Introduction

Finally decided to get a blog. The number of times I have had some random thing I wanted to write down, but hadn't had a place to do so started to really get out of hand, so here I am. Credit to G4-TechTv for the plug of this place.

Greetings to all who may happen by this little of mine, and hope you may enjoy some of the random things to float through my head and onto the screen.

The Value of a Word

I currently am experiencing some form of upper respiratory ailment. It's pretending to be laryngitis at the moment.. its been changing for the past 3 weeks or so. Its current form makes it quite laborious and even painful to speak with any volume.

It occurred to me that this would be a valuable ailment for just about everyone to have. Especially those in the news media and in politics. When every word spoken causes you pain, you tend to choose your words more carefully, and speak only when necessary.

random obligatory music post

I've recently been reintroduced to Type O Negative. I know I'm a late comer here, but for the longest time I didn't bother with them, or Bauhaus and whatnot for seeming to cliche gothy. Silly me, I wind up being a cliche anyway without the good music.
Type O is the first music in a long while that I have not simply wanted to listen to, or groove out to, but to actually experience. I want to feel it throughout my body. I actually want to see them in concert for the volume level. I keep trying to turn up the volume on my CD player (damn fine headphones) only to find it only goes to 30. My car stereo is better for volume, but not for fidelity. The music becomes noise at a medium high volume setting. Factory speakers. Nuf said. I simply do not currently posses the proper sound system to experience this music on. Sad. So I'll make due with what I have, as it isn't that bad, but I want more.

Death and Certainty

I watched "The Seventh Seal" last night. If you are unfamiliar with the film, the basic plot surrounds a crusader returned to his homeland. On a beach he comes face to face with Death, litterally. He challenges Death to a game of chess. So long as the game goes on, so does the Crusader's life, and if he wins he gains an extra extension on his life.

It's a great film, but what really struck me is something the Crusader says to Death in the first few scenes. He mentions that he is searching for certainty, not belief, or faith.
To quote the script:

                                     KNIGHT
                        I want knowledge, not faith, not
                        suppositions, but knowledge. I want
                        God to stretch out His hand towards
                        me, reveal Himself and speak to me.

                                    DEATH
                        But He remains silent.

                                    KNIGHT
                        I call out to Him in the dark but no
                        one seems to be there.

                                    DEATH
                        Perhaps no one is there.

                                    KNIGHT
                        Then life is an outrageous horror.
                        No one can live in the face of death,
                        knowing that all is nothingness

This struck me so profoundly because my girlfriend and I have had nearly the exact same conversation, she the knight and I Death. (hmm how oddly fitting..) I thought about this dilemma of faith and certainty for a while longer and a truth appeared to me. That uncertainty is a necessity of this test of life. It is easy to walk a path when you are certain of the end. Like mentioned in "Constantine"

Gabriel:
passage requires faith
and faith by definition is belief
without proof. You have proof.
And that means you're not playing
by the same rules as everyone
else.

If you KNOW the outcome you can operate differently, and so the gain is less. In the case of life, death, and the hereafter knowing would negate the benefit all together. Going into a maze with a map and a gps locator is no challange, and so not rewarding. Its common knowledge, or thought, that the greater the risk the greater the reward. This holds true in more places than you would think.

On Death
It occurs to me today that one of the most comforting, or happy things that could happen to me would be to know I had a set time left to live. A truely fatal prognosis. Not a 90% chance or whatnot, but an actual time limit on my life. This goes back to the previous paragraph of certainty. To be certain of one's end allows for different choices. I find it would be the most welcome knowledge I could gain. Now I don't want to know how much time I have left. Anything over a year would be more torturous than not knowing at all, but if I were told that I would die in 6 months, or even next week, absolutely and certainly, I would be quite at peace, even happy.

Greetings Comerade American!

Been re-reading the Communist Manifesto lately to remind myself of its contents. Originally it was for a research paper, but that is long past.
I came to the end of a chapter and realized (again) just how much closer we (America) are to Marx's vision than the USSR ever was.
Marx lays out 10 tennants for implementing communism in advanced countries.
"1.)Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes." = Property Tax, Eminent domain.

"2. A heavy Progressive or graduated income tax." = april 15th

"3. Abolition of all right of inheritance." = Estate Tax/Death Tax, Gift Tax. The rates aren't at 100% yet, but they are halfway there (literally)

"4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels." = Patriot act section 806

"5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly." = Federal Reserve, IRS, and while credit isn't fully in the hands of the state, the credit card companies are far from free with what they can do.

"6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state." = FCC, Dept. of Transportation

"7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan." = EPA, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service etc

"8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture." = We haven't fully implemented this step, largely because our industrial armies are mechanical, only requiring a few humans to operate and maintain them, and keep the production levels high. This allows more workers to persue more gainfull activities for the state. However there is an "equal obligation of all to work". Its often refered to as consumerism. ;)

"9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country." = We have somewhat rejected this idea. Spread out populations are harder to keep under control. Concentration of individuals allows for mass indoctrination and easy elimination if control is ever lost.

"10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc." = Dept. of Education, and Subsidized vocational schools.

It's amusing to me just how we have managed to create this functional and productive facist/communist state, all the while rallying against facism and communism. Making the world safe for democracy, by spreading our own version of communism. Its hilarious. Sometimes I swear there is someone planning all this. The increasing medocrity of public officials, especially the presidential candidates, in an effort to cause the public to become disheartened with their voting rights, all the while making the governmental process so backward and complicated that the average voter can't take the time to understand all its workings, much less participate, so that slowly the entire populace simply wants the government to keep running so long as their lives aren't affected much by its machinery. The conversion of Americans from bold free men to complacent slaves. It's utterly brilliant yet tragic in its outcome, proving that even the nobleist endevours in government will fail due to human nature.

Damn you Orwell

Two articles popped up on the boards over at Starsiege:2845's general discussion fourm that made me rather outraged, and sad. (in that order)
Some judge here in the US has ruled that some parents cannot teach their child Wicca. Whie its divorce related, and the kid attends a christian school of some sort, both parents objected to the ruleing.
Also the UK is considering banning the sale of long pointy kitchen knives. Or at least its been pushed enough by some group to be put in the news. The researchers cite the incidence of knives used in domestic violence/disputes.
I suppose I should be more sensative about such an issue, as my uncle was murdered by his wife with just such a knife, but the idea of banning a kitchen implement as a solution to violence is terribly ludicrous.
Part of me just wants to shut out these sorts of things, not pay attention, and try to go about living my life in peace. And another part wants to start paying copious attention, and stockpile supplies for when the time for revolution comes.

Its sad and frightening just how we keep progressing toward orwell's world of 1984.

Spiritual Colation

I've always considered myself somewhat of a Taoist, ever since I first learned of the teachings of Lao Tzu when I was still in Mid-school. I have only just gotten around to reading all of the Tao Te Ching. It's truly enlightening. I realize I must purchase a copy of this work so that I may meditate on its verses. Its not something one should read in just one sitting then put away, as the implications and meanings are great and deep, and are not just knowledge to be aquired, but are more inspiration to be experienced. Its quite enlightened and joyous nihilism and beautiful self contradiction.
(The Tao never does, yet through it all things are done.)

I do believe I will use one quote rather often:
"He knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know."

I do believe the Tao Te Ching could very well be alternately titled "Quintessential Christianity". One of these days I'll formulate a whole system of instruction based off of the interconnectedness of all the world's faiths, and perhaps spread some true enlightenment and understanding among the varried tribes of man.

Do's and Don'ts of Game design - Running Thread

A bit about me: I'm an amateur game designer. Currently I'm working on Starsiege:2845, have been for about 2 years. (as of May 20somethingth 2005) So, not only do I enjoy making games, I like to play them as well. (Big shock right?) Ill often come across some terribly annoying feature or design decision in some game that I feel MUST be written down somewhere that at least I, and hopefully others, can and will referance.

This is that place.

I'll be updating this thread//entry every time it occurs to me to do so.
There will likely be many more don'ts than do's here.

Games which have inspired this thread:
------------------
Mercenaries (PS2)
All in all this is a good game, but a few things really angered me. By really angered I mean I was yelling at my TV, and made a note to find the programmer(s) or playtesters responsible and punch them in the face for not finding and fixing these errors.
-------------------

The List:
------------------
Get your damn vehicle physics right
Mercenaries is a largely vehicle centric game. The common, and best fitting, description of it is GTA in a warzone. Ie you can jack things and shoot people, but it makes sence instead of just being an urban menace in an otherwise decent environment. The issue arrises with the tanks and helicopters. Wheeled vehicles must have been tested to no end because they work very nicely. the tanks however are a totally different story.
I can tell the tank model(data/collision model not visual) is the simplest possible. it is a simple box with a few physical properties, like mass, engine output, and some drag factors to keep them from flying. This works wonderfully IF (thats a very large if. shown here in mineature so as not to break your screen) you are only dealing with object to plane collisions, like the terrain. The issue arrises when you drive your box over something that sticks up. Like a railroad track or a bush/crate... (insert pause for frustration here) Then something happens where the vehicle physics clashes with the collision hash and all hell breaks loose. While driving a tank, Any tank, over railroad tracks the front end bounces in the air like the tank was made of plastic. The tank does a damn wheelie. A 30+ tonne vehicle jumps up like a low rider with the largest hydraulics package you've ever seen. This SHOULD NOT happen. The problem here is the collision system. When you ram a large moveable box against a smaller immoveable box the collision sorting/physics goes haywire and this release of energy results. The same thing can be experienced if you land a helicopter partly on a prop. (any prop. Sandbags work well) The chopper bounces like a damn super bounce ball. So how to fix this? Well a few ways:

1: railroad track issue workaround. Change the collision model from a box exactly surrounding the tracks to a trapezoidal prism that flares away from the tracks a bit, thus creating a ramp for the tank to go over smoothly. Same number of collision points/polygons as the box shape, but the tank can now not fly into the air when it comes across railroad tracks. Perfectly Accurate? no, but its a lot better than having to brace for impact when you see railroad tracks coming up.

2: make all props breakable. yeah all of them. Sandbags, buildings, trees whatever, just don't stand up to a freeking 40 tonne piece of steel with 4500 horsepower behind it.

3: general (better) collision fix. Write the collison system to be inelastic. IE a portion of the energy involved from object A hitting object B is absorbed. In addition place a max cap on the collision forces so that they can not ever be more than x% the original energy involved with the collision. Thus you get a lot of crunching sound effects, perhaps a stuck chopper now and again. (unless you made all the props breakable)

Enemy Generators Are BAD!!
--Unless they are destroyable.
Mercenaries has these nice little tunnel exits that spawn badguys. Usually around some area which you need bad guys to be around a lot. The script running them obviously has a radius specification and a number of baddies to be alive in that area.
If( baddies < number )
{Spawn Badguy With Loadout (1-5)}

This is all fine and dandy, except that it makes some fights really damn annoying after you have otherwise won, since these generator tunnels are nearly impossible, or totally impossible to destroy/deactivate. Now I don't claim to be a great tactician, but if you are a Bad guy commander and 10 allied troopers with machine guns and RPG's, and a few tanks to boot, just slaughtered your platoon of defenders and their armor support you aren't going to send another 2 guys with AK-47s out of the tunnel just to see what happens. You withdraw and fight another day, closeing the tunnel behind you. The worst of them are the generators that spawn tanks. Yeah Tanks come out of tunnels non freeking stop. The glitch to stop them is to commandeer however many the tunnel spawns and leave them in its radius so it won't spew another one, but still, it would work much better to just be able to blow up the damn tunnel exit.

Summary: Enemy generators are bad, unless you, the player, can shut them off.

Enemies should not have infinite vision range
In a certain mission in mercenaries you must retrieve 3 weapons inspectors from a reactor where they have been taken hostage. You are provided with a UH-60 or a humvee (your choice of which to hop into) at the start of the mission, and you have 10 minutes to get to the inspectors before they are executed. Now logically you grab the Blackhawk, fly in at treetop level behind the hills so as to mask your sound, park the chopper on a secluded hill then proceede on foot and stealthily take out the guards on your way and near the prisoners via sniper rifle from a hill with lots of ground cover (bushes). This doesn't work here though. Why? Well there are some guys in tanks. These guys apparently have an infra red satelite link pointed at that specific hill, and or super bionic xray-thermo vision because I have a damn sniper rifle with 10x zoom and I can't see them through the FOG and RAIN and BUSHES I'm freeking hiding in, but they sure as hell can see me and sound the alarm to kill the prisioners. EVERY DAMN TIME. So what works here is to go to the allied encampment where you eventually must deliver the hostages and grab an APC. Forget the blackhawk. Then just barrel in there action movie style guns blazing. It works and is much easier. Now can anyone see the problem with this picture? Logic and the slightest tactical sence say "DON'T go in guns blazing when you have to keep 3 people from being executed!", but here it works much better, except that you have to cross some Railroad tracks on the way.

Research how your vehicles should handle
Im not really asking for a perfect sim here, but at least pick up a jane's guide or something if you are modeling military hardware. The specific example here is the UH-60 in mercenaries. I happen to have had the opportunity, and the pleasure, of flying an actual airforce Blackhawk simulator, so I'm sure thats part of my problem. The UH-60 in mercs handles like a bloated seacow. Seriously, its great for a straight line, but forget turning or strafing with any kind of speed. The UH-60 for real (or airforce simulated so I count it as real) handles like the agile bird of prey it was named for. I remember doing slalom with the virtual buildings downtown at an altitude of about 200 feet, prompting the instructor to remind me that the helicopter only flew with its blades pointed at least partly vertical. Its a nice aircraft, but I really wouldn't pilot the thing if anything better is around in mercs. (ie a little bubble copter with a minigun on it, or a hind-d or any other copter really)