On Galactic Civilizations 2

Well, now you know what has occupied my free time lately.
This game is one that I had heard a lot about, mostly through two playthroughs that are still roaming around on the internet. I highly recommend them both, so long as you have a high tolerance for language and an interest in strategic videogames. (Here and here)

Galactic Civilizations II has it's closest cousin in the Civilization series, which I was already a major fan of. They are both part of a class of games called 4x, which basically refers to the fact that they are turn based, require advancement along technological, economic and territorial branches, and are incredibly addicting. What some have called the "one more turn" factor is very, very strong with games like these, and Gal Civ 2 is absolutely no exception. In fact, I would say that this game completely outdoes Civilization, for a variety of reasons.

The background of the game is that there were a bunch of alien civilizations restricted to hyperspace travel via slow, hard-to-build stargates. Then one of them discovered the humans, who manage to invent a portable, faster version of the technology to make more effective FTL systems. They willingly share that information with everyone--thus creating absolute chaos in the process as all those civilizations start declaring wars, claiming territory, and generally making a mess of the previous, stable universe. Of course, that is all on the periphery, since I've pretty much ignored the story campaign in favor of the sandbox mode, but I guess it is important to set things in context.

The depth of the game is absolutely breathtaking. You have a number of options available to you throughout the experience that can actually kind of overwhelm you at times. From the outset, you can choose what kinds of inherent skills your race has, what type of galaxy you will play in, and what enemies you'll face. Once you get into the game, you can not only name your own colonized planets and such, you can also design and build your own spacecraft (!!!!), balance your own economy, engage in trade negotiations and diplomacy that actually matters (one area that always seemed to fall flat in the Civilization games) and pursue one of five different paths to an ultimate victory. Those range from outright conquering everyone, to creating a grand alliance of nations, to researching the meaning of life. If nothing else, the game has more or less infinite replay value, simply due to the sheer number of possibilities you will constantly face.

It isn't an easy game by any means either. The many different possibilities mean you have just as many chances to utterly fail at what you want to do. My first game went well--I managed to win an alliance victory after brutally sabotaging the game's major superpower, convincing half the galaxy to band together against them and then leveraging those connections for a victory. Then I played a second game where I spent myself into a bankruptcy my little star nation couldn't recover from before the others started to roll through my territory. My third and fourth games went well, and I marched through my normal difficulty opponents with ease. Feeling confident, I started a game where the AI was ticked up by one notch.

I promptly got my head handed to me, where I soon realized that not one but three or four brutal civilizations were ready to completely wreck my plans and destroy me within a short amount of time. I dropped back down to normal level, just to salve my poor self-esteem, and I now look on the higher level AIs with justifiable fear. I haven't even thought about the upper level difficulties yet; my overconfidence was my weakness last time.

All in all, the entire game has been a good experience. I hesitate to label it a worthwhile investment of time, but it definitely was worth the money I paid for it, and I believe has given me some time to relax after the overtime I've put myself through for the start of the year. Now that I've finally managed to get this review up, maybe I can get back to business on the other stuff.
 

On Background: Dark Energy

In honor of me finishing the rough draft of Eagle (cause I totally did!) I decided to take a stab at writing a bit about the background of the Jacob Hull universe. Mostly I'm a bit burnt out and unwilling to start on Airships before next week, so here goes.

One of the cool things about science is that the more we've discovered, the more we realize how little clue we have about how our universe works. Dark energy, along with dark matter, is one of those things that currently proves that maxim to its fullest.

There are a variety of explanations about dark energy, but what it boils down to (to my, non-expert understanding) is a collective "Huh?" on the part of modern astronomers. You see, the Big Bang theory (not that one) has managed to explain quite a lot about how the universe was formed. We've discovered background radiation from that first initial explosion, and all the galaxies in the universe are speeding away from each other, just as that theory would predict. There's just one problem.

They are all speeding up.

Why is that a problem, you ask? Well, according to a little thing we call gravity, we know that all matter is drawn toward other matter at a certain rate. That rate is lessened by distance and depends on the mass of the objects involved, but the gist of it is that the mass in the universe should be attracting the rest of the mass in the universe--especially those big globs of stars and planets we call galaxies. The initial assumption was that--due to gravitational pull--all those galaxies would eventually slow down and reverse course, finally merging together in a big condensed clump for another Big Bang of some sort. That is not what is happening at all.

They figured that out by looking at the light coming in from those galaxies, and measuring what kind of light it was. Light coming from an object headed toward you has blue shift, thanks to the Doppler effect. Light coming from an object headed away has redshift, thanks to that same effect. People have measured the light from the various galaxies and have found that they have redshifts--and that the shift is increasing. Basically, they did to galaxies what traffic cops do to your car and found that not only were they speeding, they were freaking flooring it.

Now, the concept they are using to explain the phenomena is called dark energy. Basically, from what I can understand of the subject (which I admit is limited) is that they think it is either the energy cost that is paid by the universe's expansion to have more empty space, or that there must be a kind of energy called a quintessence field that provides the gravitic acceleration. There is apparently a high-level debate on what those theories imply, and we aren't anywhere close to figuring out which one is correct, but they have concluded that dark energy makes up about seventy-three percent of the energy and mass in the universe. That's right, we have no idea about the nature of about three quarters of existence.

So how does this relate to Jacob Hull? When I was writing Wolfhound, I was reading about dark energy and came across a description of it as a sort of 'negative pressure' in the universe. With the weird way that my mind works, I connected negative pressure with the air pressure systems on Earth which create winds. From there I jumped to the idea of a similar sort of wind system occuring between concentrations of high and low 'negative pressure' in space, which people could sail along using sails meant to catch the energy provided by those dark energy currents. From there I went to the Capistans capturing that energy like specialized windmills, and missiles and torpedoes using those same currents to accelerate as well.

Now I'm sure there are at least a couple of physicists who are crying out in horror at what I've just done to the whole concept of dark energy. I'm sure there are already plenty of theorems and explanations to describe why the direction I went with here is absurd and illogical. I'm fine with that; Wolfhound was never meant to be a science textbook after all, and I readily admit that it was not meant to be hard sci fi either. Still, there was the thought process behind the background, for those who are interested. Hope to be a bit more regular in posting here in the future. See you around!

On Wiz War

So I'm branching out into board game reviews now. Because I am just that nerdy.

My brother-in-law recieved this game as a Christmas gift, and was kind enough to let us all play it during our vacation this year. I'd first heard of Wiz War on Penny Arcade, which has this running series called Shut Up and Sit Down as part of their maniacal, gaming culture empire. The review on that site made the game sound incredibly fun, but rather complicated to learn.

What I found was...yeah, that was pretty much right.

Wiz War has a steep learning curve. Like, running into a solid wall steep. We spent the first session with our noses in the instruction book half the time, and even during subsequent sessions we would pause and try to figure out if someone could do what they had just tried to do for a good few minutes.

At the same time, once we got into the game, it was incredibly fun. The basic mechanic of lining up combos during your turn was a lot of fun to play with. Watching a move that you had spent a bit of time planning out was a beautiful thing--there is nothing more satisfying than punching an enemy with your fire cloak, throwing up a wall of fire between you and your victim, and running away while laughing hysterically. Wiz War really helps you pull off those one-upping moments that makes good board games fun--once you figure out what you are doing, of course.

I guess I should tell you what the basic point of the game was. In Wiz War, two to four mages are competing against each other to score victory points. In the basic game, two points can give you overall victory. You get those points either by stealing one of the two treasure chests from an opposing wizard's section of the board, or by killing an enemy wizard. To aid you in your quest for blood and plunder, you can have a hand of up to seven items or spells, each of which will have a variety of effects for you to turn to your advantage. These things can also be sacrificed to give you more actions during your turn, to fuel better spells over several turns, or clear the way for more spells that are hopefully better than the ones you have.

The game was rather well balanced, with no particular spell or item giving a wizard a You Win button. I'll admit I was rather focused on combat during the game, but every game we played tended to be won by people that snuck around behind everyone else's backs to steal the treasures, though I wonder if that trend would continue if we had upped the number of victory points you needed to win. Either way, it was a really fun game that allowed you to be devious, pull off cunning traps and strategies, and enjoy yourself. All in all, a pretty good time.

So there's my two cents on everything. Hope all is going well for everyone, and I'll see you around!

On A Year of Publishing

So as of this month, I've been an independent author for over a year. Since December 2012, I've published five books, written a few others, and have some working their way through the revisions process for this year. I'd say that is a pretty good accomplishment for a year's worth of experience.

Unfortunately, it looks like my beginner's luck has come to an end. Wolfhound was an incredible success, but it looks like I am going to have to work through some hard times before I can replicate it again. To be honest, it is a little relieving to come to that conclusion. I've always been better at working hard and building up slow rather than depending on the occasional brilliantly lucky shot. If 2013 I grind through a lot of work again with far less reward, than so be it.

So, onto the lessons I've learned as an independent author for the year 2012. Based on my wealth of experience and wisdom, of course. Heh heh.

First of all, I've learned to not sweat reviews so much. There is nothing so exciting as getting a good review; similarly, there is nothing so frustrating and maddening as getting a poor review. It's twice as hard if the poor review critiques something you feel was misunderstood, something outside the initial purpose of the book, or just mean-spirited. Initially, I tried to manage those ups and downs as they came, and made a promise to myself that I would personally respond to every review, no matter the rating. The best decision I made was to stop doing that. The reviews gave me such a rollercoaster of happiness and outright rage that it became hard to actually focus on writing. I would worry about what to say to this comment or how to respond to that critique until I was tied up in knots and couldn't continue with my current project. Of course, that resulted in a bunch of crap I had to wade through just to get to producing something again, and generally wasn't worth the effort I stuck into it. I think it's telling that the moment I stopped responding and focused on writing instead, I managed to write a full novel in about nine weeks. So, first lesson learned: when a bad review comes in, don't sweat it and go write something.

Second, I've learned what should be realtistic for me in terms of setting goals and publication deadlines. When I went into 2013, I set the goal to have one book out every three months. It sounded like an achievable goal, and it was something I put a lot of pressure on myself to do. Unfortunately, I had failed to plan for the unexpected. Those unanticipated factors (moving a thousand miles with two weeks notice, changing jobs and work schedules, my sister's wedding, ecetera, ecetera...) added up to delays I couldn't have possibly expected, but I still put loads of stress and anxiety over those deadlines in spite of it. On top of that, I'd locked myself into those deadlines by publishing them in my books. While I think publishing the fact that the books were coming was a good idea, I don't think that trying to set them in stone was a bright move on my part. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at you, and if a major publishing house can't manage to dodge delays or disasters, I shouldn't try to hold myself to an impossible standard until I have more experience in the field. So for now, rather than month or even season specific deadlines, I think I'm going to stick to announcing which year I expect the book to be out, at the very least until the book comes back from the copy editor. Otherwise, I'm just setting myself up for stress-related breakdowns and failure--and I have no doubt that life has enough of those planned for me without my own decisions adding to the mix.

Third, sequels are really, really different from first books. That may seem a little like common-sense, but I can't stress enough how different it is to work on the second book compared to the first. The challenges are different from what you expect out of a first book. You have to worry about character consistency, development on a much larger scale, all while trying to preserve what made the first book work. The worldbuilding has to go much deeper, while remaining consistent with the first book, and that occasionally presents an obstacle all on its own if you played a little free and loose with things before. All in all, it's felt a little like I've been learning to write an entirely different kind of book, and to be honest, I'm still trying to work out the best way of doing it. Hopefully I'll get better at that formula as time goes on.

Fourth, keep your business finances separate from your personal finances. Ugly, terrible, nasty things will happen to you otherwise. Sandra Tayler gave that advice at the LDS Storymaker's conference this past year, and certain events have proven it very wise counsel. Without going into the unpleasant details, just trust me on this one. It will save you a load of grief and pain later on.

Fifth, and final, I think I have refined my ability to revise. Going into this, I had thought that my revision techniques had already gotten as good as they were going to get, but I was wrong. I've managed to identify a bit better what steps I need to go through to end up with a good story, and I am looking forward to employing them in the new year.

So there you have it, my incredibly deep and probably boring post on lessons learned in 2013. The next year looks like it may be a hard one, but I am looking forward to it. Every challenge brings an opportunity to grow, and as difficult as the past year might have been, I think I have a lot more to learn. At the very least, the journey should be interesting. I hope everyone is having a good start to their new year, and I'll see you around.

Happy Holidays and a New Book Out

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! I think I'll have one more post up by the end of the year, mainly just reflecting on my experiences as a writer the past few months. After that my hope is to be a bit more regular with my posts, though I suppose I have made that promise before.

Also, I've published the next book in the Hector Kingsley series! The True Adventures of Hector Kingsley: Murders in Whitechapel is now up on Amazon, and my hope is to have versions of all my books up on Createspace before the end of January. Here's hoping that life does not overwhelm me entirely before then. See you around!

On Fallout

Okay, I have a confession to make. Though I am a fan of all sorts of RPGs, I have never played any of the Fallout series. It just always seemed to be on the edge of my attention while other videogames or projects took up my time.

Then I saw that the game, along with several of its sequels, was on sale at Good Old Games, and decided to give it a try, especially since it had been made by the same people who made Arcanum.
Before I played the game, all that I knew was that it was a post-apocalyptic RPG that had built a pretty big fanbase, and quite a few sequels. The background to Fallout's world is that the USA and other modern nations took a different path in history, which ended in the Great War wiping out most of humanity in a matter of hours. It's kind of like a look at a world if the Soviets and Americans had actually pulled the trigger and started World War III.

Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. A lot of the game has a bit of tongue in cheek humor to it. The Pip-Boy illustrations are hilarious at times, and the retro feel to a lot of the world can be pretty amusing as well. I mean, we've got two-headed cows, hideously oversized iguanas and scorpions, and robots with brains for CPUs. How can that not be awesome?

One of the main draws for me is the opportunity to effect the ending. Fallout gives several different endings depending on what choices you make throughout the story, and how quickly you complete the games main objectives. I like the feeling of being able to contribute something to the story; it was something I enjoyed in Arcanum, and I liked it here too.

Alright, time for the nerdy portion of this analysis. The mechanics behind this game are extremely well balanced. I feel like I can enjoy this game as well when I build a muscle-bound guy with a sledgehammer as when I focus on sniping skills. The whole SPECIAL system is very interesting to me, and half the replay value is from making a new character and seeing how the whole experience changes. Each variation is almost like playing an entirely new game, even if you try to trigger the same endings. Although the game is kind of short in some ways, I can see why this game was the first in a major franchise.

All in all, it was a game that was definitely worth the small amount of money I used to purchase it. Now I just need to see how the next couple of sequels lived up to the promise...

On Thanksgiving

So it's Thanksgiving again! It's the time of pumpkin and holiday pie, the time of turkey, yams and even cranberry sauce. Yes, cranberry sauce, even though no sane person likes the stuff. I suppose it has to have something to do when it's not busy getting in everybody's juices (thank you Brian Reegan).

I have to admit I've always liked Thanksgiving, and it's always kind of bothered me when it gets overshadowed by Christmas. Christmas is nice and all--don't get me wrong, I like that holiday just fine. But does Christmas shopping and jingles and frantic holiday rush need to start in October? I think of Thanksgiving as a great time to just pause and reflect a little, rather than running flat out from summer to Christmas. Our society could use a little of that, but these days it seems like Thanksgiving has become more about shopping than giving thanks. It's gotten to the point where the infamous Black Friday shopping craze is not only killing and trampling people, it's starting one day early in some stores...during the holiday that's supposed to be about gratitude. When did that start making sense?

So in a personal effort to hold back the crazy, and appreciate the holiday as it was meant to be, I'll list a few things I'm especially grateful for this year.

First off, my family. Emily has been a wonderful wife, and better than I deserve, for more than five years now. She's been with me through hard times and everything, and I couldn't be happier that she's stuck around. Even better, we have a daughter now, who, although she has a tendency to make things interesting, is a bright spot in my life. I'm grateful for both of them, and for the parents, siblings, and other relatives who have always been there for me and supported me, despite my many varied flaws.

I'm grateful for the friends and co-workers who've not only put up with me, but gone out of their way to look out for me. I'm thankful for the readers who have bought my books and made it possible for me to succeed at something that I love doing. I'm grateful to be able to live in a country where my voice is heard, where my rights are secure, and where I have the freedom to believe and to do as I choose, and I am humbly grateful for all those who have sacrificed and suffered to make that freedom a reality.

Most of all, I'm just grateful to be alive. There are so many opportnities in this world, at this time, and I am glad to have the chance to experience it, to be a part of the craziness that is life. The chance to continue forward and keep learning, keep growing, is incredible to me, and I am glad that I have it.

So there's my little Thanksgiving post. Hope you and yours are having a wonderful day! See you around.

Five Life Lessons From FTL

1. Failure will happen. No matter what you do, no matter how carefully you prepare, something you're counting on will go horribly wrong. If it doesn't you're just as likely to screw it up yourself. Their boarding drone might hit your weapons room, they might randomly hack your shields, or you might forget to stop firing when your best crew members are boarding the enemy ship. There is no reason to dwell on it or mope about it. Stuff will just go wrong. That's life; you just pick up the pieces and move on.

2. Make sure you know your priorities. Sometimes life can get distracting. Problems can pop up and crowd out what is truly important. For example, that your ship is on fire. Or that you turned off your oxygen supply to power your laser cannon. Or that there is a mutant alien insect gnawing its way through your pilot. Make sure that you don't get so caught up with what is happening now that you forget about what is truly important.

3. Persistence is everything. This one relates back to the first lesson. Stuff happens, and things hit the fan on a regular basis. The point is to keep going and not just throw your hands up and surrender. It doesn't matter that your boarding party just blew up; don't hit the reset switch automatically. If you give up every time you hit a rough patch, you're never going to find something worthwhile at the end. And the little things--like the explosion that marks the dead enemy flagship--will make every bit of stubborn persistence worth the work.

4. Everyone can do something useful. There's something for everyone to do. The Rockman you just brought on board may not move very fast, but he'd probably do well against boarders. Your robotic Engi ally might not be able to storm the enemy ship, but all that damage you've been taking could probably use his touch. Don't count anyone out.

5. The Challenge makes it worthwhile. Sure, Normal mode might be hard. Okay, a little worse than hard. Maybe we should be referencing XCOM or Ninja Gaiden here. It sucks to have your ship get blown away time and time again. Maybe you're getting tired of running out of fuel and then having to rely on treacherous Slugs to creep along until the rebels get you. Or it is extra hard to get some of the various achievements that the game gives you awards for doing. If it was easy, you'd forget about it immediately. The challenge you struggle through. makes your victory all the sweeter.

On Voting

Oh yeah, there's an election this year.

That sentence kind of sums up my feelings about this term's election. In fact, I'd say it sums up a lot of people's feelings. Nobody seems very excited about either candidate; I'd actually say that even the ones who are excited are more about hating the opposing candidate than they are about supporting their own.

Normally, my feelings are much less ambiguous. Part of that is the candidates tend to have pretty soundly different foreign policies, but I haven't heard a lot of difference between the two this time. The focus seems to be far more on domestic policies, especially economic stuff. Of course, I am not entirely convinced that any president has a large amount of control over the economy, which means that most of this is a smokescreen they're blowing for their core support groups. Blergh.

At the very least I am registered and everything. Unfortunately that means I should probably start researching what these two doofus' have been saying about their plans for the past few months. Not the sort of reading I'm looking forward to. Sigh. At least in this country we get to choose which idiot leads us, right? Too bad they're usually still an idiot...

On FTL

So here's the game I've been playing for the past few weeks. I got it based on the recommendation from Penny Arcade, which is a webcomic that I enjoy on a regular basis. Usually I lack the console access, cash, or taste similarity to take them up on the games they play, but FTL was up for sale for about ten dollars, and seemed like a pretty fun game. Besides, they told me it was ludicrously hard, extremely enjoyable, and a spaceship game. I couldn't refuse.

In FTL you basically try and pilot a single ship through the maze of star systems ahead of an enemy fleet. Your goal is to make it past pirates, rebel ambushes, and other disasters in good enough shape to take on the monstrous enemy flagship at the end. The game gives you a limited amount of power  to run the systems on your ship, so you often have to make decisions on whether or not you want to charge one more laser cannon, divert more power to your shields, or keep your oxygen supply running. Not as easy a choice as you would think.

The fun doesn't stop there. As in most games, you have a limited amount of missiles and drones you can use, and the scrap the game uses as cash is always in short supply, but one of the most critical resources I've found has been the crew itself. You can hire more crew or gain them through special events, but you'll often find yourself losing crew to fires the enemy starts on your ship, breaches in the hull, enemy boarding parties, or just the old fashioned problem of taking one too many missiles to the face. If you're not careful, you can easily end up watching half your crew board an enemy vessel, be within seconds of capturing it--and then the laser cannon you left to fire automatically blows up the enemy ship with your guys still on it.

FTL is hard, or at least it is to me. It has two difficulty settings, Easy (haha, nope) and Normal (as in, death is pretty normal). I've occasionally managed to beat it on Easy. I still haven't even seen the final boss on Normal. Part of the difficulty comes from the challenges mentioned above, but the creators of the game throw in another twist. You can't save your game. Every playthrough is permanent, which means no hopping back to the last save point when you accidentally beam a raving, homicidal madman onto your ship. It does let you save if you need to stop mid-game, but you start right where you left off, and you can't ever go back. Worse, every playthrough is entirely unique. Every level is randomly generated, the consequences of each decision or the contents of each store are determined randomly, and the enemies are quite varied. The replay value is inexhaustible, but from another perspective, it can be incredibly frustrating to watch about half an hour's work go up in flames because the random pirate you fought happened to get you good with a fire bomb.

Then again, I like that sort of punishing gameplay (see Dwarf Fortress, Spelunky, and others) so I've been enjoying the crap out of it. Definitely worth the price, and I can see myself relaxing with this game for a long time yet. So there you go, that's my perspective on this one. See you around!

On Working With a Background

One of the more interesting aspects of writing a sequel is the fact that I have to work around a background that I've written in another book. I have to remember the characters' names from the other book, even if they were background characters. I need to make sure that the universe is consistent; I can't have ships changing the number of guns or missile bays between installments. It's kind of overwhelming at times, and at this point as I'm hopping between series, it can get annoying to have to refer back to my own book for information.

Therefore I need to start a background notebook for each of my universes. Have one for Hector, one for Jacob, one for Iron Angels and so on. The problem is that so far I've been keeping all of my worldbuilding notes in little tiny notebooks. These things are a mashup of pretty much every series, though. On one page I have the weaponry for a Banner-class dreadnaught from Jacob Hull's universe, and on the next I have the order of battle for a Directorate fleet in Broken Halo. That's not even including the side projects I do for the fun of it, or the random notes I take it in for trips, to-do-lists and everything else that pops up. It was worse before Emily managed to convince me to start using these little books; before that I would just use random bits of scrap paper and hope that none of them got lost.

The whole digging through the tiny notebook thing isn't going to cut it now, though. I need to start collecting my little story bibles into separate notebooks. It would be so much easier if I had everything organized, and if I was able to find everything I needed. Although... maybe a binder instead of a notebook? That way I could just slip stuff in whever I needed it? Gah! This is going to be such a mess...

On Arcanum

So here's a blog post on what has been consuming my free time recently. And by consuming, I mean devouring without mercy or end of appetite.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is an RPG. Worse, as you can tell, it is a steampunk RPG. There was absolutely no hope that I would be able to avoid buying it when I saw it, but at the very least I hoped that I would be able to finish it quickly and move on.


As all good RPGs do, this one crushed those fragile hopes. Arcanum can be described in one word: deep. I've read epic fantasy novels with less developed frameworks for their society and backstory. It is set in a world of magic and industrial revolution, where the various races of elves, dwarves, orcs and humans all coexist and thrive. Magic in this world is anathema to technology; a magical artifact can cause havoc with even the simplest technological device, while technology can make spells fizzle and fail. You can sense the tension between those two forces everywhere in Arcanum, from the political debates to the backstory for each nation you enter, and Arcanum does a very good job of immersing you in the conflict. As for backgroun, well, the manual comes with its own treatise on how the various races of Arcanum evolved or were magically morphed, along with detailed explanations of everything else in the game. That should give you an idea on how well thought-out this world is.

The balance between those two forces has shaped not only the culture and politics of Arcanum, but effects the gameplay and plot. People will react to you differently if you are a half-elf mage, an experienced dwarf blacksmith or a gun-toting human bandit. Combined with the different backgrounds you can give your character, you can play this game in a hundred different ways and have a new experience each time. The game gives you a freedom that allows you to choose your own story and shape your experience as you play. Plus, you get to make your own Molotov cocktails, repeating rifles, and forge dwarven armor, or just blast the enemy with arcane magical force. What could go wrong with that?

The character development in this game is very well done; it doesn't seem like any particular path is inherently superior to the others. I've had fun playing any of the various roles, and half of the fun has been designing new characters and seeing how the game changes. I think the technical term for what I've got is 'alt disease', which means I still haven't finished the game yet, but I have like five different characters about a quarter of the way through the story. The funny part is that the options available and the balance of the various elements mesh a lot better than most modern games. Aside from a few issues with combat (unless you play it in the turn based mode, real-time combat gets you stomped on by monsters pretty quick.) and the annoying fact that when you die without having saved you lose everything, Arcanum is one of the funnest games I've played in a long time. In fact, playing through this one has given me some very interesting ideas for my own, paper based RPG design... but that will have to wait for another post. Mwaha.

So there you have it! I got this game over on Good Old Games, where it does not cost nearly as much as it is worth. If you are a fan of steampunk, RPGs, and extremely good videogame storytelling, give it a try! See you around.

On Alpha Centauri

So based on the recommendation of my friend, Joe Vasicek, I had downloaded a copy of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri from a handy little place called GOG.com. I was a rabid fan of the Civilization series by the same publisher, and my childhood is marked by periods of extreme obsession with Settlers, Railroads, and Wonders of the World. I'm still convinced that I learned more about the process of technological advancement and historical monuments from that game than I did from most of my history classes, but that may just say more about me than it does about my teachers. :)

Anyway, for those of you who have never played a 4x strategy game like Civilization or Alpha Centauri, let me give you a picture of how the thing works. You're basically given a civilization where you have to build cities, develop technology and create military units as your people expand over the course of a few millenium/centuries. You get involved in the diplomacy side of things once you run into the borders of another civilization. Given the nature of the game, things typically either degenerate to a point where all those military units come in quite handy, or the other civilization, cowed by your awesomeness, petition to become your allies. The level of difficulty chosen at the start of the game can often determine how decidedly unfriendly these other competitors are, as well as how quickly they develop, grow, and fight.

There are a variety of ways to win, whether by convincing your various competitors to choose you as their leader through diplomacy, completing a particular construction project, or even by simply wiping out all the other civilizations on the globe. The term '4x' is kind of derived from that fact--you're supposed to compete with the other players on several levels, the four main ones being how much you've explored, how much your civilization has expanded, how well your economy can exploit the available resources in your territory, and, of course, how effectively your military can eliminate your competition. This type of game is typically a very long term, involved process which can take days just to finish one simple game. You think that RPGs are bad for being near-abusive time sinks? You've never tried one of these babies.

Basically, I should have known what I was getting into when I bought this game, but I'm stupid enough to get a game like this when it is cheap and cool. (See Dwarf Fortress and Spelunky for a comparison.) Alpha Centauri does not disappoint. You basically are a portion of a colonisation crew sent to Alpha Centauri. The crew gets broken up into factions due to a disaster in orbit, so you're competing against six other groups right off the bat. You can chose the different factions, which each have their own benefits, from the militant Spartans to the enviromentally sound Gaians to the diplomatic Peacekeepers. Each one has their own playing style and feel to it, and it was fun trying them all out.

I had to say that the game was definitely a great experience. There were some low points; the global warming mechanic seemed to kick in at precisely the wrong times no matter what I tried, the scientific progression seemed a bit hard to understand, and some of the military progression just seemed to be a bit uninventive. At the same time, the improvement in the barbarian/alien mind worm challenge was awesome, the chance to customize your own units only made things better, and I loved the flexibility that floating cities gave me to expand. Definitely a worthwhile buy, though I'm sure I would have been a bit more productive if I hadn't been playing it... See you around!

On the Zombie Apocalypse: Location, Location, Location

Alright, so part two. Mainly because I get a bit...focused... on things sometimes. Yeah. That sounds better than obsessive!

Anyway, part of what would make any successful survival effort during the zombie apocalypse would be where you choose to settle down. All the weapons and planning in the world won't help you if you are in the middle of a rampaging horde of zombies. So how to avoid that shambling, biting mass of disaster?

One of the most popular solutions is to load up a vehicle (or actually, probably more often a horse) and ride on out of town. Running for the hills seems like a good option. After all, less people means less potential zombies, and that means less potential bite marks. Plus, farms should provide some food right?

The other option is just to fort up in town and hold out against whatever comes. You'll hopefully have some food storage, and you'll be able to scavange something from the local supermarket once things run out. You won't have to travel anywhere, which is good because the main ways to travel are going to be clogged with people...people and probably zombies. Sure, there will be zombies around the city, but you can just barricade the door and wait til they rot, right?

So I think there are problems with both of these scenarios. Sure in the countryside there will be less zombies...for a time. As the zombies spread out from the cities, you'll start getting swamped eventually. Plus, since when do I know how to farm? Unless I mysteriously pick up tilling-the-earth skills, I'm pretty sure food will be pretty scarce. Especially if I have the fortune to be in the lost and forsaken deserts of Utah or something. There will be a few awesome country refuges, but I imagine cranky farmers/squatters/survivalists with guns will get there first and not want to share. Probably best to avoid that situation--most people die from other people in zombie movies rather than the zombies themselves.

In the city, though, there will be no food either. Ever. If the stores are stripped bare two days in advance of a Houston hurricane, imagine what will happen once the dead start to eat people? Besides, the giant armies of undead walking the streets will be obstacle enough to get to any food storage. There might be some people around willing to band together and beat back the horde, but we're probably talking about millions of undead versus a few hundred humans. Seriously bad odds. One time I tried to estimate how many zombies Houston's metropolitan area alone would produce if every third person turned. That was upwards of six million undead. Yikes. Definitely avoiding the cities.


No cities, no urban areas. Where then? I think that of all the places to be, a multistory house in the suburbs would be the best. A little surgery with a hammer or an axe would remove most of the stairs, thus preventing zombie infiltration. There would be places for gardens and a moderate food supply for the short term, yet the ravening hordes of zombies wouldn't have reached us from the cities yet. We could probably build up a food supply, then wait out the wandering hordes when they came. Wildlife would be more common as well, giving us the chance at meat. Also, most people in the burbs would probably head for the hills, clogging the roads and leaving behind their well stocked houses, ripe for salvage and/or defense. It wouldn't be perfect, but this is an apocalyse we're talking about. Better a slightly crappy place then no place at all.

So yeah, more thoughts on random stuff. See you around!

On the Zombie Apocalyse: Weapons

So, based on the in depth discussion at our recent writing meeting, I have felt it necessary to clarify my general strategies for the eventual coming of the zombie apocalypse. After all, one can never be too well prepared for those sorts of things...

In any case, my choices of zombie hunting gear would not, in fact, be a shotgun and chainsaw. Too much (infected) blood flying everywhere. Besides, if you ever find yourself at close range fighting a pack of zombies, you're probably going to go down anyway. Especially if the infection can be spread with just a simple bite. Better to keep things at a distance.

With that in mind, my primary weapon would probably be a kind of sniper rifle. Given my previous predilections, I would probably try to go with a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle. The accuracy is something that would be needed in a world where bullets are rare and the shots are critical, and it is a very effective gun. And really, could you go wrong with the gun the White Death used? I think not. In addition, the gun could be used for hunting; in Texas that would have meant shooting hogs. In Pennsylvania I don't know, deer maybe? Anything better than going herbivore...

For the occasional, unavoidable close range encounter, I think a splitting maul would work the best. With a zombie, the main threats are the teeth, the numbers, and the fact that they are infectious as a sewer drain. Not to mention the 'dead already' thing. So weapons like knives aren't going to cut it (pardon the pun). Not enough damage done fast enough, the stupid zombie's not even going to notice getting slashed. That's not to mention the fact that the more blood you spray around, the more you risk getting infected anyway.

The best way to down a zombie is with one big hit, hopefully one that does the kind of damage that breaks bones and knocks it down. That way if you need to, you can run without having to worry about it hanging on or coming after you. A hammer doesn't break or dull, and the worst I have to worry about is maybe making a new handle for it. Plus, the sledge/axe combo can help with all kinds of work outside of combat, from splitting wood to pounding (dare I say it) fence posts into post holes or something. Of course, carrying around something that heavy would be a drag, but the benefits would totally be worth it.

So yeah, now you know both my primary and backup zombie apocalypse weapons. Good times, right? Of course, to use either of these two, I would probably need to be more experienced. As in, actually owning the rifle and practicing with it, or not being a scrawny, pipsqueak cross country runner. You know, little details. :) The best defense is probably where you would live during something like this anywa, but that's a post for another day...

Anyway, hope you are enjoying the weekend, and I'll see you around!

On Adjusting the Balance

Alright, so the past couple of weeks have not been the best for writing. Some of this can be blamed on the move. Packing and shifting every ounce of your crap over a thousand miles can be rather...disruptive to a person's creative process. My shift in work schedule, workload, social interaction and family circumstances can all bear their share of the guilt as well.

Not everything can be blamed on that one choice, though. I am starting to worry, just a little, that I am crushing myself with my own expectations. Wolfhound succeeded so spectacularly that I began to get a bit carried away with delusions of grandeur and hopes of being a self sufficient writer by the end of 2013. Realistically, as Wolfhound's sales start to settle down a bit from the post-Christmas writing craze and Kingsley continues to poke along at the okay-to-good level, I am glad we haven't left the day job just yet.

Right at that same moment, when my wildest dreams are fading back to a more humdrum practicality, I've landed in a pretty comfy spot. My new job is no longer an exercise in crazy, I can sleep, attend church and act almost like most normal people, and I now live rather close to family instead of a time zone away. That is a level of comfort that we haven't had in a long while, and I worry that it is lulling me to slack off on my writing almost as badly as my crushing burdens in Texas were.

But perhaps all of this is merely an example of excuse finding. Maybe I simply need to regain my focus, settle my shoulders, and get back into it. Yet where do I begin? Any ideas? Blergh.

In any case, I will get back to work on Iron Angels. No rest for the wicked...

On Baby Steps

So first off, and most exciting of my current news, is the fact that Sera has officially began to walk. She took her first steps on Friday, and she has been practicing every day since then. Her record so far has been four solid steps in a row. She is quickly catching on to the fact that this is a BIG DEAL, especially with her grandparents joining her parents in the congratulations. She is growing up way too fast, but every little smile she gives makes the entire journey.

Also, I am proud to announce that we have put the hardcover up for Hector Kingsley's first book. This copy has the excerpt that I included as bonus content for those buying the more expensive paper edition. Given that it is pretty much just an appendix with extra background material, those who choose to read the electronic version will not miss out on anything relating to Hector's adventures, nor on anything relating to Patricia, Benjamin, or the rest of the Kingsley crew. It is, however, pretty cool background, so if you like the world of the Distillation, then feel free to investigate a copy.:)

In all honesty, I plan on publishing all the excerpts, along with more material, in a companion book someday, but just not yet. So if you really want to read the stuff, you will get the chance to see it electronically. Just not until the series is done. Heh heh heh...

In any case, we are starting to get settled in here in Pennsylvania. My job has been going pretty well, and as I get adjusted to it, the oppoortunities I have to write and develop my ideas increase. Hopefully that will lead to some progress this week. I will let you know! See you later!

On A New Schedule

It's different when you get home in the late afternoon.

I knew that already, intellectually at least. I had braced myself successfully for the tiredness in the morning, at least initially. During high school I was a bit of a morning person, so I kind of hoped that I could recover and start to push back against my own weariness sooner rather than later. The work has been more or less what I expected.

What I hadn't anticipated was the wholesale shift in my schedule after work. It has been a bit difficult to adjust to having hours of free time available and still being able to get a good night's sleep. For some reason, that's thrown me off a little bit, but hopefully my befuddled state will wear off soon.

In any case, I am still plugging away on Social Contract, and my work on Badger's partial rewrite has gone well. I just need to get back in the swing of things, and I think things will go entirely well. Here's hoping I'm not overly optimistic about that; then again, optimism is something I have only rarely been accused of. :) See you around!

On Moving Soon

In less then seven days, my entire house needs to be packed and ready to move cross country.




AHHHHHHHH!

On Delicious Treachery

So the past couple of weeks I've kind of been struggling with some health issues. Eating was difficult, I kept getting chills and shivers, and I was generally weak. Acid reflux seemed to be a major problem as well. I figured it was just a flu at first, then I kind of started to worry as it continued to last. I lost a little weight and started to get a little desperate to find something my throat would tolerate. I won't lie, I was kind of starting to worry that I was on the edge of a major mental breakdown over stress or something. Or maybe that something incredibly serious was wrong with me.

No, it was not stress, nor was it disease. It was poison!

You see, in my family we have this weird hereditary trait that makes all the males develop food allergies in their twenties. That means we could be eating food that's never hurt us before, such as avocado, and all of a sudden our throat swells up. Once we figured that out, we've kind of been tracking my dad's allergies and avoiding them preemptively, just to avoid the problems he's had. These include cats, avocado, tree nuts, apple skins and a few other things.

We had wondered if my problems lay in my allergies, but we couldn't figure out what I was eating every day that would cause the issue. Guacomole has been banned, I don't eat apples fresh anymore, and I don't eat cats (though that does sound delicious). And its not like I was chomping down on a brazil nut every afternoon. So we gave up on that idea.

Which is why it wasn't until yesterday, after I had an attack of cold sweats and sudden weakness, that I checked the packaging of the granola bars I've been taking to work. You know, the ones I've eaten at work as a snack or a side for my dinner for nearly two years. Guess what they have in them? That's right. 'May contain traces of tree nuts.' So now I can confirm I've got that allergy. Believe me, I've been poisoning myself with it for the past two weeks, and the symptoms are nothing I want to go through ever again. Blergh.

Treacherous little nut-filled granola bars. Why couldn't you have stayed loyal? Mutter mutter, ungrateful hippy food mutter mutter...