
 
"Because I'm rich an famous. That grants me access to loads of fan girls that pretend to care so they feel more exciting that they actually are"
 
CeeCee, Why dont to pay the child support anymore? CeeCee why dont you see you children anymore? CeeCee why do you drink so much?
 
*This answer can not be show due to profanity*

(This "FAQ" was done in good fun and is not to be taken literally. Please know this)
 
Yeah, they are coming back. I actually want to thank everyone though more making them as popular as they were. I dont expect anything like that this time but I will continue them regardless.
Thanks everyone and stay tuned in you are interested. 
 

So in light of all my 4am bedtimes lately, it's the one time when I went to bed at 11pm that causes me to miss the bus?
 
Everything sucks. 

I thought the finale was great. I think just about every character had a fitting resolution, even Andy, who worried me the most.
 
It was really a great show.

Oh this entry is going be fuuuuun. But I feel like this is something that needs as much publicity as possible.

So. Nintendo recently talked with a certain website about some videos hosted there. Long story short Nintendo wants all all the money from the ads on videos featuring their products. Because of copyright law, they can do that. Now, let's look at this for a moment. What Nintendo is targeting is the let's plays, where game personalities review and play games for the consumer enjoyment. This is known to be a huge marketing boon, exposing your game to hundreds of thousands if not millions. A ton of people buy games based off these videos; I know I do.

Now you may be saying "OK they help Nintendo cool, but they're using Nintendo's stuff, it's their right to do what they will." Perhaps so, but being allowed to do something doesn't make it right. A lot of these game personalities make their living off these videos. There was one guy I watched called ColbyCheeze, making League of Legend videos was his job. Imagine if Riot Gaming took that ad money from him.

Let's look at the numbers here. How much money do these LPers really get? Well, aforementioned certain site pays their users one third a cent for every view. This makes for some real easy math. One view is one third a cent. Ten views is three cents. A hundred, thirty. A thousand, three dollars. A hundred thousand, three hundred dollars. A million, three thousand dollars.

Now, some users have massive fan bases and get millions of views on a regular basis. But while Nintendo has their eyes on the big channels with the big bucks (because we all know Nintendo, a multimillion dollar company, needs a couple extra thousand bucks), their policy affects the little guy. Take ColbyCheeze for example. His videos use to get around two to four hundred thousand views. He put out about a video a week, sometimes two. His yearly income from ads hovered around ~50k, which the mean American income is around 45k so that's alright for a single guy in an apartment. Is he getting super rich off of Riot's game? No, and that's why Riot promised a long time ago never to do what Nintendo is doing now. Colby has given Riot several thousands of new players, and Riot is appreciative of people like him around the internet, giving them free marketing.

Fact of the matter is at the end of the day, what Nintendo is doing here is greedy, plain and simple. Are they in the legal right? Yes. Is it their right to govern what is done it their intellectual property? Yes. But having the right to something doesn't make all your decisions correct. The LPers on that certain site and indeed, sites around the internet, give Nintendo free marketing and many many new customers, and for what? A third a cent a view. Is that really so much that Nintendo feels that it needs it?

Maybe the 3DS launch and the WiiU launch hurt them more than initially thought. So now they're taking it out of the pockets of people who make their meager living off of hawking their game to the internet. Pro move Nintendo.

I know I've gotten involved in some testy situations on here, but I really get upset whenever something blows over on here. For a website that I've been on for over half a decade, it really disappoints me that we can be so disruptive to each other. It's always bothered me how people can be so vicious on the internet due to a disagreement on something, but in real life we're more willing to be nice and talk. I have an idea: let's treat our internet relations just like you would treat a relationship with a friend, a co-worker, a classmate, or a roommate. If you wouldn't say it to any of those people in real life, don't say it on here. Conversely, treat interactions like you would with them - if something concerns you, tell them up-front and in a way that won't make them ignore the message.
 
Remember, we're all BIONICLE fans - can't we come together as a community and try and help understand each other, not tear each other down? If somebody says something that isn't right, there isn't a need to yell at them or say how terrible they are - explain what is wrong about it, and why it offends you personally. Understanding never hurt anyone, and that's all I am going to say.
 
-TN05

It's ridiculously hard to avoid spoilers.

Hello everyone, I'm back with another entry.
 
I never thought that I would get to this point, but I can't say that I'm surprised. Since I started working last year, I have been able to get a steady cash flow, which means that I can set some income aside for savings and for feeding my hobby. This has led to me buying assets that I normally would not have purchased (mostly graphical assets, but sometimes I do spring for robust coding solutions like this AI code package that I bought).
 
Obviously, this income requires a lot of my time, so I don't have the free hours I once had trying to hack together an AI system or a 3rd-person character system. And that's just coding! There's still all of the modeling and animating that has to be factored in (fortunately, thanks to old friend Mihunai I don't have to do that much 3D modeling. Hope to see you around the forums again someday!) 
 
So, I thought I'd share a visual of my progress since my last entry. The bare, bare basics of the combat system are done, there's still a lot to be done though, including:

• New and accurate sound FX (the ones there came with the AI package)
• possibly altering the enemy's AI (right now it just looks a little awkward, though that may actually be due to the size of the monster. I have no issues shrinking certain Rahi to make things more smooth)
• Graphical indications that a character has been hit (e.g. sparks, color flash)
• A "death" (the Rahi's actually just disoriented ) sequence for the enemy. The player model already has a death sequence that isn't shown in this video.
• An actual HUD
• Other aesthetics that will come during the polishing stage of development. 

I almost didn't want to post this video because it's not that impressive, but then I looked at the combat video for my original 3D project, Influx. That video doesn't necessarily look worse (it has a lot of things that this video doesn't yet have), but some things like the player characters animation really highlight the need for buying solutions (as I know that natural looking animation isn't my thing). 
 
Check out my website's home page to see all three of my videos and make your comparisons between the first two and this one I just made. 
 
Next on my agenda, I plan to do much of the tasks that I listed above. Further down the road, I will start on the trap laying system or the NPC dialog system, whichever one is easiest.  Thanks for reading!