Flower and Tree Placement

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Good morning folks! Another fine day here in Pandemia, where I have created a welcome sign at the docks for everyone who might visit. Yesterday was the day when I actually started trying to give a shit about how things looked and quickly realized that I have way the hell too many trees on the island. One of the things that I wish I could do is flip into a grid system in the outside world like I can in housing because trying to control with any semblance of precision where I am facing with an analog joystick is most definitely a challenge.
One of the things that I spent part of yesterday morning researching was how to best place tress to make sure that they would grow. I’ve accidentally placed a few of the fruit I collected from island hopping and my fruit exchange party in too close of quarters. Apparently trees like a little bit of social distancing and as a result I documented some of my research in pictogram form. Essentailly based on what I could tell a tree needs a ring of eight empty squares around it, which makes sense because the same thing is true with trying to maximize the yield from banging on a rock. That means that if I wanted to be absolutely efficient I would set up a grid pattern like shown above and spend time moving all of my trees into that arrangement.
The other thing that I spent time researching was flower arrangement and hybridization. There is a twitter user @GracieSwitch that has a ton of really good guides in thread form. Unfortunately between yesterday and today the user has locked down their account and as such they are not readily available. I am guessing either someone started using the guides without credit or was a jerk to the user. As such I have attempted to recreate the concepts from memory and if I manage to bungle something please forgive me. The basic layout for flowers is a grid pattern where you are skipping every other square. As I understand it on a given day a new flower can spawn in any one of the open squares if you have watered the flowers during the previous day. When the flower is in between two different colors a hybrid flower can spawn with a new color. Essentially as I understand it you have three options for a new flower where it could spawn with either of the original colors or if you are lucky you might get a new color. Polygon has a guide outlining which colors can be produced from which species of flowers so I suggest you go over there and read that if you are wanting something specific. Since I have no clue what I am doing and am mostly just working with Tulips I planted the majority of my flowers in grid pattern.
Now here is where I am hoping my memory holds up, because @GracieSwitch outlined another method that is supposedly more predictable in the results of your flower generation. The idea being that you have two flowers side by side and then the maximum possible empty space around them without overlapping allowing for lots of possible area for flower generation. Of course however you can see that you need a lot more empty space but I also set up an area near my house that has some of this going on so we will see if any of these schemes worked. Once you have a flower generator set up the way that you want, the idea is that each day you harvest any new flower spawns and water your flower bed in preparation for the next possible day of spawning.
I feel like I need to give the very important disclaimer that once again… Animal Crossing New Horizon is my first Animal Crossing game. I am figuring all of this out for the first time and am standing on the backs of all of the AC players that came before me. I am just sharing whatever I happen across in case someone else is needing to figure these things out as well. However if anything I post is incorrect please by all means comment below and correct me. I am always open to thoughtful criticism. I mean I don’t love the folks who pedantically point out some spelling or grammatical error, but I am always down with someone correcting me on factual bits.

Shake that Tambourine

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You know I probably should be talking more about Blapril today, but there is an entire post on that already. Instead I am going to talk some more about Animal Crossing New Horizon which is apparently my new main game. I still find this all bizarre given that I had never really played one of this games and wasn’t even sure if I would be that into it. Now I would say that much like Breath of the Wild, this is a game that is worth plunking down the entire price of a console just to play it. From what I am hearing this also may be responsible for console shortages because apparently it is extremely hard to find a non-mini style switch that docks and plays on a television. I still think that the mini would have been the perfect device had they just included the video output chipset to allow it to be docked.
I’ve visited so many islands and they are all adorable. Mine is decidedly not. My room decor is what I would like to call “swap meet chic”, where I basically cram everything I come across into the same room without it actually making any semblance of sense. Sure I have a random candle on the wall because it came from a balloon. I also have an inexplicable cat tower but no cat… so whatever… it allows me to go over and bat the ball if I try and interact with it. Why do I have two wardrobes? Because I built one and then built another one for a quest because I forgot I had built the first one… don’t judge me.
I spend my days harvesting resources and stockpiling them… which then I turn into stone axes… which break… so I make more of them. Were this on the PC I would have long downloaded a way to cheat durability so nothing ever broke. However I guess it does give me a reason for all of my harvesting… even though it seems like only one type of wood regularly gets used for anything that I actually need. I have so much hard wood folks… and I am not even trying to make a joke about that. I figure at some point when I unlock terraforming I will actually start caring about the placement of things, but I am super jealous of all of the folks that I go visit that seem to have a “plan” or even “goals”. For now I mostly just have a random assemblage of shit I drug home from the dump.
For example, this is the island of @playerVShobbies and it is absolutely adorable. I am super jealous of her Gnome collection and really do need to spend more of my days hopping around and shopping from different nook stores. I popped over her to sell all of the apples that I had been hoarding for a whopping 35,000 bells. We talked on twitter while she sat on this rock and did the joyful emote over and over, and I did it back as a thank you for opening up the island and giving me a place to sell my fruit.
Her island also had this super sweet gas pump, which I bought for some reason… and is now just sorta sitting in my front yard because reasons. Anything that speaks to me I am dragging home in part because I know what is being sold is completely random on a given day and that I might only ever see it the one time. I learned that lesson from the small amount of time that I played Pocket Camp. I love old gas pumps in real life even though I am not in the least a “car guy” so I guess it makes sense that I would want to try and drag one home from my travels. The thing that I really need to find at some point is bamboo, which I guess means more island adventures… which in turn means more damned tools breaking.
The highlight of the night however has to be going over to South Perry and visiting @Kuriie. She gave me a super sweet Tambourine which is fun to bang on and I have been doing this pretty much from that point forward. It makes me just ridiculously happy to do this, and while I am certain that the novelty will wear off at some point it is pure enjoyment for the time being. Now I am starting to think that maybe I should not have named my island Pandemia… though I guess I could do a sweet logo like this for my docks. Kuriie’s island was super good and once again… here is a person with a major plan and a lot of talent. Everything was laid out purposefully and I guess made me realize that I need to probably sort out exactly what I want to do and how.
My happy place on the island however is the Museum and more specifically the deep water area. It is so peaceful to watch the schools of sardines swirling around. Getting this building opened up has singlehandedly done more or my desire to fish than anything else in the game. I want to catch more fish to make the aquarium even cooler. Like I am sure the dinosaur exhibit will be sweet once I have completed a few of them… but for now this is my moment of zen. I named my island Pandemia in part because I am using this game as a way of combating all of the frustration surrounding the very real Pandemic we find ourselves dealing with. Games have always been an escape for me, but I am not sure if I have ever needed a happy place to keep returning to quite in the same way as I have now with Animal Crossing. Thank you so much to Nintendo for releasing this during our time of need.

A Dose of Blapril

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Sometimes events coalesce in a spontaneous manner and develop an inertia of its own. Most of us are dealing with the effects of social distancing and maybe even full on quarantine thanks to the time in which we find ourselves. So a few weeks back I wondered what Blaugust would be like this year, which lead to me starting to contemplate pushing it a bit forward to give us something to focus on instead of life in Pandemia. Then completely disconnected from this I was approached by Roger and Tessa from the Blaugust discord about maybe pushing the proceedings forward so we had something good and pure to latch onto. This started the ball rolling a bit, but yet again completely disconnected from the other events Syp reached out to me saying that he thought we should do a Blapril, and as a result you are getting this official kick off post. The idea being that we can use a dose of internet togetherness to combat the negative effects of social distancing. When I thought about the name Blapril (pronounced Blay Prill), it reminded me of one of those pharmaceutical commercials that you get with the evening news where they never quite tell you exactly what the drug does… but they absolutely catalog all of its possible negative side effects. The only negative side effect here however is a renewed sense of community and a bunch of interesting blog posts to read during the month of April. Once again we rally around the blogging community and support each other with good ideas and helpful tips and gain the side effect of forgetting that each day we change out of our daytime pajamas into our evening pajamas since we have not left the house in a week and a half.

The Schedule

Something that we started over the last few Blaugust’s was setting up a bit of a schedule that is completely optional to follow. The idea being that if you find yourself in need of a bit of a structure you can fall back to the overarching theme of a specific week. If you instead have nothing but ideas flowing out of your head and enough posts to completely make it through the month of posting unaided, then by all means go with it and ignore the schedule. I personally do a little mix of all of the above and generally write a post or two on topic during a specific week and then do my normal daily blogging thing the rest of the time. However once again I feel like I should reiterate that the schedule is a completely optional thing as are the rest of the “rules” of Blaugust or in this case Blapril.
  • March 29th – April 4th – Blapril Prep Week: This is a time for those of us in the community who have been through this process a few times or at least feel like we have figured out this blogging thing to help those of you who are new to the process to get started with some advice posts. Additionally this is a time to sign up for the Discord if you have not already and start mingling with the folks who are active there year round. This is also a time for the newbies in the bunch to get started on setting up their blog and getting those first few “Hello World” posts out there.
  • April 5th – April 11th – Topic Brainstorming Week: This is a time for the mentors among us to throw out topics and ideas for posts to help you out when you find yourself staring down the tyranny of the blank page. We all have those days when we cannot figure out what to write about and being able to fall back upon the community for ideas and inspiration is a tried and true method. The prevalence of topic ideas also helps the newbies get started a bit with a constant flow of things to write about.
  • April 12th – April 18th – Getting to Know You Week: Tell us about yourself and your preference as a gamer or whatever thing that you happen to like doing. This is also a time to reach back into the wayback machine and dredge up interesting stories that you don’t mind telling the community. For the newbies it serves as a time of introducing themselves to the broader community and bonding.
  • April 19th – April 25th – Developer/Creator Appreciation Week: One of the things that has happened over the years with Blaugust is that it enveloped some of the better ideas from other events and combined them as part of the single month long celebration. Years ago Scarybooster started this idea of devoting a week to the sharing our love of the Developers and Studios behind the games that we play. Last year this morphed a bit to also include a celebration of the various content creators that we enjoy as well, so I am officially tweaking the name of the week a bit as a result to serve both purposes. Essentially it is a time to gush unabashedly about the things that you love.
  • April 26th – May 2nd – Staying Motivated Week: Towards the end of the proceedings we start to have a drop off in post frequency as folks hit their writing wall. The idea behind this week is to share the tips and tricks that we have learned throughout the years on how exactly to stay motivated and keep posting on a daily basis. I feel like this is even more relevant this year since we are all going through massive disruptions to our usual schedules and having to deal with all sorts of external changes impacting our well being both physically and mentally.
  • May 3rd – May 9th – Lessons Learned Week: The goal as always with Blaugust and now Blapril is to revitalize the blogging community and ignite those fires fresh for another year of posting. As such this is a marathon that we are running and not a sprint, so we continue forward a little bit into the next month for folks to have that cooldown lap and talk about the things that they learned during the month. This could be a discussion of your own personal journey, or focused on some of the things that you learned from the community. The idea being to keep it going just a little bit longer so that maybe the habit of posting regularly sticks.

The Awards

Something that has existed since the very first Blaugust was the concept of winning some sort of an “award”. In reality this just means that you get permission to use a dorky image that I cobble together each year, but the spirit is that you challenged yourself and followed through with the process. Daily blogging is not a thing for everyone, so as a result we have a bunch of “awards” at different levels of participation from the “I was here and got the t-shirt” level to actually standing on the medalists podium at the end of the month. A rundown of the “awards” and what it takes to earn them is as follows.
  • Newbie Blogger Award – This is a special recognition for anyone who started a blog during Blapril or is relatively new to blogging in general and is using this event as their entrance into the larger blogging community. You are the hope for the future and we are going to celebrate it!
  • Bronze Award – You made at least 5 Posts during the weeks outlined for Blapril 2020.
  • Silver Award – You made at least 15 Posts during the weeks outlined for Blapril 2020.
  • Gold Award – You made at least 25 Posts during the weeks outlined for Blapril 2020.
  • Rainbow Diamond Award – You made at least 31 Posts during the weeks outlined for Blapril 2020.

Mentorship

One of the benefits of getting our act together and coming up with what appears to be a reasonable format, is that we already have a council of mentors ready to answer your questions and assist with your blogging. However if you feel like you are a grizzled veteran of all things blogging and have something to offer the world, then we are always open to more. Ultimately mentors should have at least two years of blogging experience under their belt in order to gauge the ebbs and flow of content creation in front of a live studio audience. We are not expecting perfection, just a willingness to share the lessons you have learned along the way with fledgling participants and a large dose of patience for questions you have answered a bunch of times before. Mentors should be relatively even keeled and only prone to fits of hyperbole when it is used for comedic absurdity. Mentors will be clearly marked as such in the Discord and can likely share some sage advice for those who seek it.

How Do I Participate

  • The first step is to fill out the Sign-Up Form for Blapril 2020 which can be found here. Only those who have signed up will be given credit towards the awards.
  • Next make sure you are active on the Blaugust Discord and the link for that can be found here. This is the third year we have been active on Discord and it is a community that has managed to stay evergreen throughout the years. Maybe even share your content each day in the appropriately named “share-your-content” channel.
  • When you share your content on social media please use the hashtag #Blapril2020 for tracking purposes and to make it easier for those watching the event to find fresh content.
  • Mingle with your other Mentors and Participants because this is a community event, and part of the fun is getting to know the community. These folks represent a social structure that you can lean on for advice in the coming years. I personally deeply value my ties with other bloggers that I have built up over the last decade of doing this thing.
  • If you are so inclined there is a “gaming-together” channel on Discord for impromptu grouping in various games while the event is going on.
  • Welcome to Blapril 2020 as we use the power of internet togetherness to help combat those negative side effects of social distancing.
  • If you want an archive of all of the various logos and such, check out the Media Kit page which is the final resting place of all Blaugust and now Blapril related media.

Animal Crossing Thoughts

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Good morning everyone and welcome to another episode of Life in Pandemia. This time around I don’t only mean living in the time of pandemic but also because I named my Island in Animal Crossing New Horizons Pandemia. I mean this is the game that is going to get me through this crisis sane so it seemed fitting. First off you have to understand that I have never played an Animal Crossing game before. Well I have played Pocket Camp but I am rapidly learning that as far as games go it doesn’t necessarily count towards having played an Animal Crossing game. It did however introduce me to several of the characters and for that I am thankful, because I fully anticipated the Nook company shenanigans.
What I did not expect was to be quite so attached to my island home this early into the process. For the uninitiated in Animal Crossing New Horizon you are given the choice of four islands when you first start up the game. You should note that you will only ever be able to have a single island on that Switch device without I believe uninstalling the game and reinstalling it but don’t quote me on that process. I went with a design that has a little island in the center of the map with the ultimate goal of eventually relocating my home there. However that said I am kinda digging my little fenced off peninsula at the moment so I might just stay where I am. I know later in the game I can do some terraforming to make things a little more manageable.
Another thing that I did not expect was how much of a multiplayer experience this game would end up being. On Saturday I opened up my Island and posted on twitter that I had apples for free near the dock. I then proceeded to go afk for awhile and fix lunch, only to find that my island had become an unattended fruit exchange station while I was gone and throughout the course of the entire time I had it open I had somewhere around fifteen friends pop by to visit. There was a time period where as soon as one person had arrived I was getting a notice saying that another person was on their way. The end result was that I essentially had one of every fruit brought to me and I completed that achievement without actually putting any effort in.
Another charming as hell thing that happened is a bunch of people left messages on my board. I particularly think Stargrace’s Quail Life is adorable. I need to visit more islands and leave more messages. I left them all a version of the AggroChat intro on the board before I opened it up thinking that someone out there might get the reference. Ultimately I expected Animal Crossing to be a fairly solitary game where I am spending more time interacting with NPCs than I with other players, but if you open your island… folks seem to just show up. I think maybe it was helped by the fact that we were all hitting Day Two and having the Airport open for use about the same time and I just caught a wave of folks wanting to try out hopping to a friends island.
Having never played an Animal Crossing game before I was not exactly sure what the flow of gameplay would be. It seems each day you are presented with one or two new things that need accomplished and if you can somehow keep up with the demand you can keep progressing your island to a higher state. So for example I say that on Day Two the Airport opens, but I am not entirely certain if that is the case were I not to have done something that I did on Day One. I know you don’t get Blathers on Day Two if you did not manage to show Tom Nook five new creatures on Day One. I am sure somewhere in Reddit there is a complicated flow chart that shows what it takes to get everything. However I know that the earliest you can get the vaulting pole and shovel is day two and the earliest you can build a bridge and get your ladder is on day three for example.
We also happen to be in the middle of another Internet Zeitgeist as everyone seems to be playing the same game. When I took this screenshot I had 32 friends online and playing games and they were ALL playing Animal Crossing New Horizon. I was not exactly sure how I would like this game having never played one before, but on some level I feel like I have been missing out since the N64 era. Whatever it is about this game be it the cute animal friends or the low stress collection activities, but there is something calming about it. This is the game we need right now given the situation that we are all having to deal with. So sure I named my island Pandemia, but for now at least this game is providing a much needed respite from the world as a whole.
As you can tell by this image that I have discovered the pro creation suite within Animal Crossing. The cap, shirt, face paint, floor and wallpaper are all things that I created and honestly I have been spending as much time doing that as I have doing other things in game. The shirt was a must and it is patterned off of the one that Mae wears in Night in the Woods. The make up… no clue what I was going for there but I have changed it a few times so far. The flooring was inspired by the carpet in The Shining and I honestly went with something more simplified when I realized how hard it would be to translate the actual carpet design to pixels. I’ve changed the wallpaper a bunch of times and for now I am pretty happen with this simple pattern. Now however it is beginning remind me a little bit more of Wes Anderson than Stanley Kubrick.
I feel like I have been through a very rapid evolution of understanding when it comes to Animal Crossing. From the tweet above I legitimately was not ready for what I found myself experiencing. However there is something relaxing about knowing that without cheating and setting your system clock forward… there is only so much that you can do in a single day. When you have reached the end of what you want to do then you can sit down the game and go on to do other things. I appreciate this greatly given that so many games are vying for my attention. I’ve still had time to hang out and grind rifts in Diablo 3 or poke my head into the other game that came out on the 20th, Doom Eternal. Animal Crossing can be all consuming, or it can not be if you choose to take it slow and easy and I greatly appreciate that a game isn’t trying to consume every moment of my waking hours.
On updates that are actually from the real world, which is also Pandemia… I am now entering my second week of remote work. My team was a bit of a vanguard for the entire work force and as of today I believe all but 10 employees are going to be remote leaving only a skeletal crew behind that either didn’t want to work remotely or could not for some reason. The weekend was really freaking weird when it more or less meant being in the same place that I was in for the entire work week. I’ve stopped doing my routine of getting up every morning and going to the corner convenience store because that exposes me to way too many people in the process. Instead we got a bunch of donuts from our local donut shop yesterday and plan on rationing them throughout the week. So far we are doing fine and we have a grocery pick up scheduled for this evening which should give us more options for food and such. I hope all of you out there are also doing okay. We will pull through this and hopefully at some point in the future we will get to return to normalcy. I do have to wonder what the world is going to look like on the other side of this. Metal detectors were the thing that spontaneously showed up in building designs after 911, and I am wondering if thermal imaging is going to be the hallmark of the pandemic so you can see when someone is running a fever. I remember one episode of the old television show Sliders where they landed on a timeline where everything was hyper aware of pathogens and food all came in hermetically sealed packaging. I hope we don’t end up going off the deep end but I do know there will be changes as a result of this, I just am struggling to predict them. Anyways have a wonderful week and I will see you again tomorrow.