Randomness, Progress Reports

I've been playing Spider-Man Unlimited steadily, probably a dozen or so times a day since if living by the energy bar it recharges every 50 minutes. Getting better steadily and felt really epic when I got a 100k score. Then some guy on toucharcade bragged about his 1.5billion score. Suddenly I don't feel quite so epic. Anywho, both old events ended, new one started. Not quite as good a rewards as the first 47hr event but still decent. Making progress on issue two, about half way done with it. I decided I'm not going to get the exp booster for 75 iap currency, these cards level just fine as it is on their own especially since I unlocked the second character slot. I'm now spending iap on harder to snag cards. Was going to focus on the 25 iap currency card draw's but their damn hard to upgrade because upgrading requires another exact matching card type/rarity to upgrade. Probably going to just focus on 5 iap currency rare card building out my entire deck instead. And all my ingame currency is being funneled in to purchasing additional hero slots atm.

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Dragon Quest 1. Level 9 and moving quickly. I bought the best of the best from the town just east of the starting castle and immediately went up to the north west corner of the map where another town resides. Started farming gold across the bridge just south of that town until I had the best weapon and armor from that town. From there I went to the cave south of that bridge, got lost in it for about 2 hours because this is a port of the 3ds which was a remake of the original and the dungeons are all redesigned. But I spent so much time down there that I went from lvl6 to lvl9 and walked out of there with 1600 gold. Was intending to spend 800 of it on the best shield available from the nw town but I actually found that exact shield in a chest in this cave so win! I'm either heading south to poke that thing guarding edrick's armor in the sw ruined town, or im heading north east of the starting castle. There is a... well it was a cave with some hermit living it in the original nes game, no telling what it is now. There's also two bridges to cross and a very very wealthy town way up in the ne corner that sells keys! Keys are used to open doors (obviously) and their either very rarely found off mobs/in chests, or from this town for sale.

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Space Engineers update. I've begun working on 2.0, the bigger meanier more useful successor to 1.0 (still haven't named 1.0 so can't very well name 2.0 duh). I built a platform just a bit below and further away from 1.0 on which to work on 2.0. Little sister comes along last night and decides that the long arm that connects these platforms to the main base needed a piston designed elevator. Prett much you place pistons next to one another each afew squares above the previous. You ride on the piston's head, then step on to the next piston and continue the trip, and so on and so on. 9 Pistons I believe make the total elevator. Well her doing this inspired me, I built a full wall/window around the elevator so it looked quality. Problem is, that quality elevator design made the platform 1.0 was parked against look like crap. Now that needed to change.

Little sister realized she had just made a monster and snuck away at first opportunity while I rebuilt the entire platform, added features that make docking 1.0 much easier after flying her around, then I went overboard and well... heh.

The photos are in no particular order but you can see the elevator she built, the condition of the platform too. I moved the conveyor under neath it, then redesigned the entire platform. I windowed it up and even put a overhang window over the neck of 1.0 when docked. Looks really cool to be honest and little sister has taken to parking her frigates on top the window ceiling of the platform and just hanging out inside the waiting area.

We used some piston trickery to build a boarding ramp for the ship. Button press on the platform or inside the ship retracts/extends the platform and you just walk on/off. Very cool. Also button on/off setup the connector that you can see in some photos. These things magnetically hold on to one another and even after disconnecting if you pull away the magnetic pull is still there. Makes it really difficult for all ship sizes to get away. Work around? Turn off the connector itself. Also ran a arm to the nose of 1.0 and installed a camera on 1.0's nose itself. Precision parking baby, Like A Glove! (ace ventura voice).

In those photos you can also see the work I'm doing on 2.0. She is flat out bigger in all aspects of the word. Installed two artillery turrets tonight on pistons that retract the weapons in to the head when not in use. going to work on some sort of door system to cover them when not in use here soon. Funny thing though, when I powered up the first gun, the conveyor system wasnt active yet but the gun really didn't like my ore detector sattelite that I had placed over little brothers asteroid off in the distance in the last photo. Its targeting beam was fixed on the satellite hard core. Well I shrugged, continued working, installed the conveyor system, etc. Running low on suit energy I hopped in to a chair on the platform (i have a chair on all platforms of my base, alot more convienent than running to the medical bay every time suit energy runs low, sitting in any chair on a powered base/ship recharges your suit) when I noticed way off in the distance that the satellite was in a dead spin. 2.0's weapons had pulled ammo from the base supply via the conveyor system the second I had connected it and one shot the satellite!

Amazing range on these guns.

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I now own every car in real racing 3 and have gold trophied every race in the game. Right now I'm just popping in and updating my time trial event scores, I run the le mans 24 race with my toyota hybrid super car for 700k or so ingame currency every day or so if I feel in the mood. Spending that on upgrading what ever cars are in the weekly time trial event so I can get the best scores possible for me. Which means I'm always rank b. Rank a? Probably need to practice and take off the training wheels. I have always had auto accelerate on, braking assist to medium. Very nice comfortable way to play, especially on portable but the braking assist in particular baby's the track somewhat, over brakes most turns. With it turned off I could in theory wait longer before braking in to turns which would improve my times. If I turned off auto accelerate I could even coast through lesser corners, resulting in even better time due to no brake use and longer lasting car wear. Of course, if I turn those settings off then I need to learn how every single car engages every single curve of every track... ugh. I wish this game had those damn guide lines that change from green to red and whatnot.

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And there it is, the games currently harassing my free time :)

o7

Dragon Quest I

https://itunes.apple.com/app/dragon-quest-i/id911201894?mt=8
2.99usd, 26mb download, universal, no gamecenter.

My Thoughts
Ahh god this brings back memories. This here everyone is the moment I became a gamer, the moment I forgot what outside was like. Back in 1986 my parents had a nintendo in the living room but that was 'dads' toy and we weren't allowed to use it unless he was in the room with us because otherwise we'd probably break his toy. I remember taking the lawn mower and mowing the lawns of anyone who would pay for an entire summer in my base housing community (im a military brat). I took my hard earned money, dad suggested I open a savings account with it. I came back home an hour later (rode my bike to the bx!) with an 8 bit nintendo and Dragon Warrior 1. And I've been addicted to rpgs ever since.

This release is a port of a remake of a port which was a port of a port of the original. Well sort of, since yes this is a port of a 5 year old mobile phone japan only release with reworded narrative, tweaked exp requirements to lessen the grind and auto save everywhere. The controls we are all familiar with, its the same as dragon quest 4 and the same as dragon quest 8 (minus the 360 degree rotation of 8). Portrait mode only, the analog stick defaults to middle of screen though it can be moved to left or right side. The game is meant to be played with 1 hand and it does that very well... on phones and pods. iPad is a two handed affair no matter your choice. Any who, there is a button near the analog stick that has your menu screen where you can view stats, equip stuff, use stuff, quick save, get hints if stuck, etc. Last button of worth is the map which is new, old nes version didn't have a damn map. Didn't have quick save either, the nes one made you return all the way back to the castle and talk to the king to save! You folks are spoiled. Hell, the original version required you to choose 'use' every time you stood on a stair icon to walk down the damn stairs! You all are soooo spoiled!

:)

Music and graphics are upgraded from the original release, they look and sound snes era.

Perfectly priced at 3 bucks, this was the original jrpg folks and it what kept it a long affair was its grind which this port has had tweaked for modern patience levels. Expect around 10 hours play time unless you chase the level cap. You can actually beat this game at half the level cap (was 36 for original).

My advice to beginners :
. Bring torches for caves.
. Crossing bridges ALWAYS means tougher opponents cometh.
. You don't start with equipment, just 120gold so get your rumph to the town east of the starting castle and buy a weapon and some armor.
. Grass is the easiest opponent terrain followed by thick grash, woods, hills, swamps.
. One of the most powerful pieces of equipment in the game is in the ruined town south west corner of the world map. Its hidden on the ground in the nook of a destroyed house laying on the ground so you can't see it. One tile before reaching its hiding spot 95% of the time a fully heavily armored monster of a boss usually spawns. Quick save before you step on boss tile, keep at it till you get lucky, hope you brought a wyvern wing to teleport back to the castle after you get this item. Worth it, it'll be the last weapon you ever need. I remember insanely making the run down there on the old nes at level 5 or so way back in the day :) (updated, this trick didn't work on any version of the game after the original nes version. You will have to fight this guard to get the treasure, bring a wyvern wing because he respawns every time you step on that square and you usually won't want to fight him twice. Bring a flute which is found elsewhere in the game, hints from talking to various npcs. Flute puts him to sleep.)
. Buy a dragon scale from the item vendor asap, free 2 armor points.
. Go back to the guard mentioned two advice up and farm him when you are able, he's worth a butt load of exp.
. If you walk out of the main castle and head west, when you hit mountains you will see a cave on the other side. In that cave are 4-5 chests, most spawn afew bits of gold but two of them have a 'chance of spawning highly valuable items. A cursed belt worth afew hundred gold and more rarely a cursed necklace worth over 1k. Whats even better is all chests in the games dungeons respawn after looted next time you enter the dungeon their in. Farm this cave for your cash needs. Do NOT equip those cursed items, they have negative effects throughout the game, can only be removed by one npc in the town next to the castle and are destroyed when removed. Better to sell these.

Also, the princess is in cave over a bridge east of the castle.

Worth every penny, welcome to my childhood :)