July 2011

July 3, 2011

Working for the Pusamon

DAY 2: THE OLD BACK AND FORTH

(I experimented with fictionalizing my EVE Online sessions. Looking at this now, it probably confused the heck out of any blog followers. –Ed.)

Great. Everything uncle warned me about seems true.

I remember Jhaque telling me about the drudgery of mining, and his advice to choose agents that had requests on vectors that lay away from drilling space rock, and here I find myself sucking ore for Pusamon Arnen.

[Lost content, image. Alt-text “Pusamon Arnen, Caldari taskmaster.”]

He lulled me into a false sense of security by making the first contract a simple snatch-and-run, and now he’s got me “getting my hands dirty”.

I suppose every dog has to pay his dues, but still. So much for avoiding the digging.

[Lost content, image. Alt-text: “Mindless labor.”]

Fell asleep at the terminal, woke up in a pod. Good thing I got insurance on the ship.

Mined just enough veldspar to clear the job order and now they got me doing a hack and run. I suppose these skills could come in handy further on down the road but I’m dubious. I’d rather just buy my way past locked doors.

Speaking of which, I invested a bit in some proper economics training, figured I’d go for my basic Caldari business degree, maybe play the markets a bit.

Another walk in the park job, there was a guard but my light ion blaster made short work of it. I wonder why they don’t just flee? They have the same scanners I do.

[Lost content, image. Alt-text “Hacking into a data satellite, nothing could be easier.”]

I drop the data back in Pusamon’s lap and he’s finally got something worth my time. A quick run to Jouvulen III to talk to someone he knows about deciphering the data. Not sure why he’s telling me all of this, it’s more than I need to know.

The hook here is that this simple courier job will net me an expanded cargo hold, something of real value in my intended career. Off I go.

Seem to be picking up a lot of skills that I don’t really see the value to. Sell them off or keep them? Uncle always said it never paid to be a packrat, cargo space was a premium and you never knew if you were coming back to a given station. I’ll hang on to them for now, but if I find more valuable cargo you know what’s first jettisoned.

Four jumps between the two Schools, I don’t mind the travel at all. I guess you can’t afford to, being in this line of business. The destinations are nice but the joy’s in the journey.

[Lost content, image. Alt-text “One of the three stargates between Akiainavas and Jouvulen.]

Gave the data to Pusamon’s contact at the new school, only to find out the promised cargo expansion would be waiting for me back at Akiainavas III. Once these taskmasters get you by the balls they’re not too willing to relax their grip, are they?

July 6, 2011

Dark Acre Week 38 Report

SHADOWS

Progress on The Child is steady. The basic geometry and textures for rooms can now be crafted at the rate of about 2 per day, and the current plan is to build 30 such rooms and test them for play-ability and measure how well they contribute to the overall flow of the experience. Any levels not meeting the standard of being at least “interesting” can get cut or restructured or walled off as Easter eggs.

A major win this week has been the inclusion of “baked shadow maps”, or occlusion maps. For those who don’t know, this is just fancy words for “layer in Photoshop that makes the scene grittier”. It’s always been a big challenge figuring out how to generate these shadows in 3D Studio Max, and though it was intended to be a feature for Episode Two the ease of implementation has made it something that will appear throughout Episode One as well.

The release date for The Child has been delayed. As hinted at in previous reports, if the overall quality levels weren’t reaching a set standard the amount of time devoted to the project would be increased. In the case of The Child it’s been decided that an additional 8-week cycle is necessary to polish it and make other necessary improvements to the experience.

EDITING AMBIA

The first shock came when I realized I’d written a coherent work of novel length. The second came with the formation of actual chapters:

When I was about 11 or 12 I tried to write a series of fantasy novels entitled Epic. I can still clearly see the prelude I wrote, about a green-cloaked warrior pursued by hounds through a dark forest. I’d written all the chapter titles out before starting the actual body writing, and that was serving as a guide. I didn’t know anything about writing then, and the series never went beyond that first prelude, but looking back at my youthful naivete it’s pretty funny how optimistic I was about the whole process.

With Tale of the Madeus, and When, The Grift (my NaNoWriMo ‘winning’ entry) I didn’t use a chapter structure. For Tale it worked out okay since the story was short and focused enough to not need that level of organization. With Ambia it evolved naturally with the clear sections of text emerging through the writing process. There’s a binary struggle between pro- and antagonist that visits several locations on the planet, so it’s important to divide the story along those lines as well.

It also makes editing very interesting. Now elbow-deep in the second draft, going chapter-by-chapter is an excellent exercise. Each chapter could stand alone as its own short story, and perhaps this is the way it should be. The reader can close the book at a chapter “end note”, much in the way television serials work. The overarching plot is still there, but the break offers a chance to rest.

At the current rate of revision I should be able to publish a review/critique copy by next week’s update. If you’re interested in checking out a semi-raw science fiction novel about a renegade space trader and the end of his life in Solarus, and would be willing to read it through and offer real criticism, drop me an e-mail (Gosh, but I used to be so open to the public. –Ed.) with a return address I can link the book to and the digital format you prefer (PDF, .doc, .txt, .epub, I can publish to pretty much everything).

CIRCLES WITHIN CIRCLES

[Lost content, image. Alt-text “Circles.”]

Haven’t gotten your Google Plus (or, as the cool/lazy kids call it, “G+”) invitation yet? Don’t despair. It’ll be public soon enough and you’ll be spared all of those first-days growing pains and still be able to feel all of the early adoption pains.

I’ve been using it for nearly a week, and already it’s become my go-to social network of choice. I’d already scaled back my Twitter and Facebook usage a lot due to those distractions sucking up a lot of my productive time, but I’m finding G+ a lot less of a drain on my time.

What is it? How does it work? This video did a pretty job of preparing me for it, and the reality isn’t that much different but is subject to change as they start implementing user feedback:

A few key things to note:

Anything posted to the “Public” stream (the default posting stream if you haven’t specified any Circles) is unequivocably public.

Unlike Facebook and more like Twitter, anyone one can comment on things you post like that. If you want to keep something strictly between you and your target Circle, it’s imperative that you use the little triangle drop-down menu in the post to secure it.

So far it hasn’t been an issue for me, but I can see people getting annoyed with random strangers commenting on their posts. I think this is the greatest strength of the platform, and perhaps the key difference between it and Facebook. Despite Facebook’s issues in the past with privacy, at least you that anything you post there is only going to be seen by people you’ve authorized to be your “Friends”.

How easily people can find you depends on the quality of your public profile.

If/when you get in, I’d be more than happy to enCircle you. Just make sure that when you do get in, tailor your profile to indicate at least what kind of contributions to the discussion you expect to make. If you’re a writer, throw that info in there. Game designer? Link your projects and development blogs. It’ll serve you well to let people know what you’re about.

Have suggestions for improvement? Feed them back!

G+ has one of the most amazing feedback systems ever. It takes a screenshot of the current problem screen and you can highlight/black out information to isolate the issue, along with the option to provide a detailed explanation of the problem.

There’s more to it but those are the main points that have come up for me. There’s tons of discussion threads on the current experience and how to improve it.

Will it replace Facebook or Twitter? It would be nice if all of the social networks could co-exist, but the fact is that people only have so much time in the day to check their status updates and discuss pictures of lolcats. Facebook replaced MySpace, and while G+ has the potential to do the same for Facebook it’s more likely that we’ll see a division in the market between the two. It seems to me that so far G+ has far more capability to spawn intelligent discussion than either Facebook or Twitter, but it’s early days still.

The real acid test will come when it’s flooded by the general public, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it all goes from here. After all, all of this stuff is free providing you have regular access to the Internet, so what’s the harm in trying it out?

[ Lost content: Christopher “Jack” Nilssen’s profile on Google Plus]

July 31, 2011

Drink and Drugs

DAY 4: SCAN-SLAVE TRAINEE

I wake up with a splitting headache. At first I suspect the implant’s not taking, but it turns out one bottle of wine had become three, and I had to be carried back to my quarters. Unachi’s left a note on my personal terminal to come see her for more exploration training wherever I’m recovered.

I down a small bottle of Quafe Ultra and wait for the stimulants to kick before heading to Unachi’s office. As I pass the hanger I’m reminded that I’m now in possession of a profit-making machine in the form of the Godsoar, and really should see about putting her to work as soon as possible. From what I can recall of our conversation the night before, though, this exploration business may carry just as much value as fully-loaded run.

The agent is all business this morning. Perhaps I revealed a bit too much of myself last night, embarrassing as that may be. I half-listen through the crashing waves of the hangover, something about various types of anomaly sites. It’s more training, so it should be easy money. I grab the assignment and undock.

Unachi’s granted me another Bantam for the job, that’s fine. I strip and sell it the moment her back is turned.

Reaching the mission coordinates I’m greeted by a Gallente Intaki agent name of Rulie Isoryn. She’s got herself a very nice industrial ship, I hear the Gallente ships are among the largest and most efficient.

Apparently she thinks I need training on acceleration gates. Don’t these people get dossiers on the pilots they’re working with? She’s a sight for sore eyes, literally, so I nod and hit the gate.

At the end of the gate there’s a platform bearing gifts, a scan probe set up. In order to map out larger areas of the Vacuum more efficiently I need to make use of these tiny drones. I’m always happy to let the machinery do the work for me, and free is free. I transfer the new gear and I’m instructed to use another gate.

According to Rulie, gravimetric signatures indicate potential concentrations of asteriods. Good, now I’ll know where to avoid. These agents are all so deadly serious about getting me to dig rocks.

At the next site I’m told that magnetometric signatures indicate dead ruins. This could be valuable, I’m liking the idea of coming across some valuable salvage and just plucking it right into my cargo bay, though it still only seems a half-step up from drilling asteroids. Radar sites, good for hacking and stealing data from, if you’re of that kind of bent. Which I’m not. Yet. Rulie tells me there’s one more site to visit.

Now here’s something of interest. Lader sites contain gas clouds used in the manufacture of narcotics. Though Rulie assures me that not all booster industry is illegal, in the same breath she calls the whole business ‘shady’. I’m intrigued, but only until I look up Gas Cloud Harvesters on the Market and discover it’s an advanced sub-skill of Mining. All roads lead to rocks, it appears.

2011.07.01 – 2011.07.31

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