Colourful Stuff

Xbox One = the third Xbox

J!

All new Telltale employees must be able to jump higher than Barack Obama.

I get them from time to time! I'd always assumed they were accumulated bacterial biofilm, it's nice to know they are the oral equivalent of limescale. Other gross things my body does? Nothing really although I have an alarmingly asymmetrical ribcage. Despite no recollection of injuring my chest one rib on the right hand side seems to be recessed beneath its neighbours. It rarely causes problems but running can cause a tightness in that area. My clavicles are also a bit off, one able to pop out of place. This makes me think it could be a developmental problem or childhood injury.

GeoGuessr complete. http://www.geoguessr.com/?v=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%3D

I'm glad my assumptions were accurate. I think we can all sleep more soundly know the true origin of "colour your hair". Just to remind people why James Stewart is the perennial dad here is a poem about his dog.

I think it's a reference to a scene in Vertigo where James Stewart's character makes Kim Novak's character colour her hair. The actual line is, "the colour of your hair". The clip isn't on YouTube so I can't be sure, but that is what I've always interpreted it as. Alternatively it could just be Jake being a weirdo.

Do you know who did the Wolfman commercial? I get a strong and unsettling Monkey Dust vibe from it.

It seems quite charming. The performances are maybe a little reminiscent of Deadly Premonition. I'll pick it up if it goes on sale.

Erkki, I think the ventilation system would suck up any water droplets pretty quickly. Also most of the wires you see are discreet science experiments, not crucial station systems.

Every time they say "no love for dad?" I think of James Stewart. I'm not sure why, maybe he is a father figure to me.

I had the exact same idea. The space junk is unlikely to collide with anything but it does make it tricky to pick out targets on the map. My idea was for a big box built in orbit which could be used to scoop up junk before crashing it into Kerbal. My space station program was satisfying, I just wish there was more to do with it. Running crew transfers is fun but unless you shuttle up tons of fuel there seems to be little utility. I'm not sure what the campaign will be but I'd like to assign Kerbals to micro gravity research, assuming there will be a tech tree.

My seven section space station, Brussels (space stations are named after European cities I like). It was really an exercise in orbital construction. I'm considering turning it into a petrol station. This is the lander stage of my Luna rover, Orpheus 2 (all unmanned vehicles are named after Nick Cave albums or songs, naturally.) A stepping stone to future Mars missions. Textbook (if you have rubbish textbooks.) Successful rover deployment. Unsuccessful rover driving. Edit: Also Moon 2: Electric Moonaloo, and Mars.

I think it is literally impossible. If I'm not mistaken the crowd AI is based on a particle effect and in those situations the civilians are just flowing like a perpetual river of humanity.

The Sepatrons are very cool. If I'm launching something ungainly like a probe or lander I'll usually put a detachable nose cone on with Sepatrons to blast it out of my path. They are especially good for avoiding damage to solar panels. Gimbal locks seem essential for launching larger payloads into precise orbits. Used correctly they can save a lot of fuel which would otherwise have to be used for correction in orbit. Struts are great but they can be hilariously dangerous. One ill fated rocket design saw the struts shearing off the canards and causing an uncontrollable spin.

God, the number of times I've forgot to lock my gimbels. I think a lot of the space disasters stem from losing track of all the variables in play. Success or failure feels like your responsibility in the current design. More robust map tools may make piloting feel too automated. As it is their is enough randomness and uncertainty for small mistakes or oversights to accumulate and become amplified over time. A few degrees off 90° can mean the difference between making Moon history and condemning your crew to a fate worse than death. If you had fuel calculation tools you would have never sent your ill fated mission and not leaned a valuable lesson about foresight.

Is the space telescope a mod? Those shots are very cool. I saw Nick crashed Kerbals into Mars today. Once I get my space station up and running I might have to try besting him. How does one maneuver in a solar orbit? Is it just a Hohmann transfer in a specific launch window? Nappi, if you clean that up I'll buy a boiler suit and iron on that patch. I've already started taking flight notes, a uniform is the next logical step.

Just spin it as the first mission to permanently inhabit the moon, sideways.

I've been teaching myself the art of orbital docking today. A litany of disasters. The Carcassonne Program aims to construct the first permanently habitable satellite, or "space station". The scale is something akin to the SkyLab stations, maybe a little larger. Achieving a stable, circular, 90° LEO with the structural core I felt pretty good about myself. Then maneuvering the first solar array within visual range before carefully docking with the core and decoupling the part from my service module, I felt like a space lord. This is when the first mishap occurred. I accidentally hit the space bar, detaching the engine, leaving my three man crew orbiting impotently in their command module. These men had just made history, pioneers of flight; they had to be rescued. The plan was economical and elegant. Send the next component, a four man living compartment to rendezvous with the stranded command module, dock and transfer the crew into the station component. This I did with some difficulty due to an unfortunate nudge which resulted in some difficult to manage spinning. I succeeded and it seamed that Carcassonne would its first, very dizzy occupants. Docking was uneventful (which felt like an achievement in itself). This mission at this point was going better than I could of hope. Maybe as an effort by the Kerbal gods to clip my Icarian wings it became impossible to decouple the connection between service vehicle and station. Now my rescue party are stuck onto their rescued quarry, awaiting a second rescue party to bring them back home.

This week saw my KSP landing their first two Kerbals on the moon. I set myself the challenge of doing this without any external information except for what I could glean from real NASA history. Nick is right in his observation that this makes for a more satisfying experience than following a guide. Maybe the 12 heroic scientists sacrificed to this end would have preferred I seek expert guidance.

I hope this isn't another 30 hour slog. I love GTA 4 but ultimately enjoyed the tighter arc of the Ballad of Gay Biker Gangs more. I've tried replaying the main game a few times but haven't been able to get very far. There is some really great writing, especially with Brucey, that gets lost in all the bum gravy. Maybe I'm being a bit oversensitive (probably because I just listened to the This American Life double about gang violence in Harper High School) but does the playable black character really have to be a gang banger? The "it's our heritage" line from his friend is what got me. The implication is surely that violent is something they are, not a means to an end. His trailer makes it seem that Franklin's life could be summarised by a rap lyric.

After watching the stream I decided to get KSP and play it in a vacuum (no pun intended.) I'd played it a few years ago, back when the demo was still being updated, so had a very basic grasp of the game. By avoiding any external information I hoped to better simulate a bloated and irresponsible space program. Finally after 30 hours, a dozen dead Kerbals and an ocean of rocket fuel I landed Hope VII (named after the scientific principle driving the mission and hinting at the good men misplaced in space) and it's two man crew on the moon. It was probably the most rewarding and exhilarating experiences I've ever had with a game. If only I'd considered the return flight...

I got Dishonoured on sale this week and it reminded me of the stealth genre's most bewildering trope, zombies. Thief is the oldest example I can think of, and an instance where they were used very effectively. They change the rules just as you begin to feel comfortable dealing with guards. I completely freaked out making my way through the mines leading to the prison, sprinting blindly through the darkness. More recently Deus Ex:HR and Dishonoured have introduced completely pointless zombies. Both games empower the player to the point that incapacitating them is trivial. In these examples they are basically just more stupid and less threatening. Is there a secret cabal of ex-Looking Glass employees enforcing a pro-zombie agenda? [i'm sorry about the title, however it does conform with zombie naming conventions.]

While ordering some bags for board game components I noticed this; Fair assumption Amazon.

I'm giving the ScummVM version a second go on my Nexus 7 and having a much better time. A much smarter adventure game than I originally gave it credit for. Prescient Beautiful