Icarus's blog: "Hope- by any other name."

Well my internet finally got shut off...
so I decided to stay up til 8 so I could call my isp and talk to a real person.

and I've been up for a while now.

Like, a long while.

Mango rice was lovely.
I think I've been through 2 1/2 mash seasons
a few VERY long sorties on ring of red
ch.1 of MGS4 about... 20 times
y'know, when its all said and done that game isn't very long with very many variables to the problem solving
especially when you can ping a forehead with an M-14 the way I can.

I even broke out an all pistol's finish and still found myself unchallenged. I say "it's like MGS3 only more shootery" but the fact is, MGS3 was a bigger challenge.
Sure, I don't have soloton and a famas in either game, but I also don't have auto environmental camo, and I ONLY had iron sights in MGS3 with a very limited selection of silenced weapons.
I could go through MGS2 with 3 shots outside of boss/manditory shootout sessions
You learn the patterns you learn the sequence.
In MGS4 it's even easier because I can load up a javelin anti tank missle any time anywhere, even in a zone that's perfectly clearable with an AK47 with 20 rounds.

What the FUCK am I talking about?

... Go play Metal Gear Solid, one of the most popular gaming franchises in history and maybe you'll be up to speed.
But seriously, the shots I made from a cozy virtually invisible safety with my m-14 in the middle east
I had to make at the same distance with a venomous snake crawling on me in tall grass with a custom 1911 .45 pistol

Then there was Ops... CHRIST that game was clunky, had to be, it was on PSP, but if you were smart you were invisible.

I guess what I'm saying is- I need a challenge.
FFXI is grind by numbers
Ring of Red is a VERY long sortie of predictable backup
and like EVERY mobile armor turn based game I've played from Front Mission to this
you'll find that perfect niche like tight formation and be UNSTOPPABLE!

God in front mission 4 I was taking on maps of 25 to 6 and all I had to do was keep everyone in range of each other and they'd gang up on the first target before anyone else even came in range... for free!
They'd gank em in one turn and my support units would cover up the boo-boos. FM4 introduced this network system of combo attacks, if you allocated your points and abilities right, and kept a little pod of DOOM, your guys would cooperate and barrage.

Same goes for Ring of Red, now, granted the combat system is unique, along with the infantry support but here's the deal

you've got your midrange cannon/melee hybrid x2
your short range cannon scout x2
2 long range cannoners
2 melee/cannon short range/cqc

If you set this up right, you get this tight formation that folds from X's to diamonds as you retreat and heal yourself while any AI stupid enough to wander into it get's blown away in 3 turns tops.
At any distance.
You put your melee's and scouts out front in a W and you fade your mid range and long ranges behind it
they hit a wall of well armored heavy hitters and the cannons pick em off the next round before its even their turn to retreat
and if they get cute and start volleying on your melee's you send the scouts to close the gap and engage at short range where the cannon's are easy pickings

just don't do anything stupid like pursue and break formation
and you'll be FINE!
Now granted, your typical AI is gonna try and run and recov after it gets down to 20% health and won't be back for more until about 60+ but... trust me on the keeping formation thing.

It works with any turn based strat game.
Know your effective ranges and terrains, EXPLOIT THEM

There's a thing called a "mime" in Final Fantasy Tactics. He does whatever his 4 other teammates do that turn.
The only way to make a Mime effective is to make an entire group around him and exploit what kids?

Effective ranges.

Now, you might be thinking "oh what's so great about 1 guy doing what my guy did on his turn?"

... make him do it 4 times.

Your effective turns and output goes from
5
to 9.
He mimicks 4 times and has his standard attack, place him in the right range for an area attack in a tight formation, or have him mimick a global effect and BAM!

Free hits.

...
Yeah this is seriously how my brain works after 2 cups of coffee and strategy comes in.

I miss my bro right now, I mean sure he's comin in next week for the wedding, but this is what we do, observe the system and break it.
His magic decks are elaborate systems of card drawing til he gets a lockdown.
It's all based on probability and odds with him, he WILL force a shut down eventually... well, if you leave him in a lab environment he will
me I just try to build something adaptive and unpredictable, not to say chaotic, but something multi purpose and resilient.
Something that can withstand a misdraw, or a major setback.

So he builds a system, I build an evolving scenario.

We developed 2 opposite mindsets and styles, just like these 2 kids I knew in fencing.

One was a completely orthodox stance flicker (you fling your wrist with enough force to change the angle and warp your blade to whip it) and the other was an unorthodox stance bouncer with a downward grip.

Now, the stance was textbook, his motions were powerful and fast, but strictly regulation, and he wasted no motion or movement, no real feints twists fakeouts or psych except in his flicks. He could change direction mid swing simply by wobbling his arm, the kid was a wizard
but his sparring partner
the kid he had fought for years over and over and over
had gotten so sick and tired and bored with these flicks that he actually designed a style to combat it
He'd step into the flick raise his guard and bend the blade prematurely and slide forward into it forcing the blade back at the inflexible base and then tap his opponent in the chest since he had action on the counter, and he had him RIGHT THERE by stepping into the attack and getting the attack off balance

what did mr. bounce feet do when he fought a non flick?
he kept the same approach and had to take a pretty long time raising his sword into a non-counter point. He was almost pure reactionary, kid had great riposte no offense.
what did mr. flick do when he went up against me after I learned the same trick to break the bend?
He lost.

And couldn't figure out why he was losing.

I'm still weirded out by this myself.
Sometimes I had bad nights, people I considered my physical inferior would just start blowing through my defence and making easy points, or sometimes I'd just get outright dominated
some nights I was on fire
some nights my legs seized up and I dropped to the ground in a giant heap of overheated.

I wasn't even fresh when he and I started.
We went a 5 point match
Salute, salute
our instructor officiating and man that guy had sharp eyes

This kid was an advanced student, he wasn't even allowed to flick that changed after the first point I made
He went 2-0 no flicks and I got one simple spin through and straight to his sternum
He was pulling a casey jones though, and I knew it, and I didn't appreciate it, I can't learn anything on a pity fight
so I think he gets it in his head that "that's the only point I'm getting on him"
remember kids, this guy is like a friggin TRACK star, he is BUILT for this crap, and I'm pre shoulder surgery at this point this is even before karate

so he starts flicking
horizontal straightforward I knick it with the tip of my foil, I was NOT anticipating flicks, specifically. It lands one on the edge of my arm, off target, reset-
He comes in, same calculated stride, same approach, raises for a vert, starts the fling and I jump into it raise my arm cross to my body and push the base of his blade with my glove
he's off balance, his first impulse is to jump back

I've got all day to swing right and land him in the ribs at the perfect distance, with no wasted energy recompensating the swing

did I plan this?
did I anticipate this?

FUCK NO!
2-1

I go back to my corner and look him over, he's... stunned.
He has no idea how I did that, and it is beyond his comprehension on how I - at my level - knew how to compensate.
He shakes it off, gets into guard, and I decide to do everything in slow motion, as frosty as possible, no heavy breathing, no "WOO!" no bragging, nada
Fitz calls it, we both start in, straight forward, only now there's a little bit of aback shuffle to his feet, a little bit of a counter anticipation
a changeup, he just needs to find the stitching before the pitch
and I know it's coming, he's waiting to get a good foothold for a lunge, and he is gonna strike like fucking lightning
...
so I beat him to it with bad footing, bad aim, and shared action
I missed
but he was still rooting for a pounce so he's got that on his head not a counter attack, he's in a forward guard not an attack or counter attack
so I stretch for it
I hyper extend EVERYTHING and get that extra centimeter I was so well known for.
Dink
BEEEEEP
2-2

Engage-
BOOM!
Kid explodes off the deck I'm not even a quarter the way down my pipe and he's on me getting a backhand flick ready
and I

bonk the incoming arc at the guard... stretch my arm out flatfooted and nail him in the shoulder with all the effort of making a checkmark on a survey.

2-3

He goes back and actually growls and flings and tantrums
I stand with my sword pointing down unemotive and seemingly 100% ready.

HE COMES WITH THE SAME SHIT!
bonk twip
BEEEEEEP
2-4

It's at this point, that I notice, I've drawn a crowd. Either from the regular flare ups from my opponent, or from the fact that... pretty much the only person that has gotten a single point on this kid in my class is my brother.

We line up
we get the call
he bombs off the line again
so do I
I tipped my hand just a little bit here.
Now he knows I want this.
Now he knows I calculated his meltdowns as well I could
now he knows he gave this one up
He comes in with a forehand fling
the blade starts to warp, he gives his forearm and wrist a little jig and gives the blade a warp, its coming UP now from a downward fling and I'm already dead in the air with a lunge
keep in mind, this took place in about 2.5 seconds
No... really.

so I'm gonna catch it juuuuuuust barely on the chest, and that was the poetry of this kid's flings, he knew the exact force, the exact science, without indentation, without bruising without hurling it, just where to feather across you and have the tip read it for a point.
Since the blade is coming up, the base of the blade is close to me, my blade is already out, but rather than extending for an attack, I just stay in the lunge, and aim the base of my sword to the same corresponding point on his
we clash and I start pulling back and forcing him down and away meanwhile pulling my arm back
we're too close for me to get this in a swing
by now my feet are down and he's less than 3 feet from me so while he's still off balance (not for long mind you he's arching about for an upwards out flick going for my back exposed from the lunge (everywhere else being too damned close)) and I just go for it
I lunge again the second my legs hit and I blow straight into his liver as the tip of his sword smacks me like a ratan stick across a vandal's back.

It's a photo finish folks, not that it was a 4-4 tie or anything, but that was all I had
and he was privy to my pseudo-psychiatry.
We check the machine, there's a general... silent bewildered what the fuckery air to it all.
My side lit up first.
I had the point.

I win it 2-5
Josh unplugs and takes his helmet off in a huff and doesnt' shake my hand or salute.

I got lucky.

Kinda.

Fencing can be a bit of a Rock-Paper-Scissors thing though. But its even more complex than that, the littlest things can really change the entire flow.
Your last match, your last match against that person
the hype surrounding you
your expectations of yourself
your prejudices against others...
your will to win
your desperation to win

It was the most complex strategic environment I had ever been in.

And I HATED it.
There wasn't that cold predictable inthebox logic to it.
No AI's running at 20% health.
The "damn I almost had him's" are there to say "no you didn't".

But back to rock paper scissors. I fought another advanced student that same night, kid watched my fight, and he mopped the floor with me.
Chunky asthmatic kid.
That's right.
Chunky asthmatic advanced fencing kid.

Mopped the floor with the legend killer.
Was it luck? Did my lightning only strike once?

Nah
this kid had GREAT fundamentals.
He wasn't very fast with his footwork, but he was precise, he understood the rules, and he had excellent blade control
you thought you had him licked, goin in for an easy point and he'd juke your blade and nail you in the armpit.
No fancy flicks, no bullshit, no trackstar legs bounding from the starting line
just good defense and well executed manipulation of standard attacks.
Did I underestimate him? Nah. I knew this kid was technically sound. And he was real observant.
He saw how I could hyperextend my arm to get extra reach. And man, did he know how to exploit it, got a point on my back every time I tried it. Well... every time after the first time he saw it up close. That first time I got the point and he said "the hell?!"
He could read ranges, he could read attacks and he could read you
but when he went up against Josh, he just couldn't compete with the speed.
Precision and fundamentals lost out to raw speed and energy... regularly I might add between those two.
I just had power and mind games.
I'd knock a blade off balance and scramble for a point or make a lunge that aimed for the back of the room instead of their chest. I'd gash tendons I'd jab knees I'd lock up and push you back. My guard was a mangled scratched up jagged mess of blocked tips, clashed blade and pommel to pommel locks. My blade couldn't be handled bare handed.
Fuckin thing would send a trillion splinters and a shower of dust if you so much as tapped it with your fingertip.

I think maybe because I hated it.
Damn pistol grip cramped my hand and my big offset monkey thumbs, I wanted french more comfortable and also because I wanted to switch-hit.
No go from the boss man. He wanted me to learn on pistol.
So I resented my blade, I resented the extra wide, low stance he put me in that cramped my legs, I resented the stumblingly weird rules to a sword fight... rule 1 should be win. The lack of a free range, the puppet wire on my lamein saying who won, who lost, pulling me back ever so slightly. The light effeminate, one handed sword...
the rules, rules rules
when I just wanted to fight to learn
not learn to fight

Good times though. Most fun I had without a consenting naked adult or with a controller under my thumbs