Quickdraw with Google

Strictly speaking this is not a game, but rather an experiment of machine learning. But well, it's fun. Try it out here.

It's basically playing Pictionary with the computer. After starting the game with the "Let's Draw" button, you'll be prompted to draw an object. While you are drawing, the computer will guess what the object is. It will continue guessing until either it gets the right answer, or the 20 second time limit is up. Then it will proceed to the next drawing. After finishing all six pictures, the game ends and the results will be shown like in figure 1. You may click on each picture to see what the computer thinks the three closest matches are (figure 2) and scroll down to see how the object was drawn by other people. (figure 3)

Figure 1: 5 out of 6 correct guesses, not bad.

Figure 2: How this resembles a penguin is beyond me.

Figure 3: Pliers, lots of pliers.

See this video for an explanation of how this experiment works. Apparently the computer has become so familiar with some objects (for example: sail boat) that it can recognize them after a few strokes. Because the way it recognizes objects is different from how humans do, it leads to some strange and amusing results like thinking the pair of pliers is a penguin as shown above. Also, as it depends solely on the large number of examples it is shown, a sufficient number of determined trolls can convince it to think this is what an elephant looks like.

Another interesting observation is that the more detailed your drawing, the less recognizable it becomes. A simple silhouette of a fish can be recognized easily, but if the computer can’t get it right the first time and you start adding fins, scales, gill etc. It actually makes increasingly ridiculous guesses. Those details might as well be called noises in this case.

Have fun doodling.

Aqours新票選活動: The worldwide poster girl general election

 http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/worldwide/election01_a.php

投票期間：
2016年11月18日(五)至2016年12月18日(日)

從Aqours成員中各選出一人代表：
澳洲
中國
德國
韓國
新加坡
台灣
泰國
英國
美國

注意：
選擇一位成員代表超過一個國家，系統不會自動攔截，但投票仍然無效

以下開始吐槽：

• 好微妙的選項，LL在使用中、英文的國家和韓國都有一定的人氣，可是在德國和泰國有特別紅嗎？該不會是剛好請到翻譯吧？
• 網頁提供七種語文選擇，可是到今天(11月12日)，除了英文、日文之外都還是coming soon
• 再次證明非洲人沒人權
• ダイヤ不是內定南極洲代表嗎？

個人選擇：
澳洲 - 果南 (潛水勝地嘛)
德國 - ヨハネ　(Deutsch ist für Chuuni.)
泰國 - 梨子 (大象耶)
美國 - 鞠莉 (本來就半個美國人，還用選嗎？)
英國 - ダイヤ (都是表面正經八百，實際上卻…)
新加坡 - 曜 (時代感強，又有活力)
台灣 - 花丸 (餘下的選項就台灣比較文藝一點)
中國 - 千歌 (因為名字是漢字…好吧，這是消去法的結果)
韓國 - ルビィ (消去法大勝利)

Pest Hunter 2 Guide

Pest Hunter 2 is a browser-based shooting game, it can be played on the NotDoppler site.

The control is simple, you move left and right with the A and D on the keyboard and aim with the mouse. But this simplicity doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

There are 10 weapons and 5 bonuses in the game, each can be upgraded up to 12 times. All weapons and bonuses cost the same to upgrade:

Table 1: upgrade costs

Level	Cost
1	150
2	650
3	1150
4	1650
5	2150
6	2650
7	3150
8	3650
9	4150
10	4650
11	5150
12	5650

Weapons

The pistol is always available, all other weapons are added to your gun when you grab weapon bonuses. All weapons are unlocked by default.

Pistol – The default weapon, it fires fairly fast and does decent damage. Prioritize upgrading it since it’s always available.

Uzi – Fast firing but inaccurate. Somehow it seems to appear less often than most other weapons, so I don’t recommend upgrading it unless you have money to burn.

Shotgun – Fires 3 spread shots each doing the damage listed in table 2. Very powerful when you’re close enough to hit an enemy with all 3 pellets.

Machine Gun – Fastest firing rate in the whole game more than makes up for the apparently low damage.

Blaster – Similar to the machine gun, just fires slower but hits harder.

Flamethrower – Short range and the flame often hides incoming bullets. While it can deal continuous damage to whatever it hits, the laser does it better. Easily my least favourite.

Grenade-gun – Hardest hitting weapon in the game, somewhat tricky to aim and slow. It either explodes on impact with an enemy or detonate after some time on the floor. Ideal for ground targets.

Plasma Gun – Powerful shots that travel pretty fast, the firing rate is pretty slow so aim carefully.

Laser – Continuously hits every enemy in its path, it is basically the flamethrower without the drawbacks.

Missiles – Slow, powerful homing missiles that picks their targets automatically.

Table 2: Damage per hit and weapon upgrades

Weapon upgrades	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Pistol	12	16	21	25	29	33	38	42	46	50	55	59	63
Uzi	17	23	29	35	41	47	53	59	65	71	77	83	89
Shotgun	22	29	36	43	50	57	64	71	78	85	92	99	106
Machine Gun	10	13	16	19	22	25	28	31	34	37	40	43	46
Blaster	20	27	34	41	48	55	62	69	76	83	90	97	104
Flamethrower	7	9	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	27	29	31
Grenade-gun	150	200	250	300	350	400	450	500	550	600	650	700	750
Plasma	50	67	84	101	118	135	152	169	186	203	220	237	254
Laser	7	9	11	13	15	17	19	21	23	25	27	29	31
Missiles	90	120	150	180	210	240	270	300	330	360	390	420	450

Bonuses

Shield – Protects you from all damage for a while, best bonus to invest in.

Freeze – Stops every enemy on the screen from moving or shooting. Enemies that enter after it activates are unaffected, though. A potential life-saver.

Double Power – Your weapons hit twice as hard when this is active.

Bomb – Damages all enemies on the screen. Sounds good in theory, but the damage is hardly noticeable.

Medicine Chest – Restores some hit points.

Upgrades

Instead of money, these are improved using stars obtained from leveling up.

Hit points – Increases your max hit point. Upgrade when you find yourself unable to avoid getting hit and die repeatedly.

Earnings – Increase amount of money from killing enemies. Useful, but the other options are just better.

Number of bonuses – It appears that you can only have one bonus active at a time, upgrade after you have enough weapon bonuses.

Number of Weapons – It appears that you can only have three weapons (including the pistol) active at the same time. Upgrade until you reach that point.

Bosses

The boss splits into two browns, then three greens each which in turn splits into three purples each. Also note the uselessness of the flamethrower.

First boss (Wave 20):

Splits into two smaller enemies when it takes enough damage, which could split further into three smaller ones twice. Thus it is possible to have (2 x 3 x 3) = 18 enemies on the screen at the same time. It is easier to kill off some of them before splitting the bigger ones.

Laser hits through the claws like it's nothing. Otherwise you'll have to pull off some tricky shots to damage it with its claws up.

Second boss (Wave 40):

There are few ways to damage the crab with its claws up. Deal with the blue bugs so they don’t pile up and attack the boss when its claws are down.

Go for the eyes!

Third boss (Wave 60):

Shoots from its opened eyes. Stay at the sides as the spread shots from the middle are much harder to dodge. Shoot it in the eyes to damage it, they all share a single hit points bar so it doesn’t matter which eye you hit.

Despite how much I enjoy playing this, there is definitely room for improvement. 

First, there should be a way to pause with the keyboard, having to click on the pause icon when aiming with the mouse is just not excusable. 

Second, endless mode is not really endless. After beating the 3^rd boss in wave 60 it just loops back to wave 1 without raising the difficulty. And the record still says the best I’ve done is beating wave 60. 

Last, it never shows how many hit points you actually have, so you have to guess how many hits can your take before dying. Given how infrequent it is to come across decent browser games these days, it is still a pretty good time-killer.

LLSIF - μ’s到底還餘下多少時間？

在十月十五日的更新之後，μ’s的主線劇情似乎是完結了(雖然那句See you next time沒有完全抹殺追加新劇情的可能)。其實從Final Live公佈開始，μ’s逐漸淡出，由Aqours接手已經是整個Love Live!企畫的大方向，SIF自然也不例外，只是時間問題而已。

要討論μ’s在SIF還餘下多少時間有兩個前設：第一，是μ’s的主線劇情真的完結了；第二，是μ’s已經不會再為SIF配音，預先錄製的片段全部推出之後，μ’s就不會追加新的支線(卡片)劇情。雖然無法證實μ’s的合約在四月初結束(工作合同的內容正常情況下都不會公開)，但為了方便討論，以下暫且假設μ’s最後為SIF配音的時間是今年三月。

Aqours準備好接手了嗎？

既然是世代交接，那就不得不考慮Aqours是否準備好接棒的問題。目前SIF的四種活動，μ’s負責Medley Festival和 Challenge Festival，而集物活動和Score Match則由Aqours包辦。

要接手Challenge Festival，Aqours需要每種屬性的歌曲最少三首和四套以上的SR服裝。目前Aqours在遊戲中實裝的歌曲(包括特別樂曲)，Smile屬性有七首，Pure屬性有八首，Cool屬性則有六首，即使不同難度的曲目要稍有不同，歌曲的數量也是足夠的。至於服裝方面，剛推出的萬聖節系列剛好是第四套，數量是夠了，但四套服裝中有三套(泳裝、浴衣、萬聖節)的季節性十分強，假如在其他季節的活動中出現，不免有點奇怪。不管季節問題的話，Aqours現在要接手Challenge Festival也是可以的。

Medley Festival就不同了，這類型的活動每次都要用上三種屬性各八首歌曲，即使不考慮屬性，Aqours的歌曲數量都不足夠，以現在每月增加一首新曲的速度，最快也得等三個月才行。雖然三個月後Aqours就有足夠的曲目搞Medley Festival，但同類活動每兩個月就得跑一次，第二次用的歌單和第一次幾乎完全一樣也說不過去，等每種屬性再增加一兩首歌作緩衝比較好。因為μ’s最後幾首歌都實裝之後，Aqours的歌曲加入遊戲的速度可能加快，這大概需要半年至九個月，到時Sunshine動畫第二期(別跟我講沒有)也差不多要播出，正是Aqours全面接手的最好時機。

μ’s的存貨可以用多久？

跟主線劇情每一章都要讓九人全員出場，對白又多的情況不同，九位聲優每人預先錄好一段卡片覺醒劇情，最多加上一兩句技能發動音效，以現在推出μ’s新卡的速度，就可以撐上兩個月。不計正在推出的誕生石系列，只需要再多四套卡片就能用上九個月，要預先錄製這份量的台詞，應該不難做到。

至於活動卡的劇情方面，一輪九人份的劇本更可以用上四個半月。現在進行的Challenge Festival 5是第九輪活動的第四個，下一次的活動不太可能只出一張新卡，而不管誰比其他角色多一張活動卡都會造成玩家不滿，所以幾乎肯定會有第十輪的μ’s活動。根據上文的估計，五個月後Aqours接手Medley Festival的時機仍未成熟，說不定還有一至兩輪μ’s活動。

和μ’s相關的遊戲內容還有Master難度樂曲，一個月才推出兩首新譜面，要把現有的曲目出完差不多要兩年，與其擔心歌曲存量不夠，還不如擔心營運商先因為經營不善倒閉。(笑)在活動停止之後，μ’s的卡組還能在Master譜面拼分數，老玩家幾年來組的強力隊伍不至於無用武之地。

階段性退場

文首筆者用μ’s淡出形容Love Live!企畫世代交替的方式，在SIF中也可以看到一些跡象。在4.0版本更新的時候，遊戲圖示由穂乃果改成千歌，也不再追加μ’s的節日語音，都屬於μ’s分階段退場計畫的一部分，主線劇情結束不過是μ’s淡出過程的另一步。相信之後μ’s也不會一次過全面退出，可能會先停止推出非活動卡，再讓Aqours接手Challenge Festival，最後才退出Medley Festival，在大約九個月內完成在SIF的歷史任務。

他朝君體也相同？

最後，已經有人思考Love Live!推出第三世代的時候，Aqours會如何退場的問題，到時SIF如果還沒結束營運，都已然是有七、八年歷史的老遊戲了，推出沒有歷史包袱的新遊戲可能更輕鬆。況且那時候人們用的手機會變成怎樣，手遊會否成為明日黃花，都不是任何人可以預料的事，還是別想太多比較好。

PS:
附上我在遊戲中的ID，如果你要認定玩了SIF快三年，最新的活動還會衝二檔的玩家會是某廚，我也沒辦法。

反正好友名單中有幾位超過一年沒上線的，讓專版版友加好友也不錯。