Platooning: REAL LIFE

WHAT?!
Can I do this? Is this a legitimate option? I'm supposed to be blogging about video games, yes I know, but every day life becomes more like a video game, and every day video games try to become more like real life, so why can't I talk about a real life concept once or twice? Maybe I should do a third blog, but I'm not going to...not for now anyway.

What I wanted to mention, ever so briefly, in the way that a social media post would technically suffice, is that today, at work, I received an email regarding (potentially) an idea I've only ever really heard of in books, although it seems very much plausible...doesn't everything eventually? What was it? Platooning vehicles.

Now, technically, I've not even received confirmation from my contact that this is in fact what the email was about, I'm just typing up a post based on the concept that's now rattling around in my brain. The same concept I just got done harassing my editor about until he finally gave me the email back and told me to contact the guy because he was busy (I think in reality he just wanted me to stop bugging him). But allow me to explain:

I first encountered the idea of platooning vehicles in Sigmund Brouwer's The Mars Diaries (yes, at this point I should start a blog and call it My Library, shutup) at the point that the characters travel to Earth. They wind up in the back of an eighteen wheeler being guided by magnetic rails in the road. The driver actually climbs into the back of the truck with the kids and takes a nap or something. Now this isn't far-fetched for science fiction by any means, it always happens, in everything. Cars drive themselves, jets fly themselves, so on and so forth, but, this appears to be a real thing, starting in the 60s at Ohio State University (or earlier, but that's the earliest source I see)  it's been researched on and off, mostly off. The idea lost funding in the 80s, and has since be revived in different facets.

What's notable about this is, it's not just easier on literally everyone, it's also more efficient than just driving yourself. I mean, Cars move in groups and accelerate in unison, brake in unison and navigate obstacles in unison (okay, maybe not unexpected obstacles, but like...roadblocks and stuff I assume they can maneuver around) while relying on magnetic feedback, not user input. What's so special about that? They move closer together, reducing drag, reducing fuel exhaustion, reducing tire wear, reducing break wear, I mean come on, what's bad about this? Sure, you might argue that automated movement of this nature "fundamentally denies our human rights to freedom of..." what, action? Privacy? In reality, this wouldn't really impede much. Your car could be pulled from a platoon automatically by police or whatever, sure, but then again, they can already do that, the only freedom you have in that situation is the freedom to commit a crime...if you want to argue that- whoa, tangents, sorry. Anyway, yeah, you lose a slight amount of freedom, but it's not like it's even a freedom you notice normally. How often do you drive down the street and say "Man, I'm glad that cop didn't pull me over for suspicious activity?" Be careful how you answer that.

What I'm trying to say is...OH MY GOD AUTO HIGHWAYS YAAAAAASSSSS!!!!!

Gonna be the Very Best...Sort Of: POKéMON ALPHA SAPPHIRE

COORDINATING
I think is what they call it...everyone knows what Pokémon is about right? Battling- training up the ultimate team and taking them up against other people's ultimate teams, right?

 Ash Ketchum - The Art of Battle

WRONG! The true ultimate purpose of Pokémon...is Coordinating- the art of trainer and Pokémon acting in unison in contests to prove they are the most beautiful/clever/cute/cool/tough team out there!



Yes, that's right, not battling against each other but performing their skills in such a way that it...impresses judges...like a beauty pageant...yeah. The idea of Pokémon Contests was originally introduced in Generation 3, it was essentially a side-quest. The idea being that you could make your Pokémon more (see above list of adjectives and insert chosen adjective here) by feeding them Pokéblocks, small blocks of food made from berries, and then they could perform the same acts they normally used in battle on stage for millions to adore! This at first seemed like the stupidest thing on Earth to me, but by the time I was on my second play-through of Gen 3 (I believe that would have been Emerald Version) I was hooked!

 I think it's got your Pichu beat in cuteness, sir.

I specifically sat down and bred out a line of Pikachus to compete in contests, and followed that up with a series of other contest Pokémon. Sure, I eventually went on to defeat the Elite Four, but not before getting Master Rank in nearly every contest!

Why this all of a sudden, you ask? Well, I've beat the Elite 4 once already, cleared the Delta Episode easily, and collected most of the legendary Pokémon available in Alpha Sapphire. I'm working on breeding up a perfect team for the Battle Maison end game, and to take down the Elite 4 for the second time...but there are issues with that, particularly I need to get several Dittos with 5 or 6 perfect IVs (so far no good) and I need at least one Destiny Knot so I can breed those perfect IVs down. Where does one get a Destiny Knot though? There are two sources, one is to rebattle a pair of trainers over and over until they HAPPEN to drop it, or...a fan may drop it after a Master Rank Contest!

 It makes them fall in true love.

So...since I can't just rapidly rematch those trainers, I decided I would try my hand at contests...at first it seemed tedious, I used the Cosplay Pikachu the game gives you, which starts out with pretty good specks and a full Cool load out, so yeah I breezed through up to Master Rank, but then Master Rank became an actual challenge...and the more times I had retry, the more I started to enjoy the contests. Now here I am, trying to come up with a Pokémon for each of the respective contests to clear with. Current project: Beautiful Froslass. Most Ice type moves fall into the Beautiful category, and Froslass is far from the ugliest Pokémon in the game, so I figure she's probably my best bet both statistically and in preferences. I mean, we could go Gardevoir of course, but Froslass just sort of stands out to me.

 Endless Whispers' Froslass art, love Deviantart.

So, I got a Froslass today, as part of a trade with a friend, now I just gotta get her Beauty stat maxed out, grab a scarf for her, and come up with a good contest set for her. Yay! May upload some video of my contest runs to youtube, but it would be more shoddy camera work if I did...who knows though, maybe my mini tripod will work out great and I can steady my 3DS just right and I can get a decent voice-over going (not with as sick as I am right now though.) That's just one of many possibilities though. Can't quite be certain what Pokémon I'll run for my other contest types, but I definitely wanna master them all (I think that's how you get Lucarionite, and get to face off against the contest champion?)

Anyway, thanks again for reading this through, once I've got my Froslass perfected I'll be hopping online, maybe I'll see you there!

Distractions Amongst Distractions: TABLETOP GAMING

GET REAL
Let's be real for just a moment, I have quite a lot going on right now that I'm trying to get straight, along with a lot of things that pull me away from getting these things straight. The most notable thing that absolutely demands my attention is my upcoming wedding, which is May 15, and I've not even written my vows...not to mention all the decorations necessary, and we have no caterer, we're handling it all ourselves, and I have to get my best man and groomsman in line...it's...bothersome really. Worthwhile in the end, no doubt, but in the moment bothersome, and only adding to my hair-loss.

So what do we do? We think about how we would like to be creating youtube videos instead. Uwha?

Yes, as I've noted in the past, I watch a lot of youtube, and in turn I've uploaded a few videos to youtube. Why do I bring this up? Well, I had the idea to get a group together to do a GURPS (Generic Universal Role-playing System) campaign, fortunately (I thought) I wouldn't have to GM it, as a friend already had a campaign in mind. Months later there's no campaign going on. But, in the process of looking for members in the area to play, I realized that most people in my area don't have experience with any Tabletop game, much less GURPS. So I says to myself, I says, "Instead of teaching all of these people individually, why not just put together a tutorial on character creation?" Which was a brilliant idea! But then I thought, "Instead of just putting together a written tutorial, why not make a video tutorial, with different examples of sample characters." Boom! That's the one Caleb, upload that to youtube and you have helped a few extra people out in the process (or ruined a few lives if you did a poor job.)

With that in mind, here's a character I built!

HUMAN FENCER - Lucca Wrythe [150 Point Base, 50 Points Disadvantages, Avg Human]

This is a sample character intended to demonstrate the creation of a 150 point base human character in a semi-fantastic setting. Lucca is a noble with a history, his combat centers around his skill with fencing weapons and he prefers to rely on diplomacy when possible.

After the adventure has begun, and the characters have a bit of experience under their belts, it may be an excellent maneuver on Lucca's part to travel home, where he can reconcile his guilt with his sister, and train with a tutor to obtain the advantage "Trained by a Master." The character's backstory involves abandoning his family to join the resistance, which leads to some trouble back home. He develops a guilt complex regarding leaving his sister unguarded during this time, turns to alcohol to cope, and becomes an insomniac. As such, by reconciling with his sister, the guilt complex, alcoholic, and insomniac disadvantages can be bought off. The Gentleman's Code and Light Sleeper are not disadvantages that can be bought off. From there, one or two more advantages might be taken as the game progresses, but most points earned will go toward skill/attribute improvements and Striking ST upgrades.


Attributes
ST: 10
DX: 11 (+20 Points)
IQ: 13 (+60 Points)
HT: 10

Characteristics
Dmg: SW 2d, TH 1d {Modified by ST and Striking ST}
Lift: 20 pounds
HP: 15 (+10 points)
Will: 10
Per: 10
FP: 10
Speed: 6 (+15 Points)
Handsome (+12 Points)
Wealthy (+20 Points)
Rank 2 (+10 Points)

Advantages
Striking ST (+20 Points) [p. 90]
Rapier Wit (+5 Points) [p. 81]

Disadvantages
Alcoholism (-15 Points) [p. 124]
Code of Honor, Gentleman (-10 Points) [p.129]
Guilt Complex (-5 Points) [p. 139]
Insomniac, Severe (-15 Points) [p. 142]
Light Sleeper (-5 Points) [p. 144]

Skills
Administration, IQ (+2 Points) [p. 176]
Melee Weapon, Saber, DX+6 (+24 Points) [p. 210]
Public Speaking, IQ (+2 Points) [p. 218]

So what's all this mean? Well that's kind of why I wanted to do this video series (which I clearly am not doing at the moment), so that I could start out explaining the basic concepts, like what the heck Advantages and Disadvantages are, and then go into gradually greater detail as I explained different characters. Lucca was the first because he's a pretty prominent character in my games (I reuse him a bit from one place to the next, in some way or another,) and he's a general character, he's similar to the "Leader" I guess, except he lacks a lot of buffs and defensive abilities, instead he has a sort of political purpose in the group, and can hold his own in a fight.

I suppose you're still curious if you're still reading? Cool, I'll go into a bit more detail then: in GURPS, characters are built using character points, your character starts with zero points expended, and a 10 in all of their base attributes. Generally you want to start out with a basic idea of what your character does, but if you don't have one, you could just read through the book and find an idea to base your character on, I'll actually give another example of a GURPS character that epitomizes that a little later. For Lucca, I wanted to play a member of the nobility, but not like a king or queen, instead he's the son of a Lord, that way my character isn't totally consumed with treaties and paperwork, but he still has a burden to bear.

Because Lucca is of the nobility, you can expect him to be a bit more intelligent than the average man (assuming in your world nobles are entitled to better education) and this is represented by his IQ of 13. IQ is one of the four base stats, and IQ costs 20 character points to raise one level. So, 3 points of IQ is equivalent to 60 character points. Dag, considering Lucca is a standard human character, that means he only has 40 points left to toy with. Okay, but I also want Lucca to be slightly more dextrous than the average person, so we're gonna drop 20 points into that as well, leaving us with only 20 points left, and a DX score of 11. Does that make sense?

ST is Strength, this is obviously your character's equivalent to physical bulk and ability. High ST means you hit hard and can lift heavier things. It also adjusts your Hit Points (that is, the amount of damage you can take) and several other details. This stat costs 10 character points to increase.

DX is Dexterity, we've already covered that, but basically your chance to hit with a weapon is determined by Dexterity, along with your ability to do skill based tasks, like working on an engine or archery.

IQ is Intelligence, we've sort of covered that too, but it essentially determines how smart you are. Not only does this govern intelligence based skills, such as speaking different languages, programming, and yes...working on an engine again, but it also governs most magical skills.

HT is Health and this one's a doozy. Health covers your physical endurance, not your strength though. Even though this sounds like it would impact your Hit Points (sometimes called Health Points,) it actually impacts your FP, which is Fatigue Points. The better your Health the longer and harder you can run, jump, and withstand infection...or other things! Like ST, it costs 10 points.

So we've covered all of that, and I don't feel like it takes much to explain why Lucca doesn't get points to his ST and HT (aside from there obviously being a shortage of points to go around,) but he's more a man of the mind than the battlefield. Next let's take a look at his advantages (we'll skip Secondary Characteristics for now.)

Advantages, for starters, are sort of the details about your character that aren't explained merely in backstory and attributes. They give your character an edge they wouldn't otherwise have, similar to feats (features?) in D&D. Lucca doesn't have a lot of these at the moment, he'll probably develop more as he develops on his journey. But we do have a pretty standard one, and a semi-unique one to work with. Striking ST is a staple of non-bulky fighters. If your character strikes with the swiftness of a snake, but doesn't have the sheer strength of an ox, Striking ST may be for him. This is essentially ST bought at a 50% discount, that only impacts attacks made with a weapon or the character's body. So no extra HP or lifting strength, but Lucca's hitting a lot harder with that 4 extra ST on each attack. Oh my, that's 20 points down the drain, obviously we're done...well not yet, for now let's go ahead and say that we're going negative.

Next is Lucca's Rapier Wit Advantage, which is very different from Striking ST. Rapier Wit acts as a separate action altogether, that characters can't take without having this ability, or an appropriate counter ability (I guess?) But this essentially allows Lucca to banter with his opponents in order to catch them off guard, stunning them for a round. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but really, how often have the bad guys just stopped mid attack during movies because the hero called their mom a fat sow. Maybe that's not the best example, but for a better one, you can probably go watch almost any action movie. Seriously, try it, probably 50% have something like this. So, essentially, Lucca can make a public speaking check during combat, and if he rolls better than his opponent's defense and his own skill, he stuns the foe. Great. Also, Lucca's at -5 Points having taken 105 Points of stats and Advantages up to this point (and that's not even counting some secondary characteristic modifications!)

It's okay though, because, after speaking with our GM, it looks like we can get some points back in Disadvantages! Let's be fair, no character is endearing without problems, and the same goes for heroes. A flawless hero is hardly a hero, he's more like a God, a sort of disappointing one on a 100 Point scale...but still, no flaws? Seriously? That's why disadvantages exist, to flesh out the character and reward the player for fleshing them out. I won't go into a lot of great detail about Lucca's disadvantages, they're reasonably self-explanatory, but I will say that for these examples, a character can take up to half of their total point value, in disadvantages. Since a character is built on a 100 point base, they may have up to 50 points in disadvantages, which turns into a 150 point character. Yep, that's 50 points off, so now we have 45 points to top Lucca off with.

Also, you should note that all of these disadvantages are explained within Mr. Wrythe's backstory, and there's no reason not to do that, or else you'll have a hard time role-playing them. And yes, you have to role-play these things, or else what's the point? Aside from the negatives you get to your character, it's just plain more fun to have realistic characters. Like, an insomniac alcoholic noble who has trouble sleeping anyway due to a wary nature and guilty mind.

Alright, finally we hit the skills, which determine how well you do anything! Sure, a high Dexterity means you're good at using your body, but a high rapier skill means you're good at wielding a rapier. Or saber in this case...We spent 24 points giving Lucca a Saber skill of +6, which basically means when he attacks with his rapier he adds 6 to his DX score and tries to roll under that. You'll have to read the book to get a feel for how all the skills level up, but basically character points go in and you get a slightly variable result based on the difficulty of the skill.

That's the general gist of it all, the rest of the numbers in the above character example are self-explanatory, or explained within the text itself. I hope this has been informational, and I really hope to get that video up on youtube someday, until then...

TTFN!

Clerical Errors: POKéMON BLUE

WHOOPSY!
Okay, so I should preface this post with a few statements. First of all, I am going to add a video to this post, the first one to be featured on my blog anywhere, cool? Secondly, I am not a Pokémon pro, but I also am not a newb, things like this don't happen a lot to me. Third, I'm not really used to how slow the menus progress in Blue, versus how fast it accepts input. Let me explain my situation a bit.

I'm pretty excited, I've breezed through all of Surge's gym with my Graveler (named Goldude, a play on Gold and Geodude, but you can also take it as a mixture of Golem and Geodude, your choice), because obviously nothing can really touch Graveler in an electric setting. Lo and behold, I cannot land a single Rock Throw on Surge's Pikachu, until finally I land the last one in my arsenal. Defeating every enemy in this gym has allowed my Graveler to at last reach level 29, where he will learn the ultimate move...Harden.

Okay, so I saw this and I was like, "This is stupid, he already knows Defense Curl, why learn Harden? Well...if nothing else it's a funnier move when compared to Defense Curl, and sounds more practical...let's teach it to him." So I say "Yes, forget a move to learn Harden." Four seconds later I have accidentally pressed (A) when I needed to press the down button to select Defense Curl...Ho boy...so, final round of the battle against Surge and this is Graveler's lineup:

Harden (40/40)
Defense Curl (20/20)
Rock Throw (0/15)
Self Destruct (5/5)

 See? Gold-dude.

So...what's a Pokémaster to do? Let's find out below shall we?

Yeah...that's what happened. Swap in Abra when it asks if I want to change, let Abra stare at Raichu for a half second, then swap Abra to Graveler so he can make the ultimate sacrifice.

 I guess he's Golder? (That would be more Gold, but Graveler ends in "er," so yeah.)

I'd also like to note that this was filmed on my 3DS using my phone, which I had to hold in place, so I apologize for the slight shaking and low quality of the video. As a side-note, I really really hope that when I transfer my Pokémon over to Moon version, Golem will be shiny so his name is perfect!



As a side note...just found out why Rock Throw is so dang unreliable. I suppose I'm going to have to pick up a copy of TM48 and replace that sucker.




It's the only way. Well, I mean, considering that learnsets were so tiny in Gen 1 anyway. Golem will only have Earthquake as a reliable stab move. Rock Slide will give him a bit more to play with. But who knows, I may not even use him in the end game. I think I will though, he counters Pidgeot pretty well, and all of Agatha's Pokémon are poison type (I know, she's the ghost trainer, I don't care, she uses Poison types!) so Earthquake will basically sweep them. I would say he'd be a good matchup against Lorelei, but let's be real, Lorelei uses water types that happen to know ice attacks (and Jynx) and he unfortunately sports a double weakness to all of her Pokémon except Jynx, and then he's still weak to ice. So just Agatha and Pidgeot I suppose. Oh, and his Arcanine and maybe his Rhydon, wow...that's literally half of his team and an entire Elite 4 member that's susceptible to a decent Golem set.

Actually...let's go ahead and lay out this final team.

Lorelei:





Alright...so a whole lot of Raichu...and then a reliance on Golem being tougher than Jynx...seems legit.

Bruno:






Okay...so yeah, Blastoise easily picks apart those Onixes...and yes, I'm getting Mew and using him, don't put it down, he's a cool mythical Pokémon, and I just prefer him to the other psychics in the game...sort of.

Agatha:






See? Here's where that Golem comes into play, ba-boom.

Lance:






Lance is by far one of the coolest trainers in any of the games, I hate to lay down the law with Jynx, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

This is it, the final battle against Blue! Or...rather...Dash:







Oh yeah, breakin' out my secret weapon, Beedrill! Who...literally is the only counter to Alakazam, and he has that weakness to Psychic that he has to get around. But if he can survive a hit, his twineedle will take Alakazam right out. The other Pokémon are pretty self explanatory.

By the way, all those sprites came out of Bulbapedia.

So here's the thing, I'm sure it's coming, I'm relying on an over-powered hacked in Pokémon like Mew, so I'm not a real player. I'll give you my opinion on the Index Number Glitch later, but for now just suffice to say I could easily run Slowbro, Alakazam or Hypno in his place, or even forgo it and use some other Pokémon, I just really fancy the idea of using Mew.

Anyway, that's my full team for the end game I think, and a bit of a blooper special!