Minecraft Monday - Kill The Beast - E1: The Beginning

Hey Guys SighFye here and I'm starting another series.

Well technically, I'm starting two series. Minecraft Monday and Kill The Beast. Kill the Beast is going to be my attempt at Killing the Ender Dragon on Hardcore mode. For those that have followed me on YouTube will know I have started this endeavour before but I am not very interesting to listen to while I play, and a silent play is just... well, shit. So let's get into it...

Episode 1: The Beginning

I spawned on the shore of a river. After playing Minecraft for some time and dying numerous times because I forgot to get food, I decided the best first step is to sort out some food. My plan was to make a sword and kill some sheep, cows or whatever else I could find to make into food. While making the sword I figured I would also use the wood to make myself a not so trusty wooden pickaxe. This way I can at least move myself to the stone age with ease.

Within the first minute of playing I thought I had stumbled upon a dungeon. Okay, I'm not that well equipped for such an adventure but the rewards may be worth it. While typing this out I realised I can not be playing in that manner. I am on hardcore. Mental note, no more risky play. To my surprise I did not find a dungeon. I had found myself in a biome I had never seen before where these things pop up everywhere.

Walking along I found myself at the top of a chasm. In my normal gameplay, this would be my gold mine, my starting point. How many minerals were waiting for me at the bottom. I almost started my descent when I realised I still had not found any food. My new rule meant I had to continue looking.

Onwards I went, deeper and deeper into the world. Would I find any food anywhere. I managed to find a few brown mushrooms but without the red what good were they? With the sun high in the sky it felt like I was lost in a forest with no way to find help.

When I was about to quit and start work on a wheat farm I found my salvation in a few feathered friends. Friends I would soon call, Lunch and Dinner. I attacked with a mighty blow, pushing my first meal off the edge. I did manage to kill a few and complete my first task.

My next task was to make some armor. Personally, I always skip the leather armor and go straight for iron. So the next task at hand, to find a place to set up base and start mining. Looking around I found a flat based ground surrounded by high dirt walls. To me this looked like the perfect place to build my home. And to my pleasant surprise I found some red mushrooms to complete my mushroom soup.

Night fell as I cleared land and built the essentials. I needed light and fast. With the stone dug out from clearing I built my first stone tools. My home base was floored with coal so I mined it all out with my little, more trusty, stone pickaxe. I started building my mine to find iron ore. I did take a screenshot of this but they were too dark so I decided not to use them in this blog.

In the mine I only found more and more coal. Okay its a good find at first but I really wanted to get myself some iron ore. As time went on I realised day was upon me. I returned to the surface with no iron ore. With day light I started on my wheat farm. Finding a small patch of dirt along side a river.

With my food supply in plenty for now the only thing I needed was iron ore. I found a small cave close to my home and decided to explore. The cave was deep, at first I found only coal. Deeper and deeper I went. Finally I stumbled upon my goal, iron ore. I mined it out and a short walk later found more, and more and more iron ore.

I now had enough iron ore for my basic needs. I was about to return when I stumbled across a deep, dark, long drop. What was in there? Would I find diamonds? That my friends is for another episode.

I did realise in this post that in my whole travels I had not found a single monster. I guess I had been lucky so far. Maybe I should return to base to make my armor before exploring the drop.

Well I guess we will have to wait and see. Until then readers, stay geeky.

SighFye

Red Dwarf's Back!

Heya, Bellistik here!

It's been nearly 3 decades since the first episode of Red Dwarf and their back once again! Scheduled to be aired in 2016, Craig Charles (Lister), Chris Barrie (Rimmer), Danny John-Jules (Cat) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryton) reunite for seasons XI and XII. 

Red Dwarf

Synopsis

Red Dwarf is an English sitcom first aired in 1988. In the beginning we're introduced to the crew of the space craft Red Dwarf. We meet Arnold Rimmer who is an uptight do-gooder in charge of Dave Lister who has no care for authority or personal hygiene. They humorously clash as they work together on the ships maintenance. Rimmer hopes to pass exams to be promoted on the ship and Lister plans to have a farm on Fiji in his future. After the captain discovers Lister has smuggled a cat on board he is promptly put into stasis for 6 months as a punishment.

Lister comes out of stasis to discover there's been a radiation leak in the ship which killed the crew. Holly (The ship's main computer) had to wait until it was safe to allow Lister to come out, 3 million years later. He believes he is the only survivor and finds himself with a holographic projection of Rimmer. They soon discover they're not alone, Lister's cat Frankenstein had kittens and over the 3 million years, they evolved and we are introduced to a very vain character called “Cat”.

We soon meet Kryton, a butler robot and we follow the 4 across space and 10 seasons. With huge laughs coupled with SciFi; aliens, Time travel, multi-dimensions etc., it's a brilliant show. If you've never seen it before I scream, “WHY NOT!?” Hurry up and watch some Red Dwarf!

I can't wait for the new seasons. While we wait, SighFye and I have been re-watching old episodes as they're still hilarious.

Have fun

Bellistik

Zombie Zunday - Must See Movies

Hey Guys, SighFye here, welcome to another Zombie Zunday.

Today I was going to do my top 3 zombie movies but there are so many to choose from. Instead I decided to give a list of must see zombie movies. In my opinion a good zombie movie is not about blood, guts and gore. It's how that movie brings something new to the table. This list will be in no particular order. So lets get straight into it.

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie in the comedy range. Drop beat Shaun finds himself in a breakup. His girlfriend says he is going no where in  his life and needs someone who has more direction. The next morning, hungover, Shaun heads to a grocery store in need of  a few things, unaware the the zombie apocalypse has happened.

This hilarious story unfolds as Shaun makes a solid plan to save his mum from her zombie husband (Shaun's step dad, whom he hates), save his girlfriend, and prove to her he is the man she needs. A great movie with a great story line and huge laughs.

Zombieland

Columbus is an uninfected college student who has learned that the way to survive the zombie apocalypse is to follow the rules. He has rules for every situation.

1. Cardio: You must be fit and must be able to run long distances.
2. Double Tap: If you kill a zombie, hit it again in the head. You never know when they will get back up
3. Beware of Bathrooms: Bathrooms are a danger to enter.
4. Seatbelt: Always were your seatbelt

I think from memory he has about 50 rules to stick by.

Along his travels, Columbus meets Tallahassee. This guy follows no rules and is very reckless. As the pair progress Columbus is forced to revisit his rules and make a few changes. At a grocery store, the pair find themselves bumping into an interested pair of sisters.

This movie is great. It has fantastic laughs, is really well delivered and has a great story line. It brings the zombies away from a horror movie and into a comedy scene.

Warm Bodies

While we are on the comedy side of zombie movies I want to bring to the table Warm Bodies. This zombie movie is from a zombie's perspective. He has a best friend, they meet up each day, more as a brain dead routine than anything, and they feed together. But what happens when a zombie falls in love with a pretty girl.

This movie is like a reverse zombie movie. One zombie is infected with love and his body starts to come alive. As each zombie sees the love in him, they too begin to feel again.

A different zombie movie with a great story. Well worth the watch.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the dead is a remake of the 1978 zombie movie with the same title. Ana, a nurse in a local hospital, heads home after a long shift to her husband and misses the emergency broadcast as they have a steamy shower together. The next day a neighbourhood girl comes into the bedroom with blood running down her face. Thinking she is in danger they rush to help but the little girl attacks Ana's husband. With his neck bleeding Ana tried to dial 911 but cannot get through as the lines are busy. Within a few minutes her husband dies, jumps back to his feet and attacks Ana. With a lucky escape Ana makes her way out of the city, but ends up in a car crash. She survives the crash and meets up with an ex cop and another small group of people, they hold up in a mall for safety.

This movie was the first time I had ever seen a zombie run. I clearly remember the one armed zombie walking down the street, he turns to see the group trying to get into a door and starts sprinting towards them at full pelt. My reaction "Oh Shit!". A lot of this movie is them safely inside the mall but as time progresses they realise they cannot stay there. They need to move on. A great movie and a first for the running zombies.

World War Z

In World War Z, we find ourselves in the midst of a whole new zombie style. These zombies are not the half rotten zombies who are struggling to walk or run. Oh no, these zombies are brutal and will give 110% to get their next prey. They don't slow down to enter doorways, they just all pile in, slamming into walls as they go.

The solution in this movie was also one I did not see coming, which I will also not give away. The movie had me on the edge of my seat all the way through. They had a great knack of making you feel like everything is now safe for a while and then making it crumble all down in an instant. This movie has the most scary zombie situation I have ever seen.

This is my favourite zombie movie of all time. It is well worth every second and cent you spend on it.

I am Legend

This movie was a massive change in the idea of a zombie. A cure for cancer brings a massive victory to the world, until it kills 90% of the infected population, the remaining 10% are turned into vicious predators who are vulnerable to sunlight. Staying behind at ground zero, Neville feels it's his responsibility to find a cure. After all, it was his fault the virus was made. Finding himself alone, and immune to infection, he experiments on infected rats in his basement lab to find fail after fail. While the infected become smarter and more determined to find his home.

As I said before a good zombie movie has got to find a new way to present the zombie story. This is one of the best reinventions. I Am Legend provides an incredible story and on the edge of your seat moments at all corners.


There you have it guys, if you haven't seen these movies I HIGHLY recommend all of them. If you feel I have missed some then please comment below. You can follow me on Twitter here https://twitter.com/SighFye And don't forget to follow the blog to the top-right.

Thanks Again Guys

SighFye

My Top 3 TV Shows

Hiya, Bellistik here!

Recently SighFye, the kids and I have been eating The Natural Confectionary co. chews.

They're delicious and gluten free! Yay! Each wrapper also has 1 or 2 questions printed on them to ask one another as conversation starters. One of them was, "What is your favourite TV show?" This got us thinking and talking about our faves and I'm going to share my top 3 TV shows here with you!

Here goes:

3. The Walking Dead

Zombies have exploded into every possible story-telling stage from Movies to books, comics and even street pranks and performances.

Zombies have even moved into different genres, starting off in horror, we now see comedy, RomCom, and Drama Zombie movies. And of course, there's a zombie Television show...

The Walking Dead follows a group of people fighting for their lives and each others through a zombie apocalypse, we watch as they survive zombies as well as endure other people doing whatever it takes to survive. As the series unfolds we see the “walkers” decay, becoming more and more grotesque while at the same time we see what the people surviving have become, with what they will do to survive becoming more and more grotesque... 

The Walking Dead was one of the first shows I've seen to kill off characters you'd least expect, adding a shocking and suspenseful addition to the show. The show balances horror and drama well and pushes your buttons with characters having to make decisions you feel both against and for. With unexpected twists, dramatic suspense, horror suspense and jump scares, The Walking dead is a must watch.

2. Battlestar Galactica 

40 years earlier humans had had a war with Cylons, human made robots who turned on their creators. The war had long been over and Battlestar Galactica, an old battleship, was being readied to be retired. A surprise attack hits the twelve colonies, Kobol a group of planets where the humans reside and we follow a fleet of humans once again at war with the Cylons as they search for the mythical planet Earth.

2004's Battlestar Galactica is a well written, enjoyable series with characters to love, hate and sometimes be confused as to which feelings fit best! Our own ethical and moral codes are challenged endlessly as we question our discrimination's, witness our inner weaknesses and demons mirrored back to us and ask the question of what we would do in many debatable situations. We witness humans in desperate scenarios as they work collectively and then selfishly; from the many, to the few, to the self and back to the many. We watch people win and lose and see how we can be both heroic and villainous.

While fictional in a distant world, Battlestar Galactica still gives us the opportunity to look at ourselves as humans while enjoying the expected suspense and action of a Sci Fi series set in space. When I first started watching Battlestar Galactica I wasn't really into Sci Fi but with it's many twists and surprises as well as relate-able characters, this series will hook anyone.

1. Breaking Bad

Usually in movies and TV shows we meet lovable characters who we wish the best for, but in Breaking Bad we meet Walter White, at first he's a weedy, high school teacher who everyone knows and loves as the nice guy. His soft, polite demeanor soon turns around after he's diagnosed with lung cancer and begins with his plans to make big money fast to leave for his pregnant wife and teenage son. 

 

Breaking Bad keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time from the first episode to the last, 5 seasons later. And although you may not like the main character you can't help but keep watching because you must know what happens next!

From Wikipedia: “Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. By the time the series finale aired, the series was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including sixteen Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards and a People's Choice Award. For his leading performance, Bryan Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the highest rated show of all time.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad 

Stay cool, 

Bellistik 

Way Back When's Day - Sonic The Hedgehog (1991)

Hi everybody! :D

You may not know me yet, but I'm the newest contributor to Gettin' My Geek On.
My name is Lloyd, but everybody calls me @OzRavenheart.

Today I'd like to try and start a series called Way Back When's Day, where I attempt to finish a steam game, in my library, that I first played in my childhood. As Sonic the hedgehog was the very first video-game I was introduced to, and subsequently became the game that I grew up with, I thought I'd finish it after all this time.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) - Steam Edition

It took me about 2 hours to get through Sonic the Hedgehog but that's not unexpected since this version comes with the ability to save your game anywhere you like. It seems a little bit like cheating though, so I limited myself to one save at the beginning of each level to be fair.

I thoroughly enjoyed zooming through the first few zones (Greenhill Zone, Marble Zone etc), letting muscle memory and thousands of hours of childhood gaming guide me through the most efficient paths for each level,

Racing through the Greenhill Zone

Swinging over the lava in the Marble Zone

Bouncy Bouncy! (in the Spring Yard Zone)

Rising water is deadly in the Labyrinth Zone!

 However, later levels presented more of a challenge. As a kid I had only ever successfully gotten as far as the Labyrinth Zone - Act 3 and I was able to catch up to that point rather quickly.

Fighting Dr Robotnik during the rising water race at the end of Act 3 was difficult, but not as impossible as it seemed when I was younger. It only took me a couple of goes to get past him this time.

Run Sonic run! (Scrap Brain Zone)

The Scrap Brain Zone was always fun to play (if you could get there), with it's mechanical gears and widgets, flame-throwers, saw blades and other assorted industrial themed challenges.


I am most definitely not a fan of the obstacles that zap you with electricity if you get too close though. I got zapped way too many times!


Strangely, the end of the second act sees Dr Robotnik drop you into a new level (Scrap Brain Zone - Act 3) which looks very similar to the Labyrynth Zone. It is quite challenging compared to the other underwater levels earlier though.

Boing! (Star Light Xone)

By far my favourite Zone would have to be the Star Light Zone with its long loops and strange walking bomb enemies. The background music is very upbeat and melodical and reminds me of the music they play at fairgrounds. :3

Special levels were a challenge as they require you to finish a level with more than 50 rings in order to access them, which is difficult. In the end, I only managed to nab 3 of the 6 chaos emeralds up for grabs before the end of the game.

Some day I may try to get all the chaos emeralds, but for now I think this game is finished enough.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and I finally got to defeat Dr Robotnic in the final boss level, which I had never done before without cheating.

Someday I'll wipe that smile off your face Dr Robotnik

Steam Library Games Completed: 1 / 369

Second Life - Learn To Script: Chapter 1

Contents

Chapter 1: The Basics

Chapter 2: Let's Make A Key Finder
Chapter 3: Lets Make A Personal Microphone
Chapter 4: Let's Make A Donation Box

Welcome to my new series, Second Life - Learn To Script. In this series I will be teaching you in basic terms how to script using LSL for Second Life. We will be making real products which will not only get you scripting but will also give you some products to sell. The products will range from low difficulty like Key Finders, to median skill of donation boxes, right up to a pride product of mine and ATM machine which will allow you to transfer funds between avatars, have other request funds from you, paying them upon your approval and keeping a up to date balance sheet. This chapter is going to be all about the basics so we will not be building anything just yet. So lets get started.

What is LSL?

LSL stands for Linden Scripting Language. It is a state and event driven language. States are easily explained like a light, on and off. These are two states of a light bulb. A car may have off, idle and drive. LSL has as many states as you want. The starting state in a script is always called ‘default’. Events are actions that the object is waiting for. This can be when a user touches the object, pays money into the object or says something to the object. There are many other events that can occur within an object but these are the main ones we will be using in this book.

LSL also contains variables. Variables can be seen as information holders. They hold the information or data that you need throughout the script. Don’t worry too much if all this is going over your head. We will be looking into everything a lot deeper and you will gain the understanding you need.

Script Editor

The script editor is the place you will be doing all of your scripting. To open the editor you first need a new script. There are two ways to create a script. The first way is to right click inside you inventory and choose New Script. This will create a script for you and ask you to name it. Let’s name this one MyFirstScript. Now double click on this new script on the editor will open. The second way we will learn a little later.

Figure 1 shows you what the editor looks like.

You can see inside a code is already written. This is the default code with 1 state and 2 events. The state that is used is the one that every script needs, default. The default state is set when the script is first executed. The two events used are state_entry and touch_start. We will look into these two a little later.

The down side to making scripts this way is that we cannot run or test our code. The way I make scripts is this alternative way. First I create an object within second life. This will only work if you have permission to create objects on the land you are working.

There are many places in second life that allow builders to create objects on their land. One of these for which I use a lot is called Curious. You need to be a member of their group but the good news is, this is free. I personally have my own building platform which I have had for some time now.

Creating an object

Step 1: To create an object click on Build in the menu and select Build. You will be presented with the build window. This tool has many powerful things that enable you to create anything you want. All objects within Second Life were created using this tool. I will not be going into how to use this in this book.

Step 2: You will notice that your mouse has turned into a wand. This is indicating that the tool is ready to make the selected object. Click anywhere on the ground and you will see a cube appear. If this did not work check the setting of the land you are using and ensure you have rights to create objects there.

Step 3: Name your object. Click on the general tab and type in a name for your object. Press enter to finish this step.

Now that you have your object we can create our script the alternative way.

Create a Script inside an object

Step 1: Click on the Contents tab in the build window.

Step 2: Click on New Script

You will notice that a script has appeared in the objects contents called New Script. The object also said Hello, Avatar in local chat. We don’t want our script to be called New Script so let’s go ahead and change it.

Step 3: Right click the script and choose Rename.

Step 4: Let’s call this script MyFirstObjectScript

Step 5: Double Click on the Script

You will see once again the Script Editor has been opened. With the same script that was in the last one you opened. This script editor is a little different than the first with an extra button and a couple of check boxes. The only buttons we will be using are Save and Reset.

If you click reset now you will see the object say Hello Avatar again. The reset button forces the script to start again from the last saved point. Save will save all the new code and try to run the code. If your code has errors they will be displayed in the error box below the written code.

The only check box you will need to be using is the Running check box.

The running check box sets whether the script is running or not. If your script doesn’t seem to be working and you cannot figure out why. This may be the reason.

Variables

Variables are a collection of information or data. There are seven types of variables which you can use.

Type	Brief Description
integer	Holds a whole number. A whole number is one that does not contain a decimal. Eg: 1, 2, 3 not 1.5, 2.3, 4.7.
float	Holds a decimal number. Can also hold whole numbers.
vector	Holds three floats in the form of <x, y, z>.
rotation	Holds 4 floats in the form of <x,y,z,s>
key	Holds a UUID (special string) used to identify things within Second Life.
string	Holds a sequence of characters. EG: Raiden, S1ghfy3 or Raiden Faxel
list	Holds a list of data types

All variables have 3 parts to them, the type, the name and the value. In code we would declare a variable like the following.

This is setting three variables. I used the names myNumber, myList and myString but you can use whatever name you want to. The code //Sets a variable and the like are comments. Comments are very important in scripting.

We will learn more about variables when the time comes.

Comments

Comments do nothing in the code. They are simply a comment. Scripters use these within their code to understand what is going on. There has been many times before I used comments that I would write a script. Then months down the line an error would pop up and I would have to fix it. I would open the script and have no idea what was going on. If I had used comments I would be able to clearly see what is happening. I recommend you use comments in every piece of code you write.

To write a comment we simply add two slashes in front of our comment. This tells the script that the following is a comment.

//This would be a comment

In the next post we will be making our first product.

 

 

Zombie Zunday - Yet Another Zombie Defense (2014)

In honour of the new Zombie Zunday tradition SighFye has started, I decided to play a game I bought several months ago on steam. Yet another Zombie Defense first grabbed my attention for having a multiplayer top-down shooter defence style of gameplay, but the more I played it, the more I liked the singleplayer survival experience for the challenge it provides.

I've always been a fan of zombie games that pit you against constant waves of enemies and charges you with the task of surviving as long as possible. Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 was the first game I found that did it well, but you had to complete the main story once in order to unlock the survival mode first. This game ups the anty a little bit by emptying the playing field completely. It's just you and a single lamp post, against the zombie horde, in the middle of an empty expanse of darkness.

Anyone got a flashlight? :/

During the night, you are tasked with defending yourself against the undead. Once a wave of zombies is completed, the game transitions to daytime and you have an unlimited amount of time to purchase weapons & ammo and fortify your base by adding barricades or turrets. Once you have purchased everything you require to survive another night defending against the undead, you select next level to continue.

Back off, undead scum!

I thought this was an odd design choice at first because it removes the difficulty of having a limited amount of time for both defending and fortifying. Later in the game, something occurred to me that made some sense of that particular feature.  The fortifications seem to carry over damage from round to round if left in place between rounds. However if you remove all the erected fortifications and rebuild them, from the ground up, they are replaced at full health, allowing you to effectively repair your fortifications and also letting you spend a decent amount of time deciding on the best strategy in laying out your base to provide the best defence.

Put the electric fences on the outside! :D

 Since Yet Another Zombie Defense does not have a definitive end, as such, I decided before I started playing that unlocking the "Endless Night" mode by making it past the seventh night would qualify as "finishing" the game for the purposes of the blog.

With the recent additions of player upgrades and better turrets, I was able to survive until the 17th night. Unfortunately at the end of the 16th night, the zombies had become strong enough to overwhelm my barricades before my turrets could eradicate them and ultimately I wore down all of my remaining ammo. Going into the 17th night, I was unable to purchase enough ammo for either the SMG turrets or my Shotgun to last long enough to finish off the zombies.

Lasted a lot longer than the last time I tried to play this game.

I briefly tried the multi-player mode, but it was disappointing. Both players share ammo and currency with the turrets, so I frequently had players join and then spend all the money I had saved up for a blaster on fortifications immediately. I feel like either seperating the money and ammo counts for each player or making both players decide on purchases would be a nice addition.

I feel that money is quite sparse throughout the singleplayer survival experience too as it's extremely easy to run out of money and the amount of money gained each round and the amount of damage done by weapons you carry over doesn't balance well with the increase in zombie difficulty per round. This could be a design flaw, or done on purpose to make sure the game can end without the player continuing indefinitely, but either way it seems a little unbalanced at the moment.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed Yet Another Zombie Defense as a survival game and, as long as you were playing with friends, I could see the multi-player mode being fun too. Since it's currently on sale for 49 cents each or 79 cents for a two-pack, I would highly recommend to grab it quickly before the sale runs out in about 26 hours.

Steam Library Games Completed: 2/369