I just want to give another public thanks to Pixy Misa, who was nice enough to let me put the DM of the Rings comics onto his site. It was really nice to make #43 and not agonize over size. It was great to not have to balance the JPG slider between “Looks Like Crap” and “Die Bandwidth Die!”. I just made the comic and put it up, just like in the good old days.
All comics are now being leeched delivered from shamusyoung.mu.nu.
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When railroading players, ALWAYS have a backup plan in case they derail the plot. By tradition this backup plan is, “Put players back on rails.”
The players hear the voice of Fiore. It is a very quiet (they can’t even tell if it is truly audible or simply in their minds) but it is also potent. It is a cold, feminine voice.
This was left for the players (and, by extension, the readers) to ponder.
The conversation with her went on for a while. The players worked out that yes, this really is the Fiore of old. Yes, she was imprisoned by the Dwarves. Yes, she created the curse. Yes, this box is a prison for her spirit which blocks all of her supernatural power. Her power only extends far enough to fill this room with grass (which she sort of can’t help, actually) and allow her to “speak” to anyone within a few feet of the box.
Finally, Fiore asks if they have come to free her. The players were just looking for answers, really. They are not sure what to do. Then one of them (Eomer or Skeeve) asks if the box could contain the spirit of Mordan.
Fiore thinks it can. The players never question this, which I would have if I were in their shoes. I’d expect an imprisoned being of incredible power to be willing to give me just about any story to get me to open the box.
They deliberate for a while, but the solution seems too perfect to really consider walking away. They agree to free Fiore.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Session 12, Part 2”
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The idea is that the universe “wraps”, so if you were to “exit” a face of the polyhedron you would enter the opposite face, but rotated 36o. Okay, that’s really hard to picture.
What I’ve read of the original article doesn’t explain what happens with gravity. I can’t picture it. (Keeping in mind that these “faces” are no more meaningful for the laws of physics than the boundaries on a map: They are there so people can keep track of space.) An object in the middle will exert gravitational force (miniscule) on itself, from twelve directions at once.
Bah. I keep trying to build some sort of mental model to play with but I can’t hack it.
Ah well. I’m just glad the universe isn’t a d4 or a d6.
Galactic Civilizations 2, which I’ve written about before, is up for strategy game of the year over at Gamespot. (Based on member votes.) Man, it would be really great if GC2 won. The game is tremendous, fun, stable, cheap, free of DRM and copy-protection annoyances, and now has a couple of free bonus downloads available that add even more to the game. But, the game is turn-based, which makes it sort of niche. The kids want to play the latest Warcraft “Battle for three resources clickfest” remix, not granddad’s turn-based strategy game.
Gamespot makes no sense. They have console games and PC games lumped together. These are very different audiences, of very different sizes, and putting them together is odd. They have real-time strategy and turn-based strategy lumped together as well, which is also kind of odd.
What you end up with is a situation where what game wins depends far more on the demographics of the members than on the merits of the game itself.
But all of this is just preemptive sour grapes. I haven’t even played any of the other games in the running. I played enough RTS to last me a lifetime back when Starcraft ruled the Earth, and the newer games don’t give me a compelling reason to revisit the genre. GC2 has a disappointing 11% of the vote. There are five games in the running, which suggests that GC2 is kind of… not winning.
Dang kids.
As a follow up to the lamentations of the last few days…
Son: Feeling better! Nice to see the little guy bright-eyed again.
Bandwidth Issues: Fixed! A friend has nicely allowed me to put my images on his server. More on this once the move is complete. Everyone thank Pixy Misa.
Funeral: I don’t want to say too much here. This is one of those things that needs 500 words or none. My wife attended the funeral.
Work: I can see the finish line on this project. Assuming I don’t do anything stupid, (like, write buggy software) I should have a nice, quiet holiday.
Thanks to everyone who left so many comments on the post earlier today. The big thing that I’ve learned is that bandwidth is much, much cheaper elsewhere. I use HostingMatters, who I chose because they have a good reputation for uptime and customer service. These were my main concerns after leaving ANHosting, who were lacking in both.
Tirgaya linked to Dreamhost, who offers 2TB(!!!!) of transfer a month, for a fraction of what I’m paying at HM. Hang on, let me get the calculator…
Poke. poke. poke.
Okay…
Hosting Matters = $0.52 per gigabyte.
DreamHost = $0.004 per gigabyte. (No, that isn’t a typo, it is really four thenths of a cent per gig.)
I’m speechless. The price difference is ridiculous. If these numbers are for real, then I could easily run this site for eight bucks a month. Without the #@%#@ ads. Without killing my comics with JPG abuse. This… this can’t be right.
Let me run the numbers again…
Okay. The numbers are for real. Really strange. This sounds too good to be true. What the heck? They have a $50 signup fee, so I don’t want to do anything rash, but this looks like it would solve all of my problems if it actually works.
I’m not going to do anything just yet, but it looks like I have lots of options. One way or another, I think I can get back to the days of careless and rampant bandwidth comsumption.
Thanks for the advice, and the numerous offers for help, the offers for spare bandwidth, the encouragement, and everything else.
LATER: Okay, maybe Dreamhost is a bad idea. Still, somewhere between 52 cents and .4 cents there ought to be someone half-decent.
STILL LATER: I get it. The $0.004 per gig is allowed, because what they DON’T tell you on the features page is that you are also limited by CPU minutes per day. It looks like the 2TB limit is a sham, since apparently you’ll hit the CPU limit WAAAY before you get anywhere near the bandwidth limit.
Sneaks.
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
Let's ruin everyone's fun by listing all the ways in which zombies can't work, couldn't happen, and don't make sense.
Why make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
What makes the gameplay of Borderlands so addictive for some, and what does that have to do with slot machines?
Back in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
Did you dislike the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy? Here's my list of where it failed logically, thematically, and tonally.
Dear people of the internet: Please stop doing these horrible idiotic things when you talk to each other.
Just how big IS No Man's Sky? What if you made a map of all of its landmass? How big would it be?
The comments on most sites are a sewer of hate, because we're moderating with the wrong goals in mind.
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
T w e n t y S i d e d
