Yeah, so recently I finished the Deverry Cycle...
It took me 15 books to get to the end. But yeah, it's finished now.
What do I think of it?
Well, it's quite the read, although it takes a while before a storyline is finished.... It's a hell to get to the end of a story that took a few centuries to finish, certainly if you take into account several rebirths with some people surviving for some of those centuries. every book ends with a big battle (which sometimes is a bit unnecessary) and some story lines took way too long to finish...
Honestly this is only for those who would take the time to read all 15 book one after another...
The magic is quite interesting, but it didn't really change any views I have on this matter.
If you want it better you should read the Robin Hobb, Realm of the Elderlings series, where every 3 books can be read as a separate whole.
Sure, the story goes on in every book, but the story ends with every few books.
The only problem I have with it is that it's an on-going series, while you can read until "latest released" you'll have to wait until the next one is finished and released. I'm waiting for the "The Rain Wilds Chronicles" to end so I can read them from beginning to end.
Anyways, that's all I can write at the moment. If I have enough time I'll change some things, but now I'm writing this it a slightly tipsied state (2 "La Chouffe", 2 cognacs, 2 Filliers Gins and a Dürüm) this post may seem a bit out of my usual writing style.
Thank you anyway for reading.
-ThOR
15 August 2012
27 July 2012
Magical additions
After posting my previous post on this matter I remembered I forgot some things.
For example the wands/staffs many link to magicians.
In my opinion I think they don't hold any real power by themselves, they merely are a way of focusing. For example instead of visualizing yourself focusing on something you can use for example a wand to point at what you're doing and it will help you keep your focus.
Of course some may "cheat" and add some life power or some thinking abilities to it so it helps out with performing the magic I'm describing (more on that in a future post).
Of course, once you figure out the atomic changing you can do pretty much anything.
You could, for example, figure out how an eye is build, figure out how it's connected to the rest of the body and give yourself a third eye.
You could improve your body, you could adjust things that never were adjustable before... but this would be very dangerous as you could accidentally kill you in the process.
This atomic fiddling is of course not the easiest thing to do, so only great masters of concentration would be able to do this.
Also knowing that most magic is basically the manipulation of energy big magician cities should have some kind of energy pool, a central place that can store energy for magicians to use. The hardest part of having this is being able to use it from a distance. Your spirit is in general only able to manipulate energy in your body. A magician is already able to manipulate things outside his body, still close enough to focus on.
Anyone wanting to use the energy pool needs to be able to focus on (reach with his spirit to) that energy pool. The easiest way to circumvent this problem is to come closer to the pool, so you can easier access it or carry some container with you or using your body as one. The last one is again very dangerous, as you could drain too much from your body and die from it (gee, I've got a lot of dieing in this post...).
Anyways, there will be at least one more post on this subject, but not now.
Until the next one.
-ThOR
For example the wands/staffs many link to magicians.
In my opinion I think they don't hold any real power by themselves, they merely are a way of focusing. For example instead of visualizing yourself focusing on something you can use for example a wand to point at what you're doing and it will help you keep your focus.
Of course some may "cheat" and add some life power or some thinking abilities to it so it helps out with performing the magic I'm describing (more on that in a future post).
Of course, once you figure out the atomic changing you can do pretty much anything.
You could, for example, figure out how an eye is build, figure out how it's connected to the rest of the body and give yourself a third eye.
You could improve your body, you could adjust things that never were adjustable before... but this would be very dangerous as you could accidentally kill you in the process.
This atomic fiddling is of course not the easiest thing to do, so only great masters of concentration would be able to do this.
Also knowing that most magic is basically the manipulation of energy big magician cities should have some kind of energy pool, a central place that can store energy for magicians to use. The hardest part of having this is being able to use it from a distance. Your spirit is in general only able to manipulate energy in your body. A magician is already able to manipulate things outside his body, still close enough to focus on.
Anyone wanting to use the energy pool needs to be able to focus on (reach with his spirit to) that energy pool. The easiest way to circumvent this problem is to come closer to the pool, so you can easier access it or carry some container with you or using your body as one. The last one is again very dangerous, as you could drain too much from your body and die from it (gee, I've got a lot of dieing in this post...).
Anyways, there will be at least one more post on this subject, but not now.
Until the next one.
-ThOR
20 July 2012
One more game
Oh, how I could forget about this one.
In my previous post I talked about games that are in development and which I would like to see finished. Somehow one game slipped through my memory wile I was writing it but I like it too much to forget about.
Overgrowth
The developpers call it a spiritual successor to "Lugaru" which I have played. In that game the combat was very simple and quite contextual, having only 3 action-buttons: jump, attack, crouch/reverse.
When you jump while moving you will leap forward, if an enemy happens to be very close to your landing spot and you press attack (or jump, I don't really remember...) just before hitting him you'll jump off of him launching him further (and most probably disabling him). Any attack can be countered. The flying kick I just described would be blocked by an enemy noticing you before you land the hit, so he'll grab you by the legs (you're a rabbit, it isn't hard to grab those legs in flight...) and revert your attack by making you land face first...
If an enemy attacks you you can do the same, but only if you hit the button just before his attack lands, otherwise you'll go into crouch, which is a weaker position for you to attack him...
The game had very little information on the HUD, the only way to figure out how your character is feeling is by listening to the sounds and watching the posture he has. But in general it still was a hitpoint based game.
Now they're developing the idea further. No more hitpoints. The combat is entirely bone based. A kick to the arm is offsetting, a kick to the head knocks you out or kills you. You kan kill yourself by jumping up, timing your roll badly and landing on your head.
You can choke and drag enemies, hold them as a meat shield, disarm them, and many more, all without the need for a HUD, in a very fast paced fighting style.
That's it for now.
-ThOR
In my previous post I talked about games that are in development and which I would like to see finished. Somehow one game slipped through my memory wile I was writing it but I like it too much to forget about.
Overgrowth
The developpers call it a spiritual successor to "Lugaru" which I have played. In that game the combat was very simple and quite contextual, having only 3 action-buttons: jump, attack, crouch/reverse.
When you jump while moving you will leap forward, if an enemy happens to be very close to your landing spot and you press attack (or jump, I don't really remember...) just before hitting him you'll jump off of him launching him further (and most probably disabling him). Any attack can be countered. The flying kick I just described would be blocked by an enemy noticing you before you land the hit, so he'll grab you by the legs (you're a rabbit, it isn't hard to grab those legs in flight...) and revert your attack by making you land face first...
If an enemy attacks you you can do the same, but only if you hit the button just before his attack lands, otherwise you'll go into crouch, which is a weaker position for you to attack him...
The game had very little information on the HUD, the only way to figure out how your character is feeling is by listening to the sounds and watching the posture he has. But in general it still was a hitpoint based game.
Now they're developing the idea further. No more hitpoints. The combat is entirely bone based. A kick to the arm is offsetting, a kick to the head knocks you out or kills you. You kan kill yourself by jumping up, timing your roll badly and landing on your head.
You can choke and drag enemies, hold them as a meat shield, disarm them, and many more, all without the need for a HUD, in a very fast paced fighting style.
That's it for now.
-ThOR
21 June 2012
Games I would like to see finished
So, E3 is going on but for some reason I don't feel like paying much attention to it.
Why? Shooter, shooter, shooter and some other genres. Not much variety in there. I think the best shooter has been made years ago (the Half Life series for singleplayer, Counterstrike for multiplayer) so I'm a bit more interested in other stuff.
Let me make a list of the few games I'm actually waiting for to be finished so I can throw some money at it:
It will have real-time synthesized music that you'll be able to compose your own music with it (I kinda hope for a built-in recorder) presented in a very nice low poly look.
The art style of this game is enough for me to instantly want to buy and play it, but unfortunately it's still under development (like all the games in this list).
We all (should) have heard of a terrifying game called Dwarf Fortress. I would have liked the game and have played it fully if only it had a more accessible interface. Luckily Castle story looks like it will live up to that hope. Sure, the developers don't have that much depth planned, but I'm pretty sure after this game releases someone will make a mod that adds all these functions to it. All the more reasons to wait for this game to be released.
The "New Game From Notch" (aka "oh ex ten to the cth", "Ox ten see", "Oxy tensee" but actually its "0x" as in "the next number is in hexadecimal" and the "10c" as in "that's 1612 in decimal").
A space game, low poly graphics, sandbox, RPG, fully customizable spaceships with fully programmable computers, single and multiplayer connected via the multiverse, duct tape and lots of engineering. These were only a few features Notch has planned for it.
Together with the raging community this will result in piracy, epic space battles, player programmed Operating Systems, custom ships with a lot of references to movies or series, ... just way too much to think of.
The game is just in it's starting phase, meaning Notch barely has the general gameplay mechanics implemented (gravity, lighting, movement) while he often requests for community input. This means we all still can dream of what it will become.
It just recently got in development, so we'll see what becomes of it.
There are some alternatives to this concept like Rodina and Infinity-Universe, but even those are under development...
"Haha!" you may think, "You can't fool me, Minecraft is out for about half a year now!"
Yes, it is, but no it isn't out of development yet. The Mojang team is working hard on getting the game to where they want it to be, Minecraft development is far from done. Although I already threw a bit of money at it.
The effects of a Minecraft out of development are easy creation of mods, easy installing of said mods, optimized gameplay with lots of terrain features, a less raging community (since there won't be huge updates anymore), bug free playtime and much more.
Minecraft still has a bit to go until it's complete, but it already is one of my favorite games ever...
--
(end of list, for now) (hmm, I thought there would be a few more...)
Anyways, I think I talked enough about games, let's play them...
-ThOR
Why? Shooter, shooter, shooter and some other genres. Not much variety in there. I think the best shooter has been made years ago (the Half Life series for singleplayer, Counterstrike for multiplayer) so I'm a bit more interested in other stuff.
Let me make a list of the few games I'm actually waiting for to be finished so I can throw some money at it:
Fract
Fract is an adventure type game, from what I understood after playing their prototype. You walk around in an amazingly nice looking low poly world solving puzzles, getting old machinery working without actually knowing what they do and gradually discovering more of the world.It will have real-time synthesized music that you'll be able to compose your own music with it (I kinda hope for a built-in recorder) presented in a very nice low poly look.
The art style of this game is enough for me to instantly want to buy and play it, but unfortunately it's still under development (like all the games in this list).
Castle story
We all (should) have heard of a terrifying game called Dwarf Fortress. I would have liked the game and have played it fully if only it had a more accessible interface. Luckily Castle story looks like it will live up to that hope. Sure, the developers don't have that much depth planned, but I'm pretty sure after this game releases someone will make a mod that adds all these functions to it. All the more reasons to wait for this game to be released.
0x10c
The "New Game From Notch" (aka "oh ex ten to the cth", "Ox ten see", "Oxy tensee" but actually its "0x" as in "the next number is in hexadecimal" and the "10c" as in "that's 1612 in decimal").
A space game, low poly graphics, sandbox, RPG, fully customizable spaceships with fully programmable computers, single and multiplayer connected via the multiverse, duct tape and lots of engineering. These were only a few features Notch has planned for it.
Together with the raging community this will result in piracy, epic space battles, player programmed Operating Systems, custom ships with a lot of references to movies or series, ... just way too much to think of.
The game is just in it's starting phase, meaning Notch barely has the general gameplay mechanics implemented (gravity, lighting, movement) while he often requests for community input. This means we all still can dream of what it will become.
It just recently got in development, so we'll see what becomes of it.
There are some alternatives to this concept like Rodina and Infinity-Universe, but even those are under development...
Minecraft
"Haha!" you may think, "You can't fool me, Minecraft is out for about half a year now!"
Yes, it is, but no it isn't out of development yet. The Mojang team is working hard on getting the game to where they want it to be, Minecraft development is far from done. Although I already threw a bit of money at it.
The effects of a Minecraft out of development are easy creation of mods, easy installing of said mods, optimized gameplay with lots of terrain features, a less raging community (since there won't be huge updates anymore), bug free playtime and much more.
Minecraft still has a bit to go until it's complete, but it already is one of my favorite games ever...
--
(end of list, for now) (hmm, I thought there would be a few more...)
Anyways, I think I talked enough about games, let's play them...
-ThOR
19 June 2012
Magic
We all have heard about it somehow, somewhere, mostly in stories (like movies, books and games).
But what is it?
Well, I don't know and I won't tell you that, I'll only tell you what I think it is.
But first I'll have to explain to you guys how I think living beings live.
If you hadn't noticed: this post will be a quite philosophic one.
In my opinion any living being exists out of 3 main components. A soul (the energy), the spirit (the thinking ability) and a body (a "vessel" for the other two). Please note these terms have nothing to do with what a dictionary says they mean (I didn't search it), I use these terms because they are the closest to what I mean when using them.
So the soul contains the energy a being needs to think/live/be, the spirit is a term to describe the thoughts and the consciousness while the body is "simply" the embodiment of the immaterial parts of the being.
Despite the many abilities a being has it's limited to what the it can do. A spirit without a body or soul can't do much more than think (and therefore only "be"), a soul alone would only be energy floating around and a body on itself would fall apart. On the other hand a being without a soul wouldn't have the energy to do something, a being without a spirit either and a being without a body wouldn't exist in this world all together.
So every part needs all the other parts for the being to be functional and every part needs all other parts to be functional. Because of this every part is limited to what all other parts can do. A spirit can't influence anything outside the body, a soul can't "power" anything because of the same restrictions.
But imagine someone who can use his spirit to influence energy. This someone could take energy from other places (or his own body) and use it to influence something else.
This someone (from now on called "the Magician") would firstly be able to control temperature by moving energy away from whatever should be cooled and towards whatever should be warmed/heated/combusted. Yes,in my opinion that should be all it takes to make something burn. It may be a bit of a problem to gather enough energy for something to catch fire but within this frame of reference it's the easiest and most imprecise way because you just "put" a lot of energy in on place or take it away from another.
The next step would be to move something. Since temperature makes atoms move faster or slower the Magician already does this, but now he should apply this energy in such a way that it actually becomes a force that influences his subject. Making a ball roll, making a Rubix Cube solve itself and making things fly are all in this category.
The final step is taking a material and changing it into something else. Why should this be one of the hardest things? Because it involves manipulating energies on a (sub)atomic scale.
To be able to do this kind of stuff the Magician first needs to know what he's doing exactly and until now some parts of quantum physics are by (the real, existing) scientists explained as 'magic' for lack of a better word. (For example electrons. Once you try observing them as particles they'll start behaving like waves. Try observing them as waves they'll start behaving like particles. Why? Magic!)
Once the Magician has figured out what he's doing he has to manipulate energy in such a way it affects that atom just in the way he wants it, which requires some serious focus.
For some decent results he also needs to do this on quite some atoms, so I can imagine real atom Magicians would be very rare.
I say it again: this is just how I think Magic would exists, if it would happen to be real. I don't know if it really does exist, I wouldn't know if it doesn't.
Anyways, I think I wrote enough for now.
See you a next time.
-ThOR
But what is it?
Well, I don't know and I won't tell you that, I'll only tell you what I think it is.
But first I'll have to explain to you guys how I think living beings live.
If you hadn't noticed: this post will be a quite philosophic one.
In my opinion any living being exists out of 3 main components. A soul (the energy), the spirit (the thinking ability) and a body (a "vessel" for the other two). Please note these terms have nothing to do with what a dictionary says they mean (I didn't search it), I use these terms because they are the closest to what I mean when using them.
So the soul contains the energy a being needs to think/live/be, the spirit is a term to describe the thoughts and the consciousness while the body is "simply" the embodiment of the immaterial parts of the being.
Despite the many abilities a being has it's limited to what the it can do. A spirit without a body or soul can't do much more than think (and therefore only "be"), a soul alone would only be energy floating around and a body on itself would fall apart. On the other hand a being without a soul wouldn't have the energy to do something, a being without a spirit either and a being without a body wouldn't exist in this world all together.
So every part needs all the other parts for the being to be functional and every part needs all other parts to be functional. Because of this every part is limited to what all other parts can do. A spirit can't influence anything outside the body, a soul can't "power" anything because of the same restrictions.
But imagine someone who can use his spirit to influence energy. This someone could take energy from other places (or his own body) and use it to influence something else.
This someone (from now on called "the Magician") would firstly be able to control temperature by moving energy away from whatever should be cooled and towards whatever should be warmed/heated/combusted. Yes,in my opinion that should be all it takes to make something burn. It may be a bit of a problem to gather enough energy for something to catch fire but within this frame of reference it's the easiest and most imprecise way because you just "put" a lot of energy in on place or take it away from another.
The next step would be to move something. Since temperature makes atoms move faster or slower the Magician already does this, but now he should apply this energy in such a way that it actually becomes a force that influences his subject. Making a ball roll, making a Rubix Cube solve itself and making things fly are all in this category.
The final step is taking a material and changing it into something else. Why should this be one of the hardest things? Because it involves manipulating energies on a (sub)atomic scale.
To be able to do this kind of stuff the Magician first needs to know what he's doing exactly and until now some parts of quantum physics are by (the real, existing) scientists explained as 'magic' for lack of a better word. (For example electrons. Once you try observing them as particles they'll start behaving like waves. Try observing them as waves they'll start behaving like particles. Why? Magic!)
Once the Magician has figured out what he's doing he has to manipulate energy in such a way it affects that atom just in the way he wants it, which requires some serious focus.
For some decent results he also needs to do this on quite some atoms, so I can imagine real atom Magicians would be very rare.
I say it again: this is just how I think Magic would exists, if it would happen to be real. I don't know if it really does exist, I wouldn't know if it doesn't.
Anyways, I think I wrote enough for now.
See you a next time.
-ThOR
08 May 2012
The Other R*****, Part 2
Well, I already made a post on this. Now I have received an answer from Comet:
In the thread where the discussion started he said: "Why won't you call yourself 'TheOtherNiggerFag', see how that turns out."
I won't call myself 'TheOtherNiggerFag' because I have nothing to do with the word Nigger, and I don't identify myself with people with a darker skin. Not that I will avoid them, I have friends that are pretty much "chocolate brown" and I have no problem being seen with them. (Some exceptions are made when it's late at night and I'm walking to my home when a group of 15 of them, dressed as New-Timey Gangsters, stares at me), nor do I relate myself to the group of Fags (Yes, one of my best (male) friends has a boyfriend and I'm completely okay with that. As long as they remain decent in the presence of other people (as ANY couple should do)).
I mostly relate to the group of Retards, acting 'stupid' (in the eyes of other people) for no particular reason, being happy with the smallest thing they receive, ...
If I could I'd like to share some of my IQ with my mentally retarded nephew so he could see the world a bit more like we do (but on the other hand I don't think he'll be as happy as he is now with that gift...).
I care about anyone who has a disadvantage in any way, as I know they'll be pretty much picked on by the first bully they meet (children can be evil to each other once they find a weak spot).
In any way I'll keep my name as 'TheOtherRetard' unless the website's Admins say otherwise, next will be 'ThOR' (with that exact capitalization) and if that's not available I'll figure out something different.
I think that's all I have to say on this theme...
Thank you for reading.
-ThOR
Well, to put it simply, it's hate speech.(I did make it a bit more readable, but it's mostly copied out of my inbox).
Hate speech that has been diffused throughout the west and has lost some of its impact, but hate speech nonetheless, and that is not lost on those the word targets.
I'll put it like this; if the word nigger became prevalent across the west (again) and was used in common conversation, and lost some of its impact, would you expect black people to not be offended? And people are offended even if you don't use it around them, as you're still promoting the idea that such speech is acceptable.
I remember you said that even if we stop using the word retard, another word will take it's place, but unless we try and stop the use of such language in the first place things are unlikely to get any better, and at the least we can make the use of such language less common. Thank you for changing your name.
In the thread where the discussion started he said: "Why won't you call yourself 'TheOtherNiggerFag', see how that turns out."
I won't call myself 'TheOtherNiggerFag' because I have nothing to do with the word Nigger, and I don't identify myself with people with a darker skin. Not that I will avoid them, I have friends that are pretty much "chocolate brown" and I have no problem being seen with them. (Some exceptions are made when it's late at night and I'm walking to my home when a group of 15 of them, dressed as New-Timey Gangsters, stares at me), nor do I relate myself to the group of Fags (Yes, one of my best (male) friends has a boyfriend and I'm completely okay with that. As long as they remain decent in the presence of other people (as ANY couple should do)).
I mostly relate to the group of Retards, acting 'stupid' (in the eyes of other people) for no particular reason, being happy with the smallest thing they receive, ...
If I could I'd like to share some of my IQ with my mentally retarded nephew so he could see the world a bit more like we do (but on the other hand I don't think he'll be as happy as he is now with that gift...).
I care about anyone who has a disadvantage in any way, as I know they'll be pretty much picked on by the first bully they meet (children can be evil to each other once they find a weak spot).
In any way I'll keep my name as 'TheOtherRetard' unless the website's Admins say otherwise, next will be 'ThOR' (with that exact capitalization) and if that's not available I'll figure out something different.
I think that's all I have to say on this theme...
Thank you for reading.
-ThOR
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