Yolympics for July finished a while ago. I got 4th place. Was a beginner on pretty much everything except Twin Cobra and to a lesser extent Giga Wing. You can find the full results here: https://www.cagtournaments.com/InProcess/4
and I streamed all of my replays, the complete video is on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iekr9f0Vog
So, basically, OutRun and the beat em up games were great. Really enjoyed those. I really should play beat em ups more sometime and get some 1ccs. I really like this genre, it hits a sweet spot when you're in the mood. TGM is also fun, and I already knew I liked Twin Cobra. Most of the other games aren't too great. Some are pretty good, but with somewhat damning flaws. For example, I like Sunset Riders, but why does it have those Riding stages? Also, the bonus stages waste my time. Around half of the games in the tournament are less than good, I think, but the other half are fun enough to recommend playing for a little while.
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I made a return to Shoot the Bullet. I hadn't played it for over 3 years, but came back to play from April to June. I had been planning to make a return after seeing Ia and Hakuka's accomplishment during 2018, which was a pretty grand resurrection for the game. They both set some great scores that year after a long absence. I was inspired and motivated to switch from Double Spoiler to StB, and I've updated 13 scenes during that time. In addition to that, My all-time favorite player and biggest inspiration, Ia, talked to me, and started a stream. I have always considered him (and any other photogame players) to be a complete mystery. Learning more about Ia's efforts has truly humbled me. You see, I've legitimately considered a lot of Ia's scores as godlike, which is not something I'll say easily about a score. Ia's scores are just on a completely other level. Well, as it turns out, Ia has played the game... a lot. For example, I saw that he had 200,000 photos in 9-6 on his stream... That's over 600 hours of playing just that scene. And that's just one of many godlike scores he has (his results are great in most scenes in my opinion). So, watching his stream was a humbling experience, as he is not only incredibly skilled, but he puts in so much effort. You might think, well, if you put in that much time, you'll get a godlike score eventually. No, that's not necessarily true. Ia not only puts in the time, but his consistency is incredible, and some scenes are really, really hard. Yet his playing in those hard scenes is amazing to watch. Seeing his efforts really makes my own seem so puny, and I'm incredibly happy, and inspired, to know he is the real deal.
But enough about that. My own scores may not be much to write home about in comparison, but they're still meaningful to me. Below is a list of the scores I made during this time period, coupled with descriptions.
6-1: 491,710
I really, really enjoy this scene. So I might go for the Dream (500,000) sometime, or something closer to it. It's just so damn hard. This scene is very random and it's hard to capitalize on the luck when you see it. You have to scout for specific movement patterns, and somehow successfully time your aim into Chen's center during bullet spawn without fully knowing where she's going. Eight times! Very hard scene to optimize, but challenging and rewarding. If you want to go full autism on this scene you might enjoy trying to control the bullet composition. I, however, do not feel in control of it beyond waiting for movement RNG.
4-4: 203,690
I got 203,000 over and over. This result is not satisfying as I wanted around 205,000. It's a very easy scene that is all about frame perfect timings and getting lucky on the last 2 photos. Not very fun so maybe I'll just give up on that goal, like, forever.
6-6: 458,810
This is a luck-grind where the photo is pretty easy to time (due to abusing the slowdown to aid the timing) but dodging the bullets is often problematic. The luck is severe because the base value fluctuates so much. The average I think is around 83-84,000. But to score 450,000 you need 90,000 on average. 90,000 isn't too uncommon, but getting it on average is. 100,000 comes about 1 in 200 photos. Any photo can randomly get 75,000 or less. It's not really uncommon. If you're incredibly. unlucky you could get a photo score 70,000 or less. Now, the good news is that there is a countermeasure. Knowing what Youmu's best position is helps. It's really not a good idea to take a photo if she goes low. IF she goes really high, you can actually aim the photo down slightly and gain a lot of bullets. The timer doesn't allow you to stall forever, but skipping some photos can save you a reset every once in a while. As for my run, well, it was very, very lucky.
4-9: 277,560
This was a throwaway attempt. This is one of the easiest scenes in the game. When you get a good movement RNG, just take a frame perfect photo and hope for a big "bullet spawn". There's really not much to it I think. Well, Ia was aiming the photo at the start into thin air to apparently sync the bullets better with the nice shot, or something... I don't really understand the theory, but apparently this is something you can do and gain some score from on at least 3 scenes right now?
EX-5: 2,484,030
Pretty good run, but Ia has got 2.5 million multiple times... for me getting it even once just doesn't seem like it'll happen any time soon. I don't fully understand this scene. On the early photos, I think I can adequately misdirect the prior wave. Then, the biggest thing is to take the photo wave when Mokou moves very far. If she doesn't move far, skip and stall for the right rng to happen again. The timings and composition does have some leniency, but 2.5 million is very tight with both the luck and execution. I don't quite understand to what degree I can misdirect prior waves on the later phases, or in what way I should consider Mokou's slight vertical movements. It's a subtle but pretty complicated scene. You also can't really control the "main spiral" composition, I think.
2.2: 115,860
Yet another easy scene that is above all about frame perfection. No RNG will save your run if you mess up the timing slightly on a single photo. Yet, the RNG is the decider of your final score. The good news is that you can skip the photos repeatedly until the RNG looks good. The main thing to look for is the pellets. You can also look for leftover blue bullets. My run is very lucky but the scene is easy enough that I know I can get luckier. The dream would be 117,000.
EX-1: 763,930
I copied Ia's strategy and eventually got a run without major mistakes. Some small losses but overall a pretty decent run. I think it's very hard to finish without dying, and it's easy to make slight mistakes with the last 3 photos.
5-1: 254,370
I came up with this strategy 5 years ago and loved playing this scene, but I didn't put that much time into grinding. Coming back, I wanted to grind it higher and improved on my past run by about 2,500 points after a couple of improvements. I kept trying to improve this run, but I never quite got the luck for it. The last photo is so lucky in my run. I think up to 256,000 or so should be reasonable but I'm not too keen on trying any more any time soon as the luck just never comes and even if it does I'll probably die, since I die a lot.
5-2: 293,990
I think Hakuka came up with this strategy? It can score around 10,000 higher than the past strategy, but it is far more difficult. I got a "reasonable" score that made 2 very small errors. I think that 297,000 or so is what you can expect if you get pretty good luck and take only perfect photos. The max with this strategy seems to be slightly over 300,000 (which is luckbased). The strategy is technical and difficult to pull off. Do be aware that it can't be done on the first photo, too.
7-8: 1,246,690
I gave this a thorough grind and I just never felt like I was getting good at it. At the end of the day, this was a really good run for me. It's just that, Ia is repeatedly hitting 1.27m and 1.28m, and I just can't touch that. So I feel really bad in comparison. Still, for me, this is a pretty nice accomplishment. It's a pretty tough scene. Avoiding the kunai takes a lot of luck. Then, it's kind of hard to be position well and aim the photo to Remilia's center. And then, the timing should be spot on... If it's a little too early you lose a significant chunk, and if it's a little too late you'll just die. I would accidentally not have the photo frame be as far as Aya as possible before I started aiming all the time, leading to randomly getting 1.8 or 1.7 boss shots..
Survival-wise, the last photo is quite insane.
2-6: 228,520
This scene is easy and rather boring, but it is also very confusing. There seems to be multiple good photo timings. I honestly don't know if a late timing (somewhere in 1.3 nice shot) or an early timing is better. It just doesn't quite make sense and the score is very luckbased. I don't know how good this score is because I just don't get it. Maybe it's all just luck and the timing could be whatever.
9-3: 1,164,340
This scene is all about exact timings and RNG. The timings are surprisingly easy to hit as rather than the "rhythm" or "inner metronome" timings you should normally use, this scene allows you to use a visual cue to begin and end aiming the photo to get the right size of the magic circle. and have the pill bullets be in the exact right spread. This makes the scene pretty grindable but also a bit boring. Also, if Eirin goes too close to the side, you might just wanna reset. There are counterplays, but it's rough. My run is lucky but I think amazing luck is 1.17m. That's what I would want to hit in the end.
8-7: 800,400
A throwaway run. This scene is hard to optimize because 1. Ran is fucking fast as SHIT towards the end so getting a 2.0 boss shot is just lolwut. 2. Score is extremely rng dependant 3. The slow "U-shape streaming" to get a good composition is difficult.
The strategy to take the early photos at the top is something I came up with, I think... Perhaps ARF was the one who gave me the idea to try it first? I can't really remember at this point. If he doesn't remember thinking of that then I guess I came up with it, and if so It's a good thing I did because it is very lucrative on the first photo.
I usually played "modestly" (a few hours per day) and rarely did powergrinds. Powergrinds in Shoot the Bullet is a good way to burn out on the game. Better to play modestly. Anyways, After all of those scores I took a break from Touhou. I played some World of Warcraft (vanilla) on a private server for the nostalgia. Then I did Yolympics in July. Now that's over and I'm back on Double Spoiler. Also, the new Touhou game came out and I think it's really good, actually! Far from perfect, but considering it is a new game, it is way better than I expected. I might play that some more, for now I just settled on clearing lunatic and extra and having a look at some survival strats, but it might never happen since there are many much better games out there.
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I want to once again get into more dramatic territory. I want to cover some conflicts in the Touhou community yet again. Well, it is nothing major this time. Just an attempt to examine my own role in the previous drama post. I've talked to people that have made suggestions that I did in fact incite conflict with Zig's server. It has also been suggested to me that I could unknowingly be heading a mob of my own. I don't think there is any merit to the latter suggestion, but I did think about the merits of the former one. So let me bring up what I have and haven't done to contribute to any conflict with Zig's server. First, let's cover what I have done:
1. I kicked Yats out of my server. Now, I did kick him out for good reasons, but I do understand that he might have been pissed I kicked him out, and maybe let off some steam in Zig's server. Maybe he just think it's fair game because I kicked him out. I get that, but you know, I really hadn�Lt done a thing to him besides kick him out of my server, and what he said was unfair and untrue. He was just rallying people to hate on me over things that weren't even true. I had always been respectful with him. Based on my memory (which isn't the best, but for these kinds of things I am pretty sensitive-minded) the worst I had done to him was insult an e-celeb he likes. So yeah...
2. I've vehemently defended Zengeku, and been very vocally against all the people that tried to exile him. Every single person in that server was against Zengeku (the logs prove this) so my act of defiance is like a mark of division.
3. I've gone against their groupthink in their own server. They treated me like shit then and they've treated me like shit since. Not much else to say. I was actually very open to many of their views at the time. But they weren't open to mine (and ignored my pleas to stop pressuring me due to my anxiety) so I fucked off.
4. I've shared my own stuff, especially on my Twitter. I've voiced my opinions and how I've felt about the whole thing emotionally. I think this is what has the most merit in terms of how I might share blame on the topic of conflict. For example, what set them off when they said all those lies was the whole thing with Andy Ngo getting assaulted by Antifa. At that time, I had compared their side of the Touhou community with Antifa on my Twitter. I had also just said something like "Feels good to leave the shits behind". Well, I didn't call anyone out in particular with that, but I can understand that they feel some animosity from me when I say those things. Cause it's pretty obvious I'm referring to -some people- and there's only so many people it could be. So if there is something I am willing to admit fault in, it is that I made those comments. After all, if I hadn't said those things, that conversation about me probably would not have happened (or rather, it would have been delayed until another time, for another reason...)
Then again, maybe just the Andy Ngo thing would've been enough. No extra comments. If I could go back in time I would love to see what they would've said if all I did was retweet Andy Ngo being assaulted.
Indeed, those lies appearing in a public server was inevitable. I already knew what was going on.
Now as for what I haven't done (Prior to the previous blogpost)
1. I haven't harassed any of them. I haven't bullied any of them. I haven't done a thing to ANY of them. And even if I had... can one man's action against against another or one man's words directed at a big group really compare to an entire groups action against one man?
2. I haven't made any efforts to be enemies with any of them. This might surprise you but I've only ever tried to have good relationships with people of the community. Yes, Yats was very welcome in my server. We had some discussions, we had some disagreements and agreements, he changed my mind at least once. I've tried to get along with Dorothy but I sensed the animosity was pretty strong. I didn't know why, but that's jsut how it goes. I really, truly only ever wanted to get along with everyone and I find all of this conflict to be so incredibly forced. Their negative reads on me are so forced. Just look at that thing about 2700%. Things like that is why I think "resolving" any of this can only go so far. After I made the previous blogpost people started speaking of "de-escalation". Putting it into context, that sounds forced to me too. They've started it and I don't think what they've done can really be taken back. I don't think they will ever listen to or accept anything I say. What they said in response to my previous blogposts shows that I am almost certainly right about this. The best "de-escalation" I can hope for is that the division is continued but that was simply avoid each other. I honestly can't hope for that anyone in their group believe in a single thing I say. It's very clear that they don't. By the way, Yats told me he wanted to reach some kinda resolution, and that he would talk to me a few weeks later when he's not as busy. That never happened, but I am blocked, even though I never spoke to him or did ANYTHING after that. I don't know and I don't even care anymore. What kind of resolution could we possibly have?
3. I don't lie and I don't slander. I will say this though. I am not a saint and I have said negative things about people. However, negative things directed at anyone in that group... I really don't think there's even been much I've said to anyone in private or in my own server or anywhere that isn't after the Zengeku drama (which really was the last straw imo). Like not even in private. Those kinds of conversations about people have hardly ever happened in the past several years. Whatever negative thoughts about anyone in particular that I might have laid bare have always come from a place of understanding. In the sense that I, for example, want someone else to realize that they're doing something bad and tell them about it for everyone's sake. Or that I share something about a previous situation that puts someone in a negative light, without condemning that person outright. Anyone with a good relationship with me will be able to tell you what kinds of things I really say in private. How I will be understanding of even my greatest foes. This understanding is my downfall. But sure, I've done petty things before out of desperation. Of course that has happened.
I maintain this. Whatever animosity I hold is due to your own forced conflict with me or other people that I view as unjust. I am the kind of person who does not seek conflict but seeks to explore differences to reach a mutual understanding. That means that I take your criticism while offering my own. If we explore each others thoughts and criticisms we can reach a greater understanding of the world and each other. That is how I view and do things. This does lead to its own set of problems as sometimes people clearly take something I say to mean something completely different; often outlandish. That I hate them or that it comes from a place of bias, spite, personal frustration, irrationality or whatever else. It's the kinds of misinterpretations that are designed to avoid the substance of what I said and attack something imaginary.
If people truly want peace of some sort, I think you first have to accept that the division is real and cannot be undone. There is not really any going back now. Some people accept or like the situation, or pretend nothing's wrong. The former I think we can call "trolls" or just "bad people". There's no point in even trying with them. Some people walk away. Others fight. But many people can see that there is a rift and that it is serious. Next I think you, if you want peace, should seriously consider whether anything I'm saying is true, rather than defaulting to that everything I say is a lie or me just being dumb or thoughtless whatever. No matter how I analyze it all, I cannot see how I've been wrong in all this, but when they saw my initial blogpost... their reactions said it all. It was all defense and antagonism. Nobody dared to accept that there was any truth in anything I said. Well, in circumstances like those, how is there supposed to be any peace? Those guys don't want it. They want enemies and I fit the bill. In the previous blogposts I cleared up many of things that people use as a basis to hate me for. Many lies. Many misreads. There's more where that came from. Of course, if I'm wrong about anything, then I am open to hearing it. If these things are possible and I see some amount of sincerity then I don't mind reaching a peaceful conclusion. I'm just not really holding my breath, okay? Haha. Besides, peaceful at this point basically just means, end the pointless shittalk. That petty shittalk's been going on for god knows how long. The stuff I've seen is really amazing in how dumb it is. Like, I remember that time it was suggested in a different group that I wouldn't understand Shoot the Bullet speedrunning because my own time is bad. If I try to explain how dumb that is, all I do is fall into the trolls traps. They don't care about TRUTH. They just want enemies, they cling to this idea that I'm dumb and bad because it makes them feel better about themselves. I've never done a StB run, so I don't know what run they were talking about. but I've done more difficult stuff in photogames for 1000s of hours. I don't need to do a run to know how good different times are or how hard it is to get them. I already more or less know because I can play the game fluently. Practicing a speedrun route would give additional clarity, that is true. But assuming that I can't have any opinion because of a bad run I have (which run? I have NO idea) is... amazing. It shows a complete disregard or misunderstanding of photo gameplay. Which yeah, of course people are going to have that if they don't score. They'll have these crazy backwards opinions. I wonder what run they were thinking of. Maybe like, an old race on speedrunslive that I did with no speedrun practice? Does that count as a speedrun? I don't think so, but I can't think of anything else besides that. I've done speedruns before and those have always been a more long-term thing than just doing 1 casual race. When you do a speedrun you need to spend a lot of time practicing and then grinding. A casual race isn't a speedrun. It's something you do just for fun.
Anyway... Getting off track there. Ultimately, my point is, peace is desireable, but I think it is nearly impossible at this point. The best I can hope for is to end the bullshit but I know that is never happening either. You know what I do, when I'm off to a rocky start with someone, or something's going on between me and someone that isn't desireable...? I try to talk it over with them. I try to find out if there's a misunderstanding, or if I've done something I think I shouldn't have, I apologize and I try to get us to move on. I've done this so many times. Hell, sometimes I wonder if I even needed to do all that, but if it has to be me, so be it. It's rare that someone else does the same for me. I feel like others have way too much pride for their own good. Listen, there's nothing to be proud of when you're in these bad groups and you do bad things. Get over it and get better. If you think I'm wrong about that, give me your case. I'll listen.
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I watched all seasons of Ojamajo Doremi. A total of 215 episodes (including an OVA) over the span of about half a year. This was my first real Mahou Shoujo and it was quite a journey. The show is made to appease little girls. So I had to embrace a childish side of me to enjoy this show. I'm glad I watched it, but there were a lot of episodes I got nothing out of, especially in the 3rd season. Let's be real. This show is hilarious, poignant and it has heart. It's very meaningful, but it's not something I needed to watch. It doesn't show me anything new. It could've been better. I enjoyed it, but everything I got out of it (besides entertainment) is like been there done that. I really like what it intends to say, though. The kinds of things this show makes you consider is of importance to other people. Ojamajo Doremi had so much to say about us humans. Things that are obvious. Yet so many people out there have clearly not learned some of the lessons this show preaches. Specifically about Empathy. That is the core of Ojamajo Doremi. It's all about empathy, understanding, and depth. The show preaches that thre is depth in all of us. It preaches the importance of memories, dreams, passions, but also to understand one another. That one thing people nowadays often lack is empathy. Conflicts in Ojamajo Doremi are typically resolved through understanding. The girls almost always show that they are open to that understanding. They are such good girls, they will go through great lengths to understand, and with the help of each other show more self reflection than most adults. I am also very captivated by its serious and mature takes on topics of family and responsibility; Aiko's episodes shine in this regard, but above all else I just think it's really funny and pretty.
My favourite girl was Aiko in the first 2 seasons, however, the show does evolve over time. Aiko is a much worse character in the 3rd and especially the last season. The show doesn't give her nearly as much time to shine. However, it gives a lot of spotlight to Onpu who becomes a very sympathetic character, as well as giving much more depth to Hadzuki than what she had in the first season. Momoko enters the picture in the 3rd season. She's fun, but she messes with the shows dynamic. The trio of characters in the first season was perfect. Adding Onpu didn't mess with their dynamic at all, it actually made it a bit more interesting, so the 2nd season has even more potential for awesome content. With Momoko it is a bit much and characters start losing their individuality. This whole banding together to be a group rather than individuals does kinda start with taking care of Hana-Chan in the 2nd season, but it becomes a lot more pronounced later. The 4th season is really bad about it. There's way too many characters here and they lose their individuality. In most episodes they act like a group. They are a hivemind. That's not how I want them to be and them having differences was much more interesting. That said, the last season redeems itself fully in other areas. Also, the extra Naisho season deserves special mention. It's fantastic. I think it's better than the main seasons... it's just so consistent. I love its 2nd half. I'd rank the seaons as Naisho > 1 > 4 > 2 > 3. With 3 being clearly the worst. 3 has way too many trite episodes about baking a cake for a witch to make her remember something. It feels like a step backwards. It does have some amazng episodes still, so I wouldn't say it's bad, but it is a bit of a mixture. 4 is also a bit inconsistent. 2 is a bit more consistent than 4, perhaps, but Naisho is the most consistent of all in any case.
Do I wanna watch more Mahou Shoujo? I guess so. I guess I'll watch Sailor Moon.
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Been exploring music again in the past couple of months. It's been a long time since I was as into that. Discovered some really amazing stuff. M.S Gopalakrishnan, Kwaidan, Jasmine Star, Poeme Electronique & Axis of Perdition all come to mind. There are no boundaries to my interests in terms of styles or genres. So I'm listening to a constant mish mash of stuff. Could be a Free Jazz record then an Avant-Prog record then a Black Metal record then an Industrial record and then a Pop record. That's how it goes, and it works out pretty well. I don't blog about music typically, because I find it hard to say anything meaningful, but... it's still my biggest love. Music is just the best (when my ears can handle it) and I'm glad to be back exploring. Hope I can hit 10,000 ratings on RYM before the year is over!
And finally... Sadpanda going down last month was a big one, but it came back thanks to based Moldova. Also, Conjueror died... this is meaningful to me since I've been relying on him quite heavily for english translations of VNs. Basically anything he's worked on is interesting to me. We've lost one of the most important people of the translation scene, that's for sure. He translated my favorite VN, SeaBed...
I hope he's in a better place now.
