Long Way to Go

Iseng-iseng cek atlas, ternyata masih a really long way to go... Three continents to go. One step at a time. :)

Up Until Now

There's a place I think about, where the sun never goes out
And sky is deep and blue, would you take me there with you? -Ivy, Edge of Ocean

A Bit about Pokopang

These last few weeks my time was spent on playing this time-eater game: Pokopang! Sometimes I think this game is as contagious as influenza.Somehow, I only found 2 blogs that have a kind of walkthrough posts about this game. Here and here. It is a bit frustrating having no clues in playing this game. Haha.

I am too lazy to write all the details, so you can read both blogposts to get some more insights.  I make this posts to make a reminder for myself (and to those of you who need some inspirations). Before we start, I have to make a disclaimer that I'm not an expert in this game, my friends got more scores than I did, I'll just share what I know up to this very moment.

As shown in the picture below, this game 'worship' cherries, diamonds, and clovers. Cherries can be used to buy 'additional weapons' inside the game, diamonds can be used to buy almost anything including extra clovers, extra cherries, and some other bonuses. And clovers are your means of life in this game. No clovers, no game. :P

First of all, this game is about hitting the monsters with the blocks that you eliminate during the game. You only have 60 seconds (normal time) to eliminate as many blocks as you can. You can eliminate a minimum of 3 blocks at a time. When you eliminate 3 blocks, a fruit will be thrown to the monsters. The stronger the power of your fruits, the easier you kill the animals. 

Key points: 

• 3 blocks = 1 fruit thrown, 4 blocks = 2 fruits thrown, 5 blocks = 3 fruits thrown, and so on.
• 3 blocks = no cherry; 4 blocks = 1 cherry; 5 blocks = 2 cherries, and so on. When you eliminate 10 blocks at a time, you'll get all the cherries from the blocks + a blue cherry. The value of this 'super cherry' is 10 'ordinary cherries' or the red ones. Eliminate 11 blocks, you'll get additional 2 blue cherries, and so on.

Second,  animal. The animal(s) that help you would be highly important. In the name of the fun of the game, you should open all 3 slots of animal. It will take time for newbies to get this. Well, if you don't have the patience you can always buy the diamonds needed. (I am not suggesting this option, coz it'll ruin your monthly budgets. But hey, maybe you're budget is more flexible than what I have, right?) :P

The animals have some different skills. Some of the animals only have powers to help us hit the monsters, but some others have additional skills such as extra cherries, poison, rainbow, drainbow (double rainbows), and bombs.

Key points:

• extra cherries will be given at the moment of impact between the monsters and the animal. (When you got high level animal, it is possible that you could kill more than one monsters at a time.)
• poison will give you extra damage when the fruit hits the monsters.
• rainbow will eliminate the same colour blocks. 
• double rainbows will eliminate 2 same colour blocks.
• bombs are more effective when the explotion happened in the middle of the field. It is a bit hard though to make the bombs in 'the right position'.

Third, Fever Mode. Fever Mode will happen in every 7th combos you make. 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and so on. What's the story behind this 'fever'? Each blocks explode in the fever (because their position are close to the blocks that you eliminate) will result in 1 fruit thrown to the animal. Yummy extra damage, eh? ;)

How to enjoy the game?

For me myself, I have some different ways to enjoy this game. Usually I make my own mission and changing the way I play, for example:

1. Cherries hunting

I am doing my cherries hunting at the beginning of the week. I don't mind the low score, as long as I got plenty of cherries during the game. 

How to? I put the animals that give cherries bonuses in the slot.

2. Point seeker

After I think I have enough cherries to 'embrace the journey to high points' I will change my animal again. Usually I use those animals with highest powers and bonus that will be useful to give extra damage, such as bombs or rainbows. And of course I also use the 'rare items' that only available through the spin after we play 15 times. Between the paint and the star? I would pick the stars anyday. Too bad, getting this star item is the hardest one. You'll need a lot of luck. 

I am sure I still miss some things here, anyone want to share their strategies? :)

Brain Freeze

Kelamaan ngerjain hal-hal yang ngga butuh kreativitas itu bikin otak buntet. Dan no, yang dimaksud dengan kreativitas disini bukan tentang origami atau merangkai bunga. Contohnya begini, kemarin weekend seharian berkutat dengan urusan download men-download lakorn. Apaan tuh lakorn? Lakorn itu sinetron Thailand, yang biasanya cuma sepanjang 12-23 episode terus tamat. Ngga kaya' sinetron Indonesia yang panjangnya naudzubillah pun belum tentu ada endingnya. Terus terus...? Ya tentunya tokoh-tokoh sinetron itu bicara pakai bahasa Thai (obviously!!!) :) Jadi diperlukan adanya subtitle dong ya?

Nah, di youtube sudah ada tuh hard-subnya, tapi kualitas gambarnya low res. Bikin sakit mata dong... Nah, supaya ngga sakit mata kita cari yang HQ. HQ didapat, udah hepi tuh siap-siap maraton nonton... Eeeeeeh... jreng jreeeeeng... yang HQ ngga ada subtitlenya bo'! Toweweweng.

Dari siang sampai sore, nguplek-uplek mbah gugel dan forum-forum sampe ngepoin orang-orang yang biasa nerjemahin lakorn. Masak sih nggak ada leakingnya sama sekali ini subtitle? Ketika sudah mulai menjelang maghrib, sudah mulai menyerah. Ya sudahlah. Gimana lagi. Sia-sia download HQnya. Udah berusaha belajar cara ambil subtitle di viki pun percuma, wong di viki juga lakornnya malah sebagian episodenya hilang. Ya nasib deh. Mosok baca subtitle pake bahasa Rusia? Ini udah tahun 2014 gitu... Sedemikian mudahnya kah teknologi jadi obsolete?

Wait... wait... Bahasa Rusia? Iya. Jadi ceritanya di suatu forum ada tuh terjemahannya bahasa Rusia. Bukan bahasa Inggris. Karena ngga percaya, di didownload dan dicoba. Eeeeeh, beneran bahasa Rusia, pake font cyrillic. Alamaaaak. Percuma dong.

Percuma? Ya enggak laaaaah... Di sinilah baru kusadari brain freeze. Kenapa aku dong-dong sekaliiii? Kenapa nggak dari tadi itu soft subtitle diterjemahkan kemudian tinggal dipasangkan ke videonyaaaaaa? Aaaaaaaakkkkk... bodoh nian yaaaa? Itu kan cuma perlu sedikiiiiiit out of the box. *ngakak-ngakak ngetawain diri sendiri yang berjam-jam being dumb*

Endingnya? Endingnya ya si font cyrillic itu di-convert jadi font biasa, kemudian di-google translate-kan, dan kemudian di gabungkan sama si video. Beres? Nope. x_x Belom beres karena ternyata videonya sama subtitlenya ndak sinkron. Trus diapain dong? Disinkronkan laaaaaah. Kemaren makenya subshifter untuk synchronizing waktunya. :D

This year... i promise myself to spend more time out of the box :)