Robocraft Review

I was so excited last night, and was totally planning to put up a post, but then I got distracted and forgot. And now it's late and I should be asleep, but I don't want to put it off any further. So without further ado...

Last night was the Robocraft tournament. That's what I was working on this past month - writing code for virtual robots that could duke it out with each other. Sarah and I were essentially programming a video game. In Java. For details, check out the link above. To explain briefly, we got four robot types (2 land bots - Sentries and Tanks, 2 air bots - Falcons and Bombers) and they had to work together to capture the enemy's flag and bring it back to their own flag. Air robots could fly over obstacles, but they couldn't carry the flag. So they were useful for attacking and scouting. It was up to the ground robots to navigate the map and take the flag. Sarah was in charge of writing code for the sentries, who could attack other ground troops. I was in charge of writing code for the falcons (attack air troops only) and bombers (attack ground troops below). We didn't use tanks (surface to air attacks). Sentries would seek out the flag, and falcons and bombers would handle most of the attacking.

Sarah wrote some excellent navigational code for the sentries. Sometimes they would get stuck, but I was always amazed at how well they could traverse the map. Unfortunately, the sentries had a short attention span, and they would often get bored and return to the flag bearer for new instructions before they had gotten very far.

The falcons were okay, but not very effective unless there were many of them. They are cheap and fast, but they don't have much firepower. I don't think I ever managed to spawn enough of them - they'd get killed off rather quickly. The bombers, on the other hand, I was in love with from the start. They had a really good sensor range, so it was very easy for them to spot and chase enemies. My bombers were like faithful dogs - chasing an enemy around until it stopped moving, and then bombing the heck out of it. Fun to watch. ^_^

Anyway, that was us. We weren't finalists. But we went to the final tournament and watched the finalist teams play, and it was excellent. We saw some awesome strategies, and everyone was really enthusiastic. After the tournament finished, cash prizes were given to the winners. Before that, there were also a few honorable mentions for teams who didn't make it to the finals but had interesting strategies. Then there were some honorable mentions for good strategies with different robot types. The announcers then said, "The Battle Effectiveness and Bomber Teamwork Award goes to Team 124." Sarah and I stared at each other in blank astonishment, vaguely realizing, hey, that's us!. Then we went down, and I had to explain how my bombers worked to make them so effective. And my mind completely went blank and I think I said something like, "Uh, I kind of forget. I think they were just good at swarming the enemy." And then this annoying little kid who goes to anime club waved and yelled at me until I couldn't ignore him, and waved back. Then we fled back to our seats.

We won $300 for some code that I wrote! I'm still kind of in shock. It's not even complicated code. The bombers just seem to be very good at following their prey. But hey, I can't complain. So right now I have this little certificate that says '$300' and 'Schlumberger' on it (Sarah and I laugh about how that, by itself, is the prize). I am assuming that real money is involved somewhere? <_<;

At least, after the ceremonies were over and everyone was grabbing Google and Robocraft t-shirts (I have like, five t-shirts now), some people asked me about the bomber code, and I could actually explain what they did, without sounding quite so stupid. I guess this was my yearly fifteen minutes of fame (there was the carrot cake incident freshman year, and I know there was something else last year, but I forget what - placing 6th for 6.270, perhaps?).

I think that very few girls take 6.370. There was only one finalist team that had a girl in it. The rest were all guys. And Sarah and I were the only all-girl team to receive a prize. Heck, the only other girl to win a prize was that finalist. By the way, did I mention that we had a good laugh when we heard that the only team we beat during the seeding rounds was a ground of three Wellesley girls? XD Yeah, we make fun of Wellesley almost as much as we make fun of Harvard.

So, even though there was much complaining during January because of the lack of support and the frequency of bugs and software updates, in the end, things worked out all right. We did something useful. We got credit for doing it (6 coveted Engineering Design Points, yesss! Well, 6 normal credits too, but who cares about that?). We even won something! Plus, I have some nice Robocraft shirts, and even a Google shirt (to complement my Amazon shirts, ha ha). I also got a scary girly Google shirt for one of my sisters (one of the o's in the word Google is the planetary sign for Venus - you know, the symbol that stands for woman... it's terrifying). I also went on the MIT-Japan retreat this weekend and learned a lot about Japan. Sounds terrifying - too much information at once. Got a black shirt there too. I'm up to my ears in black t-shirts (also got a 6.270 t-shirt - that's the competition that I did last year). I will talk more about it later or something.

Anyway, tomorrow is Registration Day and I have to register for scary classes. And then term begins again and life gets crazy once more! Will it never end? All too soon, I'm afraid. ._.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: None
Current mood: Tired

Gah

Stupid brain, stop spinning in circles, and let me get some sleep. -_-

I'm glad Sarah is my friend.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: None
Current mood: Perplexed

American Manga Distress

I finally finished watching the Fullmetal Alchemist anime last night. It made me want to scream, cry, and laugh at the ludicrousness of it all... All at the same time. Yeah. o_o; Now I'm really looking forward to the FMA movie that they're making. I wonder when it comes out.

Aggghhhhh.... The Fullmetal Alchemist manga also got licensed at long last, but I couldn't find much information on that. Toriyama's World reported that Viz has licensed the title, so I'm assuming that's correct. Couldn't find any information on the Viz website though. But ahhhhh! The thought of Viz putting out FMA! They are going to translate the sound effects, and while I love my shounen (meant for boys) manga, I much prefer it with Japanese sound effects. It just makes me want to lay down and cry. They are going to decrease the coolness factor of FMA significantly. Shaman King is similar, since it's one of Viz's Shounen Jump titles - it's awesomely drawn and I buy it for the artwork, but the stupid sound effects are just... annoying. Japanese sound effects are so much more endearing.

Actually it's kind of interesting how various American manga publishers deal with the Japanese sound effects. Viz completely erases anything Japanese from the pages and puts in English sound effects. So it's great for little kids that don't know any Japanese, but it's a bit frustrating for me, since I can actually read the katakana that comprises sound effects. I mean, it's the same as why I refuse to watch dubbed anime. It's just not as good.

On the other hand, Tokyopop doesn't translate the sound effects at all. Great if you can read the Japanese, but probably frustrating if you can't. Oh, it's just like me and Korean manga (aka manhwa). I refuse to read manhwa because I can't read Korean and I hate not knowing the sound effects. So yes, I can empathize with Viz's treatment, but I still don't appreciate it.

ADV takes a different route. They leave the original Japanese sound effects in, but they also translate them into English, and slap it all together in the same frame. Very considerate to provide both options - appeals to those who can and can't read Japanese, but tends to make the panels very cluttered. Still, in the end, I have to say that I prefer ADV over both Tokyopop and Viz. If I find a new sound effect or aside that I can't understand, there is always an English translation handy (even if said translation is distracting at times). Plus, ADV seems to put out the most interesting titles (i.e. Chrno Crusade, Full Metal Panic, Gamerz Heaven). ^_^;

Here is a random comparison chart because I am getting all worked up about this.

Tokyopop
Pros: Very fast publication rates (new volume out for any given series every month or two), wide range of titles
Cons: Hardly any titles that appeal to me

Viz
Pros: Shounen Jump titles are reasonably priced, Shounen = win
Cons: Stupid sound effects translation

ADV manga
Pros: Best title lineup
Cons: Sloooooow releases

*sniff sniff* I need to go back and reread all my FMA scanlations. I remember the first time I started reading the series, I thought that I'd think it was stupid. Mostly because I had just tried reading some of Satan666, and that was mind-numbingly stupid beyond all belief. And they were both shounen titles being scanlated by the same group. But boy, was I wrong. FMA wins. *coughs* And if you're still reading this, I have to commend your patience and possible insanity. Someday I will learn how to write... non-randomly. And maybe interestingly. Haha.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Fullmetal Alchemist - Tobira no Mukou e (OMAG, I haven't listened to my FMA music in forever. This song rocks rocks rocks. *tears of joy* I want my FMA mangaaaaa..... *huggles Ed in a rare moment of fangirlishness*)
Current mood: Distressed

Happy New Year

Hey, at least I'm less than a month late. <_<; Well, I got back home, promptly got sick, then got better and came back to school a week later than planned. Oh well. Real classes don't start 'til February anyway.

Sarah and I are doing 6.370, another robotics competition. Only this one is with virtual robots programmed in Java. We're playing Capture the Flag. It's pretty stupid, but hopefully I can wrangle some necessary credits out of it. Talk about badly run though. I can't really call it a class. We get no support at all. Sigh.

I drew a picture for Mike. He wanted me to draw a picture of his friend. It came out pretty good, so I even colored it. Now, I just have to scan it in, and that means I have to go outside. Hah. As if it isn't cold enough in my room. It's soooo cold out - it was like this last January too. I remember stuffing t-shirts around my windows to keep out the draft, heh. Haven't resorted to that yet this year, and it sure is chilly in here.

I scanned a gazillion pictures while I was home (lies, it's only about 20, heh) that I am too lazy to put on my website. Expect to see them online in a few months. -_-; Oh, I also started my own Deviant Art gallery to store all my nicest works, since I figured I won't have my lovely MIT webspace forever. Sad, but true. ;~; Only has two picture so far, because I'm trying to complete my Del'bren'shazoren project - I have pictures for the other two sisters, but I still need to color them. Yeah, like that's going to happen anytime soon.

Ohhhhhh, silly me to not have mentioned it before... Guess what?! I got an internship with Hitachi, so I'll be spending the summer in Japan! Whoo hoo! I am both excited and scared at the same time. I'm glad I've got a certain job for the summer. I hope I don't make a complete fool of myself there. ^_^;

Well, that's all for now. I am quite tired. Heh, we were thinking of watching Boondock Saints tonight. Bit too late for that though. Maybe tomorrow. Ahhh! Stupid 6.370 robocraftness. Too bad the code can't write itself.

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: True Form - Forbidden Colors (mmm.... trance is yummy)
Current mood: Can one feel blind?