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myrandomfandomramblings · 3 years

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Angela’s “Baby Shower” - a The Rookie Fanfic

At 35 weeks pregnant Angela was over it. She was sick of always having to run to the bathroom. She was done with the fogginess in her brain interfering with her work. She was over the sore back and hips and feet that came from carrying an extra 30 pounds in her abdomen and she was tired of being so tired after being unable to find a comfortable sleeping position. But mostly she just no longer wanted to feel so different. She hated being too exhausted to go out with her friends after shift and even if she was feeling up for it she always had to get water while everyone else got their cocktail of choice. She was frustrated at being unable to bend down easily when investigating crime scenes and having to rely on others to find all the evidence. She also disliked the attention she got because of her pregnancy. Everybody always seemed to be looking at her belly, asking her when she was due, how she was doing and cooing about the joys of parenthood. She was excited about the baby and couldn’t wait to meet her little bundle of joy but she also craved normalcy, to just feel like herself and be a part of the group instead of sticking out like a sore thumb. So when Wesley pitched the idea of a baby shower to celebrate her and their little one, yet to be born, she vetoed that idea fast and hard. When she shared her reasoning her Fiancé nodded.

“I understand where your coming from but you actually gave me a really good idea for a baby shower that I’m sure you’ll love. Do you trust me?” he asked.

She had nodded and agreed to let him throw her a baby shower with the caveat that she could pull the plug at anytime.

Which brought them to the day of the baby shower, a Saturday, two weeks later.

Wesley had kept the entire thing a surprise so Angela was thoroughly confused as she watched him unpack a number of crates and garbage bags from the truck and bring them into the downtown park where she sat.

“What is all this?” She asked.

“You’ll see,” he replied giving her a wink. “Once everyone gets here.”

20 minutes later everyone was there. Lucy, Jackson, Tim, Nolan, and Harper. Grey wanted to come but had to work.

“Welcome everyone,” Wes announced, “today we will be competing to see who is the most badass pregnant person.” At this point everyone including Angela was looking at Wesley like he had grown a second head but he pushed on. “There will be three challenges: an escape room, laser tag and a contraction simulator and you will be divided into two teams. Angela as our guest of honour you get to pick your two teammates.”

“Nyla and Lucy,” Angela said immediately. She still didn’t really understand what they were doing but she had the feeling girl power was the way to victory.

Lucy and Harper excitedly moved over to Angela, giving each other high fives.

“Guess that means we’re a team,” Nolan said draping his arms around Jackson and Tim’s shoulders.

“Great,” Tim replied rolling his eyes. Angela wasn’t sure if he was mad because she didn’t choose him or because he wasn’t on the same team as Lucy either way she was looking forward to kicking his butt.

“OK now the last thing to do before we start the competition is to pregnify everyone,” Wesley stated.

“I feel like I should make some sort of joke about how babies are made but I think I’ll wait to see where you’re going with this,” Nolan offered.

“First everyone put one of these on,” Wesley said as he reached into a garbage bag and brought out a handful of wrap baby carriers which he handed out. Once everybody had theirs on he opened the lids of several storage containers.

“Now everyone, come grab a balloon and put them in your carrier.”

“Wow these are heavier than I expected. What’s in them?” Jackson asked as he lifted a balloon out of the tub.

“They’re full of water and some sand,” Wesley answered, “and they each way exactly 30 lbs, the average amount of weight gained in pregnancy. I weighed them myself.”

“Is that why you asked me where the scale was the other night?” Angela asked

Wesley confirmed before moving on. “Next everyone grab a hoodie to put over your bundle of joy,” he said opening another garbage bag.

“It’s at least 80 degrees we don’t need hoodies,” Tim complained.

“It’s to replicate the heat generated by a growing baby,” Wesley replied, “plus I had a lot of fun with them.”

Tim rolled his eyes but obediently put on the last hoodie.

All the hoodies were bright neon colours (Lucy pink, Harper purple, Jackson green, Nolan yellow and Tim blue) and had pregnancy announcements written on the front in thick black letters: ‘Baby on Board’, ‘Coming summer 2021’, ‘Eating for two’, etc.

“There’s one for you too if you want it Ange, but you don’t have to wear it,” Wesley said. “Now the last thing, well things,” he added bringing out a bottle of Benadryl and stack of medicine cups, “since I can’t give you brain fog I’m just going to make you drowsy. Everybody take a medicine cup and wash it down with one of these,” he said opening a cooler lid to reveal a stack of 1L water bottles, “the whole thing.”

“I’m going to have to pee so bad,” Lucy joked as she started to drink her water.

“That’s the idea,” Wesley replied.

They spent the next 20 minutes finishing their waters, waiting for the Benadryl to kick in and admiring their new ‘bellies’.

Angela laughed as Jackson yelled “belly bump,” while running then jumping towards Lucy who met him in the air before the force knocked them both off their feet. She laughed even harder watching them try and fail to get up on their own until Wesley came to help them. She happily accepted a belly bum from Jackson once he had taken them down a notch (or several) as did everyone else but Nolan who was excessively protecting his fake fetus, shielding his stomach with his arms and body whenever anybody approached. Angela watched her friends, thoroughly entertained by their antics. She was especially enjoying the effect a visibly pregnant Lucy was having on Tim. He was constantly stealing glances at her and when she smoothed her hoodie over her stomach and asked him how she looked his cheeks flushed and Angela was pretty sure she heard him stutter. This was confirmed by Nyla who had come up beside her and after a quick poke at Tim started reminiscing about her own pregnancy with Lila, which got the two woman talking and comparing notes. She was vaguely aware of Lucy who had taken her phone out and was now taking pictures and videos of everybody but didn’t fully turn her attention back to the others until Wesley said it was time for the first challenge: the escape room.

They walked to the escape room place which was only about a block away with minimal whining and a lot of perplexed looks from passers by. Once they got there they split into their teams and went to their respective rooms. The girls’ room was sorcerer’s lair themed and overall they got through it pretty smoothly. They had a few bumps in the road: by 20 minutes in they were all crossing their legs trying to hold their pee, Lucy fell asleep once while sitting at a table trying to decode a message and Nyla debated trying to use one of the magic wands in their room to pop her balloon. “Now I remember why I only had one. This was not easy,” she said as she slid down the wall to sit on the floor. But overall they worked together really well and had a lot of fun just talking about anything and everything as they solved all the puzzles and escaped the room.

When the girls were done, after a quick trip to the bathroom, they joined Wesley in the control booth to watch the guys via video and they seemed to be having a much harder time. Jackson was trying to decode the message Lucy had but was becoming visibly more and more frustrated as he rubbed his temples and verbally demanded and pleaded with his brain to work. Nolan was trying to bend down to open a trap door (Angela had opened theirs with a broom handle) but couldn’t quite reach it without nearly falling over. After many failed attempts he eventually used the chair as a support bar to lower himself to the ground then push himself back up once the door was open. Meanwhile Tim kept swearing under his breath as he accidentally knocked various things off shelves and tables with his fake belly when he forgot how far out it reached. Luckily one of the things he knocked off opened when it hit the floor to reveal a key they needed to escape the room, which Nolan was able to retrieve with his new chair technique. Shortly after, Jackson succeeded in decoding his clue and from there they proceeded to finish the room pretty quickly and easily.

After another bathroom break they headed to the food trucks for a quick lunch where they mostly sat in content silence as everyone happily shovelled food into their mouths. This silence was only punctuated by the occasional comment that was either gloating or trash talk or by Tim barking “What are you looking at?” at people eyeing the group.

Next they headed to laser tag. Which Wesley had booked privately, so they had the whole place to themselves. The rules were simple every time you shot a member of the opposing team your team earned a point. First team to 30 won. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Angela laughed at her friends as they tried to sneak up on or out run each other, both techniques that were being significantly impacted by their fake pregnancies. Nolan at one point declared that the more aggressively you waddled the faster you could go and spent the rest of the game darting around like a mad penguin. He was ultimately successful in getting 6 points for his team using this technique which was significantly more than the 1 point he got before implementing it. Jackson on the other hand found a good hiding place in a high traffic area and would shoot the opposing team anytime they came by. Although initially this strategy was very successful and he quickly racked up 10 points, once the ladies realized their vests always lit up red when they passed that area they made a plan and were able to all find and corner him in his hiding spot. By the time he got away they had got 10 points themselves. Tim tried to use a lot of the same techniques he used at work or at paintball but unfortunately for him, although they were efficient Lucy knew all of them and was able to use that knowledge to her advantage. The girls took a different approach and worked more as a team. They used some techniques from work and also had fun designing and implementing crazy plans, including one of them acting as bait to lure the guys in and the other two blind-siding them. When all was said and done the guys won 30-29. The girls attributed this to Tim and Nolan’s height advantage. They were able to see over all the obstacles but it could also be that the girls were having a little to much fun making elaborate plans that weren’t necessarily the most practical (the gun tricks looked cool but significantly decreased their shooting accuracy). Nonetheless, Angela had the greatest total points with 16.

Following laser tag everybody was really happy but also extremely exhausted and they outright refused to walk the ten minutes back to the park despite the fact that because they were downtown it would take twice as long to drive their in traffic. While everybody went pee again Wesley walked back and brought the van.

“I call middle row,” Harper yelled as Wesley pulled into the parking lot.

“Me too,” West added.

Angela took the passenger seat which left Nolan, Lucy and Tim to squeeze into the back row. Because Lucy was the smallest she was forced to take the middle seat but it didn’t seem to matter to her as she fell asleep almost immediately and spent the 20 minute ride leaning against Tim, head on his shoulder. They woke her up once they were back at the park but only after they had taken a couple pictures.

Once they all got out of the van Wesley told them they could take off their hoodies and fake bellies. Tim and Nyla quickly took off their stuff and helped Wesley set up for the labour simulation. Meanwhile the three newly minted P2’s goofed around. Nolan pretended to be giving birth taking quick breaths and squeezing Lucy’s hand as he pushed his balloon out the bottom of the carrier where Jackson caught it. Then working together the three of them lifted the balloon above their heads and belted out ‘The Circle of Life.’ Following the end of their song they too quickly shed their layers then went to join the rest of the group gathered in front of a folding beach chair that had been set up.

“Alright everyone welcome to the final and tie-breaking event,” Wesley announced.

“Tied?” Angela questioned. “We beat the guys by at least half an hour in the escape room and they only beat us by one point at laser tag. We are winning.”

“That’s not how this works babe. But don’t worry because you will be sitting this one out because you have to go through real labor in a couple weeks, I will be taking your spot and I will make sure your team wins.”

“You better,” Angela replied teasingly.

“Alright this is the labour simulator,” Wesley explained holding up a small device, “We stick these electrodes to your stomach and this machine will deliver electricity which will result in fake contracts that range in intensity from 1-10,” he pointed to a dial on the machine. “According to the instruction book 1 is like mild period cramps, 4 is Braxton-Hicks contractions, 8 is full blown labour and 10 is just full blown torture. Whichever team can tolerate the highest combined score wins. Oh and tolerate means experience that setting for at least ten seconds without ripping the leads off your body. Any questions?” When everybody shook their heads he continued. “Who wants to go first?”

“I will,“ Jackson offered making his way to the chair. Wesley stuck the electrodes to his abdomen then he was ready to go.

He jumped initially on the first setting since he had no idea what to expect but after that he was pretty calm just clenching his jaw as the pain was increased. That is until he got to 6.

“Can I hold somebody’s hand?” he asked, “That’s a thing, right?”

Both Lucy and Nolan immediately stood up.

“How about two hands,” Nolan suggested seeing this.

“Even better,” Jackson replied intertwining his left hand with Nolan’s and his right with Lucy’s.

This was enough to get him through 7 and 8 as he channeled all his pain into his friends, crushing their hands, but one second into 9 and he immediately pulled the leads off.

“Great job Jackson,” Wesley said as everyone patted him on the back, “Who’s next.”

Lucy went next and didn’t so much as flinch until 5 at which point she decided she was going to try meditation. This helped her through 6 and 7 at which point she too wanted hands to squish. Although both Jackson and Nolan offered, Lucy’ teammates decided it was their job. Between crushing her friends hands and focusing on her breathing she got through 8 rather easily. She clearly struggled more with 9. Jackson, Nolan and Wes were counting down. “Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven,” Angela felt Lucy’s grip loosen in her own. She was going to pull off the leads that is until Tim spoke up, “Come on Chen. You’ve got this. You’re strong,” he said and Lucy’s grip tightened back around Angela’s. “Three, Two, One, Done.” Everybody cheered as Lucy released her team mates hands and opened her eyes. “Sorry team but that’s enough for me I’m not trying 10,” she said as she removed the electrodes from her stomach.

“You did great,” Angela said and patted Lucy’s shoulder.

Tim went next. Rather than closing his eyes he fixed his glare on the machine in Wesley’s hand as if he could intimidate it in to giving up. He also refused to hold anyone’s hand and instead gripped the armrests of the chair. By the time he got to 8 he was gripping so hard he broke the arm of the chair but still some how managed to maintain a near neutral expression throughout the entire experience. At this point Lucy insisted on holding the hand that had broken the chair. When he pointed out that he was worried he would hurt her she stubbornly grabbed his hand in both of hers, “I’m strong, remember.” With Lucy’s help Tim too made it through 9 and like his former rookie decided to end it there.

Harper went next. Although she was clearly in pain she was able to do 10 by focusing on her breathing, holding her friends hands and thinking about Lila.

“How did you do that?” Jackson asked awe in his voice.

“When I was in labour with Lila I had contractions that were at least the intensity of 8 that lasted a minute each for like eight hours. One ten second one is a piece of cake.”

“You didn’t have an epidural?” Nolan asked

Harper shook her head, “I was being stubborn. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”

“You’re very impressive, but I have nothing to prove to anyone. I’m getting an epidural,” Angela offered.

“You do what’s right for you,” Nyla replied patting her friend on the back, “ You’re going to do great.”

Nolan went next. He was practically jumping out of the chair by the time it got to 6 and at 7 he was writhing around so much he actually managed to tip the chair over. The fact that he ended up in a tangled mess on the ground was probably the only reason he made it through 7 without ripping the electrodes off. He did his best on 8 but despite having everyone around him either holding his hand or holding him down he only made it five seconds.

“OK the guys got 7+8+9 that’s 24. We already have 19 so all you have to do is get through 6 babe,” Angela said to Wesley.

It should have been easy. The pain wasn’t that bad, but it was in his abdomen and it was just a little too similar to the pain he experienced when he was stabbed. He was starting to get flashbacks but he wanted to do this for his fiancé, the love of his life and mother to his unborn child. He was going to do this for Angela even when she told him it was OK, that she understood, that he didn’t need to push through this trauma for her but he wanted to. So despite the fact that his whole body was pale, we was dripping with sweat, dizzy and short of breath with tears streaming down his face he pushed through his ten seconds at 6 with steely determination. At this point Angela pulled off the electrodes for him then pulled him into a hug. All her friends wrapped themselves around the couple and they stayed like that until Wesley was feeling better.

“I didn’t get any prizes so bragging rights will have to be enough,” Wesley admitted.

“The day was prize enough,” Lucy offered, “I had a blast, we should do stuff like this more often.”

“Does that mean you’re not going to rub it in?” Jackson asked.

“Not a chance,” she replied.

“How about because we won we get to meet the baby first?” Nyla suggested.

“That’s fair,” Angela agreed, “but what do I get?”

“Presents,” Nyla said handing Angela her baby shower present.

After Angela opened her presents which mostly consisted of clothes and books and toys for the new baby everybody headed home to get some rest.

“Thank-you,” Angela said giving Wes a quick kiss, “For today. I really needed it.”

And she meant it. She had been feeling alone, helpless, and inadequate. But today reminded her about all the people who love her, about the strength that comes with working together. It reminded her that it’s ok to be imperfect, stressed, struggling but also to be goofy, to let loose and have fun. After today she finally felt like her self again and that woman was going to be a great mother.

#the rookie #therookiemidseasonmadness #angela lopez #wesley evers #lucy chen #tim bradford #nyla harper #jackson west #john nolan #I have no idea what this is or why I wrote it

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felord · 5 years

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ASSIGNMENT 2 COMP-202 Solved

Please read the entire PDF before starting. You must do this assignment individually. It is very important that you follow the directions as closely as possible. The directions, while perhaps tedious, are designed to make it as easy as possible for the TAs to mark the assignments by letting them run your assignment, in some cases through automated tests. While these tests will never be used to determine your entire grade, they speed up the process significantly, which allows the TAs to provide better feedback and not waste time on administrative details. Plus, if the TA is in a good mood while he or she is grading, then that increases the chance of them giving out partial marks. :) To get full marks, you must: Follow all directions below Make sure that your code compiles – Non-compiling code will receive a very low mark Write your name and student ID is written as a comment in all .java files you hand in 1

Part 1 (0 points): Warm-up

Do NOT submit this part, as it will not be graded. However, doing these exercises might help you to do the second part of the assignment, which will be graded. If you have difficulties with the questions of Part 1, then we suggest that you consult the TAs during their office hours; they can help you and work with you through the warm-up questions. You are responsible for knowing all of the material in these questions. Warm-up Question 1 (0 points) Write a method swap which takes as input two int values x and y. Your method should do 3 things: Print the value of x and y Swap the values of the variables x and y, so that whatever was in x is now in y and whatever was in y is now in x Print the value of x and y again. For example, if your method is called as follows: swap(3,4) the effect of calling your method should be the following printing inside swap: x is:3 y is:4 inside swap: x is:4 y is:3 Warm-up Question 2 (0 points) Consider the program you have just written. Create 2 int (integer) variables in the main method. Call them x and y. Assign values to them and call the swap method you wrote in the previous part. After calling the swap() method—inside the main method— print the values of x and y. Are they different than before? Why or why not? Warm-up Question 3 (0 points) Write a method that takes three integers x, y, and z as input. This method returns true if z is equal to 3 or if z is equal to the sum of x and y, and false otherwise. Warm-up Question 4 (0 points) Let’s write a method incrementally: Start by writing a method called getRandomNumber that takes no inputs, and returns a random double between 0 (included) and 10 (excluded). Now, modify it so that it returns a random int between 0 and 10. Finally, let the method take two integers min and max as inputs, and return a random integer greater than or equal to min and less then max. Warm-up Question 5 (0 points) Create a file called Counting.java, and in this file, declare a class called Counting. This program takes as input from the user a positive integer and counts up until that number. eg: > run Counting 10 I am counting until 10: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Warm-up Question 6 (0 points) For this question you have to generalize the last question. The user will give you the number they want the computer to count up to and the step size by which it will do so. > run Counting 25 3 I am counting to 25 with a step size of 3: 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25

Part 2

The question in this part of the assignment will be graded. Question 1: Craps (100 points) Craps is a dice game where each player bets on the outcome of the dice rolls. The goal of this question is to write several methods in order to create a program that simulates the outcome of a Pass Line Bet (see below) in a game of Craps. All the code for this question must be placed in a file named Gambling.java.

The Pass Line Bet

Craps is a game of rounds. The first dice roll of a round is called the Come-out Roll. When a player is making a Pass Line Bet, they will place a bet before the Come-Out Roll. Depending on the result of the roll, the player might win, lose, or go to the “next stage” of the game: If a 7 or an 11 is rolled, then the player wins. If a 2, 3, or 12 is rolled, then the player loses. If any other number is rolled, the player must go to the next stage. For the next stage, it is important to remember which number was rolled in the Come-Out Roll, this number is called the point. In the second stage, the player will keep rolling the dice until one of the following happens: A 7 is rolled, and the player loses the bet The point is rolled again, and the player wins the bet The payout is 1:1: the players win as much as he bets. Thus, if the player bets $5 and wins he will receive an additional $5. If he loses, he will lose the entire bet. Let’s see a couple of examples: The result of the Come-Out Roll is a 3. → The player loses! The result of the Come-Out Roll is a 5 → The dice are rolled again until either a 7 or a 5 is rolled. Supposed that the results of the rolls are the following: 10, 11, 4, 7. → The player loses! The result of the Come-Out Roll is a 9 → The dice are rolled again until either a 7 or a 9 is rolled. Let the results of the rolls be as follow: 3, 5, 9. → The player wins! Now that we now how the game works, let’s see which methods we need to simulate the result of a Pass Line bet in a game of Craps.

1a. A method to simulate a dice roll

In a game of Craps, players are betting on the outcome of a roll of two six-sided dice. Write a method called diceRoll that simulates the roll of two six-sided dice. Such method will have to return an int between 2 and 12 (included), which is the sum of the result of rolling two six-sided dice. Notice, that to simulate the roll of two six-sided dice, you will have to generate two random numbers between 1 and 6 (both included) and sum the results together. If you have any doubts on how to achieve this, make sure you first understand the warm-up Question 4, where you are asked to build a method called getRandomNumbers.

1b. A method to simulate the second stage of the bet

Write a method secondStage that simulates the second stage of the Pass Line Bet. This method takes as input one integer value that corresponds to the point, the number rolled in the Come-Out Roll (either 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), and returns an int which will either be a 7 or the point itself depending on which one gets rolled first. Let the method print all the dice rolls on the same line until a 7 or the point is rolled. For example, if the method is called with input 5, the following might get printed on your screen: 4, 6, 11, 7 Make sure to use diceRoll to obtain the value of each roll.

1c. A method to check if the player has enough money

Write a method canPlay which takes two doubles as input and returns a boolean value. The first input value corresponds to the money the player has, the second corresponds to how much money the player would like to bet. A player is allowed to play only if he has money and he doesn’t bet more than he owns. If the player is allowed to play, your method should return true. The method should return false otherwise. For Example: canPlay(5.25, 5) should return true, while canPlay(0.0, 2.0) should return false.

1d. A method to simulate the Pass Line Bet

Finally, write a method passLineBet that simulates what happens when a Pass Line Bet is placed. This methods takes two doubles as input: the first one corresponds the total amount of money the player has, the second correspond to how much money the players decides to bet. The method will return a value of type double which corresponds to the amount of money the player has left after one round of Craps. The method should first check if the player is allowed to play using canPlay. If the player is not allowed to play, your method should print out a statement informing the player he has insufficient funds to place the bet and simply return the amount of money the player has at the moment. If the player is allowed to play, then you can go ahead and simulate 1 round of Craps. Your method should print the result of the Come-Out Roll (the first roll in a round of Craps) as well as what will happen next. For example, here is the player in the first stage of the game, the Come-Out Roll. Recall that the player wins with a 7 or 11, loses with a 2, 3, or 12, and moves to the second stage with any other number. Here are some possible outcomes: A 7 has been rolled. You win! A 12 has been rolled. You lose! A 5 has been rolled. Roll again! If necessary, the second stage needs to be simulated (using the secondStage method) in order to determine whether the player wins or loses. If at the end of the second stage a 7 was rolled your method should print a statement informing the player he lost, if instead the point was rolled your method should print a statement informing the player he won. Use canPlay, secondStage, and diceRoll in order to implement the simulation of a Pass Line Bet. Remember to update the amount of money the player has left depending on whether he won or lost the bet. This number should be returned as a value of type double.

1e. Setting up the main method (Optional - No extra marks)

Set up the main method so that the program receives two inputs of type double via command line arguments. The first input corresponds to the money the player has, the second to the money they would like to bet. From the main method, call passLineBet with the appropriate inputs in order to place the bet. Make sure to output a statement informing the player with how much money he has left after his bet. These are a couple of examples of how your program should run: > run Gambling 25.5 7.0 A 5 has been rolled. Roll again! 4, 3, 12, 5 You win! You now have: $39.5 > run Gambling 5.5 7.0 Insufficient funds. You cannot play. You now have: $5.5 > run Gambling 10 7.0 A 12 has been rolled. You lose! You now have: $3.0

What To Submit

You have to submit one zip file that contains your files to myCourses - Assignment 2. If you do not know how to zip files, please enquire that information from any search engine or friends. Google might be your best friend with this, and for a lot of different little problems as well. These files should all be inside your zip. Do not submit any other files, especially .class files. Gambling.java Confession.txt (optional) In this file, you can tell the TA about any issues you ran into doing this assignment. If you point out an error that you know occurs in your problem, it may lead the TA to give you more partial credit. On the other hand, it also may lead the TA to notice something that otherwise they would not.

Marking Scheme

Up to 30% can be removed for bad indentation of your code as well as omitting comments, coding structure, or missing files. Marks will be removed as well if the class and methods names are not respected. Question 1 Question 1a: 20 points Question 1b: 35 points Question 1c: 10 points Question 1d: 35 points 100 points Read the full article

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ges-sa · 7 years

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WWE 2K18 - Mega News Round-Up

New Post has been published on https://ges-sa.com/wwe-2k18-mega-news-round-up/

WWE 2K18 - Mega News Round-Up

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]WWE in South Africa has received something of a boost of late with weekly live episodes and Pay-Per-View specials after returning to Supersport in the final week of August. Similarly, 2K Sports looks to continue to build off their growing foundation each year with the WWE 2K series and this year is no exception. WWE 2K18 is fast approaching and the news is coming fast and it’s coming furiously. With that in mind, here is round-up of the news, features and improvements to expect in WWE 2K18.

Pre-Order and Deluxe Edition Superstars bonus Superstars:

After an absence of more than a decade, former WWE Champion and new WWE Hall of Famer: Kurt Angle has returned to WWE and makes his video game return in WWE 2K18 as this year’s pre-order DLC bonus. Not only can you play as Kurt Angle 2001 at the height of his rise at the end of the legendary “Attitude Era”, but as “The Wrestling Machine” Kurt Angle 2006 during his final days in WWE more than a decade ago as part of the short lived ECW brand. Not only is Kurt Angle considered one of the greatest amateur and professional wrestlers of all time but he also won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1996 with a broken freakin’ neck. He will no doubt be a valuable character who will not be defeated easily and is available with pre-order copies of WWE 2K18 and brad new sealed copies.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“I was thrilled to return to WWE earlier this year, be honored as a WWE Hall of Fame inductee and find a new home with the best in the business every Monday night as the Raw General Manager,” said Kurt Angle. “And now, I get to follow in the footsteps of many incredible names, like Bill Goldberg, Sting, Ultimate Warrior and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and be featured as the WWE 2K18 pre-order character.”

In addition to Angle, those who pre-order the Deluxe or Collector’s editions of WWE 2K18 will receive extra DLC bonus characters like “Mr. Monday Night” Rob Van Dam, everybody’s favour ate Guardian of the Galaxy, Batista from 2010 as well as two extra playable versions of John Cena from ECW One Night Stand 2006 and Wrestlemania 26 in 2010.

WWE 2K18 Features Revealed

As revealed by Visual Concepts Executive Producer of WWE 2K: Mark Little, the following make up the focus of this year’s feature set. Below is an extract of what to expect this year.

“Be Like No One

The WWE 2K franchise has enabled users to “Be Like No One” through its amazing Creation Suite for a long time, and this year is no different. The Creation Suite gets even deeper with improvements to Create-a-Superstar, Create-an-Arena and Create-a-Video. The Highlight Replay System now enables users to save game replays to make into future videos and adds a free-roaming camera for further creative and editing control. In addition, we are also bringing creativity to matches with a new Create-a-Match feature. This addition lets players create a custom set of rules for a match, save them and use them in either Play Now or WWE Universe.

WWE 2K18 also delivers a new MyPLAYER experience that introduces fighting styles and a brand new upgrade and progression system. Players can choose from eight fighting styles to help define their MyPLAYER experience. Each fighting style comes with its strengths and weaknesses, so the choice of style matters. No one style can be a master of all! Are you going to be a High Flyer, a Brawler or maybe a Technician? The choice is yours.

With a compelling new MyPLAYER system, we also wanted something unique and different for your MyPLAYER to do in WWE 2K18. Thus, a brand new MyCAREER experience awaits, incorporating a new story and a free-roaming backstage area that allow your MyPLAYER to interact with other WWE Superstars and help direct the narrative. Did you take offense to someone? Are you going to go it alone? Are you going to align with the General Managers or are you going to let your in-ring prowess speak for itself? The new MyPLAYER experience provides many choices in for how players experience their unfolding stories.

Finally, WWE 2K18 is delivering an all-new Road to Glory Mode that lets players compete against others, using their MyPLAYER characters, in a quest to qualify for WWE pay-per-view events. There is a lot more to share about the new Road to Glory Mode in the coming months, but we are really excited to see everyone bring their MyPLAYER creations to this new level of competition.

Realism

WWE 2K18 will be the most realistic WWE game to date in the franchise. This year, we developed an entirely new graphics engine that delivers spectacular new lighting, more realistic skin and new camera effects. The WWE Superstars, crowds and arenas have never looked better. Since words don’t do visuals justice, we are excited to show you how amazing WWE 2K18 looks in the near future.

Along with the great visuals, WWE 2K18 introduces a new commentary team. With the trio of Michael Cole, Byron Saxton and Corey Graves at the commentary table, a WWE 2K game has never sounded better. We also greatly improved crowd sounds, including the addition of authentic crowd chants, to bring the entire WWE experience to life. In short, WWE 2K18 has never been closer to what our fans see every week on WWE television and at live events.

Most Comprehensive WWE Game to Date

WWE 2K18 continues improving and refining the simulation gameplay experience that sits at the core of the franchise. For WWE 2K18, we are bringing new mayhem and carnage in the form of eight-person matches, including Ladder matches, the Royal Rumble, Eight-Person Tags and even a Battle Royal. Players can now experience the chaos of eight WWE Superstars all vying for the same goal!

Speaking of Royal Rumble matches, we also revamped these by implementing new elimination mechanics, a quick elimination system, new match-specific finishers and new elimination sequences. With eight WWE Superstars in the ring, combined with the new mechanics, the Royal Rumble is better than ever.

WWE 2K18 also sees the addition of a new carry system, which we’ll share more details on in the future, as well as thousands of new animations. These are just a few of the changes we made with the gameplay for WWE 2K18 as we develop the most complete WWE simulation experience.

WWE Universe Mode sees changes in WWE 2K18, including a new story system that provides more flexibility in how stories play out. The interactions between WWE Superstars build up to rivalries and determine what stories will unfold. The new story system also supports very diverse pay-per-view calendars, meaning it manages WWE’s current pay-per-view schedule alongside player-created custom pay-per-view calendars. In addition, there are new story cut scenes, new Power Rankings and even a new Superstar goal feature to be announced in the future.

For WWE 2K18, we are working hard to improve the online experience in several ways. For example, we are reworking the search system for Community Creations to ensure everyone is able to find the best amazing content created and made available by the community. Additional improvements will be announced later this year.

All of these feature additions and improvements are only made better by the largest roster in WWE gaming history. We are excited to share the roster for this year’s game soon, but for now, our recent announcement of WWE Hall of Famer and current Raw General Manager, Kurt Angle, as the game’s pre-order bonus is a sign of the good things to come with the roster.”

WWE 2K18 Soundtrack Curated by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

2K always strives to team with the best in music and entertainment when creating their 2K sports soundtracks. They have teamed with John Cena, Whiz Khalifa and Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs in the past few years, but arguably none bigger than WWE Legend and one of the most bankable star in Hollywood today: The Rock himself, Dwayne Johnson who is the Exeuctive Soundtrack Producer for WWE 2K18.

The soundtrack, personally selected by The Rock himself, will feature 11 unique songs that represent some of Johnson’s favourite artists and music genres.

“Music is one of my soul’s anchors,” said Johnson. “All genres. I’m excited to celebrate my WWE roots by partnering with the 2K and Apple Music teams and share some of my favorite hardcore training songs with fans all over the world.”

The WWE 2K18 official soundtrack includes:

Blues Brothers – “Soul Man”;

Boston – “Smokin’”;

Bruno Mars – “Runaway Baby”;

Disturbed – “Down With The Sickness”;

Eazy-E – “Boyz-N-The-Hood”;

George Thorogood & The Destroyers – “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”;

Joe Walsh – “Rocky Mountain Way”;

Kanye West – “Black Skinhead”;

Kid Rock – “You Never Met a White Boy Quite Like Me”;

¡MAYDAY! (feat. Tech N9ne) – “Last One Standing”;

Tech N9ne (feat. Krizz Kaliko, Serj Tankian) – “Straight Out The Gate”.

WWE 2K18 MyCAREER Details Revealed

MyCAREER is one of the signature modes among the 2K Sports titles and has been positions as the flagship mode of WWE 2K since its first inclusion in WWE 2K15. The goal is enable fans and gamers to create their ideal Superstar and live out their dreams inside the squared circle as a WWE Superstar/MyPLAYER, and hopefully earning enough accomplishments along the way to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

This year’s iteration of MyCAREER willfocus on a strong story narrative, and stories will no longer be share cutscenes with Universe mode which should allow for a unique gameplay experience in this mode. There will be two paths you can choose, namely Company Man and Fan Favourite.

Company Man – Going down the Company Man path means you’re all about helping the general managers (GMs) get what they want out of the roster on any given show. This involves conspiring with the GMs backstage, ambushing other WWE Superstars in the locker room or during their interviews and basically doing whatever it takes to maintain that GM’s power, both in the ring and backstage. The rewards are hefty, though! Continue helping the GM succeed, and you’ll gain access to awesome upgrades, such as the ability to orchestrate a run-in to help you win a match. You can also access Vince McMahon’s office to lobby for match card changes and title rematches.

Fan Favorite – Being a Fan Favorite means you don’t play the whole company game and you’re all about putting on the best matches and promos. You have a locker room full of WWE Superstars and Legends backstage. This route involves earning their respect by taking on different match types – night-in and night-out. You’ll also have WWE Superstars test your in-ring aptitude and skills on the microphone, but if you succeed at this, you will earn the whole locker room’s respect – and with that comes some perks. WWE Legends are always backstage during events. If you earn their respect, they’ll start to give you in-ring bonuses for your matches and promos. If you become the complete package – the guy who can walk the walk and talk the talk like Stone Cold Steve Austin or John Cena – you’ll be able to have your own customized WWE Championship or Universal Championship. This honor is only given to the best of the best.

It will be your choice how your road to your Wrestlemania Moment plays out.

Not only that, but free roaming will be introduced this year. Rather than manage your rivalries and partnerships through static menus, players will now be able to free-roam through the backstage area and interact with a number of WWE superstars and backstage personnel. If you don’t like the rivalries you are involved in and want a change of pace, you can walk up to somebody and attack them. If you want an interview with Renee Young, simply walk up to her and begin the backstage interview or interrupt someone else she is already interviewing and take the spotlight by force. There is no shortage of personalities to interact with from WWE Superstars, to Legends, to GMs and some of these interactions might lead to side stories where a Superstar could ask you ambush their rival or battle you in an in-ring promo.

The promo engine has received an upgrade this year as well. No longer will you have to choose disjointed responses in order to maintain your momentum for a positive or negative reaction. Now you will be rewarded for choosing a line of responses and sticking with those choices throughout the promo, leading to a more cohesive message to your opponent and the WWE Universe. This year, a cohesive promo will combo to get you a better promo score and enable you to stick to your word. Many WWE Supserstars have unique personalities and those personalities will better be displayed this year. For example, Enzo Amore will move, talk and walk differently from The New Day who will dance to the ring, who will be different from Bray Wyatt who will have all his unique mannerisms and ticks.

And as before, if your friends have a MyCAREER save, it will be possible to port your friend’s MyPLAYER into your own MyCAREER, enabling you to encounter them backstage where you can feud or team with them. The choice is yours.

WWE 2K18 Complete Roster

WWE 2K18 will have the largest in game roster on disc ever, so there will never be dull moment as it will take a considerable amount of time to play with everybody or even most. Almost everyone from the current roster of male and female WWE Superstars is represented and there is a healthy selection of Legends as well for those who were fans back in the day. Below is the complete roster.

Male

Aiden English

AJ Styles

Akam

Akira Tozawa

Albert

Alexander Wolfe

Andre The Giant

Apollo Crews

Bam Bam Bigelow

Baron Corbin

Big Boss Man ’91

Big Boss Man ’99

Big Cass

Big E

Big Show

Big Show ’00

Bo Dallas

Bobby Roode

Booker T

Braun Strowman

Bray Wyatt

Bret “Hitman” Hart ’97

Bret “Hitman” Hart ’98

The Brian Kendrick

British Bulldog

Brock Lesnar

Brutus Beefcake

Buddy Roberts

Butch

Cactus Jack ’92

Cactus Jack ’98

Cedric Alexander

Cesaro

Chad Gable

Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho ’00

Christian

Curt Hawkins

Curtis Axel

Daniel Bryan

Darren Young

Dash Wilder

DDP ’92

DDP ’98

Dean Ambrose

Diesel

Dolph Ziggler

Dude Love

Dusty Rhodes

Earthquake

Eddie Guerrero

Edge

Enzo Amore

Epico Colon

Eric Young

Erick Rowan

Fandango

Finn Balor

Finn Balor Demon

The Godfather

Goldberg ’98 / Goldberg ’04

Goldust

Gran Metalik

Greg Valentine

Heath Slater

Hideo Itami

Jack Gallagher

Jake Roberts ’91 / Jake Roberts ’96

Jason Jordan

JBL

Jey Uso

Jim Neidhart

Jimmy “Jam” Garvin

Jimmy Uso

Jinder Mahal

John Cena

Johnny Gargano

Kalisto

Kane / Kane (Corporate)

Kane ’98

Karl Anderson

Kassius Ohno

Kerry Von Erich

Kevin Nash

Kevin Owens

Kevin Von Erich

Killian Dain

Kofi Kingston

Konnor

Larry Zbyszko

Lex Luger

Luke

Luke Gallows

Luke Harper

Mankind

Mark Henry

Michael “PS” Hayes ’86 / ’92

The Miz

Mojo Rawley

McMahon

Perfect

Neville

Nick Miller

No Way Jose

Noam Dar

Papa Shango

Primo Colon

R-Truth

Randy Orton

Randy Savage

“Ravishing” Rick Rude

Razor Ramon

Rezar

Rhyno

Ric Flair ’88

Ric Flair ’91

Rich Swann

Rick Martel

Ricky Steamboat ’91

Ricky Steamboat ’94

Rikishi

The Rock

The Rock ’01

Roderick Strong

Roman Reigns

Rusev

Sami Zayn

Samoa Joe

Sawyer Fulton

Scott Dawson

Scott Hall

Seth Rollins

Shane McMahon

Shane Thorne

Shawn Michaels ’97

Shawn Michaels ’98

Sheamus

Shinsuke Nakamura

Sin Cara

Steve Austin ’97

Sting

Sting ’88

Sting ’91

Sting ’98

Sting ’99

“Stunning” Steve Austin

Sycho Sid

Tatanka

Tatsumi Fujinami

Titus O’neil

TJP

Tommaso Ciampa

Triple H

Triple H ’01

Triple H ’98

Tye Dillinger

Tyler Breeze

Typhoon

Tyson Kidd

Ultimate Warrior

Undertaker ’91 / Undertaker ’98 / Undertaker ’99 (Ministry of Darkness)

The Undertaker

Undertaker ’00

Vader

Viktor

Xavier Woods

Zack Ryder

Female

Alexa Bliss

Alicia Fox

Alundra Blayze

Asuka

Bayley

Becky Lynch

Billie Kay

Brie Bella

Carmella

Charlotte

Dana Brooke

Ember Moon

Emma

Ivory

Jacqueline

Lita

Maryse

Mickie James

Naomi

Natalya

Nia Jax

Nikki Bella

Nikki Cross

Paige

Peyton Royce

Sasha Banks

Stephanie McMahon

Summer Rae

Tamina

Trish Stratus

Manager Only

Bobby Heenan

Lana

Paul Ellering

Paul Heyman

Ted Dibiase

Additional Content

Batista ’10

John Cena ’06

John Cena ’10

Kurt Angle ’01

Kurt Angle ’06

Rob Van Dam ’06

WWE 2K18 is available 17 October 2017 where ever video games are sold. Anybody ordering the Deluxe and Collector’s editions will receive early access and play 4 days earlier on 13 October 2017.

This looks to be anther improvement over the previous game and if everything comes together, WWE 2K18 could be the definitive pro wrestling video game available to date. Keep watching this space for more on WWE 2K18.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”26811,26813,26804,26812,26805,26806,26807,26808,26809,26810″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column]

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rknglobalblog-blog · 7 years

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youtube

Identity Theft Solutions for Families

The best identity theft solution would be to protect yourself, and get the information you need to keep yourself from becoming a victim. Guard your personal data, and just give it out if you're certain it is needed.

Never give your social security number on the internet. If you frequently access your financial accounts on the internet, run your anti-spy ware program before obtaining your account. Regularly update your virus protection and anti-spy programs programs.

Keep track of your fees, so you will know whether any fraudulent charges have happened. If you don't receive your statements, contact enhanced identity theft protection the bank immediately. Your invoices could be sent to an alternate address so you won't notice the extra charges on your invoice.

They will tell you there is a problem with your account, and they need one to send your social security number, or your own credit card number to them to solve the issue. If you get this type of request, don't react to it, or click on the link in the email. You can either call the company to confirm your data, or visit their website by checking their web address directly into the browser address bar.

If you receive a call telling you that you have won a valuable prize, and they simply need to confirm rknglobal.org your information, ask them to send you a written application. If they refuse, hang up the phone.

As the incidence of identity theft raises, the offenders continue to come up with new ways of attempting to get your own personal information. The majority of them would rather take the easy way out, and victimize people who are unprotected, and oblivious of the steps which you can use to protect yourself. Be vigilant about protecting your personal information, and keeping your computer protected. That is the ideal identity theft solution.

Most credit card companies have implemented identity theft security to assist you in the event that you become a victim. You should not assume that you have protection since you handle a significant financial institution. Have them send you info concerning the type of protection you are eligible for, and how to access it if you want it. This type of information that you want to have before you find you require it.

Due to this present growth in identity theft, alternatives and prevention tips are getting to be a requirement for everyone. Many victims of identity theft are unaware they've been concentrated until weeks after the initial crime. Your charge card invoices could be lost for a month, and when you contact the bank, they tell you that there's been an address change that you didn't authorize. You may be applying for a mortgage renewal, and discover that your great credit was destroyed by a scammer. This time lag gives the scammer a head start at spending all your hard-earned money.

However, over the next 3 times my checking account balance improved by $400-$500.00 daily unbeknownst to me or my spouse. Back then it was not as easy to receive your accounts as it is today. For three days we had no clue that

I was recently married and my spouse and I'd just combined our separate checking accounts into one. 1 day I was at home assessing our accounts balances preparing to compose monthly bills. (This particular incident happened prior to the presence of online banking.) When I called the bank to confirm our account balance, I discovered that our bank accounts balance had increased unexpectedly by four hundred bucks. At the time, I did not think much of this four hundred dollar increase because my first thought was that my spouse had deposited a check and just didn't mention it to me, no big deal

Some specialty businesses offer identity theft solutions. They will allow you to take steps to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft. They'll provide you checklists, internet references, and clear measures to take to resolve identity theft issues. Specially trained staff is available to help you fill out police reports, contact creditors and credit bureaus, as well as the FTC. They work together with you to solve the numerous issues that you will experience as a victim of identity theft.

Here's how they did it

As you can see from my personal story that occurred many years back that some forms of identity theft are comparatively simple crimes to commit and are easy to eliminate. In my case , I gave the perpetrator(s) the opportunity to victimize me very careless with my personal info.

In retrospect, I didn't understand the first clue that something was wrong when Ronald-K-Noble's facebook I neglected to follow up with my wife when I noticed the very first deposit.

Items I regularly shred are bank statements, mail with our names on it, junk mail, monthly invoices, (once I pay them of course) expired credit cards, pay stubs and whatever else I don't want at the hands of a identity theft opportunist.

Before I shred info that I deem important or I'd like to keep a record of, I

Back then I was not as careful as I am now with my banking records i.e. statements, cancelled checks and deposit slips. I somehow inadvertently threw some checks, deposit slips or both from the trash bin that was located in a heavily traveled alley behind our apartment building. At that time, there was not a lock on the garbage bin and anyone driving or walking can sift through the trash without increasing suspicion. As it turned out, the perpetrator(s) needed accurate information I'd given to them (by not being careful) to carry out the identity theft.

The perpetrator(s)) would obtain another individual's bank account tests by fraud or theft. They'd then go to the lender as if they were me, walk up to the teller window and using one of my deposit slips, deposit a check payable to me using the stolen checks. Typically that amount will be between $400.00-$500.00. They'd finish the transaction by requesting for $100.00 back. I was told that the bank did not require identification for this small amount of money back when depositing a check.

The time that it took us to shut our account, consult with the credit bureaus, open new accounts, obtain new checks was time consuming. My anger soon turned to frustration when I saw firsthand how cavalier the bank was about this crime or what it's effects could or would have on my profile. It appeared like they simply didn't care. In the large scheme of things from the banks ruling, this is a minor breach of a single client's bank accounts. No big deal. A five hundred dollar loss isn't even petty cash for a lender. However, it wasn't about the money per se because our accounts was finally restored to the initial amount prior to the breach. But, my identity had not been revived as well as the perpetrator was out there free to continue to victimize others.

The perpetrator only walked from the lender, pleasant and simple with $100.00 in his pocket. This occurred five times in a four day interval which equates to some $500.00 loss to my account and a whole lot of time to fix.

The bank representative told me I would need to arrive at the bank in person to straighten out things because they too (the bank) had observed the suspicious transactions happening on our accounts. The driveway to the bank was a brief ride but it seemed like forever because I had a sinking feeling the bank was likely to tell me that our account was cleaned out. After I arrived in the bank and sat Status for protected identity down with one of the branch directors, I was relieved to find out the thieves were only able to steal five hundred bucks. Although the amount of money stolen from us was little, the incident was very unsettling to me along with my new wife. To know that my identity had been compromised by someone impersonating me hammering my name on checks that were drawn on closed accounts made me very mad.

Following the fourth day, I began receiving "returned test letters" from my bank stating that checks deposited to our account had been written from closed accounts and had "bounced." At that point I knew I had solutions to identity theft problem a problem with our account and that I was devastated and scared when I realized that I was a victim of identity theft. I promptly called the bank to find out the extent of the damage done to our account

Our Identity-Theft Solutions So you've got the newest security features installed in your pc and you never use the internet to shop or bank; you are still not entirely protected.

We do not give out our private data in response to email, snail mail or telemarketer questions unless we initiated the contact. We are very careful not to respond to email posts that are phishing for our information. Some of these websites are extremely good at simulating legitimate websites. However, legitimate companies and your bank do not ask you to update your personal data via email. Please, do not fall for these scams.

This was my experience with identity theft and some of the identity theft answers that my wife and I implemented later I became a victim.

We have a credit score tracking subscription that tracks our credit reports for any changes to our profile. I inspect our credit reports through the online service after every 2 weeks. (You may look at your personal credit report as often as you like through the monitoring service.)

Despite all the deterrents and bureaus involved many identity theft alternatives how to solve identity theft fall flat as there are several loopholes to gain access to private information.

We advise that the post office if we're heading out of town for more than a couple of days and ask for a vacation hold. We take it to the postal collection box located nearby or the post office itself.

Will scan it into my desktop computer and convert them into PDF files for later viewing and record keeping. This is a simple way to keep records of particular information without keeping endless amounts of paper that has your personal info on it. Prior to implementing this solution, I would recommend that you ensure your firewall and anti virus software are up to date and in good working order. You should also put a password on your personal computer to protect it from prying eyes.

We are living in a technological age where hackers, thieves and impersonators do a pretty good job at getting what they would like to further their requirements. Your garbage is up for private scrutiny when you put it to the curb; your own mailbox, in most instances can be readily opened and contents removed and did you know that your mail can easily be plotted through the world wide web? The postal office may tell you that they have checks and balances but it can be accomplished.

We have a lockable mailbox to stop easy access to our mail. I am amazed how many people do not have locks in their mailboxes. If your email is stolen which is a federal crime.

Keep all your important personal records; social security cards, birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, IRS and State tax documents, credit cards you don't keep in your wallet along with your marriage license secured in a thick safe that is bolted to the ground in your property. Identify thieves are also thieves who will aim a house specifically to steal confidential files in order to assume identities.

I encourage you to inform your identity theft stories along with your identity theft alternatives so we all can learn from them. Most of us need to be aware of the scams, fraud and tricks out there so we don't find out, after the damage is devastating, that somebody is walking around pretending to be you and putting you deeply in debt. Educate a friend or relative about identity theft so that they do not become victims.

We don't take our Social Security cards around with us. There's no reason to take your Social Security card in your pocket on a daily basis. Commit those amounts to memory. If you want to demonstrate the actual card or perhaps give out the number for some reason, take care to inquire about what it is going to be used for and if it's absolutely required. If possible do not provide your Social Security amount to medical hospitals or offices. Oftentimes a drivers license number is acceptable. Medical fraud and identify theft throughout your medical file is huge because almost everyone in the health care office has access to your chart.

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chris-park-arcen-games-blog · 7 years

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Hitching and Jitters In Early Alpha AI War 2

We’re headed for alpha of AI War 2 on Monday, and that’s for the people who want to get into the game “earlier than early,” which I’ll write more about later.

One of the things I wanted to talk about right now, though, is some hitching and jitter that will likely still be present to some degree in that first version. This is an issue that is cropping up this week due to two factors:

1. The simulation is becoming more complex, and thus more costly to run. It runs every 100ms, so that’s a hitch with an extra-long frame there.

2. The visualization code runs every frame, so usually 60-140 times per second on my machine, and so there’s a huge difference in the timing between the two sides. It’s only recently that this has become efficient enough for me to notice such a huge difference between the two groups of frames, though.

In other words, things were more balanced-out previously because we hadn’t finished certain optimizations AND because the simulation was still growing. Now the simulation has grown more and other optimizations are in, and so the jitter rears its head.

I’m writing this so that hopefully nobody freaks out on Monday. ;) It won’t take us long to resolve this, but that’s one of the casualties of being in “earlier than early.” This is part of how the hotdog is made that you get to see.

Last post, I wrote about some improvements made to the fixed-int math as well as RNG calculations for noncritical bits. Those help the jitters noticeably.

Overall what we’re finding, though, is that we simply need to move the main simulation off the main thread of the game (it’s already using a lot of worker threads, but now the core loop also needs to go).

That was already on Keith’s todo list, but it got bumped up in priority in the last day or so. I don’t think either of us have any idea if that will be ready by Monday or not, but for the sake of safety I’m going to just assume not.

Occlusion Culling!?

The other thing that is causing periodic hitching is Unity’s own occlusion culling logic. It occasionally jumps in with a 28ms frame, once or twice every two seconds. That’s incredibly frustrating.

That said, I found something kinda-sorta similar when I was coding Release Raptor, and I implemented my own frustrum culling solution that I had intended to port over to AI War 2, anyway. So that’s coming up soon, though likely not prior to Monday, either.

Occlusion culling, in this case, is basically just saying “hey, the camera isn’t pointed at me, so don’t send me to the GPU to render.” Unity has to calculate that sort of thing for every individual mesh that is rendered if I use their version. In my own version I can calculate that for things like entire squads. That cuts down the number of calculations enormously, and I can also calculate AABBs for the squads vastly faster than unity can for individual meshes.

That right there is a good example of the differences between generalized solutions (which must work in any game without knowledge of context) versus specialized solutions (which really wouldn’t work in general cases, but are incredibly efficient in certain specialized ones). It’s always about choosing a mixture of the two approaches, and right now the generalized approach is biting us in the rear more than I expected.

Particle System Updates!?

This one I don’t even know what it is, and I haven’t had time to investigate it yet. But every so often -- I’m not even sure with what frequency -- Unity is throwing a slow frame (again just under 30ms) where is is doing a “particle system update.”

Yes we’re using their shuriken particle system, but why it suddenly has to go through some sort of cleanup or... whatever it’s doing... I have no idea. So that’s another thing for me to investigate in the coming weeks.

GC? Nuh-uh!

In AI War Classic, the garbage collector running periodically was the biggest source of hitching. Thanks to our massive refactoring, we’re generating very little waste in AI War 2. There are some errant GC allocs that we’ll clean up later (you’d like an actual game first, we presume, heh), but those are all very minor and would fall under the banner of premature optimization right now.

At the moment, we’re keeping things clean simply by using clean coding practices and our hard-won knowledge of strange things that cause mono (but not .NET itself) to generate garbage (see: foreach operator).

TLDR

Figured this was worth a writeup since some folks are going to be getting into the game soon, and the first question I would have is “what’s with this hitching?” Ironically, the worse your computer is, the less hitching you’ll have right now. ;)

But anyway, I figured an explanation of what it is as well as why it’s going to be going away very-soon was warranted. Cheers!

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