Kite jumping & land skiing

All the wild weather over the past few weeks have at least made a couple of great days for flying the kite:

PC Down

I came home Tuesday to a sorry tale of a beeping PC preventing Cam from enjoying the afternoon. It managed to start immediately for me, but after about an hour it blue screened and rebooted. One long continuous beep, several flashing HDD lights, then another long beep. Thinking it might be heat related I left it until after tea, but was still met by the death beep.

Tried the usual trick of reseating RAM & graphics card, but still the long beep kept coming up. Finally it looked like I found the culprit; the upgraded CPU cooling fan was no longer turning. It would make sense that the lack of RPMs reported by the CPU fan would give an alarm, but I thought it was a little drastic to disallow POST.

Over the next few days I tried to pin down a local replacement. Apparently 90mm fans are a little hard to come by compared to 80 or 120, but eventually I got one home today (5 days after it went down). A quick change of the latches to lock it to the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 radiator and I was good to go.
Almost.

Still beeping? Visions of a cooked CPU flooded my mind, along with the ramifications of being without a PC for an even longer period. I went back into diagnosis mode and hoped that memory or GPU had gone out in sympathy with the HSF. Changed out the memory and finally got the machine to POST to another beep code. Cool, memory it is.

Cleaned the contacts and inserted one of the G-Skill 4Gb memory sticks back in.
Success! No more POST errors.
Cleaned the other and replaced it too.
Success!
Looks like it was just a corroded contact, a popular outcome from living 50m from the beach. I'd thought I'd tested for that at the start, but it might have needed a good scrub and slot swap to kick it back into gear.

My suspicionss were also confirmed about the HSF not stopping the POST all on its own. I would expect a CPU heat sensor to finally halt progress after it had a chance to do work on boot, but not stop an attempt to start. How would they know that you weren't using a passive block, or water cooling with its own power system? Other pieces of the puzzle now fit too. The radiator was very hot to touch when the PC finally succumbed on Tuesday, and there had been a fan rattle for the past month or so that definitely sounded like the manual spinning of the defunct coolermaster fan. It would seem that the heat pump and radiator were enough to keep my PC going without the fan? Good news indeed. With the new fan it might even be worth overclocking before something else falls off.

Of more concern than the PC itself was the agitation that it caused me to not have a primary PC. Even though I had a sufficient laptop to do 90% of the games I'd likely play, that I have an iPhone and iPad for more casual retreats, that the game I've been waiting for still hasn't been delivered, and would have just as likely lounged in front of the TV for the same amount of time as I did, it still irks me when it's out of action.

This isn't the first time. There have been other occasions like this and it's the same feeling. Like something is missing, or wrong with the world, and I can't settle down and enjoy other pursuits. Typically this ends in a rather expensive bill and shipment of a shiny new PC. Thinking back it's not usually driven by an urgent need to play newly released game X, but to fill that PC shaped hole in my life and make the world right.

I lasted 5 days this time. Maybe I'm not as addicted as I have been ...

Notoriously Tomed 0.0.2

After a long deliberation about where to go next with Notorious, a few Roguelike Radios have peaked my interest enough to return to ToME as a dev environment for at least building out a single player experience, possibly more with web server integration.

First off, review the old code and see if it works on the new ToME 1.0.0 engine. Moving the code over was easy enough, but it immediately fails with a lua file error. Looks like all new spells from the summoner code I pinched now have particly effect associated with them. Finding and copying the code is simple enough. Great! It works!

Next is reviewing the development path laid out from a year ago. Even though the design has changed a bit, the next couple of steps still seem to be the same as they were back then. I should Google doc it to make the tracking a little easier.

I'd left the code with lighting issues. What I'd like is that any arbitrary minion or hero can be linked to and highlight the map regardless of where they are. Turns out that it was only a case of changing game.level.map:applyExtraLite to game.level.map:applyLite. The first code looked only for entities within field of view, whereas the 2nd applies the light regardless. Nice & neat.

Next is to turn the heroes onto the other side. They still should be visible if they are carrying gems. Looks like the faction setting allows membership, so removing it from player affiliation makes it work.

Next is to place the heroes at a distance. The target code doesn't seem to work very well, and I'm thinking it's due to the realtime nature of the game not having the targeting in the same turn as the summon. Might be worth more investigation later as some talents might need a target. Arbitrarily placing the point 5 tiles below and to the left is pretty easy though. When approaching them the temporary war hounds go after them pretty well.

Rather than the warhounds chasing down heroes then returning to me, lets see if they can be anchored to the point where they spawned to give them a 'home base'. Hmm, seems easy, but having great difficulty locking down a suitable structure. It looks like there's late binding (or no binding?) on variables as well as the ability to pass completely different structures to the same variable. This is making for some imploding bugs later on, and isn't boding well for robust code down the track. Might need to see if there's a way to make Lua a little more tightly bound.

After a look into Lua's tables, the way they have been used in ToME started to make a little more sense. There is some scary bits:

> t = { apple=5 }
> a = "apple"
> b = "apple"
> c = "app".."le"
> print(t.apple, t[a], t[b], t[c])  -- all the same value because there is only one "apple"!
5       5       5       5

What .. the .. ?

.. Actually reading it again it's not as bad as I thought. They are using a,b & c as the keys, whereas I thought it was saying that "apple" is defined both inside and outside of the array.

Back to coding with a little more enthusiasm and after about 1 & 1/2 hours of digging into and around the problem, the solution was identical to what I had originally intended, I'd just applied it to the wrong summoning code :/.

Oh well, it still feels like time well spent getting to know the system. 4 hours all up to move the goalposts a little closer and get it to a more comfortable release point:

Notorious 0.0.2

GameLog 276-284

Hmm, 2 months without a GameLog. This is going to be guesswork for the most part, especially since hardly any of the games have steam stats to help.


ToME (25h) - With toME being crowned the Roguelike of the year again, and it making the final push to 1.0.0, I put a couple more characters into the meat grinder. Funnily enough it's only recorded my last couple of attempts maxing out at level 14, but I'm pretty sure I've dug further than that in previous incarnations. Speaking of incarnations, the count is now up to XXXV in the current build.

Mechwarrior online (20h) - Plays pretty true to the mechwarrior series with a Word-of-Tanks-like upgrade system. Looks like they have thinned out the night maps too, whish has made it a little more approachable. With the ability to group up to 4 players, it's also more welcoming for LANs, alsthough it does suffer from the same fate as WoT in that it's almost more fun playing it single player. There needs to be a way to easily see your lancemates in-game and share comms or some such (beyond skype). Light mechs FTW.

League  of Legends (15h) - LAN standard, plust a FWOTD every now & then. Probably watched over 5 hours of pro LoL too.

Minsecraft (15h) - Picked up  a 2nd account for cam, and also set up a server for both of us to play on. I'd been contemplating doing that for a while as the Minecraft fad hasn't pushed past the year 3's yet. It's a little more meatier than him watching me do hardcore runs too. Rach is in on the act too, and most days there is either one of them puttting in several hours of creative fun in one of their worlds.

with it a more multiplayer environment in th
Guild Wars 2 (10h) - Couple of LANs. Most have lvl 80's now.

Highborn (5h) - new turn based strategy with a somewhat comical storyline. Didn't see a difficulty setting, but it seems to roll over pretty easily. Picked this instead of getting my own copy of Unity of Command (played Greig's over the hols). I think it's filled the need, but I've got a hankering for Philip of Macedon or some other grander strategy.

Notoriously Databased v0.42

Few more modifications & bugfixes before the LAN tonight.
Enhancements:
 - Moved equipping minions up in the turn processing order so you can equip and use minions immediately to raid / attack. This is to help late game when you need to be able to attack others in the current turn to prevent a win, whereas bounties cope quite well for dealing with players in the next turn.

Bugfixes:
 - Check enough space for fortifications
 - Check enough space for elites
 - Check enough space for slaves.
 - Fix elite only raids returning with 1 elite.

2011 & 2012 Game Time

2011

Continuing on from the 2008 Game Time , 2009 Game Time and 2010 Game Time summaries,  2011 Game Time has been added to google docs for further analysis of the GameLogs. The spreadsheet can be organised by total hours to see the winners, or by order entered to get a more historical feel.

Top 5 Game Time 2011

Grepolis	389
Shogun: Total War 2	102
Sengoku	85
Terraria	70
Fantasy Wars	66

Grepolis claims another gong for soaking up my attention thoughout a VERY tough year for games while teaching. A couple of huge binges mixed in with consistent demands for my attention. Once again I can put down a lot of that to the guild I was in.

I'm glad Shogun placed up there, as it has been a standout for strategy in the past couple of years. The tactical battles are still much the same, but the overland map and campaign mode has been delightfully enhanced into a tough challenge on legendary mode.

Sengoku fleshed out the Japanese period, but it was really a filler for Crusader Kings II. 


Terraria just kept popping up as something to play with Cameron. I'm surprised at the number of hours it racked up, but still happy it made the list for a year it didn't appear in.


Top 5 Game Time 2012

Stronghold Kingdoms	523
Football Manager 2012	160
Crusader Kings II	151
Guild Wars 2	113
World of Tanks	90

The Grepolis crew moved over to Stronghold Kingdoms and it had the same effect on my game time, leading the count by a considerable margin. Once again the interaction with clanmates and added incentive of Sandy playing along kept this one high on the priority list for a long time.

I'm a little surprised Footy Manager made a return to the top of the list as I'd almost forgotten about the massive stint on this game 6 months after I'd bought it. 2013 version may suffer the same fate.

Crusader Kings II was one of the standouts for the year and kept my attention more than XCOM, Warlock, Fallen Enchantress and Shogun (again) that all just missed the list.

Guild Wars 2 was also buoyed by clanmates, but this time all the local LAN guys as well as the old QGL crew kept the interest up. Sandy continued long after I did, but the time was definitely well spent. New generation of MMO.

World of Tanks did a Terraria to creep into the list from continuous play rather than standout binges.  First wins kept it rotating slowly, but the lack of decent multiplyer hampered its ability to become a mainstay of the LAN.

GameLog 271 - 275

Final one for the year. Next up a Gamelog summary I promise ...

Endless space (33h) - Didn't particularly like some of the distractions on launch, but it's turned out to be a rather refined, enjoyable version of Masters of Orion. I even caught myself thinking "This game really needs planet compositions based on star age/colour" before finding out it actually does have that. Beat it on hardest with a custom race, but it definitely has legs for the future. Multiplayer needs a way to have co-op against a team of AI's though.

Hegemony Gold (10h) - Greig had picked this one up on steam and it looked the most interesting thing to sink into during the holiday up north. Went North first, before heading east instead of the traditional south to Athens.

Fallen Enchantress  (10h) - Completed the campaign with my custom race, plus another partial game. Still playing well.

Unity of Command (5h) - Another pick from Greig's place. Mentioned many times on Three Moves Ahead, but only having one campain going at once doesn't lend well to sharing. Left Greig with map 3 done with 550 / 600 completion.

Notoriously databased (5h) - A fair few more playthroughs at LANs and New Year's Eve with my brothers. It's turned the corner from being a test into a more complete game in it's own right, along with specific bug fixes and tweaks to make it more streamlined.

AirMech (1h) - Snowball MMO.

Planetside 2 (1h) Snowball MMO RTS.

Hall of Fame

[Press play, then read]

Year 12 are on the home stretch. Tomorrow they have their prom night, then a day at the beach before the final Friday of their schooling life. I, too, am on the home stretch. The final lesson I'll ever teach was cut in half to accomodate graduations song practice, along with a heartfelt message from the principal and head of campus to "remember this time".  Michael W Smith's Friends are friends forever made the cut, along with the more recent Hall of Fame by The Script. I'd heard it before on the radio, and the tune itself lends toward memorable occasions, but does it really represent a christian perspective?

The main point of contention is the chorus line "where the world's gonna know your name". Get out there and do it. Why? Because it'll make you famous. This is inherently a selfish motivation, and undermines all the inspirational lead up that the song provides.

An interesting way to think of the song is to read this line as a statement of fact rather than a guide for yourself. "The world's gonna know you're name". Who's name? Who's the most famous person in history? Jesus. Did he try to be? No. Did he want to be? No. Funnily enough, the song all makes sense if Jesus is the focus throughout. A praise anthem.

     

Notoriously Databased v0.41

After a couple more play sessions there have been some more bugs to squish, some wierd strategies to rebalance and some UI recommendations to help smooth out the game's flow.

First off the list was to fix an abuse of the win condition by popping yourself over the notoriety limit for 2 turns in succession. I was sure i'd covered this by checking for a wipe on the winning turn, but it needed a check for wipes on the turn before as well to catch this devious little strat.

The turn submission screen also now has a notoriety list to help gauge where you are in relation to the notoriety limit and others. this has added a bit more informaiton at your fingertips to make your choice for next turn, but has also turned the submission screen into somewhat of a knowledge store for the game too. The recommendation to place the story on there is most likely as a response from relying more and more on the informaiton at hand rather than really reading and digesting exactly what's going on in the region.

To add the story to the submission screen I wanted to try a partial view so that the same information could be displayed there as well as in its current location. Because the view has already been set up I didn't think it would be too hard to turn it into a partial view.

It turns out that there are a number of different ways of making a partial view. What i really wanted was to call the same action that currently exists as it has a ViewModel and custom data gathering script already in place and a major part of what I didn't want to replicate, so calling the partial view using @Html.Action was the way to go.

After a couple of tests it turned out to be a fairly simple change:
 - Replicate CharacterCurrentStory into PartialCharacterCurrentStory in both the controller and view
 - Set PartialCharacterCurrentStory controller to return a PartialViewResult
 - Strip down PartialCharacterCurrentStory view to only show the table of messages fit for both views.
 - Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory view to only show the headings and page setup
 - Call the PartialCharacterCurrentStory using @Html.Action()
 - Add the same call to the character submission
 - Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory controller to only pass in the current character rather than the stories. 
 - Lock down PartialCharacterCurrentStory to only be called as a child action (probably not required, but handy to know)

Here's the end result for the controller:

        public ViewResult CharacterCurrentStory(int charID)
        {
            Character currentChar = db.Characters.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID).SingleOrDefault();
            return View(currentChar);
        }


        [ChildActionOnly]
        public PartialViewResult PartialCharacterCurrentStory(int charID)
        {
            Character currentChar = db.Characters.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID).SingleOrDefault();
            int currentStoryTurn = (int)db.Storys.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID && (i.Turn.GameID == currentChar.GameID)).OrderByDescending(u => u.TurnID).FirstOrDefault().TurnID;
            var storys = db.Storys.Include("Character").Include("Turn").Where(i => i.TurnID == currentStoryTurn && (i.CharacterID == charID || i.isPublic == 1));
            return PartialView(storys.ToList());
        }

GameLog 264 - 270

Lots of other things getting in the way of GameLog reports. Some games are bound to be missed :/.


XCOM: Enemy Unknown (44h) - GREAT game. stalled 10 or so missions into hardcore impossible though.

Towns (43h) - Feels like a lightweight Dwarf Fortress. That's a good thing for movingon wit hthe game, but a bad thing in that it doesn't have much depth. Added a challenge to reach the bottom (and survive) as fast as possible. Got down there in just over a month with gold equipment for 1/2 of my villagers, but couldn't sustain any time down there. I've certainly enjoyed it more than others on the forums, but in the end it left me pining for a better interface on DF.

Fallen Enchantress  (15h) - Lots of changes even from the last beta that I played only a month before release, and the changes have transformed the game a lot. Monster AI seems a lot better now with a little less aggression and predictability. Enemy AI play quite solidly and is a refreshing challlenge over Warlock. Cranking it up to insane was, well, insane as they had about 20x production and resources. That said, I like a game that gives an impossible task as long as there's ways to scale as high as possible against it.

Beat it pretty well on challenging as my starting campaign, but there were 2 occasions where the AI was in a very good position and I had to re-read the situation and change strategies accordingly. I'd say it was refreshingly challenging and is probably going to be my comfort play level, if not one or 2 notches higher.

Current game is with a custom race and cranked a one notch below insane and am currently leading the scoreboard. Once again it felt refreshingly challenging and there always sems to be something bigger and badder around the corner to keep you wanting more out of your civ. This is similar to warlock, but has the end-game to match.

GuildWars 2 (10h) - Veeyar Bones, 65 Mesmer - Has a knack for putting me to sleep when playing it. Not sure why, but it's done it a couple of times. I think it's the level of mental intensity required.  Few more dungeons and play sessions at LANs.


Terraria (5h) - Cam's go-to game again, along with Mad God

Notoriously databased (5h) - Another playthrough once I put in the end-game. I won it, but I think the bounties and win state have tightened it up a lot and brought back some intentional interaction. Fortifications are still broken, but apart from that it's in a pretty good place at the moment.
 



Football Manager 2013 (4h) - picked it up at a great price, but other games and steam sales have kept it on the backburner. the challenge modes look very interesting, especially since the involver your own team.

Realm of the Mad God (3h) - More time with Cam.