Saturday, December 1, 2007
SMYN Trial Success!
I had my trial today with Youko and SamuraiPanda for the Show Me Your News podcast. It was tons of fun, and I hope I make into episode 23. Whether I make it in or not, you should be listening to the podcast every week! It is really high quality material and covers a wealth of topics surrounding Brawl's upcoming release.
Poll Review #3
What format do you prefer the most?
singles (1v1) - 20 votes
doubles (2v2) - 8 votes
crew battles (various) - 3 votes
Hmmm... I think the results speak for themselves. Singles is clearly the most popular event amongst my readers. I plan on doing an article in the near future on how doubles offers a unique experience. Many players prefer singles as a result of how hard it is to maintain a loyal teammate (myself included). Doubles requires that two people practice together so that they learn how to play off each other. Crew battles, on the other hand, are not too popular yet. Two other people besides me voted for it. XD
singles (1v1) - 20 votes
doubles (2v2) - 8 votes
crew battles (various) - 3 votes
Hmmm... I think the results speak for themselves. Singles is clearly the most popular event amongst my readers. I plan on doing an article in the near future on how doubles offers a unique experience. Many players prefer singles as a result of how hard it is to maintain a loyal teammate (myself included). Doubles requires that two people practice together so that they learn how to play off each other. Crew battles, on the other hand, are not too popular yet. Two other people besides me voted for it. XD
Friday, November 30, 2007
SMYN Trial
Well, the word came from Youko himself. Tomorrow, I will be doing my trial for episode 23 of Show Me Your News. Wish me luck! :)
Signature of the Week #4
It's been another busy week for sugarpoultry and her sig shop! This week's best sig was the one for Dojo. Congratulations!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The War Rages On
Earlier in the month, I described the interesting conflict taking place between competitive and casual smashers. Well, the discussion marches forward as members from both sides take their defensive stances. Competitive smashers continue to be weary of the casual smashers' accusations against them regarding items, "true skill", and advanced techniques. Casual smashers feel insulted by generalizations regarding how most any competitive smasher would defeat them (by a fair margin, too).
Signs indicate that this will not end until after Brawl is released. First off, the discussion is taking place in the Brawl discussion area despite many of the arguments being drawn from experience with Melee. The moderators seem tolerant of this as a similar thread in the Melee forums would not receive much (if any) attention. All focus is on Brawl at this point. More and more new members are joining the fray. Many people are registering accounts just to participate in these discussions.
Signs indicate that this will not end until after Brawl is released. First off, the discussion is taking place in the Brawl discussion area despite many of the arguments being drawn from experience with Melee. The moderators seem tolerant of this as a similar thread in the Melee forums would not receive much (if any) attention. All focus is on Brawl at this point. More and more new members are joining the fray. Many people are registering accounts just to participate in these discussions.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Another Glimpse Into Tournament Lore
AlphaZealot was in another interview at Smashes my Bros. I highly recommend checking it out. AlphaZealot discusses many of the philosophies involved in the banning of stages, the role of tiers, and a couple other interesting topics.
The wavedash is STILL not a glitch.
Apparently, the logic from my first attempt still confused several readers, so I will reiterate the logic here in a hopefully more understandable manner.
I have been doing software development for a long time. So, despite what many may think a glitch is, I will explain it here. Before software is released, it is tested to its greatest extent. Numbers and scenarios are fed through the system to ensure that it behaves correctly. Let us imagine a basic calculator as an example. Before releasing any kind of calculator software, we must make sure that it reacts appropriately to any given input. So, we test 1 + 1 and get 2. 3 + 5 = 8. 13 + 7 = 20. No matter how many times we run these tests, the results are identical. The software has structured limits on the results based on the input.
So now, the calculator is out in the wild. Like most non-graphing calculators, this one has a solar panel for power. In poorly lighted environments, my calculator starts to operate slowly. Eventually, it goes insane and stops cooperating (despite having power). The display works fun, but I punch in 1 + 1 and get 413 (I really have before). Despite the many tests done by the creators of this calculator, the math operation experienced a glitch. Something happened (most likely the low light conditions) to cause the software to behave irrationally but still believe it was operating correctly (hence the instant result displayed). By giving the calculator more light and restarting it, 1 + 1 once again yielded the expected result of 2.
In the world of Melee, the designers obviously knew about air dodging (since, well, they put it in there), so it probably did not take long for someone to ask the question: What happens when an air dodge comes in contact with a solid surface? Well, if it is anything besides a floor, it simply blocks the momentum. They could have left it that way and had the floor simply stop movement but allow the air dodge animation to continue. They chose instead to have the character slide along the ground (and sliding still exists in Brawl).
Now, there is another big controversy about the definitions of glitch and exploit. Some believe the two are identical. They both relate to intent, but they relate to entirely different intents. An exploit takes advantage of physics in a way the game creator never intended. A glitch violates the physics in a way the software never intended. In other words, while the creator's intent is mostly reflected in the software, a glitch happens when the system reacts contrary to the many tests run before release. Air dodge + contact with floor = slide. That is a natural occurrence in the game. Wavedashing is clearly an exploit because it is doubtful that the creators ever thought players would jump and air dodge so fast that the jump animations were essentially invisible to the point where characters appear to just slide along the ground. However, the software itself behaves 100% as it should.
Now, let us return to the Ice Climbers Freeze Glitch. Something happens in this process that leaves the victim in a grabbed state despite being released (and despite the Ice Climber losing his or her grip but not also freezing). Under all other circumstances, the victim simply breaks loose and is free to move afterward. Somehow, when the Ice Climbers get together, the circumstances become just right to where this system fault is made known.
I have seen Captain Falcon fall through the center of Corneria. I have also seen Fox fall through the center of Pokemon Stadium. The floors are supposed to be solid surfaces. Somewhere in the object collision algorithms, the system suddenly decides that the character ought to be relocated to below the stage. These are software glitches.
I have been doing software development for a long time. So, despite what many may think a glitch is, I will explain it here. Before software is released, it is tested to its greatest extent. Numbers and scenarios are fed through the system to ensure that it behaves correctly. Let us imagine a basic calculator as an example. Before releasing any kind of calculator software, we must make sure that it reacts appropriately to any given input. So, we test 1 + 1 and get 2. 3 + 5 = 8. 13 + 7 = 20. No matter how many times we run these tests, the results are identical. The software has structured limits on the results based on the input.
So now, the calculator is out in the wild. Like most non-graphing calculators, this one has a solar panel for power. In poorly lighted environments, my calculator starts to operate slowly. Eventually, it goes insane and stops cooperating (despite having power). The display works fun, but I punch in 1 + 1 and get 413 (I really have before). Despite the many tests done by the creators of this calculator, the math operation experienced a glitch. Something happened (most likely the low light conditions) to cause the software to behave irrationally but still believe it was operating correctly (hence the instant result displayed). By giving the calculator more light and restarting it, 1 + 1 once again yielded the expected result of 2.
In the world of Melee, the designers obviously knew about air dodging (since, well, they put it in there), so it probably did not take long for someone to ask the question: What happens when an air dodge comes in contact with a solid surface? Well, if it is anything besides a floor, it simply blocks the momentum. They could have left it that way and had the floor simply stop movement but allow the air dodge animation to continue. They chose instead to have the character slide along the ground (and sliding still exists in Brawl).
Now, there is another big controversy about the definitions of glitch and exploit. Some believe the two are identical. They both relate to intent, but they relate to entirely different intents. An exploit takes advantage of physics in a way the game creator never intended. A glitch violates the physics in a way the software never intended. In other words, while the creator's intent is mostly reflected in the software, a glitch happens when the system reacts contrary to the many tests run before release. Air dodge + contact with floor = slide. That is a natural occurrence in the game. Wavedashing is clearly an exploit because it is doubtful that the creators ever thought players would jump and air dodge so fast that the jump animations were essentially invisible to the point where characters appear to just slide along the ground. However, the software itself behaves 100% as it should.
Now, let us return to the Ice Climbers Freeze Glitch. Something happens in this process that leaves the victim in a grabbed state despite being released (and despite the Ice Climber losing his or her grip but not also freezing). Under all other circumstances, the victim simply breaks loose and is free to move afterward. Somehow, when the Ice Climbers get together, the circumstances become just right to where this system fault is made known.
I have seen Captain Falcon fall through the center of Corneria. I have also seen Fox fall through the center of Pokemon Stadium. The floors are supposed to be solid surfaces. Somewhere in the object collision algorithms, the system suddenly decides that the character ought to be relocated to below the stage. These are software glitches.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)