How I Almost Could Have Died Today (not part of an ongoing series)

This hurricane season may be slack, but that doesn't mean my experiences with Floridian severe weather are over. A nice little splotch of tornadic activity decided to tear across the county this afternoon.

I was in the computer lab in the engineering building, contemplating whether to stay on campus for Ultimate Frisbee or come home, when I got an email from the school about a tornado warning in the area for the next 45 minutes. It didn't look bad outside, so I walked halfway across campus to the student center. When I got there, some people were suggesting that everyone stay in the hall away from windows. I checked my mail, came back through the hallway, and realized that the sky suddenly looked much nastier. I decided I should wait it out instead of driving home, so I went next door to the library under a rapidly changing sky. There, people were being told to leave the glass-walled Starbucks cafe and head to the auditorium.

Soon after I entered the library, there was an announcement that everyone should stay inside until further notice. Not wanting to miss a good storm, I headed up to the second floor to look out the nearest to a decent window that can be found on the building. That was just as the storm front was closing in, and I saw something I had never seen before. On one side of the building, the sky looked almost peaceful. On the other, dark gray clouds were billowing around just a hundred feet of the ground, obscuring the entire sky. I didn't get any photos, partly because it was hard enough just to see out the high windows and partly because my phone wouldn't have produced anything worth looking at under those conditions.

At this point I decided that this was a serious storm warning and not just an overreaction following the Christmas Day tornado, so I headed back downstairs to a more secure area to await the impending doom.

Well, had I met my fate, I would have done so in the casual reading area of the library, casually slouching in an armchair beneath cases of aircraft models, casually reading Tolkien's The Children of Húrin. What a way to go.

As far as I know there were no actual tornadoes, but the storm was intense nonetheless. From the sound of it, I don't think anyone would have wanted to be outside during the 30 minutes or so that it was raining. There was a continuous roar from the wind and rain, loud enough to drown out any thunder that was probably happening. The warning was extended another 15 minutes before everyone was finally allowed to leave. It was still raining enough to get wet in, but the wind had all but stopped and the sky looked less ominous. On the way home there was a flooded patch of road, and even in the open lane I drove through several inches of water. I saw a few tree branches down, including a rather large one near my driveway, but no serious damage.

All in all, this hardly qualifies as one of Florida's annual freak weather events, but I'll still count it as one of its attempts on my life.

AWOL: A Week of Links

Yes, that's right, more weekly linkage fresh from the internets.

• After the Somali pirate raid that captured a ship full of Ukranian tanks, an international fleet of warships established a secure sea lane to protect ships moving through the region.
• This video about the history of the "housing bubble" and the mortgage crisis explains one of the major factors of the current economic crisis and why it happened. Of course, the mainstream media and the government would like to pretend otherwise.
• In one of the more morbid news stories I've heard recently- reported by a Colorado news station- there are pieces of unidentified meat washing up on shore in New Jersey. Personally, I suspect it's Kraken.
• If you're interested in software development, which I know you aren't, check out esr's (Eric S Raymond, the hacker) essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar. I haven't read it myself yet, though I've read some of his other stuff.
• Justin R Durban, aka edgen, composes music for video game and movie soundtracks, among other cool creative things. I don't know what it is, but something about his music is just epic.
• At last the wreckage of daredevil adventurer Steve Fosset's plane was found in the mountains of eastern California, just over a year after his disappearance.
• Gene Cernan, commander of the last Apollo mission, and Damaris Sarria, Boeing engineer at KSC, got together to promote the 50th anniversary of NASA. Of course, we all know the "moon landing" was really staged at a film studio on Mars.
  

Mount & Blade Review

I mentioned in AWOL last week that Mount & Blade was finally released. This was version 1.0, officially brining it out of the long public beta. M&B is a pseudo-RPG focused on realistic combat. It is set in the land of Calradia, a loose analogue to medieval Europe where warring kingdoms fight for dominance, raiders and bandits prey on the weak, and adventurers seek out their own fortunes. As a lone adventurer, you are dropped into the middle of this world to do as you wish.

 

Concept art (images from Taleworlds.com gallery)

The developers, originally just a husband and wife team in Turkey, got the players involved very early. During the beta you could download a free trial which only allowed a small amount of progress, then buy a key to unlock the full game. As development progressed and the game neared completion, the price for the key increased, but later upgrades were always free. This provided an incentive for players to get involved early and save money, while providing the developers with steady income to fund the project and a large fan base to contribute to it.

 

Combat on horseback

I started playing about 3 years ago, with version 0.6xx. Since then the game has changed quite a bit. The game world is much larger and more complex now, and there are many more options available to the player. Quests, items, characters, factions, castles, fiefs, and abilities have all been added or changed. The latest version features 5 warring kingdoms, dozens of characters with relations and loyalties, hundreds of items, and large dynamic world full of cities, villages, castles, caravans, and warbands.

 

One of the various castles in Calradia

One thing has remained the same: the trademark free-form combat system. Unlike most true RPG's, which rely on stats and commands in combat, M&B allows the player to directly control the character and issue orders to allies. This means that a good character alone will not survive combat- you must also be a good fighter, and a good tactician. Stats only increase the effectiveness of your own actions. This more than anything else sets M&B apart as its own genre, a sort of historical tactical fighter game.

 

The bloody results of a battle

M&B is completely open-ended, allowing you to do whatever you want from the start- though this doesn't mean that you decisions will not have consequences. Faction lords remember your actions, favorable or not. You can swear allegiance to a lord, gaining his favor and his enemies' hostility. In time you may be offered a fief- or you can capture an enemy castle yourself. You can free Calradia of bandits, or join them and pillage indiscriminately. In time you may become a poweful warlord yourself, or be crushed by the wrath of a powerful kingdom. The choice is always up to you.

 

Storming the walls of a castle

The game has been very open to modification, allowing a variety of player-created mods to emerge during the beta. They range from cosmetic to fundamental, minor tweaks to complete overhauls. The Lord of the Rings, Caribbean pirates, the American Revolution, Star Wars, medieval Europe, and various other historical and fantasy settings have been featured in mods already.

 

Arming for battle

The demo is still available here. This includes the full game, but only allows you to play until reaching level 6, which usually takes about 4 hours of gameplay. The full unlocked version can be purchased via a serial key for $29.99.

Gamespot gave M&B a meager 6.0 in its review, but what to they know? Users have awarded it a generous 8.9. Here's my own rating:

Gameplay: 8
Admittedly there is little to do in this game but fight, but it does that very well. The free-form combat system is a fun and challenging release from the typical click-to-attack routine. The complex socio-political system does well to add some depth and dynamic plot to an otherwise absent storyline. The interface is simple, and there is little to learn besides how to fight.

Graphics: 7.5
It's no Crysis, but considering the small scale of this game's development team, it's an impressive feat. The graphics are almost on par with Oblivion, the award-winning 2006 RPG to which it is most often compared. The characters could still use some work, but in the heat of battle you don't notice. The environments look great, and the new interface is very well done.

Audio: 6.5
The game includes a custom soundtrack with powerful music, but it's somewhat repetitive. Sound effects sometimes sound artificial, and battle noise lacks emotion. Audible threats from enemies are a nice touch. Unlike some RPGs, text dialogue is not accompanied by speech.


Replayability: 8.5
With a completely open plot- or lack thereof- the early game can be boring after the first run, but once you get some momentum the world is completely open to you. With options to join one of 5 factions or remain neutral, there is a lot to explore and do in the wide world of Calradia. And if you ever get tired of that, there are plenty of mods to enrich and extend the scope of the game.

Overall, I would give the game 8/10. It certainly has room for improvement, but it has already been endless hours of fun. The gaming industry could learn a lot from Mount & Blade, and I hope this will not be the only game of its kind.

AWOL: A Week of Links

No, I didn't forget! It's still Sunday in most of the country.

• Google started a new project called 10 to the 100th (the definition of one googol) to promote ideas that can change the world by helping as many people as possible. I'm assuming that sharing the gospel with them doesn't count.
  
• If you happen find yourself in an argument over which of two things are gayer, you can now appeal to the interwebs to settle the dispute. I already did us the favor of comparing you and me.
  
• Somali pirates, in the raid of their likely abbreviated lives, have captured a Ukranian ship carrying 33 tanks. They later demanded a $35M ransom for the ship and crew, then lowered the price as a USN destroyer approached.
• The little Russian town of Chelyabinsk became a Google Maps landmark when they formed a giant smiley face just as the imaging satellite passed overhead.
• Firaxis Games released its newest title Civilization IV: Colonization, a remake of the 1994 classic using the Civ4 engine. I'm half tempted to buy it, then I remind myself that it is in effect a glorified Civ4 mod in commercial packaging.
• Legendary actor Paul Newman died of cancer Friday at the age of 83. Coincidentally, I ate some of his spaghetti sauce with dinner.
• China has made another important step in its space program, completing its first spacewalk during the Shenzhou 7 mission. Next thing you know, they'll be pretending to land on the moon.
• Also in space news, SpaceX just put the first private spacecraft in orbit with the successful launch of its Falcon 1 vehicle, on the fourth such attempt.
  

What I'm doing all semester

Now that my stint at ISU is over, I'm back to normal college life. Except that now I'm a senior, and living in a house with my 2 roommates.

This is week 5 of the semester, so by now I've settled back into the routine and have a good idea of what the rest of the semester should be like. I'm taking 5 classes:

Real-time Systems: this is an advanced "how computers work" course, focused on, of course, real-time systems, which have strict timing requirements. It hasn't been particularly difficult so far, but the lab projects are time consuming. Also, the professor is known for his difficult tests.

Computer Architecture: also "how computers work", but at a lower level* and more focused on hardware. Nearly useless for software engineers, but it's a required course. Due to a combination of a terrible professor and tedious subject matter, I have a very hard time staying conscious in this class, and have already given up on paying attention. Too bad it's in the middle of the day.

Senior Design: the capstone design course for engineering students. It's a year-long team project that usually extends beyond the course itself. This year we're working on EcoCar, an engineering competition hosted by GM and the DoE to advance hybrid vehicle technology. The computer and software engineering team (my class) is working on the computer systems that will control the hybrid modes and user interface. Just this week I was assigned to the Intelligent Systems team, which is responsible for the decision-making process. More on this later.

User Interface Design: This class meets once a week, for 3 hours on Tuesday evenings. It's a combination graduate and undergraduate course with extra assignments for the grad students. The subject is interesting, but the curriculum could be better. Most of the time is spent on somewhat trivial group work and debating the finer points of software analysis. There is a team project involving a user interface for a weather data filter that other graduate classes are working on. Fortunately my team consists of my household.

Intro to Human Factors: The misfit. It's my only class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and the only one not explicitly computer-focused. The class is easy- a nice change from my long and busy Tuesday-Thursday schedule- but between the course material, the professor, and the class demographics I feel like I'm back in high school. I'm only taking this class because it's a prereq for any other HF course that I could take as part of my concentration electives.

In addition to my classes, I'm playing with the Ultimate Frisbee club, going to Friday Night Bible Study, and working the media equipment for the church's new Sunday evening contemporary service. I also have some occasional free time, which I typically spend browsing the intertubes or playing Civilization.

So that's that. It's a busy and awkward schedule but I'm getting along with it. We'll see how stable I am in another 10 weeks.

*remind me to post a story about this sometime.