#Arkhaven INFOGALACTIC #Castalia House
Let’s play He or She.
What’s that?
Say it’s a he or a she.
What’s a he or she?
An animal.
Um, okay. He.
Is it white?
No.
Is it blue?
No.
Is it red?
No.
Is it golden?
Yes.
Is it money?
No. Doesn’t it have to be an animal?
Oh yeah…. Is it a clown?
No! It’s an animal, remember? A he.
Is it a hippo? Is it pink?
No, it’s not a hippo. He’s golden, golden brown.
Is it a princess?
A Russian programmer who was a fan of the Rebel Moon series hit me up with some questions about Rebel Moon Revolution a few weeks ago – I still have to get back to him – and in the process of digging for some information I came across a bunch of demo files. I sent them off to him and he managed to get everything working under Windows XP complete with a mission launcher he sent back to me, so it’s been fun to see what we did back then. It was remarkable to see how advanced the AI was, as it’s 15 years later and I still haven’t seen NPC-squads showing much in the way of overwatch movement. Actually, for that matter, I don’t see it very often when playing multiplayer.
After acquiring a PS/3 mike, I am quite pleased with the results, although I’m not entirely sure I’m actually communicating with anyone. In Operation Firestorm, I hopped a lift in a tank, then ditched at the Gas Station and headed high into the hills. I set up the SOFLAM on a rock overlooking the battlefield, then ran up still higher to operate it remotely.
No one did anything right away, but it was clear that simply laser-targeting the enemy tanks and planes was making them skittish. I kept reporting various vehicles and encouraging someone in my squad to Engineer up and loadout a Javelin; finally someone did and promptly took out two helicopters and a tank that was advancing on the Gas Station. That was close enough to my position that I put away the remote, broke out the rifle, and took out the tank gunner who had exited the vehicle before it brewed up.
I took out four more enemies who were in a building near the Offices before someone managed to figure out where I was, climbed the hills, and took me out while I was busy spotting. That wouldn’t have happened if I had a squadmate guarding my back, but c’est la guerre video. Regardless, by this time few enemy planes or helicopters dared fly anymore and even the tanks were cautious about advancing very far past the Docks. A few jeeps were tearing around with impunity, but when one stopped to capture the Gas Station, I took out the gunner with a 262 meter headshot, thus allowing two guys who’d been pinned down by him to kill the driver as well.
This must have been the final straw, as I saw in the camera that two jeeps and a man on foot were heading for my position with obvious ill intent. I decided discretion was the better part of valor and headed further into the hills without trying to engage them. They finally located and blew up my SOFLAM camera, so I headed into the combat area and attacked a flag or two in more conventional style. I didn’t score as many personal points playing this way as I usually do when I’m attacking flags, but since it was a close and hard-fought battle that we won by 20 tickets, I’m pretty sure that my recon action made the difference between victory and defeat. And, as a side bonus, my k/d ratio increased to 3.0.
I like to start out as an Engineer in the Grand Bazaar mission map, equipped with mines and an RPG and the Explosive aspect. Since the armor on both sides usually makes a beeline for each other, I run alongside it and throw out all six of my mines, two near the flag and the other four on the road, then see if I can fire an RPG round or two to help the friendly armor blow up the opposition. I sometimes get blown up along with the AFV or shot down by accompanying assault troops, but usually I can get away with an easy initial kill or two, plus a vehicle disabled or destroyed.
If we’re doing okay, which means we have at least one of the two flags, I come back with Recon if we don’t have the Alleyway or Assault if we do. Assault lets me revive my fellow alleyway defenders while Recon lets me pick off the defenders as the young twitch guys go charging into the teeth of the enemy fire. The important lesson as a sniper is to not use a suppressor, as it reduces the damage you deal out while doing little to conceal your position. I increased my average mission kills by a full kill simply by ditching the suppressor.
Once the enemy gives up on the Alleyway, it’s time to switch back to Recon since the young guys are too impatient to sit around defending. This lets me pick off the solo guys who are trying to steal a seemingly undefended flag. If my side doesn’t get overwhelmed at the start, I can usually count on getting 5-7 sniper kills in the Alleyway alone. And it’s amusing when late in the mission, one of the mines set earlier takes out an AFV. The problem is that unless one Assault or Engineer sticks around to guard your sniping, eventually you’re going to miss someone sneaking into close combat range and getting you with an SMG.
Now that I’ve got access to some better equipment, like the optical sights in the tanks, I’ve steadily increased my expected k/d ratio, from around .25 at the start to 1.3+ now. Last night I even had a stellar 4.0 ratio, complete with a top score and Ace Squad ribbon. Now that I’ve got the Javelin, that should help with the helicopter hunting, and I’ve learned to stalk tanks with mines rather than RPGs.
I think my favorite kill thus far was this afternoon, in a close-fought mission that we ended up losing by just two tickets. After taking out a helicopter with my brand-new Javelin, I came back as an Engineer in the Russian deployment, but since there were no tanks I hopped in a jeep and tooled off down the road. I saw an enemy jeep was flying down the highway towards me and we hit each other with glancing blow. We both spun around facing each other about 50 meters away, almost as if we were jousting.
I hopped out of my jeep while he sped towards me, intending to run me over. I’m sure he thought I was going to try to pick him off before he could flatten me, but actually I had pulled out an AT mine. I threw it down and jumped off to the side as he hit it squarely for an instant kill and vehicle destruction. Highly satisfying.
I suppose I may be overdoing the B3 a little. A military helicopter passed by in front of me today and my immediate reaction was to slide sideways towards the brick wall of the nearby building. My first conscious thought was to try to remember if my loadout was SMAW or Stinger.
My second thought was that I should probably get back to playing recon….
In which approaching the peak is contemplated:
Memory and other brain skills begin to decline at the age of 45 – much earlier than previously thought, say researchers. A major study shows the brain’s capacity for memory, reasoning and comprehension starts waning in middle age rather than in the 60s. Experts say the finding is important because younger people should be encouraged to boost their brain power with healthier living, while some may benefit from medicines to stave off further decline.
This report doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. One of the things I have learned about playing soccer and 3D shooters after the age of 40 is how comprehensive the physical decline is. Since most people don’t compete directly with younger athletes after the age of 35 or so, it can be difficult to believe how much speed and quickness one loses. I can’t imagine that there isn’t a similar deterioration taking place elsewhere as well.
It is not only the top gear that is gone, but there is a also the complete absence of a first step; it’s almost as if the first thing the middle-aged mind does is instead of react is to perform a quick calculation of whether or not it’s likely going to be worth it to go through with the physical exertion required. One feels as if one is always going at about three-quarters speed, trying to harbor a reserve for when a complete effort will be required in order to make a difference.
It’s been interesting to see how the athletic decline translates to video game performance. While my Battlefield 3 performance is generally respectable, as I usually finish around the middle point of points scored, both my kills and deaths usually tend to be low because I simply don’t do well in the sort of run around and spray SMG fire game that the younger guys with their faster reflexes play. I’ve had to learn to avoid taking quick potshots at enemies running past when I have the drop on them; taking the time to aim a careful headshot that drops them at once is much better than a fast shot that misses and permits them to turn around and fire back in a more accurate and lethal manner. And while I’ve racked up the occasional 2-1 K/D ratio and even a few top scores, my average is barely above 1/2. But it’s been steadily improving as my rank and unlocks improve, so I’m optimistic that I’ll be able to get it above 1 by the time I level out.
I do think that the mental exercise involved in maintaining this blog and playing wargames helps sharpen my mental focus; how much that will stave off the approaching decline will be interesting to see. Thinking about it also makes me wonder if the abrupt decline in the quality of novels by certain authors later in life might be attributable to degraded mental powers rather than them simply losing interest; I’ve never understood how Colleen McCullough’s Rome series could drop so precipitously off a cliff the way it did after Fortune’s Favorites.
While I have at least a few more years at the height of my powers, it really makes me wish I had worked more diligently at my books. Such is the inevitable regret of the dilettante.
Or the former Eastern bloc, to put it more precisely. Much to my surprise, I have recently learned that Rebel Moon and Rebel Moon Rising, two of the games I designed and developed with Big Chilly, have an exceedingly devoted following in Russia and Eastern Europe. These lunatics have not only produced Russian and Hungarian language versions of the games, but have even gone so far as to port the original Rebel Moon, which was produced for Creative Labs and only ran on the original 3D Blaster, to Windows proper. They’ve even corrected a few of the crater names, which I apparently managed to get wrong somehow.
Here are a few screenshots from the Hungarian version. And here is a download link to the English version of Rebel Moon for Windows (30 megs) as well as a v1.1 patch (568k) that the Russian programmers created to fix a few minor bugs and add post-level briefings based on the novel. I have to admit, it’s rather pleasant to learn that some parts of the gaming community still recognize how far ahead of the game design curve we were at the time, even though the gaming media completely ignored RMR due to their singular focus on what at the time were still vaporware games built around true 3D engines such as Unreal.
Spacebunny gave me Battlefield 3 and a PS/3 for Christmas, which was awesome. And speaking as a Level 70 COD:MW2 PC player, I have to say that B3 on the PS/3 really rocks. The giant maps are so much more interesting and the teamplay design is much better than in COD, although I’m disappointed that the Commander mode was omitted. There also appear to be fewer cheats and so forth in evidence; certainly the kill stats are far less lopsided.
I was tracking an enemy tank about 250 meters away and tagged the driver when he exited, then managed to suppress a pair of snipers in a building 300 meters off long enough to permit a teammate they were pinning down to make his escape. I picked off one sniper, then thought I was finished when someone rushed into the building I was in. But it was just a support guy on my team who’d noticed my position and was dropping off extra ammo. So, I reloaded, waited a little longer, then nailed the second sniper. I’m only level three and my twitch reflexes are long gone, but I try to pull my own weight.
Now I have to figure out how to drive and pilot vehicles without crashing them….
Many people have sent me this link about gamers doing scientists’ work for them, so I figured I better post it just to end the incoming barrage. But it’s hardly any surprise to anyone who has read TIA and been able to compare the intellectual difference between a minor game industry figure and a world-famous scientist.
Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.
After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus, they called in the Foldit players. The scientists challenged the gamers to produce an accurate model of the enzyme. They did it in only three weeks.
Ten years versus three weeks. Yeah, that sounds about right. In truth, there are few groups more different than gamers and scientists, especially if you’re talking about the most elite group of gamers known as the game designers. (There is no such thing as a game designer who isn’t a gamer, although it would surprise you how many other people in the game industry don’t play anything. There are unfortunately an awful lot of John Sculleys in the industry these days.) The major difference is not that game designers are smarter and wealthier than scientists, although that’s also true, but that game designers could not possibly care less about academic credentials whereas few scientists appear to care much about anything else, unless it is attaching their name to something someone else intends to publish in an scientific journal.
I once had a European head-hunter ask me how I could possibly have gone into game development when I didn’t have a degree in it… never mind that there weren’t any degrees or courses in it at the time and I still, to this day, have never met a single person in the industry who formally studied game design or development in college. More than a few of the most successful guys in the industry dropped out of college if they ever even went; not dropping out during my sophmore year to focus on selling my 16-channel, 44 KHz, stereo sound board is one of my few big regrets now.
By the way, I’m presently working with Markku on a new game design which is based on the boundless evil of cats and may be the first mobile game inspired by a Tanith Lee short story. I don’t know when we’ll have the first alpha available, but if you’re interested in being a tester and you’ve got an Android device, let me know.
But after seeing this, I have to say that if it weren’t for SB, I’d be forced to conclude Mila Kunis is, in fact, the Platonic ideal of woman:
Lots of women pretend to like games and sports since it’s an easy and intelligent way of winning favor with men. But it’s never hard to tell who is serious and who isn’t. It is interesting how your guild gets to know you over time without having to meet you. My old guild used to refer to me as Shakespeare after the incident when I happened to offer a some appropriate commentary concerning the amusingly panicked flight of a gnome from an Ursan village.
