Thylacine

Well, I'm not an OCR head honcho, but I do know that when they organize the mass torrents, they do a review process where all the judges go over everything from 1900 to... now it's looking like 2400... to make sure every song that's in the torrent is something they feel is up to OCR's current standards. So even if they were in the middle of that process now (and I'm sure they plan to be at some point), it'll probably take a while. Like all things on this site, patience is a virtue.

Both Top Gun and I have our prismatic frosted helms now. After my unlucky streaks, I managed a rather lucky run after he left where I got two in a row (worth 4 and 5 tokens, giving me the last 9 I needed). I'll figure out a set that I can wear this helmet with, because it does look really neat. I shall now take ANOTHER one of my "I'm burned out on this game and am taking a sabbatical before I hurt something" breaks. I'll try to pop on after I'm done playing other, non-SK games for a while. Oh, and Top Gun - thanks for making what would have been a draining endeavor very much enjoyable.

Top Gun and I have been doing a few runs of this. I've been trying to invite people on my runs, so if you are on late and see me, let me know if you're interested. I like the company, especially when waiting for elevators (which they really shouldn't make us do). That said, I'm not really having a lot of luck finding these rooms. Tonight's run was less than stellar - 12 cake tokens. I got some with Top Gun, some from the daily mission, and some from another room that I finally got into on my last floor of the night. (Seriously, I must have run at least 10 times after he logged out before I found one.) I'm roughly 30 tokens from the helmet, and I intend to buy some energy tomorrow night to finish this out.

Sorry I keep missing you, Top Gun. I see you log on around the same time I play, but I've been mid-run when you're starting and you're mid-run when I'm tapped out on energy. Man, this is even more frustrating than the Punkin King stuff. I want this helmet, but I keep partying with people who aren't privy to how this works. I'll have to do the D9 grinding you mentioned. As much as I hate "exploiting" a system, it's my only option if I want to make the Tuesday deadline.

I don't think I'll kick up this thread any more, since interest in the game has started to wane here. If they suddenly make an update concerning guild halls, then I might bring it to everyone's attention (I'd like to make an OCR-tan statue or put speakers in the corners). Otherwise, I shall let this thread slip into that quiet night. It's the 1-year anniversary of Spiral Knights, and they've got a special event going on until April 10th. It's very similar to the Halloween event - Fight a bunch of monsters in a random room that appears on "gear" stages, get several tokens (Cake Slices, also purchaseable in Haven for a huge markup), use those tokens to get one of three costume helmets (two of which disappear after a set frame of time, one of which is permanent). Since missions have been introduced since then, they've also added a Prestige mission which gets you 4 tokens and 80 prestige. You need 100 tokens to get the permanent mask. After a full mist tank of energy, I only ended up with 12. I'm hoping I just had some raw luck. In addition to tokens, you can also buy capsules of confetti for a few hundred crowns. The good stuff. I had one, but then I realized it was just taking up space. Oh, and the cake tokens are not a lie. Happy Anniversary!

Honestly? It's not much farther from what we do here. But the whole "making money off blatant ripoff" is a dicey issue.Music has issues where sampling from other songs results in a bit of cannibalism in the recording industry, and Nintendo is so skittish about getting attacked by them that they have held back on the Earthbound/Mother series (among other reasons, of course, but the music is figured to be one of the main ones). It doesn't surprise me that, if these artists were taking music from a game composition, the VG industry wouldn't want to fight back, especially in their current post-FarmVille state where a major copyright lawsuit is the last thing they'd want to deal with (and where a fair number of game soundtracks are now being directly provided by the music industry - don't bite the hand that feeds). And, aside from the whole "Gee, this sounds familiar" thing, the VG industry would still need to prove this was happening. You still need a slingshot to fight Goliath. In the end, the overlap between people who listened to song X and who play game Y isn't that heavy. In fact, it's almost exclusively limited to people posting in or referenced by this post (and similar posts in other VG forums). Even if both parties were aware this was happening, it's not a battle worth fighting.

Odd as it sounds, I think I'd prefer to watch it at the ad-producing sites. That generates revenue for the people who make it, right?I'd prefer to do it at somewhere, uh, cleaner than Nick's site. Hulu would be ideal. Still, if there's anything I can do to make sure we get more of this kind of content out there, I'm all up for letting people bombard me with adverts every 8 minutes or so.

Looks like this is a job for... the INTERNET! *clicks over to nickelodeon.com* Wow, this is a REALLY busy site. Ads everywhere. I can send a laptop to Africa, but I don't think it'll support Skyrim, so my heart's not in it. Also, yay slime. ...Oh, right, the show hasn't premiered. Not even the full eps are up. Well, it looks like I can view clips, so maybe they'll change. The main LoK site made me hopeful with the first two episodes on there, so they might provide it, too. This is going to turn into a Team Bolin or Team Mako thing, isn't it? Viacom is their company, and MTV has their shows on their website, so I doubt they'll do anything crazy (especially with a show that'll be so popular amongst the older Gen Ys). I made sure to stay there for no more than 30 seconds so my eyeballs didn't burn.

Oh, this was fantastic. I was having Avatar withdrawals ever since I finished the series and I couldn't have asked for this to hit the spot better. If I had to wager on Book Two's name, I'd say "Metal." It's being treated like an entirely different type of bending and it has its own "society." I really hope this series ends up on Hulu or somewhere online where I can watch it.

Not trying to stir any beehives or anything, but the "locked" button in locked threads doesn't match the "new thread" or "add reply" buttons in scheme, design, or... heck, anything. I'm talking about the blue button in the upper-left, right above the thread. I know it's not a big deal, and ideally nobody would see the button too frequently. Still, it does come up (especially in threads meant for permanent viewing), and it looks a bit unprofessional and attention-grabbing for something that should be easily ignored. How hard would it be to make a button like that? Does it come from some pre-fab vBulletin theme, or is the board custom-made? (If this isn't the right place for such trifles, move it to general where it can be given thoughtful discussion, or offtopic where I can be mocked for having a retentive body part. Or lock this thread, if you prefer irony and can't fix it.) I love everything else, though. The board looks fantastic and you're all doing a smashing job with it!

There was an update that added some more missions. These ones, aside from Kora chats, appear to be Tier 3-centric. The smartest thing to do with these missions is to stay in Tier 1 and reap points from the daily prestige missions (ranking up appears to give more demanding missions). That would be incredibly boring, but I'm not quite sure what the point is of the prestige yet and it may pay off down the road.

They COULD get rid of pushback, though. I'd be happy with that. Got sealed sword!

I've just been burning through missions at the moment, since they've been remarkably helpful at raising money for me. I'm not sure if people can join those mid-way (my guess is not) but I try to linger in the mission lobby so people who want to join me can. Once I'm done with the rank missions, I'll return to the normal Arcade diving (and runs with people who wish to do so). Apparently, we CAN sell the spare Mining Hats to vendors. I had just been selling stuff to the Auction House up to this point, so I never thought to try selling the bound stuff until now. I'm keeping some of my duplicates for deviation recipes, but I've cleared out most of the clutter. Glad to get rid of the useless recipes (but happy I got some of the basic ones for free). Also, yesterday's mission demanded that stun pop gun they forced onto us with one of the missions, so they might declutter things that way, too. All they have to do is reinstate the pepperbox series with its original function and I'm completely satisfied. I didn't know there were so many users of that gun, but now there's a bunch of them arguing for a reversion in the SK forums. My next mission is the Jelly King, which should hopefully get me the Sealed Sword I want.

Okay, I thought editing the previous post would bump this up to the top, but it didn't for me. Anyway, the information above is for the missions, which were released today. On a more personal note, they changed the pepperbox series so that charge bullets push away enemies rather than draw them close. Since that's my main weapon, this one hurt a bit. They essentially nerfed the guns, since now I can't shoot bullets like a fiery vortex of death. Comments on missions, or on the programmers ruining my life?

There's now a Love Aura for "sale" now in honor of... something. I forget. I have to admit, out of every accessory available, the auras seem like the best. I don't see anyone walking around with them, though, so they might be limited to viewing with high-level graphics. I keep my settings low because even a basic game like this lags. (I know this thread is pretty much dead for most people who still play this game, but I want to keep it alive at least until the missions update. It should give more to do in the game. I hope.) --- It's here! The missions release changes how the game starts up - you go to a screen of your character working at a console and can choose to either visit Haven or view the mission screen. The good: *Missions add something to do. Some involve exploration or rescue similar to what you see on a normal gate run, but with rooms similar to the scenario rooms we've been introduced to. Others involve gathering ingredients to turn in for other items. *There are new missions provided daily, for when you finish the regular "rank" missions. There are also "expansion" missions that will be available for purchase in the future. *If you're not down for walking, you can access the gates from the mission screen, so you get to your runs a minute or so faster. Less talky, more gamey. *Prizes! The bad: *The apprentice missions have some unfortunate side effects that will hopefully be weeded out. The first is that all of us will have to essentially go through beginner lectures again. There are also some missions which are clearly Tier-1 in difficulty. *The second is that you will receive low-star or no-star equipment upon completion of these missions. Yes, it is all bound. Even the recipes you get are bound, which I didn't know they could do! I don't know how to unbind zero-star items or known recipes, either, so my arsenal is getting absurdly cluttered. *Someone quitting mid-quest hurts much like it does when someone quits during a boss run. There are obviously a few bugs to work out, but I have to admit that the quests were fun.

There's a Sonic CD set of items being released today, and they'll be available until the end of the month. They're a Metal Sonic suit (helmet/suit combo) and a Tails accessory for the back of your armor. You either have to spend $10-$30 on stuff in the store or pay Boost 3,200 CE per piece to get them. --- On an unrelated note, has anyone found those scenario rooms from the update a few weeks back? Still haven't found one. There's going to be a mission update soon, which should make this game less grindy for the bulk of us who are to upper-tier equipment. Oh, and I finally beat Vanaduke! And by "beat," I mean "died a lot while feeding other people my remaining CE." As a result, the money I was saving to try for a Volcanic Pepperbox recipe is not quite what it was. Does anyone have any tips on getting decent amounts of crowns with a basic Mist Energy run? What tier do you guys recommend, 2 or 3?

2011 wasn't the best year. While it didn't suck as much as 2001 (that was a horrible year for me), the bad outweighed the good ever so slightly. I'm going to make 2012 great, though!

Three notes worth mentioning: 1. Drones have been added, so there are new enemies that will start to appear. No info on the wiki yet, but they're called Shankle and Wisp. 2. An achievement has been added (at least to Steam accounts) called "Son of a Nutcracker." Go into Lockdown, play on Frostbite, and pelt someone with a snowball. Literally took me 5 minutes from queue to achievement. (But it's apparently causing people to quit Lockdown mid-game, so plan to play a full round. Be the example.) 3. There's a new Explorer's pack for sale, and it's really cheap - $2.95. You get a "Stranger's Hat" with the purchase, as well as a Silver Key.

It said the rooms came out, but I didn't encounter any tonight. Man, they really went overboard with the Santa hats. I get the robots and the pup turrets, but greavers and howlitzers? It looks weird on them. I really like how Haven looks. The main area theme and appearance were starting to annoy me. I like the change.

You were hit by a truck, and you're worried your WORK LOAD will obliterate you? Dude.OCR guild hasn't been incredibly busy for me. At least, it's not for me. When I'm on, nobody else is. I don't mind, since it prevents me from dealing with recruiters and it's fun to see people say, "Oh, I love OCR!" I like advertising for the site, and it's one of the few situations where that's true. If I'm capable of adding, I could do so. I think I'm one of the non-mod members still, so I'm not sure if I can actively recruit (or recruit from a distance). --- It's sounding like a lot of people are taking a hiatus before the holidays. I do runs every few nights to get money for an Aegis recipe (and then for an Aegis itself - I'll be busy for a while). I might play a bit more when things start getting all holly and jolly with the drones. I'm envisioning something like a drone-themed Space Invaders room.

Is anyone still playing this? I've been taking a small break ever since Halloween, but I pop on every now and then. They just made an update that allows a character to change their primary color. So, any character who you're tired of seeing in hot pink can now be made... not that. There are special auctions for rare items now in the AH, if you're hoarding crowns. There's some Rose Regalia outfits and a Leviathan knockoff sword that looks like scissors. Also, and this one's been in place for a while, they have put arsenal chests at the start of each level, so you can change your equipment to better suit your needs. No more fighting oilers with my pepperbox! (I'm also updating this post because they're introducing new enemies soon and I expect we'll be seeing a Christmas-themed event in the near future.)

Oh, I totally understand. I've worked on (non-remix) group projects where there were only 5-6 people to deal with, and even that was an ultra-stressful thing. Often times, at least two people were MIA, and it wrecked the rest of the work being done. I'm not discounting how much work goes into an album at all, and it astounds me that there can be such great collaborative works.I'm just saying that there's going to be a large lead time regardless. Why not let people take advantage of that? Perhaps plan deadlines around other projects, since this is going to be an undertaking that will involved a large number of OCR people. Restrict song acceptance to one song/person and keep people who are involved in multiple projects to a minimum. If they free up and there's a song available from dropouts, then there should be no problem. It sounds really totalitarian written like that, but this will be a high-demand album if it's announced. Why not use other album participation as a criteria for track acceptance? I'm not going to pretend that I know what goes on behind the white/grey of the OCR front screen, because I don't. I just know that there's always a way to get from point A to point B if it's given proper planning and keeps things in a comfort zone. I get that entirely. But if you asked these fans if they'd rather not have an album for a game at all or have an album they didn't get to put a remix in, what do you think their answer would be? My only concern with this type of thinking is that it's a postponement attitude. When will the backlog be reduced enough to consider a new project, especially one of a potentially large magnitude? Who makes that call? I know, I know - there are a ton of projects coming, and I'm looking forward to most of them. But some of those are under review or close to being done. I'm not saying the projects should start RIGHT NOW HURRY OR ALL TRACKS WILL BE TAKEN. I'm just saying that the planning stages should be the ones where the most time is concentrated. If the project were to be started right now and interest tested (as it has been with this thread), then names could be taken down for tentative involvement after the backlog has thinned out. Let people rest, but plan something for the future. --- As far as your quote on the quality of your work in contrast to where you are as an artist in the present, that's the only real problem I see with the backlog. It's the disadvantage of time. That being said, isn't that an inherent issue with albums in general? Wouldn't there still be a long difference of time between your track submission and its posting on OCR? EDIT: Also, Meteo Xavier's suggestion on using albums to encourage new ReMixers to enter the track is a good idea. Perhaps, if my earlier suggestion of Human/Esper were to be considered, have the tracks be divided into new people who don't have a track accepted in OCR (Human) and people who do (Espers). Or Balance/Ruin. Separate based on how much community participation the person has. It would also encourage people who aren't swamped by projects to participate in the album.

I hate waiting for new albums as much as the next OCR denizen, but is a backlog such a horrible thing?I mean, we are uncertain of how things shall progress a year down the road. Our well-known mixers might suddenly find themselves very busy and unable to dedicate themselves to a project that deserves the attention of newbies and oldbies alike. Having a few rounds in the chamber for future use just helps DJP keep content on the site fresh, no matter how packed our lives get. As long as albums get released eventually, what's the problem with a backlog? --- If this project were to be taken seriously, I'd suggest avoiding a genre-based theme and instead go for something true to the game. We've seen the dichotomy thing a couple of times before (Xenogears and Chrono Trigger immediately come to mind) and this game practically begs for it with the Esper/Human and WoB/WoR setup. There's 61 tracks on the OST. Maybe have each track be associated with a particular Esper or Magicite (having the instrumentation or genre based on the type of attack/defense move the Esper pulls)? There's a list of... 27 tracks right there, with 16 character themes and 11 "extra" tracks. It wouldn't have to be a comprehensive project, since (as the point's been made) pretty much every single track has had at least a submission, if not acceptance, in OCR. And similar tracks could be combined (Locke/Rachel, Celes/Aria de Mezzo Caraterre, etc.). That'd cut down on the creation time a bit. I've always thought it was odd that nobody has proposed this for a project, given FF7's pre-release hype. And forgive me for rambling - it happens when I post late at night. EDIT: Also, I don't want to come across as pretentious or demanding or anything. I'm just throwing out suggestions if someone does wish to take the reins for this.

No hate to the rest of the album, but this is the only song from 25YEARLEGEND to have earned one of my coveted 5-star ratings on my playlist. 1'00" in was what hooked me, and the whole song has an incredibly positive and uplifting vibe. Fantastic work!

That bit about Catwoman moving about the city was hilarious. Does it seem like Yahtzee is funnier on the more mainstream games, or is it just a better familiarity with the source material that does it?