Tuesday, January 27, 2015

MAGFest 13 StreetPass Accomplishments

So I got a few of these at MAGFest, and they didn't make it into the post about MAGFest itself.  My mind is pretty much always jumbled up like that, so we end up with strings of posts like this.

Anyway.
  • I got up to a 3000 plaza population, and discovered that it stops counting at that point, opting instead to just show a + next to it.
  • I also got over 5000 StreetPass tags.
  • The last one, and perhaps the most perplexing, is that I got the one for getting ten special Miis.  I didn't have my 3DS connected to the internet at all the entire weekend, so my only guess is that somehow I got the mii through StreetPass.  It was Kyle, if anyone's keeping track.
So, what am I missing?  Well, let's see.  There are a ton of accomplishments for getting certain numbers of StreetPass tags.  The text is hidden just to be annoying, but I believe they go all the way up to 90,000.  That still leaves 10 slots unaccounted for before reaching the one for a plaza population of 10.  GameFAQs even has a nice unexplained gap there (look at the accomplishment numbers).

Anywho, other than that, I'm missing the one for getting someone from every region of my country (and I can't believe I didn't get anyone from Mississippi while I was at MAGFest), and the one for 1000 fantastics.

Getting the tags and fantastics just takes time, so really the only significant barrier to finishing this off is getting frigging Mississippi.  Figuring out those 10 remaining ones will be interesting, but to be honest, they're probably just more StreetPass tag milestones and nobody's reached them to unlock them yet and then contribute the text to GameFAQs through their rather clunky contribution system.

Anyone know the SSID+MAC of any Nintendo Zones in Mississippi?  I only need to hit it once...

Monday, January 26, 2015

MAGFest 13

This one will be a bit shorter than the past several, the reasons for this should be made abundantly clear to you if you keep reading.

So, a few months before MAGFest was even scheduled to happen, I went to go sign up for shifts only to discover that yet again, whoever it was that had promised to mark my shifts as "worked" in the staffing system had failed to do so, and I had to annoy some people to get into the database.  Chalking this up to the fact that I usually staff Teardown, which ends after the staffing system is taken offline, I decided to go for Setup this year.  My shifts got entered, but it was due to some organizational changes involving individual departments actually having access to the staffing system so department heads could actually mark shifts as "worked", get this, DURING THE EVENT.  Anyway.

Daily summaries and all that after the break.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Hinted-at Pursuit Series Cancelled

So when I posted about the Pursuit of the Perfect Frozen Burger, I hinted at another pursuit series...
(also, a similar frozen food pursuit series might happen alongside it since there's something I've been lacking for a few years now, nudge nudge wink wink hype hype)
That series was slated to be Pursuit of Frozen Spicy Chicken Strips.

I actually tried a few different brands, including store brands, and never actually wrote anything about any of them.  Spoiler: you didn't miss much, they didn't compare to what I was missing and searching for a replacement for: Giant Brand Spicy Chicken Strips.  I was looking for a replacement because my Giant re-arranged its store for the sake of re-arrangement like all stores do just to piss off their customers, and in the process, they got rid of the aforementioned spicy chicken strips.

Fast forward to this morning.  Imagine my surprise when I'm staring at the Giant Brand frozen snack foods area with a sense of nostalgia and longing, when suddenly...


Series hereby cancelled.  Welcome back, Giant Brand Spicy Chicken Strips!  They're 2/$5 with bonuscard, so go get yourself some now!

Friday, January 9, 2015

Chrono Trigger DS: Dimensional Vortex Stat Maxing

The final battle of each Dimensional Vortex raises select stats for the character that's required to be in the party for the battle.  Some of them are raised pointlessly because that character maxes that stat through levelling, but for the rest, if you have the patience to repeatedly do New Game + runs to the point where you get the upgraded Epoch, you can get the stat boost over and over.

Time PeriodCharacterStats raised (+Amount)
12,000 BCMarleSpeed (+2)
Hit (+5)
Stamina (+5)
1,000 ADCronoSpeed (+1)
Strength (+5)
Hit (+5)
2,300 ADLuccaSpeed (+3)
Magic (+5)
Stamina (+5)

As you can see, Crono's Strength and Lucca's Magic are pointlessly raised.  Kind of sad that the only character to get full benefit is Marle, but it's interesting in that her Hit stat controls her damage output.  I'm nowhere near max on it yet, so it'll be interesting to see if the Venus Bow continues to be her best option once it's maxed.

Speed is also a pretty pointless stat for it to grant, since Speed Tabs are very common.  A run through Black Omen, charming all the Panels, and getting all the chests, produces at least 15.  I know, I know, not everyone plays the game like I do, so I guess the speed boosts are fine, but...  they coulda put that in Evade or something. *grumble*

I've updated the progress box thingy on the right to include the meaningful stat levels that benefit from this.  For the spots where it says "N/A", it's because that character doesn't get a boost to that stat.  I also omitted stats maxed either through levelling, or tabs.

Overall, it's neat, and I will be farming the stat boosts, but they could have given better bonuses for Crono and Lucca.