Now An An is a sad panda

Jia Jia, one of the four pandas living in Hong Kong, was euthanized on 16^th Oct at the old age of 38. Jia Jia and An An were the first pair of pandas to come to Hong Kong 17 years ago. Although two younger pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, were sent to the city in 2007, they couldn’t match the popularity of An An and Jia Jia back in 1999. It might be because of a lack of novelty, or perhaps it was the deterioration of relationship between Hong Kong and Beijing making such friendly gesture less effective. When we mourn for the demise of the adorable panda, we are also lamenting the loss of a care-free life in which politics didn’t play an important part. An An is a sad panda, but he is hardly the only one in the city.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2028549/hong-kong-panda-jia-jia-put-sleep-ocean-park 

My experience learning German with Duolingo - A taste of gamification

I first found out the idea of gamification through this video:

I didn’t think much about it at the time, but after starting learning German with Duolingo I realized gamification of language learning is what that website does.

Forgive my level 2 French, learning two languages at the same time is just too much.

The learning materials are arranged into “skills”, which are further divided into several lessons. When completed, the skill icons turn gold and it feels good to look at a page full of gold icons, just like getting achievements in games. One difference is that in games, achievements are usually permanent, you kill that tough boss once and it will be recorded on your profile forever. Not so with Duolingo, it takes into account that memories decay, if you don’t reinforce them, you forget what you’ve learned. If you want to keep those icons shiny, you have to do exercises to strengthen the skills from time to time.

Shiny!

There is an experience and level system, which makes as little sense as most RPG level systems. By video game logic, you can become the greatest swordsman in the world by repeatingly killing goblins, chickens and rats. Of course it makes no sense in the real world. Similarly, you can cheat the system by repeating basic lessons for xp and level up, learning absolutely nothing in the process. Sure, this sort of cheating fools no one but yourself, but it still shows the designers didn’t think it through.

The most important feature in my opinion is the daily goal tracker. It motivates me to keep returning to reach my daily goal, even though there are times that I don’t feel like taking lessons. Soon it became a habit to just return everyday, strengthen one or two skills and taking a new lesson without thinking much about it. At just 20 minutes a day, I managed to devote 40 hours, into learning German within 4 months. Such is the power of habits. Es ist langsam, aber ich lerne täglich.

軀寒老薑？No, thanks.

Today I came across a sign that read 軀寒老薑in the market after lunch. It was supposed to be驅寒老薑 – “mature ginger that drives away the cold”, but the way it was written made it “mature ginger that makes the body cold” instead.

This is used to keep you warm. (Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org)

The character驅 coincidentally corresponds to the English word drive in many of its uses. We can drive cars (驅車) and livestock (驅牛羊), activate hardware with device drivers (驅動程式, literally driver program) and drive away (驅逐) unwanted persons or even demons (驅魔). In the navy there are 驅逐艦 (destroyers), given their main role is to escort more important ships like aircraft carriers rather than destroying stuff with massive firepower, the Chinese name might be considered more accurate.

The character軀 is much less versatile. Common vocabulary items include 身軀, 軀殼 (both mean body, but the latter usually used in contrast with the soul) and 軀幹 (torso). It can combine with 捐(to donate) to form 捐軀, which has nothing to do with donating organs or leaving the body for anatomic studies, it means sacrificing ones life.

Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough part 9 – Useless Trivia, Known Bugs and a short Review

Useless Trivia

Everyone has the same stats in the tutorial.

You’ll still have the starting skills and a plain garb even if you skip the tutorial.

You can click the cat in the potion shop to make it meow.

The background in the top part of the screen changes depending on your location.

It is possible to tell apart stones of different colors by the icons on them. But color blind people will still have trouble with the color of shields.

No two enemies will have the same color at the beginning of a battle.

Known Bugs

In Map 5, some of the enemies’ names do not match their graphics and stats, a group of enemies in Map 7 have the same problem.

In Map 6, Ogreps' skills appear in the queued action, but the icons do not deploy onto the field, making their skills completely useless.

Sometimes the game appears to freeze mid-turn, and the only thing you can do is running from the battle.

Review

This game really could use some better documentation. The ways many skills work are far from intuitive (Fist of Fury comes to mind), and the only way to find out is to test them on the battlefield. It gets worse with boss skills, ordinary enemies have their skills listed on the cards, but bosses don’t. When a great part of the challenge comes from figuring what the bosses can do, it feels like the game is about finding missing pieces of a puzzle rather than solving the puzzle itself. I am not sure this is a good design.

Obviously I still consider this a good game, or I wouldn’t spend three weeks on and off writing a walkthrough for it. A marked improvement from the original Dangerous Adventure is that there’s little need for level grinding. With a good understanding of how the game works and maximizing the effectiveness of meals and items, I only had to level grind to fight the Acolyte Master, which was entirely optional. I also appreciate the effort put into details like the changing background and the tutorial is pretty effective at teaching the basics.

Back to Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough Index 

Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough part 8 - Understanding some Game Mechanics

Action Priorities

Tamed monsters attacks and active skills act instantly

Your passive healing skills → Enemy passive damage skills

The good news is that you can heal before the enemy passives can kill you, the downside is that you won’t have full HP when the enemies’ normal attack hit.

Your passive damage skills → Enemy passive healing skills → your normal attack → poison/bleeding →enemy normal attack

The characters (heroes or enemies) always act from top to bottom. So if your Blue and Red heroes hit hard enough to kill a Purple monster, your Purple hero doesn’t have to attack it, and you can make better use of the move.

It also means killing an enemy attack booster on the top is really important as you will have to face up to four boosted attacks right away. If the attack booster acts last, you’ll only have to worry about boosted enemy attacks next turn.

Damage calculation

Damage is simply your Attack Multiplier times the number of matching colored stones played. Adjacent color do only half damage (rounded down). Adjacent colors modifier stacks multiplicatively with front/back row modifier. i.e. adjacent color does 75% damage to enemy in the front row and 25% to enemy in the back row.

Power calculation

The amount of mana a hero gets is equal to the Power Multiplier (PM), which shows up when you hover your cursor on a character during battle, times the number of matching colored stones played. A character’s PM is calculated by dividing the Power Percentage (PP) on the character stats screen by 20, rounded up.

Example 1:

A Wizard with 285% PP will have a PM of 15.

Since 285/20 = 14.25, which is 15 after rounding up.

Example 2, consider this situation:

The sword is obviously inferior to the dagger. But is the 6 attack from the scimitar a worthwhile trade-off for 5% power from the dagger? Let’s do a little calculation to find out.

PM with dagger: (186 + 25)/20 = 10.55, rounds up to 11

PM with scimitar: (186 + 20)/20 = 10.3, rounds up to 11

It turns out there’s no trade-off in this case, the scimitar is objective a better choice since it hits harder and gives the same amount of mana.

Also, the power increasing effect of meals apply to the PP instead of the original PM. So in the case of 60% power boost, the Wizard in example 1 will have a new PM of:

(285 x 1.6)/20 = 22.8, rounds up to 23 instead of

15 x 1.6 = 24

Escape

If you run away from a battle, power gained in that battle by playing stones will be lost. But power gained by meals and potions will not be lost. Used power and lost HP will not be recovered, and meal duration will still decrease. There are also several bosses that require restarting the map for a re-match if you run. (Blue Dragon, Acolyte Master, Yellow Dragon)

Back to Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough Index 

Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough part 7 - Secret Boss (Spoiler Alert!)

The secret boss is unlocked by selling Dead Soup (or all “bad” food?) to the Gourmet. Instead of paying you, he runs away, turns into a mutant and tries to eat you. Unlocking the battle adds 4% to your game progress.

Why does he run to the forest instead of fighting you right there in the tavern?

Boss:

Red Gourmet 122/8000/1

Immunities: Poison, Direct Damage, Change Line

He uses his skills in a 4-turn cycle:

1 – active, 1 turn, 6 stones, steals 1 item each

2 – instant, reduces 200 mana of all colors

3 – field change, destroys all Blue stones

4 - instant, heals himself 800 HP

after which the cycle starts again

There’s no limit to how many times you can fight him if you’re defeated. But once you win he’ll be gone for good.

Back to Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough Index

Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough part 6 - The Tower

The Tower is unlocked after completing the main quest of Map 4, it is quite challenging and is a great way to level up your heroes quickly.

The enemies for each floor are randomly generated up to Floor 80, if you quit and return to the floor, you will probably face a different group of enemies. Because of this randomness, what you will encounter are probably different from mine. And it’s possible that I might miss some enemy types. The attack and HP of the enemies increase gradually as you go up the tower, so these stat are given in ranges that I have encountered in this playthrough.

Each floor counts as one battle for meal duration, but Paladin does not heal your team between floors.

Enemies found in Floor 6-20:

The types of enemies from Map 1-2.

Dryad 42-47/737-873/2

Dryad Poisoner 43-48/764-906/3

passive, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 12-14 damage each

Dryad Soldier 45-47/812-870/3

Ghost 44-46/790-835/3

field change, 1 turn, adds 5 obstacles

Mummy 44-48/782-904/3

Skeleton 41-48/710-904/3

Skeleton Archer 41-48/708-894/2

instant, stuns a hero (80)

Skeleton Rouge 42-47/737-873/2

active, 2 turns, 4 stones, deals 12-14 damage each

Enemies found in Floor 21-30:

The types of enemies from Map 3-4.

Croc 49/928/3

Croc Guard 49-53/933-1075/3

instant, shields itself (80)

Croc Mage 49-51/926-1006/2

passive, 1 turn, 5 stones, heals 7% HP each

Croc Warrior 50-53/961-1075/2

Gigica 50-53/965-1059/3

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 10 damage each

Mosquito 50-52/968-1035/2

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, heals 5% HP each

Stone Commander 49-52/925-1065/2

active, 2 turns, 4 stones, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn each

Stone Defender 49-53/928-1067/3

passive, 1 turn, 6 stones, deals 9-10 damage each

Stone Shooter 49-53/942-1072/3

instant, stuns a hero (100)

Stone Warrior 50-53/960-1076/3

Enemies found in Floor 31-40:

The types of enemies from Map 5-6.

Bandit 56-60/1181-1271/3

Beater 58/1218/2

instant, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn

Dead Bandit 55-60/1147-1257/4

Dead Jaeger 54-60/1096-1274/4

instant, -30% hero attack

Dead Thug 55-60/1141-1271/4

instant, -50% mana gain

Jaeger 54-60/1103-1265/3

instant, blocks 1 random hero skill

Jagar 60/1264/2

Magus 54-58/1098-1217/2

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, +10% enemy attack each

Ogrep 56/1184/4

active, 1 turn reduces 120 mana each (It’s bugged and doesn’t actually do anything)

Ork 54/1101/3

Shaman 54-58/1099-1233/3

instant, all non-mages +20% attack

Thug 54-55/1104-1143/2

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, steals 1 item each

Enemies found in Floor 41-50:

The types of enemies from Map 7-8.

Acolyte 62-66/1298-1410/3

Acolyte Fighter 62-68/1304-1449/3

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 12-13 damage each

Gang of Demolition 62-70/1323-1514/3

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 12-14 damage each

Gang of Diggers 62-70/1307-1507/3

instant, stuns a hero (140)

Gang of Searching 64-70/1363-1505/2

Pirate 62-68/1322-1438/3

Pirate Fighter 68/1438-1459/3

field change, 2 turns, adds 6 obstacles

Storm Trooper 70/1495-1508/2

active, 2 turns, 4 stones, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn each

Enemies found in Floor 51-60:

The types of enemies from Map 9-10.

Barbarian 74-80/1585-1772/2

Berserk 74-80/1619-1786/3

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 22-24 damage each

Castle Arbalester 72-80/1552-1783/3

instant, stuns a hero for 1 turn

Castle Lancers 74/1592/2

passive, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 22 damage each

Castle Mage 76/1651-1664/2

field change, 2 turns, freezes 5 stones

Castle Spearman 72-78/1557-1718/3

instant, shields all enemies (140)

Castle Warrior 72-80/1557-1782/2

Champion 74-80/1608-1767/3

instant, all non-mages +20% attack

Corrupted Barbarian 72-80/1560-1782/2

Corrupted Slayer 72/1550/2

passive, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 28 damage each

Corrupted Spirit 74-78/1607-1726/3

instant, reduces all mana by 150

Fallen Priest 72-78/1549-1712/3

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, heals 10% HP each

Furious Dog 72-78/1553-1724/2

passive, 1 turn, 6 stones, deals 21-23 damage each

Jaeger 74-78/1611-1715/3

instant, blocks 1 random hero skill

Standard bearer 74/1608/2

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn each

Enemies found in Floor 61-70:

The kinds of enemies from Map 11.

Corrupted Barbarian 82-93/1841-2122/2

Mutant n80 84-93/1921-2132/3

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 33-37 damage each

Mutant n81 84-93/1896-2115/2

instant, -20% hero attack

Mutant n82 82-93/1847-2118/2

instant, shields all enemies (180)

Mutant n83 82-93/1855-2094/2

instant, -30% mana gain

Zetetic Alchemist 82-87/1845-1990/2

field change, 2 turns, freezes 6 stones

Zetetic Arbalester 87/1976/3

summons Corrupted Barbarian

Zetetic Warrior 82-93/1831-2093/2

instant, stuns a hero (160)

Enemies found in Floor 71-80:

The kinds of enemies from Map 12.

Mashima Blade 96-109/2184-2526/3

passive, 2 turns, 6 stones, deals 38-43 damage each

Mashima Hammer 96-108/2182-2497/2

field change, 2 turns, freezes 8 stones

Mashima Shield 96-105/2189-2409/3

instant, shields all enemies (200)

Mashima Soulmaster 99-108/2263-2316/2

instant, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn

Soul Defender 102-107/2343-2482/3

Immunities: Poison

passive, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 31-32 damage each

instant, stuns a hero (400)

Soul Defender 96-99/2198-2251/2

Immunities: Bleeding

active, 2 turns, 5 stone, deals 48-49 damage each

instant, stuns a hero (400)

Floor 81-100 each features a unique enemy, their attack and HP will vary slightly depending on your level. Their skills and traits are similar to bosses fought in the overworld.

Floor 81

Blue Werebear 156/5157/2

Immunities: Poison

active, 1 turn, 5 stones, deals 62 damage each

instant, stuns a hero (60)

Floor 82

Yellow Queen of the Dryads 156/5195/2

Immunities: Poison, Slowdown

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 78 damage each

instant, shields itself (120)

Floor 83

Red Undead King 159/5372/2

Immunities: Bleeding, Direct Damage

instant, shields itself (80)

summons a Skeleton 28/369/3 whenever it attacks

Floor 84

Green Undead Queen 159/5418/1

Immunities: Bleeding, Direct Damage

field change, 1 turn, freezes 8 stones

Floor 85

Purple Giant Frog 165/5596/2

Immunities: Poison, Change Lines

field change, 2 turns, adds 3 obstacles

instant, stuns a hero for 1 turn

Floor 86

Blue Undead Mage 166/5541/2

Immunities: Bleeding, Poison

passive, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 83 damage each

Summons a Skeleton Rouge (78/1150/2, skill damage 23) whenever it attacks.

Floor 87

Yellow Undead Archmage 171/5774/2

Immunities: Slowdown

-100 mana of all colors whenever it attacks

summons 2 Skeleton Rouges (93-96/1489-1500/2, skill damage 27-28) whenever it attacks.

Floor 88

Red Crocogod 171/5767/3

Immunities: Bleeding, Slowdown

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 85 damage each

passive, 2 turns, 4 stones, deals 85 damage each

turns all skill icons into “?” marks, memorize where the active/passive icons are to avoid taking damage.

Floor 89

Green Forest Witch 176/5997/3

Immunities: Slowdown

active, 6 turns, 6 stones, deals 88 damage each

summons a Dead Bandit (63-65/1008-1050/3) whenever she attacks

Floor 90

Purple Big Bozz 176/5957/4

Immunities: Slowdown, Change Line

instant, stuns 2 heroes (60)

field change, 2 turns, destroys 20 stones

Floor 91

Blue King of Gangs 183/6117/3

Immunities: Bleeding, Change Lines

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, reduces 30 mana each

Moves to the back row before first attack

Floor 92

Yellow Incubus 183/6093/2

Immunities: Slowdown

active, 2 turns, 6 stones, heals 10% HP each

instant, blocks 5 random hero skills

instant, -10% hero attack

instant, - 10% mana gain

Floor 93

Green Slime 186/6426/3

Immunities: Poison, Slowdown

Does NOT summon Gigica.

active, 2 turns, 8 stones, deals 37 damage each

Despite hitting harder, it is considerably easier than the overworld version without the summons.

Floor 94

Green Acolyte Master 187/6354/2

Immunities: Poison, Slowdown

Summons 2 Acolytes when he attacks

Floor 95

Green Dragon of Nature 192/6614/2

Immunities: Poison, Slowdown

active, 2 turns, 3 stones, -1 move each

field change, 1 turn, covers an area with an initial size of 1 square, radius +1 for every move you make

It is possible to marathon all the way up to this point, but consider changing your skills and replenish your inventory before attempting the last five floors.

Floor 96

Blue Dragon of Water 193/6545/3

Immunities: Slowdown, Direct Damage

For each skill you use, it will use one of the following:

active, 2 turns, 15 stones, deals ? damage each

active, 2 turn, 15 stones, heals 5% HP each

active, 2 turns, 15 stones +5% enemy attack each

passive, 2 turns, 15 stones, deals ? damage each

(It’s just too dangerous to test how hard its skills hit)

If this triggers 5 times in a turn, it will run out of space to add more skill icons.

It will only use its normal attack if you don’t use skills.

Floor 97

Red Dragon of Fire 199/6857/2

Immunities: Slowdown, Change Line

active, 3 turns, 3 stones, deals 199 damage each

adds 1 indestructible obstacle per turn, starting from the corners

Floor 98

Purple Dead Dragon 199/6815/3

Immunities: Poison, Slowdown, Change Line

stays in the back row

active, 2 turns, 5 stones, deals 159 damage each

Does NOT summon mutants.

Like the Slime, not having summons makes this very easy. Consider maxing your powers before proceeding.

Floor 99

Yellow Dragon of Source 110/8500/1

Immunities: Poison, Bleeding, Slowdown, Change Line

Takes half damage from all colors and skills.

It will always use this:

active, 1 turn, 8 stones, +5 mana each to you

And four of the following:

active, 1 turn, 8 stones, deals 20 damage each

active, 1 turn, 8 stones, quickens enemy actions by 1 turn each

active, 1 turn, 8 stones, -1 move each

active, 1 turn, 8 stones, heals 5% HP each

passive, 1 turn, 8 stones, heals 5% HP each

passive, 1 turn, 8 stones, deals 20 damage each

Floor 100

Black Tower Master 100/250/1

Immunities: Poison, Bleeding, Slowdown, Change Line

He is also immune to normal attacks, tamed monster attacks and skill damage. The only way to defeat him is by playing black stones, which deals 1 damage each. Black stones can be affected by skills such as Fist of Fury and Substitution. And they hit the Tower Master immediately when played, like active skills do to other enemies.

Back to Dangerous Adventure 2 Walkthrough Index