Thoughts for the day

not copied from anywhere...

1> There is a very fine line between hoping for something and greed.
2> It isn't always bad to interact with strangers...remember that your closest friends were once strangers to you.

oongli football

As I've said before, this one is also about a game. But in all probabilities it is the last one on the subject. Last because of two reasons. Firstly, I have stopped playing Fifa, haven't played for the last 3 months or so. Secondly, I might not want to write about other games (I don't play that many...really). This post, unlike the ones before, is like a guide.
So welcome to the world of Electronic Football.



Junkie's guide to Fifa '09 Manager Mode:

Manager mode is absolutely different from tournament mode and is perhaps the most challenging one in the game. It tests not just your fingers/operational skill (playing a match, in case you were wandering off somewhere else), but also your ability to manage the finances, keep the board happy, keep the fans happy and keep the players motivated! In short, the complete fantasy of a a football fan, to be the man in charge of his favourite club.

After many mistakes, much tinkering around, endless discussions with another junkie and spending hours per day before finally uninstalling the game, I've completed multiple manager careers successfully. Thus the qualification to write this guide. This is mostly about which players to buy. I'll also include some tips on other things, but will concentrate on players. All money figures are in Euros.

First of all, choose a good team with a good budget and most of the staff already at level 9 or 10. The reason is that with a strong start, you can buy good players before their market price shoots through the sky in future seasons. Also, good players are likely to prefer big clubs during transfer. I prefer Arsenal not only because I am a gooner, but also because of the following reasons:

Why Arsenal?

1> 90+ Players:

A whole host of players in the default squad of Arsenal reach an OVR of 90+. Take a look:

Cesc Fabregas 94
Robin Van Persie 92*
Samir Nasri 92*
Denilson 90*
Carlos Vela 95
Gael Clichy 91*

* The OVR is inclusive of 1 that the player gets after completing 100 Match XP. Sometimes in the first completion, sometimes later. In a unique case, Clichy got 1 extra point after one defender skill training (affected his attributes).

2> 80+ Players:

A slew of players in the default squad who are already 80+ or will reach 80+, in hardly a couple of seasons in some cases. Thomas Rosicky, Eduardo, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Alex Song, William Gallas, Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Fran Merida, Randall, Bakary Sagna, Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Eboue..phew..I don't think I can remember whether Bischoff reaches 80, I think he doesn't. In fact, it is much easier to list players who won't reach 80+: Sylvestre, Almunia, Fabianski (I don't remember if Vito Mannone is in the 2009 squad)

3> Youth Brigade

Many players in the Arsenal squad are young and growing, and will remain at their peak till the last season (15th season is the last season in manager mode). Few will even be the best available in their position when they reach their peak till the very end. The last list includes Carlos Vela (ST, 95), Aaron Ramsey (CM, 89), Fabregas (CM, 94), Wilshere (LM, I think 88). I think even Denilson makes the cut. In any case, many players remain at their peak for the majority of the manager mode. E.g. Bendtner (84), Walcott (85)

4> Pace Attack!

Clichy on the left wing and Walcott on the right possess inhuman speed in this game. Exploit it to score. I discovered that beating Manchester United in the later seasons is very very easy when you attack from right (or pass from left to right in the Gunners style). I've scored many hat tricks with Walcott, some even in the Professional level.

Why Not Arsenal?

The biggest curse being a Gunner Manager in Fifa 09 is the loss of few really good players due to Rivalry. Arsenal's default Rivals in the game are Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United. You won't be able to buy few young and really tremendous players like Tottenham's Giovani Dos Santos (ST, 97) & Gareth Bale (LB, 90) and ManUtd's Fabio and Rafael (LWB, RWB, around 86). The last two and Giovani are the best in their category when it comes to the last seasons. I am not counting the 90+ overhyped and over priced stars in the game like Ronaldo, Rooney, Terry, Lampard etc as they age later and their OVR declines later on.

Other good teams to start with are: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Roma, Juventus, and the remaining top 4 of BPL. I haven't tried with AC Milan but it doesn't seem right with so many aging players. Apart from these "star" teams (4.5-5 stars by default), I have tried Valencia, Porto, Ajax and Lyon. They are average, nothing great about their squad or staff apart from a couple of gems of players like Villa (92) or Silva (92) or Huntelaar (92).

Right, so you have chosen your team. Now comes the big question. Which Players to buy? I'll list the players according to their position. Only those who are the best in the game. Based on two facts:
1> They are young. They would start with crap OVR when compared to stars, but they will beat them eventually as the seasons progress.
2> They get the max OVR in their category in the last seasons. Last because a fanatic like me would like to play the whole 15 seasons of the manager mode career and would like to retire in style, winning all trophies even after 7 or 8 seasons.

Buying these players when they are young will help you avoid paying insane amounts once they become stars. They will also mean a super low wage bill for the first 5 years (if you offer them contracts for 5 years. Or extend it to 5 on their first salary). You can use the money saved from these low wage bills to upgrade your other staff, especially the super expensive in the short run, stadium manager. So buy them as soon as you start your first season. They are the best. The only ones who beat them are a few freak players who come out of youth squad. Their presence is unpredictable anyways, so buy the ones listed here.

Always remember to watch the player growth of your squad in the team management section. As a rule of thumb, I keep players who will reach 80+ in the graph, and sell players (from initial squad and from those coming from youth squad) who won't or are in the last season of their peak (usually happens when they are 28-32).

Players:

Goalkeepers:

Sell all your goalkeepers and buy these two:

1> V Fiorillo (94)
2> Sergio Asenjo (90)

If you want to buy a third one, buy Rui Patricio (87)

In the earlier seasons you may like to flirt around the idea of having Buffon, Casillas, Cech, Adler, Neuer, Lloris, but they are damn expensive (both Transfer fees and Wages) and within a few seasons will start to decline. Thus they have no resale value and will unnecessarily inflate your wage bill.

Sergio Asenjo will reach 90 pretty quickly, then Fiorillo will overtake him. And in the end (around last 3 seasons) they will both decline from their peak OVR but still will be the best. So don't sell them ever. In the last season Fiorillo will still be at 90 OVR.

Defenders:

Fullbacks (LB/RB): (Since playing on either full back position is the same in the game)

D Gosling (RB, 90)
Thimothee Kolodzieczak (LB, 88)

Fabio
Rafael

I don't remember the exact OVR but it is around 86 for both. These Brazilian, wing-back, Da-Silva twins who are in ManUtd's default squad are the best in their category in the last seasons.

Other players (who are not at their peak in the last season but are still awesome in many seasons) are: Sergio Ramos (RWB, 91), Emiliano Insua (LWB, 88), Gael Clichy (LWB, 91), Philip Lahm (RWB, 90 I think), Gareth Bale (LB, 90). Ramos has a perfect finish, so you can even use him for free kicks/penalties/corners. Clichy and Lahm have blistering speed so you can use them as wing-backs. Out of these Insua and Bale remain at their peak for the longest.

Central Defenders (CB):

Breno (92)
Micah Richards (93)
Miguel Vitor (89)

Midfielders:

Good midfielders are very rare and 80+ midfielders become near extinct as the seasons progress. Hence I recommend a 4-3-3 over a 4-4-2, as there are more good Forwards in the game than midfielders. Besides, it is much more fun to attack from all sides and score goals isn't it ;)

Defensive midfielders (CDM):

Moussa Sissoko (91)
Jack Rodwell (91)

Central Midfielders (CM):

Francesc Fabregas (94)
Denilson (90)
Aaron Ramsey (89)

Attacking Midfielders (CAM)

M Pjanic (95!)
Anderson (97)
M Hamsik (92)

Anderson and Hamsik will decline in the late stages. You can use these as your wingers, as in the game a CAM can play without losing his OVR in the following positions: LWM/RWM/LM/RM/CAM/RCAM/LCAM

Winger (LWM/RWM)

Lionel Messi (98!)

Not many good wingers in the game. You can use a CAM as a winger.

Forwards (ST/CF/LF/RF):

Giovanni Dos Santos (97!)
Alexander Pato (96)
Jose Baxter (96)
Carlos Vela (95)
Stevan Jovetic (93)
Diogo (92)
Sergio Aguero (92)
Victor Moses (90)
Bojan Krkic (90)
M Balotelli Barwuah (90)

Messi can play as a Forward at 96.

Buy Micah Richards, Anderson (if you have a formation that has a CAM), Jovetic, Pato and Diogo as early as possible. These guys start with a 80+ OVR in the very first season (Jovetic and Diogo reach 85 in the summer of 2009!) hence are more expensive than others who are late bloomers. Remaining are very cheap and you can wait till the second transfer window (or even second season). Starlets like Messi, Benzema (93, but not till the end), Bojan and Barwuah are expensive right from the beginning and I don't recommend buying them until you have stable finances. In fact I don't recommend you to buy them at all. You don't need so many forwards any ways. If any of these starlets becomes a free agent only then it makes sense to get him, like any other good free agent. So keep hunting for free agents throughout the transfer windows, especially in summer.

On a side note, there are many players in the game who play equally well as a forward as their respective midfield positions. E.g. Denilson, Walcott, Nasri (hardly loses 1 OVR as a forward). Same principle applies to CDM/CB. A few players like Miguel Veloso can play equally well in those 2 positions. Porto's Marquinhos plays at 87 whether he is a RF, ST, CF, RWM or RM. I am sure he will play at 87 even at LM, LWM & LF.

Finance:

1> In the transfer window, buy good free agents then sell them for a fee.
2> Always sign a sponsor that gives you the most variable on a match win.
E.g. Don't sign with a sponsor who gives you a fixed 1.7 million sponsorship per match when you have a sponsor who gives you a 1.4 million plus a 33% win bonus. With more matches, this small amount makes a large difference to the bank balance in the end of the season (in this case, with just 38 league matches it means a neat 6.33 million extra, and that is excluding cup wins). Avoid sponsors that pay less but promise a high sum if you win with an "undefeated season" or "maximum clean sheets" unless you plan to play each and every match.
3> Play the matches (and win) in the first season instead of doing quick sim. This way you make use of the win bonus of the sponsor money. It also helps after you've won the two trophies in the first season, as the next season the sponsors will be ready to give you much more money. Once you reach a stage where your team's Morale and chemistry are very high, then u can do quick sims for most of the matches. I still like to play against rivals even with a 99 everything (1st screenshot).
4> Always keep the ticket prices as high. Always.
5> Whenever you sign a youth player, immediately check his growth. If he is going to reach 80+, immediately extend his contract to 5 years at the same wage. Then keep loaning him out till he reaches 80. Then you can either keep him or sell him if you have better players at his position. If he is not going to reach 80, you can sell him immediately (without extending contract).
6> Always invite teams for friendlies. All 4 possible. This gives you 4 extra matchday money (sponsor if it is at home, win bonus in any case and ticket split if it is away). This also gives you more chances to play with the transfer window. It also improves team chemistry and morale.

Concentrate on building your squad in the first season. Don't buy many players, but only enough for 2 full fledged squad, with subs. The reason is that in the first season you are likely to play only 2 tournaments, the league and the domestic cup. The only exception is the English League, where you have an additional Carling cup to handle. But even then you will only play max 2 matches per week in the first season. Upgrade your staff apart from Stadium manager in your first season. Stadium manager upgrades cost very much and are best left to season 3 and beyond. Upgrading your scouting staff is the most essential to make money in the transfer window (explained later). Upgrading your other coaches ensure that players recover from fatigue more quickly. So midfield coach and Scout upgrades are the first on the list.

Sell your star players as soon as the first transfer window if they are already on a decline. E.g. if you've started with Real Madrid, sell Raul and Van Nistelrooy in the winter transfer window. There is no point in paying high wages when other equally good players are available for a lower wage. Also, these players lose their market value every season as their OVR reduces and age increases. The worst is that they can announce retirement, making it impossible to sell them. So again, check your squad's growth as soon as you start the season.

The biggest tip for building Finance is to make the most of the transfer windows by buying free agents and selling them for a fee. This is where a good scout helps. Not only you get to see more free agents in your search, you also get to negotiate with them more easily. First go for 80+ agents. They will charge a high fees no doubt (between 50,000 to 100,000), but after just one match you can sell them for 15 million or even more. When you run out of them (in the earlier seasons the no of such free agents is practically 0, and increases only slowly every season) then target 75-80 ones. Then 70-75. Don't accumulate a large no of free agents as the last day of the transfer window is very unpredictable. You might end up with no demands for these high wages players and get into negative bank balance! It has happened with me once. So as soon as you sign a free agent, place him on the transfer list. Don't worry much about not getting more money if his morale could be improved by playing him more. Just get rid of him if he is not in the list.

Contract Extension:

When you buy these players, most will agree to a 5 year contract. If they don't, transfer them for the duration that they agree with, then as soon as they are in the squad, extend their contract on the same wage for 5 years.

Never ever extend their contract till they are over. You will end up paying a much higher wage than the current contract for the duration remaining on the original contract. Instead wait patiently till their contract runs out. Then as soon as the 5th season ends, you get an automatic contract toggle alert. These contracts are automatically extended at lowest market price. I think the scout plays a role here too.

Formation:

It is entirely your call, but with my experience I've seen that the game favours a 4-4-3 and 4-5-1 over a 4-4-2. As there are more quality forwards and strikers in the game than midfielders. Also, instead of simple full backs, the game has better wing backs.

If you like the wings and would like to take a risk, you can even try a 4-2-2-2. Works well if you have quality CAM/LM in your original squad, such as Real Madrid (Robben, Van der Vaart, Sneijder).

Miscellaneous:

Put the players of lower stamina from the same position in the sub list (of the first team). For the players I've mentioned above, they are Aguero and Diogo.

Ensure your sub list reflects your formation. E.g. for my 4-3-3 my subs were 1 GK, 1 CB, 1 LB/RB, 1 CM, 3 CF/ST, and I used to sub a CM and 2 CFs. As I used to run my forwards very much from the half line instead of running my midfield too much.

Keep a minimum of 2 goalkeepers. A friend had only one, who was called on an international friendly. The game stuck and he couldn't proceed with his profile.

After playing a while, you'll get an idea as to which players from your squad are frequently called for international friendlies. I've noticed that most of 90+ players are called, but only a few countries have international matches, viz England, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Germany. So whenever these dates are announced, ensure that the player likely to play is rotated in such a way that he definitely plays just before the international. This way you don't over exhaust the substitute for the player during the break. The international friendly happens on 3rd Matchday from the day of announcement. (For the stupid English FA cup, the day on which FA cup happens there is always another league match happening, so that day is technically 2 match days, a really stupid concept of the game in my opinion...where in real world does the same team have two different matches on the same day?)

Poke-her

I have no idea why this game is called Poker. I also don't have much clue about the terminology, but I am sure hooked on to this game. Let me clarify that I haven't played this game in real, ever, the only place I play this on is Zynga (Facebook), with only virtual chips. Never real money, never ever.

This is a good excuse to meet people from all over the world, in a casual, friendly environment, exchanging chats and virtual "gifts". For some guys it is yet another place to "woo" hot women. Although I have serious reservations how much a "picture" of Rose or a champagne would win the ladies. I play only for fun, not to "achieve" anything. I can say this so easily because I've already crossed the psychological 1 Million $ mark long before ;)

This game is about skill and luck. It is about betting. There are a million guides available for Texas Hold'em Poker across the web, and probably a thousand books written on the subject, so I won't delve much on it. But i will tell you that it is not as mindless as other popular games (farmville, mafia wars etc). It is not about refilling anything while you are not playing, nor it is about a short burst of spending (energy etc) while you are at it. This game is all about playing. Also, it is about you alone. There is no point of recruiting "neighbours" apart from the odd, चिल्लर (change) random chips, but if you play well you won't be needing them anyways.

The basic principles of this game are the same wherever you play it. Bet when you have a good hand. Fold when you don't. A good place to start would be to learn which hands to bet here and which to fold here (before the flop). Just by doing this your game would improve leaps and bounds. Then after playing a while you'd get a hang of it, like which hand beats which, when to raise and how much to raise, when to fold when the other is raising. You'll also learn a little about psychology or trends, that is, after playing with a person for a few hands, you'll be able to predict whether he is bluffing or not, or whether he has a higher hand than you or not. It will be very useful for you if you can quickly calculate probability. One very good site is this one.

It's called gambling for a reason. Only those with big balls win big. Obviously not all the time. Many a times have I lost a straight when someone has a higher straight, or a flush when the other has a full houses or even a full house when the other has a bigger full house. It's not necessary that you'll win with all the possible big hands, but you have to take a chance sometime.

I think that this game is very close to how trading on stock market works. A little bit of judgement, a lot of guts.

The screenshot is of a very rare phenomenon. The dealer dealt 3 Kings on the river. The only way for someone to beat that hand was to have another King in his hand, or to have a pair (to make it a full house). Then by the river it became even more shocking. All 4 Kings had been dealt, and there was no way to beat that hand. You can judge the surprise on everyone by the comments in the chat (bottom right corner).
The next comment was "Beat that". I wondered if the pot will be split or a "kicker" will be used to decide, in the end it was split between two guys who had an A each.

I wish to play Poker sometime with my friends, without money, just for fun. It will be interesting to see how many can hold a "poker face" in real life.

CS CZ

When someone spends as much time playing games for the lack of work, and also holds an interest in blogging, then it is only obvious that he will combine the two sometime. So for the next couple of blogs, I'll be writing something about the games I play. Nothing in detail, just short ones.

This one is about counter strike. The version I play is Condition Zero. I play all sorts of maps but only with Bots. Gone are the days when New Mumbaiites used to exploit the network of Sify and play on LAN.

This screenshot is a very good game that I've had just now. It's not my personal record in terms of kills but definitely beats the record for max kills without dying (53). It was a 20 mins map (fy_snow). 7 vs 7, where the 13 apart from me were bots, hard level.

I used 6 different weapons (20 kills per change). First was a m4a1 carbine, first 10 without silencer, the next 10 with it. Next was cv 47, then Magnum, then Machine Gun, followed by Bullpup. The last was Krieg (semi sniper, this map doesn't have the full sniper and you can't buy anything on this map). I did use Grenades in between but they hardly added 10 to the tally.

This post is like a diary post, to archive a part of my interest. Maybe in the category of "once upon a time", as I have earlier left few games for years before coming back, or completely left them. I'd hardly get time to do this once work starts. But this is a very good way to remove frustration, especially when u've had a silly fight with someone (a much better way is jogging/long hike).

Phenomenon

Inception is a movie that captured the imagination of everyone. It has led people to think, rethink, hypothesise, argue, and most importantly, watch it over and over.

Here are two of the concepts that I really liked in the movie.

From the trailer (Cobb explaining Ariadne):
"Dreams feel real while we are in them.
It's only when we wake up that we realise that something was strange."

From Christopher Nolan's interview:
When we are in a dream we are experiencing what our mind is creating.
When we are conversing with a person in our dream our mind is supplying information to both sides but we experience only our end. How much potential the human mind has.

Diary Post: The longest vacation

Today I am officially a post graduate! MMS is the title I can use now (Indian equivalent of MBA). The wait for the final semester result was like a Roller Coaster ride...a long rise to the peak followed by a swift drop and a ride that seemed to never end. This post is about what I did during these vacations, mostly for the purpose that I may recall this post somewhere in the future and feel nostalgic about it, especially after going for a few months without a holiday.

At the onset, this vacation is not technically the longest break I have had from Professional life. The longest one was from September 2007 to August 2008, which was when I was preparing for MBA. But that was a self imposed break (as I had quit TCS) whereas this was a break due to external factors. My employers, BoB, like other PSUs, wanted to be absolutely sure that we cleared the course and would offer us a joining letter only after we hand them over our marksheets. And our beloved Mumbai University took a whole 113 days to declare the result. But as they say, all's well that ends well.

Our last exam was on May 3. About 12 of my batchmates had nothing to do but to wait for the result. The companies who made the batch of 2010 do this are HPCL, BoB, SBI Caps and BoI. The wait produced some expected and some hilarious reactions from the "stakeholders". While we students were left pondering if this is the fault of our employer or the University, there were some events reported in the newspapers. The first one was about the self appointed law breakers..err..makers of India...err...Mumbai, MNS, taking up the matter with the university, in their way, about the delay in the results of MCom and MMS. The other one elicited a chuckle. It was about the vice chancellor justifying the delay with a reason that they would have declared the result if the students had approached him. Without it, they probably had no idea that it was "urgently required" by anyone. Well after a lot of coaxing around by a lot of students, they finally declared ours today.

The honeymoon phase began early May. The party began the night of 3rd May itself. And it got extended due to the motormen's strike. What a taxi ride it was from Colaba to Vashi, being stuck in traffic, making all of us realise that there is no alternate to train travel in Mumbai, and that the city is pretty much dependent on it for its working.

After a few days I went to 2 big trips with Mom. I had no difficulty in convincing her that these destinations were the destinations to go. Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. Ladakh trip is summarised very well in my Photos on Picassa, facebook and on my review on mouthshut.com. Arunachal Pradesh trip brought many wild and first time experiences (postponing a flight twice, facing the real risk of running out of cash, staying in the same place doing nothing for 4-5 days, not finding any hotel for overnight stay at Guwahati etc). It is also preserved well on my post in Indiamike.com and in my photos on the 2 sites.

Then came the dreary but necessary work of pending documentation related to our house. Something that should have been 6 years was now being put into place, after a lot of running around, trying to learn specific bureaucratic setups and processes, spending money, all to put the rightful owner's name in the right place.

Meanwhile I finished the manager mode of Fifa 09 and following the crazy addiction episode, just uninstalled it.

Saw a lot of movies. Both the home version and the theater version. At one point of time, when my other PSU employee friend heard that the result is going to be delayed for another 10-15 days, we decided to make the most of the time by watching some great movies on at that time, and I ended up watching some 6 movies in theaters in 8 days with 3 different sets of people, including Inception, Lamhaa, Udaan, SALT.

Finished the fantastic Bartimaeus trilogy, even after trying to postpone it to the training period, thinking about the loneliness in an alien city and not many things to do. Well, like one of my friends said, there are a lot of other things to do TP with. So I have another fantasy fiction "the riddlemaster trilogy", that I had to order online, and the site had to order it from USA. And of course many movies, all of whose backups I had made thanks to reinstalling Windows on my laptop. No matter how many versions of Windows does Microsoft make, the basic problems never change.

Wrote a few blogs and poems, including the epic memory log for the 2 years of MBA at JBIMS and a die hard romantic poem.

Thanks to the small push from mom and me harbouring my lifelong dream, learnt swimming. According to many people in the earlier batches, the 3 of us (guys) learnt a hell lot in just 16 days. I could manage my first full fledged 25 meters freestyle lap without any supporting equipment or without stopping on the last lap of the last day.

Finished a small certification in banking. NCFM's commercial banking beginner's module. It didn't take too much effort and I did it because I didn't want to have absolutely zero knowledge on banking before starting my career.

Finally spent a LOT of time with friends. Friends from all walks of life, from the ever increasing list of institutions where I made such good friends, school, college, work etc. Lots of get togethers, one that even had us shaking a leg at a pub. Hope to make good friends in my new workplace as well.

Lucid Dreaming

Just yesterday I read an article (it was an advertisement for the page "how to" on facebook which had many wikihows on their wall) on how to dream a lucid dream.

What interested apart from the obvious reference to the movie Inception (they were riding the popularity wave really), was relating to one such experience that I have had for sure in my childhood. It was like I was aware that I was dreaming, and to an extent controlling the dream, once.

The article was more or less a repetitive instruction on how to force simple realities so that your mind becomes conditioned and you become aware of your dream and in the further levels you can control your dreams. It also mentioned a little about sleep cycles and that a dream is best remembered when interrupted during the REM cycle (when you are dreaming) and even recommended one to wake up at certain intervals (4.5 hours, 6 hours etc) so that you can interrupt your dreaming. Interrupting helps you remember it the best.

Now I didn't do it consciously but I was indeed interrupted at a time when I was dreaming by my neighbour. Then when I went to sleep, I had a dream and I vividly remembered that.
It was like a typical hollywood action movie. We were a bunch of guys in black gear (presumably navy seals or deltas) somehow trapped in the top floor of a small tower in the middle of the sea (or right next to the sea). The room's walls were circular as well as bowl shaped and made of glass. At this time there was no question asked by my sub conscious. It was like I was there in the present and it was happening for real.

To get out, our leader (let's assume that he looked like a slightly younger Morgan Freeman) took out a device so often used in hollywood (including a series like Prison Break), which is in the shape of a pen. It is like a swiss knife which can cut the glass. He started cutting a large circular hole in the glass to take it out.

This is the point when I became aware that this is a dream. Seriously. I didn't wake up with a start, in fact I didn't wake up at all. But I suddenly became very happy and satisfied that this is indeed my dream. Then came the control part. I could somehow make the leader use that glass piece as a sort of a boat/slide board on the water.

Then I climbed a device that could run very fast in the water, and it felt like I was flying on it, somewhat like a very fast hover craft. Now that I was in control of the dream, I wished to turn to the nearest river and go back the river's way. Maybe this was one of my fantasies hidden deep in my subconscious.

I could fly very fast to the nearest river mouth, which was wide. Then went back the river's path, it became narrower. It became high. The scenery changed. I could vividly see the trees around, the soil around. The texture, the colour changing from Red to Brown.

I don't remember what I saw after that, but somehow I drifted into the dream in an unconscious mode. Now I wasn't in control of the dream.
I was shortly interrupted again. Maybe this interruption is the reason why I remember the dream so vividly.