Crystals For Life 2014

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2014-01-23 01:02:59 pm

2014-01-23 12:52:23 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

I can't guarantee mods on-site for bonus stream, if we do off-site bonus play (post-marathon shenanigans being what they are). Please remind me to make any off-site streamers into a mod. I'll give a thought to on-site vs. off-site bonus stream while at the hotel this weekend, when I see what we have to work with.

And yeah, unfortunately, a few gamers have withdrawn their games due to travel concerns. I'll add some stuff to the games list this weekend to make up the time. I'll contact people who had games cut to see if they're comfortable having a second game added in.

And, so there's no misunderstanding this time around: recall how I said I'd try to give each person one game, before giving any person a second game (and it just turned out, by coincidence, that essentially there was exactly enough room for each person to have one game). The corollary of that approach is: I'll give a second game to each person before I give any person a third game (i.e., a few people will get a second game, and no one's getting a third game).

I can't guarantee mods on-site for bonus stream, if we do off-site bonus play (post-marathon shenanigans being what they are).  Please remind me to make any off-site streamers into a mod.  I'll give a thought to on-site vs. off-site bonus stream while at the hotel this weekend, when I see what we have to work with.

And yeah, unfortunately, a few gamers have withdrawn their games due to travel concerns.  I'll add some stuff to the games list this weekend to make up the time.  I'll contact people who had games cut to see if they're comfortable having a second game added in.

[u]And, so there's no misunderstanding this time around[/u]: recall how I said I'd try to give each person one game, before giving any person a second game (and it just turned out, by coincidence, that essentially there was exactly enough room for each person to have one game).  The corollary of that approach is: I'll give a second game to each person before I give any person a third game (i.e., a few people will get a second game, and no one's getting a third game).

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2014-01-27 08:42:28 pm

Poxnor: 2014-01-24 05:26:04 pm

Poxnor: 2014-01-24 05:25:26 pm

2014-01-23 08:20:23 pm

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Amazing artwork from Kari Fry, for promoting C4L 2014 on your Twitch page! English and French versions available.

L'art extraordinaire de Kari Fry, pour la promotion de C4L 2014 à votre page web à Twitch! En anglais et en français.

Edit (thanks Raelcun): When you go to add the banner in Twitch, Twitch brings up a window that tries to crop the banner vertically. Just drag the cropping down to include the entire banner and click "Accept". If that doesn't work, try again and it should the second time.

Edit 2: The best URL to link the banner to is www.crystalsforlife.ca. Lag.Com and Mercury.Com have graciously agreed to design another (beautiful!) website for C4L 2014. Right now, there's just my silly little placeholder page.

Attachments:

C4L-Banner-2014-English.jpg

C4L-Banner-2014-French.jpg

Raelcun

2014-01-24 04:54:20 pm

We require more minerals

Looks great, took me a few tries to get the Twitch layout to behave with it, but it works fine.

It will bring up a window that tries to get you to crop it vertically, but you can just drag it to include the entire picture and click accept. If it doesn't work in the first 5-10 seconds try again and it should work fine.

Poxnor

2014-01-24 06:16:46 pm

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If people want to link CrystalsForLife.ca from the banner on their Twitch page, there's now (for the time being) a little placeholder page, as opposed to the "Thanks, we're done!" page from April 2013.

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2014-01-27 07:19:28 pm

2014-01-27 07:00:07 pm

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Hi everyone,

I promised you something concrete by Monday. First, some quick pieces of news:

- The deadline for signing up or casually dropping out of C4L 2014 is 1 March 2014. By casually dropping out, I mean something like, "I don't feel like coming anymore." Obviously if there's, e.g., a family emergency, that's not what I'm talking about.

- Unfortunately, mikwuyma and romscout aren't able to make it any more. As a result, I had to remove Demon Rush and Dragon Quest III from the game lineup. I added FF4 and Illusion of Gaia (the two most mentioned Round 2 "add back" games). I'm almost certainly going to add something more back as well. 105.5 hours is really getting to the thin side for 5 days of gaming. We probably want more like 113-115, I believe.

- Driscollad, Ginzuishou, and I spent the weekend working with JDRF in Edmonton. We have a hotel 99% nailed down. There are negotiations happening this week regarding room rates, etc. I'll give more details as they emerge. The hotel is the Chateau Louis in Edmonton. The hotel is nicer than its website.

- The first post was given a badly needed update. Hopefully, the games list is actually readable now Tongue

Commentary is looking pretty thin, unfortunately.

Sorry for the short and somewhat rushed post. On the road to the airport to head home to YVR.

Hi everyone,

I promised you something concrete by Monday.  First, some quick pieces of news:

- The deadline for signing up or casually dropping out of C4L 2014 is 1 March 2014.  By casually dropping out, I mean something like, "I don't feel like coming anymore."  Obviously if there's, e.g., a family emergency, that's not what I'm talking about.

- Unfortunately, mikwuyma and romscout aren't able to make it any more.  As a result, I had to remove Demon Rush and Dragon Quest III from the game lineup.  I added FF4 and Illusion of Gaia (the two most mentioned Round 2 "add back" games).  I'm almost certainly going to add something more back as well.  105.5 hours is really getting to the thin side for 5 days of gaming. We probably want more like 113-115, I believe.

- Driscollad, Ginzuishou, and I spent the weekend working with JDRF in Edmonton.  We have a hotel 99% nailed down.  There are negotiations happening this week regarding room rates, etc.  I'll give more details as they emerge. The hotel is the Chateau Louis in Edmonton. The hotel is nicer than its website.

- The first post was given a badly needed update.  Hopefully, the games list is actually readable now :P Commentary is looking pretty thin, unfortunately.

Sorry for the short and somewhat rushed post. On the road to the airport to head home to YVR.

kirbymastah

Edit history:

kirbymastah: 2014-01-27 08:34:52 pm

2014-01-27 08:33:26 pm

<(^_^)>

Is there an actual website so when I advertise it on my twitch with a banner, it goes to it? or should I just link it to this thread for now?

EDIT: I should actually read the banner Tongue

Poxnor

2014-01-27 08:40:48 pm

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Thank you so much for advertising C4L, kirbymastah. All of us really appreciate the exposure.

And you just beat me by getting that edit in Wink

Poxnor

2014-01-27 08:57:54 pm

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Oh, one more quick point. A lot of people have been asking me for a schedule (as opposed to just a games list).

I always assumed the schedule was pretty secondary to the games list, and as such, I considered it very low priority. Clearly, I was wrong in that assumption, since it seems really important to lots of people.

To address this lapse, we started working on the schedule today. Driscollad, Ginzuishou, and I talked about it for over an hour, over lunch today. I don't think it'll take us terribly long to do. After discussion, we were unanimous on many scheduling points, and about half the schedule built itself from some basic tenants on which all three of us agreed.

Essentia

2014-01-27 09:24:49 pm

Everything's better with Magitek

Somehow I didn't get added to commentary. Anyway, I can commentate on Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, FFVI, and Half-Minute Hero. I can also commentate on FFIII, if no one else volunteers for it. You can add Denton to commentary for FFIV and Birth by Sleep.

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2014-01-27 09:29:56 pm

2014-01-27 09:29:22 pm

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Yeah, I think I missed some people's commentary requests. For example, I could have sworn someone (puwexil?) wanted to commentate FFA, but it's not in the first post.

Take this as an invitation to review my shoddy work in the first post Tongue

Edit: I'll fix yours, Essentia, once I'm back home.

MetaSigma

2014-01-27 09:54:37 pm

Evermore Extrodinare ᕦ(° Д°)ᕤ

I should say I can help out with LO commentary, also and this is more a question toward FFGamer86. How much do you know about Terranigma? If nothing else I've been watching a TON of Sake playing it so I have a fairly good grasp on what's going on. Just saying it might help if it allows you a chance to either get a lil more rest or commentate on something else? Just thought I'd throw that out there Smiley

puwexil

2014-01-27 11:57:27 pm

Professional Second Banana

You can add me for FF3 commentary too - watched duckfist's run during the AGDQ bonus stream and got a pretty good sense of how the inventory glitches and RNG manipulation work.

Also, please add me for Terranigma and FF4 commentary, and add Sakegeist for Illusion of Gaia commentary. I can also learn FFA, KH: BBS, and Lufia II if we end up short on commentators for those.

Rayas

2014-01-28 12:00:10 am

Wonderprincess

I can comment on FFA, but being french that may sound super silly, english not being my main language :x

Keypaladin

2014-01-28 12:41:03 am

The Wayward Wanderer

I don't know if this had been posted or not, but as it currently stand, I will be arriving with Essentia, so that should be taken into account when planning the schedule.

Poxnor

2014-01-28 10:56:30 am

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I added everyone to all the commentary they as much as suggested they could do. I'm a commentary ninja Wink

I want to talk a little about scheduling, just so people are aware of how we're proceeding. There are essentially three prime-times that we are going to be targeting: North America (MDT through EDT), western Europe, and the Australian east coast. Some games/runners are going to be more popular in Europe (Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore), and some are going to be more popular in Australia (Lost Odyssey, Pokemon). To the people who we thought would work best in the European primetime: sorry you can't sleep in. To the people who we thought would work best in the Australian primetime: just sorry Wink

Something to think about for all runners: rolling donation incentives are the most awesome thing ever. Give some thought as to whether or not there's one in your game. A rolling incentive is one of those incentives that can continually be changed. As examples, naming in FF4, the text background in FF6 (*snicker*), or mute the TV vs. unmute the TV in Final Fantasy Adventure (if you've seen my stream, you'll understand).

Finally, I've added FFX back to the schedule. I chose to add FFX for two reasons: (1) it was a perfect length, bringing us to 116.5 hours. Assuming that means 121.5 hours in wall-clock time, that lets us start at ~6pm on Tuesday, and end ~7:30pm on Sunday. For reasons I won't go into at length (in short, we're in MDT, so think about the timing of the kickoff and finale), those are good starting times and ending times; and, (2) even though it was only mentioned once in Round 2 as a "bring back" game, FF7 vs. FFX was the most divided of the Round 2 debates, and there's obviously a big appetite for both.

Oh, did I say audience area? Actually, I didn't, because I edited my post. But, audience area! Don't worry, they won't be in the gaming room. There will be a second area (in the hotel bar) with a downstream and a donation station for JDRF. Sgt. McCormack's idea. It's never been tried before, and we don't know if it'll work or bomb. But, we have absolutely nothing to lose. If you're a social butterfly, you can go down and meet some fans. How will people know about it? JDRF is arranging for me to interview with pretty much every major local media outlet.

(So, just as a complete-transparency heads-up: FFA is probably going to get a better time slot than it deserves by any measure, probably Sunday morning, because I'm going to have to schedule my game around what will be my primary role at C4L 2014.)

Rayas: Your English is better than my French, and you'd be more than welcome to commentate FFA Smiley

Keypaladin: Err, how does arriving with Essentia affect the schedule? Do you need time to shake off all the extra niceness you'll contract from riding in a car with Essentia and Denton? Smiley

I added everyone to all the commentary they as much as suggested they could do.  I'm a commentary ninja ;)

I want to talk a little about scheduling, just so people are aware of how we're proceeding.  There are essentially three prime-times that we are going to be targeting: North America (MDT through EDT), western Europe, and the Australian east coast.  Some games/runners are going to be more popular in Europe (Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore), and some are going to be more popular in Australia (Lost Odyssey, Pokemon).  To the people who we thought would work best in the European primetime: sorry you can't sleep in.  To the people who we thought would work best in the Australian primetime: just sorry ;)

[b][u][i]Something to think about for all runners[/i][/u][/b]: rolling donation incentives are the most awesome thing ever.  Give some thought as to whether or not there's one in your game.  A rolling incentive is one of those incentives that can continually be changed.  As examples, naming in FF4, the text background in FF6 (*snicker*), or mute the TV vs. unmute the TV in Final Fantasy Adventure (if you've seen my stream, you'll understand).

Finally, I've added FFX back to the schedule.  I chose to add FFX for two reasons: (1) it was a perfect length, bringing us to 116.5 hours.  Assuming that means 121.5 hours in wall-clock time, that lets us start at ~6pm on Tuesday, and end ~7:30pm on Sunday.  For reasons I won't go into at length (in short, we're in MDT, so think about the timing of the kickoff and finale), those are good starting times and ending times; and, (2) even though it was only mentioned once in Round 2 as a "bring back" game, FF7 vs. FFX was the most divided of the Round 2 debates, and there's obviously a big appetite for both.

Oh, did I say audience area?  Actually, I didn't, because I edited my post.  But, audience area!  Don't worry, they won't be in the gaming room.  There will be a second area (in the hotel bar) with a downstream and a donation station for JDRF.  Sgt. McCormack's idea.  It's never been tried before, and we don't know if it'll work or bomb.  But, we have absolutely nothing to lose.  If you're a social butterfly, you can go down and meet some fans.  How will people know about it?  JDRF is arranging for me to interview with pretty much every major local media outlet.

(So, just as a complete-transparency heads-up: FFA is probably going to get a better time slot than it deserves by any measure, probably Sunday morning, because I'm going to have to schedule my game around what will be my primary role at C4L 2014.)

Rayas: Your English is better than my French, and you'd be more than welcome to commentate FFA :)

Keypaladin: Err, how does arriving with Essentia affect the schedule?  Do you need time to shake off all the extra niceness you'll contract from riding in a car with Essentia and Denton? :)

Poxnor

2014-01-28 11:16:11 am

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As a quick question to the admins of the forum (or anyone knowledgable about it): is it possible for me to designate a few people who are also able to edit the first post, to help catch things I miss (e.g., like how I missed a bunch of commentary posts)?

Vulajin

2014-01-28 12:25:07 pm

I'm still willing to commentate Mass Effect, and I'd also be willing to learn and commentate for FF3 and Chrono Cross. (All assuming the various runners approve these offers.)

Dowolf

2014-01-28 06:44:07 pm

So as I said might happen when I made my initial offering, it turns out real-life obligations will prevent me from attending. Sorry.

rinimt

Edit history:

rinimt: 2014-01-28 07:15:00 pm

2014-01-28 06:57:26 pm

Kupo!

Well, since FFX is back in (and I hate my sleep, we found this out at C4L last year), add me in on commentary for it. As far as incentives go, when do you want us to start posting actual lists of incentives?

Edit: Helps if I fully read the first post. If you aren't wanting them yet then my apologies, but here you go. I talked these over with Nami last night and she confirmed what I'd been thinking.

SO4 incentives:

-Rolling name incentive: 9. Can change at any time, but (just for time reasons) I'll limit it to major character joins and 2 major late game menus. Note that one character has to be permanently cut off around 2 hours in. The first character also wouldn't be named until the second joins roughly 2 minutes later. So figure changes around 10 times during the run. Character limit: 8 (6 if the text is set to Japanese)
(Added note: In the interest of time, and in that trying to type on a PS3 with a controller is a royal pain, I'll be bringing my keyboard (the one I use for FF14 so I know it works on PS3s) along so I can just type in the names instead of trying to fumble with PS3 controller typing.)
-Rolling voice language incentive between English/Japanese voices. (Would do this when names were changed, so again, figure about 10 times during the run.)
-Text incentive: While it could be rolling, the game is really (really, really) dumb about how it stores names between languages. As in it doesn't do it at all (it stores it on that language, but when you change it over it resets the name. Likely something to do with the fact the Japanese name limit is 2 characters shorter than any other language). I'd have to fix the names back to what they are every time the text language changed. For that reason I'm just going to call this as a "set it at the start of the run and be done" incentive. Can choose between English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, German.
-Nappy Time: I'll just leave it at that. Wink

(It's an adorable scene that I'd normally just pass by, costs maybe 3-4 minutes.)

Well, since FFX is back in (and I hate my sleep, we found this out at C4L last year), add me in on commentary for it. As far as incentives go, when do you want us to start posting actual lists of incentives?

Edit: Helps if I fully read the first post. If you aren't wanting them yet then my apologies, but here you go. I talked these over with Nami last night and she confirmed what I'd been thinking.

SO4 incentives:

-Rolling name incentive: 9. Can change at any time, but (just for time reasons) I'll limit it to major character joins and 2 major late game menus. Note that one character has to be permanently cut off around 2 hours in. The first character also wouldn't be named until the second joins roughly 2 minutes later. So figure changes around 10 times during the run. Character limit: 8 (6 if the text is set to Japanese)
(Added note: In the interest of time, and in that trying to type on a PS3 with a controller is a royal pain, I'll be bringing my keyboard (the one I use for FF14 so I know it works on PS3s) along so I can just type in the names instead of trying to fumble with PS3 controller typing.)
-Rolling voice language incentive between English/Japanese voices. (Would do this when names were changed, so again, figure about 10 times during the run.)
-Text incentive: While it could be rolling, the game is really (really, really) dumb about how it stores names between languages. As in it doesn't do it at all (it stores it on that language, but when you change it over it resets the name. Likely something to do with the fact the Japanese name limit is 2 characters shorter than any other language). I'd have to fix the names back to what they are every time the text language changed. For that reason I'm just going to call this as a "set it at the start of the run and be done" incentive. Can choose between English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, German.
-Nappy Time: I'll just leave it at that. ;) (It's an adorable scene that I'd normally just pass by, costs maybe 3-4 minutes.)

Poxnor

Edit history:

Poxnor: 2014-01-28 10:43:58 pm

2014-01-28 10:38:21 pm

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rinimt: Since we'll want to create a comprehensive list of incentives to input into the tracker, could you let me know the names of the nine characters that are nameable? At this point, I'm not looking for a pitch (i.e., how many incentives are there); rather, I'm looking to create the list of incentives. Also, I agree that anything that creates headaches isn't a good rolling incentive; so, let's call the text language a start-of-run fixed bidding war. Also, since I don't know SO4, could you tell me what "nappy time" is, just so I have some clue about how to list it as an incentive (e.g., "Watch the nappy time cutscene", or something like that?).

Dowolf: so sorry that you aren't able to make it Sad

I've removed Half-Minute Hero from the schedule. Given its length, though, if any other attendees are able to run it, I'd be happy just to reallocate it to another player. It's a fun, exciting shorty. Hope to meet you in the future, Dowolf.

rinimt

2014-01-28 11:58:48 pm

Kupo!

"Watch the Nappy Time Cutscene" would probably work best. And the character names (I've noted the one who needs the cutoff with when they'll need the cutoff):
Edge, Reimi, Faize (Must be permanently cut off ~2 hours in (when Sarah is named)), Lymle, Bacchus, Meracle, Myuria, Sarah, Arumat

Sir VG

2014-01-29 12:12:31 am

Fucking Weeaboo

Legend of Mana donation incentives that I've considered best:

Choice Type Donations
-----------------------------
Character Name
Character Gender
Storyline (Dragon vs Faerie vs Jumi) [This one is the biggest deciding factor on how long the run is.]
Japanese vs English version [I know you want English, but how about we leave it up to the fans?]
2P Run (Choice for who plays the partner PCs)

Challenge Type Donations
-----------------------------
View Opening Cutscene
Voice Act final scene of the storyline.
Heaven's Gate Glitch (This would be a post-run demonstration).

There's a few more ideas I have, but it's a matter of how to make them work since they're dependent on storyline. Also, some of them are VERY early in the run (like the Rabite/Chocobo choice). My idea is "Speedrun choices vs Alternate Choices":
Speedrun Choices: Take Rabite (Dragon). Penguin Password is ... (Faerie). Side with Daena (Faerie). Take Pearl (Jumi).
Alternate Choices: Take Chocobo (Using an FF8 Save, Dragon). Penguin Password is What? (Faerie). Side with Escad (Faerie). Take Elazul (Jumi).

The only one that could potentially be rolling is the 2P option, but I don't know if that's a good idea. Most of the items have to be closed before the game starts, except for voice acting and heaven's gate glitch.

Legend of Mana donation incentives that I've considered best:

Choice Type Donations
-----------------------------
Character Name
Character Gender
Storyline (Dragon vs Faerie vs Jumi) [This one is the biggest deciding factor on how long the run is.]
Japanese vs English version [I know you want English, but how about we leave it up to the fans?]
2P Run (Choice for who plays the partner PCs)

Challenge Type Donations
-----------------------------
View Opening Cutscene
Voice Act final scene of the storyline.
Heaven's Gate Glitch (This would be a post-run demonstration).

There's a few more ideas I have, but it's a matter of how to make them work since they're dependent on storyline. Also, some of them are VERY early in the run (like the Rabite/Chocobo choice). My idea is "Speedrun choices vs Alternate Choices":
Speedrun Choices: Take Rabite (Dragon). Penguin Password is ... (Faerie). Side with Daena (Faerie). Take Pearl (Jumi).
Alternate Choices: Take Chocobo (Using an FF8 Save, Dragon). Penguin Password is What? (Faerie). Side with Escad (Faerie). Take Elazul (Jumi).

The only one that could potentially be rolling is the 2P option, but I don't know if that's a good idea. Most of the items have to be closed before the game starts, except for voice acting and heaven's gate glitch.

Vulajin

Edit history:

Vulajin: 2014-01-29 02:05:33 am

2014-01-29 02:04:26 am

For Pokémon White 2, the following incentives are available:

Trainer Name (7 char limit)
(optional incentive) Trainer Gender (M/F) - I am literally the only Pokémon speedrunner who prefers the male trainer
Rival Name (7 char limit)
Tepig Name (10 char limit) - the workhorse of the speedrun
Ducklett Name (10 char limit) - is adorable; flies me places
Terrakion Name (10 char limit) - large and ugly semi-legendary Pokémon; helps with a few battles
(optional incentive) Minccino Name (10 char limit) - sacrificed several times for various reasons; serves no other useful purpose
(optional incentive) Other Fodder Pokémon Name (10 char limit) - might be a Solosis, Liepard, Trubbish, or a second Minccino; used for literally one battle

I marked three as optional to leave them to your discretion, Poxnor. I feel like trainer gender is the kind of incentive that could be fraught with peril, and the last two Pokémon names barely appear on screen, but we can include these if you feel it's appropriate.

For Pokémon White 2, the following incentives are available:

Trainer Name (7 char limit)
(optional incentive) Trainer Gender (M/F) - I am literally the only Pokémon speedrunner who prefers the male trainer
Rival Name (7 char limit)
Tepig Name (10 char limit) - the workhorse of the speedrun
Ducklett Name (10 char limit) - is adorable; flies me places
Terrakion Name (10 char limit) - large and ugly semi-legendary Pokémon; helps with a few battles
(optional incentive) Minccino Name (10 char limit) - sacrificed several times for various reasons; serves no other useful purpose
(optional incentive) Other Fodder Pokémon Name (10 char limit) - might be a Solosis, Liepard, Trubbish, or a second Minccino; used for literally one battle

I marked three as optional to leave them to your discretion, Poxnor. I feel like trainer gender is the kind of incentive that could be fraught with peril, and the last two Pokémon names barely appear on screen, but we can include these if you feel it's appropriate.

Poxnor

2014-01-29 11:19:54 am

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Thanks for those incentives, everyone. I'll add them to the first post later today. And thanks, Vulajin, for thinking about the character limit. Could I grab the character limits off you, rinimt and Sir VG?

rinimt

2014-01-29 11:57:23 am

Kupo!

Quote from rinimt:

Character limit: 8 (6 if the text is set to Japanese)