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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Losing Almost Every Precious Things in Hours

Recently I've been discouraged about how desperate I am. The problem is, the 13th December has reminded me that my desperate acts have led to a total devastation of my computing passion. It is because I've reinstalled Windows 7 and 8 on my HDD due to Win7's problem and that I didn't have so many time to just backup ALL the (precious downloaded) contents in my Win7 partition before I took it to the technician and have it reinstalled. I know I should've just ask the technician a solution for this problem and not reinstall everything at the same time. And eventually, it resulted in losing most of my precious files.

So how do I lose everything in one day?

THE START

It all started when suddenly, the morning of the day in question, my Windows 7 didn't start as expected. It loaded past the "Starting Windows" screen, but that's it. It takes longer than usual and eventually it loaded a lower resolution version of the Win7's welcome screen's wallpaper. Yup, there were no users accessible within that state, and it turned out that it was loading something called "Automatic Repair". Yes, instead of run-of-the-mill Win7 loading, it went to Automatic Repair rather than loading the users. Startup Repair didn't affect anything, and System Restore was... faulty, as in inaccessible. There were no System Restore points because whenever I tried to make one, the partition won't let me to. Sadness begun at this point, leading me to try Windows 8.

While I also am fond of Windows 8, the reason why I keep it hanging on my second partition out of three partitions inside my 1TB harddisk (remaining two are Windows 7 and my precious files' folder, whose capacity is half of the HDD's size) is that I'm afraid that it'll run my favorite games and that it would give me issues whenever I try to play them. However, as I test them on Windows 8... no problems. Turbo Sliders run as usual on Win 8, so does GeneRally, and tons of games, even though I hung my hopes to oldschool ones like Sega Rally 2 and Michelin Rally Masters. In other words, Win 8 feels probably the same, but with the Metro skin in place of Win 7's Aero and has Metro tiles and apps.

And this is where the going got tough; that afternoon, I left my laptop at my technician's place, and I didn't forgot to backup ALL my precious files. Since Win 7 is inaccessible, the technician prepared me a USB flash drive with MiniXP in it. There, the backup commenced. After that, I went back to college for a meeting held by my friends. Given I thought that the technician hasn't made his move of reinstalling the Win 7, I went back to the technician's to cancel the reinstall as I wanted to spare the reinstall for not only a Windows 8 run but also a double treatment where it'll have its components cleaned. However, only the storekeeper who was there, and not the technician. She, the storekeeper, said that the technician have brought my laptop to his house and the Win 7 reinstallation was complete just before I wanted to cancel the whole thing.

...

........... (img source)

And this is where the sadness commence. No, the Five Stages of Grief to be exact. I tweeted that I was angry that I was too rushed in making quick decisions that I didn't double-check, was heartbroken, bargained, and depressed, all done when I went to the barber shop to get my haircut and that I thought about  double-checking the files in those folders I backed up and I received a message from the technician saying that the reinstallation is complete. It is really annoying because most of my files weren't backed up due to TeraCopy or whatever its name inside MiniXP unable to copy some of my copied contents.

The next day I went to the technician's once more to collect my laptop. Sure it now has Windows 8 as default boot OS, but at that time I was still saddened. This sadness is carried that I don't bother to touch my laptop. Alas, the next step HAS to be taken...

MOVING ON AND RESTORATION


This phase is brought to you by Lowe Guele, the Astray / Junk Guild extraordinaire :D

While I can't recall some apps I've installed before the reinstall, those apps I couldn't recall is due because I don't use them very frequently. Fortunately, I could recall most of the apps, let's say 80%, and download most of them the day I lost everything. Granted that most of these apps' installers are still lying on my third partition, so I'm a bit relieved. Though the drivers are lost, thus I have to hunt for drivers in what can be called as every computer user's gold mine: manufacturer's website. Given that I still *am* using Satellite L740, which was initially a 32bit machine with 2GB RAM and 300GB HDD when my dad bought me and is notoriously known for its overheating tendencies, it's Toshiba's website that I see its drivers download page as a gold mine in question. Due to the fact Windows 8 is my MAIN OS, I can no longer install both its eco Utility and PC Health Monitor as it gives me errors of their own. Other than that, the going is smooth albeit the mentioned errors.



The most notorious one is where I have BSODs of IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error caused by athrx.sys (pictured and Twitpic-ed), which turns out to be an Atheros driver. This only happens on Win 7 partition and occurs when bluetooth is active and I am browsing internet. This sure is a pain in the ass for my bluetooth driver because as soon as this happens, the bluetooth RFBUS driver will go problematic and that everytime you try to add a new BT device, the BT won't be ready even if you turned it on. Not only that, my "movement" gets slower because I won't be able to transfer my phone's content(s) via BT. Strange because things like this didn't happen before this reinstall happens...

Nevertheless, here's the history of my desktop then and now. Didn't took the desktop screenshot since my 32bit days though...

My old state of my desktop before it's reinstalled. Attack Ride! Wallpaper! Take note that since this wallpaper is posted, my installed apps and shortcuts have changed radically.
Compare it with my new desktop. Yeah, a series of Ferrari wallpapers is a placeholder for whatever my wallpaper would be... :|


WINDOWS 8 POWAAAH~!!! MY WIN 8 GOES ORANGE! *SLASH*

Though the desktops for both my Win 7 and Win 8 are different, I give both OS equality for installed apps, so the apps I normally install in Win 7 could be installed in Win 8 too, though I will be selective with the app selections so I won't drain GBs in both partitions.

So if it is included as part of that Five Stages, this IS the acceptance phase. No matter how bitter it is, as long as you have a fast, unlimited internet / wi-fi connection, you move on and try to regain yourself, recalling everything you've installed. And then you promise that the next time you're afraid that this problem happens to you, always prepare secondary partition(s) or a big external memory if you're a download addict like me. Plus, make sure that everything IS copied; double-check whenever you're going to backup your files in your "damaged" partition (and somehow I wanted to say "ONORE TERACOPY!!!" in Narutaki's voice). If you have only ONE partition, MiniXP would be your only best bet, but still, you need an external HDD.

So, will I continue being productive on both making game stuffs and some other stuffs? I don't see why not. I have Tsukasa Kadoya's blood after all...




~[R]

Friday, November 22, 2013

I present you... GENERALLY 2! GR Spirit has Re-Awaken!

This post should've been one of the most off-topic blessings ever had. The very reason why is that this is November, and you know what kind of month November is? Writing Month! YES, that's why there's National Novel Writing Month a.k.a NaNoWriMo that's still running until the end of November. The goal there is to write a 50,000 words-long (and above) novel, simple as that if you're into writing. Though "National" might have a narrow connotation of "United States", there are international buddies who are interested and challenge themselves to write 50,000, and that international buddy includes yours truly, though my target is 25,000 which is half of the expected number, and what I write would be a fan fiction.

Sadly, due to preparations for a college event that I had to work my city miniature for such event, I had to skip days even though I promised myself to be a part of it. The more saddening moment is that I'm writing a fan fiction (yes, FAN fiction) meaning I would take a fandom to write, and the worst of all is that it is a CROSSOVER fic. And in order to not turning this crossover as failure (e.g., OOC characters, no planning), I still have to plan which characters and which fandoms and what their intentions are. And of course, what's a crossover without original characters? My idea is to make a Super Robot Wars-esque fan fiction with TV series characters in place of mechas. So, Blair Waldorf with Beam Spam anyone?

Thank goodness the city miniature turned out to be a success, albeit didn't win an award and looked a bit horrible IMO. -_-
But while this is a writing month, one person dares to STILL create game stuffs, especially for GeneRally. Though, this is not without reason, as the game, if you're following the developer blog of GeneRally sequel, will evolve to a even more addicting game than before. Here's a wet dream-worthy trailer showing the game's new graphics and an announcement for its Kickstarter's open date. O_O



New graphics might mean new features, but we don't know any of them yet other than the new tiles exclusive for the sequel (did you see those pit stop garages?), improvements of the old tiles (a concrete wall with a catchfence? Modern-looking city building? New lamps?), and all those additions (10 cars max on the grid? *o*). Furthermore, one dev member also said that the poly count for the cars in the sequel will be ten times the current version and perhaps the game would allow custom-made graphics for cars (read: skin) instead coloring the polies one by one. Did anyone imagining a tribal sticker on Maximum Tune games being put on a General car? Ehm...

Return to Trackmaking and Carmaking


Talk about GR Trackmaking, I'm currently doing a remake and an evolution at the same time on my first track released on GRIF: Al Dasein. The course is a racing circuit that's set in the middle of a desert somewhere in Middle East. Previously the track is pretty much empty with just desert and nothing else (take a note that I WAS a beginner at that time), and this time the remake will evolve the track to be better. Taking inspiration of Areen's Dubai Autodrome (and Dubai Autodrome itself in real life), the track will be promised a Dubai-styled environment that should fit Al Dasein the best. Yet somehow does anyone see the outer layout's resemblance to Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway)?

While the past Dasein has two layouts, (which doesn't make any difference in driving anyway albeit its shape...) this Dasein will have four: Outer layout, short layout, and two other layouts with both of them carry their own difficulty levels. The inner section of the evolved course is totally revamped to compensate a different level of difficulty from the outer layout one, and of course that change comes with another idea of making a variety of interconnecting layouts, which also comes with a shorter layout fit for racing slower cars. While this is far from finish, the track would have palm trees and elevations in the future, but let's hope there's no such thing as depression so my WIP will not end up like my Monaco track. (Although I would redo Monaco with WS 200 in the near future)


While I'm making a new track for GR, I did posted on my Twitter some of my finished car models via my Twitpic and GRIF too. Shown cars on your left side (clockwise from left) were Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Mazda RX-8 Type-S, and Mooncraft Shiden RT/16. While I made those models out of boredom, thus defined no physics of their own as I still am curious as to how would I portray them in game, there's one car I quickly made at the time of this post:

Remember me? Your friendly electric front wheel drive friend, Prospect.R!

Yup, that's Prospect.R, also known as Prototype Sports Car Project R if you read my previous blog posts. Yet, this is no special Prospect.R as the one whose picture you see is its road spec. The Prospect.R was actually going to be a purpose-built electric-powered FWD coupe only as it was used as one of the cars for Rally The Master project (which is actually Fandom March Madness meets Race of Champions), but seeing the good reception of the car even though it had only two votes in Car of the Month, a road-friendly spec of the car is made available to the public. The performance of this car matches the ones found in road variants of F2 kit cars, preferrably Citroen Xsara and Peugeot 306 Maxi, with an electric engine exclusively-tailored to the car, branding it as one of the powerful electric-powered cars out there.

It is also implied that the car excels on acceleration due to its ability to reach a maximum of 10,000 rpm in the aforementioned exclusive "eco-friendly" engine, reaches 0-100 kmh in 4,1 seconds, has a four-speed transmission, and 580 kg of curb weight. The competition spec has PROSPECT-XXXG01 (sounds familiar?) engine inside its hood, while the road spec would have a normal road-level engine of RG-EXL39 thanks to the coordination with [R]GARAGE who are also responsible for what they did to the SST Sports. The car also has one-speed transmission and has 2K rpm lesser, thus having a lower top speed.

Rumors of Rallycross specification of Prospect.R circulates as one tuning house (name supplied) showed an interest to make a Rallycross-spec model based on the Prospect.R . Also recently a leaked hand-drawn image is shown, showing how a Rallycross specification would look like:



The roadgoing Prospect.R is available both here and on GRIF (for registered members there).

Other Non-GR Stuffs To Know


Two Turbo Sliders tracks' WIPs have evolved. Nippon Highlands is set to be released the same time as Monsoon is finished (making this release a "Double Bill" release). While Nippon Highlands is finished, all that's left for Monsoon is the lighthouse and the configurations. However, I kinda sad about how short Nippon Highlands' full course layout is judging by the 33,xxx" laptime using F1 Premium, the official Turbo Sliders F1 car. I thought it would be longer considering the layout but whatever...



Recently I've created a Google Plus account to complete my collection of social media accounts. The current matter now is whether I should open deviantART and Instagram accounts in the near future or save it for later. If you'd like to add me to my G+ network, feel free to do it, just make sure you don't do anything suspicious to my account, okay?

You may notice that the blog has a new template here. Right, I'm experimenting with the new layout so this blog would look better than it was before this template is installed. The problem is that I'm editing some of the elements inside this template, and that includes deleting things that doesn't seem fit so it still looks like a supplement for [R]GARAGE site. Speaking of the site, I'll try to update the site as I have difficulties finding time to edit such HTML5 site. Am I the only one who has fears of some GR / TS players' computers too weak for HTML5? Oh... orz

Posts about skinning would come up next. And I'm considering to post a third Inside The Mall post. The mall that I will be writing for is still a guesswork, so do wait until it's posted :p

And as a consolation prize to what could be one of the "too long" posts:


Soap opera plots are scandalous, but what happens when you focus to the bottom right of the pic?
~[R]

Thursday, October 31, 2013

[R]GARAGE does GeneRally Touring Car World Cup! A Season Review...

4 Races...


7 Login Sessions...


Lots of Drivers...


Tons of Teams...





Touring Cars and Kit Cars all season long! Welcome to Lukeno94's GeneRally Touring Car World Cup where GeneRally drivers around the world battle it out in their touring or kit cars in a chase for a coveted title of "GRTCWC Champion" plus the trophy! Throughout four races at four different circuits in four countries with each race has qualifying and race sessions but Race of Taiwan.

There are lots of teams competing in the Team's Championship and drivers who hunt for Driver's Championship, and one of the team is none other than Team [R]GARAGE, a team led by yours truly, consisting of three drivers: Myself, resir014 (which we had previously teamed up in GRC seasons), and Bird (The German Garuda, he joined the team so that's why :lol:). Throughout four races and three qualifying sessions, I and Bird strive to produce best results for the team, while resir014 just did one qualifying and no race.

Here I will recap the full season as well as Team [R]G's progresion throughout four races.

Race of Germany - Street Circuit of Aach




The first race took place in the city course of Aach (aka Race of Germany), the qualifying session took place with all drivers try to set their best time within three laps. The #27 red Alfa Romeo driver Alonso slayed all racers with a time of 29.20", and his teammate scaramanga finished a place within Hedo from Panthers Kart Racing team with 0.77" behind him. It seems Croatia Racing Team is out for rampage there...

Bird became the front man in my team even though he qualified 10th out of 20, while resir014 is five places ahead. And guess who forgot to took his savegame that he decided to DNQ himself to avoid BOP???


Well, either not saving results or BOP doesn't make difference anyway, sans the +5s penalty...

Well... The first race goes with a bang and everyone tried to tackle this street circuit. Many drivers crashed at one section or two while they were trying to find their best line. The race is attended by 17 drivers out of 20 qualified, and resir014 is one of the absent drivers... Though I managed to drive the race and this time didn't forgot how to save the game :v

In the end Alonso and Scaramanga snatched 1-2 while Krisu from Scarlet Devil Raceworks completing the podium. I, however, finished 11th just more than eight seconds behind Haruna from the Scarlet Devil, and if I did go fast enough I'd complete Top 10 by now but well, just consider it a running joke where I either flopped the top 10 or worse, though there are times where I could get it, though most probably because another driver is penalised for something...

Bird completed the race behind the likes of Lukeno94 and Marcinho, myself included, yet his best lap was better than mine. Then again, it's all about consistency...  In the end, it wasn't a sweet result for the [R]Gs as none of the drivers were in the top 10, and resir014 didn't race, but it wasn't the most bitter either...

Qualifying results

Click for full resolution. Listen to this round's commentaries for both qualifying and race. (Props to Lukeno94! :D)


Race of USA - Deserted Heat of Diamond Valley



The second round travels west to the States where drivers are challenged in the heat of the Race of USA. Though it was hot temperature-wise, I managed to score eighth in the qualifying, and the same place at the race. This gotta be the best result throughout my racing career in GR; I've never been on Top 10 before in the past, but when I did it was because one messed up his submission/settings... Ahh, GRC days...

Sadly though I am the only one driving for my team as Bird didn't race in this round despite he qualified tenth just 0,01 seconds ahead Lukeno94 and behind Marcinho. Top runners on the qualification were Hedo, Alonso, Senna, kuba, and scaramanga, with all of them scored 26,xx lap time. At this point, it's a romance of four teams between the privateer Senna, Panthers Kart, Destiny Racing*, and Croatia Racing Team.

* = Destiny Racing is NEITHER. FREAKING. WAY affiliated with ZAFT or Shinn Asuka nor is funded by them so to say :lol:.

But it was a deadly duet of Alonso and scaramanga who finished first and second respectively, cashing in big points for Croatia Racing Team while Hedo dropped to third after all the jostles between these three for the P1, though Hedo didn't lose with nothing as his time of 27,78 made him the man with the fastest lap, followed by Alonso's 27,85 and my 28,08 mark. Meanwhile it was another big gap finish as ahead me was Jim451 who was to finish fifth but got a penalty for starting from pole; he actually qualified in ..., and the rule stated that you have to start from P1-P5 grid if you're qualified in that position, and the rest is P6. This can be done via SaveGameMerger or a "Points, reversed" Starting grid setting in-game.

A little moment for my race though; it was actually done when I was home from my grandparents' house, and that I don't bring my laptop. It was very staggering for me as I had to do college matters at the time the race's login is still in effect. After I got home at evening (exactly as evening as 19:00 Jakarta Time), more bad lucks happen as I had to login using my Nokia C7-00 smartphone. With all the remaining quota I have, I went straight to the login page, but accidentally logged in for Round 3 qualifying, and didn't realize that there was a login for the second race for those who requested the Extra Time. Though using 3G connection, it was slow as hell, and I forgot my strategy of opening my mail client first for sending my files.

That being done, my race occurs and seconds later my connection (which was switched to GSM shortly after the race finishes) is unbearable, it can't open the mail client and upload my submission as fast as I could hoped. So, I was forced to send my submission by my smartphone and turns out that this IS the first case of late-submit, though Lukeno94 understood my connection thus no penalty is given to me. Good result, bad connection. Hate the connection, not the race...

Qualifying session. Click for full res
Click for full res. Commentaries for this race's qualifying and race sessions are available

Race of Spain - Bumps, Jumps, and Tricky Elevations at El Huracan



Third race of the season returned to Europe with the race taking place in Spain for a race at a track with crazy elevation changes that's El Huracan. At one glace, this race isn't my strong point because I wasn't good enough at negotiating corners here, especially that between turn seven and turn eight where there's a bump between them. Most drivers marked times between 25,xx-26,xx , and I was the one in the 26,xx, scoring 26,71 at qualifying. At training, I had 28,xx ++ which could boot me to the last of the grid if I posted this time without proper training. I just am grateful that I qualified ninth, while Bird had difficulties on the course and unfortunately started last. There are no penalties seen...

For the race, I took fought my hardest for eighth place. This leads into a battle for P8 as I fought Lukeno94 Sports's new driver NathanW. We've got into battles and we've had mistakes due to AIs' aggressiveness. For most of the time, P8 was mine, until the last lap mistake that costed me a fight against NathanW. So, Nathan wins the P8 joust and I was an "Okay" rage face. But the crash... It should be a "FFFFFFUUUU" face...


Alonso won, Hedo on podium, and boblopette scores Croatia RT another podium. No surprises.... As for the [R]Gs, our performance is subpar but it's enough to complete Top 10. I and Bird did a great job in completing the top 10 puzzle, and P8 SHOULD BE MINE IF I DIDN'T CRASH AYAYAYAYEEEE!!!!

Qualifying session. Click for full res.
Click for full res.
Commentaries for this race's qualifying and race sessions are available

Race of Taiwan - The Rage Face-imminent Final Race of Doom!!!




The final round of the season took the racers to the one and only Eastern race held in Taiwan Motorsports Park, a race course with crazy elevations, even crazier than El Huracan, and was so crazy one raged due to bad racing lines that costs him very much. And THAT was from my team, though the person in question wasn't yours truly. I was optimistic that I would score 6'22.xx" or better but due to me drifting too wide at the fourth lap that I was forced to get in the pits, thus making a pit that not only costed me my race but also my strategy.

Taiwan, to be honest, is THAT one round where, while you're jostling with the AIs, you have to tackle all those elevations in correct speeds and lines. This fourth and final race was also the only one that got the special treatment in which there was no qualifying session, but in turn everyone had to start from pole, which means perfect start and a good speed and line in the first lap are one of the main keys here. In the middle of the race, consistency and correct pit strategy would affect one's run, and lapping the AIs isn't an exception.

Had I got a run that's better than my training runs, maybe 6'21.xx" or a second slower, I could be around Lukeno94 Sports drivers (sixth or seventh, ahead of Lukeno94), yet once again my run was screwed thanks to the early accidental forced pit stop. Once again Croatia Racing Team slayed with both Alonso and scaramanga scored the same fastest laps, but Alonso has it all; consistency, speed, and whatnot. Meanwhile my teammate Bird was dumped at the last position and once again resir014 didn't make his race, but that was because he had college stuffs to be done.

Bird, No~!!!!
Click for full res. Commentary is currently not available.

In the end, everything was crystal clear, it doesn't need a description...




Even though it was already predictable due to the top runners' oft-repeating best results, my result in this competition was no thumbs-down; a ninth place finish in the standings sure gave me lemon teas with two Lukeno94 drivers tailed me just a point. Bird ended up 14th while resir014 was one of those four who don't race at all. :(

This makes a clearer picture for the Team's Championship as well; Team [R]G was the last place dweller in the standings, while we already know CRT would slay. The problem was we weren't good enough, we finished in subpar positions. Though since the competition ended, for what we are crying for?

 photo ProjectRunwaySeason1-Ep10mp4_002044666_zpsb38c17df.jpg
That doesn't describe us well enough...
So there you are, a great coverage of Lukeno94's competition GeneRally Touring Car World Cup! Hopefully I could start a competition of my own. But not only that because this is just one of the series I'm in right now as I am competing in two other GR compos. I just hope I could snatch Top 10 positions again... :)

~[R]

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Another Update Before the Dawn of Mid-Semester Test Comes!

After a long time without an update, here's a series of quick round-up of what I am/was doing. The problem here is I can't let my blog dead... :p


TURBO SLIDERS: NEW TSE-STYLE TRACKS ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!



While plans of testing the new Tsukuba Course with the SCARTS course is still under discussion, I've made two new tracks: Two of them are of TSE's quality, two of them are set in Asia, and two of them have a variety of layouts.

Monsoon International Raceway

A course that passes the coastal beach's lighthouse, something TSE has never been done before...

Monsoon International is a race course situated in a tropical beach of Indonesia, located near the lighthouse. The course features a series of turns and a chance to drive past the coast's lighthouse at the hairpin. The course would have three or four configurations however I see fit. The idea to make this track comes as I wanted to make a TSE-style track and try to make something different. Furthermore, the lighthouse IS the track's mascot like some TSE tracks have like in Roaring for example with its "Lion" mascot.


Nippon Highlands 

 
East and West!

While the name already hints the Japanese race course theme, the course is anything but finished. There are lots of things to do to the track like kerbs, objects, terrains, runoffs, etc. Other than that, the course is heavily inspired by numerous Japanese tracks like Suzuka and Tsukuba,


MAXIMUM TUNE: FINALLY ABLE TO TRANSFER IT TO MT4!


With yesterday being a bitch due to no lecturers present at my university, it turned out to be a luck of my answer of some of mainstream, mostly rename with SSS, rally cars SF-RL as it underwent 10 more stories in the chase of the Full Tune. This also marks the end of my 3DX+ days as I move on to MT4.

So long 3DX+! Vielen Danke for everything!


That means due to the nature of the mall's location being TOO FAR from my home, and Pondok Indah Mall, my nearest place for MT-ing, would get MT4 in a couple of months, I decided to stop playing MT for awhile and focus on several projects. Though if you (Indonesian readers only!) are reading this, my ghosts are available for revenges. And no, by "Revenge", I say no relation to Emily Thorne, not even the Graysons. VICTORIA GRAYSON CAN'T SPEED FOR GOD'S SAKE~!!!

For your information, I got lost when I went to Puri Indah from PIM. Yeah, seriously, I'm not lying. I relied on GPS until I found out that, while there IS a faster way to get there from PIM to Puri Indah, the GPS kept picking routes that are... false. Sometimes it leads to unexpected locations, but no matter how fishy the ride there, I finally managed to get my both cars to MT4. Both are Nissans, and probably those who read this might suggest me to do R35. :lol:

Compared to how it looks on 3DX+, the red color is noticeably fitter for S30. Looks like it IS truly a Safari Rally Car jejeje


Available Ghost Search Codes: MAAB8E (R34) and MKXF4J (this car, S30)

And now the only thing that would keep me away from this blog is the upcoming mid-semester test. Hopefully I could slay the mid-term without flaws.

~[R]

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

My History of Maximum Tune, Throughout the Years

After giving spotlights to GeneRally and Turbo Sliders in most of my posts, let's twist the topic and take things differently this time, which you can tell by this post's title (YOU DONT SAY???)

Remember the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 cabs pic I posted in the previous blog post? Almost a month ago, these cabs stepped its feet at one of the farthest mall I've ever been weeks after its release; Puri Indah Mall. This place is totally new for me, and that I visited the mall in not only a sole purpose of looking at the shiny yet wasn't-turned-on cabs but also the mall itself.

Source: Matthew N @ an Indonesian WMMT Group
Weeks later, at an Indonesian Maximum Tune group, people who have waited for the cabs to be turned on stormed the now-activated cabs, and there were enthusiastic people who want to get their hands on the MT4, whose release unfortunately is delayed and that every Indonesian player speculated about how will one game cost considering its profit sharing system that most game centers here don't accept at first, which mall will get this cab set first, why it's delayed in release, bla bla bla. Countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and Philippines, to name a few, had already have MT4 cabs way before we do.

YES, even the dev himself DON'T WANT to forget "funs" for Indonesian players!

As it is activated, we've got a catch: Our server is different than theirs; we have a localized server of our own, the same case with the Chinese MT4. That means you know we won't be able to race other ghosts from other countries unless Namco will integrate our server with the international one. However, this leads to an interesting fact:

3DX+ TRANSFER DEADLINE IS NOT IN EFFECT FOR INDONESIAN PLAYERS! Rejoice! Just because we got MT4 later than the other countries, it doesn't mean the 24 October of doom is applied to our server! :p

This means more time for the loyal Maximum Tune players in Jakarta (sadly for now...) to have their 3DX+ cards be transferred into a Banapassport which can support up to 100 cars! And this transfer is FREE OF CHARGE! Sans the Bana of course... :v . Currently MT4 is available at XXI Puri Indah Mall, which then Timezone's Mall Kelapa Gading branch follows after. Both cost up to IDR 10,000 (roughly a dollar) a play, and that's still promo price...

But what about me? I, who has raced MT4 cab ONCE, has a very long unique history of this game in general, from just casual plays at Cilandak Town Square in the first MaxTune, to starting out with a Bayside Blue Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II (R34) at Supermall Karawaci with MT2, to reaching 825HP within the days of MT3 and its subsequent sequels up to 3DX+, travelling at various malls where my parents took me, and eventually full tuned and full Dress-up it in my college years. But how I live through six years from my start? You sure know the story of how I play it the first time at Citos and how I start my own R34 at Karawaci from my previous blog posts, but how about the MT3 timeline chunk?

From 3, through 3DX, and finally 3DX+


(My memory is a bit fuzzy btw :shh:)

As MT3 replaced MT2, I, in the same ground as where I created my R34, transferred my card over, and played stories. Sadly I don't play much and had to lose with those who have more outrun stars and maxi coins than my car did. Furthermore, I can only play only on the circumstances where my parents took me to a mall with MT3 cabs, on weekends. You know that MT3 cabs are always awfully occupied and there are people standing behind the racing racers who are ignoring the "3 plays and you're done" rule in the game centers that they play more than three times. It's a standard in every game center, not just one. Furthermore, people just can't get enough in completing stories and battles...

To make things worse, most racers, if not all, who possess cards with lots of battle stars and coins are kids. Yes, KIDS, as in boys in their elementary age. Talk about the kiasu and sisu of those elementary kids, not just in mainstream Korean online games... Take note that Kiasu and Sisu, while they are both Singlish and Finnish respectively, mean almost, if not, the same; hate to lose.



In 3DX years, where you can Enjoy the Process in Hanshin Speed Ring of Osaka and Nagoya (!), I spent most of the time playing in Depok area. Plaza Depok is the nearby place in Depok that has MaxTune, with Depok Town Square and Margo City had a fair share of 3DX cabs before the latter has to be replaced by another arcade racer named Dead Heat. Again, I do ghost battles and stories as I reap on Dress-up parts and the full tune HP level of 825HP at a slow pace. Given the fact that every MT cab is occupied like hell that one can play more than three times and there are people waiting and there aren't nearby arcades in my home, I gave up. Not to mention there are times everytime when I'm in the middle of the game my parents phoned me to call quits on my session.

This also goes to my 3DX+ years. No nearby arcades, playing by shopping with parents or alone with transportation fares, cabs crowded by kids. Almost the same story, until there's, fortunately, a near place from my home which I posted a year ago as the reviver of my MaxTune career. In the same place, a year later, a tournament is held and I found out that it is a preliminary for a grand final which I cannot attend thanks to the staff's misinformation there. :(

As I go to the college, three places with 3DX+ cabs are present: Cilandak Town Square, Pondok Indah Mall, and Bintaro Plaza. One is pretty near from my college just by going straight and follow the road until Citos, one has so many 3DX+ cabs in different game centers, and one is... well, pretty near too despite it isn't as near as the first. Sadly, as the time progresses, the elimination game occurs and Cilandak has to be its victim, with most of its machines are transferred to Pondok Indah Mall. Bintaro Plaza is a pretty place where I could get battle mates to race with, but sadly my skills aren't a match for their RX-8s. As for ghost battles, I'm thankful I've got to revenge Bintaro ghosts despite sometimes I couldn't take them out at the first try.

This footage of full-tuned blue Skyline R34 is brought to you by the reflections that'll make you shit bricks :p

Finally, after years of playing, I've Fully-tuned my car to 825HP at Bintaro and Fully Dressed-up to Lv. 63 Dress-up at Karawaci. The last run has to be meaningful...

Boys and Their Rename Evo IXs and RX-8s

Seeing elementary-age kids racing here is a common sightseeing here...
And it turns out the majority of rank toppers in every MaxTune cab, not just 3DX+, are RENAMES. Yup, they are the ones with lots of stars, both big and small, and coins too. They come in with either tribal or flame stickers and inspection color finishes, sometimes works stickers also work, same thing for those with Namco and Pac Racing Club Man stickers. They've got more than 100k mileage, SSS Rank... they ARE EVERYWHERE!!!


I know that feel about the Pac-Man sticker...


You can nearly spot them in any 3DX+ arcade as they are common. YES, VERY COMMON! At first when I didn't aware them, I envy them having so many stars and coins. But now that I aware them, well... I tell you: stars and coins aren't everything, even the SSS Rank (albeit the traffic density difference). Sure you can buy them for a price as reasonable as IDR 100k+ and immediately hit the streets of Wangan up to IDR 5000 one run, alone, against a ghost, taking a store crown of a course, or against either Akio's Devil Z or the all-Skyline R200 Club for another loop, but you can't feel the same excitement and experience at the same time when you start from zero. Yes, you won't like it at first but hey, it'll give you a good run for your money!

There are also people with so much money who are willing to start from zero all the way to FT and FDU using all their hard-earned money and effort. This usually applies to workers whose hobby is THIS very game. :p

Back to Rename Kids thingy, there are, unfortunately, people who have so much ego as if they have played the game for a long time while in reality they just bought renames. Not just in Indonesia, but this kind of people are very common overseas, especially in places like Singapore where there are kids who go like "ME AM THE BEST LA!", "AM FASTEST LA!", "OH LA LA LA LA"... (expect some Reirom-speak said by them...)  Fortunately, this kind of rename kids are uncommon in Indonesia. In fact, I remember the time when I battle at Bintaro, a rename RX-8 kid shook my hand after a race.

Okay then, I don't mind having a grid of rename RX-8 and Evo IX kids but always remember that gentlemen's way of racing needs to be etched in their... no, every Indonesian... NO, EVERY MT RACER'S HEARTS!

What's Next for Me?

What's next for me as a Maximum Tune racer? With MT4 came and I have acquired my Banapassport, it's time to take my car(s) to the next level. Maybe the server is still localized Indonesian server, but who knows at the time MT4 is widespread in Indonesia and our server is integrated internationally, we can fight against international ghosts!

The fight continues in MT4: New Aero Parts, endless swarms of Dress-up Parts, 830HP of Full Tune, Japan Challenge (race against Japanese MT Players), Online Ghost Battles, New Ramming Physics, etc. It's the challenge to the world!



Active Cards:

- RENDY - Bayside Blue Nissan Skyline GT-R VSpec II (R34) - from MT2, FT (825HP), Full DressUp Lv. 63, Transferred to MT4

My main car for years. From MT2 to its FT at 3DX+ and later FDU, the car underwent hard times; there were times it won a tournament nearby my mall which turned out to be a preliminary for the grand final I missed thanks to a misinformation, and there were times I won and lost battles against rename Evo IXs and RX-8s. Its journey before transferred to MT4 was colorful, even though it's still B6 and has stars and Ghost Battle coins no higher than those of the renames. It is now transferred to MT4, but since the server is still local to avoid the transfer deadline, I won't give you this car's Ghost code yet.

- SF-RL - Red Nissan Fairlady Z S30 - from 3DX+, 10 Stories, DressUp Lv 1x

I created this car to replicate the same car that ran Safari Rally, which is why it took its name from that. It was created in Citos way before its closing. Ghost Battles were the first in priority since the Dress Up parts to replicate the car visually are simple sans the wheels with lots of spokes and black color. Its main purpose is to create a "Rally" car that isn't mainstream (e.g., Lancer Evolution models) btw.



Defunct Cards:
- McKey - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII - from MT3
- *RDX* - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (CZ4A) - from MT3

Both of these cars were made without a serious intention, and were not very active at all as I used my main car all the time.

~[R]

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Project TSukuba EPISODE 2: Yes, it's late. But not too late!

It's Rendy again! Yup, the [R]GARAGE Rendy :)

Looking at the title, you know that Project TSukuba is still running. Unfortunately I couldn't finish both projects before Eid'l Fitr day as I visited so many places, all are family places (relatives' house, grandparents' house, you name it...), celebrating the spirit of aforementioned day; the day of the glory, brotherhood, and forgiveness that is... :)

Despite late by WEEKS that I just get ahold of my laptop once again after days without it at night after I got home from my grandparents' house, which is very far away from Jakarta, and worked a little bit on my Monaco track. Sadly, I thought to myself that I won't be able to finish it within hours given that it's far from complete and I have doubts of what kind of Landmap texture that can replace those white placeholder terrains and Height map that fits Monaco well...





Working on the Height Map and finding the suitable textures for the cliffs, as well as taking the "accurate" layout but horrible pit lane into account. Trigger Happy (formerly Ivo Porc if you remember from RSC forums era) suggested that I would need to either move pit crews closer to the tarmacs paved pit lane or to make walls bordering pits diagonal instead of 90 degrees. However, I worked another layout and understood that with this accurate layout and small world size (Remember! This is a New World Tour Track Project which required me to have a track no more than WS 180!), it'll look too horrible to be driven, even against AIs...

Still, depressions about HMaps and LMaps aren't over. I've tried to think how to make the track have a Monaco Street Circuit feel albeit the fictitious layout whose inspiration came from the last championship track of Sega Rally 2. Until weeks later, I played with some existing textures and played a bit with the WIP until I get this:

Unfortunately, because it is long overdue, and I have had too many difficulties on how I could work it after all those depressions... Sorry puttz, but this track has past its deadline... However, this last state of my Monaco will make sure you won't cry with nothing...

Sadly, after a long time, I have decided to call quits on my Monaco. It's just that I've been in too many depressions as to how I could make it look like a proper Monaco, with all those Hmaps, cliff textures, objects, etc. The thing is that as I'm hit by numerous depressions and a number of family matters and other projects, I don't have passion to continue this track anymore. Plus, it's totally way OVERDUE...
Meanwhile for Tsukuba, the construction had to get hold for awhile. Not that it was unfinished, but after I added a parking lot, I was considering about adding tiles like TS cars and persons tiles. Yet, since it was 90% complete, I thought that I lower its construction priority a bit so to give way for my Monaco to be finished.

Japan's Temple of Speed is finally reborn on Turbo Sliders!
And now I've filled more than 85% of the parking lot throughout the track with default TS cars, and there are dby's "Persons" tiles even though they aren't that dense. And now, the track is set and ready to drive after weeks of waiting! Though I'd like to point out that it's kinda hard to have variety when putting different TS cars tiles adjacent to each other, which you need to consider the color and the model. You may not want a different car with one color being a majority on one parking spot, so does not want different colors but the same model (example: assorted colors of Antislider in one spot). TS Trackmaking is pretty easy, but you need to live up things to your expectations to achieve great tracks.

Download the new Tsukuba Circuit now! (1,77 MB) - SCARTS version will be made in a SCARTS race upon discussion with the organizer(s). Take note that I don't bother to upload it to TS's Tracks Database since I was experiencing errors back then when I tried to upload a track... :v

Back to a GeneRally-related topic, I've returned to the GR Competitions scene where I joined Lukeno94's GR Touring Car World Cup, a competition pitting AWD, FWD, and RWD tourers of different background. Team [R]GARAGE is formed with me driving the mighty, my favorite, Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit Car. It turns out that as I posted my application, my countrymate resir014 hops in the team's seat, driving the same car, and repeating what could be named as an "All-Indonesian Racing Team" campaign in a season of GeneRally Rookie Cup dated years ago...

That is before I read Bird's post which is posted AFTER resir014's. Talk about forgetting a new teammate... D'oh! Although not "All-Indonesian", Team [R]GARAGE suddenly becomes an "Indonesian-based International Race Team", with motto "International Team, Indonesian Taste."

...or another way around like... "Indonesian Team, International Taste"?

All Team [R]GARAGE drivers drive the 306 Maxi with a livery base shown aside of red-painted polies, allowing for custom driver colors for all drivers including me. Shown here are my player colors.


Well, this "GR Touring Car World Cup" thingy will be posted in the next blog post(s) as I have to drive the whole season first. :)

And for what will come in the next posts are:


Something that's new since the last time I do it...


Something that every Indonesian has waited for, literally, a long time...


And something that's really new to me...

As well as something that's... not really new but first time I posted this online...

Whichever comes first actually :p

Meanwhile check my Fandom-loving self in both my tumblr and LJ as you wait for me to talk about those things! And don't forget, visit [R]GARAGE's site!

~[R]