Shadow Wolf

So... correct me if I'm wrong. All the engineers have to do is tell the coils when to discharge and how hard, and they can basically play the air around the discharge? What did the second video mean about 41 KHz sparks and long fiber optics and such?

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment at least one of you has been waiting for! I've completed a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which allows you to: Convert Earth time to millicycles, cycles, decacycles, and centicycles! Convert cycles to days, months, and years! Find the amount of time between two cycles, output in both cycles and earth time!! Call now! Seriously, it's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Download it: HERE Let me know if the link breaks! Also, anybody who has the skill and wants to convert that to Javascript and make it browser based is more than welcome to try. ALL contents of that file, including all formulas and concepts contained therein, are copyright Sam Spargur, 2007. Don't steal em. Thank you.

No kidding. It's convoluted enough to where it's very hard to figure out how it's coded... It was easy for me because I developed it. But just pick a point in time for 00.000.0 and go from there, and boom! You have encrypted time signatures.

Used accurately, a centicycle would be 1/100th of a cycle, yes. A hectocycle would be 100 cycles. But due to the logs in the game, it's fairly clear Retro made an error assigning prefixes, because a centicycle is obviously supposed to be much longer than a cycle. Every time a cycle is mentioned, it's in connection with a fairly short amount of time. The only time centicycles are mentioned is in U-Mos' age estimate, and he is supposed to be very old. Retro might also have used 'centi' rather than 'hecto' based on the logic that not a lot of people are familiar with the prefix 'hecto,' and also because a 'century' is 100 years, and most people would automatically associate the 'centi' prefix with a long amount of time. To clear up any confusion about millicycles, 'milli' is a thousandth of something, a very small measurement. 1000 cycles would be a kilocycle, which would come out to roughly 310 years or so. I can't say exactly because I don't have my info with me right now. At any rate, I strongly expect you'll get the same answer from Retro. They very likely just picked a number pattern that sounded neat. That's fine with me, because it means my theory can be taken as gospel if you so desire! I'm still working on it, it's very fun. Currently I'm going through all the datestamps on the logs from Metroid Prime, trying to figure out how much time passed between games, etc. Surprisingly, my numbering in every case so far has come up with some very sensible numbers. I'll post links to it when I'm finished for anyone who's interested.

Alright, I think I can reconcile the time between Prime 1 and 2. I found out this morning that Metroid Prime Hunters is set in between Metroid Prime 1 and 2, which would make up for most of the time in between. http://www.nintendo.com/newsarticle?articleid=a0khg4S5ojxyUJ1GX31j7VDPxidQe7zu&page ___________________________________________________________ Where does Metroid Prime Hunters fit in the Metroid timeline? Mission file 791019 takes place between Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. So Samus has the Varia Suit from Echoes, but she's piloting the ship from Prime 1. All calculations here are using my theory, just so you’re not (overly) confused. The Pirate Logs in Metroid Prime begin with the fall of Zebes, with the discovery of Phazon 27.4 days after that. Therefore there is no way my dating system could have begun when the Pirates landed on Tallon IV. Nor would it make any sense for the logs on Aether, since it was cycle 7 before Samus was ever mentioned landing on the planet, meaning she would have landed 2.2 years after them. But the way I'm reading the numbers seems to be accurate. Why? Watch: The log of the fall of Zebes was 9.992.3. Reconstruction of Ridley was completed on GF date 10.891.0, 104 days after the fall of Zebes, and 76.6 days after the discovery of Phazon.. That log mentions the fact that all changes to Ridley were implemented within a cycle, but the impression is that it was hard to fit it into that timeframe. That would mean that if I'm reading it right, Zebes fell on 9.992, and Ridley was reinstated by 10.891... Which is just shy of one full cycle. Also, much more importantly, since you saw Ridley on the space station, it would logically have to have been at least 104 days, or 3.5 months, from the fall of Zebes to the beginning of Metroid Prime. Probably more like 4. After that definite date, Pirate Logs show no evidence that they were ever aware of Samus’ presence. The logs continue from the date of Ridley’s completion for another 89.5 days. The last log entry only mentions Chozo ghosts, so it wasn’t necessarily close to the end of the Metroid Prime’s timeline. In other words, there is no definite date stating the amount of time that passed during the gameplay of Metroid Prime, because I would need an entry stating that she had been seen, indicating it was written after she landed on the space station. I would also need one giving evidence that it was written close to the endgame in some way. But anyways, messing with all those numbers, it means it was at least 76.6 days from the discovery of Phazon until the beginning of Metroid Prime, or roughly 3 months. Now, since 4 cycles is 492.6 days, that would mean 1.05 years from the beginning of Metroid Prime until the first log entry on Aether. It would also mean that there was an absolute minimum of 1.13 years, or 13.75 months, between the discovery of Phazon on Tallon IV and the deployment of the team to Aether. If you go by the distance of 3.5 months between each game, which is the distance between Metroid and Metroid Prime according to my calculations, 7 months in between games, and 6 months for time actually passing during the games, and easily come up with 13.75. At any rate, however you look at it, there’s really no disparity. I believe I have just invented a workable calendar for a fictional universe that I didn’t create. I find that fairly impressive. I am proud of me.

I can't believe I didn't think of this. Duh. So here's the thing... Chozo, Luminoth, and Space Pirate text is all translated by Samus' suit into a single language. That would mean dates for each civilization are translated into the GF equivalent. Perhaps the dates begin at zero when the Federation discovers a planet? This makes some sense because.... I read the manual for Metroid Prime. It states, word for word: Deep below the surface of Zebes, the Space Pirates researched Metroids for many years, even as a young girl orphaned by their raid on the neighboring planet K-2L was growing up among the Chozo. Trained as a warrior and infused with Chozo blood, Samus Aran donned a Chozo made Power Suit and cut a swath through the Space Pirates’ operation, destroying everything in her path, including the gargantuan mainstays of the Space Pirate army, Ridley and Kraid. She eventually made it to the core of their base, destroyed all the Metroids she saw, and seemingly blew up the Mother Brain. But the Space Pirates were far from finished. They immediately split their survivors into two main camps. One headed to Zebes to begin rebuilding their ravaged facility and resuscitating Mother Brain, Ridley, and Kraid. The second set out in search of a planet with powerful energy resources. They didn't search far before they discovered Tallon IV, which was still emanating huge pulses of energy from the Phazon contained beneath the Chozo temple. Entranced by the massive potential of the strange mutagen, they immediately moved in, retrofitting their laboratories, transporters, and life-support systems into the Chozo Ruins. So the manual actually says that the Space Pirates didn't discover Phazon until after the fall of Zebes. So my work in progress theory doesn't hold water, because they discovered Tallon IV soon after the fall of Zebes, meaning a very short time between Metroid and Metroid Prime. Now, if my next bulshit theory is correct, the Space pirates could have landed on Tallon IV at any time after the fall of Zebes, because the dates weren't determined by them, they were Galactic Federation dates. So... Samus' suit would translate any pirate dates on Tallon IV into cycles starting from the time the Galactic Federation discovered it. The pirate log from Echoes said Phazon had been detected in the Dasha system 4 cycles ago. That's 459.9 days by my theory, meaning that since Phazon was discovered on Tallon first, there was at least 1.26 years between the discovery of Phazon and the writing of that log on Aether. That much time between the games seems unlikely to me. The unknowns are the times between the games. How long was it from Metroid until Metroid Prime? Then from Prime until Prime 2? Since the first log in Prime talks about concern that Samus is pursuing them, Prime has to be RIGHT after Metroid. I also remember hearing that Echoes took place VERY shortly after prime, so a required 1.26 years to make all the statements I've examined in both games true seems like way too much. Perhaps the best explanation is that Retro came up witha completely arbitrary numbering system and just used it and it don't make no sense. I imagine this is the truth. Anyways, I don't really know. There's lots of holes. I'm so far into the realm of speculation I'm not even sure of my existence anymore. Everything's up for grabs. But it is fun trying to figure it out...

No no no. There's not really any assumption, beyond the obvious fact that this is a theory. The only assumptions I made were: a.) The base unit is seconds. This isn't an "assumption", because I tried it top to bottom with hours and minutes as the base unit, and it didn't work out sensibly. b.) I assumed that everything else in the system seems to be taken in base 10 groups, so perhaps making minutes and hours 100 seconds would cause the times to make more sense. This isn't really an assumption either. Using the age of U-Mos as a gauge, if minutes and hours were both measured in increments of 60, U-Mos came out to be about 21 years old. If hours were measured in terms of 100 60 second minutes each, U-Mos was only 40ish. If I measure minutes and hours in increments of 100, U-Mos ends up with a sensible age of 60 something, which seems to fit the thread of the story much better than the other 2 theories. Other than that, every number was worked from seconds up. Look at the conversions: 1 GF minute is 100 Earth seconds, or 1.67 Earth minutes. This is the only place where a measurement from Earth actually means anything. Everything else is a conversion factor. So, with this information, we move on. 1 GF hour is 100 GF minutes, or 166.67 Earth minutes. If a cycle is 1000 GF hours, then the calculation goes like so: 1 cycle = 1 GF Hour x 1000, therefore: 1 cycle = 166.67 Earth minutes x 1000, therefore: 1 cycle = 166,670 Earth minutes. To make it more understandeable, divide 166,670 by 60 to get the number of Earth hours. You get 2777.83 hours. Now divide that by 24 to get your days. Voila. 115.74 days in a Galactic Federation Cycle. EDIT: As for your edits, 365.25 was never divided by anything. Pish Tosh. It certainly does beg the question, when was 00.000.0. Especially since the logs in Metroid Prime begin with 09 and go up through 10 in the first game. If the games are supposed to use the same dating system, and making the huge assumption that I'm remotely correct, that would put... 297.98 Earth years between Metroid Prime 1 and 2, because there would be a passage of 94 cycles before those 2 numbers read 04 again. The theory is not without its disparities. My best guess would be that the dating is started for every separate planet at 00.000.0 when the Pirates settle on it. This would help them account for any differences in orbit and distance from the sun on each planet. All ships orbiting a planet and in communication with ground personnel would naturally assume the same dating scheme, partly to avoid confusion in dates with ground forces, and also due to the fact that they are essentially in the same position as the planet they are orbiting, giving them the same length days and nights. This would explain the difference in dating very well actually. It would explain the consecutive dating of 9s and 10s on ship and ground in Metroid Prime, and also the earlier dates of Aether, since it was discovered after Tallon IV. Using that theory, it would mean the Pirates had been on Tallon IV for 2.85 years, which fits right in. Since I said above that the Pirates had known about Aether for 2.1 years, it would mean they discovered (or landed on) Aether 136.6 days after Tallon IV. Jesus I'm good at coming up with complete bullshit that sounds nice! I know somebody mentioned that the Chozo and Pirate datestamps are the same... I'm working on that one...

Right, before I start: I realized the math in my first theory was all screwed up. My bad, ignore it completely, I'm gonna give you a new one anyhow. Second, The scan about food rations said they would be reduced, not eliminated. Also, the Frigate in the first Prime game was confirmed by a Pirate Lore scan to be one of the frigates in orbit around Zebes at the time Mother Brain was destroyed. This is from Metroid Prime: “The Fall of Zebes” Log 09.992.3 Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are presumed dead, either killed by the Hunter clad in metal or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities. Our research frigates Orpheon, Siriacus and Vol Paragom where in orbit at zero hour and managed to retreat. Frigate Orpheon is now docked at Vortex Outpost. Orpheon's cargo appears to have a 100% survival rate; Metroids are healthy but on restricted feeding schedules due to uncertain supply status. We are ready to begin research on the Metroids and other promising life-forms. Security status remains at Code Blue; no signs of pursuit from the Hunter. Alright folks, I booted up Echoes and took a look around, and here’s my brand new, shiny, and mathematically explicable theory! I used the generally agreed human base unit of time, the second, as the base unit for what I’ll call GF (Galactic Federation) time. Then instead of marking seconds and minutes in increments of 60, I made it 100, since everything else in the system seems to be base 10. This makes for some fairly understandable figures when applied to the scans from the game. All this info is based on the way the Space Pirate logs are dated and organized in the logbook. If the base unit is seconds… 100 seconds (1.67 minutes) is the GF equivalent of a minute… 100 GF minutes (166.67 minutes) equals a GF hour… There is one GF hour in a millicycle… There are 1000 GF hours (2,777.77 hours) in a cycle. 1 millicycle = 166.67 minutes or one GF Hour Below are all the dates from the Pirate Lore in the Echoes Log book. Note they all start with 04, 05, 06, or 07. These are the cycle numbers. That is absolutely certain, because in the log book, each log starting with 04 was stored under the heading ‘Cycle 4’ in the logbook, 05 was stored in ‘Cycle 5,’ and so on. The last 2 numbers show the current millicycle, with the rightmost number changing every 16.7 Earth minutes. 04.468.1 (468.1 millicycles into cycle 4) 04.885.3 (885.3 millicycles into cycle 4) 05.008.6 (8.6 millicycles into cycle 5) 05.442.1 (442.1 millicycles into cycle 5) 06.221.7 (221.7 millicycles into cycle 6) 06.362.2 (362.2 millicycles into cycle 6) 06.713.5 (713.5 millicycles into cycle 6) 06.989.8 (989.8 millicycles into cycle 6) 07.013.6 (13.6 millicycles into cycle 7) 07.159.9 (159.9 millicycles into cycle 7) So how do you get decacycles and centicycles then? Like so: 1 cycle (Obtained by rolling over the second digit of the first number in the date every 1000 millicycles) = 2777.83 Earth hours or 115.74 Earth days. 1 decacycle (Obtained by rolling over the first digit of the first number in the date every 10 cycles) = 10,000 millicycles or 1157.43 Earth days, or 3.17 Earth years. 1 centicycle (Obtained by adding a third digit to the far left of the date mark and rolling it over every 10 decacycles) = 100,000 millicycles or 11,574.31 Earth days, or 31.71 Earth years. Now, examples from the game: Log 44681 (Phazon Operations) Scan Info: Log 4.468.1- Science Teams detected the presence of Phazon in the Dasha system four cycles ago. High Command authorized the deployment of our team shortly thereafter. Our orders are to establish a base on planet Aether and evaluate local Phazon resources. 4 cycles would be 462.96 Earth days, or 1.26 Earth years. Now, note the date on the log begins with a 4. In the Log book in Echoes, the Space Pirate logs are split into cycles 4,5,6, and 7. This one was, according to the dating system, the first log on Aether. So the teams had known about the Phazon on Aether for 1.26 years before the mining teams deployed to the surface. Do to the almost complete lack of dating in the first game, and the proximity of Tallon IV to Aether, it’s feasible that the pirates could have discovered Phazon on Aether very soon after they found it on Tallon IV. Due to the fact that any events involving Samus up to the writing of this log were closer than 1.26 years together, it would seem to support the simple idea that we’ve simply walked in on a work already in progress for the Space Pirates. In other words, choronologically speaking, they were probably mining Phazon on Tallon IV and Aether during the events of the original Metroid. Also, if you add the total time from the first log to the last (2.692 cycles) with the 4 cycles before they landed, it would mean the Pirates had been aware of Phazon on Aether for a full 2.1 years. NEXT!!! U-Mos Scan Info:Subject is U-Mos, a Sentinel of the Luminoth. Scans indicate numerous beneficial abilities, including hightened reflexes, durability, psionics, and flight. Ability to generate and manipulate energy on par with that of the Chozo. Dating scans indicate an age of 2.15 centicycles. Only known active member of the species: remaining Luminoth locked in protective stasis until crisis is resolved. According to the math, 2.15 centicycles would make U-Mos 68.2 Earth years old. Not as old as I originally thought, but still aged enough to have seen a very long war. About that bridge: GF Bridge Scan Info: This bridge is durable, but often locks in place, leading the Marine's to call for a new design. The MK III should enter service within the next eight cycles. 8 cycles would be 2.54 Earth years. A long time for a bridge to be in production, but if you live as close to Norfolk Naval Base as I do, you understand that’s a pretty good timeframe for anything in the military. And the sandgrass: Sandgrass Scan Info: Sandgrass scans indicate that the plant requires no moisture to survive. It relies exclusively on solar energy for sustenance, making it well adapted for life in the desert enviroment. Evidence of extensive mutation present, suggesting radical bio-adjustments within the last centicycle. Mutation source is not natural: plant strain was genetically engineered, possibly by the Luminoth. Once again, a centicycle is 31.71 Earth years. Since the Luminoth were genetically modifying it, that would be a perfectly understandeable time frame. Finally, the corpses of your fallen comrades: 8 millicycles would be 22.2 Earth hours, plenty of time for Samus to get the signal and make it to Aether. So gentlemen, the numbers make pretty good sense. Your choice: Do I win the internet? Now I just have to figure out why that log from the first game starts with a 9.... EDIT: See below for a pretty good theory on the question directly above this one.

She looka kinda like Pixie, with glasses on anyways.

I'd say about a month, using this math: 1 Cycle = 1 month 1 Deca-cycle = 10 cycles = 10 months 1 Centicycle = 100 decacycles = 1000 months Reasoning goes like this. Take this Log entry from Echoes: Lore-Space Pirate Logs-Cycle 4 ================================ Log 44681 (Phazon Operations) Scan Info: Log 4.468.1- Science Teams detected the presence of Phazon in the Dasha system four cycles ago. High Command authorized the deployment of ourteam shortly thereafter. Our orders are to establish a base on planet Aetherand evaluate local Phazon resources. Echoes takes place in the timeline very shortly after the events of Metroid Prime. I seem to remember hearing 2 months somewhere, but I can't find anything to back that up. The point is this: Tallon IV was absolutely for certain the first place the Space Pirates had discovered Phazon. Since Metroid Prime took place RIGHT after the original Metroid in the timeline (The frigate at the beginning of the game was a Noah’s Ark from Zebes), that means they had just discovered Phazon on Tallon IV. Therefore, If a cycle was anything long, like a year, that would mean they’d known about Phazon on Aether for almost 4 years. 4 years would be well before the Metroid timeline even began. 4 months, on the other hand, is a conceivable amount of time, since it could be after the discovery of Phazon on Tallon IV. All that is to say that a cycle is a short(ish) amount of time. Now, take the next log entry: U-Mos Scan Info:Subject is U-Mos, a Sentinel of the Luminoth. Scans indicate numerous beneficial abilities, including hightened reflexes, durability, psionics, and flight. Ability to generate and manipulate energy on par with that of the Chozo. Dating scans indicate an age of 2.15 centicycles. Only known active member of the species:remaining Luminoth locked in protective stasis until crisis is resolved. 2.15 centicycles would come out to 2150 cycles, or months. Translated into Earth years, U-Mos would be 179.2 years old, a figure in line with the known facts that a.) The war for Aether had been going on a LONG time, and b.) U-Mos was REALLY old. Next Entry: Research-Mechanisms-GF Security ================================ GF Bridge Scan Info:This bridge is durable, but often locks in place, leading the Marine's to call for a new design. The MK III should enter service within the next eight cycles. I doubt it’s gonna take the military 8 years to replace the bridge, nor will it be ready in 8 days or weeks. 8 months though, would be a reasonable timeframe. And finally: Research-Biology-Plantforms ================================ Sandgrass Scan Info:Sandgrass scans indicate that the plant requires no moisture to survive. It relies exclusively on solar energy for sustenance, making it well adapted for life in the desert enviroment. Evidence of extensive mutation present, suggesting radical bio-adjustments within the last centicycle. Mutation source is not natural:plant strain was genetically engineered possible by the Luminoth. One centicycle by my reckoning is 83.3 years. According to evolutionary theory, 83 year for any mutation is friggin’ fast, so it would be sufficiently ‘radical.’ Now, about Millicycles. A month is an average of 30 days, which works out to 720 hours. 720 divided by 1000 is .72 hours. Therefore, A marine that had been dead for 8 millicycles would have been dead for 5.76 hours, which is the only place the theory might break down a little, because the marines didn’t look that fresh. Of course, if you consider that every time demarcation in the game is base 10, I think its much more likely that if Retro even HAS a definite answer, the base unit of time for the game is 10 of something. So what we really wanna know is: Hey Retro? What is the base unit of time in the Metroid series, and how does it translate to Earth time, IF you even took the time to figure it out? So there you have it. Maybe it’s dead wrong, but it kept me entertained for quite some time. Hah. Fuck you, 10 character limit.

Hehe... MSDN subscriptions\knowing the right people FTW. I've never paid for an OS.

It's dead. Let it go. Rick and Brannon fucked it all up.

That's what she said.

Or Stormreaver for that matter.

If the gameplay video is any indication, Zerglings are friggin' insane. They swarm like never before, and since there's no unit selection limit, I would imagine they're much easier to control. Go watch the video. It's very choice, and I highly recommend picking one up if you have the means.

Patch 2.1 has rolled. Hawtness. I loves most of the changes thus far.

I think the idea here is this: If I submit a mix to OC ReMix, I am saying to Dave and the judges that I think this mix is good enough to be hosted as an OC ReMix. In turn, if this mix makes it past the judge's panel and onto the site, that mix is officially accepted as good enough material to bear the name of OC ReMix. That is an agreement entered into between the site and the mixer. Therefore, if a mixer comes back later and simply says "I think my mix should be removed for this and such a reason," the mixer is basically telling Dave and the judges "I think, in retrospect, that it was a mistake on your part to allow this mix to be posted." But if Dave and the judges allow it to be posted, what the mixer personally comes to think of that work later is, to a great extent, irrelevant. Dave and the judges said it was good enough. It will remain so, even if your personal taste and/or musical skills have moved past the style or complexity of the mix. They're not saying there will be a refusal to remove a mix if, for instance, a mixer wishes to update it with a version they feel is better. I think what they're trying to avoid here is a situation like JD Harding, who (in my understanding of the situation) had 7(?) mixes on the site and consistently requested removals of his own materials because of his personal taste. As such, I endorse the new policy. Nice work.

I play very few RTS's online. Never heard that one. Probably because I always win. Or not.

That gameplay video is pure fappage. But what does the GG at the end mean?

There is simply no way this game is in pre-alpha. Not with the kind of gameplay we're seeing in those trailers. I think it's like Scotty telling Kirk he needs 4 hours to fix the engines, but he knows damn well he only needs 10 minutes. It makes him look good when he gets it done sooner. That's what Blizzard's doing. If they've been on this since 2003... shit, that's 4 years. Blizzard is too world class to need 6 or 7 years to finish a game. Also, with the revenue from WoW, there is no such thing as development costs at this point, so finances won't be a holdup. The dev cycle for most RTS games is 2 to 3 years, tops. So yeah, I don't think we'll be waiting till 2010. In other news, I've riped the music from the artwork trailer to an MP3, for whoever wants it. It's available at the following link: StarCraft II Artwork Trailer Music

What I'm curious to know now is whether any of StarCraft Ghost has been grafted into this game. Like, is Nova's story part of the Terran Campaign? I would actually be sort of surprised if they didn't have her in here somewhere, because StarCraft Ghost spent a LONG time in development before they cancelled it, and I doubt they just scrapped everything.

Yeah, I know, but I started THIS one. So STFU! And give me a backwards pantsless hug.

Do you know how awesome I think it is that I got to start what may become one of the biggest threads in OC Remix history? I think it's totally awesome.

Beat me by one minute, you lucky bastard.

It's official folks. So here's the official thread, because even if Blizzard IS making a next gen MMO, we don't know what it is yet. So here's the place to discuss Starcraft 2. Have at it. DarkeSword Edit: Starcraft II Social Group