It's been almost 2 weeks since I set my Season 4 goals, and here's how I'm doing:
1. Playing SC2 - played 7 games so far, so not too bad - though 5 of those were on one night!
2. Posting/casting - only posted a few times, only 1 cast. Needs improvement.
3. Weight - For a few days I was almost 2 lbs lighter. But today almost a half pound heavier. I see exercise in my future... especially after Thanksgiving tomorrow!
4. Call of Duty - I've played Modern Warfare 3 twice and installed MW1 and MW2 on my XB360. MW1 has been in the disc tray for the last two weeks - but I haven't even turned on the XB360 since then :(
In other news, I'm using Facebook more and commenting on Fafner's blog, so I'm at least a bit more social than I was two weeks ago.
And big thanks to my co-worker Terry, who pointed out that several of my links were bad - I didn't update them when I renamed the blog! Thanks Terry!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Season 4 Qualifier
As promised, here's a cast of my 1v1 qualifier! This was my first cast as CuePhoenix, my first new cast for my new YouTube channel, and a good example of Zerg harassment. Enjoy!
(And don't forget to watch it in glorious fullscreen 1080p!)
I still have mixed feelings about playing as Random (random race). Although I enjoy the variety, it is difficult to improve at any particular aspect, especially since I only play a few games a week.
If I had to choose one race for this season, I might lean towards playing Zerg (gasp!).
How I'm playing them is fairly active, which is fun to play and cast, and whenever I win I feel like it's an accomplishment.
Of course, maybe that says something about the underdog mentality of many Zerg players ;-)
(And don't forget to watch it in glorious fullscreen 1080p!)
I still have mixed feelings about playing as Random (random race). Although I enjoy the variety, it is difficult to improve at any particular aspect, especially since I only play a few games a week.
If I had to choose one race for this season, I might lean towards playing Zerg (gasp!).
How I'm playing them is fairly active, which is fun to play and cast, and whenever I win I feel like it's an accomplishment.
Of course, maybe that says something about the underdog mentality of many Zerg players ;-)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Long Games!
(I'll attempt a quick post during a late lunch...)
I've been fairly active since my last post - I attempted at least 3 mornings to cast my 1v1 qualifier to my satisfaction (and succeeded this morning!) and have played 7 ladder games. You can see my updated standing on the side panel.
One thing I've noticed is that the lower-level Silver and upper-level Bronze players that I'm typically matched with are not afraid of long games. Besides the turtling that's common at this level, these players are tough as nails and really stick it out if they think they have a sliver of a chance!
Last night I sat down and figured I'd play one game - maybe 15-20 minutes top, right?
Don't freak out - that's in-game time, so in real life, it was only 45 minutes.
But still - 45 minutes?!?!
Now that's not to say I was completely dominating or anything - let's be clear, we were both terrible. But terrible in the worst way - fairly stalemated armies (defensive broodlords vs gateway units w/ no blink) and we were both terrible about expanding to a third - so no resources.
And we were fairly good about keeping it that way - I had map control, killing two (three?) of his attempts at a third base, but while I was off doing that, he rolled a baneling ball into my third killing almost all (if not all) of my probes.
Finally, he decided for a base race, sending most of his broodlords to my main. I tried holding him off, but it was clear his main and expansion weren't heavily defended anymore - so I obliged to the race and won (I had a third and forth expansion at that point).
But yeah, you never know what to expect in the ladder - master league players surrendering immediately or bronze players sticking it out to the last building - one of the reasons I love this game :)
(ok, guess that wasn't so short after all!)
I've been fairly active since my last post - I attempted at least 3 mornings to cast my 1v1 qualifier to my satisfaction (and succeeded this morning!) and have played 7 ladder games. You can see my updated standing on the side panel.
One thing I've noticed is that the lower-level Silver and upper-level Bronze players that I'm typically matched with are not afraid of long games. Besides the turtling that's common at this level, these players are tough as nails and really stick it out if they think they have a sliver of a chance!
Last night I sat down and figured I'd play one game - maybe 15-20 minutes top, right?
Don't freak out - that's in-game time, so in real life, it was only 45 minutes.
But still - 45 minutes?!?!
Now that's not to say I was completely dominating or anything - let's be clear, we were both terrible. But terrible in the worst way - fairly stalemated armies (defensive broodlords vs gateway units w/ no blink) and we were both terrible about expanding to a third - so no resources.
And we were fairly good about keeping it that way - I had map control, killing two (three?) of his attempts at a third base, but while I was off doing that, he rolled a baneling ball into my third killing almost all (if not all) of my probes.
Finally, he decided for a base race, sending most of his broodlords to my main. I tried holding him off, but it was clear his main and expansion weren't heavily defended anymore - so I obliged to the race and won (I had a third and forth expansion at that point).
But yeah, you never know what to expect in the ladder - master league players surrendering immediately or bronze players sticking it out to the last building - one of the reasons I love this game :)
(ok, guess that wasn't so short after all!)
Friday, November 11, 2011
Season 4: Goals
Well, it's that time - time to review the goals of last season and make new ones for Season 4!
Season 3
I had 4 goals: play more SC2, blog more often, continue to cast, and start StarClass - and I accomplished all of them!
I played 64 1v1 ladder games compared to 26 in Season 2.
I posted on average 2 times a week over 12 weeks compared to about once a week during Season 2.
I casted 5 games compared to 4 games in Season 2.
And I started StarClass with 7 casts.
Outside SC2
I wanted to exercise and lose weight, read more to the kids, watch more movies with my wife, and play more PS3/XB360 - I accomplished 2 out of 4 :(
Weight-wise, I'm basically where I was in August - I only formally exercised 6 times and neglected my PS3 and XB360 (course my PS3 wasn't working for some of that time).
I have read more to my daughter - she loves reading books. And now that my little boy's a toddler, I better start reading those Star Wars board books to him :)
My wife and I have had more movie nights thanks to my mother-in-law watching the kids while she was here, and recently, thanks to the Twilight series... and big news, I guess I'm "Team Edward" - a vampire who believes in chastity before marriage is alright in my book.
Season 4
Well, the ladder seasons are only 2 months now - so there's only 6 weeks left in Season 4 - maybe less! And that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas - this is a very busy time of year! So I'll try to keep these goals short:
1. Play 30 ladder games - that's 5 games a week.
2. Blog/cast more regularly - shorter posts - maybe 1 cast a week?
3. Let's try to lose 5 lbs. That's less than 1 lb a week.
4. I'd really like to play through the single-player of Modern Warfare 1, 2, and now 3.
Those seem do-able - very important for goal-setting! (ok, maybe the Call of Duty one might be a stretch...)
Awesome. Now it's time to break open the new copy of Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition I've had for 4 days and get on XBox LIVE!
Season 3
I had 4 goals: play more SC2, blog more often, continue to cast, and start StarClass - and I accomplished all of them!
I played 64 1v1 ladder games compared to 26 in Season 2.
I posted on average 2 times a week over 12 weeks compared to about once a week during Season 2.
I casted 5 games compared to 4 games in Season 2.
And I started StarClass with 7 casts.
Outside SC2
I wanted to exercise and lose weight, read more to the kids, watch more movies with my wife, and play more PS3/XB360 - I accomplished 2 out of 4 :(
Weight-wise, I'm basically where I was in August - I only formally exercised 6 times and neglected my PS3 and XB360 (course my PS3 wasn't working for some of that time).
I have read more to my daughter - she loves reading books. And now that my little boy's a toddler, I better start reading those Star Wars board books to him :)
My wife and I have had more movie nights thanks to my mother-in-law watching the kids while she was here, and recently, thanks to the Twilight series... and big news, I guess I'm "Team Edward" - a vampire who believes in chastity before marriage is alright in my book.
Season 4
Well, the ladder seasons are only 2 months now - so there's only 6 weeks left in Season 4 - maybe less! And that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas - this is a very busy time of year! So I'll try to keep these goals short:
1. Play 30 ladder games - that's 5 games a week.
2. Blog/cast more regularly - shorter posts - maybe 1 cast a week?
3. Let's try to lose 5 lbs. That's less than 1 lb a week.
4. I'd really like to play through the single-player of Modern Warfare 1, 2, and now 3.
Those seem do-able - very important for goal-setting! (ok, maybe the Call of Duty one might be a stretch...)
Awesome. Now it's time to break open the new copy of Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition I've had for 4 days and get on XBox LIVE!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Season 3 Retrospective
Well, after 64 games, my run in Season 3 came to a semi-climactic end! There was (of course) the 11-game ladder spree the last night of the season, and the tired conclusion at 1 AM that there was no way that I could make it into the top 25 of my division as I had done in Season 1 and 2. So on that note, here are the final results and some nice tables!
So just like in Season 2, some very interesting results!
Rank - I ended with less bonus pool than I started with, indicating that my rate of playing games was pretty good (despite not playing for 2.5 weeks).
Race - Switching to playing Random was a nice change - and apparently, I'm much better at Protoss than Zerg or even Terran. Yet in some ways I felt a bit frantic since I suddenly had 9 different matchups to consider instead of 3.
Maps - Once again, I seem to be good at maps that get removed in the next season. I suspect this is a result of lesser-skilled players deciding not to veto any maps - and thus, I win vs. them. I am disappointed at my results on the more tourney friendly maps such as Tal'darim Altar LE and The Shattered Temple, but that's likely just a reflection of my casual skill level.
League - With a 47% win rate vs Bronze and 46% vs Silver, it looks like I'm sitting firmly in the lower Silver or upper Bronze level. The Battle.net matchmaking system is apparently working for me!
So all in all a great season! I'm not sure I'll continue to play Random, but I'm interested in seeing how I do in Season 4, as the new map pool is more focused on tourney-friendly maps!
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
* = 1 opponent left basically immediately
|
Red background = map is removed for Season 4 * = 1 opponent left basically immediately
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
So just like in Season 2, some very interesting results!
Rank - I ended with less bonus pool than I started with, indicating that my rate of playing games was pretty good (despite not playing for 2.5 weeks).
Race - Switching to playing Random was a nice change - and apparently, I'm much better at Protoss than Zerg or even Terran. Yet in some ways I felt a bit frantic since I suddenly had 9 different matchups to consider instead of 3.
Maps - Once again, I seem to be good at maps that get removed in the next season. I suspect this is a result of lesser-skilled players deciding not to veto any maps - and thus, I win vs. them. I am disappointed at my results on the more tourney friendly maps such as Tal'darim Altar LE and The Shattered Temple, but that's likely just a reflection of my casual skill level.
League - With a 47% win rate vs Bronze and 46% vs Silver, it looks like I'm sitting firmly in the lower Silver or upper Bronze level. The Battle.net matchmaking system is apparently working for me!
So all in all a great season! I'm not sure I'll continue to play Random, but I'm interested in seeing how I do in Season 4, as the new map pool is more focused on tourney-friendly maps!
Monday, November 7, 2011
StarcraftDad's Last Cast
After several attempts, I finally recorded my last cast as StarcraftDad last Saturday morning!
Isaac slept in, and I was able to whip together a summary screen. While he munched on breakfast, I put the video together in PowerDirector - he was very curious about what was happening on the TV! Between a family trip out to a big shopping mall and naptime when we got home, the video was uploaded to both my old channel and my new channel.
This is also my first cast on the new computer! I highly recommend watching it in fullscreen in glorious 1080p!
So there you go, the end of an era! (and for me, the end of a saga - it seemed like I would never get a satisfactory final cast done!)
There are still a few things to do to close down my old channel - turn off the comments and message people who have commented or subscribed - but this was a big milestone :)
So next on the SC2 plate is a Season 3 retro - and finally, I can start playing in Season 4! With the seasons only lasting 2 months now, I really need to wrap up the season finale promptly so I don't completely miss out on the next season!
Isaac slept in, and I was able to whip together a summary screen. While he munched on breakfast, I put the video together in PowerDirector - he was very curious about what was happening on the TV! Between a family trip out to a big shopping mall and naptime when we got home, the video was uploaded to both my old channel and my new channel.
This is also my first cast on the new computer! I highly recommend watching it in fullscreen in glorious 1080p!
So there you go, the end of an era! (and for me, the end of a saga - it seemed like I would never get a satisfactory final cast done!)
There are still a few things to do to close down my old channel - turn off the comments and message people who have commented or subscribed - but this was a big milestone :)
So next on the SC2 plate is a Season 3 retro - and finally, I can start playing in Season 4! With the seasons only lasting 2 months now, I really need to wrap up the season finale promptly so I don't completely miss out on the next season!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Changing Channels
Well, here I am again not posting in over a week! I'll attempt a quick post...
Last week, Season 3 of the Blizzard ladder ended, and I put in an evening of ladder games in a last ditch bid for the top 25 of my division. This was complicated by my recent decision to play as Random - which apparently means I play a lot of Zerg and Protoss. I do intend to review that experience in a later post so I won't spoil the ending ;-)
After that, I switched gears into getting my new YouTube channel up and running (www.youtube.com/gosudad).
So now it has a nice theme and background image. I also re-rendered all of my old StarcraftDad videos and added banners and merged 2-part videos into single videos (YouTube decided to lift the 15-minute time limit if you verified your account with your mobile number), uploaded the re-done videos to my new channel, and updated all the blog entries to point to the re-done videos. Whew!
Oddly enough, over the last several weeks, my old channel (www.youtube.com/thestarcraftdad) has gotten a bunch of new subscribers, despite my lack of posting!
So my next task is updating my old channel to direct subscribers to my new channel. Last night I decided that it might be fitting to have the last video on my old channel and as StarcraftDad be my final game of Season 3.
I was hoping to cast that game this morning - but spent too long on false starts. I'm not nearly as time-efficient when there's something specific I want to say in a cast. My hope is to cast that game tomorrow morning - so it should be on my old channel by Friday and on my new channel by Saturday.
I've also done some planning around intro/summary screens for my future casts - and may be writing a little .NET app to automate that and the creation of YouTube title/description/tagging text.
My hope is that all this will result in less effort to produce casts - and I can get back to playing and casting - and blogging ;-)
Last week, Season 3 of the Blizzard ladder ended, and I put in an evening of ladder games in a last ditch bid for the top 25 of my division. This was complicated by my recent decision to play as Random - which apparently means I play a lot of Zerg and Protoss. I do intend to review that experience in a later post so I won't spoil the ending ;-)
After that, I switched gears into getting my new YouTube channel up and running (www.youtube.com/gosudad).
So now it has a nice theme and background image. I also re-rendered all of my old StarcraftDad videos and added banners and merged 2-part videos into single videos (YouTube decided to lift the 15-minute time limit if you verified your account with your mobile number), uploaded the re-done videos to my new channel, and updated all the blog entries to point to the re-done videos. Whew!
Oddly enough, over the last several weeks, my old channel (www.youtube.com/thestarcraftdad) has gotten a bunch of new subscribers, despite my lack of posting!
So my next task is updating my old channel to direct subscribers to my new channel. Last night I decided that it might be fitting to have the last video on my old channel and as StarcraftDad be my final game of Season 3.
I was hoping to cast that game this morning - but spent too long on false starts. I'm not nearly as time-efficient when there's something specific I want to say in a cast. My hope is to cast that game tomorrow morning - so it should be on my old channel by Friday and on my new channel by Saturday.
I've also done some planning around intro/summary screens for my future casts - and may be writing a little .NET app to automate that and the creation of YouTube title/description/tagging text.
My hope is that all this will result in less effort to produce casts - and I can get back to playing and casting - and blogging ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)