Slingshot Entry

Welcome, reader! Today's Friday, May 25, 2012, and it's quite an interesting day!

Daytime Status: cloudy with a chance of sun.

So today ended up as a mellow day so far. Cloud cover threatened a sunny day (which could've been nice as it's a Friday and all) and yet the sun's still strong enough to cause most people (read: the indoors-kind of people) to squint when looking outside. It's the perfect weather to relax and do stuff at the same time. Confused? Good.

Normally, with sunny days, you'd expect people to hang out together and what not. Y'know, soak some rays up, do something aquatic-based (from swimming to snow cone eating competitions), have a great time, and totally do social things. With rainy days, people tend to do the opposite. The more sociable people will attempt their best efforts at organizing some kind of hangout, while the busybodies with projects to take care of will stay inside their shelters and work.

But with this weather... I don't know. While cloudy days tend to put a damper on the mood, there are certain times where it's still cloudy and somehow sunny enough to make it a good day. The clouds are fluffy and mostly white (meaning that the threat of rain is low - unless you're in Seattle), the blue skies break through once in a while, the sun is still able to mercilessly beat down on your eyes.

Maybe I can find a way to hang out with people and work on some things at the same time. *shrugs* I 'unno.

And then the night began, and the sunset looked nice. And then I began typing other things.





So, life has been okay. A combination of work at work, work at home, fun with friends, and fun with games has made the last few weeks pretty tolerable. (Yeah, that sounds bad. I mean it in a good way, though.) With the way life's been going so far, I can safely say that this summer's going to be... well, it's going to be interesting, alright.

*facehoof*

And then I realized that I brought the wrong USB cable with me when I decided to go out and hang out with people. Well, that's just greaaat. My phone's battery is at less than 30%, and I ended up bringing the USB cable that charges my camera instead. It's like a running gag for me to forget something at home about 95% of the time (the other 5% is when I figured out I forgot something before I drive off), so it's no big deal, really. I just need to somehow milk the remaining amount of time left with the plans I'm going through tonight. No problem there - it's easily manageable.





In other random news, I successfully earned gold trophies in every cup in Mario Kart 7! Yippee for me! Now that means I need to increase my rating by facing off against everyone... and at the same time redo each Grand Prix so I can get a better rating than one gold star. And as Daisy, I know that I will win at the game!

Except I don't know why I'm in this - I play as Daisy, remember?

...except in the latest installment in the series: Mario Kart 7. To be honest, I have a sort-of love-hate relationship with this 3DS game thus far. Sounds weird for me to say that when you consider that I play Mario Kart games as if the series were a religion. (I still practice weekly on Mario Kart Wii by trying to best my time trial records. So, why the love-hate? It's because 7's rubber band AI is just ridiculous.

Unfamiliar with the term? Well, lemme explain. Rubber band AI (also known as slingshot AI) is a kind of parameter modification that is commonly seen in various video games. The shorthand version of it is that it allows the AI to adjust its difficulty and skill based on how well you're doing in the game. Some of you may not be visual learners (or simply may not have understood that definition), so to help illustrate rubber band AI that It's kind of difficult to explain, so we'll use a live example and apply it to Mario Kart.

This is your AI when it's not cheating.

Pictured here is your basic, average rubber band. (If you'd like, you could grab your own at this time so you can follow along.) Its relaxed state signifies the start of the race, when everything is normal. No force has been exerted on the rubber band, and the AI sees no need to adjust its skill parameters.

The AI on 50-100cc (as well as how they are on 150cc/Mirror Mode when you suck).

Now, let's say the race starts. You race your way through the first lap, and you finish it with an approximate two-second lead. The AI opponents behind you are starting to choke on your dust.

The AI when you're godly.

As you finish the second lap, your lead has increased significantly. By your guess, you have about a five-second lead. Barring some deus ex machina in the form of a blue shell or you screwing up a turn and falling/running into something, it seems as though you have this race in the bag.

But what's this!? The AI racers in the middle suddenly seem to be getting the big power-ups: triple mushroom boosts, Starmen, red shells up the wazoo - and you're fairly certain that luck like that's only awarded to the racers in dead last. Not only that, but as you slide around that hairpin turn, you look at the mini-map and begin frothing in the mouth as your five-second lead vanishes before your eyes - the AI racers just magically catch up to you and begin to overtake your position without any items.

That's a rubber band AI. Going back to the rubber band allegory, your skill in the game is pretty much represented by how far back you're able to pull the rubber band. When you let go, the force behind the pull is released and the AI begins to compensate. Depending on how far the band was pulled, the AI will attempt to match that much force. To prove the point, hit yourself with the rubber band. Pull back softly; the band hits softly. Pull back far; the band's going to hurt like hell.

Now, while most racing games have some kind of rubber band AI, the one present in Mario Kart 7 is obnoxious and blatant to the point where I think the AI is cheating. Hell, quoting TV Tropes:

"The Mario Kart series does this to an exceptionally annoying and inconsistent degree. Wipe out at the start of a race and it's a straightforward task to still win. Wipe out near the end of the last lap (having raced a perfect game so far), and there will always be three guys right behind you to snatch all the points. And if you're good at hitting shortcuts, expect the computer to be able to suddenly hit a top speed well beyond what any human could do."

Ridiculous. Really frakkin' ridiculous. But while I hate it, it proves something. Since I'm able to beat the AI regularly even while it's doing this (on 150cc and Mirror Mode of all things), that means that I can outpace the computer. MWAHAHAHA.

But still. The point of this segment: FRAK YOU, RUBBER BAND AI IN MARIO KART GAMES. Frak you with something hard and sandpaper-y.





Well, folks, that'll be it for tonight. I'll catch y'all later, so stay cool and stay entertained, and most importantly: don't let the AI cheat you out of victory!