Sunday, May 26, 2019

My Disappointment with Hytale's "Rising Expectations" Update Post

GIF from GIPHY
Read Hytale's "Rising expectations, new challenges, and next steps: an update from the Hytale team" post here.

This is mainly a filler post since I'm lazy and focused on studies. Don't expect too much effort here. :p

Hypixel Studios stated in their "Rising expectations" blog post that making blog posts takes time and can distract from development, so blog posts will now be posted every "few weeks", while screenshots and short clips will be regularly posted on Twitter.

I admit, while I stated in my ThirtyVirus critique post that I'm ready for Hytale to be silent for 10 years straight, I realized later on that I actually need (not just want) the Hytale blog posts.
In the previous trimester, I took up a course called Multimedia and Popular Culture, where I talked about Hytale's history and how the fandom has shaped the game. I relied on several official Hytale media to support my claims, including the blog posts.
Right now, I'm taking up Social, Economic, and Political Thought, where I apply the beliefs of various philosophers into modern-day issues, or, in my case, Hytale politics. I recently edited my Hytale play style part 3 with some quotes from Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince to illustrate my tactics. At some point, I may include parts of my Hytale play style in my school work, and by the way, that whole series is also based on Hytale blog posts.

It's not just me who relies on Hytale media for doing school work; check out this fan art by @JermoMetGames of the H on the Hytale logo, which was made in school.

I actually don't need a new Hytale blog post for school work right now (May 24, 2019), but I might need it in the future.
But, just in case, Hypixel Studios, please publish your next fan art showcase on June 1. You've indirectly been a great help to people's academic performance, and I want you to keep that up.
(not like i'm gonna compete for a slot; i suck at drawing. just look at my ripoff of the Fire Emblem Heroes sprite style, which Thomas Frick liked and called "super cute". it took revenge on me when i used it to play foosball with my brother.)
Edit, June 2, 2019: No fan art showcase on June 1. Oh well, at least I don't need it for now! Maybe Hypixel Studios is going the slow-and-steady route by giving artists time to submit, taking more time to assess art quality, and adding detail to its own descriptions of the fan art.
Just please not before mid-July. End-of-term school work is usually the hardest.
Edit, July 10, 2019: firetruck this i don't think Hypixel Studios is gonna make a blog post until maybe October or December
but at least i still used my own blog posts three times in my school work
Hypixel Studios pls prank me with a new blog post (intentional bad grammar)

Good news! I actually have GOOD things to say about "Rising expectations"!

Because positivity is good for business, isn't it? (I'm training to be a business tactician in my family store. I'm not just a war tactician.)

  • AN INTERNAL CHAT CHANNEL FOR COMMUNITY CONTENT!? Dang, I'm continuously surprised by how much Hypixel Studios pays attention to the fans.
  • Yay, huge morale boost! I wonder how fast they're working now compared to before the Hytale trailer?
  • I edited some of my previous Hytale posts since Hypixel Studios doesn't want to keep the beta start date a secret. HECK YEAH!

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Hytale Play Style PART 3: Mid- to Late-Game

The repeatedly-stated disclaimer: This is speculative and based on pre-release information and Minecraft. This is not to be taken seriously; this is just for fun.
I wouldn't be surprised if this disclaimer becomes a meme.

Update, October 21, 2019: I've recruited a fourth member to my Hytale team, who is a sword-wielding horse rider.
Edit: She's not sure if she can get Hytale. Instead, I'm recruiting my younger brother HeadsHoKer who's also a sword cavalier. He's significantly stronger and more charismatic.

IMPORTANT EDIT, May 13, 2021: I got infuriated by my old friends becoming increasingly busy with school, work, and their hobbies, so I ended my friendship with them. None of my remaining friends are interested in Hytale and I don't feel like finding any at the moment. Therefore, I'll be playing by myself.
I don't have time to edit this at the moment because I want to prioritize my work.
I'm not recruiting any team members, so please don't ask to join me. I take teamwork VERY seriously, which I think doesn't suit the majority of gamers who fight best when they're alone.

In my co-op Minecraft playthroughs with BoltOLightnin, including my Bytesize playthrough and Hytale practice playthrough, BoltOLightnin consistently asked, "What is our goal?"

That question throws me off every time, regardless of who asks it (but it's extra annoying when my family members ask it) because I mostly pay attention to the present and don't focus too much on the past or future (especially the distant future).
Focusing on the present improves my effectiveness in playthroughs, school work, and sparring because it helps me stay calm, react appropriately to unexpected problems, and solve them without the anxiety of potential failure. I've won many battles and passed many exams thanks to this strategy.
By the way, for my parents, my main goal is to be a triple-A video game developer. Edit: They're fully aware now. Now I think they can stop asking me about goals.
For BoltOLightnin and YoSquid, my main goal in Minecraft playthroughs is to defeat the Ender Dragon. (I also have secondary long-term goals like finishing a big base, but I think of them as I play, and they usually don't come up in the early game.)

I didn't want BoltOLightnin to be bored to death by my focus on the short-term, so, upon foresight of being asked about my goal in Hytale, I thought of my play style for the mid to late-game.
Edit, May 13, 2021: Turns out this is a failure in setting personal boundaries and not giving a fuck. At the time I published this post, I mainly wanted to satisfy someone else, not myself.
Now, however, I'm still satisfied by all the steps I wrote in this post. 2021 has been a headache so far thanks to the Wuhan coronavirus and increasingly difficult school work, so having done this in 2019 is a huge relief.

#7: Find stronger equipment by mining or defending the base.

This is meant to replace step #7 in part 1.

Like shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I imagine that Hytale dungeons would pose a series of unique challenges to test explorers' attributes like strength, speed, wisdom, and willpower, as well as potentially forming part of the main story.
But, unlike base defense which can be easily done with cheap gear in Minecraft thanks to terrain familiarity, combat in the field, especially in a dungeon, is challenging because the monsters may have a terrain advantage over us, and some dungeons have unique monsters, some of which are bosses.
Also, block breaking and placement are limited in dungeons, as stated in the worldgen introduction, so we can't alter the terrain to our advantage; we have to adapt to the dungeon's terrain.

The high-tier tools in Minecraft are often acquired by mining, so that's what I plan to do in Hytale.
The tough part is scheduling mining and defense duty since I have no player-controlled officers and I don't trust my Redshirt Army (after doing step 9). It's implied that hostile mobs also spawn at night in Hytale, though I'd still be wary of foes that attack in the day.
By the way, I prefer to strip-mine in the late-game. At this point, the caves we've explored will most likely have no more ores, and looking for more caves can take long.

I think regular hostile mobs may also have rare or powerful weapons; the Void Spawn in the monster design post holds a green cleaver sword (I want to call it an armorslayer) which resembles thorium. (Thorium only has a Mohs hardness of 3.0, which is not ideal for a weapon. Maybe the thorium in this game is actually a compound formed by thorium and another element?)
Screenshot from the Hytale announcement trailer
The green ores resemble thorium while the blue ores resemble cobalt
(What if Hypixel Studios trolls me by telling me that those are ruby, sapphire, and emerald?)
Skeletons are common and have a variety of weapons and armor, so I'm excited about looting their weapons, particularly the frozen warrior's ice sword and the wizard's staff. We could have a huge arsenal just by fighting these piles of bones for hours.
Side note: My favorite sound effect in Minecraft is the skeleton's death sound. I hope Hytale's skeleton sounds are just as good, if not better.

I won't get strong gear from dungeons at this point (unless they're super easy).

Backup plan: Sometimes, random number generators (RNGs) aren't nice to players. It can take days in real life to find valuable ores or strong weapons. Therefore, we have to settle for a more surefire method to get these precious items: Dungeons (even though I don't like to explore them early on). It wouldn't make sense for Hytale to not reward players for the hard work they put into clearing a dungeon.
But, to be honest, I'm patient enough to wait days or even weeks just to get rare items. Take it from Pokétuber JubileeBlais and her incredible patience: it took her 2 months and 47 streams to get a Shiny Aerodactyl, and she was persistent the whole time. I don't know about my officers, though.

#8. Expand the base...and build a Donald Trump wall.

DISCLAIMER: I am neutral towards former US President Donald Trump. I am also not a political expert.

What better way to feel at home than to live in a big, well-built base with more than enough resources? We will have lots of space to move around, lots of places to hang out or be alone, lots of food to bring to battles and parties, and, of course, lots of terrain advantages to dominate our enemies. In short, a big base will raise morale.

Of course, the actual base features will vary, but the ground rules are that the base should have one house for each officer, an 18x18 crop farm, an animal farm, a cave or staircase mine, and, of course, a Trump wall to tell the illegal immigrants—I mean hostile mobs—to go firetruck some other weirdo's territory.
Speaking of an animal farm, we'll also need mounts if magical transport doesn't exist or isn't viable.

For additional features, I'm thinking of a city hall, a park, a PvP arena, a home for friendly NPCs like Kweebecs, and a tactics room.
By the way, do Kweebecs actually "die" of old age in-game? If yes, I'll bring an elderly Kweebec to make a Kweebec tree which will produce Kweebec seeds. Yay, more troops! (See Get to know Hytale's NPCs.)

As for the Trump wall, I imagine a simple stone wall with crenels and battlements. The wall should be at least 6 blocks tall to keep out larger or stronger enemies.
Sample Trump wall corner; its lowest height is 6 blocks.
Notice that the crenels have doors.
They allow us to close them to block projectiles or open them to attack.
I'm pretty dang proud of this one :p
I'm thinking of using transparent blocks like glass or beams to make a huge "roof" above our base. This helps protect against flying enemies while allowing sunlight to pass through and crops to grow.
Too bad it costs a lot of resources and is risky to build.

#9: Build friendly reputations with NPC factions.

Screenshot from Minecraft 1.8 with Custom NPCs
Gray Kweebec skin by SliCap
Brown Kweebec skin by astridini
LunaticTactician and Lunatic Blade Private skins by LunaticTactician
"...the prince will be able to take care of himself if he has a sufficient supply of men or of money to put an adequate army in the field, capable of engaging anyone likely to attack him…and it will not seem easy to attack a prince who has kept his city vigorously strong and is not hated by his people."
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

To further boost my strength, morale, and sense of security, I need the unique powers of NPCs.

Thankfully, Hypixel Studios is nice to us by giving us Kweebecs, a faction that will form some of our "earliest allies".
We're not sure about their fighting capabilities other than wielding spears and slingshots, but I imagine them to be fairly durable because of their wooden bodies and easily able to recover HP by sunbathing, with the drawbacks of their small sizes making them physically weak in offense and their wooden bodies making them slow (even at "young adult" ages).

I think it's likely that befriending (or making enemies with) factions involves a series of quests. After step #8, we'll be geared up and ready for almost anything, so I'm willing to take the challenge to earn the factions' trust. I'm excited to see an allied faction fight better as its relationship with the player improves.
Edit: The December 12, 2019 progress update stated that "loot and faction reputation are both likely reasons for [the player] to seek out [objectives]." HECK YEAH, BOI!

I'll mainly use Kweebecs in the field or in caves against weaker mobs; I usually won't bring them in dungeons or zone 4 because I don't want to waste their lives on difficult battles. Of course, I'll give them a lot of time to sunbathe. (See Robin's B support conversation with Virion.)

#10: Destroy hostile factions.

Screenshot from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
"...in seizing a state one ought to consider all the injuries he will be obliged to inflict and then proceed to inflict them all at once so as to avoid frequent repetition of such acts."
- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

Think of gang warfare in GTA San Andreas or GTA Vice City Stories for this part.
Note that I treat members of hostile factions as monsters or hostile mobs.

I imagine that befriending one faction can make another faction hate the player, such as Scaraks becoming increasingly aggressive to the player if they befriend the Ferans.
Hostile factions will most likely be as annoying as standard Minecraft hostile mobs to begin with, and befriending factions will make the hostile ones even worse; they could organize attacks against our base. That's why I chose to build a Trump wall and befriend factions before fighting the hostile factions; otherwise, our defenses against these factions would be weak if we assault them right off the bat.
Would you rather fight a colony of Scaraks in a base with small houses and farms, or fight them in a huge base protected by a Trump wall and a formation of Kweebecs?

Being a solo fighter means I can only attack one side at a time, causing most (if not all) enemy units to focus on me. Therefore, I have to create the illusion that they're being attacked on multiple sides by a larger army, causing them to split up. This can create a sense of paranoia that I'm preparing an ambush...when I'm really not doing so.
I can do this with some distant detonations around their base. Let's hope "redstone", "redstone repeaters", and "TNT" are easy to farm.

I'm terrified of the more dungeon-like faction bases though, like where the Sand Empress lives. Then again, at this point, our army will be more than powerful enough with our weapons, numbers, and tactics to defeat boss-like faction leaders.

Note that once I decide to destroy an enemy faction, I usually won't do anything else until that faction is completely destroyed. The sooner we can get rid of an annoying faction, the safer we will be. If you've ever played GTA San Andreas or Vice City Stories, you'll know how annoying it is to constantly have you and your territories hunted down by enemy gangs when they hate you.
The least I would do besides conquest is take a short break to gather resources, repair our weapons, and allow my troops to restore HP.

Oh, by the way, Trorks, you're first on my list of factions to obliterate. The fact that you love meat boils my blood. And this new screenshot shows a Trork encampment that I think is weakly defended:
Image from the Hypixel server forums
Thanks to @Shadrok_D for sharing this!
Backup plan: While failing an assault isn't a big deal because we can easily escape with skills and the right equipment, the tough part is dealing with retaliation attacks on our base, especially if we don't occupy enemy territory fast enough.
Putting lots of ranged-attacking NPCs like slingshot-wielding Kweebecs on our Trump wall can effectively suppress attacks by small armies, so those aren't a big deal for us, allowing us to take over about 50% of the enemy territory hassle-free. (Kweebecs, just please don't have Stormtrooper aim.)
But if the enemy armies are too strong or have specialized units (i.e. block breakers/builders, fliers, or lots of long-range attackers)...I honestly don't know what to do right now. I guess I'll take all the precious stuff in my base and KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
I should also build decoy and backup bases. Decoy bases might fool the AI into taking control of useless territory, while backup bases can be used when our main base's defenses fail. (I doubt that our defenses will be destroyed easily, considering our experiences in Minecraft. The most an enemy army can do to us is either kill one Kweebec or chip off 2% of our Trump wall.)

Side note: What about factions that are neither friendly nor hostile? It depends on whether we think they're morally good or bad. We'll befriend good (or neutral but peaceful) factions and destroy bad ones.

Another side note: Imagine if the player could convert a hostile faction to become their ally, either through friendship, mind control, or brute force.
Necromancy not included.

#11: Explore other dungeons in Orbis.

I should practice parkour in Minecraft before exploring dungeons.
Again, block breaking and placement are limited, so I can't cheat in Hytale dungeon parkour, unlike End cities. (I know Noxy dislikes pay-to-win games, but I'd still be ready in case Hypixel Studios is aware of how Genshin Impact players use the Geo Traveler and Venti to cheat in domains and events.)
Well, at least I've played a handful of platformers as a kid.

Puzzles aren't a problem though since I can just look up solutions online.
The tough part is being convinced to "solve them without help for a feeling of fulfillment", which I'm not a fan of in this situation because what if solving incorrectly triggers an unblockable or unavoidable trap?

#12: Explore the later Orbis zones.

This assumes that I start in zone 1 and each zone gets progressively more difficult, with zone 2 being harder than zone 1, zone 3 being harder than zone 2, and so on. While not definite proof of overall zone difficulty, Hypixel Studios said in the monster design post, "Undead encountered in later zones are tougher."
Edit: The December 12, 2019 progress update stated that zones 1, 2, and 3 have been changed to have scaling difficulty within them instead of one whole zone being harder than another. This means that, even if the player starts in zone 3 (which I assume was harder than zones 1 and 2 in the past), the player will have a reasonably easy time...assuming they avoid the obviously hard areas. Enemies will be stronger or weaker depending on the player's equipment and, I think, skill level. (Did I interpret the blog post right?)
Interesting how they didn't mention the last three zones. Maybe those zones are difficult to begin with regardless of equipment. Makes sense because, unless you're edgy or hardcore, why would you want to start your adventure in what is pretty much a volcano?

Hopefully the Orbis zones aren't too far apart from each other.
In Minecraft, it can take incredibly long to find a desert when starting from ice plains, especially if the biomes on the way are massive.

#13: Explore the alterverses.

Screenshot from Minecraft 1.8 with Custom NPCs
Trork sentry skin by TotalRespawn
For similar reasons why Minecrafters explore the Nether and End.

Just like with Nether portals, we need to make sure our alterverse portals (if applicable) are protected so that enemies can't deactivate them, and we need to bring items to reactivate them. Being stuck forever in an alterverse is pathetic and extremely boring.

If alterverse travel works similar to real-life space travel, I'll prioritize speed and durability for our spaceship to protect it against asteroids, monsters, and hostile factions. I'm willing to constantly refuel our ship and use my own weapons against the enemy rather than the spaceship's.

After gathering treasure from the alterverses, we may repeat steps #9 and #10. For #10, I'll start with the hostile factions that are normally incapable of traveling between alterverses since they can't harm us while we slack off or recover at our main Orbis base.

#14: Weaken Varyn's faction.

I assume that Varyn has his own faction because of this statement in the monster design post: "The creatures of the void make up the armies of Varyn, Hytale’s chief antagonist."

Notice that, despite being a step to destroy a faction, this is not included in steps #10 or #13. This is because I imagine Varyn's faction to be the strongest faction in the game (besides Gaia's faction, if any) and Varyn himself to be the final boss; the Hytale equivalent of the Ender Dragon. We need the best possible equipment and army against Varyn and his forces, so I chose to explore the alterverses and the rest of Orbis first (for a similar reason why Ender Dragon killers visit the Nether first--besides getting blaze rods, the Nether provides nether warts for making potions). If we assault Varyn's territories too early, our defenses may be overwhelmed by massive swarms of grotesque and powerful creatures that can cut our Trump wall like a hot knife through butter.
Think of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when Link frees the Divine Beasts from Calamity Ganon's control before going to Hyrule Castle to face Calamity Ganon, thus making the fight easier. (Yeah, this is no ordinary gang warfare--nothing like GTA.)

Varyn is not from Orbis, but his minions can spawn in Orbis. Could he have camps set up in Orbis? If yes, the Orbis camps are what I will raid first thanks to familiarity with that alterverse and to make it take longer to assault our base since, without the Orbis camps, Varyn's forces will need to travel from other alterverses. Maybe Varyn won't get too angry if I destroy his weaker forces first...

After obliterating most (if not all) of Varyn's forces from Orbis, I'll move on to Varyn's territories in the alterverses, in order of difficulty or familiarity.

For the Orbis camps, I'll probably bring faction members like Kweebecs; they can probably take a punch from Varyn's weaker forces. But for the alterverses, I'll go alone; I need my troops to defend my base. They'll probably get one-shot by Varyn anyway without being able to contribute anything to the fight.

Let's see how well I can use light magic. Then again, I plan to run a melee physical build.

#15: Defeat Varyn.

This should be done immediately after step #14.

Varyn, there's nowhere to run. We've decimated your forces and explored much of the Hytale universe in our hunt for your silly-looking head. (No offense, Thomas Frick. lololol)

There's hardly anything we know so far about Varyn's powers, other than him having a purple orb that represents void magic and Varyn putting all his focus on a spell charged by his hand. Therefore, this step is highly speculative.
Well, how kind of you, Varyn! I can see your attack coming, just like with other bosses and the people whose punches I've blocked with my karate chops!

But I think Varyn will most likely have area-of-effect attacks that are difficult to block or dodge, so I'm worried about how my troops will handle those.
Imagine if there was a dodge move that pushes allies out of the way of attacks.

When I look closely at Varyn's armor, I see lots of layers, so it might be really sturdy but heavy.
Thankfully, I'm also good with maces, so I can probably deal super effective damage to Varyn. (I've swung a baseball bat in real life.)

If Varyn can be fought anywhere, I'll fight him underground in the least dangerous alterverse (aside from Orbis because that's our home) to limit his movement, just like fighting the Wither. That comes with the drawback of being vulnerable to his AoE attacks because of our movement being also limited, but at least we can deal more consistent damage.

I'm also fine with fighting Varyn on a specialized battlefield like a portal dungeon. This kind of battlefield is predictable and has mostly unbreakable blocks, so we can adapt to the terrain by doing test runs and watching YouTube videos of Varyn fights.

Backup plan: Gaia forbid Varyn be summoned in our base. If that does happen, we're in massive trouble.
The obvious thing to do is lure Varyn away from the base, but that's tough if he randomly targets either players or non-players, or even player-made buildings.
Maybe the best place to lure Varyn is in zone 3, which symbolizes water. If he burns down the surroundings, the fire won't last long because of the cold climate.
Or maybe luring him to a place bathed in holy light would reduce the power of his void attacks.
I won't lure him to a cave in case he's smart enough to avoid caves.

#16: Defeat BoltOLightnin and YoSquid in a competitive tournament.

Step #3 in part 1 is ignored in this step.

At this point, BoltOLightnin, YoSquid, and I proved our strength as legendary heroes who have saved Hytale from Varyn and the all-consuming void.
We have explored the farthest reaches of the universe and seen almost everything there is to see...and maybe taken a few selfies.
We have a base that can sustain us for years to come.
Now our final quest is to prove our strength against one another.

It will start as a best-of-5 1v1 battle to the death with the loser being replaced at the end. For example, if YoSquid loses to BoltOLightnin, I replace YoSquid and fight BoltOLightnin.

Then, it will be a best-of-3 triple threat match with all three of us fighting at the same time. The last man standing wins.

If both officers kill each other at the same time, no points are given to anyone.

The winners of the 1v1 battle and the triple threat match will face each other in a best-of-2 battle.
If one officer won both the 1v1 battle and the triple threat match, they automatically win the entire tournament.

The tournament can take place anywhere, but I prefer to build an arena similar to a boxing ring. A forest or parkour battlefield would be interesting, though.

We can only use weapons that we acquired during the playthrough, but in unlimited amounts since I will cheat them in for tournament use only. For example, if I get a bronze spear at least once in our entire playthrough, anyone can use unlimited bronze spears in the tournament.

i bet i'm gonna lose this tournament; my minecraft pvp is bad (intentional bad grammar)

If a Pixelmon-like mod is installed, there will be a best-of-2 Pokémon battle. The loser will be replaced just like the 1v1 battle.  Only Pokémon in Smogon's OU tier and below are allowed. All Pokémon will be set to Lv. 100 and EVs set to the maximum of 508. (If using Let's Go! AVs instead of EVs, only 127 total AVs are allowed, with a max of 63 in a single stat. Stat boosts from friendship are not allowed.) If all three players won one of the three battles each, the final battles will be a triple threat match to the death.
Unlike my bad Minecraft PvP, I'm much better at Pokémon battles than BoltOLightnin or YoSquid. RIP

Practice plan (before Hytale release): I'll play Minecraft with Custom NPCs, then make those NPCs them fight me. Afterwards, I'll play Krunker.
These will help me get used to aiming.
(At least I still know Pokémon competitive battling, even though I've been playing too much Fire Emblem.)

This step no longer applies.

#17: Complete the story 100% and experience the postgame features, if any.

To truly feel a sense of accomplishment with friends, we need to complete the story 100%.
Plus, we can discuss these story elements on the go.

Alternate Bad Guy Playthrough

I'll befriend Trorks and Scaraks while obliterating the Kweebecs and Ferans. Bring me an axe to scare Kweebecs and let us enslave Ferans once again.
Varyn's faction will be the faction I befriend last; I imagine that, just like defeating Varyn, befriending Varyn will be a monumentally difficult task.
As for the faction I'll defeat last...I don't know. Whatever the strongest friendly faction is, I suppose. Maybe I'll start with Tessa and Kyros, who are Orbis officers (I'm speculating that they're generals).
I'm wild-guessing that the final boss for the bad guys is Gaia.

I have a Hair-Trigger Temper so I might run a fire magic build.

Imagine, what if void magic can block out the sun? That would prevent Kweebecs from sunbathing.
But maybe Gaia's worshippers (including Kweebecs, Ferans, and Orbis officers) have prayers or artifacts that make them resist void magic...

By the way, this will be my last blog post until August 4. Unlike the half-busy first week of school, the second week onwards is completely busy.
If only traditional school was a hostile faction that I could destroy in-game. lololol jk pls don't hate me

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Ending Summer with Hytale Practice in Minecraft: LunaticTactician & BoltOLightnin

DISCLAIMER: All Hytale-related statements, unless otherwise specified, are speculative and based on pre-release information and Minecraft. They're not to be taken seriously; they're just for fun.

I do not plan on making this a series. School has started, and BoltOLightnin may get bored.

Seeing as how school (and brain torture) were coming, I wanted to end my summer vacation with a bang and keep my morale and mental strength high for whatever the professors want to throw at my face.

I reread and was proud of my Hytale play style part 2, but I still felt guilty about having an authoritarian leadership plan. Besides, it was individual liberty that made the United States and the Philippines great; people can start and grow their own businesses with minimal interference from the government. Authoritarian states, like present-day Venezuela, are usually poor.
I wanted to spare myself of that guilt by further studying BoltOLightnin's play style (YoSquid is too busy with random family activities) in preparation for Hytale, so, on a whim, I invited him to a vanilla Minecraft 1.8.9 playthrough.
I'm surprised BoltOLightnin accepted the invitation. I know he's bored of the games I like to play (plus, I always beat him in chess and Pokémon Showdown), but he explained later that he wanted to get back into Minecraft.

Cave Carnage

We first spawned in a hilly forest with lots of cave entrances.

I screwed up and forgot to set the time to 0 when both of us were in the server, so nighttime struck before I even got a stone tool; I only had a wooden pickaxe. I didn't want to be out in the open, so I hid in one of the cave entrances, and BoltOLightnin followed me inside. We didn't have wood logs to make charcoal and it was too dangerous to go back outside, so we roamed aimlessly around the cave looking for coal.
We fought off a small wave of zombies coming from two sides. I had no proper weapon (I forgot to craft a stone sword), so I punched the zombie on my side to death. I found coal shortly afterwards by turning up my monitor's brightness to the max temporarily.

BoltOLightnin continued exploring, with him mostly taking the lead. It's not really part of my plan, but this is our first co-op Minecraft playthrough in several months and is intended to be Hytale practice, so I let it slide in case there's a happy ending out of it.

Mob sounds filled the entire cave, even though we lit our way with torches. There were twists and turns all over the place, so mobs could pop out when we're not looking...and they did. While BoltOLightnin was sneak-attacked by zombies while mining, I tried to help, but another zombie fell from a higher cave chamber and bit me on the back. (So much for not taking damage.)

I got paranoid, so I separated from BoltOLightnin to put torches around the cave to stop the overwhelming mob spawns. BoltOLightnin kept on mining, but every now and then, he got attacked by groups of mobs.
I honestly got lazy to help and figured that he can take care of himself, so I just did my own thing. Besides, my main purpose for staying in that cave is to hide from the mobs in the surface; it's easier to attack mobs coming from two sides rather than 360° around me.
But I screwed up; he eventually died.

I recovered his stuff since I was close to him when he died. Meanwhile, BoltOLightnin went into the cave to look for me. However, I was in a very deep cave chamber, and since BoltOLightnin moved so fast while exploring before, I lost track of where the exit is, and I struggled to get back up, especially considering that my health and hunger bars are almost empty, lots of cave chambers remain dark, and mob sounds continued to fill the air. I eventually got shot dead by a skeleton.
In a frustrated voice, I told BoltOLightnin, "Screw it, I wanna restart the world. Dying leaves a bad taste in my mouth." (I should have told him that there's no point looking for our stuff if we don't know where it is, causing it to eventually despawn.) He implied no, saying he wants to get our stuff back.

BoltOLightnin recovered our stuff, but I think he got surrounded by mobs, so he covered himself with cobblestone. However, he was still killed by a zombie despite completely protecting himself; either the zombie glitched through, or BoltOLightnin lagged slightly.

I was already in the cave trying to go along with his plan of getting our stuff back, and my continuous pressure to be allowed to restart the world isn't working, so I kept going through the insidious cave. As expected, I struggled to navigate the cursed place; it took me more than 5 minutes to find the cobblestone "cage". I found the cage, which was protected by a zombie that held a stone sword; I punched the zombie to death again. However, when we broke the cage, all the other stuff was gone.
I asked to restart the world one last time since I don't want to waste time starting over again in a world where we've wasted several nonrenewable ores just for them to despawn. I think BoltOLightnin finally said yes, but I can't remember what exactly he said; I think, in his mind, he still wanted to keep going.

Why did I ask to restart the server multiple times, even though I'm the server host and I have the full authority to do so?
Because, as much as I don't like it or think it's tactically unfeasible, I (sometimes) respect the opinions and freedom (and therefore the loyalty) of my soldiers.
I expressed my desire to restart the server as if it were a suggestion, not a command.
Then again, BoltOLightnin said my leadership is "good" because I give freedom to my soldiers.
how long will it take until i remove all my leftist traits (intentional bad grammar)

A Plainly Good Start

I generated a new random world, which let us spawn on a large and very flat plains biome with the ocean nearby.
Aw, you're so kind, Minecraft!
The world file is found here.

Problem is, there were no forests nearby. BoltOLightnin spotted a roofed forest past the ocean, though, so, after some boring swimming, we started gathering wood.
BoltOLightnin went back to the plains after a while, while I kept gathering wood until sunset, which is when I ordered a mini shelter to be built on the plains. He did, and it was a simple 5x3x6 (in the x, y, and z directions, respectively) box house made of dark oak wood.
When I got to our new home, I was surprised to see that BoltOLightnin had already built a farm by intersecting the ocean with rows of dirt. (Normally, I'd take that farm initiative because of my focus on survival, but I can't remember why he set up that farm.)

Since we haven't made any torches or beds yet, it's no surprise that mobs are all over the place. Seeing them so close to the house made me paranoid, so I killed some of them. BoltOLightnin joined in too.
The world was set to Hard difficulty (because I'm preparing for Hytale to be difficult similar to how ThirtyVirus wants it), so zombies spawned in hordes each time I attacked one. I was able to survive the night despite my low hunger bar thanks to their rotten flesh.
also, i accidentally killed BoltOLightnin while killing zombies at our door, and i made him run a long distance from the spawn point to our house (intentional bad grammar)

We did some random stuff from that point on; I can't remember what happened in what order, but here are the significant events.

I needed coal and iron, but there were no caves nearby (just a ravine that I didn't explore because I'm too lazy to climb back up), so I made a staircase mine. In addition to coal and iron, I quickly found 8 diamonds and made a diamond pickaxe.

BoltOLightnin primarily focused on mining elsewhere throughout the rest of the playthrough; I usually didn't see him in the base, and when I did, he was usually crafting or smelting.
Besides those, he improved the appearance of his mini shelter, adding a pyramid roof and cobblestone on the corners. The inside got filled mostly with chests.
The inside is too cramped to put a bed in.

BoltOLightnin and I described this as more similar to a "storage shed" than a house.

Speaking of house-building, I worked on my own house near BoltOLightnin's house.
At first, BoltOLightnin was confused when I built a 15x15 floor one block higher than the ground, so he built around the sides of the floor as if making walls. I told him not to help with my house since I had my own not-so-simple design planned.
I took round trips between the base and the roofed forest to get wood and wool (there were sheep in there, which I left untouched until we got shears).
I admit, I only know how to make Minecraft village-style houses, so in the end, the house is made mostly of birch wood with oak logs for corners and oak fences for windows (I don't like smelting sand because it's nonrenewable). The dark oak wood floor that I started with also formed an elevated terrace. The first floor is a living room, dining room, kitchen, and enchanting room all in one, despite not having a furnace (I got lazy to get cobblestone). The next day in real life, I worked on the second floor, which is a bedroom, storage room, and balcony access. It has a "master bed" which I tried to give an "elaborate" design.
It's still incomplete at this point, but it's a viable shelter.
Hopefully Void Eyes and dragons won't attack until the roof is complete.
A house shouldn't just be tactically viable; it should also be comfortable.
Even in gaming, adventurers need to relax after tiring traveling and battling.
The second floor.
A big window gives a clear view of the surroundings.
A closer look at the master's bed.
We had an enchantment table ready, but we consider it near-useless without bookshelves, so BoltOLightnin set out further through the plains to look for cows. However, the sun has set, and huge hordes of mobs were scattered almost everywhere I looked while BoltOLightnin was deep into an unexplored area of the plains with mobs attacking him left and right while he was slowly bringing chickens to our base. (No cows were found yet, but we needed feathers for arrows.) I defended the perimeter of my own house and obliterated more groups of zombies; leaving the house would expose me to mob attacks, and I thought BoltOLightnin could take care of himself since he survived about 2 minutes while baiting the chickens...until BoltOLightnin got blown up by a creeper.
I probably should have given him a spare bed.
Did I tell him to retreat to base and ignore the chickens? I don't remember, but I should've said that. Still, for me, it's a dumb idea to do non-mining field work at night. (By field work, I mean work far away from the base.) Fighting while working can distract the brain; it frequently happens to me when I'm playing action games in real life and a customer asks for a complicated order. The only work worth doing at night is fighting.

BoltOLightnin died at sunrise, and the mobs were burning up, so I went out of my base to recover his stuff and find the chickens again. He joined up with me eventually, and we found both the stuff and the chickens. Additionally, BoltOLightnin's younger brother (who BoltOLightnin claims to have had more Minecraft practice) pointed out two cows that we didn't see. I baited the chickens, while BoltOLightnin baited the cows. He then made two holes for each animal; it's easier to put animals inside that way, rather than using fences and fence gates on the surface, because we can just punch animals inside and they can't escape.
Sizes can be deceiving.
But we actually have more cows than chickens.
(This screenshot was taken after some breeding, not at the moment we got our first animals)
At one point, I felt like helping BoltOLightnin mine; we haven't gotten many significant ores since I found those diamonds. I met up with him at my strip mine, where we mined further through while I supplied ourselves with additional pickaxes since I brought 32 oak planks. BoltOLightnin took the lead again, but I messed around by overtaking him each time he found ores...and they were mostly iron and gold.
We ran into what we eventually realized was a lava stream, not just a lava lake. BoltOLightnin continued to take the lead while I lit the way with torches; I wanted to stand back so he has enough space to focus and accurately douse the lava with water. We mined upwards and saw that the lava stream was quite long, so we followed it around and saw a cave chamber upwards. I didn't advance with him; I got lazy to do so and I ran out of wood. He didn't find anything significant through there, so we just went back to base.

I then reminded BoltOLightnin of his idea of building a new, better personal base (since I was proud of my own house and was excited to see how BoltOLightnin puts his own touch into a Survival base) which he suggested before mining. He told me he wanted to build a castle surrounded by a trench filled with lava (I forgot the other details). We collected about 10 stacks of cobblestone from our last mining trip, so we were ready to build without realizing it. BoltOLightnin started with the trench, which was 2 blocks deep. There was a ravine in the way, so he ordered me to cover it with dirt, and I think I covered about 50%.
Night fell again as we worked, and it's a good thing that we were near our base. I ordered BoltOLightnin to go to bed as soon as I saw the sky turn orange to indicate sunset, while I immediately went to my own house so the mobs don't beat me to the punch.
I looked out the window, and to my shock, BoltOLightnin was still working on his trench, oblivious to the mobs creeping towards him, to which I shouted, "Behind you!" He got cornered by the horde of mobs, so I rushed to help by first killing the skeletons because of their ranged attacks being difficult to evade. In a few seconds, I got cornered as well, with two creepers blowing up close to me, and skeletons shooting me in every direction while spiders pounced towards me as I panicked. I locked myself in my own house, but BoltOLightnin still got cornered and died to a zombie. That's when he decided to leave the game.
I gave him a half-hearted "reprimand". I can't remember what I said, but I think I advised to never do work outside unless he's ready to fight.

I'm still frustrated about how this playthrough ended, especially since school is around the corner. I messaged YoSquid and asked him to protect BoltOLightnin since both of them have aggressive play styles. He said yes.

Oh well, until the next Hytale practice.

Moral lessons for myself?

Sometimes I hate moral lessons. Just saying.

  • Practice fighting against large groups of different mobs. Afterwards, practice rescuing a custom NPC from a group of mobs.
  • Work cooperatively if possible. Mobs can appear around any corner, and working together allows the team to carry more things.
  • Command with an iron fist if a soldier fails to follow orders too many times.
  • Make backup plans in case a soldier doesn't follow orders.
  • Adapt to the officers' desires and tactics. BoltOLightnin prefers mining over many other activities: a trait expressed in our Bytesize playthrough. (i keep forgetting to do this (intentional bad grammar))

Other Combat-related Moments

  • In our second world (the one with the big plains), I have 0 deaths. I've had some close calls, though, which were easily solved by running to a shelter.
  • When I alert BoltOLightnin to the presence of a mob, I often say, "I'll deal with it" so he can continue working. He usually deals the final blow anyway. Oh well, at least this isn't competitive multiplayer.
  • I often dictate our moves while fighting. When fighting creepers, for example, I avoid pincer attacks and go for their front or side while sprint-attacking to buy us time to escape their explosion attack.
  • BoltOLightnin advised me to use the classic mob-baiting strategy where he runs from mobs and I kill them from the side.
  • BoltOLightnin stated that he "just won't quit" (even with overwhelming odds). I need to find a situation to exploit that trait properly...

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Sleepy Battery - Coach G-Force Part 8 (Final, for now)

Screenshot from Fire Emblem Heroes
It's super effective!
*In the case of my title, "battery" refers to battering. (NOT the thing that powers electronics.)

In April 2019, I have been slacking off to the max after school while mostly playing video games in my family store.
I'll admit, I've been playing so much that I consistently stayed up until up to 4 AM and woke up at 1 PM. Some of those all-nighters were spent making blog posts, not just gaming.

I've also been unenthusiastic about working out. Besides April 30 (the date of this particular training session), I've only worked out 3 times on April. I wanted Mom and Dad to rest in the afternoon while I stay in the store, and I'm not allowed to go out while the summer heat is too strong.
I was actually unenthusiastic to go on April 30, even though that date was convenient for Coach G-Force.
Fortunately, Mom and Dad wanted to go workout on this day, so I went along inside our car. (I'm not allowed to drive by myself, and I don't dare do it; I'm still a noob.)

Interestingly, when I went inside the gym, Boulder (my fake name for one of the trainers) said, "The champ is back!" I think Coach G-Force told all the staff that I'm coming for training.

I was too tired to have 12 rounds of sparring, so I didn't ask for it. Coach G-Force did ask if I wanted regular sparring, and I said yes.

He also asked if I walked on my way to Gold's Gym, and I said no, so we started with the standard mittwork. I took it slowly, but got bad with dodging and complicated combos.

The first sparring round was surprising. Although I absentmindedly started with fast, medium-power punches to random body parts, I got two clean hits on the first 30 seconds, one of which was on Coach G-Force's left temple and was caught on camera. (Yes, I brought my camera, but I don't have a cameraman.)
Later in the round, however, Coach G-Force played defensively and I lost a lot of energy, so I couldn't get a hard hit on him. My defenses were lazy, so he got at least 2 semi-clean hits on me, and I admit, I flinched after one clean strike to the abs. The others barely hurt me, but I still got disappointed. (Activating "rage mode" would not be a good idea in the early game.)

The second round was (sort of) the opposite. Coach G-Force got up to 7 semi-clean hits, while I got lazy to attack. However, I got 2 more clean hits to the left temple, with one knocking Coach G-Force on his knees at the very last second. I also spammed punches in the mid-game, causing Coach G-Force to be knocked onto a support column near the camera. (WALL HIT! I guess that's one way to pierce defenses.)

Coach G-Force knew that I was tired and losing power, so he stopped sparring and did more mittwork...and I did worse at long combos.

I was then asked to do a drill where I put my front foot between cones while punching, and stepping back before moving to the next set of cones. I quickly got tired.

On the drill where I alternated my front foot between cones, I almost vomited on the third set, and Coach G-Force told me to stop, and ended the session.

Nothing significant happened later, other than me merging my 5★ Robin in Fire Emblem Heroes. (He's my favorite Fire Emblem character; second is Ephraim.)

Mom is initially willing to buy me new training sessions, but I need to discuss with her further before making the decision.
Oh well, if I don't get lazy and get better sleeping (and studying) habits, I might get those 12 sparring rounds in one day.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Predicted Orbis Pokémon Spawns (Hytale Mod Speculation)

As you know, I'm a huge fan of Pokémon.
I've also played Pixelmon, a Pokémon mod for Minecraft.

Hytale, just like Minecraft (but better), also has a vast universe filled with many biomes, some of which are drastically different from one another. Just like how Pokémon inhabit many places in the Pokémon universe and the Minecraft world in Pixelmon, I imagine that Orbis, and maybe some of the alterverses, would also have a huge variety of unique Pokémon, further encouraging the player to journey throughout all of Hytale to catch 'em all.

Here's my list of Orbis Pokémon spawns: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1USuiO_3eH42kmETF4lk5tmakbW7wW94uJfQTUWf9hCo/edit?usp=sharing

Note that these zone spawns are all my personal opinion; I'm not even sure whether or not I put a certain Pokémon in a zone that's right for its type(s) and climate preferences.
Hytale modders are free to use my spawn list, but it's their choice whether or not to strictly follow it.

Also, Pokémon in Hytale will NOT be an official feature.
(Otherwise, Hypixel Studios would get a huge copyright lawsuit. lololol)

To the developers of Pixelmon Reforged: BRING POKÉMON INTO HYTALE!!!

Edit, June 6, 2019: Updated with the new Pokémon revealed in the latest Pokémon Direct.