geoo visiting Simon (a.k.a. Party Time POP) (NSFW)

[Simon]

We played a cashgame, because we didn't want to start a freezeout with just 5 people. I blew 3 euros at poker, geoo won 6,50. I'm thinking about getting my own poker chips... usually, one of my friends can host with his set, though.

After coming home, we found the lemmings forums down and were shocked. Both of us took a sheet of paper and a pen, and wrote down secretly as many forum users as he remembered. A user was valid if he had posted in one of the last 3 incarnations of the forums. I got 37 users, plus listing namida twice under different names, and I left out gronkling and a lot of former custom level authors. It took me extremely long to think of Adam and Pooty, despite them running the main show for the past week. geoo got 52 users, but forgot Mike Dailly, rt and ahribar -- sorry. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

geoo doesn't sleep very much. He takes 20-minute naps several times a day, and achieves 20 to 21 hours of daily wake time. Thus, he eats a lot, and likes to complain about me not cooking enough rice or pasta. When I go to sleep myself for several hours, he gets hungry in the meantime, fetches the pot from the kitchen, and hits it with a spoon. *insert old overtime boxing bell sound*

Top tip of the day: When re-heating food that was cooked a few minutes earlier due to needing the pot somehow else, turn down the heat. That'll prevent burning the bottom! After today's rice with twice the normal amount of ham and creme fraiche, I sunk into a 4-hour sleep. http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/smiley-lixnormal.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" /> I didn't even want to get up after that, because I thought I'd slept only half an hour. geoo remained awake drawing and programming the cuber, another Lix skill. It turns them into square-shaped solid terrain once assigned, so it's an alternative for blockers.

During the past days, geoo and me played over 50 games of Ghetto Wars, until we discovered an overpowered opening. Executed right, it assuredly trashes 3 of the 4 enemy balconies. We subsequently nerfed the level, and haven't found the best strategy on the new map yet. Rubix and Clam joined us in testing some new maps with batters, runners and cubers. Rubix found a mystery strategy to beat us every time on Superbowl, a map involving only one skill... guess which one. Rubix has a lot of great maps which aren't yet merged into the main download.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/princecarpet.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

We considered racing head-to-head through Prince of Persia 2, but I suck at killing flying heads with the short saber. I considered racing through Titus the Fox, but geoo hasn't memorized the levels and thus can't manage the game due to its horrible scrolling. We considered Prince of Persia 1, but geoo doesn't consider himself fast enough to beat my expected time of 30 to 35 minutes, which isn't that fast, but one still has to know all the levels.

geoo learned rebasing with git, and now we can do proper ---o---o---o---o---o-type histories when working together, instead of creating piles like this:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/gitmergemaze.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

He'll leave in a few minutes by train. It's 4 a.m.

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

After coming home, we found the lemmings forums down and were shocked. Both of us took a sheet of paper and a pen, and wrote down secretly as many forum users as he remembered. A user was valid if he had posted in one of the last 3 incarnations of the forums. I got 37 users, plus listing namida twice under different names, and I left out a lot of former custom level authors. It took me extremely long to think of Adam and Pooty, despite them running the main show for the past week. geoo got 52 users, but forgetting Mike Dailly, rt and ahribar -- sorry. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

/r/ both lists

I sunk into a 4-hour sleep. http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/smiley-lixnormal.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" /> I didn't even want to get up after that, because I thought I'd slept only half an hour.

This wouldn't have happened have you gone with the 12x20 minute Nap Relay instead.

[Simon]

Warning -- large images.

• http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/forumusers-geoo.png" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">geoo's list
  
• http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/forumusers-simon.png" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">Simon's list
  

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

Ah, quite a few names I forgot on those (well, mainly geoo's) lists. Memories of the old boards...

[okmot]

We played way too much Clones yesterday though, which kept us from doing only useful stuff. geoo used the Clones level editor to make a lot of garbage and parody levels.

I'd like to see the parody levels, post screenshots or upload package?  The best way to tell if you've played too much Clones is to stick a nail in your leg every 15 mins, when you can no longer feel the nail puncture your flesh then it's time to take a break, and perhaps call a dentist (cheaper surgery rates).

[Clam]

Hah, the batter is just perfect for late-night Lix mayhem. (Which, due to timezones, is actually early afternoon for me. Whatever, I can roll with it http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />.) As a bonus, it rebalances the formerly overpowered blockers in one swing. Just brilliant http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" />

The cuber is somewhat of an unknown quantity still. I'd imagine it being better for singleplayer puzzles rather than multiplayer, but who knows.

And I'm equally mystified by Rubix's wins on Superbowl. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/huh.gif" alt="???" title="Huh?" class="smiley" /> Somehow it never occurred to me to save a replay. Dangit http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" />

[Simon]

Thanks http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" /> Yeah, the batter is more of a late-night skill than the older skills, and thus should be used with caution. But it can greatly enhance otherwise dull maps.

I forgot to mention the following little episode in the large post. geoo uses http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29932197/SlowAlarm.mp3" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">this sound file as an alarm, because he doesn't want to oversleep his 20-minute naps. It features a soft bell concert first, then three kinds of old-school alarm clocks, then a car horn, and then a chainsaw sawing down trees.

The best thing is that he didn't tell me he used this. I woke up when his PC played it at fully blown-up volume, during the car horn and chainsaw part. I thought my appartment's janitor got crazy at 3 a.m. in the morning. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />

-- Simon

[Simon]

New http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/party.gif" alt=":party:" title="Party Time!" class="smiley" />

geoo brought two large bags of tea, one with peppermint and one with OpenThymian. Here's the leftovers from preparing the thymian tea:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-thymian.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

Mostly though, his supplies were instant ramen and old chocolate from the merry Easter bunny holidays.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-ramen.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

I dragged geoo to the weekly Go club in a pub in town, and promised to be back at around 22 for his scheduled nap. But he enjoyed himself pretty well, mostly when playing with one funny and charismatic player, and we stayed till midnight.

I build Pipe Smokers' Club today:

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/levels-network-2p-simon-pipesmokers.txt.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

However, this level isn't ripe yet, like so many other levels using steam. It's too powerful to trash the other person's landing points.

We raced through L2 Outdoor, because geoo claimed this was the easiest tribe. I needed 3 twisters for the first level. geoo failed Glide Like The Wind and needed about 6 trials to complete this rather obvious level. I was ahead by 2 levels for the rest of the game. Runners suck in L2 because they jump from each ledge, and stun themselves on every opportunity. Assignment sucks in L2 because you can't assign close to each other, and we already know this. Garden of Stone sucks in Outdoor, because it is hard, and the hopper ledges are badly placed, and geoo overtook me there in the end. Rrrrr! Nobody had remembered the best solution to Garden of Stone.

geoo used the hopper to hop across the exit and continue waypaving. geoo: "My solution was ingenious! I used up all the skills. And I didn't spam them, each had a use!"

Today's evening program is playing Lix with another friend of mine, and then going swimming.

-- Simon

[geoo]

This time for a new, very healthy and namida-compatible recipe: egg drop soup, with lots of vegetables.

Boil mirepoix in salted water. Now comes my grandma's trick to get the flakey effect: put the eggs and some flour into a cup, and stir until you get a homogenous mass. Only then pour it into the boiling soup and stir. Observe the nice egg flakes develop.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43603680/soup_small.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

Here you can see: if you lack a proper ladle, a smaller cup serves the job just as well.


We picked another L2 tribe to race through, Medieval, another arguably easy one. I fell behind on Level 3 again, taking about 4 attempts, and so Simon was two levels ahead from there on, like last time. I managed to catch up on Let's play twister where Simon screwed up. In level 9, we both mis-estimated the position of the dragon's trigger area and had to restart, getting to the final level at about the same time. We both screwed up once, Simon using a glue pourer to cancel the stacker thereby making the ground to bomb through too thick, and I bombed too early making the lemmings from above splat. We both got through with our second attempt, I had some complications though, making Simon finish earlier: First off, my bomber hole was placed in such a way that the runner kept jumping over it (the Lix behaviour is way better there), I eventually managed to get out of this using a stacker though, after having wasted the ballooner in a vain attempt. With no ballooner left, I had to move the catapult to the left while the runner was running past it, to avoid having the runner mount the catapult. This works inconsistenly though, and so it took me 4 attempts to make it work. This level is a dumb game of luck.

We had a go a Commander Keen 5 in hard mode. Both of us managed to pass the first two levels before dying, but I survived a little longer and got a higher score, as I knew a secret location of 20000 points which I collected each of the 4-5 times I died on level 2.

I drew a new trap for Lix, triggered with a long delay, based on the idea of one of Proxima's trap designs, and Simon is currently refining it. It's a lix driven steam engine, should be in the next release, whenever that is.

[Simon]

Hey,

We have played way too much Commander Keen 4 and 5 on hard mode. geoo: "What?! The dopefish is now able to shoot! ... Nah, I haven't seen the devil behind it." He considered making headlines with this in a biology magazine.

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/dopefish.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

There are hidden stashes with approx. 10 lifes in both game's first levels. The Keen 5 stash is only accessible via the impossible pogo trick (when standing, press pogo, then immediately hold jump) to jump a tad higher. I managed this twice without thinking, but also without knowing that this works differently than normal pogo jumping. Thus, I was unable to tell geoo how to do it, who was stuck trying for 20 minutes or so. Games shouldn't have physics like this...

http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/etc/geoo-hamandegg.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

The delicacy of the day: scrambled eggs with roasted ham cubes, treated as a tasty bun topping. For 2 persons, use 4 eggs and 150 g of ham, and get 4-6 buns. Use lots of margarine/oil/fat when preparing this in the pot. Simon: "I will go to the bakery, will be back in 5 minutes. You do the cooking, turn on the Brownian Motion Inducer to level 3." This was way too much for a gentle roasting on a stove with maximum setting 3, so we quickly revised this to 1.

We also prepared an open-source version of Pribinacek, a Czech yoghurt: farmer's cheese and curd cheese, mixed roughly 1:1, a little bit of milk, and then lots of vanilla sugar. This is way too heavy to eat all in one sitting, and it was also too much farmer's/cottage cheese for my taste.

-- Simon