,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, An interview of Stini (Kuski of Month on July 2004): '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' -= When did you start playing? =- I started playing Elma in 2000, when I saw a review of the game in a Finnish computer magazine called Mikrobitti. I had played Across before Elma was published, and I liked it a lot, so I had to try the new version as well. My Across playing was never that serious - it was more like cruising around and doing "cool" tricks :). At first I didn't play Elma that seriously either, but when I found moporecs and target times list on the Moposite, I gradually started to improve my times. I had a tt of 48-50 mins, when I really started to play seriously and then I also entered the scene, I think it was in December 2002. -= Ex-teams and why did you change teams? =- My first team was Arcao, which I founded myself with a friend of mine (who doesn't actually even play Elma...I wonder if he ever even installed it on his comp). We didn't really have any good name suggestions for the team, because of our lack of imagination, so I made a program to generate random names for the team and we chose "Arcao", because it was the best one of those poor suggestions. We had a very good team spirit in Arcao and I really liked to be there. Unfortunately Arcao became inactive and at that time I was asked to join ICE. Well, because of the inactivity of Arcao, I decided to join ICE. Many of my good Elma friends like TorInge, Jalli and Totti were in ICE, so the decision to leave Arcao wasn't that hard. I think I made the right decision, and I really like to be in ICE, because of the nice team members and good spirit (I know some of you might doubt that, but our team spirit IS good :)). -= Current total? =- 39:55,42 (I haven't played so much after getting under 40 mins). -= Top5 newest and oldest personal records? =- NEWEST: 30. Pipe: 31,30 - (23 December 2004) 02. Flat Track: 15,52 - (22 December 2004) 05. Uphill Battle: 20,45 - (9 November 2004) 04. Over and Under: 30,54 - (22 October 2004) 27. Shelf Life: 37,54 - (1 October 2004) OLDEST: 18. Spiral: 46,88 - (19 April 2003) 51. Tricks Abound: 46,91 - (19 May 2003) 06. Long Haul: 33,37 - (21 May 2003) 23. Quick Round: 42,28 - (30 May 2003) 15. Serpents Tale: 1:07,60 - (13 June 2003) -= Across Career briefly. Any WRs?, World Cup I and II and so on.. =- I'm not even sure, if I have finished all the internals. :P -= Elma career? =- When I started to play more seriously in the end of 2002, I improved my tt usually about 1 min every month. It continued like that, until I had a tt of 41 or something. My fast improving was noticed (or MagnusB didn't have anyone else to nominate) and I made it to the KOM poll of July 2003. It was a very big thing for me back then, because I had played seriously only half a year and I was already noticed and nominated for the KOM poll. Well, my first WR was in Pipe, which I made on Karlis' birthday :). I had had 33,26 for a long time, when the WR was 33,14, but I thought the WR was still too hard for me to break because of the annoying wall part on the left. But one day I tried Pipe again and surprisingly I made the wall part relatively easily and I got motivation to höyl it again. I kept improving my time and I was sure that I could break Cloud's WR. Then suddenly I made a decent ride and I expected to get something like 33,2x or 33,3x, but the screen showed 33,12! That was an awesome feeling, and I remember my hands were shaking for a couple minutes after that :). Well, I wasn't satisfied with the rec, because my ending was awful, and I decided to play more. I had always thought that WR recs are usually pretty much perfect, and my rec wasn't that at all, so I kept on playing and I improved my time a couple times until I made 32,98 and I was satisfied with the time (rec wasn't yet perfect ;)). Ok, I had one WR now, and I thought that I could never get another one, but then I started to play Enigma. I remember I spent a lot of time to finish Enigma with a bounce, when I tried to do it for the first time, and I was never going to höyl it again. Then one night I tried it for fun and finished it 5 times with a bounce in an hour or two. Then I decided to höyl my time under 20 secs, and after some höyling I got 19,99 :). But that wasn't enough under 20 secs, so I played some more and omg I got 19,68 ;G (WR was 19,62 back then). Höyling for the next WR started. I can't remember how much I played, but I höyled till 5 AM on many days. Then finally I made a nice run with an awesome bounce and got 19,16! I was so happy that I even told the time to the whole scene, and ppl were wondering if I was just lying or had I really made that time :). Anyway, my 3rd WR was on Haircut, which really wasn't as special as those other WRs. Totti let me have it only for one table, and I won't try to beat his current WR. He is too cute. Recently I also entered the 39-club, which I always had thought to be impossible for me. I hope that I'll get enough motivation to höyl my total time again, because I know I could improve it a bit. KOM title is also one of the highlights of my Elma career and I really respect it, even though nowadays almost everyone has won it :P. Two days ago I also finished Pipe with the bounce for the first time :). I'm still waiting for the next WR table :P. -= Do you still like Across? Why/why not =- No, simply because Elma is better. Across bike slows down at the vertexes and the playability isn't as good. -= How did you get Across/Elma? Was it your worst mistake? or the best? =- I downloaded it :P. I can't really say it was my worst mistake, because Elma has given me a lot of good memories, friends and it's also a good way for a lonely introverted person like me to spend time :). Sure it has some negative sides too, like most of the kuskis know: staying up too late, destroys your social life (though I didn't have any :)) and skipping homework etc. I can't say I'd be happier without Elma. Or maybe I would, who knows. -= Favourite internals / most irritating internals =- My favourite levels are probably Enigma, Haircut, Headbanger, Pipe, Twin Peaks etc. but it really depends on the mood. Though I really hate Freefall. That level really sucks (maybe because I just can't play it well). It just makes me angry and my fingers hurt. Don't play it. -= Your own best WRs? =- Enigma must be the best. I think I will never improve it and most likely I won't even try. -= Best WRs in your opinion? =- Luther's Downhill is very amazing, as well as psy's Apple Harvest, mr's The Steppes, Jalli's Circuitous, Zweq's Animal Farm etc. just to mention a few ones. All of the WRs are simply amazing nowadays. -= What's the limit of WR times? =- I really wouldn't like to guess any kind of time, because people would just laugh at my bad forecast in the future :P. Breaking 36 minutes seems impossible, but so seemed 37 minutes too. I still say that 36 won't be broken in the future. -= Are there some kind of external contests you like? What kind of contests do you like? Are there any new competitions you would like to see? =- I haven't played that much externals really. I've played some Mirror Internals (just remembered that I have some unsent records on my comp...) and tried some random level packs. I also like cups, but those require a lot of time and it's annoying to play levels you don't like. I've been thinking of hosting some cup myself, but first I should learn to do decent levels :). I'm really waiting for the next world cup and at the moment it's the only competition I'm looking forward to. -= Best lgr in your mind? What lgr do you use? =- I use HighQ simply because it's good for höyling (and you can see the grass :)). There are some very cool lgrs out there, but I haven't tested those much. I like Cemetery, Nice Textures and Pirate at least, but I rather use HighQ for playing. -= Mention some good things you have gotten with Across/Elma? =- I've got many good friends, who I'd love to see someday. Also I have many nice memories, like seeing moporecs for the first time, making The Steppes over the pole, WRs etc. I always get on the good mood, when I watch my Enigma rec :). Playing Elma is also a good way to kill time and relax (unless you play for WRs or dropping your total time). The scene is actually the most important thing and it really keeps me collecting apples year after year. -= Mention some bad things you have gotten from Across/Elma? =- I can't imagine anything else than those usual not enough sleep, ruining your social life etc. Elma is a bit too addictive :/. -= What is the most frustrating thing you have faced in your career? =- This is easy :). When I was höyling for the Enigma WR, I made once a very nice run (similar to TorInge's 19,40) and I got 19,47! I was extremely happy and I'd say that I was even happier than after making my first WR. I remember I saved the rec, pressed Alt+tab and mentioned about my time on the team channel. Then I tried Alt+tab back to Elma, but the comp froze. Well, I had saved the rec, so I didn't worry. I opened Elma and started Enigma and omg, the best time wasn't 19,47. I thought that the state.dat just got screwed somehow and at least I had the rec. Or I thought I had the rec. I had saved the rec with 4 different names at least (just for sure :P) and none of those existed ;S. Seriously this just can't happen. I wonder if anyone believes me, but this is 100% true! Luckily I got a bit better time afterwards ;). -= The biggest mistake of your Elma career? =- I think I haven't made any mistakes, at least I can't remember any. -= Cheating, what feelings? Do you use level unlocker/1.11hb/1.2 etc? =- I really wonder, how some people bother to cheat :). Is it the fame? For me, the most rewarding part of playing Elma is the feeling of making a WR or a best time. I just don't understand the kuskis who cheat. I use 1.11hb and I find the level unlocker very useful, when you want to see the overview of the level or make some training levels. I don't consider it cheating. -= Elma tuning, have you tested? Opinion about it? =- I've changed vsync settings and I sometimes have QuickTime on the background, but that's all the tuning I've ever tried. Usually I just keep vsync off, because it's in general better in my opinion. I don't have much energy to test different settings for different levels. I just change the settings, if I have troubles to make some hard trick. I don't really like tuning, because Elma shouldn't be dependent of your computer. Unfortunately the case isn't like that, so we just have to live with it. -= Best kuskis and teams? What are the things you value in another kuski/team? =- I'd say that the best teams are FM, WNO and ICE (ez brag). A good team has a good spirit and the team members co-operate and trust each others. The best kuskis in my opinion are TorInge, Zweq, John, Luther, Karlis + many others. A good kuski is simply skilled or/and is capable of höyl a lot. -= Your best achievements? =- My WRs in Pipe, Enigma and Haircut, getting under 40tt, winning KOM and finishing Pipe with the big bounce :). -= Do you do any other neat finger-related stuff like playing violin, repairing watches, pick pocketing etc? Well, I play Stepmania sometimes with a keyboard and it requires fast fingers. I'm not that fast though. ;/ -= How much did you play in your sickest period? How much these days? =- I've played maybe something like 10h a day in my sickest period, but nowadays it's 0-4h maybe. It varies a lot, and sometimes I have sick höyling weekends, but those are quite rare nowadays. It all depends on the mood or if you have something that motivates you. -= Have you had Elma dreams? =- Yes I have a couple times. I remember when I was höyling Enigma, one night I saw a dream about me making a WR with a time of 19,3x and next day I got the WR (though with a bit better time) :). I don't remember any details of the other Elma related dreams and I haven't seen those for a long time. -= Strengts and weaknesses as a player? What moves you like/dislike? =- I can höyl a lot, if I get the motivation for that. The hardest part is to get that motivation. One of my weaknesses is that I can't make a good run in a short amount of time, but if you don't have skills, you must höyl :). I like bounces, although in some levels those are just annoying. Also brutals are pretty cool. I hate pipe playing the most, and hard braking like in the end of Tag. I press my keyboard so hard that my fingers start hurt, if I have to brake hard. ;S -= Tips for average players? =- Well, what can I say...play :P. It's also good to have something to motivate playing, like for me it was the target times list. A lot of motivated playing will bring good results eventually. But still don't take Elma too seriously. There are more important things in the world than some weird motorcycle game. -= Best memories with Elma? =- Making WRs is obviously the best Elma memory I have. Also seeing Moporecs for the first time. Oh yeah, getting over The Steppes pole for the first time was very cool :). I got a pretty good time too (at least for n00b). I think it was 14,43 or something. It was cool because my friend was watching while I played :). One the very recent good memories is to finish Pipe with the legendary bounce for the first time. -= First time at #across? =- I joined #across for the first time quite soon after entering the scene. I think I would have been quiet for a long time there, because I'm pretty shy, but everyone thought I was Stene, a retired Norwegian kuski, so it kind of forced me to speak there :). I also remember that I asked about joining a team and everyone said something like "join FM". I really thought for a while that I joined them. :P -= Best Elma friends? =- Aah, there are so many of those :). TorInge, Jalli, Totti, MJXII, Luther, Cloud, John, Bonobo, axxu, Ismo, Zweq, Juzam, LastDay, Doddddy etc. I probably forgot someone, but I'm sure they know if they are a friend of mine. :) -= Thoughts about Elma meetings? =- I think I'll come to FEM05, though it's not completely sure yet. It would be really cool to meet the kuskis you speak with everyday in IRC. I'd really like to meet my team mates and probably some of them will come to the next FEM. -= What do YOU think should be improved in an eventual new version of Elma? =- Of course better protection against cheating and make tuning impossible. I don't really need much changes. Maybe small practical things like warning, if you are about overwrite a rec etc. Longer names for levels and replays would be nice too. Small changes in the playability could be refreshing too. -= How about battles? =- Battles are cool, but there are too many pipe levels at #battle nowadays ;/. There are also damn many skilled kuskis all the time, so it's very hard to win ;(. I should maybe play more battles, but I always get too depressed because everyone gets better times than me. -= Have you got any negative feedback about playing Elma from your mates? =- Yes. Most people can't understand why I play this stupid game, but I don't really care. Though in real life I try not to mention that I play Elma. :) -= What games do you like beside Elma? =- I play Stepmania, which is a dancing game (though I play it with a keyboard). It's a very cool game and I chat about it with psy once in a while. I think the whole #elma.fi is kind of pissed off because of our boring conversations :P. I also play chess, but mostly in real life, because it's not as fun on computer. -= Did you buy Elma? Why not? =- No I didn't ;(. I don't have a credit card and the whole buying process seemed complicated, but this is only a bad excuse. I'm a bad person. -= Have you thought about if you could stop playing Elma soon, or anytime? =- It would be a lot easier without the scene :P. I remember before I entered the scene, I had long breaks once in a while, but now it would be a lot harder. Sure I'll stop playing, if I get some day a real life. :P -= What gets you still playing Elma? =- It's simply fun. Also the scene keeps me playing. -= Are you at the top of your career now? If not, when? =- No, I was on top of career on table #185, when I had three WRs \o/. Seriously I have no idea, if I'm on top of my career or not. I don't really think about that and I just play for fun. -= Forecast the future of Elma. How the scene will be in five years? =- Elma will classified as a highly addictive drug and the government will make it illegal. -= Was it a surprise to be voted for the kuski of month? If it was who should have won in your opinion and why? =- It wasn't a big surprise for me, because I had made a couple WRs recently and I had been 2nd already twice. Still I would like to thank everyone, who voted for me. It's a great honour to be voted for the KOM. -= Mopolauta, thoughts? =- I check Mopolauta a couple times a day and I like it very much. Though nowadays there are too many stupid threads, which I don't bother to read. -= Opinions about Elma Crime, MUe's animations and stuff like that. =- I haven't paid much attention to those stuff, but I think those are pretty cool. :) -= What's your favourite Elma website (not moposite)? =- I check sometimes Mopo Corner, skint0r's site and Multi WRs, so I like those the most. I wish our team site would be as good some day, but maybe that won't happen. :/ -= Your relation to OLP? =- I think I've finished one or two of those levels :P. -= Why that nick, Stini? =- When I was 10 years old or something, all of my friends had nick names so wanted one too :P. My uncle's nick name had been Tini, which sounded quite bango in my opinion, but I got an idea to add an "S" there :). At least it's quite original and not many have the same nick name, even though I don't like it that much really. -= Your real life. Do you have it (school/work, other interests etc)? =- I go to the upper secondary school called Ressu, which is one of the best schools in Finland (at least according to some researches). Kumiorava also goes to the same school and we are in the same class. He doesn't play Elma anymore though. I still have a bit over year left of my studies there and I'll probably continue my studies in some university. I also play chess and I've won about 10 Finnish championship medals at the junior level. That isn't that big achievement really, because the level of chess isn't so high in Finland :). Last year I won the Finnish Championship for the first time and this year I was 3rd in the older age group (actually shared 1st, but who cares). I live in Helsinki with my father, two sisters and two cats. I never wanted those cats here and I never let them enter my room :P. There are some other kuskis in Helsinki too, but I've met only Kumiorava. -= Write something about the game, fellow kuskis, moposite, #across, etc =- Totti is cute. -= How did this interview make you feel, like a moviestar? =- It was mostly frustrating, but still it made me feel good ;). It was quite weird to write about yourself and think that people will actually read it :). I think I've repeated myself too much during this interview, but at least I wrote it. \o/ -= How is your elmaplaying influencing your promising chess future? =- (by Jalli) If I didn't play Elma, I would probably spent at least some of that time to chess, so it has had a quite bad effect on my chess career :P. Though I don't have that much motivation to train chess at the moment anyway, so maybe I would have just quit it, who knows. It's pure speculating :). -= How does it feel to have a wr with a bugbounce? =- (by Karlis) Heah, I hear this a lot :). Well, I can say that the bounce in Enigma is a on the edge of a bug and a legal bounce, but if it was a clear bug, Pexi wouldn't have accepted it. I wish there would be an unambiguous way to define a bug bounce. Milagros has been doing some kind of bounce meter to measure the bugginess of bounces. I wish he'll make that program ready soon, and it would work well. I'm kind of fed up with all of these bounce issues. -= How does your höyling environment look? Do u have music, any special rituals? =- (by John) My höyling environment looks very boring and it's not ergonomic at all. I sit on a wooden kitchen chair and my computer is on top of a light grey metallic computer table in the corner of my room. I have a mug, cds, papers etc. all around the computer, though now it's actually pretty clean. I don't really have any special rituals, like praying towards Hungary, where Balazs lives, but I truly believe in Key Tronic keyboards (just like mr). Those must be the best Elma keyboards ever. I also listen to the music while I höyl, usually almost anything but rap or hip hop. Stini 25 December 2004