Murdoc

I went cow tipping and apparently a bull didn't like it, so it charged me and I got gored... Im at the start and honestly the lead up is a little weak, but liking everything else. My biggest complain my controller seemed to take a turn and the x button is a bit screwed, which sucks since I need it so much.

What if it was so awesome that they didn't understand it so graded it low though? The world would be denied of a revolution in thinking!

So I decided to be lazy on tuesday and hit up the game store near my apartment then go downtown... well preorder shenagians, so screw that downtown it is... oh wait sold out for ps3... everywhere. They said they will probably get some in today, oh man I can't wait for the weekend!

Can you post the thesis when your done? Is that allowed? Would be a cool read if you can.

Yeha I agree James, I didn't like it but my biggest problem was mostly presentation and art design. I like the "style" they went for, but I felt the enemy designs looked way too much like something from Todd Mcfarlne or marvel. The presentation was really poor too, the introduction to the characters and story was really sloppy. The characters were f'ing annoying, a lot due to the designs and voice acting. It just lost the foundation of "persia" authenticity and went to far into the crazy fantasy world. They used cuneiform as an inspiration for the effects and interface(the swirly bits and shit) but the execution just ended up being that generic vector graphic design wall art look thats been kicking around for the last few years(Maybe because they were influenced by the same source?) The character proportions were really annoying too; it might work really awesome for Peter Chung cartoons, but didn't look good in 3d, nor did it with the very anglo-saxon looking persians. The girl was literally concept of an actress(I think Portman, I can't remember, but the making of video showed the concept artist painting over someones face to get a cartoon version and thats what they ended up with) And as much as everyone said the movement and such was the same as Sands of Time(maybe it was) I remember it feeling off, where as Sands felt really nice. Anyway thats mostly my issues with it. That aside, while I was at Ubisoft I saw the pitch video for what it was going to be. While the "style" wasn't as refined, the concept of the game was pretty killer. They wanted to make Prince of Persia into Shadow of the Collussus and really tap into the 1001 nights. The prince looked normal and the girl was more of a white haired ghost. The french hire ups felt she didn't feel human enough and it was weird(I thought it was awesome) You also rode around a tiger or some mythical beast from location to location and did jumping puzzels(Look up Amano's HERO to get the kind of vibe I'm talking about) Anyway, it was a mystical kind of thing that was a departure from Sands but looked really cool and something I would be more inclinded to enjoy then Pop2008.

Honestly Forbin, your description of your job sounds pretty much like the game industry. So, as I believe you mentioned, that's the job regardless of sector.

You know what? I'm actually liking it... well watching it. Ok its poorly executed as a game, the art is horrid, and the story is basically twin peaks meets Resident Evil meets Japanese weirdness... All that aside, good for them for doing something different. I mean this is so god damn weird and nonsensical at times I'm really enjoying the narrative and characters. It's dumb, but it's dumb awesome. The voice acting is actually not that bad on some of the main characters either relative to high budget games either... thats sort of worth noting. I might give credit to any game that doesn't have you as an army dude, but the game is so far out there I'm not sure if any of this needs to make sense, it seems to(or at least imbues the quality) of having a sense of humor with itself. And unlike say a MGS or something, everything else is at kind of a low level that it doesn't seem out of place. And really the design of the game isn't terrible. I mean I want a detective game where it's open world, I go around talking to people, theres a "living world" going on in this town, I'm investigating a crazy ass mystery where it's unpredictable(I mean this is so god damn weird, honestly have no idea where it's going) and there are a bunch of mini games to break up the monetary... really it's a great idea, it's just poorly executed and the most obvious problem was budget. I'll pick up the game if I ever see it, I may not like it as much playing it, but in theory if the all the games features were fun, I'd love the shit out of it even with the crummy art.

Funny I was pretty much doing the opposite since puffin was a bit of a write off. But yeah I'd like to know how he got 2x everything over me already; who did he take over? I took two of blues sciences(holding one now) and raided a bunch of his stars yet am wayy behind almost everyone.

Post Game: I wonder if my starting position near the middle of the galaxy gave me a broader experiance in the game. I was kind of fighting on both sides in the north and south so there was rarely a dull moment. Puffin Galaxy: Holy crap what have I been doing? Has anyone checked out the stats on Wurtsi? It's crazy.

Campaign Diary of General Murdoc "How To War Politic Your Way to Victory" Page 2 Week 5 and Beyond At some point JamesM became a super power, I really have zero idea how. I mean his economy was massive all of a sudden and then his science and industry followed. He was in an arms race with Joflar and Dpp. I was researching speed, slowly, for him and that turned out to help, but essentially I was getting 1-3 weapon upgrades for 1 speed. I believe James kept me at least 1 upgrade below him at most times, so the distrust was starting to seep in, but it also wasn't necessary anyway. Anyway I was building a massive ship yard between the 4 stars near Baham, since they are really close together and all were fairly cheap to upgrade; my two core worlds and eventually the four were outputting a ship an hour. Adalpha(Squids old core world in the north) eventually was producing them faster. I spent more money getting quality upgrades rather then spreading out cheap economy and industry. I wanted to produce ships faster and in a centralized location, not all around (I believe Dpp was doing this) This allowed me to rebuild anything I could lose in almost a day. It also kept anything valuable tucked away, the only thing at risk was the ship yard near Baham which I had to trust Jennoa on. So Dpp was building and becoming a danger while I was acquiring Wurtsi in the south and James was acquiring Joflar in the north. I would have participated in that one since we deemed Joflar the largest threat at that time, but I didn't have access without waring with Sombre or Jennoa. I was preparing my expansion towards the west on Toblix and Boris when Dpp consumed them, making him more of a threat since we were almost neighbors. He also started to move on JamesM's territory but we weren't sure if it was a small attack or a war. If he hadn't, the plan was to finally take Sombre s territory for James. I wasn't ready for war, so couldn't do anything for Toblix or Boris, if I had the funds I would have sent them more tech a lot sooner, I sent Boris some stuff, but it was way too late at that point. Basically I needed to attack Dpp int eh south, James in the north, but the backlash on me could be severe, I could rebuild quickly but that shipyard that was supplying most of my stuff was a stones throw away from Dpp. So we enlisted Jennoa, teched him up and waited for him to join the battle. We knew Jen was hedging his bets with which side to take, even when Joflar was pretty much finished, but I took the chance anyway. The war with Dpp went terribly to begin with, its a really good/frustrating tactic but he would just leave a start right when I was about to take it, I couldn't catch up, was getting midly damaged every time with what was left over and wasn't making any impact whatsoever on his fleets(which was my primary purpose so James could go in. Dpp then sent a massive force to that ship yard and I had to scramble EVERYTHING I had, I mean everything, I used all my credits, took more stars for credits just to create 1-7 ship fleets and sent them packing to where he was attacking. I had enough time since he set out from so far away(passing over Jennoas territory) It was the scene in Independence Day where we got anyone who had vehicle that could fly and sent them to go fight the invading alien threat. Luckily the day was won, I was hurt, but Dpps main southern force was defeated. Jennoa and I could handle the rest. The war seemed breezier after that, there may have been some hiccups, but I cannot remember. Around the time we were cleaning up the south, Jennoa and James were moving North tech trading between everyone stopped.... we felt the end nearing. I was moving all my fleets back into Squids old territory to take out Sombre, who was attacking me here and there all this time, but was too slow to do anything damaging. Basically I had 1 or 2 semi large forces that would just keep an eye on where he was flying to and just move there before he could, hehehe. The End Game JamesM had some large fleets right outside Dpps territory but no one was moving. Could just be coincidence or not, but I dunno if someone was waiting for the others to take his territory, out of kindness or to get hurt, or if Jennoa and James were planning to leave them open so I'd focus my attention there. I was loyal to the Confederacy, but the writing was on the wall with everyone, Armageddon was coming, and fast. I launched on Sombre, but even if I could take all of his stars I didn't have enough; but Jennoa and James could probably destroy me individually; James had more then twice the fleet as me and superior tech, economy, science. Jennoa had more fleets then I did by quite a bit and almost equal tech(trailing behind from the initial stuff I gave him for the dpp war) At any given time in this game if someone actually tried to attack me and got passed the front line, my territory was completely open and undefended. As I mentioned most of my stars were concentrated in a few areas, while I may have had time to respond to protect them, I really doubt I could have against anything powerful. Take out those spots and I'd have been finished. I just want to stress how vulnerable I was throughout the game and it was never exploited. This is mainly to serve as a reminded that, you can be a nice person and I believe in honoring alliances, but in the end your going to end up fighting, so be as opportunistic as possible. Anyway, I'm attacking Sombre, James attacks Sombre, even Jennoa... we might as well delay killing each other and take out the one guy we're not friends with. Sombre decided to attack everyone! This actually helped a lot, it kept others busy and took stars away from them. I had mostly things under control because after getting a bunch of territory from dpp my science was no where near James, but good enough to become nearly twice as fast as anyone. So yesterday was about acquiring as many stars as possible before James and Jennoa turn on me. Using Sombre's strategy and taking Dpps advice, I created a ton of fleets and just attacked everyone early this morning. Even if I lost stars on a response, I set way points where, if I played some odds that I guessed at, I would get to 131 before a significant retaliation from Jennoa or James. Closing Thoughts For some reason I was really expecting to become invincible but it never happened. I imagined a 1000 ship fleet cutting a line in the galaxy as an epic destroyer, but never got there. I think with James resources he achieved what I wanted to do, but never took the opportunity to do it. I took a lot of risks and figured it was smooth sailing after Squid, but I never really recovered to a place of safety since that fight. After Wurtsi there was a nice little rest and I did rebuild a lot, but never to the point of comfort to be able to defend and attack at the same time. Usually when I attacked it was all or nothing, if I lost the offense, I had no defense and would have been destroyed. I didn't have the numbers, I didn't have the tech, the economy; I had allies that apparently could be trusted until the end. So a special thanks to JamesM, Wurtsi, and Jennoa; despite your best judgement you trusted me and in the end living up to my word for 2 out of three isn't bad.

(sorry for the length and possible nonsensical sentences... stream of thought) Campaign Diary of General Murdoc "How To War Politic Your Way to Victory" Page 1 As previously mentioned by everyone, victory wasn't achieved by might, in fact a lot of it depended on the decency of people and some fast talking. Mistakes were made, then some lies were told and it sort of snowballed into role-playing the the biggest Space-Assholes in the galaxy and eventually turned into Darth Vader for Emperor JamesM. I started with the best intentions, but int he end sleezy politics and a low standard of decency prevailed. Due to the previously mentioned things I was able to always have been on the first offensive and was never deliberately attacked except by Sombre near the end there, when it was already too late. Week 1 Establish pacts with James M. During the early rounds James was isolated by pretty large gaps; this could ensure some trust early on. Our core worlds were relatively close together if one of us got a speed and range boost, so it was sort of mutually assured destruction that, I believe, kept the bond going. Non aggression pacts with Squid Division and Exuberance. It looked like Squid was really in a bad spot, which probably made everyone give him some leeway and not attack him... really the total opposite to what everyone assumed would happen that made them not attack in the first place. Week2-3+ Exuberance and I weren't allies; at least how I interpreted it, but just a NAP, one tech trade and the mutual thought in thinking Wurtzi was a threat. His core worlds were really far away and he had a lot of free stars to grab. So I set out to go attack him. It was around that time that I realized traveling space took too friggin long and basically Wurtsi and I would damage each other enough where I'd be vulnerable, but since he was pretty isolated I would most likely lose. Also around that time I noticed Exuberance's gun-ho-ness for war seemed a little lacking, so I needed peace, and quickly. Lie #1: I needed peace, so I decided to introduce him to JamesM and we would form the Southern Confederacy; this was purely honest. To urge him to join, though, I made up the lie that other people were worried Wurtsi would become too strong, take over Exuberance and me and pretty much win the game. Not sure if that helped him joining or not, but yeah, it was a lie. Mistake #1 (2?): Other then trying to attack Wurtsi, the biggest mistake was not paying attention to funds, thus not being able to fulfill my obligation on the tech trade with Exuberance. Even though he wasn't an ally, this was really the beginning of the end for my moral standards in the galaxy. I didn't hide this fact from my allies and sought council, in the end, I was in deep, so I decided to just roll with this role. Also, since I was so bent on war I wasn't really funding economy and just putting it into industry, which was a short term gain... which actually helped later. Week 3+ With Wurtsi on board the Southern Galactic Confederacy I was pretty much at peace with everyone... I was just waiting for Exuberance to attack me since I accidentally ditched him on the tech trade, then chose not to honor that agreement several cycles later( I did repay him, but it was way too late at that point) It was around this time I noticed Squid Division doing very well; turns out no one decided to eat him because we're all nice people and he was starting to be a pretty big and powerful force. I was taking some stars in the north after changing directions from the south when the next day I noticed I was attacked on Mintaka. As a person I was pretty sure this was just one of those mistakes that happens, but I honestly wasn't sure, so I asked Squid, got impatient and started to plot his destruction. As a person I wasn't sure if that was deliberate, but it probably wasn't, but facts are facts, I needed someone to attack, Squid was getting pretty big so was a threat and if conquered would really boost my power. So JamesM and I plotted the attack. Frankly, I've never had a more fun weekend on such a slow rts game, the back and forth to calculate time, ships, and where to go next was super impressive. James and I fed each other info because we couldn't see each others side and it really came down to luck. There was a particular battle at Vega that was literally make or break where all my units were going towards it and Squid was attacking with something super powerful. The last fleet to arrive to win the day for defense arrived sooner then Squids.... then half way through Squid got the speed upgrade. I was to lose that battle. Luckily another fleet would make it 10-30 minutes to retake it. This battle would dictate the rest of the war, as James could then sweep the north and cut off his resources. After Vega was lost I noticed Squid was going to launch off and save his fleet, which would have probably been disastrous. It seemed like that order was canceled and my fleet arrived to take Vega. Some other stuff happened, and JamesM was about to take his core worlds just before the next cycle leaving Squid dead in the water... the only problem was he was short just a few ships, so with my remaining forces I sent them on a suicide mission to arrive an hour or so before James making just enough damage to have him take the two northern core worlds (Albaldah and Mimosa) This was from Friday to Sunday night and a lot of it was me waking up in the middle of the night during those days to rearrange things... yeah. The squid was dead and split between JamesM and me pretty much gave us the head start that we needed. It was around this time that my main source of income (Selling my own researched tech) to other civilizations dried up... my galactic credibility ran dry because of the war on Squid Division.(For the record he was 100% right, no one should have trusted a word I said at that point because I was too deep in scheming to stop) So it was time to build an economy. Week 4+ Wurtsi was at war with Exuberance and needed some help, so I started the long journey from the North to the South. Around this time Joflar mentioned he was trading with Wurtsi and that they were allies. This caused a lot of concern. Wurtsi eventually revealed about the tech trade and continued to do it. Alright... but we couldn't be sure if whos side he was on. So I took my sweet time to get down south. Right around the time that I arrived, Sombre decided to move in next door on one of Squid's stars. I knew he was Non aggression with James, so the only reason he'd be there was to spy and attack me, so as soon as my fleets arrived on Maroons door steps they went right back up. This pissed off Wurtsi, understandably. Mistake # Whatever: Moving those fleets north. The next day peace was made with Sombre and my fleets had no use up there, I couldn't get to red and I was friendly with Space Turtles as they were being beaten back by dpp at the time. Also, I think irking Wurtsi already put more strain on a doubting relationship. So back down I go to help Wurtsi, but he already had things under control by the time I got there, he was nearly finished taking Exuberance's territory before my fleets could arrive. I was going to try to make it up to him by softening up Exuberance so he could move in easier, but Wursti jumped the gun; which is fair, he was going to win regardless. At this point my initial concern over what would happen if Wurtsi had his pennisula and more territory to the north; he was at a big time advantage. He was also hurt during the war with Exuberance. All of this would have been cool if he could be trusted, but what Joflar (whether it was a lie or not? I still don't know) said pretty much said I couldn't trust him. So I did what needed to be done. Wursti was about to take Baham and I was willing to suicide in there to soften it up for him, but as I mentioned he went a little early because he was going to win anyway. Baham was the core world with a big time industry(at the time) and him gaining control scared me. So I sent Exuberance weapon upgrades to make sure Wurtsi lost that battle and I could move in mostly unopposed. I took Baham and at this time, if I really wanted to have destroyed Wursti would be the time to do it, instead I waited and we argued over who would take Baham. I wasn't coy about what was going on, I was buying time and I mean seeing a ton of fleets line up on your border pretty much says it all. Wurtsi wasn't surprised, though I'm not sure why he didn't' attack me first... probably too much of a decent person. A surgical strike was made and within a nights sleep most of Wurtsi's army was down and I closed in on his core worlds. I doubled my star count, science, and industry. A few more cycles and I'd appropriate Toblix and Boris' territory, I just needed to hang low and rebuild. At this time either James, Jennoa, or even Sombre(as he did get pretty close to my core world, which was important at that time) could have taken me out... this position didn't really change for the rest of the game, just no one did. Everyone was way too nice.

I'd play that game. Anyway I watched giant bombs quick look, ok I was wayyy too harsh on it. The water thing isn't time related, so I'm cool with it. Im also glad they think the prince looks goofy.

Ermm, I know what I said, but I hate my xbox, I'm going PS3, in case others wanted to play. PS3 - Murdoc_Jones

Oh sweet does that mean I won?(at work) I essentially took your idea and sent everything at everyone in hopes to get enough stars before the counter, lol. Not like I wanted to backstab any one, but seriously, either Jennoa or James could have crushed me alone, so together I needed to take a chance. I'll post my diary later, hehe.

With what has already been explained. Why, according to their rules of stopping time would water go solid yet other objects react accordingly to normal physics? Yeah, alright,its not that big of a deal. I give crappier things a lot more leeway. I'm probably still burnt from that other garbage and don't want to give this one any slack.

Not to lynch you, but that is complete f@#$ing bullshit. (or in other terms, I chose to respectfully disagree) Here's why; "It just seems inconsistent with the rules of stopping time they have shown me." (corrected my terrible work spelling) Video game or not, it's still a creative doohicky that is trying to give me rules and relationships to help establish a believable reality. I worded that sentence to mean that according to the subjects own narrative/rules, what it has given me either seems inconsistent with itself and/or contradictory. I don't care what medium it is at that point or who the intended audience is; it's sloppy and lame. I also could be completely wrong in what it was telling me though.

So anyway, after my 3 hour marathon of Holy Diver this afternoon I really need to ask a stupid question. "... ride the tiger, you can see his stripes but you know he's clean; oh don't you see what I mean?" Well I don't know what he means; what the hell are is talking about? Or do I not want to know? He mentions cats in blue near the end (which as I understand are the police at some point in history) so there a message in here? Because I'd rather just interpret it as riding a literal tiger and cats wearing blue clothing. The music video is him cosplaying DnD so it was not much help. Man, Dio was fucking awesome.

I can't climb a wall made of corn flower though, trust me,I've tried. Doesn't he go through it when its stopped though? It just seems like crazy fun time even if it is accurate my brain has a hard time computing and just deems it silly. Also if we're bringing up these questions for price of goddamn persia then I have a few more; If time stops wouldn't that effect light somehow? Ok so we'll assume time stops for everyone but the prince, but how does he manipulate objects then? (the bending of a pole when his weight interacts with it by hanging... but if the pole is effect by his weight, why isn't water?) and various other sorts of questions that spring up of that sort. It jsut seems inconsistant with the rules of stopping time they have shown me.

Oh oh, well someone tell him I set a way point this morning and I had no intentions of attacking him! lol

Yeah the galaxy is really quiet the passed couple days. Basically we'll just wait around until someone attacks. If you feel like you want first place I have no problem with giving up my stars to you after we kill Jennoa... Er, I mean, check your inbox.

Thanks SGP. Does anyone know who Schmeptune is? I'm playing a neutral race, but Schmep is beside me and isn't playing; I think the AI will take over soon, so I might just grab a couple extra stars near him if that's the case.

What resolution do you guys play at to get the full map like that? or can the mini map just zoom out further? Also, I've seen it before and I saw it again today but I have no idea how to get to it. A list of all your stars and the cost of upgrades on it. I know how to turn on the cost overlay in the map, but was trying to hit windows key -e today to get a folder and the list of stars came up on the right... no idea what I accidently clicked to get that.

Agreed, the water thing looks silly. I like the effect that it makes when you stop time and look at the water, but climbing on it? meh. I think the water stuff is the entire game... maybe I'm wrong.

INTERLUDE The Book of Squids Squid-ulus and Squid-us As you scan over the nightly reports on your data pad you can't help but see the clear path cut into blue territory by the red empire. The space Cephalopods and Reptiles have been in conflict since the earliest cycles of your civilizations knowledge of the traverse. You are reminded of a story from the book of Squids that speaks of the space Cephalopods being cursed from the stars and forced to live in the oceans of Grafais. Their presence there did not go uncontested, as it was already home to the space Turtles and soon their tribal conflicts boiled the ocean to near planetary extinction. In his infinite wisdom the Space-God, Neptune, created a twin world of Grafias, naming it Graffias; though wise and powerful, Neptune wasn't all that creative with names. But the space-Squids did not wish to live in oceans, nor worlds, they wanted to be free to travel the galaxy as they once did; but Neptune was unforgiving in that curse and displeased with the respect the Cephalopods were giving him. He took the tribe of Squid-ulus, ripping them from Grafias and their brothers to live on Graffias; leaving the tribe of Squid-us alone and out numbered on Grafias. While there are no longer any squids on Grafias, that ancient tale has been the root of their conflict ever since. The tribe of Squid-ulus vowed to return home for their brothers and destroy the unwelcoming Space Turtles. As you gaze over the small blue world of Grafias you notice it suddenly blips red... the tribe of Squid-ulus has made good on their vow from the ancient cycles and have conquered the ocean world. A chill runs down your spine as you realize that the Squidining has just begun.

Time to call an exorcist for toblix's computer.