Focslain

15 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Maybe to you...? To me it suggests an endeavor to emulate the expressiveness and high contrast of comic books and traditionally-animated cartoons. If there's a budget saving in there, then that's killing two birds with one stone. Sony Pictures Animation is hardly hurting for cash.

They might be going to a series pilot turned movie, see if any network is up for taking it up.

7 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

I can see why some have issues with the animation style but I think the director is going for a comic book style of art form, I like it though. Reminds me of Tell Tale's Walking Dead games.

That and/or Polygon's art style (Knights of Sidiona, BLAME!!, Godzilla: Planet of Monsters).

4 hours ago, tekering said:

Columbia Pictures released Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in the summer of 2001 -- that's SEVENTEEN years ago! -- and the animation still looks better than what this trailer has to offer.  Why does this Spider-Man film have such low production values?

Might it have been a stylistic choice? Not all animation has to be HD or life like.

2 hours ago, rdrunner said:

you know, I applied to join and they asked me a question: "who is lady M".  I said I did not watch Delta and genuinely don't know.  That was the last I heard from them.  *shrugs*

How long ago was that?

It took a month for me to get in. The question is to get bots and your reply seems human enough. It might be that the admin just hasn't checked for new applicants recently. 

16 hours ago, kajnrig said:

So yeah, it's an older code but it checks out. It's more about analyzing the narrative aspects of the movie (obviously) than any critique of the film itself, which is the kind of stuff I absolutely love but I know some of you here probably aren't as interested in.

EDIT 2:

Oh boy, here we go.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi - What Went Wrong? – Wisecrack Edition"
"Why Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a Complete Cinematic Failure"
"The Last Jedi And The Fall Of Star Wars: Part 1 - The Idiocy Awakens"

*long, protracted sigh* god damn it youtube...

The Wisecrack one is more on the story structure issues then anything else.

Actually it was them that got me through TLJ, their themes explained video gave me something to hope for. Otherwise I would have walked out during the bomber scene.

13 minutes ago, rdrunner said:

Thanks, a couple more weeks in, I'm at rank 30 and Bronze (521).  Started to work on full combos on the "hard" level, but have a long way to go yet.

what I have tried to do is if I really get stuck on a song, I will use Simulation live mode and record the track so I can get familiar with it before attempting. 

As for events, I do try but always end up ranking in the 30k-50k range so it's really more for fun, nothing serious.

That's the way to do it.

For events like the current ticket based one what I usually suggest is to auto set with LUCK so it will pull your highest luck plates. Score isn't a big thing while farming rares.

If your doing the three daily pulls plus the 10 pull when you get 500 crystals you'll end up with a few decent 4 star plates. This will help you farm more tickets (level doesn't matter, but the pattern seems to be one gurenteed rare per 25 luck).

If you can I'd shoot for the emblem and all the event plates then sit back and relax.

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

I hate that they're trying to make the droids sympathetic. Well, except for R2 and BB-8, because they were always kind of the pet mascots of the show. Y'know, just like every good anime has to have one. The trend of "main character" droids being sassy really irritates me, though. K2S0 is easily the worst offender so far (unless Leet gets a similar personality, which it seems it does), and its "noble sacrifice" irritates me a lot because, as you say, droids are by and large just more tools. The reason C3P0 was given an ounce of personality was because that's literally part of its programming: instruct on etiquette, translate, etc. What purpose does K2S0's tendency to make snide remarks serve? That Jyn and what's-his-face act all emotionally wounded upon its sacrifice just rubbed me more the wrong way in a movie already rubbing me the wrong way.

Blarhgh;laksjdf. Anyway.

 

K2s0 was much better then L337 and a better personality.

L337 is a perfect case-study for why droids need regular mind-wipes.

48 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

Haven't had a chance to see Solo myself yet... but I'm honestly surprised this question would even be asked.

I've never been a big Star Wars fan myself, but even from my relatively minimal exposure to a pre-Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe I'd have been absolutely stunned if they hadn't tried to do at least one film about Han Solo's backstory.

Leaving aside the EU, Han was the only member of the original Star Wars trilogy's power trio who'd had the opportunity to lead an interesting life before the events of A New Hope.  Luke's uncle Owen kept him on the farm, well removed from anything approaching excitement or adventure, and Leia's foster family kept her pretty sheltered too.  The impression I always had was that he was kind of a fan favorite, being the loveable scoundrel and all.  I know the old EU had a bunch of stories where various parts of his shady past caught up to him, usually with lethal intent and all three movies in the original trilogy at least offered hints that Han had a complex and checkered past littered with unpleasant characters.  After all, the man was a famous professional smuggler... which, as Game of Thrones would remind us, means you're kind of doing it wrong as a smuggler.  (Then again, ending up in massive amounts of debt to a galactic crime lord is also "doing it wrong", right?)  From that perspective, doing an action-centric origin story for one of the franchise's most beloved characters would seem to be an incredibly obvious slam-dunk decision.  

(Of course, die-hard fans in most any franchise are nearly impossible to please... so there's that.)

I'm sure there is some interest in backstory for most of the original heroes. Just that from what I was seeing when Solo was annouced that was the biggest question, why? 

Personally I wasn't interested even before disney took over but that was because I liked that his adventures were things of rumor and clouded. I was more interested in his post-RoJ adventures in the EU but that's me.

The movie wasn't bad, it was neat seeing the Kessel run and Lando was the best part. 

My only major complaint was L337, she was just grating, like near Jar-Jar levels of grating. 

Did a little digging after I had time to digest the film personally. Have to agree on a few points:

1) Too close to other major releases. I'm not even talking about it being less then 6 months after TLJ, Marvel releases about every six months and does fine. Speaking of, yeah releasing so close to IW and with DP2 moving up it was a nice cock block against Solo.

2) Bad press. Granted Rogue One was reported to have production issues, it didn't have nearly the amount of bad press Solo did with issues going back almost a year prior to release.

3) Meh reviews. I believe this was mentioned earlier, but the lack luster reviews of the film by critics didn't help with it's already lowering expectations.

4) Poorly timed release. Believe it or not, Memorial weekend has been a low point for summer movies going on for almost a decade now, combined with point 1 it just hit even harder.

5) Why Solo? Seriously, of all the characters to choose from, why Solo? There was little interest in his origins past what we got in the OT and that was fine. There is more buzz on getting a Obi-wan movie and that was before Solo was announced. 

All of these factors just caused it to flop (by Disney standards), hopefully they learn (doubtful) and we get a better movie later.

Saw it over the weekend. It wasn't bad, but honestly it was as I figured, a straight to video release. I'm not interested in origin stories of the main SW cast, the original trilogy did that already anyway.

Honestly unless they make a X-Wing/Rogue Squadron film (or series) I'm out after ep IX and that is just to finish the Skywalker saga.

Not so much a toy purchase as a purchase for my toys. Got a pair of Detolf display cabinets so i can start collecting more Macross and Gundam.

15 hours ago, Petrov27 said:

Speaking of collectibles - wonder if we will see ships from the new series? I seem to recall the old series had quite a lot of that sort of thing (Fleet boxes?)

Having them re-issue the fleet boxes would be great. If you want some of the ships seems there was a line that did get re-issued recently. Follow the link to hlj and see the suggested and they pop up. From the looks they are ~9 inch resin models, though at $50 a shot it's anyone's call.

Personally I like the redesigns of the Imperial ships and hope that the if we get models that they include clear canopies for the parts that seem to have them. 

1 hour ago, tekering said:

Christ, that is adorable!

Thanks for the heads-up.   

I kind of want one now.

27 minutes ago, Matt Random said:

Hmm, I'm thinking I need to stop reading this thread until I finish up the last four episodes of Delta.

Your ok, the bit of the VF-31 with the draken and the mirage 282 is from the movie, not the series.

3 hours ago, Swoosh said:

RG Wing Gundam EW

 

With Drei Zwerg

That's it! 

Next purchase I do is a display case. Bandai finally broke me. 

For frak sake..... *looks at Ikea website*

Been a while since I last updated. I finished the mini-knight seen here munching on some xenos:

And his bigger brother

Here's more work on my next Imperial Knight of House Jenius I'm doing. 

17 minutes ago, the_foul_fowl said:

Aye. Kinda esoteric costumes too, so have been saving my gems. Other than DYRL valks, the only other mainline valk would be Mylene's VF-11. And Max and Miria's VF-22 from Mac 7. Songs wise, I think we've got most of them already?

 

 

Most of SDFM, yeah. We're like maybe half way through Frontier and Mac7 and 2/3 of Delta. Plus they did say they are looking in to getting some OVA support.

If I hadn't just placed a CDJapan order this morning I'd be all over that Quarter. 

18 minutes ago, the_foul_fowl said:

Looking back at my valk list it seems we have got most of the valks already from the featured macross series. 

I think what’s conspicuously absent so far is Roy’s VF-1S, and the other VF-1As from DYRL. Also strike/Super packs. Seems introducing the packs with the DYRL valks would be a good fit. Maybe the packs would go on the valks like how the costumes are going on the divas so we can mix and match!

I'm all for getting a strike/super pack valk, also adding Roy in general. Not sure if we are getting a new valk soon though, most of the focus seems to be on the costumes.

16 hours ago, rdrunner said:

Great!

I'm at the end of rank 16 but can't wait to get to 18 to unlock 天使の絵の具 from FB 2012.  Seems that 0-G love was an event download but I wonder if there is a way to get that if I have joined late and missed the event in March?

Some advice please - how do you guys practice for hard/very hard/extreme levels?  I can manage to clear some of the hard mode songs with sight-reading but it is hard not to have a way to recap a song and practice individual sections.  I know there is a simulation live function that you can use items to listen to a song once, but these are limited.  Do I really have to record a song in S-live mode and watch the video in order to practice??

As you play you'll get a lot of UC currency plus those SLive items pop up during events (I'm sitting on 500 and haven't bought any in three months). So while they seem limited they aren't rare.

As for 0-G Love, it's a part of Memory lane which unlocks as you level, guess that means the site was out of date... sec.

Just checked my own memory lane, if the pattern holds true, damn 0-G Love is rank 70. Question have you gotten Barsara and Mylene yet. By my count at 18 you shouldn't have them (they should be around rank 24).

Also as you try for higher difficulties you'll need to speed up the game (I run at 8 doing mostly very hard). Try it on hard to get your rhythm, as for practice it's just in playing the game. Go for survival first, then super diva mode, then full combo. Don't worry if you mess up and if you need a break, take it.

As you level you'll get more stamina to play for longer stretches but you regen at the same rate. (Currently at rank 72 with 74 stam). Rank EXP is earned at a rate of stam usage +1 x10, so completing a hard mode song gives 130 xp while a normal gives 90. Also when you level you get a full set of stamina

Also when we get a ticket event these don't use stamina so can get you some extra plays for free xp.

Higher scores will come from better plates and high combos.  

If you have any other questions just ask.

@rdrunner Yup, thank you. I just needed the ranks of the song unlocks. From the looks it seems on the even number levels for the most part, Welcome to My fanclub Night being the exception, and capping so far at 30. 

On 5/19/2018 at 3:02 PM, Shizuka the Cat said:

Why in the world is the men's version cheaper, when the women's version uses less material? Where is the logic in that?

Considering I just freed up funds from a con I'm not staying at... I might have to look into this and just do a slight mod to make it a captain uniform.

39 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Focslain confirmed promoting genocide. 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

But also, doubling resources won't provide for a doubled population. Let's just take the US for instance. The US population has doubled since the 1950s, but its per capita petroleum consumption hasn't doubled to match; it in fact tripled (and even more than quadrupled during its peak in the mid-00s).**

The obvious answer is to just more than double the resources, but again that's, from a certain point of view, putting a Bandaid on an open wound. It doesn't "solve" the "problem," just the "symptom" that is energy consumption.

But I mean, that's not JUST Thanos's goal. He does have a certain Sodom and Gomorrah vibe to him, an Old Testament vindictive God complex. Culling half the universe's population isn't just to free up resources, it's to quell conflict, corruption, etc. His presence has the immediate benefit of bringing disparate groups together to try and stop him, but also in the aftermath of his success the survivors will have less reason to attack each other and more reason to work together to survive, less reason to "game" the system and more reason to contribute to it. There's no time to be corrupt if you're too busy just surviving. It's a major oversimplification, far from the "simple calculus" that he thinks it is, but that's his thinking.

 

**Based on quick googles population growth charts and petroleum consumption charts.

 

I don't promote genocide, I'm ok for a culling though. Genocide is for the eventual elimination of a group, which is wrong.

Culling on the other hand can trim the fat and make for a strong whole, just that humans have gotten to resistant to natural means so....

But yes good work there @kajnrig

11 minutes ago, SuperSenpai said:

How does it make it worse?  He says the problem is that there are too many people and not enough resources.  Doesn't increasing the amount of resources solve that problem?  

 

Nope. 

It's not so much about the amount of resources as the allocation of said resources. As for making it worse, by doubling the resources you only teach the lesson of waste, since if you need more it will magically appear later if you pray hard enough (ie contact thanos). By dropping the populace this works better in getting the populace into thinking about resource usage and life in general.

Course it can back-fire, but in those cases there less to use resources and therefor the back-fire would have minimal effect.

The flaw here is that he didn't send a message with the event, like warning those that survived that they have a chance to be better or else (Sodom and Gamora anyone?).

On 5/19/2018 at 1:18 AM, mikeszekely said:

Even though you can categorize both as "superhero movies," it's really more of an apples and oranges thing.  Infinity War is the payoff Marvel's spent the last decade building to, and Deadpool 2 is the action comedy sequel to the action comedy Deadpool.

I will say, though, that I think Deadpool 2 was better than the first Deadpool.  Does that help?

I enjoyed DP2 waaaay more then IW, but that's because IW is literatly a thrid re-hash of the original Avengers.

DP2 was as funny as the original. Even the ending was great. Though...

On 5/19/2018 at 11:51 AM, SuperSenpai said:

I read another article that made the very good point that, if the Infinity Gauntlet confers omnipotence to the one who wields it, then Thanos could have just as easily solved his "problem" by doubling the amount of resources in the universe instead of killing half the population.

Actually doubling the resources makes the problem Thanos was trying to solve worse. 

While in the comics his reason for wiping half the life in the galaxy is clearer, this in the movie it wasn't until you you sit and think hard on it.

In the end, he has a very good point and did what needed to be done.