Supcom Battle - 5/22/07

So, I'm gonna layout my battle this morning with some dude in Supreme Commander. Here is an overview of the map we played, Emerald Craters. I'm the red team on the North, and he's the Green on the South. A basic thing you should know about the game is that there are 2 resources. Energy, and Mass. Energy, is easy to get. You just build different generators. You have different levels of technology (3 of them) so you start out building level 1 generators. Eventually you upgrade one of your factories to build a level 2 engineer, which in turn can build a level 2 generator. Then again for level 3. There is also a special type of way to get energy, and that's through that yellow lightning bolt you see on the map, which you build a Hydrocarbon Plant on.

Mass, on the other hand, is a lot harder to get. All those green patches across the map are your mass deposits. You have to build a Mass Extractor on them to get any mass. Thing is, being a large map, my engineers can't get to all of them quick enough, so I mainly grab all the ones near my base, and upgrade those. An alternate method to receive mass, is through a fabricator. The fabricators (only level 1 and 3) use up a LOT of energy to make some extra mass. For every Lvl 1 Fabricator you should have 2 Lvl 1 Generators. Hopefully, you caught all that.



Here's my base a few minutes into the game. Already got a land and air factory up. I wish there was some indicator that let me knew when a factory finished, many times I losing valuables seconds/minutes because I didn't realize one was done. I could of started building something earlier...-_-



Here's an overview of my scouts (those 3 diamonds across the center) doing their recon work. Just to make sure they (the enemy's armies) aren't there. I should of built a small base on that eastern (right-side) mound, but didn't, and eventually lost it to my opponent. :P



Here's his base after 5-10 minutes in the game.



And here's my base. Not bad either, but maybe a little less organized.



Here is his little army, he set them up in a line in front of the base he started constructing near the center.



At his main, he built a LOT of fighter jets. :P Later to destroy all of mine, protecting his gunships.



Dundundun! I send my first wave to his little, yet quickly growing base down near the center.



Here is the closest I got to winning. Our first armies meet, but interestingly enough his Commander was out there in the open, ready to build something. however, he quickly retreated as my first wave gave attack. They were all destroyed as his little defense line was bigger than my attack was.



Here you can see our respective bases so far...



Here's about the best I was able to get my base to. Right now you see a Level 2 Shield being built in the top-right. I was able to get about 4 all around my base at the end. However, that whole section in the top-left was taken out by a surprise ground+air attack. He had sent about 20 gunships across the left of the map, and then attacked from the North, but even worse was the fact that he had loaded half of those Gunships with a tank underneath! So I had about 10 tanks eating away as a bunch of Gunships attacked from above. I lost a lot of my power plants and fabricators (they turn energy into mass) which I had to rebuild later on.



My problem: I did not have any of this at my main. After that attack I was left rebuilding what I already had, which was older level 2 technology. He already has level 3 shields, power generators, and fabricators running his main base.



Here is a final overview of the map. As you can see, I did a fair job on expanding, however, the key is inside the enemy's main base, down in the south. That's where all his power was coming from, and from there he was able to amass an army near the center.



Here is his final wave, the army that eventually destroyed me. Noticed how he strategically position a bunch of shield tanks throughout the formation, as to give maximum coverage to all his bots and tanks.



Here you can see his huge army eating away at the south of my base. I'm in trouble...



See that floating ship near the top? That was a transport. I tried to build it as fast as possible to fly my Commander out of my base, but they shot it down quick, so you can see my Commander (the robot on fire :P) running away...



but they caught him so...I died. :P

Blurbizitation

No, that word does not exist. Oh well. Here goes my random thoughts for the day (and throughout the past weeks :P)...

I really suck at the large maps on Supreme Commander. I've been playing this one, called Emerald Crater. A huge green map, with one big circle in the middle, and 4 smaller circles on each cardinal direction. Then there's also a nice chunk of land with some resources on each corner on the map. Anyway, I can't seem to expand fast enough, which leaves me with low resources, and with my enemy able to build his army ALL around me. I just finished a game, this time I did a lot better at expanding, but I hit another problem I have which is advancing my technology (level 1, 2, 3). So he had these HUGE power plants (Level 3) before I did (though I had quite a bit of Level 2), so he was able to build larger armies than I was able to counter with. I saved the replay to check out how he worked his stuff. I'll make a separate post showing our battle, since describing it is a lot harder, than staring at some of the beautiful screenshots I could be taking instead. :P

I've been finalizing some stuff with my website, and thanks to Justin's help, I've been able to get my layout completed! I'm testing out some stuff with the scripts and junk for my comic system, so that's what I'll be working on for a bit. I set up a test page here. here you can see my original mock-up for it, I got it pretty close eh? :D



School. It rears its' ugly head once again. I have a week to decide whether I'm gonna sign up for Graphics Design at "La Universidad del Norte" and start in June (or July) the classes. Ugh...I'm gonna have to pray hard for this one, because if I miss it, I'll be schooless for another year, which isn't necessarily bad but...you know. It would be better to get in school again...I guess. I wish God could send me an e-mail, to let me know what he wants...

We'll be visiting a youth group on Saturday, checking it out to see if we like it. We finally were able to check out the small youth service they had on Sunday, not a lot of people, maybe about the size of REEL, but with a couple more little kids. :P

I'm hungry.

If I didn't mention this already, we bought an apartment. After we move out (I think next month, or July) we will be staying at an apartment for a while (few years or so, unless we find a nice house or something :P).

Pixtures

Here you can see some of my huge base. There's my commander there with the name tag "mastastealth" on it.



Here is on of MY races' experimental units, the Fatboy. It's pretty much a mobile factory (which I used to build all those anti-air tanks next to it). You can see the wreckage of one of the enemies' experimental units, the Monkeylord, A huge spider bot, in the background.



One of my little Anti-air points. You can see the guns firing at some of those enemy green planes on the right.



Here comes one of the biggest, baddest experimental units in the game. I believe it's called the "Czar" and it's pretty much a UFO with super laser beam underneath.



And here you can see that UFO blown up. I had to send every fighter I had to take that punk out.



So that's Supreme Commander. Here's a picture I drew for a contest on Deviantart:



I'll get screenshots of my Linux desktop later.

Squito Chart

Call me obsessive, but I've added a little flash "chart" (right sidebar, on bottom) where I will keep track of my mosquito bites from now on. You can believe it or not, as you will see it's just an unreal amount of bites. The red ones are "officially" recorded bites. When I made the chart, I looked in a mirror and marked every bite I could still see. The dark red ones, are older ones I had scribbled on a pad, but only go back a month or 2. So there are still about 3+ months of bites worth that I'm not even showing! PLUS that doesn't include the small bites that might of disappeared fast enough that I forgot to record them that day.

Click on the pink face to show my face bites, click the face to make it disappear again. That "green zone" is where I hope I never get bit, and shouldn't, because I'm wearing pants you know? ;) So no bites from my waste to above my knees.

That is all. I still need to get some photos of something from some days ago right? Bleh....

Geeklog

Well, I'm gonna share some of my recent PC activities, which may be a nice change from my usual "I hate mosquito rants". Although, FYI, I got bit 12 times in the past few days, in odd patterns. It's a line of 3 bites each, going up both cheeks, a line down my neck, and then a line across the middle of my forehead, each one consisting of 3 bites. Really weird stuff. Anyway...

...

You know what? I think I forgot most of the stuff. :P You see, I wrote that above paragraph one day, and had to save it because I had to do something...and now, 3 days later, I try to finish this darn post (which I know was gonna be pretty big) and can't remember what the heck I was gonna say...darn it.

So, I'll start with:

I've been playing some more Supreme Commander lately. I bought that game a while ago, and had played a couple times, but now I play about every other day. It's really awesome (and works so beautifully on my new machine) and I've won a couple multiplayer battles. Although in the past few days I've been trying to finish the campaign (single-player) mode. I probably shoulda taken a screenshot...:P

I've also been doing some WINE work in Linux. WINE creates a type of translation layer to Linux, converting Windows functions and calls to use native Linux ones, so that it can run programs. The developers have done an amazing job at getting DirectX stuff into the code, and I've been able to get Battlefield 2, Total Annihilation, and Soldat to run in Linux quite well, though Supreme Commander gets an error during install for some reason...

I installed the new Ubuntu Feisty 4.07 on a spare 80GB I had, so it has plenty of room. I have it all nice and setup now with Beryl and everything. I should get a screenshot of that too...;)

I also am working on some art stuffs...but I will post all those pictures (and some more stuff on a recent trip we had) in another post...

Farm

We went to a farm Saturday. Check out my photos!



Other then that...I've won a couple games of Supreme Commander, but I'm still a noob at it. The game rocks though.

Face Feast

More bites...from this little punk:



Here you can see my ugliest bite, on my elbow, which is a few days old. You will also notice my eyes have bites (although my left eye could just be my chalazion :P) Also next to my eye, and next to my lip.


I also found this at the foot my bed, when I woke up to these bites.

Income

So...I haven't posted anything interesting lately about how I've personally been doing here. So, let me take some time now before I get bored of typing. ^_^

First off, to the all so common question of: "So how is it over there?"

The answer is, it sucks. To further detail that simple response...
Colombia (and when I say Colombia, I will mainly refer to the city I reside in currently, which is Barranquilla) looks kinda crappy. Not that I care much, but it makes the place look poor. The closest thing would be if you go visit Miami. Similarly, both places have there good and bad neighborhoods. And like any place, there are some sections where you can check out the mansions, and a lot of these Colombian mansions are gorgeous. I'm sure Giselle has pictures, whether they're online or not, I don't know, but if you want to see them, go nag her. ;)

Colombian food is great. I love eating the meats and chicken. It's not so different because my parents are Colombian, so the food I ate at home was mainly Colombian anyway. :P

The people...are people. I don't know what people mean by "how are the people there" since I don't really interact with strangers. :P I've already posted about the annoying beggars. Most people are friendly, but it's simply because they want your money! :P

What sucks? Well, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you should of come across a post about electronics, something which Colombia is incredibly crippled with. Import costs are sick, shipping costs are disgusting, taxes and prices on stuff here is way too high to justify and there is not much I can do about it. :(

There are no computer shops like Bestbuy over here. There are no famous brands from the computer industry like you can get off of Newegg.com, just a few, and so if I plan on buying anything electronic, I'm gonna have to buy some hefty shipping costs to get it from the US. If you know me, you know I'm a computer geek, and this really hurts.

Anyway, to explain the title of this post, I wanted to let some people know we are getting closer to getting some sort of income. I think my dad got some deal with his job or something, seems like it's getting more serious. Also, my parents are heavily considering starting an internet cafe, and so they have been researching on that quite a bit. Please keep us in your prayers as we've been burning through our savings for about 5 months now, and we need something to recuperate it. I hope God shows us why he brought us to this country soon. I still believe he did, and it's the only thing that I can use to not go haywire living here. :P

Feast

Well. I got bit again. A couple of times too. First off, both of my EYES were attacked 2 days ago, one on my right eyebrow, and the other smack on the left eyelid. This morning I wake up to:

2 bites on the edge of my right palm
1 bite on the edge of my left palm
1 bite on my left index finger
1 bite on my left ring finger
1 bite on my right ring finer
1 bite on my right elbow
1 BIG bite on my left elbow
1 bite on the back of my left leg
and lastly another bite under my right eye, near the top of the bridge of my nose.

Can you believe it? Probably not, but it's true. I have not gone ONE WEEK in this country (which I've lived in for almost 5 months) without being bitten by a mosquito.
Goodness gracious.

DOA?

One of my memory sticks is bad. I guess it was "Dead-on-Arrival", or rather, "critically wounded" since it worked for about a day. :P Either way, I'll need to spend about $36 on shipping, fortunately Newegg will replace and ship it (to my aunt's) for free. So I'm stuck with 1GB for now...>_>

Computer

Check my photo page for more!

GEEZ

I just got bit on my left foot 5 times by a mosquito, within the last half hour. How do they get me!? So stealthy...

65

That was the total weight of my comptuer parts...65 lbs. What did it cost to get here? $215. Ouch. Should be here around Saturday/Monday.

Custom Robo Arena is an awesome DS game.

Facebook is pretty neat. I don't know why more people don't use it. Myspace is ugly as crap and is limited. Facebook is so clean and has a lot of cool features, and feels so SAFE. No spam from a bunch of crazy people I don't even know. Great privacy features. I was also able to get it to import my blog posts, so now I don't have to manually type them into Facebook as separate posts. Now if I can figure out how to get Xanga to just mirror my actual blog...:P

I'm hungry. Feed me?

Mailtime

Well, my aunt will be shipping my PC to me soon, hopefully by tomorrow, but probably in the next few days, MEANING it should be here by the end of next week. Awesome.

I finished another campaign in my tournament. Our division won, like usual! ;) The last battle was intense, but it was awesome.

Anyway, not much else to say...or at least, I can't remember anything. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I "beat" Rocket Slime. There are still some things I can do, but technically I finished the game. ^_^

I also downloaded a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game for my DS, based off of the new movie coming out. It's not that great, I wouldn't buy it.

There are a couple of games coming out for the Wii (Cooking Mama, Medal of Honor Vanguard, and Super Paper Mario) that I can't afford right now, but would love to get! X-D

Amigos

First off, let me say, colloidal silver is the best frickin' medicine on Earth. I woke up with a nasty sore throat, and a weird one at that. Just in the back of my mouth, not exactly in the neck area like usual. Anyway, after eating breakfast and lunch, it gets a little better, but then my mom gives me a cup with a little colloidal silver, and MAAAAANNN...instant throat-cleanser. Of course, it's not a miracle healing liquid, and the soreness comes back after a while, but it's awesome because in the multiple cases I've used it, it provides an INSTANT relief and then also helps take the soreness away. Something about silver and how it kills bacteria. Anyway, I just love that stuff...

Anyway, the topic of friendship has popped up quite a bit in my head. Paula recently posted something about a couple of her friends, I recently talked to my cousin Victor and the topic came up. I mentioned something that he agreed with, and that was that there are not enough synonyms in English to describe the different levels of friendships.

You see, most people call anyone they know relatively well, a "friend". I've recently (as in the past years :P) have noticed this is an overly used word. You see, friends should be people you are close to. People you talk to quite a bit, hang out, stuff like that. I think it takes a certain level of bonding between 2 people to consider each other as friends. So here goes my list of levels:

Acquaintance: These are people you have met in this past few minutes. You know their name, maybe age, and another detail or two, but that's it.

Personal Acquaintance: This type of person, for instance, is one that needs a specific word for. I'll refer to them as a "Perquaint" for now. A perquaint was an acquaintance that you got to know. You know a little more than a name now, and you can talk to them about different things. You are probably just learning about their interests, and maybe what they plan on doing in the future/already working as. A perquaint can also be used to refer to a friend of your friend. Like, you don't really know them, but you can discuss things you saw on the news or whatever if your friend leaves the room, leaving you two alone. After a while it may get awkward (unless you really get along quickly) and you need to call your friend back.

Homies: Homies, for a lack of a better word, are probably a majority of what people consider "friends". For instance, I would consider half of my old youth group "homies". You can talk to any of them, maybe even about some personal stuff, but really your relationship is a bit shallow (not in a bad way, just, it's not a deep friendship). You probably don't call each other, only see them every once in a while (weekly through monthly) but you know quite a bit about them as well, and probably leave each other Myspace messages. You should also have an idea of what month their birthday is in.

Buddies: Buddies near the level of "Friend" but are not quite there yet. You probably hang out sometimes, chat up on instant messengers a bit, but private matters normally aren't revealed too much between each other. I would consider online friends right around the "buddy" level. For instance, I have a bunch of buddies from my tournament in 21CW. I talk to many of them almost everyday, we play online together, and we make jokes about each other without taking offense. Sometimes, we even learn some personal things, a little about their family or something, but it's usually not something you discuss to often. Anyway, I think "buddy" should replace friend as the common word. Why?

Friend: Friends...these are people you talk to all the time, have such a close bond you share secrets with each other, you got too many inside jokes, etc. The Bible has an example of friends, David and Jonathan. I believe it mentions something (if not there, then in Proverbs) that a good friend, can be closer than a BROTHER. Wow. Can you really use "friend" on as many people as you probably do? I can tell you right now, I've only had 2 real friends. Malcolm, who I use to go to School with from 2nd-4th grade, and Michael, who anyone in youth group (or Cornerstone ;D) should know. And yet, even though they were friends at one point, prolonged lack of contact can still lower them in the levels of friendship. I wouldn't consider it as a bad thing or anything, friendships aren't just any little thing. Right now I wouldn't consider Michael less than a buddy, and Malcolm, seeing as how it's been more than 5 years since I've even spoken to him, I'd consider a homie, both of which, with some time, could rise back to "friend" level quickly. Also, though probably dealt with different, a girl/boyfriend would hover around this level as well. Also, even if, for example, you had a girlfriend, you could still have another "friend" who is a girl as well. Being friends requires TIME, without that the bond is easily weakened. Either way, a "friend" is quite an important thing for someone, and I think that it should be used a lot less than it is. Finally:

Spouse: This about the ultimate level, which you can obviously only have one of. A spouse is your best friend in life. I mean, you're gonna be with this person for some 50+ years about everyday right? Of course, not every married couple has their level of friendship where it should be, but a good couple tops the list of "friendshipity".

Anyway, hope none of my buddies who somehow find this post get mad or anything. Especially now being in a different country, I doubt anyone would be able to consider me a friend. A buddy? Sure. Nothing wrong with that. Less? I don't mind. If we talk enough we can climb our way up to buddies as well. As for friends, I sure hope I can find some down here, but I'm sure it'll be a while. :P

Oh yea, and I finally finished coloring this.

Sync

Ooh boy! Here comes a round of updates, reviews, and random junk...

Check out the title: "Sync". With a funny misspelling that would be a cool name for some social network site right? "Keep in 'Sync' with your friends..."

On Saturday morning, I have successfully emptied my bank account by buying a brand new computer. Well, you know, a bunch of parts to make myself a new computer. I'd give you specs, but you probably don't know what they are or what it means. So let's just say it's awesome and cost a lot of money.

But I guess, incase you do know...
Intel Core 2 Duo e6600 (2.4Ghz dual-core)
eVGA 680i SLI motherboard (this and the above processor bundled gave me a free copy of Supreme Commander!)
2GB DDR2 PC2-8800 (Memory)
250GB Seagate Perpendicular SATA Drive (Harddrive)
320MB Geforce 8800GTS (out performed it's 640MB brother, a graphics card, comes with Call of Duty 2)
Creative Audigy X-fi Sound card (for sound)
Corsair 650W modular Power Supply (Yay, modular cables)
and I guess that's it. Case, DVD drive, and I'll use my current keyboard/mouse/monitor for now.

Speaking of which, one of my main catalysts in buying a new rig was my recently purchased copy of Supreme Commander...
The game, is just like Total Annihilation, except prettier. The graphics however do take a BIG toll on my machine, and so I'm buying a new one to get this game running silky smooth (which it probably won't, but it'll run way better than it does now, which is just acceptable). Although, I still need quite a bit of practice on multiplayer, as I've only won 2 games against really new guys, and 1 because my opponent disconnected from the game. Here's a screenshot (not from my machine, just from the game) so you can see how it looks like:



Another game which I just spent my weekend on is a DS game called "Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime". This must be one of the first RPGs I've ever come close to completing.

Rocket Slime is a strange little game , where you play as a blue slime, whose city "Boingburg" gets owned by a bunch a group of platypus called "the Plob". They kidnap just about everyone in the city and you have to go find all of them. Along the way, you find a hidden tank that you can summon with a flute, and you battle out other bosses' tanks with it. The game is very fun and some of the slimes are just awesome.

Laslty, I just registered an account on Facebook. So if you've finally gotten tired of the UGLY, spamtastic, ad-invaded Myspace, come over here.

YESSS!!

Patience

My aunt is coming on Wednesday for some dental work. And she is bringing my copy of Supreme Commander. I've been waiting since Feb. 22nd for that sucker. How I hope I get it in 2 days...-_-

Anniversary

My parents have been married for 22 years today. Wow...go them!

School'd

Weeeee...excuse my little rant here, just something I'd like to share.
Every time someone mentions something about college I get to wondering...what's the big deal? For instance, some people in my family have asked repeatedly what I think about doing about college now that I've moved over here. My answer, "I guess I'll go to college here." For those who don't know, I plan on studying Graphics Design. That or maybe something with animations, or as a last resort, some sort of computer technician course. That's if I go to college in the first place.

Suddenly, gasps are heard everywhere! "What you you mean IF you go?" Well, I'm not sure if I need to go or not. You see, I'm very laid back about this college situation, maybe too much, but I think I have logical reasons. First off is the obvious international transition that has just took place. if I were still over there I might have been applying already, but since we moved, I'll be delaying any of that junk until I know we are staying for good.

Secondly, I don't see the big deal. I know people who are entering and are stressed to their limits because of college, and I feel so sorry for them. I don't see why it's gotta be like that. What do people go to college for? To study something they'd like to have as a career in their life. Why do you want a career? Well, to have a good life, money, and get a nice piece of paper certifying you for that career. Uh...what? You see, some people, like my grandmas for instance, want their grandkids to get a career simply for bragging rights! That's absurd. Some people do it because their parents pressure them to. That sucks. Me? My parents have one priority in my life, and that is that I have a close personal relationship with God.

Nothing else matters. Am I saying "DON'T GO TO COLLEGE, ITZ WASTE YOUR LIFE!"? No, by all means, do whatever God leads you to do, not what family, friends, or society wants you to do. God probably could care less if you got a career or not, as long as you were doing it in his will. Maybe you were called to do something else besides waste a couple of years learning something you are not meant to do? Which leads me to another point:

I think colleges are really only good for "officializing" whatever it is you are studying. For example, I plan on learning graphics design right? No business would really take a look at my work unless I had a "degree" or some little special thing like that, even if I'm just as good, or BETTER, than some dude that does have one. That's lame, and I see that as a flaw in society. You know how much I've learned about computers over the past 10 years? Then I see these "Geek Squads" and crap like that come up, and hear the stories of how idiotic they diagnose problems. But does it matter? They probably have some certification, while I don't. Too bad for their customers. So pretty much, all I'm going there for is to spend months and months of mostly useless work, to get a paper saying, "Look at me, I can do this!". Seriously, most of what you learn will be on your own time, throughout your life. (unless of course, you get one of those "specialized" type of careers, like a doctor, who will spend years learning stuff) That's what I think, and have read. Programmers for instance, will learn more during their teenage years, hacking away at programs or making viruses (:P) than learning a bunch of junk at college that businesses won't even USE! It's also too generic sometimes. Jose has told me about his studies, and one day he's learning stuff in Flash, another day stuff in Maya (a 3D application). What the heck? if I want to learn Flash animation, I sure as heck don't need to learn about 3D modeling or animation. There's really no way to study a very specific thing...at least, it doesn't seem that way in any of my fields of interests.

BAH! What a waste it seems to me. That's why I'm wingin' it (I guess I'm wingin' life too :P). I have my plans, but if God decides something else, heck, I'd gladly change my plans to suit his. Not that it'd be any easier than going to college, but atleast this will get me some "eternal diplomas", if you will.