September 21, 2004
As I Wrote On STWTR, It's Very Very Hard To Predict What Arguments Will Appeal To Who
So an escort emails me and likes my blog. Looking at the URL in the email, I thought it might be spam (It's http://www.nyhotties.com/index.html). But it's a real blog and good if you find the subject (stories of an escort in NY) interesting.
September 20, 2004
a similarity btwn Bush and Hitler
over the course of history, a number of ppl have stood out, and most haven't. most of these key figures helped shape the world as we know it, or at least one country. some were good people; some were mass murderers.
one thing we can say about almost all of them is that their place in history was no accident and was not random. it came from their values, and some sort of skill at something. some skill or set of values shared w/ very few ppl.
even a thug like saddam was *skilled*. and not just at beating and intimidating people. i was reading an interview of him by dan rather in Misunderestimated, and he's actually good at twisting questions too.
anyhow i conjecture that almost all major historical figures were, at least in a few ways, significantly better than avg person of the times. or another way: commoners, by and large, were common.
PS secret police based governments by a minority over a majority only last w/ the consent of the "victims"
idiots
Some idiot wrote "Intimacy is a function of time and permanence." (as if it was a mechanical thing, based on time together that works just as well no matter what is done with that time) and the guardian published it.
September 16, 2004
World Tracking
If you haven't caught on yet, the way to read The World is to go to the *tracking* page, which shows new comments and posts. Lots of interesting comments there recently.
September 15, 2004
September 13, 2004
sigh
curi42 (7:32:55 PM): ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
curi42 (7:33:25 PM): so after 3 hours of messing with war3map.w3e files (that's the one that stores the terrain -- i wanted to edit it to get 16 tiles instead of the max of around 9 that's normal)
curi42 (7:33:33 PM): i find out the reason it wasn't working is...
curi42 (7:34:17 PM): my stupid mpq program (like winzip, for blizzard's file format) has a bug. if you just drag files in, it's supposed to replace the old one of the same name, but it's buggy. to make it work simply delete old one, then drag in new one.
Why Should I Post When The World Is Doing Such A Great Job?
Especially No Right To Self-Determination
And also The Lasting Consequences Of Rathergate
As for me, I'm working on war3 stuff. Here are some pics:
September 07, 2004
Waterfall Jumping
By me, using Warcraft 3:
It actually plays like a movie, but you need war3 to view it that way. (I didn't just put them in 3 poses and take pictures.)
September 06, 2004
guns guns guns
we need more guns. for example we should arm teachers (and pilots too!). Do it for the children.
Unions
Cartels (right word?) are illegal. They are when all the companies in an industry band together and stop competing, thus acting like a monopoly. The problem is they could raise prices and there would be no competition.
Compare this to unions, where all the workers in an industry band together to threaten companies. Why do unions work? Because they have a monopoly on the workforce -- if companies don't like the demands, too bad, there is no competition.
But unions aren't illegal like cartels. In fact, the left even worships them. I guess because the left hates business so much.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I saw a TV program crediting improved working conditions since the industrial revolution to advocates. sheesh! if the change was just advocates being listened to, then what would happen is a higher percent of budget would go to safety, and less wealth would be created. but we're hella rich today! why? because the overwhelming change was not from advocates, it was from everyone being richer and from better technology. working conditions were poor because we were poor, and there was a high demand for jobs, even bad ones. these people chose to work, and chose to send their kids to work for an extra dime. all the companies did was offer jobs people wanted.
September 02, 2004
stupid parents
was swimming. this kid cut swam in front of me ... so i swam around him. his father then punished him despite me insisting i was fine.
August 30, 2004
People Suck
A Conversation
curi: I think the notion that taking away freedom from people helps them by making it harder for them to make mistakes is absurd. Even if it did prevent mistakes, it wouldn't be help.
crowd: hmmm
curi: Imagine not being allowed to use computers to help you avoid breaking a computer!
crowd: Yeah!
Lone Voice from crowd: Hey, don't we help children like that?
curi: No!
crowd: Hey, he's right. Yes we do.
curi: I mean we shouldn't do that.
crowd: What!?
Lone Voice: You don't think children should have any rules or boundaries? You're nuts!
curi: I don't think we should make our children unfree.
crowd (not listening to fine points): Lynch him!!!
Game Design
I like game design quite a lot. I'm going to present one of the major problems in the field. Perhaps one of you will have a suggestion. Even if not it's still interesting.
The best computer game is Warcraft 3, so this will be my example game. It comes with a World Editor program so anyone can create their own maps.
To create a warcraft map of the RPG variety, you using the following main elements: place heroes, monsters, terrain, treasure. Create spells, quests, traps, and possibly a little AI to help the monsters use spells or fight smarter. You can also put in a city with shops and people to talk to.
Most warcraft RPGs I play are way too easy if I play with friends (multiplayer, cooperative). But, surprisingly, playing with random people we usually lose badly. The skill gap between random people and experts is huge, and directly effects survival rate.
So if I make a map of fun difficulty for me, most people will never get anywhere in it. But if it's going to be too easy for me, that's no fun and I won't make it at all.
One solution is difficulty levels. However, those involve either creating separate versions of each fight for each difficulty, or using some general function. The first plan is tons of work. The second has limited use. The simplest way, in warcraft, to set the difficulty at a stroke is to alter the amount of life the badguys have by some factor. However, this has unintended consequences, such as making spells that deal damage very good on low difficulties and bad on high ones.
My current map is too hard for unorganised (bad) players even on easy difficulty, but I can't lower life more because the badguys already die en masse to spells as they have so little life. The issue is that the monsters are threatening, and if they die fast, even really fast, idiots or novices can still die first. The fix would be making the monsters unthreatening...
It just occurred to me to try giving the heroes more life on easy mode. This may help.
BTW the reason I call these people idiots is if they just did the following they'd survive way way more:
- heal between fights
- buy replacement healing potions
- start fights together with everyone ready
- cast some spells like Ice Armor before combat
- run away if losing
- back up if all the monsters are targeting you
Designing difficulties for people who don't get any of those is really tricky...
Anyhow the real balance issue is to make maps interesting they should require some strategy to win. But then people bad at strategy lose. Most players have terrible strategy. And in a four player map, just one bad player can ruin it. So, what do ya do?
