The Ornament of the World

by on February 14, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Medieval Spain is one of those subjects I would like to know more about, so a used copy of Menocal’s book on al-Andalus was an attractive purchase for me. It’s a little more limited than I would like, being more about literary culture than anything else (though there is plenty of architecture, and other high cultural objects as well).

But the ‘how’ (as seen in the subtitle) is generally left out. There is some discussion of how tolerance was built into a lot of early Muslim culture, but nothing on the day-to-day functioning of that tolerance, and nothing really about how it broke down. Most notably, the book largely ends with the fall of Granada, and the promise of religious toleration which is broken mere months later. There’s no real look at the pressures that lead to this final violent end of tolerance.

In the meantime, we are treated to shapshots of what happened in Iberia over ~700 years, taking particular scenes and persons, and exploring them and what they did, and who they knew, what they wrote, and how it was written. Some very interesting things come to light this way. Menocal promotes the idea that languages only have (by custom) certain uses. A language may be so identified with religious uses, that it stops being a language of poetry or storytelling. She identifies Arabic as a language that was used for religion, and yet never lost its non-religious (and religiously prohibited) uses. Jews and Christians living in al-Andalus learned Arabic, and then transmitted this freedom into the post-Latin vernaculars and Hebrew, creating a flowering of literature in those languages. According to Ornament of the World, this is the start of the various Romance vernaculars being taken seriously, and the start of the popular songs that started the ‘courtly love’ tradition in Aquitaine, and I’d like to see a book that traces this in more detail.

It’s a decent book, and if you’re interested, I do recommend it, though I would like to see a more rigorous look at most of the subjects Menocal brings up.

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A Realm Resubscribed

by on February 10, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Last year was a year without MMOs as Smudge concentrated on other things and stayed away from Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter. However, Square Enix ran a promotion to get old players back to Final Fantasy XIV in December and managed to hook us.

FF XIV has been one of my regrets as I enjoyed it, and especially enjoyed playing my main character, Rylea. Who I didn’t have any screenshots of. But while we talked about it, it seemed unlikely we’d get back to one of the few MMOs still wanting a monthly subscription. But we’re back, subscribed, have bought the expansions, and having the usual mix of frustration and fun.

As a game, FF XIV has a number of places where it’s… second best. But it manages at least that good on about everything.

It’s solidly in the old model of giving you lots of buttons to press, with every class having a bewildering variety of different abilities. This also includes dozens of different emotes (some of which you get from certain quests). And every class now has some form of gage or meter, many of which I’ve yet to get any idea of how they work. Combat abilities tend to feature a lot of shared cooldowns, and keep me too busy too look at the screen too often.

On the other hand, it uses a version of the Job System from other FFs, which means that every character can potentially be every class in the game. It used to be that halfway through you’d turn your primary class into a job by getting a few levels into a secondary class, but that has been dropped so it’s just by quest unlocks, and the job isn’t as special now. It’s streamlined, but it seems like the cross-class connections are weaker now.

Looks and music-wise, FF XIV is top-notch. The soundtrack is helped by borrowing themes from the previous thirteen games, but it’s a very extensive and well-done sountrack, and I think only the GW2 soundtrack is as big (and just as good thanks to Jeremy Soule, Maclaine Diemer, Lena Chappelle and Stan LePard). The visuals get the usual FF attention, and the models just look gorgeous, especially when you get a close-up on them.


↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Dune

by on February 6, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

I’ve been meaning to read Dune for decades now, but the thick paperback on my dad’s shelf always intimidated me a little. I’ve had some knowledge of the book, being aware of the Avalon Hill game and having started Westwood’s Dune II once. And none of the expectations that were generated by those were wrong.

Overall, it’s a very good book, though there were some concerns. I didn’t have too many problems figuring out the general outline of the story from near the beginning. Some of that is just because I have some idea what I’m getting into, but considering all that’s going on, I have to wonder if a certain amount of ‘telegraphing’ was intentional on Herbert’s part as a mirror to Paul’s own abilities to sense the future. However, the final climax has an extremely sudden raising of the stakes that feels out of place. There is an explanation, but it comes down to a single line much later, and the entire end just feels extremely disjointed from the rest of the book, since it is a situation that several points in the rest of the book say won’t happen.

The worldbuilding is very good, with the exception of being another SF setting with a time scale that is unlikely, with institutions existing for thousands upon thousands of years. But that’s a somewhat common feature of SF of the time. And it’s easy to ignore for all the things that are well done. Arrakis is that staple of SF, the one-terrain planet. But there’s a lot of nuance put into that terrain and ecology, and some very good inventions mixed in with parts that are more familiarly terrestrial. As the focus of the book, no other world gets any sort of real detail, but what is needed is given, and we’re shown just enough to see that it exists.

I can’t unreservedly praise Dune, but it is very well written, and certainly one everyone needs to read at some point.

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Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 13

by on February 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

With the various problems Byron’s been handing me lately, the Alliance economy grew 20 points for this turn. That was mostly from the Federation, which is getting (devastated) income from two minor planets again, and controlled another 6 provinces than last turn. The Kzinti and Hydrans were up slightly, while the Gorns are suffering a couple contested provinces to make up for the NZ hexes they’re grabbing.

Builds:
Federation: DN+, 10xNCL, LTT, NSC, 14xFF, CP, NCL->NSC, DD->DE, 4xFF->FFE
Kzinti: 3xCM, LTT, 3xFFK, 5xFF, BC->CV, FFK->FKE
Hydran: TG, RN, 2xHR, LTT, 4xCU, 3xHN
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 2xHD, LTT, 2xBD, 3xDD, CP

That said, there’s still enough pressure on the Alliance to suppress expensive ship builds. The Kzinti didn’t build any of their large ships, and kept producing regular FFs and MCs despite having DWs and NCAs on the schedule, though they did convert a CV. The Hydrans finally have a shipyard again, and are spending their way through their stockpile.

The Hydrans did their usual two raids in the east end of their space, but I finally had things set up so that he couldn’t knock out my control of the provinces, and I forced a RN to retreat, maintaining full control over that province (crippling a F5 in the process). Both Kzinti raids were successful, and knocked the Lyrans out of a province again. The Federation only performed two raids, but knocked out the garrison of just recaptured 1910 to make that planet neutral again, as well as killing a province raider. The Gorn raids hit Romulan province holders, and again, both of them blew their cloaked evasion rolls, but he only crippled one in combat.

The Hydrans, possibly emboldened by having proper ship construction, came boiling out of their on-map planet, and pinned all the in-theater Lyran forces on the way to sending a large force to the Lyran SB in 0411. Actually, this is probably a consequence of not having any reserves in the area, but with how bad things are going elsewhere, there was too much need for the reserves elsewhere. The main Kzinti fleet also moved out (complete with auxiliaries) to retake 1202. Other elements stuck into Lyran space to take out a border BATS, and of course re-take 1802.

The latter included the Marquis’ Fleet, pulling the Kzinti back from their involvement in Federation space. The Federation struck at NE Klingon space again, attacking the Klingon supply tug for the area. A major portion of the 3rd Fleet headed to the interior of Federation space to confront various Klingon forces I’d left there, and I reacted onto the BATS that had been damaged last turn, which developed into a fairly major action. Forces in that area swept up other forces, and struck at the major Klingon staging point of 2715.

Offensives in the area of Romulan space were more subdued. The only major move was against the planet in 3711, though strikes were also made against the NZ planet in 3912 and two border BATS.


Hydran revenge.


Kzinti-Federation offensives.


Against the Klingons.


Strikes along the Romulan border.

My main central reserves on the Northern Reserve SB paid out, with one going to help the fight over the supply tug, and the B10 going to a small battle to get it as far into Federation space as I easily could. The Romulans sent a reserve to save the NZ planet, and everything else was pinned in place, with the exception of a Lyran reserve near the 3rd Fleet SB, which was out of range of everything.

Battles:
0211: SSC: Lyran: dest POL
0312: SSC: Lyran: dest CONV, POL
0317: SSC: Lyran: dest DW
0702: SSC: Lyran retreat
1708: Klingon: dest CONV
2008: Federation: dest CFF
3311: SSC: Romulan: dest SNB
3510: SSC: Romulan: crip K5L; Federation retreat
3809: SSC: Romulan: dest K5, crip SK; Federation retreat
3912: Federation: dest FF
5010: Romulan: dest BATS; Gorn: crip HCD
4808: SSC: Romulan retreat
0411: Lyran: dest SB, FF, SAV, FTS, FRD, crip 2xCW, 4xDW; Hydran: crip TR, 2xLNH, DDS
0116: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: dest HR
0415: Lyran: dest CA, DWE; Hydran: dest 2xLN, capture DWE
0412: SSC: Lyran: dest POL; Hydran retreat
0502: Lyran: dest BATS, POL; Kzinti: crip MEC, FKE
0602: Lyran: crip CL; Kzinti: crip FF
1202: Lyran: dest FF, LAV, SAV, FTS, crip 4xCW, 6xDW; Kzinti: dest 2xBC, crip MEC, capture planet
1802: Lyran: dest CWE, crip TCB, CV, CWE, FF; Kzinti: dest EFF, crip FKE, capture planet
1702: Kzinti: dest POL
1601: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1809: Lyran: dest STT; Federation: dest FFE
1907: Klingon: crip F5E; Federation: crip 2xFF
2705: Klingon: dest F5L; Federation: crip FF
2609: Klingon: crip D7C, 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: dest BATS
2712: SSC: dest F5
2810: Klingon: dest cripD6, cripD5, 2xcripF5; Federation: crip CFF
2715: Klingon: dest F5L, FRD, crip 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: crip NCL, DE, 2xFF, 2xFFE
3207: Romulan: crip SUB, KE; Federation: crip CL, FF
3711: Romulan: dest KRM, SPC, crip SP, WE; Federation: dest SWAC, crip DN+, FFE; Gorn: dest BDE
4010: Romulan: dest KE; Gorn: dest BC, crip BD

4808 was an odd fight, as he pinned a province raiding SNB with a POL, giving me a slight edge in the battle. But I still rolled a ‘2’ to retreat while the POL was unharmed.

With just a few more ships the Lyrans could have held SB 0411. The Hydrans brought enough spare fighters for a couple rounds, and by the time they were out and losing fighter power on the line, nearly the entire Lyran fleet was already crippled. With some fresh ships, it would have started hurting.

I had a POL with the BATS in 0502, which I used to force an extra round of meaningful combat with the BATS, and he directed on the POL rather than let it retreat behind the base. He then did a fighting retreat over my province raiders from 0702 which had retreated into the NZ, but could only force a cripple on the CL, which I’ll try to get back into service as something bigger….

I had left too many big ships in the small garrison at 1802, so I had to fight it out a round, or throw away one of the big ones against a solid Kzinti fleet. The CV may get converted to a CVD, or just repaired and returned to the front. In the meantime, I did a fighting retreat over a POL and FF to destroy them for fighters, and ended up on 1502, which will allow the cripples to Strat back to real facilities.

As expected, Byron hit the supply tug in 1809 hard, but there was also a pinning battle in 1907, with a TAV3 (TGA+2xVP3) group, and I expected he’d retreat onto that. He didn’t, to stay in 1907, which allowed me an almost-even battle there (helped by having fighters to absorb damage).

I had reacted a bunch of ships onto BATS 2609, which I had damaged on my turn, and finished if off here. Byron wasn’t sure if he was happy that I’d had to fight the BATS twice, or upset that he’d let me take it out on his turn. The downside was it had meant abandoning a pile of cripples in 2810, which he wiped out.

2715 was another case of catching me with too few ships available, and he killed a forward FRD that I’ve been counting on. I was worried that he might try to take out the BATS there as well, but he would have completely wrecked his force in the attempt.

Byron more-or-less just pinned the trapped Romulan force in 3207, and realized later that he needed to pay more attention to it, as even out of supply it still had decent ComPot (26 to his 41). Crippling the SUB wasn’t what I really wanted, but it’s a single ship to repair, it’s buried in an intact group, and it was already out of fighters.

After discounting the 100 points my tenuous hold on the Hydran capital, the VPs for the turn show just how much my grip is slipping:

Coalition: 429.4 EP (x2) + 589 (bases) + 841 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1884.2
Alliance: 324.6 EP (x2) + 500 (bases) + 715 ships (/5) = 1435.2

That’s still a Decisive Victory, but it goes down to Major without the capital, which I probably won’t have next turn. The Alliance still has some major problems to overcome, but Byron is prying the strategic initiative from me all over the board. The Romulans are in many ways my best hope, and their navy is a bit fragile yet.

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Equipping Erza

by on January 29, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Life

My main destop machine has been Horo for just about eight years now. The primary parts were inherited from a friend, and I figure the processor is probably close twelve years old. Until about six months ago, this has been sufficient for almost anything I’ve needed to do. In MMOs, my machine has been notably slower than Smudge’s Myzal, but it runs everything. Any other games were fine, etc.

The main exception was the site for where I work (CNET) was a bit heavy, though the back-end tools are nicely minimal. However, I’ve been noticing that browsing has been taking more and more resources lately (the recent Firefox refresh didn’t seem to do anything about speed, but memory use went up). And I started a large Vassal F&E game, and the module wants a lot of memory as the number of objects goes up. Since we started in mid-war, when the number of ships has gone up, I started noticing. Horo’s motherboard can only take 4 GB of RAM (which is what it has), and that was becoming my biggest problem.

So I’ve been paying more attention to hardware lately, and decided to replace my system at the start of this year. Smudge’s new case was very nice (and she tried to talk me into just getting another one), but a bit pricey. I had some hope for one of Corsair’s more cut-rate offerings, but the power switches on them are awful, so I abandoned that idea. I ended up with a Zalman Z9 Neo case. It turned out fairly well at a good price, but there are a few problems: It features pass-throughs for better cable management (a trend I really approve of), but the rubber grommets are thin, and come off way to easily. The drive cage is nice, but there’s only room for two regular 3.5″ drives. That’s enough, but I’d like a third for backup. On the other hand, it comes with five case fans. I’ve only bothered to hook up three so far, as I shouldn’t need more.

I ordered the main parts from Amazon, who initially estimated three weeks for delivery, and then cut it down to two weeks, with the package expected on the 18th. It showed up on the 13th. I had been planning on a leisurely 4-day weekend to get everything together, but with the parts already here, and Monday a holiday, I started then.

The four-day weekend would have been better. This was a problem-filled build.

First, to no real surprise, Horo’s copy of Windows refused to boot when stuck into the new system. Going into the Windows install application also showed that one of my RAM sticks was defective (confirmed with Window’s RAM diagnostic later; I got it replaced that night). I lost more data than I anticipated wiping C: for a new install as a lot of programs seem to want to store things in subfolders of My Documents, which I ignore. But Windows 7 installed… I put in the motherboard driver disk to for utilities there… and despite taking a lot of time saying things were happening, nothing did. My current diagnosis is that the disk has two copies of the AMD video drivers, in place of the chipset driver. After wondering if I was going to get forced onto Win 10, I got the disk’s networking driver to install, and grabbed the proper Win 7 chipset driver from another machine on the network.

That got most things up and going, including USB, so I could actually get off my emergency PS/2 keyboard (and have a mouse). But when I installed drivers for the video card, I got a BSOD. I was able to use a restore point to get the system back, but that required the Win 7 disk, and I was back to no USB support for that. Three different sources of drivers (nVidia auto detect, Windows Update, and picking my card specifically) all did this, and I ended Monday with a system that just wasn’t working.

Either the card died when I removed it from Horo, or the slot just isn’t aligning properly. The far end locks down correctly, but there is a noticeable angle as it moves to the back of the system and the bracket. I’d like to try it back in Horo, but I’ll need to install other things looted from her (like a hard drive). Smudge has been feeling guilty about not getting me a Christmas present (she got sick before completing a scarf for me), and took me shopping for a new video card. Sadly, Fry’s selection was looking picked over, and the choice came down to a card a bit less powerful than I’d like, and one twice as expensive, and not worth it.

I installed the new card, and much to my relief it worked. (I had tried a secondary slot on the motherboard with the old card with no more luck, so I was getting reasonably certain that the motherboard was not to blame.) I took Wednesday off, and finally got the machine fully functional, and started installing everything.

One final problem: Microsoft is denying Windows 7 support to the most recent processors. I’ve got a small ‘fix’ in that keeps Windows Update functioning properly, but it is possible I will migrate to Windows 10 sooner than otherwise.

So here is Erza:

AMD Ryzen 7 1700
ASRock AB350 Pro4
16 GB DDR4 RAM
MSi GT 1030

It’s a… bright system. The front panel USB slots light up as soon as the power supply is on, which is actually handy to check that. The stock AMD cooler has a red LED ring around the fan, and the AMD logo itself lights up. And the case itself has a clear window on the side, so this is quite visible. I’d rather do without it, but I am getting used to it at night.

I’ve been keeping the system monitor on, and memory usage has yet to go over about 11 GB, even with several things running, so I have a fair amount of room left. Also, this is only taking two of four slots on the motherboard, so I can bump it up in the future, hopefully when RAM prices come down a bit (RAM was my one case of sticker shock). Final Fantasy XIV is running a lot faster, with load times keeping up with Smudge’s system.

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