31.10.12

Creation and Sales of 3D Game Boards

On the topic of legality of creating 3d printed Settlers of Catan pieces.

 A perhaps more important thing to consider is to ask — as you would with music, movies, anything — 
if you like something, would you support its creator(s) for what they have created? Especially if it’s not necessary for day-to-day life.

 Those who would go so far as to acquire or create 3d pieces will most likely have played the game first (presumably on a non-3d set). While not necessarily true, creating a 3d set additionally generates publicity and attention for this board game.

 If we’re looking at copyright from a monetary point of view (from company ‘losses’ from additional ‘copies’ of games being sold outside their jurisdiction), 3d printing is the equivalent of open source game code. Players are improving a game experience and facilitating its popularity – it would be suicide to stifle your consumers’ passion for your product.

 Alternative solution: if the demand is great enough that it would be a problem, the company officially produces competitive quality 3d pieces and gets a slice of the pie.

G-Squier's laser cut Settlers of Catan set.


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25.10.12

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

Having been tracked from Cali to east coast, My Harvest Moon: A New Beginning 15th Anniversary edition game finally arrived yesterday!  Natsume announced a soft release, so they began shipping games out Oct 19th, instead of sometime Nov.

I like some of the changes they did make. Namely, picking up items automatically bags them, and (though I'm not able to yet), being able to change the placement of everything on your farm and customize your person's appearance, clothing aside. The giant crops are fun to grow, and you can get animals early again in the game.


Perhaps I'm spoiled by World of Warcraft level customer service and developer response (admit it - it's pretty top of the line stellar compared to any other developer-customer relationship out there of that scale).


In short, the tutorial / intros are sooo slow! I'd much rather explore on my own than spend 30 minutes being lead around (that wouldn't be so bad if the scenes shifted more quickly / people walked faster!). I also sort of don't like how streamlined the paths are. In Tree of Tranquility, you could walk on the grass on the other side of the fence and grab mushies and stuff, but here, you're only allowed on the path you're given, even if you're so sure your guy can definitely fit between that tree and rock. ~_~ Just a little frustrating. The 3D also seems to drain power rather quickly, so I play my 3DS docked.


Anyway, my greatest satisfaction comes from the plushie cow.

Enjoying new toys.

Although I realize I'm too impatient to play HM straight up, I love it anyway, and make do with what tools I have.
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Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Cities - Action Replay Item Code


Haven't used these for my game yet, but item hex codes for Harvest Moon Tale of Two Cities.

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Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar - Action Replay Item Code


Was searching for the items list forever. Item hex for HM Grand Bazaar. This is for the mod code below. THIS WILL REPLACE THE ITEM IN THE FIRST SLOT, so make sure it's not valuable.

Inventory Slot 1 Mod Code

94000130 FFFB0000
1215B180 00000XXX <-- Item Value
2215B18A 000000XX <-- Amount (For the max of 99 items, hex code is 63.)
D2000000 00000000

Here's one I modified myself - this gives you 66 of the first item in your bag. Edit the hex '42' to adjust the number of items (if you just want fewer items).

94000130 FFFB0000
2215B18A 00000042
D2000000 00000000

For both, press Select to activate the effect.
Action Replay Item Numbers:

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10.10.12

Adventure Bar Story Recipes List

Adventure Bar Story Recipes List

Just started playing this game. Seems okay. Still prefer Kairosoft games and certain other mmorpgs that I may have gotten back into... TT But taking a peek after my curiosity was piqued via Happy Enna's blog.

Credit to Fade to Slack for compiling this list. I simply put it into a searchable spreadsheet for my, and other players', own use.
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16.8.12

Cafeteria Nipponica Cheats, Tips, Tricks, Recipes

Using Filters


Using filters can help you easily find the highest-stat-yielding ingredient/combos to help you max out dishes most efficiently. Using filters also easily allows you to sort by recipes based on dish, ingredients used, price and stats -- all on one page! You can use filters on this spreadsheet.

How to use filters: To sort by highest price or highest total stat,
select the dropdown arrow under the category and "Sort Z --> A"
How to use filters: To see dishes created only from Curry n' Rice,
"Clear" the selections and check Curry n' Rice, or sort alphabetically.

"Instantly" Max out Floor Employee Job


Change the target's job to a level 5 Chef of any kind and wait for two or three months to pass. Then, change the target's job to Performer. Within the next month, the target will rapidly max out the Performer job.

To make the most of this, switch the person's profession back to the same level 5 Chef position, and repeat to achieve your target job (for instance, Popular Staff or Kairo Staff).

Example of optimal employee rotation:

Rookie Chef Lv5
Trainee (Instant Lv5)
Chinese Chef Lv5
Manager (Instant Lv5)
Japanese Chef Lv5
Service Master (Instant Lv5)
Western Chef Lv5
Performer (Instant Lv5)
Expert Chef Lv5
Recipe Master, Popular Staff, Roller Skater, Musician or Ninja (Instant Lv5)
5-Star Chef Lv5
Recipe Master, Popular Staff, Roller Skater, Musician or Ninja (Instant Lv5)
5-Star Chef Lv5
Possibly ~ Kairo Staff Lv5

If you want to keep your costs down, and don't care to promote the employee past Performer, simply alternate only between your level 5 Rookie Chef and the Floor job.

This works because kitchen employees level up a lot more quickly than Floor employees.

Perfect or Near-Perfect Dishes


First, to understand how ingredients affect dishes, read Happy Enna's well-written post. In a nutshell, dish quality are determined two ways.

1) Price, Taste, Appeal  -- Depending on the dish, these usually have a cap, meaning some dishes cannot be better than grade A, B, C .. etc.

2) Health, Brain (Brilliance), Texture, Aroma, Appearance, Volume, Rarity, Charisma -- Increasing these generally increases Taste and Appeal EXCEPT when the ingredients used are incompatible with the dish.

A good way to max all stats is to go to this Ingredient Effects page where I've summed the totals, and use ingredients with the greatest total stat gain to boost up the lowest stats. Be sure not to leave Aroma and Appearance for last, as these are the most difficult to raise! When everything is mostly in or around the 90s, use Aged Cheese to top off the dish.



Starting the Second Game with High Income


Since dish stats and prices carry over, near mid to end-game, it may be a good idea to level up one of the starting dishes in prep for the next game -- if you think you might play a second game.

Price of Dishes
65 Chicken Bowl
65 Karaage
62 Veggie Stir Fry
55 Fried Rice
55 Shumai
52 Omelette
45Toast
42 Spaghetti
35 Seafood Soup
35 Udon
30 Salad
25 Rice

All dishes and their max price/scores can be found on this page highlighted in blue. Leveling a starting dish up to high price ensures that you can quickly start a new game with a lot of money coming in, provided you select the theme with the dish you leveled up.

Lower Stocking Costs Each Month


If you're going for a high score or just love making money, serve just one high-quality, high-priced dish, the monthly stocking cost of the dish is usually negligible so long as you're making more money per serving than the dish with a lower stocking cost. Customers do not care if you serve just one dish and will buy just as much food.

Conclusion

Kairosoft has not offered official "cheats", but I'm not sure these were intended to work the way they do - so tricks or cheats, whatever you want to call them.

If you don't mind registering for yet another website, a good beginner's guide is this one by Arcfox.
If you do mind registering, visit Enna's blog for more regarding Cafeteria Nipponica.

Questions? Other tips / tricks? Let me know!



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16.7.12

Hot Springs Story Layouts: Improved Based on Popular Layouts


Intro


Began: 2 years ago
Love: Pixel art style, attention to detail, content, control, world.
Comment: The company's games truly follow guidelines set up in its first game Game Dev Story!

About this Build


This layout is intended for the first playthrough in which Large Baths are available before the game ends, and sets us up for the future games. At the end of the game, your two Large Baths will:

1) Have the most effects it can carry over to the next game - see below.
2) Have some of the difficult-to-obtain effects - ones that require a large amount of space.
3) Emphasize Large Male Bath quality because:
        a) Chimpan Z and Kairobot, the hard-to-satisfy characters, are male.
        b) Female baths are easier to upgrade in each game, with less space requirements for more effects and Milk for extra Spa each game.
4) Maximize surrounding room bonuses with spread-out shops/facilities
5) Minimize spa-goer walking time to shops/facilities/baths.

Effects to be carried over at the end of the game:

Large Male Bath (+6)
+1 Senior (Jacuzzi; 2 stone, 1 vending )
+2 Youth (In-Crowd; 4 souv, 4 azalea )
+1 Adult, Senior (Forever Young; 2 fortune, 2 plum, 1 pond )
+2 Male (Springerade; 4 cafe, 4 vending, 2 bamboo )

Large Female Bath (+8)
+2 Senior (Jacuzzi; 4 stone, 2 vending )
+2 Women (Silky Smooth; 2 salon, 2 azalea, 2 stone, includes + milk )
+2 Groups (Fast Friends; 4 karaoke, 2 pingpong )
+1 Youth (In-Crowd; 2 souv, 2 azalea )
+1 Adult, Senior (Forever Young; 2 fortune, 2 plum, 1 pond  )

Fame Pill adds 3 additional effects, depending on which bath you use it on (not included above).
These screenshots aren't completely accurate / final products. There needs to be an extra Karaoke room, and some other things. See the diagram below for a more accurate diagram.



Most Updated Diagram - Fixed some errors. 5/1/2013




 * Four souvenir stands in a row. If you want people to access the two in the middle, read Shops and Facilities below. Maintenance isn't high for two inaccessible stands, and you can make much more use of an entire row of path space to make money back. If this bothers you like it initially bothered me, just think of it as a very large souvenir store. ; )

** Flexible - Start the road right outside the cafe and souv. stands or boost their satisfaction by adding scenery. Since the rooms are directly opposite the path above, I emphasized quality of visit over quantity of visits here.

! Move scenery around any of the free spaces on respective sides of the two rows between the baths.

*** Ping pong rooms stick out like the souvenir stands stick out.

**** Optionally add inaccessible facilities in the free spaces to boost effects before the end of the game.


 Where most layouts position similar facilities and stores right next to each other, I position mine apart from each other to allow spa-goers to walk the shortest path to their desired destination. 

 I chose this slightly awkward build so that I wouldn't have to worry about squeezing 6 souvenir stands and 4 ping pong tables into my builds in later games. With some luck, the Fame Seed would make it easier for me to max my facilities (to be honest, I may not get around to future games, but I like to be prepared ^^ ).

Entrances and Rooms


I made a impromptu layout to demonstrate the logic behind my placements. For the second diagram at the bottom, grey arrows show people checking into their rooms. Teal arrows show them walking to facilities. This layout minimizes the time it takes for people to walk to their rooms and then to facilities. This usually generally allows late-comers to visit at least one facility before going to bed, increasing the rate of satisfaction and income by a lot over the course of the entire game.
Chimpan Z and Kairobot: I personally opt for quality over quantity. I tweaked the townhouse-style rooms many popular layouts use - the top right western room was where both Chimpan Z and Kairobot stayed. I boosted the Large Men's bath and surrounding facilities with a bit of popularity seeds and I was able to pass. 

At the start of the game, I carefully counted out the location of where I'll be placing my baths, so that I wouldn't have to waste money later rebuilding everything. The receptionist has only been shifted back a tile or two after I unlocked it to make room for the Men's cafes. 
The placement of scenery helps direct where people stay. If you want people to prioritize areas near baths for easier access, place your best scenery items near rooms there. This ensures that people won't leave rooms there empty and opt for an obscure corner room (as with the bamboo and rock above).
Green knobs show bath entrances. Spa-goers don't have to walk far between shop/facility visits, allowing for them to visit more places before going to bed (or going broke... I always feel bad when old couples go broke. Hope social security works in their world TT ).

Other Shops and Facilities

I began to build the Large Baths area after I purchased all the land deeds, made enough money, and unlocked enough shops/facilities. But I began with normal baths (below). Having rooms place directly before bath entrances maximizes satisfaction and income from spa-goers living there. After some deliberation, I decided I would rather have two inaccessible souvenir stands than forsake this row of rooms.
The bottom cluster of baths were the ones I used at the beginning of the game.  
The only changes I made after building the large baths was remove some facilities that gave effects to the smaller women's bath. However, having the souvenir stands placed right above gave both baths the Youth Up effect! This way, we make the most of the large stands.

Effects on smaller baths:

Women's Bath
+2 Senior
+1 Adult
+3 Women (with Milk)
+1 Youth

Men's Bath
+2 Senior
+1 Adults
+2 Men


In the top left corner, I added a men's bath since the male baths were least accessible there. 
I chose to maximize the number of effects, since I couldn't control who would visit which bath anyway, instead of target just one age group.


Improve this Build!

Have a better layout? Think you can improve this one? This is a copy of the spreadsheet I used to create this build - you may use it to plan your own layout and share with everyone!

Some sources I used to give me ideas for my personal build:

GameFAQs : Most complete guide I've come across to date. Has easy-to-ctrl-f format all on one page. Has some good layout ideas.
Videogameholic : Has layouts only. Liked this cause it has screenshots from actual game.
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